Deviant Art Plus Fight Four

Chapter 4: There's no Place Like Hell

     A beautiful sunny neighborhood full of manufactured lives and mass produced dreams. Yes, suburbia is always perfect and happy. The birds were auspiciously chirping and even the sidewalks were humming. People jogging had huge grins on their faces and waved to every single person they passed. Huge hummers and expensive sport's cars would occasionally stroll by with happy families. Looking down one block seemed to go on forever and ever. Like if Suburbia stretched on for miles without end. Lawns tended to and all the plants were bright and vibrant. No trees, however. They mowed down the forest to put up these commercial duplexes and houses. It was a copy and paste paradise.

    "Of all places, why'd I end up here?" A lady stands in the middle of the street holding her head in disgust, covering her face. A man jogging by notices her in the middle of the street and walks up to her.

     "Excuse me, miss. Is there anything wrong?" wearing his huge grin as he looks at her face. He also examines her outfit. Her long sleeved shirt and pants matched in color and had stitching everywhere, as if it were patched with the same color and design. An extra piece of cloth stretched down the lengths of her arms and connected at the wrist by rings. Beads dangled at her side attached to her belt. She wore boots that were knee high. The extra piece on the heel of the boot suggested she liked to run or jump a lot. There were holes in both sides of the pants like they were ripped. Around her neck were straps that came out to a certain point and hung with rings on the ends of the loops. She also wore these on her forehead.

     "Yes, there is." She removed her hand and revealed her pale face at the man. They stared each other eye to eye. Well, that's if this woman had any. "Looking at your grin is eerie. Can you please stop smiling?"

"Oh my god!" The jogger instantly became a runner. "Rosie! Rosie, get the kids inside!" People looked towards this woman's direction and silently examined her. She adjusted the large weapon on her back, which resembled a large razor,  to scratch her shoulder.

    "What'd you  get yourself into, Joe?" She peers around and started walking towards the intersection closest to her. Joe looked left and right and realized how similar all the houses were. "This place give me the creeps. All these smiles and happiness make me feel uneasy." She stopped under a street light that had multiple postings of yard sales and missing dog posters. She knelt down on the floor as far as she could get and with a mighty push from her legs, she jumped vertically so high that she reached the top of the pole and perched like a hawk. "Holy shit, these houses are infinite! There's no exit out of here!" Just as she was looking, she spotted an explosion off in the distance, maybe half a mile away. "Hey, that looks promising." She pushed off the pole and jumped towards a near roof. When she landed, she quickly started running towards the explosion. Rather than move around object that got in her way, she'd jump, scale or slide past them, without losing momentum. It seemed that Joe practiced Parkour, which allowed her to get to point B at a faster rate.

    "I hear someone yelling over there." She neared the explosion and went to the edge of the roof she was on to see what the commotion was all about.

    "If nobody tell me how to get out of here, I'll rip someone's head off!" She looked upon a troublesome man. Standing tall with chest armor lined with spikes. His shins were plated as well with spike lining armor. He rocked a green Mohawk and dead grey eyes. His arms left bare, but his forearms covered in armor and wrapped with chains that led to two iron balls that that dragged on the ground as he moved around.

    "Well, this must be the guy I'm looking for." Joe watched a little longer, so she can scope out what he is capable of.

    "You! Man with lawnmower! Tell me where I need to go!" He pointed at a happily smiling man.

    "Well, if you're looking for a great place for pie, my wife, Cheryl, makes delicious…"

    "DO I LOOK LIKE I WANT FUCKING PIE!?" The man curled his hand and created fire and one of the iron balls rose from the ground and started to turn bright orange. "HYA!" He thrusted his hand forward and the ball flew towards the man. His smile instantly disappeared as he dove out of the way of the ball. The ball contacted with the lawnmower and instantly melted as it exploded from the impact and burned the area that it landed.

    "Holy crap, that's pretty impressive." Joe was waiting for the right time to announce herself. She scoped out the area and noticed all the houses were one story except for one. It was a distance away but it stuck out like a sore thumb as it was two stories tall. "If I have to, I can fall back to that building and use close quarters fighting to avoid getting nailed by one of those balls."

     "Well, is anyone going to tell me anything!?"

     "How about I tell you to quit shouting?" Joe stood up and allowed herself to be seen. The man looked towards her and examined her quickly.

     "You are one of the fighters, aren't you?" He retracted his ball and the chain wrapped back around his forearm like it had some kind of recoil. "You don't seem very tough. Tell me, lass, what do you plan on acquiring from this tournament if you win?"

     "You're not even going to ask my name? My, what manners people of Earth have!" Thinking to herself that keeping him off balance might help her get the edge on him.

     "You eyeless freak! Don't you know that I'm one of the most notorious gamers in the world?! No trash talk can get under my skin!"

     "Oh good, because I intend on going deeper." She reached to her back and revealed her large razor blade. "If you catch my drift?"

     "Lanz Cornelius, but you can call me PyroInferno. You picked the wrong person to FUCK with, pally." Fire emitted from his palms and the iron balls rose from the ground. "So, what's your deal?"

     "I am a drug of a whole new sort. I intend to get you high. Jhonen Walnut." Joe lowers herself and gets into her fighting stance. "So, now that we know each other, shall we?"

     "Let's. Great Balls of FIRE!" Whipping his hands forward, the iron balls fly towards Joe. She takes a dash towards Pyro and dodges the first ball easily, but barely skims by the second. She can feel the intense heat coming from the ball.

     "That's the name of your attack!? Trying to be funny or something?" She gets ready to swing her blade, but something stops her. As if it had a mind of it's own, the chain whips her across the stomach and launches her back. "Ooof! What the hell!?" She hit's the ground, tumbles and loses her blade.

     "Wasn't expecting that, were you? HA! It's Pyrokinesis. This fire I create allows me to control these chains! As you can see, my chain is pulsating with heat!" The chains started whipping the ground in an attempt to bludgeon Joe to death.

     "I can see the opening!" Joe starts rolling on the ground and gets back on her feet. As the chains start falling on her, she ducks, dodges and leaps through them as if she can see every opening. Rolls over her blade and starts deflecting the chains as they try to hit her. She tries over and over to break the chains, but they keep together stronger than anything she's ever hacked at before. So she decides to hurl her blade at Pyro. "Slice! HAAA!"

     "Whoa!" He side steps to avoid the projectile flying by his head, lowering his offensive, giving Joe a chance.

     "Chance!" She kneels down quickly like when she was going to jump the light pole and launches herself at Pyro curled in a ball. By the time Pyro see's this, Joe's already inches from his face. She breaks out of her ball and kicks Pyro in the face. Almost flipping him upside down. As he falls, Joe rotates herself in the air like she's twirling, builds up enough momentum and kicks him in the side. Sending him across the street, giving Joe enough distance to grab her weapon. "He was open when he stopped attacking. He must be full blown offense. He couldn't really defend himself when I got close. I can't let him get any distance on me!" She sturdily grips her weapon and takes off after Pyro across the street.

     "You fucking bitch! Do you have any idea what I'm going to do when I get my hands on you!??!" He raises a hand and hurls a fireball at Joe. She anticipates this attack and as she jumps, but then the ball opens like a net.

     "What the!?" The net covers her and clings to her like a net, but starts to set her on fire. "God damn annoying fire!" For a second, she panics, because anything she tries will either enlarge the fire or leave herself open to Pyro. Being good at sensing her surroundings, she hears water under the concretes and locates a hydrant. She hurls her blade again the best she can and cleanly slices the hydrant in half, spewing water all over, dousing the flame on Joe. When the water hits Pyro's chains, it creates a huge mist because of the heat and fogs up the area.

     "Oh, this is fun. A little game of hide and seek, lass!?" He retracts his chains and waits. "So what's your angle? Are you seeking some kind of answer?! A source of power!?" He lurks into the mist, knowing Joe is somewhere near. "Or maybe you're trying to be more accepted? Not just a freak!"

     "How would a brute like you know, shit head?" Joe emerges from the mist and bullets him in the chest with a powerful kick. "RAH!" As soon as she hit's the ground, she runs back into the mist, shrouding her position. "Crap." Joe thinks to herself. "Going hand and hand with him would be risky. He clearly is bigger, but If I can constantly stagger him, I might be able to whittle him down. I just need to keep creating momentum, constantly moving!" She starts running around the mist, just outside the circumference of Pyro's vision. She would constantly rush in, delivering an elbow to this face and run back out into the mist. Over and over she kept running in attacking; kicks, punches, elbows and knees.

     "GRAAAAH! THAT'S ENOUGH!" The mist was pushed away by a huge burst of flames, created from the nexus of the fog. Joe was just re-entering when she was hit by the it. She stumbled back and fell to her hind quarters. "GOTCHA!" Pyro shouted. He leapt towards her in a brutish way. He tried landing on her skull, but she was able to roll. He tried stepping on her to keep her on the ground, but she kept rolling out of the way. Finally, she delivered a kick to his reverse knee, luckily with enough power to make him vacillate. Quickly rolled backwards onto her hands in a flip motion, kicking Pyro in the chin. When he fell back, Joe landed on her feet. She leapt over Pyro to get to her blade which was resting inside the wall of one of the houses.

    "Not so fast!" Pyro kicked into the air, hitting Joe in the knee, dislocating it.

    "Ugh!" Joe landed with one leg, but couldn't bare to put weight on the other one, so she tucked and rolled as far as she could. When she came to, she quickly jumped to her feet. She punched her knee back into place. When she heard the pop, she quickly, but carefully, ran to her weapon. "Shit, now how am I going to get to the two storied house?" Just as she thought about it, she spied a fancy sport's car driving by. As soon as the driver saw the water in the streets and scorch marks, he stopped and exited his vehicle.

     "Now what's all this then? I'm trying to get to my prestigious law office!" Joe quickly entered the vehicle by means of jumping through the front windshield. As she cannonball in, she smacked the driver seat, flipped the car into drive, repositioned herself and stomped the gas. "HEY! MY EXPENSIVE SPORT'S CAR!!!" The owner shrieked, getting Pyro's attention. The car squealed uncontrollably and then took off.

     "Okay Joe, this can't be too difficult to drive, right?" She grabbed the wheel and tried her best to stay on the road. Just as she left the fight scene, the back window blows out and a ball enters the passenger seat by means of ripping through the back of it. Just like a grappling hook, Pyro attached himself to the vehicle so he doesn't lose Joe.

     "Where do you think you're going?!" He braces himself, and lets the vehicle pull him like a pack of sleigh dogs would. "I'M GOING TO TEAR YOU IN HALF!"

     "I hope not, I hate being dismembered." She relies on her memory to get her to the two storied house. Just as she flies through the backyards of five houses, she see's the home. "Bingo!" She points the car away from the house and times her jump with a pool she see's in someone's back yard. She hit's the cruise control button and leaps from the still open driver door. She tucks into a ball and slams into the water, trying her best to weaken the impact. When she enters the pool. She smacks the side of the pool in the water hard, but not enough to crippled her.

     "HEY! GODDAMN IT!" Pyro has no choice but to unbuckle the right gauntlet to release himself from the still anchored down ball. The car careens out of control, and into a house, but doesn't stop. Pyro tries with all his might to slow himself down from all that built up momentum. He does so by slamming into a gazebo. He stands up after a little while to get his balance. "Oh, am I going to totally destroy this woman!" He turns around to see a soaked Jhonen entering the two storied building. "Oh, she's so dead." He stumbles over to the back door and kicks it down. Glass shatters and the frame crumbles. "Knock knock!" A woman standing in the kitchen turns to Pyro.

     "Now, that wasn't very nice!" She puts her hands on her sides. You need to leave this house at once!" Pyro walks up to her and grabs her by her waist, walks her outside and throws her into the pool.

     "Cool off for a sec, ah? I'm BUSY!" He walks back inside and listens. He hears movement upstairs. "Little bitch, little bitch. Let me in!" Mockingly, he hears from upstairs.

     "Not by the hairs on my chiny chin chin!"

     "Oh fuck this! HRAAH!" He hurls his iron ball into the ceiling and hopes to hit something. He quickly retracts it and does it again. Over and over he attempts to hit her, but with no luck.

     "Hey jackass! I'm over here!" She pokes her head through a hole he created.

     "You are DEAD!!!" He launches his ball in the area she would have been standing. As his ball breaks the ceiling and into the room where Joe was waiting, she pushed a large LCD monitor into the path of the ball, creating a very conductive electrical current with his chain, shocking the hell out of him. "GAHAHAAHAAA!" He quickly slams his gauntlet into the counter, breaking the buckles, allowing himself to break free. He falls to the floor, examining his burn marks. "YOU BURNED ME!!!" She uses one of the holes created by Pyro to sneak into the living room where Pyro lays, shocked and weakened.

     "I know, I do that often. Now then, I guess this fight needs an ending, huh?"

     "The only ending here will be when I rip that pretty, eyeless head of yours off!"

     "Good luck with that, Pyro." Suddenly, they both hear glass breaking. "What the?" She looks around and see's canisters rolling on the ground. They start to spew a fume that quickly fills the room. "Gas?!" Joe could easily avoid this by running out of the house, but she was too weak from the fight to run.

     "Looks like, we both lost." Pyro lets his head hit the ground as he passes out. Joe collapses and hears voices fading in and out.

     "Yes sir, we have them in captivity. Returning to…" As the man speaks, Joe faints.