SINGA-THREE: You Don't Need Me

_{Image Source}

The ground trembled, as the debris remained scattered all around. Jeannie only had 14 minutes left to escape, but she was still a way's away from her intended destination. She was slow to get up, and she felt as if the whole world was weighing down on her. Coughing up blood, she wiped her mouth with her arm and picked up her damaged blade. She tried to lift up the dusty satchel, but her lack of strength didn't allow her to do so.

    "You still don't need me?" Leo asked as he crept up beside her.
 
 
 

 
 
 
    "I can do it on my own," Jeannie declared in a stern tone. She lifted a blue-green satchel, that was more than half as big as her and weighed even more than it seemed, over her shoulder. It was filled with all of the bounty that she had accumulated from all of her quests in Singapura. She was scheduled to depart for Maharlika via a sarimanok in three hours, but last minute tasks delayed her voyage. "I don't need you."

    "Oh, you don't need me?" Leo angrily questioned.

    "That's what I said."

    "You don't need me?"

Jeannie scrunched up her nose, and belted an audible sigh. She gripped her spear with her free hand, then she started to walk away from where Leo was standing.

    "You don't need me? Like that time you didn't need me defeating that pontianak? Or, maybe that time you didn't need me when that nasty kuntilanak had you cornered."

    "That was—" she stuttered. "Those were different."

    "How are they different?"

    "Look, I just ... I—"

    "You what huh? You're so hardheaded sometimes, I keep telling you to—"

    "I just don't want to be a bother! Just please ... Would you just please let me do this on my own?"

Leo paused for a second. He fastened his twin kodachi to his back, and hurried his steps to keep pace with Jeannie. As much as he wanted to accompany her on her journey, he had a few more tasks he needed to do before he could voyage to Maharlika.

    "No," he replied solemnly.

    "No!? What do you mean 'no?'"

    "I'm saying that you don't need to go it alone. That's why we're a team, remember?"

    "But, I have to. You don't get it."

Just as they were distracted, a gang of toyols snuck up on them and attempted to pilfer Jeannie's satchel. Leo unsheathed his blade, and took a defensive stance. With one wave of her spear, Jeannie managed to vanquish half of their opponents.

_{Image Source}

    "Kyaaa!" she shrieked, as she launched her spear. It managed to pierce several toyol, forcing them to relinquish control of the precious cargo. She gave Leo a knowing look as she picked up her pack from the ground.

As they made their way to Changi, several garuda swooped down to assault the pair. They hid beneath fiber glass-enforced roofs, but their supposed protection was no match to the sharp talons of their aggressors.

_{Image Source}

    "You just had to take several shards, didn't you?" Leo sighed.

    "If you're going to complain this much, then you shouldn't have tagged along," Jeannie reiterated. She dropped the satchel, then rolled out into the clearing. Two garudas managed to scratch her, but she was able to stab them in the chest and eye as retaliation. "I did tell you to stay behind, since I can do this myself."

Caught off-guard, a garuda swooped in, sank its talons on her back and lifted her up. Leo charged outside, brandishing both of his blades, but Jeannie put her hand up, signaling to him to not come any closer. She held on to the blunt edge of her spear, and swung it as hard as she could. It hit the garuda straight in the head, but caused the spear to break off.

Leo ran toward her, hoping to break her fall. He sprinted as hard as he could, and successfully caught her mid-air. They rolled on the ground, with Jeannie ending up on top.

    "You don't need me, huh?" he derided.

    "I don't," she dismissed. "Quit messing around. Where's my pack?"

    "It's right—"

Jeannie scampered towards the direction Leo pointed to, but wasn't able to find her satchel anywhere. Her face was flushed when the realization that her cargo was robbed dawned on her.

    "Huh? I left it right here," Leo remarked.

    "You had one job," she retorted. She grabbed him by his collar, and gritted her teeth. Looking over his shoulder, she caught sight of a djinn making away with her pack. "Hey! Come back here!"

_{Image Source}

The pair chased after it, but they discovered that it wasn't working alone. Along with a host of other spirits, it played a game of keepaway atop the massive buildings. They decided to split up to cover more ground.

Jeannie jumped down and bounced herself of a couple of awnings. She tried to grab hold of the pack, but her non-corporeal competitors proved to be too evasive. There were times that she felt like giving up, but she couldn't bring herself to do so.

Landlocked pirates took notice, and joined in on the scuffle. They weren't sure what made the djinn so anxious, but they were certain it was valuable. The vagrants took to the streets of Yishun, and battled Jeannie for control of the cargo. They ganged up on her, throwing punches and slashes her way.

With only her spear tip in hand, she still managed to hold her own. She stood smaller than the average person, so she spent her whole life learning to turn people's disadvantage to her favor. Jeannie maneuvered left and right, forcing her opponents to strike each other. Even with her well-choreographed movements, she still took several hits.

The skies darkened, and soon it started to rain. Traffic began to pile up, as the pirates beaten bodies dropped to the roads. The slippery surface worked to Jeannie's advantage, as she managed to glide through it while her enemies slipped and fell.

All of a sudden, the cars suddenly transformed into anthropomorphic, sentient robots. Even though they seemed impassive at first, they had one directive: to seek out the shards of the Singapore Stone. They rampaged through the streets, unable to distinguish friend from foe. The robots attacked pirates and passerbys alike.

Jeannie took advantage of the momentary distraction, and snuck away to find her pack. But, upon jumping from a ledge, she missed her mark and fell down without a harness. She was, however, in luck, as Leo's hand grabbed hers right before she descended to her death.

    "You don't need my help?" Leo inquired. He was beaten up, but not as battered and bruised as Jeannie. His other hand held onto a familiar strap, which was attached to Jeannie's blue-green satchel, resting behind his right shoulder. "Now, come on, let's head down to the subway. We have a long way to go, and I can't take other oddities swooping from above."

The pair headed for the subway, where they boarded a train. Their detour provided a slight reprieve, and a faster means of travel. Jeannie had only a little over an hour before the sarimanok would take flight, and she had to hurry if she wanted to make it out with her haul.

    "Thank you," she whispered to his ear.

    "What did you say?" he teased. "I can't ... I wasn't able to hear what you said. I got kicked in the ear and it's still ringing."

    "I'm not going to say it twice."

Leo smirked, as he closed his eyes. He rested his back against the carriage door, and grabbed hold of Jeannie's free hand.

    "I still don't need you," she followed. "I could've done all of those myself."

The train stopped at Raffles Place station, where they alighted to transfer to the East-West line. As they made their way to the adjacent line, they felt the ground shake. From the tunnel, a gigantic naga suddenly emerged. Its five heads all transfixed their gaze on the pair.

_{Image Source}

The passengers panicked, and scattered all throughout the station. Leo handed Jeannie one of his blades, to which the latter objected.

    "Take it!" the disgruntled man urged.

    "No," Jeannie replied. "I can do this on my own."

    "Well, you can't do it with a spear tip."

The naga lunged at them, and they flipped towards opposite directions. Jeannie jumped toward the gigantic snake, and tried to pierce through its hardeneds scales, to no avail. Leo ducked for cover, lugging around the heavy bag.

    "For the love of all that is good and holy," he exclaimed. His face was flushed, and his hands shook uncontrollably. "Why did it have to be a snake?"

    "Hand me the blade!" she demanded, as soon as they were able to spot each other.

    "I thought you didn't need me?" he teased. She didn't look amused, so he gave in to her demands and threw the blade at her.

Jeannie sliced through its scales, but was only able to make a dent. The naga squirmed and managed to knock both of them to the ground. Jeannie found herself flattened to the ground, with only little time to spare.

    "I have a plan," Leo remarked, extending his hand to help her up. "Do you trust me?"

Without any other options, she grabbed his hand and handed him back his blade. She climbed his back, sandwiching the bag between them. Jeannie held on tightly, wringing his neck with her arms.

Leo gripped on both of his blade, and calculated the naga's movement. In one fell swoop, he jumped to back of the creature's main head, and dug his blades deep at the base of its skull. It screamed in pain, but the pair mustered enough energy to hold on. Using the blades as a steering mechanism, Leo commanded the naga to enter the tunnel and follow the train track towards the sarimanok's take-off point.

    "And you said, you didn't need me," he asserted, with a smile on his messy face.

A few minutes passed, and the beast seemed as if it was regaining control of its body. It slithered upwards, launching the pair against the cement ceiling. They landed awkwardly above ground, and was left vulnerable to the viper's attack. Fortunately for them, the snake writhed away, as if it was running away from something even more terrifying than it was.

The ground trembled, as the debris remained scattered all around. Jeannie only had 14 minutes left to escape, but she was still a way's away from her intended destination. She was slow to get up, and she felt as if the whole world was weighing down on her. Coughing up blood, she wiped her mouth with her arm and picked up her damaged blade. She tried to lift up the dusty satchel, but her lack of strength didn't allow her to do so.

    "You still don't need me?" Leo asked as he crept up beside her.

The cement beneath them shifted, and the ground opened up to form a humongous crater. From the chasm, a titanic merlion slowly surfaced. It bellowed as it looked towards the sky, right before it turned its attention to the duo.

_{Image Source}

    "Okay," she resigned. "I might need you after all."

    "That's all I wanted to hear," he remarked. "So, here's the plan. I'll get his attention, and you run towards the sarimanok."

    "Where? I don't see it anywhere."

    "Just trust me. On my signal, jump from that ledge. If my calculation's are correct, then you'll land straight where the sarimanok is."

    "But ... you suck at Math."

    "Let's call it instinct. Do you trust me?"

    "Do I have a choice?"

Leo strapped the satchel to her back and gave her a tight hug. He took out a golden coin from her satchel and waved it wildly in front of the merlion.

    "Oh, Badang!" he taunted. "Here, little pussy cat!"

Jeannie ran toward the ledge, and jumped over it as soon as she was given the signal. Just as Leo calculated, the sarimanok swooped by and caught Jeannie in the middle of her fall. The merlion tried to catch the sarimanok, but it was too sluggish to catch the rainbow bird.

The storm clouds dissipated, and the merlion retreated back to its subterranean den. With a smile, Leo unloaded the wrapping of the toyol trap, the garuda whistle normally used to repel the winged predators and a rusty lamp he used to trap the djinn. He picked up his swords, and made his way back to Orchard Road.

---

Voting for witnesses is free, but your one vote could dictate the course of this platform.

Vote for @lukestokes' witness lukestokes.mhth to help Steemit stop the Replicant threat