Chapter 32 Since Joe insisted on cheap tacos, Adrian decided to indulge him. The taco truck was parked on the corner of 4th and Main, a little island of grease and cheap meals in the middle of Sector 4. It was called "El Fuego," and it was painted in peeling red and yellow stripes, and it smelled like heaven, if there was a heaven for grilled onions, spicy chorizo, and cheap corn tortillas. For the first time in forty-eight hours, Adrian Black wasn't a General. He wasn't a Lord. He wasn't even a Vigilante. He was just a guy with salsa on his tie and an appetite that was quickly awakening after the doom of missing his only family. "You have to tilt your head," Joe instructed, demonstrating with a massive, dripping taco. "If you eat it straight on, the structural integrity of the whole thing fails. It’s physics, bro. General or not, gravity comes for the guacamole." The way he said it was if he was speaking of some laboratory experiment instead of taco, it left Adrian very am

Chapter 34Adrian waited for Joe to leave the streets before he took one final look at the mess the Butcher had made. “No one comes into my city and ruins it like this. I'll make that overdressed bull pay!" He hissed into the empty air. The curfew was in place now, having been enforced quickly. All the stalls were closed and everyone locked their front doors and windows. But Adrian wasn't every man. He was meant to see the Mayor instead of adhering to the curfew. Getting into the chopper, he was given a helmet and it took off without much delay. The Iron Guard helicopter didn’t land at the police precinct or any military black site. It ascended high into the sky until the city seemed to disappear from under it. The place where the greasy food truck was actually fell under the cheapest and poorest parts of town. No doubt, the Mayor wouldn't be anywhere close to there. Almost half an hour passed in the helicopter before it felt badly touched down on the private helipad of City H

Chapter 36As Adrian stepped out the elevator from the Mayor’s penthouse, he felt almost refreshed. Corruption really did have a stench and he'd breathed it in for minutes standing there in the Mayor's presence. Sterling was a questionable man. Every inch of him proved that. “He's bringing my sister into his schemes? I'll find out what he knows, and then weed him out like the grass he is." Adrian stepped out of City Hall, the heavy iron key to the City Vault felt like it was burning a hole in his pocket. He was an Enforcer now, a double agent of some sorts. The Mayor thought he had bought a dog, what he didn’t realize was that he had let a wolf into the nursery.Adrian adjusted his collar, buttoning the scorched shirt to hide the soot marks he'd gotten from earlier. It was already getting dark in the city and the neon lights of Aethelgard was struggling to illuminate the industrial fog rolling in from the docks.[ SYSTEM STATUS: ACTIVE. ][ CURRENT OBJECTIVE: LOCATE THE BUTCHER

Chapter 38It's simply physics actually.When Adrian leapt off the catwalk, he knew two things would happen. First, the Systems would help him defy gravity and land safely despite the terrifying height. And second, the ledge would break and the heavy monstrous crucible would plunge down, directly on the Butcher's head. It was a win-win really. A show of power and an easy way to get rid of the pest calling himself the Butcher. But in truth, he should have known it was too easy to work. Because once the crucible began to fall, fifty tons of molten steel, it was aiming straight toward the Butcher.Adrian watched from mid-air, the wind rushing past his ears. In his mind, the victory was already calculated. The Butcher was slow and the suit was heavy. Physics was absolute. [ GRAVITY VELOCITY: TERMINAL. ][ IMPACT IN: 3... 2... ]The Butcher looked up and he didn’t move, he didn’t even try to dodge. He was so shocked by the trick that all he could do was stare with wide eyes, focus

Chapter 40White, that was all Adrian saw. Adrian Black opened his eyes expecting the darkness of a prison cell or the gray concrete of a holding facility. Instead, he was drowning in brightness. The light didn't seem to come from a bulb which radiated from the walls themselves, a soft, pervasive glow that eliminated all shadows.He sat up, his head swimming with a nausea that left his stomach turning. He reached out to steady himself, but his hand sank into softness.The floor was as padded as the walls. Even the ceiling, high above, looked like a quilted cloud. There were no windows and no furniture. Just Adrian, dressed in simple white linen scrubs, sitting in the center of a cube designed to make you very comfortable. Panicked, he rolled off the cube and sat on the padded floor. "System," he croaked. His voice sounded dead in the soundproofed room. "Status report."But all he got was silence.He frowned, focusing harder, trying to summon the familiar blue interface that had b