Shones, was she still screaming it? Was it echoing? Or was she in his head now? Would her ghost follow him from now on, reminding him of what he’d done? What he was?
Brick stumbled into an alley behind his three grunt bodyguards. The sky projection above was getting pink. He heard police radio chatter in the distance. After a moment he heard, “Go, go go!” and “EMTs inbound!” followed by booted footsteps. He tensed, but then heard the snapping and clanking of the loading bay doors being broken and thrown open. The Elites were moving in. He’d taken Mantis down.
He had.
Why?
Click.
“Excellent work, Brick,” his implant spoke. “Things are proceeding exactly as we’d hoped. Consider this mission complete. I took the liberty of transferring the balance of your pay to your family’s fund.”
Brick reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the creased photograph of his family.
“Sir?” said one of the grunts. “We need to go.”
He began stumbling forward. The soldiers glanced at each other for a moment, then physically took his arms and dragged him along.
They deposited him in an alley on the opposite side of the cell. Brick slumped to a sitting position, still staring at the picture.
His family didn’t know what he’d become. That was his only comfort. They’d be taken care of, and they’d never know. Never know that he’d broken bread with the cruelest person he could ever imagine, then beaten her at her own game. Betrayed the devil herself. Silenced her just so he wouldn’t have to hear her damned condescending, accusing voice anymore. And that had backfired, oh how it had backfired. He’d never stop hearing her now.
“Meaner than me.”
“We need to leave you here, sir,” said one of the grunts. “We’ve received the coordinates of an extraction point.” His voice was still mechanical in his helmet, but there was a hint of relief in his tone. It wasn’t often these creatures lived to see a second mission.
Brick waved them away without a word, and they trotted off.
He just sat there, for a long while, staring at the stranger standing next to his wife and daughter. He had a full head of hair and a handsome well kept beard. He looked happy. He looked loved. Had that ever been him? He quickly wiped his eyes and repositioned the picture, lest he drip tears all over it.
“Hmm,” said the voice with a note of disapproval. “I know this wasn’t easy, Brick, but remember that we did this for you. You’ve set events in motion that will change the world. Take a few days if you need to. When you’re ready for your next mission, get back in touch.”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Brick stood up mechanically and stumbled away as he heard sirens. The GPD would be sweeping the entire cell for him and any other loose ends. He tossed his gun, kept his ring at the ready, and made his way across a ramp, over and down, deeper into the city. Where he was headed he wasn’t quite sure. Away from everything. Away from that voice.
“Meaner than me.”
It wasn’t the first time I’d done something that was, to my mind, utterly badass, then looked up to a sea of faces staring in horrified silence.
My move was spectacularly effective. A Feverflame Torch fart, a phrase awesome enough to be its own skill. Marin, helpfully, had gone completely unconscious, her head between my ankles, adding to the effect.
I got to my feet and cleared my throat, clasping my hands behind my back and staring at the ceiling.
“Uh…” Valery stammered for several more seconds, the first time I’d heard her rendered completely incoherent. Finally she simply said, “Jett Fulgen wins.”
“Yeah!” Wally shouted. I had a feeling Fu would have joined in, had she been there.
Both of Team Ambassador’s healers, Tina and Yuki, rushed in and attended to Marin. I also applied Heal Burns and, surprisingly, it seemed to help. After a few minutes we had her out in the cafeteria, slumped in a chair, her G-Tech uniform drenched in sweat, while Tina tried to fan her with a stack of napkins.
“Mr. Fulgen,” Marin said groggily. “Did… did you just knock me out with a fart?”
I scratched my head. “Uh… kinda?”
“Not exactly, madam,” Habby interjected huffily. “It was his Torch skill with the Feverflame variant effect. I can assure you that Jett expelled nothing biological during that attack.”
“Still,” Marin said, fixing me with a look, “it was basically a fart.”
I shrugged sheepishly.
Marin let out a snicker. Then she chuckled. Then she laughed out loud.
That seemed to serve as permission for the other stunned onlookers, because many of them started laughing too. Soon Marin was roaring and pounding her knee.
The tension thus broken, it also seemed to alleviate the scandal of how I’d won, because many of the attendees finally moved in to congratulate me. I stepped aside to leave Marin her space as a line of sorcerers and other employees shook my hand and “officially” welcomed me to G-Tech. That part was slowly sinking in. I’d done it. I’d fought and finagled and even tricked the assholes who wanted me pushed out, and now I was officially a field-ready G-Tech sorcerer. I’d be punching bad guys before the week was out.
“You did it, Jett!” Wally cried, pulling me into a hug.
“Eres puro desastre con patas, se?or Fulgen,” said Catalina, but she also embraced me. “You did good. We will talk strategy for your first appearance soon, okay?”
Once the line of well wishes died down I was in a daze, not quite sure what to do with all the positivity. Marin had recovered some and was sitting up straight.
“You all right, boss?” I asked.
“Yes, yes. At least you knocked me the hell out so I couldn’t throw up everywhere. That was certainly unique. I think you’ll send some folks to jail feeling very humiliated once you get out there.”
“Speaking of which, have you thought about which team I’ll be joining? I mean, we all know Chris wants me badly, but I don’t want to assume.”
“We’ll, um…” Marin glanced past me. I turned to see a few employees walking quickly in our direction. “We’ll discuss that later.”
One of the newcomers leaned in and whispered to Marin. She immediately stood, still looking disheveled, but her posture conveyed command.
“What?” I asked, my heart sinking. I looked at Wally, who was wringing his hands.
“Healers!” Marin yelled. “Hospital wing! We have incoming wounded! Let’s move!”
Jett Fulgen means more to me than I can properly put into words. This story is a very old idea, once an abortive attempt at a webcomic I made in the early 2000's. I got about fifteen pages in. To see it come back to life in this form, to get this far, and to have, at current count, over two hundred people waiting to see what comes next is just mind blowing. I can't thank you enough for your support.
Guardian's Legacy is going to pick up without a break, but here's what's happening over the next few days:
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Thursday: Bonus content and appendixes. Some additional lore about the world of Jett Fulgen, and a few things I’ve been quietly building in the background.
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Friday: The Prologue to Book 2 goes live. The next arc begins immediately.
- Monday: Chapter 1 of Book 2 goes live, and we'll go back to the usual Monday, Wednesday, Friday release cadence. I hope you've enjoyed the more frequent updates over the past couple of weeks, but I want to maintain a healthy backlog so I have time to revise, polish, and fix continuity issues before I release.
follows, favorites, ratings, reviews, and comments genuinely make a difference. Not only do I love hearing your feedback, but your little clicks help Jett Fulgen get seen by more people. If you know someone else who would like to read the story, please feel free to share with them.
Patreon is available and up to date. As of this writing it's up to Book 2, Chapter 19, where you can learn whether skid punks can dance.
Facade: The Girl Who Will Destroy the System
by kurowinter88
The world is governed by a hidden System.
Llyne is not chosen. She gains no powers.
She is simply aware—and the System was not built for that.
Comedy first. Psychological collapse later.
Read before the System notices her. ????