Part 12: Third Encounter, POV: Adam

"Jeez I'm so bored, I wish I could just leave to go to the labs!" I thought as I was stretching my arms out behind my head while still being seated in my spinny chair, "I hate math man! I might want to ask one of the Hattan-Tech kids to tutor me basic calculus!" I kept thinking. I couldn't grasp any of the content for my life because the teacher is so dull. For such an artsy school reeking of eccentricism, this teacher is dull as hell!

After the class ended I stepped out and, "ow!" I said. I was flicked on the left side of my head, "What the hell man!?" 

"What?" my friend Kevin said, "You looked tired. I decided to wake you up." he said while putting his hands behind his head for him to lean back. He's a bit shorter than me so he can do that without hurting his back too much. 

"Dude what're you here for?" I asked, "You're not even in my calc class…"

Kevin stated, "I saw that you quit all your clubs. What's up with that?" 

I was surprised he found out so all I said was, "huh-"

"Yeah, I found out." he winked. 

"How'd you find out, I told all the staff members of clubs to keep it a secret?" 

"How do you keep the secret of just… not showing up to after school shit anymore." he reasoned. I transferred to this school at the start of the school year, Kevin was my first friend. When I first came here I told him that, "I want to be integrated into the school fast!" so much so I joined every club Kevin was in and then some. Archery, Track, Dance, Programming, Environmental society and even more. I quit all of those right after winter break though because of my training to be a superhero! 

I couldn't tell him that I'm gonna be a masked hero so I just said, "I think I jumped into the school a bit too fast." 

He rolled his eyes, "I don't disagree with that, but you should've just stayed in one or two you loved." 

At that moment I felt my phone start to vibrate heavily in the pocket of my hoodie. I stared at the 'unknown' number and knew that, "Sorry Kev, I gotta go take this call!" and I stepped into the closest bathroom and locked myself in the stall. This school was cool, there was art everywhere on the stalls and bathroom walls, legal and illegal. The same was with the halls and lockers, kids had much more creative freedom here and that was what drew me to this place. 

I locked myself in a stall and picked up the phone, "Hello?" I said, "What's up?" 

"I already called Sage," It was Sam, "You didn't see in the group chat. There's another emergency. Xeno dropped by Zack and I during lunch and said SUVs are on their way to both of our schools with your gear. Another attack is coming." 

"Wait where-" he hung up on me. 

"C'mon man, how could you do a bro like that?" I said out loud. Well whatever, I get to debut as a hero today! I gotta leave. I burst out of the bathroom and started sprinting at top speed down the hallways, down the staircases and out the front doors. I looked around the area but saw nothing. I took a look closer. 

There was an FBI agent in the hedges waving to me. I ran over to the hedges and he started to run so I followed. 

"Where's the SUV?" I asked. 

"In an alleyway," he stated back, "You really think an official SUV for an underground US organization would just pick you up front?" 

"That makes sense." I snapped my fingers at him, "Where's my gear?" 

"In the back, your suit and weaponry. The other member is already here and prepared." he reported to me. 

"Cool," we turned to the right into a thin alleyway and sure enough, the SUV was parked right there. He opened the trunk for me and I could see two cases: one more square-ish case and another elongated one. 

"Hurry up and get dressed, another agent has already started the car. You can grab your weapon when we arrive." 

"Arrive where?" 

"To the battlefield." 

"Okay… where's that?"

"Oh… right," I guess even FBI agents mess up from time to time, "Chinatown. That's where they've arrived." 

"Why?"

"Look kid, I don't have all the answers, just change your clothes." 

"Fine." I quickly got dressed and opened the door on the back-right side. 

Sage was already sitting there and buckled, "Use the other door idiot." she crossed her arms then closed the doors. "Strange but okay-" I thought.

I went around to the back-left side and sat there instead, "So… how was your day so far?" Even though we spend a lot of time practicing together it's still awkward to start the convo with her. 

"Fine," she sighed, "Hey agent guy! Can y'all get the car running please! Every minute we spend not out there, I'm really fucking afraid someone is going to die. Sorry for sounding rude but our whole job is to like literally protect civilian life!" She leaned forward and ranted to the driver. 

"Dude," I put my hand on her shoulder to pull her back into her seat a bit, "chill. Everything'll be okay." 

"Will it?" she asked, "this is your first time. They're super super scary, and also…" 

"Also what?" I raised an eyebrow. 

"Nevermind!" she shouted, "just clip your mask on," she said while putting her mask over her face and tightening the grip. 

I sighed, "Alright. I'll never understand ya if you don't open up and talk, but alright." I clipped on my own mask. It was a bit tight so I had to loosen it to fit around my head. 

"We'll be there within a couple of minutes. I've just unlocked the doors, so when you're ready and just jump out." The driver said while putting a thumbs up with his right arm to us.

I started to look out the window of the droves of people. Rows and rows of people who were running the other way or cowering in buildings. Cars are all going the other way but had made way for us since the SUV had the seal of the United States on it. Probably the most organized I've seen the roads honestly. 

I was going to mention the roads to Sage to try and start conversation while still looking at the roads, "Hey have you noticed-"

"Don't die." she calmly stated. 

"What?" I turned my head to face her- she had her mask off and it looked like she was tearing up. 

"You okay?" I immediately asked. 

"I'm okay," she wiped her eyes, "I'm fine. My home is just-" she sniffled, "near China Town." she kept sniffling, "just a couple of blocks away. There's also-..."

"Also what?" I'm so confused.

"Nothing," she sniffled then wiped her tears and put her mask back on, "Something Zack mentioned earlier on how he can deal with the fighting: 'swallow any of your morality and understand that we are going to become murderers or else lots more will die.' He told me that on our way to the last battle a couple of days ago."

"Thanks for… the tip?" I'm even more confused, "What does he mean by that?" 

"You'll see. Oh and we're here. Remember: Don't die." Sage said while clenching the handle of the door. I looked out of the windows quickly and could see at the top of the roofs, Andrew zipping through the sky and shooting at… what would have to be: our enemies, the Zankoku Empire. 

"Go on! Get out of here! I need to bring this SUV out of the area so it isn't totaled in minutes!" the driver and agent in the passenger seat shouted at us. 

"Understood!" Sage accepted and flinged the door open and barreled out into the street. She quickly grabbed her bow from the open trunk and ducked behind stands of fruits in the street. She then fires two arrows to her left and right impacting on two enemies, "ADAM!" she called out to me, "Don't act like a sour-pear and get to work!" she was holding a pear as she said that. 

"You heard her, Get GOING!" the driver howled. 

I burst open my door and ran out to the back to grab the case. My hands were trembling as I was trying to flick open the briefcase for my scythe. I finally got it open and brandished my six and a half foot scythe, "Alright. It's time for my debut," Damn the scythe is still a bit heavy to hold at first. I then shut the trunk door. 

"You're good to go!" I shouted to the agent and gave a thumbs-up. 

He took a U-turn and put down his window to face me, "Good luck kid." and sped off. 

"Ah!" I was shot with a blast of magic power. It felt like a really hard sting. I looked in the direction I was shot and I could see them: waves of enemies in front of me. It was slightly horrifying, all of them were wearing the same armor, the same masks and used the same spears. It was like fighting androids rather than real people. 

I slammed my right foot down and put my scythe's neck right at them, "Alright! Here's where they meet their end!" I ran forward and drew my scythe back ready for one long sweep as I got close enough. They kept shooting their shots and each one hurt like a hard bee-sting but it's nothing in the face of a superhero!

At that moment I was about to leap forward and sweep my scythe, but an orange ball of fire descended right down in front of me. "Adam…," Sam said, "get out of the road," he unsheathed his odachi in front of me, "You've been shot too much," his odachi was lit on fire as he swung his blade and flames erupted along the front wave of soldiers. 

I stood there at a stand still, still gripping my scythe as if I was taking a swing at Sam, "Where did you come from?" I asked. 

"Up on the fire escape." he grabbed me by the shoulder and pushed me a bit, "I was on the roofs shooting flames, but you had to go and attack right on the ground. If you don't want to die too quickly. Stay off the streets and keep taking cover quickly. You should've followed Sage's example and climbed to the top of the roofs." The flames started to dissipate at the front, "Actually, if you really want to attack on the ground. Follow my lead." he stated. 

"Ooohh I can't wait for this." I gripped my scythe tighter, "any last minute tips?" 

The fire completely dissipated, "Duck!" Sam shouted as he followed his own tip, well not really. I fully ducked to the ground whilst he just leaned down to a low angle and kept running. I kept note of that. 

He ran forward and parried two spears out of the hand of two soldiers, "Wa-hyah!" he shouted as he kicked back the two now unarmed soldiers. 

I started my run-up but I heard Sheila comment over the mic, "God you're awful at battle cries." 

It didn't stop my run-up but it was still annoying. I dodged the spears being thrusted at me and leapt into the air, farther than the last leap and swept my scythe at the front, having the edge slice through the torso of three soldiers. "How was that!?" I called out to Sam for critique. 

Two bodies burning to a crisp had fallen around him. Sam turned to me and asked, "how was what?"

"C'mon you didn't see my first scythe sweep in real battle?" I bantered as I swept an enemy charging at me. 

Sam elbowed a soldier in the gut to push it back and he sliced right through the head to finish the job, "well I saw that one." 

"Hahhhh," I sighed, "Alright man." and accepted. The two of us kept fighting onward slowly clearing the droves of troops firing at us and trying to stab us with spears. I expected to be doing this with Sage and not him, but this is fine. 

"How many have we got through so far?" I asked while blocking a spear's shaft with my own scythe's snath. 

Sam's hand was lit on fire and he was shooting the flames out into the crowd of enemies, "About twenty, I'm starting to get tired," he cut down a soldier that ran through the flames, "We need to back away and get on top to the roofs. Anyone willing to provide cover for us?" 

"We're on it!" Will said over the mic. 

"Whose we?" Sage asked over it too. 

Zack chimed in as well, "We being: Will and I."

"Ah," Sage replied, "Gotcha" 

"... Where are the both of you?" Zack asked. 

I saw Sam look around on the street signs, "Right where Elizabeth street connects to Canal street on the Northern side!" 

"Ooh that place is bad news, most of the enemies have been showing up at the wider roads of Canal street where the Manhattan Bridge is." Zack explained, "Sage, Cyrus and Sheila are on the edge of Canal street and the bridge. They're currently holding the perimeter line as much as they can!"

"Then let's change plans," Sam suggested, "Adam and I will run around back and start catching them from surprise down the actual main canal street." 

"And what of the aliens that chase you as you run around back?" Zack asked. 

Suddenly a large sheet of metal sprung up in front of the crossroads blocking up the entire street having only the large canal street opened up, "I have it under control." Andrew zipped down onto the street, "I was taking a long time to set that up but now they can't leave Canal street unless they call in their ships… which then we'd be fucked if they did." He landed and immediately shot the leftover troops from the gargantuan spell!

"Are we all able to pull stuff off like that!?" I screamed in excitement. 

Andrew commented whilst tightening his left glove, "If you practiced as much as me. Yeah." 

"Wait, Why aren't they sending their ships then?" Will asked over the mic. 

"Because Xeno." Andrew stated. 

"What?" I was confused… again. 

"Xeno may or may not have hijacked a ship and chased them all up into the sky." 

"WHAT!?" Sam shouted, "AND WE WEREN'T INVITED TO JOIN!?" 

"Not this time," he drew out his machete, "Adam you should probably use this. I watched your skills with your scythe and at the moment they are subpar. The skill gap needed to use a machete is not high, just swing. So, use it." and he turned it over so the hilt was facing me. He glanced at me, "c'mon take it. I don't have all day. I have stragglers to get rid of and you have a fire escape to climb." he pointed up and behind me. 

I turned around to look and Sam was already climbing up the escape to the roofs, "he isn't wrong!" he shouted down to us. 

"See, even he agrees. So take it." Andrew declared with a harsher tone, "Come on man you're wasting my time!" 

I begrudgingly grabbed the machete, "and where do I leave my scythe?" 

"Do you not see the strap that you're wearing!?" Andrew said as he fired a wire into the top of the building, "that's meant to hold your scythe on your back!" and he started to move up in the air to his wire. 

Using my right hand, I felt around my back and sure enough, there was indeed a thing sticking out to hold the snath of my scythe. I slid the scythe in and then called out to Sam, "Wait for me!" 

"Huh?" he peeked his head out of the fire escape near the rooftop, "you haven't started climbing yet!? Use the voice chat more dude! Have it turned on all the time like I do!" I could hear the echo from through the voice chat and also in real life. 

"Yeah we know you have it on all the time… we hear every and I specify every annoying shout you say." Sheila commented, again. 

There were four buttons on the right side of the mask that's placed behind the ear, "which one do I turn on!?" I yelled up to Sam. 

By now he was fully on the roof and he just told through the voice chat, "it's the bottom button. Did no one teach you this?" 

I clicked the lowest button and asked, "Can y'all hear me?" 

"Yup!" Will stated, "You can't see me but I put a thumbs up in real life." 

"Cool, also Sam, someone taught me this but I don't remember who taught me exactly," I think it was Will who taught me? 

"Okay. Just start climbing." 

I was confused on how to start. I know Sam, Zack and Sheila do a lot of free running but they only ask us to come sometimes. I don't have much experience climbing up buildings. I ran into a back alley where there was a fire escape that was right on top of a dumpster. I climbed onto the dumpster and used the machete to bring down the ladder to the fire escape. 

Once I finally got to the top Sam asked me, "what took you so long?" 

I heaved and huffed in between my words, "I don't have much experience climbing up roofs," I groaned. 

"I hope you don't get that out of breath when you fight compared to running up stairs and ladders." he sarcastically commented. 

"Trust me… I don't. What's our next goal?"

"We have to meet up with the rest of our guys near the street of the Manhattan bridge," he looked out towards the bridge, "is that right guys?" 

"That's right," Zack acknowledged, "We would REALLY enjoy the assistance at this moment. Cyrus is starting to get tired of making stone walls. That right Cy," 

"Don't," he heaved, "Fucking call me hahhh that. Only my close friend… can call me that-" 

"Yeah see." Zack followed. 

"Gotcha," Sam acknowledged, "we'll meet ya in a bit."

"Does anyone know where Xeno is!?" Sage yelled into the mic, "we're out here busting our asses at the front of the bridge and where is he!? Also Richard too," 

"Richard only has a weapon, he doesn't possess a suit currently," Andrew stated. 

"Okay fine sure he joined like a couple of days ago, But WHERE'S XENO!?" Sheila backed up Sage. 

I declared that, "Xeno is currently in a spaceship battling up in the skies." 

"And how do you know that!?" Sheila asked. 

I was going to say "Andrew told me-" but he himself cut me off stating that, "I informed him of the current situation." 

Sam snapped his fingers signaling to me and he started running across towards the bridge, I was trying to closely follow him. 

"How did this battle start anyway?" I asked the chat while I was running to the bridge. 

"No clue," Andrew replied, "All I know was that Xeno and I were here first. Richard was here earlier touring New York but he was here hours before the Zankoku descended."

Zack then declared that, "I have a hunch or rather a theory." 

"Sooo… spill," Sage led him on. 

"Okay so, hold up gimme a second-" I heard a blast of lightning shoot on his side of the mic, "anyway, so I think that they had sent this many forces down as bait for us to come. Each time before this one they were chasing us down or locating us. They may've tried to do the reverse and force us to come to them by causing a ruckus in one of the denser areas of NYC: China town. This is of course building off my theory that they're targeting us first." 

"It's plausible," Sam commented, "but, there feels like less men here in Chinatown. These guys are only enough to cover a block or two in the streets. In the park there were way more."

"Then the ones on the ground could be the force baiting us in to be wiped out!" I supported Zack's idea. 

"Adam isn't wrong there," Zack acknowledged, "that's a definite possibility." 

"So what's the move?" Will asked. 

"Stay on the edges, do not try to get into the center. Don't be cornered, surrounded or whatever. Stay on the edges. We'll lure them to the bridge where most of us are and fight in that open space. We need to be able to have space to keep making moves at all times." Sam stated. 

"Gotcha!" Sage said

Followed by Sheila, "understood" 

And Cyrus, "okay." 

Zack as well, "Roger Roger." 

"Alright," followed by me. 

"Okay then!" Will exclaimed. 

"... Andrew, you?" Sam stopped running on the rooftops for a second, "You with us or? I know you don't like to talk to us, but in the battles you still cooperated with us for success. So are you with us?" 

I heard a long sigh on a certain person's mic, "I understood your actions. But," there was a long silence, "I will not congregate with the rest of you." 

Sam shouted, "Why!?" 

"BAHAHA~!" Richard's loud laughing came on the mic, "Andrew, you need to tell them more of your plans so they understand your point and don't get pissed at you!!"

"Richard! How in the hell did ya get onta' this channel, you don't even got a super suit man!?" Cyrus yelled. 

"I desired a microphone connection to my team to converse with them! And I forced my desire to come to reality!" What does that even mean?

"Hmph fine," Andrew said, "I won't congregate with you all because I need to take care of any stragglers or any of them whose smart enough to realize to flank." 

"What if you get caught in a shitty situation!?" Sheila asked, "then what." 

"Then I flee," he simply answered, "I'm the best for this job since I have my grapplers to move through the air making me the fastest and hardest to catch and I use guns that actually work AND I'm the most skilled in the team so-" and he signed off. 

"Who the hell does he think he is for saying that!?" Sheila got a bit mad, "like seriously!!"

By now Sam and I were close to the streets where everyone else was. We could see the barricades Cyrus made with the road. However, we were still on the rooftops and they're like six to eight lanes from the buildings, not to mention the hundreds of cars making the trip harder.

"How are we gonna get over there?" I asked Sam.

He turned to me and stared into my soul, "I don't know" and shrugged. 

"Very Sam answer," Sheila commented, "never thinking ahead." 

I started to peer down at the hordes of troops organized neatly and firing at our friends in the center. 

"Yeah yeah whatever Sheila. We've gotten through this stuff before when I'm just thinkin' outta my ass," he defended himself, "Adam." 

"Huh?" I turned back to Sam. 

"Got any spells that'd be REALLY useful right now?" he asked and then added, "darkness is kinda like the purest form of creation so… do you get anything?" 

"Adam can make purple-y black circular shields out of spell circles." Sage commented, "your welcome for me telling him Adam. Y'all can't see me right now but I'm putting up hearts with my fingers." 

"I just looked, she is. It's those Korean hearts with the thumb and index finger." Sheila confirmed. 

"Alright, I'm gonna need you to make two. One big enough to shield us after we run." Sam started to climb down the fire escape where all the hordes of troops were. 

"Sam what're you doing!?" I called out to him. 

"Shhhh," he put his right index finger over his mask, "they don't know we're here because they ain't shooting at us, please just trust me and make the shields. I have a plan." 

"Is it any good?" I thought out loud. 

"Knowing Sam… no," Sheila commented. 

Sam sighed, "Sheila has no faith in me," he stopped climbing down once he got to the bottom, "Adam! Come down here with both shields just in case, very slowly." he whispered into his mic. 

I started to climb down and occasionally stopped to continue forming the shields, making more and more layers for it to have better durability. It looked really cool with almost a void-like black in the center with faint purple lines showing the spell formation I made for it. It also had a faint glowing purple effect. 

I got down to the bottom, "what do you need this for?" 

Sam didn't say anything, he just had a finger over his mouth.

"What?" I whispered. 

He opened his palm with a tiny red spell circle.

"What're you going to do with that?" 

"Just watch," Sam whispered. 

He then stood up. At the same time Sam roared out like a fierce lion, "HEY! LOOK OVER HERE!!! I call this one RECURSIVE FLAMES!" and flicked his left hand, shooting the spell circle out like he was skipping rocks along a river. "NOW!" he yelled at me and jumped out of the side of the fire escape and started sprinting down to the barricades where the rest were. 

I was about to say, "What's going on-" and at that moment an explosion bellowed up right to me and flames erupted on the ground, that spell circle was a bomb! I darted out and realized that there were more and more… and more spell explosions in the back blowing up tons of the soldiers. 

I caught up to Sam because he was slowing down and I gave him one of the shields, "What the hell was that!?" I shouted while heaving from the running, "How are there more explosions!?" 

Sam blocked a shot from the crowd with my shield, "Run now!" he cried out, "Explanation later!" 

I groaned in exhaustion, "great idea!" The explosions and flames still kept going in the hordes. The both of us were swerving in between the empty cars that people fled out of to try and cross the eight lanes quickly. Once we got to the fifth lane, I could see Sam getting more and more exhausted, he's running at half speed by now.

"Don't tell me," I started to groan, "that the spell that's banging and booming behind us is draining magic energy from you?" 

"You'd be right," he heaved, "each time an explosion goes off or flames burst out, it takes a chunk of my energy," he took a deep breath. 

We were VERY close to the barricades Cyrus made by now. We would reach the first one if we just crossed two more lanes, maybe one and a half… 

Sam chucked the shield aside into the empty street, "carrying it is now too much fucking weight for me now. You can go ahead and cancel the spell now." I did as he said. He muttered, "I'm so damn tired…" and then complained, "I hate this so much!" and whined but through all of this, he was still trying his best to sprint. We got to the last lane and he uttered out, "I need… to reach… my friends-" he dropped to one knee. 

"Sam, c'mon. You're much stronger than this! You can pull through! It's only one more lane!" I tried my best to encourage him. 

"Thanks for the words," he sighed, "it's getting a lil' hard though." he gasped for air.

I pulled on his right arm, "Get up man," I could feel the scythe weighing me down as I was trying my best to pull Sam up. I draped his right arm around my shoulders, "I'll bring you there then!" 

I enlarged the shield with my right hand and held it behind my back to cover the both of us, "Sam. You can stop the explosions and flames now," I told him, "You've been letting them go for a couple of minutes now!" 

"Fine," he acknowledged. Suddenly all of the explosions stopped. The streets went silent only hearing the murmur of the troops yelling and some flames still popping and sizzling, "regain your strength dude. Just calm down." 

I carried him all the way to the first barricade. The both of us dropped down onto the ground and just stared up to the sky. We lied there, not saying a word to each other, just catching our breath.

I closed my eyes but when I opened them back up. Sheila was there just staring at the both of us, "Welcome to Wendy's, how may I take your order?" she joked. 

I scoffed, "Double cheeseburger, fries and a chocolate milkshake and it better be halal!" I joked back. 

"I'll make sure it is," she assured. Sheila then waved her hand to the back layer of the barricades where they had a small circular fort made of Earth and Ice built up. Cyrus came rushing out and the two of them brought the both of us into the "base".

"Are you guys good?" Sage asked. 

"I'm fine," I took a deep breath, "hey did y'all hear every word of that conversation?" 

"Every. Single. Word." Andrew said over the mic, "None of you decided to mute your microphones so I could just feel the sappiness seeping through my earphones." Everyone else around us nodded and confirmed. 

"Ah… that's a lil' awkward," I remarked while setting the scythe down on the floor. My back feels so free and easy to move now!

"Well that doesn't really matter to me. Overall I feel like that I've been in y'know… better shape." Sam stated, "just leave me here, I'm super fucking tired." he rolled into one of the corners of the circular floor plan. 

"Good work Sam," Zack praised, "you got about thirty-eight to forty-two percent of the soldiers for us, more or less anyway." 

"Thanks bro," he raised his right arm to give a thumbs up. 

I clapped my hands, "alright team… what now?"