Chapter 4: Intrinsic Motivation
Derry and Dan
Tuesday Morning
Dan had been cleaning up the city of Saint Narie since he was 15. Before Elysium had even formed or been around long enough to break down into the Table. Certainly, before the Night of golden waves split Elysium up a few months back. Back when John's heretic daughter Nilaa was still kicking around Saint Narie. Way back before all the nights with red moons, storms, and nightmares. Back when Saint Narie was a small fishing village recovering from the apocalypse in the early two thousands.
Born in 1987, Dan's seventy fourth birthday was yesterday. Monday, November 14th, of the year 2061. His birthday party had been a small group of personal friends who agreed to meet up for drinks and talk about the old times.
Dan had decided against going into the Tower. He didn't need to eat at any fancy restaurant meant for Blessed with enhanced senses of taste and high-class sensibilities. He was averse to celebrating himself and more or less always had been. He felt like an overly big party would have probably been a waste of time for his friends, probably, busy schedules.
Eventually he gave in to an old friend's idea. To visit a local bar on Land. An important place to the group called the Drowning Whale. A sort of central thread connecting many of the group's best memories. The Lonely Evening bar and grill. It was even where Dan had first met his dearly departed wife, Loraine, all those years ago. He rarely drank these days to avoid working through a hangover. But feeling particularly nostalgic he agreed to it.
So naturally. Halfway through the employees singing him a quick happy birthday. Tori the Phoenix herself got into a fight with a tower manifested apocalypse machine. Right in the Drowning Whales parking lot. Ruining his celebration. And showing him all the work, he could look forward to while hungover the next day.
Which is where he was now. In a row of gray suited men. All with the Easy Clean Laundromat logo covering their backs. One of the bigger criminal alliances in Saint Narie called the Table had been hiring out Easy Clean Laundromat, and by extension Dan for years. To the point that most of the upper hands in the underground groups of the city knew him by name and stopped to update him every once in a while.
Today was expected to be easy. A giant haunted skeleton wearing traditional samurai adjacent armor. It didn't sound complicated to move or clean up at all. But when the team arrived, they found the whole creature had apparently been full of glowing green ectoplasm-like blood. As a final gift from the Tower. Destroying humanity through the manifestations of humanity's greatest myths and fears wasn't enough. The damn junk pit also had to make sure the cleanup required hours of mopping. Thought Dan as he swished his now green mop through another pool of green slime.
The ghost’s blood eventually gathered enough dust and dirt that it could be scooped up in huge glops. Eventually the sticky mess was removed from the parking lot. But the ghostly blue flames the ghost had been using alongside its sword were revealed to have still been burning under all the goop. Cleaning the blood had revealed rows of deep black burns that were going to take forever to get off the gray sidewalk.
The still flaming sword itself would probably be purchased by the military directly from the Table. Dan heard the 3rd pillar of the empire. The Genius Inventor and so-called living god of innovation had been transferred to Saint Narie last year. Supposedly to work on better solutions to all the recurring Manifestations than just brutally killing them every few months.
And Dan agreed with that decision more than the average apparently blood thirsty citizen. He loved the feeling of taking care of the city he was born in. But all the constant cleaning up after huge demonic monsters did start to feel redundant eventually.
He was beginning to feel slightly like a maid picking up after a rich family's baby who liked the sound of their delicious spaghetti dinner landing on the floor.
One of the Ghostly warriors' fingers twitched as Dan warily eyed the monster's body. The bodies were notorious for fidgeting long after their deaths. Often catching off guard cleaners right when it was least expected. In fact, not many made it to the age of Dan. A pyrrhic victory that left a bitter taste in his mouth despite the pride he felt.
This one was clearly a Tower manifest Apocalypse Machine. He couldn’t guess the model or exact sin of excess it represented. Some cleaners had such an eye for the beasts. Likely due to their lives revolving around them. That they could accurately pin what year the Tower had started producing it just from the small details of the beast's physical form. The odd less than perfect stitch or patch of faulty welding. All the little errors that the Tower never made again. Each one officially dating the earlier models based on the Towers own growth and development.
Many citizens engaged in studying the tower's numerous oddities. But few groups of Tower Trackers were as devoted or popular. As the groups that tracked the Towers production of progressively more efficient Apocalypse Machines. All for the sake of destroying humanity. Dan had never been able to stomach looking at the Tower.
The sight of the Tower of Excess just set his stomach slightly off. A giant pile of Humanities remains poking out of the ocean. Old cars, TV’s, radios, whole swing sets, even intact satellites. The military had been reading data from the massive stores within the Tower since the U.A.N. stabilized in 2050. And still expected they had only processed maybe thirty percent of the huge labyrinth that made up the pre apocalypse internet. The entire labyrinth of American culture. Safely entombed in a dripping wet junk pit a few miles off the west coast. Lumped together and piled up from the depths of the ocean.
All of it topped by a vintage box Television. Broadcasting a looping video of the Towers Administrator. Explaining in his overly positive tone, that the apocalypse had arrived, and humanity was being punished for their sin of “Excess.” The Administrator himself was a standard human skeleton. Wearing a gray fitted suit a small patch of a grinning black skull over the right side of his chest. As well as a matching bowler hat.
His voice was in every part of the tower. You had to talk to him to enter. Go through him to start taking the Trials. Listen to him anytime he wants to broadcast his message. He was the talking face of the Tower of excess. But at the top of the Tower's physical form. He talked at a fairly normal volume. In a tone that was almost sorrowful, but Dan just felt mocking. Listing the various Excessive things humanity did at their peak. Showing examples from all over the world and from every era of human history to prove human nature had caved to indulgence at every turn.
Dan even heard some groups scheduled trips out to meditate around that screen every week. It was too late to apologize, Dan thought to himself. Those sins were in the past. They needed to focus on not bringing those mistakes into the new world.
Not that he knew what the message was like himself. He had never stepped foot on the Tower’s physical form. The thought alone put Dan off. He volunteered every Tuesday to clean trash off the coasts with a group he himself helped start years and years ago. Despite his distaste of the Tower and its actions. The Towers' message of humanity indulging so blatantly in Excessive habits hit Dan in the heart.
He believed that was the tower's message at least. Many people thought it was just using that angle to kill more humans. But Dan saw a connection between the Towers form, all the broadcasts it made, and the American Nation it had appeared next to.
He'd been alive before the towers rose and everything changed after all. He remembered the indulgent Lifestyle even though he had lived in Saint Marie before the apocalypse wiped out most of humanity.
If it weren't for what remained of the internet, local chat group histories and a few years' worth of YouTube footage. The American people would never have lived through the apocalypse. Sure, the small groups that bunched up would have done fine with their hoarded resources. But the Nation would be gone, no more than an idea in small enclaves scattered across a reshaped land mass. It was a miracle that the Tower appeared and corrected America's course. A biblical feat. The things it claimed to have caused were tragedies of course. But no one could convince Dan the tower itself wasn't a miracle of some form.
Unfortunately for Dan, he had never gone to church. And after losing Loraine to a bout of pneumonia a few years ago. He was alone and scared in a world with proof of the church's god Corina, easily visible. Jutting out of the ocean less than an hour's walk from his bed.
He shook his head trying to stop all the thoughts from drowning him right at the start of his workday. His hangover was really dragging his mood down. He knew he would be fine once he got his coffee break though. That thought helped him work a bit harder. He really needed his coffee today.
Glancing over at the Skeletal warrior again, he wondered how anyone could beat such a thing in a fight. He had heard the easily eight-foot-tall samurai-like monster had been disappearing and reappearing around town. Following some strange pattern of victims. That thought freaked Dan out. Honestly, he would have just immediately driven to a new city if it targeted him. If that didn't work. Really, he would just give up. The thing was terrifying.
He examined the strangely perfect look of the armor and mask. The most notable hint that the thing was a tower Apocalypse Machine. The strangely perfect construction of every aspect of the creature. Looking over at the Things huge sword, he noted the standard wooden hilt and metal hand guard. Despite its massive size, the strange pale white blade still flickered with pale blue flames to show its supernatural nature. Dan took another step away from the beast's corpse.
Derry, the new kid, meanwhile. Was standing on the things armored chest, staring at its face mask. Tapping the strange bone-like material.
Sighing he felt himself decide to give some advice. Against his better judgment. Idiots like that needed to mess up early so they could either quit quickly or figure out a better strategy for staying alive.
“Aye,” Dan called out to the young man. “Don't be fuckin around with that thing. Get down here and help clean up” Dan yelled up at him
The boy looked down at him, lifting one of his Walkman's headphones as he turned towards Dan. Clearly, he hadn't been able to understand the warning.
“The things dead kid, stop-” he tried again.
But Dan was cut off as the monster's massive corpse moved. The whole body twisted to the right in a jerking motion. Not an intentional movement. Just some side effect of whatever powerful chemicals and magic the tower wove into its form decaying and reacting with each other. An elegant decay that the 3rd pillar over in the West-Point Alexander was going to study.
Dan had no idea what kind of counter plan existed against massive ghost samurai that teleported around the city. But he wasn't the 3rd pillar of the U.A.N. The whole point was that guy apparently was smart enough to think of a plan for all the manifestations they had to kill.
All of that went through Dan’s head as Derry fell towards the ground. Rolling of the huge beast's chest. Eventually landing hard on his back and scrabbling along the ground away from the armored body. Finally stopping when his beanie covered head bounced against Dan's knee.
Dan looked down at the young man. With his whole life ahead of him. Clearly lost in the sea of life that was someone's early twenties.
And he knew he wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. So, he kicked him a bit, called him an idiot. And got right back to work. Confident they would never talk again.
3 hours later
“So, all the tower manifestations have themes?” Derry asked, shoving a forkful of French toast into his mouth.
Dan had been coming to the same quiet coffee shop on the coast. The Shallow Cup Cafe. For nearly thirty years. Him and Loraine had been sharing cups of coffee here after morning shifts since before Derry was born.
Today, Dan really needed his coffee. A black cup of caffeine and some delicious pastries really needed to get him ready for volunteering along the coasts in a few hours. Picking up all the trash and refuse humans still carelessly tossed in the ocean. Even in the apocalypse, people still littered constantly.
Some of humanity's awful habits couldn't even be straightened out by the biblically ordained end of the world. But it was busy work that Dan himself was happy to do. No matter how much the people he was helping annoyed him. He enjoyed filling pride in his role as a cleaner or helper of the troubled city. Feeling like he worked as hard for it as any Blessed hero in fancy clothes. Making millions off their totally selfless “Noble Deeds.”
“Not just the tower manifestations.” Dan finally answered Derry after a long sip of coffee. “You can pretty easily place the origin of all manifestations. The beasts from the ocean are often scaled or have far too many eyes or tentacles. The government terrorist trackers are often scaled and winged, also more humanoid but with multiples of limbs or heads. They often have fancier clothes and outfits too but so do the Towers Apocalypse Machines.” He paused to empty his mug and hold it up for a waitress to see. “But yeah, Point is if you see a “Themed” manifestation. It was probably worked up by the tower for some specific purpose. They’re all based on human myths, subconscious fears, famous tragedies etc.” He moved his mug out for the waitress and watched it fill with more coffee, then thanked the waitress.
Derry chewed his mouthful of French toast for a while. Probably trying to place all the Manifestations he had seen so far. “
So, the whole samurai thing.” he started eventually. “How does that exactly like, help the tower kill more humans? Isn't that its goal?”
Dan nodded. “No creatures in history. Have ever killed humans as effectively or in nearly so much quantity as other humans. We are our own best model for mass murder. Or just regular murder.”
Derry shook his head at that. “Kinda dark, isn't it?”
“I suppose so,” Dan said. “Just seemed efficient until I thought about it too hard just now”
Derry tried to move the conversation on. “Well, I don’t think the “Terrorist Trackers” are very-”
Dan jumped in quickly, “The government calls that unit Apocalypse Killers, Terrorist trackers is more Saint Narie slang.”
Derry responded immediately, “Why is it slang?”
“Well,” Dan replied. “There's a popular rumor that the government Apocalypse Killers can detect terroristic thoughts against the U.A.N. somehow.”
Then before Derry could ask the obvious question, “They raided a Niles family house about 15 years ago now. Killed a young lady who had been theorizing about something to do with the U.A.N. No one really knows the whole story. You know how the Niles are.”
Derry nodded. The Niles family's eccentric nature was well known to everyone in Saint Narie. They’re genius level intellect, seeming record levels of ADHD, and constant experimentation. They were well known for adding thrills to the everyday lives of the city's citizens.
A new Niles kid being born was practically a decade-long lock down warning for the whole city. Thankfully a new one hadn't been summoned to earth from whatever other universe that family spawned forth from in a bit over twenty years if Dan remembered right.
Derry thought about that for a second then went back to his original thought, “I don’t think the Terrorist Trackers look very dragon like. The black horns, weird tails, red skin. They look all demonic to me.”
“Tomatoe Tuh-mah-toe, when I was younger, we used to call them priestly. Until we saw the more developed units' corpses, they get a lot more “dragon” at the higher levels” Dan responded noncommittally. The general scopes everyone shoved the world's monsters into changed a bit every year. It was the Apocalypse. There were a lot of monsters. So many that the people of Saint Narie just called every nonsensical, dangerous supernatural event one overarching term more than anything else. A manifestation.
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. Davey
Wednesday Morning
The alarm woke Davey up with a piercing wail. He sharply lifted his head off his pillow, then quickly slapped his phone a few times to quiet the hellish sound. Annoyed, he laid back down, face first, and sighed into the pillow.
Back in Gerard Vance's territory, mostly because Tori had insisted so hard. He was crashing in one of the many Motels in the port territory Gerard managed as Harbour Master of Saint Narie. Some would argue that position made him the most powerful man in the city, but Davey more respected how much he used it. Rising from essentially a union leader to one of the lynch pins of the city's economy based off his raw charisma and reliable nature.
His responsibilities had massively increased from the harbor masters before him. Being the first person, the suits called to deal with any ocean beasts, ship rescues, and the constant inflow of marine life to feed the city during the winter. The Shelby farms, currently under the leadership of Liam, were responsible for the bulk of the city's food. But no one complained when the haul of Gerards fishing expeditions hit the market. Sushi, fried fish, and calamari were always welcome to break up the consistent crop rotations and pounds of pork the Shelby farm produced like clockwork year-round in their underground farms.
Fucking love sushi. Davey thought to himself.
Then, before his snoozed alarm got the chance to directly attack his mental health again. He pushed himself out of bed and started going through his morning workouts. The glimpse of himself he caught in the mirror almost made him cringe. Deep bags under his eyes, a shaggy haircut he had lost control of, fluffy yellow pajama pants, and no shirt.
He ignored it. Staying up all night obsessed with revenge did that to a person. But it would all be worth it once he figured the whole thing out. He nervously fidgeted with his necklace. A single bullet on a thin chain. He didn't want it too hard to get off. He intended to use it someday soon.
After a few sets of pushups, sit ups, squats, and a few minutes of planks. He stood up, muscles burning pleasantly after the morning routine. And picked up his phone. The clock read about six thirty am, not good considering he hadn’t managed to get to sleep until four am. There were just too many threads to follow. John's absences, Ryan not even resisting when he had taken him hostage, Shawn's cagey behavior ever since Elysium split up.
The Niles family name guaranteed a massive IQ. But Davey had been missed by whatever golden shower of DNA granted the rest of his family their supernatural intelligence. His powers were unique, but he couldn't predict the GDP shift of the American economy ten years in advance, the base test for a Niles kid.
Bullshit fucking power, subconscious super intelligence is a hack Davey thought for the millionth time. His sister had apparently matched the scores of Nachiles, Davey's uncle. And they were the lead scientific researcher in the whole damn U.A.N. Without the same cheat power, he just couldn't relate or even stand the rest of his family. And the family was massive, Niles genes were very interested in a healthy chance of reproduction.
It’s just responsible to ensure you have as many of us around as possible, his mom used to say while he was trying to figure out calculus at eight for their baseline IQ tests. It was years before they accepted, he was only barely above average in terms of raw processing power, he couldn't even simulate a simple CAD engineering program with his subconscious. Something even Shawn could do in his father's words. Ultimately, Davey was even more of a black sheep then Shawn, and they never even visited home.
Davey realized he was breathing harder; his heart rate had increased too. All of this thinking about family just added to his frustration. None of them seemed all that bothered by the one thing Davey lived for. Revenge for his aunts death.
Niles tradition dictated the siblings of a new mother and father took care of the children until they were ten. That way the parents could do all the research they'd been too busy with their pregnancies to conduct. The family had tried for decades to find a way for parents to raise their own children. But the urge to constantly create combined with the inability to work efficiently while carrying a child.
Meant the parents were unable to stop themselves from being neglectful. Their powers one tiny drawback, the constant urge to use it, became uncontrollable. Probably due to the rampant ADHD that ran through the family alongside their “gift.” The one thing life did see fit to grant Davey from all the possible Niles traits he could have inherited.
Hell, maybe they really weren't to blame, maybe the super intelligence made the ADHD super, or something. But the truth is, Niles were awful parents who loved having kids. As such, a system was put in place. The aunts and uncles were to help carry the burden. Moving in and raising the child with one hundred percent of their attention. With the known benefit, that their siblings would owe them the same helping hand in their time of need. A quid pro quo negotiation all to make sure the kids had some love in their lives.
That mess of a family bond was only worsened by the fact that he had been born just a few years after his older sister, meaning his single aunt had never even moved back out of the house after raising one of his parents' children.
But Lynn hadn’t cared. She loved and raised Davey like he was her own son. Somehow defying every known factor of the Niles family genes to lovingly raise not one, but two children with her full time and attention. Thirteen years of unbroken affection towards children that were not even her own. Davey hadn’t understood the depths of that relationship all the way up until he was 14.
All the way up until she died.
And worse, no one in his family even flinched. Calmly stating that it was all accounted for, that the plans were unaffected. His father and Mother simply remarked about her death as if she was another statistic they accounted for. He’d left the family house that night to join up with Elysium. The only place that offered Lei training for anyone, even the army, would have made him wait till he was eighteen. But John had simply added him to the group and run him to death like another unemployed man in need of money.
He formed his first technique at sixteen, a year after Tori. And he’d been strengthening the first bullet he made that day ever since. Nearly six years of effort to keep pushing more and more energy into the metal frame of the bullet hanging from his neck.
The whole city was to blame in some way, and Davey was getting close to figuring it all out. Even without his family's gifts.
He walked over to the front wall of the cheap motel room. To regular Unbonded eyes it was plain and standard in every way. But to Davey it was covered in markings formed by his Lei. To his eyes it wispily flickered with a silvery light. The wall was covered with evidence he’d gathered, all the inconsistencies with Saint Narie and its inhabitants. The connecting lines shimmered in other colors, an effect he had to consciously enact with a slight effort of will. The effort, nearly subconscious after so many years of mentally forming and projecting this display.
Red lines, like most of the ones connected to John, represented unsolved or incomplete ideas. Yellow attached mostly to hunches or theories he was still working on. The rare green thread glistened between his confirmed ideas. And purple was just pretty, so he had it marking many of the supporting evidence and more interesting connections on his board. The suspected ex-fling between Marissa and Gerard for example, or the real identity of the Saint Narie Serial Slaughterer.
He mentally updated some of the old connections, Shawn likely wasn't the reason it rained so much, but his sister still might be to blame for that one. She knew he hated the humidity. Some of the old stores he suspected as fronts had closed down. A couple of Suits were not secretly evil masterminds pulling all the strings based on how much time they spent on their inane, yet annoyingly common for unbonded civilian, hobbies.
Hours of time on stake outs, all wasted to make sure Officer Clarks bingo club wasn't conducting the whole damn town. And Miss Reynolds still warranted suspicion in Davey's opinion. She was far too positive to not be secretly evil.
In the middle of his musing a loud knock came from his door. Seconds before Gerard Vance himself walked in. ‘Ah, you're already up! Excellent, come join me for a swim!” he said cheerily. Far too cheerful for a man awake before seven am.
And all that energy from a man who doesn't even like coffee. The man was truly a titan. Thought Davey with an appreciative nod.
“I'll be right out, Sir.” Davey said easily over his shoulder, if he respected anyone in this web of deceit, it was him. Gerard himself had been pleasantly surprised by how driven Davey was. Common ground had been far more common than they had both been expecting when Davey asked to stay on his turf. Both men were well accustomed to waking up early, maintaining intense workouts, and were well studied.
Gerard had apparently expected the opposite based on his conversations with Tori. She often painted Davey in an unflattering light based on her distaste for his lack of allegiance to Elysium. Gerard had attributed him and tori’s rivalry to a difference in character.
Davey being lazy and unmotivated to foil Toris high work ethic. When the truth was simply, the two were far too similar. Each unwavering in their goals. Conversations between them played out like two trains rushing towards each other on a single railroad.
“My friend.” Gerard said with a slight tone of amusement. “It is my opinion that you never leave the man wearing a live round as a necklace alone. Especially, not to stare all morning at a wall he spent the whole night covering in his nearly solved theories.” he finished knowingly as he turned to walk out of the door.
Davey spun, like a dear on a highway, just noticing the headlights right behind it.
“Nearly solved?” he almost yelped. Excited, one of the people so high up the chain was finally acknowledging that he was close.
“You need sun and sushi, and i have things to teach you. Come” Gerard responded from outside. A smile clearly reflected in his tone.
Rolling his eyes and cursing to himself. Davey threw on his swim trunks, grabbed a towel, and hurried out after the massive blonde man.
Running down the sloping road of the coastal blocks of Saint Narie, he passed more children than he was used to. A farmers' market was open just ahead of him, the streets bustling with unhurried citizens. Haggling for the freshest fish and homemade spices, jams, totems, etc.
The massive frame of Gerard himself was clearly visible standing amidst the morning crowd. He waved to many faces and called out many names as he slowly worked his way through the crowd of Unbonded citizens. One kid was climbing the tower the man had over his shoulder like a mountain climber clinging to a rope. Much to his mother's embarrassment as Gerard laughed loudly, helping the child up onto his shoulder where the boy's pride before Gerard easily lowered him back down to his mother.
Davey meanwhile ignored the bustling crowd. He had no interest in the regular un-powered citizens of Saint Narie. Their innocence was nice to daydream about, but idealistic in the extreme. It was the apocalypse having so little power would have driven him mad. They were like sheep He thought to himself.
He couldn't relate to them. He shouldered through the crowd, softly, he wasn't cruel. But he was in a hurry. Quickly catching getting through the crowd and racing after Gerard. Finally catching up to him as the man's feet hit the golden sand, glowing in the sunrise.
Dave ignored it, not even turning to acknowledge the brilliant sunrise to his left, painting the entire sky a brilliant orange, coloring the clouds all shades, light pinks, rich purples, streaks of glowing gold streaked across the sky like the brush work or Corina herself. All reflected in the ocean's flaming surface, the water a constant rolling surface of the skies burning glow.
Davey didn't see any of it. Not even winded by the slight morning run. His eyes were locked onto Gerard as he spoke.
“Nearly correct theories? How close am I?” he stated calmly. Trying not to appear too eager for the knowledge he was drooling over.
Gerard didn't so much as look at him, taking in a deep breath as he stared out over the ocean.
“It is time for a lesson,” he finally responded. “I brought you out here for weeks before giving up, the squid population is lower than usual this fall, but today I feel lucky.”
Davey instantly replied. “Of course, sir, I am eager to learn fro-”
But Gerard just spoke over him. “It might be fate.” He sighed. “It’s so hard to tell if we're all playing a part or not. I bring you out here for weeks, no beasts worth hunting. I finally sent you away. Gave up on my idea for a lesson. But Tori sends you back for her own goals. Then immediately, bang! There’s a fantastic triumph just off the coast.” He snapped as he said bang, shaking his head but never losing his massive smile.
Davey tried again, “I’m not exactly prepared for a fight, sir, maybe we should talk ins-”
Gerard cut him off again “Marissa and John always said we should let the young rivals push each other, Ryan and Marcy, Shawn and Troy. Perhaps this is what they meant. Their plans certainly worked. Fate favors the hot-blooded youth after all.” he turned to Davey for the first time, putting a hand on his shoulder as he finished.
Davey didn't speak at first, annoyed that he had brought up both his sister Marcy and Shawn. And also, wary he would be cut off again. But Gerard looked at him with a grin, holding his shoulder supportively as if waiting for him to speak.
“Very astute of you, sir.” He began. “What did you mean by nearl-”
Gerard threw Davey into the ocean.
It felt like a mountain had lifted him gently and tossed him off the coast. He tumbled through the air, towel in hand which pissed him off even more, he could have used a warning.
Behind him he saw sand scatter through the air as Gerard likely leaped after him. This was all part of the man's hunting lesson. Great.
That was the clear thought Davey had before he squeezed his eyes shut as tight as he could. His body slammed into the freezing and salty ocean waves. The brutal slam knocked the air out of his lungs. Acting on instinct, his body immediately tried to pull water back into his throat. Which triggered his drowning instincts, setting off all kinds of alarms in the prehistoric lizard regions of his brain.
He struggled and kicked desperately for a few seconds, barely even registering the danger before he felt himself being yanked out of the water.
Gerard stood on the water's surface, like a version of Jesus that discovered protein shakes and anaphylactic steroids. Holding him effortlessly a few feet in the air by his arm.
Laughing in an infectious way he spoke. “Sorry friend, you're so close to crown level, and with the control I saw this morning on your wall, I thought you would have figured out walking by now.”
Not just walking he thought, suppressing an impulsive eye roll. Literally walking on water. It's kind of hard. Biting back his annoyance at not grasping the movement skill yet. But he was well ahead of Tori in other fields which helped.
Out loud he said, “I’ll be fine, sir.”
Gerard nodded, “Indeed, I will keep you safe. That is part of the lesson.”
Davey just nodded as he was dropped back down to tread water. Gerard held out his right hand to summon a manifested weapon. A golden spear. An icon almost certainly more recognizable than the man himself. Especially due to the fact that it glowed so brilliantly during crown level combat that seeing Gerard was actually quite difficult. One of many little features that betrayed the seemingly gentle giant's true nature as a true warrior. The razor-sharp barbed edges of the spear were another, less subtle clue.
“Watch yourself.” Gerard called out as he assumed a throwing position on the surface of the water. Sliding his foot back, drawing the spear back until the tip was even with his cheek bone, and moving faster than Davey could see to launch the supernatural lance.
About halfway through the throw, unbeknownst to Davey, Gerard shifted his weight and launched the spear straight down into the water.
A massive spray of salt water exploded straight up, obscuring Gerard as a massive wave bubbled up from the point of impact. Davey himself was carried away in the massive wall of water. Only to turn and see a massive Kraken rising just before Gerard.
One of the beat's eyes was nothing but a massive bleeding hole now. More waves formed as the beast twisted, the air rang with horrible screeching, and the beast rotated, its single remaining massive pupil dilating as it glared at the small human who had harmed it.
Gerard stood less than a foot, eyeing the mountain of muscle and beast with a wild grin. One of the beast's tentacles lifted into the air, just one of its arms easily bigger than an entire trading vessel and began to slam down towards Gerards head.
That was all Davey could see before the next wave from the beasts' movements slammed into him, dragging him under water in the riptide formed by all the conflicting waves. This was entirely different from reading reports about the man's hunts. He was desperately trying to float, coughing up buckets of salt water. Davey felt tiny.
That is when his power activated. His ability was incredibly rare. Many Niles had gone crazy trying to simulate the future in any capacity. But somehow, of all the genius family's history. Only two were able to form an ability that could simulate the future with any real accuracy.
Many members of the family could estimate events decades away with known factors. Often with frightening accuracy. But no matter how much Lei they used. The future proved nearly impossible to predict with one hundred percent accuracy.
At least until Davey was born.
His ability manifested in the same silvery smoke he saw all of his passive energy as. And formed an arrow. Pointing a little but to his left, with the instructions, dive now glowing in a thin cursive script over the arrow.
Without question he ducked, as a massive tentacle slammed down right where he had been moments before. Gerard himself appeared at the surface of the water over his head, holding back the massive arm with one hand as he smiled down at Davey. He flashed Davey a thumbs up and brilliant grin, then dashed back towards the main body of the beast.
Davey's power would show him the best way to accomplish whatever his desire was using everything he knew, so long as he would have been able to realize it himself. The ability was more of a subconscious filter. His subconscious thoughts clicked together without effort so he could focus on surviving with his conscious thoughts.
Right now, it was telling him to swim for the coast. Hard.
So, he did. Putting his head down and driving out all his thoughts. Putting everything he had into trusting his ability. He needed to kill whoever hurt his mo- Lynn. Needed revenge. Needed to live till then.
Above the water Gerard spartan kicked a tentacle skating across the top of the water towards him, blowing the limb back. He rotated his head slightly, tracking the progress of Davey. He worked out consistently and was further enhanced by the Lei in his body. He would make it back to the shore in a few minutes uninterrupted.
Gerard grinned.
A thin gold chain appeared in his right hand, coiled tightly around his muscled forearm. It floated through the air up to the pulped eye of the beast. And through all the blood and gore. The sunlight glinted off the golden shaft of his barbed spear. Still buried deep in the muscle and fat of the great beasts ruined eye socket.
Turning and straining for the first time that day. The massive man pulled both his arms down over his head, bending down with his full body weight and all of his muscles straining behind the throw.
Another hellish scream escaped the beast. As its weight resisted for maybe half a second. Then the herculean strength of Saint Narie’s Harbour Master launched the poor predator through the air, tracing a glorious arc through the scattering drops of ocean water. Glowing in the morning sun.
Davey under water only felt the change. His head down as he drove himself forward like a machine. The water suddenly lifted, launching him straight up into the air as the water was forced away from the massive frame of the Kraken.
In a moment, he went from swimming hard to falling through the clear air towards the beast he was avoiding. Terrified he screamed as he thought this was the end. But at the last second the silver lines appeared. But Davey only paled further as he saw the path.
A tentacle flew straight up from the water towards his temporarily suspended form, and he choked down a scream as he prepared to do anything to live. For Lynn.
He grabbed the tentacle in a hug like fashion as it slammed into him, then pulled, launching himself into a front fell down the creature's body. Following the silvery silhouette of his power guiding him as he ran far too quickly, out of control down the limb. The beast twisted as he leaped up. He hung in front of the thing's eye for a moment. And a flash of silver off his current path caught his eye.
As he flew through the air, to his right, he saw a different silhouette. Of him with a grin splitting his face. Firing the bullet around his neck into the beast's eye through his manifested revolver. The beast’s silhouetted head exploding into a rain of shimmering smokey blood that filled the sky. Glistening beautifully in the rays of the rising sun.
He shook his head and turned, rolling along the base of the tentacles and jumping through the air, aiming for the shore in the distance.
A tentacle arced through the air after him, but Gerard finally caught up maybe two seconds after he threw the monster. Flying through the air feet first into the side of the beast's head, slimming it back down into the ocean and sliding through the waves off to the side of Davey. Laughing boisterously like a surfer catching a good wave. Arms thrown out to his sides.
Now fully panicking Davey focused his thoughts down to survival. He needed to live. He pushed more Lei into his body, spending the limited reserves of a Blessed on his safety as he swam harder than he ever had before.
The next few minutes were a blur, shallow breaths and burning muscles as he aimed for safety. The squid occasionally landed near him again. Now missing numerous tentacles and bleeding from massive gashes. Massive arcs of red blood flying through the air as it fought for its life, swing the stumps of amputated limbs desperately at the man shaped monster hunting it. Screaming nearly constantly as it was ripped to shreds, and repeatedly flung closer and closer to the shore, further and further from its deep ocean home.
Finally, Davey reached sand, collapsing, gasping for air on his knees. Salty water flowed from his eyes, a mix of the ocean and his own tears. He coughed and grabbed a handful of sand. Happy to be alive.
The sound of sand shifting to his left filled his ears. His burning muscles fought him as he lifted his head. And Gerard came into view. Dragging the massive body behind him.
“Me and a million more once thought revenge made you stronger.” Gerard said over the collapsed frame of Davey, who was far too weak to speak. “But look behind you, not a single powerless citizen fled as I fought. They trusted me and focused on what they could do.”
“But look at you. You fight for another person. So consumed by the thing that drives you that you wasted all your grand potential to flee. I told them nothing more than I told you this morning. That I would keep them safe. And here they stand, far stronger than you despite your talent.
Davey groaned.
“Revenge makes you a coward. Pathetic. The weakest version of yourself you will ever be is the one who lets yourself become obsessed with your desires.” Gerard continued.
Davey struggled to speak. His emotions welling up, the fear of death, the need to live, the rage. All of it burned in his chest. “Fuck you.” he choked out between gasps. ‘Prick.” he added for good measure.
Gerard looked down calmly. His emerald eyes sparkling with humor.
Then he laughed. A loud and healthy laugh that made Davey want to laugh with him after a few seconds.
Gerard dropped the dry towel he had left behind earlier over Davey's back as he stopped laughing. “You’re talented, and smart. I would have loved to be your mentor if Shawn hadn’t begged to train you.” he said wiping a tear from his eye.
Davey wanted to roll his eyes. They literally never even talk to me, so much for wanting to train me. He sassed back in his mind, too tired to speak again.
“Think about my first lesson and come join me for fresh sushi when you're ready. Kraken is delicious fresh” he said with a large smile, before walking off towards the still bustling farmer's market. The kraken's corpse splayed out over half the massive beach behind him.
Davey dropped his head face first into the warm sand with a sigh. He reached up and wrapped is hand into a tight white knuckle grip around the bullet hanging from his neck.
And shed a few angry tears. Teeth clenched.