Heroes & Roses (X-ray and Vav)

Chapter 22: Broken

There it was; and by it I mean a five-foot-six half-cyborg bull that was called Edgar by the King. It stood in the middle, staring at us with one red, and one black, eyes. There was a loud screech, then a crumpling sound like paper in a fan, before a booming voice covered the room like a sheet.

"Hey, guys! Sorry about this, but you had to have known I would know you were here!" Said the King over the invisible intercom, "The only person who's powerful enough to get past the Knights is my old friend Geoff! Or should I say Grif?" Grif- Geoff's codename. I hear Geoff sigh loudly before speaking to the King directly.

"Ryan," He states, not using 'King' in order to somehow get to him, "what are you planning on doing? Killing us? Because that's not gonna work for all of us," He says almost tiredly. After nearly a year with the Achievement Hunters and everyone else, I've learned a thing or two. One thing I've learned: don't fuck with Geoff when he's pissed, and two: Caleb will steal the last donut if you don't eat it first.

"Geoff, killing you? Please, I know it's not that easy. I plan to study you, observe your talents. I know you have more power then you admit to Mr. Ramsey. Why not let everyone else see? Oh, and Jack isn't here, so make sure to tell him hi!" The voice cuts off with a static sound and the next noise to replace it is the sound of metal hooves on wooden flooring. We all scatter to avoid the charge of a horn in our chest, even though Gavin can't get punctured by the bull, it can still injure him.

Instinctively, I move to help the others before myself. With Kerry no longer keeping concentration, his illusion wore off and we were all in our normal costumes. Now aware that I still had a bag on my back, I shake it off and throw it at the bull to get its attention to me. It turned its body so he now faced me instead of Kerry. Michael, brand in his Banjo Kazooie uniform, jumps to action behind the half-mechanical bull. With me frantically trying to keep Edgar's attention, Michael grabs the bull by the tail. Without any weapons at his disposal, brute strength is what he'll be using; he has super strength to work with so that's good.

Geoff still has some telepathic powers from his encounter with the Knight earlier, but they have seem to have no affect on the creature. Instead, he uses them to establish a telepathic link between everyone's thoughts since we couldn't really hear each other over the sound of the raging bull.

"Can everyone hear me?" Geoff thinks, which we all receive in our own minds.

"Loud and clear. What's the plan?" Michael asks as he tries to wrestle the bull while I try to pierce it's metal skin with my lazer-eyes, which doesn't work.

"I'll try to confuse it by making it see something else, like an empty room?" Kerry suggests.

"That won't work," I say, "only one of his eyes are real, and I'm willing to bet only a half of his brain is fully functional." So far, it seemed, everything on the bull was split in half. Two of his legs were metal (his left back leg and right front leg), one of its ears was steel. It had one red-wired eye, and his metal skin covered various areas of his body like markings.

"Aim for his soft spots, the parts that aren't covered!" I add. The group split; Michael stayed close to Kerry since his powers couldn't do much to help, and Geoff helped how he could fighting with Gavin.

I saw where I would need to hit him if the bull was going to go down. On the back of Edgar's neck, there was a open spot that was a strait shot for what would be his spinal cord if I could get a good shot. Michael lunged at the bull, taking him back a few feet and into a wall. Gavin moved to push Kerry out of the way since he was right where the bull was. I try and shoot the bull on a clear spot but it moves, making the red beam bounce off him and hit the wall opposite him, causing it to scorch and leave a mark.

"Don't hit the metal!" I add pointlessly to our mental conversation.

"Oh really? Thanks for that, genius!" Michael adds sarcastically. Even with his voice in my mind he sounded like the same, angry, New Jersey boy he did in real life.

"Try to get the back of his neck!" I think, deciding to ignore Michael's comment.

Everyone gave a silent nod and reacted. Gavin pulled off his red cape and threw it to Michael, but he was too busy trying to keep the bull away from Kerry and Geoff to catch it, Instead I do. Running to grab the cape, I shoot the bull in the mechanical half of his face to get his attention. It worked, but now I had a two-ton bull charging at me. I hold out Gavin's cape like the cloaks used by a mandator, using it to taunt the bull. It's said that the less a bull-fighter moves, the less afraid he becomes. I, however, find that to be complete bullshit, because I'm scared shitless. However against my best instincts, I don't move and let the bull hit the cape, which nearly flew out of my hands from the force.

I stood my ground with the bull, taunting it with Gavin's red cape, and waiting for someone to take a shot. No one did, and it soon became evident that it was because no one could get a clear shot.

"Gavin, get near me!" Geoff yelled in our minds. His thoughts were clear, and somehow I had a feeling he knew what to do. I also felt that he knew it was bad. Gavin ran to Geoff while dodging the bull's raging body trying to hit it's target as I pulled it away. I couldn't see it, but through our telepathic link I could feel Geoff taking Gavin's powers, but I couldn't tell which ones.

"X-Ray, can you blow a hole in the door, or a window?" Geoff asks.

"The door is sealed shut, but I can try the window. Michael, cover me!" I say. This time once the bull charges, I duck and run past him. Immediately, Michael runs past me and jumps on the bull, pulling on his horns. I run to the back wall and look at the wide window on the left hand side of the room. I stand in a tripod stance and concentrate. This all came naturally to me now, unlike the first time using my powers. A large red beam emits from my eyes and right across the room. The beam was so hot and I was so focused, I almost felt like I was floating. Michael did his best to keep the bull on the left hand side of the beam while the others stood on the right. Slowly but surely, a hole started melting into the glass. Once the hole was human-sized, I stopped.

"Now what?" I ask.

"What do you think? Jump!" Geoff answered as if it were obvious.

"Easy for you to say, the only person who can fly is Kerry!" Michael replies with strain. Kerry can fly? That's fucking awesome, but I see his point. If anything Kerry could only carry Gavin down, so that's what I expected to happen.

"Just trust me, okay? Kerry, get Gavin and fly, Michael and Ray, you have to trust me. I swear it'll be fine!" Geoff's voice cracked even in my mind. Almost as if Kerry and Geoff had talked about this before hand, Kerry grabbed Gavin mechanically and ran across the room and out the window as if he did it for a living. Gavin sounded as if he were going to protest the idea but Kerry got to him to quickly for him to do anything.

After they had left, Michael abandoned his post on the bull and ran to the window.

"You better not let me fucking die, Geoff!" Michael said before falling out of the window. My turn. I run to the window, while Geoff runs and with me and puts up an invisible, telepathic barrier between ourselves and the bull as it charged toward us. I stood at the window's edge and look down. Jesus Christ it was high. I look back to Geoff, who looked anxious and worried, and that's when it dawned on me.

"You're not coming, are you?" I yell in reality, over the raging bull fighting to get near us and the faded winds coming threw the window. I could have thought Geoff would have cried in that moment, but we all knew him too well for that. Instead he smiled at me weakly and chuckled.

"Make sure my daughter will be okay. And tell everyone I'm sorry, but that they're all still a bunch of dicks!" He said lightly and in a joking manner. I go to protest and fight with him, but before I could even get off the window seal, I feel a hand give me a hard shove on the back of my shoulder. I stumble forward and fall out the window.

I begin plummeting toward the ground.

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Hey, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! leave your thoughts and your advise, and as always, thank you all so much for reading!

**Chapter 23: Mourning, Coming soon!!**