Chapter 7 - Showtime

Chapter 6 - Monster Hunters

Svari was rather pleased with himself, he had managed to find an Abstract and told them to give the package to whoever would get a job done cleanly. Now he just had to sit back and watch his handiwork unfold around him.

Apparently, this group of Abstracts called the Poltergeists would be carrying out the hits on the Nobles he’d put prices on. Right now, there was one tailing his highest priced kill, Glo Prizmatica.

Ukedideka crouched high up on the roof, watching the blue-haired man walk along the street below him. The man hadn’t been as hard to find as the file had said, Ukedideka had read that he was nigh on impossible to find on the planet.

He smiled as he watched the man below him before tightening one of the straps on his chest and tucking the loose end into his armour. He leapt across the street above the Novans’ heads and gracefully landed on the opposite building, closer to the one that Glo was walking towards.

The Poltergeist grinned, elated when the Noble man walked into the tall building. His happiness didn’t last long though considering Ukedideka didn’t know which window the Noble would appear in and he knew all too well about the particles of malachite laced through the Novan glass. He’d seen another of his comrades try and break through a window before and he could barely force himself to look at the horrific burns spreading over the skin of his howling friend.

          Ukedideka continued circling the building, his muscles beginning to complain with the effort. After another ten minutes of leaping between the flat rooftops he finally spotted his prize, Glo Prizmatica was framed perfectly in his window. Ukedideka lamented for a moment over the man’s impressive build before banishing all the impure thoughts that had come to mind, the Poltergeist glanced down at his compass and took note that he was standing North of Glo’s apartment.

Counting the floors and windows took some time, twentieth floor and seventh window from the Eastern corner. Ukedideka pulled his hood down over his head and the mask up to cover his mouth and nose. Now a nameless hand of the Poltergeist’s guild Ukedideka began to formulate his plan of entry to the building. The best entry point would be the front door, especially if the client wanted the assassination to be public. The issue then would be alerting Glo to his presence earlier than intended, which is why going in through the roof would be optimal.

          Ukedideka drummed his fingers on the ledge of the roof for a moment as he evaluated his options for a few moments before settling on kicking the front door in. Ukedideka focused on the candelaum for a few moments until he could see his body flickering gently like the picture on an old television set when a magnet is waved alongside it. Ukedideka grinned beneath the fabric covering his mouth as he waved his incorporeal hand effortlessly through the stonework he had been leaning on.

          “Showtime.” He chuckled to himself before planting his hand solidly on the ledge and vaulting effortlessly down from the roof.

          Ukey flipped through the air a few times, watching through one slit eye as the ground became ever-closer. At the last moment he tucked into a roll and felt the bone shattering impact dissipate through the Candelaum, the concrete cracking into a network of shattered pieces beneath his landing. It was night, so few pedestrians roamed the streets, the few that were loitering outside of the apartments were startled by the sudden appearance of a mysterious figure falling from the sky and shattering the concrete around them.

          The bushel of Novans congregated around the entrance quickly scattered out of the poltergeist’s path, scrambling over each other like sheep from a herding dog. Ukedideka gently drew one of the small knives from the holster on his hip, expecting a degree of resistance once he stepped through the door. He placed his hand on the door and pushed gently, the servos kicked in and the door swung open with the quiet whirring of motors.

          His quiet footsteps were drowned out by an alarm ringing out the moment his foot crossed the threshold of the building, seemingly he’d be receiving the resistance he expected sooner than anticipated. Ukedideka gripped the curled blade in his gloved hand as he watched a shadow dancing in the hallway with his one piercing eye. An unfortunate man rounded the corner and Ukedideka stepped forwards and flicked the knife at them in a twisting throw that sent the curled blade whistling through the air and into the man’s neck.

          Ukedideka cocked his head in curiosity when the man didn’t falter in his stride, unfazed by the smooth blade now embedded bloodlessly into where his jugular would be situated if he had one.

“Not mortal, interesting.” Ukedideka muttered before pulling his sword from its holster and rolling it around the back of his hand, extending it into a short, straight sword similar to a Roman gladius but with a gently curved point at the tip.

          “Adversary.” The humanoid hummed loudly before breaking into a sprint directly at Ukedideka, cracking the shiny floor beneath its feet.

The Poltergeist raised his eyebrow and braced himself for the oncoming impact, holding his sword up to guard himself. He grit his teeth as the man sprinting at him grew ever closer, before the pair could clash though, Ukedideka twisted to the side and snapped his leg out to trip the man to the ground.

          A metallic clash ground on Ukedideka’s ears like fingernails dragged across a chalkboard, making the Poltergeist cringe away from it. The man had made no attempt to brace for the impact, colliding headlong into the ground before immediately rising back to his feet and turning his head to face Ukedideka.

          “Threat level higher than anticipated, increasing level of force.” The man declared in a monotone voice before Ukedideka bore witness to it’s true form, not a living being but a skeleton of metal fixed and twisted, full of energy and intent to kill.

          The Poltergeist was barely given a moment to react as the machine twisted up and away from him, both of its arms unfolding into what Ukedideka could only interpret as very advanced weapons that began to whine in a tone that made the Abstract’s teeth ache. The construct calmly pointed both of its arms at Ukedideka and let loose a discord of deafeningly loud sounds, the Poltergeist let loose a small cry of panic before diving out of the line of fire and sliding himself behind the small counter.

          “The authorities have been notified of your presence, Abstract, please surrender yourself so I do not cause any further damage to my workspace.” The machine calmly stated again, it turned its whole body and aimed its arms at the counter Ukedideka was cowering behind, “There is no escape, you will not get away.”

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          Ukedideka quietly growled to himself as he began to formulate options, he knew that he was tremendously fortunate to be as unscathed as he was considering the hail of gunfire he had just been subjected to. He first thought about ways that he could destroy the machine, but after seeing how unphased it was by having a curled throwing knife embedded in its throat Ukedideka didn’t fancy his chances with the small weapons a second time.

          Next up he thought to how he might be able to disable it with his sword, but again the image of the man-turned creature simply continuing its stride after it had been struck with the thrown blade turned him away from the thought of running the creature through. Instead, Ukedideka held the mirrored surface of his sword out and used the small surface to look about the room from his hiding place behind the sleek desk.

          There was naught he’d find useful under the desk, not even office supplies, the desk was more of a prop for someone to stand behind instead of an actual functional piece of furniture. That didn’t stop it from being functional enough for Ukedideka’s purposes – it took gunfire well enough for what he needed.

          In the reflection of the sword, Ukedideka couldn’t see anything helpful and he swore under his breath. He wouldn’t let something like this kill him, so he concentrated and tried to make a connection to the candelaum. It wasn’t much but he could feel a feint speck of power worm its way through the sea of malachite that was surrounding him, enough to get something done. Ukedideka quickly formed a plan, the machine was aiming its weapons at the top of the desk so it’d take it a moment to re-aim them if he were to come out of somewhere unexpected.

          Bracing his feet at the wall, the Poltergeist brought his connection to the Candelaum forth and his body began flickering like a magnet thrust against an old television set. Pushing off the wall, he slid backwards, passing straight through the desk and across the floor towards the man-machine. He was right, the thing’s reactions weren’t instant and it took a moment to register that he had moved. It opened fire as it swung its weapons down, pulverising the polished floor just behind where Ukedideka’s feet were a moment before into dust. Before he could be caught by the gunfire, Ukedideka rolled back over his head and braced the machine’s weapons on his sword so it couldn’t lower them any further. Ukedideka heard servos and motors whine and complain, the pressure on his sword was immeasurable and he grunted heavily with the effort of holding the weight up on one knee.

          After a moment of competition between the two, Ukedideka knew that the mechanical man was superior and he relented, kicking himself off to the side to avoid the hail of gunfire. Thankfully for the Poltergeist, the sudden lack of resistance caused the machine’s motors to overcompensate for a moment too long and it knocked itself over rather comedically, Ukedideka took the opportunity to pull a small sphere from his belt. The orb was filled with a meagre amount of gunpowder and quick-burning charcoal that would create a smoky mess when it detonated, the Poltergeist knew that he wouldn’t be able to win in a fight with the recovering machine so he clicked his fingers over the fuse. The motion caused the short, sensitive fuse to light and begin fizzing violently. Before the robot could stand and turn to face Ukedideka, the Abstract had dropped the bomb and sprinted down the nearby hallway. A choking smoke quickly filled the room when the explosive detonated, making it impossible to see through the hot, black cloud.

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After the sudden, unexpected fray in the lobby, Ukedideka knew that he was going to be expected by the Noble he was hunting. The gunfire had been unbearably loud and from what he had read about Glo, the man was dangerous beyond belief and had an approximate kill count larger than the entire population of Imagination.

Ukedideka sat down against the wall, pulling the cloth from his nose so he could breathe properly. The air on Nova was stagnant and had a peculiar, almond-like taste similar to cyanide floating on the breeze. Ukedideka much preferred the clean and almond-free air of Imagination.

The Poltergeist stood up and replaced his mask over his mouth, he grabbed his connection to the Candelaum and began flickering before beginning to make his way through the building. He started to run down the corridor before leaping and planting a foot on the wall and kicking off tucking into a roll before passing through the floor like it was water. He rolled on the floor and kicked off to sprint down the corridor, the door at the end of the wide corridor was growing ever closer and Ukedideka rolled his sword round the back of his hand before slipping it gently into the holster at his hip.

Ukedideka reached the door and leapt forwards towards it, snapping it open with a swift strike from his knee. Thankfully on the other side was the staircase he had anticipated, leaping up the short flight of stairs in a few bounds he used them as a pseudo ramp to launch himself forwards and through the floor again. Pulling himself up and through the floor, the poltergeist leapt up and kicked off the wall in front of him leaving a cracked hole in the wall where his foot had impacted. Ukedideka used the force to propel himself back towards the opposite wall and through the floor again.

          The Poltergeist continued leaping from wall to wall, ascending floor-by-floor until he had reached the level of the Noble’s home. There he checked his compass again to orient himself within the tall building before turning back to the East and beginning to count doors from the Eastern corner of the building.

          Counting up until he was five or six doors away from where the Noble was living, Ukedideka steadied himself and drew his sword again, ready to slaughter Glo where he stood. The Poltergeist connected himself to the Candelaum through the thin strands of power he could before flickering his body and rushing in through the wall of the apartment closest to him, he startled an unfortunate Noble man who let out a panicked yell at the sudden intrusion. Ukedideka didn’t stop to pay him any notice, instead turning on his heels and sprinting directly towards the wall and leaping through it to startle another family. They weren’t his quarry so he paid them no notice, just sprinting intrusively through their home before taking a dive through the wall into Glo’s apartment. He impacted a veil of inky blackness that swirled impassively around his head. For a brief second he was blind in the room, the Abstract put his hand up to his patch and tore it from his face just in time to see the Noble man duck into a door at the opposite end of the room.

          Ukedideka saw the flash of a weapon leap out from the door and he rolled behind the table in the middle of the room for some semblance of cover from the burst of gunfire. The rounds impacted the table with a feint sizzling sound as the plastic melted, he was using one of the obscure Novan guns that shot light from their glowing barrels. Ukedideka tipped the table over and growled as Glo continued firing the weapon into and over the table, it had to run out of rounds at some point but it didn’t seem to run out.

          “I heard you coming, Abstract.” Glo shouted in Abstracki after a few more moments of firing his handgun, “You’re meant to be stealthy are you not?”

          “You are not mistaken, I got caught up with the guardian of the establishment.” Ukedideka replied after a moment, still cowering behind the table.

          “I have you trapped Abstract, come out with your hands behind your head and I won’t kill you.” Glo ordered as Ukedideka hid, thinking of a way out of the predicament.

          “I’d like to take you up on that, but that’d make killing you rather difficult for me.” Ukedideka replied, holding his sword out in front of him to peer over the table into the dark room and try and find a way out.

          “Shame, sorry then but assassinations are not going to be as easy as sending a single man to kill me.” Glo sighed before raising his now glowing hand up to the table, “I’ll try and kill you as quickly as I can then.”

           Ukedideka watched the man begin to advance towards his hiding spot and both men acted at the same time, Ukedideka lunged off to the side and Glo darted towards the table. When the Noble’s hand touched the table it immediately turned to dust, thankfully because of his dark clothing, Ukedideka was hidden pretty well in the corner of the room. Glo still turned to face him before raising the pistol in his hand and firing at the Abstract, Ukedideka ducked under the high-powered laser and rolled forwards in a lunge with his sword. The Noble dodged to the side and kicked at the Poltergeist’s wrist to disarm him, Ukedideka’s sword was thrown from his grip and spun away across the floor. The Abstract responded by cracking his elbow hard into the side of the Noble’s knee, Glo yelped in pain and dropped his pistol which Ukedideka kicked away across the floor. Before he could stand and deliver another blow to the Noble, Glo had backed away and into the small kitchenette area in his apartment.

          The Noble Quickly armed himself with another pistol from one of the drawers, but before he could charge it, the Poltergeist had thrown a small knife at his hand and sliced open one of his fingers. Glo cried out again and tried to staunch the flow of blood with a balled fist as Ukedideka came at him again, this time with a short knife in each hand.

          “I thought you were meant to be a god, Glo.” Ukedideka taunted as he advanced on the injured Novan, “A lord of time, king of the ages.”

          Ukedideka’s taunting was cut short when Glo picked up one of the sharp kitchen knives off the counter and hurled it at the Abstract’s throat, the Poltergeist was rather shocked by the sudden attack and he ducked under the spinning knife. The blade buried itself in the wall behind Ukedideka, but the momentary shock had given Glo enough time to use his Nobility to speed up the healing of his finger and regain use of it. The Noble placed his foot on the pistol on the floor and slid it backwards before stepping back himself and letting the firearm slide into his hand.

          Ukedideka snarled beneath his mask and flicked his arm to hurl another knife at Glo’s trigger finger, but Glo was faster, he aimed the pistol and fired it at the knife. The impact from the laser sent the blade spinning harmlessly off to the side. Ukedideka tucked the other blade back into the holster on his back before backing away from the Noble.

          “That’s what I thought, Abstract.” Glo growled under his breath, “Know when you’re beaten.”

          Glo hadn’t seen in the dark that Ukedideka was crouching next to a glass bottle, which he picked up and rolled forwards gently to it landed in Glo’s path. The Noble snorted and stepped over  the bottle with a stride full of contempt.

          “You think I was going to trip over that?” Glo chastised Ukedideka, malice dripping from his venomous words, “You think that little of me, cur!”

          Ukedideka grit his teeth and drew a quick breath into his lungs before surging forwards like a wave of darkness catching Glo in a tackle, the Noble fired his weapon into the dark, managing to graze Ukedideka’s arm with the powerful beam of light. It stung terribly but Ukedideka still flew forwards, knocking Glo over and right down onto the glass bottle. It shattered when Glo landed on it and the Noble cried out in shock as the shards of glass pierced his skin in a web of pain and flowing blood. The alcohol in the bottle burned in his wounds and caused him to gasp and writhe in agony.

Ukedideka stood up over his incapacitated foe and went to retrieve his sword from where it had fallen upon the floor in the fight earlier, turning his back on Glo was a mistake he’d never remember when the Noble managed to push himself up enough to aim his shaking pistol at the figure silhouetted against the moon in the window.

The deafening boom of a concussion shot rang from his pistol and momentarily blinded Glo, the Abstract fell into spasming convulsions on the ground, when Glo’s vision cleared his adversary was unconscious on the ground. The Poltergeist had thrown himself to the ground mere centre meters from his Abstract blade, something that might have saved him had he leant down to pick it up.

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“He just pushed me down onto it.” Glo muttered, wincing as Espre continued picking shards of glass from his back. Espre was another Noble, she took herald over memories, although her skills were really shown in her surgery. She was the underground surgeon used by the Nobles when they didn’t want a whole load of media coverage to do with them being in hospital.

“I’m surprised that you didn’t just click your fingers and reduce him to dust Glo.” The woman muttered impassively.

“You know I don’t enjoy screwing with time when I don’t have to.” Glo grimaced.

“So you shot him and gave him to Achromatopia?” Espre asked, gently removing the last piece of the bottle from Glo’s back. “Lucky that this was filled with alcohol, got it disinfected before you got here.”

“In short, yeah.” Glo muttered, wincing again with the sudden pain of Espre’s threaded needle suturing his wounds. “Bastard came close to killing me.”

“With what I’ve heard about that sadist and his experiments, you won’t be hearing from that guy in a long time.” Espre replied in her monotone voice. “If at all.”

“Hell if I care, that guy could be put through a shredder.” Glo growled, grinding his palms into the medical bed to try and stave off the fire lancing through his back.

“He was probably just following orders, Glo.” Espre purred quietly before patting his shoulder, “You’re done. You can put that shirt back on now, .”

The surgeon considered herself a neutral party in the war between Nova and Imagination, she had said multiple times that she would help anyone that came to her door, be them Abstract or Novan.

Glo shrugged his shirt over his shoulders before turning around to face the albino woman behind him, slowly taking off a surgical mask with blood-smeared gloves.

The best way Glo could hope to describe Espre was unique, she was the only Noble he knew who shared his ashen white skin but naturally had pigment in her eyes. Her eyes burned a bright, fiery orange, Glo found her stare a little unnerving if he was being honest.

“Don’t do anything too strenuous till those have healed Glo, no piloting or anything or I’ll have to remember you still owe me money from the time I put your hand back together.” Espre warned him with a wag of her finger.

“Yeah yeah Espre.” Glo replied in the voice you respond to a nagging parent in. “You got anything new over the airwaves?”

“Apparently Cat’s causing all sorts of mayhem over on Surie.” Espre muttered, removing and casually tossing aside her red-stained gloves. “Decimated a regiment of Abstracts on his own a few days ago, had what was left of the survivors shipped here.”

“Good for him.” Glo replied, the sarcasm dripping like a vile poison from his words, “Bastard needs someone to put him in place by my count. Hopefully one of them gave him some scars to remember.”

“Do you know if he worked out what the hell his nobility is yet?” Espre asked, dunking her arms into a sterilising bath, “Or is he still the Noble of bad decisions?”

“Still that of questionable ability.” Glo replied to her.

Glo and Cat had been… Acquaintances for as long as the Noble of Time could remember, the pair hadn’t ever gotten along properly. The best description of their relationship would be mutual coexistence or unfriendly rivalry, Izzac was rather fond of the red-haired Noble so they’d have to bear each other’s presence on a semi-regular basis. This frequently led to fistfights between the two Nobles that had to be broken up by their frizzy-haired companion before their duels led to property damage. 

Chapter 8 - Surie↦