Stargazer

[Crossword]

I might have to take back my last comment that the next chapter is coming soon as my computer is currently infectedby a virus. I should have it fixed in a few days but right now I can't access Word so I can' do any mor typing or even look at my notes to turn out another encyclopedia entry.

However, in the spirit of giving the virus a big-ol' FU, he's a short little preview of the next story arc:

DISCLAIMER: This is not necessarily an accurate, word-for-word reflection of what the final product will look like

Spoiler:

''Yep, the story's already up.'' Daniel said, looking down at his tablet. '''At approximately 2:34PM a young man was found lying face-down in the Penumbra Convention Center.''' he read from the article. '''Paramedics failed to revive him and he was pronounced dead at the scene. As he had no identification on his person, authorities are still trying to determine the young man's identity and requests anyone with any information to please contact etc. etc.'''

He looked up and narrowed his eyes, fixing Akira and Terry with an accusing stare. ''Of course, if you two hadn't run off, maybe you could've helped them.'' he said coldly.

''Hey, we were occupied with something more important!'' Akira protested. ''And it's not like we knew the guy personally, anyway! He was a thief too! It was probably karma or something thathe died.''

''That's a terrible thing to say!'' Daniel exclaimed.

''Just shut up you two.'' Terry grunted, pulling his towel more tightly around himself in his irritation. ''Does the article give the cause of death?''

''Uh, hold on.'' Daniel went back to his tablet, finger flicking the screen. ''Ah.'' he said at last. ''Stardust...''

''Stardust? What's that?'' Terry asked.

''Some kind of drug.'' Nova spoke up. ''I remember hearing some guys saying that they wanted to try it back in the day. They had no idea what they would be getting into.''

''It's basically a powdery substance.'' Daniel began to explain. ''It has a longer, technical name, obviously, but colloquially it's called Stardust. It's refined from a certain mineral and it's meant to be snorted, sort of like cocaine.''

''Huh, well that explains why that guy was so fidgety.'' Terry commented. ''He must have been a drug addict.''

''Yeah, it's supposedly really addicting.'' Daniel agreed. ''The thing is, it can be really deadly. Go even a milligram over the prescribed, if you can call drug use prescribed, amount and you're air passage constricts and you suffocate.''

Terry grimaced. ''That's a sorry way to go. Why would anyone take something like that?''

''I can answer that.'' Nova said. ''Supposedly it's supposed to give the user an incredibly high. In fact, the reason it's called Stardust is because years ago people used to believe that if you took enough of that shit it would turn you into a Stargazer.''

''Can it really do that?'' Akira asked, looking and sounding highly skeptic.

''Of course not.'' Daniel scoffed. ''But it's strange... The mineral that Stardust is refined from...well, it's only found on Heion.''

''So?'' Akira asked.

''Well, you know how tightly trade between Lagoon and Heion is regulated?'' Daniel said, bringing a hand to his chin in thought. ''It's like a sieve. It should be almost impossible to get illegal contraband across on one of the spacebarges. At any rate, I highly doubt a hopeless case like that victim could have just gone up to a streetcorner dealer and bought the stuff.''

''Ah geez.'' Nova sighed. ''Winter vacation just started and already you guys have gotten involved in some kind of incident!''

''Hey, that guy was the one who did, not us!'' Akira retorted.

Terry frowned to himself as Akira, Daniel, and Nova continued to talk and debate. He was now starting to regain feeling in his feet again, and that was helping him to get his brain fully working. If what Daniel said was true, it wouldn't be just any dealer that had access to that drug, but someone with connections. Real professionals, who were used to transporting highly illegal materials.

What was the connection between these supposed smugglers and the person that he and Akira had pursued? The one who had put him in this sorry state?

[Crossword]

Finally, a real update!

Chapter 18: Confrontation II

Spoiler:

Terry woke up early on Sunday morning and spent the next few hours of the day training and exercising in his room. Due to its size or lack thereof he could only do stuff like pushups, sit ups, and simple punches and kicks, but even the basics were helpful in loosening him up. If all went well tonight’s operation would see the end of The Beings, and he needed to be in top shape in order to do his part. He found it a little funny that his original intention in teaching himself martial arts was to present a challenge for himself, not for fighting people outside of a sporting setting, yet here he was, preparing to do just that, and he wanted to. Facing The Beings and the serial burner on their own turf would so far be the biggest challenge he’d faced so far.

He received a message on his phone in the late afternoon from Gerald telling him that they would be assembling at six o’clock. Terry spent the time remaining to him doing some last-minute studying of materials given to him earlier by the police before freshening up with another shower and then getting dressed again. Instead of his usual attire of a T-shirt and his leather jacket, he instead just picked out a white short-sleeved button-down that was lying at the bottom of his duffel bag, still unpacked. It might have been a little vain of him, but he didn’t want any of his usual clothes getting damaged in his coming fight.

When the time came, he made his way down to the small dining room where he ate a quick dinner with his friends before Officer Davidmen arrived to give them one last briefing. Just like the last time, Terry, Akira, and Nova were to be the vanguards for this operation, but this time they were not doing the entire operation alone. The police were tasked with setting up a perimeter around the Moseseon Building to prevent anyone from escaping, and all the Stargazers had to do was scout out the exterior of the building, locate Deck and Sayren, and finally give the police the OK to move in. Taking the two enemy Stargazers down might be a little easier said than done, but after their previous talk, Terry felt confident that they were up to the task.

As before they were given safety vests to wear underneath their clothes and given wireless transmitters. Terry’s was made from a special insulated material that was resistant to electrical surges. After one last round of review and good lucks from Daniel and Gerald, it was time to move out.

The twilight sky was turning from a fuzzy pale color to the deep blue of evening when the three members of Trident were dropped off at Warrenhall by the police. Removed from the downtown area, it felt still and desolate, lacking the stream of people and cars that Terry had grown accustomed to seeing in the city. The roads were lined by shifty-looking houses with dark windows, as well as trees that had already lost most of their leaves, giving them a skeletal look. There were a few small businesses still open, though they looked rather seedy and uninviting, signboards occasionally flickering. The air was still, the only noise coming from the occasional car driving by in the distance. It was no wonder Deck had decided to relocate out here, it felt like a part of the city that had been forgotten, which was actually a pretty accurate description.

‘’One last time.’’ Nova said as they began to walk in the direction of The Beings’ hideout. ‘’You all know what to do, right?’’

‘’We went over this a million times, of course we do.’’ Akira replied, fingering his sheathed knife. ‘’I just hope things go according to plan, unlike last time.’’

‘’They will, don’t worry.’’ Terry said as he walked. He was pretty cold in his thin shirt – the vest didn’t retain much heat – but he didn’t complain. He wasn’t about to let cold bother him. There were bigger things to worry about, like his own upcoming battle. He’d seen first-hand how dangerous Sayren could be, as well as what Deck was capable of. This time there wouldn’t be any games, as both sides would be playing for keeps.

Nova didn’t add anything further to the conversation. After close to ten minutes of walking, he came to a halt and held out his hand to signal the others to do the same. ‘’We’re here.’’ he whispered. Across the street and beyond a hedge that was in need of a trim spanned an empty parking lot, with two buildings at opposite ends. It was just like they had been told.

‘’I don’t see anyone.’’ Akira muttered, squinting out at the abandoned site.

‘’They wouldn’t want to advertise their presence for us, would they?’’ Nova answered. ‘’Just hold on a minute.’’

Shaking off the sense of déjà vu that that exchange had given him, Terry took some time to survey the site before them while Nova got on his earpiece to inform the police of their status. The Moseseon Building was the nearer of the two before them. All of its windows were dark. Wide stairs lined the side facing the east section of the lot, presumably leading up to the former fitness center’s main entrance. Though it wasn’t fully apparent from ground level, the building’s shape was irregular and blocky, resembling from the air what could only be described as a blocky mass.

The other building, farther away in the distance, was supposedly built much more simply. That building, Daniel had explained, used to be part of a hardware depot chain. The chain had since gone out of business, and now the low and expansive building was being used as a storage warehouse for a local shipping company. The Moseseon Building was the main target, supposedly being The Beings’ base, but the depot building shouldn’t be ignored.

Finished with his call, Nova turned towards the other two and spoke. ‘’All right, the police are ready to close in. All we have to do is give them the go-ahead.’’

‘’Good. I hope they know what they’re doing.’’ Terry said, looking back down the street behind them. He couldn’t see any signs of the police force, though that wasn’t wholly unexpected. Instead of the regular police cruiser they were using undercover vehicles in order to blend in and not attract any undue attention from anyone who happened to be out at this time during the evening, Beings or no.

‘’Don’t we all.’’ Nova agreed.

‘’So how’re we gonna go in?’’ Akira asked. ‘’Sneak around out of sight? Hide under something like a cardboard box and –‘’

‘’We’re going to go in from here and circle around the building.’’ Nova answered, ignoring the attempted joke. ‘’There shouldn’t be many people here, so we’ll split up at the front.’’

‘’That’s still a lot of ground to cover.’’ Terry noted, surveying the parking lot’s expanse.

‘’Yeah, so let’s go and get this over with’’

The three darted across the street and through the hedge. Once through, they were now in full view of anyone who happened to be looking out from the direction of the building, which loomed dark and forebodingly.

‘’This is eerie.’’ Akira muttered, throwing a glance over his shoulder as they neared the stairs leading to the building’s entrance. Suddenly, Nova grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him towards the building’s wall. Akira let out a brief cry of surprise before Nova angrily shushed him.

Terry pressed his own back to the wall, ears picking up the sound of the entrance slamming shut nearby. The three of them could hear the sound of a person, a single person, slowly ambling their way down the stairs. If he turned to the right, he’d run right into them. It was just one person though, Terry thought to himself. One person they could handle.

Fortunately, the sweatshirt-wearing thug was indeed alone as he rounded the Stargazers’ corner. Unfortunately, he was a lot more alert and competent than most of The Beings’ members that Terry had encountered thus far, since as soon as he reached out to grab him the thug jumped and leapt backward, quickly putting a fair amount of distance between the two. His hand plunged into his sweatshirt’s pocket and pulled out a device that Terry recognized as a pocket-sized air horn. He called up an electric bolt, but before he could throw it the thug had already blown his horn, rending the still air with a series of painfully high-pitched toots.

‘’Long time no see, traitor!’’ the thug spat at Nova, as he cast aside his air horn and slipping on a pair of brass knuckles.

‘’You know him?!’’ Akira asked Nova warily as he peeled himself away from the wall.

‘’He’s called Den, and he’s one of the founding members.’’ Nova glared at his former comrade, who was still keeping his distance despite trying to look tough by waving his fists around. ‘’He’s part of Deck’s inner circle. An officer, you could say.’’

‘’Yeah, well let’s take care of him before any backup arrives.’’ Terry said to the others. ‘’We need to find Deck!’’

‘’Tch, like you assholes could beat Deck! He’s the toughest guy in the city!’’ Den called out. He was keeping a careful eye on the three Stargazers, Terry and Nova especially, as well as his distance. ‘’You should know better than that, traitor!’’

‘’Get out of here Den, I don’t want to have to deal with you.’’ Nova growled. ‘’You should know that I’m a better fighter than you.’’ He turned to the others. ‘’Let’s just take this guy out and split.’’ He said. ‘’We need to keep moving.’’

‘’If nothing else, I’ll agree with you on that.’’ Akira grunted. He stepped forward towards Den, an act of assertion that was unusual for him. ‘’You guys go on, I’ll take this guy out and then double back ‘round the far side. Draw the attention of any backup while I’m at it.’’

‘’Are you sure?’’ Terry began, sizing his friend up. A newfound willingness for action did not make up for the fact that Akira would probably be better off having someone with him in a fight. ‘’I can just zap this guy and be done with it!’’

‘’Your targets are Deck and that Sayren girl, right?’’ Akira said back. ‘’Save your energy for them. I’m not as strong as you guys, but I promised that I’d support you in any way I can, and if I can help keep some pressure off of you, I will!’’

Terry considered saying something, but he saw the burning light that had come into his friend’s brown eyes, so unlike his normal self. Akira wanted to do this, had fully committed himself to this, and there was no way of talking him out of it.

‘’One condition, though!’’ Akira suddenly declared, raising a finger. ‘’I want you to tell me everything that’s being kept from me! Everything that’s happened that you know and I don’t!’’ This was addressed to both Terry and Nova equally.

‘’Uh, sure.’’ Nova had a blindsided look on his face at this request.

‘’Good luck!’’ Terry called as he took off towards the building’s opposite corner. Nova took a few moments to recover before following Terry’s footsteps, muttering a barely-audible encouragement to Akira as he did.

‘’Hey!’’ Den shouted after them before grumbling and turning back towards Akira. His lips curled into a smile. ‘’You’re that Oriental kid with the wind power, huh?’’

‘’Yeah, who else would I be?’’ Akira retorted as he unsheathed his knife. Sizing Den up, he decided that the thug reminded him of Bar, as they both had dark, olive skin and shaved head, only Den was thicker, meaner-looking, and of course taller. His eyes were warily taking stock of Akira’s blade, which at roughly six inches was no doubt larger than ones he was used to dealing with. But despite that look of hesitation, Akira knew that both of he and Den were well aware that he was no fighter. He was a Stargazer, true, but compared to Terry’s electricity wind really wasn’t suited to dealing damage in a fight. Outside of a few small scuffles he’d never really gotten into a real fight before either.

But despite everyone knowing how disadvantaged he was, he had stepped up and proclaimed that he could do this, and his friend Terry had stood by and let him. The knowledge that Terry trusted him, even after all of the well-meaning grief and teasing that no doubt drove him crazy, actually felt somewhat uplifting. Like Daniel - as much as he hated to admit that that goody-two-shoes had a point - had said, perhaps there was still some small way that he could prove himself useful to the group.

But Den wasn’t going to give him the opportunity to work himself up to that. The thug clenched his brass knuckles tightly and swung right at Akira’s head. Akira managed to clumsily dart to the side, avoiding the reinforced blow only to get hit in the side of the head by a follow up blow with the left hand. Head throbbing, Akira stumbled but did not fall. Instead he managed to brandish his knife, causing Den to cautiously fall back. Den hopped around to his left, trying to get to Akira’s unprotected flank, and charged forward.

This was exactly what Akira had waited for. He whipped out his free hand and sent a blast of air right at his rushing foe. Den lowered his head, taking the blast head on, but in doing so he was unable to see Akira stretch out his arm. He ran right into Akira’s clothesline and went right down on the ground with a heavy crash, his feet flying out from underneath him.

Akira winced at the pain the shock of the impact sent through his arm, but seeing Den on the ground dazed make him grin despite himself as he started to run away towards the near corner of the building. Maybe he could do this after all…

And then something flew out and hit him the back of the head as he rounded the corner with a terrific crack. Akira saw stars and fell to his hands and knees as his vision blurred and a wave of pain rolled through his head, scraping his palms against the concrete. He was dimly aware of hearing the sound of metal clinking against metal and hitting the ground.

‘’What’re you doing here, Tank?’’ he heard Den’s annoyed voice demand from somewhere behind him.

‘’I heard your warning.’’ a new voice said from the direction that the attack had come from. ‘’Boss’s already getting some guys together. Is this one of ‘em?’’

‘’Yeah, the wind kid.’’

Akira forced his eyes open and saw that Den was now joined by the largest person that he had ever seen. This Tank person was a massive man, broad, built, and had to be at least seven feet tall. His face had a stone-like quality to it, and in his hands he held the length of chain with which he had used to attack him with. Akira put a hand to the back of his head and could feel the dull pain of what was no doubt a nasty bruise forming.

‘’Heh, he’s a shrimp.’’ Tank smirked. ‘’Let’s take him.’’

‘’Tch, fine, whatever.’’ Den grunted, voice carrying his annoyance.

Akira rose to his unsteady feet, gripping his blade as hard as he could. Perhaps, he thought to himself, he should’ve just kept his mouth shut.


‘’What an idiot.’’ Nova grumbled as he and Terry darted around the building’s far corner. ‘’We could’ve taken care of Den easily!’’

‘’True, but you know how he feels overshadowed by us.’’ Terry said. ‘’Akira told us to back off because he wants to prove to himself that he can pull his own weight too. At least, I think so.’’ he added.

‘’Tch, I would’ve just taken the pragmatic route myself.’’ Nova muttered. ‘’He better not get himself killed doing stuff like this.’’

‘’He can act like a fool, but he’s smarter than that.’’ Terry answered. ‘’C’mon, let’s find Deck and Sayren so that this’ll be over as soon as possible.’’

Nova nodded in agreement as they rounded another one of the building’s protruding sections. ‘’Wait…’’ he muttered suddenly, as if hearing something in the distance. He held up his hand to signal for a stop and ducked back around the corner that they had just come from, Terry following suit. As the two crouched in the recessed corner they heard the sound of footsteps and then a group of six people came running by, heading towards the building’s front. None of them gave the little alcove any notice as they passed.

‘’I hope they aren’t going to where Akira is.’’ Terry commented as his stood up. Most, if not all, of the gang members seemed to have been carrying weapons. But as they watched the group seemed to veer off and instead of heading for the building’s front they began to head off in the direction of the depot building on the far side of the parking lot.

‘’Apparently not.’’ Nova noted, getting up himself. ‘’How about we –‘’ There was a flash of movement at the corner of his peripheral vision and he quickly grabbed Terry by his shirt front and yanked him out of the way as a projectile clanged off of the section of wall where he had just been. After quickly recovering from his surprise, Terry could see that the thrown object had been a pike.

Nova gave a shout of warning, prompting Terry to instinctively duck as Deck took a swing at him with a glaive. The man pivoted and transitioned his swing into a thrust but his blade suddenly came to a halt in front of Terry’s outstretched hand.

‘’What the?!’’ Deck gasped, his weapon straining against the unseen force holding it at bay. This was distraction enough to give Nova a chance to body check his former comrade, knocking him to the ground.

‘’I see…electromagnetism.’’ Deck grunted as he got back up. ‘’I see you’ve learned a new trick, Sparky.’’

The gang leader looked exactly the same as Terry recalled from their first battle: a large, well-built man whose heavy coat, bandana, and sunglasses lent a tough, sinister air. ‘’And I see that you’ve decided to show up too, Nova.’’ he remarked, gaze drifting towards Nova. ‘’It’s rare to see a traitor with the balls to show their face after their betrayal.’’

‘’That’s the second time I’ve been called that tonight.’’ Nova commented dryly.

‘’You haven’t changed much.’’ Deck smirked, chuckled in amusement. ‘’You always were a bit too serious for your own good.’’

‘’You have.’’ Nova responded, face set tightly. ‘’Terrorizing the city, sacrificing your men, allying with a killer? That wasn’t The Beings that we originally formed. You’ve changed.’’

‘’You say I’ve changed?’’ Deck asked, amusement creeping into his voice. ‘’You’re wrong. I’ve never changed. Everything I’ve ever done since the beginning was for the sake of bringing this city to heel!’’

‘’Oh really? That’s sounds pretty arrogant to me.’’ Terry spoke up. The fact that Deck didn’t seem concerned in the slightest that his base had been discovered set him on edge, and he assumed a tight stance that would allow him to quickly spring into action if needed. ‘’You really think you can do such a thing?’’

‘’Heh, you’re an outsider Sparky, you’re not even from a city!’’ Deck directed at him, dark lenses glinting in the distant lamplight. ‘’Let me ask you this: what do you do when you see someone who’s downtrodden or out on the street, hm?’’

Terry’s fighting stance faltered as he was taken aback by this unexpected question. He had only been living in Marine Cove for a month and a half, but already he had been exposed to plenty of sights and places that he had previously never encountered before. The subject of Deck’s question however, was something that he hadn’t given much thought to. He and his friends had generally done their best to avoid the worse parts of town, but he had still seen the occasional beggar at the street corner, the bum napping on a public bench, or the heavily-bundled woman pushing a shopping cart laden with bulging plastic trash bags. At first these sights had been a little unusual to him, but that was all, and soon he had begun to pay them no mind. They didn’t have anything to do with him, after all.

‘’That’s what I thought.’’ Deck said in response to Terry’s silence. ‘’That’s absolutely right, you’re indifferent, you’re apathetic.’’ His voice began to grow more forceful as he continued speaking. ‘’This city’s one of the biggest and greatest in the country, in the world even. But that’s because it’s all a façade! The city keeps up its nice, attractive appearance by sweeping its ugliness under the rug and pretending that it doesn’t exist! ‘Normal’ people don’t give a damn about half the messed up shit that goes on here as long as they’re not affected by it! As far as they’re concerned, we’re human trash!

‘’Look at this neighborhood!’’ Deck spread his arms out to indicate the area they were in. ‘’It’s a microcosm of what I’m talking about! It used to be a moderately prosperous part of the city suburbs, but then the bubble burst and it was written off and allowed to fall into decay! That’s the kind of world this is!’’

Terry narrowed his eyes until he was glaring at the man. ‘’So you think you’re some kind of rebel, then?’’ he asked. ‘’All the stuff that you’ve been doing, your attack on the city, it's all because you feel like you’ve been mistreated? Sorry, but I don’t think that’s justification enough!’’

‘’Shut the hell up!’’ Deck roared at him, actually making Terry flinch. ‘’You’ve no got no standing here, brat! There’s never been a time in your life where you were left wanting of food, shelter, or security! You have no idea some of the messed up shit I’ve seen in my life, so don’t come to me thinking you do, Sparky!’’

As much as he hated to admit it, Terry recognized that Deck had a point. While living with his uncle hadn’t exactly been a pleasant experience, it was true that he had a home and opportunities, such as coming out here to attend a renowned private school, that others did not. He probably did have it a lot better than many other people his own age.

‘’But now things are going to be different!’’ Deck continued. ‘’We’re going to shake this city to its core, show the ignorant citizens that they can’t ignore us! Once your Trident group is out of the way, no one will be able to stop us! It’ll be our time!’’

‘’Our?’’ Terry repeated as something clicked into place.

‘’The Beings.’’ Nova supplied. ‘’I’m sure now you can see why Deck chose that name. Many of us started out as street urchins, so it’s only sensible that Deck would surround himself with like-minded people. However…’’ He pointed at Deck as his voice rose to a commanding tone. ‘’You’re mistaken if you believe that everyone in The Beings is onboard with your little revolution plan, I know for a fact that not everyone is.’’

At this Terry could see a grimace pass over Deck's face, confirming that the gang leader knew this as well. However, the gang leader quickly shrugged this off. ‘’So what? If they’re not useful, I can replace them. There are plenty of people in this city who would love to take it down a peg or two.’’

Nova sighed when Deck was done. ‘’You know, deep down I had hoped that there was still a little bit of the old you still in there, but I guess there isn’t. Now, I don’t think I’ll have any regrets about taking you down.’’

Deck chuckled at those words. ‘’Taking me down, huh?’’ he repeated. ‘’You know Nova, I could dig what you’re trying to do, looking after your family and all, but our expense? I can’t really allow that, you know?’’ He made a show of adjusting the straps on his fingerless gloves and then flexed his fingers. ‘’I’m glad I ran into you before that Sayren chick did.’’

‘’Sayren! Right!’’ Terry exclaimed suddenly. He should be looking for her, not standing around here listening to Deck’s rambling. ‘’Where is she? Is she around?’’

‘’I don’t keep tabs on her every moment of the day.’’ Deck replied. ‘’I just sent some of my boys to go see if she’s here. I’m sure you saw them.’’

‘’They did look like they were heading towards the storage depot…’’ Terry muttered to himself, remembering the group of thugs that he and Nova had seen just before encountering Deck. ‘’Right.’’ He turned to Nova. ‘’Nova, I’m outta here.’’ he said. ‘’Good luck.’’

‘’Don’t get in over your head.’’ the older teen warned, not taking his eyes off of Deck.

‘’Of course. See you!’’ Terry waved and bolted off back towards the front of the building. Deck gave a shout and started after him, but Nova got between them and knocked his arm out of the way.

‘’You know, you just sent your friend off to die.’’ Deck commented once Terry had disappeared and he had retreated back a step away from his opponent. His voice had become much calmer. ‘’I might’ve let him off with one or two permanently debilitating injuries. That girl won’t show any such restraint.’’

‘’I don’t think he’s that soft, and I’m sure you know that as well.’’ Nova remarked as he took off his jacket and tied it around his waist.

Deck let out a rueful chuckle. ‘’So, it’s just you and me now, huh? It’s funny really. I made you a part of this gang. With your power and resolve, you were an officer and one of our crown jewels. We fought alongside each other as comrades. Now, you’ve become a traitor to The Beings and I’m going to take you out with my very own hands.’’ His familiar, well-crafted spear appeared in his empty hands and he assumed a battle stance.

‘’I got older,’’ Nova said, echoing what Auto had told him. ‘’and was forced to do a lot of growing up in a short amount of time.’’ He consciously shifted his bare right arm into its metallic armored form and raised it up in a defensive, guarding position.

‘’Originally, I wanted to throw down with Sparky again.’’ Deck muttered, his voice going quiet. ‘’But this…I think this is what I really want.’’

Nova didn’t respond with words, but with his actions. The two former comrades moved to engage the other in their first and last battle against each other.


Terry’s feet flew across the pavement as he ran towards the storage depot, dodging around the light posts and concrete barriers arrayed within the parking lot. Already he had put any concerns he had had for Nova or Akira to the back of his mind. They were both capable and prepared to do their parts. It was time for him to do his.

As he came closer to the depot’s front, he could tell at a glance that there was no way that he was getting in through the thick shutters at the entrance. But like with all sealed and shuttered buildings, there had to be a side entrance, or in the case of this one even a loading dock that he might be able to break into. Sayren was supposedly inside, and the last thing he wanted was to have her escape yet again.

As he turned to go around the building he nearly jumped as a sudden loud crack echoed through the air. It was like a car or motorcycle engine backfiring, yet he didn’t see or hear one fly by on the adjacent road. This was quickly followed by a brief gust of wind that came out of nowhere to ruffle his clothes and hair.

‘’What the hell?’’ he instinctively grunted as he raised a forearm to shield his eyes from the dirt flying in the wake of the blast. He twisted around to look back towards the Moseseon Building, but he was too far away to make out anything that could have caused such an explosion. After a moment’s pause he shook his head and put that out of his mind as well. No time to waste contemplating that particular mystery.

He ran around the building’s corner and quickly found the loading dock that he had been looking for. There were no trucks pulled up to the dock seals, but the group of six thugs that he and Nova had seen before were there, two of their number standing slightly apart from the rest as if they had been arguing with one another. To their credit they didn’t scatter and flee when they saw Terry or freeze up like he half-expected them to. Instead they cautiously spread out before him in a semicircle pattern.

Terry gave the group a quite survey. None of them appeared to be much older than he was, and each of them were armed in some way. Knives glinted from the hands of two of the thugs, a third held some sort of short baton-like device, and the remaining three grasped bludgeoning weapons – two medium-length pipes and a baseball bat.

‘’What’re you doing here?! Stay back!’’ one of them shouted, thrusting his weapon threateningly forward.

‘’Out of my way.’’ Terry answered. He was pretty sure that he could take these guys as long as he didn’t get hit by any of their weapons, but a six-on-one fight could drag, and he wanted to conserve his energy for Sayren.

‘’Like hell we are!’’ one of the more muscular thugs, perhaps the group’s leader, spat at him. ‘’There’s six of us and only one of you! We won’t have to bring that crazy bitch into this!’’

Terry sighed to himself as the group seemed to steel itself. They were a lot more confident and determined-looking that most of the other thugs that he had encountered so far. He loosened his shoulders. He’d have to try beating them as quickly as he could, and if anything good was to come out of this, he’d be all warmed up for Sayren.

The punk with the baton - which Terry could now identity as a stun baton going by the blue glow at its electrified tip - a teenager with bleached-blond hair, moved first, his weapon’s blue glow washing over his face and upper body. Terry dodged the first attack but ended up accidentally catching the baton on his elbow as the thug tried to bring it back around. The prongs dug into his bare skin, but otherwise the weapon had no effect on him at all, not even tickling. The punk and Terry stared at each for a moment in mutual puzzlement before he slugged the punk in the face.

One of the knife-wielders came at him next. Terry, keeping a wary eye on his attacker’s knife arm, managed to sidestep the stabbing attack and locked his opponent’s forearm in with his own. With a quick twist, the attacker dropped his weapon to the ground and Terry was able to kick his pained foe away.

He looked up to see both of the pipe-wielders trying to double team him. Terry knew that one well-placed hit from their weapons could break bones, so he danced away from their swings and swung over one of the ubiquitous concrete barriers. The second knife-wielder was waiting for him there, but Terry managed to get the young man’s arm in a lock and swung him hard into the barrier. The unfortunate thug groaned and slumped the rest of the way to the ground. He was out of the fight.

As Terry straightened back up he was suddenly punched in the side of the jaw by the thug he had disarmed earlier. He then quickly slipped around and managed to grab him in a full arm-lock. Terry immediate tried driving his elbows into the thug’s ribs and shoulders, but his opponent was bigger than he was and had a strong enough grip that he was able to hold on and stand firm.

‘’Get him! What are you waiting for? Now!’’ Terry’s assailant grunted and after he said this the thug with the baseball bat moved up, gripping his weapon with grim purpose. He raised it up into a swinging position, aiming right for Terry’s face.

‘’You idiots!’’ he grunted. He released a sizable discharge of electricity that dropped his two assailants to the ground. ‘’Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?!’’ he snarled at the two prone figures.

Two of the remaining three thugs gaped at him incredulously, while the third one began to quite literally shake in his boots. ‘’Damn it, no way am I going to fight him now!’’ he cried before turning tail and fleeing. One of the others called out after his fleeing comrade, but gave up with a grunt of disgust before Terry attacked him. He managed to deflect a kick with his pipe, but Terry leapt forward and grabbed a hold of it.

‘’Gimme that!’’ he grunted, wrenching the weapon free of the thug’s hands and casting it away. The thug retaliated by throwing a straight punch, but Terry was ready, ducking down and nailing his adversary right in the gut. The thug’s breath went out in a harsh gasp, and he collapsed heavily to the ground.

The final thug, the one that Terry had presumed to be the leader, grunted in annoyance and threw his weapon away. Terry raised his guard high as he dashed forward, but instead of throwing a punch he instead threw Terry off balance with a body check before grabbing the front of his shirt and hurling him to the ground.

Terry’s eyes widened in pain as he landed hard on his back. The safety vest he wore under his thin shirt did little to dampen the force of impact, as it had been designed to defend against bullets and turn knives and less so the force of gravity. Through a hazy veil he saw the leader positioning himself above to deliver a finishing blow. As quickly as he could in his pained state, Terry rolled away and swept the leader’s legs out from under him. He crashed to the ground just as Terry shakily rose to his feet, but he was up again almost just as fast, assuming a combat stance of his own.

Terry recognized the stance, legs splayed out for balance, one foot in front of the other with hands held about a foot in front of him as if to snatch up an opponent. ‘’Let me guess, judo?’’ he asked.

‘’Heh, what do you think?’’ the leader smirked.

While he had given it some attention, judo wasn’t one of the martial arts that Terry had studied very deeply. He knew enough to execute a few very basic locks and holds, but he hadn’t felt like he was built for grappling, preferring to rely on punches and kicks as well as agility. The attacks that the leader threw at him were aimed at his shoulders and upper torso with the intent of throwing him off balance so that he could be grappled and thrown. Terry did his best to parry or outright dodge those blows, but he still took several glancing or minor hits as he tried to avoid being thrown to the ground again.

Finally, his opponent took a moment to catch his breath. ‘’You know…’’ he panted. ‘’You are tough…but if my older brother Boxer were here, he’d kick your ass in no time!’’

‘’Boxing, huh?’’ Terry said as he too took a moment to gather himself. ‘’I actually happen to know a thing or two about boxing myself.’’

The thug glowered at him, then suddenly charged forward, arms outstretched. Since that stance made it difficult to land a body or head blow, Terry simply pivoted away and stuck out his leg. The thug stumbled over the outstretched limb and as he swung awkwardly around Terry nailed him in the sweet spot right underneath the chin with the strongest punch he could muster. The thug’s eyes turned glassy and after a few seconds of delay he fell backwards and landed heavily on the ground. He wouldn’t be up again for a long time. As Nova had said, sometimes the pragmatic road was the one best taken.

With the last of the thugs down, Terry allowed himself a deep sigh of relief. Contrary to what one usually saw in movies, it was not an easy thing to take down a group like that singlehandedly, and if they had fought more intelligently he could’ve been in some serious trouble. Also unlike in movies, he reflected as he winced and wrung his hands, punching people tended to result in sore knuckles and hands.

After flexing his fingers experimentally a few times, Terry decided that his hands were still in good enough working order. His back still ached a bit from the nasty impact that he had taken earlier, but the pain had faded to the point where it would have only a negligible effect on his movements. He looked around. As expected the loading docks themselves were shuttered, but there was a simpler side entrance for employees just nearby. Also as expected, it was locked, but he didn’t have time to go searching for whatever alternate entrance the group of thugs had planned on using. However, he had a simple idea for solving this issue.

He doubled back and retrieved the baseball bat that one of the thugs had wielded against him. ‘’Sorry.’’ he muttered as he brought the wooden weapon up, feeling a touch of guilt like he always did when he had to destroy something that had been constructed. It took several blows, but he was able to smash out the glass pane set into the door, and after taking care to knock out as much of the glass still stuck to the frame as he could he reached his arm through and manually undid the interior latch. The door was now open to him.

Terry entered the dark hallway beyond, being careful to step around the shards of glass now on the floor. The hallway soon opened into a small room that had been converted into cluttered office space, and through a large set of double doors was the main chamber.

As expected of a former depot store, this area was expansive and high-ceilinged. Most of the floor space was taken over by rows and rows of uniformly-stacked containers laid out in a grid pattern, and most of which seemed to be about the size of average-sized cars. The area towards the front of the building was largely clear of such objects, though arrayed against the walls were transportation equipment such as small forklifts and large motorized pushcarts. Metal bars crisscrossed overhead, from which hung deactivated ceiling lamps and fans.

Terry kept a careful lookout as he crept through the corridors formed by the containers. Sayren had to be somewhere in the building, most likely close at hand, and being ambushed by her was not something that he wanted to happen.

But as it turned out he hadn’t even needed to be stealthy.

Terry pulled himself through a particularly tight gap and looked ahead to her standing in the center of the clear space towards the building’s front, as if waiting for him, which she almost certainly had. The dark, scrawny young woman looked exactly as he remembered from Landing Day. Same lanky build, same worn clothes, same wild black hair, same vivid green eyes, same fierce, predatory aura.

‘’Finally, you decide to show up.’’ she said, turning her gaze upon him. ‘’Is that policeman dead?’’ she asked, her anticipatory grin beginning to broaden as her voice took on a sense of light mocking.

‘’Sorry to disappoint you, but no.’’ Terry replied, his eyes staring down hers. ‘’I visited him in the hospital afterwards – he’s still very much alive.’’

‘’Hmph, well, it doesn’t really matter.’’ Sayren replied, shrugging. ‘’Like I told you, whether he lives or dies, he’s still scarred forever now.’’

Terry decided not to rise to her bait, instead slowly circling around his foe, waiting for the right moment to spring into action.

‘’Why don’t we pick up where we left off?’’ Sayren said lightly, beginning to circle as well, not keeping her eyes off of the teenage boy before her. ‘’There won’t be any distractions or interruptions this time, Eavesy.’’

‘’That’s fine with me.’’ Terry replied, unbuttoning the collar to his shirt so that he could breathe better. ‘’You’re not going to escape this time. Tonight’s going to be end for both you and for The Beings.’’

‘’Heh, big words.’’ Sayren scoffed. ‘’Maybe some third-degree burns will teach you to keep that shithole you call a mouth shut.’’ She extended her hand in an inviting gesture. ‘’Come on then,’’ she said, grinning ear-to-ear. ‘’bring it!’’

Spoiler:

Villain speeches! Can't have a final battle without them. I swear I came up with Deck's motives long before the Occupy Movement or The Dark Knight Rises became a thing, really!

And now it is quite late where I am, so I am going to bed.

[ChesCa]

Hmmm....:/

*Turns on blunt mode*

I think that this chapter is pretty bad, sad to say.

First off two technical issues that I remember (but there's likely more): You say 'so far' twice in one sentence when the group is sneaking into the parking lot and you don't need to say something is the size of an average-sized car. Just say it's the size of a car.

That said I'll try to go in order and give you the best advice that I can:

1. Back Up

Hidden:

I'm not the 100% foremost expert on gangs, but what I do know is that they're vicious and they're cowards who attack in large packs (the really bad ones anyway). When Den blew that horn there either should've been a shitload of guys coming in OR Tank should've been there immediately. As it stands he took way too long to get there for a guy who is supposed to be one of the more disciplined fighters (I assume). I would suggest either Den fails to sound the horn and Tank just so happened to hear a scuffle going on or Den sounds it off at a later point. Even if only Tank shows up I am more than willing to believe that for this one night the lower ranking gang members are being ordered only to pick off Terry or Akira when they're alone (which they do).

2. Den is Polite

Hidden:

He just lets Akira, Nova and Terry have their little meeting while not doing anything. My suggestion is that the group has a *very* short meeting where Akira forces the plan to include himself as the bait or Den is described trying to act cool and talk but keeps getting interrupted by their planning for a comedic effect.

3. Tone with Akira

Hidden:

Cliche one-on-one shonen fighting aside (I'm okay with that) it kind of bugs me how Akira seems to be fighting Den more because of his promise to support the other two and not because of any strategical reason, which is funny because he does have them. I know he's passionate and all but he's not really acting like someone who's been preparing for what looks like is going to be a very intense night. Btw have Nova and Terry had problems conserving energy before? I don't remember that being a plot point at the very least.

4. Deck Talks Too Much at the Wrong Time

Hidden:

I won't lie: this one is going to be a bitch to fix from how complicated it looks and what I think you're trying to go for.
Deck....I know you're trying to make him complex and big speeches can be cool, but before you've portrayed him as a planner and pretty suave. He keeps his plans under wraps.
Then he dumps it all out to a kid he doesn't even really respect. :/
There's a time and place for a villain breakdown like that but....
Let me show you another Terry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LikMS5gDDI
This case is a good example of getting the villain to reveal more of himself: getting under his skin. Your Terry does do that a little but he doesn't seem skilled enough to be all that effective on purpose, let alone by accident. The speech doesn't even work on him in the end.
The biggest solutions I can add is either change the chapter completely to having Terry finding a psychological tell from Deck to allow him to exploit the anger OR (much more recommended) have Deck let Terry go so he can have some alone time with Nova. If there's anybody who can end up pushing Deck's buttons without even wanting to, it's most likely someone who shared the same ideals as he once upon a time. Hell there might not even have to be a build up to an argument; they could just talk to (maybe) try to convince each other that their point of view is right one last time.

That said, I won't say this chapter was atrocious. I am hyped for Terry v Saryen and I do want to know what's going to happen to Akira.
You just need a little more polish is all. :/

As always, if none of my solutions work feel free to throw them away and see what else can be done.

Congratulations on completing the first half of your story by the way.

[Crossword]

Hey, I'm no Orwellian editor-figure! You're free to write what you want, just as I'm free to decide whether I should let it slide or not!

Joking aside, this was a difficult chapter to write, Deck's scene especially, because I couldn't help but be reminded of the scene in The Incredibles where Frozone is mocking the whole ''villain stands around monologuing his plan'' device. Now that I think about it, Terry doesn't really need to be there for the entirety of Deck's motive rant - his main beef isn't with him anymore. And I think I can afford to flesh out Nova and Deck's relationship a bit more before plunging into the mindless fighting.

Akira's situation as another area that I had difficulty with. The initial draft involved Terry and Nova soundly demonstrating that they could've taken Den out with ease, but I thought that would cheapen the situation a bit too much. I think I have some ideas to handle that whole section a little more gracefully, though.

No, I don't think Terry or Nova have had any issues with conserving energy so far (in fact, this will be Nova's first real fight of the story), but it doesn't hurt to play things safe when going into the boss battles.

And thanks for the congratulations. As far as the second half of the story goes I hope to fix what I see as one of the main flaws of the current arc, that being that the heroes have pretty much just been reacting to the villains and not really moving the plot along on their own. The way the second arc is set up should mitigate that, I hope.

[gotta<3OP]

I have some catching up to do. :/
Just checking here to say that the heroes not moving the plot on their own isn't that big of a flaw. It happens with every soap opera, and everyone watches them :/. [I really do hate that tough, but in your case it isn't bad, it is simply the beginning.]
Just keep on writting, you might have some flaws, but everything is still enjoyable, and that's the main point :3.

[Crossword]

What, a new chapter? Yeah, I never really intended to go on this little hiatus, but a lot of stuff has been happening recently, both personal and academic. Anyway, it's time that I start chipping away at the backlog of chapters I've built up (this is chapter 19, right? The one I'm currently working on is 26).

Chapter 19: Trident vs. The Beings

Spoiler:

‘’Bring it!’’

Sayren made the first move. She lunged forward, green eyes shifting to blue as she activated her powers and thrust out her arm. Terry saw the air begin to distort around the outstretched limb and darted away, spinning towards his opponent’s back. Sayren whirled around as well to avoid presenting an exposed weak spot and hopped backwards, outstretching her arm again. Terry realized what was happening and was already ducking to the side before he felt a blast of wind shoot by him, followed by a wave of hot air that pricked his skin. Sayren gnashed her teeth upon seeing that he had missed and tired to bring her arm around for another shot, but Terry struck forward, stretched his own arm out, shut his eyes, and released a blinding flash of light.

He had discovered through small-scale experimentation that he could consciously control the brightness, heat, and voltage of his electricity with a little mental focus. By shunting power away from one of those elements he could bolster another, to the point where he could use a weak, cool bolt in the same capacity as a flashbang. He obviously hadn’t been able to test this very extensively, but as he had accidentally blinded himself once during his experimenting he was sure that it would work here.

And it did. Sayren cursed and reeled away, hands futilely trying to cover her dazzled eyes. Terry knew that this was his chance. Planting his left foot forward his swung his right fist and buried it right in the middle of his foe’s stomach. She let out a vocalization somewhere in between a gasp and a squeak and doubled over, stricken by both the gut punch and being blinded. Terry followed up with a crescent kick that knocked her clean to the floor.

He immediately pulled back in anticipation of a retaliatory counterattack, but none came. Sayren remained on the floor clutching her stomach and alternating between coughing and gasping for air. Terry felt momentary puzzlement at the sight, but quickly understood. Unlike himself or Deck, Sayren was no hand-to-hand combatant. She didn’t know how to effectively dodge or take blows, how to predict the movements of her opponent, or how to put any finesse into her fighting moves. All she had was her fleetness and her deadly Stargazer powers.

Terry decided to press his advantage but thought better of it when he felt a flare-up of heat, intense enough to make him immediately break out into a sweat. Sayren left out a defensive burst of hot air as she pulled herself to her feet. A dark, sticky splotch of blood marked where Terry’s foot had connected with the side of her head. She put a finger to it and took in the red smear with a look of disgust upon her face.

‘’Tch, clever.’’ She muttered. Her forearm began to heat up, glowing red and instantly evaporating the blood on her finger away. As she had tried to do during their first battle, Sayren tried to grab Terry with her superheated arm, a tactic that had apparently served her well in the past. Terry however was far from the panicked, helpless victim that she was probably used to and he managed to avoid her swipes until his back was forced up against one of the metal pillars that supported the crisscross of beams overhead. Sayren brought her hands together for a double-barreled version of her heated air blast attack, but Terry managed to duck and dive away before spinning around to come up behind her. She tried to whirl around but before she could he conjured up a ball of condensed electricity – ball lightning – and shoved it into her back.

Sayren screamed as the electricity crackled and surged throughout her body, jerking her upright and causing her to seem to glow with light before her legs crumpled and she fell to her knees. ‘’You bastard…!’’ she spat as she tried to rise to her feet, only to cry out again as a second arc of electricity wracked her body.

Terry watched her struggle to her feet with a dispassionate expression on his face. ‘’You should just stop.’’ he said. He tried wiping away the sweat from his forehead, but it was futile, as his exertions combined with Sayren’s heat were leaving him drenched in the stuff. ‘’You’re no fighter. I can read your movements like an open book. If you keep this performance up this fight is mine.’’

This was a dangerous game he was playing. While it was true that she was his inferior as far as hand-to-hand combat was concerned, one especially lucky hit from her heat powers could severely debilitate him, and the longer they fought, the sooner the atmosphere’s climbing temperature would start to make this level of strenuous activity more difficult. He was already covered in sweat, and soon he’d start feeling lightheaded as his body lost more of its moisture to the air, and if he lost his focus, it would be over for him.

‘’What was that you cocky little bastard?!’’ Sayren grunted as she finally managed to stand up. Her clothes looked dirtier and more frayed than they had before, and light burns were beginning to become visible on her exposed skin.

‘’I’m not trying to be cocky, I’m just telling you what I can see plain as day.’’ Terry replied. Egging Sayren on was also dangerous, but if he could get her angry enough to become reckless and sloppy then he’d have an insurmountable advantage over her. ‘’I’ve actually studied martial arts, and you haven’t. In terms of physical strength and stamina, I’m much stronger than you.’’

Sayren’s face was horribly worked up. Terry guessed that he was probably the first person to ever truly fight back against her, the first person that she couldn’t simply kill or attack. She had had virtually free reign over the city before he had arrived, attacking and terrorizing people as she pleased, but now that someone like him had finally appeared in her path, her perceived image of invincibility was beginning to crumble away.

‘’So what if I can’t beat you in a fistfight, dammit?!’’ she cried out. ‘’I still have my power! I’ll just incinerate you instead!’’

Terry felt another wave of oppressive heat roll off of the deranged young woman as she opened her palms, and he could see the air distort around them as she gathered the hot air to her hands and compressed it. If he looked closely, the distortions seemed to form a curved outline around her hands. Sayren had time for a smirk before she threw her improvised projectile at him. He leapt backwards, and while he could barely see the bubbles of searing hot air, he could certainly hear the sizzle of their impacts with the ground where he had just been and feel the rush of air burn the skin of his legs even through his pant legs.

Sayren didn’t let up with just that one attack, she continued to throw the balls of dense hot air at him, forcing him to keep moving and dodging to avoid taking one head on. Most of them fizzled out before they could reach him but the ones that did reach him left red marks on his bare skin and dirty singes on his shirt as he raised his arms in front of his face.

The burns hurt, but at least for now they weren’t hampering his efforts to run out of the way of Sayren’s brief onslaught. Gritting his teeth, Terry made a clenching gesture with his fist and a fist-sized ball of electricity popped into existence to Sayren’s right. Before she could fully react to it a small bolt shot from it and passed right through her, dropping her to one knee at the same time that one of her heat balls struck Terry’s lower leg full-on. He felt another painful burning sensation spread down his calf as the leg of his jeans was bleached from a deep blue to an off-white color. He fell to one knee and looked up and see Sayren lunging for him again, the look of fury on her face eerily illuminated by her glowing forearm.

He couldn’t really dodge the attack from this position. Steeling himself, Terry reached out and physically batted her hand away with his own. Despite himself he let out a cry of pain – it felt like he was touching a red-hot stove top. Sayren wisely decided to fall back to avoid a possible counterattack, giving his enough time to rise to his feet. He winced a bit as he looked at his hand, both from pain and from what he saw. It was now a shiny, raw red color and he could already see a few cracks in the dead skin when he flexed his fingers. If this was what a second’s worth of contact with her did, he didn’t want to know what prolonged exposure would look like. He instinctively shuddered as he remembered what Officer Poole’s face had looked like after he had been attacked.

‘’Hurts, doesn’t it?’’ Sayren smirked, though she was bent over, hand covering her midriff.

‘’I’m not dumb enough to think that I could beat you without getting injured.’’ Terry responded, smirking himself as he made a show of curling his injured hand into a fist, or as close as he could. It wasn’t too badly hurt, all things consisted, but he certainly wouldn’t be getting much use out of it anymore as far as this fight went.

‘’That’s only a taste of what I’m going to do to you!’’ his adversary snarled. ‘’I’ll burn you so badly you’ll be nothing but a charred corpse!’’

‘’Dammit, what is it with you and killing?’’ Terry shot back. ‘’You’re not much older than me, but everything out of your mouth is either killing or maiming, nothing else!’’

‘’Heh, why? Because I can, that’s why.’’ Sayren replied, raising an arm in front of her as if inspecting it. Her old arrogant demeanor was slowly coming back. ‘’I’m a Stargazer, so I have power that others don’t. What better way is there to dominate others by showing that you can snuff out their little lives with a wave of your hand? There’s no better way to make people fear you than that!’’

‘’That’s why you fight and commit crimes? Just to get off on your own sick, twisted desires?!’’

‘’I never asked for these powers, yet I have them!’’ Sayren proclaimed. Her grin now resembled something like a shark’s. ‘’I’ve heard people rattle on over whether Stargazers are a product of science or an act of God, but I don’t care about any of that crap! As long as I have them, why shouldn’t I use them to do as I please?!’’

‘’How selfish!’’ Terry shouted at her. ‘’At least Deck has a reason for doing what he does, even if it’s just as twisted!’’ The young woman before him was like an alien to him, the kind of person who harmed others with no rhyme or reason. Even terrorists and anarchists like The Beings usually held grudges or believed in some kind of ideology to justify their crimes, but not this girl. To him, she was nothing but a dark void.

Sayren laughed, apparently finding Terry’s words hysterical. ‘’Deck! He’s a pathetic man through and through!’’ she exclaimed. ‘’He goes on and on about how Stargazers should be beholden to no one, yet he tries to use me as an attack dog! Making him nothing but a goddamn hypocrite! Yet he doesn’t realize that he himself is chained to his stupid fantasy of rebellion!

‘’You call me selfish, do you?’’ she continued after she had calmed down a bit. ‘’Then why are you here, fighting me? Is it because if you defeat me, the one who’s plunged the city into a state of fear, you’ll be called a hero? That everyone will give praise and bow down to you as their savior?!’’

Terry bore out Sayren’s rant before he began trying to formulate his answer to her question. Growing up, his uncle had not been the kind of person to begrudge much praise to anyone, least of all to the nephew that had been foisted off on him. Even when he had passed Marine Cove Academy’s, one of the country’s more highly-regarded private schools, entrance exam his uncle had had little to say to him aside from some grumbling over some of the logistical challenges his cross-country move was going to cause.

So when he arrived in Marine Cove City he had at first been taken slightly aback by the more receptive atmosphere that he had found. His new classmates and friends were impressed by his above-average physical abilities, and Mr. Gerald had been nothing if not supportive of him, not to mention Akira no-doubt seeing him as the strongest of Trident’s three Stargazers. This different atmosphere had awakened a new sensation inside of him. It was the feeling of self-satisfaction, and inside he knew that praise was something that he had wanted more of.

But now, he felt differently. His experiences as a Stargazer were teaching him that that there were things beyond merely satisfying oneself. ‘’I’ll admit,’’ he began. ‘’that praise does feel good. But that’s not all.’’

‘’Ha! What did I just say!’’ Sayren exclaimed in triumph. Instead of waiting for Terry to continue she sprang forward and threw a quick kick at his face. He began to move out of the way but his injured leg showed him down enough so that he wasn’t quite fast enough to completely dodge, so instead of hitting him head on her shoe instead opened a gash at his temple. ‘’You just admitted to it,’’ she sneered. ‘’so don’t you dare lecture me about being selfish, you little shit!’’

‘’I said that’s not all!’’ Terry shouted as he felt blood start to join the sweat trickling down his face. He ignored the blood. He felt like he was bursting with energy again, his injuries didn’t bother him a bit right now. ‘’Deck’s right, I am an outsider. I came to this city without knowing anyone or any idea of what was going on and what I was going to get into. But now I’m in the midst of all this, and I’ve met people. Akira, Mr. Gerald, Nova, his family, Daniel, my classmates, even that officer you tried to kill… All of them welcomed a stranger like me, and I’ve seen for myself the sorts of things that you and The Beings could do to them. That made me realize that I’m part of something bigger than just myself. So I swear,’’ he said, pointing and projecting his voice as much as he could. ‘’that as long as I have the ability to prevent people like you from having their way and destroying the lives of people who have nothing to do with your grudges or whatever else you have, I’ll fight!’’

Sayren had a look of on her face that was somewhere in between that of revulsion and incredulity, but it soon morphed into a look of murderous anticipation. ‘’Fine, whatever you say, asshole!’’ she growled contemptuously. ‘’You’re as good as dead.’’


Akira grimaced. He knew that he was in trouble as he crouched behind one of the parking lot’s barriers. Tank and Den had split up in order to flush him out from where he had hidden, the latter seemingly focused on herding him towards the former. It was a classic strategy for dealing with someone who knew he couldn’t take on a superior foe, and he had had some pretty close calls in trying to get away from the two of them. Already his back and side were completely sore thanks to several lashings from Tank’s length of chain. He didn’t know how Terry was able to get in and out of scrapes like it was nothing.

‘’Come out, you coward!’’ he heard Den’s voice call out from somewhere off to his left.

‘’We’ve got him pinned down.’’ Tank grunted from somewhere else, further away. ‘’Just find him and finish it.’’

Akira swallowed nervously and clenched the handle of his tanto knife. The blade was as real and sharp as could be, but he’d never intended to actually use it when he had originally decided to bring it with him upon leaving his home in Kamagura. It was a minor family heirloom that he had brought along as an amulet while he stayed overseas, not as weapon. In his hands it was something used to intimidate, not to slice or dismember other people.

His mind flashed back to when he had first been taken by to the research facility after he had inadvertently exposed himself as a Stargazer. At first, he had feared that he was going to be imprisoned and experimented upon, but Mr. Centone had arrived and assured him otherwise. The offer that had been made to him, to join the infant Stargazer cell Trident, had been one that he had jumped at, not just because it would be his ticket out of the facility, but because he’d finally be able to do something that most other people could not. Plus, the idea of putting criminals behind bars was something that appealed to him. That was before he’d really understood what he had gotten involved with, and before it had really occurred to him how dangerous it could be.

He chanced a glance around, and saw that Den and Tank had yet to come across his area, giving him at least a few moments to come up with some sort of plan. So far the only offensive ability he had was to blast someone with a strong burst of air, but that probably wouldn’t be very effective against someone as big as Tank. At the facility he had taken part in several tests designed to measure things such as wind speed and his degree of control, but nothing came to mind right now that would be potent enough to fell someone who was so much bigger than he was. If only I had become a Leo or Capricorn Stargazer instead of a Sagittarius! he thought to himself.

‘’Found you!’’ Den’s voice suddenly called out, making him jolt in surprise. Cursing himself for letting his mind wander during a situation such as this, Akira jumped to his feet as he saw Den bound into view from off to his left. He turned to run, but Den was faster, stronger, and uninjured, and managed to grab the strings of his sweatshirt before he could escape, spun him around, and then slammed him to the ground.

Akira let out a pained grunt as his bruised back hit the ground again but he managed to keep a grip on his knife. Den, pinning Akira down with his free hand, raised his brass knuckled-fist, but Akira retaliated in the only way he could think of at the moment; he pulled out the blade from its sheath and slashed it across the arm pressed against his chest. Den’s grip slackened as the blade cut through the fabric of his sleeve and the skin beneath as easily as if it cutting through a piece of fruit, giving Akira an opportunity to kick him in the stomach, roll away, and make a run for it.

He almost ran right into the human wall that was Tank. Tank’s hardened face twitched as he raised a massive fist, the chain wrapped around his forearm like a protective gauntlet, and threw a bone-cracking punch. Akira hastily stumbled backwards just in time and staggered around to Tank’s rear as his fist crashed into the ground with a large crash, the chain leaving a few small cracks behind in the cement. The large thug whirled around, letting the chain fly loose, part of its length lashed against Akira’s leg. His feet stumbled and he blindly fired a blast of air behind him. Tank threw up a hand to shield himself from the airburst, and Akira managed to dart behind another barrier.

As Den’s curses drifted into his ears, Akira’s mind began to race as he struggled for breath. He couldn’t just keep running away like this. Surely there was something he could do. Terry and Nova had chosen to face opponents who were undoubtedly much more fearsome than the two that he was facing – how could he look them in the eye if he failed here, especially after telling them that he could handle it?

But then, all of a sudden an idea hit him. Maybe that was his problem, focusing too much on what he could do. Whenever he’d used his powers up until now he had generated his own wind, but, he realized as he looked up into the night sky, that wasn’t his only source of air. As long as he was in an outdoor area, he had a limitless supply of the element to work with. With a little focus he could see the lazily-drifting air currents appear before him in perfect clarity, as if he were watching different school of fish drifting this way and that underwater. He closed his eyes and tried to narrow his mental focus, imagining the currents beginning to move in a manner they wouldn’t naturally do so, hoping that this would work.

‘’Look at what he did to me, dammit!’’ Den was shouting a ways away from him, waving around his torn and bloodstained sleeve. ‘’The bastard slashed me! I’ll need stitches! I’m going to have to go to the hospital for this!’’

‘’Shut up!’’ Tank snapped, and Den did cower before his superior’s harsh tone. ‘’Quit your bitching and drag that coward out here where I can see him, now! I’ve got an idea for a nice surprise…’’

That really doesn’t sound good. Akira gulped and turned his eyes upward again to check on the progress of his plan. Save for that one spot some fifteen feet above the ground, the air had gone deathly still as he mentally corralled the currents to slowly coalesce together and then compress into a bubble of pressure. Despite the stillness, an almost imperceptible whistle could be heard, and it began to grow louder as the bubble began to slowly, slowly shrink.

Still clutching his bloodied arm, Den reluctantly headed back into the lot, but then came to a halt almost immediately. ‘’Hey, do you feel that?’’ he called back. ‘’My ears feel like they’re starting to pop, what is this?!’’

‘’I dunno.’’ Tank grunted back. He sounded strained, like he was struggling with something. ‘’That freak could be trying something – just get him where I can get a shot in!’’

Akira made a small noise of frustration and prepared to move again. He’d never tried doing something like this with his powers before, and it was taking up a lot of his focus to keep the bubble and air flow steady and stable. It was a trial-and-error-filled process, and he was only just now really figuring out how to move the air efficiently. He didn’t want to have to start over if he was interrupted. This was his chance to prove to both the others and to himself that he could take care of himself just as well as they could, and he wasn’t about to blow it.

‘’There you are!’’ he heard Den call again. Akira looked over his shoulder to see Den stalking towards him again. He wasn’t running full-pelt at him this time though, his taste of the knife’s blade having taught him some caution.

Akira decided that this was it. If his plan didn’t work, he thought, he’d better stand his ground. However, just when Den was about to close the last five feet between the two his eyes suddenly darted to the side and furiously backpedalled. Akira heard a grunt and instinctively did the same, and just in time, for something huge crashed into the ground where the two had been, the force of the impact knocking both of them over. He felt his knife slip from his grip and go clattering across the ground.

‘’Goddammit, that was your idea?!’’ Den screamed in outrage. ‘’You could’ve killed me you jackass!!’’

‘’The hell was that?’’ Akira muttered as the heavy sound of the crash reverberated in his ears. He opened his eyes to find one of the concrete barriers lying on its side before him. His face paled as he realized that Tank had thrown the thing at him. ‘’No way…’’ he couldn’t help exclaim aloud. ‘’That had to have weighed a ton!’’

He suddenly realized that Tank was closing on him and scrambled backwards and too his feet, hearing the chain striking the ground. A shrill whistled replaced the reverberations in his ears and he looked up, a smile spread across his weary face. His ball of compressed air was now about the size of a clenched fist. That should be enough, now he had to lure the two gang members over…

Tank drew back his fist for another attack, but now Akira knew what he had to do. He darted around the larger man’s other flank and bolted back towards the building beyond. Tank turned to follow him, with a furious Den coming in at a different angle. As he ran, Akira focused on the mental image of his ball of air slowly sinking to the ground. He could feel the atmosphere around him change, and the air becoming more violent as the harsh, compressed gusts disturbed what had once been placid air. Tank and Den, in their simplemindedness, stopped in confusion as the wind began to pick up around them. ‘’What the hell are you doing?!’’ Den demanded as he raised his uninjured arm in front of his face. Akira didn’t bother answering. He grinned before diving behind the nearest banner and then, hoping against hope, he let the little ball of air go free.

There was a terrific crack as his makeshift pressure bomb exploded. Shielded behind his barrier, Akira heard the noise and saw rather than felt a violent burst of air wash by him, followed by a small wave of dirt and leaves that had been swept up and pushed along by the miniature tempest. And then, suddenly, silence. For all that preparation, it was all over in an instant.

After a few seconds of hearing nothing, Akira cautiously peaked over the top of the barrier. Den and Tank lay sprawled on the ground. Having been lured over to the blast’s ground zero, the concussion from the blast had left them stunned. Akira slowly rose to his feet and chuckled, before suddenly doubling over as the pain from his numerous bruises and the strain from his exhausted body caught up with him, but that didn’t stop him from laughing to himself in triumph and relief.

‘’See that?’’ he said to no one in particular. ‘’That’s what you get…for messing with me. I…did it. I actually did it.’’

He sat down on the ground again as his breathing and heart rate slowly returned to normal. He felt like he’d run a marathon, but it really hadn’t been that long since he’d left the others at all. He was beginning to wonder how they were doing when a new sound came to his ears, the sound of police sirens. ‘’Took them long enough.’’ he said, if not perhaps a bit unfairly. He settled down against the barrier and closed his eyes, a smile on his face.


‘’What the hell was that?!’’ Deck demanded, whipping his head around towards the front of the building.

Even back here, Nova had heard the crack and felt the rush of air. What it was exactly, he couldn’t say, but it sounded to him like that foolish Akira had managed to pull off something big. At least that was what he hoped.

Following the rush of wind the air returned to its previous state of calm, but Nova’s ears managed to pick up a new sound, the unmistakable din of police sirens growing in the distance. ‘’The police?!’’ Deck said, gripping his weapon tightly. ‘’Now?!’’

‘’What, don’t tell me you thought we were all alone?’’ Nova replied, feeling that he could afford a little taunting. ‘’I sent them the go-ahead signal while you were going on your monologue earlier.’’ Seeing the frustration on Deck’s face rise, he added, ‘’No holes for you to slink away through this time. You’re cornered.’’

Deck didn’t reply to that. He gave a snarl and instead of attacking, he withdrew away from Nova and bolted back through the building’s side door, disappearing into its interior.

Nova scowled and followed his former boss. Despite Deck’s arrogance and the words of challenge that he had spoken, he wasn’t an idiot. He wasn’t about to stay and fight off a group of police officers, he would find a way to slink away so that he could live to plot another day. Nova couldn’t allow that to happen, he had to finish things with Deck tonight, otherwise he might never get another chance to take him down and bring this chapter of his life to a close.

Beyond the door was a short hallway. Nova immediately raised his armored right arm before him as he stepped into the gloom. He had spent time studying the blueprints for this building before the mission, so if Deck hoped to lose him in the corridors he would be mistaken. However, if he did catch up to Deck and a fight broke out, Deck would have the advantage in an enclosed space. His arsenal of weapons would more than double his range in these tight corridors, while he himself would be restricted to fighting at arm’s length. Nova was confident in his abilities as a fighter, but being forced into an obviously disadvantageous situation didn’t sit well with him, even if it was the only way.

He ran down to the end of the hall and was faced with three options: a stairwell leading to an underground section of the building, two sets of doors located in the far wall, and another set of doors that opened into a gymnasium. He knew that the gymnasium was a dead end, and that the other set of doors led to a locker room that connected to the gym, so he decided to take a gamble and dash down the stairs.

He ran a few steps on the darkened floor below before Deck’s spear lashed out at him from the darkness. Nova already had his armored arm up to deflect the attack, so Deck pulled back and made another thrust, coming from a different angle. Nova grunted as he twisted out of the way and threw a punch. Deck ducked to the side and the metal fist smashed into the wall behind him, leaving a spider web of cracks behind.

‘’Careful.’’ Deck commented. ‘’Wouldn’t want to bring the ceiling down and kill us both.’’

‘’I have no intention of going out like that.’’ Nova commented, turning around to get Deck back in his sights.

‘’Good.’’ Deck smirked. ‘’Fights are much more fun when each side is giving it their all.’’ He attacked Nova with his spear, only halfway through his swing it turned into an axe. Nova backed up from the blade and it whiffed through the air. Deck punched Nova in the shoulder to throw him off balance and then brought the blade down on him again. Nova managed to catch the weapon’s shaft before the axe-head could touch him and, being no match for the augmented strength of Nova’s arm, Deck canceled the weapon and instead punched Nova right in the face when the other man inadvertently fell forward. Nova grunted and grabbed onto Deck’s shoulder to steady himself and retaliated with a head butt. Both of their skulls collided together with a resounding crack.

The two reeled back simultaneously from the blow. Deck fell back and grabbed onto a defunct water fountain for support while Nova steadied himself by putting a hand against the wall. Deck straightened first, his hands going to his sunglasses as if assuring himself that they were still intact. Then, instead of renewing the fight, he quickly ducked through another doorway and took off down the corridor.

‘’Get back here!’’ Nova shouted as he dashed off in pursuit. He rounded the corner and grabbed a hold of Deck’s coattail. Deck snarled and spun, hitting Nova in the ear with his elbow. Nova struck back, and the two fell into an exchange of blows with one another. Of the two, Deck played a little more defensively, taking care to avoid direct blows from his opponent’s metal fist or the overlapping plates on his forearm.

Nova found the swapping of blows somehow relieving. His body barely registered the pain from the punches of Deck’s that did connect as he began to remember the rush of exhilaration from the street fighting bouts that he’d gotten into during his younger days with The Beings. A one-on-one match, no holds barred. Nothing but two people throwing everything they had at one another, taking their lives into their own hands. Nova began to strike more and more aggressively as his body seemed to almost move on its own, tracing movements and patterns that had been memorized over countless past battles and fights. He was slipping back into his element.

Deck suddenly pulled back, wringing a sore hand, and made an almost-imperceptible gesture with the other. Having seen Deck fight before, Nova managed to pick up on it and twisted to the side just as a dagger came flying at him from behind. He gritted his teeth as he felt it nick his side, but that was preferable to it plunging straight into his back. Deck canceled the blade in midair and summoned a long, thin staff. With a flick, the staff extended on a thin chain and wrapped itself around Nova’s metal arm, catching itself around the vambrace’s overlapping plates. With his immense strength Deck yanking him forward and kneed his foe in the stomach. As Nova gasped for air Deck grabbed his head and smashed him into the wall. Nova let out a short cry as pain split his head in two as he impacted with the wall, but he remained cognizant enough to grab Deck’s own head with his free hand and do the same to him.

Both of them fell backwards, ears ringing and skulls rattling. ‘’Son of a bitch,’’ Nova grunted as he tried to steady himself. His vision was clouded by a red haze, and his head felt like someone had cracked it open with a sledgehammer. That blow he had certainly felt.

‘’Back in the day you could only summon that one spear.’’ He commented as he made a futile attempt to flick away the blood that was starting to run down his face. ‘’You’ve certainly…expanded your arsenal, huh?’’

‘’You certainly haven’t.’’ Deck grunted. A small trickle of blood was creeping down his cheek, underscoring the darkening stain that was soiling his bandanna. ‘’Your power’s exactly the same as before, you haven’t improved at all!’’

Nova wasn’t about to argue that. He was well aware of how limited his power was compared to other Stargazers, and he wouldn’t be surprised to learn that his Weismann count was the lowest in Trident. He didn’t care before, but ever since Landing Day that fact had begun to frustrate him. Surely there was more to his power, some function or ability that he hadn’t yet figured out a way to tap in to yet.

‘’You’ve been a tough fighter, one of our most valuable resources, I’ll give you that.’’ Deck said as he summoned his trusty spear back to his hand. ‘’But in a fight with a Stargazer, that alone's just not going to cut it.’’

He flourished his spear a bit to show off. ‘’Come on, Nova!’’ he challenged. ‘’If you’re truly serious about this change of heart of yours, if your betrayal actually has some substance to it, come at me with everything you got! It’s do-or-die!’’

Though he still felt dizzy from that last blow, Nova once again assumed a fighting stance – legs spread firmly out, arms up to defend his face and upper body, fists clenched – and narrowed his eyes. If he couldn’t figure out the hidden secrets he was convinced his arm contained, he decided, then he didn’t deserve to call himself a Stargazer, let alone defeat Deck.

‘’You’re right.’’ he said, ignoring the blood dripping down his face. ‘’ You had your chance to run away, but you've let your pride take over and blown it. I'll show you that I haven’t even begun to fight yet!’’

Spoiler:

The events in this chapter are presented in anachronistic order. Despite being sandwiched in between Terry and Nova's sections, Akira's took place during Terry and Nova's confrontation with Deck last chapter. Just keep in mind that in ''actuality'' Akira's already done, while Terry and Nova's fights are taking place simultaneously. I liked the idea of bookending the chapter with two contrasting fights - Terry and his more technical, refined martial arts with Nova and Deck's more straightforward slugfest.

I've made some terminology changes in chapter 5, mainly to remove some references to real-world languages. English is now Anglosine and Nippon and Nihongo is now Daiokuni and Kamaguran respectively. I just threw together the Japanese words for ''great'', ''king'', and ''country'', whilst punning on the Japanese word for sun (Land of the Rising Sun and all). Nothing really important in the long run, but it was bugging me having blatant such explicit references to real-world places that don't exist in the Stargazer universe.

[Crossword]

Chapter 20: Settlement

Spoiler:

This wasn’t fun anymore.

At first, Sayren had been thrilled to have finally found someone who could actually give her a challenge, someone whom killing would give her the rush of her life. But the longer she fought with this Trident kid, the more that sensation faded away, replaced by a burning frustration. He was like an irritating fly, flitting around and dodging all of her attempts to swat him. It wasn’t as if the fight was entirely one-sided either, the trickle of blood on his face and the burns on his forearms were proof of that, but nothing she threw at him seemed to keep him down. Worse, his own blows struck with the force of missiles, sending flares of pain through her body, and his electricity burned like fire before robbing her of all feeling.

‘’Damn you,’’ Sayren spat as Terry dodged yet another blast of condensed hot air. ‘’Just…just die!’’ she shouted, frustrated and in deep annoyance.

‘’I’m not like your other victims, I’m not going to just roll over for you!’’ Terry retorted. Sayren had started using her powers a lot more when it became clear even to her that she couldn’t beat him in a contest of physical strength, keeping him on the run from her searing projectiles. Terry knew that if he was herded over towards the container area he’d lose the upper hand, and he needed to bring an end to this contest soon. He was starting to run out of stamina, and while his injuries didn’t bother him much at the moment, the toll was adding up, and despite Sayren’s weak frame she proving to be able to take a truly surprising amount of punishment.

For the umpteenth time he futilely tried to wipe the sweat from his brow. The air inside the depot had become truly stifling, and it was starting to make him feel lightheaded as he lost more moisture to the heat. Sayren took advantage of his momentary distraction to lash out at him with a glowing red kick, which he countered by shooting off a short burst of electricity. Sayren recoiled with a cry and found her opponent’s palm in her face again.

‘’Shit!’’ she managed to get out before Terry blinded her a second time. As she reeled he drove the tip of his foot into her exposed side and followed with a vicious electrified hook that slammed into her cheek and knocked her clear off of her feet. Her body arched in the air before crashing back down to the floor in a heap.

‘’Why, dammit, why?!’’ she demanded, her voice rising to a higher pitch than she’d had before. ‘’Why-can’t-you-just-die?! You’re just a kid who came out of friggin’ nowhere! Why are you able to do this?!!’’

‘’I already told you why.’’ Terry responded, doing his best to keep his cool as he watched the young woman’s breakdown through unwavering eyes. ‘’I don’t know a thing about killing people, and I never want to, but I do know a thing or two about fighting. I know that someone who’s never challenged themselves and has no patience can never succeed at this.’’ He steeled his expression some more. ‘’I’m not going to let myself get killed, especially at the hands of someone like you!’’

‘’What did I say about lecturing me you arrogant little shithead!’’ Sayren shrieked back. Once again the air temperature spiked, and Terry leapt back and away from her, as despite the heat he still had more than enough wits about him to stay clear of his adversary when she pulled that trick. He felt a flash of pain shoot through his singed legs in protest when he landed, but he quickly forgot the sensation when he saw what was happening to Sayren.

She was standing upright again, and covered by a bright orange glow. This wasn’t like her previous attacks where she’d superheated her limbs. This time it was her entire body, from the soles of her feet all the way up to the hairs on her head, all glowing brightly like a beacon in the dim chamber. Terry was forced to raise a hand in front of him to shield his eyes from the light. The waves of heat rolling off of her distorted the air around her, making the outline of her body appear slightly blurry and indistinct. It was an incredibly surreal sight, the likes of which Terry had never seen before.

‘’You’re done!’’ Sayren snarled as the air swirled and billowed around her. Terry could barely see her mouth moving or pick out her features through the glow. ‘’Die you piece of shit!!’’

What felt like a small explosion rattled the building as the air before her seemed to combust into flames and a condensed blast of air so hot and focused it looked almost like a faint laser beam exploded forth from her. Terry did the one thing he could think of – he ran, ran from the terrific burst of searing heat and dived to the floor, hands covering his head. The very atmosphere burned, tormenting his exposed skin, instantly stealing his breath away and making his throat feel like sandpaper. He felt like his body was going to desiccate and wither away.

But, almost as soon as it began, the rush of air faded away. Terry could hear the sound of something crackling as the scent of smoke reached his nostrils. Strangely enough, he didn’t feel much pain, no more than he had before, at any rate. Cracking open his eyes he risked a glance at his exposed arms. He had expected to see blackened and charred flesh, but instead he merely saw an angry red hue that was slowly fading away, so that his arms looked only mildly sunburned. He felt relief at the fact that the burning wasn’t coming from him, but quickly realized the implications and stood up to see what was really burning.

A large, fan-shaped section of the floor before Sayren to his left had been scorched black by the tremendous heat. The black scar extended back into the container area where the sturdier metal containers closest to the edge were scored with soot, but the smaller ones which weren’t made out of metal were warped and twisted from the heat and flames were licking their corners and protective tarps. Terry gulped. He was lucky to have been able to dodge that blast, for if he had been in the middle of it…

‘’W-Why…? The last time I did that, I…everyone…’’ Sayren gasped, sounding dazed. She was no longer glowing. She was holding her body stiffly and her eyes were wide and empty. Her expression was the very definition of a thousand-yard-stare as her vacant gaze passed through the flames as if they weren’t even registering in her mind.

‘’Forget it!’’ Terry said, clenching his teeth as he nervously eyed the fire. It wasn’t very large at the moment, but it could spread easily and his eyes were already starting to sting from the smoke that was getting into the air. ‘’There’s no time for this anymore! Just –‘’

‘’Shut up, shut up, shut up!’’ Sayren screamed at him. She had truly lost it now, her expression had suddenly warped from that of someone who was seeing things no one else saw to unbridled, raw fury. ‘’I’m not a weak person!! I…I can still kill you!!’’

Taking no heed of the flames, Sayren began to stalk towards Terry as if possessed, her body starting to glow once more. Terry cursed to himself and summoned up all of his remaining strength. He was amazed at how much punishment the young woman could take, and had clearly underestimated her on that count. He was in rough shape himself. It hurt to move quickly, and he was starting to feel quite lightheaded, as if he had spent too much time in a shower, and drawing breath was becoming harder and harder. This was the absolute end for the both of them.

Something cold and wet suddenly blanketed his body at the same time that his ears registered the ear-splitting wail of an obnoxiously loud buzzer. It was water, he quickly realized. Triggered by the flames’ smoke, the building’s sprinkler system had activated and the sprinklers located on the beams crisscrossing above his head were dutifully dousing the area with water. The suddenly cold jerked Terry back into full awareness and felt like a salve on his skin. He looked over at Sayren. She was hunched over and frozen in place, seemingly shocked by the sudden deluge. Her body was no longer heated or glowing, and a sizzling sound could be heard as the water turned to steam upon contact with her.

The downpour abated, leaving both Stargazers drenched and staring at each other in mutual befuddlement. Terry quickly realized that this was his chance and quickly released a large discharge of electricity both Sayren could recover, as much as he could muster, and directed all of it at his opponent. The young woman let out a horrible scream as the bolts hit her again and again, her body jerked into an upright position as the electricity crackled and snapped through her, the noise almost drowning out the fire alarm.

Fearing that he was going to kill her, Terry let up his attack. Sayren’s head was hanging back, but she was still standing somehow, Portions of her clothing had been burned through in several places, exposing nasty-looking electrical burns underneath. For a moment she didn’t move, but then suddenly, impossibly, her head snapped forward to flash him an expression of deep, smoldering rage and hatred. Slowly, she put one foot forward, and then the other, staggering painfully, arduously, towards him.

Terry found himself rooted to the spot by his own disbelief. After all of those lightning strikes, after all of those blows that she had taken, how could she still possible move? It was just inconceivable, as if this woman, nothing more than a black hole full of malice and anger, was pushing every fiber of her being to its limit for the sole purpose of killing him, the one person who had forever shattered her aura of invincibility. As Sayren weakly reached out and laid a hand on one of his shoulders he realized that the emotion keeping him bound in place wasn’t simply exhaustion or disbelief, it was fear.

‘’I…win.’’ Sayren managed to whisper, a look of triumph on her tired and battered face. Her grip strengthened briefly before slackening as she swayed to the side and finally collapsed to the ground.

Terry felt his own energy rush out from him like air from a balloon and went down on one knee in exhaustion. His chest heaved as sweat ran down his face, mixing with the water and the traces of blood that were still on his face. With the final defeat of his chosen adversary and the conclusion to the most difficult fight he’d ever been in multiple emotions were rising to the surface. The first one was naturally relief, but the second…wasn’t an expected sense of accomplishment, but instead one of uncertainty and doubt. Could he really call that a win? Had Sayren’s strength not given out when it did, would he still be standing here?

He frowned and shook his head. No, there was no use second-guessing himself anymore. He had proven to be the victory of their little struggle, and that was all that mattered. His hadn’t been a tournament or sparring match, it had been one of life-and-death. He should just accept what had happened and relish his win and survival.

He looked up as the fire alarm finally let up. While the sprinkler system had been successful in suppressing the flames, it had not quite fully extinguished them. There was the possibility that the conflagration could start back up again, and it wouldn’t due to become trapped in with them after narrowly surviving Sayren’s last-ditch effort to kill him.

Slowly, haltingly, he hauled himself up to his feet. It was time to go.


Nova caught the tip of Deck’s spear on the overlapping metal edges of his right arm. The gang leader grunted and after some exertion tore the blade free, angling upwards and leaving a vertical cut on Nova’s cheek. Not that it really mattered since his face was already drenched by blood. After quickly attempting, and yet again failing, to flick blood out of his eyes with his free hand he swung his armored arm into Deck’s, causing him to grunt in pain and drop his spear. Even so, he quickly recovered and lashed out with a set of powerful punches, one of which caught Nova in his injured side. Nova gasped as a flash of fire rolled through his abdominal area and fell down one knee, his hand reflexively clutching the small bloodstain at his ribs.

‘’Come on!’’ Deck laughed. ‘’I know you can put up a better fight than this! I wouldn’t’ve recruited you otherwise!’’

Nova did nothing but glower as he got back up. It was frustrating how disadvantaged he was: Deck had plenty of range and he was older, bigger, and stronger than he was. Deck was a man who craved power, no matter how well he tried to hide it, so it was only natural that he had expanded and improved upon his Stargazer powers over the years. Martial arts seemed to be a big part of Terrence’s life, so it wasn’t surprising that he’d be driven to strengthen and improve himself. He himself had never really been thrown against such a wall before. Even after he first met with Mr. Centone and become Trident’s first member nothing had been asked of him that he couldn’t already do. But now that wall was before him in the form of his former boss, and he had to overcome it no matter what.

That left him with the conundrum of how he could improve or build upon such a basic-seeming power. Looking at his arm, the plating design looked too elaborate to just be for augmented strength alone, it looked more like part of a suit of armor to him. There had to be something more to it, some skill that he had yet to figure out and unlock, but even so he had absolutely no way of knowing that for sure, and he didn’t have the luxury to stop and puzzle this out. Deck was doing a good job of keeping him on his toes with repeated spear thrusts, and he couldn’t even get close enough to deliver a solid blow without putting himself in harm’s way. I want, no, need to hit him from a range. Nova thought to himself, but there was nothing in the hallway that he could use as an improvised missile, leaving him with only his own strength.

A rather ridiculous thought hit him as Deck’s spear nicked his left arm. Wherever he transformed his arm he had to expend a slightest bit of mental energy to do so. It was unconscious, similar to how people blink or breathe without thinking about it. It seemed silly, but if he actually concentrated on his arm, and tried to coax a new skill out of it, he might succeed. Concentration and effort were the keys to improving one’s
own skills, weren’t they?

Nova ducked low and sprang forward, arms up in a classic boxing guard. He lashed out, focusing as hard as he could on his arm as he swung forward. Deck danced out of the way and bolted down the corridor again, his mind had apparently turned once more to flight, and Nova could understand why, for his ears managed to just barely pick up the sound of distant, muffled footsteps. No doubt the police had finally begun to raid the building. Nova cursed to himself and ran after Deck, despite the fact that he was starting to feel a little bit dizzy. While he could just leave Deck to them, he didn’t have a huge amount of faith in them after recent events. He needed to end this by his own hand.

The hallway hit another dead end further up, though he saw the tail of Deck’s coat disappearing through a large side door. Beyond it was some sort of wide, open studio, perhaps a room for gym equipment.

‘’Getting antsy, are we Deck?’’

Deck whirled around to face his former underling. ‘’You really want to get the shit beaten out of you some more, huh?’’ he said in an annoyed
tone of voice.

‘’This isn’t like you Deck.’’ Nova pressed on forcing a confident smirk to his face. ‘’I guess you’ve finally realized that you’ve run out of tether.’’

‘’Shut your mouth, this isn’t the end, not by a long shot!’’ Deck shouted, his hand making a defiant slashing gesture. ‘’This is only a temporary setback. My boys are all over the city, and I can get more easily. So what if you take down this hideout?! I have plenty more backups!’’ He summoned a halberd and swept it at Nova’s side, but Nova caught the blade on his metal forearm.

‘’You’re mistaken,’’ he grunted, staring right into Deck’s sunglasses as he struggled to angle the axe-head away from his body. ‘’First of all, not everyone is on board with your plan. Didn’t we just go over this outside?’’

Deck snarled in response and pulled his weapon back before summoning a second halberd in his other hand and lunging at Nova, forcing him to jump back and away from his advance.

‘’Second of all,’’ Nova continued as he jockeyed around Deck’s weapons. ‘’Your entire plan is nothing but a stupid pipedream!’’

‘’What?!’’ Deck grunted, lashing out with a kick that knocked his opponent back and away.

‘’You heard me!’’ Nova retorted deliberately twisting back with the impact so that he ended up sidestepping the two spears that had popped into existence with the attempt to skewer him. ‘’Sure, maybe The Beings are the largest gang in the city, and maybe you are the strongest guy on these streets, but you must know that once you start tangling with guys like the Red Claws it’s going to be a bloodbath, and don’t even get me started on organized crime or the police!’’

‘’You think I don’t know that?!’’ Deck shouted back moving into to exchange blows with Nova. ‘’Why do you think I went to all that effort to lay low and keep tabs on what you were doing, or why I brought that Sayren bitch on board?!''

‘’Speaking of her,’’ Nova said as he ducked under Deck’s fist and drove his elbow into the larger man’s sternum. ‘’Taking on someone who’s clearly batshit insane? You’re smart enough to realize what an idiotic idea that is! Then again,’’ he stopped to catch he breath as Deck tried to recover from the blow. ‘’you’ve clearly gone off the deep end yourself, haven’t you?’’

‘’Tch, of course I know the risks!’’ Deck said. ‘’She’s easy to manipulate, but even if she is a useful pawn she’s going down if she steps out of line!’’

‘’Pawn, right.’’ Nova smirked. ‘’And just how useful has she been to you, huh? Well, it doesn’t matter. Terrence should be taking her down as we speak.’’

‘’I wouldn’t count on that!’’ Deck said, thrusting his weapon forward, warding Nova back. ‘’I told you, Sparky’s as good as dead!’’

‘’And that brings me to my final point!’’ Nova said. ‘’You’ve underestimated the people you’re up against!’’ In truth he had no idea how well Terrence was doing against that girl, but if he was able to survive encountering her once, he surely do it again. He grabbed Deck’s weapon with his right hand and punched him as hard as he could in the jaw with his left.

Deck swore viciously and fell back from the blow but he quickly regained his balance a couple of yards away. ‘’Okay, Nova.’’ he growled. ‘’If you really want me to so badly, I’ll finish you off right now!’’

He raised his hands and a whole array of weapons appeared in the air around him. Spears of varying design, hatchets and battle axes, knives, maces, rods, spikes, hammers, halberds and pikes, seeming dozens of them appeared before the leader of The Beings, points and blades all oriented in Nova’s direction. He took a step back in shock at how many weapons there were, forming a virtual wall between him and Deck, stretching almost wall to wall.

‘’Goodbye, Nova.’’ Deck said. Nova could hardly see him through the forest of metal and wood before him, but he could hear his former boss’s voice, completely flat and devoid of humor. The weapons stiffened with a clatter, and then began to fly.

To Nova, everything seemed to slow down, first slipping into slow motion before finally coming to a complete halt. As caught up as he had been in his verbal assault on Deck, perhaps he really had finally bitten off more than he could chew. There were too many weapons to dodge. He couldn’t come up with a single maneuver that wouldn’t ultimately result in him getting turned into a human pincushion. Dammit, this can’t be it, it just can’t! His mind raced. I’m not going to let it end here and have everything I’ve done come to nothing! I’m going to seal this shut with my own hands!!

Hands… The only constant throughout his life had been his Stargazer powers. His armored arm had come through for him in plenty of fights in the past, what was one more? Time seemed to speed back up as he gritted his teeth and pulled his right arm back, focusing as hard as he could on it. In his mind he pictured an aura of sorts surrounding forearm, and then extending it in front of him. With a cry that was half desperation and half kiai he swung his fist forward towards the hail of weapons that was heading for him, hoping with all his might for this to work, for something, anything to happen.

And then something did.

His armored fist made contact with one of the projectiles and instead of simply deflecting that singular weapon, Nova thought he saw a brief flash of light emanate from the edge of his fist which was suddenly followed by a concussive blast that blew a hole clean through the hail of weapons. The weapons that were directly in the blast’s path were blown apart, sending pieces of snapped wood and metal flying backwards, while the ones that weren’t directly in his path were knocked to the ground or continued to sail on harmlessly past. A small shock wave rocked the space before him, sending the fragments and debris skittering across the floor. Deck was staggered from the impact of the shock wave, but
he stayed on his feet even as the shattered remains of the weapons knocked against his feet and legs.

‘’What…the hell was that?!’’ he gasped, his eyes going wide behind his sunglasses. ‘’How the hell did you do that?! Where did that come from?!’’

Nova suddenly felt a jolt of pain lance through his arm, like that of a pulled muscle. Normally he didn’t feel anything from it at all no matter how much punishment it took, but it seemed like he wouldn’t be pulling whatever that was off again anytime soon. ‘’I guess…’’ he breathed. ‘’…that there’s a lot more to my powers than I thought.’’ His chest heaved. He couldn’t remember how he had originally activated his Stargazer abilities, but he had heard that Terrence’s power had activated when he had been attacked by a knife-wielding thug. Perhaps, he thought to himself, that whatever it was that gave Stargazers their unique superhuman abilities responded to certain stimuli within the body, just like how a people could perform seemingly-superhuman feats when in danger.

Deck grunted in frustration and kicked the scattered debris away from him and snatched up two intact spears from off the ground and dashed forward with a cry, aiming both of the points straight at Nova’s throat. Despite the soreness of his right arm, Nova reached out and caught both spears with his fist. Deck came to a sudden halt and his leftover momentum made both of them stumble, but Nova managed to hang on. ‘’What’s wrong?’’ he grunted. ‘’Finally released how screwed you are?’’

‘’Shut-the-hell-up!’’ Deck grunted, straining as hard as he could against Nova’s vice-like grip.

‘’Nothing more to say, huh?’’ Nova asked. ‘’You’re really done this time, huh? You never would’ve been able to take over the city. Your plan was doomed from the very moment you thought it up!’’

‘’You must think that it and the government that’s supporting you is so great, huh?!’’ Deck put on as much pressure as he could, but he could barely budge his former subordinate’s arm. ‘’One day you’ll see the world’s true ugly side, mark my words! Let’s see what you have to say then, traitor!’’

Nova tightened his grip, and the two wooden shafts in his hand let out a crunch and splintered, leaving Deck holding two useless broken sticks. He threw them away but before he could throw a single punch Nova’s metal fist collided with his jaw with enough force to temporarily knock the big man off of his feet. He stumbled, and for a moment looked like he would recover before he simply fell to his knees and folded over, silently and without fanfare. His sunglasses, broken as if to symbolize his defeat, fell off of his face and to the floor with a soft clatter.

Nova made to stumble over to lean against the wall in exhaustion, but instead he almost collapsed, suddenly feeling every bruise, every stab wound, every laceration, and every drop of blood that he had lost over the course of the fight. Slowly, he gingerly lowered himself to the ground
and sat down on the floor.

‘’You know,’’ he said, speaking to Deck’s unconscious form. ‘’despite everything that’s happened, I’m glad I met you.’’ he admitted. ‘’Even though you ended up losing yourself in the end, you were a good guy once. You gave me and a lot of other people a place to belong.’’ He scratched his head, and winced as he accidentally scraped his fingers against his wound. He didn’t really know where he was going with this, but he continued. ‘’In a way you helped make me what I am today, but now, I no longer need you. I’m going to go on with my life, and whatever the world is going to throw at me in the future, I’ll face it with everything I have.’’

As he finished he became aware of a tinny buzzing in his ear. At first he thought that his head was still ringing from when Deck had smashed his head into the wall, but then he realized that not only was it coming from only one ear, but that he could also pick out small fragments of speech. They were coming from the small wireless transmitter placed in his ear that he had forgotten about once the fighting had started. The transmitters were rather short-ranged, which meant that it had to picking up a signal from close nearby. He stood up, and as he did a group of riot policemen burst into the room through the far door.

Fashionably late of course, Nova thought to himself as he switched his transmitter off.

‘’Bown?’’ the leader of the six-man squad asked as the others behind him came to a halt and fanned out around the room.

‘’That’s Deck.’’ Nova said wearily, pointing at the sprawled body before them.

‘’Secure him.’’ As the squad moved forward to carry out his orders the captain stepped forward to scrutinize Nova, his eyes narrowing behind his faceplate. ‘’Good work.’’ he said. ‘’We have full control of the building now. I’ll have someone escort you outside so that the paramedics can have a look at you.’’

‘’I can still walk in a straight line, I’ll go by myself.’’ Nova said, but despite his protest, the captain insisted, so he resigned himself to having another officer give him a shoulder to lean on on the way out of the building.

When he finally stepped outside he felt the night air hit his face again. It was a cool sensation, like a balm applied to his wounds. It also felt a little symbolic, he thought, as if blowing away those old days. That was fine with him, he decided. As he had said back inside, it was for the best that those days were gone now.

The front of the Moseseon Building was a flurry of activity compared to how dead it had been when he and the others had first arrived. Cop cars and vans were pulled up in front of the entrance, their lights illuminating the scene in surreal red and blue hues. Police officers were going in and out of the building’s front entrance, or were on stand-by near their vehicles. A medium-sized group of captured gang members were being led into the vans. Some of them recognized Nova and glared or hurled obscenities at him, but they weren’t any sort of danger anymore. Nova ignored them.

The officer accompanying him steered him towards an ambulance that was located towards the back of the cluster of vehicles. There he was immediately set upon by a paramedic who had a first aid kit waiting. He sat down on the bumper and offered no protest as she began to clean him up.

‘’Hey.’’

Nova turned his head in the direction of the voice to see that Akira was sitting on a gurney that was sitting next to the ambulance. He wasn’t strapped into it though, instead he was reclining on it like it was a bed, arms folded behind his head.

‘’Geez what happened to you? Your face is covered with blood!’’ Akira remarked, sitting up a little more on the gurney. He had a bruise on his forehead, but otherwise looked and sounded intact.

‘’I fought Deck, that’s all.’’ Nova replied simply before wincing a bit as the paramedic began to disinfect one of his cuts. ‘’What happened with you?’’ He didn’t feel like talking about his newfound ability just yet.

‘’Well,’’ Akira began, a sense of eagerness creeping into his voice now that he had a chance to relate his deeds. ‘’After you two left this really big guy joined up with that Den kid. He had a huge length of chain with him, if you can believe it.’’

‘’A huge chain?’’ Nova frowned. ‘’That must’ve been Tank…’’

‘’Anyway, there was no way I could take both of them on in a straight-up fight,’’ Akira continued, getting more animated. ‘’So what I did was I made like a huge air bomb. It was really tough to make, but it worked! It knocked both of them out cold!’’

‘’That was you?’’

‘’Oh, you heard it? Yep, that was all me!’’

‘’I see.’’ It looked like he wasn’t only one who had managed to improve this evening. ‘’Have you seen or heard from Terrence yet?’’

‘’Terry? No.’’ Akira shook his head, then his expression became a touched concerned. ‘’Where’d he go? Did he find that Sayren girl?’’

‘’Yeah, he went off towards the depot.’’ Nova gestured in that direction, and then paused. He hadn’t seen this Sayren yet, but based on what he had heard from Terrence and her general reputation, she was quite willing to kill him outright. Terrence had been pretty confident in his abilities, justifiably so perhaps, and he was willing to trust him, but it was still worrying nonetheless.

He was about to suggest trying to see if the transmitters would work when Akira suddenly spoke up again. ‘’Hey wait, do you smell that?’’
Nova crinkled his nose a bit. Yeah, he did smell something in the air. It smelled like smoke, he realized, and it didn’t seem to be coming from the Moseseon Building…

‘’Hey, I think –‘’ Akira started to say, but there was no need for him to finish. Both he and Nova turned to look towards the depot, and the smoky scent grew stronger. Even at this distance, they could see a faint flickering orange glow visible in the darkened windows high up on the building’s
front face.

‘’I’ll call the fire department!’’ one of the nearby officers said as he hurried back towards the parked cruisers to get on the general radio.

‘’Shit, do you think?!’’ Akira had leapt down from the gurney and was facing off in the depot’s direction, a look of grave concern on his face.
Nova cursed and stood up. Ignoring the protests of the paramedic who was trying to bandage him he dashed off across the parking lot, Akira right behind him. The scent of smoke became stronger and thicker as he got closer to the building, and he hoped that Terrence wasn’t inside,
caught or trapped by the growing conflagration.

As they reached the front of the building he raised his finger to the transmitter still in his ear, but then he saw, much to his relief, that he didn’t need to use it, for he could see a familiar figure, shoulders slumped in exhaustion but still very much alive, sitting on one of the concrete barriers a fair distance away from the building.

‘’Terry!’’ Akira called. Upon hearing his name, Terry perked his head up. ‘’Oh, Akira, Nova, you’re all right.’’ His voice was tired, but he quickly became more lively. ‘’You look like shit.’’

Nova snorted. ‘’You’re one to talk.’’

‘’I don’t look half as bad as you do!’’ Terry’s face was dirty and had a trickle of drying blood from a cut on his temple, while his clothes were frayed and burnt in many places and one of his hands appeared to by raw and blistered. But he was still alive, still intact, and still sound of mind.

‘’Is that…?’’ Nova began to ask, gesturing towards the second figure sprawled on the ground at Terry’s feet.

‘’Yeah, it’s her.’’ Terry reply came with a touch of consternation. ‘’I dragged her out of there so that the fire wouldn’t get to her. More than she deserves, if you ask me.’’

Nova took a few moments to observe the fallen Leo Stargazer. He’d seen a lot of crazy things during his life on the street, but he still found it hard to believe that all along the serial burner had been this scrawny, swarthy girl that he’d have probably mistaken for an androgynous boy at
first. Then again, the world was a vast place, filled with all sorts of people both good and ill.

‘’So how’d things go for you two?’’ Terry asked.

‘’It went well.’’ Nova replied, putting his thoughts aside. ‘’Deck should be in custody by now, and the members of The Beings who are here are being rounded up as we speak.’’

‘’Just wait until I tell you how I beat two guys all on my own!’’ Akira said eagerly.

‘’You can tell me later.’’ Terry said, smiling. ‘’Right now I just want a big glass of water – I’m parched.’’

* * *

‘’Well I must say, I am quite relieved that all of you managed to come out of there in one piece.’’ Mr. Gerald was saying, the relief evident on his face. It was late at night, several hours after the conclusion of the raid on The Beings’ hideout. Mr. Gerald, Daniel, and the three Stargazers were crammed into a room in one of the city’s main hospitals. Terry and Akira weren’t badly hurt: moderate bruising was the extent of Akira’s injuries, and though Terry’s burns were more serious he was feeling fine now that they had been sterilized and anti-burn pads and bandages had been applied to the worst of them. The band-aid over the cut at his temple was largely hidden by his bangs, so the only outward sign of injury he had was his bandaged hand.

Nova, on the other hand, had more extensive injuries. The bruises and lacerations he had suffered in his battle with Deck had been bandaged, but some of them had needed to be stitched closed. And the doctors wanted to have him undergo a head scanning to back sure that his head didn’t have any internal damage from being slammed into the wall. He was going to have to remain in the hospital for a few more days, something that he wasn’t happy about at all.

‘’Of course we did. We’re Stargazers after all.’’ Akira replied from his chair. He had been in a great mood following the operation’s conclusion, and had wasted no time in telling Mr. Gerald and Daniel all about how he had taken down two of The Beings’ officers all by himself.

‘’Easy for you to say.‘’ Nova grunted from the one of the room’s hospital beds. ‘’You didn’t get cut up and have your brain get rattled around inside your skull.’’

‘’Hey, it could’ve been worse.’’ Terry shrugged, unscrewing the cap off of yet another bottle of water. Already a small pile of empty ones were beginning to build around his feet.

‘’Man, I don’t understand how you can talk so causally about being in such danger.’’ Daniel put in. ‘’You do realize that you could’ve, you know, died back there, right?’’

‘’Well, like I told her, I don’t plan on dying anytime soon.’’ Terry took a sip of water before flicking off a patch of dead skin from the bridge of his nose. ‘’If you go into any situation already thinking that you’re gonna die, then you’ve already lost, simple as that.’’

‘’Erm, well anyway…’’ Mr. Gerald cleared his throat, clearly disturbed by the direction this conversation was taking. ‘’I just want to reiterate that I’m glad that you’re all okay.’’ He features softened into a smile. ‘’And how proud of you all I am. You were faced with dangers that people your age should never have to face, yet you all preserved and pulled through admirably. You did everything that was expected of you, and more.’’

‘’It’s too bad we won’t be getting any recognition for this, isn’t it?’’ Akira asked. While the media was no doubt already trumpeting the capture of the two criminal Stargazers who had terrorized the city, the existence of Trident had to be kept a secret from the masses. The public would never know that those responsible for their apprehension were three teenage boys.

Terry for his part, shrugged. ‘’I don’t really care. I told Nova something like this before, that while the idea of being treated like a hero may sound nice, in the end I think I’d rather prefer being treated like a normal person, Stargazer or no.’’

‘’Yeah, I can agree with that.’’ Akira said, nodding. ‘’However…’’ His eyes narrowed and his gaze landed directly on Mr. Gerald. ‘’some sort of reward would still be nice. Like, a fancy dinner. I’m getting tired of having to eat our dorm’s catering all the time.’’

Mr. Gerald chuckled. ‘’I think at least that can be arranged.’’

‘’Good.’’

Terry took another sip of cold water and placed the bottle on the floor along with the others. ‘’So…what’s going to happen now? I mean, with The Beings, and all? I mean, didn’t they have a couple hundred members? Are all of them going to be hunted down?’’

‘’I don’t think that’ll be necessary.’’ Nova said. ‘’Deck was like the glue holding them all together. Without him, the grunts won’t have any direction. Sure, some of them will still try to cause trouble, but on their own they shouldn’t be much of a threat.’’

‘’I’m sure the police will be able to handle the remnants on their own.’’ Daniel said.

‘’Hmph. After all this, I’m not trusting the police with tracking down stolen property, let alone rounding up a scattered gang.’’ Nova snorted.

‘’And Deck and Sayren?’’ Terry asked. ‘’What’s going to happen to them?’’

Mr. Gerald’s face hardened again. ‘’Anthony Balast will most likely be sent to a maximum security prison facility until he stands trial. Given how dangerous he is as an individual, and the crimes he orchestrated on Landing Day coupled with all of the misdeeds perpetrated throughout the years…he’ll be put away for a very long time, to put it mildly.’’

‘’Are you okay with that?’’ Daniel asked Nova.

‘’I already settled things with Deck.’’ Nova said shortly. ‘’What happens to him now, is none of my concern.’’

‘’And what about Sayren?’’ Terry asked.

This time Mr. Gerald remained silent for a few moments before answering. ‘’To be honest, I’m not exactly clear on what the government does with Stargazers like her. But, I assume there is some sort of facility out there that is designed to house Stargazers as dangerous and unstable as she. I don’t think she’ll see the light of day ever again, at any rate.’’

‘’Hm.’’ Terry picked his water bottle up again and took a long swig from it. ‘’I never did learn what made her so unhinged… Ah, whatever.’’ He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. ‘’It’s over. It doesn’t matter anymore.’’

‘’Yes, I too hope that the city can finally close the book on this chapter and start anew on a fresh page.’’ Mr. Gerald agreed. He checked his watch. ‘’Well, it’s getting quite late, and you three have to show up at school tomorrow. I’ll go speak with the nurse about getting you two out of here.’’

‘’Wait, even after all this we still gotta show up at class tomorrow?!’’ Akira looked stricken. ‘’Don’t we deserve at least a day off to rest?’’

‘’Why shouldn’t you?’’ Daniel asked, looking genuinely puzzled at the suggestion. ‘’You’re not hurt badly enough to justify being absent.’’

‘’Oh come on, it’s not like you were out there fighting!’’ Akira insisted. ‘’Come on Terry, back me up here!’’

‘’I don’t really care.’’ Terry remarked. ‘’I heal quickly. After I rest up I’ll be back to normal, more or less.’’

‘’Argh, you…!’’

‘’I’ll just leave you four be.’’ Mr. Gerald sighed as he made to duck out of the room. ‘’I’ll be back in a few minutes. Don’t make a racket while I’m gone or the staff will yell at you.’’

''Wait!'' Nova called.

The older man stopped halfway through the door. ''Yes?''

''Make sure to tell the police that the safety vests they gave us were pieces of shit.''

''I'm remember.'' Mr. Gerald replied in a bemused sort of way. He nodded at Terry, Akira, and Daniel and took his leave from the room, leaving the four teenagers alone together.

Akira sighed in quiet exasperation and then, clearly looking for a way to cheer himself up, turned to Nova. ‘’Don’t look so glum, Nova. We’ll visit you here tomorrow afternoon.’’ he said, his familiar grin returning to his face. ‘’We’ll even bring you some flowers if that’ll cheer you up.’’

‘’Oh yeah, and I have to look for some new sneakers tomorrow.’’ Terry sighed. He was wearing a hospital patient’s tunic because his outfit had been declared to be unsalvageable after his fight. ‘’I liked those shoes, too…’’

To no one’s surprise, Nova did not take his comrades’ irreverence very well. He frowned and shifted in his bed so that he didn’t have to look at the others. ‘’Oh shove it.’’ he muttered in annoyance as he closed his eyes to get some much-needed, much-deserved sleep.

Spoiler:

And that's the end of the battle, I suppose. Sayren's was pretty straightforward to write and I had the fight's ''layout'' so to speak planned out for quite some time now. ''What are you fighting for?'' speeches always run the risk of sounding incredibly cheesy so I made sure to avoid having Terry use common buzz-phrased like ''I want to protect X'' and so on. At the end of the day he is still a rather straightforward hero archetype so the sentiment is ultimately the same but I want to at least have him not sound as goofy as some of his other peers in fiction occasionally do.

Sayren's final attack was inspired by Gears of War, of all things.

Nova's fight with Deck I found much harder to write. I pretty much rewrote the whole thing from scratch during my second draft since the first was really weak and had his new ability (which if it wasn't clear was essentially one of those shock wave punches you see in kung fu movies) basically pulled right out of his ass. Erm, even moreso. Come to think of it, I've never illustrated just what his metal arm looks like. Maybe I'll do that soon...

Finally, his comment about their safety vests being crappy was thrown in there in an attempt to cover for the fact that I had forgotten that they were all supposed to be wearing them, heh.

One more chapter to wrap up this story line. It's short, so I'll definitely have it out before the end of the year. Fitting that I'll be able to start the second half of the story in the new year, provided that the world doesn't end first.

[ChesCa]

H'okay, gotta give a quick point by point and hope I have all my facts straight. Feel free to correct me on something I've forgotten or missed:

Hidden:

Saryen's monologue and speech....I have to be honest if this were done by a published author or something I would be riffing the heck out of it. There's no subtlety and it just feels like a back and forth between a mustache twirling villain and a shonen hero. That and it's spelling out for the audience what the characters are feeling. It's like when Beelzebot goes 'That makes me so mad' or even Casper's exposition song from Nostalgia Critic. Overall I think you do want to get your characters' feelings and motivations out in the open to the audience but in the case of those two it might be best to have Terry reflect on why he does the things he does in the last chapter where he has time to think and maybe have either him or a therapist/psychologist appointed to Saryen after her capture remark on her violent and shallow nature. I think more realistically Saryen would've just blasted Terry's face off instead of talking.

I think the fight consists a bit too much of everyone trying to get behind everyone or dodging. However I do realize that fights are not only hard to do and in this case it makes sense for Terry and Akira to be on the offensive. Nova's fight I think was a pretty good balance of offense and defense and Terry manages to make use of his situation too.

‘’You call me selfish, do you?’’ she continued after she had calmed down a bit.
I would reverse this sentence to include the feeling first then the dialogue, otherwise the reader will think she's still being intense before finding out she wasn't. It's a general rule of mine to have the order of what you want to audience to see and hear determine whether or not description or dialogue goes first.

Den’s grip slackened as the blade cut through the fabric of his sleeve and the skin beneath as easily as if it cutting through a piece of fruit, giving Akira an opportunity to kick him in the stomach, roll away, and make a run for it.
Nothing bad structure wise or anything, but I'd like to hear Den grunt or his face wince in pain or something to couple with his arm going slack.

‘’I’m not like your other victims, I’m not going to just roll over for you!’’ Terry retorted
This on the other hand I would get rid of or turn into a thought, like he's observing Saryen's frustration. Unlike Deck and Nova these two don't really have a reason to talk after a few sentences or if they did it would be swearing at being hit or missing. Lines of frustration if you will. Also the first paragraph of their fight (I forget which chapter) seems to be in Saryen's POV before just switching over to Terry's.

I love the ghostly image being created by Saryen's big attack.

I loved loved LOVED the sprinklers part for two reasons:
1. It's funny
2. Saryen was doused in water, giving Terry the win.
That said it seems insincere when Terry thinks that he doesn't want to kill her yet hits her multiple times. I think it would be better he did one controlled shot so that the water and electricity doesn't outright boil her (or something like that.) Also was Terry established to be able to use electricity while wet without hurting himself? If the electric attacks come directly from him body I'd expect a nasty shock up his arm at the very least.

I like the irony of a pyrokinetic getting burns from non-fire attacks.

I have a hard time believing Nova didn't improve himself in some way. Akira maybe but Nova seems smart enough to try the 'willing new power into existence' thing before. Using the pain and strain as an excuse for him not to do it instead is what I would suggest, like that power has backfired on him before and he's afraid of killing himself. Maybe you can make the strain of the situation be the exact reason why it didn't. The 'Life or Death' rule should mostly apply to Akira and to your credit it suits him very well. It does raise some questions though:
1. Do Stargazers need to be in a life-or-death situation to get new powers all the time? I never quite got that vibe from Deck (based on Nova's observations).
2. How long has Akira been with Trident again? Depending on how long he's been there and what Trident's resources are it sounds like he could've been trained to do that wind sphere thing by Trident itself. I think you almost got a perfect balance of fights though: One learned on the fly, one won through training and quick thinking and one based on pure brawn and experience. Like I said though I do have a hard time thinking that Nova wasn't pushed by Trident or himself to try and get a new ability. The only thing I can think of is that Stargazers were recently discovered but I don't get that impression. Feel free to correct me though since you have your facts down pretty well.

I loved Deck and Nova's fight and that was where talking was really appropriate and imho you did a great job of it for a rough draft. You tend to keep the sentences short and punctuate them with actions like a real fight, but sometimes they read a little too long for the situation. Maybe they can get longer near the end as they're both getting tired and breathing hard but even then you'd have to show the reader that they're taking their breath while listening to their former friend talk.

His sunglasses, broken as if to symbolize his defeat, fell off of his face and to the floor with a soft clatter.
I'd take out the symbolize defeat part personally, but only because it feels like the movie equivalent would be showing the glasses broken and the narrator telling the audience how to feel. Everything's a bit too on the nose.

Despite all my negativity this is a really good climax and I commend you for being one of the few writers (if not the first one) to tackle an action scene in written form.

Also I once made the same mistake you made with Saryen back in my earlier days and speak from experience about how it feels to make what feels like a passionate scene with a villain only to have it shot down so I'm not looking down on you for it or anything.

Overall I give this a Good rating with the potential to be Great or Excellent.

[Crossword]

Alright, let's see what I can tackle:

Spoiler:

Are Stargazers recently discovered?

No, they have existed all throughout recorded human history. The public is well aware of their existence, even if some may feel uncomfortable around them. I guess try to imagine something sort of like the general level of Mutant awareness in X-Men, just without the overt persecution angle.

Wouldn't Terry get hurt by his own lightning?Nope, he is completely immune to electric shocks of all kinds. In chapter 18 one of the thugs tried to tase him and it did absolutely nothing. Even when wet he wouldn't be affected. Stargazers that are of a similar nature to Terry gain passive resistances to whatever they produce. So Sayren for can't get burned by say, sticking her hand into an open flame, but electric shocks or chemicals would still do the trick.

How long as Akira been a part of Trident?
Not much longer than Terry has, really. He did have some training, I guess you call it, but it was really basic, like just focusing on seeing if he could hit targets and stuff like that. I did allude to that in his inner monologue, but maybe it wasn't too clear. Since he's always used his powers to make wind blow, making an air bomb wasn't something that had occurred to him before then. There's a difference between the powers you're given and then what you develop from them.

Life-or-death activation, what's up?

In-universe, the first time a new Stargazer ever activates their power is unconsciously (since they obviously don't know that they can now shoot lightning, fire, what-have-you). It does not have to be in a life-or-death situation, that's purely dramatic convenience for the sake of the story.

I issue that I ran into was trying to justify Nova's arm's new move. While Stargazers like Terry, Akira, Sayren, and Deck who produce things can simply work on producing more electricity/wind/heat/weapons, Nova can't - his power is literally a part of him. In the end I decided to go with the idea that his arm is actually somewhat of an emphatic weapon, so the more he pushes himself in the heat of battle the more he'll improve. There's quite a bit more to his power than he realizes.

As for why he never really pushed himself before this, it simply wasn't necessary. He was a part of a street gang, fighting people close to his own age who were rarely armed with anything more than a switchblade. Anything more than an armored arm with augmented strength would've been overkill. It's sort of like what Crocodile told Luffy about how some Devil Fruit users are satisfied with their power as is, while others work to develop it. Nova was originally part of the former group.

Sayren's a cardboard cutout!

Don’t worry, that was what I intended. She was actually a very, very late, last minutes addition to the story so I didn’t really have much in mind other than ‘’Deck’s opposite’’ and then decided to run with it. I liked the idea of pitting the rookie hero against one of the worst stereotypes from the world that he had just stepped into, so all those unironic declarations about how she liked to kill and hurt people for the hell of it were deliberate. I won’t deny the cheesiness though – it is difficult to write hero vs. villain dialogue without falling into that trap.

It seems that my main weakness is ''show don't tell'' when it comes to emotions. It is difficult to balance getting across in a non-vague manner what the character is feeling/thinking whilst avoiding Hulk-speak in the narration.

[Crossword]

Chapter 21: The New Page

Spoiler:

‘’Did you hurt your hand again?’’ Bar asked, lowering himself into his desk’s chair.

‘’Hm? Yeah.’’ Terry admitted, unconsciously flexing his bandaged hand. ‘’I accidentally touched the stovetop in my dorm’s kitchen. Ended up burning myself.’’

‘’Is it going to be alright?’’ Karen’s voice and eyes were tinged with concern as she looked at Terry’s hand.

‘’Yeah, it looks worse than it is.’’ Terry replied, glad that his bangs were concealing the bandage at his temple from her sight. ‘’I heal quickly, anyway. It’s no big deal.’’

‘’As long as you stay out of the kitchen, apparently.’’ Bar remarked sarcastically as he rested his head on his desk.

‘’I keep telling him that he should leave cooking to me.’’ Akira added brightly, before wincing a little as shifted his weight in his own chair. According to him his back and side were now covered in dark purple bruises from the night before, and his movements had been stiff and ginger all morning.

‘’Wait, you can cook?’’ Terry asked him, dropping the façade despite himself.

‘’Yeah.’’ Akira replied. ‘’Noodles, soup, simple things like that. Like the stuff you can buy at a store for next to nothing, but much better. I’m talking real food, not that pre-prepared crap.’’

‘’I see. I’ll have to keep that in mind.’’ Terry said.

It was at that very moment of that thought passing through his head, Vanon Hestly walking into the classroom looking rather animated. ‘’Hey, did anyone check their news tablets this morning and see the news yet?’’ he asked, waving his own tablet in the air.

‘’You mean those arrests?’’ someone else asked. ‘’They’re all over the Internet.’’

Indeed, the first thing for Terry after waking up in the morning and getting ready for school was Daniel showing him and Akira that the front pages of all of Marine Cove’s digital newspapers had giant splash pages for headlines and articles that were trumpeting from the rooftops the previous night’s arrests of Anthony Balast aka Deck, the leader of the gang responsible for the riots on Landing Day, and the serial burner who had been responsible for thirteen attacks, four of which fatal, over the past few months. Sayren hadn’t been identified by name, just as a ‘’young adult female Stargazer’’ and there was also no mention of Trident’s role in the affair, not that they had expected there to be any.

‘’So how ‘bout it Bar?’’ Vanon called over his shoulder to Bar, who had begun to make a show of rooting through his backpack for something as soon as the story had been mentioned. ‘’Those Stargazer you hated are now both behind bars.’’

Bar grimaced at the reminder of his outburst. ‘’Y-Yeah.’’ he said weakly. ‘’It’s good that they’ve been put away.’’

‘’That’s it? I thought you’d have a little more to say than that.’’

‘’Er, well, it’s over, and doesn’t have anything to do with us so…’’ Bar looked extremely uncomfortable. ‘’I mean…’’

‘’You sure you don’t have anything else to say?’’ Terry decided to press.

‘’Well…’’ Bar’s shoulders slumped in defeat. ‘’I guess...that I should apologize for how I acted before.’’

‘’That’s good of you, but…’’ Terry leaned back in his chair so that Karen was visible. ‘’I’m not the one you should be apologizing to.’’

Bar sighed. He looked smaller than he ever had before. ‘’You’re right.’’ He walked over to Karen’s desk and bowed his head. ‘’I’m really sorry for how I acted and for what I said to you.’’ he proclaimed, staring down at the floor as he did. ‘’It was ugly of me and wrong. Could you please forgive me?’’

Karen looked more taken aback by Bar’s behavior than anything else, but she did her best to recover and nod. ‘’I forgive you.’’ she said. ‘’The whole thing was just…dumb, anyway.’’ she finished awkwardly.

Bar looked immediately relieved. ‘’T-Thanks.’’ he said. Seeing that every eye in the classroom was on him, he pointed towards one of the classroom’s exits. ‘’I, uh, need to run out to my locker real quick. I think I forgot to get something from it.’’ he said sheepishly before hurriedly taking his leave.

‘’’Forgot something’, right.’’ Akira commented as he watched the door close behind Bar. ‘’At least that’s finally settled.’’

Terry nodded. He couldn’t know how sincere Bar’s apology had been, but at least he had recognized that others had disapproved of his behavior. They were all still young, perhaps this incident would serve as a catalyst for a change of view one day.

He looked in Karen’s direction to see that she had once again gone a light pink in embarrassment. ‘’You all right?’’ he asked.

‘’Hm? Yeah, I’m fine.’’ she replied, though she was touching the edge of her hat nervously and there was still a touch of timidity in her voice. ‘’I guess I’m just not used to having someone apologize to me.’’

She took off her hat, the first time Terry had seen her do so willingly while at school and placed it on her desk. ‘’Um, I guess I never really thanked you for standing up for me before, so…thanks. It, uh, meant a lot to me.’’

‘’There’s no need to thank me.’’ Terry replied, casually waving his hand in dismissal. ‘’Now that the Stargazer problem seems to be solved we should just put all of this behind us.’’

‘’I agree.’’ Akira said, nodding his approval. ‘’People never get anywhere if they do nothing but obsess over the past, right?’’

Karen nodded, though she didn’t look fully convinced. ‘’I guess so.’’

‘’Is something still wrong?’’ Terry asked.

‘’Uh…’’ Karen began to fiddle with her hat some more. ‘’I guess I’m just not a strong person, am I?’’ she said. ‘’That was the first time anyone had spoken to me like that, and I couldn’t find it in me to stand up for myself. I had to let someone else do it for me.’’

‘’Yeah, I guess that is a pro-‘’ Akira wisely decided to cut himself off. ‘’Well, actually, everyone has moments of weakness, right? I think feeling that way is perfectly normal if it was your first time being treated like that. Heck, I used to let my family walk all over me before I decided to just say ‘screw it’ and live how I wanted to live.’’

‘’That’s not necessarily the best advice to give.’’ Terry remarked, sighing.

‘’No, it’s okay. I understand what he’s saying.’’ Karen said. ‘’I really do need to be more assertive, don’t I?’’

‘’Well, you can start by not having to ask us that.’’ Akira answered. ‘’If you want to change, you just have to do it.’’

‘’I don’t think anyone will ever be happy if they spend their life constantly second-guessing themselves.’’ Terry said. ‘’I know I wouldn’t be who I am today if I had questioned every choice I’ve made.’’

That seemed to be good enough for her. Karen put her hat back on and her face slowly lit up with a look that while not a full smile, still looked considerably more happy and upbeat than she had in days. ‘’Uh huh!’’


When the school day drew to a close Terry and Akira didn’t head back to the dorm like they usually did. Instead they met up with Daniel at the front of the school and headed off to the hospital where Nova was staying. Daniel had mentioned that he had something to tell everyone, but it had to wait until all four of them were together.

When they reached the hospital and were led to Nova’s room they found him sitting on top of his bed reading from a textbook. He put it down when he saw the others, though the aura he was giving off felt far from welcoming.

Akira’s greeting didn’t help either. ‘’Sorry I lied about the flowers.’’ he said.

‘’Oh shut up.’’ Nova growled. It seemed to Terry that he and Akira were destined to always be at a less-than-amicable standing with one another.

‘’What were you reading?’’ Daniel asked.

‘’One of my school books.’’ Nova replied with a grunt. ‘’Since I missed classes today I’m reading the material we probably covered so that I won’t be behind when I get back. My family visited earlier; and they dropped my books off for me.’’

‘’I didn’t know you had a family.’’ Akira remarked.

‘’Of course I do, idiot! Everyone has a family!’’

‘’So how are you holding up?’’ Terry asked, deciding that it was best he steer Nova’s attention away from Akira’s provocations.

‘’I’m perfectly fine.’’ Nova answered stubbornly, folding his arms. His left arm was still covered in bandages that were concealing his injuries. ‘’But the doctors won’t let me outta here until they’re done pouring over my CT scan and are convinced that my head’s intact, even though I don’t have anything worse than a flesh wound. And then after that the researchers at Lifeline want to have a look at my new power and run some tests. It’s all such a pain in the ass!’’

‘’Oh, well, speaking of Lifeline, I have something to tell everyone.’’ Daniel said, cutting off Nova before he could continue to rant.

‘’Can we do that somewhere else?’’ Nova asked. ‘’I’ve been confined in here almost all day. I need to get out of this room before I go stir-crazy.’’

‘’Are you allowed to?’’

‘’Yeah, as long as I don’t go too far.’’ Nova replied. ‘’There’s a waiting lounge nearby that should be empty at this time of day.’’ With a little grunt he swung on to the floor smoothly enough to fool anyone into thinking that he was actually uninjured. ‘’I’ll show you the way.’’

Said lounge was only a short walk away. It was lightly furnished with a table, television, a couple chairs and a magazine rack filled with piles of old books and magazine pamphlets, but its main feature was the wall opposite the entry being nothing but glass, offering a view of the city in all its late-afternoon fall splendor. The sun was hanging low in the sky, and its sunbeams were already starting to enter the room, illuminating the small particles lazily drifting through the air.

‘’So, what is it you wanted to say?’’ Nova asked once he stepped away from the entryway. There was no actual door due to the room, no doubt due to safety concerns, but the hallway was quiet enough at the moment that it was unlikely that anyone was around to eavesdrop on their conversation.

‘’Okay, remember that fancy dinner we talked about last night?’’ Daniel asked.

‘’Oh, are we having it soon?’’ Akira asked expectantly, his brown eyes brightening up at the mention of food.

‘’Something better than that.’’ Daniel answered, smiling. ‘’My uncle told me that after Nova is let out of here, we’re being invited to a private ceremony and dinner where the city’s chief of police is going to award you guys with commendations for your efforts in stopping The Beings.’’

‘’So we are getting some recognition after all, huh?’’ Terry said.

‘’That’s right.’’ Daniel replied. ‘’And it’ll be as if you were normal citizens, not as Stargazers, just like you said you wanted.’’

Terry grinned to himself and then turned to look out at the cityscape. He could see tiny figures moving around through the windows of neighboring buildings, pigeons perched on nearby ledges, and down below on the streets people of all ages made their way from one part of the city to the other. It was quite a strange feeling, he considered, that though he’d only been in this city for a few short months, he had already grown to feel a sort of attachment to it. It was loud, there wasn’t as much greenery compared to what he was used to, one couldn’t see nearly as many stars as one could from the skies of his hometown, and he had been empowered by some mysterious force and thrown into the most dangerous situation he’d ever been in, but he didn’t regret any of his experiences. His short time as a Stargazer had so far allowed him to do things and meet people, good people, that he probably never would have otherwise, and had had his eyes opened to aspects of both the world and himself that he would never have considered otherwise. He had come to Marine Cove City because he had wanted a change in his life, and he had succeeded in that goal many times over.

‘’By the way,’’ he said as a thought struck him. ‘’it didn’t really cross my mind before, but what’s going to happen to us now?’’

‘’What do you mean?’’ Akira asked.

‘’Trident was originally put together in response to The Beings’ rise to power, right?’’ Terry elaborated. ‘’Now that they’re gone, what’s going to be in store for us?’’

‘’Well, it’s true that The Beings are done for, but that doesn’t mean Trident’s going to be disbanded or anything.’’ Daniel said. ‘’There’s no doubt that the Lifeline commissioners will want to keep Trident around after what you guys did.’’

‘’Hm, that wasn’t entirely what I meant. Only half of it, really.’’ Terry muttered, pressing a finger up against the bridge of his nose in thought. How could he articulate this?

Nova turned to look at him. ‘’You mean what’s next for us, right?’’ he asked.

‘’Right, exactly.’’

‘’Uh, the two are one and the same, at least as far as I see it.’’ Akira said, scratching his head.

‘’I’m going to keep on doing what I’ve been doing, even though Deck’s gone.’’ Nova said, turning to look out upon the city as well. The sky was starting to grow paler as the sun began to dip below the skyline, signaling that evening was not long. ‘’I’ve lived in this city my whole life. It’s as much a part of me as I am of it.’’ he said. ‘’But Deck was right, there are a lot of ugly sides to it as well, just beneath the sight of the average, normal person.’’

He briefly looked down at his hands. ‘’I used to like being a Stargazer because it gave me power, but now I can use that power to combat that ugliness. If my actions can make this city even a tiny bit brighter, then that’s what I’m going to do.’’

There were words unspoken in Nova’s declaration, Terry knew, but that was for Nova to mind, not him. Instead he said, ‘’I agree. Coming to this city was a big change for me, and I haven’t really seen much of that ugliness, but its atmosphere, its pulse…I think I’m beginning to get used to it, and I’m glad that I’ve met the people that I have here, so…’’ He held a short pause. ‘’…so I guess I feel similarly to Nova. If I have the ability, than I want to do what I can to ensure that the people and city stay as they are.’’ When had he ever been the type of person to give a speech like that? he couldn’t help but wonder. Perhaps that was just one such way his new life was beginning to change him?

‘’Hah, we’ll make a city boy out of you yet.’’ Daniel said, smirking in amusement.

‘’Well, I wouldn’t go quite that far.’’ Terry responded, putting a hand on his hip. ‘’Overall I still think the area around my hometown’s much nicer than any park I’ve seen here. And of course stargazing’s pretty much impossible, so –‘’

‘’Hey, hold up for a minute, I still have something else to say.’’ Nova spoke up. The others turned to him, and Terry saw that the older teen was looking uncharacteristically hesitant.

‘’What is it? Spit it out.’’ Akira said.

‘’Well,’’ Nova closed his eyes for a moment before looking straight at the others, his blue eyes turning resolute. ‘’Not this week, since I’m still in the hospital and we have our ceremony coming up, but sometime soon would you guys like to come over to my house for dinner or something? My mother and sister would like to meet you guys.’’

‘’You have a sister?’’ Akira asked, in the exact same tone of voice he had had when learning that Nova had a family.

‘’What of it?’’ Nova growled, his temper once again being piqued. ‘’Tons of people have sisters! And mothers too!’’

Terry gave a little sigh of bemusement as the two began to bicker again with Daniel attempting to mediate the two, but he didn’t feel any need or desire to step in this time. Perhaps that was just one more sign that he was becoming more and more accustomed to his new environment.

He turned away from the others to look out the vast window and at the city once again. His first trial as a Stargazer was over. No doubt there would be many more in the time to come, and many more changes in store for both him and the rest of Trident. His life would surely never be the same again, but at this moment he wasn’t concerned about that. It was just one more hurdle to overcome. One more challenge that he was going to meet.

Content with himself, he turned back around towards his friends.

For probably being the shortest chapter I've written in quite a while, I did find it quite hard to write, as I wanted to provide some sense of character-arc closure while at the same time trying not to step on the toes of what I have planned for the future. I'll probably go back sometime later on and overhaul parts of it, but for now I hope that this wasn't too too corny.

Anyway, despite the ups and downs, and I know there were some, I hope everyone has gotten at least some sense of enjoyment out of this story so far. The next chapter will be the start of a whole new arc (and the third atlas entry, I promise!) so until then I will see you all in 2013. Happy New Year.

[Crossword]

A new year, and a new arc for Stargazer. Though I suppose that I could have gotten away with making this a full-on sequel, I don't really see it as such. It's more of a ''Season 2'' in my eyes.

Chapter 22: Snowfall in a Distant City

Spoiler:

Christian Drost stared idly at the snow falling upon the city of Achromantel, the capital of Danzier, through the window of his car. The snowfall wasn’t heavy; the cold air ensured that it was light enough to only leave a few inches on the ground without fouling up the roadways unlike the heavier and wetter snow that would normally be falling around this time in December.

Christian was a man in his mid-thirties, with neatly groomed hair and icy blue eyes. He liked his eyes, for it was easy to unnerve others with their cold glare if he so chose. Coupled with his neatly-pressed suit and sharp features he cut a formidable figure, which was vital in his line of work. He’d be a very poor businessman if he was unable to show others that he was not to be trifled with.

Apart from his driver there were two other passengers sitting with him, a young man and a young woman. The young man wore glasses and had his blonde hair neatly parted down the middle and combed back. Gripped in his hands beneath his winter coat was a silver stainless-steel briefcase of not unremarkable size. The girl was gazing out of the window on her side with an expression of complete detachment. Just as her two companions were wearing business suits, she was dressed in a simple semi-formal black dress with a thin gray cardigan over-top it.

Christian pushed back the sleeve of his suit jacket to quickly get a look at his watch. It was ten minutes after seven-thirty at night. He and his men had spent the past two weeks planning for this occasion, and even though they were currently separated by thousands of miles it was imperative that everything went off without a hitch. He smiled to himself in anticipation. Of course they would pull this off. This was bound to be a very entertaining meeting, a welcome change from the dull tedium of what he was used to.

‘’We’re nearly there.’’ his driver spoke up. ‘’The traffic’s not bad, so it should only be about eight more minutes.’’

‘’Thank you.’’ Christian replied. ‘’We seem to be on schedule.’’ He had to admire the efficiency of his homeland’s city planners. In any other country a simple light snow like this would have been bad enough to create gridlock and snarl up the traffic going in and out of the city center or at least slow it down considerably, but here in Achromantel everything was continuing to move relatively smoothly.

In the past century Danzier’s tech and science industries had grown rapidly as the so-called information revolution had spread farther and farther around the world, and the country had grown richer and richer thanks to increased domestic and foreign investment. The average citizen, no matter where they were on the social ladder, could at the very least expect a baseline level of comfort and support from society, and opportunities for advancement were plentiful if one had the drive to seek them out. While not the largest city in Darlsine, Achromantel was a symbol of this prosperity, as it could boast one of the lowest crime rates and highest standards of living in Lagoon’s eastern hemisphere. It was the very picture of a modern city, with its many glittering skyscrapers currently shining through the falling snow, looking as if they were wrapped in halos of light.

Tonight Christian and his two companions were meeting with one of the many men who profited off of the city’s wealth. Their client was one Hermanus Groot, the owner and head of an urban development conglomerate that was worth more yura than Christian cared to imagine. The meeting place was the restaurant at one of the five-star hotels in the city that he owned. Even if the meeting ended poorly, and Christian had no doubt that it would, at the very least the dining would be exquisite.

The driver made a turn and soon their car was approaching the entrance to the hotel’s underground parking lot. A sensor scanned their vehicle and upon matching its license registration with information already stored in its databanks the security gate slid open while an artificially-cheery female voice directed them to the designated level for temporary guests. Once arriving at the level, which was smaller and consequently better lit than the ones for regular guests the driver pulled into a parking space with smooth precision.

‘’And we are right on time.’’ Christian commented as he undid his seatbelt. ‘’We should be an hour and a half at the latest.’’ he told the driver. ‘’I don’t foresee Groot holding us up any longer than absolutely necessary.’’

The other man smirked a bit. ‘’Heh, too bad I won’t be able to see the look on that fatass’s face when you give it to him. Serves him right.’’

‘’Oh, you shouldn’t envy me.’’ Christian replied. ‘’Honestly, any amount of time with that man is time too much. But, at least the food will make up for it.’’ He patted his stomach in a good-humored sort of way. ‘’Ah, the food here is always worth the extra pounds than come with it.’’

The driver smirked again. ‘’Right, well, I guess I’ll find something to keep myself busy with for the next hour or so.’’

Christian nodded. ‘’Good. I’ll call you when we’re ready to leave.’’

He and his two companions disembarked into the cold garage, Christian first, followed by the boy with the silver briefcase and finally the girl.

‘’Do you have everything?’’ Christian asked as he put on his overcoat.

‘’Yes, it’s secure.’’ the boy answered, hefting the briefcase. He did it one-handed, but its weight clearly put a strain on his arm.

Christian turned towards the girl. ‘’Can’t you ever do something about that?’’ he asked, scowling. Despite her blond hair being clipped and done up in the back a small lock stubbornly stuck up and back at the part of her bangs, like a small cowlick.

‘’You know it’s impossible.’’ she replied simply.

‘’I suppose it is.’’ Christian sighed. ‘’Well, come on you two – we have an appointment to keep.’’

The small group took one of the lot’s spacious elevators up to the building’s grand atrium. The building that they were in wasn’t simply just a hotel; it was part of a sizable complex that also included an expensive and expansive shopping center and several corporate office wings. There wasn’t a moment of the day when it wasn’t filled with people in some manner or other, and the atrium was evidence of that. Upon exiting the elevator a colorful morass of people greeted Christian’s eyes while his ears picked up the peripherals of a multitude of conversations being carried out in both Anglosine and Danz. In between the two main elevator banks was a large fountain lined with exotic-looking plants and ferns and marble benches. An even larger and more grandiose display was in the middle of the atrium, where various pathways and corridors converged into the central space, making the center look almost like a jungle. Information desks and boards were tucked away in the room’s corners while following the corridors would take one to either the main hotel itself, more elevators, or other parts of the complex. The air temperature was carefully controlled to feel pleasantly warm while not overbearingly so. The next time he had a holiday to spare, whenever that would be, Christian reflected, he wouldn’t mind staying in a place similar to this and taking advantage of the facilities.

But for now his business, as well as the restaurant, was calling. Located just off to the side of the lobby of the hotel proper, it was one of those highly fancy places with golden lighting, mandatory formal-wear, and well-dressed waiters who served customers their food on old-fashioned food-trolleys and brought expensive wine in ice buckets. The sounds of conversation were more muted than out in the atrium and most of the tables appeared to be full, signifying a successful evening.

‘’Good evening.’’ Christian told the maitre d’ at the front. ‘’We have an appointment with Mr. Groot for eight o’clock.’’

‘’Are you Mr. Drost?’’ the man asked, checking the list before him.

‘’I am.’’

The maitre d’ surveyed the group a few more times before he was finally satisfied and flashed his professional smile. ‘’Right this way, sirs and madam.’’

Christian’s group was led to the back of the restaurant, through a door that was marked as off-limits to customers. One of the doors in the short hallway beyond gave access to the kitchens through which the sounds of activity could be heard, while a little ways away stood a second set of doors, much nicer than the others, labeled “VIP Room”.

The VIP room was, as it should be, a room designed to impress guests by flaunting the owner’s wealth and ostentatious tastes. At the four corners of the room were potted cryer ferns, gorgeous plants imported from Heion that required meticulous care and grooming in order to flourish on Lagoon, let alone in Danzier’s chilly climate. Columns inlaid in the walls were gilded with gold, and not the fake sort typically found in places such as this, while on two of the walls hung magnificent landscape paintings by some of Darlsine’s most talented artists, and they were originals to boot. It was a truly decadent chamber, but the most decadent of all, in Christian’s view, was the man who was seated at the central table waiting for them.

Hermanus Groot was a large-sounding name, and the man behind it certainly didn’t disappoint in that regard. Groot was a corpulent individual, with his dinner jacket and waistcoat straining at the hands of his gut’s expanse. His hair and needle-thin mustache were carefully groomed, and despite the room’s climate control keeping the room temperature at a comfortable level a light sheen of sweat glistened at his brow. His fat fingers bore rings with sparkling jewels, diamond, ruby, emerald, sapphire, and amethyst, and upon his lapel was pinned a platinum badge that resembled a stylized mountain range. He was every bit the image of the decadent corporate fat cat.

‘’Mr. Drost!’’ he exclaimed in a cheerful, unctuous voice as he rose up from his seat at the table to greet his guests. ‘’How long has it been since we last met?’’

‘’Six months, as is usual.’’ Drost replied with cool politeness as he shook Groot’s moist hand. ‘’At our last biannual meeting.’’

‘’Of course, of course.’’ Groot said, releasing Christian’s hand. He turned to look at his companions. ‘’And who might they be?’’ he asked, a slight trace of puzzlement entering his voice. ‘’I did not know that HLTO started their people so young.’’

‘’Well, I suppose you could say that they are my protégés.’’ Christian replied smoothly. ‘’I’ve brought them with me tonight so that they may observe our meeting and pick up on some of the finer details of the science of business negotiation and transaction. They will not be directly participating unless I ask them to, so for now pay them no heed. Imagine that they are wall hangings, if that helps. An exceptionally beautiful wall hanging, in her case.’’ he added, chuckling a bit as his gaze momentarily swept over the girl.

Groot didn’t seem to be fully convinced but nevertheless he nodded and had the maitre d’ take the others coats and hang them on the rooms coat rack before departing. After that was done another waiter entered the room to provide menus and give out the traditional complementary glasses of water while the waiting for their decisions. As he sat and perused his menu Christian covertly swept the room with one eye. This was the first time he had met with Groot in this room, so he wasn’t entirely sure where the cameras and microphones were hidden, if any were hidden at all. The only visible sign of security was of the burly bodyguard standing by the far wall behind Groot’s seat.

It didn’t take very long at all for their food to arrive. Unsurprisingly Groot’s serving was the largest, but Christian’s own order, consisting of soup and a lavish meat-and-vegetable dish was nearly as large, spread out over two platters and a sizable soup bowl. There was no reason to hold back given that he was dining on someone else’s dime.

‘’So how has business been going for you since we last met?’’ Groot asked after he had taken a sip of wine. His tone was causal and personable enough, though Christian had dealt with these sorts of people enough to know that it was merely a hollow sentiment.

‘’Very well.’’ he replied as he started to cut one of the sausages on his plate. ‘’I’ve been kept quite busy. In fact, after this meeting I’m scheduled to fly overseas.’’

‘’Oh? Where to, if I may ask?’’ Groot inquired before inserting a morsel of food into his mouth.

‘’I don’t know yet. You know how this business can be.’’ Christian took a bite out of his speared sausage piece before saying, ‘’Give your chef my compliments. This is superb.’’

‘’The head chef is one of the top five in the country.’’ Groot declared, puffing out his considerable chest in pride.

‘’I see.’’ Christian responded, a slight smile on his face as he went to work on the rest of his dinner. As they continued their meal the two exchanged the occasional bits of small-talk and conversation. Between Groot’s forwardness and Christian’s smile remaining as businesslike as ever however, not one onlooker would’ve been fooled by their display. Neither man was particularly concerned about the other nor of what they had to say over dinner; the point of interest was what would come afterwards, when both parties had finished with their meals and their plates had been taken away.

‘’Would you like some coffee before we begin?’’ Groot asked when they were done.

‘’No thank you.’’ Christian replied, holding his hand up at the offer of hospitality. ‘’I find that it tends to disturb my digestive process.’’

‘’Very well. Now then,’’ Groot clasped his hands together and laid them out on the table. ‘’This room has no cameras, microphones, or bugs of any sort, and additionally the walls are soundproof. We may talk freely here, man to man.’’

‘’Good, that is how it should be.’’ Christian was smiling, the sort of smile that could be seen by one man as cordial, by another as being indicative of a schemer.

‘’First of all, do you have it?’’

‘’I do, though I really wish that you would grow out of this cliché.’’ Christian spoke a quick word to his companions and the briefcase that had been brought in by the boy was placed on the table. As Groot watched expectantly Christian produced a tiny keycard from the interior of his jacket and swiped it through the briefcase’s locking mechanism. An LED light went from red to green, and the lock clicked open. He spun the briefcase around and smiled pleasantly as he opened it. Inside were stacks and stacks of yura, tightly bundled together and sealed with a sheet of plastic. ‘’Ten million yura up front, and in cash. As usual.’’

Groot greedily reached for the briefcase, but Christian snapped it shut before his fingers could reach. ‘’Ah-ah-ah.’’ he said, wagging a finger as if scolding a petulant child. ‘’There are some things that need to be discussed.’’ In response to this Groot sat back in his chair, scowling and with crossed arms.

‘’That’s better.’’ Christian said, nodding. ‘’I know I shouldn’t have to explain this to you, but I will anyway, just so we're clear. The Lagoon/Heion trade lines are regulated quite heavily, making it somewhat…difficult…to transport certain items of a sensitive nature between our two celestial bodies. The purpose of the organization that I am a part of, HLTO, specializes in the, shall we say ‘surreptitious’ transportation of such items.’’

‘’We both know very well our business, so you can dispense with the patronizing and get to your point.’’ Groot replied testily. His earlier demeanor was completely gone, and the sheen of sweat at his furrowed brow seemed to be getting brighter.

‘’The first part of my job is to find prospective buyers for our goods.’’ Christian went on, heedless of his host’s growing annoyance. ‘’The second part is to find middlemen such as yourself to storehouse and distribute our stock in areas where we do not have the resources or infrastructure available to do so ourselves in exchange for a cut of the proceeds.’’ His grin grew a bit wider, and now there was no mistaking its intention. ‘’And that is where our problem lies.’’

‘’What are you insinuating?’’

Christian looked over his shoulder. ‘’If you would?’’ His referred-to companion nodded, took out a tablet, and began to speak. ‘’During the last four months you received twenty-three shipments of cargo worth seventy-two million yura in total. They all sold for a total of ninety-seven million yura. The contract between you and HLTO was that you would receive seven-and-a-half percent of the profits. In short, this means that when rounded to the thousandth place there should have been approximately twenty-one-million-six-hundred-and-seventy-thousand yura left after you received your cut. However, the total amount we received was closer to eighteen million.’’

‘’I don’t have a mind for numbers, so that’s why I keep people around that do.’’ Christian remarked offhandedly before turning his attention back to his client. ‘’So do you mind explaining to me, Mr. Groot, where that three-million-odd yura went?’’

‘’Your accountants must have made a mistake.’’ Groot replied, unable to hide the rising tension in his voice despite his best efforts.

‘’A mistake on our end? After we triple and quadruple-checked the math, market prices, and the sales’ records? I don’t think so.’’ Christian leaned forward on his elbows, his airy tone completely dissipating. ‘’Mr. Groot, do you think we’re stupid?’’ he asked. His voice had gone ice cold to match his gaze. ‘’Do you have any idea the number of pieces that we are required to piece together in order to sustain this operation? The cargo dispatchers and inspectors that have to be paid off? The manifests that need to be altered or replaced? The buyers that need to be found?’’ His voiced grew even quieter. ‘’The people…who need to be silenced?’’

‘’I don’t know what you are talking about!’’ Groot insisted as his face began to go flush. ‘’I haven’t touched a single yura of your money that wasn’t my fair share!’’

‘’Your fair share, you say?’’ Christian repeated, shaking his head. ‘’It really is true how out of touch the rich can be.’’ He eyed the man straight on, who began to wilt before his icy gaze. ‘’No matter what the feeble or ludicrous things that spew out of your mouth may say, the numbers don’t lie. You can’t fool them. I’m sure you thought no one would notice a couple hundred thousand here, another thousand there…but it all adds up, Mr. Groot.

‘’Now then,’’ he continued snappily. ‘’since your embezzling activities have come to light, I am here tonight not to negotiate a new contract with you, but to instead announce that our existing one is permanently terminated as of…’’ He made a show of checking his watch. ‘’…now.’’

‘’Is that all you came here to say?’’ Groot said, trying to glower. It wasn’t very effective.

Christian’s expression didn’t change. ‘’That was what I was officially here for, yes. But while I just finished telling you what my superiors told me to say, there is a lot that they didn’t tell me.’’

Groot’s face began to turn even redder, resembling nothing so much as some sort of overly-plump fruit. ‘’You don’t - ?!’’

‘’Do you know what kind of man I am?’’ Christian asked. Behind Groot he could see his bodyguard start to shift his weight in agitation, but he wasn’t concerned in the slightest. ‘’It’s a terrible trait for a grown man such as myself,’’ he went on. ‘’but when something doesn’t go my way I don’t simply shrug or laugh it off. I get even.’’ He cast an idle eye around the gilded chamber. ‘’You did say that this is effectively a closed-room, didn’t you…?’’

Apparently that veiled threat was the breaking point for Groot’s man, for the bodyguard finally made a move, stepping forward whilst plunging his hand into the depths of his suit jacket. But as soon as withdrew his handgun he let out a pained cry and let it drop to the floor with a clatter. The large man proceeded to stagger backward and crash into the wall with a resounding thump.

‘’What?!’’ his boss exclaimed. ‘’What’s wrong with you?!’’

‘’M-My…hand…’’ the man grunted as he clenched his right hand, the one that had clenched the gun. Groot leaned over and visible recoiled at the sight of it. It had gone from a healthy-looking peach color to a decidedly unhealthy-looking purple and gray, and was clearly causing its owner great pain.

Color draining from his face, Groot whirled back around to face his guests, none of whom had made any sort of movement. Christian even had both of his hands peacefully on the table, showing that he was completely unarmed. ‘’Really, that was uncalled for.’’ he commented dryly.

‘’W-What did you do?!’’ Groot gasped. ‘’Which one of you was it?! Tell me!!’’

‘’Ah, I see you have at least some semblance of intelligence.’’ Christian replied, smiling coolly. He cast a glance at the fallen gun and stood up. ‘’Leaving that around is dangerous.’’ he remarked. ‘’So then I don’t think you’ll mind…’’ He got up and before Groot could even begin to heave his bulk from his chair and moved swiftly over to where the weapon lay on the floor.

‘’S-Stop him!’’ Groot cried, hastily trying to scoot his chair away from his treacherous guest but his bodyguard remained huddled in the corner, in pain and unwilling to move. Christian smirked and picked up the gun before calmly returning to his seat.

‘’This isn’t a very good gun, but it’ll do.’’ he said, holding the weapon up to the light and carefully examining it before pointing it at his captive host. ‘’And don’t even think about pressing that transmitter that’s in your lapel, there are two weapons aimed at you now.’’

‘’Are you going to kill me?’’

‘’Kill you?’’ Christian pretended to sound concerned before instantly hardening again. ‘’To be honest I personally have no reservations about blowing your brains out right here, but my superiors instructed me not to harm you, as your death would generate unwanted scrutiny.’’ he said. Neither the boy nor girl sitting on either side of him showed any sign of fear.

‘’Then what do you intend to do?’’

Christian was about to answer when the sound of a cell phone vibrating reached his ears. He smiled. Perfect timing. ‘’Answer it.’’ he said, gesturing with the pistol.

Glaring deeply at his captor, Groot pulled his phone out of his pocket and answered. ‘’It’s me. Yes. I – what?!’’ His eyes widened in shock. ‘’What do you mean? Arson?! I…! Yes, yes. I understand.’’ Groot ended the call looking deflated and sagging.

‘’Why so depressed?’’ Christian asked, making sure to relieve Groot of his cell phone. ‘’Sure, it’s a shame that the world will never see any of those magnificent Bergman oil paintings of yours ever again, but what’s a summer home or three or four? You pull down more money than I’ll ever hope to see.’’

‘’You…’’ Groot’s shoulders began to tremble. Not from fear but out of a growing sense of anger. Christian would’ve been impressed that the man was capable of mustering such a display under these circumstances if it didn’t happen to look so comical. ‘’I’ll find a way to get you back for this, you’ll see! I…I’ll…!’’

‘’Expose us?’’ Christian suggested. ‘’You’re welcome to try. You’ll just end up getting the finger pointed right back at you.’’ He checked his watch. ‘’Well, I believe that I’ve played with you for long enough. I have much more important work to get back to than toying with you.’’ With expert precision and speed he ejected the gun’s ammunition cartridge and dismantled the weapon, leaving its components spread out on the table before him. Then he removed the battery from Groot’s cell phone and slid the now-useless piece of electronics back towards him.

‘’Come.’’ he beckoned to his companions as he rose and grabbed his coat off of the rack. They followed his lead, retrieving the briefcase that was filled with money. ‘’And one more thing,’’ Christian threw a glance at the bodyguard, who was still slumped uselessly against the wall and clutching his affected appendage. ‘’I advise you to get your man some medical attention if you don’t want him to lose that hand.’’

With a casual wave, Christian donned his coat and strode out of the room without a single glance back at Groot, the boy and girl following dutifully in his wake.



The cold air of the parking garage felt quite welcome to Christian after being in Hermanus Groot’s stuffy presence as he reached his vehicle. Though he didn’t expect any sort of reprisal from the man it would be prudent to depart as soon as possible. Luckily he did not have to call up his driver as the man was standing a few feet away smoking a cigarette. ‘’How’d it go, boss?’’ he asked upon seeing his boss return.

‘’As well as it could have.’’ Christian replied. ‘’We almost had an incident, but I put a lid on that before he could try anything. Anyway, I suggest we make haste and leave before he recovers his nerve. I never want to see that dimwitted oaf again.’’

‘’I understand.’’ The driver extinguished his cigarette and made to open the car doors for the others.

‘’By the way, good work in there.’’ Christian commented later after they had left the hotel and were heading down one of Achromantel’s well-lit streets. The snow hadn’t weakened at all while they had been inside, and was still coming down in light drifts with no signs of abating. ‘’And I’m sorry that I made you use your powers in that way.’’

‘’Mm.’’ The youth replied with a noncommittal grunt, showing only the barest sign of acknowledgement.

Christian sighed and went back to staring forward. After what had occurred back in the VIP room he didn’t have the energy or desire to deal with a moody teenager. Still, all things considered it had been an entertaining meeting. It wasn’t often that he was allowed to blow off steam like that instead of sticking to the tired-and-true businessman’s routine that was expected of him.

And speaking of his work, his own phone began to vibrate from within one of his winter coat’s pockets. He pulled it out in one smooth motion. ‘’Drost here.’’ he answered. ‘’Yes, it’s done. No, I can promise you that he’s still in one piece.’’ He went quiet as he listened to the voice on the other line relay his next set of orders. ‘’I understand. I’ll start the preparations as soon as we get back. Have a good night, or day, or whichever it is where you are.’’ He ended the called and then rummaged through another pocket until he located his tablet. After powering it on he navigated through the appropriate menus until he found the newly-received file that he was looking for. With a flick of his finger he opened it and began to survey its contents.

‘’Well, it looks like upstairs has us in for the long haul this time.’’ he announced with a sigh.

‘’An extended stay?’’ the driver asked, peering over his shoulder at his passengers.

‘’Precisely.’’ Christian replied. His eyes roamed down the manifest included in the file. ‘’This is going to be an incredible pain in the ass to set up. I really wish that the people at headquarters knew what it’s like to be out in the field…’’

‘’When are we leaving?’’ the boy asked, looking up from something complex that he was writing out in a small notebook.

‘’Tomorrow morning, so once we rendezvous with the others we’re packing. We’re going to be making a few stops before we reach our final destination.’’ Christian sighed again. ‘’And I just got over my jet lag. This is going to be murder…’’

‘’Where is our final destination?’’ the girl asked. She was looking out the window in the same disinterested manner that she had had on the ride in to the city.

‘’We’re going to Marine Cove City.’’

And since it's been a while, here's another atlas entry. This time we're taking a look at not-Asia.

Spoiler:

Laingu

In terms of total landmass Laingu is the largest of Lagoon’s continents, as well as the most topographically diverse one, as its expanses include forests, mountains, jungle, deserts, and tundra. It is also the most populous, with the countries of Liu-hou, Barahta, and Jukhanma clocking in at just over one billion inhabitants each. Perhaps due to their large populations, Laingu society puts an emphasis on collectivism, a recurring motif in the region’s culture and myth.

Amlard

A country which lies on Abaska’s eastern border. Despite its relatively small size it boasts a vast supply of oil and natural gas deposits, and as a result many Western energy companies and corporations have a vested interest in the region. The average Western citizen is probably most familiar with the 2611 Amlardian Uprising, in which insurgents displeased with the corporate hold over the country attempted to overthrow the government and establish a more traditional theocracy. After four months of fierce fighting the insurgents were defeated by the Amlardian army with support from SPHERE.

Barahta

Barahta is a humid, jungle-covered country that consists of the mainland and two islands named Dura and Raha. Barahtan mythology holds that individuals have their essences ‘’crafted’’ from a sea of flour and that upon death they return to that sea. Monkeys, cows, and elephants are considered to be sacred animals, and abusing or otherwise bringing harm to any of these animals carries strict punishments, up to and including multi-year prison sentences.

The Republic of Liu-hou

Liu-hou, named after the celebrated Liu Dynasty empress Tianzi Liu, boasts the largest population of any country on Lagoon. The bulk of the country’s population live on the coast, where its large and sprawling cities and manufacturing centers are located. The bulk of the country’s produce is grown in a region known as Shengchan Yima which is sandwiched in between the Goba Mountains in the far west and the Jade Milin jungle in the south. The Yongyu River, one of the longest in the world, and its many tributaries keep the countryside lush and green despite the encroaching pollution coming from the cities.

One of Liu-hou’s most significant roles in Western history are the reprecussons of the Xing/Shan Schism in the year 1952. The people of the southern provinces, led by the Stargazer Juong-bo and thus known as the Xing, came into conflict with the ruling party, known as the Shan. After a period of brief but bloody civil war, Juong-bo was killed and his followers and countrymen in the south were branded the Yunxing and expelled from the country. They sailed west across the great Tresca Ocean in a vast fleet until they reached the shores of the yet-to-be-discovered Sentremane, where they settled and eventually expanded to the western slopes of the Drevak Mountains before coming into contact with the settlers from the eastern half of the continent

Kamagura

Known as Daiokuni domestically, Kamagura is a crescent-shaped landmass located in the mid-to-northwestern reaches of the Tresca Ocean. It lies adjacent to the Lesser Tresca undersea fault line, resulting in its high frequency of earthquakes that have given the island half of its namesake. In the past the Rande island chains of Yiru and Koringo were colonies under the Kamaguran flag but they later gained independence at the conclusion of the Trescan War during the 23^rd century. Despite this the two nations still maintain a sizable Kamaguran population.

Trident member and Sagittarius Stargazer Akira Kamiya hails from the suburbs of the city Koge, located at the base of the Tenmichi Mountains.

Jukhanma

This nation borders Barahta’s eastern divide. The two countries share much of the same culture and religion, yet have always been at odds with one another. Unusual for the region, the sport of football (soccer) is quite popular, having been introduced to the country by Darlsinian travelers and merchants in decades past.

Bhoskeic

A large, northern country of Laingu, Bhoskeic is rich in steel, making it the world’s number one steel exporter. Bhoskei are known for their severe, unyielding dispositions and deadpan senses of humor, leading to plenty of jokes that they were crafted from steel themselves. Their national animal is the icefish, and as it can only be found in the frigid waters of the Ledvoda Sea it is considered to be a delicacy in most parts of the world. Ironically most Bhoskei fishermen could care less for the creature, as it so abundant in its natural habitat that it is nearly worthless in the domestic market.

Gaze upon my inability to come up with clever names for foreign places and despair!

[ChesCa]

I caught up on the ending of the first arc so I'll write for the latest chapter later.
Nothing too much to comment on except while the ending is a little cheesy I think it's allowed to be because of the feel good ending that you gave your reader. :) It seemed realistic is what I'm saying although Nova and Akira got a tad cartoony.
Onto the second half! (There's only two arcs right?)

--- Update From New Post Merge ---

Aaaand finally caught up.
That was a good beginning to this arc and I thought it was a nice touch how you left it ambiguous as to which teen was a Stargazer, or if any of the three aren't already a Stargazer. Christian's intimidation comes off as very potent even when dealing with a more privileged man and a part of me does hope the driver has a part to play in the story, like a badass valet or butler or even that Fastener creature from Panty+Stocking.
Looking forward to more. :)

[Crossword]

Right, this story only has two arcs. This story is written to be largely self-contained, though I do have ideas for more.

Unfortunately though, I didn't have anything in mind for Christian's driver apart from being just another nameless mook. He will have more guys accompanying him later on, though. They'll actually have names too! And maybe some of them will have roles beyond generic henchmen-dom!

[Kitsune Inferno]

Read through Chapter 21 in anticipation to review Chapter 22 for the Monthly. I thoroughly enjoyed the arc and I really thought it was well done. There were some missteps, but I have to respectfully disagree with much of ChesCa's critiques: I found Sayren in-character, I found the fights and the lead up chapters particularly thrilling, and I really dig what you did with the story for the most part. It seems like a beginning though, rather than a midpoint, but have you also considered ending the story at Chapter 21 and calling Chapter 22 onwards a sequel? Chapter 21 had all the workings of a nice ending and I could have definitely seen the story end right then and there (while also leaving space open for sequels!) The only thing that works against the notion of calling 1-21 its own story is that the protagonist did not defeat the main antagonist in the end. While I thought it was a refreshing and satisfying twist to have Terry take on the grunt instead of the head honcho, it's not something thatworks so well for standalone stories. Regardless, I am really pleased with what you've got so far. Excellent first arc! I can't wait to see it with a new coat of polish and an eventual publication. :)

[Crossword]

I might as well share what my master plan for Stargazer is.

The narrative that's in my head at the moment covers a trilogy's worth of material. The first story, the one we're in now, is meant to establish the setting and the group of protagonists that we'll be following. As I said before it's written to be relatively self-contained, with all of the personal plot threads closed by the end of it. Or if not fully resolved, at least closed within the context of the story. But basically like you said, it is ultimately a beginning. The end of the second arc, and thus of the story as a whole, will probably leave the reader with much the same feeling.

The second will be a little more worldly, take place in locations other than Marine Cove City, and have a threat that's certainly more grand than a street gang and a group of traffickers. Basically the usual escalation common in sequels, but hopefully not in a way that will compromise the story's quality.

The third and final one will obviously tie up any remaining threads, answer for once and for all what the origin of the Stargazer Phenomena is, and of course provide the biggest and most powerful villain of all. It'll have a much stronger sci-fi bent than what I'm currently writing, where those elements are largely kept in the background.

The reason why I consider these two disparate arcs to be a part of the same story is because, well first I came up with these two arcs before the others, and two I want a part of the story where Trident's role is a proactive one, as in The Beings' arc they didn't really do much to move things along themselves. And as far as Terry goes I want him to do more protagonist-oriented stuff rather than simply be along for the ride as he largely was up until now. Not to mention bring his familial issues out into the open instead of just hinting at them. Right now that's the only plot thread that I've introduced and have yet to close (well, minus Stargazers themselves of course).

Anyway, about Terry not being the one to defeat Deck going against normal convention, that was pretty much the point. I thought that it would be unsatisfactory if Nova never got to settle things with his old boss, nor did I want him to just ''give up'' his right to fight Deck to Terry just because he was the main protagonist. That was ultimately why Sayren was created - so that both of them could have their own separate but intertwined opponents. And while she wasn't the Big Bad of the arc, I'd hardly call Sayren a grunt. Her power makes her just as deadly, if not more so, than Deck, even if she's pretty much a glass cannon.

[Kitsune Inferno]

Ah, so there's more Stargazer to come then. :) Sweeeeeet. I mistook you for saying the first two arcs would be it.~

[Crossword]

Chapter 23: Semester's End

Spoiler:

With his eyes closed Terry took a deep, deep breath and focused. Utterly still, he found that in this state he could perceive things that he wouldn’t have paid attention to otherwise; the sound of steam whistling through the basement’s heating pipes, the creak of distant floorboards as someone moved around overhead, the distant sound of cars driving by on the street outside, and even an odd, unfamiliar clicking noise. He felt a sense of zen-like calmness and awareness of his surroundings, not even an assailant from behind would be able to get the drop on him.

Eyes snapping open, he threw a straight punch with his right hand, followed by his left. They were strong blows, enough to at least stagger even the largest and heaviest of opponents. From there he transitioned into a kick with his right foot, followed up by a slightly weaker one from his left. After his feet returned to the ground he spun and jabbed with an elbow, catching his imaginary opponent in the ribs and winding him, following up with an axe kick that snapped his head down and sent him sprawling to the ground.

Following that maneuver Terry threw a series of well-placed, focused punches that downed his next opponent before whirling around to meet his first with a kick that connected with his jaw, knocking him to the ground once again. After this was accomplished, Terry continued to go through his routine for several more minutes before winding down and eventually coming to a complete stop. For a moment the only sound in the room was his breathing as he brought it back under control, but then he became aware of a new sound, the sound of someone clapping their hands.

He turned to see his friend and fellow dormmate Akira standing in the doorway, hands in the midst of a slow clap while an expression that lay somewhere between amazement and bemusement on his friendly face.

‘’How long have you been there?’’ Terry instantly felt his face go flush.

‘’A bit.’’ Akira replied, shrugging. ‘’I thought that was pretty cool. What were you doing, training?’’

‘’Yeah. There’s more space down here than in my room.’’ Terry answered, grabbing the wash cloth that had been sticking out of his back pocket and wiping his face with it. He felt his chagrin at being spied on ebb away with his sweat. ‘’I can do push-ups and stuff up there, but no routines.’’ He dabbed at his forehead. ‘’It would be even better if I had someone who I could spar with, though.’’

‘’Don’t look at me.’’ Akira said, grinning a bit. ‘’You know, I’ve never asked before – what kind of martial art do you specialize in?’’

‘’Karate and kickboxing, I guess.’’ Terry shrugged. ‘’I know some basic holds and stuff too, but overall grappling isn’t my style.’’ At five eight-and-a-half he was perhaps a smidgen shorter than the average boy his age, and while he wasn’t built as large as a football player or even his other dormmate Nova, he felt that his more slender build suited his fighting style just fine. He had decided to emphasis the balance between power and speed, and so far that had worked out quite well for him when his work as a Stargazer had put him into situations where he had to fight for his life rather than for sport.

‘’Was there a school or dojo that you learned from?’’ Akira asked him.

‘’I mostly taught myself.’’ Terry admitted. ‘’I did sit in on a few lessons at my town’s community center, but basically I researched and practiced the basics over and over again until I could do more advanced stuff, and then I repeated those over and over as well.’’

Akira whistled. ‘’Sounds tough.’’ he said.

Terry smiled a bit at the understatement. ‘’It is.’’ he said. ‘’I’ve been doing this nonstop for years now.’’

‘’What’s the name of that martial art from the south that looks kinda like break dancing?’’ Akira asked. ‘’Can you do that?’’

‘’You mean capoeira? No way, some of the stuff they do is crazy, and I’m not that acrobatic.’’

‘’What about back flips? Can you do back flips?’’

‘’No I can’t do back flips.’’ Terry walked over to where he had set a bottle of water on the floor and took a sip from it. ‘’What’re you doing down here anyway?’’ he asked before Akira could express his disappointment on his inability to do back flips.

‘’Oh, I was bringing this down.’’ Akira stepped back for a moment and wheeled an orange bicycle into the room. It looked to be brand new. ‘’I used to cycle a bit back home, but shipping my bike over would’ve been pretty expensive so I didn’t.’’ he explained. ‘’Since we finished our exams today and I hadn’t used up any of my monthly stipend yet, I decided to go out and buy one as a little treat for myself.’’

‘’In winter?’’

Akira shrugged. ‘’It’s not like we’re getting any snow any time soon.’’ Though the winter was still somewhat young, the weather was being rather mild. While Daniel and Nova had insisted that Marine Cove usually had at least a dusting by the end of November there had not been a single drop of precipitation so far. There had been a few bitterly cold days, but the drought was expected to persist into the new year thanks to fluctuations in the jet stream.

‘’Hey, I saw the chef arrive just before I came down here.’’ Akira said as he walked his bike over towards the opposite wall and locked it to one of the water pipes. ‘’Want to see if he’s making anything good for dinner?’’

‘’Sure.’’ Terry said. ‘’Just let me go take a shower first.’’

They headed up from the basement together and parted ways once they reached the floor where both of their rooms were located. As usual, they didn’t run into anyone on their way up. Despite the fact that this building had been originally built to house numerous tenants, Terry, Akira, Daniel, and Nova were the only ones who lived there discounting a few administrative staff, and the latter two occasionally spent time away at their own homes. Sometimes Terry felt that it was a bit of a waste to have so much of the building go unused.

Once inside his room Terry locked the door behind him and flopped down on his bed to rest for a few moments before showering. The room was much the same as it always was, though he had finally added some decoration to its barren walls by putting up two posters that he had purchased. The first was a highly-detailed artistic rendering of the Wildflower Galaxy containing numerous little factoids and the locations of numerous stellar bodies, while the second depicted the evolution of spacesuits over the course of the previous one-hundred-and-sixty years from the orange, glorified flight suits from the dawn of space exploration to the present-day Astral-type suits developed by SARA. Stargazing conditions in this urban environment were far from optimal, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t find a different way to scratch his astronomy itch.

In the two months since the scattering of The Beings life had been going by rather slowly for Trident. Without the specter of Deck or Sayren looming over them Trident hadn’t gotten much work recently. They had been called in a few times to help with a mop-up operation and had even provided support for a minor crime sting, but most of their Stargazer work had been confined to trips to the Lifeline facility to undergo tests of both their physical and Stargazer abilities. Not that that was a bad thing, of course. Terry appreciated the downtime after the events of autumn, and he was grateful that there was no crisis or threat looming over the city, and that he didn’t have to keep explaining away injuries to his classmates at Marine Cove Academy.

Terry flipped up to his feet and went to shower. Neither he nor Akira liked to be kept waiting.


The following day, the nineteenth of December, was the last day of school of the year. It wasn’t a full school day, as exams were over and the only thing left for the students to do was to receive their grades. Terry wasn’t terribly concerned since Daniel, Akira, and himself had worked together and studied hard for them, and he had gone into them with a confident air. He had done all right on his schoolwork leading up to his finals, and none of his exam questions had completely stumped him, though he had embarrassingly blanked on what SPHERE as an acronym stood for.

The sky this morning was already a cloudless light blue while the temperature was just cold enough for Terry to see his breath. As he walked through the neighborhood with the others he glanced around and took in how the area had changed in the winter landscape. The trees and hedges lining the roads and sidewalks were now barren, looking skeletal in the pale morning with a few still circled with the dried-up, dead remains of their foliage. The crowds of people heading to work or school hadn’t yet thinned out, though they were moving with more expediency in their desire to escape from the cold.

This was winter all right, even with the lack of snow, Terry thought as the cold nipped at his exposed face. The scarf that he was wearing underneath his usual jacket had been doing a decent job at keeping his body warm, though he wondered why he still hadn’t gone out and bought a proper winter coat like Daniel had, or at least a hat or a headband to cover his ears like Akira was wearing. Winters in his hometown were colder thanks to the mountain air coming off of the Drevak mountain range to the north, but he had been warned that the cold weather at a city on the water could be comparable. Finally arriving at Marine Cove Academy’s heated interior was something of a relief.

‘’How long do you think they’ll keep us?’’ Akira asked after he and Terry had deposited their coats in their lockers. ‘’There’s a game coming out today that I wanna buy.’’

‘’It can’t be too long.’’ Terry answered as he opened the door to their classroom. ‘’I’m sure the teachers are as eager for vacation to start as we are.’’

‘’I sure hope so.’’

As it turned out, they were only kept for two hours after homeroom began. Their homeroom teacher, the young, steely-eyed Ms. Fencen went about her duties in her usual stringent, professional way: taking attendance and reading out a few end-of-semester announcements before congratulating the class on completely their first semester before letting them talk amongst themselves while they waited for exam results to be delivered. Eventually conversation drifted towards how each of the students were going to spent their break.

‘’I’m going home to Agrippas.’’ Bar Syon-Un told the clique of students that had formed in his section of the class. ‘’I wanna see my brothers again, and practice my pitches for next spring.’’ Bar had tried out for and been accepted by the school’s baseball team, and training began in February.

‘’That’s a long flight.’’ someone commented.

‘’Yeah, it sucks. I have to leave real early tomorrow.’’ Bar sighed, eyes drooping at the prospect. ‘’I wish I could take one of those low-orbit spaceplanes, but tickets are really expensive unless you’re rich or are on business.’’

‘’I’m staying here.’’ Akira said once Bar was done. ‘’I’m not interested in going back home to Kamagura.’’

‘’Same here.’’ Terry picked up. In the four months since he'd moved, he'd barely felt anything in the way of homesickness.

‘’My mom and dad are taking me to visit my grandmother.’’ Steven Corner said. ‘’She lives in Solensica.’’

‘’Aren’t they under like a foot of snow there?’’

‘’Yeah. It’s unseasonable down there. I guess maybe that’s where all of our snow is.’’

After a while of this banter the moment came. Compared to a lot of other aspects of the school, the exam grades were to be doled out in a very low-tech manner. A small stack of folded cards were delivered to Ms. Fencen and after quickly sifting through them to ensure that they were all there she began to call out names. Since they were in alphabetical order, Terry was one of the first students to be called to the front. Ms. Fencen handed him a card labeled with ‘’Fall 2648 Semester Final Exam Results’’ followed by his name. He sat back down at his desk just as Karen was called up and flipped his card open.

To his satisfaction, he had done just fine. All of his grades were within the A-B range, with History and Physical Education being his highest grades even with the latter being more of a participation grade, while his lowest was Chemistry. He had always been a decent student, but nevertheless it was gratifying to see that his hard work had paid off in the more demanding environment here at Marine Cove Academy.

As there were only twenty students in the classroom it didn’t take very long for Ms. Fencen to finish handing out grades. After giving them a few moments to pour over their results in silence she let them resume talking amongst themselves for the final half-hour of the shortened day.

‘’How’d you do?’’ was the first thing Akira asked as he sidled up to Terry once the class split up again.

‘’I did fine.’’ Terry replied. He didn’t have anything to be ashamed of, so he passed his results over since Akira would undoubtedly ask to see them.

Akira looked at Terry’s card without expression and then handed over his own. ‘’Fair’s fair.’’ he said. Despite his apparent lack of enthusiasm, Akira hadn’t done that bad either. Unsurprisingly Literature had been his lowest grade since he hated writing, but it wasn’t too bad and he had done decently on his more technical subjects. Despite his overall reluctant attitude when it came to his studies he knew when he had to put his nose down to the grindstone.

Upon hearing the final bell for dismissal the class broke into a cheer, and Terry could hear it being faintly echoed from neighboring classes. ‘’We’re free.’’ Akira commented as he shut the clasps of his schoolbag. At the front of the class Ms. Fencen waited until the students had finished their cheer before formally dismissing them. Terry and Akira said their farewells as they packed up their things and went to go grab their coats from their lockers. Bar was quick to leave, as he still have to pack for his flight home the next day. Vanon, Steven, and Cassandra waved farewell to the others before the three of them left together, and Karen made a point of personally wishing Terry and Akira well before they were separated by the growing crush of departing students.

They decided to wait in the hall for a few minutes until the crowd had thinned out a little bit before heading down to the entrance foyer themselves. People were still filing through the doors when they got down there, but there was also a sizable group of students clustered around the three electronic bulletin boards, reading last-minute announcements.

‘’Hey, look.’’ Terry said, pointing. He didn’t need to say any more, for Nova’s distinctive red hair shown like a beacon against the sea of navy-blue uniforms and dark winter coats. The two began to squeeze their way through the knot of students to where Nova, and as it turned out Daniel, were looking at the displays.

‘’Hey.’’ Terry said in way of a brief greeting. ‘’What’re you looking at?’’

‘’I’m just skimming. There’s not much.’’ Nova replied, shrugging his shoulders. ‘’Well, they have started advertising for the year-end trip at least.’’

Daniel spoke up upon seeing the looks of curiosity on Terry’s and Akira’s faces. ‘’At the end of the second semester there’s a trip abroad for each year.’’ he explained. ‘’This year it looks like the first-years are going to…’’ He took off his glasses and squinted at the display. ‘’the Morgana Islands.’’ he finished.

‘’That isn’t exactly abroad, is it?’’ Akira commented. Located just below the equator, the Morgana Islands were a territory of the Founder States. The small island chain was located a little ways off the eastern coast of Malasqa, almost smack dab in the middle of a patch of sea known as the Oleccera Basin. It tended to be a popular tourist attraction and vacation spot.

‘’Speak for yourself.’’ Terry replied. Unlike Akira, he had never been out of his home country before. ‘’When is it?’’

‘’Mid-June.’’ Daniel said. ‘’There’s a two-thousand yura deposit that has to be put down before the end of May.’’

‘’Hey, why don’t we go and get an early lunch or something?’’ Akira asked, checking the time on his phone.

‘’I’m game.’’ Terry said.

‘’Sounds good to me.’’ Daniel added.

Nova said nothing, merely nodding his approval.


Since Akira had been the one to bring it up, the decision on where to eat was left up to him. He decided to choose an Oriental restaurant located a short monorail ride away that he claimed to have found a week or two before but hadn’t gotten around to actually visiting yet. It was small, but since it was located on one of the upper floors of a galleria overlooked the cityscape outside. Terry couldn’t recognize or pronounce most of the dishes available on the menu, so he ended up settling on what looked like a basic meat-and-vegetable dish with a side of fried rice, figuring that it looked harmless enough. The conversation gradually shifted towards winter vacation plans.

‘’I’m going home after this.’’ Daniel said as he lifted a spoonful of soup to his mouth. ‘’On Monday I’m starting a winter internship at the Lifeline office.’’

‘’Oh?’’ Terry said. Sometimes he forgot that his friend had a home apart from the dorm elsewhere in the city.

‘’I wouldn’t be doing anything important. Just clerical stuff.’’ Daniel replied. ‘’It’s not like there’s been a lot going on there lately, not since you guys took Deck down at any rate.’’

‘’After what happened with Gecko I’m surprised that they’re still willing to hire.’’ Nova commented.

‘’Well I am the nephew of one of their administrators.’’ Daniel replied. ‘’I’d like to think that I’m much more trustworthy than an average employee.’’

Nova didn’t respond to that. He took a sip of his drink and turned towards Terry and Akira. ‘’You guys aren’t going home for break, right?’’ he asked.

‘’Uh-huh.’’

‘’Well, my mom’s invited you guys over for dinner on New Year’s Eve.’’ he said. ‘’You’re invited too, of course.’’ he added, acknowledging Daniel.

‘’Thanks for the offer, but my family already has plans.’’

‘’Well, the offer still stands.’’ Nova replied. Terry noted that the older teen was much less hesitant about the prospect of inviting them over to his house than he had been several months ago, after the business with The Beings had been concluded.

After they had finished and paid their bill the four of them split off. Terry and Akira were heading back to the dorm, while Daniel and Nova were going in the opposite direction, back to their own homes. They all said farewell and headed off.

‘’So it’s just going to be you and me at the dorm, huh?’’ Akira commented as he and Terry walked down the sidewalk together.

‘’I suppose.’’ Terry said.

‘’What’s with that?’’ Akira asked, turning his head. ‘’Who aren’t going to be lonely, are you?’’

‘’Oh course not.’’ Terry frowned. It was true though that sometimes he did feel like their dorm building was barren. Trident had the use of an entire apartment building, albeit a smaller one, yet only had four residents and a small handful of staff members. It was not uncommon to go an entire day not seeing a single person outside of school and meals. Terry was not a person who actively sought out companionship, but inside he did feel sometimes that the place could be a little grey.

‘’It’s not like the other guys won’t be around.’’ he went on. ‘’And we’ll have stuff to occupy ourselves with too, remember?’’

‘’Like what?’’

‘’Like our History assignment?’’ Terry supplied.

‘’Oh, right. That.’’ Akira said listlessly. Their only schoolwork for the break had been given to them by Ms. Fencen. Students who lived in or were staying in Marine Cove for the break had to write a report on a lecture that was being given during the upcoming week, while students who were going abroad has a different assignment.

‘’Well I know that I’m going to take my bike out for a spin.’’ Akira went on. ‘’Apparently there are some public parks with bike trails located outside of the city. You should check it out to.’’

‘’Maybe.’’ Terry replied. He had adjusted to life in the city without much trouble, but he was itching inside for the more natural landscapes that he was familiar with.

‘’If we’re not going to have any snow this winter,’’ Akira was saying, continuing the dominate the conversation. ‘’we might as well do what we can without it.’’

‘’It’s still early.’’ Terry told him. ‘’We have at least another two-and-a-half months of cold weather. There’s still plenty of time for that.’’

They continued to walk in relative silence for a little bit. Given that it was midday the crowds on the streets were gradually starting to thicken as people got off of work to have lunch. The crowd seemed to be predominately made up of college students – perhaps their break had already begun?

‘’Say,’’ Akira eventually spoke up. ‘’Are you going to call home or anything on New Year’s?’’

‘’I haven’t given it much thought.’’ Terry admitted. ‘’Why?’’

‘’I’m wondering whether I should do it then or wait until my birthday.’’ Akira explained. ‘’It’s in January, just so you know.’’

‘’I see.’’ Terry said dryly, getting the hint. ‘’Have you spoken to your parents any since coming here?’’

‘’Once or twice.’’ Akira said looking at his fingers as if trying to count the times on them. ‘’Once after I had gotten settled in to the dorm and once again when school started.’’

‘’Did you talk about anything?’’

‘’Well, what the city was like, how it was different from Koge, small stuff like that.’’ his friend said. ‘’They weren’t long conversations or anything like that. My parents think that this experience’ll do me some good, make me more mature. I didn’t tell them anything about Trident or being a Stargazer, of course.’’

That was more than he had done at least, Terry reflected. He had sent a rather halfhearted message to his mother sometime during the early fall after the semester had began, and he hadn’t talked to his uncle at all since leaving Rentune. He just didn’t particularly miss anyone.

He mentally shook his head. He was on vacation now, there was so much more that he could do than simply mull over these sorts of things. ‘’Why don’t we do something now?’’ he suggested.

‘’Like what?’’

‘’I dunno, maybe see a movie or something?’’

‘’Perhaps.’’ Akira paused for a moment and then burst out laughing all of a sudden.

‘’What?’’ Terry asked, hoping that his friend wasn’t going to start making a scene in public.

‘’Ah. nothing, nothing.’’ Akira insisted, still grinning to himself. ‘’It’s just that this is the kinda stuff couples talk about, you know?’’

‘’I can tell you for certain that we’re not a couple.’’

‘’ Blunt.’’ Akira noted. ‘’Nah, I’m only teasing. But you’re right, we should try to make the most of our time off. We should have fun. And I still have to go buy my game!’’

That was certainly something that Terry found himself agreeing to.

Here's the "what has everyone been up to" chapter. I kinda let myself wander while writing this, which explains why it may feel meandery. These chapters with people just hanging around independent of the main plot are pretty difficult to write. I don't think I'm all that good with them.

[Crossword]

A new chapter (almost) within the span of a week?! What madness is this?!

Chapter 24: The Penumbra Incident

Spoiler:

‘’Argh, I can’t do this!’’

Terry and Akira were seated on the floor of the latter boy’s room, the television before them displaying the sad results of their contest, played out through the fighting video game that Akira had purchased the other day. Terry’s character, a ronin named Jurou Tsukiwakura with a wolf-motif, lay on the ground as Akira’s character, which Terry could only describe as a cybernetic scarecrow, swayed back and forth as part of its victory animation. Its health hadn’t even been brought down into the yellow.

‘’You just need more practice, that’s all.’’ Akira replied, but despite those words it was clear that he felt no remorse towards destroying a newbie so utterly.

‘’Practice?!’’ Terry hit the pause button to bring up his character’s move list. ‘’Look at that!’’ he said, pointing for emphasis. ‘’Look at those button combinations! How’s anyone supposed to pull those off?’’

‘’Most of those are specials, they’re supposed to be difficult.’’ Akira said matter-of-factly. ‘’Here, why don’t you just focus on basic attacks for now? Your guy specializes in mid-range and counters. Try paying attention to those instead of going for the flashy stuff.’’

Terry frowned and picked his controller back up. He’d never been one for video games, but he still didn’t like doing so poorly in a competition, especially against someone like Akira who would no doubt try to hold this over his head. Just like training, he thought. Practice the basics until you master them before tackling the advance techniques. They started up another round, this time Terry tried playing slow and steady, focusing on his character’s basic attacks. At first he did moderately alright despite the unpredictable movements of Akira’s character, but then all of a sudden it began to glow, uttered a psychotic-sounding incantation, and then all Terry could do was watch in disbelief as it began to wildly zip and dash across the screen. The HP of Terry’s character was instantly wiped out.

‘’What the hell was that?’’ he asked, staring as the ‘’Player 1 WIN’’ message flashed across the screen for what felt like the fifteenth time.

‘’My guy’s super.’’ Akira said simply. ‘’Your guy has one too.’’ He looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘’Hm, the command input’s been changed since the last game…’’

‘’You were just baiting me, weren’t you?’’ Terry sighed.

‘’Not telling.’’ Akira said, grinning.

Terry sighed and set his controller down yet again. It felt like it was becoming routine. This sort of activity just wasn’t for him. ‘’What time is it?’’ he asked. ‘’Shouldn’t we be leaving soon?’’

Akira leaned back and craned his neck to glance at the alarm clock resting on his desk. ‘’Um…’’ He squinted. ‘’I think it’s just after eleven.’’

‘’You could’ve just checked your phone.’’ Terry stretched his arms and back. He wished that Akira had at least some cushions if they were going to be sitting on the floor for a while. ‘’It takes like forty minutes to get to that part of town from here, doesn’t it?’’
‘
’Yeah.’’ Akira agreed. ‘’I guess that we should get going.’’ The lecture that they had to attend for class was today, at a place in the North Side called the Penumbra Convention Center.

Terry picked up his shoes from the mat by the door and returned to his own room to quickly grab his jacket and his wallet. It was sunny today, and somewhat mild for winter, so he didn’t bother with bundling up apart from throwing a scarf around his shoulders. He generally wasn’t that bothered by cool weather to begin with, given where he was from. He met up with Akira again in the dorm’s downstairs lobby and the two set out into the city.

The convention center was located almost smack-dab in the center of one of the North Side’s primary districts. It took a little less than a half-hour to reach it by monorail, during which the scenery outside changed from the urban residential area where the dorm was located to the tall, glittering structures that made up Marine Cove’s downtown. The streets here were more packed than they had been a few days before, the usual throngs of working businessmen and other white-collar workers being bolstered by out-of-school students, people meeting up with friends and family, young couples spending time together, and more. Terry hadn’t had much opportunity to come down here recently thanks to the increase in his workload as the semester had drawn to a close, but now that he was down here finally he found that compared to his first day in the city where we had found the constant buzz of people and commotion dissonant, now he it felt familiar. He was finally growing used to the steel and concrete.

‘’Hold on a sec.’’ Akira eventually said once they reached an open plaza, coming to a stop and checking out his phone’s map app. ‘’We should be near the place…’’

‘’Isn’t that it?’’ Terry asked. He pointed towards a building visible past some sort of esoteric modern art sculpture located right in the plaza’s center. It’s façade contained lots of windows and glass panels for light, a design choice that seemed to clash with its dark-gray structure.

‘’Huh, it is.’’ Akira put his phone away. ‘’How’d you know?’’

Terry shrugged. ‘’It’s dark-colored. A penumbra is part of the shadow that’s cast by an eclipse. Maybe the architect or the commissioner had a thing for astronomy?’’

‘’Just like you, huh?’’ Akira muttered. ‘’Okay then astro-boy, let’s go.’’

The convention center connected to a shopping plaza and a hotel-and-office complex, so there were plenty of people inside going about their business. Just past the door was a sizable atrium lit up thanks to the lightshaft far overhead. Many sets of tables and chairs were set up for people to rest in or even eat at, for a food court was set up nearby in an adjacent wing. A fountain quietly bubbled in the center of the floor, while hidden speakers piped in ambient mall music. Large hallways branched off to the adjoining shopping centers and corporate offices, while a set of stairs and escalators were available to bring people to the upper levels.

Akira went up to one of the information boards and consulted its internal database. After a few flicks of his finger he was able to call up the location of the lecture. It was in the corporate office wing, in a conference room that had been set aside for the speaker. Once they set off in that direction, the two quickly spotted signs directing attendees through the network of branch hallways to where they needed to go. The conference room itself had been cleared of the long table usually used in meetings and instead replaced with several rows of chairs with fold-out writing desks. At the head of the room was a small raised platform where the presenter Dr. Lomis, a well-dressed, tall, dark-skinned man, was adjusting the room’s projector and reviewing his talking points.

There were already a few people seated within, and more continued to file into the room after Terry and Akira had taken their seats. The audience seemed to skew towards being college age, though Terry thought that he could recognize a few faces from school, though no one that he personally knew. Once people had stopped filtering in Dr. Lomis clapped his hands together to signify the start of the lecture and welcomes everyone in a deep, sonorous voice. Terry took out a pencil and some paper he had kept folded in his jacket’s pocket and sat ready to listen.


The lecture lasted for almost two hours, covering the period of time from the Founder States’ unification in 2066 and its rise to becoming an international political and imperial power during the 22^nd century, all the way up to the conclusion of the Third Great Global War in 2371, officially ending the era of colonization. A lot of the information Terry found quite interesting, and the speaker went into far more detail than any history book he’d ever had to read before on the subject. By the time it was over he had managed to completely fill all of his notepaper sheets front and back with information, but having to sit in one spot for all this time was still tiring regardless. By the end his back was feeling quite stiff and he reveled in the opportunity to finally get up and stretch his legs once the lecture was over.

He rummaged around in his pocket for his to check the time before standing up to join the rest of the audience who were filing out of the room. ‘’I’m going to run to the bathroom real quick.’’ he told Akira once they were out in the hallway. Sitting in place for two hours could do more to the body than making it stiff.

‘’Sure.’’ Akira replied, working his writing hand. ‘’I’ll meet you down in the atrium, then.’’

It took Terry a little while to find a restroom both due his walking slowly to work out the crinks in his back as well as him being unfamiliar with the layout of the building he was in. Sometimes these enclosed spaces reminded him of stories of people trapped in a maze as part of some devious experiment. There didn’t seem to be many people around here either, and the lights were surprisingly dim. He was glad to finally find a restroom, do his business, and find his way back to the noisy and bright atrium. As soon as he say him Akira started waving over from one of the tables.

‘’What do you wanna do now?’’ he asked. ‘’We have the rest of the day.’’

‘’I dunno. What’s around here?’’

‘’Well, we could get a late lunch from the food court back there.’’ Akira began, counting the options on his fingers. ‘’There’s obviously the shopping center here. Epoch Cinema is down the street in case you wanna catch another movie, and there’s supposedly an import store somewhere in the neighborhood that I wanna check out…’’ He trailed off as he realized that his friend wasn’t listening any more. Terry was digging through all of his pockets searching for something as a worried scowl began to darken is face.

‘’What’s wrong?’’ Akira asked.

‘’My wallet!’’ Terry exclaimed. ‘’I can’t find it!’’

‘’Did you drop it?’’

‘’I must’ve! Dammit, everything’s in there – my school ID, my regular ID, my bank card, everything!’’ He jumped to his feet. ‘’I’m going to run back and see if I dropped it anywhere!’’

‘’Good luck. I’ll be waiting here.’’

Pushing his faint annoyance at Akira’s lack of empathy away from his mind, Terry dashed back down the corridor he had just come from. The corridors still seemed to be eerily devoid of people, so he hoped that if he had indeed dropped his wallet somewhere, it had gone unnoticed. The bathroom was his first destination, but though he gave each and every stall, sink, and surface a thorough inspection he found nothing. Cursing to himself, he made a break for the room where the lecture had been held.

Though the room was dark when he entered, the lights automatically snapped on upon sensing entry, and Terry heard an exclamation of surprise. A man, tall and gaunt-looking, was standing in one of the room’s far corners, back towards the door. He turned, slowly, a look in his pale and quivering eyes like that of someone caught red-handed committing mischief.

‘’W-Who are you?’’ His voice was just as weak and thin as his appearance.

‘’I’m just looking for something I lost, that’s all.’’ Terry told him as he went over to where he had been sitting and bent down to inspect the area.

‘’Oh, I see.’’ the man said, a look of relief coloring his face. ‘’Well, see you kid.’’

Terry didn’t care about the man, all he cared about was the fact that he still didn’t see his wallet anywhere. He cursed silently as he stood back up. He knew that he had brought it with him so that he could use his student ID on the monorail. If he had lost it somewhere between then and arriving at the center than he was really in trouble. The sound of the door opening made him look up just in time to see the man start to leave the room. He looked away, but then quickly did a double take when he saw what was sticking out of the man’s back pocket.

‘’Excuse me!’’ he called as the man was about to disappear. The hapless figure froze in the doorway. ‘’I’m looking for a lost wallet. You wouldn’t have happened to have found it, have you?’’

‘’What? What do you mean?’’

‘’I mean that thing in your back pocket.’’ Terry replied, trying to maintain his patience. As he drew closer he grew confident that that man did indeed have his wallet, as he could recognize the decorative stripe he had affixed to it for identification. If the man didn’t want to hand it over peacefully, he supposed that he could always apply a bit of pressure…

‘’Oh, this?’’ the man asked, suddenly sounding a lot more friendly and cooperative. ‘’I f-found it just now, see?’’ He removed the wallet and held it out.

‘’Can you check and see if it’s mine?’’

The man opened the wallet and gazed at the ID displayed within. ‘’T-e-r-r-e-n-c-e E-a-v-e-s?’’ he asked, sounding out the relatively-normal name like it was some archaic, foreign tongue.

‘’Yup.’’

‘’Good thing I kept it safe for you then, h-huh?’’ The man smiled awkwardly. ‘’D-Don’t worry. I didn’t t-take anything from it.’’

‘’Thanks.’’ Terry said humorlessly as he took his possession back.

‘’Have a good one, kiddo.’’ The man gave a weak wave before suddenly bolting from the room and down the corridor at what sounded like a dead run.

Terry glanced suspiciously after him before turning his gaze back to his wallet. He leafed through it to make sure that everything was indeed still where it was supposed to be, and fortunately the man had not been lying: not a single yura was out of place. Satisfied, he put it securely away and took out his phone to begin composing a message to send to Akira, but then decided against it since his friend was only a short walk away. Returning his phone to his pocket as well, he stepped out into the hallway and began to head back to the atrium.

He found it taking him a lot longer than he expected. Once again the seemingly-labyrinthine, enclosed, seemingly identical corridors worked against him. He was starting to wish that there was more signage about, when a shriek of alarm suddenly cut through the hallway’s quiet. He instinctively froze. The scream didn’t sound like it was that far away either. Already he could hear a commotion in the distance as other people attracted by the sound hurried to see what was going on. He put on a burst of speed and started running in that direction. If something was going wrong, if someone was being attacked or otherwise harmed, perhaps he could help somehow.

The small crowd clustered outside a restroom was hard to miss. The people were agitated, grouped close together and muttering to each other warily. Together, they were forming a loose ring around the restroom’s door, and while Terry couldn’t see what was in that ring, it wasn’t hard to guess. Perhaps someone had had a heart attack, he guessed.

‘’What’s going on here?’’ he asked the nearest person.

The man shook his head and dabbled at his sweaty and balding head. ‘’See for yourself, kid.’’ he said wearily, stepping aside so that the teen could look. Terry looked down, and immediately felt a creeping, unsettling sensation of dread start to build in his stomach. Sprawled out on the hallway floor at the base of the door lay the twitchy man from before, face pale, eyes wide, and very, very dead.

[Crossword]

Chapter 25: Encounter

Spoiler:

‘’So, did you find your wallet?’’ Akira asked when Terry finally returned to the atrium table where his friend was still sitting.

‘’Yeah…’’ He dropped heavily into a chair. He hadn’t bothered to linger around the scene of the death, as just being around the body had made him feel uneasy. An actual dead body had not been something that he had ever counted on seeing, especially one of a person that he had just been speaking to, and he just couldn’t get the sight of the man’s face out of his mind, with its bulging eyes, lolling tongue, pooling drool, and expression of surprise. Evidently his discomfort was still evident on his face, for Akira took notice.

‘’Is something wrong?’’ he asked, his eyebrows arching slightly. ‘’You look a little…off. It’s not like you.’’

Terry sighed. ‘’Well…’’ He explained everything that had happened, from his meeting that strange man in the lecture room up to discovering his dead body in the middle of the hallway not fifteen minutes afterward. As he listened, Akira’s expression transitioned from one of mild curiosity to something close to a ponderous, unhappy look. ‘’So that must have been what that commotion was about…’’ he muttered. Terry supposed that he was referring to the security staff arriving at the scene, no doubt called from their usual posts. For his part he had decided to slip away as they were arriving so that he could at least tell Akira what had happened. After seeing the corpse, he didn’t feel up to being interrogated by the police just yet. ‘’What was this guy like?’’

‘’I told you already.’’ Terry replied, straightening out his face. ‘’He was tall, thin, and jittery.’’

Akira’s unhappy look deepened to a frown. ‘’He didn’t happen to be wearing a flannel shirt, did he?’’

‘’How’d you know?’’ Terry asked, surprised at his friend’s question.

‘’I think I saw the guy you’re talking about!’’ Akira said, starting to sound a little excited. ‘’He was sitting right over there.’’ He pointed to an empty table that was only about thirteen feet away, on the other side of a low planter. ‘’When I got down here he was sitting with another guy, and he got up to leave maybe two or three minutes before you came back from the bathroom. There was another guy at the table too, sitting with him. I think they were talking to each other about something.’’

‘’What were they talking about?’’

‘’I dunno.’’ Akira shrugged. ‘’You can hear for yourself how loud it is in here.’’ This was true, even sitting next to each other Terry and Akira had to consciously raise their voices a bit to hear each other over the ambient noise of the atrium. ‘’But,’’ Akira went on. ‘’I’m pretty sure that I saw the second guy give something to the one that you say ended up dead. I couldn’t see what it was, though.’’

‘’And you were watching all of this?’’ Terry asked. He admittedly found it a little hard to believe that Akira would pay that much attention to something as innocuous as a meeting between two people in a mall. That sort of thing wasn’t unusual at all. But then again, the fact that one of the two died shortly afterwards was quite suspicious. Had the second man slipped the first something that killed him somehow? If so, what? The man had certainly looked out of it, sure, but nothing to suggest that he was about to die.

‘’Well, it wasn’t like I was paying that much attention, really.’’ Akira finally admitted. ‘’It was just a coincidence that I looked out in their direction when I did.’’ He leaned his head back for a moment and made a long “hmmmmm” sound as he apparently tried to recall any more details about what he had seen.

‘’Oh, wait!’’ he suddenly burst out, briefly startling Terry as he was going back to his own thoughts. ‘’There was a girl there, too!’’

‘’A girl?’’

‘’Yeah, she was sitting…’’ Akira craned his neck and pointed at another table, this one even further away. ‘’Right there.’’

‘’That’s like forty feet away!’’ Terry remarked. ‘’Why would she have anything to do with those two guys?’’

‘’Because now that I think about it, she was looking at them.’’

‘’So?’’ Terry said, shooting him a look.

‘’Well it wasn’t like she was just looking.’’ Akira continued, trying to find the best way to express what he was thinking. ‘’You know how people tend to act kind of absentmindedly when they’re just waiting around? She wasn’t. She was staring right at them every time my eyes drifted over there. ‘Like a hawk’, is what the saying here is, right?’’

Though Akira’s explanation was a little lacking, Terry supposed that he did have something of a point. In fact, as he looked back at the two indicated tables he could see how Akira had arrived at his conclusion. While the table that this girl had supposedly sat at was indeed a little far away from their current perspective, it was actually well within unobstructed viewing distance of the one where these two mystery men had sat. One of the empty chairs was even positioned to be directly in line with them.

‘’Well okay, if you say so.’’ Terry said after going over the facts in his head. ‘’Did you see what she was like?’’

‘’Well she was kinda far away from here, so it’s not like I could make out her face or anything.’’ Akira began, the unconscious movements of his fingers starting to betray some impatience. ‘’But she was wearing green and had blond hair, I’d definitely remember that. She was probably mid-late high school age like us, if I had to guess.’’

Terry still had doubts as to whether the mystery girl really had anything to do with the two mystery men or if Akira was just conjecturing nothing but nonsense. But then, he wasn’t really in any condition to condemn his friend’s words, having not been there himself. Putting that aside, was there really any significance to the supposed meeting? There was really no way to be sure now.

After describing the girl he had seen, Akira had fallen silent. However, his eyes soon lit up as an idea apparently struck. ‘’Do you think I witnessed a drug deal?’’ he asked.

A drug deal… That did sound plausible, Terry had to admit. A sudden drug overdose could certainly cause an otherwise healthy person to keel over. ‘’I could see that.’’ he admitted aloud after considering. ‘’The thing you said one man gave to the other could have been payment or even the drugs themselves.’’

‘’Do you think we should tell the police about what we saw?’’

‘’Yeah, we probably should.’’ Terry agreed. No matter how incomplete their information might be, they did seem to be the last two to see the shifty man alive.

The main walking space of the atrium was in a bit of a commotion as the crowd parted to allow the paramedics and officers that had apparently just arrived at the convention center through. Terry stood back along with Akira and the rest of the crowd, but as soon as he started to move again, Akira tapped him on the shoulder and pointed. ‘’Look,’’ he said. ‘’That’s the girl that I was telling you about!’’

Terry followed his finger to spot a girl who was resting against a decorative metal column several yards away, stolidly watching the activity in the atrium. Like Akira had said, she appeared to be close in age, if not the same, as them. Her blond hair was tied back in a ponytail, her jeans were frayed and ripped in several places in a way that suggested neglect rather than a fashion statement, and while she did appear to be wearing a green shirt like Akira had claimed, she was also wearing a light, brown jacket with decorative fur trim around the collar, tail, and sleeve ends. Her outfit while causal yet conservative, Terry noted, still struck him as somewhat light for the season compared to the heavier coats and jackets that everyone else in the atrium was wearing.

‘’Think we should ask her if she knows anything?’’ Akira suggested.

Terry shrugged. ‘’I guess, if you really insist. Just…let me do the talking, alright?’’

Pulling himself together, Terry walked over to where the girl was standing. ‘’Excuse me.’’ he said when he was at what he felt was an acceptable distance. ‘’Can we ask you something really quick?’’

The girl turned to look at them. Her expression was surprisingly aloof-looking for someone who looked to be the same age as him, Terry thought. ‘’What is it?’’ she asked. Her voice was very calm and had a very slight affectation to it.

‘’Well, did you happen to see two men who were sitting over there a little while ago? One of them was kinda shifty-looking?’’ Terry asked, pointing towards their table. ‘’My friend here says that he saw you sitting near them.’’

‘’Why?’’ the girl asked, some wariness creeping into her tone. She unfolded her arms, letting them rest at her sides as she stood up straight.

‘’Well, the thin guy was found dead just now, that’s what all this commotion is about.’’ Terry explained, gesturing towards the space where the paramedics had recently been through.

At this a crease formed in the girl’s brow. Her eyes narrowed a fraction, as if she was trying to place Terry’s face. Terry was sure that he had never seen her before, but it was a big city after all. ‘’We’re just curious if you saw anything suspicious, that’s all.’’ Terry said, hoping to allay whatever fears she might have. He wasn’t a master at reading body language outside of a fight, but he could still feel the wave of suspicion that the girl was sending towards him.

‘’We think those two guys might’ve been doing a drug deal.’’ Akira spoke up.

The girl’s eyes moved over to look at Akira. ‘’Who are…’’ she began to say, but she suddenly started, darted her eyes back to Terry, then to Akira again, and back to Terry one last time before she quickly shifted back to her impassive look from before. ‘’I’m sorry.’’ she said coolly. ‘’I don’t have anything to say.’’ With that she quickly and deftly turned on her heel and began to walk off in the opposite direction.

‘’What was that about?’’ Akira muttered with a touch of indignity. ‘’You’d almost think…Terry?’’

Terry stared in the direction that the girl had made her retreat in, his own eyes narrowed in an expression not unlike that of the girl’s. ‘’I think she knew.’’ he said.

‘’Knew…what?’’ Akira asked.

‘’Who we are.’’ Terry answered, turning to face his friend. ‘’And I mean who we really are. Did you see how she reacted when you mentioned the drug deal possibility? I think she recognized us somehow and decided to run away.’’

‘’Huh, so I was right?’’ Even Akira himself sounded a little surprised at that. ‘’Think she has a connection, then?’’

‘’You might’ve been right, I admit.’’ Terry said. ‘’Maybe we should catch up to her and ask again if she knows anything, or at least try to find out what her deal is.’’

Akira nodded. ‘’Right.’’

The girl was almost at the convention center’s exit, so the two began to sprint through the crowd towards it as quickly as they could. The fact that the girl seemed to recognize who they were might turn out to be nothing, but it did raise all sorts of unpleasant possibilities. If she really did know about them, the question was how much. Did she know about Trident? If that was the case, how did she know? What was she doing watching those two men? He had dismissed the idea when Akira had first brought it up, but now having thought about it, he definitely wanted to learn for himself.

He was doing a good job of closing the gap, but the girl still had a decent head start, and he saw her cast a glance over her shoulder as she went through the doors ahead. Terry put on a burst of speed, eliciting a handful of surprised and annoyed shouts from the crowd. Terry uttered a few hasty apologies as he burst through the doors himself and out on to the street, only to have his feet suddenly fly out from underneath him. He hit the pavement with an unceremonious crash.

‘’Are you okay, kid?’’ one of the paramedics on standby outside with the ambulance asked.

‘’Yeah…I’m fine.’’ Terry grunted as he tried to haul himself up, his side and upper leg feeling sore. He put a hand down on the ground to steady himself and felt a cold and wet sensation as he did so. Curious, he looked down to see that he had slipped on a patch of black ice that had formed on the sidewalk pavement.

Ice? In his gut something seemed wrong to him, and in a second his mind realized why. The weather was cool, but the air temperature certainly didn’t seem cold enough to freeze. Could it be…?

‘’What happened?’’ Akira called as he finally caught up, breathing heavily.

‘’I think…’’ Terry said, standing up fully. ‘’That we’ve just gotten ourselves into something serious.’’

‘’What do you mean?’’

Terry whipped his head to the side, where off in the distance he could see the back of the girl about to disappear into the crowd, little more than a blond and brown speck. ‘’No time.’’ he said, and without a second thought he bounded off in that direction, with Akira haplessly trying to keep up. He was determined not to lose sight of the girl, for if his hunch was right he definitely wanted some answers and catching up to her was the only way that he was going to get them.

The girl was moving at the pace of a brisk walk, but she had a significant head start, so it was all that Terry could do avoid losing her in the crowd of pedestrians, and once or twice he almost did thanks to getting stuck at traffic crossings. As he managed to close the gap she managed to catch on to the fact that she was being tailed and began to move even more quickly, but by this point they had reached another open plaza which allowed Terry to close the gap even further. The girl then broke into a jog and cut across the adjacent road, and Terry decided to stay on his side for the time being.

The cell phone in his pocket began to vibrate, distracting him. He picked it up, trying not to lose sight of his quarry. ‘’Hello?’’

‘’Where are you?’’ It was Akira’s voice. Terry hazarded a glance over his shoulder, and saw that he had lost his friend somewhere in the crowd.

‘’I’m still following her.’’ he said. ‘’I’m…’’ He cast around for a distinguishing landmark. ‘’I’m near a tan building with a domed top and a billboard on the side!’’

There was a brief pause. ‘’Okay, I see it.’’ Akira called.

‘’Good.’’ Ahead, Terry could see the girl look in his general direction one more time before disappearing down a side alleyway. ‘’Look, I gotta go.’’ he said. ‘’She just ducked down an alley.’’

‘’Wh…’’ Terry didn’t hear the rest of it as he put his phone away. Sensing that this would be his chance, he hurried across the street and ducked down the alley himself. It was large enough for a car to drive down, but it soon opened up a little into a small lot for apartment residents with the back taken up by dumpers for their waste. He found the girl standing a few yards away from that, staring up at the wooden fence that had been erected at the other exit. Apparently she must have been expecting either a climbable chain-link fence or none at all. Regardless, she had managed to unwittingly trap herself in a dead end.

‘’Found you.’’ Terry said, cautiously approaching. Even after the brisk chase he wasn’t winded.

‘’You’re not going to let me go, are you?’’ the girl muttered, turning to face him. He could hear the steely, unbending willpower behind those words. She wasn’t going to be easy to negotiate with.

‘’Look, I just want to ask you some questions.’’ Terry replied, trying to go for a tone that toed the line between being firm but not coming off as overly hostile. ‘’You know who I really am, don’t you?’’ he asked. ‘’How did you find out? Better yet, was it you who made me take a spill back there?’’

‘’Let me pass.’’ the girl said, eyes narrowing dangerously.

‘’I said, not until you answer my questions.’’ he replied, folding his arms. ‘’Look, I’m not out for a fight or anything.’’

His phone suddenly began to vibrate in his pocket. Terry realized that it was probably Akira trying to reach him again, but his split second of distraction was enough. The girl moved forward and attacked him.

She moved like a trained fighter, lashing out at him with a well-aimed kick. Taken by surprise, Terry was barely able to dodge her attack by falling back an inch. It was close enough that he could clearly feel the disturbed air from her attack. He unfolded his hands and used his right fist to deflect a follow-up attack. Their knuckles clashed together with an audible knocking sound.

Both of them briefly fell back to wring their smarting fingers. Terry couldn’t help but feel a little surprise at her apparent strength. While her frame and build didn’t appear to be out of the ordinary for a fit teenage girl but going by her stance she certainly seemed to know how to get the maximum amount of power out of her attacks. As soon as he was done hastily tucking the portion of his scarf that was hanging free back into his jacket, the girl threw another punch at him, but he could tell that it was actually a feint, an attempt to make him back down and out of the way. Instead of dodging, he raised his forearm and let it take the blow. His arm flinched a bit from the impact but since the girl hadn’t used her full power he was able to stand firm, resolutely blocking her path.

‘’Dammit, this is taking things a bit far.’’ Terry grunted as he fell back into a defensive stance.

‘’I told you to clear the way.’’ the girl retorted, her voice steely.

‘’And I said that I just want some answers.’’ Terry said. ‘’This isn’t doing anything but waste energy!’’

The girl said nothing in reply. She curled the fingers of her hand and lunged. Terry put his forearm up again but the girl turned it away with her free hand and jabbing him hard in the ribs with her pointed knuckles. Even through his jacket he felt a sharp pain spread through his side. He faltered a bit, and the girl responded by kicking him in the side of the knee. He fell, but managed to plant a hand on the ground to stabilize himself and execute a textbook leg-sweep. The girl went down with a light cry of surprise but recovered with surprising agility, transitioning into a roll that brought her back to her feet at the same time that Terry jumped to his.

Terry whistled. ‘’You’re good.’’ he admitted, cracking his shoulders. This girl was nothing like Sayren, whose fighting skills had been rudimentary at best, or the members of The Beings that he had tangled with, with their street fighting moves that focused on power and little else. She was light on her feet and precise. None of her movements or blows had been sloppy or otherwise wasted. Each and every one of them had a purpose. It was just his luck that he had encountered someone like this.

But as much as he was impressed by her skill their skirmish wasn’t going to go anywhere. As long as he was fighting defensively they were at a clear stalemate, and the girl had made it abundantly clear that she had absolutely no intention of spilling her secrets. There was really no point in continuing the fight anymore, but still…

The girl took a few steps back and muttered something under her breath. ‘’I’m sorry,’’ she said. ‘’but I really can’t afford to waste time with you.’’

‘’Then just –‘’ Terry began, but then stopped as he felt the air around him suddenly grow much colder, and his breath started to come out in small condensed puffs. So I was right. he thought. He’d driven his opponent into a corner, and she was finally going to use the Stargazer powers that he thought she had. The girl’s eyes briefly flashed the baleful Stargazer blue before returning to normal. In her hands she now held what appeared to be two foot-long icicles.

Terry fell back, keeping a wary eye on the makeshift daggers. He had been anticipating the girl using Stargazer powers on him, but he hadn’t necessarily thought just how they would manifest themselves. Freezing could be very deadly, but by now he’d had plenty of experience dealing with knife-wielding adversaries.

The girl flipped the blades into a reverse grip and moved to attack. Terry responded the same way that he would to any other knife-user – doing his best to keep his face and extremities away from the girl’s reach. She swung fast and hard, her attacks designed not necessarily to injure Terry, but to press him and force him backwards where there was enough room for her to slip away. She attacked with quick and precise jabs, not like the clumsy, easily countered lunges that The Beings’ members had employed. He tried to hold his ground as much as he could, ducking and wheeling away from the blades as much as he could.

When the girl made an extended chop, Terry was able to sneak into her guard and catch both of her forearms on his own, bringing her movements to a halt and the two almost face to face. The girl was a little flushed from the exertion of the fight, but what held Terry’s attention were her eyes. They were a rather striking shade of blue, like the color of sapphires, but there was also something else behind them, a sort of un-light. Just by looking at them he felt that there was something more there than just the agitation brought on by the heat of an unexpected battle. Something that was more deep-seated and smoldering.

‘’Hey!’’ a familiar voice suddenly called out, forcing Terry back into the here and now. He planted his foot in the girl’s stomach and forced her away.

‘’Stay back!’’ he called to Akira, not even bothering to turn around. ‘’She’s a Stargazer!’’

‘’What?!’’ Despite his back being turned, his friend’s surprise was palpable. ‘’You’re serious?!’’

The girl’s eyes darted over to where Akira was presumably standing before renewing her attack. Her jabs and swipes were faster, fueled by her desperation to escape. Terry slipped through her guard again and forearmed her, knocking one of her improvised blades out of her hand, only for her to cyclone a kick into his side. He grimaced in pain as he felt the heel of her heavy shoe digging into him. As he staggered slightly she tried to dash by, but he managed to grab a hold of her jacket sleeve and yank, pulling her back towards the fence once again.

Both of them took advantage of this brief reprieve to quickly catch their breath. Terry, a hand resting on his knee, was starting to wonder if he should just let her go after all when a buzzing hum reached his ears. It took him a moment to place it: it was the sound of a phone vibrating, but it wasn’t his. Instead, it appeared to be the girl’s, for she instantly put a hand to her pants’ pocket. After a few vibrations the phone quieted and a tinny, annoyed voice issued from it.

‘’Serac!’’ it shouted. ‘’Where the hell are you?!’’ The girl grimaced at the voice and quickly reached into her pocket to shut off her phone.

‘’Who was that?’’ Terry demanded, though he didn’t expect her to answer. She stood up straight and a brief look of conflict passed over her face before her eyes turned Stargazer blue again and a film of frost began to creep up her leg, eliciting a surprised cry from Akira. Terry tensed and was about to call up his own powers as a show of intimidation if nothing else when the girl stomped her foot on the ground. From the point of impact a layer of ice rapidly spread out in a radius from her foot. Terry suddenly felt something very cold and wet creep through him, and he looked down to see that his feet had been frozen to the ground. He swore and tried to move his legs but it was useless – he was completely immobilized and was rapidly losing sensation in his feet.

With her pursuer finally incapacitated the girl tore past Terry and Akira without another look, vanishing as she dashed back up the alley towards the street. ‘’Wait!’’ Terry cried, twisting his body in a futile effort to look behind him. It was no use – the girl was gone, leaving him with no recourse but to stare blankly at the wooden fence before him.

Spoiler:

Before anyone asks "why didn't she just freeze him to begin with and be done with it" don't worry, there's a reason for that. Not falling into a pun-fest with the descriptions was difficult.

[ChesCa]

Only read the meandering chapter so far.
It's good although if your editor wants to scrap it (and gives a non-bullshit reason for doing so), I would do so.
It's like Aliens: There were those cool scenes with the first facehugger and the turret guns but sometimes some things have to be let go.

Also:

Akira shrugged. ‘’It’s not like we’re getting any snow any time soon.’’ Though winter was still somewhat young, it had been rather mild so far. Though Daniel and Nova had insisted that Marine Cove usually had at least a dusting by the end of November there had not been a drop of precipitation so far. Though there had been a few bitterly cold days, the drought was expected to persist into the new year thanks to fluctuations in the jet stream.

Fix that up a little.