Finally, more to the story of Ian Case 🙂 hope you enjoy it- feel free to point out flaws- i haven’t proof-read it :O

Not much action i’m afraid, but chap 4 has quite a bit, Ian really does some damage in that one- 😉

I awoke to darkness. There was a window on the far side of the room and through the dusty glass I could faintly see the faraway glow of the stars. I was lying on some sort of mattress, and was covered with a dark blanket. I pulled the blanket off me and stood up. They obviously hadn’t tried to undress me, and I was still wearing my bloodstained uniform. My face felt like it had been hit by a truck, and I assumed it likely looked that way. That guy sure can punch.

I staggered over to the door, and leant against the wall quickly as I lost my balance. Whatever Raven had injected into my arm was still wearing off, and couldn’t take more than a few steps without stumbling. I banged my hand against the door and sat down on the cold concrete floor. I heard footsteps and a click as Raven opened the door and walked in. She turned and looked down at me.

‘Look who’s awake’ she said, and sat down beside me.

I looked at her through groggy eyes and began fiddling with my shirt.

‘Where am I?’ I asked her.

‘Unfortunately, I can’t tell you that’

‘Or you’d have to kill me?’

She looked at me, registering my anger and annoyance.

‘It’s just… We don’t know if we can trust you just yet Ian’

I stood up angrily, and fell over as my knees buckled. She Sprang to her feet and grabbed me quickly, stopping me before I hit the floor. She straightened me up, gripping both of my shoulders, and led me over to the mattress. She sat me down and walked over to the door.

‘You practically kidnap me, and I’m the untrustworthy one?’ I scowled.

‘Your will is weak, Ian, and until your emotional ties are severed, we just can’t’

Then she left, and I heard a sharp metallic snap as she locked the door, and walked off. I listened to her footsteps as she left, and saw a tray of food that I hadn’t noticed before. I took a bite out of a slice of bread and lay down on the mattress. Tears sprang to my eyes again. You can never go back. I closed my eyes, and let the darkness take hold once again.

-**-

‘Come on sleepy-head, get up’

Raven stood above me, Hands on her hips. She reached a hand out to me and hauled me off the mattress. I looked at her for a moment, and followed her lead as she walked through the open door. It was daylight now, and the sunlight washed in through wide windows that lined the corridor we were walking down. She took several turns through the labyrinth of hallways and rooms, before opening a rather intimidating metal door in a bare white room. As she pushed it closed behind us, I took in the absolutely massive space that sat before me.

The room was huge, and filled with an assortment of strange devices that lined the floors, walls and ceiling. In the middle of these things sat Despair, who had shed his trench coat in favour of leather pants and a black shirt, and was reading a book that made War and Peace look like a newspaper column. His muscles, I noticed, were absolutely huge, and I had no doubt he could flatten me with his finger if he tried. He still wore his strange visor, and here in the light I was finally able to make it out properly.

It was like a pair of leather welding goggles, but the lenses stuck out in what looked like the small brass microscopes jewellers use to examine gems. The brass was engraved with strange patterns, and the leather was etched with criss-crossing cuts. Despair looked up from the mammoth book as we approached, and tweaked a focusing knob on one of the lenses of his visor.

He set the book on the ground and walked up to us.

‘Have a nice sleep?’ he asked, grabbing my hand and beginning to inspect it.

‘Whatever you knocked me out with gave me a migraine, but aside from that it was just peachy’ I answered, pulling my hand out of his grip.

He scratched his chin and told raven to get a drink before waving me over to the couch he had been sitting on. He gestured towards a lounge chair, before sitting down again.

‘This is why we had to “kidnap” you’ he said, and picked up a remote and turned on the massive TV that was a few metres away.

‘She told you that, huh?’ I mumbled.

He kept his eyes on the TV and flicked through the channels quickly, completely focused on finding what he meant to show me.

‘I found it amusing’

‘Not the way I saw it’

He turned smiled at me, then tweaked his visor again and pointed at the screen with the remote.

‘Watch’

I turned to the TV as a young-looking newswoman came onto the screen.

Violence erupted today at a high school in Faine, when year 11 student Ian Case lashed out at Samuel Garr, a year 12 student who was trying to keep the enraged Ian away from Kate Demora, who he had been allegedly sexually and verbally harassing prior to the incident. Samuel is currently in a stable condition at Faine Hospital, where he is receiving treatment for a broken nose, and minor internal bleeding. He was well enough to give us a filmed statement. The scene flickered over to a battered and bruised Sam, who had a large goofy looking cast on his nose. The bastard had put on an expression of pain, as if he were fighting back tears. Idiot. I listened closely as he began to speak.

‘So tell us Sam, what made you act to protect this girl?’

Sam looked into the camera, a fake tear rolling down his cheek.

‘I just had to, I couldn’t stand seeing such a beautiful girl being tormented by that guy’

‘This is rather strange isn’t it, given your history with the school?’

Sam looked down, and his voice began to wobble as he spoke. He’s good at this.

‘About a month ago, after my last suspension, I began to realise how much of a lie my life had become, and I started meditating to calm myself. I’ve become a better person since then, and I have no plans of going back to my wretched past’

At this point Sam began to cry, and his stupid fat cheeks wobbled as he gurgled with bloated, salty tears.

‘Thank you for your time Sam, we hope you get better soon. Back to you Sarah’

The TV flicked back to the newswoman, who now had tears in her eyes.

Thank you Rachael. After the main Incident, police were called in as two unauthorised people were found on the school property, a girl and a Man, whose descriptions are being put together by investigators this very moment. Ian Case disappeared after following the girl into the woods, where later on a needle containing the sleeping drug Silophotamine was discovered. Ian is suspected to have been kidnapped after the two people were sighted loading a large bag into the back of a car. The search for Ian Case will begin tomorrow, after statements from local residents are taken. This is Sarah Woodlock, reporting for-

Despair shut off the TV and turned back to me. He set the remote down on the couch, then picked up a bottle of beer that I hadn’t seen from the floor and took a sip. He waited for me to say something. I got my thoughts in order, and said what I assumed he wanted to hear.

‘There’s no mention of the flames’

Despair smiled, as if he had made a witty joke.

‘That’s because we, well not me and raven personally, erased everyone’s memories of it’

I looked at him carefully.

‘You… erased their memories? How-

‘All in good time Ian, but first I need to tell you a bit about why you’re here’

Despair leant forward and I saw my refection in the lenses of the visor.

‘I assume Raven told you the basics, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg- and believe me, it’s a big iceberg. The day of your fight with that kid, a rush of adrenaline activated a dormant part of your brain that controls a hidden function of your body’s nerves- but that’s just science. In the most part it’s a supernatural occurrence within our race, and being supernatural, has strengths and weaknesses depending on some unknown factor in our characteristics. When the part was activated, built up power was released, and you ‘surged’. You had an unnaturally powerful surge, and whether that was because of the late maturation of that part of the brain, and so more power build-up, or whether it was just raw power I’m not sure, but what I can tell you is that it caused a hell of a shockwave’ He grinned and leant back on the couch, before continuing.

I had never been one for lectures, but what he was saying was interesting, and I kept listening.

‘We had to take you away because otherwise you would have continued to surge until the power was expended, and in the process you would likely have killed quite a few people. The drug Raven gave you was elephant tranquilizer- it’s the best to stop surging, but it does give you a pretty big headache’

I sat in the chair quietly, going over what he had said. Could I really be one of them? I thought, and rested my chin on my raised fist. Despair just looked at me the whole time, and I wondered if he wanted some sort of reaction from me, to see if I’d been fazed by what he’d told me. After ten minutes of silence, I spoke.

‘So… what is it exactly I can do?’

He chuckled.

‘You’re amazingly calm for someone who’s just found out he’s a supernatural being’

‘I don’t let things get to me’

‘Good, it’ll be easier to isolate you’

I frowned, and felt slightly uneasy.

‘Isolate me?’

‘I mean remove all emotional ties you have. There are a lot of people out there who want me and Raven dead, and anyone could play with your emotions for information on us’

I thought of Clare and Richard, my adopted parents who had raised me since I was a baby. Can I really forget them? I felt sad for a moment, and looked down at my hands. I heard a voice ring out behind me, and twisted my body to look over the chair. Raven stood there with three steaming cups balanced carefully on a thin tray.

‘It’ll be hard Ian, but it’s for the best’

She laid the tray down on a wooden table next to the couch and handed a cup to me and Despair, before taking the last one and sitting down. I took a sip. Coffee. I swallowed the bitter black liquid and set it back down on the tray. Despair took a long drink from his cup, then wiped his mouth and set it on the floor.

‘Our kind are governed overall by something widely known as The Omega Ring, an energy source that many have attempted to find and exploit. Our visual representation of this ring is a set of rings contained within each other, each more inner ring being of a higher level , and each harder in turn to develop. The outermost ring is the elemental ring, the basic powers that all of us possess, fire, water, air, and earth’

He paused for a moment and took another drink.

‘Usually when we surge, we unwillingly show our strongest element through a powerful display. Your power seems to based mostly on fire, which was shown by the tornado of flame that appeared when you surged’

I looked at him, and felt a strange sort of excitement- one that I hadn’t felt for years, the last time being when I found I had a knack for urban free running. It was a feeling of power, a feeling higher status, as if it made you better than everyone else. It was dangerous.

‘So, I can shoot fire and stuff like that?’ I asked cautiously.

This time raven answered.

‘That, and the rest of the elements, flame is just more natural to you- It’ll be easier to develop, and will take a marginally less time to master than the other powers’

‘So when am I going to start being trained exactly?’

Despair got to his feet, and motioned for me to get up as well.

‘Before we do anything, we have to sort out your final surge, or you’ll be too dangerous. Get some sleep and be ready for tomorrow- it’s going to be an exhausting day’

Raven groaned, and got up from the couch. She grabbed my arm and began to walk me back towards the door we had come from before. Despair watched us go, the strange eyepieces following our movement. As he disappeared from sight, I eased my arm out of Raven’s vice like grip, and she glanced at me with a strange look on her face. I was beginning to wonder whether she even liked me at all, the way she acted around me. We arrived at the door to my ‘room’ and she swung it open. I went in and lay down on the bed, folding my arms beneath my head. She watched me for a moment, then quietly spoke to me.

‘Tomorrow Ian, you’ll have to make a painful choice- stay or leave. Whichever one you choose will determine the fate of your entire life- and once you’ve made your decision, there’s no going back’

She looked down at the floor with sad eyes. Upon looking up, she walked out of the room, and held the door in her hand as she stood in the doorway.

‘Choose wisely’

With that she slammed the door shut, and I heard the lock click and footsteps as she walked off. I took a deep breath and sighed, closing my eyes. What will I choose? I felt my body relax, and my breathing become shallow, as I drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 3!!! hell, it took a while to write- school’s a bad thing for me XD

hahaha

-IanCase