//------------------------------// // Chapter 13 - Second Impact // Story: The Students from St. Everfree // by Morex25 //------------------------------// The world seemed to move in slow motion, as Discord evaded his opponents by sidestepping each of their attacks as slippery as a serpent; all it took was a blink of an eye to miss it. “Watch out, you could’ve hit me with those!” he jested as he casually rested his hands insides his pockets, causing his opponents to growl and launch themselves at him again. Seeing the attacks coming from a mile away, Discord evaded, except this time instead of moving out of the way, he stepped forward surprising his attacker, the one with the brown handkerchief. Once he was close and personal, Discord pulled out one of his hands from his pockets and with it a little surprise. Earlier while he was with Adagio in Cinnamon Chai’s shop he had advertently taken little packs of sweeteners from the table and into his pockets; one never knew when sucralose-based artificial sweetener could come in handy. Like this instance in particular. “Here, let me sweeten your day!” Discord threw the equivalent of 20 grams of artificial sugar directly to the bandit’s face, making him sneeze and cough aggressively when the granulated powder got into his eyes, nose and mouth. Wasting not one second of his opponent’s daze, Discord grabbed his opponent by the shoulder pushing forward and with a swift swept on his leg, made him lose balance which Discord used to slam him painfully into the side of a trash bin. “Now that’s a…wow!” Having no time to celebrate with an epic one-liner, Discord went back to the defense evading a powerful blow from White Handkerchief by bending his torso back causing him to actually fall back first into the ground. Despite of this, Discord used the momentum of his fall to his benefit, when he extended his leg and delivered an upward kick directly under White’s jaw. Once Discord’s back made contact with the ground, he got back up with a hop, displaying great back and leg strength, and punched his opponents wide open midsection, making White bend over before he crouch under him, picked him up over his shoulders and threw him inside a conveniently opened trash bin from earlier. “Two down, one more to go.” [x-x-x] Never before had Trixie watched something quite like the fight between the five thugs and Sombra happening in front of her. After his declaration that he would come up victorious, Sombra went directly to the offensive not wanting a repeat of the effective combination attacks of his opponents. His decision proved somewhat effective at first when he was able to deliver several painful blows to one of the thugs, but he was unable to deliver the finishing blow to completely take him out when he was interrupted by the other thugs. Speaking of which, despite being delinquents, Trixie could observe the incredible grace and coordination in which they attacked Sombra in tandem. Frankly, their movements reminded her of the heavily choreographic fight scenes she had seen in Martial Arts movies where people fought to ridiculous extremes. Yet she was watching it all happen in front of her, with Sombra and the Thugs launching, blocking, dodging and countering attack after attack. “This is insane…” Trixie muttered. It was the only way to describe what she was seeing. Not only that, she also questioned the lack of interference from someone else to stop the fight. Six teenagers where killing each other outside of a convenience store; where were the other passerby’s, the store clerk, anyone? Moving her attention from the fight and looking around, Trixie found out that everyone had disappeared from sight; even the store clerk that attended Sombra and her minutes ago was nowhere to be seen. This lack of any responsible adults meant that help wasn’t coming anytime soon. Not that Sombra would even care. Despite fighting with glaring disadvantages against 5 opponents on his own, Sombra was really holding his ground. For every blow he received he returned three. It was a spectacle to behold for sure, but the more that Trixie saw him fight the more she noticed something about Sombra’s attacks. They seemed rather lacking so to speak. She didn’t know how to explain it properly; it felt like something was missing. Something that prevented him to give his all in the fight. Trixie stopped contemplating about what could possibly be weighting Sombra down when she saw him finally take out two of his assailants, sending them unconscious into the floor. “Two down…three more to go.” Sombra said between heavy breaths. Despite being subjected to several attacks he remained with a cocky look in his face. “I think it’s time… we get serious.” Trixie’s eyes almost fall out in surprise after hearing those words. ‘Get serious?!?’ They were all hurt, bleeding and filled with bruises; and this was still not serious?! ‘Then what is serious?’ “This is not a game we’re playing.” The squad leader wearing the gas mask answered his voice distorted by the device on his face. “You are to be brought up to Chrysalis, even if we have to break every bone in your body to do so.” “That’s not what I was referring to!” Sombra told them with an expectant look in his eyes. “Around this time is when you bring up your weapons. Where are they?” “Weapons?” Trixie repeated to herself. They were already in the middle of killing one and other with their fists, now they were bringing weapons into this? This was even worse than she could’ve imagined. “Missing something Sombra?” The Gas Mask taunted, or so they chose to interpret it like that, because it was difficult to gauge the intonation of his voice because of the mask. “We know of your preference and proficiency for armed combat.” For Everfree students, the image of Sombra walking around campus holding a wooden sword everywhere was something everyone could picture. And those who dared to cross him always ended up receiving a taste of his sword. No one knew exactly how Sombra managed to be the only one in Everfree to openly carry a weapon like that (not counting Starlight and her DC’s batons since those were passed off as tools for peace keeping) without the faculty saying something about it. That’s why this squad was conformed of the very best hand-to-hand fighters within Chrysalis army. So they could fight at maximum efficiency without the need of any sort of weapon that Sombra could take as his own and use it against them. This also explained the “missing thing” that Trixie noticed in Sombra’s style. “Without your sword you cannot win.” [x-x-x] Tirek was having trouble fighting these guys. It wasn’t like they were extremely strong, mind you, they were just exceedingly annoying. Unlike the blabbermouth of their squad leader, the others didn’t waste time and attacked him with all they got. And very different from other fights he had with members of their group; these guys fought intelligently by attacking from long range and avoid the range of his powerful fists. Nine gang members all of them brandishing different weapons including: bullwhips, long heavy chains, a make-shift iron flails, slings, long pipes and even Slingshots. Tirek tried to fight back, but whenever he attempted to step up and get near them, they would all jump backwards and scatter around. And they all attacked in tandem, meaning that they covered for each other when those with pipes got near to swing their weapons at him and jump away to a safe distance. All in all, it was a brilliant strategy. Attack from afar and wear his strength down until he lasted no more; and with no long distance attacks available for Tirek, his attackers were relatively safe while they kept their distance. Tirek was already full of bruises from the shots fired by the slingers. Steel Balls and sharp stones impacted his body almost like bullets; the chains and whips cut open the skin they made contact with; and the iron pipes and flails left vibrant red markings whenever they managed to hit. It was a battle of attrition that Tirek couldn’t possible hope to win without a good strategy, so he did the only thing that made sense. He ran away into the Apple orchard. “Don’t let him escape!” shouted one of the delinquents who had taken charge after their squad leader was ceremoniously defeated with one punch. With Tirek’s sudden dash and the distance they had for their long-ranged battle, the red giant managed to lose them once they entered the more dense part of the orchard with Apple Tree Trunks wide enough to serve as cover for someone even as large as Tirek. “Comb the area! In teams! Report any sightings!” the newly appointed squad leader ordered and the whole squadron dispersed in teams of two looking for the injured giant. Tirek rested his back against an apple tree, trying to breathe deeply as quiet as possible. Looking down his bruised arms, he noticed the blood slowly dripping from them and unto the ground. These guys, they were different from before, stronger, more intelligent, more organized. They were proving to be a real threat. And if he wanted to win he had to step up his game too. [x-x-x] Sombra reluctantly admitted that he was in a pinch. His opponents were definitely informed and well prepared for the fight against him. But even then, there shouldn’t have been any difficulties for someone like him to deal with these commoners. Yet, there he was on his knees and his hands on the floor breathing heavily trying to recover. All because of one particular person, Sombra’s last remaining opponent; the squad leader wearing a gas mask. He was stronger than Sombra initially thought; just how someone like him could be a soldier for Chrysalis? He was for stronger than the other cookie-cutter disposable soldiers she had and if it weren’t for him this fight would’ve ended way sooner. “Admit defeat Sombra.” The Gas mask looked down on him. “You are in no conditions to keep fighting.” “Go to hell.” Sombra spat with all the energy he could muster. “Sombra never surrenders.” Especially to one of Chrysalis dogs, no matter how strong they were. “Idiot.” The squad leader looked at his downed opponent with disdain. “To continue acting all high and mighty even in your current situation; it is not bravery but stupidity that you are showing.” This kind of bravado rubbed him the hell off. “You have nothing. No strength, no weapon, no allies, not even the girl stayed for you.” It was true. Even when he specifically order her to stay put, the girl had gone away a little after the Gas Mask declared Sombra to be useless without his valiant sword. He was angry about that, but he couldn’t put all the blame on her. A swordsman without a sword was like a tiger without its claws. “You are all alone.” Gas Mask stated as if it was the absolute truth. “I would laugh if it weren’t so pathetic.” “Sombra doesn’t need sympathy of the likes of you.” Sombra spat again. “Don’t waste any more time and finish me off!” at least he would go out in glorious combat. “I’m tempted… oh so tempted.” The squad leader responded almost debating with himself whenever to give in or follow orders. “I was told to bring you… but,” he then picked up Sombra by the throat and forced him to stand up. “Nobody said that you had to be ‘whole’. Maybe you’ll be more cooperative after I pick out one eye or maybe both.” He lifted up both index and middle fingers and neared them towards Sombra’s eyes. [x-x-x] “Any signal from Tirek?” asked the newly appointed squad leader to one of his now subordinates. “No, there’s no trace of him.” “Keep looking! There’s no way we can lose track of a 6´4´´ mountain of muscles!” “Yes sir.” It was surprising how well Tirek had managed to evade them for this long, despite of his obvious size. Still, remaining hidden wasn’t part of his plan; now that he had time to breathe and think of a plan, it was time to go back to the offensive. “How difficult is it to find a guy like Tirek? Even with all these freaking trees it shouldn’t be hard.” One of the scouts said to his partner who was also getting tired of looking for the guy. “True that. This is getting ridic…gak!!!” before he could even finish his sentence, a large body rushed towards him and hit him with enough force to send him flying off his feet and towards an young apple tree that ended up uprooting because of the impact. “What the?! TIREK IS HERE…!!!” The now partner less thug shouted to get the attention from the rest of the squad, just to end up being slammed face first unto another apple tree trunk, rendering him unconscious. After he confirmed they no longer were a threat, Tirek retreated back behind the trees for cover and moved between them in order to find another couple of thugs. “WHAT HAPPENED?” “WHAT’S GOING ON?” Another team of two walked around to where they heard a scream come from. They were both anxious, looking all around hoping to catch a glimpse of their prey. Suddenly the rustling of some nearby bushes alarmed them from another presence on the scene. Quickly as they could, they both launch projectiles towards the moving bushes only to receive a small squeak for their efforts. From the bushes, a small rabbit slowly hopped away, clearly hurt by the projectiles that had merciless stricken him. “F*ck! It was just some rabbit!” “We kinda jump the gun a little bit.” Said the other give a self-conscious look at his partner. “There’s no way someone like Tirek could even hide in any bushes at all.” “No, but he can hide behind you two.” A deep voice said from behind frightening the two of them before two large hands grabbed their heads and slammed their faces against each other followed by two blows that rendered them incapable to fight due agonizing pain. “HEY! HE’S OVER THERE!” Tirek cursed his luck. He didn’t plan for him to be spotted this early. Now that his plan got cut halfway through he pondered the idea of trying to look for cover again, but by the looks of things, that plan was shot to hell. It was time to fight upfront again. And maybe this time, with less members available the fight would be much less annoying. “Attack me if you dare… I’LL CRUSH YOU!” [x-x-x] The Bandit with the Black Handkerchief, after seeing his companions go down, decided against rushing at the source of his ire and opted for a more cautious approach. Discord took the momentary break of the action to go from reactionary to the offense. And by offense he meant taking a small rubber ball from inside his shirt and threw it at the floor, making it bounce between the parallel walls that formed the alleyway. The ball bounced and bounced and bounced from one side to the other until passed right next to Black’s cheek grazing him slightly leaving only a burning sensation. “What the he…?!” Black asked unable to stop himself to turn slightly towards where the ball passed. A very grave mistake, since Discord capitalized the distraction in order to jump towards him with a cylindrical object in his hands. “Watch out here I come!” Then everything turned dark for him. Discord slammed a trashcan on top of Black’s head rendering unable to see. Then he started to hit on the side of metallic can and for good measure, he pulled a rope and began turning black in circles wrapping his arms and legs. “Yeah, like a record, baby!” Once Discord had him wrapped, he tied the rope into a fast knot before he kicked the bound bandit unto the ground. “And with that they are three!” The winning teen declared triumphantly while dusting off his hands. “You guys really should’ve stayed back home. You can’t handle the big city.” “Yes, but we wouldn’t have the pleasure to meet cha!” An unknown voice called out prompting Discord to quickly turn around towards the exit of the alleyway where the voice had come from, with his hand already pulling another “surprise” from one of his multiple pockets. “I wouldn’t do that if I were ya!” The voice, belonged to bluish gray guy with black hair and massive sideburns; and very much like the previous three Mad Bulls, he was also wearing an outfit inspired by several cowboy movie bandits and a big black Stetson hat. “Why wouldn’t I?” Discord questioned curious as to what this fourth Mad Bull could do to stop him. The Bull smiled as he forcefully pulled by the arm someone else in front of him. “It would be a shame that something terrible happened to this pretty girl.” He threatened as he used his free arm to grab her by the hair. Said girl was a crimson haired girl with brilliant yellow stripes, light amber skin and cyan eyes, who Discord managed to recognized, by the small glimpses he caught of her, as his little stalker girl. “H…Help…”