Was the fight really over that quickly and easily?
I guess I should have known better.
Isaac’s Cerberus form shimmered and morphed, changing back to a man’s form. It wasn’t Isaac’s normal body, though. The form trapped in my force bubble glowed green and white, and wore tattered clothing. It leapt right through my force field as if it didn’t exist.
Isaac’s new shape, obviously a ghost, flew toward me like a heat-seeking missile. I wasn’t overly worried, though. What was a ghost going to do to me? Yell “Boooo!” and scare me to death?
Isaac’s ghostly fist reared back. Before I could react, he changed again. I caught a glimpse of a huge man with the head of a giant horned bull right before Isaac hit me with an uppercut that made me feel like I had been hit by a two-by-four.
Fortunately I was smart enough to have my personal shield up, or else Isaac could have used me as a model if he ever decided to transform into the Headless Horseman. Even with my shield up, though, Isaac’s minotaur form hit my shield so hard, I felt much of the force of the blow despite the shield.
I was launched into the air by the powerful punch. Before I could exert my will to slow myself, I slammed into and then through the walls of a skyscraper high above where I had started.
I landed hard on the floor of the building’s interior, my momentum making me tumble across the floor like a human tumbleweed. I slammed into chairs and desks before finally skidding to a stop against a bookshelf.
The bookshelf teetered. Before I could roll out of the way, to add insult to injury, the bookshelf fell on top of me. I was pelted with a hailstorm of books.
I groaned, buried under a pile of books. I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck. Though what I really wanted to do was take a fistful of aspirin and then a nap, I had to get up. The fight wasn’t over.
I lifted the bookcase off me with my powers. I threw the bookcase across the room in a fit of pique. I was more than just a little disgusted that I had let Isaac get close enough to me to ring my bell. I sat up. Books fell off me like ornaments off a Christmas tree. Maybe I should have taken a moment to skim through someone of them. Maybe one of them was entitled How To Defeat Your Best Friend Who Has More Tricks Up His Sleeve Than Houdini.
Somehow, I doubted it.
I gingerly stood up. I levitated above all the debris my chaotic entrance had caused. I floated over to the gaping hole in the wall I had punched through. I landed in front of it. I cautiously stuck my head out of the jagged hole. The wind whistled in my ears. I was pretty high up, many stories above ground level. I didn’t see Isaac. I was so high up, though, seeing him from here would be like spotting a tiny ant on the floor while you were standing on top of your bed.
I was about to extend my powers out to scan the area for the feel of flesh and blood when, suddenly, there was no need. Isaac rose up in front of me like something out of a nightmare.
I knew Isaac was capable of turning into a dragon, but I had never seen him in that form before. I wished I wasn’t seeing it now.
His massive dragon shape was as big as a house. His blood-red body looked like the monstrosity that would be spawned if a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a giant red snake had a baby. His scales, the size of dinner plates, glistened wetly. His massive red and black batlike wings flapped powerfully in the air, blasting me with heat. It felt like I was standing in front of a kiln.
A kiln with rows of needle-sharp fangs, a stench that would gag a skunk, and huge burning eyes that had malevolent slits for pupils.
This monstrosity was my friend. I knew that intellectually. However, the monkey part of my brain, the part of my genetic inheritance that was a holdover from more savage times that was still afraid of heights, the dark, and monsters that went bump in the night, didn’t know this dragon was my friend. It thought this huge scary monster was going to eat me.
That monkey part of my brain made me freeze in front of the dragon in irrational fear.
The dragon opened its maw, exposing more sharp teeth as long as my arm. It let out a roar that was like the horn of a thousand approaching freight trains. The sound hit me like a brick wall. It deafened me. I took a couple of steps back at the power of it. The accompanying stench made me want to throw up. I felt the building shake under my feet.
Flames burst out of the dragon’s mouth like they had been shot out of a bank of flamethrowers. They engulfed me like I had been plunged into Hell.
By now, though I was still afraid, I was no longer paralyzed with fear. I could have dodged the flames. But, I did not. Using them on me was a tactical mistake on Isaac’s part. He knew about how I had absorbed and redirected the energy of the mall bomb. But, hadn’t seen me do it. Being told about something and actually seeing that something in action were two very different things. It was the difference between hearing about a concert and being there.
I absorbed the energy of Isaac’s flames like a thirsty sponge. I was filled with so much strength and energy from Isaac’s powerful fiery blast, I felt like a fully charged battery.
The flames coming from Isaac’s mouth shut off. Though the building around me was now on fire, I was completely unhurt. I was better than unhurt. I so brimful of force and vigor, that I felt myself grinning like a madman at the headiness of it.
Maybe it was my imagination, but I thought I now saw fear in Isaac’s reptilian eyes. If he was afraid, he had reason to be.
I was about to give him a taste of my new powers.
I shot out of the hole in the building like a launched rocket. Isaac tried to claw me with his sharp talons as I approached him. I dodged the talons easily. The dragon shrieked in frustration. Thanks to the energy I had absorbed, my reaction time and speed had been increased exponentially. It was as if Isaac was moving in slow motion by comparison.
I literally flew circles around Isaac, moving to position myself behind him. I grabbed his tail, right in front of the triangular black tip that was on the end of it. Isaac’s scales burned my hands before I quickly made my force shield impervious to heat.
Feeling as strong as Hercules thanks to all the energy I had absorbed, I held onto Isaac’s tail in my tight grip. I started spinning in a circle, faster and faster, until everything was a kaleidoscopic blur around us. Even Isaac’s massive roars of pain and confusion were soon muted by the rushing wind.
I picked out a big black blur a bit off in the distance as I spun like a top in mid-air. I aimed. I let go of Isaac’s tail.
Isaac shot away from me and toward the rectangular skyscraper I had aimed him at like a big red bat out of hell.
KABOOM!
He hit the side of the building with a sickening smack. The big building shuddered as if an earthquake had hit it.
Isaac’s dragon body clung to the side of the building for a moment like a gigantic iguana. Then, he started to fall, his big body peeling off the side of the building like a postage stamp with bad adhesive. His now-tattered wings fluttered around him as he fell.
Seconds later, he hit the ground far below like a sack of bricks. A cloud of dust rose up from the impact. I stayed where I was, floating high above the ground, watching carefully to see if the fight was over.
It wasn’t over, though. Once the dust cleared a little, I saw Isaac, still in dragon form, in the middle of a crater. He clawed the air like a beetle turned over on his back. Though his roar was weaker than before, it was not the roar of defeat.
I marveled at his fighting spirit. Despite Isaac’s often goofy persona, he really was a tough bastard.
I hadn’t even come close to using up all the energy I had absorbed from Isaac. I channeled more of the pent-up energy. My eyes burned. Beams of energy shot out of my eyes. I used the beams to cut through the top of the building I had thrown Isaac into. The powerful beams cut through the building like a hot knife through butter.
I then grabbed the top of the building with my mind. It was probably about the top fourth of the structure. I shifted the massive weight toward where Isaac lay thrashing belo
w. Once the angle was right, I released my hold on the building fragment. Gravity would do the rest.
The top of the building fell like something out of a disaster movie. It smashed into Isaac like a sledgehammer. The crash was so terrific, it sent vibrations through the air. Even floating high up as I was, I felt the vibrations in my bones. Another cloud of dust rose up, this one bigger than the one before.
The surge of adrenaline I had been feeling tapered off a bit. I suddenly got worried. Had I gone too far in the heat of the moment? Though Isaac was my opponent, more importantly, he was my friend. He was the brother I never had. I didn’t want to seriously hurt him. Or worse.
I touched down on the street not too far from the pile of rubble I had caused. The still-settling dust burned my nose. I was about to start lifting the rubble to make sure Isaac was okay. Then, I stopped myself. Had I learned nothing from my fight with Hitler’s Youth? Just because it seemed like your opponent was beaten, that didn’t mean he was.
I cast a mental probe deep into the rubble, probing for flesh and blood.
Nothing. Despite checking thoroughly, I found nothing.
I was about to take flight again to get out of the range of a possible attack when I felt an excruciating pain in my chest. It was what I imagined a severe heart attack felt like.
I looked down to see someone’s arm sticking out of my chest.
I slumped forward, partly to get the arm out of my chest, and partly because it was so hard to stand. As I fell to my knees, the arm cut through my body like a dull saw, leaving mind-numbing pain in its wake.
I rolled onto my back, clutching my chest. Isaac was behind me with the arm that had just been in my chest extended. He was back in human form. Well, not quite his human form, actually. His body was darker than usual, as if he was a computer image with the screen brightness turned way down. I could see through him, too. My legs, squirming in pain, kicked right through him as if he was an illusion.
Isaac’s costume was in tatters, and much of his skin was exposed. He bled like someone had taken a thousand razors to him. Despite the pain he must have been in, he smiled grimly down at me as I twisted on the hard asphalt. His teeth were stained with blood.
“My wraith’s touch sure does sting, doesn’t it?” he asked.
I didn’t answer. I was too busy clutching my chest and writhing in pain.
“I guess the fight’s over. I win,” he said.
Again, I didn’t respond. I started gasping, like I was hyperventilating.
Isaac’s face grew from looking grimly satisfied to looking concerned.
“Dude, are you all right? Maybe we should get you to the infirmary. You’re having an unusually strong reaction to my wraith’s touch.” He bent over me. He turned substantial.
As soon as I saw Isaac was solid again, I twisted, sweeping Isaac’s legs from under him. He toppled over with a startled cry, hitting the street hard. Though I was in a heck of a lot of pain from what Isaac had done to me, I had been exaggerating to get him to turn corporeal again.
I sprang on Isaac like a cat onto a mouse before he could change forms again.
Isaac and I rolled around on the ground, pummeling each other like schoolboys in the playground. Everything was happening so fast. Between that and the residual pain caused by Isaac’s wraith attack, I couldn’t concentrate enough to bring my powers to bear. I suppose Isaac was in the same boat. He was obviously in pain from what I had done to him, plus I wouldn’t let up my current attack on him. I was on him like white on rice.
Wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, judo, and several other martial arts we had both trained in until our minds were numb and our bodies were spent all came into play. Isaac and I proceeded to beat the hell out of one another. Neither of us was willing to give up or give in. We fought like wildcats trapped in a bag for what felt like hours, but what was probably a lot less than that.
At one point, I let go of Isaac’s arm, freeing up my hand so I could take advantage of a perceived opening. But before I could do so, Isaac cracked me on the side of the head with his elbow.
I saw stars and then blackness.
When I could focus my eyes again, I was leaning against the glass door of a building next to the street. I had no memory of how I got here. My chest still hurt from Isaac’s wraith attack. My lungs burned. I felt like I had been put into a burlap bag and beaten with a stick. A couple of my teeth seemed to be missing. I tasted pennies in my mouth.
Isaac was two feet away, leaning against the same glass door. If I looked as ragged as he did, I was in a sorry state indeed.
Isaac said something. I only knew that because his busted lips were moving, not because I could hear him. There was a dull roar in my ears. I was so tired, I could barely move. My eyes kept trying to close.
A sidewalk is as good a place as any to take a nap, I thought sleepily. I wonder why I’ve never napped on concrete before. It looks so comfy. I started sliding down the door toward the ground.
Isaac was still saying something. Now there were three of him, all saying something. It seemed important, though I couldn’t remember for the life of me why. With a herculean effort, I stood up straight again.
I shook my head to clear my ears a little.
“Keep your goddamned eyes open and take a swing at me,” Isaac was saying. His voice didn’t sound quite right. He seemed to be missing teeth, too. Tooth decay was a real bitch. We both needed to brush more.
“Huh?” I was having a hard time focusing.
“I said hit me, you dolt!”
I wanted to ask him why he wanted me to hit him. We were best friends, after all. Friends didn’t hit one another.
Then again, he did just call me a dolt. Plus, if a friend asked you to do something, you really ought to try to do it.
With an effort, I balled my right hand into a fist. I took aim at the third Isaac, the one on my left, because he was the closest. I hit him as hard as I could.
My punch might have been forceful enough to squash a caterpillar, but only if it was a particularly sickly one. My body followed my fist, hitting Isaac like a wad of thrown paper. We both collapsed into a heap on the sidewalk.
I knew it! I thought triumphantly. Concrete is comfy! It’s the dirty secret mattress manufacturers have been hiding from us.
That was the last thought I had. The darkness that had been steadily closing in around me swallowed me like I was Jonah and it was the whale.
26
When I opened my eyes, I was lying in a bed in the infirmary. Neha stood over me. Concern was on her face like it was written there in big fluorescent letters. Her left arm was in a sling.
For a few confused moments, I thought I was in the infirmary in the Old Man’s mansion, waking up after that bomb had exploded in my face. When I painfully turned my head and saw Isaac lying in another infirmary bed a few feet away, everything that had happened came flooding back into my mind. Isaac looked like he had been in a barehanded brawl with a grizzly bear. I imagined I looked much the same. God knew I felt the same.
Isaac’s bloodshot eyes were open. They met mine.
“Who won?” I asked. My throat hurt. My voice came out in a whisper.
“I have no idea,” Isaac said. His eyes flicked over to Neha. “Chatty Cathy over there won’t tell me.”
“I can’t tell you because I don’t know,” Neha said. Isaac looked like he didn’t believe her. “I’m telling the truth. Whichever of you won, though, it’s caused quite a stir among the proctors. Everywhere I go I see them whispering urgently to one another like they’re Cold War spies who’ve discovered a nuclear attack is imminent.”
“How long have I been out?” I asked.
“A little over two days,” Isaac said. “I myself woke up just a few hours ago.”
Two days? My eyes shifted back over to Neha. I glanced at her arm in the sling. Her final test had been scheduled to take place the day after ours.
“Did you pass?” I asked.
Neha nodded. Her face split
into a happy grin.
“Say hello to the newest licensed Hero. Well, technically, I’m not a Hero yet as I haven’t been sworn in yet. But still. I’d have you two bow and kiss my Hero’s cape, but I haven’t gotten it yet. Besides, neither of you is in a condition to stand, much less bow.” Neha’s nose wrinkled. “You two really did a number on one another.
“Speaking of which, I promised to go fetch Pitbull so he can talk to you once both of you were conscious. I’ll go get him now.”
Neha hesitated, glancing at Isaac in embarrassment. She bent over and kissed me on the forehead before walking quickly out of the infirmary.
I wished she hadn’t kissed me in light of how Isaac felt about her. In her defense, she didn’t know that though.
“When I woke up, all I got was a hug from her,” Isaac said. “Which, by the way, caused so much pain I almost called for Doctor Kevorkian. And you get a kiss?” Isaac started to shake his head. He winced, and evidently thought better of it. “There really is no accounting for taste.”
“In Neha’s defense, you do look like a plate of vomit right now. I wouldn’t want to kiss you either.”
“When you have a minute, take a look in a mirror. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.”
“Why do you have to bring race into everything?”
After a short while, Pitbull, Brown Recluse, and Lotus came in, trailed by Neha. The three proctors stood at the foot of my and Isaac’s beds. Neha went to stand quietly by the wall, probably hoping Pitbull would forget she was there so she could hear everything.
Lotus and Brown Recluse stood slightly behind Pitbull. Though his face was impassive and his eyes had that faraway look they always did, Lotus looked down and winked at me. In light of the fact I had punched him, I didn’t know if that was a good or bad sign as far as me getting my license was concerned.
Pitbull didn’t ask us how we were feeling. Maybe he didn’t care.
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