"Is that all you"ve got?" Roy asked the mugger as the man staggered to his feet. The man wore a black mask which was supposed to conceal his ident.i.ty. A sharp knife was held in his left hand while the right was occupied by a simple purse. Somewhere blocks down the road, a woman was crying on the sidewalk with Ben and Jacob watching after her until he returned.The mugger looked around the dark alley they had run to. In any other case, it was the best possible area he could have run to. "You should have just let me go." he said in a gravelly voice as he looked at the kid.
Roy looked as if he were supposed to be going for a modeling job rather than chasing down a mugger. His long dark hair draped around his shoulders as if it were a blanket. He and most of the other men and women that followed Leo through the portal sported a red leather jacket which had the kings emblem st.i.tched on the back courtesy of Michael. He was also wearing a black t-shirt and blue jeans. It seemed Will"s uncle was prepared for the inevitability of the crusade coming to earth as He even had all show sizes prepared with a black pair of Jordan"s waiting in a room for him to take.
With Michael"s support and Leo"s guidance, the crusade had been unleashed on the streets of New York.
"Wow," Roy exclaimed. "I really should have known better than to follow you into a dark secluded area," he feigned innocence. "You certainly did scare me when you tripped over yourself, you should really be careful with sharp objects."
"I don"t know who you are kid," the man said as he readied his knife in front of him. "But Brooklyn is our turf, you should run along home now." As if the last word were a signal, a man stepped out from a door within the alley. Roy also noticed one on an emergency exit holding a gun.
Roy sighed. "This is why New York needs us." He allowed his aura to come forth gradually so the men didn"t notice. "No one here plays fair." Roy smirked as he stared down the mugger. "Drop the purse and leave." his smirk left almost as quickly as it appeared.
The mugger did release the purse, yet not in the way Roy had wanted. The man in the black mask threw it up to his partner at the fire escape who caught it without messing up his aim.
These guys must be professionals. Roy thought as he eyed the man on the stairwell. Sighing loudly while shaking his head, Roy brought his gaze back to the mugger. "Why don"t you guys ever do things the easy way?"
"Kid," he said as The other man circled behind Roy. "This is easy."
Before Roy had a chance to make another smart remark, the man behind him pounced. Grabbing him from behind and putting him in a full nelson, Roy seemed to be completely defenseless as the mugger came at him with his knife.
"Ahh!" The man holding him yelled as Roy turned up the temperature on his flame. The man staggered backwards just in time for him to put his hand out palm up for the knife.
Instead of the blade sinking into Roy"s hand as the mugger expected, it Instead melted before reaching the hand.
As the man gasped and three the burned hilt, Roy ducked under his defense and gave him a firmly planted uppercut to the jaw sending him staggering backward.
Roy waited to see if either men would try to pursue him once more, instead he heard a bang from the stairwell. The small explosion was enough to confuse him for only a fraction of a second, long enough for a hole to form in his aura.
Suddenly feeling dizzy, Roy clutched at his stomach as a numbing sensation hit him. Bringing his hand up, he saw crimson as dark red as his jacket coating his hand.
"What the h-" Roy sputtered as he coughed a mouthful of blood. Looking up at the emergency exit, he saw the man with the gun make his way through the window. So that"s it. He fell to his knees in the puddle forming under him.
"So what the h.e.l.l was that anyway?" the mugger walked towards Roy. "Were you just playing us or something?" He looked over at his partner. "Hey Jimmy, check him out."
Roy was barely able to stay conscious as the man behind him started patting him down starting at his shoulders. "There"s nothing here," he said disappointingly. "This guy doesn"t even have a wallet."
The mugger shrugged his shoulders and looked at Roy. "Hey, don"t you go dying on us yet." he kicked Roy in the chest, sending him toppling to the ground. "Are you some kind of freaky X-Man or something?" he knelt over Roy and grabbed him by his jacket collar. "How the h.e.l.l did you melt my knife man?" he shook him roughly. "That thing wasn"t cheap you know."
"It doesn"t matter anyway," the man named Jimmy chuckled. "Why not beat the c.r.a.p outta him until he bleeds out?" He sent a kick of his own to Roy"s abdomen.
"Hey kid," the mugger raised his mask from his face. "Wherever you go after this," he brought the jacket collar up so Roy"s face was close to his own. "Remember that it was this face that sent you there." he brought his fist back and sent a hard punch to Roy"s jaw. "Payback is sweet!" he laughed as he punched him over and over.
Jimmy went behind Roy once more and lifted him to his feet. "At least due like a man." he held onto Roy"s arms as the mugger continued his a.s.sault.
"Good idea Jimmy." the man chucked. "Hold him steady for me!" He got a few more good punches in before Jimmy"s grip came loose, sending Roy sprawling to the ground.
"Hey, I wasn"t done yet!" the man yelled at his partner who stood deathly still in front of him. "What"s the deal?" The mugger looked into his partners eyes and noticed the wide eyes look of shock on his face. "Hey Jimmy," the mugger snapped his fingers a few times in front of his eyes. "You alright?"
"Sorry," a female voice called out behind Jimmy. "Your friend decided to take a quick nap." Jimmy fell to the ground revealing an upset Bianca behind him. "If you"d like, I can take a message." she smirked at the mugger as if she were talking to a dog. Wearing the usual red tank top and blue jeans, her brown hair in a ponytail, no one would expect a bite sized teenager to be able to knock out a fully grown mugger.
"Today just gets weirder and weirder." the man sighed as he looked at his friend in the ground. "Let me guess," he said irritatingly. "You"re another kid like him?" he nodded to Roy.
"Do you really want to take a chance and find out?" Bianca said as she raised the hand with her ring palm up.
"Do what you want," he took one more look at Roy who was laying in an ever increasing puddle of his own blood. "He ain"t got long anyway." with a wave, the man turned around and broke into a sprint.
As soon as the mugger turned the corner Bianca took a sigh of relief. She carefully put the taser in her pocket before bending over and checking Roy"s vitals. s.h.i.t, she thought as she checked his pulse, the beating within his neck was just barely detectable. He"s only got a few minutes left.
She flipped out her phone and dialed Leo"s number. Ring, ring, ring, "h.e.l.lo this is Leo Patrelli, I am unable to come to the phone right now, leave your name and-." Click. Bianca knew there was a chance he wouldn"t pick up for her, she didn"t blame him anyway since they didn"t leave on the best of terms.
Bianca could feel panic rising within her as she stared at Roy. Yes, he was one of the guys who took Will away from her, but she still remembered her sparring sessions with him. She remembered their meals, their travels, she had been there to see him rise from a simple farmer to a warrior.
Bianca raised both hands over Roy, desperate to reach the part of herself that could do anything to help him. "Save him." She said softly. She watched the ring for any signs of it working, instead she heard Roy cough a mouthful of blood out. "Please save him!" she screamed at the ring. "Work you d.a.m.n thing!" She smacked the ring a few times before holding her hands back out to him.
"But you don"t want anything to do with him." A voice rang out from within her. She knew nothing if where it came from, it could have been just a figment of her imagination for all she knew.
"He"s dying, I have to help him." She fought with the inner voice. "If I don"t help him, no one can."
"Why do you care?" The voice whispered in her mind. "This is no longer your life," it taunted her. "This isn"t normal."
"I don"t care!" she called out to the empty alleyway. "How could I care about what"s normal when there"s someone I know dying in front of me?" fighting back tears, she waited for the voice"s response.
"Come back with me! This isn"t your life! Don"t you miss Jonathan? Don"t you want to go to college? These people have nothing to do with you!" "Were these not your words not two days ago?"
Bianca recoiled from the memory. She didn"t know just how selfish those words had been. "If I hadn"t said that, I wouldn"t have hesitated to help him." Bianca turned her hands over and looked at them. "All that I"ve been through. She clenched them into fists until they turned white. All of that and now I can"t do anything?"
"No." determination slowly replaced the panic. "This is not all I can do." she put her hands over Roy once more. "Not after all that"s happened, not like this!" she screamed into the alleyway.
"You turned away from the one thing that could help him. The voice taunted within her. You turned your back on the Prince and all of his people, now one dies before you. Bianca bit her lip to keep what she was feeling within her. You cast away your family, why care now?"
"Please," she begged. "Just let me save him, I"ll do anything." her hands fell around Roy"s limp figure, his chest barely rising and falling with air.
"Who are you?" Bianca was startled by the change of subject. Her hand caressed the pale cheek of the dying man below her." Who are you if not the selfish woman of two days ago? Why care about him now?"
Bianca thought back to before the war with Jake. Roy had been the only one to question Will when he presented Maya. He didn"t question him because of his choice to bring her, he questioned Will on his capabilities as a leader. He asked why Will was truly willing to help.
It was because of his tenacity that Will had made him into a General for the a.s.sault. No other would challenge Will, not her, not even Leo.
Thinking back on that day, everyone fought not for Will, but for their right to live. They fought for the same thing she was now fighting for another.
"I am not the same person as I was then." she tenderly stroked Roy"s cheek. "I understand why it was taken from me," she spoke to the voice within her. "Just don"t take him from me." a tear dropped onto Roy"s forehead. Bianca reached up and felt her wet cheek, she hadn"t realized she was crying.
"Do you want the power to restore him?" The voice was now growing within her, as if it were a force of its own.
"Yes." she wept onto Roy"s chest. "I"ll do anything," she looked at the sweat coating his brow. "I don"t want any of them to die," she looked straight into the alley, as if she could visibly see the voice within. "Not if there"s something I can do about it."
"Then welcome back Bianca Jean," the voice now surrounded her, as if the force could not be contained within her any longer. "Welcome back to the Royal Flame Crusade."