Xole woke groggily as bright lights blurred his vision, his muffled ears rung to loud sounds drowning out a single faint voice. He looked to the ground to see wet blood splatters, then to his front to see handprints on the glass. It hit him; he was in an all too familiar tank about to share an all too familiar fate. Janet was at the monitor typing away, talking to Brandon, who lay on the medical table calmly replying to her, the same tubes connected to him went back to where Xole was. Not that he could make out anything they were saying anyways, those weren’t the voice.
His eyes drew around the room. Despite it being empty, he could make out an audience of people watching him.
He saw Ester, the security guard, watching in horror trying to motion for Brandon to stop.
He saw Yesfir, his sitter, staring at him with arms folded, shaking her head.
He saw Gus, his best friend, shouting something at him while hopping in his seat. He seemed like his old energetic self.
He saw the figures of a man and a woman sitting side by side. While he couldn’t make out their faces he could tell they were smiling at him.
He could even see the Mr. Holdover and Shakar trying to reach him at the front before being ushered out the door by two other, familiar looking, beefy security guards.
Xole was so distracted by the crowd he didn’t even hear the machine roar to life with the same ‘WOOSH’. Realizing that reminded him how weak he was, immediately he could feel his body grow heavy, his nose and eyes watered as dizziness overtook the rest of his senses with the same voice only growing louder, as if trying to overpower the other noises.
Xole was confused, was the vice haunting him? Mocking him? Why wouldn’t it go away?
As he felt his knees begin to give, he glanced at the progress on the body monitor, which was now blaring out text.
98% FINAL CALIBRATION IN PROGRESS: 20 SECONDES REMAIN
‘Just like old times.’ he thought bitterly. Then, the crowd began to disperse. Ester left first, shaking his head in sorrow. Then the two figures strode right pass him, carefree, not even bothering to look at him. After that was Yesfir, walked up to the tank, stopping to drop her head, he could see her lip quiver, before quickly leaving the room without looking back. Finally, Gus bolted at him, still saying something as he got closer.
“It’s all on you! Get out of here!”
“Oh…makes sense now.” Xole said to himself with a smile, using the last of his breath. “Suppose this is my last regret. Just like in your last moments I wasn’t able to save you, buddy. I’m sor—”
‘LIVE!’ the voice in the back of Xole’s mind finally synced up with Gus’s. He snapped up. The voice became stronger, more determined.
‘Don’t go out like me, Xole!’ Now he could see Gus slam his fist against the glass. ‘Live, Xole! LIVE!’
He continued to shout and shout as the hit-woman came to drag him out. His words echoed in Xole’s head. The whole time, that voice Gus, was encouraging him.
‘It is all on me’
With a grunt Xole pressed his hands against the glass, pushing as hard as he could, remembering how Gus froze the hit woman in place briefly.
‘Focus, I need to focus!’ fighting back the urge to shake, he took a breath and pressed harder on the glass. He looked back at Janet, typing away on the monitor.
99% FINAL CALIBRATION IN PROGRESS: 7 SECONEDS REMAIN
‘Yesfir always spoke about my potential yet…!’ he thought. Outstretching his arms, he twisted his left hand sideways, placing over his right, gripping the top of his palm. Then using both hands, pushed in Janet’s direction as hard as he could. ‘It doesn’t matter what she thinks, or what we were. I have one shot at this, that’s what matters to me now!’
99% FINAL CALIBRATION IN PROGRESS: 1 SECONEDS REMA-
In an instant, the glass shattered beneath Xole’s palm. Shards were launched across the room into one direction, Janet, embedding themselves into her body and knocking her to the floor, screaming and bleeding profusely.
“Janet?” Brandon asked getting up. His eyes went to her on the ground, then to Xole standing in the destroyed tank. The man’s face lost all color. Tears filled his eyes as he shrieked. “NO, NO NOOOO! NOT AGAIN!! I WAS SO CLOSE!!!”
Xole just looked at the man, ignoring Janet and taking a single step towards him. Brandon stumbled back, tripping over himself, bolting from the room to the stairs. Xole could hear his footsteps disappear above, not that it bothered him. He knew exactly where Brandon was going.
…
‘He’s become quite formidable after liberating his Talent.’ Anastasia thought as the two clashed furiously. After losing his kufi, the young man reduced his staff length down to two feet to engage her in close quarters. The blows were even harder and twice as fast, even forcing her back as the weapon’s impact exploded against any chairs or walls it came into contact with. He swung his staff upwards from her left side towards her head; quickly, she fainted left, falling to the floor on her hands, catching the weapon by coiling it with her legs. ‘Formidable indeed, for an amateur.’
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Twisting her body, she forced the weapon from him. To her surprise however, he let go quickly, but not before hitting the bottom with his palm, extending the staff past four feet and shooting the top shot through her legs, bonking her in the head. Anastasia’s vision went dark—only for a fraction of second—before rolling back into a crouched position with the man stepping in to jab her again. Her mind quickly rationalized the situation.
‘Did I just black out?! Impossible, I’ve shaken off much worse, not to mention his Talent isn’t even fully manifested!’ Feeling a growl escape her lips, she kicked off the ground and over his weapon, jabbing her nails into his shoulders. She then curled her knees and crammed them into his chest, finally forcing the man back skidding on his feet. Taking advantage of the high ceiling, she ran on the wall upwards towards him, running her tongue against her wisdom teeth.
‘He’ll pay for making a fool of me! To think I would resort to my hidden arsenal for this one.’ plucking a tooth from the back of her mouth, she spat it downwards at him while dropping overhead, adjacent arm outstretched. ‘I struck his shoulder good, even with his Talent liberated he should be slowing down substantially’
The tooth hit the ground first, exploding on impact and shaking the room in a fiery blaze.
‘BOOM!!!’
Immediately after, she brought her arm downward, her nails slashing deep into the floor. There was no one there. Standing up, she relaxed, feeling the environment around her.
‘I can’t feel him, there’s something clearly off with his Talent.’ she thought. She ran her hands along the wall. ‘His Inner-gi is nonexistent, despite the fact that it should be all over the place with how much he’s been fighting. His strikes have also been oddly precise, though not to the extent of Kim’s, it’s still irritating.’
Then she noticed a small hole inside the wall where he’d been standing. She turned her head to see skid marks in blood on the ground and the door wide open into the hall leading into the room over. Instinctively, she followed.
‘So he used his little stick to vault sideways out the room under the cover of my explosion. Intuitive, though faulty on my part, I shouldn’t’ve underestimated him.’
The trail took her to a similar looking room across the hall with the inside of it lacking a long meeting table and instead opting for multiple smaller round tables spaced out around the room with a couple chairs set per. In the middle of the room was the younger man’s staff stuck into the ground in an upright position. Before she took another step, her eyes widened. A blue haze started to seep from the top of the weapon. Anastasia darted forward without a second thought, reaching behind her. She threw a heap of white clay on the top of the weapon, sealing the leak before the haze could spread.
‘I see. It’s starting to make sense now.’ she thought, ‘so he’s one of these types. To think I’d be facing one—behind me!’ Whipping out her side arm, she fired several shots at the table against the window. The younger man made himself known, jumping behind the table. She saw his arms flail behind him.
‘Good, looks like his times about up.’ Switching her ammo, she unloaded on the table. The furniture was riddled with holes. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed he ran from the destroyed table to another one. As she fired, he quickly shifted his direction to the middle for his staff. However she took advantage of the lack of barriers to riddle the zone with bullets, forcing him to back. This was becoming easy for her. ‘Going for the clay won’t save you.’
While doing his best to zigzag from her line of fire, the young man could feel himself panting and his body slowing down. He jerked to the right, only to feel a shot hit his leg and another, his foot. He grunted and spun back, bolting for his staff again, only for the woman to beat him there, balancing on top of it to keep the clay in place
“Unfortunately, the tables have turned against your favor,” she scoffed aiming her weapon at his head. Getting a better look at him, she could see the end of a rope in his hand as he fell to the floor, covering his head with both arms.
‘I’m used to this reaction, but now seems...out of character.’
Puzzled, Anastasia peripheral caught the same rope looping around all the other tables and chairs around the room before tying back to where she was standing.
The staff.
Anastasia jumped off as the weapon extended well beyond eight feet, shooting into the ceiling. However, one of the oncoming chairs struck her leg, knocking her off balance midair while a piece of a table struck the back of her head. She growled and tried twisting to maneuver away—but it was too late. She could see everything on the rope flying at her from all directions, chairs and tables, broken or not, hit her one by one in rapid succession at first, before colliding with her small body all at once. The weak furniture exploded against her into smithereens, burying the woman in a pile of rubble. Shakar stood up, feeling his kufi return to his hands. Dusting it off, he slowly put it back on his head. Despite the pain in his shoulders, he couldn’t help but smile.
“Whelp, that’s one way to get rid of poison.” he said taking his staff starting to coil his rope. He let out a fatigued breath. “Still, it appears my arms will need a break.”
“Too bad for you.” a voice pierced his ears.
Shakar spun, already falling back to evade but was too late as the woman’s heeled boot impaled itself into him. Shakar flew back, crashing into the wall leaving an indent. The woman calmly walked towards him. He could see her a few cuts and bruises on her with a little blood tricking from her nose.
“Well…” he said weakly, “Looks like I forgot to check my work…”
“Intriguing, do all you types undergo a change of character whenever you liberate your…’Talent’?’ she asked condescendingly and whipped out her nails. “Depending on your answer, I’ll make this painful, or very painful.”
Shakar paused a moment before looking down with a chuckle, “Just me.”
“Good.” the hit-woman spoke with a rare tone of glee. “Your demise will add to my bonus.”
Then, a sound from above something caught them both by surprise.
‘CRASH!’
Anastasia turned in shock, seeing Mr. Holdover leaping from the spot on the ground he landed, the man glaring into her eyes with his fist inches from his face. But it wasn’t the sight of the oncoming attack that shook her to the core, it was the man himself.
“Y-you?!” she sputtered.
‘CRACK!!!’
The sound of his fist crashing into the side of her face echoed through the room. Her head recoiled backwards, her body followed suit, tumbling and spinning out of control midair only to stop as she crashed through the glass windows, falling off the building.
He looked to Shakar. “You good?”
“Well I’m not dead yet. Still, could you help me—?”
“Good.” He replied. He stepped over him and stared off the edge where she’d fallen. “We should be clear. You find the kid?”
As many questions as Shakar had about what just happened, his body told him those can wait. “I think. I found where Amesworth’s money’s being kept and if I were a betting man, I’d bet that’s where he’s going next.”
“Tch!” Mr. Holdover scratched his head. “What about the boy though?”
“It’s all connected.” Shakar grunted getting up. “He’s the only reason Brandon Amesworth hasn’t escaped yet.”
