Some People Never Learn – Part Ten

<< Part Nine

It sounded like something big was trying to punch its way through the rock behind the Falls. Not a good sound by any standard.
I squeezed the witch’s throat until she lost consciousness. She wouldn’t mutter another spell tonight or my name wasn’t Bane.
“Cuff the girls,” I said, handing some zip strips to Jordan. I wrapped one around my catch’s hands and slapped a generous strip of muter over her mouth – the spelled jelly was tamper-proof and could only the person who spread it could pull it off.
The banging intensified and I heard a few rocks tumbling down the falls.
“Do not –” I grabbed Jordan’s shoulder and forced him to look at me “– Do not take your eyes off of them.” I dropped my catch next to her little friends.
I kicked off the ground and flew toward the source of the sound, turning my cloak back on, just in case. The Falls power was overwhelming and I couldn’t just fly through to get to the sound. I spun around and returned to the observation platform. Its normal access was part of a tunnel going behind the Falls with a few open ends so tourists could watch water rush down.
Carved in the rocks, the tunnels resonated with the ominous banging. It waved against the walls and the origin was impossible to pinpoint based only on my hearing. Luckily, the path was short and I quickly found the spot where the wall began to chip.
The thing was trying to get in the tunnels, not out of the Falls. The rock shaken loose on the other side were just a side-effect.
Since I didn’t know what the hell I would be facing, I went back around the corner. There was no way to stop a summoning spell and since it applied to something that had been trapped within the Falls, the effect would only dissipate once whatever it called stepped out of its prison. All I could do was wait – which I wasn’t any good at.
I pulled my senses enhancers off my skin to switch off their powers and stuffed them in my pockets. I had to focus on the upcoming fight. I kept the cloaking spell active and contemplated the idea of morphing. I decided against it until I knew what my opponent looked like.
The wall chipped away incredibly fast and in a blast of powdery residue, a frail woman got out of the stone. As she made contact with the water sputtering from the nearby opening, she absorbed it like a sponge and, in the blink of an eye, she wasn’t frail anymore.
Nope.
She looked like something out of Lovecraft’s brain. An unholy mix between a stripper – because apparently, clothes hadn’t survived the rock prison – and Cthulhu. Not my run-of-the-mill escape con.
“Well… that ought to be the evil witch all the legend’s fuss is about,” I thought.
And of course, with my luck, the way the summoning spell backfired had to make her even more dangerous.

Next part on next Wednesday!