"Gadget get the boys out of here!" I ordered my son's evo. Gadget jumped off the back of my head and latched onto the outer wall of hut and crawled towards the window.
I turned my head to the leader of the squad, finding him already rushing towards me, a combat knife clutched tightly in his fist. I felt my muscles hum as they coiled and I stepped to the side, clearing a yard in a single step. Giving me enough distance and time to draw the manalock pistol strapped to my hip and fire a lightning bullet at the soldier. My aim however was off and I missed the soldier, striking another behind him further away.
"YOU SPLICER LOVING SHIT STAIN!" The solider bellowed as he rushed towards me, the way the solider yelled about splicers sparked a memory that reminded me who he was: Lieutenant Cross. I gritted my teeth and fired my manalock several more times trying to hit him but I wasn't a marksman like Chase.
"Cowardly Boarder Guard bitch!" I growled back as I back stepped again, this time finding my back slamming into a tree trunk. Lieutenant Cross roared and threw his combat knife at my head. I barely dodged it, the tip of the blade nicking my cheek.
"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" Cross roared, picking up speed as he ran to me.
Instead of running I slammed my foot down on the ground, shattering the earth underneath and sending dirt and pebbles flying into Cross' face. In the split second that he closed his eyes I dropped low to the ground, Cross legs tripping over my shoulder and sending him tumbling over my back. I suddenly popped up and sent him careening into a tree.
"DAD! BEHIND YOU!" I heard Bo yell and turned around in time to see a soldier pointing the muzzle of a rifle in my face. The next instant a bolt of lightning surged from the shot-out window of the hut and slammed into the back of the soldier's head.
The bolt of lightning it turned out was Bo, using a spell to enhance his speed and move fast enough to outpace my modified speed. He'd kicked the soldier in the back of the head so hard I could see a indent where his skull was fractured.
'Note to self, talk to Bo…' I thought as I looked at my son.
"There they are!" a voice yelled from the forest. I turned and saw at least another fifteen American soldiers running our way. The moment they saw Bo and I, they skidded to a top and raised their rifles.
I turned and ran to Bo, clearing the distance in a single step then threw him through the shot-out window and dove through it myself. Inside the hut I saw little in the way of intact furniture, most was either shattered or ragged under the barrage of past salvos. The only cover was a barely held together table that Indy was already taking cover behind. Bo scampered behind the table with Indy and hit the deck, Gadget following suit while motioning to me to hurry up and do the same.
I ran over and dropped to the ground, covering both Indy and Bo with my body. Bullets started flying overhead, repeated and thunderous pops rang outside. Occasionally interrupted by someone yelling reloading or a vicious growl that preceded a panic scream that I came to recognize as Bizarro. Then suddenly all at once the shooting stopped.
I tentatively poked my head up over the table and nearly had my head shot off. A cold chill running down my neck was the only reason I ducked down in time to dodge the bullet. The shot came from a shot-out window near the front of the house.
"Stay down!" I ordered the boys as I heard someone jump through the window. I jumped over the table and ran straight for soldier. Not at all surprised it was Cross, I was surprised that he already had assumed a firing position while crouched down.
Time seemed to slow as my eyes focused on the barrel of the gun I was rapidly approaching thanks to my enhanced speed. My eyes caught everything, the small explosion as the firing pin struck the primer. The puff of fire and smoke as the bullet left the barrel and spiraled towards me. I was powerless, unable to move anywhere expect forward. Towards the bullet aimed directly at my chest.
When it pierced me I felt no pain, no heat, no sense of cold dread that I thought I would. I only felt numb. My body immediately going limp and crashing to the floor, rolling and tumbling before crashing into the wall of the hut, just under the blown out window.
I could see Bo and Indy, both boys running out from behind cover. My son's eyes locked on me and already getting blurry with tears. I saw Cross' boot step in front of my vision, a obviously barricade between my son and me. I could hear muffled voices that were only getting harder and harder to understand as my vision went dark.
'No…don't…Black out…' I told myself. 'Protect…Bo…my son…'
I blinked, again and again. Each one making the world darker and my mind even more clouded. My eyes focused on Bo, barely more than a haze now but I could tell he was moving, that he was fighting.
***
My eyes jolted open as an excruciating pain coursed through my chest. I opened my mouth to breath only to gasp for air only finding terrified and pained shrieks escaping. They sounded more like the shrieks of a little girl.
I snapped my mouth closed, forcing slow and deliberate breaths through my nose in a attempt to calm me down. The need to scream vanished but the pain in my chest didn't.
"Hurts don't it? The weight of your failures?" A voice said.
I turned my head towards the sound only to find myself suddenly lying on my back in the street outside my home. A heavy rain falling down on me, the sky black as night.
"Wha…?" That was all I could get out before I felt something hit me in my sides, my ribs screaming in agony as the force of the hit made me roll for several time. I screamed through gritted teeth, certain my ribs were broken on that side.
"So weak…so fragile…so pathetic." The same voice from earlier called out. The sound of footsteps meeting wet sidewalk echoing in my ears. I tried took up and see who was my attacker and instead was kicked in the jaw, my head jerking to the side before falling to the concrete.
However instead of hitting concrete my face hit solid glass. I felt a hand gripping my hair. I wasn't on the street anymore but now inside the shot, my shop from before Chase took over. My nose broken, ribs cracked, chest burning like there was no tomorrow. And it was only the beginning. My mysterious assailant bashed my face into the glass several times. Each hit made my bones scream for release.
I was then yanked backwards, now flying through the air until my back hit something hard. Another scenery change, the alley beside my shop. I could take in little else beside that as a fist the side of a mallet came flying at my face, breaking my nose again.
"LEAVE MY DAD ALONE!" A young and all too familiar voice bellowed from the mouth of the alley. I turned my eyes and to my horror saw Bo standing with a rusty dagger that we kept in the a display case beside the counter. His knees knocked, his grip so tight on the dagger it made his whole body shake.
"So much failure…" The voice, coming from my assailant, said. "…you failed to pay the red dragons their protection money and they came to collect. You luck prevented Jade from being there but not Bo."
I remembered this day. It was the first time I had ever broken a bone before but that wasn't why I remember it. The fear I felt when I saw my Bo, barely nine years old trying so hard and fighting through so much fear just to try and save me.
"Bo! Run!" I found myself saying, knowing full well that he wouldn't listen. He didn't listen on that day and he wouldn't listen now.
I saw two shadowy figures moving towards my son and my heart dropped. He was too scared to move, his earlier screams nothing more than bluster.
"DON'T YOU TOUCH MY SON!" I bellowed, struggling with all I had. But still I remained rooted to the wall.
"There it is! That desperation! That fear! Masquerading as parental rage." My tormentor said.
My eyes darted to him, wanting nothing more than to tear him into pieces. Expecting to see the face of the man I had burned into memory only to find the last person I expected staring back at me: myself. I was then flung to the side, like garbage. Gone was the alley when I landed. Instead I was in the hut laying on my side again.
This scene however was worse than anything I could have imagined, straight from the depths of Helheim and born from Hades sickest dreams. My mind went blank as I stared out at the nightmare before me. Thought ceased, the world ended, the universe died.
"No…no…no…no…no…NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I bellowed as I struggled to my feet. Pain forgotten, injuries nothing more than a minor trifle. Nothing mattered except the impossible scene in front of me.
Bo laid in a half seated position against the sole table in the hut. His eyes lifeless staring off into the distance. Blood soaked the ground around him from the gash across his gut. He'd been eviscerated, gutted like a fish and left to rot like some kind of animal.
"No, no, no! Bo! Please! Please!" I cried frantically as I slapped his face to try and wake him up to no avail. "No! NO! Bo I'm sorry! Please don't leave me! You can mess around in the shop as much as you want! You can do anything in Moldworks! Chase'll let you make evos! YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU WANT JUST PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME!"
My please fell on deaf ears, there was nothing. Not even a spark in his eyes.
"Gods above! You really are a waste!" My tormentor suddenly exclaimed. I turned my head to look at him, my eyes red with tears as I held my son protectively. "That is all you can really do isn't it? Beg and plead. Hope that things will go your way. It's why you failed Bo so many times."
"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" I roared. My tormentor, my double, just smiled slightly and pointed at me.
"I am you. The part of you that is uncorrupted by delusions." My double said.
"Delusions?" I muttered.
"Yes delusions. This delusions you are under that makes you think a normie like you can matter in this world. That you are worthy of a woman like Jade and son like Bo." My double confirmed then skipped over to a support pillar and leaned against it. "I mean what have you actually contributed to their lives?"
"I kept them safe!" I barked back. My double grinned maliciously.
"Did you? Think about it, and I mean really think? Did you keep them safe?" My double asked, his words dripped like a vile sludge. "That rainy night long ago, did you keep the red dragons from storming into your shop or did Jade throw shiny trinkets at them and prompt them to leave? When they raided the store a few days later did you drive them off or did they just take what they could carry and left? Or when Bo saw the red dragons beating you up, did you stop them from attacking him or did Gadget scare them off by going for the nuts?"
I opened my mouth to answer and found all I could do was stammer. I couldn't remember, everything he said sounded right but I knew I couldn't have just sat back and done nothing like that.
"You're delusional Nate, and I am you reality check. You've been spending too much time around extraordinary people and managed to delude yourself into thinking you could be extraordinary too!" My double said. He pushed off the post and walked over to me, dropping to a low crouched he touched Bo's head and my son turned to dust in my hands. "But you are not extraordinary, you are a normie like Haws, Louie, Angie and all those other helpless idiots around the world. All you are doing right now is fastening your son's and your wife's trip to grave."
"Wait is Bo…?"
"Dead? No…not yet. He's still out there…fighting for you. But he won't last. He's struggling so hard because he see's you fighting, clinging so desperately to life." My double said. He then pointed to my chest, where I got shot. "You were hit in the chest, center mass. The bullet ricocheted off your sternum and that is the only reason you are still alive now."
"I'm alive?" I asked my double. He nodded with a fake sincerity and sighed.
"Alive but with no hope of survival. You are surrounded by the enemy, on your deathbed with two young kids that you were supposed to protect. Bo refuses to leave you while you still breathe. So he fights Cross. Sadly he'll lose."
"How can I save him?!" I demanded.
"By giving up."
"Giving up?" I muttered. My double nodded enthusiastically.
"Yes! Kick the bucket! Surrender! Go swiftly into that bright soothing light!" He cackled and jumped to his feet. "I mean isn't he better off without a worthless father like you? With you dead he'll run to the one person you know can protect him: Chase Kingston."
Any fight or denial I had died right there in my throat at the mention of Chase. How could I deny that after everything Chase has done for myself and my family. I knew deep down that we would be nothing more than chalk outline on the sidewalk if Chase hadn't intervened when he did. Chase was a protector, the very thing I pretended to be.