The second my head hits the ground, I knew I wouldn't be able to get back up. At least not in time block the next attack.
Lying on the hard cement, I turned my head to the side to face the man walking towards me. My vision swam in and out of focus so much that I couldn't even make out the intricate design on his mask. The mask that marked him as my enemy.
He swaggered towards me as I struggled to lift myself up, "Tsk, tsk, Arya Hansen, down so soon? I was just getting started..."
The man's smirk turned into a mocking pout as he pushed me back down with his foot. He has a posh little British accent, and I find it hard to take him seriously. As someone from the American Midwest, something about a British person trying to be intimidating or dangerous is hilarious. A glint of light flashed behind him, and I finally let out a snicker.
"Took you long enough," I said to the figures approaching, stealthy as the night. I smile despite the fact that I probably look like a maniac with all the blood on my teeth from the fight. Part of me realizes that it took away their element of surprise, but the other part knows the fight won't last long anyways.
"What the hell-" the man starts to say, but before he can even turn around, one of the figures slams the butt of a gun down on the back of his head, and he crumples.
~
You know, the constant fighting and almost getting killed really wasn't on my list of things to expect when moving to London. It all started about two weeks after moving here. I had just gotten situated with my new roommates, Jade Michaelson and Joanna Sharpe, when we went out for drinks to celebrate everything being finalized, blacked out in the alley next to the bar, and woken up hours later with tattoos on the back of our necks and strange powers.
None of us remember anything more from that night, nor do we know why we were chosen. It's been months since then, and every lead we've searched to try and figure out exactly what happened and why has gone cold.
A few weeks before that happened, a weird group emerged and started terrorizing London. (It's actually part of the reason the three of us are roommates, flats in downtown were so cheap because of the increased crime rates). They all wear those creepy goddamn masks and serve some unknown purpose other than causing chaos. No one has been able to figure out who they are or who is leading them, but we try our best to keep them from harming people as best we can. I figured there must be some connection between them and our "creation". The tricky thing is that we can never get any information out of the defeated villains. Once the fight is over and we've won, the mask on their face disintegrates and the person left has no idea what they did, where they came from, or even who they are.
~
"God, Arya, would it kill you not to go looking for a fight by yourself?" Joanna said as she reached down a hand to help me to my feet.
Once I was up, I swayed a bit, still dizzy from being knocked down, and put a hand on her shoulder to brace myself. Joanna was only a few inches shorter than me, with shoulder length brown hair and hazel eyes. In the sun, the green in her eyes was really prominent. She was the only one of us who was from Great Britain in the first place (Manchester, specifically), so she had an accent.
"What can I say, I'm a Sagittarius. Trouble finds me," I try to joke, knowing the lecture that I was about to get. I take my hand off of Joanna's shoulder and put my hands up in a shrug, but stumble once again. Damn, I didn't realize how hard the guy hit me.
This time Jade is the one who catches my arm. She's a short girl from New York with curly auburn hair and a personality to match.
"Listen, I know you and Sel had another argument, but that doesn't mean you need to go out and get your ass kicked just to punish yourself or blow off steam or whatever the fuck you were doing," Jade says, looking concerned and just a little angry.
