The Art Of Combat

[Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford]

Battle.
Formations...
Careful planning...
... Chess.
Pawns, knights, bishops, castles, queens...
Chess is a game of battles. Your pieces are an army. Two armies, black and white. When a piece is 'taken', it's a metaphor for a member of your army being killed, or taken as a POW.
Luckily for Madeleine, she was good at chess. She understood chess. So she could plan out a battle.
But what she hadn't realised, stupidly, was how easy it was to steer from the plan when in a real battle.
In chess, there wasn't the roaring in her ears, the sound of battle. No screams, no yelling, no gunshots, no cries. Here, it sounded of battle. It was a constant roar, punctuated with gunshot cracks.
Chess was clean and generally played fairly - battles were not. Everyone fought dirty. Honour didn't count.
And in chess, there were no weapons, and so no flashes of silver. They were blinding, flashing everywhere...
... and in chess, you didn't get this much adrenaline.
The cries were everywhere, cries of anger, cries of pain, grunts of exertion, screams...
It was a roar, an indescribable sound.
Madeleine could hear the blood pumping through her body in her ears as she fought her way through. Everything else was forgotten; everything. Lee, that morning, Parmida, Kira, Will, her parents, her doubts, her fears, even Shaun. Only one thing was going through her mind.
Find Macy.
This was a little trick that Shaun had taught her. 'Just black out, let everything else fade away and only focus on your objective. Like... y'know in those awful chick flicks mum watches? Where you have the guy and the girl and everything else goes all swirly and stuff? Like that. Focus on your objective.'
So, that was what she was doing. Tuning out of everything, and focusing on how to get to her objective. Like a robot.
Sensing someone coming from behind, she spun round blindly, swinging out with her dagger, relying on instinct for it to make its mark. Hearing the grunt of pain and a thump on the ground, she knew that she'd done it, and moved back around, moving forwards.
Scarlet flashes littered the ground, and were over the armour of both armies. Tree roots were shooting up from the ground, binding soldiers to the ground, huge balls of fire and bolts of lightning were shooting out from people's hands, starting huge fires everywhere. Trees and bushes that littered the plains were burning. A few Carers on the field with water powers were attempting to extinguish them, with little effect. Everywhere, people were being thrown out around the field thanks to shields being formed. But she didn't watch. Focus on your objective.
She couldn't use her gun unless in an emergency. Professor Thandie had been explicitly clear about that. Aim to wound, not to kill. So she was relying on her sword, her dagger, and her wit.
Intelligence is the key. You're not strong enough to be stupid, so think!
Running, she dodged several of her warriors, twisting and turning and ducking. As some enemy soldiers approached, she used her air powers to trip them up, where once they landed on the ground, were quickly bound there by vines and roots, courtesy of the earth controllers.
She was vaguely aware of slashes being aimed at her by the opposing army, but her necklace had created like a protective shield around her, and the assailants were forced back. But the thing was, it only worked if she concentrated on it. Which, funnily enough, was a little hard.
Suddenly, she found herself on the ground, where tree roots bound her quickly and tightly to the ground. Crying out in pain, she writhed on the hard stones, trying to worm out of them, but they held fast.
She cursed as the vines started to tighten on her, binding her wrists to the ground. The more she tried to wriggle out, the tighter the ropes became. Some more vines started growing from the ones wrapped around her arms, and spread across her chest, constricting her lungs, pushing down on her ribs with a huge force...
She gasped for air, moving her shoulders, trying to breathe...
Intelligence is the key!
The words came in her mind from nowhere, and she stopped wriggling. Think.
... and the ropes stopped tightening.
Madeleine grimaced and slowly started moving her hand, trying to reach her knife, which had fallen on the ground. The ropes were so tight that shapshifting was impossible, and she couldn't psychokines them away.
Her fingers scrabbled on the ground uselessly before closing on the handle of her dagger. Slowly, she moved her hand back, wincing as the roots started to tighten. As she got her hands back to her, she started cutting through the bindings with the dagger, slowly.
But the knife hit her arm and she yelled out in pain as the blood started trickling down her forearm. Ignoring it, she sliced through the binding constricting her upper arm.
And all of the others just fell away.
She placed her hand tentatively on the cut, still on the ground, and watched as the golden glow emitted. As this was happening, someone ran at her, outstretched their hands. She rolled over and dodged the lightning bolt, before standing up. There'd be a scar on her arm, but right now, that was the least of her worries.
Then, Terrico, the Chinese Fox, appeared in front of her.
"Terrico!" Madeleine roared angrily. "What?"
She morphed into a fly and started buzzing in his ear. "What is it?"
"Will asked me to bring this to you," he answered calmly, as if he were just taking a walk in the park instead of fighting through a battlefield.
She transformed into herself again and he dropped Will's necklace into her hand.
"This will help you heal," he said, before mysteriously disappearing.
She stared at it for a second, before yelling "Thanks!" and putting it in her pocket for when she'd need it.
Then, suddenly, a large, muscly man somehow loomed in front of her and aimed a shot at her. Immediately, she concentrated on her shield, and the bullet ricocheted off it.
"Sh*t!"
As the man cursed and drew his sword, Madeleine thought of hers, and it immediately drew itself and flew into her hand. She swung out and it clashed against the man's sword. After fencing for a few minutes, she used her air powers and psychokinesis to lift both their swords into the air. Using the opportunity of the distraction, she shape-shifted into a black hamster and sank her teeth into his ankle.
He gave out a roar of pain, and started kicking out with his leg. She morphed into a black widow spider and crawled up his leg, then sank her teeth through his trouser leg and into his thigh, releasing just enough poison for him to be knocked out.
She jumped off and morphed back into herself mid-air, as the man swayed dangerously and collapsed on the ground with an almighty thud.
She jumped up into the air and reached her sword, before racing forward, and with a few well-placed slashes, was in the enemy camp.
Thank God all the camp had been alarmed and rushed outside. Thank God that there was no one there to bar her way.
Remembering the directions that Seamus and Lisle had given her, she made her way through the maze of corridors to find the deprivation room that Macy was in. Following these and her instincts, she found a door, with a glass window. Standing on her toes, she saw Macy tied to a table, sleeping. She hoped. Fighting the wave of nausea at what might have happened to her, she pushed open the door.
And a woman ran down the corridor at her, gathering a bolt of lightning ready to throw at her.
And Madeleine, reacting on impulse, ran forward and stuck her dagger in th woman's stomach.
She crumpled to the floor. Madeleine didn't have time to feel horror at what she'd done, but raced into Macy's room, feeling cold at the sense of desperation that ran through her in the deprivation room, being deprived of her powers.
She ran beside Macy and hacked through the bindings with her knife. "Macy?" she called quietly. "Macy? Wake up."
And one thought ran through her.
This?
... was not like chess.

[Macy Deltine]

Macy was in the fresh cool waters, swimming. There was clear skies above her, and she was tanning slightly. She feet couldn't feel the bottom, but it was nice, just floating there, relaxing. In you swam under the surface, you could see fish of many colors, reflecting the rays of light that sank disorderedly thought the waves. She came back up and closed her eyes, floating. But then, something started to pull of her feet, bitting deep into her leg, dragging her under, down though the abyss, drowning...

She woke up on the ground, her wrists aching, with very heavy sounds of fighting coming from the other side of the wall. Sweep of fear washed though her body, making her heart beat faster and her legs buckle. They had returned. What were they going to do to her this time? She had been stripped of her dignity, so nothing they did to her her mattered anymore.
"Macy?" A voice almost slapped her out of her dream. No-one had called her her real name in weeks. Here, she was just 'you'. She knew the voice. She tried to get up and see who it was. She knew the face immediately. Madeleine.
"Mad..why are you here?" She could only think of the worst things. "Oh no, get out, get out!" She screamed, even though she was so weak to stand up. Seeing her friend had given her new energy. She tried to get up again, but this new energy, she found, would not carry her on her legs. They buckled again and she fell to the ground, placing her hands out before she hit her head of the concrete floor. Then she realised. Her hands were stained with blood, not being washed in weeks, and her wrists were bloody and raw where the ropes had been tied tightly, keeping her from moving. She looked down at her legs, as she hadn't seen them in ages either, in the position she had made to stand in, tied up. They were bruised with some gashes. Her ankles were deeply cut and her feet themselves where greyish with her toenails looking bad and vines pulsing. Her soles also felt raw from the ground. She then looked up at Madeleine again, her face scratched, but looking oddly happy. She was wearing armour and was breathing deeply as if she had ran a mile. She was caring a sword and Macy remembered the necklace around her neck, how she had one just like it, but had failed to protect her as no powers what-so-ever worked in that dreadful room.
"Can I leave?" She asked Madeleine for permission. It was strange, she didn't seem like her friend that she had played the prank on the boys that day, or had talked to just before she left, instead she was almost like a God-sent angel, there to carry her home.
Suddenly it didn't feel like she was in her cell anymore, neither could she hear the brutal shouts from outside, it felt like she was drifting along on a cloud. The energy had finally let her get up, and she took her first step towards freedom. She couldn't feel her legs, but she knew that she was walking. Madeleine was helping her walk away from where she had been tied, towards to door she had longed to go out. She felt like a patient, leaving the hospital after coming out of a coma. Finally they kicked open the door and she smelt the fresh air for the first time. Then suddenly something happened, something that she thought would never happen again; she could feel herself getting stronger, her powers returning. They felt very strange, like when she had first been given them.
"Hey! That's the girl!" People had stopped to look round from both sides.
"Get her!" Another voice shouted, but then she realised that it was people people from the enemy armies trying to get her again. But people she recognized from her school was running over to defend her and Madeleine. But, even though she had been tortured for weeks, beaten, stripped of all she had, a few minutes ago to weak to stand, Macy felt as if she had just woken from a good nights sleep with lots of energy. She turned round and knew who was from her school and who was the enemy. To everyone's disbelief, she got up from Madeleine's support and jumped to her own two feet. She felt Natalia rise up from inside her, crazy with vengeance and ran towards someone from the enemy army. Before they were able to attack her, she grabbed their face with her hands over their mouth and froze them very quickly. They fell to the floor as a statue and she moved on to the next one, doing to same. She had frozen about five people, but suddenly, she felt a very sharp pain in her right shoulder blade, as if it had been blown off. She fell to the floor feeling drained of the energy she had just felt, with a rush of all the pain that had been inflicted on her the past weeks. But here she could shapeshift. She changed into a large puma, and felt the refreshing feeling of shapeshifting. But, to her disgust, she saw a large arrow sticking out of her shoulder. She pulled it out, and started to run, run away from the enemies and her horrible, horrible cell. As she ran past Madeleine she glanced a look saying' I have to get out. I don't want to leave you, but I have to.' She would understand.
As she ran she could feel the blood run out of her shoulder, leaving a bloody, icy trail. She didn't pay any attention to the world around her, didn't care at the more arrows that was being fired at her. She just ran as fast as her weak legs could take her, and finally, finally, got back to the building that she belonged. She saw Professor Hoodham, with a very strange looking woman waiting. Macy ran to their feet, changed back to her normal self and passed out.
Well, atleast she was back, they could do the rest.

[Erin Rakal]

Erin had been there to clear out the people who followed them.
What she didn't realize was the terrible amount of bleeding coming from her. The adrenaline that she loved so much had done its job too well - Erin could feel her energy just slip away with no pain.
It made her afraid to think that she had so many cuts and wounds, but she didn't feel anything. After feeling light-headed, she looked down at herself, but it was too late. Her adrenaline ran out as she saw the girl named Macy run for the hills. Instantly she felt all of her exhaustion and the pain rush back to her, and she gave a cry of pain that almost sounded like a lion's roar. She fell to the ground, and everything seemed to be twice as slow - her hand moving up towards the sky, the blades in her hands glinting with small spatters of blood from anyone who'd gotten too close to her.
As few people that she'd killed, she wasn't ready. She'd gone too early, and she hadn't used her powers once. When she realised this wasn't an actual war, she'd finally managed to gain her control well enough to keep her from killing too many lives.
Her eyes widened in fear, and her eyes burned from all of the bright bodies running past her.
Finally, after what seemed like an hour, she fell to the ground, her arm still outstretched. She didn't make a face or wince as she was stepped on occasionally.
I'm not going to make it. The thought creeped into her mind, and a feeling of cold, bitter dread walked up her spine. Her eyelids fluttered - that last kill had been too much; he was too fast with those daggers in his hands, and she'd only been able to dodge the ones that would've killed her on the spot.
Blackness creeped around the edges of her vision.
She wished the adrenaline would come back, to at least numb the pain as she gave another cry as all of her cuts and gashes and bruises throbbed with her heartbeat.
It was too much. She should've waited.
But she didn't. As she looked at Macy run out of her sight, she twitched.
She knew that Macy would probably be okay, but something told her to get up. A voice in her head, tiny and echoing.
{Get up.}
Erin shifted her head to look around her.
{Get up, Erin!}
I can't. I can't!
{Oh, so when you finally find the place where you belong, you just decide to give it all up? After all of that searching, you just decide to let yourself die?}
It was too early. I didn't train myself for this. I thought it'd just be barbarians without any brains. I wasn't ready.
{That's still not an excuse to just give up. You think you weren't ready? Look at you! The battle's practically won, and you can still think and walk and talk!}
Just leave me alone. Besides, I can't do any of that.
{Look at you! When you were inside that prision of a cellar, you weren't ready for it. You weren't ready for the darkness, the fear. But you adapted. Your eyes changed by themselves, Erin. In that spill you were given the gift of an animal - the ability to adapt.}
Erin opened her eyes, spitting out dust. She shifted around slightly, giving a cry. But it wasn't of pain. It was of effort.
{When you dug out of the cellar you weren't ready for the pain that came to you, but you found away around it!}
Erin flung her arms into the ground, her blades digging into the ground. A scream of anger and pain erupted from her as she pulled herself, her muscles seeming to rip apart as she did so. But she didn't stop.
{When you found out about the curse, you weren't ready for the struggle to keep control. But you DID keep control. You stopped yourself from killing, even though it was hard! It was painful, it left you exhausted, but you still did it! You did it to protect your friends!}
Erin's efforts were doubled, and she found feeling in her legs.
{If you can do all of that...}
Erin slowly rose to her feet, her knees wobbling as pain seared into her mind, but the voice rang even louder.
{If you can hold back a powerufl curse from killing everyone around you just to protect your friends...}
She took a step, only to fall, giving a cry of pain once more. She wanted to give up, but something refused.
{If you can dig your way out of a cellar...}
She rose once more, only to find that her legs could hold her weight now. Rage built up in her, and even as the pain was unbearable as her countless gashes bled freely, she took two steps forward.
{Then what's stopping you NOW?!?}
Erin gave a roar, running as fast as she could. With every step, blood shook both inside and outside of her. She gritted her teeth, but kept her eyes open as she barreled through the occasional enemy.
She never stopped. She kept running, even though every part of her screamed not to. Well, except for the voice, which was cheering her onward, scolding her anytime her pace slowled even the slightest bit.
Finally she could see the school, and suddenly she began staggering to a walk. Her steps were unsteady, like a newborn horse's, and she stumbled as she reached the door. She opened the door and walked through the hallway. Every step was an effort now, and her feet seemed ten times heavier. As she saw Macy safe and sound, she gave an exhausted smile, panting heavily. Suddenly, the smile melted away as she seemed to fall in slow motion. She hit the ground, and her vision became enveloped in darkness...