ANGST
Gabe woke up hazily, pale sunlight creeping in through the window shades. He shuffled his way to the bathroom, sleep still in his eyes and on his mind. He opened up the cabinet door, grabbing out some bodyspray and gauze. After putting some deodorant, he put on a heavy coat of the spray. He honestly had come to hate the smell of both, but as his eyes crept towards the stark, unused shower, he figured this was a better option than the unknown. He pulled out some gauze out of the cheap plastic wrap and started to rewrap his hands, his previous bandages frayed and starting to come undone. As he hastily circled his hand with the bandages, his elbow hit the handle of a nearby hairbrush. The brush was catapulted away from Gabe, the sudden movement causing him to jump. Although not a particularly powerful movement, the brush still managed to fly through the air at a pretty high speed, hitting a metal insulation pipe. As the discordant "clang" filled the bathroom, an old memory flooded Gabe's head...
----
It was years ago, at this point. He remembered that it was just early spring, so the evenings were still relatively dark and cold. There was spotty cloud cover, the smog mixing with the natural atmosphere. He and Sky were walking home from school, sharing a piece of bread. The school, although not much, was a change of pace for the two. It also fed them at least one meal, which was an added benefit and change from the old life they had run from. Gabe, although still jumpy, had mostly put those gang instincts on the backburner since moving here. The word "mostly" is of paramount importance, since he hadn't had the opportunity to not be on edge. at least a bit. He often times had to stick up for Sky against the local children that would pick on them. This often times ended in up in both parties getting scraped up; however, they seemed to be getting more and more belligerent. Thankfully, these encounters we're restricted to the school alone.
So he thought.
Although both originally thought it was their skittish instincts playing tricks on them, they had definitely felt eyes on them as they walked home. They only had the decaying light of the evening and the spotty coverage of streetlamps to try and decern what laid in the darkness. The shifting shadows that both had caught in their peripheral vision had been blamed on the imagination. However, as they turned a corner on the sidewalk, they heard a very distinct, tinny sound behind them.
*clang, clang, clang*
The two turned to look behind them to see a small muddled figure rapidly running towards them, dark jacket flailing in the wind as he sped forward. A couple of smaller figures followed behind him, blinking in and out of the streetlights. Sky grabbed tightly to Gabe's arm instinctively, starting to shift jitterily, trying to stammer something out. Before Gabe could even spit out the word "go", his feet were already on the job. The duo began to sprint down the corner they had turned, the slap of the concrete sounding out against the stone bricks of the buildings. They had begun to run, but the discordant chime still followed, louder than before.
*clang, clang, clang*
Gabe rapidly spun his head back, breathing heavily and shakily. He saw a flash of red hair and the gleam of metal. It looked like a large pipe, with a series of dents causing shadows to show up on the metal. The sound rung out every time the figure hit the lamp as he flitted by. Sky was starting to hyperventilate as he quickly pointed to the other side of the street. Running parallel to them were two more figures, the grins on their faces clear as they ran under the shady street's spotlights. The three figures that were originally following them rounded the corner they had just past. They were gaining on them with alarming speed. The two tried to kick the ground under them faster, now hearing the footsteps mix with theirs.
*clang, clang, clang*
Gabe had figured out that they were going to catch up, but he figured that keeping the endorphins rushing would, in the end, keep the both of them in a state to fight. He took a quick look to see that his best friend's face was flushed, the gaunt features popping out as air rushed in and out of his mouth. The two boys that were on the other side of the street were now about two feet behind Sky, their arms outstretched. The features on their faces could now be easily seen, even in the darkness of the evening. Gabe saw the freckles, the yellow of their teeth, the beads of sweat. In a last-ditch attempt to keep Sky safe, he pushed his adoptive brother out of the way, watching him skid a few meters in front of him as his inertia pushed him forward. He felt a body slam him against the wall, knocking the breath out of him. Before he could even yell out, he felt another hand grab his head and shove him down, scraping the right side of his face on the pavement. He struggled and writhed against the pair that held him down as he heard footsteps slow behind him. There was one last "clang" as they came they slowed down to a pompous crawl.
"Well well, look at what we have here," Gabe heard someone snicker out. Even with just the voice, he knew that it was the leader of the gang that picked on Gabe and Sky. They primarily went after Sky; however, due to Gabe always hanging around Sky, and sticking up for him, he wasn't safe from their cruelty. The boy stuck his square, freckled face in Gabe's, smirking widely. His breath smelled of chewing tobacco and plaque. "You just stay down there and look pretty, huh?" the boy hissed out to Gabe before standing up and walking over to Sky. Gabe raised his eyes to see that another duo had grabbed Sky and pushed him up against the wall. Sky was sputtering and coughing from the running and the fall.
"How you doin, skinny?" the boy asked, roughly jabbing Sky with the pipe in the gut. Gabe heard the air leave him roughly, causing him to cough again. "I asked you a question, it's rude to not answer," the boy said with superiority dripping from his words. He stomped on Sky's toes hard, causing Sky to yell out. In response to seeing their leader do it, one of the boys holding down Gabe dug his foot into Gabe's back. Due to Gabe's position, he could barely let out more than a grunt as the heel dug into his spine.
"You know," the leader said slowly, "I've been thinking. I really don't know how you keep on going. It's obvious you really don't have anything to support yourselves, and I'm sure the only meal you get is at lunch. You specifically," the leader said pointedly, turning his general speech to Sky. "You are all skin and bones; in fact, you're practically hollow!"
"Just like a pinata," one of the boys holding down Gabe sniggered out.
After licking his teeth with an evil grin on his face he points the pipe at the voice who piped up in recognition. "Just like a pinata." The leader stared down at Gabe while inching closer to Sky as he quietly said, "that's why we're here. Time to find out what goodies these two hold."
After the final sentence, the two boys holding Sky to the wall lifted him higher, clinging tightly to the gaunt boy's wrist. In an instant, what was about to happen clicked in Gabe's mind. Everything that happened next was both a blur and in slow-motion to Gabe. As the anger bubbled up inside Gabe, he yelled out as he arched his back, throwing the boy who had dug his heel in off balance. As Gabe got to his hands and knees, he balled his hands into a fist and swung at the off-balance boy's shin at full force. As the side of his fist hit the boy's shin, he heard a dull thud and a very small *crack* before the boy fell down, howling. He rolled to his side as the other boy holding him down tried to stomp down on his head. Gabe spun off the side of the wall, scraping his face and chin along the pavement as he skid away from the boy. He arched his back again before kicking out the energy to his legs, jumping up with the kinetic force of it. Rage shone in Gabe's eye as the other boy that was holding him down slung a nearby rock directly at his head. The leader of the group watched smugly while the two holding up the breathless Sky watched on with nervousness.
The decently sized stone pegged Gabe right in the center of his forehead, the rock sticking there for a second or two as Gabe titled his head back in pain. Once the rock dropped out of its new, crudely-made socket, the dent immediately started to gush dark red blood. As the blood flowed down into Gabe's right eye, the fluid already coagulating in his eyelashes and eyebrow, Gabe rushed the attacker, charging at him. He led his bull-run with his left arm, his right arm behind him. Gabe was rapidly spinning the bandage off his right hand, thinking he might need to use his ability for the fight. He hit the rock-thrower straight in the gut, carrying him onward as he charged on. Gabe managed to charge him into one of the boys holding up Sky, causing Sky to drop. The rock thrower was significantly heavier than the scrawny boy that held up one of Sky's wrist, so they were incapacitated as the would-be-David struggled for breath. They could only manage shallow gasps as their diaphragm spasmed, causing their whole body to shudder. Gabe looked at him with a victorious grin before feeling the cold of metal slam down on the base of his neck, causing him to immediately fall.
As a guttural scream rose up in Gabe, he felt the pipe crash down on his shoulder blade, causing him to buckle. He flipped on to his back, tears welling up in his eyes, seeing the silhouette of the leader loom over him. Gabe had fallen under one of the buzzing streetlamps, so the leader's visage was blotted out by the heavy glow of the fluorescent light. The gleam of the metal, however, was not. As the boy swung the blunt object down towards Gabe's face, Gabe instinctively put up his right hand in defense, the cylinder falling perfectly into the palm of his hand. His middle two fingers gave out a crunch as pain welled up in his hand. This pain was soon gone though, as Gabe arduously wrapped his fingers around the pipe. His hand, in the blink of an eye, had become the same substance of the pipe. No longer feeling the pain in his hand, he used his now-iron grip to pull down the leader. As the boy fell hard to the ground, Gabe straddled himself on top of him, raising his fist above him.
Gabe saw the vast complex mental process that went on in the boy's eyes as the right hook quickly sped towards his face. The red-headed boy had skinned his nose when he had fallen, and when he first turned to look up at Gabe, his eyes burned with hatred. However, as he saw the split second before he slammed in the jaw, Gabe saw the boy brace for impact, both with anger and fear spreading across his scrunched up face.
*clang*
The fist, after making contact with the boy's jaw, rang out with a terrible noise. Gabe saw the shock of pain and fear immediately show up on the boy's face. He looked up at Gabe with a shine in his eyes that you get when facing the unknown. The sort of primordial fear you experience rarely. The boy hadn't seen the material that Gabe's hand had turned into and thus wasn't prepared for its effects on him. Although the boy's head was filled with questions and quandaries, Gabe's had a different primal instinct controlling him. As his right hook near the left side of his face, Gabe opened up his hand until it was stiff as a board. The boy saw the gleam of metal this time. He looked directly into Gabe's eyes, the streetlamp shining his iris. What sounded like the beginning of the word "wait" was cut off by Gabe's backhand.
There was no clang this time. Instead, it was a sickening, blood-curdling pop as the boy's lower jaw shifted over two inches. His head immediately fell to the left, blood pooling out of his mouth. His eyes still flitted with life and fear, tears running down his face due to gravity. He could only manage quiet, gurgled pleas, with each managed "help" causing him to breathe in blood. Gabe, out of his primeval rage, looked back at Sky. The other boy that still had Sky clamped around the wrist looked on in abject horror before looking at Gabe. He let go of Sky and ran in the other direction, falling down a few times as he skittered off. Sky looked down at the mess and looked at Gabe and sullenly nodded. Without even a word, the two knew they needed to run. Gabe stood up, slowly and painfully. He started turning his hand back, feeling the shooting pain in his middlemost fingers again. He looked down at the leader again and made sure that what he had done wasn't fatal. It certainly wasn't, but the sight of the blood reflecting the streetlamp's oppressive light as it pooled out of the boy's mouth wasn't a pretty sight. Taking a second longer to look at him, the duo ran off into the last light of the crepuscule, leaving him to gurgle out his cries.
"Helgg..."
"Elg eee please.."
By the time they couldn't hear him anymore, it was dark. There were no more street lamps, no more fading sun. It was nigh pitch black...
-----
And when Gabe opened his eyes, that darkness he was in years ago ended, putting him back in the pale cerulean of his bathroom again. He looked down at his right hand and started to rebandage it in a flurry. He didn't even care to notice that he was now out of breath and running a cold sweat. He turned to leave the bathroom and heard the buzzing of the bathroom light, reminding him of those fuzzy lines of streetlamps. He slammed the switch, grabbed a coat and ran outside, into the pale blue morning.