Bring The Heat

70. Boy VS World (CB ARC 19)

Tenson dashed down the street. The roads were empty, nobody was out. The only light was from closed storefronts or streetlamps. Beneath his feet, the ground was wet from a late night drizzle, and the air was cold and frigid.

He stopped running when he reached the drop-off point for the lights - the road ahead opened up on one side to the forest, and the other was just small houses. They plunged into inky darkness as the full moon hid behind thick dark clouds.

Panting, Tenson bent down to catch his breath. He loved the feeling of the cold air being sucked into his lungs; in fact, he loved everything about the night. It seemed like the only time the world stopped trying to hurt him... but this night was different. There were people to save.

The short break made him unsure. Staring into the absence of anything before him, Tenson started to wonder if he could really be of any help at all. He had pretty much already lost to that girl the first time... could he really take on both? Everyone back at the compound was stronger than him anyway - they'd probably already figured it all out...

And if they hadn't, was he really ready to put his life on the line like this? The odds seemed so against him.

Tenson clenched his fists and breathed in deeply. No, he thought. Those nights with Mariah, often without food, sometimes even without a roof over their head, his life had always been on the line, and he had always fought for her anyway.

Cold feet overcame, Tenson disappeared into the darkness ahead.

-(TWIST AND AZIZA)-

Twist leaned back on his stool against the shutters of the hangar. He was resting his feet on an Aziza, who was on all fours. The original Aziza, standing nearby, looked nervously at him.

"Hey, w-"

"What?" Twist interrupted, turning to her. She suddenly felt a lot more vulnerable now that he was looking at her...

"Um, I was just saying that, that we..."

"Would you just spit it the fuck out, Azzy?"

"W- why are we still here? Vertigo said way back that they were as good as dead trapped in there, so surely we can just leave?"

Twist sighed, annoyed.

"Not until DV calls and tells us we're done. Always get paid at the end, not after."

"Ok." Aziza said. There was a short silence, so she continued, "Sorry."

"Shut up." Twist commanded.

Aziza looked down at her footrest clone sorrowfully, but she seemed to return a determined gaze. Aziza just should her head. New Azizas always got some idea of revolting against Twist, but that was only because they hadn't personally experienced his abuse yet, and were always so naïve in expecting to receive any kind of humanity.

As if grasping for any possible act of defiance, or maybe she was just tired, the footrest Aziza shook slightly, disturbing Twist. Without even thinking, he planted his knife in her skull, and snapped at Aziza for another one. She held back tears of grief and fear as she did as she was told.

Watching on from the wood's edge, Tenson gasped. But as horrific of a sight as it was, it gave him important information; he could harm the clones without harming the girl, but also she probably had a hatred for the man. He knew all about how abusers worked - if Tenson could overpower the man, make him seem not as strong and scary as the girl believed him to be, maybe she would feel safe fighting back.

Crawling forward slightly, Tenson felt something on his stomach - reaching into his hoodie pocket, he found the he still had the prop gun from two days ago, when this had all started. It looked realistic, though... there had to be a way he could use it. Now he just needed the perfect opportunity to strike...

Aziza watched as her new clone slowly began to get that same determined look on her face, like she was planning on fighting back. It was just a matter of time before she...

"G- give us a break..." the original Aziza muttered unconfidently. Twist glared at her.

"What?"

"I said... give us a break! I'm, she's- we're human, asshole!"

In a flash, Twist was on his feet, gun in hand, pointed straight at Aziza's head.

"Azzy, do you think I won't fucking kill you? Cos if you're buying on that, I'm warning you to keep your mouth shut."

Aziza gulped, and Twist sighed, about to sit back down.

That was when Tenson burst from the shadows, slamming into him. He grabbed the arm that was holding the gun and wrestled for it, stabbing into the wrist with his claws. With a yelp, Twist let go, and Tenson threw his gun into the shrubbery of the wood's edge.

Twist grabbed Tenson back and shoved him to the ground, pinning him down and flailing at him with a speedily rotating arm. Tenson grabbed and pushed at his collar, trying to shove Twist away. The fake gun slid from Tenson's pocket, and Twist grabbed it, but Tenson just swatted it aside, sending it into the bushes too.

"Hey, girl! Now's your chance! Help me out here!"

Aziza looked down at the two scuffling with a nervous stare. She flinched and looked away as Twist grabbed his knife from his waistband, but Tenson caught Twist's arm with his own as it was being brought down on his head. He gripped it between his arm and claw, and flung it aside before pulling up his legs to deliver a powerful kick to Twist's stomach and shoving him aside.

Clambering to his feet, Tenson looked down at Twist, wondering how to finish the battle. He didn't wanna kill this guy, but he wasn't gonna give up... maybe knock him out?

But before he could think on it too much, he was thrown off balance by Aziza jumping on his back.

"Wh- get off of me!" he exclaimed, swatting back at her as she clung on. Twist rose to his feet quickly to take advantage of Tenson's weakness.

As Twist threw a punch to Tenson's face, he blocked it, but Aziza grabbed one of his arms, leaving him unable to block a gut punch. He folded slightly, but was quickly uprighted by an uppercut from Twist. Aziza hopped off of Tenson's back as he fell to the ground.

"Azzy," Twist asked bloodthirstily, "get my knife."

"I didn't see where it went!"

"Then get me my gun, goddamnit! You useless bitch!"

As she skittered off to the bushes to grab the gun, Aziza looked back at Tenson. She could help him... but no, Twist was too scary. She couldn't fight back, she just couldn't!

Aziza grabbed the gun and jogged back to Twist, but then the gun was SMACKED from her hand by a long, smoky stick! Tenson, Twist, and Aziza all looked to see where it had come from, and Tenson smiled lightly.

Dominic!

"Get him, Azzy! I'll finish this one off. Gimme one of you!" Twist ordered.

With that, Azzy cloned herself multiple times, sending one to help Twist with Tenson and a small crowd to charge Dominic. Two or three Azizas grabbed at the dark extension stick, and Dominic just de-extended it, dragging them into a punch. In the darkness of the night, his ability was at maximum power!

As the rest of the horde approached, Dominic spun the stick sideways, holding it out in front of him and extending it both ways before charging the horde, clotheslining them all to the ground. Without hesitation, he dropped the stick and pulled a chain link from a small necklace he had fashioned of it.

He shot an extension chain out to a tree in the wood's edge, wrapping it around it and tying a knot. Before the Azizas could get up, he ran to the ones at the edge of the horde and began to wrap their arms and bodies in the chain, shoving back at their feeble protests.

As the Azizas got back up, they found themselves in a bundle, and began to clone over the chain, Dominic observed closely. The new Azizas seemed to jump out of their origin's body - but more specifically, their chests. Just below the neck and shoulders.

With this in mind, Dominic released his chain link and pulled a ball of rubber bands from his pocket. Then he waited...

They were gonna come to him.