Chapter Twenty-Two

 

“The Noble that fits the blob’s description is called ‘Gumbrawl’,” Vulcon informed us, looking at his phone. 

“Prepare yourselves. We’re going to need to do this as quietly as possible without alerting whatever forces may be lurking nearby,” I commanded, crafting an icicle and ice sword. Vulcon stepped in front of me though, with the most serious look on his ashen face. 

“You know you’re in no shape to fight,” he told me. “Let Vice and me handle this.”

I glanced at Vice, who nodded and stood before us in a fighting stance, ready for the approaching Nobles to see us. I sighed.

“Fine. But, we need to make sure they don’t contact outside help. I will spend all my energy keeping up an ice wall to keep them from running,” I informed, then frowned. “You had better win.”

I placed my palms against the soft, cold dirt and let my ice spread across the ground and form into an ice wall behind the Nobles as they came into view. They looked at the wall first, then over at us. 

Aura Ray was right about the blob. That’s about the best word that could be used to describe it. It must’ve been at least seven feet tall, but could probably grow larger or smaller at whim. It looked like a pile of walking, radioactive green sludge with piercing yellow eyes about where the head should be. Was the serum capable of doing this to a human? Were both serums capable of something like this? Or was this some sort of fucked up experiment gone wrong? I wondered if it could speak, but I had to focus on the other.

“Vulcon, do you know who the other is?” I shouted, as he and Vice cautiously approached the Nobles.

“No need,” the human Noble said. “I go by ‘Acuman’.”

“Man, you Nobles really do make it easy for us,” I chuckled. “Putting the clues together: based on the way you carry yourself and what the word ‘acumen’ means, you received some sort of intellectual boost from the serum.”

We all waited for a response. Acuman lowered his head and smiled, then lifted it, staring at me directly, raising his arms.

“Hmph. Right you are, Amaia,” he said. “Guess you received some sort of intelligence boost as well. Or…is that sort of brilliant deduction just part of you?”

What was he doing? I honestly couldn’t tell whether he was being sarcastic or flirting with me. Perhaps both, but the fact that he would even attempt the latter pissed me off. Acuman pulled out his phone, presumably to contact the others, but Vice quite literally saw it coming with his Hindsight (able to see seconds into the most likely future) power. This made what happened next to him all the more honorable.

He dashed to Acuman and kicked his phone into the air, sky-high, but the blob, Gumbrawl, reacted fast enough and shot out a muddy arm, smothering Vice into the ground. 

As the phone fell, Vulcon carefully waited for it to fall below the ice wall’s height before incinerating it mid-air. Acuman pouted with his bottom lip, slightly nodding and impressed at what Vice and Vulcon just accomplished. 

“Keep ‘em busy,” Acuman quietly said to Gumbrawl. I wasn’t sure if he was aware of my super hearing, so I don’t know if he said it on purpose. The fact that he supposedly received an intelligence boost had me on more of an edge than normal. I could deal with almost dying and fighting outnumbered, but I hated having my head fucked with. 

“What do you want?” I questioned as he slowly approached Aura Ray and I as Vice and Vulcon teamed up against Gumbrawl near the ice wall. My goal was to keep that wall up, so fighting Acuman was out of the question for me. 

“Just want to have a conversation,” Acuman said. “Maybe get a better understanding of why you’re doing what you’re doing.”

“Aura,” I whispered. “Are you sure he’s a Noble?”

She violently nodded her head. “Without a doubt, Miss Luther.”

That fact had me questioning whether his name was a red herring. 

“Make sure you keep checking to see if he’s lying at any point. Think you can manage that?”

She nodded again. “It’s trickier than doing an area scan, but takes less out of me.”

“I’m not accepting applications for my team,” I told Acuman. He raised his hands and shook his head.

“Not looking to join,” he told me. “Just looking to understand.”

“That’s far enough,” I said. He stopped walking. 

“So, Miss Amaia Luther,” he said. “Is there someone you’re doing this for?”

“Why the fuck would I share that information or anything else for that matter?” I asked. He smiled. 

“Because I won’t tell anyone. This is purely for my personal knowledge,” he said. I looked at Aura Ray. 

“He’s truthing,” she said. I squinted at her for the word she just used, but that could be addressed later.

“In exchange, I want your guarantee you’ll tell me information about the Alpha Corporation that I wish to know, here and now,” I demanded.

“Now, that doesn’t seem very fair--”

“Motherfucker, I could kill you where you stand. Especially if the only superpower you gained was intelligence,” I snapped. “From where I’m standing, you don’t get to deem what’s fair.”

“But if you attack me, that ice wall would be vulnerable, then you’d be found out,” he said. “You don’t want that, do you?”

“I only need to keep the wall up with one hand,” I said. That was a stupid thing to reveal and I realized it right after I said it. 

“Fair enough,” he said. “Fine, I’ll let you start.”

“Have we already been made?” I asked. He kept eye contact with me the entire conversation. I found it slightly intimidating, like he was constantly trying to read me or any movements I might make. Maybe he was the one that was intimidated and did this to not be surprised by any attack.

“No,” he said.

“Truthing.”

“My turn,” he said. “Again I ask, is there someone you’re doing this for? Better yet, who?”

“My little brother,” I said.

“I assume he’s…passed on?” he asked. I grit my teeth. His posh, condescending attitude was beginning to piss me off more and more. “Sore subject.”

“What happened to Ache?” I asked.

“From the report I read, Ardentia ended up knocking him unconscious. All she did was turn away for one second as backup arrived on the scene of the HQ and like that…he vanished. Hasn’t been seen or heard from since. Not even by his favorite person, Lux.”

I looked away for a millisecond at the thought of Lux. Of course, he noticed, but said nothing. I looked at Aura Ray for confirmation on if he was telling the truth again, and she nodded. Acuman asked his next question.

“Do you plan on killing every single Noble? Whether they were connected to the catastrophic event you’re referring to or not?”

“Yes.” I paused. We had gotten the information we came for and could retreat without casualties on either side for now. I eyed Vice and Vulcon, who were still combatting Gumbrawl. It didn’t seem like they were making headway with taking the blob down, as neither of them were equipped with the superpowers necessary to do so. I’m sure I was, but the state of my body would cause me to surely lose that battle. 

The thought of the pain I could endure while fighting the blob forced my mind to shoot to the pain I did endure with Asai’s torture session when I was in the Alpha Corps Prison. That trauma gave me my next and final question.

“What is Asai planning?” 

Acuman shrugged. My heart sank when I saw him do this. Since I knew he’d be telling the truth, this was the one response I was not hoping for. I would rather him lie so I could force the information out of him.

“No idea. She hasn’t told us everything. She keeps even us guessing, which I’m sure isn’t the best method and likely has resulted in Noble’s deaths at your hands. My best guess would be killing you, but I’m not sure how she plans to do it or even how soon,” he explained. “Perhaps she’s looking for a method, because you’re clearly not easy to kill. I mean, killing Ash--”

“Lie,” Aura Ray said. My eyes widened.

“What is?” I was fearful to ask, but I already knew.

“He’s lying about you killing Ash,” she said. “The rest of what he was saying was true; about not knowing.”

“Ash is alive?” I asked. He said nothing, instead he just stared at me. He knew if he gave an answer it would reveal the truth, so he kept quiet. This meant one of two possible solutions, Ash was alive or I’m not the one who killed him. I was really hoping for the latter, but I had a feeling that wasn’t the answer. 

Ash was one of the seven Archs, not including the honorary eighth, Lux. And I never included Apexcel from the train station. My encounters with the Archs always resulted in the death of at least one in my party. Ash killed the Advocate. Ardentia killed Detonade, knocked Vice and Aura Ray into a coma, and beat a suped-up Ache. I hadn’t even met the others yet. And the fact that I thought I had wiped out at least one showed me some semblance that this was possible. That I could win. 

“Now, let me ask you this,” Acuman said. “Do you think you can succeed?”

I didn’t answer immediately. I had my head held down and was staring at the ground. I wasn’t conscious of this until his question registered. I look at him dead in his eyes and said with greatly feigned confidence:

“Yes.”

Aura’s reaction didn’t help. She was clearly reading me and she became somber after my response. Acuman looked at her and understood I was lying. 

“SHIT!” Vice shouted. I looked over to where he and Vulcon were still combatting the blob, but the blob had disappeared. 

“What happened?!” Aura Ray shouted.

“The fucker melted into the ground,” Vice announced. “He’s blending in.”

“Aura, do you think you can get a read on him?” I asked. 

“I’ll try, but…everything’s beginning…to look hazy,” she said. Her eyelids were lowered. We needed her just for this and we’d retreat.

“That’s fine, we don’t need a shape, just where pieces of him are,” I said. 

“Vice! He’s…expanding out past that tree behind you!” Aura Ray shouted. “Get…outta…”

“GET OUTTA THERE!” I shouted. 

“Hmph,” Acuman said, pressing a button on a device. I thought it was somehow his phone at first glance, but I took a closer look to see a remote of some sort with several unmarked buttons on it. 

I heard a bunch of whirring noises increase in volume all around us. Acuman wasn’t lying about us having been made, but it was a setup. Or rather, he was buying time.

“I need to invest in a faster satellite. This one takes too long to reposition to my location,” he revealed. “But, now that it’s here and not near the Alpha Corps HQ, I’ll make use of these turrets.”

He pressed another button and a different pitch of whirred began.

“Vice!” I shouted. I realized the turrets were now spinning and about to fire. He dashed to us in time and began to deflect the rapid bullets with his forearms that had metal bones. I was still focused on keeping the wall up. Instead of regrouping with us, Vulcon focused on Gumbrawl once the blob collected itself and re-emerged larger in front of my teammate. Vulcon let everything he had fly at the blob, but the blob opened a hole in itself and let the lava pass through it, letting the lava land on the ice wall I made.

“SHIT! Vulcon, fall back!” I shouted. He sprinted away from Gumbrawl and fired his lava at a few turrets as he regrouped with us. Vice stayed at our back, continuously deflecting bullets until we were out of range for the turrets. 

“Back to The Bloodbath?” Vice asked as we ran through the forest for the city. He was supporting Aura Ray, who couldn’t run as fast due to being spent from using her powers. 

“No,” I said. “They’re likely expecting that.” 

“But, they can’t actually do anything with Erza, Rose, and Adriel there.”

“And have them watching over us as we rest, waiting for us to step outside?” I said. “No. We’re going to Ignitro’s old base of operations.”