Four of a Kind

New Adjustments

I didn’t want to replay everything that has happened in my mind from last week Saturday to this weed today. But when I saw Andy smiling as clueless and innocent as ever, I knew that if we didn’t break it to him, we were gonna go as a trio, I didn’t want to leave Andy behind. He was too valuable a member. Kim was a short ranged, me and Maq were versatile and Andy was our marksman. I smiled thinking we each look like playable characters from an RPG or something.

That as another reason we needed him back. Not for him being the most cheerful and cunning was a good reason but he made our team feel complete.

We needed to level with him. Heylian said that putting him on the spot in extreme situations would further amplify the distortion of is mental state. I guess it must’ve started when he first came to my house on Monday when I made the resolve to raid the Akai and steal whatever I can and make a run for it to help Kim.    

We went to the Heylian’s room after we were done with our meal. Unfortunately Heylian keeps her bed separate from her room. It was unfortunate for Kim who was hoping for some closure with her.

“Hey guys… Hi! Maqius what’s up?” He asked. He was in bed. The left hand I cut was enclosed in a white box glowing with blue at the brim. I guess he didn’t know yet.

“Nothing vunch.” Kim replied.

Me and Maqius looked at each other and smiled at the same time. We decided to play along with his charade.

“Heylian informed us of the mental illness that arose soon after they cleansed your current one. So you can’t recall what happened in the past few days?” Maq asked.

I took a step back. I knew what was going on. Andy was acting like he had amnesia but that couldn’t be if he recognized Maq. His brain’s abnormal activities would’ve started around the time we parked at the Akai so that’d mean he wouldn’t have met Maq yet.

“I guess I can remember up to the carpark. Reeves, you were saying something about helping Red find his dad or something. And that we were gonna rob the bar you went to the day before. After that I got cold feet and started sweating. And that’s it. I really don’t remember anything else… that was two days ago right? Heylian told me.” 

I guess that fact that we didn’t know who Maq was until me and Kim went into the bar must’ve slipped his mind. But he was consistent. We called Kim Red when HE had amnesia. So the million-dollar question was why.

Why was he lying? What was he trying to hide?

I couldn’t bear the tension anymore. Kim was looking from ear to ear wondering what were we trying to do. And Maq suddenly stopped. His face changed from a smirk-like to a concerned one.

What the hell was going on?

I decided to discuss the elephant in the room.

“Andy, just drop the act with your amnesia. If you are embarrassed about what you did when you were the bad guy, don’t be. We’re all cool.” I told him.

Maq looked at me like I said something offensive and if I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was scared and he didn’t wasn’t me to keep pressing.

“Hold up my man, what do you mean “I” was the bad guy? What are you talking about?”

I wasn’t a patient person.

“FOR THE LOVE OF GOD JUST STOP!!” I told him. “We know this was all bullshit the moment you recognized Maqius. You said your memory blacked out around the time we arrived at the bar! You only met Maqius AFTER WE left the bar!” I shouted.

Kim seems speechless and baffled as much as Andy was.

“Reeves… I swear I don’t know what you were talking about.”

I snapped. I pulled out my spear rod and before expanding it Maq grabbed my forearm.

“Stop.” He said.

“WHAT do you mean? He’s clearly faking his amnesia if he remembers you!” I said confidently.  “Aren’t you?”

Andy listened with a level-headed manner and responded to what I just said. “I’m not faking this…amnesia. I didn’t know that you, Reeves, knew Maqius.” He said.

Now I was speechless. “Explain” I said.

“When I first saw you three I was happy that friends came to visit me. Since I came to there wasn’t any sign people visited me. I was just happy to see people I know visit me. How was I supposed to know that you guys met each other after I blacked out?”

“So you know who Maq is before you forgot your memory?” Kim asked. I guess everyone was paying attention to the conversation.

“Yes” Andy said.

“How!?” Me and Kim asked in unison.

Andy looked at Maq as if he was asking permission to talk about it with us.

Maq sat down and nodded and exhaled as if admitting defeat.

“Go ahead, I guess it’s not something to be embarrassed about.” He said sighing.

“Maybe you shou-”

“No.”

“Okay, I guess I’ll tell you about it.” Andy said exhaling.

“Remember how I first moved here a year ago? Well before I did I was in court to let people discuss what they were gonna do with me. I had to wait my turn but since I kept going to court with the same child protection service people that time I got to sit where the audience sat and watch other people’s court cases. That’s when I watched Maqius’s court case. Apparently, Maq was there to find his biological parents. His supposed mom and dad were there. When Maqius came to the court with a DNA test to check if it was legit or not, Man, you should’ve seen the happy reaction his mom showed when it turns out they checked out. So I thought that was normal, for a mother to be happy finding her son. But his father was…aghast. He was rooted to the chair he sat. A moment later cops came in to arrest his father. And his mom? Packed her stuff without saying a word to Maq and left.”

Me and Kim were silent thirsting for more. We wanted to know why.

“Maqius was the only one who didn’t know what the real deal was behind the court case. It turns out that the DNA of Maq and both his parents were tested because Maq’s father r***d his mom. She was too young and she gave up raising Maq after a few months and sent him to the orphanage. After nearly seventeen years because when they caught his father who was a convicted serial killerapist the mother thought Maq could be the final piece to the putting his dad on death row. It was gonna be the final concrete prove that Maq’s mother was indeed r***d. Maqius’s biological grandparent must’ve been rich. Cause she got paid for “mental damages” caused or something.” Andy ended the story abruptly

So I’m sitting here wondering why Maq didn’t tell us this before. It didn’t make sense that he’d be hiding something that trivial in my opinion. Maybe he was just like me and didn’t want people to pity him.

Me and Kim were thinking silently without looking at him. He looked serious. I decided to drop the taboo subject. Whatever the case at least we got one misunderstanding out of the way and some ice breakers thanks to Andy’s amnesia

“So y’all gotta tell me how YOU met. And seriously?” He asked lifting his left arm up. “What’s up with this box? It’s glowing and everything. I can’t feel my hand!”

I drew a chair near him and drank a grateful swig of water. Then I talked. I told him everything. From how we found Kim to how he lost his hand. I am not gonna bother describing the range of facial expressions he went through but they were a lot. The batch of emotions he showed would be unbearable if Maq and Red weren’t with me to calm him down by showing proof. I saved the worst for last.

“So…. This hand is?” he asked raising his left arm once more to show a big white box where his hand would’ve usually been.

“I’m really sorry. If I hadn’t done that I thought Heylian and those other people would’ve killed you because you were going on a rampage.” I said apologetically.

“I still can’t believe all this. I mean I know you guys have shown me proof but-”

“Give it time I need you to process this.” Maq told him. “NO! Don’t!”

Andy pried the white box open with his right hand. It opened. For a second there I thought that I might see blood spurring all over the bed. But I was again surprised. Kim and Maq went near his left arm to put the box back in to prevent heavy bleeding. But where there should’ve been blood was now a metal hand.

Now Andy was convinced.

“What.. the f**k?” He asked looking at his new arm. It was grey but had little specks of blue glowing Synedrate near the knuckles.

“This is that Sinneedate thingy right?” he asked beaming and moving his new hand.

“Synedrate.” I corrected him wile going near him to touch his hand. It was real metal. Where the flesh and metal met was taped over with the soft elastic black band.

“Try hitting hard things” Kim requested.

And Andy complied. He grabbed the side guard of the bed that prevented him from falling out the bed and twisted it. It bent like a pretzel.

“Synedrate Powered Limb Defactos.” Heylian said walking into the room with some milk tea. “Your dad developed those. He called it the Jumper.”

“Why?”

“It as a special ability where it can absorb and store lightning. Then it would unleash it on anything it touches. The lightning gets converted to a gravitational form when it’s stored in the Jumper. When you unleash it it makes whatever you touch jump up.”

“Like really high?”

“Depends on high long you store it. If it’s over ten minutes than either you release it or you jump like Superman yourself.”

“So you’re saying the the net volt won’t account for the intensity of the force jump it gives?”

“Yep!” she said cheerfully while sipping a cup of milk tea herself.

“Where’s mine?” I asked eyeing thirstily for it after giving Andy a long talk.

“I’m drinking it. Can’t you see?” She kidded.

“Heyyyy” Andy started. Have my parents called? Or anything? My phone died and I havent charged it but they did have your house number right there on our fridge.”

I guess that was my cue to answer, since others didn’t know the answer to that.

“No, they haven’t. Do you want me to call them?” I asked.

“No.” He said holding back tears. “It’s fine.”

Andy was never loved by that foster family. I went to his supposed house and they were anything but welcoming to Andy. In fact they seemed to like me more. I initially just thought that was because they’ve been together long enough that they were too proud to talk to their foster son nicely. But they treated him like he was just another mouth to feed.

The reason I didn’t catch it on early was because no matter the issue, Andy would always be smiling happily like as if it was all part of his evil plan and we were all just pawns. Of course that wasn’t true. But I liked that part of him.

The rest of the day went by without anything major or dangerous happening. Kim stayed behind to get more in touch with Andy. I guess they had natural good chemistry together. But I guess Kim was eyeing for Heylian rather than Andy.

Heylian must’ve figured that out too. Cause she left the room with me and Maq telling me that she wanted to see how far along we were on “combat” tomorrow morning.

“We ate our dinner in our rooms and played video games till Maq fell asleep. Kim had a room to himself. He was getting along with everyone in the house. When Maq fell asleep in the bed where Andy would usually sleep when he came over for sleepovers, I went through my room and put away all my books and stuff I was never gonna use. I flicked my phone open and smiled at how I hadn’t switched on my mobile data in a long time. I knew from that moment I was out of the normal social ring. I uninstalled messenger and everything else. I didn’t know how to explain to the people in my tuition about my sudden departure but since I already prepaid them I doubt they’d call after a week or so. They’d care about their reputation.

I was still full of adrenaline. So I went to a empty room which wasn’t uncommon in our house. There, I took out my spear. I remembered something when I was cleaning out my books that I wasn’t gonna use anymore. I found a picture of me a year ago when I first met Andy at a sports festival. My dad was on his rare occasions when he was home so I thought it’d be good to impress him with my pole vaulting skills.

I had passion for pole vaulting as a kid. It wasn’t just in sports. When I would find a good pipe with a good tip I would vault over fences and buildings like I was a super hero. Back then I was lighter so it was no biggie.

I was wondering if I could use the spear as a pole to vault but instead of letting in go to land on a soft mattress, what if I held onto it and spin mid air and smash it into the ground to create a giant blast? I thought jokingly . 

The room I was in was large and I expanded my spear. The front extracted into a beautiful spear with a isosceles shaped blades. They were ocean blue and not cyan like most Synedrate powered items I encountered. But what interested me more was the two rotatable grips it had. I didn’t notice it at first but other than the trigger like button I had near the handle, were two grips at the front and back end of the handle for the spear.

I studied the design of the spear more carefully. I knew that in the center of the spear was a barrel to shoot bolts of Synedrate. The grip below the handle shot bolts of Synedrate if I twisted it clockwise.

But what about anti clockwise?

I twisted it anti clockwise. Nothing happened. I waited a while for something to happen but it didn’t.

Dejected I twisted it back clockwise.

I would’ve stopped if I knew a giant cannon blasted in the room at 11 PM.

  .