The Problem with Explosions: They Hurt People

Explosions sounded throughout the complex, villains scrambling about in an attempt to restore order. “What’s going on?” Darkling asked a villain as he passed.

“A girl… with a glittering katana… she can teleport!” Another explosion caused the man to scurry off.

“A girl with a katana?” asked White Ninja’s wife. At the same time, White Ninja cursed. “Cressida. It’s got to be.” He whispered something to the Guard and they formed a protective circle around the group. “Let’s get to the bottom of this.”

We made our way to the main floor. Explosions had destroyed the elevators, so we’d dashed down the long staircase. The Guards always stayed in a circle around us, rotating who was on each side. The main floor was full of villains and people fighting creatures made of shadow, light, and wind. Elementals, without a solid form. I noticed a girl that hovered in the corner of the room, holding a glittering katana and summoning Elemental after Elemental to fight the villains and heroes.

“Starwraith! Swanhawk!” two of the leaders of Seraphimbia, a secretive organization that I had just found out about today thanks to White Ninja (Darkling and Darknight didn’t know about it until today, either), made their way over to us. They noticed White Ninja’s wife, and all three women group hugged. The three leaders had been reunited.

“Incoming!” We scrambled as a ball of dark, light, and wind flew toward us, smashing into the spot we’d just vacated and sending a shockwave through the building. We all fell to the ground, but the ninja and leaders quickly got to their feet. I helped Darkling up and we dusted ourselves off. Darknight was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey! Let me go!” I turned to see Darknight struggling against three elemental creatures that were pinning him down. Cressida walked toward them, but she hadn’t noticed the rest of us yet. Darknight squirmed around, still trying to get free. The glittering katana in hand, Cressida nudged Darknight to his feet and pinned him to the wall. She put the katana at his throat.

“Leave him alone!” Darkling barreled into Cressida, knocking her aside. Her katana left a thin scratch on Darknight’s neck. The elementals pushed Darkling off of Cressida, restraining him, but he broke free and ran to his brother. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Darknight told him. Then his eyes widened. “Look out!”

Darkling whirled around to see a ball of dark, light, and wind bearing down on him. I ran toward him, but I knew I wasn’t close enough to help. Darknight pulled Darkling out of the way, shoving him towards us with a blast of telekinesis. I caught Darkling as he catapulted toward us. Darknight ran away from the bomb’s intended target, but he wasn’t far enough away when it hit.

The explosions shook the building with tremendous force, stronger than the blasts before. We were knocked off our feet, and I saw Darknight fly through the air. I reached out telekinetically and caught him, then set him down and got up. White Ninja helped his wife and daughters to their feet. The Guards regrouped around us, some wounded in places. And Darkling ran to Darknight, who was lying on the ground, unconscious. I stumbled over to Darkling and Darknight. “Is he-”

“I don’t know.”

We stood over Darknight. He wasn’t moving, but I could see a slight rise and fall of his chest. “He’s breathing,” I told Darkling.

“Jules? What happened here?” I turned to see Peri and Swift pick their way through the debris of the entryway. The explosion had blasted most of the front wall down.

“We were attacked,” Darkling answered, “By some villain named Cressida.”

“She’s been an enemy of B.A.S.E. for a while now,” White Ninja interjected. “But they’ve never heard of her before today.” He gestured at me and Darkling.

Cressida and her gang must’ve fled as soon as the S.W.O.R.D agents showed up because they were nowhere to be seen. I surveyed the damage around me. Rubble crowded the stairway, and villains picked their way through it, looking for others buried beneath. And Darknight was there on the ground, barely alive.

“Um… need some help around here?” Swift asked hesitantly. Darkling nodded, then went to dislodge a stretcher from a pile of rubble. We loaded Darknight onto it and carried him out to the S.W.O.R.D helicopter waiting. I looked behind me. Most of the S.O.S. building was in ruins. We’d have to rebuild, in time. But now, we had to get Darknight healed.

I hopped into the helicopter. We took a quick detour to drop off White Ninja, his wife, his daughters, and the Guard. Then we went to the I.I.E.M. base. We couldn’t really take Darknight to S.W.O.R.D, because then everyone there would freak out. So we showed two S.W.O.R.D members where an extremely secret (not really) base was. At least they promised not to tell where it was. Peri said she’d been there before, on a mission to tag Sayyaf.

“Let’s get him inside, then Peri and I will leave.” Swift picked up one end of the stretcher, while Darkling grabbed the other. They carried the stretcher to the hospital-room-place, getting many stares from villains as we passed them in the halls. A couple cringed at Darknight, unmoving and barely breathing on the stretcher.

“Here.” Darkling pried open a door. We (Darkling, Swift, Peri, and me) walked inside and gently placed Darknight on one of the beds. A medic came in and hooked him up to half a dozen machines. Swift and Peri silently made their escape. I heard the S.W.O.R.D helicopter’s thwip thwip thwip as it flew away. I hoped they’d keep their promise and wouldn’t tell anyone what had happened. The last thing we needed was a S.W.O.R.D attack.

Everywhere I went, trouble seemed to follow me. Like a mischievous pet, it left danger and hurt at every turn. First Darkling, and now Darknight! Why? I shook my head, turned, and ran from the room. I took the stairs to the roof two at a time. When I got there, I stood at the edge and screamed: “WHY?” Then in a whispered voice, “Why does this keep happening to me?” I sat down hard, a foot from the edge of the roof, and sobbed. I cried for everyone that had been hurt, for everything bad that had happened since that fateful day when everything changed.

I had barely registered Darkling’s arm around my shoulders. Hesitantly, he wrapped his arms around me, and I realized that he was crying too. We stayed like that for a minute, an hour, longer. The light had faded, but we barely noticed. Then he stood, wiped his eyes, and went back inside.

We stayed at the I.I.E.M. for a few weeks. I spent most of my days on the roof. Darkling brought me food and water, and occasionally he sat near me and stared out into the distance. It was on one of those days when we were interrupted. Darkling and I sat on the roof, staring at the sunset when a medic came up. “Darknight’s awake. He’s asking for you.”

Reviews

[Jay_Bluefire]

The paragraph starting with an uncapitalized 'must've': add in front of the 'must've': 'Cressida and her allies'

Oh wow, I just realized that later on, in like the third book or something, Darknight asks the same thing: Why does this keep happening to me?

[Locke Redwyne (night sys)]

Wow XD 10 characters

[Locke Redwyne (night sys)]

TROUBLE, JAY'S MISCHIEVOUS PET
MAKES SENSE