Chương 138: Zebulun, Part 2

This was the most stupid and bullheaded thing I could've ever agreed to. These guys nearly killed Chris and Jairo, I shouldn't be working with them. But I knew if I said no, they weren't going to relent. Then I'd be dealing with two enemies at once. But that didn't mean I couldn't maintain some control.

"No killing," I warned as we made our approach to the Iron Works. From this distance, I could take in more of its actual proportions. Two floors. Quite long. This was not going to be an empty building. truth, who took to simply walking through the air like it were flat ground, hummed in surprise.

"Oh, we're not killing the armed terrorists who are more than happy to kill you? I can't do that, boy." I stopped in my tracks, turning to face him, which stopped both his and Holden- justice's approach.

"I need them for questioning. Less people alive is less people who can give us key information for stopping whatever plans they might have. I'm not going to let you just kill them and leave me deprived." He pursed his dark lips for a moment, his hat's brim obscuring his eyes.

"Hm. I've a deal with justice here. I protect him and aid him. If any of them shoot at him, I'm going to kill them. That's in my contract. If you want them to live, you better hope not a single bullet touches him." My mask hid my eyes from the both of them, but I knew they could feel my gaze. That's why they weren't moving forward.

"If you kill any of them, I don't care what bullshit you have. You'll join them. Am I clear?" truth raised his hat to glare down at me. justice reached up and tapped his side.

"Don't bother," the journalist said with a boom in his voice.

"I can take care of myself." The floating man simply shrugged.

"If you're so certain. But don't deprive me of the violence I desire. Shall justice be unharmed, I will not kill. But if a hand is laid upon him, what I will do is turn that mill into a simultaneous abattoir and dakhma."

"I have no idea what those are." I noted.

"Thank your lucky stars," he responded, almost smug. We resumed our approach, finally getting close enough that an ADU member standing guard saw us and raised a rifle.

"Get the Hell out or get shot!" He warned, letting one hand off his rifle to pound his fist on the door. That meant he couldn't easily aim his weapon and shoot at the same time. Poor move. I was on him in just a couple very short seconds, whipping around and slamming my heel into his jaw. No strength put in, didn't need it for a surprise blow. He hit the floor like a bag of bricks. I couldn't give the men inside any time to either escape or arm up. I had to start going for shock and awe fast and hard.

In the same recovering motion brought upon by the kick, I thrust a palm out against the door with enough force to splinter it on impact, sending wood dust flying everywhere. The same force sent me almost stumbling into the room, where I could see dim lights illuminating the interior. It had its entire original purpose carved out to instead facilitate stacking crates and moving them about. A ramp leading down to the river told me everything I needed for how they were getting guns in.

As for out, it was likely those vines. The second floor wasn't a proper floor but instead a series of catwalks on the perimeter of the building, and a few crossing to either side. On the second floor, I could see an enclosed room in the opposite corner. An office maybe. Along with that, throughout the entire building: What was probably a platoon's worth of men in green hoodies and cloaks carrying guns and staves.

"It's Hercules! Get him!" One yelled, and immediately three men with staves pointed them at me. They extended out like pouncing vipers, yet thicker than tree trunks. My immediate response was to yell out Shivvy's name, which prompted him to flood out from my costume and immediately start feasting away at the extending Wyrdwood. He'd be occupied with that for a little bit. The ones with guns weren't firing yet.

My first guess was they were worried about either ricochets or damaging something important in the building. That, or shooting their friends. The third felt most likely for regular criminals, but I just wasn't sure the zealots who got into gunfights with SC agents were that averse to accidentally killing their own. But I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Some staff-wielding ones saw opportunity to attack, however, as they reformed theirs into axes and hammers and swords, charging me.

I decided to meet them head on, rushing over to the growing crowd. One with an axe swung, and instead of blocking, I decided to just grab the weapon entirely and yank. The Wyrdwood the weapon was made from coiled around his wrists, likely expecting a disarm. I didn't want a disarm. I wanted my own weapon. A grown man's body weight at the end of a big wooden handle was perfect for that.

I whipped him around, letting his heels slam into several other weapon-wielding ADU members, before hurling into one of the crates, where he crumpled to the ground and clutched his back. Probably busted ribs. Amidst the chaos, I didn't notice one of the gun-toting ADU members approaching until he already had his rifle leveled at me. Right when I expected to have to headbutt a bullet, that buzzing sensation flooded the air with more intensity than before. Almost nauseating to experience.

The gunman immediately curled up on the ground, shouting "Daddy, no! Stop! I won't do it again! Please-!" My gaze snapped towards the door I busted through, and there I saw truth with one hand in his pocket and the other pointing a finger gun at the man now screaming on the floor.

"Some real daddy issues on that one," he mused as justice stepped in next to him. Most of the ADU members at this point were far more paralyzed than I think either truth, justice, or I would've expected. Then again, these people aren't superhumans. They were people, with weapons. Crazy people. Zealous people. But still just regular people. The kind of world truth's presence subjected them to likely turned their own upside down. Though at that moment, I did notice something.

The ADU troops that were paralyzed all were wielding guns instead of staves. Not all of the ones with guns were stunned, but the only ones who were had rifles. That felt like something significant, but before I could really dwell on it-"Another! Kill him!" Shouted one of the ADU goons. The ones who weren't terrorized immediately leveled their rifles. I barely yelled out "Wide!" to Shivvy in time for him to form a wall to cover both truth and justice from the immediate hail of bullets.

Neither of them flinched at the sounds that were pounding at my eardrums. I didn't want to protect them, but if truth found an excuse to kill them all, it'd be two steps back instead of one step forward. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. I forced myself to focus through the noise as I tried to keep track of how many were taken down. I wasn't sure if the ones Shivvy ate the staves of were taken out, but that would be three.

The ones who charged at me totaled to about seven. The one with the rifle who was traumatized into defeat brought the count to about eleven. One third or quarter already dealt with. The remainders either stayed stock still from learning that not only are demons real, but far more unnerving than any fire and brimstone priest could have warned them, or were doing everything they can to kill said demon. They weren't going to have any luck with that.

As I tried to figure out how to get to the second floor fast enough to deal with the group without turning one of them into a fine mist, I heard the racking of polymer on metal. BANG My lower left side thundered with a sore throbbing. Looking down, I could see smoke and small soot marks marking a fist-sized shape on this stupid stealth cloak. Looking up at the source, it was one of the ADU members. This one was carrying a shotgun, eyes wide as he realized he did not tear a chunk of flesh out of me.

I had to credit Sam for one thing, it really did help make me bulletproof. That didn't stop him from raising his shotgun up to aim at my head though. I just crooked one unconscious ADU member and lightly kicked him over to the shotgun-toting one, sending him stumbling to the ground as he tripped. Stepping over, I yanked the weapon out of his hands. Well, half of it. I sort of tore it apart with the grip I used.

"Hands on your head and don't fucking move," I warned, and he complied immediately.

"Right," truth called out.

"I'm getting a bit bored of just standing here, Hercules! How about I handle the scared ones and you start dealing with the ones who keep throwing pinecones and bullets at me?"

"You don't give me orders!" I shouted back, but it was probably the only viable strategy to keep these people alive. Much as I didn't care for them to be.

"Whatever. Anyways, for those of you in the audience just watching and not participating, how about I give you a temporary glance at what is between This and That?" truth brought both hands out of his pockets, raised them in the air, and with a SNAP They started screaming. Guttural, gurgling screams. The unique terror normally found only in children who are shown things beyond their understanding for the first time.

I could see some of them from my position, the whites of their eyes far more prominent than they should be at the distance I was, with how unblinking their gazes into nothing were. I didn't even want to imagine what he showed them. The ones with weapons just kept firing away or pouring Wyrdwood branches out. The Wyrdwood kept trying to coil around to stab at him, but Shivvy was able to intercept, forming a wider and wider curved wall to protect the two I didn't really want protected.

The most ridiculous hostage situation I'd ever been in. Leaping up to the catwalks on the second floor, I began rushing through the armed ones, using low-strength punches and kicks to try and render each one unconscious or at least disarmed. One of them turned to level their rifle at me, only for me to just press my palm on the barrel and thrust my hand forward. It crumpled like an accordion. The wielder of that weapon immediately sat down. Stepping over him and the screaming men, I kept up my charge through.

More and more were starting to aim at me instead, though this stupid less-than-garbage bag proved itself useful as bullets kept skimming off of me, and Wyrdwood branches were crushed under the force of my blows. I had finally made my way around to the last one, wielding a staff. With a swing, he attempted to whip an extended version at me. For most, this would be highly lethal.

For me, it was just something to grab onto and use to pull him closer to me, which earned him a slap to the face hard enough to knock him unconscious. The screaming had died down to just hoarse wheezing in most cases, besides a few strange yelps and yowls. My ears rang, all the gunfire in an enclosed space like that was enough harsh noise in the air to vibrate one's skull. Shivvy snaked his way back up to me, sitting on my shoulder in his feline form.

truth, meanwhile, started walking up and through the air towards the corner office.

"What the Hell did you do to them?" I asked.

"I said not to kill them, but if you just gave them brain damage, that's not much better."

"Relax," truth said, his words oozing out past his blackened lips.

"What I showed them is information they cannot comprehend long-term. They'll be terrorized for now, but by the time your associates come to pick them up, they'll have completely forgotten. I can take away any perceptions or understandings of those afflicted. They won't remember that, or me, at all." He kept walking, simply passing through the closed door.

"Get out of that office!" I shouted, making my own way over to it.

"I didn't say you could go around stealing evidenc-" He immediately stepped back through, stack of papers in his hand.

"You'll be getting these. Hop down, we'll review them together." truth then strutted back down to where Holden was, and I had to leap after him. The two looked over the papers, and it took only seconds for Holden to let out a groan.

"Of co urse." The journalist stated, his voice distorting for just a moment. He then held out the papers to me. Picking them up, all I could see was just plain, printed text talking about delivery dates and timelines, though cryptically enough that it didn't really establish anything of note.

"What's bad about this specifically?" I asked.

"This is from the office of Rupert Bailey." Governor Rupert Bailey. Crippling his son, David Bailey, was the root of the reason I got arrested. I had theorized that his son was their government connection. This could be tje jackpot. We could actually break their influence on the government entirely. But I couldn't give away the excitement that put in me.

"How do you know it's his?" I asked.

"It's just words on paper."

"I've taken on a few of truth's … traits for lack of better words. This includes spotting hidden details and leads. Printed paper, since the eighties, has something on it called a machine identification code. Little dots of yellow ink litter the page that the human eye can't see. But when you can see hidden things, it's plain as day. It was secret knowledge until nine years ago, when Dutch authorities admitted to using it to find and identify a counterfeiting operation. They note the date, time, and serial number."

That wasn't exactly conducive, but it did seem like something maybe the Super Commission could use.

"Well, how do you know it's his?" justice sat his hands in his pockets after handing all the papers off to me.

"Any decent journalist collects any mail or memos that are publicly released from a government office. I felt Rupert was a sleaze-ball for quite some time, so I've always kept a few. This is the same set of dots as a few of his memos. So it's a printer from his office. It won't nail him directly for law enforcement, since he could always blame an intern." He then smirked. His teeth looked like concrete.

"But for a journalist, it's perfect for a story." justice and truth then turned on a heel, making their way out of the building.

"I'm not siding with you, but you gave me enough for an interesting story to publish. I won't promise a release any time soon, but maybe I can get it out by your birthday, Leo." His voice distorted for a second again. My blood ran cold.

"How did you-" Stopping at the door, he laughed." truth ended up digging into your brain a little when he was reaching out for that man with the rifle. I have everything I wanted on The New Sentinels now. None of it's useful for finding my brother. Don't worry, though, your secret's safe with me. A good journalist protects his anonymous sources." He flashed that grey smile again, before exiting with the demon. I stood there, in an iron works full of unconscious and traumatized men, hands shaking with fear.

I'd just accidentally made too many ripples in a very, very large pond. And I only survived because the bigger fish chose to keep swimming by. But at least now we had something to thoroughly investigate. And plenty to interrogate.