Chapter 32: Torn Apart

“What the…?” Johnson mumbled to himself as he yanked at the chain wrapped around his arm with his free hand.

Buchanan let out a heavy sigh.

“Okay,” he said, pacing to his left as Johnson continued tugging on the chains. “Okay, okay, okay! I’ve managed to get Johnson t-t-trapped…so now it’s time to show everyone my r-r-r-resolve!”

He bit into his nails.

“…so…what should I do?”

Buchanan pivoted around and started pacing to the right.

“Should I go in for an attack?”

He walked for a moment, then turned back around.

“B-b-but…but what will I do if he can still counter from that position?”

Buchanan walked a bit further before changing his direction once again.

“Should…should I go and restrain him even further then?”

He turned around again.

“But…but what if that ends up tiring me out in the process!”

The crowd erupted into a chorus of boos as the two fighters continued standing around without doing much of anything.

Johnson, entirely oblivious to the jeers directed towards him, lifted up his giant sewing needle with his free hand and started sloppily jabbing at the chain wrapped around his wrist. He began with a few light taps from his weapon, but the velocity of his thrusts gradually started to increase in proportion with his growing agitation over being unable to break free from the bonds around him.

“You think you’re…you’re better than me, huh?” Johnson growled at the chains as he drew back his weapon once more. “I’ll show you yet!”

Johnson thrusted down his weapon, but the needle bounced off the edge of the chain, causing it to pierce itself straight through his forearm. The crowd gasped in horror as Johnson’s skewered arm displayed across the arena screens, but Johnson himself remained unphased by the wound.

“You know,” he remarked with an audible belch, “I’d rather…I’d rather sever my right arm…” he spoke while pushing his needle even deeper through his arm. “…than be tied down…by a stinking lawyer like you!”

Johnson hitched his needle back, causing multiple members of the audience to faint as he started tearing his own hand off of his arm.

“D-d-d-dear God!” Buchanan stammered, his body frozen in shock.

“Ha!” Johnson exclaimed as his hand hit the floor together with Buchanan’s chains wrapped around it. “Now you don’t have me trapped no more. No, the one’s who’s going to be trapped…”

Johnson leaned down and picked up his severed right hand.

“…is you!”

Johnson suddenly hurled his hand forward, causing it to collide into Buchanan’s chest, knocking him back. Then, as Buchanan fell away, Johnson’s severed hand shifted itself midair and wrapped its cold fingers around Buchanan’s boney neck.

“W-wha…” Buchanan exclaimed between gasps of air as the hand tightened its grip around him. He dropped his weapon as he pulled at the severed limb, but the hand refused to pry itself off his neck.

“Hehehe…” Johnson sneered as he jaunted over to Buchanan and pressed his wrist against his severed hand. “Executive Power: Reconstruction!”

As he spoke, a set of stitches appeared across Johnson’s wrist, connecting his severed hand back onto his forearm, sealing the cut between them as if it were never there.

“Now then,” Johnson said, cracking out his mended wrist as he continued squeezing Buchanan’s neck. “Let’s have ourselves some fun!”

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Reconstruction. This was the name of the period in US history directly after the Civil War when the country was trying to put itself back together again. Although Andrew Johnson presided during this time period, he was pretty against doing anything active regarding reconstruction efforts. Speaking of which…

Johnson’s Arm. Andre Johnson cutting off his right arm is loosely based on Andrew Johnson saying he would rather “sever my right arm from my body than sign the military reconstruction act,” as well as him once injuring his right arm in a train derailment.