New Blood
by Saber Alexander McConnell
Rated PG13

CHAPTER 10: The Storm Breaks

No Quarter was in the middle of singing "What Do We Do With a Drunken Sailor" when the clouds rolled in. It was swift, as if the winds above were blowing in a hurricane gale, but once overhead, the clouds just hovered there, still. Something in Nohano's chest seemed to jolt around as he looked up, only barely remembering to keep singing. The last thing he wanted to do was to draw attention to himself. 'Don't panic,' he thought to himself. 'It's done this before, it's just...just weird weather.'

The song ended as a green tinge fell over the area, and even the fairegoers began looking apprehensively up into the sky. Nohano looked to Robert, who frowned, and then shrugged. "Keep playing, I guess, unless the tornado sirens go off."

"Okay," said Nohano, but he had a horrible feeling. He glanced out quickly, wanting to locate Amaya and Killian, and spotted them both nearby. Good. He didn't want to have to go looking for them if—or when--something happened.

Nohano discarded his hand-held drum for the big floor one, rolling it out and setting it upright. On Robert's signal, Nohano started the deep, driving backbeat that began an ominous song about a pirate named Bartholomew Roberts. Later, Nohano would think it was apt in an awful way that they sing that song, which was full of violence and death, and that the last name of the pirate was horribly foreboding.

Gregory had only just begun the first verse, when the lightning began to arc overhead. It glowed reddish, unlike any lightning Nohano had ever seen. He'd seen purple, green, even deep pink before, but he had never seen red lightning aside from on a movie screen. The spectators below were beginning to grow restless, paying less attention to the acts, and looking nervously around for their companions and families. Parents began to lead children towards the exits or the cover of the nearby community center.

Lightning suddenly struck the ground among the spectators, nearly blinding Nohano, and he staggered back, knocking his drum over. Robert yelled and recoiled, and the other guys in No Quarter had taken several steps backwards, their expression astonished. All acts stopped, and several screams came from the fairegoers and volunteers.

A man stood where the lightning had struck, a man in dark, animalistic armor, a helmet and mask obscuring his features. Nohano opened his eyes, his chest tight with fear, staring at the man. The fear spiked at several more flashes, each revealing armored figures with deadly-looking weapons in their hands or on their backs. "Oh...my...God," Nohano uttered slowly. His eyes darted out to where Killian stood by one of the trash cans, looking as terrified as Nohano felt, then to Amaya, whose eyes were wide with both fear and recognition. Nohano realized with growing horror that these were the Dynasty.

For a space of ten seconds, no one moved, not even the specters that had appeared among them. One of them, dressed in glaring, pinkish armor, looked about, his masked visage turning towards the stage where No Quarter had been performing. Nohano's heart leapt into his chest as the figure pointed right at him. "The boy!" the figure called, his muffled voice eerily familiar. "That stage, the boy, he's Wildfire!"

Nohano bolted in fear, leaping off the stage and sprinting away from the area. The one who'd spoken snarled, "Get him! And that one, that one there, he's Torrent!" 'Oh, God,' Nohano thought, 'We're gonna die.'

The faire erupted into chaos. Nohano glanced behind him once to catch sight of one of the Dynasty people leveling a gun of some kind at him; with a yell of alarm, he dove off to one side, only barely avoiding a laser bolt, which hit a nearby tent, setting it aflame. He stared at it for only a second before taking off in another direction; citizens weren't even allowed to have laser weapons! Amaya had said the Dynasty were old, immortals from centuries before! How the hell did they have a laser weapon?

He darted into the maze of permanent buildings and temporary vendor stalls, thanking the powers that he knew the faire inside and out.; he had that advantage at least. He ducked in and between the stalls and tents, crouching down behind the main stage, shaking from head to foot and trying desperately to catch his breath. His temples pounded with heat as he took in air, forcing himself to calm down.

"Damn it!" he hissed. Once the panic eased, Nohano began to realize that the wretch with the laser pistol had been about to shoot him in the back! The coward!

He crept to the edge of the stage and peered out at the main area. Only a few of the Dynasty warriors were left in that area, wrecking the booths, sending crafts and medieval weaponry everywhere. The few people left were fleeing in terror, and as the stalls were knocked down or set afire, their occupants had to run. It was clear the warlords were searching for someone. For Killian and him.

The only thing Nohano could see through the attackers' masks were their eyes, eyes that shone with amusement, even excitement and satisfaction. They liked the fear, they liked the pain they were causing! Shaking, now with building rage as well as fear, Nohano stood—he didn't know what he could do, but if he could do anything—

Suddenly he felt like the world's biggest idiot. The riot gear! Sub-armor, as Amaya had called it. He jammed his hands into his costume pocket, panicking for a moment when he encountered only cloth and a small hole. Then he remembered he'd switched pockets because of the hole, and grabbed the blazing orb. He closed his hands over it, concentrating, and felt the light, flexible gear coating his body. It was weird, like being engulfed by fire. Maybe it wasn't the full armor, as Amaya had said the other day, but certainly it would give him more protection than his tunic and breeches.

As he stepped out from behind the stage, he realized an awful truth; they weren't just attacking Nohano and Killian. Nohano didn't see either him or Amaya anywhere, but he saw at least three people lying on the ground, not moving—innocent bystanders. The nearest one he saw was not breathing. "Bastards," he whispered, staring in horror. He suddenly wished he had a weapon of his own—a gun, a sword, even a club—anything he could use against the craven wretches who were turning their weapons on unarmed citizens!

Adrenaline burst through his system as he sprinted from his hiding place, streaking towards the nearest of the armored attackers. The man, whose armor looked like a snake, had cornered a girl of maybe eight years. The little girl was shrieking, and he could see that her arm was bloody. The warrior had some kind of whip in his hand, that when he neared, Nohano could see it was a chain of katana, or some damned thing! The man laughed, raising the weapon to strike the child down, and a blaze of fury obliterated everything else in Nohano's mind.

"Leave her alone, asshole!" he snarled, and the snake-man spun around, his strange eyes widening for just a moment in surprise behind the mask. He raised his impossible weapon, but Nohano was already there, tackling the man around the waist.

The snake-man hissed furiously as they landed, and brought a gauntleted fist up to strike Nohano hard in the face. Nohano yelled, half-stunned by the blow, and managed to duck a second punch. "You'll suffer for that!" the snake-man snarled, his eyes seeming to shine with both hatred and glee. Whatever else this bastard might say, he was enjoying the fight.

The snake-man shifted his weight, throwing Nohano off of him, and Nohano rolled over, scrambling to his feet. He ducked behind a vendor's booth as the snake-man snapped his sword-chain at him, and Nohano was uneased to see that the sword-chain made a smoking cut in the wood, as if it were coated in acid. He took a quick look at where the little girl had been, but did not see her anywhere. Satisfied she had gotten somewhere safe, Nohano ran once more, catching sight of two others approaching. He'd barely gotten away from a fight with one of them; there was no way he could fight three!

As he ran, he searched anxiously for Amaya and Killian, knowing they'd been caught in the open, too. Amaya he wasn't so worried about; the bad guys didn't know about her. But he'd heard them pointing out Killian, who couldn't fight any better than Nohano could. He didn't know what he'd do if Killian had been hurt; he hadn't realized how close he and the other boy had gotten, until now, the horrid worry settling on his chest.

When he did find Killian, he very nearly knocked the Australian boy over; they'd run straight at each other among the chaos. Nohano, not realizing at first who it was, stopped short and drew a fist back, before realizing the startled green eyes belonged to his friend. "Killian!" He moved forward and embraced the other boy, who returned the gesture, though only for a brief moment. They were still in the danger zone, only just out of sight of the Dynasty warriors.

"What do we do?" Killian cried, looking around as if the world were exploding about him.

"I-I dunno! Where's Amaya?"

"I dunno, we scattered, and then that—that bloke we saw the other day pointed me out, and I had to run, too—I think she's okay." Killian was talking very quickly. "They don't know about her yet, and she said her armor's a new one, so they might not even realize she's one, but she can't do anything about all this—can she?"

The sudden roar of a fire nearby prevented Nohano from answering—the wooden building not three meters from where they stood had caught fire, burning as if it had been doused in gasoline. Killian recoiled from the heat, retreating several steps, gesturing for Nohano to follow him. Though the heat was not threatening to him, Nohano was about to follow when he heard a frightened shriek from inside.

There were people trapped in there.

"Shit," Nohano hissed, sprinting towards the building, one of the many permanent structures on the fairegrounds. It wasn't a big building, containing only a water fountain, some bathrooms, and a first-aid room—Nohano hoped there weren't many people inside!

It didn't occur to him to fear the fire, or what might happen if the wooden building collapsed with him in it. He didn't stop when he heard Killian's voice cry, "Nohano, no!"; he only dashed in, bursting through the open door, which hung in flames from its hinges.

For a moment, all Nohano could hear was the crackling of flames, but somehow he wasn't scared. On the contrary, the minor injuries he'd gotten fighting seemed to fade out, and a surge of energy coursed through his body. His unprotected head was not scorched by the heat, and he laughed in delighted amazement.

He suddenly staggered, the light weight of the riot gear somehow increasing, and he felt something else covering his body—something that melded with the sub-armor. But it was more than that. It didn't just meld with his armor, or even his body—it seemed to be entwining around his very spirit.

He stood in shock, but only for a second. A harsh coughing sound and a weak cry for help shook him out of his surprise, and he began searching the small building.

Only three people had gotten caught inside, trapped by a fallen, burning support beam, and they looked like they were faire volunteers. He ran up to them, wondering for a moment why they shrank back in fear. He didn't have time to be polite. "Follow me, damn it, this is all gonna come down! Take my hands!" He didn't understand how, but he somehow knew that if he held them close to him, whatever was protecting him from the flames would also shield them, at least long enough to get out of the building.

One of the two women reacted first, lurching to her feet and grabbing Nohano's arm. The others followed suit the next second, the man crying out as the wall they'd been crouched against collapsed. His cry turned into a coughing fit—Nohano held his own breath. He didn't know just how many aspects of fire he was immune to.

He tried to shield the people as best he could, ushering them through the flames, leading them out of the doorway—now without its door. Once in the open air, he gave the people a little shove, yelling for them to get clear, to find cover. They did, one woman waving her thanks at him as she helped her friend stagger away, and the man reeled off in the opposite direction.

Nohano ducked out of the way as something in the building kachunked, and began to collapse entirely. He sprinted back to where Killian stood, staring at him in astonishment. "How'd you do it?" he demanded, awestruck.

At first he had no idea what Killian meant, unless he meant avoiding being burned. Nohano was shaking with strange energy, about crazy with fear and anger and exhilaration. Armored warriors from a demon realm, who had powers beyond anything Nohano could understand, were trying to kill him, and he had just walked into a burning building and wasn't even sweating. Things couldn't get any crazier--or so he thought.

"You got your full armor! Crikey, you look like a Japanese airplane!"

Nohano stared. "I what?" The first words to register were that he'd gotten his armor; the second was that he looked like a Japanese airplane. For just a moment, he forgot about his attackers as he looked down. Killian was right—his sub-armor had somehow expanded, or grown parts. Spikes on his knees, more padding and protection—and on each shoulder, a double set of wings. He also realized his head and most of his face were covered in some kind of battle helmet that seriously diminished his peripheral vision. "An airplane—what in the blue hells—I don't know how! I just walked into the fire, and wanted to rescue those people, and something weird happened!"

The sudden clang of metal and a furious yell made them both realize they needed to be doing anything but standing around and talking. "We'll figure it out later," said Killian. "We gotta find Amaya and get the hell out of here."

They didn't get the chance. Nohano and Killian hadn't gotten ten paces before two of the Dynasty warriors landed before them, as if they'd flown, or leapt. One was the snake-man, another looked wolfish. A third figure ran up, a smaller figure that could have been a boy or a woman. When she spoke, her voice was feminine, but cruel and mocking. "Nowhere else to run, little flame?" she said to him, a pair of Oriental swords in her hand. "I see you've stumbled into your armor—I suppose you can use those swords on your back?"

He had swords on his back? Nohano felt his face burn in humiliation as he realized the woman was right—he didn't know how to use the swords. He hadn't even known the stupid things were there!

"He's certainly eager to fight, for not knowing anything about it," laughed the snake-man, his voice deep and harsh, and Nohano clenched his fists.

"Right," said Killian, sounding scared, but just as indignant as Nohano. "Just like you're so brave you gotta have two of your mates with you to attack two boys!"

Nohano could have cheered, but it was clear it hadn't been the wisest thing to say in the situation. The snake-man hissed, even sounding like an angry snake, and lunged at Killian with two katana in his hands. Nohano yelled and tackled Killian away, hoping that his newfound armor was strong.

He yelled again as the swords both struck him in the back, feeling pressure and force, but no pain. Yet. The woman and the wolfish man lunged for the boys also, who only barely managed to dodge, rolling away from each other along the ground.

Something hard struck Nohano in the side of his head, knocking the helmet off, and he reeled to the side. Had he not already been on the ground, he'd have fallen from the stunning blow; the wolf-man had some kind of longsword in his hands, moving so fast Nohano could barely catch sight of him.

Nohano yelled in alarm as something grabbed his hair and yanked his head back, sending him sprawling on his back on the ground. He had only a moment to react as he caught sight of Killian busy fighting the snake-man, and the other one's sword descending at Nohano's unprotected head. He had only time for fear, and a half-coherent thought that he'd failed before he'd even begun.

No Quarter, playing before the attack. From left to right are Gregory, Manny, Nohano, Robert, and Aaron.
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