Strife Amongst the Clouds

"Urgh" Isaiah hung limp as he hacked up the slime from his stomach. Back cracking while he flopped against the vine strewn wall pried away from the wandering eyes of the other students. It was Gan's special spot, the area in which no one came to bother with its blaring marking of a skull warning those who would happen to stumble upon the nest. This sacred place was nothing more than a trash heap of an alley formed by the corner where the main building's exterior wall met the outdoor gym closet. Yet, it was the beats within that made this hole special as it was his stomping ground. 

Gan's special place when he needed to recline into a brutal leader. For that was his position now with Kage indisposed. The rest had to be kept in check, they had to be taught lessons like Kage. Gan could feel in his bones that they were all close to falling headfirst into the raging waves of failure. A feeling reassured from the defiant bloodied lip and bruised eye that Isaiah forced upon himself. 

Gan stepped forward, a solitary foot receiving a clump of lumpy crimson spit on his pearly sneakers. They were a designer's pair as well. 

Isaiah did not withdraw his stare from Gan's sight. So began a showdown lasting a second then no longer as Gan's left eye twitched with a fierce awakening. He took stock of the stain already on his shoe concluding that they were ruined. 

The boy needn't demonstrate technique at this point. This other was thoroughly beaten to the point that he was too exhausted to get his legs beneath himself. All that came in quick succession were a series of downward knocks from Gan's heel turning the alley into a gladiator's pit in no fewer than a short breath or two. 

Concise were his breaths as well. There was no point expending unnecessary energy on a piece of meat like this. A valuable piece but not like Kage. 

Kage… 

He needed Kage. 

When the torrent of kicks came to an end, Isaiah's skull fell onto the pavement. Both eyes wound up bruised in Gan's endeavor to instill punishment while slices of skin opened along the boy's cheeks as well as forehead. All this time the bony kid hadn't even withdrawn either hand from his coat's pockets. One firmly gripping a small, nearly microscopic, ball. 

He bent over to finally place a hand on his subject curling Isaiah's chin up into his golden beams. Then, the rounded object twirled in Gan's other hand shoving it before Isaiah's swollen sight bleared by the stream of red dancing across his lashes. 

"You spy on us." The words practically seethed from the gaps in Gan's teeth as they clenched with a cracking anger. "You lie to us. Now, you won't even help when one of us is in danger?" The metallic object had been discovered on Gan's clothes by himself. Dead in the center of its mass was a lens which flashed back at him with a soft observation.

A lens in the shape of one dull jade eye, Isaiah's to be precise. 

The camera was juggled from one hand to the other before fizzling into dust by the might of his immeasurable strength. On instinct the dust flew back into the pores of its creator rejuvenating his conscious form to solidify a sentence, perhaps two. 

"I-I wasn't."

"THEN WHAT WAS IT!" Gan interrupted. 

His fist smashed into the concrete surface overhead forcing shards of the slab to hail upon the both of them. "I asked before whether you knew where Kage had gone, whether anyone had. No one said a fucking thing!" The grit in his teeth widened as the sparkle of madness glowed in bright dryness. "You were the last one to see him. You told me he was safe. You told all of us not to worry. But… What's with this shit? You've been keeping tabs on us, huh? Why?" 

An immense weight forced Isaiah deeper into the earth. It shook his hearing along with the very thoughts that now stood so crucial to suffuse the rage from his friend. 

Is that true? Is this the person he called friend or was it the real fiend behind it all? It's not the one Kage revealed that liar trying to stop them from worrying over him. No, this version of Gan was much different, it was a - 

"None of you even care, is that it?" Gan stomped away from Isaiah, instead scraping his head into either hand, tearing at his gelled shimmering hair. "First, fucking Kage, then that bastard child, served that crashing vermin right. Next came Claire, *whore!*" He bellowed the word to the weeping weather relenting in his hair pulling for a second to spasm open to his clear rage at the lover. "Not even that lazy sack of shit can do his part." His attention once more turned to Isaiah who was deeply inclined to hurl the slab of pointed concrete at his friend then make a run for it inside the academy. 

However, even then his safety was not guaranteed. For another element in the hierarchy persisted, rather than strength or skill but financial support proved greater than most. Gan's immense wealth within his parents may provoke a disabled response from the adults and their duty. 

"Now, there's you. Out of all them, I thought at least you cared for Kage like I do. I would give my life to protect a friend, and you know that! So, why are you doing this?" Gan sat inches away from him, trembling with fear. It was the first time Isaiah had ever seen him so afraid. Yet, this was not right. It was not the worry for a simple friend like Kage was to save a life. No, this was obsessive. 

Simply shaking his head, Isaiah shot his face down to the ground awaiting the next batch of beatings to come from Gan. 

And none came. Only the deep rattling breath of panicked gasps. Then…

"Fine." Gan stood up placing a solitary foot on Isaiah's left pant leg, aiming in general for the kneecap. They were dirtied by black streak marks from being dragged along the muddied earth further washed by specks of dusted insulation. An understanding was reached between the two of them from the indication, no, the promise threaded without need for a single word. 

'His leg or Kage. 

Choose.' 

How could he have fallen for the same ploy twice? 

Sucking in a breath, Isaiah closed his right eye, but his vision did not cease on that peripheral. Instead, it expanded over an array of several screens mirroring that of a CCTV camera set up. There were hundreds placed all over the city, the majority of which around his own apartment room. But two were on Kage's hand. His brief touch on his friend's shoulder during their last interaction allowed for Isaiah to control the movements of one of his cameras to attach itself to Kage's skin then shrinking to a microscopic size. In such a state he could barely see anything other than pink flesh and the overcast heavens. However, the cameras also gave off a vague ping marking their location to Isaiah ensuring an easy retrieval if required. 

Although the one camera on his hand detailed skin and sky, the other was completely covered in a garish darkness unable to see anything. 

'That one should be up on his arm, maybe it's covered by a bandage?' 

The ping was then heard within the recesses of his mind. A track that indicated an area in the downtown section of the city. Some miles past Daniel's house. Just under an overpass, approaching a… clinic? 

No, Kage had just gone past it. Their destination seemed to be wobbly and unsteady but still, Isaiah was able to determine a clear cut off point where they could meet him. 

Opening his eyes, Isaiah looked on at Gan who relinquished his foot; it having been torn away by the increase in musculature which busted his shoe from within the confines of the leather. He dropped the shoe into a pail only to withdraw an extra from his backpack. Apparently keeping extra pairs on-the-go. 

"Should've chosen the leg." He lifted Isaiah by the collar carrying him a foot in the air and some distance until the boy could properly walk on his own two feet without being hoisted like a pup. "Call up Claire and Jacob. Tell them to meet us wherever." This was no sensual request but a barking order that made Isaiah shrink even shorter. The strength he felt when attempting to dissuade Kage was long gone but replaced by a compelled shiver down his spine. It could stop his heart if he was so in the mood to make the threat become reality. 

For a second, there was the thought of rebellion, but it was dashed away by the remembrance of Jacob. Although a friend, Gan paid no mind beating him near death to the point where the guards stepped in to stop the commotion. 

Isaiah pulled his head to his chest venting a gust of chilly breath. This no longer was the group he could recount. However, this could possibly have been what they were all along. Just fakes covered up by the use of masks. 

Kage, Jacob, Gan, who would be next? Even he was unable to remain true to his bond. 

The boy eyed the coagulating clouds which soon malformed the sky into an oasis of gray, a light sprinkling accompanying the change. More was surely to arrive on this day. By night the whole city would be drenched. 

Perhaps another flood will covet the streets?