Judgement (The Twelve) (55 page)

Coffee raised her hand and Chris raised his, he knew what to do
without thinking
. Two invisible bands of converging time waves hit each other equally and rebounded. Chris and Coffee found themselves the only people that could move or speak. Everyone else was frozen in place.

Chris smiled, “That’s better.”

Coffee looked angry, she obviously meant for her wave of attack to
just freeze
them all including Chris
.
G
lanc
ing
around
she
begrudgingly acknowledged Chris.

“Well done Judgement.”

Chris smiled once again, “Just Chris will do.”

She looked startled, “Really?” she asked with a tilt of her head.

Chris didn’t respond,
just unfroze time with a casual wave of his hand. He didn’t have any idea how he did it. It just happened as he wished.

Anvil moved to stand in front of Chris,
he looked hard into Coffees eyes,
“I asked where Edge is. He issued a challenge and I accepted.”

Coffee hissed and angrily flicked a hand towards Anvil. In a flash of movement, he raised his hammer to ward off whatever the blow was. He staggered slightly as his
weapon
echoed
like it had just been struck with a heavy steel bar
but he held his ground.

Coffee raised an eyebrow, “Impressive.” Closing her eyes, she slowly raised a finger towards the ground in front of Anvil.

The earth cracked open and before he could do anything, Anvil fell into the hole beneath. Coffee flicked her finger again and the crack started to close, crushing Anvil.

Chris clapped both hands together with a resounding thunderous boom
. He stopped the earth closing
over Anvil. Speed shot forward grabbed Anvil by the neck of his jacket
,
jerk
ing
him
up
from the hole.
Releasing Anvil
, Speed shot forward so fast even Chris didn’t see him move.
He slashed past Coffee
,
four sharpened fingernails scor
ing
her right cheek.

He reappeared nearly a hundred feet away,
“Hot Cross was my friend you bitch!”

Coffee screamed in rage
, a ball of white hot fire appeared before her, spinning in midair, “Speed!” she screamed. It was an order to the fire which roared off
. Speed accelerated as it chased him
round and round the yard. Finally Speed slowed, he was burning up. The ball of chain lightning struck and blasted him right over
to the far side of the graveyard. Luckily there was a wide dip in the ground which was filled with a foot of rain water. Speed hit hard, bouncing several times across the surface like skimming a flat stone across a pond.

Anvil raised his hammer on high and brought it down with such force, the world moved! Thousands of ghostly human bones flew skywards.
The force of the blow was directed outwards
towards Coffee. The ground rippled upwards in a wave of flying debris.  Whilst some of The Dark where blown backwards. Coffee
staggered but
unbelievably she
kept her feet as both double decked buses shook violently a
s e
very window blew inwards
. There was
no sign of Edge inside the
vehicles,
but from the roof of the
bus on the
left
,
Edge
l
ost his balance
as he
was
bounced into the air. Stunned
,
he
rolled off to fall
to the ground.

Anvil pointed his weapon at Edge,
“The right of challenge shall be obeyed!”
Anvil
bellowed, “Not even The Chosen One or Judgement can alter the challenge, once issued
, both the Creator and the Destroyer
shall
enforce
that law!”

Coffee looked slightly taken aback, even scared. Edge had made a mistake in calling for the Challenge
. H
e hoped
to
simply put The Twelve off balance and susceptible to a surprise attack. In part he had achieved this but had forgotten that some laws are not meant to be broken and that this was one such law.

Edge
groaned and came upright on unsteady feet.
Turning he addressed Coffee,
“Chosen One I did as you ordered why has this….”

“Be silent!” Coffee hissed.

Anvil rested the head of his weapon across his chest in the fold of his left arm, “So it was you who broke the law. Such deceit
! S
uch arrogance
!
Did you think that you where above laws decided and agreed upon by our Lord and your Dark
Master? Have you not learned anything?
”

Coffee turned up her nose at him imperiously, “I am my own law, I am…..”

A
sudden heavy
darkness descended, enveloping her body. It writhed about her like serpents coils. She tried to cry out but no sound escaped her lips. The darkness tightened its grip upon her.
Coffee
screamed but no scream escaped her lips. It drove her to her knees and she cried, but no tears flowed from her eyes.

Finally, the darkness lifted
as suddenly as it had descended.
Coffee let out a gasp of intense relief and s
taggered
to her feet.

“I…am in error.” She stuttered. Taking a deep breath to calm herself she added, “Challenge accepted.”

Edge backed away slightly, “So I am betrayed! No matter, you accepted my challenge father, so you must fight me.”

Anvil settled the head of his hammer upon the ground, crossing both hands over the hilt. “So it has come to this?”

Edge laughed, “It’s not as if you cared!”

Anvil wasn’t smiling, far from it, “Shaun you cannot be further from the truth. Knowing you and Chris are
both
my son’s
,
mean I shall love you both
equally
unto my dying day.”

Edge quick as
a flash, drew both swords, “Don’t call me that!”

Chris moved to stand slightly apart from Anvil, “What? Your given name or that you are his son
and my brother
?”

Edge pointed the blade of one weapon at Chris, “Bastard half brother or not. You shall be next!”

Anvil picked up his weapon, “No son it ends today.”

“For you yes!” Edge lunged forward slashing towards Anvils neck.

Just as quick, which surprised Edge, Anvil blocked the blade and sent a return blow to Edges side
, who
just managed to jump back before
the
impact. Twirling both blades, Edge circled slowly before lunging forward yet again. Twin arcs of steel cut through the air. Anvil deflected the first but the second gashed him across his left bicep.

Anvil said nothing, showed nothing but stepped backwards.

Edge grinned, “Felt that didn’t you!”
But the smile faltered slightly at the sight of blood.

Instead of answering, Anvil rubbed the head of the hammer across his wound and
suddenly
flicked blood drops at Edge.

Two struck his face and instantly the skin boiled and bubbled. Edge yelled in pain, dropping one sword to grab the side of his face.

Anvil spun his hammer and let fly,
but withheld most of the power behind the blow. It struck
Edge fully in the chest
,
smash
ing him
backwards off his feet.

Anvil ran in with
water
rising
up
from each step, grabb
ed
his hammer
which hung in midair
, he swung a mighty downwards blow but at the last second deflected it to strike the earth next to Edges head.

Although suffering from a crushed chest, Edge didn’t hesitate and stabbed upwards with his remaining sword. The blade bit deep into Anvils chest.
Edge instantly knew his father could have avoided the blow but choose not to.

For a moment they stood there staring at each other. With a
hesitant
grin, Edge slowly pulled free his blade, rolled to the side and painfully climbed to his feet. Anvil made no attempt to move, simply stared at his son.
The rain watered down the blood which flowed in rivulets down his chest.

The grin slowly dropped away, “You should have fought harder!” He
sprayed rain water from his lips as he shouted.

Anvil took three faltering steps back away from Edge, one hand held to the heavily bleeding wound and then he did the one thing Edge never expected, he smiled.

“You could have aimed for my heart. Why didn’t you?”

Edge half smiled, “I can feel a few broken ribs and possibly a punctured lung. But that hammer of yours could have gone right through me had you thrown hard enough. Why did you hold back?”

“Need you ask?”

Edge’s expression changed to one of outrage, “I expected no mercy!”

Anvil coughed up some blood, “As did I.”

Coffee was getting fed up with the exchange, “Edge, finish him off now!” she snarled.

Edge took a faltering step towards his father, hand clutching at his crushed chest.
In
a sudden move
which was slow for Edges skills,
he slashed his sword blade out and across. Anvil was ready and with one mighty cross blow, shattered the blade.

Edge staggered back, looking for his other weapon.
Coffee held it out to him, an evil grin on her face.

“Must you?” Anvil asked sadly.

Edge hesitated again but by the shear evil will power from Coffee
, Edge plucked his sword
from her outstretched hand and
faster than the eye could follow, leapt forward and slashed down and across. He was just too fast even for Anvil. The blade opened up a terrible slashing wound from collarbone to opposing hip.