Chapter 13
“This is where the coordinates lead?” Lance asked as we stepped out of the teleport hub, all confused at what we were seeing.
“I expected… I don’t know, something more deathy?” I said, a look of complete confusion on my face.
“Lorenzo is a… special kind of being,” Bronwyn said, a disappointed look on her face.
The landscape all around us was a strange combination of a circus, amusement park, and a Chuck E. Cheese. A giant sign sat before the teleport hub; ‘Lorenzo’s Fun Park’.
“This is the guy who’s your worst enemy?” I said, dumbfounded.
She just facepalmed, “I swear, this is not what I expected his personal slice of the Plains to look like.”
“Welcome to Lorenzo’s Fun Park!” A man in a mascot outfit said as he walked up to us, doing a little dance.
“And you couldn’t find him, even though he has a whole park named after him?” I asked with a smirk.
“The Plains are… endless,” she sighed, slamming both hands into her face.
I looked at the mascot as he danced to us. Taking a step forward, I cleared my throat, “Alright then, a few questions.”
Lance shot past me, in Breaking Dawn mode, and tackled the mascot.
“Where’s my son?!” He roared, holding the mascot up by his collar. When he didn’t get an answer right away, he slammed his hoof into his face.
“Where’s my son?!” He punched him again. “Where’s my son?!” He punched him yet again. “Where’s my MOTHERFUCKING SON?!” He slammed his hoof into his face, then ripped the oversized head off, revealing a beaten and bloody young man's face.
“Please stop!” he yelled through broken teeth, “If you lost your son, he might be at the Security Office!”
“Thank you!” Lance yelled, pulling him up and headbutting him. Knocking him unconscious.
“I’m pretty sure that was just a normal teenager,” I said as I stepped past Lance and the unconscious mascot.
Lance shakes his head, looking around for more mascots to shake down. “He’s a minion of the man who has my kid, they get no mercy.”
I try not to laugh, knowing he was being serious.
“Let me handle this,” Bronwyn said, patting his shoulder. “We shouldn’t attack random people, like kids.”
“That’s not a kid,” Lance said, gesturing to the mascot. “An eighteen year old at the minimum.”
“AH! Hello! Welcome to… HOLY FUCK, MARK!” Another mascot yelped as he approached, but noticed the knocked out kid.
“Ah shit, Lance?” I said, waving to the mascot.
“Where’s my kid!” Lance roared as he flew towards the fleeing Mascot, tackling him to the ground.
I chuckle as I look at Bronwyn. “Alright, so what’s the real plan here?”
She watched Lance assault the poor mascot before looking at me, “This park of his looks to be massive, like most of the places are on the Plains. But he knows we’re coming, and he wouldn’t hide from us. I think what the kid over there said is our best course of action.”
“Security Office,” I said with a nod as Lance trotted back to us, breathing heavily.
“Okay, I got the guy to talk. Security Office, best place to start,” he adjusted his coat collar and hat.
“Good work, Lance,” I said, a little sly smile on my face. “Let’s get going before more mascots fall victim to your wrath.”
“Yes,” he said, holding up a hoof and flexing it, “My wrath for those that take my kids.”
“Yeah, that one,” I say, stifling a laugh as we walk down the hill and into the park itself.
Luckily for us, a map lay before us. This park was indeed massive, looking to expand a few hundred miles in all directions. Something like high speed trains seemed to be the best way to traverse the park.
“Where would they keep Spark?” Lance said, hovering up and examining the map closely.
“Impossible to tell,” Bronwyn said as she walked up and placed her finger against the map. “Here’s the Security Office.”
I looked where she was pointing, then traced it back to us. A decent walk for sure.
“If we take a tram, we’ll be there in a few minutes,” She said, looking in the direction of a tram station.
WIthout a word, Lance turned and flew in that direction. We followed shortly behind, not taking that long to reach the station.
Upon arriving we were greeted by a nice looking lady with a clipboard.
“Hello guest!” She said with a wave.
Lance started to step towards her, but Bronwyn grabbed him by the tail.
I instead stepped forward, “Uh, we want to go to the Security Office. He lost his, uh, kid.”
“Oh no! A lost child is a big deal!” she exclaimed, covering her mouth. “Come come! I’ll get you heading in the right direction!”
“Well thank you, ma’am,” I say nicely, seeing Lance still lurch towards her a bit.
She leads us to one of the many trains and puts out her hand, “Take this one to the next station. The Security Office will be two blocks to the west.”
“Thank you again,” Bronwyn says as she drags Lance onto the train. I follow behind them, turning to thank her.
But as I turned, the door slammed shut, and the woman’s face twisted into a wide smile. She transformed into a tall slender man, waving to us.
“Lenrick!” Bronwyn yelled as the train suddenly shot away from the station, flying down the track at an impossible speed.
“What just happened?” I asked in a panic.
She grimaced as she put a hand on her sword, “We walked into the trap.”
“Good,” Lance said, flexing his wings and shifting into his Holy Dawn form. “That means we’re close to the ones who have Spark.”
“Being this close is bad for your health,” someone said from behind us as the doors at the end of the train car opened and two people walked in.
Bronwyn tensed up at seeing them. “Marco and Yaz.”
“Bronny,” the woman said, a crooked smile on her face. “Ready for another rematch already?”
I looked the pair over, not seeing much impressive about them. They were dressed in pretty bland clothing, blue jeans and tshirts.
Some reason, this actually made them look more imposing.
Bronwyn drew her sword, eying the woman. “You two take Marco. Don’t even bother using Ego against him, his Ego causes all others to be ineffective against him.”
“Noted,” I muttered, putting on my mask.
“Yaz’s Ego will send you into a dream world that she controls,” she says as she lowers into a fighting stance. “If you find yourself there, you need to kill yourself. If you let anything else kill you, then you’ll actually die.”
“Duly noted,” I said with a frown.
Lance growled as he stared at the pair, seeming ready to rip their heads off.
Yaz drew her own longsword and sliced at the wall next to her, “Don’t even think about escaping through the walls. This here is an Ego train, indestructible.”
“Fucking Lenrick,” Bronwyn hissed.
Without warning, Ego shot from Yaz’s body, aimed for each of us. Bronwyn reacted fast and slid forward, slicing each tendril before it reached any of us. She then sprang forward, engaging the other woman.
Marco strolled towards us, hands out wide, “Well well, I’ll have to admit, I haven’t fought horses before. So this’ll be new.” A large sledgehammer suddenly appeared in his hand.
Lance and I took a step away from each other, trying to get a bit of distance to engage him. The train car wasn’t that wide, just barely enough room for all of us to stand side by side. But there was still plenty of room for him to use that large hammer of his.
“Lance, follow my lead,” I say, thankfully getting a nod from him.
I bared all my blades and then spun forward, wings propelling me forward. With as much speed and flexibility as I could muster, I began to relentlessly attack him, all my hooves and wings flashing.
But he easily used the handle of his sledgehammer to deflect all my attacks.
That’s the moment Lance appeared, his hoof seeming to blaze with fire as he threw it towards Marco. Even though he blocked Lance’s attack, he was thrown backwards, skidding across the ground.
Not wanting to give him a chance to recover, I teleport behind him before he comes to a stop, and spin my wing blades down at him.
Annoyingly, he somehow twists his body and blocks my attack.
My vision went dark as I suddenly found myself slamming into the roof of the train car, then falling to the ground in a heap.
“Scamp!” Lance yelled as I heard him engage Marco.
I coughed violently as I pushed myself up, my mask shattered into my face. Reaching up, I pulled the ruined mask from my face, then pulled a few shards from my face. Did he hit me in the face with his hammer?! I didn’t even see him move!
A grunt got my attention as I heard Lance get hit by the hammer, but he didn’t fall as he continued to attack the man.
With another grunt, I pushed myself to my hooves and started to fly towards the fight, but out of the corner of my eye I saw a Ego tendril snap forward and catch my back hoof.
SHIT!
ooo000<^>000ooo
I stumbled as I found myself in a strange environment, large flowers all around me.
“Ah, got you!” the voice of Yaz called out in glee. Something large started running towards me through the flower-like trees.
Shit! How am I supposed to kill myself? My Ego weapon can’t harm me, so what then?
The sound grew closer as my time started to run out.
Ayla appeared beside me and started digging through my pockets. She pulled out a single knife and hoofed it to me.
Taking it, I realized it was one of my old talons from before I got my Ego weapon.
I frowned as I held the small talon, not really liking what came next.
With a boom a massive astral looking wolf burst out of the forest and landed before me.
Without a word it lunged straight for me.
Grimacing, I slammed the talon into my throat, eyes shooting wide at the surprising amount of pain I felt.
I stabbed three more times as I fell to the ground, the wolf mere feet away.
ooo000<^>000ooo
I let out a loud gasp as I jumped to my feet, completely disoriented as I returned to reality.
“That’s how you do it, Scamp!” Bronwyn cheered as she and the other woman danced around each other, blades flashing at incredible speeds.
Looking at Lance I saw him struggling to keep up with Marco. A card flashed and Lance’s speed seemed to pick up as he now matched the speed of Marco.
I froze time as I teleported over and went for a fatal attack with my talons. But he just spun on me and blocked my attack again, catching me completely off guard. Looks like his Ego also negates other abilities as well.
He grabbed me by the collar and threw me into the frozen Lance, sending us both flying into the wall as time resumed.
Lance yelped in shock at the sudden change of going from attacking to hitting a wall.
“He outclasses us,” I say as we both pull ourselves to our hooves.
“Yep. Try following my lead this time,” Lance replies, not seeming to be discouraged at all.
He trotted forward, dropping out of his Holy Dawn form. “We don’t need to fight,” he said simply, much to the amusement of Marco.
“You’re right,” he replied, twirling his hammer. “All we really want is you, if you agree to come with us, we’ll spare your friends.”
Lance frowned as he looked back at me. I shook my head, eyes wide. “You know,” he started, looking back to Marco, “Normally I would take that offer. But you all made a mistake.”
“Let me guess, we took your kid so now no mercy?” Marco laughed, still twirling his large hammer around his body.
“Exactly,” Lance replied simply as his body exploded in a blast of energy, causing me to look away.
When I looked back, I saw he was in his strange Angel slash Demon form, looking angrier than he had the first time I saw it.
“Scamp! Ego, NOW!” he bellowed as his wings flared, much larger than they’d been before.
I didn’t waste time as I attached my Ego to him and began to pump more and more of my excess Ego into him.
As I did, the glow around his Ego gauntlets increased as six cards appeared and flashed.
Marco just watched in amusement, seeming to not want to interrupt whatever Lance was doing.
“You’ve just made your second mistake!” Lance yelled as the energy exploded around him again, a final card flashing as I finally pulled my Ego tendril from him.
“And what could that mistake be? Letting you power up?” Marco mocked, spinning his hammer a final time and holding it up, ready for Lance’s impending attack.
“Letting me power up!” Lance roared, but paused when he realized what Marco had said. Instead of commenting on it, he just burst forward, the ground where he’d been standing shattering.
He damaged the train?!
Lance slammed into the handle of the hammer with his head, knocking Marco back as he did so. He then began to slam his hooves forward, and even though they were blocked, loud booms were heard with each impact.
Marco’s confident smirk slowly faded as he looked to become serious.
A tendril of Ego shot towards Lance, coming from Yaz. Not missing a beat, I sprang forward and sliced it with my talons, severing it before it reached Lance.
Ayla appeared before me, “Come on, Scamp, let’s fuse to make Scayla!”
‘No!’ I say suddenly, surprising both of us. ‘I don’t trust her…’
Ayla frowned at me, looking very displeased. “But she could wipe the floor with these two!”
I don’t know what it was, but remembering how she acted didn’t sit well with me. Plus, I did not like not being in control of my own actions. I’m pretty sure I had been the reason we split up earlier than intended when we first fused. “We can handle this without her.”
She sighed, but didn’t fight it as she faded away.
We can do this, I know we can.
Kicking off the ground, I shot towards the fight between Lance and Marco, my own attacks joining the onslaught.
Now with both of us, he started to falter.
“Lorenzo!” he suddenly yelled in a panic, looking up at a camera-like device. “Help!”
Nothing happened as we pushed our attack. Then, with a resounding boom, Lance punched his hammer out of his hands.
Marco’s eyes went wide as Lance’s hoof freely connected with his face, spraying gore onto the car behind him. The headless body stumbled a bit before collapsing. A massive amount of Ego poured from the body and into Lance.
Lance, looking unfazed that he just killed someone, spun and flew towards Bronwyn and Yaz. I just stood there, shocked that he actually killed him. That wasn’t really Lance’s style after all.
“You bitch!” I heard Lance roar as he punched her sword as she swung it for him, deflecting it away and punching her in the chest.
Just like Marco, a large amount of blood, bone, and organs blew out her back and covered the car behind her.
“What?!” Yaz spat, not fully comprehending what just happened. She stepped back, reaching up and touching her chest, where a large hole now resided.
“That ones for Spark,” Lance grunted, spinning around and bucking her in the face, sending her flying backward into the wall.
Bronwyn looked at Yaz, then to Marco, looking completely shocked at what she was seeing. “Did you just…”
“One shot them? I did,” Lance confirmed as he stayed in his Angel/Demon form. Ego began to flood his body again as it drained from the now dead Yaz.
Bronwyn and I shared a look, both not realizing just how powerful Lance truly could be if he put aside his morals.
“Bravo!” A man's elegant voice said over a loudspeaker.
“Lorenzo,” Bronwyn said grimly as she looked up at a camera above us.
“It’s good to see you again, Bron. Bring more friends to die for you?” Lorenzo asked. She looked pained, but continued to glare up at the camera.
“It doesn’t matter,” he continued, “What the late Marco said is true; we’re only interested in that one, the Lance character. We just want him, pass him along and you two are free to go.”
“Ain’t happening,” Lance said, flying up and putting his face in the camera. “I meant what I said, I’m finding you and beating your ass! Then I’m taking my son away from this hell hole!”
“Ah, yes you did say that, didn’t you?” Lorenzo chuckled. “I’m going to spoil something for you; your little truth spell trick didn’t work on Heildan. He was acting. I don’t have your stupid kid, but I know where he is.”
“Where?!” Lance yelled, shaking the camera.
“Where else but with your friend the Watcher!” he roared with laughter, causing Lance to destroy the camera.
“Hey now, no need for the anger,” Lorenzo retorted, another camera in the room turning to face us.
Lance flew to it and grabbed it as well, “Touching my kid was the worse mistake you could of made!”
“Surely,” Lorenzo jokes. “I can take you to him, you just have to surrender and let me take you to the Watcher. You can have one last father son moment together.”
“Or,” Lance offers, “I can kill you, then the Watcher, and get him myself.”
“You could, yes,” Lorenzo conceded, “If you ever find the Watcher that is.”
A door down the hall opened, and a strange lizard-like man stepped into the room.
“But I’m afraid I’m not going to be facing you three today. So I leave you in the capable claws of my associate, Leem. He’ll make sure to treat you to something special.”
As Leem the lizard man stepped forward, he licked his lips happily.
“Leem, get rid of that female horse's left leg, the one with the symbol, before you send her on her way. That little mark is an annoyance I don’t want to deal with later.” Lorenzo said before the mic seemed to shut off, leaving us with just the lizard man.
“Gladly,” Leem said in a low, gleeful voice.
Lance landed next to us, staring the creature up and down. “He doesn’t look to tough?”
She just shook her head, “Don’t underestimate him, you two.”
“I don’t like this,” I said, not liking that I had been singled out.
“Scamp, negate his Ego. Lance, try and use some of the cards we came up with against him. I’ll keep his attention the best I can.
Leem’s arms then split into four as he pulled out four different curved swords. “I warn you three, I haven’t eaten today, so I’ll be a bit rusty.”
We began to advance on the lizard man, being extra careful of him since his Ego was a mystery.
“Be careful,” he warned as we approached. “I bite.”
“Yeah?” I reply, Bronwyn shooting forward and slamming blades with him. “So do I!”
All three of us engaged him, attacking from all angles. He easily used his multiple limbs to deflect our attacks and keep us all at bay. My Ego attached to him, but he didn’t seem to care as he let me remain attached.
Lance flashed a card, causing Leem to grunt painfully.
With a whip of his tail, he slapped Lance away and sliced my Ego, allowing him to use his Ego. His body flashed a light Cyan color.
Bronwyn and I pressed our attacks, and I was able to slip through and cleave off one of his arms. He yelped in pain as Bronwyn sliced another off, then impaled him through the chest.
He grabbed her sword and held it in himself as he brought another sword around to strike her.
Abandoning her blade, she dashed back, dodging the attack. Using her own Ego, she pulled the blade from his chest and caught it.
Springing forward, Lance cast another card, blowing a chunk out of Leem’s side with a energy blast.
With everything I had, I sliced away at him, taking parts of his body with each attack.
He roars and springs back, looking to be falling to pieces. With a swipe, he again cut my Ego form himself.
“Stupid teamwork!” he roared as the Cyan flashed over his body again, causing all of us to stare in shock.
He was completely unhurt now, all the damage we’d inflicted on him gone. He was now back to his prefight state.
“Oh that’s not good,” Bronwyn muttered. “This must be the assassin I’ve heard so much about. Lorenzo’s personal pet.”
Leem laughed, twirling his blades, “Figured out my Ego yet?”
“Save point,” Bronwyn replied, getting a wide smile from Leem in return. “This isn’t good.”
“Can we even kill him?” Lance asked.
“We can, it’ll just have to be instant. Before he can use his Ego to revert his body back to a non damaged state.” She looked him over as he just waited for us, seeming to enjoy watching us try and figure out how to beat him. “Or just get him to use his ability to return to his home point.”
“Then let’s get to beating,” Lance said as he cast a card, causing Leem’s head to explode. “Easy as that.”
Leems body flashed, returning to normal. “Yeah, not that easy, horse man.”
“Scamp, we’re going to have to rely on you here,” Bronwyn said, getting a nod from me.
The three of us began to approach Leem again, this time with knowledge of what he can do.
“Prefect,” he said, raising his swords into a fight stance. “Lambs to the slaughter.”
We sprang forward, our attacks all being blocked by his swords.