Escape: Through the Fourth Wall

3: Mayor, Mayor, On The Wall, Who's The Shadiest Of Them All?

Twenty six criminals, four elves pretending to be garden gnomes, one drunk matador (thrice), a couple miniature fairies with a brainwashing fetish, one jeep's worth of goblins, one invisible centaur and one leprechaun at the end of a rainbow with a pot of cyanide.

The entire list of all the creatures I had rounded up in the six months I had been The Paladin.

None of which were on my mind as I was soaring over the city as usual one night.

Mostly because the next day would be my first day at TSP University.

I had opted to stay there until the winter vacation, and that would mean new friends to keep my secret identity from. But the main thing was that I would be far away from the anger and the hate that was my homes and my family.

I was interrupted from my musing by a flash as what seemed to be a beam whizzed past my face and missed my mask by mere inches.

I looked down to see that the source of the ray was a man who looked like a bodybuilder holding a gun that gave me an uneasy sensation of deja vu. 

He was right in my line of flight almost directly below me, so I locked on target and dived.

If the name wasn't already taken, I would've called myself Falcon just for that one moment.

I was interrupted from my sonic descent once again, this time by the arrival of a black limousine.

Only two people in The City own limousines. One is the enigmatic CEO of True Dough, and the other is-

"Mister Paladin!" said the mayor with a smile so forced it deserved its own sitcom.

I stumbled mid-air. Up until then I didn't think that was possible.

What can I say- I guess I just keep surprising myself.

With a slightly shaky landing, I glanced over the mayor's crisp appearance. And crisp it was indeed. His crisp white shirt sleeves peeked out of his sleek black suit. He may have been a couple inches shorter than me, but the crispness of his aura was coated in something more- power. Truckloads of it.

"Please enter the vehicle," he continued, but his sleek, slight sneer made it known that that was not in the least a request.

I got in the 'vehicle'. Seriously, who could give a limo such a generic title? Only the mayor.

With a snap of his fingers, the 'vehicle', which I will probably be unable to stop calling it, began moving towards the centre of The City.  I already knew the destination.

"I assume you know where we are heading," he drawled.

"I do," I replied. "What I want to know is why I am headed there."

"Patience."

Fizz, he found my weakness already.

***

"The City Official Headquarters for the Solitary Democratic Leader of the Municipal Government," said the mayor, swinging the huge metal door open after punching in a twenty-digit code.

"Most people just say the mayor's office," I mumbled.

Giving me a look, the mayor marched up the wide stairway flanked by six of his bodyguards.I followed him to another doorway in the middle of the third floor.

Two guards stayed outside while the rest of us entered.

I gasped. The room was enormous. It was larger than both my homes combined.