The year was 2002 when Flight was flying over Shanghai when he felt the presence of a Gift.
“I can sense someone is nearby but I don’t see anyone here,” Flight said as he looked around what seemed to be an abandoned shipping dock. Everything was empty and the only thing that stood out was a random ship. He then heard what he believed to be men talking. “I guess I’ll go over there now.”
Right before he got into direct view of the ship. Flight spotted a man walking out of the ship holding a gun. Then the sound of a car started to make its way towards the ship. Thinking on his feet, he dived over to an empty cargo box.
Well dressed men exited the car. Four of them wore shades and two didn’t. The ones with shades walked in front of the men who didn’t. “What the hell is going on here?” Flight asked himself. The men with shades then covered the back while the men without shades started talking to the man with the gun. Flight was too far away to hear anything, not like it mattered since he couldn’t speak the language. One of the men without the shades handed something small to the man with the gun. He then left for a few minutes before returning with a woman. She had short red hair, long legs, big eyes, and pale skin. The other man without shades started to talk to the woman and made a lot of hand gestures. The woman then started to transform before their eyes. Her hair was now long and blond, her eyes had turned blue, her breast got larger, and her height shrank down a little.
Flight couldn’t believe his eyes. What he had just witnessed must have been the powers from the Gift of Form. And this whole exchange did not feel right to him. Not wanting to jump to any conclusions decided to call Soul once he was in a safer area.
“Any ideas what it all means?” asked Flight.
“Sounds like what you just witness was an exchange of a girl,” Soul answered.
“What do you mean exchange?”
“Sex. You really were sheltered. If they had that much security and secrecy about it. That little deal wasn’t legal. That was a trafficker. That girl is most likely their meal ticket. A person who can change their physical appearance could fulfill any sick and twisted fantasy.”
“Awesome!”
“Excuse me?”
“That came out bad. I meant awesome because that means this group wasn’t tied to Timekeeper. I’m going to save her.”
“If you plan on doing that. I might as well accompany you. Give me five days. In the meantime, do what you do best. Make them feel better. You always had that charm of yours.”
“I can do that. But why do you need five days?”
“I need the time to arrange things. I don’t exactly have the same pull as he does.”
“Just do your best and I’ll do mine!”
The next day, Flight made his way back to the ship. The men typically only guarded the front area so he flew around the backside of the ship. The ship was decently huge as it was probably used to carry cargo of some kind. Flight, not wanting to make any sound, chose to remain in the air as he wandered around the ship; using his sense to guide him. His sense brought him to the lower area of the ship. It was run down and very messy with cleaning supplies all over the floor.
He made his way until his sense brought him in front of a door. As he opened it, he was greeted by a woman that was chained down to a bed. She didn’t look like the same person from yesterday, but he knew it was her. “You probably can’t understand me,” Flight said has he lend out his hand in front of her, “but I’m going to save you from this place.” She was at first frightened to see a white man floating in front of her. But then. Flight smiled and looked into her eyes. For once in her life, she felt warmth and kindness. The kind of warmth and kindness only Flight could provide.
Over the next four days he would visit and talk to her. They both knew neither one of them understood each other but it didn’t matter. Love was universal.
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Flight wasn’t near the ship or even in China anymore per Soul’s instruction when the day came to save her. He was back in the United States and was very nervous about the whole situation until his phone finally rang.
“Did everything work out?” Flight asked.
“Not even a hello first? Yay, everything is taken care of.” Soul replied. His tone was off like he was hiding something. But Flight put his feelings away as he wanted to know more.
“How did she end up there? What are we going to do with her? What are-“
“I’m going to stop you right there,” Soul interrupted. “Her parents sold her off to these men. They were broke and were afraid of her powers when she turned ten. These pricks really put the fear of god into her. She could have easily escaped by turning into a rat or something. But the idea that she was a monster made her stay. She’ll join our Alliance. She used to dream about being an actress and that sounds like a good idea considering her powers. We will be back soon.”
The phone call ended, and Flight’s mind was at peace.
Present-day.
“So you want me to meet this Morph person why exactly?” Raito asked.
“Were you not listening!? You went through some heavy trauma and so did she. She eventually overcame it. Talking to her might help you deal with your trauma. Now take the ticket and go!” Flight explained.
Raito grabbed the ticket to see it was for a play that was playing at Arizona State University. The date was for a Friday show at 7:00 pm.
“Alright, I’ll go to it. It even says VIP. Fancy,” Raito said while examining the ticket.
“That is no ordinary VIP. It will let you get backstage so you can talk to her in her dressing room. She’s close to your age actually, 19-years-old.”
“A year older than me, huh. Speaking of age. How old are you if that all happened like six years ago? I always thought you were like 20-something.”
Flight scratched his head, “I stopped keeping track when I was around 10. I’m anywhere between 25 and 40 years old.”
“WHAT!” Raito screamed. “That is a 15-year difference. That is NOT a good guesstimate!”
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Back to 2002, the day of Morph’s escape.
Leech was making himself comfortable in Soul’s home. Drinking his wine and throwing the bottles at the wall when he had finished.
“Do YOU have to do that,” Soul asked.
“Shut up! I do what I *hiccup* want. You always have the good shit. I just buy whatever is the most expensive and they always taste like shit.” Leech retorted within his drunken state.
“Price doesn’t always equate to quality. I can gladly write down the wines I prefer.”
“Yah, do that! But first! Business.” Leeched grumbled before falling onto the floor.
“As I said earlier….want to get off the floor so you can hear this?”
“It’s comfy. I’m listening.” Leech raised his arm and wiggled it around the air to show he was indeed listening.
“The woman has the Gift of Form and we don’t know what her true appearance is. Or if she is really a she. None the less. The plan is to get on the ship and take out everyone. My intel has reported that there are other girls on the ship. Not many, they mostly rely on the girl with the Gift as a source of income.” Soul explained as he read off his notes from his phone.
“And I! Get to kill everyone. Even the girls!”
“Not the girls.”
“Correction! Everyone but the girls. Technically I only need to save the Gift right?”
“Yes, but since you can’t sense Gifts like Flight and we don’t know what she’ll look like. We are going to save all of them and bring them here.”
“Why are we doing that?” Leech asked while attempting to get off the floor.
“I don’t have enough pull in China to ensure their safety. They probably don’t even have a home to return too and will just end up back on the streets or worse. Are you sober enough to even do this job right now?”
Leech finally roused up from the floor and made his way over to the wall, “just give me a sec.” He then slammed his head threw the wall before pulling his head back out. Blood was gushing out from under his mask. “I’m up now!”
Soul was not the least bit horrified. It clearly wasn’t the first time this had to happen.
Leech made his black hole and the two made their way through it. The other side led them directly inside the ship that Morph was being held at. Soul made his way to where Morph was by using his notes from Flight. Leech made his way over to the guards.
Once Soul was in the lower half of the ship, he could hear the cries of pain coming from where the guards were. Leech was clearly still drunk due to his killing style being incredibly sloppy. He loved to toy with his victims but instead he opted for a more severe torture route.
The first guard didn’t see him coming as he jumped onto the guard’s back. Without even introducing himself, Leech crushed the guard’s skull with his hands. The second guard tried to shoot but his finger refused to pull the trigger. Leech pointed his finger behind the guard with his devilish smile. The guard turned his head around to see his own shadow as holding on to him. No matter how hard the guard tried to move, his shadow kept him in place. More guards began showing up and were horrified to see what was happening. Before they could act, Leech snapped his fingers for more shadows to hold on to the guards. One by one, Leech was twisting, bending, and snapping every guard’s bones until they no longer screamed. They pleaded and beg for forgiveness, but Leech would only reply with, “I don’t speak Mandarin.”
Soul eventually freed all the girls and Morph before whistling Leech to return to him. Soul didn’t want to go back up onto the ship. He knew he was not going to like the scene that Leech had caused.