Quartzâs hands shook as she grabbed Fatal Range by the arm and shoved her into the metal bulkhead. Fatal had never seen such fury in her Mentor's eyes. It reminded her of her father. Quartz was a small but athletic woman and easily pinned the tall lanky teen. Fatal ignored the tears burning down her cheeks, and the freshly forming bruises, she had to concentrate.
âWhy wouldnât you listen?â Quartz gripped her arm harder, no doubt trying to hold her until others could arrive. âWhy couldnât you just do what you were told?â Quartz had often looked tired but her eyes looked more sunken than ever and her neat black hair frayed out of the pins holding it up.
Fatal had to make a conscious effort not to squirm. Quartzâs unnatural violet eyes glowed with magic. If she could only hold out a little longer sheâd have a chance, but trying to focus through the pain was difficult. As if she could read the girlâs thoughts, Quartz dug her fingers into her arm again, trying to break her concentration and keep her pinned here. It was too much, Quartz was still yelling but Fatal could no longer waste time hearing it. She had to go, she had to get away and the only way out wasâ¦
Fatalâs body flashed and shimmered out of existence. Quartz cursed as her clawed grip suddenly bit through open air. She snapped up the radio that had been clasped to her belt and held down the button to report the escape of her charge. Fortunately, she knew right where Fatal was going.
Fatal collapsed as she reappeared in her secret lab. It was a basic space sheâd barely started filling out, as moving her things into it would have drawn too much attention. She needed time to think, to plan. Sheâd expected pushback to her ideas, she hadnât expected to suddenly be on the run again. The Anchors werenât supposed to be this way. Fatal sunk into her chair, it couldnât be happening, not again.
Suddenly, a loud crash came from above her and Fatal leapt to her feet. No, they couldnât be here, not yet. She was suddenly cornered, the only exit to the lab was the door she correctly assumed had just been kicked in by Cosmic Anchor. She couldnât blink away this time. She would have to fight. Fatal summoned what power she could to transform herself for what little good it would do. She was exhausted, likely outnumbered and heartbroken beyond belief.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
She ignited her golden katarâs, the blades appearing from the grooves hidden in the wrists of her armor and faced the final door. She was going to die here, she was certain of it. But.. as Cosmic shattered the final barrier between them, hate sparked anew. Fresh loathing and contempt oozed into her heart and refreshed her as a sort of second wind. She felt sick to her stomach with rage and pain as she watched Cosmic casually approach. The girl who had tormented her for months finally moving in for the killing blow. Fatal was unable to stop herself cackling with mad fury as Cosmic raised her weapon arm to strike.
Of all the ways for her to die, having her head caved in by a pretty girlâs giant metal fist wasnât the worst⦠but she hated this one more than words could describe. Fatal tumbled out of the way of the initial attack, which cracked the wall and floor around her. Cosmic had to quickly jump back as the broken bits fell down into the swirling void that marked the barrier at the edge of the labâs pocket dimension.
Fatal laughed, imagining Cosmic falling to her death as she stared into the abyss she could not comprehend. Furious black stars scarred the space between the pocket dimension and the unknown, burning away the rubble that fell into it in seconds. Fatal surged forward hoping to push Cosmic in but she was caught by the magical girl's weapon arm and flung backward into one of the sparsely filled metal shelves that lined the room. Weak acids from the shattered storage jars bit into her armor but Fatal was too furious to heed them. She lashed out again, Katar swinging furiously. Cosmic raised her metal arm and deflected one blow after another, with little room to maneuver she was unable to get around it, she couldnât land a decisive blow. She contemplated fleeing but the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching told her running wasnât an option.
That distraction, however, was all Cosmic needed to grab Fatalâs arm in a metal fist and to crush it. Fatal screamed as the bones in her arm were shattered. She nearly fainted from the shock of it. Suddenly something hit her in the stomach, twice, three times, Cosmic was using her free hand to pummel her. Fatal tried to struggle to squirm but everything was painful. Suddenly the weight on her arm disappeared and she felt herself⦠falling. She blinked and saw the hole Cosmic had shattered in the lab⦠from the outside. Fatal swallowed as she realized⦠she was falling toward the barrier between dimensions, toward her inevitable and most certainly final death.