Orso Fiction 037

Orso Fiction Chapter 037-The Young Boss' Left Hand Man
“Looks like we have a draw.”, Vincenzo said cheerfully, putting his hand on the green Arcoferro, sliding it down the table, so it was no closer to Taylor’s or Sonia’s side, but separate from the red, blue, indigo, and purple pieces in the center. The yellow piece, he had moved to Taylor’s side when Paige fired her cannon and Sonia confirmed Orabella’s Darkness Box breaking, by checking her own. A small, dark yellow gem on the side had turned to dust, and now, a dark green gem did the same. “If the Orso win the other four matches, I’ll award them the green and orange Arcoferro.”

“That was lucky…”, Taylor thought, keeping her face perfectly still. “Good job, Nicole. You’ve made us proud. You can rest easy, now.”

She flipped her phone open, and called Paige.

“Hey, Head.”, the redhead chirped from the other side. “How’s everyone else doing?”

“Nicole managed a draw.”, Taylor said. “Make sure she’s not injured.”

“Already did, Head.”, Paige said with a laugh. “Look up.”

Taylor did, and saw Paige’s giraffe Topaz carrying Nicole, Raimonda, and Orabella on his back walking toward her, Paige at his side.

“These three will be fine. No lasting injuries.”, she said happily.

“Have you been healing our enemies while I’m not looking again?”, Taylor asked, with mock disappointment.

“Taylor…These girls aren’t our enemies. I know that much for sure. They’re not the villains here.”

“…I know.”, Taylor said, hanging up.

“Vincenzo, cheer up.”, Sonia said, ignoring Taylor’s conversation. “They’re almost over.”

“Auntie, you know I don’t like people fighting around me.”, Vincenzo said.

---

Mike Fornaro yawned. The girl ahead of him looked quite angry. This was going to be a pain in the neck. He didn’t need this kind of stress.

“You don’t have anything to say before we start?”, the Storm Rose asked him.

“Not really.”, Mike replied. “I mean, I could always offer that chance to surrender Zach’s always pestering me to give the people I’m fighting. So…yeah. If you want to leave, I’ve got no problem with that.”

“You think I’ll leave, just like that?”, she asked him. “Do you have any idea what I’m fighting for?”

“No.”

“…That’s it? ‘No?’ Are you mocking me?”

“No. I’m just being honest. I don’t know what you’re fighting for. All I know is that people are counting on me to win, so I will.”

“So you will? You think it’s that simple?”

“Maybe not THAT simple…but yeah. I need to win, and I will. That’s all there is to it.”

“What’s your name, Orso?”, she demanded. “I want to know who I’m breaking apart.”

“Mike. Mike Fornaro.”

“And I’m Ernesta.”, the girl said, igniting her ring with Storm Flames, opening her box. A fox, tail burning with the crimson fire, emerged. “Prepare yourself, Inari.”

“What a pain…”, Mike murmured. He pushed on his earpiece. “Alright, Mike to base. Can you read me?”

No one responded.

---

Next to Megan Conahan, in the surveillance room, there was an empty seat.

---

Coincidentally, at this very moment, Ed Hiner and Adam Podskalny were eating out of Mike’s fridge.

---

“Damnit…I’m on my own…”, Mike thought. “Oh well…I don’t really need them. Not for this fight.”

“I’ll erase you and your stupid confidence!”, Ernesta shouted. “I’m fighting for so much more than you!”

“That’s debatable.”, Mike murmured.

“I won’t show you any mercy!”, Ernesta shouted. “Inari, shred him!”

The fox lunged at Mike, who sidestepped, his hands in his pockets. Inari recovered from his miss, and jumped, aiming for Mike’s face. Mike, almost absentmindedly, moved his head to the left, so the fox soared past him. At this Ernesta dashed at him, drawing a Swiss Army knife. She slashed at him with it, but he spun, stepping to his right, so the knife sliced past him, harmlessly. Ernesta leapt back, scowling.

“Are you mocking me?”, Ernesta repeated. “You think you’re so righteous…I can’t forgive some idiot like you, standing in my way…”

She drew her Darkness Box from her pocket, igniting her ring once more.

“Inari…I know it’s painful, for both of us…But I need to wipe him off the face of this planet. His smirk is…enraging…”

She plunged the ring into the box, releasing the dark tendrils, which wrapped around her and her fox. Inari’s slowly turned from his usual reddish to a pure white, his eyes beginning to turn an intense red.

“Annihilate him.”, Ernesta commanded, her voice warped.

Mike’s eyes widened. Quickly, he took his hands out of his pockets, and immediately began to dig around the chest pocket in his uniform. He chuckled to himself as he pulled out his Orso Agent Ring.

“Wow. I don’t even remember putting this here. Lucky I found it though, huh?”, he asked, oblivious to the girl’s transformation. She continued to glare at him. “Huh. You don’t look much in the mood for talking.”

“That time has long past.”, she growled, flying at him.

“Aww...But I wasn’t paying attention when it was present!”, he whined. He focused on the knife the girl held as she rapidly came closer. There was an explosion of Storm Flames, which revealed, when clear, Ruby, blocking the knife with his tusks. “But now…we can start fighting.”

---

Adam, crunching through a handful of chips, stopped suddenly.

“I just had a scary thought.”, he said.

Ed Hiner, eating a burger, looked up.

“Dude, Mike won’t figure out it was us.”, he said, chuckling easily.

“No…What if this girl Mike’s supposed to be fighting is stronger than him?”, Adam asked. There was a moment of silence. Then, Eddie broke out laughing.

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard all day.”, Eddie said.

---

“Inari, burn him.”, Ernesta ordered. Inari’s tail pointed toward him and began to spout fire. Mike smirked, and leapt onto Ruby’s back.

“Pignition Charge.”, Mike ordered. Ruby charged through the fire, a shield of his own Storm Flames burning away the flames coming at him. They collided with Inari, who went flying. Ernesta scowled.

“Is One Tail not enough?”, she murmured. “Inari…Three Tails.”

Inari barked, and two tails of Storm Flames began to grow from Inari’s backside.

“Two more tails?”, Mike asked, standing atop Ruby, coattails flapping in the wind dramatically.

“Inari’s power is linked to how many of his tails he’s revealed.”, Ernesta said. “No one but me has ever seen his limit, nine.”

“Until today.”, Mike said. “Emboar Barrage”

Ruby opened his mouth and shot several fireballs of Storm Flame, each exploding around Inari, who moved too quickly to be hit.

“Pork Chop.”

Ruby leapt, with surprising speed, into the air, slashing in Inari’s direction. A long blade of Storm Flames shot at Inari, who growled angrily.

“Five Tails.”

Two more tails burst from his back. Inari barked once, releasing a wave of very thin Storm Flames, extinguishing the Pork Chop.

“How many people have made it this far, huh?”, Mike asked confidently.

“Enough for you to not deserve that smirk, you bastard. Seven Tails.”

Two more flaming tails burst from Inari. Mike chuckled.

“You’re getting a little hasty, huh?”, he asked. “That’s alright. I’m not eager to keep this fight going very long either. I’m starving. Faster I’m done with you, faster Taylor has to feed me. That’s our deal.”

“You…bastard. You arrogant pig. Kill him, Inari. Burn him to death.”

Inari barked, and moved all seven of his tails so their tips met, pointing at Mike. A large fireball gathered, and it fired at the Storm Agent. Mike sighed.

“Cambio Forma.”, he murmured.

Ruby instantly changed into his shield form, Furia Guardia. Mike easily blocked the fireball with the giant shield.

---


 * Before…*

“You’re unusually curious today.”, Zach said, shuffling through some blueprints.

“Don’t read into it.”, Trevor said, adjusting the sleeves to his dress shirt. “Just tell me.”

“It’s a boar. A boar that turns into a shield.”

“A shield?”, Trevor asked, then thought for a bit. “Oh. I get it.”

“Thought you would.”

“You’re kind of a dick, you know that? You totally planned that.”

“Of course. A sword and a shield…they’re just meant to be partners.”

---

“Maybe I should have asked…”, Mike said aloud. “What is it…that you’re fighting for?”

“Now you want to know?”

“Yeah. I’ve been thinking a little. I want to know now.”

“You…little freak.”

Mike shrugged.

“Zach’s always bugging us to get the FULL story out of our opponents. I don’t like it, but whatever.”

“Just who is this Zach? Is that your boss?”

“Meh. That’s what we’re supposed to call him, yeah.”

“I don’t know what your game is…but I won’t play along.…We’re fighting now. I won’t stop to chat.”, Ernesta said.

“Okay.”, Mike said. “As long as we all know I tried. Allison gets angry when I don’t follow protocol. And I HATE seeing Allison angry. Seriously. The girl’s a nightmare.”

“Then let’s continue.”

“No, seriously, you don’t understand. She SEEMS friendly, but she’s evil to the CORE.”

“Prepare yourself.”

“I’m not done talking about how scared I am of this girl. She’s like…a freaking…nightmare of a nightmare. Of an evil clown.”

“I’m done listening.”, Ernesta said. “We will silence your unceasing tongue. Nine Tails, Inari.”

Inari began to growl violently, growing in size, as the final two tails emerged. The tails began to grow rapidly, burning even brighter. Inari’s claws and fangs began to grow even larger.

“See, I’m looking at that, and it’s still not as scary as Allison.”, Mike said. “Whatever.”

Mike planted his feet, pointing his shield at the beast.

“Here I come.”, he murmured. At that, the inside of the shield began to light up. The various rocket boosters inside the shield burst to life, launching him forward.

“Dodge it, Inari!”, Ernesta shouted.

The fox dashed to the side, dodging Mike’s charge. Mike laughed.

“Not good enough!”, he called, and the bottom thrusters suddenly shot more fire, pushing the bottom of the shield even with the top. Hanging onto the shield, Mike shot straight up, realigning himself. While he was in the air, he squatted on his shield, then launched himself at the fox from the sky.

Inari, quicker than before, dodged again, leaving Mike no option but to crash into the ground. But he didn’t stop. Oh no, dear reader. He kept going. Ernesta looked down the massive hole, into the darkness.

“Is he…dead? No. He can’t be dead after that.”, she mused. “He…is he stuck?”

An explosion under her, understandably, caught her attention, as she felt herself being carried straight up. She looked down to see the face of the shield pushing her skyward.

“Did you TUNNEL with that thing?”, she demanded.

“Hell yeah!”, Mike laughed from under the shield. “No one thinks that’s possible, but it works every time!”

“You’re insane!”

“You don’t know the half of it.”, Mike said wisely. “Oh, you should hold on. It hurts worse when you do. It’d be a big help.”

Ernesta glared down, and leapt to the ground, falling on Inari’s large, strong, bushy tails.

“They never hold on…”, Mike murmured. “Whatever.”

He spun in the air, and launched himself down at an angle, surfing on his shield, carried by his fire. When he made contact with the ground, the surrounding area was bathed in Storm Flames. Mike skidded along the ground on his shield, then expertly flipped it back into his hands.

“Pretty cool, right?”, he asked, smirking.

Ernesta, laying on the ground, coughed up blood.

“I…I’m not done…”

“Give it up. You fought well.”, Mike murmured, returning Ruby to his boar form. “But it’s over now.”

Slowly, painfully, Ernesta got to her feet.

“Inari…”, she said, coughing up more blood. “DO IT!”

Inari barked violently, and began to fade, turning into a flame-like form. It flew at Ernesta, who closed her eyes, gathering at her fingers. Slowly, it worked its way around her body, covering her in a light red aura. Her eyes opened, bright red.

“Huh. That’s new.”, Mike said. “Definitely never seen that one happen.”

“This form…is absurdly painful…”, Ernesta told him. “I’ve never used it for any length of time…But it’s the only way…that I can keep fighting. I’ll tell you this right now…This form gives me incredible power and speed...”

“Jeez…You’re intense…”, Mike said. “But I can feel how fragile you are from here…If I hit you just once, I’m liable to break your bones. That’s the tradeoff, isn’t it? Power for defense?”

“You’re more perceptive than you look…”, Ernesta growled. “But not intelligent enough…You’ve left yourself wide open!”

She dashed at him, too fast for his eyes to follow, her hands being wrapped in the pinkish aura, growing claws.

“You underestimate…what I can endure.”, Mike said sadly, unmoving. As the claws collided with his skin, he barely flinched, focused on keeping his face from revealing any pain. “This fight is over.”

Ernesta gasped, stumbling back, her arm in intense pain. Inari escaped her body, and took on the form of a fox, with just one tail. She fell backwards, laying for a moment, looking into the sky.

“What makes you so strong?”, she asked, after a moment.

“Hmm? I guess…The fact that I don’t give up once I’ve started something…”, he answered, returning Ruby to his box.

“But…I have never wavered…”, Ernesta said, coughing up blood. “I…was prepared to die with that blow, to put all of my energy into it, and expend my life…Something about you…made that impossible.”

“Who knows?”, Mike asked. “I’ll call Paige, if you want. Because, you know, you look like you might die anyway.”

“No…not yet…”, Ernesta murmured. “I need to tell you…everything.”

“Crap.”, Mike thought. “Now I have to listen to her flashback…”

---


 * Before…*

“I’m sorry, kiddo.”, the doctor said, unhappily, his mouth and nose covered by a surgical mask. “It will be a long while before we can let you be up and about…We can’t let you make anyone else sick.”

“But…but it’s the summer!”, the girl who would be Ernesta protested.

“I’m sorry, dear.”, her mother said to the young girl. “But you’re very sick. Even if you don’t feel too bad, you could make someone else very, very ill. You don’t want that to happen, do you?”

“No…”

“Chin up, dear.”, her father said. “Even if you can’t go out to play, I’m sure Tim and Samantha will come visit you. The time will pass quickly, don’t worry.”

“You’re right, Dad.”, the girl said, smiling for the first time in a while. Seeing them would make everything better.

---

They never came.

She would find out later that the mothers of her childhood friends had forbidden them from visiting her, not for fear of her sickness being contagious, but out of a dislike and distrust of her mother, who had come from a less wealthy part of the state. Together, they resolved to break up the three best friends. It was such a simple, stupid reason. Money. That was all there was. The girl who would become Ernesta couldn’t help herself but to hate them.

But even worse were Tim and Samantha themselves. They never called, they never tried to visit. Their mothers registered them for a private school that the girl’s parents could never afford, intentionally, to get them out of the public school they deemed too full of lower class families children. But even through that, the girl knew that if it had been her, she would have tried. She would have fought. She would have found a way to be with the friends she had made the first day of preschool, and never turned away from since.

She had been betrayed. She didn’t want to see them again, and didn’t.

---

“I should have died that day.”, Ernesta darkly. “The day our house was blown off the goddamn face of the earth by that storm. The only survivor was the one that didn’t care.”

“Don’t talk like that.”, Raimonda said. “You’re lucky to be here.”

“I know that now.”, Ernesta said. “I sure didn’t then. All I could think about was how I had lost all my friends, all my family…how I didn’t have anything left…But then she found me.”

“Sounds like how all of us were…”, Orabella said, gesturing to the other girls, sitting a little bit off from them, not hearing their conversation. “She ‘adopted’ me after a fire burned both our houses down, Raimonda, she adopted after her brother, her last family alive, was hit by a car.”

“We’ve all had it rough.”, Raimonda said, shaking the memory. We’re lucky, I suppose, that we’ve all found each other.”

“You’re right.”, Ernesta said. “It took me a long time to get back my will to live…But now, now I have it…All because of Adelina rescuing me from myself. From then on, I told myself I would never give up. Never again. I’ll keep going until my last breath, if I need to. Ernesta…it means ‘Battle to the death’. And that’s how I’ll live from now on. I’ll fight every part of this world until we shape it into a world we can live in peacefully.”

---

“I can’t speak for losing your family…But your two best friends abandoning you…I know how that feels.”, Mike murmured.

---


 * Before…*

“Alright, another day, another recess!”, a third grade Zach said, as the lunch monitors ushered them outside. “What are we doing today?”

“Same thing as every recess.”, Mike laughed. “Walk around, do nothing, watch Trevor annoy girls.”

“How could I forget?”, Zach laughed. “Hey, my parents said I could have two friends over this weekend, do you guys want to come sleep over?”

“Yeah!”, Mike answered enthusiastically.

“Sure.”, Trevor answered with a smile. “I’ll ask my parents when I get home.”

---

“We had it perfect…”, Mike said. “Three best friends, who trusted each other and cared for each other as much as a group of third grade boys can do… So sure that we’d grow up, and nothing could ever come between us…”

“But…something did…”, Ernesta murmured.

“…That’s all in the past, now.”, Mike said.

---

“Alright.”, a much older Mike said, as Zach and Trevor stood across from him. “Under one condition.”

“What’s that?”, Zach asked. Mike pointed at Trevor, smirking.

“If you ever slip up, you ever pull a Judas like you did back then…I’m taking your place as Zach’s right hand. I’m wise to you, now.”

Trevor smirked back.

“Fine with me. That day will never come…Never…again.”, he said, remembering what he was saying by the end.

Zach’s face lit into a huge grin.

“Feels like the gang’s back together again, doesn’t it?!”, he asked, cheerfully. Trevor scoffed, and turned to leave.

“Whatever…”, he said, walking off. Zach frowned.

“I guess…he feels like I do.”, he said. Mike raised an eyebrow.

“Feels like what?”, he asked.

“Regret.”, Zach said, forcing a tear back, bowing. “We both regret what we did to you, back then…I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Mike. I don’t deserve to stand here with you, after abandoning you so easily. And, for Trevor, too, I apologize. He didn’t know what it would do to us…”

“It’s over now.”, Mike said, averting his eyes. “We’re back together now. It’s all in the past. But…I meant what I said. If Trevor ever messes up, I’ll be right behind him, ready to take his place. We both know I’d make a way better right hand man.”

---

“So yeah…that’s my story.”, Mike said. “That conversation is over. I think you couldn’t finish your attack just now…because you felt that I knew the pain of betrayal, too. You knew I could soak in your pain, so you didn’t have to deal with all of it.”

Ernesta turned her head to face Mike, feeling her consciousness slipping. Inari returned to his box, as her Darkness Box began to turn to dust.

“Maybe…Oh, no!”, she gasped, coughing up more blood. Mike looked at her quizzically. “Adelina!”

“What, the one with the Cloud Flames?”, Mike asked. “What about her?”

“Adelina…You have to get…to whoever Adelina is facing. Adelina isn’t mentally ready to deal with that fight…”

“What are you talking about?”

“Adelina is…violently…unhealthy…If she feels our Dying Wills fade…she will begin to revert to…how she used to be…”

“What does that mean?”

“It means…whoever she faces...is going to die…”, Ernesta was able to say before she fainted.

“Damnit.”, Mike said, looking at his phone. He didn’t know how to operate the damn thing. He threw it aside. He would have to warn Jess himself.

---

Sonia watched the red gem on her box dissolve into dust. She turned to Vincenzo, who moved the red Arcoferro closer to Taylor.

“I know what you’re thinking right now.”, Sonia said, more confident than Taylor thought she should be. “You’re thinking that you can start to relax right now…But you’re so wrong.”

“Why is that?”, Taylor asked, unblinking.

“Orabella, Raimonda, Ernesta…Their darknesses pale in comparison to what the other three have survived. The next three fights…will be the entertaining ones…”

---

“What’s with these guys?”, Bradley murmured, watching the Seven Skulls silently lead their partner to their battleground. “They used to be so…lively…Now, it feels like we’re dealing with zombies…”

---

Adelina glared at Jessice Biemiller, the hatred in her eyes rising.

“Bella….Rai….Nesta…”, she gasped. “I…will…avenge….you…”

“What…the hell?”, Jess thought. “She was strong before…But just now…Her strength…it’s gone beyond doubling, or tripling…She’s four times stronger than she was, just a few seconds ago…”

On Adelina’s body, various scars began to surface. Bright red, covering her skin from head to toe.

“Looks like…You weren’t goooood enough, Adelina…Looks like…your friends are getting huuurt. Looks like you neeeed me. Looks like…”, Adelina murmured, almost happily, before she broke into a big grin, a grin that didn’t belong to the girl facing Jess. “I GET TO COME OUT AND PLAY!!!”

-

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