The Sixth | Ekko

Chapter Eleven

Ekko felt his entirety freeze, the chill of seeing a ghost from his past like frostbite to his soul. His eyebrows slanted, eyes softening while begging hers to zero in on him. To look at him, this time with both of them knowing who the other was.

His grip on his bat slackened in his shock, the glowing steal stone still heavy against her throat but now without the added pressure.

She didn't say anything, clearly disorientated. Her eyes squinted as if trying to get her vision to focus.

"Momo, you're..." he murmured, the remainder of the sentence getting caught in his throat. He didn't know what to do. Didn't know how to react. What to say. Where to go from here. And he didn't get the chance to figure it out.

He cried out in pain suddenly as his whole body began to convulse, jerking in uncontrolled movements. His muscles spasmed and he was unable to stay upright. His upper half fell forward, resting completely against the young woman beneath him. He felt little sparks of something ignite all over his body as he went limp.

"Six—" Zeri spoke, booted footsteps scuffing against the wooden floor of the boat. She kicked Ekko off her leader, this being the second time she'd done so.

Ekko could only listen, confusion overcoming him as Momo's gang member referred to her as 'Six'.

The female leader groaned in response.

Ekko turned his head, seeing that the Firelights were no longer in the air. Yellow bouts of electricity flickered from their boards, and Ekko's eyes widened at the realization of what happened. Zeri had used her powers to short circuit their aerogliders. All of them.

Six was starting to regain some awareness. She rolled over onto her side, about to force herself to sit up when she saw her goggles on the ground, Ekko having pulled them from her face. She picked them up slid them onto her head, wearing them like a headband. She pulled herself up into a lopsided sitting position, looking around while purposefully avoiding looking at Ekko.

"We're getting outta here," Derora declared to her group members after sprinting over to Six and scooping her up into her arms.

"I'm fine, I can run on my own," Six insisted, stubbornly trying to pry herself out of the larger woman's arms like a fussy child who was upset with her mother.

Derora was Six's right-hand woman and second in command, meaning Six technically had more authority than her. And yet, Dorara still refused.

Ekko attempted to stand up but was stopped by the same muscle-tearing feeling as before, Zeri striking him with her electricity again before running to catch up with the rest of her group.

The women raced off the boat and along the dock towards the undercity.

Ekko groaned and rolled over just in time to see them disappear behind a fishing shed.

"Shit!"

He turned, seeing the other Firelights on the ground struggling to recover from their free fall. None of them seemed ready enough to join him in chasing them down. He would have to do it alone. Typically, he would avoid this kind of confrontation. He was a calculative person, and he knew the odds of defeating them all, especially the Zeri woman, weren't tilting in his favor. Despite this, he couldn't let her get away. Momo. The girl from his childhood who he'd believed to be long gone. Dead.

He took off, darting in the direction Momo's group had run off.

Meanwhile, Six continued to try and get Derora to put her down. She groaned in frustration. "I'm slowing you down."

Dorara ignored her and kept quiet, following Zeri as they raced through the alleys and toward the nearest entrance of their hidden base.

Six huffed and crossed her arms over her chest in protest. Spotting something from the corner of her eye, she turned her head to see the masked figure of Ekko following them, his strides powerful as he quickly gained on them.