I’m sure that it was difficult, despite the damage that they had already done to him. An axe to the shoulder, a hole drilled in his leg, it’s incredible that a physically average man could keep fighting for hours.

Well, I suppose there’s nothing average about materialising steel out of nothing, but compared to me, my limitless stamina, it’s incredible that he was able to keep going.

Against three opponents. Though now it was two.

Ali had slinked off in the confusion, all the combatants knew he was going to get Aayan.

If it was me, if I was to hide someone away from Jack Chandler, I'd have kept him as far away as possible, maybe used rubble and that illusory ability to somewhat obscure their location.

So that’s where I imagine they were sitting now, hovelled away somewhere, Ali trying to convince Aayan to take any action. I don’t know what they were talking about, and neither did Yuki. She was now in the middle of the fray, against Jack, she was the one pushing.

I understand why Isaac had to hold back, now more than ever. This was the final push all they needed to do now was keep fighting, to not give him an opening. If he had gained Isaac’s Fomorian biology, then those two life threatening hits they’d scored would be rendered insignificant in a second.

That being said, the same applies to me.

He was faltering, Yuki was able to batter every single summoned sheet of metal. Maybe it really was dependant on his stamina, I’d guess he was having trouble stretching whatever muscle he used to bring those bits of metal into existence.

That is, if it is a muscle, I’m not going to pretend like I understand any of his cosmic bullshit, but if I had to guess it’s probably something like- like my SP2. Maybe it’s a nagging in the back of his mind too, something that builds up out of nowhere, that slowly clings to the back of his throat. Maybe it’s something called from a darker place.

I mean imagine thinking the same thought over and over again, never diverging your focus. It would... tire you out, in a different way. The mind is a muscle.

Yuki was definitely fitter than Jack. Maybe I'm biased, but I’d put money that Yuki, being placed in the same situation as Green, would work like hell to not just stay on top, but to stay alive.

She told me that this was the point that Isaac began backing off, perhaps he was observing the field, making sure that Chandler wasn’t being pushed towards the three Units’ hiding place. More likely than not, I’d say he was getting ready to leave.

He probably suspected what would happen next.

Yuki described a stillness in the air, that before the air was filled with the roaring of multiple abilities, now it was simple banging of metal, two tired people fighting for some unclear purpose.

It was in that tense moment that even a slight light in the rubble would frighten anyone.

It caught the cleaner’s attention, a yellow light over her opponent's shoulder, lasting long enough for him to conjure the foot of the Gator, a part too large to parry. Yuki was forced back, only saving herself from being flattened into the rubble by tumbling into a basin that had begun to build up.

She would later say to me, “Yeah, I knew we were done, for better or for worse. And honestly, who wouldn’t drop out of a fight with a super being after getting kicked by a robot into a pool of wiz.”

She surfaced out of the pool, if only for cleanliness. Though, she did watch, from a distance

Having finally squashed the insect that had been buzzing around him, he could finally focus on his enemies.

“Aayan. From the memories I pulled from that woman at the beginning of this battle, I at least know your name and face,” he took a pause, “But to think- it seems my second guess was right.”

That yellow flashing was building up, it started as charges running across the nearest surfaces, then the slight bursts of energy would build, Aayan’s spiked hair christened by lightning.

Yuki described him as hunched, holding his strained hand, maybe to build up power. His face wasn’t clear from a distance, but Yuki could hear Jack shout, “Gaudy. You're making your inexperience clear, when you grind your teeth together like that. Come, give it to me. I’ll put your power to better use-”

It was like nothing at all. That purple-blue sky was illuminated by an instant flash of light, as over half the crater that giant bolt of lightning leapt.

A jagged line was burnt in the floor between the two, it was crisped black.

All the way to Jack’s chest. The white shirt that he was wearing was blown away only hanging by the threads on his arms.

Isaac would notify the city’s Administration; his suit gave him a visual.

The Channeler’s heart had stopped.

There were a few seconds that passed, thunder echoing around all of them.

Aayan was described as trembling, as the yellow left him, the world dulled, seeming foggy in the aftermath of the flash.

He finally threw his hands into the air, shaking still.

“WOO! EAT SHIT YOU BIYATCH! WHATCHU TALKEN BOUT’ KILLIN ME FIRST FOR, HAH? ENGLISH COCKSUCKER, GODDAMN! HAHA!”

He turned around, to no one it seemed, “Yo, that’s five mill, right? That’s all I had to do right?”

He coughed out another laugh, cackling away while Yuki was trying to focus.

Jack was falling over now, backwards.

But his chest suddenly convulsed forward.

His legs were about to fall out from under him.

But another pulse rang out.

Suddenly a gasp escaped the Channeler.

I don’t know what Aayan’s reaction was, Yuki was transfixed by Jack’s recovery.

He took a second to catch his breath. It would have been a perfect chance for Isaac to take a shot, if Jack hadn’t just gained expert control over Aayan’s electricity power.

“I’ve been interrupted enough. I’ve been polite. I’ve told you who I'm here for, but you won’t listen. This could have been avoided if you’d just #@%@%*^% here.”

Aayan had begun to build electricity up again, that much Yuki could see as she was creeping away.

“You’re not doing it right.”

Jack pointed his arm out, no sparks flying from it.

“Firstly, you’re allowing the energy to shoot out all over the place. You’re a conductor, Aayan, it’s supposed to run through you, not around you. You’re wasting it. It’s probably because of how tense you are. I’m completely calm.”

Jack stretched his hand out, bunching his fingers into two groups, like Spock’s hand gesture, pointing it directly at Aayan.

Yuki says she saw dark-blue light building up between the fingers.

“You’re taking too long to charge it, you really only need enough to stop a man’s heart, but there’s so much in the atmosphere around you, that’s why it’s getting hard for you to breath, the air is being burnt. You’re not well educated, are you? I hope your families alright. Your government will pass your money on to them, correct? As a sort of compensation?”

Aayan was shouting now, cursing, as Jack continued, “I wish I’d had a child hood. Everything I've learned about this world, I've taught myself.”

Jack asked, “Do you know what a rail gun is? You would have been able to do that with the air-”

There was no waste. It was a dim light, never diverging, it shot straight forward.

And as it collided with the yellow lightning surrounding Aayan, an explosion grew out encompassing a quarter of that area. Multi story buildings caved in, as the fire and smoke cleared, the spot where Aayan was standing became the deepest part of the arena.

Yuki told me that the report said that the destruction had finally worked down to the lowest sub-floor, twenty odd floors down into the earth.

Ali was nowhere in sight. Isaac and Yuki had made the right decision in getting out of there.

She kept her eye on the Channeler as she scaled the rubble, and although her focus was on choosing the safest path, she couldn’t help but notice him linger there for a few minutes.

I won’t claim to understand what goes on in the mind of a ‘perfect being’, but-

I’d like to think he was at least a little remorseful for what he had done.

How could he not be? A part of Aayan was now inside him.

…

Yes, despite their unimaginable effort, they had only stalled him. There was always the chance of him dying from his injuries, maybe the ints would take Hunter’s advice and drop their ‘R.O’s’ on him, whatever those are.

But there was always a chance that wouldn’t work. Without good fortune, there was no chance of a happy ending. For the ints, for us, and not even for Jack.

The risk was high, the outcome guaranteed, but still I had to jump forward, even if it wasn’t for the perfect outcome I was looking for.

If things didn’t go my way, and they never do, then the only solace I can take away from all of this is that I tried my best to do what I felt was right.

Yuki was just about out of the pit, when the sound of the meteor shower returned to the sky, she was thinking that the shit was really hitting the fan. I’d say she was right.

Chandler looked up to the sky expectantly, and that’s when Yuki realised it wasn’t his.

That wasn’t his rock falling from the sky.

It came down with a crash and slight tumble, the floor of rubble below it bending into a short line in front of where the Channeler was watching. He kept his arm half raised, already charging it with electricity.

Yuki said it had been ten minutes since Aayan had been taken out.

Ten minutes too late.

I stood up. One foot at a time.

I had to take in my surroundings for a second, I’d taken one big leap from the airport to see where I was going, making a second smaller leap into the pit.

He was around the middle, and I wasn’t too far off, maybe a house’s width away.

Through my mask I could finally see him face-to-face

It was difficult making out his details, maybe a by-product of the ignorance affect, maybe he was just a plain looking man, how old he was I have no clue; neither elderly or young.

One feature that I had noticed on the screen was his scarring. The left side of his face was scarred, down his brow and to his cheek. It wasn’t like the sort of thing you’d see in a comic, it was nasty, the flesh was warped, maybe a burn.

It finally struck me that it was over the area that was Clover and Lechoslaw had gotten tattooed.

His hair was brushed back and short, a sort of blackened brown. Like I said, the shirt he had been wearing had been mostly torn from him.

I let out a short laugh. Why are all the guys I fight shirtless? Not just that, but there better built than me too.

Heh...

He didn’t make a move. I’d have thought it strange, if he hadn’t done the same when the Lindenbergs started their assault.

“Are you the informant,” He asked, “You dress more like someone who serves the king, rather than Adam.”

I wasn’t expecting him to speak, “Oh, uh no-” I raised my hands defensively, “I don’t work for anybody, not Bastard, not Clover, and- I'm guessing ‘Adam’ runs the Ints-”

“Why would you say that name?”

“Clover?” I blinked.

I laughed, “She’s the informant, she told the ints what they needed to hear so she could get out of here.”

I thought about it, “So we could get out of here.”

He raised a hand and I flinched; my foot moved back a little.

“You’re allies? I doubt that. She’s using you. Why else would you be placed here while she escapes?”

I was waiting for him to move again before jumping in, “Well, you’re probably not wrong, but no matter what would have happened, you and me would have reached this point. I’m not the type of person who can stand for injustice. Not mindless killing.”

Maybe he smiled. He probably didn’t.

“So you believe in destiny, do you? That no matter what, there is a harmony to this existence. Hidden between the lines of every particle lie wave functions, setting the course of existence from the beginning to the end. Or so it should be. Destiny is holy. And all that is holy can be corrupted. Polluted. She is chaos. She is that which stops peace from being reached. Ironically, his majesty is to blind to see that. That free will isn’t something that mortals need. It is a power that should be reserved for gods.”

My foot eased hearing him talk. “I guess that speech made a little sense. Not that I understand what ‘wave functions’ are, but somebody explained the whole destiny thing to me. But honestly... Whether my choices are my own or they’re set in motion, it doesn’t matter. I’ll just keep fighting. That’s how I am.”

He half rolled his eyes, “Right. Of course. It seems your guilty of missing the irony too. From the fact that you weren’t turned to paste when you landed, I'd guess you’re highly durable, and from the fact that you came out of nowhere, you must be physically powerful too. You somehow weigh the average for a man your height, or else that floor would crumple underneath you.”

Again, he motioned his hand and I was a frightened, my instincts were telling me to go, to fly or fight. Of course, my fist tightened.

“You have another ability, but so did Aayan. Did you know him? You don’t seem like you’d be friends, though you’re both fools. He was tricked by the city; you’ve been tricked by the pollutant. I’m sure I'll find a better use for your brute strength than simply running around and hitting things quite hard.”

He paused for a second, and there was a slight opening in his posture. In my head I was thinking of how I could hit him, a punch, a kick, no, a grab would be best if he can copy my ability.

But my body didn’t move. I hesitated.

“I... you’re second ability, maybe you think you can use it to gain an advantage over me, without directly using it, like Creh-umha, but you’d be mistaken. I handled three Units at once, you’re of no consequence.”

He paused again.

“Uhm-” I don’t know why I was still talking to him, but more importantly, “Why are you still talking to me? Aren’t you on a quest for vengeance or something? Shouldn't you just kill me now and move on? Like, you could have summoned the Gator or something, but your just talking...”

I leaned in, “Do you... even want to fight?”

He was quiet. If he was thinking about what I said, he wasn’t showing it on his face.

“Units like you... They must fight to survive. That is how this world is structured. Even outside of this madness, animals must kill to live, stars burn themselves out. Monsters pursue you, and only the strong can survive. Others will pursue you, all others, and yet you do what you must to keep living your life the way you see fit. In his last moments, even that coward Aayan fought. That is your fate.”

“Mine? Not yours?”

Did he take his eyes off me? I think he was looking up.

“I am not a perfect being. I’m just a unique being. An abomination. Frankenstein’s monster, my creator was just like Victor in that story.”

“With the free will I've been given, I've made the choice to set the world right, piece by piece. Unlike the monster. I am the modern Prometheus, yet I'm returning the fire.”

I tried to understand, “And you need to kill whoever in the Internationals destroyed Egypt?”

There was a reaction.

For a second, it was like a huge shadow had fallen over us as he opened his mouth.

“Can you hear me?”

I raised my hands, “What?

He replied, “#$#!^&$%[email protected]!$%@^#&”

I don’t know what he said, “No. But from what I've seen today, I’d believe that. If some threat to their bigger picture, to the world did arise in Egypt, there are definitely higher-ups that would be willing to sacrifice a city. And during June? When nobody, not even they themselves will remember what happened?”

That darkness subsided. Maybe it was just in my head. SP2 flaring up?

“Do you know something I’ve realised- what was your name?”

“I’m Shamrock!” I smiled a little too gleefully.

He nodded, “I’ve been interrupted all day. Every point I've tried to make, they’ve cut me short. I’m only now noticing that I’ve fallen for that old trick of Ali’s. He kept me talking. Maybe I’m prone to that.”

I was getting a sick feeling, “Alright, yeah, I heard you, but I haven’t listened to you. It’s sort of a rule of mine not to get persuaded.”

“So, it’s Destiny given will, against a will with a destiny. Decision versus Indecision.” He smiled, “Thank you for this much Shamrock. I now know what it is I'm fighting you for. Why I'm forced to kill you.”

I waited a good few seconds.

Within an instant my fist had connected with his face straight on. It was with all the force I could muster, there were no restraints holding me back.

Well, not really. I hesitated at the last moment. He hadn’t even had the time to pull up a barrier, to react. He was just going to take it. All of it.

There was no ‘rock’ sound from my fist.

The instant was enough. He’d have been dead, if he wasn’t the Channeler.

He leaned back out of the punch, as much as physically possible, and just like that he had decided to kill me.

Unlike me, he had martial arts experience. He didn’t just know how to throw force; he knew how to redirect it.

He hit me with his left, at an awkward angle. He could have gotten a better hit on me, shatter a lot more ribs, but he settled for those few.

Again, he was not holding back. He wasn’t just using the maximum of my power; he was making use of another.

It wasn’t the sort of attack you could use on a normal person, because they would die.

If you hit someone as durable as me with that much for, someone of my weight, and aim at an upward angle: what do you think would happen?

I was given time to think over what had just happened.

It suddenly got very cold; the world was spinning at an impossible speed.

I had been sent flying. That was the realisation that I finally reached.

I had no clue which was up or down, but I knew that I was going, and going, and going.

Was I still rising? I thought about how he punched me, and it didn’t make much sense.

I don’t know much about trajectory, but even if he had punched me straight up in the balls, I doubt I'd just be sent into the stratosphere, just like that.

He had done it at an angle, a weird angle, sort of to the side. I was probably flying vertically more than horizontally, that would make sense.

When I reached my destination and was able to take in my surroundings, that’s when I realised how far I'd flown.

Some distance around twice the length of Ireland, give or take.

Honestly, that’s impressive, it was my power he stole, but it wouldn’t have been as powerful if he wasn’t as well built as he was.

Well, there wasn’t much time for loathing admiration, not when I was where I was.

I landed as hard as I ever have, coughing up. Looking back, it made me think that time I was running away from Clover hadn’t been so bad at all.

I landed in a sort of soft environment. At first I thought I had landed in some foreign hill side; but I don’t know many will sides with thick green water trickling about.

I did a full three-sixty, looking all around for some sort of clue. Right behind me was a large mountain with what looked like a jungle covering most of it, the first sight of a colour other than green as well, clumps of dirt were visible as it was moving.

‘Wait’, I thought. This was clearly a super natural place, from the geysers spewing more of that liquid, like pimples popping.

Then I remembered the last part of the recording of Ali’s fight with Jack. That he had ‘mind linked’ with one of the agents. It would make sense... information on it wasn’t restricted to the board room...

It would make sense if she had known the general area of where the Jungle Beast was.

I couldn’t have aimed over such an enormous distance, but someone granted a supernatural understanding of the exact logistics of my ability could.

As I realised that I was in the worst possible place, on a creature feared by the most powerful people in the world, I squatted down to make a jump.

That’s when I the numb cold left me. I could feel my feet and the side that I had landed on begin to burn up. That might be an understatement.

I looked down to see what was going on, only to find my shoes were falling apart.

Worse, I realised that I was sinking down, as the ground compressed under my weight, more of that acid pooling in.

I tried to climb up to more solid ground, somewhere I could jump from without worrying about this liquid flying everywhere. I ran towards the nearest ‘pimple’ with some effort, it was like a bouncy castle, actually. A very wet, very painful bouncy castle.

There was a little turgidity to the pimple as I reached the base of it, I tried to get up it without using my hands, but it was too steep and too slippery.

I ended up falling on my knees, catching myself with one hand. The leg began to burn worse through the thinner fabric.

I did eventually get to the top, it had been one desperate minute, but I had finally gotten to a momentary point of safety.

I crouched, down and-

Squirt.

It came out as a thick mist, like a sprinkler. A very disgusting, and painful sprinkler.

I struggled not to rub my eyes, that would only make it worse.

I turned away from it, and ripped off my mask, trying to blink away my blurred vision.

One eye was left better than the other.

As I turned around, I could see farther now.

And there it was. Cloudy in the distance almost. It’s face. Its eyes were surrounded by dark rings, tears the same colour running down them. It had a button nose, though that’s probably not the right term, not when its head was as big as a hill.

I didn’t have a lot of time to analyse it, not only because I was about to make my escape, but because there was something right there

There was something staring at me.

I felt that fight or flight response, just like it had for Jack.

But against not just the Beast, but the things living on it, my response was different.

Instinct told me that I was not at the top of the food chain.

I jumped.

With no sense of direction, it was a dangerous thing to do. If I landed in the ocean, I would have died slowly, either drowning or being melted away by the residual acid. I just jumped into the air, barely any more control over my... I don’t know what you’d call it, but I wasn’t spinning as out of control.

I tried to take in my surroundings, at least where I was heading, but it proved to be a fairly pointless task, I had no clue where I was heading, up or down, forward or nowhere.

But eventually I did land. Well, that’s a poor word choice, I crashed into the ocean, just a few metres from the shore, but I couldn’t have known that the water was only five feet deep at the time, could I?

It was totally understandable that I‘d come out of the water thrashing, screaming out in fear. I was in a complete panic.

I eventually trudged onto the beach, the screaming should have stopped, but it didn’t.

I finally took in my surroundings. It really was incredible. I thought the beaches back home could get packed, I guess that’s just what a normal day on west coast America looks like, huh? Maybe it was a famous beach, one that allowed for a ton of people to see me fall from the sky and emerge from the sea screaming.

The first person I made eye contact with a nearly naked woman, stumbled over a person lying down, in an attempt to get away from me.

I wouldn’t have minded at all, but I wasn’t wearing my mask anymore. They were really looking at me. At Sam. And that stopped my heart.

In my hand I was still gripping my mask- or I should have been. It was just the stem at the top now, everything else was simply gone. I made an attempt to cover my face with my hands then, but realised that the acid was stronger than I thought.

My gloves were mostly gone, the dark green accented by the red of my flesh, and the white of my bone.

It was only then that the full pain hit me, I only then felt the air grate against my exposed nerves. Now that my head had been given a second to clear itself of adrenalin, I could begin to panic properly.

I realised that at this rate, I wasn’t going to live, let alone be in a condition to set things right with Jack.

Like I've said before, my best work is performed under pressure. I hadn’t actually been able to come up with an idea of how to beat Chandler, not in the moments before confronting him.

I knew then where it was I needed to go, what it was I needed to get.

I felt so stupid, that I hadn’t gotten the Time bomb when the voice told me to- it was a stupid mistake.

On top of that, I'd left the canister of rebirthing fluid with them as well. I was embarrassed to admit it, but I had to go back to the group after telling them to fuck off.

I jumped high and straight forward maintaining my normal control, maybe the pain helped me focus just a little, made me feel desperate, made me feel like there was no room for error.

I landed in some busy street somewhere, when I finally realised that I had no clue where I was heading.

I thought about a plan, as the passerbys I'd just rolled in front of took a startled jump back.

I fumbled around for my phone, finding Clover’s and Sam’s. Not the one I use as Shamrock though, I either lost it on the Beast or in a flight. That didn’t matter, I opened Clover’s phone, (I’ve memorised her password, (for heroic purposes.))

Her 4g was working, and I was able to pull up google maps. Obviously, Babel city wouldn’t come up if I searched for it, the ignorance affect diverts you away from supernatural information, but if I knew the general area I was aiming for, somewhere in North-east Oregon.

There was also a strange area displayed on the map, where the aerial photos became choppy, whether that was by design or a product of the aforementioned affect, it didn’t matter, I'd been set on the right track at last.

My jumps were short and time consuming, but my focus was to not fall apart as I leapt forward, I hadn’t a clue how bad my knees were doing.

I passed over what I'd call deserts, thought it was probably just land scarce of green vegetation, eventually reaching a large forested area with mountains larger than the ones back home rising up. I had no clue how far I still had to go, but from the time displayed on the phone, I'd already been gone twenty-five minutes or so. That’s when I started pushing myself, the desperation had taken over.

I’d just given him my ability, meaning he could easily reach the centre of the city, reach Administration and do what he came here to do.

And now it would be my fault. It didn’t bother me as much as it should have. I sincerely doubt any out of city reinforcements would have arrived in time to stop him, even if I hadn’t interfered. It also seems like the longer things are played out, the worse they’ll get. Monsters like the Pig-head will go unchecked, that one especially would become an issue later on.

After spending five minutes jumping around in the mountains looking for the city, I finally saw that central tower again.

In my last-ditch effort to find the airport again, I came crashing down into the west buffer zone, and suddenly a coughing fit broke out. That’s when I realised that the damage was internal, not just Jack’s punch, but I must have been breathing in that acid as well.

I really wouldn’t have long to do this.

I ended up searching two other airports before finally finding the right one.

It was stupid of me, there was a very high chance that they’d already be gone, I'd taken a bet on the fact that they’d need time to get ready, they’d probably be arguing with the guards who obviously wouldn’t want to stay in the city while it was falling apart.

To them it must have seemed like I'd ran away, I landed out on a strip, dashing towards the checkout area that they’d been keeping me while I was sick.

I was looking for anyone, just someone who could point me towards Charlie.

Maybe I still had a little luck left. It was her I found first. She heard me screeching around the corner, she was surprised, screaming out.

I tried to reassure her; she hadn’t seen me without my mask before, so in my mind it made sense that she’d be in complete terror.

“Chhrli, s’me.”

My voice came out a little weird, but I was sure that the point had gotten across.

“OH GOD- O-OH GOD!”

She was covering her mouth and retching, I didn’t see the canister, so I just asked, “Gib me the- hcck- th'time ball.”

She was trying to look away from my face, but she couldn’t. Am I really that ugly, I thought?

I moved forward raising my hands passively, the corroded flesh put on full display now, “Told you I'd b’there fr’yaaah...”

She started crying, and there was a sudden stop in her shivering. With one hand she was pushing herself away from me, into the air, and with the other she was fishing around her person.

She tossed it at me like it was something dirty, unwanted. Like she was choosing between her life and that object.

I went for the door as soon as I got it. But I made the mistake of turning to say “Thangis”.

That’s when I saw it. My reflection in the mirror.

I understood what it was she saw now.

At the time I didn’t fully recognise it as my face. It was like a Halloween decoration that had been left out for far too long.

I left. Moving as fast as possible. By this point one of my eyes stopped working, my depth perception oozing away like everything else.

Whether the eye had fallen out or had simple been covered by sagging skin, who can say.

This was going to be the easy part now. Now all I had to do was punch him with all my adrenaline fuelled desperation.

The tower was in sight, smoking now. A fire? Or worse? I wasn’t paying enough attention. I was half focused on the thing in my hand. It really was too bad that it didn’t have a manual of some sort.

All I knew was that it was a piece of technology that the Chandler feared. It was something that could destroy the ‘destiny’ he was looking for... Though now that seems like an overestimation on my part.

It was the size of a golf ball. Around it’s middle was a gear like dial that I turned mid-flight a light bursting out from panels that had popped out of place.

I flinched at it, and that screwed with my landing. I smashed into the large head of the building, but I wasn’t at the right floor yet. I listened around for any sound that wasn’t the creaking of steel.

I decided that up was the best direction to go, and fast. Just in case I'd set this thing to age me to dust.

I clawed myself up the outside of the building, up multiple floors with every pull of my free hand.

And then I finally got there. A floor I remembered all of a sudden.

I rushed in, passing the elevator we’d arrived in, turning a corner to a large open room.

It was the one leading into the board room Mr Greem’s office. Only Mr Greem wasn’t here anymore and the agents that had been hard at work monitoring the situation with the Jungle beast were now dispersed around the walls of the room, weapons drawn.

In the middle under the unnatural light of the large screens on the far wall, stood Jack Chandler.

He hadn’t seen me come in.

I called out, at least I tried to, as I stormed towards him.

He turned slowly, now I could see what had happened to Mr Greem, who was lying off to the side, his head swollen and purple.

At the time, I didn’t know that was an effect of Jack’s ‘mind link’ ability.

As I sped up my walk, hiding the ball in my left ‘hand’, I could see a different look in his eyes.

“I’m glad you’re alive,” he started, a stiffness to his voice, “if there’s anyone who’d be able to hear me, it should be you. You can understand. They are all biased. They will choose to remain ignorant.”

I was close enough now; he threw back his arm too.

If he had been facing off against Ali or Aayan, I'm sure the last thing he would say to me would have been some form of mockery, to throw me off somehow.

But all he said before his fist connected with me was, “They know more than they-”

He hit me. Straight in the face. It wasn’t an all-out attack. Not a Rock. Just a punch to the jaw that sent me flying down.

But here’s how I won. It’s a pretty simple thing, but I'm sure the guy who had just been given a thousand times his weight in physical power on top of divine purpose was too blind to see it.

I’m short.

The length of your arm is dependent on your height, so, as he is taller, and fitter, of course his fist would land first.

I threw my hand out as fast as I could however, my hand that was already falling to pieces. Torn between two forces heading in opposite directions, there was no way my wrist, however durable, would stay intact.

Instead of gripping my fist when I threw my hand forward, I just pushed my middle finger down on a suspicious area of the time ball.

It might have been safer to just throw it at him, but then he’d be able to see it. I needed some sort of cover, however flimsy.

As I went flying back into a couple desks and computer monitors, my loose hand smooshed against his face.

And then he was gone. And in his place was a perfectly spherical venta-black circle.

In the seconds I spent fading out of consciousness, my final thoughts were, ‘oh shit, a black hole...’

But aside from me not being dead from being close to something like that, that was also physically impossible, I’m pretty sure.

On the last day I'd spend in that city, I had to have it explained to me.

What I was looking at was time, simply stopped.