Day Four

[Karl Jak]

Dante's Abyss 2015 - Finale
Deadpool, Doomguy, Mickey Mouse, Sasuke Uchiha, Strazio Rockwell

Strazio Rockwell lurched toward the clinic, his eyes surveying the graveyard of corpses, cement, and twisted steel that littered the front of the building. The stench of rotting bodies hung in the air, and the gentle wind that kicked around the nightmare scene kept the smell circulating around him as Strazio made his way toward the half of a building that stood atop the small little hill.

“I’ve been waiting all day,” a harsh voice shouted as a man caked in blood walked out from the crumbling husk of a building. He held a nailgun in one hand and a crossbow in the other. A grin spread across his face as he lifted the weapons and squeezed back on the gun.

Nails started to whistle through the air.

The Defender of Darkshire dove for cover, trying to land on his good shoulder as he rolled through and into a vertical position. Breathing heavy, Strazio grit his teeth as nails ricocheted off the twisted steel mass behind him. Something rumbled above him, and the man looked up to see that gray clouds were starting to roll in, choking away the morning sun as it tried in vain to illuminate the island. With a whir, the nailgun spun to a stop, and Strazio slipped from cover and moved forward, his eyes glued to the marine as nails once again started to zipped passed him.

As he dropped into an awkward slide, the man winced as a crossbow bolt sank into his bad shoulder. Fresh blood spurted out the back of the wound as the knight of Darkshire steeled himself against the mass of concrete and rebar in front of him. All he had to do was get close enough to end the marine… he just had to close the distance. Willing his ruined limb to obey his commands, Strazio lifted the shield toward his face and sprung from his cover. Nearly useless legs carried him the distance as best they could. The first volley of nails scraped harmlessly off the surface of the shield, but Doomguy wasn’t an idiot.

Nails sank into Strazio’s legs and thighs. The man let out a scream and threw away the shield. He could see the fire in the marine’s eyes.

The gunblade swung through the air.

A hammer moved to intercept it, and the heavy sword was knocked wide. As Strazio lost his balance, a second blow from the hammer smashed him in the side of the head. The Defender of Darkshire hit the ground a few yards from Doomguy and struggled to reach for the gunblade. It was only a foot or so away, but his body had passed its limits. Those small twelve inches could just as easily have been twelve miles.

The gunblade was knocked away by the marine’s boot. Strazio looked up into the eyes of Doomguy as a hammer blow dropped down against his chest, shattering his sternum and puncturing his lungs and heart. The white-haired let out a sigh as his head rolled to the side. Even through the storm clouds, he caught glimpses of the sun peeking through, shooting its beautiful rays down upon a tortured landscape. He could almost feel the scant pillars of light shining down on him and warming his skin.

It reminded him of how he felt looking out at the sunrise on the walls of Darkshire next to Cork or Dmitri. Strazio Rockwell’s eyes slid shut.

For the first time in a very long time, the Avatar of Anger was at peace.

[spoiler]

#13 Strazio Rockwell DEAD

Four Primes Remain

[/spoiler]

[Karl Jak]

Dante’s Abyss 2015 Finale
Doomguy, Deadpool, Mickey Mouse, Sasuke Uchiha

Doomguy stepped away from the corpse and shook the blood from the head of his hammer. Bending down, he grabbed the nailgun and turned to ensure he wasn’t being ambushed. He spotted some movement down near where the ‘lawn’ hit the forest, but before he could move in for a better look, he saw a flash of naked flesh near the other side of the clinic. The marine turned, his eyes settling upon Deadpool and the mercenary’s bulging, bloodstained underwear. It wasn’t crime scene in the man’s pants that nearly rankled Doomguy… it was the BFG in his hands.

“This familiar?” Deadpool snickered as he pulled the trigger. The plasma round roared through the air and slammed the ground where Doomguy had stood, plucking the marine off his feet and throwing him even though he was a few feet away from the epicenter of the blast.

“Nice,” a voice replied, causing the mercenary to spin around. The BFG was batted out of his grasp, and before he could retaliate, a palm crashed into his chin. A beat later the heel of Sasuke caught him in the jaw and knocked him down. Deadpool pulled his duffel bag over and grabbed the lightsaber out of it. As he activated the red energy sword and rose back to a standing position, Sasuke drew his Chidori sword, which crackled and hissed as the white-blue lightning blade surged up from the handle.

“Does this make me the bad guy?” Deadpool chuckled as he looked at his red weapon and then over at the blue blade of Sasuke.

“We are beyond humor,” the one-eyed ninja replied through his mangled mouth as he swung the weapon at Deadpool’s neck. The mercenary parried the attack and stepped forward, his wrist twisting as he tried to redirect the blade into the ninja’s heart. Sasuke pulled back and nearly fell over as the energy sword cleaved the air in front of him.

Deadpool himself backed up, but as he did, he held out the saber and grinned as he found the other button, activating the second blade. “You know, I always thought this was highly impractical, but something is telling me that it’s going to not manage to sever all my limbs.” With that, the merc-with-a-mouth moved forward, spinning and twirling the saber from blade to blade, each powerful swing forcing Sasuke to defend from a different direction or be sawed in half.

“C’mon, that’s it?” Deadpool shouted as he threw a swing high. Sasuke dodged right on cue, but this time the mercenary split apart the lightsaber and swung the second energy blade at the ninja’s face. Although he dodged once more, Sasuke left himself wide open for the bare, dirt-stained foot that smashed into his jaw a beat later. The ninja crashed through part of the wall and didn’t seem to move. Deadpool smiled as he stepped forward and went to thrust a blade into the ninja’s heart. Before he could, a bolt of lightning exploded against the wall in front of him.

The mercenary turned around and found himself looking at his favorite ruthless murderer—Mickey Mouse. On the back of the small prime, a slug-like organism pulsated softly, its tendrils embedded into the mouse’s fur. Deadpool didn’t need to review previous threads to know that it was the same creature worn by his very first friend in the Abyss.

“Here to try and finish the job?” Deadpool asked as he crossed the lightsabers in the air in front of him.

“I might enjoy this,” Mickey growled as he ran forward, his hammer releasing another bolt of lightning as he charged.

Deadpool dove to the wayside, his sabers crackling as they sliced through the ground. The mercenary landed on his feet and grinned. “Yes… give in to your anger!” He shouted as he smacked the energy weapons together as if they were his own palms, causing them to throw off sparks and hiss each time they hit.

“Enough!” Mickey shouted as he ran forward, his small body springing up over the swing of the lightsaber blades. As he passed up and over the mercenary, the mouse scowled as the head of Mjolnir flashed white and released a blast of lightning down into Deadpool’s neck and back.

As Mickey landed on his feet a few yards away, a convulsing mercenary hit the ground and continued to writhe for a few moments after the lightning dispersed. “You did this to me,” the mouse muttered as he started to walk toward the dazed prime. After a few steps, a clearly disoriented Deadpool looked over at him and smirked.

Mickey lifted Mjolnir once more, but before the lightning could spring from the ancient stone, the Malefactor shuddered. The mouse turned to see the scowling marine holding the giant plasma weapon.

For once, Doomguy seemed to be genuinely smiling. “Reunited at last.”

A burst of plasma erupted through the air.

Mickey Mouse, his injuries numbed by the toxins of the orgosynth attached to his back, cleared from its path.

Wade Wilson, his cancer-addled body worn down and battered after days of triumphant fights and schemes, was less fortunate.

[spoiler]

#26 Deadpool DEAD
Three Primes Remain

[/spoiler]

[Karl Jak]

Dante’s Abyss 2015 Finale
Doomguy, Mickey Mouse, Sasuke Uchiha

A man who had no right to be living rose up out of the dust of broken concrete. Sasuke Uchiha watched with somberly as the blast of plasma tore apart the bizarre, foul-mouthed mercenary. Something wet and fetid smacked the ground near the ninja’s feet with a wet thwack. He didn’t need to look down, and part of him didn’t want to look down at the dead mercenary’s final trophy.

When the green dust settled, Sasuke came rushing out, the ultima weapon clenched in both hands. From the other direction, the little mouse came running toward the marine with the massive gun. Doomguy turned and ripped back on the trigger, his eyes lighting up as the plasma blast shot toward his opponents, scattering them into the wind like…

Like…

A plastic bag. A damn plastic bag, drifting through the wind. Fuck… you people can’t do anything without me around.

Hush.

Doomguy stepped forward, his eyes searching for his victims through the haze. He didn’t have to wait long until the mouse popped up, his hammer swinging forward and discharging a bolt of lightning that hit the marine’s chest, lifting him up off the ground and throwing him backwards onto a heap of twisted rubble.

On impact, there was the sound of metal crunching against stone, but with it, the discernable sound of armor failing and flesh being compromised. It took a single glance down to see that a piece of steel beam—three inches in diameter—had been forced up through the marine’s back, through one of his lungs, and out his chest. The marine growled as the BFG dropped to the ground. Not like this…

--

Mickey Mouse knew he was so close to being free. He was so close to escape and an attempt to salvage something from this horrible ordeal. Why… why had he come here in the first place? It felt like a lifetime ago that he’d made the decision that led him to this island. This burial ground for an innocence he thought he’d never lose.

The marine slumped against where he had fallen. He was done. Mickey didn’t know much about death or dying—at least he didn’t before this island—but he didn’t expect a man to live with a spike impaled through him. Part of him, perhaps the second voice whispering in the darkest recess of his mind, wanted him to rush over and bash the man’s face with the hammer.

But the mouse would cling to what fragment of innocence remained.

He turned from the bleeding warrior and set his sights on Sasuke Uchiha, who stood grinning amidst the wreckage of the clinic. In his hands, the ninja grasped the Ultima Weapon—the Chidori Blade. The lightning sword represented a watershed event in the Abyss. It had been anointed in the blood of nearly a half dozen primes.

Mickey Mouse clutched Mjolnir—the only other weapon dropped onto the island by the good folks at Syntex.

The ultimate weapon, and opposed to it… the tool of a god.

Lightning Sword. Lightning Hammer.

If he were still alive, the mercenary would have pointed out the irony, but the pile of charred parts had no final retort.

Mickey and Sasuke charged at one another. A bolt of lightning thundered from the hammer. The ninja planted his foot and held out the Chidori Blade, and as the mouse watched, the bolt struck the sword and seemed to split apart and dissipate.

The king, the last king standing atop a mountain of forty-three corpses, dashed forward, swinging the hammer. Sasuke’s blade came to meet it, and the impact released a thunderclap and ring of lightning that momentarily blinded the two warriors. Both back away, their eyes blinking as they tried to dispel the flurry of white patches that obscured whatever vision remained.

Another thunderclap boomed, but this one came from up on high. The primes looked up and felt tiny raindrops start to spatter across their faces. It was refreshing, if even for that fleeting moment before they remembered only one of them would survive. Mickey was first to spring forward, his lithe form quicker than Sasuke as Mjolnir veered toward the man’s chest. The ninja hopped over his opponent—a luxury he couldn’t afford when fighting someone his own size. When Sasuke landed, he spun, the Chidori Blade crackling through the air.

But Mickey Mouse was already gone.

Spinning sharply, Sasuke spotted the mouse a few feet away.

---

There was a flash of lightning in the sky above.

Twenty yards away, there was a flash of lightning on the ground as the two weapons collided once more. The impact and the heat instantly vaporized the falling rain, leaving the two primes briefly in a completely dry dome of air before fresh rain fell down to fill the gaps.

That second clash stirred the marine, snapping him from his unconsciousness. He experienced a quick moment of confusion before it was replaced by rage and anger as everything flooded right back to him. He looked down, his bloodshot eyes finding the jagged metal rod jutting through his insides, threatening to leave him to bleed out like a stuck pig.

To die like a lesser man… as if he were some green-faced recruit whimpering for his mama as he bled out on the battlefield.

He had stared into the legions of hell and relished every moment of it. He would not end here. Not now.

“I refuse!” The marine screamed as the skies above light up and the rain started to fall faster. He spat out the blood in his mouth as he grabbed the piece of steel jutting out through his armor. He pulled himself forward just enough that he could twist his other fist around and punch the other side of the bar, breaking it free from the concrete.

The marine slid to the wet ground and reached for his weapon. It hummed to life, and something about the warmth he felt from it numbed some of agony. He rose to his feet and turned as the would-be gods did battle.

Mickey and Sasuke broke apart from another tangle—their eyes burning holes into the other.

Neither had made a mistake yet. As both searched their minds for a plan, they had their decision made for them by a blast of plasma. Scorching through the dark, rain-filled air, the mass hit the ground near to them and erupted, throwing the two of them like children.

Mickey hit the ground hard, his shoulder snapping in its socket. He lost the grip on his hammer and rolled a few more yards before his momentum expired. Bloody and covered in mud, the mouse rose to his feet, and as he moved to step, his leg gave out underneath him. He looked back to see that he’d lost a foot a part of his shin in the explosion. The orgosynth spurned him forward, but the mouse’s body was battered and broken. He turned and watched as the plasma blast soared toward him.

In a blast of green, the mouse king was gone, his legacy a tiny crater admist the misery-filled landscape of the clinic.

Doomguy scowled as the dust settled.

No gods.

No kings.

Only men.

[spoiler]

#14 Mickey Mouse DEAD
Two Primes Remain

[/spoiler]

[Karl Jak]

Dante’s Abyss 2015 Finale
Doomguy, Sasuke Uchiha

Sasuke Uchiha rose to his feet. Someone else was dead—their body scattered to the winds by the marine’s gun.

There they stood—two man atop a mountain of corpses, and there would be only one of them who would walk away from this alive.

One was man driven by sorrow and anger, with the death of his comrades fresh in his mind.

The other was barely a man anymore, his rage having long ago supplanted any other emotions.

The BFG boomed.

The ninja threw himself out of the way. He handed in a crouch near Mjolnir and scooped up the weapon. A moment later, the hammer was airborne—a gray blur that hit the plasma gun with a thunderclap, breaking it apart but failing to compromise the clip. Discarding his weapon, the marine spotted the hammer nearby. He found it just as the lightning sword was flashing in the air above his head. Clutching it by the base of the handle and its head, Doomguy swung it up, intercepting the Ultima Weapon before it could split open his head.

Shoving back against his attacker, the marine knocked Sasuke off balance and swung for his kneecaps. As it had so many times before, the strategy was seamlessly, and the ninja swallowed down a scream as his legs fell out from under him. Doomguy wasted no time. He fell back and swung for the skull.

Sasuke rolled free from the hammer’s path. The weapon hit the ground with a wet smack, spraying mud out as the ninja made it back to his feet. He swung the Chidori Blade, and Doomguy ducked and lunged at him. The armored man slammed into the ninja, driving the air from his lungs as the two fell into the mud. A fist crashed into Sasuke’s cheek, crushing the done and splitting apart the skin. The ninja threw out a hand, his fingers reaching for his weapon, which lie inert in the mud nearby.

At that point, the hammer dropped—smashing the outstretched hand into wet ground.

The ninja ground his teeth together, stifling the scream as he jolted up and threw his good hand at his opponent’s face. Two of his fingers tore into the soft tissue of the marine’s left eye, and with that, he got a response that bordered close to pain as his opponent rasped and swung at him with the hammer. The blow was a glancing one that clipped Sasuke in the side of the head—enough to knock over the ninja, who scrambled a few feet before making it back to a vertical position. He turned as a bolt of lightning struck a tree somewhere nearby, illuminating the bloody visage of the marine.

Doomguy and Sasuke weren’t the type for banter.

They simple came running at one another—their eyes burning holes through each other.

A hammer swung through the air.

A ninja ducked and dove around his opponent, his broken body sustaining itself on little more than adrenaline and revenge. Sasuke rose and absorbed another vicious hammer blow that threw him backwards, but even as he felt a rib crack, the ninja smiled faintly as he hit the mud. Doomguy rushed in for the kill.

Sasuke grabbed for something half buried in the mud.

The hammer swung down as the ninja thrust his good hand forward.

There was a flash of lightning as the Ultima Weapon roared back to life, its blade tearing up through Doomguy’s chest as it reached its usual length. The marine let out a grunt as his grip loosened and the hammer smacked into the mud next to them. Sasuke stood up and pulled the crackling lightning sword out through the man’s chest.

Doomguy took a wobbly step forward, his eyes falling down to the hammer before looking back at Sasuke. Nothing would stop this man.

Nothing would ever make him stop.

The ninja swung the sword.

With a clap of thunder and a flash of light, the marine’s head hit the muddy earth in front of the clinic. It rolled to a rest, and even in death, the eyes still carried enough anger to burn holes through a weaker man.

[spoiler]

#26 Doomguy DEAD

One Prime Remains

[/spoiler]

[Karl Jak]

Dante’s Abyss 2015 Finale
Sasuke Uchiha

All at once, the rain seemed to stop. The clouds parted overhead, allowing the sunlight to shine down upon the corpse-littered battlefield. Sasuke looked around, his good eye taking in the carnage—not only from the recent battle, but from the others that had occurred days ago.

Forty-five people were dead. For what? Ratings? The amusement of others?

Somewhere close by, a microphone burst to life.

“Congratulations to #43 Sasuke Uchiha. You are the winner of Dante’s Abyss, and our illustrious Grand Champion.”

The ninja scowled. It was a title stained in blood.

“The chopper will be arriving to pick you up shortly, and you’ll be taken to our press room to address all of our viewers.”

“Wonderful,” Sasuke muttered as the collar on his neck blinked once before popping off and dropping to the ground. The weapon in his hand fizzled out as well, reverting back to just a handle and nothing more. Sasuke nodded his head and dropped it next to the corpse of the last prime. He then stood in silence, his eye staring out into the distance as he waited until he heard the approach of the helicopter.

A few moments later, he was ushered onboard and strapped into a seat. Someone provided him with a warm drink and told him that he’d feel better sooner or later. They said he just needed omnilium… as if that was supposed to wash away the horrors he had seen and experienced. A magic substance wouldn’t wash away the sight of his friends dying all around him… of Mami’s severed head spewing blood into his face as it dropped into his arms.

The chopper slowly started up as the rain started to fall back onto the island. Sasuke rested his head against the cushion and looked down toward the clinic. For a brief moment, he swore he saw a massive man in a hockey mask staring up at him from beneath a tree. The ninja shook reached up and rubbed his remaining eye, and when his hand fell away, a second glance revealed nothing. No boogey-men. No monsters.

Just memories. Haunting memories.


[spoiler]

00 Primes Remain

#43 Sasuke Uchiha WINNER

[/spoiler]