Pinellas Park was shady at best, but proved far more welcoming. Far away from the influences of Japanese nationals and the Church of Scientology, nobody paid Haruka or Aaron a second glance. The tranquility was refreshing, unlike the view. A well-maintained but sickly lawn welcomed the group to their new home, an only slightly shoddy two-story affair with yellowing paint. They filed in one by one and were led to their rooms by a tired-looking Dylan.
A loud thud called everybody’s attention to the roof. “I don’t like that, not one bit.” Aaron shook his head. “I was just looking forward to some good rest, too.” Haruka squared her blades, Aaron his fists, and the two walked up the stairs side by side. “You sure you want to come out with me, whatever may be out there?”, Aaron sighed. “Uncle Aaron! How dare you insinuate I can’t be any help!” Haruka pouted at him. “That wasn’t.. I… Ugh, teenagers.” Haruka simply grinned as they neared the attic entrance. The attic door swung down reluctantly, as if it were being forced out of bed after only a few hours of sleep. Dust rained down in waves. Ignoring the various darkened shapes around them, the pair proceeded to the window, opened it and stepped out onto the ledge. Just like they had seen from outside, the large attic window was adjacent to a ladder leading to the flat roof of the home.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”, Victor hissed as they reached the top of the ladder. Haruka’s swords whistled through the humid air in anticipation of bloodshed. Aaron cracked his knuckles. “I just took your left arm, yet here you stand, intact. What are you?” Victor chuckled, then laughed, then threw his head back and broke into a mighty, piercing guffaw. “You’ll never know!”, he screamed as he lowered his head to lock his mad eyes with Aaron’s, “And it doesn’t matter, because you’ll be dead soon, Haruka will be mine, and all of Japan and the United States will bow to me when I show them what she really is and that I can control her!” “Don’t be so presumptous.”, Aaron said solemnly as the pair approached Victor.
Victor continued to laugh his mad laugh as he threw himself at the two with blinding speed. Haruka’s swords bit into his flesh, but found themselves deflected. Blood whipped through the air in tendrils as Victor used the bone in his leg, shearing it in the process, to throw Haruka’s blades aside and land a spinning kick on her face, ducking to avoid a vicious punch from Aaron in the process. Aaron came at him again as he focused his attacks on Haruka, throwing her to the ground. A dropkick met Victor’s spine and sent him off the roof. He came bounding back up, blood dripping down his face. Aaron gestured to Haruka and received a katana in short order. Finding it much lighter than the sword he had used against Victor earlier, Aaron charged forward and gave a relentless flurry of strikes, forcing Victor to dodge with everything he had just to avoid being bisected or losing limbs. Haruka approached from the back and thrust her sword deep into Victor’s skull as he moved toward her, fully focused on Aaron. She took the opportunity and leapt spinning into the air, landing on the other side of Victor and snapping his neck with a sickening pop. She pulled the blade free and assumed a defensive stance. At this point, neither she nor Aaron would put it past Victor to live through such a blow.
He reached up and grabbed his head, held it straight until he heard another gutsy pop, then a meaty squelching. His head wound already sealing up, he locked the two with one mad eye and let the other drop from his fractured head. “Now you’ve made me angry!”, he screeched, not unlike an animal. From the sleeves of his black trenchcoat, Victor produced a pair of ornate short swords, one blue and one red. His hands twisted tightly around their hilts, then oozed around them, then encased them entirely. “Witness the power I’ve obtained!” Victor charged forward, his two swords glowing fiercely, feeding off of his life force through his arms, having become a part of him. A spinning attack shredded the blade Haruka had in front of her, leaving the edge jagged and knocking her to her haunches. Aaron stepped in quickly, slicing Victor across the neck, then going for his right arm, raised and cocked back to deal a telling blow to Haruka. Victor took advantage of Aaron’s focus on his right arm and, with a mad grin, rammed his left arm blade through Aaron’s stomach.
Haruka stood up, her now glowing eyes filling the scene with a golden light. A ragged scream tore its way out of her throat. “Yes!”, Victor cried, “Show me! Show us all what you really are!” A casual kick propelled an unconscious Aaron off the roof, a trail of blood behind him. A blast of golden energy made its way toward Victor at high speed and was deflected. Behind the blast, Haruka came flying at him on golden wings, a glowing blade held in front of her. Her sword sunk deep into Victor’s chest. She took her hands off of the sword to punch Victor squarely across the jaw, then launched into an aerial spinning kick that no normal human could have performed. The repeated blows separated Victor’s head from his shoulders after only five contacts. The head laughed and laughed as it flew off the roof and into a neighbor’s yard, eliciting a high pitched scream. “Come here, baby, give us a kiss!”, Victor’s head squealed at the terrified homeowner. Back on the roof, Haruka drove a golden fist into Victor’s chest, seized his heart and gave a mighty tug. The heart began to disintegrate. A scream came from the nearby yard. “Fuck you!”, Victor yelled to the winds, “You haven’t seen the last of me, damn you!” With those words, the body, heart and head of Victor all disintegrated. Spent, Haruka sat down hard and fought to stay conscious. Her vision spinning and writhing like a dying serpent, she lost the battle and fell backwards, the golden glow fading from her. Terra approached and scooped Haruka up in her arms. Back on the ground, Dylan was administering first aid to Aaron and shouting into his cell phone.
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