Rather than a mere handshake, Jake opened and greeted Shiro with a large bear hug, earning him a few pats on the back from the latter. The strongest human sure wasn’t shy about showing that he was close with the Blade family. The reporters were commenting on this because they knew it was strange.
For one, the Green family were working closely with the Chained. There were talk shows that had clips for days of the two groups fighting together against beasts. It was to show the Chained’s strength, to get more people to feel safer with the Greens compared to those of Pure.
However, there was one thing that was clear, and that was the relationship between the Chained and the Blade family. Which is why they thought that Jake wouldn’t have acted like this so publicly.
“You know you shouldn’t be doing this,” Shiro commented, but couldn’t help but have a smile on his face.
“Who cares what people think? You’ve known me since I was nothing but a small brat. The only one who I would have to listen to is my old man.”
There was a scoff following Jake’s declaration, so he quickly corrected himself.
“Next to my beautiful mother, of course!”
When pulling away, Jake noticed something, and it wasn’t just the eyes of all the reporters, it was the slight heat that was coming off from Shiro’s body.
“Did something happen?”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle, and definitely not anything that needs to be talked about here.” Shiro replied, getting ready to sit down.
“Don’t look at me like that, if it had proven to be too much for little ol’ me, then he would have helped out.”
Jake didn’t look too confident about Shiro’s words, even after the other had given him a wink, but decided to leave it for now. He understood that this was neither the time nor place to talk about those things.
Unknown to the two of them, the whole world was currently talking about the Blade family. This was because many people had seen the strange attack that had occurred from AJ’s life stream.
There were people on both side arguing their case. One side claimed that this had merely been the action of an individual, therefore it shouldn’t represent the Chained as a whole.
On the other hand, the others at least blamed Clicker for failing to teleport the guy away, or at least the Blades to safety. More radical ones went as far as to accuse the Chained directly, with this being just a test.
“Hey guys, I would appreciate it if you stopped talking about that, because I’m scared for my life right now.” AJ thought to himself, still nervous inside. He was battling with his own feelings.
As a reporter he was naturally excited that everyone was talking about his captured footage, but for the first time since seemingly forever he truly felt in danger. The fact that Clicker had included him in the teleportation meant they had already known he was there.
This was different to filming battles that had already started between Pure and the Vampire Corps, or filming factions fighting against beats. AJ had possibly nor only caught, but also released something that the Chained would surely not like having been made public, especially on this particular day, making him into an actual target.
He was just hoping that now that the last VIP guests having arrived, this event would move on quickly.
“No more risky moves… I’m glad that I didn’t release that footage of Jessica crying. Maybe if worse comes to worst I can use it to bargain my way out or something.” AJ thought.
“Everyone, will you please finish what you are eating, and give a large round of applause for the person who was able to make this all possible, the one and only Russ Chain!” Clicker shouted.
Clicking his fingers, at the very end of the rose aisle, the man himself appeared. Surprisingly, the groom wasn’t wearing his beast armour. Instead, he had come out with no shirt on, only trousers, showing off his lean body as he walked.
Now with his top off, the large tattoo with black chains was completely visible. It was going across his back and chest, crossing over where his heart was, which also had a tattoo of its own, being locked up by several chains.
Clicker continued to click his fingers, summoning the elite team of the Chained, making them appear by the only empty table. Everyone clapped as they saw Russ out of respect, and soon he walked down the aisle on his own, all the way to the giant arch.
It certainly wasn’t like a conventional wedding, though honestly no one had expected it would be. When Russ eventually got onto the stage, he turned around and looked at his guests.
Without the need to say anything, the crowd went silent, intrigued by what he would say next. But first, he shifted his head to the Blades, especially Shiro.
“Honestly, it was hard for me to imagine such a day would ever come, but now look at us. Our group has been able to establish itself to the point where we’re able to meet eye to eye, on the same level as these figures here.”
“However, I want everyone present to know that it wasn’t easy for our group. No, for us, it was one of the hardest things to accomplish.”
“I wish to share our journey with all of you today, so that you might be able to understand the Chained a bit more, and continue to grow with us.”
“I was born in complete darkness as a slave.” Russ let a moment of silence pass to instil what he had just revealed.
“I don’t know much about my mother, apart from the tales my friends and what I came to call my family had told me, but I do know one thing for sure… and that is how she died.”
“You see, a long time ago, many of those you see here today, a member of their family line had been captured by the Blades for one simple reason: they desired their power. My mother was also among them.”
“The Blades named those like my mother the Chained, because that is what we were to them. Nothing but cattle that got chained up to prevent us from using our powers to escape, to be used whenever they desired.”
“It’s impossible to tell whether they didn’t know about my mother’s pregnancy or they simply didn’t care. They left her in a dark cellar, where she had to live off of the scraps of food.”
“Despite some others sharing parts of their own meals with her, my birth had left her too exhausted, leading to her death.”
“Now, would the Blade family let a little child go? No, they kept me chained up, just like my mother, in the hopes that I might have inherited her powers, or perhaps develop something else entirely for them to use.”
A lot of people were shocked to hear this, they knew of what the Blade had done, it had come out before, but they didn’t know specifically of Russ’s circumstance, and it looked like he was revealing it all today to everyone.
“However, there was some light and that was all the other Chained that had been in the same position as me. They were the ones who taught me how to speak, how to survive, and in return, I wanted to create a place for them where they and their family lines could live.”
“At first, we weren’t accepted, and it has taken a very long time, but now we are able to take a step forward circumstance, and it looked like he was revealing it all today to everyone.”
“Everyday we are taking a step forward and something that started out as a dream is becoming reality. To have a public wedding that the whole world is watching is truly an amazing thing.”
“I thank you all for accepting my invitation, and I thank you all for being witnesses of this truly historical moments.” Russ stated, bowing down to the rest of his group. The Chained couldn’t help but stand up and start clapping with all the strength they had in their hands.
“I have to say, he is a good speaker and can get the public on his side. Working with him was the right thing.” Fizzwell mused. “I’m glad he’s not an enemy.”
Hearing this, Jake and Shiro looked at each other, but since Logan wasn’t here, they clapped away, joining the other guests. In the middle of the applause, suddenly Clicker was made aware of something as a person approached him and whispered in his ear.
“What did you say? I don’t care! Just get rid of the problem! The wedding is about to start, we can’t have any more distractions!” Clicker replied.
Of course, AJ had been paying attention to Clicker this whole time due to his fears, and it allowed him to notice this, while everyone else was focused on Russ. Seeing this, he also could see off in the distance that a ship was approaching them.
Looking and filming the complete thing, it wouldn’t be long until the others would notice, but before that could even happen. A large energy beam was used, hitting the ship. It created a large explosion and a bang, turning the heads of all the others.
They could see a large dust cloud, but no ship, and so everyone was confused about the meaning of this.
“Everyone, please don’t worry!” Clicker shouted. “We were just testing something. Let’s sit down and continue on with the big day.”
It was strange to see the explosion, but it wasn’t too large to be anything significant, the others realised. After all, it was a small ship, the explosion was just bigger than the ship, yet AJ had managed to spot something.
Quickly pulling up a tablet linked to his cameras, he went through the footage an rewound it, slowing it down, and he definitely had caught something.
“Just before the ship was hit… it looks sleek, some people jumped off, but then they suddenly disappeared… into a shadow?”
