Feeding Hereberry

[Brass]

The shopping district was not all that busy today. That was a shock to many. Normally this place was flooded with people. This day had to be different. Twelve in the afternoon meant that most people were at work, kids were in school or doing something else.

"Water! Water! Must have liquids in system. Must not die here. Must survive. I'm a survivor. I'm not gone give up! What!" a person said in a hoarse voice and started singing towards the end. It was Reiko again. And once more she was acting up in public. She pretended like being outside was going to be such a hardship today. Her physical dress was that of a movie extra from Jurassic Park. Reiko sported brown ankle hugging hiking boots, badge shorts, a white sleeveless t-shirt and a brown boonie hat. On her back was a clear plastic backpack containing Mr. Hereberry. She had been in New Orleans for a couple of days now on a vacation with her family. They didn't give her money because she'd just buy alcohol and told her not to use the family credit card unless there was a true emergency. Unfortunately, Reiko left the card back in the hotel room.

Reiko's feet grew tired. She had been walking all day and that damn sun wasn't getting smaller. Reiko paced the shopping center square on foot. She had a way of over-dramatizing her suffering in any kind of extreme weather condition or a condition that she considered to be extreme weather. It was only eighty degrees out. The next time she came to the square again Reiko was on the ground crawling as if she had gotten shot in both legs.

Most ignored her. Some stared. Others prayed for the girl. She needed said prayer. "Oh cruel fate! Why have you bestowed your urine of hatred upon my face? I am not sixteen nor do you sing R&B so why, oh why hast thou picked me to bitch upon?" she said with her voice that she said to be Shakespearean. Basically, she was talking in a fake British accent.

Her eyes trained themselves on a hot dog stand. Reiko's body went to vertical basis with quickness. She made a mad dash to the stand. Her eyes scanned the stand like a copier slapped ink on paper. Her lips were licked. Drool came out of the sides of her mouth.

"May I help...you?" asked the attendant who stared at Reiko. She had a way of weirding people out. This guy was no different.

She just kept staring. There wasn't a verbal answer out of her. Those hands were slowly descending upon the delicious meal to come. She felt the love of god through those scrumptious wieners that talked to her and sung sweet songs pertaining of happiness and adventure. Hot dogs were already made and sitting there just waiting to be taken hostage. Just as her finger nails were too close the attendant cleared his throat.

"Ma'am, the dogs are a dollar twenty five each. If you want a chili dog that'll cost you two dollars. If you want three chili dogs that's five dollars."

Reiko reached into her pocket and attempted to pull out money. She had no money. She spent all of her cash at that bar last night. A light bulb came into her head. There was a way to pay this man without money. At least, that's what Reiko's mixed up mind thought.

"Trade you a story for a hotdog?" she asked.

The man could only stare at her, arch an eyebrow and put up a frown. "Let me guess, you want me to know how Mr. Hereberry got his name? You tried this same bullshit for the past month and it hasn't worked once. Last time, you said he got his name because he isn't a bear. He is, instead, a magical creature from the planet Om-nom-nom and that he came here for find the mystical Hereberry. That sound about right?" the man explained and questioned.

She shook her head. "No, no, no, no, I swear this time it'll be the true story. Scout's honor!" she announced. Reiko held up three fingers and instead of just the index and middle. Then again, she was never a scout.

The man thought about it some. Reiko did make him laugh. He couldn't lose much by giving her a hotdog for a good joke. That was the origin of Mr. Hereberry's life before Reiko; a joke. Her stories were never consistent. "Fine, make it quick. If you make me laugh I'll give you a dog. If you don't then you scram," he explained.

Reiko nodded. "Alright, it's like this. Mom sent me to Japan for a couple of days so that I could get in touch with my roots and shit or whatevs. So, check it, I went to this restaurant there. I start talking shit and stuff. You know me. I don't have a lick of Japanese accent. They could tell I was Western. So, they called me here berry. They were trying to call me hillbilly. So that's how Mr. Hereberry got his name," she explained.

He laughed. "Oh, so it wasn't because you called a dog named Berry from across the street? And while en route this dog got ran over by a kid riding a power wheels toy?" he asked. That was the story she gave him the last time. The man shook his head and handed her a hot dog. "Take it and go. Whenever you get a chance, please, for the love of god, get help kid..." was all he could end the conversation with.

She smiled, snatched the dog and ate it in three bites.

[Cataclysm]

Cataclysm walked down the street while people screamed ran away, the reason for the run was the two heads in the hands of the older teen who was covered in blood and leaving behind blood trails of the heads. The teen wore something out of a hell is home store. He wore a black shirt torn up and splattered with blood, a necklace of fingers, and teeth. He wore black jeans cut right at the knees and covered in fresh blood. Jason stopped when he saw a kid talking to his mother and tilting his head he walked over and lifted the head for them to see. "Look at my new toys, do you wanna play?" The kid and woman screamed and ran away leaving Jason alone.

He screamed and shoved his hand forward as twin sickles of energy fired out and flew in a arc before reaching it's target. The first blade took the six year old's arm right at the shoulder while the second sliced through the woman's legs taking both away. Cataclysm laughed and pointed at them. "You were fun to play with." He turned skipping away basking in the screams of the child and mother. Jason stopped at a pole and lifted one head shoving it down on the pole until it split the skull than set the other on top of it and stared at it like a artist admiring his work.

Cataclysm was enjoying his first month out of yet another mental hospital and had decided to play with some guys he met on a corner but sadly they hadn't wanted to play with a nineteen year old who was wearing a straight jacket and laughing. He had killed them and chopped them up to wear them as accessories. He stopped halfway down the street and looked around noting that most of the people had already left. This made Jason sad who just wanted to play with someone. His eyes spotted a woman walking into a building and ran over to her. She stared at the young man like he was a diseased corpse and backed away slowly. Jason walked with her step for step his eyes glowing. "Want to see what I can do?" He lifted a hand making a wisp of red energy and flicked his wrist sending it into her gaping mouth. "Now you play with that it is a lot of fun." Cataclysm laughed and turned walking away.

The woman dropped to her knees screaming as blisters appeared on her flesh and busted, smoke poured from her eyes as they melted into jelly and her teeth exploded in her mouth her tongue growing and growing until it popped making the woman howl in pain her fingers blowing off. Her chest cavity finally exploded out her organs having been vaporized. Jason had stood away with his camera taking pictures and laughing.

Cataclysm grew bored once the woman was gone and turned walking down the street again and spotted a hot dog stand and a girl with a bear for a backpack and laughed running over. "Ah look at you...do you want to play?" His eyes were glazed over with insanity and his smile and laugh was just twisted and wrong.

[Brass]

Now, the screaming didn't seem to bother Reiko. Her mind was on those sweet hog dogs. Well, that and the idea of dancing with sea lions. It was a random thought. At least she was thinking of something. Normally her mind was about as blank as the void. She didn't seem to notice anybody running. She didn't notice the blood. Reiko certainly didn't notice that horror villain look-alike walking towards her. Her head didn't turn. She didn't even give the man a slight glance. That attention span was similar to that of a brick wall and even if said wall fell on her she wouldn't notice it falling until she was smashed.

Finally, when this man asked her the question that she probably didn't want to hear while she was eating Reiko gave him some attention. She laughed. Most people would be disturbed. Not this girl. She was more amused than anything. "WOW! Now that's awesome! I mean, dooood! How did you do that?" she asked. Reiko began poking the heads over and over again. It was as if she expected them to start talking to her. She didn't even believe those were real heads, that the blood was fake and that this guy was some sort of a magician.

"Did you like, pull that from a hat or something? That's, wow, just cool. Like, how did you unshrink the shrunken heads?" she asked. That's right. Reiko honestly believed that those heads were blown up to their normal size somehow and that this man wasn't a psychopathic killer. It didn't hit her that this guy was up to no good when she pulled her hands back from the obsessive poking and licked the blood off of her fingers. That taste couldn't be mistaken.

Even when this man was clearly someone she shouldn't be around Reiko didn't show much fear. Instead, she was curious. Perhaps he would be her friend if she did something that he did. Poor Mr. Hereberry's head had been torn off by Reiko a total of eleven times. The sewing string holding his head in place was given a workout yet again. She ripped off the bear's head and held it up to the man's face. "See? I can do it too!" she announced.

[Cataclysm]

Jason stared at the girl like a viper his dead eyes flicking around her body as his hands opened and closed, energy flowed around them making them sharp as scalpels, with a single cut he could sever half the girls head and at this range he couldn't possibly miss. However tearing off the bears head made Jason smile and laugh. "That was good but you should try it on a person it's so much more fun when they scream." His eyes flicked to the Hot dog vendor and swung his arm sending a sickle blade forward slicing through the guys feet so he couldn't run away. The man screamed clutching his ankles while Jason hopped around him pointing. "Walk, walk that's not enough. Walk walk and you will be fun but with no feet you have no seat so now you don't walk walk walk." Jason laughed at the bad song which in his own mind was artistic talent.

He looked at the girl/woman and smiled grabbing the man by the hair and pulled back and smiled a wicked laugh and shot his head down sinking his teeth onto the man's ear and shook his head like a dog tearing it off and kicked the man in the back onto his stomach. Placing the ear near his lips he chuckled. "Can you hear me now, how about now?" He moved a couple of steps and lifted it again. "Can you hear me now?" Jason laughed and grabbed a hot dog throwing them at the guy. He sat down crossing his legs and watched the guy like a Scavenger watching something dying.

Jason looked up at the woman and pointed at the man. "Let's play with him it's a lot of fun, he enjoys it they all do. The screams mean continue and keep playing." Jason stood up watching her eagerly his fingers twitching with excitement with the broken thought of having someone to play with in the world. He acted a lot like a kid...a super psychotic kid with a thirst for pain but a kid."

[Brass]

"Pardon me..." Reiko said.

By this time, there was just no doubt that Reiko had to do something. She had a hard heart but she didn't believe in killing people let alone hurting an innocent man who actually showed her kindness. If Astrid were here she would've told Reiko to step in and do something. This man couldn't just go around hurting people at will. She wouldn't allow it. Besides, if there was going to be a big, bad wolf it was going to be Reiko. It was time for a change. It was time for Brass.

She had to get to her costume. She could improvise. Underneath her clothing was a smaller version of her costume. It wasn't fuzzy and it was awfully uncomfortable while folded up under her clothes. It would have to do. Reiko was supposed to be a bad girl. She wasn't supposed to be good. However, she had to step in when nobody else would. She dashed behind the hotdog cart and quickly removed her clothing. She was hoping the idea of tormenting that innocent man would keep the psycho guy occupied whilst she went super.

Reiko folded the costume down and zipped it up over her feet, hands, and over her head. Two small ears were on the top side head portion of the costume. She whipped out a pair of pink goggles and applied them to her face. The whole costume was pink colored which was contrary to the normal brown and fuzzy one she normally wore. There were black racing style stripes coming down the sides of the get up.

The super villain acting as a super hero leaped up onto the hot dog cart. "It's time for Brass to dig in that ass," she said, that being her catch phrase. The smaller girl was already taking into account this man's personality that he already showed. For one, it was clear he had a pattern of picking on the weak and defenseless. Since she was small she assumed he'd underestimate her like many other people have. That was her focal point.

"Pick on somebody your own si--" she stopped her words. Reiko realized she was relatively short.

[Cataclysm]

Jason turned his head and looked at the new girl than bursted out laughing as he brought his foot down with his energy wrapped around it and exploded the vendors head open splattering blood and brains all over the concrete. He pointed again as he laughed at the ridicules costume. "HA HA HA little teddy bear needs a friend...I play with TEDDY." Jason laughed forming a sickle of energy and threw it at the girl within the four feet distance between the pair sending the blade aiming for her arm to remove it from her body.

Jason leaped backwards into a corckscrew flip and landed sliding backwards forming two energy grenades and threw them to both sides of the woman where they exploded into sickle shrapnel going everywhere at once. Cataclysm cackled looking at the woman and went to form a energy ball only to find his energy empty,.

[Brass]

The second that man allowed "teddy" to escape his lips that was the final straw. Reiko had no intentions of killing him but he certainly wouldn't get away with saying anything about Mr. Hereberry. To her, that bear was her life. Without Mr. Hereberry she would have hung herself with barbed wire years ago. In a sense, Mr. Hereberry has been her husband for a while, a friend and a close companion. Nobody else knew more secrets about her than he did and he wasn't even a living being. For this man to even refer to her bear was divine blasphemy. This wouldn't go unpunished.

Reiko's eyes widened. She didn't even understand what kind of an attack he was using but her instincts told her to dodge. But with this girl the dodging would never be a simple taste. He wanted to use acrobatics? Reiko had a thing or two to show him. Her body lunged itself into the air. Reiko could have jumped straight over the blades. But instead, she wanted to prove to that guy that no matter what he threw at her she'd give it her best shot to make him look foolish. She'd eventually go into a sidewinding backflip but she laid her body horizontally in the air to allow the blades to just barely miss her. In fact, one of the projectiles this man launched cut a single piece of her hair.

When Reiko landed she quickly placed one foot behind another and spread her legs apart. So he wanted to use projectiles, did he? She'd like to see him dodge what she was about to throw at him. In a fight, Reiko believed that if someone threw the first blow they deserved to get back double what they put into that strike. That was why she put a little extra pepper into her hands when she cupped them behind her back. She noticed him preparing for an attack. She didn't care. The one thing a smart man doesn't do is fight someone with practically nothing to lose and was out of their mind.

"Eat this!" she shouted. She had a theory that not everybody was going to know Japanese well enough to know what she was saying. Reiko was about to launch an invisible energy ball. Her blasts don't have to be visible. "Inbijiburu Chinou Sumasshu Shuurai!" she announced. The translation was literally "Invisible Brain Smash Attack." Reiko wasn't stupid. It's hard to dodge what someone can't see. Her hands shot forward. She was hoping he would take her as a joke as she launched her large invisible ball of energy.

[Cataclysm]

Jason laughed as the blow slammed him right between the eyes and flipped him into the air where he landed on his stomach, the entire time he was laughing and even laying there with blood running down his face while he stood up still laughing, the blast had charged him a good halfway and he opened his arms staring at the woman. "Come on little teddy your no fun." His eyes were still glazed over from the insanity in his head and only someone so insane would be able to get up after such a blow to the skull that had felt like a bowling ball against the front of his skull.

[Brass]

Reiko wasn't surprised that her attack didn't knock him out cold. She didn't put all of her energy into it. Now that she has eaten she was fully powered. If he thought that she was impressed he would be sorely wrong. Another thing that a lot of people didn't know about Reiko's energy balls was that she didn't just have to make one. She could make as many as she wanted. Of course, there was a resting period. But that period was long gone by now. He couldn't even dodge one. Multiple ones? Reiko was beginning to think that this would be too easy. She kept that frown on her face. The guy was trying to mock her which signaled for her to use her other ability but she was in no mood to try to seriously hurt someone. Instead, she merely wanted to teach him a lesson in underestimating her.

If it was one thing she understood it was combat. Reiko wasn't as dumb as people said that she was. Her eyes looked to his left and to his right. She knew how to trap him. All it would take was a little planning. Her strategy, in her mind, was flawless. Unless he knew how to fly it'd be difficult to dodge what she was about to do. This time around, she wanted her energy balls to be visible. She hadn't met a single person on planet Earth that could withstand another blast, let alone one, of her energy blasts. Her hands began to vibrate. "So, still take me as a joke, huh? Welp, time to end this. Sorry pal, but you suck at life," she said.

Reiko ran towards him. Hand to hand combat was his worst enemy against her. She got within two feet of him and launched herself into the sky. She would come down at a downward angle towards him with her knee extended towards his face. "Shintou Kamikaze Batou," she shouted. The translation of that was, "Concussion Kamikaze Attack." Her strategy was to launch energy balls to his left and to his right. Even if he dodged that'd eliminate both the right and left sides for him to dodge to. He could back up but once Reiko landed and charged him again that would leave her a direct path to attempt to deliver some blows to him. She launched her energy attacks and was careful to aim for this man's face with her knee.

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