AN: Hey, I've returned. School's out, and I've graduated high school, so you can expect a lot more updates for most of my novels, especially this and Technomage. I'll probably drop Doc, I'm really not getting into the xianxia theme. Anyways, there's some action in this chap, hope you enjoy!
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“Hup!”
With a grunt, Simon landed back on solid ground. He stood up straight and brushed himself off. He was wearing a black Calvin Kleen suit, his normal apparrel, and he didn’t want it to get too dirty. It doesn’t pay to look like a bum while you’re conducting business, after all.
Simon sighed to himself and listened to the sounds of chaos in the city. Explosions, screams, rumbling. Wait, was that rumbling sound coming closer?
Now definitely alarmed, Simon looked around for a weapon. He had no illusions he would be able to fend off anything that was looking to harm him, but it didn’t hurt to have something for intimidation. He found a relatively large stick on the ground and lifted it defensively, facing the direction of the increasingly large rumbling. It was close now, Simon could feel the earth tremble, and soon start to shake alarmingly. When the shaking was almost enough to knock him off his feet, it stopped.
Suddenly, the ground a few meters in front of him started to rise up and split apart, and a fountain of dirt started pouring out, forming a large mound. Simon was enraptured. What was this? Magic?
After a few seconds, the dirt stopped moving, then burst outwards all at once. Fortunately, Simon was far enough away that he didn’t get any dirt on his suit.
Standing where the dirt mound previously was, standing proud with a massive grin on his face, was his brother.
“Damn, that was awesome! I love magic!”, Thomas shouted into the air. He looked around for a moment before spotting Simon.
“Hey! Simon! How’s that for a speedy arrival? I betcha I’m faster than a taxi! Thomas Taxi Service, howzat?!”, he shouted over at Simon.
“You can tunnel under the earth faster than a car and you can only think of becomming a human taxi? What is that, anyway, magic?”, Simon replied.
“Hell, yeah, it’s magic! Master Terramancy, 2200 points!”, Thomas puffed up his chest and held his chin up with pride. His shoulder length brown hair and rebel styled clothes made him look like a rockstar in a spotlight.
“Right... I’ve got Contract Creation, 6800 points. I don’t know what it does yet, though.” Simon was not impressed.
Thomas’ eyebrows rose, as if surprised.
“Dude, 6800 points?! That’s like, four times as much as what I started with! Also, have you not opened your status yet? Just click on your class thing and you’ll know how to use it. It’s super easy! If only college was like that!”, he explained.
Simon nodded, and said, “Status.”, prompting a new screen to appear in front of him.
Name: Simon BelfonsePoints: 424Race: HumanLottery Slots: 2Class:Contract CreatorAbilities:Create Contract, Destroy Contract, Edit Contract
Simon pressed his class, ‘Contract Creator’, and immediately a flood of information flooded his mind.
Contract Creation does just what it says. Simon can create one contract per day with another being, which will compel them to follow the terms of the contract. Simon, or anyone else with the same power, can dispel, or even change the contract terms at any time, unless specified within the contract itself. For example, Simon creates a contract with someone to make them follow him for the rest of their life. Simon can later change the time of service to only a few years if he wishes.
After sorting through his newfound knowledge, Simon noticed the explanation on the terms he could set were extremely vague. He had no idea what the limits were, so he decided to experiment on his brother once he got to a safer area.
A large explosion somewhere in the park broke him out of his thoughts. A series of smaller explosions followed immediately after, getting progressively closer.
“Time to go!”, yelled Thomas. “Quick, grab my waist, we’re goin’ underground!”
Simon hurried over to him and wrapped his arms around his brother’s waist.
“Hold on tight, it’s just like a rollercoaster!”, Thomas shouted over the explosions, which were by now very close.
Simon nodded, and spotted a fireball rising over the treetops momentarily, before there was a rush of wind and a falling feeling in his gut. Everything went dark, but Simon could feel the air rippling around him, and hear the crunching of dirt and rock from every direction. His feet were on solid ground, but he got the impression they were going very, very fast.
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They were only travelling for a few seconds when Simon felt his brother tense up.
“The fuck?!”, he shouted over the noise, and suddenly Simon felt their platform swerve to the right, before steadily slowing down. When they had stopped, Thomas said in the darkness, “The ground ahead of us is completely soaked, and my ability doesn’t work well with mud. We’re gonna have to- oh shit! Going up!”, and the ground rose up like an elevator. Simon thought he could feel his shoes getting a little wet before the ceiling above them split apart, letting in the light.
Simon blinked a few times, getting used to the brightness. He looked around and noticed they had surfaced in an alleyway in the city. The explosions were much louder now, the anarchy still going strong. Simon noticed a large amount of glass and concrete on the ground around them, and looked up, noticing a large hole in the side of the skyscraper next to them.
“I think there’s a water dude around here somewhere. He soaked the ground to try to trap us in the mud.”, said Thomas.
“What should we do? I don’t have anything to fight with...”, Simon said, worried.
Thomas turned to him and smiled a toothy grin. “Don’t worry bro, I got all the muscle we need.”, and flexed a bicep, before ripping a chunk of asphalt out of the ground larger than he was.
Simon’s eyes went wide. Noticing this, Thomas said, “What, do you think I could only travel around underground?”.
Simon shook his head in disbelief, and said, “Put that thing down before one of us gets hurt. And by one of us I mean me. We need to get out of here before this ‘water dude’ figures out where we are. Can you make a hole through this wall? We’ll go through the buildings.”
Thomas shugged and dropped the piece of rock, which made a large crash that Simon winced at, and waved his hand at the wall. It promptly burst into the building, leaving them a convenient entrance.
“Let’s go.”, Simon said shortly, and jumped through the hole in the wall. Looking around, they seemed to be in some sort of hotel reception area, with big windows towards the street and a large desk against the opposite wall, with various seats filling the rest of the space. Simon only looked around for a moment, then began briskly walking towards the other wall, Thomas following closely behind.
The only made it halfway before the glass windows burst inwards, letting in a flood of water.
“Shit!”, Thomas exclaimed, hurriedly making a wall of earth rise up, blocking the rest of the room from the flood. “Quick, let’s go!”, he shouted.
Simon didn’t wait to see if the wall would hold up, and started running towards the wall. They didn’t make it far before thin jets of water smashed through the wall randomly like bullets. They were fairly dispersed, so Simon and Thomas were able to avoid being his by ducking down and running while crouched. They reached the other wall which Thomas smashed open like before, sending chunks of stone into the alleyway along with a cloud of dust. Simon sprinted through the hole, coughing from the particles of dirt in the air. They stood there for a moment, letting the dust clear so they could see.
When it was all gone, Simon was about to tell Thomas to keep making holes through the buildings, but was interrupted by a female voice.
“Which one of you is the terramancer? The boss told me to gather any promising supers, and you’re pretty good, so I guess I’ll let you live.”
Simon whipped his head towards the voice, and saw a young woman standing atop a huge geyser of water. She was dressed like a punk, pink hair, studded black jacket with jeans, and numerous piercings. She had her arms crossed and was smiling confidently, like she felt she could take on the world.
Thomas lifted his hand in greeting, and said, “Sup, think you could just let us pass? We kinda just wanna get outta here, y’know?”
The girl’s eye twiched and she sneered at them. “Huuuuh?! Don’t you idiots know yet? This city belongs to the Blue Blood gang! You’re either with us or against us! So which one are ya, huh?!”
Simon heard Thomas audibly gulp, before starting to say, “Yeah, well, y’know... We kinda just wanted to-”, before he could finish, he whipped a chunk of asphalt straight at her face. Simon caught a glimpse of shock on the girl’s face before Thomas grabbed him and pulled him through a newly formed hole in the wall next to them. They sprinted through another reception area, and remembering what happened last tim, Simon pulled Thomas to the right, past a desk and into an elevator landing.
“Just go right through the wall and then take us into the ground! We’ll go around her!”, Simon shouted.
They ran through several walls until they reached the street on the other side. Looking back, Simon could see a great wall of water smashing throughout the building they had been in previously. He grabbed back onto Thomas and they were speeding around underground again.
Simon sighed as he felt the air ripple around him once again. He was utterly useless in that fight. If he wanted to be any help, he’d have to learn how to use his power to fight, and fast.