Elite 2: The Wrong Side of Revolution

“Awww here it goes.”

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Coolio,
Theme from Keenan and Kel

• Title Page
  
• “Awww here it goes.”
  
• Chapter 1
  
• Chapter 2
  
• Chapter 3
  
• Chapter 4
  
• Chapter 5
  
• Chapter 6
  
• Chapter 7
  
• Chapter 8
  
• Chapter 9
  
• Chapter 10
  
• Chapter 11
  
• Chapter 12
  
• Chapter 13
  
• Chapter 14
  
• Chapter 15
  
• Chapter 16
  
• Chapter 17
  
• Chapter 18
  

Chapter 1

He bobbed and weaved in a combat stance, anticipating his opponent’s attack. He waited for his opponent to make the first move—he always made them make the first move.

Then it happened—the other man spun around on the ball of his left foot, whipping his leg toward Daniel’s body. Daniel lowered his right arm to block the kick and threw a giant left hook toward the other man’s head.

The man saw it coming and ducked underneath the punch. As Daniel’s momentum carried him over the top of his opponent, the man took the opportunity to deliver a shot to Daniel’s now vulnerable midsection. Daniel quickly whipped his body around hoping his elbow would make contact with his opponent’s chin, but once again his quick-moving opponent was able to dodge the attack.

The other man then came up and reached for Daniel’s arm. This move would prove to be a fatal.

Daniel tensed up his muscles until they were immovable. He had become very good at knowing how to play to his own strengths. He grew faster every day, and while his more experienced opponents still generally moved a little bit quicker, eventually they all tried to grab him in order to throw him to the ground into submission.

Daniel had become very good at defending the areas on his body that could be seriously injured through contact alone, such as his torso and head. As they were trained to do, the people he fought always attacked at traditional weak spots, trying to break his arm or take out a knee. For Daniel though, these were not weak spots. He had learned to strengthen and contract his tendons and the muscles around them making it almost impossible to move them in any way that would result in incapacitation.

As his opponent latched onto his right wrist, Daniel contracted the muscles in his arm beyond levels that any other human’s natural state would have allowed, sending a tsunami of blood and adrenaline to assist. His opponent then slammed his left palm into the base of Daniel’s elbow as hard as he could, trying to hyperextend and snap the joint in two. It was no use however as Daniel’s muscles were tightened to the point that it was like trying to snap an iron beam with his bare hands.

Daniel ripped his arm away, poising himself for a counter attack. His opponent panicked, quickly readjusting and trying to put Daniel back on the defensive before he was able to deliver an attack of his own.

He threw a weak kick toward Daniel’s midsection, to which Daniel reacted with swift reflexes, grabbing his opponent’s leg. He contracted the muscles in his hands, squeezing down on the other man’s leg and holding it in mid-air.

The man tried to pull away but it was no use. Daniel now had a gorilla-like grip on the man’s leg and his arms were pumped full of blood, adrenaline, and testosterone, and his muscles were contracted to super-human levels. His opponent wasn’t going anywhere.

After what amounted to only a fraction of a second, Daniel used his strength to lift the man off the ground by his leg—one hand wrapped around his ankle and the other latched to his thigh—and spun him around in the air before slamming him down on the mat with unbelievable force.

His opponent’s back came down hard on the mat, pushing every last molecule of air out of his lungs. He lay gasping for air as Daniel slid his hand down from his opponent’s thigh and pushed his palm against the knee while maintaining his grip on the man’s ankle.

He could have easily snapped the man’s leg in half but he stopped there. Daniel had him dead to rights and they both knew it. The fight was over.

“How the hell do you do that?” Shifty managed to ask in between gasps for air.

“You would have broken my arm,” Daniel commented, reaching a hand down to help Shifty up off the mat.

“Everyone keeps talking about how it’s impossible to do,” Shifty said as Daniel pulled him up from the ground. “I wanted to see if it was true.”

“And what if it hadn’t been?” Daniel inquired,

Shifty stood a minute contemplating. After finding himself unable to think up a substantial reply he shrugged and said, “Then I guess I’d be working that Demers job for you this weekend.”

Daniel shook his head and smiled as the two men made their way to the showers. Beating Titan in the challenge ring and becoming the top ranked agent at Elite had immediately placed a target on his back as everyone wondered if he really had improved to the point of being number one, or if the fight had been a mere fluke.

Daniel viewed the word “improvement” as a relative term. In the time between his fight with Jitters and his fight with Titan, his skills may not have sharpened as much as his focus had. In that time he had learned more and more about his abilities and the best ways to utilize them in order to make up for his weaknesses. He was now able to access them faster and use them in new and unique ways that he hadn’t before the first rankings were revealed.

Norma dying had given him the focus and motivation he needed to unlock his full potential. He had spent hours searching his mind and visualizing his fight with Titan. He had learned to defend his own weaknesses and to spot his opportunities to gain the upper-hand against his opponent.

The truth was that if he were to face Titan again he wasn’t sure that the result would be the same. Titan would be ready for him, and if he moved with enough speed and put together the right combination of moves Daniel might not be able to defend himself. For now though, Daniel was safe at the top. Titan was still recovering from the concussion and broken ribs Daniel had dealt him in their bout and tomorrow Daniel would be going on his first assignment as Elite Personal Security Force’s top agent.

Richfield had given Daniel the mission file for Gordon Demérs and his fiancé immediately following his fight with Titan the previous Saturday. The assignment was scheduled to begin the following Friday. This gave Daniel almost a week to recover and enjoy being recognized as the top-ranked agent before going on his first high-profile assignment.

Apparently Demérs was a regular customer of Richfield’s, and Titan had gone on assignment for him over a dozen times in the last two-years alone. His file suggested that Demers did a lot of dealings with business partners that he did not trust, and felt more comfortable knowing he had the best personal security in the world protecting him.

Daniel had asked Richfield if Demérs had ever been attacked while under the protection of an Elite agent.

“Twice,” Richfield responded. “There first time was with a middle-of-the-pack agent named Thymes. The attack was unprovoked and unexpected at the time. Thankfully Thymes was able to get both himself and Demérs out safely, but he was so shaken up by the experience that he walked away from the agency completely. Ever since then Demérs has insisted on having our best agent along with him.”

“What was the second time?” Daniel inquired.

“Demérs was working on a deal with one of his partners when things got heated. Apparently the two got into a shoving match and both Titan and the other guy’s body guard—all of these big wigs have their own personal security—had to pull them apart.

“Turns out the guy owned the building they were in and was so pissed at Demérs that he ordered a hit on him on the way out of the building. They shut down the elevators and everything—it was a whole ordeal. But Titan got them out safe and sound and since then I’ve never questioned sending the top agent to watch over him.”

Daniel wondered what it was that Demérs could have done to piss one of his business partners off so much that the man had tried to have him killed.

“Lifestyles of the rich and famous, Kid,” Blank had said after Richfield was finished with his story.

“I thought he just worked in investments,” Daniel had countered, shocked by the amount of discord between Demérs and his clients.

“The rich and powerful always have what they call ‘side projects’ going on,” Richfield explained. “Once they taste power they crave more and more of it no matter what the cost.”

Daniel shook his head, disgusted that men like that existed. Let alone the fact that Jordan could have wound up with one of them.

Jordan…

“And his fiancé?” Daniel asked almost too eagerly.

Blank nodded silently for a brief moment before answering, “It’s your girl kid.”

As with everything else that occurs in their lives, Daniel, Shifty, and Charlie used his first assignment as the top agent as a reason to celebrate, and more importantly, drink.

“To the number one agent at Elite,” Charlie announced, raising up his glass for a toast.

“Here, here!” Shifty shouted, following suit.

Reluctantly and slightly embarrassed, Daniel raised his mug filled with a dark, stout beer to join in the toast. He was pretty sure Charlie had made the same toast every night since his victory over Titan.

Daniel sometimes thought that Charlie and Shifty were happier about him being the number one agent than even he was. They couldn’t get over the fact that their drinking buddy was now at the top as opposed to the straight-laced overachievers whose names normally sat in that position the rankings board.

“So are you gonna get your girl back?” Charlie asked immediately following the toast.

Daniel sat back in his chair and pondered a moment. It was less than a year ago that Jordan had completed the process of shattering his heart at Navy Pier, driving him to this insanity he now called a life, but it seemed like a lifetime ago. Nothing was the same anymore. Daniel had completely transformed himself. He had even gone as far as to take—and lose—another lover since then, and Jordan was now engaged to be married.

Engaged,
he thought to himself.

It was amazing how much could change in such a short amount of time. Until now he hadn’t even considered the fact that he hadn’t spoken to Jordan before he’d left for Elite. He hadn’t told her that he had made a decision, and hadn’t even bothered to say goodbye.

Although in all fairness, she hadn’t contacted him either. It wasn’t as though he were completely shut off from the world during his training. He still had his cellphone and internet. In fact he had spoken to his mother at least once a week the entire time he was in training. Why should it have been his responsibility to be the one to contact Jordan? She hadn’t even bothered to tell him that she had gotten engaged.

“I don’t think you could even consider us friends anymore,” Daniel said, speaking his thoughts aloud.

It was true. That night at Margaritaville had served as their unofficial goodbye—The end of an era, so to speak.