Cindy's hand wrapped around the rings on her necklace. Loke had said to call for help if they were up against more than four, but he had his hands full with the wizard that reminded her of Juggernaut from X-Men back home without the stupid outfit. She'd gotten stronger in the past week, but would she stand a chance against two wizards on her own? She didn't think so. Hold her own for a few minutes maybe, but that'd be about it. Pressing down on the crystal, she pushed a call for help into it. Whether it would help or not, she had no idea, but Cindy dropped as much of her shielding as she dared and used the freed up energy to add a telepathic umph to the call.
The smallest of the attacking wizards hissed and shook his right hand. Glaring at Cindy, he ripped something off the hand and threw it to the side. She heard it ping against the floor as she dropped the rings and focused all her senses on the two wizards she faced.
The iron make wizard seemed a bit out of it still after the jolt he'd taken, but the little one was alert and angry. She caught an impression of him vaulting over the balcony railing a fraction of a second before he did it. Gathering another charge, Cindy ran for the spot where she'd seen him land.
"Two to three odds, and you call for help," the wizard spat. "You pathetic coward." Sneering, he threw his hands forward and yelled, "Storm Column."
Even with the split second warning afforded by the wizard's complete lack of natural shielding, Cindy couldn't shift her momentum to dodge the attack. She lashed out with a concentrated bolt toward the wizard and braced herself for impact. Blue electricity crackled past a swirling column of air.
Her excess weight helped for once, keeping her in contact with the floor as the winds pushed her back. Cindy closed stinging eyes and crossed her arms over her face to protect against the buffeting. The yelp followed by the smallest wizard calling her a rather foul name let her know her attack hit home as well. The winds passed, and while she was now almost to the staircase at the back of the room, she was still standing. Her opponent, on the other hand, had fallen, twitching, to his knees.
Being a weather mage put Cindy at a disadvantage battling indoors. She needed to be able to pull upon the natural elements to use her biggest spells like calling down actual lightning from the sky. The charges she could build within her body were low voltage and acted more like a taser. The effect was less devastating, but it was good for creating openings.
The wind mage's spastic movements eased. Groaning, his eyes snapped to her as she charged toward him again. "You'll pay for that, hag!" he raged. His expression was an twisted mask of hate as he pushed himself to his feet.
Focusing on the wizard's wide open mind, Cindy cast a sleep impulse graft on him. The wind mage sagged for a second, but the graft never took hold. Berating herself on being stupid enough to think something like that would work with the adrenaline of battle pumping through his veins, Cindy switched tactics.
They say fight fire with fire. Cindy couldn't control wind directly the way she did electrical charges she built up in her body, but she could induce them by playing with the temperatures in specific places. It was kind of a slow process for use in battle, but it was the only thing she could think to try unless she could get close enough to start throwing punches. So Cindy put measures in place that'd build up a downdraft aimed at the place where the wind mage was standing. She just had to keep him there.
Continuing her dash across the room, Cindy aimed a mental attack at the guy. It was wild, born of instinct and a nasty, half forgotten idea from years back. It was more or less a mental shove with no thought behind it but pain. The mage's head jerked back, and he let out a shocked yell. He stumbled back a couple of steps, but he didn't fall. Catching his balance, the mage pulled his head back up. His eyes were wide and glazed over, and rivulets of blood trickled from his nose.
"Air drill!" the wind mage screamed with a furious gesture in Cindy's direction.
The wind attack she'd set up moments earlier began to kick in, but the mage had stumbled back just out of range. Her own attack met with the wind mage's, shifting the angle from straight on to upward. The change wasn't enough for the attack to miss her, and Cindy knew it. Instead of a blunt, swirl of wind, this attack resembled a huge drill bit, and it was heading straight for her chest.
Shoving her arms forward, Cindy aimed a telekinetic push at the air drill, hoping to dull it if not dissipate the compacted air altogether. Elation washed over her as the sharp bit rounded, but the push didn't have near enough power to stop the other mage's attack. The impact was hard enough to knock the air out of Cindy. The strength of the hit along with the change in angle lifted Cindy off her feet and sent her spiraling.
Her hips smacked into something hard, and Cindy flung her arms out and back to try and catch herself as she began to drop. They caught the railing along the second floor balcony hard enough to go numb after a flash of intense pain, and she clung on through sheer stubbornness.
Movement near the hall entry caught Cindy's eye as she regained her bearings. The women from Mermaid Heel were running inside and joining the fray. Loke was still busy with the Juggernaut, but the larger man looked to be tiring. The other two women drew the attention of the wind mage, causing him to forget about her for the moment.
Cindy was trying to figure out how to get down without hurting herself when she caught a flash of light from another section of the balcony. The balconies of each floor wrapped around two sides of the exhibit hall before twisting into a grand staircase at the end of the room. She'd been thrown into the side perpendicular to the spot where the iron make mage remained. Focused as she was on the wind mage during the fight, she'd forgotten about him. No longer phased by her initial attack, he was back up and had conjured some kind of bladed weapon. He pulled his arm back to throw, and Cindy reacted without thinking.
Releasing the railing with her right arm, Cindy aimed a telekinetic push toward the iron make wizard with everything she had left, which wasn't much. She'd lost her grip on the railing the moment she first moved, and she fell sideways. Cindy hit the floor before she could see if her push made contact, and everything went black.
Loke ducked under a wild swing from the large wizard as Temina and Avary ran into the exhibit hall. He took advantage of his opponent's open gut to hit him with a reverse punch backed by a bit of his power. The hulking man crumpled in as he was propelled back a few feet.
"Help Cynthia," Loke called to the ladies as he charged toward his opponent again.
Something whizzed past his head. Loke jerked his head down on reflex as the wind displaced by the flying object ruffled his fight disheveled hair. The next moment he saw his opponent's eyes go wide as a dagger embedded itself in his shoulder. Never one to second guess good fortune, Loke grasped the handle and yanked the dagger free of the wizard's shoulder as he aimed an elbow toward the man's chest. The speed mage took advantage of his proximity to land a solid fist against the side of Loke's head.
His shades clattered to the floor, and Loke stumbled to the side. A horrible whistling sound reverberated around his skull as pain blossomed deep in his left ear. The speed mage didn't give him time to regroup. He rushed Loke, using his good arm to lift the smaller man by the neck and ramming him into the wall. With his feet dangling a good foot off the floor and a meaty hand crushing his neck, Loke couldn't breathe. He slashed with the dagger, but the larger man anticipated the move and caught his wrist.
Even with an injured shoulder, the speed mage slammed Loke's wrist into the wall with enough force to knock the dagger from his hand and send it skittering across the room. Taking advantage of the other man's long reach, Loke was able to bring his legs up and jam them into the speed mage's chest.
Loke fell to the floor as the other mage stumbled back trying to regain his breath. Struggling to pull in enough oxygen, Loke got back to his feet and twisted the lacrima on his favorite magic ring. His expression hardened as he called forth the spell he wanted.
"Weight of sins," Loke growled as he pounced, pouring every ounce of the guilt and shame he felt for the myriad sins he'd committed throughout the years to power the spell. When his next punch landed, it was magnified by the weight of the guilt he carried. Loke felt the wizard's collarbone shatter under his knuckles and shuddered. There was a reason he almost never used this particular spell, and it wasn't just the residual depression and negative self-talk he'd have to deal with for the next couple of days.
The speed mage went down, and this time, he stayed down. Between the exertion, stabbed shoulder, blood loss, and shattered collarbone, his body decided it'd had enough. He was out.
Still wheezing a bit, Loke turned to survey the rest of the hall. Temina was battling one wizard's wind magic with her water magic, and Avary was turning the other's creations against him with her variation of puppeteer magic. Where was Cynthia? He rounded the dais where the Nexus Gem was displayed, and a bit of dark blue caught his eye.
Loke rushed to where Cynthia lay in a crumpled heap. She groaned and began to stir as he neared.
"You okay?" he asked, kneeling down beside her.
"Ow," Cynthia moaned. She eased one arm up and gingerly probed at the back of her head.
The fact they weren't bloody when she moved her hand back reassured Loke a bit, but her pupils were too dilated for his peace of mind. The commotion behind them picked up a notch. Loke glanced back to find Avary and Temina and their respective opponents all on the same floor with the women driving the men together with aggressive attacks. It had the look of a coordinated plan, so he turned back to his teammate, trusting the other team to finish off the would be thieves.
Cynthia tried to sit up, but from the waxy sheen to her complexion, it was obvious she was too weak to accomplish it. She gave up with a grimace and let her body go lax. "I pushed it too far, I think," she said.
"Looks like," Loke agreed. "I think you might have a concussion too."
"Considering this goose egg I'm developing, you might be right." Cynthia's speech came slow again, and she squinted against the lights overhead. "I feel like a worn out old dish rag."
The exhibit hall went quiet aside from the jeers of two rather familiar male voices. Loke looked back to see Avary and Temina managed to drive the remaining mages back-to-back before Temina captured them in a water lock. He grinned. Those things were nigh on impossible to get out of before you ran out of air, so it was just a matter of time, which was fortunate since Cynthia and the one he'd fought needed medical attention.
He turned back to Cynthia to tell her the good news only to find her eyes closed again.
"Hey, you can't sleep right now," he said. When she didn't stir, he shook her shoulder and tried again. "Cynthia, you need to wake up." Still no response. "Wake up!"
When she woke, Cindy was acutely aware of each beat of her heart. Her headache jolted from a four to a six on the pain scale with each one. Trying to breathe through the pain didn't help because the attempt to take a deep, calming breath in made her ribs ache on top of the headache and residual pain in her hips, back, and arms.
"You're awake!" exclaimed a rather hoarse sounding Loke.
There was some rustling from the vicinity of the table and chairs next to the room's window, and then Cindy found herself looking up at Loke's relieved face. The room was rather dim, and the lighting made for strange shadows.
"Not by choice," Cindy groaned. "Did we stop them?"
"Yeah," Loke answered as he sat down on the side of the bed. No matter how careful he was, the mattress shifting still jostled her, and Cindy tried her best to keep from reacting. He was trying, and she didn't want to guilt him on top of everything else. "Between the four of us, those guys never stood a chance."
"Three," Cindy protested. "You and the ladies from Mermaid Heel captured them. I just got myself knocked out."
Loke scowled at her remarks before a condescending expression smoothed over his features, and he reached to push up shades he was no longer wearing. A flash of annoyance crossed his face as he dropped his hand back down. "Mr. Renard, Avary, Temina, the security tapes, and I disagree," said Loke. "You don't verbalize spells, so it took a few watchings to understand what went on before the other ladies arrived. Yes, you lost, but it was a two on one fight against stronger wizards. The fact you held your own until help arrived isn't nothing!"
"Thank you," Cindy murmured, feeling herself blush.
Unable to continue looking the earnest youth in the eye, she concentrated on trying to sit up. The movement hurt, but it was the burning ache kind of pain you get with inflamed muscles and bruises. She moved slowly, fighting the urge to stretch or strain, but she didn't quite manage it. As soon as she "relaxed" into a sitting position, she knew she'd made a terrible mistake. Her headache eased for a fraction of a second before a tsunami of pain started in her neck and rolled over her head.
Cindy had experienced these kinds of headaches brought on by sudden shifts in blood pressure time and again over the years, but nothing made them suck any less. Every, single time she got a croupy cough or stretched too hard first thing in the morning or had a particularly bad asthma attack, it ended with a headache that felt like death coming for her. Within nanoseconds, Cindy was reduced to an inarticulate wretch. She threw her head back in an instinctive attempt to ease the pain even though experience taught her it wouldn't work, and her breath came in quick pants.
"What's wrong?" Worry colored Loke's voice, and he reached out like he believed she was going to fall backwards.
Cindy grabbed hold of his arms despite herself as she fought through the worst of the pain. Her brain felt like it was pushing against her skull, just like always when these things hit. She swore one day her head would just explode.
"Come on, Cynthia," Loke prodded. "Talk to me. What's wrong?"
"Thunderclap headache," she managed to answer through gritted teeth as the pressure finally began to ebb. "Give me a minute."
Cindy slowed her breathing and closed her eyes, trying to force the muscles in her neck and shoulders to relax as her blood pressure tried to normalize. She could feel her hands and arms trembling in the wake of the adrenaline rush that accompanied the headache. Loke's weight shifted on the bed, and his arms twitched like he was trying to decide on an action to take to help. Once she felt she could move again, Cindy lifted her head before slowly rolling it from one side to the other. The pressure intensified for a moment with the movement before the stretch began speeding her recovery.
Letting go of Loke's arms, Cindy lifted her head to look at him again. "Sorry about that."
"What just happened?" The teenager's eyes were wide with surprise and no small amount of fear. "You looked like you were dying!"
"That was a thunderclap headache," Cindy explained. She lifted her right hand to her left shoulder and started trying to work out one of the knots there. "It kind of feels like dying, but thankfully, they're short lived."
Loke's eyes shifted down to where she was trying to ease the tension in her neck and shoulders. The fact the self-massage was doing nothing combined with embarrassment at the fact the teen was paying attention to the action caused Cindy to give up and drop her hand back down.
"That's what I get for being an uptight stick in the mud," she joked with as much of a shrug as she could manage.
"Headaches come with concussion," Loke said. Humming, he patted down over the various pockets in the cargo pants he favored until he found something. Loke opened the pocket and pulled a small vial out of it. He handed it to her. "The resort healer gave me those for you," he said. "You can take one every six hours for pain as needed."
Cindy lifted the vial more into the light to see it was filled with small, green pills. She thanked Loke and pulled back the covers, aiming to get up out of the bed. However, Loke stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
"Oh no you don't," he said with a shake of his head. "After what happened when you sat up, you're not moving until one of those has had a chance to start working." Loke stood and patted the shoulder he'd grabbed to stop her. "I'll get you some water."
Hurting too much at the moment to protest in any serious way, Cindy thanked him. While he found one of the glasses included with the room and went to fill it with water, she shook one of the pills out of the vial.
In all the time she'd been here, Cindy hadn't taken any of the medicines, at least of her own volition. Natsu had said something about Porlyusica giving her an anticonvulsant when she'd first arrived, but since then, she hadn't been sick or hurting enough to need anything aside from the store of Acetaminophen, antihistamines, and pain cream she'd kept in her purse. She wasn't sure how much she trusted the healers here, let alone ones she didn't know, but pain was radiating from her hips all the way up to the top of her head and back. As years of repetitive stress and a genetic predisposition to having bad joints took their toll, Cindy found ways to deal with ever increasing levels of background pain out of self-preservation. The result of her fall was more than she could ignore for now, and a glance at the clock told her she only had thirteen hours or so before their next shift would start.
"Here you go," Loke said. He took the vial from her and replaced it with the glass of water.
"Do these make you drowsy?" she asked as she took the medicine.
"It's different for every person." Putting the stopper back into the vial, Loke set it on her bedside table.
Cindy groaned. "It probably will then," she groused. "If I doze off, please don't let me sleep past three. Slow as I'm going to be moving today, I'll never get ready in time for our next shift otherwise."
"Don't worry about that," Loke laughed. "The hall was pretty trashed, so Mr. Renard closed the exhibit for the day to get everything cleaned up and repaired." He chuckled at Cindy's grimace. "Hey, it wasn't us doing the trashing for once," he said. "That was mostly the work of the Mermaid Heel and Sabertooth teams."
Cindy's forehead scrunched up in confusion. "The Sabertooth team came to help?"
Loke's laughter died off, and he frowned. "They're the ones we were fighting," he growled. "They hid themselves under a magical disguise and decided to hit the exhibit because they thought I'd be working alone."
"Really?" Cindy frowned. "The wind mage's mind was wide open. It was like he had no natural shielding at all, and that's what allowed me to get as much of an idea of what they were up to as I did." She tried to think back over the last few days and what she'd sensed from everyone, and the attempt ratcheted her headache back up a few notches. "Why didn't I get anything from Belvar before tonight?"
"Maybe the reading was obscured by the permashields," Loke suggested. "You started getting glimpses just after you tore them down."
"Maybe." The pain and stiffness in her back was becoming an issue the longer she sat up without moving, and she was afraid of inducing another thunderclap headache if she tried to get up at the moment. "My head hurts too much to think about this right now," she said. Cindy eased herself back down onto the bed.
"Careful now." Loke moved forward, reaching out like he intended to help her. "You don't want another of those headaches." His hands hovered a couple of inches away from her arms, seemingly unsure if support would help or hinder. Another step forward placed his face within a beam of early morning sunlight shining through the cracked curtains. With the added light, it became clear what Cindy thought were weird shadows were large bruises on the left side of his face and around his throat.
"Looks like I'm not the only one who had a rough time of it!" Cindy yelped. How could she have been so stupid? The boy just fought a juggernaut who was almost twice his size. He was good, sure, but any blows that landed would have been devastating. No wonder his voice sounded rough, by the looks of things, he'd been strangled. "Your throat."
Loke straightened back up, and he shrugged. "It looks worse than it is," he said. "My throat and the side of my face are a little sore, but I'll be back to my handsome self before we get back to Magnolia."
Cindy harrumphed and rolled her eyes, immediately making a mental note not to do so again for a while as the action hurt with her head still throbbing. "You're so full of yourself." She tried to sound stern and disapproving, but the effect was ruined by a rash of giggles she couldn't smother.
Author's Note: My apologies for missing Saturday's posting. The cold I had just kept getting worse late in the week, so I didn't even get started writing this chapter until Sunday afternoon. I think that's half the reason I had the idea of hitting Cindy with a thunderclap headache. The intense coughing fits that come when an asthmatic gets bronchitis tend to trigger the nightmares, especially if you're stressed out and prone to carrying tension in your neck and shoulders, as many are.
The way my doctor explained them was something causes the muscles at the back of your neck to tighten so hard, it cuts off the circulation to your brain for a second or so. Then when they relax, the backlog of blood all rushes forward at once causing a momentary blood pressure spike. They make it feel like your head will explode for thirty to sixty seconds, but for those with healthy vascular systems, they're more or less harmless aside from the pain. Considering Cindy's personality and control issues, how much stress she's under, the amount of reading she's been doing, which is known to cause neck strain, and the trauma her back and neck sustained in the fight, it seemed like something that would happen. Loke, being Loke, doesn't seem to be the kind of guy who'd get them, laid back as he is most of the time. So, I decided to write him as having the kind of freak out those who don't get thunderclaps have when witnessing the way someone experiencing one can react.
Anyway, the cold's on it's way out, so I hope to avoid missing updates in the coming weeks. Who knows how Thanksgiving and starting my annual holiday sales for the store will affect things? But I'm trying to get at least one chapter ahead of my posting schedule now, to prevent more hiccups. Have a good end of the week, and thanks for reading.
**Review Response to OtakuPrincess28: Yeah, it took me a while to get to a point where she'd actually use her magic. Sorry about the wait, and i hope you enjoyed it. You were right, she did need to call for help. :) **