Looming Strangers

When Jake woke up again, he saw Cat sitting on the bed reading the novel. "You're finally awake." Cat said to him as he joined her to sit on the bed.

"How long have you been awake for?" Jake asked rubbing his eyes.

"Only a few minutes." Cat answered.

Checking the time, Jake saw it was already night and the sky was dimly lit with the little light from the two moons of Veda.

"Cat!" Jake almost shouted jumping off his bed. "It's late. Won't your aunt be worried about you?"

"I was waiting for you to wake up." Cat told him. "I would have left if you hadn't woken up in five minutes."

"I'm awake now, come on let's go." Jake said rushing to help her pack her books back into her bag. "Take the novel too, you can return it when you're done with it."

Adding the novel into her bag, Cat and Jake went downstairs and saw Andrea in the living room reading some papers. "Dad we're leaving. I'm walking Cat home." Jake said to his father and continued walking towards the door.

"No goodbye for me Cat?" Sky asked coming downstairs from his room.

"Sorry Sky." Cat apologised. "Jake is in a rush to take me home. Bye Sky. Goodbye Mr Dipson. I had a wonderful day."

"Bye Cat."

"Goodbye Catherine. You're always welcome here." Andrea said.

Leaving the house, Jake asked Cat "Should we walk or take a seetle?"

"Let's walk." Cat answered.

Walking hand in hand to Cat's house, they enjoyed the silence and appreciated the serenity of the night.

"So," Jake said out of the blue, "what did you think about spending a whole day with me?"

"It wasn't bad." Cat answered him.

"Seriously? Wasn't bad?"

"Alright I admit. It was great, including the part where you slept and drooled all over your pillow." Cat said laughing.

"What? You watched me drool?" Jake asked with a tinge of embarrassment.

"Only for a short while. Don't worry, I didn't hear you mumbling in your sleep." Cat said still laughing.

"Okay. Now I know you're messing with me." Jake said now laughing.

"Am I though? Guess we'll never know." Cat said.

Walking in silence once again, they continued on the way to Cat's house.

"Are you sure you won't be going back Jake?" Cat asked. "My house is not too far from here, I'm pretty sure I can make it on my own."

"No." Jake said firmly. "I will follow you to your house and watch you go in. Only after that will I head back home."

"Okay but I'm just saying, it's not a long walk from here to my house." Cat protested.

"Then we'll be there together in no time."

Walking on, they reached Cat's house and the lights were still on indicating that someone was still awake. "You can head back now Jake." Cat said standing in front of her house with Jake. "I'm already here, nobody's going to kidnap me from here." Cat joked.

"You have a point, but I still want to see you go in." Jake said.

"If you insist." Walking up to the porch, Cat was about opening the door to go in when Jake spoke.

"Wait. No goodnight kiss?" Jake asked smiling in a flirtatious way.

Turning around, Cat asked Jake "So you only insisted on following me home just to get a kiss?" Cat asked teasingly while feigning a disappointed look.

"Oh come on. You know that's not true." Jake said. "I sincerely wanted to see you get home safe."

"Really?" Cat asked still feigning disappointment.

"Of course. Besides I could have walked you half way here and still asked for a kiss."

"Hey lovebirds, do you mind?" Cassie asked through a window in the balcony. "Some of us are trying to watch some television around here."

"Goodnight Jake." Cat said to him and entered the house.

"Better luck next time Jake." he said to himself.Turning around, Jake began heading home. Lost in thought, Jake didn't know when he felt a numbing pain at the back of his head and was falling to the ground.

Immediately getting back up, Jake turned around and saw a man of average height with a very muscular build and a mask covering his face holding a baseball bat.

"Give me your money kid or I'm gonna beat the crap out of you." the man said in a raspy voice.

"You've got a lot of strength in those arms of yours don't you?" Jake asked the man. 'For a normal person to be able to hit me and make me fall, he's got to have a very reasonable amount of strength.' Jake thought to himself.

"What the heck are you talking about kid?" the masked man asked. "I said give me your money. Do you want to go home in pain and with injuries?"

[System Quest: Knock the robber out or make him retreat]

[Reward:40exp]

'40exp huh?' Jake thought. 'Guess he is pretty dangerous to a normal person but not to me.'

"Looks like you want a beating you little twerp." the man shouted in his raspy voice while running and swinging the bat out towards Jake's head again.

This time Jake was ready for him. Stopping the bat in the air by blocking it with his hand, Jake threw a fist directly to the man's chest. Jake could have easily avoided the hit by dodging it because of his speed stat but decided to block it to test his endurance. Though he felt pain when the bat connected with his hand, the pain wasn't too much which showed his endurance was working well for him.

When Jake's fist made contact with the man's chest, it felt like Jake was punching a solid concrete wall. The man tried to conceal the pain he was feeling from being noticeable through his face but he couldn't do it for long. Stepping back, the man bent down over his knees before standing straight and swinging the bat at Jake's leg.

Leaving his leg to receive the hit, Jake braced himself for the impact of the bat but instead he felt the impact of the bat on his head again.

Now completely on the ground, Jake touched the side of his head as he got back to his feet. Jake saw the blood on his hand and the system message that had appeared but he ignored the message. 'I guess I deserved that for being too cocky. I should have been careful.'

Running straight towards the man, Jake threw his fist again but this time it made direct contact with the face of the robber. Jake had put all his strength and speed into that hit making the man fall on his back. The man was still trying to get up when Jake picked up the bat and whacked him right on the back of his head making him fall back down and lose consciousness.

Now checking his system messages, Jake saw his health had reduced.

[Your blood has been drawn]

[Health points will now be used to heal wounds]

[Health:115/120]

[Quest Completed]

[Reward obtained:40exp]

[Exp:50/400]

Dropping the bat, Jake continued walking home and cleaned the blood that was on his head. "Looks like it healed up nicely." Jake said touching the spot where the blood had been coming out from. "Maybe I should start looking for some trouble so I can get exp faster." Laughing the idea off, Jake went home.

***

"He's stronger than we thought." said a voice from a person who had watched the fight from the top of a building to the woman next to him. "Andrea told me something about him getting muscles but he clearly didn't know the boy is one step closer to becoming what he actually is."

"You are right Sir." the woman commented. "The man we sent, though he wasn't skillful, he had a lot of strength for a human. Yet the boy defeated him easily while also receiving hits he could have dodged without effort."

"Well he is from the Xendor bloodline. It is expected of him to be a prodigy. Things are bound to get interesting in a few years."