The Wicked One

Chapter Forty-One | Yearning, Part Two

I pulled my cape around me just as I heard the footsteps of the two behind me. Running in the darkness allowed me to appear back into the world running at the backs of the two guards. They, of course, expected me to appear behind them, but they were unable to turn due to the two teens that were barreling towards them from the front. With a fierce battle cry, Jinx threw both arms out in front of her, pink waves of energy shooting outwards at her command. With nowhere to go but up, the two guards took to the air. I caught Red-X kicking off from the ground before pulling my cape over myself again, narrowly avoiding the pink energy that missed the guards.

I reappeared across from Red-X in the air, the two guards in between us. He was attacking the one without the helmet's front while I went for the back of the one with the helmet. I did not have time to see what his plan of attack was as I focused on the back of the helmet. 

My claw attacked instinctively, faster than I could control it. It reached out to grab the alien's helmet. As I had hoped, the alien noticed me before it could strike, spinning around and holding out his spear to hit me with the back swing. The claw, having no choice, halted its advance on the alien's head and instead grabbed the spear by the pole, stopping it from chopping me in half. While I still had the momentum, I made to smash the guard into his unexposed face, but what I didn't expect was the guard to suddenly drop his spear.

I fell through the air from the sheer weight of the weapon. As I fell, I could see the guard pointing both hands towards me. I vaguely noted the missing presence of Red-X and the other guard before the purple energy began to rain down like bullets. I found my cape just as the claw released its hold on the spear, allowing me to pull us both back into the darkness.

Back on solid ground, I stood facing the guard just as he caught his spear in one hand, his eyes glowing purple in the darkness of his helmet. I clasped my cape again, in preparation to vanish once more, only to have the guard fly through the air at break-neck speed towards me. 

I didn't have enough time to react the way I wanted as the spear was suddenly thrust in my direction. All I could manage was to pull the cape in between us like a shield, with just enough room to be able to watch the spear tip make contact with the cape before it sunk into it like an open doorway.

While the maneuver saved me from dying, there definitely wasn't enough cape space for the guard to fit through along with the spear. But, just before that became a problem, a pink blur came soaring from beside us, sending two well placed boots against the side of the guard's helmet. While the impact was solid and enough to release the grip the guard had on the spear, (allowing it to harmlessly fall the rest of the way into my cape) the guard himself only slid back several feet, the well-dented purple helmet still securely placed on his head.

"Well. that could have gone better," Jinx grumbled to herself. It had been so long, I had almost forgotten how limber she was. Jinx caught me staring and our eyes immediately averted.

"Ah, that was, uh, a close one there, Kyd."

I nodded. Out of the corner of my eye, she seemed to be looking anywhere but at me, a strange shade of red on her face. Finally, her bright pink eyes looked up at me again, that strange red color growing redder. "You know, I've never seen you without your--"

She was cut off when the helmed guard charged her, attempting to send a flying kick to her head. Although distracted, Jinx managed to duck away from the kick and then twirl away from the subsequent kick that the guard attempted with his other foot as he spun mid-attack. The hex master performed those tell-tale back flips of hers to build some distance between them as the guard then began shooting out those energy bolts at her retreating form. Though, before she even stopped flipping, the guard was already on top of her again, having flown in her direction before allowing all his energy to make contact. Still on her hands, Jinx was forced to push herself off into the air to avoid getting smashed by the guard's fist. She landed back down several feet away only to have the guard already on her again, throwing punch after punch into her.