I managed to finish this before next week, but I'm pretty satisfied with it overall. It's a better explanation of things than my other versions.
Chapter Two:
To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities - Bruce Lee
The girl shook her head before she coughed, and stumbled. “What…what the hell…” Her voice wavered, and she leaned backwards on a nearby tree. Carter binked, then saw the excessive amount of scarlet on her ankles, and the arrow sticking out of her calf. Oh, ouch.
“Uh, hey? You okay?” Instinctively, the boy crouched, holding out a hand. When what he had said registered, he flinched mentally. Of course she’s not okay, her leg seems pretty much broken!
Just chill, chill out…
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Sophia winced as she attempted to stand on her own, only to collapse backwards. “Just…if I’m going to explain, we’re going to have to get out of here before any of the Elites appear.” As if tossing a backhanded thought across her shoulder, she hit him with confirmation of some of the most terrifying rumors he’d ever heard: “Elites are superhumans, by the way.”
“Superhumans? What--” Didn’t Guardian tell me Inheritors were superhumans?
The girl shook her head, finally managing to stand. “We need to get out of here before the clean-up crew comes in. They’ll easily finish you and your…sister? Yeah, they’ll kill both of you, and even if I help, that won’t make much of a difference. We have to run.”
“But you can’t.” Carter pointed at her heel. “You’re wounded, and you have no way to run. If this ‘clean-up crew’ seems to be as near as you make them sound, we’re going to have to fight them anyways. I’m not sure how you were fighting me before, with that injury, but I’m guessing adrenaline. It’ll have worn off by now, and I’ll say you won’t be able to run anymore, without putting too much pressure on that ankle.”
Judging by her sigh, he’d gotten it right.
“So I’m going to have to fight at least one of them at least--”
The same golden blur surrounded Sophia as she snatched up Lily, and leaped to the side, a heartbeat before a wooden shaft, feathers poking out of the end, sprouted out of the ground the little girl had been sitting on seconds ago. Carter whirled around, and Kusanagi slashed through six more arrows that had nearly stabbed him. Another three slashed into the ground, or harmlessly bounced off of a tree trunk.
Ten men and women holding longbows slid out of the shadows, and from behind them, a huge shadow of a man emerged, eyes flaring. Carter took him in in an instant. A menacing smile hid behind a silky, dark beard and a mane of hair cropped short. Muscle lined his bare arms, but not without quite a bit of fat as well. His chest, stomach, and legs were plated with a shining metal, but unlike any the boy had seen before; as far as he knew, no metal shined an iridescent red. Eyes stared, menacing, and yet bleak in a sort of way he’d never seen before. It took him a second to register why it appeared that way, and then he realized with a start that crimson irises mixed with smoky grey scleras to create an unsettling effect.
He didn’t know why, but he felt his stomach do a couple backflips, trying to get away from the man, and yet at the same time, towards him.
The axe held in the man’s hand glowed a flashing crimson, and the edge seemed twice as sharp as that of others he’d seen. The size meant it had to weigh at least a good forty or fifty pounds at least, but the guy held it effortlessly, and laughed. “Looks like we found the kids, ladies and gentlemen.”
Carter narrowed his eyes and raised Kusanagi. “Sophia, get Lily out of here and run.”
“But--”
“Go! I’ll hold them off!” The girl stared at him, something like shock and fear being born in her eyes, and she gritted her teeth.
“You don’t know anything about this guy! He’s one of the more powerful Inheritors -- superhumans -- in this district! His--”
“GO!” The boy stabbed at the man, only to feel heat singe his legs, and an impact and an incredible blast of noise flip him into the air. Turning it into a somersault, he slashed at the Inheritor’s head, only to realize he’d gone too far. Two archers fell to the ground, screaming profusely, and Carter prayed his little sister wasn’t close enough to have seen death. As he landed on his feet, he whirled around, swinging Kusanagi, parrying a heavy-handed cut with the axe.
A light flick of his wrist tapped a wild swing to the side, and the boy staggered, before assuming a stance. His eyes flicked around, gauging his chances. Eight archers left, and the Inheritor. The axeman didn’t seem to be too skilled with his weapon, only putting strength into his blows without any skill. The archers wouldn’t be too hard to take out if he managed to close the distance; they were lightly armed, and judging by how they were still pulling arrows out of their quivers, they couldn’t shoot very quickly. All it would take was a quick slash while the axeman was off balance, and the archers--
Carter swore as a thought occurred to him, and he dove to the side before another explosion lit up the ground he had been standing on. Superhumans… so that must be his power, the creation of explosions?
I’ll have to tread more carefully, especially if the archers also have abilities.
The axeman growled, eyes furious glowing, rushing forward, and Carter ducked the blow. He rolled to the left, arrows hissing behind him, and snarled as one stabbed into his left forearm. Leaping forward the moment he landed, he found himself within arm’s reach of another two bowmen. Behind him, he heard the Inheritor whirl around, and the boy whipped his arm across his body, slashing the archers in half. He dove to the side before another slash shredded the ground in half, and Kusanagi flickered, knocking down another hail of arrows, but Carter still felt the impact as a lucky shot stabbed his right shoulder. I need to take out those bowmen!
Six left.
They were spread out, three pairs of two, but he found they weren’t too far apart from each other due to the small size of the clearing. It shouldn’t be too hard to work my way through, and take them out while dodging the guy’s axe. It’s a good thing he seems too stupid to use the explosions.
The closest ones were still nocking their bows when Carter lunged at them. They didn’t have time to yell out before a single swing split them across their torsos. The boy gritted his teeth as the crimson sprayed over him. I’ve never enjoyed killing before.
Why must we fight because of our human nature?
Another axe swing whooshed past his face as he leaped backwards, cutting through one of the next pair as he did so. Before the man’s startled companion had time to react, the boy had grabbed him by the back of the neck, and swung him around as a human shield from the deadly blade. He dropped the corpse, attempting to send the axeman staggering from another one hundred and fifty extra pounds, but to his shock, the Inheritor stood tall, shaking the corpse off his weapon.
He’s strong… really strong!
He jumped to the side once more, swinging his sword to knock a couple arrows out of the air, while dodging the Inheritor’s axe. The boy whirled around, and swung his sword.
Only one archer fell down.
He realized his mistake too late; Carter had assumed the archers would still stay in pairs, but evidently one of them had been smart enough to split up so he wouldn’t kill both in one stroke. The other bowman was behind the cooling corpse of his ally, drawing back an arrow with a snarl splitting open a weather-beaten, tanned face.
The boy twisted as the man let go of his weapon, and pain shattered his ankle. He saw the man flinch at his involuntary scream, and he took the opportunity to lunge forward onto his stomach and stick the blade of Kusanagi into his enemy’s flesh.
He felt the ground beneath him growing warm, and he propelled himself above the ground, his arms shielding his stomach and face, closing his eyes, before an arm of fire and fury grabbed him and tossed him like a ragdoll.
He guessed the things streaming from countless cuts, as well as his nose, was blood. He was just lucky the Inheritor had hit his stomach instead of his face.
I can’t feel my right foot. I think that arrow hit my Achilles’ heel… Not good at all.
Swinging his face around, opening his eyes found ground rushing upwards. He was flipped upside down, Kusanagi dangling from his right hand, which was blistered, bloodied and scarred, while the axeman…
The Inheritor raised his weapon, sneering, ready to chop him out of the sky. He raised Kusanagi in a final, pathetic defense, knowing it would only buy him a second or two of time.
Then Kusanagi pulsed with the same dark energy Carter had seen and admired before the attack on their house.
The resounding clang from the impact of the two blades was only amplified by a shriek of thunder, tossing the Inheritor backwards, at least thirty feet away. His axe, spinning out of his hand, landed blade-first, lightly onto a rock.
It split cleanly into two.
What the… what? That’s not… that’s not… I don’t think that’s how physics works!
He hit the ground, and felt thousands of tiny stones dig into his newfound wounds, his scars, and forcing him to drop Kusanagi. The sword skittered out of his reach, too far for him to grab. He tried to sit up, only to feel fire shriek its way through shattered and ripped tendons and cripple him to the ground. I… I can’t… I can’t defend myself from that axe without a sword…
I’m sorry, Lily…
The axeman growled, striding to his feet, and whirled up his axe. He swung it experimentally, then just stared at Carter.
And laughed, not as unkindly as the boy expected.
“It’s been a while since I’ve had such a worthy opponent fight me. So long, boy, and thank you for the excitement.”
He raised the giant weapon, the warrior becoming executioner, and Carter closed his eyes. Lily… are you safe?
Then something whistled, and Carter opened his eyes as the Inheritor grunted. That sound… wait…
He looked up, in time to see the man fall to his knees, then the ground, eyes blank and unseeing. The crimson and grey that had made them so intimidating faded into a softer blue and purple, and the lips were curved upwards in a final, genuine smile.
Likewise, the iridescent red faded from the axe, to be replaced by a shimmering, relieving silver color, crackling with blue thunder at irregular intervals.
Carter stared, propping himself up on his elbows, as a worm of familiarity whirled in his mind. A voice seemed to call to him: Perun has fallen… He didn’t know why, but something washed over him, a sense of inexplicable grief.
A flash of blonde hair, and Sophia stepped into his field of vision, holding one of the archer’s longbows. Behind her, Lily trailed, eyes scared and shocked and tired, stumbling slightly, and yet there was something different about her, that Carter couldn’t quite place…
“Uh, hey? Are you okay?” Sophia’s voice shook him out of his mindscape, and he realized that she must have shot the Inheritor. “At least you could tell me you’re all right. I don’t want to have wasted my efforts just for you to get crippled for life.”
Carter winced, pushing himself backwards. “Archer got me in the Achilles, I think. Hurts like hell, and I’m not sure I can walk.”
Sophia sighed. “Well, I think Lily might help.”
His little sister stepped forward, hands out.
“Huh? Why my little sister?” Carter yanked the arrow out of his ankle, hissing. “Wait… what? You… aren’t limping anymore?”
“She healed me. I don’t know how, but my wounds closed.”
Lily hugged Carter. “Carter, you look hurt.”
Instantly, something whirled in his hand, and a sense of warmth flowed down his leg, his hand, his face. First it was numb, then warm, then a sudden feeling of rejuvenation.
“What?” He felt Lily sigh, and lean heavier on his shoulder. His arms instinctively closed around her, and he sat backwards on his knees, before he realized that he could sit up straight. “Huh? I’m… okay?”
His little sister gave a snore in reply, and Carter stood, holding her and resting her head on his shoulder with one arm picking up Kusanagi. He shook it experimentally, but the thunder didn’t shimmer again. I wonder, what was that about?
“Yeah. She healed me somehow. I don’t know how, but what we do need to do is get out of here.” Sophia turned briskly on her heel, marching forwards, quiver slung over her shoulder. Carter gingerly stepped forward with his previously wounded ankle, then realized it was good as new.
What?
He didn’t spend time thinking about it, and instead ran forward, trying to catch up with Sophia.
Sophia maintained a light jog for the next ten minutes, making sure Carter was trailing behind, before she reached a stop. Carter stumbled to a halt behind her, arms a little sore from carrying Lily, but as a whole, he just marveled that he could still move.
“I think we’re far enough away for now.” The girl sighed, sitting down on a flat boulder, and she picked up a rock. A river, rushing violently, flashed in front of her, and the girl absentmindedly tossed the pebble like a projectile. “You wanted me tell you about this world, right?”
“Yeah, but first, a question.” Carter gently laid Lily down on another flat stone, and the little girl curled into a ball. “Why’d you come back for me? You could have just run with Lily, and we’d be fine.”
Sophia sighed, and suddenly her face seemed tired, experienced and old, even though she couldn’t have been older than Carter himself. “I’ll get to it later.”
“Then start.”
“Right… where to?” She stood up and stretched her arms upwards, towards the sky. “I think I’ll begin with Earth.
“Ten years ago, humans still lived on planet Earth. At least,” she sighed, sitting back down, “that’s what I’ve been told. Apparently they were just really far ahead of our time.”
Carter recalled Guardian’s short, somber parting words. “Yeah, I know that much.”
“No, you don’t. I don’t. Apparently back then, people could fly in metal houses, move without using their legs or animals, and all sorts of crazy things. I’d do anything to see that.”
“But that’s not the important thing, is it?” Carter made sure Lily wasn’t right below him before he, too, took a seat.
“No. Ten years ago, there was some kind of invasion. Demons or something like that, I don’t know for sure. My guardian Theria wasn’t too specific about it. But anyways, back then, Inheritors existed too. The thing was, they weren’t corrupt; they were just good people like you or me who happened to have superpowers. When those demons went to take over and dominate the planet, Inheritors fought back. They killed countless, but there were just too many of them. Some began to take civilians, regular people, to a portal formed by the man who had given them their powers.”
“Given… what?” Carter stared. “Given them powers?”
“Yeah. A man named Allez, called the Immortal, simply because he truly was. No one knows how long he’s been alive for, but it’s probably a lot longer than a while. He created a portal to here, the planet of Terra, and warped basically the entire population, but not before killing one of the strongest demons and banishing the others back to where they came from. It weakened him, though, and most of the Inheritors were corrupted by the demons. So they completely brainwashed the population into their reign, and created different sectors. A hundred and forty-four of them, in fact. Only a few of them were just. One of them’s Sector 77, the strongest one, led by Yoshitsune Minamoto.”
Yoshitsune Minamoto? “Wait. Guardian, my… uh… guardian… told me to go there right before he died, and to give this sword to him.” He gestured vaguely at Kusanagi.
“That sword? Huh, must be important.” She shrugged. “I don’t know anything about it.”
“Alright, I’ll figure it out later. Continue.”
“So, these warlords are all fighting for territory while the uncorrupted ones just try and help out those who do live in their bounds. But the thing is, remember Allez?”
“Yeah, that Immortal guy you were talking about?”
“Well, he kind of left behind a message about a successor. He hasn’t been seen since he helped stop the demon invasion, but people who know he exists, they know he’s strong, so strong he can’t really die. The warlords know they can’t manipulate him into doing their dirty work, so they’re trying to capture his successor.”
“Successor?” Carter blinked. “What do you mean, successor? Someone’s going to take his power and become Immortal?”
“Sort of. Theria wasn’t too sure about this, but she told me Allez said he’d picked out six or seven children, one of them to potentially take over his power in the future, becoming the next Immortal, and that they would be the only Inheritors among this generation until the Immortal was decided.”
“Huh? So you and Lily…” Carter trailed off, gazing at his little sister, brushing a stray strand of blond hair from her forehead, as he thought about the way she’d healed him and the way Sophia’s hands had slashed gold into the air. “You two’re part of this?”
“The two of us for sure. You, though, I’m not sure. I’m fairly sure that purple thunder from back there came from that sword, and if you have a power, it should have awoken in some life or death situation, and that was definitely one back there. If you weren’t able to use an ability, then I don’t think there’s much of a chance for you being one of us.”
Something dark and bitter seemed to swell inside the boy’s throat, and he shook his head. Why am I excluded?
And why do I feel this way, when it’s just something I heard about ten seconds ago?
Sophia must have seen something cross his face, because she hastily held her hands up. “Hey, there’s still a chance. And even if you’re not one of us, I’m betting you’ll still have to take care of Lily. My brothers, they’re really young. Nick, the older one, he’s eleven, while Rufus, the younger one, he’s around Lily’s age. And what are you, fourteen? Fifteen?”
“Fifteen.” She says ‘us’ like I’m an outsider. Why does it make me feel… jealous?
“Well, you’re a year older than me. I’m gonna guess you’ll be the oldest, or one of the oldest, anyways. If we’re stuck with a bunch of little kids, I’m not going to be able to take care of them alone.”
“So you want me for babysitting?” He tried to keep his tone joking, but something crept in and a burr shattered a happy facade. “All right, I guess I’m staying around to look after Lily.”
There was still some apprehension on Sophia’s face, but her shoulders visibly relaxed. “Uh… thanks.”
“It’s my little sister; I’m not going to abandon her to some girl I just met, even if that girl seems trustworthy.” He shook his head mockingly, in a joking tone. “What do you take me for, irresponsible?”
They sat there for a while, his hand protectively on Lily’s sleeping figure, while he smirked ever so slightly at the blonde girl, who just sat helpless, across from him.
“All that aside, though, where were you planning on going?” Seriousness entered his voice once more, and he sighed. “You can’t have run all the way here without a plan.”
“There’s a safe house Theria showed me a while back. I think she’ll have teleported my two brothers there. I know where it is, but it’ll take us a good few days at least to get there. I’m just hoping those two idiots don’t run off somewhere else. That’d make it impossible to find them.”
“Okay, lead the way then.” Carter surprised even himself, having put his trust and life -- and that of his little sister as well -- into the hands of a girl he’d basically just met. But if what she was saying was true, he had to trust her.
Because, well, he didn’t see any other allies around.
And if he was going to go Sector 77 to give Kusanagi to the ruler there, he was going to have to piggyback on someone.
“It’s several miles northwest from here. We have to go now, if we want to get there in less than five days, before we have to stop out of starvation.” And with that, Sophia stood up gracefully, fingering the longbow she held in her hand.
Carter slung Lily over his shoulder, and stood. His little sister was surprisingly light, even for her small size, and he could easily carry her single-handedly. His right hand gripped Kusanagi tightly, and he sighed.
“Let’s go, then.”