Another night of patrol as Glitzer. Sorcha didn't mind it, in fact it was one of her favorite things to do. But tonight was unusually slow, and she was..incredibly bored. Sitting down on a rooftop and listening to the audio scanners built into her helmet, she kept her head down and her eyes shut to concentrate, but heard nothing. Some call ins about kids running in the streets, and...people avoiding a silent man? What? Peering down into the street below, she adjusted her visual scanners and zoomed in a little.
A hooded, robed man was walking through the busy city streets-but was being heavily avoided by the other citizens.
Was he a traveler? Dropping down to a lower rooftop, Sorcha listened to the metal in her suit groan in protest. This was a prototype suit to accommodate her new features and weight, and apparently it needed more work. Looking over his robes for some kind insignia, she froze. No, she had to be seeing things. Her visor was malfunctioning, something had to be playing tricks on her. Azron had been the only one alive when she was done, and she hadn't killed him. She'd been too weak after fighting the others and getting beaten down by him. Being overloaded with the corrupt magic he'd hit her with hadn't helped either.
She could still remember lying on the floor of the archives, hearing her heartbeat slowly thudding in her ears as she tried to get up. Her vision had blurred as she struggled to stand, but Azron had been gone once she briefly regained her sight. Her whole body ached and she could feel the acrid taste of dark magic mixing with bile as it came up her throat and coated her tongue, dripping out of her mouth, and other facial orifices.
Shaking her head and snapping out of the memory, she panted. Sorcha ignored the minor warning noise from her internal suit system's heart monitor, and refocused her gaze on Azron. Why was he here? She watched him from under her helmet, flinching when he seemingly looked up in her direction. Was he looking at her?
A sly grin spread across Azron's face when he finally spotted her.
Sorcha immediately bolted from the rooftop, heading to another. He knew who was under the armor. Through use of a spell, maybe. Leaping to the next rooftop, she skidded to a halt and panted, hearing footsteps behind her. Peering over the edge, she had nowhere else to jump to unless she wanted to try and run past Azron. Turning around to look at him, Sorcha was met with a punch that caught her off guard and knocked her down. It had artificial force behind it, and she could tell. It was too heavy handed.
Shakily standing and trying her best to stay calm, she glared at Azron and used her voice modulator. "Why are you here? Why are you running after me? Who are you?" A shred of hope inside her mind prayed that he could be fooled easily.
He shook his head and chuckled, carefully lifting her with a levitation spell up to his face. "Really now, child? A false facade to hide who you really are? To hide what you've always been? A half breed prophecy!"
Sorcha struggled against him, shaking her head as she spoke. "I'm not! Let go of me you creepy bastard!"
Azron sighed and tossed Sorcha to the side rather harshly, letting her hit the rooftop. "You cannot run from who you are. Your father would not be pleased."
She shut her eyes tightly, shaking her head again. "He's not my father! Fathers love you and raise you without question, no matter the circumstances! They.." Her voice shook, and she could feel tears stinging her eyes. "Sometimes they aren't related to you at all.."
Azron chuckled in amusement, coming closer. "You speak of that waste of a man, the earth elemental, yes? Come. I can take you home-" He grunted when Sorcha lobbed a piece of the broken concrete roof at him, catching him in the arm.
She was angry, but she couldn't let it get the best of her. Her prototype suit couldn't handle it, and it would only make Azron happy. Sorcha was sure he'd be delighted to see her shifting and becoming exactly like her father. Getting up and running toward him, she slammed her armored fist into his jaw, yelling at him. "Don't you ever speak about him like that again! Cole could've let me burn to death as an infant, but he's not a bastard like you!"
He caught her arm, bending it backward a bit to cause pain and restrain her momentarily. Azron sneered, glaring at her. "You wouldn't have been born, had I not summoned your father and-"
Sorcha headbutted him, causing her helmet to spark from the strength of the impact.
Azron grunted and recoiled in pain, holding his bleeding nose. "Ignorant child, I'll get your fath-"
She held her head, shaking it before righting herself again. "Torl is dead, you can't scare me with that anymore!"
Azron paused, confused. "He's what?! How did..no matter. Rest assured, you won't be walking away from me this time. Or crawling away, wasn't it?"
Sorcha twitched, angrily yelling. "You're the one who vanished from the fight in the archives, not me! You're nothing but-"
Azron interrupted her, lifting her again and slamming her into the roof while she was distracted by talking.
A sharp cry of pain left Sorcha as she hit the pavement.
"I am the only reason you exist,child. Your job in life is to do nothing more than destroy society from the inside, and fulfill the prophecy. You are not supposed to go rolling around with that pathetic-" Azron lifted her up again, continuing to speak as he slammed her into the roof with each word. "-obsolete, pile of scrap metal!" Letting her drop and discontinuing the spell, he shook his head. "Why do you fight this? I see no point in the life you currently lead."
Sorcha struggled to stand, hearing her suit protest with a groan. It wasn't a proper suit, so pieces of it were breaking off in the fight. She didn't care if her body hurt. She was getting angrier, and it was getting harder to control herself. "He's not scrap metal you loony bastard, he's..important. Extremely important to me. I love him, and-"
Azron scoffed and rolled his eyes. He seemed to be taking a breather-he was human after all..magic took a bit out of him, even as skilled as he was. "Love him? He's metal and wires, he can't be worthy of it."
Sorcha twitched and felt herself shifting, pieces of her suit cracked against the pressure. "He is! He always has been!" She took the opportunity of his rest to run toward him and slam her fist into his face again, a low growl building in her throat.
Azron chuckled and wiped off his mouth, spitting blood onto the roof as he stared at her. "Look at you. Nothing more than a savage, just like your father." He ran from the rooftop, jumping down into the alley to put some distance between the two of them so he could administer healing spells.
Sorcha could hear his words echoing in her head, feeling her suit protest and crack more. Just like her father. Her father. Shaking her head and running down after him, her suit at least had enough power to shift to her strange running style. Grabbing Azron by his throat, she lifted him up a bit. "I'm just like my father?" There was a slight growl to her tone, as she glared at him through her half broken helmet. "You're right, I am!" Summoning as much of her elemental strength as she could muster, Sorcha pulled her arm back while still holding him, slamming his body into the wall behind him.
Azron let out a sharp cry when he hit the wall.
Sorcha let go of him. "I'm just like Cole, my father. No one else was there for me when I was growing up as a child, but he was. You keep his name out of your mouth." Taking a breath to try and calm herself, she began to walk away. She knew the fight wasn't done, but she needed to take a breath and assess damages.
Forcing himself to stand, Azron weakly chuckled. "Turning your back on me again? Seems you never learn." He cast a fast flow of dark magic at her as soon as she turned around, laughing when she gagged and started to struggle. He watched it engulf her, raising his other hand to cast the same spell with it.
Sorcha was trapped in the dark cloud, gasping for air. Everything hurt again-she couldn't see out of her helmet.
Azron switched spells in his left hand, holding her up in the air while still forcing the dark magic into her. "If you will not come home, I suppose I will make sure the droid has nothing to come home to." He began slamming her into the pavement, a slow grin crossing his face when he heard her screaming in pain. "It's a pity, really. You have so much potential."
Sorcha could barely hear him, but she knew he was likely threatening her. She could feel bile rising in her throat, just like the first time this happened. Gagging and hearing the alarms in her suit go off louder each time he slammed her down, she shut her eyes for a moment. She needed a grounding thought..something to focus on so she didn't pass out from pain. Sorcha winced when Azron slammed her into the alley wall-she only assumed because the impact felt like it came from the side. Cygnus..he was a good grounding thought. He'd always made her feel safe. Like she could be anything she wanted..like she wasn't what Azron wanted her to be.
Azron lifted her again, only to pause and peer behind her. What was that?
A swirling violet mass appeared behind Sorcha, and the air smelt of..earth.
Covering his face as a bright flash started, he kept the spells going the best he could. "What is-" He tensed when he heard a beastly growl, and it wasn't from Sorcha. Slowly moving his arm away from his eyes, his breath caught when he saw the large corrupted dragon eyeing him angrily.
It's wings were tattered and full of holes..and it's scales dripped a violet colored ooze.
"I..." Azron intensified the spells, glaring at it. If he could weaken her, the dragon wouldn't exist.
Sorcha twitched and grunted as the spells got stronger, feeling her mind haze over. The dragon growled defensively, glaring at Azron.
"Scaled beast, you do not scare me! Begone. Your master is worthless!"
A broken and gurgled roar left the corrupted earth dragon as he charged at him, smacking him to the side with his head.
Azron grunted as he hit the ground, trying to keep the spell going with one hand. "Foul creature, leave me be-" His words were cut off by a sudden scream leaving him when the dragon charged again and opened it's massive jaws, biting into his leg at the top of his knee and pulling, bone cracking and blood leaking as he tore it from Azron's body and chewed it up. The torn appendage crunched in the dragon's jaws as Azron lost control of the spells to stop the bleeding in his leg. "Vile creature! Give me back my leg!"
The dragon paused in chewing, glaring at Azron for a moment before walking over and opening his mouth, letting the chewed up leg chunks and bloody saliva drop on him.
He screamed in disgust and backed away, managing to summon enough energy to perform a teleportation spell and flee.
Snorting at the spot where Azron had vanished as though he were unimpressed, the dragon went back over to Sorcha's body lying in the alley and laid down, curling around her protectively before vanishing.
Sorcha couldn't move, lying there barely conscious when she finally heard the video phone begin to ring in her helmet. Who was that..? Her vision blurred when she tried to focus and she could hear the slow thudding of her weakening heartbeat in her ears. Curling her right pointer finger inward, she answered the call-but a weak flick of her thumb disabled the video function and brought up a notification to whomever was calling, letting them know that video wasn't active.
Cygnus frowned when a computerized voice spoke at the start of his phone call with Sorcha.
'Video call function disabled. Call audio quality at forty-five percent.'
He shrugged, shaking his head. Maybe she was sneaking around and didn't wanna get caught following a suspect. "Sorchy, I'm just callin' to check on ya..not sure why the video calls are disabled. Yer always out for most of the night an all, figured I'd see how you were doing."
Sorcha let out a raspy wheeze in response, vision blurring again. Her lungs felt like they were on fire..like she was drowning. "Cyg-" She coughed, a low gurgle leaving her before she vomited a bit of the dark magic into her helmet.
A yellow warning symbol popped up in the small square inside Cygnus's internal screen. What was that?
"Cygnus, hel-" Another gurgle left her as she lost consciousness and lay bleeding in the alley.
A bright red warning symbol flashed in the corner screen, and the computerized voice glitched as it relayed a message that slowly turned the LED in Cygnus's faceglass blue.
'Suit structure compromised. Primary power at eighteen percent. Converting all remaining power to emergency and vital suit functions. This call will disconnect. Goodbye.'