The Break (The Aesir Saga Book 1) (8 page)

              Gabriel woke up the next morning with the sun shining into his bedroom window. He got up, changed clothes and headed downstairs to the kitchen. The rest of the house was up, a stark contrast from the emptiness of the night before. He saw Brock again, eating breakfast in the living room, a huge plate full of food sitting in front of him. Gabriel started looking around the kitchen for food, opening up almost every cabinet before he came across a box of cereal. “Great, he thought, “one thing down, now to find a bowl.” 

“What you looking for?” Gabriel spun around to see a skinny guy his age standing right behind him. He had dark brown hair; stubble covering half his face, and wore a pair of half rimmed glasses. 

“Uh, a bowl and spoon.” Gabriel answered, still opening drawers.

“Bowls are in the cupboard on the right; spoons should be in this drawer here.” He said as he slid out the drawer revealing a divider full of cutlery. 

              Gabriel grabbed a spoon and turned to grab a bowl. “Thanks man” he said as he turned back around, but there was no one there. Gabriel just shrugged it off and poured the cereal into the bowl. He went to the fridge and grabbed the milk. As he sat eating breakfast Caleb came into the kitchen. “Let’s go for a walk.” Caleb walked out the kitchen heading to the door. Gabriel put his bowl in the sink and followed him outside. Caleb started walking slowly toward the wood line behind the barn. 

“Madison told me what happened yesterday. Sorry you didn’t get a choice.” Gabriel just walked next to him, his hands in his pockets. “My big concern is what happened when she came up and got you in the car. You don’t have to explain it to me; we have all done things we wish we could take back. But if you’re going to work with us I need to know that you can keep yourself under control.”

              Gabriel stopped and turned to look at Caleb. “I came with Madison because she offered me the one solution that didn't end with me in jail. I'm not some freedom fighter who is all of a sudden with you just because I have this power. I don't even know who or what you guys are. I mean thanks for getting me here and everything, but what’s to stop me from just leaving and becoming a new person in a different town?"

              Caleb turned to keep walking, leaving

Gabriel standing there. Finally Gabriel turned and ran to catch up with Caleb. "There are a couple reasons why you won’t just turn and leave. The first is that if you do leave and arrive in a different town, you have no connections, and you are the new guy. No skills, no place to live, and cameras everywhere, you survive for two weeks, tops." Caleb turned to walk around the far side of the barn. "Next reason, we don’t want you to leave, because if you do, you will know where this is." He said, gesturing to everything around him. "So we would appreciate it if you did decide to stay."

              Gabriel was quiet for a little bit before finally saying he would think about it. "The problem is, I can only ever use my power when I'm angry." 

“We’ll work on your trigger later; you just need to understand how your power works and how to control it. As for who we are," Caleb exhaled with a little chuckle before continuing, "We are a resistance group. As you can see, the group is mostly people around your age. That is just a consequence of the job. Every time we go out on a mission, there is a chance someone will get caught. And people do get caught. With new people developing powers, it seems only the young ones are able to get in contact with us."

              Gabriel jumped in as Caleb finished talking. “I was going to ask you about that. So I'm assuming you're Ma'at?"

              Caleb laughed again, "No, I'm not Ma'at. No one here at the farm is. To be honest with you, we don't know who Ma'at is. But he provides us with Intel and financial security, so we don't ask too many questions." They had reached the far corner of the barn. As they walked by, Gabriel noticed scrap piles of wood and metal lying about. "Madison didn’t tell you about the Agency.” Caleb continued, walking toward the wood line, Gabriel one step behind him. 

“The Agency was formed shortly after people started developing abilities. They were originally formed to study us, see what made us this way. Then people started abusing their abilities.

Originally they tried to use us in a new PR program against terrorism. The government gave them the name Aesir, probably to invoke fear of god like individuals. Super humans fighting for the freedom of America" Caleb said, spreading his arms above him as if the words were written on a billboard.

"The problem was that they didn’t get to choose who got powers, and some of those people were already inclined to a… darker path. When one of their own destroyed Washington D.C. the Agency took a turn from Aesir support, to Aesir containment. Once we were labeled the enemy, there was no interest to find out how we had developed powers. They had always tried to figure out what made us this way, but now they could do it with you in a cage. So now they round us up, study us, do tests, experiments. After that no one really knows, they probably kill us."

              Upon reaching the wood line, Caleb turned left, taking them both back in the direction of the house. "At first there was no resistance. Then I got an email from Ma'at, he told me they were coming for me, gave me enough time to escape. Once I was away he gave me directions to this place. Since then he has helped to guide others here, helps us to take care of our kind.”

“I want to show you something.” Caleb turned and walked toward the barn, pulling the door open when they got there.

              Inside, the structure was that of a regular barn, a loft stuck out from one side, furniture stacked neatly, and taking up the full space. Four large support beams on each side ran from the floor to the loft. The ground floor was mostly open, in one corner was gym equipment; the rest of that wall had targets of different shapes and sizes running down it. The middle was left completely open. 

“This,” Caleb said, spreading his arms wide indicating the whole barn,” is our training area.”

Gabriel looked around at the mostly empty barn.

“This is it?” 

“We’re not the freaking Army Rangers, ok? Now, I've arranged to have someone try out your power. I want to see what you can do, and here he is now.” Caleb turned, extending his arm to show their arriving companion, but no one was there. 

              Gabriel looked around, seeing no one there, he turned back to Caleb. He jumped a bit when he saw the same guy he had seen in the kitchen. "Whoa, where did you come from?" 

"Gabriel, this is Stephen. His power is that of speed. I've asked him to be here to be a target for you to show us your powers. He is quick enough that there should be no danger of him getting hurt."

              Stephen just nodded his head, and then he was gone. Gabriel looked around, seeing that Stephen had already moved into the middle of the barn. 

              As Gabriel and Caleb started to walk toward the center of the barn, a group of people started up the path to the barn entrance. Gabriel could see Brock and Madison, but there were a couple more people that he had not met yet. 

              Caleb turned to look at Stephen who shrugged, then let out a sentence so quick Gabriel didn't know if he understood it all.

"YouknowhowitisCaleb.

Everybodywantstoknowaboutthenewguy."

"Looks like you are going to have a bit of an audience for this part. Don't worry, it’s not a pass fail, just what can you do kind of thing." Once everyone was in the barn, Caleb shut the barn door.  

              Gabriel moved to the middle of the barn, taking a quick look back at the group that was awaiting his display. Gabriel closed his eyes and tried to let his anger build. His body jerked violently as pain ripped through his body. He couldn't move his arms fast enough to stop himself as he fell to the ground, hitting hard. He opened his eyes to see Stephen still standing in the middle of the room, acting as if nothing had happened.

“What the fuck man?” Gabriel exclaimed as he pushed himself off the ground.

“Rule one," Caleb called out from the group, "don’t close your eyes, you need to use your power while still looking at your opponent. Now try again.”

              This time it didn’t take Gabriel long to feel his fingers itch, his hand catching fire almost instantly.

“Good, now stop it.” Caleb called out again.

              Gabriel took a few deep breaths, calming himself and let the flames die away.

“Very good, now do it again.”

"You know, for a display, this seems a lot like you just telling me what to do." Gabriel yelled over his shoulder. 

"Just trying to see if you can stop. You had a problem with that before."

              The sting of his words hit Gabriel, his fingers were itching and the flame jumped from his fingertips. 

“So it’s only the one hand?” Caleb asked, the group behind him talking between themselves.

“I’ve only been able to make my right one light up. The left one doesn’t burn, but I can never get it to catch like this one.”

“And how do you turn this one on, so to speak.” he asked, walking to were Gabriel was standing. 

“I don't really know, I just get angry. Lately it’s been getting easier to turn it on, but at first I had to get really angry for it to light up.”

“I want you to try something. Your anger is your trigger, but right now, are you angry?"

              Gabriel thought for a moment “I wouldn't say I'm angry, more of an annoyed feeling."

"Good, now I want you to think of how your hand feels right now, the feeling of it being on fire. Now calm down, but hold onto that feeling." 

"Okay..." Gabriel said, focusing his gaze on his hand. He took a deep breath, and tried to calm himself. He watched as the flames died down, but did not extinguish. 

"Good job, now try and move that feeling to your other hand." 

Gabriel closed his eyes, then quickly opened them again, afraid for the pain that had come last time. 

"It’s ok, this is a learning exercise, we’ll get back to sparring in a second." Caleb said, holding a hand up to Stephen. 

              Gabriel closed his eyes again, trying to send the feeling of the fire to his left hand. He felt it first as a tingle. Then it grew into an itch, until finally his hand burst into flames. Gabriel opened his eyes, raising his hands up in front of him. He just stared at them, the flames dancing weakly on top of both hands. He let himself lose focus, and they faded together. Then, trying to drive the feeling of the itch back to his fingers, they lit up again.

“Very good, now let’s see how your offense is.” Caleb walked back to the group, leaving Gabriel alone again with Stephen in the middle of the room. Gabriel tried to focus on his hands, trying to get the flames up to their normal strength. He looked up to see that Stephen was gone, and before he could even fully process that fact, pain shot from gut up into his chest, the air escaping his lungs. Gabriel dropped to his knees, the fire of his hands dying instantly as he struggled for air. Looking up again, he continued to gasp for air, and there was Stephen, standing in the exact same spot he was before Gabriel lost sight of him. Bringing himself to a knee, Gabriel was finally able to catch his breath. He stood up and noticed that Stephen was gone again. Instinctively he threw himself on the ground. Feeling no pain this time he looked back, and there was Stephen, looking as bored as ever.  “Come on man, I’m still learning.” Gabriel said, brushing himself off as he stood up. 

              Gabriel felt the world tilt, as his view changed quickly to the ceiling of the barn. He had just been standing straight, and now here he was, back on the ground. He was getting really tired of this. He didn’t care if he was the new guy, this was such bullshit to have to put up with this. How was he supposed to fight a guy who had already mastered his powers, and here he was a few seconds ago just figuring out how to ignite both of his hands. Gabriel looked to his left as he lay on the ground, and then had an idea. He rolled to one of the support beams, and sat up against it. At least now there was a barrier between him and Stephen. 

“Come on dude, you could kill me!” Gabriel yelled as he felt the breeze of Stephen running by him, at least this time not hitting him before he returned to his spot.  

“You need to be able to attack Gabriel, use your power.” Caleb called out from his viewing point. “And don’t worry; Stephen won’t do anything that could seriously injure you.”

              Gabriel hunkered down behind the beam, and decided he was done playing around. He looked at his hands and watched as they combusted, the fire much larger than he had ever created before. 

              How the fuck am I supposed to use this from a distance, he though as he looked at his hands. He tried smashing his hands together, trying anything to see if it could be made into a projectile. He slowly pulled them apart, but his hands were as empty as they were before. Gabriel could feel the fire on his hands, but it wasn’t the heat he felt, more of the fire as an extension of his hand. A strange idea struck him, and he held his arm up in front him, palm facing away. He focused, trying to move the fire he felt past his hand. It started off slow, by Gabriel could see a small amount of flame coming off his hand. He pushed harder, the spout of fire building with his increased effort. With a little more effort the fire jumped from his hand, coming out like a flame thrower. He felt a spasm in his arm as the wind rushed by him again. Apparently Stephen had decided he had enough alone time, and had struck Gabriel as he ran by. Gabriel grabbed at the injury, rubbing it and feeling the bruise starting to form already.