THE ONE CALLED J

Two Battles

Joshua still kept his calm demeanor.  The drunk and the woman who was beside him could not notice the entourage that was directly in front of them.

"They can't only not just see the entourage," Joshua thought to himself. "They are also unable to see that the entire room is frozen."

The drunk who was beside Joshua had already drunk the two tequila shots, he was currently sipping from the third cup.

"Is it me or it just suddenly turned cold in here, it's like minus five degrees," the woman had begun to fold her arms.

"You scum," Joshua grits his teeth as he looks at the bartender with contempt.

"I don't care what I do to achieve the aim of Madame's wishes," the bartender smiles. "You should have brought Maxwell and David here, they were your best hope of defeating me."

"I am sure you two have a really rich history," the woman said as she got to her feet. "Why I would love to sit back and hear all of it, I have to get back, it's really cold in here." She moved towards the door, she stretched her right arm as she touched the doorknob. "ARGHHHH!!!!!" she screamed, her hand had immediately frozen and the ice began to spread fast to the rest of her body.

"Entourage!!!" Joshua screamed as his body was suddenly enclosed in blue miasma, his entourage had formed directly beside him, now everything appeared as if it had paused, even the random particles in the atmosphere appeared to have stopped but he looked over at the woman, the ice was still spreading around her body. His Entourage dashed towards her, vibrating its two arms as fast as it could in order to produce a huge amount of heat, it grabbed the woman and thanks to the intense heat formed, she was immediately warmed, as fast as it could, the entourage also pulled her away from the door. Joshua recalled his entourage towards his direction. "I don't see any miasma around the bartender , if what Dave said is right, the perception of the bartender should be no different from that of an average human as he presently doesn't have any miasma cloak, this is my chance to end this," Joshua's entourage suddenly dashed towards the bartender but as it was about to punch him, the entourage which was floating in the air that touched the wall suddenly appeared in front of his entourage.

"ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE!!!!!" Joshua screamed as loud as he could.  His entourage released a barrage of punches towards the bartender's entourage, the bartender's entourage didn't relent as it too returned the gesture and also threw a barrage of punches speedily back at it, their fists continually hitting each other in the mid-air, it began to cause the very foundation of the bar to shake, it was causing earthquakes all over the city but Joshua's entourage eventually stopped punching as it suddenly vanished.

Joshua's calm facade was gone, his face was a mix of fear and terror, his palms were frozen, he couldn't feel it. "What the f**k?!"

"Didn't no one tell you," the bartender looked unemotionally at him. "Any damage received by an entourage immediately travels back to the user, in terms of offensive capabilities, my entourage didn't stand a chance against yours, as a result, I enclosed its palm with fluid from the air with a temperature of negative 789 duovigintillion kelvin, the intense cold absorbed most of the energy released by your entourage's punches which had become heat if I had let the energy of your entourage disperse into the atmosphere the way you released it, saying just the local group would be destroyed is a huge understatement and Madame wouldn't want that, that's the only reason I didn't let you destroy everything with your folly, you have a poor handle on controlling the energy dispersal of your entourage, I have to say, I am disappointed."

Joshua jumped backward, he could feel sweat breaking off his forehead, he couldn't feel his palms which had indirectly come in contact with possibly the coldest phenomenon ever known to mankind. He could feel his body getting colder, the temperature of the room had kept dropping. The woman was still at the far end of the room, close to the door, she had passed out. Her seeing her arms suddenly freeze like that had put her in a shock which in turn led to a coma. The drunk on the stool was sleeping soundly, he must have passed out due to extreme cold. If this kept up, Joshua, the woman, and the drunk were going to die of intense cold if not directly from the bartender's entourage.

"This really isn't my day," Joshua gritted his lower lip.

Ben had suddenly gotten to his feet, lying before him was Joshua who was bruised all over his body, bleeding profusely, Ben walked over to the blonde teen, bending down and putting his hand to his neck, he felt for a pulse but there was none at all.

"This doesn't feel like I have won," Ben says as he got to his feet, he looked around him, everything was exactly as he left it.

"Max, are you sure this plan is going to work?" Dave asks, he and Max were about twelve feet high in the atmosphere, they were enclosed in black and purple miasma respectively, they were held fixed in the air by Max's entourage which seemed to be carrying both of them effortlessly without even using its arms.

"Trust me," Max reassures him. "If this doesn't work, then I don't know what will."

Ben moved over to Vincent's body, he bent down as if trying to study it. "My entourage made marks at about 127 places," Ben thought he was thinking but in actuality, he was talking aloud. "I have a photographic memory, I know where all those places are," Ben said as he began to thoroughly examine the body. "I took an IQ test of recent, I had a score of 193, there's something illogical about what just happened, I know of the strength of J's punches, it's so strong it once broke a concrete brick into two equal halves, I remember him giving me a barrage of it when one of it is enough to knock an average man cold, I am finding it hard to believe I was actually out for as short as I remember."

"Max," Dave was beginning to lose his cool as his entourage had begun to take shape behind him. "He's getting suspicious and I have a feeling he will really be dangerous, I think this is the time we return him to the stage we initially met him in."

"Relax," Max said. "I made sure to leave everything exactly as I had met it on Vincent's body."

"123, 124, 125, 126," Ben was counting as he suddenly flipped the body over. "And that one marks 127, guess I was just being hysterical for no reason, I have actually defeated J, I have to say, it was easier than I thought, I really hoped he would have given me more of a challenge."

Max heaved a sigh of relief, for a moment there, he was scared that the plan was about to go to s**t, Dave noticed this as he nodded his friend lightly. "Pardon me for being too hard on you, I was a bit tense."

"It's cool," Max answered.

"I am in an illusion, aren't I?!" Ben's voice thundered aloud, Max and Dave were immediately shocked as they heard him say that.

"Come on!!" Ben shouted again. "It's so f*****g obvious that I am in one, you left everything in order but you made one mistake or maybe it wasn't that it was a mistake, it was just an error due to ignorance," Ben said as he opened the pockets of his trousers. "My phone? It's gone, Maxwell, I know you are somewhere around and I bet a hundred bucks your faggot friend, David ain't too far from you, if J was with you guys, he wouldn't have been able to resist the urge to make a snarky comment."

"Phone, what the hell is he talking about?" Max asks, he could feel sweat breaking off his forehead.

"Don't you see," Dave answers him. "You said you saw J pick up something from the floor, it must have been the phone, maybe it fell during their fight and somehow, we just happened to miss it even when we surveyed the area."

"I am right, aren't I?" Ben smirks. "If J did what I am thinking he did and has gone to Kronk's bar, then he won't be returning, Kronk is a far more dangerous entourage user than even I and Madame has far worse than the two of us under her disposal, there's no way a bunch of good for nothing kids like you can possibly triumph."

"He said Kronk's bar, I know that place," Max quickly said. "It's directly opposite the new MacDonald restaurant that was opened last month, that must be where J is, we have to go and help him."

"Max, wait," Dave said holding the arm of his friend tightly. "Don't you find this a bit too odd, why did Ben intentionally give us the address of the place, he's trying to bait us to move, I don't know everything that has been occurring behind the shadows but one thing is for sure, the a*******n of Eva was well calculated, he knew your name and mine, also, he even knew about your entourage and it's ability."

"So, how does that have to deal with anything?" Max asks.

"It means Eva, you, J and I have been watched for quite some time, I can't properly guess the time frame but if I am to take a guess, I would say at least weeks," Dave continues. "You also heard what he said about his IQ, it's over 190, I haven't heard about an IQ that high since J, I think he wants us to move."

"Even if that's what he wants, there's no way that can help him pinpoint our location, don't forget, the ability of my entourage allows me to manipulate all four senses of the human body including smell, sight, hearing, and taste, when we move, he would hear absolutely nothing at all until we are out of his earshot."

"Be that as it may be, I still have an eerie feeling about this, let's not move, let's just be patient and see what happens."

"Gosh!" Max shouted. "J is possibly on the verge of death, if we delay any more moment, he could die, I don't like him or anything but at least that doesn't mean I should let him die, after all, he is real, your phantom Eva isn't."

"That was unnecessary," Dave said, he struggled to stop a tear from falling from his right eye.

"Just like all this bullshit, it's stupid, I am sick of this crap, I am going home," Max said as he landed on the ground, immediately he landed, Max fainted, and immediately he did, his entourage disappeared.

As it did, Dave could feel his body hurling towards the ground, preparing his body for land, he hit the ground with full force.

THUD!!!!!

"So that's where you two were," Ben smiled. "All high in the skies and watching everything going down."

"What did you do to Max?"

"Nothing serious, actually," Ben smiled evilly at Dave. "The moment I had found out that you two were here, I had encroached everything within a radius of 12 meters from here with miasma from my entourage, it's an old technique when another miasma-cloaked entourage user moves within the space of another miasma enclosed space, it interferes with the spirit of the entourage user itself thereby disabling it for a while and we both know entourages are ethereal manifestations of spiritual energy and soul essence meaning if the spiritual energy is not present, the entourage immediately disappears and also no one can live while their spirit is disabled."

"I am guessing that technique doesn't work on Primordials," Dave still had his calm demeanor on. "If it did, I reckon I too would be unconscious too."

"It would appear it doesn't, after all, you are the first Primordial I am testing it on."

"How many have you met?"

"Hmmm, lemme see," Ben began counting imaginary lines in the atmosphere. "Madame would be one, J would be the second, and you, the third."

"Whosoever this guy calls Madame must be the reincarnation of the evil sibling as recorded in the fables," Dave thought to himself. "I have to get serious with this battle, if what he said about Kronk is true, then J is in real trouble as he's inexperienced with entourages, I have great faith in him but I can feel that if I don't go and help him now, I will regret it."

"My friend, Max is against teenagers beating up adults," Dave begins as his entire body was now cloaked with purple miasma and the silhouette of his entourage was becoming more defined. "I agree with his logic and saw nothing wrong with it until I met you, if you still require your testicles to father kids, I suggest you inform me where Eva is and stay the f**k out of my way."

"Children will always be children," Ben grinned as his entourage had already formed behind him, there was now a white mist surrounding the entire scenery which kept getting thicker. "They always think they will win because they are right, it's time I teach you as an adult the difference between fantasy and reality, it isn't being right that guarantees winning."

"So you think just because you are older automatically makes you an adult, in case you haven't noticed, maturity doesn't grow with age," Dave ended as his entourage had now formed directly behind him, it was over eight-foot-tall, it was extremely muscular, it had platinum and gold medals adorning its chest and its body was dressed like an army general, it's head had well defined facial features and there was a black eye patch which covered it's left eye and its wrists were adorned with crescents, it had a purple skin color.

The sight of the entourage sent shivers to Ben's skin.

Joshua was trying to rack his head as fast as he could, at the moment, he wasn't worried about his life, he was concerned for the drunk and woman who was still lying on the ground.

"Wow, so much for the show of indifference you always put on," Kronk(the bartender) said, he had maintained the same facial expression all through. "I always knew it was a facade, it's during your teenage years that your emotions are strongest and you turned sixteen last year on December 30, you can't bear to watch anyone die, well, I suppose giving you a bit of emotional trauma before killing you wouldn't be too bad."

Kronk's entourage which was floating directly above him stretched his right arm, immediately an ice spear about 8 feet long suddenly appeared in his palms, he threw it towards the drunk.

"ENTOURAGE!!!!" Joshua screamed as immediately, his entourage materialized and dashed to the drunk, pulling his body away from harm's way but the same couldn't be said about his entourage as the tip of the ice-spear had hit it on his left leg. Joshua's entourage vanished as Joshua fell to one knee on the ground, the leg was completely stiff and frozen.

"This is too easy," Kronk says as he looked at the counter, he was taken aback as there were supposed to be three cups but instead of that, there were now two.

"Where's the third cup?" He asks as he turned in Joshua's direction.

"You mean this," Joshua asked as he held up a small cup.

While Joshua's entourage had gone to save the drunk earlier, the entourage had used its other arm to maneuver the other cup, tossing it towards Joshua's direction.

"What are you going to do with a cup?" Kronk asked.

"It's funny that you asked," Joshua smiled as he held up the cup. "This right here is an old-fashioned glass cup which could comprise of silica sand, soda ash, limestone, dolomite, and recycled glass, its texture enables it to be able to retain drinks of really cold temperature."

"How is this related to what's on ground?" The bartender asks, he had a puzzled look on his face, for the first time his facial expression had changed.

"Nothing really," Joshua had a sly smile on his face. "I was just buying time."

As he said that, there was a deafening sound of breaking glass.

CRANNNNKKKKK!!!!!!!!.

Joshua's vehicle has suddenly broken through the biggest window as it landed in the bar and came to an abrupt stop, there was also something spectacular about the vehicle, it was encompassed in blue miasma.

(TO EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENED)

Once Joshua had noticed that the entire walls, windows, and the door had been frozen, he had begun to whisper coordinates under his breath for his vehicle to go, he had skillfully hidden his phone between his laps to check how it was going as his phone could show the location of his vehicle through GPS tracking, when he was certain it had gotten sufficient distance required for enough momentum, he had immediately given it the coordinates of where the window of the bar was located.

(STORY CONTINUATION)

Once Joshua saw that the windows were now broken, he ran towards the drunk. Kronk's entourage formed tens of ice spears in a circular fashion around him, he brought down his arm causing the spears to fly towards Joshua's position.

"ENTOURAGE!!!!" Joshua screamed as his entourage suddenly appeared before him. "There's something that every object no matter the degree of temperature will always submit to and it's called force."

As Joshua said that, his entourage blew as hard as it could, it caused the counter to suddenly rip off from the floor as it caused the ice spears to suddenly fly backward towards the bartender who easily evaded them all. "I don't understand," Joshua thought to himself. "How can he dodge those ice spears, according to what Dave told me, the only way that should be possible is if he enclosed himself in his miasma but he didn't, how therefore can he evade it?" Joshua carried the drunk with his two arms, with all the strength he could muster, he flung the drunk out the window, the drunk landed by the roadside softly.

Joshua could feel his entire body freezing but he was sure the drunk would at least live, all he needed was just to save the other woman. "The bartender would be expecting me to carry the woman as the last-ditch attempt to escape, I have to give him a bit of surprise," Joshua clenched his fist as he turns towards the bartender.

"You are something, too bad you will be nothing soon," the bartender said in his direction.

"And nothing describes the word nothing like your worth," Joshua adds as he tore after him, he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, he jumped on one of the stools as he used that to propel himself even higher in the air.

"Entourage!!!!" Joshua screams and as he did, his entourage appeared directly behind him, Joshua found himself standing directly in the air "There are an uncountable number of particles in the atmosphere, a particle hitting anyone will do close to no damage but a particle hurled at a speed beyond far that of light will do exponentially higher damage due to drastic increase in mass and momentum," Joshua gritted his teeth as his entourage began to stretch his hands back and forth as if it was throwing something, his entourage was picking up particles from the air as it has begun to throw it speedily towards Kronk and his entourage.

"ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE."

Kronk evaded one of the particles but as the particle hit the ground, the force behind it was so high that the floor ripped into two.

"If this keeps up, you will die," Kronk says, he was looking in Joshua's direction.

"How does that make any sense?" Joshua thinks. "I am clearly the one with the advantage here."

"Form an ice wall around the counter!" Kronk orders and as he did, an ice wall suddenly appeared separating Kronk and his entourage from Joshua and the woman.

Joshua landed on the ground, without missing a beat, he ran towards the woman, he felt for a pulse, she was alive, with the last of his remaining strength, Joshua lifted her on his shoulder.

"You simpleton," Joshua heard a voice behind him, he looked back and saw Kronk, apparently the ice wall that was separating the two of them had vanished and in Kronk's right arm, he was holding a particle. Joshua was only able to see that it was a particle because his body was still cloaked in his blue miasma, therefore, heightening his vision.

"How is that possible?" Joshua thought. "Only entourages have the precision to be able to hold particles," it was then that it dawned on Joshua but it was too late. Kronk threw the particle in Joshua's direction.

"ENTOU..." before Joshua could utter the word completely, the particle ripped through the head of the woman he was carrying causing the entire skull to splatter into tiny bits and spill on Joshua's face and that of bypassers.

"First Primordial," Kronk said as the ice wall began to form back. "We shall meet again."

Joshua was devasted, he dropped the body of the woman to the floor as he ran towards the forming ice wall, his entourage had already appeared at his right side, his entourage punched the ice wall shattering it to miniature bits but Kronk was no longer there, he had disappeared, Joshua fell to his knees, he couldn't believe it. He had blown his chance to find out where Eva could be and that wasn't the worst of it, he had let someone die under his watch.