Trust No One

Chapter 21

Her.

"Astrid!" Heather shouted as she ran over to her. Kneeling by her, she asked, "You ok?"
Groaning, Astrid got up and felt the cut on the back of her head. Glancing back at her hand, she saw a decent amount of blood.

"Can't catch little girl? Oh well, maybe you shouldn't be here then!" Jennifer exclaimed cruelly, watching as Astrid struggled to get up.
Jennifer had joined the BMC a few months ago, and was immediately ridiculously popular and very controlling. Not forgetting her impressive arrogance.

They were in one of the training grounds of the BMC, and they were practising throwing and catching glaive globes - small metallic balls that are covered in multiple knives. They were commonly used for killing people, but Sergeant Mala insisted they learned how to catch them properly should one ever come their way.

It had been years now since the event.

(NO ONE AGES IN THIS STORY)

Astrid had grown up, and had even improved her tier greatly. She was now seen as one of the fastest individuals to gain over fifteen tiers.
Astrid 'Fearless' Hofferson was a tier 49 blue representative. This made her an incredibly rare 'insane' tier, which meant the majority of the people (anyone) were lower in rank than her.

Many would say this happened because of the event that happened because of how she'd survived the impossible, after being in void fluid for over an hour.
No one really knew why - not even Astrid herself.

In fact it was a miracle she even survived five minutes.

"I'm fine. Leave me alone." Hofferson replied angrily, storming off. The group stared in her direction, even as she disappeared from view.
Mala glared at Jennifer, who simply smiled innocently and took out her phone, occupying herself with social media.

Something unusual happened.
The phone abruptly flew out of her hand, landing on the concrete sixteen feet away and practically exploding, with shards of glass, metal and computer-related items flying everywhere.

Everyone gasped, though there was one kid who simply took a few pictures on his own phone.

Him.

As I opened my eyes, I saw the bright sun shining brightly in my face, almost blinding me. I could hear the birds tweeting away noisily in a tree next to me, but slowly they flew away, one by one.
Everything hurt. As I felt my face, I could feel more than the expected old scars: there was a lot more.

Then I realised something else.
My third finger on my left hand - my ring finger if you would - was missing.
There was a bloody mess where it once was.
Oh well. I guess I'd have to deal without it. What do you use that finger for anyway?

My metal leg was surprisingly, still intact. My other leg was covered in blood and I couldn't move it, but we will ignore that for now.
Three of my fingers on my right hand you could see right to the bone in multiple places, as if I'd dipped them in acid.

There were other injuries, but they didn't matter.
I don't even know how I got them all: all I'd done to end it was stab myself. Perhaps it was when it did end. Because numerous things happened at that point - after all, balance was restored, so things went down with a boom.
I didn't really care about that either.

What did seem worth talking about was the immense amount of power I felt. Although I couldn't move ninety percent of my body, I was able to lift myself up using void. Practically telekinesis.
Tier 100 was an understatement.

Glancing round, I scanned my surroundings: I was in a large field with nothing in it save for a cluster of trees here and there. Great.
Deciding it was necessary, I formed a walking stick from a branch, giving it a bird's head on top carved from the wood. Inside the beak was a purple crystal. That same purple crystal that killed the girl, Jessica.

I began to walk slowly, picking a direction.

-------------------------

"Hey Astrid." Jennifer had been irritating Astrid all day. She never stopped. Looking at her furiously, she replied,
"WHAT?"
"No one likes you."
This stupid trading of words had been driving Astrid crazy, but she had previously trained herself to not lash out unless it was absolutely necessary.

Jennifer had been annoying her more now than usual because she was convinced it was Astrid who'd broken her phone earlier. That phone had been bought by her mother last week as a present for getting good results, even though Jennifer actually just forces a low-tier smart kid into swapping and getting her trash results.

So far, it had proved aneffective strategy, so she continued doing it.