THE UNION 2: DARK AGES

THE GOKS SAVES THE DAY

“So that’s why they need your help guys, they just want to get out of the painting so all you need…..” Madaniyah couldn’t even get to finish what she was saying before her cocky young parents interrupted her

“To intercept the mind of the little baby and get these people out of the painting, we’ve done this multiple times before remember the time we took down the men of Galactic?”Mr Mind says boldly to his pretty wife.

“How can I forget? It was a glorious moment.” Mrs Mind responds gently, Madaniyah feared for what was going to happen but was also happy to see her parents like this she wished this could last much more longer. To prevent the Gok heroes from seeing Papa the team hid him in a tent, Mashee’a who’s quite curious asked why they did that but Papa came up with a silly excuse.

“Okay let’s all get ready for this.” Madaniyah calmly says, Richard nods and goes outside to see if there was no cause for alarm but to his surprise he sees a young, black short lady wearing a cloak that covers her entire body except her face standing in front of the house.

“Hmm……. Are you okay?” Richard says slowly and gently as he approaches, the lady gets frightened and steps back.

“I’m fine, I’m just here waiting for someone to come and get me.” The lady says briefly and walks out. Richard stares at her as she leaves there was something about her that made him think she was hiding something. He continued staring at her and had no idea when Dayo friend got to the house.

“Are you good buddy?” The guy says as he taps on Richard’s shoulder, Richard quickly comes back to reality.

“Yeah it was just this lady that I saw, she hmmm……” Richard couldn’t complete what he was saying cause Dayo already knew what he was talking about.

“Oh don’t be fazed by her, I see her here quite frequently since you guys got stuck in the painting she’s always saying she’s here to see someone.” Dayo says softly, Richard then nods at first he thought maybe she was sent by his mum but Dayo already clarified it so it eased his mind.

They get inside the house and see Linda is already there waiting for them, she was shocked to see Richard was back and runs towards him to give him a huge hug both of them didn’t really know a lot about each other but they were still glad to finally see again this gave Linda more hope that her Gboyega could get out of the painting.

“Let’s begin.” Mr Mind says to the team in the painting, in the painting the team all stare at each other waiting for Papa. He comes out wearing a party mask that made him look unrecognizable.

“I’m here” Papa says with a very deep voice quote different from how he talked, Mashee’a raised Ji’kur up so Mr and Mrs Mind could easily spot him they both then stretched their hands and everywhere suddenly goes blank.

The team stuck in the painting suddenly open their eyes and find themselves in a white room but this time there was no tent and anything except Ji’kur floating in the air with energy beams radiating around him.

“What the hell is going on? I knew we shouldn’t have tried out those weirdos.” Tolu says as she looked around confused, she was still triggered by everything that had happened in the Gok house, the whole team began to panic but Papa knew what was happening.

“Everyone stay calm I’ve been in a situation like this before with them, we’re basically in the mind of Ji’kur which is nothing.” Papa says suspiciously.

“Well he is a baby.” Ayo responds sarcastically.

“Whatever they’re doing must be working.” Papa tells the team, they all quietly wait for Mr and Mrs Mind but to no avail this started to bother them except Mashee’a cause they knew what those two were capable of.

“This is not sitting right with me, the last time

we were around those two they did some pretty f****d up s**t to us.” Ngozi says as she starts to panic.

“Yeah, where are they?” Gboyega says, he was the calmest out of all of them he didn’t want to ruin anything, he just wanted to go back and see Linda.

“Just stay calm.” Papa says as he tries to figure out what is going on.

“Don’t tell us to calm down Papa……” Ayo tries to pass his frustration towards Papa but made a huge mistake.

“Why did you say my name? Dammit Ayo!” Papa yells at him, they were all not supposed to mention Papa’s name they knew the consequences especially with the Gok heroes being around them, the whole room is quiet cause they wondered what was going to happen but nothing happened. They all sighed out in relief thinking the heroes didn’t hear them, Mashee’a was trying to understand what was going on but none of them will explain to her.

But before Mashee’a could ask anything the ground begins to shake and split into two, a massive wind begins to push all of them which removes Papa mask then Mr and Mrs Mind both come out from the hole in the ground still looking young.

“It’s really you Papa? It’s you!” Mr Mind says with so much shocked, he and his wife never thought they’d ever see him again.

In the real world, everything seems to be going well Mr and Mrs Mind are both unconscious same goes for the team in the painting. Dayo and Madaniyah watches over them while Richard and Linda are in the kitchen catching up.

“You must really care about them.” Dayo says gently, he has been observing Madaniyah and how she has been looking at her parents.

“Well yeah I think that’s obvious……… How are your parents?” Madaniyah says with a very rude tone.

“I mean they’re fine I guess.” Dayo voice softens making Madaniyah think something bad happened to them.

“Oh I’m sorry.” Madaniyah says swiftly.

“Oh they’re not dead, with my work I just barely get to see them anymore.” Dayo says, you could see a level of sadness and disappointment in his face.

“Well you should go and see them, you don’t know how long you might have them.” Madaniyah warms up to him and they both smile at each other after awhile her parents begin to react and start repeating Papa’s name.

“You’re lying! How would you prefer donut over pie? I mean pie is probably one of the best things in the world.” Linda says softly to Richard, instead of helping the team out they were both arguing about food and catching up.

“Shouldn’t we be with the others?” Linda says.

“Oh those losers can definitely handle whatever is going on.” Richard says sarcastically, Linda had always wanted to have a conversation with Richard she wanted to know more about him but never got the opportunity to cause they were always busy so she was happy that they were finally talking but things quickly turn out the other way when they hear Madaniyah calling their names. They both rush down to the sitting room.

“I knew this was a bad idea, they’ve both been calling Papa name for no reason.” Madaniyah says as her voice broke down and tears poured out from her eyes, Richard tried to do something but Mr and Mrs Mind begin floating in the air, Dayo stands in front of Madaniyah while holding her hand. They still continue repeating Papa’s name and whole room goes blank with nothing existing there except Mr and Mrs Mind still floating

Tolu slowly opens her eyes and finds herself in a hospital room, she looks around wondering what was going on she got her guard up knowing this is from Mr and Mrs Mind. She spots Mrs Mind sitting on the hospital bed.

“We don’t have to do this, just let me out of here.” Tolu says as she breathes heavily but Mrs Mind just stared at her manically, Tolu looks around for a weapon but couldn’t find anything except a syringe she then picks it up and tries to threaten Mrs Mind with it.

“Tolu that isn’t work so don’t waste your time, what are you afraid of?” Mrs Mind says as she slowly fades away from the hospital, Tolu suddenly sees a old version of herself on the hospital bed. She slowly drops the syringe to look at herself.

“What the hell is this?” Tolu says with disgust on her face, her old version slowly opens her eyes to look at her younger self.

“You came? I guess you’re the only one that cares about me, we’ve been surviving together all by ourselves and now we die alone with no one with us.” The old version says with so much pity in her face this horrifies Tolu but she has always thou about this since they were trapped in the painting, even though the team had saved her she wasn’t sure if they considered her as their friends, Dayo always moved around and with Chong dead she felt alone in this world. Tolu also wasn’t a strong believer of love especially with what she witnessed between her parents.

Mashee’a finds herself with Papa and their baby as they walk towards her village, she was finally going back to see her people after so many years.

“I can’t wait to see them, to see my brother and just the people being with you has been amazing but I’ve definitely missed the Talekitans even though they have some dumb culture.” Mashee’a says excitedly.

“It’s going to be alright, I’m pretty sure they’ve missed you to.” Papa says softly as he pats Ji’kur, after walking for awhile they finally arrive at the village but to Mashee’a surprise there was no one outside the tents, no kids playing around, no women dancing to the soothing music of their people, no men arguing the village wasn’t vibrant which wasn’t common for Talekitan people.

“Where is everyone?” Mashee’a says concerned, she goes inside each tent and is surprised to find her brother on the floor bleeding.

“Brother!” She rushes to the ground to pick him up but he didn’t look alright, they were multiple scars and bruises on his face with heavy blood gushing out of his body.

“You left us Mashee’a.” Her brother says as tears roll down his heavy face.

I’m Ayo fantasy, after a tussle with himself in his mind Slip had escaped and hunted everyone that he cared about. Slip killed each member of the team even Papa and Mashee’a even though he said he didn’t care about Papa he still wanted to seek the man’s validation and cared about him, he also cared about Mashee’a even though he disguised it with , after his encounter with Slip in the bus he knew it was just a matter of time before Slip escaped and he feared that he would be the cause of his friends death.

Gboyega on the other hand was tearing up over the dead body of a young man who looked a little like him, this was his younger brother who he had abandoned since he left his parents, spending time in the painting made him wonder the type of person he was leaving his younger brother all alone with his parents and Linda gave him courage that he could reconnect with people in his life but he feared that something terrible would’ve happened to his brother.

Ngozi was in a terrible state, she and the team had just fought with Essence again but this time they all died in his clutches and she watched them die she couldn’t do anything cause she had no control of her powers she felt powerless like when she was child with her father, she didn’t like that feeling.

In a flashback, Papa is in the Gok house discussing with Mr and Mrs Mind about Essence.

“All you have to do is infiltrate into his mind and shut him down, he is a worldwide threat to everyone and I know your other teammates are saying this is a bad idea I still feel this is necessary and Essence needs to be stopped.” Papa tells the two heroes briefly, they both didn’t know what to say they’ve had encounters with Essence before and he always won, the other heroes wanted a more detailed plan that’ll defeat Essence but Papa believed that all he needed was Mr and Mrs Mind to accomplish his mission. It was a stupid idea but both heroes thought about the immense fame they’ll get from defeating Essence who was a worldwide threat at that time.

“What if something goes wrong? Most times the only reason we come out alive is because we go in as a team this time only two of us are fighting him.” Mr Mind says gently.

“Don’t worry about that, I’ve it all covered if anything goes wrong with you guys I’ll be here to help you out.” Papa assured both of them, they all slowly fade away except Papa who was reliving what had just happened. Mr and Mrs Mind both stand behind him in disappointment.

“You forced to do that Papa and the minute we called for your help we couldn’t find you again and you’re now calling us to help you out, does that make any sense to you?” Mrs Mind says as she slowly touches Papa on his shoulder, he’s heart begins to beat really fast wondering what his fate was.

On the other hand Richard, Madaniyah, Linda and Dayo are together but they’re also stuck in Mr and Mrs Mind head they all go around together looking for them as they go from one white space to another.

“How are we even going to stop them?” Dayo says swiftly as they all follow Madaniyah who leads the way.

“Approach them in person, convince them to stop and if that doesn’t work then someone has to attack their body in the real world.” Madaniyah says sadly.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that” Richard assures her that everything will be fine, he could see the sadness in her face. After wandering for awhile they find both parents seated on a chair watching a movie on a tv that was floating in the air.

“Daughter you’re back, I see you came with new friends and that other one.” Mr Mind says referring to Richard as that other one, he remembered him from their adventure to the Gok house.

“Dad, mum whatever this is let us go back home and handle it. Everything is going to be fine.” Madaniyah gently says as she slowly approaches her parents.

“No this is all we want to rule in this little world of ours.” Mrs Mind says and they both start laughing manically, Papa suddenly appears on the floor unconscious with bruises and marks constant manifesting on his body.

“What is going on with him?” Linda says as she hides behind Richard.

“Each victim that has suffered from this man are attacking him back in his mind, this is his fate!” Mr and Mrs Mind both say together, Richard was horrified and couldn’t stand this.

“That’s enough!” Richard says aggressively and marches towards the heroes but out of nowhere he’s dad grabs his hand from behind.

“Dad?” Richard says confused, he suddenly finds himself and his father in the middle of a garden he knew this place. He and his dad occasionally came here anytime he needed some fresh air.

“Why are you desperately trying to save that man? He’s worthless.” He’s dad says authoritatively yet you could still hear the sympathy in his voice.

“Because he took me in when I was all alone Dad, I would’ve probably died if not of that man.” Richard says boldly.

“Are you sure? Or is it because you couldn’t save me when I was dying so you’ve found a new father figure to help? Or you want to help him to feel better for all the countless people you’ve killed? You just want to feel like a good person but you’re not son, even your own friends don’t care about you.” The father says as the garden flowers begin to slowly wither.

“Bring Richard back!” Madaniyah says as Richard had vanished from the white room.

“You and your friends need sometime to cool off, come back to us when you’re alright.” The two heroes say they were both in sync and stretched their hands, a gush of wind pushes the other three.

Madaniyah, Linda and Dayo both wake up in the real world to their surprise everyone was also in the sitting room but they were all unconscious Mr and Mrs Mind were still floating in the air they were also back to being old.

“What do we do now?” Dayo says getting ready to attack both parents.

“Just give me an hour to think.” Madaniyah says confused, she sits on the sofa and uses her hands to grab her head thinking of what next.

“We don’t have up to an hour, they’re going to kill these people.” Dayo yells at her, the team body suddenly start reacting and they all slowly start floating in the air Dayo then quickly pulls out his gun Madaniyah sees this and cries out.

“Don’t shoot them!” Madaniyah kneels on the ground and beg.

“I’ve no other choice.” Dayo says boldly he didn’t want to do it, this was a hard thing for him to do but he couldn’t just sit and watch Tolu die. Mrs Mind body slowly moves towards Dayo and she slowly calls out his name he then drops his gun and begins to call out his parents name he runs out of the sitting room to meet up with them even though they weren’t there, Madaniyah tells Linda to go and make sure Dayo is safe. She then looks around and see the pain everyone is going through she knew what she had to do but she didn’t want to do it.

“Mum Dad, if both of you are really in there then you’d stop this listen to me and stop this!” She yells at them as treats rolled down from her eyes, the two didn’t respond they just continued torturing the others. She then slowly picks up the gun.

“Drop that gun dear, you would never hurt us and we don’t want to hurt you. You’ll never want us to be in pain my dear.” The two parents say gently to her daughter she hesitated and slowly breathes our.

“That’s why I’ve to do this.” Madaniyah says to them with a sorrowful smile.

Ayo opens his eyes to see he is finally in the real world with the others also slowly waking up they all slowly look around to be sure that they’re back and this isn’t another trick from Mr and Mrs Mind but they all hear the voice of Madaniyah as she cries while holding the dead bodies of her parents with blood all around their bodies she didn’t even notice the team were awake until Ngozi mentioned her name. She slowly looks at each of them until her attention focuses on Papa.

“You?!!! You did this!” Madaniyah says angrily as she points at Papa, she then picks up the pistol but before she could do anything Richard quickly grabs her and her parents then teleports with them out of the house.

“What was all that for?” Mashee’a says confused.

“I explained to you already, she’s not alright.” Papa tells her the others watches in shock as Papa lied, Dayo and Linda walk into the sitting room and both Gboyega and Linda swiftly run towards each other and hug he even lifted her up a bit in the air a bit. He had missed her so bad.

“It’s good to finally see you in person.” Gboyega tells her while Dayo and Tolu catch up to, Richard shows up back in the house with a little scar on his face this worried Ngozi.

“Are you good? Is she good? What happened there?” Ngozi says concerned, Richard let’s put a heavy sigh and assures everyone that it’s fine but things don’t go quite well when the lady with the cloak who Richard confronted comes in the house and stands in front of everyone in the sitting room. Richard quickly moves towards her but she slowly removes her cloak which was covering her face.

“Stop!” Mashee’a yells at Richard, she recognized the lady that was there the lady also knew Mashee’a and Papa.

“Su’lari?” Mashee’a says confused as she squeezes her eyes trying to be sure that it was her, the lady did the same to, Papa wasn’t so happy about this he feared that the lady who know who he is.

“Yes it’s me.” Su’lari voice breaks down, she couldn’t believe her eyes that she could finally be united with Mashee’a they both quickly hug.

“How did you find me here?” Mashee’a says suprised.

“Have you forgotten we’re both linked together, I’m just glad you’re alright.” Su’lari says softly.

“How’s my brother? And my parents? I can’t wait to see them.” Mashee’a says excitedly but Su’lari mood changes all along she thought Mashee’a died but realizes that she never knew about the m******e of her people.

“Mashee’a everyone is dead, there was a war and everyone we know was killed.” Su’lari tells her, Mashee’a couldn’t say anything except just look in shock she couldn’t comprehend what she was being told and just stared at Su’lari with disgust.

In Papa’s office the team are there waiting for Papa to come in, they all discuss what Su’lari had said.

“That’s messed up, whoever the insider was I hope they suffer.” Ayo says in disgust.

“Isn’t it obvious? It’s Papa.” Ngozi says softly, Ayo turns around to look at her in disgust he expected the others to disagree but they all nodded to the positive.

“Why would you all agree with that? I mean I agree that he’s a terrible person but to think that Papa would m******e a whole civilization is insane.” Ayo says disgusted at the team it seemed like he was the only one that had little faith in Papa but will soon be disappointed when Papa walks into the office.

“I don’t think we’ve to waste much time, it’s obvious that I had something to do with the murder of the Talekitans.” Papa says briefly, Ayo gasp in shock Papa was really a terrible person and he had to realize that but he refused.

“You people are not going to tell her anything.” Papa says to them with a much more higher and authoritative tone.

“Why would we listen to you?” Gboyega says and chuckles with the rest of the team.

“Trust me you won’t want to do it, try me and it won’t end well I promise all of you that.” Papa says softly, this scared the team even before figuring out the evil deeds he had done they were all scared of him and what he was capable of because he lived a very mysterious life.

“Anyways we’ve bigger matters at hand, four days ago Ikenna Jnr I think we all know him the famous entrepreneur came in with a bunch of organizations men and also a new white hero saying he’ll stop the ongoing war between supernaturals and man. This might make sense to you guys but Ikenna is not good new, I’ve had history with him and let me tell you him collaborating with the organization is bad news for everyone. We need to stop this.” Papa says briefly to them, the team all look at each other.

“Nope.” Gboyega speaks out for them and they all walk out of the office. As they all parade around the hallway they all mock Papa.

“What are we suppose to do? Walk up to the government and tell them that the man that’s trying to bring peace is actually lying and we’ve zero proof.” Ayo says mockingly and they all laugh but they also pause for a minute, they realized that the reason why they all came together was to find Papa and now that he has been found they could go back to their respective lives.

“So I guess we’ll have to………… Start packing our stuffs?” Richard says sadly the team were also sad about them all leaving each other but didn’t want to express it so they all quietly walk out from the hallway.

“So you’re leaving again? You just got back.” Linda says as her voice broke down as Gboyega explains to her that he has to leave.

“I’ve to handle some issues back at work and all that, I’ll be back don’t worry just stay at London and don’t come back here until I tell you to it’s not safe.” Gboyega tells her, Linda wasn’t ready to go everyone was back she was finally having fun here and didn’t want to lose that, she compared the way she lived in London where she was just compressed in one room to that of Nigeria where she went on adventures and could use her powers.

“I hate this!” Linda says and walks out angrily, Tolu walks in immediately.

“Child tantrum?” Tolu says jokingly as she entered Gboyega room.

“I guess, she doesn’t want to leave I’ll miss her and I’ll also miss you even though we got off the wrong foot. I hope we’re in good terms now?” Gboyega says gently as he packed his stuffs in a box.

“We’ll see about that…… What’s next for you?” Tolu says softly.

“Go back to work and I think I’ll build some courage and get out there might also find my brother, what about you?” Gboyega responds.

“I might just find a way to get out of the police department, I want to help people and even though that’s what my job is meant it’s somehow hindering me from doing that.” Tolu says gently as she sat on the bed, while in the painting she had given it a long thought and decided to go solo.

“Well that’s terrible what I’m I suppose to do with this flash drive?” Ayo says as he walked into the room, he was listening to their convo Tolu made inquiry of what it was.

“When I activated my powers my cybernetic parts was recoding everything that happened so I did some little editing and I stopped it at when you shot Essence.” Ayo says briefly, Tolu couldn’t believe her ears the two people she had issues with when she firstly got here were finally getting along with her.

“You’re sure you don’t want some kind of recognition for helping out?” Tolu says concerned she didn’t just want to take all the glory alone.

“Hey if any of us wanted attention we’d know how to get it.” Ayo tells her they both hug, the two made enquiry of what he was going to do he lied that he had no idea but Ayo was actually going to hunt the organization by himself he wanted to keep his distance away from the team due to what was shown to him from Mr and Mrs Mind.

“I can’t believe you want to wait here.” Richard says to Ngozi who had come to the conclusion that she’d wait.

“I just need some more time to learn about my powers and I feel this place is the perfect medium, I can easily focus here.” Ngozi came to this conclusion especially after their encounter with the Gok heroes.

“Well since your amulet is powered by magic I guess…… I got a magic gift card thing when we went to the Gok house and I know you might be questioning the source but it might help you out who knows.” Richard says to her softly he wished he could stay but he also had his own issues to deal with.

“Thank you and please don’t be a stranger.” Ngozi held his hand as she told him.

“I’ll try but I need to get better.” Richard says gently as they both gazed at each other faces.

A confused Mashee’a is lying on the bed trying to process everything that had just happened, she didn’t know what to say everything she feared had come to pass, Papa slowly sits beside her on the bed assuring her everything will be fine.