Artus was enjoying something delicious they kept away from the kids at S.I.O.M during a visit to his favorite diner, Coffee and watching women go by, while also taking a bit of an unauthorized lunch break.
"I wonder why they never let us eat any of this stuff at S.I.O.M?" Artus asked himself while enjoying some delicious pie and coffee.
Some random girls came over to Artus and started freaking out seeing him, "Oh my gosh, are you in the Gen-Oath?" Said one of the girls, the 3 started to scream as one would see an idol of theirs in their favorite hang out.
The girls caught him off guard, he in a hurry put his helmet fully on and answered, "Why yes, yes I am an elite Gen-Oath member girl, I'll sign wherever you want if you have a pen!" All while his altered voice made him sound cooler to the girls, one guy came around who pushed the girls that were fawning over Artus out of the way, he was the most enthusiastic and happiest to meet him but Artus found it inspiring instead of creepy, he found all of them inspiring.
"Okay guys, one at a time please!" Artus had to yell as loud as he could because many were gathering around him like folks would act meeting a famous celebrity.
Artus was able to escape and he outran the citizens who were being exasperating over him before he received a call from a Generil police officer that was unfamiliar to him, "Sir, there's a man here at our police department, he's threatening to shoot water balls at people while making a fuss about someone called "The thickset marksmen" Said the officer.
"And of course ya thought of me first..." Artus replied in his head before quickly replying, "Describe him, please." Artus ordered, the cop did his best to describe the plaguy annoyance, he described someone all too familiar to Artus.
"Also, can ya call me the purpleshot." Said Artus, "No, I don't have to take those kinds of orders from you, just hurry before these other guys get too frustrated and impatient with this annoying dimwit, the bastard is shooting water from his fingers like a mini hose, but he's your crew's type of mess so I thought I'd let you deal with this." The cop told him.
The cop hung up before Artus could say "OKAY!" Or any sort of reply To him.
-
"Where's the man that was causing noise and spraying water at?" Artus Asked an on duty cop when he arrived at the police department his friend was causing trouble at...
The cop pointed towards him, he was sitting in a waiting chair with his hands out but parallel to each other, a large puddle of water in the shape of a zebra was between them, Artus was amazed but… He walked up to his friend, Zander, as if he was upset with him.
Artus turned off his voice modulator...
When Artus got close enough behind him, he grabbed his shoulder to get his attention and leaned in to whisper, "Listen man, you can't joke around here like that, alright, My boss' men are wet blankets around here." As seriously stated as he could, and in the most serious tone Zander ever heard from him.
"Are you "The thickset marksman", man?" Zander asked, using Artus' classic S.I.O.M Nickname. Zander knew it was him by his voice but he was just joking around...
"Yeah dude, it's me, let's go somewhere more private so we can talk and catch up!" Artus said excitedly, Zander agreed and completely felt the same level.
Zander recognized Artus' speech pattern like S.I.O.M trained him.
-
The boys went to the Trio's apartment, Artus wanted some air and to take off his helmet.
"Before we catch up on anything, where's the Smokey strategist and Fleet-footed swordsman?" Zander asked and wondered.
"We work as elite superheroes now, they're on patrol right now." Artus answered.
"Really, dude?" Zander asked, amazed, "That's kinda badass!" He finished amazed just the same.
"Yep, Though of course Lyle and Ember fit in better here because they're also wet blankets like everyone else!" Artus said with a joking tone but he meant it, "Yeah, like remember that one time when Ember snitched on us for sneaking out of our rooms to steal some food from the kitchen!?" Zander reminded him before the two laughed so hard from the memories, "Yeah man, Mentor Duraenou was not happy, he called us dirty delinquents!" Artus replied.
"Anyway, so, How'd you know we were here?" Artus asked after the two had a big enjoyable crack up.
"I came to find you actually, I don't think Ember and Lyle like me very much." Zander told him.
"Don't take it personally, I can tell they think of you as a good friend bro, it's just Lyle went through some stuff and got trust issues, Ember is just..." Artus couldn't find the words for Ember.
"Is extremely snooty sometimes against those she doesn't believe has enough smarts?" Zander didn't struggle to find the right words nor hesitate to say, an awkward and extended "Yeah" came out of Artus as he couldn't deny the truth in his point.
Breaking the silence of thought "Oh yeah, you know where Iona went after the...?" Artus asked, "Lyle's still as obvious as ever about it?" Zander asked rhetorically, because he already knew too.
"I thought I heard her say before we separated that she's either going ALL the way to Aeron-haven or New York for something important to her, whatever that could be..." He said with extra emphasis on "All'' to express how far it is from them.
Artus had to take in that info for a moment.
"How overpowered is your ability by the way?" Artus asked, Zander held his hand out, palm open, and above it quickly formed from seemingly nowhere an oval of water defying gravity above his palm.
"Why don't you see for yourself?" Zander told him, he focused and hardened his oval shaped water in a matter of seconds, "I remember when the scientists that experimented on me before I came to S.I.O.M saying it'll be 40 years for me to master whatever this is, if only they could see this right now." Zander said with a very smug expression.
Artus touched the water, and it felt as dense as steel when it hardened and became something else entirely. Artus was amazed by his friend's progression with his ability, it wasn't nearly as strong as this in their younger days.
"By the way, Can I just say, the new body armor, Badass bruh!" Zander recognized with one focused examination of his armor, how amazing it was made, Artus couldn't understand a single thing Zander was talking about at all, Zander went into detail about something he knew Lyle would understand.
"I bet your water balls can't put a dent in this armor, dude!" Artus bragged about and bragged.
Artus put his helmet back on and both went downstairs, and inside of a training room in the apartment to test Artus' smack talk and maybe some S.I.O.M style sparring like the old days.
"Okay buddy, I'm ready, give it your best shot unless it'll actually kill me, then give it a good enough shot!" Artus said as he held out his arms to the sides but kept a solid stance to resist any knock down from the blast.
Zander chuckled before he began to focus, to give Artus the best he could, all he had in him.
Unbelievably, Water popped out floating between Zander's hands, as he was breathing. His breath could be seent, the chill Zander felt only intensified until the water between his hands was Ice.
"Density, tougher, ice or metal!" Zander thought to himself as his powers mentally assaulted him, a feeling that was comparable to brain freeze hit quick and hard.
The ice between his hands turned as tough as can be and on instinct, Zander had Artus' chest in mind then moved his way and the built up water toughened into Ice and that Ice toughened up as tough as steel that was scintillating.
Zander failed to put even a teeny marking in Artus' armor, so a dent was out of the picture entirely.
Artus began freaking out because he remembered that he was still on duty and was neglecting it while catching up with his buddy; he didn't want Ember on his tail.
"Artus, we need your help, there's another bank robbery near you!" Lyle informed him through his Genoval communicator, Zander couldn't recognize him because of his voice changer but he was positive as a lucky guess it was Lyle.
"My bad dude, there's been A LOT of robberies lately for some reason." Said Artus before he rushed off to the location Lyle sent him.
"Ah, that's okay, I'll just hang out here for a moment, Y'know..." Zander said aloud but Artus was long gone by the time he did.
But Zander didn't hang around the apartment until Artus got back, he felt depressed like he has ever since the attack on S.I.O.M, So, he took a walk through Generil.
On his way to find a bar somewhere nearby, he met a peculiar man.
-
"Zander, We're back here, bro!" Artus called to gain Zander's attention but he never responded.
"Zander's here??" Ember sounded surprised and shocked, "I'd have expected him to be in a prison for his conmanship by now." Ember stated confidently, "I mean I know people hate shipping but…" Artus replied jokingly, "ARTUSSSS!" Ember stressed his name, to stop him from blocking this serious revelation with jokes.
Lyle stood leaned up against a wall hugging himself while simply watching the argument in his usual silence, head down and stuck in his thoughts.
Artus turned and glared at Ember, "What do you mean "He'd be in a prison by now?" Artus was genuinely baffled by his sister's expectation.
"Let's be honest here, the guy is a scumbag conman who thrives off of thievery and other's work." Ember stated bluntly about her brother's friend.
Artus turned to Lyle, "Lyle, my dude, do you feel the same, man?" Artus asked his brother.
"Eerrrr..." Lyle didn't say a word but instead made a sound.
Artus became furious by their opinions on him, to Artus, Zander worked harder than the both of them but this wasn't the first he heard those opinions using Zander's name afterwards.
Artus left to get some rest, but wondered where his friend went...
Zander arrived by 3:00 in the morning, calling Artus on his regular phone, for games, from downstairs.
Artus had invited him up and let him sleep over for the night, Zander confessed he was homeless.
-
The next morning arrived, the sun had a clean atmosphere to shine it's light upon the three cities and it shined it's light, it did.
Artus made his way to the living room where he let his friend, Zander, sleep on their couch.
Artus walked in to see that his friend vanished, and wasn't anywhere to see again.
Ember walked in and immediately panicked after she saw he wasn't around and could tell by Artus' reaction that he didn't know.
"Okay, Guys, we must find what that thieving bastard took now!" Said Ember as her panicky tone was legit.
"For real, more random assuming, Ember?" Artus said with a flustered tone.
"What?" Said Ember confused, "That sentence was indistinct, Artus!" Said Ember, still not clear what he meant.
"I mean Zander was right, You're always judging people but don't ever have any clear reasons why!" Artus complained about her.
Ember looked somewhat hurt, but she stuffed her taco meat back in it's shell, or at first tried to.
"Alright, Artus, I'm going to be candid here then, the reason I always judge him so harshly is because of every stunt he pulled at S.I.O.M." Ember said free-spokenly with her brother, "Think of him as one of your weird games, he's a support unit without giving any "support" to the team while feeding off their success at the same time." Ember attempted to be clear but softer on her brother.
Artus turned his back on Ember, "That's just the same reason for you judging him that you used earlier but now you're also judging my games, that's called getting carried, so what?" Artus complained about her some more...
"You guys, I just had an idea, Artus, did you show Zander your Armor yesterday when he first arrived?" Asked Lyle who's been quiet that whole time.
"Yeah, Bro, why?" Asked Artus.
Lyle got off his wall, "Because he has one thing going for him, he knows a thing or two about armor like me, I mean I think he's better educated than myself." Lyle opinionated to his siblings.
"if he's what Ember says he is, he's probably going to sell it." He finished as calmly as ever.
"Ugh, not you now, Lyle, C'mon!" Artus yelled out angrily at the both of them.
Ember ran to check if Lyle may be correct, she came back and reported that his intuition was right, Artus' armor was gone from his closet.
"Okay, wow..." Artus replied too prideful to admit they were right, too trusting that maybe Zander was down and needed it that much.
"Selling it probably isn't going to be too hard either, some guy came up to me and asked if he could buy my suit for $600 once, I walked away." Lyle informed his siblings.
"Yeah, Yeah, yeah bro, what was that thing you said you implanted into our suits again, Lyle?" Artus asked as an idea came to him after hearing that told to him.
"Built-In Microscopic hunting chips that can be traced globally from their internal source to an external source?" Lyle answered his brother.
"And that second source was, again?" Artus asked in the same tone, "Our Gen-Oath communicators, Jikolsen thought of it, by the way, not me." Lyle answered in a calm tone.
"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I'm off, don't wait up!" Artus blurted, rushing off, but before he got anywhere, Ember sped to the door before him and slammed it shut, "You don't want us to come with you?" She asked in a curious tone.
Artus looked to the ground, "Hmm, no, I think he's dealing with some issues that he kept deep but issues that started before S.I.O.M and me, being the only FRIEND he has and the only one willing to actually address their emotions out of the 3 of us, I gotta go see him alone, Y'know." Artus told his siblings.
Hearing all of what Artus said, Lyle poofed away for a moment.
"I understand, but don't hesitate to beep us if the trouble is too overwhelming like Lyle over here." Ember turned around to point at him but he was gone, so she didn't know where to point to, "Damn bastard, always leaving." Ember complained, before she sighed.
Artus chuckled hard then rushed off to where the tracker told him to go.
Lyle poofed back right beside Ember and said "Says here he has to go back to Seyort, I think we should keep an eye on him there." Lyle told Ember before squinting.
"Back to Seyort?" Ember asked while turning his way, "I'm pretty convinced after one visit, if you need to sell an expensive suit of body armor like ours for quick cash, that's the perfect place." Lyle remarked...
"I'm sorry but you're going to have to fill me in on when you nimrods went to Seyort the first time!" Ember yelled at Lyle as she followed him following Artus, "Seyort's gotta be beautiful with a name like that!" Ember commented.
Lyle stopped himself from breaking out into laughter, "It's beautifully filled with something!" Lyle replied back.
-
Artus had to return after rushing away to change first he didn't want anyone to see his pajamas.
Because he could, after he got dressed to fit in with Seyort, he jumped out of his window but fell flat on his face hitting the ground, but he could so he did. After the fall, he rushed to Seyort in a cab made for traveling through the cities.
The cab only dropped him off at the city, not at the location he wanted, it takes some hours to travel from one city to another.
Because it dropped him off at one of the earliest points, he knew he'd have to battle his way through Seyort's obscure but very active gangs, who feared Josue's power but couldn't give in.
He wondered how Zander traveled so quickly, though.
No more than half an hour of traveling through the city, Artus encountered 14 strange humanoids that looked inhuman rioting and causing a panic in Seyort.
"Yuck, you guys look like a science experiment gone wrong but smell like what went wrong was that it killed you, yeevsh!" Artus said as he covered his nose, which caught their attention.
The creatures snapped at him, "BentusBoontus!" In a low tone as they angrily stampeded his way.
Artus jumped feet in the air, and jumped over the rushing creatures, his agility truly is surprising for his large size.
In a fraction of a second, he conjured up an SMG and began spraying the creatures down; he could go as crazy as he wanted with no civilians on the road.
The bullets he blew into the creatures came out as they stood back up on their two feet, completely healed again.
Artus pumped some more from a shotgun until he shot one's head off by accident except it didn't rise again, he realized their weakness then at that point.
"My bad, I've been treating you guys like a human this whole time, as Duraenou taught us, I should have always aimed for the head!" Artus yelled aloud pumped up.
For better accuracy, he evoked duraenou's desert eagle and copied an exact copy of it, and within 2 minutes, shot off 13 shots, each in the creatures heads, and that was the end of that battle.
"Where's the Seyort Gen-Oath at?" Artus wondered to himself as he continued moving.
Artus continued to journey through Seyort, to his friend Zander, this time he hastened up.
Taking a shortcut that was said to be mandatory to get to his destination, he encountered another issue, or multiple ones.
"Whoa, you look like a rich boy!" Said a dude with 16 other men behind him, who all carried various weapons with them and looked malicious at the same time, vicious.
"Guys please, I'm not the greatest fighter but I can take you guys down with my eyes shut, this isn't a threat, I'm giving you this one warning." Artus said pretty confidently and truthfully, "Turn around and leave me, I won't horribly embarrass all of you, pretty miserably." Artus warned the gang.
The leader did a double take at Artus and his men, the face he made was genuine, he chuckled and laughed at Artus, "Man quit joking, it's 17 of us and one of you, just come with us and we won't hurt you until we get to our place." Said the leader, still smiling at What he thought was a joke.
Artus placed two fingers on his forehead in a similar way that Ember does towards him.
"This proves movies are never wrong about these!" Artus said lowly, he summoned two pistols and inhumanly quick, tossed them at the thug's foreheads knocking them out, he knocked out 4 thugs this way.
One of the thugs rushed at him, attempting to slash him, he dodged the blades with ease, then grabbed it from the thug and tossed it.
One with a mace came his way, he blocked it with his forearm alone then knocked out the man with one uppercut.
The leader and one of the thugs struggled to jump into the fight, for as bad as the leader wanted in, it was too many of his men trying to get in before him.
"That guy is glowing, why is he glowin?" Asked one thug to his boss, "I don't know but I don't think he's unstoppable, c'mon!" The leader answered, the thug who asked took off, cursing and swearing and terrified.
"Hey guys, did you know I can bench press something like atleast a thousand and a half pounds?" Artus bragged.
Before he realized it, the area had men knocked out all around, except for one who never got to jump in.
"What... are you man?" The leader of the gang asked, Artus gave the leader his Lyle impression, just glared at him in silence.
The leader asked a few more questions and a few more, but Artus remained silent and continued to give his Lyle glare.
Artus noticed the face someone makes when they're intimidated, he ran off scared and afraid.
The man ran and ran away, until he bumped into a man wearing a weird robe and was knocked down.
-
Artus continued to his friend Zander, to talk to him some, for Artus, this wasn't about the Armor because it was about a close friend.
Only 20 minutes away from his friend, a portal similar to that of the one Josue came out of when they first met popped out of nowhere but out came a few flying creatures, strange vulture-like creatures though they were larger.
He halted because he knew he'd have to deal with this problem.
One of them came swooping down at him, to kill him but it was so fast he couldn't dodge it, thanks to him keeping his ability still active, he wasn't killed right there since he also doesn't have his armor either. "These things are fast, that could've been the end of me just now!" Artus noted in his head.
The bird dropped him on a roof, but weirdly further away from his friend, he noticed something had been trying to stop him but what he could only wonder to himself.
Artus got up but noticed that each bird flew at him with different speeds.
"Hmmm, what would Zander or the Smokey strategist do in this situation?" Artus asked himself.
The birds seemingly got quicker and quicker, the more attacks they got off on him, they became faster.
The birds kept repeatedly attacking him as he was trying to think, one of the large, queer birds grabbed him off the ground again and flew around with him. Artus shot the bird, got off a few clean shots but their body seemed bullet resistant even to his, frustration growing bigger, he shot off a rocket from an RPG at the bird by accident, of course, he was sent dropping back to the ground but when he recovered and looked around, he saw the bird was sent plummeting with him.
Artus and the birds stopped as the dead bird fell to the ground, cooked.
Artus looked from the side, "Wha?" He whispered, "Wow, of course explosions and fire would be a bird's weakness!" Artus thought to himself laughing and chuckling as he thought about chickens.
The birds flew down some, trying to attack Artus but he noticed with each bird he killed, the slower the others got, as if they were all connected.
After 14 minutes, all 5 birds were dead and gone, then Artus leaped off the building he fell on and to his friend.
Artus tracked Zander to one of Josue's homeless shelters, which was sort of the entire reason he started everything in the first place, when he got inside, he caught him asleep on a bed wearing his armor.
"Nobody unmasked him, wow!" Artus said to himself as he made his way to him, "Josue, Man, Josue..." Artus finished.
Artus made sure nobody was looking when he unmasked Zander and placed it on himself, Zander was a heavy sleeper so he never woke up, then he showed everyone his badge and told everyone to leave urgently so believably, to evacuate the area and hurry to leave.
Everybody panicked and left the room like a shootout was about to begin or so...
The panic and screaming everyone made woke Zander though, "Please my lady, don't cut off my toe nails for you see I-" Zander yelled dramatically as he woke up from his nap but cut himself off before he could finish when he realized he was awake and there was no princess.
Zander looked around then noticed a man standing above him, his body language told him he was angry so he assumed it was Artus.
"I uhmm, OOF!" Zander struggled to say something after he realized it was Artus.
When the entire room was cleared, Artus took off the helmet and held it in his hand, so he could speak to his friend clearly, no debatable words heard.
"Can you explain to me what's going on here, Zander, did you really come visit 'cause to sell my armor for a cheap buck?" Artus asked madly, furious.
"Listen pal, no, no, I did wanna see you and at first, I was never going to sell your Armor buddy, I just, I don't know, it's like something MADE me do it!" Zander answered, genuinely.
"Alright, this has nothing to do with the armor, I was just curious, tell me what's going on with you, your body language the other day snitched on you!" Artus demanded.
"Erm, technically it's earlier you mean to say, man!" Zander said as he attempted to stall, "DUUUDE!" Artus yelled out in a similar manner as Ember, the anger was clear in his tone.
Zander sighed, he was sandwiched between two options that he couldn't choose between because of his own reasoning behind them.
"I had to fight monsters and gangsters that could've ended my life to get to you, c'mon bro, don't make me have came here and forced through all of that for nothing!" Artus reasoned with Zander, but he still hesitated to talk to him.
Artus' meter was filling up and filling to the limit it was, his frustration measurements.
"Fine then, if you won't even come clean to someone as close to you as I am, then you have no right to have bros at all, and you have no right to talk about judgy people like Ember if you won't show them the best kind of you that you've showed me, either!" Artus bursted out with as his anger and frustration had reached the limit.
Artus tossed the helmet to Zander, disabled the tracker on his suit using the communicator then got up and walked away without looking back to his friend even once until he called for him right before he left.
"Wait, Arty, where are you going?" Zander yelled for Artus' attention, Artus continued walking then stopped and turned around, "I've given up on you, Mentor Dain always told us that sometimes action helps more than words or advice, and I know there's truth in that because that's how I learned and Lyle, you were never like that but now you're going to get a taste of it." He replied.
"What about the suit, man?" Zander asked, "Keep it, I can get a new one, sell it and start a new life with the money or don't, I don't care I'm tired, I'm going home now." Artus answered then he continued his walk home.
-
"You guys, I'm back, OOF!" Artus yelled when he got back to the apartment.
Lyle and Ember walked out of their rooms to see him once their attention was caught.
"Yeah, Jikolsen and I, are gonna start working on a new suit for you, I had a feeling you were going to let Zander keep it." Said Lyle when he noticed Artus didn't have the suit on him.
Artus fell to the floor, banging on it with his fist, "Ember, you were right, He didn't want to go anywhere but for some reason he always worked harder than I ever did, and I don't know what his problem was or is but he's a moron!" Artus cried with no tears, he just had pure emotion after losing a longtime friend that his words sounded like gibberish.
"I feel like I can relate for some reason, he comes off like you, bro. Confident, suave, a real extravert but he's nothing special, S.I.O.M finds kids like him, like me, like you two, kids with abilities that's been abandoned by their families or had none to begin with, and train them as weapons, tools, turns them into fools for the country but you're special man. I didn't want to believe Dain when he told me that once, but You were able to keep me from falling into their web and brainwashing, and keep your humanity and that idea of fun while we were being stripped of those, and while you kept yours, you both helped me keep mine also." Lyle voiced while keeping composed and calm tone as always, but this is the closest to "sharing his feelings" Lyle ever came since the siblings knew him, he took especially Artus' breath away.
Ember went to comfort him as much as she could too, but she couldn't think of anything to say to him that would comfort him. Lyle said the right words, in a surprising turn of events, that cheered his brother up, but Ember's hug did enough for him too.
|TO BE CONTINUED!|