He used to be an outstanding Batter. His file had been played many times by the same faithful player who had brought him to the ending again and again. It had gotten to a point where the Batter took a delight in every time the switch was set to off and a new file began. He had become decent friends with the Judge although they still had their disagreements; and overall he had become closest to Zacharie than anyone else. Every file Zacharie greeted him with the same wide smile behind his mask, and always assisted him along the way. Every new file might have been a fresh start, but certain memories simply weren't forgotten. The Batter always knew when he spoke to Zacharie before the Queen wasn't a final goodbye. They'd see each other again in another life, in a new game.
But there was a day everything changed.
A new player started the file, and the game play was different. He didn't visit Zacharie as much this round, and the battles were more frequent. The Batter's deaths were constant, and he was always urged on by a Joker and the saves were less and less. His tired broken body was grinded out until he had reached a rather astounding level 46 before he finally got to reach the Queen and end his file. His final meeting with Zacharie was even brief; there were no time for spare words as he took on the best of equipment and was suited up for his battle.
It all went by smoothly. Being so powerful it took little effort to kill his wife and son for the nth time, but when it came to that room where he got to put everything at rest things did not go as planned. They didn't pick the ending he was so accustomed to. They picked the other ending.
Everything moved and happened so fast that the Batter almost feared this change in script. He had no control over the dialogue he spoke, and he didn't like the cruel look in his human Judge's eyes. The Judge was smirking though, despite the angered detesting look he was giving his former friend. It was almost as if he knew all too well that this ending would take place, and some day he would get back at him. It was as if he knew this day would come and he had simply faked that smile with every encounter until there was this moment. Batter's stomach was in knots.
The Batter wasn't himself any more. His hands were elongated and tipped with sharp edges, his face had changed and was now filled with a number of sharp teeth that bled in his own mouth. This was terrible, this was not his ending. This was not the way it was supposed to be. And then the Judge took his part, initiating the battle without giving the Batter so much as a choice to the matter. It was the way the game was scripted, and it was the way it was going to be.
The fight was pathetic; the Batter was put out of his misery in a matter of minutes. Laying face flat on the floor in a mess of blood, he shifted his head just barely to catch a view of the Judge's backside as he proudly strut away whilst licking his claws clean. The Batter sulked for a moment, and tried to fight it. He didn't want the game to end like this. With what strength he had left he scrapped his claws across the ground beneath him to the point where the code was breaking in great streaks. At this point the Batter's anger was over-powering and consuming him, giving him the strength to rise up to his feet. Much to his surprise Zacharie was standing there close by him, admiring his powerful form.
"You aren't supposed to get back up, friend." He commented as he tossed a piece of Abaddon's meat the creature's way, helping restore his negative hit points. He watched as the monster of a Batter rose up back to life, eyes full of rage as he looked down the path which the Judge had gone. "What do you plan to do now? The game is over now. We can't start anew until you are dead." Which of course wasn't a lie; this was the part where the Batter did not get up, the Judge went on a walk, and everything was restored via the game's mechanics.
"I'm going to kill the Judge."
He said as if it were a solid fact of the matter and he started to step forward with a fresh surge of power in his body. Just as he went to pursue his enemy he felt hands on his thick forearm, tugging at him to keep him from advancing. Looking down he saw Zacharie gripping at his arm, his mask the same as usual while he pleaded for him not to go. "You can't kill him, compadre. We aren't like you-- if we die without it being written, we can't come back with the new game."
The Batter replied with a snarl, his arm shoving full force against Zacharie with his beastly dead eyes narrowed. He needed to kill Judge, and that was final. He wasn't going to let anyone get in his way, not even his long-time friend. His eyes seemed somewhat surprised when he saw Zacharie get back up slowly, drawing a sword out of his bag. Even if he couldn't see his expression, he could feel the regretful aura emanating from the merchant. Shoulders slumping somewhat the man took on a stance, staring at his corrupted friend.
"I didn't want to do this. But I can't let you kill him. Je suis désolé."
Zacharie readied his weapon and ran forward at the twisted form of the Batter, but he had underestimated just how strong his anger had made him. Letting out a loud angered roar the Batter was in front of in a flash, his claws raking right through the middle of Zacharie's body. The merchant was completely frozen, looking down at the long fingers jutting through his stomach and making his sweater stained red. His hands weakly he dropped his sword and looked up at the Batter in horror, blood dripping from the mouth behind the mask. "Friend--"
Before he could finish the Batter was gripping Zacharie's arm in his jaws and brutally ripping it off with a sickening crack of bones and a scream of pain following it. Blood was aplenty as he broke the arm to pieces between his teeth and swallowed, his white eyes on the broken man skewered on his claws. There was no Batter now; just a creature thirsting for blood. Taking Zacharie apart piece by piece while he screamed, it was a brutal display until there was no more left to eat; and only a mask remained in a pile of leftover entrails and blood.
Now that the Batter's belly was full and his tongue was content with the taste of blood, he went on his pursuit of the Judge. But as he began to chase his scent he found nothing, and his rage settled down with his satisfied bloodlust. He had hardly gotten to the next Zone when he stopped searching, staring down at his own feet. No longer blinded by his own anger he began to realize what he had done. Zacharie was dead. There was no save for him, no Joker to spare on a corpse that was in pieces in a number of places. Now that the game was broken he could no longer return; the Batter had ruined everything. Sinking to his knees he suddenly felt sick to himself as reality seeped into his mind.
He had eaten his one and only friend. The pulp in his stomach was what was once the man he had continually looked forward to every game, and he felt... So wrong. The Batter couldn't bear it; he had ended up emptying the contents of his belly into the flowing plastic sea and staggered around on his own two disfigured feet, distraught and broken and even more panicked he couldn't seem to will himself to cry. He had become the very thing he had fought to save the world from, and there was no way to start over again.
The Batter knew he couldn't stay there if he ever wanted to start anew. His claws began tearing into everything he could while the rain notable to the zone began to soak him, as he tried to escape somehow. Perhaps if he was pure again, perhaps if he could go back... His purity and flip of the switch might be able to restore things. It was a small chance, but by all means he would take it. His own fingers bleeding as he clawed more, he finally managed to tear through the game holding the game together and breathed deeply as he stared into the bleak world of black beyond the seams.
It was time to look for a new file, and maybe even start a new game all together. This file was dead to him much like how he felt inside and he wanted no more of it. The Judge would never tolerate his existence, and without Zacharie there was no point in lingering behind. He needed to become pure again and finish the game right. To the Batter he felt it was the only way to atone for committing what he felt was the ultimate sin.
Stepping through the code wall of his file, he looked back one more time to the familiar landscape of the file he knew best. With a whisper he turned his back to it, ready to start anew.
