Water Blood Sports


   The boggle's roar was unlike anything Dustin had ever experienced. He didn't so much hear it so much as he felt it; the force of the roar was enough to push him back a few inches as he tread water.
   "Black, put the book down. It's time to go," Dustin said, surprisingly calm. Black, who had climbed to the top of a shelf to keep his book dry, seemed as calm as Dustin was despite the boggle's scream. Slowly, Black closed his book and shoved it into his pocket. The boggle, eager to satiate it's hunger like it's brother had, lunged forward to swallow Dustin up in it's needle filled mouth. But as it's maw began to close around Dustin, a blast of white light shot out the back of it's head and a wall of black energy drove it fully under the water. Dustin was shot back from the force of his blast, but he used that time to climb onto the bookshelf opposite Black.
   "What the hell was that?!" Dustin asked.
   "I don't know, but it looks like it's got some more fight in it," Black said with a smile as the boggle emerged from the water. It's wounds seemed to have disappeared, the only indication that it had been injured was it's homicidal rage. Letting loose another of it's silent screams, it rammed the book case Dustin was on in an attempt to bring him back down into the water. As Dustin's shelf tipped, he hopped over to the one behind it. However, Dustin had seen this enough on T.V to know what was about to happen. Sure enough, the shelf that the boggle had shoved crashed into the one Dustin had jumped too; the shelves were now just so many dominoes.
   In a frenzied rush, Dustin began hopping from book case to book case, desperately looking for solid ground. The boggle followed parallel to the falling shelves, horrid mouth agape and ready to devour Dustin as soon as he should fall. Still, Dustin managed to keep up with the falling shelves, and the boggle began to grow restless. Swimming ahead of the falling shelves, it lodged itself in between two a little way ahead of Dustin. As Dustin came to the shelves the boggle hid under, it shoved the bottom of one in the opposite direction of the falling book cases, stopping the chain reaction. Dustin, however, did not stop. Not having expected the sudden halt of the shelves and lurching from the wobbling of his own shelf, he misjudged his jump and landed in the water.
   For a moment, time seemed to freeze, then suddenly Dustin was gone, dragged under by the boggle. He tried to get off a shot of light, but the boggle held his arms; he tried to struggle, but the boggle was to strong. And so it was amidst Dustin's garbled screams that the boggle had it's lunch. As a contented look came onto it's face (or at least as contented as a hell-beast can look) the boggle was suddenly hit from beneath by a large blast of darkness. The force of the blast set it moving, and finally forced the boggle up and out of the water. As the boggle soared through the air, it's white body turned black, and it's white eyes rolled back into it's head. The library suddenly began to drain of water, faster than seemed possible, and when the boggle finally landed to the puddle filled ground, it's body was withered and flacky. Black walked up to the corpse of the beast and kicked it's gut, causing it to expel the contents of it's stomach. Dustin, completely surrounded by his glowing shield, came sliding out of it's mouth (along with several skeletons). Dustin, now free of the boggle's stomach, expelled his shield, stood up, and faced Black. Dustin had a strange look on his face, and he simply stood there for a few moments, looking uneasy. Finally, he opened his mouth and said,
   "Aaaughla!" as he vomited all over Black's pants.
   "Ah! What the hell Dustin!?" Black screamed as he jumped out of Dustin's range.
   "The...smell...so...horrible," Dustin said inbetween heaves. As he continued to vomit, Black used one of the nearby puddles to clean off his pants. Had he been watching Dustin, he might have seen the triumphant smile on his face. Once Dustin was done and Black was clean, they tentatively walked over to the boggle's corpse.
   "What was this thing?" Dustin asked.
   "Alive," Black replied. Just as Dustin began to roll his eyes in aggravation, a horrible screeching sound assaulted their ears. At first, Dustin thought that the boggle was still somehow alive, but the he realized that this scream sounded familiar...

   "The por-" Dustin began to say as he, Black, and the boggle all fell down into the synapse tunnel that had opened up beneath them. As they fell into the horrid darkness of the portal, Dustin thought he heard someone running toward them, splashing in the puddles, but before he could turn his head, they had fallen through. The now familiar sight of exploding scenery happened in the blink of an eye, and before Dustin could finish his sentence, they had arrived at their new location.
   "-tal!" Dustin finished. By now, Dustin had become slightly paranoid when it came to this hellish waste of a world, and so he frantically began to look around, taking in as much as he could and assessing the possible combat possibilities. They appeared to be in something like a cross between a dungeon and a prison, with dank dripping stone seamlessly transitioning to cold hard steel and concrete. Torches and florescent bulbs lit the place, but only in the sense that a candle lights a dark theater. As Dustin began to slow his brain's rapid fire thoughts, he noticed that they were not alone. Instantly, he put up his shield, not willing to risk another unexpected attack.
   "Who are you?" Dustin asked the young man. He realized his foolishness when he saw that the man was strapped to a machine that eerily resembled a mid-evil rack. Slowly, Dustin lowered his shield and asked again, "Who are you?" The man, roughly in his early thirties, had brown hair flecked with grey, and grey eyes flecked with brown. He seemed unremarkable in every aspect except his extreme malnourishment. But then he began to speak.
   "Managed to kill the boggle? Not a lot of people can claim that. Maybe they can..." the man said, seemingly to himself.
   "Hey, you deaf? You've got five seconds to tell us who you are, and explain to me why you're more useful alive than dead," Black said.
   "Kill me? I think you'll find that quite impossible," the strange man said. He seemed oddly calm, as if he were reading a script he'd practiced to many times. Black smirked at the man's boast, and leveled his hands for an energy blast.
   "Oh, would you care to test that theory?" Black said, licking his lips in anticipation.
   "Oh, I have. Many times in many ways. Wanna get out of here?" the man said. Dustin and Black were both speechless; who was this man? "I'm sorry, I should introduce myself. We can talk business later. I'm Gregor, and you're in my mind," he continued. Dustin and Black nearly fell over, such was their surprise. "I can help you get out of here, but in return I ask two simple favors. One, release me and take me with you. Second, when we are free, kill me as quickly as you can." Learning that you are in the mind of the man who claims he can help you escape had left Black and Dustin flabbergasted, but killing, that Black could understand.
   "Any particular method?" he asked, licking his lips once more.
   "No, just as long as it's fast," Gregor said.
   "Hold on!" Dustin said, utterly confused. "Why would you want us to kill you?"
   "Have you met Gorger?"
   "Who?"
   "Grey skin, white shirt, bad temper?" Suddenly, everything clicked in Dustin's head.
   "'He who hungers!' AH! Can I not escape you even in death Simon?! Where are you?! Are you watching us even now, you bastard?!"
   "You know Simon?"
   "He's my daddy."
   "Shut up Black. It's a long story. A really long story."
   "Well as you can see, I'm not going anywhere."
   "Ah, alright. Here we go." And with that, Dustin began to retell his story of DABR, stopping only when Black interrupted him with an off color comment. Finally, his story came to a close, and all three stared at each other in silence. After a while, Gregor began to speak.
   "I had no idea...someone so similar..."
   "Eh?"
   "My story is a long one as well, longer even than your's. Suffice it to say, you and I share a common disdain for certain darker aspects of our psyche."
   "You don't mean..."
   "Yep, except I find it is impossible for me to end it like you did, which is why I must beg you to kill me." For a while, everything was silent again, each digesting the information the other had given. Finally, Dustin broke the silence.
   "No."
   "No what?" Gregor asked.
   "I won't kill you, or let Black kill you. I had no other choice with Black due to the circumstances, but I won't let anyone else fail when they might have succeeded."
   "Please Dustin, it's hopeless."
   "Yeah Dusty, let me kill him. It's hopeless!"
   "Trust me, if it seems like there is no other choice, I will respect your wish. However, as long as even the slightest chance exists that I can set you free, I will not let you quit."
   "Boo! Cut the cheesy crap!
   "Shut up, Black." So with that promise, Dustin freed Gregor from his confines by blasting the chains and locks, and they began what could be called a tour. That is, if they give tours of hell.
   "This is Compromise," Gregor explained, pointing to one of the now familiar art-deco signs. This one read, "Compromise: The Prison of the Weak." "This is where Gorger sends me whenever I get out or someone rescues me," he continued.
   "Others have tried to free you?" Dustin asked.
   "Oh yes; they all died horribly, but they at least tried to kill me," Gregor said with a sigh. As they walked down the abysmal and torture machine laden halls, the horrid screeching of the portal rang out once more. "This is a synapse tunnel," Gregor explained. "They allow us to move from one area of my mind to another. Normally, it'll spit you out somewhere at random, but if you know your way around, it gets much simpler. Watch." Gregor turned away for a moment and spoke directly into the portal, saying "Pleasure!" Instantly the synapse tunnel began to warp and contort, until finally it settled back to it's original shape. Now, however, instead of a black nothingness, the portal seemed to glow with a dull, grey light. "Shall we go?" Gregor asked. Silently, the three of them walked into the portal. Yet as they stepped though, Dustin thought he heard someone running towards them...

   As they exited the other side, Dustin's breath caught in his throat. Instead of the torture and pain Dustin had expected from a place called "Pleasure" in this sick mind, he found himself in a vast and giant fountain. Streams of water criss-crossed in the air, and endless cascades descended from far off spouts. In the center, a giant stone column stood erect, spilling forth water and creating a giant waterfall. On the pillar, there was an art-deco plaque that read, "Pleasure: Bedfellow of Pain." As he stared at the wondrous sight, he couldn't help but worry about the foot of water they were standing in.
   "Don't worry," Gregor said, sensing his unease, "no boggles here."
   "Maaaan, this place sucks," Black said with a snarl. "I expected a place called 'Pleasure' to have something fun, not a frickin' water show."
   "Just shut up and enjoy the fact that nobody else is-" Dustin began to say, but he was suddenly cut off by the emergence of a new synapse tunnel. Out of the portal stepped a girl with brown hair and pink eyes. She had a mouse sleeping on her shoulder, and seemed to be talking to someone. A second later, Dustin's mouth dropped open in surprise as the person she was talking to came through the portal.
   "Gregor?" Dustin said, doing a double take between the two Gregors.
   "Ah yes, nearly forgotten about that. Gorger split me into several different pieces to weaken me further so I could not fight back. There's probably several of me running around here." Gregor said. Dustin accepted this answer, but couldn't help but wonder if one of the Gregor's was an illusion made by Black. However, he wasn't given much time to ponder that possibility at that moment, for the girl noticed him and pulled two guns from the holsters on her hips. As she pointed them at Dustin and Black, she said,
   "Who are you two? Wait... is that- is that you Gregor?" She looked between the two Gregors in much the same way Dustin had, then spoke to Dustin and Black again. "What kind of trick is this? Tell me who you two are right now or I swear I'll-"
   "It's ok," Dustin said, hands up in a submissive gesture, "we don't want any trouble. We just want to get out of this hell. I'm Dustin, and this is Black. Don't trust Black, he's dangerous." As Dustin spoke to her, he sensed he'd made a mistake. Upon hearing their names, her eyes first grew wide, then narrowed in anger.
   "Black? Black Valentine?!" she said, her voice raising.
   "What?" Dustin asked. It was then that he noticed that the pink irises of her eyes had gone red. Suddenly, giant black wings erupted from her back, her teeth grew longer and more pointed, and her nails grew jagged and sharp. The mouse on her shoulder jumped off in fear and swam away as quickly as it could.
   "Don't worry Dusty, I got th-" Black said before he was interrupted by the girl. More specifically, her lips on his. As the two's lips were locked in a kiss, the girl pulled her arm back and drove her fist into Black's side. At that moment, Dustin heard a noise that both delighted and terrified him. Black screamed in pain. As Black fell back from the blow, Dustin could see that the area where he had been struck was burnt and throbbing.
   "What-what the hell was that?!" Black screamed.
   "Oh, you must be an evil spirit. Sucks to be you," she said with an evil smile as she thrust her fist into Black's shoulder and twisted. A second scream of pain rent the air and a soft hissing could be heard from the point of contact. "You see," the girl continued, "these gauntlets I'm wearing are specially blessed to combat evil spirits. Judging from that scream, you're a masochistic spirit normally. If that's the case, you'll love this!" she said as she aimed for Black's crotch. But just as her hand came down, a shield of light sliced through her arm, where it then fell harmlessly off to the side.
   "Ah! Who the fuck did that!" the girl screamed, hardly even caring about her severed limb. Dustin prepares a second shield to strike with, but then froze in astonishment. At the end of the girl's stump, something was growing. In a few seconds, it became clear what it was.
   "Yes, I should have mentioned that. In Pleasure, the water heals almost anything," Gregor said as Dustin stared in horror at the new arm the girl had spontaneously grown. As Dustin looked at Gregor, wondering why he had failed to mention this before, he saw that the girl had picked Black up by the shoulders and was placing her teeth around her neck.
   Black, armless and in pain like he had never felt, could do nothing to stop the sharp bite of the girl's teeth. However, he didn't have to. As soon as her teeth pierced his flesh and she began to try to eat his blood, she found out a very important fact. Black didn't bleed blood. As she brought her mouth away in horror, thrashing from the pain of his acid-blood like life fluid, she saw that Black's arm had also regrown. She also saw that they were open and pointed at her.
   "Eat this bitch!" Black said as he unleashed a giant blast of dark energy. The girl was thrown back, flying through the air head over heals, but using her wings, she was able to change her wild spin into a controlled summersault. As she landed on her feet several yards away, she had already drawn both her guns and found her target. She let loose two shoots from each gunner, and they sped toward Black at speeds to fast to dodge. But as the bullets struck his body, he exploded into smoke and the bullets kept on going. The girl, confused, looked around to see if he'd hidden somewhere. As she began to look around, she saw that the advantage was not her's after all.
   Hundreds, possibly thousands of Black surrounded her, all staring at her with the same insane glare. The girl was not to be deterred however. With a flap of her wings, she sped into their midsts, slashing with the claws of one hand, and shooting with the other. As Blacks exploded left and right, she became aware that they were all getting ready for an attack. Quickly, she pulled up and flew into the sky to avoid the blast. But with careful aim, all the Black's fired simultaneously, all screaming the same blood chilling yell. The combined blasts of energy soared toward her, faster than she could fly. Finally, it caught up to her, and she was engulfed in the darkness. She tensed up in anticipation of the blow, but once she was engulfed she found that none came. Thinking herself safe, she lowered her guard, just long enough for the only real attack to hit her.
   As the blast of darkness hit her in the back, her wings snapped from the force, and she began to fall back down. As she fell from the dizzying height, she saw that all the Blacks, save for one, had disappeared. And he was preparing an attack. Not one to go down easily, she pulled her guns and began to fire at him. However, she found her shots thwarted when a shield of light surrounded Black; Dustin had placed one over the two of them. Undeterred, she pulled two knives from the sheathes at her side, and angling her broken wings as best as she could, began to glide towards the two. Both Black and the girl screamed in a murderous rage as they neared collision, their screams drowning out the sound of the cascading water around them. But as the girl collided with the shield and soared straight through the shield and the boys, just before she hit the ground she realized something. She really hated illusions.
   With a sickening crack she slammed into the ground, but even as she groaned in pain, her wounds began to heal. In mere seconds she was able to stand, and when she did she saw the two boys standing a little way off. They seemed to be speaking to each other rather quickly as they prepared some new type of attack. Thinking she could catch them off guard, she leveled her gun and fired. However, all her shot accomplished was to alert Dustin and Black as it twinged off Dustin's shield.
   Now aware of his opponent's position and with Dustin's shield surrounding him, Black slowly made his way toward the girl. In both his hands, dark globs of what looked like tar pulsated. As he came within range of her, he threw both of them at her head. She managed to dodge (having fully healed by now), but suddenly felt a sharp pain in her legs. She looked down to see that the darkness had polluted the water, causing it to turn black and caustic. In a flurry, she jumped into the air once more, seeking safety from the darkness. But as she flew, she was assailed by more of the dark bombs, each coming closer than the next.
   She quickly began a series of rolls and aerial dodges, narrowly avoiding each of the dark bombs in turn. However, as she flew closer, she could see the smile on Black's face. As Black let one final bomb fly and Dustin lowered his shield, the two of them both stopped and stood still. Not one to question good fortune, she flew at them both, knives ready to slit their throat. But as she came near, she suddenly stopped mid-flight. Not of her own accord of course, she had been thrown back by two other pairs of wings, one black and the other white. She looked at her quarry, and found that in addition to their new wings, they each held a weapon in their hands. Black held what looked like a small sickle with a chain attached, she thought she remembered it being called a kusarigama, and Dustin wielded a large double-edged claymore.
   "Now the real pain begins, bitch," Black said.
   "Bring it," the girl replied, matching his evil glare. For a moment, none of them moved, and then suddenly they all shot up into the air simultaneously. The fighting was vicious: Black slashed and spun with his kusarigama, Dustin slashed and defended with his claymore, and the girl used her speed to dodge each of the attacks and countered with her claws. They battled for a few moments, a perfect stalemate. But then, the girl decided to even things up a bit. With one big flap of her wings, dozens of pitch black feathers shot from them. Black used his dark blast to deflect them, and Dustin blocked with his shield. The feathers dug into his shield of light, almost penetrating through, but it held. Things were going to get a lot more interesting.
   Black, who was acting more volatile than usual, flew at the girl, trying to catch her from behind, but she did a quick three-sixty spin, knocking off his balance and sending him spinning off to the side. Not to be beaten easily, Black trained his hands on her and let loose a gigantic blast of dark energy. She tried to move out of the way, but Dustin had preoccupied her with a light blast, and it was to late to change her momentum. The blast hit her directly, sending her flying up higher. Black quickly gave chase, seizing the opportunity and her wings. As he held her wings in a lock, he folded his own wings close to his body. As the last of their momentum slowed, they began plummeting back to the ground far below, heads first.
   "Let go off me you bastard!"
   "Just as soon as we hit the ground bitch!" Faster and faster they fell, the girl trying desperately to get free, but Black held tight. Finally, she was able to free herself enough to open her wings, but it was to late. She hit the ground on her back, Black lying on top of her. She let out a desperate gasp of air as all of it left her lungs, and her blood began to mix with the water, painting it bright red. Black simply sat there, laughing and punching her in the face, until a rumbling from beneath them caused him to pause. Before he could question what was happening, a huge jet of water shot up from below them, shooting them back up into the air. Black and the girl were separated in the blast, and once he was able to get his bearings and resume a normal flight, he began to look for her. He didn't have to look far, for at that moment, dozens of black feathers pierced his body. He looked up to the source of the attack: the girl, flying a few yards away, fully healed and fully pissed off. Black coughed, a cough that became slightly violent halfway through, then said,
   "That all you got bitch?" It was, in fact, not all she had. As she shot another wave of feathers, Dustin shot by and pulled Black out of the way.
   "What the hell Dustin!? I almost had her!"
   "Shut up, I've got an idea," Dustin said as he bore Black along.
   "Yeah? I do too, wanna bet it's the same one?" Black replied. After a quick exchanging of thoughts (literally), they found that they were thinking the same thing after all. Dustin theorized it was because even thought they were separate, they were still both part of the same person and would therefor have similar ideas. But that bit of Simon was always a wild card...
   Dustin quickly shook the thoughts from his head, it wasn't the time for a psychological analysis. Dustin let Black go after a quick heal (oddly enough, Black did not protest) and they began to circle back towards the girl. She simply stayed there, flying in the same place, waiting for them. All three of them seemed to realize that this was the end. They stared at each other for a moment longer, then all three exploded into action. Black, using the chain of his kusarigama, wrapped the girl up and held her. Dustin flew up above the girl, readied his claymore, and flew down at her, ready to swing. As Dustin swung, the girl contorted her body, twisting around so that Dustin hit the chain and not her. The blow broke a few of her ribs, but it was better than being cut in half.
   Before either could retaliate, the girl freed her wings, arced them back, pulled out both her guns, aimed them and shot Dustin with dozens of feathers and bullets at point-blank range. Luckily, Dustin managed to get his shield up, but he was still hit by several of them. He faltered in the air a bit, but he was able to stay up. It was at that moment that he remembered the thing he done to calm Chemical down. The situation seemed so similar, he wondered if he could do it again. He concentrated for a moment, and when he opened his eyes he saw the same white particles floating toward the girl. It was working! However, as she began to calm down and her eyes turned back to their original color of pink, her wings began to disappear and she fell unconscious. As her wings completely vanished, she slipped out of the chain on Black's kusarigama and began falling to the ground.
   "Oh no, you don't get off that easy! Not after all this bitch!" Black screamed, almost manic. With a bloodlust more intense than usual, he shot toward the girl, kusarigama ready to strike.
   "Black, no! She's unconscious; she can't fight anymore!" Dustin called.
   "Exactly!" Black screamed, drooling slightly. Just as he raised the sickle of his kusarigama to slit her throat, Dustin flew by, swatted him away with the flat of his sword, and snatched her up in his arms. As he alighted to the ground, he could hear clapping.
   "Quite entertaining. It seems you may have a chance at killing Gorger after all. By my reckoning... 1.5%" Gregor said, mouse sitting on his shoulder contentedly. Dustin simply stared at him in shock as the water began to heal him. Then, from above, he heard Black scream.
   "Biiiiiiiiiiitch!" he howled, rocketing toward the ground, kusarigama swishing back and forth wildly. Just before he came within striking distance, Dustin said firmly,
   "Stop, don't kill her." Immediately, Black stopped and landed, his sigil burning bright as it struggled against his bloodlust. Finally, the sigil won out and Black simply stood there, trying to kill her with his glare. It was then that Dustin noticed something was missing, or rather, one of someone.
   "Weren't there two of you a while ago?" a fully healed Dustin asked Gregor.
   "Hmm? Oh, as I said, Gorger separated my consciousness in an effort to weaken me further _{not that he needed to}. I simply absorbed the other me," he replied. It was at that moment that the girl began to stir, having been fully healed of all her wounds by the fountain's waters.
   "Ugh... what happened?" she asked, clutching her head. Dustin simply offered a sad smile and said,
   "A lot."

                                                             ------

   Squanto sat silently in his meditation room, but his spirit was far, far away. He had followed Dustin's spirit trail for many astral hours, but the scent kept scattering and relocating. It was becoming aggravating, getting close only to have it disappear at the last second. He accepted this as the fluctuations of the world of spirits, truly he had been on many more aggravating searches than this, but the stakes were so much different now. If only he had something to strengthen the spirit trail, something that had a strong connection with Dustin like a favorite childhood toy or a beloved pet. With a sigh he continued his search, but suddenly he heard something that caused him to hurry back to his physical body. There was a knock on his door. His body was in a secluded mountain retreat far from civilization that only he knew how to get to; he doubted it was neighbors. If they had gotten Dustin, perhaps they meant to "question" him as well. Wouldn't they be surprised to find his fighting skills slightly more honed than Dustin's. As he finally became one with his body, he could hear a voice coming from outside his door.
   "Warrior of the Spirits? I'm with the DABR! It's about Dustin Black!" the voice called. As Squanto walked toward the door, he picked up his trusty shovel and lead pipe as he responded,
   "This is he, give me just a moment!" Silently he crept toward the door, then swung it wide and raised his pipe to strike...