"No!" "Stay away from me!"
An injured soldier yells, covered in blood from his severe injuries. A ten-year-old Kevin lifts his right arm in the air and swings downward. From that motion, energy shaped like a curved blade comes out of thin air towards the injured guard and cuts him in half. The soldier’s body falls apart on the ground, blood covering the ground; Agent Parker begins to panic as the situation is out of his hands. With Kevin’s Father still in his grip, he drags him back, hiding behind his remaining soldiers to protect themselves.
"Don’t just stand there; shoot the boy!" "Kill him now!" He ordered his troops.
The soldiers replied, changing their weapons from capture to lethal and began to fire their weapons at Kevin. Faster than the bullets themselves, Kevin raises his hand towards the barrage of oncoming bullets. The bullets froze in place in front of Kevin, as he was using his energy to stop them midflight. Kevin raised his other hand, and the bullets began to charge up, consumed by his energy. As Kevin was using his powers, the wound from where a bullet grazed his face earlier began to grow as more of his face began to crack and peel, revealing a being of light within.
"Disappear." The young Kevin says.
Back in the present, Kevin wakes up in a panic screaming. He looked around to see if he was in his room; as he sat up, he wiped the cold sweat from his face trying to calm down as his heart was beating fast.
"What the- what the hell?!" He said under his breath. “That was new.”
He sat at the edge of his bed in his boxers, a little calmer now. He brushed back his hair, thinking about what he dreamt just now.
"Stewart said these weren’t dreams, then these must be memories I’ve blocked out." He thought back to what he saw, as he remembered cutting a soldier in half using energy. Kevin turned pale coming to terms with the truth. “Stewart was right, I’m-
Kevin then hears a gentle knock on the door. He looks up in time to see it begin to open.
"Kevin? Is something the matter?" His mother asked as she poked her head into the room to see if Kevin was okay.
"Mom?" Kevin said softly surprised but relieved to see her.
She looked at him concerned. "I heard screaming."
"Sorry, I-I had a nightmare." Kevin answers.
His mother walks into the room and sits next to him.
"Are you alright?" She asked.
Kevin paused for a second, unsure if he should be talking to her about all this. After all, Stewart warned him not to trust anyone. But again, this is his Mother, he can’t imagine his family betraying him, but he must know the truth. He then builds the courage to speak.
"Do you remember that night when I was little, when you guys took me to see that Motorbike race?" Kevin asked her.
He watches as she thinks about his question as she thinks back to that night. She then chuckles.
"Of course, I do." she replied. "You wouldn’t stop talking about it on the way home."
"Did something happen that night?" Kevin asked her.
"That night?" She replied looking at him confused.
She thinks back a little more about Kevin’s question. Kevin continues to look at his Mother, looking to see if she would react differently, but still nothing. She then remembers something.
"Now that I think about it, I remember you had a really bad fall and landed on that curb pretty hard."
His mother reaches out and gently brushes his hair, parting it; as she parts it, she reveals Kevin’s ice colored eye that had the odd birthmark on his Iris. Kevin looks at her, unsure of her response.
"We honestly thought you were going to lose sight in that eye. You were so brave." She answered with a grin.
A sense of calm came over Kevin as he saw her smile. Kevin was convinced he could trust his Mother with his thoughts and feelings.
"Mom, I’ve been having these weird dreams…it’s about that night, but it’s different." He said.
Kevin’s Mother’s smile changes to concern, especially when Kevin mentioned that his dream was showing different events to what happened that night. She looks at him as his demeanor changes; he looked distressed, as though he’s been holding this type of grief for a while.
"We were attacked. Kevin continued. The Advant guard came and separated us. They held us hostage; they hurt Dad and took you away."
Kevin’s Mother watches him as he rests his hand on his forehead in deep thought.
"They were going to hurt us, but I wouldn’t let them." Kevin stated in a serious tone. "There was a voice calling to me, asking what I wanted most. I wanted to protect; that’s when I started glowing and-"
"Glowing?!" Kevin’s mother interrupts with a chuckle. "Isn’t that something your favorite characters do in those fighting shows you like so much?"
Her chuckle breaks Kevin out of his serious trance. He was surprised to hear his own Mother chuckling at the expense of the situation. He felt that to his Mother, this was a joke to her. He then grows frustrated that his Mother didn’t believe him.
"I’m serious!" Kevin snaps at his mother.
His mother stopped chuckling as she was startled to hear her son raise his voice at her. She then realizes this was serious; she could see the fear in his eyes. She watches as he touches the right side of his face as he thinks about the vision where that side of his face was peeling to reveal the being of light within him.
"I think something’s wrong with me. I think there’s something inside me that I can’t control." He softly says. "I might hurt someone, maybe even kill. What if-"
Before Kevin could finish his statement, his Mother reached out and grabbed hold of her son hugging him in hopes to help comfort him. He wakes from his stressful state to see his Mother holding him.
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"Mom?"
"Kevin, listen to me." She states. "You are my son, nothing more. I don’t understand what is going on with you right now. If you feel yourself slipping away, talk to us, and let us help you. Do you hear me?"
Kevin looks at his mother, surprised by what she said. It was thoughtful but he was slightly disappointed that she didn’t understand what he was talking about. She releases her hold and brushes the side of his hair as he looked at her calmly trying not to show his disappointment.
"Now get some sleep, hon. You have a big day tomorrow." She reminded him as she got up from his bed and headed to the door.
He grew nervous as he wasn’t sure what he should do. Did his Mom try to avoid the question, or does she not know? Those thoughts raced in his head. He then came to the conclusion that maybe she still doesn’t get it, but he had to know.
"Mom, am I…human?" He asks without hesitation.
His mother stops in place for a moment as she hears his question. She turns to face her son as he calmly waits for her answer. He approaches him making Kevin feel anxious as he wondered if she was going to reveal something to him. Instead, she presses her forehead against his, smiling.
"You’re a teenager; welcome to life." She replies. She kisses his forehead then heads to his door opening it.
"Night, sweetheart. She softly says.
She exists his room, Kevin lets out a deep sigh as he still never got an answer. He lays back down in his bed feeling defeated as he tries to go back to sleep. As she closed the door, she softly leaned against it concerned about what her son had told her; she grew worried and felt she need to let her husband know. Meanwhile, at the headquarters of the Advant guard, late into the night, Stewart was in a wheelchair being pushed by an orderly to his next destination. Stewart was wearing paper scrubs and strapped to the wheelchair with a polyester bag over his head. His hands were bound by an electronic shackle-like device. The orderly stops midway as Agent Reynolds meets up with them. He removes the sack over Stewart’s head and gently smiles at Stewart.
"Rise and Shine, Stewart." Said Agent Reynolds greeting him with his signature smile.
Stewart tries to speak wanting to tell Agent Reynolds where to shove it, but he couldn’t speak; in fact, he couldn’t move. His mouth, his body, nothing was responding, except for his eyes. He then realized his entire body was paralyzed. He couldn’t even express how scared he was about why he couldn’t move an inch. Agent Reynolds notices and just smiles.
"Can’t move huh?" He asked. "We gave you something just to help you relax.”
Reynolds straightens up and signals the orderly to follow him. They arrive at a large room filled with a group of scientists computing numbers and checking data from their computers. In the center of the room a large cylinder tower with a copper inductor surrounding it. The top cylinder tower has terminals like an electrical transformer protruding up to the ceiling. Wires from the inductor are connected to the terminals on one end. The other end is connected to four pods which were connected to large monitors over head. Three of the pods were closed and occupied with Seirei Jin halfbreeds. Two young adults, a male and female, and one teenage girl, all with their heads shaven to baldness. They all had electrodes attached to their foreheads which were connected to the machines, and electrodes connecting them to nearby vital machines. The three were awake but in a trance, staring blankly at nothing. The three stopped at the fourth pod, which was open. The orderly started unstrapping Stewart from the wheelchair.
"Welcome, Stewart, to the Tank." Reynolds announced. "Wanna know why you’re here?"
Agent Reynolds helps Stewart turn his head to face the other three seirei jins.
"Those three over there, they are Seirei Jins half breeds like you. In fact, they’re also class A psychics." Reynolds explains.
The orderly then picks Stewart up from the chair, rests him in the pod, and starts strapping him down, connecting him to his vital machine and the Tank itself with the electrodes. Reynolds watches the setup.
"You see, kid, you guys are what we call an elite class. You can all see events in the future that may or may not happen. That’s how we found you. We wanted to make sure this event would happen, and I’m glad it did because that means you can be a big help to our cause." Reynolds continued.
Once the orderly finishes connecting Stewart to the machine, he pressed the button to activate the pod. He removes the cuffs as the pod door closes, and the machine is activated. The machine hums as it turns on. Copper inductors begin to spin, conducting electricity. Stewart, scared and defenseless, could only look around.
Reynolds continues to look at him with his signature smile.
"It’ll be alright, Stewart; just think of yourself as a human battery for this machine, as it uses every ounce of the jin powers you all contain."
Stewart wanted to scream for help as he could feel the effects of the machine begin to take away his personality, his whole being. He was helpless to the humming sound of the machine as it was soothing, almost hypnotic. A single tear rolled down his face as it wasn’t long till he was entranced by the machine that took over his mind. As Agent Reynolds notices Stewart is under their control. He took a step back to monitor the machine to see what would happen next. Drawing the powers of all four Jin half-breeds, their energy then surges and powers up the terminal rods, emitting a virtual HUD resembling a monitor screen, including a snowy image like an old tv. Reynolds Chuckles to himself that the experiment was working.
"I knew you were a special son." Reynolds said. "Now I need you to help me find someone that is more elusive than you. I need you to show me what happens next for Kevin Riley."
Morning arrives; Kevin is dressed up for graduation with nice-looking slacks, a dress shirt, and a tie. He comes downstairs with a backpack that contains his bike uniform as he and his friends will be heading straight to the stadium. His mother comes out of the kitchen as she finishes putting the dishes away and sees Kevin dressed up. She shrieks gleefully seeing her oldest son looking so handsome. Kevin begins to blush.
"Oh, look at my baby!" Kevin, you look so handsome! She exclaims as she looks over him and makes slight adjustments as all mothers would.
"Mom, really? Come on; I gotta go." He said, a little annoyed, but he knew this would happen and gave in.
"I know; I’m just so proud of you." She said. Then her expression changed to concern. "How are you feeling after last night?" She asked.
Kevin knew there was no point in telling her how he really felt; he just softly smiled at her.
"I guess it was just a nightmare. I’ll be fine." He said.
His mother then smiles as well.
"We’ll see you shortly, Brandon is getting ready, and it won’t take long for your Father and I to get dressed." She mentioned.
"Alright, see ya then." Kevin said as he leaned over and kissed his mother on the cheek.
He left for the kitchen door that led into the garage. He put on his helmet and started up his motorcycle. He pressed the key fob, and the big garage door opened, allowing him to drive out and onto the road heading to school. Unknown to him, Agent Reynolds, in an unmarked vehicle, just a house down, parked beside a vacant lot, was watching him leave but didn’t follow.
Back inside the Riley house, Kevin’s mother walks into her husband’s office. Ben was already dressed for the graduation and, as always, heavy into his work as he was busy on the computer. Alexia closes the or behind her.
"Ben, we need to talk about Kevin." She stated.
Ben stopped what he was doing, took off his glasses and rubs his eyes slightly tired but a little annoyed wondering what his son may have gotten into.
"What did he do now?" He asks annoyed.
"He mentioned having a dream about that night."
Ben looks up at Alexia concerned about what she said.
Outside, Agent Reynolds parks in the Riley Resident’s driveway.
"I think he’s starting to remember. What should we do?" Should we tell him? She asked.
Ben got up from his chair thinking about why this was happening and what they should do. He then looks at his bookshelf where between his books was a black box, it shows that it has been there for some time as it has collected dust. Alexia watches her husband walk over to the bookshelf and grabs the box dusting it off and showing her his plan; Alexia was surprised.
"But why? Maybe he should know." Alexia stated.
Ben thinks about his wife’s decision, but he worries that if Kevin knew what he was, what he would do? Agent Reynolds gets out of the car, walks up to the front door and rings the doorbell. Grabbing both Alexia and Ben’s attention. They both looked at each other as they weren’t expecting anyone, they wondered who it could be.
"I’ll go check it out." Alexia replied as she left the office. Ben looks back at the box and gently grazes his hand over it.
"He must never know what happened that night." Ben said to himself as he opens the box. As he looked into the box, his eyes widened with surprise and fear.