Eaco was anxiously waiting in a classroom by herself, she felt guilty knowing that Vb almost died because she left. Originally she didn’t want the meeting to be had, but was forced to because Kire and Iro were the most wanted men alive and all information had to be shared between everyone.
Vb along with Milo, the young boy who came to Romania the day before, were the first ones to arrive and Eaco awkwardly greeted them.
Vb responded to her greeting by praying. “Please, tell me good news.”
Eaco gently nodded at him and told. “I’ll tell you when everyone is here.”
Vb nodded and sat down. The room slowly filled with the 15 other people that eventually arrived. Eaco started the meeting by getting everybody’s attention, she then gave the floor to Vb who explained his entire fight with Kire in detail.
As soon as Vb sat back down, someone immediately questioned Eaco. “Wasn’t Riley supposed to be there as well?” He asked.
Everybody stared at Eaco, she knew this question would come up and had prepared in advance. A TV behind her turned on and it showed Michael’s results. “I came for this.”
“Well was it worth it?” One of them asked.
“Honestly, I think it was.” Eaco answered. “He and his brother are unbelievable. Also we know that Kire might have surpassed the threshold.”
The pondering faces of everyone turned into shocked ones.
“Really?” One of the men asked.
“Vb said he was stronger than 2 years ago, and nobody really knows what’s beyond that threshold other than Laray.” Eaco said.
A young man next to her turned to look at the very old man who was sleeping on a couch in the corner, although wasn’t actually sleeping, just pretending. “If he had, he’d have killed Vb.” He commented. His voice barely matched his appearance.
“What do you mean?” Eaco asked.
“Literally what I said. Kire doesn’t seem like he wouldn’t have taken the opportunity to not kill Vb.” The old man answered.
Someone in the room asked. “Who the hell is he?” As he was looking at the old man.
The old man answered himself. “Samuel Laray.”
Everybody went quiet, giving Samuel the floor to talk. “I couldn’t find Kire in Romania yesterday.”
“That’s where you left?” Vb asked.
“No, I tried to look for them before Milo got there.” Samuel answered. “I came here after we dug you up.”
Eaco looked shocked. “You were here?” She asked.
“Yes.” Samuel said “I was watching you give a ride to Michael and Joy.”
Vb gave Samuel a pretty weird look. “That’s pretty weird.”
“She was the one stalking children, at least I was stalking an adult.” Samuel argued.
Eaco was slightly embarrassed. “What did you think of them?” She asked Samuel.
“You tell me, I didn’t meet them.” Samuel chuckled.
Eaco took it literally and explained her entire interaction with Michael and Joy she also told everyone her plans of hopefully bringing them both to GA. After she finished nobody asked questions, they all made their own verdict, but trusted Eaco’s judgment. Samuel was the first to leave and most followed after him. Vb, Milo, The young man who noticed Samuel earlier named Tatadoro and a young woman named Monika were the only four who stayed for a while with Eaco after everyone else left, but after less than an hour they left as well.
Meanwhile the special class was eating lunch together in the cafeteria, Sara just got there and sat down with everyone.
Another girl who was the second oldest person in their class asked Sara where she had been the entire morning
“I was called in by the principal.” She answered.
“Why?” Jenn
“It’s a secret, I’m not supposed to tell anyone.” Sara answered.
Two other boys from their class changed the subject and asked Sara where she lived.
She told them how she had to move there from Cyprus because of the possibility that she could be recruited to the Global Authority.
Sara started frantically looking around and when she was asked what was wrong, she asked where Joy was.
Michael thought that Joy was sitting with them, but when he looked around he realized that he was gone. Everybody was sure that he was eating with them, but nobody noticed when he left.
Nobody noticed that Sara closed her eyes and by snapping her fingers used very enhanced echolocation to sense everything within 5 kilometers. She located Joy 4 kilometers away from them and immediately went after him.
Michael yelled after her asking where she was going, but she didn’t listen. He tried to run after her, but couldn’t see her anywhere after she left the building.
Meanwhile Joy had just arrived at their apartment building, he climbed the stairs all the way to the 5th floor and entered their apartment where he sat on the couch.
As usual Janko and Renja weren’t home, but in Jeso’s apartment. None of them were watching the monitors so it took long enough for them to realize Joy was even there that Sara had caught up to him and was now watching through their window from the roof of the neighboring building.
Janko finally noticed the cameras and saw someone was inside their apartment. His first instinct was to go and kick that person out, but after he got a closer look he realized that it was Joy. He yelled for Renja and Jeso, but it alerted Joy as he had shifted his attention to where Janko was.
Renja was confused and asked why Janko yelled, but quickly noticed Joy in the monitors. Upon realizing where Joy was looking she looked back through the wall at where Joy was supposed to be.
Sara watched as Joy got up from the couch and walked out of Sara’s view. Sara tried to use echolocation again to see what was happening behind those walls, but just seconds later the whole building burst into flames. Sara got startled by it, but immediately leaped through the window to Joy’s apartment. She first noticed Joy who had collapsed on the floor, she picked him up and then went to the apartment next door. She thought that it was them behind the fire especially when she found nobody in the apartment. She used her echolocation again to see where they had gone, but noticed that not only were the three of them nowhere nearby, but neither were any of the other people who lived in the building. Sara was astonished, she snapped her fingers making all the flames in that room disappear then for a while she looked around the room for any remains, but after finding nothing she seemed a bit horrified. Sara sat on the burnt couch for a while to think, but then she picked Joy back up and vanished with him.
Not much later firefighters arrived alongside Eaco who had to come after realizing that Joy wasn’t in school. After all the flames were extinguished she was the first one to go inside. Apartment by apartment they moved up floor by floor, but found nobody. She hurried back to the school where she interrupted Special class 5 by storming in during a lesson and calling Michael. Michael rose up, but so did the rest of his class as everyone recognized Eaco.
Their teacher told everyone to sit back down and called Michael, he walked to the front of the class where Eaco told him to follow her. She took Michael to her room and asked where Joy was.
Michael answered honestly. “I don’t know.”
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“What do you mean you don’t know? When was the last time you saw him?” Eaco questioned.
“I’m pretty sure he was at lunch with us.” Michael
Eaco was astonished so she decided to reveal the fate of Michael’s parents to him.
Michael believed her immediately and went into shock. She prepared for Michael to explode as it was common for untrained children to have violent grieving, but Michael’s reaction surprised her as it was nothing like she expected, he simply got very sad and fell asleep on the couch.
Eaco didn’t give Michael time to grieve, she spent the entire night arranging for Michael to be transported to and trained in America instead of Serbia, she thought that Kire was behind the fire and that it was an attempt on Michael’s life.
Michael spent the night locked up in Eaco’s room and as the morning came a man was already waiting for Michael outside. Eaco hadn’t told Michael anything she only introduced to the muscular man by the name of Isaac Riba.
Isaac had been in the meeting the day before and he had just gotten back to America when Eaco asked him to work as a mentor for Michael. He greeted Michael very formally in Serbian.
They didn’t get to have a conversation there as Eaco kept rushing them. Isaac took Michael to the roof where some sort of vehicle was waiting for them. When they got in it started floating like a helicopter. It then quickly accelerated to insane speed which knocked Michael out. He slept the entire 1 and a half hour flight to Chicago and was just waking up when Isaac was landing. He landed the vehicle on the roof of a parking garage, got out and told Michael to follow him.
“We’re looking for a kid like you. He should have something that puts him apart from everybody else so try to guess who he is.” Isaac said as they entered a mall.
While walking around Isaac turned many peoples heads as he was getting recognized. A crowd of people was forming behind them and Isaac was getting amused by Michael who kept looking behind at them.
After a while Isaac asked Michael a question. “Do you think you’ve seen the person we’re looking for?”
“I don’t know what I’m looking for.” Michael responded.
“We don’t look for people, we feel for them. You won’t see it, but you’ll feel when something is different.” Isaac lectured. “The kid we’re looking for is in the crowd behind us.”
Michael turned around and tried to feel out this person they were after, but to no avail. “I can’t feel anything.” Michael exasperated.
“You’ll learn it soon.” Isaac assured. He then walked towards the crowd, everybody got out of his way as he walked through crowd. Isaac saw the boy he was looking for and as he walked past him he subtly stared him in the eyes. Michael had gone around the people and waited on the other side.
“What did you do to him?” Michael asked.
“I bugged him, now we go eat lunch while we wait for him to go home.” Isaac said.
He took Michael to a diner and ordered them food after which he walked into a private room past the counter.
“What is this?” Michael asked.
“Some restaurants build a private room. It costs more, but those people wouldn’t have let us eat in peace.” Isaac explained. “Where were you in school before you came to Belgrad? I thought they taught English everywhere in Europe nowadays.”
“I don’t remember, mom and dad never told me.” Michael answered.
Isaac looked confused. “You don’t remember?” He confirmed.
“Yeah, mom and dad said we almost drowned and that’s why we can’t remember anything from before.” Michael explained.
“Huh, that’s curious.” Isaac took a break long enough that their food arrived. “I was going to ask about your life, but I guess there’s not much to ask.”
Isaac had ordered them both a pizza. “Do you at least remember what a pizza is?” He asked.
Michael shook his head in response.
“Well at least you get to experience it again for the first time.” Since there's not much you can tell me, feel free to ask me anything.”
“Why did so many people follow us?” Michael asked.
Isaac grinned. “I’m actually pretty famous around the world.” He boasted.
“Why?” Michael.
“I work for the most important organization in the world called The Global Authority, we’re basically just all the police forces from around the world combined. Since people like you and me, people who are strong and could be dangerous appear all around the world The Global Authority was formed if one does appear the strongest people could always be there no matter where it is.” Isaac effused.
“So why are you so famous?” Michael.
“Well I’m ranked high in both strength and command. That tends to garner attention.” Isaac answered.
“How high?” Michael
“Six in strength and five in Command. The woman who you were with is actually first in command, her parents were the ones who formed The GA.” Isaac
The initial awkwardness that they had started to vanish as Michael grew more comfortable with Isaac, he was very excited when meeting new people ever since he went to school, but the way that he was forced to leave with Isaac damaged even Michael’s initial opinion on him.
Michael asked Isaac why they were after that person in the first place.
“Like you he’s a lot stronger than a regular person, but unlike you he used his strength to break the law.” Isaac explained. “I’m going to go give him a talk.
Michael ran out of questions so they stayed quiet for the rest of their meal. It took Michael much longer to finish the pizza, but after he did Isaac asked him what he thought about it.
“It tasted familiar.” He answered.
Isaac got an idea of what to do while they waited. They walked out of the diner past the few people that were still outside waiting, as they were walking out of the mall another crowd formed and most of them followed them all the way to the parking garage where Isaac had left the vehicle.
When they got there Isaac told Michael to sit in the driver's seat while he sat in the passenger seat.
Michael didn’t know what he was looking at, there were only 2 joysticks in front of him.
“You know how to heat up your hands?” Isaac asked. “Grab those joysticks and heat up your hands, then press the thumb button on both of them.”
Michael did so and the vehicle started slowly rising up. Isaac pressed down one of the only two buttons that were in the control panel between them, he then told Michael to heat his hands even more and push both the joysticks slightly forward, as he did it the vehicle started to slowly go forward. Michael looked really excited, he almost immediately understood how the controls worked and after a minute of slow movements later Isaac told him to heat his hands more. Michael did and the vehicle accelerated, he flew in circles around the town for almost an hour when Isaac told him to stop. He pulled a lever from below Michael’s seat which unlocked his seat on a semi circular track that it was on, it moved to the 90 degree point of the semi circle. Isaac then moved his seat to the driver’s place and told Michael to move his seat to where he was. He then checked if Michael was wearing the seatbelt and that the seat was locked. He did a quick 180 and the vehicle took off in a flash.
It took them only 5 seconds to take them to their destination. The landing was much more graceful than the departure as Isaac slowly landed on a driveway he saw the boy from earlier looking at them through the window, he hid when he saw Isaac and Michael getting out of the vehicle and at first didn’t come to open the door, but Isaac was able to persuade him into doing it.
“I’ll keep it brief. You are now on a list.” Isaac had walked into the living room and sat on the couch. “The list has every person that has misused their Energy on it. The global authority is so big that we’ll always be watching, you won’t know when. I hope you make the correct choices from now on. Maybe in the future we can work together.”
The boy was understandably shocked.
Isaac took a long look at him. “You should apply for the school here.” He said, trying to ease him. “That’s where you’ll be able to use the Energy to its fullest. I wouldn’t mind if you trained enough to fight me.”
The boy had stayed quite so far, but Isaac’s words interested him. “Why would you want that, aren’t you supposed to stop criminals?”
“You fighting me wouldn't make you a criminal, it’s pretty common for us to fight for training, but yes it’s our job to stop criminals. There just aren’t any left.” Isaac
Isaac laughed at the boy as he was even more shocked when hearing Isaac say that. Isaac walked past him and told Michael in Serbian that they were leaving, but right as Isaac was shutting the door behind him the boy intercepted and asked him one final question. “Why don’t you become a criminal?”
“I thought, I made it pretty clear why.” Isaac scoffed and slammed the door on him. The boy watched through the window as they took off.
While they were flying Michael asked Isaac what he said to him.
“I told him some truths and some lies.” He answered.
Michael wasn’t content with that as an answer. “What was the purpose?” He asked him.
Isaac slowed down the vehicle by a lot so that he’d have more time to talk. He then went on a long ramble and explained mostly everything he had told to the boy earlier, he also explained that it’s part of his job to discourage people from trying to cause havoc using their strength.
While Isaac was talking he had landed near a communal home, a handsome man was waiting outside and after Isaac had finished his ramble he told Michael to follow him.
This man introduced himself to Michael in English, but because Michael didn’t understand, Isaac told the man that Michael didn’t speak English yet.
He then told Michael that the man will take him to a place where he can live for a while and that he’ll come pick him up the next morning.
Michael watched as Isaac turned the vehicle around and flew away. He then felt the man tapping on his shoulder and gesturing for Michael to follow him.
They went through the lounge of the communal home where Michael got friendly greetings from the others that already lived there. One of the girls there tried to talk to Michael, but the man escorting him told her that Michael didn’t speak English.
They finally got to the room that was for him, it was at the end of a long hallway, the man used a translator to tell Michael that if he needed anything he could come and ask anyone downstairs, he then left Michael by himself.
He first sat on the bed, looked around the empty room and thought about his last few days. He then remembered that his parents and Joy were dead and got really sad again, he laid down and fell asleep almost immediately.