Chapter 36: Battle City

Leona and I stared down the hyenas, seeing who would strike first. “Remember Ferral, you can’t hold back.” Leona said, “They don’t know our plan, so they’ll try to kill us without a second thought.” “Yeah, I know. I did want to see how strong they were, but I guess if I gotta get serious.” The hyenas looked at me confused, “What’re you talking about?” Hydra asked. “You’ve been holding back or something?” Ed added. In a flash, I dashed toward Hyde and kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying back and skidding on the ground. The other two had barely any time to react but Ed went to throw a kick, I grabbed his leg and spun-threw him into a building. He slammed against the building and fell to the ground, both he and Hyde were groaning on the ground while Hydra looked in disbelief. “W-What the hell?!” She exclaimed, “You weren’t this strong before!” I turned to her, “To be fair, I did say I was holding back,” I responded, “Not to mention, you did give me some recovery time.” She growled, ready to attack me but stopped when she felt Leona’s hand grab her shoulder. “How’s it going?” Leona said once Hydra spun around. She threw a punch, but Leona grabbed Hydra’s fist and socked her in the face, sending her slamming into the same building as Ed. Leona walked back next to me and smirked while looking at the hyenas on the ground.

“See how easy that was?” She told me. “I know, but then there’s fun to it.” I responded. Just as we thought the fight was over, the three hyenas got back up, each giving us a furious stare. “Oh look at that, guess we’ll have to knock them around some more.” Leona said, readying herself to attack. I joined her and all five of us charged at one another. I fought Ed and Hyde while Leona got Hydra. I had to give the three credit, they kept going, but Leona and I weren’t going to back down. “By the way Leona, where are the twins?” I asked as we switched opponents. “I don’t know,” She answered, “We split up looking for you, so they could be anywhere.” Just then, something came crashing through a broken down wall….it was Ezekiel! He had his arms crossed, so he was blocking something. The five of us stopped, watching as a man lunged at Ezekiel with Belle on his back. The man grabbed her by the arm and threw her off, she yelped as she was thrown to the ground. “Guys!” I called out, and the three of them looked at me. “Ferral?” Belle asked as she got up. “Oh hey, buddy!” Ezekiel said, “Looks like Leona found you before we did.” Our fight with the hyenas was paused as Leona and I ran toward Belle and Ezekiel. “HEY! We’re not done yet, cowards!” Hyde shouted. “Glad to see you’re alright, Ferral.” Belle said. “Yeah, we thought you had gotten yourself into some trouble.” Ezekiel added. “He did,” Leona responded, “But I saved his sorry ass.” I chuckled, then looked behind the twins to see the man they were fighting. He had a pig-like face with tusks coming out from his upper jaw. His skin looked leathery with short brown hair and he wore a red jacket with the sleeves torn off and ripped black jeans. “Oi! We weren’t done yet, brats!” He shouted at us. “Who’s that?” I asked them. “Says he’s Experiment 127: Boar.” Ezekiel responded. Before we could talk more, our four opponents started to walk toward us.

We turned around, our backs facing each other. “We’ll talk later, let’s just finish these guys.” Leona said. “RIGHT!” The three of us shouted and charged toward our fights. “LET’S RUMBLE, BABY!” The boar guy shouted. “YOU TWO ARE DEAD!” Hydra shouted as well. The four of us clashed with our opponents, Leona and I being able to handle ours but I could see the twins have some struggles. “Leona!” I shouted, and she nodded knowing what I was going to say. I jumped back and headed toward the twins, “BELLE, CHANGE ME!” She turned to me and nodded, turning fully around and running toward the fight with the hyenas. I socked the boar guy in the jaw, harder than I thought because it broke off one of his tusks. He sneered, “Now you’re dead!” He rushed at me, but I dodged and blocked everything he threw. He was a lot slower than the hyenas, then Ezekiel kicked the boar guy in the side of the head from behind and he fell to the ground. I picked him up, ran toward the nearest car, and threw him down on it with all my strength. He smashed and shattered the front glass, then he lay there on the car knocked out. I gave Ezekiel a thumbs up while he looked at me with a slight face of disbelief, but scoffed and gave me one back. Then we turned our attention to how Leona and Belle were handling the hyenas. Belle was facing off against Hyde, she was fast dodging all his attacks but was strong enough to ready put major blows on him either. Leona was taking down Ed and Hydra with ease, slashing upwards against Ed's chest and then kicking him away. She grabbed one of Hydra's punches, threw it away, and slashed downward against her back then kicked her toward Ed and the two collided. “You think they need our help?” I asked. “Which one?” Ezekiel chuckled. I bolted toward the fight, Ezekiel following behind. My sights were aimed at helping Belle, as I got closer I saw an opening and punched Hyde in the ribs. Belle stopped and I continued throwing punch after kick on Hyde, then I stopped and roundhouse kicked him toward a broken van and his head smashed through the door window. His unconscious body hung halfway out of the van. Belle sighed, “Thanks.” I smiled at her and we turned our sights to see Ezekiel and Leona fighting the other two hyenas. They were panting while Leona and Ezekiel knocked them back. Belle and I rushed toward them and stood by their sides. Leona looked at us, then back to the hyenas. “Looks like you’re outnumbered, and outmatched.” She boasted. The hyenas looked at us defeated, then looked at one another. “Oh will would you look at the time!” Ed exclaimed, “We have that thing we need to go to, right Hydra?” “OH RIIIIIGHT,” She joined, “That thing, yeah how could I forget!” They looked at us, Leona, and the twins and unconvinced expressions on their faces. “Toodles.” They ran off, Ed pulling out Hyde of the van and carrying him over his shoulder.

The four of us watched them run off, then Leona let out a long sigh. “Good riddance, you annoying bastards.” She said. “Well, now that we’re all back together what’s the plan?” Belle asked. “We stick together, and do what we came here to do.” Leona responded. “I don’t know, something tells me we’re going to need to rethink our approach on this,” Ezekiel said, “Something tells me most people here aren’t going to be willing to hear us out.” “He’s right,” Leona added, “As much as we want to do your plan, Ferral, that just doesn’t all that possible with how things are now.” “Nah, we’ll be fine,” I argued, “We just gotta be more prepared when we meet someone, everything will turn just the wa-” Before I could finish, something picked him off the ground and I took off into the air.