1.37 – Illusions and Reunions

Nathan hesitated only for a moment, a fraction of a moment during which he watched the three men in front of him reach inside their jackets and draw out their pistols.

Time seemed to slow down as he stood up, springing forward. He felt the air change behind him as Alicia charged an explosion, but he didn’t dare look. All three in front of him turned their pistols on him. He stared down the barrels of the guns, blinking, and then he took out two rocks from his inventory. He didn’t throw them, however. He immediately transferred their momentum into himself and then he dragged himself forward, flying for a few feet as he hit the men and threw them into the wall.

One of them punched him and it hurt, but compared to what he’d been through, compared to the man in the sewers or even Arthur or Vermillion Strike, this was nothing. As he fell backwards, he took out two more rocks from his inventory. These were far more charged than those he could have made before the upgrade, and these were left as a last resort—not meant to be used in a spar. Nathan deemed them too dangerous for that shit.

He threw the two of them, and one man immediately crumpled with a wet crunch as the rock went clean through his neck, embedding itself into the wall behind. The other man dodged, however, and now two of them were inside the room, one of them moving towards Nathan, who was not in a favourable position.

The other dashed at Alicia, who was already kicking him in the groin.

There was a small teddy on the table, and it jumped on the man. He tried to dislodge it, but Alicia didn’t let him, and she punched into his throat. She must have hit him really bad, because he crumpled on the ground, wheezing. Nathan knew Alicia was strong and slightly muscular, but that was unexpected.

As if to finish him off, the teddy exploded, and Nathan picked out two more rocks out of his inventory. He had four left now. The man readied his pistol, and Nathan aimed right at the barrel. The first rock missed, and the man got scared, his arms jerking up. Nathan used the second rock and aimed at his throat this timel.

But the man brought the pistol back down just before Nathan let go, panicking. Nathan quickly used rock-up, praying that the rocky layer of skin would hold better than it did against Arthur. The shot went off just as Alicia wrapped her arms around the oni’s torso, and then she slammed him into the ground.

There was a slight sting on his chest, but looking down, he saw the bullet was embedded in the rock, not going through. Well, this power was really useful.

Nathan stood up and punched the man in the face with all he had, knocking him out completely. Alicia stood up as well, taking deep breaths, and then she looked at Nathan. “Man, why do our conversations always have to get interrupted? Now I believe you; this is a game more than anything.”

“I doubt it’s a game anymore, and I don’t think… I don’t know… that it’s some magic or anything. Just bad luck. Anyway, we’ve got bigger problems.”

“The Onis again? Why would they be here?”

Nathan remembered the message he got and then he forgot about, for the most part. He didn’t know who it was from back then, but now it made complete sense. He should have taken action, damn it. Now he didn’t only put himself in danger, but also Alicia.

“I think it’s because of how we attacked the Onis before.”

“But how do they know about us? Didn’t Vermillion Strike dispatch them all?”

He shrugged. “Who knows, but I doubt that these three were the only ones they sent for us. They didn’t even have superpowers.”

He looked at the two corpses lying on the ground, normal humans that possibly found themselves in a situation where they had no choice but to join the gang. Or maybe they were evil. Without a way to see inside their heads, he would never know whether he killed someone reluctantly complicit, or somebody who loved doing what he did, but that was the detriment of taking lives.

“Snap out of it, Nathan. We’re going. Now, before even more of them show up.”

Nathan nodded, picked up his bag and went towards the door. He peeked to both sides, and there was nobody else there, but he could hear shouts coming from somewhere. Opposite the door was a window, and when he glanced out, he felt his stomach drop.

There were five large vans blocking the exit out of the alley that this karaoke was in, and there were around 20 Onis standing there, with more going inside the building itself.

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Most of them, and most was really the key word, held weapons in their hands, whether it was an assault rifle, pistol, or even large machettes. Was that a katana that Nathan saw? He also saw several people with no weapon at all, and Nathan had no doubts about what these people were. Supers.

“We are not getting out of here. Alicia, can you call someone?”

“On it! I’ll call our school and the SHRA. Do you think we got time?”

Nathan glanced towards the stairs. Sounds of footsteps were coming closer already, and he had only four rocks left. They were doomed. If even one medium-strength super was in the group that was coming, then there was almost nothing Natan could do, and although Alicia was strong, she simply didn’t have enough firepower yet, as much as he’d like to say otherwise.

“Inside the room. Go, go, go!” He harried her, a plan forming in his mind. The small karaoke room was strange in one thing

There was a small protrusion around one wall. It wasn’t large enough to fit Nathan, but Alicia could fit there, and Nathan had a plan.

“Hide there, inside the hole. Quick!”