Chapter 2.3
Complying with her request, I began taking off the exoskeleton. Once the fight began, I could always put it back on in a few seconds if I so chose to do so.
"Okay, I took it off." I told her. "Now release her…please."
Sighing, that hateful woman stood up and delivered a harsh kick to Vick, throwing her towards me.
I grabbed her and began helping her up.
"Vick!" I exclaimed, worried, "Are you ok?"
Vick began coughing and blinking her one good eye. "A-avery? What happened? Ufff, feels like I got run over by a truck."
"Vick, listen to me! Listen to me!" I whispered urgently in her ear, "You gotta get out of here now! And-"
I felt someone grab me from behind and pull me away from her.
"That's enough." Luci told me, voice burning with jealousy and her grip on my arm strong like iron. "Stop it: stop talking to her." She then began dragging me towards mother.
Vick, finally having shaken off the drowsiness, gazed at me being dragged away with a horrible and desperate expression. She hesitated for a few moments, her body and instincts telling her to fight and rescue me, but her rational mind telling her to run away and get help.
I looked her in the eyes and silently mouthed, "don't do it. go get help."
Before I could see what Vick's response would be, Luci's hand clamped painfully hard around my mouth and jaw and wrenched my head to look at her. "Hey, did you not understand me?" Luci told me, her eyes taking on a dangerous glint, devoid of all light. "Stop. Talking. To. Her. Do you understand now?"
At that moment, a shiver running down my neck, that survival instinct that all prey animal have had since time immemorial kicked in and I began nodding my head vehemently, trying to appease her. "I'm sorry, Luci. Please don't get angry. She's just a friend. I'm your brother, remember all the good times we had together?" I didn't even know what I was saying, half delirious with fear, I just kept babbling random nonsense.
Luci's grip loosened, becoming gentle and some of the light returned to her eyes. But she didn't fully forgive me and kept dragging me silently.
"Oh, Avery," the thing that was supposed to be my mother said. "You've made such a mess…running away, destroying our home, hurting your sister, the list continues. I know you didn't mean any of this: you can't help yourself from succumbing to your animalistic urges. I think that deep down, you want to be a good boy, that you know you need someone to control you and discipline you."
While she was going on her disgusting monologue, I chanced a look back to see if Vick had managed to leave. I saw her running away, almost at the tree line. She was safe now.
Seeing I was distracted, she was enraged and pulled my hair harshly until I looked at her.
"See this is what I was talking about!" her cold mask of composure and elitism cracked, showing the ugliness beneath. "But a dog like you doesn't understand words." She tugged my hair hard again, eliciting a scream of pain from me, "No, you only understand punishment, the stick, and that's what you'll get. When we get to our new home I will punish you so much that the very thought of defying your betters is purged from-"
At that moment, a sniper rifle shot blew through my mothers chest, causing her to release me and fall down to the floor.
Bat Woman emerged a split second later coming from the shadows behind and tackled Luci to the ground, punching her in the face repeatedly.
I only froze for a second from surprise, but the next I was already running towards my exoskeleton.
Putting it on took me a good dozen seconds and while I was doing that Red Skull kept firing shots at my mother, keeping her down as she healed the damage. Unfortunately after the initial barrage, Bat Woman was frozen in place by Luci. Luci took advantage of this by trying to find a way to remove Bat Woman's helmet or any piece of her armor, so that she could inflict damage, but after she touched something on the hero's neck, a discharge of electricity was emitted and she fell down to the floor convulsing.
By the time I rejoined the fight, Red Skull had run out of ammunition and was reloading and Luci was up and punching Bat Woman's helmet over and over with superstrength, trying to knock her out with brute force.
I was going to attack her from behind, but she heard me coming and turned to look at me, freezing me before I could punch her.
Bat Woman, now unfreezed, came after her instead.
But Luci's power wasn't just stillness, she could control other's movements. She hid behind me and made me fight Bat Woman.
I watched in horror as my own body betrayed me, my fist flying towards the hero that had saved me with all my strength.
Thankfully, she was no amateur and dodged it seamlessly.
Now that she was two against one, Luci began losing. She couldn't control us both at the same time and that meant that we kept sneaking in hits here and there.
But it was at that point that my bullet hole ridden mother joined the fight. Red Skull could only suppress her so much, but at least she was slower and weakened.
"Aveeeeery!" she shrieked, mad with anger, "You think you are smart! You think you are clever! You can't win against ME! That will NEVER happen! You have no idea what you are in for now!" She began laughing maniacally, blood driveling down her mouth as bullets kept hitting her, "Oh just you wait! Just you wait until we are back home… the things I'll do to you!"
My body began trembling with fear at this, sweat falling down my face in thick trails, but I kept fighting on.
Eventually, after a couple long and bloody minutes, we were able to take down Luci, Bat Woman fastened some superstrength resistant bindings to her while I fought of my mother.
I punched her in the stomach with all my force, causing black blood to erupt from her mouth, but she soldiered through it and tried to tackle me to the floor.
I could have maybe avoided that, but watching someone that had the same face as my beloved mother form my previous reality wince with pain threw me off my game, even though I knew they were different people, for a split second I felt guilty and horrified for a second and that was all it took.
We both fell to the ground, her on top of me. She began choking me, her nails digging hard enough to draw blood.
"I made you, Avery!" she snarled, any trace of sanity gone, "I OWN you! You are nothing but my property!"
Even though air was rapidly leaving my lungs, I managed to speak a couple of words of defiance, "Give up…you…crazy…bitch! You…lost!"
My words were like oil to the flames, her eyes becoming even crazier, "I'll never give up!" she tightened her grip on my throat even more, causing me to croak like a dying frog, "Even if you run, I'll chase you until the ends of the earth! You are not human! You are not a person! You are mine! A thing! You will never be free of me! Even if they lock me up, I'll break free! Maybe not tomorrow or the day after, maybe not next month, or next year, but just when you think you won, just when you think that maybe things will be okay now, that day I'll show up and break you delusions! I'll-"
Bat Woman interrupted her rant by hitting her with a high voltage device, knocking her out for good.