City of Twilight: Rise of the Hunter (The Vanguard Chronicles Book 1)

by Donald Stephenson III

  ​“What are we going to do, brother?” the woman said to Dante.

  ​“Well Medea, we have to speak with Father and the rest of the council. There are a lot of decisions that have to be made.”

  ​“Why don’t we take her directly to Father?” Medea responded.

  ​“She might have already awakened and doesn’t know it yet. We need to observe her and learn what she’s capable of. Otherwise, Father could be in danger in her presence.” Medea nodded and they took their car, leaving Old District behind. Civic Protection took Alicia, leaving in the direction of East District. Elijah was left on the pavement, dying.

  39

  ​He’d been lying on the pavement for probably ten minutes, slowly losing consciousness when James arrived. James, who had left the video equipment on a rooftop several blocks away when he detected Elijah's pain, looked him over with his mind’s eye. His stomach has already bled out into his body, James thought as he examined him. He’s dying. James put his hand on the man’s forehead. Elijah was sweating, and convulsing in the pain.

  ​“Is it you?” Elijah asked.

  ​“Yes,” James said, “I’m here. It’s James, although you once knew me by a different name.”

  ​“I know,” Elijah said with a cough, “I knew it the first time I saw you. I never said anything, but I should have. You look just like you did when you were a baby. I see your mother in you.” He convulsed through several more waves of pain. He finally was able to speak again. "They shot me, the same ones that killed your mother. They called your sister a hybrid.” He coughed and a bit of blood came out. “Will you save her?”

  ​“Yes, I’ll protect her. I promise you I’ll end all of this.”

  ​“I always knew you’d survive,” Elijah said, “I knew I’d see you again. Alexander Vanguard. Now you’re James Alexander Vanguard. I love you, son. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more...” The man coughed out his last word before he laid still. A slight exhale came out of his lungs, his last breath.

  ​“I love you too, dad.” James said. Elijah’s eyes were still open, and James closed them with palm of his hand. He’s gone, James thought as he sat over the body, his eyes closed in despair. Tears welled up in his eyes, and he felt the panic of the creature surging in his mind. He then picked up the man’s body and carried it to a nearby alley, where he hid it. Suddenly a memory came back to him, the last memory before he woke up as the Hunter.

  ​He sat in the room. He was waiting for the doctor, but it was taking an unusually long time. He then heard some commotion in the hallway. It sounded like people screaming. He ran out of the room into the hallway, looking for people. He felt heat, and could see smoke in the air. There was a fire. Suddenly, it felt like the floor was shaking. The building felt like it was about to collapse. He turned and ran down the hallway.

  ​It ended with a locked door. He went another way. He found someone on the ground, unconscious. It was a doctor. He didn’t recognize the man. James shook him and the doctor woke.

  ​“Alexander, I’m glad you’re here.” James helped the man get to his feet. “I need to help you,” the man said. James seemed confused.

  ​“Who’s Alexander,” James replied, “and it looks like I need to help you.” James coughed as smoke filled the room. They were running down a hallway, but the doctor pulled him down another direction. There was a locked door, and the man unlocked it with a keypad.

  ​“Go in here,” the doctor said. He then pushed James into the room and closed the door behind him. James turned and tried to open the door. It was locked, from the other side.

  ​“Hey,” James said, “what about you?” He banged on the door again. It would not budge. There was an explosion of fire as the door blew toward him, hitting him in the chest. He must have momentarily blacked out, but he awoke with flaming debris all over his chest. It didn’t even hurt; it felt cold with only a slight sting. He felt light-headed.

  He was on his back, and he turned as he heard a strange, unnatural scratching sound. There was some sort of creature, it looked like a giant slug made out of some sort of liquid metal. The metal had plates and scales which pulsated as it looked over him. The creature was obviously alive. It was watching him, although James couldn’t see any eyes. It then suddenly leaped at him, grappling onto his already wounded chest. It sank deep into his torso cutting through it like knives, spreading like a painful infection. He could feel it coursing through his body. It felt cold. The moment the cold reached his head, it was a pain he’d never felt before. His mind felt like it was shattering, all while being invaded by another sentient being. There was darkness as the creature encased his entire body in a cocoon shell made of its own metallic body. Just then there was a rumble, coming from the floor and ceiling. The floor gave way just as the ceiling above him did. He felt the building come down on top of him and he blacked out.

  ​He stared at his father’s body in the alley. The creature was angry. He was too.

  ​“I’ll return to give you a proper burial. I have business I need to take care of first.”

  40

  ​Christina still sat in shock over what she had just heard. She was sitting in the last room, an office. It had a large data screen on the desk. She’d watched the recording over and over, but still couldn’t believe it. Her flashlight was on the floor, broken. She'd dropped it after she had watched the recording the first time.

  ​She continually stared at the screen, and finally pressed play again. A bit of static crossed on the screen, and then black. After a moment a man appeared on the screen. He started speaking to the camera recording the message:

  ​“My name is Dr. Derek Shepherd. About thirty years ago this city lost all of its memories of anything that happened before that. This event has been called the collapse. There was one person who hadn’t lost his memories, an older man who had a very advanced brain tumor. Much of his mind was lost due to brain damage from the cancer, but Carl Smith could still tell us several things that we wouldn’t have known otherwise. Although the tumor had deteriorated much of his mind, he had recalled two children that had been found: twins.

  ​“I don’t know where they came from, but he seemed to believe they weren’t human. He claimed that they were discovered as small fetuses, and in a few short months they’d grown to full adults. They were from another world, and they were hyper-intelligent, creative, and extremely observant. In his words, they were remarkable. One of them was named Callista, and the other Michael. Michael disappeared after the event that caused everyone to lose their memories, but we were able to track Callista down, although it took many years. Unfortunately, Carl Smith died shortly after we were able to get this information from him, but what we do know is extremely valuable, albeit limited.

  ​“Callista had gone into hiding and had married a young man named Elijah Vanguard. She actually found us. From the information she was able to give us, we believe that Michael is alive and the man known to Civic Protection and the High Council as ‘Father.' He would obviously be interested in any children Callista would have had. She and Elijah Vanguard had a son named they named Alexander Vanguard. Michael ordered the child to be killed, but we were able to get to him first due to a source we have in Civic Protection. Someone from the inside who was able to help us. We informed Callista of our actions after the fact.

  ​“We gave him a new name, and another home. We’ve monitored his development, and we’ll continue to do so. Alexander’s mother, Callista, was instrumental in providing the location of this hidden base and helping us hide her son from Civic Protection and her brother.

  ​“All of us in this facility will be moving to the surface soon. We will all attempt to work for Father and the High Council in different ways. It is our goal to protect this child. Callista had unique abilities, and she described some of them as well as some Michael had. She believed with all of her heart and mind that James would be the only one who could stop her brother. It’s my personal belief that this one child will be the o
ne to save our city. Everything we do will be to bring him closer to that goal. To bring you closer to that goal.

  ​“James, this message is intended for you. I know you’ll eventually discover this facility, for the bread crumbs had been laid years before you would even see it by your mother. If this message is how you’re finding out about all of this, then I’m most likely dead. There are others like me, part of the resistance your mother built. It was secret even to your father, Elijah. By the time you see this message, hopefully there are still some of us in the high ranks of Dirge and Civic Protection. Fear not though, for we’re loyal to you. We’re loyal to the Vanguards.”

  ​Christina was still processing this message intended for James. His mother was from another world. He is actually a Vanguard. He was always the one intended to fight Civic Protection and Father, she thought, it was what he was raised to do. It was obvious there were many secrets hidden underneath Dirge. She wondered how many more there were to find.

  41

  ​James ran with fury. The metal pulsed over his body, moving over him constantly. It flared up and down, making him look like a fierce creature. His memories poured into his conscious thought. The facility when he was a child. His foster parents, literal impostors who died in the building collapse. Dr. Shepherd testing him, leaving that message for him. His father living James’ whole life not knowing he was alive. Christina’s face. Seeing her smile. The possibility that all would be lost, including her, if he failed. He was leaping across rooftops, going where his instincts led him. He was following his perceptions, his mind’s eye.

  ​He remembered his sister, that night he’d rescued her. She was frightened at him, and neither one of them had known that they were siblings. His father, always trying to do the right thing, being defeated every step of the way. The image of his mother dead in an alley, his father slumped over her. Another image came to him, one he had seen before. The white haired young man, at a control panel. He had a dangerous, dark smile. His eyes were different. Alien. The pupils were slits. James knew that man. He was Michael.

  ​Dante had killed his father, he’d know. Another person, a woman was with him. She could use the mind’s eye like James could. She had the same alien blood that James did. He’d seen them from so far away, but he could do nothing. He was too late. He wouldn’t be too late again. He knew he had to stop them. He had to stop them now.

  ​Suddenly he stood on top of a building overlooking Main Street in East District. It was morning. Light enough out that people were out in their streets, heading to work for the day. He could see the Civic Protection convoy easily. Dozens of cars, with Alicia right in the middle. They were also surrounded by over twenty armed soldiers on motorcycles. He focused on the car with Alicia. He leapt without thinking, relying on pure instinct.

  ​Suddenly the convoy stopped. Someone had seen him leap off the building at them. It doesn’t matter if they see me now, he thought. Some of the nearest soldiers on cycles were shooting at him already. He pulled metal blades from his arms, throwing them with expert targeting. Each of the soldiers was hit either in the shoulder or hand, to disable but not kill them. More had exited their vehicles and were firing at him. As the bullets pinged off of him, he knew their ammunition was harmless. The small bullets didn’t even slow him down. He was the Hunter, charging at them on the ground level.

  ​He zeroed in on the closest soldiers, jumping in between two of them and grabbing each of them by their arms. He then tossed them behind him like rag dolls. Several other men came at him, and he grabbed one of the cycles and tossed it straight at them. He jumped on top of the nearest patrol car and leapt over the next two, then once more. He was now on top of the car Alicia was in.

  ​There was an officer in the back seat next to her. He was about to shoot her in the head. James, as the Hunter, reached his left hand through the rear windshield and grabbed the man’s hand holding the gun. With a quick twist the man’s arm was broken, and he pulled the man out through the shattered windshield by the broken arm. James tossed him somewhere behind them.

  ​He then grabbed hold of the top of the car. He focused all his strength into his arms and back while deep in his mind’s eye. He felt a surge of strength he’d never had before. The metal of the car cracked and groaned, and in moments he tore off the entire roof of the vehicle. He tossed it behind him as well. The soldiers in the driver’s and passenger’s seats were firing their weapons at him. He grabbed them each by the arms and pulled them out of their seats, tossing each man to one side. He then looked down at Alicia. She had mixed feelings of fear and excitement. He could tell that the excitement was directed towards him this time, not the fear towards the soldiers.

  ​His wings opened from his jacket, and they encircled them both as he cut the tape around her hands and feet and the seat belt with one of his claws. He cradled her in his arms, his wings still encircling them both, protecting her. He then leaped to the nearest building. He held his sister with one arm and clawed into the building brick wall with the other arm and his feet. He leaped higher onto another building across the street. He did it a few more times until he was standing on a roof, looking down at the soldiers and people below. His wings spread for a moment, and then encircled them as he glanced at the surroundings. As many soldiers as he’d taken out, there were that many more out now shooting at him.

  ​Pedestrians were looking up at him in wonder. Many people were on their phones, others pointing up at him. He spread his wings from the top of the building, and leaped off. He glided down the streets while carrying his sister in his arms. All the people below him stopped to watch. Everyone in the city would witness this. Witness him taking a captive from Civic Protection. Some people still feared what Civic Protection would do to this outlaw. Others felt something much stronger as they saw the winged vigilante flying over their streets, protecting the small child in his arms. They saw hope.