CHAPTER 3: ONSET
Lio unsheaths the knife and aims to slash his foe's throat; Bang's eyes follow his movements as he swings his head back to avoid the blade.
This motion allows him to slip out of Bang's hold just as he pulls out the gun and fires a shot at him. As he's about to stand up, the bullet grazes the side of his face; he winces as the bullet leaves a dark-coloured scar on his cheek.
As his opponent reloads his firearm, he quickly positions the knife in his hand, placing the handle in his palm and his index finger behind the blade before throwing it, aiming for his opponent's left eye, he tilts his head out of the way but it still lodges itself in his ear making him lose his composure.
"Whooh! You really were in the military."
He lets out a loud belly laugh and catches Lio off guard.
"What the hell is wrong with this guy?"
He's able to let out some statements as he laughs.
"You should not work in cosmetics...I would definitely ask for my money back, friend."
He rests his hand on his knees as he laughs and blood drips down from the left side of his head.
Lio braces himself, briefly looking behind and gauging the distance between himself and the end of the alleyway.
Two more gunshots are heard from the alley, alerting a policeman on the other side of the building, who starts running towards the scene.
"My boss was right about you."
The man says as blood drips from the man's wrists as he crosses them, over his chest
The man rushes forward and before his assailant can reload, he quickly pushes his fors arm to the side.,twists the arm and disarms him and slams him against the wall.
He aims the gun at him and unloads two bullets at Lio.
Two shots were fired but just grazed his skin.
He seethes in pain as he thinks to himself
"This guy must have terrible eyesight, or he's just playing with me."
A dark-skinned policeman stands at the end of the alley with both his hands on his firearm.
"Both of you, put your hands up!"
The policeman says. Lio puts up a hand to try to get him to leave them, but he comes closer and speaks something into his walkie-talkie.
Bang completely ignore him and looks at Lio.
" You."
The smell of burning wood covers his face and a plain wooden mask appears over his face.
He tries to shoot him with the gun, but it only clicks.
"Oops only brought three bullets, friend."
A bright white light emanates from froth the eyes of the mask, blind he hehe still maintains his grip until the smoke irritates his skin; he reels back, losing his composure as he covers his eyes.
As the smoke lifts, Lio is left rubbing his eyes, a business card in his hand.
A black card with the name Hernandez written on gold with a serpent coiled around the letter H.
The policeman wades through the fog and finds on the roof of a building far from where he was.
Lio looks at his watch
"Shit I'm late!"
He runs for about a kilometre until he reaches the hospital.
His brother, Ray, is in an office, looking pale with a facemask on, playing a game on her phone. Layla is in a black shand and is seated next to him with her hand on his shoulder as a Doctor speaks to them.
There's a knock on the door and Lio walks in.
Hi, I'm sorry I'm late."
Layla gets up and hugs him.
"Thanks for bringing him."
"Of course just try to be more on time, time "
She goes to talk to Ray who hands her her phone.
"Don't worry, little man next time, you can try to beat my high score."
"I would've but I'm pretty sure you hacked the game; no, no one is that good."
"Skill issue, bro."
She fist-bumps him before leaving.
"Hey, champ."
"...hey"
He says, looking away from Lio.
"I'm sorry I'm late doc, I ..."
"Save it, let me just summarise what I told her. Your brother is not responding well to the antivenom for the snake bite."
"Isn't the antivenom supposed to be the cure? "
Well, there are a few options but your health insurance doesn't cover it..."
He writes the cost on a piece of paper and hands it to him.
As Lio's brother looks at him, he hides his reaction with a poker face.
"At worst, the venom gets to his brain, leaving him permanently paralyzed.
As he steps out, just as he's about to put his hand on his brother's shoulder to comfort him, he excuses himself to go to the bathroom when another man in a ward in a ward coat approaches him. Lio notices a faint familiar smell coming from him.
"Hello, I'm Dr Jones, are you Lio Morgans?
"Yeah, why? "
"I heard about your brother from my colleague. We will take care of him to the best of our ability."
"Thank you, doctor."
"My colleague spoke to you earlier, the one that shot you in the alley."
Lio's eyes widen
"You son of a..."
"...bitch, yeah I know. Anyway, stop reaching for that knife in your boot and listen to me."
He points up, and to his shock, he sees a large grey leech attached to his head suspended hanging off the roof; it spreads as far as the eye can see, covering the entire roof and branching out to other rooms.
"No one else can see it but people like you and I."
"What the hell do you people want?"
Lio asks in a defeated tone
"Our employer just wants to help you, all you need to do is accept it"
That night, Lio sits alone at a park bench holding the business card.
ELSEWHERE
A red Tesla car speeds through the night with police cars in hot pursuit.
A man in a white suit with a black undershirt in the car looks at the woman in a red one-piece dress in the passenger seat as she tries to avoid his glare.
"..shouldn't your eyes be on the road, Ches?"
"Oh so now you're ready to be logical!
I told you to wait in the car, didn't I ...?"
The car drifts as it turns to an adjoining road with the police squad cars still chasing them, their sirens blaring through the streets.
"I didn't know you had a plan, I saw the guy pull a gun on you and... you know I always do things sporadically."
" Well look at the results ...!"
He breathes in and out slowly
"...listen here Pri...we'll talk when we're on the boat."
The car drives into an alley and exits onto another road, the police car directly behind them stops when the driver realises the alley is too narrow. The squad cars take another route and are now far behind the Tesla.
The Tesla car drives through a filling station; Ches takes out a gun and shoots a fuel pump, causing fuel to leak onto the road. As soon as it does, Ches puts a hand in the girl's purse and pulls out a perfume bottle, and Ches takes his foot off the accelerator.
"Ches, what are you doing?"
He hands it to her.
"Boon it."
The scent of burning wood emanates from her and a pink aura covers the bottle, the same scent emanates from him and he exhales onto the bottle; his breath catches fire, and he tosses the heated bottle at the filling station; it curves through the air and strategically lands perfectly on the closest police cars dashboard and then it explodes, causing the car to swerve and crash into the filling station, the shards from the perfume bottle still glow pink and cut the fuel line of the car, the engine overheats and that leads to another explosion, the carnage leads to a wall of fire a
Two of the three police cars stop at the sight of this. One persists through it, but the heat from the flames causes the tyres to become disfigured, making it unable to move fast enough, allowing the Tesla to escape.
The car speeds to a port as a ship is already departing.
"Priya..."
"Yeah...I've got it."
She takes a deep breath as her hands are covered by a pink glow; the aura flows to a nearby crane, enveloping it; as the man operating it wipes his brow, he accidentally hits a lever that causes the crane to swing at the car, sending it flying through the air.
Priya touches the body of the car, and it's covered again with the pink aura and it soars almost perfectly, landing on the deck of the boat.
He casually walks out of the car with a bag in hand, he walks to the other door and opens the door for Priya.
He looks at his watch.
She takes his hand and they walk holding hands into the cabins.