Ch 9: Abnoct

Grey and the others arrive in Abnoct, slipping in before the Special Forces could lock down the city. Scott Matthews and Jack Richter seem to be at odds, and Scott takes a stroll to cool off.

            “Well, we did only lay low for one night. I suppose it just wasn’t quite long enough…” said Alexander. They had arrived in Abnoct by the time the sun was just beginning to set, its orange light shining off hover car windows and skyscraper buildings throughout the bustling city. The Guild’s Special Forces arrived at almost the same time as they did. Watching from the window of the clothing shop they were in as the Special Forces transport class airship, the Campitor, made its way to the airship port, Alexander said, “Still, we’re fortunate they didn’t get here sooner. They would have put up a roadblock at the city gates before we arrived.” Staring at an unrecognizable picture of himself on a wanted poster, Grey said, “We’re seriously lucky, I mean what are the odds that they were so hasty to send a transmission over to the city police department that they didn’t even realize their pictures of us were so blurry? We might want to buy a lotto ticket while we’re here…” Alexander laughed and said, “Yes well, it’s just my intuition but I think we can thank the young Brigadier General Matthews for that. He always was quite loyal to you.” Looking through various garments in the section of the store they were in, Grey asked in curiosity, “Really?” Alexander turned his attention to the clothes as well as he said, “Well it’s better that you remember yourself, as I’ve told you before, but I can tell you that the two of you were very close…” Grey felt somewhat irritated as he thought to himself, “That’s not telling me anything!” Suddenly interrupting the conversation, a voice called out to them, “So, um, how does this look guys?” Grey and Alexander looked away from the clothes and set their eyes on Amy, who was now wearing a red t-shirt, black jeans, and a new pair of red shoes. Nervously she said, “I did my best to pick something inexpensive that wouldn’t draw too much attention.” Beaming, Alexander said, “Very nice Amy.” Amy looked to Grey, waiting to hear his opinion, and after a moment he said, “It looks… wow.” He had always thought she looked kind of cute, but the change from the school uniform to the casual clothes really made it stand out somehow. Then Amy’s face turned red and Grey quickly stammered, “Uh, I- I mean, uh…” Alexander laughed and donned a mischievous grin as he said, “Ah, young love…” Now both Grey’s face and Amy’s face went red, and they said in unison, “What?!” Quickly, Grey said, “Quit it with the comments, I just was…!” At the same time Amy was stammering, “N-n-n-no! No, no, no, no, no! Alexander we’re…!” Laughing his head off, Alexander carried away the clothes he had chosen as he headed off to the register, saying, “I’ll leave you to pick out Grey’s outfit together! Have fun you two!” Still attempting to make it clear he was mistaken, Amy chased after him, while Grey just stared after him menacingly. Still unsure of what to wear as a disguise in the city, he returned to looking for clothes, muttering curses upon Alexander’s name from time to time.

            Standing in the office of the chief of the Abnoct Police Department’s office, staring at the blurry wanted posters in disgust, Colonel Jack Richter was shouting, “We not only took almost a full 24 hours to get here because of all the damage they did to the Campitor, now you’re telling me the pictures we sent over came across like THIS?!” The Colonel turned to look directly at Brigadier General Scott Matthews, who calmly sat behind him, across from where the chief would normally sit at his desk had Colonel Richter not asked for a moment alone with Scott. His eyes narrowing, Richter said, “Matthews… You were the one who sent the message that they were likely to turn up here, the pictures too! You insisted you do it personally… Please for the love of… LOOK AT ME FOR ONE MINUTE!” Scott turned from the report the chief had given him to look at the Colonel with a questioning look as Richter continued, “Please tell me you aren’t letting your personal feelings get the best of you in this matter, please SWEAR to me you didn’t purposely sabotage these pictures when you sent them…” As he stood waiting for an answer from the Brigadier General, Scott simply said, “Jack, just calm down, I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about…” The Colonel looked at him angrily, then heaved a great sigh and said, “Matthews, I can understand you must want to believe he’s a changed man, fighting Altera Veritas or something like that. Still, our job is to bring him in as a criminal for what he’s already done and as a rogue energist outright. I was assigned to be your advisor as you were in a coma for a year, and despite my sense of responsibility to my own division, I jumped at the chance to work alongside the Thunderfury Energist.” He walked over and grabbed a chair, moving it so he faced Scott as he sat. As calmly as he could, the Colonel said, “I respect the work you’ve put towards the Equality of Mankind movement, and I was also impressed at the ability and courage you displayed facing off against the Black Knight himself. That said, I am not so easily deceived as to not realize the lengths you are going to in order to avoid your duty to arrest that man! Please have a little respect for my intelligence, and please, PLEASE… decide whether or not you want to remain on this assignment, because the next time you sabotage our mission I WILL report your actions!” The Colonel grabbed the report from the desk, moved the chair so he would be looking across the desk at the chief’s seat, and turned to Scott as he added, “I will read the report and discuss our course of action from here with the chief. Why don’t you take a stroll into the city and think about what you intend to do.”

            Scott didn’t protest, and rising from his chair slowly, he walked to the door and exited the room. As the door shut behind him, he let out a sigh and thought to himself, “What do I intend to do? The whole point of joining the Special Forces was to fight Altera Veritas to avenge Matt’s death, and also to work from the inside of The Guild to change the inequality of rights between energists and normal humans. Yet I find that Matt is alive and fighting the enemy the Special Forces has been hunting for ages.” Gritting his teeth in frustration, Scott thought, "I’m supposed to arrest my best friend, who is also fighting hard against the most dangerous organization in the world?! There’s no way I would want that! But if I’m taken off this assignment, my reputation and all the work I’ve done with it to make a better life for the energists of the world will be ruined for sure…” Walking out the front door and heading down the sidewalk, Scott Mathews was lost in thought as he desperately tried to figure out how to save both his reputation and his friend’s life.

            Grey walked out the glass doors of Benson’s Premium Garb and Footwear sporting a new white t-shirt, blue jeans, and a brown jacket. With a sigh, he said, “I hope this is good enough, I’m sick of looking through clothes.” Having been waiting for him with Amy outside the store, in a sarcastic tone Alexander said, “Here we’ve been waiting all this time for you Grey, and that’s the best you come up with? You have almost the same outfit, just with differently colored pants and coat. You’re even wearing the same shoes!” Grey narrowed his eyes in irritation, and then took a better look at Alexander, who was now wearing a white business suit and black dress shoes, complete with the ugliest tie Grey had ever seen. He still had on his signature shades too. Gawking at him a moment more, Grey turned his gaze down to his shoes and muttered, “What’s wrong with my shoes? I like these shoes…” Nervously, Amy said, “Well, um, I think it looks cool on you Grey.” She looked away when he turned his gaze in her direction, her face somewhat red. Unable to think of what else to say, Grey said, “Th-thanks.” Then Alexander chimed in saying, “I hate to interrupt such a touching moment, but I think it’s time to get going.” They both shot an unpleasant look at him, but Alexander merely laughed and continued, “Well, all joking aside, we do need to find someplace to stay. We won’t be very comfortable sleeping cramped up in the hover car, and I doubt you need to be told how much attention a tent would bring in the middle of the city.” As he turned to start walking to the hover car parked down the street, someone walking up the sidewalk bumped into him. The person started to say, “Oh excuse me, I wasn’t…” Scott Matthews trailed off as he realized who it was he had bumped into.

            “Alexander?!” Scott exclaimed after staring at him a moment. Then he quickly looked behind Alexander and laid eyes on Grey and Amy. His eyes went wide and he said, “Matt?! Even the girl from before…” With an indignant look, Amy said, “I have a name!” Suddenly Grey grabbed her arm and said, “So much for disguises! Hurry up and run!” However, as they started to run away Scott yelled after them, “Wait, please! Matt just let me talk to you for five minutes! You’ve made me wait three years d****t!” Hesitantly, Alexander stopped running and said, “Grey… let’s just talk to him.” Grey stopped and looked at him in confusion, but with a serious expression, Alexander said, “Without him we never would have made it out of Celestis. I think we owe him at least that much. Besides, it’ll only cause a scene if he chases us across the city.” Nodding reluctantly, Grey turned to Scott, who had caught up and was looking back at him, clearly unwilling to take no for an answer. With a sigh, Grey muttered, “Alright… We owe you for before. Let’s go someplace else though.”

            They drove in Alexander’s hover car to a small diner several blocks away. It was busy, but they managed to get a table suited to a private discussion, secluded in the corner of the room. They ordered drinks, and Alexander opened the discussion, saying, “It’s been awhile since we’ve had a chance to talk Scott. I’m glad to see you’ve been doing well. Now, before we begin I have a few conditions to this discussion.” Scott looked at Alexander, clearly confused, and said, “Conditions?” Grey and Amy also looked questioningly at Alexander. He seemed unfazed by their stares, a smile firmly in place on his face as he said, “Yes well, you see, our mutual friend here…” He nodded his head towards Grey as he continued, “I’m afraid he has suffered partial amnesia in the aftermath of your previous encounter in Luminosa. He recalls nothing before his days as a member of Altera Veritas. Out of concern for his mental condition, I have made a point to see to it that he remembers everything on his own over time. As such, we have come to the first condition. I ask that you refrain from discussing any of the details regarding the events of the night he was kidnapped, as well as anything about his life before that.” 

A look of shock had fallen over Scott as Alexander revealed these facts to him, and he stammered, “Wh-what…?!” As Alexander nodded gravely, Scott looked over at Grey with mild terror and said, “I had thought it was strange how he acted as though he didn’t even know me but… Matt…” Alexander interjected here, saying, “That brings us to condition number two. Due to a… Well, I can only describe it as a self-punishment that he has imposed on himself for the things he has done while under Altera Vertas’ brainwashing-” Scott literally jumped out of his chair, knocking over his drink as he exclaimed, “BRAINWASHING?!” Alexander raised a hand to quiet him as some people at a nearby table looked over at them, and then he said, “Yes…” Scott sank back into his chair as this truth set in. All along he had believed that somehow Altera Veritas had convinced Matt into joining him, playing on the desire he had always expressed to work toward equality between energists and normal people. Scott was overcome with guilt as he thought, “I should have known they would have used something like that!” Wiping up his spilled drink with a napkin, Scott started to say, “Matt, I’m…” In an angry tone, Grey suddenly said, “Stop using that name…” Quickly Alexander interjected, saying, “As I was about to explain, he’s decided that after what he’s done, he no longer has any right to the name Matthew Greyson. He absolutely refuses to let anyone call him by that, so please refer to him as Grey.” Scott found the idea of calling him anything other than Matt odd, but judging from his reaction, Scott guessed it wouldn’t really be up for discussion. He also didn’t want to do anything to ruin this chance to speak with them, so to that end he said, “Alright I’ll accept your conditions.”

Reviews

[Ryan Henderson]

A little bit short of a chapter, but not at all lacking in quality! Very good flow with no grammar/spelling errors! I love Alexander's character! He is a little cheeky and arrogant, but he is friends with Grey, and they seem to have a little bit of rivalry, friendly rivalry going on at some points. I am totally loving this book so far! Very good detail and originality! Keep up the awesome work!

[KeithKVH]

It is a bit shorter than usual, ch9 and ch10 were originally one chapter, but I felt it was too long as I had been trying to keep the lengths of each one pretty close together. It instead turned out a bit shorter, but considering I need to go through and do a bit more separation and probably separate the dialogue it'll probably work in my favor. Glad you like those two, I really am. Their relationship has twists and turns like any other, but at the same time is very special in a way you will uncover and I hope you will like as well.