Chapter 2 - Hit me with your Best Shot

A group of young adults with superpowers team up to fight a villain from another world as well as other small villains. Azaria goes on her mission and gets more than she bargained for.

"I’m off to my mission!" Azaria called up the stairs.

"Okay! Five!" She heard Amari call back. Azaria laughed. Rule #5 - Don’t get shot.

"Not a problem!" She called back. This mission wasn’t supposed to be difficult. Quick in-and-out.

Azaria walked through the darkness towards the garage. She couldn’t take a car all the way to her destination, but she could at least get mostly there. She decided to take the Honda 1300 VTX1300Retro. Since the black motorcycle was smaller than a car, it would be easier to park, and since all her cars were ridiculously expensive it would more likely go unnoticed in the sketchy part of town that she was going to have to park in.

To get from the mansion to her parking spot a little ways away from the mission was supposed to be a twenty-five minute drive. That is, if you’re driving the speed limit. Azaria was not. She made it in six minutes and forty-two seconds, breaking Antain’s previous record of seven minutes and thirteen seconds. She’d have to tell him when she got home. It was one of the most important parts of the mission sometimes - timing yourself on the way there. The spot she was using this time was an ideal location, out of the way and in a very dark area of town, and was fairly close to a lot of their regular locations.

Azaria started walking, making her way towards the warehouse. She had about fifty minutes to walk three blocks, so she wasn’t in any great hurry, but she did intend to get there early. Even though she had already scouted the building, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to scout it again, to make sure nothing had happened since earlier that day. Rule #85 - Never take chances. She certainly had plenty of time, and you could never be too careful.

She slipped into the shadows around the warehouse, checking the perimeter for anything unusual. Then she did a quick perusal of the inside of the building before she went into hiding.

"Hiding" was the empty house next door. It had been abandoned for years, and since the Firlannas had "claimed" it as their own, the landlord hadn’t sold it to anyone yet. Azaria had offered to buy it once, but the man she had talked to said that he would rather not have any ties to her family, which was understandable. But she still sent them money every month that equaled what the rent would have been in the form of regular, anonymous checks and the landlord didn’t sell it. It was a win-win situation.

Azaria bunkered down with a sniper rifle and watched the warehouse for the last ten minutes, waiting. Waiting wasn’t her strong point and was definitely something she’d had to work on in her training. Patiently - or maybe not so patiently - waiting for the right moment.

Finally, a man walked up to the warehouse door, glanced around cautiously, and then stepped into the building. In his hand was a briefcase. Azaria’s body tensed. This was it. She did a quick systems check on all her weapons on her way out the door. The man was only going to be in there for a moment and she needed to be right there when he came back out or she would miss her window of opportunity.

Azaria hid in the shadows by the door. The man didn’t even glance her way. Not that it would have mattered if he had - she was very good at hiding in plain sight. The man cautiously stepped out and she slipped in before the door closed behind him. (It would have been suspicious if the door had mysteriously opened and closed again.)

The briefcase had been left exactly where it was supposed to be. Azaria checked over it briefly, but she didn’t have enough time to be thorough. Knowing that she didn’t have very long, she grabbed the case and was about to walk away with it when, like the sound of swords unsheathing, several metal bars slid up from the ground around her. Azaria silently cursed herself. She’d been so busy checking the case itself that she had forgotten to look for trap wires. The trap had probably been set to go off when she picked up the suitcase.

"I seem to have caught a little mouse in my trap!" She heard a high-pitched voice giggle behind her and turned around slowly, sighing. She knew that voice all too well.

"Hello, China Doll." China Doll was the closest Azaria could say that she got to a nemesis. Their first meeting had been a couple years ago, when Azaria was hired to steal the same piece from a museum that China Doll was after. Azaria had gotten there first and, in the process of fighting over it, also got China Doll caught by the police. Ever since, it had been China’s main goal in life to make Azaria’s life difficult.

China Doll giggled. She was sitting way up in the rafters, her porcelain mask smiling eerily down at Azaria. China Doll had always seemed…creepy, to Azaria. And her thoughts weren’t unprecedented. China Doll’s dark brown skin was covered with a broken porcelain mask, painted white with ruby red lips and one blue eye with eyelashes that were too long. Her black hair was pulled back into curly gothic pigtails that looked like they had been dipped in blood. Her head was topped with a black mini top hat that was lined with white lace and decorated with a red rose. She was wearing a black peasant top with a red corset and a short black skirt with red ruffles. One of her stockings was white and went halfway up her thighs, the top hidden by her skirt. The other was red and black striped and went up to her knee. They were both capped off at the feet with a pair of black Mary Janes with little bows on the front. At her wrists and neck were black lace bows.

"Hello, Shadow Stalker," she answered brightly with a little wave. She was calling Azaria by her name in the underworld. Guess she had gotten into whatever club she had wanted to get into down there. Not that it mattered much. She was too obsessed with her personal vendetta that Azaria was pretty confident that she didn’t have any backup. But apparently "pretty sure" wasn’t good enough today.

"What do you want, China?" Azaria called up, irritated. She needed to get out of here. Her time was up. Any second now someone would come walking through that door and…should have come through already. She had calculated everything out perfectly. And by her calculations, someone should have been in to retrieve the case already. Her brow furrowed as she put the pieces together.

"I see you’ve finally caught on to my little plan!" China Doll exclaimed. "You see, I wanted to see you so bad, but I knew you wouldn’t want to see me," she pouted, bottom lip stuck out playfully. "So I had to send someone else to arrange our little meeting. Otherwise I’d never get you to come to the little play date I had set up. And I so wanted to play with you. Here, have a doll." A tiny doll dropped from her hand and shattered on the ground at Azaria’s feet, spewing some kind of gas all around her.

As Azaria stood in a cloud of green gas, she thanked the black mask over her face. It was keeping her at least semi-coherent. “Merde,” she whispered angrily, looking for a way out. The bars around her were swimming. If only she could fit through them…that was it! Azaria focused all her attention on herself and she started shrinking, her body twisting and contorting until, on the floor of the cage, stood not a person, but a small yellow canary. The little bird hopped across the floor, stumbling a little as the gas more quickly affected the smaller body. The bird Azaria hopped to the edge of the cage. But when she tried to go through, she was zapped and thrown back.

Azaria hit the ground and lost control of her form, turning back into a human. “See?” China Doll giggled in her high-pitched voice. “I planned for everything this time. I didn’t want my playmate to run away.”

"Planned for everything?" A voice said from the darkness. "Then you’re going to hate me!"

Azaria tried to look around, but now everything was in threes and fours and she couldn’t even see past the bars of the cage for all the green smoke around her. All she could see were shadows moving around above her before she passed out.

Out of the shadows, a well-placed arrow flew through the air, hitting the very center of the cage top and cracking it open like an egg. All the gas dispersed, leaving Azaria alone in the clear air. Natural defenses from years of being exposed to different gasses kicked in and started fighting the poison in her system.

Meanwhile, high above in the rafters, a long distance fight was ensuing. A figure hiding mostly in shadow was shooting arrows, one right after another. China Doll kept trying to throw explosive dolls at the attacker, but the arrows were coming from all over the place. Either he could move really fast, or there was more than one attacker.

In actuality, neither was true. There was only one attacker sitting casually in a corner, bouncing arrows off the beams to change their direction. “Having some trouble?” He called, projecting his voice behind her. Another doll flew and hit nothing but wall.  

"Come out, come out, wherever you are…" She called, a hint of anger slipping into her otherwise childish voice.

"I don’t wanna," came the reply, mimicking her childish voice. China Doll screamed in frustration and started throwing razor-sharp puppet strings in every direction.

The mysterious voice was fast, but not quite fast enough. Several of the strings hit him, knocking him from his perch. Azaria regained consciousness just in time to see a familiar figure fall from the rafters and hit the ground.

"Cael-kamahs!" Azaria cried, getting up and stumbling over to him. She had met her rescuer on numerous occasions before. Their business led them to hang around with similar…social circles. They often worked together on missions if they had a common goal, or at least, not opposing goals. Today,

China Doll must have been a part of it…China Doll! Looking around, Azaria couldn’t see her. She must have realized that her plan had failed and she either needed to leave or get turned over to the police if Cael-kamahs caught her, or killed if Azaria caught her.

Azaria turned her attention back to Cael-kamahs - she would worry about China Doll later. “Cael-kamahs?” There was no response. The fall must have knocked him out. He was also bleeding from both arms, a leg, his torso, the left side of his face and the right side of his head. He needed to see Amari and fast.

Azaria tried to pick him up, but with the combination of his weight and the fact that she was still recovering from the poison, she could only carry him a little way. She managed to get him to the door before she gave up and dropped him on the ground. “I’m going to need back up on this one,” she mumbled, pulling out her cell phone and dialing her friend.

"Joe’s Mortuary. You stab ‘em, we slab ‘em." A cheerful voice said on the other end.

"Hey, Amari, it’s me."

"Oh. You."

"Yes, me. How could you not know? Your cell has caller ID."

"Kinda in the middle of something here. Can you get to the point?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I need you to come to the warehouse. And now."

"But it’s my turn! I’m about to go in for the assassination."

"Put the game on hold, svloch, and get your butt over here. This is a matter of life or death! And bring a car.”

"Alright, alright. Don’t get your knickers in a twist. I’ll take the DeLorean and be there in a few minutes." There was a click and then silence. Azaria rolled her eyes at her dork of a friend and turned her attention back to Cael-kamahs. He was still unresponsive, but there wasn’t much she could do until help arrived. She fashioned some makeshift tourniquets from what she had to put around his arms and leg.

Amari arrived less than ten minutes later. “Well, you look like you had some fun,” she observed, looking around the room. “I’m guessing this unconcious guy here is why you called me.”

"Do you see anyone else who needs help?" Azaria retorted.

"Depends, are we talking just physical help, or are we adding mental help to the list?"

Azaria punched her friend lightly on the shoulder. “Just look him over, please.”

"Oh, a please and everything. Must be important."

“Truie.”

"That’s more like it." Amari bent down to look at the man lying on the floor. As she examined his injuries, she asked, "So, is he your boyfriend or what?"

Azaria started. “Um, no. Why?”

"I’m just trying to figure out why we’re saving him."

"He saved me first."

"I guess it’s a fair trade then." Amari bent over him and, one by one, put a hand over his injuries. One by one they disappeared. The process took about ten minutes. "That’s all I can do for now. I’ll look him over again later, but if I keep going, I’ll strain myself." The man sat up suddenly and started coughing. "Guess it doesn’t matter anyways. Good morning, sunshine."

"How do you feel?" Azaria asked.

"Like I was torn apart by string and fell from a roof," he answered, looking around and trying to get his bearings. He saw Amari and asked, "Who are you?"

"I am the physical form of death. My official title is Lord Death, Ruler of the Underworld and Conqueror of Life, but you can just call me ‘my lord,’" Amari answered with a flourishing bow.

"The dummbatz over here is Amari,” Azaria corrected. “I called her after you passed out. You passed out, by the way. And China Doll got away.”

"Oh, is that all?" Cael-kamahs tried to get up, but he fell back almost immediately.

"We have to get him back to the house. It’s not safe here. Who knows what China Doll is doing? She retreated, but there’s a pretty good chance she’ll come back."

"Wait," Amari said, holding her hands up. "China Doll was here? And who is this guy? Something you wanna share with the class here?"

Azaria had already started trying to get Cael-kamahs off the floor. “His name is Cael-kamahs. I’ll fill you in on the rest later. For now, let’s just get home.”

"Fine," Amari huffed. Together she and Amari got Cael-kamahs to the car, a dark silver-gray DeLorean DMC-12. Amari went and got the Honda and led the way home.