The Adept Archives: Volumes 1-3

by Darren Hultberg Jr

  “Freeze!” Roy yelled, rising to his feet as he reached for his gun. The man paused, giving the officer the slightest of glances before bolting across the bridge and into a nearby door. Without thinking, Roy ran to the nearest set of rusty stairs and ascended to the second level, dashing across the bridge in pursuit.

  “I said freeze, asshole!” he yelled again, gaining ground on the would-be attacker. Judging by the way the man was running, Roy knew he could catch him, and he’d be damned if he was going to sit there and watch a potential cop killer get away.

  The officer reached the room and forced the door open with his shoulder, holding his pistol firmly in both hands as his eyes quickly scanned every corner. Realizing that the man had moved on, he bolted over to the next set of doors and burst inside.

  There!

  “Stop or I’ll shoot!” Roy yelled as he took aim at the assailant’s back, a scruffy-looking man in a white tank top and a knife tucked into his belt. The man came to a stop as Roy disengaged his safety, raising both hands into the air while still facing the opposite direction. It took everything Roy had to not pull the trigger and end the man right there.

  Suddenly, the sentry’s interface came to life as it scanned the man’s body mass.

  //////////

  Axel Ward

  Threat level: 6

  Physical capabilities: (estimated based on scanned body-mass index and vital signs)

  Strength: 6

  Speed: 5

  Vitality 5

  Weapons:

  Serrated Knife

  //////////

  A list of prior convictions appeared in a separate window, but Roy blinked them away as he began to move in.

  “Slowly drop to your knees while keeping your hands raised above your head, “ Roy began to instruct when a second man emerged from the corner, burly and hooded and wielding a broken metal pipe.

  Roy tried to turn on the man, but the pipe came crashing down, slamming into his hands and sending the gun spiraling across the floor.

  So damned overzealous! Roy thought as he watched his gun slide under a nearby desk, quickly regretting his decision to rush into the room. He couldn’t dwell on it though, not facing down two armed attackers.

  The officer fell into a fighting stance as he let his martial instincts take over. His fears washed away as more adrenaline flooded him and his muscles tightened. There was no time to flee and no one to help him. The only way out of this was to beat these men.

  A second window appeared in Roy’s interface.

  //////////

  Robert “Bo” Bojack

  Threat level: 7

  Physical capabilities: (estimated)

  Strength: 8

  Speed: 4

  Vitality: 6

  Weapons:

  Steel pipe

  //////////

  It happened in an instant. The burly man lurched forward as Roy blinked the information away, taking a swing at his head with the pipe. Roy ducked the blow with ease, dropping down before catching the man with a hard right hook to the gut. As the fool began to double over in pain, Roy caught him with a solid uppercut to the chin, sending him crashing into the wall.

  The second assailant used this as a distraction to leap at Roy with his knife, stabbing wildly at the officer’s midsection with his serrated blade. The first attack missed but the second found its mark on Roy’s stomach, tearing through Kevlar and piercing the officer’s soft flesh underneath.

  The officer’s combat instincts kicked in and he reached down, grabbing the man’s wrist with both hands and preventing the blade from sinking in any further. A sharp pain coursed through Roy’s midsection as he struggled with the man, but he clenched his jaw and pressed on. He was not going to get wasted by some street scum in an abandoned warehouse. He refused!

  With a sudden burst of strength, Roy forced the tip of the knife out of his stomach and gave its wielder’s wrist a twist, causing him to lose his grip on the blade. The man’s expression immediately soured as he realized the predicament he was in, but there was no escaping.... not after what he had done.

  Roy slammed his right fist into the man’s face, catching him with a perfect right cross before following it up with a left hook to the cheek and another right hand to the temple. The man’s eyes began to glaze over as his body crashed to the floor, his head firmly removed from his senses. More fists began to rain down as Roy climbed atop the man, punching him until his face was hardly recognizable, until he was certain that the man wouldn’t be getting back up.

  Slowly, Roy rose to his feet and gave the torn skin on his knuckles a quick glance, then immediately prodded at the wound on his stomach. Thankfully, the blade hadn’t made it any further than an inch, otherwise, he may have been the one lying on the floor in an unconscious heap.

  Roy’s mind started to settle as his adrenaline began to wane. Engaging in open combat was such a rush, but what he’d done had been foolish and could have very well gotten him killed... He’d let his emotions take over… it had led him to this. Still, it would be hard to argue with the fact that he’d just brought down two potential cop killers. With a deep exhale, Roy reached for the pair of cuffs on his belt and leaned down towards the man lying at his feet… That’s precisely when he heard the click of his pistol.

  “God damn pigs always nosin’ where they don’t belong,” Bo, the burly man said as he climbed off the floor with Roy’s gun in his grasp. “I didn’t want to have to do this. I really didn’t,” a wicked grin began to spread across his face. “But that don’t mean I won’t enjoy it some.”

  Slowly, the officer raised his hands into the air and turned to face the man. Despite Bo’s threats, he could see the conflict, the indecision etched into his expression. “You wanna be a damn cop killer?” Roy asked, all the while inching his way towards the gunman. “You know this place will be swarming with blue in seconds. You’ll never walk away from this.”

  The man gave his head a dismissive shake as blood continued to pour from his nose and that deranged smile spread even wider. He had this bizarre, otherworldly look in his eyes that had Roy wondering if he was possessed.

  “You don’t think I know that?” Bo replied. “I’m no idiot... this is the end of the line for me,” he rubbed his finger tenderly across the gun’s barrel as the sound of sirens began to echo through the windows. “And it’s the end for you.”

  Roy lunged forward and grabbed onto the weapon, trying to shove its barrel towards the ground. His thoughts had given way to pure instinct, his body fighting in a last-ditch effort to survive.

  The officer quickly overpowered his assailant, forcing the weapon down with a violent shove. His opponent was strong, sure, but Roy’s abilities were miles ahead. Years of training would soon prove Roy’s superiority over his noticeably sloppier foe.

  The officer stepped forward, preparing to throw the man to the ground when something in his vision brought his movements to a halt… For the second time that day, Roy stared into a pair of piercing, black eyes. The eyes floated just beyond the far end of the room, hovering on an old piece of sheet metal like a strange reflection. They drew Roy in, sclera sparkling as if tiny galaxies sat within those ever-watching orbs.

  For a split second, Roy dropped his guard.

  Suddenly Bo raised the gun and squeezed the trigger, unloading a round into Roy’s chest, sending a wave of pain rippling through his body and forcing the air out of his lungs. He staggered backward, leaning against the window as he struggled to remain upright amidst the pain.

  The gun fired again, and another bullet ripped past him, shattering the window at his back. Roy’s eyes met his attackers for the briefest of seconds, and in that time, at that moment… he knew he would fall.

  The man pulled the trigger for a third time, pumping another bullet directly into Roy. The impact staggered the officer, causing him to stumble backward as his vision briefly darkened with pain. His back passed through the open window and soon the rest of his body followed, jagged piec
es of broken glass slicing at his flesh.

  And then he was falling, plummeting out of the broken window as his bullet-riddled body rushed towards the ground below. Feelings of utter devastation consumed him as he fell... he’d tried to live a life that was just and noble. But lately, he’d been little more than an angry, broken soul… one that was going to succumb to an equally violent death. Thoughts of his daughter began to fill his mind as the wind whipped by, thoughts of a relationship with his wife that he was never able to mend.

  In an instant, the unforgiving pavement greeted Roy’s body. A gruesome crescendo of shattering bones filled his ears and his precious lifeblood began to flow like a river…but he felt none of it. Only the sounds of death held him close as his vision left him, and his existence faded to black…

  ****

  As the flames of his life extinguished, Roy’s soul began its journey through the Eons, seeking shelter in the eternal silence of time and space. His soul traveled across the cosmos, fading with time, diminishing as it reached its journey’s end….

  Then came a spark.

  The fighter’s soul of Roy Skyworth refused to die, a flickering flame fueled by anger, burning on sheer force of will. It grew brighter, denying itself the silence of death until finally, his flame reignited….

  And unto another realm, Roy was reborn.

  Chapter 2

  Reborn

  The Wilds, The Realm of Eon

  Stars filled the open skies as the world sat silent and still, save for the sound of waves crashing against the rocky shore. The surrounding area had been evacuated with the coming of night, leaving nothing but the beasts of darkness to roam and to hunt.

  The twisted shoreline nearby began to vanish as a strange fog overtook the area, a miasma so thick that it could cloud the vision of the gods themselves. It lingered there for several moments, fighting the push and pull of the wind, holding fast until finally it dissipated, leaving a creature in its wake.

  At the edge of the shore that creature laid still, a man with his body strewn across the grass as if he’d been errantly tossed there and left to rot. His clothes were in tatters and his face was pale with eyes tightly shut... the man appeared quite dead.

  Several seconds of eerie stillness passed until finally the man’s chest rose with labored breaths as he sucked in the air of this unfamiliar place... as he breathed in life.

  Finally, Roy Skyworth began to open his eyes.

  What the hell? was the only thought Roy could muster as he sat up and ran his hands through the soft grass at his side. Seconds ago, he was in the warehouse district plummeting to his untimely death, but now... now he didn’t where the hell he was.

  Slowly and methodically, Roy rose to his feet and inspected his surroundings, trying to gain a grasp on reality, to make sense of it all. He found himself on a grassy embankment covered in strange black wildflowers with blood-red centers. Behind him, a river rushed along a curvy embankment, its waters tinted with an unnatural crimson hue.

  And then there was the fog.

  In front of Roy were rows of thick trees with bark the color of charcoal, barely visible through the thick, all-consuming fog that seemed to surround the immediate area. The substance seemed almost palpable as it encompassed everything it touched, swallowing the ground itself and consuming everything within its reach like the wall of a creeping storm.

  Roy studied the strange fog for a moment, but it didn’t appear to be encroaching on him at a terribly fast pace. Still, the sight of it left him a strange, unsettling feeling that lingered in his chest. Ah well. If it got too close, he would just have to flee towards the river.

  Finally getting his bearings, Roy removed his shirt and vest and began inspecting the wounds he received at the warehouse. To his amazement, his body seemed relatively unscathed. Even if his Kevlar vest had stopped the bullets, he should’ve had some substantial bruising forming on his chest, but nothing. And the knife wound, the cuts from the glass… they were gone!

  “Am… am I dead?” Roy muttered to himself, trying to wrap his head around everything. He was certain he remembered smacking the ground and shattering every bone in his body, but…

  Quick, shallow breaths began to exit Roy’s mouth as he remembered falling from the open window. Sweat building, he scrambled for his phone. He needed to see something, the date, the time, anything that could ground him before his mind wandered any further.

  The screen was black, the device devoid of any power.

  “Dammit!” Roy growled, shoving the item back into his belt. He took another quick glance around, hoping to spot something that might lead him in the direction towards civilization, but his vision was obstructed by that damn fog...

  Suddenly Roy’s Sentry interface flickered back to life, scanning the surrounding area through his vision. He tried to pull up data on his whereabouts.

  //////////

  Location: Unknown

  //////////

  Roy shook his head in frustration. Without a ton of options in front of him, the officer reached for his radio and began to call out. “Kai? Anyone? Can you hear me?”

  Silence.

  Disgruntled, Roy shook his head and placed the radio back on his belt. Maybe he was dead and this was his Hell, his lost soul forced to wander alone forever more on the shores of this damned beach. Well, it did beat fire and brimstone… but no. He had no way to be certain but a feeling in his gut told him that this wasn’t Hell. It was… something else. Still, Roy didn’t know what was going on, and he was tired of standing around treading water. It was time to get moving.

  Moments passed as the lost officer made his way down the edge of the river, steering just clear of the thick fog as he looked for signs of life. It seemed quite odd that not a single creature had stirred since he’d arrived at this place, insect or otherwise. Still, he trudged on determined to make sense of-

  Roy paused as the sound of a low growl caught his ear, a snarl so guttural that it made his skin crawl. The man’s eyes scanned up and down the river’s edge, searching for the source of the noise, this potential threat. Then the fog parted and again Roy was faced with feelings of true fear.

  Stepping out of the swirling grey cloud was a creature forged from nightmare. Standing nearly eight feet tall, the beast towered over Roy as it made its approach. Its body shape resembled that of a human, though its limbs were elongated, giving the creature an extended reach. Tar black skin stretched over its muscled body with arms that ended in thin, spiny fingers that each sported a dagger-like nail. Its back was filled with rows of thin, bony spikes. Its tail dragged along like a flaccid strip of meat…

  And then there was the creature’s face. Large opal pieces of bone wrapped around the creature’s mouth and nose, interlocking to form some sort of strange mask that covered most of its face. Still, that didn’t save him from its gaze as two maddened, jet-black eyes locked into him.

  //////////

  Creature: Unknown

  Threat level: Unknown

  !!Use Caution!!

  //////////

  As the officer and the beast stood face to face, something strange began to happen. A sensation flooded Roy’s senses, a tingling feeling that resonated in his temples before flowing into the back of his eyes. He tried to blink it away, but the sensation lingered… then his sentry interface went haywire.

  Abruptly, a dark aura appeared in Roy’s vision. It surrounded the hellish creature, flowing over its skin and into its body, encapsulating the beast in what appeared to be a living cloak of shadow. The aura seemed to radiate from the creature, an energy so thick and powerful that it forced the very air itself out of the beast’s presence.

  Before Roy could process his visions, the creature let out a screech that forced Roy to cover his ears. It flexed its muscles as it clawed at its strange mask, filling the air with a sound that carried malice and dread. When the howling finally ceased the creature’s eyes locked on Roy, it’s gaze now carrying an ill intent that the officer hadn’t see
n before.

  Instinctively, Roy reached for his gun but was quickly overcome with fear as he realized the weapon wasn’t there.

  And just like that, the creature charged.

  At that very second, nothing was making sense to officer Roy Skyworth. This place, this creature, even the bizarre aura swirling in his visions were completely foreign to him. It was enough to make him crumble in fear, to cry out and let this strange, dark place grab hold of his soul.

  But that was not Roy.

  He was a fighter trained to prevail in unsafe situations. He had no idea what he’d gotten himself into, but none of that mattered right now. He’d been in fights before, fights against opponents much stronger than himself and he’d prevailed. He would not allow himself to fall again. He would survive.

  The creature charged in, extending its claws out like a row of knives. Its strange aura followed, clinging to its body like a veil of energy as the beast began its attack.

  Roy ducked the incoming blow then rolled to his right, narrowly avoiding the creature’s razor-sharp claws as he tumbled through the grass. As he rose back to his feet, he reached for his belt once more, this time producing a new weapon in hand, his standard-issue taser. He had no idea how the weapon would react to the creature, but it had taken down men much larger than him before, so it was worth a shot.

  As the creature lurched forward, Roy squeezed the trigger, sending a pair of tiny barbed electrodes directly into the monster’s hide. The officer stood firm as he unleashed the full force of his taser, pumping the creature with enough electricity to make a normal man crumble. Its eyes twitched behind its bone mask and its muscles tightened across its upper body as the beast flailed about. It had worked...