Spirit of Hope
Chapter 3: The First Encounter
On the roof of a random building, Sohjin is running across various rooftops trying to keep up with the van.
On the street, The van's back door flies open and two masked men with skulls as their masks, burst out. The thug on the right takes out a plasma pistol and opens fire at the police cars. The thug on the left attaches a gravity manipulator to his hand and flips one of the police cars slowing them down.
The van takes a violent right turn, causing Sohjin to stop dead in his tracks.
“SHIT!” He shouted, breathless and frustrated.
Sohjin runs to the back of the building getting ready to jump the large gap to the building across the street. His energy flows through him. He gets into a runner's stance. His left foot slightly off the ground conducting electricity.
“Here goes nothing.” Sohjin said, feeling sweat run down his body.
He sprints towards the edge of the building. The sound of footsteps beat off the ground, each quicker than the last. The air crackles around him and faint blue sparks flicker around him. He reaches the edge and in an instant he dashes off leaving a faint trail behind him, leaving the world behind him.
Unfortunately this lasts for a brief moment as he comes crashing down towards the street. His costume flaps around as the wind howls around him as he gets into a diving formation. He closes his eyes for a moment, his body conducts electricity like before, and he dashes to the next building cutting through the air with a burst of speed.
The ground rushes on him, but he narrowly grabs onto the ledge of the building. He pulls himself up and continues the chase. Sohjin spots the van and jumps from building to building trying to catch it. More police cars arrive at the scene, firing everything they got, filling the air with chaos.
“Sohjin, how does the suit feel?” Alex asked.
“feels…great but now’s not the time, Marshy.” Sohjin replies, out of breath.
Alex his voice mixed with surprise and nostalgia quickly says, “HEY I THOUGHT YOU FORGOT ABOUT MY NICKNAME”
Sohjin couldn’t help but chuckle as he remembered, “Marshmallow, it’s what we used to call him back in the day. Good times”
His past memories slowly fade bringing him back to the present, as the thug with the gravity manipulator pulls a large diesel in front of the police cars, causing the three cars to collide with each other. the rest of the officers to completely stop.
“I need to get down there fast. If I time this right I could land on the van.” Sohjin thinks “If they're going to Save Bank, I can use the construction to land on it.” Sohjin thought, imagining a map of where he needed to go and sprung into action.
Sohjin dashes ahead of the van making his way to the upcoming construction. Once he arrives he hangs onto the frame of the small overpass. The sound of sirens drowns out any noise in the area.
“That’s them,” Sohjin says, his voice anxious yet ready.
The van swerves around the corner making its way towards Sohjin. The passengers in the van fire plasma weapons, and use the gravity manipulator device to wreak havoc across the city. The van zooms underneath Sohjin.
“I’m gonna die.” He repeats to himself “Here goes NOTHING.” he said, flipping off the overpass.
Sohjin lands onto the roof of the van and almost slides off, before sticking to saving himself. He recovers and behind him he hears a police helicopter flying overhead to cover the action.
“Looks like I’m famous” He says, turning around and smirking through his mask.
As he slowly turns back around his mind starts to race, “All this is so overwhelming, from the police cars, the van, and the helicopter. Why am I doing this? WHY WAS IT FOR HIM?” Panic claws at him, but he forces himself to breathe and remain calm.
“No stop, calm down and focus”
His fist hovers over the roof of the van, his muscles tense as he prepares himself. But his mind flickers back to his previous thought, causing hesitation. Before he could act, a voice shouted.
“SOHJIN BEHIND YOU!”
He quickly turns around and sees one of the thugs in the front passenger seat hanging out the window; about to fire a missile at the helicopter.
“NO YOU DONT!” Sohjin yells, dashing to the front seat.
Sohjin flips down to the passenger door and with full force punches the thug, knocking him out.
Sohjin looks at the driver ”WHOOPS, That’s my bad I’m still getting use-” Before he could finish he is cut off and is lifted up by the gravity manipulator. His voice becomes distorted and his body feels like it’s being tugged at in every direction.
“WOAH THIS FEELS WEIRD!” His distorted voice blurted.
He is violently jerked back. A thug kicks the back door open, sending both the door and Sohjin flying out of control. Sohjin grabs the door and places it on his back. Using it as a board he uses his feet to steer and guide him out of the way of the incoming police cars. With a burst of energy, kicks his feet on the road and dashes up on the police car closest to the van and climbs around to the driver's side.
“Hey, I’m Sohj—Spectre. I’m here to help” Sohjin said.
“We’ve noticed. And you're our only option so far kid. I’ll drive close enough and you use that dash thing of yours. And we’ll leave the rest to you” The thick mustached officer said.
“Thank you,” Sohjin said.
Sohjin climbs on top of the car, getting ready to spring into action. As the car gets closer, the thugs begin to shoot at them. Sohjin dodges the incoming blasts and leaps off the car.
“Ow..hot..HOT!” He yelled, knocking the blast away from the car.
Sohjin retreats back to the police car.
The officer leans out of the window. “HEY KID, THIS IS THE BEST I CAN DO. GO GET EM.” He yelled
Sohjin nods and dashes off the car, dodging the incoming plasma beams. He uses his momentum to drop kick into the on the thug firing the plasma beam, knocking him out, successfully sliding into the van.
Inside the van, from the entrance to the left is a big criminal chained up and has a mask that is covering his face and only shows his eyes. To the right is a gun cache, and in front of him is a door that leads to the front seats. The thug on the left rushes towards the gun cache. Sohjin swiftly destroys the cache and engages in hand to hand combat with the thug.
Sohjin throws a right jab, but the thug slips it and punches Sohjin in the liver. Sohjin recoils back,
his insides feel like it’s about to explode. He struggles to recover as the thug rushes him and beats him down.
“GET OFF ME.” Sohjin cried.
Sohjin’s hands begin to light up and electricity surges around him. The thug immediately retreats back in fear.
“RIGHT, I FORGOT ABOUT THIS” Sohjin thought, and pulled his arm back
The thug braces for the attack and guards. Sohjin, with all his might fires an energy blast. The blast misses and fires through the roof of the van. He uses this distraction to dash behind the thug and knocks him toward the chained up man. The thug, realizing his situation, quickly uses the gravity manipulator to throw Sohjin through the roof of the van.
Outside, Sohjin almost flies off the roof, but catches himself. He takes a moment to recover and catches his breath. Unexpectedly, Sohjin’s head begins to throb in pain.
Sohjin clutches his head “THE HELL? NOT NOW, GO AWAY” He said to the figure.
The figure appears behind Sohjin and crouches down placing her hand on him. “That is not me, Sohjin Teca. It’s what’s inside the van.” Figure pointed.
The pain slowly subsides and Sohjin stands up and jumps down into the van.
“Alright, ready for rou….” Sohjin stops and sees the man who used to be chained stand up and break off the chains.
The big man slowly takes off the mouth guard. To reveal his long scar on the left side of his face that extends from his lip to his left eye. His short jagged sharp hair blows in the little wind. He cracks his knuckles and winds up his punch.
“shit” Sohjin says. The big man uses all of his force to punch Sohjin through the door and into the front passenger seat.
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He groans in pain and tries to get up, but before he could recover, he’s pulled by the gravity manipulator and slammed down into the ground. The big man hovers over him getting ready to crush him.
“Before you die. You shall know my name as Aragon” he says, in a broken Russian accent.
Before Aragon could act. Sohjin creates an energy blast, and fires it into the thug's face. He hurriedly rolls over and blasts Aragon in the face, blinding him.
“I’m outmatched, I need to get the hell outta here! Cops got it from here.” He says, picking himself up and attempts to leave but Aragon grabs his leg and slams him back down. He picks him up once more and strikes him into the front seat once again.
The front driver leans back to view Aragon “Sir, Save bank is up ahead.” The muffled masked thug says.
Aragon orders the driver to climb to him. The driver complies and places a brick on the gas pedal. Aragon grabs the thugs and pulls them in towards him and uses his body to shield them. The van roared at top speeds and crashed through Save Bank. The impact throws Sohjin out of the shattered front window. He soars through the air and smashes into the bank teller counters with a bone rattling thud.
Aragon and the two remaining thugs climb out of the wreckage and barricade the bank’s entrance.
“Sohjin…Sohjin…..SOHJIN!” a faint voice yelled.
Sohjin struggles to regain consciousness, his vision blurring in and out.
“DAMN IT, SOHJIN PLEASE ANSWER” Alex begs, watching the news.
Alex quickly hacks into the Save Bank camera system to view the situation and quickly pulls out his phone and hovers over an unknown number.
“Please, Sohjin Don’t make me do this,” Alex says, struggling to remain calm.
Sohjin finally wakes up, and starts choking up blood. His suit is ripped revealing cuts and bruises throughout his body. His mask is torn with his hair sticking out and revealing his right bloody eye with hair hovering over his eyebrow. He hears his ear bud and quickly picks it up.
“Alex.” He says, weakly standing up and coughing up blood.
“THANK GOD!” Alex says “What’s happening in there?”
Sohjin peaks over the counter getting a look at the situation.
“All hell's breaking loose. I don’t know what to do” Sohjin says “I have to get out of her-”.
“HEY. THAT GUY IS STILL ALIVE!” One of the thug yells
“DAMN IT.” Sohjin yells, weakly jumping over the destroyed counter and gets into an inexperienced fighting stance.
“No. Let me fight the little man.” Aragon says “you two focus on grabbing the cash.”
“Sohjin..SOHJIN GET OUT OF THERE!” Alex yells.
“I’m trying, gotta go, talk later.” Sohjin said, holding his left side.
Both of the thugs grab a duffle bag and split up, one goes upstairs and other goes down a corridor by the reception area.
Sohjin gets into his runner stance and Aragon gets into his fighting stance. They stare each other down.
They both dash at each other. Sohjin pulls his fist back and strikes his face with all his power. Aragon quickly backs up and shakes it off. Sohjin dashes to the ground and slides to the right of him. He then dashes towards Aragon and punches his liver. Aragon immediately parries him, grabbing his hand and slams him down into the ground bedside him.
“AAHHHH” Sohjin shrieked, The force bounces Sohjin off the ground allowing Aragon to grab his foot and arm and slam him into his knee.
Sohjin fell limp on the ground. Aragon slowly walks over and picks him up by the throat and charges up his left fist.
“Waste of my TIME.” Aragon yells, pulling his hand back and gathers all of his energy. His hand glows a murky color and before his strike could connect, he releases all of his energy into Sohjins lower abdomen causing the energy to create a vapor cone around it.
Sohjin coughs up blood and then launches off Aragon’s first and crashes through 3 different rooms, before he finally slams into a wall and knocks the roof onto him.
“ALRIGHT BOYS IT’S TIME TO GO!” Aragon yelled
The two thugs run out together with filled duffle bags. Aragon slowly pulls out the van from the rubble and destroys the barricade blocking the entrance.
Sohjin lies trapped beneath the rubble, barely conscious and his breaths are rough and ragged. He trembles as he reaches out with his bare hand through the rubble, his glove is mainly destroyed and is hanging on by a thread.
“He..ll..pp me.” He hopelessly whispers, his vision blurs, but he hears slow footsteps walking towards him. The footsteps stop and the figure bends down to the opening that reveals his bloody face.
“You're struggling,” The figure says, her voice is calm, but holds power, like lighting ready to strike. “But it’s because you don’t understand what you are. You can’t do this without me.”
Sohjin struggles to speak and coughs up blood, his body shakes with pain and exhaustion.
“Your power is growing uncontrollable. Everytime you push me away, you lose more control. Do you truly think this power is yours to control alone? You need me to unlock the potential hidden within you.” She extends her hand towards his, the air crackles with energy and power.
“Stop resisting me and let me show you a glimpse of what we can do TOGETHER!” Her energy reaches out towards him, forging into Sohjin.
Sohjin's heart rate begins to pick up. Thud…Thud..Thud Thud Thud Thud. His heart races, Sohjin’s eyes lights up and quickly destroys the rubble on top of him. His revealed hair lifts through his mask from his aura surrounding him.
Back at the bank, Aragon and the thugs clear out the last of the barricade, getting ready to leave.
“MOVE MOVE, COPS COULD BE HEAR ANY MI—“ Aragon yelled but was interrupted by a sensation in the air, the air became thin and a force was weighing down on them.
“HEYY. I'M NOT DONE YET.” Sohjin grunting and holding his injured side.
Sohjin closes his eyes and his wounds slowly close up. As he reopens his eyes, he instantly appears in front of Aragon. Aragon quickly reacts and attempts to jab him, but Sohjin jumps over the punch and kicks off Aragon to boost to the hood of the van.
“HEY GET THIS FREAK OFF THE VAN!” The driver yells.
Sohjin with intense focus imbues his fist with his dark blue colored energy and slams his fist into the engine. He climbs up the van and dashes towards Aragon and clashes fists. Sohjin quickly bounces off Aragon and dashes below Aragon and with all of his might he dashes up and uppercuts him. While in the air Sohjin dashes down and imbues his fists.
“HGGH” He grunted, slammed his clasped hands into his spine with everything he had. A sharp crack echoed through the air
Aragon falls to his knees, pain flashed across his face. But it wasn’t enough and slowly got back up, making his way towards Sohjin.
He feinted a quick jab, baiting Sohjin to jump over him. Aragon quickly turns around and grabs his foot and slams it into the ground. The ground shook beneath them as he rushed over to Sohjin, grabbing his foot once more and violently swung him into the ground.
Pain exploded throughout Sohjin’s body, as he hit the ground. Aragon loomed over him with a sinister grin. He then kicks him onto his back and pressed his foot down on Sohjin, imbuing his murky brown energy into his foot.
Sohjin grunted and his chest was burning as he struggled to lift his foot. His hands trembled, trying to push it off, but the pressure was too strong.
Despite everything, Sohjin still pushed. He gritted his teeth and kept pushing.
“COME ON …COME ON!!!!!!!” Sohjin yells with everything he has.
Sohjin lets out a scream, lifting Aragon’s foot off of him. His hands became imbued with all of his energy.
“NGGHHHHHHH” Sohjin screamed with all his might. Aragon’s eyes widen as Sohjin throws his foot off him. Aragon jumps back, getting into his fighting stance. Sohjin slowly gets up from the cold floor, heavily breathing.
“TIME TO END THIS.” Sohjin declared.
Sohjin and Aragon dash towards each other and punch each other in the jaw. They then bounce off each other and Aragon charges up his right hand and does a right hook. Sohjin slips the punch and strikes his fist into his stomach and then jumps up uppercutting him with his left fist. With each punch Sohjin punches harder and harder. Sohjin dashes forward, landing behind him. Aragon turns around and shouts, “SAME MISTAKE KID, NOW YOUR DONE”
Aragon slams his foot into the ground but Sohjin is ready and leaps in the air. The figure appears in the air with him, Sohjin glances over with confusion.
“Sohjin, don’t question it and charge your Seishin, let your natural instincts take over.” Her voice echoed across his mind.
He focused and closed his eyes. He felt a heat sensation deep within from his core. He allowed it to swell and with each passing moment the wind picked up around him and his blue aura surrounded him.
He gracefully pulls his arm back and closes his eyes while he gathers his Seishin. He slowly floats back and opens his eyes. With all his built up Seishin he unleashes it and slammed into the ground, creating a shockwave around them.
Electricity conducted around him, as he planted his foot down into the ground and he slowly began to run towards him, but was unable too and it felt like he was being held back by a cord pulling on him.
Unexpectedly, he dashes violently off the ground and dashes in a zig zag, leaps in the air, and drops kicks Aragon.The kick send Aragon back like a ragdoll and Sohjin dashes in front of him, pulling back his fist and imbues his energy into his fist.
His fist soars through the air, his energy slowly darkens turning into a mix black and white.
“RHGGGGG!” Sohjin roared, as he buried his fist into Aragon’s chest. The wind blew in his face and his arm began to give out, but Sohjin kept pushing.
And in a final attempt, he pulls his arm back, with Aragon being dragged along with it, and does one final push sending him flying into the van.
Sohjin stands crouched down with his shaking arm in front of him for a moment. The black and white energy slowly dissolved into nothing. He opens his eyes and sees Aragon weakly standing. He grits his teeth trying to regain his composure but spouts up blood and falls to the ground, finally losing consciousness.
Sohjin follows and falls to the ground, out of breath and spitting out blood. He turns on his earpiece and says, “Alex, Call the cops.”
“Already did. How are you?” Alex says, concerned.
“I’m..” Sohjin says, looking down at his bleeding stomach. “Fine, the suit is destroyed.” Sohjin said, ripping off a piece of his shirt.
“I’m..going home.” Sohjin tiredly said, he suddenly fell before catching himself.
“Ok. But I want to hear from you tomorrow. Promise.” Alex said.
“Go..t…it.” He replied.
Sohjin weakly dashes out of the bank and onto an apartment complex nearby. He walks to a shed, his limbs strained and shaking.
“I’m..So…tired.” Sohjin thought.
Beside him the figure appears “You did good today, your wounds will heal by tomorrow.”
Sohjin looked at her and smiled, “Thank you, I mean it. I..would’ve been on the headlines without you.”
“It’s alright, I understand.”
“I never got your name. What is it?” Sohjin questioned, reaching the shed and collapsing in front of it.
“Hmm must’ve slipped my mind. The name is Ms. Magic, and I am your keeper, We have much to talk about.” She said, and looked down at Sohjin who was fast asleep with his destroyed mask on his lap.
“Which we will talk about tomorrow, I suppose. Good job kid.” Mrs Magic smiled, she started to fade away. Letting the wind carry her away.
CHAPTER END
SPIRIT OF HOPE
Next Chapter 4: Trouble at School