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The Bat
 Crushing Weapon: standard (rank 1)
They said I made it out to the backyard. They found me there clutching the bat that lies in the grass in front of me. For weeks I tried to forget about it. I remember everyone telling me to move on. How could you though. When you were the one that caused this how could you ever move on? Ignoring it was definitely not working so one night I thought confronting it would be the answer. I snuck out of my aunt’s home as I made my way back to my own house. I picked up the bat as I kicked the back door open and made my way in.
The entire home looked stripped over everything save some scorched photos and large furniture covered in thick layers of soot. I tried to force myself to remember growing up here. Sunday morning breakfast, story time during rainy days by the bay window, playing board games in the living room. However whenever a good memory appeared it was quickly erased and twisted by a vision of that night, my mind replaying the images of sick laughing men ransacking my home and beating my parents. Flashes of red appear in front of my eyes, memories of the fire I assume as I make my way towards the stairs.
I look up the heavily charred wooden boards of the stairs as I start making my way up them. The boards creaked still as I make my way over the landing into the hallway and onto my room. As I stepped into my room I saw that it was still as I left it. A few drawers opened, a few items knocked over but it was as I left it weeks ago. Except everything was black, everything was burnt or singed or melted as I grip onto the bat as hard as I can.
Screaming out loud I slammed the bat into the mirror of my vanity. The glass shattered as I wasn’t satisfied. Turning to a number of slightly melted trophies on a shelf I swing, knocking them down onto the floor as I proceeded to smash the shelf itself. The burnt lamp, the blackened stuffed animals, I swung the bat wildly as I sent it crashing through the walls, into furniture, through windows before I finally dropped down onto my knees crying and tired.
Dylan
 Weapon Master: standard (rank 1)
That bewitching smile was spread across his face as he chatted up a young little red head who no older then seventeen. I hated myself as I saw him in his greasy coveralls which for some reason made him look even more desirable to me now. I overheard him asking for her number as she blushed and tried to simply ask for her keys. As she drove away in her little blue Mini Cooper I was wondering why didn’t I have the strength to ignore his charm? How come I didn’t just drive away?
I waited a few moments until he walked back into the garage as I breathed heavily, lifting my heavy wooden bat as I tried to walk as quietly as possible.
I saw him standing over his work bench, cleaning some tools with an old rag that was black and grey and large headphones over his ears. Maybe I finally caught a lucky break I think I myself as I swung with all my might. I watched as splinters of wood flew through the air as Dylan turned around brandishing a tire iron as he kicked me away from him.
“Penelope I heard you were alive but…” I didn’t care what he had to say, I pulled the bat over my head and sent it crashing down onto the ground as Dylan spun out of the way.
“Listen Penelope I thought you were just a mark! We were going to rob you and that’s it! I didn’t mean for my brothers too…”
“Shut the hell up and just die!” I screamed rushing at him as I swung my bat left and right, aiming for his wrist to try and make him drop the tire iron as he tried to swing back when he could.
“You deserve to be upset Penelope. This isn’t how I wanted things to turn out.”
“Then stop fighting back!” I screamed as I swung again, smashing open a car window as he swung the tire iron smacking me hard in the face as I spin backwards.
“That’s now how this works Penelope. I wronged you and you deserve your revenge. I’m also not going to keel over and die either. I’ve got my own things to do in my life. Earn your revenge and we’ll see who gets to go on and do what they need to do.”
Dylan leapt at me swinging his tire iron as I held my bat in both hands, blocking each of his swings as he tried to smack my head again. He went for a big back hand swing as I jammed the end of my bat right into his stomach doubling him over as I fired a knee upwards right into his mouth. Screaming Dylan fell backwards as I slammed my heavy boot right on this throat. Watching him desperately squirm underneath me I looked down at him.
“Any last words?”
“Yes Penelope. Kill them. Kill them all. Do that for the both of us.”
His words enraged me as I started to swing my bat downwards, spurts of blood coming from his crushed skull as I swing until I was too tired to swing.
Mike and Mark
 Reaction Speed: standard (rank 1)
It was a few evenings after I killed Dylan that I was asked to show up at this baseball diamond in the middle of the night. Mike and Mark were the twins that gleefully covered my house with gasoline as I watched on. They relished peeling off my clothes as I was violated in my own home. When they left that voice message on my phone I heard the same sort of glee they had for the sadistic. I sat on the pitcher’s mound when all of the sudden the flood lights came on and I heard the buzzing from the distance.
As I looked into the outfield I watched as the two dirt bikes flew over the fences and landed on the grass. There they were buzzing right towards me as they started to circle the pitcher’s mound. I pulled my bat up as I watched they swung their chains in a circular motion before the first one came at me. Mike simply laughed as he tried to run me over as I rolled out of the way. Just as I was trying to stand up again Mark drove by and swung his chain as I ducked it at the last second. The two twins drove out to second base as they revved their engines.
“She’s got some balls on her doesn’t she Mike?”
“We’ll just need to cut her down and our way with her again won’t we mark?”
The two dirt bikes come careening towards me as they start to spread out a bit. Holding my bat up I wait and anticipate a chain swing, ducking underneath it as I spun and swung hard knocking Mark in his back and off his bike as he’s sent careening into the batter fence.
“Lucky bitch!” Mike screamed as he turned to face me again, revving his engine as I quickly run towards the chain on the ground. Quickly grabbing it I threw it into the wheels of Mike’s dirt bike as it sent it cart wheeling forward sending him onto the grass.
As the brothers came too they screamed when they saw their chains wrapped around their necks. The ends were hooked to the back seat of one of their dirt bikes as I straddled the seat and started to rev the engine again. Looking back I coldly said “let’s see what gives first, you or this bike” as I start to drive into the park dragging them behind me.
Tristan
 Danger Sense: standard (rank 1)
“You’ve been a naughty girl haven’t you Penelope?”
I felt the cold steel slice across my bicep as I screamed, clutching it with my free hand as I dragged my bat along the ground. As he ran off I would see his shadowy figure duck behind another tree as I trudged through the forest. My eyes scanned every trunk and branch as I raised my bat up again.
“Fight me you fucking coward!”
His voice rang through the woods again as he said “you think I’m like my stupid brothers? No, you’re dealing with a different class of Bentley this evening.” Suddenly the flash of steel blinded my vision for a second as I felt another slash against my upper chest, just missing my neck as I swung and slammed my bat into the side of the tree. I could feel the blood ooze out and seep down my front as I gritted my teeth.
“You know, the twins were morons and Dylan was a naive fool but in the end I loved them. I loved them because they were my friends and family. You took them away Penelope and for that I won’t forgive you.”
“Just like you took my parents?”
“Do not equate your loss to mine. You’re an insignificant little wench. The Bentley’s are fucking royalty.”
Another knife stab came from behind me but this time I dodged to the right. The blade aimed right through my shoulder only nicked a bit of my skin instead as I swung a full three sixty with my bat as I landed a hit that caused the shadowy figure to run away.
“You know he saved you? My youngest brother, Dylan, dragged you out and said you wouldn’t be a problem. That someone as damaged as you couldn’t be a problem. He regretted what he did and he said he was going to change at our protest. You though, you just batted his brains.”
I simply smirked as I said “maybe if he wasn’t such a pussy he’d had done me in instead.”
I could hear the scream. It wasn’t audible, but a change in the air around me. Rage manifested into a single focused attack as I saw the blade coming from the front and aimed at my heart. I spin and dodge swinging my bat into the back of his head as he screams falling onto the forest floor as he drops his knife. Desperately he tries to crawl away but then the sound of my bat against his spine echoes through the forest. Cut and bloody I don’t care as the only noise in the night are Tristan’s screams of pain.
Cody
 Berserker: standard (rank 1)
“You wanted so come at me!” Cody threw another wicked right cross as I screamed out. My face had been nothing more than a punching bag this evening as I saw the wild crowd around the cage screaming their heads off as they shook it causing the metal to rattle loudly.
Grabbing my bat I started to move towards him, keeping it held beside me before going for another swing when he simply catches it with his hand, shoving the handle end into my chest as he spins and kicks me in the side of the head again. Dropping down onto the ground face first I can feel the blood seeping from my nose as the crowd started to chant “Cody! Cody!”
Cody walked back to his corner as he grabbed a bottle of water and drank it before tossing it aside. He started to re-tape his fists as he kept his back to me. “You think you’re hard or something? Because mommy and daddy are dead that you think you know the pain people like me and my brothers lived through? Because seven guys took advantage of you and you got a bat you think you’re some kind of hero? You need to stop thinking like that and get over it. You had a bad day Penelope and it has passed. There’s no need for these pointless theatrics.”
When he finally turned to look at me I stood there, blood running down my nose as I held my bat tight and finger waved him to come at me. He simply yawned and put his fists up as we circled around the cage.
I swung with all my might as he ducked it, coming back with a quick left right jab combo as I tried to step away. As I brought my bat back he grabbed onto it and tried to push me into the cage as I dug my boots into the worn canvas of the ring.
“You’re weak girl. You have issues. Everyone does, it doesn’t mean you can handle any of this.”
As he said those words I gripped my bat even hard, pulling towards myself as I watched his grip slowly loosen from the bat. His fingers began to slide off the bat as I ripped it out of his hands, pulling it above my head as I screamed, the sickened blow crashing down onto the front of his face as he fell backwards with a deafening thud that shut the crowd up almost immediately.
Frank
 Iron Will: superior (rank 2)
He was a mountain of a man. He stood there like a giant carved out of stone. I walked up to him with my bat in hand as my limb shook barely able to clutch onto it tightly anymore. My lips quivered as I walked down the dimly lit hall way towards him. My muscles were on fire, whatever cuts that hadn’t scared over were slowly leaking blood. I tried to hide my pain through my angry expression but I knew my eyes were not fooling anyone. I was tired, I was in pain and yet I wasn’t done. There was so much bitter work left to do and unfortunately very little body left to do it.
As I stepped in front of him and raised my bat he simply held his hand out and said “stop.”
“Why should I stop?”
“Because I wish to keep my peace with the world.”
I don’t know why I didn’t throw a single swing but I didn’t. I stood there looking at him as he cleared his throat.
“I fought in Afghanistan for four years. I had a friend by the name of Riley. He was a good friend, loyal, maybe stupidly loyal. We were on patrol in the hot bed of Taliban activity when all of the sudden an IED exploded on the side of the road. My jeep was hit the worst as the gunfire started to rain on us. I had chunks of metal in my leg; everyone else in the jeep was now dead. Riley was a few trucks away but the gunfire was so heavy that they were ordered to retreat. Four men were on Riley that day and they were all tossed aside like children as he came to rescue me. I saw it in his eyes when he grabbed me and tooka bullet in his shoulders, in his chest, on his cheek. It was the look of a man who wouldn’t quit until he did what he had to do.”
Frank kneeled down before me as he kept speaking. “You have that look. You killed five men who didn’t deserve to continue living even though they took everything away from you. My brothers, they aren’t us. They aren’t warriors. A warrior knows when he’s beat and when he does know this he asks for only one thing; the honorable death. I sit in front of you prone now Penelope. Can you give me that death?”
I didn’t care what he had to say though I did feel a little cheated. Still I swung with all my might. If he wanted it I was only too happy to oblige.
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