Clueless Varian

Chapter Seven: The Truth

Varian defensively held out a long staff with glass balls attached to it. He threw a pink one at the man in front of him who's feet became stuck to the ground with a thick gooey paste. Hugo, Nuru, and Yong were each fighting off a ruffian of their own and in the center stood a large, rough looking man with a scar across his face, holding the water totem in his hand.

"You'll return the totem at once!" Varian yelled, rushing toward him.

The man grinned maliciously. "We're honored you four retrieved the totem for us, but we'll take it off your hands now."

"We didn't get it for you! You stole it after we finished the trial where we rightfully earned it."

"That sounds like a you problem." Before Varian could get to him, the man whistled loudly and one of his henchmen punctured a hole in a large barrel nearby.

All of the ruffians pulled masks over their faces as a green gas spread over everything. Varian quickly pulled his orange bandana over his face, but his friends were not so lucky. Yong, Nuru, and Hugo collapsed to the ground, unable to move their limbs.

"W-What did you do to them?" Varian shouted; his voice filled with panic.

"Paralyzing gas. Very useful when trying to rob someone. I suggest you cooperate, Boy, or your friends die." Varian looked around in horror as each of his friends had a knife placed against their throats by a different ruffian. "I, the Western Hawk, don't like waiting," the gruff man said. He raised a hand and one of the ruffians took a long dagger and slashed it across Hugo's cheek. He flinched in pain but could do nothing to fight back.

"No, Stop!" Varian yelled, starting forward.

He halted when Yong cried out in pain. Turning, he saw that Yong had been kicked in the stomach. He lay on the ground, groaning.

"For every moment you do not back down, I hurt one of your friends," the Western Hawk said, chuckling. "Will you really let them die at your hands?"

Something snapped inside him, and Varian thrust his arms out, throwing four glass balls at once at lightning speed, each hitting their targets.

Every ruffian that had previously been holding his friends, collapsed to the ground covered in the pink, sticky goo. A vengeance in his eyes, Varian turned, blasting the Western Hawk with an explosive yellow liquid, sending him into the wall behind. The man groaned, attempting to stand up when Varian glued his feet to the ground and his hands to the wall with the same pink goo.

He harshly grabbed the Western Hawk by the throat, causing him to gag. "You're going to regret that," he said in a voice he barely recognized. "No one hurts my friends." He took a red vile out of his pocket. It sputtered slightly as he took the cork off with his teeth. "Do you know what this is?" he asked, showing it to the man. The Western Hawk shook his head, still gagging. "This is what I use for welding two pieces of metal together. I wonder what it'll do to human skin." A twisted smile appeared on his face.

"Varian, stop," Yong cried out.

"Not yet," he replied darkly. "He needs to pay for what he did." He let a small drop from the vile fall on the Western Hawk's face causing him to cry out in agony.

The small drop spread, dissolving his skin, simmering with heat.

"Varian, this isn't you!" It was Nuru who shouted this time.

Something flashed across his face and Varian dropped the vile on the ground, shattering it. The red liquid seeped into the ground, bubbling until it settled. He stepped back for a moment his head spinning.

"Varian?" Nuru asked softly.

His heart pounded in his chest, his breathing fast and panicked. Blinking, Varian walked forward again, taking the totem from the Western Hawk's pocket.