Orso Fiction 029

Orso Fiction 029-Rescue? (Part 2 of 3)
“Three little cubs wandering around our woods…”, Micaiah purred. “Just how am I supposed to deal with the three of you…”

“You could always back up. And, you know, walk away.”, Ben Diaz offered. She scoffed.

“But that wouldn’t be in line with what I have to do…nor what I want to do…”, she replied. “Tell me, you three…what drove you all the way here, running right at your predator’s den?”

“We came for Alex.”, Milton said. “Let us see him.”

“Oh, big, tough, words…”, Micaiah said with a smile. “But where’s the fun in that…”

“I didn’t think it’d be that easy…”, Ben murmured.

“But…I’ll tell you what…”, Micaiah began. “There are four of us standing guard today. If you can help all of us burn off some stress, we’ll let you visit with him…but I can’t promise anything more than that. He’s quite happy where he is…”

“Is that right?”, Nate asked, stretching his arms in anticipation for the fight. “And just what makes your side so much nicer than ours?”

In the blink of an eye, Micaiah was behind Nate, her arms around his shoulders.

“Well…the girls on this side are much more fun…”, she whispered. Ben and Milton were stunned as they watched Micaiah run her hands over Nate’s arms. “Wouldn’t you rather join us, than struggle?”

A bead of sweat ran down Nate’s face, as he felt Micaiah’s breath by his ear.

“Nate…”, Ben murmured, stunned.

“Get away from her…”, Milton said softly, transfixed.

“Don’t listen to them…”, Micaiah said quietly, playfully, her hands now on his thighs. “Please…stay with us here. The other girls and I would love to have you here. The one we have…doesn’t satisfy…”

“Guys…”, Nate moaned. “I’m…I’m…sorry…”

“No…Nate! Don’t listen to her!”, Milton gurgled.

“She’s trying to trick you…”, Ben said, unable to take his eyes off her.

“I’m so…sorry…”, Nate began, but then whipped around, aiming a fist at Micaiah. She barely dodged, and returned to her original point on the battlefield. “I’m so sorry…that we have to waste time on this one.”

“You’re hard to tame.”, Micaiah commented.

“Please, woman.”, Nate said, laughing. “Don’t you know who I am? I’m Nate Mercer. If anyone here is going to seduce someone, it’s me.”

“Shame…”, Micaiah said, biting a finger gently. “First try, and I almost had you…”

“So now…”, Ben said, igniting his ring and opening his box, releasing Lucy the Sun Tasmanian Devil. “We move to more conventional combat…”

---

“Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream…”, Nicole muttered, rifling through shelves in the kitchen’s freezer. She found a box she deemed adequate for Matt’s consumption, and took out a cone, wrapped in plastic. Suddenly, her phone alerted her to how it had just received a text. She looked at it, and found that Nick Seese had asked her to meet him in his office, saying it was quite extremely urgent. She sighed, and looked at the ice cream. She didn’t want to make Nick wait, but she certainly didn’t want to make Matt wait on his ice cream, since the boy was in such pain. She was alerted to the presence of someone else in the kitchen. When she saw who it was, she smiled.

“Oh, hey there! Could you do me a favor, and run this up to Matt, in the medical wing? Thanks so much!”

Tatsu the mongoose, hiding the phone he had stolen from Nick, nodded cutely, and took the ice cream. When he turned around, an evil smile crossed his little mongoose face.

All was going according to plan.

---

Milton released his Thunder Dog, Chaser, a gruff looking bulldog, and drew his NCO sword, channeling his green Thunder Flames through it.

“Chaser, she’s not normal.”, he said. “First priority is survival. Doing damage comes second.”

“Oh, it hardly matters which order you put those in…”, Micaiah said with a giggle. “Both of those are absolutely up to me…”

As she said this, Nate released his Storm Bull, Dick.

“Dick…Be ready, bud.”, he said. The bull snorted once. Nate removed his cape, and ran Storm Flames over it, so it became a crimson cloth burning brightly with red flames. As he did, Ben ran Sun Flames through his two knives. “Alright, guys…Here’s where the plan starts. You all remember it?”

“You hit her, then we hit her.”, Ben said. “Of course we do.”

“That’s your plan?”, Micaiah asked, a bit surprised. “The Orso’s brain trust, you’re not.”

“You hit her, then we hit her.”, Milton said. “Then we improvise. Get to it, Nate.”

“Here we go.”, Nate said, flapping his cape over Dick’s eyes. “Dick! Charge!”

---

“Bleeeeeeh, pain.”, Matt Iannone whined from his bed. “So, those six, those are the ones I’m in charge of?”

“That’s right.”, Sabra Bushey said. “The Agents report to the Head Agent, and the Head Agent reports to the Boss. It’s a similar setup to the Varia.”

“What about the Outside Advisor?”, Matt asked, his curiosity overriding his pain.

“Well, the Outside Advisor’s a different case…”, Sabra said with a smile. “Scott, the Primo, is a little more-“

She was distracted by a text, which she checked.

“Huh…Nick Seese, needs urgent help…”, she murmured. “I can’t imagine why he’d call ME, but well, I guess I should give it a look. Sorry, Matt, I do hate to leave you.”

“No, no, go for it.”, Matt said, giving her a smile. “Thanks for staying with me so long.”

Sabra left, and Matt laid back. This was all so fast…

Suddenly, a rustling at the end of his bed caused him to look up.

“Oh…no…”, he tried to say. “Not you. Anyone but you…”

Tatsu sat at the end of his bed, Nick’s phone beside him, licking his ice cream, and smiling in his disturbing mongoose way.

The look in Tatsu’s eyes betrayed his intentions. Matt tried to move, to curl himself into a ball, in hopes of defending himself.

The mongoose had come for him. And it would show no mercy.

---

Nate dashed at Micaiah, following Dick. The Sun Apostle smirked, and easily leapt out of the way. This was too fast for Dick to respond to, but Nate was far back enough to adjust his course, and aim a punch at Micaiah. She ducked under this one, and delivered a deceptively powerful blow to his stomach, with her fingernails, piercing his skin. He stumbled back, Dick catching his fall.

“Milton!”, he shouted, seeing the boy prepare to rush her. “Remember the plan!”

“The plan…”, he murmured. “Alright. I see what you mean.”

“The plan?”, Micaiah mouthed. “That simple little thing? That’s no strategy…”

Ben charged, knives at the ready, Lucy at his side. Micaiah blocked his two swings, and kicked Lucy out of the air when she jumped at him. She threw him off of her, and focused her attention on Milton, who rushed her with his sword. She sidestepped, and delivered a chop to his back. Ben, at this point, was getting back up, and he attacked her again, this time throwing one of his knives. Micaiah stepped to the left, and it whizzed past her harmlessly. She punched him once in the chest, and he flew backward, as he attempted to throw another knife. This one fell to her left, without her having to move. She looked around at the three of them.

“That’s it?”, she asked. “The other three will be so disappointed…”

Slowly, Milton stood back up, and Hunter circled his legs.

“We’ll try that, right.”, he told the dog, who softly barked in agreement. Milton charged her once more with his sword, but, to Ben and Nate’s careful eyes, slower, and more predictably, than he had before. She effortlessly swatted him away, and kicked away Hunter when he rushed at her, snapping his jaws.

“I’m not asking too much, am I?”, Micaiah asked, a sneer on her lips. “Just for one of you to hit me would be a nice chance of pace.”

Ben slowly rose to his feet, but stumbled back a few steps, coming to a sudden stop when he caught his balance, as Nate stopped relying on Dick to keep him steady.

“Stick…to the plan…”, Nate wheezed.

“You didn’t have a plan, or a prayer, from the start.”, Micaiah said cruelly. She brought her hands down on the nearly invisible wires running from Ben’s wrist guards to his knives, which, in theory, would have limited her movement. They snapped effortlessly. “Come on. Show me your next lame trick, so I can break that one, too.”

“Oh, she’s good…”, Ben thought. “Milton…I hope you’re planning what I hope you are.”

Milton shot at Micaiah, back to his usual formidable speed, but at the last second, as he saw Micaiah’s hand rise, he jumped back, dropping his guard in favor of getting far away from her. She saw her chance, and shot at him. She pushed her fingers through Milton’s stomach, just as she had done to Nate. He coughed up a little blood, but grabbed her by the wrist.

“Not done yet?”, she asked, her grin growing even more malicious. She raised her other hand, preparing to slice him with her fingernails straight down his entire body. Suddenly, she spun, in time to block Nate’s fist with her forearm.

“I hit you.”, Nate said triumphantly, coughing up about a pint of blood in one mighty hack, because like hell he was going to let Milton look cooler than him. Suddenly, Micaiah realized the significance of those three words. This mostly came from how she felt Hunter and Lucy each bite a leg, and Ben put her in a full nelson. As Dick stood directly behind Nate, Micaiah realized she was totally surrounded. She giggled.

“Good.”, she murmured. “Good…Now you’re worth it…”

A burst of yellow energy exploded from all over her body, knocking all of them away.

“I’m not a normal enemy.”, she told them. “God made me to be an elite fighter. Three common people like you can’t do anything more than touch me…when I let you.”

“I bet…”, Nate said, laughing darkly, as he rose to his feet. “…you tell that to all the guys. And you always let them have more than that.”

Micaiah raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, you’ve still got life in you.”, she sneered, preparing to pierce his stomach with her hand again. “Fun.”

---

“Is your person wearing a hat?”, Matt asked. Tatsu shook his head, and laughed, in an utterly creepy mongoose way. Matt groaned, and flipped one face down. Tatsu picked up a little pencil with his mouth, and scribbled on the paper in front of him. He pawed it to Matt, who read it over quickly, growling.

“Is my person Sarah? YES. YES IT IS.”, Matt said angrily. “How the FUCK does a MONGOOSE get so good at GUESS WHO?!”

Tatsu rolled on the bed, almost crying from laughter. Matt scanned the room. A chessboard Tatsu had beaten him in six turns on was to his left, and a Connect Four board, also lost to the mongoose, was to his right. The little monster had beaten him in CANDYLAND of all things five times in a row. That game didn’t even take skill.

“Are you done yet?”, Matt asked. “I’ve been playing with you for like, half an hour.”

Tatsu picked another game off the cart he had dragged to Matt’s bedside.

“Awesome. Battleship.”, Matt said dryly, looking at the box. “This won’t suck.”

---

As Micaiah’s hand shot at Nate, time seemed to slow for Ben, and, as tends to happen when time seems to slow, he remembered something…

---

Ben and Milton, on the way out of the base, had encountered each other, and agreed to work together. As they walked out the door, they heard a voice from right behind them.

“You’re going to find Alex Carroll, aren’t you?”

They turned to see none other than Mary Reiter.

“That’s right.”, Ben said. “Are you coming, too?”

She exhaled, her breath visible in the air.

“No. But I’ll point you to someone who is. Nate Mercer. He’ll be by the tennis courts soon.”, she said coolly.

“Well…thank you.”, Ben said, uncertainly. “But why won’t you come?”

“Nate won’t bring himself to work with me. He’s got too much pride.”, Mary said. “It’s a shame…he’s so strong, but he himself is what’s holding him back…”

“What?”, Milton asked. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, don’t mind me.”, Mary replied, smiling. “But…Nate won’t be able to fight those Apostles. He’s not even close to strong enough...but, for just a moment, he can come close… When you absolutely need his help, repeat what I’m about to tell you right now…”

---

“Nate!”, Ben shouted. “You’ll have to-“

Instantly, Nate’s neurons began firing, knowing, no, remembering, as though from a long forgotten dream, what Ben was about to say. In that second, time stopped for him, and the memory, long repressed, rushed back to him.

---

“Beautiful!”, the announcer called. “The lovely and elegant Mary Reiter has punched out all one hundred tigers, with a record time of seven-point-oh-three seconds!”

Mary silently, solemnly, raised her fist to the cheering crowd, one hundred tigers lying all around her, beaten. She turned to Nate, sitting on the bench, and gave him a thumbs up. Nate fumed with anger. Every year, it was the same story. Not this year. This year, he would take home the gold medal.

“We’ll take a ten minute break to move in the new set of tigers.”, the announcer called. “The final contestant, hailing from Mary Reiter’s home country, the USA, is Nate Mercer; the second greatest tiger puncher in not only America, but the world!”

“Ten minutes, champ. You nervous?”, Mary asked him, sitting beside him.

“Why would I be nervous?”, Nate asked. “They’re just tigers.”

“You have a good point.”, Mary said. “Still. It is one hundred tigers. What is your record, twelve something isn’t it?”

“Twelve seconds flat.”, he said firmly. “But I’ll be taking your record this year.”

“Awesome!”, Mary said with an earnest smile. “Good luck! I’ll be rooting for you.”

“Look at her…”, Nate thought. “She thinks she’s so clever…she already thinks she’s won…”

“I’m really glad you come to these things, too.”, Mary continued. “It’s nothing but big, tough guys. It’s nice to have someone friendly to talk to. Plus, I think you’re keeping the muscleheads from hitting on me, while you’re around.”

“Oh, now she’s gloating that she’s the only one that gets hit on at these things…”, Nate thought, his anger building.

“Anyway, you should go warm up, but…I want you to know…You’re a good friend, Nate. It’s been good to always have a friendly rival to keep me sharp. And..I got you something… I hope you use it out there today.”, Mary said, handing him a package. He cautiously unwrapped it. It was a very well made set of cestus, the Roman answer to boxing gloves. He hesitantly put them on, and flexed his fingers. They were indeed incredibly well made. He felt his tiger-punching capability increased just by wearing them.

Unable to find words to say, Nate got up and left to warm up. Mary smiled after him, earnestly hoping for him to do well.

After breaking the tiger-shaped punching bag with one hit, Nate stepped into the arena, to crowds cheering his name.

“As you all know, folks, the competitor shouts the number of tigers they want released at that time. After that, they work to knock out all one hundred tigers, a feat only managed by Mary…and THIS MAN! Ladies and gentlemen of the tiger-punching community, I give you…NAAAAAAATE MEEEEEERCER!”

“I WANT ONE HUNDRED!”, he roared.

“ONE HUNDRED TIGERS!”, the announcer screamed. “OPEN THE DOORS, AND START THE CLOCK! Nate Mercer will attempt the fabled one-hundred-in-one!”

All the cage doors in the arena opened, and one hundred Bengal tigers leapt out at him.

“This is my answer!”, Nate shouted. “This is how I answer your Frozen Torrent Fist, Mary!”

A massive amount of Storm Flames gathered around his fist, and he narrowed his gaze at the nearest tiger. He allowed himself one look at his eternal rival…

…and saw the sleazy looking guy next to her.

In a moment of blind rage, Nate jumped out of the arena, away from the tigers, and delivered his deadly punch to the man that he was sure was hitting on Mary.

Ten minutes later, after the smoke had cleared, the man, or what the medical staff found of him, was pronounced dead, and Nate, for leaving the arena, disqualified. Mary was given the gold medal, and, as a small amount of chaos had broken out, the announcer went on the air to pacify them.

“Ladies and gentlemen, as I’m sure you’re aware, Nate will not be tried for any crime, because, strictly speaking, this entire sport is completely illegal, and we can’t risk the Tiger Punching Olympics closing down. Plus, he was probably a rapist. That’s the story we’re going with. Yep. He was a rapist. And Nate killed him. In Mary’s defense. Now, why don’t we all just walk away from this, and treat it like a wacky misadventure, instead of the terrible tragedy is really is?”

A little bit later, waiting for the plane back from the unspecified locale of the Tiger Punching Olympics, Mary turned to Nate.

“You know I could have handled him on my own.”, she said, with a smile. Then she hugged him. “But thanks, you big doofus…You’ll have to…show me that big punch sometime.”

---

“…show me that big punch sometime!”, Ben finished shouted. Effortlessly, Nate caught Micaiah’s hand, and tossed her aside. With wide, stunned, eyes, she glared at him.

“You weren’t that strong a second ago!”, she hissed. She stopped short when she saw the red flames covering his hand, which he now covered with that cestus. Two tiny bull horns of Storm Flame sprouted from the glove.

“BURNING HURRICANE FIST!”, he screamed, releasing a single giant blast of Storm Flames, enveloping the entire vision of everyone present.

---

Mary, watching from the roof of the school, smiled.

“Give ‘em hell, friend.”, Mary said. “Give ‘em hell.”

---

At the battlefield, the smoke had begun to clear. Ben and Milton, hacking in both surprise and from how much smoke had just gotten into their lungs, made out the figure of Micaiah, standing, uneasily. What little clothing she wore had burned to reveal even more of her body

“How…how did you do that?”, she gasped. “How did you do that?”

Nate patted Dick on the head once, and smiled.

“That’s…the power of a silver medalist…”, he said, before passing out.

“You…bastard…”, Micaiah said, falling to her knee.

“Pathetic.”, a cold voice from behind her said. The smoke cleared further to reveal Isaac. “I know they look weak…but you didn’t have to drop your guard that much…”

The Thunder Apostle flew at Milton, knocking him down quickly, as he was barely standing after Micaiah’s attack. He turned to Ben, and with one massive swing of his backhand, sent him flying into a thick tree. His vision going fuzzy, he looked up at the man leisurely walking toward him, his fist now crackling with Thunder Flames, prepared for a much more powerful blow.

---

“YOU SUNK MY GODDAMN BATTLESHIP!”, Matt screamed at Tatsu, who could only roll around in laughter. “You don’t even make sense, you little monster! If you’re so smart, then why haven’t you been doing anything productive with your brains, huh!? You’re a little freak!”

Tatsu looked up at Matt, his eyes big, his lip quivering.

“Oh…Oh, Tatsu, I didn’t mean it…I didn’t mean it, buddy. I just got angry. C’mere…”, Matt said, earnestly sorry. Tatsu hesitantly walked closer, and accepted the hug Matt offered. When Tatsu came away, Matt felt his pockets slightly lighter.

“You have my wallet now, don’t you?’, he asked. Tatsu chattered happily, holding it up. In his other paw was Muffins’ box. He gestured to it, as if asking a favor.

“You…want me to let Muffins out to play with you?”, Matt asked. “I…guess so. I haven’t seen him since we fought Alex. I should make sure he’s okay…”

He ignited his ring, taking a moment to admire the orange glow of the Sky Flames, then opened Muffins’ box. The owl was unhurt, and unchanged from the last time he had seen him, except for a small orange gem on his forehead.

“Oh hey there…”, Matt said, recognizing the gem on the forehead as meaning the animal belonged to a ranked individual, and reaching out to touch it. “You’re new.”

When his finger touched the gem, there was a flash of orange light, and a small, glowing ball of it came out of the gem, and floated around Matt and Tatsu.

“Do…you know what this is?”, Matt asked. Tatsu nodded, and then inexplicably pulled popcorn from the cart. Slowly, the orange light expanded, and began to take form. The form of Zach Stimely’s face.

“Listen closely, Matt.”, the image of orange light said to him. “If you’re seeing this, something unexpected has happened. This is Zach. I’m about to explain everything to you. Don’t miss a detail.”

---

As Ben took a deep breath in, trying to think of how to react next, he saw a ball of Storm Flames shoot past him and collide with Isaac.

“Hey.”, a voice from his left said, the sound of Thunder Flames crackling above the source of the sound. “You alright, Soul Brother? I didn’t really want to come, but…we heard you might be in trouble. It wouldn’t be good of me to just abandon you, would it?”

“I can’t believe you guys were so irresponsible…No, scratch that. I totally believe it.”, came a voice from his right. Ben felt, and then saw, a tiny worm, burning with purple Cloud Flames, crawling on his leg, checking him for injuries.

“Good job so far, Bendy.”, a figure standing in front of him said.

Ben’s vision cleared, and he turned to his left to see the familiar face of Adam Ellerbrock and his Thunder Bat, TK. To his right was Jake Federkeil and his Cloud Worm, Ken. The ball of Storm Flames uncurled next to its master to reveal that it was the Storm Armadillo, Cody.

James LaDow turned around to look at Ben, and smiled.

“We’ll take it from here.”

-

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