War of the Druids

Chapter 1

 

 

 

“Dustin.”

“What’s up?”

“Where the hell are you taking us?”

“You’ll see.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Dustin Brooks stopped and turned to face his friend. “It means if you shut your mouth for ten minutes you’ll find out, genius.”

“Fine, fine. After you, Your Highness,” replied Dustin’s annoyed friend.

With an amused smirk on his face, Dustin continued down the sidewalk with his friends, Jason Kilroy and Jamal Branston. But, no sooner did they walk twenty feet when someone burst out of the alley and ran straight into Dustin, knocking them both to the ground. As soon as they hit the ground the runner was scrambling back to her feet while trying to run at the same time. After stumbling a couple of times, she takes off at a dead sprint.

“What the hell was that,” Dustin said, jumping to his feet. He looked around but whoever hit him was already well down the street. The most he could make out in the glow of the street lamp was pale skin and a lot of gleaming red hair. Checking himself over to make sure nothing was missing, Dustin is jerked out of the alley entrance by Jamal as five more people explode out of the alley, seemingly chasing after the red-headed girl.

“Wonder what that’s all about,” Jamal says.

“Only one way to find out,” Dustin says as he and his friends take off in pursuit of the six.

“I hope you weren’t too distracted to see what I saw,” Jamal says, running next to Dustin.

“Why do you think we’re chasing them,” Dustin retorts.

“Will you two stop talking and get moving,” Jason says with an impatient gesture. “They’re getting away.”

Dustin and his friends make a left just in time to see the last person in the group disappear around the corner of a house. Following suit, Dustin, Jason, and Jamal crossed the street and cut through the yard, also. After running through more yards, up streets and down alleys, they came to the edge of a park. As they started in, they heard a female voice yelling at someone else to stay away. It came from the other side of a shed used to hold maintenance and lawn care equipment.

A second later they hear, “Come on, baby, I just want a kiss,” coming from a guy.

Peeking around the corner, they saw the five guys from the alley standing in a horseshoe with the redhead in the middle backed against a wall of tall bushes. Dustin motioned for Jamal and Jason to hold back, and then started off toward the group. Barely offering the guys a glance, he walked right in the middle of the circle; the redhead tensing up, ready to strike out.

“There you are, Stacy,” Dustin said, giving her a wink that her pursuers, surprised at his nonchalant intrusion, didn’t notice. “I was wondering where you were. Everyone is waiting for us back at the house.”

“I… uh… I guess we should get going then,” she says a little slowly, catching on to Dustin’s game.

One of the creeps stepped forward. “Hey, who the fuck are you?” he asked.

Dustin looked at him in mock surprise, like he just noticed the others surrounding them. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I was interrupting something.”

“I asked you a question, asshole,” the guy growled, obviously the leader.

“My apologies for being so rude,” Dustin replied, with a slight grin. “My name is Dustin. Now, if you don’t mind, we really must be leaving.”

The leader took another step closer to Dustin and ‘Stacy.’ Dustin noticed what Jamal was talking about. The auras of this guy and his buddies were a solid color from the top of their heads to mid-way down their biceps. The rest of the aura was the usual multicolored. This told Dustin that this group was gifted, if only with very little power.

“You’re not going anywhere,” the leader said, motioning for his buddies to ‘power up.’

Too late, did they realize their mistake. Dustin’s aura started changing from the multicolored jumble of the ungifted to a blaze of solid blue encasing his entire body, proclaiming him one of the most powerful among the gifted. At this, Jason and Jamal stepped forward, their auras solid down to their waists. They stopped on either side of the redhead behind Dustin.

The five troublemakers grouped together and started backing away slowly, their jaws dragging on the ground. They didn’t get more than a few yards when they stopped abruptly as if backing into a wall. All ten eyes were on Dustin, fear in each.

“So,” Dustin said in a low voice, “you think that just because you can use a pathetically small amount of magic, you can do what you want and not face any consequences. Is that an accurate assumption?”

When no one answered, Dustin raised his hand using his power to pull the leader through the air, grasping his throat.

“Hey, I asked you a question, asshole!” Dustin yelled, glaring at the leader with such contempt that the leader just whimpered, a tear forming in his left eye.

Jason stepped up next to Dustin. Placing his hand on Dustin’s shoulder, he said with much apprehension, “Dustin, let’s go, man. He ain’t worth it.”

Dustin ignored his friend, his anger intensifying. Usually an azure shade of blue, Dustin’s aura darkened until it was almost black. Shrugging off Jason’s hand, Dustin releases the leader’s neck only to clench his fist and use his gift to cause the leaders throat to constrict, cutting off his air supply.

The redhead started backing away but Jamal put a hand gently on her shoulder, saying, “Don’t worry, he won’t do anything too drastic. I think. I’ve never seen him this mad before.”

When the leaders face started turning purple, Dustin unclenched his fist so the guy could breathe. When he got his breath back, the leader started babbling, begging Dustin to let them go; promising to change his ways.

“Oh, I see what kind of person you are. You think you’re hot shit when you have the upper hand, but you’re just a scared little bitch who needs a lesson in manners.” He looked to the girl and said in a softer tone, “Come here.” Hesitantly, she stepped forward, eyes on her would-be assailant.

"Now," Dustin said, turning back to the leader. "I want you to apologize for the trouble you caused this woman."

The leader, eyes red and puffy, looked at 'Stacy' and started stammering uncontrollably.

"Stop, stop, stop," Dustin said. "Take a deep breath. There. Now try again."

Still stammering a little, he tried again. "I'm... I'm s-sorry for ch-chasing you."

"That'll do, I suppose. If I ever hear of you misusing your gift again, I'll personally see to it that you live the rest of your life as a eunuch." He looked at the other punks. "That goes for all of you. Now get out of here before I decide to do it right now." Releasing his hold on the group, Dustin watched as they took off at a dead sprint, sure to never forget this night.

"What are you?" the girl asked Dustin as he turned to face her.

"Same thing you are. I'm just better able to conceal it." His aura slowly turned blue again.

Her eyes widened slightly then snapped to narrow slits. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Rolling his eyes, Dustin said, "Hiding your aura is a dead give-away that you are gifted. Don't you know that?"

"Of course I do," she says, glaring at him. "And I don't like being mocked."

Dustin watched as her aura began to appear, starting at her head, just above a crown of fiery red hair which hung loosely to the small of her back. It moved past green eyes, high cheekbones, and a full set of lips; widening to encase her ample breasts, flat abs; stopping at the point where her hips begin to flare out, giving her a lithe hourglass figure. Her skin was pale and covered in freckles. She was wearing a red low-cut t-shirt which, like her blue jeans, fit her like a glove, and white tennis shoes. Dustin judged her height to be about five foot seven.

Standing at six-one, Dustin is shorter than Jason and Jamal, but only by a few inches. Dustin has an athletic build due to a daily regimen of calisthenics and a five-mile run. He has brown eyes and brown hair cut into a military crew. He's wearing a plain black, loose fitting t-shirt, military camouflage pants, black combat boots, and a black full-length trench coat which is lined with chain-mail for extra weight.

He stepped up to the girl and said, "Well, maybe you should have concealed your aura better. It really isn't that hard. By the way, what is your name?"

"My name is Ashleigh Dekker. Not many people have a full aura. Were you born with it?"

"I am Dustin Brooks. My friends here are Jason Kilroy and Jamal Branston," Dustin says, gesturing to his friends who gave Ashleigh a nod as they were introduced. "I was in a car accident as a kid. Up until then I was the same as everyone else. Jason and Jamal were born with their gifts."

Jason Kilroy, standing at six-five, is lanky, with a neon green, foot long mohawk; hazel eyes; a thin, angular face with an eight-gauge taper in each ear, a ring in his left eyebrow, and a barbell in his tongue. He's wearing an over-sized black hoody with flaming skulls on the front, black baggy jeans and black, steel-toed work boots.

"You're obviously more powerful than those thugs chasing you," Jason said. "Why didn't you just take them out?"

"I don't use my abilities unless they're absolutely needed."

"Are we gonna stand here all night or what?" Jamal, the pessimist of the trio was shifting his bulk from foot to foot impatiently. "Weren't we going somewhere before Big Red here ran into you?"

Six-foot three-inch Jamal has the build of someone who hits the gym five days a week. What helps is he owns his own gym. He's wearing a dago tee, fitted jeans and black and red Jordans.

"It's too late for that now," Dustin said. "It'll just have to wait for next time."

"It's not like I saw him. I was busy looking behind me to see if those assholes were close or not. And what about you?" She turned to Dustin. "Why did you let that punk off so easy.?"

"I didn't. His little buddies will take care of him. He won't be leading anyone for quite some time. I'm sure they don't want to follow someone who pisses his pants." He turned to Jamal and Jason. "Alright, guys, let's go."

As they turned and started walking away Ashleigh said, "Until next time, Dustin Brooks." When they were out of sight her aura wavered, then slowly encapsulated her entire body. After a couple seconds of silent contemplation she started to rise up off the ground and then took off, soaring into the night sky, leaving a whisper in the wind: "My love."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 2

 

 

A week after the incident in the park, Dustin woke up to the sound of someone banging on his front door. Groggy and half asleep, he dragged himself out of bed and stumbled across his studio apartment to the door. Before he grabbed the doorknob, there was a heavy thud on the door like someone was trying to kick it in. Instantly, he was wide awake, aura full and blazing a deep blue. He leaned forward to look through the peep-hole.

"Hey, wake up, asshole!" This, Dustin realized, was the deep baritone of Jamal.

Shaking his head, Dustin opened the door only to be hit with a blast of energy that sent him flying backwards across the apartment, crashing into the wall. As soon as he hit the floor, two fireballs came flying through the doorway, heading straight for Dustin. He managed to dodge them and throw an energy ball, splitting it in half just outside the door, causing one half to go left and the other half to go right.

Dustin knew he succeeded when he heard one person grunt and the other say, "Fuck." He then walked through the door with a ball of energy in each hand. Peeking around the door-frame he saw Jason down on one knee, clutching his chest: Jamal was sprawled out on his right.

"What the hell was that," Jason asked, slowly rising to his feet, rubbing his chest where the energy ball hit him, burning a hole in his shirt.

"Just a little something I picked up for an occasion like this. You're both lucky I knew who it was." He walked over and knelt down next to Jamal, who is out cold. "Get over here and give me a hand with him. It looks like he took that blast to the face."

 

As Dustin closed the door to his apartment, one of the men sitting in a car across the street pressed stop on the video camera aimed at Dustin's place. The cameraman picked up his cell phone and dialed a number. When the other side picked up he said, "It's time....Yes, sir, I understand." He hung up the phone, signaled the driver, and they drove away unaware of Ashleigh standing in the shadows watching them.

 

Around noon of the same day, Dustin walked into his workshop to find his friend Mason Acker, hard at work on Dustin's latest project; an anti-gravity platform. His latest completed project was a self-sustaining generator, which he successfully patented and leased to R&P, Inc. for mass production and installation in private homes and businesses. One of Dustin's generators provides power for the entire apartment building he resides him, feeding excess power into the city grid. As thanks for the generator, Dustin got to live rent-free.

"Hey, Dustin," Mason said without looking up from his Vaio laptop.

"How's it coming along?" Dustin looked at the screen where mason was configuring the software to run the drive engine.

"It's not. Something is wrong with the program for the capacitors. If they're not misfiring, then the timing's way off. Hell, we fried three of them this morning."

"Let me see." Dustin looked over Mason's work, spotting the problem right away. "Maybe they're getting too much power before they can discharge."

"I'll bet you're right. I'll reconfigure the program."

"Alright. Where's Dan?"

"He's in back trying to fix those capacitors."

"Well, good luck."

"Thanks, I'll need it."

After Dustin passed through the rear door, leading to the workshop, he saw Dan sitting at his workbench with a soldering iron in his hand.

"I heard you fried some capacitors," Dustin said humorously.

Dan just grunted and went back to work, so Dustin decided to get lunch for everyone.

 

Sitting in the window seat of Ol' Timers, a fifties-style diner occupying a spot in a small shopping strip, Ashleigh was pleasantly surprised to see Dustin walk in. He passed through, she noticed, without even looking around. When he stepped up to the counter she decided to initiate contact.

She slid out of her booth and walked up behind him. She raised her hand, index finger extended, to the base of his skull and released a tiny jolt of electricity. Next thing she knew, she was lying on the floor unable to move a muscle or feel anything. Everything went black as she lost consciousness.

When she came to, she felt a sensation form in her fingers and toes which then spread through her limbs into her torso. The numb sensation turned into what felt like millions of needles stabbing her with each movement. An agonizing experience when felt throughout the whole body at the same time. She just lay there, motionless, wondering what happened. Dustin. She zapped him, and then blacked out.

When the needles finally subsided, she cracked her eyes and saw Dustin squatting over her, looking half amused and half annoyed, talking to the manager of the diner. She was surprised to see that the manager's aura was shining a solid green down to just below his ribs. Of all the years she'd been coming here, she never suspected that he was gifted.

"Great, Dustin. This is just fucking great," the manager, Jonathon Crawford, said. He was looking none too happy about what just happened in his diner. This is the second time you've done this. First, your buddy Jason; now her. What am I supposed to tell my customers?"

"Don't worry about this one, Johnny. She's a tough one," Dustin said as he brushed a lock of hair off Ashleigh's face.

"So you know her?"

"Yeah. I met her a week ago. She was being chased by some losers."

"And I'll bet you just had to play the hero, didn't you?

Before Dustin could answer, Ashleigh groaned and put her hand to the side of her head. She looked at Dustin and asked, "What the hell did you do to me?"

"Nothing you didn't deserve," he said in mock frustration, but the look in his eyes was apologetic. "After hanging around with Jason and Jamal for all this time, I've learned to keep my guard up."

"I take it they always do what I just did?"

"Something like that," Dustin said with a smirk.

Ashleigh got up, using Dustin for support. With a sidelong glance at the manager, whose aura was once again multicolored, she gave herself a once-over and started dragging Dustin towards the exit.

"Just have my order delivered to the shop, Johnny," Dustin called over his shoulder as Ashleigh was dragging him out the door.

They didn't get past the curb when Dustin was hit with an energy blast and sent flying over two cars, crashing into the side of the third.

"Shit!" Ashleigh cried out, catching the edge of the blast with her shoulder, and getting knocked to the ground. "Dustin, are you okay?" She jumped up and ran to where Dustin landed. He wasn't there. She shot up as she heard another blast and took off towards the back of the diner.

Rounding the first corner, she tripped over someone lying unconscious. She hit the ground, and thanked her lucky stars for being aligned just right, because as she hit the ground a green fireball flew over her head, missing her by inches. She scrambled to her feet and hid behind a stack of pallets. She peeked through a space in the slats and saw a girl who looked to be nineteen years old, walking toward her preparing to throw another green fireball. Ashleigh, her aura full, focused her energy between her hands until it was a highly concentrated ball the size of a baseball. When she stepped out and let it go, it was a beam that hit the girl in the chest right where the heart is. The girl dropped to the ground.

Ashleigh walked over to the dead girl, knelt down and raised her slightly to get a look at the back of the girl’s neck. What she saw was no surprise; a blue star on an inverted black triangle. Shaking her head, she started off for the rear of the diner again. When she rounded the corner she saw six people on the ground. She went to each and saw that they all had the same symbol as the first girl. She stood up after checking the last person to look around for Dustin when a muffled explosion drew her attention to a small copse of trees just as....

 

....Dustin was blown into the clearing. He used his momentum to rotate his body so he could land on his feet. When he came to a sliding stop he sent a big blast of energy into the copse, causing trees to either explode or get uprooted completely. He looked to his right, saw Ashleigh, and turned to go to her when the ground around him was bombarded with energy balls. He turned his head and saw five people hovering over the copse of trees.

"Dustin!"

He looked back and saw Ashleigh surrounded by ten more people; six of them were male and four were female, each with an aura at least to their waist, but none with a full one. He glanced back to the group hovering over the trees but they were just watching him with an energy ball in each of their hands. It was almost as if they were daring him to take a step towards Ashleigh.

Dustin decided to accept that challenge. Raising his hands chest-high, he formed an orb and started cramming as much energy in it as he could. As soon as he formed the orb, the group over the trees unleashed their arsenal on Dustin. He waited until the last possible moment, when the energy balls were just a few feet away. Dustin then vanished only to reappear in front of Ashleigh, drop his energy ball, take hold of Ashleigh, and disappear again half a second before the orb shattered on the ground, releasing the massive amount of contained energy which vaporized everything in a forty-foot radius.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 3

 

Dustin and Ashleigh reappeared in front of Dustin’s workshop. Immediately, Ashleigh fell to her hands and knees, losing her luch all over the concrete. Dustin reached down to hold her hair back.

“What the hell was that,” Ashleigh asked when she was done vomiting. “My head is spinning like crazy.”

“I just teleported us back to my shop,” Dustin told her. “Who were those people back there? Why did they attack us?”

Ashleigh tried to stand up, but as disoriented as she was, she went straight back down. She laid back on the ground and covered her eyes with her arm, moaning piteously.

Realizing she must be a little more shaken up from the teleportation than he thought, Dustin gave a resigned sigh and sat down next to her. “Don’t worry, you’ll feel better in a couple of minutes. You’re just not used to teleporting. I was the same way the first time I did it.”

After a minute, Ashleigh sat up, still a little woozy. Dustin stood up and helped Ashleigh to her feet, then practically carried her into his shop.

“What’s wrong?” Mason jumped up from his chair as Dustin and Ashleigh hobbled through the door. “Is she ok? Who is she? What did you do this time, Dustin?”

Instead of answering his questions, Dustin grabbed the sandwich out of Mason’s hand, ignoreing his cry of protest, and gave it to Ashleigh. “Here, eat this. It should help.”

“Thanks,” Ashleigh said when her head stopped spinning. She looked up at Mason. “Sorry for scarfing your BLT.”

Mason just looked at her for a second, then shrugged and pointed to a sign behind her on the wall. It said: ‘If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. But if it is broken, then we have what you need.” When Ashleigh turned back from teading the sign, Mason was just sitting back down at his desk and started typing.

“Not very talkative, is he?”

“No,” Dustin said. “He’s a little reclusive when he first meets someone.”

“I see. So,” Ashleigh said, standing up and sticking her thumbs in the hip pockets of her jeans. “Where do we go from here?”

“I’d say we step into my office and you tell me what the fuck is going on.”

They round a corner and climb a stairwell. Ashleigh didn’t know what to expect Dustin’s office to look like, but what she saw was beyond her comprehension. The walls were lined with blueprints for odd machines, complex mathematical equations and security monitors. On a workbench were wires, circuit boards, and various other electrical equipment. She peeked in a notebook and was baffled by the weird language contained inside.

“Does that look familiar?” Dustin pulled an office chair from his computer desk and moved it next to a small sofa.

Ashleigh flipped a couple more pages before closing the notebook and sitting on the sofa. “No, should it?”

Dustin chuckled. “You’ll never know what that says unless I tell you. I made up that language.” He sat in the chair.

“Who are you, really? You make up your own languages, you have all this stuff all over the walls. What are you doing in this place?”

“What I’m doing here is wondering why I chased off those guys last week. I’m wondering why I was attacked by who I can only assume are your enemies. But, most of all, I’m wondering why the fuck you were watching me from the shadows this morning. The way I see it, you owe me some answers. Not the other way around.”

“I wasn’t watching you, but someone else was. I was just there to make sure they didn’t try anything.”

Something clicked in Dustin’s brain. “The blue Chrysler. Damn it, I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out sooner. I’ve seen it numerous times up and down my street. I must be slipping.”

“Hm. Maybe, maybe not.”

“What the hell do they want with me?”

“Don’t know but they were recording your little firefight this morning.”

“Fuck!” Dustin smacked the arm of his chair and took out his cell phone to call Jason. When Jason answered, Dustin said, “Call Jamal and both of you get to my shop now.” He turned back to Ashleigh. “What do you know about this?”

“Nothing.”

“Now why don’t I believe you? I understand everyone has their secrets, but mine aren’t trying to kill you. Yet you won’t tell me anything.”

Ashleigh went to Dustin’s desk, wrote something on a piece of paper, then handed it to Dustin. When he looked at it he saw that it was an address. “If you want my story, be here at midnight. Bring your two Gifted friends if you want, but no one else.”

Dustin put the paper in his pocket. The address was for a house in a part of town that was mostly abandoned. Curious about why Ashleigh would want to meet there, Dustin said, “We’ll be there.”

“I’ll see you tonight then, but for now it’s time for me to go.” She turned and went out the door.

When Dustin saw her on the security monitor, leaving the lot, he went to the bookcase and removed from it the notebook Ashleigh was looking at. He brought it to the desk and started writing about what happened behind the diner and their conversation in his office. Not knowing what to think about why someone would be watching him, he put that to the back of his mind after taking note of it.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 07.06.2014

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