Of Fire and Waves

Chapter 9: Her

Finally, I located her. She stood with the 7 conscious company members next to the smoking husk of the warehouse. "Oh this is exciting." She purred, as she stalked forward. Volt came and stood next to me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her crouch and place her hands on the ground. The wet ground. Oh Volt you brilliant woman! She zapped the water, the remaining Company members twitched and collapsed, thoroughly out of the game. Nessie however, was unaffected. She hummed. "Cute trick. Watch this." She grabbed the water around Volt's hands, snaking it up her arms to her chest, where she hurled her across the docks, slamming her into a shipping container, and let her drop onto the ground. Volt did not move. I lunged toward her, the fire giving me a higher speed. I dropped to my knees next to her, completely disregarding the rule "do not turn your back on the enemy for any reason." I found a strong pulse thumping in her throat. Carefully, I warmed her costume, trying to evaporate the water, lest Nessie decided that unconscious just wasn't good enough.
I stood and turned back around. I summoned what fire I had left; then I set another forklift on fire. Ok, I have good reasoning for this, I needed more fire for the final battle. Once the fire had consumed the body, I pulled it back into myself, savoring the slight rush of power. Nessie's smile was full of fangs and malice. She gestured with her trident behind me. As soon as she did, another building exploded. "Have fun." She cooed starting to move toward the bay. No. I will not let her get away again! I threw one hand out behind me, and one at Nessie. A ring of flames grew around her as I dragged the fire out of the warehouse, across the docks and into me. The flames rolled over the shipping containers like a wave, rushing toward me. They lapped against my feet, twining up my legs to my arms and face. Some of the flames solidified, giving me flaming arm and shin guards.
Finally, after the flames had seeped into my bones like a diffuser in tea, I smiled at the queen of the sea. "Let's go." I dropped the ring of fire.
She lunged at me, roaring and swinging at me with her trident. I moved as well. I blocked the strike aimed at my face and clipped her across the jaw. Like my fire armor, she had armor made from water.
We went on like this for about 3 minutes. Finally, I don't know if I'd finally started to tire, or if she got in a lucky shot, but she cracked her trident across my face, snapping my head back. I stumbled, my guard dropping for an instant, just enough time to land another shot on my ribs. And my legs. And my injured shoulder. It, of course, because nothing was going right, popped back out of the socket. She slammed the butt of the trident into my stomach, then her fist into my face, my right goggle lense shattering under the sea dweller's fist. She slammed 2 of her tentacles into my side in a fishy kick. I was thrown to the left, slamming into the ground for the second time that night. The wind was knocked out of me as Nessie began to laugh.
"You are stronger than you care to believe." Night would say. I panted, my back throbbing from the impact of the ground. I rolled over. I spat a glob of blood onto the ground and pushed myself to my feet with my right arm. I swayed unsteadily, focusing on staying upright.
"You're done already?" Nessie taunted. "I don't think Night would be very proud of you. The flawless hero," she scoffed, "being replaced by you."
I ripped off my mask, my goggles useless and my respirator shredded from a close call with the pointy part of her 3- pronged stick. I set the lump of plastic of fire in my fist and dropped it to the ground. "She found me when I was young. She made me what I am today. She was my hero." I looked up, my eyes filled with flames, coiling and rolling like serpents. "She was my hero, but she was an obsessive jerk!" I lashed out, my fists wrapped in swaths of flame. She danced back, swinging her trident and blocking my shots. I kept slamming my fists into the weapon, leaving fist- sized scorch marks each place I struck. She laughed, blocking my blows with her quickly deteriorating weapon.
Finally, my flame- coated fist slammed through the weapon, leaving her with the shattered ends of her weapon. She stumbled back, cackled, tossing the useless staff pieces aside.