Chapter 20

Sunday, 6/5/119

The Capital of Harrelson, 1:30 PM

As Ethan and Chris advance towards their destination, a line of people standing outside the city walls come into view, meaning they have essentially arrived.

“Woah, you weren’t fucking around when you said the city wall was big.”

Although the height is nothing to gape at, standing at around 10 meters (32 feet), the wall encircles an entire city, so its sheer length is quite an extraordinary sight to behold.

While Chris is staring at said wall, he is suddenly pulled off to the side of the road, disappearing from the view of the guards. They kneel on the ground and Ethan begins to pull two ropes from his bag.

“Chris, time to enact the plan,” he says, handing him the rope.

“We’re doing that now?” he asks in return.

“We have to. If the guards see us together and report that you're with me, this’ll never work.”

“Makes sense. Ok, lemme tie your hands.”

After a long seven minutes of him figuring out how to tie the rope, and an even longer amount of time to prepare themselves, the two eventually emerge from the roadside with Ethan being carried upon Chris’s shoulder. The former of which has both his hands and feet tied, while the latter sports raggidy, torn clothes and dirt smeers on his skin, making him look like a street kid. To complete this look, his glasses have been removed, and while he can vaguely see, the main source of guidance is being provided by Ethan’s sensory skills.

They stand in the line of people entering the city for roughly twenty minutes, in which time Chris becomes a little anxious, but they eventually reach the guard check.

Four intimidating men stand ready to do battle if necessary at the city’s gate. They sport the appeaance of what Chris would imagine mercenaries to look like with their plain, dirty clothes, bullet proof vests (made of Batrock metal instead of Kevlar) and rifles hanging from their shoulders.

One of the men steps up to check Chris, which startles him slightly but he’s able to keep a straight face. The guard eyes Chris up and down.

“Purpose for ent…”

But the guard stops talking when he sees an unconscious (faking) but recognizable face slumped over Chris’s shoulder.

“Ethan Blade? Kid, is that Ethan Blade?!”

Show time. Chris puts on an air of confidence he normally doesn’t exude. “Yeah. I caught him only a few miles from here. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw him. What a lucky break, right?”

The guard stares in disbelief. After all, before him is a dirty, homeless looking kid who appears extremely scrawny and weak, despite his height. But he eventually has no choice but to accept it and allows Chris to pass into the city to collect the bounty. The other guards watch him pass while green with envy, thinking about stealing Ethan and collecting the bounty themselves, but they dismiss the thought.

After entering the city, he tries to blend in with the crowd, but because of the person and large backpack which he is carrying, he is daggered with curious stares from those passing by. Even someone as oblivious as him realizes he stands out. Ethan somehow detects his uncomfortableness and whispers into his ear to keep cool.

Besides the stares, Chris also takes at the surroundings and finds that, while the city doesn’t appear to be as advanced as his hometown, it's a vast improvement over Border Town.

The structures and the small, one-story buildings lining the street all look well constructed and maintained, if not a little old. The streets are much more lively than that of Border Town, with people of all different professions walking up and down the street. The city gives off the same feel as Arbhar but just on a much grander scale.

“Why were you so scared of this place?” he asks Ethan, who still has his eyes closed. “It seems pretty peaceful, if not a little poorer than what I’m used to. I don’t see the problem.”

“The problem isn’t with the citizens,” Ethan whispers back. However, he doesn’t elaborate on this point. “Just keep going straight for Harrelson’s mansion.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m just trying to remember which way you told me the city’s center was.”

Ethan opens his mouth to remind him, however, he suddenly pauses as his senses alert him to a presence. They’re a rather strong Awakened, no, a Gem user, and they’re headed straight towards them.

After a few more seconds, the presence has nearly reached them, prompting Ethan to let out a murmured warning to Chris.

“Incoming.”

“What was that?”

Click.

Chris feels the nudge of a metallic object pressing against the side of his head, causing him to involuntarily freeze up.

“Drop him and put your hand up!” yells a female voice.

Without turning his head, Chris shifts his eyes towards the gun against his temple and notices that it's enveloped by a dark orange aura. Instinctually, he realises that the pistol is far more dangerous than usual and pulls his head back away from the barrel.

The woman carrying the gun, although she had no intention of firing originally, involuntarily pulls the trigger, startled by Chris’s sudden movement. He watches the bullet rip by him at regular speed, and just as he’s thinking that it might not pose a threat, it smashes into a building wall and creates a large hole the size of a basketball.

His eyebrows shoot in in surprise as he sighs in relief, glad that he made the wise decision to dodge rather than test his luck. He then turns his sight back to the woman and slaps the gun from her hand, sending it flying down the street which is now swarmed with people running from the gunshot.

“Ah, shit!”

However, she takes the opportunity to strike back, throwing a jab at Chris’s face, hitting square in the jaw before he is able to react.

Damn! I always get caught in fights without my goggles.

While the punch may not have necessarily hurt, it's enough to knock him back. Realising he might actually have to fight a real battle, he grabs Ethan (plus their bags) and tosses him onto the building roof behind him. This way, he can fight while keeping Ethan, who's supposed to be immobile, away from the attacker.

“Sorry, but this catch is mine,” Chris proclaims in a confident tone while pointing at his chest. “You want him, you gotta go through me.”

A cliche line to be sure, but since he has zero idea how someone like who he’s pretending to be would really act, he can do nothing else but say whatever comes to mind. Though, while the line is cheesy, it gets across the point. If she wants to claim the bounty for herself, she’s gotta take it by force.

Hearing his words, her expression darkens as she steals herself for a fight. Chris notices that she looks quite tough, as she stands at 6’2 and is missing an eye, which causes him to question if he should run away or not. Unlike Ethan, he has zero ability to size up his opponent and it's currently proving to be a great source of self-doubt.

Blasting towards him, with the ground slightly cracking under her acceleration, she swivels his hips and throws a hard right punch. Chris reacts and puts up an arm to block, but finds that she is feinting as she suddenly drives her left fist into his abdomen.

The punch is delivered expertly as it perfectly targets the diaphragm. The air is slightly knocked out of his lungs for a moment but he quickly recovers. However, before he can, she takes her now free right hand and chops him in the rips.

Letting out a groan, Chris tries to strike back, not wanting to keep taking hits. He puts power into his legs and swings his palm towards her chest, thinking about giving her a warning shot before going all out. Although he lacks self confidence in his abilities, he was shown how powerful he was during his fights with Ethan and Alex Spencer, and he’d rather end the fight through a simple display of power rather than going for the kill.

But instead, his palm slips past her body as she twists her torso to the side. While she does this, she closes the already short distance between her and Chris, putting them literally face to face. Chris, before he can back away, is grabbed by his nape and has a knee driven into his groin.

Smash!

Chris’s eyes go wide with sheer surprise (the pain hasn’t reached him yet) and while caught off guard, she uses the grip on his neck and arm to swing him around, launching him into one of the buildings.

He smashes through the storefront of the building and continues to the back wall, crashing into and cracking it with a loud thud. As he thunks to the ground, the pain of being kicked in his sensitive area finally takes effect and he lets out a whimper.

“W-why? Why does this stuff happen to me and not Ethan?”

What he fails to realise is that Ethan is currently tied up and has just been tossed up onto a roof without warning. Even to him, it's a pretty demeaning experience. They both are currently putting up with a lot.

Chris snaps out of his little fit when he spots the woman about to jump up to the roof where Ethan is. He leaps to his feet, despite still being in pain, and bursts out of the storefront seemingly unhurt from being thrown.

His lack of injury startles her, which allows him to quickly slide (literally, because of his speed) between her and Ethan once again.

“Surprised?” he asks in a cocky voice. “Cheap ball shots won’t take me do…”

She charges without waiting for him to finish. Changing her tactic, she rips her short leather jacket off her person and throws it at his head. Chris puts his hand up to swat it out of the way of his sight, but a fist suddenly punches through the jacket, hitting him square in the eye.

“Gah!”

He puts his hand to his eye socket and retreats a few steps back, only for a pair arms to slip under his own to halt his movements.

“Eh?”

He turns his head to find that … the woman he’s fighting currently is holding him still? Only … the same person is also charging at him from the front!

There are two?!

Before he can break free from the second one’s grasp, the original grips his head and slam her knee into his nose. The impact sends him flying backwards, and when he lands high on his back, he looks around for the second one, as she should’ve been launched back with him.

However, he doesn’t see her anywhere, and in his distraction, she aims a strike at his neck but fortunately, he shifts his body out of the way just in time.

Having created space between his attacker and himself, he widens his stance and prepares to strike back, but as he shifts his feet, someone kicks the back of his knees, causing him to lose his balance. As he panics, the attacker takes advantage and, using her substantial Awakened strength, roundhouse kicks him in the side of the head, sending his tumbling a great distance down the road.

When he finally stops his momentum and looks up, in the distance next to the building which Ethan lies on, he sees two blurry figures that look identical. Left without his glasses, he squints his eyes to try and get a better look.

So there are two. Maybe a cloning ability.

Although he’s curious, he leaves the matter for later since the two figures move to steal Ethan once again.

“You dare!” he yells, trying to keep in character. He spots the gun, which he swatted away, lying in front of him, and he acts on a spontaneous idea. He picks up the weapon and instead of firing it, he decides to chuck it with all his might at the ground near the attackers’ feat (worried that throwing the gun directly at them might kill her).

Once the gun leaves his hand, it slices through the air towards the assailants at a whopping speed of Mach 3. Needless to say, when the pistol hits the ground in front of the two identical women, the smashes into small, unidentifiable bits that continue past her without stopping.

The loud sound of the impact, and the sonic boom, startle her greatly, causing her two to take an extremely defensive position as if she’s bracing for impact. It’s clear to Chris that she couldn’t even see the gun smash in front of her and that she only comprehended the aftermath.

Using the opportunity, he appears in front of her at a starling speed, causing a windstorm around them.

“Don’t get arrogant thinking you knocked me out!”

He cocks his arm and then proceeds to thrust out his palm, hitting her square in the chest and sending her flying back into her ‘clone.’

“Hnnnn!”

The two then continue to smash into the shop behind them and, unlike Chris before them, completely break through the back wall and spill out into the next street over.

Chris stands still, looking at the ever growing hole in the poor store front, which he was also knocked into earlier. He stays alert, awaiting for his opponents’ next move.

“Pssst,” he whispers. “Psst, Ethan! You good!?”

“Yes. Hey, what does the enemy look like?” Ethan asks.

“Why do you want to … hey, shut up, they're coming back!”

Chris readies his stance as he notices the women emerge from the hole in the shop with her head bleeding while she massages her bruising sternum. She appears slightly unstable on her feet, but quite a bit of fight is still left in her eyes. However, one thing sticks out to Chris: only one of the two women reappeared, which confirms to him that she has a sort of cloning ability.

“Good god you're a monster,” she says in a voice which sounds in pain. “Now I understand how Ethan was captured.”

Chris, thinking she is talking about Ethan as if she has heard rumors of his strength, smirks and puffs out his chest.

“I don’t want to brag but I’m practically unmatched in combat. You should probably give up the fruitless endeavor…”

“That’s something I cannot do.”

She states this with determination overflowing from her person. As she takes a deep breath, she readies herself for combat once again.

[Double Gem: Perfect Clone]

As her body is wrapped in the same dark orange as before, her body seemingly splits into two people, with Chris unable to tell one from the other.

“Even if I can't beat you, I still have options!”

The two clones charge at the battle ready Chris, and just as he is preparing himself to take on both, one of them breaks off and jumps towards the roof where Ethan lay. While he wants to stop her, he is preoccupied with the other one, having to block well-placed hits that reek of battle experience. Despite him being far stronger, he finds himself on the backfoot as the woman he’s fighting ducks and dodges his counter attacks.

For a while now, Ethan has laid on the roof, thinking about the attacker. During the fight, he sensed her energy and felt her activate a cloning ability which seems familiar to him. Couple this with the voice he heard just now, and Ethan has begun racking his brain.

I know that voice. I definitely know it.

As he feels her activate the cloning ability once again on the street below, a sudden face pops into his head. Then, almost if by fate, the very face which he thought of suddenly leaps into the air to see him lying on the building roof.

“Ethan!”

“Michelle?!”

“Hurry! Before …”

But her words are stopped as her leg is grabbed by a hand in mid-air. She looks down to see Chris gripping her calve, with her clone slumped on the ground in the distance.

He already took down my double! It hasn’t even been a few seconds!

During those few seconds, although he was on the defensive, by using her momentum against her he was able to connect with an unexpected headbutt, which thoroughly knocked her out.

Now, in mid air with a hand on the second enemy, he tightens his grip and, using her leg, whips her back down into the ground, cracking it under the raw force of the impact.

Coughing up blood, clearly having sustained some internal damage, she stumbles onto her feet while practically unconscious.

“I … need to … help … him.”

Chris, landing on the ground, starts to reform his opinion of her. The behavior he’s seeing is not that of someone looking to collect a bounty, but of someone in desperate need to save one they care for.

He raises his fists and readies a battle stance, but he would really prefer to end the fight before her injuries became worse.

Just as she is about to charge at him, suddenly Ethan Shan steps behind her and chops her is the neck, painlessly knocking her out. Chris’s eyes widen with the sudden appearance of his companion.

“Hey! Why are you blowing your cover?!

“No time to explain. Guards will round that corner,” he points behind himself, “in twenty seconds. Follow me.”

Ethan then Shan steps through the alley to his right while carrying the woman on his shoulder. Chris, although frazzled, does as he’s told. He leaps over the building to his left and lands on the next street over where he sees Ethan blast past him. Not wasting another second, he turns and follows.

The three having disappeared from the scene, when the guards arrive, they are baffled to see a street in shambles from the fight. Thinking about the power needed to mess up a street this badly, they become glad they showed up late.

Across town, Ethan stops running and slides into another alley. Chris soon does the same, finding Ethan gently setting the woman on the ground.

“Hey, dude, the hell is going on? You know her?”

“Yeah. She’s a friend from the past.”