Closing the door behind me, it took my eyes a second to adjust to the bright sunlight and comprehend the fact that the entire street, sidewalk, and front yards of my neighbors' houses had been taken over by a swarm of at least twenty kids, weapons of various styles, and actual, military-style blockades made from wooden crates, heavy-looking sandbags and actual razor-wire scattered randomly in complete and utter anarchy. Taking note of the discarded battle-axes made of stop signs and puddle of water full of cardboard shark heads to my right, my attention was stolen by Kyle as he waved his hockey stick around frantically as he tried to catch my gaze. "My Lady! Come on, dude!" he called, before he and Butters hurried to join the rest of our allies in the fray in the middle of the street between Butters's and Eric's houses.
Feeling a 'tugging' on my arm, I glanced down at Alex: who was gripping his serrated, metal daggers tightly and furiously-pointing at a pair of kids in black and red bicycle helmets (one in a dark-blue sweater with a dozen small spikes covering the top of his helmet, the other with a green sweater and a pair of curved horns taped to the sides of his helmet) as they stared at us with menacing smirks and threatening gestures. Nodding once at my brother, I led the charge to the middle of the street: where the kids ran to meet us with the swords and shields drawn. "I got this." I said, holding out a hand to prevent Alex from following me into the street: leaving him to send me a disappointed glare before moving to stand next to Craig: who was also wearing his original Master Thief costume.
"What? You just show up to town with your Chicken-Shit brother and get to be QUEEN?! I think you're a little PUSSY!" the boy with the short spikes on his helmet spat, making me bare my teeth in a snarl at the insult: not the one he directed at me, but the fact that this kid (who had absolutely ZERO clue about the horrors we've both seen) DARED call my brother a coward. "Punch that Moor in the face, My Lady!" Kyle encouraged, outraged at this kid's insult from behind me, but also respected the fact that I had this handled and didn't join in the fight. "Y-Yeah! He can't talk to ya like that, Saphira!" Butters called, agreeing with the fact that this guy needed his ass kicked: not like I was going to let him walk away with saying that shit anyway. 'Gladly.' I thought, narrowing my eyes in a harsh glare at the boy, before suddenly charging at him in a blinding sprint: socking him in the mouth with a viscous right-hook and knocking him off his feet and to the pavement.
Luckily for him, I had enough control over myself to cut back on the power behind my punch to avoid breaking any bones or snapping his neck by accident: doesn't mean I didn't make it hurt, though. "Ow! The fuck's wrong with you?!" the kid yelped as he held his bruised jaw in his shield-hand as he tried to rub the pain away. "Get up. I'm not done with you yet." I stated, keeping an eye on his friend as he tightened his grip on his sword and got ready to attack in his partner's defense. "Teach 'em a lesson, My Lady! N-Nobody talks to the Queen like that and gets away with it!" Butters cheered, riling up the crowd that started to gather on the sidewalk to watch the fight: many being former enemies and long-time allies. Watching the kid stand back up and wipe his mouth on the sleeve of his blue sweater, I couldn't help but notice the two kids were lined up...making an interesting and borderline-savage idea form in my healing mind.
With a devious smirk, I slipped into the Leopard stance and rushed the boy again: landing several viscous punches and elbows to various parts of his body: sending him sprawling backwards into his friend with a kick to his stomach. When he didn't get back up, the one in green shook off his friend's limp limbs and rushed to take his place with an impressive shiner on his right eye and a bleeding scrape on his right cheek. 'I didn't even hit them that hard.' I snorted, not even feeling bad at how weak they were as I stared down my new Challenger as his friend staggered to his feet and ran off with a fearful look on his face as he hurried to get out of combat and away from me. "I-I'm not afraid of you and your strategic Queen combos!" the kid in green declared, running right up to me and slashing at my arms and sides several times: growing more and more frustrated as I blocked each hit from the flimsy, wooden blade with my forearms before its owner backed off and returned to his spot. "Aw man! O-Okay! REALLY hit 'em this time, My Lady!" Butters called, seemingly worried that this kid had an advantage over me (which he didn't).
"The fuck did I tell you, Justin?" Kyle snarled, making the boy pause in his aggressive stance and glance behind me and in the direction where Kyle was standing, before glancing back at me with an appraising, cautious look. "Looks fine to me, blocked all my attacks and everything. Don't know what you're getting all pissy at me for, she fights pretty well…for a chick." the boy called 'Justin' replied: guess Kyle really did tell them to 'take it easy on me', which really wasn't necessary: considering I've dealt with MUCH worse. "It's okay, Kyle: I'm good. Don't worry about me." I told him, throwing him a grin over my shoulder: snickering at his suddenly-red ears as he hurriedly paid attention to anything else other that me. 'Is he…is he bashful?' I thought, biting my lip to keep from laughing at his awkward fidgeting before directing my attention back to the boy in front of me: who sent me a 'shrug' before readying himself again.
Narrowing my eyes at him, I charged forward and nailed him with the same series of punches, elbows and kick that I'd just gifted his friend with: knocking him back several feet and flat on his back and out of commission without problems…it was kinda pathetic, really: before I quickly reminded myself that while we were all close to the same age (with the exception of my brother), they weren't like me: therefore, were much weaker and even more fragile. "Grrrahh! We can't stop this bitch! Ready the Guards of the Dark Court!" he raged, raising his sword high: signaling to a group of three kids in intimidating armor: colored in matching sets of dark-purple, green, and gray with bandanas around their faces with savage-looking teeth where their mouths would be and were wielding various street signs as weapons. 'How the HELL did you boys manage to tear those up?' I wondered, considering those signs were held into the ground with concrete and were nearly-impossible for a normal nine-year-old to carry easily, let alone carve into the shape of a battle-axe.
"Wow! Did you see that? The Queen's amazing!" Kyle said, announcing to the crowd as they clapped and cheered over my 'Victory' like it was some kind of 'Medieval Fight Club' as he and Butters ran over to an unoccupied section of the street a few yards away from where they'd just been standing. Furrowing my brows, it suddenly 'clicked' that that was the next 'section' of the 'Combat Zone', and I was supposed to follow them: Kyle confirming that theory as he beckoned me closer with a small, reassuring grin on his face: seemingly-understanding that even though my fever was pretty-much gone: it still made me a bit slow to figure things out, especially when the very rules of the game seemed to change overnight. Slipping into the Tiger stance, I patiently watched the group of three make their way over to the 'ring' and take their places: two in the front, while the last stood a few yards behind and between them. "Her powers are unparalleled!" Butters chimed in, making my lip stretch in an unamused scowl as he just HAD to bring up that particular fact: no matter how innocent he made it sound.
"Yeah…no shit." I muttered: glad the cheers, shouts and sounds of combat covered up my scathing reply that was definitely-not directed at them: and didn't want to explain and open that particular Can of Worms again if they somehow did manage to hear me. "You can't take us ALL on, Freak! Just walk away and crawl back to your hole!" the kid in gray armor growled, tightening his grip on his stop sign, glaring at me in a heated stare as I charged him: throwing my knee into his masked face as I jumped upwards: sending him backwards with a snarl of rage, cueing his friends to take their stances and prepared to attack me as a group: which would have been a good idea on their part, if the rules of the game allowed it, which didn't seem likely. "You have no chance against ALL of us, Freak!" the Guard in dark-purple shouted, spurring the other two on, until I took a threatening step forward: causing a confused look to appear on the one in gray's face: before that expression quickly-changed to accusatory as he glared at a smug-looking Kyle, no-doubt knowing exactly WHY the boy was looking at him like that.
"Hey! What the hell?! I'm supposed to go first, you're fucking cheating!" he yelled, causing Kyle and Butters to share a look before smirking at the Guard: leaving me completely out of the loop…assholes. "Nu-uh! Queen MacManus got Combat-Advantage from that knee to your face: she goes first!" Kyle corrected: FINALLY letting me know that by hitting them first, I got the first turn: something that wasn't a thing a couple days ago. "Bullshit! You're just making stuff up because she's your girlfriend! Picking favorites is cheating and I'm gonna tell on you!" the Guard in green shouted, making me glance at Kyle with an eyebrow raised and a devious smirk on my face. "Oh really? And when, Kyle: did this happen?" I couldn't help but tease: causing the Elf King to choke on his spit as his face flamed bright-red, frantically throwing his hands around as he became a blabbering, stuttering mess: which increased tenfold as my face split into a shit-eating, toothy grin. "S-Saphira no! Its-Its not like that! Don't listen to them! Th-That's not at all what I mean! I-I…FUCK YOU GUYS! She's NOT my girlfriend!" he suddenly screamed: pulling down the flaps of his hat, hiding his face from the laughs, perverted jeers and wolf-whistles that came from the audience.
Barking out a laugh, I picked up a pebble and tossed it at Kyle: tapping him on the nose as he peeked out at me with an embarrassed, helpless look on his face. "I'm joking, Kyle: couldn't resist, sorry buddy." I said with a playful 'wink', meaning nothing by my previous statement: though I couldn't help but feel bad as Kyle angrily threw his hat back in place and gripped his hockey stick so tightly, I knew his knuckles were white beneath his green gloves as he tried very hard to ignore the 'Peanut Gallery' and their insistent teasing. "Sa-Saphira, that was mean!" Butters scolded, causing me to toss them an apologetic 'shrug' before turning my attention back to the pissed off Guards: leaving Kyle alone to cool off and take the crowd's attention away from him and back to the fight. 'Poor kid…REALLY shouldn't egg him on, what the fuck's wrong with me? Kyle didn't deserve that.' I thought, mentally kicking myself in the ass and internally laughing my ass off at him at the same time: which I was instantly regretting, especially once the voices in my head joined in with their vengeful, repetitive bullshit, and threats.
Cringing as a particularly-loud and high-pitched scream echoed between my ears, I gave my sore head a hard shake: effectively shutting them up for a split second and cracking my neck before clenching my right hand in a fist and ran at the two boys in the front: jumping up in the air and bringing my fist down on the pavement, punching the ground and sending a weak shockwave through it that was just enough to shove the two of them back a few yards and line them up with their friend in the back. "Ahh! Jesus Christ!" the one in gray yelled, visibly shaken from witnessing a taste of my power first-hand as he glared hatefully at me and gripped his stop sign in both hands as he prepared to take his turn. "Oh, the humanity!" Butters cried, only to turn to Kyle as I saw him nudge the Paladin out of the corner of my eye. "Its fine, they're the Bad Guys: we're not supposed to give a shit about THEM." he explained, not sounding sorry for them in the least: which in turn, only pissed them off even more as the kid in gray snorted like an angry bull and ran at me and tried to copy my jump-attack: trying to cleave me in two with an overhead swing from his stop sign battle-axe: causing me to jump back and out of the way as the force of impact actually sent a small shower of sparks across the pavement.
'Shit!' I thought, shocked that he actually tried to kill me with that: before I glared back at him with a growl that sounded more animal than human. "Ha! You fellas pissed her off now! Go Queen MacManus!" Butters cheered, stuttering less as the battle went on: making me suspect that Chaos was going to make an appearance soon, which didn't bode well for the kids in front of me if he decided to join in. Taking their turns, the two flanking Guards moved up a few feet: trying to close me in and catch me off guard with their numbers. 'Jokes on them: I've taken on thousands.' I thought, suddenly wondering why there haven't been any news stories on the hundreds of mangled, bloody and unrecognizable Blackwatch corpses and torn apart military vehicles (or the town 'Round-Up' in general): making me briefly wonder what happened to them, and the Hunters that took part in the slaughter. Snapping out of my daze, I realized it was my turn again and ran at the one in gray: sending several punches and kicks to his torso and roughly kicked him away, sending him skidding across the pavement and away from his teammates.
Noticing I singled him out, the other two gripped their weapons tightly and made to protect him: causing me to once-again jump back as the Guard in purple followed the first one's example and attacked me with a brutal, overhead 'chop' with his pedestrian crossing sign. Growling in outrage at his miss, he moved in front of the one in gray: acting as a human shield in case I decided to single him out…unknowingly lining himself up with him instead. "Our Queen shrugs off your puny blows! She's too fast to hit!" Kyle jeered, trying to piss them off and throw off their focus and strategy: and judging by the infuriated glares, it was working. 'Thanks Kyle.' I thought, sending him a nod of understanding and a sideways glance before my attention was drawn to the Guard in green: who thought he was being sneaky as he crept up right next to me on my right, but never attacked: guess I was out of his 'range'.
"You guys are going to eat shit, you know." I heard him growl, voice full of arrogance: like he was positive they were going to win, oblivious to the fact that in the few seconds it took him to take his new position: I had already devised a strategy a dozen moves ahead of them to the point where I could take them out several different ways and there was nothing any of them could do about it…which was the ONLY thing I could ever even consider thanking Gentek for…on my Death Bed. 'Guess I should thank the hundreds of minds inside my head: they come up with some brilliant ideas…when they're not howling in agony and spewing Death Threats that'll never happen.' I thought, begrudgingly accepting the fact that all the cruel-yet-brilliant people I've consumed and made a part of me, technically made me the smartest person on the planet: with the intelligence that bordered on the smarts of a Super Computer, making me nearly-constantly treat situations like this as if it were a game of Chess, to my chagrin. "I wouldn't be so sure." I replied, smirking at his confused look as Alex gave me a supportive-but-silent 'nod': already figuring out that I had a plan…or a dozen.
Running at the Guard in front of me: I punched the ground again, sending him flying backwards and into the one he'd been protecting, taking them both out and out of the fight. "Their Queen is too powerful!" the third and final Guard yelped, taking his turn to try and get behind me: not sure what he planned to do with doing that, but I didn't really care, if I was being honest. Turning around, I sent him a malicious smirk before slipping into the Crane stance as I took my turn. Snapping my foot up, I caught him in the jaw and knocked him off his feet: before quickly dancing on my toes and nailed him in the side of his helmet with a brutal roundhouse kick as he tried to get back up and counter me: keeping him down and out of the fight. Smirking at the cheers, yells and applause from the crowd: I slipped out of my stance and walked over to Kyle and Butters as they greeted me with victorious smiles as The Moorish gathered their fallen and helped them out of the street: paying no mind to the fighting of the rest of the kids that'd been going on around us.
"Let's go! W-We've got to get inside Cartman's house!" Butters said, running alongside us as Kyle led the way through the crowd and dueling kids and up to the front porch of Eric's house. However, before we could even climb up the steps to the front door, a pair of Moorish soldiers dressed in orange and purple with spears made from aluminum foil and broomsticks blocked our path: pointing at the bottom step, which had been covered with a mound of red LEGO bricks. 'The hell's that supposed to be?' I wondered as Alex joined us: looking at me with the same confusion as I felt, what purpose did LEGOs serve? They weren't used at all during the War for The Stick, or at all since we moved here: maybe it was a thing before we started playing or something? Who knows with these boys. Coming to a stop a few feet away from the steps, I heard Kyle and Butters take their positions behind me, drawing my attention as Kyle glared at the pair of Moorish and took a threatening step forward.
"Stand aside or die! We're going through that door!" he declared, making me raise an eyebrow at his aggressive choice of words, before reminding myself that they got VERY into the game before, so why would today be any different? 'A bit intense, don't you think?' I thought, before the Moorish on the left opened the door to Eric's house with a nasty, knowing smirk on his face. "You can't." the one on the right, dressed in purple and light-blue stated, stamping his foot before glaring childishly at us. "Oh yeah, why not?" Kyle snapped back, making me wish he would move up and stand next to me instead of yelling around me, especially when his voice took on an angry, whiny pitch that grated on my ears. "Because everything in front of here, is lava." the one on the left, dressed in orange replied, pointing down at the LEGO bricks in emphasis on the supposed 'lava': yet another new addition to the game. "Oh dude, no way! ALL that is lava?!" Kyle said, actually sounding worried about the new addition, as if being blindsided by it completely threw off his train of thought: which it probably did.
"Going to have to find another way in, then." I muttered, glaring at the boys on the stairs as the smug one in orange nodded before gripping his spear and nodded to his friend. "Yup, everything from HERE…to HERE is lava! You can't cross it!" the one in purple and blue replied, pointing to each end of the pile of bricks before they both retreated back into the house and slammed the door shut with a resounding 'bang'. "SHIT!" Kyle raged, slamming his hockey stick down into the snow with enough force to send the slushy, cold substance into the air and on my legs. "Hey! Watch it, Kyle!" I griped, wiping the snow off and tried to ignore the urge to ball it up and throw it back at him as he sent me an apologetic look as he realized what he did. "Sorry Saphira." he said, sending me a sheepish grin as Craig and Alex caught up with us and readied themselves to charge through the door and defend our Base. "Come on, let's get inside!" Craig said, his monotone voice not sounding that enthusiastic, but the glare on his face said otherwise: especially once Kyle turned to him with an angry, defeated look on his face.
"We can't. They're saying everything in front of the door is lava." Kyle replied, causing Craig's green eyes to snap to the pile of LEGOs on the step before curling his lip in a sneer. "Oh, that's not fair!" he said, paying no mind to Alex as he walked over to me and handed me my phone: which I just realized I had forgotten in the house, like an idiot. "We can always find another way in, there's no rule against that." I suggested, causing thoughtful looks to appear on their faces as they tried to figure out a new plan. Butters however, didn't seem to hear me: as his attention was stolen by a Moorish dressed in a gray helmet and yellow armor as he ran toward us, carrying his sword and shield at the ready. "Reinforcements are coming! What do we do, my Queen?" he yelped, drawing our attention to the Moorish as he skidded to a stop a few feet away from us. "'What do you do' now? You die! RELEASE THE DRAGON!" he yelled, causing several boys to throw open the garage door to Butters's house and wheel out a well-made, green dragon made out of cardboard and a red wagon with a pair of boys inside the large box that made up its body, the one in a green helmet controlled the dragon's head, while the other in a red helmet wielded a bow and arrows.
'Okay, that's pretty cool.' I thought, appreciating the creativity behind such a thing: however, I couldn't help but spot a few small similarities between this dragon and my monstrous, Blacklight version…I guess they tried to model it after me, even though they shouldn't have even seen it at all…not like I was going to be able to hide something the size of a small plane, there was NO way they didn't see me. Shit. "A DRAGON?!" Kyle exclaimed, definitely NOT expecting these kids to pull something like that out of seemingly nowhere for us to fight against. "We're fucked." Craig chimed in, oblivious to the look on Kyle's face as he looked between the cardboard beast and me: putting together the pieces and was gauging my reaction.
Ignoring him, I moved Alex out of the street again and stood across from the beast, glaring at the kid in the blue sweater and small spikes on his helmet as he shoved off his friend and rejoined the fight, standing in front of the dragon with his weapons raised. 'Doesn't this kid know when to quit?' I wondered, before shrugging it off and took my stance: preparing myself for the apparent 'Boss Fight' that could either allow us to pass and reach our objective, or destroy us all in a volley of arrows and hellfire…what a 'wonderful' way to start the day…I just hoped there wasn't anything else unexpected in store for us. Though, knowing this town…I knew it was wishful thinking: I just hoped that my instinct was wrong.
