Hidden Darkness

Chapter 14

    Several weeks later, in between Matt's new training and my own assignments, Matt, his girlfriend, his friend, my sister, and I all hung out at my new house, which was a lot bigger than my previous dumpster of a home. Amelia was playing with Ashley in the family room and Matt, Bobby, and I were talking in the kitchen. "So, I'm sent to this one place by a jet to the mountains near canada, right? There's this group of people who don't want to be a part of America and want to make their own rules," I was telling a story of my second assignment from the Powers Division. "My job was pretty simple: convince them to stop what they're doing because they don't have right to take land that is owned by America and do it as cleanly as possible. They drop me off to this small, dirty, little village and I was greeted by the people there. With multiple guns pointed at my head."
    "You're joking," Bobby says. "No I'm serious. No 'hello', just click and aim. I immediately raise my hands up in response and, without even thinking, said, 'Woops, I think they dropped me in Texas.'" Matt laughed and Bobby gave a quick chuckle. "I swear I heard a couple of them giggle in response and trying to hold back laughter."
    "What did they do next?" asked Matt. "One of them said I was trespassing on Gelaria territory. It was my turn to hold my laughter. I told them Gelaria sounded like an STD. Apparently they didn't like that so they made me stand against a wall and then continued to aim at me. Before they could pull a trigger I sprinted to my left  and circled them. They didn't even see me move, I was really quick."
    "That super speed thingy?"
    "Yeah, that. I just showed my eyes and they got so scared, their guns dropped." I heard a flurry of feet running down the hall and I looked to see Ashley running at me with a piece of paper. "Ri-ri, Ri-ri! Look what I drew!" I pick her up and take the piece of paper from her. It was a crudely drawn picture of a lion.
    Her drawing skills are improving a lot. Probably thanks to Amelia. "Wow, this is really good, Ash. One of the best that you've done yet." she made a little giggle as Amelia walked into the room. "I swear she's the cutest thing on this earth."
    "Agreed," I say while putting her back down. "Okay, Ash, go and play with your toys for a bit." Ashley nodded and ran off laughing. "I'm curious, man. Where did she get 'Ri-ri' from?" Matt asked. I lean onto the island and think back. "When I was fourteen, and she was three, I wanted to try and get her to say my name so I would split my name up to make it easy. I got her to say 'rih' but she started saying 'ree-ree' and it just stuck."
    "Aww," commented Amelia. "Yeah," I say, smiling. I felt my pocket buzz and I pull out my new phone and read the message that I got. It was a text from Mary, the girl who I saved from her ex. We had been talking for a bit and hanging out at my house and introducing her to Ashley.
    "Oh, who's that?" I hear Matt say. I wake up from my little day dream and look up to see all of them staring at me with smug faces. Then I hear my sister yell from the family room, "I bet it's his girlfriend!"
"Ashley!" I yelled back. The next thing you hear is her giggling followed by the laughs of my friends; never thought this many people would be considered my friends. Then I heard a knock at the door and walked over to answer it. When I opened it, I see a teenager, probably the same age as me, standing with his body half turned away and his hands in his pockets. He took one look at me and smiled, he had decently long hair and a bit of facial hair on his chin.
"Eric? Eric Sullivan?" he said. "Um, yeah. You are?"
"Jeffrey Singer. Forrest told us to pick you up for today and to show you what we do usually."
"Us?" Jeffrey pointed behind him at a roofless car with four more older teens. One had a buzzcut and was fiddling with some device in his hand, the girl next to him had medium length hair and wore star-shaped sunglasses as she stretched back onto the trunk of the car. The second, who sat in between the girl with the sunglasses and the tech-guy, sat typing away at a laptop while also messing with her long hair. The third girl of the group sat shotgun with her hair pulled back.
"Um, alright. One second." I turn around and walked back to my friends. "Guys, could you watch Ashley for a bit. Forrest apparently set up a day for me to spend time with his students or whatever you want to call them."
"Yeah we can do that," Amelia said. "Thanks, guys, it won't be long, I hope." Then I walked to my sister, hugged her, and kissed her head, then left the house. I sat in the middle front seat as we drove off somewhere. "Eric, meet Karla," Jeffrey said while pointing at the girl next to me.
"Taylor, Chelsea, and Simon," he said while pointing at the other three in the back. "Hi," Karla said, waving slightly and giving a warm smile. "Sup!" yelled Taylor, feeling the wind on her face. Chelsea gave a salute and Simon didn't respond but instead continued to work on his small device. "Truth be told," Jeffrey started.
"Forrest didn't tell us to pick you up, dude. We heard about your recruitment in the Powers Division and wanted to see the newbie. So, we are gonna spend the day to get to know each other and just have some fun."
"Don't you all have work to finish, though?" Jeffrey smiled again and put on a pair of sunglasses. "Nope," he laughed. Even though I just met these people today, I felt very comfortable in their presence like they were a family I had never met before. I could get used to it.
"So," began Karla. "You're in the Powers division? What power do you have?"
"Well, uh. It's hard to explain exactly. Well, not really, just awkward."
"Is it that embarrassing?" Taylor asked. "No, not really, it's just hard for me to explain." Then I felt a headache grow and alert me to some trouble. I wince hard from the pain. "You okay, guy?" Asked Jeffery. I nod and say, "Turn left ahead and go straight for a few blocks."
"Why's that?"
"Just do it, Jeff," Karla said. He shrugged and followed my directions. "Okay, stop here," I say as my headache began to fade. I jump out of the car and start running down the nearest Alley. Turning here and there until I finally found them.
It was two kids, a couple years younger than me. One had a gun pointed at the other. They both were teary eyed and the one with the gun pointed on him had pissed himself. Just as the boy with the gun pulled the trigger, I formed a big enough shield in front of the boy just in time to stop it. They both were wide eyed and followed the black-limb connected to my left shoulder blade.
The boy with the gun freaked and began to shoot at me while yelling. I didn't bother to shield myself and took the hit of the bullets; seven of them. The boy dropped the gun and began wailing and crying. The other one was still in shock and just sat there groaning and whimpering. I let my body heal the wounds and spit out the bullets before I spoke.
Despite my durability and vigor, seven bullets to the chest still hurts like hell. "You done, kid?" I said while looking at him. He was still freaking out so I walked over and shook him lightly. "Snap out of it, shut up, and listen." He quieted down but was still sniffling and whimpering.
"I don't know what this was about, but you need to think for a second. What would have happened if you killed him? Or what would have happened if I wasn't who I was and I had died?" The boy just sat there sniffling and shaking. "You would've taken someone's life and have been sent to jail. You would have hurt his family, and would have taken his entire life away while also ruining yours." The boy started to shed a few more tears and started to whimper again. I flicked his forehead and said, "Knock it off. You're in no position to cry right now."
I heard a few clicking noises and turned around to see Simon taking apart the gun. He poured out the bullets from the clip and dumped them into a plastic bag. He placed the gun parts into a separate, bigger bag and set them side by side. Karla and Taylor were talking to the other boy and Jeffery was with Chelsea as she typed away at her laptop. I looked at Simon and he looked right back at me with a grin.
"Good thing you got here or it would've been messy," Simon said. I just nodded in response. I tapped the boy who had the gun on the shoulder to grab his attention. "Hey, go take him home and apologize to him as well." The boy nodded and stood up to walk over to the other one.
They left with one leaning on the other's shoulder and reeking of sweat and piss. "So," began Jeffery. "What kind of power was that? A shield? And a healing factor?"
"Kinda." I revealed my black-limbs to them and all of them, including Chelsea, all looked up in wonder and interest. "Your eyes even change!" yelled Jeffery in excitement. "You could star in your own hentai," commented Simon. The moment he said that, Chelsea's faced blushed over fast.
"What's that?" Simon waved it off. "Nothing, just forget it." We all went back to the car and continued to drive. As we did I told them about  myself and about what brought me to be recruited in the Powers division.
"That's insane, man," Taylor said. "Yeah, I'm sorry that all of that happened," added Karla. "It's fine, it's the past now."
"That's the truth, guy," Jeffery agreed. "By the way, Do you have a name for your ability?"
"A name?"
"Everyone in the Powers division that has a power has a name for their abilities or powers for documentation. So what will yours be?" said Taylor. I think about it for the next five minutes. I think back to when I first discovered this power, to when I first used it, to all the lives I've saved. As well as the lives I took. So I thought of a name.
"I think I got it."
"What, a name for your power?" asked Simon. I nod in response. "So, what will the name be, Eric?" Jeffery asked. "Hidden Darkness."