BLOODWORTH 3: Blut und Stahl by Tai Goodman (distant reading TXT) 📕

"Yeah, I'm alr-"

A bone in his back popped. "UNGH! MY BACK! AWWW.... MMMMNGH.... My back!" he groaned, squirming all over the place and rolling over repeatedly. Abhy walked over to him and kicked him in the back. "AAAAH! WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR?"

"What? I didn't do anything."

"Whatever... It's fine. My back feels... Fine. What happened?"

"We heard over the news that a helicopter crashed somewhere. And that you were piloting it, right? Did you know how to fly a helicopter during the war?" 

"Nope. Never had and never learned. I just took off and WHOOSH! And now we're here. Or me- I'm here."

The helicopter fell through a few branches. Phoenix scooted out of the way right when the aircraft hit the ground. Calvin's body fell through the door of the helicopter. Phoenix then pulled out the handlebars, transformed them into the choppercycle, and then rode off through the forest. "So many damn trees." He drove over a ramp, leaning against a fence, and then landed on the highway. "Montana, here I come." Phoenix scratched his chin and watched Tyler drive a rentable vehicle right besides him. "HEY! HEY PHOENIX!"

 Phoenix looked at him. "Wait, how the fuck are you on the road?"

"What?"

"HOW ARE YOU ON THE ROAD?"

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF YOU DRIVING!"

"UGH, NEVERMIND."

Phoenix drove past a bus and continued to Montana. 

 MONTANA

"Booked a motel room again. Feels better than all the others, but the hotel always comes out on top. Bought a mediocre tasting burger. Was alright. God, my ear itches. It won't wane away... What the fuck is making it itch so bad?"

Phoenix scratched behind one of his ears and then saw Peter appear. "Phoenix? You there?" Peter questioned him. 

"Pretty sure I got enough fucking time, WHY'D YOU FUCK MY WIFE?"

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? IT'S YOUR FUCKING KID!"

Phoenix backed away from Peter and hit the wall. "Wait.... So.... It's not your's?"

"FUCK NO! I WOULDN'T HAVE YOUR WIFE CHEAT ON YOU!" Peter answered him. Phoenix twiddled his fingers in nervousness. "Then.... Does that mean I'm.... I'm a...." 

"Yeah. Phoenix, you're a dad. I recommend you kill Hitler and come on back ASAP."

Phoenix looked away. "Wait a minute... No, you're just a voice in my head! That's fucking fake. Leave me the hell alone." 

"No I'm not, I'm talking to you through the earpiece you have on. Remember?"

Phoenix started scratching his ear repeatedly and pulled an earpiece out. Peter has disappeared. The moment he strapped it back to his ear, Peter reappeared.

"Wait... So.... I could actually hear you. But I can see you? How?"

"I dunno about that. Well.... Actually.... I CAN RELATE." 

The walls of the motel room and the floor and roof floated away. Phoenix was standing on nothing but darkness. "WHOA- WHAT THE SHIT? WHAT'S HAPPENING?" 

Peter walked over to Phoenix and placed his hand on his shoulder. "Phoenix. You need to face reality. Do you know what's going on right now as we speak?" Peter questioned him. 

"WHAT'S HAPPENING? TELL ME THE TRUTH, NOW!"

Peter laughed, and removed a Peter-face mask from his head. He was Phoenix, unmasked. "Tell you? Well... I'll give you a hint to what's going on. But you better believe it once I tell you: The shit you saw... Only PARTS of it were real. You ain't well right now. You're somewhere.... 'Safe.' Safer than you think. People can't hurt you right now unless they have a certain tool. As for everybody else, they're perfectly fine as long as they don't get themselves killed."

Phoenix grabbed himself by the neck. "WHAT'S REAL AND WHAT'S NOT? YOU OUGHTA SPIT IT THE FUCK OUT!"

"Heh heh heh heh heh..... You think I'm just gonna 'tell' you what's real? No no no! That's too easy! But I will tell you some things that were real. The Pink Fury.... The incident with the earpiece.... The part where you're a father. The rest is up for you to decide what is real and what is fake. Consider it carefully. But I'm sure my job is done. Step into the bed when you're ready to see how you ended up... Without all the fictional junk."

Phoenix walked over to the bed, and then stared back at the clone. "You're saying if I get in this... I'll get to see the truth? All of it? What does that mean, anyways?"

"You will get to see yourself kill your enemy." 

"Then sure. Then what?"

"You will need great patience for the next step."

Phoenix shook his head and climbed underneath the covers of the bed. The clone tucked Phoenix in and whispered, "Leaving this world isn't as scary as it sounds. But you haven't left. Not yet." 

Phoenix's vision then flashed through various sequences of him breaking into the Montana palace, killing and eviscerating Nazis. And the increased speed of the vision stopped at Hitler's office. Then he witnessed what really happened.

 Phoenix busted into Adolf Hitler's office, where Hitler had on an entire suit of ballistic armor. "Vell vell vell... Masked Terror valks into mein office. I bet you are here to kill me. Yes?"

"For a Nazi, you're damn smart."

"Ahhh.... I thank you for zhat. But compliments from a terrorist do not mean ANYTHING to me now. Besides, only ONE of us is leaving zhis room alive," Hitler informed him. Phoenix balled up his fists. "Let's get this over with. I'm tired of living in this country anyways." 

Hitler cracked his knuckles. "COME AT ME!" he snarled at Phoenix, who was approaching already. Hitler injected himself with two steroid syringes and then dodged a punch soaring at his head from Phoenix. Hitler kicked Phoenix in his leg, tripping him, and then stomping on his side. "AGH!" grunted Phoenix, punching Hitler in his knee. He landed on top of Phoenix, and stabbed a dagger through his shoulder. "MASKED TERROR? I ZHOUGHT YOU WERE MORE TERRIFYING ZHAN ZHAT!"

Phoenix grappled Hitler, suplexed him and then threw him against a wall. Hitler was unable to move. His spine was broken. He couldn't feel anything. "Well you're right."

Hitler used his last ounce of strength to inject himself with another steroid syringe. "ZHIS IS ONLY ZHE BEGINNING." 

He launched Phoenix into the wall, again, and then pulled out his pistol. "DIE!!!"

Hitler shot three times, missing, and then shot Phoenix twice as he was sliding over his desk towards him. Once he landed on his feet, Phoenix launched a hit at Hitler's jaw, but it was parried within Hitler's hard grasp. In return, he attempted to punch Phoenix, but that attack ended up being blocked. The two locked eyes for a second. "MOTHERFUCKER. YOU GOTTA GIVE UP SOMETIME!"

"I VILL NEVER KNEEL TO YOU."

Hitler twisted both of Phoenix's wrists and then knocked him onto the desk, again. Phoenix's face formed a scowl out of rage, and then felt the cold grasp of Hitler's fingers around his neck. Phoenix stabbed Hitler in his chest and kicked the knife in further. Hopping up off of the edge of the desk, he popped his neck in place and then kicked Hitler into his own chair. Hitler watched Phoenix approach him, again, and then pulled out a backup plan. It was a huge hand-grenade with a menacing grin painted in red across its surface. "Stop, Phoenix, before he does something stupid."

Phoenix halted himself from moving, as Hitler pulled the pin and closed off all exits to the place. "Zhe place is on lockdown. You have no way out." 

Phoenix looked around at metal walls sealing every exit by the second. He sprinted over to the door and kicked it a few times. 

"WELL GREAT. YOU GOT ME,AND YOURSELF! WHAT'S THE NEXT STEP OF YOUR MASTER PLAN, ASSHOLE? BLOWING US BOTH UP WITH THAT THING?"

"Zhe moment I release the safety mechanism on zhis... Ve vill both be killed. Ja. Zhat is my plan. But zince I am holding it, I vill not be able to be cleaned out of zhis room."

Phoenix watched Hitler's fingers release the mechanism. "DUCK AND COVER!"

He leaped into a corner in the room, and before the grenade exploded, Adolf pulled a circuit breaker on his desk. A glass panel appeared in front of Phoenix. "What is that? WHAT THE FUCK?"

He started banging on the glass. "GODDAMMIT HITLER, OPEN THIS DOOR!"

The grenade exploded, and killed Hitler in the blast. The flames and radius of the explosion coated the window in flames, and then Phoenix started feeling... Stiff. His feet couldn't move. Phoenix peered downwards to see liquid metal coating his feet. "No. NO!"

Phoenix pulled out his pistol and shot the glass, doing nothing. "BULLSHIT! UHH... UHH.... ARMOR PIERCING!"

The ammunition type was depleted. Phoenix then held the pistol by its barrel and before he started whacking the glass he felt his torso being coated in the metal substance. "SHIT!"

Then after a while, he was completely coated in it. Frozen in it. Molded into it.

2 HOURS LATER

"Alright, the thermite is almost through, Mr. Fegelein," said somebody behind the steel gates. "Gut, you have done gut," Fegelein thanked him. A hole burned through and left an entry point, but before entering, two of the guards extinguished the orange heated circle around the inside. "Danke schon." 

He crawled through the circle and saw the blast where Hitler was sprayed all over the walls and floor. "ADOLF! NEEIIINNN!" he cried, falling to his knees. But then he noticed a statue in the corner. 

"AHAAHAHAH! WE GOT HIM! GUARDS! GET..... VHAT ZHE FUCK?"

Phoenix was frozen in middle, shooting two birds. 

Fegelein prickled his chin. "Guards! Do you see zhat statue in zhe corner? I may have a use for it...." 

DAYS LATER IN MONTANA....

A boy and his mother were taking a stroll. Then they saw something strange. "Mommy, what is that?" he questioned. The mother shielded his eyes and said, "Jimmy, don't look at that, let's go someplace else." 

Then they walked in the opposite direction of the Phoenix statue. 

"Hope you're rotting away, Adolf. I know I will be, but slower. Slower enough to watch you."