Chapter 6: Rivin's Legend

Chapter 6

I woke up in the morning, got dressed and went downstairs to see Daniel. I saw only a note on the dining table, saying Daniel went out for more shopping. What's up with robots and their obsession on keeping the fridge fool? I will never know.
I quickly got my bag, and race out to the school again. Second day, let's see how it goes. I go through the woods again, and I speed across everything. I jumped across the log, before I remember something. The black box.
I skid to a stop, and walked back to the stack of rocks I placed neatly yesterday. I unstacked them, and look at the black box still safely tucked inside. I have to talk to Daniel about this tonight. I hide the box again, and resume my journey to school.
I reached school earlier than I thought, and even though I'm 30 minutes earlier than yesterday, lots of students are already here. I stand around awkwardly, checking the news on my phone while waiting for the school to open up.
Apparently, some district house in Cuba just went in flames. There is a video attached to the news, and I clicked it open to watch it.
It's somewhere in the poorer districts, I'm no expert on Cuba or American geography, but to the looks of the burning structures and the shaggy people staring, that's a pretty good assumption. In the video, it showed someone filming from a nearby balcony, aiming the camera at a set of buildings.
I couldn't tell which building is going to be on fire, until there are distant muffled gunshots originating from a tiny shack I don't dare call a house. Gunshots ring out, and people scream. The camera holder starts shaking, and just before he turns away to stop recording, I can see a brief moment where an explosive roar resonated. The camera temporarily turns back just to see the shack on fire, and several people laying on the floor, burning intensely. They don't move, probably dead.
The video ended there. God damn, what could've made such a blast? Heavy amounts of gas? No point in thinking about it. I hope the burning guys survived, nobody should endure a death like that.
Students start pacing into the school, and I put my phone away and go in with them. A few guys acknowledge me and greets me. Friendliest people, here. I want to meet up with Edward or Owen, I don't like being alone anywhere.
I found Edward easily enough. He's taking books from his locker when I tap him lightly on his shoulder. He turns to look at me. I look in surprise when I see that he gained a new bruise on his jaw. It's a really bad bruise from the looks.
'What happened to you?' I asked incredulously.
'This?' He points toward his bruise. He seems tired, and his voice comes out pretty hoarse, like he had a really rough night. 'A bruise.' He mutters quietly, before he turns back around and continues taking his books again.
'Yeah, I can see that,' I reply. I hate vague answers, 'I mean how you got it. Did someone hit you or something? Nobody's hurting my friend.' My tone surprises me. I said that with such confidence and strength, it feels good to have someone I can call a friend, even though I only met Edward a day ago.
Edward finishes packing up his stuff, and slowly closes the locker. He looks at me, frowning. I feel that it's something he doesn't want to talk about, but I pressure on anyway. I've learned from experience that ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away. It only keeps getting worse until it finally consumes you.
When he looks me in the eye, there is an anger in it. I instinctively back my head away a little, also surprised with this glaze. He notices me backing away a little, and softens his expression a little, like the same Edward I saw yesterday.
'I owed some other kid from another school money.' He said plainly.
'If it's money you need, I can help you give it back for now.' I offered, thinking I got his situation covered. He disapprovingly shakes his head, before talking again
'No, it's not that. I already returned the money ages ago, but they've still been harassing me for more money. I tried to tell my drunk dad or the cops, but they told me that they'd hurt my 2 sisters if I told on them.' The anger returned again. He grits his teeth and clenches his fists in fury. I can see his jaw muscles tensing up, and his knees starts swaying a little. He calms down by taking deep breath, before talking to me again.
'Before my mother died, she made me promise I would do whatever it takes to protect my sisters.' Tears start swelling in the corner of his eyes. The loss of his mother must've shaken him up pretty badly. I don't know what to say, but I don't have to. He continues.
'But now? I can't do anything. They keep coming, week after week, asking for more and more money. I can't get any more money even if I want to now. They left me a gift.' He points to his bruise.
I start to feel his anger. What kind of people threatens to hurt little kids for money? Psychopaths.
'Hey, look,' I talk to him, trying to soothe him, but I'm not doing that very well either myself. 'The next time they come, you call me over. I can help.'
'You can?' Edward looks at me with sceptical eyes.
'Yeah man, I got like, 4 black belts or something.'
'Alright. Thanks, man.' Edward snickers. He looks happier, though, and I'm not taking that away from him just yet. Truth is, I don't know what I'll have to do if Edward calls on me. I actually never got in a fight before, due to my relatively peaceful state, and I most definitely cannot fight.
We resume our normal talk, and share a few more laughs as we discuss about psychokinesis. It's something he really has interest about, and I do too.
We go to our normal classes for the rest of the day. A bit boring compared to the other schools, but I'm fine with it. As long as I live through the day.
Lunch comes by fairly quick. I meet up with Edward and sat where we did yesterday and ate our lunches in silence. I just now realised I haven't seen Owen yet, and I look around to see if I can spot him here.
I turn back once I find out he's not here. Suddenly, somebody plop down on the seats next to me. A familiar voice calls out to me, and Edward looks surprised as he leans forwards and look at our new neighbour.
'How you doing, Rivin?' Samantha says. She looks brilliant today, wearing a blue t-shirt and jeans. Her hair is braided down to her shoulders, and she smiles at me and Edward. Edward leans backward quickly, flushing slightly. Does he like Samantha?
'Fine. And you?' I reply coolly. I see Edward silently munching on his sandwich, and Samantha looking at my tattooed hand. I shift my hand and conveniently covered them under the table.
'Doing great. Anyways, I happened to make a bet with some of my other friends, and we have to choose one guy for the race on Thursday, and I chose you.' She beams awkwardly. What? I probably would've gone to watch as a spectator, but I didn't expect to be chosen to run.
'Uhh....' I don't know what to say. My agility will probably outrun the other contestants, and it won't really be fair for them. I'm all for just and fair. Sadly, I must have forgot all about it, because I agreed to it.
Samantha thanks me, and starts telling me the rules, so I can catch up on the game.
'So this is how it goes.' She begins. Edward leans forward and look at us awkwardly, and I notice him staring at Samantha with my peripheral vision. I listen tentatively as she goes on.
'It's really basic to grasp. Think of it like a tournament. You win the first league, you get promoted to the second, then to the finals, but there's more to the race than just that. Every league, there's a special set of rules. It's never announced early until the actual race, so I can't tell you more about it. What I can tell you, is some of the past rules.'
'Last year, in the first league, we had the bare foot rule. Nobody could wear shoes or socks, and you had to run the hot ground on summer. It was quite funny.' She laughed silently. Different set of rules sound like fun.
'Well anyways, you could also do bets and earn some quick money. Minimum 5, maximum 50. We don't want anyway getting cheat out on. Takes out all the fun when someone gets into an argument.'
'So that's about it, I guess? Nothing more you should worry about, nobody's going to harass you or do special tricks like those racing car games, and everyone will follow the rules.'
'Ok. Thanks for the tip.' I finish my lunch, and so does Samantha. 'You live around here?'
'Yeah, I do. 10 minutes away from here. I'm on-' she stops suddenly. Her finger start tapping the table in front, making a quiet rapping sound. Her eyes suddenly went distant, and she stood up
'Wait a second, guys.' She quickly hurries away, bumping into a few student on her way out of the cafeteria.
'What's up with her?' Edward asks me. I turn around to look at him, a slight smile creeping out of my face.
'You like her, don't you?' I ask jokingly.
'What? No I don't.' He huffs. He sees me smiling and finally gives in. He's not a very good liar.
'Alright, maybe a little.' I laugh loud enough for the other students to turn and look at me. I quickly muff down my laughter. Edward's face flushed again and I laugh again. Samantha soon returns smiling at me. I look away to avoid her eyes, which are now completely focused on mines. Why is she looking at me like that? It's like she's trying to find something in my eyes.
'Ahem.' Edward coughs, just in time to break her stare. Samantha shakes her head sits back down.
'So...... what just happened?' I asked sheepishly. She does look pretty surprised right now.
'Oh. I just realised I lost something and went back to find it. Found it alright.' She answers quickly, like she practised the verse or something. She smoothly went into her pockets and pulled out a black pen.
'Right.' I said, unbelieving. I think it had something to do with me, with the way she was looking at me just now. 'Anyways, you were telling me your-'
She cut me off with her hand. '10th street, the 3rd building on the right.'
'Ok.' I replied, suddenly not feeling like I want to keep talking anymore. Why do I feel like I'm listening to someone talking in my mind, telling me something? Is this my first Rengar? I focused inside my mind, trying to concentrate on the voice. Before I could, Samantha interrupts me.
'Not much of a talker, are you?' She chirped.
I laughed, breaking of my concentration. The little voice in my head starts fading away, and I try to reinforce my connection by imagining a chain, linking my mind to the voice. The voice starts slipping, and I realise I'm sitting there staring at nothing, looking like an idiot. I stopped struggling, and let go of the voice.
'No, I'm not. Good of you to notice that.' I lean back in my seat. Could I be a telepath? If so, who was talking to me just now?
While I leaned back and closed my eyes, Edward and Samantha talked about psychics and such. These 2 have natural chemistry together. I barely keep up with all the genetics talk and the books. They traded laughs for a moment, and I leaned back, smiling at both of them.
Lunch finally ends, and we go back to our lessons. I go through the rest of the day boringly, and finally school ends. Everyone slowly leaves the room and the school. I took the time carefully and went down to my locker. As I snap my lock shut, Edward finds me and opens his mouth to speak.
'I think they're going to come for me.' He said quickly and anxiously. I can't believe those other kids. 2 encounters in 2 days? I'm going to beat the crap out of them.
'Ok. I'll follow you back home. If they don't show up, I'm going to go back home, fine by you?'
'Thanks.' We head out of school, and Edward takes the lead. We walk for a solid 10 minutes before we're out on the streets alone. It's getting late, and the once blazing sun begins to set. I watch as the last trace of the sun disappear under the horizon. If Edward is right and these douchebags do come, we'll be doing this in the night.
The houses on both sides are dark. There isn't a lot of space on the sidewalk, but if we cut through the houses, we can head into the woods, which is completely black now. The air feels stuffier now, and I have to take in bigger breathes to make myself comfortable as we walked.
'So, how many guys are there usually?' I ask, trying to break the tension that hovers between us. Edward is visibly nervous, despite his eyes being steely hard and his fists clenching. I also need to know that, if it comes down to a fight, I can take them. I never fought before, and Daniel never trained me. He said he will once I get my first Rengar. With my enhanced speed and strength, I think I can take on 2 or 3 guys at a time.
Don't get too cocky, I told myself. This is exactly how villains die in superhero movies.
'Usually 3, sometimes 4 or 5. They're only a little bigger than you, and they can throw a mean punch.' He shakenly replied.
'How much longer until we get to your house?'
'Around 15 minutes. Let's just hope they don't jump us anytime now.'
As he said that, I heard branches rustling behind me. Footsteps clacked against the floor, maybe 3 or 4? I turn out quickly, and also took the time to spin Edward around to see who it is.
4 guys, dressed in full black, growled at us. Their faces are covered by a hood, and one of them stepped forward, and stood in front of me. I still couldn't see his face, so it'll be harder for me to identify later if I have to go to the police.
'Well, Edward.' The guy in front said with a heavily deep voice. 'What did we say about telling other people?'
He pushed me backwards, and the others laughed silently. Edward caught me as I stumbled back, rage coming up my cheeks. I puffed, and clench my fists. Nobody pushes me around.
'You the guy that keeps asking for more money?' I growled. Edward backs away quickly, not liking how this is turning out. The once anger filled kid I seen this morning is no more, and the other guys laughed at his fear.
'Yeah.'
'And you the same guy that threatens to hurt his sisters?' I point at Edward, and I can tell the guys are grinning at the thought. Sadists.
'Yeah. And what you going to do about it, huh?' That was all I needed to hear. This might be a big stupid thing to do, considering I've only known Edward for 2 days, but it feels much longer than that. I'm not going to let anyone hurt anyone.
I barely see it as my wide haymaker connected with his temple. The guy spins around and falls to the ground. He lands quickly, and the other guys looks shaken up. They don't move when I kneel down, grab the guy's shirt collar and lift him up. I punch him in the face just as he starts to recover, and he goes down again. He groans in pain, and I leave him there to convulse on the floor. Either he's a weak little kid, or I can punch really hard. I'm fine with both.
Edward continues to look awestruck, amazed that I threw the first blow. The other guys start to get their senses, and all 4 of them starts charging towards me at once. I can probably take them.
The first guy gets into a tackling position, and hunkers down to grab me. I sidestepped and tripped him, and he sprawled across the floor. Another guy quickly throws a jab at me, and I crisscrossed my arms to block it. The blow didn't hurt, but it left a little sting on my arm. As he retracts his hand, I reach out and grab it and yank it back. He moves forward, and I elbowed him in the face as he gets close. He fell to the floor, and I turn around to face the other 2 guys.
I turn around just too late, and I barely see the knife stabbing into my abdomen, nor do I feel it at the time as I'm pumped with adrenaline. I was fully aware of him retracting his knife, then stabs at my stomach over and over again. As he goes in for a 4th stab, I raised both arms, and grabs his knife hand. I push forward, and do a liver punch with my free hand. The guy yells in pain, and I trap his hand, putting it behind him. I jab at his elbow, causing him to drop his knife. With the biggest danger gone, I knee him in the gut and he doubles over in pain, but so am I. I'm starting to feel the blood seeping out of my open wounds, and I pressed my hands to stop the bleeding. There's still one guy who is still watching the fight from afar, and he charges in for the win. I can't take him. I raise one hand in a desperate attempt to block his uppercut, but I don't.
His hand cracks my jaw, and I fall backwards on the floor, hand still holding my wound. I start feeling light headed, the world blinking in and out. I feel like I'm on drugs. I saw for a brief moment as the last guy kick my stomach while I'm on the floor. I grunt, and I curled into a ball, as the other 4 guys got up, and all start kicking me on the floor.
'You deserve this, you little bastard!'
'Ha-ha, look at this little kid!'
They laughed as I shut my eyes, and willed myself to get up and fight. But I can't. They stopped kicking me after a minute, apparently bored, and addressed Edward, who was cowardly standing behind me the entire time, watching my fiasco underway.
'I'll be waiting for my money tomorrow, Edward. And remember, the police are not going to help you. You see this?' He motions to me, still on the floor, clutching my wound. 'This is only a fraction of what I will do to your sisters.' He turns away, laughing in short breathes, and all of them start walking away in the dark. As soon as they got out of sight, Edward rushed to me, and pulled out a tissue. He pressed it against my wounds to stop the blood loss, and I breathe out to calm myself. Is this how I was going to die? Because of a stupid move from me, wanting to fight that guys instead of trying to solve the problem through peace? Dying from a stupid knife? No, not today.
'Hey, we gotta get you to a hospital. The closest one is 20 minutes away.' He puts one arm around my shoulder and lifts me up. I slowly follow his motion and stood up.
'No, it's too far away. My house is 5 minutes away.' I painstakingly point toward the forest, to which I think is where my home is. 'My father can do the rest.' I think about Daniel, and wonder how he'll get this done. The wound is not too deep, I think, so medical tape can do it. We have a whole box of it at home.
'You sure? It looks really bad.' He studies my open wound, who is starting to stop bleeding as quickly. We head into the woods, and Edward makes to protest against us walking into the dark. I can see pretty well in the dark anyway, even if I'm hurt and in a lot of pain.
After 5 minutes of painful walking, I see the house's outline in the dark, the streetlights illuminating my eyes. I groaned, and squinted a little. We circle around the house to the front door, and I willed the door to open with my ring still on my finger. I'll worry about Edward later. He looks stunned as the door opened to my command on its own, and we head right in to the living room. All the time, he looks around, appalled at the beauty of the house and the mood around it. It feels warm in here all the time, in contrast to the cold air outside.
Daniel rushes down from the second floor, wearing a pristine black duster jacket. He has a first aid box in his hand, and when he sees Edward propping me down on the couch, he waves him away.
'Hello Edward, it's nice to see you, but could you please return home? I have to do this on my own, and it would be better if I were not distracted.' He says gently.
'I can stay...' Edward started, but Daniel's look wasn't exactly a request, more of a command. Edward caught note of it, and nodded once, and quickly jumped out of the house. Daniel shut the door as I laid on the couch, pressing on my wounds with a new tissue. The pain stung more now that I was attempting to relax. How did I not see the knife coming? I should've been more careful.
I suddenly feel dizzy, and press my hands to my wounds once again, tearing off the paper on my wound. Something in my head starts screaming, and I groan even louder. What the hell is this? Daniel starts saying something, but I don't hear him. I can't hear him. All the sounds in the world are muted from me, and I focus on shutting down my feeling. I struggle as I imagined a barrier or metal, blocking my mind from an invisible energy, trying to break through.
I could envision a purple energy, moving through my veins, through my entire body. I suddenly felt very cool, like I was getting blown directly under a fan. I could imagine seeing myself inside my mind, surrounded by slowly moving purple energy. It felt... refreshing to stay in the middle, if anything. It seemed to rejuvenate me with newfound energy, and suddenly, I was back into the real world, with very, very real pain.
I stop. I let down my barrier, and focus on guiding my purple energy into my wound, which I am covering with my right hand. I imagined the energy running along my nerves, my arm, and finally through my hand into the wound. I imagined the energy closing up my wounds, replacing the lost blood, and calming me down. The energy obeys, and the wound starts to close up. I watch as the edges start moving together, all the leaking blood, flowing back in, and close itself up seamlessly. All this was over in a matter of seconds.
The pain is gone. I look at my perfect skin, with Daniel staring at me.
'Healing Rengar.' He said normally, like he's seen it used before. Of course he's seen it before, back on Raixien. One of the Raino must've also had the ability to heal. 'A very good Rengar to have, the strongest of warriors all have it.' He closes up his first aid kit, and pushes the box away. I sit up, not even feeling the slightest pain, and Daniel sits next to me.
'So that's my first Rengar, huh? Cool. How many more will come?'
Daniel sighed, as convincing a robot can do. '1 more. At most 2, but that will have been your innate ability, the natural one, the one which you were born with. Of course, you could've been born with more than 1 Rengar, so nothing is certain.'
I grin. My first Rengar has finally come. I can fight. I stand up, and do jumping jacks. I feel good as new. I laughed, and looked at my hands. Healing is pretty cool. I wonder what my second one will be.
'We will start training tomorrow. Get some rest. You've done well.' He smiles, and start walking up to his room.
'Wait. How do you I got hurt?' I ask. 'You came down here with a first aid, and we didn't call out your name or anything. Are you the voice I heard this morning?'
Daniel holds up a patient hand and stops me. 'I know because of your ring. Remember when I said I wasn't linked to your brain. We aren't, but I can still send a brief message to you, although you wouldn't have been able to reply. When you got stabbed, I felt your calling. That's how I knew you were hurt.'
'But you just said I couldn't send a message back to you.' I point out.
'Exactly. You shouldn't be able to. I am trying to understand how you did it, or if it is a new Rengar. Telepathy.' He doesn't look excited about me having telepathy as my second and probably last Rengar. The truth is, I'm not that happy, too. Telepathy doesn't seem like a good ability to have, I'm not going to just yell at the Losac to stop during the middle of a battle.
'Or it could be something else.' I raise objectively. 'It could be my innate ability, not the one the Raino gave me.' I say, not fully believing it myself. It feels like something else, like it's not an ability. If not, what is it?
'Whatever. We can figure it out later. What was it that you wanted to tell me in school?'
'It can wait, you need some rest. The first time you use your Rengar, no matter how insignificant, will drain your energy, until you train more and get used to it.' He continues walking up, and he disappears from view. I wonder what he has to tell me tomorrow, and what he actually does at night.
I stand up and look at my hands. I smile at getting my first Rengar, and I wonder how far I can push it. Would I be able to regenerate a limb? If I still have time, I can spend some of it in the hospital. The Miracle Doctor. I laugh at the thought of me in a doctor's outfit, healing everyone I touch. Let's not get too far ahead. I still have to train and take out the Losac before I go all messiah on everyone. It's still fun to think about, though.
I quickly bound up the stairs and to my room. I turn on the lights, and change into something else. My shirt is shredded on the stomach. I really like this shirt. Oh well, I tear it off and throw it aside. I touch the skin underneath where I was stabbed not long ago, and remember the Losac. This will not be the last injury I will have to suffer in the next few years.
I change onto a softer fabric shirt and throw myself on the bed. I turn off the lights with a simple thought and shut my eyes. I fall asleep quickly, and think about tomorrow.
The day I start my fight against the Losac.