Shadow

DJ Blaze

    You know, I always thought the world would end with water. I mean, it started with water; who was to say it wouldn't end by it? I also thought that the superheroes would stop the world from ending and save us all. That was before I got my powers. Also before I realized water was my weakness and I would probably be the first to die in the unfortunate case of an apocalypse by tsunami anyway, so the whole "superhero world saving" thing is kind of irrelevant to me.

    Now, staring up at the sky lit up by flames, I realized just how wrong I was. The world was ending right in front of my eyes and it came from above, not below. The superheroes— we — couldn't seem to do anything about it. In fact, we had caused it.

    I looked at Blaze in panic and out of my peripherals, I saw the war around us had come to a screeching halt, everyone looking at the clouds in fear.

    But, as quickly as it had started, it ended. With a drop in air pressure that made my ears pop and a strike of lightning that shook the Earth, the sky turned to its usual dark nighttime glow caused by the city lights.

    "That was so weird," someone said behind me. After another moment of silence, the clashing of weapons and the shouts resumed, as if nothing had happened.

    But something had happened. And I wanted to know what it was. "Come on!" I yelled to Blaze as I started sprinting towards that direction. I got a better view between buildings and figured the source was probably somewhere in the Parque. Blaze caught up to me and I grabbed his hand before porting to the Parque.

    "Shadow," Blaze panted when we landed. He put his hands on his knees. "If you teleport one more time without warning me, I'm going to fill your pillow with strawberry ice cream."

    I winced. "That's a cruel and unusual punishment."

    "Saved just for cruel and unusual people." He gave me a pointed look and I rolled my eyes before walking closer to the suspected location. "So what exactly are we looking for?"

    "A person," I muttered, scanning the freshly cut grass. "Or something that looks out of place to have caused that fire lightning."

    "Got it." We walked around for a few minutes. Blaze got bored and started whistling the Jeopardy theme song. After his sixteenth time of doing it, I elbowed him in the stomach. Blaze frowned. "I mean, I know I have great abs, but you just have to ask if you want to touch them, Shadow."

    I took a deep breath. "You're insufferable. Now? Of all times to make a dirty joke, you do it now?"

    "There's no better time to make disgusting innuendos than right before we die. I want to die doing what I love the most."

    At the same time, we both heard the voice and looked at each other with wide eyes. Then, we dove into the bushes nearby. It would have been comical if we weren't the ones getting stabbed and pricked with sticks. I sputtered when a leaf got stuck in my mouth and Blaze slapped a gloved hand over my lips to keep me quiet. I glared and licked his hand, which was actually a lose-lose situation because he had gloves on so it was quite ineffective on his part. I, on the other hand, was blessed with the disgusting taste of his gloves. They tasted like what I would imagine ashes and sweat would taste like.

    Yeah. Gross. Scarring. Horrid. Any of those adjectives could work, along with their accompanying synonyms.

    I silently gagged and Blaze pretended not to notice until I took hold of his shadow's hand and removed it. He gave me a surprised glance, then focused back on the task at hand. I scowled, then did the same. I'll get you back for that, you flaming crap bag.