Joe's POV
His Past- Joe's Childhood and Weapon Expert
Joseph "Joe" Barneck is my name, born to Jacob and Isabelto Barneck on October 24. As my momma sat down me and explain our family history, we weren't exactly a picture of a perfect family. My father and my mother met at a bar when she was young and they called him a "ladies' man" since he can charm the pants off even the hardest of women. My mother had no education or job experience, but she was a hard-working woman and my father had a lucrative job offer that pays the bills for us.
However, my dad left us... HE LEFT US for another woman that was younger than him and had money, beauty, and someone to sleep with. My momma was devastated, and she had nowhere else to go or anyone to turn to for help since my father left her with nothing and she had no education, job prospects... Nothing but a run-down shack.
Until she decided, instead of relying on a man to pay the bills or need a fancy degree to get one of those "Dream Jobs". she went to the library and read some books. You better understand that, sucka! She read some books, the good shit that transformed her.
For 2 years, she learned Mathematics, Science, Physics, Finances, PR, English, Writing & Reading, Business structure, etc. She became a freelance scientist working with various bigwigs to earn some cash. Enough cash to move us out of our shock and to a place of our own.
My momma and I started my education when I was 3, focusing on honing my natural talents. I've learned to pick things apart and put them back together. I learned how to make my guns when I was 5 and sold a lot of good money, made my rocket launcher when I was 8. By then she made sure that I would have that "Well-Rounded education" and she loved me like she never loved me before. All of that changed when I was 9, when 2 two men came to my house, saying they were looking for me.
My momma clarified that I committed no crime, but it wasn't the crime, it was "My power". One of them saw me and tried to take me away from her...
"Come with me, young man!" he said as he pulled me by the arm.
"Let me go! Let me go! Momma!!" I cried out as they tried to take me from her. "I SAID LET ME GO!!" next thing I knew the man was on fire.
Thankfully, his friend put him out quickly using the ability to control water, and I went to my momma as she pulled out a gun.
"You ain't taking my boy, sucka!" she stared them down, daring them to take me away from her. "I wish you would."
"To clarify ma'am, we are PSI Operatives. Your son possessed not only Telekinetics but pyrokinesis. You have two options: Turn him to our 'care' or we will return, but we will put you in jail for knowingly harboring a PSI user." the man warned."We prefer it he comes with us, Ma'am. You don't want us to return with reinforcements, we are more than capable."
My momma turned to me and looked me in the eyes, stating that I will have to go with these people. I told her, "Don't let me go to these bad men.". But she wanted me to be strong and she can take care of herself. She had promised me I would do the same, which I reluctantly agree to. I went with them, I was... Miserable, man...
When I first arrived, I was placed under basic training to hone my abilities but my thoughts were on my momma, I couldn't focus no matter what I do and my classmates call me "Crybaby" or "Momma's Boy", I would cry in my corner every day. They didn't care, they classified me as a level 3 telekinetic and they didn't see much potential in me, I had no one to turn to for help and these 'Bad men' clarified that they would not let me see her again.
I endured their shit for 4 years straight, they had me to telekinetically grab objects and practice my abilities or they would lobotomize my ass but even doing as they said was no better, they treated my ass like a lab experiment and they didn't care... THEY DIDN'T CARE!
"Nobody cares..." I whispered. "Nobody is gonna care about me," I sob between tears.
"Pitiful!" my instructor said to me, disappointed I didn't get any stronger. "If you don't start improving your performance, young man. Maybe we could consider lobotomizing your mother instead?" he threatened.
"I'm trying!" I pleaded despite my efforts to lift heavier objects with my nose bleeding.
"Clean that up, you little shit." he telekinetically me slammed to the ground. "CLEAN IT UP!!" he continued to yell at me. "CLEAN IT UP OR I'LL PAY A VISIT TO YOUR DEAR SWEET MOTHER, MAYBE SHE'LL DO A BETTER JOB?!" he yelled at me as I laid on the ground, cowering at the man's threats "CLEAN. IT. UP. NOW!"
I cried on the ground despite the man's threats. Not one person tried to do a damn thing about it.
Eventually, I had enough of their treatment of me. It was during one of our training sessions that I refused to do what the instructor said.
"Lift the object off the ground, Ensign!" he demanded, but I shook my head at him. The man didn't take my defiance well, even contacting someone to capture my mom. It horrified me when he did the deed and smiled in my face.
"Maybe you want to do as I told you, little shit?" he taunted. "I won't say it again, pick up the object. NOW!"
Instead, I picked it up and other objects; I threw them at the man, but he stopped them in mid-air. But I set some on fire to throw at him, I set the entire room on fire too. I didn't care anymore, I would rather die than to be treated like their guinea pig any longer. Then I turned the flames on his ass and watched him burn like he was barbeque as he screamed his last breath.
After the incident, I was declared as a "Sociopath, with little to no conscience" when in reality that man made a threat on my momma and those cats in the PSI operative lied to the investigators stating that I had the intent of killing the other students in the room when it was only the man that I was after. They didn't want to hear from it or believe me, they put me in the Void End prison for dangerous or insane criminals, they put me on ice because of it.
Opportunity & Revenge
When I woke up 7 years ago, a man named Colonel Yanro told me they selected me to be part of the work release problem, I asked him about my mother but he told me they don't know where she is. They woke me up on based on my dossier; I assumed that they were making some bogus lie that I was a murderer and serial killer in the making. But this man was different...
"Barnneck, look at me!" he commanded. "I want to hear the other side of your story, I heard what happened back at the Rockfield PSI academy and I know that you had defended your rights." He told me he knows what happened years ago and their treatment of me.
"You won't believe me!" I said while still shaking my head. "They even think I tried to kill those students..." I looked up, but the general made it clear he intends to hear me out. That man was different. He insisted on listening to me despite what they said...
I explained to him about my childhood and being taken from my momma by the PSI operatives. Being treated as a more guinea pig than an actual person. My classmates treated me like crap and nobody tried to help me. When they put me here, it was because I burned the bastard and they thought I intended to burn the students. I told the general to send me back to my cell since the world ain't gonna hear me out, anyway.
"No, sit up back down!" he demanded. "You're too quick to assume no one will listen to you, and I understand they treated you like crap in the past."
"You don't understand, man-"
"I do!" he roared at me, which surprised me. "I came to you because we chose you for a chance of work release, I would not be here if not that case," he explained. "Hear me out, Joseph."
"A' light' 'I said, putting my hands down,"I'll hear you out, but that is it."
"Good!'' The general starred in "I am offering you a chance of early release from prison. There is a current situation with the war. The Twuxi War. I need prisoners that want a chance to not be rotting away here in prison for a chance of work for their freedom." he continued, "To be straight, I need you."
It surprised me he would need me, but I find it hard to believe in what he is saying.
"What's gonna stop you from throwing me back into the brick after the war is over, huh?!" I said to him.
"That is up to you, Joseph. You can go back into your cell and rot away for all I care." he said it bluntly "If you do there is no guarantee you would get another chance," he said but I had enough of this, and as I got up the table, the general stands up.
"Or you can settle some scores and see your mother again?" the general said to me with my back turned. "Because I know you miss her and you would raise hell to see her again, right?"
How... did he know about her...?
"I may not find her. But I know someone who can help you find her but that if you accept the offer on the table." the general said.
I turned to the man and sat back down; I agree to the offer on two conditions: I work only under him and only him and that I can some payback on the PSI Operatives who ruined my life. The general told me it won't be possible to do so since they became defunct after the incident 7 years ago, but he can expunge my charges to where it would be a misdemeanor. I shook hands with him and within a short time; he is a man of his word.
He was like a father to me, from training to getting me up to speed on the world changes for 7 years to make the best weapons during the war. Hell, I even scored up to 709 kills like it was a video game and they sent me on a mission that required heavy firepower... alone since I didn't have any of my teammates to be in the line of fire. I was lighting them up like a Christmas tree and enjoying every moment of that.
After the war ended, using my contacts within the military I found Mark Fozen; he was a war veteran like me, but I was seeing him closing up shop. Even though the general made sure that my records were expunged but some folks were talking behind my back like I was a serial killer and setting people on their ass on fire, It made finding work hard.
And I was homeless, man... homeless! Despite my boss insisting that the company is closing down, I've told his ass that I ain't going nowhere and I'll follow him home if I have to. Afterward, he took me as a member of his crew and that's that.