Despite the incredible progress in such sectors, others

have been left out. It’s something that I despise, the fact

that even trends and the latest thing affects the scientific

world with no real reason.

-Savvria Ixen Âkil, President of the ISPC

The streets were flowing with different kinds of people. Young, old, black, white, asian, men, women, children. It was a different image from the one Ludwig was used to back in his house in Miami.

There had been a lot of old people with the same light blue button-up T-shirt.

He walked through a crosswalk with a mass of pedestrians surrounding him, having conversations amongst themselves as the murmur traveled across the street accompanied by the sound of cars and tires. After reaching the other end of the white striped paint, Ludwig had in front of him the place he had been looking for. ‘World Donuts’.

(How original,) he thought to himself.

But instead of entering into the establishment, he went around it with another stream of people, finally getting to an empty space as he entered the alleyway behind the building. It didn’t stretch much, yet there were many trash containers in it, as well as one or two homeless people scavenging for pieces of food. Ludwig leaned back on the wall about three meters from the end of the street corridor he had entered, somewhat far from prying eyes on the sidewalk, but even further from the homeless individuals, which were closer to the other end. He didn’t have anything to hide, but some space and privacy didn’t hurt.

(I still don’t understand, Ludwig,) Wagner thrummed. (Why did you accept?)

(There was no choice,) he said with his inner voice.

(But you could have… Are you speaking figuratively?)

(I am.)

Wagner vibrated in a happy tone before going back to his normal reverberation, one similar to the crashing waves in a beach, (Why do you say there was no choice?)

(If we had kept fighting, it was probable that Laura would have encountered him. And I can’t risk her knowing what I did in that side street. It… Scares me. She’s far away, Wagner. And maybe, if she learns what I did, she’ll go even further, so much so that I’ll lose sight of her. And that frightens me.)

(Ah. Right, killing other human individuals is forbidden. I see the problem,) Wagner said in such a calm tone. Maybe Ludwig’s goal had made him believe that killing people wasn’t illegal for a time. Or that it wasn’t a bad thing.

God, why was he in this fucked up situation?

(Besides that secret,) Wagner then inquired. (Are you going to keep your powers hidden from her as well?)

Ludwig raised his head and saw how the two homeless people left the alleyway, leaving him alone with Wagner.

(I didn’t have a reason to hide my powers before,) Ludwig answered. (I thought I did, but this world is different from what I imagined. But now…)

He had seen the news about the incident.

‘Five people brutally killed by a mysterious vigilante’, the article said. ‘The only witness, a young girl, told police officers that the vigilante saved her from getting raped and possibly killed. The only details known are that the mysterious figure was covered in thread-like tendrils. His identity is yet to be known.’

People now knew about the threads, he couldn’t tell Laura about them, or she might connect the dots. Surprisingly, the girl hadn’t said anything about the young man nor Ludwig’s appearance. Had she not seen him? That wasn’t likely since Ludwig remembered falling down in front of her before losing consciousness. Maybe the wannabe hero had something to do with it.

(It would have been much worse,) Ludwig loosely continued the thread. (And this is the better option. Or at least I hope so.)

Soon after his conversation with Wagner, someone came out of the gray and metal backdoor of World Donuts, carrying a full trash bag with him.

“You really are here,” said the young man with a surprised look once he saw Ludwig. “I thought you wouldn’t come. That you wanted three days to find a way to get away from me.”

“I wanted three days so my wounds could heal a bit. And the idea of a stalker who knows that I’ve done something bad isn’t really attractive,” Ludwig said with a cold voice.

“I wouldn’t have told anyone,” the young man said, raising his voice with a stiff posture. “I wouldn’t do something as low as that.”

“Sure. Just like you wouldn’t physically force someone until they accept your demands. Oh wait,” Ludwig said, still with that bored and disinterested tone.

The young man tightened his grip on the plastic bag. He then threw it inside an open trash container next to him before walking towards Ludwig.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. How can I help?”

Ludwig flexed all his muscles to avoid laughing at the hypocrite in front of him. Despite saying such a stupid thing, he didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of showing emotion. He didn’t deserve it. A cold and uncaring treatment was what was right for him, since he was nothing more than a pebble in his boot. A mere annoyance that he would eventually get rid off.

“Not here. I would like to talk about it in a place where we don’t have to worry about someone else listening.”

“Ah. Yeah, ok. I know a place like that.”

The young man then walked out of the alleyway and entered the streets which were full of movement with Ludwig following behind. As if fighting the turbulent waters from a river, Ludwig and the young man passed through a mass of people, bumping and apologizing as they did so before getting to a less crowded sidewalk. The increase in room and the decrease in people seemed good enough of an incentive for the young man.

“Ah… Hey, can I ask you something?” He asked as he turned his head around.

Ludwig looked at him without any expression. The young man turned his head slightly forward as he visibly hesitated, making the light brown jacket rustle as he did. Ludwig noticed that he was wearing the same outfit he had worn the day he met him. A leather jacket, white T-shirt, and ripped jeans. Unlike him, Ludwig had gotten rid of the clothes he had worn that day, and he instead was wearing a red hoodie and black pants.

(Shit,) Ludwig then thought as he remembered that he had burned Jonna’s T-shirt. (Hope he doesn’t get too mad.)

The young man was continuously turning forwards, then backwards to look at Ludwig. It was attracting some looks, so he decided to put an end to it.

“You may,” Ludwig said.

“Ah… What’s your name?”

“Ludwig.”

“Got it. Mine’s Luke.”

Ludwig didn’t say anything, which caused the young man to make an awkward face before turning forwards and keeping quiet for the remainder of the way.

He honestly didn’t care about the name. Why would he? Luke had been a nuisance. Right now, he was a tool. And after he finished his remaining business, he would be a vague memory that would be lost in his indifference. In none of those situations was he anything more.

And Ludwig didn’t have a problem with it.

After five more minutes of walking, they ended up in an area which lacked the usual tall building surrounding it, and instead was covered by many warehouses with gray tones. The one they stood in front was cleaner and darker than the rest.

Luke pulled out his key and opened the door to the building before heading inside. Ludwig followed suit, and was kept waiting in the dark interior, with only the natural light coming from the door whilst Luke tried to find the light switch. A few steps reverberated into the structure before the light flickered into existence.

“I know it’s not the best place, but at least it is one,” Luke said as he walked towards the wall furthest from them.

The interior of the warehouse was bigger than what Ludwig had expected.

The roof was at a height of four meters whilst the width and length of the building sat at the six meter mark. Covering the walls of the structure were deteriorated wooden shelves that almost reached the ceiling, which were in turn full of boxes and sheets covering some of them. Despite the obvious age that everything had, the space was clean and didn’t have that much dust laying around.

Ludwig eyed Luke and saw that he was next to a plastic table which blocked one of the many shelves. He grabbed something from the closest corner, the one at his right, whose section of the floor was being occupied by a broken golf cart and some wet cardboard boxes before heading once again to the table. Ludwig then approached the young man, containing any question about the place except one.

“Does someone other than yourself know about this place?”

Luke turned his head slightly around.

“Mmh. Not that I can remember.” He then completed the rotation and sat on the table. “So… What will I be helping with?”

“An assasination,” Ludwig calmly said as he reached Luke.

The young man almost fell face first to the ground as the words came out of Ludwig’s mouth.

“What?!” Luke said with a bewildered face.

(Ludwig, are you sure?) Wagner inquired with small reverberations.

(Don’t worry,) he assured it.

“Don’t worry,” Ludwig said, mimicking what he had just said to Wagner. “Our target is a supervillain.”

Luke seemed to calm down a bit, but the surprise remained in his face,“I… Wow.”

“What? You were fine with me killing five criminals. What’s the difference?” Ludwig then asked with a venomous tone that he did not manage to contain.

“I… I guess there isn’t any,” the young man said with a hand on his chin, his eyebrows still raised.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

That surprised Ludwig, but he hid the reaction behind an apathetic face. He looked at the table and was able to see a map of Expansion Valley and Wet Wood on it with the bottom right corner misprinted. He put a hand on top of it and began studying the different streets and names of said streets.

“Um… Uh…” Luke said whilst Ludwig kept looking at the map.

After staring at it a bit more thoroughly, he was able to discern small numbers next to the street names. The one he was currently looking at said ‘7 days per crime’... Ludwig shook his head a bit before eyeing other streets and seeing their respective numbers.

(I must be wrong.)

He then passed from Wet Wood and began inspecting the streets of Expansion Valley, and once again, there they were, next to the street names…

Did Luke make a map of Expansion Valley and Wet Wood with the crime ratio for every street? But how did he get the numbers? That surely wasn’t available to the public. A lot of crimes didn’t get time on the news or articles or whatever. But how then? Did he have an insider? Had he stolen them? How…?

(It seems that collaborating with him might result in a better outcome than what we had expected,) Wagner thrummed, in his usual emotionless tone.

Ludwig took a breath, unwilling to admit it as anger began sizzling inside him.

(That doesn’t change what he did,) he said internally.

(I suppose not,) Wagner agreed with him.

This proved nothing.

Yes, it was a peculiar map, but that didn’t make it useful by definition. They weren’t vigilantes, and their goal wasn’t to patrol around the city. They were going to murder someone and this didn’t help them at all. Ludwig hadn’t accepted his help because he wanted to play vigilante and impress girls. He was going to use him because it would be annoying if he didn’t, and then he would get rid of him.

That was it, nothing more.

“Who are we going to… Send to the other place?” Luke then asked.

Ludwig turned slightly, still angry, yet he did not show it in his face nor voice.

“Armstrong,” he said without emotion. He was going to get the cold treatment he deserved.

“Oh,” Luke voiced. “Oh…” He then said with a lower and deeper tone, giving a final, “Oh, no,” after.

“Is there a problem? You can back out of it if you want?”

(Maybe then I could forgive you.)

“I…” Luke began. “Just thought that… I mean, I wasn’t expecting a top dog.”

“Aren’t there stronger potens? What's to worry?” Ludwig asked with a mocking tone. He then seemed to realize his slip up and cursed to his insides. Keeping his expressions at bay was harder than he had previously thought.

“Yes, yes. She isn’t a country-level threat but… She’s not your regular Joe either. She’s around the Jim level,” Luke said as he shook his head with a slight smile.

(Was that a pun?) Ludwig thought to himself.

(I do not know,) Wagner answered.

“Is a six-atlas that dangerous?” Ludwig then asked, cool as ice.

“It’s not that…” Luke tried to explain, looking around the room for the words. “I mean, it is, but she’s not dangerous specifically because she’s a six-atlas,” he finally said. “Is what she does. She has killed Jetstream, and that guy went against even heavier hitters.”

“Who’s that?”

“He’s… Wait, you don’t know? You don’t know who Jestream is?” Luke asked with another surprised face.

“Wasn’t interested in that kind of stuff until recently.”

“I mean, ok, but… I’m surprised you haven’t heard of him”

Ludwig shrugged instead of saying anything else.

“Well,” Luke continued. “Jetstream was a hydro or aquakinetic, whatever term you prefer. A really strong one. He could pierce steel with the jets he created, therefore the name. And, basically, what happened is that, one day, a guy in New Jersey found his battered corpse inside a trash can.”

“Doesn’t Armstrong operate in Florida?” Ludwig asked as he straightened up, feeling doubt and slight worry dwelling inside him.

“She does, but it’s not the only place. Chess works in different states, so I guess that could explain it. But, Expansion Valley and Wet Wood are her main places of operations.”

Ludwig felt a wave of relief pass through him. Things were already hard as they were, and having it more difficult would surely have a toll to his mental health. A heavier one than the one he already had.

“Then, the Jetstream fellow. He did something to piss her off?”

“Yeah,” Luke said as he nodded. “He had been pursuing several groups inside Chess since the beginning of that year, apparently stopped some important operations as well. Guess it only proves further how dangerous Armstrong and Chess are. An assassin backed up by thugs. ”

“Elaborate,” Ludwig plainly said.

“What part? The gang side, or the bit about Armstrong being an assassin?”

“Both.”

“I mean… The thing about Chess being a gang is self explanatory. You know them, they’re around.”

“I want a deeper explanation.”

“Um…” Luke voiced as he narrowed his eyes a bit. “Are you… From another place? Are you new in Expansion Valley, I mean? Because… The thing about Jetstream, ok. But not knowing Chess?” He said in a surprised tone.

Ludwig stood still and gazed at the young man’s eyes. Eyes were surprisingly expressive, so it was possible that he had conveyed his feeling of annoyance and mild anger, because Luke made a mix of an awkward and frightened face before opening his mouth.

“They basically are one of the four or five biggest gangs around The Cracked Islands. Probably the biggest. Basically, they have a lot of people and resources.”

Thankfully for Ludwig, he had heard about The Cracked Islands a few times now and had decided to research them. Turned out, it was the name that the three pieces of land that had separated from the main body of Florida had received after the incident with the Land Wards. The islands were called New Miami, Frontier Island, and John Port, where Expansion Valley and Cintia had been built.

“And Armstrong?” Ludwig then asked as he nodded.

“Well. You know how certain people are dangerous because they can kill people really well? Armstrong is one of those people, but in addition, she has super strength. Is as if someone had given a venomous snake a pair of buffed arms so it could strangle your neck while injecting their poison into your body.”

Ludwig lightly struck his shoulder, ignoring the attempt at humor, as he thought of the night when he had the displeasure of meeting her. Her movements and banter… That didn’t seem like those of an assassin. She appeared to be more of a typical villain, overjoyed by the show of pain and suffering. Yet again, the wiki mentioned that she went away for a time. Maybe she had turned cocky and arrogant, a lunatic. That could prove helpful, but, yet again, mere speculation.

“I see. I guess this is common knowledge? The thing about Armstrong?”

“Pretty much. Yeah,” Luke said.

(Mmh.)

Ludwig at least now knew why she was dangerous. Nonetheless, that didn’t help as much as he would have liked.

He already knew that Armstrong was dangerous, and it’s not like he had come out with ways of killing her, so picking the best one was impossible. That remained unchanged, and Luke remained unhelpful. What did bring attention was the fact that it was common knowledge. If there were more situations like Armstrong’s, or this supposed Jestream, then fitting in could get complicated. Then again, he wasn’t a spy or something like that but… Knowing that stuff could probably avoid an awkward conversation.

“Good,” Ludwig then said, more to himself than to anyone else. “Let’s begin.” He then turned towards Luke. “Go to the center.”

“Um… What are we… Doing?” Luke asked.

“Testing you.”

“Why?”

“Are you going to keep asking me questions whilst you are ‘helping’ me?” Ludwig said, delivering the sentence as a normal question, without any emotion to it.

“Uh… No, sorry,” Luke said before doing what he was told to.

Ludwig began thinking of what he would have him do.

He needed data about Luke, specifically, about what he could bring to the table. He needed to know how Luke's power worked in order to use it to its fullest, and maybe come up with a way of killing Armstrong with it.

That sure would be handy.

It would also help him with his logical problem solving. Having more information could make a situation clearer and easier to solve. Of course, if he wasn’t scared shitless. Otherwise… He didn’t know what would happen.

Ludwig took a gulp of air before asking the first question.

“Tell me, how does your power work on a basic level?” Ludwig inquired. “I believe you manipulate Newton’s third law, but I don’t know where the additional power comes from.”

Luke looked at Ludwig as if he had just spoken chinese.

“Uh…” Luke then finally said. “I just… Punch stuff, and… The more I punch, the harder I punch.”

Ludwig internally sighed as he heard the words coming from the poet he had before his eyes. At least he had explained it as basically as it could get.

“You know about Newton’s third law?”

“I heard about it…”

“If you hit something,” Ludwig said as he punched his left palm with his right hand. “You feel how that something hits you, right? Well, the third law of Newton is the thing that ‘states’ that, but that’s not really important. From where do you get that boost in strength?”

“My punching.”

“Could you get that boost without punching?”

“No. I’ve tried it, but I have to punch?”

“If you punch the air, does it work?”

“Uh… No, it doesn’t.”

(So it has to do with Newton’s third law,) Ludwig finally concluded in his head.

“Meaning,” Ludwig then voiced. “That you have to punch something like the wall, to get that additional strength.”

“Yes,” Luke said as he nodded.

Ludwig pondered about the subject in front of his eyes before asking another question.

“Does it have to be a punch? Can you get super strength while kicking?”

Luke looked at his fist before saying, “I… Don’t know.”

“Try it,” Ludwig ordered.

Luke put his right foot in front of his left one, clenching his fist after before throwing a few punches to the air whilst he gathered his concentration. He then raised his right foot before stomping the gray ground beneath him. The crash echoed across the room, but it wasn’t loud. He then stood still before saying, “Yes. I feel the pool… The strength. I can still get it even if I’m kicking.”

So his power wasn’t limited to a part of his body? That was a good thing. I would provide flexibility when it was needed.

“You seemed rather slow there. Could you try doing it faster? Your punches were much faster when they were aimed at my face.”

Luke’s face turned a little red with the comment.

(What…?)

(I believe that’s embarrassment,) Wagner interjected.

Ludwig faked not having heard what it had just said, and instead kept paying attention to the young man, but before he could continue kicking, Luke knelt and began untiying his shoelaces.

“What are you doing?” Ludwig asked.

“Ah… I just don’t want my shoes to get torn or broken.”

Ludwig only answered with a “Mmh.” Luke then got up and was about to give another stomp, but Ludwig didn’t let him.

“Can you use all the strength? I don’t know if it makes it easier for you to gather more, but I would like it to be as bare-bones as possible.”

“Um… Sure.”

Luke instead threw a left jab before he could…

Something struck Ludwig’s head.

He turned around as quickly as possible, threads weaving spilling forth and weaving into one another as he did so. Yet, behind him, was nothing.

Except for one of Luke’s shoes, which was still tumbling on the floor.

Ludwig faced Luke and asked, “Did you do that?”

“Eh…” Was all that Luke could say, his face stretched as possible due to his bewilderness.

Ludwig pulled his threads and concluded that, indeed, it must have been Luke. Nevertheless, it appeared that even he didn’t know what just happened.

“Did you know you could do that?”

Luke shook his head before approaching and grabbing the shoe next to Ludwig. He then smacked the floor with it, held it in his hand and…

It flew once again, this time going slightly upwards before falling to the ground.

“Wow,” Luke said.

Ludwig, as well, eyed the shoe that laid on the floor. He was apparently able to affect other bodies apart from his own, which was… Something fascinating, despite it being hard to admit.

“So I could have used a javelin instead of my bare hands?” Luke asked no one.

“A javelin?” The words escaped from Ludwig’s mouth.

“Yeah. Back in highschool I practiced javelin throw.”

Throwing, uh… Now that he was thinking about it, Luke could not only throw a javelin really hard, but he would also be able to propel mid air, like some kind of rocket… An intrusive thought crossed Ludwig’s mind.

“How hard would you have to throw a javelin to pierce Armstrong’s heart?”

“Pretty hard, I guess.”

Ludwig nodded before looking at him.

“Could you throw it that hard?”