Powers Against The World

The command center was quiet for the most part, except for two things, the crackle from the radio within and Jamal's faint panting. Most of his fingers were in quite awkward positions, changing into a dark purple color. The man's morale had never been lower, and yet it felt like it wasn't even the bottom yet.

"Only two more left, that sucks." Hector Nerca, the Defense General of the nation sighed, the bloody pliers he was holding dripping still, "Weren't we having fun a couple of minutes ago?" 

But Jamal stayed silent, barely conscious through the whole ordeal. Such a condition made Hector pleased, but still gave him a sense of yearning. This was supposed to be one of the strongest fighters in the world, and yet some broken bones and mediocre torture later and this excuse of a person had no more energy left to fight? It was utterly pathetic, as the thought began to piss off the General.

"Just why? Why aren't you fighting anymore?" Hector looked at the disheveled face, as he picked up the microphone which had long stopped playing through the radio, "I mean, this is-, unreal, it's really unreal that you're this trash."

Being greeted with silence, Hector looked at man for several more seconds, before hurling the object across the room and letting it hit against the metal wall.

"Fuck!" Hector paced around, with the soldiers guarding the room in a state of surprise, "Do something!" 

Jamal couldn't even move his head, as Hector didn't wait for him to make a decision and roughly grabbed his jaw. His soulless eyes didn't even budge with the aggression, as Hector gripped it tighter, veins bulging through his skin.

"I don't know if I should just kill you now or end the fun. You let me know right now Jamal? Die now or give you a lil' more time to enjoy the few more moments you have on this blue bubble? You got five minutes, or I'll pick for you."

The man still didn't move, as Hector moved across the area and sat back down near the communication equipment. As much as he would have liked Youden to finish him and take the credit, the General was too smart to know that the longer Jamal was breathing, would there be an increased chance of Port-O-Bea finishing some sort of rescue plan. He'll be the first in any of those decisions.

.....

"Wow, this was a bit earlier than I wanted." a voice similar to Jamal's spoke, although Jamal didn't move at all. "We're not going out like this are we?"

Jamal didn't make a sound, except for a slight shift of his eyes moving towards the noise. There stood that mysterious figure of himself, although it was much less structured than it usually was. A likely explanation was the current state of his mind and body, but Jamal didn't really have the patience or energy to figure it out.

"I'm pretty sure that Hector bum wants you to get out of here. He was expecting a challenge, but we aren't even doing that."

Jamal kept the same look as he had before, as he slowly shift his gaze back to his original position. His own defeated mind wasn't going to save him here, and there was nothing that anyone could do for him.

"Let's hope someone comes for us, or you figure something out. We still got two good fingers for now, so I'm going to need you to lock in and use that brain you got, Jamal. Youden's still on the table and we sure ain't missing that reservation for this slight inconvenience."

.....

The hard concrete felt good to briefly touch again, as Hops felt the ground below. Guess Alice still had some juice in the tank, although he didn't even get a good look at her.

"Babe, you alright?" he started to turn to where the group was just as Alice grabbed his arms tightly.

"Yeah," she groaned out, practically out of energy, "I can't go further."

"Don't worry about that miss, we'll take it over from here?" Lero took a quick look around, "Actually, where the bloody rumblings are we actually?"

"The real question is what is your actual power, since you latched onto us so quickly." Sera was quick to move close to him, although Leon was grabbing her shoulder.

"Hold it." Leon stopped, as the rest of the group was recollecting themselves from the transportation, "You don't have any, do you?"

Lero was quick to put his hand up in defiance, before leaving it up for a few seconds. Was it that quick to figure out, and like that?

"Damn, you focking buggers." Lero nodded once, "I gotta give me props where props be do. You got me good."

"This isn't going to be a game. Either you're becoming an asset or-, actually, nah. You're going to watch Alice for us." Leon pointed towards a bombed building a few couple of yards away. "You two wait there and we'll be back with Jamal."

"I swear-" Hops didn't remove his gaze from Lero's face as he muttered close to his ear, "If, and I mean, if, anything happens to her, you will never even get a moment to look Jamal in the face again. Am I fucking clear?"

"No bloody worries mate, I got other women after me already." Lero shook off in disgust, as he moved away from everyone and towards the building. "Hope y'all got a weapon for me."

"Find one." Hops grumbled at him, before making his way slowly down the road.

"Uh," Sera dug around the pockets, "This'll have to do."

What came out was a small dagger, just sharp enough to get a few decent cuts in before it was truly useless.

"You gotta be fuc-," Lero had his mouth opened at the gift, just as Alice gripped onto him.

"Please, hurry. I can barely stand any longer." the woman was huffing with breath, legs already shaking.

"Alright, ma'am. Let's do as they say." he picked the weapon off the blade-wielding woman, and a quick look up showed Hops staring the man down. "I don't want her!"

"Anyway, it's time for us to go. Be safe, and don't move unless you absolutely must." Leon gave them one final nod, as Sera moved alongside the others.

Now at long last, could their main objective get going for once. No more distractions, no more hold-ups, just them and the enemy to face. Only one could reach that distant finish, but whoever did complete that grueling task, would ultimately change the fate of the entire world and it's history.