Felix sat in US History, writing down notes furiously as Mrs. Jacobs went over US culture at the height of the Cold War. Most of the other students all but ignored her, and even Daphne rolled her eyes, having grown up learning and hearing all about it. But to Felix, it all seemed genuinely interesting. Eventually, Mrs. Jacobs reached a point where things started to transition to the Civil Rights Movement, and she stopped, taking a deep breath. “You know what? I don’t want to start this yet. We’ll only get through a few slides, and it’ll be easy to forget where we end. We’ll start this tomorrow. Go ahead and work on your study guides for the last few minutes.” The whole class seemed to sigh with relief, and went busily about doing anything but their study guides. Except for Felix and Daphne, of course. Felix put away a few of his papers and walked up to Mrs. Jacobs, who looked at him with a half-smirk. “Well, well. To what do I owe the pleasure, Pagani? I trust that Christmas Break went well for you.”
“Yes it did, ma’am.”
“Well that’s good to hear. My son was absolutely thrilled when he saw the miniature drone I got him. I hope you get to see that face on one of your own kids someday, Pagani. It’s a wonderful sight. Reminds me of what I went into the service for.”
“Sounds spectacular. But I think I’d rather hold off on having kids for a good ten years.”
“Just be careful with Daphne then, and you’ll be fine.” She said with a small chuckle. “She might not want to wait that long.”
“Gunny!”
She struggled to repress her laughter and keep a straight face. “Sorry, that was way out of line. It’s just hard to think of you two as students sometimes.” She lowered her voice, whispering to him. “You’re each twice as smart as the other dolts in this class. If not for you two, I’d have gone full blown drill instructor on this entire situation months ago.”
“Glad you appreciate us that much.”
“Anyways, I have a question for you.”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Did I end up with serious drugs in my bacon this morning, or did I see Jasper walk into the school this morning on his own two legs and crutches?”
He froze. The moment of truth that he had prepared for with the others. “You did, actually. Using her medical connections, my mother helped find a university group that was looking for volunteers for an experimental surgery for his type of injury. Also a couple experimental drugs involved.”
“And he got the surgery?”
“Last week. It took a long time. He nearly died on the table, apparently. But it worked.”
“Let me ask, what was the doctor’s name?”
Oh shit. Felix immediately thought. “Um… what was it…?” He thought fast, something he would remember, related to a person involved… Pioneer. Pion. Pa— “Dr. Payan”
“Payan? What kind of name is that?”
“Hindi.” Felix knew damn well that he made the name up, but that was the closest language he could think of that sounded feasible.
“Ah. Well then, I’m glad to see the kid on his feet. He was a fighter the whole time. Personally, I’d rather be dead than paralyzed.”
“So would he.” Just as Felix wondered what he was originally going to ask about in the first place, the bell rang, and he backed away from her podium.
“Class dismissed!”
“Yes, Gunnery Sergeant!”
Daphne and Felix sat in the back bench of his pickup, the heater cranked up all the way to ward off the bitter January cold. They shared a bowl of cold pasta salad, laughing as they talked more about how Christmas went. But when Felix thought that she wasn’t looking, he stopped laughing, stopped smiling. He didn’t know how to handle telling her about Jasper. He hadn’t told Lyev yet, either. Lyev would be pissed off to no end about the trip to the bunker. As they finished and Felix put the lid back onto the bowl, Daphne leaned back, looking straight ahead for a moment. She took a deep breath, and without looking at him, asked “What is it? You’re bad at hiding that you’re nervous.”
Felix felt relieved that he didn’t have to hide that anymore. “Look, Daphne… some really weird shit happened over break. You see, on New Year’s Eve I met with Cat and Jazz.”
She leaned back in confusion. “But I was with you! You almost fell asleep on the couch.”
“You were. I met them really late. You see, a few months ago I found something that—”
The door opened, and Felix felt a huge, strong hand grab onto his shirt collar as he fell back and was dragged forcefully from the vehicle. Before he could even look up, he felt a blunt pain in his ribs as a steel-toed boot kicked him, and another blow as his attacker picked him up by the jacket and slammed him into the side of his own truck. His only clue to who attacked him at first was Daphne’s screams of “Dad!?” Her father picked him up, and punched him in the face twice before he could even get his hands up. Felix blocked a couple blows, but being stuck between cars, he couldn’t do much as her father delivered an elbow strike to his neck and kneed him in the gut. Felix grabbed onto the bed of his truck and followed it out into the open as blood from a gash on his forehead blinded his left eye. But her father moved faster, and held onto his collar and pinned him against the tailgate.
That’s when Mr. Thanatos started to rant. “This is the little shithead that you’ve been spending so much time with!? I thought you were only around him with others, Daphne!”
“It’s none of your business!”
“The Hell it isn’t! You know damn well that you’re not allowed to be around any of these boys, much less this wop!” To punctuate his insult, he slapped Felix across the face.
Felix looked at him, and spat blood in his face. “When my dog didn’t like you, I knew that I shouldn’t either, Jacob. Kiss my royal Italian ass!” He delivered a sudden shin-kick to Mr. Thanatos’ crotch before punching him square in the jaw, breaking free from his grip. Felix scrambled back, raising his fists. Suddenly, Lyev showed up.
“Govno! Get away from him!”
Before Lyev could even think about doing anything, Jacob Thanatos wheeled around and knocked him out with one solid blow to the head. “Shut up you Commie. Nobody wants to hear your shit.”
Just as Felix thought he was screwed, Daphne grabbed Jacob by the arm, snarling. She actually managed to drag the huge man a few feet back. “You stay away from him!”
Then, to Felix’s utter amazement, he punched her in the face and threw her to the ground. “You’ll get yours for sneaking off with a no-good stuck-up Tony behind my back later.” He turned back to Felix. “Now for you, pasta-guzzler… let’s see how much tomato sauce we can bleed out of you.”
When Mr. Thanatos charged, Felix lost all sense of time. Everything was measured in blows. Two kicks here, a punch there. Block this one, allow that one to get a jab at his neck. Blood spattered on the patches of ice and black pavement under their feet. Felix landed a solid hit to Jacob’s eyebrow, and he too began to bleed. Just when Felix thought his lungs burning from cold and perhaps a broken rib would kill him, Guy Chapman appeared from nowhere and tackled Jacob, and both of them went to the ground. “What the Hell!?” Felix shouted. Knowing this was his only chance, he joined Chapman, and started fighting Jacob together. However, Jacob Thanatos stood a solid four inches taller than even Chapman, and probably could’ve hoisted him into the air with one arm. Soon, Chapman stood in nearly as bad shape as the other two, and everyone’s blows slowed down. Once they had Jacob backed up to the middle of the parking aisles, Jacob gave a weak laugh, and pulled out a chrome .45 from his belt.
“Now, I’m going to show you what I do to little hotheads that think they can fuck around with my daughter.”
Another man’s voice, deep, metallic, and booming spoke up. “I don’t think so.” All three of them turned their heads towards the school, and saw that Jasper stood about twenty feet away, his face pale, leaning hard on his crutches. Jasper’s eyes were blood red, almost glowing. “You don’t need that gun, you coward. You’re pathetic. Beaten down by two teenagers, you pussy out and pull a .45 auto, on school grounds no less. I’m not sure which is more disgusting, your craven fear, or your complete idiocy.”
“Come on, this isn’t your fight, Fischer. Just walk away before I pump you full of lead, too. Stupid krauts like you and your family never know when to keep your nose out of trouble.” Jacob still pointed his gun at Chapman and Felix.
Jasper seemed to move without travelling through space, and closed by another ten feet. He spoke calmly, ice on every word. “Now, you just made it my fight.” Without another word, Jasper then began to move with inexplicable superhuman speed. Jasper closed the last ten feet in an instant. He used one crutch to jab Jacob in the kidney, used the other to sweep his legs, brought both around to hit Jacob in the chin mid-fall, sending him to the ground faster. Before Mr. Thanatos could even hit the ground, Jasper ditched his crutches and closed the distance. He yanked Jacob back to his feet, delivered a double elbow strike to his chin, punched Jacob in the other kidney, and reached for the gun. With a swiftness Felix had only ever witnessed from highly trained arms experts, Jasper tore the slide clear from the pistol, and ejected the magazine as he flicked his wrist, which hit Jacob square in the face. Jasper flipped the rest of the gun to where he held it by the barrel and frame before pistol whipping Jacob in the side of the face, sending him to the ground like a sack of grain. Without giving him time to regain consciousness, Jasper picked up Jacob and slapped him awake. He continued in his menacing, strange voice. “You fucked up, Thanatos. You need to learn when you’re beat. Go home. And if you ever hurt any of my friends again, you will die. Painfully.”
Jasper walked off, standing with his arms crossed behind his back. He turned away from Mr. Thanatos, not even looking at him. Jacob swore profusely under his breath as he collected the pieces of his half-disassembled weapon and limped towards his rusted Jeep, parked about thirty feet away. Only then did Jasper turn around, and picked up the round that had been ejected when he removed the slide. He turned it around in his fingers, flicking it back and forth like a coin as he looked between it and Jacob. Felix made direct eye contact, and slowly shook his head silently. Jasper returned his gaze, blinking only once. He gave a sharp, loud whistle, and Mr. Thanatos turned around. “Keep the change you filthy animal!” Jasper then threw the round in a direct beeline that hit Jacob directly in the neck. Jacob ran even faster, hopped in his car, and peeled out of the parking lot, spewing chunks of ice and slush.
Felix limped over to him, pulling down on the back of his sweater to take a look at the Ouroboros. “Jasper, it’s glowing red. Idle and in optimal condition, it should be a dim white, but it’s glowing like a red giant star. We need to get you stabilized somehow, it’s probably best if you just take a seat and—” He nearly collapsed, and Jasper caught him, still speaking in a voice not his own.
“The only thing anybody is doing is getting you and Chapman to a hospital. You need to get your wounds tended to.” He handed off Felix to Chapman, and continued. “I’ll inform the office that you’re being treated for injuries sustained from an unprovoked assault. I’ll collect any assignments you’ll miss from the rest of the day and get them to you at the hospital… Chapman, give me crutches, quick.”
“Who are you!? You’re an animal!”
“Just give me the crutches, my strength won’t hold out much longer, I… shit.” Jasper then collapsed flat onto the pavement, and Chapman picked him up, handing him the strange crutches. Jasper took a few deep breaths, his face once again pale with struggle, and continued speaking, this time as his normal self. Even his eyes returned to their normal dark brown. “Thanks. And pick up the kid. He’s probably got a concussion from that sucker punch. And nobody can know about this. We’ll say that you two beat him together, and that I just found you guys as he ran away. Too many questions will come up otherwise.”
“You’ve already got about twenty questions I haven’t asked yet.” Chapman blurted. “How the Hell are you on your own two feet!? And what happened to your voice!? And what the Hell was that display of power and rage!? I’m not sure whether to be aroused or afraid for my life!”
Felix hissed in pain as he turned to face Chapman and Daphne both. “Almost three months ago, I went exploring a military base to find abandoned weapons that I could use to seek revenge for the accident that nearly killed me and Jazz. I found more than I bargained for. I found an entire underground bunker filled with alien technology. I found a special device that fits to a person’s spine, shoulders, hips, and ribs by way of spikes, mostly spinal taps. This device was my only shot at getting Jazz to walk again, and to not completely mentally break down. I took him and Cat down to the bunker, where we filled him with stolen drugs.” As Felix continued the story in all its explicit detail, Chapman and Daphne both wore slack-jawed expressions of both horror and wonder. By the time Felix finished, they both rubbed their heads, trying to wrap their minds around it all. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but it must stay a secret. Nobody can know about this, outside of us.”
Chapman shook his head. “I help you fight off your girlfriend’s white supremacist asshole of a father, and now I’m aware of interstellar intelligence, which turned Jasper over there into a freak of nature. What’s next? Flying pigs?”
“I wouldn’t bet against it at this rate. There were some seriously messed up biological experiments in that bunker, Guy.” Jasper answered.
“Well, I won’t say a word. I’m personally waiting to wake up in my bed and start this day over again.” Chapman responded.
“I don’t think we’re getting that luxury, dude.” Daphne told him. She picked up Lyev, and pulled him into the back bench of Felix’s truck. She looked over to the others. “Come on, you two are so not driving.”
Jasper pulled his phone from his pocket, and held it up, pointed at Felix and Chapman. “Smile for the camera! You’re officially evidence that I’m not bullshitting the office!”
A couple days later, Felix sat in literature class, writing a dissertation about anti-heroes and unreliable narrators and their usefulness in literature. He reached up to his head, craving to satisfy the itch a couple inches above his eyebrow, but he pulled his hand back down to the keyboard as he remembered that the stitches could not be broken for any reason on pain of another hospital visit. Jasper sat at the desk to his right, working on a scale sculpture of a B-25 bomber, relevant to the book Catch-22, his independent project. Catalina sat in the desk directly across from Felix, silently reading, but also lip-syncing to whatever she had blitzing through her headphones. Most likely Keith Urban or some garbage. Felix thought. How can these idiots out here stand country music? I’ll never get it, I guess. He looked over to Jasper’s music player, which sat on the corner of the desk, and saw from the metal album cover being displayed that his friend didn’t get it either. Felix returned to writing on his laptop, furiously skittering away at the keys, cranking out as much of the essay as possible. The class was extremely quiet, for once. This, of course, allowed Felix to hear everyone’s favorite rumor-spreading whore whispering to her friends a couple table pods over.
“I told you that Jasper was faking it. He just pretended to be crippled so he would get attention.”
“What about how long he was gone?” One of the squad morons asked her.
“That’s easy. He just skipped out on school for a couple weeks, and forged some papers. Look at him, he’s walking around. Cripples don’t up and walk, smart one.”
As Sabrina continued to spread her lies, Felix slowly became so enraged that he stopped typing altogether, unable to concentrate. Jasper took notice, and pulled an earbud out as he stopped painting for a moment and looked over. Felix simply tilted his head towards Sabrina’s table ever so slightly, and went about trying to refocus on his essay. Suddenly, Jasper’s eyes turned blood-red again. Felix tapped him on the shoulder, but he didn’t break his gaze directly towards them. Jasper only whispered to him. “Just watch. They’ll freak out when they see me.”
Felix more aggressively smacked the back of Jasper’s head, and his eyes returned to normal. “You need to stay incognito, dammit!” Felix whispered angrily. “Imagine what would happen to you if she saw that!”
Jasper snorted in frustration. Suddenly, he stopped as he noticed his music player flickering. Not being lit up with updates, but flickering, as if experiencing interference, or as if the screen had begun to short circuit. An instant later, Felix’s laptop fan began to run a zillion miles an hour, and the screen began to glitch out. Programs randomly opened and closed, and the laptop began to emanate a dangerous amount of heat. Eventually, a sharp whine accompanied the computer’s automatic shutdown, and Catalina looked up, turning her tablet so that Jasper and Felix could both see the glitches randomly coming up on screen. Jasper shook his head vigorously, and took a couple deep breaths. And as quickly as it began, the sudden device failures ended. Felix and Catalina both looked at him, and he shrunk back a little.
Felix only looked at him unblinkingly, and when the bell rang and the noise of the classroom drowned their words to all other ears, he spoke up. “We need to see Pioneer. Tonight.”
ravenmountain 