“Mr. Douglas, I didn’t expect to see you here.” Says a cold woman’s voice.
Vernon turns around, and everything is black. Under his feet, above his head, all around him is nothingness. He could still see his body, but nothing else.
“Who’s there?” Vernon asks.
“I’m surprised you don’t remember my voice. We spoke only a few hours ago at the Paladin Academy.”
“A lot has happened to me since then, and I’m not so good with names anyway. I’m better with faces.”
“Oh, is that so, then let me reduce my hold on you.”
As her words fade away, she comes into view. She was wearing the same outfit as before, and her eyes were just as cold feeling. Everything else was still pitch black, which was an odd sensation, it was like he wasn’t even there. He couldn’t feel anything, and he knew the car was right behind him. Trying to feel for it, he couldn’t make out where it was. There was nothing there.
“I see you are trying to feel this space out, you won’t find anything here. This is my space, and there is nothing but you and me here right now, unless I allow it.”
“What do you want?”
“Information to start with, do you know who I am?”
“No clue to be honest.”
“Then let me inform you. I am Raina Rivas, one of the commanders of the Sidus.”
Vernon stops moving once she said Sidus. They were a small group of personal security guards for the council. At the Academy was the first place he had heard anything about them, and was then told to deny knowing anything about them. The marking of a Sidus agent was the cybernetic implant on the back of the hand, right or left, didn’t matter. He had remembered seeing the implant back in Rajini’s office, and didn’t put the two together.
“You’re a Sidus agent, what do you want with me?”
A smile creeps up around the corners of the near lifeless gaze of Raina, “Your assistance, nothing more.”
“Assistance in what?”
“You are about to go questions Selief Mativ on his connection with the drug lord Hood, are you not?”
“I was, yes.”
“Then all I ask is that you postpone this talk for a few days. We are in the middle of investigation ourselves, as I work for the council member who runs this dome.”
“Can’t sorry, there are other,” Vernon pauses for a second, “Other people who need me to do this as soon as possible.”
“Are you disobeying a direct order from a Sidus agent?”
“I am doing no such thing, in my free time I am going to talk to a friend’s father, that’s all.”
“You are playing a dangerous game Mr. Douglas, you know this don’t you?”
“I have been hearing that a lot the last couple of days. I’m just doing what feels like the right thing, and this feels right.”
“I can detain you for as long as I want, but know this, you are nothing but a dog. Dogs that don’t listen to their owners are of no use to us, and are put down.”
“Is that a threat?”
“It is what you want it to be, I will be stationing two agents with you. If you decide to continue your plan, they will be along side you to monitor the situation. We do not lose our marks, and we are not going to start now.”
Everything vanishes from Vernon’s sight as he is left in the darkness again. This time it’s worse. No sound, no smell, no feeling. He knew where he was, or hoped he was. With nothing better to due, begin trapped in this nothingness, he tries to figure out what it is. A spell should be out, because it would have triggered his duster runes, negating or dampening the spell. It only got worse the long it went on, so it has to be an overlay virus or she had somehow overridden his senses. Either of which would be impossible to do, and if done illegal.
Vernon didn’t know how much time had passed, but he could feel like he was fatigued. Cracks of light begin to appear, letting in the outside into the nothingness. Within a few minutes the nothing fades away, and he is left standing in the same spot he was when it all started. There are two men in black suits, and powder blue ties staring at him. He looks at their hands, and both have a cybernetic implant on them. They stare at him with lifeless green eyes.
“Vernon Douglas?” The one on the right asks.
“That’s me.” Vernon replies. “Who are you two?”
“I am agent J, and he is agent K. We are going to be accompanying you to the sage complex. Please do not interfere with our work.”
“Yea, Raina made that point clear. I won’t get in your way, but there isn’t any evidence that Selief is working with Hood in the first place. So why are you guys following me?”
“You will have to talk to our commander about that, we have our orders, and you have yours.”
Vernon shakes his head and scratches at it, “Yea, whatever.”
Looking at the time, it had been four hours since he stopped and was held captive by Raina. Dray-Gon and the others would have already been in the tunnels by now, and might already be in or at the entrance to the sage school. Any time he did have, just vanished into that void. He starts to make his way to the front entrance. In the distance he can see a man waiting for them. As he gets close, he can make out that it’s Selief Mativ, the man he was there to see.
He waves, calling out, “Hello Vernon, how are you this afternoon, and what brings you here?”
Vernon stops a few feet away, bowing his head slightly, “Hi Master Mativ, I’m doing good today. I just have a couple of questions for you.”
“Do you now, and your Sidus friends, are they here for your questions as well?”
“How did you know who they are?”
“As a master sage I have worked for the Astrum government a long time, and the Sidus are never too far removed. I see you are still yourself, and are not one of them, so what are your questions?”
“Did you know about a tunnel that is underneath your school?”
“Tunnel, no I don’t know about any tunnel.”
“Do you know Hood?”
A flash of red pops into Selief’s eyes, and fades, “No I don’t have anything to do with that man.”
Agent J steps forward, pushing Vernon out of the way. “Hood, you are coming with us, if you resist then we will result to force.”
Vernon says, “Hey, what is this, he said he didn’t have anything to do with him.”
J looks back at Vernon, “You don’t know anything Paladin Douglas, stand down and stay out of the way.”
K steps forward, holding out a pair of runic cuffs. They shine silver in the artificial sunlight, and had deep inscriptions. The runic cuffs that Vernon had seen before are for casters when they get out of control. They cut off the flow of mana in the body once activated, cutting the caster from his fuel.
K says, “If you resist we will use force.”
Vernon walks up to K, but gets grabbed by the collar and lifted into the air by J.
“Do not interfere, you have been warned.” J says, and then throws Vernon backward. Vernon falls to the ground and rolls. He looks up to see that J and K are closing in on Selief.
Selief says, “You don’t know what you are doing, please leave the premises. I am not who you think I am.”
J replies, “I know who you are, even if you don’t. We took samples, and they match with you. There is no running Hood, you have been caught.”
Selief laughs, with a red gleam in his eyes, “You think you could catch me, you low level ant. I have more power in one of my digits than you have at your command. Do not think you can best me with some poorly crafted cuffs.”
K walks forward, with confidence, as if Selief couldn’t see him. Selief doesn’t move, even when he grabs his arms, and begins to put the cuffs on he still doesn’t move. He turns his head and smirks.
“You shouldn’t do that.” Selief says.
K unfazed continues to put on the runic cuffs, clamping down the large bracer like contraption around his forearms. He then activates the cuffs, putting a small amou
nt of mana into them, locking down Selief’s mana in the process. K then reaches behind his back for a large ring, and straps it around Selief’s neck. As it locks into place, he pulls a small cable from the front of it, where it latches, and links it to the cuffs. Selief’s fists are pulled under his chin, and held in place.
Selief smiles, “Do you really think that this will hold me?”
J says, “We don’t have to hold you, you are already captured. Just come with us peacefully and you won’t have to get hurt. He wants you in one piece, if that can be done.”
“Ha, of course he does.” Selief wraps his fingers around the ring on his neck. “But he won’t be having me today.”
A wave of force comes out of Selief, cracking and denting the ground below him. He rips off the ring, and snaps the cuffs in two. With his bare hands he digs his fingers into the metal, and peels off the bracers from each forearm. He takes in a deep breath, and takes his palm to the face of K, crushing it. Bone and metal creek and break as blood and fluid spew out.
J leaps backward and doesn’t look surprised by the attack, laying his index and middle finger of his left hand onto the cybernetic implant on his right. Swiping his fingers toward Selief, a barely audible hum emanates from J. Behind the hum is some language that seems familiar to Vernon, but unable to place it.
Fire, air, and earth swirl around in J’s hands. Sparks ignite all around Selief, but he doesn’t move. The sparks fade, and he is no longer there. Vernon looks to J, and Selief and J are just standing next to each other. He can almost see through them. He realizes they are moving so fast he can only see the after image of where they were.
If Selief is Hood, then Vernon has his work cut out for himself, because he can barely see him moving right now, let alone think about joining in the fight. He doesn’t even know which side is in the right either. So he wouldn’t know who to team up against.
Watching, he tries to keep up with their movements. Fists, legs, and spells get hurled in all directions. They still look to be in the same place, but looking closer, J is loosing ground. The concrete beneath their feet is starting to crack more, showing where they once were, and the path leads away from Seleif.
The hum gets louder as the fight goes on, and each time it does, J backs up another step. J disengages with Seleif.
“How are you so strong, the cuffs should have worked.”
“Your boss should have sent more of you. It shows how little of a threat they think I am. Let me send a message to them, through you. I will not be ignored any longer.”
J’s hands and forearms split apart, revealing all the cybernetics beneath his skin. Lightning arcs between the different pieces as they separate, turning both his arms into cannons.
“I will not be taken down by you, a mere sage.”
“Lucky for you I am not.” Seleif says, disappearing then reappearing in front of J.
Seleif grabs the two open barrel like arms, and crushes them in his hands. A blueish white light surrounds the two of them. Vernon sees two of them for a moment though the light, but one fades away like mist in the wind. His vision blurs back in, and Seleif is standing there, steam rolling off his body. He turns to Vernon, and smiles.
“So, what are you going to do now?” Seleif asks.
“You’re Hood aren’t you?”
“I am, although I am a personality of Seleif. Hood is the name I choose, not his.”
“Then I have to stop you coming after me, and I guess the only way to do that is to bring you in.”
Hood laughs. “Yes it would seem so boy, but do you really think you could have a chance against me, when those Sidus agents couldn’t even lay a finger on me?”
“You don’t know me that well, I protect people, even if it costs me. You have come after my family, and I am going to take you down for that. I don’t care how strong you think you are, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve.”
“Are you talking about that light, the one from earlier?”
Vernon stays silent.
“It won’t stop me from crushing you with my bare hands.”
Seleif appears in front of Vernon, picking him up into the air with both hands. The pressure against his head is intense, blocking any thought that tries to go though his mind. He struggles in Hood’s arms, but can’t break free. Kicking and punching do nothing, and Hood just smiles as colorful dots fill Vernon’s vision. The light within him is the only way he could get out of this situation, but he can’t concentrate long enough to open it.
“Just relax,” Hood says, “It will all be over in a minute. I want to make sure you feel you bones breaking before your skull caves in. Also don’t worry about your family, I will make sure to give them the same treatment as you.”
Vernon could feel his heart beating like a drum in his chest. He wasn’t ready to die yet, and he had to protect Marie. Oh Marie, she would raise him from the dead just to kill him again if he died now, but there wasn’t anything he could do. Hood was just too strong.
An explosion in the back of the school takes Hood’s attention away from Vernon. He sighs, and drops Vernon to the ground.
“No doubt these are comrades of yours. I will go deal with them, and then come back for you. I do like to have my toys beg for mercy, and killing loved ones is the best way for that to happen.”
Vernon tries to speak, but nothing comes out. He lies on the ground, his head pulsing like a fully charged rune. The explosion must have come from Dray-Gon and the others, they must have found something that couldn’t wait.
Taking in a few deep breaths, waiting for the pain to dampen a little, he lays on the ground and closes his eyes.
25
Vernon pushes himself off the ground, forcing the little voice in his head telling him to sleep into a box. At the gates he can see there are people running around all over the place. Most are casting water spells, trying to deal with the fire, but the fire is too strong. The flames from the sides of the building start pouring out into the grounds, the trees, and plants that were all meticulously cared for.
The front of the building still isn’t on fire yet, and the doors are wide open. There is no one coming in or out. Vernon stops one of the sage trainees that are trying to put out the fire to ask if they say where Master Seleif ran off to.
“I saw him run inside, but who are you?” The trainee says.
“Don’t worry about me, keep trying to put out that fire.”
Running into the building, he can see the fire is starting to spread. It is burning incredibly fast. Vernon looks to see if there are any signs of Hood, but there isn’t. The only place he could think to go would be his office, where he took him a couple of days ago. There might be something in there Hood would risk running into a burning building to go get.
Vernon follows the hallway, to the crossway. He takes the right, but the path way is blocked by fiery rubble. Visualizing his wind blade spell in his hands, the spell begins to form, without him putting mana into his runes. Mana is flowing to his hands naturally, and everything feels right.
He shapes the blades, and extends out his hands shouting, “Blades!”
Three green blades rush from his hands, extinguishing the fire, and slicing through the debris. It breaks, and falls leaving an opening large enough to crawl over. The wreckage from the ceiling was still warm as he climbs over, and can see that Seleif’s office door is open.
The building starts to creek around him, and sweat trickles down the backside of his neck from the heat. It was starting to get very warm inside. He didn’t have much time to find Hood, or get out. He runs down the hallway, and gazes into the office. The desk had been pushed aside to the right, and the rug had been flung to the other side. All Vernon could see was a tiled floor, and nothing more, from where the desk and rug were.
The room wasn’t on fire, and didn’t even feel hot compared to the hallway as he enters. Some how the room was being insulated, or shielded from the flames and heat. He walks over the tile floor, and how the ground felt differ
ent. There was hollowness to it, and he looks for anything that might open a doorway.
He looks around the room and surround bookcases, and doesn’t find anything. There are no windows to the room, and the temperature was finally reaching the height it was in the hallway before he entered. The only way out of the room was the way in.
The hallway was now filled with fire on either side, and Vernon couldn’t see a clear path out. Behind him he could hear something click and begin to move. He sees the tile floor lowering itself, and turning into stairs. Looking down the pathway, there is a light coming from deeper within.
The ceiling in front of the door out collapses, and leaves Vernon with only one way out of the room, and hopes it leads out. Going down the steps, he can tell the corridor was made dense, because he can’t hear or feel the fire from above him. At the bottom of the steps, there is a switch, and Vernon presses it. It closes the stairway back up. It was convenient because he didn’t want anyone else coming in that way, and it will hopefully keep the fire out.
The light is further on ahead, which illuminates the pathway for him. Everything else is dark, and makes it hard to make anything out. At the end of the corridor there is a door that is partly open. He looks through the cracks seeing a laboratory of sorts. There are test tubes, and jars lay out on metal tables. In the back of the room there are large metal and glass containers with frost on the glass.
There is another door he can see, and it is open as well. Making his way into the lab he gets a better look at what is laying out. Organs, human body parts, and dead animals with the back of the laboratory filled with different types of X’cel mixtures. Every vial labeled, and dated with what was changed in the mixture. Vernon walks over to one of the large metal containers, and wipes away the frost on the glass. Inside is a woman, with every vein on her body turned bright blue, the mark of a heavy X’cel user.
Cypher Theorem Series Box Set: Books 1-3, The Zero Class, Shadow Moon, Dragon Fire: A Science Fiction Fantasy Page 58
