Seven Gates of Heroism

Chapter Four

Afternoon, throwing stuff in my bags, I pack some clothes, some left over food in bins, my life savings as much as I can get, then I finally pick up my phone. Fully charged, I stuff the charger and the one power bank in the clothes bag and sling them over my shoulder. The bag feels very big on my shoulder, but I don't mind it. Walking down the steps I check my notifications. "Holy shit, hehe." I say, noticing the over thirty-two messages on my phone. Some of them asked if I was dead, others checking if I was missing. I stop, short of the door to respond to them telling them I'm alive. I open the door, while checking messages from close friends. BurningHalo990 and MommyMummy, Halo asked me to come to his place in New York after I talked to him about Rock. Mummy sent crying emojis every hour until I responded.

"This Mummy person seems to care greatly for you." A'liet comments.

"Oh is she your giiiiirlfriend?" Cairy asks.

"I didn't expect to deal with a girl in my head for the rest of my life. Can you all please not speak in my head too much." I say to myself.

"We give info and are apart of the powers you wield." Marcus says.

"You'd be wise to listen to your council here." An old voice speaks up from the rest.

"I was already thinking that." I reply.

"Don't ignore us." he adds.

"Now Bartriss, I'm sure he knows that." Cairy replies.

"I'll do that Bartriss...I guess." I reply.

 I thought Mommy'd be asleep, she's in egypt at like what time? It's 3P.M. now sooooo, 10? I'll just go to Halo's place after I leave town and I'll see if I can get to Mummy. That's gonna cost me. I decide to open a  channel on discord, label it "incidents" , so I can look for signs of Rock across the world. My server is very public and invites lots of people. "Hopefully people take this seriously." I say to myself typing my first message into it. 'Leave recent crimes in your area here along with city and state. Using that I'll be able to find him faster, by following whatever crumb trail he has. Halo types in an incident of arsine in their area. I walk to the mayor's office, while hearing my phone light up with more messages. I cross town quickly whilst reading the messages. The messages becoming somewhat less frequent. As I cross the street, I catch sight of a message saying 'first', I sigh and lock my phone putting it in my pocket. Stopping just in front of a big white building looking down at the beach where I just was, I walk up it's stairs leading to double brown doors.

Stopping in front of the front desk, "Rachael told me to visit the mayor's office so I'm here to tell the mayor, I'm leaving town." I explain. The guy in typing on a computer nods and picks up a phone next to him. I hear my phone go off again so while he's on the phone, I pull out mine to quickly open it up and disable notifications before putting back in my pocket.

"Ma'am you have a visitor." he says. "Uhuh, yes, mhmm." He puts the phone back on it's receiver and points at some stairs on the side of the room. "Just go up those stairs and you'll visit the mayor." I nod to the guy and walk over to the stairs. I feel my bag slipping so I slug it up just a bit more as I touch the railing of the stairs. I walk up them seeing a door. Pushing past it, I spot Rachael leaning back in a chair on the office phone. Her feet up on the table of her desk.

"Yes, I'd like transport provided to him, take him where he wants to go for one trip." She says. I stop in the middle of the room, confused. Now that I think about it, I never visited the Mayor's office so I didn't know who the mayor was. Rachael must be that person, well that's good, makes this easier. She hangs up the phone and sits up. She pulls out a drawer and pulls out a phone. She taps on it a bit and sets it on the table. "I want you to put that number in your phone, you have to text when you leave and come back." She explains. I walk forward, stopping in front of the desk.

"Is this necessary?" I ask.

She nods, "You're a born citizen here, not only do I have to keep a census, but I also care deeply about the people here. I know when people arrive and leave. Whether strangers come and go. Rock was the only exception, I don't know when he came in. I just want to congratulate you when you come home." She explains.

I smirk, "What if I don't come home after I win?" I ask.

"That's a lot of confidence for someone who just got powers." Rachael says as she leans back, putting her feet on the table. "If you don't come home, you don't come home. We'll just have a feast without you, but we'll still celebrate you. It'd be mean to celebrate without the guest of honor. Just think about it." She explains. I nod, taking out my phone. I pull the phone on the table closer to me so I can read the number on it. It's on it's settings page displaying the phone number. I put it in my contacts and stretch.

"Thanks Mayor. I think I can do this thanks to last night. I probably wouldn't have even thought of doing this if others weren't pushing me. No I would have done it out of revenge, not because it's unjust." I say.

"Just call me Rachael. You're right, I asked a few families to come out. I merely wanted a drink, but you came in with news I wish we didn't have to hear. Adinel was a dear friend. Knock 'em dead kid, not literally that'd make you a criminal. You may need some help using these new abilities so get some help while you're at it." She explains. I nod as I turn, leaving the room. My footsteps echo in the room, it feels like they're telling me this is my last chance to stop. I close my eyes, enjoying the silence in the room. I close the door to the office after I leave it. Waving at the secretary as my body leaves the building. When I leave, there's a cab in the street, the window in front of the driver's seat rolls down.

"The lady inside said I can take you anywhere you want, ONCE. I'm sticking to that, can't go everywhere with this baby." the taxi driver says from inside. The car bounces and grumbles, the car looks kind of old. I tilt my head, so she pulled a string before I left. I put my bag in the trunk and sit in the back behind him.

"Can you take me to this address?" I ask him pulling out my phone and showing him the address Halo sent me. The car goes silent before the driver adjusts his shift.

"I got it." he grumbles. I lean back putting my phone away. "We'll be going far so prepare for a long day." he says back to me. The car pulls off.