Iridescent: Chapter Twenty-Nine

Iridescent

Chapter Twenty-Nine

~Match~

After the Fall

Dante kicked open the door of the overturned truck that he had been driving before Shuppet had knocked it over. He crawled out and looked around. Everything seemed to be going according to plan. Dante looked into the truck and helped Ai crawl out.

“You okay. Princess?” Dante asked with a slight smile.

Ai looked as serious as ever, “I’m fine. Let’s go.”

“Right,” Dante nodded, “You get inside. I’ll cover you.”

Ai ran off to the resort building. Hiding behind anything she could to avoid being seen. Dante watched her for a little bit before looking for his own target.  Ren stood in the center of the chaos, a small grin on his face. He watched with interest at the goings on.

“Now I thought you were dead,” Jekyll said behind Ren.

Ren turned and smiled, “Depends on your version of reality.”

Jekyll tugged on his hat and closed his eyes, “I don’t have time for mind games.”

With a simple flick of his wrist, Jekyll drew three surgical knives from his sleeve and threw them at the boy. Ren vanished, as he wasn’t ever really there and multiplied himself several times in a ring around the doctor in a suit. The ring of Rens’ all drew their scimitars and charged at the doctor. A clear shot rang out causing one of the visions to disappear. Jekyll easily took care of the rest. He opened his eyes and looked over at Fang and sighed.

“I was doing fine you know,” Jekyll stated.

Fang looked at him, “I know.”

Ren appeared suddenly. Fang acted quickly and grabbed him by the wrist. He twisted the boy around and placed the gun to Ren’s head.

“I just needed to get to him before you killed him or something,” Fang muttered.

Jekyll crossed his arms, “I don’t kill kids. I probably would have maimed him close to death but I wouldn’t have killed him.”

“Right,” Fang looked down at Ren who struggled against his captor, “Now talk. What are you up to? You know the girl isn’t here, right?”

Ren turned his head and smiled, “I’m not answering. You’ll have to catch the real me first.” He vanished out of Fang’s grasp.

Fang looked to Jekyll, “Find him, don’t kill him.”

Jekyll tipped his hat in acknowledgement. He turned to more Rens’ running around causing trouble. With a sigh, he got to work. Fang grabbed a handheld two-way radio on his belt.

“Crow,” Fang said.

“What?” Crow sounded annoyed as usual.

“Where is Amber?” he waited for a reply but before he could get one there was a commotion that drew his attention.

Dante finally found who he was looking for. He ran forward through the crowd and the chaos. He ran passed Zara as she got to her feet after being blown by an explosion. She turned as Dante passed wondering what the hunter was up to. Fang only vaguely heard the response on the radio.

Ren appeared suddenly beside Chaud, catching the boy off guard. Chaud’s hand crackled with electricity and he tried striking Ren. The evasive boy simply smiled and vanished on impact only to appear again moments later. Chaud was too distracted to notice that Dante was running straight for him. Zara felt her entire body go numb, watching her teammate get attacked and unable to do anything quick enough.

She opened her mouth and shouted at the top of her lungs, “Look out!”

Chaud turned in time to see Dante running for him but he was too late to do anything about it. He couldn’t move fast enough. Dante struck him in the stomach. As Chaud doubled over, Dante grabbed his neck and pushed Chaud back into one of the windows of the resort. Dante threw him through the window before jumping in after him.

Before Chaud could get up, Dante grabbed him by his shirt and threw him into a table and again into a wall. Dante grabbed his sword and pressed the point against Chaud’s neck.

Chaud laughed uneasily as he tried to steer away from the sharp point. His nose was bleeding and there was a gash on his cheek. He backed up closer to the wall as he tried to recover from his blurry vision.

“Look,” Chaud started to say, “I understand you’re upset—”

“Shut up!” Dante shouted, “You could talk the ears off a stone statue! I don’t want to hear a dang thing that comes out of your mouth! Say another word and I’ll slit your throat! Go on, give me a reason!”

“I’ll give you fifteen reasons not to!” Zara entered the room, gun raised. “I swear I’ll empty this gun on you if you so much as sneeze,” she muttered.

Dante looked over at Zara for a moment. He looked back at Chaud, “Who is that? Your girlfriend?”

“What?” Zara asked.

Chaud groaned, “Why does everyone think that she is my girlfriend?”

Dante shrugged, “Just asking, jeez.”

“Well, she’s not,” Chaud said.

“You want her to be?” Dante shook his head.

“I…” for the first time, Chaud was speechless.

Dante smiled, “Well, wont this be interesting.” He shot out his hand throwing a fire ball at Zara.

Zara was blown back because of the impact. With Dante’s attention on Zara, Chaud pushed away the sword. The tip only lightly scratched his neck. He shot up in an attempt to hit Dante but Dante’s reaction was faster. Dante took a step to one side. As Chaud lost balance, Dante struck the back of Chaud’s neck. Chaud fell forward but lunged to one side just before Dante’s sword fell on him. The sword struck the ground and Chaud got to his feet.

A gunshot cut through the air silencing the fighting. Dante looked up to see if the girl had gotten back on her feet. He was slightly surprised to see a man with a gun instead. The girl had indeed stood up but stood off to one side, her gun raised as well.

“And who the hell might you be?” Dante asked the new comer.

“Where is Amber?” Fang asked.

Vicky placed the box upstairs on a table with a collection of some of their supplies. The table was long, like the typical conference tables. She felt the building shake and heard the windows quiver. The fighting had already started and she was on her way to join the battle. She picked up the keys to the conference room and headed out. A water bottle on the table toppled over. Vicky turned back and looked closely.

“Kew?” the little creature on her shoulder looked up with interest.

She pulled one of her axes from her belt and went to take a closer look. Normally she would pass up the fact to a shake in the building. However, she was already suspicious with the missing Blue Gold vial. She walked around the table quietly.

“Ha!” Vicky exclaimed when she viewed the other side of the table.

She heard something and looked under the table. Her query had crawled underneath the table and Vicky had only managed to get a glimpse of where they were as they ran off. Vicky looked up again just in time to see someone’s hand on the sill of the door as they ran away.

“Wait!” Vicky called as she ran after the runaway.

She ran down the hallway. Being a little taller and having longer legs, she quickly caught up with the little runaway. She grabbed the runaway’s arms. The runaway struggled against her grip but Vicky held on firmly.

“Amber!? What are you doing here!?” Vicky exclaimed.

Amber looked up to at her as she tried to twist out of Vicky’s grasp, “Let go!”

“What is she doing here?” a voice stated factually, “She snuck off the bus after her and her brother disagreed. Apparently she was able to sneak out of the back of the bus and sneak in without being spotted by the others. I can only assume that she snuck around until now, wanting to help or something useless like that. She can barely take care of herself.”

Amber stopped moving suddenly and tried to locate the voice. Vicky turned and looked down the hallway. Kew growled at the newcomer.

“Who are you?” Vicky asked.

Ai ignored her and looked at Amber, “What do you say, Amber? Do you want to play a game? Why don’t you just give up? I’m only going to win again.”

“No!” Amber shouted.

Ai raised one of her guns at Vicky, “Don’t be a nuisance.”

She fired the gun and Vicky pushed Amber away and ducked. The bullet struck a window. Vicky injected herself. She pulled wind in from the outside and pulled it in and sent it toward Ai. Ai formed a force field around her and protected herself. While Ai was busy, Vicky grabbed Amber’s hand and ran.

“Who is that!?” Vicky asked as they ran down another hallway.

“An ex-friend,” Amber answered.

“Ex?”

“She tried to kill me.”

Vicky nodded, “Yeah, ‘ex’ is a good way to put it after that.”

They ducked down another hall just as bullets sailed down the hallway and struck the corner as they ran. Vicky pushed Amber into a doorway. She turned and ran back down the previous hall. Kew leaped off of Vicky’s shoulder and started charging at the aggressor.

He ran in an unexpected pattern. Ai tried shooting at him but the path he was running was unpredictable. Kew leaped up and bit Ai on the hand. While she was distracted, Vicky pulled out her shuriken and spun it in her hand. She held it out in front of her, creating a tunnel of wind headed towards Ai. The girl was knocked to the ground. She flung her hand out, tossing Kew into the wall. Ai created a force field around herself. She grabbed her gun and shot at Vicky.

Vicky closed her eyes expecting the worst. The bullet struck a force a few feet in front of her and smashed into pieces. When nothing happened, Vicky opened her eyes again. She looked from Ai to Amber. Amber’s eyes were different colors. Amber had seen Ai use her power enough to duplicate it. Vicky looked at the half empty vial in one of her hands.

The shield dropped and Vicky whistled for Kew to follow. She grabbed Amber and started running. Vicky led them down another hallway and stopped suddenly. It was a dead end except for a single room. They didn’t have enough time to look for another place so Vicky ran to the door, opened it, and let Amber in. She closed the door behind them.

Ai made it to the hallway and saw the door. She shot at the lock and the door slid open. Ai walked into a large dimly lit room. It looked like cubicle office room for the employees of the resort. There were many inlets and hiding places including many places to get jumped.

Ai made her way slowly down one row of cubicles. She would clear each cubicle before continuing on to the next. It was slow work but it was the only way she knew that she could progress safely. Besides, she would snuff them out soon anyways. When that would happen, she would kill the older girl if necessary and take Amber to the meeting place.

Something scurried on the floor just in front of her. Ai shot at it but it was already gone by that time. She stopped and steadied her breathing.

“Come on, Amber,” Ai said, “I’m tired of this game.”

Some on ran across from one cubicle to another. Ai turned and shot at the figure. She missed. Ai looked around carefully.

“We both know you can’t throw those darts,” Ai said, “Your aim is horrible.”

Amber appeared at the end of the isle, “We’ll see!”

Ai turned and raised her gun at Amber. Amber threw one of her darts and it struck Ai in the leg. She pushed the gun away from her and backhanded Ai in the face.

“That was for nearly killing me!” Amber yelled.

Ai reached of her other gun. Amber stepped on her hand and elbowed her in the jaw.

“For nearly killing my brother!” Amber shouted.

Ai pushed Amber to one side. She got to her feet and punched her in the face. She pivoted around Amber and kicked her in the back. Amber stumbled forward and turned quickly. Ai ran at Amber. Amber took a step back in her stance and retracted her fist. One of her eyes turned gold in color.

“And this—” she screamed, “Is for every other reason I can’t think of!”

Ai could stop in time. Amber punched her in the face. And electric surge jumped from Amber to Ai throwing her back. She crashed through a few cubicles. Before she could get up Vicky pinned her to the ground by holding one of her hands against her back.

The door barged open and Amber jumped. Fang came in followed by Zara and a very worried looking Chaud. When his eyes fell on his sister, he walked directly towards her.

“I’m sorry,” Amber started, “I just—”

Chaud scooped her up in to his arms, “We can talk about it later.”

She wrapped her arms around her brother. With the adrenalin starting to wear off she started crying into his shoulder. Chaud held her, not wanting to let her go. Fang looked over at Vicky with the captured Ai and shook his head.

“I’m getting too old for this,” Fang muttered to himself.

“Yeah,” Zara overheard, “At this rate you won’t have any black hair left. You should retire.”

Fang glared at her, “What did you say?”

Zara looked at him, “Just saying we young’uns have everything sorted out. You can have fun at bingo night now, that’s all I’m saying.”

Zara walked towards Vicky to help her with Ai. Fang felt the overwhelming urge to shoot her in the back.

“Kids these days really have no respect,” Fang muttered.