Uno and Fog: Sky Iron

If I was Luminary I would just make my golden shield blaze with light, like he did against the villain Shade Thrower.  It was the first time, and probably the last, that I envied the popstar Candescent for her ability to make small lights flare up around her.  It was a neat trick, when you could sing (sort of) and do your own light show at concerts.  Making use of small gifts and all that.

For every ten people of my ability level there was maybe one like Luminary, and a hundred like Candescent, small abilities or tricks, the vast majority of people didn’t have much of anything, maybe a little luckier, maybe a dream came true occasionally, or they didn’t get sick, deja vu, maybe they turned left instead of right to avoid danger without knowing it, could handle the cold more and the heat less.  Perhaps the opposite, they were draw to bad luck, their instincts told them to head into danger, things busted more than normal, or wore out at a slightly faster rate.

The Fog believes there have always been exceptional people, the legendary heroes and monsters of lore, maybe even some of the gods, but as the population has increased over the last two hundred years, the number of exceptional people have also increased.  He has a mathematical equation for the whole thing based on population sizes, standard deviations and percentages.

“I have an idea!”  The Fog shouted behind me.

“That’s good, because I’m struggling to come up with one.”  A tendril shot out at me, and I dodged. I wasn’t sure what it would do to me if it hit, but since it was capable of shredding my bedroom, I didn’t want to find out.

“I’m going to throw a dagger at it, I want you to hit the knife with as much electricity as you can as it hits it.”

“Got it.”  I pulled in more power, charged up my reaction times.  Everything seemed to slow down as I processed information faster.  The Fog was back and to the left, I felt the draw of the metal as he threw it, my power wanted to flow into it.  He carried throwing knifes with him, several of them strapped to his upper leg on both sides so that he could reach them easily.

This wasn’t one of them.  It look old, not made for throwing.  I poured electricity into it.  Felt it as it crackled around the knife, blue flamelike light flickered abound the blade as I poured energy into it.

It struck the creature right in the chest, I watched the hole the dagger caused spread outward, blue-white electricity crackled throughout the thing, it reminded me of the early flashes in the clouds as a thunder storm gathers.

Then the creature started to break apart into fragments.  It lunged once more before it broke.  The pieces of shadow slipping back to join the shadows in the around the room, (which kind of creeped me out, I’m not going to lie I watched the shadows closely for days after that) and the thing was gone.

The dagger hit the wall with a thunk, leaving a dent and then fell to the ground.  I was going to have to hire someone to fix the damage.  I picked the blade up.  It was heavy, old, the handle wrapped in ancient leather.  The edge was sharp but the wasn’t smooth anymore, it had little nicks and divots.

“I wasn’t sure that was going to work.”  The Fog said reaching for the blade.

“And if it hadn’t worked?”

He shrugged.  “I would have thought of something.  I always do.” I didn’t remind him that half the time the thing he thought of was to run.

“What is that?”  I asked as I handed it to him.

“Tibetan Sky Iron.  It’s supposed to disrupt magic and magical creatures, especially ghosts.”  He placed it in a simple sheath, “supposed to, and do, aren’t always the same thing though.  Glad to see it worked.”

“When did you get it?”

“After Ms. Teri stopped by, magic is neither of our forte.  It took a little effort to find it and authenticate it.  Regular Iron might have worked, but I thought going for that extra something was prudent.”  He looked over at the blanket on the floor.  “You were obviously worried about something.  You should have told me.”

“I thought I was just being paranoid.”

The Fog looked me right in the eye then and paused for a heartbeat.  “Always trust your instincts.”

“That’s why I was sleeping on the couch.”

He let it go and turned to gage the room, “the problem is what’s to keep our quarry from attacking again, since he tracked you down to your home.  You should sleep in our base, its safer, until we run this guy to ground.”

I didn’t argue.  There was no way I was sleeping up here anymore tonight.  I would deal with my trashed bedroom tomorrow.  I grabbed the blanket and pillow and some toiletries and headed down.  I left a note for Ms. Teri for when she came looking for me with a number to reach me.  Assuming she couldn’t find me down in the lair.

If  the LMSK could track me to my penthouse, I suspected he could track me to anywhere I was at, but at least I wouldn’t be alone to face whatever it was he decided to send against me.

When we got down there, The Fog pulled out a cot for me, his idea of sleeping, as in most things, was that comfort was a distraction.  It was going to be a long, uncomfortable night.