Scarlett's blood puppet left red footprints in its wake as it sprinted for D's leg. It weaved between tall grass and twigs as it zigzagged. He had no time to run before it jumped straight for his right leg. The puppet's otherwise blank face was now replaced with an open maw with rows of blood-red teeth.
He had to react, he had to move, and he couldn't let her creature latch onto his face. Ever since she'd released the puppet, all he could remember was the way it had taken out that cop. He knew if he let that thing attach itself to his face, it would be game over.
The puppet began slinking its way up his leg, as it had done to the side of a building the night he first saw it. He prepared a right-handed swing at it as he screamed, "GET THE HELL OFF ME!" His fist connected with the puppet, knocking it to the ground with a splat.
The puppet writhed in pain for a moment and began to get back up. D felt Scarlett's warm blood on his right hand. He also saw that the creature was a bit smaller now. Before it could attack him again, D punted the puppet away, and it crashed into a tree forty feet away. D tried to catch his breath as he huffed and puffed, all of today's trials catching up to him.
He looked at Scarlett, and his vision blurred from rage. His brow twitched, and his teeth ground against each other. Scarlett, who stood on the side of the clearing closest to the ocean, didn't hide from his enraged eyes.
"Guess your little blood baby took off after that kick!" he yelled and made a mocking gesture, placing his hand on his brow to block the sun. "Hmm, now let's see, did I punt it over here or no, no, was it there?!" He let out a sincerely sinister laugh at her expense.
Her legs trembled and her fists clenched so hard she began bleeding from her palms, and she winced from the pain. Scarlett preferred using needles to help regulate her powers, but the situation was desperate. She raised her palms and began forming another bright red ball of blood.
"Oh no, ya don't!" D broke out into a full sprint, his fists clenched, and every muscle in his body taut. The soft marsh of the clearing slowly gave way to a mix of sand and mud as he grew closer to her. Scarlett's heart pounded as she desperately tried to form another puppet. Cutting her focus in half, she looked past the hastily forming globe and saw D in full sprint.
Her legs responded on their own as she sprinted down the sandy marsh towards the water. She uncomfortably tried to keep her legs moving and her glow steady. Her eyes glanced past the almost completely new puppet to the ocean's water. A look of pure worry and dread crept over her face.
D's legs cried out in a mixture of exhaustion and pain with each enraged step he took. It felt as if he were sprinting over sharp lava rocks, but his eyes remained trained on Scarlett. On his goal. Behind him, D heard a snarl and the familiar sound of pattering bloody feet as the first puppet sprinted after him.
Scarlett stopped just a sigh away from the water, her feet slightly sunk into the wet sand. Her puppet slowly came to the final stages with a stuttering flow. Her exhaustion, her cut focus, her sliced palms, and worst of all, the run. All of these things prevented this puppet from forming as fast as the first. The bloody creature started to pop out limbs as D's fist plunged into it. His fist blasted through the condensed blood like a hot knife through gelatin.
The slimy internal organs of the creature we obliterated in an instant. In a split second, his arm broke out the other side and slammed into Scarlett's face, knocking her flat into the salty expanse of water. She immediately sprang up from the water, coughing out a small bit of it. She held her throat as she stared daggers at D through her wet and heavy locks of hair.
Her eyes briefly darted back over to Spire, and she now stood near the edge of the sand by the clearing. Her icy white eyes fell upon Scarlett with a predator's gaze. A silent threat loomed in those eyes, a promise of pain, both physical and mental, for Scarlett.
D charged at her, blasting across the shallow water faster than Scarlett would be able to run. She would have to face him in combat alone. He was upon her, and he went for another right hook. She stepped back, grabbed his arm, and pulled it mid-swing. The momentum of his run plus the pull forced him off balance as she ducked down and flipped him directly over herself, face-first into the water.
Instantly, he erupted from the water and elbowed her knee inward, popping it out of place. She fell with a gut-wrenching scream. She propped herself up on her hands and good leg as he stood over her.
"You people just won't leave me the hell alone!" His eyes were fully focused on her, and she wasn't even sure if he had registered Spire standing not far from them. "Because you belong here!" she screamed. "You don't think any of us have family? Don't you think I have things I want to see off this island?" She began sobbing, her tears falling into the water below.
Through her sobbing, she spat, "How is it fair that I have to stay here, that I and everyone else who has family have to do this just to survive, but you get to leave?!" D's temples throbbed, and despite the cool water, his skin burned hot. He shouted into her face so hard his throat burned, "I NEVER ASKED TO COME HERE! I DIDN'T NEED THE FUCKING SUPER VILLAIN SQUAD TO SAVE ME!"
"AND YOU THINK I DID?! THAT ANY OF US DID!?" She screamed with pain, anger, and tears coating every word. "Some of us have actual families out there! Friends! People who care about us!" Her words hit him in the chest like a sledgehammer. He yelled, "You don't know me! I have people who—" She cut him off, "Who do you have? Who does little DERRICK JR. actually have?"
"D-don't you call me that shit!" His whole body was shaking, but his eyes were trained on Scarlett in pure hatred. "Where the hell did you hear that name?" She cocked a vile smile. "Why would the son of one of the world's richest superheroes hate his own father enough to kill him?"
Tears began to well up in his eyes. A mix of hate, disgust, and rage whirled through his body like a hurricane. "You think that man was good? You think that man was just?" He pointed at her. "You can take that and shove it! 'Cause I know the truth!"
She stared at him through dripping wet red locks of hair as she held her. "What'd he do to you, huh? He beat you? He spends too much time at work? Well, join the fucking club!" She attempted to stand on her injured leg, only to fall down to her rear. D staggered closer to her with his fists clenched and teeth gritted. "Every person on this island has had a fucked-up life, and you're no different."
He stood only inches away from her with pure hate in his eyes. The hate wasn't only for her, but also for his father -- whose final pleading cries still echoed in his mind. She looked up at him with a tired and battered face, yet her eyes still burned with defiance. "And let's not forget about your poor, EX-SUPERVILLAIN mother who is serving life in prison!"
She let out a ragged, chest-clenching laugh before the back of D's hand cracked her in the jaw. Despite the strike, despite the cracked leg, despite the blurred vision, she kept herself up and continued.
His breathing was heavy, and it took all his strength to get out his words. "Don't... talk... about my mom." She spat into the water near his feet, a mix of dark red blood and saliva floating in the water. She looked back up at him slowly, as if her head weighed a ton. "You ever think maybe she'd be glad we brought you here? Why would she want to see you? You'd probably kill her too—"
His battered and tired hands gripped her by the throat as he threw her below the water's surface. She desperately pulled at his hands, trying to pry them off. His hands only became tighter. She tried to scream, but only water and blood filled her lungs. His hands only became tighter. She kicked and thrashed under his weight. His hands only became tighter. She clawed at his arms and slashed her nails against his chest. His hands only became tighter. The world around her began to fade to black, and her limbs fell into the water.
Through the water, the blood, and the blackness, all she could see was D's face above her, twisted into a visage of pure malice.
In a flash, D felt something cool and metallic against his neck. "That's more than enough, Mr. Cross." For the first time, his hands loosened. Scarlett ripped herself from his grip and thrashed till her head broke through the water and kicked at the sand beneath her to push herself away from D. Her head finally broke through the water's surface with a desperate gasp for air.
D just sat there heaving and wheezing, his eyes finally leaving Scarlett. He looked down at his hands, where they rested limply beneath the water. A blank and tired expression painted his face, his thoughts wanting to race but not having the energy. The realization of what he'd done, what he would have done if he hadn't been stopped, crawled on his skin. The gut-wrenching sounds of Scarlett's continued coughing fit as she puked up the water from her lungs grated on his very bones.
"Looks like you've got some fire in you after all," Spire said, conquest and superiority lacing every word. She raised her left wrist to where her tracking band sat and spoke into it. "Were you watching, Headmaster?" The familiar polite voice of Headmaster Blackthorn responded from the electronic wristband. "Yes indeed, I was watching, and that was quite the show, Mr. Cross."
The old man cleared his throat, "You should be quite proud of yourself for being able to take on not only an upperclassman, but a member of the SSC as well." Spire's eyes flicked over to Scarlett, who had wrenched herself up from the water and now sat on the shore, petting her blood puppet on the head. She shirked from her leader's icy and unforgiving gaze.
The headmaster clicked his tongue as if he'd forgotten something. "Oh, forgive me, you probably don't remember who I am." D's ears felt distant; every word passed through him like he was made of air. Blackthorn continued, "Miss Moreau, be a dear and turn on the holo-projector, would you please?"
Spire stepped around D, but kept her sword trained on his neck. She tapped buttons on her wristband. A few seconds later, a bright blue light appeared. It formed the shape of the headmaster sitting in an ornate chair. "Our meeting earlier on the roof got, let's just say, interrupted." He laughed as if he wasn't watching a man with a blade to his neck. "You've caused quite the stir in the short time you—" D cut him off.
"What. Do. You. Want?" D said in a tone that revealed complete despair.
"Straight to the point, are we? Well, to be frank, what we want is for you to fully enroll here at Blackthorn University." D didn't look up at the hologram as asked. "What if I say no?" The headmaster continued, his voice taking on a sinister tone. "Or, in keeping with your straightforwardness, I will instruct Ms. Moreau to kill you where you stand." D's eyes glanced at the blade at his neck and then up at the holographic man.
D took a deep breath and let out the longest sigh he'd ever taken. 'There's no way I can run right now, and any movement she makes will take my damn head off,' he thought.
"Fine," he said. "Fine, you want me?" He looked Blackthorn right in his holographic eyes. "You got me. Merry fucking Christmas, I guess."