Chapter Five A Pledge

 

 

 A knocking shatters the peace Zane has enjoyed since coming home. "I wonder who it can be."

Pushing his body up after that long night, he cracks open his door to Ruby almost in tears. Her eyes scanned him looking for anything abnormal, scratches, or bruises.

Zane snaps out of his sleepy state: "What's wrong Ruby? What happened?"

Ruby shoves the door open almost breaking it as she grips him tightly in an embrace: "I saw you in a video! Leaping out of a burning build!"

She shoved her face into his chest, wailing in his arms, her words came out muffled.

Zane hugged her, his body changed, it grew slightly, not noticeable, or at least not to the naked eye. The orbs are affecting him in many ways, not only mentally, but physically too.

Zane sighs: "You saw that eh?"

Zane pats her head, slowly brushing her hair: "Don't worry Ru, I'm not going anywhere."

Zane assuage her worries until she calmed to a soft whisper: "Why did you do it."

He tensed up a little: "What do you mean?"

She looks up at her brother: "What was the reason you went into the fire."

Ruby looked for an answer in his eyes, searching: "Why not? There could have been someone that needed help, and there was."

She only wanted to make excuses for him but didn't want to hurt his feelings: "But, but you are just."

She stopped. Zane's eyes dim at her response.

"I am just a human, is that was what she was trying to say."

Closing his eyes, he unbinds himself from her hold: "I'm just what Ruby. Go on, say it."

Ruby stammers: "I-I didn't mean to say-"

Zane rolls his eyes: "Say what, that I'm-"

A knock disrupted their borderline argument, Z walked past her getting away from the walking powerhouse. Ruby tries to stop him by gripping his arm just for him to weasel his way out.

Ruby attempts to talk to him: "Please Zane I never meant anything by it!"

*Sigh*, "She really is irritating in the morning."

Zane races down the stairs answering the door, to his surprise the two heroes are at his door.

Jessie is the first one to introduce herself with a hand: "Hello I am Jessie from the hero society!"

Zane felt like he has been flashed banged by words: "Oh uh hi, *Shaking her hand* do you need something."

James is next: "Hey I am James, we are here to recruit for the hero society."

Zane's expression dropped: "Oh, then let me go get my sister."

Before he could turn Jessie let her words flow out like a river: "Wait! We were looking for you! We saw what you did to save the little kid and I got to say, it takes guts to pull off that stunt!"

A voice comes from inside the house: "He will certainly not!"

Ruby steps up to the door crossing her arms: "My brother can't be doing hero work, he has school, *Ruby's eyes deepen* now that our parents aren't with us, we have to pay for our house or move away."

Jessie spits out words: "We can pay for it!"

Zane crosses his arms with his sister: "How."

James pulls Jessie to the side, whispering to each other: "What are you thinking, we can't do that!"

Jessie pulls him closer: "Look! Everyone is raving about this nobody saving a kid. If we can get him into our agency then we soar through the ranks! It doesn't matter the costs, as long as he gets famous we get promotions!"

Ruby relays the info to Zane, whispering it into his ear. 

The two turn back to Zane and Ruby: "Yes we can, only if you join us!"

Zane answers: "I will do it."

Ruby is against it again: "No Zane! We can figure something out!"

"This will give me a chance to get a look on the inside."

Zane: "If you are so worried about me, then why don't you come with me."

Zane focuses his attention on the heroes: "Is it alright that she joins along."

Jessie blurts out completely hiding James's worries: "Sure!"

Zane gives a sly look: "So what is it going to be?"

Ruby pouts: "You are an ass Z."

Zane smiles: "So is that a yes?"

Ruby: "Yes you bully."

Zane turns to them: "Then it's settled, when do we go."

James hip bumps Jessie out of the way: "It will take a week's time for the paperwork to go through. We will get back to you."

They say their goodbyes before departing, Jessie flies off with James holding on. Zane gently closes the door, letting a sigh along with it.

Ruby: "So we are joining the hero society."

Zane hustles upstairs: "NO Ruby, you are not!"

Ruby wined like a child: "Then why did you bring it up!"

Zane swings open his door: "To get you off my back!"

A slam of a door echoed downstairs leaving Ruby in sad silence. Zane taps the back of his head against the door, "Talking out loud would just be useless, I can only plan in my mind, or else she will hear."

Plopping down on the bed, he stares at the wall lost in thought, "I need to get inside the hero's society and know their plan. At this strength, I might as well be a twig. Well let's see, I can steal powers to a limited degree. That must mean if I kill more of the same super I can boost the power. *Reaching for his nightstand, he pulls a switchblade out of the drawer* I should have my mother's abilities."

Raising his hand above him, knife in the other, no thought crossed his mind as he slit his forearm. A steady stream of blood flowed out. Not a deep cut but sizable. Zane furrowed his brow as a green glow crept around the cut sealing it up slowly but surely. "That proves it! Now that that theory is done, what would happen if I absorb a human? NO! I can't be thinking that. The supers are my prey, not humans."

The thought came to stay as he fought a losing battle, in one last-ditch effort Zane laid down, trying to sleep his problems away. Unfortunately for him, Z liked the idea, he had the perfect location for his new test too. Z sat up, his eyes rolling back as he instinctively shivered, twisting his neck, popping it. His eyes roll back to their normal position, and his left eye bleeds red, the grey overtaken by the red. 

 

 

 

 

#

 

 

 

 

Sunset hit the skyscrapers' rooftops as night began in the streets. Z unhindered by Zane's morals strolls through the night, hoodie hiding his face. Z stops, in front of him was the apartment complex that caught fire. All that stands now is the ash. "Now if I am correct, there should be orbs. The least the humans can do for me is give me strength from their fallen. I am protecting them."

Z waited at the steps, waiting for the luring feeling to propel him towards his goal. Thinking he would get that same feeling instead he got a repulsive ache in his heart. A feeling blaring in his mind, telling him to run at breakneck speed until he is out of the city. Z held his ground, soon a white orb fazed through the rubble, one, two three, four, five six seven eight! "It's, IT'S TOO MUCH!"

Z was overwhelmed, the first time the other half faced a challenge. "Zane's turn to take the reigns!"

Z cautiously speed walked to the alleyway Zane jumped out of the window. Laying against the other building, Z releases his grasp, Zane's body twitches, and a shiver runs down his spine. His eye clears up to the normal grey. "Wha- where am I?"

The realization kicks in, in an instant. "No, why am I here."

The orbs followed, surrounding him. Calling to him, pleading for help that never came. Screams echoed out languishing Zane greatly. "Please go away! I tried okay! I'm sorry I couldn't save you!"

The voices: "WHy! SUFfer! HeLP! PlEAse!"

Zane slumped against the damp wall, the orbs encroaching on him. Paralyzed beyond fear, just him and the outcries of the people who were wronged by supers. Zane psychs himself up, "Okay Zane you got this!"

Zane points to the closest orb, "What's your name?"

All he had left was reconciling with the dead, hoping to help them one last time. 

The closest orb sobbing, a young man: "My-My, *Sniffling* my name is Nick."

The ball stops moving as do the others: "How did you die Nick."

Zane tilts his head: "Do you remember how you died?"

No answer. 

Zane: "Does any of you know how you died."

An orb voices out: "Fire."

Zane: "Do you know what caused the fire."

Silence. 

Zane holds his hand to his chest: "I know who."

The orbs blinked: "WHo~"

Zane: "It was a super. I murdered him, now it's your turn to act on your revenge."

The orbs asked in unison: "How?"

Zane reached his hand out to them: "Lend me your life, and inside you will find your retribution."

Nick, the young man, a family of three, two elderly people, a child left at home, and a single mother. One at a time, they accepted Zane's offer. The last one waited, Zane took the rest with open arms.

Zane asks: "What's wrong."

The orb was hysterical: "I don't see my son! What happened to him?! Please tell me he is okay!"

Zane crawls to the orb getting face to face: "I saved him. He is safe. Do you want me to tell him anything?"

The mother wept tears of joy: "Tell my marshmallow his mother is in the sky."

Zane: "Will do."

The mother orb: "Can I ask one last favor?"

Zane gives a sickly smile: "Sure."

The mother orb: "Kill them."

Zane choked: "What!? What do you mean?"

Her expressions could be felt beyond the orb, her stoned face countenances: "Flay them alive."

She rambled on, her words cascading into morbid depictions of torture. The orb flashed violently, changing colors. Strobing through all the colors as it sped countlessly, it stopped abruptly. The orb said nothing, just sat there motionlessly. The orb's color landed on black, a sound came from the orb at a low frequency. 

Zane, off put by it: "Hello? Miss?"

"Do you fear death?"

Zane looked around: "Who said that?!"

"I said, do you fear it."

The orb sat there, "Is it coming from the orb."

Zane answers the question: "No."

"Do you fear Supers?"

Zane answers in a fatigued tone: "No."

"What do you fear?"

Zane was weary from the absorption: "Nothing, not anymore."

"Then take it."

The orb sent a mind-numbing sensation.

"Do it."

"Take it."

"Fulfill your destiny."

Zane mustered up the strength to grasp the ball, clenching it with all his might. "I couldn't give two shits about my destiny, I am here to protect the humans of this world and my sister!"

The orb shattered under his pressure imbuing his hand in a black sludge.

"Take care of it."

The sludge wraps around his left arm coiling around similar to a snake binding around its prey. The voice, it was cryptic and decrepit sounding.

"Good luck with your monster."

His arm showed no signs of the sludge or any of the events that occurred. Exhaustion caught up to Zane zapping away all his strength. "I need- to get home~"

Immobilized from the orb, all he could do is move his heavy eyes and watch the world go by. Sitting in that damp musky alleyway out of the way of prying eyes. Zane passes out.

 

 

 

 

#

 

 

 

 

Zane sits up in a cold sweat. He sat in his room as if nothing happened like it was all a dream or nightmare. "Was it a dream?"

Zane examined his arm for the sludge, but nothing. 

"What's your next move, Zane?"

A voice whispered in his ears, a mix of a man's and woman's voices in a distorted mess. "Who are you!"

"Did you forget, you let us in?"

It wasn't a dream, "How many of you are there?"

"Seven. Plus one"

Zane stared at a wall completely oblivious to Ruby staring at him through the opening in the door. "Why plus one?"

"We don't know who they are. It's sleeping."

Zane rubs his eyes: "Is that the black sludge."

Ruby whispers to herself: "Black sludge?"

"It's old, too old."

Zane pops his neck: "I need to get my plan set before it's too late."

Zane leaps out of bed in shorts and no shirt. Ruby's eyes widen, "I had no clue Z was so ripped!"

She makes her escape, "What is the black sludge?"

Zane sore from the experience: "Well I have school today and have done no homework whatsoever. There is a lot of planning ahead I'm going to be doing."

Zane picks out a basic outfit for today, "Well people inside my brain, you will have to go to school with me."

"Someone was watching."

Picking up his backpack, "I know."

 

 

"The city is about to be flipped on its head."