Chapter 35: Poet against the council!

"I figured there was no reason to continue, it could have gone on for an hour with him eventually winning that fight, I was not prepared but he had some knowledge about me… somehow, Set. The civilians involved didn't help." said Derek as he landed from a higher building to the edge of a lower building traversing to his destination in his Mistdeemer form and had a straight mouth. "You did spectacularly against him blind, we've never faced that and next time, he's in those A.I.S authority dampening cuffs in a minute. Everything that I saw and read about this place from the last thirteen years, then I'd say that survival is a victory." He saw it in his sights but decided to survey the area to be sure nobody was following him. He shut his eyes and listened to the noise around him but couldn't hear anything suspicious. "Survival is a victory. The city that entails survival. The purlieu, my dad, had a monopoly on crime and scared away the darkness. A prowler behind evil." Derek replied to his friend. "There's nothing like that feeling of having hope and it paying off!" Said Anthony as he shouted energetically. "I'd like to have a debate about epiphanies— later though— you've still got information you're itching to share?" Derek replied then asked as he approached closer. Anthony pushed up his glasses then stretched his arms. "Maybe the other night I should have mentioned that I'm a uh— sworn pacifist, and that conflicts with what I want my time spent investigating the atrocities that could make any decent human's heart-ache occurring in this wonderful city with no police to stop it and I'm too— I've got way too much to tell you." Anthony says as he grinned with glee. "Ready to be guided." Derek replied. "Oh, I forgot most of the grander information." Anthony admitted before stopping to collect his thoughts on what he was ready to inform him about. Derek stared at him, Anthony slightly felt intimidated by the ominous and flowing smoke coming out of him as Derek held his arms crossed. "Yeah, we're going to need to return to my hideout for my journals and notes." Anthony finished with a nervous smile. "You had me for a second. Lead the way for a better day." Derek shouted with similar energy as Anthony earlier except with his left arm bent and upwards. Anthony looked out of the windows of the library they were in. "One of the leaders, Amidio Jono, tracks down his targets and enemies of the cult through pinpointing… their fear. If fear exists on a spectrum, he has no limits, from anywhere in the city! As a matter of fact we should move!" Anthony informed Derek with a sudden tone of exigency after he emphasized fear and said it louder. "Explain how that works to me like I'm five, please. Explain every member I should be worried about, actually." Derek replied as he followed Anthony through a shortcut. "First, get it, before we head on over to the hideout or you'll get us caught and murdered. There's no need to worry, no need to be hopeless, there's a rebellion in the city that we could work with if we can find them— at least they kept me hopeful and fearless!" Anthony shouted but still sounded harmless to Derek. "How did you find out about the cult and surviving alone?" Derek asked as he tried not to walk faster than Anthony and slowed himself down. Anthony let out a deep sigh as his eyes slammed shut. "Curiosity on the irrelevant let the cult members kill the hero and investigative reporter, c'mon!" Anthony whispered as he kept leading the hero away. "I'm not scared… anymore, and isn't Amidio the mayor? it just came back to me." Derek assured before asking. "I need you to make absolutely sure, or we're dead."

"Oh, dang!" Mack Merrick, the CEO of Cadel industries, A weapons manufacturing company, exclaimed as he entered his own "Interrogation room" having captured the leader of a group that's been going around destroying Cadel merchandise, buildings and killing their workers.

"You can go to hell, you devious devil!" Said the leader of the group. "Answer to me how you can proudly bring ruin to a world that you have to live in??" Keelstelle asked in an irate tone. "Last name's Keel and stelle, was it?" Mack asked rhetorically as he looked down at him directly in the young man's eyes. "I don't even get how anyone knows about all of my companies and side businesses, all of it should still be within the higher-ups of my companies, which means we must have a little rat who crawled his way inside…" Mack thought to himself out loud. "Does he know about our Enenra lord?" Mack asked himself in his thoughts.

"No." Keelstelle replied as he brought his head down as he tried to wiggle his arms which were tied behind his back. "Oh, no?" Mack Merrick asked with a devious grin as he inched closer. "We haven't planted a mole inside of your business, we don't have anyone planted at all." Keelstelle denied his suspicions, still Mack stared Keelstelle in the eyes while he placed his fist on his chin, thinking and noising "Hmmm…" as he was in deep thought.

Quicker than Keelstelle, his beautiful girlfriend and the men who were present could react, Mack got up from squatting in front of Keelstelle and spinned around as he threw a Spanish carmine colored shuriken at one of his personal guard's head, hitting him right in the forehead. Keelstelle looked defeated because he knew that guy was the mole, he guessed right, Mack enjoyed the look of total defeat on his face. "How did you know he was the one, beau?" Mack's doxy, Jasira vesper, She's capable of unreal things.

"Heard His heart rate increase when he looked over at us, once he heard the idea of a mole." Mack answered his doxy. "Oh, baby, you're always so keen!" Jasira stated as she started trying to hug Mack. "Hey, Keel, wanna know why I yelled 'oh, dang!' When I first came in?" Mack asked Keelstelle as he was still on his knees sweaty and bloody after being roughed up by Mack's men. "Honestly, I don't and you can go burn up in hell like I told you before!" Keelstelle shouted out, staring him dead in the eyes, filled with the whole spectrum of anger. "Alright, it's because I heard you took out like 40 of my men, alone. More impressive than I thought, they were trained by the greatest martial artist." Mack said in a respectful tone, at least Keelstelle refused to let his guard down. "I can assume you know HOW I killed them all then?" Keelstelle asked back. Mack looked at his men, and almost like he was using telepathy, the men knew what to do, they went forward to unlock his chains and release him.

Keelstelle kipped up, still bloody, still sweaty but also free, that's when surprisingly… one of Mack's guys slid him over two pistols, specifically his own custom pistols, the ones he killed the 40 men with, and he hopes to kill Mack Merrick with… "You know how this game goes Amigo, you aim for me and only me, you hit my girl or my guys, game over…!!" Mack said as he walked back with his hands up. Keelstelle shot before Mack was ready, but he still dodged his two dirty shots, "Heh, playing dirty makes this game more fun, honestly!" Mack said as the two shots got his instincts awake early. Keelstelle fired his rounds, left and right, up and down, his expert marksmanship was as good as his burritos, which were amazing…

Eventually after he fired shot after shot, and none hit Mack, he ran out of ammo and ran out of his boldness too. Mack grins and chuckled, feeling victorious because he wasn't very confident he could dodge bullets yet, so that was a gamble for him too. Keelstelle doesn't know what's about to happen but he does know that Mack is powerful enough to make anything happen. Jasira stepped closer to him though, then she raised her left hand to her face, up to her eyes, a dark red butterfly appeared out of nowhere, out of thin air and landed on her ring finger, and just sat there as she stood staring at it. This all confused Keelstelle as he had no idea what was going on.

She then turned and faced his way, He saw her eyes turn the same Spanish carmine red as Mack wore, then he suddenly felt something bite him, a very agonizing bite, then he felt more and more all over his body, forcing him to look down and there they were, a no telling amount of these butterflies were covering his body, he fell in agony as he slowly died a painful and regretful death. "What a powerfully sad death, he had a lot of potential to be a good man and a good fighter!" Mack stated sincerely as he stared over Keelstelle's remains, a moment of silence struck quickly. "Wanna go do that deed now?" Jasira asked, breaking the silence. "Can't babe, I got 12 masked cage matches tonight as part of my training or the old man will have my head, I gotta go prepare!" Mack answered as he left her with a sad look on her face but a kiss on her forehead.