Lonely Path of Kai

Section 1

Prologue

There comes, only once in a lifetime, a hero who is truly great. A hero who is known and worshipped by all. A hero who has sacrificed everything in the name of justice. A hero whose life has become legend.

1

The little chromium ball descended, slowly at first, picking up speed as it hurtled through the atmosphere of the planet it had surveyed for the last billion years.
It landed with a small thump!, and a tiny hole opened, giving an alien glow to a dark, lifeless land, littered with debris.

2

Thunk!...Kink, kink, kink… Kai watched as the can bounced down the street, finally stopping under a lamp several meters away. He checked his watch. 1o’clock AM. A normal child would almost certainly be grounded for being this late. But then again, Kai wasn’t a normal child.
Both his parents had died before he was 6, and he had grown up an orphan. He lived in an orphanage, but he had always felt no one really cared for him. Consequently, he had stopped caring in return, and was now most definitely a loner and troublemaker.
Clink…clink…clink… The fence rattled as Kai climbed. A sign nearby read DO NOT ENTER! Highly Dangerous Area. Kai stared at the sign and laughed. This was the probably the hundredth time he’d ignored such signs, and so far, he still hadn’t died. He turned back to his destination and saw something glowing. Now his interest was piqued. He immediately flipped over the fence, landing with a soft whump as he hit the ground.

3

The signal being emitted was designed to attract a life form of the host planet. The life form would be drawn to the orb and they wouldn’t even know. It was the only way to guarantee an ejection.
In this case, the signal seemed to have worked, and the onboard computers had just sensed a life form. Mechanisms and robotic arms inside sprung to life. A blood red tube, only a few millimetres in diameter, was inserted onto a coiled robotic arm. The smallest of needles, thinner than a human hair, was positioned onto the other end of the tube, which fused to the needle immediately.
Quite suddenly, faster than it had begun even, the orb quieted, waiting for the bipedal life form to draw near…


4

Nearer and nearer he drew toward the glow. It was like he was being called toward the orb, but that was impossible…was it? Kai shuddered, but continued on his journey, until he was standing right over the glow.
Without warning, a tiny something, the thing with the glow, shot up, and a needle zipped out from somewhere, going straight for his heart.
Pain coursed through his body, like the vile poisons, and Kai collapsed, to lie crumpled on the floor. There was a flash, and then…there was nothing.

5

He awoke with a start, his breath in short, ragged bursts. Groggily, he got up, to find himself in a junkyard. What on earth…how did I end up over here? Last night though…what happened?
Kai scrambled up. He remembered a glow but nothing else. Damn. Well, this marks a first. The first time I should have paid attention to one of ‘em signs. He looked around wildly, and his hands crunched into a fist. He lashed out at the nearest object, whipping his fist at a 5 cm metal plate.
Cruuunchhhh! Rusting iron crumpled around his fist and a high-pitched screeching filled the air as the sheet was lifted from where it sat. It sailed across the junkyard, whirling through the air, before skidding onto a sidewalk.
Kai stared, his eyes widening, taking in the absurdity of the moment. He had just bent a giant 5 cm sheet of metal, probably weighing at 50 pounds, and sent it flying 30 metres. Most people would have fainted by this time, but Kai was an abnormally calm person. No, he was intrigued then anything by this.
BEEEEP! He whipped around, his eyes locking on to the source of the sound. No doubt about it. School. Damn. Grudgingly, Kai picked himself up and attempted to forget what just occurred. He zipped down the streets, weaving through people, and arrived much earlier than he anticipated.
“Yo Kai! What up?” Kai turned and smiled as he saw his best friend Lucas making his way over. They had been best friends since grade 3, when Lucas transferred here. To Kai, Lucas was the only one who even remotely understood him; Lucas’s mom had died and his father had never been seen since. He lived with his grandparents, and so he understood Kai’s loneliness.
“Nothin’ much. You?”
“Nothing either. Hey man, where were you? I got a call from one of them orphan house people askin’ for you. AGAIN.”
“Yeah…” Kai swallowed, and hesitated. Now probably wasn’t the best time for explanations. But…
“HEY!” Kai whipped around and groaned silently. It was star-of-the-football-team, his royal pain in the a**, Kris.
“And what do you want?” Kai said. There was restrained anger and rudeness in his voice.
“What d’ya got?”
“Nothin’ to give you”, and with that, Kai turned around and calmly walked away, leaving a stunned and infuriated Kris.

6

Nothing of interest occurred at school, and the day progressed normally. Teachers gave the usual: boring lectures, ridiculous assignments, and the threat of failing everyone.
In what seemed like an eternity, school finally ended. Kai had decided not to fail (at least for now), and was trudging his way toward the library. Lucas caught up to him.
“Hey man, where you goin’?”
“Library. I’ve decided against failing for now.” Kai motioned for Lucas to join him, which he did (though with much chagrin).
It was quiet, in that unnerving library way. Sunlight filtered in through the windows, illuminating people hunched over tremendous volumes. Rows of shelves stretched across the wall, each row marked by a large sign posted at the end.
Kai stared around, and made his way toward a row marked BIOLOGY. He began searching the shelves, and a large volume caught his eye. He pulled it out and found it surprisingly light. Or is that a result of what seems to be super strength? He turned back to the cover, marked An Encyclopedia of Animals: 1 Bya to Present Time.
He flipped open, and it landed on a depiction of an ant. A subtitle read; The ant, while small, has one of the greatest proportional strengths in any animal, being able to lift objects 50 times its own weight. Kai stared at the page, thinking about what it had said. If I were that strong, I’d be able to lift a car! Too bad I ain’t. Or am I? It was an interesting thought, and had Kai not thought it, he would have gone on living a normal life. But he thought it, and he couldn’t un-think it now.
~ ~ ~

Kai decided not to show up at school the next day, ostensibly because he was sick. Though, in truth, he was far too busy contemplating about the book (which he had borrowed), and what other interesting powers he might have inherited from nature. He decided that there was only one option: find out.
It wasn’t quite legal to trespass in the forest, but those who did usually refrained from coming back. There were no paths in, and roots threatened to trip you up. Kai found his senses bombarded by information (surprisingly), and he was under the impression that he was sensing things without his eyes, ears or nose. I could swear I’m able to detect living things and electrical wire. He stumbled his way in, the harsh forest attacking him. After a while, he decided that he was in deep enough (though his tiredness did play a part in his decision), and began his search. He was after a large, thick tree to test his strength. The forest being full of such trees, it did not take Kai very long to find a suitable tree; a large, sturdy oak.
Slowly and methodically, Kai tightened his fingers into a fist. Taking a deep breath, he slammed his fist into the tree with all his strength. What followed was an event that the local police could not find a satisfactory explanation for.
CRUUUNNNCH! If one hadn’t been there and seen that, they could be forgiven for believing that a bomb had gone off (which the local police did in fact believe). The impact was deafening, and one could very well think that shrapnel was flying everywhere. Wood and fibre gave way to the incoming missile and the base of the oak erupted into splinters which flew every which way. The rest of the tree quickly followed the laws of physics and slowly but surely, the great oak fell. The moment was awe-inspiring, worthy of some magnificent painting hanging in the Louvre. Well, it would have been great, except for the survival chances.
Kai was thrown from the shockwaves, and pulverized his vertebrae on a nearby tree, while metre long splinters gouged gaping wounds into his body. His breath came out shallow and stuttered, blood flowing down his chin as he tried to scream. Time seemed to slow as the agony rushed over him in fierce waves, eating at his soul. Kai could’ve sworn he was finally gone as the pain ended. But why do I…
His eyes flew open. He was still there, still alive, still standing in that forest. My God! I’m not even injured! But there’s no way…For a moment, Kai didn’t even breathe. A revelation swept over him like the wind, leaving him dazed and stunned.
Quietly, almost as if he were in a coma, he walked over to where he had left his book. It was covered in dirt, and a large splinter had miraculously missed, burying itself just to the left of his book. For a moment, Kai simply stared, swaying gently, like he was rocking himself to sleep. Slowly, he leaned down, gently picking up the book in his left hand. He skilfully flipped through with his ring finger, and stopped on the page of the starfish.
As he read through, the world faded, and he was being dragged down a tunnel to which he could not see the end…



The Unknown-Kai