Saturday, August 30, 2014

My weekly weekend short story - 8/30 edition

So it's another weekend and I took on another weekend writing challenge. Still 500 words, this time it was "imagine what happens when a sudden surge leads to a shift in balance". I revisited another favorite Nyx Slaughter character for inspiration this week. I'm starting to think 500 words is a lot harder to write than 50,000. I started off with about 800 and had to cut it down to make it work.

I hope you enjoy. Time for me to get back to The Dragon's Fire - really hoping to get that first draft done during this long weekend.

A Little Extra Firepower

What are friends for?

Nyx needed him, even if she didn’t understand why her problems concerned Ben. As a demon, events above ground rarely did, but Nyx was special.

Finding ways Ben could help were hard when he didn’t always want it to be known he was helping. His desire to assist is what led him to lurk in the dark, outside a warehouse in Night Owl City. Nyx was inside. Her independent streak had gotten the best of her, and she’d gone out with only one of her guards.

The sounds of fighting, and Nyx’s guns being fired off frequently, had gone on long enough as Ben stood outside deciding how to help. Slipping through the door in front of him, Ben got his first look at what the sounds looked like.

Marcus, Nyx’s vampire guard, had taken on the Collective’s vampire, and was working to fight him and three werewolves at once. He was good, but versus four of the Collective’s better fighters, he had a few issues.

Nyx was working through the ammo she had, shooting to wound instead of kill. Once Nyx’s guns ran out of bullets, she threw them to the side as she went to grab another set from a belt she wore around her waist. Before she got them out, a werewolf, who was in the middle of changing into his wolf form, jumped her. That was enough for Ben.

He gathered a ball of fire energy into his hand, fire was what he knew best. Once the glowing orb made it to the size of a soccer ball, Ben chanted a few words over it and threw it out into the center of the room, where it hung in the air for a second before sending out a pulse that caused the Collective’s forces to scream horrifically and fall to the ground.

Ben didn’t need a whole army to provide the surge Nyx needed to make it through the fight. Just a quick surge in the opposing forces’ brain waves was enough to change the tides. The look on Nyx’s face didn’t exactly show gratitude, but she did pause to give Ben a glare.

“Tell me you didn’t kill them,” Nyx said as she looked around the bodies. When she found who she was looking for, she walked over and dragged the body towards the door. “This is their third in command and we were hoping to get information out of him. We didn’t expect him to have a full team with him when we got here, obviously.”

“He’s not dead, and you’re welcome,” Ben said as he winked at Nyx.

“Thanks, Ben. Don’t think for a second this means I’m going to have your baby.”

Nyx didn’t stick around to have a conversation. Ben slightly regretted asking Nyx to have his baby the first time they’d had a real conversation, but it was a good cover for him when he wanted to help her just because they were friends, whether she knew that or not.

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