Extraordinary Individuals : Josiah Rising

Chapter 4

I moved my head slightly to the side, letting the blast sail past me and explode the turf behind me. I was going to have to rely on instincts and reflexes to keep me alive during this fight. I proceeded to dodge two more blasts, rolling into a kneeling positing a few feet away from Kato.
"You've got good battle instincts," he commented. "They won't save you, though."
He raised both his hands and fired off a volley of blasts that I was barely able to dodge. Plumes of smoke and turf were all that I could see on the field as I continued to dodge and evade his blasts. Little did Kato know, I was formulating a strategy. I was using the smoke from his blasts as a cover to try and get closer to him. I needed to end this in one swoop but I couldn't be reckless and charge in. If I charged in too fast, I would get blasted at point blank range which wouldn't be pretty. I had to time everything just right. I dodged another blast and came up on Kato's left side, his blindside. Before he could react, I swung a heavy right cross into his jaw that sent him tumbling across the turf field.
"You son of a bitch!" Kato growled, his voice shaking with anger.
He yelled and fired off a huge blast at my face. I rolled to my right and rebounded, launching myself at him.
Don't give him time to recover!
Kato swung a sloppy overhand punch at my head. I rolled underneath it and fired a left hook into his rib, letting a bit of my tactile telekinesis into the punch. The goal wasn't to hurt him severely but to merely bruise him up. My guess about Kato being a poor hand to hand fighter was spot on. His movements and punches were sloppy and he put all his weight behind them. I let off a jab, cross, hook combination that sent him spiraling onto the turf once more. He staggered to his feet covering his nose but I could clearly see blood leaking from between his fingers as he glared at me. Rage, pain and confusion danced in his eyes, his expression shocked at the fact that he was losing to me. Since freshman year, Kato had treated me like a pebble he could just kick down the road and now I was finally in a position to repay him back for all the beatings, bullying, and harassment he had me suffer through.
Do it.
A dark voice in my mind spoke to me. It was telling me to use my powers and land the final blow.
Show him who's stronger.
Destroy him.
End him!
I swung my fist towards his head, feeling a sense of wicked sadism overcome me. My fist connected with the back of Kato's head and he collapsed onto the ground, unconscious but still breathing. I had consciously only used five percent of my power, something I had been struggling with since first awakening my abilities. The turf field was silent as everyone gathered around to stare at Kato's unconscious body murmuring to themselves.
"He won."
"But how?"
"A gamma actually beat an alpha?"
Everyone's eyes turned to me and I met their gazes. Among the crowd were several freshmen who were also gammas, their eyes shining with faint admiration while the upper levels were glaring at me. Their eyes were haughty but also curious. No doubt this would spread like wildfire throughout the school. Which meant that I would have to watch my back constantly and probably up my training regimen. The faint sound of the bell ringing brought me back to my senses as everyone started to disperse and head to their fourth period class. Becky was still standing exactly where I left her but the way she was looking at me was troubling. She seemed...frightened. I walked over to her and grabbed my hoodie, pulling it over my head and adjusting it.
"I didn't know you could fight," she said quietly.
I shot her a glance. "Just basic boxing skills and combinations, nothing major."
I walked past her and back into the school to head to the cafeteria to eat lunch. Becky fell into step beside me but remained quiet, occasionally shooting me glances that I could see out of my peripheral. As I walked down the hall I could hear the other students murmuring about what had just happened. I caught the eye of one student in particular. She was slim yet curvaceous with skin the color of milk chocolate. Her hair was styled into jumbo box braids that framed her face perfectly. Given the spring weather, she wore a denim jacket over a light colored T-shirt dress and a pair of white Air Force 1 low tops. She was pretty. No, pretty was too simple of a word for her. Stunning? Captivating? No matter how I thought about it there just weren't enough adjectives to describe how beautiful this girl was. But her most stunning feature were her eyes: they were cognac brown and when her full lips parted into a smile her eyes lit up. Her smile caused me to trip over my own feet, eliciting a soft giggle from the mystery girl. I righted myself and continued into the cafeteria with Becky who side eyed the girl.
"Who was that?"
I shrugged. "Dunno. She's pretty, though. And her smile is something else."
Becky rolled her eyes as we sat down with our food, a tray of cheeseburgers and French fries.
"She's definitely your type, no?"
I chuckled. Becky knew all too well that I had a preference for curvaceous girls with pretty smiles. But it wasn't just the fact that the mystery girl was curvy or had a pretty smile. It was the brief moment of energy that I had felt from her that was keeping my attention focused on her as she made her way through the lunch line. Becky shook her head and nodded towards the girl, who just so happened to be getting closer to us.
"Go talk to her," she coaxed.
"She's outta my league, Chica," I replied half-joking.
Becky huffed. "You say that about every girl you like, Josiah. Never know if you don't try."
"Try what?"
We both jumped a bit as the girl sat down at our table. She sat next to Becky but situated herself so that she was directly across from me. Up close, she was definitely pretty. It was a natural prettiness too, no makeup or extra touches needed. I noticed that she had a dashing of freckles across the bridge of nose that I thought was cute. I didn't realize that I had been staring until our eyes met and her gaze held me. She had her head cocked slightly, not exactly sizing me up, but studying me.
"I saw your fight," she said finally, her voice soft and melodic.
"Oh?" I said, trying remain casual and nonchalant.
"I'm glad someone finally put him in is place. He'll probably be nursing his wounded pride for a bit, though."
"He'll be back for revenge," Becky said around a mouth full of burger.
I nodded. "Kato's tenacious, I'll give him that. He's pride is wounded and he's got even more of a reason to hate me now that I've publicly humiliated him in front of the school."
"I think you did a good thing," the girl said, bringing my attention back to her.
She smiled comfortingly at me and my damn heart skipped a beat. What was it with this girl? I mean, yeah, she was attractive but I felt drawn to her or like I constantly had to look at her.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Yasmine," she responded, leaning forward to rest her cheek on her hand. "Yours?"
"Josiah Smith."
"Ohh, he told me his full name," Yasmine laughed, making a face at me.
I couldn't help but laugh. Her smile broadened even more at the sound of my laughter. She laughed as well.
Beautiful and funny? What else can she do?
"What's your ability?" Becky asked.
I shot her glance to let her know that was a rude question to ask but she waved me off and turned to Yasmine who still had her eyes on me despite the fact that Becky was addressing her.
"My ability lets me manipulate my own blood pressure or the blood pressure of other people to increase strength and speed by accelerating the flow of oxygen in the blood. If I use it on other people I can either give them a heart attack or stop their blood flow completely," Yasmine said in a low voice.
Becky and I exchanged looks with each other. Becky seemed slightly taken aback meanwhile I was slightly intrigued by her ability. It sounded like a pretty strong ability but the only backlash would be if she accelerated her blood flow too much and strained her body. The physical backlash would be terrible.
"What'd the authorities rank your ability as?" I asked.
Yasmine sighed softly. "Beta when it's dormant and it becomes alpha once I start using it. Only problem being that I've never had to use my ability except during the apprehension test we take at the facility once we hit puberty."
I nodded in understanding. The apprehension test was just a test designed to test our abilities by having us use them on training dummies. Everyone's abilities fell into three categories: mental, physical and environmental with each category having various subcategories to the point that it was confusing. My ability fell into the physical category whereas someone like Braxton fell into environmental sense he drew electricity from the source.
"Lunch is over," Becky commented, the ringing of the bell punctuating her point.
I got up to leave, dreading the fact that my fourth period was Algebra 2. Math was honestly my worst subject and no matter how hard I tried I always maintained a C average in the class.
"Where ya headed?" Yasmine asked, standing in front me so that we were face to face.
She was shorter than I thought (about 5'3) so I ended up looking down at her while she had to look up at me.
"Algebra 2 with Mrs Hawkins," I answered.
"As luck would have it," Yasmine said playfully, "We happen to be in that class together. Be a gentleman and walk to class with me?"
Sensing that I didn't have much of a choice, I sighed and proceeded to walk to class with Yasmine, promising Becky that I'd see her later.