Argonaut - The Vestige (Part III)

Chapter 7 - Chasing Ghosts

Chapter 7 – Chasing Ghosts

1st Sep 3:31 PM

I walked through the crumbling buildings, trying to piece together the story of the destroyed city. There had been a battle here. Bombs had laid waste to so many of the streets it looked like the surface of the moon, and a mix of rubble and. The guys back in Australia hadn't been exaggerating when they called America a warzone.

My face dropped when I remembered what Hannah had told me. Silverlight had taken them. They had done nothing but help me, and they had been kidnapped for their charity. How was any of that fair? How was anything fair? The weight of Cassius's words hit me heavily now. I was a clone. What did that mean? Was I nothing but David's shadow?

The cracks in the pavement deepened around me as I walked, my power fluctuating with my emotions. I was nothing. A long-dead streetlight flickered to life, the bulb bursting almost instantly. I was a thief. Small chunks of broken brickwork started to drag themselves across the street, at the will of my subconscious power. None of this was fair.

The buildings around me creaked and groaned, chunks of destroyed masonry hovering into the air as my anger built. I was a murderer, a copy of some Archaean I didn't know the first thing about, and a traitor. I clenched one fist, and the building to my side came crumbling down. The anger I felt multiplied my power, letting me effortlessly walk through the abandoned streets like a god.

I didn't choose to be a monster, I didn't choose to be the focus of so much hatred. Charlemagne had done this to me. The sky crackled overhead as I remembered the pain in Serena's eyes. Charlemagne had stolen me from them, from David. She had taken something unforgivable, and brought us up thinking we were going to be heroes.

My feet hovered off the ground as shattered pieces of David's memories flowed back. The part of David inside me hated her. I hated her. The entire city block started to shake as I clenched my fist, lost in the mess of memories.

'You're just a cheap copy, Prometheus!'I heard my voice snarl.

'You monster!'Niccolo yelled as I held his brother in the air.

'Are you afraid?'I asked, my voice brimming with power.

I clutched the sides of my head, the outside world fading as I was drawn into a deeper vision. I stood in the centre of a massive arena, glaring at a figure suspended above me with pure hate. 'You have no idea what I'm capable of,'I snarled as blue lightning arced over the distance between us.

Even though I was holding his mouth shut with my power, I could hear him trying to scream.

'What the hell are you?' he gasped in pain when I allowed him to speak.

My teeth clenched as I poured more electricity over the distance between us. 'I'm not sure, but I'd like to find out.'

The vision faded, a final thought echoing in my brain as I returned to the present. 'I didn't know I could be that violent, that evil.'

I was hovering about a foot above the cracked streets, but I returned to the ground quickly when I regained control. I couldn't stay here. My feet drummed on the decimated concrete as I broke into a run, not even trying to hide my capabilities. It was strange, to be making my way through an abandoned city so soon after the overcrowded streets of Brisbane. I had always needed to hide what I was there, keeping my pace low and my head down. No more.

I sprinted through the ruins, leaping and sliding around the burned out shells of cars and pieces of buildings strewn throughout the street. Bullet casings littered the pavement, along caked pools of long-dried blood and broken armour. Whatever fight had played out in this city, it was long over now. This was a graveyard.