Ken

Ken lived quite normally, he was quiet but friendly and direct. His relationship with his parents were very close, his father was always loud and fun while his mother always had a resting bitch face...yet she was kind. Basically he had a good childhood, a very normal childhood... but something always stumped him. His aunt Bailey was one of his favorite people to hang out with but when he was 7 she started to become more and more paranoid, her normally neat bun was fraying and she's shake with a cup of coffee. His mother always told him Aunt Bailey was just worried about her own things and eventually she cut contact with them. He didn't know why. He didn't understand it at that age.

One summer's day there was a news report about a burned down house, Aunt Bailey's house. It was said that her and her husband were both badly injured but the boy escorted out safely, they said he'd been outside playing. Who was that boy? Ken never seen him before... Later that same week he overheard his mother talk about going to court for something.
"You're crazy!" His father said.
"He's just a kid. He doesn't deserve to be locked away like a criminal."
And that was that. Sandra left for a while.

Behind the scenes, she'd gone to claim custody of Bailey's son, Jax, who had a special power untold to the public. She claimed she'd take the precautions needed to keep him out of trouble and to have Jax grow up as any other normal child. A powerless child. Everything went down not-so-smoothly but Sandra was handed over her nephew. That's when Ken finally met face to face with his cousin he never knew he had. They got along well, Jax had been quite timid but Ken wanted to bring the fun out of that child. He was the first playmate Jax ever had and it was fun for awhile... however when school started back up, Ken had to go to public school while Jax was home-schooled by Sandra. Ken's normal life continued on, or at least for a bit, Jax became more impatient. More impulsive. It seemed all he wanted to do was cling to Ken's leg and keep him for his own. The small friend group he had started to fade for reasons unknown. They seemed scared of him, or was it him? No, they were just afraid of the little boy staring at them from across Ken's front door. It was him.

Late middle school came along and Ken was used to being by himself and getting gossiped about for having a weird cousin, being ridiculed by kids as cruel as they were at that age... he was sick of it. Not to mention his body was changing in unfavorable ways. The way his chest grew made him want to hide it.
Eventually with all the weight on a young pubescent, he cracked. Ken lashed out at the last kid who poked fun at him with the bamboo sword used on the PE dummies. After that, his troubled youth only grew. He started skipping classes, he hung out around the backside of school with a kendo stick not too far behind him. They started calling him "Kendo" from there forth. No one dared to mess with Kendo and the ones who did got their asses handed to them.
High school, he still suffered gossip from about his gross cousin and himself.
.
Already in a bad mood, he'd return to his shit-show  a home. His mother only rolled her eyes at him and his father was out on a very long business trip to make some big bucks. Even sweet and annoying Jax was to be resented.
Consumed with so much rage he shouted at Jax when they were alone. It seemed like Jax wanted to help but what filth like him would want to help?
"It's all your fault! You're the one who did this to me! You're to blame!" Kendo would shout among much more, Jax got equally as heated... until
"Shut up... SHUT UP!" Jax retaliated raising a hand, but it wasn't a punch Kendo felt... it was much worse.
Slk! 

He couldn't comprehend what just happened. All he saw was a part of his tail cut clean off. That's where everything began to go wrong. Because Jax used his powers, he'd broken the contract and now Ken knew why Jax was kept home instead of where he was. His mother found out about this as well and soon let out her mother’s rage on the younger boy. She regretted ever bringing him into the house and contacted the facility trained to deal with the empowered.

They took Jax and interrogated the delinquent Kendo. He found out they were called the OPCA (Official Phychic Containment Association) and they were there to protect and rehabilitate psychics as dangerous as Jax and they were a hush-hush kind of group. They made a deal with Kendo to keep his mouth shut about it and he could come to visit his cousin. What a bunch of bullshit... but for some reason he felt obligated to do so. He'd visit Jax on occasion and notice he was slowly changing, and not for the best. That sweet child he grew up with had a cold-hearted gaze and a sinister smile attached to it. It was sickening to see it... and all that came next was much worse than he could imagine. Jax awoke a great power stirred within him and broke from his containment, slaughtering guardsman, the nurses, even other psychics with one blow, yet Kendo was spared among them. He approached the delinquent and leaned down to him frozen in fear.

"It's not my fault. It's your own personal problem." Jax told him before vanishing from OPCA.

What had he done? This was an absolute massacre. He had no idea he grew up beside a murderer for how long? This was his fault wasn't it? If he hadn't pushed Jax...

Kendo felt it all come crashing down. He was angry, hot tears filled his eyes. He needed to make this right. He needed to bring Jax back so he, nor anyone else could be hurt again.
At 17 he was accepted by OPCA on a special OP to scout and apprehend psychics across the board but before that he had some unfinished business with his family. He told his parents of his plan of moving out, how he was promised a job and training for a “military” operation and they were proud of him but that wasn’t all he had to say.
“Mom… Dad… you see, I’m also a man.” He’d finally admit. To no one’s surprise his mother only laughed at him while his father stood unsure. That was the last time he talked with his parents before travelling with OPCA.

At first it was noble, it was justice for all...but just as everything it became tainted. Tainted with fear for what they couldn't control. They'd experience more and more losses and generations of psychics would only grow stronger, OPCA concluded they needed to be more forceful with their operations. There shouldn't be another Jax out there, what if an entire group of them appeared? They couldn't take that risk.

OPCA became more brutal, and even the past delinquent was hesitant to do his line of work. They'd been taking in young children for god sake!

He doesn't deserve to be locked away like a criminal. He'd remember what his mother said. She was right. He saw children on a regular basis stripped from their parents and loved ones, for what? Because they showed signs? Most of the kids weren’t even psychically intelligent but couldn’t leave in fear of them talking about OPCA. They planned on making them soldiers when they were old enough. Kendo knew how harsh the conditions were… the uniform he used to wear proudly was becoming a sign of great pain. He only had a year left of this shit… his 4 year contract was going to expire and he sure as hell wasn’t going to stay to hear another child crying. He would have gone insane. On his last mission he was in the west, a desert town in their armored van. It was only a quick scan, but then it became a chase. A hyena woman reported a child with psychic power being smuggled by a nasty man. They had to investigate until they finally tracked down the fool with the girl. They swiftly took her but soon to find out this smuggler was only a concerned father and it showed. Kendo knew when someone was lying, and the way that hyena fought wasn’t out of a business trip. It was out of getting his daughter back from some kidnappers. It took a few of their men to hold him back and eventually knock him out before loading the psychic child into the van. They dragged the “smuggler” out in the middle of nowhere where they had to leave him to die. It was their policy: no witnesses, you either forget or get spent. What was this? Some gang? Ken didn’t want to stand for this, he tried to argue with his squad but ended up losing.

“You know the rules, he isn’t going to just give it up! He’s only going to cause a ruckus and be after us if it comes to that. I’m sorry but he’s better off dead here. We have no choice.” He remembered the harshness OPCA had become as they tied the “smuggler” against a cactus. He looked on at the poor, unconscious man. It didn’t sit right with him to just do this! When no one was looking he dropped his concealed knife and a water bottle before riding off with their prisoner. If he could only make it right for all the shitty things he’d done...

The day finally came where he hung up his uniform for good, but had to wear it until he was off OPCA grounds without getting shot. The little doggy girl he captured in the desert mission got his attention and begged to go home and see her dad again. He couldn’t take it… he left without saying a word. As soon as he drove away from OPCA, he broke down crying in his car. He screamed to his aching heart…

2 years and he could leave those scars behind, and yet no Jax. He was done with that place. He tried to live normally once again, now being numbed by the feeling. No emotion in his face. Then he met a spotted fellow he recognized too well... The desert mission was hitting him again. It was him. There was no doubt. Then he introduced himself to Kendo.

The stranger introduced himself as Todd, a man on a mission to find his daughter and he needed help. Kendo knew he did. Dry-mouthed and unsure, he couldn't help but get sucked back into this mess again. He wanted to right his wrongs to this man. It was like a burden he couldn't shake... And there it started.