Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Defy and Comply ❯ Lesson 25: To End It All (Pt: I) ( Chapter 27 )

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Defy and Comply

By: Melissa Norvell

Lesson 25: To End It All (Pt: I)

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"Why doesn't that surprise me?" After all he had heard, he might as well have seen that coming.

"Mr. Mandio died right before your graduation and I made Kiyomaru lure him into a private meeting and show up late just to slit his throat." Kaizer's smirk widened as he continued his explanation, pulling the veils from his plans and unmasking the events of the past. "They outlived their purpose so I threw them away. Mr. Mandio had been doing my bidding long enough. He had a government contract to supply me with a school and test my functions in society. Since I performed at higher levels than average humans, they thought it would be best to place me in a special academy so they placed me in Shinjinku. The military equipped this school with a special dome in case I decided to malfunction. They could contain me in the area, but I knew their plans and took over from the inside out."

"What about the execution devices? You had Karaya's father build them, didn't you?" Kazoo had already learned that he tried to make the girl do his bidding and she refused, but there was no telling how he had conned her father into constructing those horrid devices.

"I told him what would happen if he didn't. He was the one who oversaw my progress and my interactions with the students here. It was easy to bend him to my will by promising his daughter's safety." It was really the same principal he had used on Kiyomaru. People were easy to bend if someone knew how to strike their heart strings just right.

"Why make us kill each other like this?" That was the main question that they should have been asking, and the main concern Taiga wanted an answer to.

"I'm conducting my own experiment. I wanted to see who the weaker race was, the copies or the originals. Let me tell you a little story of what I went through." It was time that they all knew his pain and suffering.

After all, he had already won the battle. All that was left was to claim his victory. They wanted answers, so he would give them just that. They could call consider it one of their last requests.

"I'm sure you all remember when the Japanese Emperor fell ill and could no longer perform his duties. The people were in an uproar. Some of them even rebelled against the government. However, the government came up with a plan to combat their rebellion. They created a project that allowed them to create super soldiers. Wither the super soldiers at their dispense, they could rule in any way that they chose. The people would have to submit, this quelling the protests and regaining order.

"At the time I was created, I was undergoing tests. In these tests were the ones who would be super soldiers, so I was able to train with them. The testing took place in special camps and the soldiers were injected with experimental fluids and given bioexperimentation on the side. They were given different dosages of the fluids. After all of their experimentations were successful, that is.

"We were kept in a sealed environment to carefully monitor the effects. The room was enclosed and we were all given headsets so that we could communicate with the scientists, who looked at us through porthole-sized, round windows layered with thick glass. They supplied us with a stock of food that would last us five months, cots and other materials, like books and bathroom facilities. I was the only fully bioengineered human among them.

"A few weeks passed, and everyone seemed alright. We talked to each other about pretty normal topics. There were a couple of us who shared traumatic experiences from our pasts, like war experiences and crime. They started to complain about what led them to being here.

"As time passed, the conversations faded and no one talked to each other after a while. It was odd and I began to feel as though I could only rely on myself. Some of them thought that if they proved themselves to be the ultimate soldier and killed their team mates that they would be released sooner. Others became paranoid from the effects of the injections.

"After a couple of days, the first person cracked. He whispered occasionally to himself. Suddenly, another started screaming and ran around the containment area. No one really paid attention to him, as the life of being pinned up dulled their senses. Another prisoner feverishly ripped out the pages of one of the books. He made a tacky substance from several things he found and smeared it all over the pages. He plastered all of the windows with them, blocking the view of the scientists.

"After that, everything was quiet. I hid from them all in the containment area. I felt I was the only one with some sense of sanity left.

"Some of the scientists checked on us, to make sure that we were in working order. The food was being eaten at a quick rate. They came in again a few days later. I remember that moment, like it was yesterday."

The doors opened, and the sound of hydraulics filled the air. A couple of men dressed in white, sterile lab coats, surrounded by a barrage of soldiers stood in the door way. The cold reflection of their glasses pierced their subject's eyes.

"The chamber gates are opening. Stand away from the doors. Any attempt to leave will result in death." One of the scientists warned, but no one had even tried to get out.

A man beside of Kaizer spoke out.

"We don't care if we die," his voice was out of touch with reality and his eyes looked vacant.

"The scientists left the gates open at night, and still, no one tried to escape. We had no food. We hadn't in a while, and to be frank, after what I saw, I wasn't really hungry. The soldiers entered and were appalled at what they saw. They had good reason to be. Only five of us were alive. Since our food had depleted, we resorted to cannibalism.

"The floor was full of flesh, bones, blood and organs. I was fine, but they looked like they were all barely alive. They begged to be given injections, as if they were a precious life source. They said they'd go crazy again if they didn't have them. They screamed at the soldiers, telling them they wouldn't move unless they had the shots. They even threatened to kill them and eat them. They put up a fight upon being removed, killing two of the soldiers.

"Afterwards, one of them committed suicide after seeing the soldiers. They had to be given sedatives to be put to sleep. After they had succumb to the anesthesia they died. When they were given anesthesia, they convulsed violently and wheezed. One of them said that he must stay strong or rest in peace."

"What the hell are all of you?" One of the soldiers inquired. His body was tense, trembling in fear at the sight of the experiments before him. It reflected in the tone of his voice.

"We're the madness that's hidden within all of humanity, it scraped at the back of your minds, longing to speak, the carnal desire that you hide and the thoughts you wish to speak," Kaizer told them, gazing upon them with steely, lime-green eyes.

The memories flooded through his mind, and his arrogant smirk morphed into a frown. Lowering his head, the brim of his hat covered his eyes, shrouding his emotions in the darkness of shadow. "At that moment, I snapped and ripped off his head with the brute strength of my bare hands. I was so close to freedom.

"I never did quite make it there, but I killed again and again.

"Now, you all will learn how it felt to be the ones being put under experimentation. I would let the one luck winner live to feel my pain. The pain of killing so many people and bearing that guilt, the pain of knowing you were used for nothing more than child's play, that you can be toyed with and thrown away, just as I have. The only way to escape suffering is to die."

He looked back up, lime-green eyes scanning all of the students who listened intently to his story with defiant stares and disgusted looks. It was obvious that they were all judging him, as well they should. They probably thought that he was a horrible.

That wasn't far from the truth.

"By taking out military members, I would go through the secret files and learn how to manipulate their top secret knowledge. I can toy with people even more. I can be the master manipulator and find a substance all man feared to tamper with - the ELF wave. I could release them and erase memories. I made you all forget that you knew the graduating class. I could just as easily do the same with brainwashing, or even killing people. I have eliminated all of the figure heads of Japan's government and no one knew it was a crime. I have been in power for six years, using this school as a method of torture and no one remembers a thing. The students who die are erased, just like the government. I single-handedly rule Japan. For once, the clone is superior.

"Never again will I suffer like an animal, prodded and used like a cash crop or a car in a junk yard to be harvested of what people need, and it was all with an old technology used to communicate with submarines and serve as a method to change and warp the atmosphere if you humans fucked it up," Kaizer clenched his hands, swelling up with pride at his accomplishments. Who wouldn't be proud to know that they, by themself had overcome a country of people? The puppeteers became the puppets.

"Wait! You have been ruling Japan?" Tsukimi was flabbergasted. She knew that Kaizer was evil, but taking things as far as to be ruling Japan was incredible for a small army to accomplish, much less one person. Even when she wasn't attending Shinjinku, all of this time, she had been doing whatever Kaizer instructed her to do whether she wanted to or not.

Suddenly, Tsukimi felt very small.

"I have the military at my dispense with the special ELF waves I have created. I can kill armies with the push of a button. They haven't talked because they can't if they don't remember what happened. You all do best to accept it as well. From now on, I will be your leader," Kaizer pointed to the floor below him and spoke in a commanding tone. "Bow down to the monster you all created!"

"I would rather die than bow down to you," Taiga growled. He didn't give a damned who the hell this guy thought he was, Kaizer was fucking awful and he wasn't about to make him the leader of anything.

Resting his arm around his mid-section, the white-haired clone scratched his cheek with one finger. "That's too bad; I'll have to make sure that you live. I can always make you my slave," he had ways of making it work.

"Kaizerschmarren, you should really give up. You don't have your military here," Leo knew that he could command people with his waves, but right now he was outmatched.

"My masked men are still around, but I hardly need them to take care of you all." Just because they fought and killed, didn't mean that they could pose a threat to him. Kaizer was a super soldier, a clone, and an experiment. He was far above their par. "I want to execute all of you. There will be no graduates of this class, unless you all side with me and acknowledge a copy is superior to an original."

"It's not even about that, you blind asshole! You're a fucking tyrant and a terrorist!" Taiga shouted in anger, pointing his pick axe at the clone.

"How did you escape your murder?" Tsukimi wanted to know about that detail. This guy was supposed to be dead.

"I escaped below the furnace. It was hot as hell, but it was worth it. It's how I've escaped every graduation." If they all had been smart enough to figure it out before, they would have known that. Honestly, for a class of exceptional students, Kaizer doubted their I.Q. level.

"I'm sick of hearing you spout shit out of your mouth. Let's get this farce over with," Taiga was sick of hearing him belittle people and call them idiots in comparison to himself. He was ready to fight for those who have fallen and take back his humanity.

Kaizer held up his fencing sword, stained in his original's blood and assumed a fencing position. "My pleasure, I'll be happy to end all of your lives."

With that, he darted towards the yakuza, who charged at him with his pick axe. Their blades clashed together as both males tried to overpower each other by force. Taiga had to admit that at first, Kaizer didn't look like much but he actually had a lot of strength behind his exterior. "I'll be your first opponent!"

"You will still be my slave," Kaizer smirked.

"I'd rather die," Taiga drew back and swung his weapon; nearly taking off Kaizer's head as he quickly ducked and evaded the blow. The yakuza spun around, gathering momentum in his blow, but once again, his blade was met up with that of the mastermind's sword.

The two continued to attempt to strike each other, over and over again. Each blow was countered, blocked or evaded. With each strike Taiga delivered, Kaizer blocked him skillfully. After a few moments of going back and forth between strikes, Kaizer grew tired of the fight and struck upwards, lacerating Taiga's wrist so that he would release his weapon. Blood flowed from the yakuza's arm as his axe flew through the air. Taiga rushed back and caught the weapon and drew it back to strike the super soldier, but missed as the white-haired clone jumped up. As a result, the tip of his blade got lodged in the ground.

Kaizer came down, landing on the yakuza's bent posterior and stomping on it. With the force of the blow, Taiga's form fell forward into the ground as he was trying to dislodge it. The white-haired clone found it a prime opportunity to try and end Taiga's life. He plunged his blade down in an attempt to make a decisive blow to the head but the blonde rolled to the side, abandoning his weapon.

Taiga quickly got up to his feet as the clone began to assault him, attempting to strike him over and over again. He dodged back and forth, trying to evade each strike. He was so preoccupied with not being stabbed through the face, that he didn't see Kaizer's military boot plant itself under his rib cage. He stumbled back a few feet, holding the afflicted area. Kaizer had kicked him so hard that he nearly threw up. He wasn't going to let that bastard get away with that.

Looking up with a visage marred with hatred, Taiga rushed at the mastermind and tried to punch him in the face, but the crafty clone dodged. His fist made contact with the base of the container that held Gaz' dead body. A loud bang was heard, accompanied by a reverberation that came with hitting the hollow surface. The yakuza turned around, only to be upper cut in the stomach. Trying to resist losing the contents of his stomach, Taiga doubled over in pain. As he did so, Kaizer elbowed him in the center of the back and drove him into the floor.

Beady, aqua eyes glared up at the clone, who smirked and looked down on him, as if he were some kind of lowly creature. "You're not bad. I like your fighting spirit, but you're nowhere near the super soldiers I had to keep from eating me alive in that chamber. They were real tough bastards."

Taiga's body trembled from the rising sickness in his stomach and the pain of Kaizer's blows. He slowly pulled himself from the ground, holding his stomach. "You were supposedly friends with my brother."

"Yes, I liked him a lot. You could say that I was fond of him," Kaizer offered a genuine smile at the memories of Raiga. Even though he had not admitted it, he did consider the older yakuza a friend.

"You think everyone who isn't an experiment hates you. That's not true," he didn't know why, but Taiga wanted to know that this guy had a heart somewhere. It might have been a shriveled up ghost pepper, but it was better than nothing.

As long as that existed, then there was still something that could be done.

"They will always look at me, acknowledging that I am a clone," the undisputed facts would always be just that. Besides, Kaizer had gotten far too much blood on his hands to turn back now.

It was all or nothing.

"You are a clone. That doesn't mean you're any less of a person." Even if Kaizer was a replica, he was a replica of a human being.

"Enough!" Kaizer shouted, angry that he would dare try to use such bullshit logic against him. Thrusting his sword forward, he tried to blindly shut the yakuza up, but Taiga stepped to the wise and grabbed his wrist. With all of his upper body strength, he threw Kaizer's body over him.

The mastermind flew through the air and hit a nearby wall. His body made impact and slid down behind the principal's desk.

"You call us fools, you're just ignorant." It felt good to get a hit in on him. Kaizer deserved that.

Just then, the desk was flipped up and landed with a crash before him. Kaizer grabbed the chair and hurled it at the blonde, who dodged. The chair went into the crowd of his classmates, who all scattered at the piece of furniture hit the ground and broke into pieces, dispersing across the floor.

Taiga ran over to his axe, finally dislodging the blade from the ground and jumped over the fallen desk to try and stab the white-haired boy, but his axe was met with a sword once again.

"You're just as much of a fighter as Raiga. I'm impressed," Kaizer was enjoying himself. It was just like Taiga to be as resilient as his brother.

"I'm gonna send you to hell," Taiga promised.

"I am already in hell," Kaizer's unstable eyes bore into him. They were no longer hidden by the rim of that military cap.

"How poetic," Taiga shoved him backwards and tried to split him down the middle, but Kaizer swung and decaptitated his axe, cutting the head clean off of the weapon. Kaizer turned the tables and tried to cut him, but he jumped out of the way. Kaizer's blow was delivered to the desk, taking a chunk out of it. Taiga landed a few feet away but he was hit by the head of his axe as it spiraled like a boomerang and fell to the floor.

"Never underestimate my battle tactics. Having expansive military knowledge is beneficial." Quickly, Kaizer turned and grabbed a chain as it wrapped around his arm and wrist. Lime green eyes stared at the one at the end of the chain. It was Tsukimi, glaring him down with bi-colored eyes. "I see you've decided to challenge me, little girl."

Those words cut through her and shook her foundation, but now wasn't the time to fall apart. "I'm not a little girl. My name is Tsukimi Goyama, and yours will be on your tombstone." With that remark, she jerked her chain from Kaizer's arm.

"How irritating. Your threat is hardly that." With super human speed, the clone ran up to her and leapt into the air.

Quickly, Tsukimi threw out her chain, spiraling it through the air. However, the hole she left in her spiral was far too big and Kaizer saw it as an opening to strike. With all of the force in his blow, he struck her in the side of the face.

The small girl's slender body flew backwards and lay out on the floor. Her chain clattered and jingled around her as it fell to the ground like a long streamer. Slowly, her eyes opened as she tried to keep her consciousness only to see Kaizer's fist closing the distance with her face. Her eyes widened and she gasped, stumbling to her feet as the clone's fist made contact with the wall.

Tsukimi flung the chain again. "Take this!" She called out and swung the chain upwards, but the clone dodge and the long weapon beat up against the wall.

"Not bad, you have a good sense of control and flow, but you can't keep that up forever. Your weapon has weaknesses," Kaizer commented, but Tsukimi would have none of his criticisms. She simply sent her chain after him again and he evaded it by back flipping. She went to strike him again and he flipped through the open space in her spiral. She tried to strike him again and got the same result.

Leo stood by Taiga's side as the yakuza sat on his knees, rubbing his head. He tried to nurse the dull pain that emanated from his forehead. He could barely hear his boyfriend as if he was alright.

"I'm fine," Taiga looked to him. "Damn, that hurt. He's a lot tougher than he looks. Agile little fucker."

Kaizer continued to dodge and jump through the open spaces in Tsukimi's chain. Over and over again, she tried to strike him and over and over again, she missed. She threw out her chain again, refusing to give up and once again, Kaizer did a back flip. However, the chain managed to wind around his ankle and snagged him in mid-air. Shock registered over his face as he was hoisted through the air.

"Got you!" She announced as she launched him over her shoulder and flung him into the side of the bubble that contained her dead friend's body. If anyone deserved to be in there, it was him. His body hit the surface with a bong that sounded across the room, but she wasn't done there, she flung him into the wall after that. Kaizer's form smashed into the hard surface before it landed on the ground. Tsukimi struck him again with the chain, the links beating against his back and side with force. "That's for making us kill each other!" She scolded. Her voice loud and emotional with anger as she struck him again. "That's for screwing without memories!" Again, she struck him with more force. "That's for everyone you put through hell!"

She drew back again to hit him but he arose and caught the end of her chain. Tsukimi's teeth gritted together and she took a step back. She hadn't expected him to do that. "Crap!"

"I'm done playing with you," the clone's voice was laced in irritation. There was no way that he was going to look like a fool in front of her.

"What?" Tsukimi was nearly breathless as fear coursed through her veins.

Keeping a hold on the chain, he charged towards the girl and delivered a spin kick to the side of her body that caused her to be launched off of the air. Because of the force of the blow, her body spun through the air like a top, then landed on the ground.

"Your pathetic justice makes me wretch." Releasing the chain, he picked up his sword and took a few steps forward, ready to end the girl's life. Tsukimi's eyes fluttered open only to see death staring her down. Clenching her eyes shut, she awaited her fate and flinched, bracing herself for the pain.

There was a clank and she cracked her eyes open to see Sunoma standing above her with her sword blade pointed towards the heavens. Kaizer looked shocked as his sword flew from his hand. Sunoma had just saved her life.

"You're that girl that Kiyomaru fancied," Kaizer smirked with amusement as he stared into her ice blue eyes. "I'll enjoy killing you."

Sunoma's visage was cold as steel as she delivered a warning blow of what she had to offer. The clone jumped back and grabbed the hilt of his sword. He felt the air from the force of what the blow could have been if he was a few seconds too slow. The blade actually came close to striking him.

"You almost got me," Kaizer smiled, as if they were playing a friendly game of tag. However, soon after, lime-green eyes looked to the shoulder pad of his uniform as the fringe off of his golden decorative piece fell to the floor. "I stand corrected."

"I don't have time for your idle boasting," Sunoma told him coldly. She wasn't here for a friendly joust; she was here to take him down.

Kaizer pointed his sword out towards her. "Let's go."

"Of course," the lolita charged, and the clone charged in unison. The space between them slowly closed as they both swung, trying to cut each other in half. The two bodies passed close to each other. Sunoma's hair brushed against Kaizer's face, and his fluttering cape caressed her shoulders. A chunk of her hair was severed and dispersed into the air, and Kaizer's other decorative piece had the fringe cut from it.

The two of them landed and Kaizer turned around, trying to swing at her but she blocked. He attempted to stab her again, and she blocked him again. Then, Kaizer rolled off of her back. Sunoma whirled around in an attempt to decapitate him, but he flipped over her head. Quickly, the lolita dropped to the ground and did a leg sweep but he jumped back, flipping through the air and landing a few feet outside of her attack.

Klink, klink, klink, their blades clashed over and over again their blades clashed as they attempted to hack away at each other. Every time, their blades clashed over and over again. One would strike, the other would dodge and their movements repeated. However, Sunoma noticed something peculiar about the clone.

'Why isn't he wearing down? I don't understand. He's fought three people, so why isn't he tired?' It didn't make sense to her. It was then in that moment, that she realized that Kaizer truly wasn't lying. He could fight for hours and not even begin to wear down. Could he really win against all of them after all?

Thinking quickly, she ran over to the desk and hopped onto it, then jumped and spun in the air, putting leverage and force into her strike only to have it met with his blade.

"You're an elegant fighter," Kaizer could tell by the way that she moved. Sunoma wasn't used to putting her grace behind her in battle and replied on elegance and grace, rather than raw power.

"You have a lot of stamina. I applaud you for not being worn down after taking on three of us," she complimented him in turn as her shoes hit the bottom of the desk.

"Survival training at its finest," Kaizer took her compliment all too grately.

"I take it you took fencing?" She couldn't help but notice that he used a lot of fencing moves. She had to wonder if he got them from Kiyomaru.

"I've taken every class in this school," Kaizer noted and swung his sword to try and get her while they were distracted in conversation, but as soon as he raised his sword, a chain wrapped around the end of it.

Anger shot through his form as he glanced back to see Tsukimi, glaring at him from across the room. "You..." he seethed.

"I'm not holding back," he yanked his sword forward, trying to knock her off of her feet. Tsukimi stumbled towards him and he turned around and attempted to punch her, but she darted around him, wrapping him in the chain.

"What are you doing?" Kaizer asked in irritation as she ran around and around him, encasing him in chains. Then, she pulled it, watching him spin around like a top.

'Maybe I can disorientate him.' If Kaizer was impaired, it would weaken his battle skills. She watched as his form went around and around with so much force that he fell over the desk and onto the floor. The clone laid on his back as knives dug into the wood of the desk around him.

"What now?" Kaizer tried to keep the room from spinning for a moment before he pushed himself away from the desk. Leo was right on top of him, almost like he appeared out of nowhere. The green-haired man struck down and stabbed the desk, putting a hole in it and splintering the wood around them.

Kaizer then grabbed the handle of the axe as Leo and Sunoma tried to stab him from both sides and blocked both of them. He blocked Sunoma with the handle of the axe and Leo with his sword. Both of them swung at him. He continued to block each one with both weapons as they both tried to assault him. Drawing back, they went to deliver what they thought was a decisive blow, only to have Kaizer duck down.

Leo swung his scythe around and Sunoma couldn't stop in mid swing. The force of Leo's swing was stronger than the force of Sunoma's, which caused her sword to fly from her hands. The both of them looked shocked at their mistakes.

Taiga darted across the room and grabbed a potted plant, chunking it at Kaizer, nailing him in the center of the back. Kaizer felt the impact as the clay pot shattered, littering him with dirt, pieces of pot and leaves. The clone cursed at his lack of attention paid to the others.

"Damn it."

"Be lucky I didn't break it over your damned face," Taiga shot as he rushed at him with one of the boards that came from the desk they had desecrated, but Kaizer dodged him and elbowed him in the back. The yakuza pulled a knife from his coat and slashed his arm. Blood surfaced as he drew back to stab him again, but Kaizer grabbed the knife by the blade. Unaffected by the pain as red flowed from his hand; the clone ripped it away by force. Taiga kicked him in the stomach, and left his toes dug into his mid section.

It was then when Kaizer had figured out what exactly he had done. Lime green eyes glanced down to see the blood bleed through his darkly-colored uniform.

"How?" He didn't understand how a simple kick could cause him to bleed like that.

Pulling his shoe away, Taiga uncovered the answer to the mystery. On the tip of his shoe was a retractable blade, coated in a slick layer of blood. "I take precaution. A razor in the shoe, here, a little knife here and there. It pays to be resourceful." As a yakuza, he had many hidden weapons. If he had to fight dirty, then so be it.

However, such an action earned him a punch to the face by the clone. Blood ran from his nose, and he felt the contact like a brick to the face. This only fed Taiga's anger even more. He looked livid as he punched Kaizer in the side of the face, causing him to stumble back.

He felt the cold steel of a blade being wrapped around his neck by Kazoo, who held it up to his neck, trying to choke him. Kaizer flipped him over his back and sent him flying into Taiga. The two collided and fell to the ground. He didn't have a moment to think as Sunoma was on him, trying to strike him with the blade. He blocked her and noticed out of the corner of his eye and Leo sent his scythe spiraling towards him.

Kaizer moved out of the way, but Leo swung it around again and Kaizer jumped over it in order to evade his legs being cut off. Catching the weapon, Leo swung it down and tried to stab him but Kaizer jumped out of the way again. Kaizer turned around to see a chain full of knives fly at him and he quickly moved as they each stuck into the curtain, devastating the rich fabric as they pinned it to the wall.

"Damn," Kazoo cursed at missing him.

"You may have the advantage of long range weapons, but they're also predictable," Kaizer remarked on the fact that one could see a long range weapon coming from miles away.

"Tell me, where did you get that footage of the students killing each other?" The clone had yet to answer that question.

"There are small, hidden cameras all over the school. I knew my original would try and snoop around so I hacked that computer to fuck with all of you. The funny thing is," Kaizer cackled, "it worked! It got to all of you." Instable laughs sounded through the room as he thought about what despair they had gone through just seeing something of that volume. "Do you know why human long to create clones? It's because they are so imperfect. The human race has always strived for perfection, and yet they can never obtain it because it's impossible."

"That means you're not perfect, either," Kazoo spat, throwing his words into his face.

"I'm better than all of you," that was for certain. Kaizer did more than rectify that phrase already.

Kazoo threw his chain of knives out again. "Where is the control to the dome?" He demanded to know.

Kaizer dodged to the left as the knives shot past him. "Wouldn't you like to know?" He mocked the blue-haired boy.

"As a matter a fact, I would!" Kazoo pulled out several throwing knives and flung them at the darkly-dressed opponent, who managed to dodge most of them. One of them dug into the front of his shoulder.

Behind him, Sunoma screamed and pulled her arms in close as one of the knives dug into the wall close to her face. That was far too close for comfort.

"Sorry about that," Kazoo apologized to the startled lolita. He was happy that he didn't hit her.

Grabbing the knife, Kaizer ripped it out and tossed it to the ground. "I'll never reveal its secret to you." He'd rather die than tell anyone where it was.

"Then die!" Kazoo swung his chain again, but Kaizer jumped through it and landed in front of the engineer. Doing a hand spring backwards, he clocked Kazoo in the chin, his jaw popped from the contact as he fell backwards. Pain resonated through his jaw as Kaizer turned around on his hands, bringing his legs around and wrapping them around his head in one, fluid movement.

He landed on the ground and grabbed one of the knives on the chain that the engineer had fashioned himself. Kazoo's pupils shrunk to the size of pin pricks as the knife moved closer and closer to his face.

This was it.

He was going to die here.

Just then, Sunoma kicked the knife out of Kaizer's hand with her heeled Mary Jane.

"Thank...you..." Kazoo barely got out as he was being strangled by the clone's strong legs.

The lolita brought her leg around and kicked Kaizer in the face. The clone's form flew back into one of the large heaters, knocking it over.

Without thinking Tsukimi sent her chain after the mastermind. She was going to strike him down no matter what.

"No! Tsukimi!" Sunoma shouted, but it was too late. Her chain struck the pipe that connected the furnace to the wall.

Kaizer took off running, knowing what was going to happen next. Everyone else ran for cover as the pipe let out a whistling noise and exploded into flames. The fire spread across the locked room as everyone was thrown forward by the force of the blast.

Taiga sat on his knees as the room glowed in orange. Anger marred his face. "You dumbass! Now we're all gonna burn to death!" He screamed at the bassist.

"We need to get out of here!" Tsukimi was panicking. The gas was still leaking. That meant that there was going to be another explosion soon.

"How do we do that when the dome is down?" Sunoma asked. There was no way to escape the fire when they were all encased like that.

"Look!" Kazoo pointed to the window and everyone rushed to it, glancing out of it to see that they were no longer looking at a painted sky with an array of white, unmoving clouds but a real sky with houses in view. Birds flew through the sky and it naturally turned colors.

They were moments from freedom.

"It's been raised..." Sunoma could almost feel the air around her. That's how close it was. Her humanity, her sanity, and her normal life were all within her reach, and she wasn't going to let it all go now.

Kaizer laid on the ground, flames burning the rich carpet around his body as Leonardo walked up to him, standing before him. Slowly, the clone rose up, losing blood from his arm, shoulder and stomach was beginning to wear on him. He might have been a super soldier, but he couldn't survive without blood.

It was times like this that made him realize how human he was.

"Damn...I couldn't get away fast enough...I am obtaining too much damage." Feeling a presence near him, he glanced over his shoulder to see Leo staring at him. The fire was blazing around him, and flames danced around the two of them like their own personal hell. "Leonardo..."

The smell of gas and smoke hung in the air as Leo asked Kaizer one question. "How does it feel to watch your empire burn?"

"Who the hell opened the dome?" More importantly, how did they find the switch to do so?

"I did," Leo admitted.

"You don't know where the controls are." There was no way that he could have figured it out. Kaizer could feel the blazing heat of the flames around him, engulfing him form as they drew closer.

"You're right, I didn't know exactly where they were but there was a chord behind the furnace. It either went to the camera system, it shut off the gas line or it went to the dome. It's a process of elimination." Braving through the flames and explosions, Leo tried desperately to find a way to turn off the gas before the whole school blew up. He managed to find the button but upon his discovery, he had found several more.

Among them was a button hidden under wires that operated the dome.

Slowly, Kaizer stood up, clutching his stomach as a thin layer of sweat glistened from both male's bodies. Cold, piercing eyes that held the malice of the world within their confines glared him down. "So what? Everything will burn and you will burn with it."

Like hell he was just going to let them leave the room.

...To Be Continued