Gauntlet Girls

The woman looked up at the six people looming over her. She slowly stood up, observing her surroundings. Julian left the room, and Cassandra followed. Willow decided to head out as well.

The woman clutched her spinning head in an attempt to keep it still, trying to make sense of where she was. When her sight focused, she saw Einer and Hikaru. Wait, what? Einer was dead. But behind them was…

"What are you trying?!"

She got into a fighting stance. Einer and Hikaru both got out of the way as she lunged towards Zach. Zach put both of his arms to his face as her arm clashed against them. She quickly kicked of his body to return both to a neutral position. Zach spent a second trying to assess the situation as the woman dove behind him, clapping the back of her left hand against the back of her right. A second version of her appeared out of a sudden cloud of smoke, matching her fury. The main one leapt back in front of Zach while her clone grabbed his arms and tried to hold them back. When the main one tried going in again, this time for a kick, Zach broke the clones grasp, slamming it against the main body. The clone disappeared as the main body was slammed against the wall, falling in a heap. She raised her head, still filled with an unmatched feeling of intense hatred. Zach took a step back, and Einer leapt in between the two. He summoned an icicle in his hands and threw it forward, embedding itself in the brick walls of the house.

"Jade! It's not Nickolas!" He screamed at her.

Jade stood up, looking towards Zach. he certainly looked a bit younger. Nickolas was a crooked old man, while this man looked middle aged, but still clearly in fighting shape.

"It's his descendent."

Jade looked at Einer with a puzzled expression.

"Descendant?"

"It's a long story." Hikaru answered.

"Not at all!" Julian yelled enthusiastically, bursting into the room holding a pile of worn out clothes. "You and your friends were trapped in weapons by our ancestors before they got into ships to escape their actions two hundred years ago. The three of you were freed, and now I guess we gotta do the rest."

Julian dropped the clothes in front of Jade.

"Okay, I grabbed everything that didn't look important. Cover yourself up, we'll deal with underwear later."

After Jade dressed in her favourite outfit available, a plain white t-shirt with a dark green cardigan with worn out grey tracksuit bottoms, Einer and Hikaru sat her down at the table, explaining everything to her as soon as they could. When they finished, her rage present at the beginning shifted to a vibe of melancholy.

"Two hundred years…" Her mind was clearly trying it's best to catch up with everything that's been said to her. "Airships…"

"Would it be better if I showed you from the roof?" Zach asked.

Zach guided Jade to the houses flat roof. Just the two of them. Jade overlooked the city. It's homes and apartments leading to a bustling market street. Noises could be heard from the small artificial hill overlooking it.

"Is there some kind of festival?" She asked.

"Kind of. Fightston games ended today. It's a fighting tournament where everyone is allowed to enter if they want. Once it ends, people from all over celebrate in the streets."

"Celebrate the tournament?"

"Eh, I see it as more than that." Zach said casually. "It's about unity. We all get brought together and then dance in the streets. It's a sign that whatever the world throws at us, we got this."

"Well, you are the descendants of those that threw first." Jade said, her tone dropping slightly more deadpan.

"Oh, right." Zach said slowly, averting his gaze.

"I mean, it's not like you knew." Jade sighed. "So it's not like I can hold it against you."

"That's good to know."

"But." She continued. "I refuse to believe nobody knows." She looked to the cylindrical ship in the centre, the Lux building.

"It that where the leader lives?" She asked.

"Mia Burri, yes." Zach replied. "Know the name?"

"I knew Levin Burri. The man who got the weapons from the government to put into his ships. Always a collector, that man. Especially when it was something he wasn't supposed to have."

"Is he the one that got you?"

"Did you not notice?"

Jade turned to meet Zach, and he finally got a good look at her face. Tanned skin with smooth black hair going down to her shoulders, simply straightened with nothing else done to it. And a vertical scar across both of her eyes.

"Bastard got me good. Last thing I remember before the feeling of a blade to the neck."

"Can you see?"

"Glasses wouldn't hurt, but I can make out the important stuff."

Jade turned to Zach.

"You ever fight in that tournament?"

"Me? Not since the first one thirty years back."

"But you could take the younger ones, right?" She asked, flashing a cheeky grin at him.

"Eh. Probably." Zach nodded after folding his arms.

"Well then." Jade replied, adjusting her neck and cracking her knuckles. "Mind if we go a few rounds?"

"Really?"

"Yeah! I need to see what the fighting ship is capable of!"

Both contestants began unleashing a flurry of fists and attacks. Jade kept up the cloning, trying her best to keep up with Zach's wielder abilities. After a solid ten minutes, both fell to a heap on the ground, enveloped in the warmth of the evening sun to their side.

"So I take it we're calling it a tie?" Zach asked between heaves. "Gods, age is really catching up with me."

"I can settle for that." Jade sighed back, swallowing back just a little bit of vomit. "But gimme a day or two to get these aches outta me, and your ass is toast."

"Yeah, sounds good." Zach chuckled to himself as he got up. As he did, he saw a group of people in robes approaching his house. About twenty in total. Zach stayed out of their view, observing as they politely knocked on the door. The people inside didn't answer. Jade came to Zach's side, silently beginning to clone herself. She made four clones, the maximum she seemed able to make without straining herself. All five jumped down while Zach went back to the ground floor.

"Guys, we gotta go!" Zach yelled to everyone in the house. "Through the back!"

They all did as instructed, with an explosion hitting the front of the house as soon as they left. More explosions began rapidly hitting the house, until the whole thing was erupting in flames. Einer tried shooting some ice to cool it down, but another explosion hit. Zach just put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

The six of them ran outside to greet the attackers. The man in front of the line quickly removed his hood.

Cassandra tried to hold in her disgusted reaction. Muscular man with sunglasses holding that same goddamn grenade launcher. The man who tried to take over the Sandala grand at the start of all this. Although the next question popped into her head. How did she know what it was?

"How's it going, little lady?" He asked politely. "Been a while since I could see what you were up to."

"Trying to stop you."

"Stopping me, now? Not a fan of the rehab treatment now that I actually appear?"

"Listen." Zach said, stepping right up to him. "If anyone here wants to defect and tell us what you know, I'll do everything in my power to integrate you back into society."

The man stood still for a second.

"Nah, I like where I am."

He aimed his grenades for another shot. Hikaru drew a circle in the air to catch the grenade in a ring of pure electricity, repelling it back towards the group. Muscles ducked, letting the grenade hit his comrades. The explosion caused several of their robes to catch fire. Those in the centre dropped and stopped moving. A small looking member moved away in fear, causing her hood to drop.

It was the girl Roxanne faced in the first round.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Willow screamed at her, running up and grabbing her hood, twisting it to the front of her neck.

"Look, I can tell you everything! The Legion are gonna attack the arena for the finals ceremony! We have several legion members in the tournament already! a-and they're coming for-"

Her sentence was abruptly ended by muscles fist. She fell to the floor with blood spilling from her nose and mouth. Zach leapt into action, punching muscles in the back of the head. He grabbed his arm and sent his knee upwards, a cracking noise reverberating through the small crowd. Another punch, and he was out cold. Einer and Hikaru used their ice and electricity to dispatch the main crowd still trying to fight, while Jade's clones picked off any stragglers trying to escape. Just when it seemed things were about to die down, Zach's phone began to ring.

"Hey boss, you sure you wanna continue the ceremony. Are the girls just gonna share first place?"

"What are you talking about?" Zach asked.

"We were told to go ahead with the ceremony. Why, did something change?"

"Clear the area! We're about to be attacked!"

The phone hung up, just as the shadows of airships flew above them. Nothing from any one country, all stolen from different grands.

The Legion was here.