by Chewy Walrus and Grimm
A gloved fist landed its intended punch as a deafening roar echoed through the all-but-empty Castle of Crossed Destinies. As Zachary "the Leviathan" Knell doubled back, Grimm saw his next opportunity, delivering another solid punch to the beast's midsection.
A massive hand unexpectedly knocked him away, sending him into a large pillar, cracking it under the strain of the biker's bulk. If Grimm still had a face to wipe blood from, he'd have surely needed to after that blow.
But still, the biker from hell rose as quickly as possible, cracking his neck as he stood. Across the large room was one of the fiercest competitors he'd ever faced... and after what seemed like hours of battle, which had taken them from the forest where they began, and into what looked like a massive mural room, Dr. Zachary Knell showed no signs of letting up anytime soon. The monster rose again, extending his arm, motioning with his index finger for Grimm to give him his best shot.
Happy to oblige, the MBL Consulting rookie charged, head down, toward the burly behemoth. A scream erupted from the man's throat as he ran. The blood rushed through his body, pure adrenaline being delivered to every part of him. His attack run was stopped short as Knell delivered a quick jab to the man's solar plexus.
Grimm dropped to the floor like a brick falling from a Harrier jet, clutching his chest as he fell. The pain in his chest was so sharp that he couldn't hear Knell cackling as the scientist ripped a pillar from its moorings. Not quite over the excruciating agony, Grimm stumbled to his feet, readying himself for a further attack.
Without a sound, Knell swung the pillar out from his side like a bat, sending the hurt Grimm through an ornately decorated wall.
Knell smiled as he flung the pillar toward the wall and licked his lips with his long, wet tongue. "It'sss good to finally get what it isss that you want," he hissed in orgasmic satisfaction. That little pipsqueak had been finally eradicated. Slowly, the Leviathan began to diminish in size until he was once again his human self.
"Now, a quick word with Smith, and I shall attend to the rest of those pesky... Revolutionaries."
"I think not!" a defiant voice roared from one of the collapsed walls. Knell turned suddenly, and as he did, his body rippled as scales began to replace flesh, as muscles suddenly bulged, and as fingernails turned to talons and teeth to fangs.
By the wreckage of the wall stood Grimm, still holding his chest but standing defiantly, his axe now in his right hand. "I believe we have some business to attend to first," the biker said, his deadpan stare ever present on his ghoulish face.
"Can't you people ever die?" Knell asked, baring his claws and fangs. "It may be sssomething you might consssider sssomeday..."
"Been there, done that, you creepy croc," Grimm said, lowering his hand from his chest and slowly walking toward Knell. The scientist watched warily as the man's axe spun in his hand and the fingers on his other began to tighten.
However, both men stopped as a rumbling sound began to shake the mural-filled room.
"What isss thisss?" Knell hissed violently, the tremors all but knocking him to the floor.
"What the hell?" Grimm asked, looking around the room as his arm reached for a nearby pillar.
Suddenly, and without warning, the wall opposite where Grimm had just appeared -- one holding a mural of a breathtaking celestial scene -- was torn apart by four large pincers.
"Holy shit," Grimm whispered to himself.
As the wall fell, two menacing beasts, seeming to come from the pits of Hell itself, entered the room, their large pincers snapping wildly. Knell recognized the faces of the men. Grimm remembered what they called themselves and would have smiled, if he could have, at the irony of their appearance.
Amid the freshly demolished wall, the men who had previously been known as the Scorpion brothers stood menacingly. Their bodies, through Ma Kalunga's twisted magicks, were transformed into those of actual scorpions. Their torsos and faces remained unchanged, but their arms now resembled scorpion pincers, and from their middles sprang eight legs with a large spiked tail coming from the back. Neither of the brothers looked very happy to see either Grimm or Knell.
"Temporary truce?" Grimm called, walking up to where Knell stood.
"Ssscrew you," the scientist answered, tossing the biker directly at the Red Scorpion.
I'll remember that, Grimm thought as he hurled toward the outstretched pincers of the Red Scorpion. As the pincers moved to grab him, he deflected them with his axe while kicking the scorpion creature in the face. Blood and saliva mixed together in Red Scorpion's mouth as the thing tried to rub its jaw and failed. It screamed in defiance at Grimm.
The Blue Scorpion moved toward Knell, who was salivating at the prospect of finishing off so many of his enemies at one time.