Season 1, Episode 1 - The Funeral III - "Isaac vs Alfie"
----------------------------------------
The call for help that felt like it came from inside Isaac himself brought him up several floors of the Tertiary Building. Isaac knew the only things here in these classrooms-turned storage rooms were thousands of papers, documents, manila folders, cassettes, VHS tapes, training dummies, printing paper, and miscellaneous items that all ended up filed away and forgotten. Only lab assistants and clerks in charge of analyzing all the data the school brought in about the Rddhi usually had business in these rooms.
Could someone have stolen information then? Is that why the cry for help came? Isaac wasn't sure, but he kept moving forward, faster and faster, up the back staircase, following the inner voice. When the voice, or maybe rather a feeling, reached a crescendo, Isaac slid to a stop in front of an unassuming room in the middle of a long hallway.
Isaac realized he was breathing heavily, seeing that closed door in front of him. Isaac could've sworn he never saw a door that big before, but of course it was normal-sized. What lied beyond it made Isaac's imagination run wild.
A Rddhi user. There has to be a Rddhi user behind it.
And Isaac, on the other side of the door, wasn't one at all.
As he stood there, Isaac wondered if he should just get someone else. Someone strong, someone with markings on their shoulders, someone who could actually manipulate reality and not just mop floors. Could Isaac...could he really do it?
Isaac clenched his fist. It wasn't whether a question of could he do it or not. Someone was in danger, and powers or no powers, he had a duty to help.
Isaac kicked in the door and rushed inside.
----------------------------------------
Reed really didn’t like going home all that much, so she bummed around at a radio tower on a nearby hill, laying down on a grassy patch in front of it for a while, until finally deciding that was kind of boring. Accepting defeat, she headed back to Tsukishima Station outside the Academy for a train ride home, but right before she ascended the steps up to the elevated platform, she realized she committed an absolutely fatal error: she forgot to hit the Tertiary food storage room on her way out.
Today was Tuesday, normally a horrible day because the refreshment weekends gave her was all used up on Monday, leaving Tuesday a disappointing shell. But Tuesdays at the Academy were different. On Tuesdays, the previous week's supply of leftover blueberry bread expired, so the Academy sold it for a huge discount after school let out for the day. Normally, nobody bothered with it, and in fact, most of the school didn't even know about it. The storage room was out of the way for most students, in the Tertiary Building, all the way in the back on an upper floor. The student population and even most of the faculty thought that the building was only used for storage.
But Reed knew everything there was to know about free things in general and free food in particular, and it certainly wasn't out of the way for her. She felt her stomach rumble at the thought of blueberry bread discounted from five dollars all the way down to one.
I need that blueberry bread.
But it would be a risk. She already left school and was supposed to be at her supposedly dead father's funeral. Looking around the station, Reed found a piece of long grass and stuck it in her mouth, one end hanging out of the corner. She chewed on it in concentration, because concentration was key here.
There were a lot of risks. Showing up school when you're supposed to be attending your dead father's funeral would be sort of a bad look. Plus, if she got caught skipping practice again, she would surely be punished. Her stomach rumbled at the thought of losing her meal privileges for a week, at the memory of the two week denial that resulted in her hanging out with Audrey that one night. Reed pretended to need help on her geometry homework, but she actually ended up raiding Audrey's pantry while she was in the bathroom. And somehow, the two became friends.
Hey, so the last time I skipped practice and got punished, I ended up making a friend/backup source of food. Two friends/backup source of food, if you count what's-his-name. So, why couldn't something just as nice happen to me if I get caught this time?
Reed kept chewing. Either she would get caught and have something good happen to her, or she would get discounted blueberry bread.
She flicked away the reed and started walking back towards the school.
----------------------------------------
Isaac stood in the open door, fists up and ready. The lights in the room were off, making things slightly dark ahead of him, except for the golden hues of the sunset arriving through the windows. Those hues fell on a student dressed in a shabby olive-green Academy trench coat, his hair so blonde it looked almost white in the sunlight. He appeared relaxed and casual, except for his right hand. Wrapped heavily in bandages, he had it pointed finger-gun style at a figure on the floor.
A girl. A student. Hands and legs bound, her long black hair on her shoulders, her face downcast in defeat.
Isaac noticed signs of a struggle. Behind them, below the windows, stood a long line of tall, metallic lockers. Some of them were open, their contents of formerly boxed manila envelopes and Asian cassette tapes spilled onto the ground. A blood stain on one of the open doors made Isaac clench his fist.
The standing student suddenly noticed Isaac's presence. Leaving the girl as she was, the student turned around, placing his hands in his pockets – except for two fingers on his bandaged right hand, which remained on the outside.
"They told me it would be empty here," he simply said, as if the whole thing was an annoyance to him. Isaac blinked. The student's face was silky smooth, unnaturally smooth. Not a blemish nor marking. In another life, Isaac might have asked him what brand of moisturizer he used.
But that would be then, this was now. The student stood casually, almost invitingly, on the other side of the former classroom. Most of the desks were stacked in the back, but there were a few still scattered across the room, workpapers on top of them.
The man took his right hand out of his pocket and extended it, heavily bandaged.
"Alfie," he greeted.
Isaac remained where he was.
"I was told New Englanders were just as hostile to new people as we are in New York," Alfie supposed, letting his hand hang in the air.
"New York?" Isaac repeated tensely.
New York. The perpetual enemy.
"So the stories of infiltrators were true," Isaac said.
The fake student smiled.
"You know, I think I already like you. Let me further introduce myself then."
Isaac tensed as Alfie raised his other hand. The New Yorker then tugged at the white bandages on those two particular fingers which formed the finger-gun. The bandages slowly unraveled and after a last pull, they fell carelessly to the floor, revealing a hand that was as perfectly smooth as his face...except for his middle and index fingers, which were a sickly red and purple.
Isaac stood his ground.
"You like it?" Alfie asked, showing off his right hand with the discolored fingers.
Isaac raised an eyebrow. "So, your power is...turning red?"
Red energy flickered in the New Yorker's right hand. "Red? Turning red?"
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
Alfie laughed, a real laugh, careless like he knew this would just be a sideshow, entertainment, before he claimed his ultimate prize.
"Red!" He laughed, then red energy exploded in his hand, and a stream of fire shot out at Isaac.
Fire – or anything, really – suddenly coming your way is so surprising that it almost overwhelms the body's natural defenses. Isaac felt like his shoes were dipped in lead, the way he moved so slow. He stumbled out of the way, crashing into a lone desk, sending papers scattering across the air and onto the ground.
The stream of fire blew a hole into a locker, melted cassettes tumbling to the floor. Isaac, feeling disorientated, looked for his opponent-
Another stream of fire. Isaac rolled away, hoping to hide behind the desk, but the fire caught him on the right arm. Isaac resisted the urge to scream, clenching his teeth, his face grimacing, as he tore off the burning part of the coat. His bare right arm was now an angry red and purple, burned and bruised.
"You're red now, too," Alfie pointed out, clearly enjoying things. Her arms and legs still bound, the girl looked pleadingly at Isaac, as if to tell him to leave, as if she knew he had no powers.
"Well, what's it going to be?" Alfie asked. "What's your Rddhi ability? I have a schedule to keep, so let's not draw this out."
Isaac weakly pulled himself onto the desk, staring Alfie down with determination that revealed his bluff.
Realization dawned on Alfie's grinning face. "Oh? No powers at all?"
He raised his right hand.
"It'll be good to kill you. I'm just getting rid of a waste of space."
Isaac clenched his teeth.
Waste of space. That's all I've been, right? My father had to be strong for me, so did my mother, so did my brother. I just want to return the favor to everyone, and the only way to do that is through the Rddhi. Rddhi users are the future of humanity...with endless possibilities for their powers...they could create a peace on earth not seen in centuries. I just want to save people. Nothing more than that. Yet, why, why-
"It works like a flamethrower!"
Both Isaac and Alfie looked at the girl, looking quiet and downbeat in her own little corner until now.
"He used the Rddhi to condense all the excess oils in his body into the two fingers on his right hand," she continued. "He then shoots it out his pores in a stream, lighting it with fire a centisecond later!"
The girl looked at Isaac with the same pleading eyes, but there was a belief in them that wasn't in there before.
Isaac went over the new information in his mind.
Alright, well, it sort of already looks like a flamethrower, so I sort of already knew that. But is there anyway I can see where the stream goes before the flame follows it? A centisecond's not a whole lot of time...
But a new revelation entered Isaac's mind, one arguably much more important.
She believes in me! Powers or no, she thinks I can do it! How the hell can I let her down now?
It's one thing to believe in abstract concepts like service and protection. But to have a concrete example right in front of him...for the first time in his life, someone needed Isaac to be strong for them.
That's all it took.
Satori.
A moment of awakening, of true comprehension, a grand revelation of life.
"Just get behind him, the flame only goes where the oils shoot-"
A sudden backhand shut the girl up. Blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth as Alfie stood menacingly over her.
"You're lucky I need you in relatively complete health, otherwise-"
A massive force slammed into the side of Alfie's head.
----------------------------------------
What's this feeling, Alfie wondered. Rddhi. That's what it was. A manipulation of energy fields that wasn't there before. In that second of contact, Alfie slid his eyes over and saw Isaac still staring him down. Isaac's right fist had connected with the side of Alfie's face. There was a golden aura around the fist, as bright as a morning sun in early summer, suggesting heaven, meeting with gods, the oneness in everything...
Alfie stumbled away, catching himself on another desk. Isaac breathed heavily, the golden aura still around his right fist.
Alfie took a step back in surprise. "So, your power...is turning golden?"
Isaac didn't care for the joke. "Someone believes in me," he said, golden energy crackling in his palm. "I'm not letting her down."
The girl gave a small smile, a ring of dried blood around her mouth.
Alfie raised his finger gun.
"Congratulations. You can punch harder now. But you still gotta get by me!"
Alfie shot out another stream of fire. This time though, Isaac was ready. The golden aura coalesced in his right hand as he brought it in front of his face, blocking the flames, splitting the stream in two, sending it to either side of him.
Isaac slammed his fist on a desk. His hand exploded in a bright array of golden lightning, forcing Alfie to take a step back. Multiple streams of energy shot out of Isaac's fist; Alfie watched as one, almost-solid stream of energy crashed into the floor in another explosion of energy, kicking up dust and papers and tapes.
When his vision cleared, Alfie saw there were two Isaac's standing before him.
This might have shocked Isaac in a different time and place, but right now, he only had one goal, one mission.
Alfie grimaced.
"So...your power is...turning into two?"
Alfie's mission was simple. Infiltrate West Narragansett Academy, capture the lab rat, and bring her back to the City where his handlers were waiting. The spies in the Academy, they told him that this building was isolated...nothing but janitors and clerks...that this girl should have been alone and easy to capture.
Instead, some kid, two of them now, stood before him, golden aura in each right fist.
Alfie raised his hand and fired at the ceiling. Before the Isaacs could react, the flame struck the fluorescent light fixture, sending shattered bits of glass raining on the Isaacs. They both backed away in unison, jumping away to either side of the glass.
The real Isaac narrowed his eyes as Alfie predicted his movement and came right for him. Even if the clones were identical, it was easy to tell which was real and which was created ten seconds ago in a ball of golden light.
Isaac remembered what the girl said and looked closely at Alfie's right hand. Alfie raised his hand, pointing like a finger gun, at Isaac. Isaac could see it! There were little droplets flying in the air towards him!
He noticed not a moment too soon. Isaac raised his fist to protect himself as the fire followed from Alfie's fingers. The air in front of Isaac seemed to explode as each individual droplet of oil suddenly ignited.
The force knocked Isaac back into a wall. Fortunately, the fist protected himself from most of the fire. And, wiping blood from his mouth, Isaac smiled.
"What are you smiling for?" Alfie asked, raising his finger gun at Isaac's head.
"The clone is like an extension of me," Isaac explained. "I can control it like I would my own body part."
Alfie cursed and looked to his right. The cloned Isaac grabbed a piece of glass and threw it right for Alfie. The New Yorker shot the glass with his flamethrower, shattering it into smaller pieces that fell to the ground in front of him.
Alfie moved his finger gun back to the real Isaac, but-
He's fast, Alfie realized, as that golden fist was already coming for his face. Alfie dodged the first punch, and almost danced around the room, dodging Isaac's jabs and strikes.
He's not trained. Strong, but not trained in physical combat.
But Alfie was trained by the best New York had to offer...well, the best that could be spared for an undesirable like him-
But then the second pair of fists came for him, forcing Alfie backwards, dodging strikes from the two Isaacs. Even if he's not trained, four pairs of fists are certainly annoying.
Worse still, Alfie couldn't tell which one was the real one anymore. The strikes were relentless, coming over and over. Alfie realized he was backpedaling into a row of tall, gray lockers. He needed to do something, fast.
This kid seriously likes protecting things, Alfie supposed as he ducked below another strike.
Me too. Too bad only one of us is going to make it out of here.
Alfie smiled. This whole time, he had only been shooting oils out of the pores in the tip of his middle finger. The smile grew wider. Wait until he sees the double barrel flamethrower.
Alfie grasped the bottom of his right hand with his left for added support. He felt the oils vibrating intensely in his two fingers, ready to be unleashed in a sudden torrent.
All things considered...this kid wasn't so bad. If he dies, he dies, but New York could've used more people like him.
After jumping back to create some space, nearly hitting his back against the lockers, Alfie raised his flamethrower fingers. "See you on the other side-"
Alfie heard the explosion of energy directly behind him, felt the hot tinge of the golden lightning. He looked back-
Another Isaac had coalesced inside the cabinet right behind him. A third Isaac! Alfie cursed, realizing it must've been when he made the first clone, because streams of light were going everywhere, yet Alfie only focused on the one-
The cloned Isaac burst out of the locker, his fist, covered with unstable, golden energy screaming with lightning, heading directly for Alfie's turned head.
I need to turn and shoot him, Alfie knew, but it was too late-
Alfie felt his nose crack and collapse as the fist slammed into it, sending off explosive discharges that slammed randomly into the walls and ceiling of the room. This punch felt like it had the force of a dozen punches, all releasing at once, directly into the center of Alfie's face.
The punch brought Alfie into the air, sending him across the storage room, right through the open doorway, into the wall on the other side of the hallway. Alfie slid down the wall to the ground, feeling blood rush down his face and plaster falling onto his hair.
Alfie knew he had to leave. He stood uneasily, energy crackling in his hand, because he could just light all the tapes on fire, blow off the roof, cover his escape. Forget the girl, forget New York. Just go somewhere in hide. Forget about all this. Just live life for once-
Isaac was already there in front of him, his fist raised, gathering momentum for the knockout blow. Alfie saw the two clones, now ghostly visages, their energy returning to Isaac.
In that final moment, Alfie couldn't help but give a small chuckle.
It's like my mother always said-
The energy released from the final punch shook the entire hallway. Neither Isaac nor Alfie noticed the camera flash to their left, nor the girl with blueberry bread going down the staircase to their right.