The heat from our attacks burned through my clothes, as well as Luca's jacket and shirt. The red from his flames fused with the purple of my Plasmatic energy, combining to make a bright, magenta light. It turned the dark abyss purple, and it shined off of Luca's skin. His blades also reflected some of the light, blinding me slightly. But I couldn't let up now. Neither of us had the upper hand, and I wasn't about to give it to him. The pressure from the blasts melted my skin, showing muscle fibers, almost exposing the bone. Luca's arm began to show signs of scarring as well. Even our insane regeneration couldn't keep up with our fearsome offensive powers. My arm began to weaken. Damn it! Luca's overpowering me! My feet started sliding backwards, and my knees almost buckled because of it. I cannot lose! He has information to tell me, and I want to know it! Anger fuelled my might, and I started stumbling towards Luca, pushing against my plasma to push him backwards. It was working. I gradually inched closer to that fiend, yet he stood his ground. I could hear him start screaming from the other side. His blades started glowing. A wave of blue flame flooded through his blast. It neutralised my plasma, blowing us both backwards.
I strained to open my eyes, and was greeted by darkness. Sitting up slowly, I could see Luca still lying down. I rose up and shambled towards him. As I did shamble closer, I could began to hear faint laughter. Luca is still conscious? It got louder as I moved closer.
"Flint, my man!" he exclaimed, still lying down.
"What do you want?"
"Nothing more. I have what I want. A strong host."
"What are you, a parasite?"
"Not exactly." he answered, getting back up on his feet, "I am no mere parasite."
"Then what are you?"
"Well, I have to be careful with what I say here. You're small victory has only given you the right to some of the knowledge you need."
"You son of a -!" I said, raising N.A.D.A, transforming it into a sword.
"It's only fair. You give me a good fight, and I give you some power and info. Unless you pose a significant challenge, I can't allow you to know too much."
"Fine." I said through gritted teeth, "Tell me."
"I am a demon." He said. He tensed his forehead, and it started to glow. His hair was pushed aside, and from there, two sharp, crimson horns grew from his forehead.
"Wh-What?"
"I just said. I am I demon."
"I know what you said, but I have a hard time coming to terms with it."
"It's not hard. I am a demon, and I am possessing you. I possessed you at birth, for reasons I will not explain yet."
"Of course."
"I provide you with powers, including your speed, strength, immortality, and plasma."
"Wait. Immortality?"
"Do you have a hearing problem? Yes, you cannot be killed. I can't, so that means you can't either."
"I-" I've lost the ability to speak. I'm so taken aback from all of this sudden exposition. Am I a demon? A half-demon?
"Yes, Flint. You are part demon."
"You can read my thoughts?"
"Whoops. Didn't mean to say that out loud." he said, regretfully, "Our connection allows me to hear your thoughts, as well as you hearing mine. And as I thought to you just then, you are part-demon. And part-human. And also part-something-else."
"And let me guess, you can't tell what that part is?"
"Ah, you've got the hang of it now! Always suspicious. But no."
"What?"
"I do not know what that third part is. It is a mystery to me."
"I see." I still don't fully trust him, "But why did you possess me?"
"Lets just say that you weren't going to make it past birth. I have a certain connection to your bloodline, so your parents made a deal with me. I keep you alive, and I get a strong host to help me out as well. This was at a cost, though."
"What cost?"
"Issues with rage, issues with temperament. And facial disfigurement."
"Excuse me?" He rushed towards me and tore off my mask. He mumbled some words in a different language, and a mirror was summoned from his hand. I saw what I truly looked like. My entire bottom half of my face was seemingly burned away, with no lips to be seen. My mouth extended all the way around, almost to my cheeks. Scars ran up from where my teeth were. And my teeth were just as hideous. They were as sharp as, if not not sharper than Luca's arm blades. His swift movement to grab my mask also blew my hair out of the way, revealing my left eye. Or lack thereof.
"See? You look just like a demon. Or a part-demon at least."
"My god." I said. "So now what?"
"Now? Now I think you have a shadowy friend to hunt down."
"Right. Hope I'm not too late."
"One more thing before you leave, Flint." I turned to look at him, probably not for the last time.
"I am not your enemy."
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I woke up back in the hospital, with Dr Lyons and Dr Reede still stood by my side. "Wow, you were not gone for long." Dr Lyons said to himself.
"Ben? Sophie?" I stood up and looked around, "How long was I out for?"
"For all of five minutes, Flint." Sophie replied, "Now come on! We have to capture Shadow!" She grabbed my arm and pulled me to go out the door.
"Hold on!" I said, still being pulled along, with Ben getting up and following behind, "My clothes! Why aren't they burnt?"
"Anything that happened in your head didn't happen in the real world!" She answered, running out of breath already, "So you're ok, just hurry up!" She burst out of the front of the building, still dragging me. She opened the door to the back of her car, and practically threw me inside. Ben also jumped in and started up the engine. Sophie shifted into gear, and put the pedal to the metal.
"Every traffic law is being broken right now!" I screamed from the back, tumbling around like clothes in a washing machine.
"In the name of saving the world, it doesn't matter!" Ben shouted, holding on with a concerned look on his face.
"Hey, my driving is perfectly fine!" Sophie retorted, almost crashing into a parked car. Is she secretly Keanu Reeves? I hope there isn't a bomb in this car. "Where to, Ben?"
"Just keep driving straight."
"I am driving straight!" she shouted, knocking over three postboxes. I could finally see where we were heading to: a run-down old apartment. I would never suspect anyone from Black Star to be hiding in a place like that. They probably have lots of technology inside, though. That wouldn't be surprising. As we sped down the long road, I heard gunshots whiz past the window. Turning around, I saw three black SUV's driving behind us, with gun turrets on top, like E.M.I.L.I.A had. Black Star soldiers also poked out of the windows, holding assault rifles.
"Flint!" Ben shouted at me, "Prepare for a gun fight!" I saw him smash the window and hold out an assault rifle of his own. I didn't have my own weapon, so I assume that they expect me to use my powers. And I'm happy with that. I climbed back into the boot of the car, and smashed the window with my elbow. I now have cover and somewhere to shoot from. Game on. I peeked up over, looking out of the broken window, and started clicking my fingers. The wild movements of the car made it difficult to hit any targets, though.
"Keep the car straight, Sophie!" I shouted over to her.
"Do you want to get shot or not?" I couldn't argue with that. So I kept vaguely aiming at the pursuing vehicles and firing off shots. Craters were made in the road, with tarmac going everywhere. Ducking behind the metal cover, I felt the bullets go over me. Before they could hit Sophie or Ben, I reached up and caught the bullets out of the air. Is this Luca's power increase? I feel faster than the bullets. Well, faster than before, at least. Doesn't feel like much, though. I rose up and started firing again. I managed to hit the wheels of one of the SUV's. The car flipped over and stopped its chase. The other two drove around it, though. The gun turrets started firing at the back of our car, tearing holes in both the boot door and me. The boot was now completely red with my blood. I jumped into the middle, taking a couple seconds for my wounds to heal. I took out N.A.D.A and cut a hole in the roof. I pushed it open, like it was a sardine tin, and made new cover. The gatling guns had a harder time hitting me up here, because I'm a smaller, more agile target. I kept snapping and snapping, but still unable to land most of my shots. A lot of them were glancing blows, tearing off doors rather than the heads of Black Star soldiers. It wasn't until the SUV's drove either side of our car that I could have a clearer aim. We started to get sandwiched between them, with Sophie having to pull out a pistol of her own, shooting while driving. Ben managed to shoot out the tires of the car on his side, and it flipped over. I heard the pop of the tires, and when I turned to look, a group of civilians were stood at the side of the road, frozen with fear. Acting on instinct, I jumped out of the car, and ran to save them. Because of my speed, all of the vehicles seemed to be slowed down. I jumped to push the bystanders out of the way. And I did.
"You lot need to get out of here!" I said to them, before running off after the cars again. By my standards, they were only fractions of seconds away, and I was running alongside them in no time. The back of the final S.U.V opened, and a Black Star soldier revealed himself. He climbed up onto the roof, taunting me by unsheathing a katana. I ran closer to the vehicle and jumped on the roof as well.
I transformed N.A.D.A and our blades immediately clashed. He put an amazing amount of force behind it, more than I've ever had to endure. I almost fell off the roof, but I grabbed my opponents arm, pulling myself up, aiming the point of my blade at his face in the process. He ducked right underneath it though, and I flew over his limboed body. I almost fell off the front of the S.U.V, but I transformed N.A.D.A back to normal and dug my fingers into the roof, stopping me from being run over. The soldier was soon upon me, trying to stab into the back of my neck. I hoisted myself up and punched him in the gut. He stumbled backwards, giving me a chance to charge up some energy. I closed the gap, and palm struck him in the stomach. He was blasted backwards, and broke some bones landing on the road. I was free from his attacks. I swung myself into the back of the car, and made my way to the front. The passenger put his pistol to my head, but I grabbed the barrel and hit him with the butt end, knocking some teeth out. I quickly reached for the door, opened it, and kicked him out onto the road. Shutting the door, I turned my attention to the driver. He was too preoccupied with Sophie and Ben to notice me, so I grabbed him by the head and snapped his neck. The vehicle began to swerve, so I swapped seats with the body and took the wheel. "You two try and get some back-up!" I shouted across to the doctors, "The police will do!"
"The only police force is Black Star!"
"What?" I replied, shocked. Well, they have taken over most major cities, like London. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, "Well, I'm gonna drive ahead! You two get to safety. Shadow and I are going to have a 'friendly discussion'!" I floored the pedal and cut in front of them, heading straight for the dilapidated building ahead of me.
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I parked up outside the potential secret base and jumped out of the car, sprinting straight for the front door. It was barricaded with wooden planks, so it'll be easy to get through. Except it wasn't. I charged into it, shoulder first, but it didn't break. The only thing that broke was my shoulder. Is it a steel door? It must be a disguised one, like back in the desert. I waited for my shoulder to heal, and blasted it down with a ball of plasma. Running in, I could see the opposite of dilapidation. The walls were metal, and reflected the dim light. There was only one long corridor that led up to an elevator. Shadow must be on the top floor, doing some strange experiments. Does he have any of my blood? He might have extracted some whilst I was frozen after our fight, whilst I was hallucinating. I pray to whatever God there is that he hasn't cloned any more of me. I opened up the elevator door and pressed for the top floor. There were 6 floors to go up, and one Shadow to obliterate. I stared in silence at the floor indicator, trying my best to zone out the annoying music. Floor 1. Floor 2. Floor 3. It stopped at Floor 4. Someone must have called the lift from this floor! The doors opened to reveal a large science lab, with scientists and soldiers alike. The scientists looked like they were being forced to do experiments and create things. Are they corporate slaves? Military slaves? Or just regular slaves? Either way, I have to put a stop to it.
The soldier that called the elevator was the first to go. Without reacting, he had both of his lungs punctured by yours truly. Using him as a meat shield, bullets were absorbed into him, painting me with blood. I threw him in the general direction of gunfire and turned N.A.D.A into a spear. I leapt over some tables and struck down from above, like an oversized, wingless eagle. I stabbed through him, not wasting any time. I picked myself up and ran to the next soldier, kicking him in the ribs. He flew backwards, knocking down another in the process. One of them tried to throw a bottle of chemicals at me, and I could see one of the slave-scientists start to visibly panic. I caught the flask and threw it back, and the liquid began to eat away at the soldiers armour, and soon after, his flesh and bones. I got up to fight the others, but was greeted with a surprising sight. The scientists were no longer cowering in fear, but fighting back against their oppressors. They tied some of the soldiers up and took their weapons, and were keeping them from attacking me. "You're Agent 98, aren't you?" One of them asked, nervously, "Or Flint, sorry."
"That's me, yeah." I answered, "Thanks a bunch for helping me."
"It's no problem. We're just glad that we're not gonna be helping them do bad stuff anymore."
"Can I ask you, then, if Shadow is on the top floor?"
"He should be, but when he left, I couldn't tell whether he went down or up. He came in here to inspect a few minutes ago, and I heard him talk about a 'big fight' and an 'important delivery'. He was holding a vial with red liquid in." I was right. He does have some of my blood! And he's going to send it to the rest of the Five!
"You guys need to get out of here. Take what you can and go, or else you may die from collateral damage."
"Please defeat Shadow, Flint. If you do, then Black Star will have lost grip on the first city it owns."
"I'll try my damn best." And with that, I made my way back into the elevator to face off against Shadow.
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