Blind Phoenix

Black Hair and Eyes of Fire

The two walked for at least an hour, occasionally holding hands in order to sustain Byur’s energy levels. They had reached the city; the young man had not been here in 11 years. He vaguely remembered the buildings, smells and sounds. A cat meowed at the young man, he instantly recognized it. It was a cat of an old friend; it never liked Byur too much.

“That bastard nearly clawed my eye out when I was a kid! He was an asshole, but still pretty cute” he thought.

Maria was walking one step ahead of him at all times, looking around at the city covered in sunshine. Several tall buildings were built all around.

            “I like this place; I can understand why Lynn chose to stay here. We aren’t too far from our destination. Before we get there I should warn you, she probably won’t be as easy on you as I am.”

            “Noted.” He said “Everyone’s staring at me, aren’t they? It’s almost like they haven’t seen a bandaged face before.”

            “Ah, well, that isn’t really all that common; in fact, you’re the only person I’ve ever seen like this.”

            Byur tilted his head for a moment, “Oh, my bad I don’t really get out much…as you can tell”

            “Understandable.”

            After walking for a few minutes they reached an abandoned construction site. There were steel beams littered everywhere, a particularly large one blocked a black door. The door had a golden marking on it, a Chinese dragon to be exact. It covered about half of the door’s perimeter.

            Byur asked “This is it, a rundown construction site? I expected a giant skyscraper or something along the lines of that.” He touched the giant metal beam and looked at Maria. “Now what? This giant thing is blocking the way.”

            Maria slowly approached it and requested him to stand back; she grabbed it by one of its edges and tossed it aside with little effort. It crashed onto the floor, burying deeply into the ground. When the dust cleared she knocked on the door four times, waiting a few seconds in between a couple of knocks. A slider opened and a pair of yellow eyes could be seen. The eyes were fixed on Maria, then on Byur.

            “Yo” Said the mysterious eyes in the voice of a girl. The slider then closed and the door opened right after. If one looked into the room they could not see anything. Maria signaled Byur to follow her and they both entered. As soon as they did, the door behind them closed, but a small, rectangular light was visible at the end of the hallway.

            “Work hard, Byur” She said as they walked towards the light. Byur’s heart was pounding; he could not wait to sense what was on the other side. He could not wait to finally be healthy yet again. When they had reached the end of the room, a giant area as big as two baseball fields awaited them. The room was nearly blank, it was extremely simple. Everything was painted white; there were four corners and no furniture or design yet the room seemed to be alive. Byur sensed this and could not stop himself from commenting on it.

            “What kind of place is this?” he said as his voice echoed. “I’ve never felt anything so empty yet so full of life.”

            The girl known as Lynn was sitting to their right on a large white cube with her legs crossed. She had black hair and yellow eyes. Lynn was every bit as beautiful as Maria was, but had a more mature face. This was misleading because she was only a couple years older than her. Her default expression was playful and careless, but she devoted herself to everything she did. She wore black leggings and a red long-sleeved shirt, she had no shoes on. Under her shirt and leggings was a toned but curvy body. Her legs could probably break diamonds with the strength they seemed to harbor. She leaned forward and placed her forearms onto her thighs.

            “It’s been a long time, Maria. How’ve ya been?”

            “Well, not too bad. My flight here only took a couple of hours, so I guess I can’t complain.”

            Lynn turned to Byur and asked, “Who’s your friend? Go ahead and introduce yourself.”

            Byur turned his head at her and responded, “My name is Byur, Byur Lambert. 19 years old and an avid audio book enthusiast.  I’ve come here to-“

            “I know exactly why you came here.” She stood up and slowly approached him; he noticed that she was just as tall as him. She then reached out with her hand. “The name’s Lynn, glad to be of service.”

            Byur shook her hand, and immediately felt her iron grip.

            “Now, let me explain how this is going to work. From this day forward I am to be your master. You will listen to what I say and do it until you’ve perfected it.” She continued to speak with a now smug expression. “I know that you can feel my outline, so you’ll have to excuse me for wearing clothes so unlike a martial artist, but if you doubt my skills as a trainer and as a fighter, you can just ask Maria.”

            Byur turned to Maria for a response. “She could probably lift up the entirety of Barrik”

            He nodded his head awkwardly, “A-ah I see. You won’t be seeing any doubt from me. Are you going to force me to call you master now?”

            Lynn covered her mouth and laughed, “Of course not, dummy. Just see me as…your new best friend.” She then grew serious “But enough of our idle chatter, move to the center of the room, take off your clothes and put these on.” She handed him pants and shoes similar to Bruce Lee’s, it had a red cloth belt at the top and a golden dragon on the right side, like the one previously seen on the door. “This will be your outfit for fighting; you won’t be needing a shirt. In a moment I’m going to make your entire body stronger than alloy steel. Your skin will remain soft, but near impossible for an ordinary weapon to pierce.”

            Byur was nearly shaking from anticipation; then the room changed color. The shapeless ground began to turn into rock, the roof disappeared and an artificial sun like-light source lit up the room, making it almost seem like they were outside. There was a log far off in the distance, the three rallied to its position.

            When they reached it, it disappeared.

            “Alright, Byur. Go ahead and position yourself like this.”

            She stood with her legs far apart and her arms crossed, forming the shape of an X. Byur mimicked her position; his pants were nearly falling off. He was still very thin and the more he waited, the more energy he lost.

            “Stand still just like that, ‘kay?” Byur took a deep breath to prepare himself for whatever was about to happen.

            “Close your eyes and tighten all of your muscles lightly, but flex your core’s muscles as much as you can without hurting yourself.” Lynn then positioned both her arms in front of her. Maria backed up a bit, but only to give room for Byur and nothing more.

            Lynn said “Concentrate on the power flowing through your body. Release all the energy you feel inside of you and then redirect it back to yourself!”

            He felt a pulse of energy inside his body. Lynn was directly channeling her energy into him in order to awaken his own. Every single muscle in Byur’s body was seething with power. He gradually began to put on muscle mass, his bones hardened and his face grew less and less thin. The rocks from the floor began to rise up; the air in the room began to rush towards him. At this point the entire ground was shaking, the entire city was shaking. Clouds from outside gathered right above the building. A white aura surrounded Byur, his energy releasing from his body. The sound of the aura was tremendous. He felt like he was going to explode, he clenched his teeth and continued his massive energy release.

            Lynn muttered “His potential is…”

            The aura around Byur grew more and more intense; he was in control of his energy now. His muscles had become gigantic in comparison to before. Abs formed on his stomach, his chest muscles puffed out. Next were his legs, even under his puffy pants you could see the muscles growing, becoming harder and stronger. His arms, neck, shoulders and back were next.  The bandages on his face were burning white. They burned away from his face, piece after piece. His visage was now completely void of any wounds or wrapping. His now chiseled jaw line was clearly visible. You could see the strain on his face. Byur’s lungs had healed completely, though; they were now flowing with power. His eyes turned from white to green, Byur saw a hazy image in front of him.

            “The ground…it’s the ground! I can…I can see!” he thought.

            Bit by bit his eyesight came back, he had not seen a clear image for so long. The colors were beautiful to him and at that moment he felt like crying. But he did not. Byur took in one final breath and yelled at the top of his lungs with a booming voice that reached out for miles. A shockwave pulsed just as far, managing to push back Maria while simultaneously cutting off power to the entire city for a second.  

            Panting, he stood up straight and closed his eyes. Lynn and Maria looked at each other and smiled. The white aura enveloped the young man, his unlocked abilities were now his to control. He opened his eyes and looked into Lynn’s. It was a pair of eyes capable of seeing into the insides of a human’s very being, eyes that would only look forward.

            Lynn whistled, saying “Looks like we got ourselves a hero in the making, a handsome one at that.”

            Byur’s demeanor remained as serious as ever, his anticipation could no longer be contained.

            “I think it’s time we get started.”