by Billy Wong
Sensing that he lied, she said, "Yes it did!" She pointed her sword at his throat again. "Now stay quiet. Gwen, gag him."
"W-what are you doing? You promised you weren't going to harm me, you can't be thinking what I think you are!"
"We aren't going to kill you—unless we really screw this up. But since we don't want you turning into a murderer or an ugly monster for that matter, and I doubt you want that either, we'll have to hurt you hopefully just a little."
"This is bulls-" he got out before Gwen stuffed a rag into his mouth. Sweat glistened on his forehead, and his eyes grew wide as saucers while Meg rolled him to his stomach and drew her sword. He shook his head frantically.
Gwen suggested, "Maybe we should knock him out first?"
"Kind of wimpy to have to be knocked out for what should be a shallow cut. But I guess we could let him choose. Do you want to be unconscious while we operate? A bonk on the head could cause some lasting damage." At her final sentence, he shook his head. "Congratulations for not being so scared as to lose your sense, then." She put her blade to his skin while Gwen held him still, and he whimpered.
#
"How did it turn out?" Rupert asked when they met up again.
"He isn't dead," Meg replied.
"Isn't dead is quite a low bar for success. Is he crippled or something?"
"Nothing of the sort. He won't be able to lie on his back comfortably for a while, but he's fine otherwise. He complained pretty hard about the pain at first, but grudgingly thanked us once he saw what we dug out of him." She held up a small shiny object.
"A metal shard? So that's what was put inside them."
Gwen nodded. "It's very likely what caused the behavioral changes and turned Glen into that creature. Now that I know somebody willfully did this to my brother I have to avenge him."
"It seems the shards have some mobility after leaving the body," Meg said, "though we don't know how far the ones in Hughie and Glen moved on their own or if someone picked them up. Still, this little fellow is about to go in a sturdy iron box."
"Do you have any idea of what it is," Charlene asked, "or where it came from?"
She paused. "The metal looks kind of familiar, but I can't say for sure. Anyway, we'll pay a visit to the city on our next day off and see if we can learn anything at the site of the experiment."
"That sounds risky..."
Rupert squeezed Charlene's shoulder. "Don't worry, we aren't lacking in savvy folks here." She gave a small nod, and he looked to Gwen. "You wear those glasses and use a bow? Would you not be able to shoot accurately without them?"
She took the lenses off with a sad smile. "I don't need them. I just started wearing them to reinforce the outward persona I developed, after people found me too intense coming from my background. But it seems about time I embraced being a warrior again."
"By the way, does anyone else find it a bit odd having one guy among a gaggle of warrior girls? I feel almost like I have a battle harem."
Charlene frowned. "That's not very appropriate! Since when have we acted even close to being your concubines?" Meanwhile, Peggy giggled as if being in on a joke the noble didn't get.
"Pat would make two males if he wasn't hurt," Meg said. "We'd still outnumber you, but it's just coincidence most of the strong fighters who came together here are female. Not likely it's the will of some god or something."
They made to leave, preparing to go their separate ways for now. As soon as they opened the door, however, they saw Sabina Ravensgrave waiting outside with over a dozen guards who formed a half circle blocking their path. "Hand over the shard," she said, extending an open hand. How did she know? Nick who they'd saved had ratted on them most likely, damn him...
Gwen bared her teeth. "Not even trying to hide your corruption, are you? Did somebody pay you off as I expect, or is it even worse and you're part of some big conspiracy?"
The commander gazed impassively at her. "I don't know what you're talking about. That shard is important evidence for our investigation. We are perfectly within our rights to demand it."
"Your legal rights perhaps, but how can we put faith in you to 'investigate' properly when you've shown fuck all progress on that since this all began? I find your motives highly suspect, and we intend to get to the bottom of this ourselves. So you better get out of our way—right, guys?"
"I don't know," Charlene said anxiously, "maybe we should calm down and talk this over. For a scion of the Lyonesse family to partake in open defiance of lawful authority would..." She stopped and laughed. "You know what, that's rather selfish of me to say." Drawing her spear, she pointed it at Sabina. "I stand with my friends. We will find out who or what is behind these killings. If you aren't involved in nefarious dealings, trust in us to do it."
"Leave it to a bunch of reckless kids to do grown up work, running around with their weapons playing at hero? We would be neglecting the duties of our job to allow that."
"She has a point," Rupert admitted. "Even if a few of us are experienced sellswords or... something"—he glanced at Peggy while saying the last—"none of us are professional detectives. We'd be going in pretty blind investigating in the city."
Gwen replied, "Yeah, true. But how can we entrust it to them with their track record?"
"Besides," Meg pointed out, "they aren't professional detectives either. Just a bunch of security guards."
"Hey," one of the men with Sabina said, "I would think security guards are more qualified than teenage students! Besides, don't look down on us, some of those here served with Commander Ravensgrave in the past."
Peggy pulled her wand from its pouch. "I guess we'll see how rusty you veterans are, then. Lolipop Full Scale!" The wand expanded in hand, becoming her giant mace which guards gawked at.
"We're going to do this, huh?" Rupert mused with a look at Meg. "What's the plan?"
She shrugged. "Try not to kill them, since we don't know just how deeply they're involved. But if they insist on standing in our way, feel free to kick their ass. Now let's break through!"
Sabina grinned. "Oh, so you really dare? It's been a long time since I had such intriguing opponents, I welcome your challenge!"
The girls and Rupert rushed the ring of guards, and the hallway erupted with the song of clashing steel.
Chapter 11
Meg and Sabina darted straight at one another, swords clanging together loud enough that some of the other guards winced and covered their ears. "I know you were holding back when we sparred before," Sabina said joyfully, "but so was I! Now let's see how good you really are, monster slayer." The taller woman leaned forward trying to push Meg backward, but she set a foot back to brace herself and held her ground. She wrenched Sabina's blade aside, struck and had it blocked, then launched a high kick intercepted by a hard forearm. Sabina thrust at her and missed, but turned it into a horizontal slash that nicked and cut her arm.
"Not bad, old lady," she mused, drawing a sneer from her rival. She put Sabina on her heels with a volley of jabs, then slipped to the side of her riposte and landed a punch that spun her away. "But for a so-called professional, aren't you enjoying a chance to beat on students a little too much?"
She wiped blood from her lip and smirked. "You're no ordinary student, Meg the Diamond Mouse. When you get to my age you'll know, old hands always want to see if they can still keep up with the young upstarts like yourself."
"I'll gladly be your measuring stick, then!" They clashed again, Meg slashing Sabina's thigh but getting a stab to the hip in turn. She backed up grabbing the wound; though pain twisted the commander's face, she strode after Meg without looking slowed or hindered. This silver-haired old timer was quite good. But when Sabina had a slice at Meg's flank parried and then spun to strike at her from the opposite side, Meg stepped in so they stood too close together to swing their weapons. She headbutted Sabina, bloodying her mouth, but locked her arms around her waist so she couldn't be knocked back. Again she butted her, making her reel on her feet.
&
nbsp; "You midget brat!" Sabina snarled. She raked Meg's eyes, then shoved her away while she yelped. She lunged after Meg, nearly disarmed her with a high chop she barely blocked. Meg stumbled away, blinking to clear her vision. She guarded more strokes, then took a heavy boot to the collarbone that numbed it and knocked her back into a wall. Sabina threw another kick that would've crushed her head against the wall, but she rolled under it cutting Sabina's leg as she passed. The woman momentarily went to one knee with a grunt, but pushed herself right up and turned to resume the contest.
Meanwhile Meg's friends battled Sabina's subordinates. Rupert rapped guards about the limbs with his club, not having attached the axe head in order not to kill or maim them, and they dropped clutching injured legs. Then a scarred, thick-bodied guard took a hit on his arm without reacting and retaliated with a spiked mace, grazing a red line down his chest as he was a hair slow to evade. "You must be one of Ravensgrave's old mates," Rupert said. He backpedaled from whooshing blows, slid the axe head out from under his shirt and hurriedly fixed it atop the cudgel. He whipped the changed weapon at the guard, who jumped back smiling at the prospect of a challenge.
Charlene swayed to the left and then right, dodging spear thrusts from similarly armed guards. She tripped one with her pole and stabbed another in the shoulder, but he grabbed the handle to hold it in place while a colleague sprang at her drawing a sword back. She gasped in anticipation of getting hit, but an arrow from Gwen sprouted in the man's arm and he dropped the blade. Charlene rendered him senseless with a kick to the head and ripped her spear from the flesh of his comrade, who backed away in pain. "Thank you," she yelled to Gwen who ducked a guard's running slash and swatted him about the cheek with her bow.
"Lolipop Small Scale," came Peggy's voice.
"What are you doing?!" Charlene asked as she confirmed the other girl had shrank her weapon down and now tucked it away.
"I keep hesitating to swing Lolipop in fear of killing someone. So I might as well use my fists instead."
"She's abandoned her weapon!" a guard cried. "Should be easy prey now." He charged.
She dodged his attempt to grab her and countered, an uppercut lifting him into the air and hurling him out cold into a knot of his fellows. "Oh really? Don't forget, even unarmed I'm still Pow Pow!" She spun behind another guard and hooked her arms under his. "Dragon God Suplex!" she called out as he flung him over herself. An instant and a thud later, he lay folded in half with his legs above his head. "Tidal Kick!" A man flew across the hall, others scrambling to get out of the way.
Meg continued to duel with Sabina, hissing when the latter got in a slice to her forearm. A kick to the fingers knocked the sword from her grasp, and Sabina's eyes lit up. She cut at Meg's head. Meg ducked and plowed forward into her legs, carrying her backward into the classroom. She drove Sabina into desk after desk knocking them aside, then tossed her onto the last one before the far wall so it broke under her and she crashed down amid its remains. "That's my power double. How do you like it?"
Seeing her opponent start to get up quickly with a growl, she dashed back out of the room to retrieve her weapon. A guard reached down for it in an effort to deter her, but she ran right over him with a knee to the temple and scooped it up. She spun, caught Sabina's descending blade on her own and tried to kick her knee. Sabina evaded with a hop back. "I acknowledge your ability. But don't think you can escape with the shard. Hand it over now and I'll overlook this."
"Not a chance, I'm going to whup you and bring an end to the killings together with my friends!"
"Um guys," Charlene said, "maybe you should stop enjoying yourselves so much and focus on getting out of here? More guards are coming."
Meg glanced in the direction of increasingly loud footsteps to find more men running down the hallway. "Tsk, you already outnumber us and still need to bring in reinforcements? Some sense of fair play."
Sabina winked as they strained against each other. "Consider it respect for your skills. But now it's over!" Too late, Meg noticed she had drawn a dagger. She attempted to twist away, but felt a sharp pain nonetheless as it was plunged into her side. Dammit, she shouldn't have let herself get so distracted... As she staggered, Sabina aimed a spinning kick at her face. Just before it would've connected, the boot stopped in front of her eyes. Meg stared in confusion.
They both looked to see Peggy had caught Sabina's ankle. "What are you doing?" Sabina snapped.
"Sorry to interrupt, but time to bail. Kiss our beautiful world everyone!" Meg and friends threw themselves flat against the floor knowing what she meant, except for Gwen who Charlene had to pull down with her. "Leviathan Tail!" Peggy spun Sabina round and round by the leg, knocking down the closest guards who still stood.
She moved towards the approaching reinforcements and they slowed not knowing what to do. "Don't hit the commander!" one said, and their weapons lowered towards the ground.
"You pesky pipsqueak," Sabina barked, "let go of me!" She tried to slash at Peggy in the middle of being swung.
"Sure thing! Nice play on my initials too, I'll add it to my list." Peggy released her ankle so she went flying into the newly arrived guards, bowling them over. "Guys now, while they're stunned!" Meg and company got up and they ran past the writhing tangle of bodies, Sabina cursing at their backs.
They exited the building, Rupert dabbing clumsily at a gash on his brow with his short sleeve. "Now what?"
Bent with pain as she clutched her side, Meg replied, "The Universal Guard only has jurisdiction over the school, so once we get off campus we should be fine... for the time being, anyway."
Charlene, who bore minor cuts of her own though nothing serious. tugged on her sleeve. "What about Pat? If the guard really are corrupt, leaving him could put him at risk."
"I'll go get him. He isn't that hurt, so push come to shove he should be able to make it out of here." She placed the metal shard retrieved from Nick into Gwen's hand. "In case we don't, you guys carry on the investigation."
"But you're wounded yourself," Gwen said. "Are you sure you can handle it?"
"I'll be fine, Diamond Fang Meg has pushed through injuries numerous times. These are scratches compared to some of the ones I've had."
Rupert smiled. "Yeah, I remember I even hurt you worse when we first met. Guess we should believe in you. Meet back up in the city?"
She nodded, and Peggy added, "Good luck!"
They split up, Meg heading back while the others made for the gate. A pair of guards stood in front of a side entrance to the main building which would take her near the infirmary. "Get out of my way!" She jumped atop one's shoulders, and as he stumbled in confusion dropped his partner with the flat of her blade to his skull. She bashed her pommel into the head of the one she rode, knocking him out as well, and took his sword. Dashing inside, she soon reached the infirmary, where the nurse backed up against the wall upon seeing her with swords drawn. She saw Patrick lying in bed. "Pat, get up! We need to leave now!"
Sticky eyes opened slowly. "Huh, what happened?"
"The guard is after us; I don't know if they're in on the killings or not, but they could be. Let's go already!"
He tried to sit up and winced. "Sheesh, it hurts."
"Enough complaining, it's just a flesh wound. We used to go around with such all the time, remember?"
"All right, all right. Did you at least bring a weapon for me?"
She handed over a sword. "Of course, I do want you to be able to help if we have to fight our way out." They fled back outside, Patrick hobbling from his wound. They started for the gate, but then spotted a pack of guards in front of it. "Might be hard to break through with just the two of us and you in your condition. Let's go over the fence instead. Hope the others made it out." On the way, they encountered a lone guard. Meg rushed, but before she could get to him he put a whistle to his mouth and blew. She knocked him out with a big punch, and afterwards muttered "Shit."
"There they are!" a man's voice said as Sabina and a swarm of guards
ran into view, some looking severely winded.
Meg dragged a slowing Patrick after her to the fifteen foot wall that surrounded school grounds and knelt before it. "Come on, I'll boost you over."
"What about you?"
"Don't worry, this wall is tiny, I can easily make it."
He gave her a dubious look. "Are you sure?"
Sabina and her cohorts closed in. "Just hurry!" Patrick stepped on her cupped hands and she exploded to her feet, throwing him upward. He just touched the top with his fingertips and hung on by them.
"Mouse, this might not have been the best idea," he said in a strained voice while he struggled to keep from falling, much less pull himself up.
"It's Diamond—ugh, never mind." She dodged a slash from a sprinting Sabina who reached her first, and the latter grinned.
"You may be able to hold up against me well enough, but what are you going to do now that you're cornered?" The guards spread out around their leader, hemming Meg in against the wall.
"Even if you did catch me, I don't have the shard on me anymore. So you're not going to stop us from getting to the bottom of things. Are you afraid, Ravensgrave?"
"Hardly. Assuming we actually were guilty of wrongdoing, do you think your friends—a bunch of green kids—are capable of succeeding in their investigation before getting caught?"
She sighed. "Maybe not. When you put it that way, alright, I surrender."
"What?!" Patrick demanded.
Meg dropped her sword. "Got you!" a guard who had crept close to her said, and lunged.
Sabina's eyes widened. "Wait, it's a trap!"
She jumped up over the man's outstretched arms and kicked down, using his head as a springboard to launch herself up. Catching the edge of the wall with one hand, she looped her other arm around Patrick and pulled both of them over. "Pretty attentive of you to notice that was your underling's sword I dropped!" she called back. "But not quick enough."
"Diamond Fang!" Sabina roared after her.
"You didn't realize I handed you my sword?" Meg asked Patrick after they landed among the bushes on the other side. She helped him stand and took back her weapon she had given him for safekeeping. "You seemed legitimately worried I was going to surrender there."
