Chapter 15
Lora froze up. Her vision skewed and sudden exhaustion overwhelmed her dread. Tench felt her weight drag him down and he turned around to see her fade. He grabbed her before she could fall.
“Oh no, Pink, don’t pass out now!”
Lora’s eyes rolled up in her head. She took a deep breath and went limp in his arms. Tench looked back at the thing with a sneer.
“Jack Ogden, the Electric Beaulieu, the Lecherous Lad of London.”
Jack put his hand to his chest.
“That’s cute, yes. After a show of my distortion, I’m introduced to a fourth wall that exists in the knight in spandex armors head as he holds his elegant prize, just like in the comics. It’s quite distinctive, actually.”
Tench glanced at Lora, the tension from Jack mounting on his shoulders.
“What do you want?”
Jack waved his hand.
“Oh, I was watching you turn your back on me before striking and wondering why some new Pink Lemon, it looks like, would lose her shit like that. I assume that it’s to make your life more difficult.” Jack chuckled.
Tench bit his lip. His training brought to mind a tactic for planting seeds in the enemy’s head.
“Well, maybe you aren’t attacking because there’s some sort of compassion in you.”
Jack huffed.
“Oh come on. You clearly weren’t paying attention to what I had done to poor Crimson Cherry. Honestly, some sort of compassion? You sound like that cow, Florence.”
Tench frowned.
“There is a thing that you could do—-”
“Nope, denied.” He stretched out and punched Tench in the chin. The two heroes went spiraling to the ocean.
Jack smiled and looked at his hand. He flexed it and it pivoted back into his wrist while letting a reserve hand come out the other end. He flexed his new hand.
“Cake.” He watched the duo twirl for a moment, and then dove down for the kill, bowing his hands to build electricity.
Lora’s eyes fluttered open.
The earth climbed up to her at a blazing speed with an oil tanker directly below. Lora gasped, now fully awake. She flailed for a moment in a panic, and then she tried to gain control of her momentum. She tilted her head up and curved her back to emulate an airplanes nose being turned upward. She closed her eyes and held her head up with a protesting back.
Lora made a wide arc above the ship’s bow, inches from grazing the deck. Her stomach dropped as she sought clearance back into the air. She flew parallel to the deck and a cabin sprung up in her path. She screamed and continued her arc while rolling a few degrees to the side. Lora jerked back at the last second and swore that her stomach had barely brushed the corner wall. She had passed the ship, but hadn’t gained any more control.
Lora nearly gave a celebratory vomit for her aerodynamics, but it was cut short. Her trajectory made her set to collide with a large, land-mounted crane.
“No, no, no!”
Lora’s speed was dropping, but she was still a bullet on a set straight path. She felt as if she was riding an invisible rail toward the crane. Lifting her nose again would result in a head on collision with one of the four pillars. Lora closed her eyes and winced. She entered a center opening and was set to leave, but she did not have a chance to relish in enjoying her luck.
Lora’s shoulder pressed on a pillar on her way out and scratched a protruding bolt. The friction burn and resulting tear burned worse than a dry California summer. The slight change in momentum was enough to send her spiraling out of control. She screamed as the both force of gravity and velocity took her elsewhere. She never had the chance to gain her bearings. She collided at a full stop with a faraway brick wall, her other shoulder was imbedded in enough to hold her in place.
A moment passed with Lora’s mouth in a painful and silent scream. She squeaked. Both of her shoulders burned in agony, one more than the other. She was still dizzy and feeble. She reached up to try to inspect the damage, but she paused when she felt herself being dislodged.
“Oh no! Please!”
Lora fell from the impression. She tried to grab the edge on instinct but her arm screamed and her voice wasn’t too far behind. Lora plummeted to the parking lot, and flew up in a successful arc. She heard herself breathe and she stole a glance at her burning shoulder. It was soaked with blood.
Lora saw Tench fly up to her with Jack not far behind. Lora sighed with relief, but a gleam in the distance caught her eye.
Sarra.
Lora took a detour and flew past Tench. He called out to her, sighed and followed.
Sarra lay flat as a puddle of silver, frightened with her recent experience. In the entire dome of the earth above her, she saw her sister flying up followed by Tench, and… Sarra was not sure of what she did, but it equated to squinting, and she got a better view of Jack. …That thing! She felt herself literally boil and ebb.
Lora landed near her sister. Before Lora could execute any sort of care, Sarra shot up, immediately resuming her form without color, and screamed to the sky with a terrible fury. Lora jumped and backed up several steps.
Sarra’s mirror sheen vanished, and her color returned, a little oversaturated. She gritted her teeth and flew up at Jack, creating a boom that sent Lora onto her back. Lora squealed in agony and almost passed out again.
Sarra rushed at her assailant. Jack stopped, impressed with the tenacity, and threw his arm out to attack. Sarra wanted that thing dead. She paid attention to the arms course and covered it in ice up to the shoulder at the last second. Jack looked at his frozen appendage, puzzled. Sarra shot up to Jack’s head, wound her arm back, and let her ice charge.
“Hey Hot Dog, here’s your own brain free—”
Jack grabbed Sarra’s face with his other arm. Sarra didn’t feel any pain after the literal shock of being blinded, but she did feel that she had lost control of her body. Sarra wanted to scream with rage, but nothing came of it. Jack parted his fingers so that Sarra could see.
“I’m sorry, love, who’s the hot dog?”
Sarra’s amber eyes blazed with hatred.
Jack smirked and threw the hero away. He studied his frozen arm, and caught sight of Lora following Sarra. Tench noticed the frozen twenty-foot appendage, and decided to finish the job. He charged up his ice. Before he was ready to release his snowstorm, Jack smacked him with his free hand. Tench lost control and writhed in midair. He screamed.
Jack pushed him away and hauled his burden off to follow the sisters. The frozen arm hit Tench, and he tried his best to keep hold. While his body was limp, he forced himself to generate some ice and affix himself to the block. Jack looked down at him and tried to shake him off as he flew.