Purple Phoenix

Chapter Twenty-Two

I despised Paradox's presents. They just had to be in the form of exploding bombs. Why can't I get flowers or chocolate or something normal? Lying in the dust, I realized I had been too late. It wasn't a surprise, per se. Paradox, after bombing the street, had most likely stayed there, waiting for Soraya and me to leave together. He watched us defeat the SCU and had followed us back to here. Or at least, that's my theory. Because how else, could he have known this was the heroes' lair, without trailing our steps to here? 

Not only that, but it could not have been a coincidence that I had connected the word "present" between his shirt and the notecard, identifying the pervert-looking dude on the street officially as the one, and only, dumb, annoying, and frustrating, Paradox, and right after the words left my mouth, a bomb rocked through the building. Had he hacked into the cameras? How did he know to set the bomb at that exact time? He probably was sitting outside right now, rubbing his hands together, as he watched the building crumble. Without my fire resistance, I would be dead by now, and I could only hope that Light Shine and Soraya were all right.

So here I was, lying, once more, in a puddle of debris, dust covering me from head-to-toe. There were pieces of unrecognizable rubble lying on top of me as well. I didn't even bother to try to stand up. I laid there with eyes closed. If you ignored all the destruction around me, I would seem to be taking a nap on the ground, that was now unfortunately damaged. His bombs were starting to get on my nerves. This was my third time to experience this, and it would most definitely be my last. I was set on hunting him down, skinning him alive, and then roasting him and feeding him to a freaking bear. No, not a bear. I would feed him to a lion. Maybe I should not roast him and just feed him to the lion. Or, I could throw him, after skinning him alive, in a tank full of sharks and watch them feast on him. No, I've got an even better idea. I would-.

"Eve! Shit!" Soraya showed up next to me, inspecting my torn shape. She really needed to stop interrupting me. Maybe I could forgive her this time because I wasn't actually talking out loud. "Eve. Hey. Are you okay?" I didn't understand why she asked me that. Like, did I look okay? A glimpse at my body only showed blood, blood, and just a little bit more blood on the side.

My eyes met her, and I gave her a look that said, Really, Soraya?

"Can you move?" She ignored my pointed, annoyed look.

"Hmmm. I don't know. Let's test that out." I tried to turn around, as I was lying on my stomach with my head facing to the right, but the pain was too much to bear. I felt the sides of my vision turning blue and stopped after I had managed to turn around. I was already gasping from the effort by this slight adjustment. "I think that's a firm no."

"The good thing is it does not look like you have any burn marks. It's only cuts from whatever was thrown at you."

"Wonderful."

"Hm. There's a lot of blood. I think we need to get you to a hospital." No kidding. "Actually, I have a better idea. I know someone who can help us." Hold on. We weren't going to the hospital?

She saw my disbelieving look and rolled her eyes at me. "Hospitals ask too many questions, and we need to stay under the radar. This person is an expert in this stuff."

"Yay." I lifted my fist up in a weak attempt of portraying my happiness but stopped short when I spotted a flash of purple from the energy drink that had somehow survived. I croaked out. "Energy drink?"

"You want an energy drink, now?" She asked, baffled.

I nodded, and she crawled over to it. She picked it up, dusted away some of the dirt, and came back to me.
While she was helping me drink it, she murmured. "Light Shine isn't here. She's disappeared, just like the rest of them. I searched all over the place for her before I found you. It's me and you now. Just us two."

I stopped drinking for a second. "Rest of them?" I asked.

"The rest of the group. I'll explain later. All right. We need to get out, and that."She pointed through the destroyed room, at the other end. "Is our exit." The lights that remained were flickering in and out, all the technology they had stored in her was either not functional, or completely demolished, and the floor was piled with rubble.

My eyes landed on what she was pointing, and my eyebrows raised. "That's a wall. Nevermind, it was a wall. Now it's barely standing. I don't see how that's our exit, Soraya."

"You'll see, but now you need to stand up." She glanced down at me.

"I don't think that's going to work out, Soraya."

"It'll have to."

"That's A+ reasoning right there," I grumbled.

"Stop bickering, Eve. I'm just gonna clear the way over there while you prepare yourself to move. Okay?" I nodded and watched her walk away. Without a warning, she shifted into her grizzly bear and began digging into the ground, throwing up dust and rubble into the air. I kept my gaze on the dust as it twirled in the air before slowly sinking to the ground. They almost looked like snowflakes. Except they were gray and dark and ominous. Somehow, a little particle ended up stuck in my throat, and I started hacking and coughing to get that piece out. Of course, no such luck. It stayed lodged in there like gum stuck on a shoe. Coughing hurt because, with every cough, I moved. I wondered how damaged I was beneath the blood and the grime.

"You done there?" Soraya had shifted back to her human form and was walking back to me. I tilted my head looking at her. Besides some dust and specks of my blood on her shirt, she seemed completely fine.

"Hey, how'd you even survive? You don't even have one single cut on you," I noticed.

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "I uh... I shifted into a cockroach."

"A cockroach? Ew." I squished my nose.

"Yeah. They're pretty sturdy, even though they're gross."

"Hm. I didn't know you could change into insects."

"I can't change into a phoenix or a pegasus, but I can do insects, if I want to. And usually, I don't. Except when there's a bomb around." She blew her pesky hair out of her face. "Anyways, let's get you out of here." I looked back at where she had pointed before and, indeed, there was a small hole in the wall. She leaned forward, and I expected her to lend me a hand and tell me to suck it up and stand, but instead, she scooped me up in her arms and started carrying me to the hole. She was stronger than she looked.

"We've gotta stop getting into situations like these," I told her.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, the near-death situations we've experienced today. Does this make it three now?"

"Well, let's see. We've got the bomb blowing up in the streets, so that's one. Then, the SCU tried to kidnap us and shoot us with those laser beams or whatever. That's two. And thirdly, we have another bomb blowing up. So yes. You are right. That makes it three."

"Can't say dying nearly three times in a day was on my bucket list," I muttered under my breath.

She laughed, her skin wrinkling around her eyes. "Mine either." She stepped into the hole, which was apparently a tunnel. "By the way, this'll lead us to the sewer."

I murmured, "Once we arrive at your friend's place, we have a lot to talk about." A thin blanket of blurriness settled on my vision, and I tried to blink it away, but it stayed.

"Yes, we do," Soraya agreed. I shook my head to get the feeling away, but it only made it worse. "Eve? What's wrong?"

"I'm woozy," I mumbled.

"Shoot. It's probably from the blood loss." My body bobbed up and down with the increasing pace of Soraya's steps. A heaviness settled on my head. I was so tired. The blurriness turned to a sparkling blue. It looked like blue stars dancing in my vision.

"Eve? Eve?" Soraya sounded as if she was talking underwater. Muted. I could barely see her lips moving as my shoulders relaxed, and along with it, my legs. Then, everything went dark.

Hey guys. This chapter might have been a little bit confusing, so feel free to ask question and comment, and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability. 

Have a great weekend!

- Orspace