Paradise Lost (JSAB)

Dust to Dust

Listen I know that it's like more than 24 hours before this is supposed to be uploaded, but I was just too restless and eager to post this that I could not sit still and focus on my schoolwork so y'all are having this early

here

Once again, this chapter is not in chronological order. Instead of 1, 2, 3, this is in 2, 3, 1

0315 hours, Tower

Barracuda was woken up that morning by a rather loud explosion. It rattled the walls and floor, jostling her awake. Immediately she leapt out of bed, opening her bedroom door in half-asleep confusion to see Lycanthropy— who also had the same idea, emerging from his room in just his pyjamas. The two shared a confused glance, before looking over at the literal cloud of pink dust arising from their left. The two were just about to head over to it, but they heard coughing and spluttering from their right, directly opposite from the crater and destruction. There was a massive hole in the wall. It revealed Close's bedroom, as the man himself slowly climbed out, limping from of the literal void in his wall, wearing nothing except his underwear. He was hobbling along the floor when Barracuda and Lycanthropy rushed over to him, checking if he was okay.

"Close, for the love of, what happened?" Barracuda asked, dusting him off. "What- Oh my Tree, you're hurt!"

Close's hand was clutching his side, which was bright red. His white singlet (I believe the correct term is a wifebeater but I don't like that word and what it implies) was slowly turning crimson in colour, and after some coaxing from Barracuda, he slowly peeled his hand away from his wound. It was deep and long, like a sword punctured him. He hissed in pain, as Lycanthropy stared in horror at the wound, for it looked like at any given second, guts would start pouring out.

"Holy shit first this guy gets tazered, then shot, then almost gets beheaded, and now he's stabbed. The author has some serious issues."

The path from the hole in Close's wall to the dust clouds and crater on the opposite side was clear, meaning that even the handrails had been completely obliterated. There was coughing and spluttering and the sound of rocks gliding across each other from the cloud as a dark shape emerged underneath. Close immediately stepped forward, shielding the smaller Barracuda and Lycanthropy behind him protectively.

Fresh appeared from the dust cloud, coughing and scowling at Close. He looked clean himself, just a little bit messy, but his clothes were ripped and torn, so whatever wounds he had healed back immediately. There was a long sword in his right hand. Holy damn, the only explanation left would be that Close literally punched a 7'2 man through a wall, two handrails, over a 10 meter diameter hole and through ANOTHER wall. That's really impressive.

Fresh must've snuck into Close's room intending to kill him in his sleep, but Close woke up just in the nick of time. So instead of being murdered, he just suffered a heavy wound.

Then, Fresh tensed his legs, summoned two gigantic corrupted claw-like appendages which propelled him across the massive gaping atrium, back to where Close was. He roared as he lifted up his sword, but was stopped by Barracuda. She pushed him backwards, yelling stuff along the lines of "STOP" and "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" At him, while Lycanthropy nervously put himself in front of Close, defending the injured man in case something bad happened.

Eventually, Fresh calmed regained his composure enough to have changed from hot fiery rage to a simmering displeasure, calming down, as Barracuda's hand remained on his shoulder, staring at him menacingly.

"Now." She took a shaky breath in. "What happened?" 

"What happened!?" Fresh snapped in her face, and Barracuda flinched as she shrunk back a little bit. "The fucking Guardian's escaped, all the Guards- 10 of them- are dead- and I just looked around for the remote to activate their collar and it's destroyed!"