"I feel like, like pudding," Iggy groaned. "Pudding with nerve endings. Pudding in great pain."
~ James Patterson (The Angel Experiment)
~~~~~~~~~
The next few things happened all at once.
The Skrulls charged at them on Evil's orders. There were too many of them, much more than Miracle had estimated. Compared to the pirates, their side fell pitifully short of manpower. But while the pirates charged with iron swords and blazing guns, their side was armed with a wide range of abilities.
As chaos unfurled in the room, Miracle spotted Lust. With an hourglass body, shining blonde hair that cascaded around her shoulders and thick eyelashes, she easily disarmed the men with a wink or a sway of her hips. Then there was Trickster, fluctuating in and out of existence, confusing the pirates that surrounded him, creating those deadly illusions he was so infamous for.
Jealousy, who seemed to have taken up the appearance of a drag queen for some bizarre reason, was the easiest one to spot in the confusion. Whenever one of those men charged towards him, he let them get close enough such that he could daintily reach out and tap them on the chest.
As if electrocuted, the hairs on the arms and legs of the men would stand up. They would, then, turn around and charge at their own, yelling obscenities at their comrades, their resentment and envy being enflamed by a single touch.
Anger, perhaps, was the one cherishing this situation the most. The guy was practically glowing, his hands resting on his hips, his obnoxious laughter booming over the dim of shouts and gun shots. Of course he was thriving. This space was filled to the brim with angry people, after all.
He was soaking it all up, using the fury of the pirates to influence them and override the orders placed by Evil. Some of the haziness seemed to clear from their eyes. Miracle even spotted one guy with a wooden leg look around in bewilderment when the white film in his eyes disappeared. Then, taking a flask out of his belt, he took a swig, shrugged, turned around and limped out of the room grumpily. Miracle thought he heard him say, "Nay, not my fight, not my problem. What am I even doing here? What is this bloody place?"
Miracle almost dared to hope that they might win after all. That they stood a chance maybe, when, abruptly, the shadow of a man loomed over him and Sherry. He didn't look too different than his mates but there was something about him that seemed loosely familiar.
Miracle recognised him as the man who had attacked them in the Taj Mahal in India. Miracle had knocked him out cold with his trusty poker. In fact, his bald head still had a huge, red bump protruding from it. And under Evil's influence or not, he did not look pleased at all.
But with both Sherry and Miracle's hands tied with ropes that refused to yield and only tightened when they pulled at it, their last resort was to crawl away on their knees. The man did not seem in any hurry, though. He moved predatorily, sensing the weakness on his prey, smelling his own victory.
Miracle's heart did a wild jig as he cried out in frustration, futilely trying to untie himself. It was too late, though. The man was already upon them. He was about to lunge at Miracle, when, abruptly, another figure appeared before them, taking the brunt of the man's immense weight as he pounced on him. The pirate and Hate wrestled each other, their arms and legs swinging at the other. It turned into a full-on brawl such that it almost became hard to distinguish whose arm was whose or who was winning the fight.
That is, until, Hate found a weak spot. His hand reached out and punched the man hard on his skull where the bump – a lovely gift from Miracle – was barely healing. Crying out, the man jerked back and stumbled on the floor, his head probably swimming with stars. Hate shook himself off and stood up, quickly striding towards Miracle, disbelief in his eyes.
As Hate's hands swiftly worked at the ropes tied around Miracle's wrists, he said, "Did that bloody muscled man just murmur 'mommy' when I punched him?"
Miracle didn't find it in himself to laugh but he forced a smile as Hate quickly moved on to untie Sherry.
"I didn't think you'd come," Miracle admitted, massaging his sore hands and cracking his knuckles.
Hate shot him a bro-are-you-serious look. "I would've come," Hate said, scoffing. "And not only because I owe you – which, by the way, I no longer do; I'll consider my debt paid after this mess you pulled us into – but also because you're my friend, all right?"
Miracle nodded gratefully.
"But, admittedly," Hate continued, "I didn't just come for you. When you said that Love was trapped too..."
This time a crooked smile cracked Miracle's smile. Love and Hate had a, well, a love-hate relationship that went a long way back. Terrible business that Miracle didn't have the time or energy to recount.
"We need to free Love and the others," Sherry added. "Evil's words gave him away. He is, indeed, using the sarcophagus to trap our friends. We just need to open it and let them out and then our win is guaranteed—"
"Not so fast, young Sherry," a familiar, nasally voice said from behind them. The trio exchanged a look and turned around to find Evil standing calmly before them, his hands clasped together, his hair not even ruffled. Whatever transitory shock he must have felt at the new arrivals was long gone. His eyes had turned hard again, his poise cool and collected.
"Give up, Evil. You are surrounded," Miracle bit out. "You cannot win this fight."
"Can't I?" Evil mused, smirking. "Look around, are you really winning?"
Miracle's brows furrowed. He looked around and the scene slowly sank in.
Lust's tactics were no longer working. Most of the pirates had figured out she was more than just a seductress and was less willing to provide bodily pleasure than bodily harm.
Meanwhile, the ones Jealousy had influenced were coming after him now. His powers were exhausted and, unable to keep his hold anymore, the men were rounding up on him. Anger was faring slightly better but anyone could clearly see that he wasn't used to controlling so men altogether.
Fear, perhaps, was the only one maintaining a strong stance. He worked quietly from the shadows, not revealing himself but letting his powers sneak up on the men, stoking and kindling their fears and qualms. A one-eyed, whimpering pirate even wetted himself, from what Miracle could see. But for how long? How long until the Skrulls overwhelmed him too?
As if on cue to his dreadful thoughts, a man pounced on Fear from behind and down they both went, Fear shrieking as the man pounded his fists on the boy's face.
Beside him, both Sherry and Hate gasped, seeing that Evil's men were gaining control again. The element of surprise that Miracle had hoped they would have was receding. It wasn't working. They were going to lose.
Evil raised an eyebrow. "Did you really think you could defeat me? That it would be so easy? Call off your team and I would call off mine. No one has to get hurt. My fight is not with you, Hate."
Anxiety made it hard for Miracle to think clearly. Besides, with half of his brain cells yelling, "Blue!" and the other half still reeling from the words of Evil, he wasn't sure so sure of himself anymore. Yet, the corner of his eyes suddenly caught the haziness at the edges of Evil's form, almost unnoticeable. And, there was no shadow of him either...
As if he were not real, just a hologram, an illusion...
Miracle's eyebrows arched. "Is that so?" he said idly. He held out of one his hands, ignoring the sudden light-headedness that came at the simple task. A draught of air howled inside from one of the tiny windows set on the wall. The wind was so swift, so strong, that it ripped away the illusion fabricated before their eyes.
The scene did not entirely change. The fight continued all around them, except this time, it wasn't Evil's side who was winning.
Evil, himself, did not look so composed anymore. He held a knife to Trickster's throat and it became apparent that Trickster was forced to create an illusion.
Evil snarled, letting go of Trickster. "You have not won just yet," Evil warned and then he burst into a swirl of black smoke.
"Where did he go?" Sherry cried while Hate helped up Trickster who was blubbering an apology.
Miracle started to shake his head when suddenly, Evil's voice boomed again, so loud that everyone paused for a while. Heads turned upwards where Evil was standing. But he wasn't alone on the ledge.
His arms held hostage a familiar, thin, brunette figure who was doing her very best not to burst into tears.
"Blue!" Miracle cried, his eyes wide, his heart threatening to fly out of his chest.
Evil grinned. "Cease this nonsense and I shall spare her or..." He laughed cruelly. "Oh, trust me, you do not want to know the latter part of that sentence."
Hey, guys, sorry for updating so haphazardly. But my computer has been giving me some huge shist. So, I want to be done with the chapters since there aren't much left anyways. The faster I'm done, the faster I can give it to an electronics shop to fix it. Hope you understand. Hehe :)
Also, about the quote, frankly, I'm not sure what it means or how it goes with the story. All I know is that it's kinda funny *smiles sheepishly*
Anyways, don't forget to press that star button and leave me a comment on your thoughts <3333