Imaginary - Book 2 - Chapter 36 - Counter Attack (Patreon)

“How? What? Why?” I sputtered as I tried to organize my thoughts. “Where have you been?” 

“I’ll tell you all about it in a few minutes; first I have to deal with that… thing,” Tyberius rumbled as he turned and strode into the street.

Peeking through Tyberius’ multitude of insectoid legs, I spotted Grey struggling to his feet; The man looked a lot worse for wear. Tyberius had thrown him straight into a sedan parked on the opposite side of the street with enough force to crumple one of the door panels. One of his arms was hanging limply by his side, horribly twisted out of shape, but he hardly seemed to have noticed, and if he had, he didn’t seem to care. 

“You!” Grey snarled. “How did you get here?”

“I rushed here when I lost your trail back west,” Tyberius rumbled. “After all that garbage you spouted during our last encounter, I figured you’d be heading here. Now, do you want to surrender? Or am I going to have to do this the hard way?”

Grey shoved himself to his feet with his one good hand, wavering slightly and muttering something in what sounded like a foreign language before thrusting his good arm toward Tyberius. “This won’t end like last time!” he growled as a dozen or so spikes of translucent force appeared underneath Tyberius and shot upward.

I winced, turning away slightly as they impacted him in the abdomen. After everything I’d seen Grey do in the last few minutes, I’d expected the attack to easily penetrate Tyberius’s metallic shell; However, Tyberius apparently a lot tougher than I gave him credit for. The force of the impact bounced him several inches into the air, but when he came back down completely unharmed. 

As soon as his feet touched the ground, Tyberius sprinted towards his injured opponent at a frighteningly fast pace. For a moment, I thought he’d smear Grey all over the side of the sedan, but the man managed to throw up one of his spectral barriers to defend himself.

Since it seemed like neither of them had the upper hand at the moment, I slipped back into the alcove to check on Kira. 

Even though the sun was going down and we were losing the light, I could tell she was incredibly pale, even from several steps away; What I couldn’t see was her chest moving. Stumbling over I fell to my knees in a panic before sticking my fingers just under her nose and when I felt the faintest hint of breath, I checked her pulse.

Both her breathing and pulse were extremely shallow. The impromptu tourniquet had managed to stop most of the bleeding, but not all of it, so I pushed against the soaked jacket in an effort to prevent her from bleeding out before anyone could reach us. 

Just as I started putting pressure on the wound, a low, loud warble erupted from Kira’s pocket, making me jump. “I honestly don’t know if I should be upset, or ecstatic, that someone’s calling your phone,” I muttered quietly to Kira before removing one hand from the tourniquet so I could reach for her phone. My hand was slick with blood, so I quickly wiped it on my pants before sticking it into Kira’s jacket. 

Fishing the device out using my offhand, while I was concentrating on keeping pressure on Kira’s arm took way more effort than I expected, but I somehow managed to pull the thing out and answer it before the caller hung up.

“Hello?” I half-whispered as I pinned the phone between my ear and shoulder so I could continue putting pressure on Kira’s wound.

“Tamera? Where’s Kira?” Kyle asked in surprise.

“She’s right next to me, but she’s in a bad way,” I replied horsely. “Are you with Pam or Mac? I really need to talk to one of them. Now!”

“They’re right here, but first I want to know what happened to… hey!” Kyle yelled, his voice growing steadily quieter.

“I told you to give me the phone once the call connected,” Pam snarled. “This isn’t a game.”

“Kira’s in trouble!” Kyle yelped faintly. 

“Then let me handle it!” Pam replied before finally talking to me. “Hey, who’s on the line? Are you two alright?” she asked.

“It’s Tamera, and no. That psychopath tried to kill us, and his attack tore Kira’s arm off,” I replied shakily. “I’ve stopped the bleeding, but I’ve never taken a first aid course. I have no idea what I’m doing! She could die if she doesn’t get help!”

“First of all, stay calm. You said that you stopped the bleeding?” Pam asked. 

“Best I could,” I replied. “I shoved my jacket into the wound and I’m applying pressure.” 

“Good, that’s the most important thing right now,” Pam said. “Do you know where you are?”

“Not really, we didn’t get far though. Less than a block,” I said, glancing around. “I can see the word bookstore stenciled on one of the windows, but can’t see an address or anything from where I am. I’d have to leave Kira if I wanted to find a sign or something.”

“That’s fine, I can look up the businesses around and let the response team know. They’ll be here in less than a minute, and have a trained medic with them, so just hold on until then,” Pam said. “Do you know where Grey is? Did you manage to evade him and hide?”

“No, he followed us all the way here, but he’s currently fighting with Tyberius across the street,” I replied.

There was a pause. “Can you repeat that?” Pam said.

“Look, I don’t know what to tell you, I’m as surprised as you are! Grey had cornered Kira and me, and was about to finish us off, and Tyberius came out of nowhere and threw him across the street. It’s the first time I’ve seen him in months!” I exclaimed.

“Calm down, I believe you,” Pam replied. “I was just surprised, that's all. Do you think you’re safe where you are?”

“Not in the slightest,” I muttered. “I think if Grey ever manages to evade Tyberius for even a couple of seconds, he’s going to try and come over and kill us. He seemed very intent on finishing the job when he missed us earlier.”

“Well, in that case keep your head down as much as possible and put your faith in Tyberius for a minute more,” Pam replied quietly. “Mac is trying find his way around to you, but Grey has blocked off most of the side alleys, so you’ll probably have to wait for the response team to rescue you.”

“What about Kira? What should I be doing? She doesn’t look very good; I think she’s lost a lot of blood!” I exclaimed.

“You’re putting pressure on the wound, right? Well, that’s the most important thing. You can try to turn her so the wound is elevated, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re already putting pressure on it; You don’t want to move her too much without a professional there,” Pam said. “The most important thing is to stay calm and maintain pressure.”

“I am calm!” I snapped. “Stop saying that!” 

“Well, it’s important,” Pam replied. “I’ll stay on the line until the response team arrives. Is there anything you want to say?”

“Not particularly. I need to focus on the task at hand and just pray that I don’t get ripped in half because I have my back to the street,” I replied.

“Just try and stay positive. The response team will be there any second now,” Pam said.

“And it won’t be a second too soon,” I muttered. “I really hope they’ll be able to deal with Grey. Although after everything I’ve seen in the last few minutes, I’m not going to hold my breath.”

“You’d be surprised,” Pam said. “Although Rift Entities may be extremely resistant to conventional weapons, Empowered people are not.”

“I hope you’re right,” I replied as the faint sound of sirens echoed down the street behind me. “For everyone’s sakes.”