Children Of Deurom

Chapter 6| Ablaze

    Aidan stared at his alarm clock, 4:15. Aidan’s new routine started in 15 minutes; push-ups, sit-ups, run 2 miles with Arminius, do a bit of control training, jog home, stop at the local deli and grab breakfast on the way home, shower. For the past 2 days after that, it had been more and more control training at the apartment, but today was the first day Aidan was headed back to school since the attack. He hopped out of bed and did a few extra push-ups and sit-ups. He put on some loose gym clothes and headed to the living room where Arminius was already up, having his morning coffee. Nolan, Arminius, and Aidan all agreed that since Aidan lived alone it would be best for Arminius and Nolan to be close by, and by close by they meant his living room couch. Aidan didn’t mind, it was a bit strange but, he enjoyed the company. Arminius turns to Aidan and puts down his coffee.

            “You’re up early.”

            “Guess I got a bit of nerves.” Aidan comments. Arminius dumps out his coffee and the two head out on their jog.

            “So tell me about these nerves,” Arminius commands. He’s been doing his best to get to know Aidan, try to understand him. Even go as far as this little therapist act.

            “I dunno. Guess it’s just because it’s the first day of school since the attack.” Aidan tells him. “It’s just weird to be going back after missing 3 days.”

            “Technically 4.” Arminius corrects him. “Friday defiantly didn’t count as a whole day of school.” Aidan shrugs it off and begins to run a bit ahead of Arminius who stays behind to admire a bit. A few days ago his entire torso and arm were bandaged. Today he’s out-running me. He healed up so quickly, it’s remarkable. Arminius hastens his pace to catch up to Aidan. The two make their way to the abandoned factory they’ve been visiting. Arminius found it in his initial search for his fighter. He had actually hidden out here for some time, but was not a fan of the run down environment which is why he had originally traded up to the motel room. Upon entering, Aidan throws his hands over his head and tries to slow his heart rate. Arminius begins setting up these large trash cans on a broken down the assembly line. He signals for Aidan to back up to the other side of the room, which Aidan complies.

            “What’s with the trash cans?” Aidan asks, still trying to catch his breath.

            “We’re gonna do a little something different today,” Arminius replies. “I’m confident that you’ve mastered control, in remarkably record time let me add. But today we’re gonna work on target practice.”

            “Sweet.”

            “Take this seriously.” Arminius scolds. “You’re behind everyone else and this is what’s going to save your life. We’ll be training with the others soon and we don’t want it to seem like you’re clueless.” Aidan rolls his eyes at Arminius as he continues to set up trash cans. “What I want you to do is summon up the fire, like we’ve been doing, and launch it. Try and knock down the trash can.” Arminius summons up the fire to his hand and projects it at the trash can. “There are two basic types of long-distance fire moves. There are the fireballs and fire blasts.”

“What’s the difference?”  

“Fireball is quick. One shot and you can move around and fire a few more shots. With the fire blast, you can do some continuous damage, but it restricts your movement a bit.”

“So what do you want me to do with the trash cans?”

“Fireballs.” Aidan hypes himself and slowly summons fire to his hand. He throws the fire at the trash can, sending it flying off the conveyer belt. “Impressive. But your enemies won’t give you time to summon up the fire at that pace. You’re gonna have to try and do it faster.” Aidan summons the fire again and throws a fireball, faster this time. And then he continues to throw them. By the Deorum, he’s a natural. “You’re a quick study, Aidan.”

“I try. It’s easy once you’ve already done it.” Aidan replies, proud of himself.

“Mhmm. Go pick up the cans, we’re doing blast now.” Aidan drudges over and starts picking up the seared trash cans. He may actually win this thing. Once all the cans are in order, Aidan walks back to Arminius. “Alright, blasts work the same way as the fireballs. But you have to put some more power into it.” Aidan focuses and draws the fire to his hand and attempts the blast, unfortunately, it only reached halfway to the cans. “More power.” Aidan rubs his hands together and tries again, blasting the trash can off the belt, but then it disappears. Aidan looks drained.

“Sorry, I couldn’t hold it.” Aidan apologizes.

“That’s ok. It’ll take some time for you to really have the stamina for that type of ability. Good work, Aidan.” Aidan smirks at Arminius. “Common, we should probably start heading back.” Arminius darts out the door, Aidan follows him not wanting to get left behind. After returning home, Aidan continues his routine; quick shower, get dressed and head to school. Normally, he would wait for Ian to come to and pick him up. However, he hasn’t talked to Ian or Chloe since he began training with Arminius. It wasn’t an intentional thing of course, between recovery and training he’s been too exhausted. The school looked a bit different from the last time Aidan was there. There was some kind of detour to his homeroom, construction workers were going in and out of the building. Damn, how much damage did we do? Something heavy lands into Aidan’s shoulder, he turns to see Ian.

“Admiring your handiwork?” Ian asks sarcastically. Aidan chuckles, realizing how good it is to see his friend again, even if it was only for a few days.

“Not my handiwork apparently.” Aidan chuckles. Ian’s face turns from light-hearted to serious.

“Listen, about this whole thing. You know, the games and not mentioning—”

“Don’t worry about.” Aidan cuts him off. “It’s…understandable.” Ian lightly chuckles.

“To say the least.” He replies. “I wanted to say something, but it’s a lot…”

“Beyond a lot,” Aidan replies. The two friends walk around all the construction and head to their respective classes. As Aidan walks to his homeroom, a shiver runs down his spine. He remembers running from the Gladiator, fearing for his life. Running down the hallway as the Gladiator ran through a wall and snatched him up as though he was nothing. I’m gonna have to fight that guy again. I need to be ready. Aidan walks into his class, and it seems like nothing has changed. The class was still rowdy, the desks were the same. It was like the Gladiator never attacked. Aidan sat down in his seat, shortly after a tall, younger man walks into the class. Aidan leans to the desk next to him.

“Who’s that?” Aidan whispers. “Where’s Mr. Adams?” The student leans over to Aidan.

“He got caught up in that water heater explosion.” The student replies. “Apparently he was right next to it when it blew, flew him against the wall and broke every bone in his body.” The student sits back straight in his chair as the younger man begins teaching the class. This is all my fault. Aidan thought to himself. That Gladiator came for me, Mr. Adams was just collateral damage. Aidan sits back in his chair, completely oblivious to the lesson. No one else is going to get hurt because of me. Suddenly, a voice cuts into his thought.

“Mr. Kessler.” Aidan looks to the front of the class to see the substitute staring at him. “Care to explain what aposematic coloration is to the class?” Aidan studies the substitute’s face, sensing a smug arrogance. He doesn’t look like he’s that much older than Aidan, probably some kind of student teacher.

“Well, it refers to the appearance of an animal that warns predators it is toxic, distasteful or dangerous. This warning signal is associated with the unprofitability of a prey item to potential predators.”

“Can you give me an example?” The substitute asks in shock.

 “A frog changing color or a skunk raising its tail.” Aidan replies. The sub looks floored, clearly, he didn’t expect Aidan, who appeared to have not been paying attention, to know the answer. “That’s the answer you wanted right?” Aidan asks. The sub snaps back to reality.

“Yes, very good Mr. Kessler.” He turns around and begins writing terms on the board. Aidan dives out of his thoughts of the tournament and focuses on his schoolwork, the only sense of normalcy in his life at the moment. Aidan takes out his notebook and begins writing the lesson on the board when the door suddenly opens. Nolan peeks his head into the classroom.

“Excuse me.” Nolan interrupts. “Can I borrow Aidan Kessler for a minute?” The sub looks at Aidan and then back to Nolan.

“Of course.” The Substitute replies, gesturing for Aidan to go with Nolan. The two walk out into the hallway, Nolan leading Aidan away from his classroom.

“Where are we going?” Aidan asks. Nolan doesn’t reply to him, instead, he keeps walking, leading Aidan further and further away from the classroom. Nolan leads Aidan into the gym, which he locks behind him. “What’s this about, Mr. Johnson?”

“Quick lesson,” Nolan replies.

“And this couldn’t have waited for… study hall? Or after school? It had to be right now? In the beginning of the day?” Aidan inquires looking around the gym, he had never realized how big it was.

“This is the only time the gym is empty, I’m too busy with classwork to join you and Arminius, so this is the only time I can contribute to your training.” Nolan grabs two wooden swords from a supply closet and tosses one to Aidan, he catches it easily.

“And you just happen to have these on you?” Aidan wonders, playing with the toy. Nolan hits Aidan’s sword with his.

“I snuck them in. I’m gonna help you with your technique.” Nolan informs him. He gets into a sword fighting stance, Aidan mimics him. “So what I want you to do is simply strike along with me, try to swing where I swing in an act of defense.” Aidan nods in acknowledgment. The two begin, with Nolan starting slow. Aidan begins to match him jib for jab, as though he had always known how to do it.  Nolan picks up the pace, Aidan continues his attempts to keep up but falls behind, getting whacked with Nolan’s wooden sword. He tries his best not to open his hand and drop the sword, but Nolan gets him right on the knuckle and Aidan drops the sword.

“Shit.” Aidan curses, shaking the blood back into his hands.

“You were doing well. Gotta keep up with your opponent’s pace.” Nolan remarks. “That could have been an actual sword and your hand would’ve been cut clean off.”

“Yeah, I know.” Aidan scowls, still shaking his hand. “Can we go again?” Nolan nods in response and two continue with the sword training. Nolan went right to the speed he had gone last time, figured it was better to skip the baby step. Aidan kept up a little better this time, he still got whacked, but not as much. Nolan smirked, impressed. He looked at the clock and noticed the bell was about to ring, he disarms Aidan quickly. Aidan drops to the floor, trying to catch his breath.

“That’s all for today.” Nolan comments, taking the wooden swords back into the utility closet he had gotten them from.

“So is this gonna become a frequent thing?” Aidan asks.

“Possibly.” Nolan comments. “Sometimes it may be before school, maybe at a different period. It changes every day, right now happened to be the only available time, today.” The bell rings, signaling Aidan and Nolan’s time has come to an end. “Head back to class, give your teacher my apologizes for keeping you so late.”

“Will do,” Aidan replies as he walks out of the gym. Nolan leaves the gym and heads back to his classroom. Aidan fights against the sea of his fellow students as he tries to get back into the classroom. After some shoves and ‘excuse me's, Aidan made it back into the classroom and grabbed his backpack. He turns to the door, only to find Chloe in his path.

“Hey.” She greets him, a tone of dis-comfort in her voice.

“Hey.” He greets back, genuinely glad to see her. “What’s up?” Chloe pulls him aside out into the hallway.

“How are you feeling?” She asks. “I tried texting you while you were out but you never answered me. So I just assumed you were ghosting me because of the whole—” Aidan had heard enough.

“I’m fine.” He replies. “I’m sorry for not answering, Arminius insisted on trying to play catch up. Don’t take it personally I didn’t talk to Ian either.” He tries to assure her. She lightens up a bit and looks at him, really looks at him this time and notices how actually well he is.

“You look like nothing even happened.” She chuckles. Aidan takes a look at himself, he knows his shoulder has a scar from the sword, it’s true, he felt fine.

“Yeah, I guess so.” He replies. “I feel great.” She smiles at him, her assurance of his health outweighing her curiosity of his swift recovery.

“Well now that you’re back, I can thank you in person.” She says. Aidan looks at her confused. “You saved me, you threw a trophy at that guy.” Aidan then remembers what she was talking about.

“Right.” He states. “But in all fairness, you were distracting him from me… so technically, I should be thanking you.” Chloe blushes.

“It was no problem,” Chloe replies. She looks down at her feet, avoiding Aidan’s gaze. “I’m sorry… about not mentioning—”

“Funny, Ian said the same thing.” Aidan interrupts. “And I’ll tell you what I told him… it’s understandable.” Chloe smiles at Aidan and gives him a peck on the cheek.

“See you later?” She asks him. Aidan, dumbfounded, nods in response. Chloe leaves him in the hallway and heads to her class. The bell rings, snapping Aidan back into reality as he scurries to his next class. The day seemed to fly by until it was finally time for lunch. Aidan staggers into the lunchroom, he looks around and finds Ian, Chloe, and Joan all sitting at a table, he goes over and joins them.

“Sup” greets Ian with a mouthful of his lunch.

“Whatsup” Aidan chuckles. He nods his head acknowledging Joan and Chloe.

“You seem well, Aidan.” Joan comments. Aidan nods in response.

“Yeah, never better.” Aidan proclaims. “So, Arminius told me all about this… alliance thing.” They all turn their attention to him. “When is uhh… when is that coming into play?”

“Soon, I suspect,” Joan replies. “Arminius and I still haven’t worked out all the details. But, we’re hoping to begin this week.” 

“So what kinda thing are we expecting here with this training?” Ian asks. “Like what are we gonna be doing?”

“Sparring, slight use of your abilities,” Joan replies.

“Speaking of abilities.” Aidan starts. “I seem to be at the disadvantage because I don’t know either of your guy’s powers.”

“Fus-Ro-Dah,” Ian replies with a mouthful of his sandwich.

“Like from Skyrim?” Aidan chuckles.

“Basically,” Ian replies. “I shout it all the time during training, Wallace thinks it’s some kinda battle cry.” Ian and Aidan chuckle while Chloe rolls her eyes as Joan looks confused.

“Where is this Skyrim? Can you gain other abilities there?” Joan inquires. Ian and Aidan begin laughing harder.

“No. It’s nothing.” Chloe replies. Aidan and Ian’s laughter dies down.

“So what about you?” Aidan asks Chloe. “What’s your power?”

“She has been blessed with the power of divine light.” Joan answers. Chloe sinks in her seat, a bit embarrassed. She knows full well her ability doesn’t match up to Aidan’s or Ian’s.

“Devine light?” Aidan asks skeptically.

“Basically, I flash this blinding light from my eyes.” Chloe comments.

“I’m sure that’s useful.” Aidan comments. Ian chuckles.

“I don’t know how exactly that’s gonna be—” Chloe closes her eye a tiny bit and a flash shoots through into Ian’s sight, knocking him out of his chair. “Damn, that hurt!”

“Don’t be clumsy then.” Chloe chuckles. Aidan begins to chuckle too, Joan however, is not impressed.

“That was extremely irresponsible, Chloe.” Joan scolds. “You can’t use your abilities all willy nilly like that. They’re purely for the Games.” Chloe looks down away from Joan.

“I’m sorry.” Chloe apologizes, going back to eating her lunch.

“So, Joan. You saw that guy, Lucas fight, right? Like in the last Games?” Aidan asks.

“Lucas?” Ian and Chloe ask at the same time.

“Lucas is the man who attacked Aidan wearing the Gladiator attire.”  Joan answers. “And to answer your question, Aidan. I did see him compete yes. Why do you ask?”

“Could we take him?” Aidan asks. Joan looks surprised.

“Excuse me?” Joan gasps.

“The three of us. If we work together, could we take him out?” Aidan asks again.

“You wanna track down the guy who almost murdered you in our high school and...” Ian looks around before finishing his sentence. “Take him out?” Chloe looks up from her lunch, intent to engage in the conversation.

“Well… could we?” Chloe asks Joan. Joan looks to her pupil in disappointment, she thought that Chloe would have the common sense to stay away from that type of decision.

“The farther Lucas is from us the better,” Joan replies. “Arminius and I have spoken about dealing with Lucas, and we’ve decided it’s far too dangerous.” Aidan slumps in his seat, disappointed. He had wanted to get some payback, which seemingly blinded him to the fact that he would have to end up killing him.

“But, would Lucas really go through the trouble of killing all three of us, just to go have to kill everyone else?” Ian asks. Joan looks at him, shaking her head.

“Figures that Wallace didn’t tell you,” Joan claims.

“Tell him what?” Aidan asks. Chloe finally decides to chime in.

“He’d get our ability.” She tells them. Ian and Aidan look at her with shock.

“He steals our power?” Aidan asks.

“It’s a rule in the Games, Aidan,” Joan replies. “I’m surprised Arminius never mentioned it.”

“Never mentioned it at all,” Aidan comments with irritation.

“If a fighter is to kill another fighter, the victorious fighter gains the last ability used by the vanquished foe,” Joan replies. Aidan begins to think.

“So if I killed Lucas, I’d get his power?” Aidan asks.

“Correct,” Joan replies. “Unless he’s gained another ability that he had used recently.” This gets Aidan thinking. I get why Wallace wasn’t convinced about this alliance. It makes sense, if only one of us would get his power that would be a whole fight in itself.

“We should all be grateful that Alexander isn’t competing this year.”

“Alexander?” Aidan inquires.

“You refer to him as Alexander the Great,” Joan replies. “He’s been on the council since…well since his death essentially.” The 3 fighters look at her in amazement.

“No s**t, really?” Ian asks. Joan nods.

“His contenders are always well trained and very vicious. His last contender? He’s kept Alexander’s seat twice. 10 years ago he retained the seat, and about 5 years or so ago he defended Alexander in a trial.”

Guess Caesar isn’t the only one who likes human women. Aidan thinks to himself.  As Aidan loses his thought, a teacher approaches the table.

“Hey guys, would either one of you happen to be a Mr. Aidan Kessler?” He asks. Aidan looks up at him.

“I am.” He replies. “Why?”

“You’re wanted in the Principal’s office.” The teacher tells him. “Grab all of your belongings and head over there.” The teacher walks away, Aidan looks to Joan and the others and grabs his backpack.

“Well. Guess I’ll just… see you guys later.” Aidan says walking away. The walk to the Principal’s office was typically quick but to Aidan, it felt like an eternity to get there. Had the Principal seen the fight? Was he going to oust him? Why would I have to go to the Principal’s office? He wonders. He opens the door to see the principal talking with someone who looked familiar. He was tall with dirty blonde hair wearing jeans and a beat-up leather jacket. But it wasn’t until he turned around that Aidan knew who he was. Adonis? Aidan’s brother turns to greet him.

“What sup squirt?”