Love Among the Gifted - A Pride & Prejudice Alternative

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Elizabeth staggered as a shot creased her shoulder. This knocked her off balance, slowing her down enough that the levitator was able to capture her in his translucent grasp. She felt herself being lifted off the ground, her arms being stretched out to her sides. It was agony added to the pain from the musket ball. A short, squat man with a full black beard and a black slouch hat approached her. Small explosions were popping in his outstretched hand.

"Time to show pretty a good time. Bamber's got something special for ya," he crowed. Elizabeth wrenched her arms free of the transparent bonds, staggering the mentalist, and reached for the approaching attacker.

"Don't let her touch you, fool," the six-armed man pulled his comrade away and spun him towards the house. "The freaks are getting away!" Using another set of arms, he pointed towards the side of the house, where Elizabeth could see a line of guests and servants running from the house into the woods. She saw her mother and younger sisters and was relieved that they were moving towards safety.

"Bamber, blow the house, before they all get away. Do it!"

Elizabeth raced after the little man, but he put his hands behind him and released explosions that propelled him forward faster than she could grab him.

Sir John came over the balcony railing, riding a sheet of ice. He tried to grab Bamber, but the little man slid under his outstretched arm and touched the ice sheet. It exploded throwing the Colonel, and the Captain following him, off their feet. Elizabeth ran past them in pursuit of the human bomb. "Stop the others. I'll stop him."

She concentrated on her legs, feeling her muscles balloon. She leapt like a frog, soaring over her target. She stretched out to touch him, hoping to paralyze him before he could threaten the house. He rolled under her reach and slapped the paving stones beneath her. They exploded upwards in a geyser of sharp stone shards. The multitude of cuts that shredded her skin began sealing before they even began bleeding. But she was knocked back several yards.

She landed facing where Captain Cleveland and the Colonel were battling with the two radicals. The Canadian released a screech that manifested as a solid blast of sound that the six-armed assailant barely managed to dodge. Unfortunately, dodging did not take up all his attention and he was able to draw and throw two knives, One the Captain avoided, but the other sliced his throat in passing. He fell to his knees both hands trying to hold in his life's blood.

The Colonel was sending ice spears at the levitator, while the other man was throwing up translucent shields to block them. Their battle was oddly beautiful, though Elizabeth had no time to appreciate it properly. She turned back to her own quarry.

Using the cover of a wall of shrubs she raced parallel to him, managing to get between him and the house. Just before he reached the steps leading up to the balcony, he saw her and veered away, again narrowly avoiding her touch. His agility was not supernatural, but he used his explosive gift to aid in his maneuvers. Moving tactically, she managed to herd him back towards the garden. They were at a stalemate. Until another enemy attacked from above.

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Darcy was getting frustrated. He had managed to keep the speedster and the strongman contained, as well as blocking the enemy musketeers. With the leaders incapacitated, the militia were slow to organize an effective counterattack, despite the fact that they outnumbered the radicals two to one. The red woman was closing on him.

"You tried to kill me. I'm going to return the favor," she declared. "I'm going to burn it all!" She sent a jet of flames towards him.

"Not this time, witch." Darcy replied. "This place is under my protection." He parried her jet with a tight pulse of gravity. This distracted him long enough for the strongman to work free of Darcy's gravity trap and fling the body of one of the militiamen at the crown magistrate.