Rain pours from the ceiling, causing the sheet metals roofs to roar with sound throughout the slums. The sound is near deafening, drowning out the shouts and yells of a group of young boys.
“Piece of garbage!” One boy yells as he kicks another boy. The kick lands on the chest of the other boy, sending him sprawling onto the ground.
The boy named Vahlen gasps as his breath is knocked out of him with that accurate kick. He looks up at his assaulter with baleful eyes, the downpour causing his sight to blur.
“What? Want some more baby back little bitch?” The boy says with a sneer, his small gang laughing after his remark. He seems to have learned curse words recently and is throwing them out with no remorse.
Vahlen continues coughing as he is close to catching his breath, but he dares not make a smart remark back as that is how he got into this predicament.
When the rain had started, Vahlen tried to run home while covering most of his face with his small overcoat, but a boy had purposefully gotten in his way, causing Vahlen to knock over the boy.
The boy then instigated Vahlen, and Vahlen retaliated with his words, but what he didn’t know was that the boy had his whole hoodlum gang waiting around the corner.
They then proceeded to beat up Vahlen mercilessly, while sneering at him and throwing insults the whole time.
This is a common occurrence in the slums, and usually Vahlen is able to avoid things like this, but he is unlucky this time.
Back to present time. Vahlen is finally able to catch his breath, but he still doesn’t respond to the provocations of the thug-like boy.
Seeing that he is unable to get any ruther response from Vahlen, the boy seems to get bored of the current situation, but a deadly grin spreads across his soaked face.
The boy pulls out a knife from his pants, causing the other boys to look at their leader with wide eyes full of terror.
“I just got this from me father, and I have been itchin’ to use it. How about I try it on yer’ ugly mug.”
“Mikey, I’m not sure this is a good idea.” one of the boy’s lackeys says with a slight tone of worry in his voice.
“Shaddup Stewart, also knew you were a bit of a coward.” Mikey says while inching closer and closer to Vahlen. Vahlen is frozen solid in fear as all he sees is the deadly hunk of metal in Mikey’s hand.
The whole world goes into slow motion as the knife inches closer and closer to Vahlen’s face, threatening to do some serious damage.
Vahlen has never been in a dangerous situation before and the mere presence of the knife is enough to make the young boy freeze up in fear.
The only movement Vahlen’s body is able to make is simply quivering, and this makes Mikey smile grow wider and wider as he seems to be falling into a new horrendous habit.
The knife gets 6 inches away from Vahlen’s eye, but then a confident shout from the side of everyone stops the knife’s progress.
“Having fun without me Mickey?” a boy with curly black hair yells. Surprisingly, his yell drowns out the sounds of the rain and the pangning of metal sheet roofs.
Hearing the name Mickey instead of Mikey sends a shot of irritation throughout Mikey’s body, and it shows on his face as his eyebrows knit together, and a vein starts to bulge out.
“The names Mikey, not Mickey you fuckin’ idiot.” Mikey yells back in a rude tone.
“Mikey, Mickey, weak. These are all names that fit you, whatever one I choose to use is what I’ll use.”
Mikey’s grip around his knife tightens and his knuckles whiten as it seems the other boy is able to easily get under Mikey’s skin.
“The fuck do you want Aaron?” Mikey says in such an angry tone that venom seems to drip with every word.
“I want to know what you are doing in my territory.” Aaron says as he kicks a rock near his feet nonchalantly. Mickey’s face twists in anger after Aaron’s remark.
“Come on man, don’t make that face, you’re already ugly enough.”
This final remark from Aaron is the straw that broke the camel’s back. Mikey yells in a fit of unbridled rage and sprints forward with the knife pulled back, going for a stab straight towards Aaron’s ribs.
Aaron laughs at Mikey’s quick rush towards a fight and he patiently waits for Mikey to get closer before making his move.
He isn’t forced to wait long as Mikey rushes forward like a bull, but Aaron points a finger downwards towards the ground. A small spark falls from his finger, landing on the large puddle of water that has slowly been flooding the surrounding area.
Once the spark hits the water, it shoots forward, going directly into Mikey’s feet. The sudden shock causes Mikey’s feet to seize up and he loses control.
“Hhhnnnnggghh.”
Mikey is only able to let out a small groan as he falls face first into the water, his legs convulsing as the small spark has yet to let up from sending shocking pulses into Mikey’s body.
Aaron walks past the incapacitated Mikey, heading straight towards Vahlen. Vahlen is still shivering, but this time it is from the fact he is completely soaked in water and has been laying in a puddle for a little bit now.
Vahlen looks up at Aaron. His eye sight is a little hazy, but he is perfectly able to see the confident smile still plastered on Aaron’s face.
Aaron bends down and extends his hand outwards.
Vahlen hesitates for a second, but happily accepts Aaron’s hand, who then in return helps Vahlen up from the cold ground.
“Name’s Aaron, you good?”
“Yes, I am fine.” Vahlen says with a shaky voice.
“Alright, let’s get out of here.” Aaron says as he starts to make his way away from Mikey and his gang of misfits.
Unfortunately for Aaron and Vahlen, the static shock Aaron had sent to subdue Mikey has worn out.
Mikey lifts himself up with shaky legs, a dangerous aura pouring out of his body. The aura congeals around Mikey’s knife, giving it a whole new level of danger.
Vahlen isn’t worried though, because he saw how powerful Aaron was, but when he takes a peak at Aaron’s reaction to this, Vahlen’s face goes pale.
Aaron nervously laughs at Mikey getting up and revealing this new power, and he shoots a glance towards Vahlen.
“You wouldn’t happen to have any magic powers yet that you are hiding?” Aaron whispers in a pleading tone. Vahlen slowly shakes his head left to right in response.
Aaron lets out a tired sigh and takes a look around him.
“I can only use lightning spark once a day, but I do have one more plan.”
Vahlen pays close attention to what Aaron is going to whisper to him, expecting some masterful plan that would come from this confident person.
“Run!” Aaron yells as he starts sprinting away from Mikey. Vahlen stares at Aaron’s back in bewilderment as this isn’t what he was expecting, but he quickly realizes that he too is supposed to be running.
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Vahlen starts sprinting with all of his might as he chases after Aaron, the ankle deep water making it a strenuous endeavor.
Vahlen takes a peak behind him and sees the visage of Mikey chasing after him with the angriest face Vahlen has ever seen. This inspires Vahlen to force his legs into overdrive.
Sprinting through the alleyways, Vahlen surprisingly finds himself catching up to Aaron, but the confident smile is once again spread across Aaron’s face.
‘He must have a plan, he surely does right? Right?’ Vahlen thinks to himself while his legs scream out in pain and protest.
“Jump!” Aaron yells and this time Vahlen is quick to obey Aaron’s command and jumps mid sprint. To the untrained eye, like Mikey’s, most would think that Aaron and Vahlen just leapt forward for no reason.
The two stumble over each other instead of sticking the landing, and then fall into the water.
Mikey’s face finally starts to turn into a smile when he sees his prey fall over directly in front of him. Mikey blindly charges towards Aaron and draws his knife into the air, not noticing the shining silver wire pulled tight in front of his feet.
Mikey feels a sharp pain as the silver wire cuts into Mikey’s legs as he tries to run through it.
Aaron and Vahlen had jumped out this trip wire, and luckily for them Mickey was too enraged and caught up in getting his prey that he had missed the obviously placed trap.
Now bleeding from his shins and tangled around the legs by a silver wire, Mikey yells in pure fury, his face twisting from the uncomfortable situation.
Luckily for Mikey, his band of goons was following behind and are currently trying to untangle Mikey’s legs from the sturdy silver wire.
Unfortunately for Mikey, the wire wasn’t placed by Aaron.
A group of 5 boys surround the group of goons, their faces wrapped with cloth to hide their identities.
“Looks like I caught one!” one of the boys yells, a silver wire coming out of his index finger, which seems to be attached to the wires that entangles Mikey.
“Well, guess we better show them what’s up since they dared try to mess with the leader of The Squad.” another one says as he pulls out a katana which is currently covered by its sheathe.
“Fine by me, I’ve been looking forward to getting rid of Mickey.” the shortest of the boys say while pounding his fist against his open palm a few times.
“It’s Mikey you motherfucke-!” Mikey tries to yell out in retaliation to the shortest one’s remark, but is thwacked by a whip of water that seemed to come out of nowhere.
This attack caused the 5 boys who called themselves part of The Squad to rush forward and meet Mikey’s group.
Several attacks are thrown between the two groups, however Mikey’s gang is a simple group of the local ruffians who have no attunement towards magic at all, while most of the people in The Squad seems to have already awoken some sort of magical ability.
Aaron wears a proud smirk on his face and doesn’t shrink away from the fighting and after recovering from falling over he happily joins the fray.
Vahlen is still somewhat shaken up and is trying to catch his breath from spriting early, so he stays back and watches the brawl between two children gangs.
The shortest one throws a hard right hook straight into the jaw of one of Mikey’s goons and Vahlen swears he saw a tooth go flying.
Mikey’s gang isn’t completely incompitent and one of them tries to come in and help the one who surely just got knocked out.
Unfortunately for that boy, The Squad is much more cohesive. The boy is met with a sheathed katana straight to the gut that causes the boy to throw up what he had for lunch.
Hands of water hold another boy down while a medium sized lizard smacks him in the face with its tail.
In the middle of the fighting, Mikey found himself free of the silver thread and is currently engaged in hand to hand combat with Aaron.
Mikey had lost his knife right before the fight began, so was currently at a disadvantage as it seems Aaron is quite proficient in brawl.
A right jab, followed by a right uppercut causes Mikey’s head to snap backwards, and nearly knock out the delinquent. A quick knee straight into Mikey’s gut causes the boy to fall over, and Aaron bends down to meet Mikey face to face.
“I’ll give you this one warning, everywhere north of the Horizon river is my territory, and I don’t want to see you jumping people in my territory ever again.”
Aaron walks away after his speech, knowing that he has thoroughly beaten Mikey, and The Squad is starting to fully finish his band of goons.
Mikey is unable to accept defeat however, and Mikey is quick to notice his knife next to his foot, drowned in the water.
Mikey finally keeps a poker face for once and slowly bends down to pick up the knife. Aaron doesn’t notice these movements and is slowly walking away from Mikey.
The attack comes unexpectedly to Aaron, but Vahlen is able to see perfectly what is happening from the side.
Mikey picks up the knife and rushes towards Aaron, a sinister red aura covers the small piece of metal.
Mikey pulls his knife backwards and is poised to stab Aaron right in the back, seemingly aiming for a lung, or maybe even Aaron’s heart.
Getting stabbed in the chest area while living in the slums is akin to a death sentence and the best fate afterwards is accepting a quick death. The unlucky are left to bleed out, or even have their wounds infected and killed them in a more painful way.
Aaron is too late to notice the attack and barely manages to turn his head around before the knife is plunged into his body.
However, a sight catches Aaron even more off guard than the knife coming towards his backside.
Vahlen stands right beside Mikey, swinging a large leather book straight at Mikey’s face. The book slams into Mikey’s head and sends him flying to the side, causing the attack going for Aaron to miss.
The reason this caught Aaron so off guard is that Vahlen was around 20 feet away just mere seconds ago, yet he appeared right before Mikey right before he stabbed Aaron.
On top of that, Vahlen would have had to run through water, but when looking to the side, the water in the path Vahlen would have had to take is completely undisturbed, almost like Vahlen had simply teleported beside Mikey right at the last second.
After receiving the hit from the back and getting sent sprawling, Mikey doesn’t move from his position on the ground, seemingly out cold.
Aaron laughs at this sight and slaps Vahlen on the back.
“You’re braver than I expected, how the fuck did you do that though?” Aaron asks immediately.
Vahlen looks down at the book in his hands and gives a small laugh.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Vahlen says in response.
“Going all mysterious on me huh? Well I don’t mind. I knew it was a good choice to help you out though.”
Aaron extends his hand towards Vahlen while flashing a brilliant smile.
“Name’s Aaron, leader of The Squad.”
“Vahlen.”
Vahlen shakes Aaron’s hand and Aaron raises an eyebrow.
“No title?” Aaron asks like everyone in the world has a title except for Vahlen.
“No? What’s the point?”
“Because they sound badass and the chicks dig it!” Aaron yells in defense of his nametag.
“Like you get chicks, you’re like 11.”
“I’m 12 and all of the older ladies want a piece of me.” Aaron says while striking a pose and winking. Vahlen shakes his head and rolls his eyes in response, not wanting to continue the conversation.
The rest of The Squad has finished up and meets up with Aaron and Vahlen. The shortest one is the first to come forward and put out his hand.
“Name’s Devan, the biggest of the group.”
The rest of the group doesn’t take long before they all burst out in laughter at Devan’s remark, but he simply ignores them.
Vahlen shakes Devan’s hand while shaking his own head.
“Vahlen.”
The one with the sword comes forward next and puts out his hand like Devan.
“Name’s Alex, the one with the best flows of the group.”
The group doesn’t laugh at this remark but nod their head in agreement. Vahlen’s head titles to the side and seems confused.
“Flows?”
“Like a freestyle…” Vahlen shakes his head indicating he still doesn’t know what Alex is talking about.
“It’s a type of music.”
“Ooooh, fair enough.”
The next one to come forward is the one whose hand the silver wire came out of his finger and helped trap Mikey when he was chasing Aaron and Vahlen.
“Name’s Darrien, the only one with a girlfriend in the group.”
This remark is met with retaliation as the others yell things like ‘Get outta here!’ and ‘I got plenty of women, you just don’t know em’.
The next person to come up has a lizard wrapping around his neck, and it’s head laying on top of his.
“Name’s Cam, the sane one of the group.” No one has anything to say back about this, and the final person of The Squad comes up to introduce himself.
“Name’s Ken, and I’ve been looking for you brother, but I’ve finally found you.”
Vahlen’s eyes go wide at this and his mind searches for any memory of having a brother. Nothing comes to mind, yet Ken remains a completely perfect poker face like he is dead serious.
“Stop fuckin’ with the new guy Ken.” Aaron says while laughing at Ken’s ridiculous remark. Ken laughs at this and Vahlen lets out a sigh of relief as he was worried that he truly didn’t know he had a long lost brother all along, and would’ve felt bad for not looking for him.
The remark about being the new guy doesn’t go unnoticed to Vahlen and he raises an eyebrow towards Aaron in confusion.
“Well come on, we saved each other's lives, so we know each other are reliable, so might as well right? You even get a title.” Aaron says while acting like the title is the most tantalizing thing in existence.
Vahlen takes a moment to think about the pros and cons, and comes to find out that there doesn’t seem to be any cons. The Squad seems close, like a family, and Vahlen lost his family a long time ago. On top of that they all seem reliable, a little mischievous, but what boy their age in the slums wasn’t?
“I guess you’re right. Thanks for having me.”
“Aaayyyeeeee.” All of the boys yell while they give Vahlen a welcoming hug as he officially joins The Squad.