ALTERNIVERSE: Chapter five
It's been two days since the Heroes and Vigilantes started working together. Tensions are at an all-time high with the possibility of a war with Transmuter ever-present in their minds. Daniel rides around the industrial district of Lumer City, patrolling the streets for any criminal misconduct. The sight of regular civilians and other delinquents passes them by as they drive along the roads.
The car comes to a crawling stop at a red light. "I got nothing on my end. Have you found anything remotely exciting?" Daniel asks, speaking into the car's communicator.
The communicator softly clicks on with B.A.D's face next to the screen. "Nope, it's pretty much quiet where I am, sadly."
"This is getting us nowhere. We should be looking for Transmuter and his crew, not doing simple patrols." The light turns green and Daniel begins driving down the road.
"I agree with you on that. Patrols should be left to the police… strange…"
Daniels gets a curious expression on his face, raising an eyebrow. "What's up, spot something?"
"Yeah, I think so. Spotted a shady woman staring at me from an alleyway. I'm going to approach her."
"You want me to swing by?" Asks Daniel.
"No, I'll be fine. It will only take a second. I'll touch bases after I'm done." The transmission cuts off and the car goes silent.
"At least one of us found something to do." Daniel keeps driving for a few more minutes. "I wonder if that bakery shop is still open on the corner." When he reaches a right turn the car's communication system comes on abruptly. "B.A.D? Is something wrong? That lady proves to be much for you?" He says in a joking manner when he hears a familiar roar come across the transmission. Daniel steps on the brakes causing the car to stop immediately.
"I TAKE IT BACK! I WOULD LIKE SOME ASSISTANCE PLEASE! CAN YOU GET TO MY LOCATION!" B.A.D yells into his communicator.
Daniels brings up B.A.Ds coordinates on his car's dash screen. "Yeah, I'm already en route." He punches the gas and speeds off down the road leaving burnt tire marks on the pavement.
"PLEASE HURRY!" B.A.D ends the call while standing next to She-wolf, Retrospect, and Baddie Bri.
Retrospect places a hand on B.A.Ds shoulder. "You made the smart choice, B.A.D. Wouldn't want your family getting hurt now." B.A.D just shrugs off the hand and walks away.
A few minutes go by as Daniel pulls up to the alleyway where B.A.D was located. "B.A.D do you copy? B.A.D!? Crap, his comm's down." He slowly begins making his way into the alleyway, shifting into his Cerberus beast form.
Cerberus continues along until he finds himself entering a wide backyard of four different apartment buildings. Other than a run-down playground nothing else is present in the yard. Cerberus sniffs the air and comes across a familiar scent that's when he hears a low guttural growl coming from his left. The She-wolf he fought during the prison break comes walking out from the other alleyway along with Retrospect and Madam Vogue.
"Retrospect too? What have you done with B.A.D!?" Cerberus yells out.
Retrospect only snickers at the question. "We could tell you but we'd end up wasting our breath since you're going to die anyway."
"There's no way I'm dying here. Not before I bring you three in on so many counts of murder. Not to mention your affiliation with Transmuter."
"Bringing us in is the least of your worries. You see our friend here has a bone to pick with you." Vogue gestures over to She-wolf who looks like she's about to pounce any moment. "Something about stopping the voice in her head."
"That's right and once I kill you I'll finally be free of it." She-wolf pops out her claws in her right hand and scrapes them across the concrete. "Now it's time to DIE!"
She-wolf pounces toward the hero, claws back, ready to kill. Cerberus runs forward to meet her head-on, quickly getting into a formal fighting stance. Once She-wolf is close enough she swipes right at him only to have Cerberus catch her arm, spinning around and tossing her over his shoulder. She-wolf hits the ground, back first, breaking the concrete from the impact. Cerberus brings back his left arm for a punch but She-wolf rolls out of the way before the fist impacts the ground. She quickly spins around onto her feet just in time only to be kicked away by Cerberus hard enough to send her flying into the swing set of the old playground.
"Things won't end up like last time. You may have me beat in strength and speed but I have you beat in actual combat experience!" Cerberus takes off running straight for She-wolf who gets into a pouncing stance on all four. Suddenly his body goes stiff as he hears the voice of Madam Vogue echoes in his head. Cerberus trips and falls onto the ground, unable to move an inch.
She-wolfs face turns from that of confusion to one of pure anger with her teeth bare. "W-what is happening? Get up so I can kill you properly!" She turns her head to see Vogue and Retrospect walking up to her. "What are you doing!?"
"We're helping you kill the bastard, isn't that why we came here?" Retrospect states looking over at the frozen hero.
She-wolf raises her claws to the man only to have him scoff at her. "Do not interrupt my kill or the next thing my claws slash into will be your chest." Retrospect smiles and puts a hand up in front of Vogue.
"Oh come on, I've been itching to control him since the first time we met on the highway." She says but is given a scowl from her superior. "Fine… I'll let the cat and dog play with each other." Bri looks at Cerberus, her eyes dimly flashes, lifting her control over him.
Cerberus slowly gets to his feet after regaining control of his body but his reprieve is cut short as She-wolf grabs him by the neck. Wasting no time, she jabs her claws into the left of Cerberus causing the hero to roar out in pain. B.A.D watches helplessly from a window from one of the buildings surrounding them. She-wolf takes her blood soaked claws gearing up for another swipe into flesh but as soon as her claws were about to pierce the skin Cerberus grabs her wrist just in time. While his neck is still within her grasp, Cerberus plants his foot onto her chest and pushes off from She-wolf. He manages to escape her clutches, flipping backwards onto his feet while holding his side as blood drips down from the wound that is slowly healing.
She-wolf licks the blood off her claws while giving Cerberus a twisted smile. "Oh have I longed for this. I hope you made peace with the gods because you'll be seeing them soon."
"Peace with my gods? Don't be ridiculous…" Cerberus takes his hand off his side and gets his claws out in front of him. "I'm an atheist."
The two sprint full force speed at each other, claws out and fangs bare as their blood is sprayed across the playground as they continue to slash one another repeatedly. Retrospect and Bri retreat to a safe distance to prevent any blood to splatter on them as the two beast-man fight to the death.
It's a brutal scene as they both go at it; Cerberus landing in a blow every so often only to have She-wolf pay it back with two slashes. She-wolf manages to land a gut punch into Cerberus' abdomen with enough force to fracture two ribs. The pain causes him to keel forward just a bit as She-wolf comes down from above with her right set of claws aiming for the eyes. Cerberus fights through the pain just enough to bring up his left arm to her wrist, blocking the blow with the claws inches from his face. The hero counters with a right hook to the face making She-wolf stumble back but she takes the opportunity to spin to the right and kicks Cerberus across his face, using the claws on her feet to slash his right eye in retaliation.
Cerberus falls to the ground, shifting back into his human form while holding his eye. She-wolf reverts back to her human form as well though still possessing her tail. "I must say you put up a better fight than I had hoped but this outcome was inevitable. You are meant to die by my hand, I'm faster than you, stronger than you, my wounds you gave me are practically nonexistent while most of your wounds aren't halfway healed." She-wolf walks over and softly lifts Daniels head by the chin so their eyes meet. "I want you to look me in the face as life drains from your eye." She says preparing to sink her claws into his neck.
"Fine but at least tell me what happened to B.A.D. When I got here I saw no signs of struggle. Given your strength you'd still have trouble taking down a meta like him." Daniel states.
Retrospect and Bri begin to laugh as they approach them. "Come on, now. Shouldn't be obvious for someone like you." Vogue says aloud with her hand over her mouth to hide her smile.
Daniel says nothing and just scowls at them. "B.A.D tricked you."
"W-what?"
"He led you here on purpose because that's what we told him to do. Isn't that right B.A.D!?" Retrospect yells out in the direction of the building to his left as B.A.D shamefully walks into the yard.
Daniels stares in shock that his partner is unscathed, proving fact to their statement. His shock doesn't last long as his anger takes over trying to get up. She-wolf pins him to the ground quickly and keeps her claws near his neck. "You son of a bitch, I trusted you!"
"Maybe you should be more careful on who you put your trust in. Oh wait you're about to die, my bad?" Vogue jokingly says before letting out another laugh.
B.A.D takes a step forward. "I'm sorry, Daniel… I had no choice before. I should've gone for help sooner."
"Hehe… wait, sooner?" Just then his foresight abilities triggers but not in time as the hero Pace Racer comes running by in a flash, pushing Madam Vogue away, sending Retrospect flying with a punch to the face, and flinging She-wolf into a wall by the tail.
Pace Racer helps Daniel up to his feet. "Man, you sure took a beating. Can you walk?"
Daniel stands up now that his body is mostly healed. "Yeah I can walk, my eye might not heal right but I can see for now."
Retrospect slowly starts getting up from the ground after getting rocked by Pace Racers entrance. "You idiot… you dare double cross us! You know what this means for your family, right?"
Daniel looks at B.A.D confused at what Retrospect said. "Family?"
"Don't worry about it. Mr. Hall took care of it and put them in protective services with a few heroes to watch them." B.A.D digs into his pockets and takes out his two gold brass knuckles. "I know I'm going to the slammer after this is done but I'm at least going to send you three there with me."
Madam Vogue lifts herself into the air with her telekinesis while ripping a chunk of the playground off the ground, still attached to the concrete. "The only place you're going to is the graveyard!" She crushes the playground into a massive ball of metal and concrete then pushes the large chunk of debris at the heroes.
"I GOT THIS!"
A voice is heard just as a young looking Asian woman wearing a zipped up, purple leather jacket with a black crop top peaking over the zipper and black jeans with purple lines accenting them jumps down in front of them. With both arms out to her side and hands bathed in purple energy, she amasses a wide and powerful barrier that completely blocks the ball of debris.
"Amethyst!?" Daniel calls out in shock to see her here too.
"Yeah, I was called in by Mr. Hall to help. Glad I came too, you would've been squashed without me."
Retrospect face is filled with fury at B.A.D's betrayal that the wall of the building behind him begins to crumble. "Don't think you've won yet! We're just getting started!" He points out his arm at them as the entire wall of the building breaks apart as prices of glass and brick are launched with extreme force.
"Oh crap!" Pace Racer's perception of time slows down as he begins to run through the glass shards and flying bricks.
Amethyst, still fighting against Vogue, duplicates herself. The clone of Amethyst manages to make another barrier in time to protect B.A.D and Daniel from danger. "You won't be getting through this barrier anytime soon."
"Nice one, Amethyst!" Says Daniel as he pats her back.
"Look!" B.A.D points out to the left of them in time to see She-wolf making a break for it. "I know I fucked up and this won't make up for it but at least let me help you take her down."
Daniel doesn't say anything at first but then looks back at Amethyst and Pace Racer who are keeping Retrospect and Vogue busy. "Can you guys handle things here?"
"Cerberus…" Pace Racer slides under a chunk of debris that was thrown at him. "It'll be my genuine pleasure."
"We've got this, go put that dog on a leash." Says the real Amethyst as she molds the barrier into a square shape and shoots it towards Bri. This buys the both of them enough cover to Chas after She-wolf down the alley.