by Jesse Wilson
He was hit by a blast of cold air and immediately shut the door. “Holy hell, its cold out there. I'll deal with the monster in a minute, here hold her while I change,” Pen said and casually tossed Tinea to him.
Shane panicked, and instead of trying to catch the blade he got out of the way. “Why did you do that, its rude to throw a magical blade and not catch her,” Tinea said and froze in mid-flight. Shane reached out and grabbed the hilt.
“Sorry, it won't happen again I promise,” he said and did his best to calm down. “If it does I'll cut you, and you know I can,” Tinea replied with a giggle. Shane felt gravity take over and he could move the blade again.
“Let's try to avoid the bloodshed for now, okay,” Shane replied to her, but nothing made him feel good about that giggle.
Pen came back from his room, dressed all in black, wearing his jacket.
“Alright I'm ready,” he said and walked back to the door, but by now he couldn't see the shambler anymore. “All black, man you won't stick out on a bright day like this,” Shane said to him sarcastically.
“I don't care, did anyone see where our smoky friend went to or was no one watching,” Pen said as he looked out the window, but not seeing anyone. He stepped outside and looked around. It was quiet outside like it was before.
If it wasn't for the plume of smoke coming from the distance no one would ever know that anything was wrong at all around here. Pen walked farther out, looking for any sign of life. He turned his head and looked down the street. There it was, still walking in a straight line.
“Hey, black breath, I'm over here,” Pen yelled to get its attention. The man stopped and slowly turned around, starting to walk in his direction at first but then he started to run.
Pen was feeling confident until he looked back at his front door and saw Shane standing there holding Tinea, transfixed by the same sight Pen was seeing, he forgot to bring her along.
“Tinea, I need you for this, could you help me?” Pen asked her in a voice that was being filled with more worry than confidence before turning to look at the charging, possessed thing running in his directly in his direction.
“Yeah, I knew you'd remember me eventually, and Shane, let me go,” Tinea said, Shane did just that but she did not fall to the earth. Instead she flew right to Pen. Shane didn't know if it was how it was planned or just turned out that way but Pen caught the blade with his right hand without even bothering to look.
He pointed it in the creature's direction holding the blade with two hands. “Let's do this,” Pen said, narrowed his eyes, and prepared for battle.
Pen had never been in a real fight in his life. Not once did he ever have to really defend his life from something else. He had no idea what to do next but had a good idea that the pointy end went into the bad guy. The smoke filled human ran towards him but stopped when it was just five feet away, raised its hands and blasted that toxic black fog in his direction.
Not knowing what else to do. He raised Tinea up in defense. Pen was amazed when the smoke flowed around him and dissolved into nothing. “Did you do that?” Pen asked her.
“No, we did it. A blade is powerless without a person. Without you none of my magic works, this is why the blades take people over so they can exist on their own free will,” Tinea replied to him.
“Do we have to kill them?” Pen desperately needed to know the answer.
“No need for murder. I can feel it in you anyway, you're not a killer. If we can manage to knock him out we should be able to break the spell,” Tinea said to him and Pen smiled. “Thank you,” he replied and started a charge of his own turned the blade to its broad side as he did.
He swung as hard as he could, charging through the thing's mindless stream of black fog at the same time. The Tinea's broad side slammed into the side of the head of whoever this was. One solid attack knocked him to the ground.
The minute he hit the ground the aura of black fog dissipated. It was escaping through his eyes and mouth.
“He's still alive but he's going to have a really bad headache,” Tinea said as she scanned him.
“That was amazing, you should have seen you,” Shane said as he ran up to them through the snow. “Yeah, we were pretty great, but we can't leave this guy out in the cold,” Pen said, suddenly feeling sorry about this.
“I'll get his feet and you get the shoulder's Shane, we'll carry him inside,” Pen said and looked at Tinea, “You should turn human again so we can do this,” Pen said, let her go and she did so with a blue flash.
“Don't bother trying to carry him. I'll do it,” she said to them, walked to the fallen man, knelt down and in one swift motion put one arm under his knees and the other under his back, she stood straight up.
“I'm stronger than either of you two are, but it'd be nice if one of you got the door,” she said and started to walk back towards the house. “She really is awesome, you need to keep her around,” Shane said, and was hopeful.
“Yeah, but I don't know if I can get her to stick around, anyway let's focus on the task at hand for now,” Pen replied as he moved ahead and opened the door before she got there.
“Thanks,” she said as she walked through, with Shane close behind her. Pen was the last one in and closed the door behind him.
Tinea carefully laid the man on the couch. “He's just a butler for the castle judging by the uniform, I have no idea who this guy is,” Shane said upon closer inspection of the person they saved.
“Well if he wakes up hopefully he can find a good place to hide,” Pen said and looked at Tinae. “Hey, you can mimic, do you think we can mimic this ex-smoker's powers and use them to our advantage,” Pen came up with a brilliant idea, or so he thought.
“No, I can mimic and alter the powers of other blades, but not their minions, if you want to do that we need to get up and personal with one of them,” Tinea replied and Pen's hopes were dashed instantly. But at the same time he wasn't sure how she took the form of someone she saw on television, either.
“It was a good idea,” Shane said and turned to look back at the television, picked up the remote and turned the channel, turned up the volume to a station that was still on the air. There were more developments, the three of them turned to watch.
Chapter Ten
“All that we know right now is that this is a massive attack from unknown forces. It appears at least seven dreadknight class threats have invaded the city and so far all attempts to stop them have proved useless. Worse each one is creating its own personal army as they travel through the city. Reports say each knight seems to be taking over its own section of the city, but this is unconfirmed—“ Shane muted the television.
“We can't let anyone know that you unsealed Tinea, if they find out and even if they fix it, we'll all suffer for it,” Shane was doing his best to think ahead.
“I think it's kind of obvious that someone screwed up and they'll blame me anyway,” Pen replied to him.
“True, but they won't be able to prove it and that's all that matters,” Tinea said looking out the window.
“Hey, are you alright?” Pen asked her. “Yeah, I'm fine, I just didn't mean for this to happen. I only wanted to be free of the darkness. I didn't think a few hours would be enough to trigger the other blades to be free too,” she said sadly,
Hey, don't worry about it, no one's perfect. We'll figure something out,” Pen said.
Shane looked at Pen's Gamestation he had underneath the television, bent down and picked up a game. “Is now really the time for video games, really?” Pen asked, and was confused about why he'd do this, now of all times.
Shane turned around and held up the cover of a game with a picture of a silver armored person on it, the sixth and most powerful member of the squad. The game was a spinoff of the main series.
“Look at this,” he said and smiled. “What, it's just the Delta Squad spin off game, it's not even that good, what is the point?,” Pen said and didn't see what Shane meant.
“No, you idio
t, it's perfect. Tinea here can mimic things, and if you're so determined to save the world, this is how we do it. She'll be your suit of armor and your weapon. No one will know it's you if they see you, it's perfect,” Shane suggested and the two of them looked at one another.
“You'll mean I'll be inside of…um, that's weird on more than one level,” Pen said and tried to imagine it. “No, friend here has a point, I can totally do it, well sort of anyway, it won't be perfect but I can do it from that cover,” Tinea said and scanned it.
“Alright but if I don't like it we call it off,” Pen said, trying to be positive. Tinea reverted back into a blade, Pen grabbed hold of the hilt.
“Here we go,” she said and Pen winced as the blue light consumed them both.
The butler woke up screaming in a blind panic. His eyes wide with terror. Shane rushed over to him.
“Hey, snap out of it you're okay,” he said to the man who was looking around wildly, scrambling to get away from him and everyone else backing up in the couch.
“Dreadknight, dreadknight,” the butler rambled as he looked at Pen and his panic got worse.
“This one is on our side, relax, it's alright you're safe for now,” Shane said and the butler stopped. “Safe, no one is safe. None of us will live. I've seen it, I've seen it, I've seen it…”the butler said over and over, hugging his knees and rocking back and forth. Shane looked back at Pen.
“I don't think it's going to be alright,” Shane had never seen anyone so scared in all his life. Shane didn't even have the frame of mind to come up with any jokes about Pen being inside a girl.
“No, it's going to be alright, we're going to do our best to make it better,” Pen said and looked at his hand, it was covered in a mirrored surface. He assumed the rest of him was as well.
“We will do our best to fight this,” Tinea said to him but Shane didn't feel any better about any of this, stood up anyway. “We'll need to make a stop first if we are going to do this. I'll need a few things,” Shane said to them. “No, you're going to stay here, lock the doors. I won't get you hurt. If you did I'd never forgive myself,” Pen said and Shane glared at them.
“Melissa is out there, I can't get her to answer the phone and is clear across town. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I left her all the way out there and didn't even try to get there,” Shane complained.
Neither Pen or Tinea could remember him ever trying to make one phone call the whole time this was going on.
“Fine, we'll head to Vasaria first,” Pen reluctantly agreed. “You're too big to fit in your car now like that. I'll drive mine and you can cover me on the way there,” Shane said to them. Tinea, how fast can we run, can we keep up with—“ Tinea cut him off.
“Did you not see me flying earlier, we can fly. We can just take you there as long as you point the direction,” Tinea replied to him. “I'll go put on my jacket and we can go,” Shane said. “I have a face mask in my car, you're going to need it, hurry, it's unlocked,” Pen said to him and Shane rushed past him.
Pen turned to the panicked butler. “Lock the doors after we're gone and don't bring attention to yourself, you'll be fine,” Pen said, but the butler didn't seem to respond or register he was being talked to.
“Great leaving a crazy guy in the house, this is a good idea,” Pen said to himself.
“Hey, it's better than being out there with the monsters, you're saving a person, that's a good thing, remember. This is the reason we're not half way out of town by now,” Tinea replied to him sarcastically, Pen ignored it.
“So, how does this work, do you just fly or do we work together,” Pen asked her. “I'll handle the flying and we'll work together in combat,” she replied to him as Shane came running back inside, his face covered with a black mask. “Pick me up, we gotta go,” Shane said, he sounded worried.
Pen turned to his front door but now the top of it came to his chest. “Damn, I'm huge,” He said and ducked to maneuver himself through the front door without breaking it, he barely made it.
“Nice moves there, Pen,” Tinea complimented him. Shane stood behind him.
“Alright, what happens next we never tell anyone about, ever, alright,” Pen said to him. “Trust me, I won't be telling anyone,” Shane said and with that Tinea took over, scooped him up in her arms as if he weighed nothing at all. “And away we go,” she said. The three of them took off into the bitterly cold air like a bullet.
Shane couldn't help but be scared, he'd never been on an airship before and this was not how he expected his first time to be flying to go.
“Vasaria is on the west side of the city,” Shane said as his teeth began to chatter due to the cold despite all the layers he had on. “Shane, I know where it is, I live here remember?” Pen replied to him, not exactly sure why Shane said that.
Tinea turned west and climbed even higher. From here they could see the true depth of the plague that was crawling into the city.
There were seven sections of the city not counting the castle, people usually counted that as its own part. Of the eight kingdoms, Antacia was the smallest. The harsh northern climates didn't allow for much growth.
“Each of the blades does something different, each one will dominate a section of the city for its own. Despite their differences, they are all on the same side so there isn't a chance we can make them fight one another in the slightest,” Tinea said to them.
“G-great, but I think I'm getting frostbite,” Shane said, greatly overestimating his resistance to the cold and the wind chill. “Can't we do something for him?” Pen asked her. “Yeah hold on I got this,” Tinea replied and started to generate a heat field to protect him. It wasn't particularly powerful but it would keep him from freezing to death at the very least.
“You just have all kinds of tricks,” Shane said, starting to feel a little better. “Yeah, I saw a fire spell on television earlier, I could mimic that effect, but it's not quite the same as it was on television,” she replied to him. “Thanks for saving my friend,” Pen said to her.
“For you, anything,” Tinea said and it sounded like she was smiling. “At least you're a nice weapon of mass personal destruction,” Pen replied.
“Guys, seriously get a room and wait until I don't have to hear that, please,” Shane shook his head, trying to keep the thought out of his head. Before they could say anything Vasaria came into view, from here it looked like it had escaped the chaos that was spreading but, from what felt like a thousand feet in the air, everything looked different than it might on the ground.
“It looks okay,” Pen said and smiled, he hoped maybe they'd have a bit of good luck. “Yeah, Mel's house is right there, it's the bright blue one on the corner there, and do you see it?” Shane asked them, making sure they wouldn't over shoot it.
“Yeah, I see it, we'll get there as soon as we can,” Tinea said as she started to descend slowly. Minutes later the three of them were in Melissa's front yard, Pen set Shane down carefully.
Chapter Eleven
“Go get her big shooter,” Pen said to him and laughed. Shane didn't pay any attention and rushed to the door, it was locked.
“Melissa, are you there, it's me!” Shane said as he knocked on it. There was no answer for a moment, and then the door opened. She was still wet from taking a shower, her black robe wrapped tight around her. Her light green hair still soaked, coming down in strands with just a tiny amount of steam coming off it.
“What the?” she got a good look at the mirrored knight standing in the front lawn and her purple eyes widened. “What in Torax's name is that?” she asked and almost shut the door.
“It's a long story but that's Pen and something very bad has happened,” Shane said in a panic. Melissa was completely unaware of what was going on. Pen never understood what an Elven mage in training would see in a human nobody like Shane, but it wasn't his place to ask.
Actually, he wasn't sure how they even managed to meet. Elves weren't known for their relationship practices outside of other race
s so often.
“Alright, well you'd better come in then,” Melissa said to them and walked back inside of the house. Elven houses were different, bigger mainly because they came from old money. Unlike Pen's, this door was more than tall enough to allow him to walk inside without ducking at all.
“Long story short Pen was picked to be guardian of the Mimic blade and not knowing any better he opened it,” Shane said and Melissa sat down, she was overwhelmed by disbelief and just how stupid a human could be.
“You opened it, I mean, why would you do that. Every school kid knows that the blades are evil and should never be unsealed, it's why we have the holiday for crying out loud,” she said in anger. “Well sorry, but call me a non-believer in tradition who was wrong, we all make mistakes,” Pen said and continued,
“Tinea doesn't seem so bad after all anyway, she made me breakfast,” Pen finished and defended Tinea at least.
“Oh well, great, as long as she made you breakfast then everything is just fine, nothing to worry about,” Melissa said to them.
“Do you want me to kill her, she seems kind like kind of a bitch,” Tinea said to Pen on the inside of the armor. “No, all the elves are high strung like this, they're fine once you get to know them a bit. Besides Shane would never forgive me if we did it,” Pen replied to her.
