Chereads / Inner Core (Book 2) / Chapter 11 - Chapter 11 *The Falling of Cloak and the Rising of Kage*

Chapter 11 - Chapter 11 *The Falling of Cloak and the Rising of Kage*

(It's been weeks since Cloak has been defeated, and Reo is still getting the praise. The news was on and Taku, Selene and Dai were watching it. The News Lady was talking about exactly what happened.)

News Lady: "It's been weeks since Cloak has been put in maxim secretary prison for the many crimes he has committed. He's murder twenty-three people from what we know. We still do not know the reasons why he did this, but we only have our thoughts."

(Reo walked into the room and looked at the tv.)

Reo: "Ugh, you're watching this garbage."

Selene: "Garbage? It's talking about how you stopped Cloak.

Reo: No, the first week they talked about how I stopped Cloak. Now they just talk about Cloak. It was fun at first when i was in it, but after my paycheck came in it just got annoying."

Dai: "Well I think it's educational. They even have a professor that guest stars."

Selene: "Oh yeah the professor isn't on it anymore."

Dai: 'What why? I really liked him."

Reo: "You would, nerd."

Dai: "Shut up."

Selene: "The news lady said she wouldn't work with him after the whole thing where the professor didn't answer her question, and she gets what she wants."

Dai: "Wow, I guess you're right. Well who replaced him."

(After Dai said that, a man walked onto the screen. He was really thin and was wearing a long sleeved white shirt with jeans. He had on black tennis shoes which matched his messing black hair. He had dark brown eyes and was very pale.)

News lady: "Here to talk to us about Cloak, is Kai Shuyona. He is the principal of the best core training high school in our beloved city."

Kai: "Mmhmm."

News lady: "Yeah, so tell us what do you think about the whole Cloak situation?"

Kai: "Well I think a lot of things, but no one wants to listen to all of my theories. There is one that might be correct. There is a key factor in all of this that we seemed to look over. A man who has been forgotten throughout all the madness."

(Reo started to pay closer attention.)

Kai: "A man named Kage. He hacked the tv broadcasting and killed everyone in that building. There were no survivors, but we happened to look over that and focus on something the people actually knew about."

News lady: "I'm sorry, what are you saying?"

Kai: "I'm saying people are trying to forget a man that doesn't want to be forgotten. People launched onto Cloak because he was less scary than Kage, and how has no one even connected the two together. Cloak started to show after Kage hacked the broadcasting, and crime bumped up a whole new section too. The reason this is happening is because of a man with claw marks over his eyes and we want to push him into the back of our brains cuz it's too scary for our little heads."

News lady: "You didn't answer my qu-"

Kai: "You're question, right. How could I forget? I think the Cloak situation was a distraction from the real evil we should be worried about. The news is trying to hide this from the public, but it's out there now. There's no hiding the fact that a man that will kill an entire building filled with people just to get noticed is out there right now. So here's some advice if you want to survive."

(Everyone in the living room got real close to the tv to listen in. Even Sara walked in and got in the bunch.)

Kai: "Run. Hide. Stay away from anyone that can't be trusted. This is hell and we're living in it. So forget Cloak or any other minor crime that passes by. Think about the real picture."

(Two guys walked in front of the camera and tried to pick him up.)

Kai: "Oh really, right now? At least turn the cameras off befo-"

(The screen changed to a cartoon of a guy running from a burning camera while the words 'TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES' were printed above it.)

Selene: "Woah, what was that about?"

Reo: "It's him."

Dai: "Who?"

Reo: "Kage."

(Reo turned to Taku.)

Reo: "Is your leg better yet?"

Taku: "The doctor said the cast will be off tomorrow."

Reo: "Good."

(Reo started to walk out of the room, but before he left he turned to everyone.)

Reo: "We'll need everyone we can get."

(Kage was looking at his box tv. On it was a screen changed to a cartoon of a guy running from a burning camera while the words 'TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES' were printed above it. He sat in a chair smiling at the tv. Z walked in behind him.)

Z: "So, why did you pay that guy to draw more attention to you?"

Kage: "Tsk tsk tsk. Z, I don't wanna give away the surprise."

(Kage turned to Z with a big smile.)

Z: "Oh, you're in your crazy mood. I'll come back later."

Kage: "Ugh, don't act like you're the only sane one here. You cut your own arm off."

Z: "For an experiment."

Kage: "Hey, say whatever you want, but you're not the sanest one here."

(Kage stood up and started walking away.)

Z: 'Yeah, well who is? Zazz? Haha."

Kage: "Ha, of course not."

(Kage looked around and spotted Destroyer sweeping up dirt.)

Kage: "To be honest, Destroyer is the most sane one here."

(Destroyer stopped sweeping and looked up at the two of them with a blank stare. Kage gave a quick wave and Z got the chills.)

Z: "He gives me the creeps."

Kage: "Well he's not crazy."

(Kage started walking and Z followed. Destroyer continued his sweeping. )

Z: "So are you really not going to tell me your plan at all."

Kage: "Nope."

Z: "But why, why make a team of psychos in a dirty warehouse and then attack some city."

Kage: "Everyone has their reasons."

Z: "But what are yours?"

Kage: "Not relevant."

Z: "Ugh, whatever. Can you at least tell me what I have to do next?"

Kage: "I don't care what you do for now. Right now we wait, let the people freak out, and let the crime spree continue. Just wait til I need you."

Z: "Fine, but come up with something quick. I didn't join this group to sit around all day."

Kage: "Be patient."

(Kage walked into his office, but Z stopped outside the door.)

Kage: "The city will be ours to mold soon. For now wait until it's time."

Z: "Yeah whatever, just hurry up."

(Z walked off and Kage closed the door to his office. Kage walked over to his desk and sat in his chair. He looked around his office. It was mostly junk, papers scattered across the floor and desk. Some even were taped to the wall. He didn't let anyone in his office. He made it very clear he is not afraid to kill anyone he sees in there. Some of the papers were important, but most of it was trash. Garbage notes that meant nothing, but some meant everything. He had his plans written down so he didn't forget. It's not that he forgets things often, he knows his entire plan and can say every word exactly without looking at a sheet of paper that he wrote it down on. He just likes to write stuff down so others won't forget his plan. Kage is not afraid of death, not afraid of pain, not afraid of killing, man or woman, adult or child, but he is afraid of one thing. Being forgotten.)

Kage: "Hmmmmmm, it seems the people are taking a little bit longer than I thought. *sigh* I guess Z can do something since he wants to so badly. I'll maybe send him and the new crazy guy out on mission."

(He pulls a drawer open that is on his desk. There are pieces of paper neatly stacked in the drawer. He pulls them out. It is background on everyone in his group, at least the most background he could find. He switched through the papers and then found the one he was looking for. )

Kage: "Kenji Zamami. Hm, nice name Z, but what was your life before you went insane."

(He read through, but didn't find anything that interested him. He went back to the pile and pulled out another piece of paper.)

Kage: "Ah, Smoke. You were a little harder to research. I got no name, but I got some old friends."

(The piece of paper had a piece of newspaper paper clipped to it which read exactly this 'A group called The Black Trench killed Tom Quin, an American author today. The Black Trench have been known for being a group of mercenaries that travel around the world killing just for cash. During the attack on Mr.Quin one of the members of the group was caught. No records on him could be found, but it seemed he went by the name Smoke. Though some thought he didn't deserve one, he got a trial and was sentenced to life in a mental institution that was located in one of the cities in Japan. Due to laws this city can not be named, but the mental intuition gave us permission to use their name. Smoke was put into 'Greg's crazy shack', but again the city's name is unknown.')

Kage: "Greg's Crazy Shack? That name sounds familiar."

(Kage looked through the papers again and found another. This one said 'Toru Shokku' at the top.)

Kage: "Alright Zazz, do you got what I'm looking for?"

(Zazz's paper also had a newspaper piece clipped to the paper. It read 'Greg's Crazy Shack had just had a riot. Greg's Crazy Shack, unlike the prisons, uses a pill to slow down people's cores so they can not use them to attack, but it seems a group of patients decided to secretly not take the pills anymore. Employees watch their patients as they take the pills, but they somehow found a way to hide the pill in their mouth and then spit it out later. This led to patients getting their cores back over time, and once they were at full strength they all rioted and killed many employees.' There was more to read, but Kage stopped reading there. He got the information he needed.)

Kage: "Well well well, I might not know a lot about Smoke, but it looks like I will know more soon."

(Kage looked over at the clock. It read 3 a.m. He decided he should head to bed. He walked out of his office first. He likes to check on everyone before he sleeps. The warehouse was a filthy mess. There was no privacy whatsoever. All the beds were dirty mattresses out in the main area. Some had bed frames, but they were metal rusty ones so that wasn't much better. There were only a few rooms, but they were all small. One was a closet which was Hugo's old office, since he's dead Z took it over. Another room had to be the biggest room there, which was Kage's office, and it wasn't that big. Then the last room was the bathroom, they didn't have plumbing so it was just a bucket. They were lucky to have electricity, it might be stolen electricity but it's still something. The lights barely worked half the time and the tv is fuzzy, but that's the price to pay when it's free. Kage looked around and saw mostly everyone was asleep. Cho was asleep on one of the beds with a frame. Her leg was hanging off and the blanket only covered half her body. Zazz was passed out in a chair in front of the tv, it looked like he was watching the news. Some kid killed himself, nothing important. Z was in his office, his door was open just a crack and Kage saw he was asleep in his chair with his face laying on his desk. Destroyer was punching a punching bag he set up. He wasn't using his full strength, because he didn't wanna break the punching bag.)

Kage: "Destroyer, you feeling tough?"

(Destroyer stopped and looked at Kage with his blank stare. He gave a quick nod and continued punching his bag.)

Kage: "Good."

(Kage knew The Destroyer for a long time. Kage got used to Destroyer never talking. He started to understand Destroyer's looks and movements as how he is. That blank stare and quick nod meant he didn't feel like talking right now, so Kage felt like leaving him alone. He also found out another thing strange about Destroyer. He doesn't sleep. Kage had to check on two others, Smoke and Demon. The Blue Princess doesn't sleep at the warehouse. She says a princess like herself doesn't deserve to live in such a pigsty like this. When she said this Kage was happy to let her sleep somewhere else, with her own money. He also made it clear that he didn't like her, by saying the words 'I don't like you' to her face. She was upset by this and left. Kage knew she'd be back though, a brat like her always comes back to get what she wants.)

Demon: "Kage."

Kage: "Mhm."

(Demon walked up behind him. Looks like he's still up.)

Demon: "I'm going to bed. Perimeter is clear. No cops, no kids."

Kage: "Ah, good. Goodnight Demon."

(Demon nodded and headed off to bed. He always likes to check and make sure no one is creeping up on them, and kids like to come here often. Kage doesn't know what this place used to be before he took it over, but he's guessing this place was a make out spot. The last thing Kage wants is to see two preteens kissing when he wakes up. Of course killing them would be fun, but it's still too early to see that. He still had to check on Smoke, but he had no clue where he could be. That's when he heard a thump on the roof. He walked outside and used his shadow demon to fly on top of the roof. He saw Smoke looking out at the city. His sword was by his side and he was just looking off into nothingness. He looked back and saw Kage there, he smiled and patted next to him. This was definitely a different Smoke then from what Kage saw before.)

Smoke: "Kage, come here and take a seat buddy."

Kage: "What are you on drugs or something?"

Smoke: "Hahaha, no buddy. I'm just chillin out."

Kage: "Ugh, don't call me buddy, and never say chillin. You sound like a hippy."

Smoke: "Haha, woah bro, I didn't know you were that funny."

(Kage remembered how Z told him Smoke had multiple personalities. This had to be one of them, a chill guy. )

Smoke: "So buddy, what brought ya up here."

Kage: "Again shut the buddy stuff up. I'm making sure everyone is alright before I go to bed."

Smoke: "Awww, you're making sure we're all ok before you can sleep. That's sweet."

Kage: "It's more of me making sure no one is trying to kill me, but whatever floats your boat."

Smoke: "Oh ok."

(Smoke just kept looking off at the city like it was a sunrise or something. Kage got what he needed, he definitely can sleep soundly knowing this is the guy he was worried about. He turned around, but Smoke asked him something.)

Smoke: "Hey uh Kage?"

Kage: "Ugh, what?"

Smoke: "So like, are we the bad guys?"

(Kage has asked himself this question before, but he's gotten so good at answering it, he knew what to say.)

Kage: "There is no good or bad, all there is is what helps people live better. Me in charge will help many people live better lives, so to us we're the good guys, but to the heroes, we're the bad guys. Everyone has a different look on everything. You can't be great to everyone so you can either try to still look good or give up and stop caring."

(Kage turned around and started to walk away, but again Smoke stopped him.)

Smoke: "So wait, which are you? The one that wants everyone to think their good or the one that stops caring."

(Kage stopped walking, but he didn't turn around. All he did was say one thing.)

Kage: "Goodnight, Smoke."

(Then, he walked away.)