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[fanficsbytoast]

Mischief Tango Chapter 3

After Tyler Cowie has a disastrous run-in with the Tesseract, she has to team up with the god (or sometimes goddess) of mischief to get rid of her new powers. Or at least, that’s plan.

Warnings for story: M Language, T violence, T sex

Warnings for chapter: M language, T drinking

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The Uber was there in ten minutes, which is actually really good for an Uber. I kept my jacket against the injured man’s stomach to hide the light of his…magic, I guess, and I tried my best to support him as we staggered towards the car. He was barely awake enough to stand.         The driver gawked at me from the open window. She didn’t think I was kidnapping this guy, did she?         I did my best to awkwardly grin. “He’s, uh, drunk! Really drunk!”         “Drunk? He looks half-dead.”         “I know, right? Worst first date ever.”         I don’t think she believed me, but I opened the door and let the guy drop onto the seat. He didn’t move. I grabbed the shoulders of his jacket and tried to shove him back. Jeez, he weighed a ton! The whole car shook under his weight!         “Come on!” I hissed at him. “Wake up! You’ve got to scoot over!”         He didn’t respond. Giving up, I shoved his legs into the vehicle, shut the door, and then ran around the car to get in on the other side.         I just hoped the guy didn’t die. He had helped me, and plus, I really would prefer it if I got out of this mess without anyone dying. No one deserved death.         Okay, except that Nazi guy from that dream I’d had. Was it even a dream? And why the heck was I dreaming about Nazis? I’d slept through history class almost every day in school! I barely knew the first thing about WWI! Or…was that WWII?         Maybe those Blue Meanie monsters from the alley just made me think of human monsters.         And anyway, was it even normal for people for people to dream when they were knocked out?         The wounded man slumped over in his seat and squashed me against the door. I pushed him off, but he ended up flopping over into the next seat.         “Are you sure he’s all right?” asked the driver. I hadn’t even asked for her name.         “Um, yeah,” I said, but she had to know better. We both looked awful after being attacked by those monsters. “He just drank way too much, uh…” What was an alcoholic drink? “….rum.”         “Rum? How much?”         “Like a whole bottle.”         The lady turned around to stare at me again. “A whole bottle?”         Um, oops. I laughed. “Yeah, I know, right? Ballsy. And just plain dumb, because he clearly couldn’t handle it.”         “The bloke should be dead right now, that’s what!”         This…was not going well. “Well, maybe it wasn’t a whole bottle. I told him he should go to the hospital, but he said he’d be fine.”         The car rolled forward again, and the lady turned back around. “If he gets much worse, I’d take him there anyway.”         “I don’t know how much worse he can get,” I muttered.         The driver said nothing, but then she changed the subject. “You’re American?”         “Yeah, I just moved here a few months ago.” I glanced at the guy and where he was now drooling against the window. “We…just started dating. He said he liked to drink, but I didn’t think he meant…well…this much.”         When we finally reached the apartment complex, I thanked the driver and then struggled to get the guy out of the back seat. I grabbed his arm, but he wouldn’t budge. Right. He was huge (well, he didn’t look it), and now he was out cold. I yanked and pulled, summoning all the strength I could.         The guy was suddenly weightless, flying out of the car and then landing on top of me. I would have squealed if he wasn’t crushing my lungs.         What the heck? How’d I pull that guy out like that? An adrenaline rush? And JEEZ! He weighed as much as a small car!         Not that I’d ever been stuck under a car before.         The driver ended up getting out to help me. Between the two of us, we hauled him across the parking lot and up to the front door. After I unlocked the door, we took him inside and dumped him on the couch, then put him on his side so he wouldn’t choke on his own vomit.         Of course, as far as I knew, he wasn’t going to throw up, but I wanted to make sure the driver didn’t think I was making this all up and trying to kidnap him or something.         I took out my phone and mentioned something about calling his roommate to come and get him, and that seemed to convince her that I wasn’t just some psycho. She left.         I slumped to the floor and just sat there, shivering as the cold finally got to my wet skin.         So I had been dumped, nearly killed by alien monsters, blown up by some glowing box, and now I had dragged this creepy guy into my appartment, all in the course of one night?         Wow. I’d achieved a whole new level of crazy.         Not knowing what else to do, I just got up and went to take a shower. After I was done, I stepped out into the living room in my pajamas. The guy was still unconscious. He looked awful, his clothes bloody and damp and his face all clammy. I wasn’t sure what I could do for him, though.         I went back into my room and got a couple of blankets, a pair of very stretchy pants, and an oversized t-shirt of mine. It wasn’t until I was back in the living room and pulling his coat off that I thought about what I was doing.         I mean, even if it was to save my life, I wouldn’t be too happy about somebody undressing me while I was unconscious. But it wasn’t like I could ask him, and I didn’t know if he was immune to getting sick or not. For all I knew, aliens could be really sensitive to Earth diseases.         “Okay, Mister, I’m really sorry about this, but I don’t want you getting pneumonia.”         I averted my gaze, and after a good ten grueling minutes of trying my best to not look at him, I somehow got him into the pajamas.         I’m serious—I really didn’t see that much. But I did catch a glimpse of pale scars all over his chest.         If he had murdered someone, they must have put up a fight.         After throwing a blanket over him, I gathered up his stuff, went outside, and hauled it all down to the laundry mat on the first floor. After I threw it in the washer, I trudged back to my appartment. I could see the clock on the stove from where I was standing.         It was almost one-o’clock in the morning.         For the first time tonight, I realized that I was exhausted.  I still wasn’t sure what to do about the guy on my couch, but I was too tired to figure that out right now. So I went back to my room, turned off the lights, and curled up in my bed under my blankets.         One last, fleeting thought of whether or not there was a murderer in my living room ran through my mind. Then, somehow, I was fast asleep.

[fanficsbytoast]

Mischief Tango Chapter 2

After Tyler Cowie has a disastrous run-in with the Tesseract, she has to team up with the god (or sometimes goddess) of mischief to get rid of her new powers. Or at least, that’s plan.

Warnings for story: M Language, T violence, T sex

Warnings for chapter: M language

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 “It has taken me a long time to find this place. You should be commended.”         That voice…so distant…so cold.         “Help him up.” There was a grunt and a groan from someone, but the cold voice continued. It belonged to a man. He was…German? “I think that you are a man of great vision. And, in this way, we are much alike.”         “I am nothing like you,” snarled the voice of another. Golly, I couldn’t see anything! Where were these voices even coming from?         “No,” said the German, “of course, but what others see as superstition, you and I know to be a science.”         There was a pause before the other man responded. “What you seek is just a legend.”         “Then why make such an effort to conceal it?” asked the German. There was a crash and a bang and the sound of stone against a hard floor. “The Tesseract was the jewel of Odin's treasure room.” Something glass shattered against the floor.  “It is not something one buries.”         The German’s voice became quieter. More sinister. “But I think it is close, yes?”         “I cannot help you,” said the other man.         “No. But maybe you can help your village. You must have some friends out there. Some little grandchildren, perhaps? I have no need for them to die.” There was another pause, but then the voice seemed to get louder. “Yggdrasil. Tree of the world. Guardian of wisdom. And fate, also.”          There was the sound of scraping stone, and light flooded around me. I was suddenly lifted out of the dark place where I was and held up to the light. A man in all black stared up at me. “And the Fuhrer digs for trinkets in the desert.”         Fuhrer? What the—was he talking about Hitler? This son of a bitch was a Nazi? Oh, dang, I needed to get out of here and as far away—         “You have never seen this, have you?” asked the German, and the other man: A small, old fellow dressed in a dusty, disheveled suit.         “It's not for the eyes of ordinary men,” said the old man.         “Exactly,” said the German. He turned around, and I could no longer see the old guy. “Give the order to open fire.”         The old man started to panic. “Fool! You cannot control the power you hold. You will burn!”         The German turned back to him. I saw the terror and anger in the old man’s eyes as the Nazi growled in a cold, vicious tone,  “I already have.”         And before anything else could happen, I was lying in a dark, damp alleyway, with the patter of raindrops falling around me.         Wait…what just…what was going on? Didn’t I just grab that cube thing? I did, and now…I’d hit the wall and then…I was here?         I tried to sit up, but my back spasmed. Honestly, it should have hurt a lot worse. That blast should have at least broken my ribs. Granted, all I could do was lay there and moan, but still: I should have been dead.         It was dark, as the streetlights from beyond the building had all been blown out by the blast. The only light came from the blue cube, which rested a few feet away from me.         The two monsters were stirring. One of them looked straight at me, and all I could do was stare back.         And then, before I could move, he snatched up the cube (and for whatever reason, it didn’t explode in his hand). He and his friend jumped to their feet, and then a glowing mass of blue appeared beside them. It sucked them in like a vacuum, and then they were gone.         The vacuum was gone. The light was gone. And I was here, lying around, and that creepy guy was probably nearby.         Despite the pain, I fumbled around in my pockets for my phone. When I turned it on, the harsh, white light illuminated the alleyway. Sure enough, the creepy guy was still there. He looked pale and sickly, his long, dark hair slick with sweat and his hand clutched at the wound in his gut.         Some part of me wanted to run for it and put whatever this mayhem was behind me. I’d never look back, and I’d just pretend it never happened and I’d go on with my life with hopefully nothing more than some mild PTSD.         But creepy or not, this guy had convinced the monsters not to kill me. He was going to let me go free…with a threat, of course, but a threat was a lot better than just gutting me on the spot with a giant icicle.         I crawled towards him, carefully, with half of my brain screaming for me to run and the other half burning with curiosity.         The man did not acknowledge me as I bent over him. I gingerly moved his hand away from his stomach. His white shirt was looked just like Brendon’s had when I’d knocked over the wine glass, only this wasn’t wine.         How was he even still alive?         Well, he wouldn’t be for long. I held up my phone to call 911.         Wait, did 911 even work here? What was the emergency number for Britain? Ugh, Google it.         Unsure of what else to do, I took of my jacket and tried to press it against the wound. Would that even work, since the blade went straight through him?         “Hey Siri, how do I call for an ambulance in London?”         “Now playing the song Ambulance by Blur.” Funky notes and music started blasting from my phone’s crappy speaker, and I rushed to turn it off.         “No! No! Just…just give me the number of the nearest hospital!”         “You have already watched five hours of Grey’s Anatomy this week.”         “What—I did not! That’s a lie! And—ugh, never mind! I’ll do it myself!” I started typing ‘how to call 911 in London’, but the man let out a groan. I reached towards him.         “Hey, sir? Just, uh, just hold in there—”         His hand suddenly gripped my wrist, and his eyes shot open and glared at me. “How…are you…alive…?”         “Yeah, beats me. But you’re not going to be if—wait!” My phone had finally pulled up instructions to call in emergency responders. “Just sit back, all right? I’m calling the hospital—”         “No!” His voice was suddenly stronger and angrier. I nearly dropped my phone onto the hole in his chest.         “B-but you’re losing a lot of blood! You’re going to die if I don’t—"         “Don’t…no…hospital…” He sounded like he was begging, and with his hand on my wrist like that I wasn’t really in a position to argue. Even dying, I had a feeling he could probably kill me. Didn’t those giant guys say he’d killed someone?         Maybe I should be calling the police instead of the hospital, but that might make him even angrier and then he’d magic me into a frog or something. That, and while the guy had threatened me, he’d also saved me and I was really conflicted on whether or not those giants were telling the truth about him being a murderer.         “Okay, I won’t.”         He relaxed, letting go of my hand and shifting like he was trying to sit up. He was barely off the ground before he grunted and fell back again. Sweat was pouring down his face, but he was shivering, too.         “Hey, mister?” No response. I hesitated, then prodded him in the side. “Mister, hey, wake up!” Um, okay, not good. Not good at all. “Hey! Look at me! Don’t go towards the light!”         All he did was groan.         All right, so I couldn’t call the ambulance, but I couldn’t just leave him bleeding out like this. I moved my jacket away from the wound, only to freeze in shock.         Green light peeked out from his insides. Was he…healing himself? I mean, he obviously had powers, but that was really overpowered. Well, that would be if he was a fictional character and not some real-life alien magician guy. How long was this going to take though?         I had an answer to that: Not fast enough. In the distance, thunder rumbled ominously. I needed to get out of here. Rather, we needed to get out of here because the rain couldn’t be good for anyone, especially a guy who’s losing his guts.         So no hospital. What was I supposed to do, then? Drag him back to my apartment? Come on. I wasn’t strong enough for that. My only other option was…         “Siri, get me an Uber.”

[fanficsbytoast]

Mischief Tango Chapter 1

After Tyler Cowie has a disastrous run-in with the Tesseract, she has to team up with the god (or sometimes goddess) of mischief to get rid of her new powers. Or at least, that’s plan.

Warnings for story: M Language, T violence, T sex

Warnings for chapter: M language

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I don’t think this date could have gone much worse if I’d shown up in clown shoes and a Darth Vader mask. I tiredly stared at the guy across from me, resting my face in my hand while he tapped away on his phone.

        “You like…medieval literature, right?” I asked, hoping to make this less awkward.

        “14th century manuscripts,” he said bluntly.

        I bit back a ‘isn’t that the same thing’ by taking a long drink of water.

        Brendon had been a lot friendlier a couple of days ago, when we’d run into each other in a coffee shop. Oh, yeah, it had been real cute and cliché when I’d bumped into him, knocking his drink all over him and then buying him another. Then we’d hit it off because I was carrying books with me and he was a bookbinder.

        By basic romance literature standards, we were basically made for each other. But it turns out that you needed more than just a common interest to click with someone.

        “Do you like any…like, modern books?” I asked. I traced my fork around my plate, drawing little rake-marks in the cheese sauce of my pasta.

        He snorted. “Modern writing lacks even the most basic literary competence. It’s nothing more than the same tropes recycled with angst and poor grammar.”

        I held back a grimace. “Oh.”

        Giving up, I stared down at the book on my lap. First off, I know it was rude, and secondly, this was Twilight and any normal, thinking person would be appalled by it. Maybe it was just a sign of how terrible this date was, but I thought the book was hilarious.

        I took another drink of water, my gaze still on the words.

        Wait, did it just compare the freaking vampire to a disco ball?

        Before I could stop myself, I snorted water right out of my nose and onto the table…and into Brendon’s face. The poor guy sat there in shock, and I stared on in complete mortification.

        “Oh gosh, I’m sorry—um, here!” I grabbed the nearest napkin and tried to wipe some of it off his face.

        “Tyler—” He tried to push me off, but I ended up knocking over his wine glass into his lap.

        At this point, all I could do was close my eyes.

        “I’ve…got to go,” he said stiffly. “I forgot—”

        “Yeah, yeah, I know.”

        “Eleanor—”

        “Tyler. Just go.”

        The table shifted as he got up and, and I didn’t open my eyes again until I was sure he was gone. At that point I just paid the tab, only to realize that Brendon had left the whole thing for me to pay for.

        Jerk. I shoved some breadsticks into my purse and got the heck out of there.

        Two months. I was two months into trying to ‘restart my life’ and I had suffered through five failed job interviews and eleven failed (or even set-up) dates.

        I wandered out onto the busy London sidewalk, a lump forming in my throat.

        Maybe I should call my parents back in New York. I hadn’t spoken to them in a month; even though those aliens had stormed Manhattan less than a year ago. My parents lived outside the city, but still: Aliens! Actual aliens! What if they came back?

        And superheroes? I could hardly believe they were real, either.

        A car roared by and slid through a puddle, sending a sheet of mucky water sloshing into me. I squealed and jumped back, but it was too late. The muddy water was all over my dress.

        I wanted to cry. A nineteen-year-old woman shouldn’t cry over a bad date or a ruined dress, but I was done. I’d been trying my darnedest for weeks, and I was no closer to turning my life around than when I first got off that plane.

        I covered my mouth and took a deep breath. People were probably wondering why a muddy girl was hanging around the sidewalk with tears in her eyes.

        Oddly enough, the place was empty.

        I’d never seen the sidewalks and streets so devoid of life, especially out here by all the restaurants and night life. Maybe I’d taken a wrong turn or something?

        I looked down at my phone for directions. My GPS would have to tell me how to get home. I’d walked here with Brendon and he’d left me, so there was no telling if I was even heading towards my appartment.

        “Damn it, Brendon,” I muttered under my breath. I thought about calling him and just asking for some directions, but I didn’t want to hear his voice or see his face or anything until I had some time to cool off. Right now, I kind of wanted to put worms in his shoes.

        That wouldn’t be fair to the poor worms.

        At least if I calmed down, I could drag him with some dignity: I bought you a donut! You shared it with me! I LET YOU USE MY STARBUCKS POINTS TO ORDER YOUR CHAI LATTE!

        Seriously, was there a way to refund those? Like an I-just-got-dumped-on-the-first-date refund?

        “Your game is over.”

        Say what now? I looked around to try and find out who was speaking, but all I could see were shadows and the soft, dancing glow of the streetlights.

        “I’m sorry,” said a softer, yet no less cold, voice. “I haven’t the slightest idea of what you’re—”

        “Shut it, Asgardian.”

        The voices were coming from down an alleyway. What kind of a name was Asgardian? Sheesh, that was even worse than Eleanor.

        Seriously, though, was someone getting mugged? Nah, these guys seemed to know each other. Maybe it was a drug bust.

        “You have it,” said the rough voice. “We know you do.”

        “Have what?” asked the softer. It was taunting.

        “You know what we mean. We want the casket. Now hand it over.”

        I started to hurry on my way, but then a blue light shone around the corner of the building. What the heck…?

        I should run. I should definitely run. But what was that light coming from?

        My ‘monkey brain’ won out and I crept between the buildings until I was just at the corner of the alley It stretched on, long and narrow, between the shops and houses and the privacy wall behind them. At the far end, where a wall blocked off all escape, stood a man dressed in a long coat.

        He cornered by two towering, hunched creatures. And even despite the blue light, I could tell that they truly were blue. Like, Blue Raspberry Jolly Rancher blue—like giant, mean-looking Smurfs.

        But my attention was drawn to the source of the light. The man in the coat was holding a blue box in one hand, and it glowed so brightly that it illuminated the entire alleyway.

        “That’s not the casket,” growled one of the big evil Smurf creatures. “What have you done with it?”

        “Oh, I don’t have it,” said the man, eyeing them with contempt. I could just make out his facial features: Smooth and elegant, but harsh and full of hatred for the things standing before him. His eyes glittered with anger. “Odin is keeping it in his treasure hoard. I would suggest that you go to him if you’re so interested in the Casket of Winters.”

        Was this some kind of role-play? Like that guy with a LARP group I’d ran into a few weeks ago?

        Ugh, he’d stood me up.

        One of the monsters raised his arm. In the blue glow, I saw a shimmering weapon extend from his hand.

        It was a blade of ice.

        Okay, definitely not some kind of Live Action Role Play. This was real.

        “Now,” said the man, a little smile on his lips, “what good could come in killing me without reason?”

        “Oh, we have a reason,” said the other creature. “You killed Laufey.”

        Holy—what? This guy had killed somebody?

        The man laughed. “Preposterous. How would I ever have the opportunity to do that?”

        “You lured our King into the heart of Asgard and killed him where he stood.”

        “I gave Laufey every opportunity to kill Odin,” said the man. “It’s his own fault he was an incompetent beast who couldn’t even defeat a few guards.”

        “That’s a funny thing,” said the monster. “I heard it was you who killed him. You saved Odin’s life, that’s what the rumors said.”

        “Well, people have been known to spread gossip,” said the man, beaming with that salty, fake smile again. “I can assure you that—”

        “You are a liar and a murderer,” snarled the monster with the blade. “And you will pay for your transgressions against Jotunheim!”

        Yoda what now? I didn’t think they were talking about Star Wars.

        Despite every fiber of my rational mind screaming for me to get out of there, I crept a little closer, hunkering just around the corner of the nearest building so I could hear better.

        I knew it was stupid. This was murder and who knew what else. But it’s not every day that you start seeing stuff that could have come straight out of Star Trek, and my butt was not moving.

        “Now would that truly be wise?” asked the man. He was completely unphased by the monsters’ threats, which made me think he was probably even dumber than I was. “I regret to say this, but I have been humoring you.” He raised the glowing cube. “Do you know what this is?”

        “I don’t care,” said the monster who seemed to be the leader.

        “You say that, but with its power I could defeat the both of you with a wave of my hand.” The monsters glanced at each other, and the man grinned again. “So why don’t we end these negotiations on a pleasant note, in which we go our separate ways and you don’t interfere with my plans?”

        The monsters glanced at each other, but then they stepped aside. The man waved his hand and the cube suddenly disappeared.

        It was all starting to make sense. All this talk with names I couldn’t pronounce? Weird creatures? Mysterious creepy magician man? I was in an anime.

        Just kidding. No, I was witnessing a legit alien invasion—or maybe the alien mafia. It didn’t matter. I needed to get out of here before they realized I was watching them.

        I turned around, only to collide into a wall. Except, it wasn’t a wall. I stumbled back, and in the pale light of the overhead lamp, I could see the man in the long coat. Even in the shadows, I could see the glower on his face.

        Shit! How’d he get here so fast?

        I tried to run past him, but he grabbed my arm and dragged me around the corner and into the alley.

        “I don’t suppose this is yours?” he asked the monsters. I tried to wrench and squirm out of his grasp, but he was unbelievably strong.

        Right. Aliens.

        Tyler, you fucking moron, why didn’t you run?

        “A mortal?” asked one of the monsters.

        “Mortal?” I repeated. “What the—”

        “You insult us,” said the other. “Just kill it and let’s get on with it. It’s probably a spy.”

        “I’m not a spy!” I said frantically. “I just heard voices and—I mean, I didn’t hear much—really! You guys were just, uh, talking about…um…Chicago, right? You know, cyanide, squish, spread eagles—"

        The man’s hand clapped over my face. I wanted to scream, but my mind was suddenly filled with flashing images of my past.

        I was at my third birthday party; donning a cheap, shimmering Cinderella dress that was two sizes too big while my then-dark curls got covered in pink frosting from my cake.

        And then I was seven, blonder headed now, playing in the hayloft of a pig barn at the state fair. My sister’s son, who wasn’t much older than I was, pushed me out and I landed in a mucky mess, surrounded by panicked, squealing pigs.

        I was sixteen now and staring to a mirror, half clothed, and wondering why my thighs looked like zebra legs.

        During my first driving lesson, I backed the car into my dad’s van. He yelled. I cried. He took me out for icecream and taught me to parallel park.

        I graduated. Got my license. I tried getting a job. And then I came here, and brief glimpses of my failed dates and job interviews flashed before me for mere seconds. I was walking down the street; I heard the voices in the alleyway. I saw it all play out again.

        And then it was over.

        A wave of exhaustion slammed into me, and my knees threatened to buckle under my weight.

        “She saw everything,” said the man.

        Wait, had he been reading my mind? Oh no. He’d seen everything. Even my zebra thighs.

        Maybe being killed by alien mobsters wasn’t so bad after all.

        “Then it must die,” said the monster with the weapon. I was about to ask what ‘it’, was, but then he raised the blade over my head. Oh. I was ‘it’. You know what? Never mind. This was much worse than my thighs.

        “Whoa!” I tried to back up, but Trench Coat there still had a hold of my arm. “Can’t you just, like, wipe my memory or something?”

        They all stopped.

        “What?” asked the man. I glanced between him and the monsters. Maybe I was getting somewhere.

        “Uh, y-you know. Like in Men in Black? If you can read my mind, you should be able to wipe—”

        My voice cut off in a squeal as the monster swung his weapon towards me. I raised my free arm to protect my face, but the man shoved me behind him.

        “Are you so thick as to think that her death would go unnoticed?” he growled. “I have no interest in alerting the entire city to my whereabouts.” He looked back at me, his gaze hard. “You won’t say a word, will you?”

        Words came tumbling out of my mouth. “Tell them what? I didn’t see anything. Who are you again?”

        “And if you do,” he leaned closer to me, so close that I could feel the heat of his breath on my face. He wasn’t as tall as the monsters, but he still towered over me. And he needed a mint. “I may not be as merciful as I am now.”

        I gulped, but I nodded frantically. I hardly knew what he was saying except that he was promising not to kill me. And right now, that was all I cared about.

        He shoved me away, and I stumbled before starting to hurry down the alley. I was almost around the corner when I glanced back at them again, just to see if they were about to jump me.

        The lead monster was now raising his weapon behind the Trench Coat man, who was staring me down with a horrible scowl. He didn’t even realize what was happening.

        “Look out!”

        I was too late. The blade struck through his back and out through his stomach, splattering blood across the pavement. I wanted to scream, but all I could do was cover my mouth as the man gasped and fell to the ground. The monsters looked to me. Uh-oh.

        Turning on my heel, I started booking it in the opposite direction. Something cracked like lightning, and a blast of cold energy crashed into me from behind and sent me sprawling onto the pavement. A freezing-cold hand gripped my ankle and dragged me back into the alley.

        I clawed at the ground and screamed, but the hand hoisted me right off the ground. It was one of the monsters. He sneered at me and raised his weapon again, his frozen fingers burning my skin like boiling water.

        With my free foot, I managed to kick him in the face. Let me tell you: A high-heel to the face is nothing to laugh about, even if you’re an eight-foot giant and I’m a relatively small (uh, short) woman. The monster howled and dropped me, and I hit the ground with what I imagined was a splat. The shock from the impact had me choking, but I somehow managed to scramble away.

        His arms swiped at me, but I dodged and dove between the shadows. I lost my shoes, tore my dress, and my hair was unpinned and flying around my face as I desperately avoided his weapon and hands.

        I rolled out of the way of his blade. This time, it collided with the stone so hard that it shattered on impact. The monster roared in pain, and I ran down the dark side of the alley to hide.

        A blue glow bathed the world around me. I ducked down behind a trash can and peered around to see what was happening. The man was hunched over and holding onto his stomach, but he clutched that blue cube thing in his hand.

        The monsters hesitated, but then the one nearest to him went to club him over the head. The man ducked to the side, and energy cracked around the alley, momentarily freezing the giants—and me—in place.

        The best I could describe it as was like two magnets repelling each other. I felt a crushing weight, but I couldn’t move at all. I could barely breathe, and blue light swirled around the alley like Disney fairy magic or something.

        Then the man cried out in pain, clutching at his wound. The energy cut out, releasing the lot of us. The nearest monster backhanded the guy across the alley, and he crashed into the privacy wall. The cube slid across the ground and landed a few feet away from me. Both monsters advanced.

        What was I supposed to do? That cube was obviously really powerful, and these guys were clearly like, well, villains. I couldn’t just let them have it!

        And so I dove for it. I threw myself out from behind the trashcan and grabbed the cube in my bare hands.

        “No!” screamed the man, but it was too late. Energy surged through my veins. Pain tore through my every nerve, but my mind was spasming. I couldn’t let go. It wouldn’t let me! I could feel the power holing up in my arms, but I couldn’t do anything to stop—

        BOOM. The energy in the cube exploded, sending the monsters, the man, me, a ton of trashcans, and a tomcat sailing through the air. My body slammed against the wall, and before I ever hit the ground, I was out cold.