Chapter 9:

What Gods Do

Tales From Lion City


Janet walked through the streets, her revolver in hand. It was hidden in a raincoat she put on before leaving. The night sky combined with her sunglasses made it hard to see much besides the odd neon sign, but she wasn't taking them off for anything. She walked through the streets before ducking into an alleyway. It was behind a closed down restaurant, seemed like a perfect hiding place where nobody could observe her. She tried drawing the gun from her jacket a couple of times. Quickdraws weren't something she was taught, so she just tried copying stuff she saw in old movies. The weight made it harder to get out quickly, and it was always angled downwards. So she'd be shot in the heart while she was focused on the feet. Great. She'd have some choice words for Lorenzo when she went to heaven.

But a man approached her through the alleyway. She could only make out a few things from his outline thanks to the neon sign of the hotel behind him, but he was huge. Most likely dark skinned too.

"You a god?" She asked calmly, trying not to panic. This person could be any number of things.

"Yes." He said calmly. "My name is Kwaku."

Another light appeared. One he seemed to be creating himself. It made the shape of a white spear. He stood still when it finished forming.

"Are you ready, miss Janet?"

Janet didn't respond verbally, choosing to just start firing the gun. He quickly stabbed through the first bullet, which she heard as two small clangs on the ground. She just unloaded the remaining five bullets into the guy, but all five were deflected. She tried grabbing a nearby steel bin and throwing it at him, which he cut in half with a single slash of his spear. And in one single motion, the tip of the spear was against her throat. Janet tried loading her gun discreetly, but she couldn't find the bullets. Unless…she lost them.

"Can you not fight?" The man asked calmly. His voice was smooth, but once he spoke, every other sound in the city cut out for a brief moment. Janet didn't say anything in response, just fumbled in her coat trying to find the spare bullets, trying to fight the tears building up in her eyes.

"It appears you can't." He answered his own question. He let his weapon fade into the air around him, and quickly turned his back on her and walked back into the street.

"Is that it?" Janet asked.

"My mission is to test the players powers. If you haven't discovered your powers yet, I don't have any reason to fight you. But I do recommend laying low, as my colleagues might not have the same view I do."

As he disappeared into the night time streets, a weight felt like it came out of Janet's free hand. And when she inspected it, the bullets were somehow there the entire time.

Ulysses made his way through the streets, checking his reflection in one of the store mirrors. His dark green beanie was still adjusted right, as was his hoodie of the same colour. He had activated his power earlier that day, but there had to be more than what he created prior. There had to be. The streets looked safe tonight, anyway. They looked incredibly safe. Safer than they ever looked, in fact. As he walked, he found a second person. He had never talked to this person, but he was fairly sure he saw her in the school that day. Only thing left to do was remember the name.

"Gabriela?!" He yelled out. She turned around in a fighting pose, but relaxed it when she saw him.

"Oh, it's you." She said calmly. "What's your name, Ulrich?"

"It's Ulysses."

"Understood." She said calmly. She was also in a hoodie, a more tattered looking white one with a purple outline around the edges, combined with a pair of shorts in a slightly lighter shade of purple. She was also incredibly short. She had to look almost directly upwards to meet Ulysses eyes, and he wasn't even particularly tall.

"You see anything suspicious lately?" He asked.

"Nothing much." She said with a head shake and a sip of a water bottle. She took a second one out of her hoodie pocket and tossed it to Ulysses, who failed to catch it.

"You didn't prepare for this, did you?" She sighed. Her eyes gave a judgemental view, which Ulysses tried to look away from. "Whatever, just stay with me and try not to die."

"Are you going to the tower?" Ulysses asked.

"Nah. I say we let the others kill each other. I only came to see what the others were capable of."

"Yo, you guys from school?"

Ulysses and Gabriela turned to the voice, and it was Latrell. a girl with dark black skin that contrasted her bright green outfit with yellow highlights. Wearing a baseball cap and worn out shorts, with an equally worn out t-shirt. With her was a small black cat, with piercing green eyes.

"We are, yeah." Ulysses nodded calmly. "What's with the cat?"

"Yeah, he's not with me." Latrell shrugged. "Just started following me."

"I'm not a he, miss."

The three snapped back to see where the voice came from. Nobody seemed to be talking to them in the city streets, but the only thing that could have known what Latrell just said was the cat. Suddenly, the cat began to extend, rapidly morphing itself into a human shape, losing the fur until what was left was a tanned woman in place of the cat. She was neatly dressed, donning a black blazer and exceptionally tailored trousers, with expensive looking sunglasses on top of her jet black bob that was parted in the middle.

"Ah, so you must be too stunned to speak. I get that." She said. "But for the two of you that'll survive this, my name is Xaawo. Now then, let's get started."

Xaawo's hand quickly morphed into a claw, which swiped towards Latrell. Latrell quickly leapt back towards a sign, which she clung onto as Gabriela jumped towards her. Xaawo jumped back and undid all the modifications, leaving her as just a person against Gabriela. Gabriela got into a fighting stance, widening her legs while raising the back of her palms to her face. Xaawo leapt forward, digging her sharpened nails into the back of Gabriela's hand. It hurt as the nails dug in, but Gabriela stood her ground. If this woman was the god she presented herself as, this was only a small fraction of what she could do. This was a test, and if she were to back away now, she'd unleash hell. She had to remember, she wasn't the frightened kitten. She was the tiger. Xaawo chuckled at the girl, retracting her hand, before clapping both together. Scales slowly began to morph on her hand and her head snapped towards Ulysses, the snake tails being swiped at him not a second later. Latrell shot downwards a second later to duck Ulysses head from it, and Xaawo swiped back at Gabriela's upcoming attack, only for her to power through it and strike her in the back. She faded into the air instantly, and then another Gabriela came in from the side and landed a solid punch to her face. Xaawo stared, bewildered. Latrell then kicked off a wall, perfectly aiming for her head, knocking the sunglasses off her face, which Gabriela then broke with a single stomp.

Xaawo looked mortified, looking at Gabriela with her hands in a strangling motion.

"Do you have any idea what that was?" She asked. "Those were LongNights!"

"I don't know what that is." Gabriela casually replied.

"You know nothing about your own world's high fashion?!" She yelled. The snake hands grabbed both her and Latrell, slowly squeezing both of them.

"You!" Latrell choked out. "You got something?"

Ulysses knew he could stop her now. Hell, he could possibly kill her. But he didn't know if he wouldn't also kill the other two. Regardless, he tried recreating what happened the first time. He clenched his fist until he felt energy build inside and suddenly disappear. He waited an additional few seconds in case that weakened it, and threw the energy at her.

The rift opened up quickly below her, quickly swallowing anything around them that wasn't tied down. Xaawo's grip loosened, and Latrell tried escaping the grip of the black hole, taking her jacket off and attaching it to a sign as she held on for dear life. But both Gabriela and Xaawo fell into the hole. It closed, like nothing ever happened. Latrell looked at Ulysses, who raised a hand. A moment later, the hole opened up and both Gabriela and Xaawo shot out. The hole vanished before they fell to the ground. Both were alive, but messed up. Their clothes were torn, and they were bruised from the experience. Gabriela significantly more so. Ulysses tried stepping in to save her from whatever was next, and Latrell stood in front to stop him.

Xaawo got up, looked at her clothes, and a gate opened up behind her. She glanced at the gate, and then at Ulysses. She stepped in, a look of murder across her face as she did so.

The three had survived. And that was probably all that mattered.