Herro leaned against a wall breathing deep. He had no idea of the layout or the scale of this place. The more he ran the more he seemed to lose himself. Now, after all that running he ended up back by the main house.
Glancing over he saw a covered patio. It had chairs and shade, and that was good enough for him. He had to have lost her after all and he just couldn’t keep it up. He slipped into the shade and as his eyes adjusted to the shadowed surroundings he saw a feminine figure sitting on the railings.
“How did you find me?” He barked, cowering from the girl he knew had to be Summer.
She turned her head, long lilac colored hair brushing the patio, “Easy. Had a tracker on your phone and used it to track you down.”
Razor raised her hand and showed him her own phone and went back to filing her nails. Herro pulled his phone out of his pocket and saw indeed, the location was on and there was an app running. Scowling he deactivated it and plopped into a chair.
“Fine,” He grumbled obviously defeated, “Take me back to her.”
“Why would I do that?” Razor asked, her mouth quirking up.
Herro glared at her, “Why wouldn’t you? I know that temptress asked you to help find me. Tsukiko thought I’d give up when she text telling me and asking where I … was.”
His voice trailed off as he realized what had gone down. Razor spun on the rail and leaned forward, holding herself from falling by the rail, “Oh yes. Glad you got it. The point was at first to look for you the old fashion way, but she text and you answered. So I knew your phone was on, so I activated the app I installed yesterday and bam, Insta-Herro.
“So yeah,” She continued, “The plan was originally to get you and bring you back to Summer, but I figured we could have a nice walk, and talk about some things. Like say what you missed last night?”
His eyebrows knitted together, “Last night? Oh crap, the whole magic barrier thing.”
“Yup,” She said doing a small jump from the rail and landing on the patio in perfect form.
“Sorry,” He sighed, “I was a little tied up with, you know, injuries and whatnot.”
Pulling him to his feet and starting to walk she smiled, “Not blaming you. Actually you did great. You know, aside from the fireball that blasted a good portion of my restaurant but that’s excusable.”
“Yeah, Sorry about that.” Herro had his hands in his pockets, now more self-conscious without a shirt on.
“I heard the reasoning when we got back.” Razor shrugged, “Me and Tsukiko going out is kinda what I wanted to talk about.”
“Okay.”
“So, last night,” Razor waves her fingers and makes stereotypical flashback noises.
Razor stood by Tsukiko holding hands as they watched Herro walk away.
“Okay dear,” He said turning to the lovely lady next to him, “Do you have any preference where we should go next?”
Tsukiko shook her head, “Not in the slightest hon.”
“Well we could …” Razor trailed off with a wicked smile on his face.
“Nuh uh,” She said with a shake of her head, “Y’all are gorgeous and all but I’m not that kinda girl.”
Putting his hands up Razor nods, “I can comply with that completely.
Continuing he smiled, “How about a movie? I believe the local theatre is playing whatever the most recent superhero buddy movie is. Why don’t we go and see that?”
Tsukiko smiles and looks at the back of her brother still wandering away, almost aimlessly. The smile falls off her face as she speaks, “Yeah but is he gonna be okay hon?”
“I have no clue,” Razor says honestly, “Our plan is to meet where we had our date around midnight to do some more magical investigation, I should know how he is then.”
“I guess it’ll have to do,” She shrugged and turned, “Now where’s this theatre?”
Razor grinned and took her hand, leading her down the road, “Down the road a good pace and then right two blocks.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
She sighed and rolled her eyes, “And we’re WALKING?”
Razor chuckled as he held her hand and started down the sidewalk.
Standing at the counter of the movie theatre for snacks, Tsukiko glanced at Razor who stood unflinchingly with the long V of his chest bared under his suit jacket. She blushed slightly at the naughty thoughts going through her head.
She shook her head and thought to herself, No No No, Not until you know him better, and definitely not on the first date.
Razor glanced down at her and she turned her head quickly so he wouldn’t catch sight of her reddened face, “So what would you like to snack on?”
“You.” She blurted without thinking at all, catching herself, “Choose. I’m not really too picky.”
“Well. In that case how about some …” He trailed off and just looked the candy.
She glanced at him, spreading her hands, “What!?”
He smiled and looked at the cashier, “Just a large popcorn and two large fountain drinks.”
“Ugh,” She sighed as he glanced at her and gave her a small wink. Her face turned beet red as she scowled at him.
Smiling at her Razor paid the cashier and got the stuff and started towards the screen. She smiled as she watched him leave.
The pair sat in the darkened theatre, hands held while the brilliant pink haired superheroine and her group of ragtag misfits tried to stop the generic evil supervillain’s plot to destroy the world. They made casual jokes and comments on the movie. A slight buzzing from his pocket causes Razor to pull his phone out and glance at it, the bright screen blinding him to most else.
“What is it hon?” Tsukiko asks to his eyes get wide as he scanned the text message.
“Let’s go out there,” Razor whispers standing up and walking towards the exit, Tsukiko doing the same.
In the hallway she caught up and walked beside him as he glanced at her before continuing, “Okay so that was Summer. Apparently the group of thugs from the bar tried to assault her and had a scuffle with your brother.”
“That boy will be the death of me,” She grumbled as she pushed out the door and into the cool night, “Did he manage to win?”
“Apparently yes, but not without injury.” He stared straight ahead as they reached a black SUV idling in one of the back rows.
He threw open the doors to the stunned Amazon guards inside, who snapped a quick salute to him, “Highness?”
“Get us to the restaurant yesterday,” He ushered Tsukiko inside as the guards buckled up. He shut the door behind himself and they pulled away.
Pulling into the lot of Autumn and Summer to see fire crews dousing the flames and a pair of EMTs by Herro, with Summer kneeling by him. His chest was bare save for a wrapping of bandages around the chest. Autumn kneeled beside him with her hands over where the wounds were, both hands glowing a dull green and the energy sinking into the wounds.
Tsukiko darted from the vehicle and dashed across to her brother, “Oh this is bad.”
“We can’t heal him fully,” Autumn said to her, obvious weariness in her eyes, “The swords were coated with an anti-magic gel and it got into his system.”
“And y’all tried?” Tsukiko asked, pointing to the two EMTs and the kneeling princess who nodded. Scowling she turned her eyes to the magical spectrum and watched closer as the princess kept it up. She could see the magic getting absorbed but not like it should have been for a healing spell.
Putting her hands next to Autumn’s, they started to glow a brilliant white and she felt her magic as it was almost repulsed by her brother’s body, only a trickle actually being used. Standing with a huff she turned to see Razor talking with Summer.
He tilts his head and smiles a grim smile at her before looking back at his sister. Tsukiko grumbled and looked at the paramedics, “How is he now? Did we at least do somethin’ to help?”
The EMTs knelt down and examined Herro, all the while Tsukiko watching Razor talk emphatically with his sister.
“The fire was to save me, so it’s not his fault,” Summer’s voice could be heard.
Razor replied and shook his head, “No I understand. I thought he was special but to go out on a limb for you is something I didn’t expect.”
“Not that I needed it,” She sighed, “But still you should have seen him.”
“I’ll bet, seeing him now and you say he won,” Tsukiko could see Razor’s lip turn up in a grin as he spoke, “So this must definitely be a case of ‘You should see the other guys’.”
Tsukiko glanced back at the EMTs, “Well?”
“He should be fine,” The shorter brilliant silver haired EMT said, “Not good by any means but he won’t be dying either.”
The tall thinner mustachioed EMT, who she could tell was a magia, opened his eyes, “From what we can tell the magic retardant is meant to keep active spells from being cast on the victim. The assumption is that the attackers wanted to cut Princess Summer and keep her from being healed for at least until it wears off.”
“I gathered that much from a quick glance. You guys had longer to check it out, so when would that be?” Tsukiko asked incredulous.
“Actually not long,” The mage EMT continued, peeling his gloves off, “It’s usually meant to keep first responders and any magically inclined bystanders from helping at the times when it could be vital in saving their lives.”
Tsukiko sighed, “It’s obsidian root isn’t it? That stuff has been used by assassins for years.”
“Not entirely,” The Amazonian EMT glanced at her, “From what we can tell on site it’s actually a diluted Obsidian root with a dispersion agent. It’ll wear off in approximately eight hours, and when it does will be as if it never was applied, a drawback that Obsidian root has for covering it up.”
“So we can’t do anything definitive until tomorrow.” Tsukiko mumbled as a hand landed on her shoulder.
Razor drew her back into his chest, “It’s okay. We’ll have them take him to the palace and he can sleep in one of our rooms. Tomorrow you can go heal him. He’ll be more comfortable than if he was at his own house.”
“Are all y’all sure that’s fine? I don’t want him to be an imposition.” She said, turning and burying her face in his chest.
“It’s fine,” Razor said hugging her, “He’s got some wounds still but the EMTs will probably give him some pain reliever and get him there. It’s the least we can do for someone who stepped in to save a member of the royal family.”
She sighed, “As long as it ain’t an imposition, that’s fine.”
“Like I said, not a problem at all. Though now, if we got his safety handled, I’d like you to accompany me to the Horror carnival. You did say you’d like to help, but if you want to stay by your brother’s side I can’t fault you.”
Glancing back at where Herro was being loaded onto a stretcher with Summer standing next to him, she shook her head, “No. I think he’s in good hands. Let’s go over there and save the world.”