“Severe, Arson, Hannah’s taken Jesseca I need the two of you to go after them!” Knight bellowed into his communicator at the two women. “They left the infirmary heading west about five minutes ago.” he said.
The two women left the base and took to the sky, racing off in the direction Knight had seen Hannah leave in.
“Any chance we’re gonna find them?” Arson shouted to Severe, her body engulfed in flames as she flew alongside the albino telepath who was hovering alongside her in an Indian style position.
“We have to try Arson.” Severe said with her telepathic voice. “I sense Jesseca’s aura up ahead. It’s very faint, but it’s enough to follow.” she said.
The pair saw Hannah flying up ahead of them, parting ways they made a move to perform a pincer attack on the emerald haired villain.
Hannah smiled, she’d sensed a telepath following her, and now it appeared that she was going to have company soon. “Better give them a proper welcome.” she thought as she stopped her progression.
A jet of flame came at her from her right, she put up a barrier of radiation and deflected it with ease, but while her attention was diverted Severe grabbed Jesseca with her telekinesis and brought the unconscious girl to her.
“Fire away!” Severe mentally told Arson, and watched as a torrent of fire erupted into Hannah, blasting the woman backward into the side of a building.
Arson jetted toward the building after Hannah, and veered out of the way of a radiation blast just before it could knock her from the sky. “Hafta do better than that psycho!” Arson taunted. She gasped as Hannah was suddenly in front of her, a hand at her throat.
“How’s this for better?” Hannah asked as she held her glowing fist in front of Arson’s face, readying a blast that would take the young girl’s head clean off.
Arson struggled to free herself from Hannah’s grasp. The teenage hero whimpered pitifully as she saw her imminent death at the hands of her foe. As her air supply cut off, her body lost it’s flaming shroud, and she was left powerless.
As Hannah started to fire her blast she was struck in the back with a sickening squish by Ataris’ battle axe, causing her to drop Arson. The young girl fell a short distance before she too was scooped up by Severe, and carried away from the battle.
“Maybe you step up from the minor’s and into the major league!” Ataris said as Hannah turned toward him, his axe in her hand after pulling it from her back. “I’ll be having that back now.” Ataris said as he leapt up to Hannah, meeting her in midair, one hand grabbing his axe, and the other wrapping around Hannah’s throat. “Let’s see how you like to be choked.” he said with a smile.
“Fool!” Hannah spat as she fired her radiation blast at Ataris’ chest. Hannah growled as her shot passed through the tall African American after his torso seemed to turn to mist.
“Looks like nobody told you about Ataris.” he said, and prying his axe from her hand swung it at her head, taking a good portion of the side of her skull off. Ataris leapt off her, and landed safely on the ground.
Hannah screamed in agony and flew upward with rocket speed. “You’ll all burn when D’argoth returns!” she shouted as she flew away.
“We’ll see about that.” Ataris thought as he started walking back to the base.
“I’m very proud of you all.” Knight said to his people as they sat in the infirmary while Jesseca and Arson were examined by the electronic medical system.
“I just wish I could’ve seen that bitch get what was coming to her, instead of letting her take me out.” Arson said.
Severe smiled at the girl and squeezed her hand. “I think you did just fine child.” she told the young girl with her mind, getting a smile in return.
“The fact still remains that we’ve been compromised, Hannah and the Circle of Thorns know where our base is, so we’re not safe here.” Knight said.
“I know where we can go.” Sue said weakly from her bed.
“Because we were only a team for a short time before Babbage attacked and the other girls were killed, nobody even knows this place exists.” Sue said with a pang of sadness as she stood in the middle of her old base with her new allies.
“Thank you Sue.” Severe said as she levitated Jesseca back toward the infirmary.
“All right team, we still have to get everyone we can together to combat this menace.” Knight said, breaking the moment. “Every able bodied person to a communicator, and get these folks together at the Terra Volta nuclear reactor tomorrow.” he said.
As the others went to their stations, Sue made her way into the infirmary where Severe was setting up some monitors to watch Jesseca’s vitals. “Is she going to be ok?” Sue asked, taking a seat on the edge of the bed next to Jesseca.
Severe smiled at her and put a hand on her knee, “She’s very tough, I’m sure she’ll be just fine.” she said.
Sue smiled at the woman and watched her leave the room. “Jess, if you can hear me, I need you to get better as soon as you can honey.” she said, snuggling up to the unconscious woman.
“Sue?” Knight said, gently nudging the sleeping woman.
Sue opened her eyes and sat up. “What time is it?” she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“It’s about seven in the morning.” he said. “I need you to come with me for a little bit, I have to pick up some stuff for today.” he said.
Sue nodded and got off the bed, she leaned over and kissed Jesseca on her forehead before leaving with Knight.
“So where are we going?” she asked as they drove to their destination.
“I called Azuria with M.A.G.I. last night to see if she could tell me anything about D’argoth and the Circle of Thorns that might help us. She said that she had some weapons that would help us fight him if he manages to be freed.” he explained.
“But I thought he was inside of Hannah, possessing her.” Sue said, slightly confused.
Knight shook his head. “Apparently Hannah is possessed by a low level spirit used solely to bring her back to life.” he said, turning toward City Hall. “D’argoth is trapped in limbo right now, a realm between ours and the spirit world. The Circle of Thorns needs to perform a ritual to free him, which buys us some time to mount an attack.” he said.
“What kind of ritual?” Sue asked as they headed toward City Hall.
“She said the Circle needs to accumulate one thousand souls in order to break the chains that bind D’argoth. We figure that every person that Hannah has killed has gone toward increasing that number.” Knight said.
“So we have no idea how close they actually are to performing the ritual?” Sue asked.
Knight shook his head. “Hence the urgent urgency.” he said as they entered M.A.G.I. and made their way to Azuria’s desk.
“Knight, I’m glad you came so quickly.” Azuria said, rising from her seat. “After I finished talking to you last night I gathered everything I had that has some kind of tie to D’argoth, unfortunately I only have three items that will be able to help you.” she said.
Reaching into a nearby trunk and producing a necklace she tossed the item to Knight. “That’s the Pendant of Souls.” Azuria said. “It’s said to provide the wearer with protection from death and injury as long as it touches the skin.” she said.
Knight handed the necklace to Sue and caught the next item that Azuria tossed to him, a pair of gloves that shimmered under the fluorescent lights of the office. “The Hands of Destruction, when worn multiply strength tenfold, as well as granting mastery of holy energy blasts.” Azuria said. Knight handed those to Sue as well and met Azuria by the trunk.
“The Sword of Banishment, unbreakable and able to cut through any element known to man, including the tough hides of demon overlords.” Azuria said with a smile.
“Thanks Azuria, hopefully this’ll be enough.” Knight said, kissing the woman on her cheek before heading to the door with Sue following behind, smiling at the pretty African American mystic.
“I pray that it is.” Azuria said quietly to herself as the heroes left her office.
“So, three enchanted items for an army of heroes?” Sue asked as they headed back to the car.
“Nope.” Knight said. “Three enchanted items for an army of one. You.” He said handing her the sword and getting into the car.
“Me? Why me?” she asked, getting into the car after setting the items in the backseat.
“Azuria said that these items had to be used by the most effective person that we had. I haven’t met anyone yet that’s as powerful as you, next to Hannah. I figure that with this stuff she’ll be no match for you, and after her comes D’argoth, and you know what they say about the bigger they are.” he said with a smile.
Sue smiled back nervously, she’d suddenly been thrust into the role of savior of the city, and it terrified her to no end.