Within the Brass Web.
Page 15
Chapter 13: Hunting Kings.
If there was one man Anthony Krichbaum truly admired it was General Eisenberg. To be so important at his age just amazed Anthony. He did everything to pattern his life after his general. So when the Kings had attacked General Eisenberg and Miss Michele while under his care, he felt he had let him down. So when he heard that that his general had gotten married to Lord Nemesis’ great niece he felt he needed to do something to make up his failure to them. He would have to break the rules and probably would get court marshaled for it, but at least they would know he did this to make up for his earlier failure.
He was getting ahead of himself, first he needed to know who and where to find the Kings. He had one advantage over everyone else looking for the Kings. He had grown up in the garment district as his parents had worked there. He knew the people in the neighborhood, grew up playing ball with most of the guys, and got into trouble with other guys. He spent all of his free time quietly talking, looking and listening. He was surprised how quickly he had acquired the information he needed to mark a target. He had never killed a man before but being a soldier he knew it would be required of him at some time. Not that the men he would be going after would think twice about killing him.
Anthony drove to the foundries and put on his uniform and then headed towards the sergeant at arms and requested his sniper rifle for training. The sniper field was set just outside of the exercise center because of the distance they shot at. He walked outside down a short path and turned into the woods. A short walk brought him to the edge of the parking lot and a bag with a change of clothes. He drove back to Paragon City in high spirits. If he was lucky he could take his shot and get back up here before nightfall.
The doorway he was targeting was an easy shot for him. He simply had to be patient. He sat in the same spot for an hour or more, his eyes never leaving the view of the scope, not wanting to miss his shot.
“Let me guess… bird watching?”
Anthony jumped at the sound of the voice. He turned to find himself facing a man in a gray and blue outfit. His entire head was covered in a gray mask with some sort of goggles over his eyes. The outfit had what looked like blue lightening bolts running down the arms and legs. This had to be one of those heroes he kept hearing them talk about.
“Not really, I’m just shooting rats. No one really cares about rats do they?” Anthony said trying to keep his calm like General Eisenberg would.
“Those must be some really big rats for a gun like that.” The man’s voice carried an accent Anthony had heard before when he went to New York City. “Great, I bet he has a New Yorker’s attitude as well” Anthony thought to himself.
“King size rats, and real nasty if you see them up close, so it’s better to do this from a distance.”
“I can’t let you do that. Give me the gun and we can talk about this on the way to the police station. You haven’t done anything that I know of, so you’ll lose the rifle, and spend a day or two in jail, but at least it won’t be a life time for… rat killing.
Anthony looked at the rifle in his hands and thought it over. What would General Eisenberg do? He wouldn’t surrender that’s for sure. Anthony twisted the handle and his bayonet knifed opened at the end of the rifle. In one easy movement he lunged at the man. The man leaped backwards and moved around to stairway entrance. Anthony followed him around the building, raising his rifle for a shot. The hero had backed himself against the edge of the building and Anthony moved to put the building to his back.
“This is your last chance, put the rifle down.”
“I’m sorry, I have nothing personal against you... I just have to do this.” Anthony said as he took aim and started to squeeze the trigger. The gray hero made a sudden movement with his arms and Anthony was suddenly hit with a gust of wind that knocked him off balance. The Hero made the gesture again and this time Anthony was hit with a gale force wind that threw him into the building behind him and held him there. He struggled against it but the wind just kept building until through squinting eyes he saw part of the roofing give way, and come straight for him to slam him into the wall even harder. The wind died down and Elementar picked up the unconscious man’s rifle to look it over. Then he moved to the chair and used the rifle scope to see the rats this man was hunting.