Bandit's Revenge

by Max Jager

  Oh, shit! thought Red as his eyes widened in fear.

  Damn it! thought Scarlet, That's why Bandit kept putting the blame on himself! He wasn't actually blaming himself… He was trying to protect Abe!

  "Forget it," said Red irritably as he looked at Abe, "I don't need to know what the weapon does. As evidenced by my ability to restrain my siblings in mid-air, I don't need itto become more powerful. All I need to do is train to become stronger…and that process…has nothing to do with you."

  My ability to restrain them is limited, though, he thought as sweat dripped down his face, All of that talking made me forget just how much energy it takes to maintain the technique. I've already lost…over half of my power… It's about time I end this…and end him…

  Abe tried to stand up, but Red knocked him back down with a kick to the stomach, and sighed as he cracked his neck.

  "Don't do it!" yelled Bandit.

  Scarlet gritted her teeth as she once again flailed around in the air in a desperate attempt to save Abe's life.

  "Stop it, Red!" she screamed in terror.

  You're dead! thought Red as he raised his sword.

  "Red!" yelled Bandit as he watched him point the sword downward.

  Red was about to impale Abe's head with his sword, but before he could make the downward motion, the entire headquarters shook, knocking him and his men onto the ground.

  What the…? he thought in confusion, What the hell was that?

  Having lost his focus, he accidentally released his gravitational grip on his siblings, who grunted as they fell to the ground.

  Thanks to Brayne, who now stood in the middle of the city of Virtue, dozens of inconceivably large bolts of lightning rained down from the clouds above and struck the city of Virtue with incomparable, relentless force, and the ground itself shook as the event took place.

  A large number of buildings came crashing down, bringing a great number of deaths and injuries to Red's men, while a vast majority of the streets were obliterated by the malevolent electricity in a matter of seconds.

  Dirt, dust, and smoke flew throughout the air as a countless number of Red's men were electrocuted and killed in a matter of seconds, while the rest ran around and screamed in terror.

  The invasion of Virtue had finally begun.

  Bloodstorm

  March 23, 1847

  On this darkest and rainiest of days, a massive amount of carnage was spread all over the Ice Lands…

  On this dreariest and most unforgiving day, Desire Blood lied in a pool of blood, with a spear of ice stuck in her heart…

  And on this most painful and anguish-filled day, a bloodied Bandit Blood fell to his knees as he looked at his mother's dead body with incomprehensible sorrow.

  "Mom…" he said as he trembled.

  He gritted his teeth as he balled up his bloodied fists, and trembled even more when he noticed the blood on his hands.

  The blood that was not his own.

  The blood of his mother whom he had killed with his own hands.

  "Mom…" he stammered as his eyes filled with tears, "Mom…"

  As Bandit Blood mindlessly called out to his deceased mother, Rachel Thomas, who lied beside him, looked at his deceased mother in complete shock and awe.

  She could not believe she had just tried to kill her, and she could not believe Bandit had killed his own mother to save her.

  She turned to look at Bandit, and her eyes filled with tears immediately when she saw his broken demeanor. Completely saddened by the fact that the boy she loved was suffering so much because of her, she placed her hand over her mouth as she closed her eyes and wept as quietly as she could.

  Both of them heard two sets of footsteps running towards them, but neither of them was capable of responding to them in any significant way.

  "Bandit…" said Red Blood, one of the producers of the footsteps.

  He looked at Bandit in shock, and watched as Bandit slowly turned to look at him. He gasped when he saw his brother's look of complete and utter despair, and his heart sank when his brother did not say anything, but simply shook his head as tears streamed down his face.

  Red moved his head so he could look at the person that lied before Bandit, and upon seeing his mother's lifeless body, his eyes widened with incomprehensible shock. He was so sickened by what he saw, by the spear that stuck out of his mother's corpse, he threw up.

  He could not tell the spear in the corpse was a spear of ice, but he felt too sickened by the disgusting sight to look at it any more than he already had.

  His breath rate increased exponentially and his heart rate soared as he felt his mind become overwhelmed with grief. He was on the verge of becoming catatonic, when he realized his sister stood next to him.

  "Crim…?" she asked, concerned for her brothers and Rachel, "What's wrong…? Why are you crying? Why are Car and Rache crying? Did somebody die?"

  Unwilling to allow his innocent little sister to see what little he had seen, he turned away from the direction of his mother's body, covered her eyes, and embraced her as he wept.

  "Yes, Scar…" he said solemnly as his eyes filled with tears.

  "Somebody…did…"

  November 14, 1854

  "Are you nuts?" asked Brayne as he looked at Bandit in shock.

  "Brayne, this is the only tactic I could possibly think of that would allow us to take Virtue back from Red," explained Bandit, "We don't have much choice."

  Brayne took a deep breath and sighed as he looked at his arm, the arm which he had only recently stopped taking pain medication for.

  "This…is a bad idea," he said as he shook his head, "I'm not even at my former fighting strength! Doing this would be a major risk to my body, and what's worse…there's a chance I may not even be able to pull it off…"

  Brayne swallowed in fear, while Bandit looked at him with sympathy.

  "…I know you're scared…" he began, "…and you should be… Suggesting that you do what Red did…and bombard Virtue with lightning…is insane…not only because your body has only recently healed…but because you have never pulled off such an incredibly dangerous and taxing technique…but Brayne…we have to at least try…"

  He put his hand on his friend's shoulder as he continued.

  "Look…I'm not going to make you do it if you don't want to or if you don't think you can… I just… I just wanted to run it by you… I won't pressure you into doing it… I promise…"

  Brayne looked into his friend's eyes, and smiled slightly when he saw his friend's compassionate smile.

  "Thank you…" he said softly, "I'll… I'll think about it…"

  Brayne yelled in pain as he continued to summon inconceivably huge bolts of lightning from a partially cloudy sky.

  I can't believe I'm actually doing this! Come on, guys! Hurry up and save Abe so we can get out of here!

  Of course, Brayne was not the only person attacking the city; he just happened to be the most vital part of the plan, for his attack acted as a major distraction for all of Red's men. Of the thousands of men Red had at his disposal, a good number of them managed to avoid all the environmental danger happening around them, which was why Rachel, Mary, and their mercenary allies were in the middle of decimating whoever managed to survive.

  One such mercenary, Thea, jumped into the middle of a large group of enemies and began burning them alive with her fire-based abilities.

  Rachel watched as a group of six hundred men ran at her with the intent to kill. She grunted as she gripped the two swords she held in her hands.

  We don't have time for this! she thought irritably, We need to find Abe as soon as possible!

  "You better not fight back!" she exclaimed as she charged at the men and began cutting them up left and right, "Otherwise, I'll have to hurt you twice as much!"

  A group of two hundred men charged at Mary, but when she performed a loud and fierce roar at them, they stopped in their tracks, and trembled in fear while she proceeded to beat the stupefied men down.<
br />
  Meanwhile, Red's ally, Philemon, a tall, pale-skinned man with a deranged look about him, smiled when he noticed his that former ally, Wake Noran, was also taking Red's men down.

  What do we have here? he thought as he walked towards a group of mercenaries, Noran, old friend… You're attacking the wrong people! Here… Let me show you how it's done!

  He charged at the mercenaries, and the mercenaries screamed as he began to take them down left and right.

  Meanwhile, Wake Noran smiled as three hundred men charged at him, and grabbed a sword from a weapon holster he had wrapped around his abdomen.

  I still can't believe I told her… he thought as he charged at them and began swiftly slicing their flesh like fruit, but I guess it's true what they say… There's really nothing a father won't do for his daughter!

  Brayne gritted his teeth irritably when he found himself surrounded by a hundred men.

  "Perfect…"he said as he rolled his eyes, "How am I supposed to fight with my hands constantly raised in the air?"

  Thinking he was truly helpless in the situation, his enemies charged at him with reckless abandon.

  Unfortunately for them, as soon as they did so, they found themselves struck down by his lightning.

  "Oh, yeah!" he proclaimed as he smiled with glee, "That's how! Face it, guys! It doesn't matter how many of you there are!"

  "You won't win!"

  Inside the prison room in the main headquarters itself, Bandit grunted as he quickly stood up and attacked the three men that had been in the room with Red. He knocked one of them out by stomping on their head, and eliminated the other two by creating a knife of ice and slitting their throats.

  Afterwards, he helped Scarlet up and pulled her towards Abe.

  "Get him out of here!" he yelled as he watched Red stand up from the corner of his eye.

  Scarlet looked at him fearfully as he picked Abe up and wrapped Abe's arm around her neck.

  "What about you?" asked Abe worriedly as Scarlet held him up, "Aren't you coming with us?"

  "I have to buy you guys enough to get out of here without him stopping you!" replied Bandit, "Now go!"

  Scarlet grunted as she began to help Abe out of the room, but quickly looked back to say one last thing to her brother.

  "I know this is gonna sound stupid…" she began tearfully, "but…don't kill him! He's our brother, Bandit! Our mentally ill brother! We can't just… Well, we can't just write him off!"

  Bandit sighed as he watched Red stand on his feet.

  "Fine!" he yelled, "Just go!"

  Abe gasped in surprise as Scarlet picked him up in her arms and began to run with him down the hall.

  What the heck? he thought, shocked, She can pick me up so easily! Are all of the Bloods this strong?

  Bandit gritted his teeth as he watched pieces of the ceiling fall to the floor.

  Damn it! he thought in disbelief, This whole place is gonna cave in!

  He looked at Red for a moment, and then noticed that the Cosmic Sword was lying several yards away from him.

  He dropped it when the building first shook! he thought as he ran to it, This is my chance!

  Seeing that his brother was going after the Cosmic Sword, Red blurred at it as well, but Bandit got to it first.

  Bandit gripped it tight as his brother pointed his index finger at him.

  "Give it to me, Bandit!" he demanded, "I swear to God, I'll put you down right here and now if you don't hand me the damn sword!"

  Mentally ill, thought Bandit as he quickly froze the sword in the thickest ice he could possibly create, Right… Because psychopathic isn't a more accurate description!

  To Red's surprise, cracks had begun to form in the Cosmic Sword while Bandit froze it.

  What the…? he thought as he gritted his teeth nervously, What is he…?

  Bandit grabbed both ends of the now frozen Cosmic Sword, and gritted his teeth and grunted as he broke it over his knee.

  I should've thought of that the first time! he thought as he dropped the remnants of the sword.

  Greatly angered by his brother's actions, Red yelled as he shot three bolts of lightning at him from his index finger. Bandit managed to dodge all three of them, but grunted in pain when Red punched him in the face, knocking him across the room and into the wall.

  Sweat dripped down his neck as he looked at Red with slight fear.

  "You little shit!" yelled Red angrily as he cracked his knuckles, "I spared you when we fought at Lax! I could have killed you on the spot, and yet this is how you choose to repay me? I should've killed you sooner! Hell, I wish I had killed you instead of that woman!"

  Bandit gasped in complete surprise, and gritted his teeth as his brother continued to push his buttons.

  "That red-haired woman…" he spat irritably, "Judging by your reaction to her death…I bet she was a mother figure for you… She must have been the woman who took you in when I left with Scarlet… So me, your brother, killed a woman who was, in a way…your mother…just like what you did to me… Yet despite that irony…despite the fact that her body lied dead at your feet…and despite the fact that her blood collected in a pool before your very eyes…"

  Red looked at Bandit with incomparable frustration as he shouted bitterly.

  "…you still don't understand…how I feel!"

  Bandit's eyes widened when he remembered that his brother had killed Ruby instead of him. As he stood up and looked into his brother's hateful eyes, he realized that, despite what Scarlet had said to him, Red was no longer his brother.

  Both of them had killed women the other had viewed as a mother, but the dichotomy was that, while Bandit felt truly sorry for killing their mother, Red seemed to have little to no remorse for what he had done to Ruby, and this made Bandit furious, more furious than he had been in a long time.

  "You're dead!" yelled Red as he blurred at his brother with the intent to kill.

  He tried to kick Bandit in the face at sonic speed, but Bandit quickly grabbed his leg, and spun him around three times before sending him flying into the wall so hard, Red's body formed a crater in it.

  Red yelled in pain as he fell on his behind.

  What the…? he thought as he panted, What the hell is going on? My body… It's weaker than before… Damn it! I must have used up too much of my power restraining him and Scarlet with my gravitational powers!

  He stood up as quickly as possible, but as soon as he did, he noticed that Bandit was charging at him, and was about to punch him. He grunted as he ran out of the way, and watched as Bandit punched the wall so hard, it immediately began to crumble.

  Shit! he thought as his eyes widened in realization, This place is already crumbling to the ground! I've got to get out of here!

  He ran towards the exit, but right before he could leave the room, Bandit punched him across the face, and sent him flying across the room.

  Unfortunately, he managed to land on the ground safely. He gritted his teeth as he wiped a bit of blood from his mouth, and watched as Bandit walked towards him with the intent to wring his neck.

  He's insane! he thought, completely unaware of the irony of his thought, Doesn't he realize we'll die if we don't get out of here?

  "You idiot!" he yelled angrily, "Look around you! This place is falling apart! It won't matter if you beat me or not if we both wind up dead!"

  "Shut up!" yelled Bandit as he glared at his brother, "I'll do whatever the hell I want!"

  Red gritted his teeth in anger as his brother charged at him.

  "You idiot!" he yelled as he charged at Bandit, "How stupid can you be?"

  The brothers yelled as they tried to punch each other, but their blows clashed, creating a small shockwave that shook the debris around them. Undeterred, they tried to punch each other once more, but their blows collided yet again, and an even more powerful shockwave was produced as a result.

  "Enough!" yelled Red as he pointed his index finger at Bandit's face.

  Bandit ducked as soon as he sho
t lightning at him, however, and gritted his teeth as he punched Red in the nose. Red grunted as he stumbled back a few yards, and held his nose in pain as he glared at his little brother. He shot another bolt of lightning at him, but Bandit effortlessly ducked to evade his attack.

  "That's not gonna work!" yelled Bandit furiously.

  Red grunted as he looked at his brother with rising agitation.

  "Shut up!" he shouted as he pointed both of his index fingers at Bandit, "A little shit like you should just shut the fuck up!"