The PulseTeam, Book One: Origins

Chapter Three: The Tragedy

Part One: A Lot Of Recognition

Well, a week has passed, and it seems like that little stunt I pulled that day gave me even more recognition than I needed. People are STILL talking about my promise to Alitia. I decide that it's time I revealed my Secret Place to her.

I go to her after school, and I ask her if she wants to go somewhere quiet and special. She says yes, so I drive her to another beach, but this one has a considerably sized solid glass area with tree branch shaped bolts of glass literally branching out from the solid glass. It's a place where lightning struck the sand and turned it to glass.

So I take her to this place, and she looks starstruck. She says to me, "David Nathanael Allen, Junior: this is--it's breathtakingly awesome! How did you even find this place?"

I tell her, "It was by sheer happenstance that I stumbled upon this place."

"Well, whatever happened, I'm glad it did," she replies.

I tell her that this is a place where I go to think about this or that. Then we talk about when we first met, and we talk about how glad we are that I was there to help her get away from her biological father, King Akuma, XV, when she needed me to. (Alitia's real name is Princess Alluna of Planet Xextra. And yeah, she's an alien, so deal with it.) We try to stay off the topic of Akuma, but occasionally, her horrible biological father's name would work its way out of one of our mouths. But eventually, we end up talking about what life would be like with superpowers. And we just go on and on about it.

Part Two: Tragedy Strikes

We are interrupted by John, who yells my name. It sounds very urgent, because he says, "David, come quick-- something real bad happened at your house. I already called the police, now let's go!"

So I take Alitia with me to my home, and I figure that the three of us could find out from my parents what's wrong. I pull up in front of Allen Manor only to find police and yellow police line tape everywhere.

I look closer and see a medical examiner coming out of my front door. I turn to John and ask him, "Why is an M.E. coming out of my front door? Who died in my home? And where are Mom and Dad? Are they alright?"

He responds, "I came over here because Mama needed to borrow some sugar. She was making a cake. I knocked on the door, and it was already open. David, I--" Tears were dropping from his eyes as I listened on in horror. "--There were two blood trails leading in opposite directions and, David--"

I don't let him finish his sentence. I say, "No, it's not true. It can't be!"

He finishes anyway, "David, Uncle D and Auntie Yin were murdered!" And then we both completely break down in tears.

Then, I see movement out of the corner of my eye coming from what looks like my bedroom window. It's him. The murderer. Coming out of my bedroom window! Of all the nerve!! I tell Alitia to go into the back seat of my car and get my compound bow and quiver of arrows. She does so very quickly, and I put the quiver on. I pull out an arrow, take in a breath, pull back the bowstring, and aim carefully. I breathe out, and I hear him scream as he falls one story from my bedroom window to the ground. The police, John, Alitia, and I, run to the site where he fell, but the police get to him first. It doesn't matter, because as soon as I get close enough, I lunge at him, full force, taking him and the surrounding officers down hard.

Part Three: Payback Is A Real Blip, Isn't It?

I'm not thinking anymore, I'm just on top of this guy, punching his face wildly. I think I see something dark red fly up and back down. It looks liquid, but right now, I really could give three craps less. This S.O.B. just murdered my parents, and lied in wait to ambush me! IN MY BEDROOM!!!

I feel something tugging on me, something strong, and I don't feel me punching him anymore. Then, as I come to my senses and realize that I'm NOT punching him anymore, I strain towards him while officers pull him back. It's only now that I realize that my restraints are an entangled web of human arms that are connected to bodies with minds that are probably dumbfounded that it takes so many men to hold back one 15 year-old boy. And then I speak.