Arthur Black

The room was dark and musty

The faint smell of death lingered in the air at all times.

Bugs scurried across the metallic floor, drowning out the sound of ever persistent acid rain that pounded outside, of wherever he was.

This was where Arthur had been trapped for some time.

Arthur was the son of Erwell Black, the richest man in the world, so him being used to situations like this one, he was unfazed.

In fact being kidnapped every now and then was the norm for Arthur, so much so that it felt like a bad omen of it didn't happen.

"When are they gonna come get me" Arthur lightly banged the back of his head against the metallic room as he voiced his frustration.

However what wasn't the norm, was how long it was taking for him to be rescued.

Normally it would take around 7 hours for him to be found and returned home, the shortest time being 30 minutes and the longest 2 days.

Or at least it was before now, as while he wasn't sure how long he had been trapped in this room, Arthur could confidently say it had at the very least been a week, maybe even two.

A small grin swept across his face as he chuckled "At least I'll have some new chapters to read when I get home."

Even still Arthur knew it was a matter of when he got home not if, as even if his personal bodyguards didn't save him this time round, he could get himself out, hence he remained optimistic.

He was far from helpless, being the son of the richest man on Earth ment that he always had the money to fund his exentricities from a young age and due to this Arthur was trained in all sorts of areas, from fighting and archery to acting and manipulation.

Some, of course, were more developed than others but the point still stood that he was a very skilled person.

So if push came to shove he could get himself out of a situation like this, with little difficultly.

He just didn't do so normally as it took to much energy on his part, when he could just wait around to be rescued.

Arthur closed his eyes and listened to the scurrying of the bugs for a minute, before exhaling deeply.

"Guess I'll have to save myself, this is getting annoying." He had decided that he was done waiting.

He looked down at his hands and feet, before moving each of them apart until the shackles that, respectively, bound them became taught.

"About a foot for both, I can work with that."

He glaced back up at the door of the room.

"Should be lunch time any min-"

A loud screch interrupted his words as the door scrapped across the metallic floor of the room.

'Right on time.'

Arthur looked at the man who subsequently walked into the room with a small metal tray filled with, what could only be described as slop.

'Medium length black hair, skinny, around 6 foot tall, large nose, dirty face, black eyes.'

It was the same man who had brought him his food every day before as well, meaning he was the one who was the one who was most likely responsible for guarding him whilst he was kidnapped.

Which ment he also probably had the key for his cuffs in case something went down.

Arthur watched as the man placed a metal tray in front of him.

Arthur made no move for the slop on the tray.

The man watched Arthur for a minute, before screaming "Well start eating already you goddamn trust fund baby!!" His voice was gruff and deep.

Arthur still made no moves for the slop.

Annoyed the gruff man squatted down to Arthur's level and slapped him in the face "I SAID EAT!"

'Gotcha!'

With a hidden smirk Arthur finally reached for the slop on the tray, causing a smile to form on the gruff man's face.

Arthur felt the tips of his fingers touch the slop, and he finally made his move.

Quickly shifting his hand from the slop, Arthur grabbed the side of the tray and swung for the gruff man's face.

The gruff man's eyes widened in surprise at the sudden action.

He tried to lift his arms to protect himself, but it was already to late.

The tray made contact to his face with a crunch, knocking him over.

"Wh-!"

Arthur gave the gruff man no time to breathe, as he quickly stuffed the edge of the tray in the gruff man's mouth to stop him from making any noise.

The gruff man tried to grab Arthurs arms, but Arthur moved them out of the way, and swiftly retaliated with a strike to the throat.

The gruff man stopped struggling for a second as a wave of pain was sent through him, and that was all Arthur needed.

Slithering around the gruff man Arthur found himself on the ground behind the gruff man with his cuffs chain wrapped around the the gruff man's throat.

The gruff man tried to claw at the chain, and Arthur alike to no avail, and after minute he stopped struggling altogether.

Arthur waited for a few seconds to be sure the man was dead, before getting out from under his corpse and standing up.

Arthur looked down at the man's corpse with a blank expression for a moment before wiping his hands on his shirt "Well that was easy."

Arthur glanced up at the door of the room, now open.

He considered just walking through it after he got his cuffs off, but quickly shook his head.

"No that's a death sentence. l don't know anything about what's past the door and my suit will stick out like a sore thumb."

Arthur looked back down at the man before saying "Sorry not sorry dude, it's your fault for kidnapping me."

And with that Arthur crouched down and began to search the man looking for a key, or something similar.

And luckily for him the man did infact have a key on him.

His eyes perked up, but he quickly calmed himself.

"Let's not get excited, have see if it's the right one first."

Talking to himself in a hushed tone Arthur stuck the key into the small keyhole of the cuffs he was wearing.

He twisted the key, and with a small click the cuffs fell off of his wrists and onto the metallic floor of the room.

After stretching for a moment, Arthur looked back down at the gruff man's corpse "Luckily we have similar builds."

***

"Guess whoever kidnapped me has to be decently well off already."

Arthur looked down at his new clothes, they were surprisingly quite nice, a sleek black layex bodysuit with lose, but decently high quality cargo clothes over it.

There was also a small yellow triangle cut into 3 parts stitched onto the coloring just over where whoever was wearing it heart would be.

It looked familiar but Arthur couldn't put on his mind where he recognized it from.

Arthur shook his head "Well whatever I can think about it later"

"Now for the finishing touches" Arthur rubbed some of the soot from the corpse and onto himself.

Unfortunately for Arthur he didn't have a mirror or anything of the sort with him so he want able to tell how well covered he was, but he felt sure that it was enough to get by.

There was also the fact that his nose wasn't as large as the man's.

But not seeing much reason to stick around, Arthur quickly made his way to the door and exited the room.

He was instantly hit with a wave of fresh, as you could get air, the familiar smell of iron and smog prevelant once again.

Before doing anything else Arthur quickly closed the door behind him so no one could see inside.

After that Arthur quickly glanced around the area before deciding what to do next, as it was batte to be safe than sorry.

The first thing that he noticed was that he was in a gigantic open space, not an enclosed one like he had imagined and from the way it was built it was probably a warehouse.

The second, was 3 separate groups of people, one of 12 about 30 feet in front of him playing some sort of card game, another of about 50 or so crowded around a stage, watching a man give a speech.

And the final group of people consisting of 10 people sitting at a decently nice looking bar, not something you saw very often.

They were all wearing clothes identical to his, meaning there was at least some amount of cohesion behind whoever kidnapped him.

That was also evident by how many people there were as well, he had never seen a group of this many kidnappers.

The third thing he noticed, other than the general run down mess of the area, was a muscular man guarding the door, to what he presumed was the exit of the building, warehouse, consideing it was right next to a giant metal sliding door.

And the last was that what he had just exited wasn't a room, but instead a shipping container.

With the thought 'Its best to get out of here as quick as possible' Arthur began to take a step in the muscular man's direction, when he was suddenly stopped as his instincts kicked in making him shift to the left, barely dodging a hand that was about to land on his shoulder.

Surprised Arthur whipped his head around, to see a man about the same height as him, that had a scar running across his face looking at him, seemingly not caring about what Arthur had just done.

The man with the scar spoke "Where are you going" he pointed towards the stage "Boss mans giving a speech."

Arthur cleared his throat and tried to replicate the gruff man's voice, "I was just about to go listen to his speech."

His imitation wasn't perfect but it was good enough to where the man with the scar just nodded and said "Then let's get going."

Arthur watched as he started to walk off.

'Might as well see what the guys that kidnapped me are fighting for before I leave.'

Arthur turned towards the stage and quickly made his towards the back of the group, just close enough to hear the man on the stage talking, he was just catching the end of what seemed to be a larger point.

The man on the stages voice boomed "The time has come, it's gonna be the biggest payday of our lives in a few days boys!!"

That was all Arthur needed to hear, as he turned ammway from the group, it was pretty evident they were idiots.

Arthur snikered at their stupidity for how could they believe that, in this world, it was never that easy to get a fortune, everything was traceable and trackable.

Arthur started to make his way to what he presumed to be the exit, all the while observing the man guarding it.

He was sickly pale, dressed like all the other men here, and had a constant scowl, but there was one thing that made him stand out.

His muscular stature shone beneath his clothing, it wasn't something you saw often, especially amongst the poor.

Muscles meant food, good food, a luxury only the rich and lucky had.

Actually that was something Arthur had noticed a lot about this group of people they didn't look very poor, like most people who kidnapped him or even tried to did.

The majority of them even from a distance looked tall that meant they had good food just like the muscular man growing up.

They had good clothes and a bar in a middle of nowhere Warehouse, it was odd.

'I can think about this later, I have more pressing issues.'

Soon enough Arthur arrived before the man, and given the time he had to walk he had already decided what he would do.

He had thought 'Hard expression, squinted eyes, tall stance, doesn't look like the type of guy you could talk down, best course of action would be knocking him out as fast as possible.'

And that was exactly what Arthur did, before the man even had the chance to question him, Arthur laid down 3 swift hits.

A jab to the throat to stop him from making any noise, a kick to the knee, and a knee strike to the jaw, he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Arthur sifted through the man's clothes, not finding anything of importance.

'No key, that's unfortunate.'

Standing back up, before doing anything else, Arthur quickly hid the man's body behind some of the clutter around the warehouse, lest someone look in his direction.

He was strong but taking on upwards of 70 guys at the same time was out of the question for him right now, he hadn't been eating right, nor had he drank any water.

He went back to the door and tried to open it just in case it was unlocked.

The resistance that the handle offered was enough to tell him it wasn't.

Arthur turned his head to look at the guy who was still passionately giving a speech on the stage 'That guy probably has the key.'

Arthur looked back and forth between the man and the handle he was holding 'Trying to get the key from him would be more trouble than it's worth.'

Arthur balled up his right hand into a fist and held it up in the air 'Well here goes nothing!'

And with all the strength he could muster out he slammed it right into the handle, causing it to fly off the door and slam into the ground with a loud pang.

That seemed to get a few of the people in the warehouses attention.

What got the rest of their attentions was the blaring alarm and bright flashing red lights going off.

Arthur absentmindedly looked up at the ceiling of the warehouse and silently muttered "I probably should have thought of that" before bolting out the door and into the open air.

It burned, the smog that blotted out the sun made it hard to breathe, along with making it look like it was night, and the green acidic rain made what was viable of Arthur's skin turn red, sizzling where it landed.

Arthur quickly looked around, he couldn't stay still for long.

Outside their were multiple other warehouses, broken down ships, and even some old machinery.

Arthur could hear the mass stomping of feet behind him, along with the shouts that accompanied.

'I need to find somewhere to hide or, preferably hig- AH that's it!'

On the warehouse just to his left there was an old rusty ladder leading up it's side.

Arthur quickly rushed over to it.

'A few of the rings are missing but that's nothing!'

Arthur started his climb up the ladder, and just as he was about half way through it's length a loud announcement stopped him in his tracks.

"ATTENTION EVERYONE, ONE OF THE PRISONERS HAS ESCAPED, I REPEAT ONE OF THE PRISONERS HAS ESCAPED."

Not even a moment after the words computed rang through his head, Arthur heard the screeching of large metal gates dragging across concrete, as hordes of people, at least 300 in total, came out of the wearhouses surrounding the one he cane from, all wearing the same uniform.

Looking at the scene he could only mutter out "Oh shit!"

Suddenly a sharp pain coursed through Arthur's calf.

While he was preoccupied with what was happening around him, someone had climbed the latter behind him and swiped at his leg with a small compact nano-blade, the type his older brothers company produced.

And they weren't cheap, far from it, just another thing that was odd about this situation.

Having been shocked back to reality, Arthur using all the strength he could muster kicked the man that had swiped at him right in the face.

The rings the man were holding flung off with his grip along with the safety cage that would have normally caught someone.

Due to the fact that the ladder was already old and rusty along with the more than normal amount of acid rain corroding it, all it needed was to break was a little force, and Arthur had supplied more than enough.

Looking away from the mass of people below him Arthur continued his way up the ladder, paying mind to not apply to much force in his hurry.

Arthur quickly made his way to the top of the ladder, and he found himself on the roof of the warehouse.

'Just gotta hop to the other roof, not that hard!'

He continued running forward, but as he was about halfway across he felt a chill run down his spine and instead of continuing forward he dropped down, his chest to the roof of the warehouse.

A second after he dropped, three beams of blue light passed over where his head had been.

Arthurs eyes widened "WHAT!"

'How do they have phasers, they stopped being produced after the war with mars! They'd have to be at lease a century old at this point!'

And that was the final nail in the coffin.

'These guys are definitely not your run of the mill kidnappers!'

Arthur picked himself up off the roof and made a full sprint, lazers singeing his back.

He had to rely on luck and speed to avoid the blasts as, the torent of rain ad lightning around him made it impossible to hear the zipping sound they were supposed to make.

Henceforth making it impossible to dodge.

Soon he was on the roof of the another warehouse, having made the 30 foot or so jump it.

He continued his momentum, quickly running across the roof and jumping to the next, again and again until he had jumped 6 gaps.

Then that was it he had reached a dead end.

There was an, at least, 100 foot gap between the edge of the warehouse he was standing on and the next thing tall enough to not break his fall with broken bones.

He turned his head around and looked at the building he had just jumped from 'No good they're already on the roof! And I don't think I can beat them especially if they have nano-blade!'

He scanned the roof he was standing on for a ladder but he couldn't find one.

'Where do I go next!'

Arthur didn't know what to do all routes lead to failure.

Either he jumps back to the previous building and gets stabbed after taking a few guys out or just jump down from the roof and break a few bones crippling himself.

'Maybe I could-' "AHH"

Just as he was thinking a horrible burning feeling engulfed his right legs calf.

There was a giant hole burned right through it he, in his panic, had momentarily forgotten about the phasers.

Arthur crumpled and fell backwards as he processed what just happened, but instead of him just hitting the cold metallic roof of the warehouse, he kept falling.

His thoughts became clear for a moment 'Just my luck to fall through a hole in the roof!'

A moment later his back met the ground with a thud and he lapsed in and out of consciousness, his vision blurry and his ears ringing.

But even through the ringing, one sound remained clear in his the sound of metal scraping against concrete as the gate to the warehouse opened, that meant there was no one curently inside with him and he still had a chance to get away.

He tried to muster up the strength to stand up but he couldn't, so he resolved himself to crawl.

His vision was still blurry, so he had to rely on his instincts.

And so he did, he didn't know to where he was crawling but he did so with purpose.

And he, with a couple hundred people running towards his, soon found himself in front of a small window just below a metal staircase.

He used what little strength he could muster and punched it, causing a large crack to form.

He punched again, and the window shattered.

Arthur quickly crawled through the window, ignoring the shards of glass still attached to the windowsill, and fell to the ground just outside of the warehouse.

With a grunt he rubbed his eyes to get a better look around him.

From behind, and to his side groups of men were closing in on him.

To his front there was railing just before a 50 foot drop into the black sludge like water of the sea.

Taking in a deep breath Arthur grabbed the railing and pulled himself up.

He felt a hand touch his shoulder, and with the last of his strength, Arthur launched himself over the railing.

Wind whipped against his face as he fell, ever closer to the black sludge of the sea.

30 feet

20 feet, Arthur flipped around making his back face the sea

10 feet

A thought crossed Arthur's mind 'Oh, I didn't get to read the new chapters of Heros Path.'

5 feet, Arthur tensed his body in preparation for the impact.

0 feet, instead of the viscousness of the sea engulfing him, Arthur felt a soft surface pressing against his back.