Why Do We Have To Make Enemies Wherever We Go…?

The storm is relentless, its clouds swirling like a vortex, flashes of teal lightning threatening destruction to anyone that comes close. Against all of this an airship flies into the towering storm. The design is like a small boat wrapped in metal and wings jutting out of its sides. The wind rips it from side to side as the ship starts to fly upwards to avoid the harsh updrafts. Inside is a woman with a tanned complexion, jet black hair falling to her shoulders, sitting behind the wheel. Evelyn, in a bulky suit with only a clear window showing her face, pulls at the wheel with all her strength. The storm pulls back, wishing to take the ship on its own course and her bright orange eyes dart to a monitor that shows rocks hurling their way.

“No, no, no, no!! Shit!!” She screams out in a panic.

She has to knee the wheel in order to divert their course fast enough to dodge the debris.

“ADRIAN!!” she yells behind her, “What are you doing?! Get out there!”

A man, Adrian, in the same type of bulky suit grumbles to himself as he wraps a metal bat in insulation. He hated the fact that he needed to keep it protected. It lost a lot of damage when it was like this. But it was either that or a lightning strike. He has much paler skin than Evelyn, with pure white hair and emerald green eyes.

“Relax! I’m going!” he calls out,

Walking to the entrance to the observation deck, he opens the door outside and is greeted by hurling debris. He brings his bat down on top of the rock, turning it into bits, before closing the door behind him and tying a rope around his waist.

“Alright, I’m ready.” He says over the microphone in his helmet.

“Perfect! Let’s get to the others!” Evelyn says back

The airship continues to coast upwards. They part through the clouds and on the other end they see a brigade of different airships. Flying above the storm in a tight formation. Adrian steadies himself as the ship straightens out and a small glint catches his eye through the clouds. He instinctively dodges it and looks behind him to see a sharp knife jutting out of the wall. Squinting ahead, Adrian watches one of the ships in line change its path, now flying towards them.

“Ev, Looks like one of our new pals is changing its course.” He said,

Inside, Evelyn turns to the monitor and sees the ship.

She gets on the radio to speak to the others. “Hey guys… This is Evelyn, the newbie? There’s a ship coming our way, is something wrong?” but only silence follows. “Uh welp, Adrian, they’re not responding.”

The ship gets closer and Adrian spots a woman standing on the deck, sporting insulated knives between her fingers, the rest of the air ships following behind.

Adrian smirks “I was hoping you’d follow me…” he mutters to himself before getting on the microphone “Looks like our perfect plan’s falling apart, Ev, shocker…”

“Don’t start.” he hears back, "I'm getting us outta here, watch our back.”

As she speaks, Evelyn directs their course back down in hopes the others won’t follow into the middle of the storm. Adrian lurches backwards from the sudden force and as they pass the clouds, lightning strikes the ship from the metal knife in the wall. The blast violently throws the ship to the side as a small fire starts. The rest of the ships follow despite the harsh conditions and the knife cladded woman jumps from her ship to theirs.

“Having open metal on your airship during the storm is dangerous, you know…” She grins at where she threw the knife, enjoying the flames licking at the ship’s haul.

“What the hell was that?!” Evelyn yells

The ship blares an alarm as she redirects them. She notices the incoming ships from behind and begins evasive maneuvers, coasting the ship hard to the right as she attempts to dodge the incoming cannon fire, while swerving through debris at the same time. She glances at the monitor for the observation deck, seeing their new guest. She recognizes her from a few short hours ago, Adrian and her exchanging threats that would later turn into promises.

She lets out a small sigh, “Why do we have to make enemies wherever we go…?”

Outside the ship, Adrian ignores his friend’s questions and directs all his attention to the intruder. He lifts himself off the ground, his head pounding and his ears ringing from the sudden flash.

“You’ve got some skill, being able to throw knives around through all this… At least I know you didn’t steal your plate.” He sneers.

The knife wielder scoffs before replying, “Unlike gutter trash like you, I was trained to be a Thunderblade, you’re nothing but a glorified street brawler…”

“Yeah? We’ll see how much of a street brawler I am after feeding you your own teeth…” He threatens,

The two begin to circle each other as the woman unsheathes her knife from its insulated cover. Then throwing it at Adrian, who deflects it away with his bat, a lightning strike hitting it midair. Adrian charges forward and aims a swing for the woman’s head, that she promptly jumps over, throwing a kick for Adrian’s temple that he in turn blocks with his forearm. She pushes off his arm and flips back onto her feet. The two charge simultaneously and clash their insulated weapons together. Adrian takes advantage of the close range and headbutts the assassin backwards, smirking at the sight of her cracked helmet.

“Adrian! Debris coming right at you two!” He hears Evelyn’s voice in his helmet.

The assassin gathers herself and charges in with insulated knives in each hand, but Adrian darts backwards out of range.

“You won’t beat me backing away like that… Range is my specialty” the assassin mocks, unsheathing a knife.

“Got your ass…” Adrian says with a smirk

He drops to the ground, the debris shower flying over his head. The knife wielder is caught off guard and is unable to react in time. Getting hit in the back by one of the hurling rocks. She stumbles forward and feels her hair stand on end, her now uninsulated knife still in her hand. She gets rid of it quickly by throwing it behind her and another lightning strike follows suit. While distracted, Adrian pops back up and uses his bat to hit a soaring rock towards the woman, breaking it on her face. Smelling blood in the water, Adrian dashes after her,

“Ev! Turn hard left!” he demands into his helmet

Evelyn does just that, throwing the ship’s wheel to the left. Adrian jumps in the air as the sudden jerk sends the two off the side of the airship. The woman tries to grab at anything to keep gravity from taking effect but her chin collides with Adrian’s bat and knocks her away from the ship. The rope tied to Adrian’s waist suspends him off the side of the ship as it starts to barrel roll. He mockingly waves at the assassin as she plummets. In a desperate attempt to not go down alone, she quickly unsheathes a knife and throws it at the rope, Adrian helpless as he watches it cut through it.

“You bitc-” his sentence is cut off by the roaring wind as the two fall.

The airship centers itself and Evelyn steers the ship hard right, her pursuers launching cannon fire at her path, aiming so the wind does most of the work for them. The ships start to cut her off from the outskirts of the storm as Evelyn flies towards the outer perimeter.

“Adrian! We’re almost- ARE YOU SERIOUS?!” she screams out as she sees the dangling rope from her monitor.

She watches in horror as more people jump onto the deck of the ship and she darts up. The roller skates under her feet take her quickly around the ship’s interior and Evelyn bursts into the cockpit with two armfuls of bungee cords minutes later. She ties them around the wheel to keep the ship steady. Just as one of the men opens the door into the ship, he is met by a double flying kick from Evelyn. The impact hurls him backwards, the wind picking him up and tossing him off the side like a toy. Evelyn hits the deck and skates after the other three men. She ducks under a swing from an attacker and skates past him, throwing a spinning heel kick into the next gut, then skating away from any follow up attacks. She skates towards the end of the deck and leaps off it. Grabbing the rope that previously kept Adrian in place and swings behind the men pursuing her, landing a kick against the back of one of their heads. The impact sent him face first into the ground. She carries her momentum towards the other two and throws a straight left that crashes into a man’s jaw. She knees him in the stomach causing him to curl up on the ground. Evelyn weaves past a swing from his ally and continues to dodge his attacks with ease as she skates backwards. The man suddenly stops and his eyes widen with terror. Evelyn watches him suddenly abandon ship and she blinks a few times. Before the confusion can set in she turns around and sees why.

“YAAAHHH!!” she yells out, the airship barreling for the thick trunk of a tree. The bungee cords make sure to keep the ship on track as it crashes.