Epitaph 3-4

My foot slipped, and I felt myself falling backwards. Shit. This wasn't supposed to happen. I madly scrambled to grab for the ledge, but my flailing knocked me off balance even more. At the last second, I caught myself and managed to hang on. I was just barely balanced, with one foot and my right arm holding me in place.

I heard the sound of a body being hit and saw Glory Girl fly over my head with Oni Lee in tow. The body, however, crumbled, and I caught a fleeting glance of him running along the road and out of sight. Glorly Girl circled back and grabbed hold of me, then set us both down on the ground.

"Could you tell if you hit him before he teleported?"

"I think so, but I don't know. It happened fast enough that it might have been one of his doubles already," Glory Girl responded.

I checked the future, but at least for the next several seconds, Oni Lee wasn't going to make a move. "Alright, we're clear, let's figure this out and end it soon." I paused for a moment, collecting my thoughts. "Glory Girl, can you grab some rubble and throw it around at the top of each building, as fast and hard as you can."

Glory Girl looked at me with a curious expression, but I saw the light bulb moment as she figured out my plan.

She flew towards one of the large pieces of concrete, and I realized at the last second I had forgotten something. "Glory Girl, don't hit the buildings that are still mostly intact!" A slight nod indicated to me her acknowledgement, so I busied myself with figuring out what to do after we forced Oni Lee to the ground.

The problem was landing a solid hit on Oni Lee before he could get away. Neither Glory Girl nor I seemed to be fast enough to do any meaningful damage. A loud boom rocked the street, one more building's roof demolished by Glory Girl. Oni Lee was going to have to make a move soon, or else not have any other vantage points from which to attack.

I checked the future, and let out a gasp. Oni Lee was going to use a gun and I didn't have time to dodge. I heard the gun shots and felt the impacts at the same time. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. I fell backwards into the wall, expecting everything to go dark or something, but all I felt was sore. I looked down, and had to stifle a gasp. Red glowing hands seemed to come off of my forearms, each holding several bullets. They vanished, and the bullets clattered to the ground. I struggled to stand, and the red glowing hands appeared again and helped me balance myself against the wall beside me.

This was weird, what the hell were these arms? The words of the person that had called me earlier came to my mind, something about "loaning me their power," or whatever the person had said. If they were able to loan their power, and likely over a great distance since I haven't seen or heard anyone else other than the people Bakuda threw at us, that would be something the PRT would be interested in learning about. But the person on the phone kept talking about secrecy, and they knew who I was, so I probably shouldn't advertise the shared ability, as much for my sake as for theirs. Whatever these things were or how I got them, I didn't need to show them off. But if I could use them at will, I might have found a way to take down Oni Lee.

Glory Girl dropped the piece of rubble she was holding and spun to look at me, flying over quite rapidly. She came to a stop near me, the force of her landing denting the street beneath her. "Are you OK?" she asked, giving me an incredulous look when she didn't see any damage on my body.

"I'm fine. Keep destroying the roofs of the burned out buildings. I can deal with this, I have a plan." Glory Girl looked at me for a moment, but shrugged and went back to what she was doing. There were only three buildings Oni Lee could get a good shot from now, but sadly two of them were right next to me.

I focused back on the situation. Oni Lee wasn't playing around anymore, and he wasn't going to leave. Eight more bullets were incoming, each aimed precisely at my lower legs and right shoulder. He must be trying to incapacitate me without killing me. I focused again, and imagined the arms intercepting the bullets as they hit. Again, it worked, but this time I didn't even feel the impact of the force of the bullets on the projections.

I kept a hold of the bullets this time, placing them into my pocket. Now it was my turn.

The sound of a gun cocking caught my attention, and I spun around to see a myriad of Oni Lees just as they opened fire. I managed to keep from getting hit, but I stumbled backwards from the force of the bullets' impacts.

The projection hand shot out, launching several of the bullets up in the air, fast enough that Oni Lee probably wouldn't see the movement. Now I just needed to get him into position. I sprinted around the corner, and my ability showed him up above me on the roof now. Good, just two more seconds.

Stopping, I turned and made eye contact with Oni Lee. He raised the gun to shoot, only to drop it and grab his shoulder in pain, a cry escaping his lips. Another one appeared, but he was also clearly hurt. So it worked, he couldn't react as fast as the bullet if he didn't know it was coming.

I grabbed a handful of gravel from the ground. The old trick of just throwing it into the air wasn't going to work here, but if I could throw it fast enough he couldn't see it, I could hopefully take him down.

The projection flickered for a split second, launching the gravel like it was buckshot. Oni Lee didn't have a chance to react as the pebbles slammed into his torso, arms and legs: little spurts of blood indicating each successful hit. He fell out of view, but a puff of ash soon confirmed that he had teleported. Now, though, he was wounded. He couldn't try anything, and I could go help my dad.

This chapter is a bit short, but the next one should be full length. Thanks everyone who enjoys reading my work :)