New Zion

Ch. 15

Cole opened his eyes. He was back in his room. He looked around and saw that he still clutched Alkira’s weapon. Cole sat up and noticed that he had been changed. He looked around and saw his red outfit hanging up on the wall. Cole got out of bed and put on the outfit. Leaving the weapon on his bed, he left his room and headed towards his father’s office. It was the middle of the night, and the door was cracked open.

“Stand up. You brought my son back; that’s enough for me,” it was Ryan. “However, if you really do want to join my Mafia, all you have to do is ask. I’ll put your files in with the rest and then you are part of our group,” Ryan said.

“Files?” the Avian closest to Ryan asked, standing up.

“Yes, I need to know your name, birthplace, date of birth, allergies, possible illnesses, that kind of stuff. Also, you said that you wanted your sister to be here with you,” the front Avian thought a moment.

“Yes; I would rather not leave her there. We can give you our information right now,” he said. Ryan smiled. “My name is Archimedes, I was born on Chimera’s Arena…” he began, but Ryan waved his hand.

“My wife will take care of that. By the way, she is absolutely fascinated by the races, so she may want to examine you more thoroughly than the average member. You don’t have to worry about her doing anything bad to you, but she will want to compare data, and whatever else it is that doctors do. Are you guys ok with being split up, or would you rather work together?” Ryan asked, looking at each of them in turn.

“Well, I think we would prefer to be together, but we can do whatever you need us to,” Archimedes said. Ryan nodded.

“Very well. You shall be guards for Central High, and during times when the school is not in session, or is on holidays, you will be guarding this residence. You will all also be paired up with a non-avian partner that will rotate weekly so you can get used to them, and they can get used to you. How does that sound?” Archimedes looked to his fellow Avians, who nodded.

“That works perfectly fine for us,” Archimedes said. Ryan smiled.

“Oh, and you have to drop that superior air that you Avians have,” Archimedes cocked his head.

“Superior air?” Ryan nodded.

“Whenever I meet an Avian they all have this aloof attitude about them. Of course, I doubt that you will have this problem, but I am going to say it here and now. Every single person that is a part of this family are equals. The Human is just as important as the Berg Leute, the Terra just as important as the human, and the Avian just as important as the Terra. If I think that a line is being crossed, I will not hesitate to crush the offender. Are we clear?” Archimedes looked at Ryan more closely.

“Of course, Mr. Avalon,” Archimedes stated. Ryan smiled.

“Good. Oh, and call me Ryan, Don or boss,” Archimedes nodded. Archimedes shifted uncomfortably. Ryan seemed to have zoned out.

“Uh, Ryan? What should we do right now?” Ryan blinked.

“Ah, yes. We have a guard house to the side of the grounds. Allow me to show you to them. There should already be bedding inside, and some uniforms. Their previous owners won’t need them,” Ryan began walking out of the house.

“Previous owners?” Archimedes asked.

“Yes, they were killed a few days ago. They were attacked by some gang members from Night Town. The bastards ambushed them and put the bodies on display. It seems like everyone thinks that they can be on our level. Anyways, let’s continue on, shall we?” Archimedes nodded.

Cole re-entered his room and didn’t turn on the lights. He was wearing the red outfit from Chimera’s Arena, blood encrusted upon it’s panels of cloth. He walked over to his bed, leaned against the wall, pulled up his knees and rested his head on them. Cole stared into nothingness, as though he were looking at something that wasn’t there.

“Cole? What’s wrong?” Cole kept staring straight ahead. “Cole? Cole?” Cole finally looked up. Aria looked down at him, concerned. “Are you ok?” Cole didn’t move. Why isn’t he responding? Aria sighed, and walked over to the other end of the room, sitting down on a bed that was brought up there for her. She looked out through the skylight at the stars overhead.

“My sister is here too, by the way. If it weren’t for your father, I may have been taken by the Avians. We’ll be staying with you for a while,” Aria’s voice trailed off. Cole still didn’t move. After a moment, he stood up, and began walking out of the room. Aria followed him down the stairs all the way to the front door, and spoke up when he started putting on his shoes.

“Cole? Why won’t you answer me? What’s going on?” Cole didn’t respond. He finished tying his shoes and walked out the door, clutching a beautiful cylinder in his hand. He began walking to the front gate. Aria quickly put on her shoes and followed. Cole kept walking. He made it to the side door of the main gate. Opening it, he stepped out. Aria followed him through it. He kept walking, with Aria following closely behind, still in her nightgown. After a while, Cole turned onto the grounds of an apartment building.

It looked abandoned. Although, there was a large amount of noise coming from it that suggested otherwise, as well as a large number of vehicles in the parking lot. There was trash all over, and the sign that would have stated its name was covered by a sheet of wood with the words ‘Night Town’ spray-painted on it. Cole continued right on to the front door. There were two guys standing outside of it, one holding a piece of rebar, the other a chipped sword.

“Oi! Whatcha doing here, kid!” The one with the sword drunkenly called out to Cole. Cole pulled out the cylinder and thumbed a button. A blade extended out and he continued forward.

“It was you who killed the Avalon Family Guards, wasn’t it?” one of the gang members looked at Cole oddly.

“The who?” he asked.

“I overheard from my father that the residents in ‘Night Town’ might know something about those who had killed my family?” the gang member with the rebar laughed.

“Yeah, that’s right. We’re the ‘Night Riders’, and we killed those four chums who got in our way. What of it?” Cole nodded.

“Thank you for being honest with me,” he stated. A dark, glowing liquid suddenly engulfed the blade. He lunged at the guy with the rebar, running him through.

“You little brat! What the hell is wrong with you?” the one with the sword yelled.

“You messed with my family, so now I’m going to mess with yours,” Cole said in a voice that scared Aria. “and my family is one that you don’t mess with,” Aria watched in horror as he beheaded the other guy. Cole entered the building as Aria dropped to her knees.

“What’s going on?” she said aloud.

Cole continued into the building, leaving Aria’s spirit outside. She had chosen not to tag along, for some reason. Cole came across two more gang members and he dropped them. He kept walking through, clearing floor after floor, killing one person after another. It didn’t matter to him who it was. After all, they were ok with taking his families lives, so why shouldn’t he be ok with taking theirs?

Cole made it to the top floor. A man jumped at him and he didn’t have time to swing his blade, so he simply punched the guy in the throat, and sidestepped him as he fell. He then stomped on his neck, crushing it. Cole waited for his fists bones to realign themselves before moving forward. Cole turned to see a scrawny man cowering in a corner.

“No! Please, oh God No! Please don’t kill me! I’ll disband the gang, I’ll put an end to this whole thing, and I’ll leave town. You’ll never hear from me again!” the man began stammering as Cole walked closer.

“You should have thought about that before you killed my family. In fact, you should have left before I came back. Your sins will always catch up with you, one day. Goodbye, filth,” Cole grabbed the man by the shoulder, throwing him out into the center of the room. Walking over to the man, he was about to kill him, when he paused. “Where does your leader live, and I’ll consider letting you live,” the man’s eyes lit up.

“He lives just across from warehouse no. 3, in the white hou…” Cole began carefully stabbing the man in his torso, first shredding the man’s right lung, then the other, and slowly twisted the blade into his stomach. The man screamed for the first few seconds, until his lungs deflated and blood bubbled up from the puncture wounds. At that point, his mouth simply opened and closed, like a fish out of water. His eyes seemed to bulge out of their sockets as he stared up at Cole. The man was somehow still alive, and shaking.

“Isn’t this what you had done to my family? Disfigured them? Oh, and didn’t you hang them from some high place? Well then, let’s go, shall we?” Cole dragged what was left of the man up the stairs to the roof. Looking around, he saw a long chain attached to a radio antenna at the front of the building. Cole wrapped the chain around the guy’s neck and head, locked it in place, and propped the guy up on the side of the ledge. The man was still trembling. Cole shoved him over, and watched as the man fell to within five meters of the ground, before hearing the sound of his neck snapping, and the body ripping itself from the head.

“Why are you here, kid?” Cole turned around to see a man in a long coat wearing a gas mask and hat with a wide brim.

“Who are you?” Cole asked.

“I asked first. Why are you up here?” Cole shook his head.

“I’m getting rid of the people who had murdered my family. What of it?” the man chuckled.

“That’s two questions. One at a time, an answer for an answer. Now, you still haven’t answered my question,” Cole stared at him blankly. “Perhaps I should have phrased it differently. Isn’t there someone who needs you right now?” Cole stood up straight.

“She needed me. Past tense,” the man shook his head.

“Oh well. You’ll soon understand.” The man gestured to the chain running off the side of the building. “Cole, you need to hold each and every soul dear. When you hold great power, you gradually fail to understand the importance of things that can’t be recovered. You’ll only realize it once it’s too late,” the man sighed. “Farewell, Cole Avalon. I hope that you can open your eyes to what’s in front of you soon,” Cole blinked, and the man disappeared.

Another spirit; great. First Aria, now some strange, cryptic masked man, Cole spent some time preparing the building before walking out of it. Aria’s spirit was still there, on her knees. Cole walked past her, continuing forwards. He started heading in the direction of the warehouse district. Cole stopped in front of a small, white house. He strode up to the front door. The leader of the Night Riders wasn’t at Night Town. The man I hung was too pathetic to be him, which means that he’s probably at home, Cole reached the front door, and knocked. He put away his blade for the moment. Cole put a look of fear in his eyes as the door opened.

“Come with me. We don’t have time! Someone is attacking Night Town!” Cole said quickly. The man’s eyes went wide.

“I’ll grab my spear,” the man ran back into the house, and came back out carrying a large spear. Cole sprinted out the front gate of the house with the man following close behind. They made it to Night Town. The man stopped, looking up at what used to be the base of the Night Rider’s gang. Bodies were propped up in windows, and plenty of them were piled on the ground. The pathetic man’s head was swinging on the chain, and the words ‘Your Fault’ were scrawled in blood on the front of the building. The look on the man’s face was exactly as Cole imagined it would be.

“Their blood is on your hands, not mine. Have a good night, Leader. Oh and please remember this for me. I may have been the instrument, but you’re the one that killed these men and women,” Cole turned and started walking away as Leader dropped to his knees. Cole could hear the man crying. He heard footsteps behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Aria running at him at an amazing speed. Cole looked forwards. Something hit him with great force, making him stagger.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Cole sighed. ‘Aria must be a part of my conscience, then,’ Cole thought, and kept walking forwards. “You just killed all of those people! Why did you do that?” Cole remained silent. “Cole! Why won’t you answer me?” Cole kept walking.

They made it to his estates gate. He opened the side door, and went into the main house. Looking down at himself, he realized that he still wore the gladiator pants, and that he was covered in blood. Walking through the house, he made it to the shower room. He cleaned himself off, then walked up to his room. Getting changed, he lay down on his bed, and closed his eyes.

©2017