Ch 1: A World of History

It wasn’t like Torri looked to get into altercations but she was never one to back down from them either. Especially with the mood she was in right now. Sionn and Torri exploded into action almost immediately at the same time. As her brother handled himself, Torri took to doing her second best activity: hand to hand fighting.

She was up and out of her seat and facing off against two of the men who had joined in the melee. She was smaller than they were and they thought she would be an easy push over, something she always used to her advantage. As one of them charged her, Torri spun and brought her right leg around, fully extended and connected with the man’s jaw just as he made it to her. He went sprawling to his left and wound up hitting the floor with his forehead, unable to have the good sense to put his arms out to break his fall.

The other man who was coming for her almost connected with the side of her head if it hadn’t been for Sionn. She glanced at her brother for a second before she caught movement from her other side and ducked just in time to avoid a large fist coming towards her face. She shifted her weight slightly then stood back up and landed a hard right to the man’s face. He shook of her punch like she was a pesky insect.

Realizing she would need a bit more to her hits then, she quickly back pedaled until she felt a pair of tree trunk like arms grasp her holding her hands down and squeezing hard. She felt her breathing being constricted and knew she had to act fast but the man she had punched was coming at her. He pulled his arm back to hit her with a hard left and just as he released, she pushed up when she felt the floor firmly planted beneath her feet. The momentum caused her captor to tilt back giving her the leverage she needed to bring her feet up and connect with the charging man’s chin.

Her captor’s grip loosened just as his friend went tumbling backwards and Torri used the surprise of her move to aid her even more. Tilting her head down then thrusting it backwards quick and hard, she felt the nose of her captor collapse and his grip around her instantly released as he began to scream in agony at the damage she did to his nose. Spinning to her left, she brought her left foot around to connect to the side of his head ending his screams of pain as he fell to the floor in a bloody heap.

Torri whipped around just in time to see the barrel of the shotgun explode and saw Sionn get hit by the chair from behind. As she saw Sionn draw his hammers, saw the look on his face and felt the rage building in her brother, she knew there was no turning back now. Once Sionn hit this point, there was no return. She’d seen it before and knew it had to run its course.

As Sionn’s hammers hummed to life, Torri’s green gaze darted to Taeryn and Aurora. Neither of them were safe now and she yelled at them to get them to leave.

”GO! Now! And take her with you!”

Taeryn trusted Torri enough to know when she said to leave, he had to do as she said and he quickly headed for the door with Aurora in tow. As Torri saw them heading for the door, she reached into her jacket and pulled two more daggers from under her jacket and ran to join Sionn. One of the goons tried to block her way and she used her forward momentum to jump, plant her foot on the wall beside the man, lash out with her daggers effectively slicing off his left ear and hurdling over a table and chair to land with her feet planted firmly behind Sionn with their backs barely making contact with each other. Her eyes darted around to the remaining offenders as she held her daggers ready in her hands. Blood tarnished one of the shiny blades as she took a defensive stand. her voice was barely audible but she knew Sionn would hear her loud and clear in his heightened state.

”Time to clean the place up brother….”

Humans. They never seemed to know when to leave well enough alone. Perhaps it was the awareness of bigger things than just what was seen, or the knowledge that had been passed down since before time was time, but whatever it was the moment was a picture of stillness as the men left standing in the bar recoiled in horror at what they saw. Two smaller than average red heads had just moped up half of their numbers and were now standing in the middle of the bar, back to back, ready to take on whatever was about to be thrown at them. What was worse, one of them now held hammers in his hand that were pulsing and glowing with what appeared to be magic.

The remaining men began to slowly back up and Sionn whispered to his sister, "Maybe, maybe not dear sister... perhaps they are coming to their senses that things are no always what they appear."

"What the hell are you?!" Tyrone growled as he stood to his feet and bore holes into Sionn's eyes. Sionn stared straight back and responded in a whisper that was audible enough to be heard but low enough to be menacing, "We are the consequences of your assumptions, the shadows of your disbelief, the remnants of the whispers in the past."

Tyrone cocked an annoyed eyebrow and hissed, "Yeah, whatever the $#@% that means."

Sionn watched him the man was rapidly loosing faith in his numbers, and he was now caught in a desperate struggle to maintain face in front of the rabble that followed him. He pointed to Sionn, "You better get your bitch and get the hell out of here now."

Sionn looked up at him with strong green eyes, "Or what?"

"OR YOU KNOW WHAT THE $#@% IS GONNA HAPPEN!"

"What, my little sister and I will finish off the other half of you and then burn this bloody dump to the ground before we pish on the ashes?"

Tyrone's eyes burned but he dared not move against the flaring glow of those hammers, "Just GO!"

Sionn squeezed his hammers and spoke, "You picked the wrong people to mess with today sir."

Sionn lunged forward and the man barely had a chance to respond to the blindly speed Sionn exhibited as the hammer caught him dead center of the chest. It wasn't an impact more than a push and Sionn used the momentum to slide forward and stop on top of Tyrone who was now laying with his back on a table and his hands up in surrender. The electricity of the hammer crackled and hissed as Sionn looked at him over the faint blue glow, "If I or my sister ever see you again, you had better not chance a glance, or I will kill you."

He shoved down as he stood himself back up and walked back to his sister, "I think they understand."

The two of them walked out the door, the darkness of the bar dissipated quickly as the light of the sun hit their eyes, Sionn's hammers were already back under his coat. They walked, seeing Tae and Aurora down the block, "Well my beautiful sister, perhaps I should be a little more careful about what establishments I chose for us to hold private meetings in aye?"

As Sionn spoke to the man who seemed to be the leader of the men, she leveled her glaring green eyes at the men facing her. As the man and Sionn came to an understanding, then men began to back away and join their leader towards the back of the bar. Torri never once showed any signs of backing down and merely shifted her feet so she could watch them as they moved. All the while every direction was covered by either her or Sionn so no one could take them by surprise.

As the man finally told Sionn to just go, Torri knew Sionn wouldn’t go without a warning of some kind. As her brother lunged forward pushing the man onto the table, Torri flipped her dagger in her hand so the blade side was now resting against the gloves she wore. The deadly blades were ready to launch at a flick of a wrist.

As Sionn leveled his promise to Tyrone, Torri kept a very close eye on his friends and if she saw one of them flinch, she would put the dagger between his eyes. Thankfully, it didn’t get to that. As Sionn walked back to where she stood, Torri gave one last glare at the men and walked out of the place with Sionn, picking up her dagger she used to skewer the man’s hand with and tucking them all away under her jacket.

As the sun hurt their eyes for a moment, Torri squinted and blinked until her eyes adjusted and as they walked back to Tae and Aurora, she looked over at Sionn and smiled a bright smile.

”Truth be told, my handsome brother, it was exactly what I needed. I feel so much better now. I think I can even stand being around this woman for a while now. Something I’m certain you’d be glad for.”