Hooded Phantom Rebirth

Season 2: Episode 20

Joseph's POV

Mike lashed out at me, throwing out punches left and right. But they weren't random. They were targeted. Even so, I wasn't gonna let him get a good hit on me. So I dodged each strike he threw, barely dodging each one. His speed seemed to have increased significantly. Luckily, I was able to block most of his punches before deflecting a hook punch, which he aimed towards my head, turning my body as I landed a back elbow right onto his cheek, forcing him to take a few steps aside. He was open, so I ran at him with a high knee strike, hitting his chest. He shouted in pain as he took the hit, taking a few more steps back. I backflipped back get to my fighting stance as I look at Mike. He gave me a look that told me everything I needed to know. I'm gonna kill you. He lunged at me, tackling me down to the floor. He smirked as he began to tightly put his hands on my neck, choking me. I tried to grasp for some air. "You have no idea on how much I've longed for this. To see you suffer by my hands," he said.

I frowned under my mask, as I slowly moved both my hands and grabbed onto his wrist, pulling his hands off my neck. I moved his hands towards one side as dark matter surrounded my fist and struck him right on his jaw, giving me a chance to get him off of me. I quickly got up, using a kip up and faced Mike. He wiped some blood coming out of his mouth. "That tickled," he said as his eyes glowed a reddish color. "He just doesn't know when to quit," I said, getting back into my fighting stance. "How can he. He's out to kill you," stated Zenith. "Good point," I said as I blasted some dark matter energy at Mike. However he just seemed to take it like it was nothing. "That trick of yours won't work on me," he said as he ran at me, shaping some spikes onto his fist and using his other hand as a shield, taking the hit of my attack. I frowned, using more dark matter energy and blasting it with more power than I should've. But it seemed to slow him down a bit. So I tried to pack more power onto the blast, but it came at a cost. I probably shouldn't have used most of my stamina on that dark matter blast. What the hell was I thinking? The blast began to slowly weaken, giving Mike the chances to come at me with a strong punch, taking me off of my feet. His strike forced me onto the floor, breaking one of my lenses.

I groaned in pained as Mike grabbed me over his head before throwing me through the brick wall, landing onto a closed off building. I could feel blood coming from my mouth as I hit the concrete floor. I tried getting back up, with me almost stumbling back down. I looked at the hole Mike made as I saw him enter and transforming back into the Akuma from earlier. I frowned at the sight of him. "Hey Joseph", Zenith called out. "W-What?" I said as I winched in pain. "You're getting your ass kicked," he stated. "Yeah no shit," I said. "You need a hand?" Zenith asked. "Do you have to ask?" I asked. Zenith chuckled. "No, just wanted to see how long you'd last without my help," he stated. "You're an ass, you know that," I said. He slightly chuckled. "Yeah, yeah. But just a heads up. You might feel a bit sore once I'm done with this," he said. "Yeah, I kinda figured," I said, looking at Mike who is ready to charge at me. "Let's do it," I said as I got on one knee and repeated what Zenith told me. Mike saw his chance, charging at me ready to completely trample me. But that's when the tide of the fight shifted. I could feel my body begin to heal almost immediately as I quickly stood in place up until Mike came near inches at me. I teleported behind him, seemingly without my guard up.

Mike slammed his body against the other wall, making another hole in the process. He looked at me, fueled by anger. He came running at me, ready to throw a punch. I didn't seem to flinch h as I jumped up and struck mike right on his stomach, forcing him to get on one knee. I looked at him once again and began using my energy to surround my fist and begin to hit him with blows that would easily break concrete. He could feel each on as I took a few steps back and began to raise my hands up as I felt the flow of dark matter around me, using it to lift him off of the floor like he weighed nothing. He looked at me in frustration. "The hell?!" He yelled trying to move his body. I frowned as I just slamed him against the floor over and over and over again. My mask disappeared from my suit as I started to surround my forearm and hands with dark matter and just began to slam my fists against Mike's face once again, who at this point began to return back to his original state. I keep hitting again and again when I could hear Zenith telling me that "that was enough," as the extra boost he had given me began to wear off. I was hesitant. And it wasn't until I saw my blood soaked fist was when I realized that he was right. I looked back at Mike, now noticing the ring he had on his finger. That was it. I grabbed it, breaking the ring as the butterfly came out of it, fluttering its wings into the night sky, but not before it was suddenly caught by a family yoyo and immediately purified. I look at the source of the yoyo and saw Ladybug standing there, with a concerned look on her face. I sighed, transforming back into my clothes. "I'm guessing you heard the sounds of all the ruckus huh," I said. "Yeah," she said softly. I sighed, sitting down on the floor. "I'm also assuming that you're here to talk me into telling you and everyone what's been on my mind?" I asked. She nodded no. "I know how you're like. You're stubborn and tend to hide personal issues from everyone. You choose when to tells us. Not us," she said. I stayed silent, with both of us looking at each other for a moment, noticing the ladybug earrings that seemed quite familiar. Then I looked back at Mike's unconscious body. "Well, we might as well take him back to the lab and see if we can do some tests to him," I said, standing back up. She agreed with me, nodding as we both brought him up and took him back to the teen center, where everyone was waiting for us.