The Six Guns

Chapter Fifty-Three: Separation of Power

  As Satomi and Mikoto prepare to fight Jack Tobin, the tension rises and The Ueda sisters try to devise a plan of attack. "You got anything up your sleeves, sis?" Satomi asks.
  "I always have something up my sleeve" Mikoto replies, sounding uneasy. "Whether or not if it'll work is a whole other matter".
  "What do you have so far?" Satomi asks.
  "The one thing we're best at" Mikoto says, "improvise and improvise again".
  "That's not a plan" Satomi replies.
  "It'll have to do" Mikoto says as she coats her arms in armament magic and uses reactive endo to increase its power. Mikoto charges at Jack, clawing at his chest. Jack dodges with ease. Jack's reflexes were above average. If they were to land a hit on him, then teamwork would be imperative. Satomi used reactive endo on her baseball bat and threw that at Jack's feet, hoping to hit him in a blind spot. Jack raised one foot and kicked the bat into the ground. The top half of the bat dug into the ground and Jack reached back to grab Satomi's bat. However, when he pulled it out, rock from the ground was stuck on the end of the bat with magic. The rock made the shape of a blade from a scythe.
  "That was a bust!" Mikoto says, "any other ideas?".
  "Fight fire with fire?" Satomi says. Satomi focuses on reactive endo in her hands and tries to make a scythe. Jack charges at her as she focuses, making it hard for her to concentrate. The reactive endo started taking shape, but not soon enough. Satomi had to jump backwards to dodge. As Jack jumped up for another attack with his rock scythe, Satomi tried again with her reactive endo. Jack comes down on Satomi and the impact from his attack kicked dust into the air. The dust settles and Satomi stood with a glowing white scythe in her hands, barely in time to block Jack's scythe.
  "That was... t-too close for comfort" Satomi says, with her voice shaking.
  "Keep him busy!" Mikoto says as she charges at Jack. Jack jumps away from Satomi and dodges Mikoto. Mikoto's glowing fists hit the air as Jack gets his distance. Jack then swings his scythe and a magic blade flew from his scythe. It was like a projectile that seemed to be made of wind and distortion magic. It flew at Mikoto, but Satomi jumped into action. Using her reactive endo and scythe, she grabbed the blade projectile and swung it back at Jack. Jack barely had enough time to dodge, but he got away without a scratch.
  "Wow" Satomi says, "guess you really can control other magic with reactive endo".
  "You mean to say you just guessed that what you did would work?" Mikoto asks. "I guess sports really did pay off after all".
  "Look out!" Satomi says, "here he comes again!".
  Jack once again runs at Satomi and Mikoto. Mikoto lowers her hands to the ground to prepare to give Satomi a quick lift. Satomi jumps onto Mikoto's hands and Mikoto throws her over Jack's head. As Satomi flies over Jack, she prepares to swipe at him with her endo scythe. Jack prepares to dodge Satomi but suddenly "Down here, jackass!" Mikoto shouts as she uppercuts Jack. With Jack knocked off of his feet from Mikoto's punch, he was unable to dodge.
  "I'll be taking this back!" Satomi says as she cuts off the arm that Jack was using to hold his scythe. His arm hits the ground before he does, and Mikoto jumps onto his body with armament magic on her feet. As her feet meet Jack's chest, she kicks down with both feet. Jack slams against the ground and Satomi picks up her bat again.
  "Tacky..." Satomi says in disappointment at her bat that was made into a scythe from rock. Satomi swings the rocky scythe down at Jack, but he rolls over to dodge. The rock scythe smashes into the ground and the rock shatters. Satomi's bat was now back to normal. Jack stood back up on his feet, then moved so fast that Mikoto and Satomi couldn't keep up with his movements. Before they realized it, Jack was already next to Mikoto. His foot flying at Mikoto's face with a deadly force. But suddenly, something came flying out of nowhere and landed right on Jack. The pinkish projectile knocks Jack onto the ground. When the tumbling mess gets back on their feet, they discovered the thing that hit Jack was Rose, who came flying through the air.
  Rose stood up and dusted off her shoulders. "I'm no match for these guys!" She says. "These Mages are insane!". Rose then looks over and sees the Ueda sisters. "Oh, hey guys".
  "Perfect timing" Mikoto says, "we'll need help taking down this guy".
  "Uh, that's great and all" Rose says, "but we have another problem".
  Autumn Tyrel slowly walks up to the three of them and Jack stands back up on the opposite side of them. "Looks like it'll be a 3 versus 2 now" Satomi says.
  Jack charges at Satomi as Autumn charges at Rose. Rose dodges Autumn's fire spell but lands herself in the path of Jack's attack. Rose jumps up and grabs at Jack's face, but Jack grabs her hand. "You're going to have to be quicker than that" Jack says.
  Rose smiles and says "If it's speed you want, then how about a little flash!". A flash of light emits from Rose's hand and blinds Jack. Rose grabs Jack by the neck with her other hand and throws him over her shoulder at Satomi. As Jack flies, Mikoto punches him into the sky. As Jack flies even further, Satomi uses the same attack Jack used and swings her endo scythe at him. A magic blade flies at Jack, but Jack grabs the blade with his bare hand. Jack comes down at Satomi with her own magic blade in his hand and lands on the ground. An impact from the blade kicks up dirt again. The dust clears and the blade from Jack missed Satomi. Instead, the bun she had her hair tied up in was cut off. A large cut mark was also on the ground behind Satomi. Behind Satomi was also the top half of Jack's body, and his bottom half was in front of her. Satomi managed to cut him in half as he came down.
  "Once again!" Satomi shouts. "Too close for comfort!".
  "Your bun is gone" Mikoto adds.
  "Guess I'm going with short hair for now" Satomi says.
  "Love the new hair" Rose says.
  Suddenly, the ground beneath Rose cracks and Rose's left foot is sucked into the ground. "Forgot she's still here" Rose says.
  Across from Rose, Autumn still stood. Satomi and Mikoto run up to help Rose as she sinks further into the ground. "We'll get you out!" Mikoto says.
  "Uhh, guys?" Rose says as she points at Jack. Jack's top half of his body was still alive, and he was reaching one arm out at Satomi.
  "Geez!" Satomi says as the Ueda sisters pulled Rose out of the ground.
  "That's freaky" Mikoto adds.
  "They're like zombies" Satomi says.
  Suddenly, Siran and Markwood pass by while fighting each other. Markwood stops over Jack's body and absorbs the endo from Jack. Jack finally dies, as the endo was the only thing keeping him alive at this point.
  "Guess we owe that one to the bad guys" Rose says.
  "That was horrifying" Mikoto says.
  "Heads up!" Rose shouts as Autumn throws a wall of fire at them. Mikoto creates a digital shield, but Autumn's fire breaks it. It does, however, give them enough time to dodge the attack.
  "We can't get close to her!" Satomi says.
  "What're we going to do?" Mikoto asks.
  "If it's range she wants, then it's range she'll get" Rose says.
  "You've got a plan?" Mikoto asks.
  "Yeah, keep on her" Rose says. "Make sure you really piss her off. Force her to use her fire again. It'll decrease visibility for me".
  "Sounds good" Satomi says. Satomi charges up to Autumn. Autumn uses an elemental spell to shock the ground, forcing Satomi to jump over the field of electricity. Autumn charges a fire bolt spell through her finger, but Mikoto runs up from behind her. Without looking, Autumn makes the ground behind her shoot up to block Mikoto. Mikoto grabs the rock as it shoots up, jumping over the rock wall, and jumps down on Autumn. Wrapping her legs around Autumn's neck, she tackles Autumn to the ground. Mikoto rolls on her back and throws Autumn backwards, further away from Rose. As she flies, Satomi throws a small fire spell at Autumn. Autumn counters with a bigger fire spell, as a wall of fire spreads out at both Satomi and Mikoto. Satomi and Mikoto dodge in opposite directions, narrowly avoiding the fire. Just as the fire spreads out over a wide area, two knives glowing with reactive endo fly through the fire. Both of them hitting Autumn in the chest. The knives create a strong impact as they stick into her chest. Autumn struggled to stay on her feet, but a spell in the knives went off. The handles of the blades spark and create small explosions that knocked Autumn onto her back.
  "Mikoto!" Rose shouts, "keep her busy!".
  Mikoto jumps in the air and tries to come down with a punch. Autumn grabs her fist while laying down. Mikoto swings with her other hand, but Autumn grabs that hand too.
  "Satomi!" Rose shouts, "get ready for the knock-out blow!".
  Satomi charges reactive endo into her bat. Autumn kicks Mikoto off of herself, and begins to lean up. Autumn reaches down at the knives to pull them out, but a second spell in the knives go off. Bright flashes of light emit from the handles of the blades, blinding Autumn. "Now! Satomi!" Rose shouts.
  Satomi jumps into the air, to avoid Autumn hearing her run up to her. Satomi comes down with her bat and slams it right into Autumn's forehead. The three of them watched and waited for movement. After several seconds of silence, they turned away from Autumn's body. However, they heard something shifting through rock. When they look over, Autumn's body was missing. Autumn leaped into the air, and tries to come down with her elbow at Mikoto. Mikoto dodged in the last second, grabbing Autumn by the neck. Mikoto threw Autumn at a wall of a building, and Autumn's body cracked the wall. Autumn didn't move after the impact with the wall, but just to make sure, Mikoto dived through the wall with a punch into Autumn's stomach. Autumn flew out of the other side of the building. Moments after, Markwood ran by and stole her endo too.
  "I think I have an idea on what's going on" Mikoto says.
  "What is it?" Rose asks.
  "Well, they said they were like a hive mind, right?" Mikoto asks. "Maybe they really do share the same conscience. I think Naris's endo possessed them completely, and now Naris's mind is controlling all of them at once. They are certainly more powerful than we are, but since there's so many of them, it must be hard for Naris to control them all".
  "Which would mean" Satomi says, "that when it comes down to one last Mage left...".
  "Oh no" Rose says.

  Meanwhile, Finn and Alex were fighting Paul Teeter. Occasionally, during their fight, Garreth Hood would step in on the fight but Robin and Holly would quickly separate them. After separating Paul and Garreth, Alex went in for a distortion punch on Paul. Paul met Alex's strength with a distortion spell of his own, cancelling out Alex's attack. Finn tried to close the gap between them and used illusion magic to feint attacks on Paul, attempting to catch him off guard. Paul could see right through his movements though. Dodging each and every one of Finn's attacks, Paul focused on taking out Alex first. Paul used shadow step to get behind Alex, and Alex countered with a distorted shield. The distortion bounced the impact back at Paul. Finn jumps at Paul, and Paul prepares to dodge. Suddenly, the Finn he saw jumping at him disappeared into a black smoke. It was a fake, an illusion. Alex ran into Paul with a shoulder bash. Paul got slammed into a nearby building. Alex pulled out his gun to shoot Paul, but Paul kicked the gun out of Alex's hands. Alex scrambles to pick his gun back up, and Paul engulfs his hands with armament magic. As Paul was about to smash his fists on Alex's back, Finn came in with a kick to Paul's face. After recovering from Finn's attack, Paul uses shadow step to get behind Finn and get some distance between himself and those two.
  "We make a pretty good team, eh?" Finn asks Alex.
  "I'm still kicking your ass when this is over" Alex says.
  "Hardass" Finn says.
  Alex puts his gun away and pops his knuckles. He reaches back for a punch, but when he throws his fist a wall of fire comes out at Paul. Paul dodges, but Finn appears to his side with a knife in each hand. Finn swings twice at Paul, but Paul dodges each attack. Suddenly, a jolt of electricity hits Paul. Alex nailed him with an electric elemental spell. The electricity made it hard for Paul to move, because his nerves were being overloaded. The electricity was causing him to twitch uncontrollably. Suddenly, a black veil sweeps over Paul's head. The world around him becomes an endless dark void. Nothing could be seen besides himself and Finn. Paul froze as he inspects the darkness that surrounds him.
  "What's the matter?" Finn's voice echoes through this dark void. "You're not afraid of the dark, are ya?". Suddenly, an invisible fist hits Paul in the jaw. Paul jerks his head side to side, trying to figure out where it came from. The figure of Finn that Paul had seen was no longer there. He was alone, as far as he knew. A strong blast hits Paul on the back and he falls to his knees. As he struggles to get back up, a kick hits him in the face and knocks him onto his back.
  "Everyone has something they're afraid of" Finn's voice rings, "even when you've lost your own ability to think for yourself. No matter how strong you are, I can still get you right where I want you".
  On the outside, Alex and Finn stood still on both sides of Paul. Paul stood motionless, stuck in a stupor from Finn's new art that he calls The Nightmare Veil. Paul couldn't move, and was trapped in his spell. The spell was a mix of the black veil spell that creates a blind spot by blacking out whatever is behind it with a wall of sheer darkness, as well as reactive endo. Finn used something similar to this when he first met Siran in order to hide from The Ly'Lum. The spell creates a wall of darkness, and Finn's new version of the spell adds a new twist. The illusion spell is inserted directly into the victim's mind and makes everything appear as black. They will be unable to see the world around them, but they can still move. Finn can also make his voice sound distorted in the ears of the victim. They can not hear where he is when he talks. As long as someone else doesn't do something to break the spell, the battle is as good as won. Finn reaches down and pulls out a small knife. As he looks up at Paul, he smiles and says "I've got you".