_POV: Dele
Accra was burning. Not from us.
From him.
We ditched the van 2km from the convoy and ran on foot. Wosam air support was already sweeping the highway.
Kunle had his gauntlet out. Iyanu had wind holding us low. Zainab had us looking like a pile of rubble to drones.
Amina, Chike, and Fatima were in the middle. Ogbene was still chained, carried by Kunle like a sack of bad decisions.
And Kwesi?
Kwesi was walking backwards in front of us. Eating a meatpie he stole from a soldier 3 minutes ago.he looks like the reincarnation of mischief,he had a grin on is face
That seems to ask for a hard whooping.good when i thought the group couldn't become anymore chaotic
"You move fast for a bunch of old people," he said. "I'm 14. You're all like... 20? 30? Ancient."
"I'm 19," Amina said.
"See? Ancient."
"Shut up," I said. Lightning was itching in my fingers. "Where's pandora taking you?"
"Nowhere," Kwesi said. He spun. "I was already out. They just didn't know yet."
He snapped his fingers.
Every streetlight for 3 blocks went out. Then came back on. Then started blinking SOS.
Every car alarm screamed.
Every Wosam soldier's HUD showed: `FRIENDLY FIRE DETECTED. ENGAGE YOURSELF.`
Chaos. Beautiful chaos.
"You did this?" I asked.
"Pod 07. Inheritor of Anansi," Kwesi bowed. "God of stories, spiders, and scamming corporations. Pleasure."
Kunle stopped. "Can you stop the drones?"
Kwesi looked up. 100 Pandora's spider-drones were circling above us.
He whistled.
They dropped. Landed. Then started building a web between two buildings. With Wosam logos on them.
"Borrowed them," he said. "Finders keepers."
Zainab stepped forward. Gold in her eyes. "Kwesi. We're not Pandora We're building something. The Tome of Ascendant. For demigods. For people Wosam hunts."
Kwesi tilted his head. "Tome of Ascendant. That's corny."
"Effective," Zainab said.
"Fine," he shrugged. "But I have terms."
He held up fingers. "One: I pick the base. Two: I pick the snacks. Three: No one touches my spiders. Four: If we fight a fake god, I get to name it."
"Deal," I said before anyone else could argue.
Kunle stared at me. "We didn't discuss"
"Bro," I said. "He just hijacked an army with a whistle. We need him."
Kwesi grinned. "See? The lightning guy gets it."
Old taju threw a orange fruit that has been poked with a dirty finger
Kwesi caught it. Frowned. "You're weird."
"I'm late," Old Taju said. He pointed with his stick. Down the street.
More Pandora's. Tanks this time. 4 of them. And in the air: a dropship with a red cross.
"They're not here for you," he said. "They're here for the pods. They think you're in there."
He tapped the tank he was sitting on. It stood up.
"So. You gonna run? Or you gonna fight?"
I looked at the team.
Kunle: ready.
Iyanu: wind already spinning.
Zainab: gold rivers under her feet.
Amina, Chike, Fatima: scared but standing.
Ogbene: still silent in chains.
Kwesi: bouncing on his feet.
"Fight," I said. And pulled Oshogbo.
It wasn't a fair fight.
It was a trickster fight.
Kwesi didn't punch tanks. He lied to them.
He told Tank 1 that Tank 2 called it ugly. They started shooting each other.
He told the dropship pilot that his co-pilot was a spy. The pilot ejected.
He told the drones that the sky was made of candy. Half of them flew straight up until they ran out of battery.
Kunle was breaking armor.
Iyanu was lifting tanks and dropping them.
I was the lightning rod. Every bolt Wosam fired, I caught and threw back.
Zainab was in their heads. Making them see their mothers telling them to quit their job.
In 6 minutes, it was over.
4 tanks: scrap.
1 dropship: crashed into a billboard.
50 soldiers: asleep, dreaming of retirement.
Kwesi walked through it all, collecting Wosam badges. "Trophies," he said.
Then he stopped in front of Ogbene.
The Director finally opened his eyes.
"Anansi's child," Ogbene said. Voice like dry paper. "You should have stayed in the pod. Safer there."
Kwesi crouched. "Safer? Bro, you had me in a glass box for 2 years. I told stories to the walls to stay sane."
"You don't understand what's coming," Ogbene said. "The Gate. The Other. They'll eat your stories."
Kwesi grinned. "Then I'll tell a story where we win."
He stood. Looked at us. "So. Tome of Ascendant. Where's the base?"
Kunle answered. "The Sahara. Underground. We're building it now."
Kwesi nodded. "Cool. I call the east wing. And the kitchen. And I'm renaming the team."
"To what?" I asked.
"The Ascendants," he said. "Less paperwork."
Everyone groaned.
Old Taju laughed. Loud.
We left Accra before dawn. 7 demigods now.
In the van, Kwesi immediately started rearranging things.
He put spider-drones on the ceiling. "Security."
He stole Amina's charger. "Payment."
He looked at Ogbene and said "Don't talk to me unless you have snacks."
Then he turned to me. "Lightning guy. You're cool. But you yell too much."
"I don't yell," I said.
"You do," everyone said at once.
I threw a pillow at them.
Outside, the sky was lightening.
And above us, for just a second, the clouds made a shape. A gate. A tear.
Red flags. Characters I didn't know.
Then it was gone.
Iyanu saw it too. "Did you see that?"
"Yeah," I said. "Portal stuff. Old Taju was right. Something's knocking."
From the back, Old Taju burped. "Dinner in 6 hours. Don't be late."
Kwesi looked at me. "So. First mission for the Tome?"
"Find the other 5 pods," I said.
"Cool," Kwesi said. "But first, snacks. Then world domination. Then snacks again."
The van rolled into the desert.
Behind us Pandora's goon
Ahead of us: 5 more demigods. A portal. And something bigger.
And for the first time since Lagos, I wasn't worried.
Because if the world wanted to end,
it was gonna have to get through us first.
And we had a trickster now.