Chapter 3 Melodia

I walked out into the courtyard as Anna and the monster both stopped their fight to look at me.

“No way, her?” she gasped as the monster picked a more direct response.

It started running right at me. I gulped and brought my fists up as time seemed to slow down around me. Anna had been running around at speeds that looked superhuman. If her powers were the same type as mine, then maybe I had super powers like that too?

The monster was right in front of me with its claw raised in the air and ready to swing down. Instead of falling back or rushing to the side, I stepped forward and swung my fist into its stomach before its claws could move. I didn’t really know how to fight, but the bits and pieces I got from overhearing my dad trying to teach my brother and watching martial arts movies would have to do.

Best case scenario, I hit it hard enough to send it flying back. Worst case scenario, my punch didn’t do anything and I’d take a big claw to the face. As I felt my fist dig into the monster’s stomach, I found myself somewhere in-between the two. The monster stumbled back as its arm wavered and the claw missed me.

I didn’t waste a single moment. I took another step and landed another blow on the monster’s stomach with my other fist. Once again it went stumbling back as I followed up with another punch. Again and again I punched the monster’s stomach, making sure to hit the exact same spot every time. And with every impact, the monster was forced further and further back. I had almost pushed it to the wall when I felt something grab my arm and lock it in place.

I looked up and saw a clawed purple hand around my arm. I looked even further up to see the arm connecting to a growling monster I had just punched a whole bunch of times in the belly. It picked me off the ground with a roar and I didn’t need to be psychic to know this was going to hurt. The world around me suddenly dropped as the monster lifted me over its head.

And then as suddenly as I had gone up, I went back down. The monster swung its arm down as the world around rushed past me the other way. I could barely keep in a scream as I felt my back hit the concrete. And yet somehow, even with the burning sensation feeling my body, I got the feeling it should have hurt a lot more than it did.

For a second, I thought the monster would try to lift me back up and try to do it again. But after that second, I realized I couldn’t feel its hand on my arm anymore. I glanced at my free arm and then at the monster. It must have thrown me to the ground instead of just swinging me around. And now it was raising both of its fists over its head…

I widened my eyes before rolling to the side as the monster brought its fists down on the spot I had just been in. I kept rolling a bit more until I had put some distance between me and the monster before scrambling to my feet. I was still in a crouch when the monster reached me and got in my face. So this is what it must have felt like to be Anna a few moments ago before I interrupted her fight with this thing.

Instead of backing away like her, I sprung forward from my crouch and punched the monster in the jaw. The monster fell back before trying to grab me again. This time I saw its clawed hand coming for my arm. I pulled my arm away and then snapped back to grab the monster’s arm. I spun in place while keeping the arm in an iron grip.

I let out a yell as I threw my arms forward and threw the monster over my shoulder. It let out a roar as its back hit the ground. So this was what payback felt like. The monster growled at me as it started trying to get back to its feet.

This wasn’t going to work. I needed a way to take this thing down permanently or this was never going to end…

“Ah,” I let out a yelp as I felt a sharp pain in my head. The world around me slowed down as I felt a rush of information flooding my head. Mystical secrets raced through my mind as my eyes locked onto the monster and I pointed a single finger at its head.

In my head, gravity appeared. Not the actual force of gravity, but the idea of it. The idea that objects fall to the ground when they had nothing to catch them. The idea that two objects attracted each other. The way the planets orbited the stars and the way the moons orbited them in turn. Every single one of these ideas and countless more fused together to form a unified concept of gravity.

And then just when I thought I was done, I felt countless other concepts come to me, stacking on top of the original gravity concept and modifying it. I saw complex math equations, directions, limiters, and so much more as they all came together until I had a single unified whole. By instinct, I knew what this was.

What I had was one spell, ready to go. All I needed to do now was pull the trigger by saying the magic words.

My eyes narrowed onto the top of the monster’s head as my mouth opened and said two little words.

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“Gravity Crush!”

A small black orb appeared where my finger was pointed and expanded out for a second before sucking in everything around it. And since I had made the orb right in front of the monster, its head and chest had been the first things to vanish into the little black hole. I watched as the hole kept going, ripping the monster apart at the waist and eating its entire top half before starting to fade away.

The monsters legs started shaking a little before collapsing on the ground. After a few seconds, they started decaying into black sludge as I suddenly felt weirdly drained. By the time I caught my breath, the only thing left of the monster was a black stain on the ground, and even that was starting to fade away.

I heard a pair of footsteps approaching and turned around to see who it was. My face blanched as I saw her approach. I had completely forgotten she was even here.

She had an uncertain look on her face even as she kept walking towards me. I also got the first good look at her in her outfit without having to worry about either of our safeties.

She was wearing a pink dress with white swirls going down to her knees. On her feet were a pair of rose colored flats and on her hands were a pair of gloves in a matching color. Her brown hair was done up in in a pair of long pigtails which draped down to her elbows. And right on her chest was a black broach in the shape of a four pointed star. The same black star I wore on my belt.

I also noticed that a bunch of scratches and tears on her outfit were gone, almost like the clothes themselves were healing. There was also a slight bruise on her face as well as a few scratches on her arm healing up just as quickly.

We stood in front of each other in silence, her face scrunched up like she was trying to think of something to say. I tried to think of something to say, but nothing I could think of felt right. There was so much to ask and none of the questions I had felt like the most important one.

“Where’s Pickati?”

My mind went blank as her words washed over me. Of all the things she could have said, those might have been the ones I had been expecting the least. Pick-ah-tee? Who the heck was that, and why did Anna expect me to know who it was? My only guess as to who it could have been was…

“Well?” I blinked as she got right into my face and demanded I answer. And her eyes had the glare, the same glare I thought I escaped. I felt my whole body freeze up, too terrified to say anything. And this just made her even angrier. The longer I stood there in silence, the angrier she got, and the angrier she got, the less I could make myself talk. A vicious cycle I had to get out of.

But before I could have a chance to do so, Anna ended it for me by huffing at me and walking away.

It was at this point I found the power in me to make one last mistake for the night. I had wanted to tell her I didn’t know who Pickati was. I wanted her to tell me so I could give a real answer. And if Pickati really was the little fox’s name, I could tell her he was resting at my house.

But instead of any of this, I managed to get out a single word from my mouth. And I was pretty sure it was the absolute worst word I could have picked.

“Who?”

She froze in place before looking back at me. Tears were starting to form in her eyes. She growled at me before turning back and running away. I could only stand around dumbly as I watched her go, too afraid to say anything else.

And that was how my first fight ended, with me standing in an empty courtyard all by myself with only a quickly fading stain and the remains of a broken fan for company. I stared at the stain and realized I would rather fight a monster to the death again then have to deal with an angry Anna. I wasn’t sure what that said about me, but I was pretty sure I didn’t like it.

“I wonder how the little fox is doing,” I muttered to myself before starting the long walk home. He should have still been where I left him…

Bleeding on my floor and covered in injuries.

My eyes widened as I took off running back home as quick as my legs would carry me. The buildings rushed past me as I quickly realized I had some sort of minor super speed. It was a neat power, but one I could worry about later.

I wasn’t even breathing hard by the time I made it home. I walked up to the tree and stared at it while asking myself a question. Normally this was the worst part of sneaking out. Climbing up a tree was a lot harder than climbing down. But with these powers, maybe it would be easier this time around?

I started climbing and let myself get into a comfortable rhythm. Despite their size, my little noodle arms had no trouble getting me to the top of the tree and my legs had no trouble getting me in through the window. I landed in the middle of my room as my eyes immediately went to the spot where I had left the little fox.

I let out a sigh of relief as I spotted him in the same place, breathing normally and fast asleep. I brushed some of his fur around to find him a little better than I had left him. It looked like whatever healing power Anna had, this little fox had too.

I scoured my room before figuring out a decent short term plan. I set an extra pillow down on my desk before carefully picking the fox up and putting him on it. Next, I took my pillowcase off my pillow and gave it to him as a little blanket.

The little fox made a little noise of comfort before going into a silent sleep. I couldn’t help but smile before stepping back to let him in peace. Now all I had to do was figure out what was going to happen to these weird clothes of mine.

The first thing I tried to do was take off the jacket. No good, it was almost like the thing was glued onto my shirt. Yet somehow I still managed to move around with no trouble. Weird.

The next thing I tried was the hair tie keeping my hair in a ponytail. No good on that front either, or the boots, or even the belt. I guess this outfit was kind of cool, but I couldn’t exactly go to sleep in it. Or worse, go to school in it. Plus I kind of liked the clothes they had changed from.

“There has to be a way to change back,” I stood in front of a mirror, looking at my new clothes before they started to shine brightly. I blinked and the new clothes were gone and the old ones had taken their place again. “I just had to want to change back?”

I felt my eyebrow twitch before I shrugged my shoulders and decided to deal with this tomorrow. I finished getting ready for bed and hoped tomorrow would make more sense.

Ugh, and I was still two days away from the start of the weekend. There should have been a law that crazy stuff like this wasn’t allowed to happen on a Wednesday.