The New Chapter 9
They thought they had seen the worst in the Testa area, but it could not even compared to the violence they encountered in Merr. The half of Testa that Fiona and Van had not killed were on a raid for the artifact that was stolen. The gangsters disregard for any other human life along with their extremely careless and poor aim, they destroyed not only property, but countless lives in their meaningless gunfight.
Van and Fiona were traveling through alleys so as to avoid the gunfire. They had little idea where they were going; they just figured the deeper they got into Merr, the easier it would be to find the headquarters.
Every so often they would have to cross through a street because of a dead end in one of their paths. Van would stand facing one way on the street, Fiona watching the other. They checked to see if any battles were taking place. Fiona had spotted one, “There’s a gunfight about 100 yards around the corner; do you see it?”
Van turned his head, “Yeah, it’s pretty big.”
“I think we should be able to pass without them…” with a closer look she saw they were using civilians as shields. One of the men, being so generous as to call them such, led a trail of gunfire into a group of people hoping the guilt, he so stupidly expected the shooter to have, would stop their shooting long enough for him to escape. “Did you see that? It is absolutely disgusting! We have to help them!”
Van wanted to help. An anger crept itself in his eyes; his sword resonated with an equal flame. He knew how horrible what he was seeing was, but also knew, in spite of his anger, that he could do much more good without endangering himself in something so reckless, “We can’t. We have to get the artifact.”
“Then you stay here, I’m not going to watch them die!” He was glad she had ran ahead. Not in the sense that she was putting herself in danger, but that she was doing everything he wanted to. She enveloped the reckless will power he so eagerly desired.
As she ran towards the battle, dodging bullets on the way, she felt disgust. There was no reason to use bystanders in such a useless battle. She noticed that this kind of thought process was making itself a habit; he was defiantly changing her. This concern she had was no longer inspired to impress him; she genuinely wanted to help them.
She stopped and crossed her arms out in front of her. She was ready to fire her projectiles when a man in all black jumped from the rooftops into the middle of the crossfire. She watched him as he quickly noted the 7 men around him, including Fiona.
“This violence must end!” He did a quick spin, and from his body came little knives attached to thread that easily slipped themselves into the barrels of the guns the men held. He quickly crossed his hands pulling the guns out of the grips of the men into the control of the ninja.
He grouped the threads together into one hand and swung them above his head with relative ease, “Go fetch!” With that he let the guns fly into the horizon, and the gangs ran away like little boys whose toys had just been taken away while picking on some little toddlers.
The man set his sights on Fiona. He set his feet and tossed another knife quickly at the knight. She saw it coming and quickly dodged. Her sights were set on the string that attached the knife to the warrior. Fiona grabbed the thread and pulled the man disgracefully towards her.
She pounced, then pinned his arms to the ground. Van ran over to get a closer look at the ninja. He had on a black body suit; his face was wrapped up in black cloth that was tied up in the back. Only his eyes were revealed, but his blond hair peaked through covering his right.
He looked at Fiona, “You’re stronger than the average Testa scum.”
She smacked him, “Do I look like Testa?”
He squinted his eyes, “You have their signature armband.”
She looked at her arm, “Oh…” She took it off.
Van motioned her to get up. He put his hand out to help the man get off the ground; he accepted. Fiona noted the interaction as extremely strange. Even in the miniature battle they just had, it felt as thought there was never any real anger between the two of them. The fact that Van had accepted him as well in such a quick moment made her feel as though the two were on the same plane.
“We have no relation to either of the gangs. The leader of Testa has something we need. In order to get it, we need to raid Merr for something they stole from him.”
“So that’s why so many Testa have been around here; they are trying to get that item,” the ninja seemed distracted by the bodies.
“If you know how to get to the Merr Headquarters, we could really use a guide,” the mans face shot from the bloody corpses to Van at the mention of Merr.
Fiona pulled her companion aside, “How do you know we can trust him? He could be Merr himself!” In spite of her lack of hatred, she was still not so quick to so easily give away her trust.
“He stopped that battle. Chances are he’s involved as much as we are.” He turned to the man, “Can you help us?”
“You guys are serious about going into the heart of Merr?”
“Yeah.”
“And you’ve fought your way to the leader of Testa?”
“Yeah.”
“You seem like a pretty rowdy bunch,” he snickered through his mask, “I’ll take you there.”
Van smiled at Fiona, but the man was not done talking, “But if you ever harm a civilian like those men were just now, don’t count on me to be so loyal…” they were shocked by his sudden change in emotion, but impressed by his assertion, “but let’s cut the seriousness, my name is Chong!”
“Chong?”
“Yeah, Chong, and you guys?”
“I’m Van, and this is my partner Fiona.”
“Nice to meet you Van and Fiona!” The two men shook hands. Van thought back to when he met Stefen. He had a strange feeling in his gut that he could not be trusted. But as he stood there with Chong, hand in hand, he could tell that they would be friends for a very long time.
“So, … Chong, how do we get to their HQ?”
“You see that sewage duct over there?” Fiona took a deep breath, “Merr Industries used to have a monopoly over the sewage game in New Caesar. One of the other reasons for the company’s downfall, other than the gangs, was the fact that they dumped toxic waste into the sewers, mutating the rats and stuff into monsters. They lost control of the sewers, and therefore a lot of money.”
Fiona was disgusted, “We have to go through sewers! Van,” she really wanted another similar response, “Sewers!” Van liked the moments were Fiona was easier to figure out, when she was more like Emma. She had common fears, like ghost and sewage. The fact that she was human along with a hardened warrior peaked his interest, could she be compared to Emma?
Chong broke the grasp intrigue had over Van, and the fear that had wrapped its arms around Fiona, “If you want to be undetected, it is the only way.” They decided it was for the best.
Chong lifted up the manhole to reveal a ladder and the sound of running water, “Ladies first.”
Fiona looked at him, “Ugh, scumbag.”
They all climbed down to find that it was relatively peaceful. There were two sets of sidewalks on the sides of the running sewage. The only thing that seemed relatively out of place was a trail of slime that sat on the pathway.
Van put his hands on Fiona’s shoulders and leaned in towards her ear, “Spooky, eh?”
She hit him away, “Stop it!” Van and Chong started laughing, “Ugh you guys are so gross.”
“You don’t really seem like a woman with too many fears,” Van wished Chong could have seen Fiona’s face infront of the haunted mansion.
“Sewage brings out a side in women you would never understand.”
“Must be.”
Chong liked how he was getting closer to the two, even with something as silly as a fear of sewage. He decided to indulge further into their relationship, “Are you guys a couple?”
They looked at each other due to the seemingly out of place comment. Awkwardly, Van said, “Well, kind of,” while Fiona replied with a, “No, don’t be silly!”
Van, feeling stupid, then said “Oh sorry, no,” and Fiona, feeling bad, said simultaneously, “I mean, some might say…”
“Okay! I touched on a delicate area. We’ll talk about this is somewhere other than a sewer.”
They both breathed with relief, “Sounds good.”
The three of them followed the path of slime for about twenty minutes, a time in which Van quickly dismissed the idea of a love triangle; Emma was dead. Had Chong not held them back with his command of silence due to suspicion, Van’s thoughts would have undoubtedly led him to the Masked Warrior, the woman who had saved him from the wolf-beast.
They all listened intently. Van and Fiona tried to find the sound Chong was hearing, but could not place it in their head. He pushed them back, and flicked two of his knives a head of them. He quickly tugged at the attached strings to reveal two impaled, mutated rats. One of them had two tails, and the other nine arms. They both hissed for a while, but eventually just died.
Fiona was gagging at the sight of them, but managed to spit out some words, “How… did… you….”
“I heard them while we were walking,” he tossed the beasts into the river of slime, “If we were to get bit by one of these suckers, it would have been trouble.”
Van tried to add to the conversation, “It looked like they were spitting out the same stuff that’s in the sewage.”
They all looked into the river of waste that separated the two sidewalks. Chong seemed the most intrigued by it, “Let me try something.” He flicked one of his knives into slime, and gave it a tug. From his eyes, they could tell her was surprised that nothing came out.
“We should be careful not to fall into this stuff. It’s more toxic than I thought.”
“I’ll say.”
They continued to follow the goo, when Van had a question, “What are those knives?”
“They’re my own brand of shuriken. Most ninja’s have them, but being as advanced as I am, I made my own. With mine I can impale my enemy, and then bring them closer with the strings.”
Van looked at Fiona with the expression that this guy is insane. Neither of them thought his name was ‘Chong,’ and neither of them thought he was a great ninja; who could be in a concrete jungle like New Caesar? There was something about him that was suspicious, but neither of them bothered to ask due to all the help he was giving them.
They uneventfully continued down the monotonous path. Fiona would pipe in with something like “This is leading nowhere,” or “I think we’re going in circles,” but no one paid her any mind. She regretted her complaints but felt as though she was growing so close to Van subconsciously, she had no need to hold back any of her conscious thoughts or actions.
Suddenly, the sound of their footsteps hitting the concrete that they had gotten so used to was interrupted by crunching underneath their feet. They ignored it at first, but as they continued the sound became unbearable.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know? Chong can you see what were walking on?”
“No I cant.”
Van unsheathed his sword, “I’ll use my swords light to see what it is.”
Chong was fascinated by it, “Wow! It’s glowing!”
“Yeah, it’s incredible. It let’s me steal the souls of monsters I kill and then summon their abilities.”
“That is so cool!”
Van muttered a “yeah” and lowered his sword to the ground. The closer he got, the more he could hear little feet stomping on the ground. When his sword was close enough to the marching, he saw that the path was covered in a seemingly countless number of spiders. The immense number of the creature is what kept the three of them from noticing what they were walking on; it all seemed like a black, crunchy ground.
He stood up and continued forward.
Fiona and Chong looked at him, “What is it?”
He continued onwards, shocked. They ran up to him, “What were they Van?”
He stopped and took a deep breath, “It was nothing.”
“You call my babies nothing?”
It was a strange, but clear voice from ahead. Chong stepped forward, “Who are you? Show yourself!”
The woman let out an eerie cackle. In the distance they saw the tunnel light up. They ran towards the bright light. As they ran, Fiona noticed the spiders and screamed. She jumped on Van’s back, a spot they were both growing accustomed to, and continued towards the irritating laugh.
The closer they got towards the light, the fewer spiders there were. When there were enough to bare, Fiona jumped off and continued on her own.
They got to the light source and found nothing but a giant headlight lodged in a corner. They looked around the side to see the mother of all the baby spiders. It had the head and body of a woman, two arms, and six spider legs that were clinging to a web she had spun.
Fiona screamed, again. Van put his arm around her, “It’s ok.”
The queen heard his comforting words, “I don’t think so!”
With that she aimed her abdomen at the three of them. Shooting from her body came the tiny spiders they had all grown to hate.
Holding Fiona, Van jumped to the other side of the waterway. He looked over to see Chong strategically ducking underneath the flow of insects.
When the spiders stopped, he threw multiple shuriken at the queen. As he watched them hit all of the monsters legs, he grouped the strands together and attempted to pull the spider off its web into the acid.
Chong was putting in all of his effort to pull the monster, yet she was barely flinching. She moved her two human arms towards her spider legs, and ripped the knives out of her body. She grouped the knives together and started a tug of war with Chong. Her almost infinitely stronger body made it easy for her to pull him into her welcoming arms. He tried to wiggle his way out of the grasp of her 8 limbs, but to no avail.
“We have to help him!”
“But how? “
Fiona had taken the leadership role, “Jump to the other side, and just run strait for her. She’ll let go to stop us, which will hopefully be enough for him to escape. If she doesn’t let go, or he cant get free, aim for her middle leg. If we can cut them off, he will be able to escape.”
“You got it!”
With that, Van jumped to the other side and ran towards the queen’s web. Fiona was closer, seeing as though she had a head start. She quickened her steps and jumped into the air, from what seemed to Van, a little too early to reach the monster.
He saw that she was concentrating hard on something in the air. She let her then tense head back and yelled, “Propeller!” From nowhere, a pocket of wind formed underneath her. She jumped on it, using the wind as a trampoline to push herself faster towards the beast. She wound up for the punch, but was rejected.
As she was being hit, she checked to see if Chong was using the opportunity to escape, but her arm was back around his chest before he could even attempt a break away.
The queen, who, with her defeat over Fiona, was now focused on Chong, began stroking the black cloth that covered his face, “You look so delicious! Let me see your luscious face!” She used one of her arms to pull of his mask and let it melt away in the acid stream.
He tried to hide his face, as though he did not even want to see it himself. His long blond hair, nonetheless, covered his face from his allies.
The monster unhinged her jaw to reveal a mouth filled with large sharp teeth, dripping with acid similar to the waste in toxic stream. She moved her head in to take a bite, when she noticed Van had jump cut through two of her legs. As she turned to him, he finished of her third. They fell into the stream and started to break apart under the destructive power of the acid.
As the queen screamed in pain, Chong reached for his thigh. Van had just assumed he was grabbing more shuriken, but when he saw what had actually been seized, he paused in shock. The so-called ninja had pulled out a pistol. He took the gun to the head of the monster and shot.
Fiona stared in horror at the deception that had just occurred. Normally she would have never associated herself with anyone like Chong; she had set herself up for a let down; Van had made her weak.
The beasts grip loosened on Chong and the web. Before it dropped into the waste, he jumped onto the side of the walkway Fiona was on.
She got off the ground and stamped up to him. She put her hand on his shoulder and turned him around, “You’re nothing but a hypocrite!”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“You preach about how guns ruin lives, and you use one yourself! You’re nothing but a fraud. How dare you call yourself a ninja, you’re nothing but a joke!”
Chong looked down at his gun; it was stained with the blood of the spider queen, “You’re right…”
Fiona was shocked by his answer; she expected him to yell, “I… I’m not really a ninja.” Even though he hadn’t, it was clear that the man was hiding something.
Van jumped across the river, “Who are you?”
“My name is Kurt Calloway. I used to be one of the best sharpshooters in all of Merr, no, New Caesar. One night, me and my group were outnumbered by some Testa. They had killed my friends, and were about to kill me when a ninja came and saved me. Don’t ask me what he was doing in a place like this, but the fact of the matter is that he saved my life, all without the guns I had relied on for so long. Without even receiving my thanks, he jumped off. His power was immeasurable. As I watched him fight off the power of ten guns, I saw that there was a way to be strong without the destructive power of ammunition. Anyway, I vowed to live a life like that. I trained with a kodachi, my small sword, and my shuriken. I tried to raid the Testa labs to try out my new abilities, but I was completely overwhelmed. I had taken out a few Testa, and had to resort to using their guns to get out. I know I came off a complete anti-guns activist, but I’m not as hardcore as I may have seemed. Guns are only as bad as the people who use them, and I know that I am good! I’ll try not to use my guns, but in a worst case scenario, do not be surprised if I do.”
Fiona took a deep breath and stared at the two unused kodachi shitting in there sheathes on his belt, “Just try and use your swords and shuriken as much as possible, okay?”
He smiled, “I promise.” Fiona was overjoyed with the idea that the two men had compromised themselves for her well-being.
Van and Fiona were traveling through alleys so as to avoid the gunfire. They had little idea where they were going; they just figured the deeper they got into Merr, the easier it would be to find the headquarters.
Every so often they would have to cross through a street because of a dead end in one of their paths. Van would stand facing one way on the street, Fiona watching the other. They checked to see if any battles were taking place. Fiona had spotted one, “There’s a gunfight about 100 yards around the corner; do you see it?”
Van turned his head, “Yeah, it’s pretty big.”
“I think we should be able to pass without them…” with a closer look she saw they were using civilians as shields. One of the men, being so generous as to call them such, led a trail of gunfire into a group of people hoping the guilt, he so stupidly expected the shooter to have, would stop their shooting long enough for him to escape. “Did you see that? It is absolutely disgusting! We have to help them!”
Van wanted to help. An anger crept itself in his eyes; his sword resonated with an equal flame. He knew how horrible what he was seeing was, but also knew, in spite of his anger, that he could do much more good without endangering himself in something so reckless, “We can’t. We have to get the artifact.”
“Then you stay here, I’m not going to watch them die!” He was glad she had ran ahead. Not in the sense that she was putting herself in danger, but that she was doing everything he wanted to. She enveloped the reckless will power he so eagerly desired.
As she ran towards the battle, dodging bullets on the way, she felt disgust. There was no reason to use bystanders in such a useless battle. She noticed that this kind of thought process was making itself a habit; he was defiantly changing her. This concern she had was no longer inspired to impress him; she genuinely wanted to help them.
She stopped and crossed her arms out in front of her. She was ready to fire her projectiles when a man in all black jumped from the rooftops into the middle of the crossfire. She watched him as he quickly noted the 7 men around him, including Fiona.
“This violence must end!” He did a quick spin, and from his body came little knives attached to thread that easily slipped themselves into the barrels of the guns the men held. He quickly crossed his hands pulling the guns out of the grips of the men into the control of the ninja.
He grouped the threads together into one hand and swung them above his head with relative ease, “Go fetch!” With that he let the guns fly into the horizon, and the gangs ran away like little boys whose toys had just been taken away while picking on some little toddlers.
The man set his sights on Fiona. He set his feet and tossed another knife quickly at the knight. She saw it coming and quickly dodged. Her sights were set on the string that attached the knife to the warrior. Fiona grabbed the thread and pulled the man disgracefully towards her.
She pounced, then pinned his arms to the ground. Van ran over to get a closer look at the ninja. He had on a black body suit; his face was wrapped up in black cloth that was tied up in the back. Only his eyes were revealed, but his blond hair peaked through covering his right.
He looked at Fiona, “You’re stronger than the average Testa scum.”
She smacked him, “Do I look like Testa?”
He squinted his eyes, “You have their signature armband.”
She looked at her arm, “Oh…” She took it off.
Van motioned her to get up. He put his hand out to help the man get off the ground; he accepted. Fiona noted the interaction as extremely strange. Even in the miniature battle they just had, it felt as thought there was never any real anger between the two of them. The fact that Van had accepted him as well in such a quick moment made her feel as though the two were on the same plane.
“We have no relation to either of the gangs. The leader of Testa has something we need. In order to get it, we need to raid Merr for something they stole from him.”
“So that’s why so many Testa have been around here; they are trying to get that item,” the ninja seemed distracted by the bodies.
“If you know how to get to the Merr Headquarters, we could really use a guide,” the mans face shot from the bloody corpses to Van at the mention of Merr.
Fiona pulled her companion aside, “How do you know we can trust him? He could be Merr himself!” In spite of her lack of hatred, she was still not so quick to so easily give away her trust.
“He stopped that battle. Chances are he’s involved as much as we are.” He turned to the man, “Can you help us?”
“You guys are serious about going into the heart of Merr?”
“Yeah.”
“And you’ve fought your way to the leader of Testa?”
“Yeah.”
“You seem like a pretty rowdy bunch,” he snickered through his mask, “I’ll take you there.”
Van smiled at Fiona, but the man was not done talking, “But if you ever harm a civilian like those men were just now, don’t count on me to be so loyal…” they were shocked by his sudden change in emotion, but impressed by his assertion, “but let’s cut the seriousness, my name is Chong!”
“Chong?”
“Yeah, Chong, and you guys?”
“I’m Van, and this is my partner Fiona.”
“Nice to meet you Van and Fiona!” The two men shook hands. Van thought back to when he met Stefen. He had a strange feeling in his gut that he could not be trusted. But as he stood there with Chong, hand in hand, he could tell that they would be friends for a very long time.
“So, … Chong, how do we get to their HQ?”
“You see that sewage duct over there?” Fiona took a deep breath, “Merr Industries used to have a monopoly over the sewage game in New Caesar. One of the other reasons for the company’s downfall, other than the gangs, was the fact that they dumped toxic waste into the sewers, mutating the rats and stuff into monsters. They lost control of the sewers, and therefore a lot of money.”
Fiona was disgusted, “We have to go through sewers! Van,” she really wanted another similar response, “Sewers!” Van liked the moments were Fiona was easier to figure out, when she was more like Emma. She had common fears, like ghost and sewage. The fact that she was human along with a hardened warrior peaked his interest, could she be compared to Emma?
Chong broke the grasp intrigue had over Van, and the fear that had wrapped its arms around Fiona, “If you want to be undetected, it is the only way.” They decided it was for the best.
Chong lifted up the manhole to reveal a ladder and the sound of running water, “Ladies first.”
Fiona looked at him, “Ugh, scumbag.”
They all climbed down to find that it was relatively peaceful. There were two sets of sidewalks on the sides of the running sewage. The only thing that seemed relatively out of place was a trail of slime that sat on the pathway.
Van put his hands on Fiona’s shoulders and leaned in towards her ear, “Spooky, eh?”
She hit him away, “Stop it!” Van and Chong started laughing, “Ugh you guys are so gross.”
“You don’t really seem like a woman with too many fears,” Van wished Chong could have seen Fiona’s face infront of the haunted mansion.
“Sewage brings out a side in women you would never understand.”
“Must be.”
Chong liked how he was getting closer to the two, even with something as silly as a fear of sewage. He decided to indulge further into their relationship, “Are you guys a couple?”
They looked at each other due to the seemingly out of place comment. Awkwardly, Van said, “Well, kind of,” while Fiona replied with a, “No, don’t be silly!”
Van, feeling stupid, then said “Oh sorry, no,” and Fiona, feeling bad, said simultaneously, “I mean, some might say…”
“Okay! I touched on a delicate area. We’ll talk about this is somewhere other than a sewer.”
They both breathed with relief, “Sounds good.”
The three of them followed the path of slime for about twenty minutes, a time in which Van quickly dismissed the idea of a love triangle; Emma was dead. Had Chong not held them back with his command of silence due to suspicion, Van’s thoughts would have undoubtedly led him to the Masked Warrior, the woman who had saved him from the wolf-beast.
They all listened intently. Van and Fiona tried to find the sound Chong was hearing, but could not place it in their head. He pushed them back, and flicked two of his knives a head of them. He quickly tugged at the attached strings to reveal two impaled, mutated rats. One of them had two tails, and the other nine arms. They both hissed for a while, but eventually just died.
Fiona was gagging at the sight of them, but managed to spit out some words, “How… did… you….”
“I heard them while we were walking,” he tossed the beasts into the river of slime, “If we were to get bit by one of these suckers, it would have been trouble.”
Van tried to add to the conversation, “It looked like they were spitting out the same stuff that’s in the sewage.”
They all looked into the river of waste that separated the two sidewalks. Chong seemed the most intrigued by it, “Let me try something.” He flicked one of his knives into slime, and gave it a tug. From his eyes, they could tell her was surprised that nothing came out.
“We should be careful not to fall into this stuff. It’s more toxic than I thought.”
“I’ll say.”
They continued to follow the goo, when Van had a question, “What are those knives?”
“They’re my own brand of shuriken. Most ninja’s have them, but being as advanced as I am, I made my own. With mine I can impale my enemy, and then bring them closer with the strings.”
Van looked at Fiona with the expression that this guy is insane. Neither of them thought his name was ‘Chong,’ and neither of them thought he was a great ninja; who could be in a concrete jungle like New Caesar? There was something about him that was suspicious, but neither of them bothered to ask due to all the help he was giving them.
They uneventfully continued down the monotonous path. Fiona would pipe in with something like “This is leading nowhere,” or “I think we’re going in circles,” but no one paid her any mind. She regretted her complaints but felt as though she was growing so close to Van subconsciously, she had no need to hold back any of her conscious thoughts or actions.
Suddenly, the sound of their footsteps hitting the concrete that they had gotten so used to was interrupted by crunching underneath their feet. They ignored it at first, but as they continued the sound became unbearable.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know? Chong can you see what were walking on?”
“No I cant.”
Van unsheathed his sword, “I’ll use my swords light to see what it is.”
Chong was fascinated by it, “Wow! It’s glowing!”
“Yeah, it’s incredible. It let’s me steal the souls of monsters I kill and then summon their abilities.”
“That is so cool!”
Van muttered a “yeah” and lowered his sword to the ground. The closer he got, the more he could hear little feet stomping on the ground. When his sword was close enough to the marching, he saw that the path was covered in a seemingly countless number of spiders. The immense number of the creature is what kept the three of them from noticing what they were walking on; it all seemed like a black, crunchy ground.
He stood up and continued forward.
Fiona and Chong looked at him, “What is it?”
He continued onwards, shocked. They ran up to him, “What were they Van?”
He stopped and took a deep breath, “It was nothing.”
“You call my babies nothing?”
It was a strange, but clear voice from ahead. Chong stepped forward, “Who are you? Show yourself!”
The woman let out an eerie cackle. In the distance they saw the tunnel light up. They ran towards the bright light. As they ran, Fiona noticed the spiders and screamed. She jumped on Van’s back, a spot they were both growing accustomed to, and continued towards the irritating laugh.
The closer they got towards the light, the fewer spiders there were. When there were enough to bare, Fiona jumped off and continued on her own.
They got to the light source and found nothing but a giant headlight lodged in a corner. They looked around the side to see the mother of all the baby spiders. It had the head and body of a woman, two arms, and six spider legs that were clinging to a web she had spun.
Fiona screamed, again. Van put his arm around her, “It’s ok.”
The queen heard his comforting words, “I don’t think so!”
With that she aimed her abdomen at the three of them. Shooting from her body came the tiny spiders they had all grown to hate.
Holding Fiona, Van jumped to the other side of the waterway. He looked over to see Chong strategically ducking underneath the flow of insects.
When the spiders stopped, he threw multiple shuriken at the queen. As he watched them hit all of the monsters legs, he grouped the strands together and attempted to pull the spider off its web into the acid.
Chong was putting in all of his effort to pull the monster, yet she was barely flinching. She moved her two human arms towards her spider legs, and ripped the knives out of her body. She grouped the knives together and started a tug of war with Chong. Her almost infinitely stronger body made it easy for her to pull him into her welcoming arms. He tried to wiggle his way out of the grasp of her 8 limbs, but to no avail.
“We have to help him!”
“But how? “
Fiona had taken the leadership role, “Jump to the other side, and just run strait for her. She’ll let go to stop us, which will hopefully be enough for him to escape. If she doesn’t let go, or he cant get free, aim for her middle leg. If we can cut them off, he will be able to escape.”
“You got it!”
With that, Van jumped to the other side and ran towards the queen’s web. Fiona was closer, seeing as though she had a head start. She quickened her steps and jumped into the air, from what seemed to Van, a little too early to reach the monster.
He saw that she was concentrating hard on something in the air. She let her then tense head back and yelled, “Propeller!” From nowhere, a pocket of wind formed underneath her. She jumped on it, using the wind as a trampoline to push herself faster towards the beast. She wound up for the punch, but was rejected.
As she was being hit, she checked to see if Chong was using the opportunity to escape, but her arm was back around his chest before he could even attempt a break away.
The queen, who, with her defeat over Fiona, was now focused on Chong, began stroking the black cloth that covered his face, “You look so delicious! Let me see your luscious face!” She used one of her arms to pull of his mask and let it melt away in the acid stream.
He tried to hide his face, as though he did not even want to see it himself. His long blond hair, nonetheless, covered his face from his allies.
The monster unhinged her jaw to reveal a mouth filled with large sharp teeth, dripping with acid similar to the waste in toxic stream. She moved her head in to take a bite, when she noticed Van had jump cut through two of her legs. As she turned to him, he finished of her third. They fell into the stream and started to break apart under the destructive power of the acid.
As the queen screamed in pain, Chong reached for his thigh. Van had just assumed he was grabbing more shuriken, but when he saw what had actually been seized, he paused in shock. The so-called ninja had pulled out a pistol. He took the gun to the head of the monster and shot.
Fiona stared in horror at the deception that had just occurred. Normally she would have never associated herself with anyone like Chong; she had set herself up for a let down; Van had made her weak.
The beasts grip loosened on Chong and the web. Before it dropped into the waste, he jumped onto the side of the walkway Fiona was on.
She got off the ground and stamped up to him. She put her hand on his shoulder and turned him around, “You’re nothing but a hypocrite!”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“You preach about how guns ruin lives, and you use one yourself! You’re nothing but a fraud. How dare you call yourself a ninja, you’re nothing but a joke!”
Chong looked down at his gun; it was stained with the blood of the spider queen, “You’re right…”
Fiona was shocked by his answer; she expected him to yell, “I… I’m not really a ninja.” Even though he hadn’t, it was clear that the man was hiding something.
Van jumped across the river, “Who are you?”
“My name is Kurt Calloway. I used to be one of the best sharpshooters in all of Merr, no, New Caesar. One night, me and my group were outnumbered by some Testa. They had killed my friends, and were about to kill me when a ninja came and saved me. Don’t ask me what he was doing in a place like this, but the fact of the matter is that he saved my life, all without the guns I had relied on for so long. Without even receiving my thanks, he jumped off. His power was immeasurable. As I watched him fight off the power of ten guns, I saw that there was a way to be strong without the destructive power of ammunition. Anyway, I vowed to live a life like that. I trained with a kodachi, my small sword, and my shuriken. I tried to raid the Testa labs to try out my new abilities, but I was completely overwhelmed. I had taken out a few Testa, and had to resort to using their guns to get out. I know I came off a complete anti-guns activist, but I’m not as hardcore as I may have seemed. Guns are only as bad as the people who use them, and I know that I am good! I’ll try not to use my guns, but in a worst case scenario, do not be surprised if I do.”
Fiona took a deep breath and stared at the two unused kodachi shitting in there sheathes on his belt, “Just try and use your swords and shuriken as much as possible, okay?”
He smiled, “I promise.” Fiona was overjoyed with the idea that the two men had compromised themselves for her well-being.