The Masters- RE- Revolver

by Matthew Weldon

  I looked away and thought of how that lately I’ve been feeling uncomfortable about our missions. Me saying that I went blank was me lying. I didn’t forget, I just didn’t want to think about it.

  “That’s another thing, you don’t need to call me by my code name when we are here or in public while not on mission. I told you that,” He sternly said, pointing his finger at me.

  I didn’t say anything and felt a little embarrassed. I nodded. Revolver took a sip of his beer. He seemed bother by something.

  Revolver then asked in an irritating tone, “Are you alright?”

  ‘I should be asking the same thing with him’ I thought.

  I looked back at Revolver. He looked at me confused.

  “Yeah, I’m just having an off day. I’ll be fine,” I answered.

  Revolver shook his head and finished his beer.

  “Let’s go to our room,” Revolver ordered and led us there.

  We exited the room and turned down the hallway. The door to our room was on the third floor, which required to walk upstairs. As we got close to our room, we were stopped by a female assassin. We knew exactly who it was. Her code name was Phantom. She prefers her code name over her real name.

  “So, Revolver, I heard you and Spex almost got caught on your mission,” she asked, smirking.

  Revolver was annoyed immediately and responded, “What of it, Phantom?”

  “What of it? If it was me, I would have done it without any traces of me being there. You two are so weak,” she said, harshly.

  She is saying bad things about us, but I feel like it was all directed at Revolver. Behind his back, Revolver signaled for us to start making our way into our room. Our door was only a few feet away. We started doing that slowly while keeping our attention on her. She had her hood up but I could see her blonde braid off to the side. She also had black eye shadow on around her dark grey eyes.

  “Look, it doesn’t matter how it was done. Only results matter,” Revolver replied.

  “Yeah, and I would have had better results,” Phantom responded.

  Revolver shook his head, “I don’t know what your deal is, but if you want better missions, talk to Lord Sharik.”

  I got the door open, and we backed into the room.

  “You know that he likes you more than me. It’s not fair!” Phantom angerly said.

  “Sorry,” Revolver replied, slamming the door in her face.

  Revolver sighed, “What is her problem, jeez.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe there is more to how she acts towards you. She treats you the harshest out of everyone in the H.N.A.,” I pointed out.

  “No, I don’t think so. Though, I do wish she wasn’t so aggressive towards me. Then maybe she can be more likeable,” replied Revolver.

  I started to wonder and asked, “What are you saying? That you like her?”

  Revolver looked at speechless for a moment. I started to smile thinking I was right, waiting for his response. He started to smile and blush.

  He then shook his head responded in a snarky tone, “Oh, like you don’t have a thing for Luna?”

  I started to smile, “Her real name is Yutsu, and no I don’t. She’s just an acquaintance. Though there is something about her.”

  “You like her!” Revolver tried to point out, chuckling.

  It made me laugh and shake my head, which made Revolver laugh. It eased us into unpacking our gear. I though back to earlier.

  I started to get curious and asked, “Was something bothering you during our meeting with Lord Sharik?”

  Revolver stopped what he was doing and looked at me for moment as he got a serious look on his face.

  “It’s just, Motor was a friend of mine. I felt sad when he was killed. It’s like I watched a close friend die. I didn’t get to know him as much as I wanted to, since I got caught up with you. I’m not sure why I care as much as I do about it,” he answered.

  “Yeah, that is pretty strange,” I replied.

  I looked in my closet to get fresh clothes. Revolver started to do the same. With his hood off, it revealed his brown hair that was shaven on the sides and back and spikey on the top. He also had blue eyes, with one of his eyes having a scar going across it. He got that during a mission we were on while in a fight. For me, I had spikey blonde hair that stuck straight up. Looking in my closet, I saw my red and purple robes with a cloak that I was wearing before I joined the Hollow Night Assassins. I started to question if what we were doing was right. I pulled out a t-shirt and jeans from the closet and looked at Revolver.

  “Hey, Revolver. Do you think all this hunting and killing is the right way to get peace?” I questioned.

  Revolver looked at me for a moment. He looked a little annoyed.

  He sighed, “What else is there? The peaceful way doesn’t get the results of killing and forcing people into doing the right thing.”

  Revolver then went silent for a moment. He looked like he escaped into his mind.

  “Revolver?” I asked.

  “When I was a boy, there was this dying dog. My sister was trying to heal it, but it wasn’t working. I decided to help it by putting it out of its misery, so I blasted it with a Water Blast. It died after. Of course, I was the one that got scolded, but I helped the dog by killing it. It’s that memory that helps me with knowing that what I’m doing is right,” Revolver explained with a serious face.

  Something was telling me to disagree with that, but I didn’t know what. I decided to ignore it. We got changed into fresh civilian clothes with hoods and rested for a few hours. We then repacked our gear before departing the base.

  Chapter 3 – Snow

  A few hours into leaving the base, we made it down the mountain and to a public transportation station. Revolver purchased us passes for a bus going to Waterfall City in the Aquis Republic. We waited for another two hours before the bus arrived. We boarded and looked for a seat.

  “I just love taking a two-day bus ride,” Revolver said sarcastically, as he put his bag up on a shelf above the seats.

  I gave a chuckle and put my bag up next to his. We took a seat, and Revolver wanted the seat closest to the window. The station wasn’t that far from the border between The Dark Empire and Central Union, so it only took a few hours to cross the border. While on the way, Revolver was staring out the window. He seemed to have escaped to his thoughts, so decided to leave him alone and take a nap. I woke up a couple hours later, and Revolver and I ate some food that we packed. They were both sandwiches that we made for this bus ride.

  After that, we had a conversation about a movie we watched a few weeks back. It almost turned into an argument because while I enjoyed it, Revolver mostly didn’t. The bus stopped at a station in Central Union and people were swapped out and the bus was fueled up before it continued. Being in Central Union got me to try to remember the history of the of the nation.

  “So, remind me again, the Central Union is the main trading nation for the rest of the nations, right?” I asked Revolver.

  He looked at me slightly annoyed, “Yeah, it is. I told you a few months ago. Back when all the nations were forming, they were just villages of people who knew how to use elemental powers. They would meet in the middle to trade goods which became the Central Village.”

  I twisted my lip in slight disappointment, “I’m sorry, I just couldn’t remember. I think you tried to tell me while I was preoccupied with a game on my comphone.”

  Revolver thought to himself before getting a loom of realization, “Oh yeah.”

  His attention then went elsewhere out the window. I decided to play the game again on my comphone. It was simple little RPG game called A Game of Hearts with a ton of short story missions. They keep adding more every few months along with story missions and I wondered if there is ever going to be an end to it. I heard that there was a TV show based on the game coming out as well and I was hoping to watch.

  Later in the night, we reclined our seats and slept. The next day we tried to kill time by
playing a card game and watching a movie I had on my comphone. We bought small foods from the vending machine that was in the back of the bus. I pulled up the current news on my comphone. There was an article talking about the current polls for the Sovereign campaign.

  I spoke, “Looks like Amaya is still leading but another candidate isn’t far behind her. His name is Markus.”

  “Yeah, he says he is doing it in the interest of the people, but I can tell that he just wants to make his own business profit more for having their chairman also be the Sovereign,” Revolver said.

  I smirked and shook my head, “Sound like a…self-centered person.”

  I saw another article that I skimmed through and pointed it out to Revolver, “Looks like there was a bank robbery the other day. The robber killed several people using fire powers. He was caught, and they are currently in the middle of a trial. They can’t decide if he should get the death penalty or just rot in prison.”

  “Our justice system at its finest. Someone kills others and we must decide on how to punish him. They’ll probably decide to lock him away instead and make him learn a lesson. There’s just no justice anymore,” Revolver spurted.

  He leaned in close and whispered, “This is exactly why we do what we do so there is justice. He deserves to die for what he did. That’s why we needed Amaya as the Sovereign. With her in office, everything will be cut and dry; To the point.”

  I didn’t say anything because I just didn’t know what to say, so I just nodded. Revolver turned his attention out the window. Revolver has good points, but something about his points rubbed me the wrong way. I just didn’t know how.

  By the next morning, we got close to the Aquis Republic/Central Union border. The bus did another stop at another station then continued. It was about noon by the time the bus arrived at the station on the edge of Waterfall City. We gathered our stuff and exited the bus. It felt good to stretch my legs.

  We traveled through the city to a run-down looking area. The buildings were old, and a few had graffiti. We found a hotel and got a room. Everything about the hotel and the part of the city we were in was very familiar, almost like I’ve been here before on multiple occasions. It didn’t make a lot of sense because I only recall being close to the area during a mission, one that we took a few years ago. We rested a bit then prepared to leave. We packed small packs with our assassin robes and gears.

  “Do you have everything ready?” Revolver asked.

  He looked almost ready himself.

  I nodded, “Yeah.”

  “Cool. I’ll just put my shoes on, and we’ll go,” Revolver replied.

  He slipped on his shoes and then we took off. We headed north to the Ice Village and there wasn’t any transportation we could use to get there, so we walked. We got outside the city, and Revolver began to get curious.

  Revolver asked, “You know how I have water powers, right?”

  “Yeah, why?” I questioned.

  I gave him a curious look.

  “Well, have you figured out what powers you have yet?” he asked.

  I thought for a moment.

  “No, not yet,” I answered.

  “Huh. Interesting,” He responded.

  “You said that everyone has powers, but some don’t ever find how the use them, right?” I questioned.

  He answered, “Yeah, it has to do with the fact that we went over a thousand years of not using them. It wasn’t until Katana came around that people started figuring out how to tap into their powers. Well on public record that’s when it started, but it actually started when her father, Sabre, started his journey years prior. That part of history of when elemental powers were used again were left out.”

  “Why was it?” I asked.

  “It was better for the people not to know at the time. Letting people know about powers right away would have been a big step. That’s where Tana came in. She eased people into it and helped open a school with Sabre. It’s called Trinity School for Elementals,” Revolver answered.

  I started to wonder, “How do you know of this?”

  Revolver was silent for a moment. He seemed to be lost in thought.

  “Revolver?” I asked him, looking puzzled.

  His focus turned to me.

  “I don’t want to talk about it, so just drop it, okay?” he replied and turned back to where we were going.

  I just assumed it was because Revolver was a history buff. I do see him read a lot of books in his spare time. A few hours later, I checked the GPS on my comphone. It showed that we were getting close to the village. The road curved off to the side heading towards the Thunderlands, but there was a closed off road that forks off the main road towards the Ice Village. We stopped and hid behind a tree so we could change into our gear.

  “It’s code name time,” Nite announced.

  I nodded in agreement. We left our packs hidden behind the tree. I took a knife and scratched a mark into the tree to show which tree we needed to come back to afterwards.

  “We should continue up the path while off to the side. I know no one comes up here but just in

  case someone does appear,” I suggested.

  Nite nodded, “Good idea, Eclipse.”

  Nite and I continued our way to the village, staying out of sight. It started to snow, and I started to get cold, but I found a way to deal with it. It didn’t seem to faze Nite much. We got to just outside the village and made our way up a hill to see the whole village. It was overcast and snowing. The village looked like the remains of a destroyed town covered with the snow. On the other side of the town there was a facility that was built into the ice cliff that was there. It looked like it was built in more recent years. It must have been the same one from the reports.

  “That is where we should look first,” Nite pointed out.

  “Right. Let’s go,” I responded.

  We made our way down the hill and into the village. We walked through the middle of the village towards the facility while examining the buildings. It looks like it was attacked a long time ago and it was all very weathered. Buildings and houses were half destroyed, blackened by what seemed like a fire. There was also debris everywhere. Metal objects were old and rusted. I started to wonder about this place, as the feeling of familiarity started to come to me again.

  “How did this place get this way?” I questioned.

  Revolver sighed and explained, “There was a battle that took place well over one hundred years ago. This was back when tensions started brewing between the Dark Empire and the other nations. Back then it was called North Reef Village. The Dark Empire snuck their Dark Army troops into the Thunderlands to attack Lightning City. They were caught before they reached the city by Thunderland troops who were tipped off by the Central Union government. They ran towards this village and the Aquis Republic sent their troops here. The civilians who lived here were evacuated while the battle was going on. Most of the villagers survived and made homes elsewhere. The Dark Army troops didn’t make it. Years later, the village was still abandoned. A creature that was causing havoc appeared with Master Ice’s Orb. The creature changed this place and made it forever snow and made it his base of operations. The creature also renamed it the Ice Village. It was Sabre who took him down a long time ago.”

  “Oh, wow. That’s crazy. You would think that since the creature was stopped that this place would stop snowing for good,” I replied.

  “Right? It does stop from time to time, but only for a short time,” Nite responded, while examining a large building.

  I saw that there was rubble covering the archway of a door. It looked like the wall above the door had caved in. A memory flashed in my head and everything darkened, like dimming the light in a room. A young man, who looked like a teenager that was wearing a beanie and a side cape, ran past me and into the door. Followed after that was a blast that exploded the wall above it down in front of the door behind the young man. Two more young men that also looked like teenagers appeared, running after the one in
the beanie and stopped at the rubble. They turned to face a group of what looked like zombies. They started to fight them back. Something caught my eye behind the fighting, and I saw someone crawling into the building.

  “Eclipse,” I heard.

  My attention snapped to Nite, as I came back to the present time and the lighting changed back to the way it was. Nite was further down the path they were on.

  Nite continued while signaling with his hands in the air, “C’mon, let’s go!”

  “Coming!” I yelled.

  I ran to catch up to Nite. I looked up at the facility now that we were closer and examined it.