Chapter 3, Hostages

Aries encounters Osiris again, but this time she has a new ally

CHAPTER 3

 

 

The truck led me to the local gym. Hostage situation. Who takes hostages at a gym? Unless you’re in the black market for dumbbells, there’s not much to steal. I landed in front of the police with their riot gear. The fire was in the lobby, which was conveniently right next to the pool. I removed the windows and covered the flames with water. I took a few steps towards the building, feeling rather confident in myself and WHAM! I thought fireballs hurt, I got a glowing orange disc to the chest. The round shape cracked and disappeared. From the building walked a woman, head to toe in orange and black with rune-patterned legs and a tattered cape. Her mask was cut off at the top letting her jet-black hair fly free.

“Listen up, Orange is the New Black, I’ve not got time right now so if you’d like to come peacefully, that’d be great?” I shouted in a confident voice. She laughed of course.

She looked at me and announced to the television cameras; “My name is Rikera.” before throwing another one of those death discs at me. I caught this one and threw it back at her. She dodged it as it flew up and cut down one of the light beams in the gym.

I ran towards her and built up a ball of electricity in my hand, ready to throw it at her. That plan fell through though, something complicated the situation.

Osiris landed next to the woman and kissed her. Right in front of me. Rikera created an orb and Osiris filled it with fire.

Rikera threw it at me ten times faster than the last one. I caught it with my telekinesis too, but Osiris was helping her. Rikera flew off on two more of the discs at her feet as Osiris pushed the orange bomb further towards me. I charged the air between us with thousands of volts of lightning but she held it back too. I turned to the police behind me.

“Get everyone out the building. Now!” The officer nodded his head and a dozen or so ran in, the rest proceeded to chase the orange trail in the sky.

I focused on Osiris. “Why are you doing this?”

She was silent. She gritted her teeth as I pushed the orb further towards her.

“Tell me. You were the kindest person to walk this Earth and now you’re a monster. What happened?”
Her eyes began to bleed black again. The pressure on each side of the orb started to crack it.

“I’m no monster. I’m here to cleanse the world of the real monster, the one that’s brought more war and death than a thousand lifetimes possible. You.”

I expected to just drop at that point, but it pissed me off more. In my peripheral I saw the last officer take out the remaining hostage. He nodded at me so I forced all my energy into pushing the orb. Lightning licked out the ground as it cracked behind and around me. Car windows smashed and alarms started blaring. I began to scream as my eyes charged with lightning and the orb flew straight to Osiris and hit her in the face, sending her flying back into the wall of the gym. Smoke bellowed off her as she stood up. She threw a stream of fire at me but I deflected it to a nearby car that I really hope the owner had insured. Her eyes were streaming with black tears which burned as they hit the ground. She threw fireball after fireball at me, each one I caught and extinguished. I lifted the water from the pull and surrounded her in a tornado of it. I walked into the eye of the storm with her again, she tried to create more flames but they were extinguished immediately. She threw a punch at me but I dodged it and caught her arm. I pushed her to the ground and held her there.

“I don’t want to do this. Please. Don’t make me.”

She looked up at me. I was beating her for once. Her eyes drained of black and were golden. They hadn’t been like this since she died. It stunned me. The tornado collapsed around us like everything I felt, she looked scared. I fell back as she stood up. Rikera flew down and landed next to Osiris and lifted me in one of her bubbles. An officer ran to her to get her to stop, but she pulled out a gun that was hidden in her cloak and fired three shots directly into his chest. He dropped to the ground clutching it. Rikera threw me into the wall of the gym so hard I went straight through it. I stood up and ran towards them as they took off. I lifted the dying officer and flew him to the hospital, I couldn’t let him die. I waited there until his family arrived. A husband and a daughter that wasn’t even eleven. The man looked at me wondering if his husband would survive, but I didn’t have the answers. I lost again. I flew back to the lair; the dust flew off the ground as I pelted through the sky. I’d never felt so ashamed, so weak. I let my empathy for a girl that has been long gone beat me again. Why was I letting this happen? I needed to go back to the tower, to collect myself. I was marinated in a stew of negative emotions; pissed off, betrayed, hurt. I didn’t know what to make of myself. How could I call myself a hero if I just let the villain get away? They made it seem so much easier in the movies.