The Warriors: The Beginning - The Warriors (best ebook reader for ubuntu .TXT) 📗

ground, some upside down, but all exploding on impact, causing buildings and other vehicle to catch fire.
“Have you reconsidered?” asked Lorna smiling. She raised her arm out forwards and a dark shadow appeared above their heads. Georgia looked up to see the underside of a lorry, slowly hovering. On flex and it would be on top of them.
“Never!” yelled Holly.
Lorna flexed, but so did Georgia. She raised her hands, catching the full force of the lorry. “Run!” she yelled.
Daniel and Holly ran to the side as Georgia forced it forwards, aiming at Lorna. Lorna disappeared beneath it. For a moment, Georgia thought she’d been crushed, but there were suddenly hands around her throat, crushing the air form her lungs.
“Die telepath!” whispered Lorna.
Georgia felt the air shift around her and she felt Lorna’s mind get distracted by the thought of taking a life. Georgia gathered the air and forced it outwards. The hands left her throat and Lorna went flying backwards, to be caught by thick, brown vines that tangled themselves around her body, squeezing her tight.
Above her, the Dovashiin and Quivachi battled the Beatle, the dragon spitting flames and Verity letting fly arrow after arrow.
Verity looked down at Georgia and then looked past her. Georgia followed her gaze to where Lorna was cutting free from the vines, a dagger in her hand. She felt to the ground, landing on her feet. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Holly taking a throwing knife from her thigh holster and throw it at Lorna. Lorna screamed as it hit her arm. Holly threw another, this time it landed on the floor with a metallic clang. Georgia felt her hands reaching for the knife in her own holster, but thought again when Lorna ran at Holly. Georgia reached out with both hands and her mind, freezing Lorna in mid air. The ground beneath her began to shake and folds of earth came up, encasing Lorna in an egg-shaped tomb. The rock hardened and turned to stone. Daniel appeared behind it.
Above them, Verity and Nicki were once again, engaged with The Beatle. The Beatle lashed out and caught the side of Nicki’s face with it’s skeletal claw. Verity put an arrow in that claw.
Georgia vaguely thought of how in sync they were with each other; a dragon and it’s rider, but she was distracted by a deep, cracking sound. She glanced back up at Verity, who’d heard it too. The Beatle was almost down and she paused testing the wind, slid an arrow into the bow and aimed it behind her. The arrow flew through the air and curved with the wind, lodging itself into the Beatle body. The Beatle started to fall to the ground with a crash.
The dragon landed next to it and Verity hopped off it’s back. Blood oozed form Nicki’s cut, but the dragon’s bright yellow eyes were fixed on the prison.
Cracks had emerged in the stone orb and the ground shook. Daniel raised his hands, beads of sweat forming on his forehead as he tried to build more stone around the cracks.
It was in vain as Lorna burst from the orb, sending shards of stone flying in all directions. Holly screamed, covering her face and Daniel rose a fold of earth in front of him and Holly to shield them from the debris. Georgia raised her hands, creating an invisible shield in front of her, shards of rock exploding into rubble on impact around her. She looked to the right, where Verity was huddle behind the tough leather of Nicki’s wing.
“Fools!” yelled Lorna as the five of them dropped their shields. “You cannot kill me...” Lorna lurched and yelped in pain. She looked down at the arrow that was lodged in her chest. “You bitch! That hurt!” Lorna put her hands around the arrow and pulled it out, blood leaking from the wound that was already beginning to close. Lorna rose into the air, hovering above them. “And look what you did to my Beatle!” she growled, annoyed.
“Go back to the Sky Realm!” yelled Holly.
“No, I like it here!” smiled Lorna. Flame immediately engulfed her body. Georgia looked at Nicki, who’s jaws were wide open, flame bursting from her mouth.
Lorna screamed and dropped to the ground, where she took the arrow that lay next to her and lung it at Nicki. Nicki caught it with her claws and smashed the arrow to pieces. Daniel was straight in with sharp vines trying to impale Lorna, who dodged them and flexed outwards with her arms, flinging Daniel to the ground. Verity pelted her with arrows and Lorna jumped up, Nicki snapping at her with her sharp teeth, missing and then falling as Lorna spun round the back and cut at her hind legs. Next, Lorna went for Verity, who put an arrow in her forearm and her thigh. Lorna snarled and threw her towards Nicki’s sharp spines with a flex of her fingers. Verity put her arms out and vaulted, athletically over them. Nicki lashed out with her tail, sending Lorna to the floor, but not before Lorna flexed and sent Verity flying backwards, away from Nicki. Nicki roared fire in Lorna’s direction, but Lorna threw her knife, sinking it into Nicki’s other leg. The dragon gave an almighty cry of fury and threw more flames at Lorna, who threw up her arms to shield herself from them. When the flames subsided, Lorna had disappeared.
Georgia looked at Holly and then round at the empty Square. She reached out with her mind, and felt a bundle of thoughts somewhere behind her. They were Lorna’s thoughts.
Turning, Georgia saw Lorna lunge towards her and Georgia lashed out with the knife from her holster, slashing it sideways. A huge gash appeared across Lorna’s face. Lorna growled and lunged again, this time Georgia threw her hands up, freezing Lorna where she was.
The sky immediately darkened and thunder groaned in the distance. Lightning flashed, dangerously across the heavy, dark sky; it pulsed through the clouds, above where Georgia stood. It cracked a shrill cry and then plummeted to the earth, a thin lightning bolt, making contact with Lorna and sending electric currents through her body. Georgia let go and looked around at Holly. She was stood with one hand in the air, lightning erupting from her finger tips. Her eyes were close in a look of utter concentration.
Lorna’s body was jolting, violently, and fell to the floor with a soft thump as the lightning subsided and the dark clouds retreated to reveal the clear blue skies of moments previous.
“You...shall...never defeat...me...” groaned Lorna, looking up at Georgia. Steam rose from her body. How was she still alive? Georgia allowed herself a sneak peek inside her mind and was horrified at the tiny portion she saw!
She saw the burnt remains of London and dead bodies littering the roads, the smell of congealed flesh filled her nostrils and screams and cries could be heard in the distance and in the skies, a million Beatle’s hovered, patrolling, looking around for survivors.
She pulled out, disgusted, to find Lorna staring at Holly.
“You...have not heard...the last of me!” she snarled and her body began to dissolve into blue dust, until there was nothing left.
Georgia breathed out, relieved. Holly sighed and looked around. Daniel was slowly hobbling towards them, with Verity and Nicki on his heels. Verity was supporting Nicki, who had a huge, bloody gash down her face and blood seeping from the scales on her thighs. Verity had small red cuts dotting her face and arms and Daniel moaned of a broken nails, but they were all alive.
“Nice work guys! Nice work!” cried Daniel.


The day after the battle, Nicki was sat at a table in the local pub, staring at the TV, bewildered. Verity sat opposite her and Georgia sat next to her. Daniel sat next to Georgia, and Holly sat opposite him.
“So, a dragon and a giant Beatle have an epic battle in the middle of Trafalgar Square and it’s not even on the news!” Nicki complained. “This superhero stuff is bullshit!”
“Maybe they covered it up; you know what people are like, they think its aliens.” replied Georgia.
A waitress approached the table with a tray of pints and passed them round.
“Cheers guys!” said Daniel, clinking glasses with the other four.
As they drank, a small, dark-skinned woman dressed in a long, leather coat approached them.
“Hi, I’m Miss Fury and I have an important matter to discuss with you. It concerns an event that took place yesterday. If you would follow me into the back room.” She said, flatly and turned and strode away, her leather coat billowing out behind her.
“What...?” started Daniel.
“You think we should follow her?” asked Georgia.
“She might be an assassin.” suggested Verity. “She might want us dead.”
“Yeah, but the chances are she’s not. We might as well hear her out.” Nicki stood and waited for the others to stand.
“I think we’d better be on our guard.” muttered Verity.
They followed Nicki into one of the back rooms of the pub and faced Miss Fury, who stood on the other side of a table.
“I’m Blur Fury. I know what you are and who you are and I have been instructed by my superiors to keep your activities under control. We’ve noticed your small clan and we’ve decided to keep an eye on you. You may have noticed that nothing has been said about the elaborate activities that took place yesterday and if something like that should happen again, we’ll be there to clean upo the mess.” She explained.
“Wait, you know who we are?” Nicki raised an eyebrow.
“Yes. You’ve been attracting out attention.” She replied.
“Kinda stalkerish...” muttered Holly.
“Well, make of it what you will, but know that we’re going to keep our kind a secret and if that means cleaning up other people’s messes, then so be it.”


Epilogue

Lorna sat in the dark cave, dabbing the burns on her arms with a blood-stained cloth. The Beatle stood sentry behind her in human form.
“Have you found it?” asked Lorna, sharply.
“Yes, my Queen.” replied The Beatle.
“Good. Then go get it.” She ordered, dropping the cloth to the floor and soaking her arm in a bucket of red water.
“As you wish, my Queen.” mumbled the Beatle, before disappearing into the shadows.

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Publication Date: 08-01-2012

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