Broker

Chapter 148

A bullet whizzed by Alex’s ear, his head whipping forward in response to the sound. He dove forward and kept running, pushing off the ground with his hands to get a little acceleration before he leaped into the air and whipped his arm out, covered in scales. The massive limb that grew from his body crushed a pair of trees before colliding with one of their attackers. He landed and kept moving, patting his waist to check that the pair of small legs were still wrapped around him. He glanced back at Snow who gave him a determined look before he turned back and kept running.

“Move! Move! Move!” Greg shouted behind them, the heady buzz of his powers activating rattling Alex’s senses for a moment as a hail of bullets was deflected. Alex darted around another tree and made for the path again, they couldn’t be much farther, could they? How long had they been running? He pressed his lips together, Hang in there Lily! He thought, ducking beneath a branch and alighting on the path. He turned and his eyes widened at the sight of a pair of gun barrels pointed at him. “Shit!” He threw up his arms.

“Got it!” A voice called from above. He whipped his head up to see a streak of gold and pink collide with the ground, there was a noisy crash and when the dust cleared Cass was standing there with the biggest hammer he’d ever seen slung over her shoulder. She glanced his way and gave him a nod before moving away from the small crater she’d created, racing towards their destination. He shook his head after a testy poke from Snow brought him back to his senses and he followed after her.

“I see it!” Came another voice from ahead, Val, the lights of his rockets guiding them through the trees, “Someones there!”

“Don’t engage!” Greg shouted, “We’re coming!”

Off to the left Alex saw John and Ollie hurrying along. Ollie looked pensive while John had a scowl of absolute focus on his face. Alex had never seen the guy frown so hard. Alex hopped over a low hanging branch and picked up his pace, whipping his arm out to grab the next one and snapping towards it like a rubber band, “Hold on Snow!” He called as a tiny squeak sounded behind his head. He pulled himself forward, one branch at a time, Come on, come on, come on! He willed himself to go faster, if he could turn fully into a serpent he could just move around everything. Nothing could get in his way.

He pulled himself forward again and launched into the air, kicking his feet slowly as he caught a bit of air time. He glanced down and spotted the clearing. The pillars of the dungeon were in plain view as was a man standing off to the side with his hand extended towards it. Reddish bolts of ‘something’ were darting from his fingertips and striking the portal. What the heck his that guy doing?

“Mana levels skyrocketing!” Snow said quickly behind his head.

He glanced back at her as they descended, “How do you know?” He asked.

“My implant, don’t worry about it,” She said quickly, “We got a problem. He’s trying to trigger a break!” Her voice seemed to echo for him and he realized it was the after effect of her broadcasting her voice to the others as a series of curses answered her immediately. Just as Alex landed at the edge of the trees another shape came racing out in the form of Cass, her weapon raised and a snarl on her face.

“Don’t you dare!” She shouted, her body picking up tremendous speed as her head tilted forward. Something on her head- Is that a crown? No, Horns? 

The man spun and his eyes widened, “Cassiopeia!” He gasped, breaking into a wide smile, “You came to me!” He laughed and drew something from his belt. He pointed it to the sky and pulled the trigger, launching what looked like some kind of flare. He pivoted away from the portal and threw out both hands, he held them together for a moment before spreading them open in quick movement. Between his palms a glossy surface that looked remarkably like that of a bubble appeared. She kept moving, her legs pumping against the ground and leaving deep holes with each step. He took another step back and opened the bubble wider as Greg let out a shout, “Don’t touch it!”

Cass didn’t hear him or didn’t listen, her eye burning with fury as she crashed into the bubble. It popped and she vanished. What? A cry of surprise and alarm filled the air and Alex looked up in time to see Cass falling from the sky. 

“I’m fine! Move!” Cass shouted as she threw herself forward in a sommersault in the air, gripping tightly to her weapon as she spun towards the ground like a blunt chainsaw. 

Alex looked to the portal, “Just go in?” He shouted to Greg.

“Everyone get inside, we need to get Lily and the others out before anything worse happens!” Greg called back. John didn’t need to be told twice, he was darting towards the portal the moment Greg gave the order. Val rocketing off next. The man whipped towards the two approaching him just as a screaming Cass came down towards him with the force of a small meteor. Her hammer aimed at his head. The man let out a gasp of alarm and for a moment he flickered before appearing a few feet to the right of where Cass had intended to hit him. Cass hit the ground and the whole area shook.

She stood up and Alex darted forward as Ollie hurried behind them, “You still good Ollie?” He called.

“I’m fine!” His friend said, “Just get in the portal, you too Cass! Hand to hand isn’t going to work with him!”

“We can’t just leave him!” Cass shouted back, pointing her weapon at the man as he took a few steps back, holding his hands up. “I oughta-”

“You oughta follow orders!” Greg barked behind the lot of them, “Get in there Cass! I already know what his power is, you aren’t a good match!”

Cass clicked her tongue and doubled back, hopping backwards through the portal with a glare aimed at the man. Val and John raced through next. To Alex’s surprise, Ollie barreled bast him and literally threw himself through the portal. Alex was next, he glanced at Greg as they got close, “What would be a good match?” He asked, “I’m ready to-”

Greg frowned at him and slapped the air to his right, just behind Alex. Alex blinked and felt himself get lifted off the ground and thrown forward towards the portal. He looked back at a grim-faced Greg and his eyes widened in horror. “Are you fuckin- GREG!”

He hit the portal with a splash and stumbled onto the grass and roots of the undergrowth, hitting the ground with his shoulder and scrambling to his feet. He quickly pulled Snow off of him and turned around, racing back towards the portal only to hit it and something else on the other side that sent him stumbling backwards.

—

“I am,” Greg said quietly as Alex was thrown through. He walked slowly over to it and tapped the surface, a wall of purple light forming over it before wrapping around the entire structure. He glanced over his shoulder at the man who stood there, hands on his hips, with an amused look on his face, “You aren’t getting past me.”

“Brave!” The man laughed. “Sir Halloway. I used to go by Rift though.”

Greg nodded and turned to face him, his fingertips blazing with violet light, “Gravitic,” He said even as the butterflies in his stomach screamed at him to retreat. He clamped it down, that wasn’t battle instinct, it was cowardice. He straightened his shoulders and clenched his fists, raising them up in a fighting stance.

Halloway tilted his head, “Gravitic?” He asked before his expression fell and his eyes narrowed, “Oho, you’re a smart one. They’d just get in your way, wouldn’t they?”

“Sad to say, but yeah,” Greg said as he started walking forward, “Just you and me, Halloway.”

“Bravely said, I’m afraid you’re up against a professional killer, it’s over,” raised two fingers, he whipped them across his field of view and released an arch of that same bubbly substance outlined with red snaps and crackles of electricity. Greg threw his hand out and formed a claw shape with his fingers, he twisted his hand to the right and pushed. A small cone of purple light pushed out from his palm and split the incoming ‘blade’ in half. The two halves raced past him and cut through half a dozen trees on the other side of the clearing before stopping.

Halloway frowned and looked down at his hand in confusion, “What?” He looked up at the young man for a moment and raised an eyebrow, “What just happened?” 

“You didn’t play a lot of games as a kid,” Greg quipped, tilting his head up, “Gravity bends space, I have the advantage here,” Greg said before stomping his right foot and launching almost horizontally across the ground. Halloway snarled and moved his hand to the right before it vanished into a red rift in the air. The next thing Greg knew, he was face to face with the man, his shirt held tightly in his grip. Halloway sneered at him and pulled his hand back, red arcs dancing on his fingertips just as Greg shot him a smile. “Thanks,” He said and slapped the guy on the abdomen.

Halloway jerked back before abruptly lifting off the ground with a start. He snarled a curse as he spun helplessly for a moment. Greg threw himself forward, rearing back and driving a fist into the side of the man’s head. Just before the moment of impact, two flashes of violet appeared, on on his knuckles and the other at the impact point. Halloway’s eyes widened and he tried to turn away just as the punch came. Greg felt his knuckles shudder a little but it was far worse for Halloway who was sent flying across the clearing, striking a tree and knocking it over with the impact.

“Super effective,” Greg said with a smirk, shaking out his hand. He took a few steps to the right and watched the tree, trying to keep himself between the man and the portal. “Whatever you were doing, it stops here,” He said with a growl.

The feeling of the air shuddering was his only response, a dozen blades of spatial rifts launching out in all directions and striking anything nearby, disintegrating the tree that had fallen on the man. He staggered to his feet and bore his teeth, “That was a mistake,” He snapped. A moment later light blossomed in the distance, pillars that came down from the sky and struck the ground. Halloway watched them for a moment and smiled, “Good,” He said, “All according to plan.”

Greg glanced at the light, “What are those?”

“You’ll find out if you do well enough,” Halloway said with a hiss as he stepped out of the trees, space rippling around him, bits of wood and ground gouged out around him with every step.

Greg opened his right palm and held it out, “Didn’t you say it was over earlier?” Greg goaded, pulling on a bit of Alex’s antics, “Come on, that kind of phrase loses its impact the first time it flops.”

Halloway’s face fell and he dove forward, his body vanishing through a rift. Greg turned and threw up both arms, blocking the rippling strike that came out of thin air to his right. He slid back a few paces as Halloway vanished again and he ducked down, Halloway’s attack coming from behind. Greg rolled onto his back and snapped his foot out, catching the man on the chin. Halloway snarled at him and vanished again, Greg rolling to the right on the ground as the man came up from beneath him. “How are you doing that?!”

“You’re predictable,” Greg said as he got to his feet, “Miss Chernovna fights better than you do.”

Halloway’s eyes widened and his nostrils flared as he pulled himself out of the rift in the ground. Greg positioned himself again to riposte an attack only to hesitate when the man didn’t move. Halloway chuckled and glanced in the general direction of the fighting near the main building, everything was very quiet. “Alright, fine, you’ve earned it,” He let out a sigh and shook his head, “Oh well, as long as I kill you, no one has to know.”

Greg clenched his fists and got ready to slap his own chest in defense if he needed to. 

The man threw his head back and opened his arms, “Strength from Liberty! I am Sir Halloway of the Round Table!” He declared and a pillar of light slammed down from above, infusing him with a copper-gold glow. It turned orange and then almost golden as his body seemed to expand, his muscles growing larger and the red glow around his fingers intensifying. He lowered his hands and looked down at Greg before he abruptly vanished. Greg blinked, he’d lied a little about the guy being predictable, he could feel the spatial bends from his rifts. 

Three?

Three fists collided with Greg’s head, two on either side of his face and one to the back. Pain lanced through his skull, his brain shaking in its casing. Blood streamed from his nostrils as he tried to steady himself. He staggered forward and slapped his chest just as two rifts appeared on either side of him and blades of rippling spatial might swung forward to try to carve through him. Greg threw up his arms and kicked off the ground, one of the blades catching him on the knee. It dissolved but not before leaving a gash of torn and ripped flesh. Greg let out a cry and staggered, He’s taking the momentum from me!

Greg landed on his bad leg, wincing and throwing himself down to the ground as two rifts began to form above and below. He looked down into the cold eyes of Halloway and slapped the guy in the face just before he could get off another strike. Both Halloways let out a grunt of pain and pulled away. Not real copies, just him repeating himself somehow. One rift going to multiple places? He turned and struck out at another rift and blasted through it with purple lined fingertips. 

“You little shit!” Halloway snarled and reappeared off to the side, he reached into his coat and drew a gun. “Die!” He raged as a rift appeared to his right. He fired several rounds into it as an equal number of rifts appeared in the air around greg. 

Shit! He intensified the repulsive force around his body, More! He pushed harder. The close range and sheer number of projectiles digging into his reserves. He felt his body tense and his stomach flip as the nausea finally began to hit him. Not now! He pushed it down and felt the bullets catch in the field around his body. One two- an explosion of pain ripped through his leg. Missed one! He winced and bit his lip, concentrating with everything he had. Nine, ten, got ‘em! They floated there for a moment as he traced an imaginary line from each of them with his thoughts, pointing them back to the man who had fired them. His vision blurred for a moment and he looked down at his leg. Lot of blood, isn’t it? He thought weakly before shaking himself out of it. Focus!

Come on, come on, come on! Do it this time! He ground his teeth together and pushed every ounce of will he had through the movement. Curving gravity like a ribbon. He created new trajectories that peeled away from him. Slugs of metal changed course and launched themselves in Halloway’s direction as Greg’s arms went slack, he coughed and felt some bile rise up in his throat as his leg gave out under him. Halloway let out a scream and he looked up to see the man gripping his side. Blood dripped from his arm and his waist. 

“You rancid little brat!” Halloway bit out, “How are you more competent than a licensed hero?” He raged and stalked forward as Greg tried to get to his feet. He had nothing left and this guy, full of bullets, was still walking around like it was just an annoyance.

“I went to school for it,” Greg bit out, grinning up at him, “Learned a lot here. So did they,” He glanced back at the portal. “They’ll get out just fine.”

“You won’t,” Halloway hissed.

“You don’t know that yet,” Greg said as both of his palms glowed purple. The man stood over him and created another curved spatial rift. “I got one more trick left. It’s a bit stupid though!”

Halloway rolled his eyes and swung down, aiming for a killing blow as Greg pulled his hands back. With all his might brought them together in a thunderous clap that shook the earth. I’m right behind you guys, I won’t fall behind! He swore as purple light enveloped him.

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