You know that feeling of being between a rock and a hard place? That holy crap feeling of absolute and certain trouble? Well that was me after a man named Dante asked for my help in an issue of life and death.

Who am I though? Oh I’m just a normal girl who wants to be a reporter. I just happened to have an extraordinary step brother.

My name is Julianne March, formerly Julianne Alderette before my mom remarried. That is where is I begin this story, just after the wedding and during the reception.

The ceremony was simple, small, and very traditional compared to the weddings you see on the TV. That fact somehow made the event more special than if my Mom had followed her wedding planners advice and released doves at the ‘I do’s’. The fact that there wasn’t any gimmicks or special oddities to the ceremony only made me love the romance of the event even more.

   The Wedding had been outside in a portion of Central Park that was commonly rented out for weddings and the reception was in the area directly adjacent to it. Eight white cloth covered table were arranged in an open U - shape with an extra long ninth table with food and the wedding cake on it. The table sat a little ways beyond the opening to allow people to enter the open shape.

To the left of the tables was an open pavilion with stone floors, there a band was getting set-up to play for when the dance floor was opened up. My Mom and my new step Dad, Dean March, stood in the middle of the pavilion’s stone floor. Both of them were happily receiving peoples congratulations with smiles on their faces.

My Mom looked beautiful with her chestnut colored hair tied in an elegant braid, her green eyes behind new sleek dark framed glasses, and a clean white long sleeved wedding dress that contrasted her cinnamon colored skin gorgeously. Dean looked good in his crisp dark suit and dark blue vest under the jacket. He’d trimmed his bread down so that it looked like it was clean shaven a day or so ago, his brown eyes matched his sun kissed tan skin since he worked outdoors. My new step father had also trimmed his hair shorter giving him more of a rugged look than he had before.

   I stood next to them in a purple dress that fell down mid-calf with short sleeves and my hair in a simple ponytail. The dress itself was nice but I’m not particularly fond of wearing purple dresses. I was however fond of the strappy black sandals with the four inch heels that Mom bought me for today.

I moved a little closer to Mom so that I could talk to her without anyone else hearing, “Mom, I thought you said that he’d be here,” I whined playfully.

She smiled at me and everyone around smiled with her, “Dean said he promised to be here. You know how busy he gets.”

   “No, I don’t. I’ve never met him mom,” I told her eyeing her and smiling at my Mom to let her know I wasn’t mad, “and I want to meet my new brother.”  

   “Fair enough,” Mom said smiling even wider. “Dean said something about him having a surprise for the wedding. Do you wanna meet him now?”

   I actually felt my eyes widen happily, “really? Yes yes please.”

   “Right away,” she said winking to me slyly. She turned to dean and whispered into his ear so that I couldn’t hear them. The look on his face quickly became one that matched her wicked smile and he pulled out his phone. I could tell that he shot off two texts and quickly pocketed the phone.

   It wasn’t even a minute later when I saw him check it and nod at Mom. He then shot off another text and tucked the phone away while he waited.

   From the direction of the band a quiet shriek of feedback came out of the speakers. I turned around to see what was going on and saw Dean’s oldest friend holding a microphone and smiling widely past the thick brown beard that covered his face. When he spoke you could still hear the young jovial attitude that told of history behind the people, “the bride and groom are ready to move on to the next part of the wedding. Their first dance as a married couple.”

   The crowd cheered as everybody moved off the floor and I moved along with them but I was determined to stay on the inside of the ring that surrounded the floor.

   Then Dean’s friend, whose name I could never remember, spoke again into the mic, “There is also a small surprise for the couple. Jensen, Dean’s son and Caitlin’s new step son will be playing the piano part of the their song, Queen’s Somebody to Love.” He swung his arm to the piano and I followed the movement and smiled at the man who stood behind it.   

   From where I stood I couldn’t make out too much of the way he looked but I could see his short raven black hair, the equally dark suit, and that he was certainly taller than me. Not that that was hard to accomplish. In my heels I only stand at around five feet eight inches tall. Everything else seemed to be obscured by the distance between us and I was tempted to walk around to get a better look when he sat down and looked at the best man that stood behind the mic.

   The best man nodded back and Jensen started into the opening notes of the song and from what I could tell it was perfect. It was just as the best man started singing that my Mom and Dean got into position and started spinning.

   I looked at Jensen who was focused on playing the piano and my Mom on the dance floor and was torn. I wanted to watch my new brother and learn as much about him as I could through observation before I talked to him. But I also wanted to watch my Mom’s first dance at her wedding and remember it for the rest of my life. The choice was simple and I watched my new step Dad turn my Mom around on the floor.

   Both of them were smiling throughout the whole song and everybody that was watching, me included, could feel their love through that dance. When it ended they stopped, kissed, and as they pulled away they looked into each others eyes and were locked there for a few seconds before they looked away. Dean looked at Jensen and swung an arm at his son and everybody started clapping at the performance.

   Jensen’s arm moved and he started scratching the back of his head in what felt to me like a nervous tick. The best man drew everybody’s attention to him again by tapping the live microphone and smiling at the crowd, “the dance floor is now open. So please, feel free to dance until you feet are sore,” he chuckled and handed the microphone to an empty handed band member before he walked away from them and towards the food table.

   I turned to look at Jensen as the band opened into a slow song that I didn’t recognize right off away. That didn’t matter though, I was about to meet my new brother and I had no idea what I was going to say. Skirting around the dance floor, I kept my eyes on him so that I wouldn’t lose him as I got steadily closer. For some reason, I had an irrational fear that if I stopped watching him he’d vanish before I talked to him.

   It was somewhere around halfway to the piano when someone tapped my shoulder distracting me from my goal. I turned to look and found myself face to face with a man. A very pretty man. He wore a dark suit that was similar to the rest of the men at the wedding except fro the tie. The tie was black with gold clock faces and gears threaded upon it in a very steam punk-like design. His brown hair was a little longer than most of the men at the wedding but it was also combed back in a very Gosling-like style. The entrancing part about him was his metallic gold colored eyes that seemed to draw me in.

   “I- I’m sorry I’m heading somewhere,” I told him trying not get too distracted anymore by his pretty eyes.

   “I am sorry about interrupting,” he said with his pleasant even voice. “The song is about halfway over. Could I trouble you to finish the song with me? I’m sure where you’re going will still be there in a minute or two.”        

   I felt my cheeks warm a little as I knew that I wanted to tell him that I would be happy to dance with him later. Instead, I nodded my head and walked out to the dance floor with him right next to me.

   The pretty man stopped, turned to face me, and gave me a pleasant little bow that I immediately and clumsily returned. He then extended his hand and I took it as we moved close and he took my waist. It was then that we both started moving and turning around at a pace slow enough to allow us to talk while we spun around.

   “I think I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Dante. What’s your name?” he asked smiling pleasantly at me.

   “I’m Julianne, daughter of the bride,” I said returning the smile and rolling my eyes at the title that I had felt the need to state. “So… Are you here for the bride or the groom?” I asked.

   “Uh… neither,” he said, “I’m actually here to see you.”

   Suddenly, his charm and looks seemed to shift. He was still both those things but it was tainted with a creepiness that made those traits certainly less attractive. Dante must have sensed the change in my demeanor because he stopped smiling and became a bit sheepish.

   “Sorry, I am here to see you but not in a… whats a good word… stalkerish way. I just need to talk to you about something important,” he said trying to console me and it only worked a little. He still came across as creepy.

   “Why are you here to see me?” I asked as my heart seemed to pound harder nervously. “Especially during my Mom’s wedding?

   “Its about Jensen,” he said and my nervousness only got worse. What was he going to tell me? That Jensen was a sociopath, a felon, a serial killer? What?

   I rolled my hand in the air, indicating for him to continue. He did so, “Look, when you go over to see Jensen he will quickly head away from the wedding and over towards the denser area of the park. I know that you will want to stay here at the wedding but you need to follow him. Trust me when I say that you will be astounded and amazed at what you’ll see,” he let go of my waist and reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a thick old looking gold coin. “If you have questions I will answer them. Just ask the coin to meet me and I will visit shortly,” he said just as the song ended. Dante stopped moving and smiled, “I guess my time is up. I will now leave you alone. Have fun,” he said bowing politely. He put the coin into my hand then walked away, quickly vanishing into the crowd.

   Relief quickly washed over me as he left. Dante certainly came across as creepy but he didn’t seem the dangerous kind of creepy. I shook my head as I clutched the old golden coin in my hand and turned to see Jensen picking up the sheet music and putting the multiple pieces of paper in a paperclip.

   I hurried over to him and stood right behind him as he turned around and was surprised at the man who stood before me. In addition to the dark hair, he also had pale blue eyes that implied intelligence and a sharp chin that added to the effect of making him look smart.

   “Can I help you?” he asked, his voice a little deep but not oddly so.

   “Yes, I mean no, I mean… Ugh, I’m sorry. I just wanted to meet you. My name is Julianne, Caitlin’s daughter,” I said looking up at him.      

   “Oh,” Jensen said quickly looking away, “well I guess you know who I am,” he chuckled quietly. “Sorry we haven’t met sooner but I get busy with school and work. You know how it is, right?”

   “No,” I admitted, “I’m only a senior in high school.”

   “Well, it keeps me very busy. Its not a great excuse but its what I got,” he told me barely looking at me. “Anyway I’m glad that you approached me. I’ve wanted to meet you too.”

   “Really?” I said with sudden glee.

   “Yeah,” he said smiling at I assumed was my enthusiasm. “Dad told me you do stuff for your school paper and want to study journalism in college?”

   “I do,” I said with a little bit more pep in my voice. “I want to see, learn, and do things and of course tell everybody about it.”

   “That’s commendable,” he said. “Just try not to be like those reporters in the movies that get in trouble by going where its dangerous. Seriously whats wrong with-” he stopped suddenly and looked towards the denser part of the park and I swear I felt my heart suddenly fall into my stomach.

   “I, uh, got to go,” he said not looking away from that spot in the park. “If my Dad asks about me tell him I’ll be back.”

   “oh sure,” I told him unsure of what to do.

   Then exactly as Dante told me, Jensen hurried but didn’t run towards the part of the park that he’d locked onto and something about the way he moved changed. He walked straighter, more sure, and he somehow seemed more imposing than he had before. It wasn’t as if he got bigger or anything quite that obvious. but there was something in his walk that just screamed ‘don’t mess with me or I’ll mess you up’.

   My heart dropped into my stomach and started to twist as I thought again to what Dante told me. So far he had told me the truth about everything and I honestly considered seeing if he’d told me the truth about everything.

   I grumbled about not wanting to leave the reception but I hurried after him trying to be stealthy as I walked. He moved around a hedge into the tree cover and I rounded it a few moments later and cursed my gorgeous heels. Pretty as they were they most certainly weren’t made with the concept of quiet in mind as they clacked with every step making it hard to feel let alone be quiet.

   Luckily, Jensen didn’t seem to notice as he continued walking and rounded another shrub. As I turned at it I stopped and crouched low as I saw Jensen. He’d stopped maybe fifteen feet away from the shrub and stood in front of a group of four men. All of them made me nervous in a way that told me they were potentially dangerous. They were in dress casual clothes with trousers, button down shirts, dark blazers, and all four men wore identical plain steel colored rings on their middle right fingers. It was like some one took the punk out of current street gangs with a more modern take to the Chicago gangsters of the 1940’s.

   “Get lost,” one of them told Jensen annoyed. “We aren’t playing around.”

   “Neither am I,” Jensen told them. “I’m afraid that I’m going to have to ask you to leave. There is a wedding going on just over there,” he said gesturing in that general direction. “That means that there could be a lot of potential bystanders. Whatever your business is it can wait a few hours I’m sure.”

   “Is this guy serious?” the second one said in mock confusion. “Look, we’re not here to cause trouble. Just move and we’ll be out of here quick as a-” he twisted around and threw a heavy blow into Jensen’s gut.

   Gasping as I saw Jensen move and the man curse. Eyeing the scene closer, I saw what made the gangster cuss. Somehow, Jensen had moved fast enough to avoid the surprise right hook by stepping to the side.

   Then Jensen quickly took another step towards the thug and threw three strong jabs into the attackers body one landed on the shoulder, another into his stomach, and the last into his head. The man took each punch in succession and on the last he crumpled over to the side, he was still alive but obviously out cold.

   “What the-” One of the two men behind the talkative one said reaching into his pocket pulling out a knife that sprung open with a menacing click. Reacting near instantly, my new brother shifted from where he was standing to right in front of the knife guy. He was there one moment and the next he’s in front of someone else. I was so stunned that I swear I almost missed Jensen’s hand glow a turquoise blue and grab the blade of the knife.

   The man smiled and pulled on the blade handle only to groan in effort as Jensen held it firm. Jensen sharply turned his wrist and the knife blade snapped at the base. He turned his head to look at the other man who hadn’t talked and saw him draw his own knife, only this one a fixed hunting knife.

With contemptuous ease, I watched him move the broken knife blade from his palm to between his index and middle finger and flick it at the fourth man. It winged the mans thumb startling him with the unforeseen pain making him drop the knife. Jensen again moved to right in front of him and snatched the knife out of the air and whacked the distracted man with the handle.      

   The second out of the two men who had talked looked at his fallen partner and then at Jensen then back at the unconscious three, “No way. That’s- that’s not possible. He,” he pointed at the first man Jensen had beaten, “was an amateur boxer, undefeated. Unless you’re… Oh no,” he looked at my brother with sudden fear, “you’re Nobody?”

   Jensen nodded and my worry changed to curiosity. Why would somebody call him Nobody like it was his name. That was something I was very interested in figuring out. Later.

   For now I watched the mans surprise turn to fear, “no no no,” he said as he quickly took several steps back and reached his left hand into the back oh his pants and pull out the shiny looking revolver.

   Before I could even register the the man had drawn a gun on my new brother, Jensen had ducked into a roll to close the distance between them and to avoid the point of the gun. He moved faster than a man should be able to as he swept the mans feet out from underneath him and as he fell to the ground, Jensen grabbed the revolver’s barrel and smacked the man over the head with the handle of the heavy firearm.

   Admittedly, I was stunned. This entire scene was just so completely unnatural and I hated that I knew nothing about what had just happened. Something else had stuck out to me about that exchange. Jensen had beaten them easily. Easily enough that it made me think that there was more that Jensen could have done, things that were a lot more impressive than that paltry but impressive fighting and power display.

  I watched on as Jensen reached into one of the men’s pockets, took out the phone, and dialed 911. It was, of course, picked up quickly and I watched on flabbergasted as Jensen’s voice dropped James Earl Jones deep, “please inform the organized crime team that four gangsters belonging to the Steel Band Gang have been rendered unconscious and are awaiting pick-up. I’m going to leave them here at the west end of the park in a cluster of trees. Hurry before they wake up,” he said and hung up.

   He then hung up the phone and tossed it at the unconscious men. He then started moving back the way he came. That meant right towards me, I thought and quickly circled around the shrub until I was out of his sight as he walked past where I had been mere seconds before.

   Once he round the first shrub they had passed, I stood up and stared out where he’d gone and a single word came out of my mouth, “superhero,” I then clarified the statement more clearly out loud to myself, “my new brother is a superhero. That… is so cool. I must know more,” I told myself smiling. I stood up, dusted the nature that had accumulated on my dress off, and made my way back to the wedding.

For the rest of today, I would just focus on my Mom’s special day. Tomorrow though I planned to learn more. My sense of curiosity would not let me relax if I didn’t plan on it.

It was nine-thirty three A.M. of the next morning and I yawned as I stood in the police department building holding a steaming cup of black coffee as I waited. The cup wasn’t for me but it sure did sound good this particular Sunday morning. I was up late at the wedding helping clean up and I didn’t end up going home until after one AM. What was worse was that I didn’t end up going to sleep until two.

   I eyed the coffee again with something that I swear felt like physical attraction and wondered to myself whether or not it loved and wanted me too. Luckily, the policeman that I was waiting for walked in and interrupted my line of thought. He walked around his cluttered desk and sat down in it with a groan before even acknowledging my existence in the room, “So… who are you?”

   “Hi, my name is Julianne March. I was hoping you could answer a few questions for me,” I stated plainly. “Completely off the record of course, Officer.”

   “Oh, of course,” he said in an annoyed drawl. “Look I’m busy. You know the basic shtick, right?”

   “You’re limited on what you can say on active investigations. You won’t say anything that can be considered dangerous information. And you won’t say anything specific,” I counted off from memory. I had been here several times in the past asking about other subjects that were much less important.

   “You got it. So what you want?” he asked then eyed the cup. “Is that for me?”

   I sighed and handed it to him. This coffee worked as a bribe for most of the police force, “Yup. I didn’t drink it.”

   His mood visibly brightened, “what do you want?”

   “I heard a rumor…” I said trailing off, “about a guy called Nothing or was it Nobody? What do you know about him?”

   The officer practically spat up his coffee,”how did you hear about that? We haven’t told anybody about him.”

   “I’m not at liberty to discuss my sources,” I said coyly. “So what do you know?”

   He looked at the coffee again and sighed, “he’s a spook. He calls in every other day or so through the emergency line and calls in an attack. Only he’s the one who ended up on top over the most dangerous crime organization that’s existed in the US for the last fifteen years. You’ve heard of the Steel Band Gang, Right?”

   I nodded and waved my hand for him to continue.

   “He’s been doing his thing for the last few weeks. We don’t really know much about him accept for that it is a man and that he has a thing for the Steel Band Gang,” he said and sipped the coffee. “We’ve gotten over fifty members of the gang in custody thanks to Nobody related attacks alone.”

   “Why is he called Nobody?” I asked.

   “From what I’ve heard its from the first attack he did. The last Gang member that went down asked him who he was and you know who he responded? I’m Nobody important. Can you believe that? He takes down seven armed gang members alone and he thinks he’s nobody important,” he said chuckling with amusement.  

   “Thats very… peculiar,” I said trying to act like I didn’t know anything. “What do the convicts that he beats down say about him?”

   The Officer raised an eyebrow, “oh Miss March, whatever do you mean?”

   I swear that when I swallowed nervously it was comically loud. He knew that I knew something but wasn’t sure how or what I knew, “I don’t know. One of the several rumors that I’ve heard said that he was able to grab and hold an open knife and snap it easily. Another said that he could move so fast that he might as well have teleported,” I answered.

   “I’ve heard that too,” he said smiling at me. “I’ve also heard that he talks with a heavy Asian accent and belches fire,” he said taking another sip from the coffee. He eyes it with a satisfied smile, “You’re going to have to tell me where you get these coffees you bring us. They’re awesome.”

   “How about a deal then,” I ventured, “you answer one more question and I’ll tell you where it is.”

   “Deal,” he responded so near instantly I wondered if he’d thought about it.

   “Do you know who he is?” I asked.

   His expression seemed to turn annoyed, “No. We have no idea who he is.We haven’t caught him on camera and no one has been able to get a good look at him. Something about the lighting causing odd shadowed effects around his head.”

   “Excuse me,” Spoke a voice behind me and before I turned around a single hand clasped my left shoulder. I looked up and was greeted by the sight of a guy in a G-man styled suit. He had no nonsense short brown hair, deep green eyes, and a short stubble beard that gave him a ‘lax but somehow still serious look’. He looked at the Officer and spoke, “what are you talking about?”

   The Officer suddenly looked sheepish, “Uh… she was asking about Nobody.”

   “And why is Miss…”

   “March,” I filled in nervously.

   “Miss March interested in Nobody?” he asked giving me a small, reassuring smile.

   “I, uh, I’m part of my school’s newspaper and I’m doing some pre-research to figure out where to start on-the-record,” I quickly lied and got the impression that he didn’t believe me. “Who’re you?”

   “I’m Special Agent Merrick of the FBI,” he told me releasing my shoulder. He walked around to the front of me, pulled out his badge and flashed it at me. I caught his name and picture and nodded as he continued, “I’m assisting in the Steel Band Gang investigation. Nobody is a person of interest and we are trying to find him. What do you know?’ he asked me bluntly.

   ‘I know who he is,’ I thought but didn’t speak it. Instead I said the same thing that I told the Officer, “I heard some rumors and decided to follow them up. Nobody sounds like he could be a good story,” I said not completely lying.

   “Really?” he asked, his smiled faded as he questioned me.

   “Yes,” I said and I think I said it a little too quickly.

“Uh-huh,” he said still incredulous. He then turned to Officer Yensid, “You realize you’re telling a civilian, an underage civilian, an underage civilian who also is a reporter about an ongoing investigation. One involving criminal’s willing to shoot old ladies,” he said then looked down at me, “she lived.”  

   He sat there flabbergasted and stunned. He then sipped the delicious coffee and smiled thinly, “I think you should arrest me. I was bribed.”

   The Special Agent then rounded on me and smiled widely, “Jeremy’s secret coffee? The Deep Dark?”

   I smiled, “yeah. You’ve gotten it?”

   “Every time I get into town,” Agent Merrick told me with a smile that said it all. “Best coffee in town.”

   “Where is this place?” Officer Yensid pleaded. “You promised,” he reminded me.

   Agent Merrick spoke instead of me, “its a small establishment under the Rush’s Diner on Ash Street,” he said and I nodded in agreement.

   “Finally,” the Officer said with relief taking over his expression, “you’ve dangled that bait over the Precinct’s head for months.”

   “Moving on,” Agent Merrick said looking at me again, “seriously, Nobody could be dangerous. We think its lucky that he hasn’t killed anybody yet or that he hasn’t been killed. He’s taken down the less threatening of the Steel Band Gang’s thugs. Some of his heavy hitters were Marines and soldiers before they were dishonorably discharged. Anything you know would be helpful,” Agent Merrick said looking me in the eyes.

   It was disconcerting but I weathered those deep green eyes and answered, “I’m sorry. I really don’t know more than you guys do.”

   He still didn’t look convinced but I had gotten what I was looking for. I looked at my watch and feigned alarm, “Oh crap. I gotta go. I have a school thing in an hour.” I picked up my bag that was sitting on the floor next to the chair, “Are you done questioning me?”

   Agent Merrick stared at me for another moment before answering, “yeah, you can go,” he said reaching into his pocket. He produced a business card and handed it to me, “he is my personal cell phone. Call me if you happen to learn or remember anything.”

   I took it and looked at it briefly, “Damian Merrick?”

   “That’s my name,” he said smiling. “though please call me Agent Merrick.”

   Nodding, I put the card into my bag and stood up, “thanks for the information. Officer I may come see you again if I wanna use this as a source,” I said trying to play this off as a usual visit.

   He nodded as I walked away from the desk. I closed my eyes to concentrate my attention to my sense of hearing while I moved forward slowly.

   “What was up with that?” the officer asked Agent Merrick.

   “She’s hiding something,” he said seriously. “she was here fishing for information but why I couldn’t tell,” he told the Officer Yensid.

   Opening my eyes to avoid walking anything and drawing more attention to myself, I felt my heart beat louder with what I assumed was fear. That Special Agent had great intuition and that was a bad thing. Now he knew that I knew something and if he was anything like me he would look into me. He would try to figure out how I know what I know and he had a lot more resources to dig into than me just by being a Fed.

   I mentally cursed as I walked out of the precinct and headed to the nearby bus stop. I pushed my hands into my pockets and felt the gold coin that Dante had given me. For a moment I considered speaking to the coin like he had said would call him. But the idea was so ridiculous that I pulled my hand out and continued on.

   I stopped at the bus stop and waited. The bus would be here soon and so I sat down on the bench. The coin in my pocket suddenly seemed a lot bigger in my pocket than it had a moment ago.

   “Whatever,” I muttered giving in and pulled out the old coin. It was a large gold coin just as it was before but now that she was looking at it she noticed the how roughly molded the coin looked with the profile of a bald man’s head with a laurel draped on his head. On the reverse side was carved the image of a clocks face and arms. It was an odd coin but it was a neat old odd coin.

   “Can I meet with Dante?’ she said asking the coin very literally.

   The coin failed to confirm the appointment.

   I clenched it in my fist and where I should have felt the coin dig into my palm I felt nothing. I looked at my hand and opened it slowly. I discovered with some wonder that the coin was gone, only warmth was still in my hand where the coin had been.

   “That was quick,” said a male voice next to me. I could hear the metal ring of a coin being flipped several times before I looked and saw Dante. Though he wasn’t in the suit this time. Now he wore olive drab cargo pants with a plain black t-shirt under his worn and faded leather aviator jacket.

   My defenses shot up as I looked at him with a glare, “you followed me?”

   “Actually no. You called me and I came. The concept cannot be hard to grasp,” he said with what seemed like genuine confusion.

   “Then how did you get here so quickly?” I asked him, still ready to throw down should he try anything. Though why he would I had no idea.

   “Like this,” Dante said raising his clenched hand to show off the coin that sat over his thumb. He flipped it up and my eyes followed it. As my eyes followed it back into his empty palm, I practically jumped off from my seat in shock. We weren’t in front of the Police Precinct anymore.

   We were in what appeared to be an old house. It wasn’t a run down old house but it did look like need some repair work. The walls were a lighter green color and bare of pictures or ornament, only just enough lamps were placed around the room to let people see where they were walking, and the couch that they sat on was a dingy old yellow one from the seventies. Along one of the walls was a hall that led into different areas of the house though I had a few guesses what they were.

   “Ooooh, look its magic,” he said in an exaggerated magicians voice.

   “You’re kidding,” I said astounded. “You must be because magic doesn’t exist, does it?”

   “Oh it does,” he said smiling widely, “It’s just a big government conspiracy. You see the World Governments don’t want everybody knowing magic exists because then everybody would try to learn it. And if everybody learned it nobody would want the government to try and control them. You get that?” he asked still smiling.

   “I think so,” I said holding my chin in thought. “Really though, magic’s a government conspiracy?”

   “No it isn’t. I’ve just wanted to say it was to somebody who wouldn’t know that it wasn’t for years,” he said bursting into a small fit of snickering giggles.

   “That was not cool,” I said folding my arms and looking at him annoyed.

   “No, but it was funny right,” he said slowly calming down.

   I smiled and looked away from him as I tried to get the subject matter back on track, “so you said that you were going to explain things to me. Like what kinds of things?”

   He let out a heavy sigh that seemed to release all the humor in him in one outward breath, “Lets start at the beginning of the modern magical times, okay?”

   I nodded.

   “Have you heard of the Destruction of Towerview?” Dante asked seriously.

   “Yeah,” I said with sudden fear over where this conversation was going.

   Towerview was a city in Colorado that was for all intents and purposes destroyed late in the year nineteen-ninety. There was a lot of rumors as to how it was destroyed however and not a lot of actual facts. One theory stated that Russia had sent in a new type of stealth plane and sent in an armed force of five hundred men to capture it. Another stated that there was a nuclear testing site under the city that accidentally detonated and wiped the city away. Others said that they city drank contaminated water and died from cholera. They just kept on getting more absurd. The only two things that the rumors all had in common was that the city was now a dead zone and that the Government sent in a team to investigate and they got back out.

   “Well whatever you’d heard I’m sure that it is wrong,” he said looking away. “The city was attacked by the living dead. It’s A parasitic zombie virus called Undeath that literally brings back the deceased. It was created by a madman who called himself The Plague Maker, he released it upon the morgues and watched the panic ensue.”  

   “Please tell me you’re kidding,” I said.  

   “Unfortunately not. I was there and it was as bad as it sounds. There were a few survivors but out of a population of around nearly two hundred and fifty thousand people only around two hundred people survived,” he said gravely.

   “Oh. Oh my,” I said unsure of what to say.

   “They did manage to catch the Plague Maker due to the efforts of the team assigned by the FBI. But not before he launched a rocket containing a new retro-virus that he created called Destiny. It was released in the upper atmosphere and due to design spread to every corner of the world. It actively inserted itself into every mortal’s genes and made it so that there was a chance it could trigger an extraordinary ability in the carrier. Specifically in the carrier’s offspring. This lead to what the Plague Maker called the new age of Gods or more specifically what has been termed ‘SoulShifters,” Dante said looking her over closely.

   “And I take it that Jensen is one of these… SoulShifters?” I asked quietly.

   Nodding, he continued, “people who are born into power like SoulShifters have never stopped being born but there was a sudden and extreme influx of them appearing. This would mess up any sort of current power base but it also moved things into action. In the last twenty years spellcasters, soulshifters, monsters, immortals, old mythical gods, demons, angels, fairies, and even Death itself has tried to do things to this world. Most were thwarted or deviated from their goals. I say that to say this. You’re new brother is a SoulShifter and is one of the most potentially powerful ones to exist. Someday he could be as strong as all of them,” he said standing up. “Wow, I talked a lot. Would you like some water?”

   “Sure,” she said trying to help her mind absorb all the information that she had just been told. “Sooo, you’re saying that Jensen has powers?” I asked incredulously.

   “You can’t tell me that you don’t believe that fact? Especially when you have seen it for your own eyes. Jensen has power that goes beyond financial, political, or even physical. Well he gets physical with his power but you know what I mean,” he chuckled as he disappeared into one of the ways out of the room.

   “So what does he matter to you? What does it mean to you if he lives or dies?” I asked loudly so that he could hear me. Why would he be interested in my new brother if he didn’t have a reason for trying to help. No one really acts out of altruism.

   I heard the water faucet turn on and a moment later turn off. He walked in a moment later and handed me the cup, “It matters because there is a moment in Jensen’s time-line coming up and that he’ll have a choice to make. There is only two choices and if he makes the wrong one he will become the worlds worst tyrant and killer.”

My eyes widened in shock, “no way. Worse than Hitler, or Castro, or Stalin, or pol pot, or-”

   “Worse than all of them,” he said gravely. “Jensen will, if he makes the wrong choice, become the killer of more than a million people by his own hands. He’ll be indirectly responsible for a thousand times that.”

   Suddenly, a thought occurred and I looked at him pointedly, “how do you know this?”

   “Because I’m from the future,” he said smiling. “Well sort of. I… uh, have a lot of talents and my biggest is called Chronomancy.”

   “Chronoman-” I thought it through, “time magic?” I asked skeptically.

   “Yeah, I can do a lot of things that involve time,” he said looking past me, his smile gone.

   “Including time travel?”

   “Yes,” he said simply. “along with a lot of other things that don’t matter right here. What matters-”

   “I think it does,” I said eyeing him suspiciously, “how do I know that you can actually do these things. What proof do you have?”

   He sighed and reached into his pocket, producing a quarter. He showed it to me turning it over several times showing me that it was a normal quarter. He nodded at it and I took it from his hand. It really did feel like a normal quarter with the correct weight, feel, and pictures on the sides.

   “One of my time based powers involves speeding up and slowing down fields of time. I’m going to speed up the time around the coin and rapidly rust it,” he explained.

   “Should I be holding it when you-” I started and stopped as the coin stood up in my hand on its thin side. I gave it a tiny shake as it stood and it stayed standing while I tried to gently shake it away. Then several thin, string like bands of copperish light appeared around the coin and I got the impression that they had started to turn clockwise. They seemed to turn faster and faster and I swear I felt static in the air as rust started to freckle the coin. The rust quickly spread across the whole coin and brown dust started to crumble off the coin. It was less then five seconds later when the coin was nothing but a pile in my palm.

   Dante then waved his hand and silver bands appeared around where the coin had been and the coin reconstituted itself from the rust. I eyed the coin and looked at him wondering what was in that water he’d given me.

   “Satisfied?”

   “Y-yeah,” I said barely able to get the word out. “You were saying?”

   “What matters is that Jensen could do those things. He has the potential that will sprout from the events transpiring now.”

   “Events?” I asked stunned.

   “The Steel Band Gang. Stupid name but dangerous,” he said smiling again. “You know Jensen is fighting them as Nobody now, right?”

   “Yeah. Weird name,” I said with a small laugh.

   “Well, that won’t last long no matter which choice he makes,” he said and I raised an eyebrow.

   “What does that mean?” I asked.

   His wrist started to ring and he pulled up on his jackets sleeve to look at the watch on his wrist. He pressed a button and sighed, “Our time is up.”

   “What?” I blurted out upset, “You’re a Chronomancer. Can’t you just give yourself more time?”

   He laughed, “first of all I’m THE Chronomancer, the only one. And second, it doesn’t work that way. At least not yet,” he mused. “Anyway, I took you out of the moving time stream and into this stagnant one. This was a house that vanished from 1984. Anyway I can only keep anyone who isn’t me here for so long. In fact if I hadn’t been using my powers to keep you safe you would have died by now.”

   I had no idea what to say.

   “Before I send you back I have one piece of advice,” he said with copper colored bands of light shimmering around his hand. “When you get back call into your house first. Might save your life,” he said and I saw the bands flow around me and start to move faster. I felt static fill the air and I started hyperventilating at the fact panic inducing fact that he could be just about to kill me like how he rusted away the coin.

When I reappeared I was outside the precinct again and was sitting on the bus bench, alone. The conversation that had just transpired, which had taken several minutes where they had been, had only taken a few seconds here. I knew this because time on my phone hadn’t even moved a minute since before Dante appeared. I waited a few minutes for the bus to arrive and got on when it finally did. I had used the time before the bus arrived to go over the conversation several times over and came to several conclusions. The most prominent theory being that I had a tumor in my brain that was giving me insane hallucinations.

   I arrived at home thirty minutes later and grabbed my keys from my pocket. My house was a two story town house two large oak trees sitting on the large front lawn. It was nice on the outside but that fact had become normal to me.

   Fumbling my keys in my hands, I remembered Dante’s last words to me about announcing myself when I entered and shrugged. Inserting the keys and turning them, I pushed open the door, “hello?” I announced as I stepped in carefully. Why would I have to announce myself if there wasn’t anybody here. “Come out. I kn- know you’re here.”

   For a moment the entire house was silent and I grinned at my own foolish fear as I took the first step inside the entrance way when the woman appeared. She wore her pale blonde hair up in a bun, and thick glasses covered her sapphire blue eyes. She wore a long sleeve blue shirt with a padded leather vest over it, giving her that tough girl look while giving her more protection. The mystery woman also wore a pair of black jeans and thick heavy boots that thudded quietly against the wood floor.          

   “Welcome home,” she said smiling sweetly, “I needed to borrow a cup of sugar. I hope that you don’t mind that I helped myself.”

   It was then that I noticed the monster of a revolver in her right hand. The weapon was pointed down and was made known to me but was not directly threatening me. In this late morning light I could see the line of magic looking sigils that were carved into the barrel and I wondered what it could have been for.

   “No, I don’t,” I said mentally freaking out and doing my best not to let it show. I dropped my bag and walked forward and past the woman with my heart beating through my rib cage. I walked through the living room, past the brown leather couch, and into the kitchen. I grabbed a cup from the cupboard and got myself a drink from fridge before I spoke as calmly as I could, “would like some water too before you go?” I said surprised at my tone.

   “Thank you but no,” she said and I could hear the smirk in her voice. “In fact you might as well drink that. Call it a last drink instead of a last meal.”

   I swallowed nervously and sipped from the tall glass, “I guess I had better s-savor it.”

   “Unfortunately, no you can’t,” she said as she raised the gun and leveled it at my chest, “I have only one question and if you answer truthfully I let you live,” she pause for a long moment for dramatic effect. Her smile widened as she thumbed back the hammer of the revolver with large ratchet-esque sound, “Who is Nobody?”

   “Nobody Nobody sorry I don’t know a Nobody,” I said with a more bravado than I felt. Looking at it made me want to tremble at the mere size of the bulky revolver. A single bullet from that beast wouldn’t kill me, it would make me go splat.

   “Really? Cause the word from the grapevine says that you know something. Look,” she said rolling her eyes, “you’re a brave girl and I’d rather not deprive the world of a good spine. What do you know?”

   “I know that he’s been fighting the Steel Band Gang which I assume you work for considering the timing,” I said fishing for information.

   “Well its not that hard to figure out,” she said raising her unencumbered hand. On the middle finger sat a shiny steel steel band that marked her as a member of the gang. But on another seconds look I saw that on the ring was a second band of metal that looked like copper inlaid into the steel.

   “Whats the significance of the second metal?” I asked distracted by the curiosity.

   She looked at the ring and smiled, “Oh that. The second metal marks me as a lieutenant in the Gang. The police and Nobody have only encountered the grunts in the Gang. I’m a whole new kind of problem and right now I’m yours. I will only ask you one more. What do you know about Nobody?”

   I swallowed and closed my eyes, “You’re going to have to shoot me. I don’t know anything.”       

   She sighed and an explosion rang through the house. For a long moment I thought I was in shock from the pain and I was on the floor bleeding out. But the moment dragged of for what seemed like an eternity and still no pain, or pressure, or any different sensation from before other than the ringing in my ears.

   “I guess she does know you,” the woman said with a smirk in her tone.

   I opened my eyes and found Jensen’s form facing me. The shadows around him obscured his facial features just enough that if I didn’t already know who he was I wouldn’t ever have figured it out. The darkness that made it hard to tell who he was also gave him a more foreboding presence that honestly gave me the willies. But at the same time some thing in that still posture told me that he would keep me safe.

   “Why have you been doing what I said not to. You know, not being the kind of reporter that goes into dangerous situations,” he said with his augmented deep voice that also had a grit in it that mistook as anger. It was only a moment later that I found out that it was pain in his growl. Blood was dripping from the inside of his fingers as he dropped the two inch long bullet from his shaking hand and it hit the floor with a metallic thud.

   “That’s new. Never caught a bullet before,” he said turning around to face the woman. “Who are you?”

   Her smile never failed as she pointed the gun squarely at him, “I’m Elaine. Its funny, we were actually discussing you Nobody.”

   He shrugged, “why? I’m not important,” he said in a low voice. “No, never mind. That doesn’t matter. Look I can tell you’re a member of the Steel Band Gang. Tell me where I can find your boss and I won’t have to give you to the cops. Then tell them about your informant who told you about her.”

   “I’m not that cliche. I’m not that kind of lieutenant that will tell you everything. I won’t be intimidated by some odd light work that makes you more creepy and the fact that you caught a five hundred millimeter bullet,” she said showing a little teeth with her suddenly more predatory smile.

   “And I won’t be scared of that cannon of a revolver,” he said staring at it. “You used magic to ignore the recoil, right?”

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   “I guess,” she shrugged without moving the gun even a little bit. “Normally, the S&W 500’s recoil is so excessive that the shooter’s wrist could have been messed up from shooting it. I used to get hurt a lot before the boss had it enchanted but I admit,” she paused and smiled as a memory seemed to flow through her head, “I like seeing things burst into pulp. ”

   “One last chance,” Jensen said in his augmented voice, “where is your boss?”

   “Not telling,” she said coyly.

   Without any more words Jensen took a giant lunging step forward to grab the gun before she could fire again only to have her pull it away from his grabbing hands. Her movement wasn’t just to keep it away from him, she’d brought the S&W .500 to her hip and fired at Jensen with two more bursts of echoing thunderclaps.

   I swear that I didn’t scream when the assassin shot at Jensen. I am willing to admit though that I did yelp at the aftermath. The first shot collided with the couch, passed through it, and continued into the wall and I assumed outside. The second round impacted Jensen’s bicep and with his incredible reflexes managed to turn enough that when the bullet impacted it only clipped his arm and a thin line of blood trickled down his arm.

   He said nothing as what I imagined had to be incredible pain was buzzing and burning through his arm. Instead of speaking, Jensen reached out with his bloody fingers which started to glow with a yellow light from under his skin clamped his hand over the muzzle. She pulled the trigger and though Jensen groaned, he didn’t let go.

   “No. Way,” she said in amazement.

   “Ditto,” I breathed a second after Elaine spoke. The yellow glow from Jensen’s hand crept up the large handgun and engulfed the barrel in a sinister gold glow. With a little panic, Elaine pulled the trigger again only to have the barrel burst apart with the force of it knocking her to the ground. The only thing that kept her safe from the shrapnel was, I assumed, the glow that contained the metal.

   “You should know something,” he said to the dazed Elaine, “this is actually the first time that I’ve been injured since I started fighting the Steel Band Gang,” he said still holding the ruined gun in his bleeding hand and arm. “So I’m going to ask one more time before I get annoyed. Where is your boss?”

   Elaine shook her head to clear the daze away from her and she looked up at Jensen with a look somewhere between annoyance and rage on her face, “I will not say and do you wanna know why?” she didn’t wait for Jensen to answer before starting, “Because he takes care of his own. If they work for him he will take care of them. There’s also the fact that he gave me a contingency plan,” she said giving him a smile that made her look manic.          

   She stretched to reach into her boot and drew a small double edged knife with similar but different sigils carved into the blade. With the skill of an acrobat, she moved to her feet and brandished the blade at Jensen. I could see him look it over and watched as his body language become more cautious.

   “How did you get a kinetic knife,” he said taking a careful step back.

   “Would you believe that the boss made it for me,” she said smiling painfully waving the knife a little and pointing it at Jensen. “Now I’ll ask you only once,” she said and pointed it me. “Why are you attacking our group?”

   Jensen didn’t answer.

   “Pity,” Elaine said with a wistful sigh, “She was a brave girl.”

   “If you harm her I will kill you,” he said with a harsh bite in his voice.

   That threat reminded me of what Dante had told me. That Jensen would face a choice. That choice would determine whether he would become a super mass murdering tyrant that the world would hate or… Actually he’d neglected to say what Jensen become if he didn’t do it. I also mental rebuked myself because though I knew Jensen had powers, I had also forgotten to ask what what they were.

   Elaine’s wistful look turned into something more resolute as she changed firm grip on the handle to a loose finger tipped hold on the tip of the knife blade, “you’ll kill me huh? Well eat this!” She yelled at Jensen and threw the knife into the ceiling.

   Jensen had immediately moved to me at incredible speed, dropping the broken gun, flipped over the couch, and covered us with it as I heard the knife embed itself into the ceiling. It was less than a second later when an explosion blew through the house, throwing us with the couch protecting us, across the room and into the wall.

My eyes opened uncomfortably a moment later and found that I was on my back. The surface that I was on was comfortable enough if not a little lumpy. sitting up, I found that I wasn’t in my bombsite of a living room. Instead, I was on a pale yellow couch with a pillow under my head and a thin blanket over my body. With the early morning light hitting my face.

   Sitting up, I groaned as my head suddenly ached at the movement.

   “I wouldn’t move yet,” came Jensen’s voice from behind me, “I’m pretty sure that kinetic explosion gave you a concussion. You were out for around twenty hours.”

   Another groan later and I turned to look at him. He was in what I assumed was the dining area of the visible space and was facing away from from me. Beyond him was a fridge and a large counter for whatever the owner could need and a door in the far wall led to what I assumed was his bedroom. I assumed, hopefully correctly, that I was in Jensen’s place and swallowed to urge a little moisture down my throat.

   “There’s a bottle of water on the floor,” he told me. Looking down at the foot of the couch I found the bottle and sipped at it gratefully.

I waited a moment and sipped again before speaking, “your place?”

He nodded and stood up. The imposing aura that Jensen had worn earlier was gone and was replaced with a more quiet tone. At first I assumed that the feeling I got from him was something like worry but a moment later as he waled towards me I got a better sense of what he gave off. He was depressed.

“Is everything alright?” I asked feeling foolish at asking the question.

He moved around the couch and looked at me with a weak smile. There were red brown stained bandages wrapped around his whole left arm from hand and fingers to his shoulder, “No, its not. My newly appointed step-sister, in trying to learn about me, got into something very dangerous and was discovered by both sides of the spectrum. The cops AND the mole in the precinct,” Jensen said gravely. “the mole is how I fond out you knew by the way. Steel Band Members are surprisingly chatty. Especially when you beat them into submission and they are trying to save their own skins. They mentioned you by name,” he said raising his voice with the last two words.”

   “Look. I’m sorry that-” I stopped and stared at him. “Wait, there’s a mole in the police? Who?” I asked stunned that the concept was possible. Intellectually, I knew that it was possible. The policemen were people too and in turn fallible to the sins of humanity but still the thought astounded me.

   “I don’t know,” he said shrugging. “That’s not the important thing here,” he said looking at me with annoyance in his eyes, “what were you doing looking into me? With the police nonetheless?”

   I shrugged, not looking at him and suddenly feeling really small, “I wasn’t sure how much you’d actually tell me if I just asked and I wanted to know what kinds of things you were doing before I talked to you.”

   “You found out at the wedding I presume? Otherwise you would have looked into this whole thing earlier,” he said still eyeing me.

   I nodded staying quiet.

   “How much did you see?” he asked.

   “Everything,” I answered quietly then straighten up ignoring the burst of pain. “I saw everything,” I said regaining my spine. “I know that you’re Nobody and that's a lame hero name by the way.”

   “I’m not a hero,” he said near instantly.

   “Whatever you think,” I said without missing a beat, “you have powers and you fight bad guys. That makes you a hero. Guess what else that means?”

   “What?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

   “It means that I have questions,” I said smiling and then wincing as pain arced through my head.

   My step-brother winced with me and touched his fingertips to my forehead. Pain raced through my head as a blue light engulfed my vision. Oddly, I tasted copper in my mouth as the pain ended and the light died away seconds later.

   “What was that?” I asked shaking my head and feeling absolutely no pain or even minor discomfort. “Did you just heal me?”

   “I’ll answer only one question,” he said looking away from her. “Would you like that to be the one you ask?”

   “Oh no no no,” I said quickly. Thinking furiously, I worked my way through all the information that I knew about Jensen and his abilities and what he’d been doing recently. Why he was fighting the Steel Band Gang was a giant question in my mind and something about it nagged at me and practically yelled to me that it was important. But that wasn’t what I really wanted to know. What I wanted to know was surprisingly more simple.

   “Why did you save me when Elaine used that knife instead of capturing her and trying to learn what you wanted to?” I asked quietly.

   He showed he a small, gentle smile, “Julianne,” he said which made me stare at him in shock. I may not have know him long but in that time he hadn’t used my name. “we may not have met before yesterday but the bond between us exists. You’re my sister and I want to keep you safe if for no other reason than if my father found out that I didn’t he would make me regret it.”

   I actually burst into laughter at his statement. It was a personal reason and not some self-righteous dribble or supreme moral code to keep people safe. To be honest I was expecting the dribble but the actual reason threw me off.

   “Can I ask one more question?” I asked giving him my best puppy dog eyes look. It worked on other guys who knew me and I reeeaaaaally wanted to know this question.

   Jensen groaned and rolled his eyes, “Fine. What is it?”

   I grinned at him, “from what I understand SoulShifters have specific powers. What is your power?”

   His good humor at the situation faded to something that was a bit more embarrassed, “I, uh, actually don’t know know what my power is.”

   I just stared in disbelief, “You don’t know. You fight Gang members outside of work and school with these unknown powers and you don’t know?”

   He chuckled a little, “yeah, I don’t. I’m not even sure how it works. Its almost like when I get into a fight or in a situation that I could and should help, it feels like my mind shifts into a sort of mental fifth gear. In this frame of mind I use my power automatically and can do almost anything. One of the only things that I can think of that I haven’t done is fly. Well there are probably other things but you get it.”

   I nodded thinking, “when did that first happen?”

   Jensen seemed to think about it for a moment then answered, “around two months ago. I think the news was on and it mentioned something about the Steel Band Gang and their recent attack on the pier. Do you remember that? Three dock workers were killed in the crossfire and one other was paralyzed?”

   Something in me ran cold at the memory, “Yeah. I remember that.”

   “Well, I remember watching that news report and feeling very angry,” he grit his teeth at the thought, “I firmly believed that somebody should be standing up to those-” he stopped suddenly, looked at me, and coughed before continuing, “guys. It was that night that I took down fourteen Steel Band members and got the nickname ‘Nobody’. By the way I’m not fond of the name either.”

   “That’s interesting. I don’t know what to make of it but its interesting,” I said stroking my chin in thought.

   He shrugged, “I haven’t figured it out and as long as it keeps working I’m good,” Jensen said standing up and walking back to the table. Something scraped against the table as he picked something up and walked back. “For now, I finally got a clue to the Steel Band Gang boss.”

  In his hand was an item that I would not forget anytime soon. The kinetic knife that Elaine had used at my house to get away was sitting gingerly in his hand. Surprisingly, the knife was intact and was only slightly dinged from the house shattering ka-boom. Jensen turned over the blade in his fingers and showed me the bottom of the knife’s handle and stamped into it were three letters T, S, and U.

   “what are those? Initials?” I asked.

   “Yeah. If I am right they belong to the person who made the knife itself,” he said smiling, “before kinetic knives are enchanted to absorb kinetic energy and to release it in bursts they have to be forged.”

   “So find the maker, we find the leader?” I guessed.

   “Correct,” he said giving me a little clap, “give the girl a cookie.”

   I stood up, put my fists on my hips, and glared, “look. I’m not some little girl who wants to be rescued or treated as stupid,” I glared for a moment longer and he didn’t shy away in the least. “Now did you think that the boss, whoever he is, worked through somebody else to get the knives from their maker? Like a delivery middle man.”

   “Yes but whoever he worked with to retrieve them, if he did work with somebody else at all, would lead us to him eventually. Its as simple as that,” he said pointing out his reasoning.

   I dropped my fists from my hips and thought about it, “the theory is sound. But what if he isn’t the one enchanting them?”

   Looking past me as if he was thinking, Jensen nodded to my point a moment later, “Fair enough but from what I’ve heard if it was him it would make perfect sense. Some of the other Steel Band members that I’ve, uhm, interrogated swore that they would never betray him because of various reasons. The most prominent one that he healed them from injuries that doctors said couldn’t be healed. One swore that she took a bullet to the spine in Iraq and that the boss not only removed the bullet, he healed her spine so that she could walk. I had to hit her especially hard to keep her down,” he looked away as if to say that he didn’t like doing that but that he didn’t have a choice.

   “Fair enough,” I consented. “Do you recognize the initials?”

   “I think so. There’s a shop in the city called Tactical Survivalist Unlimited. I’ve never actually been in there but my, I mean our dad has. He told me they specialize in anything that survivalists could want like guns, ammo, knives, heavy duty backpacks, body armor, and a lot of other things. He got some MREs and some water purifiers there,” he said smiling at the though of his Dad.

   “Okay,” I said nodding. “So when are we going?”

   He gave me an odd look and looked me up and down, “I don’t think so.”

   “Why?!” I demanded loudly. “Is it because I’m a girl?!”

   “No. Its because you probably have a mild concussion and-” he paused looking away.

   “And what?!” I again demanded.

   “and you look like crap. That explosion threw around a lot of dust and debris and I tried to clean you up a little but.. it got awkward so I stopped,” he said looking away.

   I looked down and saw what he meant. All my clothes were covered in thick white dust and tiny holes that luckily didn’t compromise anything else that I wore. I ran my nails through my hair and they came out with little pieces of drywall and wood between my fingers. I hurried into one of the rooms and was happy that it was the bathroom and shuddered at the sight of me. It was as bad as I thought.

   “Do you think we have time for me to take a shower first?” I asked then thought of something else. “Actually do you have any clothes that fit me?”

   “I had a roommate a while back that was pretty ramrod thin. He left some clothes here when he moved out,” he said smiling. “I have nothing else that might even fit.”

   I eyed him suspiciously, “why do I have a bad feeling about this?”

   “You just get in the shower,” he told me. “They’ll be in a basket just outside the door when you get out. I’m going out for a food run. Be done in twenty, okay?”

   I agreed and walked into the bathroom with that bad feeling still making me nervous.

“Its not that bad,” he said smiling widely and barely repressing a laugh. We were walking down the busy and crowded streets passing random pedestrians, parked cars, and doing the best we could to ignore peoples angry shouts. Luckily though not at us.

   “Your voice says one thing but your face says another,” I said looking down at myself. The clothes that he’d set out for me were positively ridiculous and either said something about him or about his former roommate. I was wearing white tank top with a black twenty sided dice painted on it in red with the twenty pointed up and the words ‘critical hit’ painted below it. There was also the brown dress pants and navy colored blazer that made me look ridiculous. I swear that if it wasn’t for the fact that he would have gone to Survivalist store  without me I wouldn’t have worn it. And I would not have that.

   “It could be worse. I could have grabbed the bright yellow Pokemon shirt for you,” he said snickering.

   I winced at the thought. I didn’t consider myself at all fashion conscious or girly or anything like that. But I did care that I didn’t look like a blind nerd on anti-psychotics. I seriously did consider begging to go shopping first but again ran into the theory that he would go without me.

   “Well I guess that I should be thanking you for the kindness?” I said showing him my annoyance.

   “I think you should,” he said.

   “Well you can forget about it,” I said smiling at him and looked at my phones map app again. “We’re almost there. It looks like its two more stores down,” I said putting my phone away.

   “You remember the plan, right?” he asked me seriously.

   “Yes. If there is any trouble I will dive for cover while you take care of whatever is causing the havoc with more havoc, correct?” I said giving him a pointed smile.

   “Correct,” he said either missing the look or ignoring it. “But we’re not there to cause trouble. Just get the info and get out.”

   “What if he doesn’t wanna give up the info?” I asked.

   He shrugged, “then I will have to start interrogating him,” he informed me. “Will this be an issue?”

   “Uh yeah it will be an ‘issue’. No interrogations unless he’s in cahoots with the Gang,” I ordered looking up at his face.

   “Fine. That was the plan anyway,” he told me. “I don’t hurt just anyone.”

   “Suuuuure,” I said unconvinced as we approached the front of the store. We walked in with Jensen in the lead and walking towards the front counter. With the exception of the body armor that hung on the wall behind the counter over the plethora of guns it looked like most other sporting good store.

   Leaning onto the counter with her elbows, a bored looking woman in glasses was idly flipping through a magazine while. She looked up from it as Jensen approached and smiled thinly, “Welcome to Tactical Survivalist Unlimited. What can I do for you?”

   “Hi, I’m looking for forged knives. Can you help me?” Jensen asked. I looked around the store and found two other patrons in the store browsing the wares and both of them at the other end of the store. I made a mental note of them only because Jensen should know if the havoc started up.

   “Oh really,” she said. “Why would you want those? The more modern ones are cheaper and so much prettier.”            

   “No, my needs are fairly specific. I would like a forged knife if you don’t mind,” he said sharply.

   Oddly enough, her smile only seemed to get bigger. She closed her magazine and stood up straight, “Well then I think I can help you. We keep a few on hand but if they are not up to the specification you need it will take some time to forge more,” she said reaching under the counter. “these are what we have now,” she set a wooden box as long as my hand to my elbow on the counter and opened it to reveal six knives that looked exactly the same as the one that Jensen carried in his back pocket.

   He looked at the woman and without glaring or showing any other emotion beyond the hard determination just watched her for a moment without speaking. He then spoke and it was cool and hard, “We know that at least one knife exactly like these got bought or taken by a group of thugs that go by the name the Steel Band Gang. I want to find the person who bought or took the knives from you. Who was it?”

   Her smile twisted and she actually laughed a bit, “I think you should know that I can’t be threatened. Neither by you or by those people who call themselves a gang. Besides, why it matter to you?”

   Jensen hesitated and I answered before he could, “the Steel Band Gang is hurting people and there isn’t anybody fighting them. Except him,” I said then covered my mouth as if to try to stop the sound from coming out. But it was too late.

   “Wait,” she said looking from me to Jensen. “You’re Nobody?”

   He looked at me with actual annoyance in his eyes then looked at her and sighed as he nodded his head in acknowledgment.      

   “Then I’ll help you,” she said closing the box and putting the knives away.

   He looked back at me, the annoyance gone and replaced with confusion. Jensen looked at her and asked the question that, in my experience, everyone wants to know, “why?”

   “Because I need a hero to save the day,” she said with a straight face.

   The annoyed face returned, “I am not a hero. But I might be willing to help. Why do you need one?” he asked looking into the older woman’s face and watching her carefully. He wasn’t acting like she might attack so he might have just wanted to watch for lies but how he could tell if she was I had no idea.

   “The leader of the Steel Band Gang has my best friend and will not let ‘em go unless the knives function as promised. Especially the special order. If it wasn’t for the special order I might not have worried too much since Adelaide is being taken care of,” the woman said trailing off.

   I stepped up and stood even with Jensen as I spoke up, “what was the special project?”

   Her smile finally went away as she shivered, “he actually came in and gave me the instructions for what he wanted himself. I actually forge the knives for his orders myself and he somehow figured that out. I actually have some skill in Metallurgic Alchemy, meaning that I use alchemy on metals to add various traits to metals. Does that make sense?” she asked making sure we understood before she moved on.

   Jensen nodded understanding her but I wasn’t sure that I did so I shook my head.

   “To make it easy to understand, I can add a little powdered obsidian to the metal as I’m forging it and along with a little bit of magic that I add I can make a knife that retains heat until the activation word is said. In that instance it would create a super heated cutting edge. Very dangerous for a short time. Does that make sense?” she asked looking at me.

   I nodded feeling a little stupid. The basics made sense even if I didn’t know about the extra details. Although I had to admit that the super heated knife did sound super cool and useful.

   “Well, I say that to state that I understood what the Steel Band Gang’s boss wanted the base knife for. And it was for something that was more than a little dark and evil. I’m not sure how the enchanting goes for something this advanced but I recognized the concept. He wanted a Fell Athame,” she said hitting the climax of her explanation.

   Neither Jensen or me knew what that was so we both just looked at her blankly.

   “I take it that neither of you are any sort of spellcaster then?” she said with her smile returning a bit sheepishly.

   I shook my head and Jensen answered, “I know the basics but I’m not a spellcaster. I’m actually a SoulShifter.”

   “And I’m normal,” I chirped in.

   Her smile never faded, “No need to worry. I don’t hold grudges against SoulShifters for simply existing. I don’t hate people unless they cause me problems,” she explained though her posture did get a smidgen stiffer.

   I coughed to get her attention and spoke, “what’s a Fell Athame?”

   “Its a ceremonial knife that once the activation phrase is spoken triggers the fell power of the blade. When is plunges into something it creates an artificial demon out of the material that it was plunged into. From what little I’ve heard of them, since they’re widely discouraged by sane spellcasters since the demonic entity could turn on them, they are generally plunged into living humans.”

The woman continued remembering something, “I’m not sure how true this is but according to the rumor mill the last artificial demon that was created this way was the actual reason why Chernobyl exploded,” she said.

   I felt the blood drain from my face as that thought sunk in. A being dangerous enough that they had to use a nuclear explosion to kill it. I imagined some twisted and grotesque version of humanity roving around and actively killing anything that moved with giant claws or with objects several dozen times its weight. This was very bad if my imagination was anywhere near right.

   “So how can we find the leader?” Jensen asked.

   “Before I tell you that I have two conditions. One: Promise to get my friend out of there as safely as possible before he considers using the knife on Adelaide,” she said looking at us seriously. “That is non-negotiable.”

   I responded quickly before Jensen could speak, “deal. Whats the other one?”

   “Secondly, you must do your best to get the knife away from their boss either then or as soon as possible after. Agreed?” she asked looking at me.

   “Sure, we’ll try at least,” I said and swallowed hard after the words left my mouth.

   She somehow seemed to physically relax as a weight seemed to come off her shoulders. This must have really been slowly wearing on her spirit since her friend Adelaide was taken. I know that I would have been worried all the time if my best friend had been taken away.

   “Good. There is a warehouse by the docks that I delivered the base knife to a week ago. There was magic heavy in the air there that implied an enchanter’s workshop. You can’t just move an enchanter’s workshop in a week because of all the tools that need to be prepared ahead of time to be moved safely. Plus the from what I’ve been able to piece together the Fell Athame takes nearly a week for the magic on it to take full hold on the knife. He’ll still be there but the knife is either finished or very close,” she said gravely. “You’ll know the warehouse when you see it. To be honest they weren’t very clever in how they renamed the property. They actually called it Steel Band Incorporated,” she chuckled.

   “Thank you,” Jensen said and turned to go.

   “You should know!” she called and Jensen stopped. He turned halfway to look at her and she continued, “The place is practically crawling with high-end thugs with concealed carry’s that aren’t very concealed. I’d be careful,” she warned.

   Jensen nodded and walked out the door. I started after him for a moment then stopped as a though occurred to me. I walked up to the counter and talked, “Um, I’m not sure how much I could help. I’m not super powered or know magic. Any sets of skills that I have wouldn’t be useful or make me a nightmare to any spellcaster or superhuman. Is there…” I started to ask but she spoke interrupting me.

   “Yeah, I was hoping you’d bring it up. Here is the only thing that I can offer,” she said pulling her necklace off and handing it to me. It was a nice necklace comprised of a silver chain that held a small opalescent crystal on it. I took it and felt an odd spark of electricity pass into my hand.

   “What is it?” I asked curious and wide eyed with wonder.

   “You’ll know when the time comes,” she said smiling again.

   “Why? Is it destiny?” I questioned her again with sarcastic curiosity. Plus, it was magic. I didn’t know if it could be destiny.

   “No, its not destiny. It’s the spells built into the necklace. It’ll help when you need it and trust me when I say that it will be awesome. Oh and one little hint to help you with Adelaide. If you say that Lisa Carlyle sent you to help you won’t have any issues,” Lisa said.

   “Good to know. Thanks,” I said and followed Jensen who was waiting outside.

   I looked at him the moment that we both walked just out of ear shot of the store and Lisa’s necklace was hanging from my neck.

   “You are not going,” he said simply as we walked.

   “Who says?” I challenged.

   “I do. Going to the Survival Shop was one thing. There was only the chance of trouble happening there but at that warehouse there is guaranteed trouble and gunfire and a possible horrifying demon. I will not risk you dying. No, you are not going,” he said firmly.

   “I’ll bet you a hundred dollars that I’m going no matter how much you protest,” I said smiling at him with as much menace that I could project at him.

   “Deal,” he said as we walked and continued talking.

It was early evening and I was a hundred dollars richer.

   We stood around the corner of a building from the Steel Band warehouse building and both of us had been watching the building for the last forty-five minutes. Over that time, we had observed around a dozen men and women at once walking around the building and the parked cars near the property’s fence in a semi-organized manner. All of them wore coats to protect them from the chilling ocean air and to conceal their guns that I swore I saw a few times. We had also seen a group of the grunts that Jensen had taken down enter and leave the building after twenty minutes.

   “So whats the plan?” I asked Jensen as I stepped away from the corner and I started to absentmindedly start playing with the necklace Lisa had given me. Nothing had happened with it yet to my disappointment. No becoming a super heroine or skilled assassin for me. Yet.

   “Sneaking in will be difficult without some sort of disguise or invisibility,” he said thinking out loud, “the simplest option would be to just attack them all in a frontal assault. It’s not the easiest option though because then we’d have to deal with everybody. The easiest would be to release some kind of sleep magic or gas though.”

   I nodded my head agreeing. I didn’t know really anything about tactics or shootouts or larger scale violence. Jensen did but not quite like this. He was used to fighting thugs not ex-soldiers or trained fighters.

   “Its too bad that we can’t just blow the place up. It would save us so much trouble,” he said with a tiny chuckle. He must have seen my disapproving expression because he shook his head and continued talking, “I’m kidding. That woman’s friend is still in there and maybe other hostages as well. Also I would rather not kill if I can avoid it.”

   “Good. For a moment I thought you were going antihero on me,” I said relieved.

   He looked at me crossly, “I’ve said it several times already. I am not a hero. So please explain to me how I could ‘go antihero’ if I’m not a hero or a villain?”

   “Jensen, you’re a hero. You just don’t realize it yet for reasons that I cannot fathom. Trust me when I say that you do keep people safe and you put yourself in harms way to do that. But I doubt that you’d believe me so easily so just wait. I’ll prove it to you,” I said smiling at him sincerely.

   “Whatever,” Jensen said looking around the corner again. “Julianne, look.”

   I went to the corner and looked at the warehouse to see a white SUV pull up to the fence gate. A single man rolled open the gate while another held his pistol out openly as the van pulled in and stopped about twenty feet in. I held my breath as the back door opened and a teenage boy only a little older than me stumbled out.

   The man that had been outside the van pointed his pistol at the kid as a two other men climbed out and pointed their sleek looking assault rifles at the guy.

   “Well that makes the choice easy,” Jensen said with obvious annoyance. He stepped out from around the corner and walked calmly towards the fence. I stayed where I was because the entire outside of the warehouse lit up with activity at his appearance and I was sure that while he might survive a bullet or twenty, I wouldn’t.

   Men at the gate drew their pistols and aimed it at the approaching Jensen who moved into a jog. They yelled at him to stop and without waiting they fired and he made a leaping step to the side avoiding them and then burst into a sprint.

   My brother continued hopping from side to side to keep avoiding the gunshots until he was within ten feet of the gate. At that point, on his next step Jensen pushed off the ground and simply leaped over the ten foot tall fence. Only his leap just carried him to the top of the fence to which he used his momentum to vault over the fence. He landed next to the one of the men that was shooting at him, he grabbed the gun, pushed it away to keep it from aiming at him, then threw an uppercut into the mans jaw. He crumpled to the ground and Jensen took the pistol from him as he fell and aimed it at the other and fired.

My heart skipped a beat as the other mans pistol was wrenched from the man’s hand with a cry of pain. I thought he was going to kill him and the fact Jensen didn’t was a relief. He seamlessly transitioned to a sprint and rushed over to him and hit him with the gun handle knocking him out cold as well.

   Bullets filled the air as the four others in the immediate area started firing at Jensen and he reacted by instinct and dove behind one of the parked cars. He was a bit far away so it was hard to tell but I swear that it looked like he eyed the gun in his hands, stuck out his tongue disgusted at it, and after he pulled out the clip tossed it aside. I the watched as Jensen’s hand seemed to exude a blue white mist and he stood and flicked his hand at one of the gunmen as if he was throwing a knife.

   A shard of pale white energy flew and impacted the single shooter’s gun and immediately came out of his hands and was quickly encased in a foot thick block of ice. The man cursed at the loss and yelled, “power user!”

   The gun fire stopped almost immediately and everybody took a rectangular box as long as their pistols out of their pockets and screwed them onto the ends of their guns. Another Guardsman pointed his pistol at Jensen and the box at the end of the pistol flared a ghostly green as the gun roared. The bullet impacted the car that Jensen was using as cover with the force of a high speed truck and almost toppled Jensen’s cover onto him.

   “Well crud,” a male voice that I recognized said. Due to the excitement in front of me I never heard Agent Merrick of the FBI move just behind me and watch the starting battle. He was in his G-man suit but this time he was carrying a black assault rifle that he held in both hands and had the strap over his shoulder. “I was hoping to just enjoy the show but it looks like I will not get the opportunity.”

   I looked at him with surprise as another round rammed into Jensen’s cover. I fought the urge to look at my brother and kept looking at the Agent, “You were following me?”

   “After we found you, yeah. You were at the Precinct asking aimed questions to a mole in the Police. Then your house explodes and you are no where to be seen. Of course we followed you after we found you again when you left your step-brothers apartment. I was actually going to question you about the house right now but then this happened,” he then looked at his gun and smiled, “this was in the car. I didn’t grab it until after the fire started up.”

   “Can you help him?” I asked looking back at Jensen as three rounds exploded out and practically blew apart the back half of the car with the force. Also several more Steel Band Gang members entered the frey from other parts of the lot, at least another eight with more coming.

   “I can,” he said and observed the fire for a moment and then raised the rifle. “Attachable Kinetic enchantments for their pistols. This ought to be interesting,” he said as he broke from their cover and tracked his vision and his gun at the enemy. He pulled the trigger and one of the men fell to the floor.

   Jensen looked at Agent Merrick who was breaking into a jog while keeping the rifle up and aimed at their foes and froze as if trying not to be seen by him. But as I knew, Agent Merrick wasn’t going for Jensen. He fired again in a three round burst and another man collapsed to the ground. I felt sorry for asking asking the Agent to go help Jensen since he was killing the shooters but I reminded myself that they were shooting too. Its not as if they didn’t know that they might get into fire and maybe die.

   The Agent had taken down one more before he had met up with Jensen and crouched down next to him. Agent Merrick extended a hand to Jensen who after looking at it for a long moment shook it and both stood up slightly to look over their cover.

   It was then, of course, that the situation changed again.

   “Enough!” yelled a deep male voice.

   Everyone stopped firing but kept in their covers as a tall man walked out of the warehouse and glared at the spot where Jensen and the Agent were. He was wearing a Captain America Emblem t-shirt and dark pants. The man also was carrying a long wicked sharp knife in his left hand that gave me the creeps.

   “You know!” he yelled to make sure that everybody heard him. “I was going to use this gorgeous Fell Athame to threaten you, Nobody! Now though I think you have to die. You, that suit there with you, and your little sister too. Because no one messes with my crew and gets away with it!”

He raised the knife and the creeps that the knife gave me turned into absolute terror as he prepared to throw it at one of his own men. Only Agent Merrick had stood up and aimed over their cover and fired at the Steel Band Gang’s boss. The bullet impacted the bosses knife arm and it fell away into a pile of dust that clouded up as it landed.

   “You idiot!” the boss yelled. “Do you know what you’ve done!”

   The spot where the knife landed immediately burst into blood red light and a deep heart beat echoed through the yard. Then it hit me that had happened. Lisa had said the Fell Athame’s turned what it pierced into artificial demons. What if it pierced something other than humans? Something inanimate.

   The dust. It impacted the dust on the ground and it must have been with its tip. That must have counted, I guess.

   Dust swirled up in tendrils and began to take on the vague shape of an extremely gangly shaped human, if that human was all bone, minimal muscle, and zero fat. The demon continued to constitute itself out of the surrounding dust and became more and more distinct but never truly became solid. It stayed a shifting and spinning mass of dust that remained in that same humanoid shape. Oddly though, where the mouth would have been shifted and swirled in such a way that that it looked like it had a mouth. And that mouth was smiling widely and insanely.

   It then burst into a laughter so crazed that it said everything about the things mental state. It then looked at everybody in turn in a wide turn of its swirling head and locked its head at the Agent.

   I couldn’t hear the Agent but I could see him grumble at Jensen.

Of course it was now that the necklace decided to do something. My head filled with a white fuzzy pain as a single sentence filled my head, ‘give me to Jensen.’

For reasons that I cannot fathom I hurried towards Jensen and the Agent as the Dust Demon started towards them. That insane laughter echoing through the air and into my head made me move faster in fear. With its every step it created discord in the air as dust swirled and moved around the warehouse lot and the source of the chaotic mess was coming straight towards my new brother.

   I kept running but I realized quickly that even if I moved at a complete sprint I would not make it there before the demon got to them. That thought solidified in my head a few options and only one of them seemed logical. I skidded to a stop and took off the necklace with a hard yank that hurt the back of my neck and hurled it at Jensen yelling, “Catch!” at the top of my lungs.

   Jensen heard me at the last second and saw the metallic object soaring towards him. He had to step away from the cover to catch it since I under threw it but he caught none the less and what I saw next is still the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

   The moment Jensen stepped into cover again the opalescent colors from the crystal on the chain flowed out from it in a shimmering misty light. It swirled around Jensen as it made its way up to his head where it flowed into his eyes and they turned solid and shining white.

   For reasons that I cannot fathom, I caught glimpses of what was going through his head. Maybe it was because it was given to me before I was told, no, inspired by it to give it to him.  Thoughts flowed into his head and I very much believed that inspired was the right word to use. The magic was telling him things. It was telling him that if believed he could do something and then he’d be able to do it. If he believed he could move the earth, and did so with no reservations, then he’d be able to.

   “Belief,” I breathed out as a bullet whizzed past me and I remembered where I was. I was away from cover and standing in an exposed spot for all to see and shoot at.

   I sprinted forward as the dust demon deviated from its path and even though it was semi-incorporeal it picked up a whole van from under its back bumper and hurled it at the two men. I kept running towards them for some reason and was glad I did because I wouldn’t have heard the Agent if I wasn’t closer, “Oh this is gonna hurt.”

   Waves of heat erupted from from the Agent just before his skin started to char black and crack with red heat shimmers coming up from him. The Agents body became stiff and I could tell whatever was happening to him was actually causing him immense pain. In the split instant before the van would have hit, the Agent reared back his open hand as if it were clawed and as he swung it forward deep amethyst flames appeared. And at the apex of the swing it shot from his hand and as it made contact with the van it detonated and the vehicle was reduced to little bits and dust.

   He crouched back down and looked at me as I slid next to Jensen who’s eyes were returning to normal and I swear that the Agents eyes were somehow impossibly deep and were filled with red orange fire. Agent Merrick was gritting his teeth as he turned his gaze to Jensen who had a new presence about him, something more confident and a more something that I couldn’t explain.

   “Think you can take the boss?” Agent Merrick asked through grinding teeth. He seemed to be resisting the growing urge to howl in pain and lash out in rage because of it.

   Jensen nodded once and Agent nodded back, “then I’ll take the demon. It probably wants me anyway. My hellfire could make it a real demon.”

   I couldn’t help asking, “hellfire? Thats real? And what makes you say that?”

   “Yes, hellfire is real and one of the oh, so many benefits is that I can sense demonic intentions. Apparently, that means even artificial demons. That goes along with the agonizing pain and uncontrollable rage,” he said sarcastically.

   He looked at his rifle, sighed, and dropped it. He then stood up straight and moved towards the swirling dust demon. As he approached, the dust around it seemed to condense and and dig into the Agents skin like a sand storm. He clenched his hand into a fist as he entered striking range and with a blazing purple fist the Agent punched the demon. It didn’t burst into flame or explode like I expected but for some reason it looked like the fire tried to spread into the twisting, swirling dust form but the dust resisted.

   I stopped watching him when Jensen stood up and ran towards where the boss had been. He encountered only a few seconds of resistance from two of the gunmen since the rest had fled from the newly created demon. Jensen had quickly defeated them with two or three quick jabs and the hurried on towards the man who had moved away from the demon but not out of the warehouse yard.

   I hurried after him trying to remain close but under cover so that I was a little safer. Agent Merrick’s battle with the dust demon raged on as I heard a loud glass shattering crash and I assumed that one of them was flown back, wrecking one of the cars. Ignoring it took more self-control than I knew I possessed but I continued getting closer to Jensen.

   Thanking my luck stars that I had managed to get close enough to hear the boss speak before they fought, “you’ve ruined everything! You’ve stopped my businesses, wrecked my lower ranked members, and now you’re destroying my base!” he screamed angrily. “Why?! whats the reason for all your wanton violence?!”

   Jensen answered, “your business and men have killed people and ruined peoples lives. I wouldn’t have heard about your group if it wasn’t for that. I am here to stand sentinel between you and the people you could have and will have hurt. That, I believe, with all my being is my purpose for being a hero.”

   I would have gasped if I was breathing. Jensen had been adamant that he wasn’t a hero until this moment. It was as if this was an origin story for a big hero and with a flash of inspiration I smiled briefly to myself as I thought of his statement to the boss, ‘Sentinel was a much better hero name than Nobody.’

   The boss glared at Jensen as if he was deciding whether or not he was serious or not then his mouth twisted into a snarl. His hand flicked out at Jensen and white bolt of energy flew out and towards Jensen. My brother reached out and with an open hand grabbed at empty air and suddenly it wasn’t empty anymore. A shaft of deep orange light appeared in his hand like a featureless sword and with blinding speed he slashed it at the white energy bolt which dissipated in a cloud of cold white mist.

   Jensen’s opponent didn’t react out of surprise for only a moment before he turned and flicked his other hand out and a slow flying bolt of lightning flew. Again the energy shaft swiped at the air and the lightning collided into it and then arced away from it and into a blue sedan.

   Bursting into movement, Jensen moved towards the boss who turned again and pointed his finger at the ground and then raised it up. His motion conjured ice along the floor that sprouted up into thin sharp shafts that planted themselves in Jensen’s path to impale him. My brother slowed only slightly as he crouched and preformed a flip over the ice spears and landed gracefully.

As Jensen landed he pushed the tip of his energy shaft into the ground and swung it up creating a kinetic energy wave with his power that went sliding at the boss. Reacting with the instantaneous speed of someone who prepared, he drew a knife and drove it into the concrete at his feet. He blade glowed as it pierced the hard floor and the invisible wave collided with it and vanished.

He then drew the knife up and threw it at Jensen and a thought occurred to me. The knives that this guy gave to his followers absorbed kinetic energy as their carriers moved. Jensen just threw actual pure kinetic energy at the boss and the boss used the knife to block it. No, absorb it.

   Alarm fueled my voice, “Jensen, look out!” I screamed as Jensen swung the glowing orange shaft to deflect the knife but instead the knife expended its energy on the glowing shaft in Jensen’s hand and it shattered and vanished in a haze of energy. But the blast continued and knocked Jensen back ten feet into a parked SUV, leaving a Jensen shaped dent in its door.

   Immediately he tried to stand and he staggered on his unsteady feet. He stuck out his hand and a shaft of red energy no bigger than a knife appeared in his hand. looking at it, he shook his head as if clearing fuzz out of it and looked at the boss with slightly unfocused eyes.

   Approaching slowly, the boss drew another knife from the back of his jeans and within seconds stood within mere feet of Jensen. He smiled as he waved the knife in front of Jensen to show off the weapon that would kill him. Jensen tried to stand firm but only wobbled further as the effort drained him. The Boss smirked further as he took another step further and turned the blade in his fist so that it pointed down in his hand and raised it over Jensen.

   My body moved before the fear could stop me and I charged the boss and used techniques that I learned in Aikido. I grabbed his wrist, twisted, and tucked one of my legs behind his so that as he stumbled back he would trip and fall to the ground. I smiled at my achievement of real world application of something that I’d practiced at for many, many hours. My smile faded as he swiped his hand at me and a burst of pure energy hit me and knocked me into the van next to Jensen.

   We looked at each other for a moment and then at the boss who had stood up and loomed over us menacingly, “well that was exciting.” he said breathing heavily. All the effort that Jensen had put him through must have actually worn him out. “Too bad. I really don’t get to flex my magical muscle. Thanks for the practice.”

   Apparently, I didn’t hit the van as hard as Jensen had because my head wasn’t as rattled as Jensen’s appeared. Surprise filled the boss as I stood up and threw a palm thrust into his chest knocking him back a step. Continuing as quickly as I could I lifted my leg up to my chest and started to kick it into his but I froze mid-kick. My body had stopped moving and all but my eyes refused to obey my will.

   Standing up again, the boss glared at me filled with absolute hate, “you insolent girl,” he snarled, “You know what!? no more talking! Die!”

   He raised the knife and it came down on me but I didn’t feel any pain or agony as I slammed my eyes shut. Instead, I heard the boss yelp in pain and whatever magic was holding me still faded and I fell to the floor. Opening my eyes, I stared at the boss who was holding his hand which was bleeding steadily.

   I looked at Jensen who was standing up straight and was looking at the boss with so much hate that it scared me. My eyes caught the sight of a double edged sword that was fading into spectral blue light then into nothing just beyond the boss.

   What had happened was barely sinking in when Jensen waved his arms around and a half dozen swords of similar but varying designs to the one I saw fade. They formed first as a blue glass clear outline of the sword, next as the solid and sharp forms of the swords, then finally into the fully color and splendor of actual swords that hovered in the air over Jensen’s head. I watched in wonder as they stayed in place and spun slowly as they remained pointed at the boss.

   Watching as Jensen continued to glare at the boss I sensed what was going to happen next before it happened. Two of the swords launched themselves towards the boss who rolled to the side and narrowly avoided impalement by the projected swords. Then another sword flew at him and he got onto his knees and crossed his arms in an X shape in front of his face and the air around his arms shimmered like heat off of asphalt. The point collided with his arms and pushed against his shielded arms. A second later the sword was joined with a second and again the boss was knocked back to the floor and didn’t even attempt to stand.

   One of the two remaining swords floated into Jensen’s hand and he walked towards the boss with absolute hate coming off of him like a fire exuding heat. He walked up to the lying form of the boss and leveled the point of the blade above the bosses throat. The boss twitched like he was frightened but he didn’t try to run.

   It was then that something occurred to me. Dante had said that Jensen would have a choice. If he chose wrong then he would become the worst evil that the world had ever seen. And right now there was a pretty big choice.

   “Jensen! NO!” I screamed as I scrambled to my feet and tried to get to him before he killed the boss. “You can’t kill him!”

   Jensen didn’t move his conjured sword away from his neck but he didn’t move it into it either. And as I got closer to him he turned his head slightly to see me and I almost stopped in my tracks at that hard expression. When he spoke his tone was just as hard, “Can’t? Why can’t I kill him? He’d deserve it for the crimes of his men, not to mention his own crimes that we didn’t even know about. And he almost killed a member of my family. He deserves it.”

   I kept talking, trying to ignore the fact that if he went dark side of the force it would be because of me, “you can’t because if you kill him, you will become something darker. Something that eventually kill again because you allowed yourself to do it once in rage, not necessity. Jensen, he’s beaten. Lets just give him to Agent Merrick and be done with this,” I pleaded.

   He kept looking at me, his expression softening slightly, “why do you care about whether he lives or not?”

   “I don’t,” I answered softly. “I care whether you become a villain eventually.”

   I watched him fight himself internally for a moment before the rage started draining away from his expression and slip into one of neutrality, “you win, Julianne. He lives. All because of you,” he said looking away. “I guess your the real hero saving lives.”

   An explosion boomed from behind us and both Jensen and I turned to see the dust demon and Agent Merrick still going at it. The dust demon now had four arms and had just used a wooden telephone pole as a bat and had attempted to use Jensen’s head as a ball. Only it stayed attached and sent the Agent flying into a yellow hummer making it skid back several feet by the impact.

   I gasped at the Agents body as he stepped out of the dent he made in the vehicle. The arms and most of the shoulders of his suit were burned away due to the dark colored flames that came off his blacken, charred arms. His pants were also burned away from the knees down and his toes had squished together into four larger ones with black claws coming out of each toe. The scarier part of his change was his head which had grown two horns that curled up and to the back of his head and his teeth that had become jaggedly sharp.

   The demonic looking Agent charged at the dust demon his hands clenched into fists and he leaped at the demon. The demon opened both arms on one side and tried to swat the Agent out of the air with them only to have the agent’s fist collide with it and detonate the arms with purple fire. His momentum continued and he threw a second fist into the demon’s chest.

   The fire moved unimpeded this time into the demons chest and through its body engulfing the artificial demon. Its laughter continued as its dust form somehow burned and started to crumble away beginning with its appendages. Quickly, its whole body started to fade ending with its maniacally laughing head that ended only when the whole thing vanished.

   Breathing hard with exertion, The disturbing looking Agent was standing slumped over with his charred arms hanging low. He looked at us and gave a smile that honestly gave me the impression that he wanted my soul. When he spoke a moment later it was huskier and seemed to vibrate in his throat, “that is always the worst part, the looks I get. That and the soul searing, nerve burning, never ending pain, “he chuckled and closed his eyes. He breathed out as he continued to speak, “this is gonna hurt worse.”

   His body stopped burning and I heard him groan as the charred cracking in his skin started to seal them selves up and return to its usual color. His feet and head turned to normal with the bones popping as his feet regained its fifth toe and the horns falling off and turning to ash. The change back was quick but looked infinitely painful as he returned to normal and breathed hard as the pain seemed to fade away.

Then looked at us again and even the bottomless flaming pits that were his eyes before were his normal green again. The only thing that didn’t regenerate was his clothes and he looked at them with more annoyance than anything. He approached us and smiled at Jensen, “good job kid. Taking down a spellcaster is no easy feat.”

   Jensen looked down at me and smiled, “I had help. Couldn’t have done it without her.”

   Flushing, I looked away from him and up at the disheveled Agent, “what did you do to beat that thing? I heard that they were very hard to beat and the… Hellfire didn’t look like it was working.”

   He smiled pleasantly and answered, “Hellfire cleanses as much as it destroys. It took longer than I would have guessed but eventually it always wins.”

   Jensen nodded his head at the unmoving form of the gangs boss, “I take it that you’ll take him off my hands?”

   The Agent nodded, “yeah. We have facilities for holding spellcasters and power users. He’ll fit right in,” he reached into his pocket and pulled out a thin metal band out of his pocket, “hey, it survived.”

   A moment later, the Agent had slapped it onto the boss’s wrist and then looked at Jensen, “you know that I came here to investigate you, right?”

   Jensen shook his head, “why?”

   “I’m the FBI’s weird stuff guy. A guy who beats ups gangsters using powers counts as weird. But I see no need to do anything about the infamous Nobody. You’re no threat. Actually you could be the opposite. If you kept up the fight that is,” he said smiling

   He opened his mouth to speak but I spoke quicker, “That’s not his hero name,” I looked at him and winked. I then looked at the Agent and spoke calmly, “its Sentinel, Agent.”

   Both men looked at me surprised and the Agent nodded, “Its a good name for a hero.” His smile widened as he looked between the two of us, “And please call me Damian. We fought together so lets not be so formal.”

   We both smiled at him and he looked at Jensen, pulled out his wallet and then a business card from it, “this is my number. If you need my help feel free to call. People like us who help others need friends. They need allies. I hope that we can be that?”

   Thinking that over for a moment, Jensen took the card and nodded at Damian, “I think we can, old man.”

   Damian laughed at the name and stepped forward grabbing Jensen’s shoulder, “I’m only forty-four. I’m not that old.”

   “Whatever you say,” Jensen said laughing with the Agent and I joined in for a moment before we all stopped and heard the police sirens coming our way.

   “Jensen, think you can pick him up? My SUV is just around the corner from here. We can vamoose in that,” Damian asked as he started moving in that direction making sure to pick up his fallen rifle as they passed it.

   “Yeah, lets hurry though,” Jensen said as he hefted the boss over his shoulder and hurried after us.

   A few moments later we were in the SUV and gone from the scene before anyone with a badge could see us. I heard later that everyone at the warehouse had been arrested because of prior and current activities. No one who was there spoke about anything that could be considered weird to the cops. The police had no explanation for the property damage that had been dealt during the fight. Damian had been able to explain the dead bodies away stating that he’d been able to sneak in but was discovered. Somehow he’d managed to still capture the Steel Band Gang’s boss and get out without killing everybody.

The next day, even though I was banged up a bit I want back to the Survivalist store to talk Lisa again. She was there and was looking over a magazine as I walked up the the counter. She looked up as I entered and closed it.

   “Its you!” she said as she hurried around the counter and gave me a hug. “You saved him. You saved Adelaide.”

   “Wait, that was Adelaide? That guy about my age was Adelaide? He’s like half your age,” I spoke before thinking. The thought that I might have just insulted her occurred to me a second later and I looked away.

   She just kept smiling at me and took a step away, “Yeah. His full name full name is Jason Adelaide. I just like calling him Adelaide, he gets flustered from time to time because he thinks it sounds feminine.”

   I nodded agreeing with him. It did sound feminine but I didn’t think on it much, “I have a confession to make. I actually forgot about him in the chaos that ensued. I was too focused on the fight that I didn’t even see him get away. Is he alright?”

   “Oh yeah, he’s fine. He was mildly annoyed that you didn’t make sure he got out okay but he did say that when he was forced out of the vehicle he was taken there in you’re friend did jump in and start fighting so I’m counting it all as good,” she said with humor.

   “Thats good,” I said relieved. I had forgotten about him until we had driven away from the warehouse so we couldn’t go back and look for him. That was half the reason I had come to see Lisa again. “I came back to ask you something else as well?”

   “What?” she asked curiously.

   “The necklace. What was it supposed to do?”

   “Oh, well the necklace was something special. I had made it so that it could do several things in an emergency. Most of them are very flashy and obvious so I assume a prismatic light came out?”

   “Yeah,” I said and explained the event to Lisa who stayed quiet during the story. “what was it?”

   “Something that I didn’t expect to happen. It’s an unpredictable magic called Inspiration. It literally just gives inspiration to the wearer. Its interesting that it told you to give it to Jensen. It shouldn’t have. Its just should have told you to do something that you could have done yourself to win. Not through somebody else. Its interesting,” she said as if she was mentally going through the magic.

   “Well, after the inspiration he did a lot more with his powers. He actually made swords out of thin air. It was crazy and very cool,” I said containing my enthusiasm. The older lady herself seemed curious about the events from yesterday but she didn’t press. Instead we chatted politely for several more minutes, she offered to sell me a large hunting knife, I turned it down, we both laughed and I left the shop. There was one more place that I needed to visit and I only hoped that he’d be there.

I was outside the Precinct again and was sitting on the bus stop waiting. I had been there for two hours and was starting to think that this wasn’t going to work. I mean its not like Dante had given me another way to contact him or had told me that he’d meet me here so what did I expect.

   “I guess that I just hoped he’d be here or show up,” I mumbled standing up from the bench and turned around. Only to jump in surprise as I almost walked into Dante.

The Chronomancer was wearing the same clothes as the last time I’d see him, the same presence, the only thing that had changed was the coffee in his hand. He smiled and sipped at his drink before he spoke, “Careful. This coffee is very hot.”

   “Jeremy’s secret Coffee? The Deep Dark?” I asked smiling.

   He nodded and sipped again, “the best coffee in the area for the last ten years and the next twelve. You should know that I’m not usually at other people’s beck and call. They’re usually at mine. I am the Chronomancer after all.”

   I nodded and took two steps back away from Dante. I looked at him and took a deep breath “I have a question for you.”

   “Oh really? And what have you got to trade for the answer. Nothings free, mi’dear,” he said smiling coyly.

   “You didn’t charge me last time.”

   “Thats because I offered the info. Now you want something from me. So I will ask again. What do you have to offer?” he asked.

   I thought about it for a minute before I answered, “what if I have to answer one as well?” I offered.

   His smile became deeper as he nodded, “sure. Why not. You ask then I ask,” he said explaining how this was going to work.

   I nodded and thought about how to word my question, “before you had told me what would happen if Jensen had made the wrong choice. You never said what would happen if he made the right choice. What happens?”

   He smiled and considered himself before answering, “I’ll give you the synopsis since you are living that future right now. Jensen A.K.A. The Sentinel, becomes a real force to be reckoned with. He’ll do things that most mortals will never believe and save many many lives. Assuming he follows the path that I see. Its still possible that that other future will still come true but its less likely. Now its time for my question. What are you going to do after I leave today?”

   I was stunned but only for a moment, “After you I’m going to see Jensen. Why was that your question?”

   “You don’t want me to answer that because you’ll be obligated to answer my next one,” he said smiling wider. “Do you have five bucks?”

   “Yeah why?” I asked

   “Can I have it? I need it for later,” he said.

   I nodded and fished into my wallet and gave him the money.

   “Great, now I will do you a small favor that I’m going to laugh at later,” he said as bands of copper light surrounded me and I was filled with a rushing sensation. I closed my eyes by reflex of the sensation and when I opened them I found myself outside my house.

   I swallowed hard as I digested a few facts. One; the house’s living room had been blown up. Two; I had been in the house and had gone missing for the next twelve-ish hours. Three; my mom’s car was outside the house and I could hear her yelling at no one about the situation. She must have only just gotten home. The though had occurred that someone must have called her when the police had arrived.

   I was so scared and upset at Dante’s sick sense of humor that I didn’t hear Jensen walk up to me, “yeah. I wouldn’t want to go in there either. You did blow up the living room.”

   My head whipped up to look at him shocked and annoyed at his statement, “I didn’t blow it up. It was that crazy assassin lady not me,” I said glaring at him.

   “I know that. But you have to convince her,” he said pointing into the house, “without using the words ‘crazy assassin lady’.”

   “You do know that whatever we tell her, she’ll kill us and use our remains to help the roses grow, right?” I said suddenly more scared than I was during yesterday’s battle.

   “I doubt that,” he said smiling at me. “She’d have extra parts if she did that.”

   “Smart aleck,” I muttered and started towards the house. “Can we not go in there, please?”

   “You’ll have to face her eventually,” he said. “You might as well get it over with. It really wasn’t your fault and I’ll collaborate that story.”

   “You know that your intelligent talk is pissing me off,” I muttered again.

   “Before we go in,” he said smiling as me, “Thanks for the new name. Sentinel is so much better than Nobody.”

   My attitude changed somewhat but I was still as scared as I was before. That was until the footsteps approached the front door and my mom opened it.

   It took a while but eventually she stopped yelling at me and calmed down before we really talked. She believed us when we said that we had no idea what had caused the explosion. I was just lucky that Jensen had arrived when he did and got me out of there. When she walked outside to call some contractors about fixing the room, Jensen left to go home as well and I was left alone. In this single moment of being alone, I smiled.

   My life was now an adventure and I was very excited for what may happen next.