Tempus [HIATUS]

Two- Unarmed Combat

TWO

- Unarmed Combat

Nate risked a peek through cracked spectacles from behind his book , which now was decorated by a rather large shard of glass embedded in it. It was raw mayhem around him: desks and chairs were scattered throughout the classroom, the windows were shattered, as open as the mouths of the awed children who were still conscious, Pat was out cold with a gash on his cheek and three men were having the oddest fight Nate had ever seen.

The man who had come flying through the window was engaged in hand-to-hand combat just a few metres away with the pursuer whose hands were radiating an odd distortion of light, and though Mister Fly-By moved at a speed Nate could not follow, none of his blows connected with Fancy Hands. It wasn’t that Fancy Hands dodged or blocked the punches and kicks, they just didn’t hit their mark. Nate squinted, and could make out a slight blurring in the space between them. Maybe that’s whats blocking all those hits, he guessed to himself.

''All right everyone, there is no need to break out in panic or scream and run around. My colleague  will detain the fugitive shortly, but in the meanwhile I ask of all of you to evacuate the floor in the orderly fashion I expect your teachers have made you practise in fire drills, thank you very much!“ The last man in black stood between the fight and the class, which made Nate realise that he and Pat were on the wrong side. This realisation was further substantiated by the sudden impact of Fancy Hands with the desk he was crouched behind.

''Oh Lord‘‘ he muttered. While the rest of the class left itself in the scrambling, messy(in the case of Kamaz, this was in his pants) manner that did not quite follow the evacuator’s request, Nate grabbed Pat under the armpits and dragged him to the corner furthest from the fight, stumbling once to receive a noseful of his friend‘s curly brown hair. He leaned against the wall, and looked over the edge of a desk. The other man didn’t appear to notice him, and Nathaniel intended to keep it that way.

Fancy Hands stood up and dusted himself off, a gesture Nate didn’t quite understand because, after all, he was just going to get dirty again. He smiled at Fly-By, and the odd blurring spread to all over his body.  Nate felt dizzy just looking at it. Fly-By lunged at his adversary, so fast he moved in a blur, and stopped midstrike, frozen. A trickle of blood left his right nostril. He was grabbed at the wrist, which seemed to blur for a bit too, then disintegrate. He screamed out in pain, but still did not move.

He probably can’t, Nate thought to himself. That blurring stuff is doing something to him. Is it something the military came up with? He thought he could discern a quiet humming sound.

''Well then, Mr Toshirou, it seems we‘ve finally caught up with you.‘‘ Man-in-black II walked up to Fly-By from behind and laid a hand on his shoulder. ''And I’m glad we did, because there are a few things I would like to ask you. Have a seat first.‘‘ He kicked a nearby overturned chair upright, and dragged it up to Fly-By-Toshirou, as Nate now thought of him. The moaning man was pushed down into it.

''Now then, Toshirou we’ve notified the higher ups, but it’ll probably take them a minute or two to come. Until then, my colleague Jameson over here can spend the time rather intimately with you- Jameson hold his good hand, will you- and I’m not sure if he’ll be gentle about it. I think the lack of your left arm should be convincing enough. So you can just tell us where you got an IMOD from, hmmm?‘‘

Nate felt the temptation to swallow hard, but ignored it. Any sound would attract the wrong kind of attention. He couldn’t believe he was watching a real interrogation, just like in the movies. The only difference was, they manually cut the person up when they tortured him, they didn’t … BLUR limbs off. He tasted the bile at the back of his throat.

The sweating Fly-By-Toshirou looked at Fancy-Hands incredulously, then craned his head around to give a wide-eyed stare at his captor. ´´You can’t do this, I have rights. You‘ve got me already, you’re not allowed to hurt prisoners! YOU’LL get in trouble too!''

´´Ah but my dear Toshirou, we had to resort to these measures when you decided to engage in rather AGGRESSIVE UNARMED ha ha ha excuse the pun COMBAT; I was forced to shoot you in the foot when you came at me wielding all that kinetic energy.''

Fly-By-Toushiro frowned. ´´You didn’t shoot me in the foo- AAARGH!'' A white beam erupted from Man in Black’s index finger and shot towards the captive’s foot. Nate smelled burning flesh, and fought to keep the vomit back. He couldn’t handle this anymore.

´´So tell me, HOW. DID. YOU. GET. AN. IMOD.''

Fly-By moaned softly in response, and muttered something discoherently.

´´Excuse me?''

´´…Piss off!''

´´Jameson, you know what to do. But start with just a fing-''

Patrick chose just this moment to wake up from his stupor in the most clicheed manner possible. He groaned loudly, rubbed his head, looked around and said ´´Where am I?'' Nate didn’t allow himself a breath of panic, but just slumped against the wall, feigning unconsciousness. He hoped it was convincing enough.

´´Are you alright, my boy?''

´´My head hurts.'' Nate heard Patrick answer. ´´What happened?''

´´Oh, this terrorist here planned to attack your school, but we‘ve managed to apprehend him now. And now I see the team has arrived too. Your friend seems to be unconscious over there. Does the school have a medical facility?''

Nate deemed this an appropriate time to ´´wake up''

´´Ugh, my eyes'' he groaned.

´´Ah, you’re awake now too. Are you two in any position to walk? Yes? Good. Please find your way to school nurse then.''

Nate felt himself being dragged along with Pat to the door, where Man in Black nudged at the button to open it. They were pushed out, the door shut behind, and the light on top of it flashed red. It was locked.

Nate turned to Pat.

´´I really need to talk to you.''