As Nya got out of her vehicle, she glanced back over her shoulder. Zane was pulling to a stop just behind her. This still didn't seem like a good idea, but it was kind of the only idea she could come up with. Plus, Zane seemed to actually want to come help fight, and he didn't seem to want much of anything recently. Who was Nya to say no to him?
"Thank goodness you're here," the Commissioner stated, running up to Nya as he gestured toward a building down the street. "We have a bit of a situation going on. Look!"
Nya looked. Then she frowned.
The building, a post office, pulsed with a sickly purplish light. Objects swirled around and through its open windows, trash cans and stray bricks and various envelopes and even what looked like a very alarmed cat all whirling through the air.
"That looks like a problem," Nya agreed. "Any idea what's going on?"
The Commissioner shrugged. "Reports say that one of the mailmen started glowing and laughing and throwing things."
"One of the mailmen started glowing," Nya repeated as Zane came up beside her. "Okay then. We'll see what we can do."
Nya and Zane started toward the post office in silence. As soon as Nya pushed open the door, though, that silence shattered.
"So you've come to challenge the might of the mail!" A voice cackled. Past rows of people frozen with fright, on a desk toward the back of the room stood a very familiar postman, glowing and sparking and wielding a large wooden spoon like it was a magic wand. As he waved the spoon, the things in the air all paused. "Be warned, the wrath of the post office waits for no one, neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night!"
"What," Nya said flatly.
Zane nudged her arm and gestured toward the Postman's feet.
On the desk between the Postman's legs was a split-open package, the insides of which were dripping bits of black-streaked-with-purple goo Nya vaguely recognized from long ago: concentrated evil from the Dark Island.
"So he's corrupted by evil now," Nya said resignedly. She sighed and shook her head. How was this her life again? "Happens to the best of us, I guess."
Zane brandished a set of shuriken, and Nya unsheathed a spear.
"All right," Nya said, angling her spear. "Let's take 'em down."
"Let's stamp them out!" The Postman called, waving the wooden spoon.
At once, all of the objects in the air began spinning again, faster this time, blocking the way toward the other side of the room until even the rows of people in between the two ninja and the Postman could barely be seen.
Nya groaned. "Because it can never be that easy, can it? Okay. You go left, I'll go right?"
Zane nodded and raced forward.
Nya did the same, dodging and slashing through the whirling objects. Or, well, trying to. It wasn't working too well for her, and as she glanced over at Zane, it didn't seem to be working well for him either. There were just too many things in the air to get all of them out of the way at once.
"Regroup!" Nya called, backing up toward the entrance doors.
Zane joined her there, looking at her questioningly.
"We need a new plan of attack," Nya said. "What if…"
Zane grabbed her hand and pulled her out through the doors.
"Hey!" Nya said, digging in her heels for a moment. "We need a new plan of attack, not a new plan of retreat!"
Zane kept pulling, and Nya let him bring her along, confused but trusting him. They left the building and went around the side, then to the back, and as Zane pulled her along and pointed to the various windows that items were still flying in and out through, Nya started to get the idea.
"An ambush from behind," Nya said quietly but with satisfaction. "Nice."
They snuck all the way around the building and peeked in through the back windows, which were open for the objects to whirl in and out through as well.
"Here we go," Nya whispered, and she hopped in through the largest window, Zane right behind her.
The Postman didn't notice them. He swung his wooden spoon back and forth like it was a conductor's baton, orchestrating stamps and envelopes and sheets of paper going here and there, swirling all around the captive people who could barely move because of the onslaught.
"You take the hostages, I'll take the Postman?" Nya whispered.
Zane nodded sharply and sprinted away.
"Hey, Postman!" Nya called.
The Postman spun around.
"I've got a package for you!" Nya said, and she launched her spear at his face.
The Postman dodged it easily, leaning back to let it fly past him, but as he swung back up to face her, Nya gathered the moisture in the air around her hands and began firing balls of water at him.
Swinging his wooden spoon, the Postman batted the water balls away with various cardboard boxes and sheets of bubble wrapping.
Watching over the Postman's shoulder as Zane began evacuating the hostages, Nya advanced, still sending the water at the Postman, but he kept swinging that wooden spoon. She needed to get him to stop doing that!
Or maybe, she needed to get him to just hold still.
With a smirk, Nya feinted forward, like she was about to send a ball of water at his head.
The Postman swung his wooden spoon up to counter.
Just as the Postman's arm reached the highest point of the swing, the wooden spoon as high up as it could go, Nya sent a burst of water toward his feet, but she didn't release her control of it. Instead, she kept the water moving, covering his feet, then his legs, then his torso, then his swung-up arms, all the way up over that wooden spoon.
Then she tilted her head, and the water froze around the Postman, holding him in place.
All of the objects in the air crashed to the ground as the purple glow disappeared. The last few people in the room began to shout and run, all racing for the exit now that they could reach it without. In moments, the post office was empty except for Nya, and the Postman, and…
And Zane, who was standing very still, almost like he'd been frozen too, staring at the Postman with what almost looked like fear on his face.
