The first bullet hit her on the right side of her stomach, just below her tiny breast.
Al kept his eyes fixed on her body, intent on figuring out any moves that she might make beforehand so that he could give the orders to the soldiers, if needed.
By all accounts, he knew that this confrontation should end with her death. The only way this could change was if she had a Blessing, and if there was a spell that she could use to get out of the situation… but no matter how many times he had gone through the list of spells available to those with a single Blessing, he hadn't been able to find one that would be suited to her current situation.
There was another possibility, of course. If the Dragon, who was known to be one of the most secretive men of power in the world, had access to spells that the public didn't know of that he had taught to his Children to be used as trump cards…she might be able to save her own life. Also, it could be that she was someone who had already gotten her second Blessing, thereby granting her access to spells of much higher power, and if so, there were certainly other ways she could choose to leave here, alive.
The latter didn't seem possible, at all, to Al, as it wouldn't make sense to pit such powerful beings against those still completing their initiate odysseys, like him. They would be able to power through any and all such odysseys, and in such a case, it would mean that the Dragon had only sent them to satiate their egos and not gain experience, which was supposed to be his true intention.
Even though he had thought this all out, he still felt a ball of tension in his mind as he saw the bullets sink into her body, making her shudder as if she was having a fit. She had snarled as the triggers had been pulled, but now, her expression was only one of pain and death, amplified by a few bullets that had even passed through her cheeks and her forehead, making it look, for all intents and purposes, that the leader of the heroes had died.
He had geared the plan to target the pixie-haired woman, as it had been obvious that she was the one calling the shots. A team would always be heavily inconvenienced if the one giving orders was incapacitated, so his objective was to render them as weak as possible so that he could get to the mayor easily.
"Enough!"
After seeing that even after her entire body had been riddled by bullet wounds, there was no change in what he was seeing, he gave the order and made them stop, as he didn't really want to waste the limited ammunition that they had, either. Taking hesitant steps, he walked to the body and gingerly kicked it over, causing it to fall onto its back in the massive pool of blood that had flowed out of it in just a few moments since it had fallen to the floor.
Her eyes were glassy and vacant, her body was unmoving and dead. He kicked her two more times just to make sure, and then, finally, relief appeared all of a sudden, flooding his mind and making the smile on his face broaden.
Only, just as he was about to turn around and congratulate the soldiers… a change came over the body, making him freeze and stand there, rooted to the spot.
Like wax put to the torch, the skin… began to shift. It flowed around the bullet holes, melting and changing and rolling around in a way that made his stomach turn, and when it stopped… the body had changed to belong to someone else.
It was the tattooed third member of the heroes, who had been responsible for lending the others the speed to catch up to them even though they had used the Boots of Hermes to get away before. In the grand scheme of things, she wasn't a very important piece… and it seemed that the leader had thought the same, as she had been sent as a scapegoat.
And where there was a scapegoat… they would also be a lion waiting, ready to pounce.
As if summoned by his thoughts, a figure sprang out of the door, one hand raised in the air, holding a fencing sword with a sharp point that alarmingly grew larger and larger in Al's vision.
He ducked back, his reflexes helping him, for once, already having been tempered in battle in his odysseys before. They passed the first hurdle, but then…they proved woefully insufficient when the pixie-haired girl who had appeared for real, this time, bent her legs and jumped into the air, catching the sword in both hands and bringing it down on his head.
Al didn't have time to think, or time to breathe. His mind wanted one thing, his body wanted another. His gut was telling him that he needed to fall back, but he knew that he hadn't trained himself enough to be able to move fast enough to get away from the attack.
That left only one avenue, and he was barely able to use it before the sword went straight through his head. With one hand, the cape was flung up into the air, and as the point of the sword met it and was glanced to the side, he heard an angry shout from the hero that reverberated in the room.
"Fuck these fucking tools!"
Even in the heat of the situation, Al felt…elated. He knew that this dialogue would be perfect for advertising the tools, especially coming from such a distinguished person, but at the moment, he had more pressing concerns to take care of.
"Fire, you fools! I'll be fine!"
Instantly getting a flash of inspiration, he shouted to the soldiers who were all milling around in confusion. They didn't believe him, at first, as to them, the cape must surely loo like a magical device straight out of the movies… so he needed to shout again, which gave the hero enough time to growl and jump out of the line of fire.
"If you don't fire, I'll put you all on the chopping block when we get back! Just do it!"
A few half-hearted gunshots finally rang out. For the first time, Al cursed the fact that he was such a beloved leader, as he was sure that if he was heated, all of the soldiers would have grasped the chance to kill him on his own orders with relish.
It was too little, too late, though. She had already slunk into the shadows of the room and disappeared from sight, and right away, he knew that she was deploying one of the most useful spells available for those with a Blessing: Shadowmeld.
'Oh, how I wish I had my own Blessing!'
Cursing, he made a beeline to the door. Right before he left, he luckily anticipated her move correctly: she jumped out, ready to impale him as soon as he made it out, but he had already decided to stop just a pace behind, which led to her missing her attack.
She stumbled due to the misstep, giving Al the perfect chance to shove past her and get out. He bounded down the steps three at the time and went out the door to find Jordan and Jessica waiting, their faces filled with expectation.
Hurriedly, he said, "It's complicated, so I'll explain later! Time to get away! Jordan… unveil the villainmobile!"
Jordan groaned and muttered, "Why me?", but he still made his way deeper, into the dark alley.
In the dim light of the moon, he caught a plastic cover and pulled it to reveal Al's proud creation.
It was a three-seat bicycle, reinforced with metal, designed so that of the two capes left, one protected the front, while the other was fixed at the back. Where the horn of the bicycle was supposed to be, three flutes had been glued together to create an Astral Orchestra, and all in all, it looked egregiously silly…but Al was proud of it, all the same.
They were soon seated on it, and at that exact moment, the hero appeared in the alley.
As they all activated the Boots of Hermes and made the bike shoot off down the road, he shouted his farewell into the night…and grinned happily as a roar of frustration erupted behind him.
"See you next time! One down, two to go! Thanks for the show! And if you want these Tools...look for them in stores near you, soon! Ba-byeee..."