Noble Revelations

By Adeleke Kayode

After six months of unlikely silence the shadowy organization known as Prometheus has made their move. 250 million. That's the bounty that has been placed on Alex and his friends' heads. The city of Re Gahn will become a warzone in which Alex and everyone dear to him must fight tooth and nail to survive. But that's not all as Alex and his friends battle for their lives certain truths come to light. And nothing will be the same.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adeleke Kayode
• Release date: Oct 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463135280

Adeleke Kayode

My name is Adeleke Kayode. I've been writing since I was little. Specifically since my brother told me I couldn't write a story. That day I took out a notebook and started writing. Even though I never quite finished the story I started. I kept changing it and coming up with new and different ideas. Because of that I realized I loved writing, creating characters, worlds and stories. I'm looking forward to sharing my stories with you. So when you have the time check them out. Hopefully you'll find something you like.

Book preview

Chapter 1

An orange ball bounced off of the floor then the wall and rolled back toward me stopping by my dark gray oak desk.

Haaah. I released a loud sigh as I reached toward the ball.

The ball was on the other side of the desk so I wasn’t going to reach it by normal means. Luckily for me that wasn’t my intent, it took a second but I imagined my hand reaching the ball yanking it toward me. Just like that it flew into my hand. Telekinesis gotta love it. Unfortunately that was probably one of the more exciting ways that I’ve used my powers in a while. Six months to be exact.

That was a lot of time to be bored. I’ve definitely become jaded without anything new to keep my attention. I did have this office which was spacious spanning around 35 by 30 ft. It was on the 5th floor of Mr. Bright’s building. The office itself was one of the benefits to becoming a full time member of Mr. Bright’s enterprise. Granted it was a kind gesture but a sort of pointless one. For one what was I suppose to do with an office? My specialty was being out in the field. But instead I haven’t been given an assignment since the botched Connor Creed mission. It had occurred to me that this was a sort of punishment for my failure in that mission which cost Connor Creed his life and put Shield in the hospital.

Shield was doing better though, he was moving about and going through rehabilitation. He had finished the last of his skin grafts earlier this month. He wouldn’t be clear to work for another three months though. It was a slow process but he was making it through. Shield had me, William, AJ, Tessa and even Carter cheering for him and not to mention Beth who visits almost every day. The doctors joked that since she’s pregnant and visits Shield so often that the one day she doesn’t visit will be the day that she goes into labor meaning she’d have to come into the hospital anyway.

Beth was doing pretty good considering the situation, Shield was in the hospital and she was six months pregnant. So she had to take it easy as well, she didn’t have to worry too much since Shield’s mom and Grandma have been taking care of her. It was nice to know that Shield had progressed so much with his family. It made me wonder if I could really ask Shield to come back to all this. I mean it’s been sometime but Shield could try boxing again or maybe become a coach or something. This didn’t have to be his life….

No, no it doesn’t. I said the words aloud while looking out my window.

From where I was I got a decent view of the city. It was evening and the sun was setting, all in all it was a pretty peaceful looking scene. That didn’t stop the gnawing feeling in the back of my head. What was Prometheus up to, from what we could tell they hadn’t made a move in six months. Same amount of time I had been doing desk duty, huh wonder if that’s connected. The fact Prometheus wasn’t stirring up trouble especially after Adam acquired that syringe filled with my blood, was eerie to say the least.

I mean what were they planning? I know I’ve asked myself that question numerous times without coming up with a good answer. Best guess at their plan was that they were making something but what, some sort of nightmarish creature. It was anyone’s guess really, either way things just seemed too quiet to me. Normally that would be a relief I mean for one I finally reunited with my brother after four years. I completed my mission, the only thing left for me to do was kill Adam and then I would have completed all I set out to do. What then? Do I continue working for Mr. Bright as a mercenary? Do I leave that life behind? Considering the type of person I was that didn’t seem like the easiest thing to do and even if I did I’d just be as bored as I am now or more so even.

There was still Prometheus, Adam took orders meaning someone gave them. I don’t know what they’re planning and how much of the world will be affected by whatever they are up to. I knew that it wasn’t my job to stop them. Of course that didn’t mean I thought what they were doing was right, it was just that things were elevating. How many people died for me to find my brother, how many people got hurt? Whatever Prometheus was planning involved me to an extent but does that me it’s my responsibility to stop them? I wasn’t a hero and I’ve never wanted to save the world. But I know one thing for sure whatever this silence is it’s unnerving. Whenever it’s this quiet it always seems to be followed with something loud.

Chapter 2

After my very exciting day of work I headed home. The walked ranged from fifteen to twenty minutes if I was feeling lazy, if I wasn’t I could get home in a manner of minutes depending on if I caused a scene or not. So a twenty minute walk it was. I lived at the end of town by the waterfront, it was a good location away from noisy and nosey people.

Get out of the road you freakin idiot! A nearby driver yelled.

I turned to see who the driver was yelling at. It took me a second to see that it was a blonde woman with her hair braided into a ponytail which reached the middle of her back. I couldn’t be sure but she looked familiar.

That’s not…

Light’s green mister.

I blinked twice then glanced at a little girl that was standing by me. She pointed across the street at the light.

Light’s green. She repeated.

I smiled then crossed the street, glancing back once I was on the other side of the street and saw that the girl’s father had reached her and grabbed ahold of her hand. I smiled to myself for a moment then headed down the street. A cold breeze blew by, the sun had set a while ago and it got pretty cold at night in the city. I closed my eyes for a moment and just listened to the sounds, people talking, cars passing, wind blowing and someone yelling for help.

Huh? I blinked my eyes open.

Someone was in trouble. I closed my eyes again then listened not for the cars or the wind or the people talking. But for the cry for help…there. I flexed my fingers, went into a runner’s stance and took a deep breath through my noise. Without wasting a second I rocketed forward, the wind whistled in my ears while my vision tunneled. I was moving fast, it wouldn’t take me too long before I reached my destination.

The woman was a block and half away, she was on the move running, someone was chasing after her. In a moment I was going to find out who. Without thinking I took the necessary turns. The wind raged in my ears as I stopped abruptly. I looked around for a moment then spotted two stereotypical muggers. They wore dirty sweatpants, hoodies, and dark beanies. The weirdest part was they had already been taken care of. Someone had beaten me to the punch.

What happened here?

Whaaaa…huh…this woman.

I gave the man a blank stare. Yeah, you two dirty bags were chasing a woman I know that…

Noooo. We were chasing this lady. Then…then this other chick shows up. Takes us down in like twenty seconds.

My curiosity was piqued. I knew a couple ladies that could throw down. But was it any of them or was it someone new.

What did the lady look like?

She…she…she was a b…

She was a b…Note to self that is probably the worst clue I have ever been given. I sighed loudly while putting my hands in my dress pants pocket. Well that was a bust, thought I was going to get a workout.

Who did this? Was it you. Oh I get it Mr. Fancy suit. You decided to pick on the little guy. Well bad news man. Wrong little guys to mess with.

I turned to look at whoever spoke it was a guy with multiple face piercings. He was bald and was accompanied by a large number of other guys each of whom wore a variety of different colors. I saw face tattoos, guys with mohawks and a couple chicks with really spiky hair. I put my hands to my mouth for a moment.

Look guys I think he just realized how bad this is gonna be for him.

Thank you.

What was that? Begging won’t do you any good prepare to…

I removed my hands from my mouth as he spoke revealing my smile.

So we going to do this or what? I said the words quickly barely able to hold back my excitement.

Chapter 3

There were a number of warehouses on the waterfront six of them in fact. Two belonged to Mr. Bright, another two belong to someone named Arc or something that sounds like arc. I had no idea who owned the fifth one and frankly didn’t care. The last one was owned by me. Which I got by trading Mr. Bright a shipping container that I stole. He was a little too eager to make the trade if you ask me, maybe it was his way of being nice.

As I approached the entrance to the warehouse, I took notice of my clothes, they were torn and tattered from the fight. I honestly didn’t think I was that rusty, most of those guys shouldn’t have managed to land a hit on me but they did, a couple of those hits actually hurt too. Granted they only hurt for a few seconds but still.

I needed to work out. I said aloud before placing my hand on the keypad in front of me.

The keypad scanned my left hand then displayed a set of numbers like a regular keypad. I punched in the code 090895 which caused a white light to flash three times in front of my eye while a retinal scan was underway. It took approximately ten seconds before I heard the door unlock. I opened it then went inside.

The inside of the warehouse was badly lit from the entrance to the walkway that led to the actual loft which I lived in. Most of the warehouse was still being converted into a loft so I just had a temporary set up in the back. I looked around and saw a bunch of weights all over the place which I thought was weird considering Carter isn’t usually that messy. There were plastic covers hanging from rails and catwalks while I walked further into the warehouse. It was a large area which had enough space for me to keep a cache of weapons here, emergency money and three cars all green….

What the hell. I stopped and stared at my cars.

For some reason or another one of them was purple and another was half blue. My eye twitched for a moment. Oh someone was going to have to explain that to me. I moved quickly walking through a hall like area at the end of it would be an area that look exactly like a loft apartment expect for the fact that it was smack dab in the middle of a warehouse I owned.

Welcome back Alexander. A voice announced as I entered the loft.

It was SAM…Smart Apartment Manager. He was a prototype AI system that William’s sister Katherine built. Scott Dawson had some smart children which was surprising considering he wasn’t around much. But their mom did a hell of a job raising them. Katherine was a robotic scientist, William’s second sister who I forget her name is a Professor and has written over seven books. William is an ex…striper and currently a merc.

Yeah ok…two out of three turned out good.

I thought you said you were going to stop that. A familiar voice commented.

I looked around my living room and saw that my large flat screen TV was on. There was a collection of food scattered on my plush couch and someone had left the fridge open. I was about to say something when I heard the sound of someone eating cereal.

Hey Alex you ok…

I turned to look at Mathew. Hey, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with your grandma?

Mathew was my brother’s friend, he and Carter had been trapped in the Prometheus Lockdown facility and escaped together. Ever since then Mathew hangs around my brother like he’s got nothing better to do. Mathew stopped chewing for a moment then put a spoonful of cereal in his mouth.

Grandma moved close to Re gahn. Likes the retirement homes here or something. Wants to make sure my living situation was squared away before doing anything. Mathew was still chewing when he spoke.

I noticed his arms were bulkier than the last time I saw him. That explained the misplaced weights. Wait, what living situation he hadn’t seen that much of his grandma since he escaped the Lockdown facility. Most of the time it seems like he crashed here or in hotels…

You didn’t tell her you’re going to live here did you?

Mathew pointed his spoon at me, actually he pointed at Carter who had just walked behind me.

I told her he was living with us. Is that a problem Alexander?

I guess not this place is big enough for like twenty people. That’s not the point though hanging out with us isn’t safe and you know that Carter…wait did you just call me Alexander.

I turned toward Carter and glared at him. His hair was wet and he was wearing blue cloud pajama that looked like something a little kid would wear.

Don’t call me Alexan…

Who beat the pudding out of you? Carter asked.

I looked at my clothes, now that I was in the light I could see the actual damage and it was worse than I thought. My clothes were cut up pretty bad and there were blood and dirt stains all over. The worst part was how expensive my clothes were. Nothing another whole paycheck couldn’t fix.

I got into a fight. No one beat the pudding out of me.

It’s ok Alex, you can tell me. Big bro will go beat up those mean bullies. Carter mocked in the most childish voice he could muster.

I glared at him for a moment. I’m gonna go change. Mathew can stay the night but he should consider staying somewhere else long term.

I didn’t wait to hear Carter or Mathew’s respond instead I walked to my room which was upstairs. Up here I could see a portion of the warehouse, there were plastic drapes and other things that designated where walls were supposed to be. Since construction wasn’t exactly finished.

You two are suppose to be super strong remember. Primes that’s as bad as they get right? Mathew shouted his words.

I got what he was saying but I didn’t think he got what I was saying to him, staying here was dangerous for him. If anything happened to him I couldn’t forgive myself and I knew Carter wouldn’t be able to forgive himself either. If he thinks it’s ok he must not be worried it made me worry less but not enough for it to leave my mind. I rolled my eyes then took off my shirt throwing it on my bed. I needed a shower, some food, then to go to bed in that order. Mathew could stay for now. I just hoped Carter knew what he was doing.

Chapter 4

Shield was cheery as ever as he practiced walking while holding the railing beside him. He had to get use to moving around again since between the burns, skin grafts, and lying in bed all day he hadn’t moved around much. Plus there was some nerve damage that could be a problem, so practicing to walk was important. Shield was tenacious though, even if he fell he wouldn’t be down for long. I guess that was the boxer in him after all.

At the moment I wasn’t sure if I was suppose to be loudly cheering him on or just remain silent. For now I didn’t say much trying not to break Shield’s concentration. My eyes wandered away from Shield for just a moment taking in the whole of the rehabilitation room. There were light blue curtains fluttering in the wind momentarily allowing you to see the numerous rooftops of buildings below. The room itself was spacious and had a number of different equipment to help with rehabilitation, there were various pieces of exercise equipment lying around and a bunch of currently unused machines. Shield and I were alone up here, at the moment Beth was busy talking with the Doctors checking on how Shield was doing and of course she was also making sure the baby was healthy.

Almost…almost …haaaa…ha.

I turned immediately toward Shield, he was bent down and breathing hard. Just as I was about to approach him he put a hand out to stop me and stood up then continued striding on. He made it to the end of the railing took a moment to rest then turned around and went back to the other end.

So Alex, how’s it feel seeing your brother every day?

I smirked at Shield’s question while I thought about it. Well it’s definitely not what I expected Carter is pretty much the same and in a way he isn’t. I keep expecting to wake up and realize that I still haven’t found him. I guess it hasn’t quite sunk in.

Shield nodded twice then continued moving forward, he looked like he was straining himself. I could see it on his face. Even though this wasn’t the first time I had seen him push himself. I always found myself taking a look at the parts of his face that looked slightly raised because of the skin grafts. The doctors had explained that they would use nanobots to help realign the skin but they needed to be sure Shield was strong enough for the treatment. That’s why they started with the regular skin grafts.

It didn’t really matter to Shield much he didn’t seem to care at all and neither did Beth, she loved him just the same.

I see you’re pushing yourself a lot harder than you should sugah. Beth state in a motherly tone.

Shield glanced at Beth and gave her a huge grin then continued walking as if she hadn’t said anything. She just shook her head while muttering about how stubborn Shield was being then she gave me a look that said don’t tell Shield what I just said. I headed toward Beth with an expression that said who me? She smiled and gave me a big hug while I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed back.

Hey, hey, hey don’t go hogging Beth. Shield joked.

I let go of Beth and she headed toward Shield following him as he reached the end of the rail, he bent down slightly allowing Beth to place both her hands on his cheeks. They look each other in the eyes for a moment then kissed. I looked away not wanting to make this moment awkward for them because they sure as hell didn’t avoid making this awkward for me. My eyes wandered around until they went back to Shield and Beth who were still kissing.

And that’s how you get pregnant. I said aloud.

Shield barely pulled himself aware from Beth to say. I heard that.

Which only made me laugh. The two of them got in one final kiss and then Shield sat in the wheelchair that the hospital was providing him.

You know what. I could have just stepped out for all of that. I muttered to myself.

Beth walked behind Shield and grabbed hold of the handle of the wheelchair and started pushing. I waited for Beth and Shield to exit the room before I started following after them. There was a number of people moving about a few of them had prosthetic arms, or legs some didn’t even have that. They would be fitted with one eventually but there were waiting periods and a whole bunch of paperwork. Ah paperwork I hate you. I rolled my eyes at that thought while heading to the elevator which was on the other side of the room. It didn’t take long for Beth, Shield and I to enter, when we did elevator music started to play. I looked up at the elevator ceiling for a moment and thought this is literally the worst sound I have ever heard. It wasn’t a song as much as it was a weird rant about how terrible this guy’s cat was.

You still antsy since Bright’s keeping you on desk duty? Beth asked.

I sighed loudly before responding. Antsy doesn’t begin to cover how I feel right now. Things are way to quiet you know.

Beth looked at Shield for a moment then said. We’ve got a baby on the way from what I know quiet is a blessing right now. It might be the last piece of sanity we get for a while all things considered.

Hmph, you might be right.

Maybe it was just me that thought things were unnaturally quiet. I mean I was the only one not doing something. Carter had only recently escaped a Prometheus prison facility. Shield and Beth were dealing with Shield’s injuries plus they were preparing to become first time parents. William was off visiting his sisters, Tessa was actually busy running around being a courier, I haven’t seen her much lately. I wonder if she noticed how quiet it’s been, she’d probably say something like it’s been quiet because I haven’t had to hear you thinking out loud. Or something along those lines.

Are…are you blushing? Shield asked.

I snapped out of my train of thought and shook my head vigorously. No! What are you talking about why would I be blushing?

My face was turned so I couldn’t see Shield and Beth and they couldn’t see me. I heard them snickering so I turned around and stuck my tongue out at them.

Nnnh.

Real mature. Alexander. Beth and Shield replied at the same time.

I stared at them for a moment. Oh. You didn’t.

Ding. The elevator had reached our floor, Beth wheeled Shield out and I followed behind them while shaking my head side to side. I probably should have been the one wheeling Shield around considering Beth is pregnant. Beth turned to the left entering Shield’s room, he got up wobbled for a moment and settle himself into his bed. I glanced at the wheelchair then looked up at Shield, placed two fingers to my head while saying see ya later. I told him that I’d visit tomorrow and with that I started to leave.

I don’t get a bye? Beth asked.

I turned then smiled. Of course you do.

Beth walked over and gave me a big hug which I returned. Take care Shield. Don’t push yourself too hard, either of you.

Same to you Alex don’t do too much paperwork. Shield joked.

The three of us shared a laugh and then I made my leave.

Chapter 5

Ok, now move it to the left a little….not over there what are you doing? Carter complained.

I turned my attention away from the desk I was moving to Carter.

You know you could help since this was your idea.

From my knowledge you were the one that suggested getting in a little exercise. AJ interjected.

Without saying anything I glanced at AJ then Carter who stood on the other side of the room. A sigh escaped my mouth just before I pushed the last desk in place. The three of us had decided to get in a little sparing, it wasn’t the first time we had done this just the first time we were using this office space in particular. We were outside my office where all the other desks were. After a few minutes of rearranging there was more than enough space to spar. Plus there was a great view from the large windows that Carter and AJ were standing by.

So Alexander you ready to begin? Carter asked mockingly.

I answered by removing my tie, which made me wonder why I even dressed up today if this was on the agenda. Carter stepped a few inches closer into the large arena area we had set up with the desk acting as the outline of our ring. AJ stepped in too, while he did I took notice of the fact that his hair had grown a bit, he now kept it maintained in a small ponytail. It wasn’t long before AJ found a spot that was equal distance from Carter and me. On one of the desks we had place a timer that should have been ringing about now to signal the start of the fight. Maybe I set it wrong, it didn’t seem to matter but I was getting slightly annoyed so I took my attention off of Carter and AJ for a moment then…Brinnnnnng.

Here we goooo!

Carter jetted forward and jumped into the air turning sharply as he launched a kick toward my head. I took two quick steps back then went ahead on the offensive, both of us exchanged a myriad