Chereads / Vanagloria: The Two Islands of Myth / Chapter 14 - Martyr: Motel

Chapter 14 - Martyr: Motel

"That was the coolest shit I've ever done." Martyr thought to himself as he looked at the stone dome before him.

He had been in countless fights for his school, and even a few outside in city parks and alleys. But none of them felt like the one he had just been in.

This felt like the first step in his journey in the Vying. His first heroic action as a soon to be knight, or even as a hero.

It felt great. He felt like he was really needed.

This wasn't a stupid fight over some school drama or for some kind of recognition, this asshole actually looked like he was gonna hurt Vanagloria.

"This is gonna be the first thing I tell my mom when I get back home." He thought to himself.

"What do we do now?" Samsara asked them from the doorway, still shocked by the brawl.

"You guys go to bed I'll handle the situation, I've gotta wait until Nova gets here so I can explain the situation and let them take this guy to some prison in Phobos." Vulcan said as he walked past her into the motel.

"Sorry I didn't mean to make work for you." Martyr said as he followed Vulcan in the inn, trying to avoid the debris of the doorway he just smashed.

"Please don't be." Vulcan told him as he reached the counter.

"This happens every time you have to incapacitate someone for another's safety. Let me take care of the situation for you as a prize for doing that. I should be training you to be doing this anyways."

He reaches down underneath the counter and pulls out a shotgun that was sitting out of sight.

"Even more jail time." Vulcan says as he snaps it over his knee.

Owning guns on the islands is very illegal. Doesn't matter what type or size of the gun, if it could kill, it was illegal.

There are almost too many things that the islands steal from earth, but earth weapons like bombs and guns are some of the only things you cannot bring back.

One could argue there are people on the islands that have powers that are much deadlier than those weapons can but you can't exactly take away elemental powers.

The best thing you can do is lock them up behind a more powerful guard, or hope they catch the attention of Kratos.

"Here's some keys." Vulcan layed down a stack of keys on the counter, each one labeled with a different number.

As the group walked up to the counter to each grab their keys Martyr noticed Vanagloria walking up to him.

"Thanks…" She said quietly to him.

"Yeah of course. Are you okay? really just came right after you?"

"Yeah I'm fine. It's just…"

She paused with a little frustration showing itself on her face.

"I've never had anything like that happen to me before. It makes me think if I'm fully ready for this. I had no clue what to do, I just ended up standing there and watching somebody else fight my fight. I have all the power I need to fight now but I just…"

"I think you'll be great for the job." Martyr told her as he grabbed his keys.

"If you want to get better and have the drive to do so, you will. I can help with that kind of stuff if you want." Martyr said, patting her shoulder.

"Yeah I would want that. That would be nice."

"I also got my fire through an element test so I can help you with that as well. But we should worry about that later, let's just rest for now. It's been a long day."

"Aight, I'm fine with that." She sighed. "It has been a long day."

"I didn't even get a nap like you and Blair." Martyr started making his way over the stairs with Vanagloria following him.

"I had to sleep." She said, from behind him on the stairs. "Me and Blair woke up way before the city lights came on, it must've been like 4am when She got me up."

"Yeah that checks out. We did just drive out here for like five hours." He could feel his arms and legs yelling at him to let them rest as he lazily climbed up to the last step.

He can hear Vanagloria snickering to herself as she makes it up the stairs behind him.

Martyr looked behind him just in time to see her hand fly up in front of her face covering her smile. It actually did make it hard to see her expression. She still had her hood on so all he could see were her intense blue eyes looking right at him.

"Watchu, laughin at?" He said back to her grinning.

"Oh nothing, I just got a real nice view of your ass going up the stairs."

"Oh my god…" Martyr turned back around laughing.

A small object suddenly hits his chest and instinctively he fumbles trying to catch it.

He looks in his hands to see a key with the number 7 imprinted on the base.

"That's your room fighter boy." Samsara says as she tosses another to Vanagloria but a lot more gentle for her.

Martyr hadn't even looked at his surroundings yet. He was now in one long hallway with ten rooms on each side, it looked somewhat kept after. The walls and doors were still wooden and the carpet he was standing on was a typical red zig-zag pattern. It wasn't anything too fancy but it wasn't terrible.

It reminded him of his apartment he had lived in with his mom and all of his siblings during the summers off from school.

"Didn't Vulcan say that Nova and Kryphia's team we're gonna stop here? How is this place supposed to fit all of us?" Martyr said, looking for his room.

"Doesn't matter, I guess they are just gonna have to share rooms. I don't think there are any other people staying here right now anyways so at least they have rooms." Spectre said, opening up door number 4 right behind Samsara.

Martyr would've argued against stealing all of the rooms but at this point he was too tired to care.

He simply walked down the hall without saying anything, put his key into door number 7 and went in.

The room was quite small. It had a tiny bathroom right next to the entrance that looked pretty well kept after. After he walked past the bathroom door he finally saw his bed, in the middle of the room next to a tablet stand with a light and number clock that said "1:30".

Martyr locked his door and tossed his backpack to the side of the bed.

He flopped himself on top of the bed, seeping into the cushions.

He was face first onto the bed, without changing his awkward sleeping position he noticed his conscious start to fade away, letting his drowsiness take over.