The Imperial Four

Chapter 9: Enter the Mind Breaker

    Kyle watched in amazement and shock as his and Sarah’s sudden savior made her way towards the now fallen building, the sound of her steps echoing as she slowly made her way. Her slightly oversized gray hoodie flowed behind her as if it were some sort of cape, barely leaving her damaged pant legs. Kyle’s attention to the stranger was suddenly diverted by the sound of Sarah’s groggy groaning. He quickly dragged his body to her while ignoring the constant pain that pestered his kneecaps as he did. Once he managed to drag himself to Sarah, he pulled her closely and looked towards the building, where the magenta-hued stranger had stopped.

    The magenta hued petite kept her eyes on the rubble where she noticed that the sludge had begun to slither from cracks and small openings that were in between the rubble while some of it was lifting the bigger pieces wall off of it. Upon noticing this, the magenta hued woman extended her arm out as if taking aim before another magenta-hued force flew from her hand and crashed against the rubble, triggering a small energy explosion which sent rubble and parts of the reforming sludge flying everywhere. The petite quickly reacted by waving that same hand in front of her to create a barrier that would shield her and the couple behind her from the flying debris. Kyle held onto Sarah tightly and tucked his head in as the large pieces of wall bounced off the barrier that the petite had put up. After a few seconds, the barrier went down and Kyle up to see the petite slightly panting after holding the up the barrier. She turned to look at Kyle and smiled softly when she saw that he along with Sarah were fine. She then turned and started to walk towards him, Kyle slightly cowering as she walked over to them, however, before she could reach them to help them out, the fist of the black sludge man hit the petite who was sent hurled away by the punch. The force of the punch was so great that a decent sized crater formed under her after she hit the ground hard. 

    The sludge man then shifted its attention to Kyle, who was now desperately crawling towards his weapon. Upon taking note of it, the sludge beast jumped in his way and a sludge tentacle emerged from its back, wrapping around the weapon, and tossing it to the side. Kyle gasped and attempted to retreat, however, the monster now before him wrapped its long and slimy fingers around his leg and raised him above his mouth. Kyle struggled in a feeble attempt to free himself which caused the beast to laugh softly who then opened his mouth. Having lost all hope of survival, Kyle closed his eyes and had accepted the worst when suddenly, the beast screeched in pain and dropped Kyle, who hit the ground hard. Kyle looked up quickly to see that the sludge monster’s right leg had been shot with one of the incendiary rounds that he had loaded onto his shot. Surprised, he turned to see who took the shot, his face brightening up upon seeing that Sarah had gotten back up. Kyle then took note on how she was barely holding on to the weapon and quickly moved out of the way, leaving the recovering monster open. Kyle quickly turned to Sarah once he was far enough and inhaled. “Shoot it! Fucking now!” he called out, with Sarah taking another shot at the creature only this time, she shot at its upper chest. The beast roared in both pain and anger, its body pulsating as its massive claws grew in size. Sarah attempted to take another shot; however, the weapon had been emptied, leaving her defenseless. The sludge man sneered and slowly approached Sarah, who was gripping onto the empty shotgun tightly. Sarah’s eyes widened and she scrambled back until her back met a wall. The monster before her  looked at its right arm and raised it, the sludge that comprised it beginning to ripple before moving around and morphing into a blade. Sarah began to hyperventilate out of fear, the beast’s twisted sneer growing at the sight of her reaction. The sludge man raised its blade as it were a joust and thrusted it forwards towards Sarah’s face. Sarah closed her eyes as the monster thrusted in the face of her imminent demise and waited for the blade to pierce through her head. Seconds passed and Sarah, upon realizing that nothing had happened yet, slowly opened her eyes to see what was going on and was met with the sight of a quivering blade edge which was mere centimeters away from her left eye. The sludge man grunted; its feet dug onto the ground due to it attempting to push its arm. The monster quickly gave up on that and tried punching Sarah, only for its fist to be stopped by an unseen force. The bast growled in frustration, however, that frustration was quickly replaced by fear as a magenta hued outline began to course its body. The sound of footsteps from behind caused the monster to flinch as the outline spread across his own body, freezing it in place. Behind him was none other than the mysterious magenta-clad mutant, who’s wrists and hands were surrounded by a magenta tinted energy and her eyes housed a glow of the same color.