A Certain City of Espers

Takeo

It took less than a second for Takeo to realise he was in trouble. Big trouble. Mr scary fire dude? Check. Exit blocked? So check. He backed up toward his bedroom door and tried to look more in control of the situation. Oh shit. Why had he come back home? Why hadn't he realised this would happen!

"Get back!" Takeo shouted, throwing his arm out and pushing with all his power. The cloaked figure stumbled back a step and Takeo thought for a moment he might tumble down the stairs which... which were currently being climbed by Lena and Ayaka? Taki felt his skin grow clammy with sweat and lost hold of his gift. He couldn't bring them into it, they had to leave! He tried to ask them to leave just by looking at them but it was too late. The cloaked figure grinned and snorted, having re-gained his balance.

"It seems you've learned how to use the orb. No matter. I will take it back now."

"And who are you?" Lena demanded, springing on him from behind.

"No!" Takeo shouted, running forward and feeling like an idiot. Man. What happened to running away? The cloaked man caught Lena around the waist with ease and held her against his body. He smiled devishly and a ball of fire erupted in the air. It danced closer and closer to Lena.

"Wait, wait!" Taki cried. "If it's just the orb you want-" He didn't want to give it up but did he have any other option?

Lena

Akaya and me ran up the stairs only to see that Takeo was backed against the door and a cloaked man facing him. Takeo saw us before the man did. A sudden looked crossed his face, it looked like he was asking us to leave. Did he really think that I was going to do that? Not a chance. Even though Takeo saw us, the cloaked man did not. Suddenly the man talked. He said something about an orb. What orb?

Deciding to ignore the comment, I took my chance to make a surprised attack. I jumped and latched on to his back. After I second I demanded to know who his was. I saw Takeo move forward, as if to try and stop me. Before I could do anymore, I felt a hand snake around my waist and then start to hold me there. I tried to move, to no avail.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the man make a fireball. It casually started to dance closer and closer to me. I felt the fear start to grow and each time the fireball got closer, the fear grew. I closed my eyes and waited for the fire to hit me. I heard Taki cry out. I opened my eyes in surprise, and noticed that the fireball had stopped.

(Do you two have somewhere you want to go with this fight, or do you want me to make the next post?)

Feel free, I have no plans as such.

Go for it. I have no plans for it.

(Okay, I'll think of something tomorrow.)

(Do we have a DT?)

(No, but I can make one if you want. I can do it right now In fact.

By the way, when did you change your name?)

The fireball was still in the man's hand, but it wasn't moving any closer. He seemed intrigued with Takeo's outburst. "If it's just the orb you want..." Taki said as he pulled the sphere out of his pocket. "...you can have it. Just don't hurt anyone!"

Ayaka, who was now beside Taki, looked at the orb. Her eyes went wide when she recognized it from her dream. Now she believed, without a doubt, that Taki was the boy in her vision. But what of the devil made of fire? Did it represent this Pyrokinetic?

The red haired man seemed to consider the offer for a moment. "Seems fair enough. You've got yourself a deal, kid."

Takeo felt a little relieved. "All right. Let her go, and I'll give you the orb."

The man's grip around Lena tightened and the ball of fire in his hand grew a bit. "Do think I'm stupid? I'm the one calling the shots here." He gestured toward the ground and said, "Place the orb on the ground five feet in front of me, then back away slowly. Then, and only then, will I consider letting your friend go."

The smoke from the fireball finally reached the smoke detectors. The fire alarms went off and the sprinkler system began pouring water on all of them. Though the water was pouring onto the man's fire, the flame was oddly unaffected by it. The drops of water merely sizzled as they evaporated in the heat of the flame.

Takeo slowly walked toward the spot the man had gestured to. He kneeled down to put the orb on the ground, but he couldn't seem to bring himself to let go of it. It was like something inside of him was urging him to hold onto it.

The man was starting to lose his patience. "I don't have all night. Let go of the orb and back away." He started to move the flame closer to Lena's face again. "Or maybe I should put some burn marks on your friend to prove my point?"

Lena tried to remain calm, panicking now would not do her any good. But as the water from the sprinkler system hit her face she came up with an idea. He reached her hand down to the ground and started to use her ability to silently create a small torrent of water. Takeo and Ayaka saw her do this, but they fought not to let their faces betray them and end up blowing her cover.

"Stop! Look, I'm backing away now," Takeo said as he finally managed to pry his fingers away from the orb. He started to back away slowly with his hands up to show he wasn't going to try anything.

The man smiled as the flame in his hand went out. "You're smarter than I thought, kid." But before her could start moving forward to pick it up, Lena let loose her attack. The water jumped off the ground and splashed the man in the face, effectively disorienting him. She then proceeded to slam her heel into the man's toes, which she followed by flinging her head up to connect with the man's jaw. As soon as the man's grip on her loosened she pushed away and ran over to Taki and Ayaka. As soon as Takeo saw that Lena was safe he used his telekinesis to pull the orb back into his own hand.

The man was rubbing his chin where Lena had hit him. He growled in frustration as he spat his now soggy cigarette at the ground. "You're going to pay for that," he said in a low, menacing voice.

(Just so you guys know, as long as all those cards are all over the place this guy's fire can't be put out. Have fun!

Also, the DT is up in the Specific Storybook Discussion forum.)

Takeo

Holding the orb in his hand again was a comfort. It shouldn't have been because it had sure thrown them into a whole load of extra trouble but it just felt right somehow. Like it was a part of him. Which was stupid. But he couldn't stop thinking it.

"What is that thing, did you steal it?" Lena asked irritably as Takeo dragged them into his room. He slammed the door and ran frantically for the window, hearing a loud boom come from behind and feeling the suffocating heat of flames as his door was blown open.

"No I did not!" Takeo snapped. "He gave it to me."

"Who, the scary fire dude?" Ayaka asked as Taki tried the window only to find that it was stuck. Oh shit, oh no! Man, what were they going to do now? He spun around and flinched as he saw the scary man standing nonchantly across the room. In the doorway. Blocking their only exit. Oh shit.

"Not I," the man said, giving Taki a curious glance. "I do wonder why he did though-" Flame was gathering itself again around the man, in a halo of fireballs. It would have been pretty if it hadn't been so menacing.

"Just... just chance," Taki said, laughing nervously.

"Then why won't you just hand it over?" the man demanded angrily. There was none of the amusement in his gaze now and with the flick of his wrist, one of the dancing fireballs zipped forward. Takeo let out a yelp and dropped to the floor, the fire narrowly missing him and scorching a black circle on the wall. He had to get out, he had to- the window! The window was stuck but- aw, man. Was he an idiot or what? As he rolled out of the way to hide behind his bed, Taki threw his power out at the window which snapped open to the tinkle of glass. And then his bed burst into flames and it was so hot and smoky enough to make his eyes stream. This was turning out to be one sucky day.

I''ll post tomorrow. It is kind of late for me right now...just letting you guys know.

***PM me when you're ready for Jordan; I can't do much with Cait, since she's pretty much eating and watching television right now...that's about it...***

(No problem. Just for future reference, we have a discussion thread where we can post things like this now. Here's the link for it: topic67869.html )

Lena

As soon as the man entered the room, I grabbed Akaya and almost dragged her with me to hide. We got behind one of the chairs in his room. We crouched down and I peeked out from behind the chair and watched as the man fired a fireball at Taki. He ducked and then ran behind the bed. Suddenly, I heard something crash next to me. Glancing over I now noticed that the window was broken. Smiling, I turned over to Akaya.

“I need you to jump out that window.” I whispered.

She gaped at me in disbelief. “Look,” I continued to whisper, “it is either jump out that window or be burned to death. Which I doubt that this guy would have no trouble doing.” She contended to stare at me, after a couple of seconds, she nodded. “Good, I’ll make sure that nothing happens to you, okay?” She nodded again and then ran over to the window and jumped. I watched for a minute, until I noticed that the man had shot another fireball at Taki and this time he was on moving.

I ran over grabbed hold of his arm and jerked as hard as I could. He had moved just enough not to get hit by the fireball. He looked up at me, surprise evident on his face. “Come on!” I tugged him quickly over to the window. He seemed to get what I was saying because he sat on the ledge and got ready to jump. I knew that we didn’t have much time left before this guy shot another fireball at us. Finally he jumped. Right as I sat down on the edge of the window, a sudden heat came behind me, but before it hit me, I jumped too.

The landing was a little stunning at first, but after a second I got back up. Akaya ran over to me and whispered “Hide.” She then ran off to find a hiding space. I looked around and noticed the perfect one. Running over to it, I couched down and waited. After a couple of minutes I daringly peeked out from my hiding space. The coast was clear. Sighing in relief to myself, I got up and stood in front of the apartment complex, Taki and Akaya came out and stood with me.

“Come on, you guys can come over to my apartment.” I stated, “Oh and Taki, you have a lot of explaining to do.” I said as I started to walk to my apartment with Taki and Akaya following me.

Lena led the way down the sidewalk as Taki and Ayaka followed. The ordeal had shaken everyone, especially Takeo who kept looking over his shoulder every five seconds to assure they weren't being followed. No more than a block away he saw the man who attacked them leaving the apartment complex.

Takeo panicked and said, "He's back!" He pushed the two girls forward, urging them to move faster. They were soon running down the street as fast as they could. None of them were sure if their attacker was following them or not, but they didn't want to take any chances.

They all rushed around the nearest street corner they could find in an attempt to get out of sight when they crashed into someone. Takeo managed to stay on his feet, but Ayaka and Lena ended up falling on top of the passer-by. The person they had run into was Ren, and by the look of the contents of the grocery bag that was now spilled across the sidewalk it seemed he had been on his way home from the convenience store.