:-Good as dead.
A blinding light had caused Xadia to awake from his eternal slumber, rubbing his hands on his eyes, Xadia adjusted his eyes to the big ball illuminating the city.
Now on his feet, he could see the city as busy as it always has been, the skyscraper made his view quite exceptional.
Thinking about a bottle of water and the container of a powder-like substance named Currell, it had appeared beside him.
Now understanding the concept of the powder-like substance, it was like a walk in the park for Xadia as he poured a stream of water into the container and stuffed it in his mouth.
Taking out a transparent blue card, Xadia supposed it had the address of a weapon forger in need of an apprentice.
With no work and nothing to do in this new foreign world Xadia had no choice but to consider Gwen's suggestion.
With the blue transparent card in his hands, there was nothing on the surface of the card, It was blank and contained no address of the sought.
Sliding his fingers on the surface a glowing white arrowing had appeared pointing towards the supposed address.
Descending from the skyscraper, Xadia was now on his way to the pinned address, now in front of what looked like a cyber cafe the card had stopped glowing.
'This isn't a forgery, maybe I missed a turn or something'.
Turning around Xadia began to follow the glowing arrow's direction again and it had led him to the cyber cafe three times now.
'Is it upside down, I keep ending up here'.
Looking at the cyber cafe now, it looked more compelling and more enticing, his curiosity had taken over him and he had decided to check it out.
Entering the cafe it was a room filled with holotops with different colors and versions, a card port beside each of them, and a door at the back, that Xadia recognized as the bathroom.
There was a table and chair at the side, where a fat-looking man with a mustache sat, he had paid no attention to Xadia as he waltz in, a young boy like Xadia didn't look appealing and wealthy enough for him to be noticed by the cafe attendant.
Looking at the different versions of the holotop in the room, the card in Xadia's hand had begun to point to a familiar version of the holotop that he had used before and Xadia had sat down on the chair.
The holotop wasn't on and it seemed like a credit card was needed to operate it.
Suddenly a red briefcase appeared in front of him, looking back and forth, Xadia made sure no one had seen the briefcase appear.
"So I did take it, I wonder what's inside, it must be very valuable, how do I return it, If gang members are like how I used to remember, they won't just let anyone bring a briefcase to them without a series of questions and violence," "Won't hurt if I took a peek."
Pressing a button on the handle, the briefcase automatically opened, now Xadia could see what was inside, it was a credit card.
Now detecting a card, the card port had suddenly turned on and had sucked the card in without xadia's consent.
"No, no, no not again, why does this keep happening," Xadia said agitatedly. the holotop was now on and it seemed to be glitching.
Did I break it, Xadia said as he was sweat was starting to drip down from his face, as he could not fathom how much a holotop would cost.
After a few glitches, the screen ended up on a website Xadia had previously explored, it was the hunter academy's application form.
Soon Xadia could see his name being filled into the application form, including his details like gender, height, age, and weight, soon the screen showed a message in big bold characters.
/Application form accepted/
Soon the card port shot out the card it had sucked in, and Xadia was dumbstruck as he had never experienced anything like this in his previous life, It all happened in a flash.
Looking at the card Xadia could not imagine how many credits the card contained as 30,000 credits was the application form to the hunter academy.
"I'm in big freaking trouble, not only have I stolen the briefcase, I'd make use of the content inside, I'm as good as dead now," Xadia said as he hit his hand on his forehead.
Now with his arm close to his nose,xadia could smell it, a strong foul smell had entered his nose, making him aware that he hadn't taken his bath.
Standing up from the holotop,xadia looked at the door at the back.
"I wonder if the bathroom here has that jell-like shower I used at the Fords," Xadia wondered as he moved to the bathroom.
___ ___ ___
beep beep
"Have you found it?".
"Yes, it's in a cyber cafe, me and the guys are ready to strike, I'll call you when it's done".
"Be quick about it...Slade".
Walking out of the bathroom, Xadia could hear his heartbeat faster than it usually would, as he was trembling at the sight of the cafe.
The door had been smashed open, the holotops could be seen lying on the ground with different parts disemboweled.
Four men all in red glowing suits could be seen ransacking the cafe, and Xadia had recognized the suits.
The attendant was begging for his life has a robotic hand smashed his face on the table.
"Where is it," a gang member who looked to be having robotic parts as prosthetics for his left leg and right arm asked.
"I don't have it, please I'm just a counter, I haven't seen a red briefcase," The attendant pleaded.
A shadow running past Slade had caused him to release his grip on the man. In a panic, Xadia rushed to the front door and completely ignored everything in his way.
"Follow that boy, he knows something!" Slade ordered and soon the other gang members rushed in the same direction as Xadia.
Now outside, Xadia with his Cr5 launched himself to the sky and was hovering at a fast pace. "He can fly?". One of the gang members said as he could see Xadia in the sky.
"No you bloody wanker, he has that new Cr5 that everyone is talking about, he must have used the credits in the card to buy them," His fellow gang member deduced.
Now outside chasing after Xadia, the robot man with his crystal-powered robot leg launched himself upward and landed on a skyscraper, leaping from buildings to building he was keeping up with Xadia.
Although xadia had the advantage of using the Cr5, he was pretty sure it had a limit, as he could see the glow on the sneakers dimming, it was losing its power.
Looking down Xadia could see a man chasing after him, leaping from buildings to building and it was at a fast rate.
Is he a siphon? Xadia thought agitated as the robot man was gaining on him.
Now very close to Xadia, Slade aimed his robot arm at Xadia and a laser-type blast had been shot out, hitting Xadia's Cr5 sneakers.
"You're as good as dead now".
****************
we will warm the herd
and shake the stars.
Falling from the air, Xadia was panicking, and he began to swing both his arms around trying to reduce his falling output as he was breaking from the air.
The good thing was that the Cr5 sneaker was still able to fly as it had received minimal damage, it was due to the power being used up that Xadia was falling from the sky.
Landing on the floor Xadia quickly helped himself up as he could see the gang members still on his tail.
Making haste Xadia was running as fast as he could, and to his amazement, he was running faster than he had ever run before, although he was very fit in his past life.
Apart from his lung cancer, Xadia was an exceptional athlete, but what amazed him was that he felt light and free as he zoomed past a civilian.
But all that amazement quickly dwindled as Slade landed in front of him, diving to the left Xadia had avoided the blow, and he had quickly picked up his pace, one thing Xadia knew was that he wasn't dying today.
"We've got him now," one of the gang members said as Xadia met a dead end, an alley that had only one entry.
"Nowhere to run now you little bastard".
Turning to face the back, Xadia was met with a punch to his face, it had pushed him back and blood was dripping from his nose as the punch was done by a gang member with spiked knuckle gloves on his hand.
Not wasting time another gang member had given him a thigh kick, making him fall to the ground, kicks after kicks had been delivered.
It wasn't normal kicks as all of the gang members were wearing thorn-like red glowing boots, making them very lethal.
And all of Xadia's body was aching all over he could feel that several of his ribs had cracked, and he was huffing trying to endure the pain.
His face was bruised as several cuts had been made on his mouth and nose, and he was bathed in blood.
The gang members had somewhat stopped as an important individual had arrived.
Walking straight to Xadia, a man with a robotic arm grabbed his hair and used it to pull him up from the ground to his eye level.
"Now, where is the briefcase," Slade asked
"I .... don't have it," Xadia replied barely able to talk.
Honestly, Xadia didn't have the briefcase, when he went to the bathroom, he left the briefcase on the holotops desk but he couldn't see it when he came back out, and knowing gangs fully well they'd never give him a chance to explain himself so he had rushed out of the cafe in an attempt at an escape.
"You see I was once like you headstrong and arrogant, but there are ways to convince a man," Slade answered with a sneery smile.
Letting go of Xadia, the man then raised his robot arm, clenching his fist a red glowing-like laser energy blade had come out of his arm.
It was vibrating with energy, seeing this the other gang members had stepped to the side as they knew what would happen next.
Suddenly Xadia could feel an immense amount of energy in him and it was overwhelming that it had caused him to pass out.
A sudden burst of power and force caused the gang members to move back as a wave of aura hit them.
Looking at Xadia now his eyes were glowing bright light, with every cell in his body vibrating with power, there was a fiery white energy-like shadow flickering around him.
Turning to his left Xadia grabbed one of the gang members and slammed his knee on his face, it was sudden and very fast.
Xadia was not done as he kept hitting the gang member with a bloodlust that said death, looking at their mate being hurt by a young boy, the other gang members snapped out of their daze and they had moved to attack.
Exploding with speed Xadia swung his hand on the side of a gang member and he had been knocked up from his feet to the wall.
A punch from another gang member was coming to Xadia's face, but it was incredibly slow as he had effortlessly caught the punch, twisting the arm, the gang member screamed in pain, an uppercut was delivered from Xadia and the gang member lost his consciousness.
Getting frustrated from the way his subordinates were being dropped one by one Slade decided to act.
"Out of my way," Slade shouted as he pushed a gang member aside
An attack from above could be seen by Xadia as a beaming red blade was heading his way, tilting to the side, the blade had sliced the air.
As soon as it did, the blade moved again and it was at a very fast speed and Xadia was running and dodging all the attacks, it was a very fast blade and there was no chance for an attack from him.
Slade was becoming more angered as he summoned his power, the truth was that at the start of his attack on Xadia, he had been using seventy percent of his power but it was to no avail.
Being a level eight siphoned augmenter Slade was prided in his skill, he had struggled in the streets before he even had the chance to become a siphon, but after becoming one he had committed himself to his skill and yet a sixteen-year-old boy was avoiding all his attacks.
Unbeknownst to Slade, Xadia wasn't acting out of free will, he had lost consciousness as an overwhelming energy had taken over him, one could say that Xadia was being possessed.
Slicing through the air, Slade decided to summon all of his power, and sensing a sudden change in the aura, Xadia quickly jumped backward, but it wasn't enough as Slade had siphoned energy into his legs and he followed after him.
Gathering the energy in his bladed fist Slade was ready to finish Xadia off, ducking at the nick of time he dodged and avoided the blade and it sunk into the wall.
Quickly getting back up Xadia knocked the bladed arm to the side making it bend and it was now stuck to the wall.
Seeing the opportunity for an escape he then moved away from Slade and he could soon see a gang member in his way.
Swinging the bat in his hand the gang member were flustered, Xadia hand had gone right through the bat and it had snapped in half.
It wasn't a normal bat it had a crystal in it making it more powerful and deadly, yet Xadia had snapped it in half.
A jab to the head and Xadia was done with him, the glow in Xadia's eyes was beginning to fade as Xadia had soon come to, and in front of him were 4 gang members lying unconscious on the floor, the bladed man was stuck to the wall and Xadia wondered who was responsible for all of this, making haste Xadia ran out of the alley.
"I'm going to kill that boy" Slade shouted in anger as he saw Xadia run out of the alley
Bending the blade to its original form, Slade was soon free of the wall, and he was soon following after Xadia, siphoning energy to his legs, he was running at a fast pace.
Xadia had been running for some time now not stopping and not having any intention of stopping anytime soon.
Looking back he could see that a bladed man was running after him, not paying attention to his front, he had crashed into a man in a sanctioned uniform.
"Xadia?!" Ric said.
Quickly getting up from Ric, Xadia looked back and he could not see his bladed predator, unbeknownst to Xadia it was due to the angel standing in front of him that had made Slade retreat to the shadows.
Looking at Xadia from head to toe, Ric could see blood all over his body and he couldn't help but ask.
"Your cloth, what happened to them?".
Touching his face, Xadia was perplexed, his body wasn't aching him there was no cut on his face, he wasn't bleeding like before, there was no pain at all, it looked as if it had all healed and there wasn't even a bruise mark on him.
"Oh this, I helped someone to the hospital he was bleeding and some of it had gotten on me, I saw you from a distance and ran to you, aunt Gwen said you were still on your shift when I was leaving the house," Xadia smiled quickly coming up with a cover story.
"I didn't know kids his age are this sentimental," Ric inwardly said with one of his eye burrows raised.
"I thought you left the city, what are you doing here?"
"I recently applied for the hunter academy so I'll be resuming there soon".
"Oh yeah they resume tomorrow".
"Tomorrow!?". 'If I go to the school I'll be away from the gangs, since I enrolled, no since a glitch enrolled me into the boarding school I'll be able to stay there even at mid-terms and Summer breaks, if there's ever summer in this new earth," Xadia thought.
"I guess you don't have a place to stay right,". "You can spend the night at our side till tomorrow," Ric said with a smile.
"Thank you so much," Xadia said with great enthusiasm.
"It's fine chum Ric said rubbing Xadia's head.
"Let's go," Ric said as they went to a vehicle port, Xadia's head was moving like that of an owl as he kept looking around for any sign of the dragon gang.
Entering the vehicle, Xadia was lost in his thoughts.
"I wonder what happened that time, I was a second away from having my arm chopped off and I woke up okay with a scenery I couldn't understand".
Soon the memories of fighting the gang members flooded his mind.
'I fought them, I was possessed, no that's not it, I can feel my emotions, I had the determination to survive and I did, I think I'm a siphon, but I didn't read about a siphon who can fight while losing consciousness,' Xadia thought making flustered faces at every realization.
Soon the car parked at the front of the Ford's compound and they alighted from the vehicle.
"Xad...," Gwen said mid-sentence as Xadia and Ric entered the house.
"Your cloth".
"Its fine Xadia was just being a good Samaritan today," Ric said and Xadia awkwardly smiled at the comment with a thought in his mind. "Who would believe a sixteen-year-old boy bested four gang members in a fight".
"Good evening," Mrs ford Xadia said.
"Evening Xadia, I thought you left the city"
Telling the same story as he had told Ric, it had answered Gwen's question and curiosity, and soon he had been excused to his temporary room.
___ ___ ___
"Do you have it?"
.
"No, there was a development, a boy," Slade answered
"A boy?!".
"Yes , he knew something about the briefcase, we got him cornered but he bested us using that siphon liquid you talked about obtaining, he was on par with my level, and he escaped chase, he bumped into patrolmen making me stop my pursuit."
"A boy bested you, I'm disappointed, do you still have his location".
"Yes?!".
"Get the briefcase I won't hear any excuses from you again".
**********************
We will warm the Herd
And shake the Stars.