by Max Jager
The man paused as he studied the weapon he held in his hands.
"What is this thing called again?"
"Uh…" stammered his associates, "Um…"
They thought about it for a few minutes, when one of them finally remembered the name of the man's weapon.
"Shotgun!" he exclaimed, "It's… It's called a shotgun!"
"Yeah!" exclaimed the man who had posed the question, "I think you're right! Yeah, I had never even heard of these things until Noran came around."
"Same here," said the fifth man, "These weapons are pretty sweet. But if they are so damn powerful…"
"…why does he need so many of us out here guarding him with them?" finished the sixth man, "Yeah… I've been wondering the same thing myself… I mean, who does he think we're gonna encounter? Hell, who would be stupid enough to disobey his warning and follow him here in the first place?"
"I don't know, man," said one man.
"I think I do," said another man.
The others looked at him in surprise as he continued to speak.
"That guy who took down…uh…what was his name…? Prey…! Yeah, that guy who stabbed Prey in the head! He might come here!"
"Who?" asked his comrade, "Bandit Lane? I heard the guy has been missing ever since the Boss killed his mom."
"Yeah," said his friend, "For all we know, he's long gone by now."
"Whatever, man… How the hell would he know about this place, anyway? Fuck, why the hell would all of us need to be out here to deal with him? With weapons like this, he wouldn't stand a chance against even one of us! He'd be dead the second we spotted him!"
One of the men, Orn, looked at the man, Roy, as though he was completely inane.
"What the hell are you talking about?" he asked, "Are you crazy? We're. Talking. About. Bandit. Lane!"
"Oh, come on," said Roy confidently, "I hear the guy attacks his enemies using ice. Ice. He's not so special. I bet people just exaggerate how strong he is."
"Yeah," said John, another one of the men, sarcastically, "I guess it's not so special taking down a guy who wields fire using ice. Oh wait… That's exactly what he did!"
Roy scoffed before he spoke.
"He just got lucky," he said naively, "So what?"
"Lucky?" asked Orn, "There are probably dozens of ice wielders in this world who could never even hope to harm a fire wielder, yet your dumbass thinks his doing so was lucky?"
"…Yeah…"
Orn scoffed in disbelief as Roy spoke.
"Whatever, man," he said, "We have guns, he has ice. I'm pretty sure guns are more effective than ice. What could he possibly do against us?"
"Hm, let's think about that," said John, exasperated, "Considering what I've heard about him, maybe he'll, oh, I don't know, stab you through the chest…shove a spear right through your head…or straight up rape your dumbass…"
"Shut up, you bastard!" yelled Roy irritably, "Look, we're in control. There are forty armed men protecting this entire stronghold!"
"Yet I heard Lane took down hundreds of those Landian invaders last month by himself," said Orn.
Roy grunted in anger before he yelled in anger.
"Can you guys just shut the fuck up? There is no way, no way the guy, or any guy, is gonna take us out, and let me tell you something else: even if he takes out all of you, he won't take out m-!"
Before Roy could finish his boast, he yelled in anguish as a spear of ice rained down from the sky and pierced his skull.
"Holy crap!" yelled John as he and the others jumped away from their friend in shock.
"Ice…!" said Orn as he analyzed the spear, "It's…ice!"
He looked up to identify where the spear came from, but as soon as he did so, a pair of feet landed on his face, and he crashed to the ground.
The others watched as a red haired man stood atop their ally, and pointed their shotguns at him as he spoke.
"You better not fight back…" he said as he balled up his fists, "Otherwise…"
"…I'll have to hurt you twice as much!"
Wake Noran grunted as he walked out of the bathroom and back towards his bedroom.
Finally, he thought, Now I can get back to…
He smirked as he finished his thought.
…that beautiful little thing.
When he walked back into his bedroom, he smiled when he saw that the girl was still out cold. He walked over to the bed where she lied, and was about to take off his pants, when he suddenly sensed that something was flying towards him. He quickly turned around, and caught a spear of ice that would have most assuredly impaled him had he reacted a millisecond later.
"Well, hello there," he said as he looked at Bandit, who stood right outside the door.
He smirked at him as he held up Bandit's weapon.
"Spears of ice…" he said with amusement as he inspected the spear, "I've heard they are your primary weapon of choice… I never understood why, though. The spear is such a prehistoric weapon. It's hard to believe you've taken down so many men with it."
"It won't be so hard to believe in a moment…when I take you down with one," said Bandit angrily as he looked at the unconscious woman on Wake's bed, "What have you done to that girl?"
"Nothing…yet," responded Wake ever so calmly, as though Bandit posed absolutely no threat to him at all, "But I wouldn't worry so much about her if I were you. You couldn't even defeat Red Blood, my associate. What makes you think you could defeat me?"
Bandit created another spear of ice as he spoke.
"So, you really are working with Red," he said with rising anger, "I don't know what the hell you two are planning, but it's over, for you at least. You're going to give me that girl and leave this land, or I will-."
"What?" asked Wake as he reached into his pocket, "What are you gonna do, kid? Tell me. I'm interested in finding out what kind of threat a walking icebox is capable of making."
He brought a small handgun out from his pocket, and Bandit gritted his teeth as Wake pointed the weapon at him.
"Do you know what this is, kid?" asked Wake, "It's called a nine millimeter pistol. It's such a small weapon, but believe me; it is considerably effective at putting men like you down. I have invented and have access to more advanced weaponry than you could possibly imagine. Do you really think I'm afraid of an ice machine like yourself?"
Bandit took a deep breath before he responded.
"You should be," he said sternly as he gripped his spear.
"Give it up, kid. There is nothing you can do to stop me or Red…and you shouldn't try to stop us. We're just here to make this land a better place."
"Shut up!" yelled Bandit, "You've been raping women left and right! Who the hell do you think would believe that?"
He threw his spear at Wake, and Wake pulled the trigger of his pistol at the same time. Both men managed to dodge each other's weapons, and Wake grunted as he ran at Bandit. He shot another bullet at him, but luckily, Bandit swerved to the side to evade the projectile. Wake was quite fast, however, so Bandit was unable to defend himself when Wake blurred at him, punched him in the face, and sent him flying through the opened door and out of the room.
Luckily, Bandit landed on his feet, and balled up his fists as Wake charged at him. The two threw a punch at each other, but their blows collided, creating a small shockwave. They proceeded to throw another punch at each other, but their blows collided once more, creating yet another shockwave.
Bandit grunted as he tried to kick Wake in the stomach, but Wake quickly jumped back to evade the blow.
Wake tried to punch Bandit in the face, but Bandit grunted as he ducked to avoid the attack.
Bandit gritted his teeth as he tried to punch Wake in the nose, but Wake swerved to evade his punch.
Wake proceeded to try to punch Bandit in the face, but Bandit swerved to dodge the blow, and counterattacked by kicking Wake hard in the stomach, causing Wake to close his eyes as he grunted in pain.
He proceeded to punch Wake in the
eye, and Wake yelled as he stumbled back and put his hand over his newly blackened eye.
Unwilling to give Wake any time to recover, Bandit quickly attempted to sweep kick Wake, but Wake jumped to evade the kick, and as soon as he landed back on the floor, he lunged at Bandit and tried to punch him in the face. Bandit swerved aside to avoid the blow, causing Wake to accidentally create a hole in the wall with his fist.
Bandit threw four punches at him, but Wake parried all four of them in rapid succession, and proceeded to punch him in the nose, causing Bandit to grunt in pain. He quickly grabbed Bandit by his neck, and slammed his head against the wall so hard, his head went through the wall.
Dazed, Bandit was unable to defend himself from being punched in the face four times, lifted into the air, and thrown to the ground so hard, he fell right through the floor, and crashed down onto the floor of the ground level of the house, for they had been fighting on the second floor of the building.
Now, Bandit was even more dazed than before, and his vision was becoming increasingly hazy. Thankfully, he still had the strength to defend himself.
He watched as Wake jumped through the hole in the ceiling above, and quickly created a shield of thick ice to protect himself. He held it up in front of his face as soon as Wake tried to kick him, but unfortunately, Wake's blow was powerful enough to shatter the ice immediately, shocking him beyond belief, for no one had ever managed to destroy one of his thickest ice constructs so easily, so effortlessly.
Wake yelled as he kicked him in the stomach, and Bandit grunted as he stumbled back. He lunged at Wake, and tried to punch him in the face, but Wake grabbed his fist, and sent him flying into the air with a powerful uppercut.
Bandit yelled as he struck the ceiling, but unfortunately, his torment was not quite over. Wake jumped into the air after him, grabbed him, and slammed him hard onto the ground, causing him to grunt in great pain.
Bandit quickly realized that he was about to lose this battle, but before he could attempt to get up and away from his adversary, Wake quickly grabbed his right ankle, and broke it in one swift motion, causing him to scream in great pain. After punching him in the face four times, Wake proceeded to grab his left leg, and Bandit screamed in anguish as Wake broke that in one swift motion. Afterwards, Wake quickly resumed punching Bandit in the face, and spoke as he did so.
"Zor… Prey… Even Red! You got lucky fighting all three of those so called men, but now, your luck has completely run out!"
He punched him in the face fourteen times, before he stood up, and began kicking him in the ribs. Bandit was not yet unconscious, but at the rate things were going, he was going to be soon enough.
"Have you realized it yet?" yelled Wake with a smirk as he brutalized Bandit, "You're not so special! You may have done some pretty big things in the past, but now, now you're just a kid who bit off more than he could chew!"
After kicking him in the ribs ten times, he stopped to admire his work.
Bandit was only barely conscious now, and was also in immense pain, for Wake had just broken six of his ribs. He was bleeding from his nose and mouth, but despite all of his suffering, despite all of his agony and anguish, in a last desperate attempt to fight perhaps the most lethal combatant he had ever faced, he used the last of his strength to create a knife of ice and held it firmly in his hands.
Unfortunately for him, however, Wake stomped on his hand before he could even start to pick himself up, and knocked him out with a quick but powerful punch to the face.
A few hours later, somewhere in Wake Noran's cabin, Bandit Lane was in the most vulnerable position he had ever found himself in.
He was in a dark room that had only a single light bulb as its source of light, his arms and legs were tightly bound to a chair by a number of metal chains, his entire upper body was naked, and he was in the middle of taking a beating from one of Wake Noran's men.
The man beating him had punched him across the face a countless number of times already, but despite that, the man did not let up. His strength was not particularly great enough to cause Bandit too much harm, but for the past thirty minutes, man after man had come up to him and beaten him with all the strength and power they had. He now had blood smeared all over his face, and the pain caused by his newly blackened eye was starting to become immeasurably agonizing, specifically because Noran's men had punched it at least once every five minutes. His face had not gone even ten seconds without being punched, and even though he, for the most part, had the resilience to endure his beating, he could not help but feel completely exhausted and drained of energy.
Normally, metal chains would not have been too difficult for him to break out of, considering his immense physical capabilities, but for the past thirty minutes, he had been completely unable to focus on anything but the pain Noran's men caused him.
The man beating him punched him across the face one last time, before he stepped aside, allowing the door to the room to fall into Bandit's view. He wanted so desperately to free himself from the chains that bound him, kick the ass of every single person who had just beaten him, and leave the compound, but at the moment, he did not have the strength to do any such thing.
He licked his blood from his lips and panted heavily as he watched none other than his older brother walk through the door with a branding iron in hand and his characteristic look of complete indifference.
Red averted his eyes from Bandit, and Bandit groaned as his older brother walked up to him. Once he stood right in front of him, Red looked at Bandit as though he was a mere pissant, and Bandit sighed as Red looked away from him once more.
"Leave us…" demanded Red apathetically.
"Red…" panted Bandit weakly, "Please… I-."
Before he could finish his sentence, he was punched in the back of the head, causing him to grunt in pain.
Completely unamused by this act, Red glared at the perpetrator of the punch, and the man looked at him in fear as Red gritted his teeth in anger and pointed his finger at him.
"Leave us!" he yelled madly, sending shivers of fear down the spines of all of Noran's men.
The men were confused as to why the crimson-haired man did not appreciate the blow their comrade gave Bandit, but they were also terrified of the deadly blow they knew the man was capable of dealing. Without saying a single word, the men scurried out of the room, and Red waited until every single one of them went out the door before he punched Bandit across the face himself.
Bandit sighed as he slowly raised his head and looked at his older brother irritably.
"What?" asked Red, "No 'hello, big brother'?"
Bandit continued to look at Red with a complete lack of amusement as Red continued.
"And to think I came all this way just to see you…"
Bandit gritted his teeth in great anger as he closed his eyes.
Fully aware of what was going through his little brother's mind, Red crossed his arms as he spoke.
"I know what you're thinking…"
"Do you?" scoffed Bandit.
Red nodded his head as he knelt down and looked his brother directly in the eye.
"Go on, Bandit… Ask me."
Bandit shook his head before he spoke.
"Red…what do you want?"
Red remained silent for several seconds before a slow, unsettling smile appeared on his face.
Bandit watched as his brother held the branding iron up and pointed it at him before he uttered a single word to answer his question.
"Vengeance."
The Men They Really Are
July 20, 1841
A young Bandit Blood lied flat on his stomach in the middle of one of the Ice Lands' frosty forests.
He had been involved in a huge fight with Rodney, the school bully who always liked to pick on him and beat him up, and now, both of them lied on the ground, having thoroughly exhausted themselves because of the intensity of their fight.
Bandit groaned in pain as he looked to his left and saw Rodney lying several
yards away from him, struggling to stand up.
Bandit had blood all over the lower half of his face, for Rodney had managed to break his nose. Yet despite the excruciating pain, agony, and anguish that radiated throughout his face, he still had the strength to get on his knees.
He knew from the pain that radiated throughout the rest of his body, however, that he was in no condition to fight Rodney any longer. He knew he needed to get himself out of there as quickly as possible before his psychopathic bully had the chance to strike him and, quite possibly, end him.