Alex simply wasn’t able to comprehend how people could be so completely and entirely stupid.
“I was just here! You can check your records or whatever, I was here yesterday confirming my awakening!”
Three huge individuals all clad in the same oppressive scale-like armor blocked Alex’s path.
One of the guards boomed a response.
“I don’t care if you were here yesterday, or even 10 minutes ago. If I haven’t been informed, you are never getting through these doors.”
Although Alex sufficiently listened and comprehended the guards' answer, it didn’t seem to have much weight in his decision-making. Without so much as a wasted breath, Alex lunged forward and formed a v-shape with his ‘dumbbells’ at hand.
Assuming the shape of a battering ram, Alex tried to clear through the guards. In defiance of his awesome battle posture, reality made sure to put him in his place.
Alex rammed into two of the three trained guards, hoping to find a gap in their defense. Surprising the guards, the impact had quite a lot of strength behind it. So much so that a step backward was required to block the charge.
Grunting one of the guards spat,
“You brat!”
And with that, the guards initial shock of the sudden attack faded, allowing for them to fully return the favor. Both guards heaved back and shot their shoulders forward simultaneously. The double shoulder slam exploded into Alex bouncing him back like a skipping stone.
Alex rolled on the hard asphalt for more than a few seconds accumulating even more soot on his clothes.
“AH! FORGET IT!”
Alex then flipped the guards the bird, but not before forgetting to stand up and dust himself off. Otherwise, it would’ve been a little embarrassing for him.
Since there was no hope for his original goal, Alex marched off. Or that’s what it looked like. Really he was going around to the back of the BSAD headquarters, hoping to find some other way inside.
Meanwhile, the guards were still pretty dazed from the sudden blow.
“I can’t believe that kid was dumb enough to try and attack three BSAD guards at once!”
“Really! What’s up with kids these days!? And how about those weights!?”
“HAHAHAH! Maybe we should have taught him more of a lesson!”
Two of the guards made idle chit-chat about what just transpired while the other stood silently. Finally breaking his silence, he decided to think out loud.
“Not bad…”
The other guards immediately took note of this.
“Woah… I swear I’ve only ever heard this guy talk like once.”
“Yeah, you're right… What’s not bad Jackson?”
After lingering for a moment, Jackson spoke.
“That kid…”
***
“Fuck those guys!”
Alex’s stomping never let up ever since his little altercation with the three armed guards. However, something suddenly stopped Alex in his tracks.
The glimmer of a recording device neatly nestled within the smooth white surface of the BSAD headquarters.
‘Oh, yea! The robot from the other day should be able to recognize me! Maybe it's connected to the camera feed!’
Cheered up by his revelation he began to stupidly wave toward the lens, never once choosing to set his dumbbells down.
“Over here! Remember this guy? Me? Alex? Alex Black!!”
While Alex wasn’t the smartest guy, he was the most persistent(-est?). This little dance of his wouldn’t end until he either dropped dead or was let inside the building.
“Helllooooooo?”
However, he was briefly thrown off of his game. The sound of nearby footsteps made him switch focus.
‘What? How did this lady get so close to me without me seeing her? Oh, maybe it was because I was so distracted?’
Not much could get past Alex’s amped senses. Living in the southern district of Morgan, or a fancy way of saying the slums, forced him to perceive the world around him better. Lest he get robbed or assaulted or worse.
This woman was able to get about 15 feet away from Alex without him knowing. There was nothing to hide behind, just a straight path to himself.
Before resuming his screaming match, Alex allowed himself to take in some of the woman’s details.
This lady was tall, mostly on account of the massive high heels beneath her.
‘Strange. Even if I was yelling… Aren’t high heels supposed to be loud as fuck?’
She was wearing long beige-colored pants which connected in the middle of her torso to her tucked-in shirt. The shirt was a simple white button-down. According to Alex’s assessment, she wore ‘some dumb-looking necklace’ around her neck. Her hair was bright blonde and as straight as an arrow. Her face rivaled that of the popular models and superstars of the time but her cold demeanor and unreadable face sullied it.
Beyond her general appearance, there was something less obvious there. But Alex could sense it. A sort of oppressiveness. Not so much by the way she looked. But more so by the way she moved. Deliberate, calculated, and systematic. Terrifying.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Alex shuddered and looked away. But soon the realization that he had been looking at this woman for far too long hit him. With no other options, in order to assume nonchalance, he went back to what he was doing before she waltzed into his life.
“You stupid robot! Remember?! Please reduce any unnecessary chatter!! That’s me, I’m him! Let me in! I want to talk!”
Unbeknownst to Alex, as Ella walked by him, she smiled to herself. That was definitely the first moment she found herself growing fond of Alex.
***
Now situated in her office with the Chamberlain in front of her, she amusedly watched the still stupid, still loud, Alexander Black, in the projector panel.
This persisted for a moment before she remembered she had an eager guest. Ella reached for a large black button in the middle of the table. A brief unstable fluttering of light soon appeared above the table. Slowly it began to take the shape of what can be described as a computer interface.
Effortlessly Ella began to navigate it at remarkable speed. If the hologram wasn’t there, however, she would certainly look like a crazy person.
Victus felt the overpowering need to understand the woman in front of him.
“Ok. Ok. I know I said I would trust your opinion, But Ella-”
“Call me Supervisor or Supervisor Steinbeck, Please.”
Briefly stunned by the interruption, Victus of the Drawrin Family eventually recovered.
“...Supervisor Steinbeck, What do you see in this babbling fool?”
“Hold that thought, Victus.”
Finally landing on the profile of a brawny-looking man, Ella tapped on a few buttons next to his face until an audible ringing noise filled the room.
Not long after a gruff, indifferent voice connected on the other line.
“How can I be of service, Ma’m?”
“Jackson, About that boy you had that incident with?”
“It’s of no issue. We didn’t see the need to punis-”
“No, no, no. That’s not what this is about.”
“... Ma’m?”
“Around the side of the building. You’ll see him yapping at one of our cameras. I’d like you to grab him and bring him to me.”
A long pause followed this command.
“...Understood.”
***
Alex was very surprised to see the same guard he charged into round the corner. Alex was so startled that his appearance prodded him into forming the most ridiculous fighting stance, surely, anybody had ever seen.
But to Alex’s surprise, the guard who introduced himself as Jackson was now leading him through the maze of white that was the BSAD L-BRANCH.
‘Well I’m glad I didn’t break through the guards back there. I woulda gotten lost in 2 minutes’
Disturbing the all-consuming sound of their own footsteps, Jackson spoke.
“That was a pretty neat trick back there kid.”
Alex strained his mind trying to think about what he could be referring to. Alex thought hard, twisting his face in a strange way.
‘Oh, yea!’
“I knew that if I kept screaming someone would eventually hear me. It was nothing really. Just a perfectly executed plan.”
Jackson’s usual composure temporarily broke as he allowed himself to glance over at Alex.
‘Is this kid dumb?’
“Not the yelling. The trick with the dumbbells. Did you recently awaken?”
Unaffected by his blunder Alex responded.
“Ah yeah. I just awakened 3 days ago. Pretty cool, huh?”
Did Jackson just hear him right? He awakened only three days ago. In three days he figured out how to use his BSA and already had this level of mastery.
Understandably, Jackson was a bit stunned by this discovery. But he managed to remain impassive as he continued to add to the conversation.
“Impressive. Most people take a year just to come to terms with how to basically use their BSA. It looks like you’ve already begun to implement it in combat.”
“Oh yeah? It’s not like it was very hard, I just have to pick up some weights and it just kinda works on its own.”
Jackson couldn’t really understand the literalness of Alex’s response. Instead, he began to think about what kind of BSA Alex had.
‘Superhuman strength? It’s definitely Physical. But I shouldn’t rule out Hybrid either. After all, I haven’t really seen what else he can do. Not that he knows either. That must’ve been his first time actually using it in combat.’
There was an absolute information storm passing through Jackson’s head, although the same couldn’t be said about Alex.
‘It’s real white in here…’
Back to Jackson.
‘It’s safe to say this kid here isn’t a genius. Either his BSA is stupidly easy to understand, or there is some sort of condition I’m missing here… Could it have something to do with the weights he was using earlier?’
Of course, the weights had to be confiscated at the door. Blunt weapons and the BSAD don’t mix well…
‘If that’s the case does the requirement look for the amount of weight or does his blood simply check if the user is holding a weight?’
With Jackson’s last thought the pair arrived before a large office space.
Alex couldn’t keep the unnecessary thoughts inside his mind.
“Who needs an office this big?”
Jackson ignored this.
“The supervisor of this department has requested your company. This here is her office.”
“Oh ok cool. I just go in then?
Alex took a step forward and reached out for the door.
“Wait kid.”
Alex turned around with his hand glued to the door handle.
“What is it?”
“Just… Try not to get on the Supervisor’s bad side…”
Considering it more of a suggestion than a warning Alex turned back to the door.
“Alright. It was nice meeting you Johnson.”
“Jackson… and Yeah kid. Good luck in there.”
“Won’t be needing it.”
Alex fully entered the office, leaving Jackson standing alone in the white hallway.
‘He’s as good as dead.’
***
Alex was sitting next to a massive man wearing sunglasses(indoors). But what really caught his attention was what was across the obsidian black desk.
A woman. A very familiar woman.
‘Why does she look so familiar?’
Suddenly Victus spoke with his booming voice.
“Kid, you can stare at her all you want, but don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.”
Alex suddenly remembered where he knew this woman from!
“You. You walked by me earlier, huh?”
Victus made an expression like his dog just got run over.
“KID! For the love of god address her respectfully, I don’t want to get caught in this crossfi-”
Ella finally chose to speak, in the middle of the Chamberlain’s sentence no less. In a monotone voice, she introduced herself.
“Hello there Alex. I am a BSAD Supervisor, my name is Ella.”
Alex wanted to say ‘Hi Ella nice to meet you’ more than anything in the world but Ella predicted this stupid outcome and didn’t give him any room to speak.
“You have piqued the interest of me and consequentially the BSAD. I would love to hear what you have to say to us but unfortunately, nothing in this world comes for free. At this very moment, you are using up my time. My time is incredibly valuable and therefore it is only suitable that I receive proper payment. Do you understand?”
Cold sweat lined Alex’s back. Alex didn’t have any money…
Predicting his worry Ella added,
“I don’t want your money, Alex. You will pay me with information.”
Relieved, Alex replied.
“Phew, thank god. Hey, but wait. What kind of information do you want from someone like me?”
“I just want to know two things.”
If you weren’t paying attention you would have missed it. But ever so slightly Ella leaned forward in her chair.
“Firstly, from whose blood do you come from?”
Alex was confused about why she asked this question, but considering he didn’t have to pay anyone he couldn’t care less.
“Um… I’m really not too sure about that myself. My last name is a made-up one. I’ve never met my parents, so I’m pretty sure they’re just dead.”
Ella remained expressionless.
“So the name you gave us was a false one?”
“I wouldn’t say that. I wasn’t left with a birth certificate or anything so eventually, I just had to go into one of those big government buildings and get an I.D drawn up. They made a big fuss about it because I ‘didn’t exist’ for so long, but yeah. That’s where I named myself I guess.”
“Alex Black? Why Alex Black?”
“Just felt right.”
Ella knew that this response was a lie, but she didn’t really need to prod any further. She took this time to really study the boy across from her.
Alex wore clothes that had seen better days. And those better days were 5 years ago when he first bought them. After all of that time, they didn’t fit quite right, smelt absolutely putrid, and had patchwork all over. She couldn’t see the bottom half of Alex but she assessed that it would be a similar situation to the torso. Alex’s face was actually pleasant to the eye. Nothing incredibly handsome, but he wasn’t on the low end either. His defining features would be his large straight nose and his crystal blue eyes. Other than that, wavy black hair draped down to his shoulders
“Secondly, explain to me the reason you chose ‘dumbbells’ as your weapon?”
Alex didn’t really want to give someone all of his cards already but considering this was payment for his request he could only tell her the truth.
“Oh, the weights? Yup, those are what makes my BSA work. Anything other than gym weights, weigh their normal amount.”
Ella found this revelation predictable, but interesting nonetheless.
‘A Physical type BSA that only functions based on the criteria that the object at hand is used for working out. Or is it more complicated than that? I’ll have to see it more in action. If my guess is correct then I won’t have to worry about seeing him more…’
“Fascinating. Alright, Alex, I would like to direct your attention to the man to your left. This is the Chamberlain of the Drawrin Family, Victus Drawrin.”
Alex obediently turned and greeted him.
“Sup Victus. I’m Alex.”
Victus returned a look of disgust.
“Insolent little-”
Ella cut in before Alex could be put in his place.
“I’m certain that this man here can help with your request, Alex.”
“Oh, awesome. Hey Victus. I want a job.”
Step 2 in turning his life around. Get a job.
***
**
*