SW-SW-SWISSSSSH! I twirl Myrkblade and slash forward at the girl in white.
She leaps back, twirls aside from my blade, and raises a high kick towards my scarred throat.
I lean back, cartwheel in reverse, and slide back on my feet just in time to raise Myrkblade and block with the hilt—
WH-WHAP!—as she brings two slicing hands against me.
We shove against each other. Struggling. Fighting….
Sweat dribbles off the edges of her eyemask and blonde bangs.
I take a deep breath narrow my black eyes, and drop everything I'm doing—
FWOOOSH! The fiend finds herself suddenly lurching forward. For a good reason too. I have just morphed into smoke form. She stumbles through my essence. Fwiish! I solidify behind her, twirl around, and raise Myrkblade up high to slap down hard onto her shoulder with the flat edge—
Thwoosh! The girl spins around and aims her gloved palm directly at me. I can almost see the flare build up in a split second—
FLASSSSSH!
A pulse of hot light burns into my eyes.
Blinded, I stumble back and all but collapse to my knees.
Son of a crustacean--!
Fw-Fw-Fwisssh! I feel the wind shift as she twirls towards me and readies a drop kick to my skull---
Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp! "Nnnngh!" I feel Robin's hands from behind as he vaults over my shoulders and slams into the young lady's chest with a karate kick. "HIYAA!"
WH-WHAP!
She stumbles back, gasping for the breath that has just been forced out of her lungs—
WH-WHAM! Robin wastes no time in socking her across the face and following up with a steel-toed plow to the lower abdomen. WHAP!
She falls to the forest floor and rolls a few feet, coughing and sputtering. "Kaff! Kaff! Nnngh—Bullocks!"
"I'm sorry," Robin sneers. "Did I just put you out?"
A shrill whistling sound.
By this time, my sight is more or less back. I squint in the direction of the second attacker.
He stands at ready across the forest clearing, his metal-laced arms folded. "Forgot about me? And to think I considered you two equal-opportunity ass kickers…"
"P-Please, Simon.. …," the girl on the floor wheezes. "Knock off the mucking about and just burn them!"
"I know how you love a barbecue, Leslie," he clenches his fists and his metal gauntlets shimmer with hot red sparks all over. "Hey! You two want to order 'medium rare' or 'well done'? Either way, I'm gonna singe the red meat right out of you!"
"I don't know what you three are hoping to accomplish, but you just picked a bad day for a fight!" Robin snarls.
I glance aside at him through the corners of my black eyes, sweating.
I wonder if my glorious leader's one strength is to hide behind an enormous number of verbal clichés… ….
"Fraust is ours.. …," Silverflare gets into a fighting pose. "So lay off!"
"We won't let you capture her like Chang captured Red X!" Robin shouts.
"You don't get it.. …," 'Leslie' winces and struggles to a kneeling position. "W-We're not her enemies. We're her mates."
I do a double-take at that.
Robin's eyemask squints. "Well, that doesn't make sense. Why attack us?"
"LET'S FIND OUT!" 'Simon' suddenly burns a sparkling path towards us as the rear of his body armor sparkles in hot propulsion. SWISSSSSSSSSH! "YEAAAAAUGH!"
The pyrokinetic maniac burns a path through the forest clearing and curls the grass blades at our feet. Whatever urine is running down my leg quickly evaporates.
"Noir!" Robin shoves me out of the way. "Move!"
I roll on the ground, gasping.
Robin leaps up, fires a grappling hook, and swings up just as the maniac burns by—FWOOOOOSH!
"HAAAAH!" the man spins, snarls, and collects a flame of collected ashes in his hand.
Robin perches on a branch and looks down—
"Bird on a wire!" the man grins and launches the fireball. FWOOOMBBB!
Robin grits his teeth and leaps just in time—
POWWW! The branch he was just on explodes in ash and splinters.
"Nnnngh-HAAH!" The man tosses another fireball, and another, and another—
POW! Robin leaps. POWW! Robin swings. P-POW! Robin twirls like a trapeze artist, flips, and lands on one last branch hanging precariously over the clearing in open sight of the villain.
"Nice moves, punk," 'Simon' smirks. "But the cooler the moves, the faster you melt."
Yeah.
You don't deserve to stand after that.
FWOOOOOOSSSH! I am blurring at him with Myrkblade swinging hard.
CLANGGG! I slam the back of his helmet so that it vibrates like the Liberty Bell.
"AAAAUGH!" he grips his shaking head, snarls, and twirls around. Towering me. "Grrrrrrrr…."
I stumble backwards in his shadow. Sweatdropping---
"Guess what, kid?" FWOOOMB! He fountains his right fist all over in flaring, silver sparks and reaches hotly for me. "It's Shake n'Bake! And you just helped—"
SWISSSSSSH! A disc with the 'R' symbol flies down and explodes all over Simon's shoulder, encasing the flaming limb in ice. CRKKKK! "Special delivery, Noir!"
"Augh!" the fiend stumbles back, waving his stiff….arm. "No fair!"
I hold my breath, run, leap, and perform a diving kick into his side.
CRKKKKK! The ice shatters into a cloud of veritable snow.
He gasps and flinches from the powder, as if allergic to cold.
I vault backwards from the impact, connect the soles of my boots with a tree trunk, and coil up a spring of murk.
Let's see how good he is without those rusted pajamas.
FWOOOOOSH! I blur at him like an obsidian missile.
He snarls and swings a fist at me---
FW-FW-FWOOOSH! I teleport down his arm… …and slink down the inside of his breast plate.
A beat.
He blinks. ".. …w-wait a minute—"
POWWWW!.!.!.! I materialize with a burst of explosive smoke. In slow motion, his entire metal girdle and shoulder guards and even pelvic guards fly every which way like an expanding web of shrapnel. He gasps and flails all over, finally falling to his knees. "Ooomff!…God dayum! Ya little shrimp!"
Th-Th-Thwoosh! I land in the middle of the clearing.
Swooosh-Plant! Robin drops down beside me.
"Nnnng-RAAAUGH!" 'Simon' gets up with two burning balls of metal in each palm.
Robin and I pose shoulder to shoulder, combat gloves and Myrkblade raised.
"I am REALLY going to make you fry for that, punks!"
"Wow, Noir," Robin smirks. "We certainly got ourselves one Hell of a flamer, don't we?"
I giggle mutely…helplessly.
Simon's eyes go wide. There's a snickering to the side as even the bruised, blonde girl manages a fiendish chuckle or two.
"All right… …," Simon drops both balls and flicks his wrist towards the forest clearing behind us. "Time to drop the effin' hammer!"
THRSSSSSSSSH!
We both hear a rush of sparks behind us.
"… … ….?" Robin and I turn around and look over our shoulders.
The rusted, abandoned car is rattling….shaking.. ….levitating. Flaaaaaaash! Blinding heat and brilliant sparks are propelling the entire metal frame upwards and tilting it towards us.
Simon grins wide. "Hope you kids traded your lunch money for cab fair."
"Oh just bloody squash 'em already!"
FWOOOOOOSSSSSH!
The car flies at us.
Robin dives to the side with a grunt. I leap high with a pulse of murk.
WOOO-OOOOSSSSH! The car scrapes right by us.
Simon pivots his arms and twists his wrists.
The burning vehicle arcs around in the air, twists high above the forest canopy, and streaks down towards us in a rainbow of fire. PHWOOOOMB!
"Nnngh!" Robin desperately flings two explosive birdarangs at the gigantic projectile.
Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-Swiisssh-P-POWWW!
The explosions merely cause the vehicle to flip in mid-air and slide towards us in reverse.
Robin and I turn and run.
CRUNNNCCCCCH! The car slams into the Earth and half 'burrows' after us, tossing dirt and plasma every which way.
I blur as fast as I can and outrun the car.
Robin, on the other hand….
"Yaaaugh!" He leaps desperately forward and fires a grappling hook towards a tree on the opposite side of the clearing. POW! Cl-Clank! He yanks on the cord's slack in mid-sprint so that he is literally swinging horizontally parallel to the forest floor. His legs continue moving, kicking off the 'stepping stones' of tree branches forming the woodland wall beside him as the burning car gives chase. CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK! The car's rusted frame plows through the tree trunks behind Robin's sideways-bounding feet until the Boy Wonder dives forward at the last second and ducks in a fresh ditch over which the car soars. FWOOOOOMB!
"Ah ha ha ha ha ha!" Simon laughs merrily. His burning eyes dash to the side—
FWOOOOSH! I sail towards him from thirty feet away with Myrkblade swinging.
I snarl.
Time to finish this once and for all you stupid hea—
THUD!.!.! The car slams face-first into the forest soil right in front of me like a burning wall.
Yikes!
I gasp and backflip several feet to a sliding crouch. Panting. Eyeing the flaming, huge projectile—
"You!" Simon points and then hurtles the car at me. "Time to go up in smoke.. …FOR GOOD!"
PHWOOOOOMMBB! The burning, rusted car sails in my direction.
"Noir!" Robin wheezes from where he climbs out of the distant ditch. "Don't try anything stupid!"
I clench my jaw, hold my breath, and charge forward. I leap—FWOOOOOSH!—I teleport smokily through the hulking frame of the rusted car and materialize on the other side with a flying kick straight into Simon's skull.
THUDD!.!.!
CRACKKKK! His helmet splits in two from the force of my impact. "Uggggggh!"
THUD! The car falls dead and smoking behind me as—Th-Thap! I land in a taut crouch, smoking all over. "… …."
"… ….," Robin blinks. "Well, nevermind."
Oh, and Simon is still flying through the air at this moment.
WHANGGG! He lands, slamming backwards into the woodshed and wincing all over. "Uggggh…." He rubs his naked, bald head. "Dayum.. …. …I haven't felt that in ag---" He blinks his dark eyes. He makes a face. "… …is that a motorcycle engine?"
We all look up….
