"He's mine bitch!"
Lana swung a sai at Barica's head. She ducked to the side, the weapon missing by a hair.
"How are you moving?" Barica screeched like a banshee.
She was reaching behind herself, stepping back trying to get to the offending thing using her as a tree. Her clothes were ripping as Kent climbed because he wasn't being gentle. She realized Barica was using a hardening ability. Too bad she was slow, too distracted by two unexpected foes, as Kent wrapped his tentacles around her neck, swung to her front, placed his rear feet on Barica's upper chest and raked his fully extended claws from Barica's forehead all the way down to her jaw.
She screamed in excruciating pain as blood flowed down her face. She took a few more steps back, putting distance between them while she tried to fight through the pain and get her brain around what just happened. Her eyelids were shredded and Lana grimaced as she saw the end result of the attack, suddenly glad Kent was on her side.
Lana was planning to stab her with a sai through her stomach, but that plan was now out. Barica, unable to see, threw a large fireball in Lana's direction, not caring if Blaine got hit. This little upstart needed to die.
Barica heard the girl scream "vine wall, vine wall, vine wall' but heard no footsteps indicating she'd moved.
With her arrogant tone, "even without my armor, you were no match for me. Kyle is the only one strong enough to oppose me and he's terrified of me. He will never oppose me." She scoffed, "with you out of the way, I guess your brother is next. Dobin will be my next …guest."
Lana had not died nor was she standing still. Injured, sure. Kent and Lana both were but she kept him silent as they absorbed the damage, not wanting to use rebound yet. She wanted to charge her bracers. Once the attack was over, Lana heard Barica speaking and decided to listen before acting.
Understanding her brother's life was in danger, she immediately responded. She had not anticipated the speed of her boots to be so advanced. She activated them, took one step and she was close enough to slam the sharp pointy end of her sai through a now empty eye socket of Barica the Brutal.
The sai went all the way through her head. Lana could feel her body start falling to the floor, but she knew she needed her weapon in her hand. She placed a foot on Barica's chest and pushed, retrieving her weapon from its bone prison.
Lana looked down at the corpse. Barica was no longer a threat to her brother nor the man she loved. They could spend their days healing and focusing on the future and whatever threats that may pose. The threat of the Walkers still loomed over everyone. She also still wanted to know what was so bad that her parents felt they needed to give up her and her brother. For now, there remained a threat as they were still in enemy territory. Her friend was still in danger.
Lana quickly went to Kyle's side. He was still standing, his hand outstretched from whichever ability he used to take out the guards.
"Kyle, wake up!" Lana said frantically patting his cheek, "there are more guards coming!"
She didn't realize it, but the moment Lana touched him, Kyle was able to move again. He looked around to assess the situation. He gave Lana a quick kiss and Kent a pet. He noticed a phone on the wall by the door that had an intercom button. He picked it up and almost pressed the button then thought better of it and put the receiver back down. If he announced himself, they might destroy the incriminating evidence.
Before opening the door, Kyle healed his future wife and his four-legged son. He gave her a quick kiss, "ready?"
She nodded, "let's do this!"
Opening the door, Blaine stepped to the right and noticed three people were almost upon them. Lana stepped to the left and was faced with two. Both had taken the students away. Lana suddenly heard silence behind her but didn't have time to work about it. She threw a vine whip at one of the guards.
"Kent!" Lana said while she focused on trying to choke out the guard.
Kent jumped from her shoulder and comically splashed on the ground before regaining his feet. As he ran to the other guard and tried to climb, the guard threw a wind slash at Lana. She decided to use her rebound this time and the attack bounced off her and hit her attacker. He was slammed into the wall, sliced across the chest by his own attack.
She could see out the corner of her eye that Kent was halfway up the guard now.
"Don't kill him! Tentacles, throat!" Lana told him.
Soon both men were on the ground, appearing to be asleep.
Lana looked behind her and saw the same thing. Blaine had chosen to use his new spatial distortion ability. He put his hand out and the ability created a cone causing everyone in that area to be confused. Their vision and hearing both disrupted. He quickly punched each one in the head knocking them out. They were now his own employees, after all.
Just as the couple caught each other's attention, they heard a feral howl. Chekof. They quickly put the guards in the room using telekinesis then tried to figure out where Chekof was, the echoes in the empty halls making it difficult.
Left, mom.
"Kent said left, Kyle," Lana said.
"Okay, you take lead. I'm right here," Kyle said taking her hand firmly once again. Before long, the sound of fighting got louder, almost deafening. They rounded a corner and could see ten guards fighting a fully transformed Chekof. All were injured. Chekof looked really bad.
Kyle put out his hand and used an ability, "get Chekof out of there!"
Lana raced forward and soon had Chekof in the room they were fighting outside of.
"Shit!" Kyle swore as he realized he didn't even think about the fact he had just used spatial distortion. Yet, he noticed she didn't seem affected by it the way the others were. He got to work knocking everyone out then placed them in the room like he did the others.
"Chekof, are you okay?" Lana was leaning over him as Kent once again was attacking something unseen by her.
"Yeah, what happened? My vision went all blurry and I felt like I was going to fall over as though I was drunk. It sounded like the noise was all amplified and echoed from everywhere."
Lana chuckled, "I guess that's what the new ability Kyle has does. It seems quite useful down here."
All the bodies stowed in the room, Kyle closed the door then knelt beside Lana and healed Chekof.
"Why didn't the spatial distortion affect you, Lana?"
She shrugged, "time stop didn't either."
"I'm sure it's because you're not human. It's some racial thing like my hearing, sense of smell and such," Chekof told her.
She nodded, "well, it did affect me. It was like my brain fought it off though, or maybe will? I'm not sure. It appears there is a chance that it could affect me, but we still don't know what I am, who I am, where I came from." Lana frowned.
Blaine finished healing Chekof and grabbed her hand again, bringing her close, "I know who you are. The rest we can discover together."
Lana smiled and kissed him lightly. "I like the sound of that."
"Kent, why do you keep attacking my shoulder?" Lana decided she needed an answer.
Shinies, Mom. They have legs and crawl when they want to.
Lana chuckled, "those are Paul's oomlauts. They are to help access the system to find specific information and maintain communication."
The shinies talk?
"They are machines like my watch."
Lana caught movement from the corner of her eye and realized there was a computer in the room and things were happening on the screen. She assumed this was Cere's doing.
"How are you feeling, Chekof?"
"Weak. You didn't happen to bring any meat with you, did you?"
Lana chuckled, "actually, Blaine bought a bunch in case your brother needed any as well."
Kyle pulled the cooler from her bracelet then returned the bracelet to her.
"Since grandmother is dead, you should be safe wearing it again."
Lana nodded and smiled.
Chekof started downing meat in front of them. They had never seen him eat this much or this quickly. He was more injured than they thought.
"Keep the rest in there for when we find my brother."
Kyle walked up to a camera that was in the corner of the room. Looking straight into it, "I am Blaine Abel, the heir and rightful successor of my grandmother Barica Abel. I want all employees in the basement to go to the lobby or suffer my wrath. NOW!"
A voice on Lana's shoulder went off, "sublevel C, red sector."
Lana could hear sounds of combat in the background. She looked at Chekof and could tell he heard. "Kyle, let's go!"