The Chapters

Chapter Six

The grounder acts first, releasing all the electricity he has and letting the lights flicker back to life. As soon as he does this, the girl lets the blood flow from her handles to ignite her blades.

"Well, shit," Ivo says sourly. "We're up against these guys?"

"Why are you even here?" I ask from behind Keon. "You're all going to get yourselves killed!"

"It's not like not being here would change that," Amias puts in from the side.

"Well, it would," Keon corrects him. "At least we know it's coming."

"Wait," I remember suddenly. "What about Ruka? She's -"

"Going to be fine," the blindfolded man interjects. "Amias and Isak can go. She's in the room, right?"

I nod. "Y-yeah."

"Are you sure she's still alive?" The girl asks with her sweet smile. "I made sure there was a lot of blood loss."

"She sounded fine on the phone," Keon remarks. "If you let those two by right now, we'll promise to take you in quickly."

The grounder makes a thoughtful face. "What do you think, girl? Fair deal?"

"I don't care either way," the girl says off-handly. "Though if they do leave, I'll have more room to move around in."

The grounder nods and the two step back, putting a considerable amount of space between our two groups.

Isak glares at the intruders as he and Amias pass by. "We're going to beat you when we come back."

"Good luck, kid. "

"Come on," Amias says exasperatedly, grabbing Isak's arm to pull him along. When Isak finally turns to face forward, the two run down the hallway and turn the corner.

I let out a deep breath as each of our opposing groups focuses on the other. While the girl has her fire-blood blades put, the grounder can't use his power. Despite this, he looks strong enough to bend a metal door with his hands if he wanted to. Compared to little Zahara, a cocky Keon, Ivo, and the man I don't know, they'll win without a doubt.

"So, do we have to pull punches this time?" Ivo asks, still trying to separate Zahara from himself.

"It's an inner hallway," the blindfolded man remarks. "I'd try not to screw up the environment too much."

"Me? Never. "

"Even now, so worried about the damage you'll cause." The girl clicks her tongue at the man. "If you're going to give us that much of an advantage you might as well surrender now."

Keon snorts. "Yeah, not happening."

I see your pencil out of the corner of my eye and read your writing discreetly. Are you really going to take them on?

What else can we possibly do?

Escape.

To where? That girl is a killing machine and the man could probably trap you in a room to die of starvation.

Well, your friends had to have survived the earlier attack somehow, right?

As if on cue, Zahara speaks up. "I thought we weren't supposed to show Mica this yet."

"Oh well," the grounder drawls maliciously. "Time to screw around with the Carcia's brain."

"Agreed," Keon says from in front of me. "Sorry in advance, Mica."

"Please don't tell me you're going to take some magic pill and turn into some over-muscled monster," I say, trying to get out a joke without my voice trembling.