George Droyd hit the sand runnin', screamin' like a banshee, fists cocked back, reactor blazin' bright like a cracked-out star.
Nephis raised her hand.
White fire shot from her palm — a sharp whip of pure heat, slicin' the air between them.
George ain't even flinch.
Took that shit right across the face, skin meltin', cybernetics sparkin' —
but kept comin', louder.
"AAAAAARRRRRGHH! BITCH, I'M BUILT DIFFERENT!"
He swung wild.
Nephis ducked, spun, slid past him — her movements too clean, too perfect.
She slashed at his side with her flame.
George stumbled, guts hissin' where the fire kissed metal.
But he ain't stop.
Nigga was runnin' off pure fent rage.
He grabbed a handful of sand, flung it in her face like a dirty-ass kid in a playground brawl.
Nephis recoiled, blinded for half a heartbeat.
And George DROPPED her with a haymaker.
CRACK!
Her head snapped sideways, silver blood sprayin' from her lip.
She staggered.
First time she'd been touched.
First time she looked human.
George laughed, wild, broken.
"YEEEEEAAAHHH! NIGGA GOT THEM HANDS!"
He bellowed, dancin' around like Ali on meth.
Nephis wiped her mouth, eyes flashin' pure murder.
"You... abomination..."
"You dare..."
White fire erupted around her body — hotter, bigger — like a second sun risin' over the wasteland.
She charged.
Sword out now, drawn in a blink of white light, slashin' and stabbin' with precision that could kill gods.
George caught a blade to the arm —
lost half his left forearm in a spray of sparks and cybernetic blood.
Didn't even slow him.
He swung the stump at her face, batterin' her back.
Nephis ducked low, slid under his next punch, and drove her sword deep into his gut — straight through, comin' out the back.
George looked down.
At the blade.
At the blood pourin' out.
And he just laughed.
"OOOHHHH SHIEEEEET, BITCH GOT ME!"
He coughed, blood and oil sprayin'.
"AIGHT THEN! I RESPECT IT!"
With the blade still inside him, he grabbed her by the throat with his one good hand.
Crushed.
Lifted her off the ground.
Nephis' white flames roared, engulfin' them both —
but George held on, even as the fire cooked him alive, blackenin' his skin, meltin' his plating.
His grin never faded.
"WHAT NOW, SNOWBUNNY?! YOU AIN'T SO COLD NOW, HUH?!"
He slammed her into the ground.
BOOM.
Sand and ash flew everywhere.
Nephis gasped, body crackin' under the impact.
But she wasn't done.
Not even close.
She gritted her teeth, eyes wide with pure rage, and screamed:
"YOU BLACK NIGGA SCUM!"
Her voice ripped through the air, sharper than her sword ever could.
George blinked.
For the first time, he paused.
He looked at her, really looked.
Saw the hate.
The poison behind all that elegance.
And he smiled wider.
"Awwww, bitch... now you soundin' real honest!"
He laughed, wheezin' blood.
"You mad 'cause a real nigga like me beat yo clean little ass, huh?"
Nephis shrieked — a sound full of hate and fear — and ignited her whole body in white inferno.
The flames became claws, wings, a crown.
She rose from the crater like a ghost queen, a monster born of fire.
George didn't care.
He roared back, reactor pumpin' overtime, floodin' his system with pure fent energy.
His skin tore.
Metal plates fell off.
His whole body cracked and broke.
But he charged again.
No tactics.
Just pure nigga energy.
He tackled her midair.
They rolled across the dunes, fists and claws tearin' at each other.
She slashed his face open.
He bit her shoulder down to the bone.
She burned holes through his chest.
He tore out chunks of her armor with his bare hands.
Each hit brutal.
Each second crazier.
The world around them caught fire — dunes meltin', black sand turnin' to glass under their rage.
George started winnin'.
Nephis got slower.
Her fire flickered.
Her wounds didn't heal as fast no more.
Meanwhile, George?
Nigga was runnin' on pure willpower, screamin' like a demon, not givin' a single fuck.
He drove her back, step by step, punch by bloody punch.
"BITCH!"
SMASH!
"ASS!"
CRACK!
"WHOOPIN'!"
BOOM!
Nephis staggered, sword broken, cloak in tatters, face bruised and bloodied.
She tried to conjure more flame.
Tried to summon her white crown again.
But it sputtered. Faded.
George drooled blood, grinnin' crazy.
"No more magic tricks, huh snowflake?"
He wheezed, stalkin' forward.
"No more clean lil' words? No more queen of the world shit?"
Nephis backed up, trippin' on the ruined ground, eyes wild.
"You... you filthy... you filthy n—"
George's fist silenced her.
One punch.
Straight to the temple.
The white fire went out like a snuffed candle.
Nephis crumpled into the sand.
Still breathin'.
Barely.
George stood over her, chest heaving, blood pourin' from a hundred wounds, body steamin' from the inside out.
But smilin'.
Always smilin'.
He spat blood down at her feet.
"Now who the fuck run this town, huh?"
He muttered, almost tender.
He stumbled back, reactor flickerin' low.
Still alive.
Barely.
But victorious.
-
George Droyd was limpin' through the dead-ass desert wasteland that used to be Las Vegas, half-melted, half-fried, and 100% pissed off.
His skin was blacker than charcoal now, cybernetics sparkin' every step he took.
Reactor low.
Blood and oil leakin'.
But he ain't dead yet.
"Man... fuck this dry-ass desert..." George muttered, kickin' a burnt cactus out the way.
"Ain't no bitches... ain't no chicken wings... not even no dice games... only monsters.. shieeeeet..."
He sniffed the hot air like a bloodhound.
And there it was.
The scent.
That sweet, chemical musk.
FENT.
His body jolted.
Reactor buzzed, screamin' low warnings.
"FENT! WHERE YOU AT, BITCH?! NIGGA NEED HIS GAS!"
He broke into a crooked-ass sprint, leavin' a trail of smoke behind him.
That's when a voice crackled in his busted cybernetic ear.
"Yo dumb ass finally wakin' up, huh?"
It was NiggaLink AI — his in-brain assistant.
Sounded like a bootleg Siri mixed with a pissed-off uncle.
George almost tripped.
"Ayy nigga where the FUCK you been at?!" George barked, swattin' at his own ear like he could slap the AI.
"Man, my shit overheated when you started throwin' hands with that snow bunny bitch," NiggaLink said. "You out here eatin' white flames raw like a retarded rhinoceros, what you expect?!"
George scowled.
"Nigga you supposed to help me! Fight wit me! Do some anime-ass power up shit!"
"Power up WHAT, dumbass?! You runnin' Windows 95 and fentanyl fumes, ain't no super saiyan mode, nigga!"
George cackled, almost fallin' over.
"SHIEEEEEET... you right tho..."
He stumbled over a burnt road sign — "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" — now cracked and buried half under the sand.
Ahead, half-buried in rubble, he saw it:
A wrecked ambulance.
Inside the shattered back doors, scattered across the floor like broken dreams, was a fat-ass pile of glass vials.
Medical-grade fentanyl.
His whole body lit up.
"WOOOOOO!"
George hollered.
"WE EATIN' GOOD TONIGHT, NIGGA!"
He dived into the wreck like a starving hyena.
Snappin' vials open, jammin' them straight into his reactor port.
His whole chest glowed brighter with every hit.
NiggaLink AI whistled in his ear.
"Goddamn... you hittin' that shit like a fat bitch at Golden Corral... slow DOWN, dummy!"
George wiped his mouth, fent drippin' down his chin.
"FUCK you talkin' bout, nigga?!
I'm tryna LIVE out here!"
"Nigga you gon' overdose and start speakin' Latin,"
NiggaLink said dryly.
"And I ain't callin' no ambulance. Earth Medicaid don't exist no more, dumbass."
George rolled onto his back, feelin' the warm high spread through his cooked body.
His reactor purred like a happy cat now.
The pain faded into nothin'.
The wasteland stretched forever under the blood-orange sky.
All quiet now.
George chuckled to himself.
"Shieeet... black don't crack... niggas don't die... we MULTIPLY, bitch!"
NiggaLink sighed in his head.
"You the dumbest smart nigga I ever seen."
George grinned.
"I love you too, nigga."
The fent finally dragged him under.
His reactor hummed low and steady.
His eyes fluttered closed.
And finally...
George Droyd passed the fuck out.
-
The ruins of Old Los Angeles lay like a rotting carcass under the bleeding red sun.
Crumbling towers leaned at broken angles, highways split like cracked bones.
In the middle of it all, half-buried in a smoking crater, was Nephis — Sovereign of the Human Domain, Heir of the Immortal Flame, and right now, lookin' beat the hell up.
Her silver hair was soaked with blood and dust.
Her armor hung in ruins from her slender frame.
Yet even broken, she sat upright, her back straight, her eyes burning with cold dignity.
Sunny came sprinting up the ruined road, screamin' her name like a drunk whiteboy at Coachella.
"NEPHYYYYYYYYY!"
His voice cracked like a kid goin' through puberty for the second time.
He stumbled over rubble, arms flailin', almost eatin' shit twice before fallin' to his knees next to her.
Tears streamed down his dumbass face before she even opened her eyes.
"B-baby... Oh my GOD... You're so strong... you're so beautiful... even like this, I wanna marry you and have your kids...*"
He reached for her hand, then froze halfway, hoverin' over it like he was touchin' holy relics.
Behind him, Cassie arrived, movin' like a ghost.
She said nothing — just popped a shimmering crystal in her hands and cracked it open above Nephis' chest.
A wave of white mist flooded down, healing magic seepin' into Nephis' broken body.
Sunny knelt there sobbin', makin' weird little hiccup noises, not even helpin'.
"I SWEAR TO GOD, BABY GIRL, IMMA KILL WHOEVER DID THIS! DEADASS, ON GOD, I'LL CATCH A BODY FOR YOU, BABY!"
He wailed.
Cassie raised one perfect eyebrow but didn't bother saying anything.
Nephis opened her eyes — painfully, slowly.
Her pale lips moved.
"Sunny... you're... embarrassing yourself," she croaked.
Sunny gasped like she just proposed to him.
"YOU'RE ALIVE!!!"
He threw himself forward and hugged her like a koala on a tree trunk.
Nephis grimaced.
Cassie silently grabbed the back of Sunny's collar and peeled him off like a mom draggin' a bad kid away from a candy store.
"Let her breathe," Cassie said flatly.
Sunny sniffled but obeyed, droppin' back down to a crouch like a good lil' simp.
"Damn, baby girl... who did this to you? You want me to stab 'em? Shoot 'em? Eat 'em? Say less, queen."
Nephis coughed, sitting up straighter.
"...It was not a Nightmare creature," she said. "It was... something different."
Cassie wiped ash from Nephis' cheek gently.
"A man," she confirmed.
"A BLACK man," Sunny added loudly, like a complete idiot.
"Fent-addicted, cybernetically enhanced," Cassie said, ignoring him. "Fueled by instability. Driven by addiction."
Nephis closed her eyes, her voice cold.
"He was madness incarnate. A storm made flesh."
Sunny punched the air weakly.
"On god, I'll knock his fent-smokin' ass out! Nobody touches my queen! I'll 1v1 that nigga right now, I don't care if he built like a whole crackhouse!"
Cassie finally side-eyed him.
"You would last five seconds."
"Five seconds longer than YOU, bitch!" Sunny shot back, chest puffed out.
Cassie just blinked.
Sunny shrank down immediately.
Nephis coughed again.
Sunny immediately offered her a crumpled dirty water bottle like it was liquid gold.
She pushed it aside regally.
"Why were you even out here, Nephis?" Sunny asked, wide-eyed like a lost puppy.
"This place is death, baby girl. Only dumbasses and nightmare spawn left in America."
Nephis lifted her chin.
"There were rumors," she said. "Of a forgotten Dream Gate hidden beneath the ruins. If it exists, it could grant humanity a path to salvation."
Sunny's eyes filled with stupid, blind devotion.
"See? This why you my queen. You built different. Out here riskin' your fine ass for humanity and shit."
Cassie coughed once into her hand.
It sounded suspiciously like a laugh.
Nephis narrowed her eyes.
"What is it, Cassie?" she said dangerously.
Cassie shrugged, looking innocent.
"Oh, it's nothing. Just wouldn't be bad if you told him the truth."
Nephis' nostrils flared.
Sunny blinked back and forth between them.
"...Truth?" he asked.
Cassie smiled sweetly.
"She wasn't here for a Dream Gate."
Sunny looked confused.
Nephis stayed silent, her jaw tight.
Cassie twisted the knife.
"She was chasing rumors of a fentanyl depot. A stash left behind by a cartel sect that survived the Collapse."
Sunny's jaw dropped so hard it nearly unhinged.
"WAIT HOLD THE FUCK UP."
"YOU OUT HERE FOR FENT, BABY?!"
Nephis sighed slowly.
"There was... strategic value."
"NIGGA, YOU WAS FENT-HUNTIN'!" Sunny shrieked, spinning in a little circle.
"I can't believe it, bruh. My queen out here like a broke-ass junkie."
Cassie covered her mouth politely.
Probably hiding a smirk.
Nephis looked utterly unbothered.
"It was a calculated risk," she said frostily. "Strategic assets are necessary for maintaining the Dream Realm frontlines."
Sunny flopped onto his back dramatically like a dying fish.
"BRO I'M DEAD. THIS WHOLE TIME I THOUGHT YOU WERE ON SOME LORD OF THE RINGS SHIT."
"She was," Cassie said mildly.
"Lord of the Fent."
Nephis finally cracked — the barest flicker of amusement danced in her storm-grey eyes.
Sunny wiped fake tears from his face.
"Baby... I love you even more now. Even when you down bad, you still a queen."
Cassie shook her head slowly.
"Idiot," she whispered under her breath.
Sunny beamed like he just won an Oscar for Dumbest Nigga Alive.
Nephis finally rose to her feet, standing proud, bathed in the fading white mist of Cassie's healing magic.
She pointed toward the horizon.
"He's still out there," she said. "The creature who did this to me."
Sunny stumbled to his feet.
"Say less. We cook up some fent bait, lay it out, and when his black cyborg ass come sniffin' round, we JUMP that motherfucker."
Nephis nodded once, solemnly.
"We will end him," she said.
Cassie tucked the empty healing orb away.
"Efficiently," she added.
Sunny clapped his hands excitedly.
"AWWW SHIT, IT'S UP NOW! TEAM NEPHIS IN THIS BITCH!"
The strongest of humanity stood together in the ruins of America.
Plotting the downfall of one very high, very stupid, fent-powered black nigga who was currently curled up in an abandoned Taco Bell, snorin' loud as hell.