Chapter 5

"Can I ask you somethin' kid?"

I said to the young gang member. He looked at me with curiosity.

"Uhh sure." His voice was dripping with fear.

"Why are you doin' this? Why join a gang when you still have your entire life ahead of you?"

"I don't know… I just thought it was a good idea, all my friends run with FKD so I thought I would be cooler if I did too." I had a feeling it was something like that. Peer pressure is a terrible thing, it has the potential to make the best of people do the dumbest things.

"Look, I might not be much older than you but I do know that if you follow down this path you're gonna wind up dead or in jail. And most likely you'll be dead, cuz when I'm done with the FKD there won't be anybody left you understand? So do yourself a favor and get out while you still can, cuz if I see you in this gang again I won't hesitate to kill you." I started to walk away and stopped to pick up a gun off the ground. "And if I were you I'd get some better friends cuz the ones you're hangin with now are only gonna get you killed." I made my way out the door, feeling like I had just made a serious impact on this kids life, and immediately ran back inside and shut the door when bullets started flying past me. "Shit, forgot about those guys." The two guys I left behind when I ran inside the room had called back up.

"Ok that's a lot of guys, I need a better plan." I turned to the kid I left behind. "Yo kid, is there a way outta here that'll let me get into that bigger part out there without gettin' seen?"

"Uhh yea, that door over there goes into the next room you could sneak out that way and get behind them." He said pointing to door all the way to the left of the room.

"Thanks kid. I advise you to wait till the action dies down. Shit's gonna get messy." I made my way over to the door and cracked the door open to check if there was anyone inside. There wasn't anybody in there so I made my way through. I went over to the door that led to the bigger part of the warehouse. I peeked out and counted 17 thugs, that was all of the guys that were left in the warehouse. I sped up my perception and the world slowed down around me. I raised my pistol at the group and picked off seven of them with lightning quick accuracy. The remaining ten turned to me and started firing. I raised a shield on front of me and blocked their shots, I teleported behind them and used two invisible platforms to crush one of them. I took that guy's assault rifle and fired into the crowd of guys facing the other way. I managed to hit five of them. The rest turned around and shot into me. They managed to hit me six times before I got my shield up. I used a platform to throw them into the air and another one to crush them into the ground.

I looked around at the aftermath of the fight while I healed myself. There was blood, bodies, and bullet casings scattered around the floor. "Well damn, not bad for my first super powered gun fight."

"Uhh... is it over?" I heard the kid from earlier shout from behind the door of the room I found him in. "D-did you win?" He said, making sure not to reference either side, in case his former gang did survive.

"Yeah, c'mon out kid. Fun's over, but you might wanna watch your step it's kinda messy out here." The kid opened the door slowly and when he caught sight of the carnage, he turned away and gagged a little.

"Really? You joined a gang but you can't even handle a little blood?" This kid was never gonna make it far in the gang life.

"Ugh, I told you I only did it to look cool." The kid said, finally getting the courage to look up. "Look, I just want to say thank you for… y'know not killing me." He had a thankful tone in his voice.

"Don't mention it man, I'm not just gonna kill some scrawny little bit… I mean a defenseless kid. That's not how I am." I said while I was walking around picking up any ammo off the bodies of the dead guys. "So what's ya name kid? Or do you just want me to call you kid?"

"My name's Marcus." 'Marcus' said.

"Hmm, I'm gonna call you Mark. So Mark, how are you gettin' home?"

"I guess I'm just gonna walk, I don't have a car or anything." He said sounding kinda disappointed. "Hey uh, I saw you moving all fast and stuff do you think you could y'know… give me a lift?" He said with a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Uhh yea about that… no." I saw all the hope leave his eyes immediately. I felt kinda sorry for him… for like half a second. "I kinda just met you and I almost killed you so I don't really see much of a reason to help you out." I started to turn around and walk away, until I heard him yell.

"I can help you take down FKD!" That got my attention. I turned around with a smirk on my face.

"Oh really? And how exactly are you gonna do that?" He had peeked my interest.

"Well, technically I'm still in the gang I can give you details about what they're doing and where they're doing it at." He had a smirk on his face like he knew he had just won.

"So you're gonna put your life on the line just so I can take you home?" This kid must not be that smart.

"Well no not really. I figured I had to pay you back somehow besides I don't really have anything better to do." He said.

"So basically, you're just bored… Y'know I should say no, I should say somethin' noble like, 'You got your whole life ahead of you kid, I'm not gonna let you risk your life like that.' But truth be told, I don't really care." I sighed, "Fuck it, aight you can be my inside guy." I said, with a bright smile on my face. I let my expression turn dark and teleported in front of him making him jump back and fall flat on his ass. "But if you even think about turnin' on me I will make you suffer worse than any of the tortured souls of hell, do you understand?" I said, with enough authority, sincerity, and venom in my voice that Lucifer himself would step back in fear.

Once again I could see in his eyes that he was terrified. "Y-y-yes, I u-understand you have nothing to worry about." He sounded like he was about piss himself in a second.

"That's great to hear buddy, now c'mon let's get you home. Uhh, where do you live anyway?" I had returned to my normal carefree persona.

"I live not too far from the Church St. train station."

"Ok I know where that is. Now the first time you teleport it may be a little disorienting, after all you're traveling through space instantaneously. Just don't open your eyes for at least 3 seconds and stand perfectly still for 2 seconds after you open them. That should help you keep your lunch down." I said throwing my arm over his shoulders. I counted down from five and teleported to Church St. station. The kid stood there with his eyes closed standing as still as a statue. After the 5 seconds was up he proceeded to open his eyes, take a step and fall flat on his ass. "You'll get the hang of it eventually." I said, with a chuckle and extended a hand to help him up.

"Yea I hope so." Marcus said, grabbing my hand and getting back on his feet. "But anyway, thanks for getting me home, I'll hit you up when I hear about another operation that's going down."

"You don't have my number kiddo." I said holding my phone in my hands. We exchanged numbers and then went our separate ways.

I teleported back home and I saw Jessica sitting on the porch waiting for me.

"Hey princess." I said, with a smile on my face. "Did you miss me?"

"Aiden!" she yelled. "Oh my god I was so worried about

you." She ran into my arms and tackled me to the ground. "Are you hurt? Are you dying? Please don't be dying!" She had tears in her eyes and her voice was panicked.

"I'm fine princess," I said with a chuckle. "I did get shot a couple times but I heal pretty fast." I wrapped my arms around her and stood up with her in my arms. "But I'm back now and I'm safe." I gave her a kiss on the lips. "C'mon let's go inside." I carried her inside the house and we sat down on the couch. Even when we sat down she still didn't let me go. I didn't mind of course, after all, who doesn't want a beautiful girl sitting in their lap?

"So what did you find out?" She asked after we got settled.

"Well, I uhh actually didn't find out anything." I said, hesitantly. "But, I met this kid that's in the gang, I spared his life and now he's gonna be my inside guy. He's gonna let me know what's goin' on, where it's goin' on at, and how I can stop it."

"Wait, you "spared his life?" She said in a pondering tone. "So you're saying you killed everybody else?" The look in her eyes was one of fear and disgust, and it almost shattered my soul to see her look at me like that.

"I.. I did what I had to princess. They were gonna kill me if I didn't." I couldn't handle the look she was giving me. I looked away from her but I could still feel her eyes burning a hole in the side of my head. "But you had to have known that this would happen. You know how FKD is, they wouldn't think twice about putting a bullet between my eyes."

She got off my lap and moved to the other side of the couch. "I knew you would have to get your hands dirty Aiden but I didn't expect you to just kill them like that. You don't even look the least bit sorry about it. I don't see any remorse in your eyes, no guilt, no sympathy, nothing." Every word was laced with disgust. She was disgusted by my actions and my apparent lack of sympathy for the dead. And I couldn't really blame her. I was starting to question my own sanity. I killed at least 20 people today in incredibly brutal fashion and I didn't feel even slightly bad about it. In fact,... I kinda liked it. The adrenaline rush I felt as each bullet past by me. The feeling of power I felt when I saw the fear in the eyes of my enemies. The smell of blood when the fight was over. It all brought a feeling of euphoria, a feeling like nothing could stop me, it just felt… right.

"Look," She said, her eyes going soft. "I still love you Aiden. But if you're going to keep doing this then I think you should get a therapist, someone who can help you figure out who you are. Because it's not normal to be able to just kill without any remorse." She moved back over to me and gave me hug. I returned the hug and we stayed like that for hours until her parents came home.