The sound of running, a runner’s high, was common in New York. Especially in the modern world of 2020, where conglomerates of people ran through the streets, with only the occasional car passing through them, where runners yielded to said cars. These runners, clad in their individual work attires, conversed as they always did. Conversing so loud, they were unable to hear a simple cat stuck in a tree. However, one man, who was simply running alone, heard the cat.

“Mrrooww!”

The Scottish Fold clung on a branch for desperation, begging for the help it did not receive. All four legs stuck on the branch for the life of it, literally. It was then a rather average man looked at the Scottish Fold, smiling with his hands in a black suit pocket. The sky was sunny, illuminating him on this fine April morning.

“Hey there little fella! Rush hour’s a pain, yeah? Let me help you down, if you need it anyways.” The man, a simple unemployed college dropout, reached out his hand to the tree where the cat gripped. The cat let out a little purr in response, swishing its tail.

“Alrighty! Let me get up there!” The college dropout replied, beginning to take off his suit jacket, but then putting it back on.

The man exhaled, squatting and swinging his arms as if he was preparing for a jump. His cheap used suit, likely bought off the internet, flowed with the wind that rustled the tree once more. His tie, a surprising yellow, began to loosen. His figure was average, if not slightly bulky, and his hair was a nice ashy brown with a shaved face. His brown eyes focused on the cat. He then jumped, reaching the tree branch the cat had somehow gotten itself stuck to. Then, he leapt. Reaching his arms up to grip onto the tree branch, he was able to grip onto it at the top of his jump. However, he did struggle to lift himself up, due to both his natural weight and the cat having scratched on it earlier. The branch snapped, causing the kitty and the man to fall. Reaching out his arms, he held onto the cat as he crashed back first into the ground. Letting out no reaction but a simple sigh, he put the cat down and watched as it ran away.

“I haven’t jumped in a while, and 50 feet? I think I’m average again..” This man, Aldiyar, looked at the tree branch, jumping up again to stick it back onto the tree and then landing.

“There we go! No ecosystem goes undamaged,” Aldiyar said, smiling and checking his watch. “О черт- I gotta hurry..” The cat savior began to run, hurrying down the street to rejoin the crowd.

Aldiyar bolted down the road, heading onto the runners lane with some of the others heading to jobs. However, an older man, Joseph, noticed the savior, and jogged up to meet him. Joseph’s green eyes sparkled with his usual friendliness, matched only by the intensity of Aldiyar’s own sparkle.

“Morning Aldi! How ya doing, mate?” Joseph said, nudging Aldiyar as he slicked back his long blonde hair.

“Doing just fine, Joe. Just fine!” Aldiyar said, giggling as he initiated an old-timey radio man.

“Did ya get that job down at the Big Bee’s?” asked the ever curious Joseph, using their own nickname for Applebee’s.

Aldiyar shook his head, “Nah.. I got told they ‘didn’t know who I am’, all I did was give- МНЕ ТОЛЬКО ЧТО ПРИШЛА В ГОЛОВУ ОТЛИЧНАЯ ИДЕЯ!” He exclaimed with great passion, startling the older man, who was looking at the silver ring on his ring finger.

“Chill out, Aldi! I.. I don’ know Russian.” Joseph said, beginning to laugh as he started to take out a cigarette, offering one to Aldiyar, who declined.

“But, Joe, hear me out.. Can you give me a bit of information on history? Y’know, like the basics on sayyyy… Prana! Yeah! That’ll impress the place I’m going for.

Joe thought for a moment, before nodding. “Well, what do ya wanna know? The shit they teach ya in elementary or the shit I learned in Sydney?” Joe asked, boasting how he went to college in Australia to a frankly uneducated Aldiyar.

“Uhhh.. Well.. I-” Aldiyar began to speak, before Joe smacked himself upside the head.

“Sorry, sorry.. Wrong subject.. But anyways, the Great War took place in the 40’s, Germany, Italy, and Japan against America, Britain, and France. Why did it happen? Germany was infected by facism, and started taking over countries-” Joseph said, beginning to ramble about the event we, dear reader, call World War 2.

Aldiyar listened, nodding and asking a question about the end of the war once Joe was done explaining. “So what does Prana have to do with this.. Exactly?”

“So, I think there’s a cool thing ya can do.. So the Big O’, that’s Oppenheimer, dropped a bomb that was gonna wipe Nagisaka off the map! But it never touched the city, it detonated in the air, and we don’ know why.. Wanna know my bet, though?” Joseph asked, chuckling mischievously as he played with his wedding ring.

“...Why?”

“Some guy punched the shit outta it! Like jumped into the air and hit the bomb and made it EXPLODE!” Joseph yelled at that last word, causing a few people to look his way.

Aldiyar laughed a little, nodding, “..That’s.. Unlikely, but sure I’ll mention it! Thanks, Joe.”

“Well, g’luck to ya mate! I gotta head down to the shop. Catch ya for lunch?” Joseph asked, pointing his fingers to Aldiyar, who nodded.

“Prep the usual, but maybe throw in extra lettuce? I’m feeling daring today, yeah.” Aldiyar nodded, as the two did their secret handshake with each other and ran their separate ways. Today was going to be a good day!

As Aldiyar made his way to the office building, he was greeted by some guy with heavily fogged glasses and a mean toupee.

“You’re late, Mr. Khalimbekov. Get down to my office, NOW!!” the man, probably Aldiyar’s future boss, yelled at him. Aldiyar nodded, running over to whatever direction and sitting down, as the bald man who coped for not having hair opened the door behind him.

“You’re in my seat, Khalimbekov.” The man said, as Aldiyar then realized why the nametag was not showing a name. Aldiyar chuckled nervously, and then sat at the opposite seat, looking at the nametag that read “Mr. Smith”.

Mr. Smith dropped Aldiyar’s resume onto the table, reading through it before sighing.

“Do you even know what a resume is, Aldiyar Khalimbekov?”

Aldiyar gulped, shaking his head. “No..”

“Well that makes sense, because a resume doesn’t need your SEXUALITY?? I DON’T CARE YOU DON'T GET IT ON FOR PEOPLE, WHERE DID YOU GO TO SCHOOL???” Mr Smith yelled, slamming the resume on the table when it already was on the table.

“I… uhmmm.. No?? I didn’t go to school, sir. I dropped out when I was 9 and started self-educating.. Then I went to college but dropp-” Aldiyar began, before being interrupted.

“Mhm. Mhm. I see. So what you’re saying.. Is that you waste MY time coming here because YOU want to support your degenerate lifestyle? Hell no. This job ain’t yours. I don’t even know you! You don’t give shit besides the basics, who even are you? Get out of my office.” Mr Smith threw Aldiyar’s resume at Aldiyar, who sighed and nodded.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Aldiyar dragged himself out of the building dejectedly, sighing. He sat on the sidewalk, the streets having cleared out from rush hour a little.

“God.. What will Mary think? I let her down..” Aldiyar’s eyes began to water, before he shook his head. Then, he got an idea. He had seen in a couple movies that bars were an amazing place to go find work. That’s it! He goes to a bar! Aldiyar jumped up, pumping his fist as he began to run. His feet made light contact with the ground, essentially floating as the young man soon found himself in a bar. He didn’t know the name of it, nor did he really care. He was here to find a job. It always works in the movies, why couldn’t it here? With too much optimism, he sat down at the counter and waited for the bartender, who seemed rather dead inside.

“What do you want to drink,” the bartender asked without passion to a passionate Aldiyar.

“Just a water, please!”

“I.. You’re in a bar and you’re asking for water?”

“Yep!”

The bartender sighed, handing Aldiyar a Dasani while the unemployed walked away from the employed, chuckling as he began to look for interesting people he could find a job for. As he walked, he took notice of two unique individuals. Be it an act of fate or even pure chance, their souls were destined to collide together, but his eyes were drawn to them, both of them sitting at tables next to the counter. A figure with long black hair, messy and to their shoulders and brown eyes out of focus and half-awake. They were masculine, no doubt, but also feminine at the same time. A square chin, sharp jawline and chiseled cheeks, but soft nose and eyes, with small eyebrows. Next to them, a woman sat with black boots on the table, smoking a cigarette. Her brown hair with blonde tips neatly down in a French bob, gray eyes looking at the cigarette she smoked. Aldiyar sat down next to them, causing the woman to look at him, and the figure to be startled by his presence.

Aldiyar was the first to speak, using an enthusiastic tone he always did. “Heya! I’m Aldiyar! Who are you guys?” The woman sighed, showing a wedding ring to Aldiyar, who looked at it confused.

“That’s a cool ring! I hope your husband’s doing well!”

The woman scowled, before sighing.

“I’m Euphrasie. And my husband’s dead. The one next to me? I have no idea who they are. No name, nothing.” Her accent was obviously foreign, Parisian to be exact. And she spoke with a little raspiness, before looking over to the figure. Aldiyar had no words for the fact of her status as a widow.

“oh.. uhmm.. im.. uh.. i dont know actually..” The figure had barely a whisper to their voice. If it were not for the Prana that affected their bodies, they would not hear it.

“Hmm.. Where are you from, man?” Aldiyar asked, chuckling and offering the Dasani to the figure. The figure drank it, before shaking their head and pushing it back.

“umm.. i think im greek..? i remember i can.. somewhat speak it.” The figure murmured honestly, as Euphrasie spoke up.

“Leth. Like the river in Greek Mythology. Except you look like a man, so we make it masculine.”

Aldiyar and the figure, now Leth, shrugged. It was here the planning man spoke.

“So! I have an idea to get rich! We’ll sell something, I have no idea what! But we’ll make a business, the three of us!”

The French woman was the next to speak, shaking her head in disapproval, “So, we just trust you to take us to riches? I’m not interested in riches, I came to America to escape Paris.” She began to light another smoke, somewhat amazed no one was stopping her.

Aldiyar thought for a little, before replying in his own way, “Well.. Yeah, that does sound stupid. But, the Smiths did have some trouble in America in the charts, I think.”

Euphrasie looked at Aldiyar, alongside Leth, as they both stared at him, however Euphrasie spoke first, “What is your favorite Smiths song, actually?”

Aldiyar suddenly spoke without hesitation, “I don’t know the name but it’s like.. And if a double decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side-”

The three began to sing the chorus to “There is a Light That Never Goes Out”, as Euphrasie let out a somewhat amused sigh, “Oh what the fuck, this is worth a try. I mean, I barely have a job anyways. And Leth here, I don-”

Leth suddenly spoke up, as they had a completely different tone, like an old-timey British gentleman. Their posture, once slouched, stood up, as they put their finger and thumb together to form an “okay” sign, putting the eye in the hole to form a makeshift monocle “Well I’ll say! The most recent time I communed to receive employment, I was almost ordered into a mental asylum! I am rather desperate to find honest work! I too agree!”

Aldiyar and Euphrasie looked at each other in confusion, as Leth suddenly grabbed the Dasani and chugged it, before slouching again. He spoke up, rather confused. “Uhm.. So.. Bank of America down the street at 10 AM?”

The other two nodded, as they began to go their separate ways. Aldiyar tried to exchange numbers between the other two, but Euphrasie refused to give Aldiyar her number, and Leth didn’t even own a phone. Aldiyar hummed excitedly, as he then checked the time on his watch: Only 11 AM. It was here Aldiyar remembered that Mary’s school had an early dismissal today. Going with the daily traffic on a run, he went to his little sister’s high school. It was here he found her, holding hands with another girl. Mary caught a glimpse of her brother, kissing the girl goodbye as they both exchanged “I love you’s”. Mary excitedly hurried to Aldiyar, before walking alongside him as they took a slower lane to the right to their apartment, which was not that far.

“How was school, Mary?”

“Oh it was amazing, the math teacher wasn’t a bitch today. And, Alyssa’s doing fine, Aldi.”

“You read me like a book.”

“How did the job interview go, anyway?”

“Eh. I found a different job. Somewhere else.” Aldiyar said, chuckling excitedly.

“Really? Where?” Mary asked, as the two made their way to the apartment building, taking the stairs. Elevators were too slow to be even invented in such a world.

Aldiyar opened the door to their apartment, tidying up the couch as he spoke, “I’m meeting up with 2 other people at the Bank of America at 10 AM tomorrow.”

Mary put her backpack in her room as she walked back, taking out instant ramen and using the coffee machine to make it, “So you’re starting a company? I can help, Aldi!”

Aldiyar shook his head in response, “No Mary, you’re fifteen.. And I don’t wanna-” He paused for a moment, realizing it wasn’t a valid excuse. “..Are you sure?”

Mary nodded her head, as Aldiyar nodded. He took out a 3 day old granola bar, eating it as he began to cook for Mary.

“I can start eating them, y’know? I don’t need to be babied, I can starve a little so you can eat.” Mary said, pouring the broth out of the noodles and eating them.

“Well, you have a future! And a girlfriend, and you’re healthy. I don’t want to risk yourself, okay?” Aldiyar reprimanded as gently as he could, Mary looking away and nodding.

She then spoke in between eating her noodles, “I know. Just, I can eat at Alyssa’s, she invites me over every weekend! And her parents can help with our situation.”

Aldiyar shook his head. As much as he would give the world to help anyone, he would only accept help if it would mean Mary would get even a little bit more help than he can currently give. After the two ate, they went their separate ways and returned to eat for dinner, chatting together and watching a movie before Aldiyar went to bed. Mary went to bed at midnight.

The next day was a Saturday, no school, and a break. The first day of Spring Break was a nice time for the Khalimbekovs, especially now that Aldiyar could get a job! The two woke up at 8, well Aldiyar woke up at 8, and Mary woke up at 9:30. The two spent their time getting ready, eating breakfast together and then running down to the Bank of America. There, they found Euphrasie smoking a cigarette, waiting for them. Euphrasie then looked at Mary, her expression softening a bit,

“Oh, hello. Aldiyar never mentioned a sister. How are you..”

Mary looked at Euphrasie, admiring her outfit. A semi-formal striped shirt and long coat with black jeans and Converse sneakers. She wore a beige hat, the same color as her coat, with a crossbody bag.

Mary smiled, waving, “H-Hi! You look amazing! I’m Mary!”

Euphrasie put a hand down to shake Mary’s hand, smiling the first happy smile Aldiyar saw Euphrasie had as she chatted with Mary, “Oh! Well hello, Mary. You have a wonderful name.”

“Oh, my parents gave it to me. Before they died. Gang violence, I think? Aldi never really explained.”

“Awe, I know they’re smiling down at you. My- Oh! Leth is here.” Euphrasie began, before seeing Leth, who wore the exact same outfit they did in the bar. The group conversed for a little, Aldiyar noticing a black van pulling up to the bank nearby as they went inside.

As they went inside, they stood in line for a surprisingly busy morning. It was a Saturday however, so that was to be expected. Suddenly, a group of men wearing ski masks entered the building, walking to the front of the counter, all of them equipped with baseball bats. Without saying a word, they smashed the glass separating the workers from the customers, as everyone got down, screaming. The alarms blared a loud screech, painting the room with red.

“Wh-What the hell!?” screamed Mary, clinging to Aldiyar as the men with ski masks looked at each and every civilian, before looking at Aldiyar.

The man gripped Aldiyar by the wrist, dragging him up before Aldiyar tried to smash his shoulder into the man’s face, who easily took the attack with no damage, as he raised his baseball bat. Aldiyar saw his life flash before his eyes, and then Mary. Mary! Aldiyar tried to get out of the way, but the man’s grip was too tight. He pulled with desperation, before throwing himself, and by extension the man, onto the floor away from Mary.

Aldiyar roared, “EVERYONE! GET OUT OF HERE, PLEASE!”

But before he could finish his sentence, a blur zipped through the room, turning off the emergency alarm as it suddenly grabbed the man holding Aldiyar, chopping at the wrist of the man, who dropped Aldiyar and looked around, letting out audible groans in pain. The blur was yellow and orange in color, with a bit of white in front as it quickly dismantled the group of attempted robbers before they could pose a threat. And then, the blur slowed down, and a man was standing in the middle of the room. His head was bald but he had a long white beard, wearing a yellow and orange robe close to that of a Buddhist monk, but not quite. He was old, and he was obviously wise. He spoke to Aldiyar, with a playful tone.

“Greetings, sir. I saw your heroics on full display.” The man said, with an almost sly tone, as if he was lying a bit.

Euphrasie was the first to speak, looking utmostly stunned at the man in the robes, “I- How did you- What was that..?”

The man chuckled, his eyes still focused on Aldiyar, shaking his head as he spoke, “I am Chengzhi, and I can show you how to be a great hero. Your friends as well, I sense potential in them. All four of you.”

Aldiyar then spoke up, still stunned from the man’s performance against the robbers, “Wh-Where do we learn?”

Chengzhi smiled, before checking one of the men with masks, his face looking more urgent for a moment, but then going back to normal, himself calmly guiding again. “Ahem, if you wish to learn how to become a true hero, meet me at the Fingerboard Mountain when the sun is at its peak. There, you shall find me, and I will guide you to your new home.”

Mary and Leth did not talk, instead keeping their thoughts and awe to themselves.

Chengzhi suddenly vanished, leaving the four to remember in awe what the old man did, and think to themselves one phrase, one phrase they all thought in unison:

“I want to learn that power”.

They all thought this for different reasons, true, but they all would meet at noon, to learn such power.