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Chapter 21; Clash

"I'm surprised that you really were gullible enough to come alone," the cloaked figure stated as Oliver angrily lit, extinguished and re-lit fireballs. "And that your friends were gullible enough to follow those false EVO reports."

"You did make them!" Oliver was only slightly surprised. But how. . . ? "The break in. That was just a cover to hijack the tech."

"Exactly," Nightwrath's head inclined slightly. "Now, did you uphold your side of the bargain?

"When your holding one of my friends ransom," The teen's hazel eyes narrowed. "It's not like I had much of a choice."

"Oh, Experiment R was it?" Oliver sure the assassin was grinning sadistically under that mask of his. "How about your other friend? Experiment A, correct? You're not curious about her? You're perfectly content to let her rot away where she's hidden away. Maybe she's not dead like you assumed. She could be suffering, while you you search for your other friend. Maybe you'd like to know about her? But I can't tell you both, of course. Oh, decisions, decisions."

It was all Oliver could do from attempting to incinerate him on the spot. Yanking the flash-drive from its resting place around his neck, Oliver dangled it in the air. "Where are they?! We had a deal."

"Oh, right. The drive for your friend's location."

"Right. Tell me or I torch this," Oliver threatened, lighting a small flame under the dangling drive. Once again, a small part of his mind wandered why it was so important. What secrets did it hold?

"We both know you wouldn't destroy it." Nightwrath sheathed his sword. "You're too curious and not stupid enough to destroy your only bartering chip."

"Wanna find out?" The flame crept closer, black ash forming on the device.

"Only if you want to lose this, everything I know about your friend, R. Even a bit on A as a little added incentive," The assasin calmly placed a PDA on the ground. "Toss me the drive or I crush it. And this has everything I know on it. This is your one chance, O."

"Slide it over here," Oliver's voice shook slightly.

"Give me the drive first."

"But-"

"I hold the cards here. The drive, now."

Oliver hesitated. It was his only leverage. But his friends. . .quickly deciding it was worth the risk, he tossed the flashdrive. Time seemed to slow as the small electronic made one complete rotation. . .

Two. . .

Three. . .

Four. . .

Before it finally came to a stop in Nightwrath's outstretched hand. "Good to do business." He said.

Then promptly stepped on the PDA, decimating it with a loud 'POP!'.

"You-" the second word was cut off by a rage induced attack from the teen. Flames spilled from his hands, chunks of the roof were dislodged, the wind picked up and a nearby water-tower ruptured. With an enraged yell, the elementalist sent all of it in a cascading wave of destruction at Nightwrath.

The attack completely leveled that side of the roof that his target was on, leaving a new skylight for the building and exposed bits of the structure. Oliver panted as the he slowly let off his attack and waited for the dust to settle. But as it cleared, Nightwrath stood unscathed as he balanced lightly on an exposed outcropping that hadn't been destroyed. Oliver noted through his angry haze that he hadn't drawn his sword, instead he was holding some sort of black tube.

"You. . . you. . . I'll kill you," Oliver's words were filled with malice, a darker tone than his usual easy going nature. In that moment, he wanted nothin more than revenge. Some of the water left over from his earlier attack slowly trickled back towards him, rising up, forming a scimitar in Oliver's hand. The blade might have been made out of water but it still had a wicked gleam to it.

"Doubtful," The assassin deftly jumped across the gap, aiming a blow at Oliver with his weapon.

The EVO easily parried it but the assassin followed it up with an elbow blow strait to Oliver's temple. The teen grunted from the blow and wasn't barely blocked the next strike.

Pushing his advantage, Nightwrath delivered a swift kick to Oliver's gut. As the teen bent of, winded, a second blow from his opponents fist sent him reeling. As he stumbled back, trying to regain his breath and some semblance of control, Nightwrath slammed the black tube into Oliver's gut.

As soon as the blow connected, he felt pain, searing pain arc across his body. It felt as the his blood itself was being dragged to where the weapon was connecting to his stomach. Withen moments he barely had the strength to stand. With a pained yell escaping his lips, he feel to his knees.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" Oliver was in too much pain to reply. "That's because every single Nanite in your body is being torn from its current resting place and sucked into this rod. In a few seconds, I'll have all of your nanites and you'll be a regular human again...well, if you're not dead."

"You're. . . the. . . deadman," Oliver threatened hollowly, barely managing to get the words out. His entire body seemed to burn as his nanites were forcefully ripped from his body. Then suddenly, as soon as the horrible, wrenching pain had come, it was gone and Oliver collapsed to the ground.

Tilting his head up, he saw a rather unexpected sight. Rex stood on the edge of the roof, arm morphed into a still smoking Punk Buster that he must of used to not Nightwrath. Backing up the Hispanic, was Six, looking as stoic as always with his magna blades drawn, and Onier, his Bo staff slung over his shoulder.

"Sorry we're late, hermano." Rex said cheekily, as he helped Oliver to his feet. "Those false warnings threw us off and we got here as fast as we could."

"Thanks," Oliver struggled on his feet, even with Rex's help. The nanite drainer had really done a number on him. "Sorry. . . for not telling you."

Nightwrath, who'd been launched to the other side of the roof, rose to his feet. He brushed off the rubble from his attire and checked the nanite drainer. Still intact. "Too little, too late. I've already got the flash drive and most of his nanites."

"Not for long," Onier stated coldly, the tip of his staff crackling to life with electricity as he charged, closely followed by Six. Nightwrath drew his sword as they got to him, quickly parrying their blows at a pace Oliver couldn't even follow his his fatigued state.

Even as drained as he was though, Oliver spotted the discarded flash drive. Nightwrath must have dropped it when he'd been hit by Rex. Unfortunately for all parties involved however, the drive had fallen into a puddle of residue water and most likely short circuited the device. It'd be useless for any information. The extremely valuable technology, whatever it had been, was now completely useless. Heck, it wasn't even heavy enough for a paper weight.

Focusing back on the fight, which Rex was obviously itching to get into but was still busy supporting Oliver, the white haired teen barely able to stay awake. Through his hazy vision though, he suddenly saw Onier get kicked to the ground, smashing his head against the roof and scrambling for his weapon that he'd drop in his fall.

Six was still holding his own, silver magna blades clashing in rapid attacks and counter strikes against the red blade of Nightwrath's. Six appeared to have the edge, since his opponent was trying to retreat with the nanite drainer. And due to his distraction, the ex-providence agent was able to bring his sword around and in one swift stroke cut the nanite drainer in one half.

The attack had been a double edged sword though. The backlash being that when Six cut the drainer, he let his guard down just enough for Nightwrath to deliver a hilt smash to the agent's solar plexus. Then the assassin threw one of his smoke bombs and was gone again.

Something told Oliver that with the destruction of the flash drive and the nanite drainer, the assassin wouldn't be around again any time soon. But with the loss of his nanites, Oliver felt it in his bones that Nightwrath's device had worked, the day had been a pyrrhic victory.

And what Oliver didn't know, was that this was only the tip of the iceberg.

Author's Note; And there's the climax! I hope you guys enjoyed it, this chapter was a lot of fun to write. Gave me some room to play around with Oliver's past, character relationships and give some solid punches for combat. Anyway, there's still an epilogue and maybe a wrap up chapter for this coming and then this is only the first entry to (Hopefully) many. Thanks for the support, guys, and until next update, Baldore out!