Afterburner (SS Mini-Series)

Episode 4-3: Love Love

    A fountain, a landmark, I should know it, but it's not coming to mind. Plenty of people here, and Love Love is posing in front of it while staring me down. He thinks he's already won. He looks at me with pity, a condescending tone, he thinks he's better than us. My gun won't work, but I'm happy to beat the narcissism out of this guy with my fists alone.

    "Agent Hearth, once so pretty, now a mural of suffering. How it must feel to have such beauty wrestled away from you through brutal violence and a lack of empathy. Tell me, are you used to being treated like a fragile princess? Was this day different for you?"

    "Love Love. I left my boyfriend a convulsing mess just to meet you here. You probably feel like a guest of honor right now."

    "What do you plan to do to me? Will you hurt me? Kill me in hopes of saving Clyde? Could that work? I don't know."

    The ground beneath me shakes with the steps I take toward him. I know I'm not frightened, but I'm afraid I have unrestrained anger. What if I do kill him and it doesn't fix Clyde? I wouldn't even know how to get him help. "I'm trained in many styles of martial arts. I think you've earned my Feral Stand."

    "Feral Stand? They taught a cute little thing like you Feral Stand?"

    Feral Stand is a barbaric form of fighting involving claws and vital striking. Only Primendians can use this style, Humans lack the components. It's lethal, and unpracticed throughout official tournaments. A martial artist like Clyde would never revert to it, it's considered disgraceful to the art and competition. Love Love has earned every gash I plan to give him.

    He slowly steps down from the fountain and meets me on floor level. "Mr. Hearth, I'm not trained in a single martial art. I don't think this is very fair. Maybe we can settle this through debate."

    The bastard has a charming smile and is completely calm setting eyes on my bloody and boiled body. What's his game? If he can't fight, why isn't he running away from me? Is there another trick Crazy4U can do that I don't know about? An ambush by him is expected, that's how he got us in the first place.

    "Not a chance," I crack my knuckles and roll my shoulders, "I lost my favorite body part because of you. I won't give you the chance to mutate."

    Love Love made the mistake of getting too close to me. I dash and pounce on the front of his body, but he remains standing, carrying my body weight as I latch onto his shirt and put my feet on him to stabilize. With my right and righteous hand, I pull back and launch my claws straight for his throat, aiming for the jugular for a quick kill. My claws are sharp enough to rip through skin with a simple graze. When I focus power on them like this, they might as well be a steel knife cutting into meat.

    Twang!

    My claws. They bounced off of his throat as if I hit metal. There's not a scratch on him, no blood, and it's not even red from the pressure. What's going on? The relic always allowed me to deal damage using physical prowess. Why is this different? Why can't I damage him at all?

    "More tricks!?"

    "Surely you never thought the relic was going to allow an icon of beauty such as myself succumb to physical violence, did you? What a tragedy it would be to see my face lose its structure."

    I drop off of him and try to dig my claws into his stomach, but the same thing happens. Nothing I do is going to hurt him. I don't get it. How is he supposed to feel the pain or receive damage? "Invincibility!? Now you're just cheating." I don't stop my attacks, I switch to Kung-Fu, Jeet Kune Do, Taekwondo, and Karate, but it all fails.