Seeing my brother again, I daydreamed of our childhood; technically he wasn’t my brother but the closest thing I had to family, he is my bro that’s a fact. I envisioned our old dojo, where we practiced with wooden swords knocking the shit out of each other until becoming the masters we are today. Hell I could still feel the pain of the bruises of yesteryear, nostalgia overcame me with a side of happiness; thank you for coming back to me, my brother. I snapped out it and coming back to nowI watched as Lex patched himself together and looked at us as human beings instead of insects, it was strange for a moment he had almost regained his humanity; we trained our weapons on him and held our breath. “Please save me”, he pleaded as he attached his head back to his body. It was an earnest plea, none of us could deny that; but our suspicion and doubt kept of all us from lending a hand. “Guys… he’s possessed”. Astoria said breaking the silence between us, “Ashton we have to purify that monster controlling him”. Ragnarok said finally, “Wait what is going on”? Elaine asked us, “I thought we were here to kill that bastard for all evil he’s done”. “Plans have changed”, Nikolai said bitterly loading in a fresh magazine for his anti-tank rifle, “What’s the plan Ashton”? I approached Lex and he smiled, “You’re under arrest for crimes against humanity”. “Fair enough, all evil shall be brought to light”. He spoke to himself, Elaine approached Lex and punched him in the face, “You don’t deserve this… and Ashton I swear to God, forget it”. She said coldly, she spat on Lex’s boot and left the main courtyard to find the chopper. “Feisty, I like it”. We made ourselves to the chopper and sat down, the ride home seemed longer it should have been, I watched Elaine and Nikolai fume at the current pace of events; Astoria was happy knowing we arrested Lex, but I could tell she wanted him dead like many other people. I felt horrible going against every logical and sound move, I’m going against the grain and my teammates are going to give me hell to pay. The following evening was interesting; so bad news or good news first? Eh, I don’t think it matters… to put it shortly we’ve arrested the chief of police and he’s our guest for the evening, and my brother has agreed to join our team of merry of misfits. The bad news, Lex wasn’t always a psychopathic xenophobe, and these are his words not mine: “I am possessed by Euclid”. I’ll say it now and get it out of the way, all elemental users have a guardian creature to watch over them myself included, ideally the creatures and the bonded have mutual symbiosis; you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours, that type of thing… but it’s very rare that the contractor and contracted are on the same page so usually one will overshadows the will of the other, that is the dark truth behind the contracts. There are five symbiotic relationships you could have with your guardian: mutualistic, commensalistic, parasitic, amensalistic, and synnecrotic. Euclid is a synnecrotic creature, Lex has been killing it slowly for God knows how long and Euclid is doing the same; but he’s winning, essentially if there isn’t a middleman between them they’re both going to die tonight. As for the situation of our team… it’s already on thin ice and about to crack apart at the seams.
“Is anyone an exorcist” Ragnarok asked jokingly, “Ragnarok this is serious we’ve got two lives on the wire right now”. To my surprise, my teammates wanted to save Lex after getting to know him; (yes this is after Astoria and I sowed him together like a run over turtle, after Elaine, her, and Nikolai finished a sparring match with him) the air in the emergency room was tense, the smell of sterile equipment and stark white environment made me sick to my stomach; “Inhale… Exhale, Ashton you can do this”. Ragnarok drew a pentagram around the operating table, “I’m going to expel the demon inside Lex; despite what the others say I am saving that creature no matter the cost”. “It is the duty of every king to keep his people safe”. I said sheathing my swords, “Thank you, Ashton; I’d knew you see reason”. We shook hands and started the ritual; “This is a bad idea, Ragnarok”. “When did that ever stop us”? He said smiling, “It’s good to have you back”. “Agreed”.
When we opened our eyes we appeared in a dilapidated nursery, Euclid wasn’t the monster we’ve expected it was child cradled by Lex’s psyche. “Lex put the kid down”. I said, my words simply drifted out of his other ear, “Let me try”. My brother held out his hand and formed into a tiger palm gesture, from his fingers he formed a wheel of entropic energy; “Hope the kid’s hungry for a little madness”. I watched Euclid, as he was: I saw a tumor with an expressionless face raw to the flesh, dangling arms and legs; he was just a head. “Euclid your king has arrived to challenge you for this soul, shall you accept”. I watched Lex lower the baby, in that instant we caught sight of his haggard and broken face, long lines scarred his body, a body already marred by countless abuses; I vomited a little in my mouth but managed to force it back down. He spoke to the child before it crawled toward us with shriveled arms, its legs were dangling shoestrings of flesh and bone; “My precious… do not harm my precious”, he rasped; “Ashton I’ll handle this one, you hate seeing children die”. Ragnarok pulled out his shotgun revolver and put in six buckshots, he took a shot and blew Euclid clean in half; rendering him into a gory stew of flesh and bone, I stared horrified; “That was wrong”. I said kneeling, “He isn’t dead, far from it; I’ve simply accepted the invitation to die”. The remains of that child slipped through my fingers and reformed into a twisted, corrupted mass of flesh; a sphere of flesh and blood stared us down; “Euclid is a parasite, I’m going to purify him and save them both”. Ragnarok took another shot and blew off what was supposed to his head, he severed the stringy tentacle that served as his arm with the next shot; “Close your eyes, you don’t need to see this”. He said drawing his Kusanagi; he transformed into a horrific being himself and proceeded with his planned massacre. I sat down on the ground and tuned out the ongoing slaughter, elevator music played in the background matching its tempo to the level of brutality and sadism. At its climax, I heard one last gut wrenching splat and a final guttural blood curdling scream, the cries of anguish echoed in the tense silence; I knew what had happened without even looking, Ragnarok had used his guardian Anguish to purify Euclid in a bloodbath, that fact disgusted me to my core. Soon all the madness was replaced by the sounds of a newborn baby clean and healthy. “It is finished, my dear child you are now pure once again: Amen”. We arrived back at the ER with Lex sane again functioning normally, “How’s our patient”. I heard Elaine voice through the intercom, “I’m not mental anymore that’s for sure”. Lex said, his natural voice was so calming and cheerful, why would anyone change that? “Ragnarok, is it; I look forward to working with you”. Lex stuck out his hand, “I still haven’t forgiven you and Euclid for your sins against humanity... I’ve been forgiven for my sins, I have no reason to see why you shouldn’t either”. “Lex you are officially unofficially a member of this PMC, treat your co-workers with respect and kindness at all times; for now we will you keep on a probation period”. I said discharging Lex from the infirmary, we watched him enter the dojo next door. “This is going to be bad”. “Why”? Ragnarok asked me while washing his hands, “His body adapts to whatever killed him the first time… in short his opponents never beat him in a fair fight ever again”. “Then go for the testicles, and fight dirty”. Ragnarok replied. “You’re twisted you know that”. “Let me get the popcorn for the show”. I watched him through the monitor, “I hope he knows which side he’s on now”. “He wouldn’t kill them, I promise; besides they like each other now”.
I walked up to the ring door and let the screen scan my palm into its database: “Welcome Lex, who would you like to challenge this evening”. Chimed a friendly voice “Elaine, Nikolai, and Astoria in that order”. “{Processing request}”. “Your combatants have been hailed, they await in the ring, have fun”. In the opposite end of the ring Elaine walked in and gave me a wink, “I already kicked your ass once today, you back for more”. She was dressed in a pair of white boxer shorts and a red athletic t-shirt. This is going be fun. “I want a rematch”. I gave her the middle finger, taking my stance I caught her fist; “It’s different this time”. I kicked her stomach and threw her to the ground, landing on her rib cage with a dropkick I smashed my fist into her face. “Elaine, status: KO’d”. I helped her to her feet and sat her down on the bench: “Damn dude, you need to relax… ouch, son a bitch that hurts”. She said limping into the locker room, Nikolai walked into the ring with a terrified expression on his face: “guns or melee, take your pick”. “Melee”. “Computer time this match for sixty seconds”. A timer appeared on the wall set for sixty seconds, I put on my cestuses and beefed up my strength. Nikolai drew ten swords and readied himself for battle, he approached me in a blur of swinging metal; I dodged each swing and punched him in the balls, he keeled over and I kicked through his rocky hide, breaking the bones in his legs, I ripped through the rough shield around his arms snapping the Humerus bones; I smashed my knee into his face and ended the match. “Nikolai, status: KO’d”. He was sprawled out on the ground a drunken snow angel, I put his body on a stretcher and rolled him into the infirmary. “You promise not to kill me”. Astoria asked reloading her wheellock pistols, “I wouldn’t count on it”. I reloaded my 28mm hand cannon, “Now that think about it… I won’t”. We turned our backs on each other and walked ten paces from the center of the ring, hard light cover materialized around us; I eyed the closest wall and heard Astoria’s breath, calm and collected. End the match with a single shot. The alarm went off and we took cover, I peeked out from a downed column and almost had my head blown off again today; I slid under a car narrowly missing two bullets aimed at my heart, my hand reached for a nearby stone under the car. I threw a rock at a nearby roadblock, come on take the bait. Astoria walked over to my position and looked at the car I was hiding under, she shot the fuel tank and I rolled out from under the car, I lifted the to-be fireball and put it on its side; I kicked the thing and sent it flying to Astoria, I heard the car hood ram into her; I shot the car engine block, fuel tank and the hydraulics, emptying out the cylinder I dove into cover behind a piece of fallen building. The car exploded in a great blaze, and torched Astoria in the blast; I looked at the monitor on the wall: “Astoria, status: injured”. I saw her hobble over to a nearby roadblock from the burning wreck clutching her side as bled out. She sat behind the already scorched piece of cover, the moans of pain stopped; she sealed the wound and our match became sudden death. In stepped out from cover with a shuriken in her hand, between us was fifty feet of open space, adjusting the marksmen sling I aimed through the scope my Gewehr 43 and took a warning shot; “Take another step and I’ll blow your brains out”. Astoria dropped her shuriken and forfeited the match, “Astoria, status: forfeit”. We sat down at the center of the ring with our weapons put away, “You put me in a spot where I couldn’t act; the scenario would have ended with me dying from a shot to the head”. “You knew, all along that I would beat you; why didn’t you surrender at the beginning then”. “Because I hate losing”, Astoria said punching my shoulder, “That’s for trying to blow me up with a car”. “Ouch, I’m ruthless not invincible”. She flicked my head and smiled, “I thought you were a psychopathic mass murderer of a badass; getting to know you, you’re a jackass who knows how handle himself in a fight, let’s be friends”. She gave me a fist bump, I laid on my back. “Karma’s a bitch”; Astoria laid down next to me, “Tell me about it”.