J. Suede

Rocket Skates

Amon awoke with a start, immediately reaching for the gun on the bedside table and checking the clock to see it was just after midnight. His ears filtered out the sound of pounding rain outside to unmask a crackle of radio static and soft foot falls steadily approaching their second floor hotel room. He could just be paranoid, but there was a pull from his craft that told him to be weary.

As quickly and silently as possible, he moved from his bed and crossed the short distance to the other occupant of the room.

"Robin" he called in a whisper near her ear. As her eyes fluttered open he moved a finger to her mouth and with a point of his gun he motioned drawing her attention to the room's only door just as a shadow passed across the crack of light at its base. He then moved away, positioning himself against the wall shared by bathroom, its corner blocking an attack by any would-be assailant coming through the door.

Robin on her part was slightly panicked, but swiftly and quietly found her glasses and took up position squatting between the beds. She toke her sheet with her silently cursing her need to sleep in the nude. Her turtle neck and spandex biking pants lay folded on the far-side of her bed. To much trouble to get much less get in to. So she clutched the sheet to her chest and peaked over the corner of Amon's bed dreading what may happen in the next few minutes.

To both Amon and Robins surprise their attackers tried to slip in quietly. As the silhouette in the doorway moved into the room robin took aim and focused a lethal dose of her craft at it. The figure was immediately engulfed in the flames and haphazardly let lose a volley of bullets as he stumbled backward into the hallway screaming. Robin only bothered blocking on of the bullets that had cut through the stillness of the room.

A second figure moved low into the rectangle of light and another volley of bullets cut through the room erupting in half a dozen burning flashes a foot from Robin. Amon moved his fire arm around the corner and let loose his own assault but the second figure had move across quickly and Amon's bullets only served to put the flailing burning man out of his misery.

It was then that Robin realized the duo were human. 'They thought they could sneak up on us in our sleep because we wouldn't sense their crafts.' Solomon wasn't an organization of imbeciles these two would have experienced craft wielding back ups coming.

Robin threw out her shield just in time to block the force of a kinetic blow intended to knock her back with the bulk of the bed before her. Now a portion of the bed was gone its remains chard black and glowing orange in many places.

Robin stood to her full height almost losing her sheet as Amon fired off a few more shots which she immediately followed with a torrent of fire.

The bullets were easily stopped by the craft user but his sleeves caught fire when he brought up his forearms to stop the spiraling flame.

While the hunter Robin now saw to be dressed in priest's robes stumbled out of sight the second human hunter darted across the doorway again lobbing in a small explosive that landed perfectly at Robin's feet. Amon dived behind the remains of his bed while Robins toke it head on with her shield. The blast toke her off her feet throwing her back into the rooms window.

Amon picked himself up from the debris glancing at Robin then angrily emptied his clip into the doorway. There was nothing to hit but the still burning man to dead to notice. Amon fumed and toke cover again reloading his gun with a fresh clip. Across the room Robin pulled herself to her feet, fists clinched looking like they actually had the power to clock someone good. She spread her feet in a stance he had seen her take many times before while on the hunt. Back then she had donned layers of dark fabric and sported menacing horns of bound golden hair. Now she was clad only in a pair little black underwear and her own determination. Her eyes were hard behind her glasses and her hair wildly framed her face. Amon thought she looked terrifying and beautiful all at once. She was a warrior, his vengeful goddess.

Amon peeked once more around the corner feeling his craft building inside. The priest stepped into the doorway and that clever little human once again crouched low half hidden behind the door brandishing his pistol. Amon barely ducked back in time as the heat of Robin's craft rushed past him engulfing the sly one's bullets and locking into a struggle for dominance with the craft using priest. Amon stuck his gun low around the corner and blindly fired off three shots beneath the tunnel of Robin's flame hoping to hit the human before he could throw in another grenade. There wasn't enough of his bed left to protect him from another blast.

Then over the roar of flames a woman's voice shouted "Now!" Another grenade like canister tumbled in to the room Amon didn't even have enough time to throw his arms up. The room was suddenly filled with the light of a flash bomb.

He was blinded and despite the fact that Robin was most probably blinded too he could still feel her craft's power struggle against the others barrier. Then suddenly the maelstrom intensified ten fold, followed gun shots. He heard a crash of glass and in a panic, for only the fourth time in his life Amon let loose his craft.

Eyes still half blinded from the light he didn't even bother aiming, just stood up turned towards the open door and let go. In a single outburst the tension left him. The doorway was left splintered no one insight so he toke the opportunity to check back on Robin, his sight dark and murky but quickly returning. She was nowhere in sight and the window she had been standing so close to was nothing but small jagged pieces of glass, poking out from its seal.

"Give up Amon." the female voice called. He turned to a dark skinned woman with even darker hair standing casually in the doorway of his demolished hotel room. The human hunter toke up position behind her, grinning like an idiot. "If you two come with us willingly The Eve can live."

Bullshit! Amon didn't have time for this. Robin was probably dying outside with a cracked skull and his craft was itching for its first kill in over five years. So Amon let loose. Usually the wind craft was not very deadly, but the energy Amon put behind it could rip skin from flesh, and this time it did.

One story below on a concrete sidewalk covered in glass, Robin sucked in a breath which nearly hurt her lungs. She'd had the wind knocked out of her, her head smacked against the ground and a million shards of glass stuck in her back. She wanted to slip into unconsciousness but she opened her eyes anyway just in time to see Amon's head poke out of the blown out window.

"Robin?"

She grunted in reply finding it hard push enough air out of her lungs to form words.

"Robin..." he called again his voice uncharacteristic tinged with panic.

"Mm alri..." She tried to sit up. Her back was on fire and her head was about to explode.

"Wait there I'm coming down." Robin looked around and saw faces peaking out of windows and corners. Fueled by adrenalin she rolled onto her hands and knees ignoring the new glass that embedded itself into new places.

Her shoes suddenly clattered to the ground before her, followed by her coat. She put the items on gingerly and stood up just as Amon sailed down from above much more graceful then she had. He toke her arm and hurried to the car before people could start asking questions and sirens filled the air.


"Rocket Skates" is a song written and preformed by the Deftones