Vice and Virtue

Chapter - 14

Kai’s solo action was surprising since he always stuck to the plan but I was definitely not in a position to complain about that. I didn’t expect Renae to hurl me towards Harold either, I just thought we would let him be and take care of the rest but she must have thought he might get in the way. The lack of resistance from him was concerning, but Theo was the bigger fish off them both, so it didn’t bother me much. Tricia’s shots were troubling and quite difficult to evade in midair. There were too many times that they nearly missed me or grazed me to keep count but her last ones pretty much made me loosen my hold on Harold. He didn’t miss his opportunity to get away either, just kicked me off, using me as a foothold to get back to his ascent towards leviathan.

Aimless and a bit knocked out, I struggled for control over myself. I started to think about all the ways I could use my powers to get myself out of this pinch but my mind decided that it isn’t in the best of its creative versions at present. Adjusting my posture helped me a bit to gain the kind of momentum I wanted but it still didn’t grant me the control I needed but then it helped me reset my mind a bit. I just materialized the most random objects that were big enough for me to use as a footing and a few floaters to help me adjust my trajectory. I flung myself straight towards Theo below me, looking straight at me, vexed and sullen. I was close enough to sense his aura, when Tricia kicked him out of my way and I ended up plummeting into the roof, headfirst and ended up breaking through nearly half of the building floors by reinforcing myself. Covered in dust from head to toe and on the verge of breaking nearly all my bones, I tried to get off my back. I rolled over to my side, using my forearm for support and grunting with pain. Before I could get back onto my feet, a strong impact on the ground in front of me threw me off balance and I fell down face first back on to the ground. Laughing, ever so slightly happy but completely in his astonishment, he walked towards me. I turned around and saw him extending his hand towards me. I didn’t know how to react. So, I instinctively took his hand and he pulled me up. ‘Some things never change Ryan. You’re still as reckless as ever’. ‘What else were you expecting, eh?’ I replied weakly, still in pain. ‘Why can’t you just listen to me for once in your goddamn, pathetic life and take up my offer?’, ‘If by your offer, you still mean working together again? Nah, I’m good’. ‘Why do you hate me so much Ryan, it’s not like I killed anyone’, ‘You didn’t kill anyone? Is that what you really believe? What about our friends from the war? Don’t you remember turning your back on them? They trusted you Theo, I trusted you’. ‘Amy wasn’t dead because of me, Ryan. She chose to take the fall for our mistakes. We would all be locked up in those dungeons down there if not for her’, ‘No Theo, she took the fall for you, cause you decided to go solo on a mini army and messed up the whole armory heist, due to which our whole plan was compromised, with Kevin and Diaz literally being pulverized by The Order and wiped from the face of the earth’. ‘I agree, that was my bad but what’s that have to do with you and I working together? You’re the one of the few people that knew about my infiltration as a spy’, ‘Supposedly! You turned double agent, the moment we lost the war, backstabbing everyone you worked together with’. ‘Ryan, listen. I had to do what I had to do to survive in this hellhole. I don’t care what you think but it’s time for you to stop being childish and consider working with me for us to have a place to live peacefully in a few months’. I walked up close to him, staring straight into his eyes, with my head held up but that was because he’s quite taller than me. ‘I wouldn’t work with you again if it meant death instead’.

The building trembled fiercely due to the onslaught up above us. ‘Renae might be in a lot of trouble up there man. Just work with me and no one gets hurt today’. I was taken aback by how low this guy could fall. ‘Did you forget how tough that woman up there could be Theo? She literally broke you into 2 at one point in your whole pathetic life’. ‘If you want to talk about who broke who? Remember the time when I knocked you out cold in your own living room?’, ‘Way to go big man, that’s the way to grow up’. ‘Oh, now you’re telling me to grow up? You’re the guy still keeping a grudge over something that happened decades ago’. We kept digging up our past mistakes and arguing childishly forgetting everything that we’re in the middle of. Soon, both of us started to act like our former selves from the time we were back at the war. I wondered about what happened that tore us apart and sent us flying into such different directions in life. ‘Hey Theo…’ I started but before he could respond, we both noticed something really peculiar around us. The building wasn’t trembling anymore nor could we feel a fight over our heads. Unable to anticipate what was happening with the others, we got carried away ourselves. ‘Theo...’ I called out to him slowly, ‘Let’s continue this another time, shall we?’ I asked him. ‘It’s a shame but sure. Let’s put our little squabble on hold for now’ he agreed. His description of our fight as a silly squabble ticked me off a bit but I held it in. we made our way back up using Theo’s energy barriers as a makeshift staircase. As we ascended bit by bit, the darkness around us was swept away by bluish red rays illuminating from the broken ceiling and the cracks in the various levels of the building. Leviathan still loomed over the capitol, bellowing in the skies and occasionally diving below the clouds, alarmingly closer to the skyscrapers. The higher we got, the more ominous the air felt. I couldn’t hold myself any longer, so, as soon as we reached the last 2 floors, I sprung onto the roof and found myself behind Renae, who was sprawled on the ground, staring with an expression in between horror and angst towards the big hole in the rogue division that was ablaze with purple flames.