Insanity Chapter Twelve

Insanity

Chapter Twelve

~The Wolf among the Sheep~

Day Eleven

Fang lay awake. It was early in the morning but he hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep. Shadow came in at around midnight and reported what he saw. It was good news but it did little to improve Fang's increasingly sour mood. As he lay awake he saw the moon sail silently past his window. He hated how peaceful it looked while it tortured him. There was a knock at the door.

He didn’t answer it and hoped the knocker would go away. Instead Shadow walked in.

“What do you want?” Fang asked.

“Though you would like to know that they are on the move,” Shadow said, “Alister is getting pretty far from home.”

***

Alister sat in the back of the van. Zorah was driving and Scar was in the front passenger seat. Everyone else was in the empty back compartment cleaning their weapons. They were out to rob a bank. Pria sat beside Alister and seemed to distance herself from the group. Yin would occasionally stop by to talk to her. It was almost sickening how much he liked her. Alister just looked the other way.

“We’re almost there,” Zorah called, “Y’all better be ready.”

It was awfully early in the morning but apparently this time of day was when banks expected less trouble. It made sense. You've just opened up shop; you don’t expect to be raided by armed robbers. Alister made sure to keep that in mind just in case one day he would open his own bank.

“Now Pria,” Zorah commanded.

Pria closed her eyes.

“This should deal with those meddling cameras,” D muttered.

“We’re here,” Zorah reported, “Everyone, step lively now. Don’t want ta gain to much attention.”

D opened the sliding door and everyone stepped out. Alister looked at the sign: Star Bank. That was curious. Star Bank wasn’t known for having all that much money in their vaults. It was a very tall bank though. He tried to look disinterested and walked forward. Everyone wore black coats that hid their weapons. They walked across the busy street and up the stairs to the doors.

Inside there was some elevator type music playing. The floors were just waxed and the large tiles shined with the reflected light of the ceiling lights. Some of the cashiers took notice of them but were too busy preparing for the busy day to take too much notice. Some of the security guards were walking around dreary eyed and still filled with sleep. This was the perfect time to rob a bank.

“Stay here,” Zorah told Alister and Scar.

They stayed by the door. Pria knew that she wasn’t needed other than to disrupt the cameras so she stood by Alister. Yin watched Alister closely from the corner of his eye.

D walked toward a few tables there in the lobby and pretended to be writing something. Kitty drummed her nails on a desk beside an aquarium. Niko was talking to a security guard. Zorah walked to the front desk.

“Al’ight, let’s get the formalities out a the way, shall we?” she smiled, “My name is Zorah an this is my crew. We’re ‘ere ta rob you.”

The others drew their weapons. The security guards tried to draw their but when they did, Yin flicked his wrist and took them away. The guns hovered ominously above his head.

“That isn’t goin’ to ‘elp you,” Zorah said as one of the cashier ladies tried to press the emergency button, “Now, let’s try this again. Put de money in de bag!”

She pulled out a large gun and they instantly went to work, filling the bag with handfuls and handfuls of money.

“Now, one of you go ta de volt an get me a little more,” Zorah demanded.

One of the cashiers whimpered and ran to the back. Alister saw her face and the Cop side of him was on the brink of interfering. But he knew that if he did it would be the end of him. D walked around the counter and roughly helped the ladies pack the bags.

There was a faint sound. Everyone grew quiet. Zorah looked at Pria. Pria looked up from the floor. The tall bank had a circle though each floor surrounded by balconies. She closed her eyes.

“Someone’s here,” she said quietly.

“That’s not good,” Scar said.

He stepped into the open spaced and aimed his gun up and fired. Glass shattered and cement was riddled with holes. He fired continuously for a few minutes before he stopped. Silence returned.

“That should do it,” Scar smiled.

“I wouldn’t count on it,” a voice said.

A shadow raced across the wall. Shadow’s arm appeared right under Niko, gabbed her leg, and pulled her into the shadows with him. Penelope jumped over the railing of the fifth floor. Scar raised his gun and fired at her. Penelope smiled and vanished. She appeared behind Scar and caught him by surprise. Penelope punched him, pivoted on her left foot and kicked him with her right. He flew back as a shadow appeared on the left wall. Niko flew out and crashed into Scar.

Surprised, Kitty backed into the aquarium. An aquatic hand appeared and a clear aquatic being rose from the water. Kitty looked up and gasped. She tried to run away but the figure stretched out its hand and a stream of water splashed onto the floor. It touched Kitty’s leg and turned to ice, trapping her leg and preventing her from going anywhere. The aquatic figure stood up and stepped out of the aquarium. When it did, it grew solid into a human form. Blue’s features became more defined.

Kitty used her free leg to kick at him, but Blue caught the punch and kicked her back. The ice broke and Kitty was sent flying into a nearby desk.

Arisa made a fire shield as Yin used the guns that he had acquired from the guards. The bullets exploded on the shield because of the intense heat. When the guns were empty Arisa ran forward to start her attack. Yin extended his arm to one side, his white eyes watching Arisa carefully. He flicked his wrist and a table lifted off the ground. Arisa stopped her advance. She froze. The table was headed right toward her. She felt the impact and screamed. The force of the impact sent her though a glass window and onto the pavement below. She lay still, unconscious.

Arisa’s scream got Blue’s attention. He looked around for her but only saw the broken window. Then he saw Yin. He ran at Yin, full of anger. Kitty tried to trip him with a leg sweep but Blue dodged easily. As Blue ran at Yin, Kitty got to her feet. She was about to go back her teammate up when her path was blocked. Raven stood, her green eyes staring at her opponent. She reached to the knot on her cloak and took it off. Raver wore a purple cloth-like armor. Her long swords were strapped in their sheathes on her back. She reached for one of them and held the hilt with both hands. It was clear she was challenging the girl. Kitty never backed down from a challenge.

“Bring it,” Kitty said as she lengthened her claws.

Raven dropped her sword and attacked.

Blue dodged the flying pens as they dived at him at deadly speeds.

“Haven’t you heard that the pen is mightier than the sword?” Yin inquired, “No? Well, I’ll just have to show you.”

Blue stepped back as one whizzed by right in front of him. He created water in his hands, lengthened it, and created two sais made of ice. Blue’s reactions were quick and fluent. He used the sais to parry the speeding pens. Blue was beginning to show his impatience. He hated being stuck at a distance while his enemy stood there smirking at him. Blue bent backwards, dodging a pen aimed at his head. He was tired of this little game. When he stood upright again he created a dome around himself made of ice. He could hear the occasional thud of the pens hitting the barrier. Blue hit his fist against the front of the barrier and an ice spike shot out of it. It shot forward toward Yin. Quickly Yin shot out both his arms and the spike flattened against an invisible wall. The momentum of the impact seemed to have cracked the wall a little and a small spike extended from the flattened mess and barely touched Yin’s hands. Blue let the barrier drop. The look in his eyes was one of pure hatred.

Raven jumped out of the way as Kitty tried to claw her. She fell lightly on a desk with her arms back and on her sword. She brought the weapon up so it lined up with her eye and charged forward. Kitty sidestepped out of the way. But Raven turned the blade expertly and was about to end the fight when the ground under her feet shook. She lost her footing and a large spike came though the floor. Raven jumped lightly as the spikes followed her, appearing where she had only just been. Her footwork was light and graceful as if she were a crane. Kitty ran quickly and as Raven was focused on moving, she glanced at D and nodded. She jumped and dug her heels into Raven’s stomach. Raven fell on her back and grunted in pain. Kitty’s heels were sharpened at the points. Luckily they didn’t hit anything critical. She took her arm and hit Kitty really hard in the knees. Kitty bent her legs to absorb the hit then Raven took her ankles and lifted her off of her stomach. Suddenly off balance, Kitty fell forward. Seeing this happen, D stomped on the ground. The ground rumbled beneath Raven and she rolled across the floor while several little spikes appeared. She got up to her knees as Kitty got to her feet.

Zorah looked around in shock. The cashiers were hiding behind the counter and the bags still lay open. She zipped it and started to walk toward the open window unnoticed.

“Where do you think you’re going?” a voice said behind her.

She looked and saw Fang, “Oh, well, ‘ello, Love,” she said, “Wish I could stick around but I really must be on my way.”

“And leave your team behind?” Fang said.

“‘Dey look fine ta me,” she smiled, “besides, Love, no point in all a us gettin’ caught, right?”

She touched a bird tattoo on her wrist. It started to move, soon a head popped out of it and soon its whole body was out leaving a bear space where the tattoo used to be. It started out as a blue bird with green, yellow, and white highlights but soon it started to grow until it was in its adult size. Its size was a good fourth of the room.

“‘Sides,” she said again, “I ain’t leavin’ ‘em. I'm leavin' you. Let’s get outa ‘ere!” she shouted and ran.

The others did as they were told and ran out of the building. Alister hesitated.

“Aren’t you coming?” Pria asked; she was posed to leave.

“Yeah,” he said and ran out of the building.

The bird, known as a thunderbird, filled its lungs and screeched. Everyone still in the building had to cover their ears. Fang fell to his knees and pressed his hands to his head so hard they were turning white. His sensitive hearing amplified the sound nearly ten times the actual.

When the bird’s lungs were spent, it flapped its wings and flew toward the windows. They shattered as it crashed through then and flew over the city. Its size grew smaller until it was the size of a normal bird. It spotted the van it was looking for and descended.

Zorah’s arm hung out the window. The bird perched on her hand and put its head hear her arm. It went from its blue color to black. It fit itself back into place in the spot it was before and grew still and lifeless.

“That sure was bogus!” she complained, “Who were those blokes anyhow!?”

She slammed the van to a stop and turned around in her seat. Her eyes were fuming with rage.

“All right! Now someone better start talkin’! There is no way they could have known where we were goin’ to hit! Someone is goin’ ta explain ta me why they did even if I’m gonna have ta gut it out ta ya!” she looked Alister.

She grabbed her staff that was right beside her. Zorah used it to point at him.

“You,” she said in a tone full of murder, “you better hope ta your god dat he saves you afore I gut you like a pig!”