Chapter 70
The Grand Escape
I felt like a one trick pony, but all I could think to do was push off with my energy again and catapult forward to where maybe I could fight off the shadows while attempting to look like I was just trying to help capture Sam.
"Close your eyes!" Stephen yelled.
As I flew toward Sam, the waves crashed down, the limbs reaching for their target—then the world exploded with light.
I cried out, my exclamation mixing with the shadows huge group wail. But as for what exactly was happening to them, I couldn't be sure, all I could see was white. My flight canceled by supernatural light shows, I crashed into the ground and rolled out of control, into the mass of thrashing shadow people.
The wiggling limbs did not help my head to right itself, white still all I could see. But I stood up, the best I could, slipping and falling into the hallway. I squinted, trying desperately to see through the light.
Pounding footsteps drew close to me and I threw my hand back, trying to knock whoever it was back.
"Whoops, look out." It was Dowser. His thundering footfalls sidestepped me and kept on going to the right.
Motherfucker this situation just kept getting worse. But I'd feared his big steps was the masked man coming after us for himself so at least it wasn't the worst case scenario.
A hand gripped my shoulder and I swatted at it, assuming a shadow was getting handsy with me.
"Stop, hold still." Netta's voice.
She pressed something against my eyes and an icy cool went through me. When she pulled back, the white was mostly gone, just a wiggling at the edges. I could now see Netta clearly, but I had more interest in what went on over her shoulder: Stephen, a speck in the distance, already through the next door and back in the main party hall, pushing his way through the crowd. It was a beautiful sight.
Except for Dowser, slowly gaining on my boys.
I got to my feet, checked that I could stay balanced okay, and then took off.
"Thanks, Netta!" I turned back, to aim my words at her but she wasn't there.
She was beside me, also giving chase.
"We can't let Dowser get all the glory, right?" Her skull mask grinned at me.
I laughed nervously. "Right."
Two tag alongs. Not great, but the shadows were at least down for the count. I had no idea what Stephen did to cause that light, but it had worked wonders. But could he handle Dowser on his own? I personally assumed the shadows would be the bigger threat but I'd only seen the big guy fight a few times, he could have more surprises up his tiny ass sleeves.
I ducked my head down and just put all the focus I had into running. We were in the party hall in no time, but still far off from catching up to the others. Somehow the chase hadn't disturbed the dancers all too much. There was a clear line through the mass of people where Stephen and Dowser had cut through, but each side of it were just going to town like nothing had even happened.
Another sign that the dancers were in some kind of trance? As much as I wanted to investigate that, I couldn't, it took all my focus to keep running.
"Look," Netta said, pointing ahead. "That guy is crazy."
Stephen had actually made it to the entrance hall, he was so close to escaping and, maybe, being able to log out to freedom.
But three masked lackeys ran inside, blocking his exit. Stephen didn't slow down at all, leaping right into the fray. He dodged a sword swipe from the leader and then headbutted the dude in the chest, knocking him back. The other two aimed guns at Stephen's head.
He held his hand up and and twisted it, using his powers to pull the two guys into each other. Their guns went off, firing harmlessly at either side of the walls.
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Weapons were just fired in a No Respawn Zone and not a single person reacted. It's possible the music muffled the sound enough to not cause any panic but, to me, that was another notch on the side of something really weird going on with the people at this party.
The way out now clear, Stephen kept up his advance, heading straight for freedom. His body made it out for a heart beat, and then the man with the sword grabbed Stephen's ankle and yanked him back in. He hit the ground on his shoulder, wrapping himself around Sam to save him from hitting the cement.
The other two guards somehow recovered from their head bashing and grabbed Stephen's shirt and manhandled him back completely into the building.
The guy with the sword got to his feet and pointed his weapon at Stephen's head. "Hand over the Fillet or die, you fuck."
Sam shook in Stephen's arms, burying his head in his chest. I was gaining, but still too far off to do anything. I tried to reach the sword wielder with my mind, but my energy couldn't reach it yet, the running made it harder for me to stretch it out.
"Alright, times up!" The guy shouted, pushing his sword forward.
I flinched, preparing myself to hear screams from my friends but, nothing, the guy was in lunge position, but he strained, trying desperately to push the sword into Stephen's gut. Stephen flipped his head to the side and the sword darted to the right, cutting into the leg of one of the guy's buddies.
The swordsman recoiled from his own weapon being used against his men and released his grip. Grave mistake. The sword swung around, landing into Stephen's free hand. He slammed it into the other guard's foot before he could get his gun aimed.
Stephen held the sword at the one remaining guard's throat. "Run."
He didn't even attempt to stand up, all traces of his former bravado wiped clean. He ran away, without even a glance at his fallen allies.
Stephen looked my way, seeing that he still wasn't out of danger yet: Dowser would be upon him in no time at all. I could see him doing the mental calculations on if he should run or hold his ground. He made up his mind.
He turned and ran for the door. I saw why he made that choice, the way was completely clear... but he vastly underestimated Dowser's speed. What the fuck was up with these giant guys having uncharacteristically speedy legs!?
Dowser bounded forward and leapt into the air, pulling out a big ax, glistening with a deadly sheen, coming straight for Stephen's unguarded back.
#
"Stephen!!" I yelled, my voice cutting through the music, hitting my target's ears dead on.
He spun around in recognition, his face going from the shock of hearing my voice to the shock of about to get sliced in half.
His hand went up, I could almost see his energy working to wrap itself around Dowser's weapon but he was coming down too fast and way too close.
He couldn't stop it in time.
I had one shot at helping. I took out my fishbowl and plunged my hand into the hole. I pushed off with my energy, lunging to the side to get a clean shot... and then I released my intention in the fishbowl, sending it rocketing off my hand, the fastest long range attack I'd ever done.
It flew forward, sliding in between Stephen and Dowser’s ax. Since no one was holding it in place, it didn’t block the attack outright, but it was enough to send the ax careening to the right. It dug into the ground harmlessly and Stephen took full advantage of the save. He sent his energy out, pushing Dowser away.
Dowser dug his feet in and managed to stay standing, but was pushed quite a ways back. The fishbowl was sent flying by the attack, but Stephen caught it with his energy and held it up. Sam looked at it, too, his eyes wide.
They both followed where it came from, fully seeing me for the first time.
“Miss? Is that…?” Sam said, not even daring to hope it was really me.
Dowser and Netta had stopped their advance, so puzzled by what was going on that the last thing they wanted to do was attack before finding some answers.
I grinned, not sure how creepy I looked with the skull mask, but I hoped it was as friendly as it could be, had some kind of me in it.
“About time you nerds noticed.”
Stephen broke out into a grin and Sam tried to take off running for me. Thankfully, Stephen kept a firm grip on him. He tossed me the helmet and I put it on, my blue skull going strange from within, likely making me look even creepier.
“Do you know them?” Netta asked. Then, smiling. “This is your friend, huh?”
I nodded, but readied myself for a fight. Netta waved her hand at me. “None of that. Go. We'll hold them off.”
I hadn’t noticed, but a crowd of guards were coming from either side of the hall, weapons drawn.
“No,” I said, “You’ll get in trouble, let me pretend to knock you–”
Dowser came up behind me and grabbed me by the scruff of my neck. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I like you, Fishbowl. Get the hell outta here.”
He tossed me toward the door. I sailed through the air, getting one last glimpse of my new friends. Both grinning at me as they turned to face the oncoming threat. I wanted to fly back toward them, knock them out so they wouldn’t be punished, but I knew there wasn’t time.
I landed, right infront of Stephen and grabbed him by the arm. “Let’s go!” I shouted.
He didn’t hesitate, he didn’t know we were leaving behind some good people. I pushed them out of my mind and just focused on running. We pushed through the doors, throwing them open all the way, and instantly went into our menus to try to log out.
[ Please leave the area all the way! Time until clear: 3 seconds ]
[ 3 ]
Stephen, Sam, and I shared a group smile.
[ 2 ]
The bustle behind us hit, the sounds of fighting and screams carried us forward.
[ 1 ]
We began to glow, the teleportation just a second from kicking off…
WHAM!
Out of nowhere, a giant fist pounded into us, sending us flying back. The blow knocked Sam out of Stephen’s arms and I reached for him, his little hand flapping in the air as he screamed, “Miss!”
Our hands missed.