Chapter 4

Angela leads Spencer down into the Bronx. As they travel deeper into the borough, Spencer cringes at the deterioration the further and further they travel.

“Something the matter?” she asks when seeing his discomfort.

“I don’t remember it being this bad out here,” he says gloomy.

“Because it wasn’t,” she explains. “It’s been at its steady decline until the last few years when the Consortium took on its new leadership. After that things have taken a big change.”

“New York doesn’t look like it’s been affected,” he remarks, sounding skeptical.

“That’s because it’s too big to see the change right now, but something big is coming, Spencer,” she says with a grim tone.

“Who is this new leader?” he asks changing the subject back.

“That’s the problem,” Angela sighs. “No one knows and no one is talking. We have no leads and no information.”

“So what do we have to go on then?”

“Not a lot, but with you here maybe that will change,” she answers with a warm smile. “We’re here.”

Spencer shifts his gaze from Angela out the window to a small rundown looking shop wedged between two other shops. It looks like if someone wasn’t looking hard for it they would never find it. In the large window hang antique looking items, none particularly alluring.

“Doesn’t look like business is booming,” Spencer remarks dryly.

“Honestly, I don’t think he sell much of the antique stuff,” Angela informs him. “He is more into the other stuff that people come to him for.”

“So it’s more like a front for him.”

“You can say that,” she answers as they exit the car.

“And how exactly did you find this guy?” he asks.

“I didn’t find him, he found me,” Angela says to him as she passes. She gives him a don’t ask look as she reaches for the door.

Spencer shrugs, but pushes the question to the back of his mind for another time and follows her in. The shop looks like a junk yard. Shelves line the walls and fill up almost every available inch of floor space and they themselves are filled with junk that Spencer can only guess is the antique part of the store. In the back of the dimly lit store sits an old man with a very bald head and very white Fu Manchu.

“Jianyu!” Angela shouts, suddenly breaking the silence.

The old man looks up as if for the first time, but Spencer somehow knows the old man already knows who they are. “Ah, Angela my child,” Jianyu says with a rusty voice. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been well,” she answers with a warm smile. Before the old man can say anything more Angela wraps him in a hug which he kindly returns. Spencer, not sure what to do, just hangs back and leans against a rack with his arms crossed across his chest waiting.

After a moment the embrace is broken and Jianyu says, “I see you have brought a friend.”

“Yes, this is Spencer. He...”

“I know who he is,” Jianyu interrupts.

“You do?” Spencer and Angela ask simultaneously.

The old man laughs then answers in his rusty voice. “Of course I do. How else do you think I know so much about so much?”

Spencer looks to Angela and she returns a smile to him. “I told you he may know something.”

“Come, come,” the old man says waving them to follow him further back into the store. “Come sit. Have tea. We have much to discuss.”

“What about your store?” Spencer asks looking back toward the entrance. He isn’t quite comfortable with being in unfamiliar territory or leaving his back unguarded.

“No worries, no worries,” the old man chuckles. “No one comes.”

Spencer doesn’t move as he looks back to the entrance again. “Come on Spence,” Angela urges. “I’ve never seen anyone come here whenever I’ve been here.”

He sighs. “Alright, but I really dislike surprises.”

“Don’t we all?” she remarks as she grabs his hand.

They follow Jianyu into an even smaller room piled high with boxes. In the center sits a small wooden table with four wooden chairs and a tea set. The old man is already sitting at the table by the time Spencer and Angela enter the tiny room.

“Please have a seat. Drink some tea with me. We have much to talk about.”

Spencer looks to Angela once again and she only has a smile to offer him, but this time he can see a hint of concern behind her eyes. He takes his eyes off of her and scans the room quickly before helping her to a chair before taking his own. When no one jumps out at them he visibly relaxes slightly.

“Yes, yes,” the old man mutters. “Hot tea soothes the soul. And a troubled soul you have young man,” he says looking to Spencer.

Spencer gives him a hard look which quickly softens when he sees Angela’s reaction out of the corner of his eye. “My soul is just fine,” he says.

“Is that right?” the old man asks.

Spencer continues to stare at the man trying hard to not stare as hard as he wants to until finally he says, “What does it matter?”

“It matters a lot. Anger has its uses so long as you know how to channel that anger otherwise it can blind you.”

“I know where my focus lies,” Spencer bites back.

“Do you?”

“Yes,” he answers through gritted teeth.

“With whom then?” the old man asks after taking a sip of tea.

Spencer drops his gaze to his untouched cup. His plays his finger across the rim as his mind plays with the thought. He took revenge on Julie Branon, the one responsible for Samantha’s death and their unborn child. But who is ultimately responsible?

“The answer is elusive,” the old man says. “As it has been for a long, long time.”

Spencer looks up for the cup to the old man. He breaks away for a second to look to Angela as she has her gaze locked with the old man. When he looks back he says, “Care to elaborate?”

Jianyu chuckles again and takes another sip of his tea. “I am quite old and have been on this planet for a very long time, much longer than I can say I really care to have been. As I am sure you have heard of the Magi?”

Spencer nods his head and Angela looks to him with a questioning look. “My boss,” he says, “as it turns out was a Magi.”

“Rather a descendent,” Jianyu says. “Those like him are descendants, born with the knowledge passed on from generation to generation, but not of the history.”

“So what does have to do with me?” he asks.

“Nothing really.”

“Jianyu,” Angela interrupts. “We need help with what is happening now.”

He looks at her with a kind look and places his hand on top of hers. “Patience my child, I am getting to that, everything come around full circle which is what brought you here. Together here.” Angela opens her mouth to say something in response then just as quickly closes it. Jianyu just smiles and looks back to Spencer. “Many, many millennia ago we Magi were practically one race divided by only the color of our skin and our knowledge of science and keeping of knowledge. We were spread out across the universe inhabiting many worlds amongst many other cultures and races until we made a breakthrough in our science and developed leap in our own genetic code. We jumped into it. It was a chance to improve ourselves into something greater. At first it was marvelous and for any race to make such an improvement on itself is something special. But then something went terribly wrong. Those that volunteered for the genetic encoding changed into something evil and became the Sura.

We worked hard to eradicate our mistake by creating the Goji. Many races lost their lives in the process and many worlds were destroyed. The Sura proved in the end to be too powerful for even us and all we were able to do was isolate them to the planets they were on and warn the civilizations we associated ourselves with. Now we ourselves were a race of few and outcasts. We created monsters that destroyed and killed millions, so we decided to isolate ourselves away from the rest of the universe. We fled to Mars, which was a lush and beautiful planet like Earth. We fled to this one.

We lived for many years peacefully trying to forget the mistakes we had made and became known as the Atlanteans. But here on Earth those we created to fight our enemy became our enemy. And not just ours, but the human’s enemy. We felt an obligation to help since we were the ones responsible. The tide was eventually turned against the Goji. Their Sura leader, Vectivus, was losing and almost in complete defeat. Then suddenly when everything was thought to be won it all changed. Our people on Mars suddenly disappeared. Our connection to them was severed and when we attempted to establish a doorway to the world our greatest fears came to life.