Purple Phoenix

Chapter Twenty-Six

Hi. I know it's a little bit off schedule, but it is finally here! AND it has action in it.

Hope you enjoy it!

- Orspace

My brows jumped up in surprise. The two least likely expected people stood in the room: Kratos and Tangent X. Both of them had their arms dangling by their sides and wore an unbothered facial expression, void of any feelings. Facing the door Soraya and I had just entered, they had this posture that seemed to say they were expecting us all along.

Behind them, I recognized Shadow and Paradox sitting back-to-back, both of their hands cuffed. Their heads hung down to their chest, seemingly unconscious for what was about to happen. My attention returned to Kratos as he lifted a device and clicked it. The baby crying sound stopped.

"Told you it's a trap," I whispered to Soraya before raising my voice and greeting the two, "Hi there! How are you guys doing today?"

They didn't say anything. Instead, Kratos and Tangent X took calm steps towards us.

"Last I checked you two were supposed to be in prison. What changed?" I continued my one-sided conversation with them.

Soraya murmured to me, "I don't think they're here to chat, Eve."

"Noted." I cocked my head at them as they got closer, analyzing their shining violet eye color. "Soraya, I didn't know Kratos and Tangent X had purple eyes."

"They don't," She responded taking steps to the left. Tangent X shifted his direction towards her. Kratos' eyes were on mine as I walked to the right. He followed me and then started picking up his pace.

I swore as his hunkering form ran after me. He grabbed a single table and continued to run. Last time, in the mall, I didn't fight him because I didn't want my identity to be released. But not this time. I stopped, my shoes squeaking at the quick change of direction on the floor, and turned around. Kratos lifted the table and brought it down to smash over me. I waited until it was close before rolling away. 

I felt the wind of its impact tickling my hair. He let out a roar and picked the table up again. Focusing on my fire, I urged it out, creating an oval shield around my forearm. As soon as he brought the table down again, I lifted my arm to meet him. The table shattered my fire shield but effectively caused the table to bounce backward.

I smirked at Kratos, but Kratos simply looked bored as he made way to lift the table again. What the heck was wrong with him?

My hands cupped around each other, and I created a ball of fire. It's blistering heat radiated, bringing me comfort before I swung it at him. The ball hit Kratos square in the chest, throwing him back a couple of feet. He stumbled back, gazed down at the fire which had now caught on his shirt, and patted it until the fire went out. I thought he was strong... not invincible? But as he removed his hand away, I spotted the burns etched in his skin like a bandage. How did he not feel the pain?

As soon as he was done, his head came up and his purple eyes met mine. He advanced toward me again. I took steps back while creating small bullet-like fires which I threw at him, one after the other. He flinched every time they hit his skin but seemed unfazed.

I heard a bellow of pain to my left and spotted Soraya in her tigress form wounded, blood leaking from her side and a piece of metal sticking out. The suit, which can somehow magically transformed with her shapeshifting and was curved around her body, had stopped the metal from going too deep.

Iris spoke, "Watch out: A hit incoming at your right."

Distracted, I didn't notice Kratos' swinging fist until it hit the side of my ribs, throwing me back. The suit took some of the force, but I was still left clutching my ribs on the floor, which flared in pain. Kratos' shadow swept over me as he went in for a kick, raising his leg. I turned around, arm reaching forward, and let out a stream of purple-hot fire into his direction. It caught his shirt again, which he calmly removed. My eyes went round. His body was on fire. And he seemed fine. I stumbled back onto my feet and growled in pain because of the ache on my side.

Because his skin was burning and the heat of my fire, the smoke alarm as well as the fire sprinklers turned on, drenching all of us in water, including Kratos, whose skin was seared with red. I lit my fire on again, but it was quickly put off by the water. I better not die because of the stupid fire sprinklers. That was so not happening.

Kratos picked up the table once more. The room, however, was luckily big. Big as in horizontally big. Vertically, not so much. I could almost touch the ceiling. 

With no other option left, I depended on my other power: flight. He threw it at me, and I flew myself backward. Missing me, it clattered on the ground. Kratos didn't wait for me to launch my own attack and ran towards me.

Too late, I realized I was cornered. He swung his fist again, and I ducked. He hit the wall behind me, making a hole and causing cracks to form on the wall. He tugged his hand out, but it was stuck. I grabbed his arm and rammed up the heat. His purple eyes slowly moved to my hand, and he grabbed my hand with his. I winced as he removed my hand, leaving a red handprint wrapped around his bicep.

"Ah," I shouted as he closed his hand around mine, clenching mine hard. Using my other hand, I hit him over and over again, but it was no use. He was a steel wall. Finally, he dropped my hand, and I sighed in relief.

It did not last long. His hand gripped my throat instead and lifted me up in the air. My hands automatically grabbed his. I tried to burn him, scratch him, hit him, anything, but he felt nothing. His eyes were bleak, unfeeling as he took my life away. Pain blossomed within me, and I choked. I couldn't get air in my lungs, and they were crushing me on the inside. I struggled, again and again, thrashing in his grip as spots danced across my vision. How long was I without oxygen? I needed to breathe. I needed to breathe now.

I spotted Soraya crawling on the ground. A darker red streaked across the red suit. Tangent X picked another piece of metal and threw it at her. I couldn't see anymore as black took over my vision. I was about to faint. I felt myself slipping away, slipping away through my fingers despite my desperate grip on it.

With a final attempt, I croaked out, "Iris: Activate camouflage." My suit disappeared, and with it, me. Kratos loosened his hold and finally let go, and I fell to the ground with a thump, gasping and drinking in the air. With the much-needed air, I regained my vision slowly. His head turned from side-to-side, looking for me while stroking his chin. I had to get up. I had to help Soraya. Kratos still was trying to remove his hand from the broken wall, and with the force he pulled on it, a whole chunk broke off and tumbled out of the building. Kratos gazed at the human-sized hole he created for a second before walking away to try to find me.

With his shirt off, ignoring his muscles, I spotted a golden metal on the back of his neck. Tilting my head, I wondered, what is that?

Shaking my head, I told myself to stay focused. I took in a deep breath although it was painful and pushed myself to my knees, then to my feet. Leaning on the wall, I tried to find a way to help Soraya and me. Paradox and Shadow proved very useless, still sitting and unconscious. First things first, I needed to remove Kratos from this room. My eyes flicked around the room, over a big-sized Kratos, a still-fighting tigress, a bored Tangent X, a crashed lone table, two villains tied up, and finally, to the man-sized hole.

Biting my lip, I looked back and forth between Kratos and the hole. I could work with that.