(Travis's Viewpoint)
-August 13th, 2014-
It was almost midnight and the hospital was closed out to visitors. But it was never closed to me. I came to this hospital multiple times during the day and night to see Rachel. For some reason after it being over a month she still hasn't recovered and her situation keeps going on and off. I got to the base of the hospital and pulled out a ring from my pocket as I activated my belt.
"Hurricane, please. Air! Air! Air! Air!"
A green spell circle moved over me as I commanded the air to guide me up to her window and I floated inside. I then reverted back to my human self. I was carrying a book bag and placed it down next to me as I sat in the chair that was located next to Rachel's bed. The giant white room had some furniture, a TV, and some monitors that were attached to Rachel to let people know how she is doing. I opened the bag next to me and pulled out some marigolds which were Rachel's favorite flowers and placed them on her chest sideways.
"I should've been stronger and quicker to end that fight. I didn't think that you would get involved so easily. I don't understand why you haven't gotten any better, the bullet was taken out and your body has healed up without any major damages. So why have you not woken up yet?" I said to her moving my hand down the side of her face. I felt so powerless and in a lot of emotional pain as I stared at someone who was like a second mother to me lying in this bed. "If Casey was here I'm sure he would have found a way to wake you up. With all of my powers I have nothing that can save you." I said again with tears running down my face. I reached out and grabbed her hand as I lifted it up and squeezed it.
"Don't…Cry…." I heard Rachel mumble. Even in the state that she is in she still cared about me. It was just too hard not to cry. I then heard the door open as a man walked in and turned on the light. The man then sighed before he spoke to me.
"Again Travis? I don't know how much I have to tell you that she'll be okay. I'm the best doctor this state has ever seen so you can go home and rest easy. I don't even know how you got in here to begin with, but you should know that if you are caught you can get charged for Criminal Trespassing right?" The head doctor of the building said. His name was Dr. Viktor Welsh. He was six foot two, white skin, blue eyes, blonde hair that he slit back when he comes to work, wears blue jeans and black shoes with the traditional white garb that all of the doctors wore. He had a silver wristwatch on his left hand. He had a voice that really masculine sounding as well, it made the office ladies swoon all the time. For the past two weeks he knew that somehow I'd sneak into the hospital and stay by Rachel's side always checking up on her and bringing her fresh flowers.
"I'm sorry, I know that what I'm doing is wrong but she's the closest thing to a family that I have. I can't help but be worried about her." I said to him. Welsh walked over and placed his hand on my shoulder.
"Have you a home? You could really use a shower." He said to me.
"Not at the current moment. For the past month I've kind of been living outside. I just haven't had the energy of being around people right now. I've been through quite a lot and I have a lot going on inside my head right now that I think it's better to avoid people for a while." I said in a low tone.
"Look Travis, why don't you go into that bathroom and get freshened up. I have some clothes you can borrow and I'll wash those for you. How about this, if you help out around the hospital I'll let you stay here for a bit. How's that sound? You worry so much about Rachel how about staying here for a while. I can set up a room for you here and you can pay off your rent as it were by working for me." Dr. Welsh suggested. I ended up taking him on his offer; think that it might be better than sleeping in a tree. After I was done taking a shower I put on these blue jeans and I watched as my black hand belt transition over to the new jeans I was wearing.
"I love how this thing will stay with me no matter what pair of pants I wear." I thought. I heard the door open and I looked over to see Dr. Welsh walk in. He took me to his office and ran by a list of things I'll be doing for him. He gave me a clipboard with a list of patient's names that I'll be cleaning their rooms when they get discharged. I was looking through the list and saw a familiar name that was located in the next door over from Rachel. "Manuela is here?" I thought as I saw her name. I looked over at Dr. Welsh, "How long has Manuela Urbieta been here?" I asked him worried. He had told me that she had been here for two days. She was attacked near the bars and was brought in with bruises all over her body. She had been asleep since her admittance and hasn't woken up. "Can I go see her real quick?" I asked him. I watched him lift his hand up in the air giving me the okay as I walked out into the hall and began running down them looking for her room. I had to go down another level of the building when I found her room and when I got up to the room I grabbed the handle but didn't turn it.
I was hesitant about opening the door, "What am I doing?" I thought to myself. I then ignored my confused emotions and opened the door as I walked inside. The room was just like the one Rachel was in; the lights were off and Manuela lay on her side facing the window where the moonlight beamed through the windows. I walked and sat next to her bed. "What is she doing here? I thought she was staying at DJ's, so how come she's here?" I then remembered that I needed to give Karina my mana and I ran out the hospital after notifying Dr. Welsh where I was going.
While I was driving to DJ's my mind wouldn't stop thinking about Manuela and her condition she is in. I had gotten to the intersection of Wooster and Main which is in the downtown area. A few people were out and about drinking and going to the bars. I had stopped at a red light as I overheard a couple of people talking and what they said infuriated me. "Did you see that chick the other night? She was fucking hot; I don't know why she didn't want to have a fun night with me I'm one of the top fraternities at the college? Sucks I had to beat her down before she could run her mouth to the cops Hahahaha." This guy was clearly drunk and then I saw him pull out a wallet that was pink and had a heart on the flap. "The girl is fucking loaded though. She had about five hundred dollars in this thing when I took it off of her. This Manuela chick sounds like she is an illegal. I hope she gets her ass deported! That'll teach her to not turn down some free pleasure." I had heard enough as I got off my bike and parked it on the side of the road and walked straight up to this guy and his three friends. I reached out and quickly snatched the wallet from him. He and his friends quickly looked over at me.
They all wore blue jeans, had BGSU shirts on them, all three tall white males, one had blonde hair which was the one talking trash and the other two had black hair, one was neatly combed back while the other was all curly. "You are going to want to give that back before I open a can of ass whooping on you boy." The blonde hair guy said. I put the wallet in my back pocket.
"You are most certainly welcome to try you frat piece of shit." I said with anger in my eyes. The curly hair guy on my right went to punch me but I moved my upper body back and then grabbed his arm and spun him around. I then took my leg out and he tripped while spinning onto the ground. His combed back hair friend went to try and uppercut me but I spun around him and then got in his face, "Let me show you how to uppercut." I said to him as I took my right hand and connected it hard with his jaw. I could see blood flowing from his mouth as he brought his head down to look at me. I then raised my right fist and punched him straight in his left eye causing him to fall over. The blonde hair guy ran at me and starting sending a barrage of fists that I just dodged left and right to. He then got close to my face and right before he punched me in the face I kicked him in the groan and he kneeled over, "I'll show you what a barrage of punches should look and feel like and then when I'm done you won't be using lil fratty anymore. Anyone who does shit like you to someone who is underage doesn't deserve to feel pleasure." I said to him. I then punched him across his face with both my hands, on my last punch I raised his face up with a palm of my hand and sucker punched him at the jaw line. He then fell up against one of the businesses with his back up against the glass and blood running from his nose and mouth.
"Pwease! Stahp! I vhad enough! I'm sowwy! Just pwease stahp!" He said incoherently. I then walked up to him with nothing but anger in my eyes.
"I'm sure this girl you tried to screw said the same thing." I said to him really sternly. I then raised my right foot and stomped on his crotch area as he screamed in pain. While he and his friend were sprawled on the ground I took out a ring and scanned it.
"Light, please."
I then casted the light towards them blinding them and the entire block as I rode back off to DJ's place. "People like that sicken the hell out of me." I said under my breath as I tried to calm down on my way to my actual destination. It didn't take long for me to get where I needed to be. I walked up to the front door of DJ's place and took out the key in my pocket and unlocked the front door. I slowly walked inside and closed the doors. I looked around the dark room to see that nobody was here. I walked up the steps in the middle of the room and walked towards the hallway. Once I entered the hallway and on the right were steps to the second floor. I walked up them slowly trying to not make any noise. I then approached a white door with a piece of paper that said "Karina's Room" and I grabbed the knob and turned it. "I know that to wake Karina I only have to turn on the lights otherwise she is a heavy sleeper to noise." I thought to myself. I walked over to her bedside and grabbed her hand with the Please Ring and placed at my belt.
"Please, please."
My orange mana then flowed out from my body and into her. I gave her more mana than normal which would allow her to last for an entire week. I felt a bit weak doing so but thanks to the Dragon Style Rings and the Drago-Timer I now have access to more mana than ever before. I put Karina's hand back on her chest and gave her this stuffed animal I had bought some time ago for her. It was a stuffed unicorn plushie and I wrote Karina's name on its side. I turned around to walk out of the room and I heard Karina speak. "Uh…Travis…I miss you…Where did you go?" She said in her sleep. I stopped when she said those words and I looked over my shoulder to her.
"I'm still here." I said whispering.
"I want you to come home…" Karina said more in her sleep. I then slowly closed the door and walked downstairs. Once I got downstairs I saw a person standing over the Wizard Chest that held my rings. I had a hard time seeing the person because of how dark the room was and I took this to my advantage. I slowly walked up to him; the person had picked up one of my rings. I then wrapped my right arm around his throat and put him in a headlock and at the same time I did this I had grabbed the hand that held onto my ring and brought it to his back and then lifted his hand until it was up over his shoulder.
"You got about five seconds before I break this arm to tell me what you are doing here." I said to the guy. The guy was moaning in pain but took this advantage to walk backwards until he got me to the steps causing us to fall backwards. The guy took this time to push off of me and I hopped onto my feet as I grab him by his collar and when I pulled him back, he grabbed my arm and rushed backwards to me. When he did he bent down and took his other arm and wrapped it under my leg and flipped me over his body and slamming me on my back. He then laid on the ground and wrapped his legs around my throat and grabbed one of my arms and put me in an arm lock. He then pulled my arm while choking me. I then heard him say something.
"This ring? TRAVIS?!" He said. I was writhing in pain from my arm and then the pain was gone as the person released me from the lock. We both got up as I tried to guess who this guy was. Once we all stood up the guy ran up and hugged me as he started sounding like he was about to cry. "I've been wondering when you would return. I've been looking everywhere for you for the past month. It's great to see you again!" The guy that was just about to break my arm had quickly turned into this energetic like child who had too much candy. I broke him free from me and pushed him away from me.
"I'm sorry but I don't know who the hell you are. First you break into this house and then try to break my arm off? Plus now you somehow know me?! Who are you?" I asked him so confused as to what was going on. The guy turned on one of the lamps in the room and I got a better look at his face. He didn't look like anyone I knew.
"You don't remember me? I thought we were going to be best friends forever? You can't tell me that you forgot all about me?" He said confused. I didn't know who he was and turned around and walked over to the door and opened it.
"You need to get out. If you do I won't harm you or force you out but you need to leave now and never come back here." I instructed the guy. He walked up and shut the door and took out a necklace from his pocket.
"You see this? You gave this to me on my 7th birthday. It was a friendship necklace your parents bought for us. It was a two piece set you hold the one that says Best and I have the one that says Friends." This guy told me. I immediately remembered giving one to my friend Mark Boger and that only infuriated me. I quickly grabbed his throat and slammed him up against the wall next to the door.
"Look I don't know who you think are or why you think this is funny, but I'm warning you right now that the person I gave that necklace too died by MY hands. He went to the hospital and my parents told me that he died from his head injury. Shortly after hearing that we packed and moved out of the west end and straight to Bowling Green to start a new life. So don't sit here and tell me that you are Mark Boger because that is impossible." I said with a threatening tone.
"Is that what my parent's told yours? It makes sense now. But I need you to believe me that I am speaking the truth. I didn't die I was just knocked out for a couple days. I was never dead and this isn't a joke I'm being 100% honest here. I survived; also think about it if I was really dead you would've been taken away from your family. Just think about this before you make another mistake." This guy said to me pleading.
"Another mistake?" I thought. This guy was not making any damn sense. "Why the hell are you here? How do you know about this place?" I asked him.
"I stopped by to help out with the damages here during the tornado alert some time ago. I got to become friends with everyone here and they have allowed me to stay. I've been staying out back for the past few days." He said. I released my grip on him as things just weren't making any damn sense.
"Fine." I said as I let him go and walked out the door. Before I did I heard this guy say something to me.
"Is that it? You're just going to walk out again? Leave everyone here to their daily routine which is nothing but worrying the hell about you and wondering if you are ever going to return? This isn't the Travis I knew! You cared about people at one point! You did so that you would gladly give up your own life if it meant to put smiles on over a hundred people's faces! Now your just some damaged person looking for a reason to keep on living! Stop pushing your friends away! Stop running away from everyone that is trying to help you! Everyone here is worried sick about you and I haven't spent the past 9 years looking for you to find a person who is so damaged that he can't even stand on his own two feet anymore! Where is the real Travis Edge that everyone knows and loves?! What happened to him huh?!" The guy said as I walked on my bike and put my helmet on and drove off into the night.
His words were ringing inside my head. I just don't know what was going on with my life right now. I was just as confused as to who I am as much as everyone else. "I can't keep running from this, somewhere soon I'm going to have to get over this." I thought as I zoomed down the streets and back to the hospital. Once I returned I went to show my badge to gain access to upstairs so I could sleep. But I had lost my badge, "Shit did I drop it when I was fighting that guy? Damn it what am I going to do?" I thought as the lady at the front desk told me that I couldn't go any farther without my ID and then I heard the phone ring. The lady picked it up and I could hear someone scream on the other end.
"THERE'S A MONSTER IN ROOM 209!" I heard from the other end. I quickly acted as I ran behind the later and pressed the button that allowed me access to the upper floors. The lady at the desk was yelling at me but I knew what the room was, It was Manuela's. I quickly got up to the door and busted through the door and when I got inside the room was completely empty.
"MANUELA! Where are you?! Manuela!" I yelled in the room and then I heard something from the bathroom that was its own closed space to my right. I walked over to the door and grabbed the handle and pushed open the door. When it opened up I saw Manuela collapsed on the floor, right before I walked inside I heard a chuckling from someone behind me. I slipped on my Driver On ring getting ready to fight and when I turned around I saw Dr. Welsh standing there. "Dr. Welsh I need you to get everyone to safety there is a monster running around and it might still be in the area." I said as a warning to him. But he just stood there. "Doctor?" I said.
I then heard something move on the floor and I looked down to see a black thin tail with a red heart at the end and it stabbed right into my back and I felt something being pumped into my body. The pain caused me to fall to the ground and when I looked up I could see Dr. Welsh holding Manuela in his hands and a woman who was standing right next to him. I knew this woman to be his wife Elizabeth Welsh. The black tail was connected to her back and in just a split second I watched as Dr. Welsh had a purple miasma surround him. He then transformed into a Phantom while holding Manuela's collapsed body in his arms. He had this black circular face with a red horn sticking out of his forehead. He had little bat wings on the backside of his head and red eyes in the circle of his face. The rest of his face was red and veiny like someone whose face was extremely burnt. His entire body was a tinted red and muscular like. He had red flaming hair and dirty yellow claws. He had these huge yellow veins that glowed all over his legs and feet. He had white fur surrounding his wrists. He had a red tail erupt out from behind him with a black heart. His chest had a shape of a black hurt that was shattering to pieces.
"Oh my you had to come back here so soon. I was just about to inject my special potion I made into Manuela. I didn't want you around to see this but I guess things just don't go our way does it?" He said. I watched as Elizabeth Welsh took out a 8oz bottle with some green liquid in it and placed it on Manuela's stomach. Dr. Welsh then used one hand to open the cork on the bottle off and placed it on Manuela's lips. The contents went into her mouth and once all of the liquid went down her throat I watched him raised his one hand while still maintaining her body in one arm so she didn't fall. He raised his hand over her face and I saw a black claw erupt out of the palm of his hand and injected it into her neck.
"NOOO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HER!? LET! HER! GO! MANUELA WAKE UP! PLEASE YOU GOTTA GET UP! MANUE-AGGGGGHHH!" I screamed as I felt more of whatever Elizabeth was injecting into me start causing more pain. Then I watched as Dr. Welsh took his claw out and dropped Manuela's body onto the floor. The moment she hit the floor I watched as her eyes quickly snapped open and growing a bright green. She then slowly stood up and turned around to Dr. Welsh. She bent down on one knee and Welsh held out his hand. Manuela then licked one of his fingers and kissed his hand.
"What are your orders Master?" Manuela asked in a monotone like voice. At this point Elizabeth ripped her tail out of my body and whatever was going on that was keeping me in pain, just vanished. I quickly got up ready for a fight.
"I want you to know something Travis. I run this hospital, my goal is to find people's hopes and destroy them so I can give rise to more Phantoms for Master Wiseman. If the people aren't Gates than I the Incubus Phantom and my lovely wife the Succubus Phantom, are allowed to use them as pawns until our hearts content, and then when they have outlived their usefulness, we will kill them. Also anyone under our control gain some immense strength, Manuela dear why don't you show him for us please." Incubus said staring at Manuela as she turned around to face me with those bright green eyes.
"Of course Master." She said wickedly. I quickly tried to move out of the way but Manuela took one step and already had grabbed my neck and lifted me up off the ground by two inches. She was about to crush my windpipe but instead dropped my body and then did a jab into my gut slamming me into the wall behind me. I then fell to the ground and when I did I had her grab the back of my jacket, "Get up off your feet mongrel and FIGHT ME!" She said as she threw me up into the ceiling and when I came falling down she did a right side punch into my side and that sent me flying towards the window. Incubus was laughing hysterically and I watched as Manuela ran towards me with her right fist raised and the only thing I could do was lift my arms up to defend but instead of punching me she grabbed them and lifted me over her head. Once I was above her head she raised her leg and kicked the bed clear across the room and slammed me down onto the ground. I was on my back and started to lose consciousness.
"Finish him my dear, but don't kill him I need him alive." Incubus said. Manuela raised a fist and punched me in my diaphragm causing me to instantly pass out. I woke up a few hours later and saw myself strapped on a bed. My legs were strapped down very tightly and so were my wrists. I looked all over the place trying to find some way to get free. The room around me was white everything it almost felt like a stereotypical room at some mental hospital. I then saw a black door that seemed to be the only way in and out of this room. I also saw Incubus and Elizabeth Welsh walk inside. Incubus had a small vial in his hand and was still in his Phantom form. Elizabeth was still in her human form. She had long blonde hair, was the same height as me, pink fingernails, wore the same white outfit as all the other doctors, and wore these black dress pants and black high heels. She had her black tail wrapped around her waist and it was moving up and down.
"Open his mouth and keep it there." Incubus said. Elizabeth walked over and forced my mouth open. Incubus walked over to me, "Now this potion that I created has the ability to numb the body as well as cause the person to be unable to think properly. Think about being blacked out but still able to move freely. You will have this go into your system through the mouth and when you're done my partner here will give you a bit of her poison you can say so that you will be under our control just like Manuela is under mine. We are aware of your fight with Dark Wizard, and since he is not around we might as well use you. Soon you will be part of the Phantoms and will begin to destroy people's hope instead of saving it. Let's begin with the process." Incubus said as he uncorked the bottle.
I tried to fight it but was powerless to do anything. I kept struggling and moving all over the table but nothing I was doing was working and then the liquid went down my throat as I struggled to fight the potion internally and as soon as the last drop was in my mouth I felt my mind go completely blank and then I felt a sharp pain in my neck. Something was pouring into my blood stream and I quickly lost control of myself and the feeling to protect people turned into something more sinister.