[2:09pm]

BANG!

A shot rang out from the pistol, but not before the assailant was tackled to the ground by Vincent. They wrestled around on the ground for a few seconds before another stray bullet was fired toward the ceiling.

“Alright, ya bastard,” Vincent said, wrapping his arms around the man’s throat. With the man kept in a chokehold, Vincent turned to Seigella and asked, “Are you alright? Are you shot?”

Siegella, with her eyes wide and alert, responded, “No, I'm fine. Let me help you.”

But just as she started to stand up, Vincent yelled back, “No! You need to concentrate on finding the bomb. Let me take care of this guy.” He then bashed the man’s head on the ground.

The assailant continued to struggle in Vincent’s grasp, squirming and clawing at every inch. However, Vincent was strong and his chokeholds were tight. The man then started to thrash about, causing them both to roll around on the ground for a while. Just as Vincent collided with a seat, he felt a warm sensation on his arm…

And then it got hotter…

And hotter…

And suddenly a searing pain burned Vincent’s arm, forcing him to let go of the man and recoil in agony. As he looked at the spot where he felt that pain, he saw that there was a second-degree burn in the loose shape of a hand.

“Fuck!” Vincent yelled, instinctually covering the arm with his other hand.

Right after his initial reaction to the burn passed, he snapped to attention and looked up. He saw that the man who supposedly caused the attack was just getting to his feet. Vincent immediately stood up and started to rush at the him again.

After taking a couple of steps, he saw the man spin around and point his gun at him. Almost instantly, Vincent felt the man’s intent to shoot, and he jumped to the side, avoiding the next few shots. He had to keep his mind focused on both the gun and the compact environment around him. There were shocked passengers, several seats, and poles that stuck up out of the ground.

Keeping his momentum going, Vincent continued to run toward the man, dodging everything that he could, but it was hard. The presence of the bystanders complicated any routes that he could make toward the man. In addition, if he used godspeed, he would certainly go too fast and fly out the window. With no sure plan to go off of, Vincent resorted to what he knew best: the simplest solution.

“Everybody, run away!” he screamed. “There’s a bomb on the train and you need to run!”

If people weren't already running in terror, the fear of God was now present on every single person’s face. Every passenger bolted out of the train car and continued to move towards the front of the train. In the meantime, Vincent continued to dance around the car, barely dodging any of the assailant’s bullets.

He then jumped behind an overturned chair and took cover. With the innocents now gone, he figured that he had enough space to make a run for the man. All he had to do was wait for the guy to start firing again. Without thinking, Vincent just grabbed a nearby purse and threw it in the air.

As soon as he felt the man’s intent to shoot, he rolled around to the side and charged him. There was a look of surprise on the man’s face, especially seeing as how he had his gun slightly aimed up and away from Vincent. The man tried to adjust his aim, but Vincent was already on him.

Vincent threw a punch, which the man tried to counter. However, Vincent's aim was not actually the man, but rather his arm…and he hit his target. He managed to pin the hand that had the pistol in it against the wall, forcing the man to drop it. He then tried to punch the guy, but this man was also a proficient close-range fighter and managed to deflect the blows.

Both Vincent and the guy stared at each other in a tense moment. Their eyes were locked and full of fight.

“Who are ya?” Vincent scowled.

The man spat on the ground and said, “Copperhead Zak, and don't ya forget it—it’ll be the last name you hear before ya die today.”

“Funny, I don’t remember that being on my calendar,” Vincent sarcastically replied.

His eyes glanced down at the pistol that was between them and then back up at Zak. As he did, he saw something that he didn't notice before. Affixed around Zak’s waist were two, fairly large water bottles. They were the kind that had tops that let you squeeze the water out. He recognized them from his time playing basketball in high school. Not only that, but he swore that he saw water or some sort of other liquid dripping off of Zak’s hand.

Regardless, the main priority was to grab the gun and put an end to this fight. And so, Vincent lowered himself into a colder state, preparing to unleash a void if he needed. With one final breath, Vincent ran for the gun.

The moment that he started to run in that direction, he saw Zak fling his arm in his direction. Coming off of his hand were drops of water that seemed to quickly solidify into multiple sharp, spearlike pieces of ice. Thankfully, Vincent was ready, but barely. He stopped and created a void right in front of him, shielding his body from the attack.

When he dropped the void, he saw that Zak was at the gun and was picking it up. Still determined to get it, Vincent continued to charge forward. As he did, Zak darted away and through to the next train car, slamming the dividing door in the process. Vincent reached out to open the door but instantly pulled his hand away.

“Shit,” he said, looking down at his now-burned hand.

As he looked down at the door, he saw that it was glowing with an orange-white color. Frustrated and with a sense of urgency, he unleashed a starbreaker at the door. It broke off whatever it was attached to and flew about halfway into the next car.

Stepping into the next train car, he noticed it was oddly empty. Besides the passing outside world behind the windows, nothing else moved.

Vincent’s eyes darted all around the interior, but nothing seemed out of place. His quick scan revealed nothing. And so, he let his racing mind calm down and he lowered himself into a colder place. He extended his mental waves outwards, tapping into the power of prediction.

He stood there for a few moments, sensing nothing but the vibrations of the natural world around him and the lingering emotions of the fleeing passengers.

He even heard the conductor make an announcement. “Ladies and gentlemen, if you look out your windows, you can see that we are approaching the B-Station.”

And that’s when it hit him.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp intent pointed in his direction. There was a lot of mental energy behind this intent, and it almost encompassed the whole car. That being said, it was hard to tell what exactly the intent was or what it meant. It’s like suddenly feeling like you’re being watched, but you can’t tell from where. The only words that he could think of that could describe this intent were “activation” and “cold.”

Before he could ponder the meaning, dozens of icy spikes emerged from the ground, piercing the roof. These spikes moved from the other side of the car towards Vincent, and they were rapidly approaching.

Vincent created a void in front of him just in time. When he released it, he saw that those spikes came from small pools of water that were on the ground. However, that wasn’t the only that he noticed. After that attack ended, there were residual mental waves that faded in the air, and they came from a particular direction…they came from outside the train.

Focusing in that direction, he realized that one of the windows to his left was open. He ran over to it and stuck his out. He first looked towards the front of the train and then towards the back. As he glanced backward, he came face-to-face with the barrel of a gun. About a dozen or so feet away, Zak was clinging to the side of the train, pointing his pistol at Vincent.

Without even reading any mental waves, Vincent immediately put a void up. A few shots rang out at the same time, with some sparking off the side of the train and some hitting the void. He continued to keep that void up, but each passing second took exponentially more energy. He could feel his arm start to go numb and he started to see his own breath. But he had to keep it up because the gunfire never ceased.

And then it did.

After waiting for a few seconds, Vincent quickly dropped his void and noticed that Zak was no longer there. Confused, Vincent looked around, eventually turning back towards the front of the train. The moment he did that, his eyes went wide. He was about to collide with a brick wall.

With reflexes alone, he managed to pull himself back into the train, just as it barreled into a tunnel.

The atmosphere of the interior was now completely different. There was no outside light, just the manmade yellows of industrial bulbs. The darkened interior of the tunnel only caused the train car to dim and feel even more claustrophobic.

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To add to that atmosphere, standing on the other side of the car, engulfed in shadows, was Zak. It wasn't necessarily hard to see him, but is definitely harder to see some of the finer details of him.

Vincent put his arms up and readied his mind. He stared dead ahead, and it seemed that Zak did the same.

After being in this standstill for a moment, Vincent spoke up.

“What are you after?” he asked.

Zak cocked his head, slightly, and said, “What are we after? Man, what the hell are you after, putting innocent lives at risk like this?”

With a strange, matter-of-fact voice, Vincent replied, “These lives are only at risk because of the bomb you all planted.”

“Man,” Zak sighed in frustrated annoyance, “y’all really just listen to every word the big man says, huh?”

“Of course. How else would we save this city?”

Zak slowly raised his gunless hand up. “By thinking for yourself, you damn dog.” His mental waves began to beat with a fast-paced rhythm. “You can reach a lot further when you ain’t gotta leash on ya.”

All at once, Vincent felt his chest beginning to warm up. Instinctually, he grabbed it with his hand, and that, too, began to heat up. Like an oven top, that heat quickly turned into discomfort and then into a burning sensation.

Vincent took a few steps back, stumbling from the pain. The farther away he got from Zak, the cooler his chest and hand got. Eventually, as he leaned up against the back door, the pain simmered and went back to normal.

“What was that?” Vincent asked, still clutching at his chest.

Zak lowered his hand. “Dominators like you and me have a very limited range,” he said, “but if you just free your mind, you can go farther than you ever imagined.”

After taking a few breaths, Vincent felt his chest cool to a near freeze. In fact, his entire body became empty and numb.

With his hand on his chest, he snapped back, saying, “I can go far enough on my own.”

Just then, he used godspeed and soared through the air. Within less than a second, he was already within melee range of Zak. Zak's eyes went wide and Vincent’s remained frigidly composed. Without a second of hesitation, Vincent unleashed a starbreaker, sending Zak flying through the door and into the next train car. Zak tumbled for a few feet, stopping about halfway in. Vincent, meanwhile, slowly walked into the room, keeping his head level and cool.

Without a moment to waste, Zak sprang to his feet and rushed Vincent. Vincent, in response, readied another starbreaker, causing him to become even colder. Just as Zak got into range, Vincent threw his fist forward. However, the attack missed and Zak managed to grab Vincent.

The two of them fell down and wrestled around on the ground. Eventually, Zak managed to get on top and press both of his hands against Vincent’s body, searing him. In response, Vincent launched a starbreaker, causing Zak to fly up toward the ceiling. Vincent then rolled backward and got to his feet.

Just as Zak started to fall back down, Vincent unleashed another starbreaker. As it hit, Zak soared through the train car until he collided with the back door, denting it inwards.

Vincent saw this as an opportunity to finish the fight, and so, before Zak could recover, he charged at him. As he made it halfway through the car, he saw Zak snap his head up and look at him. Instantly, Vincent felt a mass amount of waves emanate from Zak, but it was too late. Vincent watched as Zak threw one of his water bottles at him. Just as it reached him, it exploded into a web of crystalline ice, causing Vincent to stop in his tracks.

The mess in front of him covered the entire front portion of the car and blocked his path. It looked like a mass of tangled, frozen spiderwebs. There was not even an inch of space that allowed him to move or see through.

Without seeing another way around it, yet again, Vincent lowered himself into a colder state. As he did, he felt his body shiver in response. It was as if his own body was beginning to reject the idea of using his powers anymore. He was so cold now that he constantly saw his breath. He was so cold that his mind emptied out most emotions. Everything about him was frigid to the touch.

He placed his hand against the frozen wall in front of him and simply created a massive void within it. As he released it, the icy concoction in front of him crumbled under the weight of its lack of structural integrity.

Slowly, he stepped into the next train car.

Once inside, he noticed that the train was no longer in a tunnel. But more importantly, he again couldn’t find any trace of Zak. He was beginning to grow tired of this game.

In his barren, void-like state, his mental waves naturally resonated with a smoothness and efficiency that he wasn’t used to. He projected them outwards, allowing them to stretch thinner and reach further. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on everything that they collided with, searching for any semblance of Zak.

Within a few moments, he found exactly what he was looking for.

“Interesting,” Vincent said to himself.

He then jumped out of a window and used godspeed to launch himself upwards and onto the roof of the train. Once he was up there, he could feel the wind thrash against him, forcing his hair to blow backward. However, unlike the wild mess it usually is in the wind, for some reason, it swayed in a very stoic manner.

Another thing he noticed was that he was precariously close to the locomotive—the front of the train. He was standing on the third-to-last car, and standing on the second-to-last one was Zak.

There was water already dripping down Zak’s hand and it was pointed in the direction of the roof they were both standing on. The moment that Vincent landed up there, Zak's trajectory suddenly changed course and he flung the drops at Vincent. Those drops of water turned into ice spears, but Vincent managed to easily create a void in time.

“Why are you doing this?” Zak yelled, the wind obscuring some of his words.

“Because I have to,” Vincent replied.

Zak rolled his eyes and clenched his teeth. “But you don’t! No one is forcing you to do anything!” He gestured his hand around toward the train. “Like, what’s the point in you guys blowing up all these people? It’s just sick.”

“Us?” Vincent asked. “You’re the ones who are evil. Aries planted to bomb.”

“Look around, man. It don’t make no damn sense why we would just plant a stupid bomb and wait a day to blow it up. What does that do?”

“I don’t know, but I know that I have to stop you” Vincent stated.

Zak shook his head. “You’re hopeless, just like the rest of the ‘em.” He then looked to the side. “I can’t believe he still wants to save you.”

“What?”

Zak looked back up at Vincent and pointed his gun at him. “I think you’re too far gone. I’m gonna end you before you become a bigger threat.”

Vincent’s mind focused solely on the gun, letting his ability of prediction completely revolve around it. He waited in anticipation for the moment Zak’s intention to fire the gun manifested.

Before that could happen, Vincent watched Zak pour some water into his hands and fling it upward. As those drops fell to the ground, they turned into shards of crystalline ice, raining down like the spears of an angelic army.

And that was when Vincent felt it. Zak’s intent to shoot made itself known.

Within a fraction of time, Vincent had to navigate around not only several gunshots, but also several falling spears of ice. It was a test that he had to pass. If he wasn’t good enough, then this would be the end of him.

I have to get stronger, he thought.

One bullet was fired.

Vincent managed to swerve to the side, barely avoiding the collision.

A second bullet was fired.

I need to be nothing.

Just as Vincent moved his torso to the side, letting the bullet just graze him, he felt another sensation. It was like a muted sense of pressure appeared on his left shoulder. Even though he couldn’t look at it, he knew that he had just been impaled from above.

And then another 3 spears stabbed his back and shoulders. Even though he knew he had just been pierced many times, he felt no pain. There was tingling numbness that accompanied his entire body. Not only did his mind not feel any emotions anymore, his body felt nothing either.

A third, fourth, and fifth bullet was fired.

The empty resonance within him continued to enhance his unnatural abilities. The more the waves continued to vibrate, the more desolate of a song they formed within his mind. It was like a lonely string instrument playing a tune in an empty chapel. The mental waves bounced around in a space that was no longer inhabited by anything human. It was a black void of a mind.

Vincent managed to dodge each of the shots with inhuman swiftness. His reflexes were at a stage where they were the only thing that his body recognized. Thoughts were becoming a thing of the distant past. All that was left within him was a hollow shell of what he once was. But it was a powerful shell.

I…am nothing.

With far-gone eyes, Vincent simply looked at the man in front of him. He mindlessly pulled the spears out of his body without breaking eye contact.

Zak, on the other hand, continued to pull the trigger, but nothing came out. With a frustrated look, he threw his pistol off the train. Instead, he reached down toward his last water bottle and put some more water in his hands. Flicking his hands forward, more ice spears emerged from them.

With perfect precision and timing, Vincent put up a void and blocked the incoming attack.

Zak began to once again reach down toward his water bottles but stopped. His head snapped to his left and jumped back.

A distant shot rang out through the air and a massive bullet collided with the train.

Looking in the direction of the sound, Vincent saw a glimmer in the sunlight, about a few hundred feet away on the roof of a far-off building. He didn’t think anything of it.

Zak’s hand tensed as it hovered above his last water bottle. “Fuck it!” he yelled.

As he did, the bottle exploded into a continuous cloud of steam and filled the immediate space. With the movement of the train, Vincent was also caught up in the residuals of that cloud, making it nearly impossible to see.

However, Vincent still had a job to do. He rushed forward, partially blind. While his sight couldn’t perceive the world around him, his mental waves allowed him to sense most things in his vicinity.

Within a few seconds, he managed to get right up next to Zak, he was already in a fighting stance. Vincent stopped and mimicked the style, although his was looser.

“Let’s finish this, ya damn dog,” Zak growled.