The Beginning

"Hunngh!" Kaden moaned as he felt all the air being squeezed out of his lungs, suddenly woken up by something heavy jumping onto his chest.

"Wake up!" A happy girlish voice screamed out.

As Kaden opened his eyes he was directly staring into a pair of cheery orbs, ones belonging to a 12 year old girl that he was very familiar with.

"I'm awake I'm awake Aria, urgh… Can you get off? You're kind of heavy."

"Oh.. Sorry Kaden," The girl turned kind of meek, quickly shuffling off of him and sitting down on the bed.

"Are you okay?" She tilted her head inquiringly, looking at him in worry.

"I'm fine," He wheezed, "Just need to catch my breath."

"Are you sure?" She was still looking at him with that worried gaze.

"Yeah, don't worry about it," He pulled himself together and smiled to ease her worries.

"Okay!" She beamed a happy smile.

He didn't talk much to the other kids, but as he was the oldest, most of them looked up to him a fair bit.

Well it was natural in a place like this. He looked around the room which had already been vacated except for him and Aria.

A number of bunk beds were stacked against the walls, making for eight beds in total. Like him, all the kids staying here were orphans, or at least had parents that couldn't take care of them. In his eyes, there wasn't much distinction between those two.

Caring for all these kids made Bill and his wife, Jill, seem like angels, but the truth was that it was purely for the money it made them.

The state paid out a lot of money for foster care, the average being around 600 dollars per child. A lot when you always sought to foster as many as you could take, and spent as little of it on the kids as you could.

Bill and Jill were a bit two faced. On one hand, they always reminded the kids at every chance they got, that they only took them in for the money. But they also went on and on about how everyone only had a place to stay because of their kindness.

Yeah… Kaden didn't think it made much sense either.

His foster father was by far the worst out of the couple though, even violent at times when he had a bit too much to drink, or was upset about something. The man was a lunatic to put it mildly, only capable of taking his frustration out on those under his control.

Kaden had taken a few beatings, but on his 15th birthday they had gotten into it again and Kaden hit him back. The man had been quite a bit more subdued after that.

They had some sort of unspoken agreement in place. Kaden stayed out of the way most of the time by not coming home, and Bill just let him be.

Kaden didn't admit it to himself, but in truth, the only reason he ever came home was just to check on how everyone was doing.

"How about you? Are you and the others okay?" Kaden asked the girl next to him.

"Yeah everyone is fine!" She smiled at first, but then frowned as she remembered something, "Wilford's relatives came and took him away while you were gone."

"Oh really?" Kaden had a longing wistful look on his face.

Wilford was a 9 year old boy who hadn't been here for long. He had only recently lost his parents after they died in a traffic accident.

Seems like they had managed to contact some of his relatives, lucky…

He felt a sort of jealousy, sure. Envious thoughts always popped up in his head in moments like these. It was things like, why couldn't it have been his relatives that came? Why didn't he have someone that cared for him?

But he knew it never would be, and did his best not to let his mind linger on those thoughts for too long. He was almost 16 now, he had stayed with this foster family his entire life, never knowing his parents, always seeing people coming and going.

That was what life was like in a place like this, and it was the only life that he knew. Nothing would be changing after this many years.

"Did they seem nice?" Kaden asked, bringing himself out of his stupor. He could at least pretend to be happy on behalf of others.

"Yeah, very! His aunt brought candy for the rest of us." Aria smiled fondly at the memory.

"That's good, and Bill's been alright lately?"

"He hasn't said much, though…" Aria put her finger to her lip and looked up, something he had noticed she always did when thinking, "He did freak out a bit about the aliens yesterday, it was a huge uproar. But he didn't do anything." Aria was quick to add the last part. She knew how scary Kaden could get when one of them got hurt.

"Good to hear, where is everyone else by the way?" He looked around again, pointing out the empty room except for him and Aria.

"They already left for school."

"Wait, what time is it?" Kaden pulled out his phone in a panic and checked, "It's already 9! I have to hurry, why didn't you say anything?"

"What? Why would I? I didn't know you wanted to go, you skip half the time anyway."

"Well—" Kaden tried to think long and hard for a retort, but he had to admit that she had a point, "I suppose you're right. What about you, shouldn't you be in school?"

"Hehe, I was supposed to go on a field trip. It got canceled because of the aliens." She shrugged.

"That… Makes sense," He rubbed his head, "I'll see you later." He yelled as he ran out of the room.

"You're coming back today?" She yelled back out after him, a hopeful tone mixed into her words.

"Yeah, promise!" Came the muffled reply as he had entered the shower, the water already running.

It took him barely a minute to shower, put on some fresh clothes, and run down the stairs.

Luckily there was nobody in the kitchen.

He grabbed a few pieces of bread that he could eat on the way and left the house, going to school.

*****

The school he went to was just a poor public school in the middle of a not so fortunate neighborhood. Pretty much all the students that attended were poor. The parents in the area who could afford it, would much rather send their kids to a private school instead.

Kaden knocked on his classroom door before opening it and entering.

"You're late…" The teacher paused what he was doing, and looked at him sternly. His hand holding the chalk was still pressed against the blackboard, where he had been in the middle of writing.

"Sorry, I didn't wake up on time." He knew it was a lame excuse. But well, it was true even if that didn't make it any better.

"Right…" The teacher sighed, clearly already having given up on him, "Go take a seat. No need for you to disturb the class, some of the students actually want to learn."

Kaden didn't bother responding, it wasn't worth it to get into an argument over this. Besides, to some degree the teacher was right.

He found his place at the back where there was an empty chair next to one of his friends. They made eye contact and nodded, before switching their attention back to the teacher who had resumed writing on the blackboard.

*****

Kaden soon found himself on the verge of falling asleep from pure boredom. He was bad at staying still, always brimming with unused energy. It didn't help that the teaching subject wasn't all that interesting either. Math simply wasn't his strong suit and never would be.

It was like a blessing sent from heaven when the bell rang after what had felt like eons. The teacher was quick to leave too.

"So, aliens huh?" His friend Jack was eager to talk about the hot new topic, "It was a big shock when I woke up today. I was a bit knackered yesterday and went to bed early, so only found out about it this morning. You shoulda sent me a text or something."

"Oh sorry," Kaden chuckled, Jack was precisely the type of person to go to bed super early like that, "Actually I didn't think it was real at first, and when I found out I didn't think about it, sorry mate."

"It's cool, anyway, what you think?"

"I'm not sure really. I don't know what it all means, like, right now were in school, just going about our day. Is it going to change things? It has to."

"I guess we'll find out tonight," Jack smiled, "You think Li Jie got selected for the tournament?"

"Of course," Kaden smiled too, they both looked up to Li Jie. He was an amazing fighter, probably the strongest on Earth by a huge margin. The first to discover the use of Aether, he had the biggest headstart. Besides, he was already a strong martial artist beforehand.

"Hah! You put your faith in that scum?" One of three boys walking up them mocked.

"Billyboy," Kaden rolled his eyes and swung around in his seat, "Can't say I'm pleased to see your face, didn't your father teach you that it's rude to cut in on other peoples conversations?"

This was definite proof that the world had it out for him. On his one day back to school, he had to deal with Billy.

It was bad enough that this boy shared a first name with his foster father, but the kid was a downright arrogant prick too. Not long ago, he'd been just as poor as the rest of them. However, after Aether appeared Billy's father had made a killing by opening a dojo.

That would've been fine with him if it made Billy transfer schools. After all, who with money wanted their kid to attend this rotten school? It didn't make sense, but for some reason he hadn't transferred, much to Kaden's displeasure.

"I told you to stop calling me that!" The boy turned red like a tomato, a reaction that was a bit over the top for just being called a derogatory nickname.

The boy was easy to anger and Kaden knew this, smirking from having angered Billy so easily.

Of course, that was never enough to get the boy to leave. Billy's face soon turned full of contempt, "At least my father taught me something, unlike yours. I suppose he's dead in a ditch somewhere?"

Him and his two cronies laughed, but Kaden just ignored them. Orphan jokes were far from enough to get under his skin anymore, they barely even registered.

"Wouldn't know, but I'd much rather be an orphan than be stuck with your parents," Kaden shrugged, "Just the truth."

"You sure about that? Not that you deserve to know, but my father was actually picked as one of the fighters for the tournament." The look of contempt on Billy's face had now been replaced with pure pride.

"Your father?" Kaden shared a look with Jack, both of them bursting into laughter.

"Laugh all you want, you'll come begging me for forgiveness when he's crushing that scum Li Jie under his boots."

"I think you misunderstood something Billyboy," Kaden chuckled, "I'll admit I don't know much, but I don't think the tournament is about us fighting each other."

"Yeah they did mention something about other races." Jack added on.

"Whatever, it's just lucky for Li Jie if they don't get to meet, guess that con artist won't be exposed today."

"No but maybe your father will." Kaden smiled smugly, something about Billy just made him want to piss the spoiled boy off in any way he could.

"Like I said, laugh all you want. Let's go guys, it's a waste of time talking to these plebeians," Billy turned around haughtily, his entourage following behind as he left.

"Plebeians… Did he seriously just say that?" Kaden arched an eyebrow, needing some sort of confirmation or he wouldn't believe his ears.

"I think he just did," Jack was just as confused, "Anyway, what you been up to, haven't seen you for a few days."

"Just training, hanging out with the old man."

"You're still in that decrepit boxing gym?" Jack asked.

"Suppose so, it's alright."

"Look, I know it's not really my place to say this. But you should start doing something with your life. You're only here once or twice a week, and despite all the time you spend on training, you still couldn't beat someone who's trained at a dojo for less than a month."

"Hey! It's not my fault that I can't afford a membership at those places." Kaden frowned, dojo's were one of his sore points. He wanted to go, badly, but there was no way he could afford it.

"Woah hold on, I'm not saying it is," Jack sighed. He didn't want to offend Kaden, he was just worried about him, "I'm just trying to say, you're going to be 18 before you know it. Don't you want to do something with your life?"

"You know I'm working on it." Kaden replied stiffly. This was not something he wanted to discuss, especially not right after dealing with Billy.

"In that gym? You're wasting your time!"

"Look man," Kaden held his arm up, "Just stay out of it, I'll take care of my own business."

Jack closed his eyes, pinching his brows, "Urgh… I'm just worried about you, and I miss you around here. You always close yourself off like this, why can't we talk about it? I just want to help."

"I know… Just trust me, I got this. Besides, do you really think things will stay the same like this forever?"

"What do you mean?"

"Aether, aliens, a universe tournament?" Somewhere deep inside, Kaden knew that all this marked the start of something big.

"So?"

"You really think degrees and education will be useful forever? One year, they watched us for one year waiting for us to get used to this new energy. Now that they've shown themselves, I'm afraid things will change even faster than we can imagine."

Kaden was scared just to think of the implications of it all. These aliens had been waiting patiently for a year, just waiting for them to discover something that they seemed to consider trivial.

"Even if that's true, education has always been the way up in society." Jack considered himself a rational studious person. He wasn't easily swept away by fantasy and imagination like Kaden.

"Whatever… School is a waste of time right now. I don't even know why I came." Kaden picked up his bag, getting ready to leave.

"You're leaving?" Jack exclaimed, his eyebrows raised in shock, "You haven't even been here for a full period!"

"I shouldn't have bothered coming. There are more important things right now, I'll see you later."

"This is stupid, are you going back to that boxing gym again?" Jack yelled after him, arguing with himself about whether he should get up and chase after Kaden. But the next period was going to start soon, he couldn't leave right now.

"Maybe I am." Kaden only left those three words behind, not bothering to look back. Yeah, he knew where he was supposed to be right now.

Jack just remained in his seat, his palm over his face in frustration. It wouldn't do to skip school just to try and convince Kaden, it was a useless endeavor. Besides, he'd already done what he could. It was Kaden's own choice how to spend his time, even if he was wasting it in Jack's eyes.