Judgement (The Twelve) (29 page)

Chris could feel the power of her words. Was she telling the truth? All he had to do was take one simple step followed by another. He looked down and saw himself take his first step. The others held the
ir
breath and watched.
Her words made sense. No more killing each other. No more Shades or ghouls. But as
his foot was coming down to finish the step, he froze.
They killed all the animals for fun!
 
W
i
th the
combined
willpower of
his human soul and that of Judgement
, Chris slowly pulled his foot back.

“
Y
ou lie!
” He said it so quietly no one should have heard him, but to all those that where gathered
, his single word resonated loud and clear
within the
ir
heads.

The Chosen Ones face grew cold and evil.
She took a step closer and
Anvil
raised his weapon, bracing his feet for a mighty blow. She was taken
a
back slightly
and quickly
retreated unsure yet of her powers.

She looked p
er
t
u
rbed,
“
He is
stronger than I’m used to. Men normally like me and I mean, really like me
,
h
ow strange
to be refused
by a simple boy
!”

Those words gave Anvil food for thought. She obviously had no idea what Chris was capable of, so decided to play against her vanity and that of his son.

Anvil
stayed at the ready position to strike, “So this is your Chosen One. I’m surprised with you Edge. Picking a
young
female to do a mans job.”

His comment dripped with
intentional
sarcastic sexism
, m
eant to antagonise more than anything else. Both Patch and Huntress realised this and
suppressed a
grin.

Edge however took the bait,
“I’m the Master here! They all do as I say and don’t you forget it or…”

The Chosen One, or Coffee as she liked to be called,
moved faster than the eye could follow and
hit Edge with a back hand
ed
slap to the side of his upper body. The blow wasn’t very hard, but it somehow managed to
lift him clear off the ground and
smash him
backwards a full fifteen feet to strike and rebound from the pump house wall
.

She didn’t ev
en look as
Edge
landed in a heap, both swords falling from his limp hands
.
Her voice dripped with suppressed rage,
“What’s it like Chris, being with that bunch of losers? I mean, you do know you can’t win here don’t you?”

Chris realised deep down that her words were supposed to be captivating and enthralling him. But Judgement ju
st told him it was an illusion
and as such her words meant nothing to him
,
instead Chris surprised her,
“I call for a truce.” Chris declared loudly.

Coffee laughed,” A truce, how childish.”

Priest rumbled, “It must be observed.”

Before she could retort, Retch
spat out a glob of green goo to clear his throat,
“Priest is right. Once called it must be observed.”

Coffee slowly turned to glare at him, before closing her eyes and letting out an angry sigh. Turning back she nodded, “So be it.”

Anvil
risked a quick word with Priest, “
Now what
?”

Priest looked to Chris, “It’s up to him.”

Chris
had taken a step closer to Coffee but ignored her, “Edge can you hear me?”

Edge
shook his head, eyes trying to focus, he
twitched
before
slowly climbed to his feet, swaying slightly he retrieved both swords. Glaring at Coffees back he staggered
over
to stand besides her, “Hello brother.”

Judgement spoke, “I ask that you reconsider your position and …….”

Chris struggled with Judgment, ‘
No let me speak
!’

Chris regained control of his voice, “Edge, our father spoke of
both
our mothers
to me.
They both sound like they were wonderful people.”

Edge spat out, “You know nothing of my mother!”

Chris shook his head, “
I know she loved you and so would have Anvil had he had known of your existence. He still loves you, told me he could never kill you.
If you would only come over to our side this would end.
It’s what your mother would have wanted. Look at the way Coffee treated you , come brother, stand by my side. We can end this today.
”

Before
Edge
could answer
,
Coffees voice echoed around the park with genuine sounding humour.

“End
,
I don’t want to end things
Chris
.
” Then she addressed Anvil, “
I want us to join forces. Together we can rule and shape this entire planet and its people to do whatever we want, whenever we want. Think on it, all that power?
Let the world look upon me and tremble with fear.”

With a casual wave of her hand a ray of sunlight illuminated her body, “
Let the world see
me
and tremble with fear!”

Coffee had made a mistake
, by
revealing
herself
. She had allowed
them
to see
her
in full high definition colour.
She was
, to use a term Wally used to say,’
as ugly as a witch’s tit’

Coffees sexual aura had vanished. In its place he saw the fake that she was. The blond wig, heavy makeup hiding a pock marked face and skinny legs and a body boarding on anorexia. Her teeth were rotten in places as she continued to smile at him, unaware of what she had done.

Chris laughed
,
“The world would indeed tremble if they saw you as you really are. A harmless old man once said to me on occasions a phrase which I find suitable.
You’re
as ugly as a witch’s tit!”

For a second the smile remained frozen on Coffee’s face then with a scream of rage she rushed towards
him
, fingers reaching for his throat.

“No.” Judgement said quietly.

Head down
, with his left hand touching the rim of his hat, he held out his
right hand. Her chest impacted
against a wall of solid air between them both
and rebounded
backwards
!
The air where she had impacted
became visible as it sent
out ripples
similar to those
you get when you throw a small stone into a still pond.
The Chosen One screamed again
and threw herself forward once more
but again she
re
boun
ded
back from Judgements
invisible barrier

Two patches of latex melted away
from her outfit covering her chest,
smoke rose from
the double impact points
on her chest
. Judgement had felt
each
impact
even th
ough they
never actually made
physical
contact
.
Balling
his right hand
,
first
smoke the
n
flames burst from the skin.
Choking back a cry of pain he willed the injury to heal instantly.

The Chosen ones wounds were also
willed to
heal
quickly and she took that moment
whilst Judgements guard was down
to launch a savage kick that
sent a ball of compressed air to
lift
him clear off
his feet
,
hurl
ing
him a full
forty
feet through the air,  he landed with a splash in the lake.

That was the opening play for an unbelievable attack. The Dark went into full attack mode, rushing to kill The Twelve. The Chosen One swept her hand out
sending a dart of black light towards Patch who
spun away, blood po
u
ring from a wound in her neck.
Even as she fell, Patch hurled a thin bladed knife that grazed Coffees cheek.

Coffee
tried a
similar
blow against
Anvil
but his weapon met her invisible blow
in mid air. There was a crack like thunder followed by a flash. The Chosen One staggered back
in a dazed state.
Anvil
dropped his weapon
as the head glowing red hot for a moment.

Huntress let fly and riddled Retch with three arrows that suddenly sprouted from his massive body.
Before she could fire again
Huntresses bow was knocked from her grasp by a steel ball hurled by Sling.
Clutching her wrist, she fell back and toppled over the bandstand railings, narrowly missing another steel ball bearing that whistled past her head.