Crystalline Universe: Team Fortress 2 Overwatch - Volume 3: Crystalline Universe: Bloodline's Curse Chapter 74 Struggle For Survival
The train dash across the Slovakian countryside toward its next stop: the city of Vienna, Austria.
As Karson and Toro fell toward the tracks, Toro used his right hand to melt and hang on to one of the wagon’s walls while Karson, on the other hand, grasped himself around Toro’s legs but due to the train’s extreme speed, both of them had difficulty hanging on to it.
[Toro] (in a frustrated tone) – “Let go of my legs, you madman! ”
But Karson didn’t respond. Instead, he raised up his fist and prepared a charged punch to finish off Toro once for all.
[Toro] – “You are insane! If you attack me, we’ll both fall to our death! ”
[Karson] (in a determined voice) – “That’s the point! Isn’t it? ”
Toro’s eyes widen as Karson carried out his attack without hesitation by driving his fist toward him. In a swift move, Toro used his other free hand to block the strike and burn a chunk of skin off Karson’s arm.
[Toro] – “If you wanna die, then get your arms off me! I won’t go down with you, you sick bastard! ”
[Karson] – “No, that never was my intention! ”
Toro quickly understood Karson’s true goal as the punch’s secondary energy pulse exploded right in front of him, which blew a hole inside the wagon and blasted him inside. Toro collided with the glass window before falling to the floor. When he woke up, the first thing he saw, is Karson standing right in front of him.
[Karson] (in an anguished and taunting voice) – “Time to kick the bucket, old man! ”
Toro didn’t even bother to look up as he calmly opened his mouth and pointed his finger toward Karson.
[Toro] – “Time to get educated, young man! ”
Suddenly, Karson heard a metallic cracking sound below his feet, where he realized that Toro heated up a circle around him. The plate below him soon fell down onto the tracks due to the heat but the young man held on to the floor around the hole, thus preventing his fall. But it was rapidly followed by a fiery punch from Toro toward his face.
In a clever move, Karson used this opportunity to grab the fist and drag Toro down into the hole with him. But the gap was too small for Toro to easily fall through, and instead, gave him the chance to hang onto the floor with his other arm to prevent his fall.
The situation is quite unfavourable for Toro since he’s at Karson’s mercy at a close-range confrontation due to him not being capable of using his ability to its fullest potential without the full protection of his heat armour.
Karson immediately launched another strike at Toro, which knocked him out of the train’s roof and caused the armour around his abdomen to shatter. To prevent himself from falling from the train, Toro used his finger to grasp upon the steel he melted off the train’s roof.
[Toro] – “This guy… I never in my life sweat this much… his determination… is almost scary… ”
*Somewhere else
Azur flew across a forest riding on her crystals, while Sepoltura chased without rest behind her. To her, it seems that all hope is lost since she couldn’t contact either one of the Overwatch bases or Mike.
The situation became more desperate as the sapphire holding her feet slowed down and fell under the control of Sepultura’s ability, which means that her enemy is closing in. The fact that her gem could be controlled by Sepoltura’s ability means that Azur stands no chance if she’s caught by him.
To increase her speed, Azur commanded drill-like formation of her crystals in front of her to reduce air friction.
In the meantime, Sepoltura flew behind his target like a hungry predator determined to succeed in his hunt. He could force the object around him to become slow or cause the thing around him to gain haste. The ability can also work on Sepoltura himself, so he could effortlessly move at high speed while forcing everything caught in his ability to lose their mobility.
Sepoltura found himself unable to catch on to Azur after a long chase, and to his knowledge, his prey could be planning an escape plan and he will end up losing her.
He thought to himself: “What would brother do in this situation? There must be a way… there is always a way! ”
On the other hand, Azur planned to lose Sepoltura amid the nearest city where she could easily hide amongst the civilian population and get away from danger. Besides, Sepoltura won’t go as far as going on a mass killing spree and attract the public’s attention just trying to capture her.
As the distant city’s shadow appeared in sight, Sepoltura quickly understood Azur’s intentions.
[Sepoltura] – “Damn it of all! She’s gonna try to lose me in the city! I must find a way to prevent this, brother Toro is counting on me, I mustn’t fail. ”
Calmly, Sepoltura searched through all his knowledge about his ability in an attempt of trying to find a trick with which he can counter Azur’s plan but to no avail. As they got closer to the metropolis, Sepoltura started to panic as he ran out of options to choose from.
[Sepoltura] (in a stressed-out voice) – “Gaaack! What do I do? She’s so near the city! ”
Suddenly, he felt a solid object inside his pocket which caught his attention, and after pulling the item out of his coat, he realized that it’s a loaded pistol.
He thought to himself: “If only I could shoot her down… This speed… ”
An idea suddenly came to his mind as he made the link between the inner working of his ability and the weapon’s firing mechanism.
[Sepoltura] – “Speed… That’s right, speed! She’s barely out of my ability’s reach… if I could accelerate the bullets, I could hit her and she would slow down. ”
Azur concentrated on her flight and didn’t bother to look back as she searched for a safe place to hide. As the tall buildings appeared in sight, Azur, who thought she was finally near safety, was hit in the leg by a shot fired from Sepoltura.
[Azur] – “Hhh- How? Impossible… he… ”
Azur bit down her lips due to the agony and stared back only to see Sepoltura firing another shot at her. Due to her eyes’ dynamic vision, Azur instinctively used one of her sapphires to deflect the bullet but this proved to be a severe mistake as she slowed down due to the loss of acceleration from this very crystal.
The gem was swallowed by Sepoltura’s ability shortly after it has blocked the shot. Now, Azur’s left with only 4 sapphires in comparison to her usual 6 sapphires, thus severely diminishing her power to flight while crippling her ability.
Sepoltura reloaded his gun and pointed anew the weapon toward Azur’s direction before pulling the trigger. In a panic, Azur called another one of her sapphires in her defence but due to her loss of focus, the crystal ended up splitting the bullet into pieces of shrapnel that pierced her arms and legs.
Now left with only 3 crystals, Azur needed to find a quick solution to her current struggle or she’ll be done for.
*At Sniper’s birthday party in The imperial palace
As the high ranking officers gathered around at the main hall talking, drinking and enjoying dance and music, Mazzatello and his crew sat silently in an isolated corner without attracting the attention of other guests.
Mazzatello glanced at his surroundings in a concerned look, as if he was worried about something; a trait of personality he never showed before. Meanwhile, Scaphism, unconcerned and unbound, let himself free inside the party enjoying the finest drinks and hanging out with the numerous young ladies looking for a dance partner.
[Scuoiamento] – “Sir, what happened? if may I say, you don’t look so well. ”
[Mazzatello] – *Sigh* “I don’t see IDD, Toro and Sepoltura here… I wonder if something happened to them. ”
[Scuoiamento] – “Toro is a wise man, he knows what he’s doing, we shouldn’t be concerned about them when he’s around. ”
[Mazzatello] (in a cold voice) – “Even the wisest man could commit mistakes and pay for it. To miss lord Sniper’s birthday like this means that something of colossal importance occupied their time and I’m concerned about what it could be. ”
[Scuoiamento] – “Could it be… ”
[Mazzatello] – “…Mike? Yes, I’m aware of that possibility and that’s I’m most worried about. During the day, I looked into his files and discovered that he’s growing smarter than before. ”
[Scuoiamento] – “How come? ”
[Mazzatello] – “Unlike the Mike we used to know: who fights in the open, who makes the worse of decisions and who’s known for reckless actions, he changed. He’s now extremely calculated, smart and discreet. Unlike before, where we can track his whereabouts, he’s now like a shadow assassin who commits his deeds with precision and silence. ”
[Scuoiamento] – “What should we do then? Should we investigate their case? ”
[Mazzatello] – “As much as I’m concerned, we cannot leave this party out of respect for lord Sniper. We can only pray for them to be safe, since them not attending this party is already a huge offence toward Sniper and an act of disobedience to orders. ”
[Scuoiamento] – “But we must answer if they call for our help, right? No comrade should be left behind. ”
[Mazzatello] – “We’ll see about it. ”
Afar, Mike, under the disguise of Segreto, marched passed beside many tables in search of The Judge. Before reaching the table where sat The Judge sat with many high ranking officers, Segreto accidentally stumbled upon Kady, who got up from her chair without paying attention besides her.
Segreto hastily grabbed Kady by her hands to prevent her fall and escorted her back onto her seat.
[Segreto] – “Oh, my apologies, dear beauty, did I hurt you? ”
[Kady] (in an embarrassed voice) – “No, no, I should be the one to be sorry, mister Segreto. ”
Krafton immediately got up and saluted Segreto before stepping to him and pulling a chair for him.
[Krafton] – “Oh, mister Segreto, what an honour to meet you! Please have a seat with us and share a drink or two with my friends and me. ”
[Mike] (in a strict voice) – “I’m afraid I’ll have to decline your offer, mister Krafton. I’m currently on my way to meet up with mister Judge. ”
Kady could still strangely feel the shiver running down her spine and an unspeakable confusion inside her mind when every time she meets Segreto but every time, she ended up becoming scared rather than intrigued due to the cold emotionless killer look in the man’s eyes.
There is nothing warm or lovely about him, there is only a shell emptied of all emotion and full of secret intentions. On the other perspective, Mike couldn’t care less when every time he sees Kady, who looked much like Kadyn. To him, nothing’s more important than claiming victory against his enemies, everything else is distractions that are not worth his time.
Just like that, Kady stopped looking at Segreto and frighteningly turned her head down while Segreto marched away without looking back.
*On the train
Karson slowly emerged his head from the ceiling hole to see Toro standing a few metres away at him. Using both his severely burned hands, he climbed out of the hole to face Toro one more.
The wind blew like a hurricane at both of them as the train kept on running at full speed across the plain field.
In Karson’s eyes, there is determination and responsibility and in Toro’s eyes, duty and justice.
[Toro] – “There is much for you to learn, boy. You made a poorly chosen decision to side with Mike. ”
[Karson] – “From all those options to choose from, I made my best choice! I was able to see the true nature of the so-called heroes of Talon, the executioners. How some of you abused your power to oppress people, how corrupt are all of you and how heartless can you be. ”
[Toro] – “You sure talk big, boy. Mike is a criminal and you decide to help him? You want this world to end in ruin? To burn? For your family and friends to end up in concentration camps? ”
[Karson] – “That’s what I was told of, that’s the idea you people tried to force into my mind but I didn’t listen. What you believe is blind justice and what I side with is true equity. I know things that you don’t! ”
[Toro] – “Foolish child, do you know what’s the dangerous weapon? It’s knowledge! We both have it but differently. My ability describes my ambition to erase the harmful side of knowledge. I did not come to kill you out of hate, I came to erase ideologies that shouldn’t be permitted to persist. ”
Karson stared calmly at Toro in preparation for his next attack while the executioner continued his speech.
[Toro] – “Today, I’ve learned so much from you. I discovered how people in the lower class of society thinks and I learned the true ambition hidden inside the heart of those who side with Mike. I may despise traitors but I came to respect you, you truly have something special in you but it’s pity how the result turned out. ”
Karson knew how this fight would turn out: It’s rather him and his friends or the executioner. This is a test of his knowledge against a foe better equipped than him in every way. Mergiann is in danger and she expects from him to succeed in this fight. Once more, we expected him to do something out of expectation, once again, people trusted him to not fail.
To be continued… Next Chapter: [Dilemma of destiny]
