Chương 107: Injury

There was a quiet Chris felt on his own that he never really felt when others were around. It wasn't a bad one. It forced him to really focus on his feelings. On how he was being seen in God's eyes, without needing to perform for others. About the things he may need to do. The violence that would be necessary. He remembered what an untempered force of violence could lead to. He thought of Samson, of Jephthah, of Abimelech.

He knew the ends they faced, all justified as recourse for their actions, all easy to mirror in times like these. Leo reminded him of them, at times. As though Samson walked the Earth again, without need to tend to his hair and with no lover to hold him back. And yet, Leo looked far freer than Samson ever could have been. What was different? That was the question Christian had. What made Leo so different, what earned him that freedom? The wait was killing him, and he sought guidance.

Some hope for a sign from the Lord God, that may give an answer. He let faith guide his hand. Procuring his Bible from under his pillow, he closed his eyes and dragged his thumb along it. On the page he would stop on, there he would trust in the word to know what would be most right. God would not leave him without some sign or direction. His thumb stopped arbitrarily. Just decided to no longer let it slide. That was his destination. His answer lay there.

Opening the book, he looked through, and there he saw: Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. He stared at the words. He couldn't believe his eyes. Were he to believe his life were scripted he'd call the writer a hack and a fraud. But there it lay before his gaze, telling him the exact words he needed. There was no hack or fraud writer telling him this. He knew it was a sign.

Were he an apostate, he would have started laughing. But he knew this was not the time for laughter. It was time to prepare. To dress and ready for war. Leo returned at the same time Christian was fully equipped and prepared. All of his needed equipment stowed in all the little pockets and nooks of his costume. Resting on his shoulder a long object wrapped in some white cloth, to remain unseen until its destined time.

"Got more ready than I expected," Leo mused.

"Here." He used his thumb to flick something over to Christian. Something small. With robotic precision, the redhead caught it without hesitation. Looking in his palm, he could see it was an earpiece. A little chunkier. None of the fancy finish of the usual one he wore.

"Sam modified some spare earpieces. They only communicate with each other. I've got mine in right now. I'll be passing one to May after I'm done talking to you. Sam will be on comms for us." Slipping the earpiece in, Christian talked casually.

"So what's the actual plan, then? You just said you had one and told me to wait."

"Pretty straightforward. We're gonna leave our normal earpieces in our rooms so we can't be tracked. Sam has access to the documents Tancred signs off on for any military stuff. She's just gonna pull his signature from another document and put it right on that, and forward it to the guy handling the National Guard end of things. We head to our locations, say Tancred got too sick to call, but signed off on us trying for another extraction. Then we all get to work."

"We?" Chris asked.

"One of us has to get Jairo out. If whoever has him was strong enough to keep him from breaking out, then I'm the only one strong enough to have a chance to get him."

"You sure you want to risk being on your own? We can get Jairo first, tackle these all as a team." Leo shook his head, turning around and making his way up the stairs.

"No. You've got a chance for payback that you've earned. If you wanna come to Jairo's tree after you finish your business, go right ahead. But get yours squared away first. Oh, wait- forgot something else, Sam wanted me to bring these to you." He dug through his jacket before tossing over two more items that Chris caught. The first was a green inhaler, labeled PENTHROX.

The second looked almost like a needle of sorts, but instead of a normal shaft and plunger it was this wide red triangle and a button on the top, entirely metallic. Leo pointed to the inhaler.

"She said that's something called a 'Green Whistle,' and to use it in case you can't do a hit of your pen but need immediate pain relief. She kept a few in case any of us dealt with smoke inhalation from a fire or something. Five puffs is one dose. It might tire you out but the fatigue will stop the second you stop breathing it in. She said no more than two doses in a day." His pointing finger moved to the other item.

"The other is for the tree. She said it's a pretty fast and loose mix of stuff that burns really hot and should burn the tree from the inside. Just stab it into the bark and hit the button. You're gonna need it. Get those stowed somewhere. Leave in five minutes, take the tunnels." Leo pointed at him, his eyes gazing through Chris.

"Remember what we talked about. You can do this." With that, the boy made his way out of the room, while Chris inspected the items. All he could think was: Leo isn't even the leader, why the heck was he calling the shots? Foolish thing for him to get caught up on, he thought. But the fact he could get snagged on such an insignificant detail felt like a good sign about his prospects. That he wasn't worried about failure. That he could accept the choices he would make.

With that realization, he let out a bit of a laugh, the shaking of his shoulders causing a bit of clinking and clanking from all of the hidden weapons in his outfit. Just reminded him of the absurdity of all of this. That was good. Absurdity would take him forward. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Stowing away the new items, he waited the requested time before heading down into the tunnels.

He didn't spot Leo or May in them, which meant they were leaving at different times. A staggered method of exit was pretty wise, drew less attention. He took the tunnel towards the park, as that would let him pop out closest to his own tree. When he made his way out of the shack it ended at, he could see the cloudy grey skies. No more sirens or alerts or alarms. Stability, which he and the others would disrupt. He weaved through alleys and shortcuts he had discovered through his patrol.

More of them became available, due to the traffic being light and businesses closing. He was there in fifteen minutes, and he could see what the tree had grown into. It was this sort of large, wooden dome. Definitely covered a city block. Foliage sat atop it, and showed through random nooks and crannies like veins, but none wide enough to take a person in. From the angle Chris had approached, multiple Humvees with armed men were between him and the dome. One turned to him, hands resting on his rifle idly.

"Flowstate. We hadn't heard about The New Sentinels beginning another mission." Chris shook his head, swallowing a lump. He couldn't lie about Tancred being sick. He could only stick with what was factual.

"Your commander should have received the signed off paperwork for us to make another extraction attempt. You can reach out to confirm." The soldier nodded, reaching up to his vest and turning on his radio.

"Checking in on claims of New Sentinels paperwork being submitted for them to attempt approach, over." After about twenty seconds of silence, the radio buzzed with life.

"Copy, we just received the documents. New Sentinels are clear for approach. No sign-off for assist. Over."

"Copy," the soldier immediately answered, before nodding to Flowstate.

"You're all set. Be sure to radio your commander if you need to evacuate so that we're ready to cover you." Flowstate nodded, walking past the soldier.

"You got it." The guardsman called out to the group to clear the way for the hero as he took a grip of the fabric surrounding his weapon. Yanking it off, it stood out in contrast to his vibrant colors. A solid black, leather haft leading to a silvery, long, curved blade. A naginata. Not a traditional aikijujutsu weapon, as aikijujutsu was for when weapons aren't available. But kobudo was something Chris was just as trained in. This was no mere naginata either.

Like most of his weapons, this one was forged with Dumb Metal. Unbending. Unbreaking. Fitting for him. As he neared the bark wall separating him from the hostages, in just two clear motions- SHWNG SHNNNG A triangular gouge was cleaved out of the bark, and with one kick he sent it falling down. Just enough room for him to enter, and begin navigating. It was dark. A lack of sunlight from the cloud layer alongside the thick bark meant it was stuck in a perpetual twilight.

No one around that he could find yet, but he knew he wasn't close to where the trunk was. He remembered the path from there, the buildings and storefronts etched into the memories of his humiliating defeat. It wasn't long before he reached his destination. The civilians who were in multiple cages now sat in one larger cage, erected from bamboo shoots. They huddled, eyes bulged in fear, as they were surrounded by men with rifles. Six in total.

Lounging on one of the large roots emitting from the far more swollen trunk of the tree were Fathers Bambusa and Moroides, who immediately perked up when they saw Flowstate's return.

"Oh wow, the people's not-so triumphant hero returns," Moroides called out.

"Are you interested in being actually killed this time?" The gun-wielding ADU members leveled their weapons towards Chris, as though in on some punchline for not permitting a duel.

"No one's dying today," Flowstate announced, holding his naginata aloft. With a flick of the wrist, it went spinning into the air, far higher than any normal man could throw it. But for the man who saw the flow of energy things like trajectory, distance, and all adjacent matters were trivial to exploit. He reached into his robes and procured in each hand three metal plates, none larger than his palm. The two Fathers laughed before Bambusa spoke up.

"You've ceded your weapon and walked into a den of armed killers. Unless you plan on joining us in life, you will be joining us in death."

"All I said was no one's dying," Chris repeated, before in a blur of motion each plate flew from his hand. They were no regular plates. Fundo tsubute were weights, originally used in construction for pulling and prying nails. They were repurposed by peasants and some aspiring clandestine individuals as blunt-force projectiles. Usually for short distances, individually tossed like frisbees. But for the man who saw the flow of energy, half a dozen in two tosses was as easy as simply flicking his wrists.

They flew with precision, slamming into each rifleman's hands and wrists and sending their weapons flying off, breaking apart at key points like their gas chambers and bolts, leaving them jammed and too high-risk to fire.

"But all of you are getting a beating you won't forget," Flowstate assured. The two Fathers scoffed, glancing to the armed men.

"There's still six of you, and you've all been given Wyrdwood. Kill him. He's too soft to be able to stop you for good." The six men reached into their hoods, procuring smaller batons of Wyrdwood that each grew into the shapes of various weapons. Maces, axes, spears. Reduced to simple thugs with just some weights. They were in Chris' domain now. Even all charging at once, attacking at once, the process of elimination was simple and clean.

Yanking his surujin from his belt, he swung the metal chain towards one of the mace-wielding men. As it coiled around the man's arm, Flowstate slammed a foot on the remaining slack of the chain, forcing the man to stumble into one of the axe-wielding men, leaving them both prone from ground-induced concussions. But that wasn't enough for him. With a yank, the chain slipped up along his arm and caught the mace, dragging it towards him. Deftly, Chris caught the weapon.

He could already see roots trying to tangle around his hand, so instead of holding on he hurled it at the other mace-wielding man, blood spurting from his target's nose and sending him falling to the ground. In that time, the two spear-wielders crossed the gap, thrusting forward at the same time. To anyone else, finding a way to dodge was impossible. Herculean. But Flowstate didn't need to be Herculean. Flowstate was enough.

He saw their trajectories, how the thrusts would move, and weaved between them, hooking his arms under the weapons hafts. His arms coiled like vipers to get a firm grip, before pulling both men toward him, exploiting the remaining momentum they had. As they were brought hurtling towards him, he thrust up both palms like uppercuts, crashing their lower jaws into their upper teeth with enough force he could feel it ringing through his forearms.

The last man just watched the entire surge of action happening before his eyes. But his face curled in rage as the Wyrdwood hatchet turned into more of a halberd, and he rushed, ready to swing down the weapon on the hero's head. Flowstate simply reached out into the air, and his timing had rewarded him as he felt the haft of his naginata in his hand. Following its momentum, he brought the weapon down, and- SHWNG Silence sat in the air for seconds.

Closest thing to sound was the ringing of his metal weapon for such a brief time. First, the Wyrdwood halberd fell apart. And following that, the ADU member's hand, and half his forearm, all in one clean stroke. He fell to the ground, screaming as he used his shirt to stop the bleeding. Looking back up towards the Fathers, who were already climbing to their feet, Flowstate took his stance. He brought one hand up, curling his finger in invitation towards the two.

"Your turn."