The Prince of Astoria-Chapter 84: LXXXIV - Bomb Proof (Part 2)

With a grunt of exertion, Etienne swung his katana full force at Yorrk’s head. Yorrk glanced at the bronze orb, and with an alien sound it transformed into a hand and caught the blade of the sword just before it reached Yorrk’s neck.

Yorrk stared at the bronze hand holding the sword and snorted, "Woah. I...didn’t expect that to be honest. You really are ruthless. I suppose that’s your answer though. Don’t worry, you gave me an answer, so I’ll stay true to my word. I’ll share everything that I know. Soon."

The bronze hand tossed away Etienne’s sword and transformed back into an orb. As Yorrk opened his mouth to say something else, the sound of birds chirping playing from the orb interrupted him.

"New message received from member Terminator," A human-like male voice announced from the orb.

"Read it," Yorrk commanded.

"Boss, I picked up the materials you ordered from our contact," The orb imitated Terminator’s voice perfectly, "We have everything ODIUS instructed us to get for our rebrand."

The smile on Yorrk’s face only widened as he walked over to Bomb Proof and held a hand out to her, helping her off the ground. Bomb Proof glared at Etienne and picked up the bisected pieces of her Fuzzy Boots. Yorrk grabbed the remaining pieces and held them up.

"This is a really clean cut. Like...perfectly down the middle," Yorrk commented.

ODIUS flew near the boots, and the orb opened up slightly. It scanned the boots with a blue light for a few seconds before closing again and flying back to Yorrk’s shoulder.

"According to collected data, blade sharpness of Ninjaman’s katana is insufficient to cut this material. Bisection of boots should not be possible," ODIUS commented, the orb floating up and down lazily as it spoke.

Yorrk tucked the pieces under his arm, "It’s not impossible. We just saw it happen from inside the crowd. Update your parameters. Obviously, we’re dealing with somebody special here. We can repair these, right ODIUS?"

"Affirmative," ODIUS responded, "Though it is imperative that member Terminator follows my exact specifications and does not attempt to make any modifications."

Yorrk laughs, "Don’t worry, ODIUS. I’ll make sure Terminator follows your instructions to the letter. He’s young; he just wants to prove himself."

ODIUS let out a noise that sounded almost like an exasperated sigh, "Human ego only serves as a detriment to our plans."

Bomb Proof and Yorrk turned and walked through the crowd. Bomb Proof’s cameraman followed swiftly behind them

Etienne pointed his sword at them with one hand and held his stomach with the other, "Where do you think you’re going. I’m not done. I want to know what you know."

Yorrk glanced at him before turning to the crowd, "Hey good people! I’m Yorrk the Machinist, the leader of the Dark Pattern. We have to cut this stream short due to some extenuating circumstances. Now technically, this battle is a win for Bomb Proof because Ninjaman broke the rules, but since she wouldn’t be able to fight him anymore if the battle continued, we’ll call it a draw."

The crowd got louder with indistinct noise until Yorrk put his hand up, "I wanted to announce this later in this stream, but the Dark Pattern is having our rebrand stream this Sunday! We have some new gadgets and outfits we want to show off, as well as a new mission statement and a brand new member that some of you might recognize!"

Yorrk looked at Etienne once again, "And I’m sure our favorite mysterious hero Ninjaman will be there as well. Isn’t that right?"

With that, Yorrk and Bomb Proof disappeared into the crowd. Etienne gritted his teeth and watched them, still holding his stomach.

____________________________________________________________

Etienne sat in the living room, the afternoon light illuminating the area beautifully. He had his shirt off, and his chest and stomach was wrapped in bandages. He stared down at the coffee table in front of him, where several documents were laid out.

Etienne pursed his lips together and picked one of them up. It was an invoice. The invoice had his uncle’s name in the top left, Elliot Blessad, along with his email and his company name right under it, Towers Inc.

"There’s no bill to information...I have no way of knowing who this was sent to," Etienne thought to himself.

In the description of items, there was one line: Cleaning Service/Wetwork. At the bottom of the document was the total.

200,000.

"That’s the price of my parent’s lives, huh? Two hundred thousand? That’s it?" Etienne crumpled the paper involuntarily and tossed it back onto the coffee table.

Etienne pinched his forehead and thought to himself, "I have the power. I’m just as strong, if not stronger than I ever was on Tashiro Island. I have the experience now fighting metahumans. From the more pedestrian with simpler abilities, all the way to members of Esoterica’s royal family, apparently the highest caliber of metahumans."

Etienne looked down at his uncle’s signature on the invoice and shook his head, "And now I have my weapon, the reverse-edged katana. So why am I still hesitating? Petey even found their current whereabouts..."

Etienne picked up a sticky note off of the coffee table. The note read: "According to our inside source (thank P.I for that), The Blessads are currently located in Towers Inc. headquarters. Downtown Portland. They have relocated their son Lionel to the headquarters, and are attempting to locate Lyle to move him there as well."

Etienne flipped the stick note to the back and continued: "In tarot, the Tower represents sudden, disruptive change, crisis, and the dramatic destruction of old structures. Be careful." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Etienne put his chin on his hand, "That’s a bit superstitious, isn’t it, Petey? Although considering the world we live in, I won’t rule anything out."

Etienne threw his head back and groaned aloud, "I know why I’m hesitating. Because this is really my last chance. It’s bad enough I screwed up attacking their mansion, and I gave up the ghost by burning down Lionel’s apartment. If I mess up attacking them again, if I let them escape, I doubt I will ever see them again. So I need to do this right."

Etienne’s thoughts stopped rushing for a moment and he stared blankly at the wall in front of him, "But how do I do this right, really? Killing them seems a little..."

"Master Etienne!" Gabe called out as he walked into the living room, "Are you alright? I thought I just heard some noise from you. Is your wound feeling alright?"

Etienne looked down at his stomach, wrapped in layers of bandages. He lifted them slightly, pushing them to the side, and glanced at the wound. It was completely gone; there was no sign he had even been hurt.

"I think Yorrk hurt my psyche more than my body," He pressed the bandages back into place, "I don’t know what he knows, but that computer he keeps floating around him is extremely powerful. I wouldn’t be surprised if it helped him figure out my identity."

Gabe leaned against the arm of the couch, "I saw the stream live from here. Why’d you let Yorrk and Bomb Proof go? Were you too injured to fight?"

Etienne shook his head, "No, not really. I’m taking a more thoughtful approach, remember? I want to expose the Dark Pattern as the same as the people they claim to hate, on the biggest stage possible. That rebrand event should be one of their biggest streams, so that will be the perfect time. Plus, I need to capture Code Talker and get him to tell me everything he knows about the Black Company. Including the extent they’re involved with my aunt and uncle."

"Dark Pattern...Black Company...I’m pretty sure it’s just a coincidence, but it’s interesting their names are so similar," Etienne suddenly thought to himself.

Gabe crossed his arms, "I wonder what made Code Talker leave the Black company in the first place. Did they have a falling out?"

Etienne scratched his chin, "That’s a good point, actually. If Code Talker left the Black Company on bad terms, I could leverage that and possibly get him to give up more information than he normally would."

Gabe put a hand on Etienne’s shoulder, "I want you to know you’re doing a great job, Etienne. I know some recent developments, like everything with the INHO and Senshi Sentinel has you doubting this, but you’re doing good in your city. Singe handedly tackling every threat that’s harming Astoria. Your parents would be proud."

Etienne looked up at Gabe, his eyes wet with tears, "Do you really think so? Do you think they would approve of all of this? Of everything I’ve done?"

Gabe smiled at him, "Maybe not everything. But overall, I know Master Blessing and Lady Amaya would be more than pleased with you. Even though you said you don’t want to be a hero anymore, you’re still—"

A generic ringtone blaring from Etienne’s phone on the coffee table interrupted the conversation.

Etienne picked the phone up off the table and read the caller ID. There was a small picture of Money and Etienne at the bar together, and under it, where the name should be, there was a money emoji.

Gabe glanced at the caller ID and started to walk away, "You should answer that. I need to finish fixing this window."

Etienne stared at the caller ID, confused, "I wonder what Money wants on a Wednesday?"