The Stelter City Saga: Ultranatural

by Stefany Valentine Ramirez

  “Right.” replied Michael. “I see you changed up your ranks, Trench. Introduce me.” He commanded.

  It was as if Michael had turned into someone else entirely. Had she really been this blind to not notice a completely different person? As she stood beside him, the first emotion to appear in her heart aside from fear was now guilt. How could she have loved him when she didn’t even know him at all? But she couldn’t blame herself entirely. After all, Michael had only showed his entirety recently.

  Trench gestured to the African American man on his left. “This is Tristan…” That was about all Lotus caught because the next thing she was doing was studying the man up and down. He was tall, clean shaven with a greying goatee around his mouth. The rifle in his hand seemed out of place because Tristan looked more like a basketball player than a criminal considering he had the least amount of tattoos out of the three. He was even wearing the shorts and shoes for it.

  Lotus couldn’t follow half of what Trench was saying because most of it seemed to be sang intertwined with various names of guns, but Michael just nodded occasionally as Lotus eyed the BOA to the right. Long dirty blond hair fell to his shoulders and like Michael, this guy had most of it covering one if his dark blue eyes. He was hardly BOA material and when looking around, this kid seemed the most out of place even if he had two revolvers tattooed on his chest. He was clearly the youngest even though bags hung under his wide eyes, but there was something creepy about him Lotus wasn’t too fond of.

  She wasn’t sure if it was his lanky body, or his lizard thin lips, or even the way his cheeks sunk in his washed out face. But he seemed sinister. Perhaps the reason they made him a High BOA was because he had the mind of a weapons dealer. Out of curiosity, Lotus stared at a rock in the dirt as she tried to figure out what Trench was saying about this other High BOA but she caught nothing other than his name. Jacob.

  “You added no supernatural to your lead?” Michael finally asked after the introductions.

  Trench shook his head. “There are none within our gang.” He replied in his deep voice.

  “Uh-hu.” Michael snapped almost instantly. “The Krome have two in their highest ranks. It’s odd that you have none.” A moment lingered where they held eyes and nothing but the chilly breeze rustled the bushes. “Why are you hiding things from me, Trench?”

  The Highest BOA said nothing.

  Lotus watched the faces of the BOA as she tried to figure out what Michael knew. When none of them spoke up, Michael took over. “I would consider half-natural as a part of the supernatural race, lads.”

  Lotus stood up straight and gaped at him. He know about the half-natural? Lotus thought she and her sister were the only ones! Who else could it be?

  “Jacob, was it?” Michael asked, his eyes sliding over to the scrawny teenager holding a gun that should have been too heavy for him. “Come now, don’t be shy. Drop it and show me what you can do.”

  The wide eyed kid looked over at him and pulled his thin lips back in a smile. That reaction startled Lotus. Michael, the King was so intimidating she could feel the tension between him and the Highest BOA, Trench. But when Michael asked for Jacob, all he did was smile as if egging him on.

  “I could show you what I can do.” Began Jacob slyly, “Or we can make it into something fun.”

  Michael raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”

  “A game.” Jacob replied. “Let’s play a game. It’ll be just you and me Highness.”

  Lotus didn’t know the crowd of BOA standing beside their armed Jeeps could hear until they started laughing at Jacob’s comment.

  Michael joined in on the smiles and said, “Alright, give us a go. What is it?”

  When Jacob cocked his head to the side, the dirty blonde hair slid to reveal his other wide blue eye. That’s when Lotus realized that through his uncanny glare, specks of brown were mixed in with his blue eyes.

  “King of the hill.” He said simply and the crowd behind him laughed even harder. Lotus couldn’t help but to snicker as well. Two grown men playing a game in the desert wasn’t exactly the manliest thing to do. Especially when one of them was a High BOA and the other was the leader of the supernatural world.

  “The object of the game is to see who can stay on that plateau the longest.” Jacob continued pointing to the mound of rock behind them. “If I win, I earn the pleasure of saying I beat the King. If you win… well you will have learned my weakness. Does that seem fair?” He asked extending his hand.

  Michael’s eyes went from Jacob’s pale hand to the smirk over his thin lips. A chilly breeze blew through the scene as everyone waited for Michael to cross over and shake hands. Instead he turned to Lotus and the world was whisked away from their feet. When they touched back down, they were once more on the top of a plateau. The only difference was, instead of looking out over the endless stretch of desert, a short gap separated Lotus from the even larger plateau surface before them as if she were in a lone bleacher with nothing but the football field before her.

  “Where are we?” she asked looking around eagerly. They had landed right in the center of the small plateau, but even then, the five feet keeping her from the edge made her feel as if she were on the verge of falling. As she mustered enough courage to peek over the edge, she could see the alarmed amount of BOA just at the base of the dirt mound.

  “Stay here. I don’t trust them alone with you.” Michael said.

  Though she was trembling now with the fear of falling, Lotus managed to scoff. “Yeah, because I am totally going to go somewhere else.”

  Michael smirked as he leaned away from her. “We’ll go wherever you like after this alright Lozey? But for now, I’m going to play a game.” He smiled eagerly but before Lotus could say another word, Michael had vanished.

  At the base of the plateau, the BOA stopped chattering to look up at the King as he appeared in an instant before them. “Alright lads,” he began, “The game starts when you reach the top. See you there.” There was just enough time for him to point at Jacob before vanishing once more.

  Jacob shielded his eyes as he glanced up at the top. Sure enough Michael Caster was already there, sitting on the ledge with his legs draped over the cliff waiting for Jacob to join him. Off to the east and standing on a lone plateau pillar was Lotus and her gleaming blond hair tossed in the winter breeze. For a moment, Jacob watched her stand there as a strategy began to form in his mind. One way to catch Caster off guard was to attack Lotus instead. Perhaps that would be a last resort considering Michael was a full supernatural and the odds of Jacob winning were already slim.

  “He never said you couldn’t use that gun.” Trench’s deep gruff voice seemed to bellow from beside him.

  Jacob sailed his sight over to the Highest BOA as a snake-like smile stretched across his face. “That sure would make things interesting wouldn’t it?” and his hand quivered on the barrel of the rifle still in his grasp. “But maybe as a backup plan. He doesn’t know how strong I am. Besides, didn’t Ithaca say she wants him alive?”

  Trench nodded but kept his dark eyes glued to the King’s seat. “That’s right. Beat him up, but keep him alive.”

  “What about the girl?” added Tristan nodding in Lotus’s direction. “I say we just kill her now.” And he lifted his weapon to his eye.

  With near supernatural speed and aggression, Trench yanked the gun from his partner’s hands and Tristan let go immediately with a start. “We’re not playing by my rules anymore.” Trench said almost casually, “Ithaca’s in charge. If she didn’t say kill Lotus Stelter, we don’t kill Lotus Stelter. Give me your weapon too, Jacob. You can have it back if the job gets too hard.”

  Respectfully, Jacob handed him the gun then popped his neck and shoulders like a track star about to sprint. “Michael Caster is only the King of the Legend. How hard will it be to bring him down?” Trench had just enough time to see Jacob’s own arrogant smile before he was bolting up the side of the plateau.

  Michael had ne
ver seen anything like it before in his life. Jacob was half climbing, half running up the face of the rock. With each step he managed to dig his grip perfectly into the grooves of the cliff, launching himself up with phenomenal speed. Michael just had enough time to comprehend what he was looking at when Jacob’s fist came sailing up past his ear. In a split second, Michael had rolled over his back and popped back up to his feet just as Jacob landed on the ledge before him.

  “Well, well!” Exclaimed Michael with his knees bent and fists by his chin. He couldn’t risk another surprise attack so early in the game. “Looks like we have us a rare halfy!!”

  Jacob smirked as he too crouched at the ready. There was only a foot of space between him and the ledge, if Michael wanted to, he could end the game in a swift punch but that didn’t seem to be his agenda at the moment.

  “No phenomenal ability, simply strength and speed.” Michael continued to say. “You have the pleasure of being the first I know to turn this way.”

  Jacob continued to say nothing, but the idea of being in a vulnerable position beside the cliff didn’t sit well with him. In one giant leap, he had launched himself into the air. He made one talented flip several feet above Michael’s head before landing down smoothly behind him.

  Michael hadn’t taken his eyes off his foe. “Blimey, you’re full of surprises!” he exclaimed still crouched and waiting for the first strike. “If this weren’t a game, I’d give you a fare interview just to see what it’s like being only half.”

  The wicked smile hadn’t left Jacob’s face since landing on the top of the rocky terrain. “I think you’ll learn more from this game than an interview.” And with that, he charged. Though he was only half, Jacob had the speed of any other supernatural and as he raced toward Michael with his fist raised, he thought for a moment he was moving faster. Or maybe Michael wasn’t a fighter at all. As feet turned to inches, Michael hardly made to move away.

  It wasn’t until the millisecond before impact that he vanished and Jacob’s fist sailed through empty air. It had just dawned on him that the King had used his phenomenal ability when he felt the presence of Michael reappear behind him. But before he could whirl around, a hard kick to the middle of his back sent him sailing through the air.

  Michael watched satisfactorily as Jacob slammed back down only to continue sliding across the dirt and right off the edge. He stood there with his balled fists still ready to strike as his ears strained to hear Jacob’s body collide with the dirt below. But nothing happened. Several seconds had gone by and Michael had just considered glancing off the edge when an earsplitting crack cut through the howl of the desert wind. There was just enough time to comprehend the sound before Jacob was once again flying back up the edge of the plateau with an enormous chunk of rock in his hands. The moment Jacob touched down, he launching the washing machine sized boulder over his head and directly at Michael.

  “That’s clever mate!” Michael called as the mound of red rock soared effortlessly through the air. He wanted to make one more remark before the boulder made impact. But by the time the words came to mind, it had grown so close that Jacob had been eclipsed behind it. A million thoughts swirled around in Michael’s mind. Not once had he ever wondered how he would avoid being hit by an enormous boulder. He wasn’t sure if he should jump over it, swat at it or even catch it and lob it back at Jacob. But as the boulder continued to sail, Michael finally raised his foot up and an explosion of rock blew apart on impact.

  Michael was a supernatural, but that didn’t mean he was resistant to pain. If anything the sensation of kicking the boulder sprang all the way up his leg and for a moment he thought he had shattered his toes. A howl of pain painted the air as pieces of broken rock rained down upon him. The bottom of his foot felt as if it had been completely shattered and he glanced down at his dirty shoes to see if any blood had escaped from his skin. To his relief, everything looked fine. But before he could think about anything else, Jacob’s fist landed an uppercut straight to the jaw.

  As Michael flew up in the air, the sound of Lotus’s terrified scream made its way to his ears over the rush of cold air. Once he had reached the highest point of rise, gravity began to pull him back down almost as quickly as he had been launched up. Michael wasn’t sure why his eyes were closed. Over the pain throbbing in his leg and now the possibly fractured jaw, he couldn’t will himself to see how much more of a decent there would be before he made impact with the ground.

  He had to do something, and when in doubt, teleport out. Jacob watched as Michael fell to the rocky dirt, but the millisecond before impact, he vanished. Michael could be anywhere now and Jacob immediately turned over his shoulder in case there was an attack from behind. Sure enough, Michael had appeared behind him, but far enough so that there would be pliantly of time to react if either of them were to make the next move.

  “What are you doing over there Highness?” Jacob called over the vast stretch of plateau.

  Red dirt swirled in the breeze as Michael looked up at his opponent. From the distance, Jacob looked as if he were the size of a bar of soap, but it didn’t take much to see that he was walking toward Michael with confidence.

  “Michael!” this time it was Lotus’s voice and he turned to see that she was closer to him than Jacob. “Michael are you alright?” she called. Michael wasn’t sure if it was the wind making her voice shiver, but for the first time in his recollection, she seemed genuinely worried about him.

  “I’ve never felt more alive!” he called back. By the time he had turned back to Jacob, he had grown to the size of a painting in the distance.

  Lotus had called something back, but Michael wasn’t paying any attention. He knew he needed time to heal if he wanted the odds of winning to be more in his favor. He was the King after all. How could he possibly tarnish his reputation by losing to a half-natural? It was wrong for him to have even let the match last this long. If anything, he should just end it right then and there. The tenderness in his foot still existed even if his jaw had subsided to a sting. He hadn’t noticed how torn up his knee cap had been until he realized that his body had made it brand new again. Realizing the rejuvenation in his own flesh, he wasn’t sure if Jacob could do the same.

  “How fast do you heal mate?” Michael asked as Jacob stopped a mere ten feet away from him.

  Jacob smirked as if the question was an invitation. “Find out for yourself, Highness.”

  Michael scoffed, “Well I don’t want to kill you. I could take you up in the sky and let you fall to your death. But I don’t want more blood on my hands.”

  Jacob shrugged carelessly. “You’re more than welcome to try that.”

  “Blyme!” gasped Michael, “Have you got yourself a death wish? I’m not doing that.”

  “Then you just might lose.” Jacob said below his breath then he charged.

  Though Michael only meant to have a conversation so he could buy time to heal, his leg still felt too broken to work with. As Jacob approached with a fist ready, Michael though of the only other way to end the match. It might have been because Michael was a bit more prepared for this strike, but he felt himself move swifter. Things seemed to be in slow motion mainly because Michael knew he was going to end the game and he knew how he was going to do it. With one hand, Michael grabbed onto Jacob’s raised fist, with the other, Michael grabbed a hold of the loops of Jacob’s jeans. The edge nearest where they stood was just behind them. In other words, while launching the punch, Jacob was headed directly towards it.

  With Jacob rushing, there still wouldn’t have been enough momentum to launch him over. In a split second, Michael realized this. That was why he grabbed onto Jacob’s clothing. In the time it took Jacob to realize Michael had a hand around his closed fist, Michael was already spinning on the spot with Jacob in his grasp. A complete 360 was all the energy he needed to send his foe sailing once more over the ledge.

  Michael watched as Jacob vanished over the ledge with so much air around him that there was no way
he could grab onto the plateau’s cliff walls to stop his fall. All the action had taken place in front of Lotus she felt as if she could reach out and touch them both. Even as she witnessed Jacob plunging toward the ground, she felt as if she could reach out and stop him. But instead her hands went to her mouth to stifle a horrified scream. From several feet below, the members of the BOA watched as their only half natural sailed toward the ground with nothing to stop him. All eyes were on Jacob’s weightless body.

  Everyone was so preoccupied with watching a man fall to his death that they had completely forgotten about Michael until he appeared at the base of the plateau with his arms outstretched and his gaze following Jacob to the ground. His timing could not have been more perfect. Only a second after he appeared did Jacob land in his arms as if Michael were cradling a baby.

  A sigh of relief swept through Lotus. Of course Michael wouldn’t just let a man fall to his death, right? The idea of Michael being a hero had just appeared into Lotus’s mind when Michael found a way to prove her wrong. Suddenly, Michael was swinging Jacob around like a lasso by one of his ankles. But instead of releasing him so that he flew through the air to land closer to the BOA, Michael slammed the body down on the ground as hard as he could. Even from where she stood, Lotus could hear the rocks crumble beneath Jacob’s clearly wounded body.

  “Well that was fun wasn’t it?” Michael asked squatting down beside Jacob to brush some dirt from his face. “Right, so that makes me the winner. It was nice playing with you, maybe I’ll see you around?”

  Jacob moaned and blinked as he gazed back up at Michael with a dazed expression. He coughed and groaned as if he was about to say something but Michael didn’t stay to find out.

  “I might find your little gang a bit more intimidating if you had some stronger members.” Michael called to Trench as he exchanged nervous glances to Tristan at his side. “Let’s make that a priority for you. I hope you’ll be stronger when we meet again lads.” Mercilessly, the King turned on the spot and vanished.