Guardians: The Fallout

  “Try opening her airways,” Marcus says desperately.

  “Marcus, back off,” Miku says.

  He looks up at us and that’s when we see the truth in his eyes. He’s afraid. He is crippled with fear at the thought of losing her.

  “There’s a hospital nearby, I’ll take her,” Rio says.

  “No, I’ll do it,” Marcus says as he picks his love off the ground.

  “What about the Witness?” Jay asks.

  “You go tell Arden she has to send Paras to watch him for a few hours. Then meet us at the hospital,” he says, as he takes to the air.

  Jay flies off the Empire State building and Glides towards Arden’s home.

  The rest of us follow Marcus.

  The second we take off, a bolt of lighting goes right into Marcus’s chest. The savage jolt courses through him, causing his whole body to snap back. He drops Emmy and she goes hurtling towards the ground.

  Miku quickly flies down to catch her. By now, Frenzy is gearing up to take yet another shot at Marcus.

  I redirect the lightening and send it straight back at him. He dodges it in time and the jolt goes right into one of the windows of the Chrysler building; it shatters, causing it to rain glass.

  While Marcus rebounds from the shock and takes on Frenzy, I look around for the other Akons. They never fight alone. Just then, I spot a shiny object, only inches from me. I turn around just in time to see three razor-sharp daggers aimed towards the side of my face. I didn’t even realize it had had contact with me until it was too late.

  The first two daggers missed by inches but the last one cut into my right eyebrow, leaving a gash. I raise my hand to my temple to inspect the damage.

  Mayhem takes advantage of that and throws another three daggers my way. This time there is no getting out on the way. The knives land right in the center of my chest. Or at least they would have, had Rio not used his shield to protect me.

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem. You okay?”

  “I’ll live,” I say as I swoop down to the ground to help Miku. She is struggling to dodge Frenzy’s bolt and still hold onto Emmy.

  Had she been able to sing, he would have been no match for her. But New York City is rarely without people; especially this part of town. There is a party on one of the rooftops, taking place only a few blocks away. If she were to sing, everyone on the roof would be dead in a matter of minutes.

  I use my powers and send Frenzy flying into Mayhem like a rag doll. The two collide and roll down the side of the Empire State building, taking a mountain of glass, metal and plaster down with them.

  This gives Miku a chance to set Emmy down safely on the ground and fly back up to help out.

  A few feet above us, Marcus tackles a nearby skyscraper that is about to fall onto its side. He is too busy to see that Rage is about to strike. The nefarious blue ball sparkles in-between Rage’s fingers.

  Before Rage can gather enough heat to conjure up a full inferno, I bend the tip of the Chrysler building to come towards me. I send it straight into Rage’s shoulder blade. The metal rips into him like a spear into a helpless animal. Shocked by the sudden attack, Rage drops the ball in his hand.

  I watch as the flames falls directly below us and right onto a propane truck parked a few feet away from where Emmy lies.

  Marcus and I realize that neither of us can get to her in time. But that doesn’t stop him from trying.

  He dives down towards the earth like a comet. But before he could get anywhere near Emmy’s body, the entire ground below us explodes in a Tsunami-like wave of fire.

  “No!” Marcus roars out as he realizes she’s dead.

  He looks up and sees that Rage is about to get away. He turns his palpable grief into wrath, and goes after Rage.

  All of us except for Marcus attempt to head down to the ground and survey the damage. Is there anything left of Emmy at all?

  Just then we hear several people screaming. We look towards the direction of the screams. It’s coming from the roof where the humans were having a party.

  People are yelling and calling out for help and a few seconds later we see why.

  One by one, the humans are jumping off the roof and landing to their deaths.

  “Chaos,” I say with contempt.

  “Where is he?” Miku asks.

  “It’s too much evil in the air. I can’t get a fix on his wave. And they are moving too fast to be tracked accurately by the Trackers.”

  “I’ll find him. Rio, you make a shield and stop them from going over the edge,” I instruct.

  “Is Emmy…gone?” Miku ask. The sadness in her voice makes my heart break for her.

  “Let’s stay focused, okay, Pretty? Then we’ll go down and take a look.”

  Miku reluctantly agrees.

  The Twins go to aid the humans and I do an area search for Chaos. He’s somewhere using his mind control to distract us. He knows we can’t just let humans die without trying to save them.

  His plan is working very well. Marcus is torn. He wants to help the humans but he would like to kill Rage once and for all.

  Luckily, I spot Chaos hiding behind the Met Life building. The coward.

  Before he can even think to get away from me, I’m on him.

  He falls backwards and the two of us tumble onto the roof of the building. I have to keep moving. Otherwise, he’ll be able to control my thoughts. That’s the weakness in his powers. He needs a moment where the being is perfectly still in order to focus and put them under his control.

  Knowing that, I move and dodge him at every turn. He takes a swing at me and misses. I smile mischievously and he swings again. This time he makes contact with my midsection.

  I double over. I knew that would get him. He always accepts that female angels are weaker, SO not the case.

  As he comes closer to strike yet another blow, I ram into him and send him back down to the ground. I spin and kick him three times before he can regain his balance. As he gets up, I jab him in the eye with the heel of my boots.

  He grabs my other leg causing me to lose my balance and land flat on the ground. Hard.

  A look of evil spreads on his face as he looks down at me and prepares to strike again.

  I call for the glass from windows of the building across from us. They cut through the air swiftly, and smash into Chaos. He makes a wounded sound as he comes toppling down on top of me.

  I roll him away me and I try to get up. That’s when I realize I’m dead.

  The whole time I have been battling Chaos, Rage has had a perfectly good angle at which to attack me. I’m sure he didn’t because he was afraid he’d hit Chaos instead. But now with Chaos already on the ground, Rage has a clear line of sight.

  He’s going to kill me.

  There’s no way to stop what is about to happen. I feel a strange calmness wash over me.

  Then something happens that I don’t expect. Rage hesitates!

  “What the hell?” I think to myself.

  But before I can fully compute what has taken place, Rage tackles me.

  He grabs me by the throat and throws me into a surrounding building.

  Marcus sees this and immediately comes to my aid.

  “Sorry, she’s just not that into you,” he quips as he hurls Rage into one of the skyscrapers.

  “You have no idea what she’s into,” he shoots back as he rebounds and tackles Marcus.

  The two of them hit each other with such force, they fall right through the roof and down several floors below.

  I follow them and find the two punching and smashing each other into walls.

  Marcus rams Rage into a wall made of mirrors. Everything comes crashing down around them. But Marcus has wrapped his hands around Rage’s throat and he has no intention of letting Rage go. The world could have ended right there and Marcus would not have loosened his grip.

  The two lock eyes. Marcus’s face is twisted fury and disgust. But Rage begins to smile even as Marcus slowly chokes hi
m.

  “You think your death is funny, Akon?” Marcus asks in between clenched teeth.

  “I was just thinking about how many guys it will take to mop up what’s left of your girlfriend,” Rage is past smiling now. He is gloating.

  Rage is trying to get Marcus to be so emotional that he loses it.

  Marcus did not fall apart. But he did show a flicker of raw, inconsolable sadness.

  That is all Rage needed.

  He acts quickly and overpowers Marcus in that brief moment. He gets away and conjures a fireball in each hand.

  Marcus takes cover just in time. The blast blows out yet more windows.

  “Marcus, there’s humans everywhere. We can’t fight here anymore, let’s go!” I call down to him.

  Marcus heeds my warning and takes off into the sky again.

  Rage goes after him, but I send two large jagged broken pieces of glass flying towards his wings. Each one rips into him and holds him into place. He is stuck, at least for the moment.

  He looks up at me. It’s a look I can’t quite make out. It is contempt? It is disappointment?

  There’s no time to study Rage’s face.

  The streets are filling up with people. Given that it is against the rules for us to fight in a crowd of humans, we were pushing it by fighting here in the first place.

  But now, with the fire trucks, ambulances and cops, we definitely had to call it a day. Chaos, Frenzy and Mayhem were thinking the same thing, because they too were fleeing.

  Rage and I exchange a quick indecipherable look as I fly away.

  ****************************************

  “We have to go,” Miku says to him softly.

  “No. I’m not leaving without her.”

  “Marcus, she’s right. We should go,” I say to him as I put a calming hand on his shoulders.

  “We were able to stop most of the humans from jumping but still a few of them leapt. We should check on them,” Rio says.

  “Do you see her wave at all?” Marcus asks in a small voice.

  “No,” Rio replies sadly.

  “Why didn’t I get to her in time?” he asks himself, filled with shame and regret.

  “Cause you ain’t got it like me.”

  We turn around and see Jay standing there with a big grin on his face.

  “What?” Marcus asks him.

  “I saw the fireball falling as I was coming back. So, I Glided and removed Emmy’s body before the explosion.”

  “She’s alive?” Marcus says as he grabs hold of Jay.

  “She’s with the Sage, but she’s still like she was before the attack.”

  “Her heart hasn’t been beating for all this time…” Miku asks.

  “So, she’s dead?” I ask.

  “I can tell when a human is dead; their waves fade. Hers didn’t. It just stopped.”

  “Marcus, we should—”

  But before I can even finish my statement, my ex has taken to the sky.

  *******************************

  Once we get to the Sage’s home, Marcus goes right into the room to find Emmy laying on a cot, motionless. He takes her hand and tries to find a pulse. Just then the Sage enters.

  “Is she gone?” Marcus asks him.

  “There is good and bad news here, First Guardian. Which would you like first?”

  “I don’t have time for these freaking games. Is she …dead?” He winces at the very thought. I find it hard to look at him. So I look everywhere else.

  “Her heart has stopped beating for over thirty minutes. Normally that would mean she is gone.”

  “You said normally,” Miku points out.

  “Yes, but this isn’t a normal situation.”

  “So, she’s okay?” Jay asks, riddled with concern.

  “The good news is that Emmy’s health has nothing to do with human medical conditions. So no, she’s not dead.”

  Marcus looks like a man who has just been set free from death row. He’s weak with relief. So much so, he sits down next to his girl.

  “Okay, so what’s wrong with her?” he asks.

  “That is where the bad news comes from; Emmy is being poisoned.”

  “What? By who?”

  “That is where this gets tricky. Look at her right arm. Do you see the circular rash-like pattern?”

  Marcus looks and finds what the Sage is referring to.

  “What is that?” Rio asks.

  “It’s a Virus.”

  “I don’t understand,” Marcus says impatiently.

  “A Virus can be purchased at Hun’s Market. It’s a way of harming someone without ever touching them.”

  As soon as the Sage says the words ‘Hun’s Market,’ I get a very uneasy feeling.

  Damn it! I told the Caller that trying to kill Emmy was a bad idea. After we met at the Hun’s Market, he told me his plan and I told him it would not work.

  More importantly, we could not risk something going wrong with his plan. He said he agreed and understood. I can’t believe he went and sent her the Virus after I told him not to.

  Should I say something now? No, I should wait until I talk to him face-to-face and see what he has to say for himself.

  But does Emmy have enough time?

  Should I just call him out right here and now?

  Would I even be debating this if it wasn’t about saving the life of the girl who took away the only boy I have ever loved?

  Can I let Emmy die because she and Marcus hurt me so much?

  No, it’s not my fault. I told him not to do it.

  I warned him and he did it anyway.

  The Sage continues to speak.

  “There are three kinds of Viruses; A Purity Virus. It weakens the victim’s moral compass and allows for evil to take root in their soul. The second type is the Possession Virus. It takes a hold of your body and enables the victim to commits random acts of violence. Sometimes even against themselves.”

  “The first two Viruses, although dangerous, are not fatal. Then there is the third Virus, the Pressure Point Virus. It will kill its victim in a matter of days. And that’s the Virus that Emerson has.”

  “What does it do?” I ask.

  “It’s a Virus that is made to seek out a specific host. It then stays in that host until the host dies or until the host agrees to give the maker of the Virus what they want.”

  “The victim will suffer three stages of the Pressure Points Virus. If the terms of the maker of the Virus haven’t been met by the third stage, the host will die.”

  “How do we know what this person wants?”

  “That comes in the second stage. Now, Emmy is in the first stage; she is in a limbo of sorts. But in a few hours, she will wake up in pure agony. A symbol will appear on her arm letting you know what the Maker requires in order to recall the Virus.”

  “And if she doesn’t agree to do what the maker asks?”

  “Then the third and final stage will set in. She will become delusional; her mind will be under attack until it finally shuts down. Her body will then do the same.”

  “How would she have gotten the Virus in the first place?”

  “The Pressure Point Virus is also known as the DNA Virus. The Maker would have had to get a strand of Emmy’s DNA in order for the Virus to know who to go after. The Virus is invisible and airborne. It only takes days to find the DNA match it seeks. Then it plants itself inside.”

  “So the maker was somehow able to get a strand of Emmy’s hair?” Miku asks.

  “Or toothbrush or spoon she ate with... It could have been anything,” The Sage informs us.

  “Why haven’t we ever heard about this?”

  “It is a very old practice. Most demons aren’t even aware of it.”

  “So, some demon has cast a Pressure Point Virus on Emmy so they can get information on where the Triplex might be?”

  “I promise you, it’s Rage; trust,” Jay says.

  “No, it sounds like the Hun,” the Twins say.

  “All
of your guesses would be possible except for one thing; while the Pressure Point Virus is the deadliest, it is also rarest. The reason being that, unlike the other viruses, in order to make a Pressure Point, you have to have a personal connection with the host.”

  “You mean they have to come in contact with that person? Like the mailman or the delivery guy?”

  “No. The Virus can only come from someone she knows. The DNA part is the science of it. But in order for it to work at all, the Virus maker has to mean something to the host.”

  “You’re saying that Emmy is being poisoned by someone she knows?”

  “Yes. Someone quite possibly in this room.”

  **********************************

  “We have to find who’s doing this,” Miku says.

  “I don’t care about that now. Just tell me what we have to do to counteract the effects of the virus,” Marcus demands of the Sage.

  “I have a friend who maybe able to help. Her name is Gray. She is a healer and for centuries she’s been the head of the Omnis Healing Academy; it’s a teaching hospital that trains healers.”

  “Where can we find her?”

  “She lives in Daraquin.”

  “Where or what is that?” the Twins ask.

  “I’m not surprised you have not heard of it. They are very secretive. I myself have only been there once. Daraquin is the city of Paras.”

  “I thought Paras don’t live on earth. That is except for ‘party-hardy’ Arden,” Jay says.

  “The city is not on Earth but the entrances are. A few cycles ago, a city called Daraquin was built. It is a place where Para children learn their craft. In Daraquin, kids learn how to combat evil and understand human nature.”

  “In order to do that, they have to go to earth often where they get their daily lessons. So to accommodate the children’s many trips to earth, entrances and exits have been posted all around the world.”

  “And this Gray lady can help Emmy?” Marcus asks.

  “She is the oldest healer alive. She has been studying Viruses for sometime now. If there is a way around the Pressure Point, she is your best chance to find it.”

  “How do we get to Daraquin?”

  The Sage writes down the instructions and tells us to hurry. He reminds us that Arden can only protect the Witness for so long before The Hun figures out a way past her mind locks.