New Beginnings

He felt the arm of his enemy snap but that was not enough, he then them onto the ground as they screamed in pain and without remorse he stomped on their spine. Rudraya woke in a cold sweat, his wasn't the first time he had this dream. For the past week he had dreamt. He had never killed anything larger than insect in his life although some part of him was trying to convince him that the thing was a mass f hatred made flesh, he was wracked with guilt, it could have been a person once had he killed someone? He put the thought out of his head while, choosing to ignore it for now. When tall guy had left him in the alley he had lain there for a which healing, his power meant he was able to drag himself to his feet and slowly stumble to his appartment. The wound itself had closed up in half an hour, but the internal healing took another couple of hours.

So there were others with powers, what should he do? what would his teacher have done? And what could he do? He was just another low immigrant working in the library of Novum Aurora? His parents would have said don't think to much son,  just go with what feels right, we know you better than you think. "How will I find people with this shithole of a situation I'm in!?" he shouted out loud.

For the last couple of days he had gone to work as normal, but his mind was constantly drifting. Filing books away in the wrong places, staring into space. It was almost enough to stop the constant pin pricks on his mind of people wanting books found. Today was the same, he drifted into one of his favorite section, the religion and spirituality section, why they grouped the two together was not surprising but not correct in his opinion. He picked a book at random  and opened it and read the first sentence he saw “anyone who wants change has to change in ways yet un-thought of,” he immediately dismissed the book and almost threw it aside in his dark mood. Money was one of the least important things in his life, he valued it less for its hold it had on most people but he had to admit that without it, sometimes you were nothing going nowhere.  As he walked home he saw a sign saying , “want to further your prospects? Attend the University of Novum Aurora, the most prestigious in the world, now offering apprentice ships!!,” it would have been the perfect place for his research he would have access to all sorts of information...but what would he study?  He had a set of A Levels to his name but what if they dug too deep? Found out he was an illegal immigrant? But he had to try, it was his only chance.

As  he entered his front door he pick up the junk mail and sorted through it. “Join the university of Novum Aurora today...” once was probably just coincidence but twice? Well if he had wanted a sign he had just got one. Rudraya believed in life giving you pointers, he wasn't so sure of the concept of fate but he believed in life giving you a message. But it was such a big change for him, if it succeeded, “anyone who wants change has to change in ways yet un-thought of,” what the hell, he had nothing to loose.  He spent the next couple of days trying to decide what he would like to study.  His first thought was psychology or philosophy, they would be of lesser difficuly to register for and hopefully they would be impressed with his knowledge. Maybe religious studies since he had already read a lot on the subject. His aim was to get something that wouldn’t take too much work so he could focus on looking for people. He also had to think about job prospects.....he was thinking too much just get there first. 

To their credit the university architects had done a good job when they constructed the building, they had covered up austere grey blocks with sweeping glass and metal panels. He supposed the main building was a traditional old affair but the student reception area was cool. It was all new to him nothing unfamiliar. After all he worked in the biggest and most prestigious library in the city, yet he had to admit to himself that the system still overwhelmed him and he was more than a bit nervous, almost nervous enough to cover up the now more frequent pin pricks on his psyche as he was now with a large group of people. He tried to stay near the back and be unnoticed. His long hair was almost an advantage as most of the male students milling around also had similar hairstyles. They walked round the various campuses and building for a couple of hours,  it was a clear sunny day and he was just glad to be walking about outside, a gentle breeze was a welcome addition as the sun bathed everything in a golden heat. Everything seemed so vibrant to his eyes. He had never seen buildings with so much glass and open spaces lit by natural light, and he was impressed by the potential for learning at this place. Many millions of people had come and gone here, each would study the subject that would potentially start them on a life long journey. Once the group returned to the students reception it had been set up as a sort of market type stall affair, with a program detailing the different subject to be studied and people you could ask questions to. He drifted towards the arts and humanities area, something that wouldn't take him too much time or effort and something he would be interested in.

He hesitantly made his way to the philosophy stall. "Hello, are you interested in studying philosopy with the university?", "how could you guess!" thought Rudraya as he replied. The man he was talking to had a typlical student look about him, bad hair check, bad breath check and bad clothing. Then again in the clothing department Rudraya couldn't really compete. He briefly talked about all the modules that were on offer, the different philosophers that would be studied in depth. Rudraya cast an eye over the psychology and thanked the man for the information. He went over to the psychology stall and received the same sort of information. He made his way to the finance desk where e would find out if the day had been a complete waste. "Hello, I want to find out if I will be eligible for a student loan" he said, the women at the desk was looked to be in her mid thirties and had a helping air. She gave him a form to fill in asking for his age how long had he been living in Novum Aurora and how long he had been working.She then too,the form from him and input the information into he computer. Rudraya was nervous and had the familiar uneasy feeling in his chest. He hadn't realised how much he was looking for a change in his life,  and how much he was relying on this. He hated being nervous, he hated having to depend on others but he new that everyone depended on someone or something and one point or another in their life. He was fidgeting with his hands when, and hating himself for it when the lady said, "lets see what you are eligible for," he almost was holding his breath at this point "it looks like you will be in good hands Rudraya!, you are eligible for a student loan with an additional grant due to the amount of time you have been working and the fact that you have no guarantors," "guarantors?" he asked? "You have no people you can depend on", a flash of sadness passed across his eyes but it was gone as quickly as it appeared.  

The rest of the day passed in the blink of an eye,  now he was back in his apartment. So little had gone well for him in the past few years. There had been moments, brief flashes of what should have been, when he managed to secure a job and and wasn't homeless. He felt like time had stopped passing for these moments now he looked back, he felt a weight off his shoulders, he couldn't place what it was at first, but as he sat there it came, it was expectation. When he was younger he had always thought his life had been meant for something, not that he was better than everyone but that he was meant for something. The past few years had crushed that notion out of him, at least he thought they had. He had not expected all those old feelings to come up, funny how it had started, all he wanted to do was find others with powers, now he had a government loan and a possibility of making a bit more of himself. He sat there and allowed a small tear to fall. How could a small drop contain so much?   

Face your fear

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When no is not enough for men

The monstrous spider began to move towards Fayth in a lazily, slow manner. As it did, its form rippled and shifted as its four of its eight legs retracted back into its hideous body. The two front legs pushed and heaved itself upright onto its hind legs, with the long hairs on all four remaining legs growing shorter and revealing paled skin underneath. The same was happening to the body and its shape decreased to half its size as the enormous abdomen and spinnerets shrunk and disappeared into the now naked body. A lump formed around the eyes and swelled up until it vaguely resembled the shape of a human head. Long, brown hair grew from it in a wavy length, as the multiple eyes shifted into two rough bumps, which opened to reveal dark hazel and very human eyes. As the last stages of his transformation were completed, a creepy smile stretched across the person’s face, and the identity of their adversary was finally revealed to Fayth.

Danny Crumpus.

“I don’t like it when you keep me waiting…”, Danny purred as he stopped and stood in front of Fayth in his human form. There were several arachnids and insects upon his naked body, but they stayed there as if they knew that his skin was safe to be on. “I was worried that you weren’t going to show. But I knew you would. You wouldn’t leave your poor friend all alone, would you?” 

Annoyance stirred within as Fayth remained helpless in her frozen and silent state, but it was not enough to loan her the strength to break free. She watched as the little man waffled on about something, and her mind connected it to the other times that Danny had tried to hit upon her at the university library without much success. The same creepy smile, the same egotistical attitude where only he mattered in this life, and the same perseverance of his attempts to impress and woo her. Fayth had at first kindly declined Danny’s offers of dates, but he kept coming back to her, with more unusual endeavours until she had to report him for harassment at work. However, she should have at least suspected that that wouldn’t be the last she would see of him; now he held her and her friends captive, all because he wouldn’t take no for an answer. 

“…and here we are. Let us seal the deal of our new relationship with a kiss…”. Danny leaned forwards and planted his chapped lips onto hers. He tried to force his tongue to part her lips, but thankfully, they were firmly sealed shut from the mental and physical paralysis.

Anger and hatred started to seethe when Danny’s dried lips touched her own and Fayth could do nothing but watch in revolt at the violation of her body. Fiery rage erupted in waves even though he had failed to use his tongue to gain entry into her mouth. But that hot wrath flowed through her and began to melt some of the malicious glee that froze her, and she could feel parts of her mind beginning to thaw.

There were loud stomping sounds coming from behind Danny, who had a pained expression flashing across his face with each stomp. The little man quickly turned his head behind him and Fayth looked past the tiny man to find that her companion was trying to fight back. Despite his height and physical build, the many spiders had started to weave webs around Travis, who was struggling to move or speak freely against it. However, they were not quick enough to completely restrict his every movement, so Travis lashed out at the arachnids and crushed some of them with either his big hands or large feet. Each splatter of several spiders brought about a momentary victory, but the void of space was quickly replaced by a new set of spiders. The arachnids were endless as more and more of them crawled from the weak webbing on the floor, but Travis continued to desperately battle with them.

“YOU! So you are the one who has been hurting my beauties!”, Danny cried out. He turned around completely and sluggishly staggered towards the tall man, and his body began to transform into another monstrous form. With Danny’s focus elsewhere, the malicious glee slowly eroded and Fayth’s own fury aided in dissipating the emotional energy that pinned her down. Her thoughts trickled back and her mind cleared itself as if she had awoken from a groggy naps. External sensations came back to her, and she picked up on something unusual….

By now, Danny had assumed the form of a gigantic praying mantis and he stopped in front of Travis, who continued with his never-ending war against the arachnids. The huge mantis lashed out with its newly formed front legs in a blur and plucked the man from the web bindings, lifting him up to face its head. Sharp spikes dug into the fleshy area between Travis’ chest and arms, who reacted by shaking and letting out a muffled, webbed scream in pain. Spiders continued to wriggle among his body, but they soon started retreating back to Danny via the mantis legs grasping the tall man.

“You are a pain!”, Danny screeched loudly in that unnatural sound again. “I wondered how you managed to bypass the sentries…No matter. You won’t live for much longer!”. It started to bring Travis closer and closer until his head was an inch away from the deadly mandibles parting open.

However, a large cluster of spiders quickly crawled up onto the mandibles and darted into its mouth, while other clusters spun a thin cocoon to bind the jaws together. More clusters moved in on reinforcing the webbing and some had started webbed the rest of Danny, with more spiders on the ground marching their way up his mantis legs to join the binding.

“Huh…what?”, a confused and muffled screech emitted from Danny’s mutated mouth. “What are you doing? My beauties…”

Release him, echoed a powerfully thought within both of their minds. It resonated with an authoritative tone that demanded the attention of both men to turn their heads at the owner. They were met by Fayth and her hand outstretched towards them, while she was on her other hand and knees. She was visibly shaking from the effort, but she kept her eyes intensely fixed upon them. A large cocoon of webs was being dragged towards her by clusters of large spiders, and the face of her unconscious friend poked out through a fragile layer of the webbing. The spiders that had clung to her body had scuttled off and joined the rest of the clusters moving towards Danny.  “I said, release him”.

At that command, the spiders all over Danny simultaneously stopped in motion and began to attack him with their fangs. Their former master cried out in pain as they bit into him in all places, which caused him to release and drop Travis to the ground. Danny began to swat the spiders away from his monstrous mantis body; desperate to end the torment while taking care not to harm any of his “beauties”.

“Ho-how are you doing this?!”, Danny screeched in surprise.

Fayth didn’t answer as she focused upon the psychic link between Danny and his arachnids and insects. It took most of her concentration as her mind was immersed within that mental channel and she sent her own commands to the bugs while warding off Danny’s orders. She was also trying to not lose herself again as the connection itself was driven by that malevolent joy from Danny himself. Though his attention had been distracted with Travis before, Fayth now faced the mad will of Danny Crumpus. It was vastly overpowering and she could barely manage to keep his creepy crawlers at bay from her and her friends.

Danny let out a screeching sound that vaguely imitated a cackle, as he regained control of the insects and once more sent them scurrying towards Fayth and her friends. Fayth gasped as she lost the mental battle, but the fear she felt radiating from Travis and her desire to protect her friends urged her to renew her efforts. Despite her already tired state of mind, she grudgingly sank back into the roaring currents of Danny’s will. Instead of employing the same tactic of building a dam to block off his commands to the bugs, she swam upstream towards his exposed mind. It was tough and Fayth was nearly swept away several times, but the solid force of her own loathing towards Danny made her will relentless and unyielding. When she finally reached Danny’s mental barriers, it only took her a second to plunge through with the intent to lay waste to his pathetic mind.

Let the hunt begin

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

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

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

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

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

Each one of the three brought out a taser gun.

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

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

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

He ran.

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

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

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

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

“Found him”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chase

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.