Chapter 47

  Kori instinctively threw her hands up towards the door, general Friar stood in the doorway, she shot a weak orange flame into the air between them, he easily side-stepped it and disappeared behind of the large engines, Kori scanned the array of pipes and large metal boxes, the sounds and vibrations of the machines overwhelmed her senses and she shrunk back into the room weaving backwards into the maze of rattling engines, her eyes darted around as the loud noise and constant movement made it impossible to trust what she was seeing, it was about half a minute after she had begun moving that she realized that she had left Barbara to fend for herself, she threw caution to the wind and began quickly retracing her steps back to where she had started.

  When Kori made it back Barbara was gone, Kori considered that the general might have taken her out of the room but decided that she couldn’t risk abandoning the weakened Barbara in the confusing space with the general a second time, so she began making her way slowly down the center aisle, eventually she cautiously weaved between the machines and after only a few more turns she found Barbara sitting with her back against 1 of the large metal boxes, she hadn’t made it far before giving into exhaustion.

  Kori kneeled next to her,

  “Barbara” She said in a hushed tone, Barbara’s eyes opened and squinted like light was too much,

  “Kori, did you get him?” She asked groaning, Kori shook her head, “We need to get out of here” She said glancing around nervously,

  “I can’t move very fast right now,” Kori nodded,

  “Alright, then we’ll have to fight” She said, a second later she felt movement to her left and turned to see general Friar appeared from behind 1 of the large engines and lunge toward her, Kori dodged left and accidentally ran her shoulder into another engine block which caused her to stumble back and she narrowly avoided his fist, she seized the opportunity and lashed out, she landed a hit to his right side and tried to follow up with a kick to his knee but he had stumbled backwards out of her reach.

  Kori prepared blast him with another wave of fire but he charged her too quickly, before she could react he caught her right wrist and forced her heated palm up towards the ceiling, she brought her knee up but he batted it away, he let go of her hand for a moment before gripping her wrist tight and forcing her arm down across her body, her palm now facing Barbara, she tried to fight for control but he was too strong, the general kneed her hard in the gut and let her fall onto her back, he raised his foot to stomp on her but Barbara grabbed his leg and drove her right elbow into the back of his left knee, he grunted in pain but recovered quickly turning to face her, he stooped down and grabbed her shoulder, his fingers digging into her bare skin, he lifted her from the floor and tossed her into the next row of engines, she slammed into the sharp edge of 1 and bounced off onto the floor beside it.

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  It took Kori longer than usual to get back to her feet and by the time she did the general had already forgotten about Barbara, Kori backed away as he threw his body weight behind a punch, Kori dove out of the way into the next aisle, she landed hard on the warm metal floor but scurried forward, putting 1 of the engines between them, he followed close behind and as he turned the corner she greeted him with a burst of orange flames, unfortunately he had expected this and ducked low as he moved quickly, his hand wrapped around her neck and he lifted her into the air and slammed her against the tall metal box behind her, she used both feet to kick out at his chest causing him to stumble into the engine behind him but his hand stayed tight around her neck, she reached down and scratched at his throat, her lungs already running out of air, then the pressure released as something ripped through the engine behind General Friar and his head exploded.

  “How did you get to test a Star Labs weapon?” Wally asked, Artemis was laying on her stomach staring down the scope of the sniper rifle,

  “Jealous?” She smiled,

  “No, I don’t have any interest in that thing” Wally said with a smirked,

  “Careful, you’re talking about the love of my here, you hurt her feelings and I’ll hurt you” She said as she turned a dial on the sight a fraction, Wally had been leaning against an ac unit but suddenly stood upright,

  “Artemis, your nose is bleeding” He said, concerned, she shifted back from the sight and wiped away the small line of blood from her upper lip, “Are you sure you’re okay?” Wally asked,

  “It’s a nosebleed, I think I’ll live” Artemis answered leaning back in the scope,

  “But they’re becoming more frequent” Wally said, Artemis sighed,

  “You need to worry less” She said,

  “I don’t worry, not unless something’s wrong” He responded,

  “Well, worry not, nothing’s wrong, the air has probably just been dry recently, now cover your ears” She took a deep breath and pulled the trigger, the bullet traveled up into 1 of the engines of the main Tamaranean warship, it tore straight through before entering the back of General Friar’s skull, his head was completely disintegrated, the bullet just soared on through the roof.