With the distance between the two closing quickly, the slasher thrust her finger blades forward to strike her star clad opponent. This was exactly what Zed had been hoping for, with his palm approaching her as quickly as she approached him.

The golden moment came, and Zed found the slasher's wrist before her blades found him. Suddenly, he yanked her wrist towards him, pulling her out of her attack state and into a position with her neck unexpectedly jerked backward. With her chin exposed, Zed thrust his opposite wrist forward, aiming to end this battle like many a sparing lesson in his martial arts class had ended before.

But the slasher was not a martial arts student, and she was not looking to spar. With the instant she had, she quickly jerked her neck to the side to avoid Zed's palm strike. Now free to counterattack, she brought her free hand to her side and swung it at Zed. Zed saw the attack coming, and released the slasher, choosing now to dodge back.

The encounter had taken mere seconds to play out, and it took Zed another second to realize that he managed to keep up without a moment of hesitation. He was also taken aback by just how far from the slasher he had jumped away, as what was intended to be a hop backward had become a leap that pushed him several yards back. Amazed, he looked down at his now gloved hands. "My reaction time. My speed! This is incredible!" Looking back to the slasher sprinting before him, Zed's covered out eyes burned with a newfound determination. "I can do this!" he said, clenching his fists, "I can really do this!"

The slasher opted for an overhead attack this time, bringing her blades down from above. Like the last time, Zed found the wrist and caught it with his non-dominant hand. His expression did not waver, even when the blades clattered helplessly against his helmet. Loading his opposite, his dominant hand by his side, Zed quickly thrust it into the slasher's stomach and stepped forward, allowing enough force to push her away. All of those years of martial arts training were starting to pay off.

Again, the slasher flipped to her feet before she touched the ground, but was now obviously winded by the attack. "Now to finish her off!" Zed reached to his waist and reached for his belt, blindly patting for something.

Both Zed and the slasher were confused for a moment, as Zed kept patting his waist, which soon turned to blindly frisking his entire torso. "Dave said I had a gun," he thought, desperately looking over his body. "Where's the gun?"

The slasher, now having learned how Zed operated, prepared her second volley of attacks. By the time Zed realized she was charging towards him again, she was already swinging her finger blades across him. Zed barely had time to dodge, but the slasher was not about to give him time to breathe. As quickly as Zed was able to dodge backward, she was able to catch up to him and swing again. By now, her wrist was out of arm's reach, and Zed was not too keen on the idea of reaching through swinging blades with his hands.

With no option to counterattack, Zed could only dodge. The slasher was well used to people trying to dodge her, and so she was prepared. She set Zed up with a low sweep feint, which tricked Zed into hopping off the ground, and followed through with a forward-thrusting attack, pointing all 5 blades into Zed's chest and following through with a step as he had done earlier.

The blades did not puncture Zed, however. They struck the star uniform's white vest, and following a burst of sparks off the attack, Zed flew back. Crashing onto his back, it took all Zed had to roll back on his feet.

Scrutinizing the star man, the slasher looked down at her blades and quickly formulated a new plan. "The helmet and the vest are out of the question," she thought. Quickly, she retracted the blades into her fingers and made a fist. She returned the gaze towards Zed with a small smile at the corner of her mouth.

Breathing heavily, Zed patted the white vest he was wearing. This vest did not appear to be made of the same material as the rest of the suit, there was something unusual about it. There appeared to be a zipper on it, but no time would be given for him to learn more about this strange vest, as the slasher drew near again. Oddly, her blades were gone, and she approached Zed with balled up fists, skipping forward like a boxer. Zed stood up and held up his hands, palms facing her.

Once she was close enough, she pointed her index finger at Zed's arm, and instantly, one of her blades jutted out from her finger. Zed's enhanced reaction time got him out of the way with a hop, but it was unable to do anything about her other hand, and the blades extending from her index and ring fingers. These blades were aimed at Zed's left leg, and they cut very deep.

Blood shot out of the wounds as Zed hit the ground, and he began to panic. "Where's Dave with the car?!" He asked himself, "how long does it take to get out of a parking spot?" Zed stood up and quickly turned to the slasher again, only to be met with a hard elbow to the jaw. Zed's head turned and he took a knee. On the ground in front of him, several long shadows appeared above his own. Zed took a chance on interpreting them, and could only assume it was the slasher's blades coming down at him again.

With his good leg, Zed jumped to avoid the attack. But it was a feint, and the slasher was now bearing a sinister grin from ear to ear. "I've got you now" she quietly said. With Zed in the air, unable to dodge or block, she extended all 10 of her finger blades and prepared an attack from above and below to slice off those pesky arms and legs of his.

Realizing the position Zed had gotten himself into, the thought of him dying right now seemed all too real. The moment seemed to last forever, as the only thought that passed Zed's mind was not about trying to run away, nor about how he never should've left home to join Dave in the first place. Frantically, he thought about his gun. His left hand thoughtlessly twitched, and a little ball of light suddenly formed in it. "If I die here, she'll get Dave without breaking a sweat," he thought, as the ball in his hand shaped itself around his fingers. "If she gets Dave, then who else will be there to stop her? To stop others like her?"

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The light subsided, and from it came an object Zed could not see. But the shape told him everything he needed. Pointing the object downwards, he pulled the trigger and shot at the set of blades hanging below him.

The shot hit the slasher's wrist and she quickly pulled back, turning her grin into an angry, tooth-bearing scowl. She pulled back the sleeve of her blazer and saw the mark it burned down to her wrist. It burned to move.

Zed landed on his bad leg and took a knee. He looked down at the weapon in his hand and smiled. "Glad you could make it," he said to it. Aiming the slasher again, Zed shot at her to keep her at bay.

Uselessly, the slasher tried to close the distance between the two, only to be forced to dodge shot after shot. Every step forward she'd make would only lead to two steps backward to avoid getting hit. Roaring with frustration, she retracted her blades and performed a quick somersault. Zed tried to shoot, but she had made herself so small that it was difficult to hit. He tried to stand, but his leg buckled beneath him and he fell onto his side

The slasher was suddenly on top of him, with her index and middle finger blades primed and looking to stab the star man's exposed throat. Moving his head in the way of the blades, Zed took the attack on his helmet, the thrust of the blades knocking it off his head.

Their eyes met for a moment, and neither blinked. The slasher aimed the fingers on her opposite hand as Zed aimed his gun. Both were targeting the head, and the moment before their respective attacks seemed to last another eternity.

Finally, Zed pulled the trigger as the slasher extended the blades. Both instinctively tried to dodge their heads to the side, and both were only grazed by the other's attack. Zed found a pair of small cuts on his brow, but the slasher's brow was visibly singed by the gun's discharge.

The two rolled away from one another, but it was Zed who was able to keep his attack going at a distance. Laying on his stomach, he shot at the slasher again and again. With no means of getting closer, and now suffering two wounds, the slasher scuttled away, around the corner of the hotel.

Zed's breathing did not relax until the image of Dave's car came into view. The bright green light enveloped Zed, and in a moment, he was back to his normal self, the gun and the uniform having disappeared. Sliding into the passenger's seat, Zed sat back, tired and with a triumphant smile.

"Are you alright?" Dave asked, handing Zed the first aid kit. "What happened back there?"

Zed could only laugh as he turned to face Dave, extending his index finger and thumb to make a gun shape. "I got lucky, is all." He took the first aid kit in hand and dabbed his forehead wounds with a disinfectant wipe. He looked down at his leg where the other wounds were but found that they were now covered by his uncut jeans. "What took you, anyway?" He asked as he brought a wipe down his pant leg to clean his wound.

"I called an ambulance," Dave said, Zed only now realizing the exhausted expression on his face. "I gave all the info I could."

Dave carefully maneuvered the car around the parking lot and approached the exit. "Let me take the wheel for a bit. You need rest" Zed said, applying an adhesive bandage to his eyebrow cut.

Zed reached towards Dave, when suddenly, a set of long blades thrust through the roof of the car, putting themselves between the two men.

Both guys cried in shock and exited the car with a roll. There, they saw the slasher standing over the car, wildly stabbing at the roof with one set of her finger blades. She spotted Dave, but the look she gave when she turned to Zed made it clear that the one she was after was him. Her sinister grin returned when she saw he was out of his star uniform, but when the bright green star appeared over his head again, it morphed back into a scowl.

Reaching for the star, Zed was forced to pull his arm back as the slasher swiped at it. With a slower reaction time and a slower movement speed, the slasher only needed one hand to slash at Zed over and over to keep him at bay. Zed jumped away, but instead of rolling to his feet, he fell to the ground and banged his head against the asphalt. Reeling in pain, he reached for the star hanging over his head but was again stopped by the slasher's blades. With Zed laying on the ground, the slasher put a foot on his chest and held her five blades pointing to Zed's face. The expression on her face freezing Zed where he stood.

Footsteps from behind the slasher alerted her that Dave was drawing near. Indeed, he leaped towards her, holding something round in his hands. With her mind still focused on Zed, she swiped her finger blades at Dave. Zed cried out in fear and threw his hand forward.

Positioning his wrecking balls over his throat and his eyes, Dave allowed the blades to cut him. His forehead and chest were recipients of the blade cuts, but the blades that touched the metal balls in his hands suddenly snapped off with a loud cracking noise. The slasher shrieked in pain and looked at the broken blades on her hands. Dave fell to the floor with blood trickling out of his cuts. His eyes stared intensely at Zed, who snapped out of his moment of panic and finally reached for the green star, now free to grasp.

The light covered Zed to transform him but only lasted a split second. With the light dissipated, Zed aimed his gun at the now distracted slasher and shot at her. Desperately, the slasher picked up her broken blades and scurried off again. Zed hobbled after her in chase, shooting at her until he was certain she was gone.

With one hand on his gun, Zed picked up Dave and placed him supine in the backseat of the car. Settling into the driver's seat, he handed Dave the first aid kit as he got the car out of the parking lot and back on the highway.

"What were you thinking back there? You could've been killed" Zed said as the light transformed him back into his normal self.

"I had to do something" Dave weakly said, coughing wet coughs. "I couldn't just stand back and watch you die either."

Zed gripped the steering wheel tight and his knuckles whitened. But his grip loosened as he sighed. There was nothing to really be mad about. They had succeeded in fleeing the assailant, and they were both freed with lives and body parts intact. Zed looked down at where the slasher had cut his leg. The pain wasn't as bad as it was before, but it was still throbbing.

"Besides" Dave added, "I felt... I needed to return the favor from before." Zed turned his eyes off the empty highway and glanced back at Dave, who was now tiredly applying his own gauze and bandages. He couldn't help but smile.

"You don't have to return any favors. Friends do favors for each other without expecting anything in return" Zed said, as his eyes caught a sign for Chamomile, the next destination on Dave's journey. "But thank you anyway. I appreciate it, Dave. Now get some sleep, we'll be on the road a while."