The scene below looks like something in a Sci-Fi movie. Arden’s guards battle with the Akons. There are four Akons and twelve guards. It makes no difference. The Akons have the upper hand. I suspect it has something to do with the small boomerang-like objects the Akons are throwing at them. Once it lands on the guards, it scans them and they are rendered powerless.
“The boomerangs are Neutralizers. Stay away from them,” Marcus cautions us.
“The Hun is over there with Arden!” Jay shouts.
We all turn at the same time to find Arden standing in front of the Witness in an attempt to shield him. She holds out both hands and radiates a blinding light. The light serves as a shield between her and The Hun.
This is the first time we have ever laid eyes on The Hun. All this time we’ve heard stories of his terror and evil. But the stories were wrong. The Hun is beyond evil; there is a cold and lifeless energy radiating from him.
The Hun is over seven feet tall, bald, and has skin that isn’t really skin at all. It’s more like a paper-thin wax sheet that has been stretched out over his body. We can see right through the top layer and onto the mass of nerves and veins underneath.
His eye sockets look like they have been crudely carved out by a dull spoon. His eyes are the color of blood and his shark-like teeth have been decayed for centuries. His massive raven wings seem to take up the entire city.
The Hun’s bigger-than-life hands wield an onyx-colored beam that tries to overpower Arden’s light.
While Arden’s light is strong, it is no match for The Hun. Soon the dark beam will overpower her light.
The plan was to sneak up on the Hun and take him on, but he had no trouble seeing us coming as his eyes had been attached to the back of his neck.
Before any of us even had a chance to strike, The Hun frees up one hand and blasts us with his ray. We crash to the ground like a bird would after flying into an electric fence.
Marcus is the first to recover.
“Jay and Rio, you take the Akons. Miku, Ameana and I will take The Hun.”
Jay and Rio quickly go over to fight off the Akons while the rest of us head back towards The Hun.
“Miku sing,” Marcus instructs.
“What? I can’t. It’ll kill the Witness”
“Arden has him behind some kind of force field; it should protect him at least long enough for us to get the upper hand.”
“I can call the truck to me and send it at The Hun. That’ll give you time to get them out,” I suggest. Marcus agrees.
Miku begins to singing. Everyone in the area is in pain. We all hold our ears and try not to give into the urge to carve ourselves to death. If the Witness wasn’t under Arden’s shield, he would have died instantly because the song Miku is singing is too powerful for humans to endure.
Even The Hun is having difficulty staying focused with Miku’s siren song in the air. I force myself to concentrate on the task at hand. While The Hum is weak and distracted, I call for the parked truck and hurl it at him. It throws him off-balance but only for mere seconds. Luckily, that’s all Marcus needs.
He swoops in and picks up both the Witness and Arden. Suddenly Miku stops singing. I look over and see why. The Hun has sent the boomerang neutralizers after her. She is rendered soundless.
Seeing his chance to attack her, Rage sends a fireball directly at her.
As I go to redirect the fireball, The Hun throws a flat silver star looking thing at me.
It latches on to my chest and instantly I’m in agony. I call out over and over again. I’m not sure what is happing to me. The only thing I’m certain of is that I will die in a matter of seconds from the pain.
My wings flap up and down involuntarily. It’s like they are being controlled by someone else.
That’s when I understand the job of the star-like object The Hun has sent my way. Its job is to tear my wings in two.
The star sinks itself even deeper into me. My wings are pulled apart even further.
Just when I think I’m going to pass out and that my wings are going to be ripped off, I feel someone behind me yanking the star off of me. I look up and find Jay standing there with a big smile.
“You’re welcome,” he says as he takes off into the air.
I look over and see if Rage’s fireball had hit Miku. She stands alive and well behind her brother’s force field.
Relief washes over me but its short-lived when I realize that The Hun has caught up to Marcus. The two are in the air engaged in a heated battle.
The Hun throws blast after blast at Marcus. The last blast misses him and hits one of Arden’s guards. He dies instantly.
Marcus flies over and under everything in order to avoid getting hit. While I am tempted to help him, I know I have to see to the Witness.
I rush over to them.
“I’m gonna have Jay Glide the two of you out,” I say to them.
“Can’t we just fly out of here while the Hun is distracted?” Arden asks.
“If the Akons see you in the air they will attack. So using Jay is the best thing for us right now.”
Then the Witness speaks. He looks more like a college professor. He wears red wire-framed glasses, tan clothes and is bald in the middle.
“I can help. I can take them on. I’m not afraid,” he says looking at Arden the whole time.
She looks over at me and instantly I understand. Apparently the Witness is more concerned with being Arden’s hero than he is with his own life.
She addresses him kindly.
“No, Norbert. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I can do it. I’m much braver than I look,” he pleads.
We so don’t have time for this.
I try another way.
“Look, Arden needs you to take her home. I don’t want anything to happen to her. What if there are more Akons and demons at her house?” I say to him. Arden follows my lead.
“Yeah, c’mon, Norbie; I need you.” She smiles the smile of angels. Norbert agrees.
Just then two daggers cut through the air and land right into Arden’s chest. She falls to the ground.
“No!” Norbert shouts angrily.
“We have to move,” I order him.
“I’m not leaving her,” he tells me in no uncertain terms.
“Jay,” I call out. I feel a cool breeze, look up and find him standing over me.
“Take the witness,” I instruct.
He struggles and protests as Jay picks him up and Glides him away.
But then something happens to Jay that has never happened before; he is stopped mid-Glide.
The Hun towers over him, his face twisted in fury.
“Where are you going with my Witness?” he demands in a calm deadly voice.
Both Jay and the Witness have been thrown to the ground by the sudden halt of Jay’s Glide.
Jay looks up at The Hun.
“You won’t get to him without getting past me.”
Jay stands up and blocks the way to the Witness.
The Hun laughs a mirthless, cruel laugh.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Yeah, you’re the weak, pathetic coward who couldn’t face death so you had your mommy save your soul in a box.”
“If you move out of my way, when I kill you, I’ll be quick.”
“Try me.”
Just then Jay catches my eyes quickly and looks over to the other side. I follow his gaze and see what he wants me to do. I hope we time this right…
The Hun summons up his deadly ray from both hands. He lifts his hands up over his head and shoots the rays directly at Jay.
At that precise moment, I call for the windshield of a nearby car.
It flies over to serves a barrier between The Hun’s rays and Jay’s certain death.
The windshield is no match for the Hun’s ray. It shatters in seconds. But by then Jay has already fled, Witness in hand.
Pissed off that I have stopped him from getting to the Witness, The Hun turns his
attention to me. He shoots his rays my direction. I can tell right off that they are too powerful to be redirected. I won’t be able to control them.
From the corner of my eye, I spot Mayhem shooting daggers at Marcus. I redirect them to hit The Hun. They hit him in the hand causing him to misfire the rays.
The daggers split his wrist wide open. A liquid too dark to be blood pours out of his hands. Once it hits the ground it eats away at the snow and right through the cement sidewalk.
Then he laughs as the gash heals itself up in seconds. It is like he was never wounded to begin with.
Rio flies over to me and sends up his shield. The Hun comes closer to us without the slightest bit of hesitation. He holds out his hand and there on the tip of his index finger is a sharp needlepoint-like blade. It carves Rio’s shield in two. Now, there is nothing between us and The Hun.
“Hey, you kill them, I kill him,” Marcus announces as he grabs the Witness in a chokehold.
“You would never kill him.”
“I don’t give a damn about him. I only care about my team,” Marcus says.
“He is important to the mission.”
“No, he’s important to your mission. They sent me here to make sure you don’t get him. I kill him, you don’t get him. There, I did my part.”
“You would not kill a human.”
Suddenly, and without warning, Marcus breaks the Witness’s arm. He cries out in agony. We all look on, shocked by what Marcus has just done.
“I’ll trade you. His life for theirs.”
“He’ll tell me where the Triplex is.”
“So what? We’ll figure out a way to get to it before you. The only help you have are Akon and it seems like every time we battle, we kill one of them. So, I’m not worried. Are you?”
“Never.”
“Good; make the Akons stand down.”
The Witness, Norbert, can still be heard moaning and crying as his arm falls limply to the side.
The Hun thinks for second. He signals for the Akons to fall back. He then calls out to Marcus.
“Now throw the Witness to me.”
“You first.”
The Hun sneers down at us and barks, “Move.”
Rio and I slowly walk towards the middle of the street. We’re halfway between Marcus and The Hun.
Up on the rooftops the Akons aren’t attacking, but they stand at the ready. Miku and Jay position themselves so that they are ready should the Akons make any sudden moves.
The Witness staggers forward towards The Hun.
“Quickly,” The Hun orders.
Rio and I keep moving towards Marcus. Just as the Witness is reaching the Hun, Marcus says, “Now.”
I turn around and see Arden flying behind The Hun. Having eyes attached to the back of his neck enables him to see her coming too. She holds a handful of boomerang Neutralizers.
The Hun quickly turns and shoots at her. But the light emanating from the Neutralizers weakens the power of The Hun’s rays.
“You think you can Neutralize me? Me?”
He is right; the Neutralizers weaken his attack but only a little.
“That’s just the appetizer. Here’s your main course,” Arden yells out as she uses her light not on The Hun, but on the Neutralizers.
Her light serves as a power booster and causes the power of the Neutralizer to magnify.
All four boomerangs encircle The Hun and strip wave after wave of power from him.
Seeing this causes Frenzy and Chaos to leap into action. But Jay and Miku are there to tackle him before they can help free The Hun from his power-draining prison.
Rio gets in front of the Witness and shields him as Frenzy sends multiple daggers their way. I call for a telephone pole; it comes crashing down on top of Frenzy’s head. He gets out from under it quickly and tackles me.
I punch him in the face, knee him in groin and roll him off of me.
He jumps back up and sends three daggers whizzing by my face.
“You sorry sack of --”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence because his foot got in the way of his mouth.
The dropkick causes him to fall face down to the ground.
As he tries to get up again, the roof of the nearby building lands on him.
I look up and see Marcus standing by the now roofless building. He saved me.
“We gotta get the Witness outta here; the Neutralizers won’t work on The Hun for much longer,” he says.
“I got it,” Jay says as he Glides both the Witness and a wounded Arden to safety.
Just then The Hun manages to overpower the Neutralizers and break out of their power-sucking hold. He sees that the Witness is nowhere in sight.
“NO!” he yells so loudly the entire state of Alaska seems to vibrate.
He turns his attention to Marcus.
“You will pay for this,” he prepares to fire at Marcus. I can’t call anything to me in time to stop him and the rest of the Guardians are too far away. I can’t do anything but watch as the dark rays head straight for him.
Out of sheer panic and anger about what is going to happen, I hold my hands out in a feeble attempt to stop the Hun’s attack.
That’s when it happens. Out from my hands emerge a long steady steam of furious fire. It expands and unfolds itself into a sea of red and blue flames.
The flames engulf The Hun. But with just one wave of his hand, the flames disappear.
“You take my Witness; I take your heart,” he says as he laughs and flies away.
All the Akons follow except for Rage. He lingers behind, unable to stop looking at me and what I have just done.
After he flies off, I turn back to my team. They are looking at me the same way that Rage was.
“Did you just shoot fire?” Miku asks, shocked.
“I guess,” I say lamely.
“Angels don’t have fire power. It’s not in our nature to gather the amount of hate and wrath that it takes,” Marcus says.
“I know,” is all I can say.
“Ameana, how are you able to shoot fire?” Jay asks.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? What the hell does that mean?” Rio shouts.
“Look, I saw him about to attack and I just held out my hand. I didn’t know what was going to happen. It just did. So stop yelling at me okay? I saved Marcus’s life.”
“With fire,” Jay adds.
“Yeah, with…fire,” I say trying not to sound as freaked-out as I feel.
“Hey, guys, why didn’t The Hun attack Marcus again?” Rio asks.
“When?”
“Before he flew away, he said that he would take your heart. I thought he’d try and strike you again but he didn’t,” Rio says to Marcus.
“Take my witness, I’ll take your heart…” Miku says to herself.
We all realize what The Hun meant at the same time.
“Emmy,” Marcus says in a loud whisper.
“She’s in Daraquin. He can’t get to her,” I say to them.
“No, she’s getting better from the Virus. The first thing she’s gonna want to do is go home,” Marcus says.
“No one can go through that and not take some time to rest. It’s insane,” Miku says.
“It’s Emmy,” Jay replies.
Just then Rio says the words that Marcus and the others fear the most.
“Emmy’s onyx. We gotta go.”
******************************
CHATER NINETEEN: THE UNEXCEPTED
When we get to Emmy’s apartment building in the city, things are strangely quiet. We run up to Emmy’s floor and find the door wide open. Marcus runs through the doorway but it sends him flying out of one of the lobby windows and onto the street below. Seconds later he is back with us.
The Hun is in Emmy’s apartment looking out at us.
“Well, we have guests. Good, I hate killing without an audience.”
“Where is she?” Marcus shouts.
“C’mon human
, someone would like to see you.”
He yanks a petrified Emmy by her neck and drags her over to the door.
She is barefoot and has on PJ’s.
“Now, why is your hero just standing there, why hasn’t he come to save you?” The Hun asks.
Tears stream down Emmy’s face. She looks better that she has in days. The Virus is all but gone. She would’ve looked completely healthy had it not been for the snake-like grip The Hun has around her throat.
“Oh yes; the force field. You see, anytime he touches the doorway, it alerts the meter that he’s in fact an angel. He has a good soul and that pisses the hell out of the force field. It sends out a jolt that makes our hero, what’s the word? Oh yes; useless.”
The Hun throws Emmy to the ground and pounds her face in with his hand effortlessly. She screams as his fist splits her check wide open. Blood pours out from every opening on Emmy’s face.
“We have to get around this,” Marcus says.
“Every inch of the apartment is surrounded by the force field.”
“Then I’ll shake down the building,” he says.
“No, Marcus. You’ll kill the residents.” Miku reminds him.
“We have to do something,” he shouts.
The Hun makes sure that he is in perfect viewing range so we can see him as he strikes Emmy yet again.
He grabs a handful of Emmy’s hair and pulls her head back so that Marcus can see the damage he has inflected.
“C’mon, Guardian, save her,” he says as he strikes Emmy again. This time the blow causes her to lose consciousness or maybe even worse…
“Emmy!” Marcus shouts.
The Hun laughs.
“Don’t worry Marcus. She’s alive. I want her that way. How else is she supposed to tell me what I need to know?”
“She doesn’t know anything,” Rio protests.
“Well, we’ll see. Now if I had my Witness I could get the info from him, but since I don’t, she’ll have to do.”
And with that, The Hun pulls out a small round ball the size of a grapefruit. Once it hits the ground, it opens up and a beam of dark light emanates from it.
“This is my latest invention. I’ve been waiting for the right occasion to use it. It’s like a Soul Chaser, but better.”