Paragon

by Riley Tune

  Her building was one of the nicer buildings in Ebony. It stood eight stories high, which was basically a skyscraper by Ebony standards. It was also a newer building composed of brick, and had all the bells and whistles that you normally didn’t get in Ebony. It wasn’t often you saw new, high- end buildings, here but a wealthy developer from Diamond District, was undergoing what the papers called a visual reconstruction effort. Essentially, he was investing money to make certain parts of Ebony desirable, in hopes to turn a profit in time.

  According to Diamond District standards, the rent in the building was pretty low. For Ebony standards, the rent was unreal, and somehow Danielle was able to pay it. I had offered to just pay the rent for her but she insisted that she could do it herself.

  What I admired about this building was that, because of how pricey it was, there was almost no random people hanging around, which was the case in most of Ebony. So, when I saw the old red pickup parked in front of the building with five guys hanging around it, smoking something that smelled awful, I was more than a bit surprised.

  I tried my best to act casual. I didn’t want any trouble, for their sakes, not mine. Their music from the truck was blasting, and most of them were just sitting on a part of the truck. No purpose in life, was my first thought. Who randomly hangs out and just plays music loud, while smoking? No doubt they thought they were cool, but they all seemed like a waste of space.

  Now, don’t get me wrong, I can respect the villain life as much as a person could. My father was one, and so was my girlfriend, but these five idiots didn’t seem like villains. Villains had goals, these five just had time to kill.

  Of all the places to park, of course they were directly in front of the walkway to the door. As soon as the surprise of seeing me and my gift is over, I’m going to ask Danielle if she wants to go do something. There is no way, I can stay here and deal with these assholes and their music.

  I gave them a good, solid glare as I walked by. I couldn’t help it. “What you looking at partner?” One of them asked in slang. It actually came out as patna, instead of partner. Apparently, my glare lasted too long. “I’m talking to you,” he said again as he slid down off the hood of the truck. He was average height, but had a solid build.

  His facial hair was the same color of black as the hair that was visible under his cap. He took a step towards me, and as if on cue, his friends seemed to fall into formation as well. See what I mean? One look, and now it was suddenly five versus one. “We’re good man.” I said as I move to head into the building.

  “Don’t turn your back on me,” he said a little louder over the music. I stopped and as I turned around, the area in front of me shifted to blue. “I said we’re good. Unless you don’t want us to be good.” With my last words, I slowly rose in the air a good six feet.

  They knew I could do more than just hover now, as they backed up while looking at me. The leader raised his hands. “Nah, homie. We good.” I descended back down to the ground, as my surroundings changed from blue to normal again. A few of the goons were whispering among themselves as the leader just looked at me.

  I stuck my hand in my pocket, reaching for my spare key to her apartment. As I grabbed the knob to the entrance one of the thugs asked his friend a question. “Damn man, how long he gonna be up there with that Danielle chick. I’m hungry.” My posture stiffened even more, as I could feel my eyes grow wide with the words one of the goons just said. “I don’t know, but I’m going to get me a big ass burger when this is all over. He’s been up there half an hour; how much longer could he be?” Another goon said as I could hear him take an inhale of whatever they were smoking.

  I could feel myself shake a little. After a few deep breaths as I walked inside, I told myself there could have been other girls called Danielle in this building. It didn’t have to be my Danielle. Plus, she was smart. She wouldn’t be up there with another guy. For one, she loved me, she wouldn’t do that. Secondly, she knew I was coming over today. Didn’t she?

  Panic hit me like a super strength punch to the stomach. She thought I was still at school. I wasn’t expected to be out for a few more hours. I had told her demos were today, and like everybody else, she had said I’d likely go last because of my powerset.

  Without even knowing if my concerns were valid, I could feel myself breathing harder now as my casual walk became a sprint down the hall. As I ran, soft music was playing in the hall over unseen speakers, and I had to step over several people sitting on the white stone benches in the hallway. There were potted trees spread through the hall, but they were fake so they didn’t move as I ran buy.

  I slammed my finger on the button to call the elevator. The bell went off, but the elevator seemed to be moving too slow. I jammed my finger several more times on the button. The doors opened and I almost ran into a tall man in a long black overcoat as he tried to get off at the same time I was coming inside. “Sorry. Sorry.” I said to him.

  He didn’t reply. He simply looked at me. He was dressed in all black and had a white mask on his face. A mask that had no features, just a faintly formed mouth and holes for the eyes.

  “That was unexpected, indeed,” he said as he looked me over once more. Dude was creepy. Without looking away from him, I once more I slammed my finger on the button with a six on it to go to her floor. As the doors shut, the man in black took a step forward slowly as if he wanted to get back on, but then he stopped moving. Damn Ebony District weirdos.

  I was on a mission now, and didn’t have time for extra stops along the way. As the elevator rose, there was silence. Only the sound of my heavy breathing could be heard. The door finally opened and I literally flew down the hall.

  I didn’t want to be heard running at full speed to the door. In a second I was hovering in front of a door with the number six hundred and twenty on it. I looked at the door numbers. It was special. She had picked this number, because it was the date we started dating. June twentieth.

  I put my ear to the door. I couldn’t hear anything. No sounds of passion, nobody talking. Maybe this was all in my head and I had nothing to worry about. Still, I didn’t knock. I slowly put my key into the door. Lucky for me she had given me a key of my own. I rarely came over unannounced, so it was never me surprising her. After figuratively paying two grand for a watch, I thought a surprise was in order. Now look at me, so afraid of what I may find that I didn’t even have the balls to turn the doorknob.

  Then, I heard a sound that made my insides boil. A man's laughter. A man was inside of her apartment. Damn being gentle. I didn’t even turn the knob now. Instead I accessed my strength and with a swift open hand push, the door flew open, leaving it on the hinges, but the locking mechanism was destroyed from the force of my push.

  The fear I had felt as I made my way here was personified as I looked at them both. She was sitting on her counter in her kitchen. He long black hair was in a tight bun, and not flowing down like usual. She had on a shirt that showed every curve she had up top, and some blue sweatpants. Blue sweatpants, that were mine. I had given her those.

  She had her arms wrapped around his neck. Some guy who was taller than me, with curly black hair, a strong jaw, and oddly enough he had on a black leather jacket as well. I knew him, from somewhere. I just couldn’t make it out.

  They were so close in their embrace that a slight breeze would have pushed them together and made their lips touch. “Hunter,” she gasped as I made my entrance. She quickly dropped her arms. “Babe, it’s not what it looks like,” she said to me as she slid down from the counter.

  “It’s not?” the guy said as he looked at her in confusion. His voice was deep. Deeper than mine, and for some reason I instantly felt angered by this. “What are you,” I interrupted her as she tried to speak. “Doing here? What am I doing here?” My voice came back in a crackle. “How about what are you doing here?. With this guy?” I said as I pointed to the guy who was in her embrace only moments ago.

  He had leaned o
n her counter now with his arms folded. As if me, her boyfriend, being here was messing up his time with her. “We were just talking about the job. You remember you told me to find better help.” She was stuttering now. A clear sign of her guilt if ever there was one.

  “So, you had to have your arms around him for the last thirty minutes?” They both looked at me confused. “Your friends downstairs told me.” He shook his head some but didn’t say anything. “Just calm down,” she said as she tried to grab my hand but I jerked it away from her. I could barely stand now. My knees felt like pudding, and I could feel the betrayal and sadness build up in me.

  It had no place to go, but finally found an exit in my eyes as I could feel the tears coming down my face. I hated myself for this. I didn’t want to cry. I wanted to be furious. “Really. You’re going to cry now? Caught your lady doing, what they all do, so you’re gonna cry?” He laughed.

  There it was. I had found the fury I was looking for. I took my backpack off and removed the watch box from it. I summoned my strength and crushed the box between my hands, destroying the watch and tossing it to the ground. Along with the backpack that she had given me. I didn’t want it anymore.

  He stood from the counter now and looked at me. It happened so fast, that it felt natural. I ran towards this asshole, and balled my fist up as I did. I couldn’t figure out his face, but I was certain he was an Icon. So, he had powers of some sort. “Hunter, no!” Danielle screamed as she tried to stop me.

  Her pleas were no concern to me. I knew she wasn’t going to get her deposit back after I was done with this guy though. I extended my fist, and delivered a punch to his stomach that sent him flying to the wall.

  To my shock, he actually went through the wall, leaving a man- sized hole in it and he fell to the street below. This caught me by surprise. I didn’t know if he could survive that sort of fall, and I quickly looked through the hole and saw him getting up off the ground.

  So, he was durable. Okay then, so he could take whatever I dished out. “Perfect,” I said under my breath. “In case you didn’t figure it out,” I said to Danielle as I floated out of the hole in her apartment, “We’re done.”

  She didn’t reply, and the fact that she didn’t hurt even more. Her new guy was surrounded by his little goon squad now and looking up at me. He wanted this it seemed. So, I descended down to them and allowed my vision to turn blue.

  I couldn’t remember who he was, but as my feet touched the ground I didn’t care. They all were going to feel my pain. To flex my power even more, I manifested a large force field around me. So large that as it came to life it touched their truck several feet from me.

  “Kick his ass, Erase.” one of his friends said. Then realization mixed with panic washed over me. I had finally remembered where I knew him from. His name was Eric Rasenburg, but to the public he was the Icon known as E-Rase. He had two powers.

  The first was that he could make his body dense, allowing him to take a good amount of punishment, but he wasn’t by any means invulnerable. This explained why he was able to survive that fall, and my punch. His second power could have been his claim to fame, had he had goals above petty street crimes. It was short lived, but it was very rare, and the reason for his true name. E-Rase, could render an Icon powerless for three minutes.

  Doesn’t sound like much, but look at a boxing match, and notice how tired they are after three minutes of defending themselves. As he walked towards me, I felt sick to my stomach. My force field began to fade against my will, and the area in front of me was slowly turning back to normal and not blue. He balled his fist, and so did his friends. “Get ready for the longest three minutes of your life chump.” With those few words said, he smirked as if Christmas had come early, and he drew his fist back.

  CHAPTER 8

  LOBO

  I

  ’ve never been one to run from a fight. I’ve been called plenty of slanderous names in my time, and I wasn’t about to add chicken, punk, coward, or any of the like to it. So as my powers faded I tried to come up with a plan in those few precious moments before the first punch landed. I will say this though, there are very few feelings in the world like knowing you're about to get your ass severely beaten.

  Had I run, I could have at least wasted half of that three minutes. I could have just fought back. It was one of me, and five of them. The odds were not in my favor already, not to mention I just can’t fight. Not even enough to take Eric one on one if I had to. There was just never any point in learning.

  When you had enhanced strength, energy eyes that could punch through steel, and a force field that made you almost invulnerable, learning the proper technique on how to throw a punch, or how to block one for that matter, just never came up. Now I was wishing it had.

  With no surprise at all, his punch found its mark. Square in the center of my face. I could hear the icky sound his fist made as he withdrew it from my now broken nose. My nose didn’t hurt as much, as the actual force of his fist hitting my face.

  It was as if he had hit a button that had access to all the blood I had in my body, and now the blood wouldn’t stop. I had never had my nose broken before, but I’m sure it was now. Blood was everywhere, mainly on my face and in my mouth, and now my nose was feeling like it had begun to swell.

  My first reaction, was to try to ignore the pain but I couldn’t. As his buddies laughed at my injury, I grabbed my nose, leaving the rest of my body unprotected. A swift punch came to my stomach, which caused me to drop to my knees.

  The next thing I knew, some hands were grabbing my shoulder, and I was slung, head first, into the side of their red truck. At least my blood blended in with the paint job. I fell to the ground, and didn't move.

  I wanted to, though. I wanted to get up and kick this guy’s ass just on the principle alone, then his friends would be next.

  Between the pain in my face and head, and the spinning of the area in front of me, I wasn’t going to be kicking anybody’s ass. I thought to myself, how much of the three minutes could be left. Surely it was almost over.

  Another thought that came to me was Danielle. In my eyes, she was a heartless bitch right about now. A heartless bitch who had the nerve to cheat on me in a pair of my own sweatpants. I made a mental note to get those back once this was over.

  I was still surprised she didn’t even come and try to sort this out. Anything she said, I would have considered a lie, but at least she could have tried. “Hey E, you wanna take it easy on the kid?” I heard one of his flunkies say. Kid? I was only a few years younger than Eric was.

  I couldn’t see E-Rase, but judging from the panic in his friend's voice, whatever he had seen wasn’t good. I slowly found the strength to move my body, but before I could, a kick came and connected with my back. I made a funny noise as the air was kicked from me. A sound similar to a gasp. No, it was a scream. No, it was more like if a gasp and a scream had a baby. That was the sound I made.

  “Roll his ass over,” I heard E-Rase say. As several hands found me I was rolled over with more force than needed. I was sprawled on the ground, looking up at my attackers. I tried to create a force field and nothing happen. Longest three minutes of my life indeed.

  “Not so tough now are you, Hunter?” I wanted to show surprise on my face. It was a natural reaction, but I was in too much pain. “You think I don’t know who you are?” Eric said as he leaned over and looked at me. “Mr. bi-g time Icon, with his fancy four powers. You think that makes your better than those like me. The so- called low levels, with powers people don’t care about. Think you can flex your powers and awe people. Scare people?”

  “Damn E, jealous much?” a friend of his said as he laughed. Eric looked up at his buddies and the laughing stopped suddenly. I wasn’t sure if his friends were Icons or not, but I was willing to bet they weren’t.

  He looked back down at me and to insult me more, he spat on me. It was oddly warm, and I could feel it roll down my face. I wanted to pull awa
y, but couldn’t move. I knew it was on my face, but there was so much blood and pain now, that it honestly didn’t matter. I coughed and forced a smile. He wasn’t going to see truly how bad it felt.

  “You done yet?” I said as I winced in pain. My entire midsection felt like it was on fire. “How long you think we got?” Eric asked. “Maybe about a minute,” a gruff voice replied.

  I could feel my eyes widen. A minute? Seriously? An entire sixty seconds of this was left. “Give me the knuckles.” Eric said as he snapped his fingers. A brown arm extended from the corner of my vision and was holding a pair of shiny brass knuckles. Not the traditional style either. These pair had enhanced grooves on the edge. Likely to provide maximum pain delivery to the person on the receiving end of the punch.

  That, of course being me. Eric put the knuckles on his hand and flexed a fist. “You know,” I said through heavy breaths, “whatever you did to Danielle,” Eric smirked. “Oh, and she loved every minute of it too, chump.” My heart skipped a beat and broke a little more as he said this. I know he was just taunting me but it hurt. “Don’t dare assume this was the first time.” Eric said as he dropped down and raised his fist.

  My vision got blurry. His words hurt me more than any punch could. I felt sadness on a level that I never knew I could before. “Well, I hope you enjoyed it,” I said. “Because once this is over, I’m kicking all of your asses, and then I’m going to do to your mom, what you did to Danielle. Over, and over, and over again.” His eyes widened and then narrowed followed by the corners of his mouth pointing downward.

  I winced as I spoke. “I’m not even going to pay her either. That’s for lesser men who have to pay for it. Me, I never have, and never will.” “Damn,” one of his friends said from behind me. Eric’s head jerked up and looked to the source of the word. I smiled on the inside.