The Cave 12:35 p.m. Adam POV
Have you ever felt like everyone was staring at you? And there's like, this ton of pressure on you to do something and you just sort of have a mini, internal panic attack? Yeah, that's pretty close to what I'm feeling right now.
This Artemis chick, a young woman in her twenties with short, choppy blonde hair and these bloodshot eyes that STARE into YOUR VERY SOUL, is seriously scary.
As soon as I walk in, she narrows her eyes at me. "You're late."
"Sorry." I mutter in reply. She flicks her hand in a come-here motion. I give a little sigh. It's always me. I dutifully walk over to the center of the room where the others are waiting, including Myra, who gives me a little wave.
I flash her uneasy smile at I walk in a large circle on the floor. "Today we're going to learn about the basic defensive and offensive moves. Thankfully, Adam here has so selflessly volunteered to go first." Across the room, Anaji gives a little stifled laugh. Without looking over, Artemis says "You're next, Anaji."
Before I react, she grabs my arm and pulls on my wrist towards her, then twist it so sharply to the right that I flip over onto the floor.
"That was our first move. I hope you're paying attention."
For the next ten minutes, she continues showing us these basic moves. But I can tell you, it feels nothing like being basic. I can already feel the spots where I'm going to feel sore tomorrow.
"That's about it. I want you to partner up. Myra and Adam, Cassandra and Braydon, Anaji, you're with me." She orders. Anaji gives a glum sigh and plods over to Artemis.
Myra walks over to me and gives me a shy look. "Um, hey." She mutters. This is the first time I've met her. Well, I've met her before, but she was comatose the first time. I hold out my hand and she takes it and shakes my hand. "Hey." I reply back.
She holds out her wrist and we begin to spar. As I pull her down, she says to me,
"So, um, thank you. For before."
I straight her back up and hold out my wrist to her.
"For before? That was nothing." She gabs my wrist and twist it downwards, moving her foot in the same direction.
"Not really. Um, Nora and I wouldn't have made it out without you guys."
"Speaking of Nora, where is she?" I ponder.
"I don't know. Still doing damage control I guess. I hope she's alright." Suddenly, her hand phases right through mine, and she stumbles at the sudden loss of balance. It feels kind of weird, like, tingly. "Shoot!" she mutters.
"Control yourself, Myra!" calls Artemis from holding Anaji in a head lock. "Sorry!" Myra calls back in dismay. She sighs. "Why can't I control my power? My sister could…"
"Sister?"
Myra suddenly pales. " My older sister, she, um, died. She could phase through stuff too. But she was powerful. Really powerful. She could phase through poison and stuff."
"How did she die?"
Myra bites her lip nervously. "I don't remember."
"Oh." Is all I say, and we got back to flipping one another in silence.
After another twenty minutes, Artemis claps her hands. "Now we're going to try actual hand-to-hand combat. Adam, come here, would you?"
Myra sighs with empathy as I walk up to Artemis. Anaji is now sitting down on the floor, nursing a quickly bruising knee.
"The time limit is 45 seconds. The goal is to pin down your opponent for at least three seconds, using the moves you've been practicing. It's Cassandra and Braydon and Myra and Anaji. No powers allowed." She glares pliantly at Cassandra who looks away sheepishly.
She throws a stop watch at Myra who stumbles to catch it as it phases through her hands. "Keep time." She faces me and I take a shaky breath.
"Go." Myra says, and Artemis moves first. She grabs her wrist and faces me sideways, pushing her elbow at me. In a quick reaction, I grab her upper arm, stopping her. She brings her leg down and around, knocking me to the floor. She comes down; bringing her elbow down on my chest. The wind gets knocked out of me, but I don't let her stay on top of me long. I whip around, bringing my legs up and crossing them tightly over her neck.
I throw our combined weight backwards, and we both flip over, with me on top. I pin her shoulders down with my hands, but she does some weird, tricky move that I didn't get and slips out from under me. She brings her leg on a tight kick across my face, and it knocks me to the floor. She doesn't waste a minute, jumping on me.
I bring my legs up and throw her off me, and she skids on the floor. We face another for a moment, and I move in first, bringing my fist in for a punch, which she easily blocks. She then pulls my extended arm towards her, and before I know it, I'm being flipping over her and onto my back.
She flips herself on me, using our doubled weight and pins me down with her arm across my neck and shoulders.
I try to escape to no avail.
1…2…3
"Time!" calls out Myra. Artemis rolls off me at once. "Next." She orders. Myra hands Cassandra the stop watch as Anaji pulls herself off the ground and head to the circle. I limp over to where Braydon and Cassandra are and sit myself down on the floor.
Once they're in the middle of the circle, Myra raises her hand awkwardly. "What is it Dawson?" Artemis sighs.
"Dawson?" I mutter. Myra hold up her right wrist, and for the first time I realize it's in a light purple cast. Artemis pinches the bridge of her nose. "How did that happen?"
"I kinda phased through the roof."
"Are you right handed?"
"Well, yes."
"Sit down, Dawson. You too." She nods at Anaji. Myra and Anajii both trudge back to our little group. "Dawson?" I mutter to Anaji, who shrugs pointedly at me.
We end up practicing for the next two hours, versing one another in longer matches. Myra gets control of the stopwatch as we fight it out with one another. The entire time, I can feel Artemis's eyes on me. It's honestly really freaky.
When it's over, all of us are completely drained. "I'll see you all tomorrow." Says Artemis, and we all groan.
Braydon gasps for air. "Jesus Christ, even my bruises have bruises." Anaji laughs and then winces. "I'm gonna need some divine intervention and some painkillers."
I stretch myself out, and I'm about to leave when Artemis suddenly calls out to me,
"Adam. C'mere. I need to speak with you." I give the others on the floor a "what did I do?" look. Myra shrugs at me, the only one who saw my look. I walk over to her.
"What's up?"
"Do you have a passport?"
Blue Valley 12:37 a.m.
"Brandon, go with Nora, take Mae, and get them out of here!" Yuri ordered to her husband.
There was a large gash across her face, the dried blood accenting her look of stubbornness. Another explosion rocked the makeshift shelter of a turned over car. Nora was panting, trying to support the weight of an unmoving man on her shoulders. For the past few hours, there was nothing but bloodshed.
It was Kenny who had heard the cries of help from people trapped in the rubble of an apartment. They had only been able to pull out a man and a woman before it completely collapsed in on itself. Kenny herself had been injured in the process, and was now leaning on Black Canary's shoulders.
Brandon met his wife's stubbornness with his own. "No, I'm not leaving you."
Yuri narrowed her eyes. "Yes, you are."
"You go with Mae. I'll stay here and get the others out."
"Don't you dare!" Mae, from her mother's arms started to give a little cry at her mother's harsh tone. Suddenly, Yuri lighted up, and looked down on her child with a look in her eyes only a mother could have, then looked up at Brandon.
"I'm not leaving Mae without a parent. Take her and go. I'll follow behind you if Nora keeps the portal open. Go, please." Without another word, Yuri handed Mae over to Brandon. Nora was sweating with effort. "Can we get going, please?"
Brandon skillfully held Mae in one arm and pulled the unmoving woman up with another. Black Canary went through the portal first, followed by Nor and lastly Brandon, who gave a lingering look at Yuri before he disappeared.
As soon as they left, Yuri sighed with relief. Now they didn't have to see this part. She slowly took her left hand from her stomach, and the blood started to flow freely from her abdomen.
She pulled a watch from her lab coat pocket, then too off the lab coat and tied it around her waist to stem the blood. She strapped the watch on and set the timer to ten minutes. She then pulled the sticks of C4 from her shoe.
"I love you both. I love you both so very much." She muttered, a single tear running down her cheek. She sniffed, and then straightened up, seeing her target. Ten minutes later, the world was rocked by a fiery explosion that took out both sides weapons, and the portal closed.
Yuri never came home.
Hey guys! I'm sorry for several things! I'm sorry for not updating in almost a week, I'm sorry for the chapter for being so short, I'm sorry for this chapter r being full of cliff hangers (hahaha, okay, not really!) I'VE been at a television production convention called STN.
We competed in this 16 hour completion called Sweet 16. We got our flash drive in about 20 minutes before the deadline! It was terrifying…
Anyways, thank you to SpunkyGirl6487 for being awesome! Please go check out her story The Targets! I'm still accepting Villains, PM only!
DO NOT say you can't wait for your character to show up, cameo or not. I will make them wear a bra and panties in public, regardless of gender.
I'm serious.
Thanks to again SpunkyGirl6487!
REVIEW OR DIE!
Peace and Mist,
Rlb190