Dark surprises
I dropped the blade and staggered away. What horrible thing made her join the very society I was fighting to destroy? Why? That was the only thought that entered my mind at the time.
She picked up the two-sided blade and threw it at me with great force! Without thinking, I reached into my belt, pulled out a steel pole and blocked the blade. "Mom, what are you doing?" I yelled.
Her face of hatred faded away into a look of surprise. And then horror. "Slade?" She said.
"Yes, it's me, mom." I said. I shrunk the pole back to its compatible size and put it back in my belt. "Why are you doing this?"
"I . . . I don't know." She said. "The Scath. After you left they came to me and said that if I joined them they'd help me find you."
"So you became Scath to find a Masked?" I said.
She gasped. And then turned away and ran. "Wait!" I called after her. But she didn't wait. She stepped into the elevator and was gone again.
It was the next day that I read about her suicide in the newspaper. Apparently, she tied herself up in a car, put it one cruise control and drove it over the edge of a cliff. The letter they found said, 'I'd rather end my life than spend it fighting my son.'
I was torn apart. The only connection left to her and the world I knew before was the 'S' I had sewn into my apprentice outfit. All though I wasn't an apprentice long after that. I was promoted to warrior the very next day.
Years went by. The pain eased away, slowly but surely. I was growing to be the greatest Masked warrior ever. I ran in many missions. Fought my fair share of Scath. Even found a way to build Masked robots.
Masked robots look almost exactly like a master would, except instead of the facemask being split down the middle there was an orange circle with in a black circle. And the robots acted more like ninja than Masked.
One such mission included going out into the forest to search for the Forces of Nature. We had to find Thunder and Lightning. On this mission; Master led the way even though he didn't teach me strait on. Also Shaun came with us. He was still higher ranked than me, but not by much.
"Remember," Master said to us. "We have to find Thunder and Lightning before the Scath have a chance to. So spread out."
We did just that. We spread out and looked over the entire forest but we couldn't find Thunder and Lightning. I jumped from tree to tree looking. I didn't find Nature Forces, I found Scath. I was perched on a tree branch when I saw a circle meeting of Scath below me.
"Listen, we have reason to believe that Masked are in this forest." One said. "We also believe they are searching for Thunder and Lightning: the Legendary Forces of Nature."
"We have to stop them." Another said. I was watching and listening so intently that I didn't see the stick I was holding on to splintering. Suddenly it snapped, loudly. The Scath looked right at me. "Masked." They said. One of them took a knife out of his vest and threw it at me. Quickly, I jumped off the tree and fell to the ground, dodging the knife.
"What is it with everyone throwing pointy objects at me?" I said. The three Scath each pulled out a scythe or other large blade weapon. "Oh, great." I reached back into belt and pulled out the steel pole. A Scath swung the scythe at me. Quickly I blocked with the rod. I jabbed the lower end of the stick into their stomach and then started to run.
The Scath followed me through the forest. I used the stick to pole-boast into the trees and then started jumping from branch to branch. The blades of their scythes reach into the trees for me, but not one could catch me. I jumped from the tree to the ground, using my fighting stick to block a scythe blade.
I ran into the bushes and found where I stashed it. My dirt bike. The three of us had brought dirt bikes in case something like this would happen. I hopped on the bike opened the throttle and the engine roared to life. I zoomed away. Unfortunately, they also had dirt bikes and they continued to chase me. I put the steel stick back into my belt and pulled out an exploding disk. I threw it behind me and caught one of them, but that still left three after me.
I was riding so fast I barely had time to see Shaun and Master. "Slade, What are-"
"TALK LATER! RUN NOW!" I yelled. The they saw the Scath riding behind me.
"What did you do, Slade?" Master scolded.
"I listened in on their conversation!" I said.
They hopped on their dirt bikes and joined me in trying to out run the Scath. From behind, One Scath pulled out another knife and threw it at me again. This time they shredded my back tire and punkchered my gas tank. Being an idiot, I revved up the engine and a spark from the spark plug hit the open gas tank.
The gas exploded blowing my bike up from the inside and throwing me some 30 feet into the forest. "We got one!" A Scath said.
"Leave him, he's dead." Another said.
"Slade!" Shaun cried.
"We can't go back for him now." Master said.
It was just about now that I drifted out of consiousness. I lied there for hours. Undisturbed. Defensless. I had no idea I was being moved, by someone.