°°° Watch Your Tongue °°° • Central City, Philadelphia • The early hours of Tuesday morning were oddly misty. The howling winds were an uncommon phenomenon during the summer. In a rented apartment with the three fellows he had picked to keep him company, the bald Russian mafia boss, Boris Romanoff, sat in the living room watching the news with a cup of hot chocolate in his hand. "Good morning boss," the blonde Russell greeted me as he entered the living room. On the table, Boris had littered a number of newspapers, all of which held a similar headline, the same as the news highlight the newscaster was breaking down. The topic of the attack was a number of military personnel. "Who the fuck is dumb enough to attack the military, though?" Russell laughed and sat down. "I mean, don’t they realize that they would be starting a war with the government?" I mean, these aren’t cops. The government will definitely be pressured to act. "Whoever ordered the attacks and the ones tha
°°° Order of Death; A Life of Billions °°° • Central City, Philadelphia • -Colonel Jennifer’s Residence- Sitting at the dining table, the Colonel, with shoulder-length black hair and a patch of gray hairs above her right brows, just like Colonel Williams’s, had her blue eyes focused expectantly on the wall clock. Her facial expression showed that something was on her mind—something she was unhappy about. The clock struck three fifty-five pm, and she picked up the bronze jewelry box beside her, took out a silver ring with an oddly large blue gem that had an alluring radiance to it, and pushed her middle finger into it. "The days of strife are done; the peace of the great darkness is nigh," she chanted with a frail and ghostly tone. Immediately, the entire house became so silent that it could drive a person mad. It was peaceful but traumatic. The light in the house slowly dimmed. The light bulbs and even the sunlight that was peeping through the windows slowly dimmed til
°°° The Magic of Mind °°° • Central City, Philadelphia • In the apartment Boris and his underlings had rented, Boris had just finished brunch when Russell returned from the door with the Mohawk lady, Andrea, and the brown-haired fellow, Jeffery. They had left on Tuesday morning and spent the whole day, as well as the following day, Wednesday, on the streets, waiting for The Wall’s messengers to contact them concerning the hunt for the Colonel they were after. "So… who is it?" Boris asked before they could even greet. "Straight to the point... heh... the boss is really tired of this shithole we leave in," the carefree Andrea chuckled and took a seat. "So The Wall sent his guys to deliver the message. The heat on him right now is insane. The entire White Cross is trembling right now, boss. Anyway, we found Old Man. At first, they thought it was Colonel David Mark, because although Colonel Jenifer Moretti also didn’t flinch, we couldn’t find anything on her. Every time the Old
°°° The Mage, The Trickster, The Internal Bully °°° "Holy cow! It worked… "It really did vanish," Gerald was genuinely shocked. Andrew wasn’t wearing a long sleeve shirt that would have allowed him to hide the card. He was truly stunned. "It did not vanish." "Remember what I said a couple seconds ago?" Andrew asked. "About the truth of magic?" Gerald asked. "Yup!" Andrew smiled, proud of himself. "I said it was to trick the senses and tell the mind what to expect." And when I said, "When I raise my left hand, the book cover will vanish out of sight," I was speaking to your sense of sight. The card didn’t vanish. "It is still in my palm, but to your mind, it is gone," he explained with a smug smile. "Here, feel for it," Andrew said, stretching his hand out to Gerald. Gerald looked at the kid in awe at the kind of confidence and liveliness that the persona was forcing him to hide. He smiled and stretched out his hands to feel for the book cover, and it was there, but he couldn
°°° Raging Bull °°° • Central Oakland, Pittsburgh • -PADomain of Warriors Tournament Stadium- In the massive building, with a thirty-five thousand sitting capacity, the announcer stood in the middle of the battle ground, announcing the battle that was to commence in a moment to the cheering crowd. The middle and upper classes both had their triple threat matches in the morning and afternoon, respectively, that day, and the victors had been decided. Now, all that was left were the tiebreaker matches. The Lower Seven versus Lower Twelve had ended relatively quickly, and the commentators had given their guess as to why. To them and everyone else that had been paying attention to Lower Seven’s previous matches, it was clear that he was a wild boar, throwing in seemingly uncoordinated hits, until he had made his opponents sure that he had no pattern to win, then he would attack them, taking them off-guard, bringing them down with skill and finesse. But today, he barely put
°°° Bull's Bane °°° Edwin roared and charged at the immobile and wheezing Sean, then threw himself at the lad to spear him into unconsciousness. "It seems the match is over," Dave said with a disappointed tone as Edwin made the charge. "Uh... don’t be so sure about that just yet!" Nelson, the commentator in the middle said with a surprised chuckle as the whole crowd gasped and erupted into a loud uproar. "What? What happened?" Dave raised his head in confusion. "Let’s see playback," Jemma said in haste. She was enjoying the look of disappointment on her colleague’s face when the upheaval of cheers began, so she also didn’t see what had happened. Viewing the scene in slow motion, as Edwin shot forward and was in midair, unable to stop, pause, or do anything to save himself, the practically unconscious Sean suddenly raised his right leg, pulled it back, and pumped it forward, slamming his feet into the flying bull’s face. The slowed motion showed the flailing motion of t
°°° Cruel World °°° • South Oakland, Pittsburgh • -Lower-class condo- Groaning awake, Sean looked around, and the pains in his chest reminded him of the battle he had just had. "It wasn’t a dream," he chuckled, and he stood up slowly. He was wearing a grey sleeping robe that was not his, but he didn’t mind. He figured Carlos must have gotten it for him on the drive back home. His memory of the events after his victory was totally blurry. He could remember someone giving him some pills that apparently had regenerative properties and would hasten his recovery, but he couldn’t recall who it was, but he knew it was a woman. He shrugged and walked out of his room to the fridge in the kitchen and saw a note from Carlos. "I went to the supermarket. It might take a while. There’s some bread in the fridge; you can help yourself to whatever you want in the fridge. Just don’t make a mess of the place. "PS, you are going back to training tomorrow, so forget about asking for a weekend o
°°° Power Perception °°° • Vancouver, Canada • -The Green Therapeutic Company- Sitting in his office chair, the herculean Gerald Greene fiddled with the ring on his middle finger. He had called Dan after the session to tell him that he had made some headway with Andy and had booked a meeting for today at 12 pm. At exactly twelve o'clock on the dot, he heard a knock on his door, and following his reply, the door was pushed open and the tech genius of the Dual Infinity Company walked in with a smile. "Good morning, Mr. White," Gerald Greene stood up and extended a hand for a handshake. "Please call me Dan Dr. Greene," Dan said with a modest tone and shook his hands. "As long as you call me Gerald," Gerald chuckled and gestured for his guest to take a seat. "So, doctor, uh, sorry, Gerald." Um… My secretary told me that you had called and booked this meeting. "Is anything the matter with Andrew?" Dan asked and leaned forward. "Well... it isn’t something all that serious,