Chapter 5 - An Unexpected Party

A group of young adults with superpowers team up to fight a villain from another world as well as other small villains. Bad decisions are made and some people get injured.

Amari and Azaria got back to the house. Azaria held up the cords that she had taken from the robot. “We need to get these to Adamar tomorrow,” she said quietly. There was really no need to be quiet, but in the dark, silent house, any would have sounded awkward.

"Why wait?" Amari whispered, running up the stairs to the second floor.

"Amari, wait! Not now!" Azaria called, sprinting after her.

Amari slowed to a stop right in front of Adamar’s door and took out her lock picks. The lock clicked open and she went quietly in. She didn’t want to wake him prematurely. Azaria stood off to the side while Amari went right up to him, leaning over until their faces were a couple inches apart.

"Hey, hey Adamar. Wake up!" Amari called. Adamar flew out of bed, knocking Amari against the wall. She hit it and slid to the floor. "Okay, I deserved that."

But Adamar wasn’t done. Still half-asleep, he went through the motions of an attack. He picked Amari up by the collar and threw her out into the hallway. “What time is it?” He mumbled.

Azaria glanced at a clock by the bed. “It is…three forty-five.”

"What?" Adamar yelled, following Amari into the hall. "Why would you wake me up at freaking four o’clock in the morning?"

"Huh?" Amari asked, dazed. Her head was spinning from hitting the wall. Twice.

Adamar growled slightly, pulling a throwing knife out of…somewhere…and advancing towards Amari.

Uh oh, she thought, rolling backwards to try and get away. She hopped out of the roll onto her feet and started stumbling backwards down the hall. Adamar ran after her, catching up quickly. He met her right before the door to Antain’s room, picking her up again, this time by the wrist.

Amari tried to punch him with her free hand, but his arm was much longer than hers, so with him holding her out at arm’s length, she was missing by a few inches. Didn’t stop her from trying, though.

Adamar pulled her back and threw her through the door. Pieces of door flew everywhere as Amari went crashing through, right onto the bed, which housed the still-sleeping Antain. Instinctively, he rolled off the bed, taking Amari with him. They ended up with Amari on the floor and Antain on top of her, holding a knife to her throat. He was so close that she could feel his breath on her face. Amari was frozen on the floor, her face bright red. Antain wasn’t helping.

"Well, this is hot," he said after a pause, looking deeply in her eyes.

Amari opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to get words out but only making incoherent noises. Inside, she was thinking, Brain…jamming. Antain….getting closer…let him?…no,

no! “Get off!” She said out loud, trying to push him off, but a sharp pain shot up her arm and she fell back on the floor, whimpering and cradling her left wrist.

"Are you okay?" Antain asked quickly, a look of concern on his face.

"No, your brother just threw me through the door!" Amari yelled. Then, quieter, she finished, "And I’m pretty sure wrists aren’t supposed to look like this." She held up her cradled wrist which was bruised and swollen and she thought that she might be able to see some of the bone sticking out one side.

Antain jumped up and looked angrily, first at the door and then at his brother. “What’d ya do that for?”

Adamar crossed his arms. “Her fault. She woke me up.”

"She woke me up too!" Antain countered, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, and you almost slit her throat!" The two brothers glared at each other. Sitting on the floor, Amari swore that she could see daggers flying from their eyes towards each other and colliding in mid-air. Azaria just stood in the hall, looking through the broken door. She put a hand over her eyes and shook her head.

"I don’t know you. I don’t know you. You’re just random strangers that happen to live in my house. I don’t know any of you…" she said softly.

Amari tried to get up but found that something was also wrong with her left leg, although she couldn’t tell yet whether it was just a sprain or if the leg was actually broken. She looked up at the brothers above her. “Um, guys? A little help here… I need to get down to my mom so she can fix me.”

Antain looked down at Amari, who was still struggling to stand despite her injured leg. When he processed what was going on, he jumped to her side with a flourish, saying, “I shall help you, fair maiden!”

Amari face-palmed, trying to use her hand to hide that her blush had deepened to a nice rose red. “You’re such a dork.”

"I know," he smiled as he swept her up into his arms, carrying her out of the room. Instead of bothering to open the door, he just knocked over what was left of it. Darryl would fix it later.

Amari and Antain managed to get all the way to the top of the stairs without a problem, but then Amari saw something on the floor. “Is…is that one of my ducks?” It was well known in the house that Amari had an extensive and growing collection of rubber duck and if you touched it, you died.

"Yeah, about that," Antain said slowly. "I kinda stole your collection and hid it throughout the house…"

"You what?" Amari shouted.

"It’ll be fun, like a scavenger hunt."

"I’m so going to kill you!" She yelled, thrashing around. She kicked Antain in the head with her good foot and he dropped her, slightly stunned, sending her tumbling down the stairs to land dazed at the bottom just as a thoroughly confused Amato opened the door to the outside on another man carrying an unconscious girl.

 

… . .

 

Cael walked up to the door of the Firlanna mansion and knocked. A guy answered the door and behind him was a sea of chaos. The girl Azaria had called earlier was lying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, yelling something in French at the guy standing at the top of the stairs.

"Who are you?" The guy holding the door asked.

"I’m looking for Azaria."

The girl on the floor rolled over and scowled. “Azaria!” She yelled up the stairs. “Tall, dark, and creepy is here to see you.”

Azaria appeared at the top of the stairs. “You? What are you doing here?” She asked, coming down towards him. “It’s a little early for a social call, isn’t it?”

"Hello to you, too." Cael stepped through uninvited, bringing Kethri through the door with him.

Azaria’s eyes snapped to the girl in his arms. “Why do you have Whirlwind with you? And what’s wrong with her?”

"She was sold a couple days ago to the circus I work…worked for. There was a little…accident during her performance. Apparently she’s more flammable than Darktalon anticipated. Are you finished?" He asked abruptly, staring down at the floor.

Amari was giggling uncontrollably. “I’m sorry. I just can’t take you seriously now that I know you work for a circus.”

"Worked," Cael corrected her. "Now that I’ve left with Whirlwind, who was supposed to be his star act, I’m pretty sure they won’t just accept me back in. Which is kind of inconvenient, I might add. Darktalon was my connection to the underworld. It will be harder to figure out who I need to investigate now."

"Oh, I’m sorry," Amari said sarcastically. "Please, if I can do anything to help."

Cael nodded at Whirlwind, who was still unconscious in his arms. “Fix it.”

"Why?"

"Do you not see what condition she’s in?"

"Yes, I do, but that wasn’t the question. What I meant was why do you care?

"I may be a thief, but I’m not heartless."

"Coulda fooled me," Amari muttered.

"I take offense to that," Cael replied, dramatically offended.

"Good, I’ll remember that so I can say it again later. And that ‘it’ you’re referring to is a girl."

Cael sighed. “Just do it.”

"Wait," Azaria said, her eyes narrowed. "How did you get here?"

"I…drove?"

"No, I mean, how did you find us? This house is hidden and, as far as the government is concerned, it doesn’t even exist."

"Oh. I put a tracker on you years ago," he answered simply.

"You what!" Azaria yelled.

"Yeah. I was curious, that first time I met you, so I put a tracker on you. It’s been dead for years, but I’m surprised you didn’t find it."

Azaria growled and flicked a throwing knife at him from the clip around her left arm. Cael dodged it and it embedded into the wall behind him. “Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be. Fine, then.” He held out Whirlwind and dropped her into Amato’s arms, who was now even more confused, and then pulled out two knives of his own. They had circles on the end that he put his middle fingers into so that he could swing them around menacingly.

An all-out fight ensued. The walls were starting to look like porcupines. At one point Cael, just to show off, caught one of Azaria’s knives and threw it back at her.

Underneath all this, Amari had crawled out from the middle of the floor over to where Amato had sat on the ground, holding Whirlwind in his lap. Antain followed her over, ducking under the fight. By the time he got there, she was already looking over Whirlwind, trying to find the extent of her

injuries. There were some minor cuts and bruises, and there was a large bump on her head, but most of the damage seemed to be from burns.

Amari moved to sit over Whirlwind and winced as pain shot up her arm. “You need to get to your mom,” Antain said, trying to get her to move out of the line of fire. But she refused to budge.

"No. Whirlwind needs more help than I do," she said, brushing him off and continuing to work. She was concentrating on the burns but they were going to need a lot of work.

"Yes, I realize that, but if you get hit by a stray knife, you’re not going to be any good to anybody."

Amari sighed. “Okay, this is getting ridiculous.” She threw up a wall of earth between Azaria and Cael, breaking several floor boards in the process. A couple of knives hit the wall, but both reacted quickly enough to not throw any more. “Quit it, you two.” Azaria glared at Amari. “I think Darryl has enough to deal with already.”

Cael looked a little taken aback. He reached forward hesitantly and touched the wall. “What is this?” He asked.

"It’s a wall," Amari said flatly.

Cael just shrugged, recovering his cool. “Yeah, just a wall that came bursting out of the ground. Sure, no problem. Happens all the time.”

"I’ll call Darryl." Adamar walked over to an old-fashioned looking phone sitting on a table against the wall and started dialing a number.

"Who’s Darryl?" Cael asked.

"The repair man," Amari answered simply, pulling the wall back down into the ground but still leaving the floor in shambles.

"Won’t he be angry?"

"Angry about what? Fixing the house? But that’s his job. Why would it make him angry?"

"Um, hello! It’s three o’clock in the morning!"

"Oh that. No that won’t be a problem."

"He’s used to it," Antain jumped in. "We call him all the time. The house needs to be as prepared as we are," he finished, quoting Rule #104.

Cael just shook his head. “I still don’t think he probably appreciates that.”

Azaria shrugged. “He’s paid well.”

"Um, guys?" Amato said, still on the floor with Whirlwind in his lap.

"Oh, right, we should probably get them to Aunt Sasha," Antain said.

"No, it’s okay, I can take care of her," Amari replied, brushing him off.

"No." Antain pulled her off the floor and swung her back up into his arms. Amari was too surprised at the sudden movement to avoid it, and she didn’t care to be dropped again, so she didn’t struggle. "C’mon, Amato. Take this other chick down to the med lab with me. Adamar and Azaria can wake up Aunt Sasha."

Amato stood up and almost fell over. He hadn’t been expecting her to weigh so little. I was almost like carrying a feather. What is this girl made of? He thought.

Antain and Amato walked down to Level 1 where a med lab had been tucked away into the corner. In a house full of assassins, it was a good idea, and with Amari there to get into trouble, it was a requirement.

The med lab was a small room with two beds and cabinets full of any kind of medicine or medical anything that you could think of, and some you couldn’t. It was as stocked as a combination between a hospital and a pharmacy. If you had it, Sasha could fix it. Sasha was Amari’s mother. She

was a great maid, a great nurse, and the reason for Amari’s sarcastic humor.

"Alright, what did you do this time, Amari?" She asked as she walked in.

"Hi, Mama. I didn’t mean to," Amari said, looking down at her feet. "This is compliments of me by way of Adamar."

"What did you do?"

"I kinda…woke Adamar up."

"And?"

"And so he attacked me."

Sasha shook her head. “And who is this?” She asked, looking over at the other bed.

"That’s Whirlwind. I don’t know exactly what happened, but Azaria’s…friend Cael brought her over so I could fix her, but Antain won’t let me."

"That’s because you need to be fixed first," Antain said, glaring at her.

"No, no I’m fine. She’s in a lot worse shape than I am."

Sasha smiled knowingly. “Well, let me see what’s going on with both of you, and then we’ll see what we can do.”

"Thank you, Mama."

"I could kiss it and make it better," Antain joked. Amari turned away, trying to ignore him but her ears turned slowly bright red.

Sasha bandaged up Amari’s wrist, which was definitely broken, and her ankle, which was fortunately just sprained. Amari stood up and hobbled over to the other bed. It took her about an hour to get the worst of it. Whirlwind still wasn’t awake by the time Amari was done, but at least she looked better. Her skin wasn’t burnt anymore and Amari was pretty sure that she’d taken care of the head injury.

Amari sat back, exhausted. “I think that’s all I can do tonight.”

Sasha brushed Amari’s hair back and kissed her forehead. “Alright, sweetie. Go to bed. Let Antain help you. And don’t argue,” she added when she saw Amari’s mouth open in protest. “I don’t need you tripping and injuring something else. Whirlwind can stay here for the night until we know better what kind of condition she’s in.”

Amari refused to let Antain carry her again, so he let her use his arm for support. She reached her bed and was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

 

… . .

 

Amari woke up and wandered into the kitchen half asleep. Adamar, Azaria, Amato, and Kethri were already there.

"So what did you want me for last night, anyways?" Adamar asked.

Azaria put the cords on the table in front of him. “This is what we wanted to show you. Early yesterday we fought a giant robot with Whirlwind.”

"Hey, call me Kethri," Kethri interjected. "Being called Whirlwind all the time is just too weird."

"Okay, yesterday we fought a giant robot with Kethri. I pulled these out of it. Thought you could have some fun analyzing them and trying to figure out where they came from.

Adamar sighed. “Okay, then, why didn’t you bring me the cords yesterday? You’ve been gone for well over a day. You can’t have been fighting that whole time.”

"Well…" Amari said slowly. "We kind of got distracted." Adamar face-palmed. "What? We wanted to bring you the entire robot. Thought that it would be more fun for you. And also, how cool

would it be to have a giant robot in our backyard? Unfortunately, the government got there before we could figure it out.”

"And then Amari tried anyways, which is what took us so long to get home." Azaria added.

Adamar shook his head. “Alright, let’s see what you’ve got.” He picked up the cords and headed down to his lab on Level 6. “I don’t know what you expect me to find with just this.” He sat down at his desk and got to work picking them apart. Even though the room was meant for everybody to use, Adamar had a desk that was just his and no one was allowed to touch. Since he was the resident computer genius, everyone decided not to argue with him.

"Hang on, I think I found something," he said a few minutes later. Out from under the casing of one of the cords, he pulled out a small computer chip and stuck it into a handheld computer that he carried around in his pocket and a video popped up. After a moment, he sighed and said, "Amari, you’re going to want to see this."

"Why?" She asked, coming over to stand behind him. "Oh please, not this again."

"Not what again?" Kethri asked, trying to look, but even sitting Adamar was almost as tall as she was.

Adamar pushed a couple of buttons on his computer and a giant screen on the wall to his right clicked on and started playing a video message.

"Hi, Amari!" The girl on the screen said. She was wearing a ridiculous orange cap and equally ludicrous purple hoodie. "It’s your best friend, the Purple Platypus again. Did you like my present? I made it especially for you. I know you’re busy and you still need to train so I thought I’d help you out."

"I don’t believe this," Amari said, falling back into a chair. "I thought I got rid of her after the last time! Why does she keep showing up in my life?"

"Who is the Purple Platypus?" Kethri asked.

"Amari’s personal stalker," Azaria said. "She’s obsessed with being Amari’s friend."

"It’s creepy!" Amari said.

Adamar took the chip back out, put it in a bag, labeled it, and threw it into a box. “Whatever it is, she’s crazy. But we knew this.”

Amari sighed. “I’m going back upstairs.” She walked up the stairs with everyone trailing after her back up to the kitchen where they found Cael and Antain sitting at the island, talking.

"Uh oh," she said, pausing at the top of the stairs.

"What?" Azaria asked.

"Something dangerous is happening." Amari pointed at the boys. "We never should have introduced them." The group on the stairs snuck out the door while the two at the island talked obliviously.