Collin, Leena, Alexis, and Sergeant descended the stairwell that led to the depths of the Eclipse facility Evan called them to. Collin led the way, lighting their path by holding his hand before him and sparkling electricity at his fingertips. Leena and Alexis followed a few steps behind him, with Sergeant taking up the rear, walking with his arms crossed.

“It’s hard to see down here with my shades on,” he muttered. Alexis turned and looked over her shoulder at him, wondering why he didn’t go for the obvious solution to his problem.

“Then why don’t you take them off?”

“And ruin my image? Pass.”

“I wonder what this place is…” Leena mused aloud as they continued down the spiraling staircase that plunged them deeper and deeper into the depths. “Have you ever been here before, Alexis?”

“I’m starting to realize more and more how out of the loop they really kept me,” she responded, shaking her head no. “I have no idea.”

“Is it going to be a problem for you to fight your former comrades in Eclipse?” Collin wondered of the redhead. “I didn’t think of how this might affect you, perhaps I should’ve left you on the surface.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Alexis reassured him, waving off the comment with her right hand. “I hate Eclipse as much as any of you do, trust me.”

“It’s not really Eclipse that I hate,” Collin stated, attracting curious glances from his three comrades he was leading. “It’s mostly a certain member…”

Anomaly- Stage Two

Vol. 8: Nemesis (Pt. 4)

Chapter Fifty-Five

Further Below:

“I am curious, though…” Gaff began, holding up one of his powerful-looking blades and pointing it at Evan. “Why would you so foolishly enter our base alone and try to take us on? You must’ve realized your demise was almost certain.”

Evan didn’t answer. Sweat dripped down the side of his face as he struggled to find a solution to his problem. No matter how fast he thought, no matter how many scenarios he came up with… they all ended in the same result.

“The answer is you wouldn’t,” Gaff said, figuring it out without Evan needing to say anything. “So you’re not alone then… which gives me even more incentive to get rid of you in one strike and hunt down your ally.”

“If Jeska showed up, I wonder if she could handle this guy. My only other option is to stall for time and wait for APS… but I don’t think I can mess around with him.”

“Hey Gaffy, no fair! Evan is my toy!!!” Liz’s voice screeched out from behind him. Evan turned to see Liz run up into the lab, an annoyed pout on her face as she still dragged her whip at her side. “You go hunt down the other intruder, okay?!”

Evan noticed Liz no longer had her animated wooden horse with her since this room’s ceiling was much too low for it to fit in. Gaff stood at the other end of the room, his swords still drawn, staring at the strawberry-blonde girl who just appeared barking orders. Evan wondered if he would bother listening to a subordinate. Liz kept glaring at Gaff, who smirked deviously and bowed his head.

“Sorry, but he’s my kill,” Gaff stated, suddenly dashing high-speed across the room at Evan, holding his arms out behind him with both of his swords outstretched. Liz gasped, appalled that he ignored her, and ran forward to try and reach Evan first! Evan looked back and forth between the two of them coming at him from both sides…

… and yet, Liz showing up suddenly actually gave him more hope than if he’d been left alone with Gaff. He had a plan now. He just hoped it wouldn’t backfire on him like the last time he tried it.

“I’ll get him first!!” Liz yelled at Gaff, who continued to ignore her and charge at Evan. Evan jumped in the opposite direction of Gaff and quickly turned to face Liz. He flicked his pendant, his Affinity Arm, into the air and began spinning it atop his right index finger. Liz raised an eyebrow, wondering what he was up to with such a ridiculous-looking pose.

“What, are you just going to stand there?! You’re not making this any fun at all, you know you’re going to die?!”

“I wonder about that,” Evan responded calmly, concentrating all of his Aura into his pendant as it emitted telekinetic waves. Gaff closed the distance first and raised his blades to finish Evan off… but he immediately noticed something to his left and instead used them to deflect a lash from Liz’s bladed whip, one that was clearly directed at him! Evan rolled to the side as Gaff turned and scowled at Liz.

“Eclipse VI, what are you doing attacking me?” he questioned her, wondering just how badly she wanted Evan to herself. “It’s me: Gaff. Stand down.”

“Lies, Gaffy is over there!” Liz denied his claim, pointing over at Evan with her left hand. “And I’ll get you first, you crate-sploding jerk!!”

Gaff grunted as Liz lashed her whip at him once more and he was forced to deflect her strike with a single swing of his right blade. Then she unloaded her wooden horse figure yet again and expanded its size using her Affinity, making it just tall enough to fit under the ceiling of the lab and about twice Gaff’s height. It charged full speed at him at her command and he was forced to roll out of the way, causing it to crash through a few of the glass containment units located near the wall.

“You fool, you’ll destroy all of the equipment,” Gaff tried to warn her, crouching down to avoid another whip strike. He muttered under his breath, still perplexed by this scenario. “I’ve got no choice but to take her down… did that intruder do this to her…?”

While Gaff dealt with the hypnotized Liz, Evan ascended the stairs on his way to freedom. He continued to hold his injured ribs while a pleased smile crept across his face. He was pleased things worked out the way he wanted them to this time. When he used that technique before on Keggy, he had no control over what Keggy saw… but this time he was able to manipulate Liz into seeing what he wanted her to. This was going to be a powerful weapon indeed, but it cost him a lot of his Aura… he was now on the verge of collapse.

He leaned against the wall and tried to catch his breath, starting to feel dizzy. He gripped his bandanna with his left hand and pulled it off, holding it to his bleeding shoulder.

“I’ve never taken this much punishment before in a fight,” he grunted through clenched teeth. He stared up the staircase, determined to make it out of here in one piece. He was sure that Eclipse III character wouldn’t take long to deal with Liz, so he needed to pick up the pace. His expression changed suddenly when he noticed multiple presences coming toward him on the stairwell. He felt his muscles begin to tense up… he was unsure if he could handle this many more enemies.

“Hey, there he is,” he heard Leena’s voice gasp. He saw the light given off by Collin’s electrified hand and quickly realized the presences were the backup he called. Leena and Alexis ran forward to him while Collin stood there, looking as displeased as usual with Evan.

“New guy, are you okay?!” Leena asked him frantically. Evan nodded, looking down at his shoulder, which was clearly what concerned the girls.

“It’s not too bad… I’m more worn out than anything else, I exhausted a lot of my Aura. Also, I think some of my ribs are broken.”

“Hold still, I can stop the bleeding,” Alexis told him, reaching for the wound on his shoulder. “I’m not too proficient with my secondary Flora Affinity yet, but I can do that much at least.”

“Secondary Affinity?” Evan questioned as she moved his bandanna and pressed her palms against his wound, this being the first he’d heard about that. “You have two? How does one obtain that?”

“Huh? Oh. As your abilities develop you have a chance to take in a secondary Affinity. However, both the chance to get it and the Affinity you receive seem somewhat random… and you’ll never be as proficient with it as your Primary Affinity. I think if you do a lot of training it should increase your odds…”

“I did a lot of training and I have one,” Leena added on, surprising Evan even more when she said that. “Of course, I wasn’t really in control of myself when I used mine and haven’t tried it since…”

“Am I the only one out of the loop here?” Evan wondered aloud, starting to feel somewhat inferior to his new APS allies. He looked over at Collin. “Do you have one too?”

“What the hell were you thinking barging in here by yourself? That’s an easy way to get killed,” Collin reprimanded him, as harsh with Evan as ever. “Did Jade rejecting your crazy idea send you over the edge?”

Evan narrowed his eyes at him. “This is an Eclipse facility. I was trying to get the evidence I need to show you fools that I’m right. But there are powerful guards here…”

“Come on, don’t argue,” Leena pleaded, turning to Collin and giving him puppy eyes. “Be nice, okay?”

“… fine,” Collin reluctantly agreed, stepping away and putting his personal dislike for Evan aside. “I’ll deal with the guards then. Who were they?”

“Eclipse VI and III.”

Alexis and Leena both gasped when Evan said Eclipse III. He was Alexis’s only real ally when she was still in Eclipse and Leena had experienced his deadly skill and cold personality. But the real reason they grew concerned was because they both knew who was going to react the worst to this…

“He’s down there?!” Collin exclaimed, suddenly getting worked up and leering down the stairwell from behind his visor. Leena reached to grab his arm, trying to hold him back. The last time Collin saw Gaff he went completely berserk, unlike any way she’d ever seen him act before, and got thoroughly defeated by him.

“Hold on! We found Evan, we can just leave now, right? Ignore Eclipse III!”

“I can’t,” Collin said, pulling away from Leena and continuing to descend the stairs. He spoke to them one more time as he disappeared from view. “… he killed my family.”

Above Ground:

“Come on heroes!” Tristan goaded his foes from APS. Ash and Roy, both in their blue APS uniforms, faced the mysterious Anomaly from the Veranda Family. He had a very dark appearance about him: his jet-black hair, his dark jeans and leather jacket decorated with chains, and even his lip piercing made him out to be a dangerous person. They didn’t know his story or why he was attacking them, but Roy was determined to put him in his place.

“Here I go, then,” Roy said, holding out his right arm and shaping his trademark blade of light that extended from the middle of his forearm. The blade was flat but long and curved like an anchor at the end, granting him quite a bit of reach. Tristan’s one visible eye, that wasn’t masked by his hair, squinted when he saw it.

“A Light Anomaly, huh… this could be unfavorable,” he thought to himself, realizing Darkness’s general weakness to Light. Letting Roy get close would be bad, so he lifted his massive curved shuriken into the air with his left hand and threw it toward his enemy!

Roy figured he would block such a simple strike easily, but Tristan made it more difficult by invoking one of his special abilities. The shuriken suddenly split in two at Tristan’s mental command and screamed through the air as two zig-zagging projectiles instead of one! Leaving a trail of darkness in the air in their wake, the sizable projectiles crashed right into Roy with unbelievable force!

“Roy!” Ash exclaimed worriedly before looking over at Tristan, who was staring at his target. Ash narrowed his brow. “How did he do that…? They accelerated after he threw it and moved in an unpredictable pattern…”

“Arrgh!” Roy cried out as he was pushed back by the impact. He’d managed to block one with his light blade and catch the other between his armored left arm and chest, though he still found himself being carried backward as they pushed onward. His armored feet slid across the ground, dragging a track in the asphalt, until he finally let out a thunderous roar and thrashed his arms forward against the force of the weapons, flinging them away!

“Not bad, not bad…” Tristan complimented him, holding out his left hand and re-materializing the weapon to his grasp immediately. “You’re the muscular type… you can match my strength, but you won’t live long.”

“That’s what you think,” Roy muttered, looking down at the long track his armored boots made in the ground. Tristan had pushed him back around 10 meters… he was going to have trouble reaching him if this kept up. Tristan said he would defeat them while simply standing in that circle, but Roy was determined to prove him wrong.

“He re-materialized his weapon instantly… he probably plans to use it over and over again,” Ash thought. “And the way he can make it go supersonic in mid-air is deadly… I wonder how he’s doing that.”

As Ash watched on, Roy charged toward Tristan again. Tristan did the same thing, hurling his shuriken forward and splitting it so that it zig-zagged toward Roy in a hard-to-track pattern. This time, Roy slid across the ground underneath the weapons, hoping to close the distance. Tristan quickly called his weapon back to his side as Roy evaded his attack, and this time hurled it across the ground like a bowling ball, and the shuriken shredded across the earth toward Roy like a buzz saw!

Roy, who was still on his knees on the ground, looked up to see the shuriken whizzing at him, heading right for his face! He quickly raised his sword and blocked, holding his armored left arm against the back of it to re-enforce his guard! He was successful in blocking it, but the second the shuriken made contact with him it began to push him back once again with incredible force!

“What is going on…?” Roy wondered in disbelief as he was on his knees, blocking the shuriken and still being shoved away from his target. The sound of grinding asphalt under his heavy armor began to grate on his nerves. He finally managed to overpower the shuriken, knocking it away and slowing to a stop. He fell forward, leaning on his left arm, staring across the deserted parking lot at Tristan.

“He’s not as big as me… he shouldn’t be able to shove me around like this, especially not with these wimpy throws of his little ninja weapon.”

“I think I’ve figured out his trick,” Ash said confidently after observing Tristan’s last two attacks. Roy looked over at Ash, wondering what Ash had noticed that he didn’t. “Charge him again, but this time be ready to use your Affinity.”

“My Affinity? This is a battle of man-against-man, I’ll beat him down with my bare hands.”

“Yeah, you’re never gonna win like that. He’s using his Affinity and yours will break his.”

Roy raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t see him do anything.”

“Well he is. Just listen to me and we’ll end this nonsense.”

Roy got to his feet and pushed his long blond bangs out of his face. He had no reason not to trust Ash, it was just that Tristan’s attitude had irked him so much that he’d temporarily stopped using his head. He let out a deep breath and stomped forward, ready to take Tristan on for real this time. Tristan smirked a little bit, before returning to his usual dark expression. It seemed he was making sport of embarrassing Roy.

“You government-owned puppets are even more pathetic than I thought,” Tristan said to them, lifting up his shuriken in his right hand and slashing it through the air before himself. “I’ll put you out of your misery so you can stop being a slave to this corrupt democracy.”

“I think someone is a Colonia hater… I wonder what his story is,” Ash murmured with intrigue. Roy quickly gave Ash an awkward glance before getting ready to strike again.

“Who cares. Here I go!” Roy shouted, running toward Tristan once more. Tristan shook his head and leaned forward, flinging his shuriken yet again! Ash watched as it split into two, both halves spinning around each other and heading right at Roy like a cyclone. When they were no more than a meter from Roy, Ash cried out to him.

“Roy, ignite a burst of light and counterattack!”

Roy did as told, creating a blinding flash emanating from his blade of light that caused both Ash and Tristan to avert their gazes. Roy stepped in with his right foot and span around… swinging his sword like a baseball bat and knocking both shuriken halves away with ease! Tristan was barely able to wince and looked up to see one of the pieces heading straight for his head! He flinched and de-materialized it immediately, preventing his early demise.

“That… was close,” he grumbled, squinting as he looked over at Ash, who had protected his own vision using his arm to shield his eyes. “The one with glasses is smart.”

“What was different that time?” a confused Roy asked. Ash looked over at him, explaining it now that he was sure his theory was correct.

“This guy’s weapon both sped up and increased in power the second it entered your shadow. Since it’s dusk and the sun is setting behind us, your shadow extends quite a distance before you… especially when you’re running. Am I right?”

Tristan spat on the ground and snorted at Ash. “Hmph. My Affinity Arm’s force is doubled when in its target’s shadow. It’s quite a deadly ability whether I throw it or attack close-range.”

“I see. I’ll attack you from over here then,” Roy stated, circling to the right so that his shadow would no longer be directly in front of him. Tristan followed him with angry eyes until he heard Ash materializing his Affinity Arm back to his right. He turned and looked at Ash, who aimed his bow at him with an ice arrow at the ready.

“You can’t fight us from both sides. This ends here,” Ash said, firing the arrow off at Tristan! Tristan quickly re-materialized his Affinity Arm yet again, using the large shuriken to deflect Ash’s arrow harmlessly away into the air! Ash narrowed his brow, disheartened by how ineffective his attack was. However, he took in what he saw and decided to try something else.

He aimed his bow at Roy. Roy looked over at him and took a cautious step back.

“Ash, what are you--”

“Don’t move,” was all Ash said, firing his next arrow right at Roy’s chest! Tristan, completely baffled as he watched, soon was made painfully aware of Ash’s strategy. The arrow deflected off of Roy’s armored chest and struck Tristan right in his left arm: his throwing arm! Tristan gasped in pain and fell to one knee as blood dripped off the icy arrow protruding from the wound. He cursed to himself and reached up to pull it out with his right arm…

… but then heard footsteps right before him. He glanced up to see Roy had moved in close and hastily raised his shuriken at the last second to shield himself. Roy easily overpowered him with one underhand swing of his light blade and sent him flying through the air, causing him to drop his Affinity Arm and crash down on his back meters away! Roy smiled, pleased with what he saw.

“Heh, you’ve been knocked out of your little circle.”

“Arrgh… I won’t let you government dogs make a fool out of me. I was going easy on you, but let’s see how you handle my true strength,” he hissed at an overconfident Ash and Roy, who both watched as he used his injured left arm to push himself up. Before either of them could move in to capture Tristan, a shrill scream pierced through the parking lot and caught all of their attention.

“Mission compromised! We’re dead! Deaaaaaaad!!” an overreacting Yao screamed, bursting out of the front door and running toward Tristan with his arms flailing about to his sides. Tristan looked over at Yao, disgusted at him as he approached. “We have to go! Now!”

“You are completely useless,” Tristan told him, getting to his feet and moving toward their vehicle. “But I guess it can’t be helped with APS now here… we’ll withdraw for now.”

“APS?!” Yao exclaimed, looking over and noticing Roy and Ash for the first time. “Gaahhhh! What are they doing here?!”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Ash said, pointing at Yao and stepping forward. “Who exactly are you?”

“Eat leeaaaad!!!” Yao screeched, pulling out a pistol and firing at Ash as he moved to the car! Roy jumped in the way and held his forearms in front of his face, deflecting the bullets off of his armor! Using that chance as a distraction, Yao jumped into the car and they sped off crashing through the fence on their way out. Roy lowered his arms and stared after them in dismay… they’d never catch up now.

“Oh well, we didn’t even know who they were,” Ash said, walking up next to Roy and patting him on the shoulder. “They didn’t seem to be with Eclipse.”

“Hmm,” Allen hummed, walking up next to the two of them. “They were definitely trying to get something from this place, that’s for sure.”

“Ahh!” Ash jumped aside when Allen suddenly appeared. “Where have you been?!”

“Drawing. Easiest hundred bucks I ever made.”

“… you didn’t actually draw Alexis naked, did you…?” Ash groaned, praying that Allen and Quinton were just joking around. He looked back at Quinton, who was tucking a piece of paper carefully into his jacket. Quinton glared back at Ash.

“Oh you’d like to see it, wouldn’t you?! Well it’s mine, all mine!”

“You’re both going to wind up on the pointy end of a trident if she finds out about this…”

“Hey, it’s Sergeant,” Roy said, pointing toward the base where Sergeant exited into the evening air. He was carrying the injured Evan on his back, having been instructed to get him to safety by the girls. Roy and the others rushed over and gathered around him.

“Good job, you found the idiot who ran into an Eclipse base all alone!” Quinton exclaimed quite loudly and rudely. “I knew you weren’t cut out to be in APS, punk!”

“I did better than you would’ve,” was all Evan responded with. Quinton opened his mouth to respond but Sergeant did them all a favor and clamped it shut.

“Where are the others?” Ash wondered. Sergeant’s expression turned grim in response and he looked back at the door.

“Back in there. With an Eclipse Number that’s bad news…”

Below Ground:

Collin stepped down into the laboratory to see the cloaked Eclipse Number. He was standing with his back facing Collin and facing a petrified girl. It was Liz, frozen in place, her arm extending and lashing her whip out into the air. Collin didn’t even care what had happened, but Gaff addressed him almost instantly without even turning around and decided to explain anyway.

“You remember this, don’t you?” he asked Collin, referring to the last time Collin attacked him and Gaff petrified him like this. “This should help her cool off like it did for you.”

“I didn’t ‘cool off’,” Collin said, materializing his knife and gripping it tightly in his right hand. “I’m still going to kill you.”

Gaff turned around and cast out his cloak, crossing his arms over his chest. Some of his black hair, which stretched to the middle of his back, draped over his shoulders. He gave Collin an icy stare.

“That’s interesting, because I was going to kill you to make up for my failure all those years ago. I was contracted to wipe out your entire family, and it seems I didn’t quite do the job. Of course, I got paid anyway but letting a kill slip away is so… annoying.”

“Who was it?!” Collin demanded to know, breaking his usual cool demeanor only when it came to this event that ripped his life apart. “Who ordered you to kill my family? And why?!”

“That’s confidential information, I’m afraid. Before joining Eclipse, I used my Anomaly powers as an assassin, is all. It is hilariously ironic that you would survive to become an Anomaly yourself and face me. I anticipate this battle… but can you match my overwhelming power?”

“I’m the strongest in APS,” Collin told him, holding his weapon out to his right and supercharging it, along with his forearm, with tumultuous electricity. Gaff noticed it wasn’t quite the same level as the last time Collin tried to kill him, he wasn’t freaking out as badly this time. Collin clenched his teeth together as he spoke to Gaff in a low, murderous tone. “… I’ll rip you apart the second you underestimate me.”

Gaff smirked confidently, seeking to irk Collin further. “If you’re the strongest in APS, I don’t see why the others have had such trouble dealing with you up until now. Pathetic… I’ll show them how it’s done.”

“I’ll show YOU!!!” Collin screamed, leaping forward and making a supersonic dash at Gaff. Gaff folded his arms in an x-shape across his chest, standing still and letting Collin punch right through him with his electrically-charged weapon! Collin’s eyes widened to their fullest as he watched his arm plunge right through his foe… wholly shell-shocked by the sight.

“Wh-what…?” he gasped weakly, staring to feel his perception of reality falter, hearing only the crackling of electricity he was generating. He stared forward into his illuminating fist. “I… killed him…? Was he too slow…?”

“Soul Shift,” Gaff’s voice alarmed Collin from behind, causing him to break out in goosebumps. “You stabbed a mere copy of me that I created by transferring some of my Aura into my own cloak.”

Collin watched the shredded cloak fall to the ground in halves, devoid of its owner. Gaff’s voice then sounded more sinister and cruel when he whispered from behind Collin next.

“So tell me… how did it feel to kill me? Were you finally satisfied, strongest in APS?”

“Don’t screw around with me!!!” Collin screamed, doing a 180 immediately and slashing in the direction of the voice. Gaff was already out of range, causing Collin to growl and glare at him. “… his movements are a bit too fast. He must be using some sort of ability to move through the darkness in this dimly-lit laboratory…”

“Now then,” Gaff began, devoid of his cloak and wearing an actual armored breastplate over a black long-sleeved shirt, as well as black jeans with gold spikes stitched into them. His boots were also black with gold plating. “It’s no fun if you do all the attacking.”

“Collin!” Leena cried out from behind Gaff, running down into the laboratory at the far side of the room and staring worriedly at her friend. Collin flinched when he saw her, showing a moment of weakness that Gaff was about to expose…

“No… why did she have to show up now…?! I was gonna…!” Collin thought, frustrated.

“Gaff…” Alexis’s voice gasped just loud enough for Gaff to hear, though he initially wasn’t sure it was her at first. He turned to look as she joined Leena at the far end of the room, also appearing concerned for the man who helped her so when she was still in Eclipse. He momentarily forgot about the battle and addressed her.

“Alexis, good to see you. How are you enjoying your freedom?”

“It’s everything I could ever want… except that now I’m on the opposite side of you. I still owe you so much for what you did for me…”

“Think nothing of it, I simply despise Seth’s underhanded tactics. Do not worry, I’ll never harm you… and you, Leena Booker, no longer have anything to worry about from me. With Alexis happy and free, I have no reason to attack you.”

“Th-thanks, I think…” Leena mumbled, a little overwhelmed by the situation right now. “Then could you do me a favor and leave Collin alone?”

“Leave him alone? This is what he wants,” Gaff spoke in an entertained voice, turning back to the enraged APS field commander. “Stay back and stay quiet ladies, this is a fight between he and I alone. Interrupting or attempting to sway his judgment will only confuse his pride as a man.”

“For a vicious murderer, you don’t sound all that evil,” Collin remarked, dismissing the electricity on his arm before it became too painful to bear like their last encounter. Now that Leena was here, he didn’t want her to see him all spastic… and his head was starting to clear a bit regardless. He wasn’t going to kill Gaff just by flailing about randomly.

“Evil? Good? Those words hold no meaning in my world,” Gaff responded. “There are those who deserve to live and those who deserve to die, and I shall make that judgment.”

“You think you’re god or something equally maniacal?”

“It is my personal judgment. Whether I act on it or not is up to my whim and what others think is no concern of mine,” Gaff told him. “Those girls behind us, they deserve to live. And you deserve…”

“Ugh!” Collin grunted, casting out his left hand and blasting electricity at Gaff before he could finish that sentence. Gaff swiftly avoided to the left at an almost impossible-to-track speed, heading further into the shadows and away from the light cast by Collin’s electrical assault. He moved in a half-circle, closing the distance between himself and Collin in nearly an instant!

“You are moving faster!” Collin called him out on it, quickly raising his knife to deflect a powerful hit from Gaff’s massive left-handed great sword. Collin staggered away, recoiling from the hit, as Gaff raised his right-handed blade to strike.

“And that one was my weak arm,” Gaff told him, bringing his other sword down at him! Collin reacted quickly, hurling his knife right at Gaff’s head using his right hand! Gaff’s well-trained eye saw the attack coming and he craned his neck to avoid it, but it bought Collin the time he needed to charge up static between his two palms and launch it right into Gaff’s chest!

Gaff was blown away by the hit, but flew barely two meters and managed to stay on his feet. Collin expected as much since it was such a last-second and weak strike, and he knew what Gaff would do next.

“You’ll never force me back as long as I keep using my Shadow Walk ability to close the distance.”

“Ugh, Leena…” Alexis grunted, indecision in her voice. “I don’t know who to root for in this battle. Collin is the good guy, yes… but Gaff helped me and Collin is the one who instigated this…”

“I think Gaff was going to kill Collin anyway…” Leena muttered, though she found herself a bit morally confused as well. “This isn’t an APS vs. Eclipse fight, it’s simply between the two of them… but I am hoping Collin wins.”

“Why? Because you like him?”

“Gaff has always looked out for you… and Collin has always looked out for me. I just wish there was some other way they could decide this, but there’s no getting through to them, is there…?”

“That’s how men are. Most idiot men, anyway. The more I think about it, the more I actually do find myself attracted to Ash… he wouldn’t fight over me like some dog.”

Leena looked at Alexis with concern in her eyes, praying Alexis would reconsider. “But if you mess around with Ash, it’s only going to make Felicia more upset…”

Alexis smiled happily. “Good.”

“If all your moves use the shadows… then I’ll get rid of them before I get rid of you!” Collin announced, raising his Aura and emitting a weak electrical field that encompassed nearly the entire room. Gaff felt the static on his hair but wasn’t harmed one bit by the attack and prepared to move in a half-circle around Collin once more.

But then all the lights in the lab turned on. Gaff ran, but nowhere near as fast as he expected. His eyes fixed themselves on Collin, who had successfully illuminated the room to the point where any dark-powered abilities would be useless.

“This is one of my abilities,” Collin explained, re-materializing his knife into his grasp. “I can power up any machine that requires electricity to run… including the lights in this facility.”

Collin then charged in at Gaff, using his own enhanced speed the Plasma Affinity gave him. He was faster than Gaff now, so much faster. The advantage was now his!

Gaff looked amused. Or was it?

Collin moved at top speed, aiming to plunge his knife right through Gaff and finish him now! But despite the difference in speed, Gaff simply tossed his left-handed sword to the ground and snatched Collin’s wrist before he was stabbed! Collin, Alexis, and Leena all reacted with surprise… from the girls’ point of view it was Gaff simply reaching down and stopping a supersonic blur. Collin couldn’t accept that Gaff grabbed and stopped him mid-charge like that. He strained and tried to force his knife forward into Gaff’s chest, but the Eclipse Number’s grip was so strong that Collin couldn’t even budge his arm.

“You may have weakened my Affinity… but nothing can dim my own skill.”

Gaff lifted Collin into the air by his wrist, heaving him over his head and slamming him down hard against the floor on the other side of him! Collin screamed out in pain as his back impacted with the sturdy cement… he felt something break. Still holding Collin’s wrist, Gaff stomped down on his chest and held his right blade to Collin’s face, the tip barely centimeters from his nose!

“Uh-oh…” Alexis murmured, sensing this was the end for Gaff’s victim. Leena instinctively took a few steps forward but Alexis grabbed her by the back of her jacket, holding her still.

“Collin!! Let me go…!”

“You can’t help him. Gaff will dispose of you even easier than he did Collin!”

“If I could just recall how I used my Dual Affinity…” Leena cried in exasperation, slumping forward and staring worriedly at Collin. “I don’t want to stand by helplessly and watch someone else I care about die…”

“I could kill you right now,” Gaff threatened Collin, who was hyperventilating as his eyes fixated on the blade right in his face. “I could end your miserable little existence and forget you ever existed. You are too weak to challenge me…”

Gaff raised his blade to deliver the finishing blow. Leena and Collin both clenched their eyes shut, and Collin let out an enraged scream. He didn’t want it to end like this. He hadn’t accomplished anything yet…!

He suddenly felt Gaff drop his wrist and step off of him. He waited a second before opening his eyes, wondering what exactly was happening. He finally opened them and craned his head up to see Gaff’s back turned to him as he stepped away.

“Why… why aren’t you finishing me…?!” Collin demanded to know, sitting up and screaming at Gaff’s back. “

“Killing you while you’re this weak won’t satisfy me,” Gaff answered him. “You’re almost there, almost at my level. I’ll kill you when I decide you’re worthy.”

“You son of a bitch…!” Collin swore furiously, getting up and igniting his arms with electricity once more. “I won’t let you look down on me, I won’t let you play games with me! You killed my family and you’re going to pay!!!”

Collin yelled out and moved to charge at Gaff’s back, but armored hands grabbed his shoulder and held him in place. He tried to run and fell off balance, looking over his shoulder to see Roy holding him back. He gritted his teeth together and tried to break free, his eyes fixated on Gaff and his mind determined to kill him.

“Collin, just stop,” Roy told him sternly. “He’ll kill you if you keep this up… none of us are a match for him. You can’t act like this when we’re on a separate mission!”

“You don’t understand, none of you do! All I have to do is kill him and I can get on with my life! You don’t know what it was like!” Collin lectured all of them, as Ash, Allen, Leena, and Alexis approached as well. “I saw him covered in my parents’ blood when I was nothing but a helpless kid! Now that I’m an Anomaly, all I’ve done is hone my powers to get him back… I have to kill him now!”

“APS’ job isn’t to kill,” Ash said to him. “It’s to protect, and getting yourself killed won’t protect anyone. You’ve done good deeds before that helped the views of Anomalies in the public’s eyes… don’t throw it away here.”

“He’s right, we need you! You’re the only one strong enough to lead us,” Leena pleaded to him, wishing that he would just listen for once. “If you really want to impress me, the best thing you can do is just stop this madness!”

“You’re my best friend,” Roy said, still keeping a strong grip on him. “Don’t fight by yourself and die like Miles did… we have to work as a team. Come on.”

Collin let out a deep breath, panting as he struggled to control himself. He still couldn’t shake the vengeful feeling that took him over when he could see Gaff standing right in from of him. He cried out once again, begging for his friends to understand.

“But…!”

“My god!” Allen exclaimed, fed up with this. He reached up with his left palm and slapped Collin in the forehead, knocking him out with a psychic strike to his consciousness. “Seriously, I’ve had enough of listening to that. These pretty-boys are so high-maintenance… they think everything is about them. Honestly.”

Collin slumped forward in Roy’s grasp, who stared down at him and blinked a few times. He wasn’t expecting Allen to do that… nor would it go over well when they reported to the Colonel.

“… we’ll just tell Jade that Gaff did that to him.”

“So you’re going to let us go?” Alexis asked Gaff, whose back was still turned to the group of them. Though they each felt safe in a group, all of them could feel Gaff’s intense Aura, especially Allen with his Mental Affinity. The real reason he shut Collin down was because he knew if Gaff changed his mind, it could spell the end for all of them.

“Only for you,” Gaff spoke after a few seconds of contemplation. “Get out of here and do not return, or you’ll have to face my full wrath.”

“You know APS is gonna crack down on this place the second we report back, right?” Ash asked him. Gaff snorted at the very notion.

“We’ll be gone by then. Now do the same, and thank your luck that my interests do not wholly coincide with Eclipse’s. Eclipse I would not let you off with a slap on the wrist.”

The APS crew did as told, with Roy carrying the unconscious Collin out. When they were gone, Gaff pulled out his cell phone and hit a button on speed dial, thinking to himself about something that concerned him.

“Even I do not know what all of this equipment is for, other than that it’s very important. What exactly is our leader plotting, anyway…?”

Gaff spoke into the phone when someone picked up on the other end. “Eclipse I, I’ve driven back the insects. Send the rabble to load up the equipment and move it to a secure location, since this base is compromised. I think the only safe place to store it now is the main HQ.”

“Alright,” Seth spoke from the other end. “I don’t think our leader will be too happy with us moving such incriminating equipment to such an important location, however. We’ll have to do it by cover of night.”

“What other choice is there? This was the only storage site left,” Gaff explained. He knew that Seth knew that.

“I agree, don’t worry. By the way, how did you fare in battle?”

“Hmph. This one APS member seems really out to kill me, but he can’t even land a hit. I don’t see why you don’t just have me kill them all and be done with it. They haven’t evolved enough yet to be of any use in the long-term.”

“They are precious resources, we must not waste them,” Seth instructed Gaff, though that statement was about as vague as they came. “Glad to hear you aren’t hurt. Wait there for reinforcements.”

Gaff gave his phone a puzzled stare after Seth hung up.

“Why on earth would Seth show any concern for me…? Did he expect me to get injured? Perhaps he still underestimates me… but something about everything seems off. What role am I playing, exactly… and where am I going…?”

As Gaff mused to himself, thinking he was in the company of no one but the petrified Liz, Jeska watched on from around the corner on the staircase, having masked her presence from both him and APS using a master-level Mental Affinity ability. The redhead Observer touched her right index finger to her lip, pondering to herself about the situation.

“He is definitely talking to Seth, but we already figured he was Eclipse’s leader. However, I’ve yet to figure out if Seth’s intentions are simply to test the real world Anomalies like we are supposed to… or if his villainous deeds are overstepping the boundaries and threatening the God Realm. That man deserves a good lecture from the back of my fist.”

Jeska let out a heaving sigh, deciding not to dwell on it any more and heading back to the surface. Her patience had been taxed enough for the day, any more would really irritate her.

“Whatev’. It’s late and that Lost boxset I bought is calling my name. I guess I have no choice but to confront ol’ darkness-pants directly…”

TO BE CONTINUED

Author’s Note: Hey, it’s been a while since I wrote one of these. Just wanted to explain that the chapters are shorter now so that I can post them faster. I’m not gonna cut anything out, it just means you’ll see TO BE CONTINUED more often than usual. It’s not that the long chapters were especially difficult, but I don’t have as much time to write these days so repeatedly sitting down day after day to work on the same chapter seemed to take forever and be fruitless. When I have more time I may go back to normal, or if people like the shorter chapters I may keep it this way. Let me know!

Bonus: Character Profile

Leena (Ch 38) - Brick (Ch 39) - Leon (Ch 40) - Roy (Ch 41) - Miles (Ch 42) - Sergeant (Ch 43) - Axel (Ch 46) - Desiree (Ch 47) - Allen (Ch 49) - Nash (Ch 50) - Ray (Ch 52) - Serena (Ch 53) - Austin (Ch 54)

#14- Michael

Age: 24 (at time of death)

Gender: Male

Hair: Dark Brown

Eyes: Brown

Date of Birth: July 18

Nationality: American

Known Relatives: None

Occupation: Actor

Affinity Arm: Conductor

Primary Affinity: Plasma

Stats:

Affinity Control- 3

Combat Skills- 2

Strength- 3

Endurance- 3

Intelligence- 3

Speed- 7

Aura- 4

Total- 25 / 70

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Character Biography:

Michael McKenzie moved to Colonia to seek an acting career while taking classes at CIU. Known for charming the ladies, he met Mia Auria in his first semester there and they quickly fell for one another. Mia, who had just undergone the life-changing experience of becoming an unstable Anomaly, had distanced herself from her usual group of friends and decided it was best to date an outsider like him. Her best friend, Hayley Viola, didn’t exactly like him, but he seemed to bring some stability back into Mia’s life so she stood by and watched.

Right after they announced their engagement, Michael landed a starring role on Tempest Beach, a locally filmed TV drama. He began to value his image above all else and his ego grew out of control. When Mia finally felt close enough to him to admit to him her biggest secret, that she was an Anomaly, he freaked out thinking her being a freak would ruin him and called off the engagement. Mia unsuccessfully tried to kill herself while in shock, and Michael went on to enjoy a successful career as his popularity grew.

A few years later, a vengeful Mia decided to exact her revenge. She began to use her Plasma Affinity to make it appear as if Michael was developing powers of his own, leading to his capture by APS. She then helped him break free, all the while making it seem as if this was his doing. Frightened and confused, Michael escaped to a dockside storage warehouse where he was confronted by Leena Booker, who Mia had manipulated to head there. Mia then had the Lord of Plasma select Michael as his next vessel, intending for the confrontation to be both a learning experience for Leena and revenge on Michael.

Michael fought Leena in a berserk state, blaming her for what happened to him. With no experience how to use his powers, he was easily dispatched by Leena and Sophie Briante, who knocked him into the water. When Hayley and her fellow officer Ray Cameron arrived and tried to arrest him, he foolishly tried to use his electricity powers in the water and accidentally electrocuted himself to death.

Tempest Beach was shortly cancelled afterward and Mia felt bad for indirectly causing his death… but not too bad.

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Personality:

Michael thought primarily of himself before anyone else and had an inflated ego. He tried to use his good looks and charm to coast through life and became hysterical when confronted with a situation that was unfavorable to him or could ruin his image. Simply put, he was a complete douche bag.

- - -

Powers and Abilities:

Since he died so shortly after initially receiving his powers, Michael didn’t boast any impressive talents. Like any Plasma Anomaly, he could create and manipulate electricity. He could use his Affinity Arm, which was a lengthy conductor, to channel and blast out powerful electrical blasts. Though he killed himself by electrocution, a more skilled Plasma Anomaly would have been able to numb the effects but not completely nullify them. (An example of this is in Gabby and Vy’s fight in Chapter 48, where Gabby knocking Vy into the water and electrocuting her simply resulted in knocking her unconscious.)

- - -

First Appearance: Chapter 3

Last Appearance: Chapter 6 (Death)

Appears in chapters: 3, 4, 5, 6

Original Concept By: Me