I rush forward toward Ryan but he sends wires coiling around my ankles to hold me back.
"RYAN ABRAHAM LINCOLN! TURN THIS THING OFF RIGHT NOW OR I'LL GO OVER THERE AND DO IT FOR YOU!" I threaten him. Ryan just shakes his blond curls at me.
"No, Fayeleia, actually, you won't. You can't stop it, and neither can I. I've been generating enough power to fry an entire state! You can't just 'turn off' that sort of energy. It has to be released somewhere doesn't it? You're practically a mechanic yourself, you should know this sort of thing," Ryan calmly replies. I don't know what bothers me more, his collected tone or the fact that he's probably right. "And lucky you! Since you decided to rise from the dead for this occasion, the least I can give you is a front row seat."
"How sweet," I growl at him. He glowers at my sarcasm and then my whole body is pulsed with energy springing directly from the wires that are holding me captive. I'm caught off guard and let out a shriek of pain.
"FAYE!" I hear Dominico yell, rushing up behind me before Ryan uses wires to catch him too.
"Stay," Ryan says with magic lacing his voice. Melissa, Dominico and I are immediately rendered unable to move. I try to keep my jaw clenched to keep from screaming anymore but I end up just hissing in pain instead.
"Stop hurting her!" Dominico yells at Ryan in a powerful tone. I'm shocked (pun intended) when the courses of electricity immediately stop at Dominico's command. Ryan looks surprised too.
"Pity you're so set on being with your girlfriend, Dominico. You could have been of great use to me," he says.
"Yeah, real bummer," Dominico replies. He glares at Ryan but I catch his eyes flick to my direction to make sure I'm alright. I give a half-nod to indicate that I'm still alive. I kick at the wires around my ankles but that only makes them tighten. I glower at the plastic coated wire- as if that could do anything. Let me go, I think to the wires' presence. I feel a hard wall of resisting will but I power on with persuasion and sheer force until the wires loosen just enough for me to slip through. Ryan doesn't notice my escape from his bounds though as Melissa and Dominico have engaged him in a screaming match loud enough to give the thickest- skulled troll a headache.
"YOU'RE A PSYCOPATHIC LUNATIC-MORON! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?!" Melissa screams at Ryan.
"I'M DOING WHAT'S RIGHT! YOU'RE THE ONE HOLDING ONTO EVERY WORD THAT TERRIFYING OLD HAG SAYS AS GOSPEL AND TRUTH!" Ryan yells back. Awww... their first fight as a couple. How cute.
I step quietly out of the reach of the wires before starting on Dominico's. Knowing what to do now, it takes less time to convince the wires to give the anaconda charade a rest. Dominico looks quickly down at his feet when I get them undone and I resist the urge to smack him. Could he be more obvious if he tried?! Luckily, Ryan's eyes are still fixed on Melissa with a heated anger. My eyes meet Dominico's and we nod with an unspoken agreement.
"RYAN! FREEZE!" Dominico commands in a deep, magic filled voice. I jump forward before Ryan can recover and slam my fist into his jaw. OUCH! My knuckles throb but I ignore the pain by covering it with the satisfaction I feel for successfully punching Ryan. He had that one coming for him. His jaw cracks violently as he falls backwards to the ground. I send a hard kick to his ribs but after my foot connects and I hear the crunch, Ryan works through his pain by grabbing my ankle and twisting it so that I fall down next to him with a gasp of surprise.
"You're not going to get away with that," Ryan seethes, rolling over me to pin me down. I use magic to try to lift him up but he uses the same sort to push him down. The winds we make collide and rush out, keeping Melissa and Dominico from being able to come anywhere near us. Ryan throws a punch at my face but I quickly move my head so he only clips my ear.
"Watch me," I say and quickly bring my knee up between his legs where it really hurts.
Ryan shouts and his magic is weakened to the point that I am able to throw him off of me.
"That was low," he growls.
"Yeah? So is using the first initial of your name even though it's made up and nobody uses it! Seriously! Did you think it would help your Pink Panther thing catch on?!" I shout angrily at him.
"You've called me that name before!" he defends.
"When?!" I question.
"When I first came up with it! Everyone said it was clever!" he argues.
"At least to your face..." I hint him in. Ryan looks positively befuddled. "Enough of this!" I say, snapping him out of his thoughts as I charge for him again and stomp on his foot before throwing an uppercut to his chin. He falls backwards slightly before stumbling to catch his balance and rearing around to throw a side kick into my ribs. The wind is knocked out of me as I stumble backwards. I'm able to regain my footing until he throws another punch between my eyes, hitting me right on. I crash to the ground, my vision spinning. Faintly, I'm aware of Dominico stepping between me and Ryan and can hear them exchange more blows of their own.
"Faye, listen to my voice," I hear Melissa say. I feel the blurriness start to fade from my eyes and the pounding in my head start to dull. "Can you speak?" she asks.
"You're a Healer, like Mrs. Redwind," I state, only tasting a little bit of blood in my mouth. She nods.
"Not useful for decking idiots like I want to do right now but I can play nurse," she says rather grimly. I hear the hard pack of a punch and see Dominico stumble and let out a grunt.
"Dominico!" I can't help myself from gasping and jumping to my feet.
"You need to wait and recov-" Melissa starts but I'm already throwing loose panels of metal at Ryan before he can land another blow on Dominico. One slices past his cheek but he manages to dodge or block the other three I hurl at him.
I see the anger burning in his eyes when he uses my own found weapons and hurls them back at me. I'm able to stop the first one and use it as a shield against the other two while Melissa jumps for cover behind me.
"Stop," Dominico commands Ryan. I only have a split second to stab my elbow into the back of Ryan's neck. I've noticed that every time Dominico uses his magic on Ryan, he becomes less and less susceptible to it. Ryan falls to his knees at the pain of my hit but reaches out with his hand and with magic, pulls a lever across the room. Immediately, sirens sound and all the lights except the red emergency lights go off.
"What did you do?!" I demand. Suddenly I hear heavy footsteps tramping through the hollow halls. Ryan turns to me with his beat and bloodied grin.
"We'll see who's outnumbered now," he says. I see werewolves like the ones in the hospital and outside coming in in full packs. Also a few tall but extremely thin limbed beings with a slight green tint to their skin and cat-slit eyes wearing fur clothing. Fairies. I also see vamps like Rose and Alec along with one or two warlocks and witches. They circle us, trapping us inside the domed room. I count a total of 25 W-members and do the only thing I can think of doing. I turn and slug Ryan in the face. They all stare at me wide eyed, including Dominico but he just looks more surprised. Ryan groans from the ground,
"'Et 'em," he murmurs. The werewolves start growling, sounding like Indy Cars warming up for the 500 or beasts who have just spotted their next kill. The fairies give us evil grins with dangerous glints in their creepy eyes. The vamps just exchange satisfied looks, as if they're already claiming who gets who's blood.
Melissa, Dominico and I all back up next to each other, covering each other's backs. Melissa gulps.
"Hey guys? I think we're dead now," she says quietly to us.
"Your optimism is much appreciated," I tell her, glancing from face to face of the attackers in front of us.
"As is your sarcasm," Dominico states, looking around in the same way I am. I scoff.
"You love my sarcasm," I defend. He actually grins at that even though he doesn't turn to face me.
"Yeah, but I'm not sure I want it to be the last sound I hear," he says. I'm about to reply to that when Melissa cuts me off.
"Why aren't they attacking yet?" she wonders quietly to us.
"Umm... giving us a second to make our peace?" I guess.
"I'm not complaining," Dominico says.
"They're being courteous enough to wait for our guest," Ryan says from the floor, his injuries healing at a superhuman rate.
"What 'guest'?" Dominico demands. As if on cue, two werewolves appear through the door dragging Jaz and Will who both are as white as ghosts with horrified expressions on their faces.
"Jaz! Will!" I yell to them with wide eyes, probably twice as frightened-looking as theirs. "RYAN! What are they doing here?!" I demand. He chuckles on the ground.
"F-Faye? What? No... YOU WERE DEAD!" Jaz yelps. Will just stares at the burly group around us, trembling slightly. "Who are these people? Why is Ryan beat up? Dominico? Melissa? You knew about this too? What's going on?" Jaz asks, terrified tears brimming her eyes.
"Ryan," I growl at his form on the ground. "If you hurt either of them, I swear I'll kill you," I grab the collar of his shirt and hoist his face to fist level. Jaz gasps at my quick movements and I hear one of the werewolves on the outer circle growl at me.
"Be quick and they won't be hurt," Ryan riddles.
"Could you be a little more clear? I mean, honestly, do you actually expect me to catch onto what you mean when you say that?" I ask him. His smug grin falls and he scowls at me. Over my shoulder, Ryan gives a nod to the two werewolves holding Jaz and Will hostage. The werewolves start dragging the two teens over to a side of the dome where I just now notice a crack in the floor, small but big enough for the two of them to fall through.
"What are you-? GET AWAY FROM THEM!" I yell, I take a sprinting step in their direction but as soon as I do, all the fairies, vampires, werewolves and the rest of the creepy looking group (Where did Ryan go to meet these guys?) take a biting lunge for me. Dominico quickly grabs my waist and pulls me backwards against his chest.
"Let me put this simply. You have two minutes to fight or join us before Jazmine and William step through that crack, and I assure you it is no small drop," Ryan threatens.
"RYAN! What are you doing?!" Jaz shrieks at him. He ignores her.
"Your time starts now."
I don't think. I just hurl the first thing I can find- air- at the closest werewolf to me. He growls, flying backwards. I distantly hear Jaz scream but I'm a little too occupied to comfort her. Dominico, Melissa and I are swarmed. Dominico kicks Ryan hard in the head to put him out cold for the time being. Melissa is using her warlock powers to disable a good majority of the werewolves. They're not known for their SAT scores.
Dominico is at my back, screaming at everything coming at us to at least delay them and dishing out punches of his own. I use my magic to throw a couple metal panels at the fast moving fairies and I use the air to throw off the punches of the werewolves coming at me. The three of us are holding our own okay until the witches and warlocks join the mix. I find myself almost matched. Sure, the witch that's coming at me, I could beat in a fair fight but with three werewolves at my back, I can't give him the full attention that I need to. The metal panel flies back at me and I dodge in time that it just leaves a deep gash in my cheek instead of completely slicing off my nose and up. The witch looks satisfied until he noticed that while I ducked, I magically tied his shoelaces together. Luckily, he only finds out about this by falling flat on his face. I send a kick at his face but it loses impact as I'm wrenched away by a fairy, whose sharp, claw-like nails dig deep into my skin and bring out blood to the surface. I jab my elbow back into her fragile ribcage so that her grip loosens enough for me to step forward enough to kick her knees with my heels. I spin around as she finally lets go and send a punch straight into her thin-boned face. She crumples to the ground but I can't even take a recover before the witch comes at me again. I turn around and see a fist flying towards my face. Without time to practically react, I raise my arms to shield myself.
"HEY!" I hear. I open my eyes again and look up. There's a hand clamped over the witch's fist, holding it back and Alec is glaring at the witch with a lethal look. "I thought I already told one of your buddies? No one kills my best friend's girlfriend. Especially a second time!" With that he takes the witch out with a single skull-cracking punch that only a jock vampire can dish out. He looks up at me and Dominico and I see Rosaline and- to my surprise- Izabella behind him. "You started a party without me?" Alec asks, offended.
"You didn't get the invitation?" Dominico asks, dropping quickly to avoid an oncoming vampire's bite. I kick over his head, knocking away the vampire before he stands, turning and goes to take it on himself.
"Must have gotten lost in the mail," Rosaline agrees, turning to take on a fairy approaching from the opposite side.
"Izzy, get Will and Jaz away from there," Dominico tells his sister who is frantically glancing around, looking lost. She nods quickly before going off and grabbing Jaz and Will's arms after dodging the punches of multiple supernatural beings. Melissa strains to hold back the werewolves whose prisoners are taken literally right out from under their noses but holds up. I hear Izabella tell Jaz and Will to "Wait a second," before she rushes over and kicks the werewolves' chests, one at a time, causing them both to lose their balance on the edge of the crack.
I turn back to my own surroundings and twist the leg of a fairy who would have otherwise broken Rosaline's ribs. She gives me a nod of thanks before moving onto another target, leaving me battling the fairy. Fairies are tall and fast but their bones are practically Styrofoam. I end the fight by managing to fling the fairy's attack on me off course and into the path of a warlock attacking Dominico. The fairy crumples at the warlock's attack and Dominico is given another split second to land his own blow on the warlock.
My face is bruised and bleeding and my veins run with fire. I don't believe I've ever been this tired in my entire life. And Jaz made me do Insanity workouts for a week. Talk about pain.
Thankfully, looking around, Ryan's army lies on the floor. They got their blows in but were outmatched. The remaining fairies fled at the loss of their numbers, leaving only a couple werewolves to which Alec said,
"I got this."
I think he was just showing off for Rosaline. Or just showing off in general.
The rest of us slowly turn back to Ryan. He's conscious again and his eyes keep flicking from us to his machines and wires and back again. He thinks we can't beat him. Even if we take out his cronies. I take a step towards him but my dramatic death-glare is interrupted with Jaz's shouts.
"YOU'RE A WIZARD?! THOSE DON'T EXIST!!!" she yells at Ryan.
"She's a warlock," Ryan says, pointing accusingly at Izabella. Jaz and Will turn to gape at her.
"So is he!" Izabella says, pointing at her brother.
"She's a witch!" Dominico points at me. My mind scatters.
"She's a vampire!" I point at Rosaline.
"So's he!" Rosaline points at Alec.
"She's a wizard too!" Alec points at Melissa. Jaz turns to Will.
"So what are you? A unicorn?" She asks.
"What? No! I'm just confused," Will states.
"Yeah, he's not special," Ryan admits.
"Phew," Jaz sighs. Ryan turns back to me and Dominico.
"You really can't stop it, you know," he tells us. "There's nowhere to hold all the energy, even if you do shut down my machine. It'll just secrete through the wires and blow up whatever object it touches before releasing. It's. Unstoppable."
"Déjà vu! Said about just about every one of Dr. Doofenshmirtz's -inators that Perry the Platypus ever destroyed," Alec says. We slowly turn to him. He just shrugs. "Quality entertainment," he defends. We shrug back. Truth will be truth.
There's a loud beeping from Ryan's generators. He turns to us with a triumphant glint in his eyes.
"That's it. It's done. The power's started flowing. Unless you come up with some super-battery storage facility in the next ten seconds, you can't stop me."
"We need to get out of here now," Alec says to us. Rosaline helps Izabella herd Will and Jaz towards the door. "You guys..." Alec says to me and Dominico- the only two who haven't moved.
"You go, we'll catch up after we finish with Panther here," Dominico tells him. Alec nods before helping everyone, in their confused or bloody states get out.
"You lost," Ryan says triumphantly to us. No, we can't have lost. Not with all our powers. A witch and a warlock against a wizard. A pretty even match, all things considered. I look at the advanced science surrounding me. I try to think back to all my classes on electricity. How to store...how to store...
Dominico beats me to it.
"Not science," I hear Dominico whisper next to me. Suddenly his realization dawns on me.
I look up at Ryan, then to Dominico. Dominico and I share a look. We both know what we have to do... it's just a matter of doing it. I give a slight, sorry nod in his direction and he puts on a hard but caring expression and nods back. In unison we turn and leap towards Ryan, gathering as many wires as I can and using magic to wrap ourselves in our own personal crackling dome of plastic and wire, electricity fizzling all around us. We're in utter darkness but the wires coursing with power begin glowing and sending out discharges, lighting up the room around us.
"Are you two crazy?" Ryan yells at us, over the sound of discharging static.
"No," Dominico says. "You were the crazy one that got us into this. We're just going to end it."
"HOW?! Where are you going to send all this energy?! It's scientifically IMPOSSIBLE!" Ryan shouts at us.
"Good thing we use magic then," I say. Ryan's eyes cloud over with confusion. "Don't you get it? W-members use electric waves to have control over their elements. I read electric fields of objects, Dominico can read electric fields of people and you can read them all. We can take in electricity too, what goes around comes around, right?"
"You are crazy! This much energy will kill us all! Are you really going to sentence your boyfriend to death?"
"We'll both be dead anyway, or like what we saw in your little magic car. This way at least we'll be saving everyone else," Dominico says for me, taking my waist.
"How noble," Ryan scoffs.
"No, it's just decent. It's what any right-minded person should do," I say. The air starts crackling louder and I hear the machines whirring faster. Ryan makes a dive at the side of the hollow sphere of wires we're in, trying to escape. I jump forward and grab his left arm while Dominico grabs his right. We hold him against the wall of wires so he can't move.
"LET ME GO! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE IN HERE!" he yells at us.
"WELL THANKS TO YOU WE'RE GOING TO DIE OUT THERE TOO!" I yell back at him. The whole 'dying' part starts to sink in when the wires start pulsing energy and Ryan howls in resistance.
"Faye?" Dominico says to me and I look up at him. "I love you." Despite my terror I can't help but let a smile slip onto my face.
"I love you too, Dominico," I tell him honestly.
"This sounds a lot like goodbye," he says, looking into my eyes.
"Yeah and super cliché. We are SO not going out like this," I say.
"Well in that case want me to give you a ride home?" he asks. The wires crackle louder and I begin to feel energy start to course through me.
"Sure, that would be great. Want to come over and watch Netflix or something? We could order pizza," I continue. The electricity starts to hurt now.
"Sounds perfect, I'll call on the way home," he says, his teeth gritted slightly from the pain. "Meet you outside?" he asks.
"Yeah," I reply even though tears start to form in my eyes from the immense pain now. "See you in a minute?" He smiles through his pain.
"Yeah. I'll see you in a minute."
Ryan is the first to let out a scream. I think I scream, but if I do, the world fades not a second after.
Darn.
I was looking forward to that date.
It looks like I might be slightly delayed meeting him outside.
But that's okay.
I'm sure he'll understand.
He loves me.
And I love him.
Not exactly happily ever after or anything, but it works.
And I'll see him in a minute anyway.