End Game (1)

["Thrush"]

The White Haired Boy? CONFUSION!

"Break his legs..."

"Goody."

The wily smile was back on his face again, seeming to take little to no note of the unusual quietness. Pathetic or no, he still had to maintain composure. What he really felt? Well.. what he really felt was of no consequence. All that mattered was that he acted how he always acted, how he was expected to act. ..Though, the fact that he'd been thinking a lot more then he usually did disturbed him slightly.

"Thank you, Thrush.."

---"..Um."

Nearly fell over, at the sudden 'thanks'. What the hell was that for!? Eye looked up weirdly. Really, he had done nothing. Nothing, except damage his own arm further, by flailing it about. The burns singed again. But why had she thanked him? ..Eh?

...

..Jonathan was right. Something was irking him about how quickly he had developed. Looked away. Was he really getting soft?

Only one way to find out. He bent over Hades figures, closing his mouth, but still grinning, as he looked onward, his left hand going over the back of his left shin, his right knee underneath Hades's knee...

*CRACK*

"..No more running for ya, for a few weeks.. kekekekekekekeke..."

*CRACK*

Cracking it once inwardly, and then back out again, he shifted over to the other knee. Felt tired, really---Shaking his head fiercely, he took the knee.. and..

*CRACK-CRACK*

This time, towards his other leg, and then back out again. So, until your bloody knee caps have healed up.. I don't think you'll be wanting to stand for a bit. After that, checked for the knife he had put down, and re-pocketed it, same place.

"..We'll have to pick him up later, if he's going to get out of here.. unless he crawls down the stairs." Eye roll. "..Like that's gonna happen, in his condition."

Anyways, hopefully he'd prove to be of more use in the next confrontation. Whoever it was. Yeah, body was still injured, yeah, he wasn't working his body at full potential, but, you know what? That doesn't matter. Could he move? Yes. Could he obey orders and think coherently? ..Yes, in the loosest sense of the term. But he was a servent, and in this case, a soldier. What he felt, what he was was of no concern. What mattered was if he was ABLE to do it. Otherwise, he might as well be back at the bloody school. Hades had thrown him against the wall, tired him out a bit, but, he was still in good working condition.. sort of. Right? Catching up to the two, as they all quickly traveled up the stairs, he gave a quick look towards Master and John Ong, who was speeding off.

..Cast another glance at Master, with a slight look down...

"..His robes look very.. uh.. vhat's ze word.."

Shrug.

"..Nice." on you.

Insert cackle here.

Okay.

GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Much better on a woman, then a man, at any rate. The effeminate Hades may have been 'sexy' and 'honorable', but the robes added a 'gay' touch to it, that sort of put Thrush off. The clothing underneath had been no better. As did ze necklace.. far too grandioze for a guy, ja? Smiling from underneath his hat, it dropped, the instant they were up the next floor. Another God. Or was it 'Goddess'? Dammit, knew my grammar was lacking.. Will have to consult HIM later. Anyways, John Ong was already making his way towards the She-God... fiery, fiery.. oooh.. An actor. Similar to ze shit he pulled on Jonathan, in THEIR confrontation.. HAHAHAHAHAHA.. he nailed zat stuttering fuck pretty damn good, zat time.

"Shes mine, you two rest."

"..Yaaaarrrr... You sure?" Staring at Mizter Ong, here.

She-God laughed. So Thrush returned the laugh.. not really getting it.

"Attack at will, boys~ The white haired boy. Attack at will."

"VHAT!? VITCH VONE!?" came his wily response, not really knowing, not really caring. Y'see, if he couldn't defeat the Gods themselves, proving to be at least a LITTLE useful would displace some worries, at least. Looking over at John Ong, he shrugged.

"..I'm sorta beat up, but, zat Hades guy only got one shot off me.. I can pull ze trash off ye' back, while ye deal vith ze prize, if you vant, but, no guarantee if I can shtop them.. kekekekeke." He grinned, amused. If that were the case, he might accidentally pull Master into the fight, so, he'd have to keep a close eye on her. She was gonna be their main weapon against ze big-boss-man-sir.

Although, he wondered slightly. Wasn't there supposedly another group attacking the other side of the building? And surely it wasn't just Master and Mizter Ong attacking this side.. that would've been suicidal.. keh. Too much thinking. He stood back, leaning against one of the walls, slowly bending over his head, as his right hand took off the hat, to reveal.. red eyes. Hopefully confuse the enemy. Both him and Ong had red eyes, and white hair. Something he never quite understood.. why DID he have red eyes, in comparison to Jonathan, eh? What made HIM so priveleged?

..GAH! Too much thinking, fool. Tilting his head to the side, as he smiled wildly, with a completely cocky look on his face, as he looked around for nearby weapons. Trashcan. Plank of wood. Eh.. wall. Floor. Oh, and gravity.

PERFECT.

Shrugging, slightly he---

[John]

"No I said you two rest. They're all mine."

With that he shut off the hot air trick, he would need all the stamina he had to even try to compete in this battle. so there where four dudes in all. Well this may proove troublesome, considering Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, and these punks though alittle. . . Flashy didn't look like push overs.

He waited for them to come in to him, he didn;t make the first move, not in a seriouse fight, esspecially not here. A mistake would mean defeat, so he had to play to his strengths. And he deffinitly had to attack these guys strengths. Why their strengths? Because they would be protecting their own weaknesses, so their strengths will be wide open. Figuring them out is the hard part.

One guy came in close enough and lunged forward with an attempt to try and grab him and hold him for the other three to beat on, which meant he was all about strength. The others where probably about sneak and destroy or destractions either way it was happening now.

He attempted to grab him, so that right leg of his form his Muay Thai stance slammed outward into the guys thigh, but john made a miscalculation, he was the destraction incase they went against a good fighter, the other three where the real attack. He saw it just in time, because of th epositioning of his arms for Muay Thai he was able to take the attack and go backwards, all three of the other bastards had attacked at the exact time he had attacked the destraction, so this was not gonna be as easy as he thought before.

He had to isolate one of them for even a second or two, so that meant he needed his own back to something. slowly takign position he ducked a few blows, and was slammed by two kicks in the chest and into a wall. A smile creeping onto his face, these guys where strong, but probably just as cocky as the gods. So he made it appear as though he was really hurting. so they stalked him, like vultures circuling a dieing meal. One of them attacked just to do their usual destract then overwhelm tactic, but John's possum technique had worked.

He lunged both arms out and wrapped them around the back of the guys neck, swumg hima round into the over-wehlm part of the attack and then against the wall, he sent a devistatingly harsh pointed knee into the solar plexus , cracking his lower ribs and dropping him, the other three, tried the over-whelming attack again to catch John with his back turned, but he jumped upward and onto the wall. Appearing to be spiderman for a few moments as gravity tried to grab him, he launched off the wall and slammed his elbows down on two of the guys heads, the htird guy had enough time to back off and throw a front push kick into John's chest. He went back against the wall, but he had done seriouse damage already. One of them was down, two of them had taken a move called "A knight throws the axe" in Muay Thai fighting.

So it was getting harder, yet easier at the same time. . . Make sense? Anyways, John moved closer, they moved away. So they wheren't going to get within' John's kill zone for the Raging Flame special. One of those Flashy Moves that Jyo's Journal said to not do. Maybe Muay Thai wasn;t the best choice for this fight. But he had enough to go on to do a single attack type from another style because it was used against him a few times.

He ran forward and flipped onto his hands spinning and letting his feet go out to slam his heels into their heads. they all had lined up so nicely, but onyl one was nailed, and hard, broken jaw probably, one of those Glass Jaw guys, but one had managed to stop his rotation, so he bent his knees to slam the heels into the top of their heads multiple times in quick succession. Still on his hands. One of them dropped, but the other was alittle dizzy. so John flipped up to his feet and shot a hard punch using the forward momentum into the guys face. And down he went.

"Geeze, took long enough."

He turned to face the Goddess, not really expecting her still to be where he left her, but this would eb the signal that he was ready to fight her.

[Milova]

The silence of the night was broken as the sound of steadily chopping blades filled the sky. Four dark shapes zipped past the expanse of the moon, too quick for anyone to make out. Rolling clouds coming in from the north provided additional cover for the jet black helicopters as they flew towards their target. Inside the lead, a single figure sat waiting. His face was expressionless, his muscles tight. He did not glance out the window as the city appeared sporadically beneath the clouds outside.

***

Not too far off an abandoned sky scraper once occupied by a variety of businesses was now filled with blood and unconscious victims. Several delusional gang members proclaimed themselves the Olympian Gods, and were waging war with invading fighters from Public School #259. Interestingly enough the students were grinding their way through the opposition. Slowly but surely they made their ways towards the top floor eliminating any lackeys or ‘gods’ that stood against them. It was an ample place for things to change.

4

As students and gang members battled it out in vicious confrontation none of them noticed the four black aircraft circling the building. The only ones who did were the pair of rulers on the top floor. Zeus looked out his bay windows that surrounded his throne room with a quizzical expression. Who were these new infidels that trespassed on his hollow ground? Hera simply smiled from his side. More insects for the crushing.

The choppers dipped lower and doors opened on their sides. Three lowered themselves to ground level so that groups of flak armored men could pour out. Armed with taser rifles and strange insignia on their shoulders, the men charged into the building as the fouth chopper pulled up even with the third floor window. The lone figure stood in the harsh wind gusting against him thanks to the chopper’s twirling blades. A pair of long white ribbon tails whipped about behind his head. His eyes were hardest, protected from the wind by a pair of sunglasses. The figure leapt out of the vehicle, crossing the long distance with ease. Crashing through the window he did not flinch as glass shards placed wounds along his arms and face. He landed on the floor of a hallway. Two bodies lay off to his left; one a thug, the other a student. Ignoring them and the chopper he heard a crash from off to his right. He bolted in the direction in a blur. The building was dark around him. No electricity lighting any rooms. None of it mattered.

A door busted into the training center crashing heavily to the floor, forcing the goddess Artemis and John Ong to hop away from each other. “What the hell?” John exclaimed as he caught sight of a new attacker. “Who are-” the goddess began before a fist collided with her jaw with the force cannon shell. He body tumbled away, bouncing off of a weight bench and finally smashing against a wall. John’s eyes were as wide as the moon outside. How the hell did that guy move that fast? He was already picking Artemis off the floor. The brimstone addict could see her screwing up her face to spit blood at her enemy, but was stopped short as her head smashed back into the wall from a head butt. An eye-blink later a second head butt, then a third. The wall was crumbling away from the force of the impact. Still the woman seemed to be alive. She attempted to grab the assailant’s wrist. Twisting his around the man reversed the grip and brought his open palm up. Her forearm bent at a 90 degree angle. She screamed out in agony falling to the floor. So much for a god. One final kick to the stomach sent her crashing against the wall and into unconsciousness. Off in the distance, the student heard some crashing and the shouting of voices he did not recognize.

The man turned from the fallen goddess, and faced the #259 fighter. John clenched his fists but could not help from trembling. This guy was no brimstone user. He was unsure if the stranger was a friend. Artemis was down but- John Ong felt a hard thud to the side of his neck before a couple thousand volts of electricity were pumped into his body. Falling to the ground, a pair of armored men came into the room. The boy lay twitching on the ground. His vision shook, but he did see the ungodly stranger leave at a quick pace. A pair of hands grasped his shoulders. Glancing up all he saw was an insignia that read ‘RSF’ then he felt another thud to his chest, and the world went black.

3

Athena waited patiently at the receptionist’s desk on the fourth floor. More of her pupils would be arriving soon. One already lay unconscious from their lesson on the floor behind her. Glancing back, the goddess smiled. She hoped there would be more in the next batch. Wisdom was always better learned in groups. The others could watch as the chosen pupil was humbled into the ground. She heard footsteps, and turned to look down the corridor in front of her. A new boy stood impassively at its center. His body was covered in minor cuts, though he looked to be for the most part uninjured. She hopped off of the desktop to her feet. She could guess this one’s strategy. Stay on the outskirts of all the fights. Only get involved when absolutely necessary. That way he could save himself for commander. A good stratagem, one used by many a military special forces throughout the wars of history. A smart one, this pupil. He made one vital mistake however, he encountered an unavoidable enemy. He probably had already spent up his allies on hers. She was no Ares, but even the wise knew the ways of war. This pupil had just lost his.

Her beautiful lips parted to speak but no voice left her. The boy was gone, and a fist was lodged in her stomach. No, not in…Athena glanced back over her shoulder. A bloodied fist protruded from her body. She trembled as she turned to look at the demon of a boy. His eyes were as cold as the four winds. Grasping her shoulder the boy slowly removed his hand. Athena’s lips parted as she slowly sagged to the floor. Moving wordlessly, she asked the only question on her mind. W-who? He simply stared down at her, as life left her forever.

2

The fifth floor consisted of but a single large room. Originally the office of a Fortune 500 CEO, it was now throne room to the king and queen of the Greek Pantheon. Zeus sat immobile in shi throne, staring across a long red carpet at the room’s only access, a single elevator. At his side, the regal Hera stood, waiting. Even they could hear the commotion two floors below. The blasphemers would soon arrive. Of course, it would be interesting to see which of the #259 rats actually made it this far. Surely it would be many. Probably female. It could only have taken the truly strong of the humans to group against the gods and make it all the way to the Zeus’s throne room. She could think of no other better candidates than a group of modern amazons.

When the light above the elevator finally reached the number five the Queen of the Gods drew her shoulders back and her chin high. The doors parted, and a single boy strolled into the chamber. Hera’s eyes narrowed. “What is this!?” she screamed striding in front of her husband. “A single student. A mere boy comes before my husband with such insolent eyes!” the goddess strode forward with every intention to kill this pup. She had been so prepared to face a young amazon in front of her husband. She had hoped to wrestle the girl to the floor and toy with her a little. Something to entertain her king, lift his spirits on this night of failures. Perhaps the tumbling of female bodies and tearing of clothing would have brought a smile to his lips, making him forget about all the others who had failed in his name. But this, this, this, insolent BOY!

Quickening her pace the woman clenched her fist. Coming within a few feet she drew her fist back in a blur.

1

A loud clang reverberated through the elevator shaft as something smashed into the doors up on the fifth floor. The elevator having returned to the first floor suddenly had a splash of red stain its roof, then another, and another. Far above the doors to Zeus’s throne room were bent backward into the shaft, an opening large enough in the middle to display the sprawled corpse of Hera, hanging half out in open air. Blood trickled freely from the corner of her lips as the pool in her mouth grew too large to be held any longer.

Back in the chamber beyond her Zeus stood shaking before his throne, but not in fear, in sheer, unrivaled fury. His fists clenched so tightly that small arcs of electricity arced across his knuckles as he flexed his qi. One hit. ONE HIT! This boy, this DEMON had disposed of his wife with a single hit! “What did you do!?” the king of the gods bellowed at the slowly advancing boy, “What in all of my kingdom did you do!?” Zeus could no longer contain himself. Just as his wife had done before him, he charged forward, only he was not underestimating this demon-boy. The air crackled heavily as he pumped every last ounce of qi he had into his gloves.

He saw the demon halt and spread its legs, bracing for impact. Zeus was smart, he could not be thwarted like all before him. His left fist shot out aiming for the man-things gut. Yet as his opponent moved to block the god juked, bringing his divine right fist in faster than any human could hope to match. Even if the demon managed to survive the initial blow from his punch, all the electricity coursing through his hand would wrack his body in unbearable pain.

Thud. Crack. Fizzle.

Zeus’s eyes spread in shock. His fist was clutched in the vice-like grip of an unmoving hand. The demon’s own fingerless gloves smoldered under the energy flowing through it, but the thing did not flinch. It was not even looking at him as it held his fist within its off hand. Zeus’s eye twitched. His left hand came back round in an attempt to break free. The demon swatted it away and twisted the captured arm behind the gods back. Now wide open, Zeus took the force of a train wreck to the face. The first blow broke his nose. The second sent teeth flying to the back of his throat.

The king of the gods spit blood and bone from his mouth as his head hung forward. Groaning, he looked up into the demon’s face. “This is not possible. You are a mortal. I am Zeus! I am the god of gods—ruler of all the world! I AM THE KING OF THE GODS!” he roared into the demons face, exerting qi through his body from some unknown source within.

The beast looked back without emotion. “Then I am sorry,” it replied finally, “That you have no one left to pray to for mercy.”

Their bodies twisted and before Zeus recognized it, he’d been thrown in the air. Time slowed as he peered down at his attacker. “I am Ichiro Kazahana.” the deomon continued—two kicks faster than the he could see, slammed into his stomach, sending him higher, “I am the son of Kazuma Kazahana.” the titan fell back onto its hand four boots slammed into Zeus’s stomach—his back hit the ceiling of his throne room, “And you are interfering in his work.” the ungod curled its legs as it still spun on its single hand touching the ground—it hurled itself upward. Zeus could no longer feel anything. Kicks slammed into him so hard that he could feel himself being embedded into the ceiling. Cracks spread all around him. Blood spewed from his lips. Bones shattered from hundreds of impacts. Then it stopped.

Ichiro fell away from him. Landing in a crouch on the red carpet, his attacker looked at the ground. Though his every nerve was on fire, Zeus felt some modicum of relief as he began to fall away from the ceiling as well. Falling in slow motion, the king of gods saw Ichiro raise his head up, revealing a fist encircled in arcing electricity. The last thing the man who proclaimed himself a god ever felt was the feeling of his own qi move smashing into his face and sending him up through ceiling up onto the building’s roof. His body was limp and without life long before it crashed back against the stone of the rooftop.

***

Each of the ten students of Public Highschool #259 would be found unconscious the next day in the nurse’s office. As she came in with her cup of coffee, teacher Oki Nanda paused as she saw them all laying or sitting, strewn about. “How the hell did all of them get in Oki’s office?” she asked with a sigh. Setting her coffee aside she closed the door and went to work. No reason to wonder now. She could ask questions later, with paddle in hand.