Gerard sighs, being on guard duty at Moss Street. He feels the hot air surround him and it’s a scorcher. He could feel the crushing weight of the sun’s heat. Practically, it’s a desert, but he did hear various cicadas chirping their siren-like wings so loudly that it’s almost deafening. A salamander walks up to his foot and Gerard smiles, allowing it to pass.
Gerard paces around in front of the building as guards all around talk about him, speaking about the scandals the heroes were in.
These soldiers held their blaster rifles with rather laidback carelessness. Their safety was on, of course, but they are sweating, annoyed, and feeling the moistness of their own sweat.
“What a joke. He used to be a great Superhero. Why do you reckon they quit?” whispered the first soldier, sweating profusely and a bit aggressive due to the sun’s heat.
“Heard the Emperor’s wife died…” said the other soldier who was standing with the first.
“And now he hides like a coward…”
Gerard overhears this through the wind. “Hey…” He immediately runs to the soldiers, practically teleporting to them in an instant.
They positioned themselves and saluted Gerard. “Yes, sir! HOO HA!!!”
“At ease…” said Gerard, and they returned to their laidback positions from before.
Their eyebrows furrowed from th heat.
Gerard sniffs the air. He listens to the rushing waters in the distance and the soldiers barking orders at the lower ranks. This gave him an idea, as his eyes glimmered with intrigue. “Gentlemen… Our friend was killed… Don’t ever call Miguel a coward. For his bloody heart is as noble as it can be…”
“We’re sorry, sir… We just thought-...”
“Quiet…” said Gerard. “You should be bloody ashamed for speaking about your leader that way… I should tear you to bloody pieces, ya blokes…”
“Sir… With all due respect, Mr. Azral got my husband killed.”
“How so?”
“He… was a vigilante. I think you’d understand what he’s been through…”
“So don’t mock Miguel for losing his wife. He quit to protect us… Now, he’s back… So, be careful.”
“Sir… Again… WIth all due respect… Why just now…? Hm? My husband was killed and I have to pick up the pieces of his death… Shot by a Knight like I am… Why?” he whimpered.
“Because he believes again.“
“So, we suffer when he doesn’t believe?”
“Sorry, soldier… But where is your faith? Hm? All I see is a whining little boy who can’t even fathom the distraught Miguel has over his own decisions…” Gerard points his finger at the soldier. “What’s your name?”
“Private Dan. And if I was Emperor, I’d have saved this world…”
“You wanna be leader for the day? That’s a good start. Do it… I’m entrusting you the leadership of the Knights for the rest of your damned life. I’m taking a break. That make you happy?”
“You’re promoting me to Lieutenant?”
“Yes. Do go on. Maybe THEN you could be Emperor…”
Later… Gerard smiles, selling tea from the herbs of his garden and some Gi-Ant honey. He prepared the tea with efficient grace, stirring it each time and leaving the leaves to mash in the hot water. “Oh, I love the colour of tea…” he smiled at the customer, who is actually a soldier.
“How does this relate to my question about Dan-... I mean, Lieutenant Dan? Shouldn’t you pick someone better? Ergo me?”
“Fragrant… But almost lost.” He calmly stirs it well and allowed the sugar to fade in the water. “Water is life. Cold water is indulgent. Hot Water is arrogant. Tasteless, colourless, angry, and at times, tart. But when added with tea, they could give so much flavour.”
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“Why Dan?”
“Dan is the tea. Least now he is.”
Gerard hears screaming through the wind… He runs as quickly as the wind and reaches Moss Street… He sees that many of the guards had been killed…
He sees the newly-promoted Lieutenant, who is bleeding on the ground.
“Who did this?” asked Gerard. “Lieutenant… WHO DID THIS!?!?”
“Sir… It’s… It’s Undying…” gasped the soldier, trying to colect oxygen, desperately
“He died five years ago and he has no known similar variants… That isn’t possible.”
“Sir… I tried to-...” sobbed the guard, bleeding on the ground His legs shake with the incredible pain he is in. “I tried to tell them to go guns ablazing… I got them all killed… I’m sorry… I’m so, so sorry…”
“Hey… It’s okay… Welcome to the club, soldier. Alright, Dan… What do we got?”
“Undying… Undying’s here… That’s it, sir… He ran into the foliage…”
Gerard sighs and looks around.
“Sir… I… I didn’t mean to say all those things…”
Gerard sighs. “Get back to the Fort and warn the others.”
“Communications are down…”
“Can you still scream?”
“It doesn’t hurt if I yell for help-...”
“BUT CAN YOU STILL SCREAM!?!”’
Dan’s lips quiver. “Yes, my Lord.”
Gerard sighs and grabs Dan, running him to the fort, with the wind acting like a shield, but not with how you may think. Gerard becomes wind, each cell in his body and every fabric of his being, along with Dan, turns into wind, moving quickly enough to reach the fort in a second.
The Knights are terrified, proceeding to tend to Dan. “Sir? What’s wrong?” asked one, while the others inject a regenerative device into Dan’s leg, causing Dan to howl in pain.
“Lieutenant… Keep these soldiers together, alright?”
“I don’t trust myself, sir…” said Dan, lips quivering with blood.
“Lieutenant… I chose you not only as a punishment, but because you had the bleedin’ balls to say that to me. And I respect that. I damn well think you could handle these blokes. Alright? Lemme handle Undying… Be the tea instead of hot water.”
“Sir… WTF?”
“WTF indeed, soldier.” Gerard runs into the battlefield, with several soldiers screaming in utter anguish.
“Yes, sir…” said Dan. “LISTEN UP!!! Our job? Keep the EMPEROR SAFE!!! HOO HA!!!”
“HOO HA!!!” they cheered.
“What’s the plan, sir?”
“THOMAS!!! DIAZ!!! SNIPING POSITIONS!!! JOHNSON… GUERRERO… LEAD THE SOLDIERS DIVIDED INTO TWO TROOPS, ONE PROTECTING THE MAIN GATE AND THE OTHER PROTECTING THE PALACE!!! MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!!!” Dan yelled, as Gerard crashed into the roof and debris killed some of his soldiers.
Dan, now healed but incompletely, breaks off his Regeneration Device and limps to help the soldiers out of the debris. “You okay? Hey… Hey… HEY!!! HELP ME LIFT THESE UP!!!” yelled Dan, pulling one soldier out, reaching for a hand. Dan sees that the soldier who doubted him in the tea shop earlier is dead, eyes blankly staring up the sky. Dan’s eyes quiver, seeing he had been wrong in a way. Dan begins crying.
“QUIT CRYING!!! SUCK IT UP!!!” yelled Gerard, as Undying stabs him in the leg and he screams in pain.
The soldiers nod and lift up the debris, proceeding to blast at Undying with their blaster rifles.
Suddenly, Dan blocks the bullets with his shield as the few soldiers still standing are shot to death by Cold Shot bullets from Undying.
“Hey… HEY!!! YOU GUYS KNOW 300!?!?” asked Dan, having an idea, limping but still with that idealistic glimmer in his eyes.
The soldiers use their transparent shields by stacking themselves up from each other to block the Cold Shots coming from Undying, who brutally tries to shatter through the stronghold.
Gerard flies, running like the wind as he cuts at Undying over and over again, speeding and weaving around the bullets of frost and ice Undying shot at him.
Undying, who is revealed to be a cyborg roach-like humanoid, as the smoke clears, screams and spins like a tornado, shooting frost blades just about anywhere, only for Gerard to knee kick Undying and beat him over and over, but Gerard is thrown by Undying into several soldiers, some getting killed by the impact, crushed by Gerard’s failure. To stop any further damage, Gerard turns into wind and phases through them, but sadly, many were still killed.
Gerard blocks the next few frost blades to protect the soldiers.
Dan barks some orders, “OPEN AND FIRE!!!”
They efficiently open their shields and blast at Undying, managing to bore a hole into his chest.
Undying smirks, freezing his own leg and proceeding to kick Gerard who was running toward him. Gerard runs around him to deprive him of moisture, but Gerard then felt his foot is… cold… in pain… It’s frozen…
Gerard roars, having his leg broken as Undying cruelly beats Gerard in the face…
“LIEUTENANT!!!” cried out one soldier in the 300 fort.
Dan roars and takes a gun, charging into the battlefield, shooting at Undying, who only tanks the bullets. Undying prepares to kill Dan, preparing a frost blade…
But MIguel the Aswang Prince came and blasted him away with a quick and efficient flame blast, eradicating him completely.
“How the hell is he back?” asked Miguel, helping Gerard up.
“Bloody I don’t know…” said Gerard, lips quivering.
“Dan. Get him to a medic…”
Dan nods, saluting Miguel.
Miguel nods and prepares to fly away.
“Sir!” yelled Dan, as Miguel turns to him for a second. “Thank you, my Lord…” Dan salutes Miguel. “Hey! EVERYONE!!! PRAISE BE TO THE EMPEROR OF ASWANGS!!!”
They all salute at Miguel. “HOO HA!!!”
Miguel smiles and flies away, zooming into the sky as a shockwave left his two feet while he pushed into the air.
“Told ya, Dan… You did good…” said Gerard, limping. “You did good…”
“They got ‘im killed… I got ‘im… I got ‘im-...”
“You… kept us safe…” said Gerard. “Now… What was that… about our leader…?” he chuckled.
“Sir… I’m… I’m sorry…” said Dan, crying softly.
“Exactly… With all due respect… Dan… You’re a good man… You did… damned good… Alright?”
“Yes, sir… Thank you, sir…” Dan whimpered, on his knees before Gerard, who was now being tended in the camp’s clinic.
