The Soldier, The Messiah & the Pariah

Chapter 9

At a supermarket not too far away from the residential area of our three heroes, John Watson was standing at one of two self-service checkouts, scanning items from his basket. A short queue had formed behind him, but he kept going, scanning another item.

"Unexpected item in the bagging area. Please try again" the automated voice said.

On 221B Baker Street though, life was a little more exciting. In the living room of the two men, Sherlock was under attack from a heavily robed figure whose face and head was almost completely shrouded in a variety of scarves. As the attacker slashed at him with a curved sword, Sherlock backed up carefully and ducked this way and that to avoid the blows. The man backed Sherlock up as far as the sofa and took another swing at him.

Ducking under the sword, Sherlock dropped onto the sofa in a sitting position. The attacker lifted his sword above his head with both hands and our hero raised a leg, kicking hard at the man's chest and shoving him backwards. As the man stumbled back across the room, Sherlock got to his feet and took an all-important moment to straighten his jacket before charging across the room towards the man.

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At the same time at the building across from them, or more specifically on the roof of the building; Lex was caught up in a fight of her own. She was dressed in her cargo pants and a sleeveless tight top and was busy deflecting a katana.

The attacker was of Asian origin with the bottom of his face covered behind a tight black mask. His whole outfit was a combination of black tight materials and some pouches with items inside. He attacked, trying to slice her but she kept avoiding. She took steps back but then realized she was getting closer to the edge, so she jumped to the side and rolled, getting behind her attacker. She quickly brought her leg and aimed a good kick on his side, but he blocked her attack with his blade.

Looking at the leg and katana mix and then at each other, he grabbed a smaller blade from one of the pockets and tried to stab her leg, but she pulled it back and did a few backflips to put some distance between them.

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In the supermarket, John held lettuce in a plastic bag and moved it slowly across the scanner in an attempt to get it to read the barcode.

"Item not scanned. Please try again" the automated voice said.

John straightened up, staring at the device in exasperation. "D'you think you could keep your voice down?"

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In the flat, the attacker had his sword held horizontally in both hands and was pushing Sherlock backwards into the kitchen. With a tight grip on the man's wrists, he fell back onto the kitchen table and the man followed him down, trying to press the edges of the blade into Sherlock's throat.

Grimacing with the effort, he pushes the man's right wrist upwards to keep the blade from cutting him. The point of the sword begun to dig into the table to his right. He lifted his left leg and kneed the man in the side several times and, as this began to weaken the man's grip, Sherlock forced himself upwards again. The sword tip gouged a long slash across the top of the table.

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On the rooftop, Lex delivered a spinning air kick on the man's face and caused blood to come from it. The attacker fell on his side, his katana dropping from his hand. However, he quickly spits the blood from his mouth and stood up; getting into a martial art position.

Lex left out some air, pushing a stay strand away from her face while she got into a similar position. She brought her left hand forward, palm open and moved the fingers as an indication for the man to attack. He fell into her taunt and started to attack her by a combination of well-aimed and trained kicks and punches which she was forced to block while also retreat slightly back.