Book One.Chapter 5

-Chapter 5

"I was hoping one day I would see something like this." said Jim as he admired the ancient piece of fine architecture. "Too bad the day I got to see the Acropolis of Athens had to be the same day I challenged the one and only guy in all history with the guts to declare open war on America."

"Taliban, nor ISIS count?" jived Frank.

"Kidnapping unarmed civilians and beheading them on video isn't the same thing. That's all the makings of a coward; having no other way to make a statement than the destruction of innocence. Even then, those guys only want to fearfully spread their otherwise insignificant religion." said Jim, gazing at their target from afar through binoculars.

"Some would argue against that. Especially the insignificance part." said Frank.

"Well, anyway. This guy doesn't have anything to prove, nor is he doing this for the hell of it. He just wants to crush the biggest somebody he can... and I don't blame him." concluded Jim.

With a short flash, Alice appeared beside them. Her disguise was a simple, flowing purple gown.

"Now I can disrupt all the news equipment. We're ready to follow through with the plan at any moment." she informed the other two.

Jim hesitated before he clicked a radio.

"What's the word in the sky?"

"Okay, yes!" came the Dutchman's reply over the radio. To everyone's surprise,  the words "Smokey dokey!" could be seen in a vapor trail above them.

"How does he even do that?" said Alice.

"You're asking us?" said Jim. He then pressed against the device in his ear. "We have a visual. Do we have the green light, Card'nal?"

Alfonzo let out an affirmative. Crowds had gathered in front of the Acropolis as the infamous Victory was about to give another press conference; one that E50 was going to crash. The human tank stepped up to the platform, and the games began. Alice shorted all the cameras. Frank handed a loud speaker to Jim and the interpreter next to him.

"Mr. Victory! On behalf of the United Nations, you stand accused of declaring war on another country without representing a national government. The Grecian government has denied any affiliation with you, therefore you are asked to surrender peacefully at once." Jim then said, along with the interpreter following in Greek. Halfway, the man tank boomed

"I understand plain English, American fool!"

"Then you know what I'm demanding, on behalf of the United Nations?" Jim insisted.

"I know that you must come from America. You will know that Victory surrenders to no one." the man tank insisted right back.

The crowds had grown silent, gazing toward the seemingly lone E50 agent. The news crews were frantically trying to repair their equipment or find spares. Then with a sizable thud from each step made, Victory made his way toward Jim. The crowd split and began to flee in all directions.

"Saves the trouble of telling them to bug off myself." said Jim before he spoke through the loud speaker once more. "Since you do not comply, I have no choice but to take you in. No hard feelins!"

Jim then dropped the loudspeaker, then unsheathed his sword and pistol. Aiming for a limb, he squeezed off a shot which looked as though it hit the tank in the arm. There was no sign of an entry wound. Aiming center mass, he squeezed off two more shots that definitely made their target. The problem was this target was clearly unaffected in anyway by bullets. Victory kept on his path, not phased in the slightest. His feet kept making a rhythmic thump, like a war drum beating ever so slowly. Taking a breath, Jim holstered the gun then brandished his sword. He gave it two swipes in the air, and what followed was a blast of fire then wind. Still, the tank was unmoved. Lifting the sword, Jim let it flare with electricity that he then launched full force at Victory. The lightning bolt grazed the side of his chest, momentarily making him stumble... yet, the tank kept moving forward. Jim motioned with the sword, but this time Victory slammed a massive hand against the ground which was with enough force to cause a fissure to open up right beneath Jim. Another smack of the ground caused stone and dirt to bury Jim up to the torso.

"You wanna see what my sword of elements can do, eh?" said Jim. He swished his sword upwards just before Victory could lay his hands on him. A jut of stone shot up, launching Jim in the air, remaining like a structural column. As he came down, Jim swiped the sword through the air further conjuring the spiritual forces behind the blade to cause the column and the ground around it to melt into magma.

"Try getting outta that!" Jim mocked as he swiped once more to send a crash of water at the magma. It steamed and then froze in place, leaving Victory stone cold in the ground.

Jim clicked in on the intercom to Alfonzo.

"Almost gave me a scare when not a single bullet did more than bounce off the guy's skin. You can send in the detaining crew. He shouldn't-"

He was interrupted by the sound of breaking rock and flying rubble. The tank was free.

"E50, be on alert. A squad of Serene corp drones are heading inbound. ETA thirty seconds." Said Alfonzo through the emergency channel.

"I might not have that long." Jim said, swinging his sword to and for to try and put as much earth between him and Victory as possible. Each upheaval was batted away by arms like wrecking balls. The glowing white eyes and shimmering golden olive branch crown came ever closer. Then Jim noticed he was pinned down against the edge of the outcropping on which the Acropolis sat upon. Frank came out of no where to shove Jim out of the way of the battering rams that were Victory's fists came down. Jim watched in horror as Frank took the blow instead. The dust and rocks flew up before anything could be seen of the fresh and now late team member. It was likely a good thing, figured Jim, as he hardly liked to see the many ways E50 agents had met their disfiguring, dismembering demise. A good sized chunk of rock fell down the man hewn cliff. Jim wasted no time, taking off as fast as his feet could manage. He clicked on the radio to get the attention of the Flying Dutchman.

"Frank is down! I repeat, Frank is down. We're done here. Everyone fall back and regroup at Rome base." said Jim. The Dutchman immediately picked him up for another trip. This time, Jim was able to keep himself from crashing. He wished he had though, as the Dutchman sang some song in his native tongue that was just too happy-go-lucky to fit into the situation. Alice once again took advantage of the nearest 4G device and sped along the digital pathways toward the E50 base hidden in Rome, Italy. 

This secret headquarters was one of the many worldwide owned by Dr. Alfonzo, used for the worldwide purposes that his E50 did their best to accommodate. It was built below an ancient church, and had one annoying similarity to every other property owned by Dr. Alfonzo; emphasis on the color blue in just about everything. Alfonzo was waiting in the situation room, seated and strangely content. Jim burst in, followed by the other survivors. Jim threw his harness to the ground, punched a dent in a wall then stood across from Alfonzo with his arms supporting his weight on the oval table, tinted with a faint blue stain.

"Got anything stiff to drink?" Jim asked at length.

"There is some old sacramental wine in the back, if that counts as anything. It will not help the situation any, however." answered Alfonzo.

Jim slammed a fist on the table.

"The hell it would hurt any, either. What with Ben Frank biting the dust like he did!"

"What on earth are you talking about?" said Alfonzo.

"Don't play games with me, Card'nal! I saw it with my own eyes. I called it in myself! The kid is gone. He managed to save my behind in the process, but fat a lot of good it did for him. Good god, man!"

Alfonzo pressed a button, illuminating a screen behind him. On the screen was seen Frank's face, living. Breathing. And he had not a scratch on him at all.

"What kind of smoke and mirrors is this BS?" said Jim.

"You were right, Agent Fly. Dr. Alfonzo hasn't shown me any of his tricks yet. But he was well aware of my particular one, which is why he hired me on E50. With that and the fact that you call him cardinal, among other things, it leads me to believe that Dr. Alfonzo has at least some connection to the Blue Cardinal. I would almost think he was the very man himself." Frank went on to say.

"Almost?" posed Alfonzo.

"Except for the fact that within my circle back at home, I've only known the Blue Cardinal as a myth from nearly half a millennium ago." continued Frank.

"Not everything is as it seems." said Jim with a smile as if to say the joke makes so much sense now.

"I couldn't agree more. My trick I admit is not as flashy as using a sword to control elements at will. I still get by the sticky situations by disappearing in a vapor when needed... Literally." Frank said, giving a demonstration of how he can magically turn himself into mist and back before saying the word literally. "It took me a while to pull myself together, but I made it out well enough for that Victory guy to be none the wiser."

"I owe you a million, Ben Frank." said Jim, not at all forgetting who saved who.

"And more than that. I'm staying behind to keep a close eye on our new friend here. In the mean time, I'll let you know that Rogers isn't my real last name either. It's Franklin Nieminen. Back home they had a nickname for me. The Gatherer. As hard as it is to hit me, it's even harder to keep me out of places, making it easy for me to, well, gather things about people."

"Are you from Finland?" asked Alice, hard pressed to stay out of the conversation much longer.

"Where ever he's from, I think you may have found a keeper there, Card'nal." said Jim, to allow refocusing of the conversation.

"Right, right. As we are now all present, let us hear what became of those drones, Franklin."

Meanwhile, in the Oval Office, which only sounded crowded, a troubled old man sits at the table flanked on both sides by computer monitors with the faces of many other older men and women. Some were in suits, while others wore a uniform of some sort. One of the uniforms in particular was that of a five star general. Being among the first to wear five stars since the Second World War, his input was needed on a very touchy subject.

"So not a thing we threw at one man from those drones, designed to give the front lines of a whole army a thing or two, could stop him? This is one man, gentleman. How is it he is still standing, now not much more than twenty four hours after he threatened my office--my very home for the next three years? Your country, mind you?"

"It is an anomaly, at best, Mr. President. The report given me leads me to believe that this one man possibly has some form of technology, not completely unlike some of what Serene Corporation has come up with. With this technology he must be able to deflect fire as well as give this Mr. Victory his vastly heightened combat ability." said the general.

"I've read this report. It says that a man in a toga withstood direct fire from machine guns, missiles, and small grade nuclear bombs that our brand new Serene Corp drones carry. Now tell me what in God's name kind of technology does a thing like that? And are we prepared to repel this threat, if not give a proper preemptive strike against it?"