TF: The day after CreatureMania XI, continued from here to be exact.
Deadblood's mind was a mess, his thoughts of his attacker and his words distorted as pain like he'd never felt before penetrated them, most of that pain coming from his bloodied, broken face and the lone hole in his chest. He was having trouble keeping his swollen eyes open as he faded further and further from existence but in that brief window he had left, he watched as his attacker fell to his knees, a hole in the front of his mask approximately where his nose should have been, blood oozing out. When he fell forward a couple seconds later, Deadblood could see the starting point of that hole, on the back of his attacker's head, the hair burned away around the wound, the flesh blackened.
Standing over both of them was Sheri, her own gun in both hands, still pointed where the attacker's head was a moment before, less than an inch away from the back of his skull. She stared down at their attacker, waiting to see if he was going to recover this time. He didn't, not like he had before anyway. On the green grass before him was his blood, soon to dry in the early morning sun, mixed with several small chunks of his brain. He remained unmoving. Any medical professional who examined him at that very moment would undoubtedly pronounce him dead.
Feeling pretty sure herself that their attacker wasn't about to hop back up, Sheri finally put away her handgun and knelt down next to Deadblood. He wasn't breathing either now, his swollen eyes still open as much as they could be, his head turned slightly from where he'd watched their attacker hit the ground.
"Come on, DB, wake up!" she shouted, shaking him. "If you die, I'm fucked, remember?! Now get up!"
He remained unmoving too. After shaking him a few more times, Sheri sat back. It was over. Their attacker was dead, but so was Deadblood. How long did she have until
the company came after her again? How did she have until she was dead too? There was no telling, but she'd have no one to help her next time. The crowd was still around the brutal scene, gawking, whispering among themselves. She could hear sirens in the distance. The police and firefighters finally on their way. She knew it was probably for the best if she didn't stick around to wait for them. They'd have a lot of questions for her, most of which she'd probably either be unable to answer or be unwilling to answer.
Standing, Sheri glanced around at the crowd of people, most of whom she was guessing were also living in the burning apartment building. She was about to make a run for it and try to disappear as best she could when she noticed Deadblood's title belts laying on the ground nearby. For a brief moment, she could have sworn that they were glimmering. It wasn't just the sunlight either. The glimmering appearing to be coming from the belts themselves, almost within those strange, decorative, metal plates attached to the leather straps.
That was her answer. The title belts. The very belts she'd criticized Deadblood for being so obsessive over before. She knew what they'd done to him. For him. They'd given him a special power beyond anything she was able to do or had witnessed anyone else do before. There was a definite connection between the belts and their holder and she had a feeling that the connection still existed. Somehow, they were still reacting to Deadblood's presence. She didn't know how it worked and she wasn't so sure she wanted to know how, but she did know that she needed to get him out of there with her. Those sirens were even closer. She had maybe a minute to work with.
Standing back up, she drew her gun again, this time pointing it at the crowd and asking, "Which one of you has their keys on them?"
The crowd slowly backed away, the gun making them very nervous, but a man eventually stepped forward, holding his keys up for her to see and saying,
"I do, but you don't need to run away. You did nothing wrong. That guy was out of control. You had no other choice!"
Pointing her gun directly at him, she replied with, "And I have no other choice now. Help me get him up and take me to your vehicle!"
Cautiously, the man approached Sheri, the others watching. When he started to reach down to pull Deadblood up, that was when she actually put away her gun again to scoop up the katana and the title belts with one hand before helping him get Deadblood to his feet. They dragged his lifeless body across the grass and into the apartment building's parking lot where the man led her to a pickup truck, the man helping her get Deadblood into the passenger seat. Before the man could try again to persuade her to stay, she took his keys and got in herself. Starting the engine, she took off through the rear exit of the parking lot. Turning onto the street, she was headed for the stop light when a cop car sped past her going the other way towards the apartments. She tried to look as natural and calm as she could and fortunately, the cop didn't turn back around to investigate what she was doing.
Sheri knew that she would have to ditch the truck soon. Its owner would be giving to the police soon and then they would be looking for the truck. She was trying to think of where she could go for help though. A hospital was out of the question. They'd take Deadblood straight to the morgue and her probably to jail. There was always Deadblood's boss at CW. She didn't care much for him and she wasn't sure he'd be willing to help anyway, but if anyone knew how the titles could be used with Deadblood, it would be the guy who owned them.
Those ideas quickly vanished from her mind however when the title belts, which she'd set on Deadblood's lap, began to glimmer again. Their glyphs began to glow rather intensely actually, to a degree that made her wonder if she should get out of the truck in case they were about to harm her in some way. Quickly pulling into the first parking lot she came to, she continued to watch as the glow from the belts got even brighter, a bright white light, forcing her to not look directly at them. If someone happened to look over at the truck at that moment, they would probably think the inside was on fire.
The glow seemed to reach a point where it finally leveled out before absorbing into Deadblood's body through his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears. The absorbing process only took a few seconds and it was gone after, the glow in the glyphs themselves slowly fading until the belts looked like they normally did again. Sheri wasn't sure what she'd just witnessed, blinking a few times. She wasn't sure that she'd witnessed anything at all. Maybe she'd finally snapped and was having delusions.
It began to get even stranger though. Not even a minute later, Deadblood's flesh began to move, almost ripple, as if he had insects crawling underneath it. His face, his arms, everywhere that she could see his flesh was moving unnaturally. She could hear sounds coming from his face. Snapping and popping. It sounded like the snapping and popping of bones and cartilage to her. Were the titles trying to destroy his corpse?
No, they were trying to heal him she realized as the swelling in his face disappeared and there was a dull thump when the bullet from their attacker's gun was pushing out of his chest, falling to the floor of the truck. Finally, life returned to Deadblood's eyes and he sat up in his seat, looking around, confused about what was going on.
Looking over Sheri when he thought he'd figured out at least some of the situation, Deadblood asked,
"Is he dead?"
