I think this can get a bit confusing, sorry! Tell me if it is or not.
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Pop teleported after the ghoul. It was fast, real fast. When it struck the water it just kept going with speeds so intense it skidded over the surface like running on mud, hardly leaving more than a blurred footprint. It only took around five minutes for it strike land again, for it to start on the tip of South America. Pop stayed back in the bitter cold of South America’s southern ledge and watched the small GPS he had in his hand. He always managed to pull stuff out of thin air.
The red dot that resembled the ghoul ripped up South America so quickly it looked like someone was dragging their finger across the map of the world. It hit Central America at speeds even faster than its running on water. The water slowed it down a little. It blew through the entire country of Mexico in two minutes and entered Texas. Then it turned East, towards New York.
New York! Pop teleported to New York, he ended up on top of one of its many large buildings. The base of this underground wizard killing group must be hidden in New York!
The ghoul entered New York then sped out of it in forty-five seconds. It hit water again, The Atlantic Ocean. No New York.
Once again the water slightly slowed the ghoul’s intense speed. Pop waited patiently on top of the building as it slowly crept across the water. It took twenty minutes before it finally hit ground again, now it was in France. It started through Europe and sped through countries like a car passing road signs. It entered Russia and scraped across it making a B line for the most northern part of Kazakhstan. Its run slowed, it was still in Russia.
Time to leave New York. Pop teleported to the exact location of the now still red dot on his GPS. It didn’t have a clue where he would turn up. When he came out of his teleport he quickly looked around his surroundings. Everything was green and the wind was brisk. It looked like he had just missed the last snow. Knee high grass brushed along his legs, their moist leaves soaking his jeans. Where was the ghoul? He walked up over a slight hill and hidden behind it was a downhill, near its bottom a single large warehouse.
The warehouse was in complete contrast to the untouched overly bright green grass that swayed in the cool breeze. Its shackled roof was rusty and battered. The solid vertical walls where dented and scared and the rickety windows that stretched across the top-most peak of them had a yellow tint and where full of rust. Most the windows where left open, a lot of them looked stuck that way. As Pop got closer he got a better look the warehouse, and finally caught view of the ghoul.
The ghoul was hunched up along the outside wall. It looked tiny compared to the building; the warehouse must reach at least fifty feet into the air. He looked around the warehouse. Nothing. No roads, no equipment, only bright green grass swaying against it. There wasn’t even a door into this warehouse.
Pop made it to the bottom of the hill. The ghoul looked up at him and smiled exposing its wicked teeth. Its task was done. It vanished; its high speeds ripped it off in some random direction. Pop couldn’t even see what way it went.
He approached the warehouse and set his hand against its cool metal exterior. He hoped the murderers that kept removing his ride home where in this warehouse. He hoped all of them where in here. He wanted to kill them all so next time a wizard showed up he’ll get that one way ticket home.
He decided to make an interesting entrance. He teleported right to the center of the warehouse. When he came out he quickly spun around. One corner had sophisticated computers in it. Several of them with over a dozen screens, a man was behind the rows of screens. Another corner, the one opposite of the computers had racks that reached twenty five feet in the air. These racks had weapons, a lot of them. It had everything from pistols to machine guns to even advanced sniper rifles. Below him were three men and a single woman. They were lined up, sparing with wooden sticks and some kind of heavy armor. The other side of the sparing couples was several tables. On the tables was everything from food to broken weapons, bolts and computer parts. Three people more where sitting at the tables.
After another spin he saw a buff man at the weapons rack polishing a new black rifle and a shady pair hunched up against the darkest wall, the one boarding the computers. Eleven people here. The sticks cracking against each other quieted. Even the clicking from the computer halted. He’s been noticed.
Pop frantically looked around, who was the most dangerous? Who looked like the leader? He teleported for the tech guy and came out behind him with a shiny dagger. He shoved the dagger against the man’s throat and backed out of the corner just enough to get out from behind the screens.
One of the men seated at the table stood up pushing the metal bench away from the table. “The undead incarnation of the Guardian Emellia,” the man had blond hair and was scrawny compared to the rest of his buff comrades. But, he acted as if he was the one in charge. He had a white shirt on and black slacks, it was his ‘off duty’ outfit – he had been eating. “Risen Sire Zee Colde, what honor do we have to meet you on this fine day?”
“You trapped me here on this planet against my will by killing my only escape. My intentions should be clear.” Pop tightened the dagger against the man’s neck. He laughed inside at the name the man said. He got the Guardian’s name correct, but his name? He’s never heard of Zee Colde.
“No Sire Zee, we freed you from the oppression outside forces hammer into our society, we want to be free. We want to simply allow our planet to run its own course. Without the wizards picking those who are too good, those who are different from everyone else, off this planet like it’s their choice.” His voice was cool and calm, his eyes never left Pop.
“I don’t play by your rules. The wizards are the only thing keeping us from extinction whether you see it or not.”
“You’re messin’ on thin ice Sire.” The man at the armory spoke up.
“No, you’re wrong. All of you.” Pop flipped the dagger into the man’s throat. It dug in and stuck, a clean sheet of gore spread across the computers and concrete floor. Pop jumped for the center of the room prepared to finish it now, to kill them all.
He was met by black smoke. A Darth. One of the men sparing had jumped at the same time he teleported, he came out of his jump with his fist swinging at Pop, ready to take him out. Pop teleported into the air to dodge the attack, he looked down from his fall to try and counter the Darth but it was gone, it had already jumped away. Another one of them men, this one a bit thinner than the rest of the sparer’s but still bigger than the leader made a run for the computers.
Pop didn’t pay attention to the coward. He had bigger issues to deal with. The rest of the sparer’s charged for the weapons rack, the buff man cleaning a gun started tossing out loaded weapons. Pop looked for the Darth. Up. It was crawling along the ceiling supports. It was playing games with him. The Darth went from its heavily armored sparing mode to a sudden shady shift. It was wearing a single long robe that covered everything. He couldn’t even see its face. It looked like the Darth jumped to throw on some clothing before resuming its fight.
He went after it. First the Darth, then the rest of them. He teleported for the shingles and landed on a rusty beam with a decent sized sword in hand. He was going to kill this monster the old fashion way. The ground suddenly shook and he wobbled, falling off the rusty beam. Just before he teleported to safety he saw two steel walls launch out of the ground, surrounding the computers with the single man encased inside.
When Pop teleported to the ground with the sword gone. The Darth jumped after him, black smoke surrounded the pair before the Darth was flung out of it, jumping just before it smashed into the weaponry rack. Pop looked at the encased computers the dead body next to it wasn’t there anymore. He looked for the shady pair; a knife came for his face. Pop took a step back and lifted his hand. The gleaming knife bounced off his hand as if hitting a rock. When he caught a glimpse of the wielder it was the tech guy. The wielder with his head nearly chopped off blindly swung the dagger Pop left in his throat. He kept trying to cut Pop but over and over Pop reflected the blade with his hands before getting a shove.
He knocked the body over. It struggled to get back on its feet and jumped. Out of all the people he could have gotten an easy kill on he picked the only other Darth, wonderful. The shade Darth jumped for Pop again, this time lashing it’s blade at Pop’s chest. He backed away once again with a long sword in his hand. It had a standard leather hilt and stretched almost six feet long, a lot larger than anything a normal person can carry.
He swung the large sword easily at the covered Darth but only struck smoke. The nearly headless one came out of nowhere with dagger in hand and stabbed at his side. Once again it reflected as if hitting rock and the nearly headless tech man vanished.
Machinegun fire started rolling off from near the gun stash. The buff gunman had finished putting together his weapon and fired it at Pop. Along with the machinegun fire a booming explosion erupted from the roof. A large bullet came crashing down leaving a foot wide hold in the roof of the warehouse. The well-aimed large bullet missed Pop by a few inches and drilled deep into the ground shooting rock and metal into the air. A rail gun.
Before he even had time to think about the rail gun from above the Darths one after another jumped, made a single strike, and vanished. This attack of theirs was well planned. More machinegun fire, this time it blended in with the off shots of a few rifles. Several of the sparing couples had gotten their hands on weapons. There was still no sign of the shady people he first saw. He looked for the leader. Maybe he should just kill him first. The leader was no longer at the tables, but the two others where – eating. Where they ignoring the fight?
Another bullet blew through the roof, this time Pop heard it coming, he stuck a hand in the air and the bullet reflected off his palm flying aimlessly into the tin walling just above computer area and out of the building. That’s it. He’s done with this game.
Pop reached his palms out and made a full circle around him self. He dropped the large sword and it shattered into millions of pieces. His mood had changed from frantic and frazzled to a calm unaware state.
“So this is what you choose Sire? To kill is all?” It was the blond leader. He had moved to the weapon rack and had an oversized pistol. “Oh, I know that look, its death, join us Sire Zee Colde. Join us in freedom.”
The nearly headless Darth jumped in for another swing. It didn’t realize the battle had changed. Pop’s hand lunged to his side without a twitch of his head. His hand grabbed the Darth’s face. He twisted and pulled up. The head ripped the rest of the way off. He hurled it at the weapons rack, missing and smashing it into the wall. The head was chucked so hard it smeared amongst the tin wall with a dim echo that filled the warehouse. The body fell to the ground. Then Pop finally turned and looked at it. “Try to get back up now!” He turned back to the leader. “No, your freedom will kill us all.” His voice was strong and serious.
He took a step towards the group huddled at the weapons rack. The rail gun crashed through the roof, this time it was a direct hit. It reflected uselessly off the top of his head and flung at an angle into the ground. Another shot, and another, they bounced off him like they were nothing their thunderous force shaking the ground with every collision.
He lifted his left hand and acted like it was a gun. He pointed it at once of the men holding a rifle. He pretended to pull the trigger as yet another rail gunshot reflected uselessly off his shoulder. “Bang” he said as blood squirted out of the man’s forehead. He shifted and pointed at the next target “Bang” another down.
“Spread!” The gunman roared as the rest of the group spread out leaving only him guarding the weapon rack. The two men eating at the tables finally seemed to notice the battle. They stopped and watched, as if waiting for some motion. The shady pair was still nowhere to be seen. Both of the people that darted away from the weapons rack aimed their guns at Pop. “Fire!” the gunman ordered as everyone started unloading on Pop hoping one of them would get through his defense.
The rail gun blasted down on him and an outrageous one per three seconds as the leader’s large rifle exploded with such force the recoil would shove him backwards. The machinegun fired from the corner as a rifle bullet menacingly scraped his shielded skin. Despite all the metal getting thrown at him Pop wasn’t fazed. He lifted his hand and pointed it at the leader, he was annoying.
“Don’t do this!” the leader pleaded after another shot as Pop pretended to pull the trigger. Blood flung out of the leaders head and stained his hair as he fell.
Pop was getting annoyed at the two watching from tables he jumped after them. He came out just above one swinging. He shielded skin pounded into the man but bounced off like he too just slammed into a rock. It actually hurt his hand. The seated man stood up shoving the table over, it ripped out of its cemented holding in the ground. The shrieking metal was hardly noticed behind ongoing the gunfire.
The man stood up, eight feet tall Pop looked up at him, his skin was grey. It looked like rock. His plan shirt and black slacks matched those of the deceased leader. Rock man grabbed Pop by the arm and easily picked him up, preparing to thrash him into the ground. Pop teleported.
He came out inside the encased computer room. This man inside was controlling the rail gun and was getting annoying. Pop tapped the man on the computer’s shoulder and handed him a small metal ball. He jumped out of the encased room as a dull explosion erupted from within. No more rail gun.
Pop was now just outside of the fried computer room, he aimed his hand at the person with a rifle. A girl? He pulled his finger “Bang” she lunged for her chest. He missed her head? He pulled the trigger again “Bang” This time the girl fell, he hit his mark. He turned his hand on the gunman and without hesitation pulled the trigger on his finger “Bang” he hit his mark killing yet another. Five left.
Now time for the rock man. Pop teleported for the rock man but was intercepted, the other living Darth decided to come back, and he brought company, the two shades. The Darth dropped to the ground and lunged at Pop’s feet, knocking him off them. Before Pop could teleport over or even move the Darth jumped away while one of the two shades decided to make its first move. It’s movements where fast but it didn’t teleport. It mimicked Lilly’s ghoul. It hit Pop with its full force and speed and sent him hurling for the rock man and his comrade.
Perfect. Now Pop could finally use that large sword. Once again it was in his hand. It’s the third time now. In a matter of half a second he lifted the sword above his head and pointed it at the rock man. It entered his body with a clean slice. “Impossible.” The man grunted his only words. After the blade slid tightly into the rock man’s body Pop jumped on top of the blade and balanced on it. His weight forced the blade up and it sliced the body in half. The sword flung into the air. Pop teleported to the ground and snatched the large blade. With a single large spin he flung the blade in a spinning vortex and it made perfect contact with the rock man’s comrade. It hit his throat cutting the head off. The stunned man looked younger – like it was a sibling of the fallen rock man, no – more like son. Unfortunately for them, they are not as invincible as they thought.
The two shades charged with their speeds at him at once as the Darth once again jumped at him. At this point Pop was surprised they were still fighting. They should have fled by now after seeing all their comrades’ dead.
***
Beeeep. The microwave finished cooking the French bread pizza. At least Pop has food in his place now. Lilly smiled as she opened the microwave and pulled the pizza out. How annoying, he just left - did he forget he was the only way she could get home? She carefully held the edges of the cardboard wrapper as she set it on a plate left out on the tile counter. Lilly turned around with the steaming plate in hand and went out into the small hall.
She paused for a glance out of the narrow hall and into the open space beyond it. The dried blood had been sucked into the carpet. It wasn’t her house to clean up, so, not her problem. She instead went into the adjacent room, the small living room with the T.V. At least he had satellite T.V. She continued watching the show, happy she didn’t miss anything with her trip to the kitchen.
Food stuck to her fangs, how annoying. Now she remembered the reason why she hardly ever ate anymore. She had given up on chewy food weeks ago.
The medieval store was open for over an hour now. She hoped Pop showed up again soon. He was taking his time.
***
Smack. The hit was hard; Pop didn’t have a chance to evade. His shield blocked most the powerful blow but it still left a red mark on his arm. Pop was hurled to the ground without a chance to react and scraped violently across the shattered metal floor ramming over several twisted bullet holes from the rail gun. Once Pop scraped to a halt he slowly stumbled to his feet, everything had gotten quite. he slowly turned his head to the shade buried in the darkness of the destroyed computer room. Then he looked back around to the center of the room where the other shade tilted his head and looked at Pop’s shoulder. The Darth was no longer in the room.
Pop looked down at his shoulder and brushed the busted metal off his arm, blood. His blood. The shaded creature in the center of the room smiled at the damage it had dealt. What are these things? Pop wobbled, finally completely up on two feet again. He saw metal, lots of metal. It crashed into his face knocking him to the ground again—this time he felt the pain, his vision fadded in and out. It was the Darth; it had jumped back, with a large metal sledge hammer.
Everything was blurry in Pop’s vision. He felt a sudden strong headache and the unusual feeling of pain. The Darth vanished again. Once again Pop struggled to his feet, he was not going to let these monsters win. He spun and looked at the shade in the corner, it had a dark glow around him, almost like the Darth’s teleportation smoke. Then he heard a voice. “Risen Sire, you can’t win.” Pop turned for the weapons rack to see who was talking.
It was the bloodied face of the leader. Resurrection, great. Pop pulled his hand up this time with an actual gun in it and aimed at the bloodied face. He pulled the trigger. Crack. The body flung back with the force of the bullet but its feet never left the ground. It swung back into place and muffled a deep laugh followed by a high pitch chuckle from a different direction. The female solider he shot twice had risen as well.
The female picked up the still loaded rifle on the ground and aimed it at Pop. It started pulling the trigger. The weak bullets bounced pointlessly off Pop’s hardened shield. He ignored the constant cracks of the rifle echoing through the room and the bullets bouncing off his skin. He looked at the bloodied leader. The leader’s fresh wound was leaking out blood. The bullet had grazed the cheek and popped out of the back of his head.
Pop smiled, they thought they could beat him, impossible. Time to get serious. Pop dropped the gun he had—it slowly fell as he counted the seconds. Tink it tapped the ground and shattered into glass. As it hit the floor Pop bent over and waved his hands over both legs. Game on.
He spun around sensing the incoming Darth and with newly found speeds smashed his hand into the handle of the sledgehammer. It snapped in half with his light touch as he barreled in for a hit on the Darth. Contact, for the first time he slammed the full force of his power into the Darth. It was hurled off towards the risen girl and smashed into the metal wall. It fell to the ground without hesitation to teleport.
Pop’s vision got brighter, and then went completely white – he couldn’t see a thing, he didn’t need to. He sensed incoming again. With swift movements he rolled himself into a complete flip, his flailing legs made contact with the chest of the speeding shade halting its charge. Before it even had the chance to turn in flight Pop spun his body in the air and slammed his second foot into the side of the shades face. It nailed the ground and scraped across it—blood etching its path. That was a little more than the scratch it so proudly inflicted on Pop.
Pop teleported, his familiar blast of wind and loud crack filled the room. He came out face to face with the blond leader. He looked into the leaders eyes, no, he looked past them. Pop’s eyes where completely white, they looked deeper into the leader, he stumbled back—afraid. Pop reached into his pocket and pulled out a small metal rod—this was something he didn’t make out of thin air. “Beat me?” he continued his stare at the leader and whispered several silent words ‘Ham Er Tage’ A curling X burrowed itself into the leaders forehead as Pop teleported for the rifle wielding girl.
Pop swung his hand as if holding an invisible blade and the girl’s head lopped off. The leader grabbed for his stomach and started groaning. Pop jumped for the final shade hiding in the corner, its black glow had evaporated and it was limply leaning against the dark metal corner. Pop grabbed at the man’s neck and pulled him up into the air. There was no resistance, it looked like he exhausted all his energy rising two people.
The hood fell back; the man underneath was nothing more than a corroded body. Hundreds of large gushy welts covered his face. One of the eyes was missing and the other had green moss-like patches where the whites should be. It had no hair with the exception of a few grimy strands. His cracked lips beckoned to Pop, “Watch out for the true face of evil.” It whispered its final words. The shade violently twisted its body with a single jerk in Pop’s death hold snapping its own neck. The moldy body went limp in Pop’s hands.
Disgusted, Pop dropped the body and teleported for the second shade. Its chest was still moving. Pop didn’t want to even look at it. He walked over to the broken sledgehammer and picked up the heavy metal end. He then walked back to the shade, lifted the metal head of the hammer above the head, and let go. The hammer crunched the skull and the body went still.
One more. He walked over to the Darth and checked if it was still alive. A small pool of blood surrounded its head. Pop rolled the body over, a large crack was on its forehead and several of its ribs where broken. But it wasn’t dead yet—Darths are hard to kill because they have such a quick ability to heal.
Pop touched the Darth and jumped for the leader who was still clutching his stomach near the weapons rack. He threw the near-dead Darth at the leader and said, “Enjoy the afterlife.” Pop teleported outside the warehouse as a large explosion erupted from the leader. Pop watched as the bone fragments dented the steel walls and the massive fiery explosion shattered the few windows along the top of the warehouse that were still intact.
Pop turned for the grass field. His work here is done. He let the shield vanish and removed all other abilities he had given himself during the fight. His eyes slowly returned back to their normal green state and his pupils slowly retuned as he prepared to jump home.
***
Pop jumped back to his arctic home in an instant and wobbled towards the middle of his private dome—he was heading for the living room. He knew the bruises covering his body would leave him sore for weeks. He didn’t expect that someone, or something, could be so powerful to actually hurt him in battle. He hadn’t been beaten this bad for months, not since he was back home.
A head swung over the back end of the couch and glared upside down at Pop, “Where the hell have you been!?” Lilly questioned, alert.
Pop glanced over at the couch, he had forgotten about her. As he stepped forward he noticed several empty plates and a half full glass of water. She was quick to jump, the black smoke engulfed Pop as she reappeared right behind him. “Wow what happened to you!?” She over looked the red marks on his arms and even the bloodied scabs still fresh on his elbows. She jabbed at once of his larger bruises on his neck, “Wow, did the all-powerful get his ass kicked!?” She jumped in front of him, surrounding him with black smoke once more, and admired the blood on his arms and several large dots scattered across his shirt and pants. Obviously not all of it was his. “What happened?” She calmed down a bit. He looked tired; exhausted from whatever fight he was in.
Pop gave Lilly a cold glance and without a word jabbed a single finger at Lilly’s forehead, she vanished.
***
Lilly felt the wind in her face and instantly jumped for her room. She smiled at his obvious irritation and went to flatten down her hair, the wind always threw it into a mess. She could just jump and come back with her hair perfect, but she took pride in keeping herself looking good—without the help of her ‘powers’. She went into the master bedroom and strolled over to the side of the bed, to the nightstand. She rubbed her fingers on the golden knob before yanking the rich wooden panel open. She reached in past the bible and random wads of paper and snatched the thick wad of cash. She needed no explanation of how she came across the cash—that was self-explanatory.
Time to shop! She jumped to a nearby ally and without detection swiftly walked out of it to the medieval shop. The little bell above the door rung as she entered the dark store, “Welcome,” the same guy she placed an order with said from the counter. The store was almost empty today. She was the only one in it with him. It looks like the staff is reduced to only one person during weekdays. “You’re the one waiting for the cape yes? I have to say, it came out good.”
“Let me see it,” she said without a hint of satisfaction, seeing how the boy would react. He disappeared from the white counter into a deep brown door behind it and returned a few second later wielding the black cape. “Wow!” Lilly gasped throwing off her ‘unsatisfied’ charade. It was perfect! You couldn’t even see the chain links hidden under the deep black cloak. Were they even there? She had to check. She reached over the counter and snatched the cloak out of the guy’s hand. It was heavy. She lowered her grip and yes the chain link was inside, indeed, thick metal chains were tightly lodged within the dark cloak. Amazing. She lightly flung the chain cape over her shoulder and asked the attendant, “How much does it weight?”
“We tried to get it as light as possible, but with your requirements that was difficult. We managed to get it just under sixty pounds.”
“Sixty…” Lilly repeated, “will it stop a bullet or sword?”
“Bullet?”
She looked into his eyes, “Yes could it stop a bullet or a sword?”
“Um,” he stuttered, “a sword yes, a bullet probably, depends on what angle it’s coming from and how fast the cape is moving when the bullet hit.”
“Good.” Lilly figured that was good enough, “How much?”
“Total is going to be a bit more than projected; $579.99 will be your total.”
Lilly dug into her pocket and pulled out the wad of cash. She flipped though the stack and pulled out three hundred dollar bills and the rest in twenty’s. After sorting out the $580 she handed it to him and walked out with her brand new cape. Well, walking out for her was the bathroom in the back of the building. Once inside she jumped for her hotel room and dropped the cape on the table. It hit with a loud clank, she forgot about its weight, to her it was quite light.
She admired the cloak once more. It was large and had hidden chain links down half of it. The knotted chains where three layers thick and made of steel, she decided to try it on. She lifted the cloak from the top end and looked for some kind of attachments, nothing. Great, she asked for a cape and that’s ALL she got. Well, she lifted the cape over her shoulders and examined how it would feel if it was connected. The top end of the cape was slightly larger than her shoulders and the bottom expanded to almost twice the size of the top. The chain links ended just under her butt and the rest was soft light cotton. That wouldn’t do! She would have to make that more interesting later. The end of the cape brushed just short of her ankles and its dark black matched the rest of her clothing. Black jacket, dark jeans, cotton scarf, and cape—perfect. She just needed one more touch to this wardrobe, a hood to attach the cape too.
She walked into her bedroom and flipped open a wooden closet. With a loud clank she tossed the cape into the closet and listened to it smash into the wooden floor. She could ask Pop to make her a hood with his powers after he calms down from whatever happened today.
Now, she hadn’t seen her beloved Sean for what felt like a month. She had been practicing a lot lately on her kills. She was ready.
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