Chapter 3
Rain
"Are you sure this is a wise decision, to bring Torik into this, something could happen, go wrong." Syria leaned on the desk, placing the weight on her palms.
"Torik is young, skilled, and capable. He's studied the workings of the force mechanism almost more than I have, he'll be fine."
"I'm not worried about Torik, I'm worried about you. I don't want you to lose anything." Syria said with care.
Aidam swiveled his chair around, "What are you implying? That because of my decisions I'm going to lose the life of my son?"
Syria stood and crossed her arms tightly, "That's what I'm afraid of, yes." Aidam stood and began toward her slowly, "I just have a bad feeling about this, like something's somehow controlling you."
Aidam stopped, thinking about that last sentence. He decided to change the subject. "The Force mechanism is on the verge of ratification, I need you here for the rest of the week to monitor the goings-on, can you do that."
Syria gave a swift nod, almost grateful of the change. Aidam nodded back and left the room. When the door had slid shut, she whispered, "Good luck, sir."
"You failed, that's all, cut and dry, you failed." Shane had been expressing the same point for the last hour, but it was still strong.
Aidam slammed his hands on the table, "We seared off his second wing! We caused damage to him. And for once none of them feared their enemy."
"Are you suggesting that we have petty fear among the ranks?" Hyle ordered.
"Not petty, councilman, only a simple realization that are incapable of doing a single thing, so why try and die for it." Aidam calmed down, once again pleased with his position, "They realized lead bullets couldn't do a damn thing. But now that the Force mechanism-
"You and your damn Force mechanism!" another young and newly capable councilman had joined only a week ago. His name was Christopher Sein. His wavy blond hair complimented similar eyes.
"Explain your outburst, councilman." Shane ordered.
"I've studied your comings and shortcomings with this generator, Mr. Stronkhold, and frankly, if we ratify this, we all go to hell." Chris had now just proven he didn't care about authority, especially not Aidam's. "The moment this power is released, criminals will get a hold of it and then we will have another repeat of the gang wars, I doubt you want that to happen, right?"
Hyle stood as well, given the courage by Chris' outburst, "I agree with Christopher. I for one do not want to be linked to the cause of a war. We may be Direct, but we're not invincible of receiving more hate than we already have."
"Gentlemen, sit." Said a firm voice. Simon had descended from the ceiling again, realizing the heating argument. Chris and Hyle, however, did respect the authority of this headmaster, and obediently sat. "All of us are worn. I suggest we take a recess from this argument and get out heads in the right place. Not on far-off conclusions." His electric blue synthesized eyes glanced in Chris' direction. "Five hour recess. All opposed?"
No one shook their head or raised a hand.
Aidam exited the meeting first, followed closely by Trunks, who stopped him. "Aidam, you know this is a futile mission. With the hot-heads in there and Shane and even myself...Well," he rested his hand gently on Aidam's shoulder, smiling as if to say I know you have no chance, "Just end this, and the rest will work out."
Aidam looked at the hand, and shrugged and brushed it off. "You should know by now, that nothing I ever do is futile."
"You honestly believe you can win this?"
"The just will win out." Aidam said confidently and continued walking.
"And you would call yourself just?" Trunks called after him.
Aidam stopped and turned, "Yes. Yes, I do." And he disappeared down the corridor. Trunks glared after him.
At about five o'clock the skies were darkening tremendously fast. At five fifteen, they were nearly black, but the streets had not become wet yet.
Two stood by the familiar warehouse, the familiar lamppost. "So, now both of us have had a grueling battle with Cinder and have ended up shaken by it." Kane commented.
Leon leaned on the opposite side of the post, "Yeah." He paused, "Do you ever think he'll be back?"
"It doesn't matter to me." Kane shook his head. Their conversation was interrupted by the panicked yells of a woman and her purse. The common thief ran toward them, almost laughing. Kane exerted the least amount of energy and protruded his toe, tripping the thief to his face. The purse skidded aways further.
Kane's voice directed itself to Leon, "Mind returning that possession to the lady?" Leon went to get it. As he did so, Kane picked up the man at the scruff of his jacket and threw him into the adjacent alley. You could hear cries of mercy and a few crunching bones.
Leon returned the purse to the woman. She thanked him and hurried off. But the boy dashed back to the alley and saw the man dropped, balling up and crying softly. "You're just like Cinder, you're just as cruel!" Leon yelled at Kane when he exited the alley and began walking away. "But then, you don't really care do you?"
Kane continued walking, but called, "I'm not paid enough to care."
Bra's house was large to say the least, approximately four stories, but she wasn't rich. The quality of money didn't have any true power in the world of Factions.
On the bottom-most floor there was a soft knocking at the door. Luckily, Bra was there at the time. It was Aidam, and he was shifting his weight nervously as she opened the door. It was about 5:30 in the afternoon, so any Direct councilmen had been adjourned to the city or their quarters.
"Ah, Mr. Stronkhold, to what do I owe this honor?" she invited him in.
He walked slowly in, feeling quite awkward, but he looked around at the accommodations. "I can see why you haven't considered taking one of the quarters within Direct." He grinned.
"Aidam," she cut to the chase, "I am kind of busy, though, so, what's your reason for coming?"
"Well, uh," he started shifting weight again and twiddling around. Bra giggled shortly at his nervousness, "I was, just, coming by to, uh, check, if you were, uh, alright." He finally got out. "So are you okay?"
"Why?"
"Uh, because this was where Cinder was around and I was just checking, yeah." He was becoming a very minute amount less nervous. He could debate his way out of most anything, but he could not, for the life of him, have a normal conversation outside of business.
"Do you think he's really gone?" Bra asked with concern.
"Yes." He answered confidently, "And if he reappears, we're more than ready for him." He had rehearsed that; it was easy to tell, because he then reverted back to his stumbling speech, "So, uh, I guess I'll be on my way."
Aidam made it to the door before Bra's voice stopped him. "Catch!" he turned and caught an umbrella, stared at it awhile, then opened the door, noticing it was now raining since he had arrived. "Oh, and Aidam?" he turned back to her, the door still open. "Since you seem to be playing this by ear, I suggest you hear this. I'm not a princess trapped in a tower in need of a knight in shining armor. I don't need to be rescued. I can fire a gun, I can wield a sword, and I know how to street fight, so don't worry."
"But, I do." He said softly, almost surprised with himself.
"And that's sweet of you." Then she added forcefully, "But don't." Aidam left, closing the door very gently.
The Direct building was silent, feeling the pounding rhythms of the rain. Wing and Enforcer were never the noisiest of places. The perch atop the pyramid-like Vengeance was occupied by its supporter, who once again opened his helmet in the shadows, and let the rain pour over and cleanse his darkened face.
Trunks' quarters were the most barren, only one weapon rack left on his table, empty.
Bra's house had a fourth story with a ceiling of glass full of old relics and swords, even some of Trunks' old things. Her brother stormed in and began to rummage through the closets. She watched him come in, as she was tending to a flower in the dark room.
"Why hello, big brother, come to visit, maybe have a drink?" Bra said happily.
"Sorry, sis, can't stay, just getting my coat to go warlord hunting." He yanked out the blue jacket, where a few broken stitches could barely make out the word "Capsule".
"But Aidam said-
"Aidam can lie his ass off, but it doesn't change the fact that he's still out there. Hiding, waiting for the time to resurface and cause more pain." He stopped, looking down at his sword, as if he didn't know whether to take it or not. "I never thought it would come to this. Damn it, I shouldn't have left it up to him."
"Why can't you just not go?" Bra spat at her brother. Trunks whirled on her. She wasn't surprised; "This isn't your responsibility. Let someone else-
"If only you knew what things I'm responsible for." Trunks said coldly, shouldered his weapon, and walked out. Bra glared after him.
The rain poured down in sheets, as if the clouds were Niagara Falls, filling the streets and gutters. The average man trudged knee deep through puddles to his home or work. Trunks simply flew over them.
He landed on a roof of an old apartment building, where massive signs and billboards had been erected that now made it look like an arena, serving as its perimeter. The rain was flowing over the side, it had filled so much.
Trunks drew his blade, his reflection showing across it as it was unsheathed. Grasping in both hands, he called into the wind, "I know you're here. Show yourself."
There was a crack of thunder and lightning, then Cinder leapt from the far billboard onto the roof, causing massive ripples in the water. A huge trident was held in both of his hands. Trunks readied his body for battle.
Trunks sped forward, his sword trailing behind him, and flew into the air. His blade came down upon Cinder's shaft. For the first second, it felt like a sword. For the next, it felt like a thousand colliding trains. With each continuing blow, the water around them blew away, then came quickly back. Twenty-eight separate blows were dealt from each warrior, then both leapt back.
Cinder twirled his spear until fire ignited across its point, then threw the fireball from it; Trunks held his ground. The fireball exploded on direct targeting, the water around evaporated in a forth of a second. Then, there was silence as the smoke rose. Suddenly, Trunks charged out like a demon surging from the fires of hell, sword in front, the smoke riding across and over him. His strike was clear and fast. Sssssshhhhtwing!
The top part of the trident whisked into the air and imbedded itself in the back of the farthest billboard. Cinder stared in rage at the assailant. His anger drove him into his deep fires. That fire released itself from him, causing an ever-growing perimeter of water to evaporate around him.
"I never expected this strength." The comment belonged to a five-foot-tall masked warrior, covered in thick, layered armor. The shoulders protruded out slightly more than the rest of the suit.
"Why, is my teacher scared?" the apprentice was close to eight feet tall, with similar gold, silver, and black armor. The chest was silver-plated, while the arms, shoulders, helmet, and legs shone the gold. Then, of course, his skintight armor cloth was the black.
"It's only a simple observation, Sesix." The master returned calmly.
The one named Sesix gloated to his master, "Is that what you were doing when you ransacked that movie theater?"
The armor-clad warrior was unmoved; "I was testing them. Most of them are weak, unexpecting." He whirled on his apprentice, guessing what he was thinking, "But be warned, they have guardians," he cocked his head to Trunks, "he's one of them. The one I fought knew common and tactical techniques, even his own version of a Kamayhamayha."
"Whatever." He nodded toward the battle on the roof, adding angrily, "Why doesn't he just attack? Cinder's wide open, he could split him in two. Why wait for your opponent to reach his highest power?"
"It's called honor, young Sesix. Perhaps he's trying to prove something."
"Yeah, to who?" Sesix asked indignantly.
"Perhaps himself."
"Heeerrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!" Cinder unleashed the force, all the water around him that had not been burned away became multiple mini tidal waves exploding outward. Trunks brought his sword forward and cut the wave down the middle, having it cascade over the roof on either side of him.
Cinder's face was contorted even further with his full power; he looked mad. Crimson fire orbs formed on each hand. "Now. You. Die." He rasped out. Then fired furiously.
The orbs closed in. But then time seemed to stop. Trunks could see the five orbs frozen in the air before him. With one hand, one blue orb of his own grew from the palm and positioned itself in front of one fire orb. He repeated the process until each flame had another orb to run into. Trunks then floated silently and slowly just above the highest orb...and time resumed.
Each orb connected with its counterpart and exploded, but kept its momentum, creating a brilliant river of fire flowing beneath Trunks' feet. Hands smoking, lungs raspy, Cinder gazed forward then up. "My turn." Was all Trunks had to say. He never changed position. Never hunched; his legs remained relaxed and hanging, only his arms moved. His figure descended diagonally, blurring itself. Wwwhhhshtingsth!
The slash was faster than any eye; only its luminous blue trail could be seen for a millisecond. Cinder felt something, a distant thing, coming closer and closer rapidly. "I made a promise." Trunks murmured, not breaking stance. Cinder's eyes looked down to his waist, saw a split forming, and quickly looked back up. "I had to keep it."
Todd "Cinder" Kaaz fell back. He splashed into the new forming pool. There were two splashes.
Rain
"Are you sure this is a wise decision, to bring Torik into this, something could happen, go wrong." Syria leaned on the desk, placing the weight on her palms.
"Torik is young, skilled, and capable. He's studied the workings of the force mechanism almost more than I have, he'll be fine."
"I'm not worried about Torik, I'm worried about you. I don't want you to lose anything." Syria said with care.
Aidam swiveled his chair around, "What are you implying? That because of my decisions I'm going to lose the life of my son?"
Syria stood and crossed her arms tightly, "That's what I'm afraid of, yes." Aidam stood and began toward her slowly, "I just have a bad feeling about this, like something's somehow controlling you."
Aidam stopped, thinking about that last sentence. He decided to change the subject. "The Force mechanism is on the verge of ratification, I need you here for the rest of the week to monitor the goings-on, can you do that."
Syria gave a swift nod, almost grateful of the change. Aidam nodded back and left the room. When the door had slid shut, she whispered, "Good luck, sir."
"You failed, that's all, cut and dry, you failed." Shane had been expressing the same point for the last hour, but it was still strong.
Aidam slammed his hands on the table, "We seared off his second wing! We caused damage to him. And for once none of them feared their enemy."
"Are you suggesting that we have petty fear among the ranks?" Hyle ordered.
"Not petty, councilman, only a simple realization that are incapable of doing a single thing, so why try and die for it." Aidam calmed down, once again pleased with his position, "They realized lead bullets couldn't do a damn thing. But now that the Force mechanism-
"You and your damn Force mechanism!" another young and newly capable councilman had joined only a week ago. His name was Christopher Sein. His wavy blond hair complimented similar eyes.
"Explain your outburst, councilman." Shane ordered.
"I've studied your comings and shortcomings with this generator, Mr. Stronkhold, and frankly, if we ratify this, we all go to hell." Chris had now just proven he didn't care about authority, especially not Aidam's. "The moment this power is released, criminals will get a hold of it and then we will have another repeat of the gang wars, I doubt you want that to happen, right?"
Hyle stood as well, given the courage by Chris' outburst, "I agree with Christopher. I for one do not want to be linked to the cause of a war. We may be Direct, but we're not invincible of receiving more hate than we already have."
"Gentlemen, sit." Said a firm voice. Simon had descended from the ceiling again, realizing the heating argument. Chris and Hyle, however, did respect the authority of this headmaster, and obediently sat. "All of us are worn. I suggest we take a recess from this argument and get out heads in the right place. Not on far-off conclusions." His electric blue synthesized eyes glanced in Chris' direction. "Five hour recess. All opposed?"
No one shook their head or raised a hand.
Aidam exited the meeting first, followed closely by Trunks, who stopped him. "Aidam, you know this is a futile mission. With the hot-heads in there and Shane and even myself...Well," he rested his hand gently on Aidam's shoulder, smiling as if to say I know you have no chance, "Just end this, and the rest will work out."
Aidam looked at the hand, and shrugged and brushed it off. "You should know by now, that nothing I ever do is futile."
"You honestly believe you can win this?"
"The just will win out." Aidam said confidently and continued walking.
"And you would call yourself just?" Trunks called after him.
Aidam stopped and turned, "Yes. Yes, I do." And he disappeared down the corridor. Trunks glared after him.
At about five o'clock the skies were darkening tremendously fast. At five fifteen, they were nearly black, but the streets had not become wet yet.
Two stood by the familiar warehouse, the familiar lamppost. "So, now both of us have had a grueling battle with Cinder and have ended up shaken by it." Kane commented.
Leon leaned on the opposite side of the post, "Yeah." He paused, "Do you ever think he'll be back?"
"It doesn't matter to me." Kane shook his head. Their conversation was interrupted by the panicked yells of a woman and her purse. The common thief ran toward them, almost laughing. Kane exerted the least amount of energy and protruded his toe, tripping the thief to his face. The purse skidded aways further.
Kane's voice directed itself to Leon, "Mind returning that possession to the lady?" Leon went to get it. As he did so, Kane picked up the man at the scruff of his jacket and threw him into the adjacent alley. You could hear cries of mercy and a few crunching bones.
Leon returned the purse to the woman. She thanked him and hurried off. But the boy dashed back to the alley and saw the man dropped, balling up and crying softly. "You're just like Cinder, you're just as cruel!" Leon yelled at Kane when he exited the alley and began walking away. "But then, you don't really care do you?"
Kane continued walking, but called, "I'm not paid enough to care."
Bra's house was large to say the least, approximately four stories, but she wasn't rich. The quality of money didn't have any true power in the world of Factions.
On the bottom-most floor there was a soft knocking at the door. Luckily, Bra was there at the time. It was Aidam, and he was shifting his weight nervously as she opened the door. It was about 5:30 in the afternoon, so any Direct councilmen had been adjourned to the city or their quarters.
"Ah, Mr. Stronkhold, to what do I owe this honor?" she invited him in.
He walked slowly in, feeling quite awkward, but he looked around at the accommodations. "I can see why you haven't considered taking one of the quarters within Direct." He grinned.
"Aidam," she cut to the chase, "I am kind of busy, though, so, what's your reason for coming?"
"Well, uh," he started shifting weight again and twiddling around. Bra giggled shortly at his nervousness, "I was, just, coming by to, uh, check, if you were, uh, alright." He finally got out. "So are you okay?"
"Why?"
"Uh, because this was where Cinder was around and I was just checking, yeah." He was becoming a very minute amount less nervous. He could debate his way out of most anything, but he could not, for the life of him, have a normal conversation outside of business.
"Do you think he's really gone?" Bra asked with concern.
"Yes." He answered confidently, "And if he reappears, we're more than ready for him." He had rehearsed that; it was easy to tell, because he then reverted back to his stumbling speech, "So, uh, I guess I'll be on my way."
Aidam made it to the door before Bra's voice stopped him. "Catch!" he turned and caught an umbrella, stared at it awhile, then opened the door, noticing it was now raining since he had arrived. "Oh, and Aidam?" he turned back to her, the door still open. "Since you seem to be playing this by ear, I suggest you hear this. I'm not a princess trapped in a tower in need of a knight in shining armor. I don't need to be rescued. I can fire a gun, I can wield a sword, and I know how to street fight, so don't worry."
"But, I do." He said softly, almost surprised with himself.
"And that's sweet of you." Then she added forcefully, "But don't." Aidam left, closing the door very gently.
The Direct building was silent, feeling the pounding rhythms of the rain. Wing and Enforcer were never the noisiest of places. The perch atop the pyramid-like Vengeance was occupied by its supporter, who once again opened his helmet in the shadows, and let the rain pour over and cleanse his darkened face.
Trunks' quarters were the most barren, only one weapon rack left on his table, empty.
Bra's house had a fourth story with a ceiling of glass full of old relics and swords, even some of Trunks' old things. Her brother stormed in and began to rummage through the closets. She watched him come in, as she was tending to a flower in the dark room.
"Why hello, big brother, come to visit, maybe have a drink?" Bra said happily.
"Sorry, sis, can't stay, just getting my coat to go warlord hunting." He yanked out the blue jacket, where a few broken stitches could barely make out the word "Capsule".
"But Aidam said-
"Aidam can lie his ass off, but it doesn't change the fact that he's still out there. Hiding, waiting for the time to resurface and cause more pain." He stopped, looking down at his sword, as if he didn't know whether to take it or not. "I never thought it would come to this. Damn it, I shouldn't have left it up to him."
"Why can't you just not go?" Bra spat at her brother. Trunks whirled on her. She wasn't surprised; "This isn't your responsibility. Let someone else-
"If only you knew what things I'm responsible for." Trunks said coldly, shouldered his weapon, and walked out. Bra glared after him.
The rain poured down in sheets, as if the clouds were Niagara Falls, filling the streets and gutters. The average man trudged knee deep through puddles to his home or work. Trunks simply flew over them.
He landed on a roof of an old apartment building, where massive signs and billboards had been erected that now made it look like an arena, serving as its perimeter. The rain was flowing over the side, it had filled so much.
Trunks drew his blade, his reflection showing across it as it was unsheathed. Grasping in both hands, he called into the wind, "I know you're here. Show yourself."
There was a crack of thunder and lightning, then Cinder leapt from the far billboard onto the roof, causing massive ripples in the water. A huge trident was held in both of his hands. Trunks readied his body for battle.
Trunks sped forward, his sword trailing behind him, and flew into the air. His blade came down upon Cinder's shaft. For the first second, it felt like a sword. For the next, it felt like a thousand colliding trains. With each continuing blow, the water around them blew away, then came quickly back. Twenty-eight separate blows were dealt from each warrior, then both leapt back.
Cinder twirled his spear until fire ignited across its point, then threw the fireball from it; Trunks held his ground. The fireball exploded on direct targeting, the water around evaporated in a forth of a second. Then, there was silence as the smoke rose. Suddenly, Trunks charged out like a demon surging from the fires of hell, sword in front, the smoke riding across and over him. His strike was clear and fast. Sssssshhhhtwing!
The top part of the trident whisked into the air and imbedded itself in the back of the farthest billboard. Cinder stared in rage at the assailant. His anger drove him into his deep fires. That fire released itself from him, causing an ever-growing perimeter of water to evaporate around him.
"I never expected this strength." The comment belonged to a five-foot-tall masked warrior, covered in thick, layered armor. The shoulders protruded out slightly more than the rest of the suit.
"Why, is my teacher scared?" the apprentice was close to eight feet tall, with similar gold, silver, and black armor. The chest was silver-plated, while the arms, shoulders, helmet, and legs shone the gold. Then, of course, his skintight armor cloth was the black.
"It's only a simple observation, Sesix." The master returned calmly.
The one named Sesix gloated to his master, "Is that what you were doing when you ransacked that movie theater?"
The armor-clad warrior was unmoved; "I was testing them. Most of them are weak, unexpecting." He whirled on his apprentice, guessing what he was thinking, "But be warned, they have guardians," he cocked his head to Trunks, "he's one of them. The one I fought knew common and tactical techniques, even his own version of a Kamayhamayha."
"Whatever." He nodded toward the battle on the roof, adding angrily, "Why doesn't he just attack? Cinder's wide open, he could split him in two. Why wait for your opponent to reach his highest power?"
"It's called honor, young Sesix. Perhaps he's trying to prove something."
"Yeah, to who?" Sesix asked indignantly.
"Perhaps himself."
"Heeerrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!" Cinder unleashed the force, all the water around him that had not been burned away became multiple mini tidal waves exploding outward. Trunks brought his sword forward and cut the wave down the middle, having it cascade over the roof on either side of him.
Cinder's face was contorted even further with his full power; he looked mad. Crimson fire orbs formed on each hand. "Now. You. Die." He rasped out. Then fired furiously.
The orbs closed in. But then time seemed to stop. Trunks could see the five orbs frozen in the air before him. With one hand, one blue orb of his own grew from the palm and positioned itself in front of one fire orb. He repeated the process until each flame had another orb to run into. Trunks then floated silently and slowly just above the highest orb...and time resumed.
Each orb connected with its counterpart and exploded, but kept its momentum, creating a brilliant river of fire flowing beneath Trunks' feet. Hands smoking, lungs raspy, Cinder gazed forward then up. "My turn." Was all Trunks had to say. He never changed position. Never hunched; his legs remained relaxed and hanging, only his arms moved. His figure descended diagonally, blurring itself. Wwwhhhshtingsth!
The slash was faster than any eye; only its luminous blue trail could be seen for a millisecond. Cinder felt something, a distant thing, coming closer and closer rapidly. "I made a promise." Trunks murmured, not breaking stance. Cinder's eyes looked down to his waist, saw a split forming, and quickly looked back up. "I had to keep it."
Todd "Cinder" Kaaz fell back. He splashed into the new forming pool. There were two splashes.