Underwater, all he can see is blue while bubbles of air float up towards the surface, a teenager would be calmly floating around. His eyes were completely still and kept on looking upwards at the light hitting the water from the surface. The boy, after a moment of peace and quiet, started panicking, realizing that he couldn't breathe underwater. His heart would start beating faster, stress and anxiety filled his head. As he started flailing around, trying to swim upwards and grabbing at his neck, he took a deep breath, and his eyes widened. With a shook expression on his face, after taking a few more breaths his eyes would relax and so would his posture. Finally, his heart rate would slow down, and his calm demeanor would return. Sensing a presence behind him, he turned around but... nothing was there. As he turned back around with a confused expression on his face a huge silhouette of a sea creature could be seen, his eyes would widen once again, his arms and legs were flailing around in the hope of getting away. The large sea creature swims towards him with extreme speed and opens its mouth, almost taking a bite out of him, as the boy suddenly woke up in bed and noticed his phone ringing. It was Tyler, his best friend. The dark-skinned boy got out of bed and threw on some clothes, his usual dark blue T-shirt with cargo pants and light blue puffer jacket. As Tyrell grabs his black sneakers he goes downstairs. His mother could be seen making some breakfast in the kitchen, his little sister Nila was laying on the couch watching tv.
"Hey mom, I'm going out to chill with Tyler. You need anything from the deli or the store?" he asks as he walks through the living room, petting Nila on her head as he walks by.
"Don't worry Ty I don't need anything. I'll call you if I need some groceries later though. And don't forget to eat since you're always skipping breakfast because you got something to do."
"Heh, alright mom. Love you, and stop being lazy and do something productive Nila. If dad comes back from a double shift again and sees you doing nothing, he's going to be pissed." She sticks her head out above the couch and sticks her tongue out as Tyrell walks out.
It's a normal day in New York, a few clouds in the sky and the sun shining as bright as ever. The streets were filled with people. Sounds of the city could be heard everywhere. Tyrell walked past a sign that read 'The Zoo' pointing towards an underground railway station. As he shook his head and kept walking, he came closer to the hub and eventually saw Tyler.
"Yo Ty! What's good, what have you been up to? I texted you but you didn't answer." He said, giving him a fist bump and a small smile.
"Yeah, I saw. I was sleeping so I couldn't answer."
They both started walking down the streets of the city and crossed a few shops while talking about the exam tomorrow. Tyler looks at him with a disappointed face and asks
"So, did you study for the exam tomorrow? Or did you sleep through the whole night again?" Tyrell rolled his eyes.
"To be honest, I did try to study but I just fell asleep after five minutes, but an attempt is an attempt. You know my dreams are peaceful except for the end of them and I'm a deep sleeper, so you probably knew what my answer was going to be already huh?"
Tyler chuckled and nodded his head in response. They both started laughing. All of a sudden, an alarm and the breaking of glass could be heard from around the corner, the local jeweler was being robbed. A lady with a bag ran around the corner and down the street towards Tyrell and Tyler. The woman stops right in front of them. Tyrell, after realizing what was going on, took a few steps back. The woman puts the bag down and crosses her arms with clenched fists as purple aura covers her body. A large cheetah came out of her aura and began growling aggressively at Tyler and Tyrell. Yellow tall grass sprouted around them.
"She has an anima, MOVE!"
Tyrell grabbed Tyler and jumped out of the way. The woman grabbed the bag and got onto the cheetah's back, it started running away and picking up speed. They jumped across a few cars and pushed people away when landing on the ground.
"It's an anima user!"
"One of them is attacking again!"
"This is the third time this month!"
People started to yell and scream, as they made it around another corner an oryx bashed into the cheetah as it flew across the street into a wall. The woman fell off of the cheetah's back with small wounds and tried to stand up. The oryx shook its head and blew its nose. A police officer walked towards the oryx and makes a finger gun gesture with his hand, as blue aura would cover both of them and the oryx would dissappear in it. Tyrell and Tyler ran towards the action.
"Oh shit, he whooped her ass. What if she gets back up and tries something else? Should we help?" Tyler suggested.
"No Ty, we don't want anything to do with the violence anima users inflict on the city remember? Besides, what are you going to do? You don't even have an anima." He started walking the other way.
"But you do." Tyrell stopped walking and turned around, with a mad expression on his face as he
"Both of us know that I will never use my spirit animal. We discussed this 233 million times already, I'm not using it for violence. And you know why."
"You'd be using it to save people– "
"Cut it out. I'm not doing it, end of discussion. Let's go, Carmen wants to meet us later and i wanted to get something for her." Tyrell started walking off, Tyler looked at his hand and clenched it, catching up.
The pair walked across a construction site, one of the workers put his palms together as brown colored aura was released. An African Elephant slowly arose out of it, slightly shaking the ground as it put its feet on the ground. Yellow tall grass like before could be seen sprouting around the construction worker, as the animal started helping the workers with the construction. More animals could be seen around the site and city. Tyler watched as the animals helped the humans, scratching the back of his head and sighing. Garbage men being helped out by their squads of rats and mice with cleaning the streets and owls flying around in the libraries dusting the shelves and helping people find books. Tyrell came across another jeweler on the other side of town and looked into the shop window, seeing the owner and a big crow taking care of the products inside. Tyler looked at him and giggled.
"At this point just grab one of those rings and propose to her bro. I've been third wheeling when chilling with y'all two for years now."
"We aren't official yet so stop complaining. My dad always tells me that you need to know someone as good as possible, before actually getting into a relationship with them. But that doesn't mean I can't give her a little taste of what it would be like." Tyrell smirks and keeps looking into the window.
"Your dad is smart, not that I wouldn't expect that from a doctor. I guess you're right. But I'm going to keep teasing you until you guys stop playing around."As Tyrell kept looking, something finally caught his eye. His eyes lit up and he ran into the jeweler. He inspected the item and looked around the store a little bit more. It was quiet and empty, the owner looked at him and cracked a small smile.
"Well, hello there, welcome to Jewel's Jewels! What can I do for you?" The crow would let out a few cries of happiness as it flapped its wings and jumped on the woman's shoulder. Tyrell chuckled and pointed at the pendant he chose. The crow flew over and grabbed the necklace out of Tyrell's hand, flying back over to the counter and giving it to the owner.
"Thank you darling. Return for now."
She grabbed her own necklace out of her shirt, giving the pendant on it a small kiss. Indigo colored aura surrounded her and her anima as it disappeared into it.
"So... It's pretty quiet for a jewelry store. Just a calm day?" Tyler asked as he grabbed his wallet and card.
"Well, you know how people look at stores owned by anima users. We all get less customers because-"
"Because they're afraid. Right?"
The owner got startled by Tyrell's answer and her eyes widened.
"W-Well, I guess you're not sugarcoating it at all. I didn't expect someone so young to understand the problems we're facing on such a level. Anyways, that'll be $70. By the way, I love the pendant you chose, is it for your girlfriend?"
As he grabbed the money and put it on the counter, he grabbed the pendant, his eyes sparkling with excitement.
"Nah... Not yet. But I'm getting a head start. I hope you get a few more customers in here ma'am, have a good day."
Tyrell walked out with a huge smile. The two teens would continue walking through the city. Buying a few snacks on their way. Checking his phone, Tyrell saw another text from Carmen and chuckled as he replied.
"So, are you going to tell me what you bought or keep it a secret?" Tyler asked.
"Nah you'll see it around her neck soon enough. Can't take the risk of her finding out before I give it to her because your dumbass told her."
"Alright, alright fair enough. But at least tell me you taught about it as good as possible before you actually bought that thing. Actually- knowing you, that was probably the only thing on your mind."
As he looked over at him, Tyrell nodded and shrugged. Eventually they passed Tyrell's house on their way back and kept walking towards the end of the street. Children were playing football on the side of the street and one of them accidentally shot the ball at Tyrell. As it flew towards him his eyes would widen, not having enough time to dodge due to how this all happened in one short second. The ball hit his face, as he almost fell down due to the impact, he caught himself and managed to stay standing. The kid who shot the ball ran towards Tyrell, tears building up in his eyes.
"Sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to. It was an accident for real!"
It was clear that he was scared, terrified even, after seeing Tyrell's sharper teeth. Tyrell picked up the ball and took a step towards the kid. Tyler watched and chuckled. The kid closed his eyes expecting the worst, but nothing happened. Moments passed and he opened his eyes, seeing Tyrell bending over towards him trying to hand him the ball. The kid slowly grabbed it and gestured a friendly nod. He ran away towards the group of children looking at what was happening. Tyrell rubbed the spot the ball hit him on and put his hands into his pocket. A few seconds later he heard a yell from down the street.