Noble Revelations

by Adeleke Kayode

  I could only confirm it when I saw a dazed Howard staggering around. I could hear a loud roaring/whistling sound, I could also visibly see the wind start to pick. My breathing felt a little different if Tessa kept this up she would end up creating a vortex which I was almost certain would be a bad thing, a really bad thing.

  Tessa continued to run around then suddenly something flew in my direction BUUUUUSH. And now something had crashed in my direction, I turned to see that Tessa had thrown Juliette through the wall.

  Tessa spat blood on the ground then said. “I have really strong lungs. Bitch.” Her voice was a little hoarse when she spoke.

  She sounded mildly irritated which I couldn’t blame her for feeling that way, it isn’t fun when someone tries to choke the life out of you. I looked at the hole in the wall then at Tessa who appeared to be seriously scuffed up. I didn’t realize she had taken as many hits as she did. It probably had something to do with the countless number of hits she had landed on Juliette, in the middle of my train of thought I noticed that Tessa’s right hand was red. I wanted to say something but I wasn’t sure what. BUUUUUSH my attention turned to the hole that Juliette was thrown through. It looked wider than it had been before that’s when I noticed Juliette was standing in the hole, her face appeared bruised on one side and her lip was bleeding.

  She looked annoyed if anything, which is probably why she shot me a glance which I returned with a glare. After that she launched out of the hole shuffling some of the debris that was nearby. She ran fast, Tessa took in a deep breath then moved into her runners’ stance. That’s when Juliette jumped into the air, Tessa just stared at her which was exactly what I was doing. Juliette clenched her left hand hard and threw it downward as if it was a hammer. It took only a few seconds for Juliette to hit the ground but it seemed like it took longer than that.

  Once her fist actually touched the ground, the ground cracked immediately, and the cracks didn’t stop they spread throughout like a virus and continued spreading, it didn’t even get across the whole room when the ground started to collapse. Tessa looked around then started to move, it was like she was running against a wave, the ground rose up and fell moving unevenly. I pressed off the ground pushing it downward while I moved up. Howard fell along with the others while Tessa continue to run across the shifting ground then she moved along the walls then to the roof which is where I was headed. I don’t know if I had jumped high enough because before I reached the roof I could feel my body moving back down toward the ground.

  It didn’t matter because Tessa rushed toward me in a tackling motion which was sort of unfortunate for me because the force pushed us through the roof toward a nearby building. I couldn’t exactly see where we were headed without turning so instead I just coated my body in hygrometal and covered Tessa just as we crashed through glass. My body surprisingly didn’t roll instead I just scrapped across the ground eventually stopping after a while once we did I let the hygrometal recede. I looked around, it looked like an office building with cubicles and a water cooler nobody was here so I assumed it was an off day. It could have been that or the recent commotion in Re gahn caused them to simply evacuate. I tried to get up but couldn’t because Tessa was on top of me.

  “Hi.”

  “Hi.”

  “You mind...”

  “Nope…” Tessa got up quickly then looked away for a moment.

  Once I stood up I moved toward where she was facing so that she could see me. I saw that there were scratches on her face and a slight bruising on the right which mirrored the bruise on Juliette’s face. I looked back over at the watercooler walking over to it while motioning Tessa to follow. Tessa sort of stared at me while I put my hand were water comes out from the watercooler. I pushed down the little tab and cold water ran against my hand then I removed my hand and moved it toward Tessa’s face. She took a step back looking at me like I was crazy or something.

  “Don’t worry I’m only trying to help.”

  Tessa just stared at me instead of responding so I placed my hand on the right side of her face, she flinched for a moment so I proceeded as gentle as possible. Stopping only to apply more water to my hand, I cleaned her face and found myself staring at her brown eyes. While I ran my hand down her cheek I held it for just a moment which fixed Tessa’s eyes upon mine. My stomach tighten and my heartbeat quicken as I held her cheek. I moved my head in closer toward her closing my eyes. THUD!

  “What was that?” Both of us asked.

  It only took a moment of me looking around to see that I had somehow accidently knocked over the watercooler. Water spilled over the floor, I bent down picking the cooler up, after two attempts I managed to place the watercooler in its rightful position. I tapped the top of the cooler which almost made it slide off again which caused me to sort of move forward to stop it. Tessa stifled back a laugh.

  “We should get going.”

  “Yeah.” Tessa responded.

  Chapter 14

  Within a large flying carrier aircraft a number of trained operatives sat. They were all clad in the same white armor and padding, all wearing white helmets with purple visors that completely obscured their faces and any facial features. Each of them armed to the teeth with semi-automatic rifles with high power scopes. There was one who stood out among the group while the others sat in cramped rows side by side, one who sat alone in the back. Head down wearing a white robe with the hood covering their helmet making it look like a lone phantom sat in the back. The robe itself resemble something a boxer would wear before a match. For this person in particular it was a means to show who was in charge.

  Their objective wasn’t too far off now. In a couple of hours they would reach Re gahn and collect the bounty they were after, of course that wasn’t the primary reason for the teams impending assault. The boss had given them direct orders to deal with the nuisance that was Alexander and his team. All of it was funded by Mr. Bright that was the real point of the mission to exploit an opportunity such as this. With all the mercenaries from the world over descending on Re gahn the squad could easily dispatch Alexander and the rest of them without being given a second glance. A number of the members of the squad couldn’t be bother to ask why it was so important to neutralize Alexander and his team while the lone phantom didn’t even need to ask. They knew what the real reason was, it didn’t truly have to deal with Alexander and his team just their employer really. They were just a means of sending a message one that once the squad was through Mr. Bright would get loud and clear. Because after all Saints Never Fail.

  Chapter 15

  After making our way through the empty office building Tessa and I managed to work our way to the ground floor. Tessa had suggested going through the main entrance to leave but I figured we would be too exposed. So I countered by saying we should go through the back or a side entrance, try to move between an alley way or something like that. It would make it easier to lose anyone following us if we were fast and in Tessa’s case that wouldn’t be a problem at all. So the two of us quietly moved through the bottom floor of the office which oddly looked like the bottom floor of a hotel with its bright colored rugs and lavish paintings.

  “What kind of office is this?” I asked myself.

  “Maybe it belongs to Mr. Bright.” Tessa responded jokingly.

  I chuckled yeah, that would be funny knowing Mr. Bright this place just might belong to him there was no reason for him to tell us about all his assets after all. I guess this was just another thing on the list to ask him about later.

  “Sure is taking us awhile to find this other way out.” Tessa said mockingly.

  “If you want to go out the front door, be my guest. But if you get shot at that’s on you.”

  Tessa didn’t even turn to look at me, yet I could tell she was rolling her eyes at me. The bottom floor of the office was large which made me think some important business was done in this building, important to someone I assume, not to me. Considering there was a hit out on me and people close to m
e. Wall Street was the very least of my concerns. That reminded me the people on high were very much aware of my little crusade against Prometheus. Ok, crusade was stretching it for the most part I had just been reacting to what Prometheus had done around me. I just wanted to find my brother I did that, well more accurately he found me. The next thing on my list was to kill Adam, except he was nowhere to be found these days. He wasn’t the type to lay low so whatever’s got him pulling a disappearing act can only mean something big is going on with Prometheus.

  There was that and the fact that whoever was in charge decided to put a hit on me that was too enticing to overlook. The funny thing is I may have hated Prometheus but I was only planning to go as far as to kill Adam. But it seems that I have a much bigger part to play in this than I thought for one there was only two viable ways to get the bounty removed one was to ask the head of Prometheus to remove it. The second was dropping enough bodies that the other mercenaries would decide there were more particular ways to get to an early grave like chain smoking or alligator wrestling.

  “Looks like there’s a door just ahead.” Tessa announced.

  The door in question was a faded bluish gray, its handle was rusted and a portion of it had been broken off like someone had been in a hurry to get out of here. I could only imagine the reason why which would lead to a whole list of things stemming from my sometimes overly vivid imagination. Tessa opened the door slowly only using her index finger and thumb to turn the handle. By the look on her face, the handle felt even worse to touch than it looked. Once the door was opened Tessa and I entered an alleyway which was covered in random trash which made sense since there were a number of trash bags scattered around. I noticed a fire escape off to the side and another not too far down.

  The smell began taking its toll on me almost instantly. I covered my mouth and nose fighting against the vomiting sensation that was building in my throat and stomach. Unconsciously I took another breath of air through my nose, rotten scents from old food and dead rats. There was also urine and alcohol and then there was something familiar, I couldn’t identify it because of all the other offending odors. Luckily I didn’t have to because Tessa did it for me.

  “….Mathew?”

  Once I turned my attention away from the heaps of trash, I could see someone standing in the distance, it was Mathew.

  “Huh…hey I found you guys.” Mathew said with a voice mixed with surprise and excitement.

  Mathew walked down the stretch of alleyway toward us. While I stare at him with a confused expression on my face I could tell I wasn’t the only one.

  “We saw you leave on the helicopter with Shield and Beth.”

  “Oh about that I jumped…hahaha magnetism is a helluva parachute.”

  I narrowed my eyes at Mathew while he spoke why in the world would he do that? Was there something fun about putting your life in danger?

  “That’s how you’re still in the city, not the why. Plus why are you walking around all nonchalant there’s a bounty out on you too.” Tessa commented.

  Mathew was about to say something when I notice someone enter the alleyway, my eyes focused in on the person instantly.

  “About that…” Mathew began saying.

  “Move.” I yelled cutting Mathew off.

  Mathew turned toward the person entering the alley and his eyes opened wide.

  “Alex wait…”

  I was too focused to hear what Mathew had to say right now, instead of paying attention to him I was paying attention to the fact that Alastor was here. Things just keep getting better and better. Alastor was decked out in full tactical gear, he looked like he was ready to take on an army. He had a rifle that was hanging from a strap on his neck, he didn’t appear to realize that I was rushing at him until it was too late.

  “Alexan….”

  I caught him in the face with a hard strike sending him flying backward, it appeared as if he would go flying into the street but then he stopped suddenly and floated in the air before returning to his feet. It looked like someone had paused him, freezing him for a moment then returned him to his original position. I already knew it was because of his telekinesis, it was just something that I hadn’t seen before so it sort of caught me off guard.

  “Ok, that was uncalled for…what are.”

  Alastor moved to the side just as I lunged at him he struck my back with his elbow nearly hitting my spine, pain shot out in waves which felt like hot electricity. I wasn’t going to be stopped that easily. I had taken Alastor down once and I was going to do it again. I turned on the heel of my right foot giving power to the kick that followed. Alastor raised his arm blocking it with relative easy. I wasn’t done though, I pushed off the ground with my right leg then rolled in the air pulling my left leg away from Alastor’s arm.

  Bringing down my right leg I delivered a powerful axe kick to Alastor’s head while moving toward the ground. His body lurched forward just before he tumbled to the ground. It looked like he was going to face-plant when he moved his arms out suddenly bracing himself for the fall. It look like he had gone into a push up position, not wanting to waste the opportunity. I kicked at his head like it was a kickball. Alastor pushed of the ground and moved backward propelled by his telekinesis.

  Once he was on his feet again he thrusted his right hand forward sending an invisible wave of force at my right shoulder which pushed me back a bit. After that came another one, this time toward my left shoulder then he thrusted both his hands forward toward my chest. Alastor sent out a massive wave of telekinetic force. First the air was knocked out of me while my body was being propelled backward, the alleyway looked like a tunnel as I sped through it. It didn’t stay that way for long because just a few seconds after Alastor had launched me backward I hit a wall. CRUNCH… my body had imprinted itself on the wall the entirety of my back pulsed with pain.

  Yet only one thing was going through my mind and that was paying Alastor back. By pressing my hands against the wall I managed to get myself loose. Once I did I rushed at Alastor yelling at him while I did. Alastor seemed slightly startled which worked to my advantage. I surveyed my surroundings as I approached imaging invisible hands working their way around a couple of the garbage bags. Flinging my hands forward caused four garbage bags to fly toward Alastor, he deflected them just as I knew he would. I immediately follow up by sending a stream of fire once I had thrown the last of the four bags.

  The moment the last bag had been moved away from Alastor’s field of vison was when he noticed the flames quickly approaching him. They were too close for him to do anything fancy so he guarded himself. The flames hit, not Alastor but the telekinetic wall he had raised in front of him. Once the flames died down Alastor returned his arms to their place at his sides only to see Mathew and Tessa at the end of the alleyway. He appeared confused especially when Tessa waved at him. It took him a moment to realize that she wasn’t waving at him, Alastor turned with a wide eyed look on his face. My fist hit his face the moment he had turned around enough that he could see that I was behind him.

  The punch hit hard knocking Alastor into a nearby wall. A smirk was on my face, I felt proud of myself using a combination of powers like that. It was a little surprising for him not to expect me to use Hummingbird’s teleportation that was how I beat him the first time around…

  “Gawww what the…”

  A bag of trash hit me square in the face bursting instantly, the contents spilled while I nearly collapsed from the smell. Alastor moved from the wall and struck the sides of my stomach he was bouncing around almost like Shield use to. His arms were tucked in tight so he could throw quick jabs which at the moment I was barely avoiding. Two jabs came in fast toward my head so I took a step back and use my right hand to smack his jabs away. Alastor took a step forward while I threw a punch at him. He dodged then countered with a wide swing, I grabbed his arm by the elbow stopping his punch then hit him in the face.

  He pulled his arm back harshly then turned thrusting his leg toward
my stomach. I caught his leg then tossed it up unbalancing Alastor, I went for a roundhouse kick to his head but he ducked quickly then he tried a sweep kick but I jumped lightly avoiding it. After that the two of us exchange a fast array of punch combinations barely any hit because we both managed to either block or evade. As the slugfest continued Alastor slowly started to take a few steps back. I didn’t realize it at first but he was putting more effort into his punches because of the distance. I was planning to move forward when he put his arms down to his side, it looked like his was giving up but I was already on the move.

  “SO. As I was trying to say earlier…”

  A quick jab to the nose cut Alastor’s sentence short, it was a pretty easy punch to dodge but Alastor got hit anyway. Instead of countering of anything he just grabbed at the bridge of his nose, which caused me to give him a peculiar look. I was about to take a step forward when Alastor thrusted his free hand at me blasting me backward. I slid across the grimy ground of the alley ready to get back up until I noticed Alastor was pressing me down with a good amount of force.

  “Why do things always have to be difficult with people like you?” Alastor said the words while still holding his nose.”

  “What are you talking about? Why are you here?”

  Dumb question he was probably here for the bounty like everyone else. Alastor was a cut above the rest considering the amount of energy I’ve been expending, Alastor wasn’t’ really someone I wanted to deal with right now.

  “There‘s a bounty on you…”

  “So you’ve come to collect?” Tessa asked.

  Alastor rolled his eyes and removed his hand from his nose than took in a deep breath and exhaled as if to calm himself he glanced at Tessa and Mathew then turned his attention to me.