Savior (The Savior Series Book 1) (27 page)

60. ACE VS TANGO

ACE:

I WASN'T AFRAID OF HIM. I WAS TERRIFIED. THE LAST TIME we fought, I had Reaper at my side and we still lost. I had been fighting since the day I was born, but I had never faced an opponent as fearsome as Tango. He was as fast and as strong as they came, and his ability to counterattack was unparalleled.

He stopped his approach when we were ten feet apart. Besides us, the gym was now empty as Wells’ men were focusing on securing the outside and getting the survivors to safety.

“Just you and me now, kid,” he said in that deep raspy voice of his.

“Look around Tango, this fight is over,”
I replied while masking my fear. I sheathed my sword, in part because he had not yet drawn his swords and partially because I was hoping to avoid fighting him alone.

“The way I see it, you and me have unfinished business, kid. I never got the chance to finish mopping the floor with you and that partner of yours.”

“I see what this is,”
I said, smugly,
“You're still pissing your panties about me making you kiss the deck last time, aren't you? I took out your buddy Charlie a few weeks ago. After I beat him into submission, he told me how you had never even been hit in a fight before I popped you with that six piece.”

“I'd like to see you do it again!” he barked.

“You want any sauce with that this time?”
I shot back. It had become obvious that there was no way of avoiding the fight, so I was trying to make him angry. Contrary to popular belief, anger is one of the worst emotions to experience during a fight. Anger causes sloppiness, and that was exactly what I needed from Tango. I needed him to get sloppy so that I could slip past his defenses and land a good shot. Since he had never really been hit much, I figured that he didn't have much of a chin. If I landed a good enough shot, perhaps I could end it quickly.

“Just remember that you asked for it, kid. And don’t even think about calling the boy scouts back in here. The entire place is wired with explosives. If I even smell them coming, I'll blow us all to hell,” Tango declared as he prepared to attack.

“Did you copy that, Echo?”
I asked as I tightened my headband and struck a defensive stance.

“10-4. I'll keep the boys at bay. Hang in there, Ace.”

As Tango leapt forward and prepared to strike, I could only see his left eye, which was the one that wasn't covered by the half-face mask that he wore. His gaze was cold and focused. I knew it would take much more than smack talk to get him off his game.

I blocked his heavy blow but stumbled backward from the force. He was only slightly faster than me but he was considerably stronger.

I continued to concentrate on defense as his tiger-like strikes rained in. As I backpedaled and repeatedly blocked his lightning quick attacks, I kept searching in vain for an opening. It wasn’t that his defense was so impregnable that I couldn’t find an opening. He simply struck so quickly and viciously that I didn't have time to analyze his defense.

He finally broke through my guard with a crushing left hook to my ribs and a spinning backhand to the face. He followed up a solid kick to my chest, which sent me toppling to the floor. As I hit the deck, I sprang right back to my feet as quickly as possible and leapt to my left just as he tried to stomp me. A chill shot down my spine as I finally saw an opening.

Against my better judgment, I launched a fierce left jab at his head. I missed the punch by less than an inch as he leapt away just in the knick of time. He countered with another leaping left hook to my ribs. I ignored the sting of his strike, and I successfully blocked his next punch and returned fire with a left jab as I moved to his right. Again, my blow was less than an inch away from hitting its mark when he leapt backward in the knick of time. Frustrated, I foolishly rushed him and ripped a four-punch flurry that Tango easily evaded before landing another crushing hook to my ribs. I spat blood inside my mask as the fire that exploded in my ribs spread throughout my body.

Seemingly taking his foot off of the gas for a bit, Tango circled me as I doubled over to catch my breath. “Body shots, kid. That's the most effective way to take down an opponent. I'll give you one thing: you're almost as fast as I am, but I doubt you can continue to keep up once I drop a few more hammers on your ribcage.”

“You call those hammers? I'd say you hit like my little sister, but I wouldn't want to offend her!”
I quipped. My timing was perfect as he dove. I leapt to his right as soon as he sprang for me. My brain screamed at my fist as I once again saw the opening. I fired a vicious left hook that connected with the right side of his face, knocking him to the deck for the first time that night. I heaved for much-needed air as he pulled himself to his feet.

Run and watch for the right.
Charlie's words rang in my head as Tango and I glared at each other, each waiting for the other to make the next move. At first I thought Charlie meant watch for Tango's right-handed attacks, but as I gazed upon his icy glare, I realized what Charlie really meant. Whenever I attacked Tango from his left, he always blocked my attacks with relative ease, but when I attacked from his right, he instinctively leapt away revealing a significant vulnerability. I knew this could only mean one of two things. Either the mask he wore over his right eye made it difficult for him to see from that side or he simply couldn't see out of that eye at all.

I wasn't fast enough to evade his pounce, but I did well to block most of his ensuing attacks before I managed to slip to his right again. Just as I suspected, he instinctively leapt backward as soon as I disappeared from his field of vision, but this time I leapt with him. He literally couldn't have seen my leaping uppercut coming. His head snapped back as he stumbled and tumbled to the floor. He was able to quickly pull himself to his feet, but I could tell that he was dazed.

Though dazed, he was still Tango. I fought the urge to charge him because I didn’t want to open myself up to one of his fight ending counterattacks. Instead, I waited for him to attack and, once again, slid into his blind spot. Instead of leaping backward, he tried to duck but met a bone-crunching left knee to his face. I hit him five more times before he had even hit the floor.

He quickly leapt to his feet once more and unsheathed the tactical ninja swords on his back.

“It's over, Tango,”
I said firmly as I placed my right hand on the sword at my waist.

“You land a few punches and all of a sudden you think you've won?!” he yelled.

“
I'd hardly call that a few. I certainly understand how you could have lost count though,”
I shot back.

“There's only one way this ends, kid,” Tango declared as he tightened his grip on his two swords.

“I don't want to kill you, Tango,”
I warned as I thumbed my sword up an inch.

“Then you've already lost!” he shouted as he darted for me. I quickly unsheathed my sword and blocked his incoming assault. He was slightly faster than me in hand-to-hand-combat, but when it came to swordplay we were evenly matched. The last time we fought, I was far too aggressive and had consequently gotten stabbed in the shoulder. I didn’t intend to make that same mistake twice.

We blazed a trail around the dance floor as our steel clashed time and time again. I was holding my own but the two to one sword ratio was giving him a slight edge. I suddenly leapt away and twisted the top and the bottom of my sword’s handle in opposite directions in order to even the odds. Tango froze in disbelief as brilliant blue bolts of electricity shot up the blade of my sword.

“Pretty neat, huh?”
I mocked as I held my electrified sword before me.

“Leave it to an amateur to bring a glow stick to a sword fight!” Tango yelled as he lunged forward and swung his right sword for my head. Bright blue sparks flew as our blades clashed and his sword broke in two.

I barely evaded a violent sweep of his left sword as I tucked and rolled behind him. He stumbled forward as I sprang to my feet and raised my sword above my head.

I froze. His back was turned and I had him dead to rights. If I wanted to, I could have plunged my blade into his back and instantly ended the fight.

“Just like I thought, kid. You'll never win. You don't have what it takes to end this fight,” he growled with his back still facing me.

“I don't have to kill you to end this,”
I stated calmly.

“That's where you're wrong!” Tango roared as he spun into a powerful sweep of his sword, but by the time that he had spun to his left in hopes of catching me off guard, I had already slipped to his right and effectively vanished from his field of vision. I kept my promise and ended the fight by plunging my last throwing knife into his left eye. He fell to his knees and unleashed a painful scream as blood trickled down his face.

“Echo, this is Ace. Tango has been neutralized. Have the boys pick him up from the dance floor,”
I said as I twisted the handle of my sword in order to shut off the blade’s power supply.

“10-4. Nicely done, Ace! Do you have visual on Reaper? He's not responding.”

“Negative. He, The Suspect, and Monica fell into the classroom below. I'm going in after them.”

“I have to advise against that, Ace. You need to get clear of the blast radius. The Reaper can take care of The Suspect,”
Howie replied.

It's not The Suspect that I'm worried about,
I thought as I gazed at the chasm that Reaper had disappeared into.

61. HARBINGER

REAPER:

IT WAS LIKE STARING INTO THE EYES OF A GHOST. THERE are no words capable of describing how I felt when I tore The Suspect's mask away only to reveal the face of my older brother PJ.

“How… how is it possible?” I asked as I released him and stumbled backward in disbelief.

“You fool! You're not supposed to be here! The reason why I chose the prom is because I knew that you wouldn't come!” PJ bellowed, his eyes ignited with rage.

It was hard to catch my breath as I struggled to grasp the reality of this revelation. After all, PJ was supposed to be dead. So how was it that he stood before me? And why was he wearing the outfit of The Suspect? The man that I had grown to hate because of his own death?

“PJ, you're dead! You died at Fox Valley State!” I declared.

“I'm not dead, Adam. I just did a good job of making everyone think so,” he said calmly.

“You are dead! The Suspect killed you!” I retorted, feeling as though I had lost my grip on reality.

“I
am
The Suspect!” he bellowed, agitated by my disbelief. “And apparently you're The Reaper.”

“This doesn't make any sense, PJ. Why would you do this?” I asked.

“It makes perfect sense. I faked my death in order to fully devote myself to the calling.”

“What calling? What are you talking about?” I demanded.

“I was chosen, brother. I was chosen by The Righteous to help bring chaos to this world because of its support of the persecutors of Eden.”

I heard Monica gasp behind me as PJ mention Eden, the name of the planet that she had dreamed about as a child. I was so caught up in the shock of discovering that PJ was alive that I had forgotten that she was present.

“PJ, what have you done? What have you gotten yourself into?” I questioned.

“It’s my destiny, brother, but it doesn’t have to be me alone. You can join me. Join me now before it’s too late!”

“What do you mean before it’s too late?”

“The Righteous is their leader. He’s been stranded here on Earth for over forty years but the Knights of Eden are coming for him. The Strangers are only the beginning. The chaos that we have given birth to will continue to spread and infect this nation. In the months to come, more domestic terror cells will rise from the abyss and continue to plunge this country into oblivion. When they come…when the Knights of Eden descend upon us, this world will be so wounded from tearing itself apart that it won’t stand a chance at fighting back. You have to join me, brother! It is the only way to ensure your survival!”

“PJ, you're a murderer! You've killed hundreds of people! How can you expect me to be okay with that?!” I demanded.

“Whatever I've done pales in comparison to the atrocities that this world has committed against the sons and daughters of Eden!”

“PJ, you have to stop this! You have to stop it right now! This is The Righteous talking, not you! He’s brainwashing you, brother!”

“Don't you dare take his name in vain! He did not brainwash me! He saved me! Because of him, I am no longer trapped within the sordid confines of that miserable state of poverty to which I had grown accustomed. Because of him, I am no longer forced to live in a world that insists upon me hating myself. It’s because of him that I now have a purpose in life. He said that I can go there, brother. Once Eden is reclaimed and my work here is done, he said that I can join them.”

PJ’s eyes pleaded with me to understand and accept his point of view, but I couldn’t see past the extremism of his actions. He must have seen my thoughts within my facial expression because his face suddenly twisted into a scowl as he watched me.

“PJ, I just can’t understand this. How could you leave us? How could you make us think you were dead?!”

“Of course you can't understand! You're not the one that got beaten to a pulp three times a day! She never let him touch you!” PJ roared.

“And you think I had it easy?! You think I enjoyed watching him beat on you and Mom and not being able to do anything about it?”

“Liar! I've seen what you can do! You're the freaking Reaper! Where was all your power then, brother? Where was your strength when he was breaking my arm?! You could've torn him in half if you had wanted to, yet you did nothing to stop him!”

“I didn't know what I could do back then, PJ! You have to know that I would have protected you if I had known.”

“How convenient. Well, there's no need to worry about protecting me from him anymore, brother. It's been taken care of. I did what you and all your power couldn't do.”

My eyes widened with disbelief as I realized what he was alluding to.

“Yes, I killed him, brother,” PJ boasted, darkly.

“Damn you, PJ,” I growled, fighting hard not to rush over and rip his throat out.

“You ungrateful
maggot!
You and Mother should both be thanking me for ending that miserable waste of space. You're just as worthless as she is-”

In a blur, I zoomed over and pinned him against the wall by his neck.

“She killed herself, you idiot!” I roared as I tightened my grip around his throat. “You may as well have tied the rope around her neck yourself!”

“Then let her burn,” he hissed, barely able to speak due to my iron grip around his scrawny neck.

“You knew how much she loved him! You knew she couldn’t live without him!” I howled as I tightened my grip.

“Adam, you're killing him!” Monica yelled from somewhere behind me. I ignored the desperation in her voice and prepared to squeeze until his head literally popped off.

The bloodshot eyes that stared back at me were no longer the eyes of my older brother. The cold within him had infected his soul beyond repair. He was a monster — something akin to the same darkness that festered within my own heart. I was so blinded by hatred that I had failed to recognize that, throughout my journey to avenge what I thought was his death, I too was becoming a monster.

Monica screamed for me to stop and yanked at my coat as his arms fell limp, but the sound of my violently beating heart echoing in my head made it impossible to hear her pleas. I could feel his pulse slowing beneath my fingers as my own heartbeat quickened.

In one final effort, Monica attempted to yank me away as hard as she could. I barely moved an inch, but as I glanced over my shoulder at her, I finally saw it. The scowl from my dreams was made real at last. That all too familiar hatred smoldered in her eyes as she desperately clung to the part of me that had not yet given in to the darkness in my heart. It wasn’t me that she hated; it was the monster that I was allowing myself to become. My bloodlust was instantly extinguished as I realized that I had broken my vow to never let that moment come to pass.

My brother fell to the ground as I released him and stumbled away. The walls seemed to close in on me as I collapsed to the floor. I suddenly felt immobile as if I was encased in a thick web of the unavoidable fate that had finally caught up to me.

“They're coming, Adam. You can't stop them. None of you can,” PJ muttered from across the room. I looked over just in time to see him press the button on a small device in his right hand. Suddenly, a blinding flash of light filled the room and a thunderous explosion echoed throughout the building.

The ensuing rush of adrenaline allowed me to finally break free of the webs of fate that had ensnared me. I stood and zipped across the room and pulled Monica away from the clutches of the blaze that threatened to consume the room. In less time than it took to take a single breath, I rocketed down the hall as the searing tide of conflagration rose and spread rapidly in all directions.

Thousands of droplets of water from the sprinklers seemingly hung suspended in midair as I stormed down the hall in less time than it took for a single drop to fall to the floor.

By the time I reached the dance floor, I was moving so fast that even the flames seemed motionless. The hardwood floor cracked and buckled under the pressure of my supersonic bounds. As I crossed the dance floor, I cradled Monica's head tightly and, with one great leap, reduced the floor beneath me to a crater. Blistering tendrils of flame anxiously clutched for my feet as we sailed through the hole that I had left in the ceiling earlier and ascended into the night sky.

It happened almost exactly as it did in my dreams. But as we reached the peak of my ascension and the force of the wind that enveloped us lessened, I couldn’t bear to look at her. I didn't deserve to. I had caused her father's death by not saving him, and for a split second contemplated allowing her to die as well in order to keep her from discovering my betrayal.

Though I had pulled her away from the fiery abyss below, I couldn’t help but feel as though she was the one that had actually saved me. It was the thought of her that had kept me from drowning Fat Pat that day in the bathroom. It was she who stopped me from breaking my own brother's neck with my bare hands and becoming a monster just like him.

I felt Monica’s body suddenly grow tense as our drift became a decent.

“It's okay,” I whispered as I watched the silvery moonlight reflect from the surface of the dark waters of Lake Victoria below us. I held her as tightly as possible and straightened my body as we plunged into icy water. The once still water erupted into a geyser as we disappeared below the surface.

After a few minutes, the surface of Lake Victoria grew still once more. We floated near the bottom for what seemed like an eternity. An iciness crept over me as I thought of those very waters freezing my father's already cold heart as he met his end. I also thought of my mother's frigid gaze as she stared back at me from the rope. Her eyes were as cold as the water that beset me and the love of my life—as cold as the light from a dying star. Were it only me at the bottom of that lake, perhaps I would have joined them, but I owed Monica so much more than life. She was my savior and I owed her everything.

The still waters on the surface of Lake Victoria exploded once more as we finally shot out of the lake and landed safely on the shore of my father's watery grave.