Roy Sharpe stood up from the road he was thrown into with a light curse and he watched as a car screeched to a halt next to him honking. He proceeded to give the man inside the car a deadly look before rushing back into the alleyway only to find that there was no trace of Jerome. He felt something building in his chest, up towards his throat and he bent over and spat out a globule of blood. He was injured, to what extent, he couldn't tell. He looked around and finally picked up his gun. All the fire around the area was put out but their fight had caused this alleyway to look like a battlefield, straight out of a third-world country. He holstered his gun and coughed some more blood out before rubbing his chest and limping back to the station. He had underestimated Jerome Hall but the man had a very strange and varying power scale. If Roy accurately estimated his power once then that power would wildly fluctuate throwing off his calculations entirely and then he was also a binary mage using electromancy and carnomancy…there were no signs of telemancy. Constable Hall was a huge conundrum to him at this point though he disdained to admit it. Several people gave him weird looks but none that he cared too much about. He needed to return to his superior and report this matter. He had not obeyed his senior sergeant's order and had instead deliberately picked a fight with the constable and as a result their fight had damaged buildings and destroyed public property not to mention that civilians could have seen it but he was irked by the man known as Jerome Elliot Hall. When he first met him, the man had a dead look about him like everything that didn't interest him was absolute trash, two days ago when he met him again that attitude had only exacerbated, if in a strange manner because now Jerome Hall was psychotically uncaring about everything and the man just pissed him off. He limped up the stairs to police station waving down everyone that came to ask him a question and finally reached Senior Sergeant Robert's office. He slicked back his unruly hair before twisting the knob and entering. As soon as he came through Robert put down his cup of tea and looked up from his computer with a look that slowly transitioned from confusion to anger.
"Roy…what did you do?" asked Robert, the rage evident.
"Sorry sir," Roy said looking down.
"Tell me, please tell me Roy that you didn't go to pick a fight with Constable Hall," asked Robert and Roy's look was all he needed.
Robert slumped back on his chair with a weary look.
"Did you…did you kill him?" Robert asked.
"Constable Hall's a binary mage," Roy said and Robert gulped at that slid up in his chair to pay more attention. "He knows both carnomancy and electromancy and his carnomancy is almost nearing master rank from what I saw."
"Sh*t," Robert cursed. "How did we not know we were sitting on top a grenade with its pin pulled."
"Sir?" Roy asked.
"It's just an expression Roy but you…you have pulled a fatally stupid mistake at this critical juncture," Robert said clenching his fist then sighing. "We might have had an ally in Constable Hall."
Roy immediately shook his head, "Sir I think not, Constable Hall from what I've seen only cares about himself and subjects that interest him, we could never have worked it out with him…not if he found out…
"Roy!" Robert suddenly said in a stern loud voice.
Roy looked down again. "Sorry sir."
"Wait…you said he knew carnomancy and electromancy but what about telemancy?" asked Robert. "He blocked me off and rebounded my attack."
"He didn't use it against me as far as I could tell sir," said Roy. "Only carnomancy and electromancy was on display."
"He can't be a binary mage then," said Robert. "He had to have used telemancy to disrupt me, if so he knows three disciplines and that's impossible."
"It is," Roy said nodding.
"Why…" said Robert groaning. "Why does this happen here, and why now?"
"Sir…if you would give me another chance," said Roy stepping forward before a glare from Robert stopped him.
Robert stood up and slapped his palms on the desk loudly causing his pen holder to tip over scattering pens over his desk, something he didn't seem to care about too much at this point.
"You have done enough Roy," he said enunciating each syllable. "I don't want him on our tail end especially when the man is turning out to be the most confusing puzzle I've ever solved in my life."
"Yes sir," said Roy. "Sorry again sir."
Robert sat back down closing his eyes before lightly opening one of them to focus on Roy.
"Go clean yourself up Roy," said Robert. "Then take some people to this place you fought with Constable Hall and clean up the place, take care of the witnesses as well, I don't want this thing turning into a rope I need to hang myself with in the future."
Roy nodded before swiftly exiting Robert's office to go clean himself up. Robert meanwhile closed his eyes again trying to process though his thoughts. From the reports he had received from Bishop's Bar crime scene and what Roy had told him at this point he was almost ninety percent sure that Jerome Hall was culprit behind the case and if that was truly the case, a truth he didn't want to believe, then it means that Jerome Hall had took down a fully-fledged master rank electromancer, being an electromancer himself. Taking a master rank down of any discipline was near impossible not being one yourself but taking a master rank down of your own discipline that was an absolute impossibility, granted Constable Hall also knew carnomancy and possibly telemancy, still it was Hector Bishop. He was also afraid to think whether Hector Bishop had told Jerome Hall of the 'secret'. He cursed as he wondered whether he should ever have got himself mixed up in this muddle.
***
Jerome Hall sat at the road side next to a homeless man who was tightly wound up in his sleeping bag. His vision was fading in and out and very blurry and to top it off he had the mother of all headaches. His body was fatigued, his muscles were sore and he felt like shit. He hadn't felt so bad since the time he had absorbed people for the first time. He let out a deep breath and another trying to calm himself down. Roy Sharpe was strong…too strong and when he asked Eckhard whether Roy was a master rank, Eckhard had said no which brought him to curiosity of how he defeated Hector Bishop…right now it was a coincidence as all he could say. Suddenly he leaned to side and vomited, blood and food came out with it. A couple of people that passed by gave him either looks of pity or disgust. He was tired and defeated both mentally and physically.
"Eckhard," he said in a groaning voice. "I feel like I'm about to die."
<
"My body's stronger," said Jerome before turning and groaning to vomit, but nothing came out.
<
"Dammit," Jerome cursed. "What now, I need to get stronger."
<>
"Well…don't keep me waiting," said Jerome groaning as he turned to side and vomited whatever was left in the pits of his stomach.
<
"Oh…that's great," said Jerome leaning back against the wall and wishing to ascend to heaven.
<
"Yes…do that," said Jerome suddenly he felt an electric shock run over his body as he sat bolt upright.
He felt his mind clearing and his focus sharpening once more back to their prime. His physical body was still in tatters but his mental health was back at least to decent level.
<
Suddenly Jerome felt his mind go blank as Eckhard momentarily disappearing and he felt his body obeying gravity strongly as he slid sideways and fell into his own blood and vomit. He cursed but he could hardly move, Eckhard and his nubots held his body up after that battle. As he took a deep breath he heard Eckhard come back online and using it he lifted himself back up as chunks off vomit fell off of him. More passerbys looked at him disgust, some other that saw the scene immediately went over to a trash can or pulled out a bag to vomit themselves. He rubbed his stomach as it felt empty, he could eat a whole horse and then some with the hunger he was feeling now.
<
Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his head, it was momentary and it quickly passed but when he closed his eyes he saw in his mental make a naked version of himself and all the nubots that worked in his body, like tiny little ants crawling through him. It was a disturbing sight to say the least but he reminded himself that these were the things that gave him power and he learned the discipline of nanomancy. For the first time he truly felt the little nubots moving through his body and his own body being reconstructed and made to produce the little nubots constantly like how blood was being produced. These little things weren't just nanotechnology but also biotechnology, they could reproduce at a seemingly endless rate and all of it, as he learned more of nanomancy, would obey him. He now realized how much of a folly it was to depend on Eckhard alone to control all these bots, it was not about giving control over to Eckhard but simply the fact that he himself was weak, his mind processed one thing whilst his body performed in another manner. Before this, he was just a paper tiger, ferocious looking but weak in substance. Maybe now, he could start climbing the steps to power and the first person he needed to visit was Robert Deacon, he needed to pay that man a private visit much like how he did with Jerome. Before all that he needed to clean himself and stop looking like a person even a homeless beggar would take pity one for indeed that homeless beggar had risen up from his sleeping bag and was indeed looking at him with eyes filled with pity as he held out his bowl of coins offering some to Jerome. He let out a short laugh before smiling wryly at the man.
"The name's Jerome," he said. "What's yours?"
"Chester," the man said in a deep gravelly voice, quite unlike his unassuming appearance, covered heavily in a beard and hair, looking like a twig.
"You're covered in sick," the man said. "You need to shower."
"I do," said Jerome with a smile. "I've just been ruminating on life."
"Oh," the man said and the nodded. "I understand…you look like you lost a fight."
"I did," Jerome said, easily agreeing, now that he had processed through it, the loss seemed easier to accept, it also that his mind was clearer after all that was cluttering it had been cleared up. "I lost fairly badly."
"You don't seem to upset anymore," he said.
Jerome shook his head, "No…I'm still very upset but not because I lost but because I underestimated it all."
"It's understandable," the man said and Jerome looked at him curiously as the man looked up with wistful eyes. "You think you have everything and then you find out there's nothing there but hot air."
Jerome raised an eyebrow, "Your story?"
"My life," the man muttered.
"Want to explain?" asked Jerome but the man shook his head.
"I'm just going to move," the man said climbing out of the sleeping bag and he stood really small, coming in at about five foot four inches in height, Jerome could tell because of his new found discipline in nanomancy which allowed him a certain amount of focus and prodigal powers in terms of measuring and such.
Jerome looked at the pile of sick next to him and to be honest it did smell quite bad. He looked up at the old man and smiled wryly.
"I'm sorry," he said as he watched the old man, Chester walk off waving him a good bye behind his back.
Jerome sighed and finally stood up and he noticed the change immediately. His nanomancy was incredible, the world, he could see everything around him in a series of measurements but more than that he was exceptionally aware of his own body, even the speed at which wind hit him was known to him. But after a while of such extreme focus a dull ache in his head began and he quickly closed his eyes to unfocus, he didn't want another migraine so soon after the other one had gone away.
***
Constable Leonard Blake stood next to others of his rank and his own superior officers as they scrolled through a small list of suspects. There were three doctors on the list and two nurses, these five people were the only ones that could have legitimately started that fire. Leonard Blake wasn't on duty today but he found himself coming into work. The arsonist had done enough damage with the burning of the babies and the dead bodies, he wanted to find them quickly and put them in front of the law. He did always have a very idealistic look on life, his sense of justice came from his mother and his empathy came from his father. Being part of a happy family, he still enrolled for policing mainly because of his vision to do better for society. It was there that he met a man whom he would consider his idol. Jerome Hall at first felt like a really cold man Leonard Blake but Jerome's work ethic and impressive focus was near the top. Leonard was convinced that the man could solve any case he put his mind to and more often than not he had watched his superior officers taking credit for work done by Jerome Hall, something Jerome didn't seem to complain about, it only made him admire Jerome Hall more. Now here he was trying to follow that path and succeed much like Jerome would. He looked at the list of suspects, all of them seemed similarly guilty to him, he couldn't understand how they were to sort through all of this. It was not only because of Jerome Hall that he had wanted to take this case but because of a case file Jerome sent him two days ago, one that detailed a crime that was horrifying enough in thought. It was about experiments being committed on patients in this hospital, of how they were given trial medicine without their consent. There were also several details on the deaths of some of these patients as well. Jerome never communicated to him about this matter after he sent it over and he didn't say anything about it. If there was such a thing then Jerome surely knew best about it and if he didn't want to talk then there had to be a reason there as well but yesterday's fire had caught him off guard especially with the death of those babies and it triggered some warning bells for him. He had pulled aside several of these doctors, his focus was more doctors than nurses because of the gravity of the crimes being committed, and questioned them in regards to this. None of them were too eager to speak. He had gone through all three doctors on the suspect list, Dr. Fletcher Hawthorne, Dr. Maddox Crane and Dr. Anisha Maria and all three of them gave off the vaguest answers possible. As he was going to get a cup of coffee he had noted the three doctors again and he did not detect much empathy from any of them, they were doctors, there for the results as plain and simple as that. He had once again decided to visit the morgue that was burned down, he wanted see if there was something he missed. He had a strong feeling that these burning cases and the case about the experimental drugs were connected but where, he couldn't tell. He sipped on his coffee as he went down to the morgue and as he looked around he saw the double doors to the basement open. Why on earth would they leave something like this open anyway? What was contained in the basement of a hospital? He curiously peered into the darkness before searching around and turning on the lights and it lit up the damp, dingy hallway. He looked down to see rows of doors and as he walked past reading different labels he found that these rooms housed equipment and medication for use. He suddenly felt a shiver on his back and he quickly turned around but then shook it away as he smiled, this place was air conditioned, it was already very cold and to further that, there was air conditioning. He shook his head as he walked down the hallway further, occasionally taking sips of his coffee to warm himself up. As he looked around, he found nothing much, there really was nothing else here and just as he turned to leave he noticed a metal pipe coming straight at his head. He threw the coffee away and slid back as the pipe hit the floor and he saw the doctor's coat. He had just enough time to see the face as the metal pipe swung up and caught him across the jaw and he was thrown back shocked. He could feel pain from his lower jaw, the pipe had connected soundly, the jaw was most likely broken.
"Yo-you!" he garbled out, his jaw still numb from the impact.
The person gripped the pipe and came forward as Blake struggled backwards in haste to avoid the blow but it hit his legs and he cried out, tears spilling out of his eyes in an uncontrollable haze.
"You should have stayed well away from this," said the person. "You got caught up with that constable, Jerome Hall, I think his name was."
Blake's eyes widened at the mention of Jerome Hall.
"He found out about this," the figure said. "He was trying his hardest to stop this, I couldn't let myself be found…I won't let myself be found."
With determined vigour the figure raised up his metal pipe as Blake shook his head, his legs weren't functioning properly, nor was his mouth. He raised his hand up to defend as the pipe landed and with dull thud he felt the bones break and as he lay back he wondered what Jerome would do in this situation. The last thing he saw was the pipe coming straight at his head, there was a dull thud and then silence.