Chapter One: Jupiter Mars
The eighteen year old sprinted through the main street of Dublin in the dead of night, clutching the old heavy book in her arms as if it were her only possession.
Jupiter Mars was the name she had taken long ago, when this whole business had first started at age twelve. She didn't look that different. Just another teenager wearing worn denim, with her brown hair tied into a tight ponytail. But she was different. She was a sorcerer.
She panted heavily as she bolted around the corner, almost losing her footing. She slowed and looked around. No sign of him. She took the opportunity to take a breather. It would be no good if she was tired when the time came to fight.
She looked up as footsteps echoed up the empty street. A crooked-nosed man with black hair, wearing a black t-shirt and torn black jeans stalked up the street. He held a black whip.
"Well, Miss Mars," Superfluous March said coolly. "You've proven your point. You are, to be quite honest, a difficult opponent when it comes to the chase. Did you know that you've run ten miles? Yeah, I bet your body is just screaming in pain."
"Bite me," Jupiter hissed.
The man laughed. "Yes, yes, you are quite entertaining, but I'm afraid that this game of cat and mouse must end."
Jupiter narrowed her eyes as he walked closer. Step by step, bit by bit. She couldn't see any other option. She couldn't run anymore. She had to fight.
With a yell, she stepped forward and thrust her hands forward, lightning crackling from her fingertips.
March smiled and cracked his whip, shadows leaping from the ground in time to meet the lightning, which just fizzled into non-existence, before cracking it again. Another wave of shadows shot forward and Jupiter ducked and rolled, just in time to see the shadows smash a store window into tiny fragments.
She dodged wave after wave of darkness, not getting a chance to fight back. She flipped out of the way and ducked behind a post box. From behind it, she shot another bolt of lightning at her enemy.
Just as she did so, a tendril of darkness gripped her ankle and ripped her into the open. She gasped as spears of shadow flew at her and cut her skin. She cried out in pain as Superfluous sidled up to her and, with another crack of his whip, she was lifted into the air and held there.
"Well, that was fun," he said, "I really, truly wish we could play some more, but I am a busy man."
"Aw," a man's velvety voice whined from behind him, "you don't have time for us? I'm hurt."
Jupiter looked up, watching a tall, thin man approach them. He was flanked by a dark-haired girl that could not have been any older than Jupiter.
March smiled up at them. "Of course, I'll make an exception for the Skeleton Detective and his little partner; such an honour 'n all."
The dark-haired girl stepped forward. "I just love it when people take note of our superiority, don't you, Skulduggery?"
"Yes, my dear Valkyrie, it does make all this effort worthwhile," the thin man agreed, nodding.
Jupiter blinked. What was these guys' angle? They're standing in front of a very well-practiced Necromancer, having a casual conversation as if neither March, nor herself, existed. She cleared her throat, just to make sure.
The thin man, Skulduggery, looked up. "Oh, right."
He then moved so abruptly that Jupiter flinched. He snapped his palm against the air, and Jupiter saw March go reeling back, his shadows dissipating. She hit the ground at an awkward angle.
She clambered up, moving as far out of the way as possible.
March was now up, whip cracking, sending wave after wave of shadows at Skulduggery, who, Jupiter now realised, was a skeleton.
Now, the dark-haired girl, Valkyrie was in the fold, fighting alongside the skeleton with an odd combination of elemental magic and Necromancy.
Within the flurry of shadows, fire and shimmering air, Jupiter could see that March didn't look worried, but frustrated, as he was pushed back by the two's sheer force, as if he were late to catch a train, not in grave danger. She didn't know who these people were, but they looked like a force to be reckoned with.
Without warning, everything about March changed. His stance, his face, everything, changed from frustration to determination and he flung his whip wildly around him, tendrils of shadows dancing between him and his adversaries.
Jupiter knew what would happen next; she'd experienced this first-hand. March had developed a technique that he called "Fleeting Shadow." He sends a wildly inaccurate barrage of attacks at the enemy, distracting them, while he Shadow-Walked out of danger, making the final kills from afar. There was only one thing to do.
There was only one chance.
Jupiter flung her arms out, and a huge torrent of electricity blasted toward March. It hit and threw him into a nearby car's windshield.
But the shadows kept dancing.
That was odd. That much power should have well-and-truly knocked him out. She was about to raise her hand, when the shadows retreated. The other two looked confused, well, Valkyrie looked confused, and Skulduggery had his head cocked to one side, as Superfluous March stood.
He smiled. "Pleasure doing business with you," he said, before being enveloped ain shadows and disappearing.
And then it hit her. The book! Where was the book?!
She glanced around frantically, cursing herself for getting distracted by the fight, as Skulduggery walked up to her. He put a hand on her shoulder.
"Never interrupt our conversation again," he warned.