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.                     

The Shadow Cometh

Novum Aurora was never so alive as it was at night. Their was the lights; The bright neon signs up on high that shone in the night sky like sparkling jewels, the ever flickering street lights that glimmered and twinkled when viewed from a distance to even the most simple of lights, like candles blowing in the wind, the odd chinese lantern was scattered around and the light's of people's houses, businesses and back yards. Then there was the noise; The chattering of people, the buzzing of lights and lamps, the riotous burst of sound then empty silence from the drunks and party goers as they passed or collided on their various paths. There was more of your sense's you could use to sample this rather unique city, upon the night air there were sweet smells, off food being freshly prepared at the local shops, down the back alleys there was the smell off grease as food was deep fried and served to drunk patron's, then there was the soft fragrant smell of the city gardens in central Novum Aurora.

If you stood in Novum Aurora at night you would feel the tingle in the air, it was almost electrical it seemed, then if you stood in place long enough your body would begin to notice the rumbling underground as the train's zoomed past and the tram cars at ground level that rumbled past at a slow but always steady pace. Every sense would be overloaded in a city like this, so those that lived here began to become immune to the noise, to drown out all the sounds and smell's, till eventually they could neither feel, nor see or smell all the things that went on around them. It was in a city like this, with so many people, so much visual and auditory stimulation that those who wished to remain hidden, cloaked in both mystery and shadow could do so as they pleased. Men and women alike with minds for such things would find they could not only survive in this brave new world but they could thrive and expand. One such man was Nikolai Zelenko, a Russian national who had nothing and no one back home to keep him grounded so he fled his home after one bad life decision too many.

Searching for a new home and a land that would welcome him, he stumbled along from place to place, never fitting in or finding that feeling he so longed for. Eventually he hopped on enough boats, trains, planes and automobiles that one warm summer's day he landed himself in the single biggest, culturally and economically extravagant city that Europe had to offer. It was called New Dawn and when he arrived he felt that very same feeling wash over him as he came to the "promised land". He had made it to the place of his dreams as here, he could be someone new, someone different and someone better even. He was a quick learner and good with his hands, there was always opportunities for a man like him. A fledgling city like this always had openings and gaps in it's markets of all manner off things. Nikolai was quick to take some shady jobs in the background, he never knew who was paying him or why they were but he was given large sums of money to do rather unusual or impractical jobs, jobs Nikolai was all to happy to oblige his benefactors in.

He would be tasked with stealing into building sites around the city as many places were still being built when he first arrived. He would sneak in at night to removing panels here or stripping cables back to the copper, sometimes stealing the copper and others just leaving it that way, it depended on his new order's at the time. He wasn't sure why he was doing it but he was a "Do-er", he didn't ask questions and he did it well. Soon he found out that he was causing industrial accidents to happen to simply put whoever was building these sites out of commission so that new one's could come in and take all the profit. Corporate espionage was now his new found skill set. Not to long after his real employer's surfaced and began the development, he decided he had seen enough and took his new found love for causing mayhem and moved to take it to the next level, leaving behind his last job to work the angles himself. He would become a newfound "business man", trying his hand at drug dealing and some small time protection racketeering.

He was a man of deep ambition. Not much would hold him back and soon he was entangled in the Bratva, joining the rank and file of the Russian mafia and mingling in their operations with his own. He worked hard, got men loyal to him and his ideals, took on new recruits and made his shady operations more and more lucrative till one day the Bratva leadership paid him a visit. It was on this inspection visit by his superiors that Nikolai seized his chance and proceeded to systematically kill any high ranking member there that day, those he left alive joined him and pointed him in the direction of the other leaders and within the day his men quickly dispatched any leading element left and by the next he had established himself as their head and all those below him would follow him without question. Now that he had power, he needed to make a move for more power and a better stake on the events that would proceed from his little internal power struggle. He decided to gather all those loyal and those doubtful together to shape the Bratva as the ultimate criminal element in Novum Aurora.

The great meeting of the brotherhood was tonight, the air was damp after a short fall of heavy rain, dew lay here and there and on the outskirts of the industrial area of Novum Aurora an empty factory building was ablaze with light and the sound of cheering and laughing. A hostile take over it had been but many had seemed to find it all to welcoming to usher in a new age of change. The higher up's, those in power and influence had stagnated within their rank's and their power and the younger blood yearned for advancement, in this very meeting they may get these very things and more, there were more benefits than simply more respect and control that would come with advancing oneself in the Bratva. The Bratva looked after their own, your enemies were their enemies and as long as you followed your orders you could have anything you wanted. You could pick from the purest drugs, the most beautiful women and sleekest cars. Money would be no option and as the Bratva's great hand took more control, so to would each brother.

Nikolai had spent no time in surrounding himself with his most trusted men and armed them all to the teeth in preparation for tonight, it wouldn't do to gain power only to throw it away with a careless mistake. The brothers would be gathering together, old allegiances would fall and new ones would be made but he could not count that all of them would go entirely in his favour. He owned this factory himself now and his most loyal and deadliest brothers were posted everywhere and he trusted most of these men he had only grown to know over the last few months than anyone he had ever known in his life back home. In this meeting there were three main big players coming that he would either have to threaten or bride to his way of thinking and if that didn't work, two holes in the head should resoundingly solve any further issue. Putting a few men six feet under might also help his chances of ruling over the others, fear was a good incentive when dealing with other dangerous men, each man here was lethal and skilled in some form of misdeed or misadventure. They would all follow the strongest amongst them and Nikolai's ambitions made him strong.

He had gotten his men to prepare the sleek black Limo he had taken from the cold dead hand of his now disposed off ex-boss. The driver had been murdered too, just for good measure, it was all good business. In the inside was heavenly, the comfort was to die for, the bar was well stocked within and there was enough room to hold a party roster of people all within with fuss. He would turn up looking every bit their leader and they would eat out of his hand. His new grey suit was just washed and pressed, ironed just right and he splashed on something nice for his face. Shaven face, cut back hair and embellishing himself ornate gold rings, he felt every bit a man. This was his day. He had already begun to sample the finest wines and spirits in the bar within and now he was beginning to feel it, he shouted something to the driver in thick Russian and the driver pulled over shortly afterwards. He hadn't noticed were they had stopped, he was to busy relieving himself up against the nearest wall that when he finally did take a glance around the sudden realisation dawned on him that he wasn't near his factory estate but near the dock side at another warehouse, much larger and older. It was falling apart in places and it did not look welcoming.

"Hey driver, this isn't the bloody place we are meant to be going to, this isn't even close. If you think your just going to mess me around on a day like today, your a dead man! Do you hear me?" Nikolai shouted out but all he got was his words reverberating off the empty docks. Water lapped against the side of the plinth but everything else was deathly still, Nikolai turned and turned frantically trying to see someone or something. He returned to the car and opened the front doors to find no sign off anyone there. He turned around once more and then a sudden gut wrenching chill went through him. He could feel it now, someone had stabbed him, the pain was overwhelming as red began to stain through his once crisp white shirt. He clutched at his chest and felt what could only have been some unusually sharp metal piercing a whole right through one end of him till the other. He cried out in pain and then without another word a loud thump was heard and then only silence. Nikolai sat back in the car now, he looked around with a smile on his face as his driver now got back into the car and began driving back to his warehouse to meet his brothers. He was late for his big meeting and they were all waiting on his very presence, he couldn't let his men down now could he?

Nikolai arrived late and his men grumbled in discontent but no one dared speak a word of dissent where he might hear. In an unusual turn off events, Nikolai spoke only to his men in Russian for the whole meeting and those that couldn't speak it were told to wait outside. He spoke off great dreams and fertile lands, off taking what was theirs and giving nothing back to those who would seek to stifle their power. Nikolai had them in the palm of his hand as his speech sent various burst's of cheers and laughter up through the crowd. They talked late into the night and with it, they brought through a new rule for the Bratva, each person had gained something, some small portion off area to control and look after. Each man was given a task fitting to his own skill's in life and with it they would seek to further each other's plans. They would grow strong by placing themselves within every working part of Novum Aurora, they had all been given drawing and plans, maps and schematics of buildings far and wide around Novum Aurora. Some men were directed to the room to the left were a solitary man waited for them handing out badge's of different sorts, police shields were common amongst them, other were for fire officers and lastly there were signed papers and laminated tags for building inspector's and health and safety personnel. This was to be a new chapter in the Bratva indeed.

In amongst the brothers that stayed and those that spoke no Russian, Nikolai walked and talked with them in both Russian and English, learning about each of them, some were then told to go to the door to the left and the rest were directed to follow Nikolai through the door to the right, he had something different in mind for these individuals. The Bratva men squeezed into a small room, there was nothing in here, no windows or doors. It was just an empty space that had one time been a shower room as there was a small drainage whole in the corner where a shower had once been. They were all inside when Nikolai locked the door and sudden it seemed like all hell broke lose, there was gun fire, men screamed in terror and blood curdling wail's or moan's choked on and on until eventually nothing moved for a time. Off all the twenty or so men that went in, only one man came back out. Nikolai emerged once more, not even a single mark was on him, he looked in perfect shape and condition and a sinister smile lingered on his lips as he left, sparring only a second to stare at the bloody mess left behind. Blood smeared every wall in every corner as the fluids drained into the gutter at the corner but there were no bodies behind to mark the men who had passed.

Nikolai went through the now empty warehouse, all the other had been quickly taken away and given their new tasks to take care off. He ran his finger along the desk in the middle of the main hall as he slow traced a singular line from one end to the other, it took a total of thirty-two steps to get from one end to the other. He smiled to himself again, he was always smiling now. It wasn't every day you took a criminal organisation and put a plan in place to infiltrate and corrupt all major government organisations and others that would prove useful in the future. It was all starting to fall into plan quite nicely actually. He stood alone for sometime, listening to the dull buzz of the single light bulb that hung above him in this wide open storage space that this warehouse once would of had filled to the roof with things before it was "acquired" for it's current purpose. It was half an hour or so later before the man who had been handing out the badge's in the room to the left returned from taking a select few men to a certain destination that was undisclosed to anyone but their driver. The man moved with almost unnatural determination and power in his stride. He walked beside Nikolai and stopped as he starred unflinchingly at him with his glacial, pale dead eyes.

"Your order's have been carried out, all have reached their destinations now and within a few days they will blend in and soon we will have eyes and ears on everything you asked for. I didn't come half way around the world to play chauffeur to some hair brained Mafia low-life's!"  His tone was flat and harsh, though his American accent could be heard in all the little things he said. You can take the man out of America but you cannot take America out of the man....How unfortunate but he was still much to useful to throw away just because of his place of birth. If all this poor fellow wanted was something more entertaining he figured he could give him just that in one easy step. The man that was Nikolai smiled deeply and then almost instantaneously he began convulsing and spewing blood onto the floor, it sprayed liked slush at first, some was liquid and other parts were semi-solid, eventually it turned into mush as pieces of organic tissue began to spew from his mouth. Blood and bone forced their way out with force, coating the floor in a deep red that would probably never truly wash out. In a pile on the floor, the blood pooled and soon, it was wriggling, jelly like in appearance. His colleague never flinched or fled, he watched with a unwavering curiosity.

There was cracking as he spat a few more bones and soon the mess on the floor began to take shape, growing over and around the bones. Soon the flesh was sealing itself up and almost instantly it began to take light in and the flesh turned firmer and pinker. In what was only seconds, a pile of blood and bone on the floor had morphed into a humanoid form. It was twisted and ugly, pieces were still missing and it's left arm was swapped with it's own right, the hands sticking out at awkward unnatural angle's. It stood on three feet, two big main legs and a third longer and thinner leg sprang out from the back giving it more balance. The mouth was more of a whole in the flesh than an opening for breathing, the creature gasped with every breathe it took of our air and as it came into being a single eye surfaced in it's face but it was dead and saw nothing. It starred lazily into space and fumbled around itself in vain. Within seconds it was sealed within a crate that had been set to the side earlier that night. It put up no resistance until shortly after being placed in the box, it scrapped and scratched on the box in a blind furry to no great avail however.

"Ahh, so that's how that happens, huh? Never would of guessed it but then people like us are just full of surprises. Where is this one to go then, hopefully somewhere fun, cause a lot of destruction this time. Some place in the city maybe, one of these bad boys could do some serious damage, no?"

"I am not interested in what damage it may or may not cause, Your only concern is to transport it to the alley on the western side of the Martial Art's demo that will be held in a few days time. You saw his gifts yourself, if he is one of us, he will attract others. They will either bow to us, fall before us or be crushed beneath our might and left in the dust to rot. Our plan is perfect and this city will bow to us as their gods but to do so, we will need more of our brothers and sister's to make it a reality. Can I trust you to help build my vision of a perfect future, my brother?" The man that had been Nikolai was no more, a much more gruesome younger man stood in his place, blood stained his clothes as he had covered himself when he coughed and spluttered to bring forth the monster in the box. He smiled an eerie, thin smile as the white's of his eye's gleamed bright under the darkness that covered his face beneath the hood of his clothes.


The American soon left with the box in toe.  The other figure remained and moved to the nearby table and quickly shuffled a few papers up and down the table, smearing blood on each as his hands were covered, he took the top page and wiped his hands on it till he could touch the other pages without leaving a trail.  He had deliberately hidden one sheet of paper at the very bottom of tonight's meeting documents and forms.  On this page there was a picture at the top of a little girl, maybe no more than 8 or 9 by the look off her.  The whole page was about this little girl, it spoke of her family, her age, living arrangements and habits.  There were other things written on it, blood type, hair colour, personality and her interest's.  Included was a diagram off her height, weight and in small print there was even mention of how she walked.  This person's whole life was on this one page, the face gazing down at it smiled that creepy paper thin smile as he starred down at her face.
"You my dear, I will pay you a visit myself!"

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"

The Wind

It was a windy day in Novum Aurora, his favourite type of weather. It tumbled and played changing its mind in the blink of an eye, it was free. The wind was always free, to travel where ever it wanted to, masterless. At least he was similar to the wind in this respect, no family no master, but he still missed them all but he knew what his teacher would say “We live on inside of you keep those memories as a bright jewel, one day you will have only have joy for these memories with no pain, then you will have detached yourself, but that is for the future.” But it still hurt. He walked home enjoying the wind, trying to avoid being noticed, but there were still the occasional pinpricks on his mind as people noticed him walk by as they did everyday. Rudraya wondered if he would ever be able to recognise people but for now what he had was plenty.... and then a little bit more. He let the world roll, focusing on nothing and everything as he made his way to his apartment in the rougher area of the city. Time had taught him how to stay alert without having to think, he could see the groups of potential thugs and opportunists pass their gaze and forget about him. As well they should, the last time he had been in a situation the result had not been pretty for the attacker or Rudraya. He was left with a scar and his assailant was left with a smashed ankle and knee, he probably wouldn’t be able to walk again without a stick. The one time Rudraya didn’t have a knife on him was the one time he was attacked with one, they say danger is closest when you are least prepared.

When he closed the door of his flat he let out an audible sigh. Had it really been 5 years since his life had been turned upside down? How he had begged to get a job in Novum Aurora in a fast food shop working the 14 hour shifts and sleeping rough outside the shop. And they had wondered how he had been on time for all the shifts, huh it was easy when you lived so close! He had been scared to approach the government official who dealt with illegal immigrants but his luck had been in and he had been allocated this tiny apartment in a shitty area of the city but at least it was his own, at least the basement was his own. Luck, he thought, was a funny thing, it could take away his parents and uproot him from his home and had made him a beggar and taken him to this city of corruption....but it had also allowed him to slip through the net, and secure a modest job as a librarian in the most prestigious library in Novum Aurora, it had also given him an abandoned basement just below his half a person flat to train. And it had given him a space on the bottom floor! Luck he thought, was a fickle mistress.

He made his way to his shrine in the corner of his room and said his prayers for a time. His faith had taken a knocking in the recent year, well what did one expect if your life got thrown into chaos it tends to test ones faith. But his faith was always a guiding presence no matter how rough things got how he cursed God for him misfortune he knew in reality that he was only a drop in the ocean of balance in the world. Focusing on his own misfortune meant he was really being selfish.

Now it was time to train, the only thing in his life which had kept him alive, even before his powers had manifested. His martial arts was his self expression and his saviour. He quietly said a separate message to his master. He knew he shouldn’t worship the man but he had given him so much and had asked for nothing but diligence. He went down to the basement and turned on the light. When he had first come down to the basement it had been a dirty stinking mess of rubbish, dead rats and droppings of all manner under the sun, he even wondered if anyone had been killed down here. It had taken him weeks to clean it out but now this was his space, at least he had something to himself, his clean but still fairly smelly training room, he doubted submerging the place in acid could ever get rid of the slight smell.

He took up his position and stilled his mind for a time, standing like a tree on one leg rooted into the ground the other carrying no weight. He ground into his standing leg so he was at a 45 degree angle and let his empty foot point along the NE line and held his hands out like the branches of the tree along the same NE line. And there he stood and gathered his energy. His mind was nothing, a blank slate. The possibility for everything and nothing. Any thoughts that came and left like the clouds blown by the wind his mind until it was an empty blue sky. Then he reset himself planted his legs 50-50 weighted and started his form. To the observer it would have seen like a set of slow easy movements with not much physical activity, but this belied its nature. Inside he was twisting and coiling like a snake, he was a coiled spring ready to explode, his eyes were flat and dangerous like he was looking through everything. It was as if he built his energy up and exploded furiously and intervals. His mind was empty, the years he had spent going over the movements thousands upon thousands of time meant he no longer engaged his conscious mind, he was in a meditative state yet fully aware of all around him. He finished the form using none of his powers, he would never allow himself to be at the mercy of his power he would control them and not the other way round. He then started another form but this time he let go, as he started the first movement if anyone was in the room they would have felt a slight tugging on their consciousness, their eyes would be drawn to him as his power activated. He felt the power course through him, like his senses sharpened and his body felt like it was vibrating. As he struck the air the sound of the force echoed around the room, his feet started to crack the concrete floor as they landed and he turned with lightening swiftness. It was as if the energy was growing and growing. But the supply was not infinite, there would be a price to pay if he took too much so he reluctantly finished his form. A few years ago he had woken on the floor of the basement, almost a cubic meter of wood had been in front of him and it still stood. After he had checked himself over for injuries he pulled himself up on the block, it had small indents of his knuckles. As he pulled himself up he patted the block and disintegrated into dust and splinters.

The noises made from his stamping and you would have thought that people would be curious about the noise but it was just another noise in the cityscape lost and forgotten.

Spiders are tingling my senses

After their unkindly encounter with the insects, Fayth and Travis carried on following the tunnel and they eventually reached a large chamber. Unlike the total blackness of the tunnels, a single lightbulb was hanging from the ceiling and illuminating light within the chamber. It wasn’t enough to banish the shadows from every corner, but it was enough for the sighted to see again after their journey of darkness.

The light hit Fayth’s eyes and after a few minutes of her eyes readjusting to the brightness of the world again, she started to make out her surroundings and was shocked at what she saw. There were spider webs all over the place, spanning across the enormous ceiling, along all four walls of the chamber and covering the floor that she and Travis were stepping on. As with any webs, there were spiders upon which they hung, waiting for any food to come along and become entangled within their silky, sticky traps. There were spiders in the thousands, all of different sizes and species, but all were hanging freely waiting for their next meal. Despite not being an arachnophobia, the presence of so many spiders sent shivers down Fayth’s spine.

The webbing was not simply smooth or flat decorating the chamber; there were various lumpy shapes that the webbing was holding in place along the walls or on the ceiling.  Along the floor, however, the webbing was weaker as their feet broke the fragile silk with each step they took, and objects appeared to be randomly littered around them. Upon closer inspection, Fayth was revolted to find that they were the bone carcasses of dead animals, empty of flesh and life. She looked up at the many webbed bumps and saw that some were fully cocooned, while some were only suspended by the webbing and partially displayed what was inside. Fayth guessed what most of them held though: something still living and ready to be the next meal of many spiders.

Her assumption was reinforced by the background of psychic energies that Fayth was picking up from her surroundings. The further she and Travis went into the chamber, the more she could sense the feelings of desperation, fear, and maliciousness, which were faint but impressionable to her. At times she would receive an instant flash of a miserable animal pleading for its life or spiders in the process of securing their meal with their webbing or a dark, sinister, and vague form.

Her gaze continued to track the lumpy cocoons and stopped at one shape in particular. Her heart sped up and tears started to well up in her eyes as relief washed over her. Finally, her brain reconnected with her mouth and she whispered, “Reina”.

Her psychic senses reached out to her friend and found that Reina was still alive, but unconscious. Fayth was about to alert Travis when she noticed a crawling sensation on her legs. She looked down and found several large spiders were making their way up towards her. Several more spiders were beginning to join them, as they revealed themselves from beneath the graveyard of broken webs. Her psychic senses had picked up on that malevolent joy again, the same one she had felt earlier that day. However, the emotion was more intense than before, and her mind started to freeze up in response and prevented her from reacting. She tried to call out or send a thought to Travis, but she was effectively trapped; her physical and mental self was paralysed by the spell of that malicious glee. But her sight of her companion filled her with dread, as he too had his own overly friendly creepy crawlers to deal with.

Then came the form of a gargantuan sized spider into Fayth’s view. It silently slid from the ceiling on a thick web from its enormous spinneret and landed soundlessly in front of the frozen telepath. It adjusted itself on the solid ground, disturbing many of the weak webbing as it did, and peered right into Fayth’s eyes. An eerie, almost alien, sound that was more of a screech than speech came from the mouth of the spider. “You’ve kept me waiting, Fayth Svartalf…”

The Pieces Begin To Assemble

A giant ship loomed over the crashing abyss of darkened stormy waters beneath. It was a merciless storm, it had been raging for three days now, endlessly slashing and crashing. The waves would slap against one side and then as the ship would rise, a second blow would fall and then a third. Sometimes it was hit on the left side, hard and fast then suddenly a blow from the right would knock it reeling to the other side again. Those on board would have felt like a ping pong ball in a very heated match. The cargo ship, dubiously named The Maiden, in no small part due to sarcasm had for the best part endured these treacherous sea's, all of it's cargo on the other hand had not been so lucky.

When she had set sail, The Maiden had over one hundred different pieces of cargo above deck and she carried far more precious things below in her vast hull. Inside the hull, the oddments and valuables concealed within had escaped any of the harm from the raging elements outside, above deck, that was a completely different story now. Off the hundred or so items, many ranging from full scale cargo container's, an expensive super car, a statue of a Greek goddess standing in nothing but her skin to pallets of wood and sheet metal, the storm had already claimed the statue and the car within the first day. They had all be strapped and belted down but the wind had found a way to rip that apart. They had tied and bolted down what hadn't blown away on the first day.

The second day, they lost the pallets of wood and sheet metal that was set for the construction industry off their final destination. They had been triple strapped down but a giant tidal wave washed over the ship and when all the water had cleared there was an empty space where they had once been. They bolted and tied all that remained that same day. On the third day they lost 5 separate cargo container's. The container's in question hadn't been bolted or tied down, for the soul reason that they weighed tonne's on their own account, loaded with supplies off every variety. Waves ripped across the deck, pushing the left side off the ship to the point of hitting the eerie blackness below, the cargo container's only needed that last little push from the next smash of waves to topple into the darkness to meet the depths beneath.

The crew never came back above deck after this, nothing on top was worth risking your life for. The main deck was at it's most empty now, anything and everything had moved position since it was first placed on board. What was on the left hand side could now be found on the right and vice versa. In the scramble to save things, order was no longer a problem and speed was off the essence. From all the confusion and chaos no one had noticed that underneath one of the cargo containers that had fallen into the sea, a lonely crate had been suddenly made visible. It was small, not much taller or wider than your average person. There were odd markings off a distant land all over it and right at the top a deep dark red "X" had been marked across it. It had been bolted to the decks surface and chains connected it to each of the four points it had been anchored to. If that hadn't been enough, there were several separate ropes of varying shapes and even colours that ran round and round in interlocking patterns to bind it up tight.

The next day, the storm faltered and rapidly brought forth the great blue sky above and in the certain of it shone the sun. It glimmered and glistened off the waves, cheers and shouts of joy rose from the deck as those on board came to the surface to bask in the warming glow of the sun on high above. Favour fortuned those that were both persistent and resilient. The crew on board were so overjoyed to have weathered the storm they paid little or no attention to the missing cargo. It would all be counted and marked off the list when they finally made port, right now they were all to happy to be alive and well. Our little hidden crate made the rest of the voyage undeterred and no worse for wear than when it had began, for you see, one man's story begins with this very box.

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It began in blackness. How long had it been now? It was cramped and stiff, each joint and muscle ached with every single movement. Breathing was a chore off it's own, as the breathe went out of the lung's, it felt like someone was applying pressure right over your ribs, holding a hundred pound weigh and if you wanted to breathe again you had to have the strength to force the next rush of oxygen past this ever growing pressure. When this began it was easy, you breathed in and you breathed out. Now, getting oxygen was like trying to find Hen's Teeth. Touching and scuffing against the surfaces around them, hands shuffled to and fro, groping mindlessly in silence for something beyond. The now boney fingers slithered over the surface like a hungry snake, sliding closer and closer, aiming for a certain mark that had been left behind earlier.

The hands crawled along the grain of the wood with close precision, no movement made was unnecessary and they moved with a subtle conviction and purpose, the smooth finished wood was cold to the touch, it was actually beginning to grow very damp and this made each continued breathe more uncomfortable as the damp seemed to not only get into the joints of the fingers and bones that lay flat pressed against the outer layer but now even the lungs began to feel the strain of trying to sift the water away from the oxygen it needed to power itself and the rest of the body. Everything had to be slowed down, breathing and heart rate especially. There was no food, in darkness there never was. There was no water, at least none not full of sea salt and then there was the worst of all, little air, in truth there was little of anything, especially Hope.

There were line's, just where they should be, clawed into the surface with a rough precision of their own. The hands had etched these lines before, now they slid over the surface off each one. The surface beneath the cracked and bloody fingers was a fine Beech Wood. The nails had tore chunks in the wood but as time passed and each new line had been made the wood seemed to gain more ground and some of the lines closer to the far end had a fine coating of blood were the wood had made it's own mark. In darkness, there were no plaster's for grazed knee's or cut fingers. There were now ten separate different slices in the wood, though there was also three different cuts on the fingers that had made the marks in turn. Three for ten? So far, it would seem the flesh was at least winning for now.

The digit's ran themselves to the end of the ten marks and began to claw into the wood once again, marking the eleventh day within this "cell". Eleven days already, trapped in such a hellishly cramped space it could have been eleven years. This was it own form of torture. Had it have been any normal man, their mind would have snapped and they would have bloodied and beaten themselves to death in a vain attempts to escape. There was no getting out of here till someone came and let you out. You could throw every single ounce of energy inside you at these wooden walls and all you would achieve is broken bones and exhaustion. However there had been no escape attempts made, the only movement made was off the fingers as they slid down to find the scarred wood that marked the count of days that passed since the crate had been first bound up in secret and hidden below a fully loaded cast iron container that would cover this little piece of secret cargo. Or at least, it was supposed to.

It began in darkness again, only this time, instead of the unrelenting emptiness that was there before, there was a new unease. Water leaked all around, it got everywhere and leaked into everything. The audible squelch was as unpleasing to the ear as the cold bite of the water was to the skin. Even wrapped in layers, the water kept seeping through, turning them into nothing but damp rags that sucked up tight to the skin, giving a bone chilling cold to the flesh that felt hung over every muscle, this was not going to be enjoyable. If the water had not been enough, the wind that howled louder and louder for hours on end did nothing but worse the spirit. It is often bad enough to be wet, then imagine being unable to move, then to not be able to breathe freely. Then there was the chill of the wind blowing through every gap it could find, running through your soaking clothes, as if it had the claws of a wolf. Like claws ripping at your skin, each new gust brought it's own bitter giving's. The fingers again reached out and carved one more line into the wood, made easier by the wood now rotting from all the water it had taken on.

The count was now twelve days, isolated in darkness, with nothing to sustain you but your own will to survive. With so little, how would any man survive? The answer to this question can only be found within the heart of those with nothing to lose, nothing to fear and true belief in something bigger.

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A man had laid down in the wooden crate, he had been carried across great oceans and weathered horrendous storms but when the ship had finally reached port and the crate was taken away discreetly by those who had anticipated it's arrival, what crawled out from within that "prison" box looked something awful to behold. His bones sat taught over his bones, every part of his face looked haggard and he wheezed with every breathe, like air just wouldn't go into his lungs. Large black marks had manifested around the whole of his eyes and there was a dullness in his eyes that spoke of a malaise that seemed almost haunting. The man was weak and unable to even stand though after the journey he had, it was a miracle of it's own that he was alive at all, few others could have braved such a trial of both mind and body. Two large men had carried him from the box as he had fallen as soon as he had moved to lift himself from the box. His muscle's had already begun to atrophy and he looked more like a corpse than a human being.

It was several days later that the man named Drake made his appearance. Hidden by those that had carried him from the dock he was put in a rather decrepit and dirty apartment building far out of the way. Here he was placed in a bed that he never left for two days straight. Someone had to forcefully feed him and make him drink. His eye's never once open but on more than one occasion you could see his eyelids flicker as he struggled in his sleep. Tormented by what exactly was hard to tell, his time in the box would of been it's own horror. The third day he woke, got out of bed in the early hours of the morning and disappeared into the crisp cool air and was not seen by those that had brought him out of the crate again. Drake sat atop a building still under construction, the builders had not yet come to start their work but it was this time of day that Drake loved most. The freshness, the cold, the mild darkness, all of this was it's own kind of perfection to him.

He was sitting on the outskirts of Novum Aurora, were he stood now was to be a suburban residential area of those lucky enough and rich enough to afford them. Drake had been rushed here early, there was much to lay in preparation for what was in store. This was to be the "battlefield" of what was to come, all those individuals like Drake and his new friend would gather here, how he knew this or how his new benefactor had gotten the same idea or gut instinct was unclear but there was something about this city, the new life it brought, perhaps the cities innocence and in turn the want to corrupt said innocence could attract those with the power to do these things on both sides of the fence. Drake's mind had already begun to sense the presence of certain individuals already making their move here, even in his delirium he could sense those like him, they all talked and sang and laughed behind his eyes when he closed them.

If he listened close enough he could almost hear what they were saying but more than that he could actually feel them, each person felt different and unique and as they got closer their voice, their face, it all got clearer. Sometimes he could even see their power if they were close enough and he wouldn't even have to have ever met this person in his life. In his sleeping state over the last few days he had noted that one particularly powerful and interesting individual had been making arrangements to move into the very house he sat on the roof off now. A young black man who had once been an Olympic athlete before he went suddenly and unexplainably blind. Drake hadn't figured out his powers yet but he was interesting in that his aura was pure and bright behind his eyes when he could see or feel him. He was here today, early to scope out the area, he was to leave this man a little present for the future when he took up his residence in the near future. He had something to leave here but he couldn't leave it just for anyone to find.

He moved off into the nearby forest, he figured if his target had hidden powers he would use these woods to be alone and use his powers without someone observing him, drake knew first hand, once you had a power you could use at will, there was always the drive to experiment and test what you could or couldn't do. When he had awoken, he had seen that the second item hidden aboard the ship had also made it out successfully, it had been hidden below deck in the jumble off other odd objects and trinkets. It was a dark blackened metal box, it had weird markings on it to clearly differentiate it from anything else, all marked in a blood red colour. If the markings were meant to mean something, it was beyond Drake's comprehension but he wasn't there to ask questions, only to follow a few simple instructions before he was to return to the city to claim his first payment. Drake had carried his metal box with him on his back, it was heavy beyond belief but he had managed it, he was ordered to bring it to this location and open it within the forest. He wasn't told what was in it.

He found a clearing and began to rummage through his freshly pressed clothes that had awaited him by his bed side that morning, inside one pocket was the key for the box. He removed it from his pocket and inserted it into the lock but before he could turn the key, something from within stirred and lashed out in rage, slamming hard against the edge of the box, knocking it from one side onto the other, tearing the grass as it slide down the verge slightly. Drake quickly turned the key, releasing the door and swiftly he bolted into a nearby tree. He watched from on high for a few moments but nothing happened. Drake was beginning to wonder had he imagined the box moving after all but then suddenly a misshapen figured lurched it's way out of it's confinement as the sound of chains shattering echoed off the tree's. Whatever stepped forward was not human, it's shape was bent and hobbled and it's breathe ragged and savage. It paid no attention to Drake and skulked it's way into the woods without a backward glance.

He supposed if he had been anyone else, this would have seem starkly unreal and endless questions would have been abound but not Drake, instead a small, thin sinister smile spread across his lips and he spoke softly to no one in particular.

"Things got a whole lot more interesting in Novum Aurora...."

Sometimes... Things are more than they appear

Travis could no longer think back to how this all started, it seemed somewhat off a blur from one second to the next, he remember heading into the city to track down a hidden figure fleeing the scene of the creature that had attacked Travis only a few hours earlier, he had pounded down streets, alleys and every little crevice along the way. He had been stopped by a little girl who seemed to know more than she let on and just as quickly as he had stumbled upon her, she had disappeared into the pressing crowds of the city. Thinking to find somewhere back on his original path he crossed the road to an ongoing commotion and in doing so he had stumbled upon a broad daylight attack on other people. Was it a chance encounter or was some strange hand of fate working all around this city?


He knew deep down there was something more to it than suddenly turning up here and so many strange and shocking things manifesting itself before him. Inside the shop, the riot that had sprawled out from within was like something only seen in films. A storm of bugs, to many to not have been somehow put or forced there had wrecked the shop, screams and yells filled his ears, hurting his senses intensely until suddenly one scream above the others had turned his blood cold, if even only for a moment. A woman had screamed, not for herself, the sound betrayed her emotion as clear as a smile might give away happiness and tears would forewarn sadness. It was so thickly accented with fear, fear not for herself but someone she had cared deeply for.


He had learned the woman had lost a friend later after he had taken care of the swarm of bugs that had surrounded them like a winged tornado, biting and stinging all they could in their path. The woman Reina she had been called was taken by a figure Travis had only seconds to have caught a glimpse of his shadow he left as he vanished with his prize. With his sense's Travis got a brief glimpse of the man who had been the kidnapper but the more Travis thought about it, he didn't really seem like an ordinary person. He was much bigger, his mass taking up more space than normal and something else was off with him. Either Travis was mistaken or he had felt like this guy had more than two legs, he moved with movements unnatural humans, speed faster than he could normally have achieved on two legs also further compounded his idea's on the matter.


Today was a weird day, that wasn't even the weirdest part of his day yet to tell it true. The girl who had screamed at the loss of her friend had panick-strickenly ran out hunting her friend, something within Travis had made him follow, was he a fool or a brave man, it was hard to tell, now more than ever. His new friend had not only punched him in the face one moment but next she had fallen to her knee's in some strange moment of weakness or perhaps a flood of emotion from some past event Travis could never have shared with her. There was only pity inside him for her at that moment, he had reached his arms around her and embraced her close. What was going on in his head right then and there he had no idea, he knew women were trouble, all of them only brought their own brand of mischief and misfortune. Yet he had hugged her, they had sat in silence for a time till she no longer sobbed and they parted. Travis let go off her awkwardly, not really sure what was going on but he realised that she had something else on her mind and she hadn't even noticed.


They had pressed on hard after any lead they could find, eventually a break came for them when Travis noticed and endless stream of marching feet, tiny and silent to ordinary sense's. In his head it sounded like the beat of a drum, they marched onwards as if called to war. It was strange, here he was helping some girl he hadn't even learned the name of yet and he was leading her after someone who had kidnapped her friend. He still hadn't found the man he was looking after all of this still to, though part of him had hoped that whoever they were chasing now would know the man or perhaps if he was really lucky he would find it to be the man he was chasing after all this time. Something sparked his memory to earlier on that day, the little girl he had meet, she had said something about the man he was chasing. It chilled his spine and he wondered even more as to what path was he walking down now. His own, or his hunter's?
"He knows about...us"
They had been following the ants for some time, on and on they lead them, till the reached beyond the limit's of the city and suddenly Travis felt his muscle's begin to ease and no longer was he so tense, he no longer had to block out all the noise that would assault his sense's, he felt so free now. He could always hear footsteps, the sound a person's chest made as it moved up and down with each breathe, even the twitching and straining of muscles in the body. People had become so immune to noise they never heard half of the sounds that were in the world. Travis could hear his stomach grumble internally when he was hungry long before the audible grumble would be heard by those around him, he even heard the blinking off eyelash's. How bad it had been at first when every noise he heard was like a stabbing shrill pierce at his nervous system. With time he had learnt to calm every nerve and stop things getting to him so much but now, in the quiet he allowed everything to flow back to its normal level. He could hear his partner's heavy breathing, she seemed fearful now, more so than she had been back inside the city.


He wondered had she ever been in a situation where she had to defend herself, not from a simple bully or a simple mugger. Travis' sensed only malice awaiting them with whoever they found. If that creature earlier had taught him anything, the world wasn't quite so friendly as he had thought only that morning. He flexed his muscles as he followed on and on. He felt like a puppy, being led around by it's master. Strangely she had led him by hand most of the way, he figured she had him pegged as blind and that she had to lead him by hand everywhere, he went with it, at least for the minute it wasn't all bad. Her hand was soft and smooth, his hand in her's didn't seem to be awkward or uncomfortable, at least for now anyways. It soon started raining, the soft pitter patter to the ordinary ear was transformed into a song for Travis. It was like the sky and the ground were doing battle, it was soft still, not harsh like metal on metal or the crunch of bone. It was always in motion, like waves and flows. It was beautiful in it's own way, so unlike what you would hear when you listened to it with your own ears. Travis enjoyed it, knowing only he knew the real majesty of rain. He liked the sound as it dripped off this and that, the splash and even the plop's as it hit more water below. He had little time to enjoy it.


He had followed the trail with his new partner but they had come to a standstill outside iron bars. They had been pulled apart as if by a bear with the sheer force it would of required to bend these bars. The whole that was made to make room for whatever pasted through here was of an unnatural shape and size. It didn't matter he figured, they had come this far, to stop here would be pointless, especially if the kidnapper was to keep his threats against this girl Reina. Travis had a sudden surge of adrenaline course through his body, it sent ripples of pain and pleasure through every muscle, he would of almost screamed but he collected himself as he realised that the feeling was suddenly pushing him forward into the darkness, his hand had already begun to reach for her, she had been talking to him, he could tell that much but there was such an overload of his sense's that he never heard a word she said, there was noises within this tunnel that both exhilarated and frightened him all at once, his blood felt alive and within him an energy was stirring. He couldn't tell what had brought these feelings over him but it was to late, he felt alive again like back when he could see with his own eyes.

"Wait...give me a second." She said, Travis had been pulling her for only a few inches before she froze in her tracks. Clearly she wasn't as interested in what was hiding at the end of this little cavern under the world above. He had forgot that his eyes seen what no one else could, this cave was no doubt dark and full of terrors to normal eyes but to him he could already see small passageways, precipice's, cliff's and even the odd chasm. He wondered more how this person had found a place so helpful for them to hide in. This was no doubt a hideout for whoever they had been tracking, this was his terrain and that meant they would be at a disadvantage no matter what. Though Travis figured they weren't counting on a blind who heard everything coming with force to claim their prize they believed they had stolen. Fayth took to much time to ready herself but Travis was patient and eventually a new sensation took over him. It felt like something new was crawling under his skin, something familiar yet so strange, it felt like.. well like.. his new friend was in his head, how could that be? His mind began to struggle, he couldn't fight her and all the noises in his head at once so his mind went into lock down instantly.

"Just relax and...breathe." He did what he was told but it all felt alien to him, he could feel as if she was gliding through his mind passing through his thoughts, like a flicker of the wind against a candle and suddenly it guttered out and disappeared and he felt at ease but as the peace came to him, he almost jump out of his skin as the woman's voice once more spoke to him, she was trying to be kind and reassuring but it was something unusual to Travis and the little girls warning flashed to mind once more. Someone knows about us... someone knows about me... the little girl.... even this woman I met. He felt much happier when he thought he was more alone in his gifts than right now as he had a woman in his head, a man who had watched as the monster had attacked him and here he was standing in some strange place with more questions than he could ever find answers for. They exchanged their names in complete silence, their minds binded together, though he sense's a little crudely, she wasn't in the deep reach's off his mind and he was thankful for that, your thoughts were your own for a reason, he didn't need her hear of the things he had only learnt of today just yet, he would tell her in his own words in time if he believed she could be trusted with it, right now they had far more pressing concerns as new noises were being picked up by Travis' ears. A familiar noise but not a friendly one.


A thousand voices at once, then suddenly it doubled and then tripled and before long there was more voices than even Travis could separate out in his head. They were surrounding him and Fayth, each one sounded angry, as if they had been riled up by some outside force. Travis could hear them but beside him he could almost feel the tension in his companion, he forgot that he had never told her it was him that had gotten rid of the bugs back when they first appeared when he wasn't sure whether to reveal his powers or not, he had kept silent and now he guessed it was probably time to fill her in, he moved suddenly so he was facing her, even in the darkness he knew she would see and feel him beside her, he closed in tight to her and whispered to her in as soft and soothing kind of voice that he could muster at that point. Leaning in closer and closer, he put his mouth to her ear, each time she breathed it was loud and clear, her heart pumping the blood faster and faster, each breathe pushing her chest in and out, all these things and more he could hear from within her, he felt he could even hear the girlish impulse to scream about ready to burst from her lips but as he had moved close she had seemed to forget the rest of the world and her focus was on him. He could smell her, she was sweet and from his eyes she looked pretty even in this darkness, even with his twisted vision, he breathed only a few words in her ear and then things had changed so fast.

"Close your mind...hands on your ears...pray this works..." He spoke the words soft and careful, he even slowly place his own hands upon her's and together they cupped her ears and blotted out what sound they could as Travis shifted and tensed every muscle in his body, it felt as if he was drawing in all the surroundings as it seemed like there was nothing but the feeling of being trapped in a vacuum as he drew in all the sound around him before shortly let it burst forward from his lips. It was painful to do, his vocal cords rippled and vibrated so hard it felt like they would burst. His stomach shuddered it's disapproval as he used every muscle from foot to head in his expulsion off sound and might. It was focused, twisting it into a shrill high pitched wail of sorts, the bugs were no sooner upon Travis and Fayth than they were assaulted by what Travis had named his power as the "Banshee's Call." The noise he had used to fight the bugs before wasn't going to be powerful enough to pierce every corner, this time he had to use real force, when using sound as a weapon Travis' ears would go completely deaf, during his attacks he was completely blind and deaf but he held onto Fayth tight with her warmth beside him he took comfort, she didn't shake or cower in fear. There was trust for him, however small it had been but it did not matter. He had screeched for what felt like a year and as he stopped he felt weary and tired.


One second he was standing holding Fayth's hands in his own and the next he was on the floor coughing blood. He hit the dirt hard and fast without even noticing it, he landed in a pile of dead insects, he didn't know whether his blast would kill or make them flee but he got the feeling he had maybe slightly over did it as he felt the bugs underneath his weight crunch. He wretched up blood violently at first but shortly it stopped, he figured he had torn a vocal cord or something. It had happened before when he was testing out the strength of his own powers a while back. He would be fine, in a short space of time it would have healed and his powers would work like nothing had even happened to him, it still hurt like hell though. He got back to his feet and soon he was once again able to take in all his surroundings once more. He saw the corpses of all the bugs he had killed, it was an awful sight, he hadn't been aware of just quite how destructive his concussive sonic blast would be, he had meant to hurt them not kill them. He guessed he wouldn't be able to apologise now, usually no one cared when they crushed one little bug but this was more like a killing field. If they were to move forward he was going to have to watch very carefully were he stepped. He wasn't really sure what had happened with since he had let his powers loose, he had felt almost blank until he had regained his feet.


He put his hand out to her as he starred out vaguely with his blank eye's scanning the area around them for were to go next. He studied the area and something seemed to stick out more than the rest, the was one area far off that seemed to have the constant sound of truly distant chattering. It was like things communicating with one another but it was so far off and strained that even with his abilities he couldn't exactly pinpoint it down to the last inch but he could get a vague idea as to what general location they would need to go, in a place with so little in it, there was only one sense he could trust. The noise of life in a lifeless place. It was a long way down, it seemed as if there was caves within caves around here. His enemy clearly had the advantage, he had no doubt they were walking in to a trap, what for he couldn't really guess. Had this new person kidnapped this girl Reina because she was one of "them" to? He had never asked Fayth about her more than he needed to, it was strange, she felt warm and comforting but something within Travis held back and held his tongue. It was to long since he had someone he could talk to... at least properly. He began to make the decent, his hand still held out to Fayth, if she followed him he could no longer tell, there was some new awakened curiosity with him than made him plunge deeper with pure determination.


Travis was a man of conviction and determination, in all his life if he had put his mind to it, it had come to him one way or another. His new found quest for knowledge was his current lust and little but exploring this cave to it's very heart and locating the culprit would slick his lust now. It was cold and damp around them, it had a very earthy and rich smell, not to say it was necessarily pleasant, it was times like this that Travis was glad that his sense of smell had been more less taken from him altogether. In truth he had lost more of himself than his eye's that fateful day but the only thing that anyone ever noticed was his eye's now, one stare at his cold implacable eye's and people no longer looked at him again. They treated him like he was diseased and contagious. Travis began to realise that beneath all this earth and dirt, it was growing colder and the air thicker and harder to breathe in. In truth the dirt filled air seemed to grate against his torn vocal chord sharply, like sand paper on an open wound. Occasionally he would cough and blood would trickle out amongst his spittle. He could feel it but not see it, it was warm and much thicker, he could tell with his vision but there was no colour, just a black canvas with a blue-ish tinted outline to people and the objects around him. Thankfully Fayth wouldn't notice if she was looking on as in the darkness no one would tell the difference between blood or water.


Down and down they delved deeper into this seemingly endless cavern they had stumbled in to, all to follow this mysterious attacker that had started this whole thing. Travis followed the faint noise of chatter to it's place of origin, it had been at least a good 40 to 50 feet below were they had come in, he stopped suddenly in the middle of a far more spacious chamber that opened into a wide space. He crossed to the middle of this new intersection and he could tell something was different, there was a squeak from Fayth, at least he assumed it was her that made the noise as something different had taken his attention, the room they were now standing in the middle off was well lit. Travis couldn't see light no more than he could see the sun or the sky anymore, what gave it away was the sound of the electrical current coursing through the light bulb, a slow droning noise it made, on and on it chirped in his ear, even up above him and quiet as it was, no sound escaped Travis. The light bulb swung from it's ceiling hinge high up above, something had passed by here recently, on it's path it had crashed past the light as it swung back and forward with vigour, each pass it made making it slow until it came to an eventual creeping halt. Travis felt strange, why lead them in darkness for so long to leave a single light on, there was something all wrong with this situation.
"Fayth.... You still there? ...I don't think we are.... alone anymore.... Fayth?"

I'm with Batman...or is it Man-Bat?

Fayth and her companion stood facing the entrance of a tunnel shrouded in darkness as it was hidden underneath a bridge. Water dripped from above as rain had started to fall in Novum Aurora and each droplet entered the flowing river underneath the bridge, which made loud echoing sounds. The stone surfaces underneath the bridge were heavily covered in artist graffiti, some of which were more stylist than others. Despite the invisibility offered by the shadows, the entrance to the tunnel was usually blocked by iron bars. Someone, or something, had effectively bent the bars to create an opening that was larger than the averaged sized person to slip through.

The trail of ants that Fayth and the blind man had found and followed was moving as a single line into the dark tunnel. It was evident that wherever the ants had taken them, they were leading the two to their destination.

“I don’t like this. How on earth can I see?!”, Fayth growled as she glared into the darkness of the tunnel. Her rhetorical question was met by the usual silence of her companion, who was facing her as she turned to look at him. “Oh…yeah. I forgot that you couldn’t see…”

In response, her blind friend took her hand and started heading into the abyss of the tunnel. However, Fayth grounded herself, which made the blind man turn back to her with a questioning expression.

“Wait…give me a second”, Fayth said as she closed her eyes. If they were going into the lair of whatever took Reina, they would need to prepare themselves. Although she was not combat-oriented, her time with Reina had developed her skills at using her powers to communicate and direct her friend, who was much better suited to the field than she was. Similarly, she suspected that the blind man was not as disadvantaged as she had first believed.

As she had found from playing around with her powers, connecting to a mind depended upon the interpersonal bond between her and the person she was linking to. Fayth remembered how easy it was when she connected to Reina due to their established friendship, as well as how difficult it was when she tried linking with strangers. Although she may not know the blind man well, Fayth felt a connection with him may already be forming; a blossoming bond forged from their current situation and recent events.

She found the superficial thoughts of the blind man, and followed them back to his mind. Her own mind brushed lightly across his and she could feel his response, his surprise at her mental presence outside the borders of his own. As a result of this, his mental barriers fortified themselves, as the brief surprise reinforced the will of his mind.

“Just relax and…breathe.”

As deep breaths of air were inhaled and exhaled by the blind man, Fayth felt his mental barriers begin to part ways, and as she willed herself through, she became acutely aware of the tangible force of sounds surrounding her. As she moved through and navigated his mind, Fayth realised that the sounds belonged to the blind man’s perceptions. Loud and powerful waves echoed through his mental domain and it was enough to disorient Fayth, but she strengthened her will and carried on.

Once she was within the eye of his consciousness, Fayth laid a psychic link as she retreated back to her own mind. She slowly opened her eyes and sensed his presence within her mind, just as he was sensing her presence in his mind.

“There. We can communicate this way without needing to speak."

“How…?”

“You may have your talents, but I have my own as well.”

The blind man hesitated for a moment, but seemingly accepted this as he turned and headed into the darkness that awaited them.

“Hey. I never got your name. I’m Fayth.”

“…Travis.”

-

It was like a whole other world as Fayth and Travis walked in complete darkness through the tunnel and deeper into the underground maze where Reina was kept. The air was damp and the walls moist as a large stream of water flowed through the middle of the floor, separating the path into two. An unpleasant odour lingered in the air, which assaulted Fayth’s nose and almost made her throw up when she first encountered it. But what truly disconnected the tunnel from the city was the eerie emptiness and lack of life underground. Fayth’s psychic senses, which were so used to the diverse vitality of people in the city, were acutely aware of the sparse energies around her.

Fayth was fascinated by the psychic realm of Travis’ mind as she was finely attuned to it through their link. She could hear all sorts of things with much more clarity and intensity through the way his mind perceived and processed auditory stimuli. And despite his blindness, a mental representation of their surroundings was constructed by the sounds that he could hear. With each step he took, the sounds bounced back and were received by his ears to shift the mental representation reflecting their movement through the tunnel. As Fayth realised, it similar to the echolocation of bats and how they use sounds to navigate at night.

She was also aware that this may make them alike in a way.

Suddenly, according to Travis’ ears, something was audible straight ahead of them. He stopped and concentrated on it, which Fayth could sense through their connection. They waited in anticipation, and although Fayth heard nothing through her own ears, she was aware that something had appeared on Travis’ sonar radar.

It hit her through her psychic senses, just as recognition of the sounds hit Travis. A swarm of insect, accompanied by that same evil cheeriness that she sensed earlier that day, was rushing towards them. Fayth panicked and began to turn and pull Travis back the way they came, but his strong hand gripped hers tightly to prevent her from escaping. Fayth turned back and found that Travis had not been moved by the oncoming bugs; he stood firm and strong as he mentally readied himself. As she took a quick panicked breath, Fayth fought the instinct to scream as the insects descended all around them and upon them, unleashing their hellish bites by the millions.