In the middle of a street, inside Phoenix city’s trading district, three teens were stuck in unflattering positions. One looked to be turning around towards an unknown assailant, with a grimace on his face and a longsword in his palms. Another was holding his gauntlets on his hips, forever immortalized with a large grin and with his chest puffed up in pride.

Fortunately, at least the last one seemed to comprehend the seriousness of their situation. Her stance was tall and her blade seemed ready to strike. Unfortunately, her arms would not budge, and not even a frown could form on her face. Only her eyes wandered in their sockets, catching glimpses of the tree and of her friends.

“Bring me a crossbow,” she heard a voice. “I’ll finish this myself.”

The trio’s time was running out. They heard feet walking through the mud, delivering the weapon that would sentence them to death.

‘How long does this spell last?’ wondered Natalie. ‘Long enough,’ was the inevitable answer.

‘We’ll make it through this,’ thought Michael. ‘We will not die like this!’

Tommy tried to close his eyes but his eyelids did not move. ‘It’s fine… Justice will come for you.’

With no other choice, he watched the merchants near the tree hoping they would understand their situation and flee. ‘This is your last chance,’ he reckoned.

To his surprise, the merchants started doing the opposite of running. One of them, a young woman in her twenties, pulled a bottle from underneath her skirt and flung it in the teens’ general direction. A moment later, a young man pulled off his smelly boots and threw them as well.

One of the boots hit something solid, giving the others a target. Moments later, the unlucky assassin found himself under a barrage of boots, sandwiches, socks and underwear, to the point where he had to retreat inside a nearby alley.

Tommy wanted to shake his head. ‘You’re making a mistake.’

“As you’ve requested, boss,” he heard someone talk.

The chief assassin took the crossbow and ordered “Kill the merchants.” He then locked an arrow and aimed it at the teens. He only had five arrows, so he couldn’t afford to screw around. Since Michael was closest, he aimed for his head.

‘Hmm,’ the chief reconsidered. ‘Those gauntlets are a problem.’ Deciding to leave the brawler for last, he aimed for the swordsman instead. His figure was stuck in a rather awkward position, but his head was a clear target.

“Say goodbye, punk.”

The chief smirked and gently pulled the trigger, when suddenly, a smelly shoe smacked him straight in the face. While the arrow flew in an unknown direction, he spit to the side and shouted “Didn’t I tell’ya to kill them!? Do it, now!”

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Hearing his words, the merchants fled from the tree. They split up and disappeared through the alleys and streets, putting the short staffed assassins in a pickle. In the end, almost all of them gave chase, as their chief rubbed his face and once again took aim.

“Worry not, boys’n girl, the paralysis spell lasts a full 10 minutes. There’s plenty of time to bring'ya pain.”

Once more, the man lifted his crossbow, this time with the arrow pointed at the girl’s pretty red head. Of course, the chief did not care for the gender of his victims. “I run an equal rights operation here. Remember to tell Loki who sent’ya.”

Holding in a laugh, he slowly squeezed the trigger. The mechanism let go of the string, and the arrow flew true. It split the air in front of the crossbow and shot in a straight line towards Natalie’s head. Then, just three feet away from its destination, something got in the way.

Four men, dressed in rags and holding scimitars at their waist, had jumped in the arrow’s path. One of them caught it with his shoulder, before they all pulled out their weapons and charged at the chief assassin. Unfortunately for them, halfway there, invisible killers cut them all down.

“What-in bloody hell?” The chief scratched his head.

“Ha, unlike you bastards, I have no shortage of subordinates.”

With the edge of his eye, Michael caught a glimpse of a purple suit disappearing inside an alley.

The chief assassin signaled his remaining men, and everyone but his second in command left to search for the culprit. In a hurry, he then armed another arrow. He only had three left, so he could not afford to miss again.

Before committing to the shot, he looked in every direction for distractions. A red bird of sorts was flying towards him, so he swatted it out of the air before taking aim.

“What the fuck’s wrong with this night?”

“Boss, should I just go stab them?” asked his second in command.

The chief ignored him and almost pulled the trigger when the red bird landed on his crossbow and started pecking at the arrow.

“Buzz off!” Again, the assassin swatted it away. He took aim once more and fired the arrow. The pointed stick flew straight towards Tommy’s head, but just a couple of inches from its target, it suddenly burned to a crisp.

“What!? That’s not how the paralyzing spell works…”

“And how would you know?” spoke an old, female voice.

Right as he looked up, the bird landed on the chief assassin’s forehead. For the first time, he saw it clearly for what it was: A parrot with feathers the colors of flames.

“A mere assassin using paralysis arrays, your benefactor must be quite wealthy. Who do you work for, foolish child?”

The 40 year old chief started shaking while the parrot pecked at his mask. Floating above their heads, just slightly above the tallest building, an old, crooked woman dressed in red, was leaning on a floating cane.

“Speak,” she ordered. “Or I will have Phoenix eat you.”

Suddenly, some of the parrot’s feathers burst into flames, setting the assassin’s mask on fire. The man rolled on the ground, but no matter what, the flames would not cease.

“Phoenix, restrain yourself. I want him alive.”

The chief’s second in command tried to flee, but the red parrot saw right through his magic. It opened its beak and released flames which engulfed the entire road, disintegrated the invisible man's bones, obliterated the stalls, and burned even the willow tree to a crisp.

“Phoenix, cease this at once!”

The bird let out an unintelligible chirp, gave the chief assassin a look and flew towards the old woman’s shoulder.

“A pity,” Madam Isabella coughed. She then snapped her fingers and released the teens out of their paralysis. A couple of assassins were freed along with them, but before they could take a step, two tubes of flames surrounded their bodies, restricting their movements, and making the crystal on their belts break apart.

“The more witnesses the better,” Madam Isabella petted the parrot’s head. "Between you fools, my children and whoever the guards managed to apprehend, I’m sure we will get to the bottom of this.

Oh, and do not try to commit suicide. I am sadly not specialized in the healing arts, but I'm confident I can incinerate your insides and cast enough basic healing to keep you all alive.”