The pain that Olivia and Marie were going through, Olivia remembered feeling this type of pain once before. She cursed the person who had put her through this the last time, and it was only later that she found out who was responsible.
"This is you, Gary, right!" Olivia was scratching the floor in pain. "Just like last time. I don’t know how he does it, but after the last time going through this pain, my body felt different. It felt lighter than before and faster than before, so he’s doing the same thing again right now."
Olivia could see her and Marie going through the same thing, and it meant once they got through this short burst of pain then both of them would be different from what they were before; it would be an upgrade for them.
The main issue was, why did it have to happen now of all times? In the middle of a fight, and it wasn’t even one they were winning; it was a fight that they already were fighting close to death.
“She said to protect them, so that’s what we need to do!” Izzy claimed as she quickly went over and picked up the two of them from the floor. She wrapped them with her hair using her Altered powers and was holding them in the air.
Right after, a swing of a flaming tail came right at her. She quickly avoided it, but it was hard for her to throw a hit back while holding onto the two of them.
“We need to help Izzy!” Ian claimed as he pulled out a bristle and was ready to throw it.
“Watch out!” Numba shouted, as he tackled his own friend to the side, and a head came crashing down in the place they were in.
Getting up off the floor, the bristle was stuck in Numba’s shoulder; he had quickly pulled it out of him and dropped it to the floor.
“We need to look after ourselves for now, the only thing we can do in this situation… is run!” Numba exclaimed and started to run back deeper into Burnham street.
Izzy, holding the other two, was already doing the same thing, and Ian quickly reacted too. The Howlers Gang members, who were in combat, seeing this had done the same as they started to run down the street as well.
Burnham street was a relatively long street, and with them being Altered, they would be able to run pretty fast. As soon as they set off, the Phoenix Gang members started to follow them, that was until they had received an order from behind.
“Don’t chase!” Raven shouted.
The Phoenix Gang members stopped for a moment. "Huh, why aren’t we chasing, we can catch up to them easily. They're getting away. If they get away they could heal up and attack us again."
“Yeah, and didn’t you hear their orders from before, they are just trying to buy some time, we need to get rid of them.”
The gang members were confused, and after much deliberating between themselves, one of them had decided to make their move.
“You're not even really a member of our gang, who are we to listen to you!” The man said as he started to run.
Immediately though, a towering move came over to him, and snapped him from the middle of his body. A couple more bites and the other gang members had witnessed Raven swallow one of their men whole just like that in front of him.
“I am part of the Phoenix Gang, and Sin told you to listen to me!” Raven claimed, as the Hydra head with that of a face floated down to where the others currently were. “All of you need to start using your heads a bit more. There is no reason for us to give chase.”
After saying those words, one of the Hydra heads crashed into one of the restaurants at the side, breaking through the wall. Another of the Hydra’s heads did the same on the other side smashing through glass.
The heads quickly swirled out and hovered in the air, with something in both of their mouths.
“AHHHH!” Screams were heard towering in the air, and coming from the restaurants that had been broken into.
They didn’t stop because right now, in the mouths of the Hydra was none other than the people from the restaurant. They hadn’t been chewed up yet but were being held there.
As soon as the group heard the screams they stopped running and turned around.
“Crap is he… using the people as hostages!” Numba grumbled, tensing his fists.
“That guy, he’s sick!” Ian replied.
“Sick, we came here to get rid of this city and all of its supporters that includes the public that put their trust in you.” Raven said. “There is nothing sick about this, this is just what we do, we are in a gang. We're not the government, we're not the protectors of some country.”
“We do things that benefit those in our group, and ours alone, and right now, what benefits me, is getting rid of everyone in this city that covered up my brother's death!” Raven exclaimed, his voice filled with anger.
Slowly he started to calm down, and the smile returned to his face. “If Olivia was in charge, I know what she would do, but I can tell, the rest of you guys aren’t gang members.”
The three of them were stumped, Olivia and Marie were still in pain. They seemed to be easing up, but they were in no condition to fight. If they ran, they were sure with no doubt that Raven would bite through and start killing people one after the other.
“We can’t let people just die, we have to fight, we just have to last a few moments, we can at least do that, right?” Ian asked. It was clear he was unsure of himself, but he felt like he had to do something, that he had to act.
“Let’s do it!” Numba said.
The two of them turning around started to charge forward. They could see several giant heads towering above them, all ready to strike at any moment. They had no plan on how to win this fight, but were just going to take part in the fight.
While running, Izzy was looking from behind when she noticed something. Running on top of the rooftops, there were several blurs that were moving quite fast.
Then when they got to the position where Raven was, they leaped from the rooftops. There were at least six of them. Two had landed, hitting the heads that held the people. The sheer pain caused Raven to drop them, and they were soon falling to the ground.
As that had occurred, one skidded down the side of another building and then jumped, catching the civilians. After they quickly moved, the civilians were back in the restaurant and went to join Numba and Ian, who were frozen in place.
“What is this?” Raven asked.
To be honest, even Numba and Ian were confused as well. “They all… kinda look like Gary,” Ian commented.
“And they’re wearing the Howlers' uniforms.”
*****