Chapter 7: Revenge is best served piping hot

Cain had already resolved that he would have to talk to her, but actually finding himself in the moment was a difficult thing. He had no idea how Dana would take the news. Would she even care? Whatever he was met with, he had to tell her, even if she already knew. Except Lara, who he wasn't that close with, Dana was his only friend who he hadn't personally talked to about the gift. And now, the thought of entering the training hall she was most likely in was somehow imposing. Even then, he had to go in to train, and he had to tell her sooner or later. It was inevitable.

What would have been better, though, was if she hadn't literally been in the first room of the training facility he entered into, "Hey, Cain, nice to see you."

Cain was taken aback by her voice, "Oh, hey Dana. Long time that I haven't talked to you."

"True. Though I suppose you have been quite busy, haven't you? Seems like a lot of things have happened."

"That is so. I'm guessing you have the gist of the sitch?"

"Creator's Hand gift. Hella powerful. You beat up Dimas and two of his friends at the fountain, within an inch of their life."

"Kevin told ya?"

"Yep. He really should work on his addiction with gossiping."

"That he should. Ah, well, should I tell you any more about it?"

"If you have the time, sure. How are you feeling about it all?" Dana sat down on a chair, sheathing the Mars sword she had been holding till now.

"Happy. What else would I be feeling?" Cain turned away for a second, in the excuse of readjusting his backpack, though his actual reason was the fear that his facial expression would betray his actual feelings.

"You lie like a dumbass, Cain. Why aren't you feeling happy about it? Something happened?"

"Nothing happened. I am happy about it. It's a blessing. I wanted this."

"You did. So why are you sad?"

"I'm not sad, Dana. I also need to go now. I promised Tevin I will train extensively today."

"Is that so? Don't think you can just leave this conversation forever hanging. Next time we meet, we are resuming this conversation. I do hope you don't promise anything to Tevin for that time."

"Sure, sure. See you around." Cain didn't bother waiting till Dana replied, and left to find a new room to train. He could have trained in the same room, but obviously didn't want to. He did not know why he was averse to telling Dana why he was sad about his powers. Maybe it was because he didn't have any good reason to be so, and was unreasonably overexaggerating pointless doubts and overthinking. Whatever it was, Cain shook it off, and picked up the sabre he had become quite attached with.

Nearing sunset, Cain was utterly exhausted. All his efforts in training had gotten him the use of the air Hand. It was pretty much a gust of wind that controlled all the breeze around it. He could form tornadoes, and suck up the oxygen to choke any living creature nearby. He could also use the wind to propel himself, and could float for short spans of time because of it. He still couldn't use two Hands at the same time, but acquiring a new Hand was an accomplishment of it's own merit. The air Hand was certainly not much to look at, being nearly invisible. Even then, it was useful to enhance his movement, and to incapacitate his opponents for a while. It also was strong enough to blow off all the sweat he had accumulated, and cool him down simultaneously, which was definitely a plus.

Cain picked up his bag, and got his phone out, to find a bunch of missed calls from Tevin, and two from Frank Murphy. Cain called Tevin, who picked up quickly, "Where the hell were you, Becker? Get to the infirmary quickly. I have important news." Just like that, without a word in from Cain, the phone call was cut. He just shrugged it off, and wore his bagstraps, beginning to walk to the infirmary.

"Sir, I'm here. I wanted to say, I got the air and water....."

Cain was cut off, "Cain, later. I got a call from Frank. Ryker wants to meet sooner. Day after, to be exact. You will be on a plane to SF tomorrow."

"What?! Wasn't it supposed to be a week or so from now?"

"It was, but circumstances changed. I won't be accompanying you, obviously. Mr Murphy will be there in my place."

"Oh. We can't change the timings?"

"Obviously not. Both Frank and Ryker are busy men. You will have to go. I advise getting a bag ready quickly. Frank also said you will meet your new personal trainer during the mission."

"Oh. I guess I can't change this, so might as well adapt. How many clothes should I pack?"

"Four days, so atleast 10 sets."

"I don't think I even own 10 sets of clothing. Oh, well, I'll come up with enough."

"Great. I'm sorry that I can't accompany you." Tevin straightened his body to counteract some discomfort lying in the probably rock hard infirmary brought him.

"If anything, I should be the one apologising, sir."

"Ah, well, what were you gonna tell me when you came in?"

"Oh, yeah," Cain decided to show him. "Could you open your bottle of water, sir?" Once opened, Cain could bring out the water in to form a water Hand, albeit of a smaller size.

"Impressive, already? You are improving quickly."

"That's not all, I also have this, but you won't be able to see it. Juts feel it." Letting the water drop to splash onto the floor, Cain brought out the air Hand, and touched Tevin's leg with it.

"Oh, wow, cold, cold." Cain had not considered the fact that the strong breeze would bring pain to the already injured Tevin.

"I'm sorry." Cain brought back the summon, and let it go, "So, I now can control those two. Though I still can't use multiple hands at the same time."

"Of course. That will come in time."

"I suppose so, yeah. Then, I will be taking my leave of you. Gotta pack now, I guess."

"That you do. Come meet me tomorrow if you aren't busy. Or else, I'll be seeing you someday. Who knows when."

"Eh, I will come here tomorrow. Bye for now." Responded with a 'bye', Cain walked out of the infirmary, backpack in tow, wondering what he felt about the mission being preponed. For one thing, he was getting impatient, and this would relieve that, but it felt a bit too quick. It would be the first time he left the Camp 63 for a substantial amount of time in years, and the thought made him both wary and giddy, like as if both a child and an old man were controlling his emotions.

Cain walked to the fountain, firstly, to meet his friends. Bored by the continuous green and brown of the hedge maze, he summoned the air Hand, brushing it past the leaves. He could actually feel the touch of the plants on his own palm, and his skin was grazed by all the leaves floating around. He subsequently also realised that the hedge maze consisted of both leaves, stems, and thorns, realising so quite painfully. By the time he reached the middle, his beige t-shirt was covered in green, same as his arms and pants. Noone was near the fountain. People were still attending classes, a labour he was quite content avoiding. Cain sat down on the fountain edge, setting his bag down. Then, he waited, browsing through his three kinds of Hands while waiting for his friends to show up.

The fire Hand was up when Cain heard a noise coming from the maze. He let the Hand go, eagerly awaiting to see who it was. He was severely disappointed to find out that the sound was actually made Dimas and a friend of his. Dimas' looked quite a bit worse for wear, with bandaged arms and a bruised up face. The most apparent hurt, though, was the aversion he displayed in meeting Cain yet again, "Oi, Becker, so very nice to see you here."

"The pleasure is all mine, kid." Cain replied, wary of how badly this could turn out. "How are the other two?"

"They are great. Harvey has a completely shattered fibula, and Brian is quite burned, but other than that, completely fine."

"Happy to hear. So, then, doing away with the pleasantries, why are you here?"

"Can't a man sit around a fountain in peace."

"A man could. Though I don't see any men. Except maybe the one behind you."

"His name's Russell. Harvey's brother. I have no hand in any of this, but Russell here has shown quite a bit of enthusiasm of doing onto you what you did to Harvey. And who could refuse this cute little kid, right? I certainly couldn't."

Russell looked ready to kill, and that big 110 kg hunk of muscle and brainless brawn was hurtling towards Cain, ready to tackle him and break a few bones in the process. Cain could barely dodge the charge, and even then, his hand was locked on by the brute. He was seconds away from being pulled around like a cloth in the washer, and he had no way of getting out of it. He had already activated the fire Hand, and brought it to Russell's face as his arm bones began to stretch to their limit.

"Ohh, yeah, forgot to mention," Dimas piped up, "Russell can control fire, just like you. Silly me, forgetting such crucial information."

"What the hell?" was all Cain could say, before he was throttled into the fountain edge, his back a broken ruin afterwards. It took him more energy than he could muster to get back up, and even then, he was only stumbling around, trying to get his bearings.

"Good boy, Russell. Who's a good boy?" Dimas had taken a seat on the fountain ledge, right behind Cain, and propelled his foot to hit him in his already injured back. "I do sincerely hope we have no bad blood between us after this. I feel we were making such progress into becoming friends. Truly, whatever Russell does, I have no hand in it."

"Shut up, Dimas. Weak ass idiot." Cain spat out blood, letting his fire Hand go, and getting his water Hand up. Russell seemed surprised to see the water, but quickly replied with throwing a fireball towards his opponent. Cain barely neutralized the attack by stopping it with the water, and aimed the water that hadn't just turned into steam towards his combatant, aiming for the arms that were controlling the fire. Boiling water would have been great as an attack, but Russell was sprightly for his size, only getting a little of the water on his foot. Even then, he let out a tiny yowl of burning pain. 'Good', thought Cain, 'Controlling fire doesn't mean he's protected against heat. A pity that I'm the same.'

"Ah, this is more entertaining than I ever imagined. Good job, boy. Now, make him beg. Make the little piece of..." Cain was surprised to find that Dimas was cut off by a fist in his face, belonging to his own friend.

Russell finally said something, "As he said, Buzz, shut the hell up. This is a fight between us two. Scurry off." Under threat of yet another fist in his noggin, Dimas actually made away, swearing like a sailor the whole time. Though Cain suspected that Dimas hadn't actually left, just turning a corner and standing behind a maze wall. "If we have nothing troubling us now, let's begin, Becker."

Cain tried to walk backwards to get a bit away from the enraged gifted, "Damn, I didn't know you could actually talk. Let me be the first to say, I am truly sorry for what happened to your brother."

"I think you mean what you "did" to my brother. Choose your words carefully."

"Yes, yes, what I did. But, to my defence, Dimas forced me into the situation. I was the one who hurt your brother in the end, of course, but what else could I have done?"

"You broke his goddamn bone. I'm quite sure there are a million things you could have done which weren't as extreme as that. And stop making excuses. You hurt someone. Take responsibility, coward." With the last word, Russell sprinted towards Cain, fists clenched for a beating.

Cain dodged, using his air Hand to push himself away, "And are you ready to take responsibility for hurting me?"

Russell threw a fireball, "Yes, I am."

Cain stopped the attack with the breeze he was controlling, propelling the fire back to Russell. Though, it was wishful thinking to hope that actual fire would do any damage to someone controlling fire. Though, it certainly did hurt when a fireball was sent in response to Cain. He stumbled back, trying to find stable footing, before he could even hope to counter. Russell had already begun charging towards him, fists engulfed in flames, ready to burn a hole in their victim's chest. Cain was hit in the left shoulder, left arm completely incapacitated. All he could do in reply was sending a blast of breeze to push his combatant back, getting ready to use his water Hand instead. The writing was on the wall. This was not a fight Cain could win, not even hope to survive. For all the talk of the power in his gift, it didn't matter in an actual fight.

Russell had already realised where Cain was most weak, "Stand down, Becker, and you might leave with only a broken shoulder-blade. You have already lost."

"Never. I ain't backing down. I'll do the same to you that I did to that weak-ass idiot Harvey." Cain didn't even know if he meant that, only spite left controlling his words.

"You never learn, do you?" Russell had already gotten ready for his finishing attack. He throttled his whole body mass towards Cain, specifically to come to rest on his left arm. There was no way to dodge. The crack of the left humerus shattering, and dislocated from his ulna, filled the air. Cain's left hand went completely limp, flailing around as he tried to retreat as quick as possible.

The pain was blinding. Bugger his gift, bugger his newly found courage, bugger all hope of becoming strong, all Cain could do was fall down and brace his left. "Off, dontcha back a punch?" Cain couldn't have afforded to muster those words, but his pride was trying to save itself from self destruction.

"Back down, now. I'm done. This is it. You can go to the infirmary, and save what's left of your arm. Don't let your bloodlust kill you now."

"Look who's talking, Mr Avenging my brother by breaking a person's bones."

"Think it over, Becker. You don't want to lose all feeling in that arm, do you now..." Russell staggered leftwards, the right side of his head bloody. Behind him was Leron, red eyes blazing, braced to hit the fallen boy again, if he stirred again.

"What the hell, Cain. Come quick, we gotta get to the infirmary. Your left arm's gone to pieces." Leron rushed towards his fallen friend, reaching out to help him up.

"I'm fine. This is my fight, Leron. Get yourself out of it." Cain waved the helping hand away, getting himself back up using his one good arm. His body felt filled with some arcane strength now, revitalising him to some degree. He walked to his fallen combatant, who had by now staggered back.

"Your friend hits hard," Russell spoke up, wiping the blood off the edge of his mouth. "You sure you want to seal your death for the sake of proving something?"

"Shut the hell up, and get up. You are the one sealing your fate." Cain spat out the blood collecting in his mouth, to end up splashing on Russell's thigh. He began to call out the water Hand. When Russell finally stood up, he sent a splash of water towards him, both cleaning the blood off his face, and blinding him. Cain also send a punch hurtling towards his enemy, using the air Hand to get more strength behind his fist. It was at this moment he was surprised to finally realise that he wasn't switching between Hands anymore. Instead, both of them were present at the same time. All he was doing now was switching right hand control over them, as his left hand was incapacitated. But he could realise that both the summons were tethered to his two hands, and were pretty much an extension of his own body. With the knowledge that it had suddenly become a much more even match, Cain sent down a barrage of attacks on his fallen enemy. It was no longer a fight, just a execution.

It took Leron's red eye strength to get Cain away from Russell, "It's over, it's over, Cain. You won. You need to get medical help. Please, come along."

Cain shook off his bloodlust, finally realising what he had done. "I can walk by myself. Help him," Cain nodded his head towards the fallen boy. "I don't know what happened. But yeah, we both need to get to the infirmary quick." Leron picked Russell up, clearly straining past his limits to drag the injured gifted. Thankfully he didn't need to get his green eyes out to accomplish the feat. "You met Dimas?" Cain asked, limping while holding his broken arm like a cradled babe.

"I did, yes. He got scared seeing me, and just left. I wouldn't know why he was scared."

"Yep, weird. Ah, well, I guess we should focus on getting this himbo to the infirmary." Leron nodded, as both the friends dragged themselves to the infirmary, the fainted Russell in tow.