“Long time, no see.” Jabari said as he looked at me with cold eyes.

I remembered his face as clearly as the day he was forced out of my life. I didn’t even know where to begin. I wanted to see him again, but not like this. Not under these circumstances. Every civilian in the emergency shelter started to back away from Jabari and I. I tried to build a sense of rapport with him to diffuse the situation.

“I-It has been a while! I want to catch up with you as much as possible and I don’t want to bother the good people here, so let’s go outside to chat—”

“I don’t think I will. I wanna settle things right here…” My childhood friend narrowed his eyes. It was as if he was judging every action I took since our reunion. Every sin I’ve made…he was looking into it.

I don’t want to fight him. I don’t want to use my stemata. But if it boils down to that, I have to be prepared to use it!

“Everyone! Please leave the area and go to the nearest emergency shelter! This one has been compromised by…” I hesitated to say these words. I didn’t want to give my friend such a label. “A terrorist.”

People took this signal and began to run for the exit. That was until Jabari was gone within the blink of an eye. It didn’t even take a second for everyone that was running toward the exit to collapse, Jabari stood there with a smile on his face. He was enjoying this. What could’ve changed between now and the time I saw him across the river all those years ago?

“I just made a light cut on all of your calves. I’ll make it much worse if you don’t cooperate. We’re gonna play a game.”

“A…game?” One of the civilians asked.

I can’t let the civilians get sucked into his plans. If he’s blocking the only way out, I’ll just have to take him out without my stemata!

I ran towards him and swung my fists at his face. He simply put his hands in his pocket and swayed from side to side, dodging each attack with ease. He only stopped dodging to do a quick sweep kick and put me onto the floor. As soon as my head hit the concrete, I heard a ringing sound that wouldn’t leave. But that didn’t matter, I got back up and wiped the blood off of my forehead. I got into a fighting stance.

“I won’t let you hurt a single person behind me…”

“Aren’t you a trainee a little over halfway through your year? Why haven’t you used your stemata yet? It’s pissing me off.”

“Because…this stemata…is a stemata fit for a monster!”

“Bold of you to assume you aren’t one already…” He growled at me as he turned toward the crowd.

“Everyone! I’ll allow the entirety of you to leave if each and every one of you hits this ‘protector of the people’ as hard as you can.”

“Is this a test, Jabari? Is this supposed to reveal how I’m actually a scheming dog of the government? Because I’m not! I care about everyone in this room! Including you!”

“Everyone get to the right side of the room! One by one, you’ll approach her and hit her as hard as you can. Once you do, you can move onto the left side. Only when every person gets a decent hit in will I allow you all to leave.” Jabari ignored me as he sat in a nearby chair as everyone shifted to the right side of the shelter.

I have no choice. I don’t want to use this stemata. It’s too risky. And I can’t win against Jabari with just my strength alone. So unless Gollie gets here, I’ll just have to abide by his orders.

“Begin!”

The first person to step up was a young lady. Around my age. I probably made a face because she profusely apologized as she prepared her punch. I changed my expression to put her at ease.

“I’m gonna hit you in the stomach, okay?” She warned me and I nodded.

As her punch resonated through my body, I grit my teeth to try and hide the pain. My head hung low for a brief moment before I was able to collect myself enough to face everyone.

The young lady moved to the left side of the room and Jabari called the next person to walk forward. I told everyone to let women and children go first before anyone else. Jabari’s eyebrows knitted upon hearing me say this. Whether he wants to believe it or not, I care about everyone here. I’m not putting on some act for him or myself.

The crowd listened to me and alternated between women and children. They tried their best to make their punches look convincing while also holding back for me. I appreciated them for that, but Jabari quickly caught on.

When all of the women and children finally made it to the left, that left only the men on the right side. The overall group was split in half. I still had a long way to go, and I was starting to feel bruises. Regardless, Jabari wasn’t happy with what he was seeing. He rose from his seat and began to approach me, step by step.

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“You guys have been holding back. Perhaps you guys need a hands on lesson on what a real punch is.”

Jabari took his left hand out of the pocket of his hood. On that hand was a ring with a stem crystal engraved into it. It began to glow and made his forearm sprout groups of hair. Not only that, but his nails began to grow into claws. I had to steel my nerves, because I knew what was coming next was going to hurt.

WHAM!

“Blegh!” As Jabari hit me right in my stomach, something definitely bursted inside of me. Possibly an organ. I recoiled in pain and began to cough up blood. As the hit resounded through the shelter and everyone saw my reaction, they screamed in fear and terror.

That hit was enough to completely floor me. I collapsed onto the ground as I kept coughing up blood.

“That is a real punch. If I feel like any of you are holding back, I’m going to kill five people on the left.” Jabari coldly stated before returning to his seat.

After that, not a single person held back. They didn’t want anyone on the other side to get hurt just because they held back a little on a CT, so each and every one of them hit me as hard as they could, leaving me more beaten and bloodied than the last.

This is infinitely better than the alternative. If I used my stemata, then I’d endanger everyone in the area. I’d beat Jabari, but it would be at the cost of every life here.

I’ll never use this monstrous stemata!

===

My fears of the potential of this stemata all started the very moment I received it. It was nothing like what I requested. In the case was a ring that had an entire claw fashioned to it. At the joint was a stem crystal that glowed that usual luminescent blue. Right next to the stemata was a note from the head of stemata creation himself: Dr. Archon.

Dear Ms. Hotch,

I’ve noticed how well you’ve scored on your aptitude test! Fun fact: did you know that the last person who had your score was the owner of one of the most dangerous and unstable stematas in existence? Luckily, I was able to stabilize it.

Now onto the stemata itself. It’s an external stemata that stabs its user under the nail to get a sample of blood from it. Upon use, the user can produce cells from every part of their body and shoot them at the opponent. If the cells invade the body of the target, they’ll rapidly spread and create tumors all over the body. The user can control what stage of harm the cells inflict on their target:

* Stage 1: Parasitic cells invade the body and weigh the target down, immobilizing them.

* Stage 2: Cells develop more and can be controlled by the user

* Stage 3: Cells can advance to a harmful state that induces seizures, nausea, and destruction of the targets nervous system

* Stage 4: Parasitic cells rush toward the brain and kill major nerves that allow the target to move and think, leaving them in a vegetable-like state.

I know how you said you wanted to have more of a support stemata, but this one is more so intended for the destruction of lives. Think of this as a lesson of life. Not everything goes as planned. With that in mind, I can’t wait to see what you’re capable of.

From,

Dr. Archon

Each word he wrote horrified me. The nerve of him as well to end the letter that listed all the sorts of pain and torture I could subject people to…

I can’t wait to see what you’re capable of…

It bothered me.

And I saw the true potential of this stemata when I did that mock battle with Gollie and Natalia.

“All right. You guys are ready to go.” Instructor Matthews’ stopwatch went off and he motioned for us to start the trial.

When Gollie and I went in, we made it a plan to split off and have him look for and apprehend Natalia while I defused any bombs that were in the area. The issue began as soon as I was alone though.

“Ah! There you are!” Natalia was hanging upside down from a loose panel in the ceiling.

“But how did you—”

“I waited for you to be alone!” Natalia had a crazy stare about her that looked like she was going to rip me limb from limb out of pure excitement. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared at all at that moment. I activated my stemata out of pure fear and when I did, a mass of horrid flesh spilled out of my finger tip. It created countless eyeballs all webbed and strung together by muscle tissue. Tentacles also shot forth to try and grasp at the woman.

“Oh!” Natalia popped back into the ceiling and a split second later, the amalgamation of horrors crashed through the ceiling and kept going. Everything was still spilling through my finger. To say that I lost control of the stemata was an understatement.

Without any restraint or control, I saw everything this thing saw and felt everything it felt. It made me sick to my stomach. My eyes rolled to the back of my head as the sensory overload continued. Everything became dark. I began to fear for my life as I wondered if this was how I was going to die.

And then I came back to my senses in the middle of the venue for the battle. The first thing I saw was Gollie’s tearful expression as he held me in his arms. As my blurry vision and deafened hearing returned, I could hear exactly just how much Gollie was crying. It was a quiet sob with hiccups in between as he clenched onto me. I haven't had someone worry for me like this in a while. It reminded me of how everyone worked together to save zone two. Thinking about all of it made me tear up, myself.

But then I began to hear the hysterical laughter.

“Holy crap! I almost died!” Natalia was in the background. She was in the background and although she made a claim like that, she seemed completely untouched. Ignoring the surroundings around her though, she went on talking to herself.

“No, no, no Natalia! You’re an evil goddess! Death wishes he could have a taste of you! HOWEVER! The ability for a stemata to consume an all-encompassing ability like darkness…that Doctor is insane! You!” Natalia pointed at me. Eyes hollow, yet filled to the brim with ecstasy. “You have the chance to surpass even the strongest of CTs! You’ll be tearing through terrorists like they’re nothing!”

With every word that came out of her mouth, I shakily shook my head in defiance. I didn’t want to use this stemata. I didn’t want to be the monster that they all wanted me to be. But they kept pushing for me to be that…