Checkmate!

Wails of misery echo down the streets of T-City. The Vigilante Hero cries out in pain as he begins to get crushed by the Titanic Frost Giant. "You'll suffer for as long as I desire, for deforming my face!" She told him as she continued to crush him in her hands. "Aaaaghh! Ugh." His yells reach the far corners of the city as he feels his bones slowly beginning to break. Along with his body freezing. Eventually, the pain caught up to him and he passed out in her hands. This angered Frost. "Wake up. Torture is no fun if I can't hear you scream," she said as she squeezed harder waking him hastily as he to gritted his teeth. Trying to endure the pain but failing miserably. His pain made Frost smile as she could feel that the end was nigh. "Look at you, wasted and gasping for air. But you don't get to go, yet... When your city is shattered to nothing... then, you have my permission to die." She stated before out of nowhere, somebody spoke from directly below them.

"Hey! You put him down right now!" She looked down and there stood the little girl from earlier, Zenko. Frost laughed at the stupidity of the child, running out right in front of her. "Oh, no it's you. Please don't maim me. I'll do anything you say. I'll put your little friend down if you wish. It might be one piece at a time, but I'll undoubtedly put him down. Now, which piece do you yearn for first?" Frost mockingly asked her with a smile on her face. "You better not hurt him!" Zenko angrily yelled at her which just got another laugh out of Frost. "It's a little too late for that." Frost told her before laughing again. Christan hearing Zenko below him, caused him to steer in her grasp. "Zenko! Get the hell out of here! Run!" His voice was heavy but audible enough for her to hear him. "I'm not running away." her lack of fear amused Frost but enraged Christan. "Stop talking back! Just shut up and get to safety!" He yelled out which got a chuckle out of Frost. She stomped down near Zenko, making her lose her footing and stumble before falling. 

"I'll say this once, child I think you should take his advice. You're truly intrepid and all, but your friend here is beaten and broken. And you nor he have the power or skill to take me on," as she stared down at the child she recognized her. "Oh, this is quite amusing. I knew something about you seemed familiar. You're that girl that I beat in last year's piano recital. You got third place, not even second best," she laughed again as Zenko picked up a broken pipe from the ground. "Just like your soon to be dead friend, your both losers." Immediately after saying that Zenko swung the pipe into the foot of Frost. Initially, nothing happened, but then unexpectedly the large crack appeared all over the foot of the giant woman. Her amusement shifted into confusion and anger as Frost then raised her foot directly above her. Christan was powerless to stop what was coming. But just then Frost was launched over Zenko and fell back first into the car park again, causing a big tremor. This caused her to drop Christan, leading to him landing on the ground. "You son of a bitch." As Christan finally opened his eyes, he saw that the person that saved him was Metal Bat.

Metal Bat POV

'This white-haired bastard really pisses me off. All he had to do was watch her for an hour. But he went and royally fucked it up.' I thought as Zenko ran up to him before I followed behind her. He looked weak and broken. "Woah, with the stuff I heard about ya, it's a little hard to believe to see the big bad vigilante hero in such a sorry state." I told him as I looked down at him. Zenko gave me a dirty look which I just replied with a "what". He just chuckled to himself. "Nice to see you too." After he said that he coughed up a bit of blood before I helped him up. He could barely stand, parts of his body looked to be frozen with frost on his sides and arms. His right leg was broken, so he used a guard rail to stand up. "Who dares strike me!?" That ice monster yelled out in the distance. "Christan, are you okay? Don't ever tell me to shut up again you stupid dummy." Zenko said as she smacked his arm. It turns out to be more than he can handle, and he screams in pain. Scaring her and surprising me. "My body is a little sensitive right now. Even the wind touching me right now stings like hell." He groggily told us.

The ice monster started getting up and I noticed immediately, it looked like it was regenerating a piece of its head. I grabbed Zenko by the arm and started dragging her away from the city. "Brother Bad, what are you doing?" She yelled out trying to pull away from me. I was gonna tell her but he spoke up first. "He's being a good big brother, you're his main priority. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." He said, giving her a weak thumbs up. The moment the ice monster started making its way back over to us I picked her up and ran off with her. As I got us farther away from the fight the all I heard was her pleading for me to go back. Then I finally stopped before putting her down. "Nothing you say will stop me from wanting to-." I cut her off. "Save him, am I right?" She looked surprised at my sudden change of heart. She asked me if her begging changed my mind. "Not exactly, that bastard is gonna get himself killed, and even knowing that he still wanted you safe first," I saw her smile at me. "For now, head home. I'll be back by seven. Now for me to finally pay that white-haired bastard back." I said before gripping my bat and seeing Zenko off. She waved goodbye and ran into S-City.

 'Alright! Let's go bash some skulls!' I thought before I made my way back to the fight while gripping my bat. When I got back over there he was just standing there with his arms in the air while on the other side of town it looked like the ice monster was still regenerating its face. I walked up next to him staring forward putting my bat on my shoulder. "So you came back, is she safe?" He said without looking back at me. "She'll be fine. I sent her back home. I made a promise to never show her violence. But enough about her, give me the rundown? I hit that thing with everything I had and it's still breathin." I asked him. "Surprised? Well imagine how I feel, it's like I'm a hamster on a wheel. No matter how much power I put into anything I still don't get anywhere. Even when she was normal-sized." He told me while his arms started to twitch as he held them up. I asked him about his weird pose as we saw it get up with its face almost completely fixed. 

"It's a long story. But to keep it short, I have an attack that I think will take her down in one shot. Although the downside is I need both arms to charge it. You'll have to distract her while I absorb heat." He told me. "Oh, that's not so bad-" he then suddenly cut me off. "For five minutes. And considering she beat me to a bloody pulp in under one and—ah, never mind, I'm sure you can handle it." He said which made me finally look at him. "Are you holding a grudge?" I asked him before sarcastically saying that I took too long to show up. "Whatever, I got it covered. Get the little rest you need. I don't like being in anyone's debt, so I have your five minutes covered. I told him before outta nowhere it landed right in front of us. 

Third POV

"Gnats! The lot of you. For intervening with my vindication, you'll die alongside your friend." Frost angrily yelled out. Metal Bat turned back to Christan confused at what she said. "Oh yeah, she uses a lot of big words." Christan told him before he gripped his bat. Metal Bat scoffed. "Alright, lady. Let's get something straight, we ain't my friends. But to put you at ease, don't worry. While I'm smashing ya into ice cubes I'll be gentle." Metal Bat then swings at Frost, however, she is quick enough to block his attack with her arm. The vibrations from Metal Bat's swing shake her entire body. Before then her entire forearm shatters into nothing but shards. She yelled out in pain. "Get out of my way!" Frost then smashed Metal Bat into a building with a massive strike with her other arm. While laying in the rubble Metal Bat notes that his full-power swing will be able to easily shatter her if he smashes her head. But he also notices that she is really fast when she attacks for her size.

 "After smashing her arm, she won't be letting me get too close again. Whatever that bastard has in store can't be that powerful. If it was so strong he wouldn't need my help. Her head. That's exactly where I'm gonna aim for." He says before he lunges out of the rubble and jumps atop a building. Putting the handle of the bat in his mouth, he runs up until he positions himself right next to her. She then launches a punch at him but he takes his bat in his hand and jumps onto her arm. Running up, a bunch of spikes shot out from her arm, attempting to impale him. Undeterred by this, he effortlessly smashes through the spikes while running up to her head. When he eventually reached it he raised his bat above his head and delivered one of his Killin' Moves: Dragon Trashing. Unleashing a barrage of smacks with his bat in the same spot of her head from multiple angles. Large cracks formed all over her face before her entire head shattered into a bunch of giant shards of ice.

The large sharp slabs of ice along with the large body of Frost hit the ground hard enough to create a little shockwave. "I can't believe this. You had so much trouble dealing with a monster like that." Metal said as he landed on the ground and began walking towards Christan. He was just in awe of the gap in power between the two of them. 'So that's the power of a real S-Class hero. They really are no joke.' Christan thought as he was slowly lowering his arms. However, when Metal Bat walked over a bit of ice the ground below sprung up catching him off guard. It knocked him flat on his back. "What the hell was that?" He asked as he grabbed his bat again and stood. When he looked up he saw what looked to be a giant ice foot sculpture. He was so confused about what happened that he didn't notice the rising Frost giant behind him. "Behind you!" Christan screamed out but it was too late as Frost had already launched him into the air with another gigantic kick. Frost was not happy, having less of her face after that last attack. Leaving only half of her head, with one eye and mouth.

 "And I just keep getting reminded of my failures! I will torment you till your nothing but a frozen corpse!" She shouted out as Christan raised his arms again. Continuing to take in as much heat as he could. But while he's doing that Metal Bat just got double ax handled back down towards the ground and landed on his hands and knees next to his bat. He grabbed at his head, as blood began to flow down onto his face. Metal went to grab his bat but before he even could do that she kicked him in the chest launching him and the bat backward. But while flying through the air he recovered fast enough to catch his bat in midair and land on his feet. Yet he ended up landing next to part of her head from earlier and a fist came flying out from it smashing him face-first into the ground. Still gripping his bat tighter and tighter. Back to Christan, the flaming aura returned to him as it enveloped him in its warm embrace. "Come on, please. Almost there just hold out for just a little bit longer." He said as just then Metal Bat had been slammed into the ground bouncing off the pavement but before he could hit the ground again she grabbed him by his arm. Then points her hand point-blank in his face and fires an ice beam that tears through him. Metal Bat is sent into a tailspin as he lands in a crater, covered in needles, bricks, and a bunch of rubble. He looks to be unconscious as his crimson mask comes into Frost's view.

When she sees her latest victim, unmoving, riddled with ice needles, and lying in a pool of his blood her wry smile creeps onto what's left of her face as she then begins maniacally laughing. "I did it! I did it! I conquered an S-Class hero! Now to find that cowar-." Her celebration was cut short by an unexpected someone. "Where the fuck do you think your going lady?" It was Metal Bat nonchalantly walking out of the rubble. Both Christan and Frost were dumbfounded at what they were seeing. "Unbelievable. He got back up." Christan thought to himself as Metal Bat walked towards the bewildered Frost. She couldn't believe what she was watching. "What the hell are you lookin' at? What did you think? That I was just gonna roll over and die from something like that?" These patronizing questions only angered her more. "You're nothin' special, just another monster and I'm a hero. So I ain't dyin till I've shattered every little bit of ya," he said as kicked his bat into his hand, gripping it tight. "Bring it on!" He yells out as he rushes in again to attack her with a newfound level of strength and speed.

Christan POV

Five minutes had passed and my fiery aura had settled down once again as it spiraled around his body. Sparks began to pop off of his body as he pulled all that firepower into his palm creating another sphere. Though this one was much bigger than the last, more the size of a basketball instead of a tennis ball. Like the last one, he had to condense fire into a perfect sphere that spins inside the sphere, otherwise the fire would leak out. It made a loud crackling noise. "This is it. The strength in my leg is almost completely gone," The ball isn't even touching him but the weight of it is pushing his body to its limit. "This ends here. Now, go!" I yelled out as I jerked my arm back before hurling it at her. When I threw it I immediately fell onto the ground, only holding myself up with my forearms. 'Come on it,' I thought as I watched the ball fly towards her. By this time she had her back to the ball and was set to get hit by it. I guess she heard the crackling noise of the fireball because she turned around at the last possible second and ended up barely dodging it by jumping into the air.

 'Goddamnit! It missed!' I angrily thought as I watched the ball now speeding towards Metal Bat. But without skipping a beat Metal Bat got into a baseball batting stance and swung with all his strength at the ball. It looked like it was seconds away from exploding against his bat. However, just then he whacked it away, directly at Frost who was still in the air from her jump earlier. "No!" She cried out in fear as the ball hit dead on, right into her midsection. The explosion was immense, the ball expanded into a large firework-like sparks, while the shrieks of Frost echoed through the explosion. It was in a spinning motion, as if vortex of fire. Then the ensuing twister looked to collect oxygen and momentum to fuel the flames shooting out more of a firework-like scattershot in all directions. It looked like a storm of fire was coming from the sky as she was sent further and further up, as her screams slowly faded away. As the blast disappeared into the sky, fire specks started to rain down from above. 

I let out a sigh of relief as I mentally celebrated. 'That was way too close for comfort. But it all worked out in the end!' I thought to myself as Metal Bat walked over and sat down next to me with blood still running down his face. "Five minutes my ass! All that didn't fuckin tickle ya know," He angrily cursed at me before he eventually breathed out and started chuckling to himself. "Although I gotta admit, for a guy that can't move you sure are a tough son of a bit-." He was cut off by Zenko running up to us from outta nowhere. "Brother Bad, Christan! Are you two okay?" She caught us both off guard as she kneeled down over me. Metal Bat was freaking out, telling her that she should've gone home. But she retorted with telling him that she was until she saw the big explosion in the sky and she came back to check on us. "It's fine now. We are fine, Although I think I'll be pretty sore for a while." I joked as they helped me sit up. "Let's get you up and off the ground, that can't be comfortable." He told me I struggled to get up from the ground. "Maybe so, it's no Tempur-Pedic." I jokingly said before we all softly laughed after the end of the storm. My vision was a little blurry as I looked to the sky, seeing nothing but a big hole in the clouds. But then I saw something weird.

"Hey...we beat her, right?" I weakly asked them. "Yeah, she exploded in the sky." He told me with a confused look. "Then what's that?" I asked as I weakly pointed up. They both looked up puzzled at what I meant. As we all stared at the sky what I saw finally came into view. It was Frost falling from the sky, but not in her giant form but her normal form. It looked like she was free-falling. Me, Bad, and Zenko were surprised that she wasn't completely destroyed, as she then landed on the ground. Unmoving. "Is she, ya know?" Zenko asked before Metal Bat got up and walked over to her motionless body. "She looks finished alright. Whatever you hurled at her really did her in." Metal Bat told us which bummed me out. "It's a shame really," Confused, they asked what I meant. "It didn't have to end like this. With her dying and stuff. I....I have a personal rule. I bruise but I don't kill *human* monsters, like her. Killing her would make me no different than her, a monster killing people." I told them, prompting Metal Bat to tell me that I took her out just a second ago. "I only went for the kill when she changed into that ice giant. I went easy on her when she was the way she is now." I confessed to them. 

But then at that moment her voice unexpectedly chimed in. "You did what!?"  Her sudden awakening shocked all three of us. I was completely taken aback by how tough she was. As she slowly got up breathing heavily, we saw that she was bruised and burned in places and parts of her body were still partially ice. Like her hand and neck and chin and one of her legs. Metal Bat got in a defensive stance with his bat looking to defend us. "I bet you think you're pretty funny, huh? Well, here's a little piece of advice if you're going to shoot someone in the back. Make sure to finish them off." She said in an angry tone as she got to her feet. Her hair was a mess, her makeup was almost completely gone and her eyes were glazed over. Metal Bat's stance looked shaky but sturdy like exhaustion had finally caught up to him. "It will be my greatest pleasure whipping you three off the face of the earth." She said before Metal Bat tried to attack her but noticeably slower than before. 

She effortlessly backhand's him with her ice hand into a wall, this time with no technique in it, just a basic strike. This time Metal didn't get up so quickly, as he sat up against the wall holding his face. 'She's not looking for anything flashy, she's come close to death too many times. This is bad.' I thought as she spoke again. "How does it feel, that you had one chance to save this backwater city and everyone in it. Only to fail miserably." Her statement ended with a wry smile before she began walking over to me and Zenko with a look of pure rage. "This is it, Christan. The coup de grâce. No more tricks, no more games, no more chances for you or your little friends to escape. I'm gonna do now what I should've done from the start. I'm going to give you all a one-way ticket to the afterlife." Zenko got in front of me without hesitation, looking to try to protect me. "Zenko, no. Run, run away." I weakly said before gritting my teeth. 

Frost POV

I stopped and then I charged ice around my body. Ice needles were coming out of my ice limbs. Then I shot them out of my body with a freezing cold eruption all around my body, destroying much of the nearby land. It sent all of them flying back with Christan getting flung against a car. It looked like Metal Bat was under a bunch of rubble of a building and the little girl was in a bush. I had never felt so tired before. I could hardly breathe, I even began to cough up a bit of blood. "This is pitiful. To think I could be reduced to this," I thought as I noticed that they were still breathing and that no needles had even hit them. 'I don't have enough power to finish them at once anymore,' I thought as I felt my eyes grow heavier as I almost fell unconscious but I shook it off as I remembered what I heard earlier. "And it's all HIS fault." I said before I walked over to Christan who was gritting his teeth as his white hair covered parts of his bloody face. 

I grabbed him by his ripped shirt and brought him up close to my face so we were eye to eye. "Who do you think you are? First, you take my vanity! Next, you take my revenge as nothing more than a stepping stone and now you have the nerve to go easy on me as if I'm a helpless child. I hope you understand that I don't share your taste for restraint. You've crossed me for the last, and now your debt will be pai-." However, as I was saying that he abruptly reached up and grabbed my head, leaving my jaw above his shoulder before he dropped to a seated position and forcing my chin to drop down on his shoulder. It sounded like glass shattering as I made contact with his shoulder. My chin had shattered on impact. I flicked backward onto the ground on my back, a numbness ran through my body as I laid there along with him. Gradually I reached into my pocket and pulled out my car keys. I pushed a button and instantly my arms fell back down to the ground, too much for me to currently keep them up. 

A moment later I saw my self-driving limousine pull up next to me. I slowly turned onto my stomach and began crawling towards the limos now, open door. 'You may have won the battle but I'll be the one standing at the end of the war. This is far from over.' I thought to myself as I was just about to get completely inside the limo. But as I was just about inside, Metal Bat appeared from out of nowhere and prepared to swing his bat at me. 'No, this is not the way this ends.' I thought through fear and anger as I closed my eyes, awaiting the impact. Yet just before the bat made contact with my head, a voice calls out to Metal Bat. That voice is revealed to be coming from the little girl. "Stop! Brother Bad, remember what Christan said. It won't make you any better than her if you do it. Please, if not for Christan. Then do it for me. Promise." She asked him as he gave me a long frustrated stare before he put his bat up across his shoulder. He let out a sigh and spoke. "For the record, I'm not doing this because of what he said. I'm doing it because I promised I wouldn't show you violence." He said as I finally got into the limo and shut the door. While the limo was driving I sat up on my now blood-stained seats, rubbing my chin. 'I lost to a bunch of insignificant gnats, and when they could've beaten they looked down on me. Patronized me. Showed me mercy. This won't stand. Checkmate Christan, but I'll be back for another game. Just you wait."