Survival Series: Clash Of Beings

The Way Of Water

"Water," a philosopher's voice narrates from a big Bluetooth speaker that takes the shape of a cube, "though seen otherwise by most, is a living thing in it's own rights. Living, in a sense that it exhibits all our predominant characters. What can arguments work out in this case? Or how many characteristics should a living thing actively display.

For one, living things grow, thus water grows too. Or how else do small ponds get filled? Or earth shrink to offer the ocean a bigger dwelling space? 

Living things move, surely water does too. If you oppose, jump into a river and watch it drive you crazy like the madness of love.

Living things adapt to environmental conditions. Watch the flow of water as it curves to dodge hills, and yet progressing still, continuously, nonstop. Or feel it as it lies on hot or cold grounds, then tell me its temperature.

Living things feed, yeah water does too. Though it being a cannibal, feeds of its own kinds. For how else does it grow?

Living things respire. Terrestrials as our way is, pour our wastes into waters. The aquatic on the other hand, showers its on us. Such is the way of nature, or are floods a giant's pee, and land a urinal? 

Living things responds to stimuli, water does too.

They reproduce, water does too. Though humans has found a suitable name for this process. They have chosen to call the death and birth of water, evaporation. 

Yeah, water is a living thing!!!"

"Will you turn off that speaker already?" Kathy, a beautiful white lady in a model-like figure and long dark hair, who's estimated to be around her mid twenties, stands on the floor of a crime scene in a fashionable blue and red coverall, swagging all her rich womanly features alongside a white man, Kareem, a half-nerdy-and-half-street-looking dude, also in the same outfit. "Your always playing this podcast at crime scenes." She complains.

"Babe, if you don't enjoy this podcast which one would you? It was suppose to help us hone our water witchery and gain new heights," Kareem explains. "The government is jealous of us you know."

She gives him the eye; a eye marked with anger and love, accompanied by a baby face with lips curled out.

"Alright, alright." He walks to the speaker at corner and turns it off. "You happy now?"

"I'd never be happy"

"Babe, why?" Kareem questions in a soft tone, drawing close to her instantly.

"Remember why we became private detectives in the first place?"

"Cause we're wanted," Kareem tells. "They don't like our power diversity."

"Exactly," Kathy's face molds into a pitiable visage. "I'm tired of running, babe."

"Butternut..." Kareem walks over to her and crosses his hand over her shoulders.

"Back to the case," Kathy wipes her eyes and walks over to the blood spot letting Kareem's hand fall off. "You still think it's the same killer?" The mood in the room instantly changes.

Kareem wakes up to the reality and walks towards the most suspicious spot in the room, "Well it's the same pattern." 

He points to a symbol on the ground near the blood spot, it's a Hexagram. "See that bloody symbol," and on the wall, he points out a triangle drawn in a circle with a small dash at the vertex.

"And this one right here," he walks closer to it. "This is the one that bothers me the most. We literally have the same symbol glow on our head whenever we reach the apex of our powers."

"It could be some kind of witchcraft, some more powerful one maybe." Kathy walks over to it. "Look at it, it has more details than the one that glows on our head." She turns to Kareem, "Why'd you think he needs the bodies of every victim he slays?"

"Maybe he's just a psycho serial killer as always," Kareem tries to kill the gravity of the matter.

"Or maybe this time, we're dealing with a ritualist. Maybe he wants to use their bodies for some occultic deeds," Kathy suggests.

Kareem chuckles, "Those kind of people all died in 1823, Kathy."

"What happened to babe?" She widens her eyes at him.

"I'm..." Kareem is caught off guard by her tensed glare. "I didn't mean it like that. I..." 

"Never mind," Kathy interrupts. "Kathy's my birth given name anyways, you can call me that."

Kareem observes the symbol again, running a finger through it to feel the pattern better. "Or Kathy, it could be a scientist of some sort, running an experiment on human corpses." Kareem takes a sharp break, "A voodoo scientist maybe."

"Why'd you call me Kathy? I thought you loved me?" She suddenly gets so sensitive.

"Babe you just literally said I can call you Kathy." Kareem reminds her, already dipped in confusion.

"That was a test, you failed. What kinda dude calls his girlfriend by her name!" Kathy freaks out.

"Alright I'm sor..."

"Never mind, it's okay. Love overlooks." She interrupts again.

Suddenly a stroke of flame gust pass the window behind her. Kareem got a glimpse of it. "Babe, there's something out there," he walks towards the window to guard her away from it.

"What is it, Kareem?" Kathy pronounces audibly.

"Did you just call me Kareem?" Kareem asks in shock, putting all his plans on ice.

"That's your name right? Your mama called you Kareem, I'd call you Kareem." She looks away folding her hands together in her troublesome pose. "After all, you started it."

"But I said I was sorr..."

"Alright, I forgive you," Kathy interrupts his flow once again.

Just then a fireball strikes their side of the hut, blowing them out like a large fan does a piece of paper. The hut is left half shattered.

A bam! Then the sound of fire chopping wood overwhelms the silence of the area, with the planks of the hut falling off one by one as the flame's mercy. At last a large plank falls to the ground in a loud dash, and there we have it, a moment of utter silence.

In slow motion, Kareem pushes himself up gradually from the ground with his two hands. Still on his hands, he turns to his side and sees Kathy spreaded out on the ground without direction, like she's death.

"Babe... Babe!" Kareem's voice echoes through the silence as he pats Kathy's face passionately and ceaselessly, in an accelerated motion.

In a quick second she wakes up and slaps Kareem face hardly in the same force her head bounced up with. She then takes a deep breath and relaxes her head on the ground again, "That's for hitting me."

"You passed out, what'd you expect me to do?" Kareem asks in wonder, he couldn't have needed G****e more.

A few inches away from them, two dudes, Jim and Carl walk towards their direction cooking the regular red fire in each of their palms.

Kathy sights them first and pushes Kareem off her as she stands up. Kareem falls on his butt in a puzzled expression. But then he sights Jim and Carl approaching and immediately a sense of purpose hits him, his face grows serious and his eyes tense as he gets on his feet standing next to his girlfriend. 

"We've warned you before, stay out of our cases," Jim enunciates as he and his friend stops four inches away from the lovers.

"First come keeps the case, and we didn't see anyone here when we came," Kareem utters.

Swiftly, Carl throws a fireball at Kathy as they discuss. In the very same second Kareem slashes it out with his palm which is now engulfed by moving water. 

"That's all you got?" Kareem yells at them as water elevates from the deep ground to join his legs and hands, then moving round his whole body like a bunch of snakes for an ammo.

"He was just testing the mic," Jim brags as the flames in his palm grow wilder and taller. He puts his other palm over it and rolls up a fire ball instantly, then he bounces on the ground with a sharp glare at Kareem. "I guess this is when we finally claim your wanted reward, right Carl?"

"Let's get this over with," Carl makes up his own fireball and bounces it to the ground and up to both palms like it was a basketball.

The two share a glare, staring angrily at each other as though eyes can kill. In a minute, the other boys start walking sideways in a clockwise direction, the lovers do the same, going anticlockwise. 

Then boom Jim fakes a throw at the other party, while Carl literally lunches his fireball in the same second. Kareem is fast though, he catches it red-handedly as it approaches and kills it with his waterballs. In the same motion, Kathy spins and blasts one of her own as she pops out of his back. Theirs is a waterball that turns into thick ice with a pointed peak, when launched.

The fight continues in that rhythm, like a basketball match, but in this case a life and death situation where the opponents need to drive the ball right through each other in both stealth and swift movements. And so tricks are employed.

With most fireballs crashing into waterballs, and the others raining on the environment, eventually the glass field around them begin to turn into something of a burnt toaster bread. But they haven't noticed yet, or they don't want to.

They parade chaos around the area in a bid to win another rumble, and with hearts heralding the message of hate towards each other, they dance around, dodging, skipping and striking all in one breath, considering the tiniest bit of sluggishness can earn you a funeral amongst many ceremonies.

 Suddenly, Jim climbs up his friend's back in haste and projects a fireball at Kathy as he jumps off in a falling motion. Overlapped by offensives, Kareem strikes the fireballs coming his way out while sacrificing his own body to take the blow for Kathy. It connects, blasting him to the ground pronto like a piece of stone thrown forcefully at a standing sheet of paper.

"Kareem!" His girlfriend foregoes the fight, gliding towards him on her knees not letting a minute pass for a thought to settle down in her head, whether positive or negative. She wanted to hear from reality first.

Meanwhile, Kareem lies flat on the ground, inhaling and exhaling deeps breathes with eyes widened and chest bouncing like a trampoline put to immediately use.

"Kareem," Kathy raises his head up and rests it on her body.

Kareem snubs her at the moment, focusing only on his injury. He lifts his shirt slightly and springs water over the surface of injury which looks like it was caused by a heavily roasted canon ball.

"I'd be alright," Kareem assures Kathy. "Water heals wounds remember?"

Jim and Carl smile at each other wearing eyes of derisiveness for their opponents. 

"It's time we took you to the government and take the reward." Jim walks towards them alongside his partner, "How would you like to be transported? Should we carry you, or drag you?" He smiles broadly at Carl.

To their surprise, Kathy turns around with a gust of wind, her eyes grow white in a terrifying manner and a symbol shows up on her forehead the same instant, it's the water symbol; a triangle drawn upside down in a circle. She stands upright, with her palms facing the ground.

Jim and Carl freeze mostly in shock, wondering how and what she's doing. They were right to fear.

From beneath Kathy's feet a tornado begins to build up slowly, drawing water from the deep soil. The pieces of dirt around the area quickly join in with the developing storm of the tornado, making the water darker, scarier, and at the same time thicker.

Eventually the tornado rises over Kathy, making it's way to higher heights and larger widths. But even through the thickness of the darkness of the tornado, the glow on Kathy's eyes and head can be sighted afar off.

Now trapped in the tension of fear, Jim and Carl shiver on a spot watching the tornado grow older and stronger, until a sting of reasoning meets Carl again, he pulls his friend and embarks on a marathon.

"Babe...babe, that's enough. Cut it out," Kareem's voice echoes over the storm, making it's way to Kathy's ears, and then to her heart. Then gradually, the force of the storm begins to die, and eventually, the tornado itself follows. 

Kareem pulls Kathy close and hugs her tightly in his arms, "I'm right here, babe. You ain't losing me yet."

For the first time since we knew Kathy, she gets melodramatic and hugs him dearly, with tearful eyes.

Just when they thought it was all over, a team of three youngsters, The Triplets; featuring two ladies and a guy, come out of nowhere in surprise faces as they stride pass the burnt parts of the field.

"What happened here?" A white nerdy dude, Compton, late twenties, questions himself.

"Bro, I just got here," another triplet, Samantha answers him.

"This is our case," The youngest one of The Triplets, Barley, around early twenties, yells at them.

"I think my sister is right about that," Samantha supports.

"You have no right to own a case," a voice echoes from the woods. It's Kung, an old Chinese man with a white long goatee that makes him look like an ancient wizard in his robes. He's a lone detective.

"You're not even from around here, old man. I suggest you mind your own business and move on. C'mon, go home," Derek Jones, the leader of the Jones Brothers joins the party with his two younger brothers, Dan and Drake.

"Rest child, no one likes to see young people die," Kung threatens.

All this private detectives gather around in a circle.

"Are you threatening me?" Derek beats his chest in vexation as he approaches the old man. "Are you threatening me, old man?"

Suddenly, all their phones beep in unison. One by one they pull them out to check, surprised by the timing. A moment of silence is obversed as they all go through the messages they've just received. Perplexingly, the beam on their faces begins to fade out all of them at the same time in the same manner.

"Good morning citizens, private detectives," Barley decides to read her's out loud after first going through it. "...the Carcass Mystery case will now be officially digged into by the Saint Soldiers. Any interference of any form will meet death in cold blood."

They look up to each other in confused faces, even taking turns at who to stare at. Just then they hear the sound of a jet approaching, without contemplating on who it might be they all race helter-chatter exiting the scene.

In their mind, the Saint Soldiers are coming.