Walls

“MOVE!”, Argi screamed at the guy as he held the creature tightly with his borrowed power. He could feel the invisible strands of power begin to tear and it would only be moments before the monster broke itself free. But a few moments was enough for the guy to pull away from the bone spike and quickly slip away from the immobilised deformed beast.

Argi’s concentration wavered and the creature broke free, immediately launching itself wildly towards the guy. Argi watched as it came near the guy, but the guy managed to evade and land a few strikes as it passed him. It crashed into a nearby wall, which did little but shook the crumbling dust of the stones off the building. It took off again for the guy, but its sense of direction was slightly off as it veered off the guy’s side rather than head towards his entire body.

The guy easily dodged and attacked the monster again with his fists, striking into its fleshy lumps that did little to harm it. He moved to create some distance between himself and the monster, coming near to where Argi stood. Both of them observed the monster as it collided into the wall again. A smile stretched across the guy’s face and he turned eagerly to Argi.

“It’s still blind”, the guy muttered, which was barely audible to Argi.

But as soon as the words were uttered, the beast snapped back up and charged for them. They both threw themselves away from the war path of the monster and hurried to create a safe distance away from it. Another crash unsettled the dust of the wall and the creature was disorientated. It stumbled slightly, but it remained determined to find its preys.

“How do we stop it?!”, Argi yelled as he got up. But he was forced to move as the monster came for him, drawn by the loudness of his question. As he stepped away from its path, he was expecting for it to blindly pass him as it had done before, but it relied on its other functional senses and collided into him. The heavy impact of monster sent Argi to the ground, shocking him so much that he couldn’t use his power or escape. The beast landed on top of him and proceeded to claw at him with its unbroken arm, ripping his sleeves to shreds and leaving savage cuts on his exposed arms. It let out a howling scream and seemed to widen its mouth to prepare the dive towards Argi’s head.

Before Argi could let out a terrified scream of his own, the beast was hauled back from him and tossed to the side by the guy. The guy hastily helped Argi to his feet, but the beast was heading for both of them again. Argi quickly raised his hand, but rather than freeze the creature in its tracks again, he shifted its movements and caused it to charge away from them without it giving off any indication that it had changed its course.

“What now?”, Argi asked desperately as he and the guy distanced themselves away from the creature and they saw that it had hit the wall again. In its daze, they would only have a few moments to try and plan something before it would rush towards them. A silence hung between them as the guy watched the creature staggering from its collision with the wall. Argi acutely became aware that it had started to grow cooler around him, but it apparently did not affect the guy.

“Make it run into the wall again”, the guy finally said as he dashed away and left Argi alone to be the bait. The monster started another charge towards Argi, who used his power to alter its course away from him and avoiding a repeat of his earlier mistake. It ran into the wall again, but before it could fall from the impact of the crash, the guy rushed to place himself behind the creature. He grabbed the back of its oddly shaped head and smashed it into the bricks, causing a muffled cracking sound.

The guy did not stop at that, as he quickly lifted the head back up and relentlessly bashed it against the wall again and again. The monster frantically tried to claw at the guy with its arm but it screeched in pain and its oddly shaped head was becoming more and more deformed with each hit. The guy swept his feet to bring the beast to its knees, lifted one of his feet and stomped at an angle on a point of its back. The attacks had only taken seconds, but a muffled pop later and the beast ceased moving and stopped its wailing.

-

The two men sat side by side each other against the wall opposite where the creature laid dead. They were both drawing deep breaths of air as physical and mental exhaustion from their flight and fight caught up with them. No-one spoke for what seemed like eternity, as both of them were still processing the terror of their ordeal. But they savoured the blissful moment of triumph and victory as they listened to the distant sounds of the afternoon traffic.

Argi was the first to snap back to reality and he began to rise from where he sat. Something tugged on his trousers, which Argi found to be the guy pulling weakly to get his attention.

“Leaving so soon?”, the guy murmured, his words heavily accented that Argi had only just noticed.

“I need to go”, Argi simply said and shook his leg to release the guy’s grip from his trousers.

“Before those suits find you?”, the guy said with a little more force behind the words, but it was enough to halt Argi in his place.

Argi looked down at the guy and studied his profile. He noted the guy was of South Asian descent from his appearance and accent, the dark clothing he wore, and the scar down his cheek. He also considered the guy’s actions since their first meeting, how they had fought together against the monster, and the hints pointing to the possibility of a power from the guy. Although he couldn’t figure out the guy’s intentions, Argi let out a sigh and finally said, “…yeah”.

“I have a place. You can stay with me”, the guy perked up with his offer, as if the fatigue from their recent battle was no longer an issue.

“I don’t know you. You don’t know me. Why should we trust each other?”

“Because we just took out that…thing”, the guy said as he nodded his head in the direction of the dead mass of flesh and bone. An awkward silence hung between them for a moment, but the guy broke it simply by saying: “My name is Rudraya”.

Argi watched Rudraya closely, like a predator surveying its prey. He contemplated the offer and the gesture behind it, but in the end, his mistrust overcame and reined his decision. Without a word, he walked away and left Rudraya there in the alleyway, walling him off from further questioning. He walked away thinking that that would be the last he would see of him, but he couldn’t quite shake off the urge that he would encounter the man again. And along with that, the mystery of the monster would not be far behind.

Face your fear

Suddenly the bouncer Rudraya had followed jerked up into the air in front of tall guy. He was looking right at him, the dry blood still caked over is nose and mouth. He had a mix of mistrust and anger as he fixed Rudraya in his sights, this was definitely not going like he had planned in his head, but then....he didn’t really plan anything after he had started running, so maybe things were going to plan. Suddenly Rudraya’s dazed head was moving on its own as tall guy flexed his outstretched hand, the feeling was sickening, a total loss of control, he felt a spike of fear as he realised tall guy had him like a wolfs jaws clamped over a calf’s neck.

“What do you want?”,  said tall guy, his voice was as imperious as Larsa’s at that moment. All this combined made Rudrayas blood boil, he hated being weak and defenceless against people who thought they could take and control everything. Little did tall guy know, but he had recovered from his stupor and was feigning so as not to scare tall guy off. He could draw in energy and break the hold on himself like a twig and snap tall guy in half in the blink of an eye but he didn’t want to show his powers just yet so he kept calm, on the surface.  

“Wondered…how you…could do…the Harmonic…fist thing…”,  he said carefully slurring and choking out the sentence. “How did you find me?”  What should he say? But tall guy didn’t know he had any powers, he might just think he was slightly deranged follower, so he casually pointed up, “Roof.” Tall guy looked up sceptically at the building with the large gash Rudraya had made in the wall, good he probably didn’t believe him anyway.

With a sense of finality fixed Rudraya with a piercing stare, “Don’t come after me again”, as he raised Rudraya off his feet. He felt the sickening control all over his body like tiny worms working their way through his muscles. Rudraya started to draw in power to break the hold as the conversation was coming to its logical end. He felt the familiar thrum of power as he body started shifting towards the wall then a piercing scream rent the air. It assaulted his ears and he immediately felt the fear rise up his into his chest.

The scream died down and a sniffing sound grew louder and louder. Unbeknownst to Argi the air around them was getting colder and colder as Rudraya was sucking it in. Their new assailant has chosen the terrain well, they were like rats in a trap. The others were similarly rooted to the spot as  a bloody hand tightly gripped the corner of a building with such force that the bricks cracked and shattered. Rudraya felt his energy rise up his spine and over his back as he readied himself about to drop into the meditative state. With one last effort, the hand hauled its owner around the corner and revealed itself to the three.

Rudraya's calm was broken as he took in the sight in front of him, his eyes grasping for meaning as the abomination of a being stood in front of them. It took a lot to disturb him but this ....this thing had managed to. One arm was a thick muscular mass hanging like a a club in front of it, the other was a ‘normal size’, two gnarled hairy legs and a long thin appendage sticking out the back like a tail. Then there was the ...maw. There was a bloody hole in the middle of the thing, where the chest should have been, it was constantly taking sharp inhalations, almost tasting the air. Finally the misshapen head with a single bloodshot eyes flitting between the three as it swayed in a seemingly drunken stupor. It fixed its gaze on tall guy an swayed back. Rudraya had a childish thought that it would just turn around and go away but he was mistaken. It gathered its power and rushed at them with terrifying speed.

Rudraya let out a terrified scream as tall guy hold abruptly stopped, he then turned and ran with the others. If he could avoid a fight he would, he knew nothing of the creatures strength or weaknesses, discretion is the better part of valour. His master would have probably said something meaningful.... but he was he was shit scared. Rudraya hated fear, it may make men do great things but if you kept running it would only follow you, in this case literally. Rudraya saw the suit stumble as the heavy arm of the creature caught  him and dragged him backwards. He let out a scream that only a man facing his death would utter, which was shortly cut off by a bubbling wail as the creature no doubt ripped him apart. He felt a spatter of blood on his hand still warm and he ran faster. The creature let out another wail as it followed them.

As much as he didn’t want to, Rudraya figured that tall guy knew the alleys better than he did, so he followed slightly behind him. The bricks rush past them as their feet stirred the long dead dust in the alleys. Rudraya’s heart was pounding with fear as he ran. Tall guy was a good runner and he was vaulting over rubbish bins and turning corners swiftly, all their previous anomisity was lost as they were joined in one common goal, to survive. Rudraya focused his mind, how could this thing take his life now, he wouldn’t let it, it had no right and if it wanted it, it could try and take it but he would not lay down and die. He would make this monster pay a terrible price it touched him.

They turned right and tall guy looked surprised as there was a metal fence blocking their path. Neither slowed, tall guy found a box and grabbed the fence and vaulted it. At the same time ‘the thing’ let out another piercing scream as it charged round the corner using its massive arm as a counterbalance to turn extremely quickly, and it was definitely gaining on them. Without a second through Rudraya sent speed to his limbs and ran at the wall at an angle. He pressed the side of his foot into the wall and powered up the side as the world tipped sideways. He felt as light as a feather and as heavy as the earth at the same time, for a moment everything was forgotten as he defied gravity and ran clean over the fence and down the other side of the wall, tall guy was too busy running and with a final thought he gouged out a piece of the brick work and held it in his hand. Anything was a weapon it was just an extension of him.

Tall guy turned left and Rudraya followed using the wall to kick off after him. The thing had vaulted over the fence in one clean jump and was only 30 meters away, and in front of them was a brick wall. Tall guy was genuinely panicked, maybe he didn’t know the streets so well after all. The thing stood in the entrance of the passage savouring the kill, or so it thought so, tall guy turned to face the creature with a look of desperate horror he caught Rudraya's eye.....then everything happened in an instant.

The things swayed back drunkenly and charged at tall guy, its single eyes clouded with blood lust and its maw slavering and spewing blood and meat. It was a creature of the basest of natures, made to hunt and to kill, it may have looked like it was put together by a deranged Frankenstein with its seemingly mismatched parts but they all functioned with one deadly intent. Rudraya had pulled in as much energy as he could and bounded with super human speed towards the wall, many people forget that force equals mass times acceleration so greater speed means greater force, and this is what he counted on. He planted his foot onto the wall at the end of the alley and jumped and spun into the air. Tall guy threw out his hand and stood his ground, a brave man is one who can look at death and not flinch and he was not lacking,  the thing stumbled after it took two steps...but it was still struggling to break free of tall guys grasp, straining at the invisible bonds it let out another piercing wail as tall guy went down on one knee, his face covered in sweat. Like a bubble suddenly popping the hold in the thing was lost, it was only 10 feet away from tall guy as Rudraya jumped into the side of the walls defying gravity, there was no rage in his face, only a deathly calm, his eyes looking at everything and nothing as he threw the rock he had been carrying straight at the things disfigured head. It struck it in its putrid eyeball like a arrow from a bow as it reeled back in pain, if a thing like that even felt pain. Rudraya closely followed as he powered off the wall at the side of the alley, all but flying as chopped into the things heavy forearm as he ducked its wild swing. Blind as it was now it was still immensely strong. He sent the energy to his to his muscles as he ducked under and behind the elbow of the things arm and before it could complete a back swing placed one palm on the back of its elbow and the other on the inside of the forearm and ripped the joint apart. Even though it was the size of a small tree the joint was destroyed, the bones pierced through the skin and blood gushed out of the wound. Rudraya prepared to jump onto its back as he kicked out one leg, then a hidden appendage came streaking towards his unprotected back, a slick bone spike of a tooth at least a foot long. Tall guy saw it coming and flung up his hand as it sliced through Rudraya's jacket jacket and into his back, he held it fast stopping it from reaching deeper into Rudraya’s body.

Let the hunt begin

A wave of mental energy crashed into Argi’s psyche as dreamlike memories surged through his mind; memories that were not his. As the memories filled the gaps, his mind began to recall them and Argi experienced them as if they were his own. He remembered the first discovery of the power, which would later be called the “Harmonic Fists of the Empty Winds”, to defend against a gang member. He remembered playing around with this power, moving arms and legs, manipulating individual fingers, and even lifting people up into the air. He remembered using it in numerous bouts against martial artists and championed fighters to make a name for him and his martial arts business.

However, he also remembered using his power to break and twist their limbs. He also remembered tormenting gang members that continued to pursue him until they stopped after many of them ended up dead or disfigured. He also remembered purposely changing the slightest movement of people that had annoyed him, which resulted in them causing major accidents to themselves. He also remembered forcing others to harm themselves, and finally, he also remembered using his power to overpowering many young women to his advantages…

Argi remembered all of that in the blink of an eye. And the power to control other people’s movements was his to use as his own.

He snapped back to reality as the crowd was disturbed by the fake bouncers approaching him and Larsa. His immediate sight counted seven, but it was likely that more were stationed around the building. The nearest one, a bulky muscled man wearing dark clothing and shades, was almost upon him. A recent memory flashed to his mind of the volunteer frozen mid-run and Argi instinctively lifted his hand, calling upon the power he just replicated, to freeze the bulky bouncer in place. The bouncer tried to move himself, but his face displayed the physical strain in trying to regain control of his limbs again.

Three more bouncers were approaching Argi from the side, but with a flick of his outstretched hand in their direction, the lone bouncer he held with Larsa’s power was sent flying into the three, knocking them all to the ground. The last three were reaching Argi from his other side, but rather than their comrades’ failure of trying to physically apprehend him, these three had decided to use something with a little more shock value.

Each one of the three brought out a taser gun.

Still held in the grasp of his replicated power, Argi brought the first bulky bouncer just in time to intercept the electric hooks of the taser guns. The bulky bouncer convulsed uncontrollably as three times the voltage of a taser gun surged through him. Argi released the bulky bouncer, who collapsed in a smoky meaty heap to the floor by his feet, as the previous three bouncers had recovered themselves and they finally reached him. One of them grabbed Argi by the wrist, but his instincts drove him to use his forgotten skills from his training as a Secret Operations agent rather than Larsa’s power. A low kick was delivered to the bouncer’s knee, which caused a horrible crunching sound and the leg bent awkwardly in the other direction. The bouncer let out a deafening scream as he went down onto the floor like his other comrade, and Argi placed himself in the middle of the two fallen as the other two bouncers circled him. A quick glance revealed to him that the other three bouncers were held frozen by the power of Larsa Weber. It seemed the “Grandmaster” was handling himself well on his own, despite the earlier plead of help to Argi.

Argi caught sight of movement in his peripheral vision and turned to block whatever was aimed at him, but he misjudged the attack as a low punch luckily found a section in the side below his ribcage. He staggered but stood his ground as he swept the blow downwards and moved in close to offer an attack of his own. His elbow lashed out to meet the sternum of the bouncer, but since they had come from similar training backgrounds, the bouncer intercepted this and countered with a shoulder barge. Argi stumbled back and found the other bouncer advancing upon him with a baton. He moved with the force he was stumbling in and regained his position to grab and throw the other bouncer into his comrade. He managed to successfully execute this, but not before the baton had managed to hit him on the nose. Pain flared from there as blood started to gush down his mouth and chin.

A scream directed Argi’s attention to Larsa, who had lasted long enough against the other three bouncers, but the “Grandmaster” had inevitably been overwhelmed by numbers, strategy, and more taser guns. A moment’s hesitation froze Argi as he internally struggled with his next plan of action. His original mission had gone awry as soon as he had been discovered and he lost his replicated illusionary power. To follow the Secret Operations agents undetected after they captured Larsa would be impossible, so Argi was left with one other option that his instincts ordered of him.

He ran.

Argi dashed through the panicked crowd and went to the nearest exit. There were two other Secret Operations “bouncers” waiting for him beyond the exit, but he simply sent them crashing into the walls of the corridor with Larsa’s power. A fire escape granted him access to an alleyway of the outside world and he sprinted deeper into the maze connecting the surrounding nearby buildings. Sounds of other footsteps behind him reached his ears and he realised that he was being pursued. Blood continued to drip off Argi’s face and onto his shirt as he darted through the alleyways, turning into other connecting passages without much direction or thought to where he was going in hopes of losing his pursuers.

However, they relentlessly followed his trail, and Argi was beginning to grow tired from his continuous sprint. A quick glance behind him revealed the two bouncers that had waited for him by the exit. As he passed a large metal dumpster, Argi spun and swept his arm to catch at least one of the bouncers with Larsa’s power. He sent one of them crashing violently into the big bin, which left a large dent and the bouncer was rendered unconscious. The other bouncer had managed to evade the flight of his comrade and he managed to gain additonal speed upon his target, as Argi had slowed to execute his attack.

As he turned another corner, Argi stopped in the middle of the alleyway and spun to await his last pursuer. When the bouncer turned into the alleyway, Argi sent Larsa’s power to lift the bouncer into the air. He was about to send this one straight into the brick wall, when a groan came from behind him. Argi spun around in panic, taking the suspended bouncer with him to be used as a shield for whatever had sparked his attention.

On the floor was a man sat up against the brick wall, with several broken bricks around him. He wore dark clothing, which was different to the ones worn by the fake bouncers, and he was of a smaller physical build than them. He seemed dazed, but his dark eyes were on Argi, and he appeared to be mumbling something that Argi could only barely make out.

“Found him”

Although he didn’t look like a Secret Operations agent, Argi wasn’t going to immediately let his guard down for this stranger, who appeared to have an unusual interest in him. Still using the frozen limbed bouncer as a shield, Argi lifted his other hand to raise the fallen man up to face him.

“What do you want?”, he said coldly, staring into the man’s deep eyes.

“Wondered…how you…could do…the Harmonic…fist thing…”, the man managed to get out as the sentence seemed to be taxing without several breaths of air in between a few words.

Oh great, a fan…, Argi thought annoyingly. But he had been chased through the alleyways, taking random directions and with no apparent destination in mind. “How did you find me?”

The man’s eyes briefly glanced upwards as he answered Argi’s question with a single word. “Roof”

Argi glanced upwards and disbelief crept into his mind. The building was at least 15 feet high and he noticed the cracks and holes in the wall upon closer inspection; the stone debris had fallen directly by where the man had been sitting when Argi found him. He wasn’t sure what to make of this man or his motives, but he had to quickly deal him, along with the bouncer. If this man had managed to find him, then it was possible the other Secret Operations agents may be currently on their way to him.

“Don’t come after me again”, Argi addressed them in that cold-hearted manner again. He lifted both of them in the air and prepared to throw them into the brick wall, until a nearby scream sliced through the tranquillity of the alleyways. It was a sound that chilled everyone’s blood and raised the hairs on the back of their necks. Whoever it was, they sounded distressed and desperate for whatever was happening to them to end. 

The scream lasted for a moment, before it died down. As it did, a sniffing sound could be heard and it grew steadily louder as someone approached them. A bloody hand tightly gripped the corner of a building with such force that the fingers crumbled stone as if it were soft snow. With one last effort, the hand hauled its owner around the corner and revealed itself to the three lingering in the alleyway.

A thing stood and stared at them, just as Argi, the bouncer, and the man stared in wonder back at it. Whatever it was, it was a mess; with one arm bigger than the other and bent in the wrong way, two thick and hairy legs along with a long, thinner leg behind it, an opening and closing bloodied hole in the middle of where its chest should be, and a single, bloodshot eye focused upon them, tilting its oddly shaped head to one side. The stare off felt like an eternity as the three wasn’t sure what to do while the thing kept sniffing the air around with its ‘mouth’ as blood dripped from the opening of it. The eternal observation of each party was interrupted when the bouncer started coughing, which drew that single bloodshot eye to stare intensely at him. The thing staggered backwards as if it was about to lose its balance, but it suddenly rushed with incredible speed towards them, like a predator moving in for the kill.

All three men let out panicked cries and the two men were released from Argi’s power as they all scrambled backwards away from the thing. The bouncer was unfortunately the closest to the thing, which had caught up with him and begun to savagely tear him apart. A similar scream of terror and hopelessness came from the helpless bouncer, as the thing quickly started to devour what it had torn from him. Argi and the other man hurried to escape while they could, but an unearthly screech came from behind them and they turned to find the thing chasing after them. Its single bloodshot eye was fixed upon them, with a red hot fury intent upon bring the same havoc to them as it had done with the now dead bouncer.

Chase

Rudrya started walking towards the tall guy and Larsa. They seemed locked together for a moment, he turned his head to the oncoming bouncers....except there was something not quite right, they were too.... aggressive to be bouncers, they looked too practiced. So he stayed in the background. If he intervened and they were from the government he would probably find himself on a boat or in jail....or both.

The 7 suits were nearly upon the tall man, he seemed to hesitate for a moment like he was processing his thoughts, then, he brought up his hand. One of the suits suddenly froze as if being manipulated by strings, he seemed to struggle against an invisible force, his face in a terrified rictus. Tall guy then threw him into 3 of his other comrades with a wave of his hand. The other 3 had drawn what looked like small remote controls. Tall guys head snapped round and he used one of the suits to block the path of the stun gun hooks, they the other three were upon him.

In the mean while the panic had set in and people were running away from, or trying to film the commotion. It had all happened to quick for anyone to have filmed the empty force but plenty had seen. The raised voices echoed round the sports hall, as the suits ran they had shoved several people to the ground including Larsas students, so much for Harmonic fist. It was easy for Rudraya to stick close, his heart was starting to race as his adrenalin grew. Either it would be a chase or tall guy would be captured, he hoped for the former.

The suit that got there first met with a kick to the knee as he stumbled over his comrade, he never saw it coming. His leg bent the wrong way at the knee as his own weight caused him to fold, there was a sickening crack and a slight pop as the tendons and ligaments tore and twisted. Tall guy positioned himself between the broken suit as the other two went round to flank him. He spun and threw out a hand to block the incoming fist that he couldn’t see but it was aimed low and caught him in the side as he stumbled from the glancing blow. He never cried out once and his focus was impressive, his movements were well chosen and he was constantly moving, using his height advantage to smash downward .He moved in close to elbow the suit but they both knew clearly what they were doing and shoulder barged him into the other. The other suit had come up behind and had brought out a baton and brought it back to smash down on tall guys skull. At the same time tall guy had planted his weight and had grabbed the back of the suits coat as he pivoted with the weight, he got a glancing blow to the nose with the baton. Tall guy then turned and ran for the exit, blood streaming from his face.

This was his chance. Even though it would look more than a little weird for him to persue tall guy he wasn’t going to give up this chance. He thought about leaving by a different exit, but chances were he wouldn’t be recognised in all the panic. The regular security were running into the hall now, asking people to leave by all available exits and attending to the suit with the broken knee. The other suits had got up and were already chasing tall guy. “At least I’m leaving by the nearest available exit” thought as he ran.

As he burst through the door and into the close pack buildings near to the sports hall he realised that if he had to confront the suits he would probably be come under the government radar so they couldn’t see his face. He also realised he wasn’t that much of a runner and he had to find tall guy fast, why did it have to be running! They turned left down yet another alley way, the problem was that he could easily loose tall guy in this terrain. To the north it became more spread out and suburban, and to the east it was an industrial estate and to the west it became more built up, that was where he would go, that what his gut told him. Damn it he was going to lose him if he followed the suits, he had to get a better view.

One of the suits had figured out they were being followed, he started to turn, “fuck!” thought Rudraya. The alley was poorly lit and he was not all that keen on knocking the guy out, so he drew in as much energy as he could and jumped. The world seemed to slow as he powered off the concrete floor, he jumped at an angle and hit the other wall about 15ft up, luckily the suit had just looked over his shoulder and was still hot on the chase. The ricocheted off the walls going up and up the wind whistled in his ears as the figures of the men became smaller. He let out a roar as he jumped up onto the roof of a building and came down lightly. He started to run east over the roof continuously keeping track of the tiny black figures, he desperately searched for tall guy. By now the end of the roof was coming and the next building was about 20 ft away, he had never tried a jump this big but there was no room for though. With his heart in his mouth he leapt, but he knew he had misjudged the next building, he was heading for the wall fast. He sent all his energy into his legs hoping his knees wouldn’t explode through his knee caps. The bricks crumbled and broke apart as his foot cleaved the wall as he pushed away. A huge shockwave ripped through him as he hit the opposite wall and landed in a heap at its base. He just sat in a dazed lump at the base of the wall as he saw a suit rush around the corner and get lifted into the air and suspended, as though by invisible strings, “found him,” he mumbled.                     

Not Alone

Rudraya had been to a few martial arts gyms since arriving in Novum Aurora. He had mistakenly thought that they would have the same passion for learning and sharing that his teacher had instilled in him. The number of times he had sat him down and explained that martial arts is about conquering yourself, “if you do not know yourself how can you ever know anyone else?” Martial arts was a way of life not just a set of physical movements, it was making you take the difficult path, recognising when you were wrong, and having the self confidence to work out when others are wrong. One of the hardest things in life he said was “to not live in illusion, the illusion that you are right AND the illusion that you are wrong, allow your ego to be destroyed over time, no one learns from being right all the time. Also trust in your knowledge and instinct.” 

The first class he had gone to for realistic self defence had been full of muscle bound idiots. The master had demonstrated some knife defence and had told the class to grab the hand of the attacker. Rudraya started to get up and leave but the master had called him back asking why he was leaving, to which he replied “I don’t feel this defence would work,” the master had then asked him to demonstrate with him and Rudraya declined not wanting to potentially embarrass him in front of his class, but the master insisted. Rudraya, who was starting to loose his temper did as he asked and had shown him the error of his way “you see if you ever try to grab the had of a man who is intent on cutting you and killing you, you won’t last 2 seconds.” Other classes he went to had stressed the emphasis of staying soft relaxed to defeat an attacker which was utter bullshit in his opinion. But sometimes you needed a bit of comedy so with this in mind he had decided to attend the “Harmonic Fists of the Empty Winds” event. He needed some amusement and possibly if it was true he might be able to learn something besides if anyone gave such a name to their martial art then they had some serious identity issues.

It was a cloudy day, a little still perhaps, as Rudraya walked to the exposition, there was a sort of tension in the air he couldn’t describe...or maybe it was just a bank of high pressure, maybe it was going to rain. He was dressed in mostly black with brown boots and a brown ¾ length coat. When he arrived there were bouncers at all the exits patrolling the venue, people milling about to get in. The building was a large sports hall with corrugated iron covering the walls. It smelled of that musty odour that these kind of places get, today it was mixed in with a healthy bit of fawning and people worship as the “Master” Larsa Weber had come to town, after all there was money to be made from this noble art! As usual he stayed as inconspicuous as he could keeping to the corners, but of course there were people sizing him up everywhere, he could feel the pricking as his as of yet uncontrollable power on his mind. He took a deep breath and tried to filter them out. The irony that an art that is meant to destroy your ego causes it to inflate for most people was not lost on him as he tried to calm his mind. He had to one day be able to block out the unwanted signals, there was only one way to improve sometime and that was to throw yourself in the deep end.

He walked around the various stalls, there were a lot of bruce lee clones and pretty high kicks. How many people knew that the base of martial are came from south India? How many people knew that if you tried to use a pretty kick in a fight someone who knew what they were doing would put you on the ground and stamp on your face? There were also some muscular women that look that they could bend iron, that was impressive.....and a little bit freaky. There were some beautiful women there that Rudraya couldn’t keep his eyes off but he believed that the right person would come into his life at the right time and there had been no one so far so he dismissed these thoughts. The pain of his life up to now was still raw and he was not sure he wanted to let anyone in yet.

He realised he was starting to brood, so he made his way through the muscles, muscle supplements and self important pricks that were wading around. There were a lot of these people in Novum Aurora in all walks of life.

Now came the part he had been waiting for, the display by Larsa Webers students, each one in their uniforms with their belts displaying ‘perfect’ synchronised movements. Even Rudraya had to admit that it must have taken a lot of training to make everyone make synchronously, Just like dancers....except they were not dancers they were meant to be martial artists. Finally Larsa Weber himself walked onto the stage in what he probably thought was a majestic fashion, to Rudraya he seemed like a self important arse-hole but who was he to judge? He then proceeded to do the same movement with something thrown in here and there to impress the general public but Rudraya wasn’t fooled, he had no presence and his movements were devoid of power. But before he was too harsh on the man Rudraya reasoned that he may just be doing some movements and not revealing what he really knew so he kept on watching.

The announcer started to speak, “Ladies and gentlemen! Today, you are very lucky to be here and I am very pleased that you have all come…”, then Larsa spoke to the crowd in an equally passionate tone. Rudraya thought ,”if there was a such a thing as Mastery over passionate speeches, this guy has it, ” after he proceeded to pick people out of the audience to demonstrate his ‘Harmonic Fist of the Empty Winds’ on. Predictably as the people ran at him they fell to the ground as if paralysed by an imperceptible force! Then came the weapons, but Rudraya had has just about enough by this point, unless the Master tried his ‘power’ on him he was not impressed, unlike the hundreds of applauding onlookers. “I wonder how many new subscription he will get from this?” he thought. There was only one thing for it then, to find ‘Grandmaster’ Weber and ask him to try the power on him. As the crowd dispersed he made his way slowly towards Weber, wending his way through the crowd. Sometime it’s really useful being an average height, you just don’t stick out like a sore thumb.

Finally he spotted him approaching a young women, no doubt extolling the virtues of his Harmonic Fist or whatever he called it, trust a Grandmaster of considerable skill to be enticing young women. The predictability of the situation was not lost or Rudraya, martial arts fame certainly had its ‘other’ benefits, “lets see what happens,” he whispered to himself.

He was just close enough to hear Larsa asking the women if she was interested in his art. When she firmly rebuffed him on his offer saying she was not interested, Larsa’s face fell and Rudraya started laughing. She then went on to tell him that she thought his demonstrations were fake and that he was a fraud. “I like this women” Rudraya thought as he enjoyed the best part of the show so far.

Then it happened, in the blink of an eye the women was replaced by a 6 foot man who had grabbed Larsa’s collar and had thrown him to the ground. There was a commotion around the pair as the stunned Larsa looked up at the man, Rudraya himself was stunned but was determined to see them, he smoothly and subconsciously edged his way through the crowd.

His mind had exploded with possibilities, did other people have powers? Or was it some new technology, maybe government technology. Either way he was going to find out, he had nothing to loose.   

The Grandmaster and his Harmonic Fists of the Empty Winds

Argi readied his illusionary disguise as he followed the crowd of people heading towards a building. Excitement was in the air as the crowd was on their way to see a rare demonstration held by a renowned Grandmaster martial artist, Larsa Weber. A relatively new player to the world of martial arts, Larsa Weber dominated the arenas and dojos with his Harmonic Fists of the Empty Winds. Word of this was quickly spread around, mainly thanks to the Internet, and people from all around the world wanted to learn from and train with Larsa Weber. Despite criticisms from many in the martial arts world, Larsa challenged them all and began to open many schools around the world, with Novum Aurora in his sights as the next to be swallowed by his expanding empire.

Several large bouncers were stationed outside of the building and they were checking proofs of identification for all the event’s attendees. Argi had anticipated this and came prepared with his own forged identification that matched the illusion he was posing as. He showed his identification to the bouncers and was allowed entry to the building. He continued to follow the rest of the crowd and ended up in an open hall that big enough to host a couple of basketball games all at the same time.

Soon after, the demonstration started with a few performances from Larsa’s current students going over their forms in their flawless and pristine training uniforms. This went on for some time, with each performance by a group of students ranking higher in belts than the previous group. Eventually the star of the event was next to take the stage, and Larsa Weber glided gracefully to the centre of the hall. Larsa went on to perform some elaborate sets of forms, which brought about a wave of applause from the audience after each set, before he finally proceeded to display his renowned Harmonic Fists of the Empty Winds.

He called out to the audience for volunteers, where there enough people eager to get onto the stage and experience Harmonic Fists of the Empty Winds in person. Larsa picked several people of all colour, shapes and sizes, before addressing the audience as a whole.

“Ladies and gentlemen! Today, you are very lucky to be here and I am very pleased that you have all come…”, Larsa spoke out passionately to the people in a similar manner to that of a television presenter.

Just fucking get on with it, Argi irritatingly thought.

Once he had finished his introduction speech, Larsa instructed the volunteers to rush towards him one by one. The first volunteer was hesitant at first, but with reassurance from Larsa, they started to run at the Grandmaster. The volunteer had closed half the distance between them before they stopped dead in their tracks, in a frozen posture of a runner in mid-run. Larsa had his hands up and stretched out to the volunteer, and with a short sequence of movements, he made the volunteer lower themselves to the ground without touching them. The next volunteer ran towards Larsa and they were also subdued by Larsa’s Harmonic Fists of the Empty Winds before they could reach him, and they were on the floor next to the previous volunteer. Larsa went through one volunteer at a time without making any physical contact with them, with the last one barely having started to move when they were overpowered by the Grandmaster.

The next demonstrated involved using the Harmonic Fists of the Empty Winds to defend against weapons, such as knives, broken bottles and a metal pole. These were proven to be real implements before the audience and Larsa quickly went to display disarming techniques using his Harmonic Fists of the Empty Winds. After that, the Grandmaster went on to defend himself against multiple opponents and at one point, he had halted a group of volunteers surrounding him but there was no physical contact between himself and anyone around him. With a wide gesture, he sent them all flying back onto their backsides, which caused a thundering rumble of applauses and cheers from the audience. Larsa bowed elaborately to the audience, and then invited his students to bow to them as well, before the floor was open for people to mingle and chat with him and any of his students.

Argi descended to the open floor where Larsa would be, since the Grandmaster was main reason for Argi’s attendance. He had been unimpressed by the extravagant performance, especially since Argi highly suspected that this “Harmonic Fists of the Empty Winds” may simply be a power that he didn’t quite understand. But he did know that it was being misused to scam hundreds and thousands of people. Argi mused on how long some people lasted before they realised the con that their “Grandmaster” playing on them, if they ever came to that conclusion at all.

However, Argi was not there to expose his fraud, but rather, it was likely that Larsa would draw the attention of the Secret Operations. Once upon a time, Larsa would have been a case that Argi and his friends would have been sent by the government to investigate and take down. The tables had ironically been turned around, as Argi was now planning to tailgate the Secret Operations agents through Larsa, whom they were inevitably coming for, in hopes that it would lead him closer to finding Francesca. Argi had planned to use this tailgating tactic before, but the Secret Operations had always managed to stay one step ahead of him, a step that didn’t allow Argi to pursue them.

There were other ways of infiltrating the Secret Operations Department, but since becoming a fugitive, the base of Secret Operations had been reallocated without any traces for Argi to follow up on. He could simply give himself up, but Argi was well aware that the Secret Operations had various ways of dealing with and detaining people with powers that left them little liberties to act. It would be impossible for Argi to sneak around the Secret Operations Department and search for Francesca from a bed, drugged up on sedatives and kept under close surveillance.

“Or from a coffin…if I’m lucky enough to get that…”, Argi muttered under his breath. He had weaved himself through the crowds on the open floor and he could see a large group of people around Larsa. He joined the back of this group, and was only barely able to see the “Grandmaster” through them, but at least he could keep an eye out when disaster struck.

The stakeout was tedious and uneventful, as Argi was finding out by following Larsa around the open floor and watching him discuss and demonstrate more of his power. But his intuitions were bothering him as his critical voice started to question the lack of activity by the Secret Operations. Argi’s wandering mind made him lose track of Larsa, and he panicked that the Secret Operations had already been and gone right from under his nose.

Where did he go? Argi started to look around for his missing mark, but without any luck.

“Why hello there, miss!”, a voice suddenly bellowed joyfully from behind him. Argi turned and found the voice belonged to Larsa, who was apparently eyeing up his illusionary disguise. His illusionary disguise of a young woman, who looked like she could be a university student, almost faltered as he was taken by surprise the sudden appearance of Larsa. Argi had wanted to lay low and avoid unwanted attention until the Secret Operations arrived, but it seemed his illusionary disguise was too good for Larsa to resist.

“I see you have an interested in my Harmonic Fists of the Empty Winds”, Larsa enthusiastically beamed at Argi. “Perhaps my schools can help yo-”

“No”, Argi said firmly, which stopped Larsa mid-sentence. “I’m not interested”

“Wh-what?” Larsa was genuinely shocked and surprised at Argi’s response, which Argi deducted that it might have been a while since someone had rejected his “Harmonic Fists of the Empty Winds”. “H-how can you not be interested? Did you see my demonstrations? What I did to those volunteers?”

“It seemed like they were acting to me”, Argi replied bluntly and without much interest in the conversation.

“But what if you were attacked on the streets? How would you defend yourself?”

“By not making an asshole of myself”, Argi rebuked.

“Asshole?! The Har-”

“I bet you can’t even fight your way out of a plastic bag”

“Do you even know who I am? I’m Larsa Weber! The First Grandmaster of the Harmonic Fists of the Empty Winds!”, Larsa started lecture in defence of his wounded pride. “I have bested some of the greatest martial arts and famous UFC fighters! I have opened schools in America, Canada, Britain, Europe, Africa, China, Japan and Australia! I have over a million students from all around the world! Who are you to look down upon me?!”

“I don’t have time for this…”, Argi mumbled and wiping the spittle from his face after Larsa had finished spraying his lecture at him. As well as his impatience for the Secret Operations to arrive, he was also growing tiresome of having Larsa’s egotistical efforts to sell his fake martial arts to him. As he dropped his illusionary disguise and revealed his true appearance, Argi grabbed the “Grandmaster” by the collar of his martial arts uniform and brought Larsa closer to him. “Your harmonic bullshit is a massive scam, anyway”

“W-who are y-you?! Where d-did you come f-from?” By now a small crowd had already formed around Larsa and the supposed young woman. But the aggressive display by a tall man, in place of where the young woman had stood only moments before, was drawing the attention of many more people nearby. Larsa’s closest students had also noticed this and they were trying to use their “Harmonic Fists of the Empty Winds” to save their “Grandmaster”, though to no avail.

“Someone who can take care of himself”, Argi whispered and threw Larsa down to the floor. The students had stopped using their “Harmonic Fists of the Empty Winds” to subdue Argi and resorted to physically barring him in an attempt leaving the small group of people around them.

“Stop! You have disrespected the Grandmaster! We have already called the Police.”

“The Police, huh? What about your bouncers?”, Argi looked down and asked Larsa with a mocking smirk.

Larsa looked confused for a moment before he hesitantly replied with a question of his own. “What bouncers…?”

Argi’s stomach dropped when the realisation hit him at the same time the alleged bouncers burst through all the doors of the hall and headed towards them. With his cover exposed, Argi was readying another illusion within his mind so that he could disappear into the crowd and hopefully resume his original plan of tailgating the Secret Operations agents. He was about to cast the illusion, when something powerful clamped onto one of his hands, which Argi found to be Larsa. Panic started to surge through Argi as his replication ability was beginning to activate due his physical contact with Larsa. As new memories flooded Argi's mind, he saw the look of worry and desperation on Larsa's face and the words that came with it.

"Don't let them take me...please"