Chapter Seven: Past Traumas

Lucas' switchblade is out, his eyes focuses on Jackal. "What'cha for? Because I'm down for whatever. If you can't decide, leave me the fuck alone."

"You ain't going to do nothing." Jackal steps forward and fake lunges at Lucas, who doesn't flinch.

"Are you done wasting my time? I have bills to count."

Jackal balls his fist. Jackal anger is arriving its apex. It's because of Lucas' speech and face. Lucas blade is out. Warnings, no, threats are coming out of his mouth but there's no emotion in his voice. His face holds no disdain. It's as if Jackal was beneath him, henceforth, why waste extra energy taking him serious? This is what Jackal perceived. And to do this before his subordinates? Lucas is good as dead, Jackal intents to beat him to a pulp—a bloody one at that. Jackal lunges forward with a right hook at Lucas' jaw.

Lucas bob and weave, avoiding the blow to his jaw. The movement fluent, no mishap in his form. "There, now can you stop?"

"You lit—argh!" Jackal holds his right wrist and that's when he sees it. A cut that stretches along his knuckles. He looks at Lucas' switchblade, blood drips from the tip of the blade. Then, he examines Lucas face: blank and uncaring. Jackal starts to back away.

Lucas takes a step forward. "Are we done already? You started this, if you need a reminder."

Jackal, his goons had long fled, runs out of the west-side boy's restroom.

"Hmm. Now I don't feel like counting." Lucas washes his switchblade in the sink. "Sorry if that scared you. Jackal isn't a mitissimus person. His temper makes him lash out. His father's abusive and his mother is dead, to him that is. She left them for a lawyer, or was it a doctor? I can't remember."

There's no answer to Lucas' comments. Lucas heads over to the stall he was looking at earlier. He just stands there for a solid minute then knocks.

"Please don't stab me. I don't want any trouble. I didn't mean to trick everyone. It wasn't my intention..." Sam enters a long spew of words. In the small stall, Sam is on the toilet. Their knees to their chest, their head buried in their knees

"...it's my mother's fault. I told her this would happen--"

"Can you calm down?" Lucas asks, now in the stall.

Sam looks up and yelps. "When did you get in here? More importantly, how?"

Lucas starts dusting himself off. "Few seconds ago, I crawled in."

"Why!"

"Can't stab you from out there," Lucas says calmly. Lucas flashes his switchblade, clumsy stabbing the air.

"Please don't kill me!" Sam screams out.

"..." Lucas puts his switchblade away. "It was a joke."

"...Oh."

"I also don't care about the cross-dressing. I on average, attempt to mind my own business. I personally focus on school and my money moves. What you dress like, and want to like doesn't bother me."

"I'm not gay!" Sam protest.

"First Jackal, now you. A lot of people are in denial today."

"I'm not!"

"...It was a joke."

"...You're not funny."

"I'll make a mental note of that. What's your mother's fault?"

"What?"

Lucas repeats himself. "What's your mom's fault?"

Sam scratches their arm. "She dresses me up like a girl..."

Lucas is about to attempt a question but Sam continues, making him halt his query.

"...ever since I was young. She dressed me up like a girl. It was fun for awhile. I thought I was a girl, because I thought wearing girly things made me a girl. She never gave me a talk about sex or gender. And my dad...he isn't around. Then 'he' came into the picture...that went my reality started to collapse. 'He'...did things..." Sam red eyes swell up once more and tears run down their cheek. Sam sobs.

Lucas extends out his hand, with a sheet of gum in it. "May I offer you a gum in these trying times?"

Sam stares at Lucas. Their sadness churn into anger. They slap the gum from out of his hand. "Is this a joke to you? I broke down and you make a joke? Because I'm the punchline, right? Right!"

"I'm not the best at," gestures at Sam, "this. I'm not an emotional person. I don't know what to tell you. I just thought I'd offer you gum and just sit here and keep you company. It was the kindest gesture that I could thought up in the moment."

Sam anger fades away. Lucas did get them away from Jackal. Sam picks up the sheet of gum, now dirty. They remove the wrapping. "...Sorry. Thank you."

"It's 50 cents since you slapped it out of my hand," Lucas jokes.

Sam reaches into their pockets.

"I am once again joking."

"You need to work on your face and delivery, I just assume you're serious." Sam criticizes.

Lucas shrugs. "I'll make a mental note of that; not funny, times two."

"But you're a good person," Sam compliments Lucas. "A great listener too." Sam smiles at Lucas. "In fact, you're my first true friend at this school." Sam removes themselves from the toilet and hugs Lucas. "I'm going to be late. Thanks!"

Lucas is a statue. He stands in the stall, in complete shock—not that his face shows it. "Friend," Lucas thinks to himself? That's a term he hadn't been called in a long time. A word he had long taken out of his vocabulary.

Lucas smiles, not a grin, just small smile that's hardly noticeable. The formation is short lived, Lucas snuffs it out from existence. "No," he says simply to himself. "Not again." Lucas looks at his switchblade. "I have to get rid of this."

A pair of ethereal, cyan moths spawn from Lucas. The duo consumes the switchblade that Lucas used earlier.

Lucas facepalms himself. "I'm not supposed to do that." Lucas exhales. "You're just a normal kid..." He snaps his fingers and the moths dissipate. With that, Lucas heads to class after packing up. Upon reaching homeroom, he's searched. Jackal had told the teacher that Lucas attacked him. No weapon was found. Jackal accuses Lucas of getting rid of the weapon—which he did—but there was no evidence beside the words of Jackal and his goonies. Due to their track record, their word carry little worth. Especially, when Jackal shouts out threats while the teacher searches Lucas. In the end, Lucas is simply given a stern talking because he was late.

After school, Lucas skateboards home. On the way home, he passes a clothing store. He halts, kicking his board beneath his arm. On display are skinny jeans, jackets, and joggers.

"I could buy him something," Lucas thought.

"That would be nice, wouldn't it?" Lucas own reflection proceeds to asks him.

Lucas has no facial reaction. "Go away," Lucas thinks to himself.

"No," his reflection defies him. "Are you going to let history repeat itself?"

Lucas sighs. "I can't even look through glass without my own reflection tormenting me." Lucas thinks to himself. He begins to massage the bridge of his nose, annoyed with his yapping reflection.

"Well, in an actual mirror what you see is worst."

Espers minds are advanced, henceforth, their gift of telepathy. However, this somehow is a double-edged sword. Espers are prone to psychotic breaks and psychosis when under high stress.

Lucas begins to ignore his reflection, that wouldn't chat up. Its word became white noise; he knew it was talking but he couldn't quite tell what it was saying. Lucas stares at the clothes inside the store. He could buy some, gift it to Sam. How him change clothes at school. That'd help reduce the bullying. That'd be nice. Maybe Sam could be his friend.

With the thought of making Sam his friend, Lucas lightly knocks his head against the glass. "No. Not again. Never again," Lucas mutters to himself. Lucas continues staring at the clothes, and something catches his eyes in the reflection of the glass; a black van. Lucas does not normally use his powers, but he's perceptive. That van was behind him as he was skating home. And now, it pulled over when he stopped to examine the clothes.

Lucas drops his board to the ground and places his foot on it. Lucas lingers and watches the van in the reflection. When he placed his foot on the board, the van turned its wheel; ready to drive back onto the road when Lucas moves. Lucas is being tailed.

Lucas drops his board to the ground and skates off at a normal pace. He has to swerve every now and again to avoid others walking on the sidewalk. Lucas isn't going home, he can't afford endangering his family. He's heading to the docks, it isn't too far away.

The dock is busy today. Ships are docked and workers are transporting cargo, getting them to where they need to be. Lucas just keeps skateboarding around the dock until he finds a work dead zone. Lucas kicks his board beneath his arm and leans against a cargo container. All around is cargo containers, they expanded everywhere. It was like a metal forest.

The black van approaches. It parks on the opposite side of Lucas. The engine is still on and no one exits. Lucas stares at the van. The windows are tinted, but not fully. It's tinted to the point where you could tell someone is inside of it, but details are a challenge.

"Three people," Lucas says, managing to decipher how many are in the vehicle. "Argh," Lucas groans. A sudden jolt surges through his head. In a rush, Lucas holds his head; his skateboard drops to the ground. Lucas continues to his head and leans forward rubbing his temples. Someone just attempted to enter his mind but he pushed them out before anything could happen. "Espers," Lucas sighs, he leans back against the cargo behind him.

"That was either a test, or that person was a complete rookie," Lucas thinks to himself. A skilled Esper can enter someone's mind without alerting them. This person just ran in, not even hiding their presence within Lucas' mind.

Lucas and the van have a standoff. Finally, the doors to the van open. A man and two women exit the vehicle. The man is young looking, probably early twenties. In fact, so are the women. The young man is a blonde, and the two girls are both redheads; they may be sisters. They're not in any uniform of any kind, they're dressed rather casual.

"Good afternoon, can I interest you in some gum?" Lucas offers. "Fifty cent a piece. But for you, I could do a dollar a piece. Just for you."

"That's a bad deal. You increased the price," the blonde points out.

"That's how much I don't mess with you," Lucas says. "Now, what do you want?" Lucas breaks the code of a merchant; never use your own stock. Lucas throws a piece of gum into his mouth.

"We weren't supposed to engage him," one of the redheads reveals. "Just surveillance."

"It did say if he confronts us, we have the right to engage," her sister replies.

"No. No. It said to defend ourselves and to prioritize escaping."

The blonde scoffs. "He's just a kid. They're mocking us. They said this was an important mission. We've tailed this kid for months."

Lucas blinks. He had been tailed for months and never noticed? He clenches his fists in frustration. "I'm rusty," he says out loud, mostly to himself. "Hey. What are your names?"

"Use your code names," the first redhead reminds them. "I'm Ariel."

"You can call me Brave," her sister replies.

"You can call me Storm," the blonde replies.

"Did you guys choose your own code names?"

"No," Ariel says.

"Yes," Storm says proudly.

Lucas nods. "Thank you. So his powers have something to do with lightning or the weather," Lucas says. "Someone should have chosen your name for you. It's clear that you may be damaged on the cognitive side of things."

Ariel shakes her head. "See, we told you!" She scolds him.

"Wow, he only just met you and knows what a complete idiot you are," Brave laughs.

Storm grits his teeth. "He's just a kid with a big mouth."

"My mouth isn't big," Lucas says simply. "Can you guys just leave me alone? I'm not special enough to have stalkers yet. That and I'm underage." Lucas takes out his phone. "I'm calling the poli‒" Lucas throws himself to his right, avoiding an arc of electricity. The metal cargo container was dented and the spot struck was now charred black.

"What are you doing!" Ariel yells at Storm.

"I was just trying to shoot his phone out of his hand!" Storm yells back.

"Then why did you release so much!" Ariel retorts.

"Guys," Brave says.

"What!" Ariel and Storm yell in unison.

In Brave's left hand a bow manifests. "I can't tell through his face if he's mad or not. But, I don't think that means happy." As she touches the string of her bow, an arrow materializes.

Ariel and Storm turn their attention to Lucas. He's covered in ethereal, cyan moths.

"I'm a bit rusty. But I think I still know how to play," Lucas says to them. Lucas last fight with another Esper was five years ago. Now he's about to do his first fight with not just one, not two, but three Espers.