Jiefin, on the other hand, saw the punch as he walked in through the door. He saw Kyle take it in the
back of the head, and then saw the other man calmly pull out a pistol of his own and shoot the Splotch
in the back of his recently reformed head. Apparently, the bullets he was shooting were rather better
than average, since with a single shot the inkman spontaneously exploded all over the inside of the
study.
Time to bust out the armor.
"LET'S ROCK!!!!"
:I HATE YOU.:
"PUNCH THINGS HARD! AAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!"
The other man's face twitched noticeably, but only for a second. Then he pressed a button on the wall,
and two concealed automatic machine guns came out from the ceiling.
<Son of a b***h. Exploded again.>
The Splotch faintly detected what had done it; this other fellow was shooting electronically charged
bullets, which caused rapid polarization of his inky body and, well, rapid disintegration of the same.
Nothing permanent, but it'd be a minute before he could come back together.
He also faintly detected the armored Jiefin, who was currently throwing a rather large and possibly blue
couch at the gunman. Kyle was more or less unconscious, although he was making futile crawling motions
away from the ensuing carnage.
Then came two more men through the door. One started shooting... his arm... and the other began
vaulting around on a pole. No one seemed quite sure who to be attacking, and there was a general free-
for-all as everyone attacked everybody.
<I wish AI would regain his connection. I'm so confused.>
"DON'T HIT THE GUY IN THE ARMOR! GET THAT BASTARD WITH THE PISTOL!" Sybrus was screaming to Nolan, not
that the chemhead was paying any attention. Thankfully, Nolan was at least as occupied shooting
inanimate objects as people, which kept him from doing any real damage to a possible ally.
"Jiefin! WHAT'S GOING ON! Where's Kyle?"
"AAAAARRRRRGHHHH!!!! MEGA-PUNCH! TABLE THROW! GGGRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!"
:HE IS SOMEWHERE ON THE FLOOR. HE WILL BE UP PRESENTLY.:
"What the- what?"
"Shut up! My head still hurts! I WILL SHOOT YOU IF YOU KEEP YELLING!"
"AAARRGHHH!"
"That's it. TIME TO EAT ARM BLAST ENERGY, MOTHERF****R!"
:I AM THE ARMOR. DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. THE OTHER MAN IS THE CAUSE OF ALL THIS.:
Sybrus dodged a couple shots, and threw a book towards their origin. He saw Kyle, who was slowly coming
to his feet next to the desk. Almost directly next to him was what he assumed was the Splotch, who was
developing arms rather quickly.
"What's the plan, here? IS there a plan?"
ROBABLY NOT. YOU MUST HAVE COME UP WITH SOMETHING, SINCE YOU BROUGHT THE DRUG-ADDICTED ONE.:
"Yeah, not really, I just figured he might be useful in whatever fight I got into. Perhaps I should
consult Kyle? He's an a**hole, but he seems to have at least some inkling of what's happening here..."
:GO AHEAD. WE SHALL KEEP THIS ONE BUSY.:
"ARRRRGH!!!!"
Sybrus performed a particularly clever dodge, and ended up landing on the softish Splotch. A muffled
yowl eminated from the ink.
"Kyle? Ummm... what's happening?"
Kyle's eyes were still rather unfocused, but his head shifted toward Sybrus. "That man... cannot leave
carnival... part OF carnvial... brought us here... to fight, to die, never to leave... prick."
"Oh. Are we still fighting, then?"
"Dunno... did you punch me... or was that other guy?"
"It was the Splotch. Apparently, he didn't take kindly to you exploding him."
The inkman, who was just now forming a head, gave a wet grunt of agreement.
"Not... my fault... carnival messes with your head... keeps you here, makes you act as it wants...
but I figured it out... knew better..."
"MY NAME IS JIEFIN G. HUPHATA, AND I HATE BABIES!"
Kyle was clearly not going to recover quickly. The study was clearly not going to handle much more
combat. Sybrus made a decision. He grabbed Kyle with his mechanical arm, and threw him out the window.
He continued his circular motion, grabbing the Splotch's newly solid arm, and threw him out too.
"NOLAN! JIEFIN! GET DOWN THE STAIRS!"
James didn't move.
<...>
<...>
<...>
<Seriously, mind? The only "S" Jessica I can think of is Simpson? There's got to be a hot one
*somewhere* in my head...>
SPLOTCH!!!!! There was suddenly ink everywhere.
<Huh?>
Suddenly, James moved. His head swiveled to an angle that, in a fleshy body, would result in a broken
spine. He saw the impact zone, and that Kyle was safely standing in the middle of it.
<Oh. Hello. Did't you kill me?>
"... what?" Kyle wasn't quite up to thinking yet, and being thrown out the window hadn't really helped
that issue. "Did someone say something?"
<I did. Oh... ummm... you probably have a hard time hearing me, since I have no lungs and all.>
Kyle's head swiveled to a less frightening degree, to look directly at James. He squinted.
"... oh. Didn't I kill you? Sorry about that, by the way. I haven't quite been myself lately, don't
quite know what happened. Trying to fix it, though."
<It's fine. Really. My life sucked anyway.>
"...Really?"
<Of course not, a**hole. Being alive meant alcohol; how is that not better than being a ghostly
apparition? I don't see any spiritly spirits. Do you?>
"Look, what more do you want from me? The carnival and that evil twit up there made me do it, and it's
not exactly like I can just press the rewind button on life, alright? So back off, dead guy. Go of to
the afterlife."
Doing this, the Splotch was once again undergoing the time-consuming process of rebuilding his body. He
was starting to get annoyed, since he'd had a lot of things to say for a while now but no body to say
them with.
<Whatever, man. You killed me. You win the a**hole award for the day. I think I deserve to yell at
you a little bit.>
"Hey, I killed the Splotch too, and you don't hear him screaming at me, do you?"
The Splotch really, really wanted to scream at him.
<Meh.>
There was an uncomfortable silence. Even the explosions and gunfire from up above had ceased.