Chapter 2 - The Legend of the Twenty Million Platinum Man

A trip to a local bar for their first meal in ages lands Noal and Ella right in the middle of a bounty hunter's clutches.

Threads of Fate

Chapter 2

The legend of the twenty million platinum man!

“Noal?”  Ella snapped her fingers in front of Noal’s face, waking him from his spellbound state.  “Are you gonna just sit there and watch, or are you gonna help me here?”

                Noal’s words stumbled over each other as he shook off his daze.  “Oh, right, sorry.  I was just… I mean I get…”

                “Uh huh,” Ella said, turning to hide a small grin.  He could say whatever he wanted, but she was used to her Fate manipulation dance manipulating a little more than just Fate.  “Come on, let’s go sit down somewhere.”

The pair quickly collected all of Ella’s scattered tarot cards and ducked into the nearest bar, a modest joint called Gracey’s.  The inside was larger than it looked from the outside and was heavily populated with some less than upstanding clientele.  A line of men sat at the bar and stared at them as they entered, ranging from skinny and sickly to grossly overweight.  The bartender wasn’t exactly winning any prizes either; Ella could’ve sworn she saw something move from within his beard.  It was hardly what one would call a five star establishment, but on the other hand they’d wandered The Fringe for so long that Ella hardly remembered what a five star establishment even looked like anymore.

                “Phew.  Well, that was a nightmare.  How are you feeling?” Ella asked as she and Noal sat down in the nearest open booth.

                Noal spoke quietly, his gaze still suspiciously locked on the men at the bar.  “It’s getting stronger… I mean, usually I have some sense of when it’s coming, but this time there was just no warning.”

Noal’s distrustful eyes were darting around the room like a fly caught in a glass jar.  Some great terror of the world he was growing up to be.  All that power wrapped up in his arm and he was wary of a few petty thugs.  Weren’t they supposed to be wary of him? 

“I don’t like it,” he whispered.  “I think we should just find out why the golden thread led us here and get out, before anything else bad happens.”

Ella leaned over the table, pulling up Noal’s cloak before he even had a chance to flinch. 

                “Hey relax!  Look, see it’s closed again,” she said, pointing at the Providence Eye tattoo on his exposed left arm, which was indeed asleep once again.  “No need to worry, Mr. Hu…”

Noal reached over the table and put his hand over her mouth.  “Are you crazy!?  Don’t’ say it!  Unless you want even more trouble, that is,” he hissed as he pulled his cloak back down.

                Ella pulled his hand off.  “All I’m saying is, don’t worry so much!  You have the greatest fortune teller in the western hemisphere backing you up, remember?  Before we go rushing back into the desert again, what say we at least get some food in us first?”

For once Noal had no retort, instead picking up his menu and bowing to her good sense.  They both sat for a precious few quiet moments, perusing the specials: minced sand kiwi - twenty-four platinum pieces, fried griffon-bird egg " thirty platinum pieces, armored lizard stew with desert radishes " forty-five platinum pieces.  Yet even as she sat there, something even more salivating was already knocking at the back of her mind. 

At first she thought she was just hearing things: a choir of cheers and laughter quickly silenced, then ringing bells and shuffling cards again silenced.  She looked up from her menu to find Noal’s eyes wide with terror, and when she turned she instantly understood why.  Behind her, a waiter was moving back and forth through a swinging door, which led to a casino on the other side!  Slot machines, game tables, high rollers, and big spenders, she caught all of it in the blink of an eye.  The door glowed like a portal, a dingy, dark-stained portal to prosperity.  She was already salivating, but it was no longer at the thought of food.

“Absolutely not,” Noal said, out of the blue. 

“Excuse me?”

“Ella, tell me, do you even have any money left to gamble away?”

She frantically fingered through her pockets and pouches but felt only cruel reality; besides two copper pieces, they were barer than the desert they’d just trekked through. 

“Just a few plats!  A couple of notes!  Copper pieces even!” she pleaded, going into full begging mode.  “I’ll double it in fifteen minutes!”

The shuffling of chips and shouts of excitement called to her like a siren’s song, reducing her to a fidgety child.  Her hands shook with nervous, giddy anticipation.  Forget dignity, it was time to pull out the big guns.  She welled up big tears and turned back to Noal with the biggest set of puppy-dog eyes she could muster. 

                “Pleaaaaa".”

“Yes, that’s right, make it a large please.”

Flabbergasted, she watched Noal finish up his order and then wave the waitress off. 

 “Y-You ordered". What about me??” she sobbed.

“Oh don’t worry.  I ordered you a fresh lentil salad.  My treat.”

Ella looked at the measly two copper pieces sitting on the table in front of her - not even enough for an appetizer - and felt her heart sink into her stomach.  If only she could’ve digested that. 

“My, you’re so generous,” she deadpanned.

“Hey, don’t get your threads in a knot just because I can control my spending.” 

“Excuse me!?”

“Really?  You’re going to argue that?  Let’s go over your recent track record, shall we?  First there was the horse race in Gram City".”

“I was getting forty-to-one odds!”

“" in which your horse DIED before reaching the finish line!”

Ella paused.  “In my defense, that horse was only thirty years old.”

“Ella, the average lifespan of a horse is twenty-five.”

She opened her mouth to rebuttal, but then just shrugged.  “Okay, I may have slightly misread Fate on that one.”

“So is that what happened when you got into that little card game with the Sundance Society?  How much did you lose there again?”

“Hey, that wasn’t my fault.  They were cheating!”

“YOU were cheating!”

Ella recalled.  “Oh yeah,” she said, with a crooked grin.  “Almost got away with that one.”

“They were mobsters Ella, mobsters!  Almost isn’t good enough!  Somehow you united the three most dangerous houses in Terra against us in under an hour!”

“Yeah.  That must be a record or something.  I wonder who I can talk to about that.”

Noal just put his head in his hands.  “Look, I hate to be the bad guy here.  But someone needs to teach you the importance of spending wisely.”

As if to add insult to injury, the waitress arrived mid-sentence with Noal’s food; a succulent steaming hunk of sabre-cat meat with a side of the softest most delectable potatoes she’d ever seen, all drizzled in gravy.  The rich scent penetrated Ella’s senses so deeply that she could already taste it.  Altogether, the dish must’ve cost at least thirty plat; a wise expenditure if she ever saw one.

“What,” he asked, preempting her disapproval, “I’m hungry.”  She crossed her arms at the small bland salad in front of her.  “Look Ella, all I’m saying is that for the supposed greatest fortune teller in the western hemisphere, you seem to have real problems Fate manipulating your way out of trouble, particularly when it comes to money.  Don’t forget, the real reason we’re here is to search for my cure.”

“Ah yes, the cure.”  Ella leaned across the table, her expression turning deadly serious.  “About that.  Noal, are you sure you won’t reconsider?  I mean this whole quest to get rid of your… unique ability.  Are you sure that’s for the best?  Your power is unlike anyone’s ever seen.  You and I, we could be pioneers...”

                “Ella, we’ve been over this and it’s not a thing I’m interested in discussing again.  You saw what it did out there.  You know what it’s capable of.”

“Okay, but then what about our agreement?  I mean, if you just gave it a little more time, you could probably learn to…” 

“Ten years isn’t enough time?  This kind of thing has been happening to me ever since I was eleven!  Do you know how hard it is to make friends growing up when Fate is constantly trying to smash them under boulders or drown them in lakes?  Do you know how hard it is to get a girlfriend when it starts to rain every time you hold hands?”  Noal leaned in to make absolutely sure no one could hear their conversation.  “Look Ella, I’ll still honor our business arrangement.  But that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna do all I can to get rid of this thing, once and for all.”

                “But…”

                “No buts.  Not this time.  This is all there is.”

Ella shook her head disapprovingly, stood up from the booth, and grabbed her two copper coins.

                “Hey, where are you going?”

                “Well, apparently you have your business to sort out, and so I have mine.”

* * *

A part of him felt bad as he watched her walk off.  After all, just what would’ve happened to that little boy in the street today if she hadn’t been there?  Then again, how many times in the last two years had he saved her skin?  And she didn’t even have a curse to fall back on as an excuse; every time she got in trouble, it was her own fault.  No, it would be best if he didn’t do her any favors now.  Besides, what did he really owe her?  In the end, she was getting what she really wanted after all…

 “Um, sir?”  It was the waitress.  “I said that will be thirty platinum pieces.”

“Huh?  Oh" right!”  Noal fumbled around in his front pocket.  “Are notes alright?”

“Of course, sir.”

He pulled out his wallet and fingered a couple of paper notes, each the equivalent of twenty platinum pieces, while keeping his gaze fixated on the woman.  She was cute, probably in her early twenties, and wore a rather revealing leotard with high heels and netted stockings.  He handed her the bills and smiled widely, with what he thought was charm.  She squirmed uncomfortably in his gaze and so he returned his attention to his meal, plugging his gaping maw with a potato.

“Um, sir?”  He looked up at her with a full mouth.  “I’m sorry sir, but we don’t accept I.O.Us.”

Half an un-chewed potato fell into his throat and came to a halt.

“What?” he choked, pounding it down. 

 

Noal took the note back from the woman.  This wasn’t currency! 

The piece of paper was cut to the size of a note, but was missing the official patterns of Terran currency.  They’d instead been replaced with the giant letters I.O.U.  Wait, there was something else he couldn’t quite make out.  He turned the note sideways and squinted. 

Gah!

It was a crude scribble of Ella sticking her tongue out.  Panicked, he opened his wallet and thumbed through all his other notes.  No use.  They’d all been replaced with I.O.Us!  In fact, as he flipped through them they even played a crude little animation.  He looked up apologetically at the waitress.

“Sir?”

“I don’t… when did she…?  Aha, well I seem to have… uh… misplaced…,” he stumbled.

And there, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Ella through the swinging door, way back at the gambling tables, holding up his notes and waving.  Her face beamed at Noal as he scrunched the fake note in his hand.

 

As Noal’s hands pruned in the dishwater he stared daggers at Ella from the kitchen alcove while she gleefully placed another bet.  He may as well have been staring at a brick wall; she didn’t have a guilty bone in her body.  Meanwhile, the pretty waitress who’d served him earlier brought in another stack of dirty plates and piled them up on the growing mountain next to him. 

“Only five hundred more to go.”

This was not how Noal had envisioned his day.  While he was in here washing dishes (for a meal he could have easily paid for), valuable time was wasting away, time he could have been using to figure out why the golden thread had led him here.  What possible merit could come from a place like Fortune Town?  What did Fate expect him to find here, other than gambling tables for Ella to squander all their money?  He suddenly found himself scrubbing a dish so hard he almost broke it in two.

“Got your eye on that one, eh?  She’s got a lot of spunk, that’s for sure.”

Noal looked over and found the bartender leaning at the alcove next to him. 

“My eye" on her?  Ha.  She’s more trouble that she’s worth.”

“Trouble’s what makes-em worth it,” the bartender responded with a sly grin and a lick of his lips.

Noal shuddered involuntarily.  The man’s breath exuded the stench of rotten olives and whisky and despite his pressed black vest and bowtie, he was filthy.  His thick black beard looked as if it were painted onto his face, which itself was a cracked wasteland of wrinkle valleys and oily lakes with one mountainous black wart anchoring it all on his left cheek.  He must have been at least fifty years old, but that didn’t stop him from ogling Ella and licking his lips. 

“Trust me,” Noal said.  “We’re travelling together and I’m telling you now, whatever you’re thinking, she’s not worth it.” 

 “Heh, a travel companion like that, eh?  What she cost you?”

“Oh I got a real bargain.  All she cost me was my dignity,” Noal replied, holding up a soapy dish.

A few more moments of awkward silence passed.  Noal kept his eyes on the dishes hoping the guy would get bored and go away.  His choking musk was overpowering even the dish soap. 

“So what’s yer story kid?” he asked, still looking at Ella.  “Runaway?  Con artist?  Refugee?”  He turned around and leered.  “Convict?”

“W-What makes you say that?”  Noal’s voice squeaked as loudly as the dish he was cleaning. 

“Dunno kid, you look tense.  Only two kinds of people come to Fortune Town.  Those lookin’ to get rich, and those lookin’ to get away.  And, well, if you’d made it rich, you wouldn’t be washing them there dishes, would ya?”

Noal had dealt with enough bounty hunters in his time to know that grin.  Discreetly, he grabbed a butter knife deep in the dishwater.  The bartender bellowed a deep laugh that shook him.

“Haha, don’t worry kid.  Whatever you’re worth, it can’t even be close to what I’m worth!” he laughed, smacking Noal on the back and then putting an arm around him.  Noal squirmed as he could feel the man’s bicep flex around his head.  “I’ll let you in on a little secret.  I’m wanted in every nation on this planet.  I’m a horrible man who done horrible things.  I caused so much chaos they got a real special name for me.  The Human Hurricane.”

Noal stopped everything he was doing and gave the bartender a sideways glance.  “The Human Hurricane?  Right.”  He rolled his eyes and tossed the knife into the dish tray.

                “What?  Ain’t you ever heard of the Human Hurricane?  I’m the scourge of the seven nations!  The Great Destroyer himself!  I’m the most wanted man in the world!”

                “The Human Hurricane is just a myth,” Noal said, not even looking up from his work.  “You aren’t him.”

                The bartender grunted.  “A myth!?  Would the nations be offerin’ a joint twenty-million platinum reward for a myth!?  They want me ‘cause of all the stuff I done: bustin’ down buildings, puttin’ whole droves of their people in the hospital!”

“Right, and I’m sure that was all you.”

“You better believe it was!  You really ought t’be afraid o’me.  I even wiped out my entire home town!”

Noal suddenly stopped dead, his mocking expression turning gravely serious.

                “I hated that old fart town anyway.  One day I got bored, and so I just killed’em all in cold blood!  That there was the start of my legacy!”   

 

Noal shot his hands out of the dishwater and grabbed the bartender’s collar.

                “That’s not how it happened!”

The bartender was stunned by the sudden outburst, stammering stupidly for a few seconds before finally comporting himself with a raised eyebrow.

                “Really?  What would you know o’that?”

Noal’s hands were trembling, the anger coursing through him.  Should he show him?  Should he show this man exactly what he knew of that?  Yet as Noal’s eyes wandered, sizing the bartender up, he noticed black streaks on his forearm.  As Noal tilted his head, his whole body froze.  It was the tattoo of an eye. 

A tattoo just like his.

                “Where… where did you get that tattoo!?” Noal stammered.

“You little cheater!” an unfamiliar voice shouted from the casino floor.

Noal’s expression melted into utter horror.  The bearded bartender just smiled.

“Well would you listen to that?  Guess you were right.  Your friend really is more trouble than she’s worth.”

* * *

“You little cheater!  There’s no way anyone gets that lucky!”

Glasses seethed, enraged that Ella had taken almost every platinum piece from him, but being accused of cheating lit a fire under Ella herself.

                “You’re kidding me right?  You guys were pulling the oldest scam in the book!  I mean seriously, who even pulls the Double Under anymore!?  And a vanilla Double Under to boot!  You know you could’ve at least tried to tweak the formula!”

                “How d-dare you!” protested Glasses.  “I’m s-sure I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“Oh p-please, that’s the kind of stuff I pulled with my little sister on my aunts and uncles, when I was eight.”  Glasses remained silent, his eyes wandering.  Ella was already aware of the hand creeping up behind her.  “Okay seriously!” 

She slapped the velvet table and grabbed Baldie’s arm, which had been hovering over her chips since the argument had begun.  She forcibly pulled back his sleeve, exposing a small accordion-like device with the Ace of Swords attached to the end. 

                “How hard is it for you to choke up!?” she asked, yanking the device further up Baldie’s arm before covering it again with his sleeve.  He could only stare stupidly in response.

                “Th-That doesn’t prove anything!” Glasses stammered, turning threateningly toward the dealer.

The dealer, intimidated as he was, of course shook his head no.  Ella half-expected a dozen burly bouncers to appear at any moment, but so far there was nothing.  Weren’t places like this supposed to have the good sense to employ security?  She shuddered at the prospect of newbies like this regularly getting away with these awful cons.

                “This is ridiculous.  Look, you guys are really flattering yourselves if you think I had to cheat to beat you.”

Ella flipped her nose into the air and was about to collect her earnings when a sharp pain suddenly stung the side of her face and knocked her to the ground.  Through her ringing ears she could hear Glasses’ muffled voice.

                “Why you insolent little t**d, I’ll show you!”

* * *

The sight of that man slapping Ella across the face was finally enough to force Noal to begrudgingly throw himself off the bartender and explode onto the casino floor.  He shouted for the tattooed man to stay where he was, but there was little chance of that.  Ella really did have the absolute worst timing.

Noal leapt from table to table over hordes of screaming people, knocking over stacks of chips, sending the patrons and dealers diving to the floor in a frenzy.  Ella had fallen out of sight now, but her assailants were moving in.  Noal was disappointed in her; Ella could’ve easily dodged a cheap shot like that, but as usual her wide mouth and bloated ego obstructed her view.

He pushed extra hard off the last table, sailing into the air and hanging over the heads of the two bullies like an eagle over its prey.  The assailants turned to notice him just as Noal delivered a swift kick to the bald man’s jaw.  His victim crashed to the ground, catching the edge of the table with his chin and catapulting the chips on top into a spectacular rainbow of color. 

Noal stood over his broken opponent before turning to face the second man, who’d already backed off considerably. 

“What do you think you’re doing!?” the man in glasses yelled.  “Do you have any idea who I am!?”

                “Do you have any idea who he is!?” Ella shouted, furiously gathering up chips from the ground.

“Ella, I don’t think you need to".”

Noal never got to finish that sentence as something suddenly wrapped around his leg and flipped his world upside down.  He looked up (or was that down?) and saw the bald man again, suspending him with a single arm, grinning through his gap-toothed mouth.

                “Ouch kid, that stung a bit.”

The great ogre waddled over to his partner holding Noal up like a fresh cut of beef.  The man in glasses bent over, looked him in the face, and chuckled.

                “Friend of yours?” he asked Ella, who’d stopped gathering chips and swallowed nervously.  “Nice try kid.  But like I said, you really don’t know who you’re messin’ with.” 

He turned to the mass of people on the casino floor, put his fingers in his mouth and blew an ear-piercing whistle.

                “Boys!” he snapped.

Bystanders shrieked as a dozen men from every corner of the room stood up and pulled out rifles from their briefcases and petty coats.

                “Everybody relax!” the man in the glasses continued.  “Remain where you are.  Name’s Pellegri, and we ain’t here to cause trouble.  We’re just looking for someone.  You may have heard of him.  He goes by the name of the Human Hurricane.”  Pellegri and his goons waited but the crowd remained nervously quiet.  His face scrunched and soured.  “We know you’re back there somewhere!  Don’t make me tear this place apart!”

Ella shot Noal a confused look, mouthing the words Human Hurricane to him.  He answered with just a subtle head tilt towards the kitchen.  Meanwhile, a stout mustached man in a shirt and vest ran up to Pellegri.

                “Please sir!  You said if I cooperated you’d leave my bar alone!”

                “Hey!” Pellegri interrupted.  “I said if you got him to cooperate.  Seems that was too much to ask.  Daryn, Mal, check the kitchen.  The captain would prefer him alive.  Personally, I don’t much care either way.”

                “What should I do with these two?” the bald giant bellowed. 

Pellegri thought it over for a moment.

“Hmm.  Take them out back.  Do something awful to them, especially her.  Teach’em the consequences of talking down to us.”

The bald man nodded, throwing Noal into the arms of one of the other lackeys and snatching up Ella himself.  They started a slow march of doom towards the back doors.

“Noal, what the heck is going on,” Ella asked.

“I was just about to find out until you started this,” he hissed back.

“Look what you did!” she groaned.  “I was up!  UP!  Now look, all my chips are everywhere!  I can’t believe you let this big ugly brute catch you by surprise,” Ella grumbled.

“You’re one to talk!”

“Look, forget whose fault this is for a second.  What are we gonna do about this?”

“Can’t you do anything about it?”

“If I could, don’t you think I would’ve done it by now!?  Can’t you use your ‘you-know-what’!?”

“Are you nuts?  You know it doesn’t work that way!  Have you already forgotten what just happened outside!?” 

 “You ain’t getting’ away,” the bald giant growled through the gaps in his teeth.  “I’m gonna grind up your bones into salt for my steaks.”

“Noal!” Ella muttered, her eyes widening.  “Now would be a good time!”

He reservedly put a hand on the brace encompassing his entire left arm, pleading with Ella one last time with his eyes.  She only returned her patented what are you waiting for expression.  There was no going back from this. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me!  Twice in one day, really!?”

Taking a deep breath, Noal unbuckled his cloak, exposing his left arm for everyone to see.  He pulled one of the lashes and the entire lower portion of the brace unfurled, dropping to the floor.  The Providence Eye tattoo jumped to life.  Its tendrils, free from their bonds, clawed their way around Noal’s entire forearm, burning all the way.  There was no stopping it now; the beast was awake.

* * *

The Power wasted no time once uncaged.  High above Baldie’s head, Fate threads snapped and reconfigured just like they had outside.  It wasn’t long before a chandelier high above them began to creak and moan.  Baldie took notice and, in his split second of distraction, Ella said a short prayer of forgiveness before squaring him hard in his groin.  The giant let out a wail that chilled even her to the bone, then collapsed like a house of cards, dropping her and Noal to the floor.  Ella immediately threw herself into Noal’s captor, grabbed Noal, and rolled the two of them away just as the chandelier broke free of its tether.  It shattered on top of Baldie and his friend with a deafening crash, burying them both in a heap of broken glass. 

When the commotion finally settled, the pair emerged lightly brushing themselves off.  Everyone else in the room stared silently with slacked jaws.

                “How did you"?” uttered Pellegri, wide-eyed at the cracked roof and the fallen chandelier.   “That could only be… Fate manipulation?  But that would mean… fortune tellers!?  Here!?  That’s impossible!  Y-You’re nothing but a couple of kids!”

Ella smiled widely. 

                “Just a kid?  I’ll have you know I am Ella Gant, the most powerful fortune teller…!”

                “Uh, Ella,” Noal interrupted.  “We’ve got a situation!”

Noal had turned ghostly pale and it didn’t take Ella long to realize why.  The roof, where the chandelier had pried itself free, was continuing to splinter.  The crack spread quickly before stopping near the edge of the wall and releasing a stone.  That stone fell, hitting a loose wooden plank on the floor.  That plank see-sawed, smacking a plate of knives sitting on the bar.  That plate flipped forward spilling its contents into the air.  Knives, forks, and other assorted pointy utensils were suddenly airborne projectiles.

                “Oh crap…”

In unison, the pair flattened themselves just as the flying flock of death flew by, narrowly missing them and cutting a path towards the crowd.  Screams and shouts filled the air as people leapt out of the way, followed by a drubbing tak tak tak, and finally an eerie silence.  Ella’s heart beat furiously and she and Noal turned to each other with wide eyes and uncontrollable shakes.  The rest of the crowd slowly raised their heads and looked around.  Thankfully, everyone seemed to be fine.

Everyone except for Pellegri.

On the far side of the casino, the bounty hunter leader was pinned up against the far wall in an awful, contorted shape.  Forks and knives pierced his clothing and pinned him to the wall like a piece of abstract art.  Amazingly, he’d somehow avoided being skewered by any of them. 

                “G-Get them…,” he squealed, a few octaves higher than usual.

And then all hell broke loose.

Glasses’ lackeys opened fire in a wild stupor, forcing the entire crowd back to the floor.  However, they had no idea what was about to come, for The Power’s was already working its unique form of black magic. 

Ella watched as the floor boards between two gunmen suddenly gave way.  As they fell through, their lines of fire wandered randomly up the side of the wall.  A stray bullet caught another man in the arm, bringing him down immediately.  Other strays cut a path of holes across the wooden stairwell leading upstairs.  The stairs creaked and cracked before imploding, sucking another assailant down with them. 

It was a symphony of chaos, a cacophony of misfortune.  This was The Power at work.

Now the entire balcony was starting to come down.  Below it, about twenty people cowered, trapped between the collapsing building and the hail of bullets.  Ella acted quickly, gathering the threads of numerous gambling tables nearby.  She gave each table a swift kick, and with pin-point precision, manipulated the Fate threads so that they arranged themselves neatly over the panicked innocents.  The balcony collapsed barely a second later, shattering atop the makeshift shield, sparing the people underneath.  Ella quickly slid over to their aid and ushered the civilians to the back exit.

“Come on!  Let’s go!”

* * *

                “Come on!  Let go!” Pellegri shouted.

As he continued wrestling for Pellegri’s weapon, Noal heard a click.  He turned his head to see one of the bounty hunter’s companions pointing a rifle straight at him.  The man smiled despicably until a shoe came out of nowhere and knocked him out cold.  Noal looked over to see Ella giving him the thumbs up, the unconscious soldier next to her missing his boot.  Her expression suddenly turned grave and she pointed past him.  Noal turned just in time to see a dislodged steam pipe swing towards them.

                “Look out!”

Noal pushed Pellegri to safety and then leapt out of the way himself.  The pipe swung past and smashed into a support pillar on the opposite side.  Steam billowed endlessly from the opening until Ella grabbed a Fate thread attached to its valve and spun it closed.  Noal breathed a sigh of relief, until a spray of machine gun fire sent him diving for cover behind the bar.  Bottles and glasses shattered above him, spilling their contents down into the crevice.  Noal pressed up against the bar, lowered his head, and squeezed his eyes shut.  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the rattling fell silent. 

                “C-Come out with your hands up!” he heard. 

Noal had to wait for his body to stop quivering before he could even open his eyes again.  His ears rang furiously.  He turned and peeked over the bar.  There was Pellegri, breathing deeply, excited.  His unsteady hand was holding a pistol up to the pretty waitress from before.

                “Stand up!  Slowly!”

Noal put his arms up and slowly rose out of his hiding place.  Broken glass crinkled under his boot.  Only now could he see just how shredded his cover had become.  It was a miracle he’d escaped without a few extra orifices. 

                “Don’t move!” Pellegri yelled desperately. 

Finally, with the chaos seemingly subsided, he had a moment to survey the room, or at least what was left; it was as though a bomb had gone off.  Moaning and groaning permeated the gunpowder cloud from every corner. 

                “Look at this place.  You’re not just any old fortune teller are you?” Pellegri wondered aloud.

                “Whoa, easy there.  You don’t want to hurt any of these people do you?” Noal said, calmingly.

                “SHUTUP!  I could care less about these filthy neutrals, especially not when I have you in my sights!” 

Noal swallowed nervously.  “Who me?  I’m not anything…”

“Oh come off it.  Do you think I’m stupid?  There’s no doubt about it, especially not after… well this!”

One of Pellegri’s few remaining lackeys piped up.  “Uh boss?”

“Don’t you see?  That trademark signature on his arm?  The complete and utter destruction he caused in here?  He’s the one we’ve been looking for!  The great destroyer, the twenty million platinum man?  He’s the Human Hurricane!?”

“Him!?  But he’s just a kid!”

“Now hold on a second".”  Noal was about to argue, but Ella shook her head no.

“Tch, fortune tellers and their magic tricks, I assure you,” Pellegri explained.  His hand was stabilizing now, and he seemed to be brimming with confidence.  “Well, no matter.  How does it feel knowing that your reign of terror is going to end here, at the hands of us regular folk!?  Go get him boys!”

Mumbles broke out throughout the bounty hunters, but not one of them took a step forward.

                “Didn’t you hear what I said?” Pellegri shouted angrily.  “Go arrest him!”

One man with a bloody face stepped forward.  “It’s just that" Well I’m sure you’ve heard that he once defeated an entire regiment of Ouranos soldiers by himself, didn’t you?”

                Another soldier piped up.  “I-I heard he’s really a monster in disguise.  That human form is just a shell to lure in his victims…”

“You know spontaneous combustion?  I heard it’s all him!” another one shouted.

The remaining bounty hunters muttered in shaky voices as they slowly retreated.

                “Cowards!” Pellegri shouted angrily.  “We came here looking for him!  Now you’re all going to tell me you’re suddenly scared of him!?”

                “That was before we saw any of this.  You told us all those stories were exaggerations!”

Pellegri was furious now, squeezing his pistol a little too tightly for Noal’s comfort.  “Fine!  I’ll take him myself!  But don’t expect any of the bounty.”

Pellegri took a few awkward steps forward and glanced at his subordinates again, all of whom had sunk well back.  After a moment of self-reflection, he pulled his hostage further in front of him and then shouted at Noal and Ella from behind his shield.

“On second thought, get down on the ground and put those on!” he ordered, tossing a pair of shackles onto the floor in front of Noal.  “No funny stuff!”

“Alright, but I really think you should listen to them,” Noal cautioned as he bent down. 

“Shut up and put on the cuffs!”

Noal shrugged and did as he was told, but his attention was already elsewhere.  Fate was shifting again.  He could feel it, even if he couldn’t see it.  He looked over at Ella, who subtly motioned up to the roof, where the pipe she had closed earlier was starting to buckle under its pressure. 

                “Hey!  Eyes over here!” Pellegri yelled.  “You can’t afford to be looking at her!  Now do as I say!”

                “Uh, if I could just…”

                “Silence!”

                Noal shrugged.  “Suit yourself.”

No sooner had the words rolled off his tongue when the pipe ruptured, sending the broken valve flying across the room like a bullet.  In that moment of distraction, Ella tugged on a thread causing the waitress to fall and slide across the floor.  Noal half expected the valve to hit Pellegri square in the head, but his opponent, surprisingly nimble, dodged out of the way. 

                “Ha!  Nice try!” Pellegri laughed arrogantly.

The bounty hunter took aim with his pistol, but was interrupted by a strange whirring noise that grew louder by the second. 

                “What is…”

He looked up, suddenly realizing that the ceiling fan was picking up speed at an alarming rate.  As it turned out, the steam flowing through that pipe controlled the motor that powered it.  It quickly reached full bore, winding up a fallen cable caught up in its blades.  The cable ran down to the floor, right around Pellegri’s feet.  He looked at Noal and swore.  Noal just shrugged apologetically. 

The cord snatched Pellegri’s ankles from under him and flipped him upside down.  He swung in circles, as if on a carnival ride, before the fan buckled, tossing him through the air and careening into a pile of chairs on the far side of the room. 

Silence.

Those lackeys of Pellegri still conscious enough to witness their leader’s misfortune were quick to vacate the building in a panicked huddle.  With the madness finally over, Ella collapsed onto her butt, and exhaled a well deserved sigh of relief.  Meanwhile, Noal walked over to the shivering waitress and offered her a hand.

                “Hey, you okay"?”

                “Get away!” she screamed.

She stumbled to her feet before making a break for the back door, screaming nonsensically.  You’re welcome, Noal thought.  He sighed and retrieved his brace, snapping it back into place, the Providence Eye tattoo having already returned to its slumber.  Meanwhile, Ella bent down over Pellegri, who now lay passed out in a heap of broken wood and gambling chips.  She snatched a chip from under his nose.

“Still breathing,” she scathed, with just a hint of disappointment.

Noal let out a sigh of relief.

                “Well, that went well,” she smiled, picking up chips from the floor.

*Click*

A cold hard cylinder pressed up against the back of Noal’s head.  He put his hands up slowly.

“So, you’re the real Human Hurricane, eh?  Well it’s nice to make your acquaintance.”

Threads of Fate

Author's Note

Between this and chapter 1, I have some concerns that there may be an overload of action in the first two chapters. Please let me know if you agree or disagree.

Reviews

[Lou Briggs]

NO! Your action is perfect! Instead of grabbing my attention through facts and character development, you jump right into action. If a book doesn't excite me within the first twenty pages, I put it down. Mystery alone can only get me so far.

Forget what I said about adding some more detail to the town - it is described very well in the second chapter, along with more of Noal's character.

I'm really enjoying this story so far, especially Ella's spunk and Noal's guarded-ness, and I look forward to reading more!

[Shep]

The hell with closeness I love the guy and I say buy him a drink. I can't wait to read what is going to happen next. I am glued........AWESOME!!!!!

[Black]

Ah, chapter two,
next time send me an RR!!
I would like to read this further,
but have no time.. and am afraid i will forget..
so thanks for the troubles..
Your action is wel timed,, ,and sometimes a bit to much, but further just good.
Maybe a little to much, but it also keeps me in the story,
im just not a real action hero, with anything, i like slow paced stories
i liked that you put in that little piece,
though i didnt saw it without it,
but without it, i think i wouldnt live with the character as much as i do now.

Your plot is really good and developing,
Real nice write all together

[Waka Crusnik]

One of the main things that I've noticed that I really adore is your command of emotions. It's really remarkable how from one minute the situation gets really intense, and the next I'm yanked into a comical situation. And there isn't any left over residue left over from the previous emotion that makes me want to stay there... it's a gentle tug throughout the story that just keeps me fascinated the whole time. I feel like a kid in a candy store reading; everything is just grabbing my attention and I keep turning to this thing then the other, then the other, and then some... but the questions of the previous explanations are just enough to grab my attention and have me begging for more. I love it!

[.quan.011.]

Yes there is a good exposition, and your presentation is good. I love your characters and your plot is getting good. I am interested in knowing more about the Power.

[x]

I think the first chapter is brilliant. And I'm not just saying that. You fit a lot of introductory information into a very small space and did it elegantly, which is quite an accomplishment.
I've seen very few people who are able to do that. The dialogue communicates their characters well (their personalities are very believable) and the description mirrors the perceptions of whatever character you're focusing on.. e.g. "Ella could’ve easily dodged a cheap shot like that, but as usual her wide mouth and bloated ego obstructed her view."
The pace is pretty good and the flow of ideas is natural and it doesn't feel like you're making 'literary jump-cuts' (I don't know what to call it.)

The fight scene felt a bit "fantasy" to me though, like there's a lot of focus on "powers" and "titles." It may just be personal taste, but I think that people would get used to things that we think are extraordinary and it would be commonplace for these things to happen. So you would only have the normal (though harrowing) adrenaline-response and the character's regret that something unusual about their skills or personality makes life difficult for them. though like i said it could just be personal taste.

The idea that he was the real human hurricane was pretty obvious and I don't always figure those things out (because it requires some sort of social know-how probably) so it may be well done or it may be too obvious. I just thought I'd mention it.

You also have a typo: "I don't things can get much worse!"

[Raven Starhawk]

I love the characters and the names you chose for them. Your plot is getting thicker and I am in great anticipation to discover what is in store for your characters.

[TJ]

Amazing character development and backstory reveal. Pacing us very good as well!