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aj22writes · 8 years ago

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Chapter twelve...

...is exposition. There’s what I think is some good tension here, but there’s even more exposition. But that’s okay. There’s gonna be way more exposition next chapter.

...

Is that a good thing?

Chapter Twelve

The Sol Takers’ Mission

Jo didn’t know how to react to what Karen was said, and it was clear that Karen was waiting for a reaction. All Jo could do was stand there, her face throbbing. After a second or so, she finally uttered a simple, “What?”

“We’re here for your Sol,” Karen repeated. “That’s Sol in the plural sense, by the way. Our Leader seeks a number of special Sols. He wishes to possess their unique energy for himself. He scouted you and your Dueling Hearts as potential bearers of those Sols. We were sent to confirm his suspicions, and if he turned out to be right, to take your Sol energy from you.”

Jo felt like she’s been smacked in the face, now metaphorically as well as literally. Her head felt foggy, but that wasn’t the reason why nothing that Karen was saying was making any sense. “You can’t take a person’s Sol energy,” she told Karen, “that’s not possible.”

“Our Leader can,” Karen countered insistently, “but because his movements as of late are, let’s say, limited, he has to rely on his allies to seek out strong Sols for him.”

Lawrence removed a metal amulet from his pocket and held it up for Jo to see, with a nasty grin spreading across his face. It glowed faintly. “Our Leader has the ability to share powers with others, or even with some objects,” Karen explained. “He allowed us to borrow his technique for identifying those with the Sols that he is looking for, and he put his power to take the Sol energy from others into this artifact. It will store your Sol until we can return to him with it.”

“Others within our organization,” Monty explained, “will take the Sols of any strong opponents that Our Leader sends them to assess, as an offering to him, even if they don’t turn out to be what Our Leader is looking for. The three of us, on the other hand, will avoid doing so whenever possible. You four were simply unlucky enough to actually have the Sols in question. Some of them, at least.”

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Jo stammered. “Everyone’s Sol starts out the same, and only changes based on who they are. Everyone’s Sol is just as special as everyone else’s. Even if you could take Sol from someone, that doesn’t explain why you would want ours.”

“You don’t need to know the specifics,” Karen told Jo, sounding almost sympathetic. “All you need to know is that the three of us intend to be as delicate as we can. Even Lawrence wouldn’t just kill you for no reason. You’ll almost definitely survive the process, and because of the unique nature of your four Sols, you may even be able to develop Sol all over again and regain some of your former strength one day.”

Karen looked over at Lawrence and nodded. He stepped forward, and it hit Jo for the first time that these three were absolutely serious about this. Even injured, with her stamina depleted, Jo could feel that there was power in the amulet that Lawrence held. Jo reacted on instinct, stepping back into her back stance. Energy crackled in the air around her as her body settled into position. Lawrence’s only reaction was another of his broad, intimidating smiles. He saw that she intended to fight, and that excited him.

Jo would, of course, fight. If there was even a chance that the Sol Takers might actually be able to live up to their name, and that it might kill her and her friends, Jo would fight, no matter how hurt she was, until she couldn’t fight anymore. She’d fight all three of the Sol Takers if she had to, and she could see, in that moment, that they were prepared to make her if that’s what she chose.

And so, because she saw no other option, she made that choice.

Jo felt her energies churning within her as she focused on mixing them together, and building them up. Her life energy flared alongside her Sol energy, alleviating some of the pain that she was feeling, and she bore down on her Sol energy and wrapped herself in it. As weak as she was at this point, her aura was so small that could barely be seen, but it was all that she had. She planted her feet firmly, prepared to launch herself at her assailants with everything that she had left, but she was saved from additional pain when a new voice lent itself to the conversation.

“What’s going on out here? You’re making near enough noise to make the dead, which just happens to be barely enough to wake an old man like me.”

Jo turned, along with the Sol Takers, toward the source of the sound. Standing in the open back door of his dojo was Wilson himself, dressed in a robe, carrying a straight wooden cane that Jo knew he sometimes carried when he had to leave the dojo for an extended period of time. Jo couldn’t breathe. She’d forgotten why it was that she and the other Dueling Hearts had agreed to fight the Sol Takers in the first place. Now she was reminded, and there was nothing she could do to protect Wilson any longer if the Sol Takers decided to use him for further leverage.

“Wil,” Jo said, trying to hide how desperate she felt, “go back inside. Let me handle this.”

Wilson smiled at her, and then looked at the other Dueling Hearts still lying on the ground nearby. Jo took his meaning. She hadn’t been able to handle things so far. What made her think that anything had changed?

That doesn’t mean that you can do anything here that we couldn’t, Jo thought, but she had enough respect for the man to refrain from saying it out loud.

Instead, she looked the old man in the eyes and said, “These three are dangerous, Wil. They don’t want you. They just want us. Just go back inside.”

Wilson walked over to her, and he looked over her broken nose carefully. “I have this dojo for a reason, young lady,” he said, “I can handle myself.” He reached up, and with a swift twist, he popped the cartilage in her nose back into place. Then his hand glowed, and he gripped her nose, hard, so hard that she almost blacked out from the pain, but when his hand came away, most of the pain was gone.

Then, without another word, Wilson turned away from Jo, and stood between her and the Sol Takers. He planted his cane firmly in front of him. All of the sudden, it was like he was a different person. Jo took an involuntary step back. She could feel an intense wave of Sol pouring from her mentor’s frail body. Looking past him, at the Sol Takers, he could see that they felt it is well.

Monty and Lawrence looked at each other with varying levels of concern and confusion. Karen kept her eyes fixed on Wilson, but the calm smile that had accompanied her since her first direct interaction with the Dueling Hearts had faded from her face.

“I know who you are,” Wilson told Karen and her companions, “or rather I know who you represent. I may be trapped in the frail body of an old man, but I know more about how to augment the human body with Sol than almost anyone else alive. The three of you may have defeated these four,” he gestured to Jo and the other Dueling Hearts, “and you may have done so relatively easily, but you can’t fool me as easily as you can then. I can feel how worn out you are.”

Wilson looked to Jo, “Miss Sieger will fight at my side.” He turned back to the Sol Takers, “You three can sense the power that I wield. Are you really confident that you can take both of us as you are now?”

Jo was caught completely off guard. She’d never seen Wilson like this before. She knew that he had knowledge of Sol, obviously. He had a dojo, and he had advised her many times on how to better focus her energies, something that was often difficult for someone with a Sol like hers, but she never thought of him as threatening, or as all that capable of fighting. Now he was threatening some of the most powerful fighters that Jo and her friends had ever seen, and his threats seemed to be giving their enemies pause.

Karen in particular seemed to really be considering Wilson’s words. Finally, after a pause of several long seconds, she looked Wilson right in the eye, and she asked, “What would you have us do? Our Leader suspects that these four possess four of the Sols that he seeks. Even if we lie, his quest for those special Sols will lead him to these four again one day. It is much safer for us to simply do our job.”

“Your leader,” Wilson inquired, “prefers that you bring him the most potent Sols that you can, correct?”

Karen nodded.

“Then he would be forgiving of a delay if it meant bringing him special Sols even stronger than the ones that these four possess here today.”

“That’s true,” Karen admitted. Jo could see from the look on her face that she was already beginning to follow Wilson’s line of reasoning, but Jo herself was as confused as ever.

“Then leave here,” Wilson offered Karen, “and come back in two weeks. In that time, I’ll train these four.”

“Making them stronger,” Karen said, continuing his thought for him, “and therefore more worthwhile for Our Leader.”

“Except,” Wilson said, a fierce edge to his voice, “you’ll have to fight them again when you return, and if they’ve managed to get strong enough to beat you in those two weeks, you have to leave them in peace.”

“If you can train these four weakling to beat us in only two weeks,” Lawrence said, laughing, “then you might just be able to make that miracle come true, too.”

Karen looked over at Lawrence, and he fell quiet. She remained silent again for a few more seconds. Jo could tell that she was deep in thought, that she was trying to work something out. Jo found herself trying to read what she was thinking on her face. She almost thought that she could, too, that she could see Karen trying to come up with a way to use this situation to let Jo and her friends go, but that was just wishful thinking.

Either way, Jo was too distracted waiting for Karen to answer that she didn’t notice at first when her friends began to stir, one after another, as they shook off the unconsciousness brought about by their recent altercations. She kept her eyes on Karen. She almost couldn’t tear them away. She didn’t even realize that she’d been holding her breath until Karen spoke, saying, “I accept your terms.”

Jo’s eyes darted to the other Sol Takers. Monty didn’t seem disappointed by Karen’s decision, but he didn’t seem enthusiastic about it, either. Lawrence didn’t seem necessarily disappointed, either, but he didn’t seem like he thought it was a good idea. He looked at Jo and Wilson like he might attack them on his own, but he restrained himself, eventually turning away from them completely. Karen turned away next, followed by Monty, and the three started moving away, toward the street. As they did, Karen turned and looked over her shoulder, saying, “Two weeks. Use them well.”

Wilson continued to stand his ground, but Jo turned to her friends. They were all awake, now. Tucker was up, and he was carrying himself well, ignoring his injuries. He reached down, and he helped Sara up. She was still so dazed that she didn’t even mind leaning on Tucker to avoid using her damaged leg. Jo rushed over to them, and she helped Jen to stand up as well.

“What happened?” Tucker asked.

“Did you win,” Sara asked, looking around, “and why is Wilson out here?”

Jo opened her mouth to respond, but Wilson himself beat her to it. “That,” he said, turning, finally, to look at the Dueling Hearts again, “is a very long story, and the four of you have had a long night. You are injured, in some cases quite seriously. I can alleviate the worst of that for you, but the four of you require rest, and time to start recovering. Go home tonight and sleep, and return here tomorrow, and we will sort everything out.”

Wilson said all of this with absolute authority, in a tone that commanded respect. This was a side of Wilson that Jo was familiar with. She had encountered this Wilson before during training. This was a Wilson that she could deal with. So, when the other Dueling Hearts looked to her for answers, despite Wilson’s words, Jo said, “We’ll do as he says. He somehow seems to know more about what’s going on here than I do, anyway.”

The other Dueling Hearts didn’t seem to like her answer, but they were too tired to argue, or even think about arguing. They followed Wilson inside the dojo, and allowed him to use some of his Sol to reverse the greatest of the damage that had been done to them that night. Then they went home. To Jo’s surprise, considering all that she was feeling, and her history with nightmares, sleep actually came easy to her that night.

Even more surprising, though, was what Jo dreamed about. Rather than the nightmares of which she was accustomed, Jo’s subconscious caught her off guard. That night, of all things, Jo dreamed of Karen. Of her face. Of her confident smile. Of the way that she walked, and the way that she moved when she fought. Of her eyes, and her voice, and how it had felt when Karen had finally told them what it was that she and her allies wanted.

Jo awoke the next morning feeling confused. She was still confused about all of the things that the Sol Takers had said, and about everything that Wilson had said. She was confused as to how Wilson had been able to heal her nose, when her unnatural Sol should have rejected his life energy and made healing her impossible. On top of it all, now, she was confused by her dreams as well. Had her loss to Karen affected her so much? Why, then, had her dream left her feeling, not shaken, not afraid, but content? She didn’t have any answers, and even though talking with Wilson and straightening things out would not answer these fresh questions, any answers at this point would be welcome.

So Jo hopped up out of bed. She’d forgotten momentarily just how injured she was, and she winced when her muscles protested her movements. She had to take a few seconds to collect herself before she could stand up completely. She’d slept in her clothes, but they were too ripe, and covered in blood, to wear for a second day in a row. She changed, and then headed out into the hallway, where she almost ran right into Sara.

The two sisters just looked at each other for several seconds. Neither of them knew what to say, and they were each the kind of person who, when they didn’t know what to say, they didn’t speak. Finally, though, Sara broke the silence. “I don’t think we should tell mom about any of this,” she said, “at least not yet.”

Jo didn’t even have to think about it. If their mom found out about the Sol Takers, she would insist on helping to fight them, and Jo and Sara didn’t want to put her in danger. So Jo nodded, and the two sisters walked together. They walked down the stairs together, they walked out of the house together, and they walked to Wilson’s dojo together, all in complete silence.

Onward to Chapter Thirteen

#dueling hearts #dh jo #dh sol takers #dh wilson #chapter 1x12 #aj22writes

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aj22writes · 8 years ago

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Chapter eleven...

...might not be where the plot of this first arch really takes off, but it sets the stage for that. Next chapter, we will finally learn exactly what Karen and her team want with Jo and her Dueling Hearts, and what the rest of this arch will be about.

I also really hope that the final line of this chapter comes off as intriguing as I mean for it to.

Chapter Eleven

Outclassed

Jo put everything that she had into that Shadow Step. The speed of her Shadow Step depended on how fast she could move without it, and with her aura up, she was more than twice as fast as she was normally. No one could perceive her movements during a Shadow Step of that level. No one could see for sure just where the Shadow Step would end and Jo would strike, and yet Karen, as Soon as Jo vanished from her line of sight, sidestepped in such a way that, when Jo completed the Step, her fist outstretched to strike, the attack missed Karen by inches. Even worse, Karen somehow knew just where to attack to hit Jo where she was most open, scoring two solid jabs to Jo’s ribs. Jo stumbled to the side, away from Karen, grabbing her side in surprise.

That doesn’t make sense, she thought. She must have guessed where I’d end up, and how I’d attack, and got lucky.

Jo stepped in close to Karen. She threw a series of punches at full speed, aiming for sensitive areas of Karen’s torso. With her aura up, she hoped to be able to strike so fast the Karen wouldn’t be able to react, but only her first jab came anywhere close to accomplishing that goal. Karen deflected it at the last moment, and then began stepping and leaning in such a way that each of Jo’s strikes hit only the air around her. She moved as little as possible to accomplish this goal. It reminded Jo of the way that she would move to dodge attacks, but Karen’s movements were even less than Jo’s, and she seemed to start each movement just as Jo struck, before it was possible to see how she was going to attack.

Jo cranked up her aura, and began circling back and forth around Karen, attacking from multiple directions. Even without Shadow Step, using the speed of her aura alone, it still sometimes seemed that Jo was attacking from more than one place at once, but Karen was never fooled. Even though it should have been impossible to see at least half of Jo’s attacks, Karen always seemed to know where they were coming from and make the exact movements necessary to deflect them with the least amount of effort. Finally, after a few minutes of this, Karen sidestepped inside of one of Jo’s kicks, deflected her leg outward, and then, without even looking, stepped back, inside Jo’s guard, and elbowed her in the abdomen. Jo fell backward, her balance lost, but she managed to recover quickly and spring back to her feet.

Jo Shadow Stepped again. This time she changed things up, circling Karen a bit before attacking from behind. Karen didn’t turn with Jo, proving that she wasn’t actually tracking Jo’s movements when she Shadow Stepped. In fact, just as Jo moved to attack, she saw Karen raise her defenses, looking in another direction. Jo felt momentarily relieved, until Karen ducked and turned, avoiding Jo’s attack, and driving her own fist into Jo’s chest. Without even looking, she’d countered a sneak attack that should have been impossible to follow.

Jo fell back again. Karen didn’t hit hard, and her movements weren’t particularly fast, but she had the advantage of being able to move within a small radius. Coupled with the simplicity and the precision of her attacks, Karen was using far less stamina than Jo, and as far as Jo could tell, Karen wasn’t using any Sol yet. Already, keeping her aura going was wearing Jo out. She had to score a good hit using her superior power if she was going to have any chance of evening things out.

So Jo once again Shadow Stepped right at Karen, only to change direction at the last moment. She started to circle Karen at high speed, just as she had Christopher Johnson in their final exchange. She leaped from shadow to shadow. In the center of Jo’s technique, Karen could feel Jo’s presence in the movement of the air around her, but all she could see of Jo was a faint blur. Karen seemed just as calm as ever, however, which surprised Jo. She almost stumbled and lost the Shadow Step, but she managed to recover.

Still, the close call left her with adrenaline pumping through her veins. She attacked on impulse, flickering back into Karen’s field of view. Karen even looked momentarily surprised, as Jo’s swinging fist drew toward her face. She turned, leaned her body to the side, and raised her hands in time to push Jo’s attack ever so slightly off course. The strike missed, but Jo could feel the hairs on Karen’s face tickle her hand, the attack was so close.

Jo smiled, and she renewed her Shadow Step, darting back to the corner of the makeshift arena, and then zipping between it and the other three. She was sure now. Karen was guessing at Jo’s movements. Maybe her Sol gave her extra awareness, like the ability to feel where people were without having to see them at all. It wasn’t unheard of, and it was a useful power. It allowed you to react more quickly to what your opponent planned to do, but Jo had proven that she was fast enough to overwhelm that sense, whatever it was. Unless Karen was holding back her true speed, Jo had her outclassed.

She zipped toward Karen again, and again, jumping between the corners of the arena and the center at full speed. She was depleting her stamina, but it would be worth it. She was building up more and more speed, and Karen didn’t seem to know where she was or where she would appear. She didn’t seem confused, either, but she and her allies had proven to be able to keep composed in the face of shocking situations, so that wasn’t surprising.

Jo made her move. She flickered into view in front of Karen. Karen struck, but her attack sailed clear through Jo, revealing this Jo to be a latent image, like the one that she’d used against Christopher. Karen was surprised, and turned quickly to try and locate the real Jo before she could attack in earnest, but she made a mistake and turned the wrong way. Jo flickered back into view behind her opponent, and threw her heaviest punch at the back of Karen’s head. Backed by the strength of Jo’s aura, and the momentum from her Shadow Step, Karen, with no aura of her own, would be knocked out instantly.

Jo was sure that she’d won, so it was a huge surprise when Karen turned and ducked beneath Jo’s attack. She brought her right fist back, and suddenly energy surged from where she stood. Her body became wrapped in silvery light, and she punched Jo square in the gut. The force of Karen’s attack was enough to cancel Jo’s forward momentum. All of that energy meeting and clashing within her torso was enough to leave Jo seeing stars, her stomach churning, as she fell to the ground. Her own aura collapsed, and Karen, as calmly as ever, allowed her aura to fade away.

It took Jo a minute to recover. She stumbled to her feet, and shuffled away from Karen, who waited patiently. Jo relived the last exchange in her head. Karen had begun turning at the very moment that Jo had committed to her attack, at the very moment that she could no longer change direction. It was insane. She’d reacted not as if she knew where Jo was, but as if she knew where Jo was going to be. Was Jo telegraphing her attacks in some way that she hadn’t realized? If so, then how? And why, then, had Karen seemed genuinely surprised by her attack earlier?

Jo was amazed. She’s never seen anyone fight like Karen. Her movements were so simple and clean that there was an elegance to them that Jo hadn’t thought possible. Jo tried to renew her aura, but she found that she couldn’t. Her heart was still beating fast, and now…

Is my hand shaking? She thought. She looked down at her right hand, her main hand, and sure enough, her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her. She was so off-put by Karen that she was actually unable to control a part of her body. She didn’t know how to react, so she did what she always did when things seemed out of her control: she doubled down. She clenched her fist, and willed her hand to go still, and then she bore down as hard as she could on the energies within her, and her aura flashed back to life.

Jo lunged at Karen. She struck twice, once with each fist, and then threw a kick at Karen’s head. Karen deflected each punch, and then ducked beneath the kick. She shuffled to the side, and her aura flashed to life again, for just an instant, propelling her inside Jo’s guard. With one foot still off of the ground, Jo couldn’t Shadow Step away as Karen launched a swift jab to her sternum, but she could bring her arms together to divert Karen’s strike down and to the side. She brought her foot back down, and drove herself forward, aiming to drive her right elbow into Karen’s chest, but Karen sidestepped, and knocked Jo’s arm up and away, and struck with her own elbow, driving it into Jo’s side.

The two stepped apart from each other. Once again, Karen had moved as if she knew what Jo was going to do. So this time, when Jo moved to attack, she tried keeping her arms close to her body until the moment of her attack, coming in low with a left jab, followed by a right. She hoped that this would prevent her from telegraphing her moves, in whatever way she was. It slowed her down a bit, as it meant varying from her usual technique, but she hoped that that wouldn’t matter. Despite her efforts, however, Karen avoided the first strike, and deflected the second. She seemed to almost have an easier time than she had before.

So Jo, desperate to surprise her opponent again, this time when she was prepared to do so and could use that surprise to her advantage, tried another straightforward feint, followed by a Shadow Step around behind her opponent, but Karen didn’t even flinch, and she turned ahead of Jo, shuffled forward, and struck Jo with her knee, knocking her out of her Shadow Step. It had only been a glancing blow to her oblique muscles, but with the speed of the Shadow Step behind her, the impact was magnified several fold. Meanwhile Karen remained unharmed, protected by her hard knee cap.

Jo almost collapsed. She had to catch herself to keep from falling, and stumbled away from Karen, clutching her side. She took a deep breath, and forced her body completely upright, but it was painful to do so. She’d taken a major hit thrice now in roughly the same area, and the pain of it was starting to get to her. Sweating, and shaking again, she returned to the question of how Karen was able to keep track of where she was, and predict where she was going to strike. She looked once again at Karen, and she was taken aback. Karen was ignoring her, running through a series of practice forms as if Jo weren’t even there.

“What’re you…” Jo began, but her question evaporated when she realized that Karen’s movements were familiar. Karen darted back and forth quickly, alternating punching high and low, utilizing elbow strikes in between her other blows. It took Jo less than a second to realize where she knew these forms from. She took a step back, and then another.

“Sorry if the technique is a little off,” Karen said in between attacks, “I’m not as practiced as you are, but I saw enough that I’ve managed to get pretty close.”

She stopped moving, and gestured toward a building further down the street, “I was watching from over there when you were practicing here a couple days ago. Between seeing you practice, and seeing you fight at the exhibition match, it was more than enough to note the basics of your fighting style, and then work out the rest from there.”

She turned to face Jo again, “Now I can predict how you’re going to attack each time you attack. Granted, you’re really fast, and keeping up with you, even when I know where you’re going to be, takes some effort, but it’s enough. I’m able to predict every move that you make before you make it, and even identify the best moments to strike to inflict the most damage with the least effort.”

Jo was reeling. She thought back on the fight so far, and suddenly it was obvious. Of course Karen hadn’t been guessing. That was impossible. Karen had actually been predicting her movements. It was the only explanation for everything that she’d been able to do. Even knowing how she was doing it, Jo had no idea what she could do. If she’d been aware of this at the start of the fight, she might have been able to change up her fighting style enough to counter Karen’s advantage, but after taking so many devastating hits, that wasn’t an option anymore. The moment that Karen saw that Jo was trying to mix things up, she would attack with everything that she had before Jo could get her bearings.

Jo let her aura disappear again, and she stood there in silence. Karen, realizing that her opponent was deep in thought, had the courtesy to wait. What could Jo do? She was honestly tempted to surrender the fight, so that Karen and her allies would finally explain what their intentions were. If she could buy enough time, she might be able to recover a little of her strength, and catch Karen off guard and drive her off. She put that idea out of mind instantly, though, seeing as how Karen wasn’t the only enemy that Jo had to worry about.

This is crazy, Jo thought, she was able to work out my entire fighting style after seeing so little. I didn’t think that my fighting style was so predictable, except to my friends, and myself, I guess.

Suddenly, like a spark, Jo was struck with inspiration. An idea which might be able to turn the tables in this fight. She didn’t know if it would work, but she didn’t see any choice but to give it a try. She straightened up, and met Karen’s eyes. Karen, rightfully so, took that as her queue that the fight was about to resume.

Jo had to be quick. She forced the energies within her to mix and build once again, and her aura flashed to life around her. It wasn’t as large as before, and it flickered wildly, but Jo still felt it charging her muscles, making her faster and stronger. She rushed at Karen again, repeating her feint from earlier, but this time, when her muscle memory threatened to take her sharply to the side, she fought that instinct, and acted on impulse. She shifted slightly to the other side, and then shifted forward. Karen turned in the opposite direction, but she immediately realized that she had misread her opponent and swung around to face Jo again. She was too late, though, and Jo struck Karen square in the chest, sending her sliding back.

Jo again fought against her instincts, and moved on impulse. She Shadow Stepped to the side, and then focused her will and turned her aura away from her, throwing herself forward, increasing the speed of her Shadow Step even more. Before Karen could recover from taking her first hit of the fight, Jo was right beside her. She slammed her fist into Karen’s gut, and then turned in place. Mid turn, she Shadow Stepped to Karen’s opposite side. This meant that, rather than hitting Karen in the less-protected back of the head, Jo hit her in her much sturdier forehead, but it still sent her stumbling back further.

Jo Shadow Stepped back and forth randomly, and then lunged at Karen from the side. Karen turned toward her at the last second, and managed, just barely to duck beneath Jo’s strike. So Jo Shadow Stepped past Karen, and turned sharply, aiming an attack at Karen’s back. Karen spun around on her heel, and knocked Jo’s attack to the side, but by the time she countered, Jo had flickered out of her view again.

Jo’s plan was working, but she couldn’t let that go to her head. She was still in pain, and she was breathing heavily, more so than her opponent, but she didn’t allow that to distract her. She continued to fight her own training, and move on impulse alone. She attacked Karen again and again, but she was well aware that, between her injuries and the shake-up to her fighting style, she was moving slower than usual. With every passing second, Karen was better and better able to keep up with her opponent. Jo had no choice but to finish this fast, even if it was going to hurt to do so.

Jo zipped back from Karen mid-attack, throwing Karen off. She began moving randomly around the makeshift arena, building up speed. She moved close to Karen, and then changed direction, leaving behind a latent image of herself. Karen, acting on instinct, turned toward that image, only to whip around further when she saw Jo flicker into view off to her side. Karen moved to strike, but she hesitated, realizing too late that Jo’s aura was flashing not in front of her, but behind her. Jo had created a second latent image to distract Karen further. Doing so had cancelled most of her momentum, weakening the overall power of her attack, but it had given her the opening that she needed.

She threw a punch, backed by the full force of her aura, right at Karen’s head. Karen flared up her own aura, and turned in place, lashing out with a full power punch of her own. Their auras clashed, flashing in Jo’s eyes, blinding her for just an instant, but it didn’t matter. The attacks of the two young women crossed. Each would score a direct hit on the other’s jaw. It would be a matter of fortitude which of them would be least affected, and therefore most likely to take advantage of their opponent’s fresh injury, and frankly, Jo was more fit than her opponent. She was sure that she would have the advantage.

So you can imagine how surprised she was when Karen’s fist sailed right through Jo’s jaw, and Jo’s fist sailed right through Karen’s. Jo realized instantly that that wasn’t Karen, that Karen had used that one moment of blindness to replace herself. It was like a latent image, except that it had somehow been able to move, like some kind of autonomous illusion, and the real Karen was hiding behind it. Jo was shocked, too much so to react when Karen lunged forward, through her own illusion, and drove her shoulder, with her full weight behind it, into Jo’s chest and jaw.

Jo was knocked back. Her head bobbled back and forth, and her ears rang. She could taste blood on her lip. Karen was still on top of her, unleashing another flurry of blows. Jo, acting purely on impulse, sidestepped her opponent’s attacks one after another as she stepped into position. She reached up to catch Karen’s outstretched arm, giving her leverage to counterattack, but her hand sailed clear through Karen’s arm. It was another illusion! Karen had, in the aftermath of her last attack, created another illusion to draw Jo’s eye, giving her clearance to step out of Jo’s line of sight.

The illusion faded. Jo turned, desperately searching for her opponent, but she didn’t have to search long. Behind her stood four Karens, their stances perfectly identical. Jo looked from one to another, but she saw no way to tell which was real, and which were just tricks meant to draw her eye. So Jo stepped back, and took up a defensive stance. It was clear that Karen was about to come at her with a finishing blow. Hopefully, once the four Karens started to move, Jo would be able to work out which of them was the real one.

Jo had barely a chance to breath before the first of the illusions made its move. It rushed forward. Jo sidestepped its attack, but she realized at the last instant that, just because it was the first to move, that didn’t mean that it was an illusion. So she drove her elbow into its chest, or rather where its chest would be, and felt no resistance as it disappeared. At that point, the second was already on its way. Jo ducked beneath its attack, and drove her fist upward toward its chest. Again, she felt no resistance, and this illusion, too, faded from existence.

That’s when the third Karen moved to attack. As it did, Jo had the strange feeling that this was the real one, but as it moved to strike, she saw the final Karen’s foot adjust position ever so slightly. It drew her eye, and led her to believe that it was not an illusion, but Karen herself. So, hoping to get the drop on her opponent, Jo renewed her aura, and launched herself forward. She intended to pass through the illusion, and bear down on Karen before she knew what was happening, but the moment that she shifted her weight forward, the third Karen smiled, and Jo realized her mistake.

The third Karen, the real Karen, was well inside Jo’s guard. Jo had let her inside. It was no surprise to Jo when, as the final Karen faded from existence, a silvery aura flared to life around the real deal, and she drove her fist as hard as she could into Jo’s gut. Jo coughed, her aura collapsed, and she doubled over, only to see Karen’s knee sailing upward toward her face. She closed her eyes, and felt a surge of unbearable pain travel from her nose throughout her entire body.

Her head spinning, Jo stumbled backward, to the edge of the place where Lawrence had shattered the asphalt during his fight. She tripped over a chunk of raised asphalt, and toppled over backwards. She felt her mouth fill with blood, and spat it out. Her head felt heavy, and her arms and legs didn’t want to move, but she still, after several long seconds of painful effort, managed to pick herself up.

Jo reached up and touched her nose gingerly. It was broken. There was no doubt about it. She looked at Karen. Despite having taken several solid hits, it was clear that Karen could continue to fight for some time, and that Jo simply could not. It was amazing. In the end, it was Jo who had been outclassed from the start, and not the other way around. So Jo straightened up as much as she could. With her nose the way it was, it was hard to breath, and she was still out of breath, but she still found it within herself to say, “That’s enough, fighting you anymore would be pointless. So let’s get this over with. No more stalling. What do you want with us?”

Karen shifted her stance slightly, relaxing in the wake of Jo’s surrender. She brushed herself off, and then met Jo’s eyes, speaking the words that would change Jo’s life forever. “Isn’t is obvious from our organization’s name?” Karen asked. She smiled, and announced, “We want your Sol.”

Onward to Chapter Twelve

#dueling hearts #heart to heart #dh jo #dh karen #dh sol takers #chapter 1x11 #aj22writes

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aj22writes · 8 years ago

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Chapter ten...

...shows off the second of the mysterious Sol Takers, and this one has even more outlandish powers than the last. He doesn’t hit as hard, but it’s almost impossible to figure out what he’s going to do next. With the handicap of being unable to use life energy at all, Sara might not have what it takes to keep up.

Chapter Ten

The Fighting Illusionist

Sara attacked, but Jo noticed immediately that there was hesitation behind her movements. She was slower than she should have been, and where a fighter might sometimes feign that they were slower that they actually were to draw their opponent in, Jo could tell that that wasn’t the case for her sister. Sara moved toward the calm and unassuming Monty, and unleashed a flurry of quick blows in rapid succession. She twisted on her heels and toes, putting the momentum of her spins behind her attacks. Monty seemed completely unconcerned.

He stepped nimbly around her attacks where he could, and deflected the few that he couldn’t. Then he moved to counterattack, turning in place much like his opponent, launching off a punch and then a sweeping kick. Thankfully, Sara anticipated Monty’s next move. She shuffled back, knocking Monty’s fist to the side and then ducking beneath his foot and leg. Sara twisted in close to him, swinging an elbow at Monty’s back, but he ducked as well, beneath her strike, turning on his heel and sweeping Sara’s legs out from under her.

Sara tumbled back. She barely had time to react. Her instincts saved her. She used the momentum from her fall to roll backwards, and then spring back up in an instant. She lashed out, but Monty ducked beneath her strike, grabbed her arm, and rolled her over his shoulder, throwing her several feet. She was sent tumbling out of control. It would only last a second before she would hit the ground, but to an enemy like Monty, that second was like an eternity. Someone with the ability to create an aura could use it to turn themselves in mid air and propel themselves back to the ground, or out of the way of an attack, but Sara didn’t have that luxury. She had to let Monty lunge at her back and strike twice in succession. She was propelled further forward, and landed hard, rolling even further.

Sara was left dazed, but she didn’t waste even a second pushing herself back to her feet. She turned to face Monty, expecting him to be right on top of her, aiming to press his attack, but he wasn’t. Sara was surprised to see that he was waiting patiently. She scrutinized him, and despite herself she asked, “What are you doing?”

“We’re having a Heart to Heart,” Monty replied simply. “Unlike my ally, I don’t take undue pleasure in fighting. I can restrain myself until it’s clear whether or not my opponent can go on.”

“I don’t need your charity,” Sara spat, and she lunged at Monty again. This time is wasn’t hesitation that restricted her, but hastiness. Monty deflected her strikes just as effortlessly as before, and knocked her back with a palm strike to the chest.

“I’m sorry,” Monty told her calmly, in a tone that made it difficult to tell if his apology was sincere or not, “but you really do.”

Sara charged at Monty again, but by now she’s cleared her head. She approached her opponent with his previous movements in mind. She feinted to the right, and then twisted back inside his guard when he raised his arms to defend. She swept with her leg, but Monty hopped over it. So Sara sprung back up and threw a flying spin kick at the side of Monty’s head. He ducked low again, just like he had to avoid her elbow.

Sara had predicted this, though. She dug her heel into the ground mid spin to cancel her momentum, and then snapped her heel downward. She was aiming for the small of Monty’s back, but unfortunately for her, he had anticipated her movements as well. He turned on his heel, avoiding Sara’s attack by inches. As he turned, he straightened up again, and slipped out of his vest. He held it like a noose and used it to ensnare Sara’s foot, pulling it up against his body. He dropped the vest, and grabbed Sara’s leg in one hand, and then brought the elbow of his other arm down on her knee. From the sidelines, Jo heard a pop, and her sister uttered a yelp of pain.

Monty let go of Sara’s leg, and allowed Sara to stumble away from him, hopping on her uninjured leg. After a moment to collect herself, she planted the foot of her injured leg on the ground as well, trying her very best to appear as if she were okay, but no one could miss how badly she was shaking.

Monty stepped back as well, turning to face off with Sara again. He was completely unharmed, and he wasn’t even breathing heavily. He’d outmaneuvered Sara at every turn. Despite his age, he had the demeanor of someone with decades of experience. Every move that he made was so precise that it was scary. He hadn’t shown any indication that he was anywhere near as strong as Lawrence, physically speaking, but he seemed like he could dance circles around Lawrence with a little effort.

Watching the fight, Jo couldn’t be sure if Sara actually had a chance. She didn’t know about Sara’s weakness, but she could guess how much damage Monty’s attack had done to her sister’s leg, and she’d bet real money that Monty, like Lawrence before him, wasn’t giving this fight his all. She almost advised Sara to surrender, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. This was shaping up to look like a life or death situation. Jo knew that backing down in the face of something like that would break her sister. She knew, because doing so would break Jo, as well.

So Jo held her tongue, and watched as Sara took up her fighting stance again. Monty frowned just enough that it seemed like maybe he’d been hoping that his opponent would back down, but Jo didn’t notice that. She was too busy wondering how Sara intended to fight with just one good leg. Luckily, Sara had been wondering the same thing, and she’s come up with an option. She concentrated, and forced all of the Sol flowing through her body into that leg, strengthening it.

She put her entire weight on the leg for only an instant, to test that she could use it again. The joint was still damaged. She could feel that it was, but her Sol was holding the damaged parts together. She smiled, and surged forward, stepping on Monty’s dropped vest as she passed where it had fallen. Monty was momentarily caught off guard. Sara sprung up, and sent her Sol-charged knee sailing toward his chest. He managed to hold it back, just barely, using both hands, but in that same moment, Sara lashed out his both of her hands, hammering Monty in the sides of his head.

Monty stumbled back. Sara pressed her attack, throwing a front kick with her entire weight behind it, right at Monty’s jaw. He only had time to learn back, but even then, her strike was still doing to hit him in the mid chest, and Sara was already winding up for a follow-up strike. Monty was in a rough spot, and he knew it. That’s why it was so strange when he smiled.

Just before Sara’s foot could make contact, Monty disappeared. In his place, hanging in the air at about eye level, was his vest. Sara kicked it out of the air, and barely managed to keep from overextending and injuring herself further. She heard footsteps behind her. She turned, just in time to see Monty bearing down on her. He’d somehow switched places with his vest, and now, as he spun in place, slinging another kick at his opponent, he held his right hand out at his side, and a straight black stage magician’s wand sprung from within his sleeve into his waiting fingers.

Light built at the tip of the wand. Monty pushed Sara back using only his off hand, spun in place, and brought the wand to bear on her. A pulse of raw Sol shot from its tip. Sara deflected it off of the back of her hand, and then spun in place, tossing a backhand in Monty’s direction, knocking the wand to the side. As she spun, despite the pain that is caused her, she drew upon the Sol keeping her leg working, and pumped it into the air around her. Sweat, tears, and even a bit of Jen and Tucker’s blood, as well as a portion of the vapor that could always be found there, condensed around her hand and wrapped her fingers. She slung it at Monty like a whip, but he stepped to the side, and jumped back and away from his opponent. She retracted her water whip, and condensed the water further around her hand, creating her super dense icy iron knuckles.

Sara squeezed even more Sol from her leg, ignoring the sharp jolt of pain that came about as a result, and gestured with her other hand. More water was pulled from the air, splashing along the ground between her and her opponent. She bore down on that water with the force of her will, and formed it into a thin sheet of ice. She slid on it toward her opponent at high speed.

Monty, however, had managed to recover his bearings. He held his wand up in front of him, and passed his off hand over it. Suddenly his wand was replaced by a bouquet of flowers. Monty gestured with them, and they changed again into a flock of small birds that flew right at Sara’s face. She flinched away from them, completely on instinct, but just before they would have hit her, they disappeared, leaving behind puffs of smoke that clouded her vision. She reached the end of the sheet of ice that she’s made with her Sol, and suddenly her muddy cleats found themselves snagged on the high friction surface beyond it. Sara tripped, falling forward into a roll.

She jumped back to her feet, and turned on her heel hoping to spot her opponent, but she’d been caught off guard. She’d made a mistake. She favored her right leg, her injured leg, and so she instinctively turned on that leg. Without the full force of her Sol supporter that leg, twisting her knee like that sent a new surge of pain up the length of her body. Her leg collapsed beneath her, and she fell sprawled out on the ground. Jo pleaded silently with her sister to stay down. Opposite her, Lawrence seemed anxious for her to get back up, so he could see his ally hurt her even worse, but Monty, once again, waited patiently. He walked over to the center of the makeshift arena, picked up his vest, brushed it off, and then put it on before turning once again to face his opponent.

It was only then that Jo realized what Monty, with his posh dress and his precise, practiced movements reminded her off. This entire time, he’d never struck her as a fighter. His movements had had just enough flourish to them to draw the eye. When he countered an attack, he always did so at the most dramatic moment. Between that, and the nature of his most recent onslaught of techniques, he came off, to Jo, as something more like an illusionist. A stage magician. A stage magician who knew martial arts, but a stage magician nonetheless.

Throughout the entire fight, Jo had been grateful that Monty hadn’t used Sol, but she’d also wondered why he hadn’t. Now she knew. His wand, the bouquet of flowers, the birds, they were his Sol manifest in the real world. He could create avatars of his own, but rather than envelop his body in them, he shaped them into implements and stage illusions. It was a power that Jo had never even heard of before, and she could only dream of the possible methods of attack that it offered its wielder.

As all of these thoughts swirled around inside Jo’s head, Sara struggled to stand. She’d noticed the same thing about Monty’s attacks, but she hadn’t allowed herself to consider what the true scope of his abilities might be. She needed to stay focused. She’d seem Monty attack enough times now that it didn’t matter how he attacked. As long as she kept her eyes open, she should be able to see his next technique coming and avoid it. The real question was what she would do once she did. She could barely move with her leg the way it was.

Sara found her footing, though her right leg shook beneath her. If only she could access her life energy, she could mix it with what Sol energy she still had and revitalize her Sol in an instant, rather than having to wait for it to build back up on its own. Or better yet, she could cause her life energy to spike instead, and curb this pain enough to get herself back into the fight. She looked at her hands, and then at the ground beneath her. If she could control life energy, she could use her mother’s Life from the Earth technique to revitalize herself, and heal most of the damage to her leg in an instant. She almost tried it, but then she remembered that her sister was watching, and she stopped herself.

Desperate, Sara ran at Monty, as fast as she could with her injury. Monty looked at her with something resembling pity. Sara struck with her left hand. Monty sidestepped the attack. She struck with her right hand, still wrapped in her icy knuckles. Monty leaned back out of her reach, just enough that she overreached, and stepped harder than she meant to on her injured leg yet again. She doubled over, and Monty made his move. He lunged forward, and kneed her in the ribs. She fell hard to her knees, and cried out.

Monty frowned at Sara, and said, “You put up a better fight than I thought you would. I’m sorry that this had to be drawn out so long.”

He spun, and delivered a solid pick to the side of Sara’s head. She fell over sideways, unconscious, but before she could fall to the ground, she disappeared. Or at least she seemed to. Monty turned to face Jo, who stood in the center of the makeshift arena, holding her sister in her arms. The look that she gave Monty was so fierce that the Sol Taker felt compelled to step back. He was surprised to feel a bead of sweat running down his face.

Jo walked silently from the center of the fighting stage back to the sidelines where Jen and Tucker still lay unmoving. She bent down and placed Sara very carefully beside them. Then she turned back toward Monty, and suddenly she was right beside him.

“You’re fight’s over,” Jo said, “unless you want to take me on, too.”

Monty smiled at her, “No thanks.” Without another word, he turned and walked over to stand with his companions.

Jo faced Karen next, ignoring the others, and said, “I don’t know what you want, or why you think you can do this to us, but I’m not about to let this continue if I can help it. If you’re serious about backing off if we can score just one win, then hurry up, and let’s get this over with.”

She was trying to act tough. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Monty and Lawrence had bought her act, but she couldn’t tell if the same was true of Karen herself. If Karen was intimidated, she didn’t show it. Meanwhile, Jo was surprised by just how nervous she was. Her heart was beating faster than she thought possible, and when Karen stepped forward onto the makeshift arena to face her, she had to fight to keep her knees from shaking.

“You’re powerful,” Karen told Jo, her tone conversational, “and I can feel that you have a lot of untapped potential. As you are, though, you simply can’t win, not against me.”

“We’ll see about that,” Jo countered, and Karen smiled.

“If you do manage to win,” Karen assured her, “we’ll keep our promise. We’ll back off. We can’t guarantee that we’ll never have to return, but we will leave you for the time being. You may even be able to grow strong enough to offer us a real challenge when we do. And even if I do win, I promise that I’ll tell you exactly what we want.”

Jo knew that she shouldn’t trust Karen, but she found herself wanting to. Everything that the lead Sol Taker was saying sounded so genuine. Jo had to remind herself that this person was her enemy, the one who had led Monty and Lawrence against her friends. She was responsible for all of this, at least indirectly.

So Jo took a deep breath, and she bore down on the energies flowing through her body. She forced her Sol energy to mix with her life energy, and seized hold the massive amounts of Sol energy that was produced with the entire force of her will. She wrapped herself in that energy, lighting up the night with the light of her wild and churning aura. She put her hands casually in her pockets, and met Karen’s eyes. Then she disappeared, moving like a shifting shadow.

Onward to Chapter Eleven

#dueling hearts #dh sara #dh monty #dh sol takers #heart to heart #aj22writes

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aj22writes · 8 years ago

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Chapter nine...

...is the most important so far. I made it clear a while back that this story would have villains. Here, I make it clear how powerful those villains are. The one who fights in this chapter is only the second strongest of the three, as well. Keep that in mind for extra surprise value.

Chapter Nine

The Sol Takers Attack

Jen scrutinized Lawrence carefully. He gave off a level of confidence that bordered on arrogance and overconfidence. Jen had known a lot of fighters who were as confident as Lawrence, but Jen got the impression that Lawrence was actually deserving of that confidence. Jen couldn’t get what Karen had said out of her head. She’d claimed that her group represented an organization. The Sol Takers. Jen didn’t know of any team with that name, and the name itself was unsettling. If Karen was serious, if she wasn’t just making things up to sound intimidating, it meant that there was more to this than a simple challenge taken too far.

“Tucker,” Jen said, “I think there’s more to these guys than meets the eye. We need a plan.”

“Oh come on,” Tucker replied, grinning, “he’s just one guy. He doesn’t stand a chance against both of us. In fact, I want you to hang back and let me take a swing at him myself.”

Jen opened her mouth to protest, but before she could, Tucker rushed Lawrence. His attack was straightforward, and he didn’t take the time to back it with Sol. It was the same kind of move that Jen had seen him use many times to test the waters of a fight at the Old Park. Normally an attack like this wouldn’t be a problem for someone as resilient as Tucker, but Jen just couldn’t shake the feeling that, this time, it wasn’t at all appropriate. She sighed, and charged forward a few steps behind him. He threw a punch at Lawrence’s face, which Lawrence blocked casually with his left hand. So Tucker struck again. Lawrence deflected this strike as well, and stepped in close, thrusting his left palm forward, striking Tucker square in the center of the chest with enough force to send him tumbling.

Jen tried to use the exchange between Tucker and Lawrence to get inside Lawrence’s guard, coming at his from his right side. She’s assumed that his left hand was his dominant hand, but as Jen drew close, Lawrence shifted his stance, and raised his right hand to defend. He stepped around Jen’s reaching fist, and then elbowed her in the side of the head, knocking her to the side. She reached deep, calling upon the energy of her Sol, lowering her own personal gravity. She fell lightly to the ground, and sprang back up instantly, sailing high into the air, hanging there longer than she should have. She shifted her weight, turning to face Lawrence again, just in time to see him form his reptilian avatar arm again, over his left arm, reach across the width of his torso, and grab Jen by the leg. Lawrence, with virtually no effort, pulled Jen back down out of the air, and slammed her into Tucker, who had just found his feet again.

The two Dueling Hearts tumbled over each other. Lawrence was on them. His glowing golden arm swung downward in a wide arc. Jen and Tucker rolled apart just before they were hit. The impact of Lawrence’s avatar first against the ground was enough to crack the asphalt, even through the rubberized padding that cushioned it.

Tucker was on his feet first. He threw himself at Lawrence, lunging inside Lawrence’s guard. He threw an uppercut at Lawrence’s chest, as Lawrence was still falling in the wake of his attack. The impact of Tucker’s strike would have been huge anyway, but in that instant, Tucker forced some of his Sol into his arm, increasing his offensive strength. Lawrence, at the last second, dissolved his avatar arm, crossed his arms over his chest, and then reformed his arm, letting it absorb most of the force of Tucker’s blow. Lawrence was knocked back, through the air, but he landed square on both feet, unharmed.

Lawrence counterattacked. He raised his avatar arm up over his head, and lunged forward, bringing his arm down toward Tucker’s head. Tucker darted to the side, and rushed at Lawrence, but Lawrence swung his avatar arm wide and knocked Tucker effortlessly to the side. Then Lawrence turned toward Jen, who had just finished tracing her gravity control sigil with her toes. She’d used Tucker’s insistent attack to buy herself time, but it was no use. She kicked the sigil at Lawrence, but he lifted himself up using his oversized arm, and threw himself out of the sigil’s path. It flashed to life several yards from his position, lighting up the fighting stage with purple light.

Lawrence shot Jen a wicked smile. She wrapped herself in purple light, lowering her personal gravity again, just as Lawrence rushed her at his full speed. Jen could barely track his movements. The light from her sigil filling the back lot helped. She was able to twist out of the way of Lawrence’s right fist just in time, and then leap clear over his sweeping giant arm. She rolled in the air, and landed behind him, but by the time she did, he’d turned to face her again. He thrust his claws toward her, and it took all of her strength to deflect them to the side. As she had with Mike in the exhibition match, she left some of her energy in the glowing light of Lawrence’s avatar, and it suddenly increased in weight, it’s hand dropping heavily to the ground.

Jen hopped up onto Lawrence’s glowing, golden arm, and ran up it. She actually managed to catch Lawrence by surprise. He dissolved his arm again, but just before he did, Jen sprung up and launched a quick front kick at his face. He ducked, and Jen’s foot sailed over the top of his head. He reached up and grabbed Jen’s leg, twisted, and threw her to his right. She wrapped herself in purple light once again, cushioning her fall, but she was still sent tumbling, and left winded.

This time, though, it was Jen who managed to buy time for her partner. Tucker was on his feet again, and as soon as Lawrence threw Jen, Tucker was on him. He didn’t have time to defend. Tucker threw three punches in succession at Lawrence’s ribs, and then a final full strength right hook to Lawrence’s face. The Sol Taker was caught in the jaw, and knocked off of his feet. He picked himself up quickly, but by the time he was on his feet again, the makeshift arena was alight with flashes of fiery red and orange.

Tucker had forced his Sol and his life energy to mix, and seized the energy that it produced, wrapping his body in it and awakening his aura. He shuffled forward, and threw one final attack at Lawrence, with force enough to topple buildings, but Lawrence only looked amused. He shuffled back, and both of his arms became wrapped in golden light that took the form of different arms, stubbier than the last, covered in thick bony plates instead of scales. These new avatar arms had no long claws, but they were durable enough to stop Tucker’s strike dead.

Tucker stepped back, surprised, his aura falling away. Jen, back on her feet, was just as taken aback. Lawrence relished in their confusion. “You didn’t think that my offensive avatar was the only one that I could make, did you?” he asked. “Even that amateur that your team fought in the exhibition match could make more than one avatar, and I’m far beyond his meager levels of skill.”

He lowered his arms, and while the armored avatar over his right arm persisted, the one over his left arms disappeared. He raised his left arm, and the oversized, clawed arm reformed around it.

“You can make them both at once,” Jen remarked.

“You assume that I only have two,” Lawrence replied cheekily. He lowered his left arm again, and both of his golden avatars disappeared. Golden light spread out like streamers from his back, and formed huge wings, like bats’ wings. They flapped once, and then twice, and again and again, lifting Lawrence clear off of the ground. He didn’t rise much further than a foot or two, but the display had the intended effect. Jen and Tucker were shocked.

Their opponent could fly.

Lawrence flapped his glowing golden wings once, as hard as he could, and shot up several more feet. He dropped toward Jen and Tucker, his wings dissolving, one of the offensive avatars forming around each of his arms. He slashed with both. Jen and Tucker dove to either side, but they were too slow. They were each struck with a glancing blow. Jen was caught in her right side, and Tucker was caught in his left arm. Both were left with open wounds that, while not nearly as deep as they could have been, dripped blood and left the two fighters in excruciating pain.

From the sideline, both Jo and Sara had to restrain themselves from leaping to the defense of their friends. Meanwhile Jen and Tucker both, despite everything, struggled to their feet once again. They looked up at Lawrence, just in time to see him strike the claws of his avatar arms against the ground, sparking waves of Sol that traveled along the ground toward his opponents, tossing them both like ragdolls into the air. Tucker landed on his injured arm, and cried out. Jen, who had managed to land on her less injured side, wasn’t much better off. Lawrence approached them, his claws raised.

“That’s enough,” Jo insisted, drawing Lawrence’s attention to herself, “you’ve made your point.”

She was blown away. Never in her wildest dreams could she have conceived that Lawrence might be this strong. That he might be able to take down Jen and Tucker with so little effort. As far as she was concerned, the first round was over. Jen, however, has a different idea.

“No, Jo,” she said, pushing herself to her feet, with a huge amount of effort. Just looking at her hurt, but she stood against Lawrence anyway, and declared, “I’m not finished yet.”

Lawrence looked her over, and said, “Interesting. I might have underestimated you after all. You have zero chance against me, and still you keep fighting. I’d find it respectable, if it weren’t so pointless.”

“You literally just said that you underestimated me,” Jen replied, circling Lawrence slowly, “and here you are doing it again.”

Lawrence chuckled, and dissolved his arms. He lunged at Jen, and threw a series of punches. Jen, acting on instinct, managed to dodge and deflect them all, but she was left wincing in pain, having jostled her wound. She stepped to the side, turning her wounded side away from Lawrence, and he stepped in closer, shuffled in place, and threw a kick at her torso, aiming for the very region that she was trying to protect. Jen knocked his foot away, and retaliated, but the pain of her injury made her slow. She missed by a mile, and Lawrence socked her square in the jaw. She almost crumpled, and stumbled back and to the side, but she managed to stay on her feet. She gasped, and doubled over, clutching her side. Her face was shrouded in the shadow of her body, but Jo thought that she could hear her cousin crying.

Lawrence stepped forward again, and faced off with Jen directly. “You came so close,” he told her. “You almost earned my respect, but in the end, you’re just another pathetic wannabe. It’s disgraceful, that someone as weak as you could actually be one of the fighters that we’re looking for. I didn’t want to believe it, but fighting you myself, I can’t deny it anymore.”

“What do you mean?” Jo demanded. She looked from Lawrence to Karen.

“We’ll explain once the match is over,” Karen promised, “but long story short, the leader of our organization thought that you and your friends might be something special. It’s why we were watching the four of you in the first place. Even after seeing you fight, we couldn’t be sure if you were the ones that we were after or not, so we decided to test you ourselves.”

“And despite how pathetic they were,” Lawrence added, still glaring at Jen, “these two passed.”

“Which means it’s likely that the rest of you will as well,” Karen concluded, never taking her eyes off of the fighters in the makeshift arena. To Jo’s surprise, Karen didn’t seem to think that the fight was over. It took a moment for Jo to realize why. All of Jen’s movements, as unplanned as they had seemed, had actually accomplished something. Lawrence was turned completely away from Tucker, and Tucker was steadily sliding himself closer and closer. Suddenly, Jo realized what Jen was planning, and she realized that her cousin wasn’t crying. She was laughing.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jen told Lawrence with a chuckle, “about us being special, or whatever, but I don’t care. You, Lawrence, are the most arrogant person I’ve ever met. You’ve underestimated me and Tucker at every turn. You thought that you were in complete control of this fight, but you don’t even realize that you’ve made a fatal mistake. That you forgot something important that’s going to cost you this match.”

She looked up at him, smiling, and asked, “Hey Lawrence, remember that sigil that I made earlier? What exactly happened to that?”

Lawrence’s smirk turned to a scowl, as he realized that the sigil’s purple light was nowhere to be seen. It had faded away minutes ago, during his last exchange with Jen. He hadn’t even considered that it might still be active somewhere, and he’d completely lost track of where she’d initially put it. Jen, however, had not. Taking advantage of Lawrence’s brief moment of confusion, she rushed him, and tackled him, shoving him backwards. In that same moment, Tucker sprung up, and threw a spin kick at Lawrence’s sternum, knocking him back further. He stumbled, and before he could rise again, he was bathed in purple light. The sigil flared back to life, with Lawrence dead in its center, pulling him back down before he could straighten up.

Tucker moved to stand next to Jen, cradling his bloody arm. Despite everything, Jen had managed to get Lawrence inside her sigil. She’d won, with Tucker’s help. She’d proven once again that intelligence trumps power.

“You can’t do this,” Lawrence said, his voice low, almost like a growl.

Jen ignored him. Her body became wrapped in purple light, and she stepped casually into her own sigil, completely unaffected by the increased gravity within. She planned to finish Lawrence the same way that had James in the exhibition match, but unfortunately she never had the chance.

“You can’t do this,” Lawrence said again, this time loud, like a roar. His entire body was wrapped in golden light, and a huge avatar formed around him, lifting his actual body several feet off of the ground. Jen shuffled back, as suddenly Lawrence filled the entire sigil. He’d donned a full body avatar shaped like a squat, wingless dragon with bulging, muscular legs, and armored plates like those found on his more defensive arms earlier in the fight running from it’s flat-nosed face to the tip of its tail. In fact, the arms of this avatar were the same as those defensive arms. This was the body that went with them. Lawrence raised his arms, and he slammed them into the ground with so much force that the ground beneath his shattered and exploded outward. The sigil beneath him broke, and he rose to his full height of fifteen feet.

“You lectured me about underestimating you,” Lawrence said, “while you were underestimating me. You never even considered that I was holding back the entire time.”

He stomped his dragon avatar forward, covering more distance than either Jen or Tucker would have expected on the merits of his size alone, and spun, slapping Jen with the back of his massive hand, sending her flying. She would have hit the back wall of the dojo, but Jo Shadow Stepped into her path and caught her. She was unconscious.

Tucker looked on the monstrous form of his opponent with something between disbelief and horror. Jen had underestimated Lawrence at the end, but Tucker had underestimated him from the start. If he hadn’t, they might have been able to work together to beat him before coming to this point. Now Jen was hurt, maybe badly hurt, and it was all his fault.

Lawrence turned his avatar to face Tucker, as Tucker, acting on impulse, forced the energy of his Sol to mix again with the life energy at the core of his being. He forced those energies together and held them together for as long as he could stand, for much longer than the second or so that he normally did. Energy poured from him, melting the rubberized surface beneath his feet, and he bore down on that energy, molding it, shaping it into an aura that reached above the street lights. Tucker, his eyes shining with literal fire, turned that aura away from him, launching himself toward Lawrence with the speed of a rocket. He drew back, and he punched Lawrence in his avatar’s chest with an energized fist. Fire exploded from the point of impact, filling Tucker’s field of view, but he didn’t need to see Lawrence to know that he’d failed. He could tell just from the feel of the impact that he hadn’t managed to break through Lawrence’s armor this time, either.

As the smoke and fire died down between them, Tucker collapsed at Lawrence’s feet. Between his final outburst, and all of the blood that he’d lost, his energy was spent. Lawrence let his avatar dissolve, and stepped toward Tucker with the same calm resolve that Jen had shown only moments before. The difference was that, where Jen had assumed that she’d won, Lawrence actually had. He drew back his right foot, and kicked Tucker square in the jaw with all of his strength. He was knocked out cold, collapsing on the spot.

Jo and Sara were flabbergasted. They couldn’t speak. They could barely think. They had heard of fighters as powerful as Lawrence before, but to them, people like him had always been stories. Legends told by enthusiastic students in schoolyards who didn’t yet understand what the typical limits of the human body actually were. Lawrence was practically an impossibility, and if he was this strong, it made sense to assume that Monty and Karen were at least as powerful. Jo looked once again at Karen. Surprisingly, she could believe it. She could believe that Karen was even stronger than Lawrence had proven to be.

With a deep breath, Jo forced her fear and her surprise out of mind. She stepped into the center of the back lot, where Tucker lay within the debris of the ground that Lawrence had shattered with his attack, and she picked Tucker up and carried him back to the Dueling Hearts’ end, next to Sara. Then Jo returned to where Jen lay, and carried her back as well. All the while, Lawrence watched her with amusement.

“It’s a shame,” he said to her, “that my time in the arena is over. I imagine that fighting you would be much more interesting than fighting them.”

He shrugged, and walked over to stand next to his companions. Jo watched Karen, for some reason expecting her to step up next, but of course, as the leader of her group, she planned to fight last. Instead, Monty stepped into the makeshift arena, and Sara stepped up to face him.

“Wait,” Jo told her sister, speaking quietly enough that she hoped their opponents wouldn’t be able to hear, “I’ll go next. I might be able to use my Shadow Step to take this guy out fast and put an end to this.”

Sara didn’t answer at first. Then she turned to look at her sister, and Jo was taken aback to see fear flashing half-hidden in her sister’s fierce eyes. “One of them beat Jen and Tucker without taking a single major hit,” Sara said simply. “Do you really think that they’ll leave if we win one fight? Do you think we’ll be able to make them?”

Jo was shocked. She hadn’t even thought of that. Meanwhile, Sara looked toward Monty, and told her sister, “As much as I hate to admit it, you’re the strongest out of the four of us. If these guys want something from us, you being at your best when they try to take it is our best shot. That means that you have to wait to fight for as long as possible. That means that I have to fight next. There’s no other choice.”

Jo couldn’t argue. She wanted to deny it. She wanted to insist that Sara was just as strong, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it. She knew that Sara was right. On any other day, she would have been secretly proud of that fact, but today she hated it, because it meant that she had to stand off to the side and watch her sister fight a battle that she might not be capable of winning.

No, Jo thought, that’s ridiculous. This is my sister that we’re talking about. There’s no one she can’t beat!

Sara might lose. That was a possibility, but Jo, in that moment, refused to count her sister out. She refused to assume that the outcome was already decided. She gathered up all of her stubborn resolve, and projected it into her words as she said, “In that case, good luck. Go and get this guy.”

Jo wasn’t sure in the low light, but she thought she saw Sara smile. The air between Sara and Monty became charged with energy, and the two fighters faced off. Without another word, the second fight between team Dueling Hearts and the Sol Takers began.

Onward to Chapter Ten

#dueling hearts #dh sol takers #dh jen #dh tucker #dh lawrence #heart to heart #chapter 1x09 #aj22writes

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aj22writes · 8 years ago

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Chapter eight...

...Is where the real conflict of this story begins. The rest of this arc will not be consumed by this fight with the villains, who we see interact with the Dueling Hearts here for the first time, but this will be when the Dueling Hearts see just how powerful some of the foes out there in the real world actually are.

We also get a new mystery in this chapter, in the form of the name of the organization that the villains claim to represent. What does it mean? What is this organization? Only time will tell.

Chapter Eight

The Sol Takers

The Dueling Hearts took things easy for the next few days. They kept active, of course, but even Tucker, who thrived on all things to do with fighting, even the pain that it left behind, found it necessary to limit himself in the wake of the exhibition match. During this period, Jen and Tucker told Jo about their meeting with the manager of the Megadojo, and, after some serious thought, Jo went to meet with Eric as well. By the time she left, she had a lot on her mind, enough that she immediately set a time for the Dueling Hearts to all meet up to talk, two nights later, at Wilson’s

They met up just after dark. The dojo was closed. Jo was sitting inside on one of four fold out chair that she had set up for them to use, with only the minimum number of interior lights turned on, when the others arrived, almost at the same time. Despite that Jo had been planning how to start this conversation all evening, it was actually Sara who spoke first, asking, “Okay, what’s with all the melodrama.”

Jo was immediately disarmed, “I am not being melodramatic.”

The other three Dueling Hearts laughed. “Yeah you are, dude,” Tucker told her. “You brought us here, after dark, to a closed dojo, to tell us some big important thing. You do this kind of thing all the time.”

Jo’s left eye twitched. They’d figured her out, but it didn’t matter. “This is important, though,” she told them.”

“I’m sure it is,” Jen replied, sitting down in the folding chair across from Jo. She had her hair up today, except for the colored part of her bangs, which hung down over the left side of her face. She was wearing just enough makeup to make her eyes seem a little sunken, and a similar combination of clothing articles as she had at the match, save for a pair of knee-high black and purple striped socks, and black boots.

“Yeah,” Sara added, sitting down next to Jen, “the only reason any of us still pay attention to you when you pull something like this is because it means you have something important to say.” She was wearing a yellow t-shirt with a white stripe down the left side, and a black 9 on the right breast, matching yellow and white shorts, and black cleats. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and dirt caked her face, reminding Jo that Sara had just come from soccer practice.

“I’d still listen to you, even if it was about something dumb,” Tucker told Jo, taking the seat next to her. He was wearing black shorts, and a black t-shirt under a brown jacket with red stripes down the arms, and the symbol for the Checker Township Fire Department on the left breast. Jo remembered when he’d found that jacket the previous year, at a Goodwill.

Jo frowned at her friends, and then said, “This is all beside the point. I went day before yesterday to talk to the guy at the Megadojo.”

“And he apologized to you?” Sara asked, crossing her arms.

“Yeah,” Jo replied, and continued, “and he asked me something. Something that got me thinking. We have a decision to make. We formed this team to compete in the exhibition match, not so we could start a career as professional fighters. I mean, I’ve thought about that. I know you have too,” she looked over at Tucker, and he nodded, “but I’m not sure we’re ready for something like that.”

“I know I’m not,” said Sara. “I haven’t even graduated middle school yet. I’m pretty sure that most major tournaments wouldn’t even let me enter at my age.”

“What is this all about, Jo?” Jen asked, in the thoughtful way that she often did when she was fairly certain that she’d already worked out the answer.

Jo took a deep breath. What she had to tell the other Dueling Hearts was exciting, but it was also a huge deal, one that could shake up their lives for a long time to come. It wasn’t a question that they could take lightly. “I don’t know exactly why,” Jo told her friends, “if it was because we really impressed someone, or if it’s to make up for what that guy said to me, but Prometheus Corporation has offered to make us the face of the Megadojo. We’ll get free memberships, guaranteed entry into Megadojo events, in our area, and wherever they end up building more Megadojos later on, and financial help if we decide to pursue careers as Sol fighters.”

“That is a pretty big deal,” Jen said, nodding. Jo couldn’t tell from her cousin’s reaction if she had been right about what Jo had brought them together to say, and Jen didn’t confirm either way. Instead, she thought for a second, and then asked, “How official will this be? Will we need to get our parents involved? Will there be contracts? Will we be obligated to do anything?”

“There will be a contract,” Jo answered, “so we will need our parents’ permission. We’ll be expected to compete in major Megadojo events, if we can. And train there every now and then.”

“That’s going to be hard,” Sara told her sister. “I have other extracurriculars, and I’m not ready to give them up.”

“Which is why,” Jo told Sara, and the others, “we don’t just have to decide if we want to keep the team together, and if we want to do this, but also if we want to expand the team. We each know at least one other good Sol fighter. Our cousin Amanda, for one, or Kimi. If we add a few more people to the team, then we’ll have relief in case one or more of us can’t make it to a match.”

“Your cousin Amanda?” Tucker asked. “Isn’t she, like, eight years old?”

The other ignored him, and Jen said, “I wouldn’t be opposed to this, assuming that we can break this off at any time without legal ramifications. I’ve considered a career as a fighter before. Something like this would give me a chance to feel out whether or not it’s for me, without having to give up on school and travel around.”

“If we bring more people in,” Sara announced, “then I’m all for it.”

Jo looked over at Tucker. He frowned, “You know I want to be a pro, but I just don’t know if my dad’ll go for this. Hell, he might say “no” just to spite me, like that field trip two years ago.”

“Then we’ll forge his name,” Jo told her best friend, “like we did on your field trip permission slip. If you want to do this, I’ll make it happen, no matter what.”

Tucker thought about it for a second more, and then finally said, “Yeah, okay, let’s do it. Let’s become pros.”

The four fighters beamed at each other. They were excited, and they were proud. All of that was sapped away, however, when they heard a slow clapping from the direction of the dojo’s main entrance. The Dueling Hearts turned as one toward the noise. They had been so wrapped up in their conversation that they hadn’t heard anyone enter, let alone the three people who now stood before them.

Two of them were male. The tallest of them had light brown hair and hazel eyes that scrutinized the Dueling Hearts harshly. He wore a black t-shirt with a golden dragon decal printed across the chest., torn and faded black jeans, and a chain strapped to his belt loops. The next tallest, the other male of the group, had longer, darker hair that stuck out in random directions, but there was a certain order to that chaos. He wore a pressed button-up shirt under a purple silk vest, and black slacks. The look that he gave the Dueling Hearts was one of indifference.

The third, however, was the one who caught Jo’s eye, and moved her to stand. The only female of this group of interlopers stood in front of her two male companions. She was the shortest of the three, but only by a few inches. Jo guessed her to be an inch or two shorter than herself, and, like the other two, to be about Jo’s age. She was gorgeous, with silky brown hair that flowed down her back, eyes a shade or so lighter than Jo’s that shined like marbles behind square-framed glasses. Pale freckles dotted her nose and cheeks.

She didn’t have the physique of a fighter, instead having a rather womanly figure despite her age. She looked like she could be a model, and yet, just looking at her, Jo felt something strange, as if this young woman were the most imposing presence that she had ever encountered. Jo had to stop herself from staring. It was this young woman who had been clapping. “That’s inspiring,” she told Jo and Tucker, looking upon them, and the other two Dueling Hearts, with amusement.

The others must have also sensed something odd from these three, or they were just following Jo’s lead, because they stood as well and faced the three. After a second to find her voice, Jo said, “Sorry, but if you’re here to inquire about joining Wilson’s Dojo, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow. It’s technically closed right now.”

“That’s not why we’re here,” the brown-haired girl replied. “I am Karen,” she announced, “and these are my teammates, Peter Lawrence,” she gestured to the tallest of her group, “and Montgomery Williams,” she gestured to the young man in the silk vest.

“Call us Monty and Lawrence,” Monty interjected.

“We represent an organization called the Sol Takers,” Karen continued, “and we’ve come looking for you four. You were impressive in your recent victory against Team Beatdown.”

Jo relaxed a little bit. These three still gave off a strange vibe, but now she at least had an idea of why they were here. Since beating Team Beatdown, there had been plenty of amateur fighters, and fans of Heart to Hearts, who had approached her and the other Dueling Hearts, randomly, wherever they went. Some wanted to praise them, some wanted to go at them for beating their favorite pro team, and others attempted to challenge them. Jo was getting a little sick of it. She simply wasn’t used to the attention yet, but with that being the reason for these three showing up, it at least gave her an idea of how to get rid of them quickly.

“I’m glad you guys liked the fight,” Jo told them, stepping closer to them, noticing, as she did, how nervous she became as she grew closer to Karen, “but this place is private property. I work here, so I’m allowed here after hours, but you’re technically trespassing.”

Jo smiled nicely at each of them in turn, “But, if you come back tomorrow, I’ll be here, and we can talk about the match.”

She made to guide the interlopers to the door, but stopped when Karen said, “Actually, that’s not why we’re here, either.”

Jo took a couple of uneasy steps back. “Do you want to challenge us?” she asked, starting to get a little concerned. These three weren’t really dressed for a fight, but that didn’t really mean anything. A lot of Sol fighters were practiced in fighting in their regular clothing. If these three did want to fight the Dueling Hearts, and they came here, at this hour, to issue their challenge, then they were likely very serious about it.

Karen smiled, “Yeah, I guess you can say it’s something like that.”

Jo nodded, and suppressed a frown, saying, “Well, the same point still stands. The dojo is closed until tomorrow. Come by then, and I’ll spar with you guys a little.”

“We don’t want to spar with you,” Karen countered. “We want a Heart to Heart, and we aren’t asking.”

She smiled again, “Isn’t it true that the old man who runs this place sleeps in a room behind the offices?”

She glanced in the direction of the wall separating the main section of the dojo from Wilson’s apartment. Standing by the door, the three interlopers were relatively close to it. Before Jo had a chance to realize what it was that Karen was saying, Karen nodded to Lawrence, and he reached toward the wall. As he flexed his arm, without any warning at all, that arm became surrounded by a huge avatar of an arm, even longer than Lawrence’s entire body. It was a similar golden color to the animal avatars that Jason had created with his Sol during the exhibition match, but where the color of Jason’s avatars had been a pale yellow-gold, this avatar shone a proud bright gold that lit up the room.

The huge arm didn’t have the proportions of a human arm. There was a texture to it, like scales, and it ended in four long, clawed fingers. It’s claws were less than an inch from the wall, and the arm was not fully outstretched. If Lawrence so chose, he could extend the huge arms even further, and knock the wall over onto the sleeping Wilson. He might even be able to reach inside and attack Wilson with it.

“What is this?” Jo asked, stunned.

“It’s exactly what it looks like,” Karen answered. “If you don’t agree to fight us, we’ll kill the old man. And if you’re standing there thinking that, whatever we try, you four will be able to stop it, I promise you, Lawrence is just trying to be visually impressive. If we want to old man dead, we won’t have to rely on Lawrence’s power. Any one of us can do it in seconds, and we’re closer to him. Really think about it, are you sure that you can stop all three of us, when you don’t even know what we’re capable of?”

Jo looked to the others. Jen was considering the Sol Takers carefully. Tucker looked like he was ready to attack them. Sara looked somewhere between nervous and angry. Jo didn’t know if her friends would back her, she didn’t even know if she wanted them to, as serious as these three were, but she was not going to let them hurt Wilson.

“Fine,” Jo said, “there’s a lot out back. I’ll fight the three of you there.”

Karen smiled again, and shook her head, “Sorry, no, it’s all of you, or none of you.”

Jo was about to protest, but she didn’t have a chance. Tucker stepped up next to her, “If you guys want a fight, we’ll give you one.”

“You don’t get to go around making threats like that,” said Sara, ignoring the sweat running down her face.

“There’s only three of you,” said Jen logically, “and four of us. Our chances are good. But in exchange for this, you have to leave once the fight is over.”

Karen nodded. As she did, Lawrence lowered his arms to his side, and the avatar around it faded away. “Shall we?” Karen asked, and she and her companions led the way to the back lot of Wilson’s dojo, with Jo and the Dueling Hearts following close behind.

The back of the building was fairly well lit. A couple of nearby street lights, as well as a security light positioned above the back door of the building, made sure of that. Fighting here wouldn’t be a problem, and Jo was personality at a pretty large advantage, seeing how the three lights cast deep shadows that crossed each other at multiple points. If Jo was careful, she could use Shadow Step almost anywhere on the lot without having to stop even once. Even if these guys did see the fight with Christopher, they wouldn’t be ready for that.

The two groups reached the stage of their battle, and took up positions at opposite ends of the lot. It was the tallest one, Lawrence, who stepped onto the rubbery ground first, cracking his knuckles. “I get the first fight,” he said, his voice dripping with eager confidence. Listening to him, Jo was almost reminded of Tucker.

“How are we going to handle this?” Jo asked Karen. It was clear that she was the decision-maker of the group, after all. “We can’t have a proper teams match with an uneven number.”

Karen thought for a second, “How about this? We’ll have three separate Heart to Hearts. Monty and I will each fight one member of your team. Lawrence, since he’s so eager, will fight the remaining two. If your team wins even one victory, the three of us will leave.”

Jo was surprised. Karen sounded completely serious, and yet what she’d said didn’t make any sense. Lawrence was fighting first. If they only fought three Heart to Hearts, then that would mean that Karen intended for Lawrence to fight two people at the same time. There was no way he could win something like that. He’d lose, and Monty and Karen wouldn’t get a chance to fight at all. Still, it was the fastest way to get rid of these guys, so why not?”

“Okay,” Jo agreed. She was about to offer to be one of the fighters to take on Lawrence when Tucker cut her off.

“I’ll fight you,” Tucker announced, stepping forward and facing Lawrence. They glared at each other, and static leaped between them as their competitive energies mixed.

“Me too,” declared Jen, stepping forward as well. Jo moved to stop her, but Jen cut her off, saying, in a voice too quiet for Karen and her group to hear, “these guys are too confident. If they think that this Lawrence guy is tough enough to take on two of us at once, and he’s not even the one in charge, then the others could be even stronger. We need to save our best for last.”

She looked to Jo and Sara in turn, “And our best is you two, hands down. Besides, we all saw how big the arm of Lawrence’s avatar is. My gravity powers will have a huge affect on something that size. I’m the best choice to fight him. The choice is obvious.”

Jo couldn’t find any fault in Jen’s reasoning. That was pretty common. None of the Dueling Hearts were stupid, and Jo liked to think of herself as being uncommonly clever about fighting, but Jen was on a whole other level. She could come up with incredible strategies on the fly, and her creativity with Sol went far beyond Jo’s. It was never about pride or thrills with Jen. She felt those things, sure, but she approached each fight logically. If she was volunteering to fight someone, it was because she had thought it through and determined that she was the most likely to beat them. So Jo nodded, and Jen stepped up beside Tucker. The amount of energy filling the air between them increased even more, and yet Jo found her eyes once again wandering to Karen. She had to fight to peel them away, and focus on the impending action.

In the makeshift ring of rubberized turf, Jen took up her usual tight stance, while Tucker stood with his arms up, but his stance loose and open. Meanwhile, Lawrence paid the two of them little mind, not even bothering to guard. Jo found his behavior insulting, even though it was the same kind of thing that she did often when faced with fighters who she didn’t expect could beat her. Was this Lawrence’s attitude as well? Was he so convinced that he was stronger than two of the Dueling Hearts at once? Even if he was convinced, he was wrong. No one was that powerful.

Yet Karen didn’t seem concerned. The way she stood so nonchalantly on her team’s side of the makeshift arena, you would never know that she had started this match by threatening a man’s life. You would never know that her teammate was in a bad situation where he could easily find himself seriously hurt. Either she was just as unconcerned as Lawrence himself, or she just didn’t care. In fact, she seemed almost impatient to get things started. She looked from Jen, Tucker and Lawrence, to Jo, and said with a grin, “Let’s make this official, shall we? Team Dueling Hearts versus the Sol Takers, round one, let the Heart to Heart begin.”

Onward to Chapter Nine

#dueling hearts #chapter 1x08 #dh jen #dh tucker #dh lawrence #dh sol takers #aj22writes

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aj22writes · 8 years ago

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Chapter two...

...does a lot of stuff. It introduces the other main characters, gives the reader an idea of how combat works in this universe, and even teases the villains of this book. Because this is a Shonen martial arts show in written form, so of course there are villains.

Fun fact: the female villain introduced here, you could say, is the second main character of this entire story after Jo. Just want you guys to noodle on that a little bit.

Chapter Two

Team Dueling Hearts

Not too far away, the local park bustled with activity. Two large playgrounds sat behind three large ball fields, a tennis court, and a basketball court. Children scurried across them all, laughing and happy, their parents and their friends rushing to keep up. The entire grounds was wrapped by a walking path, leading right up to a thick line of trees that marked the park’s furthest point. Or so it would seem. If one were to follow the path far enough, into the tree line, they would find that the path continues through. It’s overgrown, and clearly in disrepair, but it exists. Walk it long enough, and you will make your way through the trees to the Old Park, an area abandoned by the city, but not by young fighters in the area.

In the Old Park, it was quiet, the bustle of the park proper just far enough away to act as little more than a background ambiance. The air smelled of grass and pollen. It was peaceful, and free of distraction. That’s why, every day, Sol warriors in the area wanting to test themselves would go to the Old Park and fight each other. Some of them regularly trained at one of the local dojos. Others were self-taught. All of them came to the Old Park with the understanding that they would fight fair, or be forced out by the other visitors.

In the Old Park, upon one of two dilapidated basketball courts, a lanky young man stood ready to defend against an attack. He had messy red hair that stood up on his head, and resembled a flame. An intense look passed over this young man’s freckled face and sharp green eyes. His black tank top and red shorts left his arms and legs exposed, showing off scrapes and bruises from near-constant sparring and testing of his abilities. This young man was Paul Tucker, known as Tucker to his friends, and Pyro Tucker to everyone else, and in the Old Park, he was the guy to beat.

Across from Tucker stood another young man about the same age, with medium-length brown hair, wearing a loose T and sweats. Tucker didn’t remember the other man’s name, and despite the other man’s notably sturdier build, and the fact Tucker was on his third fight of the day, and his opponent was completely fresh, Tucker wasn’t worried. He was wary, but not worried, and his opponent could tell. He was hesitant to attack.

The two locked eyes. Tucker had no idea what his opponent’s abilities might be, while his opponent had seen Tucker fight many times. So of course, the obvious move for Tucker to make was to wait for his opponent to strike first, and get a feel for his movements. Instead Tucker, bored with waiting, did the exact opposite. He rushed at his opponent, and threw a very direct right hook. His opponent ducked slightly to the right, and bent his knees. Tucker’s fist sailed past his opponent’s ear, leaving his torso wide open. His opponent struck twice with each fist, in rapid succession, pummeling Tucker in the ribs. Tucker gasped, as the air was knocked from his lungs, and he doubled over. His opponent drew back, and kicked Tucker in the face, knocking him backward. He stumbled, but managed to remain standing.

Tucker’s opponent was surprised. He’d managed to score two solid hits against one of the best fighters in the area. His previous apprehension evaporating, he pressed what he saw as his advantage. He surged forward, his fists becoming wrapped in soft white light, and he wound up to attack again. He was surprised when Tucker looked up at him, smiling. He seemed completely unfazed by the pain that he was undoubtedly feeling, and in spite of that pain, he moved so fast that his opponent could barely track his movements. He slipped into a better stance, and deflected both of his opponent’s jabs without much effort.

Tucker shuffled back, putting distance between himself and his opponent, and then, with less than a second to reestablish his footing, he lunged forward again. Puffs of smoke arose where his feet touched the ground, and before his opponent could react, Tucker struck him twice in the chest, with enough force that it left his opponent stumbling back to avoid falling. Tucker pressed forward, twisting his body in less time than it took his opponent to realize what was happening, and elbowed his opponent in the gut. Then he twisted his body back again, back-handing his opponent in the face. The other young man was sent sprawling to the hard ground, Tucker standing over him, more bruised than before, but triumphant.

“Oh, yeah,” Tucker exclaimed, “that’s one more for the books! Any other takers?”

He looked around at the small crowd that had gathered to see the fight. Not one of them would meet his eyes, and most of them scattered, until only a group of one girl and two guys remained, standing far off to the side. Tucker grinned wide, prepared to call it a day. He was surprised when a familiar voice rang from behind him, saying, “I’ll fight you, but we’ll be late.”

Tucker turned to see Jo walking up to him, her hands pocketed casually, a stupid grin marking her face. Tucker grinned back, “No way, man. That’d take way too long.”

“And you’d lose,” Jo goaded.

Tucker’s friendly smile changed, becoming competitive and fierce, “Oh, I don’t know about that.”

For a second, it almost seemed like the two might actually take the time to fight it out, and it was clear that, if they did, they would enjoy the experience. Instead they had a good laugh together, and Jo waited as Tucker removed a pair of jeans from a bag sitting off to the side of the court, slipped them on, gathered up the bag, and stepped up to Jo’s side. The two walked together back toward the new park, talking and laughing. Neither of them had any idea just how closely they were being watched by the last three spectators.

“That can’t be them,” one of the young men said to the others. He was the tallest of the group, with short brown hair, fierce hazel eyes, and a practiced scowl marring his hard, yet handsome, face. He stood there with his hands resting at his sides, but he didn’t look at all relaxed. He seemed like the type who was always on edge. Always ready in case he was attacked, and always ready to attack back.

“Why’s that?” the second of the group, the second young man, asked. He was as much the opposite of his male companion as he reasonably could be. Where the first young man was dressed casually in a dragon print t-shirt and khakis, this second young man wore a pressed white button-up shirt under a purple vest, and black pants. His hair was long, wrapping his face. He was far less tense, and spoke calmly in contrast to his companion’s overt harshness.

“You saw the red-headed one fight,” the first young man answered, scoffing at the mention of Tucker. “He doesn’t hold a candle to any of us.”

“He was pretty clearly holding back,” the second young man replied thoughtfully. “We didn’t see him use energy from his Sol once, even to defend against his opponent’s energized attack. And don’t forget, there are two more of them in their group who are supposed to be roughly as strong.”

“Two more or twenty more,” the first man argued, “it won’t matter. All four of them could be ten times that strong, and I could still beat them on my own.”

That’s when the final of the three spoke up. Like the other two, she was about Jo and Tucker’s age. Her long brown hair flowed gracefully past her shoulder blades. A spattering of pale freckles adorned the nose and cheeks of her pretty face. She hadn’t once looked away from the two departing figures. Even now, as they crossed into the tree line, she kept her gaze fixed in their direction, anticipation pulling at her lips. “And yet,” she said, “Our Leader has his eye on them. He went to the trouble of sending us to assess their strength. There must be something special about them.”

She looked back at the others. Neither of them argued with her, and they had halted their own argument when she’d spoken. They looked back at her, waiting for her to continue, ready to defer to her.

“We’ll know more after their match, obviously,” she said, curiously, “but I don’t think that we should take these four lightly. I get the feeling that they’re more than they seem.”

She turned once again to look at the place where the two had disappeared into the trees, hoping for one last glimpse at, not Tucker, but the one who had come to meet him.

Jo and Tucker made the short trip to the nearest bus stop in almost no time. Unfortunately, as it turned out, they were still going to be late. The bus showed up a whole twenty minutes later than it should have. The two of them didn’t really mind. No one expected them to be on time. In the end, they arrived at their destination almost half an hour after the time that they’d decided on. They made short work of another quick walk, finally coming upon an inconspicuous single-story house on a curved street, alongside multiple nearly-identical houses. They would have knocked on the door, but there was no need. As they approached, it swung open, and a young woman, a couple of years younger than the two of them, stood waiting.

It would be hard to tell that she was younger to someone who didn’t know. Despite her relative youth, this girl was a little taller than Jo, and nearly as tall as Tucker. She was solidly-built, but not heavy. In fact, an onlooker might find her quite pretty, assuming that they appreciated her dark, lacey clothing, her heavy eye make-up, and the black and purple streaks in her hair.

“You’re late,” the girl said, looking right at Jo. “Your sister’s pissed.”

Then, with a smile, she looked past Jo, at Tucker, and said, “Hey, Tuck.”

“Hey, Jen.”

She led the two arrivals inside, through a modestly-furnished living room. An even younger girl sat on the couch, and waved at Jen and her visitors as they passed by. The three of them made their way through a small kitchen, and down a staircase in the back of the house, into a large finished basement. As they rounded the corner into the first, and smaller, of two rooms, which was furnished with a couch, a chair, and a TV, another girl immediately made herself known.

It was hard to imagine that anyone so small could be so scary, and yet both of those words described this girl. She was slight of frame, but what muscles she had were well defined. The yellow jersey that she wore did nothing to hide her slim, yet powerful, arms. She stood there like a cobra coiled to strike. Her cute, youthful face looked unexpectedly hard. Her shining blue eyes were fierce. Her full head of bouncy golden curls did nothing to soften her appearance.

“You’re late,” she almost spat, her hands planted firmly on her hips. “I told you that I had somewhere else that I need to be. You promised that this wouldn’t take long, and that you’d be on time.”

“Sorry,” Jo replied, shooting the girl the closest that she could come to an apologetic smile while she was trying not to laugh. Jo was afraid of her sister. She was like an angry badger when she got like this. She had no restraint at all, and yet Jo still found her anger amusing.

“Don’t you ‘sorry’ me,” the girl replied harshly. “I can tell when you don’t mean it.”

“Oh come on, Sara,” Tucker said, speaking up from his place behind his friend, “it wasn’t our fault. The bus was late.”

“You stay out of this, Tucker,” Sara snapped, and Tucker hid behind Jo’s back.

Sara looked again at her sister, “You’d better hurry up and tell us what you got us together to tell us. If I hurry, I can still make practice.”

“That’s actually the thing,” Jo said awkwardly, like a woman walking on eggshells, “I was thinking that the four of us should practice. You know, for this weekend.”

“So your plan all along was to get me here and convince we to miss practice to train,” Sara said. It was a statement. Not a question. She sighed, “Fine, I’ll train. I’ll train against you, right now. Fight me. If you win, I’ll stay and work with you and the others instead of going to practice. But when I win, I go, and you don’t get to say a word.”

Jo frowned, “Okay, fine. We’ll have a Heart to Heart to decide if you stay and train with us.”

At the utterance of his words, sparks literally flew between the two of them. Jen and Tucker stepped back, and watched as Jo and Sarah stepped into the second, larger, basement room. This one had no furniture in it. The walls were blank, save some wood paneling, and a rack with some wooden swords and bo staves perched upon it. The floor was covered in a thick mat. The two would-be combatants stepped to either end of the mat. Sara took up a ready stance, her feet close together, and her arms tight to her body. Jo didn’t bother to prepare herself outwardly at all, though Sara could see that she was giving the fight her full attention.

Sara was the first to strike. By now, Jen and Tucker had made their way to the entrance to the room. Sara’s movement across the mat alone was enough to stir their hair and clothing. Her strike was so fast that it could barely be seen, and yet her sister traced it with her eyes the entire time, and avoided it with a carefully timed sidestep. The strike missed her by a centimeter. Sara turned in place. Her movements were tight and controlled, reminiscent of a ballet dancer’s, but with less flourish. She struck twice more at her sister, and then four times more, and then eight, in rapid succession. Her body twisted and turned, putting weight and momentum behind each blow, and yet Jo avoided every single one.

Frustrated, Sara turned on her heel. It was a risky maneuver. One that she’d been practicing, but that she’d never used in an actual fight. She nearly lost her balance, but the maneuver paid off. Without having to regroup, she had moved herself back into position to press her attack. She caught her sister by surprise. Jo actually had to raise her arms and deflect the next strike rather than step out of the way. She was visibly taken aback, and then a smile spread across her face. She knocked Sara’s next barrage of attacks, a quick strike with each fist and a single swinging foot, away, and then stepped in close.

Intending to end things quickly, Jo struck hard and fast at her sister’s torso. She was surprised again when Sara was able to twist once more and curl around her strike, coming in close with her own. Sara couldn’t believe it. She had managed to get inside her sister’s guard. She’d never managed to get inside her sister’s guard before. Jo was just as surprised. It was plain on her face. Sara had been training to improve the fluidity of her movements, and it had paid off! She was going to score a hit. Then, just before her fist could make contact, her target was gone.

“That was really good,” said Jo, from her new place behind her sister. Sara spun around to face Jo as she said, “you’ve almost completely overhauled your fighting style. If you can do that this weekend, it’ll be almost impossible for you to lose. But you’ve got to work on your footwork. Someone could still hit you easily enough if they aimed for your center of gravity.”

“H-how did you move like that?” Sara demanded.

Jo smirked at her, the literal competitive energy arcing between them dissipating, “That’s a secret. Something that I planned on saving for the match. I’m really impressed that I had to use it on you. I guess you’re ready enough that you can go along to practice if you want.”

She meant it, and Sara could tell, but she wasn’t having any of it. “No way,” she exclaimed, “I’m staying. I’m gonna keep practicing until I hit you!”

Jo laughed, and looked to Jen and Tucker as well, “Alright then, let’s pair off.”

The four young warriors spent the rest of the evening sparring with each other. Sara, too stubborn to go home until she’d scored a hit against her sister, did manage to do just that, but only because Jo was too stubborn to risk showing off her new technique again, as she put it, “before it was time”. Meanwhile Jen soundly defeated Tucker multiple times, something that Tucker had come to expect, even if he did find it a little annoying.

Before long, it was late evening, the sun falling steadily below the horizon, and all four fighters were tired, sore, and sweaty, even more so than usual. It was time for visitors to head home, and for all four to get a night of rest to recharge their batteries. Tucker would have to take the bus home, but Jo and Sara weren’t so unlucky.

“Thanks again for the ride, Aunt Val,” Jo told a middle-aged woman who resembled a plumper version of her own mother, as she gathered up her car keys from their hook beside the front door. Jo waved over her shoulder one more time at her cousin Jen, and made her way for the door. Tucker and Sara were close behind. She was a little surprised when Jen stopped her.

“Jo, wait a second,” Jen exclaimed, asking, “weren’t we going to talk about our team’s name? I thought you needed one to finalize our application.”

“Oh,” Jo said awkwardly, “about that. Turns out we ran out of time, so I had to come up with one on my own.”

Jen and Tucker groaned in unison. They knew from experience that most of what Jo thought sounded cool was painfully cheesy to everyone else.

“Yeah,” Sara said, her tone dripping sardonicism, “just wait until you hear this.”

Jo scoffed at her, “Hey, it’s a good name! Memorable and dynamic. Just wait. Before long everyone will know it. From this day forward, the four of us will be known as Team Dueling Hearts!”

Onward to Chapter Three

#dueling hearts #chapter 1x02 #dh tucker #dh sara #dh jen #dh jo #dh sol takers #aj22writes

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aj22writes · 8 years ago

Text

Chapter seven...

...is mostly set-up. It sets up virtually every conflict still to come in this arc of the story. It also, hopefully, explains a few of the things that some of you guys have had questions about. We’ll start to see the set-up pay off as soon as next chapter.

There’s also some neat slice of life stuff that I really hope you guys like. It isn’t relevant enough to events for me to be able to write it often, but I always have fun when I do.

Chapter Seven

Life Energy

Jo had never slept well. For as long as she could remember, she had a tendency to have nightmares. In them, she would feel cold, the kind of cold that comes from being in a dark place untouched by the sun, but the cold would be inside of her, and she would feel like it was also somehow creeping up on her, trying to catch her and drag her away. It was one of the many reasons why she enjoyed fighting so much. After a good fight, she would be so tired that, nightmares or not, she would almost always get a good night’s sleep. The night after the match at the Megadojo was one of her better nights. She had the sense upon waking that she had had the nightmare, but she didn’t remember it.

Her entire body still ached. That wasn’t surprising. Jo was used to being sore after a hard fight. Still, this time was a little different. She’d never had to push herself so hard. Every aspect of that fight had been taxing. Even using her Shadow Step so much at once had been exhausting. She considered just lying there in bed for the rest of the day, but she knew from experience that sore muscles need to be used. Reluctantly, she pushed herself up, dressed in a simple t-shirt and black shorts, ran her fingers haphazardly through her hair, and then made her way slowly down the stairs.

There were many reasons for Jo to wish that she had a more common and conventional natural Sol. As Christopher had said, people with unnatural Sols like hers had more trouble controlling their Sol energy. That meant more trouble creating auras, and making attacks out of Sol. People with unnatural Sols tended to have more Sol energy to work with, but many of them couldn’t amplify their Sol energy without losing control of it and burning themselves out. Jo had, with a lot of hard work and dedication, managed to overcome that handicap, but it wasn’t easy, ever, and that wasn’t the only downside that came about as a result of her Sol’s nature.

Jo reached the bottom of the stairs. She could hear her mom talking to someone. Based on the direction of the sound, it was likely coming from the backyard, carried inside through the open glass back door on a warm spring breeze. It was a Sunday, which meant that Shannon was teaching again. This time, rather than a class of young amateurs, it would be her apprentice, Kimi. Jo leaned around the corner, and confirmed that she was right. Shannon stood across from a cute, slight, Japanese-American girl with shoulder-length straight black hair. The two of them took turns reaching down and touching the ground beneath them. They were practicing Shannon’s signature technique, Life from the Earth, which allowed the user to connect with the life energy of the planet itself and borrow some, using it to supplement their own life energy. They could mix it with their Sol energy, amplifying their Sol more than they ever could using their own life energy alone, or even…

The right kind of Sol, Jo remembered, and her relatively neutral early morning mood turned sour.

Jo thought back to her mother’s Sol lesson only a few days ago, at the part of that lesson that she’d overheard. “More life energy makes a person quicker to heal when they’re hurt,” Shannon had said. That was true. All Sol fighters could use life energy to make their bodies heal faster. Most Sol fighters could also borrow life energy from other sources, helping themselves to heal after a fight, but fighters with unnatural Sols didn’t have that luxury. Jo’s Sol would reject any life energy that wasn’t her own. She could still mix her Sol energy with her life energy, amplifying them both, but that only boosted her ability to heal for a second or so at a time, it was tiring, and, ultimately, it didn’t help much.

Jo turned away from the training session, and made her way around another corner, and down a short hallway to the kitchen. A good breakfast would help push her pain aside and bring her mood back up again. She was pleasantly surprised to see Sara sitting at the kitchen table, gnawing absentmindedly at an unwrapped banana while she read something on her phone. She looked as sore and groggy as Jo felt. Jo knew that, at some point soon, her sister would use their mom’s techniques to get the healing process going, but that didn’t alleviate the sympathy that Jo felt for her in that moment. She tapped Sara’s shin with her toe to get her attention.

“Owww,” Sara moaned, and looked up at her assailant.

“Yo,” Jo asked, “want some eggs. I’m making eggs.”

Sara nodded, and Jo pulled the refrigerator open, gathered up four eggs, butter, and milk. She set the butter to melt in a pan, cracked the eggs into a bowl, splashed them with some milk, and whisked them together with a fork.

She poured the eggs into the hot pan and scrambled them, taking care not to cook the fluff out of them. Once they were done, she separated them between two plates, placed one in front of her sister, and one in front of herself as she sat down at the table as well. She took the banana from Sara’s hand, peeled it, and broke it in half. The two of them ate their breakfast in silence, but Jo, at least, was happy for the company.

As she shovelled the last of her eggs into her mouth, Jo chose to break the silence. “So,” she asked, “any plans for today?”

“No,” Sara replied simply, still reading from her phone. Then, as if she’d suddenly remembered that conversations are supposed to be two ways, she asked, “What about you?”

“I figured that I’d head down to Wilson’s,” Jo replied, sitting back in her chair and crossing her legs casually, “and try to work some of the ach out of my muscles. You’re welcome to come.”

Sara rolled her eyes, “Pass.”

“Fine,” Jo told her cheekily, “go ahead and sit around all day, and let yourself get all stiff. It’s your choice.”

She hopped up and sauntered dramatically toward the doorway separating the kitchen from the rest of the house, but after a moment it became clear that her sister wasn’t going to take the bait, so she shrugged and picked up her pace. Sara didn’t usually like to go with her to Wilson’s to train, but for some reason that she couldn’t pin down, Jo had really wanted her to this time. Maybe the thought of training without a sparring partner after having Keith around for a while was actually getting to her. Either way, she put her odd feeling out of mind and took the few blocks to the dojo at a jog.

Wilson didn’t open the dojo on Sundays, or Mondays, but that didn’t stop Jo from using it. She’d always gotten on well with the old man, and as his one and only permanent student, Jo was allowed full run of the place, whether its doors were open to the public or not. She even had access to her own key, which Wilson kept hidden in a false rock behind the building. Worried, though, that, as early as it was, the old man would still be asleep in his apartment in the building’s back office, Jo decided that she would start her training out on the back lot. It was padded with the same rubbery material that they put under jungle gyms, and was more than large enough even for her to practice her Shadow Step if she wanted to.

Mom and Kimi have the right idea, training outside, Jo thought as she stretched her muscles. It was a gorgeous day. Not too warm, but still sunny enough to get the blood flowing. She moved into basic combinations, darting around the back lot, kicking and flipping at ridiculous speeds. It was no surprise that she failed to notice the same brown-haired girl from earlier that week, at the park, standing in the shadow of a building further down the street, watching her with interest.

********

Sara purposefully ignored Jo as she left. She knew that it irked her sister when she acted so detached, but, as usual, she shrugged it off. She waited a few minutes, and then, once she was sure that Jo would be a good distance from the house, she stood up, and walked down the hall until she could see Shannon and Kimi through the back door in the family room. They were engrossed in their training. Kimi touched her palm to the ground again, with a look of concentration on her face, and suddenly her body radiated golden light. She’d drawn a portion of the Earth’s life energy into herself. Sara frowned. Then, rather than use one of Shannon’s techniques to alleviate the pain of the previous day, as Jo had expected her to do, she turned toward the front door, and she left as well.

Sara followed the same route that Jo had earlier that week, when going to meet with Tucker, and soon, she made it to the park. She walked the path for something like ten minutes, and soon, she found herself in the Old Park. She walked for another ten minutes, until she was at the deepest part of the Old Park, which was a little swampy, and surrounded by dying trees. It was the only part of the Old Park that no one except for her ever used, and that’s exactly why she used it.

After taking a few minutes to stretch, Sara moved to the center of the secluded area. It was only about twenty feet by twenty-five feet, but it was enough for what she needed it for. She adopted a stance identical to the one that Shannon and Kimi had been in for their training: her feet squared with each other, and her hands held together in front of her chest, as if praying. She closed her eyes, and took a calming breath that didn’t quite succeed in erasing the look of anxiety from her face. She reached down and touched the ground. A bead of sweat rolled down her face. For just a moment, the air around her stirred, and a golden glow flickered around her for less than a second. Then it faded, and the air stopped moving.

Sara took a breath. She checked her stance, and tried again. This time, nothing happened at all. Sara scowled, and kicked the mud at her feet, sending it splattering out in front of her. She kicked again, and again, almost losing her footing and toppling over. A near-fall was enough to calm her down, if only a little. She centered herself again, and closed her eyes, this time concentrating on moving the Sol energy in her body. She tried to draw out the life energy in her body and mix the two, but it didn’t work. She could feel the life energy at the core of her being, but she couldn’t make it do what she wanted.

She stomped the ground, and then dropped into a sit. She didn’t even care that she’s half buried herself in stagnant water. She tried, and almost failed, to hold back tears. Sara was the younger child of a practiced Sol fighter. She’d been born with a lot of Sol. Even more than Jo. She’d also trained her Sol to make it even stronger, and make her Sol energy even greater, and just like any practiced Sol fighter, she could bear down on her Sol and make it do what she wanted. She could use raw Sol to make herself stronger or faster, or use her water Sol, the Sol specific to her, to control the water around her, but she couldn’t access her life energy. She’d never been able to, and no matter how hard she tried, no matter how hard she trained, that never changed.

Sara wasn’t one to give up, though. She let herself vent for a few more minutes, and then she stood back up, and she kept trying. She worked late into the day, but she didn’t make any more progress than she ever had. Today was different, though, in that her private, secret training wasn’t quite so private this time. Today she was being watched closely, from the shadows, by a well kempt young man in a silk vest.

********

Jen stood outside of the Megadojo, looking up at the grand opening banner still hanging from its facade. She eyed the place with restrained contempt. She wasn’t as overt with her anger as her cousins, but she felt it just as strongly. She had heard the words of the stout man the day before, and even though she didn’t have an unnatural Sol herself, she was just as disgusted by what that man had said to Jo as Jo herself had been. Jo was a good person, just like most people with unnatural Sols, and it wasn’t like there weren’t people with natural Sols who had horrible secrets. The difference between natural and unnatural Sols was just another way for people to categorize others and gives them a target to hate.

Jen was the type, though, to compartmentalize her feelings when logic was needed. When there was a puzzle to solve, or something of interest to reason through. The interesting thing today was why she was here. Despite the stout man’s words, particularly the ones that indicated that ProCorp and the Megadojo shared his views, Jen had awoken to find that she’d received an email from the Megadojo’s management asking to speak with any members of the Dueling Hearts who would listen. Jo, Sara, and Tucker were all copied on that email, and yet Jen was seemingly the only one who had seen it, as she was the only one here. Or so she thought.

“So you saw it too?” inquired a masculine voice, one that Jen recognized, though its fierce tone was something of a surprise. She turned to see Tucker walking up behind her. She was surprised all over again to see a flash of literal fire in his green eyes. He crossed his arms. He was breathing heavily, and Jen could feel heat radiating from him.

Jen didn’t blame him. She didn’t see this side of Tucker often. Usually he was a lovable dork who liked physical competition, but when it came to standing up for one of his friends, he became almost an entirely different person. All of the Dueling Hearts could handle themselves, and yet Tucker would throw down for any of them anyway, but none more so than Jo. The connection between them was something special. It wasn’t anything overt, but anyone who knew them well could tell that they trusted each other completely, and cared for each other as family. Thinking back, it had probably been nothing more than surprise that had kept Tucker from exploding on the stout man yesterday. Jen couldn’t help but smile. A bond that strong was really something to admire.

“You have any idea why they asked us here?” Tucker asked.

“No,” Jen answered, turning back toward the building again. “That dude yesterday said that ProCorp wanted us not to come back. I’m tempted to honor that, and go home.”

She looked over her shoulder at Tucker, “Then again, I’m curious. You think you can resist hitting anyone until we get an answer?”

Tucker shrugged. Jen smirked, and started toward the door, Tucker following just behind her.

Inside the Megadojo, to the right, was a desk where new prospective members could find literature, and talk with staff about joining. Almost as soon as the two Dueling Hearts were through the front doors, a woman approached them from that desk. She was in her mid twenties, pretty, with light brown hair and strong cheek bones. She had a nice, eye-catching smile, accentuated by her perfectly applied lipstick. She looked like a salesperson, and it only took Jen a second to realize that it would be people like her who would eventually be in charge of convincing people to spend their money on the promise of this place. Jen already didn’t like her on principle.

The pretty young woman told Jen and Tucker that management was awaiting their arrival. She looked behind them, as if expecting all four of them. Jen didn’t bother telling her that Jo and Sara weren’t the type to think of checking email, ever, unless they were expecting a message. Instead, she let the woman go and get her boss. Jen had expected the stout man. Instead, a middle aged Latino man emerged from an office behind the counter. There was a ruggedness to him, and, unlike the woman, this man looked like he would actually know his way around a Heart to Heart arena. Despite his hardness, when the man saw them, his expression cycled through surprise and relief, before settling on sympathy. When he told Jen and Tucker how truly sorry he was about the way that the stout man had treated them, Jen believed him.

The man introduced himself only as Eric, and promised that the stout man did not speak for ProCorp, or the Megadojo and its staff. He explained that the stout man was not originally supposed to be the only manager at the opening, and that, if he hadn’t been, he never would have been allowed to say the things that he said. He told them that the stout man had been let go, that he had been asked not to return, and that the facility, and that Eric personally, were offering the Dueling Hearts a sincere apology.

“It’s not enough to apologize to us,” Tucker said. “You’ll need to apologize to Jo, too,”

Jen agreed with him, and Eric insisted that he would, at the very next opportunity. Jen believed him this time, too. It seemed like Tucker did, too. He didn’t let it show, but his mood had improved dramatically. Jen could feel that he wasn’t radiating heat anymore, which was always a good sign.

Jen thanked Eric for everything that he’d said. When he offered all of the Dueling Hearts free memberships, even past the end of the Megadojo’s free period, and asked them if they would be willing to stay and use the facility for the day, and give it a second chance, Jen and Tucker both, tentatively, agreed.

The two of them found a mat, and they spent a few hours doing some basic forms, and a little bit of sparring. They eventually left after it became a little too annoying seeing people watching them, recognizing them from the exhibition match. If only they had paid attention to the people watching them, rather than trying to avoid them, they might have noticed the tall, hard-faced young man with the hazel eyes who watched them with more intensity than the rest.

********

That night, after everyone had gone home, the three secret observers met up in the Old Park, on the square of asphalt where they had watched Tucker fight. They showed a familiarity with each other that was reminiscent of family, and yet they didn’t make small talk of any kind. As soon as they were close enough to hear each other without raising their voices, the tall one, with the hazel eyes, spoke.

“I’m sure,” he said, “there’s nothing special about these four.”

“As hard as it may be to believe,” said the one in the silk vest, “I actually agree. The one I was shadowing, Sara, she can’t even draw on her life energy. At all. I mean, she has talent, but there’s no way she’s a candidate.”

They looked to their leader. The dark-haired girl considered it for a moment. She twisted her hair in her fingers, and thought about Jo. She thought about how unlikely Jo’s victory over Christopher Johnson had been, and about how she had managed to keep fighting even after she probably shouldn’t have been able to. About how she had managed to create a technique that was as impressive as any of theirs, on her own, at her age. Even if the others weren’t, and the girl was still not convinced of that, Jo was impressive. She deserved another look.

“I disagree,” the girl said to her male companions. “They were impressive enough that, considering Our Leader’s interest, it’s worth testing them.”

The well-dressed young man nodded his assent. The young man with the hazel eyes frowned, “Fine. At least I’ll get to fight someone. If I dial it back, it could be fun.”

“Fight them however you want,” the dark-haired girl told him with a cheeky smile, “but despite what we’ve seen, I still think that these four might surprise us. Let’s give them a few days to recover from their last fight, and then find out.”

Onward to Chapter Eight

#dueling hearts #dh jo #dh sara #dh jen #dh tucker #dh sol takers #chapter 1x07 #aj22writes

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