by Vee Bosse
“I will escort you in this mission. We will now proceed,” declared Sabrina, accepting the new objective presented to her by her group. Just as they were ready to blow out of Tokyo, Andrea suddenly leapt forward to where Maputo and Hiroko were still standing as the arena remained stunned and perplexed in silence.
“Hey...give me a cigarette, now,” Dre demanded, as the general’s eyes grew as wide as a canyon.
“Hey, you...you all just can’t leave like this!” muttered Maputo as Dre shot him an aggravated stare. But as she was gazing on, she noticed two figures suddenly appear at the top of the arena above them all.
“Jayce, there they are...that’s them.”
The entire team turned to look up at who had appeared out of nowhere. It was Dylan Rook, who teleported himself and another person who was roughly their age to the top of the Tokyo Coliseum without warning.
“Thank you for your continued service, Dylan.” he announced, with his medium-length, white hair whipping around his face while the wind was blowing. His blue eyes would have caught any chick’s gaze, and they were paired together with a devilish grin, and a long, black overcoat.
“Dylan Rook, why have you teleported here, and who is that!?” asked Haynes, with a look of cautious fury on his face as the rest of the team prepared for the inevitable battle to come.
“This is Jayce Wolfgain, the leader of our special group: The Shadow Project. I brought him here because he demanded to see the ones who were strong enough to make me break a sweat, and even take down Revenant,” Dylan said, bringing shock to the group below.
“What do you mean ‘your group’?” asked Isaac in confusion, as he gripped his sword Tripleese with a look of excitement.
“Did you all think I was affiliated with the government? No one ever told you guys that. I happened to be imprisoned on a Western Latitude ship that was headed for Haven Island a decade ago. The same ship that was hijacked by a fellow prisoner, the guy standing next to me now. Jayce allowed me to continue my carefree lifestyle after getting caught by Politek those years ago.”
Dylan’s dedication to serving under Jayce seemed absolute, when Haynes pressed forward for more information. “But I thought you had been Revenant’s partner for a half a century? What do you mean you were on that ship only a decade ago as a captured subject?” Haynes asked the question the entire team was now wondering, eagerly awaiting his reply.
“Yes, killing Adel Bain with Felix was very fun, but after he accepted the Western Latitude’s demands for us to become soldiers for the government’s army, I refused. It just wasn’t my style. I lived for many years on the run while Revenant did his best to give me as many outs as he could. It wasn’t enough in the end, and Politek had used Sapphire Radiance shackles to subdue my abilities...that bitch fought dirty,” Dylan explained, looking up towards the sky with a satisfied smile as he fondly remembered his recent vanquishing of the general who had subdued him long ago.
“So that’s the kind of friendship you had with Revenant, a really strong friendship it seems. But I guess that only went so far, and this guy next to you was the one who came through for you in the end,” said Haynes.
“Revenant and I were good friends, until you killed him. Ha! I didn’t see that one coming. So now, it’s time for us, The Shadow Project, to step in. Hey, I wonder if you all can evolve in the face of what comes next?” Dylan said, now wearing a completely black fedora along with a black suit and an unkempt tie. Jayce suddenly spoke next, looking annoyed and amused all at once.
“The Shadow Project consists of myself as leader, along with Dylan and several others. We were all escapees on the ship that I hijacked, and we now operate in North America, independently from the Western Latitude’s government. Let me make this clear to you all, right here and now: we do what we want. There is no one in the military who has been able to stop any of us. Not even Schilling, after we had escaped.”
Derek stepped forward, smiling with similar amusement. “Are you trying to intimidate us, oh dark leader?” Upon hearing Derek’s cleverly bold quip, Jayce smiled a little wider.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re intimidated or not, that’s irrelevant. I implore you to see things from my perspective.” Just then, Sarge stepped forward, looking hostile.
“Tell me this! If these guys from the east are killing everyone back at our homeland, why are you both here instead of fighting them back there!”
The team gazed at Jayce and Dylan, awaiting their answer along with the rest of the arena’s spectators. “Because, I don’t want to. I’ve decided to let them slaughter everyone so that we can have the evacuated cities back home to ourselves.” Upon hearing this, the team glared in shock at Jayce’s complete and total selfishness. Disgust overcame them, as they prepared to take out the Shadow Project’s leader right there and now.
Hiroko and Maputo suddenly let out a sigh amidst the newfound tension. “I must become thankful that they are not opposing us, if they are truly as strong as he says they are.” Maputo drowsily admitted, now humbled along with the Japanese people in the presence of Westin’s energy and presence. Suddenly, just then, Toshiro had stood up once more, turning away from Westin and his teammates that had completely overcome his power. He leapt high above them, using the stadium to jump up towards where Dylan and Jayce had stood at the very top.
“In my disgrace, I will bring death to the Westerners who defile my planet, much more severely than they do! And for you, Westin, I must concede, and assist.” Dylan stepped forward to dispatch their approaching attacker, when Jayce held out his arm to stop him.
“I’m giving you an impromptu vacation, Dylan. Chill out,” Jayce declared, stepping ahead of Dylan with a menacing smile to face their new opponent.
Toshiro, Tokyo’s spiritual executioner, reached the top level where his new enemies were. He leapt forward once more, readying his Opal Aura for a swift strike. “You, who know nothing of our Opal Radiance abilities, cannot stop the Eastern Latitude from showing you our pain! BE GONE!”
Toshiro swung forward when Jayce’s smile held its form. “Sapphire Radiance is the strongest radiance of all. Let me show you, executioner.” The leader of the Shadow Movement completely nullified the executioner’s death energy with an invisible power, even sending it disintegrating away with extreme force.
“This can’t be!” Toshiro uttered in disbelief, as Jayce stepped forward calmly.
“If your Earth has bestowed to you the ultimate death, then it has given me the ultimate life. I am all-powerful, and you are all just...fodder.”
Toshiro had once again been outdone. This time, he was utterly and hopelessly defeated, bringing yet another powerful feeling of dismay to the Japanese onlookers. “You will be the first we kill, starting today.” Jayce made his declaration as the executioner stood before them in disbelief. Toshiro then witnessed him unhilt a black sword that had a blue sapphire skull emblazoned just above its handle. Toshiro suddenly felt Jayce’s Sapphire Aura paralyze him, and he was now unable to move to dodge his swift and powerful strike.
The team looked on below, finding their confidence threatened once again. Even at the bottom of the arena, they could all feel Jayce’s energy threatening to force them to their knees. The Japanese people all around them collapsed, as the Sapphire Radiance overtook their ordinary strength with ease. As Maputo also fell to the ground with a sickening thud, Hiroko stood amongst her fallen Easterners in the stands, curiously unfazed by Jayce’s massive force.
Jayce ushered for any enemies to join him at the end of the coliseum’s top edge, hilting his sword once more as Toshiro could be seen in a sorry state above. Toshiro said a desperate prayer in his head, as he fell to the ground having been struck down by the one whom his people were helpless against. “I...I entrust my resolve to you, Westin Anderson.”
Westin was able to hear his last words somehow in his head, as a sudden sense of honor and respect came about the silenced arena. That was broken though, when Jayce made yet another declaration.
“I am Jayce Wolfgain, and I have led my willing assistants out from the clutches of Haven Island. I sent in the anonymous tip to these Eastern pissants, in order to see that hellhole destroyed. I must say, you all deserve praise for being the second group to make it out of there, after we, your progenitors, did the same a decade ago.”
The group of rebels down below looked at each other as Jayce’s words rung in their ears like an ominous toll bell. “Now you stand here, talking about how you will go back to the Western Latitude, and stop the slaughter that I am counting on. You all seem to be unable to listen to reason, creating a missed opportunity in saving your lives through obedience to me...I have made my decision.”
The team gritted their teeth, silently waiting to hear what Jayce had planned next as their anxiety attempted to bubble up once again. “I am wiping the capitol of the Eastern Latitude off of the map, since they weren’t able to help you realize my way. I suppose that if you want something done, you’ve got to do it yourself,” he declared, suddenly raising a hand to the sky to shoot a brilliant blue energy upwards, flying out of sight above the coliseum.
“Number Four, let’s go,” Jayce said to Dylan, causing him to pull out Jigsaw Staff for a speedy teleportation away from there. Before the team could move to stop them from getting away, Dylan placed his hand on Jayce’s shoulder, snapping his staff into mid-air as their disappearing act came to fruition.
“Out of Jayce’s soldiers, Dylan is ranked number four? At least we know what we might be up against, I suppose. Things could get hairy,” Winkle said, as the group looked around at the arena of unconscious people.
“What was that energy that he shot up, just now?” Christian asked, as they looked up to the evening sky to try and locate it.
“Wait, I think I see something,” Milli said, as she pointed directly above them. It was a large meteor made of blue energy that had suddenly came into view.
“Ahhh shit! We’re screwed!” declared Woolfing, as the team found themselves unable to disagree in a state of sudden panic.
“Should we run for it?” asked Isaac, as he desperately tried to think of a way for them all to escape.
“I won’t do it, even if they are our enemies, I couldn’t live with myself if we let everyone in Tokyo die like this!” Christian said, with the team unsure of how their powers could be used to stop a bomb that massive.
“Everyone, stand back. I believe that at our current levels, I might have the only suitable technique in stopping something this massive,” said Haynes with a look of resolve, pulling out his sword named Portfold. “Dimensional Technique, Rift Transport!” he announced, slashing his sword horizontally through the air. The Sapphire Bomb’s energy was frightening, as the ground Tokyo stood on began to shake violently below. The inhabitants of Tokyo had gotten used to extremely advanced earthquake prediction after becoming in sync with the planet, but it was the massive blue meteor that was now only a short distance above their metropolis that had sent the city into a state of emergency.
Panic filled the streets around the city, as the arena that would serve as the epicenter for Jayce’s catastrophic explosion became the calmest part of Tokyo. “Wider, I have to stretch the dimensional rift open wider!” Haynes said, funneling his aura through his sword into the rift above in a desperate effort. With all of his efforts, the dimensional opening slowly started to match the approaching bomb’s massive size.
“Haynes!!” Jassa yelled, transferring her medical energy into his shoulders to give him a boost of aura that he had badly needed to pull the feat off. The rebels, Melas & Reylina, and all of Tokyo could now only watch in desperation.
“Haynes, you can do it! We all have faith in you!” the doctor said encouragingly, as Haynes yelled in desperation and pain.
“It’s going, it’s going in!!!” Haynes yelled as all of Tokyo observed the massive blue energy disappear into the black rift, just before it would have decimated the city. “Got to close it before it explodes, now!” he further exclaimed, turning his sword in mid-air as though it was inside of an invisible keyhole to close it with speed. The millions of Easterners in the city breathed a collective sigh of relief, only knowing that whatever destruction had just come for them was somehow stopped in its tracks.
“Haynes, my god, you’ve done it! You saved everyone!!” Christian said in amazement and relief, with Haynes collapsing in complete exhaustion.
“It...was nothing guys,” he said, forcing a smile back on everyone’s faces. Reylina and Jassa both gave their hero a hearty hug, as he pressed his glasses back to his face with a confident smile.
“Thanks for saving everyone kid, congrats and all that. Now, everyone should get to my hovership on the coast so that we can save our Western lands! Time is running out here!” Melas said as the group nodded in acknowledgement, not even getting a second to absorb what had just taken place.
“So, I guess we should just leave Maputo and everyone here to carry on as they please?” asked Derek, who felt uneasy at the thought.
“At this point, we are stronger than them. Westin proved that to us, so I’m not worried about them. But Jayce and the Shadow Project...we just saw that they are the people in this world that we need to take down” Christian announced, as Derek found himself unable to argue with the co-leader’s sound facts.
“All right, then. Let’s get out of here before these guys wake up,” Derek said, as the rest of the team followed him and Christian out of the arena with great speed. As they all made their exit with haste, it was Westin who stopped for a second to look back at the fallen executioner that had entrusted him with his sacred resolve.
The team didn’t understand much about the culture of the Eastern lands, but he felt Toshiro’s presence nonetheless. Westin didn’t know before if it was good that he was alive, but in Toshiro’s last moments, it was almost as if he had realized his opponent’s unknown despair upon entering with his aura in their deadlock. It was paired with his own sudden resolve to live so that his friends wouldn’t die.
Westin didn’t agree with how they had viewed the energy of death that he now had at his command, but nonetheless, he accepted Toshiro’s dying will as he felt a new and brilliant white energy intertwine with his black energy that remained idle inside of his dormant third eye. Westin turned away, shedding a single tear of gratefulness as he gazed at his fallen friend in the distance. He would go forward with his friends. He would find a way to live with the power that he truly feared, if it meant that he could keep all his friends safe.
“Once we get back to the Western Latitude, assuming we want to focus on the Shadow Project in the bigger cities rather than whatever the Eastern Latitude is doing, how do we go about taking them down?” asked Woolfing as they all approached Melas’ ship. Christian answered with a confident grin on his face, all while a blue energy seemed to flow from his hair against the wind.
“We split up.”
Chapter Twelve
Give Me a Cigarette
Andrea Sweet arrived in New York City, staring down an empty street filled with abandoned hovercars. It was America’s equivalent to Tokyo in 2085, and she couldn’t help but notice how all the buildings were made of some new-age material that was able to absorb and convert solar energy. It was similar to what she saw in Tokyo, and she felt that if she was going to find some cigarettes that she had been without for far too long, she would have to look around for a store of some kind.
But just as she thought the massive city was empty, she noticed a distant figure a few blocks ahead as they disappeared into a shop of some kind. She was determined to investigate as she leapt forward, speeding to where she had sighted someone. She gazed into a shop with a couple of middle aged patrons inside, doting around at whatever was on the shelves. “Where are the damn cigarettes!” she exclaimed in her head, noticing only scattered food items on shelves that appeared to be long overdue for a restocking.
She stepped in to demand that one of them produce what she craved. She approached a woman who look
ed like she was being held prisoner, along with three despondent middle-aged men who similarly looked sullen. They were shocked to see someone as invigorated as Dre was, a look of stubborn determination showing on her face. “Where are the cigarettes?” she bluntly asked, gazing at them for an urgent answer.
“Well, Belladonna doesn’t let anyone in the city have them.” The woman’s answer annoyed Dre to the point of insanity, as she turned around to face the glass door she had just walked in from.
“My god, why am I tortured every damned place that I go? Where is this ‘Belladonna’?” The sullen patrons of the abandoned store looked at each other in sudden fear.
“Well, you’ll find her usually playing in Central Park. Honestly, we all try and stay away from her. Those of us that refused to evacuate from the approaching Easterners tried to overcome her, but it was hopeless. She uses that forbidden, terrible energy,” a man said.
“Hmm, I’m going to ask her where I can find some smokes. See ya.” The citizens looked at each other in complete disbelief at the notion of anyone willfully approaching Belladonna Gingerbell, the little girl who was ranked ten in the Shadow Project.
“Wait, stop! That’s suicide!” the woman yelled, fearing what would happen to Dre if she did whatever she wanted. Dre didn’t reply though, as she exited the store and zoomed off to the city’s biggest park.
She stopped at one of the large touch screen terminals around the city’s metallic streets, which then lit up to give her the directions she desired. Reaching the park was easy for her as she had mastered the super-speed ability that comes with using Forbidden Radiance aura, becoming the quickest out of everyone in the rebel team who had also gained progress in gravity leaping as well. The park was expectedly large, as she sped around to locate the girl who had taken over the city by force.