My mind raced as I watched building after building pass. After leaving the briefing room, I followed the team to the changing rooms where I found my new suit. This one was pretty much all leather and black like my last one. Down the chest of it, were laces that tied up to tighten it around me. It came with a pec-length jacket. It was much in the vein of what I’d worn before. This jacket, however, had an emblem of a bird of some sort. The boots were knee-length, but tied up in the front, just like the front of suit. The suit felt very Matrix meets Catwoman but it worked for me. My weapons had been restored, or upgraded. My pistols were now black with golden trim and a higher caliber. My Eskrima knives were now made out of a very hard metal. The other little odds and ends, like smoke pellets and the likes had been upgraded as well as some things added. My favorite had to be scrambler. It allowed me to open safes without using a combination. Another favorite was the zip line. It made scaling building much easier, or so I’ve heard. I also had a rather large knife, which I probably wouldn’t use. I felt like a superhero, even if I wasn’t one. It kept my mind off thinking about David. It was only about six minutes from the tower, but it felt like it was taking forever to get there. When we finally got there, the police were trying to keep the riot in check but were having little luck. I prepared myself for what was to come, but I had no idea. When we opened the doors and exited the SUVs, the sound was the first thing to catch my attention. The voices of the people were loud and they were all shouting. I stepped out into of the SUV I felt something was off. I took note of the costumes around me. Birkoff’s metal suit was orange and blue, as his old costume had been, making him more robot than human. Electra wore a short green skirt with a matching corset and calf-length green and golden boots. Harrison’s costume was a close fitting golden bullet proof vest with matching pants and darker calf-length boots encrusted with silver. His bow was also silver and gold. Leif’s costume was something more medieval. He had bullet-proof rust-red armor as well as pale blue, durable lycra pants with kneepads grafted onto them. The pads were made of the same metal that his armor was made out of and his boots continued down from them. On his shoulders, he had something only a Norse God would wear, like metal shoulder pads and a flowing cap. I figured that he had embraced his inner Thor. He was the only one besides me that I knew had a weapon, the hammer. Inik, Sofia and Kinsler stayed behind with Dana and Anderson. As the five of us made our way to the front of the unruly mob, I noticed someone was standing onstage. It wasn’t a person I’d seen before, but Maksim was at his side, holding David on one knee while guards with guns stood around, making sure the mob stayed a comfortable distance. The person onstage was wearing a Greek ceremonial mask and matching robes with the Medusa insignia on them. It seemed he was waiting for something. I made a move towards the stage but Leif held me back. It was as if the masked man’s face saw this and a gurgled voice began to speak.
“Fear not, citizens, for your protectors have come.” The masked man said gesturing towards us, “You know them. They’ve protected you from threat after threat. Spire, Norse, Archer, Leif, and Huma.” He gestured to David, “And he, David Samis, is called Marvel.”
There was a distant chatter as the wall behind him darkened with a hologram. The hologram showed all of our personal information, including our real names and photos. There were murmurs through the stunned crowd as well as gasps.
The mask man waited until it landed on my photo, “Your protectors are nothing more than murderers and thieves, sometimes both. This is Huma a.k.a Peter Robertson. His was responsible for the death of Steven Samis and the theft of many priceless objects. He is also a spy, a double agent.” He said curtly, “Are these the people you want protecting you? What about Mr. Samis here? He aligned himself with a criminal and kept his identity a secret.”
“You’re not going to get away with this!” David spat.
“Oh, but I am. And I have news that your protectors neglected to share with you: The aliens are coming.”
There was a silence as everyone looked to each other. The team stood, watching each other. We weren’t sure where we’d go next. Our secrets were being displayed in front of the whole city. It wasn’t just these people, this was televised and if we saw it at the tower, imagine how many others saw were watching it now. I was no longer just a thief, I was a criminal. I’d never wanted to pummel someone more than I did now. Leif had relaxed his grip on me and I started to the stage but I noticed the crowd turning to me, whispering and pointing.
“An invasion is coming. And they wanted you to be surprised so that they could be the heroes, but our anti-terrorism group, Medusa, sees through them. We want people to be in control of their own destinies.” The masked man said, “We put their fate in your hands.” He said, bowing out. He whispered something to Maksim before disappearing.
Behind me, Electra, Leif, and Birkoff took off the ground and flew through the air, after the masked man. The guards began firing at them and the citizens ducked. Taking this time to run, I began running as fast as I could. Maksim saw this and began pressing down and contorting David like a pretzel. I quickly stopped and watched Maksim smile at me. An arrow shot from behind me and Maksim moved to catch it, dropping David. I smirked as I ran as fast as I could, jumping on the backs of crouched citizens, and jumping onto the stage.
“Jig’s up.” Maksim said with a thick Russian accent, “Now we all know. Make it easy on yourself.”
I shrugged, “I’m a hard kind of guy.” I jumped into the air, bringing my foot around to meet his face!
He staggered back before spitting out the blood. It was amazing how ethereal he looked. He was a beautiful…human? He couldn’t be human. Not entirely. He moved with such speed that he seemed to blur at some points. He quickly moved behind me, grabbing me by the neck. I rolled him off my back and twisted his arms. He quickly, and elegantly, kicked me and knocked me off my balance. He got up with ease and stared at me with an unreadable look on his face. I quickly punched at him, to which he blocked it and bent over, kicking him again. I jumped into the air and he grabbed me slamming me down. I swung my foot around, taking him off his feet and we both stood, pulling out our guns. We both stood slowly, our guns aimed at each other.
“We’re evenly matched.” He panted.
“Are we?” I asked.
I tried to avoid looking, but David was behind him, again. Maksim looked down very quickly and turned his gun to David and shot him in the arm before turning it back to me. By this time, I had moved closer and spun around his arm into an armbar and taking him off his feet. He crawled to his gun as I put my foot on it.
“You should watch your toys. Might hurt someone.” I said angrily. I kicked him in the face and picked up his gun. As I walked over to David, he was applying pressure to the gunshot wound. I quickly placed my hand over the wound and looked at him, “Are you alright?”
“It’ll heal.” David said with an ample amount of pain, “Medusa’s going to pay.”
“I think we’ve got other things to worry about.” I said, looking out onto the citizens, “They know.”
David sighed, “It’ll be okay. You’re not a thief anymore.”
“You’re still a murderer.” Maksim said behind me.
I turned to see him standing before me. He didn’t even look tired, just a little worn. I put my hand on my Eskrima but he hit me so hard and so fast that I couldn’t prepare myself. I was thrown off the stage with such force that I went through the back and skidded across the floor. I slowly stood and limped back to the stage after regaining consciousness. An absorbant amount of time must have passed because it was now twilight. The scene was a mess and everyone was gone. I stepped onto the stage and looked around. I paused and looked around when a light hit me in the face.
“Stop! Peter Robertson, you’re under arrest!” A voice called.
I growled in frustration. So much for a team.
The Redeemer Page 8