Shocking

Now it was a three on one. I wanted to call it a fair fight, but even still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was still stacked against us. He was a big guy who probably hasn’t even shown us the best of what he can do.

“Keep your distance. Hit and run. Use kicks,” Ekko briefly explained our best strategy. “Ko, use this…” she handed her the keys to the helicopter.

Ko was the smallest here, so she’d be able to get past him and get the helicopter ready for takeoff. All we needed to do was give her an opening, and after that we'd need to get this guy out of the picture.

With a swift kick, I flung myself at Bear, continuing the fight. He blocked the attack and shoved me back. Ekko flanked him at the same time, but his forearm caught her attack as well. She dove back, allowing me to get another hit on him, only to have it denied by his persistent block.

Trying to get some leverage over him, Ekko flipped over his head and shrouded herself in the active camo cloak, turning invisible.

“Ah, you little cubs are getting creative!” Bear cheered, his focus tightened on his surroundings.

I could just barely see where Ekko was going. Subtle distortions in the air telegraphed where she was. I made sure to flank the opposite way and take some attention from her.

Bear was able to hold me off with ease. I was hardly a distraction. Apparently my proximity gave away where Ekko was too. She dodged his hit and rolled for cover even before getting a strike of her own.

Knowing that we were getting predictable, I changed up my strategy and acted a little more brazen with my attacks, rushing in and side stepping his retaliation. Ekko managed to get around him and got a hit on his back too. Our pressure was giving him a hard time.

Meanwhile, Ko had gotten past Bear and started the helicopter up. The blades began spinning, sending wild winds all across the roof.

All those gusts of air caused the active camo cloak to be useless. It flapped around haphazardly, revealing too much to be effective. She still kept it on, hiding some key parts of her body to potentially confuse our opponent.

Ekko and I just needed to buy a little more time so Ko could get the helicopter prepared completely. We kicked up the heat and pressured Bear with everything we had.

He braced himself, taking hit after hit, practically absorbing the damage.

Finally he retaliated at just the right moment to catch Ekko in a hard swing, knocking her down.

“No!” I flew in from the side and struck Bear. He caught my foot and twisted it around, lifting me off the ground.

Ekko was back up in seconds, then slid herself around Bear, attacking his fist with a hard kick, causing him to release me.

But then he grabbed her foot and tossed her aside. I roundhouse kicked him, but he grabbed my leg and did the same maneuver to me too.

Ekko and I both collided on the ground, recovering as quickly as we could.

While we were tangled up in a pile of debris, Ko had lunged in and used her small stature to run up Bear’s back. Her hands grabbed hold of his head and she flipped upside down over him.

With the momentum from returning rightside up, she kicked herself off Bear's face and hit him right in the eye with her shoes.

“Gah!” he shouted as he covered his one good eye.

Ko was able to spring herself off Bear and land right next to us with a roll.

“Now would be a very good time to end this!”

Ko placed a stun gun in my hand. It looked like she swiped it from Bear’s gear. I'd trained with a taser before, which was made for range, but stun guns were for close quarters jabbing.

I rushed in while Bear was still recovering and slammed the stunning weapon right into his gut. Torrents of electricity blasted out of the device and rushed through that human wall of rock.

He was really taking a shock! No matter how much I turned up the charge, it wasn’t stopping him. It must have been well past lethal amounts of electricity by now.

Through his grit teeth, he smiled, clenching the device in his midst and crushing it between his fingers. Bits of plastic and wires rained down to the ground, flame melting them into unrecognizable blobs.

“My God…” I was stupefied that even that wasn’t enough to take him down.

He seemed literally energized, almost glowing, as if what we'd done only fueled the batteries of his strength further.

Preemptively, I pushed Ko and Ekko away from me, ready to sacrifice myself so that they could escape.

Just as we thought it was time for round three, he collapsed down with eyes rolling to the back of his head. The whole building felt like it shook as he collided with the roof.

Ko checked to make sure he wasn’t dead. He was still breathing.

“What a monster,” Ekko commented.

“At least he's out of our way for now.” I said, waving both of them along.

All of us raced into the helicopter, praying that Bear would stay down long enough for us to take off.

“Can you really fly?” Ekko questioned me.

“Don't have much of a choice!” I said, strapping in and grabbing onto the stick for dear life. My feet pressed down on the pedals and we were airborne in seconds.

“We’re flying!” Ekko cheered. “Yeah! This is great!”

“We’re also a big target,” Ko reminded her. “So let's not celebrate till we get to safety.”