The Watcher

Chapter 7: The City Momentus

     I traveled a galaxy for signs of intelligent life for days, but to no avail. It took weeks before I reached intelligent life. It was a planet with bug people on it who had no interest in expanding beyond their basic needs. Next I found a planet of rodent people that were in the middle of a war to set up a society that could work better for where they were headed in the future. Their leader Cheesler was an albino rat-person who was framed for murder. Once he was framed his credibility and approval rating dropped too low for him to conventionally reach his goal of a society set for future success, he became a radical figure who ended up "overdosed" in his hotel room. (He was murdered) After that I found a planet of moose men. This planet was the first one I found on my search for Joel and Azazel that had ties to the rest of the galaxy outside the planet. A moose man there told me I'd find meaning in The City Momentus, and that if I loose someone in the universe it's better to forget about them. *I can't just forget about Joel, he's the only friend I have left. I turned him into the person he hated the most. I made him turn into a monster to kill Azazel, and now he's lost control.*
     The moose man had a wrist watch that could point to where the city was so I took it from him. The City Momentus was stunning. After days of travel I made it to the ring-shaped city. The city was on the inside of the ring, outside of it was just bare metals left untouched somehow. Maybe they were protected by an invisible force field. I flew around the outside of the ring for an entrance but it was just smooth metal. I went around to the inside of the ring, it was covered by some energy field. When I touched it my hand grew cold, but to my surprise the field offered no resistance. I slipped through and my wings collapsed into my body.
     "What the-!" I yelled falling to the city ground. My body hammered the ground yet it made no noise, nor did it hurt me at all. It felt as if I had all the power in the world wrapped around me like a blanket. I guess it's some sort of power dampening zone that confines powers so close to a person's body that they can't use their powers externally.
     "Hey did you just fall out of the sky! You know entering that way is illegal right?!" A scrawny yellow man said. His body and limbs were sticks and his mouth reached behind his ears.
     "I didn't fall from the sky," I protested awkwardly.
     "Thank goodness!" The yellow man said genuinely relieved.
     I got up and was frozen by my amazement. The streets were absolutely gorgeous. Taverns, bakeries, restaurants, grocery stores, museums, memorials, and so much more lined the streets. The sweet smell of bakery goods and fresh pressed juices solidified this as my favorite spot in the whole universe. Juice fountains were at the end of every block that unleashed the most inexplicably ravishing juice with the push of a button. I raced over to one like a kid, took a tall paper cup off a dispenser and filled my cup to the top. Despite what my nature says, living without juice could be the end of me. I must've spent hours drinking the vibrant juices.   After emptying one juice I happily hopped to the next and drank until that one was empty as well. Once I ran out of juice in a machine I would skip down the next block and find another. Who knew I would find happiness so simply.
     Reality hit after a dozen empty juice fountains. I actually needed to do something here. I need to find a mechanic to help me fix Glenwood's key, and figure out how to find Joel. I sighed, looked around, then looked around some more. It would've been much easier to just ask somebody but I wasn't feeling very social. The City Momentus was one magnificent maze of events. Happening upon a mechanic's shop was simply going to be impossible without a map, or so I thought. I found the shop within forty minutes. MeKa MeKs was a small shop that sold everything that had any mechanical infrastructures. The shop was made of shiny steel with yellow lights to catch the attention of passer-byes. The store looked small as closet but the inside was as vast as a mall. Rows upon rows of tables with gadgets I would have to spend decades before I could even begin to think about what they could do. It was a mesmerizing sight, the intricate designs and complex machinery showcased in MeKa MeKs. The shelves were filled with a never-ending array of gears, bolts, and wires, all meticulously organized by size and function. A bronze automaton welcomed me at first and seemed disappointed.
     "Welcome to MeKa MeKs! Can I h... oh, just looking? Was there anything you had in mind?" The automaton voiced.
     A six foot tall man with a razor sharp jaw set down a gadget he was carefully inspecting and turned around , "Whow! Scanning citizens is illegal." He shouted to the back while still looking at the automaton, "Mr Barns I thought you better than this. I'll keep awfully quiet if I get a free ryber core."
     A shouting came from a small room in the back, "I'll scan whomever I want! I could destroy this whole place if I didn't care about my business. Now were you going to buy something super boy?" A small old man shouted, entering the room on a mechanical hovercraft with arms. His bushy eyebrows hid his eyes.
     "My name is Superstrike." he reminded, feeling defeated. Superstrike almost seemed like he was trying to be the least interesting superhero ever. He had an all white spandex suit with red streaks on the sides and an all white cape.
     "And what were you looking for sir?" Mr Barns questioned me.
     "I was wondering if you could fix this" I explained, pulling out Glenwood's portal key.
     His face froze in recognition. "The work of Glenwood. Yes." Mr. Barns examined the key with dangerous curiosity.
     "You can fix it?" I asked happily.
     "Well, uhh, y- well who are you?"
     "I am The Watcher"
     "Right. how do you know Glenwood?"
     "I met him on this planet and he helped me out."
     "One does not happen upon broken keys of Glenwood Bankar. So how did he die?"
     "I killed him."
     Those words flooded the room and drowned everyone there.
     "I'll give you anything from the store that you want, but I'm going to have to have you surrender those keys and never walk in here again."
     I awkwardly shuffled over to him, handing over the keys.
     "Do you have anything that could kill a god?"
     "Glenwood wasn't enough?" Mr Barns moved down a middle isle to tables at the end. "a sword."
     "What makes this sword able to kill gods?"
     "This gladius can launch the blade from the hilt faster than a bullet. It is my finest piece of weaponry, with a power-dampening projection of up to twenty meters. The blades infinitely regenerate."
     "I'll take it."
     "Why?" Mr. Barns asked.
     "You just told me it was the best choice." I explained.
     "Why did you kill Bankar?" He asked
     "I don't know. I wish I didn't have to, he gave me no choice."
     "Get out."
     He put it in a box that couldn't be opened on that planet. I walked out into the spinning street, lost without direction.
     Superstrike snuck up, "Can I have your sword?"
     "No...no, fuck no I just got this," I replied.
     "I'll get you your key back." He said.
     "No use in a broken key."
     "I'll steal it after Mr. Barns fixes it"
     "Why do you want this sword?"
     "It'll help me achieve my dream of becoming a god. Right now I'm just a bounty hunter, when I get enough money I'll buy power from the city power bank. Then I'll brawl in the power cage for more power. With the help of that blade I could strategically go after beings outside the city to claim power. It'll skyrocket me to the top."
     "And why the hell do you want to be a god."
     "I want to lead a life where a decision I make means something." His eyes burned with determination.
     *what difference does it make. God or not every choice you make will eventually mean nothing once the universe ends. Then again, God was able to make impactful decisions. Even at the collapse of the universe if I'm still alive I think that'll stay with me. But then who will it stay with? Is there meaning in anything?* I repeated this cycle of thought, questioning if anything had meaning once again, and reaching the same conclusion. You determine the meaning of things, because at the end of it all, it's just you.
     "Can I join you on your journey?"
     "Yes." Superstrike said, mildly confused. "alright let's go to my ship."
     We started walking, "What is the power cage?"
     "The power cage is a dome where two people fight to the death. You can fight with powers, without powers, and without powers with weapons. The fighters pitch in all of their power and whoever wins the fight wins all of their power. Hell, it's on the way, I'll show you. Oh yeah and for legal reasons no one actually dies, it's an extension of themselves and their power that does the fighting."
      We turned into a dark alley with an ominous orange glow. Once there was a completely dark turn we took that turn. It ramped down into a club-like scene with blaring blue lights. Everything was roaring in this place. A metallic square cage, 20x20 meters was at the center of it all.
** "Bullet Rick" vs. "Repeater"**
     A tall, skinny man with purple spiky hair was floating in the air after gaining distance from the other shorter and built man with mirror hair. The tall skinny man grinned with his long face and slammed his hands together, his fingers forming a small hole facing aimed at the shorter man. There was a flash and the battle was over. That was the fastest energy I'd ever seen, I don't even know how it's possible to concentrate energy into that small of a place and shoot it like a bullet.
     "AND THE WINNER IS..." the skinny man came out in a blue suit from the doors under the metal cage. "BULLET RICK!" The crowd cried out.
     "That's how he wins every fight!" Superstrike had to yell to me just for me to hear him. "Repeater could've won if Bullet Rick didn't get a fatal shot. Alright let's go," Superstrike patted me on the back and started moving away.
     "*wait*" I whispered. There was no way he heard it but I could tell he felt it. He looked and saw my focus on the chaos. 
     "It seems Repeater isn't finished! He wants to go again! Who will fight this unrelenting champion!"
     In that moment everyone in that room could've become my best friend. The common rejoice we all shared was glorious. It felt like those words caused me to mystically glide down to the ring. I had fallen in love with something I knew nothing about. All I knew was that this was going to kick ass.
     I stepped down those steps under the cage. It glowed blue and I appeared in the ring. A black aura plumed around me and four gigantic black feathery wings sprouted from my back. Lightning clashed the ground around me, my power was stronger than ever. And there stood Repeater with no power to show. I shocked Repeater nearly to death and was overcome by demonic impulses. I grabbed his soul out of his body,  my mouth broke open and grew. I wrapped my teeth around it and bit into it lovingly.  *why the hell did I do that?* The blue light flashed, signaling the end of the fight. I walked out and the crowd was silent.
     "THE WATCHER!" The announcer yelled.
     Police robots went behind me and arrested Repeater. Repeater's yells made it sound as if he was being burned alive. He couldn't stop trying to attack the officers.
     Superstrike appeared in front of me, "Let's go." When we walked back onto the street my ears felt confused.
     "Why was Repeater arrested?!"
     "Bringing your soul into the cage is banned and illegal. It's too dangerous and it gives the fighter a slight advantage. Repeater was screeching because he lost part of himself in that cage, he'll never be the same ever again. And you didn't get in trouble because everyone had their hands full with Repeater. What you did is still considered to be very unsportsmanlike, though It was pretty cool."
     The parking garage of ships was twenty miles long. Superstrike put his hands out, "Here she is. This is my ship, there are many like it, but this one is mine" he chuckled. "Do you have a ship?" He asked, lowering the small door's stairs on the right side of the front. His blaring white spaceship was very shaped like a diving falcon with an extra set of wings. It had a stylish red rudder on the empennage.
     "No."
     "Well that's too damn bad, it might be a tight fit once my partner comes back. Say how did you get here then?"
     "I used my wings."
     "You know that's like super illegal right?"
     "Why is that illegal?" I asked
     "Because this place is a controlling utopia. They need to know who comes in and out." Superstrike fired up the engine. "It's time to get my brother Strikersupe."
     "How far away is he?" i asked, trying not to roll my eyes at that dumbass name.
     "Probably like 20-ish feet away...why?" He said, getting up to go to the back.
     "I thought we were picking up your brother?"
     "Yeah, we did." He said obviously.
     "You started the engine like we were going to get him on some faraway planet. What the fuck is he doing back there?"
     "He's charging up. We need to charge up or else we die." The door to the cabin opened and his brother was in a translucent glass prism chamber. Superstrike stepped on the wires completely spun out all over the floor and checked the clock next to the prism. "You have to wait one minute to meet my brother...now fifty-eight seconds...fifty-seven..."
     "Why do you have to charge up to live?" I asked, ignoring him.
     "Well we weren't born with powers. Strikersupe's wife died four years back from cancer. He was in the CIA and he stole a ryber core from the heaviliest guarded base on the planet. Our planet never developed space travel... I mean they did but they just sent a monkey to our moon. So this ryber core is like wayy above our technology. Strikersupe stole the core to hopefully cure his wife but she died before he could give it to her. And well he's my best friend...so I left my family and wife to run away with him and have fun and cheer him up. We developed the superhero serum from the ryber core and took it. So now we can be superheroes like we've always wanted, but if we don't charge up on another ryber core every week or so our bodies can't handle it and we die."
     "Who the hell is this guy." Strikersupe pointed at me. "I'm away for 12 hours and you get a crewmember?"
     Strikersupe had tufts of hair on the side of his head, everywhere else was bald. He seemed a little too pudgy to be a superhero. He was shorter than Superstrike and seemed weaker in every way. "I'm the Watcher, I'm joining your mission."
     Superstrike started explaining to Strikersupe, "He killed a powerful god and Mr. Barns gave him a free item in exchange for that god's broken portal key. We can go after big bounties now."