She trusted him. Though she could not say why, something deep inside Anora bade her to believe what he had said, his words echoing in her mind. Though she knew little of magic, she had no doubt the surge of strength that had rolled over her had been sent from [i]him.[/i]
	Now, leaning against the car she doubted would provide much--if any--protection, she listened to the voice of the gray-skinned man as it traveled down the street. His words confirmed what Anora had felt; the silver-eyed man who had helped her was none other than the mysterious Pahnjaka.
 	She felt the sickness and dizziness that accompanied the overuse of her powers fade quicker than it should have, allowing her to slowly rise to her knees, careful to keep her head behind the car’s hood. But the questions still remained: who [i]was[/i] he? What was the connection between him and her? Who was the gray-skinned man, and what did [i]he[/i] want? Or the reptilian woman, for that matter? Were the two connected somehow, or was their appearance sheer coincidence?
	She shuddered as a sensation between the prickle of being watched and having the contents of an egg slide over her skin encompassed her. She dared to poke her head just far enough above the car to see the gray-skinned man looking in her direction. She gasped and ducked back down, though she knew it would do no good.
	Of [i]course[/i] he would have noticed her. To someone who could aid in the destruction of a city block, locating someone like her must have been child’s play.
	Faster than Anora would have thought possible, a black mass burst into existence and stained the sky as far as she could see, a large, gruesome face jeering downward as a menacing red light formed in the depths of the face’s open jaws. She barely had time to open her mouth, gawking at the manifestation that blotted out the sun yet left its light, before the red energy shot down in a fierce ray toward Pahn.
	[color=violet]“No!”[/color] she shouted, hopping to her feet and placing her hands on the car’s hood. But the word had barely left her mouth as Pahn's silvery disks flew up to meet the ray.
	With a bone-rattling explosion, the two energies collided and created a blinding flash of white light that bleached the world.
	Anora gasped and fell once more to her knees, her eyes closed and head bent. The light radiated through her eyelids for a short second, the clatter of loose stones and chunks of broken concrete rolling around her as a fierce wind blew through the streets.
	She only opened her eyes when the sound of metal-on-metal assaulted her ears. She dared to look up at the face still hanging in the sky. Another glowing orb of red had begun to pull in its mouth as white, radiant spears pierced its dark form, one after the other. Anora lost count of how many of the massive shapes penetrated it before, at last, the mass dissolved beneath the power of the spears. Without the mass of clouds to keep them in place, she watched as they fell to the earth.
	Anora went to poke her head up again to see what damage had been done to the fighters, when a gray dust cloud rose from their fight.
	She gasped and ducked back down as it shot toward her, making her body as small as possible. Just as the cloud hit, she thrust a hand out over her, and one of her forcefields formed in an arc above her. All the same, she bent her head as if to better protect it. The clunk and clatter of small bits of rocks and broken bits of cement falling to the earth [i]thunked[/i] around her, bouncing off the car beside her and raining down on her force field. Small golden ripples erupted over the veined purple with each piece of debris that hit.
	When the harsh rain stopped and all fell still, Anora let her shield dissolve away and cautiously stood. Though dust still hung in the air, she could make out a deep crater where the two men had stood, layers of concrete, gravel, and soil all blown away with Pahn only just visible to her from its center.
	[color=violet]“Pahn,”[/color] she breathed in a mix of fear and relief, using the nickname she had heard the gray-skinned man use. But as she watched, he did not move.
	[color=goldenrod][i]Why isn’t he moving?[/i][/color] Panic settled in her chest as the dust finally fully cleared. The aura that had radiated from him had died down, but still it hung in the air.
	In the light of the sun that now shone its face once more upon the town, despite the slight haze that still hung around him, she noticed thick liquid dripping down from the corner of his mouth. 
	[color=goldenrod][i]Is that... [u]blood?[/u][/i][/color] She held her breath. He was hurt, and there was no telling where the gray-skinned man had gone. The desire, the [i]need[/i] to protect him, to remove him from harm’s way, welled inside her.
	Any thought of her own safety tossed aside, she vaulted over the narrowest part of the car’s hood and hit the ground on the other side running. She tripped when stepped wrong on a slab of uneven concrete, nearly making her stumble into the gigantic crater head first.
	The ground around his feet was quickly turning to mud. A familiar crackling buzz sounded softly from the opposite side of the hole. She looked over, and gasped; severed underground electrical wires dangled from the driest portion of the hole, and the foul water was mixing dangerously fast with the soil and creating wet pools.
	[color=violet]“Pahnjaka!”[/color] she yelled urgently from the rim of the crater.
	If her voice did not stir him to action, Anora cast a fearful glance to the live wires. Though unsure if the waters thick with mud would conduct the electricity or not, if the water rose faster than the dirt could absorb it, she feared the worst. Moving as quickly as she could, she dangled her legs over the side of the crater, then dropped down. She landed with a sickening wet [i]squealch[/i] in the softened soil. She pulled her boots free from the strong grasp of the mud beneath the layer of water that had formed on top, and sloshed toward Pahn, her gaze focused on the wires and mud at her feet.
	Once close enough, she finally looked up to him as she reached a hand toward him. She paused, incapable of keeping herself from marveling at his appearance. He towered nearly a foot above her. Everything from his chiseled features and muscles, to the age and knowledge beyond his years swimming in the depths of his silvery, angered gaze looked... [i]perfect.[/i] The rage on his face sent a shudder down her spine, making her wish she could wipe it away and replace it with something more fitting for a being like him.
	Shaking her head to pull herself back to the task at hand, she gripped his wrist tightly, half expecting it to be made of the marble he seemed to be carved from instead of soft flesh.
	[color=violet]“Listen to me!”[/color] She shook his arm and cast the wires another glance. [color=violet]“We need to go! [i]Now![/i]”[/color]