Insanity Chapter Sixteen

Insanity

Chapter Sixteen

~Downtime~

Day Twelve

Fang lay in bed with a scowl on his face. It was nearly noon and he was growing tired of waiting for Shifter to show up. He had several people to take care of, including who was left of the Dancing Dragons that resided in his locked basement. Fang looked in a little notebook that he had near by. It was a list of everyone’s name and a check by them. Alister’s name was the only one unchecked. Fang sighed and sat up. He walked out of his room and walked down the hallway to Alister’s room. Fang knocked and there was no answer. He sighed and opened the door.

Alister’s room was decorated with posters of guns and the smell of weapons was thick in the air. Fang stood by Alister’s bed and looked at him. Alister was still sound a sleep, nearly for twenty four hours now. Fang understood and hadn’t woken him up. But it was getting late and Alister hadn’t even woken up to eat anything yet. Fang walked into Alister’s own bathroom gabbed a rag and soaked it in cool water. He walked back into the room and dabbed Alister’s swollen face.

The swelling had gone down immensely than what it had been before but the swelling was still obvious. At the touch of the wet rag, Alister winced in his sleep. His bruises still hurt him. Fang thought about visiting the Undertaker in case he had anything that would help with the pain. But of course he had to wait until Shifter got here.

A shadow loomed in the door way. Fang looked up and saw Shadow.

“How is he?” Shadow asked.

“He hasn’t eaten,” Fang answered, “I’ll wake him up tonight for dinner.”

A thought came to Fang, “Shadow, go to the Undertaker’s and see if he had anything for bruises.”

Shadow nodded and left.

When Fang was done, he looked at his notebook and checked it off. He took the full cup of water by Alister’s bed, emptied it, and then refilled it with fresh water. Fang looked Alister over again before leaving his room. He looked down the hallway. There were two other occupied rooms and their doors were opened and welcoming. Blue’s room was on the left, Shadow’s room on the right. He walked to Blue’s room and knocked on the door.

Blue’s room a neat and organized. Blue looked up from his desk and looked at Fang.

“I was going to check on Arisa. Would you like to come?” Fang asked.

Happily, Blue stood up and followed. Normally boys weren’t allowed in the girl’s hallway and vice versa except for Fang that is. They walked into the hallway. Fang stopped at Raven’s room while Blue continued onto Arisa’s. Fang knocked and was allowed in. Raven had her cloak off and was changing her bandages.

Fang was relieved when they got home late last night and found the two girls there in the living room playing a game of Scrabble. Raven told Fang that the ambulance brought them to the hospital first. There they were interviewed by the police. A nice officer offered to give them a ride home. Earlier in the evening the Undertaker had stopped by to cook for them, amazingly he was pretty good, and gave them the game. Then Fang and the others came home.

Raven looked back at Fang. It looked like she was having trouble tying her bandages. Fang tied them for her.

“How are your wounds healing?” Fang asked.

“They're fine,” she said quietly.

Fang nodded and walked out of the room. He visited Penelope next. She was staring at one of her computers in the dark as usual. Her glasses were on the desk beside her. Fang flipped on the light. She looked at her with her narrow angular eyes. Then when she realized who it was her features softened.

“H-h-hello,” she said.

“Are you feeling alright?” he asked.

“Y-y-yeah,” she said, “W-w-why do you ask?”

“Just making sure,” Fang said and walked away.

In Arisa’s room, Fang saw Blue and her talking. Well, more like Arisa was talking and Blue just nodded occasionally to show he was listening. Arisa looked fine so Fang just walked back down the hallway. He was about to go back to his room when the doorbell rang. Fang stopped at the top step. He thought he knew he who it was but he was in an irritated mood. But he went to go answer the door.

“Well hello! How are you doing today?”

Fang stared at the person in front of him. The man had brown hair under a company hat that said ‘we know gardens’. His brown eyes glittered. Three others in tan uniforms stood behind him. A van that had the logo Rewot’s Gardeners was parked in front of the house. Fang stared at his guest with a blank stare.

The man sighed, “You don’t recognize me do you?”

Fang said nothing.

“Come on, Fang,” the man said, “I only dyed my hair. Well, and bought some color changing contacts. Luckily the Tower reimburses me for that.”

Fang started to see familiar features in the man’s face. He ventured to say a name.

“Shifter?” Fang said slowly.

Shifter smiled, “Oh, great, you remember!”

Fang nodded.

“Well, we’re here to pick up our merchandise,” Shifter’s brown eyes shined, “Now, don’t get thrown off about my appearance. It happens often. A week rarely goes by when I don’t need to change my appearance. Longest time without going undercover was two weeks. But enough about me, how about those prisoners?”

“Right,” Fang said, he looked at the three men standing behind Shifter, “They’re in the basement.”

The three nodded and walked inside. Blue had come to see what the commotion was about. Arisa was close to her best friend. Fang looked at them.

“Show them to the basement,” Fang asked.

Blue nodded, took Arisa by the hand, and showed the Tower workers to the basement. Shifter stepped inside and stood by Fang. There was a moment of silence between them until Shifter spoke.

“So I hear that your team is out of commission,” Shifter said.

“Only temporarily,” Fang said.

“I also hear you let the leader get away,” Shifter smiled, “What a shame.”

Fang stared at him, “What does the Tower want with the leader?”

“In other words, you’re wondering if that effects your pay,” Shifter avoided the question, “the answer is no. You will still get paid the agreed upon price.”

“That wasn’t what I was trying to ask,” Fang said.

Shifter turned to Fang, “I think you should let sleeping dogs lie. That information is classified and on a need-to-know basis. You, my friend, do not need to know.”

Fang backed off on the subject; it was obviously a sensitive open case. He shrugged it off. The others came up with the rest of the Dancing Dragons. Shifter smiled.

“All right, boys, put them in the back,” he said.

The three Retrievers nodded and led the line of criminals outside. When the truck door slammed, Shifter nodded.

“Well, that’s that,” he said brushing his hands together.

One of the other men walked up with a large bag of potting soil. He set it down and waited for Shifter.

Shifter smiled, “Well, there’s your payment. It’s in cash of course.”

Fang nodded.

“We best be going, I’ll see you later,” Shifter smiled.

They left and Fang heard the truck drive away. The door opened again and Shadow came in with a bag in his hand. He looked at the bag of potting soil.

“What’s this? Getting the planting bug, are we?” he asked.

“Shifter came over,” Fang answered, “What do you have there?”

“A bruise ointment,” Shadow answered, “Undertaker said just to rub it on and it should decrease the swelling and numb the pain. I’ll go up to Alister’s room right now.”

“Good,” Fang started walking up the stairs.

“What are we going with this?” Shadow kicked the ‘potting soil’ bag.

“I’ll deal with it later,” Fang said as he walked to his room, “I’m tired.”

“Tired?” Shadow smiled, “Or are you already tired of being around people?”

Fang ignored him and continued walking.

“I’ll take your annoyed silence as a yes,” Shadow concluded.

Still Fang stayed silent. He walked into his room and locked the door. Truth was that he was a little annoyed but it wasn’t due to being around people. It was an underlying annoyance that had lasted nearly three days now. He looked at a small calendar on his desk. A few days from now the date had a little circle on it symbolizing the full moon. In about two days the full moon would be upon them. Fang growled deep in his throat. Yes, he had no powers but he had one annoying situation after he had come back to life. He sighed.

“Two more days,” Fang said to himself, “I guess that isn’t so bad. We don’t have to go anywhere or do any missions until the others get better, especially Alister. I should be fine,” Fang said thoughtfully.

All he had to do was stay away from to many people so they wouldn’t notice the slight changes. After the full moon passed everything would be just be fine. So yeah, all he had to do was survive the next two days and two nights. That wouldn’t be too hard.

Fang tapped his growing nails on the desk. He thought about what he had to do over the next few days. Depositing the money could wait, that was actually preferred by the Tower, or he could have Shadow do it. Shopping for food, the pantries were growing empty, but poor Shadow could do that too. Penelope needed more spare glasses and unless she broke the five that she had now in two days, that could wait too. That was pretty much it. Fang nodded, confirming the information in his mind.

“I might make it through this,” Fang said quietly.

Insanity Chapter Fifteen

Insanity

Chapter Fifteen

~Final Battle-Part Three~

Day Eleven

Penelope vanished as a ball of fire shot though where she had just been. Scar was quickly losing his patience. He didn’t realize how annoying battling a teleporter could be. Yes, he had one on his team but he never had to fight her. Penelope appeared a few feet in front of him. Scar blew and as stream of flames headed to her. Penelope jumped out of the way. She stepped into the ink that was strewed on the floor. Her footing slipped and she fell into the icky liquid.

“Shoot,” she muttered, “I just bought this shirt.”

She got up to her knees and fell again. Scar threw a fire ball. Penelope teleported. The flame hit the ink but did nothing. Scar looked around for her. She was to his right, the ink splashing up as she ran. Scar snapped and threw his hand out. A small beam of flame shot out at her. Penelope jumped to one side dodging the beam of light but nearly running in to another one. She managed to dodge it too but barely. Scar took a breath and blew. She disappeared and appeared on his left. Penelope kicked him in his side. Scar fell to the ground on his right shoulder. She kicked him onto his stomach. Penelope tried to grab his hands and use her hand cuffing gadget. But he struggled and Penelope lost her grip on her invention and it fell onto the ink and was deemed useless.

Scar got up to his knees, throwing Penelope off his back. She fell back first in the slimy liquid. Scar quickly got to his feet and looked down at her. Penelope teleported, appeared above Scar, and fell on top of him. This time Scar fell on his back, grunting as Penelope gave him a solid punch. For a moment, Scar saw Penelope’s eyes behind her glasses. They were slightly different as if they had changed or like he was looking at a different person. Instead of being round like they were when she stuttered they were more angular. He didn’t thing about it long. Scar took in a deep breath. Knowing what was coming, Penelope vanished. He got up without using his powers that he pretended to use to get her off her. Scar looked around expecting to see her appear somewhere.

She did appear but then she disappeared moments later. Scar looked to see her somewhere else. Penelope appeared and vanished again just like a flash. One moment she was in front of him, the next she was behind him. At his left, at his right. Close to him, far away from him. Scar was beginning to get dizzy trying to find where she was and where she would turn up next. He wanted to stop looking for her but he knew at any minute she would finally attack.

Penelope disappeared again and Scar looked around to see where she would pop up next. Only this time, she didn’t appear.

“Up here!” she said, as she fell toward him.

Scar brought his arms in a defensive ‘X’ across his body. She stepped on his crossed arms causing him to fall again. He hit the ground hard, stunning him for a few minutes. She placed her last gadget in between his wrists. Her creation created the lasers that circled around his hands and set into place. Penelope jumped off of him. As breathed heavily. It was finally done. She looked around and saw Shadow fighting.

Shadow retreated as Niko threw several punches at him. He didn’t seem to worries. Secretly he knew that he was easily going to win. He was cool and collected while Niko was blinded with rage. Niko punched him repeatedly with no plan. She disappeared and appeared around him similar to what Penelope did but she didn’t disappear right away. She would punch and kick a few times then disappear. Shadow dodged her attacks easily.

He waited a while before grabbing her arm as she tried to hit him. Shadow pulled her with him as he purposely fell to the ground. He passed though the floor, bringing Niko with him. Again he was engulfed in the strange world between the walls and floors. He was used to it; in fact sometimes he preferred it. Niko however wasn’t used to it at all. She struggled for him to let her go. Shadow did. He watched her white silhouette struggle in the strange space.

He thought he heard her shouting for help. He would, just not yet. Shadow walked up to her. Well, it wasn’t really walking. It was more of a knowledge of moving. She seemed to see him walk up to her. He saw a gold light shine and fade away. She was attempting to teleport.

“I’m sorry, missy,” he said, “Your powers don’t work here. Only the darkness dwells here.”

She seemed furious at hearing that. Niko tried to run at him and hit him but she nearly fell over. Things seemed a little lighter in this dimension. Shadow caught her and she struggled. He didn’t want to hurt her. It was just a matter of time before the space knocked her out.

“Get me out of here!” She shouted.

“Calm down,” Shadow responded, “I will.”

Niko got out of his grasp and fell to the floor. It looked like she was in pain. It didn’t surprise Shadow. People who didn’t have dark powers couldn't last very long in this state.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Honestly?” Shadow thought for a moment, “It’s easier and quick and I'm in a hurry.”

Niko laid down and grew still. Shadow walked over to her and picked her up in his arms. He walked out through a wall and set her down against it. She was still breathing. Niko wasn’t in there long enough to have any serious side effects other than a really bad headache. He looked around and noticed that Blue was the only one left fighting. Penelope was kneeling in a puddle of ink, too tired to get up.

Blue flipped out of the way of a chain that Yin was manipulating. The ground exploded. Yin then took the sharpest pieces of rock and sent them flying at Blue. Blue turned into a liquid form and managed to dodge them. The rocks slammed into the back wall. Some of them were so large that they broke the wall and exposed the pipe works. Blue crouched as he dodged a smaller piece of cement. After the threat passed, he changed his form back to normal and lunged at Yin.

Yin raised his hand and the long chain raised itself. He threw his arm out in front of him and the chain whipped itself toward Blue. Blue jumped and the chain passed under him and dug deep into the ground. He ran on the thin chain as Yin tried to shake him off. Blue jumped gracefully down onto the ground, just feet from Yin. With a scowl, Yin flicked his hand.

“Ahh!” Alister’s voice cried out in pain.

Blue stopped in his tracks and looked to where Alister sat chained against a wall. The chains tightened causing Alister pain.

“I’d be careful if I were you,” Yin smiled.

“Don’t mind me,” Alister said, “I’ve lasted this long. A few more minutes isn’t going to hurt.”

Yin scowled and the chains tightened again. Alister did his best to keep silent even though the pain that was almost too much to bear. Blue nodded and created two sais out of ice. The chain Yin used to try to kill him shot out of the ground and aimed back around at Blue. Frustrated, Blue jumped to one side. The chain, however, turned suddenly, and came for Blue again. Blue used one of his sais to wrap the chain in. The Blue shoved the sai in to the ground and created more ice that spread outward sealing the sai and chain in place. With that taken care of, Blue created another sai and ran toward Yin.

Yin stepped back, looking for something to defend himself. His white eyes looked at the damaged wall. He extended his arm and the pipes rattled. They broke and came to him. Blue looked behind him briefly, expecting to see the sharp pieces of metal flying at him. But instead, they flew away from him at an angle.

“I told you I’d be careful if I were you,” Yin said.

The sharpened pipes flew toward Alister. Blue turned his footing toward Alister. Alister looked wide eyed as the long daggers flew toward him. They sped with amazing speeds. They hit with a twack, thuing, thuk! Liquid hit his face as he stared wide eyed at his protector.

“Blue!” Penelope and Shadow shouted at the same time.

Blue stood in between Alister and the coming threat. The pipes protruding out of his body of ice. He had transformed his body into his water form then froze the water, therefore making him like a moving ice statue. The three pipes went through him completely. He fell to his knees as silent as ever. An icy hand gripped one of the pipes and pulled it out of his body. Blue let the pipe fall noisily to the ground. Yin scowled, flicked his wrist, and summoned more of the pipes.

Blue pulled out another pipe and tried to get up. But there was a deathly cracking noise and he fell back down. Yin smiled. The worst thing that could happen to Blue right now would be for him to shatter. He threw his arm forward and the pipes flew. Just another impact and Blue would surely be done for.

A gale whipped up blowing the pipes back at Yin. He looked surprised as the pipes blew back at him. Yin blew back against the back wall, two pipes impaling his hands. Blue looked behind him. Alister smiled weakly back.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said, “I ‘ad to repay the favor.”

Blue turned into his water form, pulled out the last pipe, and then assumed his true form. He smiled at Alister a smile of friendship.

While this was going on, Fang stood over a puddle of ink in a little room by the large one where the others were. The puma tattoo was finally put down. He looked at the ajar door and started running. Fang ran into a skinny hallway, checking every door that he passed and kept on running. A door at the end of the hallway led to a rooftop. He barged through the door and squinted in the sunlight.

“Didn’t expect ta see you ‘ere so soon, Love,” Zorah said.

Zorah stood on the edge of the roof. Fang raised his gun.

“Step down,” Fang said.

“I ain’t plannin’ in doin’ dat, Love,” Zorah turned around to face him; “My boss wouldn’t like that.”

“Your boss?” Fang asked, a scowl forming on his forehead.

“Ask your boss ‘bout it,” Zorah touched the dragon tattoo on her neck, “I’m sure they know ‘bout it. Must be why they sent ya.”

The dragon in its tattoo form squirmed and wriggled out into open air and started to grow scales. Fang fired his gun. The dragon ducked its head in time and looked at him. It squawked at him in anger before flying up into the air past the low lying clouds. Zorah smiled.

“I hate ta leave you, Love, but I really must be goin’,” Zorah smiled, “Tootles!”

She jumped off the side of the building. Fang ran to the edge just as an adult medium sized dragon fell from the sky and rescued its master. He got to the edge and watched Zorah ride off on the back of the dragon. Her laugh was distinctly heard as she disappeared behind the low overhanging clouds. Fang swore at the fact she got away. He walked back inside to where the others were.

Fang came back into the large room just as Blue was braking the chains that held Alister. He saw the rest of the Dancing Dragon gang all over the place. Fang walked down the steps and gained the attention of the others. Penelope looked exhausted and Shadow looked like he needed some rest. Alister definitely needed some down time. Blue was the only one who looked fine, a little out of breath maybe but fine. Fang’s mind went to Raven and Arisa.

Yeah, they weren’t going to have any more missions anytime soon.

Insanity Chapter Fourteen

Insanity

Chapter Fourteen

~Final Battle-Part Two~

Day Eleven

The ground shook violently and Shadow jumped over a fissure as he threw three daggers as the Niko. The four daggers flew in four directions. Shadow was beginning to get a feeling for the girl’s teleporting patterns. He landed on the ground as the girl teleported to dodge the first dagger and appeared in the path of another one. She fell to her knees as the gripped her thigh. Shadow could rest a little easier now with the teleporter temporarily out of commission. He turned his attention to D.

Spikes jetted out from the ground. Shadow ran swiftly into a cement pillar, tuning into his wall shadow form. As a shadow, Shadow’s vision was different. He saw things in black and white. The figures of people were white and everything else was black. He ran into the floor. D opened the ground or created spikes trying to break the shadow. But in the wall shadow form, Shadow was untouchable. He slithered across the room and into the wall where he jumped out behind D.

“D!” Niko shouted.

D dashed to one side. Shadow pulled out one of his daggers. He touched the floor and immediately changed directions. D had to put everything he had into dodging Shadow’s attacks. When he had the chance, D stomped his foot. The ground under Shadow’s feet rose. Startled, Shadow stopped to keep his balance. The pillar of rock rose without an end in sight. Shadow looked up and saw the ceiling coming in fast.

D quickened the pace of the pillar until with a loud crash it smashed through the ceiling. As the dust and rock settled, both D and Niko held their breath. The battle just might be over. After a moment of inactivity, D turned around and smiled. He started walking back to Niko to see if she was okay. Niko smiled too until she noticed a shadow race down the tall pillar.

“Look out, D!” Niko screamed.

D scowled and started to turn around. Shadow jumped out of the pillar with dagger in hand. His red eyes were blazing with concentration. He had his arms crossed around his body as he held a dagger in his left hand. Shadow used his left arm to attack with his dagger.

Niko covered her mouth to stop her scream as she expected the worst. D saw the threat but could do nothing to defend himself. With D’s back to the attack, there was little D could do. Shadow brought his arm into a full swing for D’s neck. D closed his eyes and expected the sharp pain of the dagger. Instead, however, he felt a dull pain and then nothing. D fell to the ground unconscious with Shadow sanding over him, breathing heavily.

The girl just stared as she watched the scene play out. Instead of cutting D like she had expected, Shadow had hit D in the neck with the butt of the dagger causing D to lay still. The hit was I enough to keep D unconscious for a good few hours. Niko looked up at Shadow. He looked at her with his red eyes. It looked like he was waiting for her to get up. And in fact, he was.

Normally, Shadow wouldn’t have waited. His time with Fang had been a good influence. Niko scowled and pulled the dagger out of her thigh. She tore a piece of her clothing and wrapped her thigh in it to stop the bleeding. When she was ready, she stood up and looked at Shadow. He nodded and smiled. Then he charged at her.

Across the large room. Blue and Pria had their duel. Yin stood a little ways away, not moving but watching. If Blue managed to defeat Pria, Yin wanted him all to himself to beat.

Blue ran at Pria who stood nonmoving. She looked at him with those unfocused eyes as if she could see his soul. When he grew closer she closed her eyes and disappeared. Blue stopped, shocked at her sudden disappearance. He looked around to see her but she was gone. In fact, he couldn’t see anyone. His friends and his enemies were all gone. As he looked closer at his surroundings he wasn’t in the building anymore.

Hallways of blue stretched in every direction. He looked around and saw no one. Blue’s face was one of confusion. He was just fighting, wasn’t he? Something in him stirred. It was a certain fear he hadn’t felt in a long time. He looked closer on the walls of the hallways. All of the hallways were riddled with scratches, scorch marks and other unnatural marks. Suddenly Blue found it hard to breath. He clenched his chest and tried to keep air moving into his lungs. His eyes darted back and forth in fear, looking for a way out. Out of this nightmare, this reality, this place. Out of the Labs, the Torture Den, the Place of Living Hell. He wanted, needed, to get out of Crawford Labs.

“Hello?” a little voice said behind him.

Blue jumped, expecting the worst. Instead, a little girl stood there. She smiled at him. He searched through memories that he had wanted to forget forever. But it didn’t take long to remember who she was. She was the girl who sacrificed herself to save him.

“Hey, Blue!” She laughed as she recognized him. Then her smile faded, “What are you doing back here? Did they get you after all this time?”

Blue looked around. He wasn’t sure how he got here and something inside him didn’t like it. This situation didn’t seem right.

“Blue?” the girl questioned, “You still don’t talk? That’s sad. I hope the Injection didn’t…you are okay, right?”

Blue nodded.

The girl sighed, “Come on, I’ll help you get out again! This way!”

Blue shook his head. He looked at the ground and found a rock. He used the rock to scratch a crescent moon on the ground. Then he rolled the rock toward the girl he had once called his friend. He watched her closely as if expecting her to do something.

The girl took a rock and drew a flower. Blue scowled. He flicked his wrist, creating and sending water that engulfed her and froze. It was silent as he stood up.

“Well that wasn’t nice,” a voice said behind him.

He turned and looked into Pria’s eyes. She wore a doctor’s uniform, much like the ones the doctors who worked in Crawford Labs wore. She sighed.

“I guess I should have read your mind more,” she said as she looked at the picture of the moon, “What does that mean anyway?”

Naturally Blue said nothing.

“I could just read your mind for the answer, you know,” she stated.

Still Blue said nothing.

Pria sighed and closed her eyes. She easily ventured into Blue’s mind. Surprisingly, he didn’t try resisting. She saw the girl she had replicated and Blue sitting in a cell together.

“You know,” the girl said, “we should have a secret code!”

Blue looked up at the girl with confusion in his eyes. His hair was still brown and so were his eyes.

“You know, something that can tell that it is really us. Just in case the scientists do something to us or something like that. Or maybe we’ll escape but get separated somehow. With a secret code we’ll know that it’s us!” she smiled at her idea.

Blue yawned. He looked tired which explained why he wasn’t so talkative as usual. His shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. It seemed like an interesting idea.

“I think you’re a moon,” she said suddenly, “and I’m a sun.”

Blue looked at her like she was crazy.

“I heard the Moroko Twins in Cell F5 talking about it! They said that everyone is either a moon or a sun,” she saw Blue’s skepticism, “It’s true! I spent all of Free Time today looking at everyone and how they acted. Misu is a moon. Kyle is a moon. John is totally a sun and so is Karu. Noon’s are mellower and think things through first. Sun’s are all about action, action, action and go more on instinct. You are a moon and I am a sun.”

Blue smiled and nodded his head. He found a piece of chalk that he stole from the Testing Room where they gave you your shots. Blue drew a crescent moon then handed the chalk to the girl. She smiled and extended the corners of the moon to make a whole circle, then she drew squiggles from the sun side. The girl sat back, looking at their work and nodded approvingly.

“So this is it! That’s out secret code!” she smiled, “You can’t tell anyone! Promise? Cross you heart!”

Blue smiled raised his right hand and crossed his heart with his left. They both started laughing.

Pria started to leave Blue’s mind. She opened her eyes and saw a tear in Blue’s eye. She didn’t shiver as ice started to engulf her. The illusion was starting to dissolve as Blue manipulated the water. Pria smiled and closed her eyes again as the ice reached her neck. She wasn’t afraid of death. In fact, she was rather looking forward to it. She didn’t have a real purpose in the world she knew. Sure she had to do what Zorah told her but other than that she didn’t have a role. She was just happy that she could have what it was like to see what a true friend felt like.

I’m sorry.

“Pria!” Yin shouted.

Her statue of ice stood motionless. Her illusion had completely fallen and Blue turned his attention to Yin. The furry in Yin’s eyes was evident. He had expected her to loose but not for this person to kill her. Yin ran to Pria and cried. After a while he looked at Blue with pure hatred. He shouted at Blue and ran at him. Blue took a step back and prepared to attack.

Fang stood where he was and stared at Zorah. She smirked at him. Zorah made the first move, about to touch one of her many tattoos. Fang reached into his sleeve and pulled out a small thin dagger and threw it. Zorah gasped in pain when the dagger grazed her arm. She looked and her thunder bird had a red slash right through it. Shoot, she was thinking of using it again. She touched a snake tattoo on her chest. It came to life, growing in size, filling up a good portion of the room.

The snake hissed at him. Fang ran at it. He noticed out of the corner of his eye he saw Zorah run up some stairs and through a metal door. Fang sighed. She was trying to run away. He decided to make quick work of the snake. Fang ran at the snake. The snake lunged forward, fangs ready to strike. When it was close enough, Fang jumped to one side. The snake’s head hit the floor. Fang raised his gun aiming for the snake’s eye. He fired, a blue streak of light headed for the snake. The bullet hit its eye. Instead of bleeding blood it bled ink. The black liquid fell to the ground. Unfortunately, Fang experienced one of his rare misses. The snake was injured and blind, yes, but it was a long way from dead. Fang swore under his breath as he ran around trying to get a better field of view.

The snake lifted its head in rage and pain. It let out a long agitated hiss. It looked around with its good eye for the one who did this to it. Fang reached a part of the snake’s long body and jumped onto its back. The snake saw him and hissed with revenge. It attacked again as Fang ran on its back. When it was about to strike him, Fang jumped. The snake’s head zoomed under him, biting itself and splattering its own ink blood everywhere. Fang aimed his gun. The blue light was followed by an agonized hiss. The snake raised its head. Slowly, from head to tail, the giant snake turned into a puddle of ink. Fang landed on his feet, avoiding the black liquid, and looked toward the stairs where Zorah had disappeared to. He looked at the others they looked fine. Quickly, he ran to catch up to her.

Beyond the metal door was another room. It was smaller than the other ones. There was another door on the other side of the room. The door was slightly ajar. Fang was about to run toward it when he heard a low growl. He looked up at the balcony above. A puma growled at him.

“Great,” he muttered, “I hate mountain lions.”

***

To Be Continued…

***Did You Know!***

That the terms puma, mountain lion, panther, and cougar are used to describe the same cat

                                                                                                                             ***Did You Know!***

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…