"I dunno, probs some villain. She's got th-"Anomaly was interrupted by the smoky appearance of Smog, taking the form of a five story solid wall of dark clouds. Something triggered in Anomaly, and her psychic hands faded away, a visibly worried expression appearing on Anomaly's face. Well, whatever wasn't covered by the bandanna she wore to obscure her identity.
"O-oh no..." Smoke came from fire, and Anomaly didn't know if there was any actual fire around.
Lucky looked around in confusion. "Oh no? Oh no what? Do you know this woman?" She asked slowly.
"Know not, a blank slate waiting to be created and filled," Smog replied simply, walking forward slowly as the smoke started billowing out from her, acting as a smokescreen over the area around the three.
"N-No I don't, but it's the smoke--"The sudden smokescreen caused Anomaly to fall over into a coughing fit, her body stumbling towards Lucky as best as it could. She was successful in doing that, at least, as she collided with the more built hero. After managing to get a hold of her cough, Anomaly looked back up at Lucky.
"The s-smoke reminds me of f-fire... I-I can't w-work around f-" Anomaly started coughing again. This wasn't a good start to this encounter, not at all.
Lucky was, well, lucky her face was covered.
"Rip a good bit of fabric off of me or yourself. It'll help filter the smoke out," she said carefully. "I don't think there's fire, though. Just this smoke. And I can't see...."
At that moment a fist collided with Lucky's face, knocking her back onto her rump.
"Ow! You bitch..." She complained, rubbing her face and rising back to her feet. "Anomaly, we gotta do something or we're-"
A solid blast of smoke knocked her back to the ground. "Fuck!"
"How do I rip som - Oh shit!" Anomaly stepped back as she dodged the punch, Lucky taking the blow. She was down a set of hands, and Lucky was down her eyes. If this kept going on, things would be unfortunate. She had to get the courage worked up. She could do this! She could fight back! As Anomaly focused, a purple hand reappeared to pull her bandanna, but the other stayed behind. Well, it was definitely something.
Anomaly's hand flew towards Lucky, floating over her with a sense of urgency.
"Grab it and let it guide you!"Lucky shook her head. "I can see, but I can't see her. If I can't see her...I don't want to kill her."
Another blast of smoke was sent towards them, at Anomaly this time.
Anomaly stepped to the side quickly, the smoke blast clipping her shoulder and taking her hoodie sleeve off.
"That was my favorite hoodie!" Another psychic fist formed as it flew towards where the smoke blasts were coming from, attempting to hit something.
The hand over Lucky shook again, beckoning her to grab it and get up.
"You could at least get off the ground!"The first connected with something solid, but definitely not something human.
Meanwhile Lucky laughed. "Yeah, that would be smart..." She stood up, feeling bruising already growing on her chest. "She packs a hell of a wallop."
Drawing her bow, Lucky hesitated. "Think you can draw her attention?" She whispered.
"Like sun drawn into leaves, energy cycles into energy, life into death and death into life," a voice sounded right behind them. Smoke tendrils wrapped around Anomaly, yanking hard. For just a second the duo could see the mask of Smog before she disappeared again.
"Yea-UHP!" Anomaly felt the tendrils latching around her as she stared down at Lucky, her speech interrupted as she rose into the air slightly. A fist flew towards Smog's mask at crazy speeds, intending to hit it hard as possible. Anomaly, meanwhile, kicked around with the tendrils wrapping around her, trying to bust free from the smoky villain.
"They say smoking is bad for you, but I didn't think it was THIS bad!" Humor couldn't dissolve this situation, it seemed.
The fist managed to graze the mask, causing Smog to retaliate by flinging Anomaly back to the ground... Hard.
Lucky fired off an arrow in the next second, her conflicted feelings causing the arrow to merely rip through the edge of Smog's skirt.
"This isn't going well for us," she noted.
"... fuck dude," Anomaly groaned as a purple hand flew back over, pulling the girl back on her feet. Her lip was busted, but she was still standing. The teen pulled both of her hands back as she grew them in size, having two large fists beside her and Lucky.
"Think you can incapacitate her without killing her?" Anomaly asked, preparing for something.
"No. I can't
see her and I can't concentrate on enough to not kill her by accident. It's a miracle she didn't die just now..." Lucky said in exasperation. "I can't kill her without a reason!"
"Well shit. Looks like we're in a pickle, eh?" Anomaly joked, throwing another hand towards Smog, trying to make any sort of damage more apparent on the villain. It was all she could do, and Lucky couldn't do much with what the situation was for the both of them.
Unfortunately, Anomaly couldn't find Smog again, as the villain wasn't showing her face after that close call.
And then suddenly Lucky lifted off the ground and tossed several feet away with enough force to make her roll, and Anomaly felt the smoke constricting around her left leg.
"You should have blown away like the fall leaves," Smog could be heard, an edge to her otherwise whimsical voice.
"Lucky!" Anomaly's hand reached out, but not grabbing anything. The teen looked down at her leg and noticed the smoky figure wrapping around it, Anomaly attempting to kick it away. Smog spoke to Anomaly, her voice becoming more jagged and serrated. Xoxi quickly responded to the villain, her voice becoming darker.
"Leaves don't stick around when they're burned...""You know nothing of the Abyss. The swirling darkness just beneath the skin. Let me show you..."
With a sudden motion, the tendril stabbed into Anomaly's leg, moving around just below the skin.
"ARGH! FUCK!" Anomaly screamed as she fell to her knee, the smoke invading the skin of her leg as she began to tear up. It was a new kind of pain, and it was one that Anomaly did NOT want.
"What are you doing to me?!""Opening the buds that are your eyes, as a flower in spring. But all things come to an -"
"I'm done with you," Lucky growled as an arrow stuck out of Smog's right shoulder. The smoke retracted from Anomaly, but now it was billowing out uncontrollably from the wound on Smog.
"Lucky, RUN!" Anomaly warned, her leg pouring out blood as she tried to walk, but just fell over, her bandanna falling to her chin as well. She couldn't stand, much less move around on that leg, and it certainly didn't help that she had no arms. Anomaly yelled once more
"GET OUT OF HERE! SAVE YOURSELF!" "Not without you," Lucky said as she moved forward slowly, firing another arrow into Smog. This one stuck through her other shoulder, causing more smoke to flow forth.
"You've opened the Abyss."
"Shut up."
"Now you must wither away."
The smoke pouring forth from Smog took on a solid form, not unlike the depictions of ancient demons, and it moved forward as she did. A clawed hand struck out, snapping Lucky's bow into pieces and causing an audible
snap as bone broke in her chest.
She rolled backwards from the force, stopping mere inches from Anomaly.
"Don't wor-NO!" Anomaly watched the hit, working up the courage to try and stand up again. Alas, she couldn't, but she was still able to fight on the ground. A psychic fist came rushing towards Smog, the other copying the first but aiming to strike at the back of Smog's legs. As Lucky laid there beside Anomaly, the amputee spoke again.
"You need to leave or this will get worse!"The smoke demon reformed around Smog, blocking the hit to her legs as she was rocked from the hit to her face.
Moving closer, it backhanded Anomaly. Reaching down, the barely breathing Lucky was plucked from the ground.
She screamed moments later as the hand squeezed, before slamming her into the pavement next to Anomaly with enough force to crack the road. Blood pooled slowly around the impact site.
"You must pay."
Lucky was lifted again, and slammed repeatedly into the ground. Blood splattered over Anomaly, who was mere feet away.
"LUCKY!" Anomaly shouted as she watched, blood splattering against her face, hoodie, everywhere on her body except her back. Anomaly watched as Lucky was beaten into the pavement. Anomaly watched as viscera coated the pavement underneath Lucky as Smog slammed her over and over into the ground.
Anomaly watched as Lucky died.
In an instant, the teen was back on her feet, running towards the monster with full intent to take it down. Her psychic hands headed for the sides of the monster as Anomaly ran at it from the front, aiming to shove it to the ground where she could beat the shit out of it.
"I'M GONNA RIP YOUR HEART OUT!""That's the fire I wanted to see," Smog murmured.
The smoke in the area pulled back into the form, hiding Smog completely, as Anomaly was forcefully thrown backwards through the front glass of a music store.
"Come find me when you're ready, little snake. Come when you have become a dragon, full of fire and anger. Else the Abyss will swallow you whole."
And with that she disappeared, Anomaly having no hope of tracking her through the smoke as it spread across several City blocks.
Anomaly ran out of the window, blood everywhere on her and glass embedded in her skin. Smog was gone, but that didn't stop Anomaly from throwing another punch, hitting only the air as she fell back to her knees, right in front of Lucky's corpse.
"... L-Lucky..." the teen whispered, looking down at the teen with grief in her eyes. This was a girl she opened up to, shared a bottle of vodka with, and actually got to know. Now she was nothing more than a puddle. A puddle of lost dreams at that.
Police cars whirred around the corner as they arrived at the scene, but all that they found was the remains of an archer, and a broken teenager. An ambulance quickly followed suit, grabbing the teen and placing her in the car, as well as Lucky's body. Xoxi ignored the questions of the doctors, simply responding that she needed a minute.
Xoxi was in the back of an ambulance, tears running down her face. She was broken, distraught, and she didn't want to live at that moment...
... but deep down, as ironic as it was, a flaming hatred formed...
... and it wouldn't be extinguished until someone stopped breathing.
