Akihiro stabbed downward. Jason screamed, both in defiance and fear. But before the blow could be struck, a blast of golden energy slammed into Akihiro's side. The artist was flung, hitting the floor and tumbling several feet away.
Jason gasped, as he felt the tendrils loosen around his body. Hiroshi flew toward the fallen artist, his face hidden beneath his mask. But there was no hiding his emotions, as he let loose a loud scream and fired two more energy blasts. The twin blasts caught Akihiro right in the chest and he went sailing, crashing down hard on his side.
"YOU BASTARD!" Hiroshi screamed, firing off another volley of blasts, knocking Akihiro to the floor. "YOU SON OF A BITCH! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! DON'T HURT HIM! DONT HURT MY FRIENDS! YOU KIDNAPPED ME! YOU HURT ME! I'LL KILL YOU, MOTHERFUCKER! I'LL KILL YOU!"
He screamed, two more blasts firing. But Akihiro dissolved into the floor, the blasts hitting where he had just been. A nearby pipe burst open, steam engulfing the hallway. Hiroshi twisted around, hands raised. Jason began to pull against his restraints, growling as his muscles bulged. Several tendrils fell away, snapping apart against his arms. But the others, despite being weakened, held faster and kept him from rejoining the fight.
"Hiroshi," Akihiro's icy words filled the hallway, his words like a snake's hiss. Hiroshi spun around, gasping, but the artist didn't reveal himself, as his words echoed off the walls. "You traitorous little creature. I showed you the world, in all its magnificent glory, and you...you turn your back on me?"
"You kidnapped me!" Hiroshi howled back, sounding on the verge of tears. He flew backwards, away from the steam hissing from the pipe. "Everyday I was with you...you threatened to kill my parents! You...you made me do horrible things! I hate you! You're a fucking maniac, a monster! Now come out of hiding so I CAN KILL YOU!"
At that, the paint suddenly burst from the floor like an erupting geyser. Hiroshi screamed, trying to fly away, but he was too slow and the paint slammed into it. It engulfed the teenager, spinning him end over end before it warped itself into a massive fist. Seizing Hiroshi, it held him aloft before the massive fingers began to squeeze.
As the giant hand of paint squeezed Hiroshi, Akihiro suddenly reappeared before him. He tightened his own hand and Hiroshi screamed as he began to be crushed between the fingers.
"Such a naughty child," Akihiro purred, his expression dancing between angry and sickly, disturbingly happy. "You must be punished."
Hiroshi screamed as the giant hand continued to brutally squeeze him, Akihiro chuckling in pleasure as his own hand mimicked the giant one. Jason's eyes went wide. Pure rage filled his body, as he heard the boy's painful screams.
No damnit. No. NOT Hiroshi!
He yanked his arms and legs forward, ripping free of the layers of paint. He shot forward, springing at the mad artist, ready to pound his face into a bloody pulp. But a tendril shot out of the floor and whacked Jason in the chest, sending him flying backward.
But instead of smacking into the wall, Jason somersaulted in midair. He kicked off a bunch of pipes, denting them from his kick, and sailed back towards Akihiro. Akihiro thrust multiple tendrils around himself, forming a cage of tentacles. Jason's fast reflexes managed to save him, as he grabbed a low hanging chunk of the ceiling and jerked to a stop in midair.
Akihiro's tendrils raised and thrust themselves at him, as Hiroshi continued to struggle and scream in the squeezing hand. Jason somersaulted backward, the tendrils snatching at the air beneath him. They slithered after him, their ends morphing into human hands, trying to surround him, grab him from multiple angles. Jason kept somersaulting backward, barely avoiding the tendrils, swinging across the pipes like monkey bars.
He then swung himself forward as hard as he could. He spun through a gap between the tendrils, speeding forward like a bullet. But Akihiro vanished, slipping into the floors, seconds before Jason struck. Jason's fist smashed through the floor, his blow tearing through the metal.
Jason screamed in pain, yanking his hand upward. His gloved was torn apart, his knuckles bleeding. But he saw the giant fist of paint fall apart, splattering to paint and dropping Hiroshi to the floor. Hiroshi gasped, coughing, his golden armor covered in the oozing stuff.
Jason turned, running toward him. But his knee suddenly sparked with a jolt of pain. He yelled, falling to the ground. His vision swam as he looked up, sputtering. As he did, he was greeted with the thing a fist made of paint thrust out of the oozing stuff around Hiroshi and whacked him in the face.
The blow knocked Jason backward, droplets of paint sticking to his face. The stuff began to wriggle around his cheeks like a group of slugs, squirming toward his mouth and eyes. Jason slapped at them, knocking them away but as he did, Akihiro's knife shot out of the paint on the floor and slashed Jason's chest.
Blood went flying, as the knife cut through Jason's flesh. Jason screamed and swiped at the hand but it was already gone, sucked by up by the paint. Akihiro's laughter echoed around the walls, giggling. Hiroshi began to rise but the paint around him sucked him back down and he squealed as he was dragged against the floor, the stuff sucking him in like quicksand.
Akihiro appeared beside Jason, bursting from the floor in a spray of paint. Jason lunged at him but tendrils grabbed his arms, stopping his fists before they could strike the artist. Akihiro yanked Jason upward, bringing them face to face. His breath was disgusting, smell like fresh wet paint, his hollow eyes dark pits and even more horrible to look into from inches away. Behind him, he saw James and Laureen struggling in their paint cocoons, their cries muffled.
"Let them..." Jason started to say but Akihiro slashed his cheek. He yelped, his threat interrupted, feeling hot blood splatter his face. Akihiro sighed and licked Jason's blood off the tip of his knife, his hollow eyes widening.
"Be quiet Jason," Akihiro's other hand grabbed Jason's neck and pulled him lightly forward. The knife's tip pressed against Jason's chin, the metal making Jason's hair stand on end.
"Go to hell!" Jason snarled back.
"Oh, I wish I could," Akihiro purred back, swirling his tongue across his teeth, mixing blood and paint together to create lucid, terrible colors. "Now as I said...be quiet. In fact..." Akihiro leaned forward, stroking his knife across Jason's upper lips. "I think I'll make you be quiet forever. I want to hear you scream, Jason, without your lovely tongue. Struggle...and I'll hack my way through your teeth, your gums, your very flesh, and rip it free. Struggle! It will be a glorious beginning of the end."
Jason responded by headbutting the artist in the face. Akihiro stumbled backward, yelping. Jason tried to struggle loose, flailing and kicking but the tendrils tightened around his arms, holding him in place. Akihiro recovered himself, shaking his head, his nose trickling blood.
His hollow eyes narrowed, as he wiped his nose. His own blood smeared over his palm and he looked at it with disgust. Jason smiled darkly at him and snarled, "Doesn't feel so good when it happens to you, does it?"
Akihiro didn't respond. He just looked at Jason with a dangerous, predatory glare. Then he lunged forward, knife slashing toward's Jason face. But before he could strike, another shape slammed into him and tackled the mad artist to the floor.
Jason let out a wild whoop as he saw Tuatara smashed down on top of Akihiro. He roared, claws slashing at the madman but Akihiro again dissolved into the floor, dispersing into blobs of paint that flowed off in multiple directions. Tuatara hissed in rage, jumping up, his single eye flashing about.
"Jason!" Audrey's voice cried. Jason turned and saw the beetle girl lumber to his side. His heart fluttered at the sight of her and he grinned, all the terror and pain fading at seeing her.
"Hey!" He cried. "Where you been?"
"Beating up bad guys!" She cried back, before grabbing his waist. She then yanked him free of the tendrils, the things snapping apart as Jason was ripped free. Jason embraced her briefly, feeling her shiver at his touch. He then turned, pointing at James, Hiroshi, and Laureen, still cocooned.
"Help them!" He yelled. Audrey put him down and lumbered for James first. But as she did, the paint all around them shifted. And without warning, the entire hallway turned into a thing of madness.
The paint warped itself, twisting into rainbow colors, dark and twisted while at once being colorful. Drawings, paintings, illustrations arose from every surface coated in paint, depicting horrible images of violence. Jason saw children being attacked by swarms of rats, a knife wielding man slicing open a man's chest and spilling his guts in a fountain of gore, a woman clawing out her own eyeballs, and much, much more. On the center of the ceiling, Akihiro's face burst into view, drawn in a horrific Picasso like fashion. His mouth stretched across the hallway, looming over them. He roared down at them like some giant monster and bellowed, "Enough! This little bit of foreplay has become tiresome...it is time to end this! I will have my MASTERPIECE! It is the one thing, the ONLY thing, that matters!"
Fountains of paint spewed from the walls. Jason somersaulted backwards, narrowly avoiding being splattered. Tuatara tried to back up but he was struck by gushing ink and knocked face first to the floor. He yelled, struggling as paint poured down on him. Hiroshi squealed as paint poured down over his trapped body, rising up to his ankles.
Jason lunged to help the kid but tendrils shot from the wall and he was forced to jump back to avoid being grabbed. Audrey went for James but globs of paint fired off the floor. They struck her shell before one large glob hit her in the eyes. Audrey squealed, lurching backward, swiping blindly at the eye. The paint ballooned over her features, covering Audrey's face. She stumbled back blindly and the floor shifted beneath her. She slipped, giving a muffled yell as she crashed to the floor, shaking the hallway from the impact and denting the metal.
"Audrey!" Jason screamed. He heard another muffled cry and turned, just in time to see James being swallowed up by the rising tide of paint. He stumbled back, looking with horror at the floor. Paint was flowing over everything, flowing over every feature of the floor like a multicolored flood. It was all around them, already enveloping his friends. Tuatara was struggling several feet away, most of his body save his head and arms being swallowed by the paint. Jason was so far untouched but the paint was all around him and closing fast.
He looked around, desperate for some sort of solution, someway to fight back. As he looked around, more images formed around him, depicting images of Quincy in flames. Dark shapes of Skeleton Crew members, represented as weird stick figures, charged through the streets and cutting down horrifically drawn, all too real civilians. The image then shifted, swirling into Akihiro's leering face.
Akihiro laughed, bubbles of paint bursting across his looming visage. "Suffering, violence, fear...its what make this world great," His voice rose with each syllable, sounding almost euphoric. "You can't see that. But you can be part of it. Resist all you like. You cannot defeat me. I am an artist and I create! You are my tools and you exist to serve my muses, MY VISION."
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Jason screamed, still whirling around, desperate to escape. Akihiro just kept laughing, as the oozing paint closed in. Around him, his friends continued to struggle, even as the paint rose to envelop them. Jason swallowed, his breathes hard, desperate. Desperate to find some way, anyway...out of this...
Then the paint exploded around Hiroshi. Akihiro hissed, as the boy spun uncontrollably of the floor. Jason's eyes widened, realizing that the teenager had just fired an energy blast at point blank rage and blew himself free. Hiroshi spun across the hallway for a few moments before he took control of himself and stopped in midair.
He fired at Akihiro's face, blowing the massive thing to pieces. As it began to reform, he then fired at Laureen and Audrey, blowing the cocoon apart around Laureen and blasting the paint off Audrey's face. Laureen was dropped forward, landing with a splash in the rising paint, while Audrey burst up, gasping for air.
Laureen unsteadily rose to her feet, gagging at the paint around her. "Gross!" She cried, before yelling at Audrey. "Get Tuatara! Hurry!" Audrey spread her wings and shot off, burst free of the paint. She zoomed past Jason and dived into the paint Tuatara had been sucked into. Moments later, she burst back out, Tuatara clutched in her arms.
Laureen spun toward James, the professor wriggling as he lay face down in the paint. She began to limp toward him, sloshing through the paint, sucking in her breath. But as she did, Akihiro's face suddenly reformed, right in the center of the bubbling paint.
"An admirable battle, sweet Hiroshi!" Akihiro's voice boomed before his face began to spin, swirling until it began a whirlpool. The rest of the paint followed suit, miniature waves rising from it and splashing against the walls. Laureen screamed as she was dragged forward, spewing smoke upward. Jason tried to run but a passing wave of paint slammed into him and he was dragged into the inky surf.
He splashed through the water, gurgling as he swallowed a chunk of paint. He spat it out, swimming upward. He felt like he was fighting against sticky mud, everything around him pulling against him, dragging him forward. He burst free, gasping for breath, his mouth burning from the paint he'd swallowed.
Blinking away ink from his eyes, Jason caught a glimpse of a chunk of the wall zoom past as he dragged through the paint, swirling bits of green, red, and blue flowing around him. He lunged forward, wrapping an arm around a pipe and jerked to a sudden stop. The paint rushed past him and the pipe groaned but he managed to hold fast against the onrushing current.
He looked around for his friends. He saw Audrey buzzing overhead, still clutching Tuatara in her arms. The lizard boy pointed downward and cried, "Quick, grab them!" Audrey dived downward but as she did, tendrils burst from the flooding paint. They grabbed her burly arms and yanked downward. Audrey and Tuatara spun out of control, both screaming before they splashed into the paint and disappeared from sight.
"Audrey!" Jason screamed at the top of his lungs. He instantly let go of the pipe and began to swim toward their position, fighting against the paint pulling him toward the whirlpool. But his injured leg burned in the inky waters and he wasn't moving fast. He felt himself being dragged to the side, his strength unable to save himself.
He bumped into something. He spun around and caught a glimpse of Laureen, being dragged under the surface by the undertow. He shoved his arm into the paint, pushing desperately against it. He felt himself touch something and latched onto it with his sticky fingers. He then yanked upward and Laureen burst out of the paint, gasping for air as ink oozed off of her.
She struggled to stay up, her injured leg clearly failing her. Jason pulled her against him, supporting her as best he could, but with the added weight, he could feel himself weakening. He was barely able to stay afloat and continued to be dragged toward the whirlpool spinning away. Laureen coughed, gasping in his arms.
"Where's...where's the others?!" She cried. Jason desperately looked around. He saw Hiroshi diving toward them, zooming over the inky waters. Tendrils of paint lashed out at him but he managed to spin between them, blowing two others up that got in his way.
He flew above them, the teenager stretching out a hand. "Grab it!" Hiroshi yelped desperately. Jason pushed Laureen upward and she grabbed Hiroshi. The boy tried to pull her out of the paint but despite straining desperately, he just couldn't pull her free. He just didn't have the strength to do so.
"Let go!" Laureen cried. Hiroshi refused to do so, continuing to pull as they were dragged along by the paint. "I said let fucking go!" That did it and Hiroshi let go, Laureen splashing back into the paint. Jason held out her tightly, gritting his teeth as he saw them closing in on the whirlpool at the center of the flooded hallway.
He then caught a glimpse of something bobbing behind them by several yards. A glimpse of curly, blonde hair was all the confirmation he needed. "James!" He yelled. Laureen and Hiroshi turned to look.
Laureen pointed forward. "Hiroshi!" She cried. "Blast him out of the paint!" Hiroshi didn't hesitate. He fired a blast and it struck the spot. Paint exploded in a geyser, splattering outward and James was flung from the painted waters. He landed on an overhead pipe, absolutely soaked from head to toe with a myriad of colors but he clung to the pipe, shivering, his eyes wide.
"Do something professor!" Laureen cried, cupping her hands to her mouth. "There must be something you can do! You're smart, man, figure it the fuck out!"
If James answered, Jason didn't hear. He was distracted as the paint in front of them suddenly rose upward, forming itself into a tidal wave. Jason caught a glimpse of more horrible images swirling on its underside, the wave turning bright red before it crashed down. It slammed into them and Jason was dragged under, shutting his eyes. He clutched onto Laureen for dear life, feeling her body tumble with him through the inky depths in darkness.
He spun, holding his breath, his lungs burning. Then something pushed him upward and he was thrown into air again. Jason gasped, spitting out paint and opened his eyes. He blinked away oozing ink and found himself at the center of the whirlpool. Laureen was next to him, coughing up paint of her own. They were being held aloft over the spinning whirlpool of paint by a giant hand made of hardened ink.
At the tip of the hand's massive index finger Akihiro appeared. He rose out of the ink, his nose still gushing blood, framing his face red. Jason stood and lunged at the artist. His attack was clumsy and slow, his injured leg slowing him down, as well his disorientation from being dragged under the paint below. Akihiro just flick his fingers and tentacles grabbed Jason's legs. He tripped, smashing down on the palm of the giant hand.
"Now I'm growing bored," Akihiro said, faking a yawn as he strode toward Jason. The Urban Spider hissed angrily, his hands curling as he tried to get up. Akihiro stopped over him and smiled. "But I suppose that happens. I've drawn all I can from you. Perhaps more than I should have. I've really enjoyed our time together Jason. You were my greatest muse, the spark of such passion and creativity...I'm almost sad to see you go."
Jason tried to grab at the artist's leg. Two more tendrils grabbed his arms and forced them down. Akihiro laughed. "But not that sad..." He raised his knife. "The end has come for you, my sweet friend. And what a glorious climax it has been. And now...I shall carve you into the strands of immortality. My masterpiece shall be done..."
He then stabbed down. But as he did, Laureen suddenly lunged in his path. She raised her hand, trying to block his strike. His knife went through her palm with a sickening crunch of flesh. Laureen screamed as the end of the blade pierced through her hand. Her legs gave way and she fell before Jason, dragging down Akihiro with her.
Akihiro's eyes went wide. He snarled in rage and tried to pull his blade free. But his knife seemed to be stuck in Laureen's hand. The girl bit her lip, choking down gasps of air. Even as she fought through tears, she grabbed Akihiro's wrist, clenching it, forcing his knife to remain stuck in her.
"You..." She snarled right in his face. "...Don't...get...to...win! Fuck...you...you fucking...piece of horseshit!"
Then there was a maniacal laugh from below. Jason looked past the struggling pair, through the giant hand's fingers. He saw James, standing up on his pipes, having opened a panel in the ceiling and fiddling with an assortment of wires.
"Oh me oh my oh dear Mr. Toranosuke!" James called from below through his laughter. "You have a distinct tactical disadvantage I'm afraid in here I realized it almost immediately but didn't have er access should I say to making it happen to realizing my rudimentary admittedly hastily conceived plan but those are the best ones eh well perhaps not I'd have to do some proper calculations but now is not the time for calculations now is the time for calculations and well Mr. Toranosuke we've never properly met until now although I've heard stories read dozens of facts I suppose I shouldn't be rude I say to you Mr. Toranosuke 'Hello!' and with that out of the way I may now say with an equal measure of utter loathing dislike distaste what have you 'Goodbye!'"
James struck two wires together. An alarm went out and suddenly, fire extinguishers extended from the ceiling. Water sprayed down on them, ripping through the paint like bullets. The painted hand holding them began to shake and fall apart, chunks of ink being ripped free from the onrush of water.
Akihiro's eyes went wide, as he looked up, paint peeling off him against the water. Laureen used the momentary distraction to her advantage. With a squeal, she kneed the mad artist right in his exposed genitals. Akihiro doubled out, letting out a shriek of pain. Laureen yanked her hand backward, yanking the knife out of Akihiro's grasp, the blade still impaled through her hand.
Jason tore himself free of the tendrils binding him, paint sloshing off his body as it was torn asunder by the sprinkler. He leaped forward, slamming into Akihiro and tackled him off the melting hand. The two of them tumbled down into the flooded hallway, splashing down into the paint.
Jason kicked upward, exploding out of the inky waters, dragging Akihiro up with him. The artist struggled to escape but the water was slamming down around him, paint melting off the walls. Jason grabbed Akihiro's and yanked him face to face.
"Doesn't feel so good, huh?!" Jason snarled before ramming his fist Akihiro's ribs, right in the original spot he had originally kicked the madman. A loud crack went through the hallway, the ribs again snapping to pieces from Jason's blow. Akihiro gasped, the air forced from his lungs, spitting up blood and paint.
Jason grabbed Akihiro's arm and yanked it behind the madman's back before he twisted it and with a loud snap,Akihiro's arm broke like a twig. Akihiro screamed and Jason slammed his foot onto the artist's head, shoving his head into his own melting paint.
Paint flowed past them, forming a river as it was dragged off down the hallway, filtering off into holes in the floor, circling into fragments from the sprinklers. Jason held the artist's head under the inky waters for a few seconds before he reached down. He grabbed Akihiro's hair and yanked the madman up, tearing a few strands of his hair loose.
Akihiro gurgled, spitting up more blood. He struggled in Jason's iron grip, his single unbroken arm slapping ineffectually against Jason's chest. Jason slapped the hand away, almost contemptuously, before he threw Akihiro like the piece of trash he was. Akihiro sailed across the hallway and slammed hard into a collection of pipes. Another crack went out as something in his back broke. Akihiro screamed again, before falling forward, his naked body tumbling down the pipes and landing with a splat in the remnants of his own paint river.
Jason advanced toward the madman, sloshing through the paint. Akihiro's good arm groped at the floor, his fingernails dragging through his own paint. He was trying to melt away, become one of with his ink and disappear, like he always did. But the water seemed to be making that difficult and his body shifted between paint and flesh before it finally stopped. Still there, still flesh and bone, Akihiro's head slowly rose from the paint, covered in watery rivers of ink and blood. He gave a ragged wheeze, trying to stand, as Jason stood over him.
Jason slapped Akihiro in the face. The blow knocked out a few of the artist's teeth and knocked him on his ass. Akihiro raised a hand, wheezing and gurgling, spitting out blood.
"Stop...!" He choked out. "You...youcan't!"
Jason responded by grabbing Akihiro and yanked him up. He slammed him hard against the wall, something snapping in Akihiro's shoulder. The mad artist screamed before Jason tossed him. The artist spun across the hallway, splashing down face first several feet away.
He tried to crawl forward, his single arm clawing ineffectually at the floor. Jason began to stride toward him again. But as he did, another shape suddenly rose out of the paint in front of Akihiro. The artist looked up and he froze. Jason stopped too but he smiled darkly.
Tuatara rose out of the paint, absolutely covered in the stuff. Paint began to wash off his scales as he stood tall over the fallen mad artist, his single eye shining angrily down at the madman.
"Max..." Akihiro coughed. He raised a hand and tendrils of shaking paint rose from behind him, looking half-formed and weak. Akihiro tried to throw them at his adversary but the lizard boy slashed his claws. He ripped off Akihiro's fingers on his raised hand, slicing them all off in a single blow.
Jason winced. Holy shit, He thought, his eyes widening, blinking through the water rushing down. Akihiro raised his hand, the stumps where his fingers used to be spurting blood. His hollow eyes went wide and a meek, almost frail, gasp escaped from his throat.
He didn't have time to scream. Tuatara rammed his claws forward and stabbed them right into Akihiro's chest, piercing through the spot where his heart was. He lifted the struggling artist clear off the ground, holding him above his head. Blood rained down on the lizard boy's face, Akihiro's gurgles dying in his throat as he vomited up more blood and paint.
"That was for my father..." Tuatara hissed up at the madman. "For my friends. And for me, you son of a bitch."
He ripped his claws out of Akihiro's chest, spraying a fountain of gore about. Jason turned away as blood and god knows else splattered around him. He then back as Akihiro hit the floor, bleeding in droves. The madman's limbs twitched as he lay there, managing to force out some words through his trembling lips.
"...I...can't..." Akihiro say weakly, every word sounding a veritable struggle for him. "No...no...I can't die...my masterpiece...my beautiful...beautiful...masterpiece..."
And with that, Akihiro gave a final, wrenching gasp. His head flopped to the side and his body spasmed a final time, before all his limbs went still. His hollow eyes stared off into nothing, streams of paint oozing from their depths. His jaw went slack, blood already crusting over his pale lips.
Akihiro Toranosuke was dead.