Peak Walkers

A pointless meeting. It was over. Nothing was ever going to happen. That was the reality. The others wished or hoped against reality. It was pointless. Nothing would change. Accepting the facts as they always had been was the only way. Nothing would happen.

He only kept going because it was an order. She commanded it. The look in her eyes was very clear. He saw how much she wanted it. They were but trash. ‘Rheia should not be giving them even a moment of her attention. They aren’t worth our time.’ All of the forces sent against them would be enough. Nothing would change.

“Nereus!” shouted a familiar voice through the stone walls. They purposely made their voice difficult to pinpoint by making it travel through the walls. “I’m going to take my rightful spot back today!”

Nereus ignored the voice even though he knew exactly who it was. He continued his slow walk through the hall. Only one other person was in the hall making it the usual perfect timing to stage an ambush without having interruption. However, the hallway closed off suddenly. The stone grew out in uniform shapes seamlessly to seal off his path forward.

A ripple came out from his feet. He tested the area making evaluations. Passing him with no interest in the quarrel, Ourias made a brisk pace for the blockage. “A wall of stone is but like a mist in the forest, without form.” The stone suddenly changed form to turn into thin particles of vapor. He passed through without interruption. A few seconds later, it reverted to stone again.

His eyes narrowed a little, already working out the factors. ‘How strong is that man?’ thought Nereus. The words themselves were meaningless against a person like that. His Field gave him strength and the real reason it worked. However, the distance he affected it from was more than Nereus believed the man capable of. ‘He’s only ranked twelfth among us, but he made easy work of it. Their strength should not be very disparate.’

The matter required more thought, but it wasn’t something afforded to him. Several extrusions from the wall shot out for him. However, they came to a halt a meter away stopped by something. It was almost invisible, but a ripple ran through the impossibly thin surface. It was water. “You would better spend your time challenging Ourias than myself. It wasn’t I who took your seat.”

“Silence!” they shouted again. Rumbles ran through the stone reacting to their voice. “You’re the reason I’m no longer a Titan!”

Another barrage came after him, but it had the same effect. The difference was clear. “It was the 8th seat I took, not the 12th.”

“You displaced me!”

“You were the weakest. It’s only natural. It is the way the Titans work.”

“Arrogant bastard!”

A bit of his eyebrow raised. Nereus began walking forward forcibly using his Field to make a path for him. “Despite the number of times you call me arrogant, I only speak the truth. It is just the way things are. Until you become stronger you will not be able to join.” There was no condescending tone in his voice, just matter of fact. He didn’t seem to hold any ill-will towards the man. And why should he, he wasn’t his equal or comrade. He was at least alive, unlike so many others. “I’ve given you your opportunity. Good day, Seilenos.” Nereus had nothing more to say to the man and left.

Chapter 228 – Peak Walkers

Outside the confines of Omega, Ourias walked through the crowded streets of the Capital. He forewent his uniform, preferring more simple clothes, a tunic and pants. Amongst the smaller structures, he felt a little more comfortable. The giant needle behind him of Omega still cast a long shadow. But under the cloth overhangs and sandwiched buildings, he felt like he could hide a little from their sights. It was better being outside.

He went up to a storefront, it was just a table with handmade goods. Inside, he could see it was their home. Many of the shops were just like it. He browsed through casually, not completely sure what he searched for. The middle-aged woman smiled at him waiting for him.

It took him a few minutes, but he found it. “I’ll take this one,” he answered, picking it up. However, when he started to hand it over someone bumped into him. It was enough force to turn him part way around and lose hold of the item. He looked back to see what happened.

Two MP users stood behind him. The one that bumped into him looked annoyed at the disruption. It didn’t help that Ourias showed no sign of fear towards him, unlike the woman. She immediately recognized their white uniform and started to try to pull away. “What you looking at old man?” they barked, leaning in to invade his space.

Ourias no longer held any interest in them. He saw where it headed fast. ‘Typical…’ His eyes looked down in search of what he dropped.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought!” The young man started to walk away with his friend following up. It seemed like they would let things go.

However, when Ourias moved to pick up the trinket, acid bubbled up moving for his hand. He was able to get away in time, but the trinket was almost completely ruined. The acid destroyed the paint and carved into the metal making it two pieces.

The same as before, just enough to scare, but not to actually harm. There was never a danger of that. Even they knew not to act so recklessly.

Ourias stood up holding the remains of the accessory in his hand. He started to dig around for coin. “How much was it?”

The frightened woman needed a little more time to recover. She couldn’t answer him immediately. It took Ourias helping her back to her feet to be able to speak. “Are you hurt, sir?”

“Just a little startle, nothing more,” he replied, shaking his head. He played it all off. “How are you?”

“Oh fine!” She tried to look brave. It was a common occurrence, but it didn’t change that each encounter could turn dangerous with the slightest of mistakes. “If I didn’t feel so damn much about the home I’ve lived in my whole life I’d pack up and leave. Adelpha is always telling me how nice it is outside the Capital. They’re still out there too, but as long as you don’t live in the border towns it’s much better.”

He smiled a little, seeing that she looked to have recovered. “I’m same. If it wasn’t for my family I’d be out there too.” Ourias passed over the trinket to the woman.

“It’s broken! I’ll get you something else.” She started looking over her table in search of something better.

“How much?” he insisted. His free hand held out a few coins.

The woman jumped up to her feet. She tried to refuse him. “But sir, it’s broken! I can’t ask you to pay for it.”

“It was my mistake, I’ll pay for it.”

She could see the stubbornness in his eyes. There was no chance of her convincing him otherwise. “Two brass.” Unfortunately, her answer didn’t go over well for him. He could see through her lie and insisted further. “Fine, it was four silver.”

“Thank you,” he smiled, handing over the coin for it. Ourias walked off. Once out of sight, he closed his hand over the broken accessory. “It returned to its original form as though the acid never touched it.” Lifting his hand, the trinket was no longer damaged, returned to its original condition.

A distant explosion broke the peace he held. Everyone around him ran off frightened at what happened. He tilted his head back in the direction of the explosion. Smoke rose from damage on the spire of the Omega complex. ‘Teris again...’ Ourias turned away, no longer concerned.

Coughing escaped through the heavy clouds of smoke. Nothing could be seen through thickness. The explosion left everything ringing. Light broke in through the hole carved out roughly by the blast.

Sifting through the smoke, a young man fumbled around in search. “Where are you, sir? Are you alright?” He couldn’t find the one he sought. The smoke was still too thick for him to find anything. In his search, he did find the table, which he knocked over by accident, at least the remains of it. He stumbled around trying to recover his stance. “Captain Lieutenant!?”

Another couple of coughs turned his head. He found a direction to move. Broken glass crunched under foot as he rushed over to the sound. Some of the smoke thinned enough for him to make out a shape. “Captain Lieutenant Teris! Sir!” He came rushing to his superior’s side finally discovering him propped up against the wall, next to him the wall stopped with a startling view of the city below.

Teris grimaced a little as he looked up to his approaching aide. “Didymos…” The more smoke cleared out, the scene of carnage unveiled itself. Blood dripped on the walls and pooled out across the floor. He seemed to ignore or not notice this fact as he pushed off the wall trying to stand. The moment he stumbled and almost fell, he realized something was wrong. “Oh right, my left leg and arm were blown off.”

“Sir!” yelled Didymos, running out to help Teris up. “You’re missing your leg and arm!”

His face went a little flat hearing his aide. “Yes, thank you for repeating me.” A chair materialized in his surviving hand allowing him to set up a place to sit. Didymos immediately started healing the damage. “You’re an idiot, Didymos.”

“Eh? Sir?” Didymos tilted his head up away from his work.

Testing his restored arm out, he confirmed everything worked correctly. “You have power, use it when you need it. If there’s smoke in the room, create an Addendum to remove it. I wouldn’t have had to hear you shouting like a blind fool.”

His aide blinked a little not expecting to be berated by his superior, who nearly seemed to have killed himself. “But, sir—“

“You panicked and that’s a mistake. In the time you tried searching for me, I was able to administer a numbing agent and a clotting agent to slow the bleeding. You’re an Omega soldier, you need to be able to act calmly and rationally even in dangerous situations or you’re useless. You’ll just get yourself killed.”

“Yes, sir!” It was the only thing he could say. He knew Teris was right. It was his mistake. The work on Teris’ body finished quickly. Freed up, Didymos could look around at the room. It used to be a laboratory for Teris, a well-reinforced one too. “What happened here, sir? It looks like a bomb went off.”

Teris scratched his head. His mind was already sorting through the failure and understanding what went wrong with it. Didymos’ words eventually caught up to him mixed among his thoughts. “I was working on a new compound. I got the proportions wrong.” He stood up already better. “Like I always say, one failure is another path explored.”

“But, sir! It could have killed you! With the power you have, you could have made what you wanted perfectly the first time!”

The tall Atlantean looked back down at Didymos. His face narrowed a bit, turning serious. “You can’t let your powers do everything, otherwise you never learn anything.” He pushed his hand through the air causing it to ripple. Everything up to his elbow disappeared before he retrieved it along with a spherical vial. He took the cork top off and drank the contents. “Like this, in lame men’s terms it’s a restorative. The average citizen wouldn’t know it any different from the stuff people peddle on the streets. It actually increases the production of red blood cells to make up for the blood I lost. As a side effect, it boosts alertness and energy, making you very hungry and causes dehydration. So I know to drink plenty of water and snack frequently.”

Teris tossed the vial carelessly behind him. It vanished into particles before ever hitting the floor. “I know the exact composition of this and all the effects.” He walked around the mess towards the only thing in the room that didn’t look affected by the blast. Almost nothing remained in the room, yet the tall closet in the corner looked brand new. He opened the doors, shelves empty. “If I had the materials, I could create it by hand. The same goes for everything in there.” Teris motioned with his hand causing a large rift to open up next to him. Suddenly, vials started to pop on to the shelves filling it. “To use your powers means to understand them. If you don’t understand what they do you can’t use them to their fullest. This is basic Field theory.”

Didymos had a little trouble still accepting Teris’ lecture. He understood what he said. It was common sense, but he couldn’t agree with the results. “But, sir! You destroyed your lab! Almost killed yourself! Maybe some knowledge is too dangerous. You’re one of the Titans, if we lost you—“

“Didymos!” snapped Teris, cutting him off. The unpacking finished and he closed the closet. He started to walk over to the hole in the wall. A ripple came out of his feet. “It’s just a title. It doesn’t rank my importance any higher.” The wall began repairing itself. “Besides, I knew how much I was using and the worst possible outcome. I wouldn’t have died. If you remember one thing from me. There is nothing, nothing, too dangerous to know. Growth is not possible without more knowledge.”

“Even if it is something you shouldn’t know?” He shouldn’t have said anything. Didymos knew it, but his mouth moved anyway. It was one too many questions.

Clapping his hands together, the lab started to rebuild itself. His wall returned to being the same clean white special reinforced concrete mix. “Of course, each has its uses. Knowing what you shouldn’t is even more important, because you can see when someone is going to come after you. If you know too little or just enough, it’s worse than knowing nothing or too much.”

Everything was fixed. Teris returned to his table with vials of his materials once more. He was ready to resume, undaunted by his failure. It didn’t take his eyes to know Didymos tried to sneak out. “Didymos.”

He froze, feeling caught. Thoughts of helping with the experience ran through his mind. Sweat dripped down his face. “Yes, sir?”

“It’s important to remember what I said. The times we live in hinge on you taking that to heart or else you won’t survive the future.”

Didymos felt relieved, but a little disturbed. He didn’t expect such an ominous warning from his superior. The almost deadly seriousness of his words made him take it to heart. “I understand, sir! I’ll carve your words into my mind.”

“You do that.” He began to lift the vial. His aide reached for the door wanting to leave quickly. “Didymos.”

Another chance, he dreaded it even more. “Yes, sir?”

“Close the door on your way out.”

He nodded and flung the door open. “I will, sir!”

Teris grinned a little. “Now this is where it started last time. So if I take this instead…”