We were surrounded. I desperately looked for a way to escape, but there simply wasn't an opening anywhere. There was only one way out: to fight our way.
It has been five years since we defeated Giygas, an evil extraterrestrial being whose power was so great that it destroyed his own body, his own mind, transforming him into a shapeless form that could only be described as the essence of evil itself.
Despite surviving the battle, we didn't make it out unscathed. We all came out with scars, both physical and mental. I knew that on our own, we'd deteriorate completely, falling into madness. That's why we'd all made a pact to stick together and stay close.
Paula and I stayed the closest. On my fifteenth birthday, the day we made the pact, I asked Paula to be my girlfriend, and we've been together ever since.
Now here we were, the two of us, out on a walk at night when we were suddenly ambushed, surrounded by none other than blue-cloaked men.
The Happy-Happyism cult was a corrupt organization bent on painting everything in the world blue…for some reason. Frankly I wouldn't mind it so much if it weren't for that incident back before we fought Giygas.
That was when we first met, Paula and me. She had been kidnapped by the Happy-Happyists for use as a human sacrifice. I can still hear her desperate plea for help echoing through my mind as it did the day she telepathically called out to me. I didn't know who she was, or what I was getting into by running to her rescue, but at the time I didn't give it a second thought.
When I finally did make it to her, well, I can't deny that I was in love. I remember thinking in that moment how embarrassing it would be if she were to read my mind right then, which she very well could have done, and see how love-struck I was.
The Happy-Happyists started to edge closer. My grip tightened around my bat, white-knuckled. I looked behind me to see that Paula had done the same with her frying pan.
Strange items to take on a walk, I know. But we'd learned years ago during the battle with Giygas that anything could happen, and so we never went anywhere without a backpack full of things to protect ourselves with.
One of the cultists lunged forwards, a paintbrush tipped with blue paint in his right hand. I knocked him in the gut with my bat, causing him to double-over, which I then followed-up with a bludgeoning straight to the head.
Behind me I heard Paula's frying pan impact with something; hopefully a cultist's face.
A few more cultists advanced on me and I continued to fend them off with my bat. After clobbering four of them into submission, I noticed some blue paint stroked across the wood of the bat. I paid it no heed and continued fighting.
It all seemed to be in vain, like trying to fight off an ocean. Somehow, more of them filled the space where one had fallen. A sea of blue caps closed in tighter, suffocating us, constricting us like a boa preparing to feast.
Paula and I fought on, not daring to stop. I soon found myself growing tired and I could sense Paula wavering as well. Surely this was some awful dream, a nightmare surfacing as a symptom of the poison Giygas had placed into my mind?
I shook my head, trying to wake up, but the cultists were still there. I head Paula scream. I snapped my head around to see her being subdued by five of the cultists.
"Paula!" I cried out. I was cut off when I felt a paintbrush lick its way over my cheek, slathering blue paint across the right side of my face.
I knocked one of the cultists on the head with my baseball bat, but it was a weak hit driven only by an ounce of desperation I still had in my tired body. The cultist got up and shoved me back.
I sprawled onto the ground and tried to recover but was quickly pinned down by more of the blue men. I looked up to see Paula being pinned down as well. Her frying pan was tossed away, along with my bat. I pointed two fingers, my index finger and my middle finger, outwards, folding the other fingers inwards. I focused my mind; my body may have been tired, but my mind was sharp as ever. I closed my eyes, ignoring the feeling of paintbrushes being swept across my body, and focused.
In my mind I saw a single flame sprout to life. I willed the image to grow, until it was the size of a torch light. I opened my eyes, and there it was; the same flame from my mind, dancing across my fingers. I looked over at my targets, ready to launch the flames forwards and burn them to a crispy blue barbeque.
I wasn't prepared for the image I saw.
The cultists had pulled Paula up off the ground, restraining her. A cultist was on each side of her, holding back one of her arms. Her blonde hair was in a mess from the resistance she put up, and her face had some dirt and a few blue streaks across it.
She kicked her legs to each side, trying to loosen the grip of the two cultists that held her arms, but a third cultist came up behind her and fastened her ankles together with a piece of rope.
I aimed the flame at the one on her right, about to blast it forth, but found I wasn't able to. I couldn't take the chance of harming Paula.
"Ness, do it!" she cried out. I could tell in her voice that she was trying not to cry.
"Go ahead, Ness. Do it." one of the cultists said. The two restraining Paula tightened their grips on her.
I was still pinned down to the ground belly down. The cultists that had me on the ground had stopped painting my clothes blue in order to watch the transaction take place.
I clenched my teeth and closed my eyes, willing the image of the flame to snuff out, as did the one that had danced on my fingers.
I was certain that underneath their hoods, the cultists were smiling smugly at their triumph.
I laid my head on the ground and closed my eyes, demoralized.
"Ness…" I heard Paula say. Then I heard her begin to cry.
"Come on, let's get her back to HQ. Now that our cause has resurfaced, we will once again have need of her." I heard a cultist say.
I gasped and opened my eyes. They meant to attempt a sacrifice again.
Paula started shouting and I knew she was struggling to escape.
That's when I saw the fire in my mind once again.
A burning rage pulsed through me and gave me newfound strength. I rolled over and blasted one of the cultists in the face with a fireball, freeing my other arm, with which jabbed the same two fingers into the chest of the cultist on my left, sending electric shocks through his body until he collapsed. I sat up and blasted the two restraining my legs with more fireballs. I got to my feet and whirled around.
A group of cultists has broken off, dragging Paula with them. I started towards them, only to have a fallen cultist grab my leg and pull me to the ground. I shook him off and stood up to find myself surrounded once again, albeit with much less enemies than before.
I started punching and kicking them, blasting them with fire and electricity.
With as much ferocity as I fought, they had twice as much with their strength combined.
They started relentlessly slathering blue paint all over me. I called out to Paula, called out for help, hoping anyone would come to help. Soon I collapsed on the ground, completely blue and exhausted. I heard the fast-paced, retreating footsteps of the remaining cultists as they hurried off to rejoin the rest of the group.
I heard one final set of footsteps, except it was coming from behind me and they were getting louder, as if someone was coming towards me. I blacked out, certain that they were here to finish the job.