Nine, ten, eleven, twelve strokes off the grandfather clock marked it midnight.
Levi M. Strider sat in the living room, practically melting into the couch, watching pointless summer reruns on TV.
It had been a couple weeks since he had last seen Kiro or Catena. He had just woken up and they weren’t around. Gone without a trace…
He had already become accustomed to them not being around that much, but that was usually only a span of two to three days, but this, this was different. They had been gone for at least a month. And, in a way, Levi had been too.
He turned off the TV and leaned forward, rubbing his nose. He blinked a few times, trying to get the sleepiness out of his system. He got up, walking towards his room to go to bed, when a loud rapping on the front door made him turn his head slowly back towards the front of the house.
He precariously walked towards the door to answer it, Who could that be? Hm, maybe it’s Kiro or Catena… He thought to himself.
Grabbing the door’s handle, he slowly pulled it open, only to be greeted by a fist slamming into his nose, sending him flying onto the couch.
He quickly jumped to his feet and cracked his nose back into place, grunting in pain as he did.
“Thank God for my fast healing…” He whispered, then looked up as his attackers strolled into the room.
One held a large ball and chain, no spikes on the thing, thank goodness, but it still looked like it could dish out some damage. The man holding it was tall, maybe six foot four, with dark skin contrasted by his light, cream colored suit.
Two more mercs stood to either side of the big man, both twins.
Both of them wore a grey tank top and torn up, almost white jeans, but both had a different hairstyle. The one on the left had a buzz cut, while the one on the right had a long, flowing mullet… Ew… Both of them held a rusty and old looking machete.
The sound of the back sliding door opening made him turn towards the source. Entering the house were two more mercs. “Just what I needed. More enemies…”
These two were completely different from each other, the kind of people you would think to find at a Comic festival or something…
The one on the right was huge, dressed in the attire of a spartan, plumed helmet, leather shirt and pants over chainmail armor along with some old-school sandals. In his left hand he held a massive two handed broadsword.
The other one held a large rifle, what looked like an Remington 700, in both his hands, with a small knife… A kunai… hooked to his belt.
The one with the rifle took aim, saying, “Alright guy, let’s make this quick…” and pulled the trigger. Levi slowed time, just enough, to tilt his head out of the way of the bullet’s path, making it fly straight in between the right twin’s wide eyes.
Blood splattered over the door as the twin fell to the floor…
The sniper brought his scope down, looking quite shocked. “Oops…” he whispered. Mr. Ball and Chain yelled, “Get ‘im!!!” and whipped his weapon at Levi, who dodged to the right, making the ball zoom past him and slam into the sniper, sending him flying through the glass door, shattering the glass all over the floor out and inside.
He grabbed the chain, yanking the length towards him, making the big guy come flying towards him.
Levi brought his fist up into the guy’s chin and sent him flying into the ceiling with a blisteringly fast uppercut. He actually punched him so hard his head got stuck in the ceiling, where he hung uselessly.
The left (and now only) twin lunged at him, swinging his machete in a horizontal arc at his midsection. Levi fell over backwards and went into a windmill, spinning on his hands and kicking his legs out.
They managed to trip up the twin, and he fell hard to the ground, his machete sliding away.
Levi looked behind him to see the Spartan slashing straight down at him with his claymore. If he got hit, he’d be cleaved in two! He pushed up with his hands, going into a completely vertical handstand just as the sword slashed down in front of him, the blade nicking the tip of his nose.
“Jesus, that was close!” He yelled, Levi pushed off his hands, landing on his feet next to the Spartan who was still struggling to remove his blade from the floor. Levi slammed his elbow into his chin, followed by a kick to the ribs. He spun, bringing his foot to roundhouse kick the enemy, but the spartan caught Levi’s leg and brought his fist up to counterattack.
Levi dodged the punch by a hair, leaping into the air, wrapping both legs around the merc’s neck, as he spun, mid-air, and flung the warrior into the wall next to the front door, sliding down into the bloody mess of the previously living twin.
Levi got up, breathing pretty heavily as the remaining twin managed to land a punch in his gut. Levi coughed violently, spitting up on the twins face. The adversary recoiled, wiping the grime off his face. To see Levi rear back and slam a fist straight into the twin’s nose. He felt bone bite into his knuckles, but adrenaline roared in his ears, and he kept pounding the twin in the face until he had him up against a wall.
Levi lunged forwards, viciously striking the merc in the chest with a ferocious sidekick, kind of like the Joudan Sokutogeri, that kick attack Ryu did in Street Fighter.
The attack was actually so strong the wall cracked behind the twin.
The merc slumped to the ground, unconscious. Levi turned toward the remaining merc, the sniper, just as he was getting up from the broken shards of glass, some of them embedded in his back.
Blood dotted the ground where the sniper had been, and he slowly got to his feet and shouldered his sniper rifle.
Levi rushed forward, flicking his wrist towards himself.
The merc saw him coming and quickly unhooked his kunai to combat Levi with it. Just as he slashed with it, Levi’s own kunai flew into his hand, and he deflected the slash with his own blade, countering with a stab to the eye.
The sniper recoiled, holding his eye with one hand and the blade with the other. Levi smirked, and tossed a smoke bomb at the merc’s feet. It exploding into a ball of dense black and brown smoke.
Levi walked inside, and, instantly feeling the sniper’s presence, walked up behind him…
He tapped his shoulder, and the sniper slashed behind him with the knife.
But Levi jumped before he could even move, swinging his leg in a ferocious kick to the merc’s head, sending him flying out the back door.
Levi landed softly, and absorbed the smoke back into his hand. He walked outside, and took the kunai from the sniper’s unconscious form. Levi grabbed his phone from his room, dialed Kiro, and left a message, explaining the mess for when/if he got back.
He then called the Police, explaining how he’d been attacked in the middle of the night, and how he’d been able to barely fight off the intruders.
The police said they’d be there soon to dispose of the criminals, and that Levi could go to sleep.
He nodded to himself, hung up, stabbed his old and new kunai into the nightstand, and laid on his bed, listening to Idols by Virtual Riot. “We never had music like this in my time…” He said as he fell asleep.