Flying Salmon

Burn the world under your palms and paint it all red.

It was as if the emotion itself spoke to Reed;

Wrath.

The facility and its people were known to follow a white scheme, but Reed clearly disregarded that. He'd been splattering red all around the area ever since the Angels began piling in.

At first, he took his time to enjoy Raphael's suffering. The Overseer was powerless without the interesting bronze watch Reed had stripped off of him. He flailed the man around, throwing him into walls and various items throughout the Garden. Whenever Reed spotted something important-looking, he'd whip Raphael's nearly-dead body into it. Once he began wrecking everything, it was then that Overseer Gabriel made the announcement; "Requesting as many Angel Unit reinforcements as possible to be sent to the Garden. The Garden has been breached, subject Reed Regardius is causing destruction. Seize him before he destroys any more valuable technology in the Garden. I repeat: requesting as many Angel Unit reinforcements as possible to be sent to the Garden. Requesting immediate backup from Overseer Michael."

Hearing this only fueled Reed's anger.

"You're all just worried about the technology here huh?" Reed scoffed. He went over and picked up the limp Raphael. "I'll make sure to leave you guys with NOTHING!"

He swung Raphael's body around and threw it at what seemed to be an important-looking control panel. The impact was a heavy and devastating blow, causing the panel to short-circuit; shocking Raphael's body who'd splattered blood all over it.

"Don't die yet," Reed laughed. "I'm not nearly done with you."

Suddenly the doors to his far right slid open, and out came a flood of Angel Units pouring through the Garden entrance.

Reed cracked his knuckles. "Make this round three…"

Now here moves Reed Regardius among the wave of Angels. Each one being sent flying across the expanse one after the other.

"YOU'RE ALL—JUST A—BUNCH OF—FUCKING—FLIES!" Reed yelled while delivering blow after blow. The raid of Angel Units were being absolutely demolished.

"Filthy pawns," Reed wiped blood off his cheek. Through the fire and flames that emitted his heart, he struck and tore his way through the limbs and bodies of the mindless soldiers sent his way towards their impending deaths.

"Requesting extra Angel Unit backup to be sent to the Garden. The recent batch sent in has already been eradicated," Overseer Gabriel announced; "Also requesting immediate support from Overseer Azrael, as subject Reed Regardius has supposedly shown no signs of stopping."

"Overseer Azrael?" Matthew worriedly heard. He was still in the Garden, present, though hopefully hidden from the rampaging Reed. "If I don't get out of here by the time he comes, it really will be the Reed Incident all over again…" Memories of the brutal battle between wrath and death were made evident in Matthew's mind. The thoughts made him shiver.

Matthew looked towards the only entry and exit of the Garden, and Angel Units were still pouring through. "There's almost no way out for me until the Angels stop coming." He recalled an announcement Gabriel made earlier; "And there're Cherubim outside preventing anything from escaping."

He sighed to himself at the lost hope that overshadowed any ideas to escape.

"What do I do…" He muttered to himself. He then noticed where Raphael's body lay. "That's the…" He rushed over.

Raphael's body had slammed into a panel that controlled the ability immobilizers around the entire facility.

"It's broken," Matthew realized the succeeding threat. "That means… the other subjects are now free to use their abilities wherever."

Matthew worried at the thought, but his mindset against it suddenly wavered. He sensed a guilty sense of accomplishment looking at the seemingly dead Overseer he'd worked with for so long.

"With this, the subjects can now use their abilities wherever… and if they're smart, they'll use this opportunity to escape," he looked down at his empty hands that trembled. "If only I had an ability, maybe I could've tried escaping this place too."

He looked back towards the numerous control panels that accompanied the one Raphael's body destroyed. An important memorial quote waved back through his head;

"There's such thing as taking initiative you know? Look what happened, the subject is dead. Now we have to use a Trinity Gem to resurrect him. We're wasting resources Matthew. If you haven't been instructed, then I instruct you now to take initiative when the time is right."

"...take initiative when the time is right…" Matthew understood his job was not yet finished. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the dead Raphael. "I've made a move, but it's not over yet." He looked at Reed Regardius who fought his way through the white sea of Angels. The boy who'd had everything against him since the very start; a person without any to accompany; an individual versus the world. Reed Regardius was always fighting against the stronger, the bigger, the larger, to reach his unattainable goal in the end; to become the strongest. To make his point, he had to make his move, and make his move he did.

Matthew was somewhat inspired. He was reminded of a younger time his mom took him to the nearby river around mid-fall time.

"Matthew, look," she pointed to the rapids along the river. Though these were not rapids, but splashes of fish coming in and out of the water.

"What's… that?" He remembered asking her.

"Those are fish called salmon honey," she patted his head.

"What're they doing? Why are they trying to jump up the river?"

"It's a time of the year where they need to lay eggs, and they can only do so by making their way upstream where the river is shallower."

This made Matthew worried. "But isn't it hard to swim like that? The water keeps pushing them back."

"It is hard honey. They're trying to swim against the stream instead of swimming with the current back down the stream. But these salmon are determined. They're set on their goal, which is to lay their eggs, and have babies like I had you," His mom smiled. "No matter the hardships they face, they don't plan on letting anything get in the way of what they've set out to do."

Matthew watched as the salmon flopped in and out of the rushing river, attempting to make its way up a seemingly impossible task.

His view was overwritten by what happened in the moment; Reed Regardius fighting his way through a never-ending stream of Angels.

Something suddenly dropped onto his arm; a warm but wet sensation. He looked down, and realized his sights were blurring up.

He was crying.

"H-Huh?" He wiped his tears. "I'm crying again?"

Though this time, his mind responded to the confusion. He was once again presented the memory of his mom showing him the flying fish.

"M-Mom?" He whimpered. "My… mom?"

Even more tears began to flow down his face. Like a river that poured down the banks of a hill, the tears would not stop streaming down his cheeks.

Matthew felt his neck choke up at the melancholy feeling of bitter and sweet that edged his heart.

"I… I remember you… mom." His eyes glimmered in the shining white light. "I can remember… that at least."

He wiped his last tear.

"Thank you mom." Matthew stepped in the direction of the Garden's control panels. He didn't know what brought on the return of a memory, but he was content. Matthew was content knowing that he did have a past, and that he did in fact have a caring mother.

The alarms continued to blare in the back of his head, slowly reminding him of what could possibly be going down right now.

He thought of Reed Regardius, and the other subjects sought by the other Overseers. He thought about what pasts they might have possibly had; whether they were caring like his, or the contrary. Whether they were good or not, Matthew believed that every person had the right to know their pasts, just like he now knew his.

"You guys deserve to re-find yourselves," he came across a complex-layered panel. "So fight to achieve that, and please…" Matthew aggressively engaged a heavy lever; "—FUCKING ESCAPE THIS PLACE!"

Following this a new alarm was heard blaring in the far distance. It was underlapped by the main emergency alarm that blared throughout the facility.

Matthew looked up at a large digital screen that faced him. It presented the view of a camera. Through the footage shown, was a large circle-shaped gate that began to open, revealing darkness beyond it's aperture.

"Go…" Matthew shuddered. He found a nearby-thrown chunk of debris and slammed it into the lever-engagement. It was now permanently jammed.

"GO YOU FOOLS! GO!!!"