Words, 12-Years Late: Part IX

As Lord Clinton entered the battlefield, she had marched Perseverance's Mother out there with her. 

"Step away from the Demon Lord or She'll find out if her God is real." 

The Tetrad Demon Lord laughed and smiled. They had never been more glad to see a friendly face. However, that smile quickly vanished, becoming a look of pure horrified terror as the sound of rifle fire cut through the air. Perseverance turned over his shoulder to find his mother had been shot. She wasn't dead but for Scott and Archie watching, they knew it was enough to set him off.

The hero had done a plethora of soul-searching, meditated in the mornings, and had even been seeing a therapist to resolve the parts of him that hated her for what she'd put him through. Seeing the crimson stains leaching across her clothing was the event he needed. He tightly clenched his jaw, his breathing became rapidly irregular, and he balled both of his hands into fists as he became surrounded by the New World Order's Lord Clinton and a Legion of Fascist Soldiers. 

"YOU FOOLS! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!? YOU'VE..."

The hero's overwhelming glare of pure rage silenced the Tetrad Demon Lord. Perseverance shook violently with tumultuous rage. All of the Vestiges within him appeared around him, eyes a-glow in a deep and demonic red. They rapidly collapsed into the hero as he let out a sound of pure hatred. Deep within his mind, that once loud static had returned to him. This time a voice rang out of the piercing static. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT! YOUR GUILTY CONSCIOUSNESS SHALL NEVER BE LAID TO..."

It was interrupted by the four origin vestiges of John Henry, Badman Stagolee, Lemuel Curtis, and Charlie Wiggins who'd brought along the various versions of the Ghost at different life stages with them. They all grabbed the disembodied voice and removed it from existence. With it gone, they stepped in and replaced it. "LET NONE LEAVE THE SLAUGHTER CIRCLE ALIVE!" 

With their declaration of war, Perseverance's hero costume armor began to power up, arcing energy from his body, he seemingly vanished and reappeared behind Lord Clinton. The surrounding force quivered in fear as he spoke. 

"Of those who surround me... There shall be no evidence of your pitiful existence." The ground beneath him cracked and broke under the extreme amount of energy coursing through his veins. 

The Demon Lord grabbed the American Dream Hammer and tried to hit him. The hero grabbed the hammer's handle before it could even touch him. "Hands... OFF!" The arcing energy flung the Demon Lord back into his crater. As Perseverance gripped the handle tightly, the gears and piston slammed into overdrive. 

"American Heritage and Folklore: ..." The hero slammed his hammer into an incoming tank shell. "I WILL TURN YOUR MACHINE INTO SCRAP! I INVOKE AMERICAN RETRIBUTION! REMEMBER!: THE MAINE, PEARL HARBOR, EMMETT TILL AND 9/11." 

In a spinning fury, Perseverance's hammer turned soldiers into bloodmists, machines of war into burning, flattened strips of metal, and he seemed unstoppable. However, Lord Clinton grabbed the American Dream, while she cackled, she shattered the hammer's head from its handle, letting the head thud to the ground, and used the handle to damage his helmet and crack its light-blue visor. 

"No weak attack of yours shall hurt me. SURRENDER OR MOMMY DEAREST GETS CURB-STOMPED." Lord Clinton said as she began to march towards.

"AMERICAN HERITAGE: Stephen Hawking + Abraham Lincoln + Malcolm X... American Gravity Spike!"

However, she'd only been slowed down. She cackled at him. "I guess you do hate your mother. Typical man, hating a strong woman because of her gender." At that moment something within himself snapped like a damn of pure hatred exploding. As she got within ten feet of his mom, the hero released his previous attempt and went for a second.

"AMERICAN HERITAGE: Douglas MacArthur + Paul Tibbets + The 332nd Red Tails + Doris Miller + Muhammad Ali + Flight 93 + Castle Bravo + The Crew of USS Wisconsin..."

Lord Clinton unsheathed her blade and brought it down towards his mother. However, in a blitzing flash, he took the blade through his left hand and shoulder. "DON'T TELL ME WHAT I FEEL, YOU FUCKING HEAR ME, CLINTON..."

Lord Clinton was rocketed into the stratosphere with a blindingly fast right uppercut. Before leaping after her, Perseverance looked over his shoulder to find his father and grandpa helping her. "For the record..." he started to say as he removed the blade from his hand, "I don't hate you, but I can't forgive you either... not yet anyways." After bandaging his left hand, Perseverance gripped the hilt of the blade and shot straight into the sky, summoning every bit of pent-up hatred, and started channeling it into his fist. As he reached he spoke to her again.

"You taught women to have no heart..."

"DEMON LORD!" She cried out.

"NO! WITH NO HEART... YOU ARE FREE..." 

The vestiges of Amelia Earhart and Mammy channeled his stored-up energy into their bound-together fists and shouted for him. 

"TEMPER-TEMPER!" Their fists hit Clinton in the stomach with the equivalent force of four nuclear warheads. She rocketed away from him, punching through the atmosphere, being carried by the force and momentum of the punch, with no protective gear on. 

However, the Tetrad Demon Lord had heard Lord Clinton's cry for help and had arrived to assist. He crushed the hero's left hand and flung him back down to the ground, ensuring he'd crash through the medical tent. 

As this happened, Scott and Archie had helped his mother back to the group. As she sat alone for a moment, she thought over his words. "For the record... I don't hate you, but I can't forgive you for what you've done... for now anyways." She shook her head in thought but was interrupted by the loud sound of scraping steel over brick and asphalt. Constitution had been watching the whole time. Despite missing her left leg and having her right arm in critical condition, she wanted to help. She slowly made her way over to his mother then shakily raised her head and spoke three words...

"Help... Friend... Cheryl..." Said the Automaton weakly, in a distorted, raspy, metallic, robotic feminine voice. Seeing that Cheryl wasn't moving at first, Constitution pulled herself forward and closer to Cheryl. "Help... Friend... Cheryl." Cheryl backed up to find Venus Mons, The Busch Hunter, Astra Morganna, an injured Lonestar, and several others standing before her. 

At first, she was a bit relieved to see them. However, as the Automaton began to repeat herself, they all chimed in with her in a unified chant of, "Help... Friend... Cheryl...". The number of people chanting was only growing as she backed up. 

"What can I do? I'm not a soldier!"

Cheryl's reply, which would've satisfied any person in her position, was met by anger from the automaton, causing her weakly light eyebar to stop glowing purple and begin glowing red. 

"HELP... FRIEND... CHERYL..." Her voice was now, all of what it had been, had become filled with straight anger towards his mother. "HELP... OUR... FRIEND... CHERYL..."

As she turned around to face the battlefield, Scott and Irongrail Archie walked over and stood beside her. They looked on to see the Tetra Demon Lord.

"That's our son out there. Getting beaten down for you, for me, his sentient, robotic, guard dog, all of here and at him. He's doing this for all of the world... and you can't figure out a way for him to find a spark of hope?" Scott questioned in a whispered voice.

Irongrail Archie stood in front of her. "After everything he told Pat... With how much he cares... You owe him that much... Say something to him."

Cheryl mustered her courage and rushed towards the onslaught happening before everyone's eyes. She was followed by the injured Constitution. As they arrived, Cheryl took in a deep breath and yelled out to her son...