Chapter XIV: Battle Royale

Chapter XIV: Battle Royale

The steam ship was going as fast as it could, and only half the distance of 5 miles remained between the island of Power for the People and the steam ship.

“A bit more and I’ll jump” says Dwayne as the warm wind hits his transformed face.

“I know nothing of the dangers that await me there…I don’t know what is going to happen. I just know that I am ready to throw away my fears and save everyone. Even if I must sacrifice my sanity or life in the process… I must save everyone” says Dwayne. “Good speech” says the old sailor maneuvering the ship. “Thanks” replies Dwayne.

Meanwhile in the city things were getting even uglier. More cops had arrived but things were getting worst with a even bigger multitude stealing, desperate and seeking help. No shots could stop the frenzy crowd from continuing their frantic efforts to survive or profit. It was a real chaos… and it was about to get worst.

“STOP!” says Grauchy as he stops a man from stealing a valuable necklace worth over $25,000. With a swift hit to the back of the neck with his katana’s hilt, Alphonse stopped the man.

“We shouldn’t be fighting for jewelry, but to help people” says Alphonse. “Shut up! I want this necklace for me!” yells Grauchy. “Great…” replies Alphonse.

“This is crazy!” yells McCaulthy as he gets pushed back by a bunch of people. “STOP!” yells Morales shooting his gun to the skies. A frantic man hits the poor man right in the face with a steel pole. The fat officer falls to the ground immediately and people begin to run over him. In that moment Alphonse pushes away people from over Morales, saving the poor man.

”Please get up” says Alphonse. “I’ll try!” says Morales struggling to get up. Right then Alphonse glimpsed something. It was a man in a long gray coat and white hair with a also white moustache is running away.

“No way” says Alphonse who sets off behind the old man. Quickly he catches up with him.

“David!” yells Alphonse. The old man in the gray coat then stops and turns around. “Alphonse” he says with a smile in a creepy old voice… creepy because it was a “rough” voice. It was as if he had drunk a lot of alcohol in his life and smoked a lot.

“What are you up to now!” says Alphonse grabbing the man by the neck. “Hehe” was all the old guy said. “Who are you working for now?” asks Alphonse. “Dear Alphonse, it looks like I’ve finally found you! Haha, one of the escapees” replies David. “Are you following Dwayne? For who? The government?” asks Alphonse. “Answers you must find for yourself my dear experiment” says David. “You did it now!” says Alphonse. Suddenly a loud sound is heard followed by the yelling of people.

”You’ve got more important things to do Mr. Alphonse” says David with a grin as he punches Alphonse straight in the chest. The blonde man lets go of the old man who quickly jumps a few feet away. “If you are helping BIO 002a be prepared for what will come” says David. Behind Alphonse in the “3^rd Commemorative Avenue” the pavement is seen rising up like a wave. That wave eventually breaks down revealing behind it Erheitz.

“Shit” says Alphonse. The huge man has steel gauntlets in both hands and is wearing a huge steel armor, similar to that of Mordred, except he has no helmet. He quickly takes action and runs towards Erheitz.

Swiftly he draws his katana from his sheath and directs the attack to Erheitz’s head. The huge possessed man raises his right arm and blocks Alphonse’s attack. The counterattack didn’t waste a second as Erheitz quickly let go a left hook. Alphonse, with amazing speed, jumps away and evades the punch that could otherwise break him.

The huge monster of nature is too strong and picks up a nearby SUV (Toyota brand too). With both hands he throws it at Alphonse whose reply is to jump away and land atop the pole that is holding an American flag. Crowds of people were running away from the battlefield but valiant Sergeant Morales and his great ally McCaulthy stood firm, ready for the battle.

“I’ll give you a rise” says Morales. “Yeah right” whispers McCaulthy.

Erheitz plants his hands inside the pavement and raises the road upwards. Alphonse counter attacks by throwing his sword at Erheitz. Unluckily the katana hits the steel armor, not inflicting damage on the man.

Erheitz, a man with even greater power thanks to Arthur’s inventions, waves his right hand horizontally. From the steel arm a sound wave is shot. The wave eventually reaches Alphonse, making him lose balance. The man, now unarmed, falls to his knees.

“Dammit…” he says as he stares at the freak of nature looming closer to him every second. To his rescue comes the trio of old men: Grauchy, Carlos and Uncle Martin. Shotgun in hand they begin to shoot Erheitz.

“I need the katana” says Alphonse. But he didn’t notice that Officer McCaulthy was close to his side. “A katana is a sword right?” he asks to Morales. “Yes” replies the wise fat man. “Good…” says McCaulthy who sets off running towards the katana over the ground. “NO!” yells Morales in quite a dramatic fashion.

Erheitz, already annoyed by the constant shooting from the old men, punches the ground with such a strength that the windows of nearby buildings are immediately broken. The ground shakes violently and the old men fall, while McCaulthy crawled over the ground, getting closer to the katana. Erheitz notices the skinny man and turns towards him. “McCaulthy!” yells Morales as he sets off running towards his friend.

“Damn!” yells Alphonse as against all odds he stands up and runs towards Erheitz and raises his right hand. In front of the hand a sign in form a green circle appears. From the hand he shoots a green fire blast which catches Erheitz off guard, sending the huge man down.

“I didn’t want to use that!” thinks Alphonse.

“Wow…” says McCaulthy. Alphonse quickly grabs his katana. “Thanks” he says to both officers. “What the hell was that?” asks Morales. “That? Gene experimenting” he replies, finally having his katana back.

Some miles away, Dwayne was already within reach of the island. “I am setting off now” says Dwayne. “Go then! Save us!” yells the old man. “Wow.. so cliché” says Dwayne with a smile as he jumps from the ship, making it unstable for a few seconds afterwards.

Back into the battlefield, Erheitz and Alphonse continue their duel to the death.

Slowly, but steadily, Erheitz stands up firm in front of Alphonse.

“Finally… a good match” he says in quite a creepy voice.

Alphonse sways his sword to the left and takes a running position. Erheitz meanwhile raises his right hand high. Both stare at each other for a few seconds as a swift breeze passes over them, swaying Alphonse’s hair. The young man quickly charges at Erheitz who counterattacks with another punch to the ground. The ground breaks in pieces as Alphonse jumps high over Erheitz. He safely lands behind the huge man, who quickly turns around with his left hand opened, making a wide attack. Alphonse has no option but to jump over Erheitz but this time he attacks. With a swift slash he manages to wound Erheitz’s right shoulder (sadly he missed the head). Not wasting a second he shoots another blast of green fire at Erheitz. The huge man receives the impact and is sent backwards over 10 feet but with amazing strength he grabs a gasoline tank from a truck in a nearby gas station. With determination he raises the 4,000 gallon gasoline tank and throws it at Alphonse.

“RUN!” yells Alphonse to the people as he runs towards the incoming tank. With amazing strength he does a downwards slash which pierces and breaks the tank’s steel. The intention was not to slice it in two (impossible for the size of his blade) but to deviate the tank from the people witnessing the battle towards the ground. He succeeds and the tank violently falls over the broken road. Surprisingly it didn’t explode and the gasoline splatters all over the road. But something was wrong… Erheitz was smiling.

He extends both his arms to opposite ways and with great strength he claps. The steel of his hands collides and creates sparks which immediately set the gasoline ablaze.

“NO!” says Alphonse as he jumps away. He was soaked with gasoline and the quick-spreading fire eventually caught his body. A huge yell is heard as the man falls to the road surrounded by a hellish fire. His whole body was burning.

“BURN IN HELL!” yells Erheitz. The blonde man yells in agony as he tries to stand up. But then a savior appeared… it was none other than Grauchy and Carlos, both with fire extinguishers. Immediately they spread the foam over the burning man. Erheitz slowly heads towards them as the hellish fire surrounds him… he is seemingly unaffected by it. The fire extinguishers worked very fast and most of Alphonse’s body was already free from fire. Impressively his face was mostly unaffected by the fire, with only a few marks and only some parts of his hair were burnt.

“Thanks…” whispers Alphonse still trying to recover strength. “Don’t thank us! Thank the people! They stole the freaking extinguisher from a store and gave it to us so we could save us! Now… do your stuff!” says the always spontaneous Grauchy. The two old men quickly run away.

“Let’s go!” yells Alphonse with even greater determination as in front of him a huge wall of fire raised up, with the almighty Erheitz in the middle of it.

Meanwhile Dwayne already arrived at the hydrogen plant and made his way inside. Workers were trying to hold the place together but something was weird… explosions were heard from some side.

“It’s the demon!” yells one of the workers trying to maintain the plant stable. “I am here to help! What can I do?” asks Dwayne (still as Crnobog). “Help us out dammit! We are trying to maintain this stable after the EMP exploded! But we are having problems, the guys at the High-temperature electrolysis room are having problems! Someone is inside there! The nuclear reactor that creates the hydrogen is unstable right now, but someone has killed everyone inside that room!” says the chief operator, a man in a yellow suit.

“Someone?” asks Dwayne. “We dare not go inside” says the chief. “I am going in, keep this under control” says Dwayne. “First you need instructions right?” asks the chief. “Oh yeah…” replies Dwayne. “Follow the green line pasted over the wall, it will lead you to the room” replies the chief. “Thanks” says Dwayne as he follows the green line which eventually leads into a green corridor. Then it turns right into a room with lots of tubes and pipes. It leads to a door with the nuclear sign in it. He is unable to open it due to security.

”Damn it!” says Dwayne. Then the speakers turned on: “Hey monster, we know that you are on our side, so I am going to open the door so… watch out”.

But then something happened. The door was open with a sudden hit from the inside. Immediately the whole system surrounding it falls to the ground, and on the other side of the door Saya was standing.

“We meet again demon-boy” she says as she lowered her right leg. Inside the room it was a mess of smoke and everyone was dead, lying over a pool of blood.

“So… Mordred is seeking for this plant to explode… then it would be a real chaos” says Dwayne. “Bingo” she replies.