Iron Claw walked slowly through the camp, an evilly confident smile on her face. The armor of her boots clicked softly with each step.
"Oh little sister~" She cooed cynically. "You and your little friend can't hide forever~"
Just then something tore through the tent to her right.
*SLING*
Metal hit metal as Marcus's sword hit her wrist brace, which she had raised up to block his slash. She smirked, he grimaced.
"Come now, don't pretend this wasn't what you expected~" She purred.
With a single motion she spun on her heel and round house kicked at him, then fell on her back as Chen's flying kick went over her. Marcus jumped back and Chen missed, landing a few feet away. Iron Claw flipped back onto her feet and smirked at the two who stood before her.
"Chen, you're getting predictable." She mocked confidently.
Chen smirked right back at her older sister; "Well, it was worth a shot. Figured your ego would get the better of you, it's always been bigger than your cup size."
The sound Marcus made was a cross between a choke and a howl.
"As always, you are crude and childish." Iron Claw retorted, never losing her smile.
"And as usual, you're a slut for smugness." Chen shot back with a bit of anger.
"Well, you are the expert on slutty behavior." The sister snapped right back.
"I know what I am, but what are you."
"Real mature."
Several more insults were thrown back and forth, all while Marcus stood and watched. He was starting to wonder if he should sheath his sword. Perhaps it was time to get back to what they had been doing before.
The demon child jumped forward and attempted to slice Iron Claws armor, but she moved in such a way that the blade simply slid off her hip plate.
Skull Panda threw a smoke bomb at her sister's feet, it exploded and covered the area in cloudy, pink, glitter filled smoke. Marcus felt Chen grab his hand and she pulled him out of the cloud. She pushed him to the ground as Iron Claws razer whip shot his direction. They rolled out of the smoke and ducked behind some barrels.
"You remember the plan?" Chen asked quietly.
Mark raised a brow; "You told me it like 6 minutes ago, of course I remember."
"It was more of a rhetorical question."
"This is kind of a bad time for rhetorical questions…" Mark responded dryly.
"Indeed, it is." Iron Claw replied cynically.
Razer whips shot into the barrels and through to the other side, almost hitting the two, and sending splinters past their faces. They jumped out of the way as the deranged woman whipped the barrels around like maces.
Flames whipped around Marcus's arms as he attempted to charge forward. Iron claw whipped a barrel down at him, he jumped to the right to avoid it. Chen avoided the other barrel, which crashed into a tent next to her. Iron claw snapped her chains back and shot them out of her gantlets again, the force driving them forward like missiles. Marcus dodged and threw balls of fire at her, she blocked her face but took the hit. Chen tackled her sister to the ground, who hadn't been able to see her coming. Marcus jumped to the two and tried to restrain the older sister. Chen attempted to hold her sister down, which was nearly impossible. Fire continued to cover Marcus's hands, he gripped Iron Claws wrists and tried to heat the metal.
"If we can't melt them off, we'll just force you to take them off!"
Iron Claw struggled and squirmed, our two heroes struggled to keep her from throwing them off. Chen was trying to keep her sister down, but it was mostly up to Marcus. The metal gantlets started to turn red, Iron Claw started to yell with pain. The pained screaming caused them both to subconsciously lighten their grips. Big mistake.
With a demonic scream, Iron Claw kicked off her sister, who landed a few feet away. In the same motion, she pulled one of her hands out of the demonic boy's grasp, and clawed. Blood flew as her claws tore five deep scratches into his chest. He jumped back on instinct, but fell to the ground when the pain hit him.
"MARCUS!" Chen shouted as her friend fell to the ground, blood pouring out of his wounds.
Iron Claw quickly detached her burning gantlets, her gloves dropped to the ground, still red from the temperature. She stood there and stared at her burned hands.
Chen ran over to her hurt friend, who was trying to get up.
"Quit moving! You're making it worse!" She pulled off her sweat shirt and pressed it over his wound, then she tied it around him with bandages. "Now stay there! You did you're part, now it's my turn.." She turned and glared at her sister, who's expression was a cross between pained mad, and a smirk.
"Now look at that, you've gone and got your little friend hurt…you spent all that time trying to keep people safe, only to get more hurt. Your good intentions failed and burned in a pathetic little fire." Iron Claw mocked as her little sister approached her.
Skull Panda looked at the ground as she walked forward, her face dark and her fists clenched.
"Give me the ring."
"Oh, that stupid little thing. You know you can't use it~ But frankly, I didn't want it anyways. All it does is bring back memories of my more foolish days…" Iron Claw pulled a silver ring out of her hip armor. It had the head of a snow leopard on it, with amethyst eyes. "Here, take it." And she threw it on the ground at her sister's feet.
Chen slowly knelt down and picked up the ring, then she pocketed it. Her fists still clenched.
"You're not even gonna try? How pathetic-" She was cut off as Chens fist abruptly hit her face.
Iron Claw stumbled back, but then threw a kick, Chen dodged and threw another punch, but Claw blocked it. They were now in an all-out close combat fight. They were evenly matched; Iron Claw was stronger and faster, but Chen had determination, and even better, she was angry. She was angry that her sister left her, she was angry that Eric got hurt, and she was angry that Marcus got clawed. The armor hurt her knuckles when she punched it, but she was far too peeved off to care.
"I can't believe that I used to wanna be like you!" Chen snapped as she attempted to kick her sister, who dodged.
Just then a rock came out of nowhere and hit Iron Claw in the face, knocking her back and disorienting her. Chen took her chance and kneed her sister in the stomach. Hard.
"I trained to help you! I wanted to be like you! I wanted to help my hero! You!" Chen raged, punching Iron Claw with each sentence.
"But you quit! You quit being a hero and left me behind! My own sister left me! DO YOU KNOW HOW THAT FELT?!" Chen continued, her sister struggling to fight back, staggering.
"You got super powers! You were chosen by a mystic artifact! Had everything laid out before you! And you gave it up for this? For some money?! For this stupid suit!?" She punched the helmet right off her sister's head, Iron Claw stood woozily, her sight spinning.
"You went to all of that trouble, and yet-" Chen grabbed her sister by the shoulders and head-butted her hard, staggering back at the force and instantly giving herself a bruise.
Iron Claw fell backwards onto the dirt, unconscious, her face bruised and her forehead bleeding.
"I still got better than you…" Chen muttered as she breathed for a moment.
She pulled a pair of pink fuzzy handcuffs out of her back pocket and chained her sister to a nearby light pole.
She limped over to Marcus, who was sitting up against a crate. She gave him a warm smirk;
"Nice shot with the rock."
"Thanks, maybe I should join a baseball team." He chuckled.
She sat down next to him, sliding down the crate to the ground.
"I would say we should go find the others, but we couldn't exactly help them. You're bleeding out, and I'm more bruise that girl right now."
He laughed and grimaced; "Please don't make me laugh, it hurts." He smiled.
"Sorry." She chuckled.
There was a moment of silence.
"Chen?" he asked.
"Humm?"
"Were those handcuffs pink and fuzzy?"
"Yeah."
"…why?"
She snorted a short laugh; "Cause I fight crime with style, handcuffs and weapons included."
He laughed ;"They look like something found in a sex shop."
"Who said they weren't?" She smirked jokingly.
He laughed again, holding his chest to dull the pain.
"You'd be surprised what those shops have that can be turned into weapons." She joked.
He thought about it for a moment.
"No, I don't think I would be." He laughed again.
They started hearing footsteps, Chen pulled out a smoke bomb in case, and Marcus gripped the handle of his sword.
They then saw three familiar faces round the corner, and they smiled.
Frida, Jade, and Chen rounded the corner, they also looked like they had a tough fight. At first their faces lit up when they saw Marcus, but then Eric saw Chen…
"CHEN?!" Eric shouted angrily.
"Oh good god, here we go." Marcus groaned.
"MARCUS, WE'LL SAVE YOU!" Eric started running towards the two on the ground.
"I DON'T NEED SAVED-" He shouted at the small blond boy.
"Well, this is gonna be fun to explain…." Chen groaned, pinching the brim of her nose in annoyance.
