Chương 72: Chapter 77: In memoriam!

May 1st, 1988. Elias and his uncle on his mother's side are relaxing in his home, his uncle is babysitting him. The night is dark and gloomy in the suburban Ohio area his uncle Ace lives in. "Hey, Uncle Ace, How was it when you and mom were kids?" Elias asks his uncle. "When we were kids? You'll be bummed out hearing it, it's a story that you really don't want to hear, Eli." Ace answered his fourteen year old nephew.

Elias continues to constantly bug his uncle, so he would tell him his story.

Ace eventually cracks. "Alright, your mom and I had it rough as children. I was in and out of state, she was safe in the orphanage but was a chronic pickpocket. Our sister, Ana, met a rich man and left us, high and dry. The reason why I was constantly in jail was because I joined a gang. Never join gangs. They couldn't stop me, I'd just gun them down. New York underworld for ya, I got busted for a drug deal at the age of 17. Luckily, I was close to the drug Lord who ran new York, he had let me go, he gave me some money, so, I moved to Ohio, your mother and I went our separate ways once we moved here, she said she "Needed to hustle" but I knew what she would be doing, going back to her old ways..." Uncle Ace answered his nephew.

Elias is stunned, he had no idea what to say next, his uncle had just confessed a side of his mom and himself that was ugly, ugly enough that his own mother didn't share with him. A fire in his heart was lit that day and a design of trust formed, he'd love to follow in his uncle's footsteps, he knows his uncle truly changed tracks.

August 4th, 1992 during a brightly lit day. Elias had finished up his shift as a server in the nursing home he's been working at for a year, happily on his way to visit his uncle's. The same home they first met in, the same home they had their trust forming chat in. Where his uncle gave him one of the most important lessons.

Elias makes it to his uncle's home, yet he sees blood everywhere and a few bloody knives left behind in the yard. On his uncle's porch is where the trail began, yet he doesn't know whether to follow it, or call the police and let them take care of it. He panics in his head for a while, until ultimately coming down to a decision. He was going in to check on his uncle himself, assuming the worst, that he could be a killer.

He walks inside slowly, calmly and anxiously opening his front door, as he peeks inside, he watches his uncle struggle to get on his couch. His uncle is groaning lowly, holding his stomach as his eyes tell him that he was drained of energy. Elias urgently rushes inside after realizing this and holds his hand while checking on his wounds. Elias calls his father, his siblings, the police, he calls them anyone who could be of help. Suddenly, as he continues to hold his head in distress, pacing back and forth, his uncle reaches out to him with his left hand. Just barely able to keep it up.

Ace says, with as much strength as he has left to speak clearly enough "Go on and live your life, dream yourself up a nice future and make it come true!". The final words from his uncle which stuck with him. Ace becomes lifeless and his body drops. Sudden memories spark in Elias' mind, a moment of reminiscence, of times bringing him closer to his uncle than he ever was to his actual father, his brothers, even his mother. He learned many tricks and many tools of the trade that his uncle took up. Sleight of hand, hotwiring, lock picking, etc. Ace had always tried to have him understand how important these skills and tricks were, his uncle thought he might be in need of them one day.

He learned many life lessons from stories he'd tell him during his babysitting. Elias wasn't a practitioner in medicine and medical care, he had no idea what to do in this scenario, something tells him though, his uncle wanted to die, the reason is still unclear to him. August 5th, 1992, the hospital's high grade air conditioning cooled Elias off on the hot day as he walked into it. Elias' father told him to meet him at the city's hospital because he wanted to know more, feeling grief and stress.

Deep down, his father realizes how close his son was to his wife's brother, so, he gave him his wish, no hesitation. They scheduled a place, time and day for him to check it out. Elias went in expecting the worse, expecting the worse like his uncle taught him. He stepped into the hallway where he encountered his father with the report. Elias' father was suited up in his "Mist-bringer" vigilante costume, since "Mist- Bring" is trusted by the city. His father's lens was white from his mask giving him a pupil-less look, Elias couldn't tell how his father felt from this. "Here's his condition Elias." Said Elias' father as he handed the papers over to him. Elias was shook from what was written upon the pages. Shook absolutely speechless about it all.

"They believe Ace was intentionally attacked, attacked not too long before you walked in, the suspect escaped quickly after heavily injuring him, likely wanting him to suffer before he died." Tears came from Elias' eyes as he reads the report, for himself, and hears the information his father is telling him.

"Your uncle's body had bruises and his ribs broken as if he was bludgeoned, his eyes were blackened as if he was punched repeatedly, he had knife wounds in his solar plexus as if he was shanked there. Ace is a tough man to kill, he used to work in the secret service. I believe your uncle was taken out by a hitman of some sort, who has a weird affinity for making people suffer before they inevitably "fall asleep." His father opines to him as tears of grief fall from his eyes. Elias looks up to his father, still filled with grief, voice crackly and a face of stress.

"What are you going to do about it?" Elias asks his father as he turns his attention to him. "I'm going to return back to the crime scene and search for trails the suspect left behind." His father answers without stutter. "Good, this murderer deserves justice to be brought to him, he deserves to be murdered but suffer before he goes like he made sure happened to Ace." Elias asserts as he paces back and forth. Elias' father grabs his arm and brings him to an area he believes to be secured, away from any nosey eyes or ears.

"You know it's not our job to kill, the malefactor will face justice for what he did to Ace in a court of law with due process. We have enough evidence on him, I will make sure, myself, that he's sent to the worst prison imaginable for this. He will without a doubt face justice for murdering such a good in heart man like Ace, but he will not die by my hands." Philip asserts with confidence. After hearing what his father tells him, Elias is outraged, Elias is stunned, what his father says to him makes him exasperated.

"You speak all about the importance of our family but you're not even willing to take vengeance seriously for us?!" Elias cries as his voice gets louder. "Ace would want you to have moved on with your life and follow the noble man's path, he wouldn't want you doing something stupid because of him. Are you willing to walk down a path he'd try his hardest to steer you away from?" Philip replied and asked with certainty.

"I don't know, maybe you're actually right. He wouldn't want me to avenge him, what I do know is that I'm done with you, and this family. I never belonged in this family, anyway." With those words and thoughts finally showing themselves, Elias walks out without any regret, yet with his father reaching out for him. Unable to move as he's shocked by what he heard "as long as you remain safe and keep your nose clean." Philip thought to himself as he looked down.

Three days later, Elias decides to venture back to his uncle's home. To collect a sentimental piece of his uncle. Something his uncle loved so he can move on with a piece of remembrance. As he walks back into his house, almost everything is moved out, the couch he died on and certain other items that could be counted as evidence, have some on it, the usual drill. As Elias slowly walks his way up to his bedroom, he notices a framed photo of him and some other guy, Elias doesn't know at all. He moves the picture to take a closer look at the weird man in it, then he spots a device that's asking for a password input.

For 30 minutes, he tried many different passwords, curious about what sort of secret his uncle had that would require what he sees. A name and a person comes to his mind. His uncle always told him about what he and "Aisha" always went through in their earlier years along with advice for dealing with women. Gathering thoughts from the way he spoke about her, he always assumed she was his significant other, that "special lady a man has in their life". Something he recalled by his uncle.

He tries her name, once he entered her name, it was accepted and Elias hears a loud door open somewhere from the upstairs, where he's currently at. After much searching and believing a door to be opened. He finds that opened door in the basement, that was never there or opened before, fear fills him as he hesitates to venture the secret his uncle kept from him all this time. The secret door also blended in well with the wall, you'd never expect for there to be a secret door down there, especially if you're not searching for one.

"Why didn't the cops find this yet during their investigation? Incompetence." Elias asks himself in his head as he's confused. Elias eventually finds the courage as he stumbles inside, he has no idea what to expect, he has no idea what secret he may expect but he still enters the darkness bravely. As he goes down what seems to be stairs leading directly underground, he sees lighting eventually, more so computer lighting coming from a series of monitors.

One such monitor showed a list of believable names, with a check mark on the side of them. Suddenly, the lights turn on and what lights up is a dungeon-like room with guns on the walls. The room was very dusty, dusty like nobody has been down there for quite a long time. Elias is filled with all kinds of crazy emotions and feelings, confusion and shock sourcing from the amount of firearms on the walls, and the kind, high grade firearms, some suppressed and others not. After some time of simply gazing at the spectacle, Elias spots a note by an area seemingly made for relaxing.

The note said: "Elias, I don't know how to tell you this through my voice, so I wrote this note so you can read my words. The reason why I know so much, the reason why I am as rich as I am is because of my job. I'm not the entrepreneur you thought of me as... I was a man who didn't want to be some guy's "little princess" in prison so I sold off my soul. Sold my soul to a business who needed a desperate man, a moldable desperate man who they can train with an exclusive skill set. In a single, easily understood word, I'm an artifact acquirer. I don't wish for you to think down on me now, I know you've heard... plenty of horrid "things" about them from your father. Bastard doesn't know about my job, let's keep it that way!" Then the note ends. As he's reading the note, Elias realizes his uncle was about to come clean to him, clean about his past, clean a lot. As he's pacing and forth, re-reading the note over and over, while thinking of some logic to it all, he paces too far than before and trips on something on the floor.

He slips into a pod, as he stands back up and faces the direction to leave, the pod slams closed before he could, he's stuck standing still as he's suddenly garbed in old, ancient, yet futuristic body armor. He runs to a mirror in the room and what he sees. He's covered in orange body armor, a creepy helmet, hard steel, yet somehow it's still light and flexible, he feels his balls tightly hugged by his pants in the inside, and his hands are wrapped tight in something unknown to him. He screams in confusion and fear as he grabs his head, but he notices his voice is significantly deeper than usual. He jumps and his heart begins to race in fear as police jump out of nowhere behind him, yelling "FREEZE!" Urgently, to which he does and raises his hands in the air.

"What in the bloody hell are you?" One policeman asks, to which Elias stutters as he's trying to find an answer, forgetting he's in his uncle's suit. As Elias continues to stutter, one of the cops recognizes the armor and remembers who it belongs to, after which, he reminds the other officer. The police open fire each assuming him to be the free-lancing assassin "Ace trenton" who has avoided the police in many different states, and on many different accounts. Elias flinched as they aimed their firearms at him and went into the clutch position, as if he was blocking a football from hitting his face, yet he merely realized something after a little while. The police had pulled put their pistols on Elias, unaware of who's under the mask, just assuming him to be the merciless assassin, but as they continue blasting relentlessly and mercilessly... Elias feels no pain, the bullets are deflecting off the mysterious body armor, and Elias feels as though he can walk. Elias assumes the gunshots can be heard from outside, so, he goes to subdue the police somehow, attempting to stop attention from coming to the house. He panics as he can't answer on what to do next, He's quick to think once he sees random gasoline sitting around the underground base.