Nightmare Tournament - Boss Battle - Choa vs Yeriel
















The scene picks up in a dimly lit room – a basement of some sort.  Let your gaze wander over ancient pipes rusted with blood dripping tainted water onto the stained cement floor.  Useless chains and hooks dangle from the high ceiling above, and strewn across the floor are broken toys and even a few body parts from previous victims.

A cluster of strings gleam in the dim light that shines down on a man hunched over, his hair covering his face, the brown suit he wears torn and tattered from abuse, his fake skin clawed and dirty. He has a few dents in his head but not enough to make him bleed…yet.
Bound and tied up in strings he is barely awake, not even having the strength to lift his head.

Claire folded her arms and leant against the wall, keeping an eye on the injured Project 507. She rolled her eyes.

“Honestly, I’d say you’re wasting your time with this.  I mean, that fat guy already lost, why the hell are you still keeping him around?”

The figure she was talking to stayed out of sight, only a string or two hanging themselves from the ceiling to betray his presence.  Claire walked out into the middle of the room and voiced her annoyance.
“You know, there are better things to be getting on with!”

Once again the figure said nothing, only moved along the ceiling and plucking at the strings that held the hostage in place.

“And why the hell are you keeping so many of them alive? I’m mean; seriously, you’ve been bending the rules too much for too long.  Nightmare will not allow-”

The figure interrupted her, half of its face appearing for a moment from within the shadows.

“Nightmarrrrrrrrre is not my concern.  He scares you, all of you… you have sooo much to lose that it’s fun to watch you all dancing, just to keep what little you have left.”

Claire sneered at the mocking figure as she walked back to her place in a huff.

“So, you got a plan or reason for keeping all these people alive?” she muttered.

As if to answer her question it reached down and ripped off Chimera’s hand.  He let out a whimper of pain before the figure jabbed its claws into his chest, just barely piercing the heart and allowed it to bleed out as slowly as possible.  It picked up the hand and threw it to Claire.

“Meet up with the chubby one… let him know the clock is ticking.  Zero and Aiden will follow and their fate will be the same as his.”

Claire stayed silent as she picked up the hand and left - the sooner she got this done, the sooner she could free herself from this realm like Nightmare had promised.

The hideous puppet emerged and tilted Chimera’s head up to meet its hidden gaze, licking up the blood from his chest as it did so.

“So perfect… none of them suspects a thing…” it smirked, more to itself than to its prey.
------

Yeriel finally concluded her explanation of her travels through the factory leading up to their meeting, and sat back to assess Aiden’s response.  He looked almost as annoyed with her as her father had been every time her training had ended with her as the loser.  Now that she thought about it, that had been almost all of the time, at least before she had turned eleven.  
He finally made clear the exact source of his irritation.
“Are you so stupid?  I thought you’d at least know something about your magic – anything!  Do you really not understand the danger you’ve been putting yourself in?”  He glanced aside, as though just looking at her might provoke further insults.
She was taken aback.  Stupid?  If nothing else, hadn’t she proven herself by making it this far?  She scowled at him, unwilling to let this pass.
“I’m sorry, but not everyone had your tutoring.  My father-“she changed tack; that was a dangerous subject, “-never mind.  Magic isn’t exactly welcome where I come from.  Unless they need a healer or a dragon-slayer, the people I meet don’t have much respect for what they don’t possess themselves.  Even if some of us didn’t choose to be different in the first place.”
When he raised his eyes again, the frustration had been replaced with his usual calm and understanding.  Yeriel got the impression that he was still upset, only now he was hiding it, to stop her from staying defensive.  She decided to let the feeling pass unchallenged.
“Sorry, Aiden.” She muttered, “What exactly did I do?”
“Well, from your description of your powers, I’d say that they’re based in your blood.  That’s why the ward was so easy for you, even when you were weakened by the previous fight.  The light you summon is just a basic ability picked up from your mark,” he glanced momentarily at her forehead,” so I guess there might be others you haven’t discovered yet.  The…incident...with the ferret, for example.  Whatever triggered it must have had something to do with your power, although I’m unsure exactly how or why it happened.  I suppose we can explore your abilities before the next fight.”
“Okay…still don’t get why you were so angry with me.” Yeriel hinted, wishing she could draw her swords for some friendlier company.  Or less confusing, at least.
“…back to the blood-magic.” He smiled warily at her, “It’s powerful, and useful in an emergency, but it’s unbelievably unpredictable.  Using it on a whim will just get you killed.  That’s what worried me – you could have destroyed this whole building with yourself inside if you’d continued to use it in the matches.” He sighed, “Also, unlike most magics, blood-magic has a subconscious desire to show itself, to gather power any way it can to gain recognition.  The more you use it, the more it will persuade you to keep calling on it.  Eventually, you’d be incapable of making decisions.  You’d just slowly destroy yourself in your urge to be noticed for your power, ignoring everything else while the magic dictated your actions.  Avoid it from now on, and we’ll say no more about it, okay?”
“I guess.” Yeriel got to her feet and wandered off to think this new information over.  She left Aiden where he was, not really caring whether he followed her or not.  He didn’t.
Overjoyed that its new mistress was no longer distracted, the robotic ferret climbed out from inside her pack and curled around her shoulders.  She barely noticed.
-----

Zero sighed, watching Ari sleeping nearby.  Jasper, recently awakened, was seriously pissed off with the fact that he had been tied up. Unfortunately, Zero was tuning out his cursing in favour of addressing his own concerns.
“Untie me, you bastard!  I demand a rematch!”
“…I guess she’s not so bad…kind of headstrong, though.” He mused, “Wonder if mage-boy is done chatting her up yet…”
“Dammit! Are you even listening to me?!”
“Of course I am!” Zero grinned at him, “I just don’t want to untie you just now, if that’s okay with you.  You seem kinda grouchy.”
“What do you expect?! YOU TIED ME UP, YOU ASSHOLE!”
Zero smiled weakly, banging the side of his head in an exaggerated mime of having been deafened.
“No need to shout, chubby.  I can hear you.”
“You do not seem to be doing anything to help, though, do you?!” Jasper retorted.
“…true. Don’t worry, I’ll untie you later, when you’ve calmed down a bit.” Zero smirked, “At this rate, it’s gonna be a while.  Maybe you should try taking deep breaths?” he suggested cheerily.
“…I will show you deep breaths, moron!” Jasper struggled franticly, “Get on with it!”
Zero took his own advice, breathed deeply, and went back to ignoring his prisoner.  Without Hikari awake and questioning him, he felt more than capable of taking his own sweet time.  At least until Jasper stopped swearing.  He sighed.  This really WAS going to take a long time.
-----


Yeriel was growing calmer and calmer walking down the empty corridor, listening to the sounds of her own footsteps and the mechanical creaking of the ferret wrapped loosely around her neck.  
Suddenly, the lights flickered overhead and all of her efforts swiftly reversed themselves.  Something was coming…
An ominous slithering noise indicated the arrival of the creature or creatures somewhere nearby, and Yeriel’s thoughts turned at last to her recent companions.  Were they closer or further from the entity moving closer with every elapsing second than she was?  Which direction should she take?

As she turned around to search for the others, she nearly bumped into a little girl holding a teddy bear. There were three balloons floating about her head like ghosts.  Her dress was a sinister version of an old-fashioned child’s attire, but her hair was midnight black, in fluffy pigtails with bangs that covered her eyes.

Yeriel paused for a moment before kneeling down to be eye to eye with this strange child.

“Are you my opponent?” she asked, “Or some kind of monster?”

The girl didn’t flinch but simply spoke in a tired, touchingly sweet voice, with a hint of a musical tone like some kind of lullaby.

“…My Master would like to see you…” she whispered, a kind smile haunting her lips.

“Your master? Do you mean Nightmare?” Yeriel frowned, distracted from the advancing noises at the end of the corridor.

The girl shook her head sadly.

“…No, Choa Puppet… it wants to see you…alone…”

Yeriel narrowed her eyes before getting back to her feet. She paused, considering the offer.

“As much as I’d like to meet this…Choa puppet…I’m not leaving without the others.  I’m sure they have a bone to pick with this ‘Master’ of yours as well.”

The girl shook her head again, the balloons swirling in the non-existant breeze.

“…I am afraid I cannot accept your request…”she replied.


As far as the maze of corridors extended, every single light overhead went out as though the hall beneath them had suddenly vanished into nothing.  Yeriel’s eyes darted about in the darkness as her hand sought for Huriya, her fighter’s sense at its peak as she cautiously looked around, her vision slowly adjusting to the near-blackness surrounding her. The Girl snuggled her teddy bear closer to her as the balloons floated up to the ceiling in soft flight, before suddenly being drawn into the darkness behind them, blurring as the distorted sound of popping was heard.

“…but my Master has plans for your friends…” she giggled, as though at some private joke.

Yeriel’s heart skipped a beat as a sense of cold fear engulfed her, the air suddenly damp and very close to her skin - it felt like being buried alive.

Cackling in the distance became screeching sounds as whatever it was came closer.  In a panic, Yeriel used her sparks-of-light ability to aid her sight; the girl was gone and, bizarrely, so was the ferret.  But that became the least of her worries as she felt hot and heavy breath on the back of her neck.  She turned around, drawing Huriya with trembling hands, only to find that nothing was there. The sudden sounds of screaming reached her ears, her magic flaring to create hovering lights along the path that would take her away from the source of her fear.  The darkness took its time swallowing the lights she made for herself, causing her to run even faster, desperately hoping to find Aiden.  Instead, all she heard was gunfire in the distance.  She didn’t dare pause, knowing that she didn’t have a clue how to react when companions were in danger, as she'd never been in that situation before.  It was best to just keep running, to avoid thinking about it until she was thinking more clearly.

A faint light suddenly lit up a side corridor, which she tried to take when a swarm of toys poured out of the air vents like a hive of flightless bees, teeth and claws bared and gnashing at her like animals. Yeriel went with her instincts and legged it back the way she had come.  She had no idea where she was going, but anywhere was better than being surrounded by those merciless creatures. She slowed down in order to change course but vicious wires sliced at her skin, leaving scratches along her arms and across her face. She attempted to find her attacker in the confusing morass of puppet strings, but all she could see was a jack-in-the-box dangling from the ceiling by a single thread.  Glancing around, she noticed that all the branching corridors had been boarded up.
Overpowering compulsions lead her to place her hand on the crank handle and turn it. The musical tune didn’t sound like a song at all, but once it stopped the box popped open and Saiko’s dismembered head jumped out at her feet.  She leapt back from this horrific apparition, guilt seeping down into her chest, seeing the expression of pure terror and pain on her past opponent’s face.

She turned her head and backed away when she heard another noise.  Saiko’s mouth exuded a foul black liquid that oozed across the floor and it didn’t stop, regardless of the obstacles in its way.  It spread to Yeriel’s feet before she had time to react.  She wanted more than anything to be able to believe that this was just a dream, just another nightmare chasing her from sleep to leave her a shivering wreck in the night, but reality proved itself to her when it took a turn her mind could not have come up with, no matter how frightened she had become.  Something emerged from the black puss and grabbed her legs.  In a panic she tried to free herself but a string lashed out and held her arms in place.

“What the hell is this? What’s going on?!” she demanded, trying to recapture her confidence.

The ooze captured her feet, then her legs up to the thigh, but it wasn’t done tormenting her yet.  From the depths of the slime, a web of wires gave way to a lean shape that she didn’t recognize, but it wasn’t hard to guess what it represented.  A puppet that danced to no puppeteer’s tune, choosing to tug the strings of others instead.  Puppet Choa.

“Kyyeeeeheeeeeeheeeeeeeheeeeeeee…everyone’s not here now, but not-not-not to worry!  Puppet don’t kill what can still playyyyaaaaaahahahaa!!!”  The gruesome maw spread wide as the creature laughed its sickening laugh.

With that it slammed its fist over Yeriel’s head, fully submerging her in the black puss.  She fell through the nightmare portal to land on a hard concrete floor, at least one of her legs fractured, if not broken.  She struggled against the pain to re-set the bone, watching with terrified fascination as the toys poured through ahead of their master, only their unwavering loyalty keeping them from attacking her there and then. She could still hear the sounds of the others in trouble, but she couldn’t see them.  It was as if Choa was tormenting her with pain she couldn’t do anything to relieve.

Then Choa dove at her, catching Huriya's blade and hurling her at the fuse-box, shutting off what little light remained and plunging them into darkness once more.   With Huriya sparking and twitching in the fuse-box, Yeriel was left with only one sword.

Practically blind, Yeriel only just managed to keep the toys at bay, sustaining injuries as she fought to escape their clutches.  Her leg was still weak, and even if there had been an opening, she could not have taken it. She soon began to tire and a well-aimed puppet-string knocked Hasim from her hand as well. She backed away, random sparks of light from her fingers allowing her to catch glimpses of a retreating toy horde.

Choa leapt straight at her, its progress barely hindered by her attempts throw a punch at its lean chest, which only served to amuse it.  It savored her reaction as it caught her arms in a grip of iron and leaned toward her menacingly.

“No…NO!  Th-that’s not fair!” she sobbed, transformed by the sheer power of her opponent into the little girl who had screamed those same words at her father whenever he’d defeated her.  She’d have thought that, by now, she’d have grasped that life wasn’t fair, and there was no use crying about it.  But those words were still there, just waiting to be said.

Yeriel glanced around in panic as she was backed up against a wall, the Puppet taking great joy in seeing the fear in her eyes as it lifted her into the air, allowing her to squirm and struggle a little bit longer before hurling her to the floor and vanishing into the shadows.

She whimpered, nursing her wounds with bitter tears of pain gathering in her eyes.
"Damn you..."she winced,"...show yourself!"

Lifting her gaze to the level of the far back wall, she spotted Chimera bound by puppet strings, chains and barbed wire, completely passed out due to lack of blood, and the effects of the torture Choa Puppet had put him through.  She looked around in hope of finding a door or a way out, but there was nothing. This was indeed the point of no return.
Tired, lost, and alone, Yeriel finally accepted the one thing she had never believed she could – defeat.  She bowed her head, humiliated by the ease at which she had come to such a terrible decision, preparing for a lingering, painful death at the hands of the puppet master who had held the strings of her fate from the beginning.

Her limbs quivered and gave out from under her as she fell back to the cold floor in surrender and she heard the sound of the Puppet’s cackle behind her, its strings wrapped around her body.  It lifted her only a few inches off the ground and leered over her, gleefully licking the blood off her face.  It removed its sunglasses, revealing its maggot-filled eyes.  The stench was unbearable.  It placed one of its blood soaked wooden fingers between Yeriel’s lips, forcing her to open her mouth as more of the toys arrived to witness what their master was about to do, all of them laughing with delight.

“Win or lose, we’re gonna be friends for a loooooong time…hye hyeh yeahahaHA!”

With that Choa Puppet opened its jaws wide and nearly engulfed Yeriel’s head in its mouth, regurgitating black blood and maggots in an attempt to force her to either swallow or breathe it in.  Yeriel froze in place as she was smothered, refusing to allow any of its disgustingly hot fluids to enter her body. Even in this hopeless state, she would rather die than let this thing have its way.

She felt its tongue wrap around her head and pull her in further, not even bothering to scream.  No one was going to hear her anyway.  Ready to embrace death, she fell to the floor, the Puppet tightening its grip on her.  She coughed and gasped for air, unable to see what was going on.

Puppet Choa’s back was arched over as the sound of cracking wood emanated from within its body. Gabriel stood triumphantly behind it, trying to remove his dagger from its wooden spine, robo-ferret clinging to his shoulder.  Whatever force had seized it before and stolen it from her, Tauri had brought it back to his oblivious friend with back-up capable of saving her.  If Yeriel had known this, she might almost have been impressed.

The one small act of kindness Gabe had performed to keep Yeriel alive had brought her the determination she needed to return to the fray.  Yeriel got to her feet and, filled with the desire to return the favour, disregarded Aiden’s warning.  She began to draw a complicated symbol in the air with bloodied hands and poured every scrap of magic into the effort while the fight raged on around her.
"I need to do this...but my heart's burning.” She gasped, voice so faint that she was sure the battling Choa and Gabriel couldn’t hear her, “It hurts so much - the power of my blood…” she concentrated, blocking out the pain once more, “So much power… I HAVE to use it..." The symbol grows, and then shrinks into her hands, which start to glow with an ominous white light.

Not noticing what she was up to, Puppet sent a wave of strings that flew down and wrapped themselves around Gabe.  Taking action, robo-ferret lunged at it before it could get caught and started clawing away at Puppet’s face.  Then Puppet Choa opened its mouth and lashed its tongue out, keeping the ferret in place so that it could bite it in half.  The two halves fell to the ground, the damaged face managing to convey the despair Tauri felt in the locked room worlds away, knowing that his best efforts would not be enough to save Yeriel.

She looked on in shock, feeling both loss and hatred boil in her blood as she clutched her fists to her chest.   At this Puppet turned its attention back to Gabe, having the strings cut deeper into his skin before tossing him towards the swarm of malicious toys.

Yeriel dove at Choa, determined to end the fight.  Both bloody hands connected with the knife that was still lodged in its back, the symbol reappearing in bright white lines as she was thrown helplessly to the ground, her magic fading.  Distracted by the blade and having had to deal with Yeriel’s attack, Puppet dropped Gabe and the strings loosened their grip on him and Chimera, allowing them to fall to the floor. White flames spread across Puppet’s body, lighting up the whole room and revealed every single string that the puppet possessed.   It filled the whole basement as though it was connected to every corner, eventually fading into nothing but the most concentrated heat imaginable on Choa itself, as though it were nothing more than an ant caught beneath a cruel child’s magnifying glass on a sunny day.

The flames surged inside the puppets body, making it unable for it to heal itself.  It fell to its knees.  It didn’t scream or shriek in pain, but instead looked right into her eyes, and laughed.

“You feeeeeeeeell for it, you allllllllll have!!" it cackled.

It reached up and grabbed into its strings, letting the fire travel up through them to catch its own faithful minions in the flames.   They howled and franticly tried to put the fire out, but it was too late for them.  Puppet’s body crumbled in on itself piece by piece, twitching about as though trying to entertain the onlookers in its last moments, its laughter dying to a dry wheeze before finally going silent.

Yeriel sat still, right on the edge of shock now that her ordeal appeared to be over.  Her body was utterly exhausted and horribly injured; the internal bleeding was making her vision blur as she reached over to collect the still-twitching fragments of robo-ferret.  Then she crawled over to Chimera to try and wake him up.

A lone string shoots up to one of the cameras and slices the leans clean off.

- - ---
Nightmare thumped the screen.

"Damn it! Stupid freaking picture..."

Krea rolled her eyes, muttering quietly to herself.

"Like it makes any difference to me anyway."

"Honestly, you steal top-of-the-range technology, and what do you get?” Nightmare kicked the unit in frustration, “A pile of frickin junk."

"What do you care? It's not like you paid for it or anything." Krea pointed out.

"I guess, but it's the principle of the thing." He sighed, "Whatever idiot made this is piece of crap is in for months of horrific dreams. It's the least they deserve for ruining my fun."

"...why do I bother?" she sighed, folding her arms resolutely.

"Because, deep down, you actually enjoy the whole 'kidnapped by evil' thing?" Nightmare suggested, grinning at her covered eyes, knowing that she couldn’t see his expression.

She turned away, annoyed that there was a chance he could be right.
"...go get something bad and die."

Nightmare laughed
“No such luck, poppet.  No such luck.”

- - ---

As the pile of Puppet-ash and coal decreased along with the toys, Yeriel felt the effects of combined blood loss and magic-drain from the blood seal take over and began to feel faint.  Gabe, still injured, ran to her side and tried to help her up, urging her to give some indication that she was okay.

“A-are you alright, ma’am?” he mumbled, lifting her to her feet.

"…are the others alive?" she winced as her leg took her weight and threatened to collapse again.

"Huh? W-who?" he struggled to hold her without hurting her, a nigh-impossible feat while she was in her current state.

"...are they...?" she slipped a little and her head lolled against his shoulder, the remains of robo-ferret clutched in her aching hands.

"Others?” Gabe looked confused.

"..I'm sorry..." she whispered, eyes closing on darkness.

He lowered her to the floor, resolving to fetch help before trying to move her.  He collected the fragments of the ferret and laid them beside her, hoping that this would help in some small way.

"...Tauri..." she murmured, finally surrendering to sleep.

"Come on d-don’t die, please!” Gabriel stammered, “Everything’s g-gonna be alright, just h-hang on!”

The pile of Puppet parts behind them stirred, the only recognisable part - the upper half of its head - showing its now completely empty eyes as though it was still watching them. Unnoticed by anyone, a maggot covered in black puss crawled across its body to Yeriel’s arm and into one of her wounds, quickly disappearing from sight.

The high-pitched giggle of a mischievous child filled the air, letting the oblivious world know that the Choa Puppet is anything but dead.


-FIN-