This is Rated R for blood, violance and similar themes. Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Do Angels Fear the Reaper? CHAPTER 12 "I have arrived, Dirty Pair, ready to die a slow and torturous death for your crimes against the universe?" "So that's it, you want to die in battle and the only thing that fuels your lust for death and destruction is to keep others from becoming you by killing them. I don't care how right you are, you are just a sick philosophical psychopath!" Kei cried out in anger, not at him or herself, but at the very idea of it all. "Ha! That might be true, you have had a lot of time to think these things through eh? That nightmare did do you some good after all, thank me," "Just die already," "I would if I could, that is the curse of immortality," "I don't believe you are so immortal," "That is why I am here today, let's see if you can take me out," "Here's the deal, Rapture," "I'm listening," "No special powers, no weapons. We use martial arts only and all that entails. No faking theoretical ki blasts either," "You hurt me," he smiled sadistically. "It is to the death, winner does whatever they want to the other and others I'd assume," "Now you flatter me?" he laughed again. "Whatever, the past week or so I have been working out extensively, we have an open field there and spectators are not to be harmed," Kei pointed. "I agree," "This is a warrior to a warrior, the promise is not to be broken less you be not a warrior," "Don't tell the obvious, you know my half side of Centurion Hammerfall lives and dies by his creeds of battle. As do I," "So be it," After people have gathered and the stage set, the two head for the middle of the field. It was flat and rather poor. It looked roasted by the sun and left to wither. Kei stood there with a t-shirt tied around her chest with her belly showing. Her abs were hinted looking as if they were well worked but not blatantly so. Her arms were built more as well showing that she prefers using them. Her legs were not her strong point but with the jean shorts and tennis shoes, she was ready as she'll ever be. Rapture stood there without a martial arts pose. He was still in his cloak. "You going to end this mysterious crap any time soon?" Kei shouted. "Fear knows no shape and I have no shape less I decide to have one, what shape shall I have for this battle?" "I could care less," "Shall I be Centurion's true form?" "A squirrel? You trying to have a sense of humor here?" "Frankly, no, he was a noble beast," "What noble beast slaughters mankind for the thrill of it?" "Ah you miss the point, he was a noble beast until human kind tortured him beyond recognition, you saw his human form," "This some sort of sob story?" "It is an old story, I am a new story, I am his essence, his soul along with Techtonica's, I will change form now and we shall battle to the death," "Bout time," Kei muttered. Rapture's body formed and reformed, the cloak melted into his body revealing a brown furred creature standing 5 feet high. His arms and legs were thin but very strong and quick. From his back was the same deathly black sword which symbolized all the hatred of the human soul. He tossed it aside and went into a battle stance. He had a black sleeveless, collarless shirt on with long black pants with black construction boots. "Cute," "Hardly," the voice was different, deeper and more human like yet not. It was Centurion's true voice lost in time brought back for the fun of it. Kei brought her right foot back and her right arm forward to adjust her stance. Centurion now stands before her awaiting a move with a stance that shows no sign of attack or defense. It was something gone unused in centuries. At least it had to be. By now people have gathered from all around to watch. The Iron Angels, Lovely Angels, Yuri and her child with Robert on the way from cutting work early. They all took to the sidelines nearly a third of a block away. No one wanted to get too close. "Hey, Mrs. Suzuki," Phil walked over and sat next to her on a park bench. "Ah, Phil, Yuri is fine," "Heh, right, Yuri, they do anything yet?" "Well looks as if they are judging each other's bodies," "Final move?" "Nah, starting is just as important as ending," Yuri commented with a smile. Her baby girl slept soundlessly in her arms. "Robert on the way?" "Yes, should be another ten minutes, his team was hoping to get some work done on all these construction dilemmas. Thankfully no one sued yet for false advertising," "Oh so he lost some of his buildings after all?" "Yep," Kei watched Centurion's stance and realized what was so good about it. It sacrificed a lot but also gave him near limitless options. It was slightly better than standing still. She figured he wanted her to make the move first. Defense was always better than offence in a martial arts battle. "Any time now," Centurion scoffed. His squirrel tail flicked back and forth serving as a taunt. His eyes were large and anime like, he almost looked like a cartoon character, but was too realistic to be so. He was indeed a highly evolved rodent with brains of a human or more so. As 20 minutes have past now without a movement, Kei decided that he had true patience, he could wait a lifetime, meanwhile her muscles would only stay firm for so long. Her hand was forced and that was never a good thing. She ran forward and high kicked aiming for his head. He quickly parried and went to punch her kicking knee, she batted the fist aside and landed behind him. "All this time and you start off with toying around?" Centurion laughed. "Whatever it takes," Kei spun around to hit him with a round house. As their backs were to each other, he caught the leg with great skill. Kei used her other leg to jump into the air and kick him in the back. He decided to take that hit and turn around. It didn't faze him all that much anyways. They now faced each other. A punch, a kick, blocked and batted aside from both of them. The battle was much more as they expected. Yet the battle was not a physical one, it was a mental one. They read each other's faces and eyes. The expression would give way to weakness and when given way the weakness would be exploited. Kei would give weakness first. With a mighty blow she lands upon the ground a few yards away. She spat out a tooth and held her arm in pain. It was not a weakness she didn't expect. She was merely a human and he was a machine. He would not grow weary of the battle. He would only thirst for more. Right now at this moment she was the best competition he'd ever known for whatever reason and to quit before him would mean the end of everything she ever loved or could love. She got up off the ground to find Centurion standing there a foot away. He was watching hungrily as she struggled to get on her feet. She rolled onto her back to fake more pain much to his annoyance. Opportunity presented itself at last. She spun around and kicked his right knee only to have her foot blocked by a finger. "Supernatural strength now?" Kei scoffed. "I am Centurion at this moment, I wanted to fight at my prime, although I am a machine replica, I am acting exactly as he would and could do. He has fought wars all his life and predicting a move like that is boring," he grabbed her foot and lifted her up off the ground. She quickly hopped and positioned herself for a back flip kick counter. It was an obvious maneuver when in such a situation, but she had no choice. She spun and brought the kick awfully close to his furry face. Much to her surprise her other foot was caught. She was taller than him yet now she hung upside down from his grasp. She held her shirt so it didn't fall past her chest. He threw her aside only to have her spring to her feet. "You could have done more than that!" "Then feel ashamed that I'm going easy on you," he laughed. "Damn you," Kei charged and slammed her fist into his hand following it with a quick knee jab which was batted aside. This twisted her body leaving him to put her in a head lock. She threw him forward over her shoulders for another counter. He kicked off of her back and landed for another counter. Kei landed on her chest hard. "What kind of battle is this? You are boring me!" Centurion shouted. "Where's the hatred? The rage?" "Hatred is pointless," "Ha a lesson well learned yet it leaves you with a disadvantage, with hatred comes adrenaline and power, you could use all the help you can get right about now," "You will not live to see tomorrow," "Now it sounds as if you are merely trying to trust your own words, talk ends now," he ran forward and brought a mighty kick to her side. She jumped backwards to dodge and then attempted a kick into his arm. He grabbed her leg to counter only to get her other foot slammed into his hand. He pulled away and was forced to block another kick. She rolled over and jumped to her feet. Again she thrust her right arm forward for a mighty punch to have it caught by his sore hand. He grimaced as if he could feel the pain at all and smiled as fake blood fought to escape the scrape from the kick. He also watched as blood ran down her cheek from when he belted her. Her arms were losing the battle as well. She repositioned her hand and grabbed his wrist. She pulled him forward to throw him only to get pinned by both of his legs. "No fancy maneuvers in a real battle!" he laughed again. "Damn it! Get off!" Kei growled. "Since you enjoyed so much toying with me, I thought I toy with you," He brought his fist down hard only to get it knocked aside, he brought them in faster and found her more than capable of blocking. He would not stop though. A punch followed by another and she was forced to block with her forearms. He batted her right arm aside sending the tired limb to bounce off the grass. In nearly the same quick motion he grabbed her left hand and slammed his left fist into her arm. He stood up and stepped aside having broken the arm in two places cleanly. Everyone standing around watched in horror. "You forfeit? I could always give you a painless death upon your defeat," he offered half heartedly. Kei stood holding her bleeding limb. She ripped part of her t shirt off at the bottom and wrapped it around the wound tying it tight. The shirt grew red quickly. This battle couldn't go on much longer. "Not giving up eh? That wasn't even a finishing move," he walked closer. "Ah shut the hell up, you furry freak!" Kei growled. She fought back her tears from the pain. If she feinted now, she'd be as good as dead. The squirrel warrior growled with a fierce primal fury and walked closer, "Maybe if I break a few more of your bones?" he said slowly with great diction and pointedness. "Maybe," Kei ran forward and high kicked to his face bringing her second leg in quickly. He blocked them both allowing her to jump off of him. She landed well enough but the jostling of her arm nearly knocked her out. "You won't stay awake for much longer," he thrusted his foot forward to have it kicked aside. She spun around with the other foot to have it knocked aside. "Good show, but this ends now," he stepped closer again and caught another leg. With a jump he brought both feet down upon the leg he caught. Kei yanked the leg away and fell on her back. She never saw a vicious move like that before and now she was defenseless upon the ground. "Heh, not bad, but it was only desperation," he licked his extended jaw which looked much like a squirrel's maybe even more like a fox's. Fangs protruded showing that he preffered meat. It was not comforting. "Kei, I believe in you!" Yuri shouted uselessly, her baby had been crying for awhile now from all the commotion. The remark made Kei smile for a moment. She knew Yuri would join the fight if she could. Phil remarked that he was thankful no one was gambling over this fight. It was enough of a gamble as it stood. "Any last words?" he punched forward to have his fist caught. She moved her arm so his own arm would block his other fist. It was more desperation. Kei attempted to knee him in the crotch without any luck. He was pinning her against the ground with great strength. "She's going to die!" someone shouted. "She's risking her life to save us, let's go save her!" "No stay back!" Phil shouted. "What's going on?" Yuri asked. "Panic, had to happen sometime," Phil explained. "Well, Kei, any last words before you die?" he laughed as a drill bit formed in his hand. It drilled straight through hers, which sprayed blood all over her face. She screamed in pain. Some people ran forward, but were too far away to matter. "You would cheat?" Kei spat. "You are as good as dead now, what does it matter?" "I am not dead," Kei ripped her hand free of the drill bit losing much of the flesh from her hand and then grabbed his left ear. "What the hell are you doing? Lay off the ears!" he growled and went to pummel her with his other fist. "Shut up!" she pulled him in and kissed him right on the mouth. His eyes widened in shock. People stood a few yards away looking very confused. They talked about breaking it up. Phil ran over to drag some of the ring leader's butts back over, but ended up throwing them upon the ground. "She does not want to be disturbed!" "What the hell are you doing?" Centurion's body rippled. The nanites behaving like water once again. They all reverberated throughout his body. She continued to kiss him passionately. His left arm remolded into a chain saw and started spinning viciously. He thrust it down upon her wounded arm to cut it off. He aimed to knock her out the hard way. The weapon did no damage to her arm. His eyes reddened with anger as he found himself unable to break the kiss. His body rippled and melded with hers until he was unrecognizable. "Cut it out damn you!" a synthetic voice resounded from everywhere. Kei glanced over for a moment at Phil standing there watching, "This is for you," she thought. The kiss grew stronger, but no change became of it. She fought to end this through the kiss, but it was not working. He was merging with her, becoming a new person. After a minute the two were unrecognizable yet not fully formed yet. “Rapture, what are you doing?” Kei asked inside her head. There she saw the sun rising and setting, clouds passed by with great speed. “We are becoming one,” he replied calmly. “Why? Is this what you did with Techtonica, Reaper?” she bit back. “Yes.” “Gimme a break! You two loved each other?” “I shall not reward that with an answer,” he replied. “Ah, damn it, this explains everything. You got me in on it because you were infatuated by me. I can’t say I’m happy with the idea,” she rubbed her face. “No?” “All this time you’ve killed people I know or didn’t know all to get to me?” she asked. “Not all.” “Ha! You had me kill Yuri in that dream state because you were jealous, not any feeling I had!” “I wouldn’t say it wasn’t a part of you either.” “Either? Look fanboy, I do not want to be a part of you! I do not want to become one! So get the hell out of my body and disappear!” she shouted. “You reject me?” “I reject every feeling you have for me, I reject your very existence! Nothing I did with you I enjoyed and nothing you ever did was enjoyable!” she shouted again. “You leave me no choice then,” the voice drifted off. “You going to kill me now? I could care less about life or death anymore. I saw the greatest moment of my life. I’m an aunt now, that’s something you could never understand!” He did not reply. He fought to merge with her body to become a new entity, but this was refused. It stopped working. The entity known as Rapture was in shock, having been cruelly yet rightfully dumped. Spikes jetted in all directions slicing people in half yet dealing no damage to them. People dodged mere ghosts of nanite power. Guns shot, missiles flew but the explosions were merely ghost images, residue of nanites having lost their power. With a splash the being fell upon the ground in a puddle surrounding Kei. She just laid there, her arm still bleeding out upon the ground. The ripped shirt was soaked and not helping much. She felt light headed. Yuri ran forward with baby in tow, "Kei, what happened, why the hell you kiss that freak?" Kei had no words to say, she just smiled. "Medic!" Phil shouted. -- Now this ends it, buuut i could write more heh, up to you, write me ^^