Trickster of the Butterfly

Chapter 10- Bane of the Wielder

"Takbo," Michael said sternly.

Hera and Alora ran for their lives as Michael stood his ground.

With his heart racing as he faced the goons, he pulled his heavy backpack off then threw it at the knife guy in the middle. He extended his foot to trip one of the guys who was going to run after the ladies. Michael dared to shift his attention to behind him to see if his friends were at a safe distance away. He saw them running atleast already 50 feet away, which was hard to do in their school uniform's skirt.

Once he turned his attention back to the goons, one of them was about to tackle him, then snap. The guy became a statue in tackling position 2 inches from Michael. All of the goons were frozen in place. Michael began to run.

He saw his friends were already out of sight. He still felt a little tired after window shopping and freezîng the whole mall earlier. He was really out of shape. He didn't think he could keep the goons frozen until he got away since the corner of the street was still 70 feet away. He couldn't risk passing out on the way and getting overtaken. He had to conserve his energy.

After he was about 30 feet away, which seemed like enough distance for him to outrun the guys, he snapped his fingers to unfreeze them.

"Almost there, almost there," he muttered as he ran. Then he heard some really quick footsteps behind him. He fell to the ground with his left cheek scraping the road as a goon tackled him. The guy must've been an athlete or something, Michael thought. The guy closed the distance in a matter of milliseconds.

The other guys loomed around him and one of them handed strips of cloth to the athlete guy. Michael struggled to break free but the guy pinned him down good. He gagged Michael tightly with a cloth and tied his hands with another. While it wasn't so tight yet, Michael snapped his fingers again to freeze the goons, a close call.

He pushed off the guy on his back, got up, then tried to remove the gag, but it was too tight. He left it on then began to run from them...

PEW!

Michael felt pain crawling from his shoulder. He looked at it as his left sleeve was slowly turning from white to red. He tried to put pressure on his shoulder by pressing it with his hand.

"Uhhhrrr" he said in pain through his gag.

A gunshot? Michael wondered as he trembled with fear.

He scanned behind him, the goons were still statues. He looked up and, at the top of the old city's walls, was a guy pointing a pistol with a silencer. Certainly not frozen. Michael didn't have the energy to freeze time for the whole area, just the goons but not the gunner.

From the 10+ feet high wall, the gunner jumped to the ground. He was wearing a school uniform just like the others.

Michael wondered if these guys were a parkour modus operandi, traceurs who kidnapped students. He also wondered where the heck was the guard usually stationed at the walls, he wasn't going to get away from these guys with their speed. Maybe he was shot?

Michael was tired and bleeding.

The gunner walked to him with his gun pointed at him. Michael risked snapping his fingers to freeze the man. It's a good thing he did freeze and Michael didn't pass out.

He sighed in relief. Just as he was going to turn the corner to finally get away, he was  again tackled to the ground.

The five goons were unfrozen but the gunner was still immobile. Michael was confused. Had he used up so much energy that he could only freeze one small area at a time? He couldn't think straight as the goons kicked and punched him hard.

Bleeding, tired and getting beaten up, he might as well pass out. He closed his eyes then he heard a grunt from the goons as one of them toppled over when a red backpack was thrown at him.

The goons stopped beating him at the sight of a girl with her fists up like she was ready to fight in her PLM uniform. Michael opened his eyes to see...

"Alora," he managed to say under the gag of his mouth.

The goons charged at her, she fought back. She punched one in the stomach, elbow-hit another in the face and kicked another in the private area. It looked like she could actually win this fight. Then the two guys with knives took her down and one began to tie her hands, gag her and blindfold her.

The goons Alora hit recovered then resumed beating Michael. While he was on the floor, he watched as Alora violently kicked and squirmed to break free but the knife guys held her with their knives pointed.

Michael felt pain all over his body. But the sight of his friend being pinned down like that enraged him.

He couldn't take it. He had power over time itself, he could save her, but he couldn't seem to move under the pain. He tried to shout but the gag was still over his mouth. He was mad, really mad at the goons, and at himself.

Then one of them slashed his knife at her arm... That pushed Michael over the edge.

His arms glowed a bright yellow, then orange, then his whole body glowed with the colors of the auroraborealis. The goons beating him backed up, looking shocked. The knife guys kept Alora pinned as they watched iridesecent tentacles of light rise from Michael.

The tentacles streched then latched onto all five goons's faces and the gunner's. The gunner unfroze.

Michael, seething with rage,  got up and willed the tentacles to lift the six grunting and struggling animals five feet from the ground. He made the tentacles smash the guys' faces hard on the road. He looked over to Alora and saw her left arm with a slash wound and blood trickling from her forehead.

Infuriated by the sight, he willed the tentacles to lift the now unconscious men from the ground then toss them in all directions, scattering them on the road.

The light tentacles faded. Michael trudged over to Alora, then he passed out right beside her.

Alora felt the cloth on her hands were loosely tied, they were done in a hurry after all, so she got them off. Then she removed her blindfold and her gag. She wondered what in the world happened while she was down.

"Hera! Hera! Halika na! Wala na sila!" she shouted to the corner.

Hera emerged slowly from the corner. She was hiding the whole time, with her eyes closed.

"Anong nayari dito?!"  Hera shouted nervously. "Si- si Mike ba yan?! Alora dumudugo ka!"

Alora looked at her arm. It wasn't a deep cut, just a long wound, nothing serious. Her forehead had  a little blood flowing from falling on her face when she was pinned down, but it stopped bleeding now.

"Wala lang 'to. Si Mike..."

They knew they had to take Michael to the hospital quickly, his uniform was drenched in blood and he had bruises all over his face and arms. Whatever chaos happened here, they had to figure out another time.

The two of them carefully carried Michael with his arms over their shoulders, then they brought him back to the school.

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