kass: Well, I can't really reveal how correct your assumptions were right now, as it would give away the whole story! Feel free to read on though, I think a few upcoming things may surprise you (escpecially in Act II)
Hairy Gregory: Him's lovely little strategem will be revealed now, brace yourself for another fight scene. ;) Oh, and I hope your sister was never TOO much trouble as a kid!
It was class time, and most of the students were in the lecture halls,
leaving the grounds nearly deserted. Clouds had begun to collect again
outside, so the unlit corridors of the university became a lot darker.
It was perfect.
Him shifted in his hidden position on the high ceiling rafters. He was
an unequalled predator, vicious and determined and ready to strike. A
lioness with her pride, eager to take the kill back to her king.
"Remember, just grab her and escape as quickly as possible. I don't
want to see any unnecessary moves from either of you or you'll pay with
punishment."
"Yes, sir." They whispered back, shuddering at the
thought of Lord Alecto's ungodly disciplinarian tactics.
Him grinned.
Poor fools. Little did they realise what kind of moves he actually
deemed unnecessary… and what exactly the punishment would be.
"I hope they have salt and vinegar flavour," Buttercup chirped "and…
Ooh! Do you think you could buy me a chocolate bar too?"
"What do you
wanna do, get fat?" Johnny mumbled.
"Hey," Buttercup pouted, "You take
that ba-"
A black shadow swooped down, taking the girl in its terrible grasp.
Just as quickly as it appeared, it swept back up into the darkness where
it came from.
"HEY!"
In panic, Johnny's eyes shot up to the high
ceiling. In the low light, he could just make out three well camouflaged
figures escaping along the rafters, agile as a troupe of monkeys. Not
knowing what else to do, he pursued them from the ground. He managed to
keep only a few lengths behind them until they came to the end of the
hall, turning almost supernaturally swiftly around the corner.
Johnny
turned. They were gone from the rafters.
"SHOW YOURSELF, YOU
BASTARDS!"
Then, when the echo of his cry had died away, he heard a slight
scuffling sound from above.
They had gone upwards…
Johnny's eyes
rested on the nearby door to the building's fire escape.
Wasting no
time, he dashed up the concrete stairwell as quick as his long legs would
take him. Up one flight, two flights, three flights…
He could hear
them.
Buttercup screamed. It was all she could do. Being in this big building
full of people, it was too risky to use her powers. Perhaps she had broken
the promise she had made to herself last night in the alley downtown, but
she was determined not to break it again.
And yet she was so scared!
How on Earth was she going to escape?
The girl squinted as her captors leapt out of an open ventilation duct
into the blinding daylight of the building's roof.
"Alright, let's-"
"Gyaaah!"
Buttercup collapsed under a clump of human flesh. The
kidnapper holding her had suddenly been pinned to the ground by someone.
"Let her go, you clown!"
She recognised Johnny's voice.
The
boy connected his fist to Him's face with surprising force. Pulling him up
by his black shirt, he clenched his fist once again, threatening to
deliver a second blow.
"Who the hell are you?"
But curiously,
Him's reaction was one of alarm rather than contempt. "You idiot!" The
demon blurted from a bruised mouth: "Don't you know what you're
doin-"
"-NOBODY ATTACKS THE CAPTAIN!"
Like two vicious dobermans,
Him's two lieutenants dragged the startled teenager to his feet and
quickly took to pummelling him senseless. Before Johnny could react, he
had suffered a kick to the stomach, a punch to the face and a painful
uppercut.
"Oh no…"
Him's mouth dropped open in horror as he gazed at the
grisly attack, trying to restrain the ever-struggling Buttercup. This was
exactly what he hadn't wanted to see. Time to put his little
'counter-attack' into action…
He focused his gaze intently on the
vanquished young boy, and concentrated.
All Johnny could feel was the intensely sharp pain that throbbed
through his body and the paralysing weakness dominating his senses. He
couldn't even think straight. He couldn't…
Then, in one bright, sudden
instant, something happened to him. It felt like a wonderful jolt of icy
cool adrenalin shooting through his entire body. The pain he was feeling
was easing, he felt stronger… and something else.
His senses were
sharpening. He was growing more alert. His reflexes were refined and
acute.
He opened his eyes, which were burnished with a ghostly green mist. With one whistling movement of his arm, he sent out what looked like a volley of bright pink lightning, which sent one of the attackers flying. They skidded along the ground in a surprised and battered clump, stopping no less than thirty feet away. When the other tried to back away, Johnny picked him up by the neck, threw him effortlessly up in the air and swiftly whirled around to deliver a tornado kick that sent the assailant caroming into the sky. The helpless henchman soared up like a rocket before falling and landing right on top of his comrade.
Buttercup's eyes grew wide with amazement. "Woah! You didn't tell me
you had super-powers too!"
Johnny had since regained his wits, and was
staring dumbly at the pile of beat-up soldiers, confounded by his sudden
burst of strength. "Super-powers?" He parroted blankly.
"Yeah!"
Buttercup cheered. "Now that means I can use mine! "
Grinning
with empowerment, the hunted became the hunter. She walloped Him in the
chin, felling him to the ground. With no hesitation she lay a super fast
succession of punches into the imp, her arms whirring like the rotor
blades on a military chopper. Behind her, the two lieutenants began to
stir. "Oh, no you don't," she clucked, and leapt into the air, flying over
to catch them with supersonic speed. A trail of green light sparkled in
her wake.
Johnny just stared.
After a struggle, the lieutenants were finally freed from her
punishment by a sly move from Him. When Buttercup wasn't looking, he
tripped her up and whisked his henchmen away from her reach.
"This
isn't over," He snarled, and with a flick of his claw the three soldiers
dissipated into thin air.
Johnny just stared.
Buttercup roared. "Those jerks, I can't believe they got away!" She
punched a nearby cement block in frustration, creating a considerably
large crater of cracks along it. "Super-powers…" Johnny repeated yet
again, like a mantra. He shook his head. "Wait a minute, you have
super-powers!?"
"Yeah, dummy, just like you." She beamed at him.
"Uh…" he blinked. "I… don't have super-powers." He told her.
She
did a double take. "But-but what about the way you beat up those bad guys
just then?"
Of course, it had been Him who had temporarily infused
Johnny with some of his own powers in an effort to protect him from the
lieutenants. But now that the demon was gone and the battle was over, the
boy had returned to normal once more.
Johnny shrugged. "I dunno what
happened there. I can't usually do that. Sorry."
The panic in Buttercup's throat rose. Then she had broken her promise
for no reason! She plopped down on the ground and buried her head in her
hands.
"Are you okay?"
She sniffled quietly. After a long while,
she looked up at Johnny again.
The look on her face made the young
boy's heart stagger. Those burning green eyes had become deep pools of
sadness, exposing for one fleeting moment a vulnerability so dominating
that it pained him to see it in the usually feisty little tyke.
"Promise me you won't tell anybody I have super-powers. Please." She
choked, those eyes becoming even more pleading by the second.
Johnny
smiled gently, patting the girl's back.
"I promise."
To Be Continued. . .