Fun Fact: Despite living in the modern age, the Magis of Surone value their traditional clothes highly. Robes are a common form of fashion and come in many variations. Battle robes, Company robes, School robes, Class robes, just to name a few.
Casual attire, such as a shirt and pants, is usually reserved for home wear. It is considered rude and classless to dress in anything other than robes for almost any type of event. On the other hand, Metas are not expected to wear robes. Those who choose it as their fashion statement are viewed as disrespectful and socially inept.
~ ~ ~
Gaius felt eyes on him, although there was nothing but snow and rubble as far as the eye could see. Not like he cared, though. True Vision would give him sufficient warning if whoever those eyes belonged to were hostile. Orange lit his irises as he scanned the bunker in front of him.
“I make about twenty people hiding in their nest,” he said, before glancing at a smoke vent. “And one other way in.”
“Do you see Felix?” Kleopatra asked worriedly, hugging her coat closer to herself.
“I can’t tell yet.”
Energy charged in Gaius’s feet, propelling the boy to the vent in a single bound. Kleopatra landed a moment later, accompanied by the sound of a retracting grappling hook. Gaius ripped open the freezing metal grille and crawled into the air vent.
The duo got through the small tunnel quickly enough. Gaius wasted no time, slamming a fully powered energy ball into the face of a solitary woman right after he landed. She collapsed to the ground immediately, blood leaking from her nose.
“Is… is she dead?” Kleopatra’s voice trembled as she bent over to inspect the body.
“Don’t know, don’t care.” Gaius looked around.
A few pans hung sloppily from the walls, and the counter was smeared with brownish stains of unwiped cooking oil. Of course that smoke vent was connected to a kitchen, not an armoury. He sighed in frustration. It was times like these that he wished True Vision still showed him possible outcomes.
The door opened without warning.
A ball of ice flew towards the man entering the kitchen. Scalding oil followed it closely. Muffled groans punctuated the air as he tried to scream in pain, but the ice had already sealed his mouth shut. A fist swung his way, cracking his left cheekbone. Another hit slammed into his chin, knocking him back.
And another. And another. And another—
“Gaius, stop! He’s already down!” Kleopatra pulled her friend back. The man slumped to the floor, blood smearing all over his badly swollen face.
“What’s going on with you?” she exclaimed. “You’re being uncharacteristically violent lately. That’s not the Gaius I know—”
A yelp escaped her lips as the boy slammed her into a nearby wall, pinning her wrist above her head.
“Don’t get familiar, Vulcan,” Gaius growled, his voice sounding more demonic by the second. “You’re only in the Guardian Council because you’re Daddy’s little girl. I’m the hero here, not you. Do not question my methods again.”
Kleopatra’s lips quivered, but she pursed them into a thin line. “You’re not yourself, Gaius. You’ve always sought to help people, even at the expense of yourself. Can’t you see something is changing you?”
Gaius let go of her, although orange flickered threateningly in his eyes.
“Change? What’s wrong with that? What are you trying to do here, save me?” he scoffed. “Nobody cares. Heroes don’t get saved. This world deserves a new class of heroes, even if we have to force them.”
His voice dropped to a guttural growl. “Or it should be destroyed.”
“Those aren’t your words!” Kleopatra rushed forward, pulling him into a hug. “Please, something’s wrong with you. Let me help you; I care!”
“No, you don’t …” Orange tendrils wedged themselves between the two of them as Gaius tried to push her away, but Kleopatra held on tight. “Let me go, Kleo. I don’t deserve any of this. Stop wasting time on me—”
“I fell for you, dammit!”
They froze.
“I like you, Gaius. I’ve fancied you for a while,” Kleopatra mumbled.
“I just… T— There, I said it. Happy?” She let him go abruptly. “It really hurts me to see you like this. If only that True Vision of yours could show you how I see you…”
The turbulent energy retreated as Gaius’s face promptly turned red.
“Kleo, I…”
“This is not the time nor the place for this.” Kleopatra was avoiding his gaze now. “Come on, we still have a job to do.”
Gaius followed her out of the kitchen, his emotions now a swirling mess within him.
~ ~ ~
The next few minutes of silence were awkward, to say the least. Kleopatra seemed insistent on keeping her mouth shut, and Gaius could not muster enough social skills to utter another word. So he kept content with scurrying around in the dark behind her.
Fortunately, this group of Metas were by themselves most of the time, which gave him plenty of space to observe them. Not like there was much to observe, though. Most of them were either lounging around or carrying canisters of Arcani to a storeroom. The only one who seemed to be doing any actual work was a white-haired lady who looked like she was in her early forties.
Gaius and Kleopatra had unanimously decided to follow that woman, who fortunately led them straight to their target.
“Felix is inside.” Gaius stared at a dull metal door.
“Doors are locked,” Kleopatra said, shaking the door handle pointlessly.
“No shit.”
Gaius looked around to make sure no one would be coming for the next few minutes and grasped the lock firmly. It sizzled for a few seconds before he finally let go. Gaius flicked his wrist, shaking the molten metal off his red-hot palm.
He pushed the door open.
“What the— What’re you two doing here?” an incredulous voice exclaimed.
Gaius and Kleopatra walked into the cramped room, which looked more like a gaol cell. As expected, Felix and Aglaia were inside. Two beds pressed up against the walls, which left a narrow walkway in between them. The two ‘prisoners’ were playing marbles with pieces of rubble on the floor.
“What does it look like we’re doing?” Kleopatra said. “We’re here to save you, obviously.”
“Just you two?” Felix glanced at Gaius, who was staring at a wall blankly. “What’s up with him? You two fought or something?”
It was Kleopatra’s turn to be awkward. She rubbed her hands shyly as her face flushed like a rapidly ripening tomato. Aglaia let out a small gasp and stifled a giggle.
“She likes him, and she just told him!” the little girl said excitedly.
“Hey, you can’t just say stuff like that out loud—” Felix interrupted himself, his eyes going wide. “Hold on, you finally told him?”
Kleopatra looked away uncomfortably.
“Does this mean you two are a thing now?” The boy was getting more excited by the minute. “Does this mean I’m going to be a third wheel from now onwards?”
“No!” Gaius blurted out.
Everyone stared at him.
“Wha— What do you mean, no?” Kleopatra gasped, looking ready to burst into tears any moment. “You… You don’t like me?”
“I… I don’t know, alright?” Gaius shook his head wildly. “This is all so sudden. I don’t know what I’m feeling.”
Felix furrowed his eyebrows.
“Damn it. This is terrible timing,” Gaius said as the animalistic rasp returned to his voice. “Come on, I’m getting you out of here now.”
Kleopatra’s face fell.
“Guys, listen. I am not here against my will,” Felix said. “I just want to try and get these people to work with us.”
“Are you serious?!” Gaius yelled, slamming a fist into the wall. “These people just want to use your power for themselves. I can’t believe you actually think they’re worthy of redemption. You’d know that if you used that big brain of yours to think instead of throwing stuff around! Gods-damned stupid Meta.”
Kleopatra covered her mouth in shock, but Felix merely frowned.
“Is there something wrong, Gaius? That doesn’t sound like you at all,” he said, reaching his hand out. “Let me see what happened—”
“Don’t touch me!” Gaius flared, and cracks appeared all over his skin for a brief moment. Felix retracted his hand, though he creased his eyebrows in concern.
“The Arcani inside you… It’s not attuned to your body anymore.” Felix tilted his head. “I’m sensing two separate entities. There’s an overgrown mass of corrupted magic within you. Gaius, when did this happen?”
“What would you know? You’re just an uneducated Meta,” Gaius growled. “You just want to deny us our destiny, don’t you? I won’t let you.”
“Us? Our?” Kleopatra’s voice had dropped to a whisper. “Gaius, your condition is getting worse. Let us help you—”
“I don’t need your help! I’m stronger like this!” Light poured from the Sorcerer’s eyes. “No one is taking this from me!”
“Abaddon…? What is an Abaddon?” Aglaia blurted out of the blue.
There was a brief pause as everyone gave her confused looks.
“Gaius, your magic was born of Abaddon!” Felix gasped in realisation. “That lump of corrupted Arcani; Abaddon’s power is still in it. That demon is still influencing you to fulfil his destiny! It’s still seeking to destroy the world, Gaius. You need to purge it from your body!”
“No! Never!” Gaius’s voice was completely distorted by now. Energy burst from his mouth, blasting a hole in the ceiling. He seized Felix and Aglaia roughly. “We’re getting out of here now!”
Orange light flowed to his soles as he prepared to burst off the ground, but he sank into it instead.
“My, my… What have we here?” a female voice spoke. “A rescue attempt?”
Gaius twisted his body, struggling against the liquified concrete that was slowly dragging him down as though it were quicksand. A white-haired woman was standing just outside the room, two points of red glowing fiercely from her eyes. He growled in frustration. Why didn’t True Vision warn me of her arrival?
The ground hardened again, trapping them in the floor from the waist down.
“And a rather noisy one too— Hmm?” Isis tilted Kleopatra’s chin up. “Do my eyes deceive me? You’re the President’s daughter, aren’t you?”
Kleopatra flinched away in response, trying to pull her weapon from the ground. Another Meta put a sharpened metal finger to her head, as if daring her to make another move. The girl chose to yield.
Isis snapped her fingers with a slightly victorious smirk on her face. “Change of plans. Load the Arcani batteries onto our airships now and prepare them for flight. The time for action is upon us.”
“B— But leader, how about our heaters?” a wide-eyed Meta asked. “And our rations? Without the Arcani batteries, they won’t—”
“We will have no more need for them anymore. Our golden goose has delivered herself unto us.”
The woman’s eyes flashed red once more as she flicked her wrist casually. Her hostages rose out of the floor, still encased in hardened concrete. The Meta Liberty Fighters moved in to carry Felix, but Isis snapped her fingers.
“Leave these two here,” she said. “I don’t want to keep all my eggs in the same basket.”
“Where are we going?” one of them asked.
Isis glanced at Kleopatra and smirked slightly.
“The White House.”200Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJziryeEL4y
