The Marauder vs The Finch

He followed the sound of the voice and it led him right to the middle of the city. He had given Miriam the same excuse he had used the previous day; that he had to run an errand but this time a long one. But what could have made her suspicious was that he had given her the keys to the attic's door which held all his money. He had said these words to her as he handed her the key: "In case I do not return by nightfall."

Now here he stood before the Finch. She was wearing a black, hooded tracksuit and black sneakers, a different move to her funeral clothes but the tone still the same. Brendan got the feeling that this change of clothing from formality to casual meant that she was in no mood for games, even her expression said so. She was wearing a slight frown on her face but even still, it did not hinder her beauty in the slightest. She stood with her arms akimbo.

There was no sign of any human being in the area.

She raised her eyebrows and made a broad smile.

This relieved Brendan but only just a little.

'What's your answer?' She did not waste time.

'My answer is…Go jump in a lake.'

She shook her head, 'That was your last chance.' Without warning, she used heightened speed and ran towards Brendan and kicked him in the chest. The blow sent him flying and crashing into the walls of a barbershop. She started walking slowly towards him. A wicked smile was on her face. 'Just to let you know, I'm not using even a fragment of my full power. I know how weak you are, Anonymous.'

He quickly stood up. 'Just out of curiosity…why did you create the Bradwield Terror?' he asked her.

'Just to buy me some time, you imbecile. I knew your Versatile gene would not let you die under the hands of a Destroyer, even if it is the strongest of the breed.'

'You wanted him to buy you time for what?' He stood up straight.

She was now a short distance from him. 'For my birthday party of course. Too bad your gene can't save you in this fight. It can only reveal itself for a limited time, maybe about four to five minutes.'

He dusted himself up, 'Why do you trick people into giving you their souls?' he asked her, his back still aching.

'I can create a replica of one's youth using his or her soul or heart and these keep me young and beautiful. As for my rhymes, well..,' she rolled her eyes, 'since not everyone can crack their meaning then that gives me an advantage. But it's not only souls that I require; favors too, just like with the oxygen potion I made with your grandfather. He wanted to use it for the good of mankind but as for me…I had my own plans for it. No one had ever seen what I looked like so I squealed to the police, telling them that Jonas was practicing magic in the forest and that's how they found him. I only managed to steal my cauldron and had to leave a lot of my valuable herbs in my former domain.'

Brendan scratched his head. He had to keep asking her questions. He wanted to stall her, for what, he did not know. All he knew was that the kick she had rammed in his chest had probably broken something in his body, and so he needed to keep her talking if he wanted to stay alive for a little while longer. And so he said, 'But if no one had seen you for a long time, why didn't you deny being the Finch when they found you?'

She laughed loudly. 'That would be because I lied to you! I got myself arrested. You think I was too weak to stop those useless fools from prosecuting me? Another fact you don't know; I planted that snake you used on Black Ice for your prank. You never asked yourself why the Supremes you've encountered so far are from your school? I used my telepathy to lure them to the forest: Flicker, Ice, Price, that Angus boy...After that it was all about seducing them with promises of power.'

'But why?'

'Because they never mattered. I needed you, and to get you I had to use those close to you. Everything I've done, every plan I've made for the past couple of centuries was to eventually bring you over to my side. To make you see this biased and cruel world the way I see it, so we could reshape it.

I wanted this city to blame you for setting me free and I also wanted to debauch you when I planted that snake, so that you would abandon these people and follow me.'

He dashed at her using his heightened speed and kicked her in the belly with the full sole of his foot.

She did not move an inch. She turned her eyes to his foot which was placed on her stomach. 'Cheap shot?' She laughed as she gripped his ankle, 'I didn't expect such cowardly tactics from the city's hero.' She pulled him forward and kicked him in the side of his neck, the tremendous force turning him into a football catapulting for another building. The building collapsed on top of him.