Tower Climber 4 (A LitRPG Adventure), page 34
“Congratulations, kid,” Asriel said. “You’ve forced me to use my full potential.”
He then triggered his ultimate ability.
His break-mode.
Max’s eyes bulged.
He couldn’t believe Asriel had enough strength and endurance to get back up from the last attack.
But more than that his whole body was changing.
His eyes enlarged and turned a dark yellow and then his skin turned into green scales.
A large tail emerged from behind him.
Max couldn’t believe it.
Asriel was transforming into a lizard being.
It must be a break-mode.
This is a much more intense battle than I expected, thought Max. This is going to come down to break-mode versus break-mode.
“You think you’re so strong, huh?” said Asriel. “Fight me now in my most powerful form. With the passive stat upgrades of a break-mode plus my superior fighting prowess—there’s simply no way you can defeat me.”
A burning energy and aura began to surround Asriel’s entire body.
He charged Max head on and leapt towards him with a powerful fist.
“Try and survive this,” shouted Asriel. “Lizard Fist of The Ancient Dragons!!”
91
Max braced himself for the incoming blow.
He triggered phase-out, except Asriel’s fist broke through the ability and Max was sent hurtling backwards.
Impossible, Max thought. Nothing should be able to break through my phase-out ability.
And, yet, the horrible pain as he smashed into the penthouse’s kitchen counter told him otherwise.
Max trembled as he picked himself up off the ground.
Asriel grinned, relishing the harm he had just caused.
“All your passives, all your pretty tricks to escape damage,” said Asriel, “none of it works against my lizard-mode and the ancient power of dragons, fool!”
Max wiped blood from his mouth.
He was going to have to rethink his whole strategy. If he couldn’t use abilities like phase-out as quick defense strategies, it would force him to be less risky, less agile. Asriel was backing him into a tactical corner.
Asriel sneered at him.
“I love the look of an opponent realizing that they have no way of winning,” sneered Asriel. “Understand that I am superior to you in every way now that you’ve forced me to use my ultimate power. Your heijo-shin passive is but a bastardization of a dragon’s normal eyesight. Phase-out only lasts for mere seconds, a disgusting devolution of a lizard’s cloaking ability. None of it can defend you from my power!”
Asriel charged Max once more.
Max winced.
He’s too powerful, Max thought. I just need to survive long enough to figure out a way to beat him.
I just need to hang in there!
Asriel charged his opponent once more.
The boy could barely lift his hands to block in time.
Asriel threw out a lightning lizard jab to Max’s chin, sending him off balance, followed by a powerful kick to the gut, which sent him blasting through the kitchen counter and obliterating the sink.
“How do you like that?” asked Asriel.
Asriel relished all the power he was feeling. He had kept his break-mode to himself for so long, it felt freeing to finally unleash his true potential.
The power felt magnificent.
Asriel waited for the dust to settle from all the broken debris.
He’d take his time, torturing this boy who had caused him so much irritation the last few months.
Asriel waited, anticipating some kind of retaliation, but nothing happened.
Asriel raised his eyebrows.
“Is that it?” he asked. “You’re down for the count then?”
Asriel didn’t know why he was so surprised.
The kid was a little runt.
Why shouldn’t he have been easily defeated by my superior attacks?
His eyes bulged as the dust settled.
The red-haired punk was twitching and trembling. He was still alive.
So you won’t give up so easily. Asriel grinned. Good.
I can bask in my power over you for a little bit longer.
Max felt his vision going blurry.
He reached out with his hands, trying to get his bearings.
What happened?
Asriel had punched and kicked him in the gut and he had gone flying backwards.
Max didn’t understand.
Asriel had gotten so powerful once he unleashed his break-mode.
How am I supposed to compete with him?
He’s higher-ranked.
He’s got a break-mode.
And he’s got decades more fighting experience.
Max shook his head.
No, he thought. I can’t think that way.
Max spat out the blood forming in his mouth.
He got up and saw Asriel grinning at him with his terrifying lizard eyes.
I have to stop messing around, Max thought. If this guy can wield that much power, I can’t hold back. I have to give it everything I got, now or never!
Plus, Max thought. There’s one thing I haven’t tried yet.
Asriel watched the kid get up off the ground.
The leader of The Immortal Killers laughed.
“So you want more, huh?”
Asriel was happy to deliver another devastating blow, and this time, he’d send that kid right through the walls and out the window.
Asriel felt gleeful as he imagined the kid’s body and brains splattered on concrete so many stories below.
His eyes narrowed as the kid took on a fighting stance.
“Oh,” said Asriel. “So you think you can still beat me, huh? Do your worst!”
Then the kid did something that truly surprised him.
The red-haired boy’s right arm turned fleshy and crimson from his demonic break-mode, while his left arm turned into a metallic laser chainsaw.
Asriel’s eyes bulged with shock.
That’s not possible!
He couldn’t believe it.
He blinked to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.
The kid was wielding two break-modes at once!
“You may have all sorts of advantages in this fight,” the boy said. “But there’s one thing you don’t have and that’s two break-modes, you arrogant piece of garbage!”
The red-haired boy thrust out his demon arm. The demonic mutant tendrils grew out at insane speeds until they were clutching Asriel’s throat.
Then, the same demonic hand clutching around Asriel’s neck began to mutate once more, shifting from one break-mode to another.
It went from a paralyzing clutch of a demonic claw to the straight devastating line of a laser chainsaw.
This is unbelievable, thought Asriel, squirming. Such power—such ingenuity—I cannot compete with this—
Asriel’s neck was caught right in the middle of the red-haired kid’s two break-modes, mutating from one to the other.
As the transition completed, the laser chainsaw sliced Asriel’s head off with ease.
It should have been me, Asriel thought in his final moments.
I should have slain The God Killer.
But The God Killer more than deserves his title.
92
Zack clutched his wounded stomach with one hand, while spraying bullets with the other.
He mutated his right arm into a machine gun, blasting rounds into the foyer of The Faceless Association, taking out as many Immortal Killers as he could.
“Take that, you bastards,” Zack shouted.
Suddenly, a gust of wind shot through the foyer and knocked back a cluster of Immortal Killers.
“Don’t mess with the wind, boys,” said Casey.
The same opponents were then hit with powerful darts to the forehead.
“Or darts!” declared Moira.
Tiberius finished the job, running his mana-conjured blade through the multiple downed Immortal Killers.
He stood up straight and said, “Foyer clear. Let’s make our way to the top. We can split up on the different floors to check everyone is safe, while some of us should go up to check on Max.”
They all nodded their heads.
“I must go to the penthouse,” said Zack.
“Are you sure?” said Casey. “You’re the most wounded out of all of us.”
“Please—do as you like—but I must get to that penthouse,” said Zack.
Zack stumbled to the elevator and pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
He jammed his finger again, angrily.
Nothing happened yet again.
“Looks like the elevator is down,” said Tiberius. “We’re going to have to take the stairs then.”
Zack materialized a beer, cracked it open, and chugged it down with inhuman speed.
He then limped to the stairwell.
Ren, he thought to himself. I don’t know whether I’m coming to kill you for causing all this violence or to save you from it.
Max caught his breath.
He bent down towards Asriel’s fallen body and yanked his climber’s pouch from the man.
He took a quick glimpse inside to see what was in it.
Lots of gold, lots of monster cores.
Then, his eyes widened with excitement.
Now that’s interesting, he thought.
There were scrolls describing some of the powerful techniques Asriel was using. Max could look those over and use them to his advantage.
Amazing, he thought to himself.
His thoughts were cut short by a groaning sound.
For a second, Max thought Asriel was still alive, despite the gory decapitation.
Then he remembered Ren.
He ran over to the leader of The Faceless Association.
He crouched down and looked at the man.
“Are you okay?” Max asked.
He had asked the question, but the answer was clear as day.
The man’s skin was ghostly white.
His lips blue.
The man was in a puddle of his own blood.
The leader was dying.
“I’m fine,” Ren replied, softly. “Better than fine—I’m alright.”
Max looked around frantically, there must be a way to slow down his breathing.
“Hang on,” he said. “We can get you a healer. Get you to the hospital. You’re still alive, you can beat this!”
“You don’t understand,” said Ren. “I don’t want to beat this. My death was always part of the plan. Now that you’ve destroyed Asriel and the gangs outside destroy each other, my passing along with all of that will hopefully usher in a new era to Nightmare City.”
Max looked down at the dying man.
He was beginning to piece together all of the events.
“You...” Max said. “You orchestrated all of this...”
Max was horrified to think that one man had been able to concoct such a level of violence, misery, and mayhem upon a place.
Beyond that, the determination it would have required, the level of calculation—it was terrifying in its exactness.
“Spare me your judgments,” said the dying man. “I did what I believed was necessary and if that matched with exactly what I craved, what I wanted, what I hungered for all these decades? So be it.”
Max let out a sigh and turned towards the door.
His companions should be getting here any minute now.
“I presume you lost the auction then,” said Ren, giving a crimson-soaked smile up at Max.
“Yeah,” said Max. “The folder was stolen. I still have time to get it back along with my sister, though.”
“If it was stolen,” said Ren, “I’m pretty sure the person who stole it would have destroyed it by now.”
Max felt a pit in his stomach.
All of his training.
All of his fighting.
All of this chaos.
Everything he had been working towards for the last few months had been to acquire that folder.
And now he was told that the folder and all of its truths and memories were up in flames?
“Come closer,” said Ren. “I read that folder. I’ll tell you everything I remember from it.”
Max leaned in closer.
The man spoke into Max’s ear and the boy listened closely, his eyes widening as he learned the true history of his sister’s past.
An Immortal Killer with nunjucks made of deadly ice leapt down the stairwell at Zack.
Zack fired off a shotgun round from his right arm, knocking the warrior back and into the wall.
Zack materialized another beer and chugged it.
I gotta stay hydrated, he thought.
It was just him now on the final ascent to the penthouse. The others had all peeled off to take care of The Immortal Killers who were stalking the lower floors of The Faceless Association’s headquarters.
He dropped the empty beer can on the ground and moved up the final set of stairs to the penthouse floor.
He shot the hinges off the door and then kicked it down. He entered an apartment full of broken furniture, shattered glass, and walls decorated in blood.
At the center of it all was Max crouching over Ren who was dying on the ground.
Zack’s heart panged at the sight.
In that moment, he knew he hadn’t fought his way up this building to fight or save the leader of The Faceless Association.
He had come to see his brother’s face one last time.
He had come to say goodbye.
He rushed over and fell to his knees beside his dying brother.
“Zack...” said Ren. “Is...that...you?”
His eyes began to brim with tears.
“I’m sorry,” Zack said. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. That I was too stubborn for too long. I’m sorry I got here so late.”
Ren smiled up at the man.
“Don’t worry, brother,” said Ren.
“How can I not?” said Zack, the tears falling down his face.
“Now that I’ve achieved everything I thought I wanted,” Ren said, “I realize that all I ever truly desired was to see your face again. To see my brother one last time. So thank you for coming here at all.”
And with those last words, the final living gang leader of Nightmare City’s big three passed away into the night.
93
“What the flipping heck happened in here!?” exclaimed Moira as she entered the penthouse with Casey and Tiberius behind her.
“I mean,” said Casey looking at the wrecked apartment, “it could use just a little renovating I guess.”
“Here’s a wild suggestion,” said Tiberius. “Do you think plants would liven this place up?”
“Oh for sure,” said Casey and Moira at the same time.
Max smiled to hear his companions’ voices. They were okay. They had survived their own battles downstairs just as he had survived his.
He placed a hand gently on Zack who was mourning his fallen brother and then stood up to meet his companions.
“What’s the current status on the fighting,” Max asked.
“We’ve taken back control of the headquarters,” said Moira. “Turns out most of the children and other innocent bystanders followed the safety protocol and are doing fine. Now, it’s just a matter of taking back the city from the endless fighting.”
“And catching up with my sister,” Max added.
“Of course,” said Moira. “I’m pretty sure with most of the leaders and sub-captains out of the picture, anyone with the slightest inkling of organization and tactics should be able to take back the city. It won’t be easy, but I think I can do it. While I handle the gang war, you catch up with your sis and that prick who blew up the auction house.”
“You’re going to need help with Elle’s comrades,” said Casey.
“Might as well make it three on three,” smiled Tiberius.
Max smiled at his team.
“Thanks you, guys,” he said and then turned to Moira. “What do we need to do to catch up with them?”
“To get to the Nightmare City departure teleporter you take the subway to the end of the line. The one and only daily train leaves in fifteen minutes.”
Moira showed them on a map where they needed to go.
It was far away.
If there was any chance of catching that train, they had to leave immediately.
“Let’s go,” said Max as he strode towards the door.
Elle shook her head, trying to get rid of the sweat in her eyes.
Her lungs ached and her throat was dry.
“I’m not letting you get away, you bastard!” she yelled, despite also panting with exhaustion.
They had been running for over an hour now in the dark labyrinthine tunnels beneath Nightmare City.
She could hear the distant echoes of Nicolas Adler running ahead of them.
Those echoes were her compass pointing her in the right direction, driving her forward.
The light brightened as they arrived at a subway platform.
She could see Nicolas Adler.
He was triggering his incredible crafting trait to do something.
Get the heck out of here, she thought to herself.
In seconds, the man had built his own miniature train.
“Catch me now,” said the man, taunting her with a wave as he barreled down the subway tunnel.
Elle felt her body give out.
She collapsed onto the subway platform and banged her fists on the ground.
“Dammit,” she shouted. “He got away. He always gets away.”
Tears began to fill her eyes.
Will I ever be good enough...
Will I ever be strong enough...
Will I ever be able to kill that man who took everything away from me?
“It might not be over yet,” said Winifred. “Look.”
There was a manatech sign on the wall that said, “Subway Train Arriving In Five Minutes.”
Moira looked out at the city from the shattered glass window of her former leader’s apartment.
He then triggered his ultimate ability.
His break-mode.
Max’s eyes bulged.
He couldn’t believe Asriel had enough strength and endurance to get back up from the last attack.
But more than that his whole body was changing.
His eyes enlarged and turned a dark yellow and then his skin turned into green scales.
A large tail emerged from behind him.
Max couldn’t believe it.
Asriel was transforming into a lizard being.
It must be a break-mode.
This is a much more intense battle than I expected, thought Max. This is going to come down to break-mode versus break-mode.
“You think you’re so strong, huh?” said Asriel. “Fight me now in my most powerful form. With the passive stat upgrades of a break-mode plus my superior fighting prowess—there’s simply no way you can defeat me.”
A burning energy and aura began to surround Asriel’s entire body.
He charged Max head on and leapt towards him with a powerful fist.
“Try and survive this,” shouted Asriel. “Lizard Fist of The Ancient Dragons!!”
91
Max braced himself for the incoming blow.
He triggered phase-out, except Asriel’s fist broke through the ability and Max was sent hurtling backwards.
Impossible, Max thought. Nothing should be able to break through my phase-out ability.
And, yet, the horrible pain as he smashed into the penthouse’s kitchen counter told him otherwise.
Max trembled as he picked himself up off the ground.
Asriel grinned, relishing the harm he had just caused.
“All your passives, all your pretty tricks to escape damage,” said Asriel, “none of it works against my lizard-mode and the ancient power of dragons, fool!”
Max wiped blood from his mouth.
He was going to have to rethink his whole strategy. If he couldn’t use abilities like phase-out as quick defense strategies, it would force him to be less risky, less agile. Asriel was backing him into a tactical corner.
Asriel sneered at him.
“I love the look of an opponent realizing that they have no way of winning,” sneered Asriel. “Understand that I am superior to you in every way now that you’ve forced me to use my ultimate power. Your heijo-shin passive is but a bastardization of a dragon’s normal eyesight. Phase-out only lasts for mere seconds, a disgusting devolution of a lizard’s cloaking ability. None of it can defend you from my power!”
Asriel charged Max once more.
Max winced.
He’s too powerful, Max thought. I just need to survive long enough to figure out a way to beat him.
I just need to hang in there!
Asriel charged his opponent once more.
The boy could barely lift his hands to block in time.
Asriel threw out a lightning lizard jab to Max’s chin, sending him off balance, followed by a powerful kick to the gut, which sent him blasting through the kitchen counter and obliterating the sink.
“How do you like that?” asked Asriel.
Asriel relished all the power he was feeling. He had kept his break-mode to himself for so long, it felt freeing to finally unleash his true potential.
The power felt magnificent.
Asriel waited for the dust to settle from all the broken debris.
He’d take his time, torturing this boy who had caused him so much irritation the last few months.
Asriel waited, anticipating some kind of retaliation, but nothing happened.
Asriel raised his eyebrows.
“Is that it?” he asked. “You’re down for the count then?”
Asriel didn’t know why he was so surprised.
The kid was a little runt.
Why shouldn’t he have been easily defeated by my superior attacks?
His eyes bulged as the dust settled.
The red-haired punk was twitching and trembling. He was still alive.
So you won’t give up so easily. Asriel grinned. Good.
I can bask in my power over you for a little bit longer.
Max felt his vision going blurry.
He reached out with his hands, trying to get his bearings.
What happened?
Asriel had punched and kicked him in the gut and he had gone flying backwards.
Max didn’t understand.
Asriel had gotten so powerful once he unleashed his break-mode.
How am I supposed to compete with him?
He’s higher-ranked.
He’s got a break-mode.
And he’s got decades more fighting experience.
Max shook his head.
No, he thought. I can’t think that way.
Max spat out the blood forming in his mouth.
He got up and saw Asriel grinning at him with his terrifying lizard eyes.
I have to stop messing around, Max thought. If this guy can wield that much power, I can’t hold back. I have to give it everything I got, now or never!
Plus, Max thought. There’s one thing I haven’t tried yet.
Asriel watched the kid get up off the ground.
The leader of The Immortal Killers laughed.
“So you want more, huh?”
Asriel was happy to deliver another devastating blow, and this time, he’d send that kid right through the walls and out the window.
Asriel felt gleeful as he imagined the kid’s body and brains splattered on concrete so many stories below.
His eyes narrowed as the kid took on a fighting stance.
“Oh,” said Asriel. “So you think you can still beat me, huh? Do your worst!”
Then the kid did something that truly surprised him.
The red-haired boy’s right arm turned fleshy and crimson from his demonic break-mode, while his left arm turned into a metallic laser chainsaw.
Asriel’s eyes bulged with shock.
That’s not possible!
He couldn’t believe it.
He blinked to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.
The kid was wielding two break-modes at once!
“You may have all sorts of advantages in this fight,” the boy said. “But there’s one thing you don’t have and that’s two break-modes, you arrogant piece of garbage!”
The red-haired boy thrust out his demon arm. The demonic mutant tendrils grew out at insane speeds until they were clutching Asriel’s throat.
Then, the same demonic hand clutching around Asriel’s neck began to mutate once more, shifting from one break-mode to another.
It went from a paralyzing clutch of a demonic claw to the straight devastating line of a laser chainsaw.
This is unbelievable, thought Asriel, squirming. Such power—such ingenuity—I cannot compete with this—
Asriel’s neck was caught right in the middle of the red-haired kid’s two break-modes, mutating from one to the other.
As the transition completed, the laser chainsaw sliced Asriel’s head off with ease.
It should have been me, Asriel thought in his final moments.
I should have slain The God Killer.
But The God Killer more than deserves his title.
92
Zack clutched his wounded stomach with one hand, while spraying bullets with the other.
He mutated his right arm into a machine gun, blasting rounds into the foyer of The Faceless Association, taking out as many Immortal Killers as he could.
“Take that, you bastards,” Zack shouted.
Suddenly, a gust of wind shot through the foyer and knocked back a cluster of Immortal Killers.
“Don’t mess with the wind, boys,” said Casey.
The same opponents were then hit with powerful darts to the forehead.
“Or darts!” declared Moira.
Tiberius finished the job, running his mana-conjured blade through the multiple downed Immortal Killers.
He stood up straight and said, “Foyer clear. Let’s make our way to the top. We can split up on the different floors to check everyone is safe, while some of us should go up to check on Max.”
They all nodded their heads.
“I must go to the penthouse,” said Zack.
“Are you sure?” said Casey. “You’re the most wounded out of all of us.”
“Please—do as you like—but I must get to that penthouse,” said Zack.
Zack stumbled to the elevator and pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
He jammed his finger again, angrily.
Nothing happened yet again.
“Looks like the elevator is down,” said Tiberius. “We’re going to have to take the stairs then.”
Zack materialized a beer, cracked it open, and chugged it down with inhuman speed.
He then limped to the stairwell.
Ren, he thought to himself. I don’t know whether I’m coming to kill you for causing all this violence or to save you from it.
Max caught his breath.
He bent down towards Asriel’s fallen body and yanked his climber’s pouch from the man.
He took a quick glimpse inside to see what was in it.
Lots of gold, lots of monster cores.
Then, his eyes widened with excitement.
Now that’s interesting, he thought.
There were scrolls describing some of the powerful techniques Asriel was using. Max could look those over and use them to his advantage.
Amazing, he thought to himself.
His thoughts were cut short by a groaning sound.
For a second, Max thought Asriel was still alive, despite the gory decapitation.
Then he remembered Ren.
He ran over to the leader of The Faceless Association.
He crouched down and looked at the man.
“Are you okay?” Max asked.
He had asked the question, but the answer was clear as day.
The man’s skin was ghostly white.
His lips blue.
The man was in a puddle of his own blood.
The leader was dying.
“I’m fine,” Ren replied, softly. “Better than fine—I’m alright.”
Max looked around frantically, there must be a way to slow down his breathing.
“Hang on,” he said. “We can get you a healer. Get you to the hospital. You’re still alive, you can beat this!”
“You don’t understand,” said Ren. “I don’t want to beat this. My death was always part of the plan. Now that you’ve destroyed Asriel and the gangs outside destroy each other, my passing along with all of that will hopefully usher in a new era to Nightmare City.”
Max looked down at the dying man.
He was beginning to piece together all of the events.
“You...” Max said. “You orchestrated all of this...”
Max was horrified to think that one man had been able to concoct such a level of violence, misery, and mayhem upon a place.
Beyond that, the determination it would have required, the level of calculation—it was terrifying in its exactness.
“Spare me your judgments,” said the dying man. “I did what I believed was necessary and if that matched with exactly what I craved, what I wanted, what I hungered for all these decades? So be it.”
Max let out a sigh and turned towards the door.
His companions should be getting here any minute now.
“I presume you lost the auction then,” said Ren, giving a crimson-soaked smile up at Max.
“Yeah,” said Max. “The folder was stolen. I still have time to get it back along with my sister, though.”
“If it was stolen,” said Ren, “I’m pretty sure the person who stole it would have destroyed it by now.”
Max felt a pit in his stomach.
All of his training.
All of his fighting.
All of this chaos.
Everything he had been working towards for the last few months had been to acquire that folder.
And now he was told that the folder and all of its truths and memories were up in flames?
“Come closer,” said Ren. “I read that folder. I’ll tell you everything I remember from it.”
Max leaned in closer.
The man spoke into Max’s ear and the boy listened closely, his eyes widening as he learned the true history of his sister’s past.
An Immortal Killer with nunjucks made of deadly ice leapt down the stairwell at Zack.
Zack fired off a shotgun round from his right arm, knocking the warrior back and into the wall.
Zack materialized another beer and chugged it.
I gotta stay hydrated, he thought.
It was just him now on the final ascent to the penthouse. The others had all peeled off to take care of The Immortal Killers who were stalking the lower floors of The Faceless Association’s headquarters.
He dropped the empty beer can on the ground and moved up the final set of stairs to the penthouse floor.
He shot the hinges off the door and then kicked it down. He entered an apartment full of broken furniture, shattered glass, and walls decorated in blood.
At the center of it all was Max crouching over Ren who was dying on the ground.
Zack’s heart panged at the sight.
In that moment, he knew he hadn’t fought his way up this building to fight or save the leader of The Faceless Association.
He had come to see his brother’s face one last time.
He had come to say goodbye.
He rushed over and fell to his knees beside his dying brother.
“Zack...” said Ren. “Is...that...you?”
His eyes began to brim with tears.
“I’m sorry,” Zack said. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. That I was too stubborn for too long. I’m sorry I got here so late.”
Ren smiled up at the man.
“Don’t worry, brother,” said Ren.
“How can I not?” said Zack, the tears falling down his face.
“Now that I’ve achieved everything I thought I wanted,” Ren said, “I realize that all I ever truly desired was to see your face again. To see my brother one last time. So thank you for coming here at all.”
And with those last words, the final living gang leader of Nightmare City’s big three passed away into the night.
93
“What the flipping heck happened in here!?” exclaimed Moira as she entered the penthouse with Casey and Tiberius behind her.
“I mean,” said Casey looking at the wrecked apartment, “it could use just a little renovating I guess.”
“Here’s a wild suggestion,” said Tiberius. “Do you think plants would liven this place up?”
“Oh for sure,” said Casey and Moira at the same time.
Max smiled to hear his companions’ voices. They were okay. They had survived their own battles downstairs just as he had survived his.
He placed a hand gently on Zack who was mourning his fallen brother and then stood up to meet his companions.
“What’s the current status on the fighting,” Max asked.
“We’ve taken back control of the headquarters,” said Moira. “Turns out most of the children and other innocent bystanders followed the safety protocol and are doing fine. Now, it’s just a matter of taking back the city from the endless fighting.”
“And catching up with my sister,” Max added.
“Of course,” said Moira. “I’m pretty sure with most of the leaders and sub-captains out of the picture, anyone with the slightest inkling of organization and tactics should be able to take back the city. It won’t be easy, but I think I can do it. While I handle the gang war, you catch up with your sis and that prick who blew up the auction house.”
“You’re going to need help with Elle’s comrades,” said Casey.
“Might as well make it three on three,” smiled Tiberius.
Max smiled at his team.
“Thanks you, guys,” he said and then turned to Moira. “What do we need to do to catch up with them?”
“To get to the Nightmare City departure teleporter you take the subway to the end of the line. The one and only daily train leaves in fifteen minutes.”
Moira showed them on a map where they needed to go.
It was far away.
If there was any chance of catching that train, they had to leave immediately.
“Let’s go,” said Max as he strode towards the door.
Elle shook her head, trying to get rid of the sweat in her eyes.
Her lungs ached and her throat was dry.
“I’m not letting you get away, you bastard!” she yelled, despite also panting with exhaustion.
They had been running for over an hour now in the dark labyrinthine tunnels beneath Nightmare City.
She could hear the distant echoes of Nicolas Adler running ahead of them.
Those echoes were her compass pointing her in the right direction, driving her forward.
The light brightened as they arrived at a subway platform.
She could see Nicolas Adler.
He was triggering his incredible crafting trait to do something.
Get the heck out of here, she thought to herself.
In seconds, the man had built his own miniature train.
“Catch me now,” said the man, taunting her with a wave as he barreled down the subway tunnel.
Elle felt her body give out.
She collapsed onto the subway platform and banged her fists on the ground.
“Dammit,” she shouted. “He got away. He always gets away.”
Tears began to fill her eyes.
Will I ever be good enough...
Will I ever be strong enough...
Will I ever be able to kill that man who took everything away from me?
“It might not be over yet,” said Winifred. “Look.”
There was a manatech sign on the wall that said, “Subway Train Arriving In Five Minutes.”
Moira looked out at the city from the shattered glass window of her former leader’s apartment.
