Chương 61: Iconoclast

The air sat in ways that should not be possible. This sickly, fuzzy, buzzing sensation that raised goosebumps and dropped stomachs. The source of it, a man walking through the air, continued his casual approach. Flowstate snapped his gaze back towards Holden Worth, the man who introduced this strange individual. Just looking away caused that buzzing sensation to lick and tickle at the back of his neck, setting off every survival instinct in him.

He wondered if that was what ran through Hercules' body at that raid, or the battle with the machine. Was this going to be his own taste of the same? Holden spake his heavy words.

"Perhaps you should relax? If you were in any danger, don't you think it'd have happened now?"

"Why would I think there's danger? Are you trying to threaten me?" Flowstate asked, letting one hand linger by one of his pockets. A clean suntetsu throw to the knee or shoulder should be more than enough to incapacitate a regular adult man. It was a matter of if the floating man was fast.

"Not at all! I'd just love an interview with the new heroes of Virginia. And, of course," he reached up, gesturing past Flowstate towards the other adversary.

"I just made sure to bring my own polygraph." The gestured hand turned into a pointing finger.

"That, over there, is my good friend Shax, though after all the theatrics of identities and alter egos reached our little city, he's decided to go by the name truth. After I sank to a pretty deep low, he paid me a visit and told me he could help me with getting the answers for anything."

"What does that have to do with us?" Holden shrugged, hands going back into his pockets.

"You, personally? Not that much. It could be anyone in a costume. You see, I lost my brother, during the Interstellar War. He was a superhero, a great one by the name of The Olympian. A man who stood shoulder to shoulder with The Saint at times, and was on the mission to stop the mothership." Flowstate had never heard of that name before in his life, and he thought himself to be pretty familiar with the major names of the war.

"Yet, after The Saint hurled the ship to Mars, my brother never returned. No one even remembered who he was. Wiped from the books. My only evidence of his existence is photographs and childhood memories burned into my retinas. They thought I was insane, seeking conspiracies and trying to insert myself into something relevant to the whole planet, not just myself." The buzzing intensified as the thing called truth stepped past Flowstate, not a single sound emitted by footsteps.

He stood beside Holden, rotating in mid air before planting his feet on the ground.

"Every hero I reached out to ignored me. The Saint ignored my screams from the rooftops. I was tempted to simply walk off the ledge of one at that point. truth here arrived when I was at that breaking point. Alone, ready to die. He told me that he would help me along the path to find out what happened. But, of course, my goals have mutated since then."

"And that means...?" Flowstate's hand grew closer to his pocket.

"Well, I was going to try and put some faith in Uncle Sam. Investigate government documents, stick with the opposition to superhumans. Their enemies would be more inclined to have the answers, right? No. They were withholding as well. I tried to give superheroes one last chance, when word was passed to me about your little team. A bunch of kids, I actually felt you deserved better." Holden shrugged.

"Then one of your little friends killed a man. That reminded me of what you all are. Animals. Livestock from which truth is simply a resource to extract and drain from. Confirmed every theory I could've had. So now I'm going to start with the finest sieve and grind answers out of every single superhero I find. Simply put, I'm just starting with you because truth here pointed me in the right direction."

"That sounds pretty threatening to me," Flowstate called out.

"I think you might be dealing with too much stress, Mr. Worth. How about we try to calm down? If you keep up the threatening language, I might have to detain you." The journalist scoffed.

"You're really going to hit me with the diplomatic phrasing, huh? Do I not even seem like a person to you from your little ivory tower? Is that it?"

"Not at all. I'm just giving you a warning that you need to calm down with the hostility. I don't want to have to use force to detain you." The figure responsible for this constant fuzz in the air, the one Holden called truth, exchanged looks with Holden, and spoke. His voice was like radio static." He's not lying. He sincerely thinks you can be talked down and wants to stick with that route," he explained, before he and Holden both went up in raucous laughter.

"What nonsense," Holden added.

"Boy, you're just a bit too bright-eyed and optimistic for that. I'm not here to be detained. I'm here to get answers." Flowstate's hand moved closer to the pocket, ready to throw one of his suntetsu. His eyes were already painting a picture of where and how hard he would have to throw to take out a joint.

"This is your last warning. Call off your friend. I can feel in the air that he's doing something." Holden chuckled.

"Oh, right, that. Where truth is from happens to be rich in some energy source, no idea what, never really cared to find out. He knows how to control it. He can do all sorts of interesting things with it. Why don't you show him, truth?" truth raised a black-gloved hand, fingers spanned out before slowly curling into a fist. Flowstate's senses became overwhelmed with a TV static-like sensation, flaring his mind up and bringing him to his knees.

The only thing Flowstate could actually see was truth, as all other things were eroded from his focus in that moment." Oh, fascinating. That's what you've got hidden in there. You were trying to figure out how to hurt Holden. You can see exactly where your little weapon would go if you threw it. I wonder how much further I have to dig for the morsels." This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Flowstate wheezed as his mind was flooded.

The stress defaulted him to the words he uttered in his times of personal crisis.

"Oh Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name..." The static softened, clearing up, as truth spoke." Oh no, you don't need to bring him up. Just needed to let you know your pla-" Flowstate, however, was capable of recognizing the correlation. He simply let the prayer continue.

"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heave-" For a split second, he could see the slightest bulging of the air around truth as he pounced forward, arm coiled back. Flowstate didn't actually expect that, but that was to his advantage. While he had no recourse for the supernatural normally, it seemed this was a soft spot for truth. That raised and answered multiple questions at once.

Unfortunately, however, Flowstate was still recovering from the poisoning of his mind, unable to react to the hand that wrapped around his neck and lifted him off the ground. At this distance, truth's face was clearly visible under that hat. An all-white face, like a corpse. Lips of solid black. His eyes were dark pits, with only two little glints of light that indicated his gaze." I warned you, and yet you continued. Do you enjoy infuriating those far beyond your comprehension?"

The hero simply smiled, a security sitting in his heart.

"That's what a hero does," he boasted. Initially, truth's face contorted into a glare, but suddenly melted into a wide grin, his black lips spanning out to reveal his grey teeth. More than there should be in a human mouth." What a perfect choice of words." The air bulged again before Flowstate was sent rocketing through the air. It was the kind of force he expected from someone like Hercules, or Teiú. It was done at such speeds he wasn't set to react yet. All he could do was look towards where he was going.

Concrete pillar further down in the garage. He contorted and bent his body in the best ways possible to redistribute the force.

WHMP The wind shot out of him as he slammed into the pillar, the blow only softening enough to avoid breaking bones. He'd still be sore and bruised in the morning, but he'd be able to walk. Gritting his teeth through the pain, he reconsidered truth's reactions to his words. Maybe if he continued... Flowstate pulled himself to his feet, still speaking.

"Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts." Nothing. truth was approaching like it was all just words.

"What, you thought that was the trick?" he asked with little surprise in his voice, hands returning to his coat's pockets.

"Enough of the ho-hum," Holden said.

"I'm here for answers, not violence." He leveled a finger at Flowstate.

"Who do you work for?" Flowstate knew it was wrong to lie, but he wasn't going to open things up worse.

"Just the Super Commission. We get paid directly by them." truth immediately barked out his decree." Half-truth. You're withholding information. That man with the sunglasses at the press conference was your boss, wasn't he, boy?" The hero knew better than to give another answer. It'd dig the truth further out. He just tried his previous attempt. Maybe a provocation could give him some answers. Standing back to his feet, he recited the words he knew from heart.

"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom-" The air bulged again. At that moment, Flowstate realized something: He could still see that warped air after it stopped bulging. That wasn't air. It was that strange energy truth could control. It was energy like any other kind. He could see the flow of it. That, plus the distance, meant Flowstate saw exactly where truth was moving.

This time it was trivial to simply sprint out of the way as truth put a crater in the same pillar Flowstate had previously slammed into. Reaching into his pocket at the same time, instead of grabbing his suntetsu, Flowstate grabbed his phone. He took the risk of bifurcating his vision between the villain and his phone as he mashed away through his contacts.

"-come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven!" Another lunge from truth, which Flowstate weaved past by simply scrambling up the side of a wall, hanging off of a utilities pipe.

"Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors-" Another lunge. This one was easier, as all Christian had to do was drop to the ground. Rounding a corner, he slammed away a few messages that the phone's automatic spellchecks made coherent. He couldn't call directly, for he realized the importance of his spoken word in sequence. As he hit send, his voice reverberated throughout the garage.

"-and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil! For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever!"" Don't you dare!" screamed truth, pouncing from wall to wall. Now Flowstate could see the energy he emitted clearly, how it licked and curled at the air. He could even figure out how to back away from the intensities of the buzzing, rewarding him with greater access to his own senses.

"Amen!" Flowstate howled, yet another underline on his signature of his New Covenant. The energy vanished. It was simply gone. The buzzing also gone. truth stood there, face curled in rage." You ingrate, mongrel ape! You think that leaves me powerless? All you've done was temporarily lock you in the same room with me!" truth reached into the wall, yanking out loose bits of concrete like they were clumps of snow, hurling them in a buckshot spread at Flowstate.

The hero observed their trajectories, but there were too many to dodge concretely. All he could do was weave into the smallest barrage, his skin splitting at several points as he rushed away. More concrete and asphalt crumbled as he met with a hurricane of hurled masonry. More and more shredded at his skin." Hurts, doesn't it!? You should have let me ask my questions and kill you normally! Now you get to suffer first while I recover my connection!" Finally, the opportunity came to change location.

He could go down a floor and find a hiding spot. Leaping over the ledge, he drew his jitte in the same motion and used it as a grip point on the lip of the wall. From there, he was able to slip himself down to the lower floor, where he stumbled behind a car. That was where he could rest. He took the time to evaluate his threats. He wasn't sure how long it was; the fatigue and pain from the stinging of his wounds distracted him. The text he had sent to Teiú was his only hope of an even match.

Flowstate could disable his powers, but he needed Teiú as a second force multiplier for truth's physical strength. The buzzing. It was back. He could see strands of it licking against the ceiling and floor, spreading like almost a viscous liquid. If he started the prayer now, truth would know his location. He couldn't risk it ye- Rustling. Stumbling. The cracking of stone. Looking over, he saw the familiar costume of that same friend. Faster than he thought, or Flowstate waited for longer than he expected.

The excitement interrupted his thought to keep quiet.

"Teiú!" yelled Flowstate, prompting Teiú to snap his head towards him.

"Thank God, you made it. Look, there's-" Another voice, deep and heavy, spoke up.

"There you are!" The two of them turned towards the voice. Holden, grinning down at the two of them. And beside him was truth, his voice turned into a controlled and smooth hiss." What perfect timing. We had more questions that are best answered by more people."