AnotherArchetype

144. Resistance

We made our way back downstairs to the ground floor hallway entrance. The Sub-Divisioners had already reached the front door, which they opened easily enough since the lock had long since been broken by previous vandals.

Clang, Miss Toontastic, and I, stood by the stairs several paces away ...

143. Desperate Times

“No talking about anything we’ve discussed,” I whispered, “Because they’ll be able to hear anything we say to each other.”

The other two nodded in understanding.

“And if it becomes a fight?” Clang’s voice rang.

“Then we stick together,” I said, “And give ...

142. Smudge

I was the first to reach the mansion kitchen backdoor, taking hold of it, but finding myself not turning the handle, because a sudden overpowering sense of dread had taken hold of me.

It was a feeling which had gripped me before back when Xandra and I were moments away from yanking open the...

141. Dismayed Princess

I knew all too well the kind of grief Xandra was going through. To take a life, the most precious thing there could possibly be, wasn’t something anyone could just forget and move on from.

Knowing I was in any way responsible for the deaths of the Piper officers during their last attack h...

140. Free Spirit

It took me much longer than I would have liked to put the slip-suit back on. Each second which passed was one more that the stranger outside had as a head start to roam in on the mansion. The figure had looked feminine in shape, a young woman, perhaps, wearing a dress. The trees and the mansion b...

139. N

I had finished another patrol of the mansion grounds, and had discussed with Azad that we would take turns doing a patrol every hour throughout the daytime. Then, through the night, both of us would simply need to keep an ear out for trouble.

The day drew on and I found myself retreating to...

138. Moussaka

I was examining the burn mark on my wrist where Azad had gripped me during our ‘training session’.

I then willed the sinew-suit to heal the burn there, and after a moment the darker hue faded back to the same pink which covered the rest of the suit.

A plate filled with cooked vege...

137. Slip & Clang

It quickly became apparent I had two ways to deal with Azad’s sudden new speed and power.

The first was to evade faster and with greater distance than I had done before. To do so would likely entail leaping as high upwards as I could to then attach myself to the ceiling or one of the wall...

136. All-New, All-Improved

Combat really was a whole other means of existence.

The visual stimuli of the fight with Azad was only the first layer to contend with.

When he bounded up to the edge of the pool where I had stood before, I was already leaping backwards to create more distance between us.

Any da...

135. One In A Million

When the door opened I wasn’t at first sure it was Azad I was looking at.

Because the young man standing at the doorway was, objectively, very handsome. He was standing shirtless, his leanly muscled body on display and glistening slightly even in the dull hallway light.

His head of ...

134. Prickles

Stepping out the back of the kitchen to the start of the sprawling mansion garden beyond, I found myself thinking of home.

Not the London flat. But my true home, my childhood home on the far side of Stowchester.

The home I had known for fourteen years before having to move out.

...

133. Cowl

It was morning by the time I left the classroom and ventured back out to the mansion proper.

Has so much time really passed? I thought to myself.

As ugly and vandalised as the interior of the mansion was, the way the morning light shone through the fractured window panes at t...

132. Workbooks

Azad had taken a handful of the dwindling food supply from the blue basket, and when I had asked him about what he was intending to do he said, “Major healing.”

“How are you going to do that?” I had asked, “You don’t have enough medical knowledge to fix everything properly, righ...

131. Adhesive

Thankfully, the mansion proved to be deserted throughout its entirety. There were many rooms on the ground floor and first floor, all of which had been gutted of anything valuable. Those who had been to the mansion before us had done a very good job making sure the place was well on its way to be...

130. Recon

I couldn’t resist the temptation to try out what, if anything, I might be capable of whilst wearing the new ‘sinew-suit’, a term I made up in my head on the spot.

With very little forethought I let myself fall onto my side, landing on my right hand. The sinew-suit responded to the mov...

129. Muscle

At last Azad brought us to a wall that would have been twice my height were I still my normal self.

“It’s here,” said Azad.

He had his hands at his hips and he took several steps ahead of Xandra and I to examine the wall.

“If we follow the wall round there’ll be a hole...

128. Zig-Zagging

Azad had been running at close to a sprinting pace when he suddenly went limp, as if shot by a taser gun. He collapsed to the tall grass in the field we were in, and let out a long pained groan.

Xandra and I couldn’t get to Azad quick enough.

Xandra, being faster and nimbler in comp...

127. Stop, Look, and Listen

The three of us breached the last of the national park forest, which bordered a quiet winding road at the start of a huge stretch of open field.

If I had learnt one thing about roaming across England, it was that there were always more fields, forests, and winding roads to cross.

Xand...

126. Another Five Minutes

We stopped to rest after an hour of traversing more of the national park forest. We moved slowly, opting to be as quiet as possible and to not push ourselves physically. 

Conversation between the three of us died out, not that I was able to do more than grumble or shake my head to comm...

125. Up & Down

Our progress was painfully slow going all the way up the slight forest incline. Azad limped ahead, barely at a jogging pace. 

Xandra sprang along too, but like some kind of feeble rabbit with a belly ache. She held the dinner-plate sized burn mark at her stomach which also had a bluebe...

124. Human Noises

I returned to my body the instant the fox-frog-monster relented control. Like before at the textile factory I was still in the beast's hulking form, and needed to change back. 

The beast had collapsed sideways on the forest floor, and it was there I opened my eyes to see Xandra. She wa...

123. Eldritch

The beast lumbered sideways on its good left arm to avoid any potential blood-spears thrown from Xandra. The effort proved unneeded, since Xandra, who was standing at the far bank again, was simply standing and breathing heavily; whether it was to take a reprieve to heal herself, regain stamina, ...

122. No Time to Heal

The beast was moving fast on Azad and Xandra. Its mind and eyes had plenty of time to soak in what they were doing, as if in slow motion. 

Xandra had her fists closed, her arms at her sides, and she was angrily screaming, facing towards the approaching beast. Veins protruded on the vis...

121. The Monster's Prisoner

"Please run!" I screamed, my voice no longer my own, but much deeper and that of the monster taking over. 

Both Azad and Xandra, who were backing away from me, looked as if they were becoming smaller as the were-fox-frog-monster which had come out at the factories steadily made its ret...

120. To Beast, or not to Beast

I screamed bloody murder. 

My legs thrashed and the muscles in my back tensed up to the point I thought my spine might snap. 

Azad and Xandra were kneeling by me, their hands tearing away at my shredded shirt to better see the wounds which were there. 

"What happe...

119. A Coloured-In Shadow

Azad continued to explain more about his encounter with the Sub-Division escapees, but I stopped comprehending anything he was saying. 

A feeling like indigestion started in my gut, and grew worse to the point every breath became a conscious effort. 

It was cold in the den, ...

118. Baba

"Is he okay?" I said. 

Azad's caramel coloured eyes stared vacantly beyond Xandra and I. 

"I think so," he said, "I watched from a distance when he went into the police station." 

"When?" said Xandra. 

Her good mood had become serious, and all of her at...

117. Blue Basket

Since Azad was resting on the sofa, I made my way over to a corner nook of the den and laid down on the soft ground; it was mostly soil with sparse bits of foliage peeking from underneath the adjacent wood panel wall.

After tossing and turning for a few minutes I drifted off into a deep sle...

116. Fight the World! Fight the World!

The sticks and stones and other bits of forest debris hurt my feet. Trekking through the increasingly dense forest in such a sorry state made me feel, for the first time in a long time, as if I were back to my normal self again; no powers, no superhuman stamina. 

And what did it ta...