Asylum

The New Master of the Dojo

"Umm..." Nervously, I size up my opponent as another one appears next to her, appearing out of nowhere, this one a male with black hair and blue eyes that shimmer. "Not die?"

"What's the backup plan?" Leo chatters, aiming his gun.

"You shoot, I...do water stuff?" I weakly suggest.

"Are you getting psycho girl or emo-phase boy?" he questions, finally regaining his normal temperature.

Both of us glance down, the boy and girl both standing with their arms crossed. I realize they're waiting for us. "Want to rock-paper-scissors it? Winner gets the emo?" I shrug, holding out a hand.

"Good idea," Leo compliments, holding his hand out. We ignore the background, where Elektra and Reaper both try to break through Cerberus to get to each other, two SD agents await, and just upstairs, Xavier and Ren fight it out. And properly, we deal our hands. "Rock, paper scissors..." Below, the woman and man splay their hands out, fervently talking and pointing at us in disbelief.

"Choose!" I shout in unison with Leo. I deal scissors and he gets paper. "Well...good luck."

Leo readjusts his gun and we click down the steps together. "Gee, thanks..."

"So, who do we have here?" The man quips, cocking his head to the side. "The useless mind reader and the water girl? I preferred Elektra and the Dragon, but I'll take it."

Next to me, Leo's jaw feathers and the grip on his gun tightens. Furious, he looks to me, as if asking for something without speaking. Somehow, I get the message. Imperceptibly, I nod. "You're right," I say to the man, playing up being weak. "I'm not very experienced with my power. And Leo just reads minds...go easy on us?"

The woman sniggers. "She's right. That girl asked me to let her just walk away earlier."

"Tch," the man sounds, clicking his tongue and shaking his head. "Pathetic."

I hold my hand at my side, palm up. I conjure raindrops into a small, jagged ball of ice. Pretending to give it all, I lurch my arm out towards our enemies, but purposefully launch it straight into the sky, all the way until it's out of view.

Leo furrows his brows as if to say, What the hell are you doing?

Slightly, I smile at him, knowing he'll figure out what to do when the time comes.

"That's absolutely pitiful," the woman scoffs. "Maybe I should let you go."

Unsure, Leo eyes me, wondering if this is the tactic I'm going for: make ourselves looks so useless that they really do leave us alone. Almost unnoticeably, I shake my head. No, this isn't the plan.

"Then I wouldn't get paid!" the man complains. "And Elektra totally scratched up my new shoes. You know how many cuffs I had to put on people to get these?"

"Ah..." I sigh, looking up as a small block of ice comes into view, crashing back down to ground level. "That's too bad. Things always end up going sideways, huh?"

Leo glances up, finally understanding what I intended. I know Leo can only use his telekinesis to move things only in one direction, but when he does, man do things move fast. "Don't worry," he says, shoving his hands in his pockets, only needing his mind to move something this small. "It gets better. Things have moved sideways all my life."

The woman rolls her eyes and sighs. "This isn't some therapy-!" And before she can even finish her sentence, the small ice rock comes at eye level, and Leo is chucking is her way. She's so close that she didn't even have time to blink before the tiny boulder smashed her in the forehead. The force is so strong that it might be enough to keep her knocked out for a while. Her forehead smears with dark red blood as her body tumbles down the last few stairs.