16. Place to re-create

Remedios circle. Located at the intersection of Remedios, Bocobo and Nakpil in Malate, Manila.

This place is a recreation area constructed to provide the residents of Manila a place to relax.

This is during the day. At night, the place is a venue for late night pick-ups. A market for the flesh.

Even late in the evening and after a light drizzle, the plaza is still clattered with people. There are couples who go out for a nice evening walk. Some street children are also out to play. There are pimps, prostitutes and their patrons, vendors, and clients of restaurants and cafes surrounding the place.

The crowd is about to get bigger.

Bigger by four more individuals. But this group is not here to relax or trade or have some sip of coffee. They are here to battle.

RD ran straight toward the center of the plaza. Behind him, is the cloaked warrior whose blue wave-like fire ball gave them space and time to escape from two other similarly clad warriors.

RD is not sure if this new guy is here to save him. This person may be here as part of a "play" to lure him somewhere else. But he put those thoughts aside for now. Right now, he needs to get away.

One of the attackers, a female, was able to get on top of one of the buildings straddling Bocobo street. She held her hands together. Light tracing the markings on her arms illuminated from under her cloak. At it reached her hands, a series of fireballs shot toward RD. First one, then another, then another.

People began to scream. They started running away from the scene. Some on lookers started coming out of the restaurants or began peeking through the windows.

As the first fireball is about to reach RD, another fireball intercepted it. It blew up in mid air. But two more are coming. The place is now in chaos.

RD's new "ally" was throwing one fireball after another at the on coming shots from the female attacker. He intercepted all three. But he was not paying attention to the male attacker.

The male attacker is running on top the buildings that sit between Remedios and Bocobo opposite the one where the female attacker is perched. He is trying to outflank them. A bow and arrow in his hands.

He stops, pulls the string tight, aims the arrow at RD and shoots.

The newcomer did not notice him, but RD did. He already picked up a bag that somebody has dropped and was swinging it toward the archer in the same moment the arrow was released.

The arrow penetrated the bag. The force pushed the bag back. But another arrow is on the way. And there is no other bag around.

RD side-stepped toward a garbage collection barrel to his right, pushed himself off the ground with his left leg and stepped on the barrel rim with his right. He then bent his knee and pushed off the barrel to again change his direction toward the left. As he did this, he twisted his body clockwise and placed his right hand near his face. As he turned, he saw the arrow. He adjusted his hand and parried the deadly projectile away from his body. His body continued in its motion to complete a diagonal somersault.

Another arrow is on its way.

RD landed kneeling on one knee facing the archer. He saw the glint of the third arrow. He shifted his weight to his left and caught the arrow with his left hand. Then he swung his right hand and released a projectile shaped like a six-pointed star and three feet in diameter toward the archer. The archer was busy shooting down RD that he did not notice the weapon form as RD was completing his aerial roll.

The star split into two three-pointed stars. Each star swung in an arc, one to the left and the other to the right. Then they changed directions to converge at the point where the archer, ready to release his fourth arrow, is standing.

By that time, the female attacker has now repositioned herself toward the building corner near Adriatico. She jumped off to the ground.

Using the glare from the restaurant windows as a distraction, she ran back toward the direction of Bocobo. As she ran, she threw several bolts of electricity that jumped from one puddle to the other, racing toward the new warrior and RD. There are ten bolts in all crisscrossing the wet cobblestones.

On the other side of the circle, the two star-shaped projectiles caught the attention of the archer.

He jumped backward and adjusted his aim.

He released.

The two spinning projectiles met at the point where the archer was used to be. They did not collide. They spun through and continued on a figure eight direction to once again meet where the archer is supposed to be landing.

RD jumped away from where he knelt. His direction will put him in a puddle. And a puddle is a dangerous place when electricity is concerned.

The blue-flame-powered warrior leaped and caught RD as he is about to land on the puddle. This meant the RD is not going to be electrocuted. Not yet.

As they rolled, the warrior made a shield materialized just in time for the electric bolts to converge on them. The impact of the bolts on the shield shattered them. But they did not dissipate. Instead they blew up creating tens of bolts that burned anything it got into contact with.

The ground is wet. RD is wet. And he is lying on the ground. As residual bolts hit the ground. RD felt some shock.

He trembled. His joints began to hurt. And he curled from the pain.

The warrior heard RD whimper. He has to make a decision. He cannot see the archer now. He may have been hit by RDs projectiles but we was not sure. He looked for the female assailant. He cannot find her. People have started coming out of the restaurants.

They must get away.

11. City Run

Julio Nakpil is a revolutionary leader during the Filipino-Spanish war. He has been recognized more as a musician, an artist, than as a commander of guerrilla forces who fought against Spanish rule under Andres Bonifacio. He once composed a national anthem for the Philippines in 1896 bearing the title "Marangal na Dalit ng Katagalugan." He is recognized for his works that a street in one of the party places of Manila was named after him.

Every night from 10:00pm to the wee hours of the morning, Manila's youth party along J. Nakpil Street bordering Ermita and Malate on the City of Manila. [map]

This night is different from the other nights. This night, yuppies and party goers are in the night of their lives.

It was raining that night. Scattered rain showers were brought in by Typhoon Mina (local designation) bathed the patrons of many bars and restaurants lining up the street. But the rains or the typhoon did not scare away the eager customers. The in fact reveled at the chance of cooling off in the streets.

Music were fed out of Nakpil establishments to provide appropriate dance rhythms to the young party-goers. They were from different genres spanning from the 80s, 90s, to the new millennium.

Away from all the noise and lights and drinks, rapid steps splash on puddles and bodies break through falling rain, cloaks drenched and heavy.

The man running from two others is Roberto Damasco. Running along the apex of a roof, he looked back at the two chasing him. On of them, a few meters behind and the other closely following to his left.

Roberto, or RD to his friends, works as an information technology specialist of Hewlett Packard in Makati. RD is about to reach to end of the roof.

I need to get away, he thought. I need to loose them. How did they find out where I will be tonight? That old man. I knew I could not trust him.

He primed himself to lead to the next one. A flat roof deck of a 2 story apartment building. He increases speed, times his step for the lunge.

As he is about to take the last three steps, he noticed a light flash from his left. The second pursuer stopped atop an elevated water tank and fired a fire ball at him. He lost footing and fell to his side, hitting the ridge of the rooftop with his side, almost cracking a rib. The fireball passed overhead, missing him by a few inches yet he felt the heat radiated from it as rain was immediately transformed to steam upon contact.

RD is just 24 years old and lives with his wife and one year old son in Guagua, Pampanga. He turned on his stomach and tried to grab the ridge but he was to late. He struggled to stop himself slipping toward the edge an onto the concrete pavement below the three-story building. He continued to slip. The rain waters lubricating his progress.

The pursuer behind him is now running along the length of the roofs ridge. He raised his hand and a marked spear formed from thin air and threw it at RD.

RD rolled to his left as he continued to slip, the spear boring on the galvanized iron sheet roof. As he rolled, he swung his right hand at the spear-wielding assailant, releasing three daggers in his three rolls. His aim was good but so was the attacker who was able to avoid the sharp edges of the spinning dagger bearing ancient markings.

This time, the spear-wielder stepped on the GI sheet roof, running diagonally toward RD using his momentum and the downward slope of the roof to get to RD fast. He produced a bolo. His intent: to kill.

RD was able to push himself up and used the same technique running toward the edge of the roof to the gutter and away from the boloman. He jumped, caught a suspended electrical cable and used it to swing in a 360 degree somersault across the street to another cable. He swung again, releasing his grip from the wire just before a ball of electricity reached it. RD landed on the sill of the apartment next to the aerial wires, holding the window's caulk for support.

With rain waters drenching the cables acting as conductor adding to the conductive properties of the wire, the electric charge from the ball run through the powerline on both directions, some charge transferring to the other wires through the rain droplet. A transformer at the electrical post on one end blew up due to the overloading causing a blackout.

Turning around, RD saw the boloman swing his hand. A shuriken four times larger the normal spin towards him. To his right, the other pursuer who fired the electric ball produced a spear and threw it at RD.

RD swung his left arm horizontally in front of him, releasing a similar shuriken aimed at the attacker on his right. This was followed by his right arm that released another shuriken spinning toward the attacker on his left. Leaning forward, he bent his knees, swing his arms back and propelled himself forward while making a quarter left turn. He lifted he left leg just above the spinning shuriken from his attacker on the left. The shuriken missed his leg but shredded his cloak.

His right hand caught the runner of the roof just below the gutter, this time turning the opposite direction. RD gripped the runner with his right hand and swung his legs forward, missing the spear by centimeters.

As the shuriken shattered the window while embedding itself on the wall, the spear bore a hole on the outer wall of the house.

RD used the momentum of his body to swing his legs further up, keeping a tight grip on the runner. His years of doing crunches and sit-ups helped him curl his body as his feet neared 270 degrees in its swing. His fingers are in pain, but he could not let go. He pulled himself up as he continued to swing. In the last moment, he let go, landing on his belly at the inclined GI roof. This time, the impact of his body on the roof dented it preventing him from sliding down head first to the spiked walls of the apartment compound.

He pushed himself up and searched for his attackers only to find two balls of fire coming toward him. He is in a very awkward position and had trouble getting up.

Is this the end, he asked himself.

The two fireballs converged. One from across a tree where the target of his first shuriken jumped to to avoid being cut in two and the other one from the concrete post where the other attacker perched who avoided the first shuriken by somersaulting.

A loud explosion was heard by the people partying two blocks away.