All I could see was white. I was basically blind. All my other senses were working though. I could taste the blood in my mouth, I could smell burning flesh, I could feel excruciating pain coming from the right side of my body and I would have heard the crowd of students screaming if my own screams didn’t drown theirs out.
Laurelines’ point of view
When I woke up this morning I did not expect to see Simon screaming his head off while clutching at his non-existent right arm, that’ right Jason blew the entitled idiots arm off. I found myself in a precarious situation fight Jason and expose the full extent off my powers or leave Simon to die. Dammit I want to become an enforcer for just this reason the powerful hurting the powerless. It looks like it’s my time to shine. I wearily made my way towards Jason putting the now screaming Simon directly behind me. I hope I don’t regret this…
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1 year ago
Laureline is standing in front of a shop window silently critiquing herself. After school she would visit the central business district of the city and window shop.
“I wish I had money” she thought. Being an orphan had left her with little or no money to use for anything other than her food budget.
That’s when she heard a crash coming from a nearby alleyway, everyone knows that when you hear something suspicious run away and call the Enforcers. But something drove this naïve 15 year old towards the alley instead of away. Maybe it was curiosity, maybe idiocy or maybe destiny.
In the alleyway stood what could only be described as a giant menacing red devil and a man pleading for his life knelt in front of him. Only when the devil shifted did she notice a brown haired tanned youth. She remembered him from school, Simon Dawn; she then accurately deduced the devil standing beside him was his father Simon Argent who was rumoured to be a class 8 warrior. She almost laughed at the fact that the blood red monster was named after silver until she noticed the silver crown of hair on his head.
Argent seemed to be holding a weapon in his hands. She thought it was a knife until he handed it to Simon and she realised that it was a short sword. The man’s hulking size had made the sword look little and frail. The sword began to shake as it entered Simon’s hand.
Then argent started speaking “son, maybe you need something extra to awake your ability” he stroked the silver goatee on his chin “I heard that the rush from a man’s first kill will do the job, what do you think?”
The boy remained silent unable to answer, the man on the floor witnessing the young man’s hesitation began to think faster than he had ever before and quickly said “boy please spare me” after taking his wallet from his pocket he pulled out a photo from his wallet “this is my wife, she is pregnant with my child please spare me” it was actually a picture of his ex-girlfriend who was not pregnant but the boy didn’t know that.
Argent saw through the man’s trick but did not tell his son. He wanted to see how far the boy was willing to go to please him. Argent thought to himself “children are so impressionable, all it takes is withheld affection or the threat of pain and they bend to your will” he noticed the boys hands stopped shaking and smiled to himself and said out loud “maybe you will never be like your sister”
The boy lunged forward and planted the blade between the ribs of the man and directly into his heart with such efficiency it took the mortally wounded victim a few seconds to realise his fate. While bleeding out the man spat out a slurry of vicious insults and ended with “boy you will pay for what you did, maybe not your father but you the pathetic weak human trash will”
Argent then asked “any change?” his son responded by vomiting on the floor “I’ll take that as a no” and he crouched down and looked the boy in the eyes “he’s right you know, I don’t protect the weak, I will only avenge dishonour that is cast upon my name” he stood up and walked away “wipe that weapon down before you leave I’ve already paid off the enforcers in this area so don’t worry about witnesses coming forward. He walked pass the 15 year old girl who had been frozen in terror. His eyebrows rose as he noticed her hair shift from blond to silver while her skin took on a pink hue.
He could see the young shape shifter was inexperienced because of the textbook uneven ripples her skin was making. He thought to himself “she must have just had her awakening” then mumbled out loud “just makes the boy look more pathetic”
She stayed behind and watched the boy cry for an hour. It was then that Laureline had decided that if she was going to be a hero the first victim she would save would be Simon. Little did she know that a year from that point Simon would be the first person she stood up to protect?
The next day she started practising using her powers in private and decided she would record her awakening in a years’ time when she was eligible for the enforcers any sooner and she runs the risk of being coerced into an underground organisation. The laws stated only legal adults could be drafted into the Enforcers and that happens to be 16 when most ability users awaken.
After leaving the orphanage and boarding the bus to school she thought of how to approach the boy. At school she saw him sitting on a desk with a group of spineless low level sheep fawning over him in the hopes that someday they would be chosen to join his clan. She laughed at how they didn’t know what little power the boy in front of them had, he was just another victim needing to be saved and she would save him. No one saved her family when a war between clans took their lives as collateral damage; she was done watching the weak getting caught up in the plans of the strong.
She saw him stand up to go to the bathroom and followed him. He turned the corner and she followed him, right as she turned she was grabbed and pressed against a locker.
“Why have you been watching me, tell me who sent you?” Simon asked
“I just saw the sadness in your eyes and wanted to know what’s wrong” she tried to reply in a fearful voice so he knows she’s not dangerous.
“What…I’m not sad, I’m Simon ARGENT, I’m powerful” he said with false pride
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
“You look more like a Dawn to me “she replied
He looked at her with disbelieving eyes “whatever as you can see I’m fine”
“Ok do you want to be friends” she asked
“Judging by your worn-out old tracksuit you must be a second class citizen, why do you act so brazen “he asked genuinely interested.
“Ok mister first class citizen do you want an underling” she asked sarcastically
“I think so, I just realised I don’t even know your name “he asked
“Laureline” she smiled and he smiled back
Simon didn’t realise it at the time but she was the only real friend he was going to make for a while.
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Back to the present
Laurelines' point of view
Don’t panic just show this douchebag you’re not afraid? “Do you really think the enforcers are going to let you get away with this, they’ll be here in 5 minutes or sooner “I said trying to sound convincing and fail at it.
Jason still had a mad look in his eye when he started speaking “get out of my way! 5 minutes is more than enough time to kill this piece of shit”
Laureline started thinking to herself. Jason fired that shot at a moment’s notice which means this was all premeditated, if Simon hadn’t dived left the moment Jason lifted his hands there would have been a hole where his chest had meant to be. All sorcerers have a glaring weakness without artefacts they need to recite spells to conjure magic, think of it as entering a password to access the soul’s energy, meaning they have a high attack or defence with the trade-off being a slow activation time. Jason had that spell ready to go because the school scans for artefacts, weapons and electronic gadgets as you enter its domain
I ask tell Jason “Don’t blame him for what his father has done he’s innocent”
It was Naomi’s turn to reply “innocent! INNOCENT! I got a phone call from his father describing how SIMON killed my brother a year ago! He even said he had proof” she started sobbing
Shit! Argent had really planned ahead to think the man Simon killed was the brother a girl who is lovers with one of Simon’s enemies and to calculate the probability that Jason would react in this way. That sort of thinking and planning ahead would take the intelligence of a scientist, or a spiritualist with precognitive abilities. Does Argent have an extra ability she doesn’t know of, it wouldn’t be unheard of finding an ability user with multiple abilities but that is just…then she remembered Argent was the head of the Argent Knights, so obviously he had access to prerogatives and scientists. The stress of this situation is messing with her thought process.
She realised while she had been thinking Jason had finished casting another spell. Shit! How could I get lost in thought? Is this what a real fight feels like? No thinking then just fight!
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Jason’s point of view
FUCK! I’m so fucking close to killing that pompous bastard. He dares to kill my girls’ brother then send his daddy to brag about it over the phone. I’ll kill him and then I’ll beg and plead like hell to be recruited into the Enforcers after all he is the son of a criminal. I heard from someone it was possible, who was it that told me again? Doesn’t matter, all that matters is that I kill Simon or die trying!
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What Jason didn’t know was that the man who had told him that obviously false information was a spiritualist with the ability of telepathy class 7 which allowed him to manipulate the week willed Jason into such a suicidal plan. The telepath was called Vague and was Argents left hand man in charge of information gathering and subterfuge. After planting the idea in Jason mind right after Naomi told him the news of the truth behind her brothers’ death he moved to a quiet corner and waited for Simon to arrive and watch the show begin.
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Laureline
Whatever it now or never, as Jason fired of a construct made of light in the shape of a giant arrow she transformed into the scariest thing she had ever witnessed in her life ARGENT. She heard shrieks from the students too dumb to take their eyes off the fight just as the light came into contact with her blood red skin and the world seemed to explode into a flash of blinding light and then darkness.
It took her only a second for light to return, she then realised it was because her eyes had a nictitating membrane that managed to relatively protect her eyes. What she saw when her eyesight returned was looks of disbelief from all those around her. This was because only shape shifters of class 7 and above could copy not only the appearance of another ability user but the constitution of their bodies and physical abilities as well.
This was her secret or trump card; she was a categorised as a warrior shape shifter class 7. Able to copy physical appearance and exact constitution of another ability users body, class 6s’ could only copy normal humans looks and physique whereas class 7s’ could copy a physically augmented ability users basic constitution after seeing them face to face at least once.
She knew she had to end this quickly. The increase in size mass and density was taxing on her soul energy and could not keep up this appearance for longer than a minute even after a year of practice. From all her training she knew the sheer force this body’s natural strength could exert was crazy even without Argents soul energy using it to its full potential. What I mean by this is that Laurelines' transformation is an imitation of Argent and could barely use 5% of his true power.
She punched directly into the floor sending a minor shockwave in all directions everyone around her fell down but except Jason who was now covered in armour of glowing white light. “Great” she thought “managed to hurt everyone but the guy I’m fighting, rookie move I’m too inexperienced”
Jason smiled menacingly seeing as Laureline was shocked to see him upright. “She must be a newbie, just need to hold out 10 more seconds then I can use my trump card”
Laureline charged forward the ground shaking with each step; she was deceptively fast for her size and caught Jason off guard. She managed to slam her shoulder into him sending him flying 10 metres back. As Jason hit the ground he fell in such a way as to protect his vitals. He had jumped back when Laureline slammed her shoulder into him.
Laureline approached Jason who was lying on the ground and faltered as she saw him stand up unharmed while laughing.
He said “this is why we first class citizens train from the moment we can walk, to beat untrained savages who are given the blessings of the gods by mistake”
At this point Vague who had been enthralled by the ever increasing turn of events amplified if control on Jason making him utter out all the hate and contempt a normal human would keep locked away in public. After all it’s easiest for a telepath to remove your inhibitions than make you do something you don’t want.
Laureline felt helpless. “Even with this power I’m weak, mom, and dad help me” she would have cried if she could but luckily it seemed Argents body was incapable of the act. As Jason began to summon what would seem to be a giant sword of light .she pondered why if crocodiles could cry Argents Crocodile eyes couldn’t. It was then her transformation gave in and she fell to her knees. She was Laureline again.
At that moment when all hope was lost she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder and when she looked up it was Simon smiling down on her. He looked different his brown eyes and hair had all turned silver. But other than that he still looked the same. He still looked the same? Wait his arm was back! It looked pale and new compared to the rest of his tanned skin.
Simon looked Laureline in the eyes and said “stop crying and man up. We have a crazy douchebag to kill” he ended his sentence with a smirk.
“He’s different” she thought. “Don’t let whatever power you think you got get to your head!” she fake scolded him as he helped her up “plus if I’m not mistaken it was you screaming your head off while crying like a baby just a minute ago”
He scratched the back of his head and said “Yah, he did take me down faster than Donald trump can tweet fake news”
She said “what was that?”
Simon replied “I thought I could try making a joke”
She chuckled “don’t you suck at it”
They made their way toward Jason as he finished summoning his sword. They would remember this day as taking the first few steps on their journey to true power.