>> I first awoke to the feel of the warmth of the sun on my skin. It was nice but it was getting to that point where the warmth was slightly uncomfortable. My eyes fluttered open as I squinted; the bright sky with its well embraced sun was a bit too bright for my liking. Eventually my eyes adjusted and I could open my eyes all the way and see properly. I stared up at the clear blue sky, the sky hadn’t a single cloud lingering about today, and it was truly beautiful. The cool dirt under my palms felt nice but it didn’t seem right, though I couldn’t put my finger on it. I used my hands to push my self up a bit until I lightly jumped up onto my feet and stood up slowly. Surrounded in a sea of hues of gold, the dancing wheat touched my skin lazily as it swayed back and forth. I take in a deep breath; inhale, hold… wait a second... exhale. That wasn’t right… the air wasn’t fresh and the sweet scent of the wheat wasn’t filling my nose and lungs. Instead it was a faint smell of copper lingering in the air, but where was it coming from, where is their metal in this field? I scan the golden field then gracefully turn around to welcome the part of the field that was to my back. I spot something… a girl? My hand instinctively went to my hip where my Kusarigama rest in its holster. I couldn’t draw the weapon, once my fingers touched the leather case and cool steel I had been able to point out a few features of the girl. This girl was slender and a bit taller than average, she had long sugar pink hair and she’s wearing a white sundress that looks familiar, who is this girl? Another deep inhale to calm myself, I could feel my hand drop to my side and leave my leather holster; breathe in. Yuck. That copper smell, no… more of a rusting copper scent, whatever it was it was getting more potent. Where is it coming from? I probably would have investigated further if that girl hadn’t caught my attention. I take a couple steps toward her, she doesn’t move, so I continue to walk towards the girl, I stop once I’m about one yard in front of her. She’s smiling at me, she looks happy. I’m almost certain that my expression is baffling for her to take in. I’m thrown for once in my life. It was me; at least, I thought it was me. Sure does look like me. But of course that couldn’t be right. I was right here and if I wasn’t me, then who the hell was I?It took me a moment to realize that I was staring at the poor girl while I was thinking to myself. Her bright crystal blue eyes were full of happiness, they were familiar; a lot like the pair of blue eyes I had fallen in love with long ago. I could gaze into those eyes all day. She seems to be happy that I am responding to her now, she’s smiling. Her face... her eyes… She’s so familiar. Those eyes… that scent! I step back and glance around. Where could it be coming from? It smells like it’s on me. I stop and look back up at the girl; I step towards her and pull her close to me, wrapping my arms around her and holding her close. Her skin is so soft against my own, her hair gracefully drapes over my arms as she moves her head to rest it on my chest. My heart is racing. I open my mouth to speak but instead inhale through it. A metallic taste. It’s so strong now, but where and how? Every breath I take that metallic scent gets much more potent… wait. I pull the girl tight as I gasp for air, I can feel my nails digging into her soft porcelain flesh. That scent… damn it breathe, it’s not hard… I can’t focus… that scent. My eyes widen as I look up at the sky and watch as it turns crimson and dark. That scent is dried blood! <<
Pandora’s crimson eyes snap open as she lunges forward violently gasping for air. “Blood?” She pants quietly to herself and looks around the darkness that seemed to engulf her. A flood of confusion and a tiny dash of panic rise in Pandora while her hands find the cool concrete ground and push her up from it. She could still feel her heart pounding from being startled from the dream; she slowly stands up and leans against the wall to her back for support. She shakes her head; her eyes will adjust in a moment. “It wasn’t the dream… it was the damned blood. Kioko?” Pandora whispered to the dark silence that surrounded her with no response. Not even within their shared mind was there a response. “I’m going to assume she’s a sleep then…”
>>Click. <<
A flood of light poured into the small closet space as the door opened from the hallway. Pandora’s hand flew to her hip and grabbed the scythe of her Kusarigama from its leather holster at her hip. “There isn’t much room to swing this…” Pandora’s mind raced as the door continued to open. She placed the scythe back in its holster with ease then grabbed the throwing knives out of their holster on her left arm. The door was wide open now with a tall dark figure blocking out some of the light. Pandora’s ears flattened while her tail stayed completely still but not relaxed at all. The figure took a single step towards her; there was no risking it, even if she can’t recall how long she and Kioko had been asleep in this closet. She gripped the knives tips then flicked her wrist quickly and released them. They whizzed forward and flew by the person’s cheek. Her knives made contact; she could tell by their reaction, it wasn’t a serious wound just a small warning cut. “I’ll warn you now… next time the blow will be fatal…”
>>‘Pandora… this isn’t a good place to start a fight. You don’t have nearly enough room to use your weapon or your other talents… get out of there or make peace.’ <<
Pandora nodded as her fingers glided over the top curve of her scythe, the cool steel sent goose bumps across her body. “Let’s go then…” Pandora’s ear flattened and her tail swished around as she scanned the doorframe, there was just enough room for her fingers on the frame, and this would be useful for a successful way out of this mess. She backed up and then dashed forward towards the mystery person in the hallway. She jumped up and grabbed onto the top of the doorframe and swung her legs under and landed her feet square in their chest sending them backwards. ‘Good work… now get out of the closet Pandora’. Pandora released her grip from the frame and landed on her feet and jogged out of the closet and into the wide hallway.
>> ‘But I came out of the closet long ago babe’<< a grin flashed across Pandora’s face as she ran about 5 feet away from the slumped over human on the floor, she stopped and turned around to exam her quarry.“Who let the cat out of the bag almost seems appropriate at this point in time doesn’t it?” Their voice sounded playful as they shifted about and finally stood up to face Pandora. A young man stood down the hall from Pandora; he had very effeminate features and a voice that could be taken for either female or male. The features of his face weren’t hardened like other men, but rather soft. Pandora took quick notice to his light blue eyes, they were familiar but at the same time they seemed cold and sorrowful. He grinned as Pandora examined him from afar.
“You have great aim with your knives Miss.” His hand grabbed the knives that were thrown into the wall and collected them all with one hand and walked towards her with them in his hand. “I’d imagine you would want these back.” Pandora nodded then stopped as she took notice to the gash on his left cheekbone.
“That was a deep wound, I’m surprised that you stopped bleeding so quickly and managed to clean up the blood.” She extended her hand to accept her knives back into from him. He grinned and stopped before reaching her.
“I guess you could say that I’m a quick healer.” He closed his fist that held the knives and squeezed tightly. Pandora’s eyes widened a bit as she stared at him confused.
>>‘I don’t like this Pandora. If he bleeds onto your knives don’t take them back’.
>>‘Are you kidding Kioko?! You know how much those knives mean to me. They were hand made for me by your brother for me.’
>>‘You’ll get them back later after you kick his ass. But for now just don’t touch him. I can’t really figure him out yet.’ >>‘Fine…’ Pandora huffed angrily as she watched blood seep through his fingers and drip onto the floor.
“You’re bleeding Drek…” She stared at the blood as the scent lingered to her; she watched each drop hit the floor and pool out. Her crimson eyes intensified at this sight, the smell was intoxicating to Pandora. ‘Pandora! Get a grip on yourself. Now is not the time for your bloodlust’ Pandora grunted as she clenched her fist.
“Damn you Drek… your getting my nice knives all bloody…” Her ears flattened as her tail swished around violently. Her hand gripped onto the handle of the scythe as she grabbed it from her hip holster. She held the scythe above her head with her right hand and grabbed the chain about midway with her left hand; she dropped her arm and let the chain slip a bit in between her fingers and then gripped the chain again when she had about a foot and a half between her hand and the scythes handle. Neither took their eyes off the other while time passed; Pandora began to swing her Kusarigama scythe in circles to her right side, building momentum quickly, she grinned as she focused her eyes again on Drek. He grinned back as her continued to hold onto her knives, but why she wondered. She looked down at the pool of blood on the ground noticed that it had moved towards her and it still was. The stream of blood charged at her foot, she jumped back a few times and to the side as she watched it crash into the wall behind her. She had about two feet between her back and the wall.
“So you control your own blood? Obviously not well.” She grinned as she started to throw her Kusarigama side to side in front of her.
Drek smirked at her comment “You catch on pretty quickly but not quickly enough.” He starts to throw her blood-covered knives at her, but all of them miss her but at least two inches. They all whiz past her and land in the wall behind her. The blood splatters on the wall and slowly drips down; Pandora watched the blood trickle down as she grinned.
“I’m starting to believe that you aren’t a threat to me Drek.” She turned back around and set her eyes on Drek, who now was standing straight, he was no longer in a battle stance, and he simply was just standing up as if he were having a discussion with her. Her grin slowly faded away as a grin grew across Drek’s face, his face looked sick and twisted to her, his eyes were no longer something to capture her attention, but something she wanted to run away from. He drew his hand up slowly and held his open palm out in front of him, his fingers curled inward, the tips of his thumb and middle finger met and pressed together firmly.
“Sometimes, it’s best to get to know people before you start making assumptions about them.” His words lingered for a bit as Pandora lowered herself into a defensive position, her eyes revealed her true thoughts, she was nervous and had no idea what was going on, she took a step back towards the blood splattered wall behind her. Drek smiled again as he pressed the tips of his fingers more firmly
“Because Miss Puss in Boots…” His grin grew as he eyed her knee high black lace up boots “You’ve jumped the gun.”
“Bang.” Drek gleefully shouted as he snapped his fingers loudly. Not more than a second later the blood on the wall behind Pandora exploded as if they were bombs. The explosion threw Pandora forward violently while the debris threw itself at her body, large pieces that crushed her and pushed her around, the smaller and medium pieces that flew at her cutting her skin open in various areas. She flew forward a few feet then dropped to the ground and rolled another couple of feet; she lay under a pile of debris clenching her fist and gritting her teeth in pain. The smell of blood was everywhere; she couldn’t take too much more of this before she completely lost it.
>>‘Pandora! Pandora switch with me before the blood starts to affect you!
>>’‘Kioko, I’m fine just let me have a second to pull myself together…’ Pandora panted as she tried to slow her breathing.
>>‘We need to get out of here. He could be setting something else up…
>>’‘Your right… we need to keep moving. He won’t be able to set up traps if we’re constantly moving. Let me take over.
>>’‘Kioko… it’s too dangerous love… I’ll be fine.’ Pandora grunted as she pushed rubble off herself.
>>‘I’m sorry Pandora… But you’re just going to have to trust me on this one.
>>’‘Fine…’
Pandora fought her way to a standing position as she threw the rubble off of herself; the light of the hallway flooded over her body, revealing the trickling blood, the bruises and dust that covered her entire body. Pandora stumbled a bit as her eyes scanned the area. “Where is that bastard?” She scowled angrily.
“You mean me?” Drek replied almost playfully as he stepped forward through the settling dust, lightly jumping over larger pieces of the blown in wall. “It’s good to see that your still alive. It would have been a pity if that tiny explosion would have killed you.” He grinned as he stopped and examined the damage on her body. Pandora growled quietly as her ears flickered and tail darted around behind her; her crimson eyes glared deep into his ice blue eyes, hatred is all she could feel towards him. She stood up straight and exhaled and closed her eyes, her head nodded slightly as a grin crawled across her face. She opened her eyes to reveal a bright crystal blue rather than the deep shade of crimson they were before. Kioko picked her head up and looked at Drek with a bright smile.
“Hello Mr. Drek.” Her voice was cheerful and full of energy; she smiled and bowed politely. This took Drek back; unsure of what just happened, he stepped back slightly and eyed up his opponent again. He took notice to her bright blue eyes, he was certain that they were a darker color before, and her attitude was completely different from before. After a moment he grinned and bowed back.
“Hello to you Miss. Please, introduce yourself to me properly. I love to get to know my opponents before I kill them.” He stood back up and watched Kioko’s every move.
“ My name is Kioko Lamoreaux, the Duchess of Shandelaive. I am here to win. So…” She giggled and spun around and started running down the hall “So you’ll have to catch me if you want to beat me.” Her eyes narrowed as she started sprinting down the halls; ‘We need to find a spot for you to fight Pandora.’She entered a large open lobby and stopped for a moment to think, her eyes darted back and forth as she read the signs on the walls and the signs that pointed to different area’s of the mansion. Pool, ballroom, elevators, kitchen, auditorium. That would be perfect for what Kioko had in mind. She turned and started to walk in the direction of the auditorium when Drek came out of nowhere and threw her into the wall. “The wasn’t very lady like Duchess Kioko…” He grabbed the dagger at his hip and grabbed it firmly; he slashed open his hand and blood raised up from the inside of his skin. Kioko had watched this as she stumbled away from the wall and fell to the ground panting violently. “Pandora… go.” Her bright blue eyes faded to dark crimson; Pandora growled and grabbed her Kusarigama, her right hand on the handle of the Kama and her left was gripped firmly around the chain that was lax, she had about three and a half yards to work with at this moment. She spun around and threw the scythe/kama towards Drek then yanked it back, she was too far away at the moment and there wasn’t enough time to readjust the chain length in her hands.
Drek was holding his hand upside down and letting his blood flow down to create something long. Pandora watched him and didn’t understand, whatever it was it would need some more time to create; she started swinging the scythe in circles to her side, quickly building up the momentum she needed to attack. Pandora darted forward and threw the scythe at Drek, he countered by grabbing a hold of the scythe with what looked to be something that could be recognized as a whip.
“You can make whips from your blood? How did I not see that coming?” She grumbled to herself as she made eye contact with him. He was grinning, as if this were a game to him; Pandora snarled at him and swung the opposite end of the kusarigama towards his blood whip; the small spiked ball made contact with the whip and shattered it, her scythe was free again.
She pulled it back to herself and held onto it tightly. ‘Close combat isn’t going to work Pandora, go to the auditorium and wait for him there.’ Pandora nodded as she looked back up at Drek, instead there was blood flying towards her; she jumped back and watched the droplets explode in mid air. Her eyes refocused to Drek in the background who getting ready to through more blood, but from both hands this time. She bit her lower lip and quickly tuned on her heel and darted to the hallway again. She figured running would be the best option for now, but Drek was still behind her; he threw more blood towards her and allowed it to explode once it came close enough to her. The explosion on her back made her cry out in pain but she could stop running. The hallway wasn’t enough room for her to fight Drek in, she would have to hang tight for a little bit longer and accept the abuse.
Drek was fast but Pandora was faster; she ran with him on her tail throwing his annoying blood bombs for about 15 minutes now. She didn’t want to admit it but she ran past the auditorium the first time and had to loop around the mansion again to go back to the auditorium. Pandora was hoping that he would run out of blood soon, if running out of blood was possible for him.
Finally she spotted the sign for the auditorium, she could hear Kioko whining about not missing it this time, Pandora rolled her crimson eyes and turned into the doorways of the auditorium. She ran in about ten feet then stopped to look around, forgetting that Drek had blood bombs that he was throwing at her. It was too late for her to try to avoid the explosions at this point, though; she knew this was going to suck.
Drek laughed as he threw the blood out in front of himself, they flew threw the air quickly and exploded when they made contact with Pandora’s skin. It burned. The explosion threw her backwards threw the air; all she could feel was the burning that was left scattered on her skin and the cool air that hit her body as she flew backwards until she hit the ground, face first.
Pandora lifted her head up and saw Drek kneeling in front of her, he seemed to be unenthused, like a child we grew bored with his toys, it seemed that Drek no longer liked his plaything. He sighed as he cut open his palm again and showed it Pandora, there wasn’t any blood, Pandora looked up at him in confusion.
“What? Wait… how is that possible” Pandora managed to mutter out of her mouth.
Drek moved his hand and placed it on her back and pressed down firmly. “You see Pandora.” He spoke clearly to her in a calm manner. “I only bleed when I want to.”
Drek grinned as he watched his own blood flow from his hand and pool out on Pandora’s back; he wanted to end this quickly and make sure it ended this time. His blood soaked through her shirt and seeped onto her skin; blood trickled down her sides and pooled underneath her stomach. He lifted his hand up and shook the blood off. “That’s enough… I’ve reached my limit.” He stood up and took a couple steps backwards to look down at Pandora’s face; her eyes were wide and filled with horror; Drek smirked and snapped his fingers.
Pandora started to feel warmth then suddenly and intense burning on her skin, she screamed in pain as she could feel her skin burning. It felt like someone had just poured acid onto her back, it burned and stung, it was too much. The pain and the scent of blood. Her thoughts had become a blur, Kioko’s voice could not be heard anymore, and there was silence in her mind. The only thing she could feel was the agonizing pain of the acid blood on her back; the only thing she could smell and taste was blood; the only thing she could hear was Drek’s footsteps, he was walking away from her, he thinks he won.
Pandora stood up slowly, the pain was messing with her vision, but she could see well enough to do what was necessary, to kill Drek. He was walking towards the exit, she couldn’t let him get away; she took a deep breathe in, taking in the scent of blood. She closes her eyes for a moment as she tightens her grip onto her kusarigama; she opens her eyes after a few moment to reveal her eyes to be brighter than before, they were no longer the deep crimson they were a moment ago but instead a brilliant red. Pandora looked up above her head, hanging from the ceiling was the fixture for the stage lights, which could easily hold her weight. She crouched down to the ground and then jumped up and at the same time she threw her kusarigama up as if it where grappling hook.
Drek stopped for a moment and turned around slowly, it had been quiet for a while, was Pandora already dead? His eyes were set on the spot where she was, but now all that was there was a pool of Drek’s blood. His body stiffened as he scanned the rows of seats; Pandora was nowhere to be found, he changed his footing and looked around again.
“Looks like it’s Lights out Drek” Pandora’s voice boomed through the entire auditorium, as she watched Drek from her crouched position on the light fixture. A wild grin crawled across her face as she licked her lips; she let the chain links slip between her fingers as she gripped the kama handle tightly. Her tail swished back and forth violently as she flattened her ears against her head ready to pounce; Drek was starting to back up slowly towards the exit, but that wasn’t going to save him. Pandora’s muscle tightened right before she pushed off the fixture towards Drek; the tip of the scythe was pointed towards herself and held out to her side as she fell through the air, a few more feet and she would strike the final blow.Pandora pulled the scythe across her body, coming in contact with Dreks neck; Drek’s bright blue eyes stared deep into Pandora’s maddened crimson eyes as she pulled the scythe across his neck. Pandora’s feet touched the ground after pulling the scythe all the way through; she whipped the scythe back across cutting through Dreks throat again and caught the scythe in her hand.
Dreks body collapsed to the ground motionless; Pandora walked away slowly from his body into the hallway, she leaned up against a wall in the hallway and slumped down to the ground. She stared at the ceiling and breathed slowly, it was still quiet. Where was Kioko? Would she be angry?
“The burning still hurts…” She carefully ripped the bottom of her shirt off below the bust line and laid onto her stomach, her back was exposed and was terribly burned, the skin was red and blistering, it would heal and leave a scar that she would never forget. Pandora closed her eyes and tried to relax, she tried to find Kioko; however, exhaustion found Pandora and she gave into it, closing her eyes and started to drift to sleep. She would dream again about the field and about the sugar pink haired girl with the bright blue eyes, she would dream about their wish coming true, in peace with no blood to interrupt her thoughts.
A quiet voice came from inside Pandora's mind. ‘Goodnight…Pandora…’ |
Submission Name: MM RND II: Kioko & Pandora VS Drek
