William stared at the Goons for a long time. Scanning them in an instant, the gold etching along the sleeves of their black uniforms appeared to shine in the mall's bright light. There were five of them, all men. At the center was Benjamin Rhinehold, whom Will recognized. The memory of the man was still fresh in his mind, as always. That first time seeing a Goon had stuck with Will, even when a lot of the bad during the Anarchist War had faded away.
Ben was tall, his hair had turned into a dark shade of gray, and he had developed a noticeable beer gut. Rhinehold was no longer the strong-looking, insurmountable foe that had destroyed his survivor camp; he looked older. Will wasn’t about to fool himself, though. Ben was probably just as strong as he used to be. Mav had beat it into their heads that most Goons weren’t physically strong but strong with their abilities. The amount of ardor an Arc had was something only experienced Arcs could gauge.
On either side of Rhinehold, were two young boys. All four appeared to be in their early 20s. They strolled through the mall with a sense of ownership, their chests puffed out, and they strutted as if it were the most common thing in the world to be in Chicago.
“Will,” Santos hissed. He didn’t react. Not because he didn’t recognize his name, but because he was so focused on the Goons. “Light!” Santos barked, pulling him away.
“What?” Will inquired as the four of them made their way to the edge of the food court.
“You’re glowing,” Santos said. Will looked down to see he was right; his skin was glowing. Pulling his ardor back inside, the dim light receded, and he began to take deep breaths.
“What the hell?” Samson asked him. “You know those guys, Light?”
“No,” Will said immediately. It was mostly true, he had never seen the other Goons, just the one in the middle.
“What’s the matter, then?” Samson asked, worry in his face.
“Nothing, just…kind of surreal, I guess,” he admitted. “Mav’s been talking about them so long. I, uh, don’t know how to react?”
That felt true. Maven had told him of amazing things other Arcs could do. The old man was never clear if the Arcs he faced were part of the Goons or in the Final Vanguard, as they were known before the end of the world. However, in Will's mind, he could only gauge his strength based on the other students. Since they had been training so long together, they all felt like they had their own strengths and weaknesses, which somehow balanced them out. Until they discovered their true abilities, the other Arcs appeared incredibly strong.
“Want to mess with them?” Irish inquired as Will forced his breathing to calm down. His eyes were on the Goons as they moved to the front of the line of a food vendor. It took him a moment to understand what the Irishman was saying.
“What?” He asked.
“Want to mess with them?” Irish repeated, a wicked smile on his lips. “We could blow their food up.” His fingers began to twitch as if he were playing an invisible piano. Samson began to itch his knuckles, preparing for a fight.
“No!” Santos hissed. “We are not messing with them.”
“Why not?” Samson asked.
"We all know that experienced Arcs can see one another," he recalled. “That weird aura of our ardor or whatever Mav talked about. If we get close, they could suspect something.” Will had forgotten about that. Mav had talked about it so long ago, it was good to be reminded that Arcs couldn’t hide from one another.
“I don’t think that’s a thing,” Irish said. “I still haven’t seen it, and I’ve been around a lot of Arcs.”
“Well, I’m not about to question the old man. Besides, if we get caught and rumors get out, how many breaks do you think Mav will give us in the future?” That quieted them. Samson and Irish’s mischievous grins slowly drooped down to a frown. “Let’s just finish up. Let them finish whatever brought them here. Then go back to training.”
Samson took a breath as if he were going to retort, then let out a long sigh. “Fine.”
“Whatever, mam,” Irish said.
“What the hells a mam?” Samson asked.
“It’s…a mam,” Irish said, confused.
“You mean, mom?” Samson asked.
“No, mam. What? Yours disappeared on you, and you forgot what to call them?" asked Irish. Irish asked. Samson didn’t wait, his leg connected with Irish’s balls without hesitation. Irish rolled back, holding onto them and groaning.
“Deserved that one,” Irish hissed between clenched teeth.
“That you did,” Samson said. Grabbing the smaller man by the collar, the tense situation dissipated. Will helped Irish up and began dragging him back, away from the Goons. Grabbing their clothes and other nicknacks they bought, they walked toward the bus stop in silence. As they walked past groups of children and other people, Will remained silent as they headed away. His mind was always on the goons; he felt like he could almost feel them behind him. As if they were following him and waiting to attack him. As they retreated, the feeling dimmed, but it was always there.
“Will?” Someone asked. He was still in his own thoughts and didn't register it for a moment. When he did, he stopped in his tracks to see Zach Willard. The shorter kid with the thick black glasses was as he remembered. He had bleach blonde hair and looked normal in a muscle shirt and jeans. Except now he had a blue dragon head tattooed on his neck. The neck of the dragon disappeared into his shirt, so Will guessed it was a full body tattoo.
“Zach?” Will asked. This was the friend from his high school who had been outed during graduation. He had also been there for testing with Maven. “How’s it going, man? Sorry, I didn’t get a chance to say anything before you left.” Zach had made it to Mav's second test, but Will passed out after the old man entered his mind. By the time he awoke, only the five that had passed remained.
“Yeah, I think we were all kind of out of it,” Zach said. He eyed the others around Will. “Who are your friends?”
Will introduced them one by one. “What have you been up to?”
“Nothing much. Didn’t get too bad of a blowback from the Goons,” he said with a shrug. “I started working at a tattoo parlor and moved out of my folks place.” Will assumed he moved out so they wouldn’t be targeted since it got out he was an Arc.
“Cool,” Will said. “You do that one?” He pointed at the blue dragon sticking it’s head out of his shirt.
“I did,” Zach laughed. “What about you?”
"Oh, I've been doing that whole Arc police thing,” Will said. “What happened to you after that last test?”
There was a long silence as a confused look moved to Zach’s face. “Police what?” He asked.
“You know, the thing at the old school…after graduation?” Will asked.
“Dude, I passed out after graduation. It was kind of a lot to take in,” Zach said. “What are you talking about exactly?”
“Nothing,” Samson said, stepping in. “It was nice to meet you; we gotta go.” He grabbed Will’s shoulder and pulled him away. Will quickly put together what had happened.
“I’m guessin, I am missing somethin,” Irish said as they walked in silence.
“Yeah, I think the old man wiped that guy’s memory,” Samson said. Will was starting to agree. He looked to Irish. “Remember how we told you we had to do those tests to join up?”
“That mind-rape thing?” Irish asked. Santos and Samson nodded.
“Yeah, that guy was one of the other applicants. But it seems he didn’t remember,” Samson said.
“Jeez, you think the old man can erase memories like that?” Santos asked.
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Samson said.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Me either,” Will mumbled. He felt a wave of fear move up his back, but he pushed it away. A part of him wanted to be upset that the old man had done that, but at the same time, Mav did whatever he wanted.
Over the last few months, Mav had told them story after story. There was one common aspect in Mav’s stories: he did whatever the hell he wanted. Mav didn't directly say he had killed a lot of Arcs in his time, but Will got the impression that he had. The story of an Arc starting forest fires because they were a pyromaniac. Another Arc that was controlling water and flooding beach towns. One that was a hired killer, making sinkholes under people so their deaths looked like accidents. All the stories ended abruptly, leaving Will and the rest of the group with the impression that Mav had killed them.
During his explanations of other powers, Mav had inadvertently painted himself as some sort of vigilante against bad people, Arc or otherwise. Whether he was unlucky or had a nose for it, Will didn’t know. One fact he did know was the old man hated the Goons as much as the rest of them did. Perhaps he was reluctant to allow the Arcs he had rejected to join the Dragoons, despite his recommendation to them all.
They stepped out of the mall together in silence. They waited near the bench at the nearby bus stop, lost in their own thoughts.
“You know what we should do,” Samson said slowly. “Go to one of the Bounty Houses.”
“What?” Santos asked.
“Yes,” Irish said with a wide smile.
“Bounty Houses?” Will asked.
“You know, where the bounty hunters hang,” Samson said. “Maybe we can ask about Maven, or even better, join up.”
“You want to be a bounty hunter now?” Santos asked with a frown.
“Why not? We are Arcs. A hell of a lot stronger than we used to be,” Samson noted. “We could make some extra money in our spare time. If Mav is really going to be cutting us loose, why not?”
Santos didn’t have an answer for that. Will did want to go with them, but he had already made his decision. "I'm, uh, gonna go see my uncle,” he said.
“What-” Samson said, but Will pulled out his ardor, turning into light, and shot straight up. Reforming hundreds of feet above where he had been standing before, the wind was already roaring in his ears as gravity took over and he began to drop. He phased again, this time to the top of the mall.
Will, his feet stomping on tiny pebbles on the mall roof, made his way to the glass-topped section over the food court, where natural light flooded in. He scanned the crowd and tables below to see that the Goons were already gone. Panicking slightly, he looked to his right and phased to the mall's edge. His eyes scanning the parking lot; he didn’t see anything, so he phased to the other side instantly. It wasn’t until he jumped to the side opposite the bus stop that he saw the big black vehicle.
The Humvee-type vehicle was as he remembered it during the Anarchist War. More like a mobile tank, the black vehicle took up two spots in the parking lot. It was easily recognizable because of its tall tires, round metal bars welded to the front and sides, a roof hatch on top, and all the bells and whistles of an off-road retrofitted military truck.
He noticed the group of five Goons walking toward it as he watched from above. The four younger Goons were playing around, hitting or laughing at each other, much like Will and the other students did. His rage was boiling inside as he watched the Rhino, as Mav called him, the old Goon barked at them to quiet down. They obeyed his orders immediately, as if they were afraid of him.
Getting into the driver’s side of the vehicle, the others piled in the back. Hidden from view, Will watched them as his heart raced. They departed from their spot, prompting cars to halt and allow them to merge into the traffic. A red light was turning on, and Will was surprised they waited for it. Most complaints he had heard about Goons was that they ignored a lot of laws, especially traffic ones. When they took a turn, Will focused on a spot on the sidewalk where no one was standing. Ardor pouring out of him; his body lit up, and he was there. He turned his head to watch the Goonmobile, initiating another game of tag.
His training with Ryu had already proved beneficial. Ryu had a huge range of animal forms. Of all of the students, he somehow had the most experience with his Arc ability. Though he didn’t turn into anything like bugs, he would shrink down to the size of a pigeon and jump up to the size of a horse when the need arose.
Will had chased him for days before he finally caught him. Ryu would then make it harder. Ryu would vanish into a swarm of other pigeons, leaving Will to determine which one was genuine. He would chase after multiple pigeons, catching them one by one, but most of the time, Ryu would escape and run through the streets in the form of a cocker spaniel or something similar.
Always on the move, Will phased from spot to spot. Appearing and disappearing in a flash of light, most people didn’t react to his appearance because it was that quick. But he tended to stay away from them when he reformed, just in case his body, which changed from light to physical, somehow fused with or hit them.
As the Goon’s truck continued through traffic, then onto the freeway, Will jumped from vantage point to vantage point. At times, he would jump from vantage points as far away as a hundred feet, but as soon as the vehicle accelerated, he was able to leap miles at a time. It had taken a lot of practice, but he learned that once he could see somewhere, he could phase to it. Line of sight was the only limiter. Traveling at light speed made miles take as much effort as feet, but his power was limited.
Oftentimes, he would need a break. His maximum was usually a dozen jumps in a row during a short period of time. But following the vehicle with lots of breaks for red lights or other traffic made it so he was just fine. Since the city wasn’t overly large, it wasn’t too long until the vehicle was pulling off the highway and heading downtown.
Will jumped onto the side of a skyscraper. Only about 10 stories up, he held onto the black metal building with his strong grip and watched as the Goons pulled to a stop near a building under construction. The Covenant Bank main branch was next door. Will hadn’t noticed the new construction when they were there a couple of months ago. Already, there was a shell of a building. With teams of workers onsite, Will doubted it would be long until the building was done.
The Goons parked out front of the building. The four young ones excitedly talking below. Will continued to watch. By that time, he had grown accustomed to the heights. So far up, no one looked or pointed at him. Rhino got out of the vehicle and barked at the excited youths again. They quieted, opening the chainlink fence around the building, and walked in.
The interior of the fence had people working on the landscape and inside the building. It appeared they were already beginning to install windows on the sidewalls. About twenty stories tall, Will noticed a table by some folding chairs. A hardhat was sitting on the table; he phased to it, put it on, and phased to behind the Goons.
“Is this really, all ours?” One of the younger Goons asked. Will moved behind them, feigning busyness as he adjusted his hard hat to shield his eyes. A few other construction workers in the path of the Goons made themselves scarce, barely noticing Will.
“Not ours, you idiot,” Rhinehold said. “The Dragoons. But looks like we will be stationed here.”
“That’s awesome,” another one said. “I’m so sick of the Tower. It would be nice to get some actual missions.”
“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you. We are only the first group,” Rhinehold said with a long sigh. “Just to help out with Arcs once this place is made.”
“Why now?” A younger Goon asked.
“A lot’s changing,” Rhinehold said. “We are gaining in number. It’s time to expand out to the rest of the country.” He looked back, and Will felt that he had been discovered. In a blink of an eye, he phased far ahead. He was outside the building, so he phased up to the next floor and moved near the stairs where the Goons were walking up.
“So don’t get overly zealous,” Rhinehold continued. “They will be rolling out Stations all over the country. If you all do well here, then we can talk about next steps.”
The group continued to ask questions. Will phased closer to them, but he was only able to glean brief details. What he could gather was that the four young Goons had recently graduated from whatever training the Goons did. They were all from the Dragoon Tower, which was something Will had only heard about. Once this building was finished, they would supposedly be assigned to protect the city.
Will hung back as they moved up yet another floor. Rhinehold was checking in with the foreman, and the group of them would travel back to New York afterward. Chewing his lip, Will thought about what he wanted to do. He wanted to kill the Rhino.
Mav had told him it was impossible to know who had killed his mom. Not unless he found out about all the Goons in the city that day. One of the Arcs that could control rock had crushed his mom. The Arcs with that ability were called Soils, because they could control rock, soil, and sometimes unprocessed metals. If Will could gather the nerve and interrogate Rhinehold, he could very well find the culprit who had messed up his life so badly.
Will’s hand itched for the dagger he had used the day before. He had killed the Bloodhounds with it so easily. Phasing to them and stabbing them before they could react, he could get the work done in an instant. But he needed answers. He didn't want to end their lives before he could extract them from himself. Will frowned. He wasn't confident in his own abilities either.
Mav had shown all of them that there were impossibly strong Arcs out there. Maven himself was among those whose strength he couldn't even begin to comprehend. Was Rhinehold one of them? Will had thought Mav hinted that the Rhino was a Soil. Was he the culprit? Mav had said the guy was hard to fight, and Mav was still impossibly strong to Will.
The only thing he was confident in was his speed. Killing might be his best option to seek revenge. But could he kill another human?
Will phased behind himself, near the building's edge. Looking up to the next floor, he phased to it and found Rhinehold and the others staring down the foreman. The older man was nervous and stuttering as he faced the true powers in the country. He was scared of Arcs like every other normal person; he didn't know how to react, so he told them everything they wanted to know and hoped they didn't kill him.
“Can I do it?” Will murmured under his breath as he gazed at Rhinehold. His eyes on the man’s throat, he continued to wonder. Will visualized a dagger in his hand, and as he plunged it in, he felt like it could be done. But the Goons had defenses he didn’t know about. Mav had told them that Augers could change everyday items to have powers. The black uniforms on the Goons were probably augmented with some sort of protection. If he was going to do this, Will wanted to be smart about it.
Letting out a long, annoyed sigh, he turned around to see a white flash of light hit him in the face. It knocked him out before he could register what exactly had happened. Dropping him to the ground, he felt the pain but ignored it as he became scared that one of the Goons had found him.