Part 14
Thousands
of civilians and hundreds of heroes waited among the hills near the
barrier. Martial Law had taken command. The heroes had section the
citizens on one side of the fields, heroes on the other.
“LOOK!”
A woman yelled from the civilian side.
Martial
watched as a hero came zooming down and landed in the middle of the
non-heroes. It was a man in a steampunk get-up. As he ran to meet up
with Martial, the crowds got to him first.
“Are
you a hero?” “Is this a BADGE cover-up again?” “Is it true
that when someone gets that pot of gold, they will get three wishes?”
The
hero yelled, “HELP!”
Martial
stomped through the crowd, throwing people aside. He grabbed the man
by the wrist and yanked him over to the hero's side. He stopped and
gave a few of those willing to follow a harsh growl and deadly glare.
This put a stop to the following.
“Thanks.
I had no idea it was this bad.”
“Who
are you?”
“Oh,
I’m Furious Squirrel and I found one of these.” He pulled a gold
coin out of his pocket.
“Must
be a newbie. Okay, hold on to that coin until BADGE gets here...”
“Oh,
Nova’s right behind me. I followed them until I passed them just as
we got near this place. Look!”
Martial
heard the sound first and then saw the large Type X Chinook
helicopter coming in. It headed directly for the middle of this
field. People scattered to make room for it to land. Director Nova
and Krystal Fea disembarked.
“What
the hell are these people doing here?” Nova barked at Martial.
“We
had no choice. The local government has made it clear we’re to let
the people stay.”
Nova
grumbled, “This is a bad enough situation without thousands of
civilians getting in the way.” He looked at the crowds staring at
them, “What about Chase, is she still out there?”
Martial
nodded and gestured toward the cliff. They walked over and came to
the edge of the cliff and barrier.
“Where
is she?” Nova asked.
Martial
shook his head, “We don’t know. We witnessed the Hooded man over
here two days ago and that’s when we saw her.”
“Is
she out there?” Nova asked.
“We...can’t
be certain. This barrier blocks all sensor equipment we’ve tried.”
Krystal
put a hand up against the barrier, “I can’t sense anything
through this. It’s blocking my power, which is disturbing.” She
shuddered, “This magic differs from anything I’ve ever
encountered.” She stood back and cast her own magic at the barrier.
A spectacular red light buzzed across it for a moment, causing a few
of the civilians to dash away. After it was over, she put her hand
back on it, “Nothing. It resisted me.”
“We
have to do something.” Nova said, “We have many heroes here,
surely we can take this down...”
Krystal
shook her head, “If what I’m sensing is correct, it’ll only
grow stronger if we throw power at it.”
Furious
Squirrel came up with that coin out, “What do I do with this, sir?”
“Keep
it safe, for now,” Nova stated.
Krystal
interrupted, “Let me see that.” she took the coin and held it,
“This is exuding a magical essence.”
“Of
course, it’s part of the Leprechaun,” Nova stated.
“No,
you don’t don’t understand.” Krystal held the coin near the
barrier, “I can feel it, this coin is tapping the barrier, drawing
power from it.”
“What
does this mean?” Nova asked.
“I
don’t know exactly. However, if this is weakening the barrier then
more coin would weaken it further.”
“How
many?”
Krystal
spent a moment feeling the magic, “I would say at least a thousand,
maybe more.”
Nova
looked back at Martial, “Get all the heroes here, I want them to
bring their coins to this barrier at once.”
“Yes,
sir.” Martial pushed Furious to follow him so they could relay the
message.
Krystal
got closer to Nova, “Sir, there’s something else.”
“What?”
“I
sense a curse of some nature. These coins are drawing out greed from
the people. Those holding them are deeply impacted, but even the
civilians are being tainted. This could get out of hand quickly if
anything sets them off.”
“Then
we need to get this over with sooner than later.” Nova pulled out
his communicator, “I’ll get in touch with Troy and have her...”
his comm unit beeped, “What the?”
Krystal
pulled out her comm unit, and it was beeping, “This is a distress
signal.”
“Not
just any distress signal.” Nova held it up and listened, “This is
a code that I was developing for one person...Chase.”
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