The hounds barked and snarled, leaping from car to car on the deserted street. Their sleek bodies and shiny bck fur gleaming in the unsteady glow of the streetlights. Drool dripped from sd hungry jaws, teeth like razorbdes tearing through metal like it aper. Above, the lurker watched its pack’s progress with glowing eyes. A sudden movement drew its attention and it slipped bato the gloom of the building it had perched on. There was a snap then the whistle of something moving faster than the human eye could perceive. One of the hounds was lifted off the ground with the force of a terrible impact, it yelped and hit the ground, skidding a few feet. A shiny bck arrow protruding from its fnk.
“Go!” A young man shouted from an alley, a bck hood over his head cealing his face. He clutched an intricate bow in his hand made of a dark lookial. He held the bow up, reag forward as if to draw the string bad another arrow formed between his fingers. He took aim as the hounds rounded on him, rage in their eyes. Four of them lu him, their teeth bared only for an enormous hammer to e down hard on the head of the leader. It didn’t even have a ce to whine as its head ulverized.
The man holding the hammer, shirtless and wearing a ski mask, barked out a ugh and spun his body. He gripped the end of the long handle of the on and brought it up against the side of the hound and with a noisy ch it was sent flying into the car, dead. The other two hounds didn’t hesitate, they turned on the hreat and charged him, one g its jaws around the handle as the big man brought it up to defend himself. An arrow fihat one off with a thud.
“Hah! he hammer wielder barked.
“One more, Sledge!” The bowman shouted, drawing another arrow, “Don’t get distracted!”
Sledge rolled his eyes and kicked, hard, catg the st Hound in the jaw and sending it up into the air. He fixed his grip and brought his on up into the air before pulling it back down with a roar, finishing the st one. “I’m fine, Bandit! Quit nagging me!”
Bandit frowned beh his hood and stepped out, gng around, “There’s usually more in a group.”
Sledge flexed his arm and gri him, “Maybe they went back where they came from, afraid of all this!” He ughed.
A noisy bang sounded dowreet, a momentary fsh of blue light apanied by the yelps of several hounds. Sledge turo look in the dire and slung his hammer over his shoulder, “Show off,” He said with a frown.
In the distance, a young woman stood with her hands outstretched and a determined look on her face, a white domino mask the only thing cealing her features. Sparks of blue light danced around her fiips before swirling into what looked very much like a magic circle, it bloomed with iy before several darts of blue light unched from it, striking a final hound several times and leaving it defeated on the ground. She let out a breath and stood amongst the group of dead creatures, brushing her aquamarine robes off with disgust.
Bandit walked up o Sledge, “Just be gd she joined roup,” He said with a shrug, “I just wish we had a proper healer.”
Sledge snorted, “Whatever mister gamer, let’s a lost before the cops show up.”
“Right,” Bandit said with a nod and cupped his hands over his mouth, “Bluestar you good over there?” He shouted.
Bluestar looked up from the corpses and waved at him, “I’m fine!” She called and began walking over. “Any others?”
“I’m cheg now!” Bandit called bad hopped onto the car, turning in a circle, his eyes turning bck as he sed his surroundings. He paused and frowned, “Hm.”
“What? What’s ‘hm’?” Sledge asked as Bluestar got closer.
Bandit held up a hand and started to trace his gaze up the side of a building, his eyes narrowed and then widened. He took a step bad slipped off the top of the vehicle, moving slowly backwards, “Guys… we should go.”
Sledge looked up, following his line of sight, “I don’t see anything.”
Bluestar did the same and held out a hand. Bandit whipped his head in her dire, “No! Don’t! It’s a Lurker!”
A ball of light appeared between her fingers and shot out before he could stop her, it hurtled through the air and exploded, casting brilliant blue light over the roof of the building. The three of them could only look up in horror at the massive creature that seemed to materialize out of nowhere. Its huge body tensed as its powerful jaws opened in a bloodthirsty snarl. It threw its head bad let out a terrible howl before leaping off the side of the building and nding with a terrible crash oreet below.
“Fuck it!” Sledge shouted, “Bring it on!”
He hefted his on a out a roar, Bandit threw out his hand to try to stop him but it was no use. Sledge had crossed the distan a matter of seds, his on already in a full swing. He brought it up into the air and it crashed into the massive beast’s head. The creature’s head turned with the impad a low grunt of pain rumbled from its throat. Sledge barked out a ugh, “See? We hurt it-”
A blur of bck followed his triumphant shout, there was a noisy ch, and Sledge’s torso was just… gone.
“Sledge!” Bandit screamed and drew his bow up, “Damn it!” He fired a pair of arrows at the beast that was looking down at the new corpse with a small amount of fusion, as if it were surprised the big man had died so easily. The two arrows smmed into its side followed by a cascade of blue bolts of light. It let out a roar of pain, holding its arms up to protect its face as a teary eyed Bluestar rained fire at it alongside her rade. It darted to the right, Bluestar’s attack following it as it sought cover behind a truck.
Bandit turo the alley behind them, “We o go, now!” He shouted at Bluestar.
“But-” He cut her off by grabbing her arm and pulling.
“Don’t argue with me here!” He shouted and pulled her towards the alley, running as hard as he could. “We just a!”
She followed him down the alley, gng over her shoulder as a furious roar ripped through the street, “What about-”
“That thing’s too fast for us le people to deal with, it’ll kill us!” Bandit insisted pulliowards the end of the alley with all the strength he could, his face ale and his hood had fallen back revealing the bck-grease smeared face beh. She frowned but kept her mouth shut only to stumble as a loud crash sounded above them. They both looked up, mid run, into the eyes of the lurker leering down at them from above.
Bluestar pulled her wrist from Bandit’s hand and stopped, fag the creature, “It’s not gon us get away!” She shouted and threw her hands up. A magic circle f over her fiips.
“Bluestar!” Bandit shouted and then ran back to her side, cursing under his breath as he drew his bow up to point up at the creature. It let out a howl and leaped down towards them as a partial dome of blue light exploded ience above them. It hit the dome with a thud a out a cry of pain as sparks began to dan its limbs. It tried to pull its limbs away from the dome only for a stream of crag energy to pull it back down.
“Shoot it!” Bluestar barked, blood dripping from her nose and Bandit began to fire one arrow after another into the nightmarish thing. It screamed and brought its limbs up again, snarling before smming down on the barrier between it and its prey. Bluestar winced a her feet, trating with every ounce of strength she had. More arrows flew past her and through the barrier, pelting the lurker and leaving its front side looking like that of a pore. One arrow in particur strue, though, and dug into its eye.
RAAWWOORRR!
It howled in agony and stumbled, sliding off the side of the barrier. It thrashed, smming its limbs frantically at the blue shield. Cracks began to form and Bluestar coughed, blood dripping from her lips. Bandit looked at her in horror, “Blue-” He couldn’t finish his statement, the sound of breaking gss followed by a furious bellow was the only thing he heard before he was knocked away. He hit the ground and slid, scrambling to his feet in time to see Bluestar crumple to the ground while the lurker loomed over her, fury in its one good eye.
“Damn it!” He croaked and drew one more arrow, “Don’t you fug hurt her!”
FWOOOOSH!
The sound came from nowhere, one moment, nothing, the , a n of fire crashed down on the back of the beast. Its entire body erupting in a fgration. Its howl turned into a high pitched scream as it threw its head back to look up at the tacker. Bandit covered his face, the heat enough to feel like it would burn him from this distance. He tried to scream Bluestar’s his voice choked in his throat, the heat was too much! Then, just like that, the fmes vanished. He pulled his arms bad gaped in wo the ruined corpse of the lurker crumbling to pieces in the middle of the alley.
“Holy…” He breathed and then scrambled to his feet, “Bluestar!” He shouted and darted towards the blue-garbed figure ying on the ground a few feet away from the body. He slid to a stop and k o her, “Blue… are you?” He touched her shoulder, there were no burns. He blinked as she coughed and shuddered, curling into a ball. “You’re alive, oh shit,” He ughed wearily, falling onto his rear and coughing.
“Oh, there were two of you, didn’t see you there bud, sorry if the heat got to you,” A voice called out from behind Bandit. He whirled and got to his feet once again, drawing his on only to freeze. A man was standing there in ostensibly the most ic-book accurate get-up he’d ever seen. A full jumpsuit that eve as far as to include a cowl to cover the top half of his head. It was red and e with a fiery design on it that would have looked y if he hadn’t just cooked a lurker alive.
“...Firestorm,” Bandit breathed.
The hero rested his hands on his hips and gri him, “You guys did great! You really held in there,” Firestorm said brightly.
Bandit lowered his on and looked at the ground, “We lost Sledge and Bluestar is really hurt.”
Firestnced past Bandit and out of the alley where the lower half of Sledge still k grotesquely. He let out a breath and shook his head, “Damn, I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner,” He said and gowards Bluestar, “Lifesaver is on the way, we were in town. I ran off ahead when I heard the lurker howl.”
Bandit felt all of his strength leave him but he forced himself to remain standing, he hung his head, “Thank you.”
Firestorm walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder, “You gave it your all, man, that’s what matters. Bluestar put on one hell of a show, too. What’s your ame?”
“Bandit,” The young man croaked, his shoulders trembling.
“I’ll remember it,” He said as another person slid to a stop outside the alley behind him, a man in a white pgue-doctor’s mask and b coat. He had his hands on his knees and was heaving, taking in big gulps of air.
“Firestorm… you… asshole…” He choked, “I… hate… running…”
Firestorm turned with a brilliant smile, “Oh hey Lifesaver! You’ve got patients.”
Lifesaver looked up and Bandit could almost feel the man scowl behind the mask but then he looked to Bandit and Bluestar and stiffened. “The guy has broken bones but nothing serious, the girl needs help quickly,” He said hurriedly and stalked forward, rolling up his sleeves. He ast Bandit in an instant, dropping to a knee o Bluestar. He held out his hands and silver liquid began to drip from his fiips spshing onto Bluestar’s body.
Bandit watched the creepy looking power for a moment befng back at Firestorm who seemed happy as a cm, “She’ll be fine,” Firestorm said with a nod and pat him on the shoulder. Just then, a jolly ringtone filled the alley and the fiery hero paused, he reached into a hidden pocket on his outfit and pulled out a phone. “Woah!” He gasped and grinned sheepishly at Bandit, “Sotta take this.”
Bandit watched him in fusion for a moment and turned away, going to sit dowo Bluestar. The silver liquid was flowing across her body and trating on her chest and throat before slowly seeping through cloth and flesh. She let out a gasp and trembled before rexing, her chest rising and falling normally. Bandit let out a sigh of relief as she opened her eyes a crad looked at him, “Did we win?”
“Yeah, we’re okay,” Bandit croaked, taking her hand, he looked up at Lifesaver who was still focused on healing her. “Thank you.”
“It’s what I do,” Lifesaver said dismissively.
“Hey guys!” Firestorm called, walking back over and putting his phone away, he rested his hands on his hips and struck a pose, grinnio ear. “How would you like to do something really heroic?”
