Broken Stride

Mothers Love

"Driver, dear, I think you're overreacting just a little," Crow spoke up over the roar of the wind speeding past them," I'm sure Ca—the kid is fine."

"I agree. After all, he beat me easily enough," Red Eye added.

He truly had no idea why Driver seemed so worried about the nameless villain.

"It's not the kid I'm worried about," Driver replied, fiddling with the dial on their goggles as they searched for the missing crowd of villains.

As if on cue, a loud explosion sounded from the distance; the villain trio turned to find black smoke rising from behind a cluster of highrise buildings.

Ok, so maybe Driver did have a reason to be worried. That definitely hadn't sounded like friendly combat.

"Hold onto your hat love, I think my hunch was right."

Red Eye and Crow dutifully strengthened their grip on Driver's weapon as the small mechanic sped up exponentially.

There were a few more loud crashes that sounded off before they got close enough to see what was happening. When they finally could, it sent a chill down his spine.

Juac, Black Hand, Crush, Double Blade, Hammer Boy—they all lay scattered around a large mess of pointed black pillars. One of Cassian's skills—but had he always been able to summon so many?

"Oh god."

Red Eye glimpsed Driver's eyes widen behind their goggles.

"The kid—He almost has three thousand magic points. . ." The mechanic murmured, disbelief in their voice.

"T-three thousand?! That's not possible! I thought he only had 500?" Red Eye's mouth fell open. That much magic—it was easily S rank level.

"W-Wait! Crow—!"

Driver's attempt to stop the villainess was wasted as Crow suddenly leaped down from their perch up on the roof.

"Damn it, Crow! Be careful, he's dangerous!" Driver called after her, re-summoning their weapon, "Come on, Red, we gotta stop him one way or another."

"Right behind you."

——————————

"Crow!"

Crow ignored the calls of her partner as she jumped down from the roof they'd landed on. She didn't care for what they had to say—getting to Cassian was her only concern. A task that certainly was going to be more difficult than she'd initially thought.

A lesson she learned the hard way as she suddenly found herself assaulted by several shadow blades too fast to dodge completely. Crow let out a low hiss of pain as the blades slashed her, though not deep enough to be fatal.

"Cassian! Cassian, stop!" She called out to the teen, ducking under the fire he threw at her.

She was almost there! She just had to—shit!

Crow cursed, stumbling backward as Cassian's claws raked across her cheek, nearly taking out an eye. They tore right through her mask and effortlessly across her skin; had she been even a second slower, she would have lost that eye.

"Crow! What are you doing? Use your skills, dumbass!" Driver huffed, grabbing her coat to pull her out of the way of another swipe as Red Eye swapped in to take agro.

"No, are you crazy? I'm not gonna hurt him!"

"Fine, then I will. Get out of the way."

"Driver, please." Crow latched onto the mechanic's sleeve, stopping them from getting any closer to the rampaging villain.