Chapter 6. Rubeus? (Part 1)
Moving on pure instinct I flashed across the table to intercept the bullet meant for Jordan, hearing the gunfire I feared I wouldn't make it but I felt the impact. Feeling a stinging sensation of the projectile meeting my flesh the power within me acted on its own. I felt it flow through me and to the point of contact condensing in that spot stopping the bullet before it could embed itself into me. I wasn't confident in taking a bullet but knew there was a chance I could take it versus letting it hit Jordan and potentially kill him.
The bullet hit me with a thud but clattered to the ground in what felt like slow motion, with me falling to the ground aswell. Experimentally, I raised my fingers to the wound in my forehead, it felt hot and still stung but as bullet wounds went it was nothing. Raising my head my eyes met with Rubeus's, shock and anger filling his expression, but his smile still held strong.
"Guards, fire at will," Rubeus commanded placing his gun back into his holster and crossing his arms, seeming to be entertained by the turn of events, even after all the surprises and irritation in his voice and expression.
My eyes widened remembering the four guards as they got into position, they all aimed at me ready to shoot. Formulating a plan on the fly I acted as if I was reaching for my knife and would attempt an attack but instead right as they shot I dropped to the ground. I had noticed that If I wasn't in the way the guards would just shoot each other, so I used this to my advantage getting them to shoot and then getting out of the way. The four of them slumped to the ground, and I was surprised it actually worked.
Rubeus facepalmed and sighed "It seems it was too naive of me to think that would be any more exciting than it was. I really should have given a bit more complex of an order, can't be helped." As Rubeus finished, shaking his head, his smile became predatory as he looked at me.
While Rubeus was talking I freed Jordan from his restraints and then jumped to the other side of the table when he glared at me.
"Jordan behind me!" I shouted
"There's so much more going on than just you, or even me, It's ultimately futile to even attempt to try and change the fate of this world Brian. For as long as you've been alive and everything that you've done, whether it was try and defy us or all the years you helped the Bureau, it was all in vain. You are just as worthless as these guards were, a means to an end, a tool to help an agenda." Rubeus monologued, he then placed his fingers on his neck where a scar lay. "This was the closest you got to having a true impact on this world, and you even failed at that. And even with these new 'powers' there are forces working behind the scenes that far surpass our comprehension. Things that you couldn't dream of standing up to or going against." Rubeus finished, kicking over the chair in his way and easily flipping the table end over end into the wall with a thud as he approached.
"If you're trying to make me angry it's not working Rubeus, deep down I've always known my place in this world. Even if I don't have the whole picture, I'm simply not going to sit down and submit to the horrors the Bureau has and continue to commit." I said in retaliation, putting up my fists for a fight.
Before I could react Rubeus was upon me slamming a fist into my side sending me flying into and through the wall to my right. I could feel the energy within me try and cushion the blow to my side but the impact happened too fast. I felt something was broken but I got up almost on instinct, charging to Rubeus. He had his hand around Jordan's neck and with a concise motion a snap rang out and Jordan's limp body fell to the ground. I stopped in my tracts freezing in place, an overwhelming feeling bubbling up. It was similar to the overpowering rage I felt in the fight against Jackson but instead of emotions already there being amped up this rage was all mine.
Snapping and losing myself in the moment I barreled toward Rubeus, The closer I got to him the more my momentum slowed but this didn't stop me. Even with how fast I was approaching he attempted to dodge, it was still not enough. Ramming into his side, I sent him flying, the force of the impact booming out and even more so when Rubeus's large figure slammed into the wall. He stood up and spat out some blood, wiping the corner of his mouth with his thumb, he looked down at the blood and smiled. I came at him throwing my fists forward in a rampage, again the momentum of my fists slowed as they approached but I was also increasing in speed. Enough to offset the slowing effect and then some, the crimson energy flowing through me more and more unimpeded the longer the fight went on. I could feel the energy, the pure power elevating my every move, making me faster, stronger, and more efficient. In my anger the energy was moving through my body subconsciously, all I had to worry about was hitting my target and using my body efficiently.
Rubeus was on the defensive, attempting to evade and block my onslaught of attacks. At first, he dealt with it well but as the attacks kept coming he was driven onto the backfoot. He had his arms in front of him taking the hits, hitting them felt like hitting a wall but I could now bust through walls with some ease, so I continued my assault. Rage kept bubbling up inside of me my fists adorning a red hue and becoming brighter by the second. The crimson energy was both fortifying my fists and empowering them, even still I could feel bones start to ache and crack. I paid it no mind and kept pushing, hitting him with a multitude of consecutive blows.
I finally stopped when his arms fell to his side, dangling limply, even so, a smile was still stuck on his face. I reared my fist back ready to wipe that smug everpresent look off of his face when I heard a rush of footsteps approaching. Swinging my fist across his face I used my mental ability to enter his mind, knowing this was all I could do given the situation. Up until now every time I had used this power it was different, first with myself, second against Jackson getting flashes of his life story, and third with Jordan. Now I was attempting to force my way in and use it as an attack.
After pushing through a bit of resistance I forced myself into his mind, it was fairly empty say for a familiar desk sitting in the middle of the empty black space. At it sat Rubeus, younger, but not any less intimidating and imposing. It seemed like a replaying of the moment I slit his throat but this was his subconscious. I walked over to him calmly, my emotions at bay for the moment as my full attention was on suppressing Rubeus's pushback. I sat down across from him attempting to assess his thoughts and emotions from his face.
"Well this is quite the surprise, Brian, you never fail to more than exceed my expectations." He said smiling down at me with his signature smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. He was also in his classic red and black suit that seemed intrinsic to his being. "So what brings you to such a private and vulnerable place, here inside my mind?"
"Seeing as you interrupted our civilized discussion earlier I thought we could continue without any unnecessary interruption," I replied, my tone and attitude passive-aggressive as I used my mental abilities to suppress him further. "Oh sorry about that, I'm still not used to using my ability like this, I'm sure you understand."
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
"Ah yes, I believe we left off with your trauma dumping, which I can see is explained by this 'ability' as you put it," Rubeus said inquisitively, shrugging off the suppression and continuing his dialogue. "I do wonder if this ability was the result of the mental experimentation and manipulation that was performed on you. Or if you were resilient to it and acquired the ability from this natural resistance. Nonetheless, It's something to consider as having a unique ability might end up being commonplace seeing as we have not made contact with many that have been altered." Realizing he had run away with the sentence Rubues apologizes. "Ah, I apologize for going on about that, I suppose I'm always in work mode, assessing the facts and coming up with theories and the like."
"How can you be so casual about all this, you act as if none of this is personally affecting you, are you so delusional that you still feel nothing as I'm literally in your mind in control of the whole situation? I mean you literally just stated how this is a private and vulnerable place, and yet you're speaking as if you are an outside observer looking into this situation." I stated, my emotions slightly flaring at the ridiculousness of Rubues's actions.
Rubeus broke out into laughter, buckling over and holding his stomach, like it was all some sort of sick joke to him. He wiped a tear from his eye and actually looked like he was enjoying himself.
"Nobody has made me laugh like that in quite a while, but I suppose your perspective and response is a valid one," Rubeus said, still chuckling to himself throughout the sentence.
"Anyways," I said angrily but trying to focus on the main conversation again. "I'm wondering how in the world you're still alive, my best guess is some advanced technology or healing device. You also seem to possess an ability as well as superhuman strength and durability, I could sense it before you even walked in by the way."
Rubeus let my words simmer in his mind, calculating how to respond to me. Seeming to take it seriously he took a few more moments before speaking.
"You did some serious damage to me, even with the advanced tech we had I'm very lucky to be alive. Why am I so uncaring you ask?" Rubeus let out a laugh. "I simply don't matter! neither do you!" Rubeus stated hysterically.
I noticed something was off about this whole thing, how empty it felt and was here. I stood up and walked away, simply ignoring the useless back and forth. I tried to force a memory of his to come forth. I wasn't entirely sure I could as I couldn't directly interact with Jordan's private memories but there was a severe lack of any substance. Every mindscape was most likely different but something deep within me told me this wasn't right.
Getting an idea I sauntered back over to Rubeus, deciding to treat this like a case that needed to be solved rather than something personal and intimate. Not only to distance myself from it but to let me view this with more clarity and logic rather than pure emotion. As I say this what I was about to test was more based on intuition and a feeling rather than logic but I used it as a tool to connect information to formulate an idea of what was going on. I didn't grasp the how and why but I felt I figured out the what, that this Rubues wasn't real somehow.
In the moment I didn't understand the implications or details, all I knew was the Rubues in front of me didn't seem right, he was more irrational and felt like a shell of the man I had remembered. He looked the same and had his mannerisms and intimidating persona but something really felt off. As I got close to Rubeus his expression shifted, it was very subtle as his face was always statuesque but it was like he was ready to jump into the defensive at any moment. Taking action I appeared behind Rubeus and reached out for him, but right as I expected to feel the back of his head I was suddenly flying away from him.
Rubeus had, up until this point, been holding back significantly, it seemed that within his own domain, he had more control and power than I had estimated. Using my full focus and not underestimating my opponent I compressed the space to where we were both snug next to each other. already essentially touching him I spoke one final message before using my ability on him again.
"Check and mate!"
Putting my idea and plan into action I used my mental ability on this quote on quote fake Rubeus. Getting the sought-after result I was transported to a secondary location, at this point it was fairly confusing to know what was even going on. I was cramped into a small space, feeling like nothing had changed but the fact Rubeus was gone. Feeling around for a second I felt clothes and some other miscellaneous items around me. Searching around for a doorknob or any sort of indication that the closet I was inside had an exit I finally snagged onto something. It was a small indentation in the door and as I attempted to jossle it around I finally got it to open.
The door slid to the left and as it opened up I was blinded by the light in the hallway in front of me. Taking some time to adjust to the sudden invasion of light as I had been in very dark environments. Looking around the hallway had a detailed red and black carpet sprawling out in the middle of the floor, and the walls were adorned with paintings. The space was homely and relaxing but very foreign in the city. Most residential and even commercial buildings were very plain and basic, soulless in my opinion. Most cities were now like this but there were still places around the world that had some humanity to them.
Walking forward a bit, peering curiously at the paintings and walls, I noticed two doors. They were across from each other one to my left and one to my right. Peering into the door to my left I was met with a young infant crawling around the floor, some adults smiling and enjoying the time with their baby. Closing the door I walked further down the hallway passing by multiple sets of doors. Continuing to walk I halted my steps as I had noticed a door that was drastically different from all the ones so far. first of all the light in the hallway was flickering and the wall, painting, and carpet in front of it looked old and decrepit. The door itself was cracked and looked ready to fall off its hinges, afraid to open it and break it somehow.
I gently grabbed the doorknob and opened the door, it creaking and waning in the process. On the other side, I was met with a less-than-pleasant sight. The male parenteral figure was clearly drunk, belt in hand. The child, clearly Rubeus, now a young boy, was on his knees. He wrapped himself into a ball, his hands covering the back of his neck as his father beat into him. His father screamed curses, obscenities, and overall very unkind words at him as he beat him senselessly. He only stopped once he got worn out from exhaustion combined with his drunken state.
Young Rubues lay in a fetal position sobbing, his mother appearing and looking on with disappointment. I stood and watched, disgusted with the scene, this dynamic seemed all too common. I was afraid it would end with Rubues killing his father down the line, but from what I heard it seemed that Ruebues's parents had high expectations of him and beat those expectations into him. Suddenly the memory reset, starting back up again from the start, deciding I had seen enough I stepped away. Continuing down the hallway the dilapidated doors became increasingly more frequent, along with a growing sense of unease at how eerie it was.
As I continued to walk, Where my foot should have met solid ground it instead met nothing. Twisting as I started falling, I grabbed onto the ledge and lifted myself back up onto it. Sitting up and looking out, I was astonished by the view in front of me. I jumped out onto a platform floating and stared out into the ethereal void. After finding my balance I took a more assessing look around, my jaw dropping slightly at the sight. The space was filled with a cosmic display of pastel colors and dream-like star formations. Set in this ethereal space were many different rectangular boxes that led into different hallways. They all seemed to indicate different times in Rubeus's life and also appeared much smaller on the outside.
The space, in general, was very interesting, between the floating platforms connecting the hallways and the pure scope of how insignificant it all felt compared to the vastness of it. The environment was also in constant motion, the platforms moving around and always making new connections making it feel alive and alien. I made my way over to the middle of the space where there was a large solid metal box, examining it further there was no entrance. I knocked on the box and heard a harsh clang in response. I looked around at the other hallways floating about, noticing an aesthetic like that of the city I made my way over to it. Jumping up into the hallway I noticed a very distinct difference right away, the hallway having a turn. The deeper I got the more turns and diverging paths I encountered, it was more of a maze than anything else. Reaching a dead end there was a door at the end of it, it was a classic motion sensor door. Deciding to just commit I approached it and as the door opened a blinding white light enveloped me as I was integrated into the memory.