CHAPTER 10: When heroes collide

"No you're lying Ethans dead he Can't be our target"

Adrian looked down clearly not knowing what to say

"this is why we've requested your help since you have a personal connection to Ethan"

This can't be right, Ethan died. I know that for a fact but then what the doctor said came flooding back into my mind. They never found Ethans body so it was possible that he could have survived but,

"Ethan was found unconscious a mile away from the home. Which is where we found and extracted him".

"But you said he caused the fire b-but that couldn't be right Ethan would nev..."

The final word caught in my throat: Ethan would never burn our house down... he wouldn't, right.

"we know from recent energy readings that he's still somewhere in Duviln but his exact whereabouts are unknown"

Adrian opened a drawer, reached his hand down and grabbed something lifting his hand up. He placed 4 black and purple metallic badges on the desk and slid them forward taking one of the badges I began inspecting. It had a simple eye design in the middle, the top half was a deep dark purple and the bottom black. We put the badges on.

"Now since we currently have no job for you until we locate Ethan we are elisting you into a sort of secret police. Basically if we deem a situation too dangerous for regular people and too unnecessary for my elite soldiers you will be called to deal with the situation but please do try to keep your identities secret".

And that was it. Adrian let us leave and we decided to take up permanent residence in Liam's mansion until we dealt with Lucius, a person who we decided not to tell Adrian about. 3 weeks passed by in a flash over this time we trained and fought crime. It sounded cliché but we finally started to feel like real superheroes albeit completely unknown by the public. We were sitting about lounging in one of Liam's sitting rooms when we got another call reaching my hand up to my ear I pressed the earpiece Adrian gave us to communicate with each other pressing the button the earpiece came to life

"Nathen report"

It was Orion for a change

"Go for Nathan"

"Nathen we need you, the central bank has been overrun. At least 30 armed men, and 4 policemen have already been killed and there's at least 7 hostages. Jade and Axel are currently unavailable and me and Luna are out of town you're needed we've already got the police to retreat"

"Copy that Orion were heading out now"

I couldn't explain why but I trusted Orion more then the other 3 or 4 actually but even after 3 weeks I've yet to meet the 5th member of the special agent group. Suiting up Me Liam James and Noah all left for the central bank as fast as we could. After no more than 10 minutes we reached the outside of the bank. We walked up to the front doors which had been barricaded and not wanting to alert our intruders we decided to find another route. Looking up I noticed a small ledge with an open window just big enough for us to slip through but as we climbed and swiftly enter the bank I couldn't help but wonder who opened that window it wasn't the robbers since they enter through the front and it wasn't anyone from the bank trying to escape since the window was at least 15 feet above the ground. We carefully sneaked through the bank until we heard footsteps. We saw around 10 or so soldiers in the middle of the bank on watch out. Turning I gestured to the others to move which they did. We snuck around out of the robber's view and then we struck. The robbers had no time to attack as Liam swooped in and knocked 3 soldiers off their feet then 2 arrows shot out piercing 2 of the soldiers in the shoulder. Then James and I jumped from the side. James dodged under a bullet and drove his glavie into the robber's side. I imbued energy into my legs and dashed through the middle sicing the arms of 2 of the soldiers. Just then we heard bullets ring out from a distant room confused. We all turned but we couldn't see anything but when we turned back I saw the 3 robbers bolt into another room.

"Shit, James, Liam go find the vault and stop whoever's there Noah investigating the sound i'll find those 3"

We all split up and headed our separate ways. Heading through the door I was immediately confronted by 2 robbers who shot at me. Lifting my sword I blocked the bullets and dashed forward slicing the 2 robbers but wait wasn't there a-.

"Don't take another step"

My thought was cut off mid sentence just as I felt cold metal touch the back of my head. Even with my newfound speed I knew I still wouldn't be fast enough to dodged a bullet at point blank

"Okay listen every-"

"No you listen say another word and I'll blast your fu-"

The robber was cut off by something, then I felt the cold metal gun be removed from my head followed by a loud crash, spinning on my heels. I grabbed my sword and pointed it behind me. I turned and was surprised to see a girl my age with deep almost black purple hair and pink eyes standing before me. She was wearing strange clothes which seemed to be made of leather but it seemed different. what else I noticed was around her hands was a pink aura. Suddenly I was lifted into the air by what felt like 2 giant hands but I couldn't see anything and then I noticed I too was surrounded by the same pink aura and then I realised this girl has powers.

"Hey there. Can you put me down maybe"

I tried and failed to sound confident as I tried to plead with the girl. Judging from what just happened I deduced that her powers must have been some sort of telekinesis.

"State your business here"

"I'm just here to stop the intruders honestly"

"That move you used earlier you've unlocked your energy pool".

"Yes I did and I'm assuming by the fact that I'm flying that you did to"

"I'm the one asking questions here"

"you sure are but can you please put me down I tend to get air sick"

"I have you in my hold. I could snap you in two right now yet you're still making jokes".

"It's just something I do"

The girl looked at me, her eyes boring into my soul. Then after a few long moments I felt the pressure around me dissipate and I slowly fell to the floor landing softly on my feet. The girl walked over to me and looked me up and down.

"Well I don't sense any malice in your energy pool so I guess you're telling the truth"

"You sensed my energy pool?"

"How many of you are here currently"

"Including me 4"

The girl hands me my sword which I didn't even realise she had taken and she begins to walk away then stops as her phone rings in her pocket. She stops and lets out a sigh and answers.

"Hello... oh it's you... how do y-... yes"

She puts the phone down and turns to me

"your name"

"Nate. Nate anderson"

She puts the phone back up to her ear.

"It's Nate anderson... oh him..."

She turns and gives me a weird look.

"Are you sure... okay... yes, yes... fffiiinnnee"

She hangs up the phone and turns to me with a defeated look. She slowly walks over to me and hands me a card.

"my boss says we should partner up so here"

I take the card and put it in my pocket. I raised my eyebrow and looked at the girl.

"Who says I'm going to team up with you?"

The girl looked at me with genuine surprise that I didn't just take her offer. But her face went back to normal after only a moment and she put her hand on her face and rubbed her temples.

"Look just... don't make this difficult our leader thinks you're special for some god forsaken reason so just call and I don't know we'll figure something out"

The girl turned around and began to walk away.

"Where are you going?"

She turned to me with an annoyed look.

"I'm going to make sure my team doesn't kill yours"

She turned again and walked away

"Well can I at least get your name"

"It's Emma".

Noah everhart

I turned towards the dark room just as the others left to investigate the rest of the bank. I slowly approached the wooden door with the words accounting written across the middle. I opened the door which luckily wasn't locked and stepped in. The moment I stepped in I felt a cool breeze which sent a wave of calm through me. I never knew why but I always felt calm in the cold. Maybe it's from where I grew up yet I couldn't remember anything before 10 years ago when Liam found me. There was an eerie silence in the room. The floor was carpeted which muffled my steps so there was no sound whatsoever. Walking through I scanned the room for anything but my eyes had yet to adjust to the darkness so I couldn't see much but just then I saw a shadow flash by moving from behind one desk to another. Reaching back I slowly grabbed my bow and pulled it in front of me. Pulling back an arrow I aimed at the desk and fired. My arrow pierced the desk but didn't go all the way through which was my plan. The person behind the desk jumped out and slashed at me with some odd looking weapon which I couldn't make out. Using my bow I blocked and parried the swing causing my assailant to jump back just then I saw another shadow to the right of me.

"He's strong"

"He's fast"

"He's not"

"normal"

The two voices began talking but they were weirdly in sync. They were speaking like they were one person but in 2 body's. The shadow on the left began to approach me.

"He's cautious"

"And dangerous"

"We must"

"Stop him"

Just then the person on my left jumped from and grabbed onto my back before I could react and the one in front of me lodged their blade into my side but thankfully he missed anything vital most likely due to the darkness. Thinking fast I lifted my feet and kicked off the person in front of me which sent me into the wall but luckily the person on my back took the brunt of the blow and let go of me. Scrambling to my feet I grabbed my bow and twisted on my heels and swung the bow into the head of one of my attackers sending him tumbling into the row of desks.

"He's stronger"

"Than we thought"

"We might"

"Need help"

"but were"

"Not going to"

"Do that"

"Are we"

This was starting to get creepy and fast as the figures approached me. I turned and ran for the door which I jumped through just dodging another swing. Landing outside the accounting room I jumped back just as the two figures emerged from the darkness and I was surprised to see 2 boys around my age walking towards me. The 2 teens were identical in every aspect with short jet black hair and 2 small star shaped birthmarks on their right cheek the only difference being their clothes and eye colour the one on the left who attacked me first had blue eyes and wore a dark blue cloak. And similarly the one on the right had red eyes and a dark red cloak. Just then the boy in red lunged at me with his weapon which I could now make out had a cylinder shape and a Ruby red colour with a curved blade at the top. The weapon looked incomplete like half it was missing. I lifted my bow forwards and blocked the swing just then the boy in blue shot towards my side and I saw he held an identical blade just his was a sapphire blue. This was it, this was the perfect time to test my new technique. Imbuing a chunk to my energy into my hands and let out a burst of energy which sent the boy in red flying back I then sidestepped the attack from the side and pulled my bow around the boys neck in an attempt to knock him out but the boy broke free of my hold and elbowed me in the stomach. He grabbed my arm and tossed me into the wall with an audible crash. I looked up and saw both teens charging me with their blades facing towards me. I imbued the rest of my energy into my hands and charged forward but just then my whole body stopped mid dash and so did the two teens I looked down and saw a purple aura surrounding me.

"Asher, Rowan that's enough"

I turned and saw a girl my age walking towards me then I saw Nate following close behind her. Who was she? Does Nate know her?

"Nathen what's happening"

"Relax Noah there not are enemies not anymore anyways though looks like you put up a good fight"

Then the girl turned to Nate and scowled at him.

"Oh my god do you ever shut up"

"calm down Jeez... just let Noah go already so we can go"

Then the aura around me vanished and I could move again. Then the girl spoke again.

"Rowan, Asher can either of yous give me any good news"

The boy in blue whose name was apparently Rowan looked to the boy in red whose name was Asher and they both turned back to the girl.

"We didn't"

"Find anyone"

The girl sighed and rubbed her temples annoyed. Then her eyes widen and she turned to Nate

"wait where are the other 2 people in your group"

Nate looked at her confused.

"They've gone to the vault to stop the robbers"

"Oh just great, that's where Nick is... Rowan, Asher come on we need to make sure Nick doesn't-"

Before she could finish taking she was interrupted by the sound of laughter and multiple footsteps approaching us. I turned and saw James and Liam walking towards us. They were laughing and talking with a 3rd teen. He was tall, had medium length light brown hair and green eyes. The tall teen who I assumed was Nick was holding 2 intruders over his shoulder. He was clearly strong, stronger than anyone normal since he showed no sign of struggle when holding the intruders. Nick looked around and locked eyes with the girl then he pointed to James and Liam.

"Emma look I've found these two in the vault and guess what their like secret superheros isn't that so cooool"

Well he seems friendly and maybe about idiotic but now was not the time for that. After they walked over we confirmed all the intruders we took down and realised we had gotten all the intruders then Nate brought us up to speed on what happened to him and how this other wanted to team up but one question lingered on my mind but luckily Nate had the same question.

"So why does your boss want us to team up"

Emma turned to Nick who I learned was her twin brother who nodded and she turned back to us.

"Our leader Mr diamond wants us to help in his search for a demon who he and the leaders before him have been chasing for the better part of 200 years and he believes you guys... well Nate here mostly can help, all though he refused to elaborate why for some reason"

We all looked at each other then Nate spoke up.

"So you guys are also searching for Lucius but I was told he wouldn't appear for another 10 month's"

Emma raised her eyebrow.

"Who's Lucius"

Nate's eyes widened in surprise.

"Lucius, god of mortals"

"No, we're looking for Azure, Harbinger of Shadows".