~The Unknown Man (Leader of the Rebel Army)
I dropped the letter just as it exploded into a puff of black smoke which quickly rushed out of the window, and Lilly’s eyes popped open. I discreetly kicked the box under my bed.
“Lilly! I was wondering when you would wake up.”
“Wow, I feel really drowsy… what time is it and what’s going on?”
“Oh y’know. Stuff. Jenna and I were just messing around.”
Lilly raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
I nodded sagely. “Yeah. Err, you should probably get up now. I’m not sure when our next fight is since they don’t seem to want to tell us. We should head down to the arena and talk to them.”
Lilly shrugs. “Ok. Care to tell me what happened to the window?”
I shook my head hastily. “I told you we were messing around.”
Lilly rolled her eyes. “Let’s go then. We don’t have any more time to waste. The Pisces Empire needs us!”
I pretended to agree with her and followed Lilly out of the room, but inside I was a mess. I thought back to what the letter had said. I knew that Pisces Empire had conquered my planet, but I had never thought to ask what had happened to the rest of my people. Also, judging from how well the letter knew what I had been doing, I had to assume that the Unknown Man was someone close to me or someone that was around me often. I ran a quick check through the people I knew to try to lower the amount of suspects. My first thought was good old Rusty the Cyborg, but I quickly dismissed that notion. He loved the Pisces Empire too much to pull something this big.
My next thought was one of the assistants or attendants. That would be a good spot to hide since nobody would bother checking on them, and they could get almost anywhere. I mentally checked that thought and moved on to my next suspect. Could one of the Council be the Unknown Man? It was definitely a possibility if they wanted to get more power. I checked that idea as well.
I was broken from my thoughts as I smacked into Lilly, and as Jenna smacked into me. “Hey, you’re causing a traffic accident! Why did you stop?” I asked.
Lilly just pointed upwards, and we looked up to see the Announcer standing on top of the Arena’s fence.
“The member of Team Three was assassinated last night! Because he cannot fight, Team One and Team Eleven will fight Team 11 who won his last fight and the right to compete in the finals!”
There were some complaints from the audience, but a glare from Lilly shut them up pretty quickly. We followed the crowd and the narrator to a much larger arena than we had fought in before. Jenna, Lilly, and I climbed in one side, and Richard and Pueblo climbed in the other.
“Begin the Final round!”
Pueblo stood on his hind legs and neighed at the sky. He dropped his hoofs back to the ground. A glistening white horn erupted from the horse’s forehead.
“Oh crap.”
The unicorn charged at me, and I leapt out of the way. Swift cawed, and swept down overhead, once again tearing down the fencing. The giant bird pecked at the unicorn, which returned the favor by spearing the hawk in the foot. It screeched and leapt backwards.
Lilly pointed her laser pistol at Richard, who pulled a small band out from his belt and put it around his wrist. She shot at him, but it was sucked into the band and launched back at Lilly. She blocked the blast with her pistol, and it exploded into a bunch of little metal bits. She wiped a little blood off of her face and pulled a knife from her boot with a snarl.
Lilly ran towards Richard, and Pueblo turned to face her. The unicorn sprinted at her at an uncanny speed, and rammed into her side. Lilly cried out as she was slammed against the fence. Jenna jumped onto the back of the unicorn and attempted to drive her knife into its back. The unicorn blocked the blade with its horn and bucked Jenna off.
Jenna landed on her back and quickly flipped back to her feet. I ran to Lilly to check if she was ok. However, she had already pushed herself back to her feet using the fence as a support. She saw me coming and waved me off. “I’m fine, the horn missed me. That thing has a nasty tackle though.”
I nodded, and turned back to where Jenna and Pueblo were fighting. I turned right in time to see light glisten off of something rapidly rushing wards me. I instinctively raised my hands to cover my face, and a horrible screech resounded as the horn of the unicorn clashed against the strange material that my glove was made from.
The horn screeched off of my glove and slashed my shoulder as the beast galloped past me.
I grabbed my shoulder in pain. “Blast, that thing’s horn must be really strong.”
“How did your glove deflect Pueblo’s horn?” Richard yelled to me.
“I had it blessed by the sausage fairy!” I yelled back to him.
Lilly took advantage of Pueblo’s confusion in failing to run me through and hurled her knife at the horse. It sunk into his flank, and the horse whined in pain. It bucked its back legs until the knife flew out, and the wound suddenly healed before our eyes.
Richard grinned cockily at me. “It’s time to stop playing around. Pueblo, finish them!”
The unicorn nodded at its master, and two huge white wings sprouted from its back with a sound like a chiming bell.
“Hey, isn’t that mixing two different animals? That’s a unicorn, not a pegasus!” I yelled.
Richard shrugged. Pueblo flapped his wings, and flew high into the air. Pueblo targeted Lilly as the easiest target, and shot towards her at an alarming speed. Just before the unipegasus thing rammed into her, Swift shot in front of Lilly and took the blast. The bird screeched, and clawed madly at the Pegasus.
Both of the Shadows fell to the ground in a messy heap, clawing and biting at each other, but only one of them got up.
Pueblo rose to his hooves easily, barely sporting a scratch for all the hard work that Swift had put in to try to help. On that matter, Swift lay on the ground, unmoving. I glanced at Lilly, but she was too focused on Richard.
She pulled a dagger from her other boot and threw it at him. The Pegasus shot in front of Richard, and the dagger burrowed into the beast’s side. It shot from the beast’s body immediately, and the monster quickly healed.
Jenna sprinted at Pueblo, but the huge horse easily knocked her to the floor. Jenna managed to jab a dagger into its underbelly, but the thing wasn’t even phased. The horse placed his hoof onto Jenna’s throat, and began to slowly push downwards. Jenna repeatedly stabbed the horse, but it was oblivious that she wasn’t even hurting it.
Richard wandered over to Jenna and peered down at her. “You look pretty nice. I think I just might keep you after this battle is over. Wouldn’t you like that?” he asked, leering at her.
Jenna hissed something at him with the little breath that she had left, and Richard spat on the ground next to her head. “Fine. Your body doesn’t have to be alive. I’ll just kill you with your friend then!”
Lilly rushed forward and tacked Richard. Without even moving the leg suffocating Jenna, Pueblo smashed Lilly through the fence with the side of his horn.
I felt my vision begin to heat up, and I ran blindly at them. “Get away from her!” I yelled, and threw a heavy punch at the horse.
It didn’t even see a reason to block the punch. Until it hit, sending the thing flying through the fence. What was even more surprising was that its injury didn’t heal. Richard stared at me in disbelief. “How did you hurt Pueblo? Bah, it doesn’t matter. Just because you can hit him doesn’t mean you can kill him.”
Sure enough, Pueblo flew back into the ring. Still hot with rage, I dimly noticed a slight disfiguration behind Richard and Pueblo. I grinned. “What’s so funny?” Richard snapped.
“Famous last words.”
The mouth tore open, looming over Richard and Pueblo. This wormhole was much larger than the one I had created in the room. It crashed shut as quickly as it had opened, and there was nothing left of Richard and Pueblo. I ran over to Jenna, and shook her body lightly.
“Jenna! Are you ok?”
&n
bsp; She didn’t move. I put my head on her chest (The correct side this time.) and listened closely.
“….”
“….”
“….”
“….thud.”
I sighed in relief, and Jenna giggled a little. “Why didn’t you say anything? I was worried you were dead!” I cried.
“I like this position.”
I gave her a mock glare, and hugged her tightly. “Don’t pull that crap again. I was worried!”
Lilly wearily climbed back onto the arena. “I’m alive too. Thanks for checking up on me!”
“Bah, you can handle yourself. Besides, that’s payback for all of the BS you’ve put me through!”
“Fair enough.”
I looked sadly over at Swift, and Lilly noticed my gaze. “Don’t worry, it was just a tool.”
I instinctively held Jenna tighter. “What do you mean? That poor bird sacrificed itself for you!”
Lilly shrugged. “Whatever. If it’s for the good of the Pisces Empire…”
A wave of disgust washed through me, but I choked it down.
“So, what happened when I got knocked off the stage? Where are Richard and Pueblo?”
Crap. The whole reason I hadn’t tried to use my glove earlier was so that Lilly wouldn’t see, and now I had to figure out some way to explain it.
“Ah, Richard flew off on Pueblo?” I tried.
Lilly nodded. “Serves him right, coward.”
I glance at Jenna, and she mimed wiping sweat from her forehead. Smiling, I pull Jenna to her feet and turn to the large crowd who are starting in, for the first time in all of these battles, complete respect. “Team One has won the Games! As per the rules, you may now have any one wish granted within the King’s power, including the replacement of the King himself!”
“I want an army of at least ten thousand men” I said loudly.
Lilly jammed her elbow into my stomach. “Why not ask for a bigger army this time? They have to do whatever we say, so we don’t have to play nice.”
“What if they get attacked? We have to leave them some way to defend themselves,” I countered.
The narrator looked surprised, but nodded. “Your wish will be granted! And rather quickly too, since all of the people of Trinton have gathered here to see who had won, and most of them have their own shadows! We will have your army assembled by tomorrow! Until then, please get some rest!”
I nodded, and for the first time, noticed the ground was spinning under me. I swayed and fell backwards into Jenna’s arms. “Drake? Drake, Are you ok? Drake! Hello…”