Zapshot

PROLOGUE

"Well, now what?"

I slid an arrow out of my quiver, mounting it and raising my arm to chest level. A shot fired from here would be strong enough to bust through glass and still spear flesh.

"We have to go on the offensive."

Blaze stood up, grabbing the hilt of his sword and drawing it from the scabbard on his back. He swung a few times, as if he were checking to see if the weight had changed on his weapon.

"Got any definite plan?" he question, leaning forward and over the edge of the roof.

"Get in there, kill as many of them as we can, survive, and get my uncle out alive."

He began bouncing on his toes, "Sounds good to me."

I drew back the bow, feeling the amazing potential of the new super-nylon chord. The hundred pounds of pure draw weight put a strain on my arm, but I barely noticed.

The skyscraper that faced us was pitch-black, the energy supply having been cut. But it made no difference, I could see perfectly fine, and I was sure Blaze could too. I watched as two Bulls walked by the floor-to-ceiling window panes, tip-toeing along the darkened corridors.

I took aim, and relaxed my fingers, feeling the chord fly forward, taking with it a charged arrow. The projectile flew so fast it would've been nothing but a blur of blue and silver to a normal person's eyes. The arrow flew across the gap between us and the office skyscraper, shattering the glass and stabbing one of the Bulls in the back. He cried out in pain before jerking violently from the charge and falling on his front.

Blaze leapt from the edge, flying across the gap fearlessly and landing on the other side, in the corridor. The other Bull had barely noticed his companion's falling when Blaze cut him down with a slice of his sword. The poor guy fell to the ground, gripping his arm as blood seeped out.

I took a few steps back before bounding forward and leaping off the roof. My landing wasn't as graceful as Blaze's, and he had to catch me so as to prevent me from crashing right into the wall. I steadied myself, shrugging off his hands.

"Which way, boss?" he asked.

I looked down both ways of the corridor. The skyscraper was shaped so the the corridors were curved around its egg-like structure, and now I couldn't see around corners before they were totally blotted out by the walls. It didn't make a difference which way we went, only luck would help us.

"Split up. You go that way, I'll go the other."

"I don't think you could handle a dozen guys in this kinda space." he remarked.

I put down my bow for a moment to draw the cobalt-blue knife from its resting place at my belt. It glinted under the little lighting that came from the building opposite.

"You're gonna fend em off with that? Good luck." he directed my hand to replace the knife, "Now pick a way to go down."

His as-a-matter-of-fact tone was starting to get on my nerves. A small thought crept into my head about 'accidentally' firing an arrow into his back, but here and now wasn't the place and time for that. Uncle Joey was the first priority.

My instincts refused to work, so in the end I had to make a blind guess. "That way,"

"Okay then." he walked past me, sword at his side "Back me up if we meet anyone. Just don't fire into my back."

If only he knew that that was the exact thought I'd had just now.