My second story. It picks up where my first story "The fight against Latnok" left off but if you didn't read that one it doesn't matter, you can still read this. There are some things you need to know though. Kyle and Jessi are dating but Amanda will still be an important part of the story, Declan is training with Foss to become Kyle and Jessi's bodyguard, Latnok was finished in the last story but of course someone new just has to come along, like the title says, this story will take place while Kyle and Jessi are attending UW but for this first chapter, it's their last day of summer. In this chapter Jessi gets into a fight at The Rack.
It was their last day at home before college started. Kyle, Jessi, Declan, Lori, Mark, Jackie, and Josh were hanging out at The Rack.
"I can't believe this is the last time we'll be able to chill like this over here," Josh said. He wasn't wearing his Rack uniform because he took the day off to spend time with his three siblings in The Rack before they left. He was happy for them because like all high school kids he heard great things about college but he was also sad because he would be the only child in the house which would just be weird. Lori was going to Colgate University in upstate New York, which by some miracle, Hillary had also gotten into. And of course, Kyle and Jessi were going to UW, which was thankfully in Seattle. As for Josh, he still had two more years of high school. It was bad enough that Andy was in Colorado but now Kyle, his brother and best friend, was also leaving. "At least you guys will be still be in Seattle so you can visit every weekend," he said to Jessi and Kyle.
"Hey, I'll be sure to drop by whenever we have break," Lori said comfortingly patting him on the shoulder. Lori and Josh might have fought a lot but they really did love each other. Without Lori, Josh would have no one to keep making wise ass remarks at. Lori turned to Mark and sadly said, "I can't believe we're going to have to do this long distance." Lori could have easily picked a school much closer to UW than Colgate but she really wanted to go to a school on the east coast. This was something she had planned for a long time. She wasn't counting on meeting Mark.
"You guys are going to love, UW," Jackie said to Kyle and Jessi. "It's awesome. Especially if you're in the junior Latnok program. We might seem like a bunch of nerds but trust me, we throw some insane parties. And I don't mean like that chemistry party we had last time. That was just an official function. Kyle, remember when I first met you told you I held the record on campus for the longest keg stand? Of course, you probably don't even know what a keg stand is, do you? Declan you'll have to teach your friends the ways of college life," she said winking at him.
"But I'm not going to be a college student," Declan told her. "I'll just be cutting grass there so I can keep an eye on them." Foss and Declan had both gotten undercover jobs on campus so they could be close to Kyle and Jessi. Foss was, of course, a security guard while Declan would mow the fields. They weren't really interesting or well paying jobs but as far as they were concerned their real job was to protect Kyle and Jessi and those undercover jobs would keep them close enough to respond quickly incase they were needed.
Jackie shrugged and said, "So what? You helped save us from Cassidy. As far as every student in the Latnok program is concerned, you'll always be welcome at our parties." She was clearly trying to get Declan back and everyone knew it. She noticed Kyle and Jessi looking very solemn. Jackie knew why. "Guys, relax. You heard what Kyle's grandfather said. Latnok is nothing more than a program for gifted students now. There won't be anymore top secret illegal experiments."
"I still don't know if I want to be associated with them," Kyle said warily. He and Jessi had every right to be suspicious. When Cassidy had lured them to join, Latnok didn't seem anything like a highly secretive evil organization. But Cassidy had still managed to use them and the other students for his own plans. How could they be so sure that the new management won't do the same?
"Kyle, trust me," Mark said taking a break from kissing Lori. "Once you graduate from UW and apply for a job wherever, if they see that you were part of the Latnok program, you're guaranteed to get that job. It looks incredibly good on a resume. Not to mention you'll make all kinds of valuable connections that'll help you out later in life." Mark's words reminded Kyle of what Emily said about college in general.
"And also, if you ever need money, you can always enter in those competitions like you did last time," Jackie pointed out. "They paid you 10 grand last time, didn't they? And one of you guys is guaranteed to win. But just be fair to the rest of us and don't participate in every single one. I mean, give the rest of us a chance to win too, you know?" She and Mark looked specifically at Jessi while she said this.
"What? Do you really think I'm like that?" Jessi asked incredulously.
Just then there was a loud scuffle a few tables away. Everyone looked to see what was going on. L.K. Deichman, the guy Kyle sat with in the cafeteria on his first day of school was looking nervously at three large angry guys, one of whom was Amanda's ex, Charlie Tanner. Charlie shoved Deichman hard easily making him fall. The three of them laughed but so did several other teenagers from school who were watching. Deichman was pretty much the loser of the school and nobody liked him. Even Josh and Lori wouldn't be caught dead talking to him because they were afraid what their classmates might think. The only people that didn't treat him like an untouchable were Kyle and Jessi, Kyle because he accepted everybody, and Jessi because she was also an outcast for much of the school year.
"Where the hell do you get off drawing a picture of my girlfriend and giving it to her?" Charlie growled while looking down at Deichman menacingly.
"Chill out! It was just a drawing!" Deichman stammered.
"Get up!" Charlie ordered. Deichman got to his feet trembling all the way. As soon as he was up however Charlie punched him in the stomach causing him to fall back down gasping for air. Everyone laughed again. Kyle stared in shock at not only what Charlie was doing but also at the fact that everyone else in The Rack, people who weren't even jerks like Charlie, were laughing. He wouldn't stand for this. He got up and made his way towards them.
Charlie grabbed Deichman from the floor and lifted him up. He reared his fist back about to strike him again when Kyle yelled, "Stop it! Let him go, right now!" All three of the bullies turned around and saw Kyle standing all by himself. Kyle turned to everyone else in The Rack and yelled, "What's wrong with you people? How could you all laugh at this? What if it were you up here getting beaten up by three guys?" Charlie laughed and pushed Deichman away. Beating up Kyle was going to be a lot more fun than Deichman. He and his buddies advanced on him.
Kyle raised his fists and got into a fighting stance and the crowd of people cheered excitedly. They reminded Kyle of the ancient Romans that cheered in the Coliseum while gladiators tore each other to pieces. Why is it that even good human beings are instinctively drawn to violence? he wondered. But he could always think about that later. Now was the time to fight. Charlie still thought of him as the guy who never throws a punch but Kyle was about to show everybody just how much he had changed this summer. Before anyone could throw a punch, however, Declan suddenly arrived and stood by Kyle's side. He glared at his former friends and said, "Three against one? I don't think so. You mess with Kyle, you mess with me." He knew that Kyle could easily handle all three of them but there was no way in hell he would let him have all the fun. Besides, this was a great opportunity to impress Lori…
Charlie shook his head in disgust. "What the hell happened to you this year McDonough?" he asked. "You know what? I don't even care. I'm going to enjoy stomping your face in. McDonough's all mine," he told his friends. He and Declan stepped away from the others.
Charlie lunged forward and threw a punch at Declan's face but Declan dodged. He threw two punches at Charlie who managed to block both of them. Charlie threw another punch but Declan ducked punched him in the ribs. While they were going at it Charlie's friends tried to got ready to hit Kyle at the same time but all of a sudden, Jessi ran in front of him. All of them looked surprised. Jessi got into a fighting stance and the crowd went absolutely wild. "Jessi, no, they're mine," Kyle protested but she just ignored him.
Both of Charlie's friends looked reluctant to hit a girl so Jessi decided to hit first. In a lightning fast motion she punched the guy on the left two times. It was so quick her hands looked like blurs and both punches landed before his head could move back from the first punch. It was easily enough force to knock him down. Whatever hesitation his friend felt about hitting a girl was gone and he threw a punch at her but she blocked and responded with a punch to his face that send him staggering back. He didn't expect a girl to hit that hard. The guy on the ground grabbed her leg and tried to pull her down but she kicked him in the face and knocked him out.
While her back was turned the second guy tried to charge her and knock her on the ground but she jumped into the air and to the astonishment of everyone watching, she did a back flip clean over his head and landed behind him. The crowd gasped and the guy just stood there in shock for a second confused about what happened. He turned around and was met with a blindingly fast combination of several punches. When Jessi stopped hitting him he just stood there for a second, then swayed on his feet, and fell forward into Jessi who caught him. She wasn't done with him yet.
Declan and Charlie continued to go at it but by now the fight had turned into a grappling match with both opponents struggling to take the other down. All of a sudden his friend's unconscious body came flying out of nowhere slammed into Charlie and knocked him and Declan down. Before Declan could protest her intrusion, Jessi ran over, hopped over Declan, and grabbed Charlie by the throat and lifted him into the air like she loved to do. She just held him there for a few seconds while he squirmed helplessly and struggled to breathe. The whole Rack watched in awe as she held him in the air with just one arm. They all knew there was something weird about her but none of them would have guessed that she was that strong. After a few seconds Charlie stopped struggling as he slipped into unconsciousness. That's good enough. I don't want to kill him she thought with a satisfied smile and released her grip. Charlie fell on the floor motionless but still alive. Jessi glared at the previously screaming crowd which was now completely silent, daring somebody to step up and challenge her. Of course, no one did.
That victorious feeling was short lived however, because ten minutes later Jessi found herself standing outside The Rack looking at it with a very sad expression on her face. Her lip was quivering and she looked like she was about to cry. She had been permanently banned, along with Declan, Charlie, and his friends from ever coming back to The Rack again. Out of all of them Jessi took it the hardest. The Rack was basically her only hangout spot; it was the only place she knew. She'd been coming here since her earliest days out of the pod when she just wanted to get away from Emily. "I can't believe they banned me from The Rack," she said looking down and clutching her head with grief. "I love The Rack. Where will I go now when I want to relax and have a strawberry smoothie? This can't be happening to me…"
"This is ridiculous! How could they do this to us?" Declan shouted pacing around in the parking lot. His face was bloody and bruised from fighting with Charlie but he still had plenty of adrenaline left over from the fight which was making him annoyingly hyper. "Yeah, I can understand why Charlie got banned but what did me and Jessi do? All we were doing was saving Deichman from getting his ass kicked! What were we supposed to do? Stand back and watch laughing like everyone else?" he yelled towards the building as if the manager inside could hear him. "Huh? Is that what you wanted us to do?"
"Oh please, just shut up," Lori said rolling her eyes at him. "Everyone knows you don't care about Deichman. You just didn't want Kyle to get all the glory. That's why you didn't get up until Kyle was already over there."
"Hey, that's not true, Trager!" he shot back indignantly. "I don't like to watch three guys beating up one weaker guy. That's just wrong. I wasn't going to just stand back and watch them kick the crap out of him!" he declared. Jackie gazed at him adoringly but Lori just shook her head in pity; she knew him better than that. Actually they were both right. Declan didn't like what Charlie was doing, but like Lori said, he wasn't planning on getting involved until he saw Kyle confronting them and he felt bad that he wasn't up there himself.
"Hey, weren't you one of the guys that put me head first into a garbage can freshmen year?" Deichman asked speaking up for the first time. Josh tried his hardest to not burst out laughing while Kyle looked completely aghast that Declan would do such a thing. Lori smiled at him mockingly. Let's see you get out of this one McDonough she thought. Mark and Jackie also looked very interested in hearing his explanation while Jessi was completely oblivious to the conversation as she was too busy staring at The Rack.
Declan turned red. "Uh did I?" he said awkwardly. "I don't remember that. I mean freshmen year was such a long time ago. Maybe you have me confused with somebody else…"
"No, he doesn't," Lori said shaking her head. "I remember seeing you guys. It was Preston, Charlie, and you," she said jabbing him in the chest with her finger.
"Okay fine! But I was different back then. And as you just saw, I'm no longer friends with any of those guys," he replied pointing to Charlie and his friends who were scowling at them from across the parking lot. They looked like they were waiting for Deichman to be alone so they could finish what they started. Declan was so hyper right now he just wanted to run over there and continue his fight with Charlie which Jessi had interrupted. But Kyle had to be such a killjoy by warning him that if he did that he would have to fight all three of them by himself and no one would help him.
While Jackie comforted Jessi and told her that there were many more similar places all over Seattle, Kyle offered to walk Deichman back to his car which was parked next to where Charlie and his friends were standing. Declan watched warily to make sure that they wouldn't try to jump the two of them. But even if they did, by the time he ran over there to help, Kyle would have been done with them. Still he had too much excess adrenaline left over from the fight. So when he saw Charlie say something to Deichman and laugh with his friends, he just had to shout across the parking lot, "Yo, Charlie! How does it feel to get your ass kicked by a girl?" He laughed hysterically as he watched Charlie's grin vanish. He was first mad that Jessi had interfered in his fight but his feelings changed when he realized that it was way more humiliating to Charlie to get beaten by a girl.
But a moment later Charlie's smile came back and he responded by yelling, "You know what Declan? I really don't care. Because I'm still going to be playing for UConn this year while you'll be stuck here at home! Have fun watching me on T.V!" All of Declan's extra energy just drained out of him with that comment. Because of his ankle, his dream of playing college basketball, and maybe someday the NBA, was dead. Charlie would still be able to follow that dream though. UConn was one of Declan's favorite college basketball teams and every time he'd watch them play he'd see Charlie playing. He would rather have lost the fight to Charlie than get reminded of that.
Kyle returned a few seconds later. "So, Kyle," Lori began, deciding it was the right time to ask him, "I saw you putting your fists up and everything but were you really going to fight Charlie?" she asked raising an eyebrow. "I mean, I can picture you dodging all his punches until he gets tired and gives up, but I don't think you would have actually hit him. I mean," she chuckled, "that just wouldn't be you now, would it?"
"I don't know about that," Josh said skeptically. "Remember last month when Cassidy broke into our house and Kyle sent him flying through our patio door? Kyle can fight back when he needs to."
"I know he can, Josh, but how often does he do it?" Lori countered. "Cassidy threatened to kill us and Amanda, and Jessi, not to mention he shocked him several times. All that must have finally pushed him over the edge. But he's still Kyle and unless he was in a situation like that again he wouldn't hurt a fly let alone a jerk like Charlie." Lori had no idea how much Kyle had changed after that night. She still thought he was the same person he was when he came to their house and for the most part he still was. But he wondered what she would think if she ever found out that he killed someone. No, I can't regret that. I did what I had to do and no one else will find out about it he told himself sharply. Jessi didn't say anything but she squeezed his hand showing her support.
Meanwhile in Washington D.C., Nate sat alone in an interrogation room. Perez had him flown out of the Arizona state penitentiary to the nation's capital. Once he landed, he was immediately escorted to some anonymous government building and led into this room. Like all those police interrogation rooms, this one had a large mirror on the wall, which Nate knew was a one way window from which people outside could see him. After a while he just put his head down and almost fell asleep when he finally heard someone enter the room. He lazily looked up expecting to see Perez but it was someone else. The man sat down across from him but didn't even look at him. Instead his eyes were fixed on some files he put down on the table in front of him.
For a long time he just kept reading the files which, Nate guessed, were probably on him. Nate didn't say anything. He just waited patiently for the man to finish reading. He didn't even know who these people were but Perez had told him that they were some government agency. After a while Nate was beginning to get bored again. "Hey pal, wake me up when you're ready to talk," he said and put his head back down. The man looked up at him for the first time and closed the folder.
"So you're supposed to be some kind of genius," he said not looking very impressed. Nate rolled his eyes and looked up. There was definitely something familiar about his him. Nate didn't know where exactly he had seen him but he knew he did. It wasn't someone that he met personally but he could have seen his face on the news or wherever. "You don't look like one," the man remarked.
"That's because I'm not just a genius," Nate replied with a confident smirk. "I'm a prodigy. I don't mean to sound cocky, but I'm one of the smartest people in the world. You kinda have to be to get accepted into the junior Latnok program." As was his style, Nate stared the man right in the eye to show that he wasn't intimidated by him. The man was impressed by his confidence.
"Let's just hope you can live up to your talk," he said. He then slid his folder across the table to Nate. "This is your next assignment. You have forty eight hours to brief yourself on it. Feel free to use any of this building's facilities. You won't really see me again but Agent Perez will be monitoring you. If you have any problems talk to him. You're being given a great opportunity here. Not only will we keep you out of prison but we'll pay you very handsomely. Don't screw this up." With that the mysteriously familiar looking man got up and exited the room leaving Nate all by himself. Nate looked down at the contents of the folder. Apparently once the government found out that Kyle and Jessi could be much more useful out of the pod than in they lost interest in the whole bio-computer thing they had going on with Madacorp. Now, they had a different idea. Kyle and Jessi could be the perfect killing machines. The only problem was that they refused to cooperate. So two plans were set in motion. One would be led by agent Perez while the other would be led by Nate. After what he'd been through, Nate had absolutely no confidence in Perez's plan but the one that he was put in charge of could potentially work.
This is the last day I've had so much free time. After today I don't know when I'll be able to update again. It might be a while but please review, let me know what you think.