The scorpion whacked his coiled tail across the devastated pavement and hissed, splashing Sundance's entranced face with a gooey black something. Aoki grinned behind her mamodo and turned a page in her orange book. The book could be rarer than three cherries in a slot machine but Eve saw it only as a weapon of mass destruction that could be either the disintegration of Sundance's book or plan out her murder.

She pulled a face at her dramatics. Having Sundance around all the time was getting to her head.

Sundance made a squawking noise that could frighten a bird. "I want a pet scorpion!"

She rolled her eyes, wrenching open Sundance's book to its first page. "Upra!"

A shadow of white clouded across Sundance's gaze and if he were weaker, the shot could've knocked him off his feet. Red paint spilled out of his mouth, sought after the lax scorpion and it found its target. Sundance smiled hesitantly but it collapsed when he saw his paint-attack was a failure. The red paint that should've burned the scorpion's shell, instead, melted like rain off plastic.

"What the hell? Why did that not work?" Eve shouted. She couldn't control the chills affecting her frame.

"Oh, please!" Aoki replied, throwing pages back. "Thompson's armor can't be broken by a shallow first spell! Try this, Scosu!"

Thompson turned around so that his tail was facing Sundance and he elevated it, the barbed point of it shined black.

"Sundance, look out! Lebashi!"

Sundance threw himself out of the way and brought forward a circular shield made of leaking purple paint. Thompson dug his tail in the concrete and laid it there, closing his eyes. Eve held the book against her chest and sighed.

"Not quite."

A geyser of ink blew out the concrete and rammed into Sundance, catching him in the chest and making him airborne. Thompson, despite his excessive weight and size, jumped after Sundance and smashed his tail into his abdomen, bringing him back onto the concrete and cracking the ground under him. He opened his mouth but did not scream.

He wobbled to his feet, standing in a person-sized crater in the ground. Eve could've burst into tears on the spot at the depressed bruise that would become a shiner and the ink burned through his shirt that bared cringe-worthy second-degree burns.

"Eve, a spell," Sundance croaked. "Hurry."

Her fingers shook as she turned back pages. "Upra."

Sundance fired out another spout of red paint and it struck Thompson but did no serious damage. A dent the size of a penny but it was nothing to boast about.

Aoki pointed at Sundance. Her eyes were rabid like a zombie's. "Aim for his feet, Thompson! Scasa."

"Lebashi!" Eve chanted but since she was so afraid, the shield appeared weaker than the last and Thompson blew an ink rocket that shattered through it. The attack threw Sundance back into Eve and they slid across the concrete. The scrapes materializing on her hands and elbows felt like rug burn.

Sundance took in a breath. "Damn, this is weird."

"What is?" Eve asked.

"I'm burned badly but I feel nothing," Sundance said with a direct gesture at his injured stomach. The skin was burned to a light pink and staunched with glistening red blisters that stemmed with freckles of blood. It didn't look real. For once, she'd be happy if she woke up and found this a dream. "This isn't normal but I have…an idea."

"Just hand us your book and I'll put your suffering to an end," Aoki said but she wasn't jumping to cast another spell. The scorpion didn't move from where it last struck. "Makes it easier for both of you, yeah?"

Sundance whispered in Eve's ear, his voice broken and dark. When he was through, he took a protective stance in front of Eve and cradled his stomach in one hand, unsure of what he was waiting for.

"You get this book over my dead body!" Eve shouted, pointing at their opponents. "Upra!"

"So you're back with that now?"

Before Aoki could say a spell, she noticed the pillar of red paint was shot at the ground and not at her. Smoke and shattered rock exploded across the field. Aoki placed a hand over her mouth and nose to keep out the smoke and dust from entering her lungs. Where the hell did they–

Hiding behind a chunk of pavement uprooted straight out of the ground, Eve stared at the golden book, a new spell sparkled on new pages. It was a tough decision. If she called out Sundance, he would be mauled again by that scorpion. If she took the risk, they could burn Thompson's book and have access to a new spell. But if the spell were useless, their book would be gone.

She already lost Caleb to this battle. She wouldn't be able to cope with losing Sundance, too.

Risks shouldn't be this bad.

"Sundance!" Eve screamed. Hanging off a basketball basket over Thompson and Aoki's heads, he watched her from where he sat and shook his head. He said nothing and the smoke still hadn't cleared. Aoki noticed her through the thick gloom by only the shining yellow book.

"You're finished, girly!" Aoki barked, changing the page of her book. "Scosu Link!"

Sundance squirmed as his leg was caught in the basketball hoop. Missiles of ink crawled out of the ground and twisted like tendrils of black silk in a circus routine, counting down to an attack. "Eve, no! Run! Get out of the way!"

"Lomas Bleez!" Eve shouted. Her crossed fingers wrought into the book as she anticipated the spell, staring at Sundance, pumping her heart with horror and dread. The lower half of Sundance's arm imitated the body of a slanted crescent moon and flickered through a rainbow of glittering color. He chose where to focus it and swung. The boomerang bowled toward the ink rockets and terminated all but one, then remarkably turned back at Aoki. Thompson had no time to reach her. Another windstorm of smoke took hold of their setting.

Eve stumbled out of harm's way, falling over a wedge of concrete. Even so, the ink projection connected with her leg, quicker than an X-ray scan. She couldn't deny herself a cry of pain when her calf fumed with agony and the burning smell of melted flesh. It was out of this world. She couldn't think to look at what would be left. If anything would be left.

"Why do I feel so weak? How can a couple of spells make me so exhausted?" she asked no particular soul.

Sundance miraculously tore himself out of his predicament and ran to Eve's side, touching her back. His hand was shaking. "Are you okay?"

"Peachy, thanks for asking."

He gawked like a duck. "You feel like a fruit?"

"No, it's a–"

"I fear to interrupt this intriguing conversation but hand over your book or die."

Although, Thompson's shell was no more and Aoki's face was coated in dirt and blood but otherwise they were in better condition than Sundance and Eve. Their book was as perfect as a chip of sea glass.

"Come and get it," Eve snarled. Sundance assumed a position of security in front of her. He was scraped and bruised, his fingernails bled pink, the status of the burn hole in his stomach was indescribable. His cheek was swelled and puffy and there was a hollow block in his teeth where a tooth should've been. Still, he was a child that was fighting in something like a war.

A kid fighting in a war was wrong.

Eve laid her head on the rubble and closed her eyes.

"Take my hand, Eve. I'll help you climb up." Caleb said. Fingers spread out to grab Eve's hand while holding onto the tree limb subsequently with the others. This was way before he caught an addiction to alcohol, cigars that were smoked around company. Sindri never let her hear the end of it. Before Caleb was seventeen, the years of exploiting a bottle harmed his face and gave him the features of a man in his mid-twenties. In and out of school, he was more known for his life-threatening drinking and the dares he executed while under-the-influence.

Eve didn't at first. It was her first year in high school and Caleb's third. He intimidated her and that was why she liked him. He was a regular in the principal's office and in the detention room. He never covered his tattoos and talked back to anyone who gave him a look of pity or hate. He didn't have too many friends and it took her longest time for him to remember to call her Eve.

"If you fall, it's gonna hurt…"

He clutched his chest. "Really, Eve? I never would've guessed."

"I'm a little worried." Eve told him from below.

Caleb laughed. "You can always come up."

She did but with every drop of hesitance she had. Leaves and twigs were like buzzy insects and Caleb took his hand out of hers, turning away to check out a ruffled bird's nest with branches facing most angles like cactus points. He laughed again. "Look at this, birds be chilling here. Would it be so wrong to knock this thing out of the tree and evict them out of their house?"

"That's terrible! Of course, they would!" Eve defended and a made a brave move of walking closer. But her foot didn't see the bareness of air and she didn't realize she was falling until it was actually happening. Caleb saw her fall and saw her lose her balance and did nothing.

He saw her reach out for his hand but it did not come to aid her. The fall could've been seconds long but it felt so much like an eternity. The grass broke her fall and robbed the breath out of her.

They stared at each other.

Caleb sighed. In his mind, it never happened. "Damn, I have detention again."

In her mind, it still lives on.

Eve didn't open her eyes. Sundance held his ground, smiling icily.

"Scasa!"

The ink was coming again. This time it would kill and she couldn't do a thing about it. Everything was her fault, everything still is her fault. Sundance didn't do anything wrong and was getting hurt for her blunders.

Everything. Her fault.

"Hokeigo!"

"Kuroguran!"

A ball-and-chain with spikes swung toward the ink rocket and demolished it. Silver claws and aqua armor on white fur sprang over Sundance, knocking him face-first into the ground, slashed at Thompson with its razor-like nails.

Dazed from the flashback, Eve shook Sundance by his ankle. "Sun, hey, I think I finally lost it." A kid, older than Sundance, had a gray faux-hawk and tremendous black eyes. He wore leather pants and boots, a white shirt, fingerless gloves, and a leather jacket with a white cobra design on the back.

With all her fight, Eve sat up on her knees, looking back at a blonde–Seiku–and his friend that had streaks of brown in his black hair. They both held spell-books, blue and green respectively.

"Wow."

She collapsed over Sundance, unconscious, longing so much to witness a battle and not have to fight in it for once.

Short author's note! The flashback will play a large role in the story and the battle will continue on here. I'll try to get out another update before 2013. R&R!