Chapter 37: Aftershock
Ana: “Try me.”
Jace: “No, no. Ladies first.”
Ana: “Aw, what a gentleman. I’ll make sure this hurts as much as possible.”
Jace: “Huh?!”
Within a flash, Jace feels an overwhelming pain to his chest. He looks down to see Ana who has just punched Jace with the fastest punch he’s ever seen. The other two stare in disbelief. She then begins to flash-step around Jace, landing a punch with every step. Pulse energy begins to encompass Jace before ultimately surrounding him. Ana then appears in front of him. As he grits his teeth in pain, he tries to move, but can’t due to the abundant pain scattered across his entire body. Ana giggles and raises her hand towards his face. She curls her middle finger back and places it on her thumb before flicking Jace as hard as possible in the nose. All of the Pulse energy detonates at once as rigid, magenta crystals shoot out from Jace’s body. He screams and falls to the ground before eventually passing out due to the stress on his body. Ana smiles and looks over to Henry and Mythril.
Ana: “Next.”
Henry: “We’re so fucked.”
Mythril: “I have a plan, but you need to get Jace away from here. He needs to fully recover before he can join the fight again.”
Henry: “I’ll try my best.”
They run out towards Ana. She responds by forming crystals around her knuckles. The two split up again as they begin to circle around her.
Mythril: “Hit me! C’mon! I’m right here!”
Ana scoffs and catches up to Henry before punching him in the arm, changing his trajectory into a nearby building, crashing through and shattering the glass front door.
Henry: “What the fuck?! He said to attack him, not me!”
Ana: “I’m not dumb. You two are planning something.”
Henry: “We’re the Pitied Party, of course we’re planning something.”
As Ana begins to walk towards Henry for a final blow, he notices Mythril carrying Jace inside a building before exiting the building alone. Henry smiles and looks back at Ana. He sprouts two Aura tails into the ground and uses them as a slingshot to dropkick Ana in the face. He uses the momentum to reach the middle of the street and turns back around to face the threat. Ana gets up from the ground and notices that her glasses are gone. The kick must’ve either broken them or sent them flying in a random direction. She looks over at Henry with death in her eyes. She leaps forwards, right into Henry’s face. With a meteoric strike, she punches Henry right into the building Jace is currently occupying.
Mythril: “Stop that!”
Ana does in fact stop and turns around, now facing Mythril.
Mythril: “If you wanna fight someone, you’re fighting me.”
Ana: “With pleasure.”
Back inside the now slightly destroyed building, Henry gets up and crawls over to Jace before crouching on one knee. He sets Jace up, so his body is parallel to the wall.
Henry: “I need you to wake up, Jace! We need a plan!”
Jace doesn’t respond as Ana’s attack has clearly done some pretty brutal damage that his Shiftium is still healing. Back outside, Mythril successfully dodges Ana’s punches. She snarls and begins to go for kicks as well, but Mythril’s speed is simply no match for her.
Ana: “Stay still!”
Mythril: “Not happening!”
As if a light bulb went off in Ana’s head, she smiles and grips her fist. She raises her arm and spins around. Mythril’s proximity to Ana unfortunately sets him up to receive the scariest spinning back fist he’s ever seen. The punch knocks Mythril away before he skids across the asphalt. Ana leaps over to him and raises her fist in the air. She sends it crashing down, but before it can hit Mythril, it’s intercepted and blocked by his Aura arms.
Ana: “About time you started fighting back.”
Mythril: “Sorry about that. I had to remember how to use them since Kien usually did all the work.”
Mythril thrusts his arms forwards to counter Ana’s punch and push her back, allowing him to properly stand up. Ana smiles and raises her palm to her jaw, she pops her neck to the left, before alternating to the right. The sound makes Mythril shiver. She returns her hand to a resting position and eyes Mythril down. Without a second thought, they both instinctively start dashing towards each other. Ana drags her hands below her as they begin to surround themselves with Pulse. Mythril sprouts his two extra Aura arms and prepares for the upcoming assault. They clash fists as the Pulse from Ana’s rips apart Mythril’s. He steps back and retracts the shattered Aura hand, gritting his teeth before checking his side. That punch did some heavy damage to already cause that much internal bleeding. While the same thing happened with Ben Jr, he was able to endure it better as while Ben was a lot of small razors, Ana is a guillotine.
Mythril: “Henry and Jace better be coming up with something soon. I can’t take as many attacks from her as I thought…”
Inside the building, Henry is now lightly slapping Jace on the face.
Henry: “C’mon, buddy! Get up!”
He hears a loud bang behind him. He refuses to turn around, but continues to lightly slap Jace. After a second, he grips his fist.
Henry: “Ah, fuck it.”
Henry opens his palm and reels his arm behind him. With a swift and clean motion, Henry slaps Jace as hard as he can. The noise echoes throughout the empty building, but thankfully remains silent to the two fighting outside.
Jace: “OW! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!”
Henry: “Shut up, you idiot!”
Jace stops and notices the beatdown happening outside the building. He immediately shuts up and looks back at Henry, his cheek still glowing red.
Henry: “So, I’m gonna be real with you, she’s fucking us up. We need to fight together if we wanna land a successful hit on her.”
Jace: “Don’t worry. I think I got something.”
Henry: “Yeah? What is it, genius?”
Jace: “We currently have her trapped horizontally, right?”
Henry: “Riiiight?”
Jace: “Well, what about vertically?”
Henry: “What are you suggesting?”
Jace: “You and Mythril keep her occupied and close the distance between you two. I’ll run up these stairs and attack from above.”
Henry: “Got it. I’ll see if I can relay that to Mythril.”
Jace: “Perfect. I’ll watch from above and strike when the time is right. Just focus on keeping her in one spot.”
They nod to each other and go their separate ways. Henry begins to walk out the building, but is brought right back in due to Mythril’s body being hurtled at him.
Henry: “Myth! You alright?”
Mythril: “I think she broke something that time…”
Henry: “Here, I gotcha.”
The two help each other stand up only to be greeted by Ana. That look of death is still well present within her eyes. She yells and throws out a heavy punch towards the two. They dodge left and right respectively as Ana’s fist makes contact with the door behind them. The Pulse detonates causing the door to break off of its handle and shoot off into the dark room in front of her. Henry looks into the room and thinks of a quick escape plan. He grabs Mythril’s wrist as they charge into the dark room, soon becoming one with the darkness.
Ana: “Oh, hell no.”
She begins to walk through the entranceway she made as she looks around. Her eyes and Pulse are the only things illuminating the deep black surrounding her. On the other side of the room, the two begin to plan their next move.
Henry: “Shit! I just remembered something.”
Mythril: “What’s that?”
Henry: “We can’t sneak attack her. Our eyes glow to help us see in the dark and our auras make a lot of light, she’d catch us in an instant.”
Mythril: “Then we don’t fight her.”
Henry: “That’s true. Jace is currently making his way to the roof, so we ultimately only need to distract her.”
Mythril: “Is he planning to strike from above?”
Henry: “Yes. We need to get her back to the street without getting our asses beat into the ground.”
Mythril looks over to the broken door.
Mythril: “I got it.”
He walks over to the door and crouches down. He grabs one of the hinges and returns back to Henry.
Henry: “The ol’ loud noise in the dark trick?”
Mythril: “Works every time, doesn’t it?”
Ana: “Does it?”
The two feel their skin turn cold as they shift their eyes over to the magenta light standing next to them. Without a second thought, Mythril changes the plan and instead of throwing the hinge at the wall, aims directly for Ana’s head. It connects and she stumbles back a few steps.
Mythril: “FUCKING RUN!”
The two dash around Ana and towards the door, but feel a quick rush of air between them before once again seeing the magenta light. Ana raises her arms and clotheslines the both of them onto the ground.
Henry: “If that’s how you want to play…”
From the ground, Henry leans and points his wrist towards Ana. He sprouts an Aura Stinger and sends it straight into her achilles. She screams in pain and falls to her other knee.
Ana: “You motherfucker!”
Henry: “Be lucky I didn’t go for both! Get out of here, Mythril!”
Mythril: “Absolutely not! C’mon!”
He grows an Aura Arm to grab Henry and get him back on his feet as he uses another arm to push himself up from the ground. Together, the two begin their escape once more. This time, they succeed and make it out of the building.
Henry: “Jace should be at the top now. He told us to trap her and close the distance. We moved from the intersection to the street, so you go left and I’ll go right.”
Mythril: “Understood!”
The two split up and await Ana’s arrival. Soon enough, she limps out of the building and back to the center of the road. She notices how the two are positioned and gets suspicious.
Ana: “Another trick? Why can’t you all just fight fairly?”
Henry: “Because we’re done putting up with your bullshit.”
Henry takes a step closer to Ana. Instead of bucking up, she takes a step back from the small amount of intimidation she feels. Henry nods to Mythril and thankfully he takes the hint as he also takes a step towards Ana.
Ana: “What do you mean my bullshit?!”
Henry: “This! Do you think this is fun?! Endlessly wailing on your friends who have done nothing to deserve it!?”
Ana: “You all cornered me. What else am I supposed to do?”
Mythril: “Talk without using your fists. That’s what I tried to do until you forced my hand…literally.”
Ana turns back around to Mythril and scoffs.
Ana: “Are you all actually this soft?! I thought I knew actual fighters, not…losers!”
Henry: “You enjoyed being around us. As far as I’m concerned, that makes you a loser too.”
Henry grows an Aura stinger from his wrist. Mythril follows up by manifesting his right Aura arm. They are about 10 feet apart from Ana.
Ana: “I am not a loser! Look at me! I’m the best! I’m the fucking best!”
Suddenly, a loud crack of thunder is heard as a bolt of lightning shoots off into the air. The three look towards the sky, but are quickly blinded by the noon sun.
Jace: “Ana! It’s my turn now!”
Ana: “How are you already back?!”
Henry: “I slapped the shit outta him.”
Jace: “I need you two to join in too! Everyone, attack at once!”
Mythril: “On it!”
Henry: “Oooh, this is gonna hurt.”
The two dash towards Ana and reel their attacks. Ana doesn’t know who to go for. The one that’ll stab her, the one that’ll punch her, or the one that’ll punch her with electricity. As she continues to think of a solution, Jace sends himself flying forwards towards Ana with another crack of thunder and bolt of lightning. He does a side-flip, repositioning himself to have his left fist forwards as he goes for the finishing blow. Ana yells and uses one hand to catch Henry and the other to catch Mythril. She gets ready to have them headbutt, but is too slow as Jace lands a clean punch on her forehead. She lets go of the other two, allowing them to join in and attack her. With an electric shockwave to release the energy from Jace’s arm, Ana drops to the ground. Everyone returns to a neutral state before checking on her.
Henry: “Are you sure we didn’t kill her?”
Jace: “Mythril, check her pulse.”
Henry: “Wait. Why didn’t you check my pulse?”
Jace: “I did. I realized about an hour ago that I wasn’t able to feel it because I was still a little numb from your toxins.”
Henry: “Yeah, that could do it.”
Mythril walks over to Ana and crouches down. He places two fingers on her neck and after a few seconds, he smiles.
Mythril: “She’s still breathing. It’s a steady breath too, she’s not in too much pain.”
Henry: “Whew, good. I was a little worried there for a second.”
Jace: “We should probably take her home.”
Mythril: “Yes. She needs to rest.”
Mythril and Henry help stand her up. They each put one of her arms over their shoulders as the group makes their long trek back to Bluestone. Once they return, they gently rest Ana on one of the couches and huddle together.
Henry: “Well? Now what?”
Jace: “Jack said that if I survived falling to my death, I was to come back with any friends I was able to save. He was implying that none of you could be saved, let alone me dying before all of that can happen. Jokes on him.”
Mythril: “So, we head back for Titan and fight Jack?”
Jace: “That’s my plan…after we find Luke.”
Henry: “Fuck, right. I forgot about him.”
Mythril: “Do we have any leads on his location?”
Jace: “Nope. We’re as good as blind.”
Henry: “I just say we make our way to Titan now. If he wants our attention, he’ll come to us.”
Mythril: “How can you be so sure?”
Henry: “Just trust me on this one.”
Jace: “Any objections?”
The other two shake their heads.
Jace: “Good. Get yourselves together, we have a CEO’s ass to beat.”