Chương 140: Simeon, Part 2

The blast was disorienting. Just a total shock to the senses, only mitigated by the polarized lenses in my mask absorbing the flash of light and repelling any shards from getting into my eyes, and the mask itself absorbing the sudden heat. The concussive blow was a nonissue. But the sound. Just instant, it took all my focus for long enough that I couldn't immediately start lunging for whoever did it.

"Well, well, well," a voice called out. Thick Southern drawl, partially muted by the ringing in my ears. I was gonna be deaf by 30 at this rate. Looking towards the source as my hearing found its way back to my head, I could see a man with this sort of half-cape made of leaves, going all the way around his chest. A wide-brimmed cowboy hat. Legs made entirely out of Wyrdwood, reminded me almost of Gleditsia. More of those pumpkin-looking things growing out of his hips.

"Assacu-" May called out as she got back up to her feet.

"What the Hell is wrong with you!?" she added on, a faint glow already pouring out of several lenses on her costume. I remembered in that moment that we had kids nearby.

"Well, I'm fresh n' recovered from all the drugs your buddies put in me back at the pokey, n' I'm still cravin' payback. So I'm gettin' some help from a good friend. Father Viscum?" A face I was more familiar with poked out from behind Father Assacu. Old, bald. Only his head visible from the leafy cloak covering his body. The skin on his face was a deep olive, wrinkled and cracked like bark. Father Viscum.

"I'm just here to deliver Assacu and some assistants." Outside, roots and vines broke up from the ground, before uncoiling to reveal wooden men. About my size. Broad-shouldered. Each one carrying a thick sword of wood on their shoulders. Looked like the ones Gleditsia made. Just what the Hell were they putting out?

"What the Hell are those?" I asked, not wanting to leave that question stuck in my head. My body was still recovering from the shock, there was no opportunity for me to just pounce on them here and now. On top of that, that race I took with May wore me out. Probably wore her out too. That left me a lot less graceful than I could be if I didn't pull that stupid stunt. If I just launched off now while uncoordinated, I could miss or potentially even tear the building down from the shock. That's when it occurred to me.

They did this on purpose. Civilians. Destructible building. The collateral risk was high. They probably expected May to show up because she was the more sociable one. But her powers wouldn't work well in a closed environment with innocent people. And I don't benefit from the interior of buildings I can't rip apart, either. A vine reached out towards Father Viscum, wrapping around his body as his lower body began to meld with it.

"We call them Hussars. Right, Father Assacu, I have other matters to attend to. But I will leave you some permanent fertilizer." Swinging open his leafy cloak, multiple of those wooden hearts were attached to his body. All pulsing and beating. He ripped one off like it were a fruit, tossing it to the other Father who caught it.

"No eating unless you need it. Proximity should be more than enough, since just fertilization has given you some distinct benefits."

"You got it, Viscum," Assacu called out. Father Viscum nodded, fully melding with the bark of the root before being sucked back into the ground.

"Weren't cops supposed to also be here for security?" May hissed out, apparently not quiet enough for Assacu to not notice.

"Oh don't worry, honey," he called out, "they've been dealt with." There weren't any other words. His arms swung out. One up, one straight towards us. The first BAM came from above, as the room dimmed.

"The lights!" May called out. Assacu knew what to targe- CLANG One of the lights overhead crashed into the ground, its metal frame slamming into marble flooring. Dust fell from the ceiling. Worst of all, it made the civilians panic. They started shouting and shrieking, trying to relocate as more and more of the lights fell. How fucking precise was he with his bombs? At the same time, the other pod flew past my head, past May's. It was going towards the manager. It wasn't the full speed as the first one.

I could tell it was to bait one of us out. But who? If it was me, he was handing me a weapon I could throw right back. If it was May, that meant I'd still be available to attack him, and he wouldn't want that either. No time to think. Had to gamble on him hoping to take May, as I reached out to grab the pod, crushing it in my grip before it could go off. Splinters and fibers popped out from my hands.

That's when I realized it was bait for me, as the two Hussars took that same moment to cross the gap, massive swords raised up over May. She wasn't built like me. That was gonna kill her if I did noth- VWOMM A wider blast of light from her sent them falling back. Didn't break through the Wyrdwood, though. They're more durable. Was it that heart? That might also be how Quercus' wolves worked. She'd need a second for ultraviolet to burn them, but all the dust falling from the ceiling dimmed the room even further.

The only light was coming through the windows. BAM BAM My gaze moved back to Assacu. He was hurling more bombs around, slowly strafing off to my right. Not at people. Walls. He was tearing out chunks, kicking up more and more concrete dust. Causing more panic that had the civilians scrambling. I could already tell he was trying to obscure light. All the while, however, his gaze was fixed on me.

"Hercules!" He shouted out.

"You know, we got a lot on you! Have the boys n' girls in this fine establishment been told about your time before you were Hercules!?" What the Hell was he talking abou-"Back when they called you Crunch!?" How the fuck did he know that?

"Up in Richmond, Hercules here used to get called that because of the noise he got people's bodies to make! And we all know he's more n' happy to kill, y'all have seen the vidyas! Just imagine what he was doin' before the government gave him a pardon!" Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. My body snapped from the tension. Some of the ground cracked under me while I hurled myself at Assacu, fist reared back. He was a justified target.

I could turn him into a fine smear on the- BAM On the floor. He left a fucking pod on the floor and was distracting me with all the surrounding blasts so I wouldn't notice. Waited until I was just past it to make it go off. I was in mid-air, even if it wasn't going to hurt me, it still pushed my trajectory off to the side. I crashed through the bank's doors, landing on the floor.

"Oops, dropped that one!" He hyucked out with a laugh before throwing two more pods at either corner of the door's frame. BAM BAM These ones blasted off with enough force that the entire doorway caved in. I couldn't punch my way through. Anyone could be on the other side of the doorway, if I hit it too hard they'd be at risk of getting knocked around by the debris. I had to waste time by taking another way in. That was clearly what he wanted. I was stuck playing into his fucking hands.

Well, if he wanted me to find another way in, I was just going to make my own. First, I looked around to see what actually happened to the police officers. All on the ground, unconscious or dead. Didn't have time to check. No civilians running around, they must have all evacuated. That meant I didn't have to worry about any collateral outside the building, at least. Instead of slamming into the rubble and sending it loose, I instead opted to just thrust my fingers into the portion of wall next to the fallen rubble.

Dragging my arm down, I tore a hand-wide gouge through the wall. With that, I could just squeeze in and any loose debris would either fall at my feet. Which meant no going straight into the bank or the civilians behind me. As I pushed through, I could see May bounding around as best she could. She was trying to weave around the two massive swords of the Hussars, and also keep them from going towards civilians who kept finding any and every reason to just keep getting up and moving.

I wanted to get mad at the civilians, but I knew panic made them irrational. Fight, flight, or freeze were three options. Just because they weren't going to fight doesn't mean they were always going to freeze. Assacu's gaze snapped back to me, eyes widened in surprise at how I tore my way in. He wasn't expecting it. I had two options. First was lunge right at him. But that was too simple. I saw in that same moment he placed down more of those pods around behind him. He expected me to pounce through the rubble.

He didn't think I'd find a way to walk in. So no going straight at him. So I went for the second option. Lunging off to my right, going for weaker propels that moved me slower but kept me from breaking the ground from under me.

"You want to talk about pasts, Ray McMichael!?" I yelled out, rounding the corner near him.

"How about yours!?" I asked, heels digging into the ground as he was paralyzed from my shouting of his name.

"You said you got banned for balking, but we found out what you did! Bet the ADU promised no one would ever find out about all the girls you raped if you worked with them, right!?" That pissed him off. He already had two bombs in my face, but he was probably too mad to remember to detonate them on time, as I had opportunity to just slap them back in his direction. They exploded in mid-air. There was no hitting him with his own explosives. But he was too mad to plant more traps.

That gave me all the room in the world to just launch. The goal wasn't a tackle. I was just gonna tear his legs clean off of him. Though right as I was about to extend, I heard a shriek from May. In mid-air, far weaker of a propel than I wanted, I glanced towards her. A clean slash across her midsection. Blood flew. She wasn't down for the count, but that was a serious injury. My body slammed into Assacu's, sending him rolling in pain. He could wait a second.

The marble tile cracked beneath my feet as I gave into that need to protect, my arms digging straight into the Hussar from the sheer force of my launch. I pulled and pried, and with a KRAKKK I tore the Hussar in two. Nothing inside. The little rational part of me thanked everything that there wasn't a person in there. The other Hussar reared its sword back to swing at me, only for a VWOM from May to not just hit it, but cut clean through it. Glancing over, I saw the trajectory clearly.

She used the blood from the slash across her stomach to create a sharp edged blast instead of the blunt force ones she usually uses. Like when she made spikes at the raid. I was reminded, again, of how dangerous this woman could have become. The top half of the Hussar fell to the ground, no vines trying to pull it together. Same with the one I tore apart. I didn't even think about Assacu, stepping over to May and offering a hand.

"You alright?" I asked. She nodded, pushing herself to her feet, hand clutching her stomach.

"Skin deep. I'm exhausted and it was getting hard to dodge them. If you didn't show me there weren't people inside, I wouldn't have tried going for kill shots. How did you know?" I didn't.

"They seemed like they had too much of a one-track mind," I lied. I had no way of knowing. Pure dumb luck. I could've relived that stupid fucking mistake again. That panic hadn't just hit the civilians, I was neck-deep in it enough to fall so far back that I risked killing someone. And I was lucid this time. I had no good excuse. Fucking moron. A "Mother fuckers!" from Assacu broke our train of thoughts, and when we looked over, we could see him ambling back to his feet.

"One goddamn mission where I don't get outdone by a couple of fuckin' brats! Just one!" He shouted, before digging into that leafy cloak of his and procuring the wooden heart Viscum gave him.

"I'm not fuckin' around anymore!" He bit into it like it were a fruit. Then another bite. In seconds he consumed his entire heart. His eyes flared green, and the Wyrdwood on his legs climbed up his body, before extending to his arms. His fingers flared out and thinned, before curving. When closed together, they took an almost tube-like form.

"Let's see you try this." He hissed out, raising a hand. A hole formed in his palm. THUMP One of those pods fired out from the limb, smacking into my face with the speed and force of a bullet before a BAM sent me stumbling back.

"You sons of bitches ruined me," he groaned out.

"I should kill you all right here, right no w. But…

"Assacu trailed off, looking at his hand." I can hear it. Nemea' s voice calling. It's soon. The throne's growth." He shook his head.

"My job here's done. You've been distracted long enough. That's good enough payback fo r me." His accent was different. He didn't even sound like himself anymore, his voice almost melting in ways. I wanted to ask further, but roots broke through the concrete outside, curling through the hole in the wall I made, grabbed Assacu, and yanked him off. May and I gave chase as best we could, but by the time we made it out of the bank, he was long gone.

Billy's van pulled up around the same time, and he forced open the door.

"You guys shouldn't have run off like that, I was supposed to give you your replacement earpieces!" He called out, his other hand thrusting out a pair of them. They had distinct plastic white clips and curled wire leading into a coin-sized device. Likely the earpiece itself. We collected them and fit them on as Billy kept talking.

"And once you get those on, we gotta go, now." Assacu mentioned a distraction. Fucking Hell, this had to have been it.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"The Albemarle County Office Building's being attacked by the ADU. Big fucking army. Quercus is there too."