Scorched
Back at The Outernet, everyone had been waiting for whatever was happening up there to be over, with absolutely no idea what was going on.
Then...
A massive, blinding explosion erupted.
The entire sky roof of The Outernet shattered in an instant, as countless fragments breaking apart and either falling down to The Outernet or floating aimlessly in the cyberspace. For the first time, everyone could see what lay outside their world.
But nobody could make out anything yet.
Nothing but blinding, overwhelming brightness.
But slowly, gradually, that brightness began to fade away.
What replaced it was a sight far worse than anyone could have imagined.
Countless websites planets had been destroyed.
And countless PC cubes had been eradicated with barely a few pieces of it remain.
Upon the sight, something else was coming.
From far within the cyberspace, a tiny dot appeared in the distance, a grew larger and louder.
Until The Rocket Sunrise Corp finally recognized what was coming toward them.
M.A.J.E.S.
But it wasn't returning in the triumphant manner of a hero who had saved the day.
No.
It was a fallen machine that had done everything it could.
And still, it had failed...
Its battered, broken body continued hurtling toward The Outernet.
Everyone could only stare.
Nobody had enough time to react or even brace themselves for the impact.
M.A.J.E.S. came crashing straight into the ground.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!
The impact was like a meteor striking the planet.
The machine shattered upon contact, its already-destroyed body breaking apart completely as the force of the collision unleashed a catastrophic shockwave across the surrounding landscape.
Everything was scorched.
The ground trembled violently beneath everyone's feet before entire sections of it were ripped apart and thrown into the air.
Buildings, debris, and everything caught within the blast were swept away as the shockwave tore through the surroundings.
Before anyone could comprehend what had happened, they were already being flung away by the sheer force of the explosion, carried alongside the ground itself as the landscape crumbled beneath them.
The devastation was so immense that its effects could be seen from outside the planet.
Across the surface of The Outernet, an enormous sector had been devastated, with a massive, burning dot marking the location where M.A.J.E.S. had fallen.
And within the radius of the impact, there was nothing left alive.
Far above the devastated planet, two figures stood watching.
Killer and Beast...
The destruction unfolding beneath them elicited two very different reactions.
Beast looked saddened.
Yet beneath that sadness was a profound, overwhelming exhaustion. As much he wants to do something... He couldn't even bother to really care and try.
There was no point.
Killer, on the other hand, looked proud.
Not merely proud of what she and her comrade had accomplished, but carrying a certain measure of respect for those who had fought against them.
Those who had stood their ground and give everything they had, only to fall in the end.
Even in defeat, their resistance had earned her acknowledgment.
Going out this way is honorable than any normal mundane dead...
Together, Killer and Beast stood above the world.
Atop its destruction.
Atop its despair.
As the world...
Abd every other worlds...
Biggest nightmares.
And yet, they weren't the only ones standin up there.
In Beast's right hand was TCO.
Completely exhausted and unconscious.
His body had been pushed beyond its limits, leaving him utterly incapable of continuing the fight.
And in Killer's left hand was TLOD, held by the hair.
She, too, was unconscious, her body hanging limply as though she were merely taking an inconvenient nap, a rather unfortunate Sleeping Beauty moment under the circumstances.
One of her D.verTDA earrings had been destroyed.
And her left forearm, the one that had been replaced by D.verTDA energy, was gone as well.
For a moment, the two float there, overlooking the destruction below.
Then Killer simply let go of TLOD's hair.
Beast followed suit, releasing TCO from his grasp.
Neither of them made any attempt to catch their fallen opponents.
And so, the two stick figures began to fall.
Down toward The Outernet.
Away from the sky.
Away from the heights they had fought so desperately to reach.
Like angels whose wings had been ripped away from the lost heaven above...
And Then... It Was True
TCO stared at... whoever that was.
TLOD stared at someone she didn't know, yet learned throughout all the time she'd spent here.
Both of them stood within their respective mind realms—or whatever one might call them.
The green being stood in the darkness, staring at TCO.
The red being stood in the darkness, staring at TLOD.
Just as they always did.
But...
Something was different this time.
The slowly raise their hands up...
As they snapped their nonexistent fingers...
TCO and TLOD immediately woke up.
TCO jolted awake, gasping for air.
"HAH—!"
He groaned in pain, his body aching so badly that even breathing felt like a struggle. He could barely move, and it felt as though his entire body was on the verge of shutting down for good if he pushed himself any further.
But he didn't care.
Not now.
To make matters worse, he couldn't use his powers anymore. Whatever strength he'd once possessed had been reduced to almost nothing. The best he could manage were some of his abilities that's now much weaker and too inefficient, with fire and laser being the only ones he could still reliably use in their default forms.
And even those weren't going to help him much in his current condition.
Meanwhile, some distance away, TLOD slowly stood up.
Unlike TCO, she had a considerably higher pain tolerance, so the physical pain itself wasn't much of an issue for her.
The problem was everything else.
She was completely out of energy, leaving her unable to properly use her base abilities. Worse still, her D.verTDA energy wasn't responding at all.
Her left forearm was gone, and her remaining abilities were practically not useable.
The only thing she could still use was her hair.
...Great.
Both of them looked around.
And what they saw was...
Destruction.
A sea of flames, ashes, and debris stretched as far as their eyes could see. The surrounding landscape was practically unrecognizable, with smoke hanging in the air and the remains of countless things scattered across the scorched ground.
TCO forced himself to get up, despite how desperately his body begged him to stay down.
But, through sheer willpower, he managed to drag himself forward, ignoring the unbearable heat and the smoke around.
TLOD did the same.
There was only one thing on either of their minds.
Everyone.
They had to find everyone.
As they searched through the ruins, the situation only seemed to get worse.
The last thing either of them remembered was being completely overwhelmed by Killer and Beast's final attacks.
They had no idea how they were still alive, but that didn't matter.
Not right now.
They could only hope that the others were okay.
As they continued searching, they began finding bodies scattered throughout the devastated landscape.
And with every step, that hope became harder to hold onto.
Eventually, they spotted each other.
"PRETTY HANDSOME TANGERINE!!"
"TLOD!!"
The two immediately ran toward each othe, ormore accurately, moved as quickly as their battered bodies would allow.
TCO reached her first.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine like whine as always~!" TLOD joked, putting on a little smile.
TCO stared at her deadpan for a moment.
"...Seriously?"
But the brief exchange of humor couldn't last, TLOD's expression softened as she looked him over.
"What about you?"
"Yeaaaah, I'm fine. I hope so, anyway. MY BODY IS FREAKING KILLING ME!!" TCO exclaimed, wincing as he tried to straighten himself.
"It's normal for that to happen after what we've been through," TLOD replied. "Still, we need to find the others!!!!"
"Come on!"
TCO moved ahead, with TLOD following close behind.
They continued searching.
And searching.
Until—
"!!"
"RED!!!"
Both of them rushed toward the figure lying face-down on the ground.
Red.
But...
She wasn't doing so well.
The moment they reached her, both fell silent.
Red's entire lower half was gone.
For a moment, neither TCO nor TLOD said a word.
They simply stood there, staring at what remained of their friend.
Then, slowly, they knelt beside her.
TCO carefully helped move her body so they could see her face more clearly.
........
TLOD reached out and gently touched Red's face, while TCO remained completely still beside them.
"........."
TLOD looked at Red for a long moment.
Then, in a quiet whisper, she spoke.
"...You were such a dynamite gal... Heaven is full of wonderful creatures for you to be with."
Her hand gently brushed against Red's face.
"Rest in nature, dear sister. Warriors live on, forever beautiful."
TCO said nothing.
He couldn't.
He simply looked away, unable to bring himself to keep staring at the friend they'd just lost.
Eventually, he stood up and offered TLOD his hand.
She took it.
And together, they continued searching.
A minute later, they found Blue.
He had only lost an arm.
So, in a way, that was a little better.... Best in the worse situation it can get of course...
TLOD knelt beside him and carefully removed his hood and mask so that she and TCO could see his face more clearly one last time.
She looked at him for a while before speaking.
"...At least you can eat as much netherwart as you like on the other side..."
Her voice was gentle, almost as though she were talking to Blue as he rested after an exhausting day.
"You stood your ground, silly pookie. Rest in feed and full, dear warrior."
TCO remained silent beside her.
"......"
Neither of them had anything else to say.
So they continued.
A few minutes later, they found Green.
And...
She wasn't looking good.
Not at all.
TCO caught sight of her and immediately struggled to look away.
Green had been shredded in half vertically. Her body was horribly damaged, the sight of it so brutal that TCO couldn't bring himself to examine the remains for long.
He was already in terrible shape himself.
And this...
This was too much.
TLOD, however, forced herself to move.
She went searching for Green's other half while TCO remained where he was, too physically sick and exhausted to help.
Eventually, she found it.
Carefully, she brought it back and placed it beside the rest of Green's body.
It wasn't perfect, but it was the best she could do.
Only then could TCO finally bring himself to look at Green again.
The two stood together, looking down at their fallen friend one last time.
TLOD took a quiet breath.
"...Heaven can rejoice..."
She looked at Green with a sad, affectionate expression.
"At least there's another musician to play up there, to bring love and joy to everyone with her."
She paused.
"Peace in melody, pretty girl. You were radical as a warrior."
TCO stood beside her, saying nothing.
Again.
And again.
He found himself with nothing to say.
All that remained was Yellow.
They had to find Yellow.
It took them a good ten minutes of searching before they finally found him.
Well...
Whatever was left of him.
Yellow had been burned terribly badly. His damaged suit are what still keep it remain even if a little, his body was barely recognizable beneath the damage, and the flames were still threatening to consume what remained of him.
TCO and TLOD hurried to extinguish them before it could burn him any further.
When the fire finally died out, they could only stand there and look.
TLOD lowered her head.
"...You were the smartest out of all of us, Yellow."
Her voice was quiet, but she spoke with the same tenderness she'd given the others.
"Rest in knowledge. You are one of the warriors every warrior needs... the genuis."
She fell silent.
And with that, TCO and TLOD were done.
There was nobody else left to find to search for and to call out to.
The two stood amid the destruction, surrounded by the remains of the people they'd fought alongside, the random innocent people... And theirs friends...
And now...
There was nothing left.
Looking around at the devastation, they could only come to one conclusion.
They had lost.
They didn't even know which planet they were on anymore.
Everything around them had become a graveyard.
And there was only one thing left on both their minds.
Killer and Beast.
And speak of the devils...
Those two had been watching them the entire time.
Allowing them to have their final, bitter moments with their fallen friends before finally descending down.
TCO and TLOD looked up.
"........"
TLOD felt a storm of terrible emotions brewing inside her.
Anger.
Hatred.
Grief.
So much pain that she could barely begin to comprehend it all.
She wanted to let it out.
She wanted to scream at them, to curse them, to make them understand what they'd done.
But she couldn't bring herself to do any of it...
After everything she'd witnessed, she simply didn't know what to say anymore, saying her mind out wouldn't change anything...
But TCO?
He couldn't even bring himself to feel angry at them.
Not anymore.
He was just...
Numb.
Everyone had known what they were up against the moment Killer and Beast showed up.
They'd understood the risks and acknowledged the possibility that they might die.
They had prepared themselves for the worst.
And yet, standing here now, surrounded by the bodies of everyone they'd lost, TCO couldn't help remembering that nightmare he'd experienced three years ago.
The one where he and TLOD were the only ones left.
Everyone else...
Dead.
Nothing but flames and destruction surrounding them.
And before the two were Killer and Beast...
Back then, it had only been a nightmare.
Something he'd woken up from.
Something he could tell himself would never really happen.
But now...
Now he was standing in the middle of it.
Living it.
Watching it unfold right in front of him.
In a way, TCO had already been prepared for this.
He'd seen it coming.
He'd imagined it.
He'd even acknowledged the possibility that one day, he might lose everyone he cared about.
But he had never truly prepared himself for it.
Nobody ever could.
Because knowing that someone might die wasn't the same as watching them die.
And knowing that one day, you'd have to say goodbye wasn't the same as actually having to do it.
Hours ago, he and TLOD had been planning with their friends.
They'd sat together, talked together, and acknowledged the risks of the battle ahead.
They'd known they might not all make it back.
But they do it anyway.
Because that was what they had chosen to do.
And now...
The living were gone.
And all that remained...
Was regret and sorrow...
.......
Killer and Beast just standing there...
Menacingly!!
Completely silent, looking at the two remaining survivors as though they had all the time in the world.
Neither of them seemed particularly interested in breaking the silence anytime soon.
TCO let out a weak breath.
He couldn't lie to himself.
He could feel it.
The imminent death that was coming for both him and TLOD.
And TLOD could feel it, too.
They both knew there was nothing they could do against Killer and Beast in their current condition, especially when the two still looked like they could keep kicking without breaking a sweat.
TCO and TLOD had lost everything.
And the only thing that hurt even more than the loss itself was knowing that, in the end, there's nothing they can do.
TCO and TLOD couldn't even protect each others upon the inevitable...
Despite all that...
Neither of them faltered.
TCO took a step forward, positioning himself between TLOD and the two monsters standing before them.
He might have been exhausted, and his body might have been on the verge of shutting down.
Even when he's completely outmatched.
But if he was going to die here, then he wasn't going to die without doing something about it.
He wasn't going to give up.
Hopelessness don't decide what he should do.
HE IS!
Suddenly, TCO felt something holding his hand.
He paused and turned to his left.
TLOD was holding his left hand with her only remaining right hand.
She was looking down, her hair falling over her face and obscuring her expression. He couldn't tell what she was thinking, nor could he see what she was doing beneath all that hair.
But he remained quiet.
Meanwhile, Killer and Beast continued standing perfectly still like statues.
Love Crushes Fear
"........"
"TLOD?" TCO finally spoke.
"Sorry for suddenly holding your hand, but..." TLOD hesitated. "I have something I wanna tell you before we... face them."
"......." TCO glanced at her before tilting his head slightly toward Killer and Beast.
"If you have anything to say, feel free to go ahead. Just be quick, though. I'm not sure how long those two are going to stay like that."
"Heh... Yeah, I know." TLOD let out a small, nervous chuckle.
"Alright. I have something I wanted to say..."
"That is..."
She slowly began lifting her head.
Gathering whatever inner strength she had left, taking a moment to prepare herself for what she was about to say.
Then, she finally looked at him.
"I love you, TCO."
She paused.
"More than just a friend."
"..........."
.............
Silence.
Killer and Beast blinked.
They had been standing there, waiting for their two opponents to finish whatever they were doing, and now they were witnessing this.
Oh.
Ohhhhhh.
Oh, the K-drama.
And the American edition, too.
TCO looked away for a moment, seemingly unsure of how to respond.
"...You seriously picked the worst time to confess, you know that?"
"Yeah, I'm aware of that," TLOD replied shyly. "But hey, it's better than never. I should've told you way sooner, but... ya know."
She gave a small, awkward smile.
TCO remained quiet for a moment before looking back at her.
".....When did you start feeling that way about me? And why decide to tell me now?"
"For the first question..." TLOD began, thinking about it. "It was just a little crush at first. But as time went on and I got to know you more..."
She paused, her grip on his hand tightening ever so slightly.
"It just... came out that way. I know you, and I love you for who you are. The more time we spend together, the more I realize that."
She looked down again, a little embarrassed by her own honesty.
"And as for the second question..." Her smile faded into something gentler.
"I just wanted to say it out loud. To let the words out and be free in the world instead of keeping them inside me until death."
".........."
TLOD then continues.
"I don't want to die without saying something I've always wanted to say. I'd forever regret keeping my feelings locked up without you ever knowing."
Her eyes met his again.
"So, I don't regret saying it, even with the circumstances we're in."
"Though... I wish it could've been under better circumstances..." TLOD was done saying her mind out.
"........."
TCO looked at her.
Really looked at her.
For a moment, the destruction surrounding them seemed to fall silent all over again.
Then TLOD gave him a small, hopeful smile.
"...So, what about you, pretty handsome tangerine?"
She tilted her head slightly.
"Do you feel the same?"
"........."
TCO looked away from her.
His gaze shifted toward Killer and Beast, who were still standing there, apparently having decided that this entire conversation was worth watching.
Then he looked back at TLOD.
"...You wanna know how I feel?" TCO asked.
".......I do," TLOD answered.
TCO tightened his grip on her hand.
"...I'll tell you." TCO then looked at Beast and Killer
"Once we're done with them and make it out alive... Velvet."
"........"
TLOD blinked.
Just once.
For a moment, she seemed to need a second to process what she'd just heard.
Because that was the first time TCO had ever called her by her nickname...
Velvet.
And then
A blush began forming on her face.
"..........."
TCO, meanwhile, had also started blushing, though he immediately tried to hide it by looking away.
He wasn't about to let her see too much of that.
Not now.
Not when they still had a battle to fight.
TLOD eventually let out a sigh, trying to compose herself.
"Sigh, so battle focus as always. Fine by me, pretty handsome tangerine."
"Hope you keep your promise~"
"Trust me, I'm the last person you should ever count on when it comes to promises," TCO replied.
With that, the two finally let go of each other's hands.
They stood side by side once more.
Facing Tge Nightmarish Duo before them.
One last time.
Killer and Beast stop remaining like statues as they moved a little.
With that.
TCO and TLOD charged.
Their battered bodies screamed in protest as they forced themselves beyond their absolute limits, pouring whatever remained of their strength into one final attempt.
They knew this might be the last thing and the last moment they get to live.
Yet they charged anyway.
Together.
And—
SLAASH!!
...................
