by Ammar Habib
General Zhi didn’t interrupt.
“I was thrown like a rag doll and everything blacked out for a moment. When I came to, there was fire everywhere.” Fear returned to Yi’s voice as the horrendous scene replayed in his head, detail-for-detail. “Everything was burning. It was so hot I thought I was melting. I couldn’t feel my back, half my face, or anything below my waist. My face was covered in blood.”
The general hardly believed what he was being told. An explosion combusting on its own? Had the man gone mad?
“And then, when my head stopped spinning and I could see clearly—I saw them. Everyone was dead. The president. The ambassador, my comrades. Their corpses—were burning. I could not even recognize half the bodies. Half of them were almost just a pile of ashes… as—as if they were nothing but dry wood. I—I wish I had gone blind. It would have been better than to see this.”
Cheng Zhi wordlessly kept his gaze on Yi’s terror-filled face. The sergeant held the eyes of a man who told the truth. Or maybe Yi was so mad that he believed his own hallucinations.
“A hole had been blasted in the wall by the explosion not far from me. I could not get up, but I managed to slowly roll over so that I could see what was happening on the adjacent rooftop.”
“What was it?” The general’s voice showed his anticipation.
“It was a battle. A battle between gods.”
“Gods?”
“Two people were fighting each other—but they weren’t human.” Yi slowly shook his head. “They could not have been.”
“Who were they?”
“I could not see their faces, but I know that the first one must have been Daniels. The way he moved, it was the same as they say. The same as the footage shows.” Yi paused. “The second man, he was the assassin.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he was—” Yi was silent for a long moment. “He was creating explosions with his mind. Through his concentration, he was firing out explosions large enough to level a building.”
The general was dead silent. He looked at the soldier’s eyes, trying to decipher if the man was in his senses. He could not tell. This all sounded like the ravings of a lunatic. But after last year’s attack by the telekinetic red-headed woman, most of what had seemed unreal was now plausible.
The wounded man closed his eyes as he relived the moment. “He was trying to kill Daniels. Daniels kept trying to get in close. He was launching projectiles at the assassin, but everything he sent was blown to bits before it could come close. And all around Daniels, explosions were erupting as the assassin shot them out just by focusing his mind. But the—the way Daniels moved. It was impossible. Nobody could move like that. He avoided every single explosion as if he could see them before they happened. Some by mere inches.”
The longer the sergeant spoke, the more fear crept onto his face.
“But his luck did not last long. He tried to close the distance one last time. When he got within twenty feet, an explosion erupted only inches from him and hit him with its full force. H—he was sent falling from the rooftop, half his body ablaze.” Yi’s eyes opened and came back onto the general. “The next thing I know, I’m here on the bed, wondering if it was all a nightmare.”
Cheng Zhi stood speechless. A man creating explosions just by concentrating? Ethan Daniels here in Beijing? Had it not been for the police spotting the fight from a distance and verifying what Yi claimed, the general would have put this man in a psyche ward. After a long moment, the general slightly nodded. “Thank you, sergeant. You will be seeing your family soon.”
“Thank you, general.”
Without a salute, the general turned and left. If Ethan Daniels was wounded like the man claimed, then it was only a matter of time before they caught him. The terrorist and the assassin would be brought to justice.
***
Ethan’s burning body violently crashed onto the ground. In the deserted alley, nearly half his body was covered in vicious flames. The rooftop had been nearly fifty yards high. However, moments before smashing onto the concrete, he had fired his grappling hook, and it had latched onto a wall just in time to break his fall.
But the flames were killing him.
Ethan could not feel the left side of his body. They were being eaten by the fire. As soon as he hit the ground, he began rolling and used his good arm to put out the flames. His face was consumed in agony and his skin was burnt, but he did not show his pain. He had burned to death before.
The flames were out, but his left side was scorched. His uniform was burnt to shreds and so was his skin. His left eye seemed blind and his left ear was completely useless. Lying on his back, he could not feel his left arm or leg. Even with all his strength, he could not move them an inch. The cold numbness slowly began to wash over the rest of him.
He heard sirens in the distance. The police were closing in on him and he would not be able to escape. This would be his end.
Ethan’s good eye was shut. The flames were out, but the heat and burns remained. Hot blood covered his body. He felt the after effects of his skin being eaten by the hungry and merciless fire. The sirens grew louder and louder with each passing second.
Bearing the pain, he desperately reloaded his wrist cable just by pure muscle memory. Reloaded, he weakly raised his right arm and slightly opened his eye. Everything was starting to black out.
He launched the cable and it hooked onto a balcony six stories up. In the next instant, he was whisked away. Grabbing onto the balcony with his good arm, he felt no strength left in him. But with every ounce of determination he possessed, he pulled himself up and over the railing with a determined snarl. He loudly collapsed on his back as the sirens arrived at the alley’s entrance.
In the next instant, an army of officers charged into the alley, guns raised. Seeing Ethan’s blood on the concrete ground, they knew he was not far.
But Ethan did not care. He would be dead by the time they found him. As the blackness fell over him, only one word came to his tongue and only one face came to his mind.
“…Katrina…”
Chapter 14
Betrayal
When the princess awoke, the first thing she saw were the florescent lights shining down on her. They nearly blinded her and she instinctively raised her hand to shield herself from their rays. At that moment, she realized that last night was no nightmare. Her eyes immediately widened and she shot upright on the medical bed.
What was this place?
Darkness surrounded her. She sensed the enormity of the compound, but only a few lights were dimly lit, leaving almost everything shrouded in blackness. Slowly, her eyes looked down at the pillow. She immediately felt pain from her sides. The image of the assassin smiling as he pulled the trigger flashed in her mind’s eye, sending tremors down her spine. The place where the assassin shot her was sore and her fingers reached underneath her clothing to run across the wound. It was all stitched up now.
Hearing a sound, her gaze whipped to her right. A man sat on a chair nearly thirty yards away. His face concealed behind a black ski mask, the rest of his body was covered in dark clothing. However, he was not paying her any heed. His eyes were focused on the three sizeable computer screens in front of him.
His hands gripped the edges of the desk. He spoke to somebody through a device in his ear while a man’s voice projected through the computer’s speakers. The second voice’s words showed all the emotions that coursed through him: disbelief, shock, and sorrow.
“Are you seeing this? It’s on every station.”
“I see it.” Unlike his counterpart’s voice, the masked man’s did not hold any emotions. Right as she heard it, Amelia knew that the man sitting in front of the screens was The Guardian.
“…we—we can’t believe it. This can’t be happening. It can’t be… he was going to contact you, wasn’t he?”
“He hasn’t.”
“T—then he...”
“No.” The Guardian’s words were full of ce
rtainty. “Don’t say that. They haven’t found a body. And until they do, we will continue to operate under the assumption that he’s still alive.”
“But— the hit he took…”
“He’s survived worse than that.” There was a slight pause. “We have our mission and Ethan has his. He won’t let an explosion knock him out of this fight. Are you on your way to the president?”
There was no response.
“Jonathan?”
“Yes… we’re both headed there now. The president is back in Crown City and we’re meeting him at his office.”
“You need to focus on the task at hand. Try and reason with him. But if you can’t sway his mind, find out what’s making him act the way he is. Then we can put a stop to it.”
“I’ll take care of it. I’ll contact you once we’ve spoken to him.”
“Copy that.” With the press of a button, the masked man ended the conversation.
Amelia slowly slid off the bed and onto her feet. Noticing the princess, the man turned towards her. Even through his ski mask, she sensed his slight smile at seeing her awake.
“You gave us quite a scare, princess.” The Guardian’s voice had changed. Over the phone, it had been commanding. But now, it was full of empathy.
Amelia could see the report on the screens. They all showed different news outlets as they played the same video. It was the footage of an explosion completely consuming Crown City’s original Guardian. The force of the blast threw Ethan’s burning body off the ledge of the high-rise building’s rooftop and down towards his presumed death. “It’s him, isn’t it? Ethan?”
The Guardian’s eyes gave the answer.
“Is he…”
“No. He’s not.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I know him better than anyone else.” He took his ear piece out and set it on the desk. “I worked with him for nearly three years out of this building.”
“Who are you?”
The Guardian took a deep breath. “There are fresh clothes for you in that room.” He motioned to a vacant bedroom that was in the abyss behind her. “I thought you might want to change out of the ones you’re in.”
Amelia looked in the direction he motioned towards but she could not make out the room in the darkness. Her gaze returned to her savior. “Do you live here?”
He took a few steps closer to her. “It’s normally not this dark. This is just a preventative measure.”
“Do you stay here by yourself?”
“Sometimes.”
“The man in the blue suit. Is he your family?”
“I haven’t had any family in a long time.”
The princess was silent, not sure what to say. The way that The Guardian said those simple words drove a dagger right through her heart. Each word showed the irrevocable sorrow and insurmountable remorse that accompanied any thought of family.
“You did a brave thing last night trying to fight Jaing,” he continued. “Stupid, but brave.”
She did not reply for a few moments. The memory of last night again blew through her mind. “Thank you for saving me. Nobody has ever done anything that selfless for me.”
“It’s what I was trained to do. You need to stay here with me. Outside of these walls, your life is in danger.”
She was almost too afraid to ask the one thing that was at the forefront of her mind. “Who—who’s trying to kill me?”
“Somebody powerful.”
“Is—” Her voice was full of terror as she spoke: “Is it my uncle?”
“It’s more complicated than that. What’s important is that you trust me. A bigger game is afoot that could very well threaten the lives of countless more people. And your death is a part of that game.”
“But my uncle? He’s a part of this?”
“In some way… yes.” Upon uttering those words, William watched sorrow consume her face. “I’m sorry.”
“What—what do they want?”
“The same thing that people always seem to be after: power.”
She knew the truth of that statement better than most. But hearing him say that—a part of her did not want to believe it. Her uncle? “Why was the man on the phone trying to speak to President Villanueva?”
“The people trying to kill you are trying to frame me for having abducted you. It’s a ploy to try and force me to give you up, so they can finish what they started last night.”
As she heard all this, the princess was amazed that she did not break down into tears. She was never one to emotionally cope with a situation. Maybe it was the adrenaline that stopped her. “Couldn’t I release a video statement saying that you did not abduct me?”
“If we did that, we would risk them tracing the video back to us. No matter how well we encode it, they have the best people at their disposal working to find you. We need to keep you underground until the threat passes.”
Again, Amelia fell momentarily silent. “How long do you think I need to stay here?”
“Until the situation quiets down.”
She did not reply.
“Do you trust me?”
“…yes.”
***
When Ethan awoke, his entire body ached with pain.
The image of Katrina vanished. The first thing he saw was Veila. She towered above him, her worried eyes locked on his face. Right as he woke up, the memory of everything flashed through his mind. He felt the heat of the flames as they ate his skin. He sensed his spirit ripped out of his body as life left him. He remembered how death began to overtake him as his vision turned dark and all feeling left his body.
Coming to his senses, he slowly sat up and Veila took a step back. His gaze quickly scanned his surroundings. He was in some kind of run down and empty shack. There were no windows. Outside of the bed, the small room was empty. It was hot in here, and the still air made it even warmer. However, most of the sweat that drenched Ethan’s body was not caused by the heat.
A weathered door shielded the room from the outside world, but a foul stench seeped in through the walls. The sounds of playing children and loud adults slipped inside. They were in the middle of some king of slum.
A black robe covered Ethan’s body. He quickly looked inside of it. To his amazement, everything looked the same as before his fight with Daken’s soldier. None of the burns or wounds he received from the battle were visible. It was as if that fight had never occurred. Realizing what happened, he looked back at Veila.
He took a deep breath, calming down his racing heart. “Thank you.”
She did not seem to care about his appreciation. “You died.”
“Almost died.”
“Had I not been here, you would be in the afterlife. Your body was almost broken beyond repair, even for me.”
Ethan glanced down at his body once again. “Seems like you did a good enough job.”
“You should not have gone.”
“And you should have warned me about what the assassin was capable of.”
“If I had known, I would have told you.”
Ethan took another deep breath, further calming his senses.
“But now we know one thing,” Veila said.
“What’s that?”
“If you could not take on one of Daken’s more proficient soldiers, then you won’t stand a chance against the monster himself.”
He wanted to say that he would have won the fight had he been prepared, but Ethan remained silent as he kept his eyes on her.
“With the Chinese president eliminated, Daken now has everything he needs. Everything is in place.”
“But William saved the princess.”
“He had a contingency plan. If she was rescued by your friend, Daken only needs to keep her underground. She could stop a nuclear launch if she was present to do so, but if she’s out of the picture and in hiding, then she’s just as good as dead.”
Glancing down, Ethan slightly shook his head. Swinging his legs over the edge of the bed his feet touche
d the ground. “But everyone is safe, aren’t they?”
“Your friends in Crown City are safe… for now.”
His gaze returned to her. “And Katrina?”
“I will go and see. But we both know what Daken’s next step is going to be.”
“Draw me out.”
“He’ll do everything in his power to do that. He knows you Ethan. He knows the best way to attack your heart. But you promised that if you needed to, you would go underground. Now, you need to make good on that promise.”
Ethan silently listened on.
“Daken will make his presence known to the world. He will attack the places closest to you and expect you to come out. But you will have to stay here. I will train you. I will teach you how to become stronger than you are. Until you are ready, you have to stay hidden. No matter how much destruction happens, no matter how much he baits you into coming out, you can’t fall into his trap. And when you are ready, we will face him. Together.”
He wanted nothing more than to defy her orders. But he knew that what she spoke was true. He had failed to take out Daken’s soldier, and Ethan knew that the master was more powerful than its creation. If he faced Daken now, he would surely perish.
“…Ethan?”
He took a deep breath. “Alright.”
***
“My God Jonathan. Is Ethan okay? It’s all over the news.”
“We heard back from him,” Jonathan lied as he entered the president’s office with Adam at his side.
“It was unbelievable.” Worry consumed Villanueva’s face as he rose from his chair and met Jonathan halfway. “The man—he was firing explosions through his mind. I couldn’t believe my eyes. And—he hit Ethan head-on. They’re saying that nobody could have survived.”
“Rest assured, he’s still in one piece. When he contacted us, he said that he had escaped the police and was planning his next move.”
“Thank God.” Upon hearing Jonathan’s words, Villanueva’s anxious expression disappeared as he shook Jonathan’s hand. “I’m afraid that the world needs him now more than ever.”