Friday, 7 June 2024, 1:54 pm
Rick gestures to Ravinok across the gym before walking over to Reyn, shaking his head with disappointment. Meanwhile, Reyn's mind still struggles to resettle itself after the experience of being crushed in the abyss.
"Almost happy Lunara ain't here to see this, she'd be kicking my ass all over this gym for laying hands on you." He says with a chuckle as he lifts Reyn up, slapping him across the chest. Reyn coughs up a splash of blood in an attempt to snicker. Rick drags him over to the edge of the ring and sets him down on a small stool as he winces and yelps in pain.
"I almost feel sorry for you." Rick says as he lays his hands over Reyn's body, feeding it his healing aetherics. Reyn's dislocated jaw slowly pieces itself back together as his ribs creak and crack back into place. "Trust me, son. I'm not enjoying this. I dunno what the doctor sees in you. But he insists I beat the shit out of you till I can see it too. So I suggest you get your shit together and show me what you got." Reyn's starts to feel the return of his bodily functions as Rick's aetherics heal and boost his flesh, muscles and bones.
"I-I'm trying…" Reyn murmurs, his face pointing down, dripping with blood and self-doubt.
"Oh, I can see that!" Rick says with a snicker as he leans back on the ring ropes, relaxing his arms on the top as he bobs his body against them. "Trust me, dunno what it is about you and your mom, but you're both stubborn as hell. Refuse to back down from a fight, and I can respect that. Haven't met a recruit willing to face me head on like you just did. But it's not gonna land you a punch in there, not against me, kid. So whatever ability you are hiding in that head of yours, you need to pull it out your ass and show us what it can do. Otherwise the next time you wake up, it will be in one of those dark little rooms this place likes so much."
"I-I'm am. I am really trying, I'm trying everything I can think of." Reyn whimpers as he rubs at his power-core. "But… but it's not enough. You're too strong, too fast. It's impossible."
"Hm. Impossible, uh… You know that whole reject the impossible, victory or death thing your mom liked so much. That wasn't just a phrase or motto to her, that was who she was. When she was fighting, man, she was just... fuck, I dunno know. I'd be knee deep in demon bug guts, barely able to breath, can't move for shit, just trying to survive,.you know. But she'd be flying straight up to a fucking gaurdian, screaming about victory and death, missing a goddamn leg and shit. And she'd still kick the fucker's ass. Crazy, ass bitch. Sorry, again, with respect." Rick suddenly lets out a stiff cough and rubs at his nose. "Look, my point is, when she put her head to something, she made it happen. Even if it cost her limbs… or her life. There were no ifs or maybes or impossibles. There was only victory or death. And I see some of that in you, boy. I see it in your eyes, in your actions. You want it. You're willing to put your body on the line to do what it takes. I respect that, I really do. Don't see that much these days, especially in recruits. Now, the doctor over there thinks you've got some special power hidden in you, and I need to beat it out. Im really not in the mood to fuck around with recruits. So, get your shit together and show me what you can do so we can both get out of here." Rick hops to his feet and starts walking to the opposite end of the ring, flicking and twisting his limbs as he bounces between each foot.
Reyn lifts himself up, his body and mind rejuvenated from Rick's aetherics and harsh encouragement. He clears his head of all considerations, focusing all his neurons upon a single thought, hitting Rick Justice in the face, as hard as possible.
The thought erupts into every muscle and bone, chewing at his being, urging him into action. He steps forward and jostles his body, preparing his raring muscles for action. He stares Rick down, picturing the exact location, between the left eye and lower jaw, to place his fist.
As he digs his foot into the mat, Rick starts to smirk, and a trickle of trepidation worms its way into his mind. But a fiery phrase has already captured it, turning his desire into into a flaming fixation, leaving no room for any other thoughts.
"Reject the impossible!" The words permeate from every cell of his body and his mind is galvanized with conviction as a single thought erupts into possibilities. His ARCH-unit erupts with dazzling sparks, bursting through his clothes just as his foot prepares to leave the mat, but the aether pulls him again into his own mind.
But what awaits him, is beyond his wildest dreams, as he falls towards the water, he lays witness to an ocean surface teeming with popping bubbles. Once he splashes down, he immediately dives to the transition zone and finds himself surrounded by spheres of brilliant light floating all around him, shooting up from the abyss into the transition zone, before eventually ascending to the surface to pop.
And as he spins around in the water, looking out at all the bubbles, he erupts into wild laughter. "It worked!" he thinks to himself. He did not know exactly how or why, but he had actually created his own choices, his own possibilities. This was it, this was the true power of his ARCH-type, this is what the aether was trying to show him. He rolls and splashes around in excitement as he basks in the realization that he held in his mind not just the future of him, or others. But all futures. He himself could create the choices and choose the outcomes. He settles himself into this new truth and begins the arduous task of choosing a choice among endless choices.
The closest sphere finds his vision and he starts to watch in silent awe. In the bubble he sees himself launch from the mat at unimaginable speed, blowing away the ring behind him in a devastating eruption that covers half the gym in wood and debris. His fist hits Rick Justice a moment later, smashing through the man's face before ripping off most of his head while Reyn continues to barrel through the air, covered in blood. He comes to a stop, his body lodged into a crater in the wall on the far-side of the gym. Reyn immediately backs away from the bubble, grabbing at his mouth to calm his twisting stomach. The scene disturbs him to no end.
And as he rubs at his head to make sense of the choice he saw, another realization hits. The possibilities he creates also bring with them the consequences that they create. His burning desire to punch Rick as hard as possible had erupted into his mind as millions of possibilities, each giving him the choice he wanted in different and spectacular ways. He quickly looks through more bubbles, trying desperately to find a reasonable outcome to the choices he creates, something that wouldn't result in him brutally murdering Rick Justice with a punch to his face.
But his search proves fruitless, every bubble floating on the surface sees him meet his goal of hitting Rick squarely in the cheek, but the end result would be devastating for more than just himself. He keeps searching, hours passing by as he watches endless scenes of Rick dying in evermore horrifying ways because of his punch.
Eventually, he relents, and lay aimlessly as he slowly floats to the ocean's surface, his mind leeching on the truths he has learnt, feeding him feelings of failure and self-doubt until they grow into fears and anxieties that ends with him spiralling into panic. A choice had to be made, and a consequence had to be lived. As soon as he popped a bubble, all his life would come crashing drown, his dreams destroyed and his mother's legacy crushed the moment his fist hit Rick's face.
Reyn lays for days, slowly working his psyche through the stages of the grief that at eat at his soul. Mourning deeply for the life of Rick that he would take, and the many lives that would be irreparably changed by his choice. And finally, for his own future that his inevitable choice was about to destroy. With eyes overflowing in bitter tears, he dives down to the transition zone and toward a aether bubble, he watches again as he effortlessly dissects Rick's face and his body ends up in a wall, covered in Rick's blood. He closes his eyes and reaches out for the bubble, his face and body are a sniveling, quivering mess of guilt and depression as the bubble's light envelopes him.
His eyes remain shut as he feels mind sink back into reality and every sense in his body grips him. The roaring eruption of the ring exploding behind him as his foot launches off the mat, the stale, gym air rushing past him as he moves across the ring. Rick's smooth skin splits between his knuckles as his fist rips through the man's flesh. His body hurtles through the air, and with a thunderous crash, he hits the gym wall, crushing every bone in his body and sending out an eruption of blood and sinew from every orifice. His lay, lodged in concrete and stone, bloody and broken. He screams and cries like a wailing infant as he comes to terms with the consequences of his choice.
"You happy, Ravinok? Crazy, fucking, Russian-ass, maniac! Fuck! He almost fucking killed me!" A voice yells out angrily from the center of the gym.
Reyn cracks opens his tear soaked eyes, and he is able to barely recognise Rick Justice, knelt down and bleeding at the edge of the ring as he screams at Ravinok. Most of his arm now splayed across the gym as splatterings of flesh and blood.
Reyn's mind strains to make sense of the situation, but the pain and exhaustion tearing at his body drags him into unconsciousness.
He wakes, again opening his eyes to a black-light room. His body lays deep and snug in a warm bed, his head resting on a feather-soft pillow as hidden machines beep and buzz around him. The faint sound of limping footsteps can be heard pacing around him.
"H-Hello…" He mutters out as he prepares to face the consequences of using his aetherics. As he waits for an answer from the void, his mind flounders in a raging vortex of fear and regret that has overtaken it. He scowls at his overconfidence, the fact he let desire and pride overcome calculated considerations.
"Hold on, Mitchells." A voice sneaks out from the darkness. "GAIA, disable the Spectral Occlusion Field in my location."
"Affirmative." GAIA responds from everywhere, and in a blink, the black-light evaporates and Reyn's vision is returned to him. As he squints to adjust to the brightness of the room, he notices a bright morning sun leaking it's light through the windows of the quaint resting room he lay in. At the foot of his bed stood Ravinok, huffing and wheezing as he grips tightly on the bed frame, starely intensely at Reyn.
"How do you feel?" He asks, his face carved with concern and calculation.
Reyn mentally checks his body structure and condition, peeking under his blankets for a quick visual check as well. "I think I'm fine, sir. Everything feels normal."
"Good, good." Ravinok nods as he moves around the bed, gripping the railing tightly. He shifts up to Reyn, lauding over him as he lay down on the bed, a sense of coming pain besets Reyn and he braces for Ravinok's retaliation.
Ravinok bends over him, bringing his hand upon Reyn's head and rustling his hair as he bursts into laughter. "I swear, Mitchells. Your antics are going to kill me before the sugar does."
Ravinok plops down onto the bed beside him, sending Reyn rolling into the gravitational well Ravinok creates in the bed surface with his considerable weight. He quickly props himself up against the headboard and listens intently.
"Moderation, Mitchells." Ravinok chuckles. "We are lucky Rick was able to survive your attack. A few centimetres to the right, and I would not be here laughing about Friday's events. But, Mitchells, what you did… It defies explanation and logic. It's breaking me, boy. I don't understand it. We've analysed every moment, every movement, every molecule. But nothing. There is no rhyme or reason…" the doctor says solemnly as he stares out the room's windows, his face soaked in anguish and defeat. He releases a long sigh and turns to Reyn.
"Reyn, we all saw what happened in the gym. You almost turned Rick Justice into a cloud of blood with a single punch, and what's more, you did this with a recruit's power-core. This should be impossible! Yet you have done it, boy. How?" Ravinok asks, his voice almost cracking as he pleads with Reyn for answers.
"I-I don't know, sir. I just… I wanted to punch Rick. That's all I could think about. My ARCH reacted and… I-I don't remember. I just woke up here." Reyn says, stuttering as he tries desperately to hide the truth of his actions, and the choice that almost led to murder.
Ravinok sighs again. "Your aetherics, boy. Truly an anomaly. More than 20 years working on aetheric science, but the data you produce, I've never seen anything like it. How I wish I could climb inside your head and see what you see." The doctor chuckles as Reyn smiles nervously. "But you know, Mitchells, I have been doing science for over 50 years and my experience has molded me into who I am. The search for knowledge, understanding and truth. Ha! I live only for this now. Understanding aether, that is my purpose. My truth. Call it fate or destiny. It makes no difference. What is important is understanding your truth, and when you do, you know what is possible within you. Do not hide your truth, my boy."
The doctor shifts closer to Reyn, moving up the bed, and Reyn hangs on tightly to not slip further into the doctor's pull. "For you, it's the same, no? You want to help, like your mother. Save the innocent, protect our planet. Is this not your purpose? I sense in you a powerful purpose, a truth, Mitchells. And for a man of facts and figures… decisions based on feelings. This is foreign to me. But in you, I feel… something. Do you truly not feel it, boy?"
Reyn's mind burns. The doctor's words resonate with truths, but his doubts and anxiety refuse him the release of confession. "I'm sorry, doctor. I don't know…" Reyn relents.
"Reyn, listen to me. Whatever you hold inside you, that is your purpose. Your truth. You should not hide it, boy. Celebrate it. Revel in it! That is who you are, all you can ever be." Ravinok says as he moves closer, his sweet-tainted breath washing over Reyn. "I'm a man of science. All I seek is truth. And if I can help you find yours. Please, Reyn Mitchells, allow me this privilege."
The doctor's honest sincerity washes over Reyn like a warm breeze tugging at his fears and anxiety, trying desperately to release him of his burdens. "Now rest, I will figure out our next experiment." The doctor chuckles as he give's Reyn a firm slap to his shoulder and quickly spirals off in a puddle of particles.
Reyn lay in silent contemplation, considering the doctor's words and advice. His thoughts and emotions pull and push at his psyche as he tries to make sense of everything that is happening to him, straining his mind further and further, trying to conceive every variable, every piece of the puzzle. He was convinced there was more to be discovered and understood about himself and his ability, his fight with Rick Justice was a brutal revelation about what the consequences his choices could lead to. The new understandings of himself bring with it grave outcomes to various contemplations, dragging him deeper into self-doubt and existential despair.
A few minutes later, a nurse arrives to check his condition and finalize his release. She returns his belongings along with a new recruit uniform, allowing him to dress and prepare himself before being escorted out of the medical facility. He would find out that he had spent more than 36 hours in their aetheric healing unit and ICU before he woke up. It would take a team of healers to regenerate his body as well as restore Rick Justice's right arm. The security escorting him went on to explain at length how furious Rick was during every moment he had spent in the hospital, swearing all kinds of pain and mutilation on the man who had humiliated him.
Reyn steps out of the gleaming building into a brilliantly bright Sunday morning, the ocean breeze stings his nose as the sterilized air of the medical facility gives way to the smells of nature. The picturesque views do not find his appreciation as he lowers his head, and quickly walks toward the dormitories, each step digging him deeper into his anxieties and fears. His emotions grow stronger, twisting within each other as his mind tries to force a logical understanding of itself, but a failure of even this, overwhelms him with self-doubts which billow under the flame of his fears, growing into a wild anger and self-hatred.
He stomps into the dormatories and straight towards his room. His eyes a blur of suppressed anger and tears. "Argh!" He grunts, snapping his hands into fists. Begging his mind to produce an answer. The missing piece of the puzzle that is his psyche. He tries to dig deeper, calculations and connections spark and snap as his mind comprehends all possibilities and probabilities. But, his deep contemplation leaves him ignorant of his surroundings.
Swift footsteps fade up behind him. He reacts too late, turning as a hidden figure leaps through the air. "Sneak attack!" Ghazal yells as he pounces at Reyn, almost clearing his shoulders.
"What the fuck, man!" Reyn shouts as he falls to his back. His face covered in anguish and anger.
"Sneak attack! If you keep getting lost in that head, somebody is gonna knock it off someday, mate!" Ghazal jokes, poking at Reyn's forehead as he lifts him up.
"Hey, fuck you, man. I don't have time for this shit." Reyn yells back as he pushes Ghazal away and begins strutting off to his room huffing and snorting. Ghazal grabs his shoulder firmly but Reyn protests and threatens violence.
"Oy, what the fuck! What's got your panties in a twist, princess?"
Reyn's anger begets him and he swings wildly at Ghazal. Ghazal steps back, dodging Reyn's assault and grabbing him at the collar as Reyn readies another swing.
"Hey, mate. Relax! It's me! Gaz! What the fuck is happening here?" Ghazal scowls.
Reyns face is beset with fury. But his friend's earnest look of worry and concern help quells his emotions.
"Just fuck off, Gaz, I'm not in the mood, ok." Reyn says as he smacks Ghazal's hands off his blazer.
"Mate, I can see somethings got you fucking pissed. Talk to me, let me help!" Ghazal pleads as he tries to grab Reyn's shoulder. "O-oh, oh shit! Is it the the autograph? You can have it back, mate. I was just messing with you."
Ghazal's incessant concern breaks down Reyn's walls of anger and self-hatred and he can't help but relent to his friend's worries. "I'm sorry, Gaz. It's not you, man. It's not the damn autograph. I'm just trying to figure out some shit, ok. I'm sorry I took it out on you. This shit's just got me really…"
"Ok! Brilliant! Let's figure out some shit!"
"Wait, no, Gaz, this is on me. It's all in my head. I need to…"
"Fuck that. We are doing this! No excuses, mate!" Ghazal proclaims as he hooks Reyn's neck into his elbow.
"Gaz, I'm ok. I just…"
"Nah, fuck that. What kinda beat mate would I be if I didn't help you fix whatever the fuck you need to fix, right. So drop the big dick act, princess, we both know that's who you are… not yet, anyway." Ghazal says with a snicker. "Now come, let's do this! Doctor Merkaan's head-mending center is open for business!"
Reyn breaks into a chuckle as his friend drags him to his room.