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Chapter 32
By Agent Havoc
As Darian took out the key and opened the door to the cathedral, Nakano kept on thinking about what he was doing here. If somebody had suggested to him yesterday that he’d be an accomplice with a wanted suspect today, he would have been laughing his heart out, yet, that was exactly what he was doing.
Darian unlocked the door and pushed both doors wide open flicked on the light .
Suspended lights on the ceilings lit up the whole room inside and both Phoenix and Nakano gasped in amazement. While there were still murals and the walls still looked like a church, nothing else in the place could give away that this was once a holy place. In each of the two corners of the very large room were beds, one presumably for Anika and the other for Darian. The place looked like a very large loft with all the living utilities of a place anybody would live in, only there were no walls to separate most of the rooms. There were presumably separated rooms in the back of the church, behind the doors, but Nakano didn’t feel alright to just wander around someone else’s living quarters.
« Home sweet home! » declared Darian sarcastically as he headed towards one of the « bedrooms »
« That’s quite a place you’ve got here… i didn’t think it was possible to fix up an abandonned building like that… » said Nakano as he heard his voice echo in Darian’s home.
« It is when you make the kind of money I do » answered the hunter without turning back.
Nakano smiled to himself, this was a very unusual place to be, for a very unusual evening.
Phoenix Mark looked around him for a few moments and finally found what he was looking for : The fridge. He was starving and didn’t have a bite to eat since this crazy evening started. Without asking, he went straight for It and opened it without hesitation, It was every host’s duty to offer food and drink to his guests so he didn’t feel bad sparing Darian of having to offer him these commodities.
When he looked inside, he found that there was nothing in there but a half emptied can of beer, and a brown paper bag. Phoenix opened the bag only to find a handful of grenades in it… Frowning, he put the grenades back in the bag and back in the fridge.
« Don’t you have anything to eat or drink in here? » asked the short red headed hunter.
« Tap water, that’s about it, and I doubt I even have clean glasses lying around. ‘Nik and i simply come here to sleep and store our weapons and clothes. We’re on the streets the rest of the time and we usually eat in restaurants . » answered Darian drily as he searched under his bed for something.
« Great, sighed Phoenix, what am I going to eat now? »
« Awww, we can stop at a drive-thru before we go meet the others, said Nakano mockingly, the hero guide clearly says that you can’t save the world with an empty stomach ,you know! »
« Wise ass! » mumbled Phoenix.
« Phoenix, Nakano… Come here! » said Darian as he pulled out two briefcases from under his bed and laid them down on a round wood table.
Both the officer and the red headed hunter were next to Darian within seconds, and the hunter opened one of the cases. Fifty syringes filled with a green liquid were placed in 5 neat rows within the case. Phoenix looked at them and felt awful memories brushing back into his mind.
« What’s wrong Phoenix? » asked Nakano
Darian looked at him suspiciously.
« J-10… » said Phoenix in a low sad voice « So that’s what it was called… They forced alot of that stuff in me you know…»
Darian looked at him for a second…
« Phoenix, you have to tell me right away… Do you have any childhood memories? » asked Darian, looking at him straight in the eyes.
Phoenix felt like his old rival was reading into his soul with those icy blue eyes of his, and so, for the first time in years, Phoenix looked away from someone’s stare, not being able to face it.
« I’m serious Mark, you have to answer me! If not, you could be another of Dalasius’ clones, wich means you could be another element that could compromise this mission, as well as our safety. You’ve already told me you used to bea test sugject for the Ministry, so you have to answer me honestly now, do you have any childhood memories? »
Phoenix thought of his parents, and the reason he hated them so much now, he thought of how he was brought in by force into the Core, how they experimented on him and how he escaped. Tapping into his very first recollections, he could onlty find hate, anger and sadness. He looked down on the floor, turned his back to his companions.
« Come on Mark. » said Nakano as the officer put his hand on Phoenix’s shoulder « You can tell us… »
Mark pulled away his shoulder violently.
« DON’T TOUCH ME! » he screamed.
The sound of his voice echoed in Darian’s home….For moments that seemed like an eternity, Phoenix could feel Darian’s and Nakano’s look on him.
« I have childhood memories alright. » said Phoenix drily « Painful and crummy ones… I’m not a clone, that much I know… I was bred the traditional way…If only I could have had a normal childhood… »
Mark spun around and slammed his fist on the table, but neither Darian or Nakano flinched.
« I’m going to wait for you two in the car ! » said the short red head as he stormed away towards the exit of Darian’s home.
Darian felt his throat dry up as he looked at Phoenix storm out of his house. He didn’t particularly like Mark, but he had no intentions of hurting him by bringing back bad memories that way. Bad memories, as he full well knew, could easily haunt someone for a very long time and were very hard to bury. He knew that by experience. Yet he knew he had to ask Mark that question… it was necessary… But still, It didn’t make it any easier. At least mow, he knew that Mark wasn’t a clone of Dalasius… But what the hell was he ? That question would be answered another time, he thought, on Mark’s terms, not his.
Darian looked at the J-10 in front of him for a moment and took out 10 small metal cases from the briefcase and put in 10 syringes of J-10 in each of the cases. When he was done, he gave Nakano, two cases.
« As I’ve explained to you before sargeant, If things get weird when we get to Cisia and she starts to do bizarre things, do not hesitate to stick one of these into her. It’ll push Dalasius out for a while. Whatever you do, remember that It’s lethal for people who do not have Ether running through their veins, so make sure that you stick it into Cisia, and nobody else… »
« Sure thing chief! » answered Nakano, obviously trying to lighten up the mood.
And then, Darian realised something. Only Ancient mages had Ether flowing through their bloodstream, regular mages didn’t. Phoenix Mark had said that the Ministry injected Ether in his veins… Yet, he was still alive. It was at least a part of the puzzle. It was obvious however ,that Mark didn’t master the Arts of « Magic » else, he would have sensed Lydon trying to cap him in the back earlier… So the question was still there : What was Phoenix Mark ?
« And what’s in this briefcase ? » asked Nakano pointing the second briefcase and interrupting Darian from his thoughts.
« This case contains two of the most powerful handguns available these days, and It’s for me… » said Darian smiling.
« How can a handgun be more powerful than another? » asked the officer frowning.
Darian opened the briefcase to reveal two silver-chromed hand guns in it that looked like any other 9millimeter handguns that used clip, one with the word « Escaflowne » engraved on it’s side, the other with the words « Wylde Child » engraved on its side, in a Gothic style lettering.
« A handgun can be superior to all other handguns when it is engineered by the greatest weaponsmith to have ever graced the face of this planet, and when, to add to that, that weaponsmith happens to be a renegade mage who enhances his creations with spells. Try to touch the hammers of Escaflowne and Wylde Child, sergeant. »
Nakano reached out to touch the hammer with his index, but his finger went right through it… While the hammer of the gun looked real, it was intangible. The ex-officer stepped back with a look of shock in his eyes. Darian smiled and picked up both guns.
« Four spells have been cast on these two guns, a projecting spell, wich gives these guns the range and precision of sniper rifles, an illusion spell, wich gives you the illusion that they actually have hammers that hit the bullets when I squeeze the trigger even though there is no hammer, a recall spell, wich means that these guns and I are linked in a psychic way, so should I ever be seperated from them, I can always call them back and they’ll find their ways to me, wich is the reason I am never affraid of being captured, and the fourth and final spell is a longevity spell, wich makes the three other spells last for three hundred years. »
« Where did you get these? I mean, you didn’t just waltz into any arms dealer’s pad and asked him for magical guns now, right? » asked Nakano.
Darian looked at each of the guns for a few second, layed them back on the table and removed the two regular handguns that were placed in the holsters in his jacket, laying hose on the table too. He then picked up the two special guns and put inserted them in the holsters in question.
« No… A friend made Escaflowne for me, naming the gun after the ancient god of war. He made Wylde Child for another friend of mine. Only 5 guns like these have been manufactured for five of us who were very close friends. Only three of us are still alive today, and Wylde Child was given to me by a friend before she died, 7 years ago…the man who built these guns is also part of a better world now, when the Ministry discovered that he was practicing magic, they hunted him down, and... they...killed him on the spot. »
« I’m sorry… » started Nakano.
« No need to be sorry sargeant. » replied Darian softly looking at him straight in the eyes « I have learned a long time ago not to let the past control my present or my future. I have learned alot from the past, but am no longer its slave. »
Both men stood silent there for another moment. Darian wondered If Nakano had understood what he meant when he said that. Darian knew that Nakano was out for revenge, and he also knew that revenge was a bad motivation to do anything. Wether Nakano felt Darian was intruding into business that wasn’t his or not, the scarred hunter could not decipher the hard look in his eyes.
Darian decided not to let go of this small situation and headed for his kitchen. He opened his fridge and took out the paper bag full of grenades. He took out a few of them and inserted them in his pockets. He then reached for the top of the fridge where another paper bag was and pulled it down. A few dozen clips were there along with a wrist holster and a gun like the ones that were attached to his wrists right now. Darian decided to bring all of these with him, telling himself that he could leave the clips the couldn’t carry on him in the car and that Anika had to wear the wrist gun tonight. He knew she always complained that these were uncomfortable but he would force her to wear one tonight…It may well save her life as well as a few others.
« I’m done here, » said Darian bluntly « let’s go, we have to meet up with Anika and the others in twenty minutes. »
« I’m right behind you chief. » replied Nakano.
As both men steeped out of the abandonned cathedral and Darian was locking the door behind him, he told himself just how much he hated being called « chief »…
Hihori Yodama smoked a cigarette in his bedroom as he looked at the two beauties he was with getting dressed and getting ready to leave, but he could not concentrate on the extasy he had shared with these women a few moments earlier and his thoughts were fixed solely on Cisia, Dalasius and Darian. He opened the drawer next to his bed to reveal the special 9 millimeter gun that had the words « Tainted Love » engraved on the side. Yodama coud only wonder how this whole story would end, would Escaflowne and Tainted Love dance? Would he and one who was such a good friend to him at one time be dueling to the death eventually? Perhaps, and If it was the case, Yodama swore that he’d be the one getting out of this confrontation alive. But he truly hoped it wouldn’t have to come down to that. For now, Darian and his friends were to be captured alive, and he knew that his man, Shin tetsuhara, was more than capable of accomplishing the task… As he felt the two women leave his bedroom, he took out Tainted Love and a picture that was under the gun from the drawer and looked at the picture closely. The five of them were on the picture, Darian, Isabella, Edward, Hudson and himself. Only the five of them had survived for the final confrontation with Dalasius. Isabella and Hudson had laid down their lives during that final battle too…
Isabella Manchester… Probably the only woman he had ever truly loved. Yet, she was charmed by Darian. It had been a love triangle worthy of soap operas… the sad thing was, Darian only realised that he loved her after she was hit by that fireball spell the sorcerer sent at her. She learned that he loved her only minutes before dying. Idiot, thought Hihori, never knew how to express his feelings, let it all inside of him till it ate him up. Of course, perhaps he had changed after all these years.
Still, one way or another, business was business, Dalasius had to be stopped, no matter what the cost. Yodama mimicked the shape of a gun with his left hand and pointed it at Darian’s face on the picture.
« Bang! » he said softly as he put out his cigarette in the ashtray with his other hand…
Lydon was cursing wildly as he walked through the streets of Central District. Clutching to the wound on his shoulder. It had only been a flesh wound and he would have to find a place to take that bullet out of his shoulder and put some bandages over it. Even with Ashley and Nakano dead, he still had a prey to catch, he still had to get Cisia for the Ministry, for glory and power…
Concentrating on his wound , Lydon didn’t really look where he was going and ran into a man that stood still, arms crossed. He was short, yet built like a wrestler, wore a blue suit and hwore mirrored sunglasses. The man didn’t flinch.
« Get the hell out of my way, I’m a cop! » barked Lydon.
« Detective Lydon, I am Reginald of the Ministry. Master Ven would like to talk to you. »
« Ven? » asked Lydon, taking a step back.
« Yes, Master Ven, he has organised this lift for you and is waiting for you at the Core. »
Lydon looked to his left and saw a limousine with an open door, waiting for him to step in. Without a word, the detective stepped inside it and let the driver bring him to his destination…
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