Hitting the books (and other things)

A.K.A Chapter 15

Black eyes blinked blearily as Quake roused himself from his slumber. The comforting warmth that he’d been laying against as he fell asleep was missing.

Taking in his surroundings, he realized that he couldn’t see Jeck. He must have gotten bored and left in the middle of the night like he was apt to do.

‘I feel kind of bad for him. It must be lonely at night when everyone is asleep.’

Quake had tried staying up late a few times when he was younger, tried to see if he could stay awake until the sun rose the next morning. He stopped doing this as soon as he accomplished it because staying up for hours with nothing to do was boring and there was no reward. He also regretted it because it messed his sleep schedule up something fierce.

‘Though I guess he doesn’t have that problem seeing as his sleep schedule is non-existent.’

He got up and untangled himself from Jecks cloak that he’d been swaddled in.

‘I see why he wears it all the time now. It’s comfy as hell, looks cool and makes for a great blanket.’

He put a claw to his chin and thought before coming to a very simple conclusion.

‘I want one.’

No.

‘I need one.’

Bending forward at the waist, he leaned forward and stretched his back out in a pose that Jeck called ‘Downward Doggy’ when he thought he couldn’t hear him.

His ears were a little sharper than most people gave him credit for. He could hear the whole Outpost back when they were sleeping there. It was half the reason that he decided to sleep outside.

The other half was that he was in a strange place with strange people that he wasn’t wholly comfortable around.

But it was mostly because Jenkins in bunk 3-b snored really, really loudly.

Standing up, he stretched his arms up to the sky and let out a groan of contentment as he slowly lowered them back to his sides.

Lowering his drill to the ground, he let his awareness of the city expand all around him. All over the sprawling metropolis, people of all shapes and sizes were beginning to wake up and take to the streets. Cars, buses and bikes were all pulled out of driveways and began making their way into the heart of the city.

Compared to the quiet of the mines, the Outpost had been a shock, but this?

This was just…so much to take in. He’d never seen so many people in his life before. At the Outpost, if he’d put in a little effort, he could have met everyone there in a week at most.

Here? He could meet a dozen people every hour and never come close to meeting the millions of people here in his life.

‘Humbling, is the word for this, I think.’ He reflected, looking out over the floating buildings that dotted the skyline. He was gradually becoming aware of the city ambience rising steadily in his ears.

‘There’s just so many of them, and they have so much more experience with the world than me, how am I supposed to catch up to them?’

He felt very small.

“Whatcha thinking about?” Came Jeck’s voice from twenty feet behind him.

Quake jumped in surprise. “Gah, stop doing that!”

Jeck, who was lying on his back on top of the roof access stairwell with his head tilted so far back it was pretty much upside down, just gave him a sly grin.

“Doing what?”

Quake frowned and crossed his arms.

“You know damn well what I’m talking about.”

Jeck shrugged. “If you’re talking about your lack of awareness then maybe I do, now get up here and join me, but first,” He pointed at his cloak and made a grabby motion. “Gimme.”

Quake rolled his eyes at the childish display before him but grabbed the cloak off the ground and jumped onto the roof. Jeck dusted off his cloak, tossed it around himself and dropped down cross-legged on the concrete and patted the ground beside him.

Quake sat down and used his drill as a backrest to lean against. They sat and gazed out over the city that was steadily growing louder and louder.

Movement drew his attention to his right. Jeck glanced down at Quake who was flicking his ears in annoyance every so often.

‘He was doing this last night too.’

Comprehension dawned on him a moment later.

“You’ve got pretty sensitive ears, don’t you?” He said, lowering his voice a few decibels.

Quake looked up at him, rubbing his ears gently. “Yeah, I mean, I guess? I can hear everything going on around us, from the kid screaming at him mom for breakfast to the man opening the ice cream shop we were at yesterday.”

Jeck looked around with his senses then looked at Quake in surprise.

“Quake, that’s almost across the entire city.”

“….Yes?”

Jeck just stared at him.

‘Oh my god he doesn’t know how keen his senses actually are.’

He shook his head.

“Anyway, this is gonna be a problem, right?”

“It will if it keeps getting louder.”

Jeck put a hand on his bone white chin and nodded.

“I see, we’re going to have to fix this then.”

Quake looked puzzled.

“How do we do that?”

Jeck looked down at him and grinned.

“That’s the beauty of living on the Plains. You can just make up a power to suit your needs.”

He scratched his chin slowly.

“We just need to figure out the mechanics of how it’s going to work. Are you gonna cancel all noises above a certain decibel? Have an automated process that decides what to allow you to hear? It can be fun trying to figure out the method of how something works.”

Quake nodded, interest piqued. Jeck stuck out a hand to stop any response.

“Wait, what time is it?”

Quake shrugged.

“Shit, I was supposed to meet Pinky at the same street the ice cream shop is on! Okay, we’ll make it up as we go.”

“We will?”

“We will.”

The two of them took off, leaping from roof top to roof top, across the city as the artificial suns that circled it slowly grew brighter and brighter.

***

One new power, and frantic dash later, Quake was sitting at an outside table digging into what was called ‘pancakes’, according to the Jeck. He really needed to learn how to read, then he could order his own food instead of depending on Jeck.

Speaking of, Jeck and Pinky were across the street by a lamppost discussing…something. He probably should’ve been keeping an ear out, but he was far too engrossed in waterboarding his pancakes with syrup.

He finished violating the Geneva Convention against his sugary breakfast by stuffing the last of it into his mouth, making his cheeks puff out like a chipmunk, and looked over at Jeck, who was stilling talking to Pinky.

They should probably learn his name sometime.

Jeck, feeling Quakes gaze, held up a finger.

“Excuse me one moment please.”

Not waiting for a reply, he strolled over to Quake.

“Finished?”

He nodded.

“Was it good?”

Another nod.

“Great, listen, this talk is going to take longer than I thought, a few hours actually. I’m going to spare you the boredom and instead, give you this.”

He reached into his cloak and pulled out a small bag of coins.

“Here, this will keep you fed and foddered. If you get bored or tired, just head back to our roof. Don’t look for me, I’ll find you, and if you spend it all on ice cream, I’m giving you the mother of all noogies.” He patted him on the head. “Now go have fun.”

Quake gaped at Jecks retreating back. What was he supposed to do now?

He looked around at the people milling around the streets. Deciding that indecision would get him nowhere. He picked a street and started walking down it.

The city was built around the Space Elevator, leading to its city center being more circular than the grid blocks that made up the middle to outskirts of the city. It was these streets that led Quake to the other side of the Spel, where the more family friendly tourist attractions were located.

A kind old lady had directed him to his destination, the library. He could’ve used his seismic sense, but he really needed get out of the habit of relying on it. Then Jeck wouldn’t scare the living daylights out of him every time he decided to pull his little vanishing trick.

Instinctively making his drill smaller to fit through the doors, he padded softly into building. The women sitting behind a desk near the front doors glanced at him and tapped a sign behind her.

‘The librarian.’ His mind instinctively supplied.

He had no idea what the sign she was tapping on said, but he nodded at her nonetheless. Not asking her for help on learning how to read, out of pride more than any genuine reason.

‘I’ll just look for the beginner’s aisle.’

Holding his head up high, he walked carefully through the well-kept rows of leather-bound books.

‘These guys really like their wood, sheesh.’

Compared to the rest of the city and the Outpost, this place stuck out like a sore thumb, with its rich brown tones and slow atmosphere.

Glancing down each aisle as he passed it, he noticed that there wasn’t a whole lot of people around, and it was quieter than normal. A rock man here, a human there and few others dotted around the various floors of the building.

A quick lap of each floor told him that he really should have asked for help at the front desk. Not that he was going to, that would make him feel foolish. Discarding the option of swallowing his pride, he grabbed a random book off of the shelf.

‘It can’t be that hard, right?’

Fifteen minutes of zero progress proved that thought to be incorrect.

‘What the hell do all these symbols mean? This is stupid.’ He thought to himself angrily. He lifted the book up high and hurled it at the ground, only to find his arm caught in a vice-like grip.

He twisted around in mid-air as he leapt forward, lengthened his claws and growled threateningly, book left behind to be caught out of the air by painted finger nails.

The woman, a human he noted, quickly raised a finger to her lips and shushed him.

He paused, but only for a second. He raised his claws slightly in defense. The woman rolled her eyes at him and half-spoke, half-whispered to him.

“Easy there kid, I’m not going to hurt you.” She said dismissively.

“Why’d you grab me then?” He countered.

She hurriedly shushed him again. “Keep your voice down, geez.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s a library? Didn’t you read the sign?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I….” He looked away quickly while trying to think of an excuse. “…didn’t want to.”

She gave him a funny look and raised her hands up in a half-hearted ‘I surrender’ gesture.

“Riiiiight, well, you can put away the claws. I only wanted to stop you from destroying the book.”

Quake took the opportunity actually look at the woman. She was taller than him, but so was every human he’d met, still shorter than Jeck though. Short, dark curly hair fell down to her shoulder blades. She was dressed in formal attire. Black slacks, dress shoes and blazer with a white undershirt. An expensive looking watch adorned her left wrist. What stood out the most to Quake was the purple gem pendant resting at the base of her throat. It matched the purple eye liner that covered her eye lids.

Her stance was none-threatening. Standing straight up, muscles relaxed and eyes closed in exasperation. She didn’t look like a threat, but his instincts were telling him otherwise. Despite this, he reabsorbed the metal from his claws and formed the 9-Tails that he’d created during his fight with Gillian. Letting one of them gently touch the ground, the others wavered behind him in the air. Olive eyes watched curiously.

He stuck out his hand for the book.

She made to hand it back, then pulled it away.

“Actually, why were you about to throw the book?”

“Does it matter? I won’t do it again, just give it back.”

“Nope.” She said, popping the ‘P’ “Not until you tell me why.”

He reached to snatch it out of her hands, but she merely held it over her head.

Quake glared up at her.

‘Why do I have to be so short?!’

“I said I wasn’t gonna do it, so just hand it over.”

“Nah.”

He weighed his options. He could keep arguing. She seemed pretty stubborn though and he was unlikely to get anywhere.

Or…

“I was just frustrated, okay? Now give it.”

“Aww, what’s wrong? Favorite character die?” She teased

This only served to frustrate Quake further.

“Look, I’m trying to learn how to read, so can you just give me the book and go?”

She froze, and her smile slowly faded.

“You can’t read?”

Quake looked away, his face turning light red in embarrassment.

“So what if I can’t? Why do you care?”

“How old are you?”

‘Why did I have to say that? Now she’s concerned. I don’t need her pity.’

Quake was dangerously close to just walking away from the conversation all together, but something in his gut told him that she wouldn’t be content to just drop the topic now.

“I’m thirteen.”

The look in her eye was getting dangerous now.

“Thirteen?...” She pinched her brow and closed her eyes as she muttered various obscenities under her breath. “Where are your parents?”

“Dead.”

Her eyes snapped

“So who looks after you now?”

“My….”

Actually, what was Jeck to him? He wasn’t a father to him, not a mother figure, and definitely not his owner. Jeck was just his human, but somehow, he didn’t think she would accept that answer.

“My, um, brother does.”

“And how old is he?”

“How long are you going to keep asking me invasive questions about my personal life?”

“Until I’m satisfied. Spill.”

“He’s twenty-three.”

“Twenty-three and he hasn’t taught you how to read? What have you two been doing this whole time?”

“Travelling mostly.”

“Where is he?”

“Working.”

“Where?”

Quake glared at her.

“I’m not telling you.”

“Relax, I just want to give him a piece of my mind.”

Quake just barely caught the muttered ‘and my fist.’ under her breath.

“No. He didn’t teach me how to read because we had more important things to be worrying about. Like food, and survival. Stay away from him.” He growled protectively.

She glared at him and opened her mouth to retort, but was cut off by a beep from her watch. She let out an irritated groan.

“Of course I get interrupted. You, what’s your name?”

“Errr..Quake.”

“Quake? Cool. I’m Sabrina. Tomorrow, same time as now. I’ll teach you how to read. Be there.”

Quake didn’t have time to confirm or deny her demand, as she stood up and strode straight out of the library, almost mirroring Jecks actions that morning.

He stared blankly at the doors as they swung shut.

‘What the hell just happened? And why do people keep doing that?’

***

He spent the rest of the day ambling around the city, mostly just looking through shops and buying snacks that he wasn’t sure Jeck would approve of.

‘It’s not ice cream, if he asks, I can plead ignorance.’ He convinced himself as the sour taste of his last green jelly treat overpowered what little guilt he felt at the lie.

He looked around at the busy streets, most people were just finishing work, so the roads were crowded with all sorts of creatures. The foot traffic was especially congested near the Spel, where heavy vehicles weren’t permitted. He looked the other way and immediately choked on his jelly as he looked directly into Jecks purple eyes, who was now right beside him.

“Quake I’ve got- stop choking, it’s just me – some good news.”

The chewed up remains of his treat was violently ejected from his throat as Jeck gave him a firm slap on the back. It shot up over the city rooftops at just over the speed of sound and splattered against a window on the Nuvalt embassy.

“Was that candy?”

“…Maybe.”

Jeck’s incoming scolding was cut short as a people began crowding around the window, trying to figure out what the gunk was. He gave Quake a hard look, then jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

“Later, now let’s get out of here before they start figuring out where that came from.”

The two vanished, with only the rustling wind indicating they had ever been there.

***

Jeck led Quake through the winding streets, the young boy was keeping up with ease, he noted.

‘The boy’s got talent, that’s for sure.’ Ghost remarked from the back of his head.

‘Are you kidding me? This is so unfair. It takes me three years to get as strong as I am, it took him a couple of weeks.’ He whined, lacking any real heat.

‘Mmh, you’re not that tough.’

‘What, how?! Did you not see my fight against that overgrown chicken?’ Jeck exclaimed.

‘I did, it was…alright, I guess.’ Ghost said, unimpressed. ‘For someone of your caliber, anyway. I’ve seen better.’

‘Where? In case you haven’t noticed, you’ve been in my head this whole time.’

‘In your memories of course, I don’t exactly have anywhere else to look.’

‘You look through those? What do you mean by someone of my ‘caliber’ anyway?’

He felt, more than seen, Ghost’s singular eye raise it’s nonexistent brow.

‘You don’t? They’re quite informative. You could learn a thing or two from them. He paused to gather his thoughts. ‘As for what I meant, I mean that you’re not that tough compared to the average Plains Walker, at least, the ones from the Ghost species.’

‘Could I take them?’

‘Considering that I can distinctly remember causing several stars to go ‘BOOM’, I would think not. Besides, you would need to shore up all the other areas you’re lacking in.’

‘What areas?’ Said the incensed Wraith.

‘Well, not to be insulting, but your mental faculties are…lacking.’

‘Careful, those are fighting words!’ Jeck warned, with only a small amount of heat in his voice.

‘A fight you’d lose.’ Ghost stated calmly.

‘Like this.’

Something foreign, yet familiar reached out and touched Jecks mind. Inwardly reeling in shock, instincts took over and slammed his mind shut. The influence, around his strength, did not even seem to halt. It wiggled and wormed his way around his defenses like they were made of net, and it was a particularly slippery eel. Almost instantly, his whole body ceased following his commands, and to his horror, began following somebody else’s.

***

Jeck abruptly stopped on top of a lamppost, causing Quake to crash into his back and scramble for balance.

“What’s going on?” He asked nervously.

Jeck turned and looked at him. The look put him on edge. The Wraith was smiling gently down on him. Something was wrong, the posture, the body language, the smile, it was all wrong. Normally Jeck smiled like a wolf who had just come across a particularly juicy sheep, all on it’s lonesome.

‘He normally smiles like a predator.’ Quake thought to himself as he took a small step back and bent his knees.

“Who are you? What are you doing to Jeck? Give him back!” He snarled, throwing up a façade of aggression to mask his inner worry.

Not-Jeck continued smiling at him.

“Very astute, aren’t you? My name is, well, you can call me Ghost. I have been keeping an eye on you.”

Quake felt a shiver run down his spine. That name, it had weight to it. History, tangible pressure that pressed down on his conscious.

“As for what I am, I’m the voice inside Jecks head. And I’m teaching him a very important lesson. Would you like to hear it?”

Keeping his guard up, he nodded, if only to keep him talking so he could try to figure a way to beat him if necessary.

“Sometimes to win a fight, the most important tool you have is your mind. I was merely teaching Jeck that he should not neglect his.”

Jecks, or rather, his body’s arm, spasmed minutely.

“It would seem that Jeck is almost as quick a learner as you are turning out to be. It was a pleasure to finally speak to you Quake. I’m sure I’ll be hearing from you soon.”

Jecks body seized up for a second, the suddenly Jeck was back, hunched over and panting as though he had just run a marathon. Quake was latched onto his leg a second later.

Wheezing, he panted under his breath. “That…dirty…bastard…”

Straightening up, he took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds, then slowly let it go. Feeling his heart come back to a reasonable BPM, he looked down at Quakes worried look and gave a sheepish grin.

“I guess I have some explaining to do?”

Quake furiously nodded his head.

“Right, well…”

He looked around. All around him, the streets were lighting up like a Christmas tree in response to darkening sky. There was also a ton of people glancing up at him and Quake from below their lamppost perch.

“Not here. Let’s go back to the apartment.”

Quakes looked as though he wanted to complain, but acquiesced anyway.

***

“…And that’s what happened.” Jeck announced loudly.

Quake gave him a flat look.

“So let me get this straight.”

“Ok.”

“You’re from another planet.”

“Mmhmm.”

“Possibly from another dimension.”

“Yup.”

“You somehow ended up absorbing the entire essence of an extinct species.”

“Yeahuh.”

“Which then, after losing a mental battle for control, they all coalesced into that Ghost guy, who now lives inside your head.”

“Rent free.”

“And he just took over your mind to…complement me?”

“That sounds about right.”

Quake rapidly waved his arms around, perhaps hoping to get the insanity and unbelievability of the situation across to the man sitting cross legged in front of him. Unfortunately, Jecks sense of what was possible had been skewed by his front row seats to the absurdity at hand.

“How does any of that make sense!”

“Oh no, by all accounts, it shouldn’t have happened, and yet.” He spread his arms out wide.

“Here I am.”

Quake groaned and slapped a hand to his face and gently massaged his brow.

“Y’know, if you were anyone else, I’d call you delusional, but you always seem to make me believe stuff that I shouldn’t.”

“Aww, thanks man.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

“I’m choosing to take it as one regardless.”

The cold night wind, free of the concrete blockade below them, swirled around them gently. Quakes fur blew around with the breeze.

Jeck wordlessly took off his cloak and handed it to him.

Quake grunted his thanks and wrapped it around himself tightly, then plunked himself down next to Jeck, just below the walled rim of the roof, where the nip of the wind couldn’t reach him.

“Regarding my talk with Pinky, that’s his nickname by the way, go figure, we managed to come to an agreement. We’re fighting in cage matches.”

He looked down at Quakes raised eyebrow.

“Aren’t those illegal?”

“Yes.”

“So we’re just going to break the law?”

Jeck scoffed. “Since when do you care about the law?”

“I don’t. What I do care about is not getting caught.”

“Don’t worry about that, they bribe places like construction works and other manual labor jobs to put us fighters on their payroll. ‘Course, we only have to show up once or twice a week and mess about for a few hours, but it makes the paper trail look legit. Besides, the police don’t look too hard into stuff like this. They get ‘donations’ that keep their eyes turned the other way.”

He considered Quake carefully.

“That is, assuming you want to fight.”

Quake adopted a very offended look.

He looked away, feeling slightly guilty.

“I don’t want you to feel pressured to do this, or obligated to because I it set up. If you don’t want to do it, that’s fine.”

Claw fingers grabbed his face and yanked him down to eye level.

“Listen here, when you came to the quarry, I learned that there was a wider world out there than what I knew of, when we came to the Outpost, I learned that I needed to be strong if I wanted to explore it. I will not be relying on you. I will be fighting in those matches, and there’s not a thing you can do to stop me.”

Jeck grinned savagely from within Quakes grip.

“Good answer.”

***

A thought came to Quakes mind as he chewed on a mouthful of iron. Jeck had presented him with a small steel girder, cut into small sections and refused to tell him where he got it. His giant metal drill wagged from side to side happily.

“Did I tell you what I did yesterday?”

Jeck looked over from where he sat, perched precariously over the edge of the roof with a bowl of ‘Cheerios’ in his hands.

“No.”

“I went to the library, this girl told me she would teach me how to read.”

“Really? That’s great, reading was one of my favorite past-times. You want me to come with? Just to make sure she’s not crazy or something. I’d hate to have a repeat of the Outpost.”

Quake waved him off.

“Nah, I want to do this myself.”

Jeck nodded in understanding. “I see.”

He leaned down from the ledge and placed his bowl on the rooftop.

“Welp, I’m gonna go tell Pinky that we’re both participating. I’ll come grab you in a few hours.”

“Ok.”

He leaned forward and allowed himself to drop, falling to the ground as fast as gravity would allow. Landing on the concrete like a spring uncoiling, he shot off into the city.

Quake watched him till he was out of sight, then stood up and crammed the last of the steel into his mouth.

‘I’d better get a move on. Shame there’s no metal left, I’m still peckish.’

His eyes landed on the spoon Jeck was eating with.

‘That’ll do.’

Cleaning off Jecks slobber, he put it in his mouth like a person would a lollipop, bent his knees and launched himself to the next building over. He carried on this way, deftly avoiding flying humans and various other flight-capable species all the while. He wasn’t alone in his skyscraper scamper. Other people were jumping from roof to roof, propelled by their own power, or some kind of technology.

He landed softly in front of the grand pillars that loomed in front of the library entrance. Nodding to the librarian at the desk as he passed, he ‘felt’ Sabrina waiting for him at the back of the building.

He found her, surrounded by a decent sized pile of books. He glanced over some of the titles. ‘Math for beginners’, ‘The History of Nuvalt’ and ‘Nuvalts Traditional Dances’ He waved at her as he approached. She smiled when she seen him.

“Hey there Quake, how’s it going?

“Good. How are you?”

“I’m fine, thank you for asking. I – what’s with the spoon?”

“It’s a snack.”

“You eat metal?”

He nodded and extended his tail, letting his drill rest on his shoulders and tapped it lightly.

“Helps keep my tail strong.”

“That’s interesting. Now, before we begin, how much reading experience do you have?”

“None whatsoever.”

Her sharp brows furrowed.

“Nobody has offered to teach you?”

‘No? It’s not like we had time to teach with everything going on.’

“I never asked anyone too.”

“You shouldn’t have had too, ugh.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose and held up a hand.

“Let’s not rehash yesterday’s argument. We’ll start at the beginning.” She flipped open one of the books, a small one with lots of lines across it. The notes looked to be hand written. Quake was a little touched that she would do that for him. “You see this symbol? It’s called the letter ‘a’ and it’s pronounced….”

The day passed quickly, Quake was far smarter than she expected him to be. It was a simple matter of pointing to the symbol and telling him how it was pronounced. In five minutes, he was able to read excerpts out of the historical textbooks that surrounded them.

“Over five hundred years ago, in the territories that would come to form the New United Uvalt, a terrible thunderstorm swallowed the continent. Though the passive energies of the thunderstorm were harsh, our people adapted, and managed to harness its power, advancing our technology greatly with the, at the time, inexhaustible power source. Our scientists managed use that energy to drive the invention of the Mocking Drive. Using these, we managed to create energy ex nihilo, and pave our path to the stars with the construction of the space elevator. The thunderstorm that plagued our land was discovered to be, not a natural phenomena as we suspected, but an entity unto itself. According to our best theorists, simulators and pre-cogs, it left because, and I quote “I was bored”. Ever since, Nuvalt has developed an interest in researching unique power sources.”

Quake looked up from the thick textbook his nose was buried in.

“How was that?”

“That was fantastic! You’re very clever you know that?”

Quake smiled bashfully. It felt nice being praised for his efforts. Sabrina leaned over the table and pulled another book out of the pile and flicked through the pages.

“You mentioned that you and your brother had to fight to survive, Plains Walkers?”

Quake raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

She gave him a knowing smile.

“Your reaction to me grabbing your arm yesterday. You clearly have experience in a fight, and if someone has instincts like that, it’s usually safe to assume that they’re Plains Walkers.”]

Quake hummed in understanding and she began to explain the basics of math to him. Math came to him even easier than reading did. They sat in companionable silence as she read, well, he wasn’t sure if you could call it reading, as she just picked up a book and flicked through the pages in less than a second, then moved on to the next one. He was just doing some math problems.

Setting down the last book on the table, she turned to him again.

“So, what does your brother do?”

“Jeck? He’s a construction worker. Mostly does physical labor and other unskilled work. What do you do?”

“Me? I’m private security contractor.”

Her phone vibrated in her pocket.

“Ah, speak of the devil. Hello, Mr. Louini?”

“….”

“Yes, of course.”

“….”

“I’ll be there shortly.”

She hung up the phone with a click and stood up from her seat.

“Sorry Quake, I’m afraid I’m going to have to post-pone our lessons. I’m about to be very busy for the next week or so.”

“That’s fine, you can go. I’ll put these books back.”

“Thanks sweetie, don’t worry about our next lesson, I’ll find you.”

“How are you going to do that?”

She winked at him as she walked out of the building.

“I have my ways.”

***

Two fighters stood across from one another in a white room, panting furiously. They regarded each other carefully, taking careful note of little details, such as the placement of his opponent’s feet, the slight rise and fall of his chest and slight twitches of his muscles. All factors were taken into account before they made their next move.

They dashed forward, fists raised and began to trade blows furiously. Punch after punch, they hammered away at each other’s defenses. One fighter rears his hand back, not for a punch, but a swipe, and his foe can only scream in pain as the claws that formed out of his nails raked through his stomach. The four walls of the room turn transparent and allows the fighters to see their audience.

The crowd roars with thunderous applause as the winner stands over his opponent and grabs his face, squeezes his claw between his eyeball and eye socket, and pulls.

There’s a quiet, squelching sound that’s masked by the audiences roars of approval. The victor leans his wolf-like head back and howls in victory. His long tongue comes out and he gently places the eye on hit and lets it slowly slide down his gullet. He smacks his lips together and savors the taste, then throws his hands up in victory.

“If anyone tries doing that to you, I’m going to rip their face off.” Stated Jeck from the balcony they stood on, high above the arena. They were situated on the top floor of the stadium that had been erected deep below one of the hotels on the south-side of the city, in the special seating area only VIPs and fighters could access.

“They have healers though, even if it does happen, I’ll be back to full health in a minute. Besides, killing is against the rules.” Quake retorted. He didn’t care how much Jeck didn’t like it, he was going to be in that ring. Fighting made him feel alive.

Jeck let out a short bark of laughter. “’No killing’ is practically the only rule they have. Anyway, I said I’d rip their faces off, not kill them.”

He paused.

“They’d probably wish I killed them, though.”

Jeck, as Quake was beginning to learn, from both his demeanor, and the stories he told him, saw violence as the answer to the solution to most problems. When he mentioned this, Jeck replied that “I usually don’t have problems that can’t be solved with violence.”

Quake shook his head.

“Let’s head down, it’ll be our turn soon.”

They made their way through the empty hall to the locker rooms, where people of all shapes and sizes were waiting to be called for their matches.

And by all shapes and sizes I mean large and extra-large exclusively. A small holo-screen on the wall displayed the next fighters name in 3d.

Quake narrowed his eyes as they all leered at them, feeling out of place amongst these veritable giants. Jeck just smiled like a cat that cornered a mouse, and was about to start playing with his food.

“Hey kid, I don’t think they allow pets in the building.”

A huge man in the corner stood up. Huge compared to the other, already big, men and women, scale-covered skin with golden eyes and enormous hands. The other fighters around him gave him a wide berth, like a shark swimming through a school of fish, as he walked over to them. Quake’s drill began to whirr quietly. This bastard just called him a pet, didn’t he?

Jeck looked around the room, taking his sweet time, before innocently pointing to himself.

“Are you talking to me?”

“You stupid or something kid? Course I’m talking to you. Why don’t you and that animal get out of here before you get hurt.”

Quake’s drill began to shrink as the metal was shifted elsewhere in his body, but a hand in front of him cut him off.

“Thanks for your concern mister, but me and friend are just fine, thank you.” Jeck said politely.

“But I would be more worried at what’s gonna happen to you if you call him an animal again.” Jeck said, less politely, his smile turning into a sneering grin.

The man, who must have been around eight foot tall, bent over the two and laughed.

“You must not know who I am. I will forgive you, just this once.”

He glanced down at Jecks jittering arm. Wow, he was literally shaking with excitement at the thought of what he was about to do to this man. Warmth spread out over his cheeks and he was thankful Jeck couldn’t see it. He also felt slightly annoyed. He could fight his own battles, thank you very much.

The man looked over at the holo-screen as it dinged. ‘Dulla’ is what was displayed over it.

“I must go now, I said I will forgive you, but I am dearly hoping that we meet in the arena.”

Quake piped up. “Trust me, you shouldn’t.”

Dulla tilted his head, then let out a mildly surprised “It talks.” Under his breath as he walked down the tunnel to the stage.

Quake was officially pissed! Ignore him, would he? Oh, just wait until they meet in the ring. Let’s see how well he ignores his organs getting ran through with his drills.

He sat beside Jeck in the locker room, fuming as he ignored the stares and looks from the other competitors. Yeah, maybe he used to be an animal, but so what? He could walk, he could talk, he could think. So what if he had fur? Most other people had hair of some sort? What was the difference?

It took him a minute to realize that he wasn’t just pissed, he was upset, at what Dulla had said to him. Jeck must have realized it too, placing a comforting arm around his shoulder.

“Don’t let what that guy said get to you. You are not an animal. I’ve seen what an animal looks like back at the Quarry, and you are not one of ‘em.”

Quake kept staring down at the ground.

“Thanks.” He muttered quietly.

They sat like that for the next twenty minutes. Quake staring into space while Jeck looked aimlessly around the room, getting into staring contests with other fighters who wilted under his piercing stare.

The holo-screen dinged yet again. This time nobody left the room. One of the other fighters stood up.

“Aye, we got a ‘Jeck’ in the room?”

Jeck blinked in surprise.

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“You blind or something? The screen says your name right there.”

“Yeah.”

He walked straight out of the room.

The other fighter gaped at him as he left, then turned to Quake.

“Is he serious?”

“Hmm? Yeah, Jeck is blind.”

“Damn, I heard about people fighting blind before, but I ain’t never seen it in real life. I gotta watch this.”

He left out the opposite door, running up to the stands.

Quake was curious about the fight too, and let his tail touch the ground.

The fight, as it turns out was not much of a fight, at least in Quakes opinion, sure, his opponent was vicious, fast and strong, but it didn’t really matter much. Jeck was five steps ahead the entire time. Jeck suspected that the organizers of these fights were intending for them to be fresh meat to hype their newest fighters up.

Not that it would pan out like that, judging by the way his opponent needed to be carried off on a stretcher. Quake was experiencing some soothing catharsis by beating his opponents bloody.

This was the majority of their matches during their night at the arena.

Were their opponents skilled? Sure.

Did they usually have some tricks up their sleeves? Yeah, claws, lasers, controlling shadows, even magic! And in the case of the opponent Jeck was fighting, amping his speed to insane levels for less than a nanosecond.

‘I know I don’t usually like using the skills I copy, but I’m making an exception. I want this.’

[Comprehension] wasn’t something that he could ‘turn off’ per say, but it was something that he could, using what he now understood was his bio-mechanical brain, create sub-processes, where the information he took in was screened and stored for later use.

The main purpose he created this, was because figuring out an opponent’s ability mid-fight was half of the fun. It was also because Alva and Yasha had somehow managed to instill a sense of “honor” in him. I’m using quotation marks because it was the type of honor that other, more honorable people would turn their nose up at.

His opponents muscle contracted and he skipped backwards out of reach. Everything had a rhythm to it – a sort of flow, that dictated who would do what and when. Minute muscular contractions and eye movements, projected intent and subtle shifts in momentum, all processed unknowingly by the subconscious. It was all a matter of getting a sense for it. Even if you were less skilled than your opponent, you could still follow the flow of the fight, and outsmart him by predicting when his next movement would be, and by his bodies positioning, what it will be.

Such was the case now, as his opponent’s, a green-skinned, knife-eared fellow with bandages covering most of his face, arm struck thin air, throwing a lightning quick haymaker. Knife-ears (He totally doesn’t remember his name.) glared at him through his bandages. His chest rose and fell heavily as he sucked oxygen into them.

He was getting tired now, and they both knew it.

He ran forward and reared his arm back. Jeck mirrored his movements. They both threw their fists forward, Jeck moving much slower than his opponents.

Green knuckles rammed into his cheek, but they did nothing to arrest his forward momentum, and his own left arm buried itself into his foe’s temple.

Knife-ears dropped like a puppet with its strings cut, crumpling to the floor. The crowd cheered loudly. Jeck just rubbed his jaw.

‘That might leave a mark.’

In what was quickly becoming routine, medical professionals ran out onto the stage with a stretcher. They grabbed Knife-ears and loaded him onto it, and were gone just as quickly.

The Wraith walked back to the hallway he came from. It was a farce though, he knew he wouldn’t be leaving the ring just yet.

“Where do think you’re going?”

He stopped, and looked over his shoulders. On the other side of the ring, walking past the medics, was Dulla.

Normally a fighter had to wait for a round before they could fight again, but he suspected that he was actually doing a little too well for the gang running this show. Probably thought he was making their regular fighters look like chumps.

I mean, he was, but having someone walk in off the street, beat the brakes off of your entire roster and walk away with nothing more than a bruised cheek for his trouble was just a tad humiliating.

He pointed down the tunnel ahead of him.

“To the changing rooms, I won.”

Dulla laughed. “Oh, I don’t think so. You’re fighting me, right here, right now.”

Jeck raised an eyebrow. “I thought we weren’t supposed to be fighting twice in a row?”

Dulla raised his fists and grinned arrogantly. “I talked with Pinky and he pulled some strings for me.”

‘Pinky better sleep with both eyes open tonight.’

“Fine, let’s get this over with.”

The cheering crowd was replaced with silence as the ring was once again encompassed by four pure white walls. Harder than steel, yet completely see through on the outside, allowing the audience to get a perfect view of the match, and the fighters to battle without distractions.

There was no bell to ring, or anything signifying the start of the fight. That was left to the fighter’s discretion. If you felt like standing there until your opponent got bored and came to you, you could.

Jeck didn’t, and ran forward, keeping his body low. It was strange, he mused as he ran, how they slowed down when they started fighting. It was something specific to cities, or so he was told. Sábháilte got tired of people ruining cities every time people fought in them, so anyone who performed any action that could be considered ‘fighting’, be that directly punching someone, or using some long-range ability from across the city, would be slowed down to normal human-like speed and strength. Well, relatively normal, most of Quake’s body was still metal.

Dulla just grinned at him as he approached, and he found out why a second later. Dulla made no actions or gestures of any kind. Nothing that indicated that he did anything other than stand there.

Jeck stopped running and clutched his stomach as he leaned over. Blood erupted from his mouth, spilling all over the clean white floor. He let out a choked scream as a pain he only felt once, yet could never forget, built up behind his eyes. Sanguine liquid flowed down from his face in a cruel imitation of tears. More flowed down his armpits, from where his bone arm met the flesh. His white cloak was being stained red. He fell to his knees.

“What did you do to me?!” He choked out over another mouthful of blood.

“Oh, c’mon kid, where’s that spunk you had in the locker room?” Dulla asked sarcastically. “Don’t tell me it was all talk.” He walked over to where Jeck was choking on his own life.

“If you must know,” He grunted as he caved in Jeck’s nose with a vicious knee. “I reopened every wound you ever had. Brought back all the pain you’ve ever felt. Now I’m gonna put my own spin on it.”

Jeck howled in pain, but stumbled to his feet anyway. Dulla continued wailing into his body, exploiting the openings that came with the sharp pains stabbing into him.

‘Jeck, you must stay calm.’

Ghost reached out and touched Quakes mind.

‘Quake, stay back, he’s not in his right mind.’

Quake, who had been preparing to drill straight through the walls of the room, paused, uncertain of what to do. He tried to reach out to Jeck with his mind, only managing to get a brief flash of pure anguish before Ghost forcibly severed their connection.

Jeck sprinted wildly at Dulla, looking more like a wounded animal and screaming in agony. Dulla just grinned. Waiting until Jeck was in range, he tucked his arms in a launched an uppercut with his right hand.

Only to have Jeck shatter every bone in it by swinging his left elbow down to meet it halfway.

He hissed in pain, but was unable to stop Jeck from tackling him to the ground. Dulla landed on his back with a thump. Jeck dived on top of him and straddled him. The scaled fighter raised his hands to shield his face but Jeck slammed a fist through them into his face. The cartilage in his nose bent and broke under the strain.

Then he threw another.

Several teeth were knocked out of his mouth.

Then another.

His chin cracked in two.

And another.

His zygomatic bone broke and he felt his eyeball slowly start to slip out of its socket.

Too many to count. Jeck punctuated each punch with a roar.

“STOP.”

Punch.

“IT.”

Punch.

“NOW!”

The medics who attended Dulla after the fight would comment that he was remarkably resilient, having lived through most of his skull turning to pulp.

Dulla looked up, somehow managing to see through both his ruined eyes. He barely felt the pain anymore, or maybe the pain was all he felt. Either way, he looked up at his attacker. Jecks face was covered in crimson from the blood pouring out of his eyes. His teeth were grit furiously and his nostrils flared open with every breath. He looked straight into his opponent’s purple eyes. They were wide and wild in pain. It looked like most semblance of civility had been tossed out the window, and he had returned to his baser instincts. He raised a deep green scaled hand and held his palm out in front of his face to protect it. This gesture seemed to enrage him. His eyes widened in panic and he pulled his fist back, fully intent on splattering Dulla’s brains all over the arena. Dulla tried closing his eyes, but couldn’t. He could only watch as Jecks fist was stopped, just in front of his face.

Then the pain set in, and he fell into the sanctuary of unconsciousness.

Quake heaved, and threw the struggling Jeck off of the taller man. The wraith flipped over in mid-air, and raised his fists towards Quake, only to realize who was in front of him. The mongoose watched as his eyes slowly turned back to normal, and he came to his senses.

‘Were his eyes watering?’

The walls of the ring disappeared and the building practically shook from the force of the audience leaping to their feet and clapping. The two stood there as medics carefully loaded Dulla up and carried him away.

Jeck stared off into space, focusing on nothing in particular, just breathing deeply. He blinked when Quake took a hold of his arm and started guiding him to the hallway to the locker room.

He stayed silent as the medic pointed a finger and fixed his wounds.

He stayed silent as he flared his power, ripping all the blood, which was just beginning to dry, out of his clothes, and coalescing into an orb, which he sent directly down the shower drain.

He stayed quiet when some official poked her head in to say that all fighters could collect their pay tomorrow morning.

Quake looked up at him nervously as they walked through the halls.

“Are you okay?”

“Mmm.”

Quake didn’t know how to interpret that, so he settled for stealing glances at him as they took long, flying leaps towards their apartment rooftop.

The artificial suns had slowly dimmed down until they were off, and the moon hung brightly overhead. Jeck landed on the roof and slowly shuffled over to the side of the stairwell, the one facing away from the bright lights of the city and sat down. He rested his elbows on his knees and placed his hands on his face. Quake watched, concerned as he gently massaged his eyes.

“Fuuuuuuck.” He groaned slowly and removed his hands from his face. His eyes were brimming with moisture. He leaned his head back against the concrete wall until he was looking straight up, as though to prevent the tear from falling.

“Are you crying?” Quake asked.

“Me? Nah, I don’t do that anymore.” He brushed off the young boy’s concern, blinking away the tears.

“I-I’ve never seen you like that before. You were so angry, and you were screaming and you-you,” The young boy stammered out, looking for the right words to say. Jeck momentarily flipped his [Stealth] off, capturing Quakes attention and stopping his babbling.

Jeck smiled gently at him, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “It was a little surprising. I’m not sure what I expected going into the ring, it certainly wasn’t that, but I assure you, I’m fine.” He shrugged off his cloak and patted the spot beside him.

“Now come on, you need to sleep.”

Quake looked unconvinced but grabbed his cloak and wrapped it around him tightly. He leaned against Jecks shoulder and mumbled out quietly “I was worried about you.”

Jeck crossed his legs and gently guided Quake’s head down to his lap.

“Thanks, you’re a good kid Quake.”

Soon the only noise left to be heard was Quakes quiet breathing.

***

Far away, in a high-rise apartment building located on far side of Dello-Whorl, Two men were hanging around. One was a Kuvotian, pink-skinned, but with two eyes, a half-breed. The other was purely human, but you wouldn’t think that just by looking at him. He had dark-brown skin, dreadlocks pulled back into a ponytail and stood at a staggering ten foot tall.

The Kuvotian sat in a plush, velvet chair, with one leg crossed over the other. He wore an expensive looking suit, with an even more expensive looking watch on his left wrist. He was swiping up repeatedly on what looked like a smartphone. An ever-present joint, of what was probably some drug, hung between his right hands finger tips.

He raised an eyebrow curiously at the video before him. He watched as the Demerro, Dulla, got his head reduced to mushy pulp by an unseen force.

“Damn, hey Jules.”

There was no response from the man lying on the bed.

“Jules!”

Still nothing.

“Julius Leopold, if you make me call your name one more goddamn time, I’m gonna shove your cane up your ass.”

Finally, Julius reached up and pulled the earbuds out of his ears.

“What’s up?”

“You’re gonna love this. Apparently, there’s this new kid in town, this town. He joined up last night and kicked the shit out of every one he fought. Even beat that Dulla guy you were supposed to fight tomorrow.”

Julius leaned forward, curious now.

“He did, did he?”

Kurok nodded. “Yup, guy doesn’t show up on cameras, but according to the audience, he can take a fucking beating. They actually started calling him ‘Blood bag’ because he was covered in so much of it.”

Julius frowned. “Okay, so the kid can take a beating, that’s not exactly special given our line of work.”

Kurok grinned the grin of a man who was about to get the exact reaction he wanted. “That’s not the best part. Get this, the kid is blind.”

Julius tilted his head. “Blind or blind blind?”

“Blind.”

Julius grinned savagely. “I think I know what we’re gonna do tomorrow.”

***

Even further away, across thousands of universes, a supreme commander sat upon his throne. His green coat lay draped across his shoulders, and he slouched in it, propping his head up with his palm. His eyes had dark bags under them. The throne room itself was almost completely silent, save for a sole custodian who was trying her best not to make any noise as she approached the emperor. Tray in hand, she bowed before him, and offered it up to him. He gave her grateful nod as he picked his royal beverage off the tray.

Mango blast smoothie, his favorite.

Bowing once again, the custodian turned to scurry down the sole carpet leading to the throne.

The Commander took a sip, reveling in the sensations dancing across his tastebuds.

He did a spit-take as piece of information suddenly hit his mind.

“Sire!”

The custodian turned around in alarm, but the King paid no heed, only began muttering under his breath.

“I found him….The bearer of the [Comprehension] Aspect is in Dello-whorl. Jeck…”

The custodian glanced at him nervously.

“I’ll just, uh, send someone to clean this..haha.”

Walking as fast as she could without turning it into a full sprint, she exited the throne room and made her way to servant’s quarters. Not privy to the military matters of the Empire, she did not realize that the information that she was about to tell to her friends was confidential.

It slowly made its way through the caste of the Empire, first the full-bloods, then the half-bloods, then those with a quarter blood, and so on, until it reached the ears of a group of mercenaries who just happened to be dropping off a bounty.

“Reckon these lot would pay us a pretty penny for this ‘Jeck’ fellow, wouldn’t they?”

Off they went, their departure only having been caught by long-suffering full-blood of the empire known as Brick to most. A derogatory insult that had unfortunately stuck.

He groaned. “Those morons don’t know how delicate a situation this is.”

Rushing to the palace to report and wait for further instruction, he was unsurprised to see their omniscient Commander, lying with his feet across the armrests of the throne, nursing a headache. He groaned and pointed into space. “Go get those dumbasses before they get us all killed.”

Inwardly sighing, but outwardly saluting, Brick ran out of the palaces interior and floated off the ground, racing after the mercenaries as fast as he could.

Closer to home, in Dello-whorl, olive eyes looked upwards.

“Something wrong?”

Sabrina sighed. She’d been using her [Find] to search for threats to her client, and to her annoyance, she found one. “Expect trouble within the week sir, I’ll alert the local authorities, it seems like this whole city is gonna be caught in this mess.”

Louini narrowed his eyes at her. “You’ll do your job, right?”

Ignoring the jab at her capabilities, Sabrina responded. “It’s nothing that I can’t handle. You’ll get your money’s worth.”

“I’d better. Remember we have that meeting with the other executives tomorrow.”

Waiting for the greedy pig to turn his back, she rolled her eyes. She’d give anything to change her career right about now. Could she be a dancer? Dancing was fun.