... Logan POV
As we near the end of the exercise I say," Now, imagine that thing is ripped away from you, violently, this memory, this place in never to be seen again, you can think about it, but you can't see it, all that is left is anger and a the deep feeling of loss in the center of your chest."
My eyes fly open from surprise and Thomas is in very much the same boat. I feel a heat over my entire body, but it doesn't come from my anger, like it usually does, it's radiating off of Christian.
The heat wafting off of Christian is enough to see, which is incredibly unusual for someone in his level of training. He slowly sinks into the carpet as the smell of burnt fibers fills the room. The muscles on his body grow to almost twice their normal size as his skin starts audibly cracking. The boards beneath him whine under his weight. Then the heat intensifies, leading the temperature of the whole room to rise, even with the door open. I have to step back to not get burnt as fire consumes the boy as his anger grows higher.
Thomas swiftly fixes the situation going so fast he's practically flying through my living room. He gives a simple chop to the back of his neck and the fire surrounding him goes out like a light. He drops into his father's arms, sleeping like a baby.
"What was that?" I say exasperated," That's the worst reaction to a rage awakening I've ever seen!"
"Well, he is my kid, I was worse than he was though, I burnt down the house I was in during my awakening".
"What?! They called me a monster when I burnt a circle in the snow at mine. What does that make you two?"
"Elemental".
..... MC POV
I wake up on Logan's couch with a system message blinking in the corner of my vision.
I open the message and what greets me is:
[System History]
[Red Emotional Aspect Intensifying]
[10]
[20]
[30]
[40]
[50]
[60-
[Elemental Awakening Failure]
[Rage Awakening Completed]
[Feature unlocked]
[Rage Attunement]
[15% Anger Control]
[Raising of Will Statistic Recommended]
'Adel pull up the discription of rage attunement for me please'
[Will do sir]
To my surprise the voice does not come out in a neutral tone like before, this time it's a womans voice, mid 20's with a British accent, I don't know where that came from but it sounds pretty nice.
[Rage Attunement]
[Rage is correlated with the Will stat, because you currently have 15 Will, you have 15 percent control of your anger. This is where Rage Attunement comes in handy, your strength stat is amplified by your percent of control. For example 15 percent of 13(current strength) is 1.95 so you add that to your current strength and you get your new strength when the ability is activated]
[Current rage strength:14.95]
'Thats badass but hard to work with, I have to get to Will 100 to get a times two boost.'
[Well there will be more to it later, this isn't all there is]
'Good to know, I would ask, but I'm guessing you won't tell me.'
[That would be correct]
As I close the interface, I look around the room and see my father passed out on a lazy boy nearest to the broken door. Logan is sitting in the lazy boy centered on the TV and he's intently watching a lion hunt gazelle in the savanaa. My eyes tread back to my dad as I see him snoring like a chainsaw, looking past him I see that's it's dark. The silence doesn't last long though.
"You were out for a while y'know?", inquires Logan.
"Yeah, I was hoping to asleep longer, didn't want to conceive what I might have done to be, what I think was knocked out?"
"Yeah let's say you got a bit too angry and burnt a hole in my carpet", he says as he gestures to a rough human sized circle burnt into the carpet.
"If I would have known I was going to do that I would have insisted on going outside".
"I caught myself thinking the same thing, but we play the cards we're dealt", he says after rubbing his face violently leaving behind a begrudged face.
He gets up, walking to a screen door and staring out of it he says," You may not see it now but you were meant for great things, Christian".
We sit in thirty seconds of silence before he says in a dark tone,"Despite the handsome face, I have over a century of experience in this supernatural world and you've possibly got the highest potential I've ever seen, out of anyone".
"Well thanks," I say taking it as a compliment.
"Well it's not sunshine and rainbows either, as you grow stronger you will find people that want to take advantage of your power, don't be deceived so easily".
"I'll never had the notion".
"Hey I've got an idea, and it's been enough time, how bout we give it another go?"
"Whaddya mean?"
"It's time to get you angry".
...
We go out to his garage and it's nothing like what I would have expected out of a garage. Instead of tools and maybe a car, no it's a full on boxing gym in here.
The garage is twenty meters long by twenty meters wide by twenty meters tall (66x66x66 feet) and I'm honestly ashamed that I didn't notice it on my way in.
"You know how to wrap hand wraps?"
"No, my dad has always done them for me," I say as I run my hand across the back of my head, embarrassed.
"No problem kid, unravel your wrappings and then taking the loop, you put it around your thumb, facing the back of your hand. Then wrap it tightly around the wrist thrice, followed up by two or three tight wraps around your knuckles. Going back around the palm of your hand and coming up under your thumb we're going to wrap each of the fingers making x's around the hand going from the pinkie to index finger as we do so. Next as we finish the last x we go under the bottom of the thumb, we wrap around the thumb once before going around the back of the hand. Then flipping the hand, palm up, wrapping half way around the thumb again, wrap to bottom of the hand, and back around to the back of the hand. Finish up with a few wraps around the knuckles before strapping the velcro down around the wrist and bam you're done".
"Thanks informative and unexpected".
"What did you think, I was gonna do? Do it for you?"
"Maybe?" I say in a barely audible tone.
"Yeah we've got a lot of work to do," he says sighs, exasperated.
Along with the huge octagon in the center of the room there was every type of training equipment you could think of. I had a feeling I was going to be here alot, it's a good thing it's close.
Logan tosses me a pair of dark green boxing gloves and a pair of shorts of the same color as he says," Go change, and I'll get everything set up out here".
I go into the living room and I see my dad isn't snoring in the chair anymore. Instead there was a note on the chair reading-
Whichever person find this, son, I was called in to investigate a wesen disturbance, I'll be back in time to pick you up from school, Logan, I trust you to be able to take my son to school.
-T.R.
With a grunt at the letter I get along with getting dressed. Going back into the gym I show the letter to Logan.
"Bullshit am I right?"
"I mean not really, I don't mind dropping you off at school, and you have to remember your dad's job is on a 24 hour clock, he doesn't stop working".
"Yeah, I remember, it's just, that this always happens and it tends to be annoying at best".
"So says the powers that be, I know it, it sucks".
"You ready?" says Logan.
"Still don't know what we're doing".
"You'll see".
We walk into the octagon, and it's like no other octagon I've ever seen, except of course having eight sides. It would be more accurate to describe it as an octagonal dome, because there was some type of hard metal ceiling and thick metal fencing going around the perimeter of the octagon.
"I want you to punch me as hard as you can," says Logan with anticipation.
"Alright, I don't know how much damage this is gonna do, so hold tight".
I stand diagonal to him, drop my shoulder, and with all of my strength twisting my shoulder and hips I hit him in the stomach.
And surprise, surprise it feels like hitting a brick wall. I feel an electric feeling that goes through my knuckles as they break, my wrist as it pops under the strain all the way up to my elbow and shoulder that whine under the pressure.
I stumble back in pain as I let out a groan. I hold my hand and cradle my arm with my other one. The pain is intense but I keep in my mind that nothing is worse than my transformation, which is what keeps my on my feet.
"What's wrong kid?"
"I just broke my fucking hand that's what!"
"Aww it'll heal, quit whining, you Grimm are a hardy bunch so you'll heal pretty quick."
He wasnt lying, the clean break of my middle finger had turned into a bad fracture while we were talking, and I could feel it healing my shoulder has a much duller ache than it did. Guess the system really wasn't lying when it said I had superhuman regeneration.
"Well I'm a fledgling Grimm, remember that. It's gonna take a little while for this to heal."
"Alright, let's take a break, you're actually lucky if a normal person tried to hit me that hard they probably would have broken their arm".
"I'm guessing that's supposed to be a compliment".
"The best you'll get out of me," he says with a chuckle.
....
"Next experiment is how tough you are."
"Oh nice".
Without warning Logan lobs a strait at me, and I'm just fast enough for it scrape my cheek, barely keeping my head on my shoulders.
"Good reflexes".
He keeps throwing straits and hooks which, I dodge some but the most that do hit, feel like getting hit with a sledge hammer.
[ +0.1 Vitality points]
That make me smile slightly, when I get a bright idea, instead of eating punches like an idiot, let's fight back.
I throw a hook to his side, and it hits but that just makes Logan chuckle.
I keep throwing punches as he hits twice as many as I do. My ribs and face are screaming for reprieve but I can't let up for some reason, my brain is firing at all cylinders keeping my feet moving and and arms shooting. My healing is also getting a run for it's money, keeping the growing concussion at bay as well as keeping my bones from snapping. That's when Logan does something unexpected.
"I heard about your older brother". An earth shattering hook.
"How he left". A brain sloshing strait.
"How he ran". My anger rises.
"Like a coward". I feel my skin tighten.
"How could he leave you, your father". My muscles coil.
"All because he was scared". I throw a hook at the side of his head with all I have in me, all the anger, the sadness, the pain.
[New skill unlocked: Rage Strike]
[ For one blow temporarily multiply strength by two/ rage strike: strength 26]
[Prerequisite: extreme anger]
My muscles swell and the hit sends a jolt through my entire body, all the bones in my hand snap along with all the bones in my arm, as well as dislocating my shoulder.
I scream in pain as I drop to the ground, cradling my arm.
Logan stumbles to the side and drops to a knee. He spits out a tooth along with a good bit of blood. I hear a loud pop as he relocates his jaw. He stands and looks at me with a mix of bewilderment and curiosity.
"Damn kid, I'm gonna be honest I should just stop being surprised. Having rage strike already is insane at such a young age."
All I do is stare a hole through his head, if I could kill him right now, I would.
"I apologize for using your brother against you like that, I know it's a tough spot, but you have to understand getting a hold on your anger is not a fast or easy process."
He walks over to me, grabbing my shoulder, saying,"This is gonna hurt", as he pops my shoulder back into place, which illicits a yelp out of me.
"You're gonna hate me for a little while, but it will fade."
... 20 minutes later
[ +2 Vitality points ]
Eating a protein bar I think more on his reasoning. Yeah I get that he had to get me angry somehow, but that doesn't keep me from being a little ticked off.
I'm currently sitting on a bench next to the octagon with Logan off working out somewhere in here.
My brother left my father and I six years ago, all I was told was he did something horrible and left because of it, after six years I thought I had gotten over it. It seems not.
The problem with loss is that it never leaves you, no matter the time, the support, or the healing. The ache sustains.