Paladin Ascending Vol 4 #4: Secrets

Trauma can take a toll on you. Especially if you’re in battle. Actually, anything could be. But you need to keep yourself together. Get help if you can.

 

I led a sweep alongside some hand picked members who were willing to join me in finding the culprits who injured Mason Gardner. Needless to say, it wasn’t a good sight, upon his day of campaign.

 

Connor: “Whilst former Guild members are not my specialty anymore. I should have known these two were under hire after they lost privileges to our resources. This is the point of hunting them down.”

Jesse: “Yeah big bro. Yeah. Not a good day today. Why the manor though?”

Connor: "Last known location. Could be a trap."

Navin: “What makes you think these hired guns aren’t along the lines. It's not my notion to theorize, but obviously someone’s pulling the strings by starting with poison. The easiest way to get them. Explains how your friends see things.”

Lyra: “And they target those who are associated with pain.”

 

Couldn’t agree more. I took three people and that’s it. The main reason is that agents are on a lockdown situation for the last week...and it’s sending Paladin into disarray. If I had added the number, I would have asked the Paladin head honco—the woman with the bob, Raze, to join in on this mission. But she's quite shady. I tried to dig deep on what she is, but records of her are scarce. Interpol doesn't even have records.

 

One fact I know she has eyes and ears everywhere overseeing things. Among the other espionage organizations, she hates Interpol. Probably didn't want them sticking their noses into the superhuman stuff. But I couldn't care less if she hated me or not since I'm an outsider.

 

Then came the security systems. Here is where my mirror powers come in handy. Jesse had already disabled electronics and the cybersecurity parts. Lyra and Connor’s powers could bypass the bioweapons...dismantling gas. I guess that’s good enough.

 

Bronze Butcher stands in the middle of the foray, amongst the unconscious bodies. Rattlesnake creeps around the walls with his grappling hook.

 

Butcher: “What brings you all along to Atlanta, dear...former brother?”

Connor: “That’s a term I should be using. Why are you here? Are you not ashamed of failures? Was exile too short on retirment?”

Butcher: “You little—“

Rattlesnake: “Nothing withstands the insults of the great Dusksmoke. You fucking punk. I know you’re all here to get answers. Easy. You'll know when I kill you fast and clean and what remains is your bones.”

Connor: “Quit your bullshit, I will not ask again. Shoot me when you have the time. I only want to know, why did you go after our friend?”

Butcher: “The businessman? He’s a popular, hot target...I’m sure his meat will sell well in the market...maybe it would be better if I took the ribs first. His legs are meaty.”

Lyra: “You goddamn cannibal. That’s what’s the laser blades are for right? Or are you just in for money desperate to expand your meat packing district?”

Butcher: "Anything satisfactory, young lady. Pleasures to feast on."

Jesse: "Disgusting shit."

Khattar: “North. Because the last time the island didn’t teach you a lesson well enough you had to prove yourself worthy, right? You wanna meddle more in Interpol affairs? I'm a street away from sending you both death sentences.”

Rattlesnake: “Yes and so? Interpol? Nobody cares about those weak fucks. You tryna prove my point in being murderers? I kill for a living! I'll do anything for the money.”

Jesse: “Well fuck all when it is greed. Aight, I’ve seen enough shit, let’s go and blast' em.”

 

The Rattlesnake guy dives headfirst after Connor. It seems eager like a rematch. The butcher guy on the other hand begins activating land mines, forcing me to use glass shards to blow up a couple. The blast should have knocked me off but Lyra has absorbed all that power. Secondary evolution, I don’t have to explain that much—but its power is enough to send me and Jesse backwards to the wall. They both don't like Interpol. Right.

 

Getting back on his feet, Jesse begins to construct electrical weapons, equivalent to Bronze Butcher’s laser throwing arm blades. It’s straight out of a sci fi horror film. Cut some of his own henchmen’s head already, spilling blood around the room. I’m not sure if Lyra can take any more hits before she succumbs and can heal fast enough, so I summon the shattered sand and pieces to make more glass shards out of them.

 

Connor: “If you’re so eager to attack a penthouse, why not rob it?”

Rattlesnake: “Robbing it would just be half the battle; and it’ll only further diminish our public image.”

Connor: “You don’t even have one to maintain. You’re no celebrity or anything. Not even high class, bourgeois.”

Rattlesnake: “I could with my acid, but you see brother, this is what our client best needs. Destruction. We can tear apart from the whole again...”

Connor: “For a mass penthouse, he’s got so much more fortune worth.”

Rattlesnake: “You just answered your own question. You proved my point. I already have my brothers and sisters taking out the others already...with a small, sizeable amount like you cowards and fools...look at the world burn while your pretentious, unruly leader sits back and laugh! The high above all fuck!”

Connor: “I’d be falling too much if it were a lie. I’ve seen it, and my life is beyond a lie. But I know I won't take your word for it.”

Rattlesnake: “Then there is more than the lie...more than the Guild...you wanna know what secrets lie beyond that? Come after me. Come and find out, brother.”

 

Rattlesnake slithers back to a corridor, grappling the enraged Bronze Butcher and escapes using their transformed laser cannon—way out into the sky. Guess it was a lead in, and a trap.

 

Lyra: “We didn’t really come what we were looking for, right?”

Connor: “Rattlesnake has more to offer. I know how and what he is. My instincts say he’s not double crossing in a manner of speaking. He could telling the truth in some way despite that slithery, deceitful tone of his. Acting.”

Jesse: “Damnit bro, I hate it when they call you hermano. You’re the one I love more.”

Navin: “We’ll do a sweep. But Connor, this whole ordeal, it's starting to get suspicious...if he’s right...”

Connor: “Destruction. They wanna hurt Mason further. By the way Lyra, I should say lip reading is truly a great ability. You must be a master in tongues too.

Lyra: “Of course. Well, I don't do tongues. But in the process of my healing, I see there are no survivors...we might as well start the search before we head back.”

 

***

 

An hour in, there’s almost nothing. But it’s probably shocking enough to see the records of a damn billionaire. He’s losing the stocks. My father was a gambler so I could see on the sides of money. Guess they’re robbing him...no?

 

Two former Guild a-holes just wanting rain destruction and glory over pain is sketchy enough. Lyra deduced that he must have so much penthouses across the states, they’d be spreading everywhere like a toxic virus. Happens when you’re one of the richest billionaires on the list to get potentially sacked. Connor knows deception when he sees it, but words and acting are one of a kind. You don't know the truth you you make sense of it.

 

But to my conclusion, there’s nothing in this penthouse. Nothing important for the least so we decided to phone in Paladin, until—

 

A man’s shadow appeared behind the safe while I was looking at some bank notes. I pulled the handgun from my pocket just in time to intercept while forging a glass shard behind the window. But the Arden brothers looked rather shocked at the masked guy.

 

Jesse: “Holy shit.”

Connor: “Jericho? How are you….?”

Lyra: “Wait, you know this guy?”

Navin: “Huh? Who’s this? What is going on?”

Jericho: “Apologies—perhaps it wasn’t the best to be barging in a time like this.”

Navin: “Keep talking before I’m gonna shoot.”

Jericho: “I was a former pilot who used to work with you people at Paladin. Not much of an agent, more or less, just someone who’s often looked down at. I knew Avalon Squad pretty damn well.”

Lyra: “Then why are you here?”

Jericho: “Reiterating again, I’m not affiliated with Paladin anymore, unfortunately. Long story short, they fired me and kicked me out because I disobeyed multiple orders—“

Jesse: "What's locker 506?"

Jericho: "Stuffed bananas and stinky socks."

Navin: “Just get to the point. I don’t have all night.”

Jesse: “Chill. He’s a friend, amigo. It’s him for sure. If he knows the locker, he's one of us."

Jericho: Ok, diving straight into your questions, Earthnnerve? Correct? I hope what I’m saying now is going to clear up things, Agent Khattar. What I’m about to tell you is potentially big and there's secrets which is gonna be messy. I know it sounds very cliche as well. But I'm serious for god's sake, please turn off your comms. Your connections. Off.”

Navin: “How do you know my name? And you showing up, does it have anything to do with the agency?”

Jericho: “There are many reasons why I’m here: because Mason Gardner is dying, and I share a connection with Ghostforge, who you all refer to as Harry; we were orphans who grew up together on the streets. We saw too much shit together. And I sensed something wrong in his powers—his mental state is not doing well. Because someone’s manipulating the heroes with trauma, and he’s among them.”

Navin: “No shit, Sherlock. Of course.”

Jericho: “I sense it in you as well, Agent Khattar. You harbor anger inside. Sorry I read your name when you dropped your credentials on the table. But back to where I was, I have evidence that holds Paladin accountable for things. The truth behind it, don’t you want to know? ”

Connor: “ Jericho, I’m sorry you had to went through all of that with Harry. Good to know you're on our side. I never looked too deep into compromising matters, but what’s so suspicious about the agency anyways?”

Jericho: “It’s quite shady, to be honest, like many agencies and companies out there, having dirty works and whatnot, but your bosses—the ones up there, they have a lot kept away from you. PR does the work. And we’re running out of time, because this will be risky—and it will expose them.”

Jesse: “Damnit man, I really wish this was funny like my brother said. But...”

Jericho: “Look, I know you kinda trust and don’t trust me at the same time, I can’t explain it here with a half assed, washed up pilot, but drop everything you have, and come with me. I’ll tell you everything you need to know...we do not have much time.”

 

Next thing I see is Jericho activating a button on his waist, engulfing us into a portal at the tech door exit.

 

Then I could hear the footsteps of incoming agents, shouting and screaming. Seems like Paladin is here, knowing we didn't return on time. Could it be...Raze?

 

In this moment, I am confused and dazed, and I don’t know how to deal with it...

Done