Thinking that he could let the momentum push him and drive him past the cannon’s aim, he added more to the direction of his momentum. The problem, however, was that he wasn’t sure if he could do it fast enough. Harry was completely wrapped and shielded with his shadow, but he knew that it wouldn’t be able to stand a single shot from the cannon. The teleporter, on the other hand, already disappeared from his sight, he knew that the teleporter would be waiting in a corner for the right moment to strike again.
Fortunately, a bolt of lightning charged and hit the cannon holder. It was in the form of a thin, straight line, but the sound was deafening, and by the time he passed by the cannon, he saw the cannon holder frozen, his skin marked with lightning marks, his eyes and mouth wide open, his chest punched into a hole.
Fucking finally…! Thought Aaron, but it didn't lower his guard. He landed back on the street, and rode his shadow, moving fast toward where the lightning bolt came from. His eyes looked at his surroundings, in case the teleporter popped out again. The cannon holder’s body, on the other hand, fell down to the big hole, swallowed by darkness. Now he was certain that he was dead.
Soon enough, he saw Gary on the top of a building, looking at the incoming Aaron. He crawled up to the rooftop, and wrapped him along as well into his shadow, forming a bubble-like flexible vehicle of shadow. “There’s another one — he’s a teleporter, and he’s good.”
“Oh, that’s no joke… never mind that, what the fuck is going on? I thought your job tonight was just a break-in…” started Gary.
“Yeah, and then we ran into them blessings. I’ll tell you more about it, right now, we need to flee…”
“Flee? You mean desolate them to dust!?” shouted Gary, as he intended to walk out of his shadow bubble and prepared purple fire on his palms.
Aaron immediately pulled him back, as he flashed forward, away from the battlefield. He immediately added, “Not now, for fuck’s sake! We need to get to a hospital!”
Gary's anger evaporated, immediately replaced by confusion. He looked at Aaron, and asked, “What…? Hospital…? Who — what for…?”
Aaron smirked. He opened the wrapping and revealed his face, saying, “It’s been a long time. Remember him?”
Part 3
“OH, FUCK NO!” His hands were already engulfed with purple fire, so he aimed to punch Harry, right in the face.
He didn’t move too fast, so Aaron managed to push him away from Harry. The shadow bubble was dispersed right away, setting a few meters between Aaron and Gary.
“What the fuck…?!”
“NO, NO, NO, WE’RE NOT BRINGING HIM BACK ANYMORE…!”
“WE’RE JUST TAKING HIM TO A HOSPITAL!”
“AND THEN YOU’RE TAKING HIM TO OUR PLACE — I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GOING DO! YOU’LL BE DOING THE EXACT SAME THING TWELVE YEARS…”
The teleporter appeared to take the chance to attack. He popped up behind Gary, at the left side, his blade aimed to thrust on his ribs. However, knowing Gary, he easily moved his left hand to protect himself, forming big boulders of ice to shield him. Although the sword cut half of the boulders, it stopped midway, before getting stuck in the ice boulders.
“… AGO! WE DON’T NEED A CHILD TO FEED WITH MILK, NOT ANYMORE…” Gary still shouted while defending himself from the teleporter. He then clenched his left hand, and the ice boulders exploded, in the teleporter’s direction. He could see that the explosion made the boulders into sharp pieces of ice, good and fast enough to impale anyone.
But as Aaron predicted, the teleporter could move just as fast enough to dodge all of them. What remained behind Gary was rubble and pieces of ice, without a single blood drop.
“I can do it for you, don’t worry.” Gary spoke, “I’ll make it fast…”
“Don’t even think about it.” snapped Aaron, as he wrapped his surroundings with the same shadow bubble; this time, he didn’t include Gary. “I’m not fighting them. I’m taking him to a hospital. Feel free to join, or stay here and fight them — seems like you can handle them just fine, but be wary. I cut that cannon guy into halves before you came, and he came back up like nothing happened…”
It was as if his words jinxed both of them. From afar, a sound of blast was heard, before quickly followed by an incoming bullet of energy. Gary blocked it, by throwing the purple fire on his hand, in a straight alignment with the attack itself. But soon after, another bullet was fired behind the first one, passing through the smoke, and that was before another third bullet aimed at them as well.
“But I pierced his chest…!” shouted Gary. He started to run toward Aaron, so he instinctively let him into the bubble. Aaron then flashed backwards, away from the cannon holder; the remaining attacks missed way behind them.
“Hell, I sliced him into halves! There’s a trick to that, whatever it is, but I don’t intend to find that out right now!” said Aaron.
“Cousin…”
Gary grabbed him by his shoulders, and turned Aaron to face him, while the bubble itself moved forward just as fast. He was about to dismiss his hand, but seeing his face, he said nothing, knowing that he was being serious.
“You really think that any hospital would accept him? With you carrying him?”
This time, it appeared that the cannon holder aimed, no longer at them, but at their forward path. The street ahead, as well as abandoned buildings, were rained by his bullets. He saw that they were now small, but far more rapid than simply a one-time cannon shot. He couldn’t tell if the shadow bubble would be strong enough to defend them against the nonstop attacks, but right now, he didn’t like the idea of testing it.
Gary launched a lightning bolt toward the cannon holder far away. This time, it was spreading, instead of making it a single straight line. Sure enough, the attacks stopped, although he couldn’t tell if it did hit him or simply obstructed him.
He continued, “Anyone associated with curses will be apprehended. We had to go through great lengths to make sure that he had had nothing to do with us, remember? Now we’re carrying him…”
“At least — I-I’ll put him on the street…” stuttered Aaron. He realized from his voice that he was quite panicked, even by being brought to that topic.
‘I’m not even finished yet. I looked at him, and I’d say, at this rate, just taking him to a hospital would probably not be enough…” said Gary. “And anyway, does he have company insurance or something that would guarantee him being hospitalized…?”
“Not that I know… he was here because he had a job from the homeless community center…”
“So definitely no insurance. He might as well be dead already.” said Gary coldly. He glared at Aaron, as he said, “What else are you expecting? Why do you keep holding on to him?”
The bubble jumped over the damages done by the previous repetitive attacks. From the corner of his eyes, he saw that the damages on the road and buildings were no small trifles. From what he recalled, there were supposed to be cars and buses and whatnot, right on where the cannon folder rained smaller energy bullets. But what remained in the area was large craters, consisting of an uncountable amount of small craters, destroying and digging the ground, about half a meter from the ground’s surface. A part of his mind confirmed that he wouldn’t be able to hold off against that kind of attack, at least no more than half a minute.
But he could only look Gary in the eyes, ultimately saying nothing. He didn’t know how bad the wounds were internally; although he knew Gary had a lot of reasons to make it up, Aaron thought that he didn’t lie anyway, and that it would make sense.
If I can’t trust the hospitals, the other option would be…
“Well? Answer me?” asked Gary again.
“If hospital won’t do, I’m going to — ”
BBBBOOOOOMMM!!
Before he finished it, an explosion occurred next to the bubble; he didn’t know if it was an explosion by a grenade of an explosive, or something else. The one thing he knew was that it was abnormally powerful, it actually broke through the bubble’s defense.
Both Gary and Aaron were propelled by the impact alone, while Harry was still wrapped within his shadow wrap; he did his best to not to shake him too much. It didn’t damage them at all, as they simply slowed down their impact with their own powers, but Aaron realized a bit late that it was meant, all along, to hinder their escape.
“Damn, this ninja is fucking relentless.” cursed Gary.
“Agreed — ninja?”
“This guy is not a teleporter. He just moves fast, it looked — ”
Gary simply moved his left palm upward, right toward where “the teleporter” was about to cut him. As a response, he sprayed a rough and robust burst of ice and snow, aimed toward him. It was hard to tell if it hit him, because it was sprayed with a wide radius and lengthy distance. But as soon as he stopped spraying it, he didn’t see anyone or anybody being frozen by the ice and snow.
“There it is again. Jumping midair to dodge my ice. It’s not teleporting, but he’s no joke, either.” said Gary.
The fatigue in his body increased. He reckoned that it had probably been an hour since he used his power, but he had been using it to the extreme for just a few minutes, and it was more taxing. Regardless, he wrapped himself with the same bubble of shadow, except that it was now smaller, only big enough for himself and Harry. “We don’t have fucking time for this, for fuck’s sake…!” said Aaron, frustrated.
“Building!” pointed Gary to their back. It was a grocery story, definitely smaller than the hotel he went in previously, but he realized that the grocery store was surrounded by other taller buildings. He thought that it wouldn’t stop the cannon holder from demolishing the entirety of it, but regardless, they both ran into the grocery store.
As expected, and thankfully, there was nothing and no one inside. The shelves were all empty and dusty; some were even tumbled over. Like in the hotel, it was dark, illuminated only by bits of light from the outside. The difference, however, was that the glass windows were completely broken, while the doors were barely hanging off the hinges, leaving a wide area to cover from their blindspots. They could only lean on to the back side of the grocery store, the only side where it was all walls, and he thought that it alone wouldn’t stop either the cannon holder, or the “teleporter.”
“I can’t believe this… you’re really going to rescue him…?!” said Gary. “Mind you, we can’t escape easily, not when this person will keep tailing us with that speed of his. Now we have to — ”
“We’re not repeating that.” cut Aaron, firmly. “Right now, it’s either retreating together, or distracting them while the other one retreats.”
“Or making them…” said Gary blatantly, before abruptly ending it. His mouth paused, half-open, while his face froze, as if he was realizing something. Aaron looked behind, thinking that the “teleporter” was behind him, but what he saw was instead just a tumbled shelf, supposedly good enough to act as his one-time shield.
“What?” said Aaron, confused. “Making them what? What are you saying?!”
He closed his eyes and sighed. “Or making them think that they’ve succeeded…”
Aaron glared at Gary. He immediately understood what he actually meant, and it pissed him off that what he suggested had a bigger chance of success over his two previous suggestions, but also a tougher difficulty to actually do. “Oh, no… you mean that…”
“And then you have to take him to her… because you have to save him…” Gary’s voice went lower and colder, the complete opposite of his usual and previous temperamental behavior. Aaron thought that the surrounding turned darker and colder, most likely because of his power taken over by his emotions. “That’s the only surefire way to save him from that current condition…”
“Gary… are you okay…?” asked Aaron, a bit scared. “They didn’t attack you psychologically or something…?”
“I’ll distract them, just for a while. You do what needs to be done.” said Gary, quicker than normally. “And for fuck’s sake, don’t make me regret this.”
Before Aaron said anything further, he stepped out of the grocery store.
“I can’t believe this… you’re really going to rescue him…?!” said Gary. A part of him urged him to ask Aaron how he could ever meet Harry, again, in all places and times. But considering that they were in quite a tough pin, and knowing that Aaron wouldn’t answer that right away, he held himself from uttering the words. “Mind you, we can’t escape easily, not when this person will keep tailing us with that speed of his. Now we have to — ”
Aaron cut him, “We’re not repeating that. Right now, it’s either retreating together, or distracting them while the other one retreats.”
He then turned his head toward the long thin shadow wrap. It was no brainer to say that he was concerned about Harry’s well being, judging from his face.
Something inside Gary exploded, when he saw it. He couldn’t tell what exactly it was, but he knew that there was an urge from within to tear the shadow cocoon and rip apart whatever’s inside it. The one thing that stopped him from the urge was Aaron, who was next to the shadow cocoon, with concern etched on his face.
No, no… at least not now… he thought to himself, he tried to think of something else to put down the urge. What should I think about? What should I…?
“Or making them…” said Gary spontaneously, before stopping it abruptly.
An idea came to him. To be exact, an idea resurfaced into his consciousness. It was something he had actually been thinking about from the very beginning. Gary was half-surprised that he didn’t think about it at all, considering that he had been dealing with them before he arrived.
Is it because he was too concerned with him…? He couldn’t think clearly because of him?!
No, not really… he never really liked that power in the first place…
But, still…
“What?” said Aaron, confused. “Making them what? What are you saying?!”
Fuck. He cursed himself, as he closed his eyes, to avoid Aaron’s gaze. The urge, however, kept pushing him to open his eyes and retract his words in front of Aaron. He wondered to himself why he ever spoke it out loud, even if just a bit, but now, he couldn’t pretend like he said nothing either.
NO. PRETEND LIKE IT’S NOTHING.
YOU CAN STILL UNDO IT.
But despite all that, he sighed, opening his eyes, but looking away from Aaron’s gaze. He proceeded, putting his mind into autopilot, “Or making them think that they’ve succeeded…”
Aaron glared at Gary. Seeing his face, although from the corner of his eyes, he immediately understood what Gary actually meant. “Oh, no… you mean that…”
WHAT A MORON.
YOU COULD HAVE SUGGESTED RUNNING AWAY, AND HE WOULD HAVE REALIZED THAT HE WOULD FAIL RESCUING HIM.
INSTEAD, YOU GIVE HIM THE REAL SOLUTION.
HE’S GOING TO BE ABLE TO ESCAPE FROM THESE BLESSINGS, AND THEN —
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