Chapter Three
Michael Jones, had squinty brown eyes and cracked glasses, to put it shortly. His arms were home to quite a few large tattoos, and he had extremely curly reddish brown hair spilling out from underneath a green striped beanie on that day.
His lips twitched up in a menacing smile, and he took a step back, noticing the other two behind his visitor. He lowered his knife, opened the door further, and gestured for them to enter.
"Michael who is it-" someone whispered inside the apartment.
Michael rolled his eyes as the party stepped inside, and they closed the door.
"Wow Ray, way to fucking go on hiding." Michael laughed, his voice slightly higher than Jordan had remembered from interviews and tournaments.
"Ray?" Barbara frowned, and looked around the room.
In the very corner of the apartment, the air sort of shivered, and the space around it seemed to go wobbly, as a defeated, slump-shouldered Brownman flickered into view.
Jordan smiled.
"Two birds with one stone." Miles whispered in his ear.
"The fucking reason I came here was to get away from these guys!" Ray stomped towards Jones and threw a hand in the Lads' direction angrily.
"Dude I'm sorry don't get mad at me, I didn't know." Michael shrugged.
"You weren't doing a great job of hiding anyways." Miles added, earning him a 'shut up' glare from his leader.
"They've been trying to recruit me for like a year now!" Ray glared at the ground. Jones looked confused. Everyone made their way over to the couch, and Jordan looked over at Barbara, who gave him an uncomfortable stare.
"Yeah, Barb, why don't you go across the streets, find a couple people and bring them over for a chat with us."
She nodded gratefully, and left the apartment.
"Miles, you too." he added. The boy looked crestfallen, but left without a word, and as the door swung shut behind him, Ray breathed out a sigh of relief.
Jordan placed himself on a stool across from the two 'celebrities', and clasped his hands together.
"Why don't I ever get to do the talk?" Miles complained, walking next to Barbara D on the pavement, his breath showing in white clouds the way winter makes it, so that every word or breath or sound is noticeable. Barb had always liked winter. Winter was cold, and cool.
She shrugged, trying not to get involved with his grumblings, and checked her list.
They twisted along pavements, dodging the occaisional rat and lost child, jumping over cracks in the stones and trying to avoid large groups of teens in hoodies.
"Wait." Miles said, and held out a hand to stop Barb from walking any farther.
Unfortunately he hit her straight in the chest, with his palm facing inward. Miles turned and looked at her with an apologetic smile. She glared at him, and shoved him off.
"I heard something fizz. And laughing." he explained, trying to continue his point without giggling. The cold wind blew past them, rustling both their hair back, and carrying the smell of burning. With a quick glance at each other, than ran to the left, down a couple of streets, heads turning rapidly left and right. Barbara was just about to launch off, when Miles got hit straight in the face by a dashing blur, and was launched to the ground with his attacker.
Behind the young man, was a pool of bright green, bubbling acid. Standing next to it, were two others, about the same age as themselves. A girl, and a boy. The laughter previously mentioned had come to an abrupt halt as the two rounded the corner.
Miles stood up and grabbed the first boy who had ran into them, and Barb raced over to stop the two others from running away.
"Did you do this?" she asked them, indicating the acid. The girl, she had bright red hair that hung in a straight curtain around her head, and wide blue eyes that at the time looked scared.
"No, not me-" she stammered.
"I'm not angry." Barb waved her hands and smiled, looking at the boy next. He looked strangely calm, considering that most Cops would've guessed that Miles and Barbara were undercover police officers by now, and should really have bolted. His nose was pretty large actually, now that she looked at it, and had light brown hair, with still, cautious hazel-ish eyes.
They both stayed silent. Miles flashed her a smile, and pushed the boy he was holding along to his feet.
"We want you to meet a couple of people. Come with us and you'll be fine. Try to run, and we'll kill you." Miles told them all, going for the fear tactic. And with that, they all shuffled nervously, and without another word, back down the street and to the apartment.
"So you guys've heard of the Lads, right?" Jordan started. Michael nodded, and his friend stood up, forming words, but Jordan raised a hand, and a gust of tear-jerking wind forced him back onto the couch. The gamer looked startled, and pointed to Jordan's hand with a slack jaw. Ray however, looked unimpressed.
"If we're all getting so comfy with each other's thu'ums I might as well use mine, Brownman." the Lad said, his words ice cold and threatening.
"MLPMichael," Jordan started. "-can I call you Michael?" he asked, and the boy nodded.
"We've been tracking you for about a month now, and rumours get around fast. Whatever happened to that guy who stole your wallet last week?" Jordan asked. Michael looked stunned, but remained silent.
"Hm?" Jordan asked. Michael shook his head.
"Yeah. You both have powerful thu'ums, and we're planning a pretty big attack soon. We need you two."
"Attack on who?" Ray asked.
"The Plats. They recently bombed round here, didn't they?" Jordan asked gently, and the host's eyes lit up like embers swept away on the wind. He nodded.
"Look, you both have your reasons for joining us, and I'm not keen on playing around. So if you want revenge, we can give you basic training before the big attack on Thursday." he explained, and leaned back to study both of their expressions.
Michael looked pretty out of it, far away and thinking about something, but the Brownman was very much there. He sighed, and nodded.
"Fuck it." he said, and shook hands with Jordan.
"I want their blood and you're never gonna stop with this, so really, what choice do I have?" he concluded. Michael nodded.
"Me too man, I want in. But I'm not really clear on what we're doin-"
The door opened with a bang, and Barb and Miles strode in, with two guys and a girl. All three looked the same age as the others in the room, but their heads were low, a sign of respect, and slight fear.
"Well that was fast." Jordan said, and stood up to greet the visitors. He jerked his head towards boys on the couch.
"These two're in." he added, and walked slowly towards the newbies.
"Who're you guys?"
A tall boy with a thin face and a cap too big for his head, stepped forward first, his head still slightly tilted towards the ground, although he made eye contact.
"Caleblovesyou, nine thousand, five hundred gamerscore, and-"
Jordan squinted and waved his hand.
"Can we not?" he said.
"Uh, sure." the boy lifted his head up higher. "Caleb Denecour, caleblovesyou." he said.
The girl in the back piped up, her straight red hair framing her face as she approached Jordan.
"Lindsay Tuggey, Lindsaytugglife." she made eye contact, and for a moment, he noticed the excitable glint hidden under the aura of seriousness that she emitted.
And the last guy spoke up.
"Gavin Free, gavinofree." he said loudly.
A moment of tense silence followed, before Jordan clapped his hands together, and looked at Miles. He nodded, and in a second, all of them were standing back at the base of operations for the Lads.
"What the fuck just happened?" Michael screamed.
"Calm down, this is the base. Just a little portal magic." Jordan laughed.
"Ok, so every one of you is here because of your thu'um, but does anyone know what that means?" Jordan began the long, well rehearsed introduction to; You're a freak, but you're a good freak.
No one answered. He started pacing as people found seats.
"Ok so your thu'um is kind of like another way of saying your aura, your mana." he stopped pacing and faced them. "Your 'power'."
"Everyone has a thu'um, but not everyone can use it, or has a very useful one." Miles stepped in.
"Everyone is born with the same potential, but it's very rare to develop it through your lifetime, and to use it. A lot of people have similar ones, some people can move shit with their mind, some people can create a little bit of water if they're in dire need, or heal themselves in the midst of battle." Barbara stepped in, and continued, "But those are weak. Not the heavy duty stuff that the Lads do."
"You are not a freak. You are special, unique, and powerful." Jordan took over again, and while he spoke, he looked each one in the eye, looked each one of them in their slightly shocked, enthralled eyes.
"To expand your thu'um, or to make it individual, you must have an extremely over active imagination, your thu'um will often link to your personality in some way. People with a strong thu'um are almost always people who're different from birth. Or in some cases, you could create your thu'um." he said.
"What do you mean?" Gavin asked.
"There are three main types of thu'um." Jordan said, and looked at his comrades, still all stood up. "Potential. This means that you do not have strong thu'um, and it doesn't do much, if anything at all. It's what eighty nine percent of the population possess. If you work or go to school and never dream or imagine or wish or have strange occurrences in your life, this is what you will end up with." Jordan finished, and Barbara continued.
"Mental. This is the kind that you create yourself, subconsciously. It comes from something linked to your personality. This is very different from the other types, because Mental thu'um is something that could be of great use to you in every day life, or reflects your traits in some way. Like if you are hot headed, you may have a heat related power, or if you love to swim you may be able to breath underwater." she smiled.
"And Essential thu'um." Miles finished. "Essential is more uncommon than Mental thu'um, and is created or expanded by having a single situation where thu'um, or the strength to change something is greatly needed. Say, if you nearly drowned as a child, or are drowning, your thu'um, if you are lucky, will pick up on the situation and adapt your body to survive. You may suddenly, or over a period of time adapt closable gills, or be able to control water, something along those lines. It is very different to Mental thu'um, although many mistake the two."
"Now, you should be able to figure out which one you are?" Jordan raised an eyebrow and looked at the recruits.
"Mental, probably." Gavin said, and Caleb agreed.
"Yeah I think I'm essential." Michael said quietly, and Ray whispered something in his ear.
"Mental too." Lindsay established happily.
"What happened-" Gavin leaned over to get a better view of Michael, who shot him an angry glance.
"If you had a life-scarring situation that revealed you had a strong thu'um, would you wanna share it?" Miles explained. Gavin looked like a child being told off in a classroom.
"Essential's often don't." Barb wrapped up.
Jordan took a look at the recruits. Two Essentials, since Ray had never said he was a Mental, and three Mentals. But could any of them do anything worthwhile?
Jordan lifted his walkie talkie up and pressed the com for Group Golden.
"Isla, you there?" he asked, attracting attention from everyone else in the room. After a couple of seconds, some static, and then a reply came through.
"Hey, we've got two useful citizens, but we can't find the Brownman, he wasn't in his apartment."
"Yeah, that's what I checked in to tell you, Brownman was with MLPMichael, they're both with us, so don't worry about it." he explained.
"Alright, that's a relief. See you in a week boss." she replied. Isla was extremely useful, sort of almost his right hand man, except Jordan didn't have one of those. She was always up for extra work and took all of his orders unquestioningly, unlike Uren.
Jordan turned back to face the others. Barbara looked at him, and nodded. He knew what was coming next, and so did Miles apparently. They all shared a smile.
"Alright," he said, motioning for the recruits to get up. "Let's see your thu'um."