Remembrance (ReLiving Book 1): A Superhero Thriller, page 1
Remembrance
Alexander Damien
Daemon Publishing
First Published by Daemon Publishing in 2020
Copyright © Alexander Damien 2020
The right of Alexander Damien to be identified as author has been asserted.
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Remembrance (ReLiving, #1)
REMEMBRANCE | Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
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For the girl who wanted these stories to be written about people like her.
For my family, whom I hope never learn enough English to be able to read this
For Rowling, who showed me I could dream about courage and righteousness and truth
I hope you enjoy it
REMEMBRANCE
Chapter 1
Containment agent Marko Alvarez stalked into the Marked People Control Department, holding a manila folder in his hand and with a smirk on his lips despite the blood flowing down the side of his face.
General Darrel Stanis glared down at him.
“You were explicitly told to stop Sysectra with as little damage to public and private property as possible,” he said. “And to wait for support.”
Marko wiped away some of the blood falling down his eyebrow.
“Look, she was sending down a ridiculous amount of lightning,” he muttered. “Either I punched her out somehow, or the entire Citi Bank building in the corner was going down. I couldn’t both wait for support and reduce damage. Here, I even finished my report on the ride back.”
“I told you, no more dirty and bloody reports. You type that up on a computer and stop pushing more work on to the staffers.”
“I’m not hearing any congratulations here,” said Marko his smirk turning sharper. “When this is my two hundredth arrest. I’d say that makes me the best agent for the fifth year in a row.”
“Arrogant much? You could do with some humility,” said the General, snatching the folder away from his hand and flipping through the pages. “Did you get these photos from that loon at the Capitol Post? I told you to stop relying on the press for evidence photos. We gave you a camera for a reason.”
“The camera got fried when Sysectra hit me the third time. Josh’s photos are as good as any for the archive. And humility doesn’t get the bad guys arrested. But you can start working on my top agent plaque for this year. It’ll look good next to the other four.”
“Marko!” called a voice from up on the second floor. Marko and General Stanis looked up the glass and steel walls to see Commander Niall Sestrane glaring down at them and motioning for Marko to go up to his office.
“What now?” muttered Marko, moving towards the stairs.
“You’ve got to stop making an enemy out of everyone, I keep telling you that,” said the General, patting him on the back.
“Tch, that’s gonna be hard with him,” he said, and climbed the stairs two by two.
Commander Niall’s secretary shook her head at him when Marko approached her, pulling out his leather gloves from the back pocket of his jeans to put them on and hide the white lightning like marks down his right arm descending onto the tip of his fingers.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he told her.
“In trouble again?” she asked, giving him a kleenex to wipe the blood off his face.
“I haven’t done anything this time!” he laughed as he took it and cleaned himself up as best as possible. “At least, I think I haven’t. But there’s always something for Niall to complain about.”
“Marko!” yelled the commander from his office.
Marko threw the dirty tissue to the trash and jogged into the office.
“Sir? You wanted to see me?” he asked, closing the glass door behind him.
Commander Niall shook his head as he read a few documents on his desk. Then he passed a hand through his pale blonde hair.
“The Capitol Post’s article on your mess reached my desk before your report did,” he said, finally looking up at him with cold blue eyes, and Marko wanted to punch him. A wave of boiling hatred rose up from his stomach every time Niall looked down at him like that.
“I wouldn’t know about what the Post does, sir,” he muttered.
“You don’t? You seem to use their photos in your report often enough.”
“It’s hard to keep cameras intact after most of my fights, sir. The one I was given last week got fried by Sysectra today,” he said.
“If you waited for support, you wouldn’t end up in dangerous positions and keep ruining equipment so often.”
The glass door behind him opened and he heard the sharp, formal steps of Eiran’s boots approaching. He would know those steps anywhere.
“Sir? You wanted to see me?” asked Eiran, stepping up right next to Marko in his still perfectly pressed suit, with his white sword hanging from his hip, his white left hand hidden by the same black leather gloves that Marko wore.
“Why weren’t you supporting Marko? You were called to stop Sysectra too,” demanded the Commander.
“Sir, she crushed a building on Ridge and the 5th. That stopped me for half an hour as I got through. Then the bridge was held up. By the time I made it there, it was only to stop her from escaping the Transport van. My apologies, sir,” he said.
“She escaped the Transport?” yelled Niall.
“Yes. I had to use four containment nets on her to allow the Transport department to take her away.”
Marko huffed and turned to look back at Niall. “Look, it’s not my fault if the Containment nets or the Transport vans are made of plastic.”
“It’s your job to ensure that they are transported correctly to Containment,” said Niall. “I am putting you on probation for a month. No field work and you’ll assist on archival office work for the entire month.”
“What? I singlehandedly defeat Sysectra with NO civilian losses and I get put in probation?!”
“And if you don’t change your attitude, that’ll be two months. Now leave, and I expect you to type up and submit your own report this time.”
Marko growled, but swallowed back his words and left, stalking his way out of the Commander’s office.
“Archival again?” asked General Stanis, waiting for him just outside the office and leaning against the secretary’s desk.
“Transport’s vans are trash. I’ve been saying that for years, but suddenly it’s my fault if they get broken,” he muttered, taking the report back from the General. “And this time you’re gonna have to file an emergency authorization if you suddenly need me to help. I’m having him sign into paper that he needs me. Maybe that’ll show him how it’s a bad idea to put me on probation.”
Eiran walked out of the office after him.
“Josh from the Post told me to give these to you,” he said, taking out a handful of photos from his jacket pocket and handing them to Marko. “You should charge him for letting him take photos of you.”
“Tch, fuck off Eiran,” he said, snatching the photos from him.
Eiran said nothing more, and after a quick nod to the General and Niall’s secretary, left with the same sharp steps.
“Have you been going to the therapist?” asked Stanis, looking down at Marko.
“Don’t have time for that trash,” he muttered, pushing back his dark curls away from his face as he looked through the new photos.
Stanis shook his head at his response.
“You start scheduling appointments with her, or I’ll get Niall to sign an order for you to go,” he said.
“Stanis come on,” complained Marko, rolling his eyes. “It’s so stupid.”
“You need to work through stuff. You need to learn how to work with Eiran and stop fighting with Niall.”
“There are thirty agents in the department now,” he said, waving at the floor below. “Most of them recruited by me, too. Why do I have to partner with Eiran? Why do I even need a partner?”
Someone hugged him from behind.
“Complaining about Eiran again?” asked Nina, his girlfriend. He huffed.
“He hasn’t gone to therapy,” said Stanis, glaring at her.
“We’re trying alternative healing methods,” she said, letting go of Marko. “This weekend I’m takinf him to a therapist who does reiki healing.”
“None of that. You get to scheduling appointments with the department therapist and I want to get the receipts of assistance,” he said. “I’m serious Marko. Get to it
They saw the General leave for a moment, and then Nina hugged Marko again.
“You really do have to stop picking fights,” she said, rubbing her face against his neck.
“That’s my job. Picking fights with bad guys. That’s why the pay me,” he said, shoving the photos into the envelope. “Not nearly enough, but they do.”
“Hand it over,” said Niall’s secretary. “I don’t want you breaking another computer.”
“Niall said-“
She snatched the folder from his hand. “He doesn’t have to know. Now go. You did a good job. I saw the video on the Post’s site. If I didn’t know you, I would have thought you were showing off.”
Marko laughed and shook his head. “It was all Josh. He’s always doing those fancy shots. If I didn’t hate using cameras, I would kick him out. But he knows how to get photos while not getting in my way. He should charge Niall for all the recruiting his articles do for us.”
Nina pulled him away and led him towards the cafeteria.
“So, you’re in probation again,” she said, grabbing a tray for each of them.
“Fucking Niall. He’s just pushing me down for stupid fucking reasons again,” he said. “I complained about the vans, dammit! It’s not my job to escort criminals to Containment. Why do I gotta do Transport’s job for them too?”
Nina picked salads and tea for each of them, and Marko was too angry to even care about what she picked. They made their way to one of the tables, where a couple were sitting down.
“Hey Lana, hey Jake,” said Nina, setting down next to them. Marko sat down across from her and only nodded at the other two, who didn’t say anything but only nodded back at them.
“Weren’t you on paid time off?” asked Nina to Jake.
“No,” grumbled Jake.
On the cafeteria screens, videos of Marko’s fight with Sysectra started playing. They showed the first few electrified blows that she’d landed, and there was a shot of her punching him right into a building.
“How did he film that?” asked Nina.
“He bought a drone,” muttered Marko, taking a swig from his tea and making a face at the taste. “The bastard gets a raise and I get put on probation. I’m getting kinda fed up with how he makes me look in these kinds of videos.”
“It’s your fault for letting him take photos,” said Nina, starting on her salad. “Just tell him you won’t let him around anymore.”
“Tch. I ask him for some photos for a report, and suddenly he decides to film me with a drone. Damn reporters,” he said, and forced himself to drink the rest of the tea. Then he took out his phone and started rage texting to Josh.
[What the fuck were you thinking??!! Couldn’t you have edited out the part where she punches me in the fucking face?!] he texted him
“So, when do you want to go to the therapist? Next week?” asked Nina.
Marko scoffed. “I’m not going to no damn therapist. I’ve been going to them for years. They’re no good for anything,” he growled.
[Come on man! It makes you look even better when you get up and defeat her!] answered back the reporter.
Nina picked at her salad a bit more and sighed.
“Stanis just wants you to...get better. To get over everything, with Eiran and Niall and...and your brother.”
Rage building up inside him again, Marko kept rage texting.
[I don’t want any more of your damn stupid drone flying around me!! I’ll arrest you next time, you hear me? I’LL FUCKING ARREST YOU!] he texted back with a growl. Then he looked back up at his girlfriend.
“I’m fine. It’s been twenty years since Niall and Eiran executed him for losing control of his powers. I just hate them because they’re trash and that’s it. Why can’t anyone understand it? If they don’t like my attitude, then I don’t give a shit. They can fire me for all I care. It doesn’t have anything to do with Jorah’s death but everyone wants to pretend like it does.”
Nina sighed and dropped the topic.
“What are you eating?” she asked in concern, looking at Lana’s plate.
“Eggs?” asked Lana, lifting a slim eyebrow at her.
Marko looked up from his phone. Then he looked at Lana’s plate. Eggs, hashbrowns, coffee. He bit his lower lip. Lana was a vegan like Nina and him. But the whole image of her seemed somehow...wrong.
He looked up to her face, seeing the half of her face that was white. There was nothing wrong with her and yet...
He looked at Jake, his eyes taking in the man’s splatter of white skin spreading like a stain over the dark skin of his neck up to his jaw.
Nothing wrong there either.
But he knew.
He knew something was wrong.
He stood up, kicking the chair away, his hands clenching into fists.
“What are you doing now?!” yelled Stanis, entering through the cafeteria door.
Lana and Jake stood up.
“Who are you?” demanded Marko.
“Niall’s rabid dog, you really are as good as people say,” said Lana, clapping.
Jake launched a punch at him, and Marko dodged while Nina ran away from the table. Marko kicked up the table and shoved it at him, punching it with his marked hand and making it catch on fire. Lana’s face changed, shifted, until she turned into a completely different person. One that Marko recognized from the files he had reviewed.
“Nytrex,” he muttered, dodging a blow of black thunder that spread from the white tips of her fingers.
Marko stepped backwards, trying to put distance between him and the two of them, but faltered when an explosion shook the entire building. The crash of breaking glass outside made him look to the side, distracting him just enough for the man to slam the burnt remains of the table into him and then slam him right through a concrete wall.
It took him a second to react and jump to his feet among the debris, just in time to avoid the man’s huge white fists slamming him down again.
The world tilted around him and he faltered in his step even as he tried to get away from his attacker, holding on to a kitchen table to keep himself up, when General Stanis shot a containment net over the man, which shocked him into immobility.
The General jumped over the debris and helped Marko stay up on his feet by leaning against him.
“Are you ok?” he asked.
Marko wiped some blood away from his lip.
“It was a coordinated attack. Do you know how many there are?” he asked struggling to stand.
The fight with Sysectra had left him pretty beat, but he refused to show it. Nina ran to the crumbled kitchen wall to join them. She had an ugly black eye.
“I almost got Nytrex but she got away. She broke through the container and flew out the building!” she cried.
“Why are all of our containers so shitty all of a sudden?” muttered Marko, walking towards the cafeteria entrance.
“Wait! Let’s watch out and be careful,” said Stanis, grabbing his arm. “You’re still weak from the fight.”
Marko pulled out a bag with a few Tylenol from his pocket and distractedly swallowed two as he kept walking towards the door.
“I’m fine,” he said. “We can’t go slow. They’re betting on the confusion slowing us down. We have to push back now before they get to whatever they want to get from us.”
“You really are quite impressive,” said Nytrex, waiting for them at the blasted out reception. Under her naked feel, a black liquid pooled.
“You work for that trash Laurent, don’t you?” spat Marko, taking off what was left of his burnt gloves and flexing his fingers. “What do you want now?”
“We follow him because he is God. He has power over life and death. He-”
“Yeah, yeah, supposedly he brings back the dead,” he said, rolling his eyes at that. Looking up, he saw several other people standing on the top floors. He managed to count seven but feared several more would be hiding. “I’ll believe it when I see it, ok? Now, you’re all getting arrested, you get me? If you come down your own, I won’t beat you up too bad.”
Commander Niall jumped down from the second floor, landed between him and Nytrex and with a snap of his fingers, he blew up the space where she was, along with the seven visible minions up looking down at them from the higher floors. Nytrex flew out of the way of the explosion and up into the higher floors and out of view. But the others weren’t so quick.
