I started writing this story several months before I turned twenty while still attending community college. I want to say that it was back in early 2011 (man, I'm feeling old, already). I wrote the beginning chapter during two of my most boring classes that semester as a way to pass the time. The first chapter, at least, was completed within that semester. Chapters two through four, however, weren't written until several months later when I started my new semester with a new major. It was also the semester where I suffered a severe amount of (w)angst. The second chapter in particular...makes me cringe the hardest because that (w)angst sorta filtered into the narrative due to the viewpoint character being, for the most part, a self-insert. The fifth chapter is still incomplete due to over three years of being dismotivated from writing any more of this story.
I mentioned that I wrote this story when I was younger. I say that now because when looking through this rough draft, it shows. It really shows. I personally think the story is horribly unoriginal, but a small part of me is still proud over the fact that I could even conjure this narrative up.
As a result of the above, I looked back at this story and thought, "I really need to finish this one day." I decided to do it here since I figured that this would be the best place to receive some feedback. Unfortunately, I have become fairly busy this semester due to assignments for the classes I am taking and taking the occasional day within every three or so weeks to teach a lesson as part of my practicum. I'd mention work, but for the past month now, they've been cutting my hours so much that I am literally just waiting for the day they bring me in and lay me off due to having more workers with more flexible hours than me. The point I'm trying to make is that my entries here will be sporadic at best due to the above.
One last thing to note: I've made a fair amount of edits to this story. The reason that this took me over two days to do was because the rough draft was all written in paper and pencil. It took me quite some time to not only get the essential plot threads and conversations typed, but even longer to try to cut out parts and add other parts in to make a more coherent story.
Also, I still haven't figured out a title for this story even after nearly five years. So for now, it's just going to be Fantasy Sci-Fi Story I Wrote in College. Terribly unoriginal title, but to the point.
Alright, I've procrastinated long enough. Here is my trusty easy button to help make this process go smoothly.
Without further ado, I present to Kingdom Hearts Insider Fantasy Sci-Fi Story I Wrote in College.
I - Prōlogus
As dusk began to wane and the full enveloping presence of evening began to make itself known, a young man whose purpose in life he had not yet ascertained crept back into the house and was on his way to his family who were digging into the evening meal. Traversing down the hall, he could hear the sounds of the hockey game playing far off in the living room, but he was far too deep in thought to pay attention to that.
He sat down and began eating. Under ordinary circumstances, he was a big eater who, due to a relatively high metabolic rate, somehow remains fairly trim for his size, if not a touch flabby from doing less exercises than he'd like to admit. On this occasion, however, he barely ate anything at all and did not partake in any conversation other than a request for more pepper and a thank you for the meal. His family noted the behavior, but he wouldn't state what was on his mind when pressed. Eventually, he finished his dinner, washed the dishes and dashed up the stairs for some quiet introspection. Yet it could not hope to last.
As he closed the door and began to process all that he learned in the past couple of hours, a presence began to tug at his mind. This wasn't merely a feeling of foreboding. Rather, it was that of an intelligent being that could communicate with the young man and he to it. An intelligent being with a human visage...but with links to something stranger, almost...otherworldly.
Feeling kind of lost, are we?
The presence began to take shape. Initially, there was nothing there, but a split second later there appeared a green orb of light. A flash covered the room and upon disappearing, a young woman took its place.
Most people aren't attuned enough even remotely associated with the supernatural or alien. Indeed, most people would be completely oblivious to what the young man just witnessed on account of not having a single drop of cosmic power within them.
This fellow was not one of them.
The young woman glanced around at her surroundings and began addressing the man directly. Cocking her left eyebrow, she then said, "You still seem to be having a hard time adjusting to your new powers."
"It's not just that," the young man replied. "It's just...I'm still trying to come to grips with all that just happened. No offense, but I woke up this morning a normal, if somewhat quirky, college student without any major problems. I was not expecting to have to fight for my life and do all of this against a whole horde hellbent on destroying everything in its path. You'll excuse me if it takes some getting used to."
The woman gave him a sympathetic smile. "You're not the first one to be shell shocked after your first skirmish. If it makes you feel any better, you performed more than admirably compared to scores of others. Of course," she added dryly, "most never had your natural abilities, either."
He shook his head. "All of it is still just way too much to assimilate for me to accept it immediately, Kara. Don't get me wrong - these powers are awesome - but it's still really strange to me that I can just replicate abilities just by seeing them in action or just willing them to be from memories of what I saw before."
Kara (for that is indeed the young woman's name) nodded. When I gained the same powers ten years ago, I felt like I might not be able to survive if anyone tried to hunt me down. Even at that tender age of ten, as I'm sure you can understand now, your powers help make it more apparent the dangers that can and will assail you.
The young man, whose name was Rufus Weston Locke, though he preferred to be called Wes on principle, nodded his head aware of the implications of Kara's statement. From what she mentioned not long after their initial meeting (if you could call stumbling upon a man under attack a meeting), she didn't have any form of help that Wes currently had (in this case, her). She didn't have anyone in her immediate vicinity to tell her about her powers. Kara didn't even have a family to console her or at least stay with her no matter the costs. She was essentially an abandoned orphan that the world didn't care about at the time of her "Awakening."
As he peered at Kara a little closer, Wes recalled what little information about her that she gave him earlier. She had been skulking around the park when an odd sense of "otherness" began to tug at her. She felt...different somehow, as if she was suddenly more aware of the world and her surroundings. That odd feeling that initially started as a small feeling suddenly became realized within her. In an instant, she felt as if she was now a completely different person that could do anything rather than the scared ten year old girl that she was before.
Unfortunately for the young Kara, even this would have some dire consequences. Not long afterwards, scores upon scores of what she originally perceived to be some deformed dogs began assaulting her. A closer look - well, as close as she was willing to see with a horde of angry beasts on her tail - told her that these weren't so much dogs as completely different creatures that looked like they had the head of a dog, but the body of a pig. Fearing for her life, she began running away from the otherworldly creatures wishing fervently that she had a way to make herself disappear. As she rushed near the park bench where she left her jacket, she began fantasizing how she could just disappear.
And just like that, her fantasy became reality.
The young Kara was shocked as much as anyone could be when the beasts that were hunting for her suddenly stopped several yards away from her. She exhaled a grateful sigh of relief until she realization came to her that even if the beasts could no longer see her, it may still be possible that they could still attack her. After all, she just had an unexplained epiphany earlier in regards to being more aware of the world. It didn't seem like too much of a stretch to say that these beasts could have that same "sense" or else the mere fact that they could immediately find her just after that epiphany was merely coincidental. More to the point, even her ten year old mind reasoned that they might probably smell her. In desperation, she threw her jacket off to the side, hoping that this might be enough for the creatures to go away from her and follow the scent of the jacket instead. To this day, Kara still marvels over just how far she was able to throw it. Evidently, the epiphany came along with enhanced strength as well.
Needless to say, the beasts exhibited signs of confusion at the sight of a jacket being jettisoned off to the distance, but within seconds, the beasts were suddenly rushing over to that direction instead. The young Kara was understandably relieved to see them go away from her. However, she was smart enough to realize that she wasn't quite safe just yet.
She ran. She didn't quite know for how long she ran, but she ran nevertheless. As the sense of panic that enveloped upon seeing the beasts began to disappear, another major issue would spring up on her. As the inexorable flow of time persisted, she noticed that not only was anyone else able to see her, but she was beginning to feel worn out and depleted of energy. She would later find out that the method that she used to turn herself invisible exacted a heavy toll upon the young girl making her feel as if she ran a hundred miles instead of maybe the one or two that she actually did. Aware that whatever she did could very well kill her if continued, she began wishing, no, willing the spell that allowed her to become invisible to stop.
As she was willing the spell to end, Kara noticed that the whole time that she was invisible, the world around her looked, well, different. It held a somewhat sepia sort of tone to it instead of the normal tone that it held when she was visible. All of that changed as soon as the willpower came into effect and made her visible again. The sepia tone disappeared...only to reveal a world enveloped in darkness. Throughout her sojourn as an invisible girl, she thought that she was only so for maybe five minutes at best; by stark contrast, she was invisible for roughly five hours, long enough for the sun to set and the moon (a half crescent at the time) to rise. She quickly fled under a nearby bridge, one that she considered a safe haven for as long as she remembered since running away from the orphanage a couple of years back. As she got older, she would begin to gain a better innate understanding of her powers and would use them to place invisible protection around her safe haven to deter both people and other offworlders that would try to attack her - she emphasized that she didn't live in the safest part of the city to begin with, so these precautions were a must. She felt safe - nothing throughout the next six or so years penetrated her special protection around her have. But all of that would change the day she turned seventeen. That day where she would eventually learn even more about her powers...and the day she met her father.
Her father, known throughout the United States as Edward Bello Energia was searching far and wide for his daughter. Indeed, Kara was a bit shocked, but excited to find out that she had a family. She was hoping to learn all that she wanted to know more about her past, how she ended up separated from her parents, why it took her father so long to find her in the first place, if there were any other relatives (living or otherwise) aside from her father and, most important of all, where her mother was and why she wasn't with them now.
To her horror, she found out far more than she ever bargained for.
As it turned out, Kara's father was part of an elite group of humans that had strange mutations within them after they were secretly experimented on during the Cold War. These mutations caused them to become something akin to super soldiers. Having been forced to suffer from such experiments, most of these subjects were compelled to live life peacefully while keeping these powers secret lest they'd be used by the people for tasks ranging from the trivial to the outright destructive. One such son of one of these super soldiers was none other than Kara's father. Edward was actually conceived during the time his mother was heavily experimented on. Upon learning about this, he would grow up desiring to perfect his powers and use them to become powerful, rule the world and mold it the way he wanted to.
All of this he told the seventeen year old Kara. The teen reacted in horror when her father discussed in a very detached manner how he sought out the other people who were experimented on upon his mother's untimely death. The people who were experimented on, however, wanted nothing to do with Edward's plans believing his vision to be that which the essentially sought to avoid once the experimentation program was shut down so that the Italian government wouldn't use them before they were perfected. Almost every single one that was confronted over in Italy where the experiments took place were killed whereas only a handful of them joined him instead. However, there were many more that were spread out over different countries. Many went to their own native countries or to completely different ones after realizing that it was impossible for them to live in their old homelands again due to all that they suffered. A portion of these survivors and their offspring were able to form a sort of resistance group that resisted Edward and his cohorts.
The leader of the resistance was none other than Kara's mother, Lillian Armo. Originally a woman that had dated Edward (who was more suave appealing in those days), she was averse at learning about his eventual plans for world domination and did all that she could to fight him off and escape from his clutches. Kara, as it turned out, was conceived not long before this turn of events. While still pregnant, Lillian was able to mobilize the resistance group to fend off Edward and his associates. All this Edward gleaned from members of that group that he captured and brutally tortured before killing them.
Over time, it became clear that Edward's group was increasing in strength due to recruiting more members and forcing some of the prisoners that he didn't immediately kill to serve him out of fear. Lillian's group, however, was decreasing and fast. About a year after Kara was born, she sent her and a group of elite warriors away to a safe haven where they would be safe. They never made it. Edward's group intercepted them with the intent to use the daughter as leverage to force Lillian to submit. However, when all was said and done, the last surviving member used his powers to teleport her away before she could be kidnapped. Unable to locate her, this brave person was killed on the spot for whisking her away.
From then on, Lillian and her group all but disappeared from the face of the earth. Edward wasn't quite able to run rampant due to the resistance group still resisting wherever they could, but the real reason was that he was still searching for his and Lillian's daughter, hoping to either have her join his side or at least use her as leverage against Lillian. The latter, however, dropped off from the public eye leaving him to spend a good part of his time searching for her.
Afraid for her life, Kara instinctively tried to flee, but was tackled down by her father through what she felt were some impossibly fast martial arts. As her father was about to properly incapacitate her, a group of fighters suddenly appeared inbetween the two and repelled Edward on the spot, thus preventing him from escaping with Kara. These were the descendants of several members of the initial resistance group who stumbled upon Kara through mere chance and overheard her conversation with Edward. After some rushed introductions, the fighters then fled with Kara in toe into a space that existed yet didn't exist within the mortal plane. Within a small section of this strange ethereal area, they rested. From that point onward, they guarded Kara and instructed her in all that they knew about their powers as best as they could so that she could learn more about them and, more importantly, learn how to control them. By the time she turned twenty, she was considered a Master Class Warrior and could instruct others if there were any to instruct.
Tragically, by the time that she was considered a Master Class Warrior, several of her guardians, her friends, were already dead. Edward's coterie of conquerors were still searching for Lillian, but due to seeing his daughter slip under his very nose, he also split some of his time with trying to find her and slaughter her protectors. Eventually, only one guardian, Laurence, was left. Eventually, not even Laurence was able to escape the unflinching grasp of Death even while using his powers to warp Kara away from Edward. Kara was barely able to see Laurence's body suspended in the air when she was whisked away and found herself somewhere in Florida instead of the confines of her new haven. For a month afterwards, Kara wandered the world searching for a new warrior that could aid her in her quest to overthrow her father and locate her mother in order to eradicate the world of a great evil and finally finding some form of closure for herself in the process. It was in the midst of that search that she sensed a disturbance in the air and stumbled upon a young man in a park near the university that he attends.
These were just the bare facts.
The young man in the park named Wes (yeah, remember him?) now glanced away from Kara and at his right hand which was trembling and looked as if it would clench into a fist without warning. Thinking about Kara's life made him contemplate over his own experiences with these powers...which happened literally just a little less than a couple of hours ago. Before the mysterious woman had the time to give Wes what he felt were essentially the Cliff-Notes version of her backstory, he himself had been nearly mauled by an entire horde of those dog headed-pig bodied beasts. These beasts had appeared after Wes experienced his own "Awakening" which had him feeling the same things that Kara had when she had hers.
Now, one important thing to note is that Wes is an avid video game addict and often played what he considered some of the best games that he could get whenever he could get them. Many of them were filled to the brim with people possessing strange powers and weapons, yet were still human enough for him to connect to. One in particular had him play the entire game as a man that he knew was going to die due to the nature of it being a prequel, yet it still tugged at his heartstrings due to fighting an entire army of soldiers to protect his best friend only to die in the process after slaying nearly a thousand gunmen. So one can understand that when Wes saw the angry horde, he instinctively thought of said game. Just as he was contemplating over how pathetically unfulfilled his short life has been and how Fate has a cruel sense of humor, Kara happened upon the scene and helped him fight off the horde.
Seeing her in action and recalling that final battle in the aforementioned game caused Wes to instinctively tap into his newly awakened cosmic powers and summon a large sword to strike the beasts with. Unfortunately for him, he lacked Kara's training and was unable to properly put his newfound strength and weapon to use as well as if he trained for several years. He was at least able to slay a few monsters, but several more were able to bite him in the process. Luckily, Kara was able to slay the rest and heal him up immediately afterwards. The two eventually rushed out of the park and into the young man's car and drove straight home. It was during this car ride that Kara divulged all that has been stated above and decided that she was to help Wes hone his powers. Upon arriving home, however, she suggested that he at least get something to eat before resuming their conversation. She refrained from going into the house for said dinner, but decided to wait until he was alone in his room before speaking to him again.
Wes immediately forced himself to the situation at hand. "So those mooks that we took down a little while back, you think your father might have sent them down here?"
"I'm not quite sure," replied Kara, her face adopting an inscrutable expression. "Most of them simply charge at me whenever I'm attacked. Sometimes, though, there will be instances where there are people from his side involved, In those instances, they'll occasionally try to sway me toward my father's side and attack me the instant I refuse. Other times when attacking them, I can wring the information out of their minds which will generally embolden them to survive as best as they can to eliminate me. Though not," she continued with a grim grin formed upon her face, "that I'd give them long enough to think about it."
Wes hid back a smile. He found Kara to be an intriguing person. She had a bit of a dry, ironic sense of humor that would occasionally mirror his own whenever he felt the urge to snark in a deadpan manner. He also noticed that both of them tend to adopt a somewhat formal rhetoric around strangers, but are relatively down to earth when among family or friends. Relatively is the key word here, since he also noticed that while both of them have managed to relax a bit, each of them still held a slightly formal manner of speech toward each other, but seeing as they only met mere hours back, that wasn't too much of a surprise. However, what intrigued Wes was that while they had all of this in common, there was also a mysterious aura about her that allured Wes. She seemed both normal, yet exotic; like, and yet unlike. "Well then" he said, "I guess this group probably was acting under your father's orders since they all but ignored you and went after me when going for the kill. It seemed to me like they left you alone because your old man wanted to bring you alive if possible or because they saw a fresh target that had a hard time defending himself. I was-"
Whatever he was about to say was soon forgotten. After a couple hours of rushing home and getting a slight reprieve from the day's events, the trauma began to come and he suddenly felt the toll that his body took from the earlier fighting. Sure, the blood that he lost from the attacks were replenished from some of the blood bags that Kara summoned out of her hyperspace arsenal and she was able to use her powers to mend nearly everything else, even the internal bleeding, but that still left him physically exhausted. Understanding this, he sat down on his bed with his fingers rubbing his temples. Kara noticed this and was about to speak when Wes stopped rubbing and said, "I'm fine. It's just been a long day for me."
Despite his fatigue, he was acutely aware that he was the one who lived in the house and was compelled to play the part of the generous host. "Y'know, if you're tired, you can sit down and rest your legs, too." He then indicated a spot where she could sit by placing his left hand on the spot right next to him.
Kara gently sat down and sighed in a manner that implied that she, too, had been afflicted with the demands of battle. "Thank you. I didn't want to impose by asking first."
"Nonsense, Kara," Wes exclaimed with a smile. "You can make yourself at home anytime you need some R and R. After all that you've done for me, it's the least that I can do for you. The only thing is, if you're going to come here often, I think it'd be best if I introduce you to the family. Turning invisible every time one of them shows up is going to be annoying, so I'm probably going to have show you to them eventually."
"Fair enough. It would raise less questions if they see me coming in as a friend instead of stumbling upon the two of us in your bedroom with no explanation of who I am. That might give them the wrong impression. What we're probably going to have to do is say that you and I are classmates working on a project for...hmmm. Do you have some kind of art class or anything along the lines of that?"
"I have a Humanities course."
"That should work. We can say that we're working together on a Baroque era project or something-"
"Which I actually have to do," Wes interrupted. "Granted, it's not due for another month, though."
"So say that we're completing it ahead of time."
"Nah. My mother would never buy that. I procrastinate way too much on things for her to believe that."
"Then we'll claim it's due next week," she stated so matter-of-factly.
"Sounds good, I guess," Wes replied nonchalantly as he began to relax now that some of the fatigue was beginning to pass.
Kara gave him an inquisitive look and then made one of her first serious observations about her newfound acquaintance. "You know, you tend to slouch a lot. Whenever you're standing, you slump just a little. And just now, the way you're sitting isn't upright. If you were sitting properly, you would be than I am sitting down even as you are taller whenever we stand up together. Also," her face became thoughtful, "I don't think I've ever seen you bend your knees. You probably don't bend them, do you?"
Wes was surprised at how quickly she was able to pick up on all of that despite only having met her twice now."Uh, yeah. I'm never able to keep my shoulders straight or my knees bent. Moms always telling me to keep my shoulders up. As for the knees, I guess you could say I kinda-"
"-walk like an ent," Kara finished with a deferential nod.
"Yeah," he said as he put his hand behind his head, a bit embarrassed that she was able to see so much of him so easily.
Perhaps she noticed because she then pointed out, "It wasn't completely hard. It's all just a matter of being observant." She then turned a slight shade of red herself.
Not wanting to leave the conversation hanging like this, he deftly changed the subject. "You, uh, want to listen to something?" At this, he glanced at his new sound dock for his iPod. During the previous December, he went with his parents to Best Buy to choose a new gift to have alongside the new phones that they were getting. His younger brother went with a new laptop since he was only just recently accepted into college whereas Wes, who already had one (old as it was, it still worked) opted for the sound dock. It charged the battery on his iPod and, most importantly, played the music that was on it.
"Uh, sure. What do you have?
"Mostly metal. I do have some old school rap and a ton of soundtracks from movies, video games and anime. What exactly are you into?"
"Um, mostly anything, really. I grew up mostly alone for so long, but I'd often hear a car radio or two blaring whatever music that person liked. Most of it was either rap, rock or jazz. After I was taken in by Laurence and the rest, they listened to music of all kinds, so there was an extensive range that I could listen to. Laurence listened to everything except country while Megan loved listening to pop, smooth jazz and pretty much anything that could be considered easy listening. Marty was primarily a metalhead while Jared was mainly into rap. That's just the tip of the iceberg. There were more that listened to other avenues of music as well." Kara's face fell again at this.
Wes realized that he inadvertently probably triggered some painful memories. All of her instructors were killed off by Edward and his comrades, after all. "You just want to listen to something relaxing, then."
"Yeah, I guess," was Kara's reply, she who was in a far off place with her old guardians.
Wes wisely chose a relatively soft track that was still somewhat bouncy and upbeat. Being primarily a metalhead, he needed to go to the OSTs in order to find that, so he settled for something from the Kingdom Hearts series and played it on loop. He then sat back down next to Kara and said, "We're probably gonna have to train, aren't we?"
"Yes," was her response, finally drifting out of her memories. "You need to improve your skills and basically catch up to me in power while I need to improve my own capabilities so taht they can overpower my father's." She looked at Wes thoughtfully. "We'll need to establish a training regiment for you. We ought to start with replicas first. I could show you how to make you how to make one and your Fokado genes can make it possible for you to emulate my actions, however imperfectly. This way, you should be able to sneak out while your replica stays at home." Her face then became more concentrated. "But I'm also going to have to teach you how to telepathically communicate with your replicas so that all of you can be up to speed with everything that's going on."
"Cool. I could also use it to get out of doing the chores and...hang on a sec. I could probably get out of having to go to school every day, too, right?"
"Yes, but for now, I wouldn't recommend it for the moment. I really don't mean to burst your bubble, but replication can drain quite a bit of your cosmic energy if you don't train long and hard enough. You will need about a couple of years of training to master that skill...at least you would if you if you were "normal" even by our standards. Your Fokado genes seem to help speed up the process."
"Yeah, that was the next thing I was gonna ask you - what exactly are they, anyway?"
"Well," said Kara, "simply put, they're basically genes that grant people like us special powers. You and I can acquire abilities and use them in ways that even others similar to use have cannot do. They boost all of your abilities - they increase speed, brainpower to a small extent, strength, cosmic energy and such. Some of writings from the old resistance movement that survived Edward's purge speculate that everyone with cosmic energy can have Fokado genes, but thus far, only a small number have been shown to have them. Others seem to think that the genes are randomly configured in just a select few, though this theory seems to have died a little down since its been proven that those with Fokado genes onto their offspring."
Wes raised an eyebrow. "That's...oddly familiar. A group of genes that enhance your powers...sounds an awful like a certain race that increased in power from near death experiences due to their genes. That's basically the Sai-"
"Where do you think the mangaka got the idea from?" Kara interjected rather dryly.
Wes pondered this a second. "That would explain a few things. You stated that these genes boost your power. Are there any advanced states of this power?"
"Technically, it's not really a state at all - you merely gain access to it. As such, you can't really transcend it either, just increase the proficiency of the genes themselves through training as you normally would." She cocked her head. "You can see why people like us can be considered dangerous, right?"
"Yeah," Wes replied. He then glanced at Kara and realized that her eyelids were fighting as hard as they could to remain open. "Are you OK?" he asked.
"Yeah. I'm just really tired," she responded, this time with the weariness evident in her voice. "I haven't slept in several days now. I have been beleaguered by attacks for a little while and have been unable to get much sleep ever since."
"Ouch, I feel you. Are you gonna be alright, though? Do you need someplace in here to rest?"
"Mmmm. Tempting and I thank you for the offer, but no thanks, at least not now." Kara dealt Wes a tired smile. "If what I'm guessing was correct, then the ones that were after you were more than likely after me under my father's orders and only went after you so that they could eliminate someone with Fokado genes that could potentially become a dangerous threat. The reason that I was able to sense you in the first place was because I could detect your genes, your energy and the energy and intent of your attackers."
"Huh," said Wes in a way of admitting that Kara had a point rather than that he was confused by her theory which he himself was thinking earlier. "So by that logic, you don't want to stay here in case your presence causes your father and his friends to come here."
"Yes. Besides, you haven't even introduced me to your family yet, so it'd be kind of awkward if they suddenly spotted me sleeping in your room with no explanation as to why I'm here. Otherwise, I'd have to remain invisible, and I don't even think I have enough strength to keep myself invisible for too long."
"Well, in that case, we'll look for an empty house here in the neighborhood. Florida's home market hasn't been the best, so there's enough to choose from and put you in to get some rest now. Don't look at me like that," he admonished. "You're too tired to maintain your invisibility for such extended periods of time as you said, so it's imperative to find somewhere you can lie low for now until you're better."
Kara looked at Wes for a couple of seconds, contemplating her situation. She then nodded her head. "Alright. Let's go."
As Wes began to ponder just how he and Kara were going to sneak out of the house, she quickly grabbed his hand and they both disappeared in a flash of green light...
***
They immediately appeared outside the neighborhood in a section with no one outside at the time. "I was sensing where we should teleport."
"Cool. This house doesn't have anyone in it. Come to think of it, I don't even see a 'For Sale' sign here. I wonder why..." Wes contemplated.
"Let's go inside," replied Kara, breaking into Wes' thoughts. The light engulfed them once again to bring them inside the house. As Wes looked around the room noting how there wasn't a single material possession in sight, Kara began to stagger. Wes was concerned and was about to attempt to help her up only for Kara do so herself. That and, well ..she might worry that if I needed to help her, she might think that I think that she's not strong enough to train under he thought dryly. Even so, he found it impossible to refrain from asking, "So, um, are you just gonna bunk here for the night?"
"Yes. I can add some furniture and everything else later when I have more energy, but for now, I can just sleep on the floor. This is actually far more comfortable than many of the places that I've slept on," she added.
Wes nodded, thinking about some of the places that she'd have to sleep at while living on her own and on the run from Edward. "Right. So, tomorrow, you just show up at my house and tell everyone that we're working on our project for our Humanities course." He then thought back to one of her comments regarding the subject. "I hope you know enough about the Italian Baroque era."
Kara actually grinned at this. "Trust me, it's my favorite artistic period alongside twentieth century pop-art and art from the Renaissance."
"Great," exclaimed Wes."Like I said earlier, I needed to get it done anyway." He then walked toward her. "Hey, um, Kara," he said sounding slightly foolish as he did so, "I haven't had much of a chance to say earlier, but thank you."
Either she wasn't quite sure what he meant, or she was just that thoroughly exhausted, so Wes delved on. "I may have activated my powers on my own, but I didn't know how to utilize them. If you didn't show up when you did, I'd probably be lying dead in a gutter by now."
Kara nodded and replied, "No problem." She then turned around only to turn back to face Wes and said,
"Actually, if anything, I ought to be thanking you."
"Me?"
"Yes. You see, you're basically the only one that I've met in the past month that shares the same sort of powers that I have ever since my mentors all passed away. I was afraid that I would be all alone in my battle against my father." Her initial expression, while contemplative and worrisome, gave way for a wan smile. "But then I found you. It may just be the two of us right, now, but we stand a slightly better chance. I have an ally now...and a good friend, seemingly."
Wes extended his hand, understanding where she was going with this conversation. "Whatever happens, I'll do whatever it takes to help you topple Edward down. You saved my life, so this is the least that I can do to ensure that you can help stop his conquest. Whatever the cost, I'm ready to pay it."
Kara glanced from Wes to his outstretched hand before grasping it with a firm grip. "I'll warp you back to your room with a more subtle form of teleportation." She then raised her hand to reveal a beam of light that then opened up what looked to be an ethereal portal.
Wes headed toward the portal, turned his head back and said, "See you tomorrow, study partner."
A wry smile graced Kara's lips. "See you then."
Wes glanced back toward the empty room, exhaled, then stepped into the portal. The last thing he saw when he turned his head back while being warped back to his room was Kara's exhausted, but comforted face.
I mentioned that I wrote this story when I was younger. I say that now because when looking through this rough draft, it shows. It really shows. I personally think the story is horribly unoriginal, but a small part of me is still proud over the fact that I could even conjure this narrative up.
As a result of the above, I looked back at this story and thought, "I really need to finish this one day." I decided to do it here since I figured that this would be the best place to receive some feedback. Unfortunately, I have become fairly busy this semester due to assignments for the classes I am taking and taking the occasional day within every three or so weeks to teach a lesson as part of my practicum. I'd mention work, but for the past month now, they've been cutting my hours so much that I am literally just waiting for the day they bring me in and lay me off due to having more workers with more flexible hours than me. The point I'm trying to make is that my entries here will be sporadic at best due to the above.
One last thing to note: I've made a fair amount of edits to this story. The reason that this took me over two days to do was because the rough draft was all written in paper and pencil. It took me quite some time to not only get the essential plot threads and conversations typed, but even longer to try to cut out parts and add other parts in to make a more coherent story.
Also, I still haven't figured out a title for this story even after nearly five years. So for now, it's just going to be Fantasy Sci-Fi Story I Wrote in College. Terribly unoriginal title, but to the point.
Alright, I've procrastinated long enough. Here is my trusty easy button to help make this process go smoothly.
Without further ado, I present to Kingdom Hearts Insider Fantasy Sci-Fi Story I Wrote in College.
I - Prōlogus
As dusk began to wane and the full enveloping presence of evening began to make itself known, a young man whose purpose in life he had not yet ascertained crept back into the house and was on his way to his family who were digging into the evening meal. Traversing down the hall, he could hear the sounds of the hockey game playing far off in the living room, but he was far too deep in thought to pay attention to that.
He sat down and began eating. Under ordinary circumstances, he was a big eater who, due to a relatively high metabolic rate, somehow remains fairly trim for his size, if not a touch flabby from doing less exercises than he'd like to admit. On this occasion, however, he barely ate anything at all and did not partake in any conversation other than a request for more pepper and a thank you for the meal. His family noted the behavior, but he wouldn't state what was on his mind when pressed. Eventually, he finished his dinner, washed the dishes and dashed up the stairs for some quiet introspection. Yet it could not hope to last.
As he closed the door and began to process all that he learned in the past couple of hours, a presence began to tug at his mind. This wasn't merely a feeling of foreboding. Rather, it was that of an intelligent being that could communicate with the young man and he to it. An intelligent being with a human visage...but with links to something stranger, almost...otherworldly.
Feeling kind of lost, are we?
The presence began to take shape. Initially, there was nothing there, but a split second later there appeared a green orb of light. A flash covered the room and upon disappearing, a young woman took its place.
Most people aren't attuned enough even remotely associated with the supernatural or alien. Indeed, most people would be completely oblivious to what the young man just witnessed on account of not having a single drop of cosmic power within them.
This fellow was not one of them.
The young woman glanced around at her surroundings and began addressing the man directly. Cocking her left eyebrow, she then said, "You still seem to be having a hard time adjusting to your new powers."
"It's not just that," the young man replied. "It's just...I'm still trying to come to grips with all that just happened. No offense, but I woke up this morning a normal, if somewhat quirky, college student without any major problems. I was not expecting to have to fight for my life and do all of this against a whole horde hellbent on destroying everything in its path. You'll excuse me if it takes some getting used to."
The woman gave him a sympathetic smile. "You're not the first one to be shell shocked after your first skirmish. If it makes you feel any better, you performed more than admirably compared to scores of others. Of course," she added dryly, "most never had your natural abilities, either."
He shook his head. "All of it is still just way too much to assimilate for me to accept it immediately, Kara. Don't get me wrong - these powers are awesome - but it's still really strange to me that I can just replicate abilities just by seeing them in action or just willing them to be from memories of what I saw before."
Kara (for that is indeed the young woman's name) nodded. When I gained the same powers ten years ago, I felt like I might not be able to survive if anyone tried to hunt me down. Even at that tender age of ten, as I'm sure you can understand now, your powers help make it more apparent the dangers that can and will assail you.
The young man, whose name was Rufus Weston Locke, though he preferred to be called Wes on principle, nodded his head aware of the implications of Kara's statement. From what she mentioned not long after their initial meeting (if you could call stumbling upon a man under attack a meeting), she didn't have any form of help that Wes currently had (in this case, her). She didn't have anyone in her immediate vicinity to tell her about her powers. Kara didn't even have a family to console her or at least stay with her no matter the costs. She was essentially an abandoned orphan that the world didn't care about at the time of her "Awakening."
As he peered at Kara a little closer, Wes recalled what little information about her that she gave him earlier. She had been skulking around the park when an odd sense of "otherness" began to tug at her. She felt...different somehow, as if she was suddenly more aware of the world and her surroundings. That odd feeling that initially started as a small feeling suddenly became realized within her. In an instant, she felt as if she was now a completely different person that could do anything rather than the scared ten year old girl that she was before.
Unfortunately for the young Kara, even this would have some dire consequences. Not long afterwards, scores upon scores of what she originally perceived to be some deformed dogs began assaulting her. A closer look - well, as close as she was willing to see with a horde of angry beasts on her tail - told her that these weren't so much dogs as completely different creatures that looked like they had the head of a dog, but the body of a pig. Fearing for her life, she began running away from the otherworldly creatures wishing fervently that she had a way to make herself disappear. As she rushed near the park bench where she left her jacket, she began fantasizing how she could just disappear.
And just like that, her fantasy became reality.
The young Kara was shocked as much as anyone could be when the beasts that were hunting for her suddenly stopped several yards away from her. She exhaled a grateful sigh of relief until she realization came to her that even if the beasts could no longer see her, it may still be possible that they could still attack her. After all, she just had an unexplained epiphany earlier in regards to being more aware of the world. It didn't seem like too much of a stretch to say that these beasts could have that same "sense" or else the mere fact that they could immediately find her just after that epiphany was merely coincidental. More to the point, even her ten year old mind reasoned that they might probably smell her. In desperation, she threw her jacket off to the side, hoping that this might be enough for the creatures to go away from her and follow the scent of the jacket instead. To this day, Kara still marvels over just how far she was able to throw it. Evidently, the epiphany came along with enhanced strength as well.
Needless to say, the beasts exhibited signs of confusion at the sight of a jacket being jettisoned off to the distance, but within seconds, the beasts were suddenly rushing over to that direction instead. The young Kara was understandably relieved to see them go away from her. However, she was smart enough to realize that she wasn't quite safe just yet.
She ran. She didn't quite know for how long she ran, but she ran nevertheless. As the sense of panic that enveloped upon seeing the beasts began to disappear, another major issue would spring up on her. As the inexorable flow of time persisted, she noticed that not only was anyone else able to see her, but she was beginning to feel worn out and depleted of energy. She would later find out that the method that she used to turn herself invisible exacted a heavy toll upon the young girl making her feel as if she ran a hundred miles instead of maybe the one or two that she actually did. Aware that whatever she did could very well kill her if continued, she began wishing, no, willing the spell that allowed her to become invisible to stop.
As she was willing the spell to end, Kara noticed that the whole time that she was invisible, the world around her looked, well, different. It held a somewhat sepia sort of tone to it instead of the normal tone that it held when she was visible. All of that changed as soon as the willpower came into effect and made her visible again. The sepia tone disappeared...only to reveal a world enveloped in darkness. Throughout her sojourn as an invisible girl, she thought that she was only so for maybe five minutes at best; by stark contrast, she was invisible for roughly five hours, long enough for the sun to set and the moon (a half crescent at the time) to rise. She quickly fled under a nearby bridge, one that she considered a safe haven for as long as she remembered since running away from the orphanage a couple of years back. As she got older, she would begin to gain a better innate understanding of her powers and would use them to place invisible protection around her safe haven to deter both people and other offworlders that would try to attack her - she emphasized that she didn't live in the safest part of the city to begin with, so these precautions were a must. She felt safe - nothing throughout the next six or so years penetrated her special protection around her have. But all of that would change the day she turned seventeen. That day where she would eventually learn even more about her powers...and the day she met her father.
Her father, known throughout the United States as Edward Bello Energia was searching far and wide for his daughter. Indeed, Kara was a bit shocked, but excited to find out that she had a family. She was hoping to learn all that she wanted to know more about her past, how she ended up separated from her parents, why it took her father so long to find her in the first place, if there were any other relatives (living or otherwise) aside from her father and, most important of all, where her mother was and why she wasn't with them now.
To her horror, she found out far more than she ever bargained for.
As it turned out, Kara's father was part of an elite group of humans that had strange mutations within them after they were secretly experimented on during the Cold War. These mutations caused them to become something akin to super soldiers. Having been forced to suffer from such experiments, most of these subjects were compelled to live life peacefully while keeping these powers secret lest they'd be used by the people for tasks ranging from the trivial to the outright destructive. One such son of one of these super soldiers was none other than Kara's father. Edward was actually conceived during the time his mother was heavily experimented on. Upon learning about this, he would grow up desiring to perfect his powers and use them to become powerful, rule the world and mold it the way he wanted to.
All of this he told the seventeen year old Kara. The teen reacted in horror when her father discussed in a very detached manner how he sought out the other people who were experimented on upon his mother's untimely death. The people who were experimented on, however, wanted nothing to do with Edward's plans believing his vision to be that which the essentially sought to avoid once the experimentation program was shut down so that the Italian government wouldn't use them before they were perfected. Almost every single one that was confronted over in Italy where the experiments took place were killed whereas only a handful of them joined him instead. However, there were many more that were spread out over different countries. Many went to their own native countries or to completely different ones after realizing that it was impossible for them to live in their old homelands again due to all that they suffered. A portion of these survivors and their offspring were able to form a sort of resistance group that resisted Edward and his cohorts.
The leader of the resistance was none other than Kara's mother, Lillian Armo. Originally a woman that had dated Edward (who was more suave appealing in those days), she was averse at learning about his eventual plans for world domination and did all that she could to fight him off and escape from his clutches. Kara, as it turned out, was conceived not long before this turn of events. While still pregnant, Lillian was able to mobilize the resistance group to fend off Edward and his associates. All this Edward gleaned from members of that group that he captured and brutally tortured before killing them.
Over time, it became clear that Edward's group was increasing in strength due to recruiting more members and forcing some of the prisoners that he didn't immediately kill to serve him out of fear. Lillian's group, however, was decreasing and fast. About a year after Kara was born, she sent her and a group of elite warriors away to a safe haven where they would be safe. They never made it. Edward's group intercepted them with the intent to use the daughter as leverage to force Lillian to submit. However, when all was said and done, the last surviving member used his powers to teleport her away before she could be kidnapped. Unable to locate her, this brave person was killed on the spot for whisking her away.
From then on, Lillian and her group all but disappeared from the face of the earth. Edward wasn't quite able to run rampant due to the resistance group still resisting wherever they could, but the real reason was that he was still searching for his and Lillian's daughter, hoping to either have her join his side or at least use her as leverage against Lillian. The latter, however, dropped off from the public eye leaving him to spend a good part of his time searching for her.
Afraid for her life, Kara instinctively tried to flee, but was tackled down by her father through what she felt were some impossibly fast martial arts. As her father was about to properly incapacitate her, a group of fighters suddenly appeared inbetween the two and repelled Edward on the spot, thus preventing him from escaping with Kara. These were the descendants of several members of the initial resistance group who stumbled upon Kara through mere chance and overheard her conversation with Edward. After some rushed introductions, the fighters then fled with Kara in toe into a space that existed yet didn't exist within the mortal plane. Within a small section of this strange ethereal area, they rested. From that point onward, they guarded Kara and instructed her in all that they knew about their powers as best as they could so that she could learn more about them and, more importantly, learn how to control them. By the time she turned twenty, she was considered a Master Class Warrior and could instruct others if there were any to instruct.
Tragically, by the time that she was considered a Master Class Warrior, several of her guardians, her friends, were already dead. Edward's coterie of conquerors were still searching for Lillian, but due to seeing his daughter slip under his very nose, he also split some of his time with trying to find her and slaughter her protectors. Eventually, only one guardian, Laurence, was left. Eventually, not even Laurence was able to escape the unflinching grasp of Death even while using his powers to warp Kara away from Edward. Kara was barely able to see Laurence's body suspended in the air when she was whisked away and found herself somewhere in Florida instead of the confines of her new haven. For a month afterwards, Kara wandered the world searching for a new warrior that could aid her in her quest to overthrow her father and locate her mother in order to eradicate the world of a great evil and finally finding some form of closure for herself in the process. It was in the midst of that search that she sensed a disturbance in the air and stumbled upon a young man in a park near the university that he attends.
These were just the bare facts.
The young man in the park named Wes (yeah, remember him?) now glanced away from Kara and at his right hand which was trembling and looked as if it would clench into a fist without warning. Thinking about Kara's life made him contemplate over his own experiences with these powers...which happened literally just a little less than a couple of hours ago. Before the mysterious woman had the time to give Wes what he felt were essentially the Cliff-Notes version of her backstory, he himself had been nearly mauled by an entire horde of those dog headed-pig bodied beasts. These beasts had appeared after Wes experienced his own "Awakening" which had him feeling the same things that Kara had when she had hers.
Now, one important thing to note is that Wes is an avid video game addict and often played what he considered some of the best games that he could get whenever he could get them. Many of them were filled to the brim with people possessing strange powers and weapons, yet were still human enough for him to connect to. One in particular had him play the entire game as a man that he knew was going to die due to the nature of it being a prequel, yet it still tugged at his heartstrings due to fighting an entire army of soldiers to protect his best friend only to die in the process after slaying nearly a thousand gunmen. So one can understand that when Wes saw the angry horde, he instinctively thought of said game. Just as he was contemplating over how pathetically unfulfilled his short life has been and how Fate has a cruel sense of humor, Kara happened upon the scene and helped him fight off the horde.
Seeing her in action and recalling that final battle in the aforementioned game caused Wes to instinctively tap into his newly awakened cosmic powers and summon a large sword to strike the beasts with. Unfortunately for him, he lacked Kara's training and was unable to properly put his newfound strength and weapon to use as well as if he trained for several years. He was at least able to slay a few monsters, but several more were able to bite him in the process. Luckily, Kara was able to slay the rest and heal him up immediately afterwards. The two eventually rushed out of the park and into the young man's car and drove straight home. It was during this car ride that Kara divulged all that has been stated above and decided that she was to help Wes hone his powers. Upon arriving home, however, she suggested that he at least get something to eat before resuming their conversation. She refrained from going into the house for said dinner, but decided to wait until he was alone in his room before speaking to him again.
Wes immediately forced himself to the situation at hand. "So those mooks that we took down a little while back, you think your father might have sent them down here?"
"I'm not quite sure," replied Kara, her face adopting an inscrutable expression. "Most of them simply charge at me whenever I'm attacked. Sometimes, though, there will be instances where there are people from his side involved, In those instances, they'll occasionally try to sway me toward my father's side and attack me the instant I refuse. Other times when attacking them, I can wring the information out of their minds which will generally embolden them to survive as best as they can to eliminate me. Though not," she continued with a grim grin formed upon her face, "that I'd give them long enough to think about it."
Wes hid back a smile. He found Kara to be an intriguing person. She had a bit of a dry, ironic sense of humor that would occasionally mirror his own whenever he felt the urge to snark in a deadpan manner. He also noticed that both of them tend to adopt a somewhat formal rhetoric around strangers, but are relatively down to earth when among family or friends. Relatively is the key word here, since he also noticed that while both of them have managed to relax a bit, each of them still held a slightly formal manner of speech toward each other, but seeing as they only met mere hours back, that wasn't too much of a surprise. However, what intrigued Wes was that while they had all of this in common, there was also a mysterious aura about her that allured Wes. She seemed both normal, yet exotic; like, and yet unlike. "Well then" he said, "I guess this group probably was acting under your father's orders since they all but ignored you and went after me when going for the kill. It seemed to me like they left you alone because your old man wanted to bring you alive if possible or because they saw a fresh target that had a hard time defending himself. I was-"
Whatever he was about to say was soon forgotten. After a couple hours of rushing home and getting a slight reprieve from the day's events, the trauma began to come and he suddenly felt the toll that his body took from the earlier fighting. Sure, the blood that he lost from the attacks were replenished from some of the blood bags that Kara summoned out of her hyperspace arsenal and she was able to use her powers to mend nearly everything else, even the internal bleeding, but that still left him physically exhausted. Understanding this, he sat down on his bed with his fingers rubbing his temples. Kara noticed this and was about to speak when Wes stopped rubbing and said, "I'm fine. It's just been a long day for me."
Despite his fatigue, he was acutely aware that he was the one who lived in the house and was compelled to play the part of the generous host. "Y'know, if you're tired, you can sit down and rest your legs, too." He then indicated a spot where she could sit by placing his left hand on the spot right next to him.
Kara gently sat down and sighed in a manner that implied that she, too, had been afflicted with the demands of battle. "Thank you. I didn't want to impose by asking first."
"Nonsense, Kara," Wes exclaimed with a smile. "You can make yourself at home anytime you need some R and R. After all that you've done for me, it's the least that I can do for you. The only thing is, if you're going to come here often, I think it'd be best if I introduce you to the family. Turning invisible every time one of them shows up is going to be annoying, so I'm probably going to have show you to them eventually."
"Fair enough. It would raise less questions if they see me coming in as a friend instead of stumbling upon the two of us in your bedroom with no explanation of who I am. That might give them the wrong impression. What we're probably going to have to do is say that you and I are classmates working on a project for...hmmm. Do you have some kind of art class or anything along the lines of that?"
"I have a Humanities course."
"That should work. We can say that we're working together on a Baroque era project or something-"
"Which I actually have to do," Wes interrupted. "Granted, it's not due for another month, though."
"So say that we're completing it ahead of time."
"Nah. My mother would never buy that. I procrastinate way too much on things for her to believe that."
"Then we'll claim it's due next week," she stated so matter-of-factly.
"Sounds good, I guess," Wes replied nonchalantly as he began to relax now that some of the fatigue was beginning to pass.
Kara gave him an inquisitive look and then made one of her first serious observations about her newfound acquaintance. "You know, you tend to slouch a lot. Whenever you're standing, you slump just a little. And just now, the way you're sitting isn't upright. If you were sitting properly, you would be than I am sitting down even as you are taller whenever we stand up together. Also," her face became thoughtful, "I don't think I've ever seen you bend your knees. You probably don't bend them, do you?"
Wes was surprised at how quickly she was able to pick up on all of that despite only having met her twice now."Uh, yeah. I'm never able to keep my shoulders straight or my knees bent. Moms always telling me to keep my shoulders up. As for the knees, I guess you could say I kinda-"
"-walk like an ent," Kara finished with a deferential nod.
"Yeah," he said as he put his hand behind his head, a bit embarrassed that she was able to see so much of him so easily.
Perhaps she noticed because she then pointed out, "It wasn't completely hard. It's all just a matter of being observant." She then turned a slight shade of red herself.
Not wanting to leave the conversation hanging like this, he deftly changed the subject. "You, uh, want to listen to something?" At this, he glanced at his new sound dock for his iPod. During the previous December, he went with his parents to Best Buy to choose a new gift to have alongside the new phones that they were getting. His younger brother went with a new laptop since he was only just recently accepted into college whereas Wes, who already had one (old as it was, it still worked) opted for the sound dock. It charged the battery on his iPod and, most importantly, played the music that was on it.
"Uh, sure. What do you have?
"Mostly metal. I do have some old school rap and a ton of soundtracks from movies, video games and anime. What exactly are you into?"
"Um, mostly anything, really. I grew up mostly alone for so long, but I'd often hear a car radio or two blaring whatever music that person liked. Most of it was either rap, rock or jazz. After I was taken in by Laurence and the rest, they listened to music of all kinds, so there was an extensive range that I could listen to. Laurence listened to everything except country while Megan loved listening to pop, smooth jazz and pretty much anything that could be considered easy listening. Marty was primarily a metalhead while Jared was mainly into rap. That's just the tip of the iceberg. There were more that listened to other avenues of music as well." Kara's face fell again at this.
Wes realized that he inadvertently probably triggered some painful memories. All of her instructors were killed off by Edward and his comrades, after all. "You just want to listen to something relaxing, then."
"Yeah, I guess," was Kara's reply, she who was in a far off place with her old guardians.
Wes wisely chose a relatively soft track that was still somewhat bouncy and upbeat. Being primarily a metalhead, he needed to go to the OSTs in order to find that, so he settled for something from the Kingdom Hearts series and played it on loop. He then sat back down next to Kara and said, "We're probably gonna have to train, aren't we?"
"Yes," was her response, finally drifting out of her memories. "You need to improve your skills and basically catch up to me in power while I need to improve my own capabilities so taht they can overpower my father's." She looked at Wes thoughtfully. "We'll need to establish a training regiment for you. We ought to start with replicas first. I could show you how to make you how to make one and your Fokado genes can make it possible for you to emulate my actions, however imperfectly. This way, you should be able to sneak out while your replica stays at home." Her face then became more concentrated. "But I'm also going to have to teach you how to telepathically communicate with your replicas so that all of you can be up to speed with everything that's going on."
"Cool. I could also use it to get out of doing the chores and...hang on a sec. I could probably get out of having to go to school every day, too, right?"
"Yes, but for now, I wouldn't recommend it for the moment. I really don't mean to burst your bubble, but replication can drain quite a bit of your cosmic energy if you don't train long and hard enough. You will need about a couple of years of training to master that skill...at least you would if you if you were "normal" even by our standards. Your Fokado genes seem to help speed up the process."
"Yeah, that was the next thing I was gonna ask you - what exactly are they, anyway?"
"Well," said Kara, "simply put, they're basically genes that grant people like us special powers. You and I can acquire abilities and use them in ways that even others similar to use have cannot do. They boost all of your abilities - they increase speed, brainpower to a small extent, strength, cosmic energy and such. Some of writings from the old resistance movement that survived Edward's purge speculate that everyone with cosmic energy can have Fokado genes, but thus far, only a small number have been shown to have them. Others seem to think that the genes are randomly configured in just a select few, though this theory seems to have died a little down since its been proven that those with Fokado genes onto their offspring."
Wes raised an eyebrow. "That's...oddly familiar. A group of genes that enhance your powers...sounds an awful like a certain race that increased in power from near death experiences due to their genes. That's basically the Sai-"
"Where do you think the mangaka got the idea from?" Kara interjected rather dryly.
Wes pondered this a second. "That would explain a few things. You stated that these genes boost your power. Are there any advanced states of this power?"
"Technically, it's not really a state at all - you merely gain access to it. As such, you can't really transcend it either, just increase the proficiency of the genes themselves through training as you normally would." She cocked her head. "You can see why people like us can be considered dangerous, right?"
"Yeah," Wes replied. He then glanced at Kara and realized that her eyelids were fighting as hard as they could to remain open. "Are you OK?" he asked.
"Yeah. I'm just really tired," she responded, this time with the weariness evident in her voice. "I haven't slept in several days now. I have been beleaguered by attacks for a little while and have been unable to get much sleep ever since."
"Ouch, I feel you. Are you gonna be alright, though? Do you need someplace in here to rest?"
"Mmmm. Tempting and I thank you for the offer, but no thanks, at least not now." Kara dealt Wes a tired smile. "If what I'm guessing was correct, then the ones that were after you were more than likely after me under my father's orders and only went after you so that they could eliminate someone with Fokado genes that could potentially become a dangerous threat. The reason that I was able to sense you in the first place was because I could detect your genes, your energy and the energy and intent of your attackers."
"Huh," said Wes in a way of admitting that Kara had a point rather than that he was confused by her theory which he himself was thinking earlier. "So by that logic, you don't want to stay here in case your presence causes your father and his friends to come here."
"Yes. Besides, you haven't even introduced me to your family yet, so it'd be kind of awkward if they suddenly spotted me sleeping in your room with no explanation as to why I'm here. Otherwise, I'd have to remain invisible, and I don't even think I have enough strength to keep myself invisible for too long."
"Well, in that case, we'll look for an empty house here in the neighborhood. Florida's home market hasn't been the best, so there's enough to choose from and put you in to get some rest now. Don't look at me like that," he admonished. "You're too tired to maintain your invisibility for such extended periods of time as you said, so it's imperative to find somewhere you can lie low for now until you're better."
Kara looked at Wes for a couple of seconds, contemplating her situation. She then nodded her head. "Alright. Let's go."
As Wes began to ponder just how he and Kara were going to sneak out of the house, she quickly grabbed his hand and they both disappeared in a flash of green light...
***
They immediately appeared outside the neighborhood in a section with no one outside at the time. "I was sensing where we should teleport."
"Cool. This house doesn't have anyone in it. Come to think of it, I don't even see a 'For Sale' sign here. I wonder why..." Wes contemplated.
"Let's go inside," replied Kara, breaking into Wes' thoughts. The light engulfed them once again to bring them inside the house. As Wes looked around the room noting how there wasn't a single material possession in sight, Kara began to stagger. Wes was concerned and was about to attempt to help her up only for Kara do so herself. That and, well ..she might worry that if I needed to help her, she might think that I think that she's not strong enough to train under he thought dryly. Even so, he found it impossible to refrain from asking, "So, um, are you just gonna bunk here for the night?"
"Yes. I can add some furniture and everything else later when I have more energy, but for now, I can just sleep on the floor. This is actually far more comfortable than many of the places that I've slept on," she added.
Wes nodded, thinking about some of the places that she'd have to sleep at while living on her own and on the run from Edward. "Right. So, tomorrow, you just show up at my house and tell everyone that we're working on our project for our Humanities course." He then thought back to one of her comments regarding the subject. "I hope you know enough about the Italian Baroque era."
Kara actually grinned at this. "Trust me, it's my favorite artistic period alongside twentieth century pop-art and art from the Renaissance."
"Great," exclaimed Wes."Like I said earlier, I needed to get it done anyway." He then walked toward her. "Hey, um, Kara," he said sounding slightly foolish as he did so, "I haven't had much of a chance to say earlier, but thank you."
Either she wasn't quite sure what he meant, or she was just that thoroughly exhausted, so Wes delved on. "I may have activated my powers on my own, but I didn't know how to utilize them. If you didn't show up when you did, I'd probably be lying dead in a gutter by now."
Kara nodded and replied, "No problem." She then turned around only to turn back to face Wes and said,
"Actually, if anything, I ought to be thanking you."
"Me?"
"Yes. You see, you're basically the only one that I've met in the past month that shares the same sort of powers that I have ever since my mentors all passed away. I was afraid that I would be all alone in my battle against my father." Her initial expression, while contemplative and worrisome, gave way for a wan smile. "But then I found you. It may just be the two of us right, now, but we stand a slightly better chance. I have an ally now...and a good friend, seemingly."
Wes extended his hand, understanding where she was going with this conversation. "Whatever happens, I'll do whatever it takes to help you topple Edward down. You saved my life, so this is the least that I can do to ensure that you can help stop his conquest. Whatever the cost, I'm ready to pay it."
Kara glanced from Wes to his outstretched hand before grasping it with a firm grip. "I'll warp you back to your room with a more subtle form of teleportation." She then raised her hand to reveal a beam of light that then opened up what looked to be an ethereal portal.
Wes headed toward the portal, turned his head back and said, "See you tomorrow, study partner."
A wry smile graced Kara's lips. "See you then."
Wes glanced back toward the empty room, exhaled, then stepped into the portal. The last thing he saw when he turned his head back while being warped back to his room was Kara's exhausted, but comforted face.
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