Genesis

Mornings were always the slowest part of Jason’s day. He didn’t hate his family, but sometimes they were unbearable, especially his older brother Chase. They never saw eye to eye after what happened to their oldest brother, Mikey. They almost got into a real fight once, but their father intervened. Otherwise his days were pretty regular. His parents didn’t really care about what he did as long as he was home at some point. It was reckless, but Jason was used to it.
Jason had only taken one step out of the door when his first problem approached him— Teresa Owens. Teresa was his classmate and next-door neighbor. She had brown skin and long, braided hair. She was slightly taller than Jason, so she seemed to always look down at him.
“Jason, you’re not seriosuly skipping again, are you?” Teresa asked in her usual stern tone.
Jason tried to ignore her, putting his headphones over his ears, but that didn’t stop her persistent nagging.
“You can’t be serious. How do you expect to graduate? You’ll never have a future at this rate…” Teresa continued, though Jason had already wandered off.
It’s not like he hated Teresa. They’d known eachother for years. But sometimes she acted more like a mom than a friend. Besides, nobody wanted him in school to begin with. He wasn’t necessarily a bad kid; trouble just had a weird way of finding him.
Jason continued about his day. His first stop—Myles’ house. Myles was his best, and technically only, friend. They weren’t exactly compatible as people, which sometimes had a weird way of working out. Myles was a bariniac, while Jason was basically a delinquent.
Jason walked up the steps and rang the doorbell. To his surprise, Myles’ mother answered.
“Oh, Jason, come on in, he’ll only be a couple minutes,” Mrs. Weller said. She motioned Jason inside. She was always nice to Jason, despite his reputation. “Myles, Jason’s here. Hurry or you’ll be late.”.
“Sorry, just finishing something up. I’ll just be a second,” Myles answered, still in his room. He must’ve been finishing up another project, Jason thought.
Jason walked to Myles’ room and found him sitting at his desk, his face completely submerged in paperwork. Myles was a short, brown-skinned kid with glasses. He kinda looked like Steve Urkel, minus the voice. He was always working on some sort of experiment. Myles didn’t even bother looking up as Jason entered.
“Sup’ man, what’re you up to now?” Jason asked, trying to understand what exactly Myles was looking at. “It’s not something weird again, is it?”
“What do you mean weird?” Myles asked. He finally looked up from his papers. He almost looked offended by the word.
“I'm kidding. Anything going on in school?” Jason asked.
“Not anything important. I heard there’s a couple transfer students though.”
“In our class? Who are they?” Jason asked?
“Why? Finally wanna go to class?” Myles responded. He could never take anything seriously.
“Nevermind. I just wanted to see what kind of powers they had. Aren’t you curious?”
“Yeah, a little. But are you going to school today or not?” Myles asked, serious this time. “I got some work I gotta drop off.”
“Nah. We’ll stop by on our way to the Genesis,” Jason said.
“Sounds good to me,” Myles answered. He crammed all his stuff into his backpack. Myles was one of the smartest people Jason knew, but he definitely didn’t know the meaning of organizing. He always claimed it was because he knew where everything was, but it didn’t sound too convincing coming from him.
They left Myles’ house and started towards the Genesis, their usual hangout spot. The Genesis was where people could use their powers freely, without the hassle of authorities. It was like an underground fighting ring. Scracth that, it was an underground fighting ring. They were basically gladiator fights, minus the weapons. No powers were excluded in these fights. There weren’t many rules and they didn’t have any age restrictions, so anyone was eligible to fight, from kids to adults. These fights weren’t regular fights though. People would come watch and even bet on them. Some of the money went to the contestants, but Jason didn’t fight for that. He fought to prove something. His brother Mikey left a crazy reputation at this place, and he had to live up to it.
Even though he was just there last week, their high school looked almost foreign to Jason. Walking down the halls was probably the worst of it. Everyone stared at him like he was some disease. He didn’t want to be there any longer than he had to, but Myles was a different story. He wasn’t involved in any extracurriculars, but you wouldn’t know it at first. Whenever any club needed help, Myles was their guy. He was smart enough to help them with any problems. Now that was only clubs like the science club, but you get the idea. Once he set foot in school, it was open season, and Myles didn’t know how to say no. Jason rushed him out before things could get messy. Jason really did hate school.
The Genesis was definetely the highlight of Jason’s day. He didn’t need to worry about anyone looking at him like he was a troublemaker. These were his people. They only looked at him as an opponent, not an outsider. Jason and Myles were just about to the door when someone stopped them—Dwayne Allen. He was also a student at their school. He was tall with a stocky build. They weren’t friends, but they knew eachother pretty well.
Dwayne spoke first, “Cmon, Jason. Todays the day. I want my rematch.”
“We just got here, Dwayne. Can’t you give it a rest?” Jason responded, clearly tired of Dwayne’s persistence.
“We fight now. I’m more than ready for whatever you got,” Dwayne said, motioning for Jason to approach him.
“We’re not even inside ye-” Myles started.
“Stay out of this. This is between me and him,” Dwayne interrupted, pointing towards Jason.
Before they could say anything else, another kid around their age passed by them, bumping right into Dwayne. Short with dark skin and short black hair, the kid glared at Dwayne like it was his fault for being in the way.
“The hell’s your problem?” Dwayne asked, in a more assertive tone.
“I’m sorry. Please don’t hurt me,” the kid responded in a mocking tone. He even raised his arms in a defensive manner.
“Who do you think you are?” Dwayne asked, now getting closer to him.
Face to face with him, Dwayne grabbed him by the collar. Suddenly, someone landed on the ground next to them, causing a loud boom to fill the air. All four of the kids turned to see a tall, brown-skinned man wearing a suit. He looked down at them with a menacing stare—their school’s vice principal, VP Owens.
“Ty Bain. You wouldn’t be skipping on your first day, would you?” VP Owens began, staring at the shorter kid. “And the rest of you. Jason, Dwayne, Myles. I shouldn’t even be surprised at this point.”
“We were on our way there-” Myles started, trying to calm him down.
“Enough. The four of you will report to school this instant. Try anything and I’ll be watching,” Principal Owens said, with an authoritative tone.
“Alright we’re leaving.” Jason finally said, slight annoyance in his voice.
“Watch it, Jason. You should be taking more responsibility now that you’re in high school. If you keep this up, you won’t have a future,” VP Owens said defiantly.
Jason hated when Mr.Owens acted like this. He was too much like his daughter. In fact, she said the same thing to him that morning. They were so similar Jason could’ve laughed. Teresa really did take after him.
The four students headed back to school, with VP Owens watching them from the sky. Jason wasn’t interested in school though, something else caught his attention. Who was this Ty person? And how strong was he?