Never As It Seems

The Fight

"I knew we would run into one of them eventually," Annmarie muttered.  

"What's that, girl?" said the guard, his smirk reaching from ear to ear. "Whatever, I don't care. I think it's kind of funny, really. You're the ones we really want - well, one of you, anyway - and so far you've done the worst in this little puzzle the boss set up for you. Isn't it ironic?" 

"What's really ironic," said Annmarie, "is the fact that you seem to think you're going to walk away from this little meeting completely unscathed." 

The guard laughed; it was a harsh sound that seemed to creep at the back of Flames' neck. "You think you're going to just beat me up and move on with your life?" 

"That's the plan," said Annmarie with a confidence that Flames didn't share. She turned to him and said with as quiet a voice as she could muster, "You've got your gun, right? We'll just shoot him together, get the heck out of here, and it'll be all fine." 

Flames didn't have much confidence in this hastily made plan; for one, he could barely move at all, and he didn't think he could just grab his gun and start shooting the guard. He was rather tall and bulky - just generally dangerous-looking, really - and all of it was heightened by the darkness of the room.  

"I'll be taking Flames Pond, if you don't mind," the guard said. "You can try to find him again if you really want." 

"Or I can walk away with him and we can live a nice life together after this horrible mess is over." 

Flames tried to smile.  

"You've got high ambitions," the guard said with a chuckle. "I like that. I don't think that will last too much longer, though." 

Annmarie just rolled her eyes and turned to Flames. "On three," she murmured.  

"And no time for silly plans that won't work." 

"One, two..." 

"Did you hear me? Not going to work. Just give up while you're still confident." 

"Three," she said. She pulled her gun out of her jacket and sharply raised it up. 

Flames, on the other hand, just stood there, his heart racing and his mind suddenly blank.  

"Oh, very clever!" said the guard. "Did you have that up your sleeve the whole time?" 

"Almost literally," she said. She briefly glanced at Flames, who was still unmoving, and turned back to the guard. "You're a very funny person." 

"I could say the same for you." 

"Hmm." With that she aimed the gun directly at his face. "You see this? I am perfectly able of using this if I want to. I'm not as incompetent as you seem to think I am. But I like to think of myself as a nice person - to an extent - and I'm giving you an opportunity here. You can continue to be an annoying little twit, and I can shoot you with this gun and walk away safe and sound. Or you can let Flames and I go, and we'll walk away safe and sound anyway. You can get hurt, or you can be a morally good person, probably for the first time in your pathetic life. Your choice." 

The guard just gave her a blank stare for a second, and laughed. "I've got plenty of training, you know. I can snap you like a toothpick. It wouldn't even hurt - for me." 

Annmarie scoffed. She stepped forward slowly, and Flames watched her, wondering exactly what she was doing - was she surrendering? 

She smiled at the guard, and a second later, curled her right hand into a fist, pulled it back, and jumped forward with a punch landing directly below the guard's left cheekbone. He staggered back and instinctively brought his hand up to his face, and Annmarie took this as an opportunity to give him a hard kick to the chest. She immediately followed this kick with two others to his side, and he fell against the wall, groaning as the sudden influx pain flowed throughout his body. Annmarie danced around before he could collect himself and attack her in return. She swerved to the side as he attempted to punch her face, and almost fell forward as he hit nothing but air. She delivered another kick to his ear as he leaned forward, and he yelled at the moment of impact.