Chapter 4
"Wake up." Richard heard a voice order.
"Ugh...five more minutes..." Richard muttered in his sleep as he turned and snuggled into his covers.
Suddenly, Richard felt something hard hit him on the head. Angered he got up to see an angry looking Okore, quickly he composed himself and got into a fight stance. For the past four weeks Okore had been waking him up in a early effort to train him.
Okore launched a quick punch at Richard, he dodged and practically rugby tackled Okore's waist before throwing her down on the ground. Hard. Okore quickly swept Richard's legs from under him and rose to her feet, raising a hand to show Richard that they mini battle had come to an end.
"Mr Sloppy, you need to sharpen up! Breakfast in five minutes, and then you're required to go to the living room. Something's come up that you need to attend to. Do not come back with a failure on your head." Okore said as she turned around and strode out of the room.
Richard took a deep breath. Wonder what's the problem today then...I swear if it's got anything to do with Leah and Anna blowing up the lab again or Shikoba flirting with Ana I'll implode.
Richard jumped out from his bed and quickly got dressed into casual clothing which consisted of his signature navy jacket, his black shirt and blue jeans. To top it all off he wore a black pair of trainers on his feet. He quickly brushed his teeth and went to eat breakfast.
Five Minutes Later
Richard rose from the table after quickly finishing off his piece of toast and made his way to the living room.
Richard entered the meeting room to see a serious looking Sam Konenig standing on a platform.
"Good of you to join us." Ana said from behind Richard as she directed him into a seat next to Sofia.
"Now that we're all here...as I was saying beforehand there have been reports of mass disturbance in New York created by an Inhuman." Sam said.
"Inhuman? What are those?" Anna asked curiously as she stroked her black hair which was tied in a single braid, today she rocked a leather jacket and a gray skirt.
"We don't have much information but from what we do have they seem to be human weapons made from aliens." Sam explained.
"So what exactly are we needed for?" Shikoba asked as he lazily tried to put his hand over Ana's shoulder only to have his hand swatted away. Shikoba then began to smoothen down his green sweatshirt and his brown jeans.
"You guys are going to have to go in and take down the Inhuman then take it into custody. Be warned though it's going to be dangerous but nothing Fury seems to think you can't handle!" Ana explained as she rose up to stand next to Sam.
"Click?" Leah asked clearly concerned.
"Don't worry I'll be going with you to help out in case things go haywire, this bird has a few tricks up her sleeve." Ana said as she raised her fist which was now glowing white, Richard shivered as he felt the cold wash over him.
"How can you send us into this? We've barely had any training?" Anna complained as she waved her hands around to reinforce her point, Leah nodded her head furiously.
"Relax; you have a former mercenary in Shikoba, a skilled pilot who can also double up as back up in Sofia and an experienced agent in Ana." Sam said as he raised up his hand.
"What about Okore isn't she coming?" Richard asked.
"Sorry kid, that's not in Okore's contract with us, she's strictly your training instructor." Sam said.
"Funny that, my contract didn't say that I'd be a pilot/back up/assassin but look where I am now." Sofia muttered under her breath.
"Pardon?" Sam Koening asked.
"Nothing. I'll go prime up the jet and get properly suited up." Sofia said curtly as she turned around and left.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot Richard I took the liberty of rummaging through your things and getting the black box thing from your old clothes. Also catch." Ana said as she held up the device and tossed him an earpiece.
"What is this thing?" Richard asked with a mystified expression.
"An earpiece which you have to wear at all times and before you ask the black box is none of your business. Let's go...by now Sofia's probably primed up the jet for takeoff." Ana said stoutly.
"That doesn't make any sense I thought this whole take the in the inhuman out thing was about not drawing unneeded attention?" Anna pointed out.
"Sorry but rules go out the window in these scenarios." Ana said as she led the group out of the room and into the elevator.
"Going down." Ana said as she finaly got into the elevator last.
"How are we supposed to know whether we're going up or –"Anna complained as the elevator sent the group surging downwards.
"Click!" Leah let out a loud and distressed shriek as she tumbled out of the elevator first.
"What the hell?" Richard exclaimed as he rolled out after her with Shikoba sitting on his back.
"Can we do that again?" Shikoba asked excitedly.
"No, now let's move!" Ana ordered as she hooked arms with Anna who looked dazed and green.
"Aw man." Shikoba whined.
Richard looked around as he followed Shikoba and Leah; they seemed to be in a large aircraft hangar deep underground. The walls seemed to be made of black steel and on the ceiling was a SHIELD badge emblazoned on it. Richard watched as every once in a while Leah would stop briefly looking completely awestruck before Shikoba lightly sent a gust of a wind which propelled her forward.
Upon reaching what looked like a large door Ana pressed a few buttons on a wall panel and suddenly the entire hangar shook as the doors opened to reveal a hybrid-wing aircraft with Sofia leaning against the side.
"Sweet is that a quinjet?" Shikoba asked curiously.
Everyone started at him with surprised expressions.
"I didn't know that you were aware of our planes? How do you know?" Ana said carefully as she narrowed her eyes.
"Um...Fury showed up to me in one of those when he recruited me." Shikoba said.
Ana and Sofia both stared at him, clearly not buying it.
"You can ask him if you want." Shikoba said casually.
"I think I will when we get back." Ana said as she sent Shikoba a quick glare before asking Sofia to led them inside.
Leah quickly waddled in and made a gurgling sound, clearly she was happy.
Wonder how Shikoba knows about the plane...
Before Richard was about to enter he saw out of the corner of his eye Anna whispering something to Shikoba before giving Richard a look which said "don't tell anyone or I'll kill you". Richard shuddered and quickly collapsed into a seat.
"Welcome to the quinjet, I'm Sofia and I'll be your pilot for today's flight." Sofia blurted out in a loudspeaker above.
Ana let out a cough and stamped her foot.
Suddenly, as if sensing her superior's anger the entire jet started to rumble, Richard felt himself being gently pushed back into his seat as he felt the quinjet accelerate forwards. Soon enough the walls of the air hangar had disappeared and was now replaced with the blue of the sky.
"This is so awesome!" Shikoba yelled as the plane flew upwards and zoomed towards the teams destination.
"Wake me up when we arrive I'm going to have a quick nap." Richard whispered to Leah as he zonked out.
A few minutes later Richard felt a small nudge as he opened his eyes to the blurry faces of Leah, Anna and Shikoba staring at him.
"Click." Leah said as gripped what seemed to be a yellow duffel bag in her lap.
"We're almost there." Anna confirmed as she clenched her fists and gave Shikoba a light punch on the shoulder.
"What was that for?" Shikoba said in mock hurt.
"Just testing you." Anna said with a playful smile.
"Ahem." Ana let out a loud cough which made everyone focus on her.
"We're approaching New York in a couple of minutes, civilians have been evacuated from the premises but there may be a few strays lying around considering that this Inhuman as managed to completely level an entire building. Oh and before I forget..." Ana said as her splayed out her hand towards Anna and fired a blast of cold air towards her. Anna blinked as the beam hit her before smiling.
"Thanks, I needed that." Anna said as she rose from her seat and cracked her knuckles.
"Approaching the target in five minutes good luck." Sofia said gruffly as she steered the plane closer to the ground.
Richard looked outside the window to see mass devastation bellow him on the streets of New York. People were strewn everywhere across the ground. Children were crying as the authorities tried to pulled them out from the rubble and in the centre of it all was a black haired teen who Richard could faintly make out as a boy dressed in rags.
"Is that the target." Richard asked as he pointed down at the boy.
"Yes and from what I've heard he's pretty powerful; don't get too close Sofia just set us a few metres away behind a building. That's it." Ana said as she took a deep breath and dragged the door open.
"Jump!" Ana called out as she took a running jump and landed on the ground.
The trio looked at each other and Shikoba raised his hand, Richard suddenly felt weightless as he felt himself move out of the quinjet and land gently .Shikoba gave him a quick grin before turning serious.
"Shikoba and Anna you're with me. Richard and Leah try and help the civilians." Ana said as she rose from the ground and charged towards the boy throwing a blast of energy at her opponent which harmlessly bounced off. The boy looked up with beady black eyes and an eerie smile.
Shikoba quickly swooped in and sent an arc of wind at the boy who didn't seem to be fazed as the boy jerked his hand forward sending Shikoba flying backwards, bumping into Anna on the way. Anna had seemingly decided enough was enough as she got up and let out a battle cry as she charged towards the boy and aimed a punch at the boy's head.
Richard watched all this unfold as he and Leah quickly darted around helping pull out any survivors, just as he was about to help pull out a gentleman in suit he heard a loud shriek. He whipped around to see Anna crash into a building, her leather jacket powerless against the sheer weight of the building, she slid downwards. Ana and Shikoba likewise didn't seem to be having much luck either as they both dodged a range of cars being thrown at the boy whose gestures seemed to suggest that he was throwing air.
What the hell is this guy's power? They haven't even managed to land one hit!
Richard quickly pulled out the man in the suit and beckoned Leah to come over before realising that the man was still holding onto his right arm.
"Hey...get off me old man." Richard said as he tried to pull the man from his grip. The man wouldn't let go. Richard felt a shiver come down his spine as he blinked his eyes to see the similar black beady eyes of the boy. Somehow this boy was controlling the man.
"Click!" Leah shouted a range of gurgles and shrieks as Richard realized he she had the same problem.
"Get...off...me!" Richard said as he stamped his foot down hard on the man's foot.
Meanwhile...
Anna was attempting to out punch the annoying midget before her.
"Stay...still!" Anna shouted between punches as the boy dodged every single one.
"Take this you idiot!" Ana shouted from above as she sent a dual blast of energy towards the beady eyed boy who merely raised his hand and absorbed it redirecting the blast at Anna who felt her body throwing itself backwards into yet again another building.
"How about you let me take over, you look kind of tired." Shikoba said as he glided towards her and landed in front of her. He pulled out of his pocket what looked like a golden sword hilt and sent two quick slashes towards the beady eyed boy who gave Shikoba a smile as they harmlessly passed through.
"How the hell do we beat this thing?" Anna yelled as she got up.
"Stop complaining, we're wearing it down...where the hell are Richard and Leah" Ana muttered as she sent blast after blast of energy.
Elsewhere...
"Leah, what are you doing?" Richard said as he sat down on the ground (with the man still holding onto his hand) and eyed the girl rummaging through her duffel bag with one hand before holding up a gun and letting out a triumphant shriek as she tossed the gun onto Richard's lap.
Wonder what this is? It can't be a normal gun, does she really expect me to hold one of these?
Leah let out an encouraging shriek as she rummaged through her bag again.
"To hell with it, guess I'm going to say in my defence it was self defence." Richard picked up the gun and aimed it at the man's kneecap and pressed the trigger. Richard felt the gun buck slightly as a charge of electricity hit the man's kneecap causing a slight yelp as the man collapsed onto the ground unconscious.
"Sweet!" Richard said to himself as he pumped his fist in the air before feeling Leah nudge him.
"I mean nice gun guess we should go help the other's." He said seriously as he pointed to the battle. Shikoba had just been sent crashing into a building whilst Ana had just misfired a bolt of energy which had just hit Anna.
"Click?" Leah asked mystified as she pointed into the sky.
Richard followed her gaze to see a quinjet in the air, a few seconds later a terrified scream bought his attention back to the battle at hand as he saw an angry and bloody nosed Anna being held back by a concerned Shikoba who had the look of a frustrated young man.
Richard followed their eyes to see a horrifying sight. Before his eyes was a tired and battered Ana whose clothes were torn and her face was now the very picture of fear, she was seemingly held in a choke hold in the air by the beady eyed boy who had a look of absolute glee on his face.
Richard watched paralysed in fear as the world seemed to slow down around him as he saw Ana lock eyes with all three of the trio. Her eyes telling them each the same thing
Goodbye.
"I'm going to enjoy this." The beady eyed boy spoke, his voice sounded deep, unnatural and powerful.
"NO!" Richard yelled as he saw the boy clench his fist and Ana fall to the ground in slow motion...unmoving...lifeless...dead...
Dun Dun Duuun!
Cliffhanger! Don't Kill me but it just seemed like the right place to stop! Sorry Shouta but I planned for a pretty early death to throw a spanner into the works of The Wardens...
This is probably the longest chapter I've ever done and I would really appreciate some feedback on the battle scenes (and the chapter as a whole) as those were probably the hardest thing I had to this chapter...how do you guys feel about Ana dying? How do you think the team will react and who do you think will be hit the hardest? Just who is this new kid who seems practically invulnerable and all powerful? Stay tuned to find out as all will be revealed along with the appearance of a few familiar characters