Chapter 8 - Teamwork

Lucy Rudolf's/Justine's P.O.V

In the end, Malefici and I searched for hours in hopes to find another Hero or Villain. I couldn't even find Arch, and we were starting to run out of time for today.

"What happened to Arch? Wasn't she here earlier?"

Malefici frowned. "I told that idiot to go here and talk to her, not to take her away!"

I whipped my head around. "Who are you talking about?"

He stuttered for a minute. "I-um, it was another Villain a met a little while ago. He was here, and now they are both gone!"

I grabbed his shirt collar and yanked him down. "Are you telling me that they kidnapped her!" I said with as much venom as I could muster in my voice.

He jerked himself away. "Of course not! You're crazy! I personally know that idiot, and he doesn't have the guts to do that!"

I turned myself away and paced around the school yard. "This is crazy. I'm blaming you if something happens to her."

Malefici started to go off on another rant. "This is my fault?! It's your fault that you knocked her out! If you just butted out, then-"

He paused. "Justine, there's someone else here."

"What? Who is it?"

He gently shook his head. "I don't know, keep quiet."

What happened after that was a blur. I remember Malefici shouting something, and something piercing through my torso, but not much else.

I started to cough, and my breathing became heavy once I noticed it was blood I was coughing up.

After I looked down, I realized that someone put a dagger through my stomach.

I swung my right foot back and kicked the culprit. They slammed into one of the older buildings at the school.

My legs caved in, and I fell over.

"Justine?!"

Malefici noticed what was going on, and he quickly dug the knife out of my torso.

"Are you alright?" he said as he helped me back up.

"I'm fine, thanks. Where did that guy go?"

His face turned from worry to total frustration. "I'll be right back."

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Everett Ailan's/ Malefici's P.O.V

I cracked my knuckles. Whoever this was had dark energy radiating off of him. Anyone, even if it was another Villain, would pay for what they have done.

It was a person that was probably around my age, and he resembled a dragon with his ears and scaly skin.

He had blood pouring from his nose and a gash on his head. If I didn't hate Justine so much, I would have been impressed.

"Did you really think you were going to get away with that?"

He wobbled and wiped the blood from his face. "You're protecting her?"

"Oh, no. I only took the knife out to kill her with it. Yes, you idiot! I have to protect her!"

He looked like he was starting to weigh his options. I knew very well that he was the Dragon User, and that he was stronger than me, but he now knew he couldn't take on both of us.

"Traitor." He mumbled before disappearing into thin air. I was starting to wonder how literally every single user was able to do that.

"Coward. Don't run away from a fight!" I shouted at a blank wall.

I turned back and headed for Justine.

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Lucy Rudolf's/Justine's P.O.V

"Where did they go?"

Malefici's mood just grew more sour with time.

"They fled. I think it was the Dragon User."

"Really? Why didn't you ask them to help us?"

"Help us?! Are you alright? That guy tried to kill you!"

"I know that Malefici, I'm just saying that Luzor told us to find the others, and you let him get away."

He folded his arms. "I can't tell if you are really stupid or just too nice." He knelt down in front of me. When he started to look for the Dragon User, I ended up falling over myself again, which explains why I was on the ground again.

"Can't you heal yourself? You're supposed to be literally made of magic you know."

"I've only had my magic for a few days! Cut me some slack you jerk!"

His hands hovered over the knife wound.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Shut up, I need to concentrate."

I was about to get on his case again, but I realized that the pain was starting to fade away.

"Since when did you learn how to heal?"

His eyes narrowed. "About 5 hours ago, to be exact. And it's not healing, it's just absorbing energy."

Minutes passed by, and the pain that was starting to fade away was just starting to come back.

"Malefici, that's fine, just stop already."

"..."

"Malefici, stop."

"..."

"Stop you idiot!" I punched him in the face, causing the process to stop abruptly.

His hand went to his face where I punched him. "What was that for!?"

"I told you to stop, but you didn't listen!"

"Listen, I hate you. I can't just let you off the hook for you being stupid."

"Stupid?! You're the one who is being ignorant by not listening to what I have to say!"

He looked taken aback. "Whatever, you're fine now, and we need to keep going."

"What are you talking about? It's getting dark already, we should be heading home."

"I see, so you're one of those goody-two-shoes, aren't ya? I hate those kind of people. Just tell whoever you live with that you had something to take care of, we need to find someone by the end of today, or Luzor won't let us hear the end of it."

It was true that my parents were supposed to be out late again due to work, and that I had absolutely nothing to do tonight, I just wasn't sure about the whole spend the night outside with a demon part of it.

I really didn't want to hear that other demon's lecture about not finding anyone else, so I decided to agree with Malefici. If he tried to pull anything, I'd just find a way to stop him.

"Okay, but where do you suggest we look? We have scouted the entire city for 4 hours today!"

He held out his hand and formed another scythe. "We need to lure them out."

"Great, now you're going to make me play as the bait."

He grinned evilly. "Don't worry, I'll let them almost kill you, but I'll stop them before they actually do."

I sighed. "Gee, that are makes me feel better."

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Everett Ailan's/Malefici's P.O.V

Somehow, I convinced Justine to go out alone in the middle of the night. I knew nothing would happen, since I would be just on the rooftops, but it didn't seem like she understood that.

I was hunched over as I carefully walked over the abandoned buildings; it would have been funny to see Justine all worked up and freaked out if I wasn't stressing over her safety.

My head perked up as a noticed some familiar scents in the area. It was Demonaris, the dragon from earlier, and one other that I haven't met.

I poked my head out as Justine stopped in her tracks. Demonaris and the wolfish looking guy approached her slowly. The guy actually resembled a werewolf in a weird way.

"Huh? Were did you go?" I started to talk to myself. The dragon wasn't with them, but he was still in the area.

My hands were immediately pulled back by someone, and a cloth was put over my mouth.

"?!?!?!"

I turned my neck to see the same person that attacked Justine earlier.

"You should know better than to mess with your superior."

He pushed me over to the ledge. "Now you will see what you were supposed to do."

I was now starting to panic. I could sense no one else around, and there was no way Demonaris knew about our partnership. There was nothing I could do without my scythe either.

Another figure manifested in front of Demonaris and the Werewolf. It wasn't a mentor, since it seemed to be more solid than Luzor was.

I could tell that the three of them were trying to corner her, but any amount of me shouting wasn't doing anything. I even tried using my legs, but they were bound together before I could even think about using them.

Justine started to fall back, but no amount of saying no and pushing them away did anything.

The figure that manifested rolled up his sleeve, and sent his arm flying through Justine's torso. She screamed as white electrical sparks appeared in the air. I noticed that her costume was starting to fade away, and her hair began to look shorter than before.

But it stopped before her identity could be given away. It looked like a half-transformation; normal clothes that looked like her costume, and normal hair color, length, and eyes.

The ghost-like figure took his arm back out and went a few steps back. He laughed and gently elbowed the others.

I tried my best to jerk away from the Dragon when I realized that she wasn't moving.

"Do you really want to go over there that badly? She's dead you know."

I continued to struggle, nearly throwing us both off the ledge.

"Ok, if you say so."

He released the restraints, and I somehow managed to land safely on the ground.

"Justine!"

There were no physical wounds, so I could do absolutely nothing. I felt so useless.

I looked around to see if any of the other Villains were still around, and I tried to relax when I saw that it was just us.

When I looked back, I noticed that her transformation was wearing off. Her white and violet costume was replaced with my school's uniform.

Wait, what?

"Lucy?"