Episode 4-3: Love Love

A fountain, a landmark, I should know it, but it's not coming to mind. Plenty of people here, and Love Love is posing in front of it while staring me down. He thinks he's already won. He looks at me with pity, a condescending tone, he thinks he's better than us. My gun won't work, but I'm happy to beat the narcissism out of this guy with my fists alone.

"Agent Hearth, once so pretty, now a mural of suffering. How it must feel to have such beauty wrestled away from you through brutal violence and a lack of empathy. Tell me, are you used to being treated like a fragile princess? Was this day different for you?"

"Love Love. I left my boyfriend a convulsing mess just to meet you here. You probably feel like a guest of honor right now."

"What do you plan to do to me? Will you hurt me? Kill me in hopes of saving Clyde? Could that work? I don't know."

The ground beneath me shakes with the steps I take toward him. I know I'm not frightened, but I'm afraid I have unrestrained anger. What if I do kill him and it doesn't fix Clyde? I wouldn't even know how to get him help. "I'm trained in many styles of martial arts. I think you've earned my Feral Stand."

"Feral Stand? They taught a cute little thing like you Feral Stand?"

Feral Stand is a barbaric form of fighting involving claws and vital striking. Only Primendians can use this style, Humans lack the components. It's lethal, and unpracticed throughout official tournaments. A martial artist like Clyde would never revert to it, it's considered disgraceful to the art and competition. Love Love has earned every gash I plan to give him.

He slowly steps down from the fountain and meets me on floor level. "Mr. Hearth, I'm not trained in a single martial art. I don't think this is very fair. Maybe we can settle this through debate."

The bastard has a charming smile and is completely calm setting eyes on my bloody and boiled body. What's his game? If he can't fight, why isn't he running away from me? Is there another trick Crazy4U can do that I don't know about? An ambush by him is expected, that's how he got us in the first place.

"Not a chance," I crack my knuckles and roll my shoulders, "I lost my favorite body part because of you. I won't give you the chance to mutate."

Love Love made the mistake of getting too close to me. I dash and pounce on the front of his body, but he remains standing, carrying my body weight as I latch onto his shirt and put my feet on him to stabilize. With my right and righteous hand, I pull back and launch my claws straight for his throat, aiming for the jugular for a quick kill. My claws are sharp enough to rip through skin with a simple graze. When I focus power on them like this, they might as well be a steel knife cutting into meat.

Twang!

My claws. They bounced off of his throat as if I hit metal. There's not a scratch on him, no blood, and it's not even red from the pressure. What's going on? The relic always allowed me to deal damage using physical prowess. Why is this different? Why can't I damage him at all?

"More tricks!?"

"Surely you never thought the relic was going to allow an icon of beauty such as myself succumb to physical violence, did you? What a tragedy it would be to see my face lose its structure."

I drop off of him and try to dig my claws into his stomach, but the same thing happens. Nothing I do is going to hurt him. I don't get it. How is he supposed to feel the pain or receive damage? "Invincibility!? Now you're just cheating." I don't stop my attacks, I switch to Kung-Fu, Jeet Kune Do, Taekwondo, and Karate, but it all fails.

As every attack bounces off of him, he laughs in my face. "I want to call for a parley."

"In your dreams!" Another slash from my claw sliding across his face creates sparks, a nearby trashcan lights on fire. I stop attacking, breathe in deep air, and feel my ribs ache. "If not by violence, then I'll find something to put you down. I've got all day to figure it out, I'll keep giving Clyde the slip if I have to."

"Speaking of which, is that bloody mess over there your boy toy?"

I spin around and see Clyde, his skull is slightly concave from the frying pan incident. Other than that, he looks ready to hunt me down all over again. I have to run, again, and let Love Love go.

"You gave me quite the bruise, you wildly one. I'm glad I found you. When I woke up, you were missing again. Luckily, your foot is bleeding pretty badly, it led me right to you."

I might not be able to hurt Love Love, but I can still grab him and hold him in place. I force him to be a wall between me and Clyde, but he doesn't seem worried. He's either got a lot of trust in Crazy4U, or he is underestimating me. I'll show him what I'm willing to do.

"Oh, Clyde! I hate that you had to find us like this!" I say, putting on a dainty voice like a princess in a movie. "The truth is, I've fallen for Love Love, he's much more handsome and muscular than you! So please, leave us be, it's for the best."

"What? Honey, what are you saying? I still love you. I'm madly in love with you. You can't leave me for another man. I can do better." Clyde starts to approach us, his body still hunched in submission, but his chest is puffing out. He's getting angry, I just have to snap him out of the puppy love phase. Get him jealous enough to hurt Love Love.

Love Love puts his hands up. "Relax, doggy, I'm not his. He's telling you lies to make you fall even more in love with him through jealousy. He truly just wants to see what you're willing to do to fight for it."

"Wrong," I say, "I really am leaving you for Love Love. I'll prove it to you right now." I spin him around and clutch him by his arms, dragging down his body and forcing him into a strong kiss with me. I can hear Clyde, and even some of the standing public, gasp like a soap opera just hit its climax.

Love Love pulls away looking none too happy about the spicy action. "Ugh! How dare you put your lips on me! I…I—" He wipes his lips with his sleeve, but something red stains it. A part of his cheek became weirdly soft and mushy, sliding off and dropping to the floor in a grotesque fashion. "What is happening? How?"

I back away, keeping my eyes on Clyde and Love Love. "A little kiss did that much damage? This is the weirdest form of attack I've ever seen."

He continues to gently pat the missing flesh with the tip of his fingers. Suddenly, his whole body is thrown to the side as Clyde charges past him and right for me. I barely have time to duck between his legs and let him fall into the fountain.

His head peeks out of the water, his eyes are narrow and fearsome. "I refuse to let you go, Troy Hearth. Your mine, and nobody else's. I'll keep your corpse in my closet if I have to."

Somehow I have to flirt with Love Love while trying not to get killed. I should—hey wait!

Love Love is running away into the building the fountain sits in front of. It looks important, maybe some sort of event center. I watch him push past people, knocking them off the stairs and receiving plenty of hateful things addressed to him. I follow, and the splashing of water makes me panic and hurry along quicker.

I shove along the crowd too and catch up to him running up the stairs to some sort of party. People are dressed in elegant gowns and fancy tuxes. A wedding? No, a banquet for some company. Food, speeches, dancing, I think they're celebrating a record profit or something.

"We're not dressed for this," Clyde shouts behind me, "but I'd love to dance with you regardless."

"Ugh, this would've been our first if it wasn't so forced!"

Love Love, still holding his cheek, tries to open a door to hide in, but his trembling hand covered in blood keeps slipping over it. I catch up to him, but rather than pulling him down to the floor for a beating, I instead open the door for him and bow.

"After you, gorgeous," I say. I peek at him and see the look of terror. He turns to run in the other direction, more skin falling off of his chest. It's working, but this is disgusting to watch. Clyde catches up to me, I have to expertly dodge him to let him trip into the room. I slam the door shut, but there's no lock on the outside. Not sure what room this is, but he won't be stuck for long.

I pull a table with food and drinks on it to block the door. The people look at me, appalled and judgemental. I don't care, not this time. A hard bang on the door makes me take an early leave. Love Love is asking for some medical assistance, and someone is putting a medkit down on a table for him.

I sneak behind the table and pull up the sheet to hide underneath it. I don't know how Clyde is finding me, but this hiding spot will probably only be good for about a minute. I watch Love Love's ridiculous boots shuffling around as he messes with the equipment. When he takes a step forward, I pop out and grab his hand as he reaches for something. He screams, but I'm already planting a kiss on the back of his hand.

"You are a symbol of beauty like Aphrodite."

"No!"

His tooth pops out and lands on my nose. Several more front teeth pop out as his mouth starts to profusely bleed. He covers it with a hand and runs away again, leaving his medical supplies trailing in his wake. A loud crash where I left Clyde erupts, and the whole room panics. Cops are called, and I have to slip out and hope Clyde gets arrested and taken away. We can always pull strings with Ispio to get him out later.

I slide down the stair rails just in time to watch Love Love exiting the building and heading off into the street again. I hate to see it, but I undo my jacket, get close enough, and throw it in a puddle on the street so that Love Love's boots won't be wet. He doesn't even notice it, but he does lose an ear when it happens. He doesn't even need to be aware of the flirting, it still damages him.

Before I can follow his lead, Clyde's hand wraps around my fluffy tail and pulls me back. I throw my leg over my tail and face him. "Fuck! I don't even let you do this without a relic power influencing you. Hands off the tail!"

"I won't lie to you, my love, you're starting to irritate me with all of this running away. We're in New York City, let's go sightseeing and eat crazy foods like we're regular tourists."

"When I yank that stupid string out of your stomach, I promise we'll come back and do it all without almost dying every five minutes. If you're not going to let me go, then I'll…"

"Is that Feral-Stand? You know I hate that style, but it looks good on you."

This is bullshit, but I'm done wasting time following Love Love. I use my claws to swipe at the base of my own tail. The cut is painful and very deep, leaving stringy meat as the only thing still attaching it to my butt. I have to swipe again, or else the first wouldn't even count for anything. I grit my teeth and slash again, my whole tail pops off in a bloody streak. Tingling needles shoot through my back; the nanobots can't work fast enough to block this great pain out.

I'm free! Clyde falls to his butt in a daze with my bleeding tail still in his hands. The people's screams annoy me at this point. I have to chase again, leaving more blood for Clyde to follow. This is impossible, I'm never going to stop the leaking, Clyde is always going to keep finding me.

Love Love slipped away, but he ran to a less populated area. A street with just a few people walking around. He continues to hold onto his missing ear, shaking in rage and fear at watching his visage turn sickly.

"Don't worry, you're still beautiful in my eyes," I tell him.

He shrieks, more skin falls off. "Enough! You win! Stop!"

"Aww, is someone getting shy? That's cute."

"Ow! You have to stop with the flirting! I'm turning into a zombie over here!"

"Give it up, I found your weakness. You're going to turn Clyde back to normal, and we're going to take you to Ispio's jail cells and study your body through extensive and painful experiments."

Heavy footsteps behind me make me look, Clyde walks with my tail between his fingers. I'm not scared anymore, I'm about to end this. I turn back around, Love Love is shaking in a crouched sit, his head between his knees.

"You can stay right there, too, you big lug. You'll be back to normal in no time."

More footsteps surround me. The street that had so few people now holds several that can form a tiny mob. They're all looking at me. What's going on?

"Everyone back away, this is an official authority matter!" I scream at them. They seem to join Clyde's side, their faces looking very similar to his; strange trance-like expressions with illuminating eyes. But how? I thought Crazy4U was a power that can only affect one person at a time.

"I knew you were famous, but to have all these Adoring Fans? I'm very jealous," Love Love says, his voice still shaky from the crying. "I mean, just look at them. They're very eager to meet you. Maybe pat your fur, feel your hair, smell your perfumes. And here comes more!"

The crowd grows bigger with every person showing up. How could Crazy4U affect all of these people at the same time? I thought it was a hair strand hiding in Clyde's stomach. Did it mutate?

"How can Crazy4U do this?"

"I really don't know. I don't even know if its name is still Crazy4U. Adoring Fan keeps running through my head. That must be its new name. Isn't that incredible?"

"That thing can talk to you? I just thought Feather Flight was weirdly sentimental about Den of Lions."

"I hope your autograph arm is uninjured, you'll be here a while. I won't distract you, I'll be on my way."

He gets up and starts to walk away, and once I take even one step to follow, more people coming from the opposite direction step in front of me and let Love Love go through them like a water wake from a jet ski.

Clyde alone decimated my body when he got a hold of me. I can't picture a scene where a whole mob grabs me and I come out alive. If I'm caught, I'll be torn into several pieces.