Chapter 14 - Seven and a Half Years Ago

"So what do you think?"

I sit there for a minute and weigh up my options. Right now Claire and I could rush the two of them and escape. No. We would never find Sara. I say no. We never find Sara. I say yes and there's a chance Razer keeps his word. I try to say yes, but I'm beaten to it.

"We accept, ummm..... Mr Razer?"

"Uncle Jack is fine."

Damn. He said it. I was hoping not to have this conversation.

"What do you mean? I don't have any aunts or uncles."

Razer directs his eyes towards me. "You didn't tell her about me?"

"Honestly Jack it never came up."

"It never came up that you have a brother?"

"I mean it's not as if you were around when she was younger, and after that... Well after that I didn't have a brother did I."

Razer's body language changes from that of receptive brother to hostile once again.

"Oh and who's fault is that?"

"Yours Jack. It was always yours. I didn't want to cut you off, I never wanted you to be left alone. That was my worst nightmare. But after what you did there wasn't any reason to stick around you anymore."

"That's not what Sara thought."

"Don't. Don't try and say what she thought when you're the one keeping her hostage. Takes away any meaning whatsoever if they're under duress."

"Shut the hell up Matt." He has changed once again. This time it was worse than anything Matt had ever seen. Hatred was flowing through him. Being released through his pores.

"Jack I think it's time you left. Now."

"Whatever. Micron will be in touch with your tasks."

"What do you mean tasks?

"If you're going to fulfill your role as villains you need to act the part. Steal some resources of mine that have been confiscated. Again Micron will be in touch."

They leave as swiftly as they entered, exiting through the same purple doorway, but this time it looks as though it's bringing them out somewhere different to the park Raz- Jack came from.

"Soooooooo. I have an Uncle?"

"Yeah kiddo, you do. But that's not all. You have a lot more than just an Uncle."

"Tell me. I need to know him."

"No you don't, once we get your Mother back we'll never be seeing him again."

"Fine don't tell me about Uncle Jack. Tell me about how terrible a person Razer is."

"I guess you do need to know what we're dealing with. The best place to start would probably be around the time he started to go down a darker path.....

----------------------

......Seven and a half years ago".

It's approaching the later hours of the evening, but for those of us in The Line, the day was just starting. We were a team of 9 heroes on rotation that would monitor Mineral City each night. To name a few there's Sheerforce, Veleta, Razer, and Micron. But this story unfolds on a night when Sheerforce and Razer were in rotation.

Sheerforce and Razer - otherwise known as Matthew and Jack Walker. Super powered brothers, with similar but vastly different intellects. Both had been blessed with inhuman strength and speed, as well as the power of flight. However, this is where their abilities diverged. Whilst Matt had laser vision, freeze breath and his arsenal of other sense based abilities, Jack was given an extremely enhanced intellect, and a variety of other mind based abilities.

For years they fought side by side, as 2 of Mineral City's greatest heroes. And then Matt got the call. The call that every hero wanted. The call to the big leagues. The Defenders of Aincar wanted him and Veleta to join up. Two spaces had recently become vacant. And this was their decision.

Now to say this didn't sit well with Jack would be a lie. This broke him. Jack had worked much harder than Matt, at least in his eyes. He was a different type of hero he thought. The one that a world could rally behind in even the darkest of times. But The Defenders of Aincar didn't think so. He always asked Matt to put in a good word, but time after time he was passed over.

This is when the resentment grew. If he wasn't going to be the world's greatest hero. Then he would make sure he was the hero who got the job done. No matter how. Over a matter of months his crime fighting became his entire life. He didn't care who he hurt, so long as innocents were safe.

Now there was a reason this night in particular was different. You see it would set the brothers on course for a future that neither of them could ever come back from.

It approaches 11pm in Mineral City, and the two brothers get a call about an armed robbery going on in a warehouse near the pier. This however was just par for the course, and the crime in progress was dealt with as swiftly as it began. Or so they thought.

What they didn't see was the last man. This last man had snuck away from the scene and was attempting an escape. He took one of the security guards from an adjacent building as a hostage, and was attempting to buy his freedom.

"Hey Buddy, just put the gun down so we can talk about this. You don't want to throw your life away. At this point nothing's happened. You can just walk away and attempted murder is off the table."

"Don't waste your breath Sheerforce. He isn't worth it." Now speaking to the assailant, Razer growls "Try it. See how you end up."

"Razer. What the hell?"

I realize my mistake too late. Razer was never trying to antagonize the assailant. He was trying to antagonize me. At the time I was faster. Ever so slightly faster. For him to act he needed the perfect window.

As I turn he raises a hand, and the assailant is dead. Using telekinesis the man's neck snapped.

"What did you do? You killed him!"

"Yeah so. He deserved it."

"What do you mean he deserved it?"

"He was going to kill that man Matt. What else would you have liked me to do? Talk to him?"

"You know I really didn't want to believe it Jack. I really didn't."

"What are you talking about?"

"Do you know why they sent me? Because you were less likely to kill me once you found out."

"Found out what?"

"This is the end Jack. You're not a hero anymore." I pull out a communicator, and begin to talk fighting the tears of betrayal from my own brother. "You were right Defenders. I hate to say it but you were. Razer is a murderer. Come and get him."