Black Market Merchant

Chapter 141: Bulky
Connor swallowed the ominous blue pill in a single gulp. Giving a satisfied sigh and smiling at Queen with a wild look, Connor prepared for its affects. In response, Queen then took up her Ap Kubi stance and prepared for what her opponent might do next.

”Let’s see what you can do to entertain us next!” Connor stated menacingly. He then shoved the black metal case into Sean’s chest. ”Hurry up and dope up. This is turning out fun.”

”Easy for you to say.” Patrick called out in pain as his dislocated shoulder lay uselessly by his side.

”Hold still.” Sean complained to Patrick while handing him the black case. ”Now grit your teeth.”

Sean then grabbed the useless arm with one hand under Patrick’s armpit and the other by his neck to hold him in place. Then Sean gave a quick jolting shove. Patrick groaned and cursed between his teeth as he grimaced in pain. His brother’s actions had relocated the shoulder letting him return to the fight.

”That won’t happen again. I’ll destroy her!” Patrick growled opening the black case. He then took out a blue pill and swallowed it.

”Let’s see what color you are on the inside!” Connor shouted and charged at Queen with renewed confidence.

Queen was ready for him. She was expecting a change like Golems Inducement change, but this didn’t seem the same. Connor looked the same as he did before. It seemed that not all Inducements were similar and varied in activation speed.

Connor swung swiftly down at her with his axe, and to Queen, the blade’s approaching edge seemed slow. Her Stage One Advanced Armament let her reactions feel to be nearly instantaneous. She slapped at the overhead axes side with a sideways open palm and it past by her and to take out a chunk of stage in a dusty plum. Using the motion of the palm slap, Queen spun around and struck at Connors side with a spinning back fist.

The feeling of her impact was solid, and she could hear his breath escaping from him. Connor staggered backwards as Queen was about to follow up with a jab to his head. However, something was off. Connor wasn’t looking like a winded man should, and an enthusiastic grin was plastered on to his face. Queens jab stopped warily midway, but she might have been too late.

Swinging with one hand, Connors axe came flying back up at Queen from the ground. The black shinny blade crashed into Queen as she attempted to retract her right arm to try and block the sudden swing. The heavy axe smashed into her outstretched arm, hard, sending her spinning away across the stage.

The crowd erupted into a shout of amazement at the sudden turn of events. The Triplets had finally landed a critical hit to Queen. Sadie was on her feet now and she was worriedly gripping the fence to see if Queen was indeed in danger. Hanna looked on wide eyed and her shocked, fearful expression was covered by the mask. Everyone was surprised though, not because of the strike, but that no blood was coming from Queen!

Queen knew she had been hit and that she didn’t take it well. Luckily, she felt no pain yet. Weather due to the adrenaline in her or that it only hit the prosthetic arm armor. Coming to a standstill and lying on stage, Queen grasped the area that was hit, and her heart sank.

That same area was the part that had been previously damaged back when she fought the Twisted and was once again messed up. The metal armor on her arm hadn’t been punctured, but it was caved in instead. A long caved-in section ran nearly ten centimeters horizontally along her arm and bits of skin colored paint was chipped away. Clinching her fist, she was annoyed to see that her pinky finger was now immobilized and would not close. Some circuits or wires were definitely broken or pinched.

However, she had no time to figure out what to do. Connor was already bearing down onto her. He chopped at her while aiming for her injured arm again or to decapitate her. Stepping back to avoid the strike, Queen quickly backpedaled across the stage as Connor chased after her.

As this was going on, Patrick got back up on his feet to shout, ”I wanna get her first Connor!” Then tossing aside the black case, he ran for his tossed axe.

”Hey! Would it kill you to hand me the case? I need to take one too!” Sean complained watching the case slide away from him into the stages middle. He then started towards it, just as Queen had started backpedaling away from Connor’s assault. Sean was about to reach down and grab the case when Queen, unintentionally, kicked it further away on stage.

”Seriously?” Sean yelled and struck out at her with his fist. However, she was already out of reach and Connor rushed past Sean in his pursuit.

Sean jumped back to avoid being bullied out of the way by his brother. He shook his head and the started for case, now even further away.

Patrick had regained his axe and was rushing to join back up with Connor. He could see that Queen was being hard pressed and she didn’t seem to be paying him any attention. Queen was rotating to the right, back to where she had originality started the fight. Instantly he saw what her intentions were. Queen was trying to get her sword back. He knew he had to hurry and charged towards the fallen sword to stop her from getting.

Sean was kneeling forward and was just about to pick up the black metal case. His hand now hovered right above it. Then, in a brown blur, something struck it and the case went spinning rapidly away, again! Sean yelled in protest and looked up to see the cause, which ended up being Patrick running by to get the sword! The case was kicked away, this time towards the edge of the stage at the opposite end.

Queen caught sight of Patrick running behind her from her peripheral vision and moaned inwardly. ”Crap! He is going to beat me there. I got to do something about Connor or I’m in trouble!”

Queen dodged another slash and this time stepped forward past the blade to get closer to Connor. Just as she did with Patrick before. Only this time she sent a punch right into Connors kidney area. Connor grunted reactively and came to a stop. Just as he did so, Queen sent out another left uppercut aimed at his chin.

The blow glanced off his lower chin as Connor leaned his head back, dampening the power of the punch. Taking another step back, he felt the heavy pressure of Queens elbow sinking into his gut. Doubling over and looking downward, the next thing he saw was Queens knee coming up for his head. Closing his eyes, Connor was nailed by her knee. He fell back to land on his butt and saw stars spinning about.

Fortunately for Connor, Patrick came to save him before Queen could have another chance to hit him. Patrick did so by yelling angrily at Queen getting her attention and as she looked at him, Patrick threw Queens own katana like a spear!

Caught off guard by her own sword being thrown at her, Queen leaned forward to duck the sword being aimed at her head. It passed harmlessly by and missed her completely; yet it struck something further beyond. The edge of the black metal case Sean was chasing!

Sean watched in anger and disbelief as Queens katana struck the case and set it skittering away back into the middle of the stage. Giving loud frustrated sigh, Sean continued his fruitless pursuit. Some of the patrons in the crowd, that noticed the actions of Sean and the case, let out a ripple of laughter around the arena. Benny was also one of those that noticed and laughed. He even called out to a nearby person and tried to start a bet on whether or not it would happen again.

Patrick was careful this time. After missing with the katana, he made sure to not get to close to Queen and get pummeled again. However, striking at Queen from a distance with his axe was proving to be just as useless. She easily avoided him and stayed out of range.

Meanwhile, Connors starry vision cleared, and he could feel the pill in his stomach pumping energy into his body. The Inducement was working now. Standing up he could feel his muscles straining and tightening, like chains holding something heavy in place.

”Oh ya! Now that’s the stuff!” Connor yelled.

Slowly his already huge body started to swell. His bulky, muscly body started to become chiseled even further and his blood vessels bulged grossly out from his reddening skin. The whole transformation resembled Hulk changing from Bruce Banner, only without the clothes ripping off him. His once pale Irish skin now looked very reddish and a lot like a ripe tomato.

”Get out of my way Patrick! She’s going to get it now!” Connor yelled way louder than any normal humans voice should. His voice bellowed out so much that it even made the nearby crowd cover their ears.

Patrick knew without looking what was going on. Giving a disappointing look at Queen he jumped off to the side. Connor came thudding towards Queen with steps pounding so heavily that she could feel him coming at her through the floor itself.

Raising his axe, and now an unexpected full half meter taller than before, Connor slashed down at Queen in a diagonal arc. The shiny black axe was like a flash of lightning in the stage light. Queen jumped away, but not without being clipped on her leg by the axe’s handle. Being hit like a baseball, she landed on her hands and knees before coming to a stop several meters away.

As Queen tossed a black strand of loose hair from her brow; she spotted a massive, clinched fist rocketing down at her! Rolling aside the red fist crashed into the stage causing dust and debris to scatter everywhere. Just as Golem had struck at her, Connors fist left a hole and cracks could be seen spidering out from it. Letting go of his buried axe, he immediately followed up with another overpower slam at Queen still on the ground.

Queen kept rolling away as fast as she could avoiding the insanely powerful attacks. All the while Connor was laughing like a maniac.

”You like my power?” Connor yelled out with an unfamiliar deep voice that could be heard all throughout the arena like a megaphone. ”This is our special Power Pill that we had made in our laboratories. Originally it was going to be used by all our gang members, but we thought it would be best if only we three used it. With these Power Pills we will take over this place and run it ourselves!”

…

”Is this guy for real?” Martinez scoffed as he watched overhead from the booth. With him were Xander, Jackson, Ernest and the hippy Branch.

”It would seem so.” Xander coolly replied. ”They are idiots to think that I wouldn’t be watching them working in the meth labs. I told you that they didn’t cancel the experiments on those pills. It seemed that it was successful in the end.”

”As if! If you call that a success, powering up to swell up like a red muscular balloon, then you got to be making a joke!” Martinez said with a fit of mock laughter. ”You think that those three numbskulls could beat my ability with those pills? The pills look to be not even able to reach ‘A’ class Inducement Level.”

”No, Boss. Though stronger now, they wouldn’t last a minute against you.” Xander replied crossing his arms. ”You would crush them like a can under a truck tire. Just as you will Queen if she survives.”