Load Custom Character

by Tyler R Lee

  "Alright, this is getting a bit precarious," Glitch thought aloud. She pulled herself up onto the bike, much to the pirate's chagrin, who attempted to shoot her. She disarmed him, literally, and grabbed him by his armor. Then, she turned and threw him at the oncoming Val, who had become too predictable to take Glitch entirely by surprise.

  "Val! Watch it!" Streak called, who had moved closer to the battle. But, Val couldn't hear anything other than her own heartbeat as it thumped with white hot rage at her brother's killer.

  ValCary came in hard, but was surprised by the incoming pirate. She caught him and threw him to the side as he tried to stab her with a scimitar-like blade he had pulled after Glitch cut his other arm off. When she turned back, Glitch was right in front of her, blade already in motion. It sank into the base of Val's throat, right above the collar bone, and exited out the other side.

  "NO!" Peter cried as he witnessed the deadly blow. Still, he desperately tried to make his way to their position before it was too late.

  "You bitch!" came Streak's voice from behind Glitch. However, the rogue had heard the speedster cry out seconds before. She pulled her blade from Val, slick with blood, ducked, spun, and slashed with her other blade, catching the oncoming Streak across the abdomen dealing enough damage to drop his health below zero. Streak gasped for air as he fell backwards off the bike.

  ValCary and Streak both fell at the same time. NoScope, using her teleportation, grabbed Streak and transported them both to another nearby bike.

  "VALERIE, NO!" Peter cried out as he dove for Val's body, knocking a pirate from his bike in the process. He grabbed her hand as her swords fell, and used his other hand to grip a piece of the now pilotless airbike. "Come on, Val," he said through gritted teeth as he tried to pull her up. He had very little energy left, and even this was putting a strain on his body.

  When ValCary did not respond, Peter called her name again. "Val. ValCary! Valarie!" He looked down and noticed that she did not grip his hand back. Her body hung, lifeless, the light having already left her eyes. Peter felt tears well up in his eyes. Then, he felt himself losing grip from his lack of strength. "No, no, no, come on," he begged, hoping he had misread the situation. Eventually, when he couldn't hold on any longer, he felt Val's hand slip out of his fingers, and he watched her fall towards the Vast Sea for what felt like an eternity, unable to look away.

  "Streak! Streak, please be alive." Peter heard NoScope begging, which pulled him back to reality.

  "Barely," Streak coughed. He didn't open his eyes, however, and his breathing was shallow. With that, NoScope began using her teleportation to get Streak back to the airship and get him healed before his health dropped too low.

  "Well," Glitch said, a bit of enthusiasm in her voice, "this certainly heated up more than I thought it would."

  Peter pulled himself up onto the airbike. "You..."

  "Me?" Glitch smiled. "Me what, Petey?"

  "You," Peter replied without turning to face her. "I'm gonna kill you." Before Glitch could respond, Peter stomped hard on the back of airbike he was standing on, breaking off the tail end and sending the front upward. He then spun and kicked the front end as hard as he could, sending it towards Glitch at a higher speed than she was ready for.

  The rogue dodged to the right, that being the only side with another airbike close enough to jump to. Peter counted on this, and met her with a knee to the chin, then a spinning back kick to her chest, sending her sailing backward and directly into another airbike. She coughed up a bit of blood, but did not have time to deal with the pain as Peter, his eyes not burning with anger, but simply a need for her death, closed the distance quickly.

  Glitch, being quite skilled and quick, was able to get out of the way of her charging opponent. But Peter, much like Val before, did not relent. He attacked and chased Glitch from bike to bike, laying waste to most of them as they fought. However, Glitch noticed that Peter was not simply swinging blindly. He was actually fighting.

  "Well, you're certainly a more skilled player than Val," Glitch chided as she dodged and parried a few punches and kicks from Peter.

  "Shut up! You don't get to speak her name!" he replied as he threw more blows his opponent’s way before blocking and deflecting her incoming flurry of slashes.

  "What about Tony? Can I speak his--" her statement was cut short as Peter's fist pushed into her mouth, sending her careening backwards.

  "No, actually," the martial artist answered. His breathing was heavy, though, and he could feel it. Still, he charged forward.

  Glitch landed and quickly righted herself, knowing Peter was still on the offensive. However, she noticed his slowed movements as well. The next few exchanges leaned more in her favor. Every time she evaded one of Peter's attacks, she was able to cut or slash him with at least one of her own. Soon, Peter's health bar was dipping dangerously low.

  "Sad," Glitch said as she hit Peter with two more nasty slashes, which put him off his balance. "Yoshitsune will be disappointed." After that statement, she planted her foot in Peter's gut and sent him hurtling into the air, too far from even the closest airbike. Peter looked around and saw nothing to grab onto as he began to fall to the Vast Sea below. "Time to go," Glitch said as she climbed into the driver's seat of the bike, turned it towards the shore, and took off.

  * * *

  Ariel and Gunner hit the deck of the ship with a thud, producing similar results from his previous aerial assault with Peter. "You've got to work on your landing," Ariel said as she stood up and rubbed the back of her neck.

  "That ain't no lie," Gunner agreed. Out of energy, he just laid on the deck.

  "Help!" they both heard NoScope cry out. They looked and saw the ninja, barely holding up Streak, collapse onto the deck. "He needs healing, now!"

  Ariel ran over, producing a healing potion from her inventory, as Gunner forced himself to stand and limped his way over as fast as he could. "What happened?" Ariel asked as she poured the potion down Streak's throat. His breathing steadied but he did not open his eyes, so they laid him gently on the deck.

  "Glitch," NoScope hissed. "She...she killed Val." The words got caught in the normally stoic ninja's throat. "Streak tried to stop her but she was too quick."

  Ariel's normally purple complexion paled. "No. Val." Before the sadness could overtake her, her eyes widened and she asked, "what about Peter?"

  "As I left, he began to battle with Glitch."

  Ariel, NoScope, and Gunner all looked to the dwindling airbike armada, hoping to catch a glimpse of Peter. Instead, they heard Lysander's desperate cry on the air. "PETER! NO!"

  They looked and saw a terrified Lysander leaning over the railing of the ship. They followed his gaze and saw Peter's form falling to the sea. "PETER!" the lot of them cried as they rushed over to Lysander.

  The wizard made to carry out some spell that could help his falling friend, but the few remaining pirates decided now was the time to make one final attempt on shooting down the airship. Lysander's casting was interrupted as the airship shook. "Goddammit!" he cried in frustration. "That's it! I'll blast you all out of the sky!"

  "Lysander, no!" Ariel reached out.

  "You don't have much energy left!" NoScope yelled.

  "HERALD OF THE STORM!" Lysander cried out as he made several wide flourishes with his hands and staff. He then thrust his staff into the air. Immediately, the skies darkened, thunder sounded, and lightning ripped through the air as it also creeped and crackled around his form and burned from his glowing eyes. Within the clouds, lightning seemed to form a massive warrior upon a horse. As it approached, it morphed into a chain of electricity that tore through the clouds and cut through the remaining dozen airbikes, ripping them and their drivers apart. It was done in a matter of a few seconds. When the skies cleared, Lysander passed out as his HP dropped below zero, having used some of his health to power the spell due to lack of energy.

  "Dammit!" Ariel said as she ran to his side.

  "Here," NoScope said as
she tossed Ariel a potion, who quickly gave it to Lysander. Like Streak, he healed, but did not open his eyes.

  "Can you fly to Peter?" Ariel asked Gunner.

  "Maybe," the cyborg moaned as he stood. When he attempted to transform, an electric shock ran through his body. He cried out in pain and hit the deck, breathing heavy.

  "You don't have the energy," NoScope said as she placed a hand on him, then looked to Ariel.

  "Peter!" Ariel cried out as she leaned over the railing, helpless.

  * * *

  As he fell through the sky, coming closer and closer to the Vast Sea, to his death, Peter reflected that he had never felt so helpless, so alone, in his entire life. Which, for a moment, surprised him. He had always felt helpless. He had always felt alone. He had no relationship with his parents, he couldn't stop the people at school from ridiculing him. Before Our World, he couldn't even make friends aside from the few online. And yet, here he was, more alone and more helpless than ever before. He ran through a list of his skills as the water rushed towards him. Did he have anything that could save him? He had to be dealing damage to hover, and even that wouldn't allow him to fly. Then, he had a plan.

  "This is so dumb," he thought aloud as he concentrated all the stamina he had left, which was less than ideal. Then he fired the most intense, energy filled blast he could conjure directly below him. At first, nothing, then Peter noticed his decent start to slow, then stop, then...he began to rise. "You've got to be kidding me," he laughed to himself.

  He locked his gaze on the airship and continued to pour his stamina into this blast as he jetted back into the sky. As he approached, he noticed his ascension slow, and he felt why. "I'm out of stamina." Before he could drop, however, Peter let out a roar of defiance to his fate as he began to pour his life into the blast. It rocketed him even faster towards the airship.

  His approach, however, began to get blurry as his HP dwindled. "Don't care," he muttered to himself. "Don't care. Have to push it. Have to push it." He made it a third of the way up the airship when his blast puttered out. Peter began to fall as his vision dimmed. Suddenly, before he closed his eyes, he saw a rope ladder descend past him. "NO!" he cried as he opened his eyes wide and grasped the ladder. His descent stopped and he slammed into the airship, but his grip was firm. Still on the edge of passing out, he noticed the ladder being pulled up. As he crested the airship, he heard Ariel's voice, asking if he was okay. But he didn't have the strength to answer. His HP had dropped below zero and was still dropping. Then, everything went dark.

  Chapter 18

  Peter's eyes strained against the light as he tried to open them. His head was pounding, and his body ached as he attempted to push himself up onto his elbows. Noticing the softness of where he lay, he realized he was in a bed in one of the rooms on the airship. He looked around, examining the shambles of what once had been a room in perfect order. A dresser on the other end of the small room had all of its drawers out on the ground. A small nightstand near the bed was overturned, and a lamp was broken on the floor next to it. Even the walls and part of the ceiling had splinters of wood missing or protruding that had been shaken or broken loose. The bed he was in, however, was in fine condition.

  "Where..."

  "Hey," came a voice from the doorway, which Peter immediately noticed was doorless, the hinges broken and bent. In the doorway was Lysander. He looked like Peter felt. The wizard wore a look of weariness upon him, and stood like it was taking a fair amount of energy to hold himself up.

  "Hey." Peter looked around again, then back to his friend. "Where...what happened?"

  "Listen." Lysander put up a finger to silence Peter, then looked around. "Hear that?"

  Peter listened, and immediately noticed what Lysander was getting at. His eyes widened a bit, but then his head pounded. "I don't hear the airship,” he groaned as he placed a hand to his head. “We've landed?"

  "Yep. We made it to the continent."

  "What about...is everyone okay?" Peter was still trying to process everything that had happened, and the fact that he had passed out recently was not helping solidify his memories.

  "Don't know." Lysander's voice carried a tinge of worry with its weariness. "I only woke up a few minutes ago. Saw you in here and thought I'd stop in and see if you were okay."

  "Woke up? What happened to you?"

  Lysander chuckled to himself. "Same as you, I guess. Ended up using my life to power a spell that might have been a bit much to cast at the time."

  The moments before Peter passed out now replayed more clearly in his mind. "Yeah. I guess I overdid it."

  "Well," Lysander smiled, "you were trying not to die. I lost my temper while trying to help. You can probably be forgiven."

  "I guess I can just blame it all on you," Peter grinned.

  Lysander joined in with another small chuckle. "Sure. Why not? Wanna go see what's up?"

  Peter nodded and slowly got out of bed. As they walked, he noticed that the pain in his body and head started to fade, little by little. The short walk down the hallway revealed more carnage and the massive hole leading up to the deck where the stairwell used to be. "Hell of an ending to our trip," came a voice from one of the rooms.

  Lysander and Peter turned to find Gunner walking out of another room."How are you two feeling?" he asked.

  "Better," Lysander answered.

  "Confused," Peter added. "What happened after I passed out?"

  "Not a lot," Gunner answered as he walked out of the room and started up towards the deck, motioning for them to follow. "You both have only been out for about a day. Maybe a little more. I'm just recovering myself."

  "What happened to you?" Lysander asked. "You were out of energy when I went out. What did you try and do?"

  "Well, I didn't try to use my most powerful spell using just my HP." Gunner shot Lysander a grin.

  "Fair." Lysander's purple cheeks flushed a bit. "So what happened?"

  "I tried to transform into flight mode to save Goku over there," Gunner answered as he pointed to Peter with a grin.

  "That'll do it."

  "Anyone else pass out?" Peter asked, half joking.

  "Streak," Lysander answered. "He went down right before I did."

  "Son of a bitch," Peter sighed. "What happened to him--" Peter's sentence was cut short by his own memory. He remembered Glitch, atop an airbike. He saw himself rushing to catch ValCary after a fatal blow from that traitor. He remembered Streak speeding in, but Glitch out maneuvering him and dealing a deadly blow to him as well. After that, it got fuzzy.

  "Glitch almost killed him, right after he killed Val." Gunner's head hung and his voice was barely more than a whisper.

  "Yeah, I...I remember. Is he okay?"

  "Yeah. NoScope got him back to the airship and Ariel got him a potion. Same for Lysander and you."

  "We'd all be dead a few times if not for those two," Lysander laughed.

  "They're all up here." Gunner started back towards the deck.

  As the three of them climbed the rubble where the stairs used to be, they spotted Ariel and NoScope at the railing near the front of the ship. The ninja and warrior saw their friends crest the ruble and quickly rushed over to them, a mix of worry and relief on their faces. Before they came together, Peter noticed Streak, off to the side by himself, leaning on the railing, looking out at the beach.

  "You're awake." Ariel wrapped Peter in a tight hug. Without hesitating, Peter returned the hug with as much enthusiasm. His pain, his anxiety, and his sadness, for the time being, fell away as he stood there and let the closeness with Ariel wash over him. "We'd thought we'd lost you," she said into his shoulder.

  "So did I," he replied, which prompted a laugh from them both.

  She released Peter and grabbed Lysander with another hug when NoScope released him from her own embrace. "Dummy," she said as she squeezed him.

  "Yeah, I know," he agreed, hugging her back.

  "I'm glad you are both okay," NoScope said as she stepped
in and hugged Peter, who returned it in kind.

  "All thanks to you and Ariel," Peter said.

  NoScope placed her hands on Peter's face, pulled him in, and kissed him on the forehead. "No more attempts at flying." Peter laughed and nodded in agreement.

  "What's up with Streak?" he asked, looking over at his friend, still staring off away from the airship.

  NoScope, Ariel, and Gunner all looked to each other, concern clear on their faces. "He is taking Val's death and your getting hurt really hard," Gunner answered.

  "What?" Peter's look of confusion was impossible to hide. "Why? There was nothing he could have done about either of those things."