By C.M. Rich (Magnetman)
His name's Kenta Eigen.Or as he introduced himself to me a few
years ago, Kenta Kassidy-Eigen. He claims ta be my half-brother,
which I never doubted, knowin' dad. He's the product of one of
dad's trips to Japan when the stupid old man got mixed up in the
mob. For whatever reason, he became the go between guy between
the United States' mob in Nevada and the yakuza in Japan. On one
of th' trips, dear ol' dad had a one nighter with one of the
locals, yielding my one and only sibling.
Both of my parents were killed by the mob when things
went bad between the mob and the yakuza, and I ended up in
Charleston to avoid gettin' killed by the mob myself. Halfway
round the world, Kenta's mom died of cancer, and since he was
the product of an out of wedlock romance, he was shunned.
Well, unfortunately he got the idea that comin' to see
me would be a good idea at this point. It took him two years and
God knows what kinda lengths, but he finally made it to me, and
I.turned him away. I was barely eighteen and livin' on the
streets- I couldn't take up the responsibility of takin' in a
fourteen year old that didn't know much English.
Yeah.That was a pretty cowardly thing ta do to him. I
won't try to defend myself, but I was just a scared kid at th'
time. There wasn't much I coulda done for him, anyways. I was
havin' a hard enough time takin' care of myself as it was.
I imagine he went back home after that. He didn't seem
ta take rejection very well. Like I said.In retrospect, I'da
done things way differently. I don't blame him if he's here ta
settle the score here today, but I ain't goin' to go down
without swingin', brother or no brother. I've still got things
to do myself, like finish off the mob.
"I don't blame ya for wantin' ta kill me, Kenta.But
I've still got things to do before I die."
He starts pacin' again, makin' me nervous. Revenge is a
powerful motivator. It can make you go beyond your limits to
reach it. I know for myself, since that's pretty much what keeps
me alive today.
"Things to do.Very responsible, Rich-kun. It is truly a
shame you couldn't have possessed that feeling back then. Things
would have been much different.", he says in a flat tone while
"Unfortunately, whatever you have yet to accomplish will just
have to go unfinished. Your time for rest has come to an end,
and we start again."
Kenta, ignorin' whatever pain might be in his hands,
raises them up for the fight and runs at me. He takes a shallow
leap and plants his feet on my chest for an instant, then.I
guess you could say "explodes" his power through them, sending
us both back. He lands after a nice, graceful backflip, while I
get smashed into the rubble again, skull-first.
As soon as he lands, Kenta starts summonin' large
amounts of metal debris from the buildings that were crushed,
collects them right above me, and tries to smash me flat with a
few tons of twisted iron. I use this as an openin' for an attack
of my own by blowin' myself up to help me dodge the crush
faster. I'm dashin' right towards him as he realizes I'm not
gonna be caught by his trick and catches a nasty boot right to
the gut at about a hundred miles and hour, give or take, thanks
to the explosion.
As he doubles over, I whip around as fast as I can and
nail him in the back of the head with another brutal kick. Sorry
bro, but like I said- things to finish, namely catchin' up with
Hardy and Smiley. It's been a long time since I've pulled off my
ol' "Desperado Destroyer" move, but it's a fight ender almost
every time. Emphasis on the "almost".
Yeah.Revenge is a powerful motivator. Kenta's on the
ground, clutchin' the back of his head and screamin', but he's
not done yet. He's mad as hell now, and shoots a few more of
those nasty missiles into my gut as a receipt for the Destroyer.
A kick of his own to my jaw sends me down again, and I'm not
able to get up as quick, thanks to my new bellybuttons.
Kenta charges me again, eyes fulla hate, ignorin' the
pain in his face. Well, can't say he's able to ignore it for
long, since I catch him with a crouched lariat, smashin' my
forearm into his collar-bone. The kid does a three-quarters turn
backflip and lands on his teeth in the metal wreckage. I'm on my
He's hurtin', now. He doesn't pop up as fast, and he stays down
for a few seconds before climbin' back to his feet. No more
banter, now. No more talkin', no more promises. No more blood
between us. Its two men. Two fighters. We're both on our feet,
tired, injured, hurtin'.
No more tricks, or powers to rely on. We have a silent
agreement now, that we're doin' this the right way.
Kenta goes for another one of his high kicks, and this
time, I don't try to block it. I duck it and wait for the sweep.
He whirls back for it, but before I can catch his leg, he leaps
up, spins around again, and clocks me with a discus-like punch.
It takes a lot more than that to make me go down, even in th'
state a' bein' I'm in, so when he goes for a follow-up left
hook, I catch it and headbutt him square in the nose. Somethin'
cracks.
He backs off, not really acknowledgin' the fluid pourin'
from his nostrils and mouth. He reels back for another one of
those nasty kicks, though, but I'm done takin' those. I rush in
close, grab the back of his head, and just slam him to the
ground with all my might. It's another brutal crackin' noise.
I start layin' in the boots to his chest. I figure if
he intends ta' kill me, then regardless a' what I did to him
that I'm not goin' down and takin' whats comin' to me just yet.
If I cripple him, even only til he can get fixed up, I'll buy
myself some time to go after th' mob and claim revenge for both
of us.
Somethin' inside of Kenta disagrees with my plan, and
he takes only three or so stomps before punchin' me in the knee,
takin' me down while he rolls back to his feet.
No more fancy techniques for Kenta, who's just plain
stompin' and kickin' me while I lay there. He just won't let up,
not even for an instant. I'm startin' to wonder if there's
somethin' else behind all of this. Then I see Hardy again.
The big man's in a bad way, lookin' almost as bad as me
and Kenta. Smiley's there with him, holdin' that big ass sword
of his, as well as some chick in a white dress that looks to be
on Smiley's side. Hard's gettin' beat from all sides by these
two as he tries screamin' at me, yellin' something to me about
"brother" and "stop".
Yeah, I'm way ahead of you there, Hard. Tell that to
Kenta, who's still goin' to town on my skull. You'd think he'd
have a heart attack or somethin' by now, cause he's movin' like
The Flash on a speed binge.
Then, somethin' weird happens. Yeah.Way weirder than
anything I've seen tonight so far, so you know its pretty
friggin' strange. How can I describe it.Okay, think of it like
an upside down earthquake. Instead of th' ground shakin', the sky starts jitterin’ before crackin’ open just overhead.