The Eyes That Make the Storm

76) Redacted

"Shit, shit, shit," Stasia repeatedly cursed, hoping the smoke would give her opponents enough of a distraction and her enough time to change into her costume before it cleared.

    She wasn't expecting them to attack so early, especially when there were other occupants in the restaurant. She turned to the side to see an arm crushed underneath a large slab of fallen concrete. She almost reacted, almost screamed, but upon remembering the words of an unwise hero, she remained calm.

    "Rest in peace," she whispered, as she fumbled through the various pockets of her cargo pants trying to find the one that held her gloves.

    After what felt like hours she opened her last pocket before cursing one last time, "fuck," before she is thrown back into a building. Immediately, she noticed a gash on her forehead as blood started to trickle down her face, nearly missing her eye.

    "Oh, Nora!" Antoine playfully called.

    What used to be a clear sky a mere half hour ago, was now covered in gray clouds and if she squinted hard enough, she could see sprites. 

    "Fuck."

    "Come out, come wherever you are," Mei encouraged, her voice sounding purely insane.

    "Three, eighteen, split," Stasia ordered with her eyes closed and when she opened them, three clones appeared.

    "You do the perimeter, you bust a water pipe that leads here, and you evacuate, go!"

    The three ran in opposite directions while Stasia finally exited what was still left of the building she was thrown into. She stood in front of it, making her presence known to Antoine. She started stretching out her arms as he stared at her in amusement as she crouched down, her palms meeting the concrete.

    Many of Stasia's quirks required a verbal confirmation of what she was doing, Dynamite was not one of them, this was just for effect, as she looked up at Antoine, she muttered, "boom."

    The ground started to shake, slowly rising in waves getting closer and closer to Antoine at rapid speed leaving him with nothing else to do but just stand there awaiting his fate. The biggest wave of rubble surpasses his height ten times over before burying him in debris.

    She sighed in almost annoyance as the rubble shifted, and she could tell he wasn't dead. She looked up seeing another sprite in the sky and before she could process how much closer it seemed than before, her whole body felt as if it was lit on fire. There was a deathly scream that made Stasia's ears ache as she watched Mei out of the corner of her eye throw slabs of concrete recklessly out of the way.

    "He's not dead-'' Stasia began to say but is interrupted feeling the need to gag and seconds later, she's throwing up blood.

    Oh, so this is what being electrocuted actually feels like.

    "Protect me my ass," she grunted before rubbing her hands together until sparks formed.

    "Mei," Stasia called but got no response, "can't say I didn't warn you."

    She clapped and lightning struck down so close to Mei it burned the sleeve off of her shoulder, leaving her arm red.

    Mei shakily and eerily turned her head towards Stasia, "you use my storm to strike me?"

    "Had to get your attention somehow," she shrugged and Mei started sprinting towards her. "Amplify," she whispered.

    Mei went in for a punch which Stasia quickly dodged before kicking her down. She repeatedly punched Mei while she was down, sending her further into the crust of the ground. She then heard the roar of thunder over Mei's cries and she looked up hoping to see a rain cloud. Only to see the whole sky covered in blue, She hesitantly looked down at Mei before she was launched off of her landing in the pile of rubble.

    Her head roughly hit a large rock and she hissed at the violent feeling of her brain racking against her skull. Her vision started to blur and her ears began to ring. Even in her dazed state, she noticed, the pile of rubble was different than before; Antoine wasn't in it.

    She got up quickly, now alert, and looked around for any sign of him. Just then, finally, it started to rain, and she had never felt such relief, but the moment was fleeting as it turned to hail.

    "Mine doesn't- fuck-"

    Unbeknownst to her, Antoine appeared behind her then proceeded to grab a fistful of her hair before bashing her head into the ground all while his fists swarmed with lightning. Admittedly it wasn't as painful as the previous blue lightning from Mei that had struck her before, but it seemed not to matter as his lightning even stood to make her blood boil. He tossed her aside, throwing her directly into Mei, who held Stasia up by her shirt.

    "You are so pathetic, you know that?"

    "Shut up," Stasia seethed as blood drooled out of her mouth.

    "Aren't you supposed to be up and coming? This is so boring, just come home with us."

    Stasia raised both of her arms to grab Mei's and burned her into she cried out and let her go.

    "You little-" Mei began to say but cut herself off as she began laughing.

    Stasia then looked up at the sky in horror as rouge lightning bolts started leaving the sky coming straight for her. She dodged them as best as she could, even trying to neutralize a few but with so many coming so fast, it was next to impossible. She crawled as far away from Mei as she could while the woman kept stalking towards her. Stasia ended up backing straight into Antoine and before she could turn around, he stepped harshly on her left arm, snapping it in half. She let out a strangled cry, and while she stopped moving due to the excruciating pain, Mei caught up to her.

    "Silly silly girl," Mei shook her head, grinning.

    Mei then, to Stasia's dismay, caught a lightning bolt with ease, and from the look in her eyes, she was going to use it on Stasia.

    As she knelt to plunge it into her body, and just as Mei lifted the bolt- she screamed.

    Stasia waited on bated breath until Mei fell over and off her, allowing the two to switch positions, with Stasia straddling Mei and having the bolt in her right hand. She took her limp broken left arm, placing it softly on the ground behind her, blowing it up once more so Antoine wouldn't be a problem while she finished the job.

    "You wouldn't dare," Mei mocked, as Stasia's hand shook with the bolt, the sound of flesh burning music to Mei's ears.

    "Try me."

    She raised her arm, but once again, began spewing out blood, this time violently.

    "Too weak, to even just hold it huh? Were you always like this or is this just the effects of being electrocuted?"

    Stasia plunged the bolt into Mei's thigh as she fell off of her, gasping for air in between vomiting up blood. She could now feel a deadly throbbing pain in her right eye and her ears started ringing once more; this time to a deafening extent. She could feel herself blacking out, as much as she tried to fight it, it was inevitable with how much blood she was losing.

    Never before had Stasia ever felt this stupid. Because as Mei got back up and stood over Stasia with Antoine who reappeared once again, Stasia realized, all too late, beating Mortelle was something she couldn't do alone.

    So it's a good thing she wasn't.