[1] Miami Club Tropicana: Destroyer's Kaputt

[dere]

Lilith swung her head around to look at Jagger in a bewildered way. "Dude, are you high or something? He's not gonna come out of his hiding spot because of a decoy made out of cheese, I'm pretty sure about that."

[ToledoJones]

"Well, no..." Jagger said, abashed. "I didn't think he'd just waltz over to us... I thought if you made a slight clearing in the smoke, and he saw a person he might attack it. And if he did we'd know the general area he was attacking us from." He scratched the back of his head.

"Maybe you are as dull as you think you are." Minnie agreed.

Seems that way.

"His damn cyber suit can probably see heat signatures anyway. I don't know why I bothered - all I am is brute strength and I'm not even very good at that." He plopped into a seated position on the floor. "Ugh, for all we know he isn't even in this fucking room with us."

[Al Freakster the Big Cheese]

"Shit. This is ne idyot (not going) as planned. And even if we had some way of heat vision, that Stealth suit probably has that countered..."

Taffy seeped. Nibbles just sat down on the ground. The cheese was slowly returning to them.

"Pogodite (Wait). I have an idea. Anyone's got a laser pointer? Or any continuous source of light, really. I believe that the stealth suit cannot make the light pass through it. We just have to point everywhere with laser pointers and find him. I really don't have any good ideas aside from that. Sorry."

[All fiction]

Andreas stared around the room, thinking about what Jagger said.

"Hmm, I think I've got a way to check if he's in the room. Can anyone here knock that down, or just break off a big long piece of it?"

He pointed at the nearest pillar to the group.

[dere]

Lilith was starting to look distressed, her eyebrows furrowing up and her breathing getting heavier. "I don't know what that's going to do, Andreas, I really don't. We've been trying to find him for a while now and nothing is working... nothing is working... nothing..." She dropped her head down low, her voice starting to choke up. "There's nothing we can do... In the end, there was nothing any of us could ever do. Is this... what you call destiny? Can you really change... what's meant to be?"

"Lilith!"

Cleo looked straight into the other girl's eyes, trying to inspire her to not give up. It really was a sight to see: Lilith was supporting Cleo physically, but Cleo was the one who was trying to support Lilith to keep on going. "You've come this far, and you're just going to give up now? I won't have that. You and your friends showed me that there was more to life than my god... more than I ever realized. There are things in this world that are worth protecting, like your friends and family! Like me!"

Lilith looked up slowly, a smile slowly coming to her face. "Cleo... You're right, I'm sorry. I was just... thinking too much. But you're right. I can't give up without giving my all... for all of the people here. For all of the people who depend on us... we have to win."

The two girls smiled at one another, looking into each others eyes. The moment was quickly interrupted, however, by a sound that had been heard not too long ago, at the top of the skyscraper. It was a low buzzing noise, and it signaled that Destroyer had used his laser pointer. A bright beam of red light slashed through the barrier of fog, straight through Cleo's torso. She could barely even make a sound of surprise, it was so sudden. She simply looked down, then back to Lilith, her skin quickly getting paler and her eyes losing focus.

"CLEO!"

Lilith laid the other girl down onto the ground, the bubble of smoke quickly dissipating as Lilith lost her concentration. Tears welled up in Lilith eyes as she vainly tried to lay her hands on Cleo's waist. But, she did not have enough energy to completely heal Cleo. Not even the most skilled of occult individuals would be able to heal a wound that serious. Tears began to well in Lilith's eyes as she struggled to not whimper, her new friend being ripped away from her as soon as they had met. With the last of her remaining strength, Cleo reached up and wiped the tears off of Lilith's cheeks, smiling weakly as she did so.

"Don't cry... This world is overflowing with sadness..."

Her hand slipped away, going limp and cold. Lilith hunched over the girl, her breath coming in ragged bursts, her body trembling uncontrollably, her voice only coming out in pitiful choking gasps. "N-n... no... not another... t-this wasn't... supposed t-to... h-happen..." She pulled her long, blonde strands of hair over her face and shook her head. "This world is... overflowing with sadness."

As those words left her mouth, a flash of light was seen, and the bottom half of Lilith's body had suddenly disappeared. Dissipated. Destroyed. Her torso fell on top of Cleo's body, her eyes with thoughts of death swirling throughout them focusing back on the rest of the group for a short moment, silently communicating the deepest apology that she could muster without saying a word. She closed her eyes, and went completely limp.

The blood of the two girls continued to seep into the ground, and the whole room began to rumble, becoming near pitch black despite being illuminated by torchlight. A figure on the wall suddenly came into view, dropping down in front of the group. He had no more use for his camouflage. The deed had been done. There was nothing more that the group could do.

"The sacrifices have been made."

[Al Freakster the Big Cheese]

Taffy was shocked beyond measure. Seeing his two best friends dying made him slump to the floor, sitting against one of the remaining pillars.

"No... Where... Gde vsyo poshlo ne tak (Where did all go wrong)?"

Taffy searched the innards of his coat. He took out a phone, and after a few quick swipes of his fingers a sombre music filled the air. 




"All I wanted was a cheese restaraunt... Glupoye zhelanie (Stupid wish)..."

Some cheese flew out. A part of it transformed to a big bottle of cola. Putting a straw in it, Taffy drank. Meanwhile, he ate the cheese, in an almost trance-like motions. Deep inside his mind, however, there was a conversation going.

Nibbles. Moy staryi tovarisch (My old partner)... You are not a full part of my stand, right?

No, Taffy. I am not. As I told you, I'll be going to the next world after this. Why do you ask?

Simple, old friend. If things start to go very awry, if that Edgehammed looks at me or you, stop my heart. I know you can do it. Do it and run. And live for me.

I... Yes. It was a great journey, albeit with a bad end. I'll live for you, my partner.

Spasibo... Komrade... (Thanks... Comrade...)

Silently, Nibbles appeared. Sticking his hand inside of Taffy's body, he searched around for the heart. Finding it, he placed his fingers closely to it, ready to stop it any moment. Taffy smiled. Soon, it would be over. Forever. But, something suddenly appeared in Taffy's body. A determined feeling. The anger, the retribution that had to be dealt. 

"Ya s toboi yesho ne pokonchil', gnida (I am not done with you yet, shitsack)."

The remained cheese formed around the fallen hammer. After a second, it got up, and flew at the Destroyer, with a clear intent to smash his face to a pulp. Taffy closed his eyes, nudging Nibbles to be ready. He played his final part. Now was the time to rest.

[ToledoJones]

Everything had happened so quickly,;it almost felt like a bad dream. Before Jagger even had time to react both Cleo and Lilith had been bisected.

"Looks like this is really end this time." Minnie said, sobbing. "No way out."

We knew this might happen when we came here, Min. It's better we tried to stop Destroyer than if we had sat at home.

"You're right." She sniffed. "I know it. Let's not give up now. Let's keep fighting."

I doubt we can do much, but it's better than sitting here and waiting for death.

Grabbing his last few rocks from his pocket, Jagger stood up and threw them at the now visible Destroyer. Rather than sticking around to see if they connected, he ran behind the nearest pillar mustering the strength he had obtained from Will. "Tonight!" He grunted, smashing his fist into the pillar. "We! Dine! In! Valhalla!" A strike punctuated each word. The pillar was soon weakened and with a great heave he sent it tumbling in Destroyer's direction.

[dere]

Destroyer made no movements in response. He stood absolutely still, like he had been frozen, a snapshot in time. The hammer phased right through the man, smashing into the wall behind him and causing cracks to appear all across it's surface, fragmenting it like spider webs; the pillar fell atop the man and caused the whole room to shake, dead bodies and rubble being thrown about everywhere, but Destroyer emerged from the pillar only a moment later, moving right through it's surface. He approached Jagger, moving closer and closer to him. He came very close, but still would not stop walking. Even inches away from Jagger, he did not stop his approach, until he walked straight through him, like a ghost, or a ghost of a ghost. An illusion. Something that could be there, but really isn't.

"This world is overflowing with sadness. It's people are drowning in emptiness, and loneliness fills their hearts. They fill those hollow spaces with violence, fantasies of heroism, or illusions of grandeur. They believe that they can coexist with others, or even apart from others all together. But the truth is, people must be with one another, and when they are near one another, all they cause is pain. This world is rotten to it's core. The time has come for convention to be destroyed."

Wasting your days 

Chasing some girl's alright. 

Chasing cocaine 

Through the backrooms of the world all night. 

Wasting your days 

Chasing some girl's alright. 

Chasing cocaine 

Through the backrooms of the world all night. 

Destroyer crouched close to the ground, his hand outstretched and making contact with the ground. "My final purpose... to become His vessel." The quickly encroaching darkness reached it's critical mass, with everything becoming nearly black. It soon began to solidify, becoming more and more of a tangible presence within the room, like it was crowding out all of the space that was within the temple. It began to swirl around, moving closer and closer into the middle of the room. The room finally returned to it's normal lighting, but it was as if Destroyer was gone. No, that is not the correct word. Destroyer's silhouette was still there, though all that remained was shadow. It was as if Destroyer had been erased.

No, not erased. Replaced.

He had been replaced with something completely new. The shadows that made up the thing that used to be Destroyer were like an endless abyss that you could fall into forever and ever, into the deep, spiraling eternity of nothingness that took up that space.

"This world... is overflowing with Sadness."

Everyone in the room would find themselves quickly melting, as if they were wax statues caught in the dazzling heat of the sun. drooping slowly, their structure slowly erasing into nothingness, settling into a pool of stuff that quietly rippled. The black figure, which could no longer be described as Destroyer, slowly made it's way out of the temple as the pillars, walls, and roof began to droop, melting much like everything else had. As he climbed the staircase, all the area that the figure moved past dissolved into a pool of stuff with no definite form, no definite shape, no definite definition. He slowly exited the lighthouse, which also began to liquefy as soon as he left, the ocean, the boardwalk, everything slowly dissolving into one another.

"The beginning and the end of the world..."

this figure wandered with no destination, no direction, and no directive. Everywhere it went, the world quietly evaporated, no screams, no panic, no chaos, just... quiet. For the first time, and for the last time, all was quiet. The long night had begun. Destiny had been accepted, as it had always meant to have been. There were no more boundaries, no more divisions, this and that were one and the same. There was no more sadness left. There was no more emptiness left. There was no more loneliness left. It was the Laziest River; here, all was one, and one was all.

But the world had not been destroyed.

Nothing can truly be destroyed.

The beginning and the end are one and the same.

Nothing can truly be destroyed.

It can only be changed.

Nothing can truly die.

It can only be reborn.

---

The Laziest River