He quickly assessed his options. With the children unconscious and the kidnappers closing in, he knew he had to think fast.
"Anansi, invisibility!" he whispered urgently.
"Finally," Anansi replied, almost impatiently. "Focus, Eze. This will drain your energy quickly, so use it wisely."
Drawing a deep breath, Eze activated his invisibility. The world around him shimmered and blurred as his body faded from sight. The sensation was disorienting, like looking through a distorted lens. He could feel every nerve in his body straining to maintain the illusion.
"Ah Ah. He was just here!" one of the men shouted, confusion spreading between them.
Eze took a deep breath, trying to steady his nerves. He moved slowly, carefully stepping in between the confused men. Even even the slightest sound could give him away. The effort it took to stay hidden was immense, each step feeling like a marathon. Perhaps he shouldn't overuse that ability too much.
"Wait a second, the door is locked Anansi!" he shouted in his mind.
"Calm down. At this point, maybe you should even open it. They will not notice it."
Eze nodded, and did as he was told.
"Where did he go?" one of the men muttered, his voice tinged with frustration.
"Check everywhere! He couldn't have gone far," another replied, his tone anxious.
By now, Eze was already outside, heaving a heavy sigh of relief. He edged along the wall, his movements slow and deliberate. The effort of staying invisible was ever taxing and a constant drain on his energy. He felt a bead of sweat trickle down his forehead and his muscles tremble with the effort.
He glanced around, mapping his path. The door was still blocked, but there was a narrow window high on the wall, its glass cracked and grimy. It was his best chance. He inched closer, careful not to make a sound.
One of the men walked dangerously close, his flashlight sweeping the area. Eze held his breath, willing himself to be still. The light passed inches from his face, but the man didn't see him. The guard muttered something under his breath and moved on.
Eze knew he couldn't rest yet. He needed to find a more secure location, somewhere he could regroup and plan his next move. He swung into the night, his mind focused on the mission ahead. The children needed him, and he couldn't afford to fail.
After running through what felt like an infinity corridor, he finally reached the main quadrangle of the school, its four pillars a dusty, fading blue, struggling to hold up the crumbling building. Looking up, he saw a rectangular hole in the ceiling, though he couldn't tell if it was intentional or damage.
As the cool night air hit his face, a surge of relief washed over him. He lowered himself down into the center of the quadrangle, his body protesting every movement. Finally, he paused to catch his breath, allowing his invisibility to fade. The disorienting effect lingered, leaving him dizzy and weak. He took a moment to steady himself, then glanced back at the building.
"Phew."
Click Click Click!
There were now eleven guns pointed at him at once.
"How did you not notice them, Eze?" Anansi's voice was a mix of frustration and urgency.
"Boys? Fire at will," one of the gunmen said, his grin audible in his voice.
BANG!
Eze was frozen solid. He had no way to possibly dive his way out of this one. His knees turned to jelly as he stumbled backward and fell on his butt. Every single bullet hit the spot where he had stood previously, creating a small cloud of dust and debris.
"How...?" he whispered, his heart pounding in his chest. He scrambled to his feet, his mind racing. The gunmen were just as stunned as he was, their expressions turning from smug confidence to confusion.
"Reload!" the leader barked, his voice tinged with frustration. The men fumbled with their weapons, their eyes never leaving Eze.
Eze knew he had to act fast. He summoned every ounce of strength left in his exhausted body, focusing his thoughts. "Anansi, I need some serious help here," he thought desperately.
"Stay calm, Eze," Anansi's voice replied, more serious than before. "You need to use your speed and agility. Get out of their line of sight and take them down one by one."
Eze took a deep breath, his muscles coiling like springs. The moment the first gun was reloaded and shot, he sprang into action, ducking at pinpoint range.
"Whoa," he muttered to himself.
Eze dashed forward, his body moving with a speed that surprised even him. He zigzagged between the gunmen, his movements a blur. The shooters tried to track him, but their bullets missed, hitting only empty space.
He used his thread to disarm the closest gunman, yanking the weapon from his hands. The man watched in shock as the gun flew into the air, snapping in half as Eze pulled it towards him.
"Behind you," Anansi warned.
Eze ducked and weaved around more bullets from three men with AK-47s. They bombarded him with bullets, forcing him to maneuver around the quadrangle, jumping into the air. He swung around, only hesitating to jerk his body around the area as he dodged the bullets.
"Think, Eze, think," he muttered to himself, his mind racing for a strategy.
He spotted an old, rusted metal beam jutting out from a corner of the building. With a swift motion, he shot a thread at it and swung himself upwards, gaining a vantage point. From there, he could see the entire area and the positions of all the gunmen.
"Anansi? I have a plan. There are four pillars here. And there's no one here who can fly. Right?"
"Go on..."
The gunmen were spread out, still trying to locate him amidst the confusion of their missed shots and his rapid movements.
"You know, we haven't bothered to talk about why we're fighting a losing battle against a child with supernatural powers," one of the men muttered.
"What does it matter? Do we have a job? We will do the damn job!" another replied. "Now ready your weapon!"
"M-my weapon?"
He was disarmed before his eyes as it zipped into the air. "Ehn?"
And so, Eze began to zip between the four pillars using his threads to disarm the gunmen whenever possible. One by one, their guns were pulled from their hands, and they were rendered pretty much useless. The gunmen cursed and shouted in frustration, to no avail of course.
Soon, Eze found himself back on the vantage point with ten guns, which he used a thread on, tightening them so hard, they all snapped.
Eze leapt up from his vantage point, illuminated by the rectangular open dark sky above. The moonlight cast a silver glow on his form, giving him an almost ethereal presence as he soared through the air.
"Alright, let's finish this," Eze muttered, his voice filled with resolve.
With a swift motion, he shot a single thread from his wrist. It gleamed under the moonlight, a slender lifeline. He swung gracefully through the air in a circular motion, using the thread to weave an intricate pattern around the gunmen.
"What the...?" one of the men exclaimed, trying to follow Eze's movements with his eyes. But he was too fast, too agile for the average eye anymore. The thread wrapped around them, then tightened, pulling the gunmen together in a tangled mass. They struggled against their bonds, but the more they fought, the tighter the thread became.
"I-I actually did it!" he exclaimed between gasps.
"What kind of thing are you?" one of the criminals shouted angrily.
"You probably should not be showcasing your face as much as you do. Regardless, well done, Eze," Anansi replied. "Now, let's get those children out of here."
"Wait, please wait, I'm begging. Let us go!" one criminal pleaded. "You don't even know what those guys ill do to us now!"
"I'm sure prison isn't that bad!" he said, with a smirk, before hopping away.
"Prison." One said after Eze was out of earshot. "God I wish it was Prison."
15 MINUTES LATER (DUE TO A QUICK BATHROOM BREAK)
Chinwe lays down in her bed, as awake as ever. She seemed to be fixated on something. Almost bothered. Then, she finally sat up as if something clicked in her mind.
"Maybe he does have superpowers," she whispers to herself.
Suddenly, her window jolted open.
"CHINWE! I NEED YOUR HELP!"
"How did you get up here?" she said, scanning him up and down, before clocking that there were in fact, unconscious children in his possession.
Her heart raced as she processed the sight before her as Eze politely hopes inside her window, breathless and urgent.
"Eze?" she exclaimed, her voice a mix of shock and concern. "How did you... and who are they?"
Eze hurriedly climbed through the window, his movements strained under the weight of the children. He carefully laid them down on the floor, checking each one briefly to ensure they were still breathing evenly.
"They're... they're kids from Grace International," Eze explained. "They're the kidnapped kids I-we were talking about... earlier"
Chinwe's eyes widened in disbelief. "HO DID YOU YOU DO THAT SO FAST? AND WHY DID YOU COME HERE?"
"I DON'T KNOW OK, I PANICKED" Eze shouted, his face flushing with embarrassment. He then blurted out in a rush, "I JUST THOUGHT that well you know, Going the the police would look bad on my part and the hospitals... arent very good at night so I was like, "Chinwe knows better than me, she can probably come up with something!"
Chinwe nodded, hiding a blush of her own at the 'compliment'. "I guess Adventure Milk's chemicals are finally kicking in. Ok, let's think about this."
They both took a moment to calm down.
Then, Chinwe paced the room, her mind racing to devise some sort of plan.
"Well we can't keep them here," she said finally. "It's too due to my Parents. And you said we can't take them to the police or the hospital right now, abi? I guess we need to buy some time and figure out our next move."
Eze nodded, extra relieved that Chinwe was taking charge. He had now taken a seating position, legs crossed. "Do you have any ideas?"
"Here's an Idea. There's a nearby forest. If we can get them there, it might buy us enough time until morning. We can call the police then and say we found the children at the entrance of the forest. It will make it seem like the kidnappers abandoned them."
Eze's eyes widened. "Stage an abandonment? I should've thought about that!"
"Yeah, you should've, but you didn't" Chinwe replied with a smirk.
Eze nodded again. "Lay down the sass will ya? I get it. Alright, let's do it. I'll carry the children."
He hoped onto the window frame, carrying his sack of children in tow.
"WAIT!" Chinwe exclaimed.
And so he did.
"How did you get up here?"
At this point, a headache was beginning to form. And by now, you should know who was causing it.
"I'll.... I'll explain later ok?" he said, steely.
With that, he departed.
5 MINUTES OF DEPARTING LATER.
Eze had very quickly arrived at the forest, and began to disassemble his makeshift net.
"Do not tell me you actually plan on revealing me to anyone." Anansi said, with rage in his quiet tone.
"Oh calm down. No one needs to know about Anansi: The Spider-god in me. But at this point, it would be stupid to NOT tell her that I have superpowers. I'm sure she'll know how to handle them."
"More than the friend that actually knows about comics?"
"I could tell him as well too be honest. What are you gonna do? Give him a headache?"
"A particularly bad headache, yes."
He had untangled the children, and was preparing to leap back into the night, when a pang in his head stopped him.
"Oga, did you think you were going to just leave them here?"
"I was going to sleep."
"Well now, you are going to be a bodyguard. You've stayed up this long, you can stay up even longer."
He didn't have the energy to fight this decision apparently. He just silently sat down, staring at the dark night sky.
"Do you think we might have woken anyone up?"
"What are you talking about?"
8 HOURS OF WAITING LATER...
Eze's eyes were heavy, but he remained vigilant, as he had no other choice. The children lay peacefully, seemingly oblivious to the chaos of the night before. As dawn broke, the forest was bathed in a soft, golden light.
This tranquillity was broken by Chinwe, who had just arrived two hours late.
"What took you so long?" he said in a gruff tone.
"I'm so, so sorry, it's just my Mom came back pretty early today so I had to do some chores and stuff and I really, really am"
"Abeg, save it" he interrupted. "Let's just get this over with."
* * *
A lady seemed to be doing her makeup on the 360p camera, seemingly unaware of the time. Her news table gleams with the polished sheen, with the logo, BVC news proudly showcased in bold letters.
"Madam, we're live."
"Oh. Right. Welcome back everyone to Bola Commerce News, bringing you the best stories our CEO can mandate! Today, we are able to happily say that the latest in Nigeria's insecurity has been completely sorted. That is correct, the children that ere announced as missing 5 days ago, have miraculously been found safely. According to our source, the policemen stumbled across their unconscious bodies while on routine surveillance. They were then quickly rushed to the hospital, where we can confirm that they were well, with extremely minor injuries. The same source tells us that the kidnappers seemed to have seen the light of God, forcing them to turn a new leaf. The last sightings we've seen of them as allegedly in the Niger Republic, but we are unsure about this one. We can now take a look at the video taken by the police."
And with that, the TV was switched off.
"Wait, so they just phased us out of the story completely?" Chinwe moaned.
"What did you expect? The country needs a bit of positive press." Eze responded nonchalantly. He seemed to be restrained to Chinwe's couch, with a blanket over him, while she sat on the floor.
"Are you ready to answer me now, Eze?"
"About what?"
"You know what now!" she whined. "The superpowers Eze. Do you have them?"
She moved closer to him, sitting beside his feet. Silence took over immediately, as Chinwe braced herself. But as for Eze, not even a headache would stop him now.
"It's...complicated. Very complicated. So complicated in fact, that you can wait till tomorrow!"
"Is that a yes?"
"It's a wait till tomorrow."
She hissed at him.
MEANWHILE.
Morning light now illuminated the abandoned school. And the men, the kidnappers, were in the same spot our hero left them. But none had been able to sleep, or relax, or even bond. There was an air of hopelessness and dread around them. One even looked like he had cried all night.
Suddenly, 2 other men, dressed in surprisingly formal wear (sunglasses and all!) wielding bags of money approached them, before stopping dead in their tracks. Then, they both threw the bags of money away, each sack exploding in magnificent fashion.
"It's like these people don't have what we asked for oh." one said.
"I wonder what Titan has to say about this." the other said.
A collective mass whimpering and mass apologizing would've started. But everyone knows that failing "the one who leads people to war" is simply sentencing yourself, to death.