At a certain point, during a certain week, I allowed myself to be surrounded a little ways away from the main school buildings but still on the school’s campus.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Punkel,” sneered Turtle. Stepping to the front of the group. Using the sobriquet he seemed most proud of having given to me, aside from the word “fuckwad”.

“Ah…Good afternoon, Mr. Romero. What can I do for you today?” I said. Pretending I didn't see the mean-spirited smiles worn by the teenaged delinquent and his friends.

“I’ve been meaning to have a little chat with you…” said Turtle.

“I…See. Might I ask what about?” I said.

“Not, here…Let’s chat over in the park…” said Turtle. His group bustled around me to coerce me to move as they’d done to many others.

Effectuating my plans once I’d decided how I intended to deal with Turtle and his friends was fairly simple. I just needed to fall in line with Turtle’s plans. I don’t know why he had it out for me, but every few days or so, he’d gather his pals and they’d wait for me outside the school. Usually, I’d see it coming and take an alternate exit, but today, I was going to follow Turtle’s script.

The park I was being taken to, wasn’t actually a park, it was the fields in an empty lot near the school. Occasionally a local farmer might borrow those fields for their livestock, or the local traders would use it to park their stalls in, but otherwise, it generally sat empty. Which was why the local ne’er-do-wells could use it for messing around in, and as could be seen, handing down the occasional beat down outside the view of the adults.

“You know, I’ve been feeling pretty disrespected. You’ve been walking through the school like you’re hot shit…and I’m not going to take it anymore,” said Turtle.

“....I’m sorry you feel that way. Please, accept my sincere apologies,” I said. With no clue what I might have done to offend this young malefactor, but willing to admit fault if that meant I got to walk away from this.

“It’s that! It’s that right there! That attitude, like you, don’t even give a shit…That and the way you look at everything like you’re so above it all…You know what, that’s it! Time to teach you a lesson,” said Turtle. Ranting for some reason. His words still making little sense to me.

“I…see. Unfortunate. I’d still hoped it wouldn’t come to this,” I said. Sighing.

The gang of hooligans charged towards me. My eyes flashed red and they all froze. Telepathy and mesmerism stole the control of their bodies from them. Telekinesis applied external force to fully arrest their movements, so they wouldn’t fall over after having been frozen still.

“For what it counts, I really didn’t mean any offense…and I am still unclear as to the exact reasons for all this hostility…After this is over, I ‘would’ like to be friends if such a thing were possible, but on the assumption that this is not possible, it seems that for now, I will now have to teach you all why you should not become my enemy…”

For the next fifteen minutes, I had the group beat each other. I didn’t go too far, and I didn’t make them inflict any serious injuries on one another, but I did make sure they worked each other over thoroughly. Bloodying noses, splitting lips, and blacking eyes. Then around the sixteen-minute mark, I made them stop and surround me. All of them stooped over, in a low kowtow.

“I think that’s enough of that…And since the adults will be here pretty soon…I need to set the scene. Now, you should know… one’s ever going to believe this…And even if a few of them might believe it, I would hope that this experience has given you something to consider in regards to whether you really want to have me as your enemy?” I said. Grunting as I broke my own arm, smashed in one of my ribs, dislocated one of my knee caps, and slapped my own face till it was swollen.

As a final touch, I knocked out three of my teeth, and broke my nose crooked.Once I’d done sufficient damage to myself, I made the group of youths all rise, still holding them in place so they couldn’t flee.

“I really do wish that it didn’t come this…I really do,” I said. Grunting, as I dislocated one of my knee-caps. The last I did before pushing myself into a state of unconsciousness was release the group of youths.

The next time I’d wake up, I was in school’s infirmary. Thad was there looking both angry and worried.

“Hm? Hello, brother. Why aren’t you in class?” I said. Groggy. Briefly recalling that Thad had a pop quiz right now.

“Shit…Shit…, I like I have time to worry about class. Shit! I knew I should have done something!” said Thad. Guilt and anger turned his face a strange shade of purple-brown.

“Hm? This wasn’t your fault…Besides, I told you I could handle this, remember?” I said. Doing my best to calm my brother down and assure him I was okay, before explaining what had happened and asking about the results of my play.

“You call getting the snot beaten out of you, handling it?” said Thad. Eyes wide.

“Yes…Ow,” I said. Now sporting another slight bruise after being smacked in the forehead.

“What was that for?” I said bewildered.

“Nothing…I just assumed a head as empty as yours might have good acoustics,” snarled Thad. Whispering angrily, to avoid getting the attention of any adults that might have been passing by.

“Are you nuts?! Dad and the Moms are going to flip when they see you!” said Thad.

“Which is why, I’ll have mostly recovered before they arrive…” I said. Already having begun the process of regeneration and recovery, after a while, my conscious mind was sleeping.

“What?... Okay, fuck…Explain properly this time. This is one of those “Eddy is a weirdo”- things isn’t it?” said Thad. Seeming to finally calm down.

“Hurtful…But also, yes…At least, if I understand the definition of the term “Eddy is Weirdo”...” I said.

“Tch…Fine. I’ll bite…What was all this about?” said Thad. Slumping into the chair he’d been sitting in while watching me, and waiting for our parents to arrive.

“Well, you know that I’m stronger than most, heal faster than most…and have a small assortment of minor tricks that I am capable of, yes?” I said.

“Yeah? And…?” said Thad.

“Well, Mr. Romero didn’t know that…So, I decided to give him the fight he seemed to clearly want…but on my terms and to my ends…” I said.

“Pft, if that’s the case, then why the hell did you get your ass beat like that, huh, Eddy?” said Thad. Sounding skeptical.

“I intended to bring this to a scale that would cause the adults to actually do something…But when fights between children blow up into something big, it’s best not to look like the winner now is it?” I said.

“Heh…Gotcha…It’s fucked up, but I think I’m starting to see your messed-up logic…So you let them beat you up?”

“Oh, no…I did this to myself…They wouldn’t have been strong enough to inflict this much damage.”

“You what?!” said Thad. Looking aghast for whatever reason. Making far too much of a bunch of minor contusions, bruises, and breaks. Though maybe I was a poor judge of what was and wasn’t minor damage for a humanoid body.

“I used my powers to beat them all up…Then I inflicted a few injuries on myself…” I said.

“Oh…Shit…Yeah, I guess that’d do it…The adults would have walked in on a bunch of older kids standing around a kid two grades down who’d had the absolute piss kicked out of them…No wonder the main office looks like someone kicked over a bee’s nest…” said Thad.

“Exactly…” I said.

“Nhm…Sounds risky though, what if they say something about those freaky powers of yours?”

“I’ll lie…The powers that I used left no traces…The school doesn’t test for paranormal abilities until we get to around your grade…and I’ve been careful not to show the bulk of my abilities to anyone…You and Em are the only ones in this school who have any clue that I even have powers…” I said.

“You mean beyond the healing and super strength,” said Thad. One eyebrow raised.

“Indeed…” I said. Nodding.

“Ah…Well, in that case, I still think you’re an idiot for going this far, but I’ll admit that’s kinda, sorta, clever,” said Thad.

“Thank you,” I said. Oddly pleased to have my older brother’s acknowledgment.

“Tch, whatever, Ed…Just heal up quick,” said Thad. Rolling his eyes, and patting me on the head. Before he left to go back to class, Thad gave me a thermos full of cow's blood to hasten my healing process.

*************************************************************************************************************

A year has passed since the thing with Turtle. I was now thirteen going on fourteen. My voice has already begun to deepen. My shoulders are gradually growing broader. My body is slowly filling out as I take my time with converting my form to one similar to the more capable, more combat-ready, form that I possessed back in my first life.

My plan for dealing with Turtle and his gang has worked as I had hoped, not only keeping Turtle off my back, but also serving as deterrence to other troublemakers that might have headed my way otherwise. There had been a small risk of people believing the delinquents' tales of me having strange powers, but it was a very small risk.

The few that bothered telling any adults found that none of the adults were predisposed to listen. First off, even in this world of magic and oddity, adults were still predisposed to not listen to what children had to say. Second, the youths had basically no credibility. Even if the adults were somewhat unattentive, they weren't completely unaware of the goings-on within the school, and Turtle and his crew didn't have the best reputation, to begin with. Never mind, after the bunch of fourteen and fifteen-year-olds had been found having jumped a twelve-year-old.

Those adults, who were willing to pay attention, didn’t fail to notice that those youths had been fairly beaten up, but that worked against the Turtle and his gang’s favor. Changing the narrative to one where, I actually managed to get a few licks in, before they overcame me with numbers.

After all, which was more believable? That the local Dunkel family's middle-child had secret powers that he’d been hiding instead of revealing those powers to the state so that his family could enjoy a nice government subsidy for the sake of the boy’s development. Or that the youths, had nearly lost to a junior and were now making up tales to A) explain away nearly losing, and B) try to make their brutal treatment of my then twelve-year-old self look less wretched.

Of course, I had to accept a few knocks on the head, from a few punks and fellow students who threw things at me, to try and see if I indeed had some kind of “freaky mind powers”, but that ultimately worked in my favor. I purposely ate a few blows, and squeezed out a few tears, just for the sake of swaying public opinion.

Once the heat died down, I resumed utilizing my enhanced reflexes and spatial awareness to evade the thrown objects. Becoming uncannily good at ducking, and stepping to the side, whenever things came flying at me. Eventually, those students either grew bored, or got scared off, when the school’s staff started to get seriously annoyed, and things went back to normal.

Time passed. The rumor mill chugged on, and the social machinery of Grand Basin Academy hummed away, like always. Now the whole incident between me and Turtle was all water under the bridge. I was back to being a social nobody, and only a few people were sparsely aware of me as that weird kid that the school’s tough guys and gals were oddly wary of.

A thing that became less significant with each passing day, as our lives grew busier and our focus shifted towards our futures and oncoming grown-up lives, rather than the middle-school monkeyshines that we’d all been indulging in before. A thing I found slightly curious, since the school’s high school section still lay ahead of us. Though, then again, the extended adolescence that was college life wasn’t as prevalent a thing in this world. For most of us, high school was it, only a small percentage of the youths in GBC’s Public Academy would be going to college.

The rest would either join the civilian workforce, or some facet and/or faction of our nation’s varied armed forces. So maybe this really “was” the time when childhood started to go away in this particular world. This was a stark difference from the cultures of the Endless Red, where the slowed growth rates, and extended lifespans of most of the dominant races meant that for most people “childhood” and “adolescence” could essentially last for centuries…At least, that is what I understood from the indoctrination files I was made to take in, during the brief respites during my training.

In which case, it seems that I had some serious thinking to do. If I was soon going to be physically and socially considered an adult, perhaps it was time to think about what my plans will be. There was a strong attractiveness in staying put, and living as just another person. Yet, there was a growing restlessness in me that bucked such thoughts. I’d spent my first life being kept in cages and pens of various sizes, but now I was free and wished to see where that freedom would take me.

There was an entire cosmos out there, waiting to be explored, and with each passing day, I felt that simply seeing and living in, just the one world, might not be enough for me. I wanted to see more. I wanted to experience more. I wanted to learn more. There were countless worlds out there just waiting to be conquered…and I was still unsure of whether I meant to do so figuratively, or literally.