It’d been four days since Marissa told me about the protests and Cennet’s murders. It went to near four hundred. But, finally, EXO was completed. The vest changed into a long-sleeved jersey along with trousers. It was basically a body suit. Together, the shielder energy surrounded my entire body except my head, but because it took the shape of my body, it was little more than an extra layer of muscle; the actual shielders were irreplaceable. At that point, I already practised a lot with the draft version of the EXO and the jetpack. As I was about to land on the beach and take a breather from testing the finalised version, my phone beeped, then a few more followed.

The device I gave to Marissa went off a few times, pushing her location to me. TK and I sped there, taking a little more than a minute to get to the school grounds. Following the signal, I entered an auditorium which muffled screams and gunfire. There were several TS and even some people clearing a path with their bullets, mowing down anyone who would dare to stand up. Far off at the front of the auditorium, Marissa and a few students, trying desperately to fit within her shielder’s range, were cornered. The TK began blowing away the other TS and I shot down the men with my pistol on the weakest level. Once the men were disarmed, I allowed my TK to scour the rest of the university and turned my attention towards Marissa.

I landed in front of them. She was shaking, especially as she was the one in front of the six students. “It’s alright. You guys are safe now. Can you help me see if anyone else is still alive?” I turned back and flew over to the farthest part and a couple of the surviving students combed through the place, finding a few of the wounded students still alive. I stole the clothes off some of the dead students and ripped them, tying the wounds of the injured as tight as I could.

The TK flew them to the nearest hospital. I returned to Marissa, still petrified in the corner and hugged her. “I’m sorry this had to get to you.” I brought all of them outside and got them some bottled water from a nearby vending machine. The two guys, after completing the job I asked of them, began trembling, as if the fear of the situation had just sunk into them. I wanted to give them my condolences, but I just couldn’t bring up the topic after it had just happened.

Eventually, the police swarmed the place and crime scene tape was drawn. I wanted to scurry off before the media came, but the police took so damn long getting statements and questioning the survivors that it blew a hole in that plan. As much as I wanted the public’s image of me to fade, I couldn’t avoid the cameras. Finally, Marissa waved me over when she was done and we were allowed to go home. But I brought her to the Ugo residence instead, since we had some level of security.

I tucked her into my bed and was about to leave, but she grasped onto my wrist. So, I kicked my shoes off and laid down with her. She still trembled, thinking back on it. Eventually, she would fall asleep after taking a couple pills and I shimmied out of her clutch. Once I left the room, I phoned Serrette immediately, “The school incident.” I made the purpose of my call clear from the get-go, “Was there anyone related to any ministers?” Cennet had confused me. Why advocate the importance that safety held within schools then massacre an entire class?

“Two people, yes. Jared, can y–”

Someone had stolen her attention on the other end, but I already had my answer, so I hung up. An entire class, for two people… The more I thought of the issues being caused, the guiltier I felt for still having Cennet on the loose like that. But I knew my limitations. If LocalHost only ever found the hideouts that he wanted us to find, then how on earth would I find him? It wouldn’t be through hacking. I believed in my capabilities to fight him now that I had White, EXO, and the pistol, but finding the man was another story. He was the definition of elusive; not to mention he never let his guard down.

Just as I was about to go to UGO headquarters and inform Anna, she called me in a frantic state, already crying on the phone.

“Marissa is alive and well, woman. She had a shielder and she’s sleeping now.”

“Good,” she breathed again, “good. I’m coming home.”

“Okay, well I’m heading out.” That day, I decided to backtrack and revisit what I already knew. My best leads so far were his hideouts, so I returned to that place, but it was burnt down. So was the weapon storehouse, as well as every other hideout he had except his hub for hackers. Whilst I found it rather strange, I did recall LocalHost telling me that the TS were planning to torch those places. So, I returned to the lab and checked the data I collected from the biology and computer labs. After a few hours of sorting through files, I happened upon the ingredients for Vasc and White. The number of chemicals and plant extracts needed was inane. And to figure out the correct ratio… I marvelled for a while at the man’s achievement. Building a serum that allowed someone to heal and attain superhuman strength and agility would’ve taken huge amounts of investment in both time and money, yet he did it somehow.

My mind began wandering on where one would have to go to get those ingredients, and that’s when it hit me that a lot of these chemicals probably wouldn’t have been available to just anyone. I focused on three different ingredients, two chemicals and another extract from some plant native to the other side of the world. Once I found out the companies with license to distribute chemicals like those, I began making calls. Of the seven companies, only two originated from this country. The calls weren’t fruitful because they refused to disclose any information about the chemicals, so I had to do a little snooping around in the police’s files.

Soon enough, a report about a missing batch of chemicals was found. The police didn’t figure it out. Of course not, I sighed. Neo-Chem, the company that filed the report, was now my target of investigation. They had a bit more than two hundred employees, so I knew finding the inside-man would be a chore. I spun around in my chair, with my pen clutched beneath my nose and above my lips. Hmm… “Maybe he threatened the person into giving up the chemicals?” I asked myself out loud and spun around again, looking dejectedly into the ceiling. I figured, if the police did any sort of investigation, that I should continue from where they left off, so I kept reading what was on file and found a list of employees. However, the report didn’t look finished. I called into the police and asked for the officer presiding over the investigation, detective Pereira.

“I’m terribly sorry,” the woman who answered said to me under the assumption I was a friend of his, “Pereira passed away earlier this year.”

“H-how?” I asked, sounding concerned, but it was more of curiosity.

“Homicide. I’m afraid I can’t disclose any more information, sir,” she said. I thanked her and hung up, going right back into the police’s servers. Cennet probably had him killed.

I phoned Stan next and asked if he knew anything about Neo-Chem or detective Pereira. He didn’t know the officer, but he did know about Neo-Chem. “Cennet made me scare the IT guy into giving up a list of employees with high-level clearance. Why?”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“I’ll need that list,” I told him, full-throttling Grav on my way to Mr Andino’s place. When I got there, Stan was just returning to the house. The anti-gravitational plates gave me a soft landing.

“Didn’t think you’d reach this fast,” he said, loosening his necktie and taking a deep breath. “You okay with a soft copy?”

I nodded, and entered when he unlocked the door. The smell of pizza filled my nostrils, and so too did it encumber Stan’s sense of smell. “Cindy,” he called out and from the tone alone I knew she was in trouble, “you’ll be in trouble if that’s pizza you’re eating while you’re sick!”

She tried her best to sneak past us under the guise of the sofas to get to her room, but he called her out on it. She squirmed as his hand caught the back of her jersey, “The soup was too high up for me to reach!” She complained, her mouth soaked in grease from the pizza.

I chuckled, and gave my presence away. “Stan! You’re embarrassing me!” she mouthed, waving at me and finding it hard to make eye-contact.

“Ugh, dad spoiled you too much. You already started it, so go ahead and finish.” He let her go, “As long as you share, you grease-monster.”

“Hehe,” she chuckled devilishly and offered some to me. In my mind, it was so difficult to accept it after seeing over fifty dead bodies in a blood-stained classroom. My appetite was gone, but this girl never wronged me, so I accepted it at least.

I chewed on a slice that seemingly never wanted to end and Cindy joined on the couch to watch some cartoon. Seemed like she had a mild fever and was resting up at home. “Jared,” she ogled me from the side, “do you have a girlfriend?”

I almost choked on the pizza. How do I answer that? I asked myself, wondering where the question came from. She was certainly forthright and fearless, to the point where it made me wonder if she was asking for herself or on behalf of another person; the latter seemingly the more sensible.

“Why do you ask?” I took another bite.

“I have a friend who likes you,” she had another bite as well.

“Hmm,” I swallowed, “if she asks me herself, then I’ll tell her.”

Just then, Stan appeared with a laptop and saved me from that conversation. She was saying some daring things, but thinking back on my relationship with Rosa, I guess having a conversation like that wasn’t that big of a deal. He transferred over the file to my phone and I viewed it right there.

There were seven people with full access to the chemicals needed to produce Vasc and White. I looked them up online and some of them had their mobile numbers on display on their social media profiles, even addresses. Instead of phoning, I decided it would be better to simply meet them, since their addresses were on the listing Stan gave me anyway.

“So, do you have a girlfriend?” Cindy interrogated. She hugged her legs on the couch and looked me dead in the eyes. The silence helped pronounce the sleep-inducing white noise that the ceiling fan made.

“Who’s asking?” I flipped it back on her.

“I’m asking. Wanna go out?” she offered. Her tone was so calm I pondered if she understood what she just asked me or if she had something a lot more innocent in mind.

“Leave the kid alone, Cindy,” Stan bonked her on the noggin and went to his room to change.

I stood up, thinking it was time to go have a talk with these seven people about the ingredients for White and Vasc. Cindy’s tiny hand shot up and gripped onto my wrist. “I’m not letting go until I get an answer.”

Looking back at her, I understood then, that she understood what she was talking about. Pretty brave, huh? “If you’re still interested when we finish school, then sure.”

She scoffed, “That’s not fair at all.”

I laughed, “See you around.”

The sun was out in all its glory that day. The first stop I made was at a food court in a mall. After shoplifting a cap and hoodie from a mannequin, I walked inside. The woman, quite vainglorious in her online presence, posted a photo of her eating with a couple co-workers in that very food court. She made herself scarily easy to find. I encroached, making sure my TK held onto my jetpack and other gear that would have me easily identified. All I had was my headgear hidden around my neck, Grav, and my two shielders. “Ms Parker?” I called her name when I got close enough and she looked up, a huge grin on her face from chattering with her co-workers. “My name’s Jared Ugo,” I introduced myself, much to my dismay. I’d rather have remained a question mark in the mind of anyone but the seven Neo-Chem employees who had access to the company’s more locked-down chemicals. But there wasn’t much of a choice; I could only hope she would recognise my name and choose to cooperate with me. I took the hood off for a few brief seconds to show her my face, then put it back on, “I’d like to have a word if that’s okay.”

“I know why you’re here, and so do these two ladies, so we can talk right here,” she shot down my attempts at making this conversation a private one. “The fact that you’ve come to me means you don’t yet know who exactly the leak is, but I know. I mean, there’s no conclusive evidence we can show, but we’ve seen the person act strange for a long time now.” A grin adorned her face and she rested her chin upon the back of her hands, looking right at me, “If you let me take a pic with you and post it too, I’ll give you that name and you won’t have to question everyone in Neo-Chem.”

How ludicrous. Was there a need to jump the gun for just seven employees? I could find them all before the day let out; there was no need to play her game. She basically just admitted to not being the one who gave Cennet the chemicals he needed. She was probably of mind that all I had as a lead was the list of Neo-Chem’s employees; not realising I’d already narrowed it down to the seven with access. “Miss Parker, this information could possibly help me catch the person behind this string of murders going on about the country. Will you really bargain people’s lives for a picture?”

“Yup!” she admitted proudly and shamelessly. “You’re a household name now. I want a picture,” she held her phone up with a coy smirk.

After a few seconds of looking directly into her eyes, I sighed. “Forgive me for interrupting your meal,” I stood up and was about to leave. For me to be seen with her in a picture might’ve told the suspect I was onto them. Supposing they were paranoid, I’d rather not take the chance and have them continue their usual daily lifestyle.

Several metres away from Ms Parker and her coworkers, I heard the screeching of her chair’s dragging feet, “Oh my gosh! Everyone!” she yelled out as loud as she could, “It’s Jared Ugo! It’s the hero!” she pointed right at me and all eyes began boring holes through me. A ceaseless muttering started and many phones came out to record me. Calmly, but briskly, I walked away. Even if people ran in front of me to catch me on camera, my hoodie – stolen as it was – still blocked much of my face. I looked back at the woman in bitterness of what she’d done, only to realise she was running away.

Right then, it dawned on me that she played me. She was the ‘inside man’, she was the leak, and she played it off so well that I hadn’t thought for a moment that it could’ve been her. Do I, chase her? But with all the people beginning to surround me, using these powers to capture an innocent woman on camera would do no good for me. Besides, she’ll definitely try to fight me off. With a frustrated grunt, I yielded; this was her victory. On my way out, I removed the hoodie and cap and threw it into the store that the mannequin stood in front of. I took to the skies once I was out of the mall.

I pulled my phone out the minute I was out of sight and entered her phone number to get details on her location. She left the mall as well and was going somewhere; and by the looks of it, she was already in a vehicle. She stopped at a residential area and eventually came out of her car. I flew out of the tree that I hid in and landed right in front of her. Her face contorted in annoyance. With quick movements, I grabbed hold of her wrist. She tried forcibly walking away, but gravely underestimated my strength. When she swung around, so would a kick heading straight for my crown jewels, but it was be thwarted by my other hand. “Now why did you run away, Miss Parker? It seems an awful lot like you have something to hide. I wonder what that could be?” I gave her a smile.

“You’re real persistent, kid! Just come inside and don’t make a scene…” she eventually gave up but still tried to wring her arm away from me.

I gripped even tighter, “You’re really pretty, so I think I’ll continue holding your hand.” With a grunt, she got her keys and entered the house. Once we were inside, she turned around to close the door. A few shadows moved in my peripheral vision and I put up my shielder in reflex. Inside the house, were two men armed with suppressed submachine guns.