MERCHANTS IV (Ch. 70)

Nathan's slashes diagonally, the 'Force' rippling through the air Darwin ignites his striker technique: 'Big Impact' increasing tge weight of his feet before jumping back and rapidly releasing it, the abrupt increase in speed throws Nathan of his swing missing Darwin who repeats his action only to re-ignite it after appearing towards Nathan's left his knuckles connecting with Nathan's jaw, the impact staggers Nathan, another follows showing him blurs instinct takes hold and a vertical tilt of his batton cushions the hit to his plexus cutting through the knuckles as well as drawing blood from the already injured Darwin, Nathan forgoes defense in favour of mutual distruction pressing close as he engulfs himself with his Striker technique: 'Force Coating', his right leg wips into Darwins guard with the laters Defense technique the only reason his injured hands remain attached, Darwin keeps his Defence technique active which means his unable to use his Striker, noticing this Nathan shoots him a bloody grin laying into his defenses relentlessly as the two go blow for blow and despite Darwins superior physique the two are matched for tenacity, Nathan stabs towards the formers lungs, the ends of Darwin's hair raise as he rapidly consentrates his 'Shroud Wall' onto his chest groaning as the rebound rattles his unsettled organs, Nathan's leg wips into his hip cracking the bone but Darwin chokes it in reply standing his ground as he releases his defense switching to offense as he triples the weight of his entire torso before crashing into Nathan's guard, the titanium steel batton is dented but fine and the bones in Nathan's hand fractured, he coughs a clot of blood out his throat as he exhales steam, Darwin despite his advantage is unable to press curtsey of his damaged hip, he focuses his Strike technique into his good side before pushing off the balls of his feet towards Nathan who rolls away watching as Darwin struggles to re position,

(His hip) Nathan notices smiling as he plots his next attack, Darwin sneers with irritation, Nathan presses forward swinging for Darwin's good side while his keg wips towards his bad hip, Darwin wastes no time on defense smashing his striker technique into Nathan's plexus as the latter shots back tumbling on the floor, Nathan staggers like a wilting tree as blood fountains from several parts if his body, Darwin is much the same opting to only counter when he sees a chance ultimately leaving victory to his superior physique and endurance, Nathan well aware of this poors everything his body has to give into his titanium batton, the dent snapping back into uniform place as the batton creaks under the compounding pressure, Darwin frowns his 'Force' blazing as he watches Nathan keenly, the latter launches at him, his vertical swing arcing before wiping into.a horizontal strike towards his hip, Darwin slightly panicked squeezes every ounce of 'Force' into his Defence technique while concentrating it at the impact point, both techniques clash, ignite the unravel, the resulting explosion from both being evenly matched flooring them both as the lay listless and unable to continue, Raven arrives moments later slipping a piece of paper into Darwins pocket before picking Nathan up and making his way away,

(I'm in luck, the implosion triggered an evacuation plan, i need to get to Warden then the girls!), Raven races through the stairs with his Enforcer technique: 'Force Distribution' as he flys down several flights of stairs with Nathan slung over his shoulder and his batton in hand, he arrives at the bottom floor after several minutes grinding his teeth at the sight of several Merchant branded busses moving out from their separately built underground parking are, their normal adult employees are guarded away while bystanders are blocked from getting withing a certain range,

(At the very least i'm sure they'll avoid the cops at all costs), he ponders giving Warden a call, Raven's heart drops when a foreign voice answers the call,

"Warden!, Where is he?!" Raven shouts,

"Ah...so your his friend, you guys really do remind me if us" the man muses, "your friend has a debt to pay, and i shall collect it in due time, make sure he's well preapared for that time, he and the girls are with me, rendezvous with me at Arinx store, make haste" the man orders cutting the line, Raven glances at Nathan's titanium batton then to his unconscious form,

"Sorry about this man" mumbles before pitching the batton into one if the guards heads quickly attracting the attention of the resr who surround him before quick assertaining it's point of origin as they bumble towards Raven in waves, Raven's form blurs and in seconds three are down, he tanks any hit delivered in favour of speed and carnage and seconds later he's done taking down this team, the shilouettes of several other teams arrive forcing him to abandon Nathan's weapon and secure it's host as his empowered frame speeds into the distance,

(I should be able to get to Arrinx in a few minutes) he mules, (the only problem is, can i trust him?), He ponders over the mysterious man.

Several minutes later he arrives and on cue a buss bearing Merchant's initials pulls up and a man in reading frames exits the buss,

"take the buss with you, it'll be easier to escape with this, the have eyes and ears all over the city" he concludes,

"Why?" Raven inquires,

"Why?" The man retorts,

"Why are you helping us?",

(I can't very well say because he reminds me if myself, or more importantly that they remind me of my daughter) he sighs, (this guys really are a carbon copy of us huh) he ponders looking to the sky, (non if that matters now, now i'm just a mercanery, i really am getting to old for this) he mules,

"Hans" he states ignoring Raven's question,

"What?",

"Hans, that's my name, with the path you've chosen i'm sure we'll meet again" he concludes just before another Merchant buss pulls up much to the fear of Raven, the man chuckles before steeping into the vehicle as it speeds into the distance, Raven sighs helping Nathan into the back where both Warden and the girl are unconscious, placing Nathan down he gets into the drivers seat and an online search and a video later he's ready to manage his way to the complex.

"Well i can't say we won",

{It's a paltry win at best, if you're going to kill a Dragon, you ho for it's head},

(I know, i realise that now, if i'm going to take them down i need to do a lot more investigating and find out who the head huncho is, and yo do that the only thing i can do right now is step on their tale, step up on it enough and it'll hurt enough),

{Then the head will show, the question is will you last that long?} Silver questions. Raven frowns, well aware of what Silver is referring to,

"I have to" comes his solemn reply, (and i bloody hell will!).

Jimmy hums exitedly as he sits surrounded by police operatives in a contianment buss, the parole had been revoked on growns of being illegal which it was, the only person he could think of with the authority and motive to do this is none other than Raven's mother, Rachel Voss, and given the little his father had found out from his new employer about her she was far from someone they could challenge and neither her nor his father We're important enough for his father's employer to poke the nest, nevertheless it wouldn't matter in a few minutes, seconds later a crash infront of the bus forces it to a halt, the driver at the passager seat gets out to help clear the road but a sudden shut down in power of all power and surrounding vehicles plunges the late night into darkness, the surrounding civilians exclaim but the officer is quickly on guard, seconds later he's down as a shilouette covered in all black and wearing night specs seizes control of the truck with minimal resistance driving the truck to a secluded area before dumping the unconscious police men to the side and positioning as the four guarding Jimmy exit the back cautiously, the shilouettes form blurs and withing seconds their all down and out, Jimmy steps out from behind the truck yawning lightly, he stretches his cuffed hands forward and the shilouette swings it's hand's and the cuffs where cut, it turns around and vanished leaving Jimmy to fend for himself,

"Ahhh, superpowers are really convenient, no wonder i could never match those monsters, tgey kept such a good secret to themselves, even that bastard pretended to be a friend snd understand my pain while wielding such powers, the bastard eben pretended to be poor, no wonder he always came in with the latest trending clothes, what a fucking joke, if only i had them, if i'd had them too then i wouldn't have had to live such a fucking miserable life!, It's his fault! No. No. It's all their faults!, I swear it Raven Voss, i'll take everything you love from you, not even that bitch you call mom can save you, I FUCKING SWEAR IT" he grins.