The next day our school had an assembly to mourn Jalen and Darnell’s death. We were all packed into the gymnasium while the principal gave a speech about how great of students and athletes they were, and while I was thankful for all of that, I couldn’t focus on anything but what happened last night. We were filed out into our respective classrooms and the day went on as usual.

At the end of the day, the somber energy from the assembly still hung over our school. Kids walked up to me throughout the day, offering their condolences, and after a while, it seemed to be only empty words with no meaning, just things they would say in replace of any real meaning words.

“Hey Ethan, I’m sorry about Jalen and Darnell. I know you were close with them so if you ever need anything, just let me know and I’m there.”

At the end of a day that seemed to last forever, I was sick of all the false remorse. As I’m taking things out of my locker and getting ready to head home, there she was, Julia. Undoubtedly the prettiest girl in our school and my opinion, all of Meadow City. With her caramel brown hair and light skin, she was a goddess amongst girls. Not only was she gorgeous but she also played basketball, sadly outside town since our school didn’t have enough girls for a program. Ever since elementary school I’ve had a crush on her, but I was too busy with football to ever commit to someone like that. I soon realized she was walking my way, I quickly packed my bag but it wasn’t in time before she got next to me.

“Hey Ethan, I know you’re probably tired of all these sorries, but I am sorry for your loss.”

Hearing it from her didn't seem so bad as from others. I didn’t realize it until she coughed a bit as if to get my attention that I was just staring.

“Yes sorry, thank you. I’ll be okay, they were great people so I’ll do my job in honoring them during games by winning.”

“Oh okay, that’s nice.” She looked at me a bit as if she wanted to ask a question, but before she could utter the next word, the whole building shook, and down the hall, an explosion went off blowing open the wall. Kids started screaming, faculty tried to keep the situation under control, but they too were freaked out about what just happened. To make matters worse, a man walked through the newly formed hole in the wall.

“Well isn’t THIS a cozy place? BiGear, I know you’re here SOMEWHERE. The ‘Boss’ doesn’t like to be kept waiting and neither does Hitch. Come out before I start killing your classmates like flies” the man says before grabbing a girl who was running by to escape. He clenched his hand around her skull, lifted her off the ground, and started to vibrate her head. She was screaming, thrashing around begging him to let her go and not her before her head popped, blood and brain matter went flying everywhere. This caused even more hysterics and panics.

“Well isn’t that just messy? You see what I can do, one of these scattering kids is next. So be a good boy and come forth.”

Realizing he just mentioned himself in the third person, I already knew this guy was crazy. Amongst all the panic, I completely forgot Julia was with me. I looked over and she wasn’t screaming like a lot of other students were, but instead of running at the first sound of the explosion, she just stood there, petrified as if she didn’t know how to process fear like she didn’t know what was going on. I knew, however. He was a Gear user, most likely working for the “Boss.”

“Julia look at me” as I grabbed her by the shoulder, snapping her out of her state. “You need to get out of here, NOW. Take the back exit and get help. Go with the others, go.”

She seemed to still be in her state of shock, but she started to comply when she snapped back into reality.

“Wait, what about you? You need to come with me as well.”

“I can’t there is something I need to take care of, but I promise I’ll be right behind you once you get outside, trust me.”

She seemed to not believe me still and so I ran up to her half sweaty and half covered in rubble powder, grabbed her by the back of her head with my right hand, using my left hand to pull her in by the waist, and kissed her on the lips. As I pulled apart I looked at her with intent and said

“Julia, you need to get out of here NOW. Please, be safe and go. I’ll be right with you. I promise.”

With a concerned look, she grabbed my hand as she turned around.

“You better, you promised and I take those very seriously.”

She kissed me on the cheek one last time before running through the back exit.

I looked back and saw the man still standing at the newly formed entrance. I had no idea how I was going to fight this guy. I hadn’t practiced using Gears in combat and only knew how to activate them. Still, it was either that or he started killing kids off as he found them. So I did what any rational kid would do. I ran as fast as I could to the exit.

“Where do you think you're going? Are you scared of an idiot like him?”

I heard Cain’s voice in my head and as much as I hated his guts, I didn’t want to prove him right. Stopping dead in my tracks, I turned around and ran back to him.

“You wanted the BiGear? Well, here I am!”

Looking in my direction, he took a hard look at me and burst out laughing.

“You? You’re the fearsome BiGear?” Putting down the phone in his hand and lowering himself taking a running stance.

“Well then” he smiles devilishly, “ let’s have some fun” and with that, he launches himself off his ground towards me.

From that point, several events happened. As he launched himself at me, time seemed to slow down.

“Gear Shift, ZERO!” and my arms soon lit up, the veins in my forearms turning to electricity, but it wasn’t fast enough as the palm of his right hand connected with my chest, sending me flying through the hallway doors.

“Come on now,” he says walking slowly, with a smug smile on his face, “if you make this too easy, I won’t be able to have any fun” he exclaims as he launches himself at me.

With no time to react, he grabs me from the floor, spins mid-air, and throws me against the lockers, crushing them and along with some of my bones. I try to get up with a moan and counter, but he grabs me by the face, pushing me up against the lockers clamping on my windpipe.

“Not much of a fighter are you? Too bad, here I thought you’d give me a good warm-up for tonight's training, but I guess I was way off” he says, laughing in a way that was uncomfortably insane, maniacal, sending chills down my spine.

“Now how to kill you? Or should I just pop the head of that little girl you were with before you tried to act all heroic and fight me?”

My face gets red with anger as I thrash around trying to get free.

Laughing hysterically he gets real close to me and says “don’t worry. I’ll make sure her head pops quickly, that last girl was just a warm-up. Promise.” The last part of that sentence said mockingly from when I promised Julia I’d be back safe.

I felt my arms heat up, sparks crackling, and without meaning to a burst of electricity came flying out my arms, sending him flying back into the lockers across me allowing me to fall to the ground.

I looked at my hands and arms confused about how that just happened and before I had any more time to spare, I felt his presence upon me, like a lynx pouncing on a mouse. This time, however, I managed to roll out the way evading what would’ve been a crushing blow as the spot I once stood was reduced to rubble.

Wiping the blood of his the corner of his mouth he exclaims sounding quite pleased

“Hmph, this is what I like to see. Looks like there's some fight in you kid. Let’s just hope that’s not all you got.”

I think back to when Cain was telling me how Gears worked. To feel the flow of energy, take that flow and exert it out. Soon my hands started glowing a light blue again and for the first time since I was out making defensive plays in football games, I knew what I was doing.

I focused on drawing out the electricity, having it flow from my veins out of my hand. Sparks started flying out my hands, electric fields glowed across my arms. I look back at him

“In your words. Let's have some fun” and with that, I charge at him.

Running at someone while going top speed with debris scattered amongst the floor wasn’t the best idea. I found myself halfway into the attack when a piece of someone's backpack caught my foot, tripping me forwards.

Using this opportunity, he launched at me, ready to strike, but I wasn’t completely messed up and I used my forward momentum and his closing distance to charge my hands and expel a large field of electricity that sent us both flying back.

I’ve been hit enough and tackled plenty of times, so getting back on my feet quicker than he did, I closed the distance between us. With enough range to keep me from the recoil, I put my hands together in front of me and focused on concentrating the electricity in my arms into a singular point. My goal was to create a charge large enough to propel at him, but instead, I lost track of concentration and the next thing I knew, the air around me was rippling and a humming sound was being emitted from my hands.

I looked down at my hands confused and to my disbelief, the electricity started to condense into a ball of plasma.

“This wasn’t what I exactly planned for, but this should do wonders.”

Hitch slowly gets up, seeming more damaged than I was from the shock field.

“That was some attack.” He looks at me and then his smug turns to sudden fear realizing what I was doing in front of him

“Woah now, take it easy with that or you’re gonna kill not just me but everyone here.”

I didn’t understand what he meant, but I looked at the area around my feet and near me and it was slowly turning black and burning away. At that moment though, I didn’t care. I knew what would happen if I launched this attack, I felt my arms burning up as I charged the electricity, but all I was focused on was killing Hitch. Nothing else mattered anymore, not me, not the kids who might still be alive in the school, not even Julia. And so with that, I screamed and thrust the ball of plasma at him.

As the ball hurled towards him, it burned up the surrounding area turning everything to char. He tried to jump out of the way, but a loose cable caught his foot causing him to fall. In an attempt to save himself he puts his arms up to propel his attack with vibrations, but what happens next was the exact opposite of his intentions. As he vibrates the air in front of him, the plasma ball soon makes contact with the vibrations and it expands rapidly, causing the energy to be dispersed at high velocity.

“Oh damn!” I screamed as I went flying back, through a window into an office. Hitch on the other hand wasn’t so lucky. The explosion had a more drastic effect on him, sending his whole body into cardiac arrest, while his body slowly started to char up. My ears were ringing as I tried to sit up, coughing up a fit, and scrapping my hands with the shattered glass all over the floor. I managed to get myself up and look through the now broken window and saw Hitch convulsing, his arms completely black and his body slowly charing away.

I prop myself on a desk nearby as I watch him turn from black to eventually ash flying into the sky.

“Glad that’s over.”

I slowly hobble out of the office and make my way through the wrecked school building. Making my way out, all I could see were destroyed classrooms, lockers, and walls all through the hallway. Dead bodies seemed to pile up along the sideline as I finally reached the back door exit.

I took a deep breath of fresh air as I stood outside for what seemed like the first time in an eternity. My lungs hurt as they tried to scrape for oxygen, but I didn’t care. It was over, I could finally rest.

“Ethan!” I turned my head over my shoulder to look out and Julia rushed over to me, throwing her arms around my neck. Her embrace felt so good, pure comfort.

“Are you okay, what happened to you? Your hair is a mess, and oh my gosh, your arms, what happened there?”

I look down at my arms and I notice how black they’ve gotten, almost as if they’ve begun to char.

“I’m okay. It’s all okay now” I say, yet tears are slowly running down my face because yes, the fight is over. I won. But all those bodies that weren’t as fortunate as some of the other kids were, some there because of my lack of control, their deaths weighed heavy on my shoulders.

I looked up at the sky, never noticing how blue it seemed, and took one last smile until collapsing in her arms. The last words I heard as I slowly slipped out of consciousness were

“Ethan? Ethan? Ethan! Wake up, come on…”