In films, superheroes wait until a malicious act has been committed before coming to the aid of the victims. Reality is quite different. In the real world, the forces of law and order very often arrive after the deed has been done, when it is already too late. When they reach the scene of the crime, the attackers are already far away, and their principal role is limited to helping a victim lying in their own blood. In fiction, people fight for long minutes, whereas in most cases a single punch is enough to put someone flat on the floor, unconscious and half dead. Violence expresses itself in a lightning-fast and cruel way.
That was why the twins chose a completely different approach. Rather than coming to the rescue of the weak, it was preferable to distract the attention of the delinquents so as to act before they committed their crimes. To achieve that, they took on the appearance of defenceless travellers, carrying the disguise so far as to feign a limp and abandoning the route through the air, practical though it was. Helios had some difficulty renouncing his new powers, but yielded to the group's reasoning.
What remained was to find bait attractive enough. Poor Helios drew the short straw. The donkey walked a few paces ahead of them so that his flesh would be clearly visible and he would appear poorly defended. To the starving hordes, he looked like a large lump of meat mounted on legs and hooves. Helios, who had no wish to end up as sausage like his brother, kept casting glances behind him to make sure the others were following.
They adjusted themselves to the horribly slow pace of the other travellers, Inata in front, Hichy just behind with Melio in his arms. Darok was covered with a red cloth that made him look like a little lapdog belonging to someone's grandmother or a city poodle. They did not have to wait long before seeing a band of beggars, two women and two men with toothless mouths, draw near them. Melio pounced on them without waiting and slashed the faces of his enemies, already much the worse for wear. The poor wretches ran off screaming in pain.
HP = 3, AP = 9, XP = 4, GP = 0
"That was a bit too easy," Hichy complained.
"You're not seriously going to complain that they weren't more dangerous than that!" his sister shot back.
"Yes, I am! Melio didn't even wait until they were within our reach, and he left nothing for the others."
The little ginger cat, who had climbed back onto the donkey's back, was conscientiously licking his paws, pretending not to hear the reproaches his master was addressing to him. But no one was fooled. The advantage with brigands is that they ignore the meaning of the word solidarity, and so there was no risk that those they had just repelled would warn the others. They were thus able to resume their route in the same formation.
Hichy's overconfidence was shattered the instant an arrow buried itself in his thigh. He screamed as much from pain as from surprise. What an error, to believe that their enemies would warn them before attacking. Aggressions come from behind. Delinquents are cowards and have no code of honour. Their goal is to kill their enemy in the most radical possible fashion, taking the fewest risks and with the least effort.
The boy doubled over on the ground while a second arrow had already lodged itself in Helios's belly. The sight of that poor animal braying like a pig tore at Inata's heart. To inflict such suffering was simply vile, and those who had committed that odious crime could have neither soul nor conscience.
The next projectiles fell to the ground before reaching them, slowed by a thick wall of air that Inata had had the presence of mind to erect in front of them.
"It hurts so much!" the boy was crying as he wept. "I've never felt pain like this. And besides, I think their arrow is poisoned."
"What difference does that make to you?" Inata asked with a shrug.
"It's easy for you to say, you're not the one suffering!" Hichy snapped.
"Then what are you waiting for to expel the arrow?" she asked, while going to Helios's rescue, he trembling all over.
When he had recovered enough presence of mind to take stock of the situation, the twin remembered, indeed, that he possessed a power strong enough to extract any foreign body from his own body and close the flesh into which it had sunk. He had no difficulty pulling the foreign matter from his leg, leaving not the slightest trace of a wound and with a precision no surgeon could have approached.
Inata did the same with the wound in the donkey's belly, the latter not yet mastering his power well enough to practise self-healing. Unlike Hichy, who could concentrate on only one task at a time, his sister possessed two threads, one serving to maintain the wall of compressed air for protection, the other to heal Helios.
"This is too cool!" Hichy exclaimed. "With a power like this, we've become invincible."
"I'm not so sure," his sister replied. "What would have happened if you'd taken the arrow in the skull and it had gone straight through your brain?"
While they were thus debating their powers of resilience, they had not noticed that the shooting had stopped. Darok was joyfully circling around them, but the little ginger cat had vanished. There was no trace of their attackers around them, and, as far as they could see, not a sign of life.
Melio fell from the sky a few minutes later at the end of a glide whose origin only he knew. A little piece of flesh was sticking out of his mouth.
"You're going too far!" the twin scolded him. "While we were fending off the attack, you took the opportunity to go hunting. All you ever think about is eating, and you're really selfish."
Although the children knew that he now understood everything they said, the cat pretended to have heard nothing and began to play with his prey. He rolled the inert body across the ground and gave it a few pats, disappointed not to observe the slightest reaction anymore. It was only at that moment that Inata understood what it was and let out a great cry.
"An eye! It's a human eye!" she screamed. "Melio, how could you do such a thing?!"
The little ginger animal yawned and conscientiously licked his paws. The young woman still had not understood that cats are independent and take orders from no one. Besides, was it not thanks to him that they had got rid of their attackers so quickly? He was by far the most effective member of their group.
HP = 4, AP = 15, XP = 6, GP = 0
A certain discomfort reigned as they set out again. None of them wished to know what the brigands Melio had brought down looked like, nor whether they were alive or dead. The strategy they had devised, so brilliant in theory, was showing its limits. They decided to continue nevertheless, keeping especially watchful for projectiles. In order to protect themselves, the twins took turns maintaining a bubble of high-density air around them. That would stop arrows, but not hypersonic bullets. Vigilance therefore remained the order of the day. Melio slipped out of the protective sphere, fearing nothing except a lack of food. And grass was not what he lived on.
It was in that context that they caught sight of a figure standing across the path. Their sharp eyes recognised a little girl dressed in a torn gown and holding a newborn in her arms. Their appearance was miserable, and they ran the risk at any moment of being attacked if they remained thus exposed in the middle of the road.
As they drew closer still, they could hear the sobs of the one holding the baby against her. The twins quickened their pace, hoping that the presence of the wolf would not frighten her away, and quickly reached the two very young abandoned children. When the little girl ran toward them, however, she struck an invisible wall that Hichy hurried to open in order to let her into the protective bubble.
"What's happened to you?" Inata asked, kneeling in front of her.
"It's my brother," the little girl replied, bursting into fresh tears.
"What's wrong with your brother?"
"He broke his leg."
"Where is he?"
"Over there, at the foot of that cliff," she answered. "He slipped and broke the bone."
"We'll heal him," Hichy reassured her.
The newborn she held in her arms was sleeping deeply, heedless of the drama being played out. The scene was both touching and terrible.
"Where are your parents?" the twin asked.
"They're dead," the little lass replied in a whisper. "We have no one left now. Please don't let us down."
Insensitive to her sorrow, Melio, who had rejoined them, began to hiss and try to scratch the little girl.
"Your cat is insufferable!" Inata snapped at her brother. "He's become nasty and aggressive."
"That's how I like him."
"Yes, but those children haven't done anything to him."
"He just wants to play."
"By tearing out their eyes?"
The twin pushed the feline back with a kick and stepped between them so that he stayed at a distance. They were now not very far from the foot of the cliff. Inata was happy at last to be able to help someone instead of hurting them.
"So where is your brother?" she asked.
"Over there, a little farther."
They followed her while she searched here and there, as though her brother might be hiding beneath a pebble. A child, even a very young one, could not have escaped their cat vision by that point.
"There's nothing here," Hichy declared. "You wouldn't have been making fools of us, would you?"
For all answer, the little girl looked at them with strange eyes. They were at once immensely sad and sparkling. Her body had become translucent, and the baby she was carrying had turned into an ordinary rag doll.
"I'm sorry!" she said at the moment when she disappeared completely and the cliff collapsed on top of them.