Artifact

Chapter 1

Two self-proclaimed villains are engaged in an intense battle in the woods. Both are females and both wear black, striving to be the coolest-looking. One of these villains has nails as hard as iron and as sharp as cat's claws. Every few seconds, she completely vanishes from sight... And then reappears two seconds later at a different location, confusing and jumping at her opponent, scratching at the bare skin of her face. She yells with rage at the audacity of her rival's challenge.

The other villain howls with pain with every stroke of fire across her beautiful face. She stands one and a half feet taller than the other, batting her arms helplessly at the smaller and more agile opponent. She struggles to hold her form in that large size for so long while in a battle, but she fights through the fatigue. Clear diamond tears fill her eyes ever more as her flawless skin is torn repeatedly by the unnatural hard nails of the smaller villain. She whimpers loudly, her enlargened size echoing, amplified, through the forest.

Large branches snap under her weight. Endless snapping of twigs and crunching of fallen autumn leaves under the quarreling women create a cacophony of unnatural sounds through the wood. Eventually, one of the strikes of the smaller goes amiss and tears through the fabric of the larger's outfit on the shoulder.

She gasps in horror. "How... How could you? How could... I spent AGES designing this!" She swings her gloved hand towards her as hard as she can. With a stunned look her opponent vanishes again into thin air. However, her disappearance isn't enough to stop the oncoming blow. With a slap, the invisible form is knocked ten feet to the left against the nearest tree. A thump reveals to her where her rival has fallen, and as she strides victoriously over to the tree, she slowly appears again. She slumps against the tree with a dazed look upon her face and a trickle of blood running down the right side of it, originating from above her temple.

The large woman pins down the smaller with one combat boot, putting just enough pressure on her legs so that she moans in dazed pain. "Now," hisses the victor, "hand it over, and I won't break your legs." He presses down for emphasis, causing another groan. She holds her hand out expectantly, sneering down at the defeated.

The loser slowly reaches a hand into a well-hidden slot on the side of her suit. She feels around in the pocket for a moment, then lets out a huff. The larger woman's sneer changes into a look of anger with a hint of doubt behind. "What?"

The other looks up at her with a smirk. "It's... Gone..." She smiles to cause fear in her foe, but deep inside, anxiety courses through her own veins. She holds her hands out in a shrug.

The victor's eyes widen. "W-what? Do... Do you have another pocket?"

"N-no," coughs the loser, still holding her smirk.

The victor's eyes fill with fear with no attempt to hide it. She lets her size shrink down to its normal size, still half a foot taller than the loser. Her now lighter weight doesn't hurt her foe's legs as much, lessening her threat. Her mind fills with doubts. "Let me see." She reaches down to examine to pocket more closely.

"Gotcha," whispers the sitting woman, and swings her hand, causing a bleeding wound to open on the other's face. Again, she screams in pain. This time, she grows to almost two feet taller than her original height. The smaller woman jumps up, but less agile than before, wobbling on her feet.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" screeches the bleeding woman. A facial expression of irate loathing is amplified by the bloody wound freshly opened on her cheek and nose. She easily snatches the now disoriented smaller one by her legs and lifts her, holding her upside down. Blood leaks out of the wound on her head, staining her short black hair brownish red.

"WHERE IS IT?" screams her captor.

She smiles and shrugs with a sly expression, but her face continues to turn red with the blood pressure to her head. "I didn't say I had it," she drawls, "I only said, 'gotcha,' and gave you a pretty new scar."