The Matters of Power

Chapter 46- Dark Paths

I wasted no time trying to get back home to get the photo I got from the abandoned school and running towards the nearest bus stop. It was already sunset by the time I got to my stop in the countryside, where the school looks just as the same as I last went in there. I'm just about to enter the school grounds when the same old man I met last time walks past and talks to me. "Hey there. Have you come here to pay your respects to your high school as well?" Does the old man still think I look old enough to graduate here? "What do you mean 'as well'? Has someone come by as well?" He tilts his head, puzzled. "Hmmm? Did he not tell you? There was another fella around your height who went inside last time I saw. Real professional, he was, wearing some fancy clothes and having a look of authority with those sunglasses. Shame I didn't have that air of confidence like his back when I was still a substitute teacher. See ya sonny, don't take too long in there." He leaves just as quickly as he walked by me, leaving me to wonder who else knows about this run-down school. Don't tell me...

I dash through the doors of the school and look around my surroundings, and the environment looks drastically different than the last I was here. Paper everywhere, locker doors slammed wide open, trophy cases empty and glass littered on the ground, it looks like a natural disaster had just struck in here without warning. Everything related to Mr. Corvanez or anything close to this school has been picked clean, with no way for me to see where they could have been. I head towards his high school locker and see that the notes are all gone, and the junk left inside disappeared without a trace, with only the ripped corners of the photo I took still there. All hope seems lost, but I recall what Oscar had told me earlier about the time capsule and take the chance to see if it wasn't swiped like everything else. Deducting that I found the closest classroom from the locker, I enter it to see that most of the desks and chairs are just as trashed as everything else in the school. I use my Sixth Sense View to find any floor tiles that aren't like the rest, and soon find one in a corner that is extremely well-placed, but a small gap reveals a medium-sized box underneath. I rip the tile and see the time capsule in pristine condition, but with a complex lock on top of a lock that I couldn't crack open by normal means. I just about lift the box to break it open, but a voice from behind stops me cold. "Finally. I never thought I would find you here of all places today." I turn around and look in absolute shock as Pot stands at the classroom entrance, closing the door behind him and blocking it with a variety of chairs and desks, trapping us in here. "Pot! What are you doing here?"

He adjusts his sunglasses, "I was asked by my master- sorry, I mean my boss. People think that it's weird that I call Mr. Corvanez master, but I guess the most common thing people say is boss. Where were we? Oh yeah, I'm here to fulfill my master's wish of erasing any history of him in this place." He points a finger at the time capsule. "It includes that, and the photo you have on you right now. You nearly had me scramble everywhere for that photo that you swiped when you were here last time, making me do a lot more work than I had to. Hand both of them over, you're in over your head if you think you can see what's inside." If it were any other situation, I would let my fear take over and hand it over, no questions asked. But not this time, not while I have the means to defend myself against someone like him and my own sake in Mr. Corvanez's game. "No." I let go of the box on the ground and stand to face Pot. "I won't, even if it means I will have to fight you to see what past he hid in there." He says nothing immediately, then sighs and straightens his vest. "It's always the kind of people who think they're hot stuff that try to fight back. Fine then," his face expression turns menacingly as he gets into a fighting stance, "show me what you got, Marcus. If you have the balls to stand in his way." Pot immediately lunges towards me and tries a straight jab, but I react just as fast as I wheel my whole body away and see him collide on the wall behind, creating a huge hole in the impact point and a small amount of blood comes from his fist. "Huh. You've gotten better." He closes in and we engage in a rapid series of attacks and blocks, "But let us see if you got any better!" He tries to use that striking palm technique on me from all those months ago, but I try to use the technique as well and our palms violently touch, then the force staggers us back a few steps and my palm goes numb. Before I can fully recover, Pot knocks me down from my feet and gathers his arms in one big strike and I instantly use my Levitation ability to send a chair right to the side of his head, giving me the chance to get back up and see that it left a nasty bruise on the far side of his forehead.