-Special: Worldwide Reject

Chapter 7: What Is Lain Hiding?

At the lair that afternoon we had a very important decision to make. "Ok I know we haven't all seen each other a lot recently but there is a very serious conversation we need to have." I announced.

"What is it, Nataly?" Oliver asked, pretending not to know.

"Well, Oliver and I have made a new friend and want to invite him to the lair but that would mean also telling him our secrets about Chit and the lair itself." I responded.

"Well who is he?" Kris asked. "His name is Lain, Shay's brother!"

With that everyone gasped in disbelief.

"Shay!? As in the guy who will literally kill us if we ever see him again, no!" Kris responded.

"Is he as bad or nice?" Jade asked.

"He's actually pretty cool, I think you guys would like him, as long as we never see his brother we are fine." I responded. Then we took a vote and we all agreed to give him a chance.

At school the following Friday we asked Lain if he wanted to come to our "hang out spot" over the weekend and he said yes. My fencing suspension was over so after school I finally was able to get some much needed practice in. Jade came along to get my cool moves on camera. I may be great at fencing but the others in my class are no joke! Znev(also known asJake) has HyperMotility giving him very fast reflexes, Nanino can fly! That's all you really need to know about him. The others are good but in competitions those two are the ones our opponents worry about most.

"Alright, the first competition of the year is in one month and it's time to decide who's competing. For practice today you will have tournament style matches until only three of you remain." the coach announced. Jake and Cody are up first. And it's not even close! Cody's power is to temporarily transfer someone's power to someone else, good for getting work done but useless in a one on one fight. Next is Nanino and Trace, which was very quick as well. Then I'm up against the quiet kid, yeah he just joined the team two weeks ago and his inexperience resulted in me ending it in like five seconds. The next couple matches had nothing of interest until only four remained. Me, Nanino, Jake, and some random kid. The last match was between me and Jake. The match begins and Jake immediately goes in for a lunge, his fast reflexes being almost, if not impossible to dodge! Everything seems to go in slow motion for two seconds and I'm able to parry. This is my chance to prove that I'm not useless, the video Jade is taking will show everyone what I'm capable of.

"YOU B**CH, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Jake yelled in a crimson rage! His movements suddenly sped up and got him three points! I was barely able to block the next two that would have lost me the match. The score was three-one, Jake only needed two points to win and I needed four! I parried the next lunge followed by a quick riposte making the score three-two. I knew I could turn this around; I just had to keep blocking and dodging! At this point Jake had probably set a record for angriest person on the continent! "You can't win! Defend all you want but a powerless freak like you can never win a fight, in fact none of us know why the hell you exist!" After that I completely lost it and gave up on the defense strategy in favor of going on the attack! I didn't care how tired I was getting from blocking every split second, at that moment I just wanted to shut that jerk up! I caught him off guard and was able to tie the score three-three. But after that I lost my focus and really started to feel the heat in the room. I suddenly wasn't doing as well and Jake got the next point easily! I couldn't afford to let that happen again, I forced myself to ignore how out of breath I was and performed the best riposte sky academy has ever seen! But Jake saw that coming!

"You think I'll fall for the same move twice?" he attempted to parry but I still managed to get the point. It was four-four, if I wasn't able to get the next one then I won't get to participate in the first competition for the year! We both started with a defensive approach but Jake hated not trying to destroy me and went for the fastest lunge I've ever seen! It barely misses and then we both go in for a simultaneous touch!

"Who won it?" we both asked. The coach can't decide but Jade's camera was able to get it in super hyper 4k clear as day ultra-slow motion.

"I know." she played the footage in slow motion, we were so fast that you could only see it for one frame, I won!

"Congratulations, it looks like our team for the first competition will be Nanino, Brian, and Nataly." the coach announced. I did it, I really did it. I fell over out of breath, it feels so hot in the room, Jake's hypermotility really took a lot out of me!

We for some reason waited at the door for a minute before opening it, neither of us knew why but on our way out I could have sworn I saw Shay in the corner of my eye! We assumed I was seeing things from how tired I was. I went home proud of myself for my win, but after dinner I just went to bed because I couldn't do anything. When I got in bed I thought about what Jake said during our match. I couldn't ignore the fact that he was right, I am powerless, and no one knows why! We invited Lain to the lair the next day.

"Why am I blindfolded?"

"So we can trust that you won't tell anyone where this is." Kris responded. This may or may not have been a good idea. We let him take off the blindfold and he sees the old warehouse we call a lair.

"Um, what?"

"Welcome to our secret hang out spot, it may not look like much but literally no one knows about it so it's fine for what it is." Jade said. Any second we will have told someone about Chit! Before Lain walked in we told him not to freak out from what he was about to see. We went inside and... It was empty?

"Chit, where are you?"

"Whos Chit?" Lain asked.

"Oh hey, wait who's this?!" Chit asked.

"Is that–"

"Yes" we all responded.

"She's not going to hurt you, she's from a different planet than the attackers and is trying to help." I clarified.