Chapter Twelve

 

Right outside the door, a wave of guards awaited us. I stepped out confidently, surveying the enemies, as the rest of my group trailed behind me. There were far too many for us to handle. Even with my regeneration that could keep me alive, the rest were not similar to me in ability, though the closest was probably Vice.

“Detonade,” I called. He stepped up next to me. His demeanor was as stoic as mine with these gun barrels pointed in our faces. “I’ll create a wall.”

“Will do,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. I raised an ice wall that separated me and the group--excluding Detonade--from the guards. 

“LIGHT THEM UP!” I assumed the platoon’s commander shouted this. And as I heard the explosions of several barrels go off simultaneously, I heard Detonade sigh and an explosive wave expanded from his body, disintegrating the bullets headed for him, along with the guards that fired them. Screams from all around as I heard flesh being charred and melted until silence fell on the other side of the wall. 

I lowered the wall to see Detonade unscathed and the destruction his power caused to the armed guards.

“Disappointing,” he said, rubbing his neck some more.

“Guess they weren’t prepared for Ash to lose,” Vulcon added. 

“We need to hurry,” I commanded. “Asai could already be on her way out.”

We sprinted for the Headquarters entrance, nothing blocking our path as a majority of their forces were wiped out with the explosion. I had Infracon take the front of our makeshift formation, with Aura Ray warning him of upcoming targets to remove with his plasma cannons. I barked instructions from the middle of the formation, so we headed down the correct hallways and corridors in the HQ. We easily wiped out straggling guards left and right with the help of Vice and Vulcon. Vice pulling guards towards us with his wraps and Vulcon spraying them with lava when close enough. 

After turn after turn, and staircase after staircase, and even being led astray and getting lost at some point, we finally made it to the head bitch’s office. I made Vulcon and Detonade stand guard outside the office as Aura Ray, Infracon, Vice, Ache, and I barged in.

“There had to be an easier way to reach this place, right?” Ache asked. “There’s no way she walked that path daily. Unless, of course, she didn’t stay in her office most days.”

Those words hit me differently when Ache said them as I realized she wasn’t present in her office. Neither was the next best thing, Cobbs. They might have already figured us out when they sent Ash. But what about the Keep? Had she abandoned all those she kept there just to escape with her own life? Just how expendable were her Nobles then?

“Well. That’s disappointing,” Ache said. It wasn’t necessary for him to say aloud. I wanted to take my anger out on him at that moment. He hadn’t done anything for us up until this point and he was adding insult to injury with those words. I would be distracted, however, as the door to the office creaked open. 

“Uh, Miss?” Vulcon said. “You have two visitors.”

Lance and May walked in. Looks of determination were pasted onto their faces. I was all too familiar with the look they were giving me. I was…disappointed. Like a parent when their child disappoints them. I thought children of the Keep might be different. How foolish of me to even think this, when they are still being raised by monsters. 

“Close the door,” I told Vulcon. “Only come in if there are more on the way. Do not open it no matter what you hear going on in here.”

“Ma’am,” Vulcon said, nodding and closing the door behind him. He was a good soldier. I appreciated that. Less to worry about, especially in a moment like this.

I was really hoping my words to Vulcon would be enough to scare the Keep duo off. However, even if they wanted to run, their instilled false pride would not let them. 

“You four listen to me,” I said to my group inside the office. “Do not kill or even harm these two too badly. Simply incapacitate them as painless as possible. I don’t want to have children’s blood on my conscience.”

“We’re not kids, Amaia,” Lance said, the circles on the back of his gloves glowing. They had to be seniors in high school. No older than college freshmen. 

“In my eyes you are,” I said. Was I going soft on them because I viewed them like kids? Kids like my brother? It didn’t matter. I had already decided not to kill them. Flash freezing might’ve been the easiest and simplest method of keeping them out of the fight. But before I did that, I need to know something. “Did Asai send you as she escaped, leaving you and the rest of the Keep and guards to fend for themselves?”

“Nah,” May said. “We felt this was like our chance to be real heroes. So, here we are.”

I was baffled. The idea of being a hero had poisoned their minds. I was sure so many minds thought similarly. They wanted to be heroes so badly, it didn’t matter if they died in the process. What would be the end goal? To be recognized? In death? Who knew what the afterlife was like? If you’d even be able to see the effect of you being a hero? That’s where we differed. I was determined to see the change of my mission. I had to stop them.

I shot out both palms, attempting to flash freeze them. Before the ice reached them, May cocked her head to the side. In turn, my ice did not reach them. It stopped short and even began to retract back to me. I stopped and looked at my palms. I believed something was off at the time. I thought my not wanting to harm them was making me weak. I would have to let the other four handle them.

Vice dashed at Lance first, attempting to sweep-kick him, but May met him on the ground and deflected his kick for her friend, as Lance reached down and went to grab Vice’s face. Infracon, who’s after image was behind me instead of the real him, grabbed Lance’s arm and slammed it against the door. 

“There’s something off about May’s aura!” Aura Ray shouted. I guess she and Ache couldn’t help here. We didn’t know the extent of Lance and May's abilities. 

“We do you mean?” I questioned.

“It’s…changing! Red. Blue. Yellow. Green…Rainbow?”

May dashed at Aura Ray and with rapid motion tapped at her pressure points. Fuck this. I still had my physical abilities. As May remained distracted by hitting Aura Ray with a flurry of attacks, I snuck up behind her and went to kick her in the back, when I heard a scream behind me. In hearing this, I made a split-second decision to switch up my tactic and wrapped my arms around May’s neck spinning her around in a headlock to face Lance. 

It was Infracon that had screamed. Lance had grabbed his face and it was…disintegrating.

“Do you know why I received the name ‘Detruo’?” Lance asked. Infracon continued to scream and I saw that Vice had been struggling to get to his feet. Had May’s deflect of his sweep-kick deadened his leg? “In Esperanto, it means ‘destruction’. Something my raw palms are capable of. The gloves regulate the speed and power of that superpower. Right now, it’s in one of its highest settings. So, unless you want me to lower the setting of these gloves or completely remove them, I suggest you villains surrender.”

Taking a hostage. Wasn’t that a villainous tactic? Maybe not if the one being taken hostage was another villain. Even still. I was impressed. Perhaps, they were different from the Nobles. 

“My group is expendable,” I said. I wasn’t attached to any of them, but they were all useful in their own ways. Maybe except for Ache. “I know your precious May isn’t. So, let go of him and you can leave unharmed.”

May elbowed me. She tried hitting me in several of my pressure points, but my durability and regeneration were making it so they had little to no effect. She could struggle all she wanted. And she was. The more she struggled and realized I wouldn’t let go, the more hysterical she became. She began to cry and reached out for her partner-in-heroics. When she did this, both sides lost.

I would learn after that May--short for Mayhem--had the power of probability manipulation. She could control it for the most part, but when she became hysterical, she lost control of it. When in control, she could cause things to happen in her favor which is probably how she was able to stop Vice. She was also a pressure point martial artist, which is how she was able to make Aura Ray useless. However, when she lost control here, it caused Infracon to change his plasma cannons off “stun”--which I didn’t know was a setting for him--and let the normal plasma blasts loose. 

Infracon raised his plasma cannon and shot Lance through the chest, killing him almost instantly. May screeched when she saw this. It caused the lights to flicker and the building to shake, causing the office door to swing open. Vulcon and Detonade peaked in. I let her go and she sprinted to her dead friend’s body. 

Ache picked up Aura Ray, who retained consciousness, and we walked up to Vice, who finally got to his feet and the disobedient one. 

“I…don’t know what happened,” Infracon said. He was shaking, eyes wide, staring at Lance’s dead body being held by May. I used the opportunity of his shock to send an icicle through the back of his neck and out through his throat. He choked on his blood and lack of air intake for a few seconds before he dropped dead. The rest of my group looked at me either in shock or confused.

“I gave very clear instructions at the beginning of this,” I told them. “Keep in mind that you are all weaker than me. Follow my instructions to the T and you will avoid Infracon’s fate. Move.”

Ache gave me a smile of approval, which I ignored. The building continued to shake and tremble. I deduced it was about to come down, so I sent an ice pillar through the floors below us and leapt through the holes created to the ground floor. The rest of the group followed suit and we walked out in time to see the building crumble in on itself. 

I stared, disappointed that May allowed herself to be taken out by falling debris, but I didn’t know the extent of their relationship, so maybe she was happy now.

“What now?” Vulcon asked. 

“We interrogate what’s left of the Keep to find out where Asai went,” I said.

“N-Not to speak out of turn, but isn’t that building full of possible world-ending kids? Are we sure--”

“Shut up.”

Vulcon lowered his head to my response. There were three more surprises that wouldn’t allow us to even explore the third and final building.

The first was exiting the Prison and had their sidearm raised. Before any of us could react, a shot rang out and hit Ache in the stomach. His eyes widened and he dropped Aura Ray as he fell to the concrete as well.

“Ow,” she said.

“Listen to me,” Price said, lowering his weapon. 

“You,” I said. “How did you escape the deep freeze I put you in?”

“You have…you have to leave Ache behind,” he warned. He was exhausted. “He is not on anyone’s side.”

“I already figured that,” I said. “But, if I could keep him under my thumb, he might’ve proved useful in the future--”

“No. You…you don’t understand,” Price said. “He--”

“Ignore him,” Ache said, standing up. The bullet was still lodged in his stomach, but he didn’t even treat it like an inconvenience as he slowly walked up to the helpless Price and grabbed his hand. Price’s eyes widened, then squeezed closed as Ache broke a finger.

Ache leaned his head back and he exhaled. I could see his wicked grin from where I was standing. He then made eye contact with Price again and couldn’t help letting out a cackle as he saw Price’s broken finger heal in a matter of seconds.

“Oh, you’ll do nicely,” he said, breaking the same finger again. This was the second surprise. With what he told me his power was, he could use Price as a cheat code to power up. And I don’t believe there was a ceiling to his power, meaning he could be dangerous if I let it go too far.

But, I did let him have some fun, for I wished to see what the maniac’s true intentions with the group were. I knew that he wanted to face Lux. Perhaps he would search for the Noble when he was finished.

The rest of my group turned away from what Ache proceeded to do with the unfortunately regenerating Price. Breaking any and all bones repeatedly, using his combat knife to slit his throat, jabbing his fingers into his eyes, and more torturous actions. Ache’s training arc would be interrupted by the arrival of another Arch. Fortunately, again, there was only one. But it was the one that was physically the strongest of the seven, leagues above the likes of Metaman, me, or any super strength-powered human: Ardentia, the third surprise.