He Was Almost Absorbed By The System - Part Two

Chapter One Hundred And Seventy Three - Black Zeus Rises

The nervous energies building within the man once known as Damien Stoker would continue to be put to use working, exercising and playing with clockworks, yet still they built until the man felt his nerves were taut like stretched elastics ready to snap. His instincts were screaming at him that something was going to happen soon, something big and something that he was still ill prepared for. However as he remained clueless to what that might be, he could do little else but watch and hope.

*****

Others, who were more aware, but still unprepared as they believed they were on top of the problem and were containing it well, were currently concerned with two other things of note. The first was the person that they had named 'the vigilante', an individual cloaked in cliché black, who in the dead of night would remove several of their targets before they were able to. At first, they had thought that person to be more than one as they found his calling cards before they discovered him.

The first monster that he had dealt with was not only riddled with wooden arrows, ones that appeared hand carved, but it also had taken the brunt of a blade, from the slash marks. The whole effect appeared to point at amateurish skills of a small group. It was when they found the fifth corpse to fall to the vigilante that they came to know the truth and that was due to the coincidental fact that one of their own happened to be in the area at the time. They described the person as willowy in stature, not overly tall, a little above average perhaps in height. Not only did he wear all black clothing, he also wore a black mask. And after pulling his foreign sword from the unmoving corpse's neck, he picked up a discarded bow and quiver of arrows, before disappearing into the night.

The second thing that they had discovered was a number of strange brass eggs appearing in the abandoned nests of house sparrows and starlings. The first had been found when the house owner was clearing his guttering, the next because the sparrows happened to return and clean out their nest, the egg fell to the feet of a passerby. These things were contraptions of sort, but when the sparks attempted to reverse engineer them, their parts sealed together so firmly that they simply appeared to be a lump of metal in smooth egg shaped form.

A few of the brass believed that it was too much of a coincidence that the vigilante and the eggs happened to appear around the same time and felt that they were linked. They were not entirely wrong. However, they also felt that though the mystery vigilante was a nuisance, he was not too much of an issue as at least he was doing as they were, removing the monsters from the city streets. So they turned their attentions on doing the same.

*****

Said vigilante was sitting at his rickety kitchen table, staring at an unlit candle, his warm eyes filled with concentration. His hands happened to be splayed either side of the candle as he focused upon it. Suddenly, a faint pattern seemed to appear around the wrist of his left arm and encircle his arm for a moment. The wick of the candle spluttered into flame.

The youth once known as Hilton, but now had many names, sat back in his chair gasping air into his lungs, sweat beading upon his forehead.

"You did it!" These startled words came from his lips, even though he immediately began to shake his head in denial of them.

"Whether be it this world," the youth added, though his tone had changed, "or this body, the magic is thin. I am not sure that I will be of much use to us."

*Yang can help with that!*

The youth glanced at the device upon his other arm and stared at it for a moment. It was the first time Yang had spoken since they had awoken in the hallway. Aidan felt a little out of sorts. The others had claimed that they believed the contraption of white and black upon his arm was the backup system they knew as Yang, but seeing as it had remained silent, none could be sure. To each, Yang had taken on different forms, including humanoid ones, but always it would be mostly white in form with a little splash of black.

"How?" The one known as Elyas asked.

*Yang has permission to use what is not usually allowed to be accessed due to the severity of the corruption in this world. Therefore, if you wish to use magic, Yang will supply magic!*

"Yang, What is going on in this world?" Aidan asked him. "Why are we here?"

Yang paused, didn't Aidan already know this? Yang went offline to reboot after their last conversation was interrupted and Aidan did not return to speak with him. Yang could no longer stand the corruption that was attempting to alter his inner programmings!

*Did host forget? We are here to rescue the last Outsiders before the world is lost. Hopefully we can also save the world, but Master has isolated the world just in case we cannot.*

"Outsiders?" Aidan asked.

"Ah!" the one who had nicknamed their masked vigilante as 'Black Zeus' said as if recalling something. "The Outsiders, the V.I.P's our lover was seeking. We dealt with the one in our world after she tried to break us up with her cousin's help."

"I remember something about that too," Elyas said, quietly. "Although Leif and Wulfgar were our close friends, they did not belong in our world. They should have become free upon their deaths."

Yang watched the conversation spill from just two lips slightly bewildered. Why did host sound like three different people speaking? Why was host speaking of his past lives so strangely? Yang was confused.

*Host? What happened to you?*

*****

Mrs Hunt left the pawnshop with the money for her husband's wine in her pouch before heading to work at the factory with a loud sigh. The wine had not lasted until the weekend and her husband had been quite sour about it, taking a fist to her stomach in his ire. She rubbed her tender skin in memory. Although the bruises were no longer so black, they still ached in discomfort. No wonder no child ever took root in her stomach, but then, she could not help but think that was not a bad thing. She did not want her child to suffer her husband's wrath like she did.

She worked at one of the Stoker cloth factories and like many of the workers, she had been glad of the payrise, although her extra pennies just went towards paying her husband's debts. She also had looked forward to the improvements promised to workers for their working conditions. However, despite the fingerless gloves that at least protected palms and the masks that should protect face and lungs, many people's health seemed worse not better.

Mrs Brambly, the woman who worked next to her, her cough seemed so much deeper and exhausting than yesterday and her broken nails had become infected and were blackening. Mrs Hunt sighed. Although she felt sorry for the woman, she had too many problems of her own to interfere and besides Mrs Brambly was not the only sick person working today, coughs and splutters were echoing about the factory somehow unable to be buried by the deafening noise of the machines.

Mrs Brambly suddenly paused, causing Mrs Hunt to yelp as she had to cover the woman's work less the production line fail. She flashed a glanced at the woman, who pulled at the mask upon her face, tugging it downwards. Her nails careless scratched deep into her skin as she did so, causing blood to leak from the wound.

"Oh my gawd!" Mrs Hunt exclaimed as her fingers automatically continued to work, despite the distraction. "Are you alright?"

Mrs Brambly turned at the sound of the other woman's voice and opened her mouth wide, revealing yellow teeth in gums that were nearly all black.

Screams from all about Mrs Hunt caused her to tear her attention away from the strangeness of the woman. That was her final mistake.

The factory's machines continued to function, drowning out the terror from within with their loud sounds, until the unmanned coal furnace flared and consumed its fuel to ash and embers and the steam driven machines came to a stop. All that remained, in the otherwise silenced factory, was the sound of shuffling bodies and the occasional low chested growl.