Bloodline Rebellion ((Shugo//Invites))

[Valo Morei]

"And you're sure that they're in the area?[/i]"

I asked as I was putting my gloves on, my back turned to Katarina. She was just sitting down at her desk, looking over the intel she had gathered for me. Some remnants of Haru's group were sighted, the last vestiges of the terrible work that my father Hohenheim had performed. Hopefully it was nothing more than a small group trying to wreak havoc with the power they had gained, I was fearful that it went much deeper than that... but I would find out.

"Yes, men who had the insignia of the God Hand on their sleeves had been seen in the area. There's no mistake."

I turned to face her as she spoke. There was a tone of worry in her voice, and I could see it in her face now. There was no one else fighting this battle but us. I couldn't even tell Shugo to come help me out because I didn't want him involved. But Katarina had come of her own volition, she wouldn't let me do this on my own. Pulling some strings within the government, she managed to get a safehouse set up in this area. She was safe here, but she knew I wasn't safe out there.

"Valo, you don't have to do this."

I gave her a smile. "Don't worry. I'm going to be fine.[/i]" I walked over to her and put my hands on her shoulders. She was the one who pulled me from my near-death condition when I had come face to face with Haru. She saved my life. And I knew, more than anything, that she didn't want to see me that way again. "You know what would happen if we let them win... We can't have anyone else like me.[/i]"

And by that, I meant another Project. I was a kid who wasn't meant to survive for very long due to my frail condition, but thanks to science and my father meddling in affairs that he shouldn't have, I became something much more. I was able to survive, but its effects on my body made me anything but a simple human being. Yet, she didn't look at me like I was some kind of freak. She saw me as me, and I was grateful for that. But she fell silent anyway, knowing that she couldn't convince me to stay right now.

I started to walk towards the door. "I'll be back by nightfall. Those guys won't be able to take me.[/i]" I waved as I left without another word. I felt bad just leaving her there on her own like that all the time, but we both had our jobs to do.

I went outside and climbed onto my motorcycle, sitting there for a moment and contemplating my situation. It would be wise to secure some kind of backup, I didn't know how many I was up against exactly. But I figured if I got the jump on them, I could take them no problem. I was one of the Dragons, and that had to count for something.

I took one last look at the safehouse before riding off down the road. My destination was just a couple of miles away, but I needed to get there as quickly as possible. I looked at my satellite phone at the information she gave me, and noticed something seemed kind of odd.

There's been a lot of sightings of them recently... you think they'd want to be more secretive about whatever it is that they're doing. It's almost like they want to be found...

No, I couldn't think that they were luring me out or anything. There's no way they could've known that they were being watched by us. Katarina's a lot more careful than that. But they certainly knew we were in the area too...

I turned my attention back to the road, slipping my phone back into my jacket's inner pocket. Whatever the case, I couldn't turn back now. I couldn't get their insignia out of my head. The God Hand was my older brother Zetsumei's old organization. I had to kill him before... but it seems the fight was far from over.

All of a sudden, I felt everything jerk to a stop. Well, my bike anyway. I was sent flying forward from it, letting out a scream out of reflex as I flipped through the air and landed on my back, the landing really hurt like a bitch and everything seemed like it was spinning. It took me a moment to compose myself, and I grabbed my head in pain as I got up and looked around. My bike was quite a ways away from me, I slid pretty far.. there was a huge block of stone in front of it, something that wasn't there before when I was driving.

"... I know you're there. Come out.[/i]" I said aloud, putting my guard up. I heard laughing in front of me as a rather large guy walked up from behind a building in front of me. The God Hand insignia tattooed onto his arm on the shoulder, the same place mine was. I heard movement behind me, turning around to see four others.

This strange feeling they're giving off... They're all Projects.

"We've got you right where we want you, Sky Dragon." The large one spoke to me, grinning darkly. If I had to guess, he had really enhanced strength. Hopefully no other power besides that. Which I was truly worried about was the four behind me, or even if there were more in waiting. This can't have been all of them based on the intel... Either way, I wasn't planning on waiting around to find out.

I charged towards the bigger guy, fists clenched. Suddenly, one of the others appeared in front of me. He moved extremely fast, and I barely ducked under his strike. I attempted to elbow him, but he managed to dodge it just in time. Where he was before, I now saw that large piece of stone from before, flying right at me. From my crouched position, I quickly jumped up, narrowing dodging the stone piece, my feet landing on the top of it and jumping again to the ground.

"Heh. I'm glad you're putting up a fight, kid. Going to enjoy this." The large one said again, cracking his knuckles audibly. I already knew two of them would be a handful, but what about the other three? Things definitely weren't in my favor right now.

[Date Masamune™]

The beating of wings with the muffled sound of feathers ruffling would be heard.

“I think you dropped this.”

Krshhhh.

“Oops. I broke out.”

I retracted my leg from the cloud of debris that was once the stone that my brother had just dodged. I had destroyed it with one blow. Closing my eyes, I walked slowly past the Projects that had surrounded Valo. The Feather Cloak was drawn over my body as I walked, keeping my arms slightly covered. I would stop once I was standing next to my brother, facing the opposite direction. Cracking my neck, I would do a small shoulder roll. As I smirked, I threw back the Feather Cloak so that it flowed behind me. Once again the sound of wing beats could be heard as it flowed. Pulling my fists up, I would give a quick show of my electrical powers.

“Katarina told me that you might need some help. She called me as soon as you left.”

My eyes scanned the enemies. Now some people can read Ki. These gifted individuals have trained themselves to be able to check how strong someone is. It’s a very useful ability if you can use it. Now as we all know I am shit with sensing Ki. I had no idea how strong these guys were at all. I could feel the faint similarity to the Ki that Valo and I give off, so I knew they were Projects. Alright so, I thought for a second; that means that they were all physically augmented, probably. They also probably have an element. One of them had stone for sure. I wanted to know what the others had.

“So how do you want to split this up. Should I fight them first and then you can take them when I get bored? Split it up 2 and 3? I mean it looks like Fatty over here took a liking to you so I guess you can go play with him. I’m pretty sure blondie’s been checking out my package since I got here.”

I smirked. Some people didn’t like my witty banter. I did it for two reasons. It was fun first and foremost. Second, it threw my opponent off. It pissed them off easily. Apparently, the sound of my voice was irritating or something. I dunno. I don’t get it. What I did get was that, once my voice was in my opponent’s head, it was a bitch to get out. And I was going to use that to my advantage.

I guess it worked because one of them got pissed off enough to attack me. Pulling his hand back to his ear, one of the Projects would materialize a spear of ice and launch it at me. Throwing my right hand out, I would grasp the spear and throw it into the ground, allowing it to shatter. We’ll call him Project Iceman. Project Stoneman from earlier decided to get into the fray as well, he slammed his foot onto the ground, using his power to send a pillar up right underneath me and Valo throwing us into the air, a big mistake for them. Project Iceman and Project Fireman would decide to throw some projectiles at us in mid-air, thinking we wouldn’t be able to dodge. I smirked again and let Valo handle this one.

[Valo Morei]

"Shugo?![/i]"

I looked up at him, surprised. I wasn't expecting any back up at all, let alone my brother. But once he mentioned Katarina's name, it all made sense. "Hah.. she really doesn't like me going off on my own.[/i]" I would have to thank her later. "Don't get the wrong idea, though. I could've taken all these guys on my own.[/i]" Maybe I couldn't, but it was always fun to turn things into a competition with Shugo.

Glancing behind me, I witnessed as one of the Projects threw a spear of ice at Shugo. "Well, that's new.[/i]" I remarked as he caught it and dropped it on the ground. It suddenly felt like we were fighting some guys from a comic. I didn't have much time to come up with a witty remark, as the ground below me and Shugo suddenly shot up and we were launched upwards. I saw ice and flames coming at us from either side, and decided it was my turn to bail Shugo out. I would grab Shugo and activate my Qi, turning my body and jumping to the side as if I had jumped off of a wall. The fire and ice would collide in the sky where we were just moments before.

Shugo and I would land safely on the ground, but not for long. A wall of stone would shoot up between us to separate us, and I saw Stoneman rushing towards me, with no idea what was going on with Shugo right now.

"You trashed my bike, you son of a bitch.[/i]" I would say angrily, charging back at the guy. I would duck under his fist and punch him in the gut, but he hardly budged, and it felt like I had just punched rock. Suddenly, I was lifted off of my feet, and the guy would be laughing like a maniac as he lifted me above his head. Suddenly, the wall would be zooming at me fast as he sent me crashing through it onto Shugo's side.

[Date Masamune™]

“Katarina worries about you Bro.”

I folded my arms across my chest in mid air as I waited for Valo to make his move. Without disappointing, my brother grabbed me and performed a couple air jumps. I smirked. Our profiles in the Project Database stated that we had augmented physical capabilities, accelerated healing, and a lightning factor. What they didn’t know was since our last battle against the Projects, both Valo and I had a few new abilities. Valo had the ability to manipulate wind, and I had the Steam Golem on my side, allowing me to burn people on contact. Both of us had the ability to enter a berserk frenzy called SEED Mode. SEED Mode allowed us to remove the limits on our bodies and fight at our maximum physical and mental potential.

Valo put us down and we were back to back again for a few moments, until Stoneman put up a barrier between us. This was smart on their behalf. If they kept on letting us fight together, they wouldn’t stand a ghost of a chance. Valo had Stoneman and Fatman on his side which left me with Iceman, Fireman, and the other guy who hadn’t- OW! So remember the fifth guy who hadn’t done anything until now? Well he just appeared in front of me in a puff of smoke, punched me in the gut and then disappeared only to appear above me. I grabbed him and slammed him down onto the ground. Jumping backwards I would get ready to attack.

Unfortunately for me, my brother would come flying at me. Sidestepping to dodge him I came up with a perfect plan. Valo had more projectile powers and was faster than I was. He should fight the fast guys. It also looked like he was having trouble with Fatman and Stoneman. Luckily, my gauntlets would protect me from Stoneman’s hard exterior. I grabbed him as he was flying past me, spun him around, and then launched him with great force at the enemy. I took a moment to stand and watch my handiwork as I smirked.

“LET’S GIVE THEM THE OLD SWITCH-A-ROO!”

I would jump backwards again, onto what was once Valo’s side. Giving myself a great lift off, I would back flip behind Stoneman. From there I sent a punch into his back. My metallic gauntlets kept me from being too injured and also left a nice crack in his side. I pulled my fist back to send another punch, but Fatman came to the rescue of his partner. He came charging at me like a blubbering mass of meat. Lifting me up in his smelly arms, he would give a roar as he kept on running. Poor guy, I think he had too much momentum to stop. Since he was holding me, I did the smart thing. I started to discharge electricity from my gauntlets, electrocuting him as he charged. Fatman lifted me up and slammed me down into the ground out of surprise. It hurt, but at least I was free?

[Valo Morei]

Just as soon as I had flown through the wall, Shugo had grabbed me and thrown me towards Fireman and Iceman. A head's up would've been nice, but things would going in our favor like this. I smirked as I flew towards the two of them, charging electricity into my right fist, and preparing to manipulate the air with my left. Fireman sent a fireball at me, to which I used my wind Qi to narrowly push it to the side, I would land in front of him, slamming his face in with my fist as I did so, and spin around on my heel and throw lightning at Iceman, sending him flying back. I wasn't used to using my Qi all at once like this, but it certainly made me feel badass.

Suddenly, Smokeman warped in front of me and kicked me in the jaw, sending me into the air. He warped above me and attempted to slam his fists down on me, and I narrowly dodged it, grabbing his arms and frontflipping in midair to throw him into Fireman waiting below me, slamming both of them into the ground hard.

I landed on the ground in the middle of the three of them, dusting my clothes off. "You know, for a group fight, you guys sure suck at working together.[/i]"

[Date Masamune™]

“I agree!”

Curling my knees up, I pushed off of the ground with a spring and sent my feet flying toward’s Fatman’s face. After the initial impact, I bent my knees to go with the momentum, before using his face as a surface to shoot off of. I did a back flip in mid air, punching a boulder that Stoneman had tossed at me in mid-air. Landing on both feet the Feather Cloak would fall comfortably around my shoulders.

“Valo and I aren’t even on the same side of the field and we’ve got better teamwork than you guys.”

Apparently my they didn’t appreciate my witty banter too much. The next thing I knew, There was a stone pillar being thrown at me. Evidently they did know how to use team work because Stoneman erected… hehe… erection. Stoneman created a pillar of stone that Fatman proceeded to pick up and hurl at me. I did the only sane thing I could think of. I ran at it. Gaining momentum, I launched myself into the air and ran along the pillar for a length before jumping down into the circle that Valo had gotten himself into.

“Tag out!”

I grabbed Valo and hurled him over the three guys he was fighting and over onto the side that Fatman and Stoneman were at. Probably not very courteous, but I didn’t feel like fighting against Stone Pillars being hurled at me. Fireman tried taking advantage of the confusion, he created a giant, and I mean huge, fireball. He easily hurled it at me with one hand while shouting profanities at me. Kind of hurtful. The fact that he thought that would be enough, not the profanities. I threw up my hands. Luckily for me my gauntlets blocked off some of the heat so I was able to catch the fireball. Unluckily for me, Iceman decided to throw some spears of ice at me.

“GRRAHHHH!”

With a loud grunt, I forced my knees to move and pushed the fireball into the way of the ice spears, melting and evaporating them in mere moments. With the fireball being weakened by the ice spears, I was able to move it with even more ease. I grabbed it with both hands and gripped tightly as I smashed the fireball into the ground. I kept pushing down until I smothered it completely. The trio I was fighting just watched on with a little bit of shock. I guess no one told them how strong Project Guardian was.

“Is that… Is that all you bi-bitches got? Haha.”

I put on a tough face, but that took a lot out of me. Contrary to popular belief, moving something that’s pure energy takes a lot of effort.

[Valo Morei]

"HEY SHUGO WA--[/i]"

I hated when I was unexpected thrown into a different group of opponents like that. Luckily, I was able to adapt to the situation quickly, and being the Sky Dragon, I wasn't an easy target even already being in the air.

A stone pillar had been sent flying my way, and I mustered up just enough Qi in time to slightly change my trajectory, causing the pillar to end up flying right by me. Stoneman seemed shocked, and I smirked. You'd have an easier time hitting me on the ground.

Flying right towards Stoneman's face, I would sent my fist down, hitting him in the top of the head with enough force to send him to the ground. The impact caused a small crater, but I wouldn't have enough time to ensure he was down for the count as Fatman would come at me from the side.

"Hey, let go, Fatty![/i]" I struggled to get out, but he had wrapped his arms around me and grinned at me creepily. He jumped up and slammed me into the ground, all of his weight on top of me. Pain surged throughout my body, and I grunted. But it was nothing compared to what I was used to.

Fatman had gotten off of me, and no sooner had I been free had I been shot up from a pillar underneath me, sending me into the air. Taking a moment to compose myself, I got my bearings soon enough to see another pillar flying my way.

"When are you going to learn...[/i]"

It was starting to wear on my body, but I used my Qi once more to jump a little bit higher, enough to land on it and begin running along it towards Stoneman's direction. Reaching the end of the pillar, I jumped from it, fist raised, and I flew towards him again. Channeling my Qi into my fist, I would release a fist powered up by my wind straight towards his face.

"...not to fuck with me![/i]"

He quickly erected a stone wall between us, but my increased power had smashed right through it, shards of the wall and my fist both hitting him and sending him flying backwards through the wall behind him. The wall had taken most of my impact, but it was still enough to do decent damage. My fist ached, but I hid it for now.

Hearing footsteps from behind me, I quickly jumped up to avoid another grab from Fatman, backflipping over him and landing behind him. He'd quickly turn around and try to punch at me, but I barely avoided his arm in time, grabbing it and lifting him over me (it was a struggle) and throwing him into the ground.

...what's that?

Something had slid out of his hand as I tossed him over me. I walked over to it, noticing it was a syringe with a glass casing with a strange red liquid inside. The letter "V" was carved onto it.

"What? No!" Fatman screamed, reaching for the syringe. I quickly kicked it away from him, I planned on bringing it back to Katarina to get a read on it. He looked horrified as he failed to reach it, and I looked at him and smirked.

"And just what's that supposed to be?[/i]"

He got up and swung at me again, and I ducked under it, bringing my fist to hit him in the gut three times rapidly. The first was ineffective, but the two after made a noticeable reaction as he reeled back, stepping back in pain.

I felt movement behind me, and I turned around in time to see a pillar flying at me again. I quickly brought my fist around to slam into the side of it, destroying it and sending it flying to my left. Unexpectedly, Stoneman came through the debris and caught me off guard, uppercutting me in the jaw and sending me flying backwards. I ended up flying right back into Fatman, and suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my neck.

"Hehe, why don't you find out yourself?"

He tossed me aside, and as I hit the ground, everything just felt kind of.. funny. I reached up to my neck where I felt the pain, grabbing the object I had felt there suddenly. It was a syringe, but... it wasn't the same one. This one had a "G" carved onto it.

"What the.. hell...[/i]" I dropped it to the ground, starting to clutch my chest in pain. I began to cough, blood leaving my mouth and hitting the ground in front of me. Everything became dizzy all of a sudden, what the hell was in that thing...?

"Heh, one down. One to go." I heard them say, and I just grunted. I wasn't done yet... "You bastards...[/i]" I said as I struggled to get to my feet, succeeding finally. My red eyes stared them down. I was panting heavily, but I wasn't out for the count yet.

"I thought this was supposed to kill him instantly... Did you inject him with the right one?"
"No.. he knocked it out of my hand, but I thought they did the same thing.."

Stoneman cursed at Fatman and reached to pick up the other syringe, starting to advance on me. "I guess we'll just finish him off with this and take care of the other one the good old fashioned way."

He raised the needle, sending it straight down towards my neck. But my hand shot up and caught him by the wrist. Lightning shot out instantly and hit him the moment I grabbed him, causing him to drop the syringe in surprise. My Qi was growing exponentially, or rather, I just couldn't control it anymore. I looked up at him, and my hand shot up, sending a powerful blast of lightning forward, striking him in the stomach and sending him flying backwards. It must've pierced the skin, because blood flew everywhere from the impact as he laid on the ground screaming.

Fatman panicked, but charged forward at me, thinking brute force would be enough to take me down in this weakened state. I reached forward as he charged at me, my hand gripping him by the neck and lifting him off the ground, squeezing it tightly. I began to laugh manically.

"Is that it..? Your bleeding friend can watch you die before I finish him off.[/i]"

A change had overcome me, whatever they had injected me with, it was messing with my psyche. Project Valor was activating, and I continued to laugh as I started to squeeze his throat tighter. It felt good, and I couldn't fight the feeling. I was going to snap his neck unless I was stopped.

[Date Masamune™]

So one fireball? Easy. But imagine having five shot out at you. Not as much fun. Now imagine that every direction you run in, you have spears of ice being thrown blocking off your passage to run. I was cornered. Fireman was grinning and I looked at him directly in the eye and motioned for him to bring it on. I took a judo stance so that it would be easier for me to catch the fireball or potentially disrupt it. But Fireman was going all out, the fireball he made kept getting bigger and bigger. So I myself started to gather up as much electricity as I could in my fists.

But maybe they were better at teamwork than I thought they were. Because this entire time they were manipulating us. This entire time they had come up with two very specific teams that played against our weaknesses that seemed like they played with our specific strengths. I didn’t have a chance against Fireman, Smokeman, and Iceman because of the strategy they had come up with. Iceman froze me from behind. Shooting out a beam of ice from behind while I was distracted, my body slowly started to freeze.

I could only watch on as my brother fought helplessly against Stoneman and Fatman and as he soon took down Fatman after being injected with a syringe. Something was wrong with him. That syringe was probably meant to kill him. Just like how this ice was probably meant to kill me.

I activated my SEED mode. With a huge burst of electricity I super heated my body and surroundings using the Steam Golem and melted straight through the ice. I directed the burst of electricity to knock out Smokeman before he could teleport. From there, I moved quickly grabbing Fireman and Iceman by their foreheads, I pumped the minimum voltage of electricity to knock them unconscious. Risky move, if I put too much, they’re dead. So I had to keep my full concentration on them. Unfortunately for me, Iceman was able to stab my side with an ice knife while I was doing that since I had to focus.

It didn’t matter. I put my right hand up to my cut and burned it shut with the power of the Steam Golem. I moved once again as fast as I could, my cells supercharged with energy. I cauterized the wounds on Fatman. No one was dying here tonight. They may be the bad guys, but we are not killers. Not like them. I turned to my brother. I didn’t know if he’d see this coming or not, but I ran. And I ran damn fast. Moving as quickly as my body would let me, I would step between Stoneman and Valo. My left hand shot out to grab Valo’s wrist and my right hand shot out in an almost blinding pattern of punches, first one aimed at his kidney, the second aimed at his diaphragm, and the third aimed at his stomach. This would have been enough to stop a normal person, but if Valo’s QI was overreacting his awareness might even have been raised high enough for him to block each and every attack I sent at him.

“Knock it off. We’re not the bad guys.”