Kieran retraced his steps back to school. His face was calm and collected, not like that of someone who just lost his parents, but behind that calm façade was pure anger.
Anger so strong, it felt like his soul was on fire. He didn't know where this anger came from but he needed an outlet, and he had a perfect one in mind. With this train of thought, he took a branch into an alley a few blocks from his school and kept on going down a forked path.
After walking for some time, he arrived at a deserted area with an old, abandoned factory at the center. Moving close to the abandoned factory, sounds of laughter could be heard from within. Seems like some people were there.
"Hahaha, you really showed him who's boss, Richard!"
"Yeah, you really channeled the prestige of the Scarlet family"
Words of bootlicking and more could be heard from inside the building. Despite hearing the subject of the conversation which turned out to be him, Kieran's expression didn't change one bit.
He had once seen Richard, his group of friends and some of his guards take this route instead of heading home. Obviously, this was his little hangout where they could comfortably do things not allowed in school; smoke, making out with girls… Whatever a noble like him wished, he could have it.
But today, it seemed this noble was in a bad mood. The usual presence of girls was absent, the other guys didn't even smoke for fear of angering him, so they all did their usual bootlicking but that only seemed to worsen this mood as his facial expression got worse, but they didn't seem to notice as they kept on going.
"Boss, you shouldn't worry too much, you'll surely become a candidate for the heir!"
This seemed to trigger him as his face contorted in anger, as he was about to talk, a loud sound was heard
BANG!!!
The door swung open with such a force that it almost came off the hinges, and at the entrance stood a dark figure with an oppressive aura around it.
Humans tend to fear the unknown, this was a never changing fact, with his entrance some of the boys were already shaking in their boots, they were pampered and had never had such experiences
"Wh-who's t-th-there?" one of the boys asked, trying to act tough, failing miserably.
Richard on the other hand, had a strange look on his face as he stared ahead at the unclear figure
"Wait! Isn't that Kieran!" finally someone managed to identify him through the poor lighting
"W-what! It's really him! Hahaha!" at the first mention, the others also noticed
"Hey, you almost scared me there!" the first boy who almost fell from fear saw this as an opportunity
"You should pay up!" his confidence returned, he said so with a menacing face.
The other boys also stared with dirty expressions. They had been getting frustrated after trying to please their boss Richard to no avail, now they had finally found the perfect target to let all that pent-up frustration on.
Richard also smiled menacingly, the comment of succession had hit a nerve and he also wanted to vent out his anger.
Standing at the door, Kieran looked at the group of boys who were ready to pounce on him and all he saw were sacrificial lambs, he could feel his anger increasing, like a beast trying to break out of its cage, it was constantly hitting at his chest, memories of everything he endured at their hands acting as fuel for his rage.
The two parties stared at each other, the tension could easily be felt like the scent of gunpowder in the air
"Huu..."
Amidst the cold silence, the sound of someone exhaling rang out, no one knew who did it, not like they cared, but that sound was like a spark, lighting the scattered gunpowder.
The two sides moved almost simultaneously with Kieran taking the head start to get close to the boy who had lost composure initially, the boy felt surprised at Kieran's sudden burst of speed, but what made him freeze wasn't the speed but the extremely savage expression of the opponent.
The person in question didn't care about his expression right then, all he saw was a person filled with loose spots all over and he took the most direct option, landing a solid hit on his face, moving onto the next person, he didn't even look back
All he cared about was to let out the burning anger in his chest, person to person, blow for blow he didn't care as long as they all went down.
Despite that, he felt the burn increase. This was too easy, he wanted someone strong enough to vent all his anger on, not the sticks he just beat down.
With that, he set his eyes on the person who hadn't moved till now, Richard, who also happened to be looking at him. Their gazes locked at that moment and they both rushed out each throwing a punch to the others face
He could feel it, Richard wasn't like the rest, he took a punch and barely moved, he had also felt the sting when he received his punch, he felt a bestial instinct take over as he attacked like a mad man using every part of his body, his fists, elbows, knees, feet, head every one of these attacks were sent with the intent to kill
Richard sensed this change and acted accordingly, showing what being a noble really meant, he executed his martial arts techniques with extreme precision, betraying years of training.
Dodging, countering, footwork. He was superior to Kieran in all these aspects but unfortunately his opponent was like a never tiring beast. Where he got hit didn't seem to matter as his momentum didn't decrease but increased instead, Richard was superior in terms of technique but he didn't come close in the area of physique and stamina
With Kieran's unending attacks he gradually got tired, his technique less precise and finally like a beast who saw a golden opportunity Kieran's landed a clean punch which contained all his strength to Richard's
gut.
That was all he needed, a breakthrough!
The fight was already decided at that moment, a flurry of punches landed on Richard's body the last hit on the jaw knocking him out but not before he spat a mouthful of blood.
With his final opponent down and everyone else rolling in pain on the floor, Kieran slowly recovered from his beast like state, his fists were covered in blood both his and the boys lying in pain
Looking around, he felt that his anger had subsided substantially, it was still there but he didn't feel that burning need to lash out, looking at Richard who was knocked out on the floor one last time, he walked out merging into the shadows of the night.
...
The sky was bright and gloom from last night was absent. Kieran stood there as he waited for the detective to arrive, it was almost 7 am and he didn't have to wait long as he heard the sound of a hover car approaching.
The detective pulled over right in front of him
"Get in!" he said not even looking at him and
Kieran who didn't care much did as he said
"Since you'll be going to a boot camp I'll be dropping you at an outpost here in Crane city they'll be the one to take you to your final destination"
Kieran replied with a simple
"Ok"
After driving for about an hour, the detective pulled up and looked at Kieran for the first time today with his usual cold expression, slightly surprised with Kieran. It was impossible to tell that he had lost both parents just yesterday, but the detective swept that to the back of his mind.
"What?" Kieran asked, not liking the detective's gaze on him
"The location of the military outpost we are going to is classified to commoners like you. We'll have to take some measures" he said while taking out a blindfold and a pair of handcuffs.
Kieran stared at him with a deadpan expression and after a long while…,
"Sigh…."
"Let's just get this over with" he finally agreed
"Smart of you not to resist", he complimented him.
...…
The journey was rather boring especially since he couldn't appreciate the scenery because of his blindfolded eyes, not like there was any to be appreciated either.
Crane city had walked the path of technology, there were almost no trees, instead there was an abundance of sky towers and that sight had long become boring to Kieran, so in a way he appreciated the blindfold.
After moving for about an hour or so, the car stopped and the sound of the detective getting off the car, engaging in a discussion with some people which Kieran assumed to be the soldiers of the camp could be heard.
"Is this the kid?" one of the unidentified voices spoke
"Yeah, I'm handing him over to you. He's yours now!" This voice belonged to the detective.
There was a brief silence after that, then Kieran heard some footsteps approaching and his side of the door was pulled open by one of the soldiers he assumed.
"Get off the car kid", he heard one of them say in a stern tone.
He did as he was told and got of the car, he then felt a hand on his shoulder pushing him forward a little,
"Move!"
They didn't seem interested in removing his blindfolds but with the aid of the hand on his shoulder which kept pushing him in a specific direction he was able to walk with little issue.
The hand moved him around until they got to a particular spot, still unknown to him due to his blindfolds.
"I'll be taking my leave now. Take care kid" the detective's voice rang out indicating his presence.
Kieran didn't bother replying, he was thinking of what was going to happen next, the fact that he remained blindfolded showed that he hadn't reached his final destination, he initially wanted to pay attention to his surroundings but if this wasn't his final destination, then it wasn't worth it and he wasn't wrong, once the sound of the detective's footsteps receded, the soldier whose hands was on his shoulder pushed him forward once more.
Feeling a shadow block the rays of the sun, he deduced that they had either entered a building or he was standing in front of something huge. It seemed his first guess was right, the hand on his shoulder was removed and he heard the sound of doors closing, he turned his head around slightly curious.
Shhhhhhh….
A sound was heard all around the room and he started to smell something funny….. Knockout gas!
He smiled at this thought, he had already considered the possibility since his cuffs and blindfold hadn't been undone.
He sat on the ground waiting for the effects of the gas to kick in.
In the command room of the camp, the commander of the cap and some other officials watched his actions through the CCTV footage with a hint of approval on their faces
"He didn't run around screaming or trying to resist, smart!"
One of them commented and the rest agreed in silence, after a few minutes though, the expressions on their faces turned into frowns,
"How long has it been?" the captain asked the subordinate at the desk,
"Five minutes sir!"
"Then how is he still awake?" this time the soldier couldn't give an appropriate response as cold sweat ran down his face at the Captain's intense stare
"I-I-I don't know"
The Captain's frown deepened at the answer
Back in the room, Kieran was starting to get suspicious
'Since when did knockout gas take this long to work.' He had seen the gas in use a lot back in the slums and it had never taken this long to take effect. At this thought, a wave of dizziness hit his head.
'Finally!' the effects finally arrived
'Hmm, I wonder what's ne—' before he could complete that thought process he fell unconscious.
In the command room, the tense soldier released the breath he didn't know he was holding
"H-he's unconscious sir!"
This didn't seem to get to the commander who was still staring intently at Kieran's body with a frown
'It took thirty minutes for the gas to come into effect, that's not normal, there's something wrong with the kid'
"Hmm, take him over to the transfer station"
The soldier stood up and performed a salute, leaving the room to perform the Captain's order.
A few moments later, the Captain's pulled out a phone and made a call
"I want the kid's assessment reports"
"Yes.... yes…", he answered, exchanging words with an unknown person over the phone
"…. thank you"
Back at the place where Kieran was, a few soldiers entered with gas masks. They picked Kieran up and carried him to another part of the facility where numerous oval pods with different sizes and a metallic sheen could be seen.
Kieran was taken to one of these machines with a matching size. He was put into this machine and it was moved to what seemed to be a portal.
The egg-shaped machine containing Kieran disappeared with a flash after being pushed into this portal, the soldiers left to report to their superiors, their work being done.