Chapter 2: Brutality Discovered
"Damn man!"
Mikhail looked up to see Owen staring in shock as Mikhail obliterated his last evil shooter in the arcade shooting game he had been playing. When the score came up, Mikhail smiled to see that he had outright dominated the last player. His brotherhood abilities paid off in so many ways.
"I couldn't even get that high? Just how are you doin' that man?"
"I've played these kinds of games for years bud, it no problem to someone of my talents," he said, holstering the plastic gun.
"Sure, sure..."
"You doubtin' my mad skills?" Mikhail said, a grin appearing on his face. "You wanna have a head-to-head go around?"
"Me? Oh no, Mikhail. I wouldn't dare go against the greatest game player in all of the brotherhood."
"Wise choice."
The boys looked around to see if any of their companions were nearby as well. They saw the other three around a dancing game, and Jason was going at it head and toe, leg and foot with his opponent. His opponent, a slim boy who went by Lance, was sweating with his effort to outdo his lieutenant. But Jason seemed to have gained the upper hand. He was almost a blur along with his opponent, and the two were moving faster than some brotherhood members would have moved in combat. They had been going at it ever since they returned to the arcade. Another boy, the third member ot the group, stood behind the dueling duo. Dean, a son of Hermes, had their games hidden beneath his jacket, in various places that the rest did not know, nor did the probably want to know.
Mikhail and Owen walked over to the game, and beat their heads in tune with the disco blaring out of the machine. It was on the hardest mode possible, and yet the two were keeping up perfectly. But it was not long before Owen decided to have some fun.
"Hey Jason, your underwear is showing!" he shouted.
"WHAT!"
It was only a second delay, but that was enough. Lance danced the next few tunes completely unopposed by Jason. And when Jason finally realized that it was a trick, the game ended, declaring Lance the winner. Jason stared at the score board in a stunned silence for a moment. And then he swerved around to glare at Owen.
"You little asshole!" he swiped at Owen. But Owen, despite laughing very hard along with the others, simply leaned his head back and narrowly dodged the blow.
"Just what is with you people and my ass!" Jason yelled. He had had enough of the boys always pulling butt jokes on him.
"Oh, but you have such a nice one," Lance said in a girlish voice.
"I ain't seen boy ass that pretty since...well, no boy ass prettier than that!" Mikhail shouted, drawing stares from the people around them.
Jason simply stood ramrod straight and closed his eyes, his skin as red as a tomato as the comments washed over him. he took several deep breathes before he opened his eyes again, and finally was able to talk in a calm voice.
"Okay guys, let's go get something to eat. I for one am starved out of my mind."
"So that's the reason your always so-" Dean began, but he was quickly cut off.
"Just get going people..." Jason grumbled.
The restaurant, a Wendy's, was not crowded much, which perfectly suited the group. They ordered their food, which was obviously a substantial amount, considering the looks on the faces of the staff. Had they never tried to provide for a group of forever adolescents? And the food was very good, at least to them. It was probably even better than the camp fare, though they would never tell anyone that.
As they were leaving, they ran into the other group. Micheal, one of the sub-lieutenants, was in charge of it. He was a muscled young boy the same physical age as Jason. He had joined the brotherhood with his brother directly after Jason, and he was one of the more skilled of them. His brother was no longer among them, having been sent to the afterlife by a huntress blade several months ago.
They met just outside the store and began to talk with each other, which probably scared the people working inside the Wendy's, as two different groups of boys suddenly talking and discussing thing would probably raise everyone's suspicion level.
"Are you guys stopping here to eat?" Jason asked.
"Yep LT, we're just gonna hop in here and grab some grub, and then spend the rest of the time out in the woods. We decided we have had enough of this town for now."
"Alright then, go ahead. And if you could be so kind, if you guys are going to camp, think you could take the things we bilked from the mall back?"
"Sure man."
They gave their stolen goods over to the other group, and then said their farewells. The five began to walk down a street, loudly hooting and hollering. They really had not had this much fun in several weeks, and so they were determined to make every second last to the fullest. And that is when they heard it.
They had been taking a shortcut down a deserted alley when a child's distinct crying began to be heard. Jason stopped and signaled for them to halt, which they did. They looked confused for a moment, and then they too began to hear the distressed cries of the child. They looked around for a sign, but they did not see anything at the moment.
"Where is that coming from?" Owen asked.
Jason trained his sense of hearing as hard as he could. He heard the cries of the child, and he also began to hear a man...no, two men...and they were talking in childish, almost teasing tones. He heard one of them suddenly make a threatening sound, and the child cried even harder.
"There," Jason said, pointing toward the left. A darker alley branched off the one they were traveling, and they now were able to make the child's frightened crying as coming from that direction. Jason seemed to act on instinct as he immediately began to hastily walk down that way.
The group traveled a way's down, keeping the child's cries in their ears, as to not lose track of it. They heard a sickening, blunt-like sound, and the child let out a cry of pain. Jason moved at a re-doubled pace, the others almost having to jog to keep up with him. The sight they came upon caused them to halt in their tracks.
A boy was lying on the ground, covered in filth. His clothes were in rage, and his face was black with bruises and and scratches. Two men stood over him, one with a knife. The other had a small whip, and he toyed with it as he grinned down at the boy.
"So you actually thought that you could get away?" the man asked. The boy gave a weak, pleading shake of his head.
"You knew that you would not get far. There is no one near who gives a shit about people like you. And yet you were still stupid enough to run away..." the other said.
"Please..." the boy said, his voice was streaked with pain.
"Well, we are just going to have to teach you a lesson. Then we can bring you back to our employer so he can make an example of you."
"No, please don't!"
The man lashed out with his whip. The leather strand struck the boy in the face, leaving a deep gash across his brow. The boy howled with pain and then was forced to double over as the other man gave him a viscous kick to the gut. The boy gave a garbled cry of pain, and the man with the knife leaned over.
"Maybe I should carve "Runner" into your little chest, wouldn't that help?"
The boy could only whimper. The man smiled.
"I'll take that as a yes," he said, and then reached down to undo the boy's filthy shirt.
Jason and the group had taken all this in in mere seconds. The others were shocked beyond belief that someone would do what they just witnessed, but Jason's mind was somewhere else. Somewhere about six years ago. He was almost in the exact same position as this boy, with his own family tormenting him. And the boy's cries of pain and fear had sparked something in him. And when the man leaned over to inflict even more brutality on the weak and helpless boy, Jason reacted almost like an angry animal. He immediately began to march briskly toward them. The others behind him did not hesitate, but followed him immediately, their outrage apparent as well.
As the man with the knife leaned over the boy, Jason marched right over and viciously kicked him in the back of his leg, opposite his knee-cap. The man fell to his knees and the second he did so, Jason gave him a chop with his fist to the pressure point in his back. The man arched his back in pain, and Jason grasped his head. With a surge of strength, he slammed the man's head viciously into the alley wall, and then savored the look of him slumping to the side, knocked out cold.
The other was dealt with as quickly as the first. Lance reached him first and the man turned to see his partner go down. He raised his whip to swipe at them, and Lance gave him a swift sidekick to his gut. The man dropped his whip and grasped his stomach, and when he bent over enough, Lance then gave his jaw a powerful uppercut. The man was flipped backward, and ended up with his face to the sky, his eyes closed as his lights went out.
The whole fight lasted all of five seconds. Several thugs couldn't have stood a chance against one member of the brotherhood, let alone five.
Jason then turned his attention to the little boy. He looked no more than ten, maybe even just nine. His face was streaked with grime and his hair was filthy. He had the signs of previous wounds, many of them looking pretty serious. And the gash across his face was still bleeding pretty badly. Jason bent down to see if he could coax the boy up, and the boy only moved away from him.
"Easy kiddo, we will not hurt you. What was going on here? Why were those men trying to hurt you?"
The boy opened his mouth to say something, but his eyes lost their brightness and he collapsed. Jason quickly caught him before his head could hit the ground, and with one powerful push of his legs, he hoisted the boy up, cradling his head to his chest.
"We need to get back to camp. This boy is in need of some serious attention, and I don't think the hospital is somewhere safe for him right now."
"Why do you say so?" Owen asked. Jason shook his head.
"I don't know, but every instinct in me is saying that this boy shouldn't not be in the hospital, at least not yet. We can get one of our healers to help him at camp, probably more efficient than anything here."
Owen nodded. Mikhail looked down distastefully at the fallen men. They were still breathing, which was more than they deserved.
"And what of them?" he asked, kicking one of their bodies.
"Drag them somewhere the cops can find them. Let the town handle these. They would be a lot more merciful than Lord Orion."
And with that, they dragged the bodies out to a more open area, and the hightailed it back toward the camp, Jason already going over his mind what to say to Orion...
-Approximately thirty minutes later-
Orion sat in his tent and cleaned his sword. It always pleased him to do this, even if no one seemed to see the pleasure in it. But the sword was one of the tools of a warrior. And as such, he needed to treat it just as well as he would treat his own body. So the sword was cleaned as thoroughly as he could afford to make it.
He was checking his bow's pull when the flap was thrown open. Darren, the newer sub-lieutenant who had been appointed upon the death of Gabriel, rushed in. Orion found it extremely rude to simply barge into someone's tent without first announcing their entry or even asking permission to do so. But the look on Darren's face was one of worry and anxiety, and Orion did not scold him at all, not when he such a look about him.
"Lord Orion, pardon the outburst, but there is something in the medical tent you need to see."
"What is so troubling Darren?" Orion asked.
"Jason brought in someone from the town. A young boy...he is pretty badly hurt."
Orion immediately put down his bow and exited the tent. He swiftly followed Darren to the medical tent, the crowd in front of him parting before him. He saw many a concerned face as he gently pushed his way through the crowd, and entered the tent just to be greeted with a blast of sound ripped from the boy's lungs.
On the ground, laying upon an inflatable mattress, a boy no more than nine or ten lay gently struggling in pain with several healers. One of them was poking and prodding the boy's wounds, trying to decide best what to do for him. They did not risk giving him ambrosia, for they knew not if he was a demi-god or just a mortal, as quite a few in the brotherhood were. The other healer held the boy's hands and said soothing words to him, attempting to calm him.
Orion approached and knelt next to the screaming boy, and his face was a mask of undisguised sympathy. The two healers, Abraham and William, both sons of Apollo, nodded at him in acknowledgment.
"What is his condition?" Orion asked.
"He's pretty beaten up my lord. A lot of his wounds are old ones, but there are some serious ones still here. He doesn't have anything broken, but his ribs have taken a pretty good beating. And his back is literately a crossword puzzle of whip marks. I'm guessing the kid has gotten very little medical attention, if at any."
Orion nodded and then laid his hand upon the boy's chest. The boy cried out at the touch, as if Orion's very hand was causing pain to him. His pain filled eyes opened to see Orion, but the tears clogging his vision lessened his view considerably. Orion closed his eyes and focused. This boy was in too much pain for Orion not to do something himself.
Soon, the powers that he had received from Kronos and Nemesis began to stir. His powers as of a kind of "mini-god" glowed golden, and then slowly descended into the boy's chest. The boy's cries lessened and then disappeared altogether, and the boy slumped down, fast asleep. It was probably the first time in a long time that he was completely at peace.
Orion stood up and smiled at his handiwork. Abraham and William stood up and thanked him. He nodded his consent and pointed at the sleeping boy.
"Do what you can for him. I have granted him relief of pain, but even that will run out. See what you can do to lessen this poor boy's wounds."
"We will do our best, Lord Orion."
Orion nodded, positive that they would keep their word.
-That night-
A man in a business suit sat at his desk and typed at his computer. He wore an very annoyed expression, which went perfectly with his brown skin and rugged features. His cold, dark eyes seemed to radiate a sense of dread that few people could show, and he growled as he typed up whatever he was typing.
The reason for his new anger was the fact that two of his employees could not track down a simple case such as a little kid. Hundreds of people came through his system, and he though that he had chosen his employees well. But apparently, he had made a mistake with these two, as they had allowed a little boy to slip through their fingers and now had been caught by police.
He had posted their bail and sent several of his bodyguard to pick them up. They would know better than to resist. And he gave them strict instructions that they were to be brought before him so he could hear just why the hell they had allowed this. If they said anything to the police, the he swore to God he would put him in the basement and let his "expert" try out new techniques on them.
He finished his work and then sent the mail through. Then he leaned back and took several deep breaths to calm his anger. This was a sticky business, and he could not afford slip-ups. He would have to be more strict in his recruitment of employees.
There was a knock on the door. A sharp, authoritarian voice called from outside.
"Sir, we have them. Would you like us to bring them in now?"
"Yes, yes."
The door was opened and several men carrying sub-machine guns entered the room. They stood at attention on either side of the door, and then two other guards dragged two filthy men inside. They were hand-cuffed and were thrown to their knees before their boss. They looked up and looked into his eyes with extreme fear, knowing some of the stories they had heard about him.
The man stood up and strolled calmly toward them. He stood before them with his hand behind his back, giving them a good go over. Then he sighed.
"I just do not understand this. How can two strong men allow a young runaway to cause them trouble? It seems like so small a case."
"Sir it was-"
"Shut your damn mouth! Did I give you permission to speak!" the man roared. The men immediately stopped their blubbering.
"As I was saying, a small case such as a runaway boy seems like a very small problem. It sould have taken you all no time at all to have apprehended him and bring him back to the hold. So why did you have such trouble with him, and just why did I have to bail you out of the police department?"
They did not speak.
"I was talking to you! That was a fucking question dammit!"
"It...it...it was not our fault boss!" one of the men pleaded.
"Really? Then whose fault was it? Batman?"
"No boss! We got the kid and we were about to bring him in, but these boys..."
"Boys?" the man asked, his attention caught.
"Yeah boss, boys. They just came right up to us and pummeled us! We didn't stand a chance! They were like some ninja type kids! We didn't even hear them coming!"
The man smiled at their pathetic excuses.
"So a bunch of adolescent boys just happened by and just kicked your asses so badly?"
"Yeah man, that be what happened!"
The man nodded.
"I guess that settles things. I suppose it was not completely your fault. And so I am going to give you a reprieve."
"Really? That is great! Your the-" the pathetic excuse for a man was cut short by his own death.
Just as the "employee" was speaking, the "boss" whipped out a small pistol from his pocket. The man did not even have a chance to register what his boss was doing before the boss put a bullet directly between his eyes. Blood sprayed out from the back of the man's head as he fell to the ground. The other saw what happened and immediately began to scream for his life.
"Oh god, please boss! Don't kill me, I beg you!"
"This is my mercy...a quick death."
And then he shot the other in the exact same place. The two men lay side by side, their blood flowing from around their heads.
The boss smiled in examination of his great placement, and then snarled a curse.
"Guard!"
"Yes sir!"
"Get these pieces of shit out of my office. They're staining my carpet!"
-Brotherhood camp-
The boy's eyes hurt as he opened them. He had not slept this peacefully in a long time, for there was always a chance that the guards would have some task for him in the middle of the night, him and maybe some other people. They always would come in and scream at them, and if they did not immediately get up, they did not hesitate to flip the cot. But he felt so much more comforted where he was, wherever that may be.
He felt no real pain, only dull throbs in his mid-section. He slowly raised his head to find that he was in a tent of some kind, a medium sized one He lay on an air mattress, one of several strewn about the tent. He saw a boy dressed all in black, leaning over a kit of some sort. His jeans and shirt were black, and he wore black, shiny combat boots. He seemed rather muscular, though he could not see much of him with his back to him. The boy tried to sit up, and his movements seemed to have made the strange boy aware of him.
He turned around to see, and the little boy ducked back to the mattress, desperately hoping that the strange boy would have though he was still asleep. But the boy only gave an understanding smile and got up to walk over to him, kneeling down to examine him. Now the little boy could see that he was quite handsome, with his teeth almost sparkling. His muscles were firm and he was very toned, like a woodsman. He leaned over him as the boy's heart beat more rapidly.
"You don't need to cover up the fact that your awake. No one here is going to do you any harm."
The little boy opened his eyes a little wider, and he looked up with fear at the strange boy. But the strange boy revealed that he had some kind of liquid bottle in his hand...water. The little boy's throat suddenly felt dry. The handsome stranger seemed to realize what was needed and raised the bottle to the boy's lips.
The boy felt the cool water enter his sore throat and felt the cooling sensation flow through him. He reached out and grasped the bottle with his hands, and the handsome strange allowed him to take it. The boy drained the bottle within a minute, and lay gasping for air.
"My name is William. What is yours?"
The boy looked at him through tortured blue eyes.
"Garret..."
"Well, Garret, as I said. No one here is going to harm you, nor allow you to come to harm, so far as you stay with us."
"But...why?"
William chuckled at the boy's innocence.
"Because when we took you in and gave you our care, you became officially under our protection. As long as Orion allows you to remain with us, then you are free from any danger."
"Who...who is Orion?"
"He is our leader...and speaking of which, he will be wanting to talk with you. We want to know just why those men were so brutally attacking you."
"I...I..." the boy began to say something but it was lost in his inner emotion. William chuckled again, and stood up to walk to the tent entrance.
"Just remain calm. Lord Orion will want to talk with you. As I said, you will not be harmed by him or anyone here. I will be just a moment."
-Orion's tent-
"So exactly what happened that you would bring that injured, brutalized boy to our camp? I do not doubt your motives Jason, but really, what made invoked you to bring him here?"
Jason looked to the ground for a moment, and then faced Orion squarely.
"The boy needed medical attention badly, something we could not provide for him in that alleyway. I could see that if we did not get him to help soon, then he very well could possibly die. So I did the only thing I could think of. I brought him here."
"That is very noble of you Jason. But if I may inquire, why did you not bring him to the mortal hospital? Surely they could have provided sufficient care for him there?"
Jason nodded and then looked away fro a moment, lost in thought. Then he continued his explanation.
"I know my lord. But something just did not seem right. My gut was telling me that taking him to the hospital would have been a bad idea, at least for him. Something was simply telling me that it was a bad place to be for him. And besides, William and Abraham could provide much better care for him here, despite the technology of the mortal hospital. We have things that could patch him up much faster."
"True..."
"And lord, you said to always trust your instincts. If your gut was saying something to you, then you always said to listen closely. And my gut was saying that it would not be good to take him to the hospital."
Orion nodded as he listened to Jason's explanation. He had indeed preached the lesson of listening to instinct. A person's animal senses were sometimes far more accurate then anything in the world, and Orion had drilled this into his lieutenant from the very first lessons he taught him. He smiled in approval at Jason.
"Yes Jason, I know what I taught you...you were right to bring him here. If you felt that was what was right, then I trust your judgment."
Jason brightened a bit at the approval.
"Do you have any idea what those men were trying to do with him?"
"No lord. They implied that he was a runaway of some sort. What that means I do not know, but I don't think that, wherever he ran from, it could not be good. Those men were more cruel than even my parents were..." he trailed off. Obviously, the sight of the boy being beaten in that alley sparked some very unwelcome memories for Jason. Orion walked over and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"I am proud of you Jason. What you did for that boy showed some extreme moral character. There are some who would have run off, but the fact that you and the others immediately jumped to save him when it became apparent of what would happen should you have done otherwise, shows just how much I can trust you all."
Jason gave a small smile and nodded his head. Before anything else could be said, William entered the tent, bowing his head slightly in reverence to Orion. He held a glint of a smile on his face, and his mood seemed to have improved greatly at some recent event.
"Lord Orion, Jason, the boy awoke several minutes ago. He is in the medical tent, and he should be fine enough to answer some questions."
Orion nodded, a sigh of relief escaping his throat.
"At last. He might have the answers to the questions that are perplexing us."
Orion left the tent, Jason and William in his wake. He entered the medical tent to find the boy propped up on his elbows, his eyes still roving the tent. He gasped when he saw Lord Orion enter, but Orion gave him a warm smile and raised his arms to show he did not have anything hidden that could harm him. He approached the boy and knelt down, Jason and William standing behind him.
"What is your name, young one?"
"Garret"
"Well Garret, I am going to ask some very simple questions. You need not be afraid of answering..."
Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Remember to review, and I will get the next chapter up as soon as I can. Until then, Happy hunting!