"Urgh!" Ethan bellowed in agony when he was met with a rough punch right to his solar plexus, he instinctively took a step back to create some distance. He placed his hand over his face to guard it and allow him time to take a breather and use his brain to think.
"Hurry up Ethan. In a real fight you won't even get that much time to think before an enemy attacks you again." Connor reminded, his fists up and his stance ready to attack again.
"Go easy on him, Connor. It's his first day, if you are too rough on him, he might just run away!" Blaze jokingly yelled from across the warehouse where he sat on the bed while a clearly defeated Castiel laid flat on the floor.
"You have no right to tell me that." Connor said, eyeing the almost unconscious Castiel that was hanging on by a thin thread. He was about to give another insult before he felt a sudden punch landed on his face. With no time to retaliate, he stood there flabbergasted while his nose was bleeding.
"If this was a real fight, I would've added an explosion to that punch. You would've lost, aren't I right?" Ethan questioned, his hand shaped in a fist ready to throw another punch if Connor hadn't agreed.
"I lost, fair and square. My fault I got distracted by an idiot." Connor scowled at Blaze before touching his bloody nose and looking up.
"Are you guys done?" Anesthesia asked, pushing herself off from the bed and heading towards Connor to heal his bloody nose. She glanced at Castiel and smiled awkwardly."I can't sense any visible injuries on you, can you tell me where it hurts?" She asked.
"I can't really do well in physical fights that's why I'm worn out, stamina isn't really my strong suit even if I am a mutate.." Castiel said, sounding embarrassed at the last part of his sentence. "I can fight using my powers if you don't mind.." he murmured.
"Then, try it on me. If I get injured somehow, Anesthesia is here to heal me." Blaze offered, standing up with a sinister smile on his face. It looked as if he had found something fun to occupy himself with.
Castiel nervously looked around and noticed that all of the attention was on him. They had not seen him use his power even once today, if they were expecting something big, he hoped that it wouldn't let them down.
"I have a question, Blaze. Your power is being able to increase probability in your favour as long as you touch it right?"
"That's right. Now what will you do?" Blaze asked.
Powers that mutates gain originates from the host's biggest fear. It has to have some sort of link no matter how big or small. Such as fearing hospitals and having a healing power. If the host is lucky, they will be able to get a power they won't be afraid of. On the other hand, if they're unlucky, they will come to fear their own powers.
There was a reason as to why Castiel asked to confirm Blaze power, to get a hint of an illusion to create that will spark fear. The gears in his brain started turning before a smile formed on his face.
"Would you mind if I start?" Castiel asked.
"How will you activate it though? Need my blood? Or my hair-" Blaze asked before he got startled by Castiel's unexpected bloodlust.
"I'm an S rank. All I need is a reply."
Suddenly, Blaze stood as still as a statue before he dropped to the floor while burying his head inside his arms. His whole body was trembling in fear, sweat slowly dripping down his forehead.
"That's enough Castiel." Ethan warned, walking cautiously over to Blaze who looked terrified out of his mind.
"Sorry.. I just didn't think it'd be the first one.." Castiel said, guilty.
Blaze hands dropped to the floor as his whole body gave up on him. Before Ethan or Anesthesia could check his condition. Blaze let out a small laugh, his head jolting up.
"That was..AMAZING. I was terrified to the core but the way my vision turned dark until an illusion formed, it felt like I was on a thrilling ride that made my heart race and dropped the moment I saw that.." he paused before continuing. "How did you guess it in one go?" Blaze asked, his eyes glimmering with excitement and fear.
"You are insane Blaze." Connor remarked, dragging his friend away by the collar. "Well, it was fun training with you. We'll take our leave as we need to discuss some plans. Good luck." He said before walking away and forcing his friend to leave his new interest behind.
Ethan walked over to Castiel and gently pat his shoulder, offering him some comfort before asking a question.
"Why didn't you stop the moment he fell to the floor?" Ethan asked.
"My researcher told me to not do that unless they passed out.." Castiel answered, nervously fidgeting with his hands. He felt like he was being held at gunpoint, one lie and he'll explode into pieces of flesh.
"Abandon that researcher's teachings and be more logical. Your decision to not disable your power makes you pig-ignorant in my point of view." Ethan scolded calmly, he sounded like an old wise man in that moment.
"Well, It's not your fault for having such perception. Let's continue training we don't have much time after all" Ethan concluded, stepping back and started stretching.
"I'm sorry.. I'm still uncomfortable being in such a new environment with no restraints and rules. You're younger than me but you act so much more mature. I'm such a failure." Castiel looked as if he was on the verge of tears.
"I'm 12! Only a year younger! Don't treat me as if we are light years apart!" Ethan yelled, getting angry.
Castiel tears stopped and he let out a small chuckle. "You're still a kid at heart eh?" he teased.
"I told you.." Ethan growled, his eyes glowing with menace.
"Alright! Let's get to training!" Castiel said, starting to stretch.
They both went at it for a while, punches and kicks, blocks and side steps. If someone had walked in on this fiasco, they would've either looked like clowns in a circus or Kung-fu masters.
"Sorry to interrupt your practice but I got us some food from the distributors!" Ray said, holding two large plastic bags of food that were packaged in plastic. "I had to use a fake identity card to get these. They almost didn't let me off!" he whined, placing down the bags of food.
When the virus called Imitation Mutation hit earth, it spread like a wildfire, killing off 80% of the entire human population. Government's officials all came to a decision to close their borders and create safe zones within the first week and forced people out of their safe zones when they have been suspected of contracting the deadly virus or there wasn't enough space available.
This reduced the human population to 15% of what it originally was. The safe zones where people were contained in was tiny as they didn't had enough time to build a large area within walls to protect their citizens. This lead to food deficit within many countries, thus, food distributors were established to prevent people from overstocking food.
Everyone was required to have an ID card in order to collect food from these distributors. They only allowed each person to collect 1 meal a day at first but the amount allowed increased overtime when more area and space was available due to new walls being built further from the originals.
The original walls were broken down when newer walls were built. This is still simultaneously continuing in every country until now. The empty areas that were available are immediately transformed into agricultural land in order for more food to be grown and/or produced.
Even with more land in 2042, ID cards are still needed in order to receive food from the distributors. This rule does not apply to the rich and richer. Special case of mutates are not registered to have an identity thus, they do not have IDs. Ray therefore had to use ID cards that were forged, if they had inspected those cards properly, he might've been exposed and captured into custody.
Castiel quickly helped Ray with the packages of food and placed them neatly. "There's.. 13 in here. Is that enough?"
"We only have 13 members here with us, including you two so it should suffice. I'll give them out to my teammates, go enjoy your food and use the extra time to train."
"Alright!" Castiel replied, taking two packages over and handing one of them to Ethan. "Than let's do our best!"
Three days passed by extremely quick for the two boys, they were both hard at work, training with the other members whenever they could. Most fights they would lose miserably without a chance to even fight back. It just proved how tough their life from there onwards was going to be.
The dreaded day had came where all the members looked tensed up and nervous. Even their leader, Damien looked lost in thoughts. Everyone was coming along on this task as they had established more goals to accomplish this time around.
"Ethan, you'll guide me, Ray, Kayden, Connor, Blaze, Brandon and Claude with you to find Zephyr. We'll keep you safe at all costs." Damien instructed, passing each of the two children earpieces.
"Castiel will guide Anesthesia, Tina, August and Yasmine to the repository or researcher's rooms where items are stored and contained. We plan to use the items and information we have gathered as evidence of children being experimented on as to bring the government down for their repulsive behaviour." Damien said.
"Roger that." They all acknowledged in unison.