Shadow Fangs

Chapter 10

           Zorakuba stood shocked as he stares at his old friend...."Why....why are you doing this Thompson?  You were always after me not Alex!" Zorakuba yells slightly as he frowns, before glaring and gritting his teeth as Thompson laughs mockingly.  This wasn't the Thompson he knew...Thompson never went after weaknesses like this.  He didn't even attack him during the revolt, but he did try to convince him to stand down and just give up. 
        "You think I've been after just you?  Ha!  I've always been after both of you....especially Alex....i want you to suffer with the disappearance of someone important to you..." yep...this wasn't him.  Zorakuba knew now that he was under Toue's mind control...
       "Do you hear yourself Thompson?  This isn't you!  Please listen to me...You're not this kind of man...you're a good man under the control of something aweful!" Zorakuba yelled. Thompson only laughed as he grabbed Alex, holding a knife to his neck.  "Don't make me laugh...We're gangsters Zorakuba.  We've always been bad.  Why don't you come work for us now eh?  Become a Morphine member and your precious friend will be fine...you'd never have to worry about getting caught or tortured ever again....Just think of it..no more whips...no more of the "chair"..."
      Thompson says this in a dark tone as he looks at Zorakuba with beady unfocused eyes.  The rest of Aoba's friends were now behind him, and they heard everything that Thompson said.  Most of them didn't know about the torture he went through either.  They were quite shocked.
      Zorakuba froze as Thompson mentioned the "chair"...the restraints of it holding him down as the cruel needles of the mechanical arms dug into the back of his neck, wrists, and anywhere else they might've found on his shaking body, injecting DNA and taking blood...and pieces of his soul along with it.  That chair...was what broke him.  The whippings were nothing compared to the agony of that unforgiving "chair".
        He stood there with a mix of emotions, but he was broken from his thoughts as Thompson laughed cruelly.  "Hahahaha....That expression of terror is priceless...but I'm losing my patience..." he says as he slightly digsthe knife into Alex's neck, threatening to break the skin at any moment and end the life of his friend...Alex looks scared but also apologetic.  It's his fault Zorakuba was here...at least that's what he felt.
      "Alright alright....just let him go and we can talk this through ok?  Just don't hurt Alex," Zorakuba says in a concerned, yet serious tone.  Thomspon laughed before pushing Alex forward to the ground, before he got up shakily and ran to Zorakuba, quivering.  Aoba grabbed his arm gently and led him to the others, before looking at Zorakuba with disbelief.  How could he just give up like that?
      Thompson looms at Zorakuba with unfocused vision as he slowly walks over to him.  Unknown to Thompson, Zorakuba was reaching for his concealed weapon in his belt.  A small loaded pistol.  The others looked at him, surprised that he had that.  Koujaku and Aoba never noticed it when he was at Aoba's house.  Did he grab it in the warehouse maybe?
       "Thompson...You know I've never done anything without reason right?" Zorakuba asks in a strange tone to an unsuspecting Thompson.  "Of course I know that.  Why're you-" Thompson is cut off as Zorakuba suddenly lunges forward, knocking the knife from his hand before putting him in a hold.  "So don't hate me for this....im doing this because I'm your friend," Zorakuba finished as he closes his eyes, before opening them to reveal....that the color changed from a deep violet to a light crystal blue.
      "Thomspon....Submit!" Zorakuba's voice sounds layered, almost synthetic as he speaks in a hypnotic tone....Aoba realized that this was....this was a form of scrap!  How could he have it though?  Did Toue give him that power...
     Immediately Thomspon fell silent, his eyes gaining a different light as he calmed down.  Zorakuba let go of him as Thompson stood there silently, before shaking his head and looking around.  "Where.......what happened?" He asks in a much gentler, kinder tone.
       The other two who were working with him tried to attack him when they saw he was no longer under Toue's control, but Zorakuba was faster.  He jumped in between Thompson and the two.  Zorakuba didn't look like himself.  He was expressionless, like a doll...
     Thompson immediately paled as he saw him, before backing up fearfully.  "Oh no....he...he used scrap!  That...that hurts him!" Thompson exclaims as he now stands by the others.  "What do you mean?  How does it hurt him?"  Aoba asks worriedly.  Thompson looks at the others, who were looking back at him intently.  They were all wondering the same thing.
      "He has a special formof scrap.  He has both the vocal power and the visual power of it.  However, when he uses it it sets his mind back to what it used to be when he worked for Toue," he explains what he was and what his affiliations with Toue were. 

"It was like a defense mechanism on Toue's part....if he tried to use the power of scrap against someone unwillingly he would go into a different stage of his mind.  If that happens, which it did, he risks going into a blood rage," he explains.  Clear was about to ask what that was, but a sudden loud crash is heard from in front of them, causing them all to look.
       Zorakuba had slammed one of the men into the car while he was repeatedly hitting the other one.  His eyes were a deep red now with cat like slits in the center.
     "He only becomes like this under serious circumstances or when using scrap...his eyes are the indicator of what stage he's in..." Thompson says sounding rather worried.
       "So how do we get him out of that stage?!" Koujaku asks, more like yelling, Thomson.
    "The only way to get him out of it....is to either break his mind or make him fall unconscious by force....scrap wouldn't work for that," Thomspon explains as Zorakuba punches the car, barely missing the man's face. If he kept going like this he was gonna end up killing them!
          So what Thompson was saying, basically, was that they'd have to knock out Zorakuba in order to get him back to reality so to speak?  The others nodded as they looked at Zorakuba.  This was going to be hard....Zorakubas a good fighter and very intelligent.  He also won't hesitate to kill in this state...
       They needed to act fast before Zorakuba did something he would regret....