The Button Which Almost Destroyed The World Chapter 5

Chapter 5: His Thoughts

‘I’ve put too many lives in danger. My obsession has gone too far. A saviour? I think not. To be brave can sometimes mean to hide away your cowardice, your weakness. Yes, I admit, I do fear death but why must others die for me? It’s not a pride challenge; it’s not a challenge at all. First she had to die and I had to find a spell. Then responsibility weighed down upon me when I had to save the world… twice. My life had been just hammered, smashed and obliterated so many times that it is no longer a life. It was more like walking waste. The spell did not go as well as I assumed. But I knew it from the very beginning. When something good comes, something bad is lurking at one corner, waiting to pounce on you and tear you apart. Betrayal came into play and chaos leaked all over this planet. Power is what people want but I just want to get through life. I want a normal life where I can grow up and have a family. Dream on, just dream on.’

Remember that France never really won a war once? It was either a tied or lost or won due to the fact some other country aided them. Now remember that game with the Tesla coils and Tesla troopers which could aim and zap targeted objects? Where is this heading? One of the greatest monuments in Paris, France is the Eiffel Tower. It stands 300 metre and weighs 10100 tonnes. Built between 1887 and 1889, the Eiffel Tower was marked the celebration of the French Revolution. That was what the history book says but there is no really proof that is actually a satellite or weapon of mass destruction… until now.

During the year 2016, France initiated a war against all neighbouring country except Germany who supplied their power. Germany signed an agreement with France to get some certain technology but France cannot attack Germany. Germany did not know what the France’s new president was up to but they knew it was no good. Spain was not a target as it was too big and supported by Portugal. Soon, France deployed their plan. The Eiffel tower was charged, and their neighbouring countries, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco and Andorra, were attacked at once. With the MegaTesla coil being France main weapon, nothing could stop them. Soon, France expanded into one of the most powerful country. No longer was there Italy or Switzerland. It was only France.

The ghostly howls of the twirling wings were as scary as the drop below. How high was it was not Dyert’s problem as he knew that even if he fell from a tree he would still die. It was actually the waiting from the fall which would develop thoughts which would rush in your head, which would make you think twice which would create an imagination which would make implant fear into the person. In short terms, waiting causes fear.

He was strapped to his seat with his hands on the belt and the other on the bars. He knew that something bad would happen to this aircraft and it would crash. An incident happened in every location he went so why not here? He was like a walking jinx; a jinx with a time bomb set to explode any minute or hour. Eliot was calm as he probably been in this much danger before and Dylan was normal if that was what a person used to his ethics would say. For Dyert, he was still insane.

“Why are we going to Italy?” Dyert asked. With a mixture of confusion and worry, he was still too blind to see it.

“Do you know Tokyo was called Kyoto once?” Eliot answered with a rhetorical question. Dyert finally knew. How could he be so sightless?

“I get it but why?”

“We’re after someone. Then we’re going to visit Fox.”

“The Challenged Saviour was once called Dark Fox. Are you referring to him?”

Eliot ignored the question. His mind was probably filled with plans and strategies. Like chess, he was planning his next move, fretting over what might happen and what he had not seen. Though, his emotions and expressions showed calmness. As cool as liquid nitrogen. That was the new simile and apparently it was altered from as cool as a cucumber. Why a cucumber? Dyert wondered.

It was silent (apart from the helicopter’s wings) the whole smooth journey. They were going to make a land at Alitalia (Linee Aeree Italiane), the national airline of Italy. Stillness broke in the flying craft as the pilot picked up the communicator and contacted the airline.

“This is Bell 565 requesting landing in Alitalia,” spoke the pilot as he gave the details.

“Request accepted,” the person on the other side replied with an accent. He gave some complex digits which were the latitude, altitude, coordinates and other things Dyert did not know.

When it landed on the helipad, Dyert was relieved. He almost yelled out and jumped in joy but it was not appropriate. It was not the first time Dyert had been in an aircraft but it certainly felt like it all over again. He stepped out of the helicopter and glanced around at the new surrounding. Italy; it was new sight to see. He had been stuck in that old boring country for a while; it made Italy a new exciting place to explore. That was true; Dyert had never been out of the country. He had travelled in country by air but never out. That was why he never had his passport renewed. Which meant that, Dyert suddenly realise as it hit him hard, he might get arrested.

They approached the customs service.

“Passport?” spoke the guard behind the counter.

Dyert gulped.

Eliot flashed out a card and the guard nodded. They continued on. It took Dyert a while to realise before he moved. They passed through the metal detector and carried on.

“What was that?” asked Dyert.

“An official business card in simple terms. I’m too lazy to explain,” said Eliot.

They went out to flag a taxi. What they did not realise was that their taxi came free with bad luck and mass chaos.

As they were exiting the sliding doors and walking to the stand, a black cat passed them by. At the very same time, Eliot turned around as though he heard something.

“Black cat, a sign of bad luck. You believe in that?” commented Dyert.

“No, not really. I believe something bad is going to happen though.”

“How do you know?”

“He sees everything,” answered Dylan in a sort-of spooky voice. He moved his mouth so that the people around them would not notice that he was not talking with his mouth.

“Just a hunch.”

Eliot spoke while he was fidgeting with his mechanical arm. He pressed a few buttons and flicked a few switches. A keyboard popped out from his machine forearm. The citizens and foreigners of Italy around them stared at Eliot in an awkward manner. Some were amazed while others were freaked out. He jabbed a few keys and his arm rang. The phone shot out and he caught it with his right arm.

“Uh huh…” spoke Eliot on the phone, “I just found that out from their database… Yes… I know… Yea… Fine, fine, I think I need to be going now…”

He shut the phone and placed it back. The keyboard disappeared and his arm was back to normal.

“Everyone, listen up. There’s a plane going to crash here any minute. Please evacuate the premises.”

Eliot’s voice boomed across the sheltered outdoor part of the airport. It probably reached the inside too.

“Yes… Run, you petty creature, run!” Dylan said while mimicking the mouth movements.

A few moved away as fast as possible.

“I have a badge,” added Eliot while he waved his badge around.

More moved but not all.

“I’m insane,” Dylan tried to help.

“I have a gun,” continued Eliot while his arm turned into a gun.

More ran with fear but there are still stubborn ones.

Eliot blasted his gun at the sky. The deafening loud gunshot reverberated across the site.

Everyone panicked including the people inside. They drove, rode, ran, dashed or/and wheeled away as fast as possible until left one or two. It was their loss if they did not run but Dyert, Dylan and Eliot tried flagging one of the last cabs. They managed to get one and paid the driver extra to go as fast as possible. The traffic cleared quite quickly and they were on the move.

Taxi cars had a universal design unless it was a grand one. The inside usually had a funny smell unless they used certain air fresheners. However, some were not freshening at all.

A sound is made when air vibrates quickly as a moving object speeds through it. It goes whoosh or something of that sort. Then, it is added with cackling flames as the friction causes it to erupt in flames. Top it off with the pull of gravitational force and it turns into an object dropping from the sky with incredible speed.

They were speeding their way through the road. This driver was expert with manoeuvring along the cars and avoiding the edge. Suddenly, there was a rumble. Dyert’s third time in his life for earth to shake. Dyert spun his head to see behind. He did it so fast, it ached a bit. This tremor was caused by the aeroplane which just crashed at the airport behind them. In slow motion, the tip reached the ground, slammed into it hard and exploded into flames.

“Did your blast cause that plane to crash?” questioned Dyert. He analysed his data and remembered he was warning everyone to leave.

“Never mind,” said Dyert.

The crashed cause the ground to vibrate and it lifted the car half a metre in the air. It was like a rollercoaster ride which was able to endanger the passenger’s life.

“You can slow down now,” directed Eliot as he took out a piece of bread from his android arm. He was talking. It was a chance for Dyert to get answers.

“How did you know about the crash?”

“Instinct...”

“Who was that on the phone?”

“Someone...”

Dyert gave up. Talking to Eliot while he was eating was like talking to a wall. Even some walls could respond back.

Dylan was awfully quiet which was good and bad in a way. Minutes passed and Dyert finally realised that no one had given the location of their cab’s journey. Certain Italian music playing on the radio was not easy on the ears for Dyert. Though, music has evolved so much that some were worst than the genre ‘trash rock’. Techno and Trans was no longer the flavour. It was now Transno, the combination. A soprano killed an audience before and it was not heart attack or headaches. There were still some traditional ones which Dyert preferred.

“I’ll brief you in now,” Eliot said, “Driver, mind winding up the separating window?”

“Sure thing, sir,” the driver replied with his Italian accent.

The window between the passenger seats and front seats was wound up.

“Dylan, cast a sanctuary spell.”

“Sure can do.”

With some swift gestures, Dylan made the room weakly glowed.

“Where should I start?” Eliot asked himself, “Your parents first. Your father was one of the mortals who were like the ambassador to the hidden magical society. When the war started, he had to go down to the magical government to inform them about the war. He enlisted himself in the army to indirectly help the magical leaders and gave them up-to-date info. Your mother on the other hand. I knew who she was. Do you know her name?”

“Claire Mig was her name.”

“Right. It was just a false name. It was an anagram of her real name. Gracie Lim was her real name. She was gone for a long while after Cyrus was killed…”

Dylan mumbled.

“Wasn’t she the hybrid vampire?”
“You really read a lot about this.”

“It’s as interesting as Greek mythology.”

“So where was I?” Eliot asked a rhetorical question, “She was a werepire or were-vampire. Much like dhampir but different. A werepire has the capability of changing from human to vampire or vice versa at will…”

“That’s why I’m not one?” Dyert said a half-question, half-statement.

“Half right. So anyways…”

“Wait… wouldn’t that make her the same age as Dylan since apparently, they were in the same class at one point?”

“If you would kindly let me finish my briefing. As I was saying, she somehow altered her age and married your father. It was either an age spell or time travel but I highly doubt it was time travel. Upon her so-called death, we finally managed to trace her down to you through DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) and genes. We used the magical way rather than the scientific way. It was quicker,” he took a deep breath before going on, “My mission was to ensure you and the item in question are save. Apparently that’s why we are…”

The same familiar ring tone was heard once more. It was Eliot’s phone.

“Yes…? Yes… Yes… I’ll come now… Sheesh.”

Eliot shut the phone back into his arm, wound up the glass and asked the driver to stop. They halted at an area with a lot of shops and café. It was a public here were the streets were not actually streets for cars but grey concrete ground for pedestrians. It was beautifully decorated. Trees attractively placed specifically in a pattern. Clean tables placed for the people who wanted to sit outside the café and have their coffee in the breeze. The outlets were opened with welcoming hands. Food stands in the middle where fast food was bought. There were also street shows like ventriloquists, guitarist and magicians.

“Where we heading?”

“The alley,” Eliot replied coolly.

“Hey, you had not finished the briefing,” Dyert remembered.

“There is no need to,” Eliot spoke, “There’s a change of plans.”

“Buongiorno,” greeted an Italian man who passed them.

“People are quite kind here,” commented Eliot.

“Too kind I must add!” Dylan whispered coarsely.

“It’s just you,” stated Eliot, “Should we turn here and walk into that alley?”

“It was the second alley if I recall,” Dylan directed.

They walked around the area for a while, confused and lost. Places like this would give headaches to Eliot and Dylan. Their sense of direction was not too good. Geographically challenged they were. However, in the end, after thirty minutes, they made it. They walked through this wall and they made it in this bar like area. Their trials before this made them walk into a solid bar. Pun intended. (If you, the reader, cannot comprehend that little joke, I, the author will personally slain you in your peaceful and deep slumber.) Dylan, being who he was even though he was much matured (not too sure bout that), purposely hit against the wall twice.

Behind the wall was a cave like surrounding. It was only one room; a room with a lot of tiny glowing holes. Before that room was a winding and dusty passage.

“A wormhole room,” Eliot said before Dyert managed to open his mouth to ask, “Each one of these holes are like portals but they only go to one specific location. They are all named by a letter or two.”

“Ah.” Comprehension flashed across Dyert’s face.

“We need to take the S-hole to get to our designated location.”

Dylan giggled strangely. What was strange to normal human was normal to strange him.

Eliot flicked his finger and muttered the word ‘S’. One of the little shiny holes expanded as wide as the whole brown cavern wall. Unlike the swirling colours of a portal, this one was a swampy mixture of shades of purple which could not dissolve. They stepped through the wormhole and got spat out the other end. Dyert catapulted into the ground as his chin scraped across the concrete ground. He immediately rolled around in his back. The wormhole shot out a silhouette. Dyert hoped it was not who he thought it would be but by judging the mass, it was going to hurt really badly. Obviously it did. Eliot crash-landed on top of Dyert and soon followed by Dylan who did a summersault and landed on his feet.

“Eliot… mind if you get off…” Dyert huffed as Eliot’s metal arm was on his stomach.

“Pardon my apologies,” apologised Eliot.

The both of them got up. Eliot led once more. He led them through a corridor and more winding passages.

“Where are we?” asked Dyert.

“The underground hideout. We’re not really in hiding, it was just that hideout was a proper word for it and he insisted on it.”

Eliot led them into a room which looked similar to a living room. There was a full-wall plasma television, sofa in at the opposite and both adjacent side of the room. In the middle was a diamond glass table with jars of cookies and packets snack food placed on it. Diamond was still one of the strongest compounds but it was no longer rare and valuable. They found a new way of creating it and it did not cost a lot. Thus cause the price dropped like an atomic bomb and crashed and burned. There were stronger compounds now.

Behind the sofa opposite of the television was a row of computers. An Apple for Eliot and the rest were Microsoft. There was someone on the arm chair placed at the corner, beside the sofa. It was those flexible armchairs where a person could lie down on it and he was doing so. The laptop was on his lap but from Dyert’s position, the screen blocked his head. Dyert could only notice the jet-black hair and he had a feeling that he wore spectacles. He was thin too. His hand ran smoothly across the keyboard, typing.

“I see you’ve arrived,” he said with a mysterious tone, “You know Dyert, you should not really follow strangers around.”

He lifted his finger and pointed at Dylan who was standing ‘hidden’ behind Eliot.

“But I saw his arm…”

“Nowadays, you can get that any private hospital,” he spoke behind his laptop. Dyert was speechless.

“Anyways, I presume you know why you are here so I’m going to make my introduction short and sweet,” he grabbed the top of the laptop screen and slowly lowered it until it was closed, “My name is Eugene and the magical and non-magical society now depends on you.”

It was The Challenged Saviour.

‘I remember when I was a kid. I feared a lot of things. I feared the darkness, I feared death, I feared things I do not know and I feared failure. This kid, like most kid, would probably fear as they would not know much. They fear. We all fear. I fear that this kid would make the same mistake as I did. Persistence is my number one enemy. I almost never give up. Revenge comes second. This kid will make a mistake and he will regret it. It is his choice and I leave it up to him. I see potential and fear in him. However, I can’t see the future and what lies ahead, might be horrible.’

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A twist, such a twist indeed. Here the recap/links for the previous chapter:

Chapter 1: After-effects
Chapter 2: Hide-And-Seek
Chapter 3: Plummet
Chapter 4: The Saviour’s Request

I don't really know how long it will be but after I finish with this, I'm going to reedit Seemingly Normal Part One and finish my last poem and find myself a publisher. Big dreams.