“You’re out of your mind, Audrey,” I said flatly.
“I am doing what is best for our species, Reaper. Can’t you see that? Can’t you see that the good of the many is much more important than the good of just one girl?”
“If you’re talking about Monica you are really barking up the wrong tree,” I warned.
“I’m talking about you, Reaper! I’m talking about the decision that you have to make to ensure that we are not annihilated!” Audrey insisted.
“I can’t just let them take her. She means too much to me!” I admitted.
“More than the entire world? More than me?” Audrey asked as her expression softened.
The saddened look within her shimmering blue eyes instantly melted my rage away and within a fraction of a second I realized that despite what had happened I still cared about her as much as I did before I knew of her treachery.
“You don’t want me to answer that,” I finally said as I peered into her eyes.
“But I do, Reaper! And I want you to say that you’ll choose me. Join me in the Andromeda Galaxy and we can leave this entire world behind. I wasn’t lying when I said that I had fallen in love with you. I never meant for that to happen but that doesn’t change the fact that it did.”
I was silent for a moment as I contemplated her words. She certainly seemed genuine but how could she expect me to believe her when she had been manipulating me for months?
“Even if I was crazy enough to agree with this nonsense what makes you think you can take the Anokians at their word? What makes you think they won’t destroy us all the second their fleet gets them off of this planet?” I asked.
“My father will keep his word so long as the humans keep theirs,” The Greater boomed.
“His word means nothing to me! And I’m sorry, Audrey, but there’s no way in hell I can stand by and let this happen,” I said.
“You can’t be this naive, Reaper,” The Greater said firmly. “My father has bred so much hate between the nations of this world that the chances of them forming a unified military front against the Knights of Eden are next to nothing! Your resistance is pointless and you have no chance to defend yourselves against us.”
“We won’t have to. Once I kill you and The Righteous I’ll just call the dogs off myself,” I replied.
“Reaper, tell me you’re not about to do what I think you’re about to do!” Howie’s voice suddenly rang out in my earpiece. I knew what he was getting at. He didn’t want me to take on The Greater by myself but I was in no mood to be discouraged so I switched off the radio in my mask as I reached for the Mark of Eden.
“I just tossed you around as though you were nothing, Reaper,” The Greater boasted. “What makes you think you will fair differently if I choose to give you a second chance?”
“You can’t get rid of me that easily, Reaper!” Howie yelled as he hacked into the radio in my mask. “Don’t do it, Reap! You need back-up—” Howie started to say before I yanked my mask off and tossed it away.
“I don’t want to see you get hurt, Reaper. You have to stand down before it’s too late,” Audrey pleaded as I angrily eyed The Greater.
“I’m not the one you should be worried about,” I replied coldly as I withdrew the small silvery Mark of Eden from within my coat. “How’d you like to go another round, big boy?” I quipped as I glared at The Greater and held the glimmering necklace before me.
“Impossible!” he gasped as his eyes widened in disbelief. The crowd of Strangers and U.S. Army troops clamored in anticipation but no one fired as The Greater stared at the Mark of Eden. “But how? You—you’re just a genetically modified human! You are not Anokian!” he continued.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Darius! I’m part Anokian and part human and I have the blessing of Ezekiel, The Elder to challenge you for the Right Hand of the Broken Crown.”
“You fool! The Elder is dead!” The Greater scoffed. “And I will not allow you to sully his great name for the purpose of furthering your Equillian trickery.”
“There’s no trickery here,” I replied as I tossed the Mark of Eden over to him. I watched in silence as The Greater caught the necklace and studied it, obviously judging it for authenticity. “If you don’t want to fight that’s fine with me. Just throw in the towel and point me in the direction of The Righteous and I’ll be on my way,” I continued.
He ignored my remarks and stared in awe as he pressed a small silver button on the back of the Mark of Eden and the necklace projected a small blue hologram of The Elder delivering his blessing onto me.
“So The Elder has betrayed us,” he muttered as he holstered his large pistol and tossed the Mark of Eden to my feet. The smoldering glow in his eyes intensified as the wind flowed between his dark shoulder length hair and white cloak. The tail of my coat also wavered in the wind as I picked up the Mark of Eden and held it before me once again.
“Wait, Reaper! You’re making a huge mistake,” Audrey pleaded as I held the Mark within my clenched fist.
“I don’t have anything else to say to you,” I said coldly.
“But you’re being manipulated, Reaper! You’re fighting for the wrong side and you don’t even know it!”
“You’re one to talk! I’m not the one who sided with aliens over their own people!” I growled.
“But the Anokians are your people too, Reaper! When we broke into Area 51 we took a lot more than just the interstellar communicator. Among the terabytes of top-secret information that was stolen we found countless files with information about you and your father. I know they must be keeping this information from you because I know your outlook would change if you knew that you father was—”
Audrey’s words were suddenly interrupted by an onslaught of rockets that were unleashed from above by the Air Force helicopters that scrambled overhead. Audrey quickly darted away to safety as the surrounding Stranger army and U.S. military troops opened fire while The Greater and I stood amongst the fray.
“I am Adam, The Reaper—barer of the Mark of Eden and I stand before you with the blessing of Ezekiel, The Elder to challenge you, Darius, The Greater for the Right Hand of the Broken Crown. Do you accept?!” I yelled over the sounds of the raging battle around us.
The Greater’s fiery eyes smoldered as he glared at me in silence while the Strangers and U.S. Army troops continued to clash around us.
“Do you accept?!” I bellowed, as my heart rate quickened.
“I accept!” he growled just as we both struck out towards each other with deadly speed. We were both thrown backward by a powerful shockwave that erupted as soon as we slammed into each other. The Greater's eyes were wide with surprise as he pulled himself to his feet and glared at me. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was shocked that I had not gone down as easily as I had before. He was still significantly more powerful than me but the adrenaline that had built up in my system had made me much stronger than I had been when we first squared off.
“You ain’t seen nothing yet!” I shouted as we charged towards each other once more. He blocked my right-handed haymaker and returned fire with a right uppercut that launched me from my feet and sent me flying backward as The Strangers and U.S. Soldiers continued to clash in the streets around us.
The Greater leapt high into the air and prepared to crush me with his 2000-pound body as soon as I hit the ground. Luckily one of the nearby soldiers nailed him with an RPG in mid-air and gave me just enough time to scramble to my feet. In a blur, I charged into him and followed up with a three punch combination that could have demolished a bunker but The Greater took the earth-shattering punches in stride and delivered a crushing spinning back hand that sent me flying once again. Bullets and debris from the battle that surrounded us continued to bounce off of our armor as I pulled myself up and the two of us approached each other once more.
I ducked an incoming right hook from The Greater and zipped behind him and hoisted him into the air before he could recover his balance. In a flash I
slammed the 2000-pound behemoth to the ground, rolled on top of him and repeatedly smashed my armored fists against his face with all my might. Bright blue light suddenly poured out of his eyes as I pulled my right fist back and prepared to drop another devastating blow onto him but before I could deliver my attack I was suddenly thrown backward by a blistering wave of fiery blue energy that was slowly corroding my armor as I sailed through the air. My armor sizzled and smoked as I hit the pavement fifty feet away from The Greater and collapsed to the ground in excruciating pain. The Greater stood with his eyes still emanating the blue light and his hands and forearms were now engulfed by a wreath of blue and white fire.
The U.S. soldiers concentrated their fire on The Greater as I fought to overcome the burning pain that reverberated throughout my entire body. The smoldering blue energy surrounding The Greater’s hands intensified as he raised his arms to shield his eyes from the machine gun fire from the attack helicopters above. With a swift sweep of his right hand a potent wave of scorching blue and white power suddenly ripped into the sky and sent several of the Apache helicopters up into a brilliant ball of fire. I scrambled to my feet to stop him from going after the ground troops that were still concentrating their useless gunfire on him but he had already leapt high into the air before I moved to stop him.
My chest tightened in horror as The Greater landed and slammed his fist into the ground beneath him, sending a towering wave of his lethal energy ripping outward in all directions. I leapt fifty feet into the air in order to avoid the blast but by the time I hit the ground, most of the soldiers below had been reduced to nothing more than smoking skeletons. My fist trembled with rage as a strong wind blew in and reduced their charred corpses into nothing more than black dust. Several knots tightened in my stomach as The Greater set his sights on another wave of approaching soldiers. Adrenaline flooded my system and my heart pounded in my chest as I watched them open fire onto the unstoppable juggernaut that was approaching them. I couldn’t help but admire their courage. No one would have blamed them if they had fled after witnessing what had just happened to their comrades, yet they all continued to push back The Strangers and press on against The Greater despite knowing that they too would most likely be destroyed if he were to unleash another blast of his unearthly power. Their bullets were useless against his dense skin and Anokian-Steel armor and I knew that if I didn’t intervene he would soon kill every last one of them. These were men and women of honor and they would have gladly laid down their lives in service of their country and in this case the entire human race but they deserved a much better fate than being incinerated into unrecognizable corpses only to be blown away into nothing by the next strong wind.
The ground beneath my feet was reduced to a crater as I rocketed forward and the world around me became a blur. The entire battle was suddenly stuck in slow motion as my adrenaline levels spiked and heightened my focus while I sped forward. Bullets and debris hung seemingly frozen in midair around The Greater, who was also frozen in place and inches away from slamming his flaming fist into the ground before him.
I wrapped my arms tightly around him and lifted him from the ground as I slammed into his body and sped away from the battle at over 800 miles per hour with him still held within my arms. I wasn’t sure where we were headed, but I knew I wanted to get him away from the soldiers and the rest of the public. We crashed through trees and rocks and concrete as I continued to pick up speed and zoom forward with him held in front of me.
It was only when we smashed right through a skyscraper and came out the other end that I realized we had made it back to the city limits. Still, I kept running and we continued to crash through one building after another as I blazed a trail through the unsuspecting metropolis. Though we had plunged through countless layers of steel and concrete I felt almost no pain because I was using The Greater’s body as a battering ram as I continued to rocket forward at over 1000 miles per hour.
I finally slowed my speed as the left side of my chest suddenly tightened and a tingling sensation spread throughout my left arm. A few seconds later I crashed into the first level of a dimly lit parking garage and hurled The Greater to the floor as I doubled over and heaved for air.
He was completely motionless for about fifteen seconds but my heart skipped a beat after he suddenly slammed his hands against the floor and slowly began to pull himself to his feet.
You’ve gotta be kidding me! I thought as I watched him somehow find the strength to stand after being rammed through an entire city. He appeared to be somewhat dazed at first but as soon as he laid eyes on me, the fury that had once burned in his eyes instantly returned. The ominous blue glow that emanated from his smoldering eyes seemed to shine even brighter in the dim lighting of the deserted parking garage. My heartbeat quickened as blistering blue energy emerged from his hands and slowly crept up his forearms and I finally realized that I probably should have listened to Howie when he had urged me not to take The Greater on by myself. Not only had I made a huge mistake by ignoring his advise but I had also dug myself into an even deeper hole by throwing my mask away and effectively cutting myself off from all communication with Howie. Nearly every great battle that I had been apart of up to that point was won by a combination of my brute strength and blazing speed combined with Ace’s deadly skills and Howie’s strategic planning.
I always felt that my role was by far the most important but as I stared across the parking garage into the fiery eyes of The Greater I suddenly found myself wishing that I had Ace by my side and Howie in my ear telling me exactly what I needed to do to defeat him. It pained me to admit it, but no matter how I played the next few moments out in my mind there was no scenario that I could think of that didn’t end with me losing.
I threw off my tattered coat and took a deep breath as I raised my clenched fists before me and watched as The Greater slowly and deliberately trudged toward me. Without my mask, I could no longer reach out to Ace by radio but for my sake I hoped that he hadn’t given up on me—and most of all, I hoped that I could hold off The Greater long enough for him to track the GPS chip implanted into my Reaper armor.
30. THE PROMISE
ACE:
“HOW’S IT LOOKING, ECHO?!” I SHOUTED AS I PRESSED against my bike and sped down the Vegas street hoping to find Reaper in time to keep him from getting himself killed.
“Not good, Ace. He’s taking a real pounding, man. And you’ve got incoming!” Howie said just before a rocket zoomed in and exploded near my bike. Black attack helicopters scrambled overhead as several black SUVs poured into the streets in front and behind me. I weaved left and right dodging incoming gunfire as armed Stranger operatives popped out of SUV windows and opened fire at me.
“I need you to take control, Echo!” I shouted as I unholstered the automatic pistol on my right hip.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to cut in,” an electronically distorted voice suddenly said in my earpiece.
“Echo?” I asked as my bike suddenly accelerated without warning.
“That’s a negative, Ace. This is Alias and I’ll be the one quarter backing your ride from now on if you don’t mind,” the electronically distorted voice replied as my bike accelerated toward the approaching Stranger SUVs once again.
“I don’t think you realize who you’re dealing with,” I growled as I pulled my feet up to the seat of the bike so I could leap away once the oncoming SUV was close enough.
“I know exactly who you are, Jason Kilpatrick! And I’m afraid I can’t let you make it to your destination,” Alias declared.
“Oh no you don’t!” I snarled. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with because if you did you’d know that you just made the biggest mistake of your life. There’s a chance that Reaper may die if I don’t get to him in time and if he does I promise you one thing. No matter how far you run, no matter how deeply you bury yourself away from me… I will find you—and when the time comes for me to put you down you may not see it coming but I promise you’
ll sure as hell feel it!”
“I’ll take care of Reaper. In fact, I’m headed his way as we speak, but the last thing I need is for you to get in the way,” Alias replied.
Bullets barely whizzed by me as I fired my automatic pistol into the oncoming SUV, hitting the driver in the face and sending the SUV spinning out of control. I then leapt into the air just before my hijacked bike slammed into their vehicle and I latched on to the back of the SUV while it rumbled dangerously close to the edge of the road.
I let go of the SUV and tucked and rolled to safety just as it crashed through the side rail and plunged down the hill to the right of the street. I quickly leapt over the ledge and scurried down the hill as more Strangers hopped out of the pursuing vehicles and opened fire behind me.
“Ace, come in! Ace, do you copy?!” Howie suddenly asked over the radio.
“I read you, Echo! Got my hands full right now, though!” I shouted as I ducked behind the wrecked SUV at the bottom of the hill and took cover behind it as the Strangers continued to fire their automatic rifles at me.
“It’s not looking good for Reaper, Ace. It’s not looking good at all,” Howie advised.
“What do you expect me to do?!” I shouted angrily as I momentarily leaned from behind my cover and used my pistol to drop one of the Stranger operatives at the top of the hill. My heartbeat quickened as the remaining Strangers suddenly fanned out and moved down the hill in an attempt to surround me.
“What do you mean? You’ve got to get there and help him!” Howie snapped as the squad of Strangers cautiously approached both sides of the wrecked SUV that I was hiding behind.
“What do you think I was trying to do before you let Alias take over my bike?!” I yelled as I popped out and fired a few more shots before my pistol ran dry.
Savior Part 2: Son of Eden (The Savior Series) Page 28