Trav glared at the cloaked individual, who remained nonchalant after knocking Willy down with a great sense of surprise. Trav’s face twisted in an expression of anger and vengeance.
“Excuse me, who might you be?” Trav asked, but was more of a demand, pointing his index finger at the individual. Within the corner, Sid watched, blood dripping from his chest wound. His blood however, was completely cold and black, something even Trav could tell from his distance. How is he able to stand after such a blow? Trav thought, darting his eyes back to the stranger, his eyes squinting.
“Who are you?” Trav asked heavily, expecting no immediate answer out of him, but was quite surprised when he turned to him, baring his fangs immediately. He reached for his hoodie, removing the scarf from in front of his lower face, revealing rather sharp and considerably handsome features, with a mouth curved up in a strange mix between an ominous, and friendly, smile. Trav didn’t know the difference either way.
“My name, that is a very big secret. You however, may call be Zeru,” he said almost mockingly, closing his eyes, slanting them toward Trav. His black streaked hair ran down his face revealing almost razor-sharp outlines. “You understand nothing, simpleton. You are too careless, and much too human, to interfere in these matters.” He waved a wagging, mocking finger at the boy, which upset and confused Trav simultaneously. Still, however, he had to be an enemy, he attacked Willman. He could not stand for that. Above all, he hated his curved lip, the smile that mocked Trav at every turn.
“I don’t give a flying crap about that,” Trav said outright, raising his voice, breaking his restraint slowly but surely. He slowly stepped forward to the not frightened, scornful ‘Zeru’. “Willy’s business is now mine too. We’re in this together now. If you got beef with him, I suggest you take it up with me now.” Trav boldly stated, turning to Sid in the background, who suspiciously was only watching. What Trav hadn’t noticed at first though, was that Sid’s wound had already closed up. “That goes for you too, emo-boy. Got anything to say, I’m your guy.”
“Hmm,” Zeru hummed, placing his finger on his sharp chin. “That’s very bold of you. Although, very stupid.”
“Aack… for crisis sake… why are you here? Of all people,” Sid said groggily, wiping the dripping black blood from his oral cavity. Zeru merely laughed tauntingly, even to someone with a status as Sid, who Trav already knew to be very important in his and Willy’s time.
“It’s simple, meh’ lord,” Zeru started, placing his hands behind his back. “You were just about to die, weren’t ya’? If it weren’t for my clams, ya’d already be dead, aye? As of now, you’re not in much of a position to talk back to me in such a disrespectful way.” Sid’s face twisted in a fusion of resent and defeat, though Sid was the stubborn type, much like Willy, and would simply not admit defeat.
“You underestimate me. That’s not wise, Zeru,” Sid said, glaring profoundly at the mysterious man. Zeru was the only man in the room (still conscious), not frightened by Sid in the least.
“I think you give yourself a bit too much credit, my master. You are not at full power yet. However, I always am at my maximum potential.”
“Enough,” Sid demanded outright, walking toward Trav and the downed Willy. Sid glanced down at Willy for a brief moment, before turning a sneering gaze at the regular boy who was mixed in with this super-human madness. “You are in now. If you stubbornly insist of following Willy, then you may follow him to his eventual, evident grave.” Sid said, twisting into a smile. Trav gulped, but remained as strong as possible in Sid’s presence. “Or…”
Sid stepped on Trav’s right foot, causing him to rant and yell in pain, before being dragged into Sid’s face by his shirt collar, by Sid himself, not going simple on his grip. Sid glared at the boy.
“I have something more pleasurable planned for you lot, however.”
“You… lot? What do you mean?” Trav asked gravely, causing Sid to grin wider.
“Oh, you didn’t think you were going alone, did you?” Sid asked rhetorically, but to Trav, it wasn’t so rhetorical.
“The hell… surely you didn’t…-“
“Oh, we did,” Zeru said with a cool, smug smirk, and usual slanted eyes. He turned his scarf behind his back, and simply snapped. With the motion of the scarf, which radiated throughout the darkened gym, three bright blue radiating bubbles floated in mid-air. Inside of each bubble was one figure. As the bubbles appeared more in depth to Trav, his eyes widened at the people inside of the bubble.
“Vince… Andy… Clara?!” Trav glared at Sid, throwing a sudden punch for his face, which Sid caught with his free hand, still keeping Trav in his grip.
“You want me to break this hand as well?” Sid asked darkly. Trav groaned in frustration and anger, gritting his teeth in misery, hopeless misery. What could he do now?
“What do you want from me?” Trav asked, finally giving in, which caused Sid’s face to resort back into its original, apathetic and composed posture.
“I want the very essence of which you survive. I want your soul, mind, and body.” Sid said darkly, standing in a composed, rigid stance. Sid may have just been testing Trav, but more than likely he was dead serious; he didn’t know. He knew right there he could not back down.
“I thought your business here was with Willman?” Trav asked, causing Sid to chuckle lightly, along with Zeru, who laughed unusually loudly, poking the bubbles of Trav’s friends in suspended animation. Trav hated being the fool.
“That’s rather selfish of you to say,” Sid said smoothly. “You are in this with Willman now. With that sort of mentality, you will lose yourself quickly, and so will Willy-man.” Trav’s eyes widened.
“For hell’s sake… what are you talking about?” Trav asked, barely able to control his demeanor at this point, trying with all of his might to hold back his clenched readied fist.
“It’s quite comical, you know nothing of us. Perhaps you and your friends need a little illumination?” Sid suggested casually, for which Trav was taken aback.
“What do you intend to do? Leave my friends out of this! Your business… it’s with us!”
“Now that’s what I want to hear.” Sid said. “What I intend to do, you all will find out for yourselves.” Sid said with a brash smirk. Sid’s eyes darted to Zeru for a split second, as Sid began to pace the corner, his hands casually behind his back. He glanced down at the downed Willy, almost with a look of pity.
“Allow me to show you a world that is tainted black,” Sid shot his arm upwards toward the sky. Trav looked on, completely bewildered. More than anything however, he was concerned for his, Willy’s, and his friend’s safety.
Everything around Trav began to dim. His vision, hearing, and even the feeling of his sole shoes on the gym floor, even the smell of the sweat and blood stained from the battle. The sound of a blank click was all that resonated in his head, as everything faded to an unfathomable black, warping out of subsistence. He felt nothing but a never ending thump, until eventually; it was all gone.
Willy woke up from a profound slumber. He twisted and turned in his habitual bed, throwing the bed sheets to the floor without a care. He hadn’t even noticed the reverberating alarm on his green digital clock going off in a mad alert. Willy casually reached over to shut off the alarm, rubbing his eyes.
“Jeez, what an insane dream,” Willy said groggily, reaching in his closet for his school uniform, remembering as he reached he had left it in the dryer. As he worked diligently to himself, many thoughts raced through his head. “Felt so real though… more real than any delusion in my life.” It was just another day. At least everything seemed like so. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary on the outside.
Willy readied himself for school, exactly 7:35 A.M on the clock. Having missed the bus, Willy decided the best way to school would be to walk, since he only lived two blocks from school. After taking a shower, eating a cold bowl of cereal, gathering his belongings and his backpack, Willy stepped out of the door to head his way to school.
Despite the normality of this universe, Willy merely could not shake the feeling that nothing was as it seemed. Whether it was some outside force that was beckoning him, his own intuition, or the dream last night that felt so real, he wasn’t sure. He had an odd feeling that nothing was set in stone. Willy shook it off for the morning, heading to school like a casual teenager. On the inside, he knew what he truly was. The side of him that no one wanted to see, the sector of his internal, nearly unlimited potential, which deemed him a freak. The same reason Willy’s former best friends left.
“I couldn’t lead the life of a renegade,” Willy said silently to himself, passing by a woman on the street that seemed lost. Willy stopped, turning around after noticing the woman. She looked around almost frantically. It was not in Willy’s nature to leave the helpless defenseless. It was in Willy’s nature to satisfy everybody, and to never let himself give in.
The young woman appearing no later than her mid 20’s, appearing in a tight black shirt and white, rather tight jeans, her hair dressed in two accessories which flowed down her back in a graceful, pink elegance. looked up after a brief fifteen seconds, smiling gracefully at the young boy in front of her, shyly placing her hands behind her back, tip toeing toward him. She rubbed on his cheeks, stretching his skin. “My young man, are you by any chance taking any interest in me?” she asked in a sweet, yet at the same time absolute voice, her crystal blue eyes broadened cutely.
Willy’s brow raised his cheek flesh stung. “Erm, excuse me?”
“Well, I couldn’t help but notice, your eyes have been fastened on me for a few seconds. Do you want to ask me out on a date?” the woman replied, rubbing her hands across her gray, tight pants. Willy’s eyes widened slightly, unsure of how to reply for a second.
“You seem sort of lost,” Willy finally replied. “Is there anything I can help you with?”
The woman scratched her chin in wonder, snapping in front of her face, closing her eyes with a pointed index finger. “Now that you mention it, there is! You see, I recently lost my purse to a couple of thieves! Those dirty scoundrels.”
Willy looked on at the bizarre, yet bold and beautiful woman, yet his face resonated with absolute determination. “Which way did they go?”
The woman grabbed Willy by the head, thrusting his head in about twenty directions east and north. “They took that corner then went round-a-bout that way then leaped on the shaft there,” the woman pointed, “right there for emphasis, then they worked that pole over there, took advantage of the commotion in the street from a recent collision to sneak away to Maki Street!” The woman ended with a slight, nervous pant. A fiery resolve lit in Willy’s eyes.
“I’ll be back-“
“Wait!” The woman called out, causing Willy to stop in his tracks once more, this time a little more annoyed, but remained patient as could be. He turned around with a blank smile.
“What is it this time?” he asked composedly.
“I chased after the robbers and successfully snatched back my purse!” The woman replied, giving an immediate thumbs up. Willy’s eyes slanted, his shoulders fell down, and he face palmed.
“Then… what was the point of telling me this so frantically?” Willy asked in between his palm. “Everything worked out in the end, right?”
“Well, not exactly,” the woman corrected with a cute, seductive smile. “I chased the purse snatchers – even managed to take back my purse. But then, I came across another problem…” she sighed heavily, looking up at the sky in distraught. Willy turned back to the girl casually, clearly taking no sexual interest in her, as she probably had planned. “As I snatched back my purse, I dropped it again.”
Willy’s eyes glanced curiously back at the beautiful woman. “Yes? Where is it?”
The woman pointed up. “On the rooftop, above us.”
Willy looked up, his eyes widened in disbelief. For once, even though he didn’t speak, he actually was speechless. How someone managed to drop a item of valuable possession on the roof was way above him, literally.
“You’re… kidding right?” Willy asked which he knew he shouldn’t have. The woman nodded in a friendly gesture.
“No, I’m too scared to go up there by myself! I could really use some help… but who do I call?” The woman pleaded, as if talking to herself now. Willy heard her pleas, and being the heroic person he was defined as, he could not say no. He looked up bravely, nodding in an industrious manner.
“Alright, stay here. I’ll be right back,” Willy said with a swift glance, smiling warmly back at the woman. The woman clapped her hands together, and clapped in response to Willy’s heroism. Willy took a turn down the dark alley. His eyes widened for a split second, his muscles slightly pumped up. Willy flipped up, kicked off of the garbage can, used the momentum to leap from wall to wall diagonally in a straightforward fashion. He flipped up in a great dash of speed and velocity, flipping down, landing swiftly, and even more fluidly, on his feet, bending his legs, his hands folded across his knees. Willy’s eyes glanced up at the scene on the rooftop, looking for the purse on top. Soon enough, in the gutter, he would find exactly what he was looking for, more likely than not, not where he wanted to find it.
Willy sighed, “Of course I would find it here,” Willy walked toward the purse, kneeled down to pick it up from the soiled excess of waste in the gutter, when abruptly, he was stopped in his tracks by the sudden descent and puncture of three tanto knives, lodged within the gutter, and right below his feet, the other landing between his index and middle fingers. Willy looked up with widened eyes, as immediately as he did, he was kicked by the sole of a sharp shoe. Willy was nailed by sudden surprise, rolling off of the rooftop. Lucky for him, he only fell one level, as right below, there was another level only a floor length down. Willy hadn’t realized how far up he traveled to get the purse, but now, he had other issues.
Willy was surprised, he wasn’t sure if the knives were a purposeful, extremely dexterous miss, or a very lucky shot for him. Either way, the opponent he was dealing with, by landing those consecutive knives so in conjunction, knew he had his plate full now. Willy sighed heavily.
“Shit… seems like everything is back to normal now, eh?” Willy readied himself, watching across the shades and structures of the clear constructed rooftops for any sign of terrestrial life after his own. The rooftop was clear, there was literally nothing but the rooftop beneath him, and the level above, which was the only place the target could have been. Willy glared up at the top level, as a black swift of motion headed Willy’s way, dressed in a traditional ninja outfit with a metallic-like mask shaped with the design of a fox, with black engravings across the eye patches. Willy knew what that meant, and what this guy was a member of.
“Ah… the Special Enforcement Assassination Team, S.E.A.T., what business do you have with me?” Willy asked, remaining on guard. The S.E.A.T. were the special government agents of the new century of K.I.’s rule, who were derived from the leader of K.I. They were usually responsible for the assassination of any and all which opposed K.I.’s resolve, but most of the time they traveled in groups. Seeing a squad of three was very common, one, not so much. Willy was already suspicious that perhaps it was a rogue S.E.A.T.
“I have come to you with the direct order of your assassination. You must die,” The SEAT agent declared, unleashing from his black cape a chain of tanto knives tied across in rows of two. The SEAT agent twirled them above of his head, and dashed forward with the chains, amassing a large buildup of a strange black aura among the chain. The knives themselves were already tainted with the blood of its last victims. Willy’s eyes fixated on the chain, as he leaped through the chain, not even so much as taking a scratch. Willy glared up at the man, aiming a swift kick for the back of his left leg, in order to strike him down. The agent however foreseen the action, and back flipped back in the nick of time. Willy stood up straight, glaring at the agent. It bothered Willy, all of the time, if he could not see the face of anyone he was facing; one reason he hated the SEAT agents, as they were required to wear metallic masks.
The agent lifted up the chains in the air, twirling them like a mad tire in the air. The tanto knives detached themselves, hurling at Willy at great speed. Willy attempted to dodge them all in mid-air with a stylish jump, but simply found the task impossible. Willy grimaced as his left arm, and the very left side of his left ribs were grazed. Willy looked angrily on at the agent.
“One hundred twenty percent!” Willy declared, as the agent rushed for him, he withdrew a grenade, hurling it at Willy, creating a smoke distraction for him to sneak up behind Willy. Willy stood there as the man’s knife plunged for his throat, which Willy easily caught, kicking the man’s knife through the air. The agent stepped back, but remained calm, throwing a punch for Willy’s face. Willy dodged it, clenched his fist, and unleashed a powerful blow to the man’s stomach with excellent martial form, one leg bent forward, the other remained in place holding his stature. As the man fell down from the single blow, Willy held on to him in place of his fall. Willy looked down, throwing the man against the edge of the roof. Willy’s muscles relaxed, as he took a deep breath, facing up to the sky.
“What the hell was that all about? Could K.I. really be targeting me in this world already? That’s strange…” Willy said, leaping down from the rooftop stylishly, but not before grabbing the purse. He was met by the sweet embrace of the attractive woman as he landed, giving her back her purse.
“Thank you so much! Darn those masked robbers. They’ll think twice before snatching my stuff again!” the woman declared, stomping the ground for emphasis. Willy’s eyes widened as she mentioned the word masked. It rang a bell to him, but he thought it best not to interrogate the woman, not in this time. Willy saluted the woman in a friendly gaze.
“It was no problem. Glad to help anyone,” Willy said, holding the left side of his chest in a serration of pain. The pain seemed to spread throughout his body, he felt his left arm tingle from the shoulder down. Willy attempted to shake it off, and walked away from the woman, but not before she called out to him, one last time.
“Excuse me sir! What is your name?!” the woman asked from afar. Willy turned back casually, attempting to hide his sudden, unexplained fatigue.
“It’s Willman,” Willy replied coolly. The woman smiled, her eyes widened with thought.
“You may call me Arabella. Ara for short!” She waved Willy away. Willy turned a friendly gaze back at Ara, turned around and walked off with a wave.
As Willy walked away, Ara reached in her pants pocket to grab her cell phone. She speed dialed a number on her touch screen, folded her left arm under her breasts, and walked inside of the alley. She leaped, amazingly, on top of the rooftop, looking down at the downed SEAT agent with a small mischievous grin.
“Put me through to him, immediately.” Ara demanded in a less sweet, more declarative tone than before, still retaining that innocent, sweet look however. She smiled seductively as the familiar voice appeared on the other line.
“Ah yes, Sire. For sure, confirmation is essential, and I have proof.” She said, taking a short pause. “He is here. I have found him.” She paused, listening to her ‘master’ on the other side of the conversation.
“It’s definitely him. The Kid has returned to our time.”
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