The Stigma (by Koltin Scott)

Chap. XXII

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'Great,' I thought as I dropped the phone into a trash can, 'now what do I do? Wait?'

I tried my best to blend in and rubbed the laceration on my head, looked at the blood it coated to my hand and spat more blood as I strode down the sidewalk. Eventually I got to the point that instead of filming me people began to regard me with a confused glance.

Of course it wasn't long until I saw two unmarked SWAT vans trying to blend into the traffic. So I dropped a man from his motorcycle with a kick and I tried to speed away. Doors instantly clapped open and futuristic, prototype motorcycles zoomed after me. 'Well...' I thought looking back at them, 'those are new'.

I used a hand to strengthen the gravity under them causing me to put them in the dust. However-

I forgot that I was going like 50-60 miles per hour on a motorcycle...

A horn blared and the impact instantly sent me airborne. I had no choice but to slow down my decent, still smashing through a fence and landing in a large industrial ditch, the ones skaters might use, a large highway in the distance.

I groaned and heard thrusters and felt the cracks in the cement as Templar's landed on each side of me. I slowly looked up at them as they towered over me. They picked me up easily, pressing me hard against the wall. I assumed after some x-ray scans of my bone damage one finally said,

"We're here to get you out Knight."

Panic came upon me,

"No," I said, "No! You can't take my op! They're coming for me!"

"We'll be ready."

"No..." I said dark and knowingly, "no you won't."

As if on cue, a car wrecked up on the freeway, two black figures flying out from the windshield, gliding in fact. The smaller figure was in front and the Templars turned directly into a helmet cracking drop kick. One rolled with it and was able to stagger away when the other crumpled into the earth.

The other figure, fully armored in the Baron's Special Unit style with a Mexican Day of the Dead ghost skull as his mask. The other was in a hooded black trench coat, the boots and surely everything underneath was armor but the face, the face was a face similar to that of the Headless Horseman's 'face'. Obscured in darkness the only expression was a white smiling jack-o-lantern face.

"Oh?" The figure said in a distorted, intimidating voice with a tint of raspiness for effect, "Did we break a seat-belt law officer?"

"Baron?" The other man said, voice distorted.

He replied, his eyes never leaving the Templar,

"Nah, I got it."

The Templar stumbled into a stance and the Baron bid him, motionless, watching him,

"C'mon, I don't have all day."

The Templar aimed his hand at him as a slit opened from his arm and unleashed a P.I.K.E. missile. It purred, nearly silent as it screamed towards the Baron. However, before impact-

The Baron weaved to the side and caught the missile. He struggled with it until the missile ran out of fuel and I could've sworn that I and the Templar had our jaws crash into the dirt.

"Doug?" He tossed the missile behind him absentmindedly for Doug to catch, "And you?" He addressed the Templar, "Play God much? I hate people who play that game."

The Templar unsheathed four-foot energy infused blades from his armor, "Prepare to die."

"Do you realize how many people have said that and lived to tell about it?"

The Templar bounded toward him,

"Few." The Baron finished as he stood stock still.

The Templar uttered a war cry before he struck in an 'x' like movement and the Baron sighed in return. I was honestly concerned for both of them; the Templar towered head and shoulders over the Baron in his lightly armored attire. However the Baron lazily launched a grapple through the legs of his opponent and allowed it to pull him as he sliced his electric blade always in his sleeves where the Achilles tendon would be. Rolling he turned around and charged the Templar who hurriedly swung his blades back around. However the swing was delayed by Baron's grapple, making the momentum gained null, and the Baron used the clefts in his armor to easily climb atop him and wrap the grapple line around the Templar's neck, immobilizing one arm. The Templar pulled at the line and managed to get it rapped around his cracked helmet before the Baron started kicking the other arm while trying to strangle his opponent. The line wasn't around the neck though...

He kept pulling anyway as he deflected the energy infused blade of the free hand with: the other grapple, his feet and his free electric blade or prod. Then the Templar finally did manage to grab the Baron and attempted to desperately throw the Baron off but it caused the line around his helmet to tighten to the point that the line cut through the helmet. The Baron let go for fear that the Templar might grab the line, the line going slack but still laced about in the Templar's helmet.

The Templar panicking due to the fact that he almost had his head squeezed into pieces and the Baron capitalized. He charged while the Templar tore at the lining like it was a spider's web and with a huge leap implanted his knee into the enemy's helmet, shattering it to pieces. The Templar went down, the Baron on top of him.

"Please!" His normal voice begged, "Don't kill me! Please!"

"Well," the Baron said, his tone unreadable, "since you asked."

The last sound of the Templar was an 'ack' as the Baron tasered his head directly.

"You'll be one of the few that lived..."

The next second we heard that futuristic motorcycle screaming towards us. The Baron glanced at Doug,

"Doug?" Their gazes met, "Play football."

Doug grappled atop a garbage truck and tossed the PIKE missile with his super strength. The next second the motorcycle was flipping through the air crashing into the car that The Baron had wrecked off the freeway.

The Baron's voice said directly behind me, "You might want to cover your eyes."

I did instinctively when the vehicles exploded in a brilliant light. Debris showered us but the Baron didn't move. He was crouched next to me and swatted away a rock that may or may-not have hurt me, his mask disappeared before my eyes and he spoke to me in his normal, unfiltered voice,

"Are you alright AllFall?"

He surprised me and tucked some stray hairs behind my ear. After getting over the surprise I spat some blood and said, "Yeah-yeah! I can walk."

"Let's get you out of here then..."