Chapter 142

Chapter 142

The single light in the dark room flickered, a small hum and crackle coming from the bulb. Two hooded men stood together, speaking in hushed voices. Both of them checked their watches nearly at the same time before glancing towards a door. A heartbeat later it slid open, a third man stepping inside and shutting it behind him. His expression was grim. He crossed the room slowly, pulling out an earpiece and slipping it into his ear as he came to a stop. His hair was short and gleamed a bit silver in the dim light. Dark red eyes turned between the two men.

“I have an update,” He said quietly, “Information that needs to make it back to the Headmaster.”

The two men glanced at one another and nodded, “What do you have for us, Tenure?”

The tenured professor of the Night Society nodded and reached for a satchel slung over his shoulder. He pulled a tablet out and extended it to the two of them, “Liberty put out an order just a few hours ago to begin assembling for an attack. No immediate word on the target area but I suspect it is one of the hero camps, likely the one that her sister is training at, we could be moving within the next few hours at the minimum,” The Professor said and one of the hooded men took the tablet, examining the text on the screen carefully.

“So soon! She’s sending members of the round table?” The man holding the tablet asked in a hushed voice, “Four? That’s a sizeable portion of the team guarding her,” He added and turned to the other hooded man, “What do you think? Is this our opportunity?”

The second man crossed his arms, “The Headmaster will want this information regardless, it is his decision whether or not we strike during the attack or not,” He began, “Though something feels off, what changed that she decided to move so aggressively? A strike against the camps was something we considered but dedicating this much force to the attack comes across as overkill.”

“She wants to be certain,” The Professor said, “The mole that she inserted into the camp has not met their deadline, they will be killed along with the rest.”

The two hooded men looked up, “A mole?”

They looked at one another before looking back at him, the one holding the tablet glanced down at it again before looking up at him, “There’s no information on a mole in here, are you certain?”

“I’m positive,” The Professor said with a callous smile. His eyes lit up with a ruby glow as he took a casual step back, “She told me herself.”

The man holding the tablet threw it to the ground and leaped back several feet, reaching for his knife, “Damn it! Flicker! Get us out-”

The second hooded man let out a garbled shriek of pain, red sparks of electricity racing over hid body as his body twitched and convulsed, his eyes rolling back into his head. He took a sudden sharp breath and seized, collapsing to the ground as whatever was keeping him elevated gave out beneath him. The first man threw his hood back revealing a middle aged man with dark hair and a mosutache, “Tenure, Sir! What on earth are you thinking? This is madness! You know what she’s capable of better than anyone!”

“That’s the point, adjunct,” The Professor said in a cold monotone, tilting his head to the right, “Isn’t that obvious?”

The adjunct scowled at him as he tried to get up, his movements sluggish, like he was trying to right himself in water, “How long has it been Professor?” The adjunct demanded.

“Very early,” The Professor said with a sigh, “I kept feeding accurate but ultimately useless information to the members that sided with me,” He scratched his neck and tilted his head, “Oh, and please call me Sir Halloway, now.”

The door opened behind Halloway and a dozen men with guns stormed inside, raising their weapons to point them at the three men before turning their attention to focus on the two men on the ground. Flicker jolted and twitched, trying again to use his ability but only managing to cause his body to twist and bend in ways that a human’s really shouldn’t. He let out a cry of pain and fell onto the ground again, both legs broken and bent. He opened his mouth to scream but received a bullet in his forehead for his trouble.

Halloway lowered the gun, “What a noisy assassin,” He sighed before turning on his heel, looking away from the adjunct and bowing at his waist, “My Lady.”

“Well done, Sir Halloway,” A cruel voice came from the doorway. A tall shadow slipped into the room, blue eyes glowing so brightly they cast a shadow over her face. She wore a suit of heavy armor that gleamed and glittered, portions of it illuminated by some strange force. In her right hand was a sword, her left, a shield. She stalked into the room with heavy footfalls that sounded more like thunder in the confined space. Her blonde hair fell down around her face as she entered the faint light. She looked down on the adjunct who stared up at her, his expression hard. “That should be the last of the unaligned spies in my midst,” She snarled, “At least in the main compound. How many does that make for my off-brand Night Society?”

Halloway stepped back a bit and raised his hand to his heart, “Thirty six agents, Leader.”

Liberty glanced towards him but said nothing, just nodded thoughtfully. She turned back to the adjunct with a sneer before reaching down and grabbing him by the throat. She lifted him off the ground and held him there, he struggled, his weight pulling down against his spine, his eyes bulged and he reached frantically for his throat. Her lips twitched a little, “How sad, an adjunct of the Night Society made to fret and scramble for his breath so easily. It seems that even the death dealers fear it in the end, how human,” She said coldly as she squeezed until there was a noisy pop. She dropped the corpse to the ground. She turned towards a frowning Halloway, “We have enough and your betrayal will color any attempts at conversion. Better to liberate him now rather than later,” She sighed, putting a hand on the man’s shoulder.

“She uses music, I’m certain of it,” Halloway said with a nod.

Liberty let out a breath, “Very well, do you think that your ability will be able to accomplish what we need it to?” She asked, giving him a sidelong look as they reached the apex of the hall inside the main building.

“Yes ma’am, nothing will-” He was cut off as the doors to the outside flew open and they both glanced back towards the entryway. Halloway’s lips curled with disgust as he took a step back from the monstrosity that lurched its way inside, grabbing one of the armored guards and hurling him past a stoic Liberty. The woman crossed her arms and wrinkled her nose as she watched the humanoid... thing lurch to a stop and look up at her. It was nearly twenty feet tall with grayish flesh that seemed to bend and twist however it needed, perhaps he was made of some sort of clay?

Liberty’s lip twitched, “Oscar Ferguson,” She sighed, “You finally made it out of the hole I left you in,” She said, raising her eyebrows and looking down on the freak.

Halloway glanced her way, “You know this thing?”

“Yes, he’s technically a member,” She said cooly, watching the nightmarish thing twist and adjust its body to try to move in the confines of the building.

The horrible misshapen man turned his head towards Liberty, his face looked like it was loosely carved from flesh and mud, it was barely human. It bore misshapen malformed teeth and bellowed, “Stella! You have run your father’s good name into the dirt for too long! I challenge you for leadership of the fellowship!” He bellowed, slamming his palms onto the ground, the entire building shook.

“Can he do that?” Halloway asked.

“Yes of course,” She muttered, stepping away from Halloway, “He’s a member, though I haven’t called the order a fellowship in a while,” She said and began walking down the steps, “More importantly, he’s strong, so he gets a say.”

Halloway frowned, “How strong?”

“Mythic, He’s the Golem,” Liberty said and in one smooth motion drew her sword from its sheath as she returned to the center of the room. She crossed one arm behind her back and pointed the sword in the direction of Oscar, “I accept, Oscar.”

The titanic man turned on her, his body literally coiling in preparation for the strike. “STELLA!” He bellowed, “DIE!” He raised his fists into the air.

“Halloway! Do you know the difference between Freedom and Chaos?” She shouted as she watched the massive man ready for his attack.

“No ma’am! Please enlighten me!” He called.

“EVIL BITCH!” Ferguson roared, his body expanding in size until he could barely fit into the building before he literally threw his enormous bulk at her, his clay-like body turning into hundreds of stony spikes that gleamed like metal. She frowned as she watched the attack come towards her and lowered her sword, she sighed and held out a hand.

BOOOOM!

Ferguson’s unsettling face frowned, sculpted eyebrows knitting together in confusion before he let out a grunt of surprise as his body was lifted into the air, one foot, two feet, then three as something beneath his massive bulk hoisted him into the air and then without ceremony threw him straight through the ceiling and outer wall of the building. He took a portion of the structure with him in a terrible crash as he hurtled through the air and landed bodily in the middle of the open square that made up the heart of the compound.

He swiveled his head as his clay-like body ignored most of the impact damage, he narrowed his eyes when a shadow stepped out of the damaged main building. His eyes widened and he bellowed, “STELLA!” He roared and threw his arms up, absorbing the ruined portions of structure beneath him and growing larger, larger, larger, increasing in size to his maximum height. He was hundreds of feet tall now, a titan of his own right. If anyone could take her-

A flicker of silver light was all he saw before a wave of concussive force carved his body in half. Not even enough time for a half-sane thought as his brain, spine, and internal organs were eviscerated.

Halloway hurried through the crushed front end of the building, glancing back at the now exposed main hall as other members of the round table hurried out to see what was going on. He stopped when he saw Liberty standing there, her weapon at her side and her head turned to look over her shoulder, “Chaos is freedom without an ideal to uphold,” She said coldly and turned away from the four hundred foot tall corpse, sliding her blade into its scabbard as she stalked past him, “I am your ideal,” She growled, “Have one of the heads of construction take over disassembling the corpse and use it to rebuild the main hall. Do what you want with the rest,” She said. “I have a broadcast to host.”