Savior Part 2: Son of Eden (The Savior Series) Page 18

  “What exactly did you do?” Howie eagerly asked. He and I had both suffered plenty at the hands of Fat Pat; therefore he was all ears as I prepared to tell the story.

  “Well, you know how Pat used to dunk our heads in the toilet whenever he and his buddies would catch us alone in the bathroom?”

  “Yeah,” Howie replied.

  “Well, back in tenth grade they were trying to dunk my head into an out of order toilet, only this was after I had discovered my abilities. It was Pat who actually ended up getting his head dunked in the toilet… and it may not have been the cleanest toilet available at the time, if you know what I’m saying.”

  “No way!” Ace exclaimed.

  “Yup, sure did,” I admitted. “Like I said, I probably went too far but you know all the crap they used to put Howie and me through.”

  “Yeah, I’m not saying he deserved a face full of fecal matter—but I understand,” Howie chuckled. “You know, now that I think about it, I actually heard he started working for the FBI once they moved away.”

  “Really?” I asked, raising an eyebrow out of confusion.

  “Yeah. It turns out that he was so fat that his shadow was a good hiding spot for the witness protection program,” Howie joked, causing us all to erupt into laughter.

  “That’s cold, Howie,” Ace said, still trying to control his laughter.

  “What? The dude was fat, wasn’t he?” Howie asked while choking back laughter and playfully pretending to be serious.

  “How fat was he?!” I choked out, still laughing uncontrollably as I remembered the times when Howie and I would spend hours secretly insulting Fat Pat as a way of coping with the torment that he put us through.

  “Oh I’ll tell you how fat he was! Fat Pat was so fat that he once tried to eat his own chicken pox!” Howie beamed, causing Ace and me to erupt into laughter once more.

  “Fat Pat was so fat that he could occupy Wall Street all by himself!” Howie continued as our eyes became teary from laughing so hard.

  “Stop it!” I jokingly yelled, gasping for breath.

  “Fat Pat was so fat… that if he walked by the TV when you’re watching it, you’d miss the whole season!” Even Howie was having trouble holding back his laughter in order to complete his jokes by that point.

  “You’ve gotta stop it, Howie! I can’t breathe!” I cried out, still laughing as I tried to catch my breath.

  “Okay, okay! Last one! Last one!—Fat Pat was so fat that when he was diagnosed with flesh eating bacteria the doctor gave him 40 years to live!”

  “I’m done!” I said, jokingly throwing my hands into the air as I stood and pretended to leave.

  Howie also stood and took a few bows as Ace and I continued to laugh hysterically. It was good to see Ace and Howie both smiling and having a good time together for a change. Things had obviously changed between them but I was happy to see that it was starting to seem like old times again even if it was only temporary.

  “This is awesome, bro,” Ace admitted as the laughter finally died down. “Reaper was right, Howie. This was a great idea.”

  “Hey, that’s why I’m here. I’m the idea man, remember? Which brings me to my next point,” Howie grinned.

  “And what point might that be?” I asked curiously.

  “I’ve been studying Director Wells’ files on the Anokians, particularly their anatomy, and I think I’ve come up a viable strategy when it comes to defeating The Greater,” Howie said.

  “I thought you were supposed to be working on the Guardian?” Ace asked.

  “I’m actually doing both, not that it’s any of your concern,” Howie said flatly. I raised an eyebrow and sighed as the mysterious rift between them returned.

  “That seems like a lot of work,” Ace replied.

  “It is… or I guess it would be if I wasn’t the one doing the work,” Howie said smugly. “Anyway, Jason was right in his assumption of The Greater being stronger than you Reaper. Obviously you have your half human side to thank for that. The molecular density of a full-blooded Anokian is even greater than your own, Reaper, and I’m guessing this is something that they naturally evolved due to the intense gravity of Eden. Their home world is fourteen times as massive as Earth so the inhabitants of a planet that large would have to be able to withstand a tremendous amount of gravity in order to keep from being crushed by the force of their own weight. Your bones and muscles are a lot denser than the average human as well because you’re half Anokian, however, because your mother was human you’re not quite as dense as they are.”

  It irked me that it sounded like Howie was doubting my abilities but I convinced myself to remain quiet and listen because I knew that he was probably right, given that he was likely the smartest person on the planet. As far as I was concerned, I still didn’t care about any sort of advantages the guy supposedly had over me. I was still confident that I would have what it took to take him down when the time came. To be honest, it had been so long since I had had a good fight that I was actually excited by the idea of taking on someone who was supposedly stronger than me.

  “Reaper, the most I’ve seen you dead lift is right around 10,000 pounds so I’d have to assume that a full-grown Anokian male could lift somewhere in the area of 20 to 25k.”

  “25,000 pounds? Are you serious?” Ace asked skeptically.

  “Yup. 25k,” Howie confirmed. “It’s not all bad though. They have the edge on strength but believe it or not, Reaper’s human half actually gives him some pretty significant advantages over them as well.”

  “Now we’re talking,” I cheered, as a wide grin spread across my face.

  “Jason, remember when you told me The Greater wasn’t nearly as fast as Reaper?” Howie asked.

  “Yeah, what’s up?”

  “Well at first I thought it was simply because they’re so much heavier. They’re twice as dense as Reaper so naturally they should be twice as heavy but that still didn’t account for the vast discrepancy in terms of speed. Through my research I discovered that their muscles are comprised of almost 85 percent slow twitch fibers, which makes sense due to the fact that they would need to be built for endurance as opposed to speed, due to the intense pressure of Eden’s gravity. Reaper’s human genetics gives his muscles a much higher quick-twitch ratio and that coupled with the strength granted by his Anokian genetics is where his blazing speed comes from.”

  “So that’s my advantage?” I asked sarcastically. “You’re saying I should just run away from them?”

  “I didn’t say that was your only advantage,” Howie answered. Something about the smile on his face let me know that he was about to reveal something big. “In studying the Anokians’ physiology I also realized that they are only capable of producing very minimal amounts of adrenaline. I’m thinking this is probably because they’ve evolved to be so strong and physically gifted that they biologically outgrew the need for a fight-or-flight response. Reaper, on the other hand, is part human and because of that his adrenaline gland is far larger than that of any Anokian. With that in mind, I’d be willing to bet that in a fight to the death, not only would you be considerably faster than them, but given the right levels of adrenaline you could potentially be stronger than them as well.”

  “That’s interesting,” Ace said.

  “What’s interesting?” I asked.

  “I just think it’s interesting that the Anokians would probably assume that your human half makes you weaker but in the end your human side is probably what will allow you to defeat them.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Howie continued. “There’s a lot more to life than brute strength, bro.”

  “There is still one problem though, Howie,” Ace cautioned.

  “And what’s that?” I asked.

  “I just don’t think we have an answer for that energy that he’s able to give off. I’ve never seen anything like it. We all know how tough Tango is, and The Greater took him out with just one blast of his energy and it wasn’t even a direct hit.”<
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  “I’ve figured out where that ability comes from but I’m honestly not sure what we can do to stop it. The reason they call The Greater the Son of Eden is because his mother is none other than the Goddess of Eden, Herself. She comes from a universe with completely different fundamental forces as well as different laws of physics. With that being said, I think it’s a safe bet to deduce that this is an ability that he must have inherited from Her.”

  “And you’re saying we can’t stop it?” Ace asked.

  “I don’t know. I’m still working that part out,” Howie admitted. “I have, however, thought of something that could even the odds on a physical level,” he continued before standing and hastily exiting the front room.

  “Where’s he going?” I wondered as I sat up straighter, eager to see what he was up to.

  To my surprise, the sound of heavy machinery rang out at the end of the hall and just when I was about to go and investigate, Howie suddenly rounded the corner driving a forklift. On the arms of the forklift was a wooden pallet and on top of the pallet sat a black suitcase that was nearly four feet long. I raised an eyebrow and looked at Ace, who was just as puzzled as I was, as Howie parked the forklift near the sofa and hopped out smiling from ear to ear.

  “What’s in the case?” I asked as he turned to open it.

  “See for yourself,” Howie chimed as he unsnapped the case and excitedly threw it open.

  I cocked my head to the side and stared blankly at the two shiny metal baseball bats that lay inside of the black suitcase. The handles of each bat were tightly wrapped with black tape and both bats had the skull and cross bones symbol painted onto them, but instead of two bones beneath the skull there were two baseball bats. The bats certainly looked pretty cool but besides the menacing logo they also looked like regular bats to me.

  “That’s it?” I finally laughed. “These are your secret weapons? Baseball bats?”

  “They’re not ordinary baseball bats, bro. Go ahead, pick them up,” Howie insisted, with a wide smile on his face that told me he knew something that I didn’t.

  I knew exactly what he meant as soon as I lifted the first bat from the case. “Holy crap!” I marveled as I held the bat in my hands.

  “You see what I mean?” Howie asked proudly.

  “What? I don’t get it. What’s going on?” Ace questioned.

  “How much do these things weigh, Howie?!” I asked excitedly, as I lifted the second bat out of the case with my left hand.

  “Just over 1000 pounds a piece,” Howie boasted.

  “1000 pounds!” Ace exclaimed. “Howie, please tell me you did not do what I think you did.”

  “And what if I did? What are you going to do, Jason? Tattle on me?” Howie shot back.

  “Okay, now I’m lost. Can someone please explain what’s going on here?” I asked Howie.

  “I had the bats made out of Anokian-Steel. That stuff is considerably denser than it looks which is why the bats weigh so much even though they look to be the same size as regular baseball bats. There’s a fairly decent amount of Anokian-Steel stored at Area 51 so I figured I would put some of it to good use in order to even the odds against The Greater.”

  “Howie, do you have any idea of how much that stuff is worth?” Ace asked as his eyes widened with disbelief.

  “Of course I know. Even the smallest amount of it is worth a fortune, but what does it matter if it helps us win? And to be honest I’m starting to think that control of this element is actually the real reason for the war in Andromeda.”

  “What are you talking about?” Ace asked, narrowing his eyes as he looked at Howie.

  “Let’s just say that I for one have always believed that in the game of war, good guys and bad guys are merely a matter of perspective,” Howie said darkly.

  “Howie, if you’ve been snooping around in Wells’ files again I would seriously advise that you stop,” Ace insisted.

  “Duly noted,” Howie said dismissively.

  “Guys, I wasn’t going to say anything but what in the hell is going on with you two?” I finally demanded. The two of them remained silent as I stared at each of them.

  “It’s nothing, Reap,” Ace finally answered. “Just a difference of opinion, that’s all. Right Howie?”

  “Yeah… right,” Howie said flatly.

  “What do you mean? What are you guys disagreeing about?” I asked.

  “I just think there’s so much that we don’t know about this entire conflict, you know? I don’t see how we’re expected to unilaterally decide on whose agenda encompasses our best interest without knowing all the facts.”

  “Are you talking about the Equillian Federation?” I asked.

  “Absolutely. I’m certainly not saying I’m pulling for the Anokians but how can we be sure that either of them have our best interest in mind? Hell, no one that I know has even seen an Equillian before.”

  “Wells has. He says they’re just little grey men,” I replied.

  “And just how many reports of little grey men have you heard about in your lifetime that ended well?” Howie asked.

  “Come on, Howie, you know that stuff’s fake,” I offered.

  “Is it?” Howie asked curiously.

  I was just about to reply when I suddenly realized that he actually had a point. What if all the UFO and abduction stories that I had always heard about growing up were actually true? The U.S. government had benefited so much from the Equillian gifts that I suddenly had to wonder if they would be willing to turn a blind eye to the extraterrestrial, extracurricular activity in exchange for the technological advances that made us by far the most formidable superpower in the world. That would certainly explain the eerily consistent description of little grey men that were always blamed for perpetrating the myriads of abductions around the globe. It also explained the drastic reduction in contemporary UFO sightings in that the master wormhole generator on the moon base had been disabled 18 years ago, which meant the Equillians would no longer be able to instantly travel from their galaxy to ours.

  It felt like my head was about to explode as I stood there in silence contemplating Howie’s words. He had effectively pulled back the proverbial curtain and suddenly introduced me to two ideas that were absolutely horrifying—What if we had been working for the wrong side this entire time? And most of all, what if, at the end of the day, there was no right side to begin with? I shuddered as I thought of what would become of our planet if it turned out that what Howie was implying was true.

  “Reaper, are you okay?” Howie asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

  “You’ve been standing there staring into space for almost five minutes,” Howie continued.

  “Sorry, it’s just a lot to take in,” I said still gripping the two 1000-pound bats in my hands.

  “Yeah, I know. I probably shouldn’t have said anything,” Howie admitted. “So what do you think?” he continued, obviously trying to lighten the mood.

  “They’re gonna take some getting used to but I think I like them. I definitely love the logo. Can I get that on my armor?” I asked as I looked at the skull and crossed bats logo on the bats.

  “I already have that covered,” Howie grinned.

  “Sweet!” I cheered as I turned and placed the bats back in the brief case and closed it. “Why bats?” I asked Howie, as I took my seat on the couch.

  “I know you’ve gotten a lot better at hand to hand combat through your training with Jason but I just thought you could also use a few weapons as well. I initially considered a sword but—no offense of course, but I don’t think your style is suited for a blade. Can you imagine what kind of damage you can do if you Reaper Raged out with one of these babies in your hands?”

  Just the thought of tearing into a hoard of Anokian soldiers with two 1000-pound bats in hand was enough to bring an extra wide smile to my face. As always, Howie was absolutely right. I was already incredibly strong to begin with but once my adrenaline really got going my strengt
h was off the charts. I could only imagine how devastating my attacks would be if you threw an extra 2000 pounds of metal into the mix.

  “So do you guys wanna play some video games or what? It’s been a while since I mopped the floor with you two noobs,” Howie boasted as he flopped down into the recliner once more and picked up a controller from one of the nearby game consoles.

  “Ha! Whatever! You’re the noob, noob!” I smirked. “But seriously, I actually had plans tonight. I was supposed to meet up with Audrey at 10:30.”

  “You guys have been hanging out almost every day, Reap! Looks like it’s getting pretty serious,” Ace said as he returned to his seat and picked up a video game controller.

  “Yeah, I guess you can say that. It kind of feels sort of weird now though, you know? With Monica being back in the picture and all.” Ace and Howie remained silent rather than commenting on Monica because they probably knew it was still a touchy subject for me.

  “Well, power up the magic door, Howie. I need to get back to L.A.,” I finally said.

  “Yeah… about that…” Howie said, sheepishly.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, troubled by the guilty expression on his face.

  “Well, we don’t have a wormhole generator in L.A.” he replied.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

  “The only way to send you to L.A. using a wormhole would be if there was a wormhole generator in L.A. to connect to the beacon. I can get you to Nevada with the generator in Area 51 but even with your speed you’d never make it to L.A. by 10:30.”

  “Well that sucks. Guess I’ll have to reschedule,” I groaned.

  “Wow, you must really like this girl, Reap. I haven’t seen you like this in a long time.”

  “Yeah, she’s… she’s okay, I guess,” I lied. In truth she was a heck of a lot more than okay but I didn’t feel like discussing it because of the guilt I felt about hanging out with her. A part of me wanted to end our relationship and devote all my time and energy to finding Monica, but another part of me felt so attached to Audrey—so much so that I didn’t know if I could simply cut her off even if I truly wanted to. It wasn’t just her supermodel quality good looks and phenomenal sense of humor that intrigued me so much. I appreciated her the most because of the fact that she had actually managed to somewhat fill the void in my heart that was left after I decided to walk away from Monica.