Incident 27 (14 page)

Priscilia
smiled like a beast that thirsted for blood and had just stumbled upon easy prey.
“Oh, it’s not. We tracked you here. We have important business with your
friends.”

“My
friends? Are you talking about Ev and Arcturus?”

As
if on cue, Arcturus emerged from the hole. Priscilia studied him curiously.
“You must be Arcturus Reich. You’ll be coming with us—you and Maya. Now that
she’s involved in this, Zero Grade will undoubtedly put a bounty on her head as
well.”

“Who
are you?” he said.

She
held her head high. “Priscilia Elepsen of the Awesome Three. We’re the top students
at Divine Protector Academy.”

“Ah,”
he said. “Then consider me your predecessor.”

“Please.
Don’t think you’re in the same class as us. You may have been hot stuff once
upon a time, but you went rotten and had to be thrown out.
We’re
the
future.”

He
laughed at that. “Everything new eventually becomes old. You’d do well to keep
that in mind. Now, what is it you want with us?”

“Zero
Grade’s put a bounty on your head and we’re here to collect.”

He
folded his arms nonchalantly. “Yes, I anticipated that. It was part of the
plan, actually.”

Maya
stared at him, mouth agape. “Plan? What plan? What are you talking about?”

“I’d
love to stay and enlighten you, but I don’t have time. I need to take this,” he
said, holding the cane, “and get it to the Ark. Farewell, Maya Brünhart.”

He
took off flying to the northeast. “Wait!” Maya yelled.

“What
did you expect?” Priscilia said. “Traitors don’t know loyalty. Don’t worry
about him; you didn’t come alone, and neither did I. We’re the Awesome
Three
,
after all.”

Maya
was hit by realization. “Ev!”

Priscilia
swung her arm back, getting ready to throw her shield. “You’d better worry
about yourself!”

* * *

Whatever
was wrapped around Ev’s neck dug into his flesh a hundred feet above the
ground. It had to be a wire or some sort of garrote. He clawed furiously at it,
but it had sunk in too far, and the blood made it impossible to get a grip.

“Ever
since you hooked up with Maya Brünhart, I’ve wanted to put you both in your
place. That bitch betrayed us, and you stick by her side like a loyal puppy.
You’re pathetic, Bannen.”

It
took Ev a few moments to place the voice. It was Jorg. The bastard wanted to
kill him. “W-Why?” he rasped.

“Zero
Grade wants your head, and we’re here to collect. It’s ‘dead or alive’, by the
way. As you can probably tell, I’m leaning more toward ‘dead’.”

Ev
wanted to try and reason with him, but he could no longer talk. Worse, he
couldn’t breathe. He fought the rising urge to panic, knowing it would only
make things worse. He needed to get Jorg off of him. Flying was out of the
question; he couldn’t concentrate because of the mortal danger Jorg had put him
in.

He
tried to wriggle free, but Jorg held him tight, and the wire only dug deeper
into his windpipe. He shoved his head back in an attempt to hit Jorg with it,
but he couldn’t do it with enough force to get him to let go.

With
his vision fading fast, Ev fumbled about his body, looking for something,
anything
,
he could use to get free. He was surprised when his hand landed on a round
metal object clipped to his waist. He pulled it free and realized with ecstasy
it was a grenade. He didn’t even remember grabbing it out of the duffel bag,
but that mattered little. It couldn’t hurt Jorg, but it might surprise him enough
to make him let go.

Ev
pulled the pin and tossed grenade it into Jorg’s line of sight. He heard “What
the…?” before the incendiary device detonated. Flame, shrapnel and smoke filled
the air.

Ev
couldn’t see anything, and the smoke burned his eyes and made it difficult to
breathe, but the gambit worked; Jorg released him to deal with the situation.
Ev quickly healed his throat before turning around and tackling him. They
sailed through the air before crashing into an office building, tumbling across
the floor and landing amidst rows of cubicles. Frightened temps went running.

They
got to their feet at about the same time. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Ev
roared.

Jorg
shook glass out of his hair. “Me?” He pointed at Ev. “
You’re
the one who
sided with that turncoat bitch. You’re the one who abandoned the Academy. And
you’re the one who attacked Zero Grade and now has a bounty on his head. You
only have yourself to blame for this.”

Ev
rubbed his sore throat. “So you’d kill me for your own selfish reasons?”

“You’re
in no position to judge me, Bannen. We’re both doing what we’re doing for
personal gain. I’m just honest enough to admit it. I may not know your reasons,
but I know a selfish person when I see one. When was the last time you took a
good look at yourself?”

Clinching
his fist, Ev replied, “I don’t have time to argue with you. I’m taking you down
and then getting out of here.”

He
took a step forward.

Jorg
was no longer there.

From
behind him, Jorg laughed. “You’re going to take me down? Please. You’re just an
average student.” Ev whirled around. Jorg was gone again, but the voice
continued. “Let me show you what the best of the best at the Academy can do.”

Something
hard slammed into Ev’s back. Ev swung his fist around but there was still no
one there.
Is he invisible?
He didn’t have time to ponder this, however.
A blur pounded his jaw before disappearing. Ev staggered.
No, he’s not
invisible. He’s just insanely fast.

From
behind him: “Are you starting to get it, Bannen? Each member of the Awesome
Three has a special talent. Me, I developed my god-speed to unheard-of levels.
In fact, I no longer call it speed. I call it God Blink. In the blink of an
eye, I can attack you. Even on your best day, you could never hope to compete
with me.”

Ev
spit a gob of blood onto the floor. “Swell.” Curious or brave office workers
stood by on the other side of the room, watching nervously and remarking to
themselves. Ev wondered if they would take bets on this fight, and if so, would
anyone bet on him?

A
phantom knee collided with him stomach. An elbow crushed his nose. Twin fists
bashed the back of his head. Jorg repeatedly blinked in an out, dishing out
ruthless punishment. This only went on for about a minute, but it was an
agonizing minute. Ev couldn’t even count the number of attacks he had to suffer
through. It was all one long pain party.

Pretty
soon, Jorg took a moment to admire his handiwork. Ev knew he must look like
hell by this point, because Jorg was quite pleased with himself. “You see now,
Bannen? You can’t beat me. You should just let me kill you and save us both
some trouble.”

Ev
wiped the blood out of his eyes. “Piss off.”

Shrugging,
Jorg said, “Have it your way.”

But
Ev held up a hand. “Wait. How long have we been fighting?”

“I
wouldn’t exactly call it a
fight
,” he laughed. “But I think it’s been
about five minutes. Why?”

Ev
gripped the wall of the nearest cubicle. “No reason.”

“Quit
stalling, Bannen. Accept your—”

His
words were cut off as the building began shaking. Jorg fought to maintain his
balance as the facility’s self-destruct mechanism did its work below.

This
was his chance. Ev shoved off from the cubicle and delivered a savage uppercut
to Jorg’s jaw. The stitch-faced bastard went flying through the ceiling.
Correction—
every
ceiling. The last Ev saw of him, he had vanished into
the sky.

That takes care of him. But what about Relm and Priscilia? They’ve
got to be around somewhere. Crap—Maya!

Ev
dove out of the building in search of his quasi girlfriend.

* * *

Priscilia’s
shield easily blocked Maya’s arrows while they fought on the street. Maya
couldn’t get a good shot at her with that big thing in the way as Priscilia was
adept at using it for both offense and defense.

She
hurled the shield at Maya who came within an inch of being sliced by its
blades. Fortunately, she managed to duck in time.

However,
she was so focused on the shield that she didn’t see Priscilia swooping in to
attack. Priscilia kicked her in the head, and Maya went crashing down the
street like a stone skipping across the water.

Maya
quickly recovered and pointed her bow at the haughty bitch, but the shield
returned to Priscilia before she could launch her arrows. Maya thought she saw
something—something about Priscilia’s eyes—that seemed important. However, she
didn’t have time to contemplate it, because her enemy again threw that damned
shield. This time, she didn’t throw it directly at Maya, but instead ricocheted
it between buildings. Maya’s eyes darted left and right as she tried to follow
the path of the insane projectile. When she became certain it was about to hit
her, she leapt into the air.

Again
Priscilia rushed in to take advantage of Maya’s divided attention. This time,
though, Maya was ready for her. She shot her arrows directly at her. But to
Maya’s surprise, Priscilia contorted her body in midair, dodging the attack.

Both
women landed on the ground. Priscilia’s shield came back to her, and again Maya
could’ve sworn there was something there to take advantage of. Something about
her eyes…

Priscilia
patted her spiked shield. “It looks like one of these isn’t enough to take you
down. So…” Gripping the thing with both hands, she ripped it in half. No, that
wasn’t right. Maya realized it was designed to separate. Even worse, fresh
blades snapped into place on both pieces. The woman now had two smaller shields
to work with. “Let’s see you dodge both of these.”

Priscilia
tossed one of the shields directly at Maya. The other one she threw at the
building to Maya’s right. Maya jumped over the first one, only to see Priscilia
rush in to attack hand-to-hand. Maya was belted in the stomach and fell
backwards. She landed safely, but too late noticed the second shield coming
right at her. She tried jumping back, but it sliced her right shoulder and
collarbone, causing a searing flash of pain. Fresh blood spilled forth and she
dropped her bow.

“Looks
like you’ve got a bit of a scratch there,” Priscilia teased.

Maya
knew she needed to heal her injuries, but the silver-haired woman didn’t give
her a chance. She combined her shields back into one and launched it at her.
Time seemed to slow down as Maya saw her imminent death. Her life didn’t flash
before her eyes; that would have been too cruel. No, she only saw her time with
Ev. She wished more than anything she could have been with him just a little
longer. She had no god to curse for this injustice; this was what it was.

But
the instant before the shield was the skewer her, a figure dropped from the sky
and smashed it to the ground.

She
couldn’t believe her eyes. “Ev!

He
turned around and smiled. “I guess this is the part where I’m supposed to say,
‘sorry I’m late’.”

Rolling
her eyes, she replied, “I’d call you out on your crappy sense of humor, but
seeing as how you just saved me, I’ll let it slide.”

His
smile faded as he saw her wounds. “Your shoulder! Are you all right?”

“I’ll
be fine.” To prove this, she placed her hand on the deep gash. It healed within
moments. She was, after all, particularly skilled in this area.

“Whew.
I was worried for a minute there. I’m glad you’re not in any real danger. Now I
can focus on this bitch here.”