Cracked windows part 8

War Zone

Professor Venomous’ perspective (trapped in Shadowy Venomous)

My son K.O. is in that POW card tournament and Shadowy is training him.

At this point, once he wins it, Shadowy says we will be unstoppable and no one will ever try and get in our way. T.K.O can mute and enervate powers from an individual, a power that I held once as a super hero named Laserblast, and though he’s using it for extreme villainy, it gives me an inkling of hope.

That light inside of my decaying body, however, is dying more and more each day.

I find myself wandering on verge of my own lifeless, gray matter that listlessly lingers within the canvas of my brain, wherein the neurons are scrambling and blurred. I do not feel good or bad, I do not want or need or dream. Just enough to strain the pain and feel that electric toxicity run through my veins, all that power—-it was maddening and yet so enthralling.

To say I have lost everything is a great understatement.

I can no longer even contain and control my body. Not my words. Nothing.

And my minion and precious daughter Fink—-I can’t even go looking for her. I miss her so much. All the Boxbots, my step kids, my kids, all of them. I miss them all. Shannon, Raymond, Mikayla, Darrel, Jethro. I know I needed to meet Mr. Logic, Boxman’s first son.

And Boxman.

I can’t even think of his name without wanting to collapse in tears. God, I miss them all more than I can bear.

While the tournament begins, Shadowy goes into the glorb sanctuary to secure some more power supplies. Something about that protected glowing tree made me feel so sad and Shadowy became infuriated that I needed to cry.

My son and I destroyed an old style diner this morning before the tournament began, and I kept remembering that one song that was crackling through the juke box. For some reason, the glorbs around the tree made me think of it.

God, it made me want to throw up.

I kept picturing Boxy. His agile, tactical skills at work making intricate robots and weaponry and cool stuff I had never even thought of before. All the late nights we sent drinking tons of old coffee and kissing and laughing and plotting.

Boxy making me laugh so hard at the dumbest stuff. His crazy facial expressions, his dumb dad jokes, his voice impressions of people we knew. He knew how to make me laugh so hard. A happy, deep in your gut laugh.

Boxy holding onto my waist as I studied a new species of bacterium.

Late night sessions of dancing or reading or writing or crazy, wild love making.

Or, all of the above.

We would plan for the future, we would make our love known to the world.

Now, I just tear up the world and break everything apart. I broke his heart.

I slink back up the surface finally and watch the battle in the ring as T.K.O wins fight after fight.

It’s a sure thing, I think. Shadowy is smirking, and even I’m smiling too.

This is it, I think, if I have really lost it all, I least I will finally have power. True, unlimited power.

But, as the second to last match starts I hear a large commotion and I recognize the voices.

“Dad!” (Shannon!)

“Daddy!” (Darrel!)

“Oh, father! You’re alright!!” (Ernesto!)

“Mikayla!!!” (Mikayla!)

They are all the voices of Boxman’s kids.

I peer over the ring on all sides to see where they could be. I don’t see any of them.

It’s when I hear a loud booming voice that I finally know it is him, as I zoom past the scene over toward the old dojo.

“Shadowy Venomous!” It is a demanding voice. Not a request. “You and I have unfinished business.”

I fly over to the intense sound with a slithery whoosh and there he is, Boxman, as brash and bold as ever.

He looks ready to fight. I take the opportunity to meet my feet on the ground and no longer hover above him.

“Unfinished business, huh?” I growl out. “What would THAT be, Boxman?” I hate how larger than life Shadowy Figure has made me. I really just want to fall back into heaven; which is Boxman’s arms.

“My actual name is Lord Boxman, Shadowy,” he hisses out and I feel my pulse drop.

This isn’t exactly how I pictured my reunion with Boxman. But Shadowy seems to relish in the drama and laughs.

Somewhere deep inside, another name pops up in my memory: John. Boxman told me his first name was John.

‘Don’t you dare call him by that name,” Shadowy whispers in my brain. It feels like a slam to my head my ear starts leaking out a clear liquid. Like brain fluid.

“John, John, John…” I think loudly in my brain, my warm, sweet feelings melting over like gooey ice cream, and Shadowy is the sun, trying to dry it up and make it useless.

Suddenly I lock eyes with a very furious Boxman. It tears me up inside. At first.

“So, what did you want to go over, Lord Boxman? Ledgers, receipts?” Shadowy says in a slimy voice. Boxman grins. “Wanna go over taxes? Sorrey to say I may have overlooked a few things lately.” He points to the other side of the plaza to the decimated ruins of our business.

“Just shut up. I’m here to get my partner back, actually.” He stands up straighter and sighs. “But first, I need to teach you a lesson.”

The look in his eyes seemed to tell me everything. It was as though there was a pocket of energy that allowed us a single moment to see each other. He was somehow able to tell me everything would be okay. That he wanted to save me. That I was still worth trying to save.

“Your partner?” Shadowy says, his voice crawling out in a mocking laugh. “Little lover boy? Oh, he doesn’t exist. He’s dead.”

“He’s not dead,” Boxman says confidently. “But, you will be. Soon.” He rolls up his sleeves. “And I don’t need to hide behind my son or a stupid persona to win, either.”

I could feel the rage building within Shadowy and the electric energy surging.

“Don’t… hurt.. him…” I plead in my mind and Shadowy just growls in response. “Please.”

“You hide like a common coward, don’t you, Shadowy? You’re a parasite,” Boxman continues. “A worm. A useless waste. You don’t even really exist. You are less than a shadow. You are dust!” He spits out at us and Shadowy finally lunges in and attacks. The black and violet aura surrounding our body increases and I feel all our negative energy pinpoint straight toward Boxman, even as I try with all what is left of my own aura and energy to stop it.

A burst of fierce thunder hits Boxman and he falls only a moment, but gets up, only looking like it barely scratched him.

Suddenly; Boxman brings out a gray, silver looking weapon that seemed to be on a sling from his back. It looks like a dull looking sword, with a red glint to it.

“What the hell is that?”

“A engineering majesty,” He says with a proud smile. It makes my heart flutter in a deep musical way, but Shadowy shivers and shoves my good feelings down deep into a cruel void. “Tungsten engineered plasma. A true love of science and steel.”

“Oh, not that two of hearts crap!” Shadowy croons in a mocking tone. I can’t believe he brings that up to my partner. That is our song. That was the song he sang to me on what we considered was our first date on Billiam’s yacht.

Boxman’s face lights up. “Well, yeah. Power of love and friendship and all that stupid stuff. Gotta say it does make you want to win more than just wanting to just keep amassing power like a greedy monster.”

Shadowy yells an unintelligible burst of curses at him, blasting energy waves of black and violet electricity at Boxman. Boxman seems to block every wave with the dull tungsten weapon. It’s a beautiful thing of engineering as far as I can see. I can tell he used his metal works to create it. It’s beautiful.

Just like him.

“You destroy, I create. Interesting, isn’t it, Shadowy?” Boxman grunts, still managing to block and deter each blow. “You do nothing to add to this world yet you want to rule it.”

“You don’t need to add anything to rule. You silly old fool!” Shadowy counters. I notice all of a sudden a huge commotion from the other side of town as I hear that Enid and Rad had joined the fight, going against T.K.O in the last round, and I suddenly feel a large blow to my chest.

Neutralized to some degree, Shadowy is drawn down to a quiet but furious whisper for a moment. He had slammed the blunt side of the blade flatly against us. But it wasn’t the blunt force that knocked Shadowy down, I realize. It was the engineering genius of Boxman. The level of mastery in his skills had no bound—he was able to find way to counter the energy of our blasts with the plasma generated tungsten.

The moment of grace is lost and Shadowy gets up, more furious than ever.

“I don’t need powers to beat you!” He screeches.

Exchanging blows with my beloved in a trapped cage, I can’t think. It is as though he is trying to keep me safe, I can tell he’s barely touching me. He’s mainly avoiding Shadowy’s physical attacks.

Then, Shadowy slams his fist so hard into Boxman’s head, I fear he’ll fall and get a concussion. Before I can process it….

He’s down on the floor.

Shadowy isn’t done.

I have to break free now. There is no way I will let him touch another hair on Boxy’s head.

“Boss! No! Don’t hurt him!”

I hear Fink and she runs over, shielding Boxman’s knocked out form.

“No! You can’t, please!” She continues.

“Move out of the way!” Shadowy yells.

“No! I won’t! I won’t!” She is sobbing.

I feel Shadowy breaking and I am coming up. My beautiful daughter. My soon to be husband. My family. I needed to break out.

Just then, I feel Shadowy decide he will attack both Fink and Boxman. I get stronger knowing this and halt the attack but not before seeing the look of utter terror in Fink’s eyes. I stop Shadowy’s assault and try to give her a reassurance in my gaze.

“Dad? Come back to me.” She whispers, a question in her eyes, but also there’s a hope. This is the first time she’s called me dad. It makes me incredibly uplifted. I’m me again for a minute.

I feel myself reaching her, my hand touching her face, “Fink?”

“Dad!” She grins and gets up. “Is it really you?”

“Shadowy is still there,” I frown. “He’s trying to come back.”

“Box-dad will save you. Don’t worry!” She says and I smile.

“You finally consider him as..” I trail off and she nods happily.

I kiss her forehead. “I’m so happy to see you. But, you need to go in case Shadowy returns. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I won’t leave you. I’m not a baby.”

I chuckle. “I know.”

I turn to Boxman and see he’s still out.

I cradle his head and check for bruising and contusions, or swelling. He has swelling near his forehead and mild bruising. I’m worried he has a concussion after all, and that he hasn’t woken up yet.

“Oh, Boxy, I’m so sorry,” I whisper, tears falling liberally from my face.

Fink sniffles and said, “It’s all my fault. I asked him to save you.”

“It’s not your fault, darling. It’s… mine.”

Suddenly, I see Mr. Gar and he looks at me sympathetically.

“Mr. Gar, is it?” I ask.

He nods and says nothing. He looks absolutely exhausted. Worn out and older than he actually was. Hair grown out. This war has made us all into zombies.

“May I ask you for a huge favor?” I say, my voice trembling.

“Yes. What is it?” He responds, his gruffness somehow sounding kind.

I slide my hands underneath Boxman and lift him up, holding him close to my body bridal style. For the first time in so long I feel his warmth. He’s breathing, but it’s shallow. He’s warm but his skin looks clammy. I look at his handsome face and I gently caress his cheek, longing to once again hear him rant over his newest creations or cook his signature “blunch” or bake muffins or sing an off key song that we dance to late at night.

“Please help him. He’s not bad. He tried to save me. To stop Shadowy…” I bit my lip hard as he agrees; silently taking my beloved and gently turning to carry him off to get him medical attention.

Even on battlefields, the line between enemy and ally can blur. I hug and kiss Fink and tell her to get to safety.

I promise I’ll see her soon.

But now, I have to see my son.

I created this war zone with him, now I have to fix it.