Insanity Chapter Thirteen

Insanity

Chapter Thirteen

~Final Battle~

Day Eleven

Fang got to his feet, his ears were still ringing. He staggered to an overturned chair and set it up right before he sat in it. His head hung low. The police sirens were still a long ways away.

Blue ran to the broken windows and looked down. Arisa lay still covered in glass and unconscious. He jumped out the window, or rather what was left of one, and landed beside her. Blue carefully brushed the glass off of her. Then he picked her up his arms and cradled her.

“Is she all right?” Raven asked as she tied her cloak back around her neck.

Blue nodded. At least she was still breathing and from what he could tell she had no broken bones.

“That’s good to hear,” Raven said as she gripped her stomach.

She was bleeding a little and couldn’t move so much. Raven pressed a handkerchief against the wounds to stop the bleeding. It hurt her to move too much.

“We need to get after them,” Fang said as he stood up, “Their leader is going to suspect a traitor. I have a feeling that Alister will need our help getting him out.”

He looked over everyone briefly. Blue walked in with Arisa in his arms. Raven was injured he could see. The others looked well enough to be put back into a fight.

“Blue,” Fang said, “leave Arisa with Raven.”

Blue looked at Fang with saddened eyes. He would have rather been at her side the whole time but he also understood that they needed every able body if they were going to bring Alister home. Raven was sitting beside a table. Blue approached her and placed Arisa’s limp body beside her.

“I’ll take care of her,” Raven said.

I know.

Blue stood up and looked at Fang. He nodded. In the distance the sound of sirens was coming closer.

“Good,” Fang said. He looked at Raven, “You were an innocent bystander. The police should just ask you questions and drop you off home,” he looked at the security guards and the cashiers, “I hope we have an understanding.”

They all nodded.

“Alright, let’s get going.”

They ran toward the circle of floors. Penelope teleported to the sky light. She pulled something from her pocket and placed it on the glass. She let herself fall as a high pitch noise shattered the glass. Then she teleported again as the glass fell. Fang ran up the side of the wall and Shadow’s shadow form could be seen crawling up the wall. Blue waited a moment before joining them. He ran up the wall and jumped balconies.

Raven rested her head on Arisa’s and held the girl close. She closed her eyes and rested a while as the sirens grew closer.

Fang jumped over the top first. When he landed he started running. Soon after, Shadow and Blue made it over the edge. Penelope appeared just a few paces behind Fang. At the edge of the building, Fang jumped to the next building.

 “Where’s Alister?” Fang asked as he ran.

Shadow looked at his watch and pressed a few buttons.

“The last place the tracker tracked him was in the alleys. There seems to be some frequency interference or something.”

“Or they found the tracking device,” Penelope suggested.

“I just hope they don’t kill him before we get there,” Fang muttered.

***

A Building in the Alleys

Alister grunted as D punched him in the face. He barely moved. He was fading in and out of consciousness. Zorah had Yin chain him to a brick wall so he was completely helpless to defend himself. Alister’s legs were numb, he had been keeling on them for who knows how long. D was about to deliver another punch when Zorah stopped him.

“Let me ‘ave a look at ‘im,” she said with her staff in hand, “Come on, get your ‘ead up!”

Weakly Alister looked up. His face was bruised and battered. He had definitely seen better days. Zorah frowned, picked up her staff and hit him in the face again.

“There, now you match,” she said and knelt down, “All right. Now we can talk. Let’s start with who sent you.”

“I already told you,” Alister struggled to say.

“Yea, yea, I ‘eard ‘bout dis Fang fellow already,” she said, “tell me somethin’ new.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alister’s head dropped in exhaustion.

Zorah laughed, “Now under normal circumstances, I’d believe you. But so far you don’t have de best track record with me. You lied, you cheated, and you dang near got me killed. You’re past de point a no return, sweetheart. You ain’t gettin’ outta here alive.”

It was around then that his mind had given up and he fell into a blissful unconsciousness. We was woken up by a staff hit to the back of his left shoulder. He looked around bleary eyes and exhausted for some sense of time. He felt like he slept for hours but it could have been only a few minutes.

“I ain’t done wid you yet!” Zorah shouted. “Yin!”

The boy tightened the laxness in the chains around Alister’s wrists. This forced him to stretch his back which hurt after hours of being bent over. Alister winced at the pain but he felt his mind beginning to wander. He found himself wishing for death but knew it wouldn’t come fast enough.

Zorah grabbed her staff and gripped it firmly. The ends separated into two points. She placed the tips close to Alister’s neck. Alister raised his head to relieve the unwelcoming pressure.

“Now, either you’ll tell me what I need to know, or I start hacking at limbs,” Zorah threatened.

Alister looked at her with unfocused eyes, “You’re just going to ‘ave to kill me ‘cause I ain’t tellin’ you nothin’,”

“That’d be too easy, sweetheart,” Zorah smiled, “I want to make you regret it first.”

She raised her weapon and prepared to cut him somewhere painful. As the weapon lowered Alister closed his eyes and tried to prepare himself. Maybe he could get lost in his mind and never come out again. But instead of pain or the cooling relief of unconsciousness there was a loud bang and the breaking of something solid. He opened his eyes to see Zorah with a look of horror on her face as she looked at her half her staff. The other half was shattered and scattered around.

Alister looked weakly to where the loud bang came from. Fang stood there, the silver gun in his hand. He was breathing heavily as if he had just run for miles. Shadow, Blue and Penelope ran into the room breathless. Alister started to feel better. Secretly, he expected them to abandon him just like his friends and coworkers did at the station.

“Man, boss,” Shadow breathed, “Your stamina is amazing.”

“Tell…me...about…it,” Penelope crouched to her knees.

“Get up and walk it off,” Fang commanded, “You’ll need your legs again in a little bit.”

Reluctantly, Penelope got to her feet and walked around in a tiny circle. Fang lowered his gun but he kept it out. Zorah recovered from her initial shock and looked at them. She counted four people and smiled.

“Where’s the rest your crew? Are they runnin’ the last lap, or what?” Zorah asked.

“They aren’t coming,” Fang said.

“Oh, no,” Zorah acted concerned, she looked around at her team, “I hope we didn’t hurt ‘em to bad.”

Fang wasn’t buying any of it, “They’ll be fine.”

“Well, while you’re ‘ere, I might as well ask you what this idiot has been keepin’ ta himself,” she pointed at Alister, “Who are you workin’ for? An’ I want an honest answer!”

Fang smiled, “I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about.”

Zorah had had enough, “Have at ‘em!” she shouted.

The others attacked. Fang did millisecond calculations in his head.

“Shadow, you take the teleporter and the rock manipulator. Penelope, you take the half cat and the flame manipulator. Blue focus on the psychic and mind lifter,” he said quickly, “Go!”

They scattered and went after their targets.

Penelope decided to go after Kitty first. She ran to engage the girl in battle when she caught something at the corner of her eye. It wasn’t a problem, she just teleported and appeared behind Kitty. She realized that it was a good thing she teleported because a large fire ball blazed where she had been. Kitty saw her disappear and looked around for her opponent. She felt a kick at her back and stumbled forward. Penelope tried to keep Kitty in-between her and the fire manipulator. That way it would be harder for him to get a good shot at her.

She attacked by throwing punches and kicks. Kitty was quick though. She dodged and counter attacked almost everything Penelope threw at her. Kitty was especially quick at counter attacks. If she was punched she would parry the attack and kick back with her sharp heels. If she was kicked she would dodge and lunge closer to get a good punch or a cat scratch in. But Penelope wasn’t one who liked to be out done. The tougher side of her would improve as she faced a much more talented opponent. When Kitty counter attacked Penelope would dodge or parry it somehow and attack as well.

The two were locked in a hopeless deadlock and Penelope was beginning to tire. The run here had taken a lot out of her. She had to finish it soon so she had a chance against the fire wielder. Penelope was so focused on finishing the fight early that she lost focus on the battle at hand. She tried to high kick Kitty in the face. Kitty parried the attack and lunged in at her. She raised her clawed hand scratched Penelope across her left cheek.

The suddenness of the attack and the pain threw Penelope off balance. She was suddenly in open fire. Scar wasn’t going to miss an opportunity like this. He formed a basic fireball and sent it loose. Quickly, Penelope reached out and grabbed Kitty’s arm. She pulled the girl down with her. When Kitty was off balance as well Penelope let go of her arm and disappeared. The fireball hit her directly. Kitty was blown back by the force into a wall. She wasn’t hurt too badly but she did hit her head. Kitty lay still in a slump on the ground.

Penelope appeared near her with a gadget she invented in her hand. She took Kitty’s hands and held the gadget by them. The gadget lit up and created circles around Kitty’s arms.

“That should hold,” Penelope muttered to herself, “Y-Y-Yeah, I think I should.”

She stood up and looked at Scar. He didn’t look at all happy. He crated fireballs in both his hands. Penelope looked in her pockets and found only two more of the special gadgets. She hoped they would be enough.

***

To Be Continued…