Nightsea Outlaw

Mister Deadman crashed through the entrance, skittering to a stop against a pillar as he rushed through. He had to admit he was about to lose his cool. The metal man stood in the center of the room, surrounded on all sides by the pillars that ran across its length. Mister Deadman could make his way through, but he would have to go slow. The pillars were evenly placed, and the metal tubes were as thick as a quarter of his scorpion body.

Skitter.

"You think you're cool, ya hear?" Mister Deadman said, using one hand to hold onto his hat as he skittered along the outside of the columns. "You call me a thug, but I'm nowhere close. I'm a cool operative, you hear?"

"You might think you're cool, but you're too goofy to take seriously," the man said, remaining unmoving at the center of the room. "I mean, don't get me wrong, the bone scorpion is terrifying, but I can't take you seriously when you're talking about being cool all the time."

Skitter.

"Who are you to judge, you hear?" Mister Deadman said, continuing his circular path around the room. "I've already taken your arm, and I'll take the rest of you soon. You won't think you're so cool when you're buried six feet under."

"Took you long enough," the man said, flexing his metal arms. "I'm 'Tin Man' Ortega, and I'm about to put you so far in the ground you won't see the sunlight ever again."

Mister Deadman gulped down a lump that had formed in his throat. Now, that was a cool threat, and he had to admit it. It even helped cool his own anger that had been building up. He may have been a Finger, but that didn't mean he was invincible. He would have to play things cool.

"You sound like you think you're cool," Mister Deadman said. "I've heard that name before. 'Tin Man' Ortega. Why would the man who burned down August be running around Nowhere? That sounds like a lie to me. That's very uncool, you hear?"

"I can't blame you for doubting," Ortega said, stretching out his arms and turning to face Mister Deadman. "But why don't you come here, and I'll show you just how strong I am."

Mister Deadman wrapped one of his pincers around a pillar, his chimera's mouth clacking its teeth as he looked through the pillars. He knew this was a trap of sorts; otherwise, Ortega wouldn't have stopped running. However, Mister Deadman was cool. He knew he was strong enough to take out some petty man with delusions of grandeur.

"You're going to regret that, you hear?" Mister Deadman whispered as he threw his body forward through the pillars.

Skitter. Skitter.

He had to skitter back and forth to navigate the pillars, but he didn't want to give up his form. Going into his chimera form was always a gamble, and giving it up would weaken Mister Deadman. If he left himself weakened in the middle of the fight, he didn't like his odds. No, Mister Deadman would stick to his plan. He would tear up Ortega piece by bloody piece.

Ortega didn't stand still for him, but Mister Deadman expected that. He swung one of his pincers at the center as he brought his chimera arm around a pillar, but Ortega disappeared on him. Mister Deadman read his tail, the scythe darting left and right behind him as he waited for the attack.

"Rail Gun."

Ting. Clatter.

Up and to the left, Mister Deadman tracked the voice, lashing out with his tail and catching the metal spike with a swipe. He immediately reached up with his left claw pinching at the air where the sound came from, even if he hadn't seen Ortega there.

"Got you!" Mister Deadman yelled.

Clack.

His claw only cut into the air. Ortega was already gone.

"Steel Punch!"

Crack.

Mister Deadman's body shifted, and he looked down on his left side. One of his legs cracked and broke off, falling into shards on the ground. Ortega was there, his metal arm extended from a punch. Mister Deadman wasn't about to let that go unpunished.

"Bone Spin!"

Thunk.

His legs moved in rapid succession, spinning his body as quickly as he could. His scorpion form blurred as he lashed out with his claws. Bone met metal with a satisfying hit, sending Ortega flying through the air. Due to his position, Mister Deadman was able to keep himself still as the rest of his body rotated, so he used that to his advantage.

"Too focused on playing it cool, you hear?" He lashed out with his claw, stopping his spin and launching himself into the air to catch Ortega.

Ortega threw up his arms to defend, but Mister Deadman clenched them tight, pushing them against Ortega's body and holding him still.

"I've got you now, you hear? You ain't going to get away from me."

"You're right about that," Ortega grunted as he pushed against the pincers.

"Now I'm going to crush you to death!"

"Well, wait a second," Ortega said, grinning wide. "Wouldn't that be an uncool way to end this?"

Mister Deadman blinked, reaching up and adjusting his hat. He gave Ortega a side-eyed look. What did this man know about being cool? Mister Deadman was the definition of cool.

"You think me winning isn't enough?" Mister Deadman asked, squeezing his pincer tighter to emphasize his superior position. "You're finished now, you hear. Just play it cool and die so I can find the rest of the intruders and kill them, too."

"You know that isn't right," Ortega said, pushing back harder against the pincers. "This isn't how you end the fight. It needs to be cooler."

Mister Deadman's eyes widened as his mind raced. He had an idea. He smiled. He could give 'Tin Man' Ortega a cool death. He had the ability and the advantage. He could afford to do more to give Ortega a cool send-off.

Snap. Snap.

"Alright, alright." Mister Deadman snapped his fingers. "I can give a dead man such a cool request. Let me show you this form's most powerful ability. Then you can tell everyone you meet in the next world how cool your death was."

He brought his pincer low before flinging it up into the air and releasing Ortega with it. There was no real risk since he was sure that Ortega couldn't fly. Ortega would fall into his technique, and they would both get the cool ending they desired.

"Bone Guillotine!"

Whoosh. Whoosh.

His bone-scythed tail began to spin a circle above his head, cutting through the air with rapid speed until it formed a solid ceiling of blurred bone. Ortega fell down toward the tail and his inevitable death. All Mister Deadman had to do was wait, and he would reduce Ortega to giblets.

However, Ortega didn't fall. Nothing fell through his attack, not even a single spurt of blood. Mister Deadman stood in his scorpion form, waiting. Eventually, he slowed down his tail, revealing the metal ceiling above him.

"I swear, if you ran away, that would be the most uncool thing ever, you hear?"

"No one's running." Ortega knelt upside down on the ceiling, one metal arm beside him as he looked down on Mister Deadman. "I just needed a moment to gather the strength for this last hit."

Mister Deadman noticed it then. Ortega's arm was gigantic, at least triple the size it had been before. A sinking feeling ran up Mister Deadman's spine as Ortega let go of the ceiling and fell fast toward him. The fist stretched out in front of him, and a shadow crossed over Mister Deadman.

"Steel Punch!"

"Bone Escape!"

Ortega disappeared from sight right before Mister Deadman's technique went off. Bone Escape was a last-ditch move in his chimera form. A bone case would cover him, and he would sink into his scorpion body before he shot up and away from where he was. His body shook as he shot off and away from his body, and shook again when the case hit the ceiling. The one problem with the technique was that he couldn't see how things ended.

Slam. Crunch.

Alex shot down toward Mister Deadman like a meteor, his fist extending out as he put everything into his last hit. He had waited up above until Mister Deadman had let his guard down, and that was when he had executed his plan. The best way to beat a bug was to squash it. He just needed something large enough to get it done.

Hence, the giant metal arm was built to accelerate forward in a massive punch while he pushed against the ceiling with his magnetism. Add to that a bit of the Path of Step, and he hit the scorpion's bone body like a sledgehammer, crushing the entire body into the metal floor below. The only problem was the massive bone bullet that shot up past Alex's face and through the ceiling above him.

He stood in the air on his arm for a moment, suspended with the crushed scorpion body beneath him.

Blue light flashed across his arm as power fled his body. He released his hold on the arm as he let his magnetism slow his fall and landed on his feet. He closed his gate as he looked over the bone remains.

"He better be dead," Alex said as the adrenaline from the fight ran through him.

Nothing moved on the scorpion's broken body as he looked over it. Alex let out a breath, and he noticed that the bones began to disintegrate around him. He was lowered to the ground as the bone turned to ash and faded away.

"I'll take that as a sign," Alex said, lolling back and forth as his head swam. "No body, but I've seen weirder things today."

He needed a break but knew he had one more thing to do. He was right when they first came to the temple. He had seen structures similar to this before, which meant that there was a place somewhere in the temple he needed to go. The sooner he went there, the better.

"Bargen!" Alex called out as he took another deep breath. "You still here?"

Bargen emerged from behind the pillars, about a soccer field away. He held Erin under his arms, and his eyes were wide as he looked over Alex. Alex raised his remaining arm and waved, and he couldn't help but smile. He had won.

"Your arm." Bargen looked at Alex's left shoulder, where only a stump remained.

"Nothing to worry about," Alex said, shaking his head. "Can you carry her and follow me? I've got something to find down here."

Bargen gave him a strange look but still nodded, following Alex as he made his way out of the room and down the metal corridor. Alex opened up his magnetic senses to the world around him and found the path he sought. It led down and deep into the complex, and several sets of stairs led him to the bottom level. It wasn't until he came to a stone-sealed door that he knew he was right. The temple was built with the same technology as an island core's gate, and he could see the metal beneath the stone.

"Alright," Alex said, looking up the length of the door.

It was tall enough that a giant could fit through it, matching the corridors he followed. Whoever had built the structure had been larger than Mister Deadman's scorpion form. Alex shook his head. That wasn't important right now.

He reached up, touched his hand against the cold stone, and whispered so Bargen wouldn't be able to hear.

"▇▇ ▇▇, ▇▇ ▇▇▇ ▇▇▇."

He didn't know what he said. It was something that was handled by his subconscious. It was part of the knowledge that contact with island cores gave him, and he couldn't think directly about it without a spike of pain running across his head. All he really knew was that when he touched some technology on Erth, it responded to those words.

Rumble.

Blue light extended out from his hands, forming characters in a circle around his hand and climbing up the door until the entire thing lit up. The ground began to shake around him as the stone fell away, leaving a metal door in its place.

After the stone cracked and fell to the ground, the metal doors slid down, revealing a massive blue portal hidden behind the metal.

"Alright," Alex said, motioning with his remaining hand. "Toss her through. We're going inside. Keep an eye out, and we'll be back in a little bit."

Bargen raised an eyebrow but didn't look like he had the courage to argue. With a heave, Bargen threw Erin through the portal, and Alex nodded to Bargen as he stepped through. Blue light enveloped him, and a tingling sensation ran over his skin as he crossed into the unknown.