Superhero Manager System

Goons And Lights

They had barely turned the corner when he woke up again. ‘Oww, they shot my eye.’ Arome thought to himself, as he took a second to reorient himself. The time between his resurrections could vary depending on the level of damage he had received. This is a theory of how this new power of his works. But from what he has been experiencing so far, it seems the interval between each regeneration was getting shorter and shorter. Almost as if he was building a resistance to a certain type of damage…or deaths.

He waited, though it was best if they moved away, before he tried to find his way. The best way forward was the path of least conflict, not to mention the added caveat of him not dying again. ‘This is crazy.’ He sighed as he looked down at himself, he was a mess. His designer suit was ruined, and that was really annoying. Arome was a bit of a clean freak, but much more than that, the young man loved his suits, especially his business suits. Not that he didn’t wear or like other clothes, but-

He felt the best thing that truly describes and sets the tone in his interactions with people were his suits. He was not a playful person. In fact, his extremely rigid attitude in public and business settings had been a topic of frustration for his mother. It was one of the reasons that the throne could never match him with any of the noble-blooded or the daughters of influential men in their nation.

And eventually, with the discovery of his lack of powers, the match dates just stopped coming. Arome shook his head, this was not a time to be thinking of failed arranged marriages. There was a crisis, and he needed to figure out a way to survive it. He looked back at the elevator. Going back that way was a total bust, with the elevator out of commission. It meant he had to use the stairs.

Using the stairs would take him along the path of the guys who had just murdered him in fear. Though it would be hard to blame them, as even Arome himself had no idea what was going on. This system was weird, he could not understand the stats and how they affected him. He still felt normal outside, of course, dying multiple times already. And the fact that there were constantly blinking dots at the edge of his vision annoyed him. But this was neither the time nor the place to explore the capabilities of his newly gained system. He would find time, after he gets out of here. He took a look at the floor he was on.

There was an office space to the left, but it was empty. Plus, he had no idea which floor this was and how close or far he was to his goal. Dying too many times had scrambled his brain a bit. But still, no other way to go but forwards. He picked his way forwards and came to the end of the hallway he was in. He could hear voices from the corner. He crouched down, using a flower bush at the edge to hide himself as he turned to look down the corner.

The five goons met up with three others. They were currently in the process of describing their encounter with Arome, and the absence of their infernal hounds. Arome let out a breath of relief he had no idea he had been holding. He had been worried that the three hounds he had faced were not the only ones on that floor. Thankfully, it did not look like as if the eight-man goon squad had more than three hounds. And for Arome that was a relief.

The next thing he noticed was the fact that all the office workers on this floor were tied up and lined up in front of the window. On each of their heads a pentagram had been painted in what was either red paint or blood. However, given the darker shade… it was most definitely blood.

He was sure quite a few of these workers had powers among themselves, yet they were not fighting back. Granted, they had guns pointed at them, and the threat of the infernal hounds was no joke. But they were dull eyed and despondent, scared, but somehow, they’d given in to their fate, that it was inevitable they'd end up dead.

Still, the elevator was a no-go, not unless he wanted direct confrontation with those guys. And he was practically almost naked, he needed to get some new clothes or at least something that could pass for clothes and then find his way to the three-hundred and thirty-third floor. The most direct route would have been the elevator, but that is ruined now. They probably disabled it when those goons from the top floor saw him escape with it. Arome also realized that he had faced off against two lightning-powered goons. And given they had similar looks, he suspected they might be siblings. He shuddered as he remembered the feeling of lightning blasting him to death. He’d do anything not to experience it again.

Now the stairs were the only way to move up and down, unless you could fly. And unfortunately for him, he could not. But that might be a way out for him. Just open one of these windows and jump, sure he would go splat on the ground, but he’ll be whole soon enough, and far away from this place.

The dull sizzle of the dimension lock spell was heard, as the barrier shimmered into view through the window. It was comical watching his hopes burn away. That was why he hated magic. Sure, the mystic arts would have been an avenue to lean on, after his lack of powers was discovered. Their kingdom had extensive study into ancestral magic, something that funny enough he had quite the talent for. His mother was the daughter of the kingdom’s high priest, it was in his blood.

But to him that was just a shortcut he wanted nothing to do with. They call magic the great equalizer. But for Arome, he had seen just how nasty, and nefarious, it could be first hand. The air force and army of his kingdom employed it, it was taught in the college as a compulsory first year course and an elective for the remaining years. This way, every citizen of their kingdom has at least basic knowledge and defense against the mystic arts.

But right now, after finding himself in this situation, Arome sorely regretted his decision to shun magic completely. If he hadn’t, then he would not have been so defenseless against the assault of the Blights, their goons and their demons. But he had his pride, and the lack of powers would not have let him settle for what he could only call a consolation prize. This was another one of the reasons why a lot of his people, especially the Land Chiefs in his grandfather’s court, thought he was useless.  He had no powers and was too proud to learn magic.

Well, he might never get to tell them they were right, and even if the chance to do so comes, he’ll never admit it. But still, he had to get through these guys, or he would be stuck there and completely unable to get the help that they all sorely needed.  He got up and backtracked. They were in front of the general office space, which was to the left. It had two entrances, one close to the stairs and the other close to the elevator.

If he took that entrance, there was a possibility he would be able to ambush them. But with all these lights, they would see him coming from afar and end him before he gets the chance to do anything.

‘Not unless you can take them out in the dark!’ The thought crossed his mind like the slithering of a malevolent serpent.

It came from a dark place in his mind that seemed to have been ripped open by how many times he had died. Arome wanted to hurt someone. No, he needed to do so. Perhaps only the feel of another person’s skin and bones giving way under his fist, would be enough to center him. To let him understand that he was still alive, all these deaths were a nightmare, but he still lived. Arome took a shuddering breath. He had visited death on so many people in his twenty-five years of living, that he had grown apathetic to it. Death was a sort of his life and he was used to it… Until it was his head getting bitten off by a demon. Until it was his own body that was riddled full of bullet holes. Until it was his own eyes that held the fear, and his own heart that stopped beating. Dying sucks, and Arome feared his deaths might have broken him.

Six light fixtures in the hallway he was in, about twice that in the office space and another six in the hallway that led to the stairs. He needed to take all of it out, to be able to cause any sort of effective damage. He doubted these guys would let him accomplish that, they’d kill him with every attempt.

But then again, perhaps that was the only way. Arome groaned to himself in annoyance. He could not believe he was actually considering this, all of those deaths really must have knocked a few screws loose, enough that he was actually, willingly, considering, dying! Twenty-four whole times just to get rid of a couple of light bulbs. “Well no pressure.” Arome muttered to himself, dragging his actions a little bit longer, due to not really wanting to die again. “Might as well get started.” He said to himself as he moved.

There was a metal coat rack at the entrance of the office space. It was not too hard for Arome to grab it, the best place to start from would have to be as close to the goons as possible. They’d chase after him, but if there was too much distance between him and them it would be to their advantage. He’d have to use the element of surprise and get as many of the lights before they realized what he was doing and put him down.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Arome thought to himself as he crept right back to the corner, only to come face to face with the guy who had panicked and gotten him shot. The goon’s eyes widened in surprise. After all, he had used his own eyes to see Arome ripped to shreds by bullets.

Arome, on the other hand, already had enough surprises today due to his new-found power. He was not going to hesitate as he swung the rack in his hand with murderous intentions. He held it at the base with the hooks for holding coats and bags at the top. He smashed it into the side of the goon’s head, his swing was precise and with the right amount of force, which in this case was all the strength Arome could muster.

The hanging rods got stuck in the man’s skull as he crashed to the ground, destroying the flower vase at the edge that Arome had been hiding behind. That was enough to draw the attention of the rest of the goons, but Arome had an opportunity here. He grabbed the rifle off the man’s back and dived back through the corner as a hail of bullets came flying.

He turned and aimed the rifle in his hands, right at the corner and the next death that would be following in the heels of the goon that got him killed. Arome squeezed the trigger, his eyes cold and calculating as he let all his years of service and the training he had received flood through him. The first shot took out the light fixture that was directly in the corner. The sound of erratic gun fire, and lights going out, stopped the goons from moving around the corner. It was obvious, Arome firing a gun had caught them off guard.

He fired three more times, getting three of the six lights in the elevator’s hallway. To the goons, however, it seemed as if Arome was a terrible shot and not good at shooting at all… he did not feel the need to correct them on that particular train of thought, at the very least, not yet anyway. There'd be a time for that, and considering exactly how he was feeling right now, it did not seem to be too far away.

“You’re a terrible shot man! How are you still alive?” Arome raised his head, the windows that served as the wall for the office area were clear enough that the goons could see him peeking out. They opened fire, but the spray of bullets either bounced off the windows or just left small cracks.

Arome let out a sigh of relief. The Falcon-Eagle industries were, at their core, a construction company. They were the industry’s experts when it came to buildings resistant to the power and force of the superhuman population. Having bulletproof glass windows in their offices was a big flex, and it was what had saved his life…for now at least. Arome fired into the air, quickly dimming all the light fixtures in the elevator hallway, and getting the extra from the stair's hallway, which had been his first light to turn dark.

Three goons stepped into the office, while the others moved towards the corner. They wanted to pincer Arome, flanking him from both sides. This was going to be easy for them, especially with the elevator out of order. There was nowhere else for him to go. Leaving Arome no other choice but to take this fight into the office space. Much to the shock of the goons, Arome slipped into the office space, took one look and left a bullet through the forehead of another one of the goons. It was like a scene straight out of a movie. He had killed the man with startling accuracy and grace, almost like he had done this many other times before.

Arome ducked down quickly, but not before he was clipped on the shoulder. And then the rain of bullets came. He scrambled from his position, crawling from cubicle to cubicle in an attempt to avoid the rain of lead and certain death coming his way. He felt a bullet slip into his side, going through his ribs, right under his heart. The bullet went clean through, and it left a hot trail of fire that forced Arome to scream out in pain as he turned and fired the remaining contents of his gun, destroying 5 of the 12 lights in the office space.

There was still a significant amount of lighting from the other half of the office space. But with the hallways out, and the dimension lock spell active, putting them in a separate plane of existence without Sun or moon light. In other words, there were already parts of the office that had been swallowed by the darkness, giving him ample space to hide and attack from, but also to bleed out to death in. Arome gritted his teeth, feeling how his blood poured out of his side. ‘Ancestors give me strength! It hurts so much!' Arome prayed silently, hoping the spirits of his departed ancestors and the great kings of the Idu bloodline, would give him the strength to keep pushing forward.

 

“Do you think that you would be able to stop us?” One of the goons called out. “I heard that bullet touch you, and I heard you scream in pain.” Going by the tone of voice, he could tell the goon speaking was excited. He didn’t seem all that bothered that his comrades had fallen. “I can smell your blood in the air! Look, you are only delaying the inevitable, you will die for what you have done! You killed my friends, you will pay.” Guess he did care after all. Arome shrugged as he took a deep breath and gave the goon his reply.

“Well… you first!”

And then the bullets went flying.