Part Twenty-Eight: A Sick Game

Nozomi struggled against Roboco's blade, pressing up against the epee with sweat running down his face.

"Roboco, come on!" Nozomi yelled, "I know you don't want this! Please, stop it!"

Roboco grimaced, pulling away from their struggle and transforming her epee arm into an arm with a large axehead at its end. 'Just how many forms does this girl have…?' Nozomi mused. He was absolutely exhausted, and he felt as if he would throw up at any moment. Even so, he brushed off his blade and went into a fighting stance.

Roboco charged at the boy, swinging her large axe arm and aiming for his neck. His survival instinct kicked in and he put his sword up to his neck, blocking the massive strike. The move almost felt like it wasn't his own.

'Hey, was that you?' Nozomi asked his Echo.

"Yeah, I've got something that the guys working with Ikuma used to call Survivor's Instinct," Tamashi explained, "I can supposedly detect lethal intent and subconsciously protect myself when I'm in danger."

'You can take control?!' Nozomi gasped, fighting against Roboco's axe-arm.

"Have I never mentioned that before?" Tamashi chuckled sheepishly, "Yeah, I've always been able to take control. It just feels wrong taking your body without good reason."

'That's… actually quite kind of you,' Nozomi grinned, pushing Roboco away from his neck, 'Thanks, man.'

"No need to compliment me," Tamashi played off the praise, "Just stay alive and you're chill with me."

'Whatever you say,' Nozomi shook his head. Roboco once again attempted to hit Nozomi with her axe-arm, this time attempting to slice through his stomach. Nozomi quickly dashed to the side and thudded the girl's head with the butt of his blade, sending her stumbling towards the forcefield.

While their dance continued, J-chad was still continuing to attempt to fight 004. And her attempts were little more than futile, as 004 dodged nearly every punch she threw. Soon, 004 snapped once again, summoning another blaster. J-chad snarled, her grimace only growing.

"You know, J-chad, we could end this here," 004 informed, motioning his hand towards the glasses-clad liaison, "If you surrender now, we'll make your death quick and painless. It'll be a win-win scenario, you die quickly rather than slowly and we get Thanatos."

"Heh, don't lie on me now," J-chad snickered, wiping a bit of blood off of her mouth, "I know how you guys plan on drawing out the gods. If you just kill us vessels, the god will just die with us. So you torture us slowly, as intense pain is what brings out a god."

"Tch, you're well informed," 004 scoffed, balling his hand into a fist, "It was worth a shot."

A massive laser beam was shot out of the device 004 had summoned. Reacting quickly, J-chad dropped and laid down in efforts to avoid the beam, although a single hair was singed by the heat of the blast. Once the laser had dissipated, J-chad quickly jumped to her feet and sent a flying kick towards 004, hitting him in the stomach and briefly dropping the forcefields.

"Kaoru, NOW!" J-chad urged.

"You got it!" Kaoru nodded, taking a spare blue Beyblade and shooting it towards the boy. 004 had struggled to get to his feet, but by the time he did, the Beyblade had already entered the panel in which J-chad and 004 dueled in. Not missing this chance, Spade Echo and Kaoru went over to join Nozomi's battle against Roboco, while Ironmouse went over to aid in the battle against the Iofifteen duplicates.

"Clever… very clever…" 004 mused, struggling to dodge the unruly Beyblade's spinning attacks, "You all must be really good at adapting during battle. It's truly a shame we must be fighting like this."

"I find it to be quite a shame as well," J-chad snarled, panting for breath, "But such is the reality of war."

"Indubitably," 004 agreed, snapping his fingers as twin daggers appeared in his hands, attempting to fight off the blue top. 004 slashed the Beyblade using his right dagger, sending it flying towards the forcefield. Instead of falling to the ground after this happened, however, it recoiled and dashed back towards 004. Grunting, 004 took his twin daggers attempting to block the attack. The top struggled against the blades, but in time its momentum ran out and the Beyblade dropped to the ground. Seeing 004 exhausted like this, J-chad sprinted towards the boy and punched him in the face. Although he wasn't sent back from recoil, 004 did indeed groan in pain.

"This… is the power of a god…" he sighed, his vision diluting, "It's overwhelming… but gods have fallen before…"

While 004 and J-chad fought, Ran and Izuru continued to battle Rikka, while Melody attempted to hack into the robot. Ran dashed towards the pink-haired robot, the trident pointed at him. He grimaced and his arm began to change, growing a metal plate that covered his arm. This metal plate blocked the attack from the trident, sparks flying. Grunts eventually turning into shouts, Ran struggled against the chunk of metal. In time, the trident erupted into blue flames. Rikka shouted in pain, taking his spare arm and growing a second metal plate on said arm to shield the searing flames.

"Izuru!" she shouted towards the guitar-playing boy. He nodded and began to play a small solo, releasing a massive energy blast towards the robot. Because he was distracted by the flaming trident, he was unable to avoid the electric blast, shocking him and hurling him against the forcefield. He sat there for a long while, slumped up against the barrier. In time, Melody popped out of the robot.

"He's alive and I was able to erase 004's instructions, but his sensors are a bit scrambled," she explained, "I deactivated him because, if he fought with us, he might respond wrong to various stimuli, whether it be from allies or enemies."

"Hey Mel, I've got an idea," Ironmouse shouted over to the software, "There's a computer room a few blocks away with a guy in contact with 004. I think you might be able to turn off the forcefields there."

"I hear you loud and clear," she gave a thumbs up towards Melody, turning towards Nozomi, Spade Echo, and Kaoru, "You sure you guys don't need me to check out Roboco?"

"No, that won't be necessary," Nozomi shook his head, beads of sweat rolling down his face, "I've got an idea."

"Whatever you say, captain," Melody gave a salute and disappeared, presumably to turn off the barriers.

...

Shin and Toko dueled against the copy of 006, and, to their surprise, it was much more difficult than they had thought. Shin swung his scythe with lethal intent in attempts to end the duplicate's life. However, the 006 duplicate swerved to the side and twirled his flail, wrapping it around the blade of the scythe, surprising Shin. The copy pulled the scythe away from the reaper and dropped the flail, opting instead for hand-to-hand combat. The copy jabbed Shin in the stomach with his right hand, then uppercutted him with his left, ending with a kick to the chest, hurling him towards the wall. Somewhat fatigued by this victory, the 006 duplicate panted to catch his breath. Toko took this chance, revealing claws and tearing through 006's back. The duplicate screamed in pain, blood splattering up against Toko's face. Her face remained emotionless as this went on. As 006 began to get used to the pain, she pinned him to the ground, ripping her claw out of the boy's back and instead thrusting her arm into the duplicate's solar plexus. He writhed in pure unbridled agony, attempting to break free of the cerberus girl's grasp.

"You sent us here, only to let Anemachi-chan die," Toko said, her face still remaining cold and emotionless, "Is this some sort of game to you all?"

"Heh...heh…" the copy laughed weakly, his vision going blurry as floods of blood flowed out of him, "It might not be a game to them, but it sure is a game to me…"

"I see…" Toko nodded, "You're a sick freak. Go to hell. I'll be there with you soon enough. And I'll kill you again and again."

Toko took her other claw and smashed the boy's head against the floor, flesh and blood reddening the room. Digging deep into the boy's head, she grabbed hold of the duplicate's brain and smashed it in her hand. Victory. Once Toko had defeated the copy, she scrounged around in his pocket, finding the three keys 006 had spoken of earlier. Shin looked up and grinned wildly.

"Yeah, you're definitely from the Underworld."