Deathstalker 01 - Deathstalker

though she might break into a run at any moment, but Valentine stopped her with a hand on her arm.
    "Don't," he murmured. 'Trying to run would be a really bad idea. Look at the screens. The guards have got all the escape routes covered, and at the moment they're shooting at anything that isn't them. There's nowhere to go."
    "You don't understand!" said Evangeline. "I can't afford to be caught!"
    Valentine raised an eyebrow. "I think you'll find that's true for most of us.
    Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd better guard that entrance."
    Evangeline looked at him. "You? What are you going to do? Bribe your way past the guards with handfuls of drugs?"
    "Oh, I'll think of something," Valentine said calmly. "Besides, there's no one else, is there?"
    Evangeline looked at Hood, still rooted to the spot, and looked away.
    "Give me a knife," she said quietly. "I won't be taken alive."

    Valentine studied her for a long moment, then drew a long stiletto from his boot and handed it to her. She accepted it with a nod of thanks and moved over to stand beside Hood and watch the screens. Valentine moved unhurriedly over to the gaping entrance. He was still thinking hard. He'd put a lot of time and effort into his usual persona, and now it seemed he was going to have to throw it away.
    As usual, man proposes and the Empress disposes. And then a thought came to him, and he smiled. He didn't know what he was so worried about; the odds were he was going to die anyway. The thought cheered him, and he checked the contents of his pillbox for something special. Some of the guards were in for a very unpleasant surprise.
    The first armed men rounded a corner and found themselves face-to-face with Stevie One, guarding the entrance. They raised their guns and the esper hit them with a blast of white-hot flames. The guards screamed as the blazing fire filled the tunnel, sucking the air from their lungs as it crisped their flesh. More guards appeared in the adjacent tunnels, only to meet Stevies Two and Three.
    They summoned up fire, and the leading guards died horribly. Evangeline watched them die on the viewscreens and wouldn't let herself look away. The remaining guards came to a halt in the tunnels as word of the deaths got to them. They were waiting for something.
    "They're bringing the esp-blockers forward!" yelled Stevie Two. "I can feel them getting closer. My flame's already beginning to die down."
    More guards spilled into a different tunnel, only to find Kid Death waiting for them. He shot the first men with almost lazy precision, and then put the gun away and waded into the guards, swinging his sword double-handed. In the narrow tunnel, they could only come at him two at a time, and that was no threat to Kid
    Death. He laughed as he worked: a light, breathy and altogether horrible sound.
    David Deathstalker boosted, and all his worries fell away. The guards were no match for him, either. But there were so many of them, and neither Kit nor David had any illusions about their eventual fate. If the guards had only had more guns, it would have been over by now.
    And then Evangeline shouted and pointed at the viewscreens, and Valentine heard a familiar roar deep in the tunnels. He looked back at the screens and grinned broadly. The guards in the tunnel heard him laughing, and then they heard the roar building behind diem and turned to look. A wall of rushing water came thundering toward them, filling the tunnel from floor to ceiling. For a moment Valentine thought it was the illusion again, a last-ditch defense by the espers, but even as he thought that he knew it had to be genuine. All those espers were dead or blocked by now. The water was real. And up on the viewscreens, the pounding wave smashed into the guards and swept diem away. They never stood a chance.
    Valentine moved back to stand with Evangeline and Hood, and watched the guards die on the screens. The water carried them along like leaves in a flooded drain, hammering them against the sides of the tunnels, and then pulling them on. A few tried to grab at the tunnel supports, but the pressure of the water was too much for them, and there was no air anywhere. They drowned, quickly if they were lucky, and their dead bodies bobbed limply in the surging tide. David and Kit cut down the last of their opponents, then looked around, confused, for more.
    David was panting and shaking as he fell out of boost, but his face was full of exhilaration. Kid Death was smiling gently, not even