Chapter 2
The sounds of screeching tires and blaring sirens were all that could be heard down Telegraph Road. The many pedestrians and oncoming traffic that populated the street made sure to stay clear of the oncoming armored car, zooming down the street at such ridiculous speeds as the police actively followed in pursuit. Once the vehicle crossed 8 Mile road, the Detroit police cars on standby turned on their sirens, and joined the speeding Southfield police in pursuit in their quest to stop the runaway car. With every light ran, every stop sign ignored, and the innocent bystanders gathered together in order to serve as an obstacle, the chase became more dangerous with every passing second.
Then appeared the man called X.
He swooped down low from the higher altitudes of the sky, flying a safe distance above the street just as fast as the pursuing police vehicles. He charged through the velocity pushing against him from his speed; the sunglasses doing a fine job protecting his eyes from the damaging winds. He kept his arms to his sides as he inched closer and closer, using his bullet-shaped form to help gain more natural speed than what he could produce with his telekinetic ability.
His attention rested on the back of the armored car, even as he lowered himself to flying a foot above the sirens of the police cars he joined. Soon, that concentration narrowed from the back of the car to the hinges of the doors, then from the hinges to the doors themselves, and then from the doors to the handles. With his focal point finally set and his concentration unhindered, X willed the locks undone with the power of his mind, causing the doors to flail open wildly.
Once the doors opened, the passengers up front began to retaliate with that of open gunfire. X did his best to guard the police he traveled with, thrusting a hand forward in order to telepathically stop the barrage from hitting any of the men in blue or the innocent bystanders the lot of them darted past. The clips ran out sooner than later, allowing the nearby squadron cars to drive up to the sides of the armored car to deal with the armed individuals present. X meanwhile tossed the group of bullets he froze in mid-air onto the streets grassy islands with a flick of his wrist, before adding more speed into his flight and dived straight inside the back of the large armored car.
X entered the car in a forward roll and landed on a bent knee, resting his gloved left hand on the metal floor to allow his body to keep up with Newton’s law of motion. He looked forward before standing upright, only to see a being clad in metallic armor further within the truck. It had its back turned to him, but the tail that was attached to the suit helped X realize that this was no ordinary pursuit. The being turned to face the psychic protector, showing off its helmet fashioned like that of a ferocious insect. It scoffed at the sight of him.
“I was wondering when you’d show up,” he said.
X stood upright and clenched his fists in a sudden yet quiet display of anger, finding himself frowning as he focused his lens-covered eyes at the armored man before him.
“This can only end one way, Matthias,” X informed. “Have your men stop the car before you get someone hurt.”
The man in the armor began to chuckle, fully facing X as his metallic tail eerily slithered behind him from shoulder to shoulder. “Still going the angle of righteousness, I see,” he mocked. “That’s good to know, X; good to see things haven’t changed a bit, but quite sad at the same time…”
“You’re not getting away from me, Matthias,” X informed, assuring himself with a firm yet slow shake of his head. “Not this time.”
The armored man the psychic protector kept calling Matthias gave a nonchalant nod, as if what he just heard was simply for his amusement.
“You keep telling yourself that, X,” he said as he took one large step toward the hero. He immediately crouched soon after, flashing his metal-clad hands as if he were unsheathing a pair of razor sharp claws.
“Meanwhile, I’ll be the one proving you wrong…”
The tail of the armor-clad individual charged toward X immediately afterwards, aiming its stinger at his head. X dodged the lethal blow by bending his back, only to recoil himself upright in a fluid motion to avoid another charge of the tail’s stinger aimed at the left side of his body. For a third time, the man aimed to strike X with his stinger. However, in retaliation, the psychic protector thrust his right hand toward the floor of the armored car, telekinetically forcing the stinger through the car in order to trap it. As the man struggled to remove his metallic appendage from the vehicle floor, X gathered enough telekinetic force around his right fist to throw an uppercut to the man’s chin strong enough to send him and his tail crashing through the roof of the armored car.
X jumped and allowed gravity to pull him out of the armored car once he saw the dent the ceiling made in the man’s landing. With his body ejected out of the armored car, X regained flight and immediately headed to the roof, where the armored man began to gain his footing. X landed on the roof, but not before attempting a spinning kick to the man’s face with his right foot. The armored man dodged the blow the same way X blocked his first attack with the stinger, while X landed with his legs facing the man and his midsection turned to his left a result of the failed attack.
The armored man took advantage of X’s situation, sending his tail to jab him in the right side. However, the psychic protector was able to use his awkward positioning to perform a backwards flip, sending him out of harm’s way with moments to spare. The stinger pierced through the space X once stood like a knife cutting butter, only to recoil seconds later. X fully faced the man, only to immediately follow suit with a strong tug of telekinetic energy toward his person with his right hand. The result was the armored man’s immediate rapture in X’s mental hold; his entire body being flung toward the psychic protector by his sheer will alone.
Once he was close enough, X sent yet another mentally-fortified punch the armored man’s way, this time aiming for his armored gullet. The sheer force of the blow was enough to send the man bouncing off the roof of the armored car like a smoothed stone skipping off a still lake, yet he willed his mechanical tail to pierce the car in order to keep from hurtling off into the street. He gained enough momentum to swing to the edge of the car’s right side around the same time X began to head over to cut him off. However, that same momentum allowed the armored man to swing his lower body upward, kicking the psychic protector across the left side of his face at the same time he returned to the roof of the vehicle.
He reached out and grabbed X’s trench coat with his left hand, taking advantage of the psychic protector’s daze from the blow. He turned X around to face him before taking hold of his neck with the same hand, in which X grabbed hold of it with both of his in a struggle to get free. He watched as the armored man raised his right hand upward, watching with no trace of surprise on his face as the metal making up the gauntlet it was dressed in began to disintegrate, only for it to reform into a human-sized metal version of a scorpion’s claw. The armored man snapped it a few times before recoiling his arm back, bringing X to his knees with the hand around his throat in preparation to strike.
Then the armored car took a sharp right turn.
The armored man lost his grip on X and the two of them flew off the roof simultaneously. X, free from the choking grasp around his neck, immediately took flight to avoid landing in the street. The armored man however, found himself once again using his scorpion-like tail to grab hold of the left side of the armored car. He swung off the car by his tail like a flag flapping wildly in the wind, while X gained speed and flew immediately next to him, keeping him in his sight as the car began to race down Plymouth Road toward the city borders of Livonia, Michigan. Soon, the armored man used his newly formed claw to gain hold of the armored car’s left wall, allowing him to rest his back against it and face the tailgating X.
He flipped back onto the roof of the armored truck and began to run toward the front. X immediately followed, flying to the front in order to once again cut him off. However, instead of stopping, the armored man jumped
through the air and into X himself. The momentum of the two speeds caused both of the individuals to speed further down the street until they came to a crash landing near the intersection of Plymouth and Inkster.
Many cars came to a screeching halt upon the sight of the two landing in a barrel roll in the middle of the street, only for X to push the armored man off of him with a blast of mental energy as soon as his back touched the pavement. The armored man used his claw and tail to skid to a stop as he landed in a couch, while X immediately gained altitude and began to hover in front of him. Another chuckle began to leave the armored man’s helmet, pointing behind X with the hand that was still just a hand.
“Aren’t you forgetting something, X?”
X turned around and saw the oncoming armored car, crashing into cars that were made abandoned in the middle of the road by panicking people. It soon began to swerve uncontrollably after engaging in so many obstacles, veering off its wheels and rolling down the street in the form of a heavy metal deathtrap. Even off of its wheels, it began to pick up more speed, bouncing off of an abandoned car and impossibly hurtling itself into the air toward a group of bystanders that frantically began to run out of the way.
“What’s more important to you, X?” the one he called Matthias yelled. “Capturing me, or saving those people?!”
Without hesitation, X left the presence of the armored man to attend to the safety of the civilians. Immediately flying toward the scared group, the psychic protector thrust both of his hands toward the airborne armored car and used his mental prowess to slow it down. However, realizing that he would be unable to reduce the vehicle’s speed to ceasing in time to avoid a collision, X did the next best thing in order to avoid any casualties. He first clenched his right hand into a fist, and then thrust his left hand violently to the same side. The result was the armored car being immediately tossed into the abandoned grocery store parking lot to X’s left to skid to a stop, while the two individuals that acted as the armored man’s aids were kept afloat in the air with the hold he had on both of them with his right fist.
X let out a breath as he lowered the two unconscious individuals to the ground, glad to see that nobody was hurt. He could hear the sirens of the police that joined in the pursuit of the armored car fade in closer and closer, assuring the psychic protector that they were headed to his position. With another quick survey of the immediate area and the civilians present, he was made all the more assured that the situation would be under control sooner than later.
However, it was with the comfort of the civilians safety that immediately reminded X that the one responsible for the sudden string of chaos was still present; the one in armor that he called Matthias. He majestically ascended into the skies and turned to see what his back was facing, only to view the armored man quickly run further down Plymouth Road, crossing over into the territory of the city of Livonia. He frowned as he saw the armored man attempt to escape and made the villain aware that this encounter was not over – not by a long shot – in the only way his rationality would allow him to do so before pursuing after him in flight.
“Matthias!”
The one X continued to call Matthias didn’t turn around or react in an intimidating manner upon hearing the named yelled across the street. Instead, he continued to run from the incoming avatar of justice, as if the suit of armor he wore had no say in his natural speed. X however made it clear that he could care less for such a feat, flying faster than the man was running in order to quickly catch up. He came within seconds of meeting Matthias, readying his right arm with the mental fortitude of his telekinetic powers in order to swoop the armored man up by the mechanical scorpion tail mounted on his back.
That was when he turned around.
The action was abrupt enough for X to miss the grasp of his tail, but not enough for him to stop in his pursuit. In actuality, the action bought the armored man just enough time to hold out an odd-looking item he contained in his left hand. It was in the shape of a small box; metallic in color, yet heavily populated with many ports and plugs throughout the object’s sides. The side that faced X only had one; a large dark green circle that took up the entire face of the side. Inside the circle was filled with futuristic cogs and curves, resembling the insides of a circular maze. Just like the action of the armored man’s turn, the display of the device was not enough for him to stop X in his pursuit.
The activation of the device however, was another story.
The cogs and curves within the circle began turn in opposite ways, each lighting up in a green glow lighter than that of the dark green circle. Before X could gain a hold of the armed man, the device shot out a sudden blast out of its circle, radiating pulsating waves of circling green energy that expanded to completely pass X’s body. He staggered a bit before floating in mid-air, expecting some sort of physical damage to be distributed throughout his body from the impact of the ray. Instead, he looked immediately in front of him and found himself shocked to see the immediate view he had of both Livonia and the armored man begin to slowly fade out as the images of a large white fountain and new surrounding bystanders began to transition in at the same time. But before Livonia and the villain faded away completely, the armored man X constantly called Matthias informed him of one last thing.
“Do not be alarmed. This is only a test.”
With that, the image of both Livonia and the armored man was fully replaced by the large fountain and the citizens that looked upon him with surprised faces, as if his presence was absolutely unexpected. The first thing he did when the transition was completely finished was take notice of his surroundings. He stood on solid ground; a plateau of white marble in front of a small flight of steps that led to the fountain in front of him, with tall trees in its horizon beginning to blossom from the introductory weather of spring.
Everything about the area seemed familiar, but he didn’t get a good grasp on exactly where he was until he observed the fountain a bit closer. It was a giant round fountain made of white marble; just like the staircase he stood between, guarded by statues of lions, resting on what seemed to be the fountain’s four sides. X knew of the fountain upon seeing the gaudiness surrounded by it; the James Scott Memorial Fountain. And just as X realized what the fountain was, he also remembered that it could only be located in one place within the borders of the state of Michigan.
X quickly turned around in order to see what resided behind him -- to see if his theory was correct. He noticed another small staircase below him, made of the same white marble. It led to a small lake, angled like that of an arrow’s head and sectioned off by a corner of land. Then he stared with widened eyes and a gaping mouth as he looked at the Detroit River pass the cliff of land on the other side of the lake, and stared at the Ambassador Bridge, the Renaissance Center and the rest of Downtown Detroit standing proudly in the horizon. If the sight of the James Scott Memorial Fountain wasn’t enough to inform X where he currently was, then the view of the city was indeed enough for him to quickly put two and two together.
“Belle Isle,” he realized. “He sent me to Belle Isle…”
The sounds of the civilians around the fountain caused X to turn back forward. He could see the looks of surprise and confusion on their faces; hear the same surprise and confusion echo their looks with their words. All were amazed to see him. Most were wondering when he arrived. Some took note that he didn’t descend to the island from flight, while few took note that he appeared out of nowhere. It was the words of the few that X took to high regard, taking into consideration himself on how he arrived.
Appearing out of nowhere, just like Belle Isle’s backdrop began to fade in to his immediate line of vision the same time Livonia faded out, like some type of scene transition only found in films; not possible in real life. Not possible…with the exception of a device; the same device the one he called Matthias held in his hand, distributing the means to make such an impossible transition a reality, at least one he didn’t know would happen for sure. That’s
why he said what he said during the trial run, after all.
“This is only a test,” X repeated.
X frowned, and then flew back into the city.
About The Author
La’Ron Readus started writing at the age of three and has been a fan of science-fiction and fantasy for just as long, introduced to the genres through the world of superheroes. Since he began perfecting the art of writing fiction, La’Ron has penned numerous manuscripts within different genres other than the aforementioned, such as dramas, thrillers, romance and supernatural horror; each he plans on releasing to the public in one way or another. He currently lives in Detroit, Michigan, constantly working on and bettering his craft.
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