Moving Up in the World

He breaths heavily as he gets back up and runs but the Kuiper doesn't seem to realise Simon was gone from his grasp. Perhaps they don't have the organs needed to hear or smell? The eye organ was definitely something added to the Kuiper's body after its creation. Nevertheless that was a boon and Simon took it, running in the opposite direction, trying to find a way towards the surface. The unfortunate truth however is that he was completely lost. Running away in a haze from the Kuiper made him take the wrong hallway and now he was completely lost. Worst yet, not from very far away he could hear the Kuiper's hands scraping against the metal walls of the facility again and it was heading his way. As he didn't knew what to do, he just moved on, running as fast as he could. But the hallways were already damaged the first way he passed through and now that the Kuiper was going berserk behind him, the whole wing of the laboratory was damaged and started shaking. He had to get out of there immediately.

"Will the people inside the safe room make it without warning them? But if I bring the Kuiper there it might blow up or trap them inside. Damn, I hope the tremors give them a hint of what is going on!" Simon says out loud trying to find comfort in the imagination of someone being out there, listening to his problems. As he is lost in thoughts for an instant a bright light shines from behind him. The Kuiper's central body opened up and now the eerily humanoid looking monster was following him with intent. It's whole body grew to the point it was destroying the hallway as it passed through, it had something, somewhat resembling a Greek helmet for a head, made out of tinny pieces of stone arranged in that form by energy. It's whole centre of mass expanded and the stone pieces made it look very muscular and intimidating.

"I was called in just for this?" A male voice calls out and Simon turns his head to see two figures standing in front of him. One was a man with long black hair, very tall, maybe two metres in height but quite skinny wearing a red leather suit. The trimmings along the golden gilded design made it look thorny and dry and it made a raspy noise with each movement the man took. His fingers were long with their tips covered in black tattoos. His chest was exposed and the way the leather bent outwards from his body made it look as if it was a monster swallowing the man's body whole. The unknown man rises his finger and suddenly the whole hallway in front of him is covered in spears which skewer both Simon and the Kuiper.

Simon flinches not sure if the spears would pass through his body or if they would impale him but luckily he is able to keep moving through them as his body absorbs and releases the spears.

"I told you there was someone in front of the alien!" A feminine voice reprehends him and for a second the man dressed in red moves backwards as if fearing to antagonise her. Simon by then makes his way out of the forest of spears and stops to gather his breath.

"On your knees dog. You may not raise your head in front of royalty." The man says and a spear bursts forth from behind, trying to hit Simon behind the knee but it passes through his clothes and into his body where it did no damage.

"So, this one is not a worm?"

"Continue behaving like this and I'll kill you." The woman says with Simon finally being able to see her. Unlike the flamboyantly dressed man which proclaims himself royalty, the woman, or rather young girl was dressed quite modestly, quite poorly in fact with drab brown clothes. He wore a brown skirt which reached all the way to her ankles with a faded pink shirt and a brown overcoat. She keeps one hand in her right pocket with the other hand holding a cane, not very different from Simon. The 'prince' shows some restrain and genuine fear at the threat as he tries to distract her by pointing back to the Kuiper.

"A new model?" The prince says disregarding Simon's shaken presence.

"Are you alright? Are there any wounded people? A rescue team will arrive immediately. Are there any Kuiper inside?"

"No, this one is the only one. The technology we gathered from the Oortians, it was rigged to create a makeshift teleportation device which allowed this one to enter the facility. It was..."

"Oy, you might not be a worm but you're still a dog! Bow before royalty and present yourself before you speak." At that point the girl got really angry and from her back muscle and metal sprang forth turning into a metallic combination which took the shape of a dragon's hand. She grabs 'the prince' and slams him into the nearby wall with enough force to crack it. He protected himself by lessening the blow with a wall of interwoven spears.

"You bitch! I might not be able to kill you but if my father hears about this!"

"You want to turn your beating into a murder mystery?" She says pushing him further into the wall. Her previously tired eyes were fully awake and her expression was filled with anger.

"If humans are worms because they have no power, your title is noise to me number 61!"

"You..." The man doesn't get to finish his words as the claw pushes even further on his ribcage. She lets him go making sure that by pulling her draconic arm back the prince will fall to his knees.

"Scum." She says not even spitting on him. Simon looks in shock absolutely terrified by the display of power and the horrible relationship between the two. Without looking at either of them, the dragon woman breaks effortlessly through the corridor of spears and reaches the Kuiper's body where she destroys it completely. She comes back around and grabs the still kneeling prince by the long black hair which was nearly touching the ground.

"Dare! Dare to seek revenge on this man and I swear, there will be no mountain range tall enough to keep you safe, no castle to keep you hidden. Carpathia's own defences won't fall down fast enough, the mountains won't let you flee fast enough when I'll be coming for you. This I swear." She slams his head into the floor before leaving. Giving Simon a very clod look she says:

"Leave and don't allow anyone but Leo to approach him. When his pride will allow him to raise his head he'll go on a rampage." She says fidgeting through her pocket looking for her phone, a metallic phone very similar to Lazar's.

"My name is Simon and I thank you very much for your rescue hero." Simon says bowing gracefully to her.

"You just went and done it. Now he knows your name..." She says annoyed letting out a deep sigh. "Leave." She repeats before doing the same. Simon doesn't wait for a second warning and does as instructed, fleeing towards whatever direction he can find but surprisingly just after he turns the corner the limping girl was already gone.

Having learnt enough about monsters being right behind him, Simon starts running until, by some miracle he finds a bunch of armed men searching through the building. They were all dressed in white body armour with blue helmets.

"We've got a survivor."

"How many have we got?"

"31 this far. Keep looking." Most of them pass him by but two soldiers stop in order to offer him first aid and refreshments. They were the only ones carrying large backpacks and having their left sleeve painted black with a large red cross on it. Although armed those were doctors.

"Tell your men not to go in that direction. There's... hero number 61 in there and he is angry."

"Oh, damnation, not him! Can you tell us which way to reach him..."

"... as to avoid him." And then Simon tells them where to go before they instruct him to sit on the floor and have his vitals checked.

"You're doing fine. No sign of trauma, no internal damage and no sign of any form of corruption." One of the doctors says handing him a small 250ml bottle with a blueish liquid inside and a chocolate bar.

"Good heavens! Is that real chocolate?" He says internally but his eyes were saying it out loud. He munches on the given food then he follows a black line left on the ground by the soldiers towards the exit. There he finds waiting his group, the man who told them to flee and several, heavily armed soldiers with entrenched machine guns and mobile reinforced walls.

"You made it kid! You made it!"

"You won't believe the story I have for you." He says before telling them everything about what happened, about how he and...

"I never got his name. The man which came with me, looking for the other person."

"That's Altan. He's safe, he's up on the surface waiting for us."

"I see. Well, next time someone has to draw the attention of a Kuiper, he'll be the one. And if the Kuiper was the worst of it. I think I've gained the ire of number 61."

"Oh, fu*k kid. You've got on the wrong side of the Prince of Carpathia, Stephen? How in the world did you do that?"

"He's a real prince?" Simon shouts shocked.

"Indeed he is and his father is the number 18 strongest hero in the tower!"

"I didn't do a thing to him. He was arguing with this girl and she slammed him into a wall and beat him to his knees."

"Was that number 28? Was she a bug?"

"No, she was quite unassuming. She was a young girl, pretty much my age if not a little younger. She was quite short with messy black hair and in real need of sleeping. She had huge bags under her eyes and her and she needed a cane to walk."

"Don't know. Never heard of such a hero before."

"She was super strong too! This metal and muscle arm came forth from her body and her demeanour was quite stoic in front of the prince. She took him out in one move then left."

"Look how your eyes are sparkling. Did you got a crush on her?" Simon looks away in a sad but content way.

"Even if I would have a crush on her..." "I'm here cleaning up the mess left behind by other heroes and crawling in fear from enemies she doesn't even consider."

"It might be for the best. If she's strong and human looking number 4 might settle for her instead of number 6."

"I do not have such ambitions..."

"Alright everybody! Time to get you out of here and home." Leo arrives as always out of door in the ground holding in both arms some small trinket he is working on. This time he is struggling with a piece of paper on a clipboard on which he is trying to sketch something.

"One by one, get in line and through the door. It will take you right in front of your house. Tomorrow you'll be contacted for an abridged version of what went down here today." He says standing before Simon.

"Quite a day you've had, isn't it?"

"I'm afraid Stephen will try to kill me."

"He'll definitely try. Come with me, things already happened and people already agreed to said things to happen."

"What will happen now?"

"You just pissed of an entire nation."

"I did nothing! I literally did nothing! I was running from the Kuiper when I stumbled into Stephen and that other girl and they started arguing. There is no way in hell I could stand up to him!"

"Could his spears hurt you?"

"They passed through my body as any other melee weapon does."

"Congratulations, your ability is a perfect counter to his. Just like his father, although limited in strength and scale, he can summon those thorny spears from the ground which hold impressive strength. The problem is he has a whole solidified nation at his calling and he'll most likely try to kill you the first chance he gets."

"I can't run away, can I?"

"No, but there is a way to combat him and luckily for you, we've got the means to do so. It just so happened that Lazar wants you to be his private butler, which means you'll become his property but his influence will protect you from Stephen?"

"Will that work?" Leo laughs a little before answering.

"Kid, you're targeted by a nation. I'm targeted by the 4th." Reassuring him, Leo takes Simon to Lazar who was already waiting for him.

"Good evening gentlemen." Lazar says standing up from his comfortable armchair. There was another person in the room, a very young woman with silvery hair and a dark complexion.

"I will be leaving you to your duties great grandpa. I'm glad your hand is better."

"Of course. Leo, if you could." And a door opens in the middle of the room and the girl leaves.

"Don't eye her too much or the deal is broken, you hear me? That's the finest young lady you can find in this city. I would know, she's my great granddaughter."

"Great granddaughter? How old is she? How old is he again?"

"Well, let's leave chasing women to number 4, shall we?"

"If Jebe ever approaches my great granddaughter I'll eviscerate him."

"As we all want to do. Let's bring Simon up to speed. What is going to happen from now on?"

"As I understand, because of circumstances you've angered Stephen of Carpathia. There are worse things you could have done but, you're not as courageous as the Lion."

"Oh, I get it now! His name is Leo but everyone calls him Lion because he angered number 4!" Simon nods silently.

"You will work directly under Lazar, he will take you off my hands, which also means he'll task you with everything he needs and I mean everything. By working for him you'll have to take care of all his requests. I will provide you further down the line with contacts for everything ranging from transport to cooks, furniture and everything else. You'll receive formal training on how to serve in the tower, you will... not have a free day in your life from now on."

"But at the same time you can partake in the bounty I am offered. The food, the clothing, the money, yes you can send money to your siblings on the frontier if you so desire, all it's also yours."

"Within reason of course." Leo continues. "However, you must be really careful since this is truly a very cut-throat environment. If a higher level hero desires you, most likely you'll be given up peacefully, Stephen excluded. Usually when such individuals are decided, heroes fight one another over their personal butlers if one of the parties is that interested in that person. Since Lazar..."

"Since I'm no real match for the younger generation, I cannot fight to protect you, however since we know your situation you won't be given up to Stephen either."

"And if you fear someone will take you away in his stead, fear not, he is hated by most of the tower and his father is the one who hates him the most. King Alexandru won't be coming for you."

"Do you accept the conditions? I would like to have you read the whole contract but as it stands now, without protection Stephen could barge in right now and kill you if he so wanted. Time is of the essence."

"I'll sign!" Simon says. Leo hands him over the papers and Simon writes down his name. Strangely there is a small, sharp pointy blade at the top of the clipboard on which the whole contract was written and Leo instructs him to leave a trace of DNA over the signature, as further proof of taking the contract seriously. Simon cuts himself and although he doesn't fell any demonic possession, Leo looks a little too satisfied.

"Yes! Another one signed the contract! Another one is bound to the tower, I am alone no longer!"

"Have I made some sort of mistake?"

"Ignore him. He is bound to the tower and because of his position, thus far he has been forced to provide all those services himself to the whole 100 members of the tower. It might not be much but you're the first human with powers who signed a direct contract, thus turning that number from 100 to 99."

"Say, I'm already grateful for all you've done but, if workers with powers in contracts is what you wish, if it ever happens that I will go to work for another hero, could I call one of my brothers to fill my position? I swear, although they are signed as powerless..." Simon stops not knowing if it was right or not to share the secret but he continues:

"Some have been signed as powerless but some truly have powers. I've taught them to hide them so they won't be stolen, so they won't be forced to fight and die looking for a position in the tower. I've been out today, I faced a Kuiper which turned humans to dust but Stephen didn't even acknowledged it and that girl who saved me didn't even acknowledged Stephen. If that's the level of power here, then my brothers and sisters and will never make it as heroes, but they can work hard, just as hard as I'll show you I can."

"As long as the heroes willing to accept them, I have nothing against it."

"I am very grateful. One last thing before you leave though! Could you tell me the name of the girl who saved me?"

"Haydee, her name is Haydee" Leo says leaving through one of his trap doors which opened right underneath his feet. As he falls and before the door closes and disappears his voice echoes, still cheering that someone else joined his very same position."