And in three...two...
CLINCH!
Jack turned his head slightly.
The gun's safety lock echoed for a moment, high up around the church.
Through his peripheral vision, he saw something swing back and forth in the person's hand behind him, glinting in the pale light that came through the dirty windows.
The newcomer was unmoving and unsettlingly calm, but his dark chuckle made his appearance more troublesome, especially when it sent goosebumps shooting up Toothiana's arms. With a heartbeat pounding and a shaking compact mirror, the princess' eyes grew wide. She thought of nothing but the man standing behind Jack and the glock leveled at his head.
The former suddenly smirked under his black hoodie and yellow visor.
"You know what the national bird of Estonia is, pretty boy?" he teased coldly as he kept swinging the golden tooth box in his other glove.
Jack lifted his gaze higher.
Another slightly taller, and slimmer Nightmare clad in black was leering down at him. He didn't look like he was going to pull the trigger anytime soon and wanted to enjoy the time taunting the brunette.
To prove his point, his smirk split into a malevolent grin.
"Well?" he insisted. "Do you?"
Jack didn't answer.
At the sound of a new voice, Tuhina stopped singing and tried pull up her hat.
"S-Sir, what is going–Hey!"
The Nightmare disguised as the ELF turned and shoved his hand onto her toque to stop her from seeing.
"Not yet!" he said roughly and Tuhina froze. That was the first time he ever sounded upset and a part of her almost didn't want to hear what was happening. She continued to lift her hat anyway.
"But–"
"No! Keep singing!"
She whined again before she yanked the ends of her woolly hat tightly over her eyes again. Toothiana pulled Jack's hoodie lower over her head too.
She DID NOT want to keep hiding, not anymore, but god forbid she blew Jack's cover...then she'd lose two people she cared about.
She pressed herself harder into the stone wall.
Pitch's hitman moved right and started to walk in front of the brunette. He gripped the gold case with a tight hold but kept his gun still aimed at Jack. But when he finally got a look at Jack's face, his eyebrows lifted slightly. Jack's eyes landed on him and he scowled.
The Nightmare frowned.
"You look familiar," he commented suddenly and made his lips a tight line as he pondered on it.
Jack squinted at him.
"I've got one of those faces, buddy," he remarked coldly, still in his dark persona. "You're not that fucking smart."
But the hooded man shook his head. He started to tap the gold tooth box on his chin as he kept thinking about it. It took all of Jack's control to not glance down at the treasured piece of Tooth's memories.
"No...No, there's something about you, specifically," he mumbled. "Just can't put my finger on it."
As he said the last part, Tooth watched him stroke the trigger of his rifle, and it made her insides churn like garbage and acid. This guy was a real creep and an absolute nightm...Nevermind.
"Maybe because he is one of the dispatchers," the ELF spat and kept his dark red glove on Tuhina's head even though she kept trying to worm her way out of his suddenly tight grip. "He came to make sure I brought the girl."
The ELF mole glared at him. It was easy to see since the cover of his red hood didn't cover his eyes, but after a short moment, he turned to look at Tuhina.
Jack countered with a glare back. Every second that man stood in that red uniform was a desecration against Nicolas and his noble workers.
But Jack didn't skip a beat.
He pointed the end of his titanium staff at the little handmaiden like she was a prize.
"Obviously," he said in a deep tone before he frowned. "I came to procure her, and I want the girl now. So give her to me and I'll take care of the rest."
"Slow your roll, buddy," the hitman said. He then leaned into Jack's line of vision to get a better view of the brunette, even though it didn't help thanks to the terrible cloud cover outside the church. "How do we even know you're one of ours? I never saw you at the dock."
Tooth held her breath as Jack continued easily.
"Because idiot, I was stationed in town until you arrived today," he hissed and glared at the two of them. "After of the influx of Nightmare deaths, poor progress reports, and damaged tech, you think Pitch wants another fucker ruining Operation Nightmare?"
The two didn't say anything.
Toothiana's mind suddenly went into overdrive.
Operation Nightmare?
Jack had never mentioned it before...no one had, but was that was she and her sister's kidnappings initialized as? She'd never asked but it looked like she would have to once this interrogation and altercation were all over.
She gulped silently and clenched her teeth tightly as she felt more than saw Jack's eyebrow raise.
"Well?" he sneered.
The other Nightmare scowled.
"You first," he challenged. He didn't like to be told what to do by anyone (unless it was Pitch), especially by a little shit like this guy. Jack tightened his grip on his rod and frowned with an indignant air of authority around him.
"You doubt my loyalty?"
"I doubt any Nightmare's loyalty," he countered. "Why do you think Pitch chooses us? We trust NO ONE."
Jack gritted his teeth.
"Are you insane?!" he seethed down at her and tried to yank her back. "We can't trust anyone."
How long ago had that been Jack's oath too?
It couldn't even be classified as long ago...It was literally twenty-four hours previous that he–
Tooth watched with a thumping heart and hand over her mouth angrily as Jack gripped his staff and pretended to be upset by this ridiculous negotiation. Then he shut his eyes with an aggravated sigh and dropped the staff on the ground while the hitman looked at his waist belt and nudged his chin.
"Gun too," he added and Jack fixed his cold glare on him (and the gun still aimed at his head) as he slowly reached behind his weapons belt and unholstered his rifle. Then he scowled and tossed it at his feet too before he raised his hands.
"That's it," he stated. But when they eyed him surreptitiously, he glared at him.
"What?" he growled as he tossed his gaze on the blind little handmaiden. "You stay in a shitty town like this, you can't bring that many weapons."
Normally Jack never negotiated or give up anything for anyone, and if it was Pitch he was standing face to face with, even considering a gambit was highly destructive. But these guys weren't high-category terrorists or criminal masterminds.
They were underlings and they were pathetic.
"Alright, I did what you asked..." Jack started. The he lifted his hand out for Tuhina and fixed the ELF with a cold look. "...now let her go."
The ELF suddenly smirked and the Nightmares gave him a sly look.
"No," he finally admitted and they began to snicker under their breaths.
Yeah, completely pathetic.
And for a split second, Jack pretended to make his eyes grow wide slightly with shock before he glared viciously again and pulled his hand back to him.
As he did though, he flexed his fingers.
"Now why doesn't that surprise me?" he growled, shaking his head slightly as he looked at him just under fringe of his bangs.
Tooth gripped her gun, thinking the exact same thing.
But did that mean Jack had a plan?
'Bastards,' she mouthed to herself behind the stone wall. What could she do to help him? She'd blow his cover if she (as Jack put it) became a de facto in his plot...but was his plot even working? It sounded like–
The hitman leaned in suddenly and his mouth fell open slightly.
"Hang on..." he muttered then he pulled away. "I remember you now."
Jack squinted through his glare.
"Really?" he spat. "Because I sure as hell don't remember you–"
The hitman waved the gold case again. "You were the one who tossed me out of that fucking car. The one with that bitch at the wheel."
Tooth nearly dropped her compact mirror.
"NO!" she yelled angrily. "G-Get away!"
"Where is she, then?" the assassin smirked. "Your little Chinese girlfriend run off with that big guy?"
All at once, she recognized his mouth, his visor, and his hood. He was the one who–
Tooth's hair pulled at her roots and she yelled out. "NO!"
Jack said nothing, perfectly in control as he always was, but his adrenaline was spiking and his fingers stopped twitching for a second.
"You...You are not a Nightmare," the ELF mole finally spat and pushed Tuhina further behind him. Tooth's heart raced both fearfully and annoyed.
Suddenly, the wind picked up through the crack in the window the ELF had mentioned earlier. It created a whistling noise but the Nightmare was too invested in Jack's reactions to notice.
Until he frowned deeply.
"You know," Jack finally said as he looked up at the window, listening to the wind. "I know the answer to your question...It's a barn swallow."
The two Nightmares glared. "What?"
"What?" Jack asked coyly. "Is the wind too loud?"
The hitman shoved his gun against Jack's forehead, provoked and pissed off.
Then hitman growled under his breath as Jack exhaled deeply, emitting a warm puff of air from his lips.
"Can't handle the cold?" the hitman sneered, thinking Jack's slight bristle was from his gun.
It wasn't the gun though.
It was his gene.
"Heh," and he showed a dark grin. "...can you?"
A moment later, when they couldn't see, Jack snapped his wrist down into a tight fist.
...
FWOOM!
A sound like something large breaking through glass was heard.
The wind was strong and malevolent, and smashed through the crack in the high window of the church. It brought with it a loud and horrible whooshing that made the entire structure of the church rattle and awaken.
The hitman was surprised by the torrents as they curled themselves around into the church. Even the ELF stared up out of the corner of his dark eyes as the wind expanded the cold air in the room and dropped the temperature.
And in their distraction, Jack snapped his hand up to grab the Nightmare's gun.
With a violent jerk, the ex-GUARDIAN twisted the gun away from his face as the hitman set it off with an echoing bang! before he managed to twist the wrist around so far the assassin yelled out painfully and dropped it a few feet away.
Before anyone could move into a second reaction, Jack flipped the man sideways onto the ground and used the momentum of the sweep to grab his staff. But the hitman grounded his feet to keep from falling all the way, and when Jack came back up, he was already pulling back his fist for a powerful hook.
Jack anticipated it though and with a quick raise, he deflected the forearm coming for him and knocked the other ELF away with the end of the staff. Then in a sweeping motion, he swung the other end back into the hitman's shoulder, spinning him around as he caught him around the throat with the long weapon. Jack then kicked out the man's feet from under him and tossed him sideways.
As Pitch's underling fell on his head, pain overriding his senses for the moment, the ELF watched the brunette turn to him, pressing his rod and shortening it before hiding it again.
"Don't ever tell me to drop my weapon again," Jack hissed.
"That...was a mistake!" the ELF spat under his breath and he immediately let go of Tuhina and hit Jack with a powerful uppercut at his chin.
Jack instantly reacted by throwing his own after he recovered but even though it landed on the buffer ELF's jaw, the latter was already reeling back for a right hook that sent Jack twisting sideways.
Jack didn't feel the pain and when he retaliated with a swift jab, the ELF tried to block it with his forearm. The brunette was like thunder though, relentless and unyielding and when Jack hit him again with a reverse elbow strike high up to knick the man in the jaw, the ELF couldn't block it a second time.
Jack then grabbed his shoulders and threw a knee into his stomach before he followed with a fast left hook and a right.
The ELF immediately went down and spit blood on the ground as he gazed up at the brunette. Jack was already rolling back his shoulder, ready to hit him again with his kickboxing skills igniting in his clenching fists.
Meanwhile, Tuhina was aware of the yelling happening around her and opened her mouth before she decided to lift her hat.
"S-Sir?" she cried and Tooth heard her voice echo across the church. She checked the fight through her mirror again.
"No, Tuhi! No!" she whispered desperately but as she watched her little sister in the reflection again, she saw something else, and instantly panicked.
The black-clad hitman was trying to get up. His gloves were tough against the hard tiles and his teeth were grinding angrily as he looked sideways.
That brown-haired bastard was going to get it...he just needed to reach over and grab his g–
BANG!
A second later, he let loose a bloodcurdling scream.
…
Jack shoved the ELF into the church door beside Tuhina before he turned his head back, eyes alight with energy and apprehension.
Toothiana sprinted in a heated dash from the column toward the altar, her gun poised down and her face savagely focused. She was lifting her finger away from her rifle's trigger as she moved, but her work was already spraying red across the tiles before him...the assassin's arm was numb and unmoving, bleeding inches away from his fallen gun.
When she reached the altar landed on her rear, Tooth slid into a cramped position behind the shield made of wood and stone. Her compact mirror slipped out of her pocket and rolled away a little before its loose lock made it open on the floor.
The ELF flared up with shock and looked down at the fallen man writhing in pain, wondering where that shot had come from. He immediately grew frazzled and tried to break himself away from the short (but strong) brunette, but Jack wasn't about playing tag with the kidnapper.
When the ELF delivered a hook combo and tried to get Jack with a knee strike, the latter jumped back to avert the hit and as the man lunged for him, the brunette sent powerful burst of wind at him to slow down his movements. At the last second, he pivoted on the ball on his feet and turned slightly to the left to catch the man's arm.
When Jack threw him off course, the ELF came back with a retaliation of front kicks and uppercuts that Jack deftly blocked and avoided. But when he almost got too close in, Jack spun inwards and threw an elbow strike to his chest cavity and produced a knife from his weapons belt.
Then he shoved it against the man's throat...just as Tuhina was lifting up her hat.
"Ahhhh!"
Her scream was high-pitched, loud and shrill, sending goosebumps up Jack and Tooth's skin as she stared wide-eyed on the once cute boy just in front of her, holding her protector at knifepoint.
Toothiana immediately reacted and looked around the altar to see what was wrong.
"Tu–" she started to say, but the princess stopped.
Tuhina was still too busy screaming and trying to back away from the two males fighting, but the handmaiden hadn't heard or seen her yet.
But the Nightmare, the one she'd shot, had a perfect view.
...
Pitch's hitman rolled onto his side to get up and clutch his wounded arm with his good one, he caught movement ahead of him at the back of the church. It looked like a blue hood moving back behind the altar, and he narrowed his eyes murderously.
He gritted his teeth.
A second later, he was fervently off the ground with his gun in his right hand and stumbling for the altar, blood dripping as he ran. Jack didn't pick up on the intention as he found himself sliding on the ground between the ELF's legs to knock him away from Tuhina.
"Come out, come out, kitty cat."
"D'm...Dammit!" Tooth squirmed violently and glared ahead of her in the heartpounding silence.
She caught his eyes, she heard his heavy footfalls, and she knew he was coming for her! And Nightmare or not, that guy looked like the pain in his arm wouldn't deter him from getting in a shot at her.
Tooth gritted her teeth. At least Jack only had one Nightmare to deal with...but how would she deal with this one?
That's when something caught her eye.
Looking down, Tooth saw the glint from her compact mirror, open and angled at the fight going on behind her. Jack and ELF were there for a millisecond before they jumped away and were at each other throats again. Then she saw a figure in an all-black hoodie and pants racing forward in the reflection.
PANG!
"Argh!" Tooth hissed. She turned her head sideways to avoid getting hit as the mirror's glass and plastic exploded from the gunshot.
Tuhina was still screaming but Tooth couldn't see her or the Nightmare coming anymore! But what could she do?
She rubbed her head. She'd be dead...unless...
...
The little handmaiden's eyes were wet and her tiny heart was pounding like a steamhammer in her chest, violently smashing against her ribcage.
She didn't know what to do. Her ELF was in danger as he fought the brown-haired guy, and there was a new guy wearing all black and running to the back of the church.
But why was he running to the back? Why wasn't he helping her ELF? Or was he going to use the phone?
She frowned fearfully. She wondered and waited, watching him run to the large stone and wooden stand...and that's exactly what Tooth needed.
Her eyes reflected light as she used her sister's gaze to determine just how far the ELF was from the altar.
Seven metres…
Four metres...
She gripped her gun tightly.
Two metres…
...One!
And timing it right just as the Nightmare was within reach of the edge of the altar, Tooth cut off the link with her sister and leapt up with a roar. She used her left hand to forcefully knock his hand with the gun away before he could pull the trigger, then fired a shot with her right.
"GAH!" a painful scream wretched itself from his lips as the bullet in his leg made him go down.
Jack was momentarily distracted by the scream and miscalculated one step too early, causing the punch that would've knocked out the ELF, to fly off course. In his recovery, the ELF produced a whip to snag his foot. Subconsciousness kicking in though, the brunette expertly backflipped away to the wall.
When he landed, Jack immediately lifted his arm above his head to catch the second crack of the whip around his tricep. As the ELF's eyes grew wide, Jack pulled out a concealed knife and in one fluid, he sliced through it then lunged after him with the sharp weapon in hand.
As for the other Nightmare facing Toothiana, when his knees hit the ground hard, she threw her elbow into his visor to crack the glass in his eyes. Blood and gash marks caking his face, she looked down at him murderously and clenched her jaw.
Without a blink, she fired her third bullet into his head and watched him fall dead under her.
"Stay down," she muttered and grabbed his rifle out of his dead grip to replace with her other empty one. Now she could protect her sister.
But as she looked up waiting for Tuhina to recognize her, she realized she wasn't there...and the church door was wide open.
"NO!"
...
Jack gritted his teeth.
He quickly tried to recover from a blow to the arm that made his fingers twitch involuntarily. But as he did, the ELF had managed to turn around and grab Tuhina, haul her through the open church entrance and back into the snow. Tuhina went willingly, but as her adrenaline rose and her heart raged with energy, Tooth wasn't about to let that happen.
Sprinting out from behind the altar, the princess made a mad dash for the entrance . When she turned her head to make sure Jack was alright, he caught her fierce look and immediately moved to stare past the open church door to see what had happened.
The ELF and Tuhina was already pretty far out in the snow away from the church.
Realizing his slip, his eyes grew wide and he turned back to her.
She didn't show signs of slowing down and just as she reached within metres of Jack, he shot her look and she understood.
"That son of a bitch is roadkill!"
Then trusting her feet, Tooth pounded the tiles the last few inches and jumped just as Jack lined himself with her.
When he caught her under her feet, he catapulted her through the large oak door with the wind on her heels...just as three Nightmares landed behind him.
...
Once the door vanished, she flew straight for the ELF with a courageous heart. The winds were harsh and the snow was gently falling again, but for all the lonely miles around, her rage was fuelled.
She didn't fear the short flight and squinted her eyes as she felt the ce bite her face and the wind blow Jack's hood over her head.
When the angle of her elevation started to curve downwards, she tucked in her feet and planted them on his back when she a violent shriek, Tooth collided with the ELF's back as she clutched his head for support. They both fell in the snow in a heavy tumble with Tooth still on top of him, and when she pulled herself up quickly before he could turn, the princess fired a bullet into the back of his head.
Tuhina screamed as she got up from the snow and tried to back away from the violent stranger who'd just killed her ELF. But when she tried to run away–
"TUHINA!"
She froze.
The little girl watched as the mysterious woman pulled off the blue hood and dark brown hair and familiar yellow streak fluttered in the wind. Her big sister's mouth was open, her emotions all over her face.
"T-Toothie?!" Tuhina gasped and stood there for a second unsure of what to do, before all her previous fear was replaced with love and she sprinted to her older sister.
She cried deep from inside her chest and wrapped her short arms around the princess.
"I-Is...It's really–Toothia, w-what happened t–HOW COME–"
"It's okay, I-I'm okay!" Toothiana hiccuped and used everything in her control not to cry and breakdown in the snow. She gritted her teeth as she hugged her sister tightly before she pulled away to push the hair out of both their faces.
"NOW LISTEN!" Tooth cried over the harsh winds. "I need to get you out of here!"
"But the ELF, Tooth!" the little handmaiden shouted and her crying grew worse. When she tried to look back at the dead men bleeding from his head into the snow, Tooth grabbed her back. But she lashed out.
"N-No, Tooth!"
"You can't go near him!"
"NO!"
"You can't!"
"W-Why did you that?!...Wh-Why did you–"
She grabbed both her arms and pulled them down. "TUHINA!"
When the little girl froze, Tooth tugged her away.
"TUHI, COME!"
"W-WHY D'...ID YOU KILL HIM?!"
Tooth said nothing and forcefully put her arms around her hysterical little sister again before she lifted the tiny ten-year-old in her arms and carried her instead.
"WH-WHY DID YOU KILL HIM?!" Tuhina kept crying and squirming as Tooth began to run further away from the dead man soaked in his own blood in the snow.
As Tooth kept running, she pressed Tuhina's face into her hair.
She turned back to look at Jack, still standing deep inside the church.
...
Jack caught her expression and rushed for the door but the three Nightmares made their presence known just before he reached the threshold.
When he turned though, Jack wasn't afraid of their trademark gas-masks and yellow goggles. So in a mock pose, he went into a defensive stance and lifted his fingers in a 'come and get me' gesture.
They frowned under their handkerchief covers.
They knew something was wrong on the ship when their ELF decoy hadn't made the call at the precise time so they decided to swoop in unannounced. But he was dead and the pickup was compromised. Too bad they hadn't brought their guns though.
They'd have to win with their hits instead. And when he smirked, they lunged forward.
Yet Jack fought down them hard and fast, weaving in and out of their bulky suits and landing predictable hits with his reawakened knowledge of his martial arts and Center gene abilities. He zipped and flipped into complicated twists and expert movements, whilst controlling the wind around him to block or throw their attacks off course.
In his focus, Jack was a formidable offence with an even more impenetrable defence. They couldn't fight him, couldn't touch him, even when Jack had managed to wrap his legs around one of the shorter ones' neck. He then threw his whole body back to the touch the floor under him and tossed him with the momentum of the throw. When the shorter slammed on the ground and Jack tossed a knife at another's shoulder trying to jump for him on his right side, Jack decided it was time to make an escape and headed for the front door. The odds were in his favour, but the third Nightmare wasn't about to let Jack go.
So he tried an alternate technique...one that involved using technology on their side.
He then tossed something small over Jack's head just as he leaped through the front door.
...
Jack looked ahead, he saw Tooth still running about fifty metres away with her sister still crying in her arms. After he shortened his staff and pocketed it at his belt, he then started to kick into a sprint.
"Keep running, Tooth!" he grunted as he fixated on her dark coat against the white surroundings. "Don't–"
Beeeep!
And when he turned back to the church wide-eyed, something knocked him off his feet.
Like buzzsaws and car explosions, Jack's senses were thrown off and he felt the entire world shake. The wind pushed him aggressively forward against his control and when he rocketed forward with a painful yell, he slammed straight onto Tooth, who had no time to get out of the way.
His body collided with hers like car in a T-bone, and as the air knocked out of her lungs, the two fell in a big heap while Tuhina left her arms. All three were then rolling in the snow, ice clawing at their skin and hard dirt under the snow cover rattling their bones.
The Nightmares watched past the blurry snowfall as their toy sent the snow whirling up.
One of Pitch's favourite inventions, his sensory scrambler, emitted a large shockwave from the black device and throw a high frequency into the air of those around it. All the Nightmares had earplugs on (along with Tooth since Jack had given her his before the fight started), and the princess was more than fifty metres away from the shockwave that she didn't caught get in the sense scrambler's high frequency screech.
'...ack?...J...' Toothiana kept shouting gently. '...ck!...t's wron...'
...Siiiiiiiing!
But all he could do was shake his head.
Her voice sounded far away and his nerves were shot. He couldn't hear after that as he gripped his head and something like a high-pitched whining dropped deep into his ear canal. It was like someone had put a microphone getting feedback close to his ear and was just letting the high-pitched frequency play itself out.
But it was incredibly painful, blurring his vision and making his gene toss the wind around them sporadically.
As the princess crawled forward in the snow achingly, she grabbed Tuhina's hand with her left (the little handmaiden was knocked out cold from the fall) then reached over and grabs Jack's hand with her right.
"Tu...J-Jack, are you okay?!" she coughed before she recovered and looked at him. Jack was still clutching his head with his other hand.
After a few more blinks, he stopped grinding his teeth and the sharp zing in his head died away. As he vision cleared and refocused, he gasped and looked over his shoulder at Tooth.
"See, I..." he wheezed. "I told y...I told you needed my earplugs."
She nodded her head to reassure him that he (and herself) was fine.
"And y...your s'ster?"
"Sh-She's..She's out."
Jack quickly crawled over Tuhina and pushed her hair from her face. He checked her pulse and her vitals before he dropped his head on her tiny puffy coat gently.
"She's okay," he sighed. "She's okay, don't worry. Just asleep...and that might work better for us to get her away."
Jack then looked back at the church and saw three of the Nightmares start to trickle out of the church.
He gritted his teeth.
"...But not yet."
One of them was still swinging his chain with a bludgeon attached to the end of it and another was slamming his fists together. The last was twirling two steel pipes in his hands.
As they stood unmoving for a second at the foot of the church, Jack got up slowly, his tinnitus all but disappeared. He saw their getaway car in the distance up the road ready to take Tuhina to the dock. It made him flex his fingers and as the wind picked up, Tooth squinted past her pained eyes.
All she saw were Jack's boots kicking up snow before he moved away.
As her mouth fell open fearfully, he'd moved away like a phantom with the wind and ice blurring his walk. The adrenaline in his body started to rise and his heart pounded violently, but he drank it in and let the frigid winter air curl in and around his body, waking up his gene and bristling his skin.
Suddenly it was like every step he made as he sauntered back to the church grew more powerful. Jack's core was burning as an indomitable breeze built up at his hands and blew a force faster and louder than anyone could prepare for.
Tooth bent her head low to the ground with Tuhina under her until she was practically laying face first in the snow as the winds Jack created behind him nearly blew her away. The Nightmares suddenly began to advance more quickly, ready to meet him at the middle...but Jack wasn't waiting.
"Careful boys," he seethed as they began move into a unified walk toward him. "You don't want Jack Frost nipping at your nose."
Then grinding his teeth from the sheer force of the gene igniting in his veins, his walk became a run and with every footfall, he made a powerful shockwave.
Just like he did in Moscow...suddenly unshakable, invincible, and superbly indestructible.
The hard wind sent the snow and dirt at his feet flying up and leaving crate holes as he gained speed and commanded the cold wind behind him like a hurricane backing him up. His bangs flew up and his tight brown leather jacket was unclipped by the weather, giving him smoothest streamline he needed against the air.
The wind and snow were so thick and high behind that the Nightmares thought they were trapped in a snowstorm. Then just as they started to run and were trying to cover the distance between themselves and the brunette, Jack sprinted and jumped...and using the wind as his propeller, he became airborne for the last twenty feet.
They craned their necks up at the last second to watch his dark figure leap toward them. He was too fast for them to react to though and with a quick snap of his elongated staff, Jack gave a dark grin.
Then he tucked into a tight roll and as he slammed on the ground before them, he smacked his staff on the dirt and used the conduit to unleash a powerful burst of wind toward them. The repercussion of air he created sent them flying back into the church until they grappled at what they could or braced themselves as they skidded back on their feet.
But looking down, they also realised, as the wind followed, ice started to cover the tiles and frost over around the door.
Jack's dark silhouette appeared in the blurred storm outside, coming for them with a confident stride and a thrill for the fight.
...
Tooth clenched down on her jaw as the cold seeped into her bones.
She waited it out as the violent winds threatened to knock her over but she didn't dare lift her head or call Jack's name. All this chaos was his creation and she knew he was more than capable of fighting three Nightmares on his own.
Still, it was in her nature, and in her heart to worry.
Once the howling finally stopped, Tooth lifted her head cautiously and gaped.
Jack and the Nightmares were nowhere in sight and the ground before her was leveled with visible dirt spots. She lifted her gaze and rubbed her forehead.
All she could think about was his gunshot wound and the fear that the other Nightmares had more guns. Bullets could fly faster than any strip of air he could control, and he'd dropped his own on the ground for those two dead bastards so what could she–
Her heart throbbed in her chest.
After a loud BOOM! was heard, she heard nothing except for the high winds blowing off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. There were no gunshots going off (thank goodness), but there weren't any shouts or bangs either. So what if he really was in trouble?
Toothiana looked down quickly at her sleeping sister.
Then, she took a deep breath.
She picked up Tuhina and carried her with a huff and a stitch in her side a few more metres away until she spotted a large rock big enough to hide a ten-year-old. Kneeling behind it, she placed the little handmaiden there and took off Jack's hoodie. She then bundled her little sister in it with the large hood shielding her face and the blue from the sweater covering the bright red from her puffy coat.
She took Tuhina's toque and stretched the wool over her head, pushing her blonde hair under the hat.
Then with a quivering lip, she brushed the girl's hair out of her face and kissed her forehead.
"I'll be back, nong (little sister). I promise...I promise, okay?" she whispered urgently. Then she made sure Tuhina was virtually invisible on the other side of the stone and proceeded to get up and sprint back into the church.
The old her, the one who was inexperienced and afraid of making mistakes would've stayed with her terrified sister and waited it out without any other options that didn't involve running for miles and miles. But the new Tooth, the one who had a fire in heart and a mission on her mind, knew she would do no one justice if she hid like a coward and didn't aid everyone in any way she could.
Besides, she could fight now, she cared about Jack...and she remembered that she took the other Nightmare's gun earlier! So after she checked the rounds, she realized it had more than twelve bullets still in place! More than enough for her, and Jack, if she could get to the church in time.
Once she returned to structure, she dove quickly to one side and skidded under one of the windows to peek inside. As she did, she caught Jack through the dirty, frosted covered window, still in the fight of his life.
...
Jack holding his own against a tag-team combo from two of the Nightmares, one of which had two sticks to parry his own.
He was trying to counterattack every kick and punch they threw with cold efficiency, and neutralizing every vulnerable body part he could hit before dashing out of the away with the help of the wind. He put everything he learned from kendo and krav maga into his eyes and hands, and everything from tae kwon do and ninjustsu into his legs and feet, but he didn't want to stay in the fight too long. With an insuperable breeze, he threw one of their tag-team moves off course before he rushed in with a powerful punch to the side of one of the Nightmare's heads.
As he backed away though, Jack's senses told him to throw his head back and when he did, that small bludgeon attached to the long chain flew right where his head had been. When he pulled up and flipped sideways with the burst of wind to extend his distance, Jack dropped into a low crouch and held his staff in a defensive stance.
The third Nightmare smirked under his neckerchief, then twirled his chain and threw it again. Jack timed the angle and speed to twist his body away, ensnaring the bludgeon with his staff before he extended out the hook and tossed the violent weapon back.
Tooth was in awe as she watched him fight and lift his arms, move his feet, and twist his body around. The second Nightmare finished recovering and came at him with a stick of his own but he sprung into action, that's when the violent bursts of wind and booms started again.
If it was match, Tooth knew she would be his biggest cheerleader.
It was incredible! She knew Jack was flexible and had near-perfect precision when he landed strikes, but there was something about the way she watched him move now that was looked more fluid. As she blinked and her mouth fell open slightly, she realised as she watched him perform a two front flips on the church and twist a Nightmare sideways that maybe he really did remember everything he'd learned as a combatant. He'd never fought like that before, so quick that she could barely spot, but leaving more destruction than she'd ever seen.
It was his renewed call to the wind and she knew it...but she also knew he'd need more. So thinking fast, she looked down and spotted several bricks lying around from the deterioration of the old church.
"Bingo!"
She reached for one quickly, and with a quick toss up in air, Tooth smirked. Aiming each right, and getting ready to run once the bricks were thrown, Tooth picked several more small pieces in one hand and one large one in another. After this, she might be recognized by the Nightmares for the first time since they hadn't recognized her in the snow.
"Sorry, church!" she whispered fretfully before she swallowed her guilt and narrowed her pink eyes.
Then with a sharp inhale, she tossed the heaviest brick through one of the windows and dashed away.
...
CRASH!
Jack and the Nightmares strained their ears instinctively when the sound of shattered glass echoed around the church. Jack saw the brick fly through the broken glass ahead of him and rain shards down on the floor, but the Nightmares had to turn slightly to see what was happening.
In their mild distraction, Jack drove his staff in the ground the swung himself into a sweeping crescent kick. When he knocked two of them off their feet, he grabbed the last one around the neck flipped him sideways.
Soon, several more windows were broken through and the high winds outside danced their way through the tiny holes, ready to play, ready to aid Jack.
And he couldn't be happier. With a mischievous grin, he used his staff to channel all the cold air toward him.
The Nightmares tried recovering as the howling from the torrents grew heavier and more vicious. And when Jack jumped slightly and sent them all a few feet back with a burst of air at their guts, they couldn't hear each other through their complinks.
"Requesting ba–chzzz–have a g–chzzzzz–"
Bang! Bang!
Suddenly, two shots went off (getting one Nightmare in the shoulder) and a brick knocked another one in the forehead.
Tooth entered through the church door with a hat on her head and debris in her hand.
Jack shot her an alarmed look before melted into a slight smile.
"What took you so long?" he said and she rolled her eyes.
"You couldn't just give me one damn minute, Admiral!?" she huffed and Jack scoffed.
"Please Tooth," he muttered haughtily. "Not in front of the Klingons."
Her mouth fell open slightly again as she reached his side, but he cut her off.
"Where's–"
"Safe. But now I have to save you–"
Just as the two more Nightmares appeared and tried to surround them with the recovering three. Then it was six against two.
When they lunged though, Jack was ready.
"Three!" he cried and Tooth immediately reacted.
She snapped into gun position #3 and shot at the Nightmare coming at her on the right as Jack stood over her guiding a powerful sweep to push them back. He had to make sure Tooth was untouchable, but he scowled as he blew them away.
None of the Nightmares (including the two new ones) weren't wielding any guns.
Except for the Nightmares Tooth shot in the shoulder and the first two she killed, the others hadn't realised just how dangerous 'potential threat' was. Tuhina had vanished thanks to Tooth's discretion, Jack's winds cutoff their communication with the ship and any other Nightmare like an act of nature.
It pumped Jack up, calculating the odds in his favour and raising his confidence.
"Hey, ugly!" he pointed at one of the new Nightmares with his staff. He was wearing one of the old model gas masks with a long tube for oxygen and his face looked inhuman behind it.
The operative glared. "You wanna piece of me?"
"Jack!" Tooth hissed as the Nightmare stopped to assess them and her shooting ceased for the time being to wait for their next move. Tech, combat, or whatever they were going to through at her, she was ready. "You're gonna start something!"
"Too late for that," Jack said until a dark grin came on his face. "But let's bring this place down anyway."
And they both moved into action with bullets firing and feet moving like cats.
Jack and Tooth weaved in and out of each other swiftly. She made it her mission to draw pursuers to her only when Jack had an opening so she could make them chase her into his path; then as he fought them with quick and violent precision, she skipped around while throwing bricks back to throw off their dexterity or deflecting her own assaults. Soon, it was Tooth landing on the ball of her feet near the brunette and sidestepping in an outward circular motion to survey her surroundings, while Jack was finishing a low roundhouse on one Nightmare before he backflipped to another. When he landed, he propelled the cold air like a windmill with his spinning feet.
Once Jack regained his footing, Tooth watched him lift his head quickly, his eyes shining and his smirk apparent on his face as he edged close to right side of the church. With a laugh, Jack closed his twitchy fingers into a tight fist around his staff and swung the head forward, as a huge gust of wind plowed through the window. Tooth backed away.
When she turned though, one of the Nightmare suddenly came at her, reaching out to grab her–
–but she threw her arms up instinctively, she deflected his attack.
He stumbled back in mild shock. The guy hadn't expected someone so tiny to throw him off!
But Tooth didn't wait and once she tightened her glove in a small fist, she threw all her force into a strike at his throat – the least most protected part of the body even in a Nightmare uniform. As he coughed and sputtered, she glared darkly at him.
"Not today, you son of a bitch," Tooth hissed and whipped one of the pieces of brick she was holding at his gas mask, cracking the goggle lens.
Then she dashed away, flying around the battlefield and covering Jack's ass.
...
Meanwhile, Jack was proving without a doubt that all his knowledge of his martial arts was back and his Center gene was at its full potential again.
The Burgess-born brunette delivered a violent punch combo and leapt up with the wind at his heels to grapple the Nightmare with the chain. Next, he wrapped the chain around the latter's neck and tightened it before he performed a side aerial flip and used the midair suspension to aim and toss two knives at two other Nightmares trying to come at him in both directions. When he landed, Jack then plowed immediately for the wall ahead of him and used the two-step to give him enough drive for a high roundhouse at the fourth-coming Nightmare.
Pitch's underling blocked it deftly and reached out, grabbing Jack's torso and throwing him savagely to the ground. But as the ground came close, the wind gave a short burst of air under his back and cushioned his fall so he could brace his palms and tuck his feet under him to snap back out. Once he did, the man flew off him.
As he hit the floor several metres away (thanks to the wind), Tooth momentarily caught Jack lunge after him with a small blade. His staff was shortened in the his waist belt, since he needed two hands for what he was about to do, but she didn't want to watch the horrific kill.
She bit her lip, keeping her eyes wary of the other Nightmares.
That's when she noticed something on the ground ahead of her.
Toothiana spotted saw Jack's rifle, the one he'd been forced to drop on the ground earlier, lying a few feet away from her. It was also directly in Jack's path.
Jack's gun carried more than her five-round rifle and with her new one running out, she needed to use it sparingly. So if she could race to it fast enough, then she could grab it, toss it to him and this fight would end sooner.
So she ran.
But as Tooth neared it, the path was blocked by two of the mercenaries she and Jack had injured.
"Shit!"
She jumped and fell into a roll to gain more distance before running in Jack's direction instead.
...
As Jack ripped his blade from the Nightmare's jugular vein, he sensed non-threatening movement on behind him and spun.
When dark, and blonde, feathery hair filled his vision and he opened his mouth.
"COME AT ME!" he shouted and Toothiana instantly felt her boots pick up speed as she sprinted for him in the short clear path. She wasn't what to expect as she caught his eyes. Something like powerful energy and adrenaline was rising the closer she came, but she trusted the sensation, and him...as she always did.
Once Tooth got to him, she reached out and grabbed his hand. As she did, Tooth instinctively jumped too when she felt the air shift behind her.
Just as her feet left the earth, she narrowly avoided the smash! of the ELF's bludgeon on the ground. How he'd gotten out of Jack's impossible knot was unknown, but the chain was shorter as he recoiled it back so he must have broken the length of it. The two didn't have time to ponder on it though.
As she closed distance with him and he bent his knees slightly, Jack gave her a hard look then putting his hands under her tucked feet, he catapulted her straight up into the air with the wind.
Tooth flew up about twenty feet and gasped at the speed but she narrowed her eyes bravely. Unafraid of the height, she pulled out the dead Nightmare's gun and as the Nightmares momentarily watched her, she zeroed in on all them and pulled the trigger, getting the one with the chain right between the eyes before gravity reclaimed her and another in the foot.
Down below, as the Nightmares reacted, Jack sent a butterfly kick and a powerful straight (backed by the strength of the wind) to knock one of the Nightmares away before a knife zipped up past his vision. Trusting the wind, he glared over his shoulder and snapped his wrist out to guide a quick but powerful torrent to block the Nightmares' weapon from hitting Tooth. Then he released a powerful burst of air at the remaining two still surrounding him. In a flourish of ice, Jack created another shockwave that blew them all back (including his discarded gun) against the walls.
"You guys are the worst," Jack taunted with a dark snicker. "My grandmother could fight better than you."
As their goggles frosted over with ice, Jack looked up just in time catch Tooth in his arms.
"I've got you!" he said before he let her feet touched the ground.
"Thanks!"
Tooth then moved out of his hold and moved away to create space between them without him telling her to. Without a word, as Jack smirked at her quickly, she tossed him the Nightmare's gun but–
"Jack, look out!"
He didn't have time to turn and lift his arm to guard when the hitman he'd hit with the butterfly kick was suddenly back in his face...with a thick pipe.
BAM!
Jack's entire vision turned white for a second and a searing pain erupted on one side of his head as he keeled back in pain. It sent him rolling onto the ground for several seconds, but it was enough for the wind to die down.
The Nightmares swiftly split themselves up between each party.
...
Jack held his head and grit his teeth,
He shook the stars out of his eyes. But even as he got drop kicked in the stomach, a smirk was still on his face, his strength still intact.
"Heh, you shouldn't have done that."
And a second later, the Nightmare got a low roundhouse and a violent burst of wind throwing him back.
Jack coughed out a chuckle, but Tooth eyed him worriedly where she'd darted away to. She wanted to call out his name but she had problems of her own.
Carrying whatever she could grab, the other two remaining Nightmares chased after the princess fervently. It was getting ridiculous to them that in such a small one-room structure, they were losing to some skinny jackass and a toque-wearing, fairy-sized woman who kept pelting them with rocks.
Maybe it was better that they hit him where it would really hurt.
Several times, she had to avoid getting caught by the skin of her teeth and was thankful to Jack for every dizzying circle and side-step she seemed to float and zip away with. As she dodged them, Tooth threw bricks at their heads too but they slowly started to gain speed on her.
"Jack!" she cried and a second later, he was running straight for her from the other end of the church, with his staff ready on the offensive. His dark grin was on his face again but Tooth didn't have time to appreciate it as she sped past him.
"Where's your sense of fun?" he laughed then he threw his staff out and the Nightmares parried it off with their arms before they pulled out the last of their knives. But jumping away to avoid their wipes, Jack used the wall to jump around them and throw his rod at the ground with a powerful yell. He released another cold shockwave, mixed with the powerful wind and drop in temperature, knocking them to their feet.
The other two Nightmares stopped to stare, watching the ice and wind paint the church floor like hard salt spilling on the ground.
When Jack flit his eyes their way again, Tooth's subconscious suddenly screamed at her to move.
With a quick bolt to the right, she avoided Jack's attack as he pushed a gust of wind where she previously stood to hit the Nightmares behind her to knock them out too. As they flew away like dolls, Jack laughed under his breath.
She bit her lip frustratingly and tried to move into his line of vision.
"Jack!" she whispered desperately. "Okay, we get it! You're strong again and you're kicking ass, but come on! Please! We need to get Tu–"
BOOM!
He didn't hear the rest as Jack's attention was suddenly refocused on the Nightmares getting up from the ground as they recovered. He flexed his fingers and rushed forward.
As he ran to the centre of the church, the Nightmares eyed him angrily. That little brown-haired shit was knocking them all down no problem and he hadn't even got a cut yet!
"You guys tired? Come on, boys!" Jack taunted them with a sneer and brought all the attention on him. He stood in the middle and spread his arms out.
"Have a little fun."
And feeling all their anger rising and their pissed expression flare up, they each forgot about Tooth and decided to go after Jack instead. With their were egos sorely bruised and their responsibilities outweighed by their pride, they decided to go after him in a four-against-one fight.
Tooth's eyes bugged out and her blood ran cold.
"Jack! No!" she cried, desperate and angry as she tried to get his attention, but she already lost him to the Nightmares that were lunging themselves at him.
Once they swarmed him like horrible flies, she panicked.
It seemed that while Jack was effectively showing off his skill and strength and was doing one helluva job at it, it...it also seemed to her like he was playing with the Nightmares!
But he couldn't show off, not now! Not when they had work to do!
Tooth gripped her head for a moment and clutched the bricks tightly in her hand before she had to avoid a dark body coming her way again.
She gritted her teeth as Nightmares, weapons, and bursts of powerful wind kept flying in her direction as Jack fought them.
'Fine! I can at least help the idiot so we can get out faster.'
But the second they were safe again and away from the Nightmares, she and Jack were going to have a long talk about his moronic idea of fun.
Tooth shot the last of her rounds and tried to throw rocks at the men's heads as she ducked and moved around. It was hard though when they kept moving like Jack (and the only spots she seemed to hit in their dashes were their bulletproof vests).
When she missed a second time, Tooth growled under her breath and took a moment to assess her surroundings.
Flitting her pink eyes around, Tooth looked for an opening. Maybe if Jack saw her, he'd remember that he was on a mission, and not in a sparring match.
With a short gasp of air, she found an opening and ran straight through leveling her gun down as she looked for Nightmares to shoot in the face. And after effectively blocked a Nightmare who tried to pounce on her and hitting him in the side of the head, she knocked him sideways and rushed forward to get Jack's attention.
"Jack!"
Jack twisted his staff around Nightmare brought him down under him before he shortened it.
In the blink of an eye though, he slid under a Nightmare, grabbed his zipline cord from his waistbelt and pulled it behind and around to ensnare another Nightmare around the neck with it and drag him down. Jack then threw a knee strike into the man's head and before he twisted the black rope the briefly to block a punch combo. He followed with a front kick at the Nightmare ahead of him.
"Jack!"
She saw the brown leather of his sleeve and the taut muscle exercising force underneath it as she broke through a tiny gap in the moving fight.
Jack whipped out his staff again.
Her mouth opened just as he spun around.
"JA–" And Jack swung back around with the black rod with a side sweep, sending the wind in a powerful slice...and hit Tooth directly in the stomach.
As the air hurtled her and another hitman back, Toothiana shouted in shock and pain.
But the damage was done.
She slammed right into another Nightmare.
When the mercenary caught her, Tooth screamed and Jack's smirk slipped off his face when he realised what he'd done. His blue eyes grew wide and his mouth was wide with terror.
"NO!" he yelled and rushed after her, but the other two Nightmares swarmed him and blocked his path.
As he tried to blow them all aside and jump away though, his mind was unfocused and his fingers twitched sporadically, making the wind turn on and off with his frazzled actions.
...
Tooth thrashed around and gritted her teeth.
She threw the last of the rocks she had back to bash him in the head. She even fired the last of her bullets behind her! But when she tried to get away, he reached out, twisting her wrist free of the gun and he grabbed her hair.
"Gyaah!" she wailed.
Yanking her back, he gripped her throat from behind and picked her up her small form.
A second Nightmare (the one who got hit by Jack's powerful blast with her) swooped in too to grab her legs and helped haul her up. Tooth's heart pounded fearfully as she felt their grips tighten and all her peace and clarity shatter like ice. She gasped wildly and tried to thrash her head around, trying to find Jack and blink repeatedly.
When she did though, she somehow found herself looking through Tuhina's eyes.
"Toothie?...T-Toothie?!"
There was snow shifting under her feet as she shuffled around the rock. The eyes stung and blurred with tears and heavy gasps were heard.
"TOOOTH!" Tuhina screamed. She choked on her sobs and shuffled more through the wind and snow, alone. "TOOTHIEEE!"
Then it was like it didn't matter...because as Tooth pulled away from the link, she watched the girl get picked up violently by another Nightmare.
Tooth choked.
Couldn't breathe.
And her heart fell into her stomach.
"J-JAAACK!" she screamed brokenheartedly.
But by then, the two carrying her had already jumped out a broken window.
...
"NOO!"
With a violent kick combo, powerful elbow strike, and immense burst of wind, Jack showered the last of the Nightmares away with frozen water vapour and sprinted for the window with the wind speeding at his heels. But when he was close, a new onslaught of Nightmares appeared.
Jack leaped into a curved side jump with the wind and surfed it to avoid them their lunged attacks.
They looked like arch-level Nightmares and as he landed next to a recovering Nightmare...and he realised they were also carrying guns.
It looked like the call really had taken too long...and now they knew why.
Jack's heart was going into mini palpitation and he almost couldn't get the wind back as he looked around the room for a moment. His mouth hung open, desperate and ashamed then suddenly, the sound of five or so guns clicking off their safety locks went off and he instinctively reacted.
Just as Jack dove behind the recovering Nightmare on his right and gripped the back of the man's uniform, just as a barrage of bullets were fired his away.
"NO...NO!"
The body of the Nightmare jerked violently under his hold and he knew the bullets would hit him too if he didn't think fast.
But how could he! Tooth was just taken because of him and he–
Jack started to stumble back against the shower of gunshots.
As his feet shifted unsteadily and his knees slightly buckled under the weight of the dying Nightmare he was holding, he gritted his teeth and looked back. He shortened his rod still in his left hand as he did. But even as his mind went into overdrive with his heart, Jack was near unfocused and he felt his skin bristle. His Center gene crackled with high anxiety.
He was at a loss. But he needed to get out. He needed to get out!
Jack immediately craned his behind him and saw a window from the church leveled at his height. But damn it all to hell, it wasn't the same window that Tooth had been taken through!
Still, even as he kept backing up and shielding himself, Jack knew he couldn't exit any other way now. He'd only get attacked by Nightmares.
"WHO'S HAVING FUN NOW?! EH, JACK?!" the last surviving Nightmare he'd injured roared as the arch-level Nightmares advanced on him, their fingers trigger happy.
As they fired brutally, the Nightmare lit a flare and torched the church, so no one would come after them again.
Any second now, they'd land on him...any second now, the beautiful, lonely church would be up in flames...any second now, the Nightmare's body (which was already dripping blood on him from behind) would break through and the bullets would hit him anyway.
And with a cry of anguish–
"AHHH!"
Jack tightened his grip on the Nightmare until his knuckles turned ghostly white and made a violent jerk backwards.
He tossed himself and the Nightmare through the glass of the window behind him.
But what was expected to be the ground like the other three sides of the church, was just empty space. Jack found himself and the Nightmare's corpse hurtling several hundred feet down the cliff of the coast and into the murky waters of the Atlantic Ocean below.
The wind whipped his bangs and he craned his neck to look under him. Luckily there were no rocks below, the water was clear of debris and splashed against the coastal wall...but it also meant that he lost his chance at getting back to the church.
And as he was close to hitting the waters, the orange light from the church's flames lit the water.
Then Jack plunged into the ocean with a violent splash.
...
Once he hit the water, the Nightmares gazed through the broken window and stared down at the water with their goggles.
They fired the last of their bullets into the water even though it was pointless with the distance. Next, they switched to their thermal lenses and tried to find his body heat signature to see if he was still alive.
But it proved moot.
The water was already sub-zero and unbeknownst to them, Jack's body temperature was already naturally lower than most people so he came up virtually invisible on their scanners...or in their case, dead.
"Skinny bastard," one the Nightmares grit and pulling down his mask a little, he threw a spit down at where Jack's body was presumed to be.
Then they all left the burning church, already bored and unimpressed by the fight, and ready to go back on duty.
...
Meanwhile, Jack was holding his breath.
He squinted up through the orange light on the surface of the water and watched the bullets sink around him. When they stopped, he immediately choked a little under his breath.
He knew had to get out of the water fast before he body started to slow down from the frigid cold of the water. So squeezing his eyes shut briefly, he regulated his heartbeat then spun the dead Nightmare in his grip.
Once the Nightmare was facing him, floating directly above his eyes, Jack quickly unmasked his mouth. He then pulled his mouth to his.
Jack sucked out any of the remaining warm oxygen left in the man's lungs and filled his own. Then with an angry shove, Jack moved away from the corpse and swam to the left, trusting his gut feeling and swimming like hell.
Thirty seconds and 50m later
Jack gasped as he head broke the water's surface, gasping for air as he floated and looked around desperately.
When he looked ahead, he saw he was close to a slope that came down from the cliff to meet the ocean. It looked like a giant part of it had broken off and sunk recently and he realised that maybe the church hadn't always been sitting on the very edge of the cliff but that maybe that was why it had been abandoned. Still, he couldn't think on it and with a deep shiver and gasp of air, Jack made powerful front crawls and breaststrokes to the slope, pushing the wind to decrease drag from his soaking heavy clothes.
He grabbed onto a giant rock near the slope (the only thing high enough to climb and reach it), then heaved himself onto it. As he clawing at it, he froze his hand over slightly with ice so that he wouldn't lose his grip on the slippery stone. Then he hauled himself onto it and with a desperate breath, Jack jumped the short height for the slope with his last ounce of energy that wasn't taken by the frigid waters.
Once he collapsed onto the wet dirt and soggy grass untouched by the snow so close to the ocean, Jack braced himself on his shaking hands and gasped for cold air.
His hair was dripping wet and his bangs clung to his forehead, but when he turned his head to the ocean, his heart nearly gave out.
Far in the distance, he saw a black vessel already pointing its bow towards the east.
But it was unanchored and was already starting to sail away.
As he continued to stare at it, he felt sick.
He grew scared.
And when his short gasping turned into choking–
Jack pulled his head up, eyes stinging, and he reached a hand out to the ocean.
"TOOTHIANAAA!"
He screamed until his throat was raw and the last of the warm air left his lungs.
At the end of his stamina, two black jets suddenly appeared below the cloud cover and ahead of the ship.
With loud VOOM, each carried one of the sisters in an emergency pickup...then they sped off, leaving Jack behind.
...
Somewhere in Europe
The touchscreen projection lit up with an incoming call. The voice on the other end was exhausted, but boastful.
"Pitch...we have done it."
Fifteen minutes later
The malevolent industrial terrorist walked in silently with his hands behind his back. His face was unreadable, a blank slate for once.
He also had four arch-level Nightmares in full uniform stalking behind him, phantasmal and ghoulish.
The scientists said nothing as the Englishman glided in without a breath of noise or disruption, his slicked hair and strong jawline rigid with apprehension. After he picked up a chart, flipped through it aimlessly (already aware of all the chemical compounds and work in his own head), he tossed it back onto the metal desk with a loud clatter.
"Well?" he spoke slow and dark.
And the scientists wasted no time. Gripping one end of each of the white curtain, two of the male bio-violators pulled the covers apart to show the products of their success.
When Pitch flit his grey-yellowing eyes back and forth, a light shone in them, giving his darkened expression a wiry expression.
"We have successfully found the ingredient that stimulates the Center gene in the clones," one of the men finally spoke.
And when Pitch looked between the four girls, he read their bed charts and looked at their physical appearances.
TOOTH #6
Zingerone, Ginger
Tulia's mutation was the worst, the one that made her sisters scream earlier that day. The twelve-year-old had tiny featherlike sprouts sitting at the crown of her forehead that were bandaged at the skin where blood had broken through. Her skin was also purpled along her neck and it was apparent that she been in a coma since they'd administered the chemical.
But for all her mutations and biological inputs and responses, the ingredient, her injected chemical compound...was a failure.
TOOTH #4
Crocin, Saffron
Theena, the newest to arrive had the worst topical case. Her skin was blotchy with purpling spots on her skin and her hair was thinning out as it started to turn a strange colour.
Compound success: Failure.
TOOTH #3
Helichrysum, Perennial
Then there was Tiana. The thirteen-year-old was running a hot fever, sweat coursing down her face and her skin looking gaunt and hollow. But she was otherwise fine, although she kept whining in pain every now and then.
Compound success: Failure.
TOOTH #2
Eugenol, Cinnamon
Next was the second eldest handmaiden. Fifteen-year-old Tia every now and then her blood temperature would decrease and when the monitor went off, the scientists had to drop a heated blanket on her to make sure her heart didn't slow down. But the skin around the crown of her head was starting to sprout something too, like Theena's.
Compound success: Failure.
"Bloody shame," Pitch sighed with boredom.
It seemed for the last 48 hours, all four girls had developed some horrible effects from the essential oils they'd been planted with thanks to their Center genes.
On the bright side for Pitch though, it meant that whenever a Center gene carrier didn't obey him, he knew exactly what to give them to make them suffer. But since the clones' genes were embedded into their DNAs (having been born with them instead of been injected with thanks to their princess), it also meant he couldn't rupture their biology and kill them. They'd only be in pain but at least they wouldn't die like all the other Center gene carriers he'd kidnapped. All these ingredients would be his tool in the end, but still...
Then he finally turned his head to the last girl.
TOOTH #1
Tatiana, or the original Baby Tooth that she was most deemed, was sound asleep with her levels normal and her heart rate regulated. She wasn't mutated and when his eyes checked her charts, he actually paused for a breadth of a second.
Because it seemed that Tatiana's levels were...actually getting stronger.
As she slept, it was apparent that her muscle regeneration was increasingly picking up and her red and white blood cells were multiplying at a healthier rate. Her brain oxygen level was high and when he looked down with keen eyes, the part of the bed she was holding was actually crushing slightly under her tiny fist. She was getting stronger, she was. He finally had the chemical ingredient that stimulated growth and protection of the Center gene instead of deterring it...and when he read the compound, the one the scientists had deemed successful, he knew why.
Menthol.
...Or to rest of the non-chemical world: Peppermint.
A corner of his lip twitched.
"What did you use to activate it?" he asked, keeping his golden gaze fixated on the larger handmaiden as she continued to lay unconscious next to her sisters.
He wanted to celebrate and twist all their necks around at the same time.
The scientists looked down at her as well with grim but otherwise stark faces, still focused on their work.
"An oil extract," one answered him. "Straight from the plant itself...The gene responded to the highest concentration we could administer. But even then it's potency is dangerous for any one person, but that was it. That's the Center gene's activator."
Pitch's wicked smile suddenly appeared as he tilted his head slightly upward. A dark chuckle threatened to escape from his lean chest and past his lips.
But he shut his eyes instead.
"Sabon?" he addressed the lead scientist and the older, disturbed man looked at him. Pitch then turned his head slightly.
"Tell me...What is Punjam Hy Loo's main export again?"
Sabon didn't miss a beat.
"Mm, peppermint, is it not?"
And the second the silence dropped after his answer, Pitch opened his eyes to stare at the poor dears all unconscious in their beds. His teeth showed in a Cheshire cat grin.
"Precisely."
And the shadows stretched around the room with dark glee.
"Now what would be the odds of that?"
Chapter's soundtrack: "ShutEmDown" – Celldweller (the official Nightmare track)
This chapter hurts me. When I picture Tuhina crying, I imagine little Mako Mori from Pacific Rim (that movie!). Like it hurts guys. I hope you guys survived this heavily fight-based chapter. It was a whammy, but now we must say goodbye to the blue/pink underarcs...for now ): Next chapter will be called 'Kneeling At Hell's Door' and hopefully, it'll be up sooner because it's short. And sophsiri, dat Star Trek reference was all you, girl! (;