Hayward's Reach

NaShoStoMo #19 - Dark Star Rising

              But fly too long and the energy became uncontrollable without a release. So the longer he flew the more he was forced to fight. Only touching the ground would bleed that energy from him. It was always the delicate dance of fighting and being tougher but blowing out from not releasing enough energy or returning to his default state where he is weakest just before recharging.

              Having flown here, he had already expended a good portion of his energy against the creature, he had damaged whatever this black material it called skin and even drew blood. But it seemed unaffected and knocked the Kid into next week. If he had been just a second slower, it would have been him. He doubted he would have survived that impact with the ground.

              --gonna be fast, be loose, feel the air, float with it, snap the wing, strike, strike, beat the wing, turn, beat the wing turn, snap, snap, strike, strike, strike, away--

              His blows were fast, blurs to the naked eye, and each tore into the nacreous flesh. But it must have skin made of diamond. His wings have sliced through bank vaults back in the days when he was a villain in Metro City.

              --Come on Kid, we ain't friends or nothing but right now, I could use the sight of your overconfident face coming out of that fire. I hope Oswald is having more luck than I am.

#

              Kali was streaking through the sky on her cloud heading to Paragon City where she received the distress call from The Shrike and the Sorcerer. She was making good time and would arrive in about ten minutes. From this height, the suburbs of Paragon city seemed peaceful. She could see the smoke from the burning buildings ahead, a path of sheer destruction. The old Kali would have liked that, the new Kali is repulsed by such mindless waste.

              "Kali Yuga, I have need of you and your darkest aspect."

              "I hate when you call me that, Shango. Where are you?" She really did hate that name, it invoked a violent and destructive past where she was a destroyer of all that she surveyed.

              "I am at The Crossroads. There has been a breach and creatures are pouring through. I am attempting to seal it but I cannot as long as the creatures prevent me from reaching it. I need your help."

              "Asking for help? That is not like you, Thunderer."

              "Nor is needing help, warrior-goddess, but here we are."

              "Can you make the gate or shall I follow you to the Crossroads by your whining."

              "Suffice it to say, you are earning that spanking."

              "Put it on my tab. I will be there shortly, husband."

              Kali focused her will and her two arms became four. Each of them was armed with a knife of pure spirit. She began a sword dance designed to take her to the Crossword between Worlds, a magical nexus connecting nearby realms of existence. A particularly puissant sorcerer or other magical being could use it to reach across space and time to other worlds altogether.

              As she whirled faster and faster, she began to weave open a doorway using her spirit blades and her connection to her husband's god-force. The Shrike would call it a paired quantum connection, but she preferred the magical concept of contagion; once two things are bound together, nothing can keep them apart. She was beginning to feel the connection strongly and could see into the nether dimensions the Crossroad inhabited.