As the two celebrate, they are covered in a small translucent green cube that gives them barely enough room to move. When they recognize what has happened, Dan begins to bang on the walls of the prison.
“What da fuck? Did we get eliminated?”
A thin woman emerges with a nervous smile on her face. “I can’t believe that worked! No one ever expects the Defender to not be on the front lines! I appreciate those idiots for taking the hits for me!”
Dan looks at the woman with a deadpan yet confused expression. “If you jest a Defender, what you plan to do about takin’ us out. I mean, we in here and you out there. The second you drop this shield we gone beat dat ass.”
The woman was clearly unimpressed by Dan’s confidence and commentary, the snarl on her face being evidence of such. “I don’t have to do anything you shithead! Why do you think that barrier is so small?! It is airtight! You don’t have much oxygen in there. All I have to do is wait and you are both done.”
“For reals? You can do dat kinda shit? Wait, ain’t somebody else jest gone come by and beat dat ass while you waitin’?”
The woman stomps her foot in annoyance as Dan presses himself up against the wall holding him. Stefani was running through every option in her head. She knew that she could easily dispatch the woman, but then she would also be doing the same to Dan. She had never worried about the aftereffects of her victims, so she would be extremely embarrassed and remorseful if she ended up eliminating Dan in the process.
With her attention focused on Dan being a nuisance, the woman failed to take notice of anything else, inside or outside her prison. Because of this, it was no surprise that she screamed with fright, jumping awkwardly into the air like a started cat when she heard the dry, but intrigued deep voice next to her.
Appearing seemingly out of nowhere, Anaar taps on the shield bemused. “Huh. Interesting idea. Too bad for you this thing isn’t even close to airtight. I’m not even sure where you got that from. If it were, sound wouldn’t be passing though so freely. Oh! Was that actually a lie?! Nice attempt at a ploy!”
The woman turned white as a ghost, looking up at the giant of a man in horror. Of all the people who could arrive, it would not only be a friend of her captives, but someone she was absolutely no match for. She was rendered completely paralyzed as her mind tried to understand how someone his size had appeared so suddenly, directly next to her without even the slightest of sounds. She also could not figure out why she was still standing, completely unharmed as he continued studying her barrier.
“Dan, are you just going to keep standing there, or are you going to end this already?”
Not at all surprised Anaar had easily seen through what he was doing, the scrap of paper that had traveled down his leg to the edge of the barrier and had been burrowing its way underneath, launched itself from the ground, directly into the woman’s neck. Quickly wilted by the gushing blood, it lost much of its potency before it had the opportunity to do much damage. The woman staggered to the ground, holding her neck to prevent the spray of blood.
“Dan! What are you trying to do? Kill the girl?”
Pulling at a tuft of hair nervously, “I ain’t mean it. I was kinda jest like, ‘Get da bitch!’”
Luckily for them, the response team was extremely quick, dashing through to stabilize and depart with the woman within seconds of her falling. With the woman gone, the two friends, happy to see Anaar, found themselves with a much larger problem.
Stefani, who had been mute throughout the entire exchange as she continued thinking through their options, was the first to speak. “Guys, I know I’m not the best at this stuff, but why is this barrier still here? Isn’t she gone?”
Dan suddenly became aware of situation as well, while Anaar’s face brightened with realization. “That’s who that was! I knew we had a Defender capable of self-sustaining barriers, but I had never met her.”
“Whachu mean, self-sustaining?”
Stefani shot Dan a withering glance, him immediately understanding his mistake. “Barriers are probably the simplest of constructs, meaning they are able to do a lot without much need for specific programming. As such, they will simply continue to exist as long as they have the energy source to persist, or they are of course destroyed. For a barrier user, they typically aren’t inherently taxing, but the larger, stronger, or more of them there are, the ‘weight’ if you will, continues to increase. If the weight becomes too much, the Defender loses control of the shield, and if they are lucky it just dissipates. If they aren’t it explodes.”
“You still ain’t said why we cain’t get out.”
“Oh, yes, that part. While it is very simple theoretically, creating a self-sustaining barrier is quite difficult in practice. If a person was to get too far away or become incapacitated, the energy source for the barrier would disappear. A self-sustaining barrier is like having something run on batteries rather than being plugged into the wall. Even though she is gone, it still has power left in the reserve.”
Stefani became immediately panicked at Anaar’s words. “So we just have to stay in here until its battery runs out?! What about us suffocating?!”
Anaar gives her a dismissive wave. “Of course you don’t have to wait. Plus she was either bluffing or really confused, because this thing isn’t close to airtight, hence the fact we are comfortably having a conversation. Who makes a barrier prison and doesn’t complete it?! She was just asking for you to escape. Dan, you should probably shield yourselves.”
“Why I need to-”
Dan began to question the purpose, but Stefani was far more sensitive to the implied meanings of Anaar’s words. Gripping his arm so hard her nails bit into his skin, The paper quickly swirls around them, wrapping them tight and binding them together. With what looked to be a light flick of his finger, Anaar hits the barrier, resulting in a massive explosion that sends the cocooned Dan and Stefani flying clear of the blast zone.
Bursting from the paper, Dan and Stefani see Anaar standing in the same spot, tapping his foot as if he were waiting forever for them to emerge. The two of them shake the stars from their vision as they make their way back to Anaar. Dan’s eyes bulge as he looks incredulously at Anaar.
“What da fuck was that?!”
Shrugging absently as he turned away, “You didn’t want to stay in there forever did you? What did you expect from a shield with its own power source? Think lithium ion batteries and explosions. Time to go.”
A confused Stefani stops Anaar as he is walking away. “Wait! That is the way we came from. You are going the wrong way.”
Turning back, looking first to Stefani, then to Dan with narrowed eyes, “No I’m not. You must have been following Dan. You know he has a terrible sense of direction. We are headed where we need to be going.”
Rubbing his neck with a bashful expression, Dan follows obediently behind Anaar like a puppy. A shocked Stefani looks on at Dan angrily.
“You knew we were going the wrong way the whole time?!”
“Nah, not really, but I did know I got shit for a sense of direction. We’d best follow Anaar.”
Huffing, Stefani decided to hang back as she let her annoyance with Dan abate. Taking the opportunity to continue her healing, she began to hum to herself. Sad that her stamina regeneration abilities had dramatically diminishing returns for herself, she appreciated having another person with her so she could recover in that way as well. Now a party of three, Dan and Stefani followed Anaar to their next destination.
◆◆◆
Without any verbalizing, both Stefani and Dan were completely at ease being in the company of Anaar. As such, they began to chat incessantly, so carefree one would think they were having a casual lunch at the Cafeteria.
“This Melee has been much more exciting than the last one, wouldn’t you say so?”
Nodding vehemently, “Shore has been. I ain’t spect to be gettin’ inta so many scraps. What about you Anaar?”
Still leading the way, a few feet
ahead of the others, “Hmm, I’d say it has been about the same. Actually, I would say it has been a bit boring, even with the increased number of groups.”
Dan wrinkles his face at the use of the word ‘boring’ while Stefani practically explodes. “Boring?! How can you say it has been boring?! You have obviously encountered all these teams of people as well! I haven’t had a chance to have a peaceful fight against one person! I don’t count my match against Zenia since I think it was more a friendly bout if anything.”
“Aww shit! You fought Zen?! Who won?!”
“I did, but she made me work really hard for it.”
Upon hearing this, Anaar who had been completely unengaged for the most part, stopped in his tracks and turned to stare deeply at Stefani through squinted eyes. “Were you trying?”
“What does that mean? Of course I was trying! I gave it my all!”
In a confused puppy dog face that Stefani found adorable, Anaar cocks his head to the side, staring for a moment as if he were trying intently to solve a puzzle. “But you far exceed her in almost every aspect. Even your healing could be close to hers with some practice. Zenia is great. She refuses to let the fact that she is a Medic dictate how she operates in life. The fact of the matter however is that you are easily top tier in the school, if for nothing else but the expanse that is your versatility. Funny enough, if people supported you, it would be you carrying us all instead.”
Stefani begins to blush deeply, as Dan tries his best for what felt like the millionth time in his life to understand exactly why Anaar held Stefani in such high regard. Since he had known them, there had never been a time when Anaar was not singing her praises. He was not sure if he was jealous, but something inside him did feel as if his advancements and contributions outweighed Stefani’s. He had come to the conclusion that he simply hadn’t shown what he was really capable of. He made a promise to himself to put on a show moving forward.
The moment passed, and Anaar wordlessly went back to leading them along. Reveling in their comfort, Stefani began another line of idle conversation in her happiness. After prodding at her Vizer for a moment she lets out a huff, her cheeks puffed out as she complained.
“You know, I am fine with them disabling communications while we are in the Melee, but why do they have to take everything else too? It would be so much easier with some simple things, like a map for example!”
“You ain’t never lied. I stay gettin’ lost up in this bit-”
Anaar stops abruptly, his head perked up as if it had an antenna that was picking up a signal. “Maggie’s in trouble.”
In a burst of inhuman speed, he dashes away, jumping to a high branch, then using the canopy as leverage as he darts away to the amazement of Dan and Stefani.
“So he a mafuckin’ ninja now? Wait, Mags?! Shit! We gotta go!”
Wasting no time, paper spills forth, forming his signature hovercraft, bobbing just above the ground. He pulls Stefani onto it, slightly bending his knees as he strapped his feet in with the paper.
“Hold on tight.”
Stefani nearly flew off the board and was left behind it accelerated so quickly. Holding onto Dan’s waist for dear life as she was buffeted by the wind, Stefani wondered if the two of them were walking only for her benefit if they both had the means to travel so much more efficiently. She had not quite gotten used to the experience before she heard Dan’s muffled voice in the wind.
“Damn, why it be like Anaar be bein’ a better boyfriend to Mags than me?!”
Stefani giggles as she presses her head to his in a show of support since she was already hugging him with all her might. “Consider yourself lucky! You get all the benefits of being the boyfriend with like half of the work! You don’t even have to worry about losing her to Anaar since he has Phavian! It is like the perfect deal! Would be nice to have someone like that… I know he cares a lot about us, but he clearly didn’t go dashing off to save us in that manner!”
Dan nods in agreement, but knowing Anaar well enough, he could not help but feel it was not quite as simplistic as him caring about Maggie more than he did them.
Maggie flounders on the ground, the massive effort she was exerting not at all reflected by the motions she was capable of. She was finding it becoming harder and harder to breathe as the weight crushed her. She could feel the pressure building on her brain as she just did manage to turn her head so she would not be face down in the dirt.
Streaking down from the sky like a comet, yet landing without a sound, Anaar looks down at the prone Maggie next to him, looks to her attacker, then back down. “Wow, Maggie… You don’t look so good. Why are you always letting this one get the better of you?” Turning his attention to her assailant with a wave, but a dry voice, “Hi Raynelle.”
Shocked by his sudden appearance, Raynelle immediately increases the range of her gravity field and amplifies it to the maximum. Because she had to expand it to encompass Anaar, the increased potency was only marginally more than what she had been using against Maggie.
“You caught me with a sneak attack last time, but I won’t allow you to move this time! Even you won’t be able-”
Her words caught in her throat as she noticed Anaar had not even begun to kneel from the pressure. In fact, if she could not feel the strain it was placing on her to exert it, she would have thought the range and intensity of her influence had not spread at all. Though she was not yet taxed using such a level of force, her nerves became a far greater foe than either of the two before her were.
“This doesn’t make any sense! No one is just immune to gravity! You shouldn’t be able to-”
Practically yawning, “Stand? Do you not know how gravity works? Clearly it just means I have the strength to withstand a higher gravitational force. This might work on most people, but are you forgetting I’m a Juggernaut? This amount of weight is utterly insignificant. I can’t believe-” Anaar looks down as he hears mumbling coming from the ground. “Hold please.”
Crouching to the ground, he leans his head to Maggie. “What was that?”
Though the wheezed message should not have been audible, Anaar’s ears easily picked out what she was saying. “I’m going to punch you in the face if you don’t get me off this ground.”
Sighing, “Fine… Since you asked so nicely…”
Anaar picks up a tiny pebble from the ground, not even the size of his fingertip, then flicks it. Despite its size and low mass, the pebble shot off like a missile, colliding with Raynelle’s forehead bearing so much force, she flipped backwards onto the ground. With her dazed, the massive pressure immediately faded.
Rolling to her side, coughing and sputtering, Maggie groans, letting out a low whisper. “I think my ribs are broken…”
Anaar instantly restores her back to full health, which causes her to move to her knees, slapping him on the arm and shoulder repeatedly. “Why didn’t you do that in the first place?!”
Squinting at her out the corner of his eyes, “I’m not the one who keeps getting caught by Raynelle…”
“Shut up! It was a moment of weakness!”
“Why didn’t you just give her a taste of her own medicine?”
“What?”
“I mean, all she can amplify is gravity. She can’t even manipulate it fully. You can amplify, well anything. You could have just used her powers against her.”
“How am I supposed to amplify something I can’t feel?!”
“You literally feel gravity all the time… You know what, nevermind. You are going to bootcamp after this.”
Their exchange is interrupted as Raynelle begins to stir, stumbling to her feet with some difficulty. As she is rising, Dan and Stefani arrive behind them on his hoverboard. Though he expected nothing less, he was still excited to see Maggie was doing well.
“Mags!”
She glances back to see Stefani and Dan, then looks back to Anaar. “You seriously left me for last?!”
“To be fair they had already found each other. I was at least
on the way…”
Maggie wanted to pout, but Raynelle had regained her composure and it was clear she understood her situation. With Anaar being unaffected and Dan and Stefani having arrived as well, she knew there was no possible chance of winning. She immediately thought to suppress Maggie first, then make a run for it. Maggie however had already began standing as she pulled the hammer from her back.
“Anaar…”
Understanding with no need for additional words, he sighs as she darts forward toward Raynelle. “Yeah, yeah…”
The speed at which Maggie was advancing was terrifying, but Raynelle knew her control had diamond precision, so she dropped all the force she could on the spot Maggie was about to enter. What she could never have planned for was the rippling red portal that appeared in front of Maggie milliseconds before she entered the space. With no time to react to her sudden disappearance, Raynelle had no way of preventing the crushing blow from behind that launched her high into the air.
In a dizzying display of aerodynamics, Maggie would disappear through a portal, only to reappear through another in the area where the latest hammer strike had sent Raynelle. Up and down, back and forth, Maggie delivered an unfathomable onslaught to the portly woman as she dove expertly through the perfectly placed portals, never once touching the ground. Dan and Stefani stood gape mouthed and dumbfounded as they watched what looked to be a performance crafted by only the most genius of acrobats.
“Did you know he could do that?”
“Naw… Did you?”
“Never had the slightest clue. And based on how flawlessly this combination is working, I doubt this is the first time they have done it.”
“Man, is it me, or do it be feelin’ like we ain’t never in da loop on shit.”
“I would have to agree. Every time I think we are all caught up, we get reminded just how little we know.”
They both wince as Maggie delivers a particularly savage blow, enough that they could hear the bones shatter from where they were.
Revelations (Song of Sophangence Book 4) Page 29