Into The Tainted Waters

Tough Decision

The woman jumps back and gets in a low defensive position with he legs wide and her torso positioned very low. I get in a standard sword fighting defense position and form a steel shield out of my left hand. "Come at me bitch" I snarl at her. She pounces forward and swings at me, my shield raising up to meet her blow. It strikes and rings out in the warehouse. She stumbles back a bit, leaving an opening which I take advantage of. I swing my steel arm and strike her undefended knee, cracking the bone and sending her to the floor.

"Cassandra, switch with me" the man fighting with Viktoria says. He swaps places with Cassandra and gives a polite bow. "The fuck are you doing?" I ask him, turning my right arm into a blade. "I always give my enemy due respect" he says snobbishly. "I'm Maximilian, who are you?" He asks in a posh British accent. "The name's Jack, but you'll be too dead to remember" I growl at him. "Ah, Jack, such a simple commoner name" he says brushing off his suit. "Well then Jack, let's dance" he says getting into a fighting stance.

I rush him and swing my blade straight to his neck. However, it bends around him, not touching his skin. "What the hell" I say, jumping back. "Well, who do you think magnetized that door" he says confidently. He bends my shield in half, causing me great pain as it feels like my hand is being crushed. I reform back to normal and think of a course of action. He bends some metal on the wall to his will and forms armor around himself, as well as fashioning himself a sword. "Well come on, I won't fight you unarmed" he says with a bow.

"What can I do" I think to myself. An idea came to me as I sensed a certain metal in the ground. I form my right arm into a titanium blade and my left into a shield. I rush towards my foe and swing. He seems to push his magnetic field at my blade but ducks when he realizes it doesn't budge. "Ah, titanium" He says standing back up and jumping back. "You do realize that it is weakly magnetic right?" he says as he holds out his hands and slowly crushes my shield. I reform back to normal and start to dodge his incoming attacks.

I begin to use some new tactics I learned, such as transforming only part of my body into certain things such as water or fire. He swings for my torso, which I turn to water to allow the blade to pass through me. I continue this dodging and transforming until another idea comes to me. I quickly alloy tin and copper together and make a thick bronze shield, which I block his next blow with. It bends but I reform it into a shield again. I make a sword from my right arm and get into a stance. "Smart, but inferior" Maximilian says.

He rushes me and we exchange blows, both looking for an opening. It seems that the other fights are going very similarly. We both jump in the air and clash swords, but when I come back to the ground I stumble. Maximilian uses this moment and sprints towards me. He throws a quick slash at my leg that I narrowly catch with my shield. He then presses his attack, forcing me into a more defensive position. He trips me with his leg and presses onwards, battering my shield and sword.

Bang! The attacks stop, causing me to look up and see Caoimhe standing on top his head, which is implanted in the ground. "Shit" I mutter under my breath. She fries one of the other attackers with a sun blast, causing the others to bolt. I stand up and hold my arms up to a hug. She slaps me instead. "Ow" I say still standing there with my arms in the air. "You can't just leave without letting someone know!" She yells at me. "How did you know where we were?" Nate asks walking up. "Your animal friends have trackers in them" she says candidly.

"What the hell have you guys gotten yourselves into" she sighs. "What is all this shit" she says pointing at all of the tanks. "Well, Arkyn is gonna use them to power himself" Taylor says. Caoimhe looks at her like she just killed her pet. "What did you just say?" she asks. "Well, we found files stating that this cult is collecting Sentinels for Arkyn to 'feed' on" Nate interjects. "No no no no, this can't be happening" Caoimhe says as she shakes her head.

"We have to go in deeper" she says "See if we can find a way to release them all". "Well there's an overlooking room up there" I point out. "Great" she says, flying up there and breaking the window. "Yeah I'm coming too" I say, readying myself for a jump. I spring upwards and land cleanly in the room. "What are you doing Jack" she asks looking at the consoles. "I'm making sure everything is alright" I say walking closer. "No everything is not alright" she snarls "You just left without saying anything, with no plan or purpose". "Well, I had a purpose, I was gonna find a cure to whatever is afflicting my friends" I said back to her. "How did that turn out huh" she says.

"Not to mention you and me both know there's something going on between us" She says dejectedly. "If I would have told you then you would have stopped me" I say. "That's because it's a stupid idea" She says as she turns around to face me. "Did you really think that you were gonna succeed with your quest to find some miracle cure" she says turning back around. "Anyways, they are making progress with the research back at Alharis" she informs me. "That's the problem, it's getting worse and I couldn't stand to wait" I say as I begin looking for anything important.

"Ah, here it is" she says looking at a release button. I walk over and take a look for myself. "Wait, that might not be a good idea" I say thinking back to the Reno lab that was working on brainwashing. "Why not?" she Caoimhe asks me. "They've been brainwashing all of the guys, the might attack us" I say. "So what do you suggest?" She asks "Well, this could work" I say pointing at the purge button. "You want to kill them all! Are you insane!?" she exclaims. "It's the only sure answer we have" I tell her. "No, they aren't brainwashed" she says going to press the release button.

"Caoimhe don't!" I yell as I seize her hand. "Let go of me, we have to release them" she says struggling. "No, they are too dangerous" I say going to press the purge button. She sun blasts my hand, forcing me to let go. "You're not murdering thousands of innocents, I won't let you" she says standing firm at the console. I walk up and move her out of the way, but she encases my feet in concrete. "We aren't doing this Caoimhe! I'm making a decision and it's the only one we have" I say breaking out of the concrete. I shoot out my hand to press the button but Caoimhe rushes forward to stop me. Our hands moving at similar speed, however one was faster than the other.