Chapter 14: What is he? ... The audacity
Chapter 14: What is he? ... The audacity
Vera put down the gun and breathed out in relief, staring at the destruction in the compound with lingering fear in her heart, she walked closer to the unconscious Derek and mumbled,"what is he?".
Derek's capabilities were absolutely strange and confusing to her, he clearly had no medium, so he wasn't a teleporter, he had no skill, so he wasn't a super human, this nurtured the question, what exactly was he? what she didn't know was while other teleporters could summon their daggers at any time Derek couldn't, he didn't learn, in fact, he ignored his powers till today.
"Clean this place up, I want him back to his room immediately, and dispose of those bodies, they were useless anyway", Vera scowled and kicked one of the men but he didn't respond, he laid lifelessly with his eyes wide open, from his non-existent undulation, he was dead.
Only two out of six quasi beta superhumans survived, and they were both in critical conditions, there were distinct fingerprints on their necks and from their unresponsive pupils, their survival was minute. However the maids still had a little hope for them as they immediately called for an ambulance.
Two hours later, Vera came out from the door and entered the terrace, which brought a beautiful view of, well polished sculptures at the gates, long symmetrical exquisitely trimmed flower gardens, the magnificent pool had an attractive water as clear as the sky and as clean as a crystal, it shimmered like a glowing sapphire. The exquisitely designed ash pavements were the final kiss of perfection.
But now, this beauty has been wrecked, with destroyed pavement blocks and the possible demise of those rare flowers.
Vera gazed at the people who wore yellow helmets, as they replaced the broken pavements and some highly paid Gardeners tended to the flowers.
She had never felt so enraged in her life, those pavement blocks and flowers were very expressive and the payments were coming out from her pocket, her plan against Derek had backfired.
The sides of her eyes wrinkled as she squinted, Derek's abrupt change shocked her to the core and till now she still hasn't recovered, she kept pondering, what exactly was Derek!
"Maybe this is a new genetic experiment, but then why wasn't he given to the government", she mumbles while massaging her forehead, she subconsciously left the terrace, when she recovered, she was standing before the guest room which was given to Derek.
Vera wrapped her fingers around the handle and slowly opened the door, she stretched her neck and saw him lying unconscious on the bed, she had ordered the maids to change his room so he was given the best guest room which was about 250 square feet with a queen-sized bed, it was a luxurious room, everything, even till the marble titles spoke loudly of the current hierarchy of the Crawfords.
Derek had been cleaned up by the maids and he slept in a star shape with two bracelets with glowing red light, guarding his wrists firmly.
They were ability cuffs, made specially for teleporters, it was their nightmare as it directly blocked their link with their mediums.
Though she wasn't exactly sure of what Derek was, she hoped that the cuffs could restrict him, the dart she used had a very high concentration, so she had to wait till the next day before Derek would wake up.
She closed the door and told the maid who always stood outside the room, in case Derek needed anything.
"feed him!, I don't care how you do it, even if you have to feed him with your mouth, just make sure his tummy is filled".
The maid nodded and faced Derek's door. Since Derek arrived, the housekeeper had been grumpy. Besides, she didn't mind touching lips, with such a handsome powerful man, wait! Now she thought of it, this method seemed appealingly applicable, a mischievous smile formed on her small face and she hurried to the kitchen.
••••
The next day, Vera woke up, she came down from her bed and went to the bathroom, when she was done washing up.
She came back to the huge room, which had few decorations with the main theme being the huge painting hung on the wall.
she picked up a remote control from a stool and pressed a button, the curtains opened and the dazzling sunlight flooded into the room.
She knew that the outside world was engulfed in darkness which was the reason she loved staying in the stronghold. Since they came here for about seven years now, she hadn't stepped out of the stronghold gates for once.
She had tried to convince Angel to quit that dangerous job of hers but all efforts were futile. she pressed another button and the holovision lit up;
"Right now our connection with the Eastern strongholds is getting better and their current situation will soon be known, so this is great news for those who have been stuck here without the knowledge of their families' well -being.
Well that's where we are for now, but the government has assured that connection will surely be restored. The X- tech Corp, has made a huge breakthrough in the advancements of the exo-suits and new armored vehicles; the peacemaker M1 and M2. it's now in the top ten among the best military vehicles in all strongholds.... The...".
While she listened to the anchor, her arched brows clearly explained her disbelief of how the government covered up the situation, the ignorant citizens never knew that they were now one stronghold lesser than before.
The government delusioned the people by showing them new advanced weapons, which calmed their minds and gave them hope that they could overcome the nightmares.
The atmosphere became a little emotional as both old and young were singing praises for both the government and X- corp, little did they know that they were delusioned, two safe holds and a stronghold housing millions have been decimated in a single night but the people never knew about it, sometimes ignorance was really bliss.
There were great evils happening behind the scenes but the government had hidden it from the masses, they bring out a great teleporter who would appear on holovisions and encourage the people and make false claims about their victory, although they did have such victories, the death count that came with it would frighten the masses.
Vera zoned out while the anchor spoke, she remembered some things Luke said, especially about the dark cyber organizations, those crazy bastards are super active this time around and it's giving a lot of worry to the higher ups, though the improvement of the exo suit eased their minds a little.
Vera squinted her eyes when she heard the group of scientists who brought such improvement would be awarded and it was a big celebration, she sighed with visible frustration thickly written on her face, this was a good chance for Angel to get a great guy as her possible husband or at least a boyfriend but she had to go on such dangerous missions for the sake of the 'government'she called it.
Vera knew it was an excuse but she couldn't convince Angel otherwise, besides Angel's talent as a sniper was amazing.
Luke praised her a lot, he also said if she didn't join the military late, she would have been a beta rank soldier by now and with her excellent sniping talent she would be a threat to both alpha ranked soldiers and platinum teleporters.
Vera shook her head, Angel was the stubborn child, Micheal already had a fiance and she was from a respectable background.
He was the golden boy in the family,a famous alpha level jet fighter pilot, his skills even made his jet a famous brand in multiple strongholds.
And here she was, with a stubborn Angel who doesn't want to grow up and accept that life wasn't a fairy tail and an abnormal boy with strange abilities, he could leave such deep print on an a rare metal ore which was found few years ago, the more she thought about Derek, the more she was accepting the probability that he was made in a lab.
But that was impossible, with the crawfords influence they were to know of such things, besides what kind of lab could create such a powerful human.
While pondering, she walked out of her room and moved to Derek's room, when she entered.
She saw an empty room,the bed was a little messy which implied that Derek was surely here last night. She checked the entire room, including both the bathroom and dressroom; everything was clean and intact but Derek was missing.
It was impossible for Derek to go out because the door was locked and there was no sign of damage on the door so she ruled out the possibility of Derek breaking out. She tapped her watch and summoned all the habitants in the building.
A few minutes later, they all gathered. In this huge mansion which covered ten thousand square feet; the number of maids, servants totaled ten, excluding the cooks, five maids and five servants.
All the cleaning machines were advanced so not many people were needed.
Vera walked around them, she stopped and questioned "have any of you seen Derek?".
".. Derek..??", A servant cocked his head in confusion. 𝗯𝐞𝗱𝗻𝐨𝘃𝐞𝐥.𝗻𝗲𝐭
Vera rubbed her forehead and exhaled loudly "the man at the guest room".
Vera's expression worsened when they all said they haven't seen Derek, even the maid she told to feed Derek said Derek was there last night, Vera turned to the bots and they gave her the same information.
"How can a grown man just disappear?" Vera hollered inwardly, while she walked to the surveillance room.
When she entered, she was shocked to see the guard dead, the entire place reeked of blood, the guard died with shocked eyes, he didn't even know how he died, but Vera knew when she saw the perfect slit at his throat.
Her heart leaped and she ran to the screen and waved her hands and selected Derek's room.
The video of Derek sleeping last night was shown, she fast-forwarded and it skipped till Derek woke up. Vera was surprised, wasn't Derek supposed to be basking in the pleasures of the dream world till at least seven in the morning, the concentration was that high.
But she couldn't think much about that right now, as suddenly two men covered in Black appeared with silver mist surrounding them.
"Teleporters", Vera snarled.
Derek stared at them shocked but he was powerless with the cuffs on, one of them appeared close to Derek and WHOOSH!!. Both Derek and the two men were gone.
Vera's face turned pale, Derek had been kidnapped and it happened in the Crawford's mansion, who had such audacity, this was daring the authority of the crawfords and those who dared to do this would definitely not be small figures.
Countless thoughts flashed through her head, suddenly her light azure eyes widened; if it was them, then hell awaited Derek, for there was no coming back.