'It burns, why does it hurt so much?'
Agony.
That was all he felt, his body, flesh, muscles, bones and even blood were hurting. He had been burned a few times when he was younger, but this one was different.
Way different, it was eating him alive, one part of his body at a time like a predator slowly enjoying it's prey.
Writhing and gripping into the concrete, the fingers of his hands scraped and bloodied, he slowly got up as the pain became too much for him. He couldn't take it anymore, he needed to act fast else he will definitely die this time.
'It's too much, everything hurts even breathing'
He powered through the pain with gritted teeth and stood to his feet, spasming from it.
"Do something!, the brat is dying!"
The crazed voice yelled frantically, pacing back and forth like a caged animal, as he could feel Mort's life force wane quickly.
Without batting an eye, all his counterpart did was shake his head.
"If we interfere yet again I fear that, they will find us"
Stopping midway through his frantic walk, he looked at his friend in an incredulous way and gripped his shoulder yelling at him, eyes wide and scared.
"Well I don't wanna die to such a measly attack!!. Since when did you ever care about 'them' anyway?!. The only one strong enough to beat you can't live without your existence and with the right preparations you could hold her off for a while, heck who even knows what you're thinking?!."
Not one to be moved by his friend's worry he asked;
"Well then, what do you propose?. If we try to save him we get exposed, worse the kid may not even survive. His body is too frail, he has no physical or mental training to handle the stress of our mingling. I'm even surprised he lasted this long!"
The short brash figure looked up at him confused,
'Thats the first time I've seen him this worked up since...'
Shrugging off the hand on his shoulder, he sighed in defeat and made his way towards the downed writhing body of Mort.
"Kid, if you can hear me, and want to live, then survive this"
Calmly, he stretched out his right hand, making a shooting sign with his fingers and shakily breathed out, his face now grim as he looked at the boy laying a few feet away from him.
Gathering at the tip of his pointer finger, sparks begun to fly and take a round shape. Forming a small white marble, which could barely hold itself together.
He let out a sharp breath and the marble smoothens out, taking a more stable appearance.
Taking some few more seconds to contemplate if he was indeed making the right choice, he steeled his resolve.
"Eradicate"
Was all it took for the marble of lightning to be shot at Mort finding it's mark, his left eye, and entering it without no resistance.
The clouds gathered, the wind picked up as it got dark. Sirens blew through the city alerting it's citizens of the approaching storm.
Baffled, James and Jake stared like children seeing fireworks for the first time.
The sudden change of weather was not what they expected to occur.
It just didn't make any sense.
Without warning, a lightning bolt struck at Mort's body only to be intercepted by a domed barrier, made up of blue tiny pentagonal shaped discs.
'Oh the barrier, I forgot that was up'
Jake thought to himself nervously.
The barrier was set up to prevent anyone from entering or hearing anything that came from the alleyway. He got it from an associate of his father's, a well reputed scientist of Nexus. Normally, it wouldn't appear to the naked eye, from the outside looking in, it'll appear to be an empty dark quiet alleyway.
'I forgot about it, maybe if it wasn't activated our friends might still be alive.'
James looked down gloomy. He still couldn't believe what was going on, it was was supposed to be easy. Beat up Mort and leave, simple as the ABC's.
Yet here they were, witnessing something they, in their pre teens could never dream of, murder.
Sure they've seen animals getting killed but these are humans, their classmates.
Scoffing at the intercepting of his attack, the brash figure readied another.
"Do they think a human made barrier will stop me?, I must admit I am a bit impressed it held up after that. But..."
He formed another marble of lightning, slightly bigger in size and more chaotic looking, humming and whirring.
He looks at his shadowy partner, someone he always thought he knew, a mysterious person.
Most of the time he could never predict him.
And he, was supposed to be the unpredictable one.
How absurd.
Smiling calmly he nodded at him. "We have to do this old friend, I know you'd rather not interfere much. But we both know what's right"
With that said he turned his gaze back to Mort's body, a more determined look on his face.
"Eradicate"
Another marble shot itself into his left eye, entering its target with a hum this time.
The storm got worse, blowing dust and debris everywhere as people ran for shelter.
James quickly grabbed unto Jake's hand and tried to run but was met with resistance as Jake gave him a questioning look.
"The-"
He was cut short as the second lightning strike broke through the barrier shattering it like glass.
It hit flames burning Mort, causing the fire to screech out in pain, loosening it's grip on him.
It quickly took the form of a Phoenix and tried to flee but a large tendril shot out of Mort's shadow and gripped it's leg, holding it in place.
The Phoenix screeched out in fear after noticing what what held onto it.
It flapped it's fiery wings harder in a frenzied state not caring for the burns it was inflicting to the walls slightly melting it like metal.
Jake, confident as ever looked on in confusion.
'Why was the Phoenix trying to run?'
He willed at it to continue burning Mort, but it did not mind it's summoner.
Flapping it's wings harder and faster, looking no different from a regular bird trying to escape a tangled mess it found itself.