Revelation

The blinking banner ribbons across all four walls, caking the glass chamber a deep red.

Daniel pulls Noe onto his feet. They stand side by side, watching as the banner morphs from text into a video broadcast of Prime Minister Kamiyama within her room beyond the palace's holographic wall.

"A Code S threat has appeared in Westville. Reports from all over the world are flooding police stations. We estimate that an active terrorist group originating in Westville is wreaking havoc within the Domes. The end may be upon us if we do not act as a collective."

Daniel immediately starts moving with Noe, bringing Rosalind and Feng Mian along by a wave of his hand. His aim is the elevator.

"Block the exits," a waitress orders and the servers form a barrier in front of the elevator and hallway entrances. They are undercover officers. 

"Kamiyama knew we were coming," Noe voyces to Rosalind and Feng Mian. "She must have prepared this show for us."

Kamiyama's voice rebounds into every attendee's ears, "The following footage may be disturbing to some." Her esteemed form sitting upon her throne transitions to the face of an impassioned old man being filmed within his apartment, a cat in his arms and three more lazing in the background.

"The terrorists? Oh, them. I know of 'em. A few nights ago, I saw something fly past my window. Casper left us the next morning. He was such a good cat... There's something off about those terrorists, like they worship Lucifer or aren't human." 

The broadcast progresses to a video that begets the face of a different hospitalized man whose breaths escape in a shattered weakness, "I am in hospital because of them. "

Hearing the audible stench in his breath, Noe recognizes him as the pedophile he dealt with. 

"While in my home, during the middle of the night, I was attacked and my manhood wrenched from me by one of those monsters. What they are doing is not okay. They must be stopped. They are terrorists!" He erupts in a coughing fit.

Remembering the night that Noe silently left his home, Daniel holds Noe's arm closer. Daniel can almost read Noe's mind now and, even without their profound connection, knows that the man must be the real monster for Noe to take action against him.

The hospitalized man's image disappears and a reporter in front of Babatunde Khumalo's statue in Northville informs:

"Jinn Ma, the son and heir to a prominent business conglomerate was abducted from his hospital bed eight days ago. The family is distraught over the disappearance of their comatose son and begs that the group which took him away contact them or return him home. #saveJinn is trending in teen media and word around the street claims the recent events in Northville and Westville are bordering a global human rights crisis.

"During the abduction, a fire broke out in Ma's hospital room. Had it not been quelled, the thousands of patients receiving treatment in Northville Hospital would have died.

"Where I stand, a nurse came forth with a disturbing clip saying that the same people he saw abduct Ma were in this very square. These clips have not been altered in the slightest. Over to production."

Daniel stiffens beside Noe and pushes up the repaired glasses sitting on his nose. His fingers absent-mindedly tap Noe's arm. The mentioned clip rolls: 

Noe recognizes the scene as the day Eris attacked him using his henchmen Minions. The Minions are visibly dispersed in bloody messes across the square. Eris is slung over Daniel's shoulder and Noe has his back to them, face in full view of the camera. 

The gala attendees gasp at the gorish sight. What follows nearly stops their hearts.

Daniel bends to the ground, slices his thumb with his canines and designs a six-tipped star within a circle using his blood as a drawing mechanism. Stepping into the demonic symbol, Daniel, Eris, and the sign vanish.

Noe understands why Daniel asked him to turn away. 

The clip cuts to Noe hovering in the air, eyes burning like charcoal and hands outstretched.

A news reporter in front of the Crystal Palace announces, "A profiling of the criminals in the clip was carried out. The assailant who vanished with a youth on his back is Daniel Henderson, a teen educator who was fired for slander and physical assault against the Principal of SYMPATHY BOARDING SCHOOL FOR THE MISGUIDED. 

"His partner in crime and the other man captured within the video, Noe, last name absent due to his mother's removal from the family registry, was his student. Noe's history before attending Sympathy Boarding School is unknown but sources in Westville attest to the fact that Henderson and Noe are in an intimate relationship. Whether or not Henderson shall be trialed for child exploitation during his teaching career is under investigation and will be revealed only by concrete evidence.

"Exactly what the red animals left in Northville Square are is yet to be discerned but one thing is for certain; their species is not of Earthly origin."

When Allery's white skin and green eyes appear on the screen too, Noe wonders how long the show shall go on.

"I went to the same school as Noe until I was in middle school and do you know what we used to call him? Devil Child. The reason? He was a bully."

Noe's throat lurches into his stomach. 

Allery continues, "I'm sure many of you watching this wondered how I ended up in critical condition. I hope you don't see me as pitiful or weak after I confess this but, honestly, I couldn't control Noe's bullying of me. It got so bad that one day Noe took me to the cluster of trees behind our middle school, and used his weird powers to burn me. 

"My whole body was covered in fourth degree burns and I thought I'd die. Luckily, I didn't and it was because I received my mother's elixir of life and became the first everlasting. I don't know what Noe has gotten himself into but please," Allery's terrified eyes bore into the camera, "don't do this, unless you want to kill off the rest of humanity. "

Kamiyama returns, "The terrorists are believed to be part of the Cult of Lucifer which includes Noe's mother Vivian, Patel Holdings' largest shareholder Rosalind Patel, and last name Feng, first name Mian. They pose a severe threat to human health and may be the cause of Westville's most harrowing problems.

"These terrorists infiltrated government bases and accessed classified files whose information could be used to engineer nuclear weapons and bring about an event as cataclysmic as World War Three."

A video in the green and black of night-vision cameras shows Noe sneaking around Kamiyama's library. Hundreds of books are floating in the air, pages turning simultaneously. 

"If you see any suspicious behavior from the people around you, contact Westville Police Station immediately. We do not know how many more people are involved in the Cult of Lucifer but Westville's problems will never end if we do not purge each and every one of them. Together, we will squash the heretics, who harm our children and steal away our futures, into oblivion. 

"Anyone who protects these criminals will be charged with aiding and abetting, harboring fugitives, and treason to the nth degree. Exacted by martial law, all citizens are required to stay indoors from six in the evening until six in the morning. Anyone caught being mobile within that window will be charged just as heavily. Military personnel to report to Westville Police Station within the hour.

"Some may be concerned about the elections to be held in a month. The threat will not be quelled within a plausible window to organize voting. Therefore, with a heavy heart, I inform you that the Westville elections are postponed until further notice. Stay alert, protect our city, stay safe."

The video cuts and Kamiyama's voice over repeats the acts under martial law as the glass walls resume:

PRIME MINISTER KAMIYAMA DECLARES MARTIAL LAW: WESTVILLE IN A STATE OF EMERGENCY

Noe, Daniel, Rosalind, Feng Mian, and Vivian's faces are placed beneath the banner. 

"There's no choice left, we have to leave," Rosalind says as security begins closing in. 

Daniel instructs, "To my apartment."

"There are too many guards to bypass. We don't know how to control our strength in combat and will end up hurting them. Do we risk exposing our identities to get out of here?" Feng Mian brings up.

"It's too late to ask that," Noe says.

Instantly, Noe shuts off the flow of oxygen in the officers' cerebrums and lets them flop onto the ground, unable to process information, unable to move. He pulls Daniel into the elevator while the attendees gape at them. Rosalind and Feng Mian follow and the elevator shuts. 

Spreading his second vision throughout the Crystal Palace, within the control room, Noe sees security trying to shut down the elevator. He knocks them out as well.

A swarm of officers is in the foyer. Noe handles them much the same as before. 

The moment the elevator hits the grounds, the group is off and sprinting out of the building. 

Helicopters send roaring winds crashing onto the Earth, assaulting Daniel's hair and relieving it from its slinked-back arrangement.

Projected against every building are the group's faces with Kamiyama's message ringing through comms, "All citizens are required to stay indoors from six in the evening until six in the morning. If you see any suspicious behavior from the people around you, contact Westville Police Station immediately.  Anyone who protects these criminals will be charged with aiding and abetting, harboring fugitives, and treason to the nth degree."

The broadcast they witnessed in the Crystal Palace, it was streamed throughout Westville.

Running across the busy street, the group manages to weave through traffic and reconvene with Vivian. Rosalind plucks Vivian from the ground and runs as fast as the rest. 

"There's something coming up ahead," Daniel tells them. 

"I can sense it too," Rosalind states. "The energy that I'm feeling, it's identical to yours, teach." 

Noe's nose flares at Rosalind in irritation, "Don't call him that."

"We have bigger fish to fry than your bickering!" Feng Mian yells over the helicopters' droning. In truth, there was no need for her to shout. They could all hear her either way. 

"Five of them, up ahead," Daniel says. "It's a group of Borne."

"Borne?" Rosalind ogles Daniel. 

As she says that, they reach a cross-section.

Police cars come eating tar, racing down the street behind the group. Officers mount the roads on either side of them and create huge blockades. The five Borne appear, the same people who had been haggling Daniel when Noe first saw him at the park.

Channeling the air around him, Noe tries to reach their pursuers' heads and send them to sleep. He fails.

Attempting once more, he realizes that he cannot find a stable oxygen pathway to their brains. The helicopters above are displacing the air too quickly for him to control it. It is as if Noe has been caught in the ocean during a storm, thrashing around in furious waves of sand and sea.

The Borne are closing in and the officers have hundreds of guns pointed their way.

This could be the end of them all.