Chapter 2: The Troubled Youth

Hospital Room, Western Reignon, The City Of Plia...

Beeping and clicking sounds filled the ears of the slowly awakening lad as he began to take note of his new surroundings. He had not known how but he was somehow in a bed in a strange white room with machines making a good deal of noise. He had heard chatter from the surrounding doctors and nurses going about their business and it seemed like just another day at the office for some of them who had been bored with their mutual professions or looking forward to trivial things such as watching television when they got home. The groggy lad had been tired of hearing the voices, loud and frequent in his ears as he attempted to sit up in what he realized had been a hospital bed. He had not felt as if he'd been at death's door, something that the doctors and nurses had been going on and on about whenever they came to check on him during his sleep.

In fact, he'd been feeling pretty strong all things considered, and the issue of taking on a direct lightning strike and surviving. He sighed as he looked about the room opting for the nearest exit out of this sterile place with the annoying machines and clueless doctors all staring at him.

He didn't want to have to answer any questions, being struck by lightning had been embarrassing enough. He figured the boy and his mother had been fine since the last thing he recalled was seeing them standing by him before his vision faded.

Slowly sitting up in the hospital bed, Reyden began to rip the strange monitors off his chest and face as the machines had gone off in alarm and he climbed out of the bed dressed in nothing aside from his boxer shorts as he stood with his feet pressed against the cold white floor beneath him.

He made his way over toward the large glass window opposite the door of the room and stared out at what he was in the rush to go back to. He noted the bad weather and the eerie loneliness that filled him as he came to the conclusion that his "father" had abandoned him. He recalled the man making off with the loot just as he'd nearly blacked out from the lightning and didn't have a second thought about looking back.

Reyden had heard the selfish thoughts of the crook pretending to care for him all that time and was disgusted as he folded his thin arms across his pale chest. He sighed as he watched the rain in relative silence as the door to his hospital room opened and a middle-aged doctor came easing his way inside a look of admiration and inquisition filed across his face as he carefully approached the weary young lad.

"I am told you had only just awoken." said the doctor, his voice had been relatively calm and father-like as he looked from his chart to the boy before him.

Reyden didn't seem to care if he'd been alone in the room or not as he continued to stare aimlessly out the window at the pouring rain and the flashing bolts of lightning as they moved across the sky.

"What you did, in saving that young boy was very brave...if not reckless at the risk of your own health and life." said the doctor still with a hint of admiration as he looked over the silent boy.

"What's it to you?" asked Reyden breaking the silence for the first time as he glared in the older man's direction. "Am I clear to go now or are you trying to lock me up for being a freak?"

The doctor arched a brow at this in confusion.

"What gave you the impression that I wanted to lock you up?" asked the doctor still confused but interested in the answer to his question.

"You white coats are all the same, been that way since I was little," growled Reyden still with his arms folded across his chest. "Whatever you do better make it quick so I know if I'll be spending the night in the rain again."

The doctor sighed.

"I'm told your name is Tempet, Reyden Tempet," he said reading his file. "Your parents died in unfortunate accidents and you were orphaned shortly after your father brought you to the hospital."

"So what?" asked Reyden still glaring out at the rain as the swirling dark clouds seemed to get bigger and darker in the distance. "I can take care of myself, been doing it for this long."

"As it so happens, the facility you were housed in due to your unusual abilities had been searching for you and they have sent someone over to retrieve you as you are far too young to be out on your own and relatively unknown when it comes to your abnormalities." said the doctor.

He spoke a lot of "mumb jumbo" to Reyden's ears but he knew when he was being locked up all the same and rolled his eyes as he stared out at the city below the hospital floor. A part of him had wanted nothing more than to smash the glass and leap off the grounds but there was no guarantee he'd survive and if he did, he had nowhere else to go that would get him out of the rain or guarantee he'd be fed with all the complications of his former father figure leaving him behind and taking the loot.

He vowed to get even with the lying bastard that had been leading not only him but a bunch of other hopeless young boys forgotten by the city and time all to fill his own pockets at the expense of them and their youth. Reyden had been staring out at the window envisioning his revenge when the doctors from the facility arrived with a white jacket in hand and terrified expressions filed across their collective faces.

Reyden rolled his eyes as he moved toward the door of his own accord ignoring them as they followed behind on edge due to his abilities and the fact that he could make a break for it at any minute. The boy settled for inspiring fear in them as he went toward the exit and down the stairs where he knew the old white van he'd been dodging ever since he'd escaped the first time had been waiting.

He had hated the facility, hated being used and most of all he hated the rain.