After a pointless and frustrating appointment I pushed the clinic door open in a ‘storming out’ kind of fashion, I was eager to get home and let Jake have it for making me go down there.
Fucking take painkillers is their solution!? If it gets worse come back, ridiculous!
“You!” Shouted a voice as I was plucked off the street into an alleyway.
I was slammed against a wall with a forearm rammed against my throat that made me cough and splutter in a panic. I felt a rush of anger, confusion, and intrigue in addition to my own emotion. It was the man from the clinic.
I managed to calm myself as I was on the brink of blacking out and began to form an empath connection with him. I forced a flood of pain into his mind, dropping him to his knees.
“How did you know it was me?” He groaned.
While he was writhing around in pain it gave me a moment to pick up his DNA signature, and it was like no other I’ve sensed before — like a handful of abilities squeezed together that I wasn’t even sure what he was capable of.
“What are you—
“I mean, who are you?” I asked as I gave him reprieve from the pain.
“Tai…”
Tai got up off his knees and kept his distance this time. I had never inflicted that much pain on anyone, I’d usually just use that side of my abilities to try and get my way out of trouble or try my luck at skipping queues, like the appointment at Mindwave. I had never even really explored it further than that, even on my brother.
Underneath his hood was an unkempt beard and messy hair, he was tanned so I gathered that he doesn’t usually walk around all cloaked up. He had piercing green eyes that were shooting right at me like daggers, watching to see if I’d make another move. His breathing slowed while he hesitated to speak any further.
“Okay I told you my name, so tell me, how did you know it was me in the clinic?” He asked again.
“I have dual ability, and can sense others abilities… kind of like a DNA radar I guess you could say.
“Anyway, how are you so powerful? I’ve never sensed that kind of ability up close before.”
“let’s eat,” Tai proposed.
He zigzagged down alleyways through areas of the city that even I would have avoided. Something seemed off. He knew his way around like he was previously a street kid, however, the way he carried himself and spoke made me think otherwise.
“So are you going to tell me who you are besides just ‘Tai’?”
Stolen story; please report.
He ignored me and kept a steady pace until we emerged from the alleys into the more quiet backstreets of the city. He motioned me over to a small ‘hole in the wall’ food vendor.
“No no no Tai, you’re not allowed eat here anymore. You never pay and I’m sick of it,” shouted a flustered Asian woman as we sat on the stools, she was making a shooing motion with her hands like we were some sort of pesky pigeons stealing crumbs as she ran out of the back kitchen.
I went to stand but Tai grabbed my shoulder and forced me back onto the seat.
”No, we’re staying,” he said Authoritatively, to me and the frustrated woman.
The woman ran back into the kitchen and hurriedly prepared a meal before returning and placing two bowls in front of us, telling us that it was on the house and we didn’t owe her anything.
Even I was shocked at the ease he persuaded her into changing her mind. She was sure to be pissed once she realised he had done the same thing to her again that he obviously did each time.
Using abilities for personal gain or persuasion was illegal and strictly enforced by law enforcement, but it didn’t really stop people like myself and Tai from using them when needed. You had to be careful though because once you got reported they followed it up eventually, unless you were unlucky enough to get caught red handed by an undercover enforcer.
“Alright Tai, you’ve wined and dined me, now who and what are you?”
“Well what I am is a stupid question. I’m human still, but I’m a part of the experimental gen, and my name is Tai Swan.”
It took a lot for me to be speechless but Tai did just that. He literally descended from the family who sat at the top of the Consortium, and I couldn’t wrack my brain of why he was going around telling people to run away from the very thing his very family had built.
As I drew a breath to ask him the million of questions he cut me off.
“We can’t discuss this any further here, take this and meet me at the address tomorrow at 6pm,” he added as he hopped up and quickly made his way back to the alleyways.
He had handed me a small black metallic card, it was thin and all it had on one of the sides was a white embossed DNA strand. The other side was blank, and It didn’t have any sort of address on it like he said it would.
“Reed Hark?” A voice asked from behind me.
I didn’t turn to face them before I had a chance to slip the card in my sleeve. I couldn’t sense them which meant only one thing —they were enforcers.
“Sorry got the wrong guy,” I said as I kept my head down and got back to my meal trying to keep my emotions regulated.
“I don’t think so.”
He grabbed me by the scruff of my jacket and pulled me backwards off the stool before he turned to his partner, “what’s the perps description again?”
“Caucasian Male, Mid twenties, regular build, 5.10”, green eyes, sandy blonde hair.”
“Well look at that, seems like we did find Reed after all. You’re coming with us,” he commanded before overtaking my emotions and making me as cool as a cucumber in order to cuff me and drag me off with little resistance.
Enforcers were highly skilled empaths, allowing them to sense out their targets or catch people in the act of illegal activities. I had no chance at trying to counter their abilities. It usually made for a relaxing and easy arrest at least.
I was brought back to the main station for this side of the city, thrust into one of the many holding cells and back into the shitty stale recycled air. At least I had some time to practice my empath ability while in holding. I made calm prisoners mad, and mad prisoners calm. It actually became a rather fun game to pass the time — I wanted to try push them to the absolute limit.
“you there, stop fucking with the other prisoners minds,” said an officer as he banged on the glass of my holding cell.
“Open on cell five,” he shouted.
The cell door opened and I was escorted along the hallway to an interview room. Inside were two men. One was a well dressed older man which looked at me with judgment, while the other was middle aged who appeared like he was a high ranking officer at the station and didn’t really want to be there.
“Take a seat Reed, I’m Chief Kayer and this is Harold Swan.
”We have a few questions.”
All I could do was nod. On the list of things I was expecting, I would not have picked this.
“Did you see or interact with my son Tai Swan today,” said Harold, jumping the gun as his question prompted a stern stare from the Chief.
“No I didn’t.”
The Chief decided to get in before Harold this time.
”We have a report from the MindWave clinic that you used your empath ability on the receptionist to gain an appointment, an illegal use I might add.
“This was right around the same time that a man who we believe to be Tai, hijacked the clinics system to warn people off,” the Chief concluded.
“Hmm doesn’t ring a bell,” I said.
”The boys lying!” Shouted Harold, “don’t be stupid now.”
After several more minutes of playing stupid and Harold aggressively pressuring the Chief, his hands were tied and he couldn’t keep me in the station any longer. I surmised that it wasn’t entirely legal that he let Harold question me hence the reason he wasn’t keeping me for illegal ability use.
”I’ll be watching you boy,” threatened Harold as I was escorted out of the room, a threat I ignored hoping that he would forget about it if I didn’t react.