Evolving Infinitely From An E-Class Hero-Chapter 88: Gears Of Ascension

The warehouse smelled like rust and old engine oil, the kind of place where old cars from Sector D’s ruins were forgotten to rot and rust away.

The sunset light filtered through cracked spaces in the roof sheet walls, casting the dust motes swirling around Jake’s Boomerang Mobile.

That twin turbine bike purred softly till it came to a gentle stop. It had a sleek, chrome frame and painted with that bright red signature color of his, glinting as Jake leaned against it with his arms crossed and his grinning like he’d just won the lottery.

"Man... Reno you should’ve seen it!" Jake said, his voice echoed off the wraped metal walls of the warehouse.

"Guild headhunters were practically swarming me after my reassessment. Like, I was just trying to get home and get something to eat and these suits from the Silver Tiger Guild cornerd me with their contracts that were practically thicker than my skull!"

I chuckled loudly at his remarks and kicked a loose bolt across the concrete floor.

"Yeah? Silver Tiger Guild have got deep pockets. Check out a guild thats able to retain Golden Guardian and Tempest Wolf under their belt for years... Tell me, what did they say?"

Jake ran a hand through his red hair, while still maintaining that proud smirk on his face.

"They’re all over the four majors. Silver Tiger Guild promised elite access training facilities custom for me and a 15% increase in my agreed Unit for every public eye catching heroic intervention..."

"Red Lion Gate Guild were talking about something concerning leading a unit in their global ops network..."

"Ermm... Blue Cross is all ’join us for the humanitarian cred’, and Iron Fang Guild was like ’we’ll make you a walking tank,’ But..."

He paused and turned his grin slyly.

"There was this one smaller Guild, Phantom Veil... I don’t know if you’ve heard of them... They sent me a message on the way here".

"Phantom Veil?"I raised an eyebrow, leaning against a rusted pillar. "Never heard of em. What’s their pitch?"

Jake clicked his tongue and scraped his finger across his chin slowly before talking again. "Well, apparently they don’t have a hero higher that C-Class in the ranks under their roster. So I would automatically be the face of their industry and they offered full cybernetics augmentation budget... "

"Plus, a personal mentor and fitness coach directly from their top operatives, codenamed... ’Shade’... "

"Shade?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah Shade, heard of the name before?"

"Nope, carry-on..."

"Owkayyyy... Oh yeah and a signing bonus that’d get me a new Boomerang Mobile. They’re hungry for a Guild leader man... And they think I’m their man."

I released myself from my posture and position against the wall and whistled low. "Damn! Not bad for a small fry Guild. You thinking about it?"

He shrugged his shoulders heavily and his mouth had something that looked like an upside down smile.

"Maybe... Silver Tiger Guild is always a safe bet, but Phantom Veil Guild got this... Vibe. Like they’re playing a different game and wants me to be a pioneer..."

I raised an eyebrow and looked at him funny, "You got all that from one text..."

"Yup!"

His face turned into a large grin.

"What about you? SSS-Class Rank 1 is gotta have every guild in the world begging at your feet..."

I smirked, brushing my messy blonde hair out of my eyes.

"Yeah, but I’m not big on leash laws. Guilds want to control, and I’m not here to anyone’s poster boy. Much like Trooper..."

"Yeah Trooper is the lord of poster boys...!" Jake called back and then we both shared a long, hard laugh.

"Speaking of ’poster boy’ you’ve become one for the ISA yourself... Lay it on me bro, what did they bless you with... Aside the Boomerang Mobile of course" I perked up, asking with a genuine curiousity.

Jake’s grin widened as he patted the Boomerang Mobile.

"This baby is the star... Twin turbine and nitro engine, auto targeting nav, and a frame that can take a plasma blast..."

"But check this..."

He reached into a duffel bag and pulled out a sleek, curved boomerang, its edges glowed faint neon red.

"Virbro blades Boomerang for lethality... Courtesy of the ISA. I’ve got hundreds of them stationed at different sections of the bike and all over my suit..."

"They are retractable upon launch, even from a place of rest... They oscullate at 10,000 hertz, can cut through steel like butter... And..."

He tapped his wrist, where a thin bracer hummed to life.

"Magnetic recall system... Like I said, I can retrieve them from rest! They come back faster and I can redirect them mid flight. The. There’s a visor that monitors how many boomerangs I have at my disposal, motion tracking that works... So, yeah that’s essentially it and a few more things I haven’t quite figured out."

I couldn’t help myself but grin as pride swelled in my chest. Jake had always been scrapy, but seeing him decked out with the ISA grade gear and owning his own B-Class Rank 18 title —. That was my boy!

"Damn! Jake. You’re a walking arsenal for real... I’m really proud of you man."

He waved compliments off like he always does but I could clearly see his cheeks flush slightly. "Yeah yeah enough sappy stuff. You wanna do what we came here to do or not?"

I folded my arms and twisted my neck till it made a cracking sound. "You know I’m down. But I gotta give you a fair warning... The Core got me loaded with just about every martial art known to man. You sure you’re ready for that?"

Jake narrowed his eyes, but still had a smirk on his face. "Hold up, Reno. No golden armor, no core powered tricks and shenanigans. I’m not trying to get smoked by you right before my great hero career is about to start. Just you, you know — old fashioned fist fight..."

I laughed then spread my hands out wide towards the opposite side of my body. "Fine bro, no Core skills.... But my knowledge of martial arts ain’t going away..."

His enthusiastic face turned into a frown super quick. "Wait, can’t you just... Like, turn it off or something?"

*Kpim!