“Dude, why’d you do that?” Savvos whispered to Felix, despite clearly being within earshot of their captors. “You’re not saving me, man. The Grave Markers aren’t ones to be trifled with.”

“I’m not doing this because I’m some kind of saviour,” Felix hissed back. “There’s something I need to know, and their leader is a good place to start searching.”

He felt something hit the back of his knee, so he took the cue to kneel like a prisoner about to be hanged.

“You’re either not from around here, or you’re out of your gods-damned mind.” Savvos shook his head slightly. “The best we’re getting out of this is a thorough bashing. Lucius is a Tier Four Meta and his boss is a Tier Five. They’ll beat us like a pair of bongo drums.”

“We’ll see about that…” Felix mumbled.

There was a loud thud all of a sudden, and Savvos’ body crashed in front of him. Felix scarcely had time to open his mouth in shock when a boot pressed the man’s face onto the floor.

“No witnesses now, Savvos.” Lucius signalled for his men to close the doors. “Time to give you what you really deserve.”

“If you had only squealed about my Boss, I wouldn’t have given a shit.” Lucius’ foot turned into concrete as he lifted it, before crashing it down on Savvos’ face again. “But you just had to leak my name to the constables!”

“I’m sorry…” Savvos’ voice was barely audible through his blood-stained teeth. “I’m sorry—”

“And now, my name is on their fucking list! They raided my warehouse and seized all my spellcrafts!” Lucius roared. “If Boss doesn’t kill you, I will. I’ve got nothing else to lose anyway!”

“My family… Please…” Savvos whimpered. “Warlock Vulcan threatened to kill them if I didn’t tell her who my handler was. I… I had no choice.”

“I don’t give a fuck about your family!”

Savvos’ bloodshot eyes widened in horror as Lucius pulled out a pulsating spellcraft. Felix clenched his jaw; it was obvious what the gangster was intending to do.

“Perhaps it’s time you partake in what you’ve been peddling.” Lucius opened the spellcraft as his men held the struggling Savvos down. “Five years in rehab; ten years to get clean. You won’t be seeing your family in a long time. That’ll teach you to keep your bloody mouth shut.”

Glyphs trickled out of the tome, hovering dangerously in the air as the gangster brought the corrupted spellcraft closer to Savvos’ trembling face—

“Oi, that’s enough.”

“Huh?” Lucius swung to Felix, his face contorted in both confusion and anger. “The fuck did you say? What the fuck did you just say?!”

Felix glared at him, ignoring the sharpened finger thrust in his face. “If you want to keep your hand, you shouldn’t.”

That was the last straw. Lucius snarled as his body turned into shiny steel immediately. Felix’s eyes shot to the Meta’s right hand, only then noticing that he was holding his knife by its blade instead of the handle. He scoffed in realisation.

This wouldn’t take long.

A powerful blast of psionic energy knocked out the rest of the goons immediately. Lucius was still charging towards Felix, clearly too overwhelmed by his anger to notice what had already happened to his men.

Felix cocked his head to the side.

There was a sickening sound of metal twisting as Lucius released a blood-curdling scream, holding his mangled metallic hand in pain. The knife slipped from his hand and his skin regained its normal texture immediately. The gangster growled aggressively, pulling out a pistol with his other hand.

“Oh no, a gun. My weakness; it’s small guns. Whatever shall I do?” Felix sang sarcastically before pink filled his eyes.

Lucius’ body twitched but the metal from the gun could not spread past his wrist, stopped by a faint pink glow. His breathing picked up pace as his hand trembled, fighting against the telekinetic force twisting it to point the gun at his own head instead. He squeezed his eyes shut. The trigger pulled itself back—

There was a loud crack.

The gangster opened his eyes again, now hyperventilating and practically swimming in his own sweat. A blue light was hovering mere millimetres from his temple, stopped by an invisible force.

“Look, I’ve come a long way to get here, and I’ve watched a lot of people die. Friends, family, good people.” Felix stood to his feet, snapping out of his bindings effortlessly. “And they’re all counting on me to give them a second chance. I don’t have time to deal with your petty mobster politics, ya understand? Now, answer me before I send that plasma bolt into your brain. Where is your boss?”

A strange trumpeting noise echoed around the huge hallway, almost in response to his question. Felix swung around just in time to be sent flying by a huge mass of grey. He halted his trajectory immediately and stared at it in confusion.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

What on earth was a rhinoceros doing here?

There was another growl as Felix leaned back, narrowly avoiding a tiger pouncing towards him. A herd of elephants as well as a whole pride of lions showed themselves as well, charging towards him aggressively.

What the hell? Is this place some kind of zoo?

Roars of defeat filled the air quickly as Felix darted around and knocked them unconscious without effort. His psychic senses rang erratically. All the animals possessed the same psychic signature, which meant someone had to be telepathically controlling them from somewhere. He encased himself in a force field and focused his telekinetic senses.

“Where are you… Gotcha.”

The psychic opened his eyes and pulled his clenched fist towards himself. Sure enough, a figure burst through the plaster wall, soaring towards him. Felix let go of his telekinetic grip, allowing her to tumble onto the ground. Psionic energy coated his arm as the figure got up quickly. They roared at the same time, swinging their hands forward—

And then they froze.

“F— Felix?” the woman breathed in disbelief, letting her technomagick pistol drop to her side. Felix’s reaction was not as subdued.

“Marcia?!”

~ ~ ~

No way. There was no way in hell his sister was still alive.

At least, that was what Felix wanted to tell himself. And yet, the rational part of him was telling him otherwise, despite his stubborn side insisting that it couldn’t be true.

For one, Marcia was literally standing right in front of him, fully corporeal and all. Sure, she looked at least fifteen years older than the ten-year-old girl he was used to, but there was no way he couldn’t recognise her. And for another, Felix was in a different universe. Was it really all that surprising that his sister was alive in this one?

“You’ve got some nerve, wearing my brother’s face.” Marcia’s voice was husky and chilling, a far cry from the sweet young girl Felix had last remembered. “Whoever you are, your death will be painful for insulting me like this.”

A huge crocodile crawled up menacingly towards the man, releasing a low, guttural growl. More reptiles surrounded Felix, and both Lucius and Savvos shuffled away inconspicuously, all animosity be damned for now.

“You’re all grown up, Marcia. And you’ve made so many friends too,” the man said hesitantly, hoping that this version of his sister had at least shared the same childhood as him. “How many of them are there, thirty-eight?”

Marcia’s expression remained neutral, but the motionless animals around her betrayed her emotions.

“What did you say?” she whispered.

“Thirty-eight. Three. Eight.”

There was a moment of silence.

And then Marcia snapped her fingers. The horde of animals promptly transformed into streams of energy, pouring into the technomagick device on the woman’s waist.

Her lips curved into a small smile. “You baked thirty-eight pies for my four friends—”

“—Because I misheard you when you said you were inviting your friends from Class 3A over to our house.” Felix finished her sentence.

He chuckled slightly at the fond memory. It was twenty years ago, but his sister’s dumbfounded face when he brought out the huge tray of pies was still as clear as day in his mind.

“It really is you…” Marcia’s eyes were glistening with welled-up tears. “But… that’s impossible. You’re dead. I saw you die with my own eyes. I couldn’t save you. How?”

“Hey, hey, hey. What’s going on?” Lucius cut in, gesticulating wildly. “We’re not fighting anymore? Boss, who’s this guy?”

Marcia swung around violently, stomping up to him. The gangster shrank away in fear. His stature was by no means smaller than hers, but the mafia boss was exuding such a potent air of authority that even a lion would cower before her.

“I heard everything, Lucius. Have I not been treating you well?” she stated flatly. “Have I not made clear that if there’s one thing I hate, it is people who are disloyal?”

“It— It’s not my fault!” Lucius stammered. “It’s Savvos! Savvos let his mouth slip about us! He leaked our name—”

The man staggered to the side, clutching the red palm print on his mouth.

“Your name,” Marcia said calmly. “You’ve been an ungrateful little shit, haven’t you? Stealing my spellcrafts for your own gain… Who do you think you are?”

“H— How… did you know?”

“Let’s just say a little birdie on my shoulder told me so. Would you like to know how the constables found your warehouse?”

The man widened his eyes in shock.

“It was me, foolish man. I bribed them to bring my property back to me,” Marcia hissed. “Pity they only put you on a list instead of arresting you. Looks like I gotta do everything myself…”

Lucius went pale as the woman’s hand danced around the strange device on her waist. He fell to his knees immediately.

“Please, no! Not the beasts!” he begged. “I’ll do anything! Don’t feed me to the beasts!”

“Fortunately for you, I’m in a good mood today.” Marcia glanced at her brother, letting her hand fall to her side. “Get out of my sight and never come back.”

“But boss, I’ve done so much for—”

“Go, before I change my mind. My brother won’t be here to save you every time.”

Savvos didn’t need another invitation. He scrambled to his feet and limped out of the castle as quickly as he could. Lucius took a few seconds to cast a hate-filled glare at Felix before running out of the building as well.

Felix felt a small hand tug on him.

“Come, brother.” Marcia smiled sweetly at him, in stark contrast to her Kingpin-like demeanour just a few seconds ago.

“You must tell me everything.”