Judgement (The Twelve) (59 page)

Priest understood, “We could not heal you but..”

Edge finished, “We could. It was just like Chris and The Chosen One
. Opposites attract. You couldn’t heal him
fa…. Anvil
, but I could
.”

Anvil looked crestfallen, “You changed sides just so your burns could be…”

Chameleon shouted, “HEALED! Yes for that I would pay any price.”

Bulls Eye asked, “But you can only take on the shape of another for a short time how can you…”

Coffee laughed, “Edge did a fine job with him. By asking him to take on the appearance of a non substantial creature he could stay that way for much longer
. So Edge created Ghost. All these years and you never knew, all these years we sent him to spy on you and you never knew.
He
managed to find many of your hide
a
ways and
crept in
to
bec
o
me an everyday object
. He listened and reported back to us.
”

Priest turned to Anvil, “That explains how they
nearly
always managed to find out our location
s
”

Anvil
stared at
Chameleon, “
Like
The house?”

Chameleon looked at Patch, “The house was different. I always loved you Patch and to see you fawning over that kid!” He stabbed a finger at Chris, “I couldn’t stand it. All I tried to do was knock you out and take you with me but
two people interfered with my plans.”

Chameleon suddenly changed into a giant
Shade
, reaching down he ripped up a
sunken
chunk of concrete
and threw it violently towards Bulls Eye, who was struck and sent flying in a spray of blood.

“NO!”
Huntress
shout
ed
.

“And you!”
Chameleon snapped, pointing a giant
finger directly at Chris, “You I hate most of all.”

The giant shr
ank and changed back into Ghost.
“
If not for the fact that
The Chosen One order
ed
me not to try and kill you
, I would have finished you off long ago
.”

Coffee smiled, “Ever loyal, always obeys.”

Ghost
bowed his swirling smoke shaped head towards her. Coffee lifted her chin imperiously and raised a hand in acknowledgement of his obedience.

The look on Edg
es face said it all. He had led The Dark for thousands of years, even recruited Chameleon. And yet in a matter of a few weeks, this girl had not only replace
d him but showed him no respect for his achievements.
‘
The bitch was taking all the credit
’
!

Chris shaped a question in his mind, allowed it to become a gentle breeze upon the wind and sent it drifting across the gap to Chameleon
.
The question settled up him
as gentle as a snow flake. It
examined him inch by inch and as commanded, returned to Chris. He examined the answers and nodded his head in agreement with an idea he’d already thought of.

Anvil was beside himself with Rage, one of The Twelve, a traitor! Slash wanted to know if all this ground shaking and lightning was Gods way of showing his anger. Why now and not on the day that Chameleon defected.

Priest believed he knew the answer, “Until the final battle. God allowed our friend to have a change of heart. Now he’s past the point of no return.”

Chris turned to glance at Priest, “Not quite so my friend. Chameleon you changed allegiance because Edge cured you. Is that correct?”

Chameleon laughed, “Wouldn’t you! I was
hideously
deformed
by the fire. There was no way Patch would ever love me the way I was.”

Patch looked hurt, “Oh Chameleon. Injured or not, I had no feelings towards you other than friend and even that has gone now.” 

Chris was looking at Coffee whilst addressing Chameleon, “Chameleon, Edge and The Dark are nothing but deceivers. They can offer nothing but a life time of servitude as a slave to there every whim. “

“You lie!” Chameleon bellowed, “Look at me! Even the great Anvil could not heal my wounds as Edge did willingly. He asked for nothing but loyalty
in return
.”

Chris raised a hand
allowing
Judgements deep rich voice
to fill
the air.
“In Gods name I remove the lie from you.”
“No!” Edge shouted.

The spell of deceit was instantly lifted
,
reveal
ing
Chameleon as he really
was a
hideously deformed burns victim.  Chameleon looked down at
his
melted fingers
. He gasped as he reached up to touch the melted ruin that once was his face, “No this cannot be!”

Chris looked sad as he spoke, “You never changed. They deceived and tricked you.”

Chameleon reached down and snatched up his face mask, settling it quickly in place and turned to Coffee, “You knew?”

She laughed, “Of course
! Y
ou where
nothing but a
tool we used, nothing more
,
nothing less.”

Anvil corrected her, “No he was more than that he
is a victim of your evil.”

Chameleon looked at his friends, “Forgive me. “

He
suddenly
changed
in
to the spitting image of Edge. Drawing his
carbon copy
sword he sped past Cof
fee, slicing sideways as he ran. S
pinning full circle, he brought the blade back angl
ing
it upwards towards Edges neck.
The real
Edge blocked the blow just in time
.
Coffee looked down at a thin red line that appeared across her middle.

The two Edges fo
ught
like highly trained swordsmen, moving this way and that, blocking, thrusting and cutting.

Coffee
staggered but
lick
ed
a finger and r
a
n it along the deep cut,
bubbling and hissing the wound
heal
ed
before her guts spilled out. Huntress sent an arrow her way, which she deflected. Speed thr
ew
a stone lightning fast which she turned to dust.
Slash
ignored his facial injury which was still bleeding and
threw three knives one after the other, so fast that all three blades were
all
in the air at once.
Casually with the flat of her hand, she
blocked
each knife
,
allowing them to
fall to the earth, each blade was bent double.

Anvil was concentrating on the fight
between the two Edges
. Already he had no idea who was who. Chris turned a shower of acid from Coffee into water. Spe
ed soaked up the falling water, running on the spot he generated
heat.
He used the cloud of super heated steam to hide within
. He
ran back a few steps before taking off at full speed, jumping the chasm
and kicked out at
Pigswell
, hurling him from his feet.

But Leach
also used the water, t
urn
ing part
of it
into a high pressure jet that blew Bulls Eye off
his feet
.
  Speed took off like a rocket towards
Leach.
H
e ran circles around
him
, faster and faster, superheating the air, drying h
im
out.
Leach
screamed just the once, before cracking open in a hundred places and fell to the earth like a broken vase.
Amazingly he still lived due to the torrential rainfall.

Speed
was nearly all used up, steam hissed as rain touched him.
Coffee smiled as he ran towards the chasm. Speed
was just about to leap the gap when
Pigswell spewed a jet of liquid fire.
Flames sprang up along
Speeds
back.
Chris made a gesture and
Speed flew
through the air like a comet
to
safely
land in a rain filled ditch back on his own side of the trench.

Anvil watched as one of the Edges got the upper hand. Using the
Okuriashi
(
close in movement
)
, he struck with the
Men cut
to the head
. The other Edge tried to dodge or deflect the blow, but it struck deep, smashing the right collar bone and driving five inches into the shoulder. Drawing the sword from the wound, he delivered
a
killing blow, a
Tsuki
thrust to the abdomen
.

The other Edge managed a quick
Ashi
blow to the legs, slicing deep into the left thigh before dropping his weapon and toppling to the ground. The injured Edge
, trust his swo
rd repeatedly into the body of his
other
self,
before stepping back. He st
aggered over to Coffee,
kneeling
before her.