[Fiction] Savin' Me

[Wakinyan]

It was almost to predictable. Thunder rumbling near him. Wakinyan perched on the bald granite of the mountain looking westward. At the storm that churned and boiled.

This place would be called White Face mountain if he were home. In upstate New York it was where he found himself in the two weeks that had passed since he left home in so many different ways. Homesickness ate at his heart since almost the moment he had gotten here. There was no going back on the mistake, if it was truly a mistake to have come here so he had tried to make the most of it. Choosing to try and do what he intended and learn from the people he called his own.

Call it fear or apprehension he had not been able to bring himself to approach them instead choosing to watch from afar as they lived their lives. Fearing he was a sham or a fraud and putting off until tomorrow what he should do on that day.

Two weeks felt like a lifetime and despite the fresh air and abundant food he missed so many things. Ptesan-Wi being on the top of that list. Kool-Aid and the Opnet being on it as well.

But all those thoughts had washed away two days ago. When whatever it was that caused the storms across the land began. At first it seemed like a strong autumn storm and casually tried to calm it as he had grown used to doing over the past year of practice he had. When the storm resisted it caught his attention, storms don't resist or at least had never before. At first Wakinyan pondered if the sky did not serve him in this world but quickly he realized there was someone else fighting him for control of the skies. Someone who was back west someone who was stronger than he with it.

Curiosity overwhelmed him. The chances of other Novas on this world intrigued him. Despite that Timeslip had made no mention of their being Novas on this world someone had to be behind it. So upon his large wings the Thunderbird took flight back in the direction he had came from.

Two days earlier

Bears Lodge had been silent in time since Wakinyan had left it. It was a bright sunlit day with the infinite vault of the blue sky above it. The Star field that blossomed upon the ancient volcanic remnant made it for a moment look like a blossoming cosmic flower. But as the void of darkness and glittering stars evaporated there were three familiar beings upon the rocky top of the huge tower.

Timeslip held her side her hand managing to stem the crimson blood that flowed from the cosmic shroud that wrapped her body. Her husband gave her a worried look before she waved him off. "I am fine. Just hurry before he awakens I don't want to have to deal with this again. Let us just be done with it."

"I should kill him for what he has done." Long growled his body smeared with bloody wounds one eye missing as if torn from it's socket.

"No. If we couldn't kill Shen-Kahn then we will not kill him. If he wants so badly to have a world to be god of then let him have this one." The sentence ended in a fit of coughing blood dribbled from the mouth less face of the star field.

Long took the huge form in his clutched paws and hurled it across the monolith not being gentle or careful with his dumping of the immense creature. The fur and feathered body slammed into the ground and sprawled as Long made his way back to his wife.

Both were taken by surprise when the sixty foot tall creature growled and shook the sky as it began to drag itself to it's massive paws. The Tiger like Novas composure was not broken however instead his defiant and proud demeanor broke through the deafening growl.

"Know this Wakinyan. You are banished for all that you have done. You will never walk among us on our world again. Let this be your world to do with what you will. If you ever manage to return we will kill you for all that you have done."

There was no response but the growling strengthened. The earth began to shudder from it and as the feral creature turned to face his two jailers. Timeslip wasted no more time the universe swallowed the two up as they returned to their own home leaving the monstrous Nova leaping at where they once stood and annihilating the stone top of the Bear Lodge in a fit of unbridled rage.

The tainted ridden Behemoth let his fury burn away as he realized they were gone and he was alone. Wakinyan turned and surveyed the world in front of him the blue sky above him turning dark, lightning pealed and reverberated across the landscape. It didn't matter where he was in the end he concluded, anywhere he went was his and this world just had not realized it yet.

The creature that might have once been a majestic and glorious symbol took to the air. Wings hundreds of feet across took to the sky as Wakinyan decided to go about claiming this prison as his new home.

[Wakinyan]

Never in his life had he ever wanted to hide himself by dorming. But the knot that formed in his throat as he finally found the culprit made him want to do just that.

They met where the Ohio and Mississippi came together. Three twisting lines of water stretching out over the stormy landscape. The other was huge, he had always thought himself big, he had to deal with small human sized doors his entire life as a Nova. The raptor like creature that closed to meet him dwarfed him, at least three times his own size Wakinyan couldn't help to feel a pit in his stomach.

A piercing roar assaulted his ears as they closed the final mile between them. At the distance one took full measure of the other. Glowing indigo eyes and bestial visage the two minds realized at once that the other was a reflection of himself. It was enough of a realization to stop the larger creature from attacking outright instead he pointed at a large sandbar on the riverbank below and circled downward to land. The smaller griffin followed the much larger avian like creature touching down nearby but carefully placing the distance enough that he didn't feel totally exposed to his monstrous reflection.

"So.. You are the native me on this world." The behemoth muttered in his Lakota tongue, his maw moving with the words. Wakinyan paced forward and responded, his own beak not moving at all as he replied. "No and I guess neither are you. So why are you here?"

Now that he finally could look at his other self Wakinyan realized there was more than size that made a difference between them. The other barely resembled the griffin form that Wakinyan had known. Scales peaked through in places his head was shaped more like a bison than a eagle whatever twisted amalgam Wakinyan represented his other self he now looked at was many times more convoluted.

"I wore out my welcome back home." The other growled. "Apparently they all decided it was time for me to go." The knot that had formed in Wakinyan's throat tightened slightly as the other looked at him closely. "And you what brings you to this lovely little world?"

"I came here because I wanted to. I came here to learn?" The other scoffed immediately. "Learn what how to be more Injun??" The nod of response caused the huge monster to snarl. "What utter shit. Hell not only do you look like me last year you fucking act like me as well."

The more he was around this mirror the more alarmed he grew. He was afraid to even consider what caused them to diverge but the alternative of not continuing the conversation seemed more dire. "And what caused you to change your mind?"

A few black oily feathers fell from the massive wings of the creature as he scratched himself idly. "I realized everyone was paying lip service to me. Apparently some of them did not support my personal evolution. So, after I broke out of jail..." Wakinyan stopped him. "Jail? In chicago?" The response was a deep bellowing laugh. "Yeah Chicago. My kind of town or it was anyway. When White Rat got busted out and I went with him. The two of us got rather... Creative with paying back the Windy City Knights and the city itself."

The young griffin swallowed hard. "Did you harm Carver as well?" Another laugh shook him as he watched himself. "Jael, she calls herself Jael. I only harm her in ways that we like to harm each other. She, Rat and I dealt with the Knights."

Wakinyan couldn't believe what he was hearing but had to keep asking. "But how. Even the three of you couldn't beat Jager and the others." There was a growl in response to that remark. "I could have killed Jager if I was then like I am now. But no. White Rat had a better idea for Chicago and all it took was a visit to a missile Silo out on the plains. Apparently that Wasicu fuckhead isn't immune to three Nukes blowing up at random points in the city."

Wakinyan exhaled and felt like he was going to vomit. How could he do this to his friends, how could he do this at all. The other saw his reaction. "What like you didn't want to get back at those fuckers? Bullshit if you are me I know you did." The griffin shook his head. "No! Not like that. I just wanted them to respect me!" "Well they respected me fine as I vaporized their asses. But of course everyone went ballistic. Utopia and the monkeys went apeshit and some of our former friends decided to try and hunt me. The Harvesters however did a good job of helping the three of us out still they got White Rat over the summer Codex melted his brain but she will never be doing that again."

"Enough!" Wakinyan roared. "These people were... Are my friends! I do not want to hear any more!"

"Then you are an idiot. I know those people never understood me. How could they? They were afraid of me, I was there future and they couldn't handle it. But even when Long, Neil and Singularity caught me they couldn't seal the deal and just kill me. No they had to 'banish' me. Oh boo fucking hoo."

Wakinyan was ready to fight his claws dug through the brown sand but still he asked one final thing. "And what of Ptesan-Wi? Did you harm her as well?"

"Who the hell is that?"

"Ptesan-Wi, Thoughtwave. We married her. Why didn't she help you?"

"Thoughtwave? Oh her. She and I hooked up last fall. She was nuts for me not to durable though. She died next to peaceful little lake I had taken her to after I had fucked the hell out of her. I guess she lasted a bit longer with you eh?"

The griffin's hackles rose the growling in his throat erupted into a savage roar as he sprung into the air going for the throat of the monstrous dark mirror.

[Wakinyan]

The Mississippi even in a time when its bottom was not churned by the barges that went up and down its length was usually a muddy brown color sometimes it cleared enough to have a jade green tint to the mighty river. Now that muddy brown water ran an entirely different color. A deep rich red that swirled and ebbed in the currents of the large river.

A small band of Choctaw sat in their birch canoes drifting in the current. The scent of blood permeated the river around them but that is not what held their attention. Their faces turned to the North where lightning flashed and thunder mixed with the roars so feral and savage that the earth had never heard them bellowed from any creature that had ever existed upon it in it's billions of years of existence. The tribesman dared not enter the storm upriver for the gods had come to earth to make war upon the other.

The scene races miles up the long and twisting river entering the storm. Trees bend and snap as fiercest of storms broke them and send them twisting in the wind. Water whipped and frothed creating foam as the great river broke its banks and inundated the forest adding to the immense scale of the destruction.

Lightning flared and snapped around Wakinyan as another bolt of powerful lightning sizzled through him. Neurons refused to yield to the overload and instead he launched himself into the behemoth of his dark self. His claws sunk into the other and his ears were pleased to hear another bellow of pain. The reward for the injury was to be swatted from the feral leviathan bowling through a row of trees on the riverbank.

The taint maddened version of himself began lumbering toward him. Whatever trees he had not knocked down where crushed underfoot of the gigantic monstrosity he had become in a world so much like his own. “You are such a dumbass. You could have had everything! We could have ruled this world like brothers until I found a way to get home! But one little piece of Wasicu pussy ruined you. Well I knew better!”

Wakinyan pulled himself into a crouch and prepared to renew his assault. “And look where it got you! Banished by those we wanted to have as friends. As family!! You killed them damn you! You killed her!”

Again he pounced the other ready for the coming attack. But thanks to Long the smaller of the two beasts had more training if not the raw power of his mirror. The others claws made the air sing as it came down on where Wakinyan was about to be but instead his claws moved through the image of the griffin that shimmered and winked out of existence. The second of mistake was enough for the griffin to strike invisibly at his enemy his beak sinking into the massive neck, the tip piercing deeply until the warm gushing flow of blood fountained out of the new formed wound. The result was a roar that caused the land to shake and the monsterish nightmare hit the ground rolling dislodging Wakinyan as the weight of the other self came down hard on him. Ribs cracked but he was well past the point of caring and with an icy realization he knew that the wounds the other received were merely going to encourage him because it always did him.

The amalgamous monster bolted to its feet. “Yes I did kill them! That is the way of things! You know that! Kill or be killed. Family means nothing to us we never had a family to begin with!” His voice was a mixture of a growl and gurgle as the blood flowed unchecked from his throat.

“She was the chance you idiot. She gave me everything! And I bet she was willing to give you everything because she gave you her life!” Again the two met this time the larger of the two scored the blow. Claws laced with lightning snagging a wing and shearing it from Wakinyan’s body. The blow sent the griffin into the churning river a geyser of water marking the impact as he went below the bloody and muddy water.

The behemoth did not pursue or try to capitalize on his advantage but instead waited and watched as his smaller opponent pulled himself out of the water and onto higher ground. “It doesn’t matter what she offered. Look at you. Some Wakinyan you are, you are weak and soft. She has made you weak and soft, so pathetic.”

The battered creatures faced each other, both tense, watching and waiting for the fight to resume. “You ran into me two days ago I would say you might have had a chance. Long and the others had beaten me pretty good. But now you don’t have a chance and you know it. You say you are here by choice.” The monster gurgled and smirked. “That means someone is coming back for you. Your Timeslip probably, well I guess there will be a Wakinyan to take home. But it won’t be you. We’ll see if your pretty little Tawicu can tell the difference.”

Not that more provocation was needed but it was enough. Lightning crashed down onto the Harvester bolt after bolt that was only a lead in for the enraged griffin encased in a blue nimbus of electrical power. Claws slashed one way then the other pair slashed the next a vicious cycle of X like slashes ripped across the huge creature as the near berserk Lakota poured everything he had into destroying the dark other who had come to haunt the Summercountry and himself.

Fury was met with fury. Where one claw was as large as a cavalry saber the others claws where as tall as the tallest human could stand. And as gore fell to the earth from the snarling ferocity of the battle more blood poured into the swollen river. Matted with blood and scorched by the lightning crackling around them Wakinyan fell to earth maimed but still his eyes shined with the desire to destroy the opponent looming above him.

“I am confused as to what to do now.” The monster remarked as he brought a back paw down hard on Wakinyan pushing him hard into the muddy earth and pinning him. “This place might get boring if I kill you now. But if I don’t you might jump me and get lucky.”

The taint maddened creature peered down at his weaker opposite and growled. “I guess I best not take my chances should I?”

[ronin]

Journal Entry, Day 442, Omicron-Delta-Delta

,,

In off the moors, down through the mist bands,

God-cursed Grendel came greedily loping.

The bane of the race of men roamed forth,

hunting for prey in the high hall.

Wise sir, do not grieve. It is always better

to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning.

For every one of us, living in this world

means waiting for our end. Let whoever can

win glory before death. When a warrior is gone,

that will be his best and only bulwark.

After Chicago burned, I'd made up my mind. The Alpha-Beta-Gamma version of the nova who called himself "Wakinyan" - called "Totem" on my home plane, which I have shamelessly labeled Alpha-Alpha-Alpha - could not be permitted to exist any longer. He must be destroyed.

I'm certain that Neil and the others thought they were pursuing the wisest course of action when they banished Wakinyan to a world in which he would be alone with his hubris, but they must have known that in doing so they were taking the easy out. Putting a bandage on a bullet wound. Wakinyan would find a way out, and very likely in a manner of a few short years. Possibly even months. And in the meantime, to leave him as God over a world still developing? No. Unconscionable. I could not allow it.

It took some convincing to wrest Wakinyan's chronoplanar coordinates from anybody who knew. Timeslip, Neil, Long, Singularity, they were all mum on the matter. I can't blame them. The A-B-Γ version of me didn't survive his eruption. They had no reason to trust me. Truth be told, if they knew why I wanted to know, they wouldn't tell me, anyway. Why they chose not to kill him I can't say. Their forgiveness must be limitless, even in the face of all the destruction he wrought. Perhaps they haven't the stomach for murder. I don't know. At any rate, it didn't take too long to find what I was looking for. I first came to A-B-Γ three years ago, and made the wise decision to cultivate a small number of contacts while there. Agent Kurwin was less than forthcoming about the details I needed, but I managed to pry them out by telling him what I had planned. I die or Wakinyan dies: either outcome would be satisfactory to him and who he represents.

I confirmed the information two days after arriving in O-Δ-Δ, spotting Wakinyan soaring above a blanket of clouds that blotted out the sun. Rainmaker, they called him below, bowing to their thunderbird. He struck a handful of them down with fire from the sky for sport. A constant reminder that he could give and take as he liked. He thankfully missed me. Too wrapped up in his grandiosity, I suppose, reveling in his deific power. I left to gather some things.

From Alpha-Phi-Omega, I retrieved Honjo Masamune, my sword. This one was not mine, in truth. My Honjo Masamune came from Lambda-Phi-Rho, but I had shattered it some time ago on the snout of a dragon that I fought when I was Tanata, a student of Jubei. This version of the blade, from an Earth without novas, was recovered from an antique store in a coastal down in northern California, when Sgt. Coldy Bimore's niece sold it with the rest of the articles she found lying about the house after his death. It was very easily the finest example of Masamune's work left in that world. Strange. This one bore my name. I wondered for a moment if it really was mine, somehow, or if I had - or would be - through the past of this universe, or if I had subconsciously supplanted the space of someone named Tanata who existed prior to my meddling. No time to wonder at the moment. I paid the clerk and left. It cost me sixty dollars.

My next stop would be A-A-A, for the first time since I started this journal. Before my most recent departure, I had put it an order for a parcel, one which I finally meant to collect. My sudden arrival on Prime very probably raised a few alarms. I knew I wouldn't have long. People would be looking for me. The Machinist was expecting me when I went to meet him. He was one of those who knew I had returned. He handed me my parcel, and I assured him that I would not be using it on his plane: the secondary price of his services. I exchanged with him the parcel I had carried for him for many days. He smiled, thanked me, and told me to leave. I have known this man in six of his different lives, and I haven't the heart to tell him that he is exactly the same in all of them.

The last item to acquire was retrieved from a cache I established on Mu-Delta-Iota, where time flows so slowly that I could leave my things in a thicket at noon, travel elsewhere for a decade, and return to pick up my things by supper. Life remained confined to the oceans, here. I rummaged through my sack, found what I was looking for, and put it in my pocket, drawing the strings on the bag shut again and gently placing it back in its cradle, where it would remain another twenty or thirty years. Thus prepared, I was ready to return to O-Δ-Δ to commence my bloody business.

This may be my last entry. Wakinyan has had more than adequate time to recover from the wounds he was given. Even at full strength, I may not be powerful enough to defeat him. A-B-Γ's Daniel Thunderhawk embraced all the demons of his primal nature, and has accordingly become something so inhuman he may very well be a god. There is nothing more inhuman than a god, this is something I can attest to personally. No sense forestalling the inevitable. The Thunder God versus the God of War.

End Entry.

___________________________________________________________________________________

ronin left his perch outside the valley on foot, deliberately preserving the precious energy he knew he would shortly need. He was dressed shabbily, roughly, like one of the natives, obscuring his identity from above, where Wakinyan preferred to observe his subjects, sitting in satisfied silence. It was plain to see, looking into the cowl, the pale skin of a wasicu, a word both known and unknown on this earth, as well as the shaggy mess of a beard tinted like red clay. There was only one eye in the cowl, burning brightly as it turned itself towards the ground. A sword and a satchel hung from the belt he wore beneath his shroud, his only other clothing a pair of cuffs that fit snugly over his wrists. He would fight better without the encumberance, and the gods have no need of modesty.

He was still a good distance from the Thunder God's cave high in the mountain cliff when he detected - not one, but two - distinct quantum signatures. He bristled, his gaze becoming hard. Had someone beaten him here? Had he misclassified this planet as being bereft of telluric resonance? Or had Timeslip or one of the others returned for him? No matter. Time was running out. On his bare feet, he ran forward.

What he found made him halt fast. Wakinyan was here, in all his awesome and terrible majesty. He'd been injured. Beneath one of his rear paws was also Wakinyan, but a smaller, less monstrous analog. ronin could smell them both from where he stood. He knew both of those scents, was familiar with both of those quantum signatures. He had found Wakinyan, and it seems Wakinyan had somehow found Totem. There was no time to question. Wakinyan leaned down towards his younger self and whispered at a volume so low and deep that it was indecipherable at that range, but the gestured of raising his taloned paw over Totem's head that followed was unmistakable. In one quick motion, ronin pulled away his cowl and drew his blade, fire radiating in his one eye to mirror the inky black left by the pit of the other. Before the killing blow could be struck, ronin had moved into a battle stance, taking his place atop a rocky outcropping that sat onerously like a throne above the plain. Both Wakinyan and Totem could smell him, suddenly, and as Wakinyan did, his eyes widened, his throat erupting with a thunderous growl of hatred that rolled across the plains like the stampeding of a thousand horses. ronin gazed down at him, his one eye reflecting not hatred, not malice, but a firey resolve, as he held his stance at ready, waiting for the Thunder God to make his move.

Wakinyan cursed with rage. There was no way he could dispatch Totem without leaving himself fatally open to attack, and ronin knew it. So be it. The son of a bitch had traveled this far to die, it seemed criminal not to oblige him. "Don't even think about moving, you fucking weakling. You can rethink your stupidity while I kill this idiot", he snarled down at his smaller self. With a grim finality, he added, "You're lucky he showed up. He just bought you a last chance." With a bound that shook the earth, Wakinyan leapt into the air, his massive wings beating a war drum tempo that carried him into the black and starless sky. The clouds stirred above into a storm, and freezing rain began to suicide to the ground below like piercing darts thrown from the heavens. Thunder heralded the arrival of lightning, and from across the plain, the Thunder God met the gaze of the God of War.

[Wakinyan]

For the moment of impending death Wakinyan's mind took the scent in of the arrival and his memory played a scene from two years prior. Carrying Juri trying to take her somewhere more private. Ronin the strange grim man who had decided to play hero and came after him trying to save the damsel in distress. He remembered Ronin's blood as his claws had found purchase and ripped lines across the man's chest. That battle had ended before it began Ronin had not struck back thank in part of Juri's liberal use of the word 'Fucktard!' But the flash of memory made Wakinyan realize this man who might be powerful enough to cross world was not strong enough to face his darker self. At least if this truly was the same Ronin he had faced two years ago.

As the dark monster rose to the challenge that newcomer posed Wakinyan did not stay still. He left a image of himself where he lay but forced his beaten body to slip from sight and keep pace with the dangerous and insane creature he had become.

The first pass was a test of both parties. Claw and steel meeting each other for a moment in a shower of sparks as the beast streaked past. Wakinyan himself moved closer and watched carefully. For the moment he willed his body to mend and his amuptated wing to rebuild he would not have much time before he would know if this Ronin regardless of which world he was from was up to the task of fighting the avatar of nature's chaos he had became elsewhere.

[ronin]

The massive beast's opening move was meant to be a killing blow, a hurtling, claws-first bum's rush intended to end the fight immediately. Wakinyan was too eager, and it spared ronin some injury in the immediate. ronin thanked the fact that he and Wakinyan had not fought before. Wakinyan was underestimating him. That, and his anxiousness, would be a disadvantage. Wakinyan was an untamed force of nature, primal and atavistic. ronin embodied war, strategy, tactics, precision. Wakinyan was a hurricane that digests an entire state, but ronin was the bombing of Hiroshima, the last stand at Thermopylae. He was calm, patient, and precise. And he had studied his opponent in a dozen incarnations on a dozen worlds.

Wakinyan's claws left their mark upon ronin's blade, and would have shattered it to splinters of steel had it not been brought under the aegis of his opponent's personal protection. ronin knew that the marks could easily have been on him. Wakinyan sailed by at near sonic speed, narrowly deflected by the blade's edge, albeit without a scratch. ronin turned to prepare for Wakinyan's next pass, readying his blade in the same fashion he had before. Wakinyan's ego was a profound weak spot; if ronin could remain unhurt, and as calm and cold as new snow, he might be able to goad the Thunder God into doing something rash.

ronin's face was serene as Wakinyan whipped his tremendous frame back around, this time determined to tear the stoic man to shreds. The man stood there in perfect silence, as motionless as stone as he waited for the next pass. This time, Wakinyan was resolved to send his opponent to the ground. As he sped towards ronin, he opened his tremendous, beaked maw and unleashed a surging bolt of raw force that split the heavens and shattered the cloud cover as it hurtled forward. The bolt would hit a fraction of a second before Wakinyan himself did, and he was certain the double-blow would overcome the frustratingly calm warrior.

ronin saw the blast in time. With a motion blinding fast and as fluid as water, he deflected the blast with the edge of his blade, redirecting it straight upwards to briefly shine day upon the ground below. Wakinyan, on the other hand, was committed to his course, too close and too sure of his aim to adjust. ronin crouched and sidestepped an impossible distance to avoid Wakinyan's massive, hulking frame hurtling at him, and with sublime precision, extended his blade outward, striking the back of Wakinyan's wing where it met his back harmlessly with the flat of his blade. A "counting coup", an expression of bravery originating with the Sioux, taking the form of a harmless but meaningful blow struck to an opponent who would likely respond with deadly force. ronin thought that Wakinyan would appreciate the significance of the gesture, and it said more than any lethal attack could; "I could have just sheared your wing off, but I chose not to. I don't need to in order to defeat you. I can play with you all I like." That wasn't the truth, and ronin knew it, but he also knew that's how Wakinyan would interpret it, making him even more mad with rage.

The shriek of hate that came from Wakinyan's mouth shook the mountains to their roots and rendered any of the natives unlucky enough to be within range deaf. "Son of a bitch! Arrogant, tiny, fucking bastard motherfucking pathetic monkey! I'll eat his damned heart!!" Blood pounded in Wakinyan's ears, raw fury pounding through his brain like lava. He rebounded off a rock face and struck back like a coiled serpent, his claws extended, his body combusting into a holocaust of ghostly fire, bringing the full force of his raptor screech down upon the tiny, impudent little man who mocked him.

ronin felt his stomach heave, the sonic scream momentarily putting him off his center. He suppressed a surge of bile rushing up to meet his mouth with a cringing flex of his solar plexus and grimaced. Wakinyan saw his opening and took it. Claws bit into flesh, but a hair of a moment too late; ronin's sword slapped the Thunderbird's rump, almost playfully, followed by the back of his massive thigh.

Wakinyan became unhinged. His opponent was mocking him, despite his injuries. He must be crazy. In his mad play, however, Wakinyan had discovered a weak point, and smiled sadistically, knowing to exploit it again and again. On the ground below, ronin had picked himself up and turned, raising a hand with his thumb and two fingers extended, as if in protest, begging for him to stop, his other hand clutching his bleeding shoulder. Wakinyan snarled and opened his beak to let out another devastating scream, throttling forward at full tilt, confident that this time the grim, small man would be in too sorry a state to effectively fight back.

No sound came out.

Wakinyan realized far too late that the gesture ronin made wasn't pleading. He was shunting off his power.

It was too late to turn back. Wakinyan had comitted to the attack, and he'd be damned if he was going to let this runty little ape get the best of him. He redoubled his speed and continued his headfirst dive. ronin hadn't even redrawn his sword! He was still using his blade arm to clutch his bleeding shoulder. Wakinyan could smell the blood as he closed, coppery and hot, and see it trickling away from his palm in jagged rivulets. He needed to see more.

Staring up intently with his one good eye, ronin simply held up his hand. Wakinyan smiled; this idiot was about to be turned into slag meat.

ronin could feal the Thunderbird's breath approaching his neck when he finally made his move. His eye never left Wakinyan's gaze, as if he'd been waiting - intently - for this precise moment, where he dipped his two fingers downward.

The world surged and lurched under Wakinyan's body, and where ronin was, now the ground was rushing up to meet him. A lightspeed evaluation of the situation told him that ronin and the world had stayed put, it was him that had changed direction. With all his might, the Thunder God attempted to change his course, lunging forward with his claws extended. A surge of unnatural strength rippled through his body as he managed to pull his body out of freefall, lashing out at the War God before him.

He was gone. Wakinyan's claws found purchase in the stony embrace of the earth, charcoal and basalt molding like clay in his grip. He instantly knew where ronin had gone, but it was too late.

White fire exploded from ronin's fist, enveloping the length of his blade in a pillar of baleful light. Steel and fire seared into Wakinyan's spine and he howled in fury, pain and hatred. With a wrenching twist, the War God turned the knife separating two of Wakinyan's vertebre. The Thunder God snarled to the man who now stood atop him like St. George come to slay the dragon, his wings slumping as pain pumped in thick, electric gouts through his body.

The battle was not yet won.

[Wakinyan]

The blade sliced down hard and true but for all the damage it did do it could not do enough to end the fight or even truly give the steel willed warrior a decisive battle winning attack. It simply layered rage upon fury and in an instant Ronin was sailing through the air after being bucked from the back of the monstrous Nova.

Whatever damage it did do it did not slow the beast down. As the small human opponent landed on his feet the dark creature encased its body in lightning that crackled and popped in cascading waves across the immense body. “You think you can toy with me.” It bellowed as it raised its bulk skyward. “You think you have the advantage in your battle prowess and knowledge Dog Soldier.”

The wind that was already near hurricane strength suddenly tripled in intensity. “You know nothing and you will not stand against the storm!” Trees uprooted and where tossed like matchsticks. The warriors stance changed bracing himself he became a part of he ground and refused to move or be bowed by the horrifying storm. Constantly the shrapnel of debris that had began swirling around him tore into his flesh. The lightning filled funnel cloud roared overhead and the warrior lost the momentum of the battle. To strike the Wakinyan promised harm but remaining in place as the lightning began to strike all around him steadily closing, tendrils of fire that licked and burned his body. He tried to turn off the power but there was no chance in it Wakinyan was in his element and he would not be denied. Ronin began to run out of options when he suddenly realized there was only one true option left.

Totem crawled against the storm head down and claws digging deep to withstand the onslaught from his dark self. It would take the Wakinyan to defeat the Wakinyan Ronin realizes with a dark grin that crept across his face. In less than a bat of an eye Ronin was atop the smaller griffin like Nova his hand reaching down into the fur of the youngster as he formed the bridge that would relay the plan that only had seconds to perform before they both died at the hands of the mad god.

‘Totem, listen to me. You have to take me up there you have to help me. You have to wrestle control of this storm from him or we are both going to die for nothing. I say we die for something and take this bastard with us!’

Ronin’s mind for a moment pondered if he had picked the wrong path. Would this boy do what needed to be done, would he hesitate and give them both a pointless death? No, grasping the mane of his mount the warrior held tight as they both rocketed upward into the furious heart of the storm. Blood began to flow freely from the nasal slits of the young Lakota as he closed the distance to his darker self. Every fiber of his being roars with quantum as he grappled the dark one over which thunderbird could claim dominion of the storm and sky. In that moment the winds shifted and Wakinyan slammed headlong into the chest of the monster electricity flowed over him and his rider and he latched his claws into the torso of the beast giving Ronin his moment to strike, his moment of glory.

[ronin]

ronin hated to lie to Totem. They'd never been friends, but the inherent nature of an untruth was something bitter and sour to the man. But at that moment, a lie was what was needed, and so a lie was told. And it worked.

The smaller beast climbed higher and faster, reaching a screaming crescendo of lightning and wind and blood, nearing ever closer to the mad god who sat at its epicenter. With a screaming, shuddering lurch, the pair were altogether upon their opponent, Totem rushing in claws-first as he made his desperate bid to wrest control of the storm from his dark self. It claimed the thunderbird's senses for a hair of a moment, an advantage to exploit no wider than the absence of a single scale on Leviathan's back. ronin's mind rested on thoughts of Stamford Bridge and Thermopylae and Guilford Courthouse. He was calm. "Dog soldier", Wakinyan called him. It was more accurate than he'd ever know.

Space shifted, and ronin was again atop the beast, standing in the space between his shoulder blades, a space large enough to accomodate a horse. Lightning and wind sheared him, singing and shredding the very clothes from his back. He dug in, lowering his stance. He would not be moved.

Beneath him, Totem and Wakinyan battled. A moment frozen in time as clean as machined crystal tore forth, a symphony of slaughter. Totem was losing, and both ronin and Wakinyan knew it. He'd been beaten so badly already. The battle would be over soon, regardless of the victor.

This time, no steel found Wakinyan's flesh. Totem's valiant distraction had provided the opening he needed. His forehead felt like a blossoming inferno as his node surged new strength and vigor into his body. ronin clenched a newborn sun in his fist, and it erupted into a shaft of light that immolated the surrounding air and made the rain boil before it left their cloudy hearths. ronin tensed, and with zen concentration, eased the shining star into the back of Wakinyan's head until his hand rested on the back of his crown. The space between Wakinyan's eyes erupted in white light, and the storm broke. They fell to earth.