Chase Household

May 12

14h00

Aédynyu walked in the door and sighed loudly. Another day in Ta-Metru, another string of chaos.

"What's wrong, honey?" asked Aislina.

"I'm training a new medic named Taido."

Aislina motioned "go on."

"Taido is all you could ask for in a medic. Intelligent, learns quickly, physically fit, compassionate yet sensible… perfect. Except for one thing."

"Which is?"

Aédynu rolled his eyes. "He can't open doors correctly. Today he pulled one right off the hinges."

"I hope he learns." Aislina shook her head.

Just then, Aédynu's phone rang. He whipped it out of his tool belt and looked at the caller ID. It was a call from the Little Chasers Training Center. Better answer it.

"Hello?" he began.

The other end crackled a bit before an answer. "Hello, this is Ms. Jiyai. May I speak with Aislina?"

"Yes, Ms. Jiyai. Here she is." said Aédynu. He passed off the phone to Aislina.

"Hello?" Aislina tried to conceal her growing annoyance. Ms. Jiyai was a fairly new instructor. She didn't take the time to know the Chase kids on the first day, a mistake that cost her dearly. Now it was almost summer break, and all the students were restless.

"Hello, Aislina. Something happened today that you should know about."

"Don't tell me Keyok ended up in the nurse's office again…"

"Well, he did, but that's not why I'm calling."

"Then… what did you want to tell me?"

"Today was Jaunea's birthday. As we were passing out goody bags, another trainee wanted Jaunea's and took it. That trainee is currently awaiting discipline… but so is Keika."

Aislina almost lost her patience. "You've been teaching those trainees not to be bystanders and to stick up for kids who are hurt in any way. If you think Keika deserves discipline for helping a friend, then you're…"

Ms. Jiyai interrupted. "Does practically blinding a fellow student count as helping?"

LCTC (Little Chasers Training Center)

Earlier, same day

Ms. Jiyai was passing out the goody bags. Jaunea went first, since she was the birthday girl. But while the instructor's back was turned, Maxine snatched Jaunea's goody bag.

"Hey, that's mine!" protested Jaunea.

"Not anymore, freak!" taunted Maxine.

Keika had been reading. But when she heard the argument, she decided to intervene. "Maxine, leave her alone!"

Maxine wasn't deterred. She tried to open the goody bag. Jaunea snatched it back, trying to put on a tough façade.

"You're a freak too." added Maxine. "Nobody else has yellow hair."

Although nobody wanted to admit it, Maxine was right. Keika was literally the only humanoid whose hair wasn't some shade of dark brown or black. Instead, it was bright blonde.

Maxine had just committed two grave offenses in Keika's book. First, nobody was going to mess with Jaunea, a close-friend-almost-sister, and get away with it. Second, Keika was self-conscious about her blonde hair. She decided to give Maxine one last warning.

"If you don't leave us alone…" threatened Keika. She drew her fists to her sides as if she were about to deal a double-punch.

"Yeah, right." Maxine brushed it off.

That did it for Keika. Instead of punching, she thrust her hands forward in a double palm strike. The minute her hands flung open, blinding celestial rays shot from her palms and fingers! Maxine was thrown backwards from an unknown impact.

The rest of the students and Ms. Jiyai all shielded their eyes. Keika drew her hands back and the light dimmed.

"How did you do that?!" Jaunea could barely believe what she had just seen.

Keika looked at her still-glowing hands. "I… don't know…"