Not My Magical World
Chapter 12
With a groan, Harry shifts a tree that lies across him off as his bones squirm beneath his skin, releasing cracks as they pop back into place. Tearing away his tattered upper clothes, Harry watches the bruise on his chest slowly fade.
A flash of blue catches his attention, and he rolls to the side, eyes widening as two thin beams of energy punch into the earth. 'That's concentrated magic.' Flipping onto his feet, Harry looks in the direction of the beams.
Harry disappears in a flash of pale purple light, appearing a fair distance behind his attacker. In a blur of motion, he shoots toward her. Blue beams of energy streak toward him, but he raises his arm to block, wincing as the energy sears his flesh.
Rearing back her left arm, she throws a punch.
Harry swerves out of the way while forcing his will into the earth.
The ground rumbles as four giant Tendrils of hardened dirt shoot up from the ground, pale brown dust following them into the sky.
As the simple dirt constructs shoot toward his attacker, he slams into her from the side, using the opportunity to take her in.
His attacker is 5'4" tall, curvy with pale purple skin, shoulder-length black hair, blue eyes, and a single curved horn emerging from her forehead. Her red Gi flaps in the wind as she dodges his attacks, the golden border gleaming in the sun.
The tendrils of the earth began to snake around her body, but each time they were about to tighten, her limbs blurred, allowing her to slip away.
By the stiff way she moved, Harry could tell she was under some mind control. Despite the way she blurred with supernatural speed, her movements were jerky, making him wonder if she had any combat experience.
A slender fist slammed into one of his earth tendrils, causing it to explode and sending bits of rock scattering in all directions.
'I suppose with strength like that, it doesn't matter if she's had any combat training.'
Veins began to glow with pale purple energy beneath Harry's skin as he blurred toward his attacker, his muscles becoming more defined. For the past six years, he had fought against the weight this world put on him to absorb energy to regain his former strength with little success. Now it looked like all his hard work would be used up in one fight.
Harry swung a fist at her face, and her head blurred to the side, causing his knuckle to graze her cheek. The force behind the blow snaps her head to the side.
Still looking away, she launched a fist at Harry's face. However, air condensed into a shield, and the impact sent a boom echoing through the sky.
–XX –
Calisto sprinted across the ground, her enhanced legs churning up the earth beneath her feet as she closed the distance to the black hole base. She stumbled as a strong wind hit her back. Reaching the wall, she glanced over her shoulder, watching Harry in the strange woman battle in the sky.
She was way out of her league right now, but if Harry was going to take on the stranger, the least she could do was get some information. Backing up, Calisto ran toward the wall. Sprinting up the wall, she grabbed the roof's edge and hauled herself over. Falling onto her stomach, she slowly climbed to her feet and scanned the roof.
Broken glass littered the roof around an iron frame that once held it inside the dome that sat in the center of the space.
Forcing herself not to look back, Calisto moved toward the broken iron of the dome. With a grunt, she pushed the tree that had fallen off the dome.
It impacted the ground with a bang, cracking the concrete and rolling about a foot before stopping.
Giving into her impulse, she looked over her shoulder, catching sight of Harry and the purple-skinned woman locked together. Turning away, she dropped through the dome, reminding herself to hurry. She didn't know if Harry could continue to fight the woman or what the woman would do if she won.
–XX –
Harry broke away from his opponent, watching the bruises and split lip heal over. 'This is not working,' he thought while shaking his hand, 'her skin is hard and absorbs the impact of my punches. The longer we fight, the stronger she becomes.'
His eyes flared purple, and he watched sunlight flowing into her body. 'She is drawing power from the sun, damn.'
The purple-skinned woman shot forward, her fist blurring as she drew close.
Crossing his arms, Harry gritted his teeth at the impact on his bones, filling them creak. He lashed out with his foot in retaliation, only for her to drift backward.
Drifting in a circle, he considered his next point of attack.
–XX –
Landing on the concrete floor, Callisto slipped, throwing out her arm to catch her. It impacted the floor, and she grimaced as something sticky oozed between her fingers. Holding herself in a crab walking position, she flipped back to her feet, her pale blue eyes adjusting to the darkness as the scents of the room finally registered.
Her heart hammered as the coppery scent of blood filled her nose, along with the smell of decaying bodies.
Staring at her hand, she found a reddish-brown stain of old blood. Calisto moved her hand about to wipe it on her pants, but she froze as she caught sight of bodies outlined in the gloom.
"What the hell have I got myself into?"
Moving forward, Callisto crouched to look over the closest body.
Though the body was heavily decayed, she could make out a hole over the heart. Reaching forward, she stopped before touching it and traced her finger around the blackened flesh.
Straightening up, Calisto moved toward the door, pausing to wipe her hand on the wall before walking through.
–XX –
Harry floated back from his purple skin deponent, his chest heaving and sweat running down his body. 'She's not hurting me, even though she could,' his eyes flashed purple, 'especially with how quickly her body is gaining strength.'
The purple energy running through his veins continued to dim, 'but then again, maybe she realized she didn't have to, that my keeping up with her was on a time limit.'
'Harry, can you hear me?'
'Callisto, I'm a little busy right now.'
The purple-skinned woman shot forward, her shoulder-length black hair fluttering out behind her as she closed the distance between them.
Harry's eyes flashed with light as he again tried to read her mind, but like many times before, he found it to be a blank void.
'I know, but listen, there are bodies in here; everyone is dead.'
'In where?' Harry sent back as he knocked her fist away,' You didn't go into the base, did you?'
'Of course, I did. You're flying in the sky; that fights well above my pay grade.'
'Callisto, there could be murderers in there,' Grabbing hold of the purple-skinned woman's wrist, Harry sent a burst of fluorescent blue lightning through her body. The woman flinched, and for just a moment, Harry saw life enter her eyes, and a single thought pierced his mind.
'Please help me!'
'I don't think so; I saw three blurs leaving the facility when we were trying to outrun the destruction of the base as it reentered this reality.'
'What's your name,' Harry telepathically asked the woman before him.
'Jani,' she replied just before her body stiffened and her eyes went blank again.
'We'll talk about this later. Right now, my fight just became a lot more complicated. Be careful while you're in there, and keep me posted on what you find.'
'What do you mean? You know what, never mind.'
Harry felt the connection dim as the now-named Jani closed in on him again.
Blurred punches fired at him from all directions, and Harry raised his hand; a translucent pale purple bubble appeared around his body for a moment.
'Calisto is in that base, facing unknown dangers I brought her. I can no longer conserve my energy.' The pale purple energy flowing through his veins flared as Harry vanished.
Appearing above Jani, Harry cupped his hands together and brought them down on the top of her head. With a boom, she went shooting toward the earth.
Dust shot into the air and trees shifted as she impacted the earth.
Appearing above her, Harry drew back his arm; lightning jumped off his fingers to curl around it.
'Whatever was controlling her was disrupted by electricity. Let's hope it can do it again.'
Jani began to rise as Harry thrust his arm forward. His hand impacted just between her shoulder blades with enough force to generate another boom, and Jani grunted as she was driven deeper into the earth.
Instead of allowing the lightning to run rampant like before, Harry focused on driving it through her nervous system, saying a silent apology if it killed her.
Jani stiffened, her mouth opening in a silent scream as her muscles convulsed while the electricity coursed through her.
Harry's eyes narrowed as his electricity interacted with something along her spine.
'What is that?' Reaching down, Harry tore the back of Jani's G, his eyes widening as he saw the tiny disc implanted into each vertebra. In the center of each disc, a red light flickered.
'The Controls,' Harry mentally snarled as he focused his lightning on the disc.
Jani's convulsions worsened as smoke began to rise from them. One by one, they popped, shooting sparks as they fell to the ground, and Harry said a silent prayer, hoping Jani's growing strength would help her survive this.
–XX –
Calisto moved down the main hallway of the facility, her body numb after what she's seen. Bodies lay sprawled throughout the hallway, blood splattered across the floor and walls like some garish painting.
Every door she passed was bent inward; the interior pushed to one side as if something fast and strong zoomed into the room to kill occupants, 'Why?' Was the thought that kept reverberating through her mind.
By the time she reached the facility's main room, she was numb to blood and bodies. The rancid smell of decay had long since faded from her conscious mind. Dazed, she gazed around her.
Wires hung down from the ceiling, barely keeping the flickering lights from falling to the floor.
Moving deeper into the room, she peered past the swinging lights, squinting at the shadows moving along the far wall.
Shining cables ran down the back wall, hooking into an octagon-shaped device with blue energy radiating from its center. Calisto watched; humanoid figures moved within the light.
She jumped as a blocky face with a curved horn protruding from its forehead appeared, "Please," it begged, "help us!"
Callisto backed away, her hand drifting to her knife holster; she cursed as she once again found it empty.
"Wait," a woman swam into view of the lights, her long hair trailing down her back, desperation etched onto her features, "Please, help us get out of here; they have taken our daughter."
Keeping her eyes locked on the portal, Calisto pushed her thoughts outward, 'Harry, I need your help.'
–XX –
Harry knelt beside Jani, the broken pieces of whatever was attached to her spine orbiting around him. With a wave of his hand, her Gi was stitched together. Falling onto his butt, he stared at the pieces circling him. 'There's no way I can leave her uncontained with her power.' With a flick of his fingers, he separated the metal from the other components.
With a thought, he formed the metals into a thin necklace. Harry placed his hand on the back of Jani's neck as the necklace took shape, "I'm sorry about this, but you cost me a lot of energy." Closing his eyes, he inhaled; beams of yellow-white energy flowed into Harry's eyes and mouth, and Jani's body twitched.
Harry's body relaxed as the warm energy flowed through him; this woman contained half of the power he had absorbed in the last six years.
He opened his eyes, his vision glazed as he stared at the woman; a part of him considered taking her hostage, but he shook his head. Not only would that be morally repugnant, but there was no way he could keep her contained while she absorbed solar energy for him to feed off of.
Without looking, Harry grabbed the necklace. Runes danced along its surface as he brought it closer to Jani's neck.
The necklace would create a light film around her body that would stop her from absorbing solar energy.
A pale light flared around her body when the necklace clicked into place.
Nodding, Harry stood to his feet with a grunt.
Just as he was about to reach out to Calisto, her tense, unnerved voice sounded in his mind.
'Harry, I need your help!'
'Callisto, what's wrong?'
Images flooded his mind, smashed doors, mutilated bodies, blood, a portal with faces inside.
'I'll be right there.'
Turning back to Jani, he knelt beside her, "I'm guessing you are the daughter those people from the portal are looking for. That means I can't leave you here." Hoisting her onto his back, Harry began jogging toward the portal.