City of Twilight Part II: The Fallen (The Vanguard Chronicles Book 2)

by Donald Stephenson III

  ​The questions still circled his mind regarding his mother and her brother’s origin, their nature, as he left the facility.

  ​Navigating the tunnel system was easy for him with his mind’s eye. There was an endless maze of pipes draining water and other substances into the sewers. Some areas were dry, but many times rain caused the tunnels to become knee deep in water. There were pipes from above that drained water over him. He kept the Hunter guise on his face to prevent water from splashing into his nose and mouth. He kept himself focused. He knew for the next few days his mission would be reconnaissance and scouting, so he needed to remain unnoticed.

  ​These tunnels had apparently been unused for several years, probably since they’d been built. He could access any place in the city with them, and they were so complicated that a person would need an ability like his to navigate. He’d understood it had been designed, or at least rigged later to be hidden. There was a distinct metal that he’d never seen until he had gone into the underground city. The metal reacted to the xeno and to his mind’s eye. The facility was enclosed in a thin layer of the metal. It could somehow block the vision through the mind’s eye. When he left the base he could keep himself hidden from others like Medea that used the mind’s eye; he’d learned how to do that as he watched her hide herself after she’d shot Elijah. He knew that was how Dante, Medea and any other members of the council kept themselves hidden from his sight.

  ​He reached a sewer lid he could climb out of that was hidden in an alley in Old District. It had been welded shut, but it didn’t take much effort for James to force it open. He climbed out, not detecting any eyes watching him. He then made his appearance look like that of a normal person; with a long jacket and short brown hair. He changed the jacket’s color to tan. He knew plenty of people had seen the Hunter already, but they wouldn’t expect him to simply walk the streets.

  ​This morning had slightly less activity than a usual morning in Dirge, even in Old District. He had no doubt that word had traveled all the way here through the night. His message had stirred up the city. His goal with the message was to give people hope, and allow them to see that they didn’t have to live in conditions like this. People who wanted to fight would join him. All they needed was a leader, someone who could be a symbol of the rebellion that couldn’t be broken, or stolen in the night by Civic Protection.

  ​That was all that mattered at the moment. He knew that any attacks, even ones he wouldn’t be behind, would be viewed as his fault. He would be the one to blame for whatever happened. He was fine with accepting responsibility, because people could now act knowing the retaliation would be directed towards him. For right now anyway, he thought.

  50

  ​James finally arrived at a warehouse that belonged to Civic Protection in the late morning. It was almost right on the line in the division of Old and East District. Outside it looked like any other building, but inside he could detect the military presence, as well as the vast amount of weapons and ammunition with his mind’s eye. Although the building was heavily reinforced, there weren’t any soldiers posted outside. Makes sense that they wouldn’t put the guards on the outside if they don’t want anyone to know it’s owned by CP, he thought. He was glad he had his mind’s eye; he wouldn’t have seen it otherwise. There were very few warehouses and storage facilities in the districts outside of Lower District that were openly owned by Civic Protection.

  ​He watched the building quietly, looking for any movement. He was across the street a few buildings away. There were other people walking about, so he did not look too suspicious. He stood still for a moment, planning how he would get closer without alerting suspicion. He was also counting the guards in each section so he could make a detailed map of their patrol paths in his head.

  ​He decided he would walk around the block a few times, walking past the warehouse each time to get a good look at it with his mind’s eye. He started moving forward, trying to look inconspicuous. He had his hands in his jacket pockets and he was walking slightly hunched. He was almost a block away when someone called out at him through his mind’s eye. It felt like they were practically screaming at him, and he stopped.

  ​It was behind him. This person was a beacon to his mind’s eye, searing his mind with the image. The aura was a bright red tinged with other lesser colors. He turned, knowing the person was aware of him. There were crowds of people walking around them, unaware of what was going on.

  ​“I hoped I’d find you first,” a voice said. The voice was projected into his mind telepathically, the same way James had learned to do with his sister. This voice sounded much different than her voice, however. It was a male voice full of stubbornness and anger, in his mind. James looked at him through the people around them both.

  ​He was a young man. He looked like he was no older than sixteen or seventeen. He was shorter than James, and had very fair skin; almost pale. He had deep, unnaturally crimson hair. He wore dark clothes, military boots and fatigues and a flat gray tank top. Although he was shorter than James by almost a foot, he was extremely athletic looking. His eyes were what startled James the most. Their color was that of a deep blue with a pupil that was a vertical slit.

  ​“So you are the Hunter,” the young man said to James through his mind, “you and your sister are the last Vanguards. Finding you wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.” James took a step towards him. Someone nearly ran into him as he stepped forward, and they gave him a look of annoyance as they walked around him.

  ​“Who are you?” James projected the words into the young man’s mind.

  ​“My name is Lucien,” the young man said out loud, “and I’m the first of us to find you. I’m not going to lie, they don’t know I’m here. It doesn’t matter, though; I’m going to prove my strength to everyone.” Lucien spoke without worrying about what anyone else on the sidewalk heard. Some people around them stopped as they overheard him.

  ​“First of what, the High Council?” James was sizing up the young man. More people stopped to stare as the council was mentioned.

  ​“That’s how the city knows us,” Lucien said, “and Civic Protection. Father calls us his children.” As people stared, they started to back away, sensing the oncoming confrontation.

  ​“What are you, another race?” James talked sternly, his face a serious expression mixed with curiosity. It had dawned on him that this was the first time he’d ever talked to one of them. He sensed anger from Lucien over his question.

  ​“We are our own,” Lucien said, “and we’ve come from the stars to rule humanity.” James nodded his head slightly

  ​“More like fallen from the stars,” James said.

  ​“You don’t know anything about us,” Lucien said. There was rage in his voice. "We are the elite.”

  ​“I don’t see someone bringing so much pain and misery to this city something to brag about,” James said. He let the xeno cover his face and armor the rest of his body. The tan coat morphed into the reflected metallic silver. The crowd that had gathered gasped. “Whether you’re angels or demons, I’m going to stop you.” James’ voice was resolute. It had turned to having a metallic tinge.

  ​“The fallen,” Lucien said, “you don’t understand at all. We’re not the ones who are fallen. It’s all of you.” His voice had turned cold.

  ​“Well,” James said, “where do we go from here?”

  ​“Oh,” Lucien said, “I will crush the resistance by killing you.” James looked at him, entertained.

  Lucien smiled too, obviously enjoying himself. James was now only a few feet away from him. They were staring each other down, only Lucien was still baring his teeth in a smile. He had fangs, which James was just noticing.

  ​“How will you stop me,” James asked, “when no one else has been able to?"

  ​“Not yet anyway,” Lucien said. He suddenly made a quick movement at a speed James could barely catch. There were two short curved blades that had been hidden in Luc
ien’s dark fatigues, one on each thigh. He pulled them out and swung them both at James as left and right hooks. James dodged them, but felt the blades cut the air in front of his face.

  ​Lucien was using the mind’s eye in a way James had never seen before. He was enhancing his speed and strength with it. Lucien paused, holding the blades forward in an attack position.

  ​“How do you plan on hurting me with those?” James said. “I’m a living weapon, created by all of you.” The crowd had grown much larger, and a few people had screamed as Lucien had pulled out the blades.

  ​“My blades are special,” Lucien said. Suddenly he activated a switch on both of their hilts. There was a crack of energy inside each blade. A blue, uneven grid of glowing energy lit up both blades. The glowing grid reminded James of the paths of circuits interconnecting on an electronic board.

  Lucien then moved towards James at a speed that nearly matched his own. He swung both blades simultaneously together. James instinctively deflected the blow with his left arm. They held there for just a moment, and pushed away from each other. They both slid back several feet on the pavement, still facing each other. James held up his left arm, feeling a sharp pain where he’d deflected the blades.

  ​There were two slits in the metal armor where Lucien’s blades had melted through, breaking his skin. A small trickle of blood ran from the two slits in his arm, dripping onto the pavement. The xeno quivered in shock and surprise, sending a wave throughout James’s body. His skin began to knit back together with the aid of the creature, but it was slowed and more difficult. The blades had affected him differently than any other weapon he’d seen. James turned his eyes to Lucien, who had grinned with malice at the wounds.

  ​“So,” Lucien said, “it worked. I created these blades with you in mind. You and all the other xenos.” He held up the weapons. "They're made from a unique metal that reacts with the plasma energy I have siphoned from a fusion cell in the hilts. The plasma that courses through the blades makes them glow blue, and works like a cold heat.”

  ​“It reacted with the xeno,” James said, “but there’s more you’re not telling me.”

  ​“Yes,” Lucien said, “there is more. I can use the mind’s eye, just like you can. I may not have a xeno attached to my spine, but I can fight you.” This surprised James.

  “Why do you call it the mind’s eye, like I do?” James said this as Lucien lunged at him with both his blades again.

  James barely dodged each slash. At one point Lucien swung at James’s head with both blades, in such a way that they would have acted as a giant pair of scissors at James’s neck. James fell backwards, bracing himself with his hands in the concrete and kicked Lucien in the gut as hard as he could. Lucien fell onto his back several yards away.

  ​James pulled himself onto his feet, seeing Lucien had also gotten up. He’s fast, James thought. I need to get to higher ground and gain an advantage before he gets help. James leaped onto the wall of the building next to him. He scaled it quickly, leaping the last few yards to the top. Lucien began climbing the wall of the building as well, using the blades as claws to dig into the brick. He jumped up the last few yards up as James had. It was obvious he had a strong amount of agility.

  ​They stood facing each other on the top of the building, standing about ten yards apart. They both ran at each other, Lucien yelling. James ran at him silently, extending a long blade from each of his arms that acted as short swords attached to his wrists. As their blades met, blue sparks flew in all directions. Deep notches were forming on James’s blades as Lucien’s glowing metal blades melted through them. The glowing blue blades looked unharmed.

  ​The blades met again, and James attempted to kick Lucien in the gut again with a curved blade extending from his foot. Lucien jumped backward, but the sharp blade grazed his stomach. It tore through his shirt and broke the skin, although the cut was not very deep. Lucien held his stomach for a moment, concerned about his wound. The slits in his pupils magnified the fierceness in his determination as he glared at James.

  ​James allowed a little more distance between them as he analyzed his opponent. He circled around Lucien as sharp metal shards sprouted from his arms. He pulled them off, throwing them as projectiles at the other. Lucien began dodging the blades, deflecting the ones that he could not dodge with his blades. In his mind, James was impressed with Lucien’s reflexes. James slowed his projectile attack.

  ​“You’re gonna have to do better than that,” Lucien said, “if this is all you have, then I’m going to win this.” Lucien arrogantly jumped in the air, nearly twenty feet. He fell towards James, his blades in front of him. James decided he was finished sizing Lucien up. I’m through fooling around with this guy, he thought as he anticipated Lucien’s attack. James rolled to one side, dodging Lucien’s blades as he fell at James. As James twisted around, he grabbed Lucien’s waist as he fell past him. He used the momentum from Lucien falling, and spun him around. James then released Lucien, throwing him off the edge of the building.

  ​Lucien flew right off the roof of the building, but James could tell Lucien hadn’t reached the ground. There was no sound of a body hitting the pavement below. He could already see Lucien with his mind’s eye, but he moved to the edge of the roof and looked over to see him. Lucien had stabbed one of his blades into the side of the building wall to catch his fall, and was holding onto the hilt. His other blade had fallen onto the ground.

  ​Lucien had surprise and determination on his face as he looked up at him. James looked down at Lucien and shook his head slightly. All Lucien could see from his perspective was James turning and walking away from the edge of the rooftop. Lucien braced his leg on the wall and pulled the blade from the side of the building, letting himself fall to the pavement. He landed lightly on the ground, and picked up his other fallen blade. He couldn’t see James with his mind’s eye, so he shouted out to him.

  ​“Are you hiding? Why don’t you come down here and fight me?”

  ​Lucien looked around himself, conscious of the crowd that had gathered. He looked up again, fast enough to see a brick falling towards him. He dove out of the way, barely dodging it. Lucien leaned hard against the wall of the building, bracing himself. He looked up again to see James right above him, clinging to the wall. James dropped quickly in front of him, flipping over and grabbing Lucien hard by the neck. He looked into Lucien’s eyes and focused with his mind’s eye. He could see the fear and anger in the boy. Lucien had grabbed James’ arms and was trying to fight him, but couldn’t match the other’s strength. James found the pressure point on Lucien’s neck, and pressed it tight for only a few moments. Lucien fell limp, unconscious.

  James laid him down on the pavement carefully. He could see confusion deep in Lucien’s mind, conflict. Lucien wasn’t like the Civic Protection soldiers. He was an innocent, trying to prove himself. James turned to the crowd, watching them. They were silent.

  “This is what the city does to us,” he said to the crowd, “it turns the innocent against us. We can all stop it together.” Without hesitation James jumped onto the nearby wall, clawing his way back to the top. Soldiers were coming, he could see them from a distance.

  ​He was gone in just a few moments, disappearing by way of rooftops. The crowd quickly dissipated at the soldiers started to stream in with their sirens. He’ll have quite a headache when he wakes up, James thought, but he’ll know I let him live. He stopped and surveyed the city around him with his mind’s eye. I’d better find another warehouse, James thought, their eyes are too close on this one.

  51

  ​Dante looked down at Lucien, shaking his head with his arms crossed. The area had long been roped off by Civic Protection, and the only ones in that spot were Dante, Medea, and Lucien. Lucien was crouched on the ground with an ice pack on his forehead. His torn tank top revealed the bandaging a medic had done to the wound on his stomach.

  ​“So,” Dante said, “you fought him and, well he won. I guess we l
earned a lesson today, didn’t we?” Both Dante and Medea were chuckling at Lucien, who looked up at them with glaring resignation.

  ​“I’ve never fought someone like us,” Lucien said, “he used his mind’s eye to hide himself while we fought. I can’t even do that. It still feels like my head is going to split open.”

  ​“You’ll be fine, you’re lucky he didn’t kill you,” Medea said. She was still chuckling. She was now wearing a white jacket with dark slacks, and sunglasses. “Lucien, what else can you tell us about him?”

  ​“Well,” Lucien said, “he knows how to communicate with his thoughts. I spoke to him through my mind, and he spoke back. He also holds back in a fight. I could tell he was just humoring me; sizing me up. When he decided he’d had enough, he defeated me quickly. He definitely didn’t want to kill or seriously injure me.” Dante nodded thoughtfully at that.

  ​“That may be a weakness,” Medea said, “that we can use against him. If he doesn’t want to kill, then we could use that against him somehow.”

  ​“I don’t know,” Dante said, “that could backfire. We’ll discuss it with the others.”

  ​“What about me?" Lucien said.

  ​“You shouldn’t have fought him,” Medea said, “he’s too strong for you. We all know why you did it, and fighting him isn’t going to prove anything. You have spirit, but lack the strength. Leave the actual combat to Wolfgang and Damaine. They’re hunting him, too. Your technical skills are far more important than your fighting ability, and we all know that. We’ll catch him eventually.” She put her arm on Lucien’ shoulder. He smiled slightly at her.

  ​“Wolfgang isn’t the most cunning though,” Dante said, “in fact, his battle strategies are usually brutal and headstrong. I’m curious to see how he fares against the Vanguard.” They stood quietly for a moment, and finally Dante said, “All right, I’m bored. Let’s get out of here.” He headed to his car. Medea helped Lucien up, and they both followed him.