He began walking, and as he walked to the sound of her constant encouragement, she began walking towards him.

As she matched him, step for step, Candi never took her eyes off the sight of a man who bravely walked forward even though he was drugged and was barely steady on his feet.

He could not see where he was placing his feet because the bastards had tied a bag over his head. He could not even use his hands to balance himself because they were tied behind his back.

It didn’t matter. He continued doggedly placing one foot in front of the other with only her clear gentle voice to guide him.

Her eyes were blurred from the tears that were starting to flow but she blinked them quickly away. This was not the time to give in to emotions.

“Good job. Keep walking in a straight line. Don’t be afraid Love. I am only a few feet away from you. Just focus on my voice and keep walking.”

She maintained her constant chatter to keep him focused in the direction of her voice. As she talked, she kept the fear and distress from her voice, allowing it to remain pure and strong.

He needed to be able to hear her to walk towards her and he could not be distracted from anything but the herculean effort of walking across that expanse of glass.

As they reached the midpoint, Candi laughed gently with joy and reached out to touch his face through the bag. She leaned up and kissed where his mouth should be, hugging his body to hers.

As she released him from the gentle hug, she slipped a tiny weapon into his bound hand.

“You can cut the binds on your hands with that,” she whispered. “After I pass you on this bridge, I will not be able to guide you any longer.”

Slate said nothing. He nodded once to show he understood.

“Keep perfectly still. Your brother will extract you from the bridge.”

Slate stood still, not making a sound.

Candi took a deep breath and slipped past him, moving towards the platform where the skinny tall guy and the short fat guy was standing.

She had only taken a few steps in the direction of the platform when she heard the sound of swooshing wings behind her.

Candi turned back to see Leonardo in full bat form, picking Slate up from the glass walkway and flying him back to the transport pod.

She heaved a huge sigh of relief and turned back to the platform in front of her.

With Slate safely back in the transport pod, Candi no longer had to hold back.

“Aaaaaaargghhh!!!”

She screamed as she ran the last few yards at full speed, charging towards the two men.

The men standing on the platform gasped.

They were not expecting Candi to be able to make it across the expanse without falling off. They were certainly not expecting for her to run full-speed at them with eyes full of fury.

“This is payback, bitches, for kicking an unarmed, bound and gagged man.”

With a shout, she kicked out her legs and spun in midair, whacking both their heads with her feet.

WHUMP! WHUMP!

The men collided into each other, tumbling a few feet towards the edge of the platform. As they both struggled to rise, she threw her legs out, kicking them again.

The tall skinny one screamed as he rolled over the edge of the platform, his arms scrambling at the edges as his body dangled over the side.

With a loud shriek, Candi barreled her body at the short fat one, knocking him off-balance. One more kick to his soft pudgy crotch and he was clutching his balls, rolling on the floor.

Another well-aimed kick in his gut and he fell over the edge, dragging the tall skinny guy with him down to the ground below.

“Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!” They screamed as they fell.

There was a satisfying thud as their bodies hit the ground far below. They stopped screaming at that point.

She turned to hightail it out of there except suddenly in front of her was a team of men in military outfits. One of them pulled a weapon and fired at her, point blank.

BANG!!!

The bullet hit a pale pink shield in front of her and evaporated as if it was a puff of air.

She stood staring at them for a moment.

The men stared back, expecting her to drop to the ground, but she simply stood there.

When nothing happened, she darted past them, quick as a squirrel, leaping through the air towards the side of the platform at the exit point.

The platform was connected to a series of ramps that took her down to the partially imploded glass dome.

Vaulting down through the center of the various zigzagging ramps, she made it to the bottom before she was shot again.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The bullets whizzed past her, not even hitting target at this point because she was moving so quickly.

“Get her!” One of the men yelled.

Candi kept sprinting in the only place she could run to.

All around her was desert. There was no cover for miles around. Running through the desert was futile and would only lead to death from heat and dehydration.

Her best bet was to remain within the large glass dome and try to evade them as best as possible until help could arrive.

Oh please let help come quickly before she ran out of options.

As she ran through the partially broken entryway of the glass dome, she could hear the men in hot pursuit. She tucked her body between a life-sized statue of a sea nymph and a merman and pulled out her shurikens.

The place was a massive maze of walkways, statues, sculptures, broken fixtures and furniture, and five levels of what must have been huge gardens filled with plants.

Everything was long dead, but the planters and pots that housed them were still there.

The men were after her in hot pursuit, and her biggest problem was that there were far more men than she had shurikens.

Candi clenched her feet with determination. If she was going to go out, she would take as many with her as she could.

“Spread out! She’s in this room somewhere. I want her caught alive!” She heard the sound of the lead man.

Immediately, they spread out in all directions.

Two were coming towards her.

She fingered the shurikens. Three in each hand would take out six of them but that would betray her position.

No help for that. It was better than getting caught.

She now understood how the Avgo’s protection worked.

All that it could do for her was provide a protection bubble around her. This was why the bullets did not kill her, even at point blank range.

However, once a person was able to grab her, the protection bubble simply extended around that person. If he was the danger, then she was isolated within that bubble with the danger.

She could not allow them to touch her or Avgo could not do its job in protecting her.

The two men were coming closer.

NOW!