- Whose car is this?
- That's my dad's Jaguar.
Mrs. Mason could sniff her husband's enthusiasm and dragged him back to reality:
- Don't even think about it, Ray!
Ray couldn't hide his enthusiasm, but he could hide his thoughts:
- "She eliminates all forms of entertainment. This should be listed as a crime."
Tyler and Garret were concerned about what was going to happen. Garret's tattered camo pants and blue jumper were recently bought, whilst Tyler's running pants were his favourite item of clothing for everyday use.
- I feel like I'm at those weird fashion shows, where models are dressed up like a bunch of garbage dumpsters. - Garret said.
- There's nothing to worry about, Garret, it's just clothes. - Ronnie said.
Tyler and Garret were always a part of a funny or sticky situation. If the circumstances were different, Ronnie would find out how much trouble they have been involved in: fights in school and university, ruining parties, pulling pranks - all to people who have acted unnecessarily arrogantly towards them and who thought it was a great idea to mess with people who knew how to defend themselves not just verbally, but also physically. Garret's father worked as a prosecutor, whilst his mother was a part of a copyright firm. Over the years Mr. and Mrs. Bryson taught their child how to defend himself and his friends whenever there was an apparent need for it. Ronnie himself witnessed what Garret could do for someone else in order to drag them out of the lion's den.
Mr. Mason stepped up to the door and rang the bell. Now he was as nervous as Tyler and Garret. Despite the fact that he knew the whole story, he had no idea how to tell the parents that their child can pop firearms out of his body and kill an entire neighbourhood without breaking a sweat. What he did know for certain was that that night would not end well at all.
The front door opened rapidly. It was Mrs. Bryson. Her anxiety was the reason she was shivering:
- Yes? Garret, is that you? Why... what happened to you?
Ronnie decided to return the favour that Garret did for him and suggested that everyone sits down in the living room and discuss the events like civilised people. Tyler's parents were already in the living room, which should come as no surprise.
- There they are! What... Who are these people?
Mr. Winfield, Tyler's father, hated uninvited guests. In fact he despised people who disturbed his peace of mind. And his mind was not at peace, knowing that his son was somewhere out there and wasn't answering his phone.
- Why are you not answering your phone? - said Mr. Winfield.
- Because it's in pieces. - Tyler showed the remains of his phone to prove it.
- Did you drop it under a steamroller or something? Why didn't you give us a call through Garret's phone? - said Mr. Winfield.
- My phone is in the same condition. - Garret did the same thing Tyler did. The plastic and metal that his phone were made of turned to dust in his hand.
- Yes, yes, it's nice that you're concerned about his safety and as you can clearly see, he's still very much alive and breathing. Allow me to explain why Tango and Cash look like they're wearing Halloween costumes. - Ronnie said.
- I don't even know who you are! - said Mr. Winfield.
- My name is Ronnie Mason and the two adults are my parents.
Mrs. Winfield tried her best to calm her husband down. Eventually he sat down and so did everyone else. The living room was spacious and there were enough chairs for everyone, even if the large sofa was excluded from the picture. Upon first glance it was a tidy place, mostly because of the bright and lively colours and the arrangement of the furniture. The thin layer of dust on the coffee table was the only element that disproved Ronnie's theory that Garret's parents were perfectionists and worshipped order and harmony. The wealth of the Bryson family allowed them to enjoy certain pleasures in life - the ones for which a person can pay without suffering any consequences, of course. Part of the proof was in the wet bar - Georgian cognac, a bottle of Johnnie Walker Gold Label, Mumm champagne, among others. Even though Garret enjoyed the luxurious lifestyle, he preferred to live his life slightly differently. He wanted to be down to earth, to understand other people, hear their stories, make friends and have fun in general. His slightly rebellious nature was what Mr. Bryson liked to call "early signs of gremlins": he believed that their son would at some point accumulate so much negative influence that he would completely disregard his own parents, his mentors, one of, if not the most important people in his life.
Ronnie told the story once again, only this time the brothers joined in the narration process. Mr. Bryson wasn't convinced that his son and his friends somehow received powers from outer space crystals. Add that to the fact that Ronnie's parents confirmed the authenticity of Ronnie's words and his suspicion was mixed with irritation. His irritation increased when Ronnie told everyone about how he got shot in the leg and the wound healed itself. At that point Mr. Bryson intervened:
- Forgive me for being barbaric, but I don't believe any of this nonsense.
He then stormed off to the kitchen and grabbed a knife. He'd had enough of the theatrics, as he described it. Mr. Bryson was repulsed at the fact that his son would not be normal like everyone else, that this young man has ruined his son's and his friend's lives.
- Mathew, are you insane? - Mrs. Bryson tried to stop her husband, because she thought that he was trying to stab him.
- Prove to everyone, including myself, that you can heal your own wounds. Prove that you're immortal. - Mr. Bryson said.
He then handed the knife to Ronnie. It seemed that seeing as he was the unofficial leader of the trio ever since the brothers asked him what he wanted to do with the crystals, it was best for him to do what he had to do. Garret defended Ronnie's actions in front of his own parents and now cutting himself to prove that the three are now Immortals would be a fitting way to return the favour.
Under normal circumstances human beings would not dare to harm themselves - the self-preservation instinct does not allow them to do that. Ronnie was, once again, no exception. He looked at everyone in the room, including his parents, especially his mother, who hated to see her own child in pain. Then he cut his left forearm. Mr. Bryson's smug facial expression indicated confidence. Ronnie dropped the knife, so that he could squeeze his arm to prevent blood loss. Nobody believed that he would do it. Mrs. Mason rushed to help her son:
- Why did you do it, Ronnie? Somebody give him some band aids!
- Stay where you are! - Mathew stopped his wife.
Tyler and Garret gave a sigh of relief. At first Mr. Mason was confused as to why they sighed, but then he saw that the cut had vanished. Mrs. Winfield found the regeneration similar to that of a lizard's tail once it's separated from a lizard's body. Now Ronnie could turn the tables. He wasn't good with speeches in his own mind and did not consider himself special, but he tried his hardest not to sound ridiculous:
- Is this enough proof to you, Mr. Bryson?
Mathew Bryson had seen many things and heard many absurd stories in court over the years, but this was the first time he'd seen immediate proof of a statement.
- Do I have to go further, in case you still don't think I'm telling you the truth? Maybe I should have begun with a firearms demonstration. - Ronnie said. He then popped two shotguns out of his forearms, which was followed by:
- We have guns! See?
Ronnie waved the shotguns in front of Mr. Bryson's face. Everyone in the room was worried and for good reason. When someone loses it like that, you would not be the least bit surprised if he or she is wielding a gun and discharges it at some point. Fortunately for everyone, Ronnie holstered his weapons shortly after demonstrating them to Mr. Bryson in that lewd and arrogant fashion. He continued:
- Now, if you're going to keep on questioning the authenticity of my words, I'll leave faster than you realise how wrong you were.
Mr. Bryson slowly sat down. At that point he realised that he had no argument
s to defend himself with. He was defeated and he could only watch and listen. A few things were crystal clear - the boys were now the human equivalent to a Swiss army knife and they would fight for an unknown faction. Even though the families received a large amount of information, they were still missing a lot of pieces of the puzzle.
Chapter VI
Disease
The three days passed. During that time the boys never left their homes - even something as simple as going to the backyard was a bad idea. They felt like prisoners of war who could not find a path to salvation. Their isolation did not prevent them from keeping in touch. Through their integrated intercoms they talked for hours and to someone who's not aware of the situation they'd look like people who escaped from an asylum.
That Sunday was far from ordinary for Ronnie. As a young adult he did not get enough sleep - usually he'd sleep for no more than 5 hours instead of 7 or 8. This sleep deprivation was one of the reasons he had nightmares every now and again. Though that nightmare was drastically different to the ones he usually had. Yes, it was morbid, but it was also very complex. Normally his nightmares involved someone or something chasing, attacking or tormenting him. In this one he was fighting - something he did not do very often in the real world. He was killing aliens who looked similar to him. Buildings were burning, women were screaming and children were trying to hold on to their parents as they were trying to save themselves and their offspring. It wasn't a battle; it was a war, fairly similar to what Ronnie's father experienced in his youth. Tyler and Garret were by his side, though they looked different. In fact, Ronnie himself looked different. Within the span of one night Ronnie was exposed to so many images that he wanted to wake up. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't, so he decided to stick to the fighting in order to find out what was actually going on and why he was fighting in this strange place and why he was seemingly killing "his own" kind.
- Ankonian, we're running out of time! Our forces are weakening. If we are to prevent our race from spreading its wrongful influence across the Universe, we have to sacrifice the planet. - Tyler said to him. What he said sounded strange to Ronnie, because he called him Ankonian.
- How do we do that?
- We will use the black hole machine to create a hole, which will consume the entire planet and everything on it.
- But that means it will kill us as well!
The battlefield was not the best place to think of a way to circle around a flaw in a plan, so they rushed towards a large building with shimmering lights. Garret was still out there on the battlefield and Tyler called him by his respective predecessor's name:
- Come on, Hexer!
The building was huge not just on the outside, but also on the inside. In that building there was an enormous device. It didn't take long for Ronnie to realise that that device was the black hole machine, because there was nothing else inside that stood out, apart from all of the systems that needed to run it. Garret, or rather Hexer asked Ronnie:
- Did you manage to send The Chosen Rogues to their freedom?
- Um... yes, I did. The little ones were afraid, but I told them some words of encouragement and that one day I'll find them.
This was quite paradoxical, because Ronnie received flashbacks of himself indeed launching some children into outer space. He had memories that were not his. All of the action, the pace at which the events were unfolding and the speed of the dialogue - he could not cope with it too well. It was as if he was being carried by the current of a river. Things just... happened... and he could barely do anything to change it.
Tyler began using the touch-sensitive keyboard of the mainframe. He put in a long list of commands, after which the machine, which looked quite similar to a telescope crossbred with a laser began to swivel slowly.
- Come on, you rusty hulk. - Tyler was impatient. The device was indeed slightly rusty, because it was abandoned 70% into its construction and when construction was finalized much, much later, the engineers overlooked certain parts of the swivelling mechanism, which was the reason why it produced a noise similar to... well... an old piece of technological equipment.
But the trio was not alone. The building was infiltrated.
- We've got company! I'll help you eradicate them, Ankonian.
Even in this life, or rather, dream, Garret was just as obliging as he was in the realm of reality. Unlike at the stadium, though, the boys used mostly plasma firearms and not weapons that fired conventional bullets, which made perfect sense, because their ancestors were aliens and it was fitting for them to be technologically superior to humans.
The trio was outnumbered and all they could do was run. Fortunately Tyler was done with the programming of the machine and none of the infiltrators knew how to override it.
- We're running out of options, Ankonian! Do you have any more bright ideas? - what Tyler said made Ronnie realise that he's not just the leader of this squad, but also the mastermind behind some, if not all of the ideas. The three were running down a long corridor. Ronnie did not know why they were, nor where they would end up. In the end they reached another hall. This one was significantly smaller compared to the hall with the black hole machine. Ronnie had a déjà vu. It was the container that landed at the stadium. The three gems that they found were on a table to the right of the container and they were lustreless. He finally realised how they got their powers, once Garret said:
- All we have left is the final option - putting ourselves into the crystals and throw them into space. Ankonian, are you sure this is what you want to do?
- We failed... and this is why we should give someone else a chance. As long as we do not impose our own philosophy onto our successors. - said Ronnie.
So the three stood in a circle and began chanting something that sounded like gibberish to Ronnie. Yet somehow he chanted, in a language he never knew even existed. Everything was happening almost against his own will. He had some control over the events, but he could not break the chain of events. There was going to be an end that he could not change and he felt uncomfortable because of it.
They felt pain. It was a similar kind of pain Ronnie felt at the stadium during the transformation. But this time he felt like he was being dismantled, torn apart, like he was evaporating into thin air. And he really was.
***
Ronnie woke up. He was dreaming. But that was not as important as the fact that he was in pain. His stomach, his chest, the splitting headache, pains in his muscles; he could do nothing about them. He did his best to stand on his feet, but he fell out of his bed on the floor. The images were still in his head. He had no idea what to do. His mind was spinning. His parents were not around - they were working. It was Monday, after all.
Confusion was the predominant emotion that Ronnie felt. He did not have a clear idea of what to do. He couldn't call an ambulance - that meant explaining his distorted face and telling the whole story all over again; in other words the hospital was not an option. He couldn't call his parents - that would be ludicrous too. Despite the fact that they knew the story had to be kept a secret for as long as possible, his mother would have probably insisted that Ronnie goes to the nearest hospital. His last option was Garret, Tyler and New Hope. Ronnie stepped outside, onto the front porch and used his intercom to contact the engineers; usually he did not cope well under pressure, but he always tried to find as many options as possible. This was the only option he had and he had to use it. After he told the male engineer to send a drop ship to the stadium, where they left them 3 days ago, Ronnie got in touch with the brothers:
- I... need some... help. You guys need to get here quick.
- Ronnie? What's going on?
The brothers were at Garret's house having breakfast and were about to contact Ronnie. Tyler responded to the call, though Garret could hear both sides of the conversation - unsurprising, given the fact he used the same system and it automatically connected to the conversation. Once he heard how much pain Ronnie was going through, he jumped from his
chair. He knew they had to act fast.
- Move it, slowpoke! He's in trouble! - he said to Tyler and they stormed outside. Their parents were at their respective workplaces as well, so all they did was lock the house. Meanwhile Ronnie was in front of the house. The pain he was suffering from was similar to that when he had appendicitis - acute, sharp, gut-wrenching. Also he had muscle spasms and the fact that the images kept flashing before his eyes did not help the situation.
Literally several minutes later the boys reached the house and saw Ronnie rolling in pain and trying to stand up. Once he did stand up, he crumbled again, like a house that's being demolished. Tyler and Garret saw his fall from the far end of the street. They ran as fast as they could.
- Ronnie, what happened? - Garret asked.
- I have... no idea. I... woke up like this.
- Come on. You have to stand up and walk. How far away is the stadium?
- Just under a mile away. - Tyler responded, after his operating system calculated the distance.
- Alright, Ronnie, listen to me. You have to walk. We'll keep you on your feet, but you must keep walking. Do you understand me?
Ronnie did understand him, but sometimes he was growling something that the brothers did not quite understand. Tyler thought that their new friend was loosing his mind:
- He's got a screw loose, I'm telling you!
- You're not the one to determine what's wrong with him! New Hope will be the judge of that! Now keep him on his feet! - said Garret.
- You're supposed to be... ngh... fighting for our future!
The brothers were confused, because of what Ronnie just growled. It was slightly out of context. He went on describing burning buildings, dying children, gunfire and that added more to the confusion. An even bigger issue was that officer Bronco witnessed the calamity and Garret realised that their secret would not remain a secret very long. However now was not the time to think of that.
The Immortal Trinity: Inheritance Page 6
