The World of Stars «

Chapter 1

  I cannot breathe. I thought I loved sports and I'm kind of athletic and all, but dodging fire bolts aimed at one's body while one is running away is no fun. Serious. Nothing like paintball at all.

Too bad I'm ending up doing so much of it right now. Might as well die. Too bad it is so very essential in my "volunteer work" for which no one is meant to know about. Ah, what an amazingly 'Good Samaritan' I am. Note sarcasm.

"Not bad!" a voice comments from behind me. Its owner, clad in black, is staring at me from where it is floating in mid-air. "Thought you may collapse anytime soon. Looks like you have more stamina than I thought you did. Play any sports?"

I look up, shielding my eyes from the sun as I do so, to keep eye contact with the Prince of Hearts.

"Yes I do," I say lamely, but he isn't even listening. "Tennis, actually."

What's the point of asking questions if you're not even going to listen? Arse.

He suddenly shoots another fire bolt, to which I jump up to avoid, and shoot a stream of ice-cold water from my hand, knocking his balance and leading to him falling from his position.

"Aha!" I exclaim jubilantly. Yes. Finally. I did something.

I watch as the Prince of Hearts tries to get up, coughing as he does.

"What is wrong with you, woman?" he snarls.

"Well, we are rivals," I say shrugging before running over and seeing if he is alright or not.

I reach out a hand, offering it to him. He sceptically examines me for a second before grabbing it. Lifting him up, I do a surprise attack by twisting his hand and hear him groaning in pain.

"I shouldn't have done that," I hear him groaning. I grin.

"So do tell me, oh amazing Prince of Hearts, where you kept the money. I'm sure it would help tremendously," I say in a sugary sweet voice.

"Fuck you," he spits out. I grin widely at thought of my comeback.

"Nah, you're not really my type," I say, smilingly, watching him go red with both frustration and pain (I was still holding him in the same position, arm twisted and all).

Suddenly he turns, and kicks away my hand, leaving my groaning in pain. Taken by surprise, I leap onto him, punching him with all my might. My fingers are inches away from his mask as he tries pushing me away. I push him too, all the way until his back is touching the wall. I then shoot out ice, binding his wrists and ankles to the wall. Smooth. Slowly, my hands inch closer towards his mask. Up close, I see that it is sheer black, with a velvety touch, and a silver and red heart sown at the corner. Fancy much.

"You wouldn't dare," he breathes softly against my cheek, a tinge of fear? in his voice, "It's not like you, Dusk Mystique."

"You don't know me," I breathe back as my gloved fingers rub over the mask. "You know nothing about me."

My one hand is on his shoulder as I gaze intently at his mask. I'll just pull it off and find out who he is. And I would be getting rid of the mad irritant pestering the city – and me – for close to a year. And just as I almost yank it off –

We're shooting up into the sky. I'm screaming. My both hands have jumped from where they were to around the Prince of Hearts' neck, holding him tightly. Screw fear of heights! I have no choice but to stare into his intense, gray eyes, trying not to stare down. I do anyways and I see a not-very-far-above view of our district. It's enough to make me feel like barfing my guts out. Gasping, I stare back at him. Recollecting my thoughts, I frown.

"How did you manage to escape?" I ask suddenly, completely putting away the fact that I am currently:

a) Hovering above mid-air

b) In no position to mock my rival or else he could drop me

c) In a very, very bad situation.

"Scared of heights, are you?" he smirks, mockingly.

"Just answer the damned question, Prince!" I say through gritted teeth, trying to avoid the subject.

"Well, maybe you should remember that while your hands can produce water and change state of water particles in the air etc., I can produce fire and heat," he finishes off, grinning.

Oh yes. Heat would melt ice. I have the intelligence similar to a chipmunk. No, scratch that, a panda (pandas are actually one of the dumbest animals on earth because they eat bamboo which in no form is brain food nor does it provide it with enough energy to move. Forget mating. They mate only once a year in the wild. And there's more: sometimes they don't even know when they give birth, and see their children as threats as they don't know what their hairless pink young are and even kill them. And people say to help pandas from extinction. Well, they're bringing it on themselves man. Don't watch Kung Fu Panda, kids. It ruined my childhood.).

"Oh major shit," I exhale. I make the mistake of looking down and, and, terrified, begin screaming.

"Shut up! You want people to find us hovering in the air like this?" he shakes me in midair while clamping a hand over my mouth, which makes my stomach lurch and all. I then realise that the position we're in – his hands on my waist, my arms around his neck – isn't exactly the best position a hero(ine) and a villain are supposed to be in. Especially in our super evident costumes (no pun intended).

The mere thought makes me squirm and I remove my hands from around his neck and let it fall limply (and awkwardly).

The Prince frowns.

"Why'd you do that, Dusk?" he asks in strange tone. I shrug. I'm not willing to fight or provoke him as I'm kind of in a problem (I can't fly). I try for a polite demeanour.

"Um, would you please let me down?" I ask, my voice in a squeak.

The Prince raises his eyebrows.

"Oh, so now we're on a friendly basis because you, the famous Dusk Mystique are in a situation?" he raises his eyebrows. I bite my lip tentatively but he doesn't question me. The sky is darkening anyways and we can't stay in the same position forever.

We're floating (flying) across to somewhere else which is not affected by the Prince's antics and where there won't be many spectators and police to prevent interrogation. Soon we're slowly descending down.

"I suck at being a hero. So much for saving the world," I sigh, more to myself than to the Prince.

"You shouldn't take it so hard on yourself, you know. Especially when you have such brilliant competition," he replies, smirking, as our feet touch the ground. I roll my eyes.

"How modest," I say, raising my eyebrows.

"Yeah, I know, I'm amazing," he says, making me laugh despite myself.

"Well, this is it, then," I say, stepping back. "Till your next antic. Congratulations, by the way, on managing to defeat me, grabbing the bank money, and also escaping. Again."

"See you, sister!" he grins, before jumping up and vanishing with a flick of his cape. Hmph. I don't have a cape. It's better though without one though.

I turn around as I slowly will myself to turn invisible so that I don't bump into people on the street in my costume. I walk home slowly, enjoying the privacy of no one seeing me, and ponder what happened today. Maybe the Prince of Hearts actually has a humane bone in him. He's not that bad, actually. Maybe if we were not rivals we may as well be best friends.