章 101: Out of your League

Nightmare appeared in the Tower of Justice and looked around, noticing stairs. He chuckled to himself and skipped down the stairs, humming to himself as the crew fought against the CP9 agents, breaking their limits.

It had nothing to do with Nightmare though, he just went right by them, heading for the big kitty and that hateful woman.

He hummed to himself and looked at the giant metal door in front of him. He mumbled "Though, that masked guy was pretty funny…" his hand gripped the door and he ripped the metal door off its hinges, throwing it behind him as he giggled "I wonder if he'll still be funny if his insides were his outsides! Hihihihihih~"

With a newfound purpose, Nightmare continued skipping through the corridors under the Tower of Justice.

Lucci was running with Spandam and Robin in the same corridor. Spandam shouted "Did you kill him!?" Lucci disdained to even talk with this clown of a human being and kept silent, Robin sneered and commented "Can he even?" Lucci grunted at her and Spandam raised his hand to slap her, when the trio heard light rhythmic steps and a cheerful hum resonating behind them, getting louder and louder with each step.

The cheerful tune was like the knock of the grim reaper's scythe to the three.

As the voice grew louder, the tune became more and more happy, words even started being sung.

'Today your blood drips on my face,

When will it finally be mine?

The taste of your sweetness makes me happy~

Let me get a little closer~

Just a little taste of my lovin won't hurt,

Come on, take a chance with me~

I only want to see you bleed,

You could be a masterpiece covered in red~'

The lyrics for said song sent chills up the trio's spines. Spandam started running, Lucci grabbed Robin and followed him as the footsteps' rhythm never broke. Robin was on Lucci's shoulder and muttered to herself "Those last two lines of lyrics could be discarded. I feel the song would flow better…"

Lucci almost slapped her, what nonsense is she talking about now? Does she not realize that thing is coming for her too? To be perfectly honest, Lucci wasn't afraid, he was just creeped out.

He was confident in himself but he never experienced something like this, of all the assassination targets, none of them actively hunted him and were so creepy about it. They usually had a cold face with revenge on the brain, but this guy was just insane!

He only came for him because he was in proximity!

What kind of psychopath was this!?

Obviously, Lucci wanted to stay away from this guy.

Spandam was just terrified, he regretted coming here. Cutty Flam escaped and now he had a murder hobo chasing him!

Little did Spandam know, Nightmare barely cared about him. He only thought Spandam was like a clown and decided to kill him on a whim.

But to Spandam, he was the main target. He was so scared, he could piss himself right now.

Robin, however, was not scared or creeped out. She was just sad. She felt awful for tricking Thirteen like this. But it was the only option at the time, she didn't have any other choice, they would've been Buster Called otherwise!

She closed her eyes and stayed silent as the footsteps continued ringing out.

Nightmare continued by himself before coming across a giant room. He spotted Robin and Spandam going through another door at the end of the room and smiled as he skipped over.

He suddenly ducked and turned his head up with a face splitting grin.

Lucci looked at Nightmare emotionlessly as he sailed over with his paw out. Nightmare chuckled and the duo disappeared, appearing in the air, clashing.

Nightmare and Lucci interlocked claws in the air.

Nightmare squeezed and grinned, pressing on Lucci as he laughed "Look at you~ Who's a good kitty? You are, yes you are~!" Lucci's eyes reddened slightly in anger as he fired his knee forward, blasting Nightmare in the stomach.

Nightmare laughed and took the beating without fighting back, parrying slightly but otherwise nothing.

Lucci sneered, "Seems like I overestimated you." Nightmare looked up and grinned, he flashed in front of Lucci, he grabbed Lucci's face and pulled it close. Nightmare's eyes widened and his grin turned bloodthirsty as he giggled eerily "You think I'm trying against a kitty like you? Hihihih~ Would you like to feel 50% of my power?"

Nightmare twisted Lucci around and locked his neck with his arm as he punched Lucci's back, stomping him into the ground. He jumped up and threw his daggers down, stabbing into the ground and pulled forcefully, laughing as he flipped in the air.

He kicked out with a black sharpened leg.

Lucci rolled away and Nightmare blasted a hole in the ground. Lucci looked serious and Nightmare grinned at him, licking his lips and asking "Are you ready to play, kitty?"

Lucci tightened his muscles and disappeared, he reappeared behind Nightmare and thrusted his finger at him. Nightmare turned around and bent in a strange way, dodging the finger.

He bent his legs and laughed as he slapped Lucci's arm with his hand before elbowing him in the face. His movements were extremely fast, he was in a completely different league to Lucci!

He stopped smiling and looked at the door before spinning and kicking Lucci away, saying "Damn it, we can't play anymore, kitty. This is goodbye. If you can kill that rubber freak maybe we can play again~" before running to the door Spandam and Robin slipped into.

Luffy ran into the room and saw Lucci getting up with blood covering his face, he turned to see Nightmare running to the door, as if avoiding him. He shouted "Thirteen!" Nightmare twitched and ignored him, shouting "Shut up, rubber freak! I hope you die!" he held his right eye and glared at Luffy with his red pupil as he disappeared into the door.

Luffy frowned and suddenly ran forward, stopping Lucci from going anywhere. He turned to him and Lucci said "You're not going anywhere." Luffy frowned and replied "After I kick the shit out of you, I will be." Lucci sneered, "Can you?" Luffy grinned "You're about to find out."

He started steaming and disappeared, he stomped on Lucci's back before flashing to in front of him and twisting his arm. Luffy threw an uppercut as his arm twisted back, Lucci was knocked into the air and Luffy appeared above him, holding his left arm out and reeling back his right.

He aimed and punched extremely fast, smashing Lucci into the ground.

Luffy landed back on the ground and went to the door.

Unfortunately, Lucci appeared in front of him and cracked his neck.

Luffy got serious and tensed his body ready for a tough fight.

Meanwhile~

Nightmare ran up the stairs and slapped his head, growling to himself. He let out a breath and grinned, finally taking back full control.

He ran up the stairs after Spandam, but he didn't notice that his right eye had a sliver of blue through the pupil, just like the crack that was on him in the mental space…