CH. 32 - A Terrifying Reveal

Still on the ground, Watchdog coughs up a little blood, only looking up with a frustrated and pained look. He strains but can't manage to move just yet as Strife begins walking past him slowly. 

“As you can see, my body is quite destroyed. Scarring all over, missing limbs, malfunctioning organs. And yet here I am, standing before you with not but a scratch on me. Still able to use my abilities efficiently and powerfully. The Devil’s Syndicate was able to take me and give me new life, someone who was being tortured and destroyed from the inside out, and turned me into someone powerful. Why do you think that is? That they’d choose me over anyone else?” Strife monologues to Watchdog’s dismay.

“I don’t know. Maybe they’re just so charitable and caring.”

Strife smiles at the sarcastic remark.

“Hm, not quite. They are harsh and brutal. The brainwashed cultists don’t even realize they are nothing but expendable fodder for the boss’s goal. But no, it wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart. It was because I was the key to his plans. You see, that serum you fought so hard to protect that no one, not even the government, knew existed, that serum runs through my veins. I was the one who told them. I was living proof that with enough tinkering, that serum would be the key to obtaining his goal. To make an army big enough and strong enough to achieve that goal. And with a few modifications, I was more powerful than any other member.”

He lifts his synthetic arm as if showing it off while talking. Watchdog listens with intrigue.

“But there is still one problem even they don’t realize. My body is still dying. That serum destroys its host from the inside out, breaking down the cells on a molecular level. The organic body simply cannot handle such a concoction. It’s simply too much. The engineers and scientists of the Syndicate simply are not capable of fixing this problem. The augmentations they put inside of me have suppressed the side effects and given me more time, but I am still destined to die a painful and gruesome death at the hands of that serum.”

Watchdog’s eyes widen as Strife stares out the window for a moment, but Watchdog sharpens his gaze a little.

“If you know this, why haven’t you told them that? They plan on using that same stuff on the whole city! You’re condemning them to death!”

Strife stares out the window for a little longer before turning to look at him and smiling.

“Perhaps I just want to watch it all burn.” Watchdog sweats and is taken aback by his comment he said so calmly. Strife then turns to him. “And now, I have someone to join me in death. Someone who will live long enough to understand that pain.”

Watchdog gets a look of confusion.

“What are you talking about?”

“You, of course. You have that serum running through you as we speak.”

Watchdog gets a look of shock and fear.

“What..?”

“I’m not entirely sure how, but somewhere along the line, it was put inside of you. It must have been a very little amount, which explains why it only activates on certain occasions, but all the same, you will still die at this same rate.”

Watchdog stares in disbelief for a moment before his eyes widen when he remembers something. Back at the lab, in that room he found with the animals with glowing eyes. The ones who were not startled and eventually the cages with the decomposing bodies. That vile of green fluid he found and when the member shot his hand, destroying the vile and tearing apart his hand. In that moment, the fluid spilled all onto his open wound. 

“It got into my blood back then… That’s when…”

“So you do remember. I’m glad I could inform you of your upcoming death, but have no fear for we will die together in a horrible way. Take solace in that you will not be alone. We will die together.” As he says this, he begins to smile in a crooked, grotesque way. Watchdog looks down and clenches his fist. He starts laughing a little to himself. Strife’s smile then goes away.

“Laughing at a time like this. You must have lost your mind.”

“Haha.. No, not me. But you definitely have. So obsessed with the idea that you won’t die alone anymore. Well, I’ve got news for you.” He stances up and raises his fists at him. “I’m not dying anytime soon. That seat is all yours.”

Strife looks at him with an unamused look.

“Well, no matter.” His synthetic arm parts adjust and move for a moment before he lifts his arm and fires a sound wave at Watchdog. He covers his ears but can’t drown out the sound. His eyes begin to glow green again as Strife stops. Watchdog leans over a little before standing straight up. “Did I forget to mention? That serum can be controlled by different types of sound frequencies. That’s why he wanted it so bad. You can be commanded without any resistance whatsoever. Now, on your knees.”

Watchdog does as he’s told. Strife steps towards him and points his open palm at his face. The arm parts adjust again before releasing a shockwave. Strife’s eyes widen as Watchdog jumps in the air, dodging the attack. He looks up, only to be met with a kick to the face. Strife hits the floor hard but immediately looks at Watchdog. He is just standing there, eyes still glowing. 

‘That should have worked. The serum is perfectly programmed, those frequencies give commands without confusion. So how did he dodge?’ “Watchdog, throw yourself out the window.”

As he says this, Watchdog begins walking towards the window. He gets to it, but before throwing himself through the glass, he stops. He begins shaking as if trying to resist it. His face is strained as his muscles twitch. Strife stares with intense surprise. 

‘He’s fighting it..!’ Strife then grabs him with one of his energy arms and throws him against the wall and with the other arm, punches him through it. Watchdog sits up still under the mind control. Strife steps in front of him.

“I’m not sure how you’re doing it, but somehow you’re resisting. We can’t have that now.” Strife points his synthetic palm at him, but before he can fire, he is hit in the forehead by a small rock. Some blood comes out of the spot, but he doesn’t move. He slowly looks back down at Watchdog. His arm up like he threw it and his eyes twitching for a moment before he closes them. Once he opens them, only one of his eyes is glowing green. Strife gets a look of frustration and confusion.

“I may not… know how it works… But I won’t… just do as you say..!”

Strife gives him a look of disappointment before firing a shockwave. Watchdog disappears, dodging it before appearing next to Strife with his fist pulled back. He throws a punch, but it collides with the open palm of the energy arm. He throws a second punch with his other arm, but that one too hits the other energy arm.

After pushing for a moment, Strife lifts his synthetic arm and points it at Watchdog. His eyes widen as Strife fires, but just in time, Watchdog releases a third arm and grabs Strife’s arm, pointing it upwards, just missing Watchdog. Strife is surprised by the extra limb when a fourth arm comes out and grabs Strife by the leg.

Watchdog yells as he spins and slams Strife onto the ground. He props himself up and struggles a bit when he sees Watchdog getting ready to release another punch. Right as he’s about to throw the punch, Strife shouts.

“Miss!”

Watchdog’s glowing eye widens as he turns and throws the punch into the wall beside him. He growls before spinning and swinging a back kick across Strife, hitting him into the wall as he blocks with the energy arms. Watchdog dives at him to follow-up but before he can attack, Strife smacks him with the energy arm and sends him tumbling over. Watchdog lands on all fours and gets ready to dive at him again but before he can, hands come out of the ground and grab onto his arms.

His eyes widen as Strife raises an extra large energy arm above him and smashes the fist onto Watchdog. He struggles as he tries to remain up, coughing out blood from the heavy attack. Gallow then appears next to Strife.

“You shouldn’t be here. You’re injured.” He says.

“I can still execute my orders.”

Strife doesn’t respond but allows her to fight. Watchdog stands, struggling a bit. He gives a look of determination. Gallow then makes a duplicate behind him, attempting to grab him, but he ducks down and grabs her by the arms. He throws her in the air, where he follows up with an extending punch to the face, smashing the clone into the roof. 

“The both of you are quite tricky. This isn’t going to be painless at all.”

As soon as he says this, Strife fires a shockwave at him, but he dodges and dashes towards Gallow, throwing a punch, but is stopped by the energy arm. He then quickly spins and tries to kick Strife instead, but Gallow grabs his leg, stopping him. Then a second Gallow falls from above and punches Watchdog into the ground.

The second Gallow continues to punch Watchdog while standing over him. He blocks for a moment before growing two more arms and grabbing her arms. He holds them out as he uses his first two arms to deliver a heavy blow to her body. The duplicate poofs into a cloud of black smoke.

He flips backwards a few times to gain some distance before throwing two punches that extend quickly at Strife and Gallow. They both dodge in different directions as they run towards him. He stays in the same place, watching as they rush him. Gallow makes the first move by running and flipping over him with her palm over his face.

“Double Impact.” She says. She prepares the attack, but in that instance where she is in the air above him, she is wide open and Watchdog takes advantage of that. As her attack begins, he trades with a heavy punch to her face as another impact attack, like before, hits him right in the face. She flips back as blood comes from her face and lands as Watchdog slides back, blood also coming from his face as well.

Before he even finishes sliding back, Strife releases a shockwave around Watchdog. He takes it for a moment before leaping out of it. He aims for Strife as he flies through the air. Watchdog pulls back getting ready to throw a punch so Strife prepares to block like before with his energy arms. Right before Watchdog throws the punch, however, he spins in the opposite direction, dodging the arms and crouching low on the ground to Strife’s right.

His eyes widen as Watchdog throws a heavy punch to Strife’s side. Blood coughs up out of his mouth as Watchdog surely breaks some bones. Almost immediately after impact, Gallow appears next to Strife and lands a wide kick to Watchdog’s face, sending him flying back. 

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t fast enough.”

“No, I miscalculated. He is not just all brawn. His fighting sense is incredible.” He says as he tries to straighten up while holding his side. Watchdog stands up straight too, giving them a look of unwavering determination. 

“We will have to take more caution.” Strife says as he squints. 

“You’re much more brittle than the others are. You sure you’re fit to be a Pillar?” Watchdog taunts with a hurt look.

“Your taunting will get you nowhere. I am aware of my weaknesses. As well as my strengths.” He says with an ominous tone, as if having some trick up his sleeve. “Take a knee.”

Watchdog’s eyes widen as he falls to one knee, he looks up to see the two energy arms shooting towards him with open palms and slams into him. He flies back a bit as blood comes from his face. As he slides back, two Gallows come from the ground and grab hold of his arms, holding him in place. He looks up to see the energy arm coming from above and slamming onto him again with no defense.

After a moment, Strife pulls the arm away as Watchdog coughs. He sits up only to be met with Gallow’s open palm aimed at his face. His eyes widen as he leans over and dodges the Double Impact. It destroys the ground behind him, but the dodge catches Gallow off guard. He quickly follows up with a heavy kick to her side. She stumbles over as he follows up with a heavy punch aimed at her head. 

“Stop.”

His eyes widen again as the punch that would have landed, stops just before her face. After just a second of stopping, he then extends his arm to try to do at least a little damage, but she jumps back. He then turns to Strife, who is still standing in the same place. Watchdog stares intensely for a moment before closing his eyes and exhaling calmly.

Suddenly, Gallow kicks at his face, but he blocks with his right arm and grabs her top with his left. He extends his arm and slams her against the wall. Strife slams down his right energy arm, which Watchdog flips over and steps on to get a good landing to shoot a straight kick at him. Strife puts his left arm up to block, but the kick still causes him to slide back.

After a second, Strife’s eyes widen as he looks to his left to see a swinging kick coming for him. He puts up his normal left arm to try to block in the slightest, but it does no good as Watchdog swings and slams him against the wall. Both his legs retract back as he lands on them.

Gallow comes from behind with an open palm for a Double Impact, but he turns and dodges the attack before it can fire off, leaning close and landing a devastating punch to her open wound. As he lands the hit, an open palm presses to his back.

“Double Impact.”

The force blasts through his body as he coughs out blood. He notices the first Double Impact attempt was a fake out as the double disappears. He then spins and swings his right arm back to deliver a heavy backhand, but her body phases into the ground, dodging it.

Her body isn’t even fully in the ground yet when another Gallow comes up and delivers an uppercut to Watchdog’s jaw. He reels for a moment before a sonic wave blasts his way. He jumps up to dodge as it blows away the duplicate Gallows. Watchdog looks over at Strife and throws a large, extending punch. Strife jumps to the side to dodge as his fist slams through the wall. Before he could retract it, Strife grabs his arm with his energy ones and pulls him over.

He swings him to the side and slams him into the wall at full speed. Watchdog coughs a bit from the attack as the dust clears. He looks over at Strife and Gallow standing next to each other.

‘I’m not getting anywhere. I have to take them down one at a time. I’ll start with Strife!’

He then dashes at them, throwing a heavy punch. Strife pushes Gallow to the right to dodge his punch since he was going so fast. Gallow jumps back but before Strife could do the same, Watchdog spin kicks him back into the wall. Strife was able to get his energy arms up to block and they stay up as Watchdog starts unleashing a barrage of attacks upon them. Strife struggles to keep his guard up as he is pounded with a flurry of attacks. Suddenly, a stray punch lands right on the same spot Watchdog hit before, on the right side of his body. Strife grunts loudly as he coughs up some blood and Watchdog notices it.

‘That’s it!’

He pulls back the punches and gets ready to release a large punch in the same spot, but Strife raises his normal arms and aims both to fire the shockwaves at him point blank. Before he could fire them, however, Watchdog grabs his wrists with two extra arms coming from his shoulders and pulls them to the sides.

Strife’s eyes widen as Watchdog is mere moments away from finishing this fight. Gallow dashes towards them and makes two copies of herself to help, but they simply aren’t fast enough. Right before Watchdog can strike, though, suddenly another shockwave comes out and hits Watchdog right in the chest, sending him rolling backwards.

He catches himself and slides back, obviously feeling the pain of the attack. Before he even stops, though, an open hand presses onto his back while another presses on his chest. His eyes widen as he hears.

“Quartet Impact.”

An extra large impact force is shot into his chest from front and back, causing blood to spray out of his mouth into the air. He strains hard just to stay standing up.

The copy from behind dissipates while the main Gallow from the front steps back holding her arm, feeling the pain from the large impact force. Watchdog stands still, staring up while he coughs out blood in little spurts. He struggles to look down at Strife.

“How did… He…”

Strife is still standing as the dust begins to settle. Watchdog’s eyes slightly widen, despite the pain, as he sees the sight of Strife. Strife is bleeding heavily from the mouth and wobbling. He falls forward before using the energy arm to keep himself upright. He strains and coughs out blood and struggles to breathe, panting heavily as Gallow steps next to him.

“You know you can’t handle your power naturally.” She says, hints of concern in her voice.

“I had no choice… It’s better than the alternative.” His voice sounds torn apart. Watchdog leans forward and begins to fix his breathing as Strife stands up and does the same. 

“He is much more of a nuisance than we anticipated.” Gallow says, glaring at Watchdog.

“He cannot last much longer.”

“I can say the same for you. This fight will end soon.” Watchdog says, sounding weaker with every word. They stare each other down for a moment in silence. Then, a stone falls from the roof and lands on the ground loudly. As soon as it does, Gallow drops three copies above Watchdog. He looks up with sharp eyes, then bends over. Three spikes made of bone burst out of his back and impale the copies.

They dissipate as he uses his arms to throw himself forward. He punches down where Gallow was standing and she jumps away to dodge. Instead of falling up with her, he continues forward and strikes at Strife. He blocks with the energy arm but struggles against the attack. Watchdog pushes harder but is kicked in the stomach by Gallow.

Before she can take her leg away, he grabs onto it and swings her up. He throws her back against the wall hard and follows up with a heavy punch to her stomach. She coughs up blood, but before he can do any more, Strife punches him in the back with the energy arm. He rolls forward and throws a punch back at Strife, but Gallow appears in front of him and kicks his arm up.

Then a couple copies of Gallow come from the ground and grab onto his waist and legs, holding him in place. He looks up to see the energy arm swinging at him and clotheslines him. Watchdog feels the heavy attack, his eyes empty, blood rolling down his head, if it wasn’t for the copies holding him still, he’d surely collapse over. The Gallow copies slowly let go as he stumbles back once, then twice. Strife slowly pulls his arm back and looks sharply at him.

“It’s done.”

Watchdog then slowly begins to fall backwards, unconscious. Before he hits the floor, he snaps forward and catches himself. As he snaps forward, he slams the heads of the copies into the ground with his hands and his own head.

He glares up at the two, his eyes going back to his bright blue color with no green in sight. He smirks a painful smirk, then dashes towards them and punches Gallow in her open wound to the side, heavily. She smashes into a large stone rubble, then hits the floor.

Strife looks at her, sweating and concerned, but his attention is immediately taken over by Watchdog slamming a heavy punch into his energy arm guard again. This time, instead of pushing the punch, he pulls it back and throws another, then another, and another. Watchdog continues to throw punches at high speed into Strife’s energy arms. Strife is backed against the wall as he tries his best to guard from the assault.

He gives Watchdog an intense glare when he notices his energy arm cracks. His eyes widen as the cracks quickly get worse. In a single moment, both the energy arms explode and shatter as he is left defenseless. As soon as he destroys them, Watchdog swings his arm back for one more final attack. 

“This is it! You’re done!”

He swings his arm and delivers one massive punch to the ribcage, but Strife does not collapse. He does not even flinch. Watchdog’s eyes widen as he looks up to see Gallow coughing out blood as he punches into the same spot Sahara stabbed earlier.

He follows through and sends them both smashing through the wall behind them. As the dust begins to settle, Strife slowly gets up. He looks at Gallow in the rubble with a look of shock, but it quickly turns to displeasure.

Watchdog readies himself to try to hit Strife with another punch but as soon as he does, he is bombarded by a massive shockwave. Strife steps forward as Watchdog is pushed back and to his knees. This shockwave is much bigger and more powerful, as it even begins to bend different parts on his synthetic arm. 

“I must admit, you got much farther than I thought you would. Yet, I cannot understand why? Not only is your power weaker than the three of ours, but you will still suffer the same excruciating fate as I. Once this is all over, the only thing left for you is a painful death. So why not let me put you out of your misery?”

As he finishes his statement, he pushes the shockwave even harder. Watchdog’s clothes begin to tear, his sleeve, pants leg, hood and even his face mask completely tear off. Blood begins coming out of his ears and nose as he struggles to move at all. Then he remembers something. He thinks about Fullsky.

“What if we can’t do it? What if we can’t stop them? Are we… just causing more problems?..”

“As long as we stick together and keep doing the right thing, we’ll be okay.”

The words play in his head. As he thinks about Fullsky and remembering why they are here, doing what they are doing, his eyes open wide. He struggles to get himself to a more stanced position, on only one knee and his arms out in front of him, to try and block some shockwave force.

In that moment, Watchdog breathes in as much as he can before letting out one massive shout, causing a shockwave many times more powerful, completely dissipating Strife’s shockwave. In the process, the force destroys Strife’s synthetic arm and slams him against the wall, as well as shattering glass in a large ring shape around the entire building.

The rumble of the shockwave is felt throughout the building, causing Chief and a couple other officers to stumble over and use the walls to hold themselves up. He checks the officers for a moment before patting them to keep going.

“Man, what are those guys doing? Gonna end up destroying the whole building before we can even capture them.” He shakes his head as he continues on.

Strife coughs up a little blood as he struggles to try to pick himself up. Watchdog stands over him with blood falling from his mouth and nose. Strife just sits against the wall and stares at him, not with hate, but with something else.

“I am sorry your sacrifices to take me down were for nothing.”

“Don’t pity me.” Strife spits back, a nasty look on his face. Watchdog just looks at him, a little upset he couldn't end this without hard feelings, at least bring a little honor to it.

"You're under arrest." He says this, then delivers one last punch to his face, slamming his head into the wall. Strife is knocked unconscious as Watchdog stands up, his lower face still covered in shadow.

“Time to go back her up.” He says with a huff before turning and running out of the room.