Of Fire and Waves

Chapter 7: The Rose Company

Monday, November 11th is when Nessie made her move. I had gone back on patrol the month before, steadily preparing for the final battle. A warehouse crammed full of mac and cheese and other necessary foodstuffs exploded. I had been checking the docks every night, just in case it was The Final Night. I was just arriving when the bomb went off.
I swooped high over the warehouse. I dropped, smashing through the roof of the warehouse and into the center of the flames. I began to walk out, pulling the growing flames from the walls, absorbing them into my back like a cloak of wildfire. I kicked open the doors, stalking out with my wildfire. The lenses of my goggles began to glow, reflecting the fire in my eyes.
She stood across the shipping yard, spinning her trident and grinning. I stalked toward her.
"Howdy, welcome to the show," she said with a feral grin. "So glad you could join us at last."
"Us?" I snarled.
"Of course! You don't think the Rose Company gave me just land now did you?"
Well. That's not good. I mentally slapped myself. 'Idiot! Of course they wouldn't be stupid enough to wait out in the open.'
"Come out, come out wherever you are!" Nessie crowed.
I tensed as about twenty people slithered from the shadows of the docks. Each of them was carrying an assault rifle, and I was keenly aware of how each and every one of them already had their weapons trained on my blazing body. I pulled the flames off my back, thinned them to invisibility, then piled them onto each other in the hopes that it would be enough to protect myself if someone got just a bit too excited with those guns. The flames roared in my ears, the sound shreeky and panicked. This was the end. I could feel Nessie's patience thinning. They were planning on killing me, right then and there, as if I was nothing more than a minor inconvenience that needed eliminating. They were not going to take me down without a fight, however.
Nessie raised her arm. In unison, all the guns clicked into readiness.
Don't hesitate, I told myself as I gathered another layer of the warehouses flames around me. Everything was silent for a long, tense moment, save for the panicked wailing of the fire in my ears.
"Bye- bye hotshot. Sorry you weren't good enough to replace Night."
Nesse dropped her hand in an extravagant sweeping gesture.
I pulled the inferno I had created tightly around myself.
"Fire!"
The silence of the night was shattered like glass by sharp flashes of light and the cracks of gunfire.