Kings Row : hour 1
Shadow-Step climbed
out of the manhole and was immediately engulfed by the sounds. Screams
and yells coming from all directions, the roaring of close by flames
from which he felt some heat, windows breaking and shattering, the
random screeching of some unseen beasts prowling in the neighbourhood.
The chaotic nature of what he was looking at, had him standing, arms
limp to the side, hypnotize and unable to move. Buildings were in
flames, cars overturned, bodies were littering the area, resting in
their blood, and be it women, men or children. Rooted in place by
the nightmarish sight, Shadow felt his knees weaken and his stomach
turn, he felt dizzy. But not for long…
From the corner of a building,
next to an alley, came rushing out three Circle of Thorns acolytes,
all brandishing crescent moon swords, they were charging him without
slowing. Shadow straightened up and assumed a fighting stance, while
summoning the inner dark powers to augment his being. The first acolytes
attacked him with an overhead swing, but Shadow moved into the arc
and punched the man in the stomach without restraint. A resounding
“Oooof!” was heard, as the man flew upwards then fell back flat on
his back.
“Get him!” Yelled the second acolyte. They both came at
Shadow, who had to perform many a move to remain out of reach of the
deadly blades. During those few seconds, a few more acolytes came
out of the building across the street, and saw the skirmish. They
headed to help their brethren, who seemed to be having difficulties
with Shadow. Two of them took out hand held crossbows and began arming
them, while the other two took out swords and ran for Shadow-Step.
They fired their bolts, which missed him barely, then discarded the
weapons, to favour their swords and charged Shadow.
Busy dodging the
two blades, Shadow couldn’t turn and run without getting in the back,
he had to stand and fight. Such is the plight of the scrapper. Still
backing away from the acolytes, waiting for an opening, he suddenly
realised that they were forcing him into an alley, if it was a dead-end,
so was he. Seeing an opportunity, Shadow knuckled punch the rightmost
acolyte on the nose. It stopped him dead in his tracks, he looked
at his fellow acolytes pass him by in a dazed fashion, and then fell
face first on the pavement. The leftmost one tried to thrust at him,
but he was fast enough to move backwards and watch the sword slice
the air in front of his belly. Shadow leaned down and grabbed the
arm holding the sword, spreading his legs, he followed the acolyte’s
motion and unbalanced him forward, sending him face straight into
the brick wall of the alley. The man jerked once, and then remained
limp at the foot of the wall.
Shadow spun on himself, eluding the
blade that was aimed at his spine, then sidestepped and elbowed the
Circle acolyte on the nose, once, twice. He grabbed the sword arm
with his right hand, elbowed the nose a third time, and heard the
satisfying sounds of a shattered nose. While the man was falling to
the ground, Shadow took the sword away from him just in time to parry
the side swipe that would’ve cut half his neck. In a circular motion,
he sliced open the throat of another acolyte, and gashed deeply into
the sword arm of another. The ringing of the swords meeting clanged
in the air. Shadow-Step pushed forward on the last acolyte, making
expert attacks on the now retreating fiend. They came out the alley,
back onto the street, where their fighting took on a new intensity.
The acolyte had recuperated enough from the initial attacks, and was
now giving as much as he was receiving. But Shadow-Step was Tsoo trained,
and unforgiving in nature. The blade the acolyte was holding, told
the story that was happening here tonight, people had been killed.
Shadow searched and found the dark place in his soul, where his unyielding
strength of will resides, and let it loose. Moving like a cat, he
parried and dodged all the thrusts his enemy was attempting. They
both were fighting for their lives at this point. The acolyte who
had charged him, had moved like a mob on a killing spree, fed by the
fear they create, eyes wide and dangerous. But now that only one remains,
the temporary insanity moment one gets when killing too much, is gone,
and instead, he his faced with the same danger he represented a moment
ago. In other words, fear had changed sides in the battle, and the
acolyte had just taken a cold shower of reality. He was fighting for
his life.
The swords met themselves with resolve, Shadow-Step was
now smiling at the acolyte, challenging him silently. His enemy was
still backing away in preservation, eyes nervous and frightened. Then
he saw the opening, under Shadow’s left elbow, and lunged forward
for the killing blow to the heart, blade upwards. But Shadow-Step
had left that opening in his guard intentionally. When the acolyte
used it, he moved swiftly to the side, spun on himself, while his
arm started a wide arc, backwards circular motion. He felt the cold
metal sliced the acolyte’s head off, and heard it roll to the ground,
blood spattering him, the headless body fell shaking to the side.
Leaning down, he took the sword away from the body, and ran into an
alley close by.
Equipped with two swords, Shadow-Step merged into
the shadows, and started to prowl the night. Whatever was going on
here wasn’t to his liking. The sounds of chaos were still strong and
present, he saw mobs of bigger sizes, filled with ghosts and other
monsters, roaming the streets, entering buildings where screams of
horror could be heard from. He even witnessed the crashing down of
the one of the huge electric pylons in the south of the district,
saw people being thrown from rooftops, and innocents fleeing for their
lives in front of a murderous group. The world had gone insane, and
he was stuck right of the middle of it.
His cell phone rang as he
was about to sit down and eat diner. Alone, in his quarters, enjoying
a rare quiet moment, Cavalier flipped his cell phone open.
“Sir, this
is central dispatch, a situation arose in Kings Row of priority one.”
The female voice was calm and steady, not hinting anything about the
gravity of the situation. The control room people were trained to
respond calmly and efficiently to any given situation, panicking for
them, meant loosing track of important information. Even if the world
came to an end, these people would remain the very picture of control
and calmness.
“Did you send a signal to all heroes available in the
area?” Asked Cavalier, with tiredness in the voice. He knew she would’ve
done so, soon after getting the priority one signal, meaning the death
of an Apocalypse fellow. Since this morning, he had been getting calls
for the most ridiculous reasons. How did Turbo ever managed to stay
calm at all these inquiries, such as a missing fortune teller needed
to be found, the academy cook requisitioning fresh squid by the ton,
supply was low on pencils and asked if they should purchase number
three or number five models. Throughout the day, he had been harassed
by the some of the most trivial things, and once or twice, he almost
snapped at people for looking at him for answers.
“We did sir, seven
signals were sent, all seven responded within the minute.” The dispatch
paused “All seven are dead sir.” Cavalier stood up. “The event began
thirteen minutes ago and is still ongoing as we speak, sir. No information
on the threat is available at the moment, reports are sketchy. The
Kings Row fire department has been unresponsive to our hails, the
hospital, and the police also, power has been out for the entire district
for at least four minutes. Our personnel were not able to receive
teleportation to the Kings Row hospital, and all life signs went down
in a cascade event a minute ago.” She paused again “Sir, a hero all
call has been sent on the ECPC frequency, this is big.” Phone clenched
in his hand, Cavalier looked down at his still steaming TV diner,
and headed for the door thinking to himself that he never gets a moment
to relax and enjoy his favourite foods.
“Call everybody available,
cancel permissions on my authority if you need, have them assemble
in Independence Port, by Kings Row’s entrance in ten minutes, or as
fast as they can get there. I’m suspending all ongoing operations,
reroute everything we’ve got. Call the police chief and request all
the help he can send, I want the SWAT team on this one also, and just
in case my hunch is right, start recording for magic activity.” Replied
Cavalier, as he ran out of the Academy, with super-speed towards the
train station.
The fable Turbo Starr had been obsessed with, since
the Firebase Zulu war, was becoming more and more of a reality. Cavalier
wished his leader and mentor was around to lead the troops, he lacked
the knowledge the man had on this matter, and he knew any intelligence
on an enemy, was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
It still
felt a bit awkward to use the train to move around the city at times,
being a public figure made it an event for people to see him standing
amongst them, holding the bar while the subway was speeding on the
rails towards Independence Port. A kid was pulling on her mother’s
sleeve while pointing a little finger towards him, eyes wide open
and a gleeful smile in his face. The mother was trying to calm him
down, patting his head and saying soothing words.
“Yes Brian, it’s
him, but that doesn’t mean you should point a finger at the man in
any case, it’s considered impolite.” Said the thirty-something lady
with tired eyes to her son.
“You should listen to your mother Brian,
she knows best.” Said Cavalier to the boy, who a minute ago was amazed
at being on the same train as a hero, and who was now totally psyched,
that one of the most famous heroes he knew of was actually talking
to his mother and him.
“Mommy, it’s …” The boy started to say, but
his mother cut him off.
“Brian, don’t talk in the third person about
someone standing in front of you, please. You have to forgive my son,
he’s only five years old, and you’re the first hero he sees.” Said
the woman, smiling gently while looking at her son.
“No harm done
ma’am” Replied Cavalier as he crunched down to be face to face with
the boy. “Nice to meet you kid.” And he extended his powerful hand,
and shook the kid’s hand in a very serious manner. The subway indicated
that the train would stop in Indy Port next, so Cavalier stood back
up, mentioning this was his stop. He faced the double doors as the
train slowed down. As soon as the doors opened, he ran with all haste
for the station's exit.
“Wow, mommy, can you believe this?” Asked
the wide-eyed boy to his mother.
“Calm down Brian, this is a city
of heroes, you’re gonna meet plenty of them in your life.” Replied
the mother to her son.
“But mom, this wasn’t just any hero.” Went
on the boy, still amazed.
“I know son, I know.” Answered the woman
who was now looking for a seat for them.
“Wait until the guys hear
of this at school tomorrow, I’ve met Moon Heat….”