Bandit's Revenge

by Max Jager

  After thirty seconds of suffering severe electrocution, Abe passed out, and Red placed him over his shoulder so he could carry him away.

  "It's always a pleasure…Abe..."

  Suffering

  Wake Noran took his hand off his daughter's cheek, and was about to walk away, when his daughter quickly grabbed his hand with such incredible strength, he could not move an inch. His eyes widened in complete surprise as she stood up and threw him back into the chair he had been sitting in. He had always known his daughter possessed a certain strength when angry or serious, but he could not believe that she was the least bit capable of executing such great strength, regardless of how she felt.

  Mary slapped him across his face, and he looked at her from the corner of his eye as she whispered to him with a wrathful tone.

  "What the hell is the matter with you?" she asked him angrily.

  Despite his daughter's anger, Wake looked at her as though she was a child throwing a tantrum.

  "Like I said," he began, "I'm doing this becau-."

  "How could you do that to Bandit?" she interrupted with irritation.

  Wake became slightly irritable himself as he answered her.

  "He snuck into my compound," he asserted sternly, "He deserved what I did to him."

  "What?" asked Mary in complete disbelief, "He only went over there because you kidnapped a woman and tried to rape her! I can't believe the kind of person you've become! I loved you as a kid, but now…"

  She paused as she looked at her father with a mixture of sadness and disgust.

  "You shouldn't have come here. You should have just left me alone!"

  "You're my daughter, Mary," he asserted, "I'm here for you."

  She shook her head as she took a deep breath and sighed in complete exasperation.

  "You're sick," she asserted with rising fury, "What, so you beat up Bandit for me? You raped all of those women for me? Who the hell do you think would believe that crap?"

  Tired of what he interpreted to be his daughter's foolishness and naiveté, Wake gritted his teeth in anger before he spoke.

  "Watch your mouth, little girl!" he demanded, "You don't get to talk to your father like that!"

  "Shut up!" she commanded as loudly as she could without yelling, "I don't know who the hell you think you are, coming to the Ice Lands and doing all of the crap you've done, but you are not my father! As far as I'm concerned, my father is dead!"

  "Mary-!"

  "Just save it," she demanded as she shook her head, "You say you're here to take an interest in what I care about, but once again, the words you speak to me are lies… Once again…the only person who really matters…is you. Growing up, I thought you were this…amazing person who put family above all else… You bought me anything in the world I wanted, y-you showered me with love! But when Mom died…you retreated in your own little shell…and I was left to care for myself and love myself…because no one else was around to do so. So you can call yourself a lot of things, Wake…like crazy…psychotic…and selfish…but never can you call yourself a friend…a good person…or a father…"

  "…because you no longer have a daughter."

  In the city of Ekusa, a morose Wake Noran walked into a church located on the west side of the city as he thought about the harsh conversation he had with Mary several weeks ago.

  Mary…

  Meanwhile, in the city of Virtue, an unconscious Abe groaned as he woke up from his slumber. He gasped when he remembered Red's merciless electrocution of his body, and sat up as quickly as he could to see where he was, for he had a feeling he was not in the mercenary headquarters any longer.

  He was right, for at the moment, he was locked away in a cell located in the basement of Red's main headquarters.

  He felt quite a bit of pain in his neck, and slowly touched it with his fingers, only to yell in pain as soon as he did so.

  Damn it! he thought as he gritted his teeth in anguish, This injury… These are…

  "First degree burns," he heard a voice say, "Impressive. I'm surprised your body didn't suffer even worse injuries than that."

  He slowly turned to the side, and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw Red standing just outside of his cell, his head turned away from him.

  Red took a deep breath and sighed when he heard Abe's breath rate increase.

  "Do not worry," he said as he turned to look at him, "I have no intention of killing you…"

  Abe looked at him with anger in his eyes as he continued.

  "Years ago, I killed your whole family in pursuit of the Manna Ascending."

  A scowl quickly formed on Abe's face as he glared at the man who murdered the ones he had once loved the most.

  "I killed them…because they wouldn't tell me where the Manna Ascending was…but now…it does not matter…because now…"

  Red slowly reached into his pocket, and Abe watched with intrigue as he pulled a vermillion crystal out of his pocket and held it up for him to see.

  "…I have this… Unfortunately, unlike with the Manna Ascending…I have no knowledge of what this weapon is capable of doing…so here's what's going to happen… You're going to tell me what this device does… Otherwise, I am going to torture you."

  Abe slowly stood up and walked towards the bars of his cell so he could look Red in the eye. He took a deep, slow breath before he responded.

  "I'm not playing your games," he said matter-of-factly, "Do what you need to do."

  Red scanned his face, and Abe grunted when Red suddenly reached his hand through the bars and grabbed him by his neck. Abe screamed in immense pain as Red proceeded to electrocute him.

  "I'm surprised," he said as he glared at Abe, "I thought you would have a little more…common sense…in this situation…considering what happened to your family…but apparently…I did you a disservice by letting you live… Apparently…I should have killed you a long time ago."

  Red released his neck, and Abe collapsed as soon as he did so. He looked at Abe as though he was a piece of filth, and took a deep breath as he slowly turned around and looked towards the door to see a few of his henchmen walk into the room.

  Abe watched as Red's men walked towards his cell with a variety of weapons, including guns, swords, staffs, hammers and arrows.

  "Welcome…to hell," said Red as he walked towards the exit.

  Abe shook his head as he watched Red's henchmen begin to unlock his cell with a key. It would have been the perfect opportunity for him to escape, had Red not just electrocuted him for the second time that day. But now, his body would not respond to him properly.

  In fact, at this time, it was a miracle his body had not given in to the pain and ceased functioning altogether.

  "Red…" he began as he watched Red near the exit, "Red…!"

  He gritted his teeth in anger as Red left the room, and watched as Red's henchmen succeeded in opening his cell.

  "Red!" he yelled angrily, furious that the villain had left him helpless and surrounded by men who would probably beat him until he was on the brink of death.

  Meanwhile, Wake sat down on a pew in the church, and folded his hands as he lowered his head and reflected on words his daughter had spoken to him just yesterday, after having bumped into her during an afternoon walk in one of the Ice Lands' frosty forests.

  "Dad… I'm sorry… I can't deal with you… I couldn't deal with you when I was a kid, and I can't deal with you now… You're a selfish, cold, manipulative bastard who cares only about himself… I told you before… You shouldn't have come here. All you've done since you've been here is hurt people, rape people! There isn't a single good thing you have done for this land since you've been here! Despite everything you've ever said to me, despite the good intentions you claim to have, you are nothing! You are not a good person, you are not a decent man, and you are not an honorable human being…but worst of all…

  …you are not a man…worthy of being a father…"

  Slight tears began to form in the man's eyes as he
continued to think on his daughter's harsh words.

  "You know, I…actually wondered to myself whether or not we could…start over…! I knew you were sad when I left all of those years ago, and for the past several weeks, I actually thought about giving our relationship another chance, about allowing you to be in my life again… What a fool I was… The thing is, dad…I can't be with you… I can't be your daughter…because a daughter should be able to have faith in her father…to trust in him…and love him…but I don't love you… I can't… You've raped countless women in this land and you nearly killed someone I love like a brother! So despite how much I wish we could start over… we can't… Not now...and not ever… This…is our…final…conversation… Don't ever speak to me again… I never want to see you again…

  …because I can't see how I could possibly love you…ever again…"

  A single tear streamed down the man's face as he hopelessly looked down at his feet. He slowly reached into his pocket, and brought out a note his daughter had written for him years ago.

  She wrote this note…he thought as he somberly looked at the note, years ago…yet her words in it are no better than what she has said to me since I've been here… Nothing has changed… Nothing… What kind of a sick bastard am I anyway…? After everything I've done…she has no reason to show me any sort of love… Even though I've tried to avoid doing anything bad since our first conversation in the hospital…I shouldn't have expected her to change her mind…to give me a second chance…to love me the way she used to… Even my wife wouldn't show me any sort of love…not after what I've become… Maybe I should just…

  Lost in his increasingly depressing thoughts, the man did not notice when someone walked over to him and rested their hand on his shoulder. He gasped and quickly wiped his tears away before he looked up at the person. His eyes widened in complete surprise when he did, for it was the last person he had expected to see.

  His daughter.

  Tied down to his cot by chains, Abe groaned in pain after having been punched in the stomach four times by one of Red's men. Only six minutes had passed since the men had begun to torture him, but within that time, he already had three bullet wounds, four stab wounds, a broken rib, a black eye, two broken toes, and a bloody nose and mouth. He panted heavily as he looked up at the man with growing irritation.

  "What does the weapon do?" asked the man as Abe scanned the faces of the rest of his torturers, "You might want to tell us…before you end up with a slit throat."

  Abe gritted his teeth as he struggled to free himself from the chains that bound him. Unfortunately, he was bound quite tight, and could do little more than look at the men as though they were the dirt beneath his feet.

  The man stabbed him in the chest with a knife, and Abe screamed in pain when he yanked it out. He panted heavily as sweat dripped down his face.

  "I'm warning you," said the man, "I'm losing my patience."

  Another man walked up to Abe with a hammer, and Abe screamed again when the man struck his leg with it, partially breaking one of his leg bones.

  Abe grunted in immense pain as closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down.

  "Okay…" he said tiredly, "Fine… I'll tell you…"

  The first man nodded his head as he knelt down and positioned his face mere inches away from Abe's.

  "What does it do?" he asked.

  Abe took a deep breath before he looked at the man with a smirk.

  "It does far more than what I'm about to do to you."

  He headbutted the man as soon as he said that, and the man yelled in pain as Abe suddenly broke free from the chains that bound him.

  The man with the hammer tried to hit him with it, but he ducked to evade it, grabbed the hammer right out of his hands, and pushed the man away.

  The man he had headbutted went after him with his knife, but Abe struck him with the blunt end of the hammer, sending him crashing to the ground in pain.

  A third man charged at him with an arrow, but he quickly stood up and used the sharp end of the hammer to strike the man in his eye, causing him to scream in anguish as he dropped to the ground.

  The original owner of the hammer charged at him, but he struck the man in the side of his head with the hammer, before grabbing his neck and breaking it in one swift motion.

  A fourth man pointed a gun at him, but he threw the hammer at him, and the man crashed to the ground when the sharp end of the hammer struck him hard in his nose, causing blood to erupt out of it ever so quickly.

  Seeing that the men had left his prison cell open, Abe quickly ran out of it, but not before grabbing one of the swords they had used to stab him. He quickly ran towards the exit, but as soon as he opened the door, he was knocked across the room with a powerful blow to the chest.

  Red crossed his arms as he looked at Abe with amusement.

  "You really do have a death wish, don't you?"

  Abe glared at him with the intent to kill as Red walked towards him.

  "I hope you realize…that I cannot allow you to leave this place quite yet, Abe… I won't kill you, of course… You'd be useless to me dead."

  Abe cracked his neck as Red looked at the sword he held in his hand.

  "I could defeat you as quickly as I could snap my fingers," said Red, "but I'll go a bit easier on you…if nothing else…to see just how powerful the last of the War family really is…and so I can show you…true despair…and true suffering…but I wouldn't fight back if I were you. If you had the capacity to grasp just how powerful I am…you would realize that I have no reason to fear a mere swordsman. I am more powerful than you could even imagine, and once you've told me what the weapon does…I'm sure I will grow even more powerful."

  Red suddenly blurred at him, and Abe gasped as he raised his sword to defend himself. Unfortunately, he was too slow, and he screamed in pain when Red punched him in the stomach so hard, he coughed up blood. Red grunted as he proceeded to knock him into the air with a kick, sending Abe crashing into the ceiling.

  Unfortunately, his torment was not quite over, for Red jumped into the air after him, grabbed him, and slammed him hard onto the ground, causing him to yell in immense anguish.

  Red looked at him indifferently as he spoke.

  "What are you doing?" he asked fiercely, "Stand up! I have not yet had my fill."

  Abe panted heavily as he looked at Red with great anxiety.

  Abe yelled in pain as Red struck him with six more powerful blows. He was sent flying across the room yet again, and he groaned as he slowly sat up. He closed his eyes as Red walked towards him.

  "Fuck…you…" he said as he panted.

  Red pointed his index finger at him, and he screamed in pain when Red shot him with a lightning bolt. He groaned, and sweat appeared upon his brow as he glared at Red with anger.

  "I'd watch what you say if I were you," said Red as he shot another lightning bolt at him.

  Abe screamed in unbelievable pain as he doubled over. He trembled as he raised his sword, but before he could do anything, Red blurred at him and sent him crashing into the wall so hard; his body dented it. He grunted as he hit the ground with a thud, while Red continued to look at him with indifference.

  He groaned and gritted his teeth in agony as he slowly stood up, and wiped his bleeding nose with his sleeve. As soon as he did so, however, Red blurred at him and kicked him hard in the stomach, causing him to throw up an immense amount of blood. Red proceeded to grab his head, and slammed it into the wall, causing Abe to yell as he fell to the ground, his back leaned up against the wall.

  Despite the massive amount of pain he felt, however, he was not done fighting, not yet. He still had one surefire move up his sleeve.

  Unfortunately, it was one that had the potential to end his life, for using it consumed a great deal of his power.

  At this point, though, he felt he had no other choice.

  Abe slowly snapped his fingers, and as soon as he did so, an explosion struck Red such relentless force, the ground it
self shook.

  Smoke enveloped Red's body, and Abe panted heavily as he wondered if his attack had taken care of the villain once and for all.

  When the smoke cleared, however, Red was shown to still be alive, albeit much worse for wear. He had blood all over his body, and was bleeding from nearly all of his orifices, but he was still alive.

  "You just made…a huge mistake…" said Red tiredly, for Abe's attack had managed to weaken him considerably.

  A barely conscious Abe panted heavily as he began to bleed from his own orifices, and looked at Red as he gritted his teeth in pain.