Heir of the Immortals Resurrection
Chapter 11
Frederick Slade through his grey trench coat onto the coat rack beside the door as his front door clicked into its frame. Lights made to look like old-fashioned oil lamps clicked on, casting his foyer in shadow as he released a breath and stretch the tension from his muscles.
Moving towards the staircase that led to the upper floors, his footsteps echoed off the hardwood. Pausing before the stairs, he kept his head down.
Something was not right, someone was here.
He glanced to the left, moonlight shone through the glass windows of his sunroom, bathing the white wicker furniture in its pale light.
"You can go ahead and look this way, I knew the moment you realize that I was here, your heartbeat changed."
Slowly, Frederick turned, his solid green eyes surveying his living room in a moment. An antique wooden couch with red cushions and emblazoned in gold sat on a red rug embossed with more gold.
In front of the couch sat a large coffee table made of thick dark wood. At either end of the coffee table were two high-backed chairs, made in the same design as the couch.
Sitting in the chair facing his direction was a teen with dark blue skin. Solid red eyes stared at him as a leg covered in black slacks bounced up and down, the shine of his dress shoe catching the light of the chandelier in the center of the ceiling.
A white dress shirt covered a lean muscular frame. The sleeves were rolled up to his forearms, and his dark hair was slicked back. Slowly, he rose to his feet.
"You know when I saw in Clarence's mind that I had a family, I was excited, I've never met any of my grandfather's blood," he slowly shook his head, "but after seeing inside your mind, I am very disappointed."
Frederick Slade moved forward, his back stiff, his fist clenched his eyes narrowed, and his lips pressed into a thin line, "I don't know who you are, but you will regret entering my home uninvited."
The teen moved forward, "I am Herald Gallio, grandson of En Sabah Nur and Selene Gallio, and you are Frederick Slade. The man who sold out his blood in exchange for his youth."
Frederick's hand morphed into the blade of a sword, "Anything I have done was by the creed of Apocalypse, only the strong may stay in the Akkaba Clan!"
Red energy flared from Herald's hand, coalescing into a simple sword with the cross-shape guard, "There are different kinds of strength and mutant blood is too precious to be spilled on such a foolish notion."
On some unseen signal, the two close the distance between them. Their swords clashing together in a shower of sparks.
Frederick lashed out with a foot towards Herald's stomach.
Herald's left hand shot forward, catching Frederick's foot with reinforced telekinetic strength. Sending a burst of power through the leg, Herald twisted his wrist.
Off-balance Frederick twisted. Catching himself on his hands, he stabbed his free leg towards Herald's face, his foot morphing into a spike.
Releasing Frederick's foot, Harald backed away as the tip of the spike grazed his right cheek. A trail of blood ran down his dark blue skin.
Frederick seemed to fold in on himself as he vanished in a pulse of pink light.
Taking a step back, Herald slapped his hands together. Red energy blossomed from his body, reducing the furniture around him to splinters as a dome appeared over him.
Frederick appeared behind him, only to smack into the dome and vanish.
A crash from upstairs shook the house. Leaning back against his dome, Herald vanished, the dome winking out of existence with his exit.
–XX –
Appearing in a bedroom, Herald quickly surveyed his surroundings. A four-poster bed with dark blue curtains sat in the center of the room. The four posts having fallen inward to land on the bed, one of the curtain rods lay on the floor, while the other lay across the bed, slightly elevated by one of the posts.
A nightstand sat on either side of the bed; each nightstand had a lamp. The nightstand on the right held an almost empty glass of water.
Keeping his eyes moving, he searched for his opponent. His observations taking less than a second, his body tense as he waited for an attack. Part of him expected Frederick to run, but given the mindset of the survival of the fittest, he would view that as a weakness.
Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned just in time to see Frederick flying towards him, claws emerging from his fingers and toes.
Stretching forth his hand, Herald wrapped his power around one of the posts. It flew through the air, smacking into his palm. Twisting his body, he brought it around to slam into Frederick's side.
Frederick flew through the air, and smash through his bedroom window.
Herald sprinted forward, releasing the post. It impacted the floor with a loud bang as he dove through the window.
–XX –
Bending his knees as he landed on the ground, Herald looked around cursing when he didn't find his opponent, "Dealing with teleporters sucks!"
Whistling air caught his attention, he turned just in time to see the front end of a car flying towards him. Raising his left hand, an oval-shaped portal appeared before him. Most of the car slipped inside, but the headlights fell to the ground, the edges of the portal having cut them free.
With a force of will, the headlights floated off the ground and began rotating around him. As they rotated, blue flames began to curl around them. The metal glowed a bright yellow. Reaching out with his mind, he pulled it apart. With a force of will, he molded it into hundreds of small orbs.
The air chilled around him. Steam rose off the hundreds of metal marbles that now floated around him as Frost crawled over their metal surface, and small markings glowed with a deep red light.
Closing his eyes, he sent a pulse of power through the ground. Ripples spread out from his feet forming a black and white image of the world within his mind each time they touched something.
"So, he can teleport himself and objects like Clarence. The question is what is his distance? I'm assuming he has to still be able to see me." Slowly, he began moving forward, his eyes still closed, leaving it to his Geokinesis to detect movement. "When this is over, I need to find someone with the power over air, if he can teleport things without them having to touch the ground I'm screwed."
Suddenly, his head snapped to the side, his eyes opening just in time to see Frederick leap from a light pole. Multiple cracks split the air as he flexed his fingers, sending his ammunition forward.
The pink-haired man twisted in midair, space distorting as he teleported away.
Approaching the spot Frederick had been over when he disappeared, Herald knelt, running his finger over the asphalt. Raising it to his eyes, he found a red smear on his skin, "Got you." Closing his eyes, he sniffed the blood while reaching out with his mind.
Black and white images moved through his mind in a blur as he connected to the cameras spread throughout London.
Keeping his eyes closed, a portal opened beneath him and he vanished in a flash of red light.
– XX–
Frederick Slade burst into existence a mile away from his home, one hand clamped to his side as he fought to maintain his balance. Blood ran between his fingers, and each movement sent a firework of pain through his guts.
More blood ran from a hole in his arm and shattered collarbone. He focused, trying to shift his wound closed, but whatever was inside him burned. Steam wafted out of the holes, filling the air with the smell of cooked meat.
He screamed through clenched teeth, beads of sweat running down his face as a bitter chuckle escaped past his lips.
He leaned against the wall of a nearby building. "So, this is it. This is how it ends for the man who sold out his family. Was I so wrong? My entire life I heard only the strong survive. Mother, cast me aside because I didn't have the drive. Now, over the last couple of decades, I repeated her mistake."
Pushing himself off the wall, he glanced at the blood smeared across the bricks. "It's funny, I only think about the things I've done as I'm about to die," he shook his head, "What a waste."
"You don't have to die."
Frederick spun around, grimacing at the pain in his side.
Herald Gallio emerged from the shadows of an alley, his solid red eyes locked with Frederick's green, "I can heal you."
Frederick shook his head, "No, for what I've done, death is the only choice."
"Not really, you could live and try to make the world better."
Frederick shook his head, "It's only in this moment, as I bleed to death, that I realize the mistakes I've made throughout my life. If you were to heal me, there's no guarantee that I wouldn't backslide and return to my old ways."
Harald gazed at Frederick. Reaching out with his mind, he downloaded the man's history.
Frederick Slade was born to Joel and Margaret Slade. He is the younger brother of Hamilton Slade. From a young age, he learned the harsh truths of the world, after watching his mother kill his father to inherit his family fortune. Because he showed fear at this event, Margaret focused on his older brother Hamilton, teaching him the ways of their clan and the rules of Apocalypse where only the strong survive.
As Frederick grew, he became more skilled in the subtle arts being more comfortable manipulating from the shadows than a straight-on attack. This reinforced his mother's belief that Hamilton was the stronger of the two, even after Frederick displayed a secondary mutation that allowed him to teleport and open portals.
It went this way for many years, until Frederick's twenty-first birthday. On this day, his brother betrayed the family, having been turned into a vampire by Dracula he slaughtered many of their clan, including their mother, Margaret.
Though he was not as skilled as his brother in hand-to-hand combat, Frederick was able to defeat Hamilton by using his teleportation ability. When combined with his self-molecular manipulation, he was able to remove his brother's head. After defeating his brother, he met a man made of stone called, Ozymandias, an ancient servant of Apocalypse who informed him that he was now the leader of the clan.
Using the family money, he was able to build an empire, while watching over his descendants from the shadows.
Frederick felt that it was better to allow those descendants to develop on their own without any information about their ancestry until they prove themselves. He felt that it was the family vying for rulership over one another that left them weak and vulnerable to attack by the vampires.
Slowly, he was able to rebuild a new Akkaba Clan, one more powerful and versatile than any of its predecessors.
However, by this time he was growing old, his self-molecular manipulation was no longer able to slow his aging. With growing weakness came paranoia, and he eventually returned to England to rule the clan from the shadows while searching for a way to regain his youth. It was during this time, he met Lily Potter.
She offered to return his youth in exchange for the descendants of Apocalypse that did not pass Frederick's test. Feeling that the return of his youth would keep the Akkaba clan strong and that the members that did not pass his test could prove useful, Frederick agreed.
Blinking, Herald removed himself from Frederick's mind, "Do you know where they took our family?"
"The wizards have taken over an old mutant concentration camp called Neverland. Be warned, they also recruit people for the weapon X program there."
Herald inclined his head, "Are you ready?"
"I am," Frederick tensed, but his eyes widened as nothing happened. He stared into Herald's glowing red eyes, "How?"
"I have many gifts. I will not do you a disservice by playing with you any longer. You wanted a warrior's death, you will get one, but no more jumping around."
Two French-style sabers appeared in Herald's hand, made out of translucent red energy. He threw one to Frederick.
Frederick caught it, one arm folding behind his back as he took a well-practiced stance.
"Begin."
The two close the distance between one another, their swords clashing in a deadly dance of grace. As they broke apart, Herald opened his senses.
The world shifted, becoming made of translucent red energy. Symbols, letters, and numbers flowed out of Frederick as they clashed again.
Herald's body tensed as he slammed a foot into Frederick's wound, causing the man to cry out and stumble backward. Knowledge settled into his mind. Raising a hand, he willed it to change from dark blue to a healthy tan. Then it became sheathed in metal before finally reverting to normal.
Frederick looked up just in time to see Herald's hand return to normal. "So, that is your power, you can mimic the powers of others."
Space folded, and Herald disappeared.
Frederick tensed, a dribble of blood running down his chin. Looking down, he found a rapier blade sticking out of his heart, "At least a part of me will live on." With those final words, his knees gave out as the Psionic constructs vanished.
Herald glanced up at the sound of approaching footsteps.
Mary Walker stood a few feet behind him, dressed in a dark blue blouse, and black slacks. Her Auburn hair was tied back into a ponytail, and her Brown eyes looked at him with concern, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," his skin lightened, and his red eyes change to the color of Emerald. Rising to his feet he willed Frederick's body to rise with him. "Did you get it?"
"He only had $500,000 in a safe in the house. Using the device you created, I began the transfer of his wealth to your account. It should be in there in a few days."
Red light appeared beneath their feet. "I didn't want to kill him you know, besides Clarence and Selene, he's been the first family I've met, even if he was only distantly related."
Mary shook her head, "You may not have wanted to kill him, but you knew from the moment you entered that house you're going to have to. He lived by the survival of the fittest mentality. He wouldn't have been happy living after you defeated him."
Before entering the home, Herald used his telepathy to learn about Frederick's recent actions. At the time he had skipped over Frederick's past, but he saw enough to know that he was working with the wizards, "I know."
Mary stepped closer, wrapping an arm around his shoulder, "Did you get the other thing you needed?"
"Looks like we're headed to Canada," the edges of the light beneath their feet began to fold upwards.
As the edges touched, forming a pyramid shape, Mary stared into his new eyes, "Why Emerald?"
"She wasn't much of a mother, but I always found Lily Potter's eyes to be beautiful."
In a flash of red light, they vanished.