The Six Guns

Chapter Forty-Eight: Not You

As Siran has a stare down with Predator, the rest of the crew approaches to help. "Stay back!" Siran demands. "He's too dangerous! You'll only get yourselves killed!".
"Then what are we supposed to do!?" Zia asks.
"Run" Siran says, "run and don't look back".
"But we can't-" Zia says.
"You have to!" Siran yells. "I'm not letting this... thing kill any of my friends!".
"Friends...?" Predator asks as he looks back over at the crew again. "More... Friends... ha ha... HA HA HA...". Predator leaps at the crew, but Siran stops him by making the ground shoot up from beneath him. Predator was sent flying over the crew, and as he lands, Siran jumps over the crew and punches Predator right in the mask with a distortion spell. Predator's mask cracks and pieces fall off, exposing what looked like a single slowing eye behind the mask.
"Run for it!" Siran yells.
"But what about you?" Rose asks.
"We're not leaving you here to die!" Zia says.
"I'll be fine! Now go!" Siran yells. Finn and Alex had to pull most of the others away as the crew finally begins to run away. As the rest of the crew gets a safe distance away from Siran, the ground starts to rumble. "So, Naris" Siran says, "let's begin". The ground caves in beneath both Siran and Predator. A large rock easily three times the size of Vivi's house shoots up from the ground and begins to fall over on Predator. Predator swings a fist at the giant rock that's falling on him and the rock is cut horizontally. Predator reaches back and grabs the air, but when he swings his fist again, the rock flies back at Siran. Siran redirects the rock straight into the air and then leaps up to grab the rock with both hands. With the rock in his hands, Siran spins and creates momentum, then uses distortion magic to increase the velocity of the rock as he throws it. The rock flew at an immense speed, as if fired from a rail gun. The rock hits the ground and there was a moment of silence.
Suddenly, Predator shows up behind Siran unharmed. "Futile..." Predator says, and Predator creates a fire in the palm of his hands. The fire grew bigger and bigger and Siran jumped back to create some space between them. Siran threw up six different digital shields, one behind the other in layers. The fire in Predator's hand grew bigger and bigger until it exploded. Four of Siran's shields all shattered, and through the flames, Predator jumped at Siran again. As Predator passed through Siran's last two shields like it was nothing, Siran began to roll into his back. When Predator tried to land an attack on Siran, Siran planted his feet on Predator's chest and kicked him backwards.
"Strange..." Predator says, "not... as much... power... as I... thought".
"Somebody sounds like a sore loser" Siran says. Siran creates a spear of reactive endo and throws it at Predator. Predator redirects it to the side of him, but the power from the spell attracted lightning again and it struck down on Predator's arm. The lightning cut straight through his arm, leaving what was left of his left arm glowing red from the metal melting.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew ran away to hide at Vivi's house. As they get there, they had a lot of debate about what they should do. "What if we need to run further?" Alex asks. "We might not be far enough away!".
"Well, this is as far as I go" Vivi says, "if they destroy my house, then I've got nothing else left".
"I think we need to go back!" Zia says.
"But Siran-" Finn says.
"I don't care about what Siran said!" Zia interrupts. "I'm going back for his own good! I am NOT losing anyone else that's close to me!".
"Yeah!" Rose says, "she's right!".
"You guys really are a lot like Siran" Vivi says.
"I think, in some way, we all are a lot like Siran" Satomi says.
"Come to think of it" Mikoto adds, "Zia, you and Rose are both afraid of losing people close to you. Alex is always afraid of what could go wrong and always tries to have a backup plan. Finn is friendly and silly, but even at your lowest you still try to help people. Holly, you traveled the world just for knowledge and to help people and I'm not sure if Siran has done that, but it sounds like something he'd do. Vivi, even when you act tough towards people, you still sympathize with everyone. Demetri lacks in a lot of common areas, like how Siran described himself in the past. Tanya, you either remind him of his need to look over other people, or remind him of his friends he had during the catastrophe. Robin, you're pretty antisocial, just like how Siran was before he learned magic. Ruby, he's already told you that he was just like you when he lost everything close to him. Then Satomi and I both probably remind him of himself when he tries to create a sense of family among us".
"But through it all" Zia says, "Siran is still Siran, and I'm not letting him put himself in that much danger without some help!".
"Then, does that mean he trusts us as much as he trusts himself?" Rose asks.
"I think that'd be an insult" Alex says. "I think he trusts us more than he trusts himself".
"All the more reason I should go" Zia says. "Sometimes it takes going against what someone says to show you really care about them".
"Then I'll go too!" Rose says.
"No, I'll go alone" Zia says, "and I'll bring that idiot back with us. Even if I have to drag him back by his ear".
Vivi laughs and asks "Are you his mother now?".
"I'll be right back" Zia says as she storms out of the door.
"Should we stop her?" Tanya asks.
"I don't think we can" Vivi says. "She's clearly driven to do this. What are we supposed to do about it?".