//------------------------------// // Rebel 3 // Story: Blazblue: Canterlot Conundrum // by darkstone57 //------------------------------// Blazblue: Canterlot Conundrum By Darkstone57 Rebel 3 There always come in a time in a person’s life where they feel to angered to deal with a situation rationally; for Steel, a grown man whom not has had his ‘fun’ ruined by a little brat but to see two of his buddies be turned inside out by the same puny kid, this was indeed one of those moments. Though he was bald, his entire head was popping with veins that were ready to burst. His nostrils flared like an angry bull ready to charge at the red flag and in this case it would be red jacket that belonged to Ragna. Squeezing vehemently on the knife in his right, he and Ragna were staring each other off for what felt like an eternity but in reality – was only for a few seconds. The tipping point came when Ragna let out a confident snort directed at Steel to which Steel, with his teeth grinding in anger, took the first charge at Ragna as he swung the knife wildly with a heavy swing, that was aimed to sever his targets neck from his shoulders, which Ragna dodged with ease by simply stepping back a bit. Taking advantage of his heavy momentum, Ragna grabbed Steels large arm with a quick deep breath; Ragna turned his body and pulled Steels heavy frame with both as he chucked the raging man over his shoulder. Steel was shocked to be thrown so easily and tried to stop his third roll across the park’s lawn. He came to grinding halt as he slammed his hands into the dirt. Humiliated, Steel looked over his left shoulder, knife still in his grip to glare at his opponent only to find Ragna already charging toward him. Not giving Steel the chance to recover, Ragna leaped into the air toward him and aimed a foot to connect with the back of Steels head. Only to find Steel had dodged to the side at the last second so the foot only felt the grass. Ragna went from landing on foot and then onto the other, quickly trying to regain his balance, he turned his head to see where Steel was but only caught a glimpse of him as he saw Steel take another attempt at slicing Ragna with the knife. “Shit!” Ragna cursed in pain as he felt the blade of the knife cut his left cheek. He winced at the feeling on his face only to be suddenly seeing his vision getting a close up of the grass as Steel drove a forceful right into the back of Ragna’s head, driving it into the grass. Sunset and Twilight winced in shock for Ragna as they watched him taking such a heavy blow. Sunset felt Twilight’s fingers touching the tip of Sunset’s and Sunset accommodated her by giving her a comforting but firm grip as she took Twilight’s hand into her own. Feeling confident in his assault, Steel brought himself to the legs of Ragna and, after placing the knife in a safer hold on his personage, he clutched the shins of Ragna with both hands. Then, with a powerful right stomp and mighty roar he swung Ragna from the grass and sent him careening toward the lamp post which resounded with a loud clang as Ragna’s back felt the impact of the steel. Ragna gasped for air and fell to the grass on all fours, blood dripping from his features as he tried to get back up. His ears alerted him to the sound his enemy charging toward him with furious stomps and a war cry. Ragna’s instincts all screamed at him to dodge and he did with a quick backwards roll and heard nothing but a howl of anguish. “YOU LITTLE SHIT!” Steel barked at Ragna as the latter looked up from the roll to see Steel has dropped the knife and was clutching his left foot, trying to soften the pain. Ragna quickly looked to the lamp post to see a large dent in the bottom. Steel looked at Ragna with fury, “I’LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS!” “I don’t think so, asshole!” Ragna snarled in reply as he began to dash toward him, “You’re the one that’s gonna eat it!” Without a miss in his step Ragna swooped up the knife and held in his left, with a reverse grip, and began his assault on Steel by delivering a straight right to the side of Steels face and then followed it up with a right elbow into the back of Steel’s bald head. Steel tried to recover from the blow by getting up but Ragna kept up the pressure with a couple more rights to the gut of the larger man. Ragna attempted to follow up with a right round house kick, aimed at Steels leg, but Steel blocked it with his left forearm. Getting fed up of Ragna’s antics Steel launched himself toward Ragna with a large clothesline with full intent on turning the tide in his favour. However, Ragna saw it coming and adeptly dodged the attack and countered by grabbing Steel’s left fist in his right hand forcing him to fall forward. Steels body fell toward the grass once more but his left arm was held up by Ragna’s hands as he loomed over his back, pulling Steels arm up against its bone joint. “Damn it!” Steel howled in pain as he turned his head to see Ragna, both of them sharing hateful glares toward one another. But, that didn’t last long as Ragna rose a right foot over Steel’s head snarling, “Feast on this!” as he drove his foot, mercilessly into the side of his opponents skull, once, then twice and a third just for good measure. Steel’s arm went limp as he was knocked out cold. Ragna released the large arm from his grip and cast his gaze toward to the other two unconscious men, ‘Three down, one to go.’ Ragna looked around for the fourth, ‘Where is that bas...’ His thoughts were cut off at a site that made his blood boil with a new born fire. Sunset and Twilight tried their best to hold their nerve as they both saw Rex slowly approaching them with a hungry look in his eyes and sickening grin. As he loomed over them his breaths became more hoarse and heavy. He began to reach down for the pair of them only to see a hand quickly block his vision and, before he knew it, he felt himself fall back faster than he could register it. The next thing he felt was a striking shot to the back of his head which sent a shock of pain through his body, a muffled cry escaped his lips. When Rex regained his vision the first thing he saw was the tip of Steel’s knife a mere inch from his right eye, if the sight of which scared him, yes, but what scared him more was when he followed the length of the knife to the hilt, he traced the arm of the holder to the shoulder and then made contact with the intense emerald eyes of Ragna himself. Ragna stared furiously at Rex, holding him down with an intense grip, only allowing him to look at Ragna with the one eye. Ragna had his left knee planted in Rex’s chest and his right foot holding down Rex’s right arm by the forearm. Ragna brought himself closer to Rex’s face, his voice was low and laced with rage as he warned him; “Be an idiot and this knife might find a permanent place in your skull, got it?” Rex let out a weak whimper. “Good,” Ragna replied, “This is what’s gonna happen now; you are gonna take your sorry ass and carry your idiots away from here and run as far as you can from here and if I ever see or hear any of you again, then I will find all four of you and leave you in a filthy ditch! Do I make myself clear!?!” Ragna snarled at him to which Rex replied with a frantic nod. Before Ragna released him, he made sure to drill his left knee into Rex’s chest. He stepped off of him and watched him scurry to his feet by the time he did, he found that Tyrell had got to his feet and was shocked to see the others out cold. Rex had told to Tyrell what had happened and didn’t know what to think but decided to help his friends get out of dodge. Rex tended to Drake and Tyrell went over to Steel. As Ragna watched them weasel away with their friends, he began to his their attention to the girls. The pair of them were relieved that it was over but were still trying to overcome the reality of what had happened. Ragna took a step toward them but, “Hey, punk!” was stopped short as the sound of Tyrell’s voice called to him. “You got lucky!” Tyrell called out with confidence as he warned Ragna, “Next time, you won’t be so lucky!” Tyrell hoisted Steel, still out cold, onto his right shoulder and placed a firm left hand on the grass, ready to stand up to leave but soon found the knife that belonged to his buddy planted in the grass between his fingers, missing his middle by a hair. The sight of it made Tyrell jump to his feet frantically as he couldn’t keep a cry of fear inside yelling, “Holy shit!” He looked to Ragna who was methodically walking towards him; each step became harder as Ragna kept his baleful gaze on Tyrell. Tyrell took a step back, a chill running down his spine as Ragna was getting closer to the knife but came to a stop just short of it, all the while not taking his eyes off of Tyrell. Rex was fair bit away from them but saw what happened as clear as day. Tyrell couldn’t bring himself to flee whilst Ragna kept him there in under his stare. The seconds seemed to last forever as neither of them moved but as soon as Ragna faked a charge toward Tyrell, the larger man took off faster than his legs could take him. As soon as they were gone, Ragna pulled the knife out of the dirt and turned to the tied up girls who looked just as shocked as before but as soon as they saw Ragna they were relieved now, more than before, that it was over. Ragna went over to the right side, where Sunset was, and began to use the knife to cut up the ropes. All the while, Sunset looked at Ragna with wonder and could think only one thing, ‘Who are you?’ Sunset and Twilight felt a rush of relief wash over them as they felt the tight ropes off them and watched it be thrown to one side. The two saw their saviour extend a pair of hands to each of them who, despite who was roaring and raging moments ago, gave the two of them a gentle smile. Twilight was apprehensive at first but when she saw Sunset taking Ragna’s right, Twilight reached for Ragna’s left and when they both were in his hold, he gave them a gentle heave to their feet. When they got up, the two of them tried to say their thanks but remembered that their mouths were sealed under the duck tape and felt silly for it. Twilight began to reach for hers only to see Ragna reach for it, she pulled back for a moment but felt bad as soon her eyes came to see Ragna’s concerned face. “Do you mind?” Ragna asked calmly, as he looked between the two of them, waiting for their response. It took a few moments for the tension to pass before Sunset shook her head. Seeing her friend place her trust in the person that saved them, Twilight accepted his offer as well. “Sorry about this.” Ragna stated before he took the ends of the duck tape on the further sides of their faces between his indexes and thumbs before asking the pair of them, “Ready?” The two of them braced for it with closed eyes and clenched fists as Ragna began to slowly pull the duck tape of their faces. Once the tape reached was almost off, he gave a fierce pull as the tape flew off their faces. Sunset and Twilight groaned for a moment, cushioning their faces where the tape was until the pain wore off. Ragna shook the tape off as it dropped to the floor and asked, “You two alright?”  Sunset spoke after another groan from the tape, “Yes,” Sunset began with a smile, “Thank you, so much.” “Don’t mention it-“ Ragna was cut off, wincing, as he found Twilight launched herself at him and wrapped her arms around him tightly. He froze at the sudden gesture and was unsure what to do until, after a few seconds, Twilight pulled away with a blush on her face, realising what she did but still had a tear in her eye. “Thank you so much, sir.” Twilight said with a bow, feeling indebted and relieved that someone had come to save them from what could have been the worst night of their lives. “Hey, really, it’s no big deal.” Ragna replied, scratching the back of his head. “No big deal?!” Sunset and Twilight asked in unison, flabbergasted. Ragna took a step at the outburst as the pair of them looked at him with surprise. “You took on four large meatheads all by yourself and managed to scare them off too!” Sunset said happily, “You saved the both of us and when we both thought we were screwed!” “The fact you went through that whole ordeal so valiantly and came out the victor is worth the praise you deserve!” Twilight chimed in with a smile. “Well, I-“ Ragna was about to reply but suddenly felt weak in the knees for a moment, he began to fall forward but caught himself with a right foot in the grass and was brought down to one knee. The pain of the battle he went through was beginning to come through. Sunset and Twilight both came over to him, placing a hand on each of his shoulders as he took in a few breaths. “You alright, hotshot?” Sunset asked with concern. “Yeah...” Ragna replied after taking another breath, “Guess those assholes really did a number on me, huh?” He winced as he began to stand up, Twilight and Sunset both held his arms as they helped him up. “Can you walk?” Twlight asked. “Not sure,” Ragna admitted, “Feel like I might keel over any second.” “Listen,” Sunset began, “My place isn’t far from here. Let’s get you cleaned up and take a look at those wounds, alright?” “Sounds like a plan.” Ragna agreed with a smile. Sunset and Twilight both made sure they had an arm of Ragna’s over their shoulders and a hand round his back. “You got everything?” Sunset asked Twilight who made a quick check on with her spare hand before nodding to her. “Alright, you ready?” Sunset asked Ragna who looked at her with a somewhat content but pained face. “Yeah,” Ragna answered before adding, “I’m Ragna.” “Sunset Shimmer.” She stated with a smile. He turned to her friend who replied with a smile of her own, “Twilight Sparkle.” “Right, ladies, shall we get going?” Ragna tried to sound confident but ending up sounded more pained as he finished his question with a wince. “You take it easy, Ragna, we’ve got you.” Sunset chided him as the trio began to walk toward the park the path and headed to the west. When the trio were a fair distance away from the tree that held the girls against their will, a fifth figure clad in black, hidden in shadow, held the knife, that Ragna used to free the girls in its hands, gave it a look over for a few moments, holding it against the pale moonlight as the blood, covered in dirt, remained on the end of the blade. The figure looked at Ragna for a few moments before a smile slowly grew on its face, forming a toothy grin. The figure looked in the direction the men skulked off too and then sunk back into the darkness of the trees, still wearing that entertained smile... To Be Continued...