by Chewy Walrus
The now-defiant persona of Grimm stood, axe in hand, stood between Dr. Zachary Knell and Dirk Bell with the Scorpion brothers close at hand. If at all possible, Grimm's eyes would have narrowed as he stared down the three unsightly monsters standing before him.
"Now," he whispered in his defiance, "someone's gonna pay."
"That," Knell hissed in return, "isss mossst unlikely."
"Be that as it may," Dirk said with a smirk, slumped onto the ground, loading another clip into his gun, "I like to play against unbeatable odds."
"When you ssstack the oddsss, my friend," Knell snarled, "you are mossst likely to lossse."
"A chance I'm more than willing to take," Dirk said, taking aim and firing a shot at Knell that ricocheted off, grazing the face of the Red Scorpion, who roared in displeasure.
"Stick with the Scorpions," Grimm called back to Dirk. "I'll handle gecko-boy."
"I am a ssscientissst, dear boy," an offended Knell said, spreading his arms in welcome of Grimm's attack. "A ssscientissst and a leviathan. Not a 'gecko' or a 'boy'!" Knell leapt at Grimm, slamming the large man into the floor with his large feet. "Get the dissstinction?"
Grimm grunted as he swung his club at Knell, who jumped to avoid it, landing squarely on Grimm's ribcage. The biker from Hell writhed in pain as he felt his ribs beginning to crack, maybe even rupture, due to the weight of the beast.
A few feet away, Dirk fired shots at the Scorpion brothers, hitting them square in their chests. Still, they kept on coming. "If this were some kind of normal place," Bell sighed heavily, reloading again, "I'd be pretty fucking surprised by all this."
The man rolled out of the way as the Blue Scorpion dropped his giant tail, punching a hole in the floor where Dirk lay mere moments before. "That was too close," Dirk sighed, rolling again as the Red Scorpion brought down its tail with similar results.
"There's a trick to this..." Bell muttered as his eyes darted from Scorpion to Scorpion. "And I think I may have found it." Every muscle and bone in Dirk's body screamed as he pulled himself to his feet. The pain flowing through him was almost unbearable, but the gunslinger merely gritted his teeth, still following the Scorpions with his eyes.
The Blue Scorpion clicked an arachnoid message to the Red Scorpion -- a challenge from the way Dirk understood the tone. The Red chirped back, annoyed, but assumed a position to Dirk's right as his brother fell in to his left.
Dirk spun his guns around on his fingers, carefully studying trajectory and velocity, all in a matter of seconds. He smiled knowingly as the Scorpions each crouched into position, raising their tails above their heads in preparation to strike.
At that moment, Dirk leapt into the air, spinning as he jumped. To his left, a spiked blue tail found its mark, piercing a red-armored thorax. To his right, a similar red tail found a similar home in a sea of blue.
Dirk spun himself horizontally in midair as two pairs of giant pincers soared above and below him. Each set chopped away at the almost already-pierced, armored midsection of the other Scorpion.
A scream of pure adrenaline rushed out of Dirk's lips as he took aim with his two guns. Two shots ran out simultaneously as one, and each found their mark.
Within minutes, the two Scorpion brothers lay dead on the floor of the Castle of Crossed Destinies, poison dripping from their chests, large gashes on their sides, and a bullet hole perfectly nestled between their eyes.
Dirk Bell hit the ground with his knee, hard. The sharp pain as his kneecap dislocated sent the man sprawled onto his back. Gripping his knee for only a second, Bell's attention was turned to the sounds of another skirmish, that of Grimm and Dr. Knell.
Wincing as he whacked his kneecap, thus sliding it into place, Dirk stood, trembling, to his feet. He walked, limping horribly, toward the spot where Grimm was being pummeled without any mercy.
The skull that comprised the man's head had been cracked in two places. His clothes had been all but ripped away by Knell's razor sharp talons. The axe that he once held in his hand was now sticking out of a splintered pillar almost a hundred yards away. But still, Grimm fought on. No words were shared between the two duelers, only punches.
Dirk arrived in time to see Grimm swatted away effortlessly by the roaring Knell. The man was instantaneously buried in rubble as the pillars he slammed into gave way, burying him in twelve feet of marble and granite.
"That ssshould teach you a lessson, boy," Knell said smiling and licked his lips with his long tongue.
"Not so fast, you reptile scum!" Bell yelled out, loudly. "Your ass is mine!"
"I think not," Knell said, leaping over to where Bell stood. Before the man could even fire a shot, Knell's fist connected with his jaw, breaking it. Another fist collided with Bell's stomach. The man could sense organs rupturing and internal bleeding beginning. A third blow knocked Dirk's feet out from under him, possibly breaking his right leg.
"You are in no condition to fight me now, mortal," Knell huffed, now returned to his human form. "You fought well, but in all honesty, you fought foolishly."
Suddenly, a resounding THWACK! sounded as Knell dropped to the ground, unconscious. As Dirk's blurred vision began to clear up, he recognized the battered form of Sam Dawson, standing behind Knell, his right hand in the form of a tack hammer.
"Sh-Shham...?" Bell replied weakly, struggling to speak through his broken jaw.
"Don't try to move," Sam said, a bit fatigued himself. "I'm gonna get Grimm out from under those rocks... then he and I'll get you the hell out of here."
"Shounds gooh," was the only thing Bell could manage before everything went dark.