Bring The Heat

71. Boys VS World (CB ARC 20)

The Aziza clones were much more scattered than the horde, so they approached one by one. Paired with Aziza having no combat training due to her overpowering ability, Dominic easily let them come at him each alone, throwing an extended rubber band over their bodies and pushing them away before the next could reach him. But a problem quickly arose - though the Aziza's were struggling to clone, new faces getting shoved back in by the bands, some of the Azizas were managing to pull them off. Not to mention that Dominic was gonna run out of rubber bands! He only had about 50 or so... he needed a new strategy, fast.

-(TENSON)-

As the Aziza horde was attacking Dominic, Tenson climbed to his feet, dazed. This Twist guy had a real mean uppercut!

He dodged a quick jab, but was tackled by an Aziza before he could throw a counterattack. She was weak, but it threw him off enough to stop him from blocking a punch to the face, which was followed up by Twist bending and skittering inhumanly between his legs and shoving the backs of his knees.

Falling backwards again, Tenson caught a kick to the head on his way down. He suddenly felt like he had been thrown back a couple layers of consciousness...

Twist's evil chuckle sounded faint and distant, and he could barely feel the light hitting his eyes as they rolled gently side to side. Still, he got up again, but realized he had lost sight of Twist. Slowly, he came back to his senses - just in time to hear a metallic scrape behind him. The sound of someone picking up a knife from a stone floor!

Tenson spun like lightning, just barely catching the knife inches from his face between his crossed claws. Twist began to bend erratically again, flinging himself above Tenson, who just barely pulled back as gravity forced the knife down to slice through the air where his stomach had been.

His arms stuck down low, Tenson could do nothing against a headbutt from Twist, knocking him back. Luckily, it wasn't nearly as strong as his punch! As Twist raised the knife above his head, Tenson prepared to block again - only to have his arms pulled back and restrained by an Aziza behind him, leaving his stomach wide open!

Acting by reflex, Tenson pulled roughly with one arm, dragging the Aziza in front of him. She took the stab, Twist's knife slamming into her lower back. She yelped in pain, and Tenson felt incredibly guilty, but Twist just threw her aside as he tore his knife from her body.

Tenson dodged back as Twist swung again, before going in for a counterattack - but clearly he was to predictable, as Twist slid past his punch and wrapped around his back. Tenson caught the knife with his claw as it was about to stab straight into his neck, but Twist slammed his other hand into it's base, overpowering Tenson slowly.

As it poked his neck sharply, Tenson grunted, pushing back a little harder but losing his strength. But right as he was about to give in, something seemed to wrap around the knife and pull it over his shoulder - he was released as he heard Twist yell, and turned to see his knife had been dragged into his own shoulder by a rubber band, courtesy of Dominic!

Tenson grinned widely at him, and looked over at the Azizas. They had been restrained in pairs, back to back - each tied together by one dark extension rubber band twisted around between them in a way that made it get tighter if either side tried to pull away! Man, Dominic really was a smart guy...

But Tenson was quickly distracted by quiet, weak groans of pain. He looked down and saw the Aziza that had taken a knife for him rolling on the floor, clutching her back.

"I've got this asshole," Dominic told him, "save her!"

Dropping to his knees, Tenson clutched at the Aziza's wound, shushing her.

"You're gonna be ok!" he reassured her, but he honestly didn't know what to do. He just wanted to giver her some of the hope he had.

-(AZIZA)-

The original Aziza pushed past the others still wrapped in the chain, and slid under it. She tried to clone herself more, but found that she was far too tired. And no wonder... there was, what, 70 of her out at once!?

She was shoved forward as she slid under the chain, and fell hard to the ground. Lifting her head slowly, something caught her eye; a glint from the bush where she had picked up the gun.

Scrambling over, Aziza saw Twist's actual gun, and realized that she had made a mistake. She picked up the gun to deliver to Twist, but when she turned... she saw something she had always wanted to see.

Though a clone of hers was laying, dying, Tenson was holding her and comforting her, like she was her own person. Because she was... but nobody ever saw it that way. Nobody ever cared for her clones... not like Tenson was, right now.

Loosely, Aziza dropped the gun back into the bush, and walked over to them. Wordlessly, she dropped to her knees, and stroked her clone's hair affectionately.

"Sh," she hushed, "it's ok. I can make it stop hurting..."

The clone screwed her eyes shut as she was absorbed back into Aziza, who took a deep, sad sigh. She looked up at Tenson, with confused feelings.

"Thank you..." was all she could make herself say, before turning back to her restrained horde. "Let's wrap this up! We're outta here."

Twist, struggling to bend through all the chains Dominic was throwing over him, yelled out at her;

"Azzy, you fucking bitch! Where the hell are you going?"

Aziza stopped absorbing her clones for a second, and took a deep breath... but couldn't find it in herself to be calm.

She ran up to Twist and slugged him in the face heavily, just like he had taught her.

"It's AZIZA or ZIZZY, ASSHOLE!" she exclaimed, before storming into the darkness in a huff, stragglers of her horde hobbling after her desperately.

Twist fell to the ground as Dominic finally got him tied up in a way that he couldn't bend out from. If he moved his arms, they'd pull on his neck and choke him, or break his legs over his shoulders depending on which way he pulled. Tenson reveled in the joy of watching that asshole eat dirt, before looking off into the darkness. That girl... Aziza...

"Go after her. Go find out who she is! I'll see about getting these doors open..." Dominic reassured him.

And so, Tenson pursued Aziza into the inky black night.