Terrence Brooks Jr's Arc

Chapter 1 of 7

Terrence Brooks Jr stood seven feet tall in a dead man's alley, and he still felt small. Back in Milwaukee, crowds screamed his name when he dunked. He drove past defenders smooth, like the ball owed him a favor. Then something dragged him here, to this broken block in the shadow of Sunspire City. He didn't belong. He wasn't even from Earth, though he didn't know that yet. He only knew one thing: a voice inside him said the answers to who he really was were buried under these streets. He needed a man who remembered. The old-timers whispered about a friend of the block boss who kept every secret. Rex McCaslo. Terrence found his cottage past a cluster of bright blue weed plants, their leaves shivering in the wind. Rex opened the door six inches. His hand shook on the frame. He was thin, gray, with eyes that kept darting past Terrence's shoulder. "You the ballplayer," Rex said. "You need to leave. Now." "I need to know what's under this block," Terrence said. "They say you know everything." "I know enough to stay quiet." Rex started to shut the door. Terrence caught it with one huge hand. "Please. I got nowhere else." Rex looked at Terrence's size, his desperation, and something cracked. He pulled him inside and locked three bolts. "There's tunnels," Rex whispered. "Old service tunnels, running under everything. Whoever put you here, they used them. That's where your answers are." He pointed a shaking finger at the floor. "But you can't go down there. He rules those streets now." "Who?" "One2." Rex's voice dropped to nothing. "A dead man. He walks. He killed Vane. He killed Beno, Ladybug, all thirty of her women. Ripped the souls right out of them. Now every runner on this block kneels to him." Terrence didn't blink. "A zombie." "Don't say it out loud. He hears things." Rex grabbed a scrap of paper and drew fast, sweat on his lip. Lines, turns, a way in. "This gets you into the tunnels without crossing his men. It's the only map that survived." He pressed it into Terrence's palm. Then his eyes went wide, staring past him at the window. Outside, gold teeth flashed under a streetlight. Sunglasses at night. One2 stood in the weeds, unmoving, watching the cottage. Rex made a small, broken sound. "He followed you." Terrence looked at the map, then at the old man's terror. He had what he came for. But he had led death straight to the only friend this block had left. "Go," Rex whispered. "Out the back. Take it and don't come back here." Terrence folded the map and slipped through the rear door into the dark. Behind him, he heard the front lock splinter. He didn't turn around. He had his way into the tunnels now. He just had to reach them before the dead man reached him.