Welcome back for Chapter 9!
"So you're telling me that you, using your powers of control, killed them?" Rocky asked in disbelief. I only nodded gravely. "But how is that possible?"
"I control the body and it's actions. I decide what they do, even if it kills them. They cannot disobey my commands. That's what the paper meant about my commands are my claws." I replied.
"I see. But then this part of the prophecy doesn't make sense. If you did have such a great relationship with your family, there must be another reason that you lashed out. Think Chase, was there anything about your relationship that isn't what you thought it was?" Rocky asked. I sat and stared into space, thinking about that day. I realized how little I really remembered about that day, especially when I have always tried to forget. I shut my eyes and tried to replay the events of that day back. All I could remember was my parents dead on the ground, their blank eyes staring at me, and my dying brother telling me that I was a monster. A monster. Why does that sound so familiar? My head started to hurt as the world around me swirled into my room.
"Chase, you're a monster!" my brother yelled at me.
"I'm not! You know I'm trying my best to fit in!" I hollered back.
"You know you're not like the others, you know that you're weird!" he retorted.
"Stop it! You're hurting my feelings! All I want to do is make friends!" I growled.
"You'll never be one of us. You were never family. We found you in the dumpster all alone, and mom and dad took you in like you were their son." he spat and left the room, slamming the door behind him. I ran to the door, pressing the open button only to find that it was jammed shut. I pushed and pulled on the door, hoping that it would dislodge, but the door simply wouldn't budge. I called for help, but no one came. I yelled for anyone, my mom, my dad, even for my "brother", but they never came to help. Slowly, my voice started to fade and tears were streaming down my face. I hugged the door, hoping that it would miraculously open at some point. They had to know that I was stuck at some point. They had to.
I waited for what felt like hours before I finally heard someone outside. I quickly jumped up and yelled with what was left of my voice. The walking stopped, and I felt a twinge of relief. Then, I heard a voice outside.
"You don't deserve to be out, freak." my brother yelled in. My blood boiled, and pounded on the door.
"You better let me out or else… or else…" I screamed.
"Or else what?" he taunted. I heard a laugh and his paw steps leaving. I pounded on the door, each bang making a dent in the door. I was filled with rage as the door soon gave away. My eyes were glowing red, and I was overwhelmed with blood lust. I rushed out, quickly finding my brother and tackling him to the ground. He hollered, which caused my parents to rush over, but it was too late. I had slashed at my brother, creating a massive gash on his face. He screamed in pain as my parents tried to tear me away from him. With the blood of my brother still on my claws, I placed it onto my tongue and drew in the taste of his blood.
"Suffer." I told him, and the most excruciating hollers came from him as he writhed in pain. My parents were attempting to calm me down, but I couldn't hear anything they said. I was too deep in the desire to see him suffer. One event led to the other, and the whole police was notified about my outrage. They sent officer after officer to stop me, but all of them fell to their feet. As they swarmed my home, I felt one last burst of energy enter my body as everyone fell to their knees and collapsed. I watched as everyone fell to the ground like leaves, each with their eyes still wide open.
"Monster" my brother gasped as he died.
"Chase! Chase! Snap out of it!" Rocky shouted at me, snapping me back into the present.
"Wha-? What?" I stumbled out as I shook my head.
"You fell into a trance. Did you remember something?" Rocky asked, looking concerned.
"I remembered, I remembered why I had killed everyone. They really weren't family. But still, I still acted out of rage. I really need help, Rocky."
"Don't worry Chase. I think I know what you can do. For now, it may be a bit too much to tell some of the other pups, so if you ever need to vent something about your power, do it with me." Rocky instructed. I nodded. That wasn't too bad, I've already done that all my life.
"Second, I want you to practice your power." Rocky added.
"Practice my power? How? On what?" I asked, confused.
"You will practice on me. I saw that you were very tired after giving me a few simple commands. It may be because your moral consciousness was holding you back from hurting me, which meant it would benefit you to stretch your comfort zone a bit." Rocky explained. It sounded pretty reasonable. I nodded. Rocky smiled and gestured for me to leave. As I headed out the door, I remembered one thing that I needed to tell Rocky, and turned around. As I turned, I found that Rocky had something in his paws, a cylinder, that he quickly shoved back into his desk frantically.
"What do you need?" Rocky asked.
"I-I" I stumbled, forgetting what I wanted to tell him. All I wanted to know was what that thing was.
"I was wondering what was that in your paws earlier." I asked.
"What? What thing? I didn't have anything" Rocky answered with hesitation.
"Okay…" I nodded as I headed out the door slowly. Rocky was hiding something. For the time being, I went back to my room and waited for Rocky to leave his training room. Since Rocky loves to stay in his room, and most of the time he sleeps with a book in his paws, I needed to find the perfect time to enter his room. I watched Rocky's door, but he didn't take a step out of that door. The strangest part was that even in the night, his light was still on, and I could still hear him inside his room doing something. The weird part about that was that Rocky gave up inventing a long time ago and started to take interest in powers. What could he be doing?
Eventually, I must have fallen asleep, and found myself laying on the floor in the hallway. Ryder was the one that woke me up, and I jolted awake, startled.
"Hey Chase!" Ryder laughed. "Are you sleeping well?"
"Yea, just fine Ryder, sir" I replied.
"Are you sure? I'm almost positive that sleeping on the ground isn't very comfortable." Ryder laughed. I only looked away, blushing.
"Anyways, I came to check up on Rocky. You better do your rounds and wake everyone up. Tell them breakfast is waiting for them. I'm taking Rocky out for errands." Ryder explained. Yes! Finally, Rocky is going to be away! I quickly ran to the elevator to grab my pup pack and woke everyone up in a hurry. I proceeded to scarf down my food like a wild animal as I headed towards Rocky's training room and, sure enough like Ryder had said, he was gone. I walked up to his desk and searched his drawers for anything that looked like the cylinder that I had seen yesterday. However, none of his drawers had anything like it. It had simply disappeared. I double checked his drawers, just in case I missed something, but came up with nothing again. Rocky must have moved it somewhere else. He must have. Quickly I searched his room, looking through his other drawers and cabinets, hoping that I would find something. I must have lost track of time, because as I was searching, I could hear Rocky and Ryder walking down the hallway towards Rocky's room. I panicked and dove under Rocky's desk, hoping that Rocky or Ryder would notice.
"Rocky, I know how much you don't like taking these, but the doctor stated strictly that you need to." Ryder scolded Rocky.
"I know Ryder, but I just feel that, that everyone is able to fully develop their abilities, while I am only getting held back. Look at Skye, after she made her breakthrough, she became one of the strongest magic users here! What's wrong with me trying to grow and master my powers?" Rocky argued.
"I know how you feel, I know it must be infuriating to watch the others grow, but try to contain yourself. You just need to mature and grow up a bit, that's all. Do it for your own health and safety, as well as the others too. You could always ask Chase on how he does it, he doesn't seem to mind being held back" Ryder laughed. Rocky only looked down at the ground dejectedly. Rocky was about to walk around his desk and notice that I was hiding under it.
"Put them on your desk, you need to get some breakfast before you do anything." Ryder ordered just as Rocky stepped in front of his chair. I guess Rocky decided not to look down and didn't realize that I was there. Rocky nodded and set something on the table and left with Ryder. After giving a huge sigh or relief and getting out from under the desk, I looked on top of Rocky's desk and found that cylinder that he was hiding. At this point, I already knew what it was, it was some sort of medication that somehow held Rocky back with his powers. That medication would have been great for me if I had known about it. I scanned the label, and sure enough, it was a brand of medicine that suppressed strong magical power. I had no idea why Rocky would be needing to take them, but I didn't question it. I left it alone and walked out of the room, heading towards the cafeteria to have a second breakfast with Rocky to see if Rocky would say anything.
I found Rocky there already diving into his breakfast with a depressed look on his face. He didn't seem in the mood to chat, so I didn't bother starting some small talk. After he finished, Rocky simply set his bowl onto the stack of neatly organized bowls from the other pups and left without a word. I trailed behind him as my stomach groaned with all the food inside. Rocky halted, and looked behind, seeing that I was following him.
"Oh, hey Chase, what do you need?" Rocky asked in a dull tone, not like his usual cheery self.
"Um, I, uh, wanted to do a training session like you suggested yesterday?" I lied, hoping that he wouldn't notice my fib. Rocky's face lit up, however, and quickly rushed me into his training room. He set me down in front of him and told me to wait as he got out a small needle and poked himself, drawing a tiny amount of blood. He then stretched out his bleeding paw towards my mouth and I instinctively licked the red liquid off of Rocky's paw. I once again felt a bit woozy after taking control of Rocky, and collapsed after giving another four simple commands.
"Good job Chase, take a small break and after you can get up, we'll try again later." Rocky encouraged. I gave a small smile as I closed my eyes and fell asleep. As I woke up, I saw Rocky sitting at his desk, reading again. There was a water bowl set next to me, as well as a bowl of kibble.
"Oh, you're awake! You missed lunch, so I brought it to you." Rocky yipped happily. It seemed that Rocky was back to his usual self again. After finishing my lunch, Rocky had already pricked his paw again and allowed me to lick it once more. I felt bad that Rocky had to do this every single time, but every time I would say something about it, he would always say that it didn't bother him at all. After a few rounds of me using my powers, getting tired, resting for a small period of time and repeating the cycle, I wasn't able to go past my mark of 4 commands per session. What's more was that I didn't realize how draining my power was until now. I hadn't always been so tired after commanding someone, so what was different? Soon, the sun was setting, and Ryder announced that dinner was in the cafeteria. I had just woken up from another short nap and Rocky told me that we were done for the day. I could tell Rocky was also getting tired, since we did almost 20 repetitions in the time between lunch and dinner, and he was getting tired of being controlled.
We rested up that night, and the next day the cycle repeated. I would visit Rocky in the morning, and we would train and practice all day until dinner where Rocky and I would go do something more relaxing, such as watching Apollo with the other pups or going outside with the rest of the sunlight playing games. Once and a while Rocky would take a day off to train with the other pups, and I would, like usual, head to the balcony to watch the other pups play around with their powers. However, I felt something different. I felt like I wanted to join them. I felt that, after telling Rocky about my power, I was more relaxed about my powers, and I desired to go down to play around. That wasn't the only change I had felt. Not only had I felt more confident in my abilities, but I also noticed that over time, my powers in controlling became stronger. Within the first week, I was able to increase from four commands to six commands, and later within the next week it jumped from six to twenty. Along with my controlling power, I felt my speed had become stronger too, allowing me to run faster and for longer periods of time.
After a good month of training, I was very confident in my abilities. I could go for long periods of time without getting worn down, and I only needed one rest break during the day. I no longer hung out from the balcony and watched the other pups train. Now, I join them in the arena, playing their games, doing small fights, and even messing around with my powers. They all were surprised with my change in heart, but they invited me with extreme excitement. Of course, I never revealed my controlling powers, but I knew that if I really needed to, Rocky would always be there for me. One day as we trained in the arena, I was having a small fight with Zuma when I noticed that Rocky was hanging back on the balcony that I usually lay watching on. I realized that Rocky was in a similar situation I was after the talk Ryder gave him. I occasionally spied on Rocky as he took out the medication one a week and fighting with himself and forcing himself to choke down the pill. Rocky's main frustration was that every pup was growing, including me, and he was being held back, so I decided to do something for him.
"Hey Rocky, what are you doing up here?" I asked, panting after the tussle with Zuma.
"Nothing much, just admiring how much you've grown in the past month." Rocky replied sounding very depressed.
"You wanna head down and join the fights? It's really fun!" I invited, hoping to get Rocky out of the balcony and back into the arena.
"No thanks Chase, I'm not really feeling it." Rocky responded.
"C'mon Rocky! I know how much you loved to fight. I'll even be your sparring partner!" I added. I was able to get a smile out of Rocky before he stood up and stretched.
"I don't think I could win against you, even if I tried my hardest" Rocky argued playfully.
"Aww, don't think about it like that! In fact, let's go to the outdoor field. I know you have an amazing skill set of water and electricity. Why don't I give you the best fight you ever had?" I offered, and Rocky's face lit up. I knew he couldn't turn down the opportunity to give it his all. I had conveniently asked right on the day where he needed to take his medication, so I knew that the effects of the suppressor would have worn off by now. We both headed outside to the field in the back. I took my side as Rocky took his, a massive smile forming on his face.
"Come on, Rocky! Give me all you got!" I shouted as we both charged at each other. Rocky's speed was extremely quick, but mine was quicker. I gave Rocky a few light taps on his side, just because I knew Rocky still needed to warm up. Rocky laughed as he shot a jet of water at me just as I gave a yawn. I was completely drenched in water, and I giggled in response. I deserved it. He shot a lightning bolt right at me, and I narrowly dodged it, my fur just barely made contact. Because my fur was damp, I felt the electricity flow around me, giving me a small shock everywhere. I gave a small yelp as Rocky smiled. He was warmed up.
I quickly rushed at him with full speed, hoping I could clip him on the side. Rocky matched my speed and dodged every swipe I took at him. Eventually, I clipped him, and drew a tiny bit of blood, but, for once, I no longer had the urge to clean my claw. I continued to swipe, not noticing the storm clouds forming above us. As I was just about to tire out, Rocky gestured for me to look up, and rain started to pour down. There were crackles of thunder and lightning, and Rocky suddenly disappeared from sight. Frantically, I glanced around as I saw a bolt of lightning shoot down from the sky, right by my paw. I glanced upwards to the sky and saw Rocky next to the clouds, dancing around in the sky. He was able to manipulate the rain around him, basically allowing him to fly. I watched as he gave strike after strike, dodging every bolt until I felt the rain get harder. I could feel myself getting weighed down by the water, and I knew I would be an easy target as more water poured down. The lightning barrage intensified as I barely dodged them. I could see that Rocky was tiring out, and was slowly falling lower and lower until he was just within reach. I quickly jumped up towards him and grabbed his hind leg, clinging on for dear life as he fell out of the sky, unable to carry both of our weight. We both landed with a thud on the wet grass as we gasped for air. I had no idea how strong Rocky's power was, and it was amazing to see his real potential. I honestly thought that Rocky was one of the strongest pups in the world, perhaps even stronger than I was.
"That was amazing, Chase!" Rocky gasped, his chest heaving up and down.
"So who do you think won?" I asked between breaths.
"I think we tied. I haven't been able to go all out like that since, well, since never!" Rocky laughed. "You were right, that was the best fight I had ever fought! Thank you Chase!"
"No problem Rocky, anything for my mentor!" I laughed in response. The sky cleared and the sun peeked through the clouds, and we lied in the sun for a good while, letting the warmth dry our fur, before heading back into the lookout. As we were about to walk into the lookout, however, we heard a sudden explosion, and a massive black cloud could be seen in the horizon in the forests next to Adventure Bay.
I hope you enjoyed chapter 9! This was a very fun chapter to write, and I hope that it was entertaining to read! Anyways, like always, Review, Grammar, Thanks for Reading!