Blood of the Innocent

File 13: Pothole

"What a bother," said Lettuce, "Did you at least get their abilities?"

"I'm pretty sure one was using Sound Magia, and the other was using Sand Magia," replied Wraith, twiddling with the arrow in his hand.

"Draiocht Gang #17 has people with those exact Magia," Lettuce announced, "We should watch out for them."

Lettuce has the mental capacity to know about all the members within Proiettilo. He knows their background, abilities, name, and which gang they're in. The only members of Proiettilo that he doesn't know is the messenger, the Boss' Hitmen, and the Boss himself.

Badunk!

"Why.. stop?" asked Dante.

"We hit a pothole on the road," explained Minny, "I'll get out of the car to fix it."

"You couldn't drive around it?" asked Inferno.

"I didn't see it."

"I'll help fix it, and be on lookout for any enemies," said Wraith, going outside with Minny.

...

"It's been 10 minutes," said Lettuce, "What a bother. Shouldn't they have fixed it already?"

"I don't know," said Persona, "I'll go check."

...

"Odd," Dante said as he looked outside the RV window, "No.. cars."

"Something does kinda feel wrong," said Exodus, "Were we always alone on this highway?"

"And where's the others?" asked Inferno.

"It's clear that we've been attacked by a Magia user or users," announced Lettuce, "They must've taken Persona, Minny, and Wraith hostage when they left the RV. Or worse, they're dead already."

"Dante and I will leave the RV," said Exodus, approaching the RV door, "With his demon wolves to track the user and my Bullet Magia to hit my target, I doubt we'll get into trouble."

"Be careful."

...

"What a bother," said Lettuce as he checked his wristwatch, "14 minutes have already passed since Exodus and Dante left the RV."

"Are we going to assume that they've been finished off as well?" asked Inferno.

"Whatever condition they're in, there's one thing for certain," said Lettuce, "Do not exit the RV using that door. It's almost like once they step out, they've already disappeared. Have you noticed that there's nothing outside?"

"Yeah.."

"On my mark.. we escape."

Lettuce burst through the RV window, with Inferno followed by jumping out. Before Lettuce hit the ground, a hole appeared below him. With quick thinking, he grabbed the ledge of the hole and pulled himself up, landing on the road. Inferno wasn't as quick and fell into the hole, but Lettuce used his Telekinetic Magia to pull Inferno out. The holes disappeared.

"Hole Magia," said Lettuce, "Draiocht Gang #17's very own Kerstagg. He uses holes to bring people into certain locations, mainly into a tiny cat going by the name Anthros, famous for its gigantic belly. However, Anthros is controlled by Catterio, who uses Cat Magia. These duo work really well together. Be careful Inferno."

The two walked around the abandoned road, looking for clues on the whereabouts of their gang members. Lettuce noticed bullet shells on the ground. The pothole that they stumbled on was fixed, using ice as a makeshift filler.

"Minny and Exodus must've been here," said Inferno, "Both of them probably fell into holes."

Suddenly, three cats appeared from underneath the RV, jumping at Inferno. Out of panic, Inferno ignited flames from his lighter, slowly burning the cats to death.

"Be careful Inferno!" yelled Lettuce, "If your fire makes its way to the gas of the RV, our only escape route will explode!"

"I can't extinguish its flames!" yelled Inferno as the fire grew larger and larger, "We're on a timer. We need to find those two and extinguish my flames."

"Hold on," whispered Lettuce, "Think about how they made their way here. There are no cars except for our RV. This means that this RV was where they came from, as well as their only escape route."

"So that just means that if we destroy the RV, we could potentially make them reveal themselves!"

Inferno threw his lighter into the RV's gas canister, and ran away. Soon, the RV exploded into millions of pieces. Out of the explosion came Kerstagg and Anthros the cat.

"There they are!" yelled Lettuce, "Catterio must be hiding inside Anthros. Our friends could be inside that cat's stomach too. Don't harm Anthros, we can't take the chances of most of our team dying."

Lettuce brought Anthros closer by using his Telekinetic Magia, putting him into Inferno's hands.

"I'll take Kerstagg on," said Lettuce, "Keep that cat safe, Inferno."

Kerstagg smiled and created holes around him, trying to make Lettuce fall into the holes. However, as Lettuce fell, he telekinetically moved objects from inside the van below him, so that he could step off of them to leap out of the holes. He kept doing this multiple times.

"Can't you see that it's useless to escape my holes?" laughed Kerstagg, "No matter what, you'll eventually fall down into the depths, where you'll die."

Finally, Lettuce backed off. He stepped on the road, far from the holes. A pencil case moved toward Kerstagg, but a hole appeared on his face, sucking the case in.

"You thought you could hit me with a pencil case?" asked Kerstagg, "I could easily make a hole to transport that into Anthros. I'm practically invincible."

Lettuce kept throwing objects at Kerstagg, shooting him with dishes, cups, and almost everything inside the RV.

"I told you that it's useless to hit me!" yelled Kerstagg, "Why do you keep bothering? I'll just make holes to evade it."

Lettuce looked behind him to find Inferno on the ground, collapsed by cat scratches. An army of cats began to make their way towards Lettuce.

"Either the holes or the cats finish you off," smiled Kerstagg.

Lettuce telekinetically moved the cats into Kerstagg, but he had kept making holes to prevent himself from getting hit.

"You're just starting to annoy me now," said Kerstagg, "I told you that nothing can hit me!"

"What a bother," said Lettuce, "You talk way too much, and frankly it's annoying me. Did you actually think that I was trying my best to hit you? I wouldn't waste my time on a pathetic Magia user like you who hides behind even holes."

"Why you—!"

"I said quit talking. I don't think you've noticed, but with your holes, you've sucked in almost all of my gang members, almost every object I could possibly move from that broken RV, as well as multiple cats from your own team member."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"No matter how big of a stomach, some cats can't hold everything in."

Suddenly, Anthros barfed out a hairball, with Exodus, Wraith, Dante, Persona, and Minny inside. Lettuce moved the hairball up and down to wake them up.

"I may not be able to pierce your holes," said Lettuce, "But maybe some of them can."

Catterio was barfed out of Anthros as well, smiling apologetically as he looked at the glaring faces of Bangtan Gang #32. Even Kerstagg's smile faded.

"What's wrong, Kerstagg?" Lettuce smiled, "Cat got your tongue?"