When the World Falls Apart (Aura/Open for 1 More)

Juka wandered slowly, almost in a daze and not even bothering to re-bubble himself. His bubbles had betrayed him and he wasn't even certain he should still rely on them. What if they did something really regretable? Thus far they had only drained little plants, but what if they decided to drain something bigger? Like a kitty? Or even worse, what if they somehow decided to drain a person? He would never be able to live with himself then. He could barely live with himself now.

In the distance Juka heard an argument between a couple of angry sounding individuals but thought nothing of it. People argued, that was the way of things. Then he heard a gunshot and, despite his preoccupation with his own problems, he knew that someone might be hurt and he couldn't just let them die in a pool of their own blood. He knew most thought of him as a self and self-centered individual and, really, it was pretty much true. But he was also a good person, or so he liked to think, and he would never intentionally hurt anyone nor would he ever let anyone be hurt if he could do anything to prevent it. And with his bubbles, as unpredictable as they had been lately, he might be able to save someone's life.

In an instant Juka was once again bubbled and speeding towards the direction that he had heard the gunshot come from, hovering just above the buildings so he could gain a good view of what was going on around him. What he found was not what he had expected to find. The first thing he saw was the blood, so much blood, blood everywhere, and he knew that the victim must surely be dead to have lost so much blood. No, make that victims, he reevaluated hastily. Juka had to fight with himself not to throw up at the sight of the mutilated bodies.

The next thing he noticed was a familiar pink aura'd girl, one he had met before when he had found his kitties. His first thought was that she might be in danger and he surely had to save her (not even thinking about the fact that he had no way to do so) until he realized an instant later that, far from needing him to save her, she was the culprit, the murderer. And to think he had considered her a friend!

Spotting another human near her and seeing the pink sword in one hand, it didn't take much for Juka to figure out that the girl planned to kill again and he simply couldn't allow that to happen. Thinking quickly, the first thing Juka spotted small enough to bubble was Aura's blood covered skunk. Extending a tendril, he bubbled the skunk in a secondary bubble and floated over top of Aura, stopping just above her head. Dropping the skunk on the (hopefully) unsespecting teenager, he yelled out "Don't hurt anyone else!"

Juka was utterly baffled and confused at Aura's reaction to his presence. Having just come upon the scene of a violent burtal double murder, casual friendliness was pretty much the last possible thing that he might have been expecting. What exactly he had been expecting he wasn't sure, but that definately wasn't it. And then she started asking him to dance, rendering him even more confused and utterly speechless, which happened very rarely. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time he had been stricken so utterly of any possible words. Who was this girl and what was wrong with her? How could she be so calous towards the humans she had just cut down around her? And how would she react when he tried to stop her from doing any more damage? For the first time he felt a trickel of fear flow down his spine but having made his stance, he couldn't very well let her continue with her actions.

"You don't need to do this," Juka spoke softly, his voice shaking just a little bit. "You don't need to hurt anyone else, you don't need to kill anyone. They didn't do anything to you." He spoke as if to a child who might bolt at any moment, or might turn on him just as quickly. His bubble was positioned above Aura, just out of range of her sword. He had no idea how long the range of her aura was and, if it came down to it, had no idea how he could possibly stop her if she tried to hurt anyone else. He knew how to flee, that he was very good at. But how could he flee like a coward when the lives of others were at stake? How could he live with himself?

Juka desperately hoped that it would not come to violence with this woman, realizing that he was utterly out of his league. Nevertheless, as he spoke he looked around for some sort of weapon that he could use if it came to it. Spotting a pile of bricks of the large grey variety only a few feet away , he lowered his bubble slightly and sent out 3 tendrils, each of them grabbing hold of a brick. It wasn't much but at least they were heavy and would probably do some damage if dropped from above or if they struck someone at high velocity. Of cource, he had no idea if they could harm Aura through her strange pink aura. And if they didn't work, well, perhaps he could try to gain control of the new curse of his power and drain her energy. He really hoped it woudln't come to that though because if it did he'd probably end up just as dead as the human corpses.

"They don't deserve to die." The words came out sounding almost as if Juka were trying to convince himself of this fact. "Please don't hurt them. Please don't make me try to stop you from hurting them," he pleaded desperately with her.

The more Aura spoke the more stunned Juka became. He just didn't know what to make of the girl, hadn't realized that people like her even existed. She seemed to believe that humans were no more important than pigs or cows, like cattle to the slaughter, not that Juka would have even killed a cow if he had a choice in the matter. But it went beyond that even, since to his knowledge she wasn't suggestion that they eat the dead humans, only kill them. Unless he was mistaken about that, which was the most disturbing thought that he had had yet. And yet, if she was such a cold hearted killer would it be such a shock to discover that she was also a cannibal? Would that really be any worse?

"We kill cows and fish for food," Juka answered her, feeling almost the teacher. It was, once again, a position he was unfamiliar with. It seemed he would be off kilter all night, off kilter until he got himself killed which seemed more and more likely every moment he floated there talking to the crazy psychopath before him. What had happened to the poor girl to turn her into this creature? How could she be so young and yet so...utterly inhuman? He knew that it must have been something horrible, something that he couldn't even ebgin to comprened. And het, he still had her talking and talking was good because talking meant that she was not trying to kill anyone, especially not him. Though avoiding that inevetable confrontation was looking more and more unlikely the more she spoke.

"I don't want to fight you," Juka told her, poring every bit of emotion and honesty into his voice. Yet at the same time he ensured that his bricks were before him, one below and one on either side of him. If it came to it he could pick up as many as two more bricks. They and the agility and speed that he had while inside his bubble were his only weapons and they seemed woefully inadequate to his eye when compared to the other girl's obvious skill and her shining aura and blade. He knew his bubble was no protection against such a thing.

"All I want is for you to leave here in peace; leave the humans alone. And maybe come to The Mansion with me. There are people there that can help you..." He wasn't sure if it was the right or the wrong thing to say but he felt, suddenly, profound pitty for the girl. It didn't lesson his fear at all. Juka hovered there, mere feet away, awaiting her first move that would surely deciede his fate.

Mutants as the rulers of this planet? Juka was beginning to think that not only had something horrible happened to this girl, but she had also been somehow brainwashed into believing something that, to him at least, was patently ridiculous. Sure mutants had all sorts of interesting and fascinating powers, but wasn't it a bit much for someone to jump to the conclusion that they should be the rulers? And he wasn't even going to think about eating human organs. Nope. Wasn't going to think about it at all. Otherwise he might just become sick and something told him that that would not help his chances of survival, slim as they all ready were.

As the pink aura'd teenager continued to speak, Juka picked up a fourth brick and began thinking of strategy. How was he going ot survive this? And why hadn't he listened to his brother more when he spoke of martial arts training? Oh how he wished, right at that moment, that he had bothered to pay even the least bit of attention. But no, he had to be more interested in fashion and music and performing. Fighting seemed a thing for brutes and besides, with his bubbles when would he ever need to fight when he could just float himself away to safety? He had never in his wildest fantasies conceived of a situation quite like this.

Juka shuddered as the blade turned into a drill and then into a hammer and that momentary laps of attention almost ended it for him before the battle had even begun. At the last possible moment, however, before hammer could strike brick, he moved both brick and main bubble out of the way, causing the hammer to miss entirely. For a moment he hovered just above the girl, indecision worrying its way through his mind. The alley was a confined space which probably wasn't going to be good for either of them. Or, perhaps he might just be able to work that fact to his advantage. After all, he had more weapons than she and he had the advantage of the sky and maneuverability. If he could manage to knock her unconscious he could probably carry her to the Mansion and someone would be able to figure out what to do with her.

Decision made, Juka began rotating the 4 bricks around himself at high speeds. They weren't large enough to make much of a shield on their own, but he hoped that they were moving quickly enough and that there were enough of them to make getting a clean hit against him difficult, if not impossible. He could afford to lose a brick or two, he could not afford to lose his head. He then dove towards his foe, aiming a brick at her head.

Juka almost gave into the ridiculous urge to cheer as, not only did Aura's first attack miss but his own attack hit, although not as solidly as he would have liked and his enemy appeared to show no damage from the hit. Somehow he managed to maintain his composure, however, perhaps due to the life and death situation he now found himself in. Silently he prayed that he would somehow get through this in one piece, vowing that he would never again be the shallow, self-centered individual he had always been. He would do something with his life, something more than just entertain people and make them smile. He wasn't worthy of worship as he had always believed, not really. He hadn't done anything at all to deserve it except for sing a few songs and entertain on a stage. He was nothing, nothing special at all. But if he survived this battle he would change that. He would prove himself worthy, prove himself something special. His bubbles were a gift, perhaps from god or perhaps not, it didn't really matter, and he knew that he should use them to better humanity and to save those too week to save themselves. Now all he had to do was survive.

Juka startled as a large chunk of one of his bricks was sheared off from Aura's hammer strike and saw cracks form in the brick. It wouldn't last much longer, one more hit and hit would be useless. Which also meant that none of his other bricks would last very long either. All he really needed was one good strike to the head and his enemy would be unconscious and she only needed to stay unconsious for the short time it would take him to float to the Mansion and deposit her. Of course, in in order to strike her he really only had two options: either rain down bricks from high above which had the advantage of being out of the range of her attacks but the disadvantage of using up the only weapon he had, or remain in close quarters with her and hope to use the bricks as both weapon and shield, which had the obvious disadvantage of being within range of her own weapon.

Just as Aura's hammer changed itself into a drill, Juka made the decision to stay close to the ground. After all, he could still maintain a few feet distance from his enemy and that was better than nothing. His tendrils extended out 10 ft and he prayed that would be enough. "There are always more weapons around," Juka replied with a false confidence that he didn't feel. Perhaps he could bluff her? After all, if there was one thing he was good at it was playing to his own ego. "And when I win this fight I will bring you back to the Mansion and they will lock you away for your own safety and the safety of others." She had seemed to have an issue with being locked up and he hoped his words would provoke her to do something rash.

When Aura ran at Juka with her drill, he was ready for her. Two bricks maintained thier spinning pattern circling his body and a third brick, the one all ready damanged from the previous attack, he used to block the incoming drill. Unfortunatly the all ready weakened brick crumbled to pieces on impact and the drill dug itself into Juka's arm. The wound wasn't deep due in part to the brick that had blocked most of the attack and to Juka's fast reflexes, but pain nevertheless erupted in Juka's arm and it would probably require stiches. Though he didn't notice it, the wound did not bleed, though it should have.

Ignoring the pain in his arm, as soon as Aura made her attack Juka reacted in kind. The fourth brick under his command he brought around and attempted to smash it into her head. He couldn't afford to take another wound from her drill and he knew that he desperately needed to end this fast.

Juka realized in short order that his carefully calculated threat had been a mistake. Far from causing his enemy rage and forcing her to make a mistake, if anything it seemed to make her all the more determined to end Juka's life and the very last thing he needed was for her to be more determined. "Why do you do it? Why doy ou feel such a need to kill?" That was what he didn't understand. Even if humans were cattle, a fact he clearly disagreed with, what need had she of killing them? What need had anyone of killing? To end something of its very life was too horrible a thought to even put into words. It was the ultimate insult against life itself. No one should have the right to deciede who got to live and who had to die. And certainly not some pink auraed, brain washed sadistic teenager.

Juka felt the most satisfying smack as his brick hit Aura in the head, sending her to the ground in a heap. Unfortunately, however, she was up before Juka could deciede what his next course of action should be. Had he been a seasoned fighter he might have rushed in to tend it while she was still upon the ground, but as it was and with this being his first real fight, he made the mistake of remaining in the air to see if she would get up. He had to fight off a wave of despair when she did so. He knew he was doomed when she explained how her Aura absorbed impacts. What could he possibly do against something like that? All he knew for certain was that he was not going to give up.

Once again Juka hovered awaiting Aura's next move. When it came he was almost not prepared but managed to send a brick to intercept the first drill. He didn't see the second drill. A second brick he aimed at her chest, though he knew if she managed to block it that brick would likely be destroyed just like the last one had been. He was quickly running out of bricks and that was not a good sign at all.