"Come on, Raziel!" They goaded him.
'They' were the three bullies that had been tormenting Raziel for the past year or so. Raziel could easilly have them punished, or even killed if he wanted to.. He knew all the right people. His grandfather, also called Raziel, was the head of the Jonavas, the Xynaxian Army.
The Xynax were a different breed of human. The human supergovernment had captured many civillians. Mainly the homeless. They had injected them with a drug known as "Lot 74".. nicnamed "Christmas Present". It was a synthetic DNA changer. For some, the drugs had no effect. For the ones that it did, the results were extrodinary and unbeleivable.
Some of the participants showed the ability to create electrical currents at will. Others had controll of water, and could even create puddles from the tiny mollecules of H2O in the air. Others could increase the speed that plants grew, or even kill them. They were able to controll nature. Others were able to create powerful gusts of wind, able to lift people and heavy machinery - even in enclosed roomes. Finally, others were able to start fires at will, and controll already existing ones.
The government locked the successfull experiments up in a government safehaven known only as Sanctuary. The unsuccessfull ones were executed. More and more people were captured for Christmas Present experiments. Businessmen, more homeless, lower class, upper class, black, white, asian, every kind of person imaginable. The results were the same. Successes were locked in Sanctuary, the unsuccessfull murdered.
Locked up only with other Lot 74 infected humans, they began to mate with each other. What other choice did they have? Eventually, their numbers grew to the size that they were able to break out of Sanctuary and live in the outside world. By then they had already decided they were a new species. Xynaxians. They referred to themselves as Xynax.
After the breakout, the Xynax began breeding with humans, ergo the bloodline weakened. But strangely, not a single Xynax spoke of the experiment. Not until children were born.
Puberty is a hard time for Xynaxians. Their powers spiral out of controll. Puberty becomes not a battle to become an adult, but a battle to save ones own life. For every time a Xynaxian uses their power, their skin will tear open. The price of power, is that blood must be spilled each time.
For this purpose, the Jonavas was made. It was created initially for a place for people to go, for help on keeping their children alive. However, this soon changed. Children came to see the Jonavas camps as their homes, and decided to stay. The Jonavas expanded into an army. To this day, Jonavas camps exist still to help teenagers, but so do camps for military training.
Some Xynaxians are even born into the Jonavas, with no choice at all.
Raziel was one of these. Due to his upbringing, he had too much pride to resort to others. He was out for life on his own. Self-reliant and independant. That was who he wanted to be. So when he was confronted by these bullies, he kept it quiet.
Most schoolchildren would tell their mother. But Raziel had too much pride for that, too. His mother, Ariah, a powerful psychic, and a pure-breed Thunder-class Xynax, worked her ass off all day. She, too, was part of the Jonavas. She had more to worry about than the petty affairs of her child being bullied during school.
And what of his father? Well, he wouldn't go to his father anyway. Zade had left Ariah as soon as he had found out she was pregnant. That bastard. She had felt like crying at the time, she had told Raziel when he was 13, but she realised that after a week, she had already gotten over him. She had made a mistake, and realised she hadn't even been in love. She always reassured him though, it was a mistake she was glad she made, for it gave her a son.
"Come on!" They goaded him again. "Fight me!"
Raziel turned his back to walk away.
"I dare you!"
The words echoed around in the alleyway, and also in his mind. Again and again, those same words. "I dare you!". The one challenge he had never denied. A dare. Should he walk away? Should he stand and fight?
But if he fought.. He knew he'd use one of two things. Neither of which he wanted to do. Either was too dangerous.
**** it. What did he care anymore? They'd pushed him for the last time. Now they would learn. He spun around, raised his hand, and pointed (with his middle finger, as he always did) at the ringleader of the three.
"Fine then. You. Me. One on one. Your little followers stay out of this."
The ringleader paused for a moment, and nodded. the two others backed off a few paces and leant against the wall, watching. Probably ready to jump in, should their leader begin to lose.
The leader advanced up to Raziel, squaring up to him. "Go on then. Hit me!" he goaded.
Raziel stared straight in his eyes and sneered. He knew how to fight, but also knew the law. If he threw the first punch, it'd be assault. If he threw the second, it'd be self defence.
"Too scared to throw the first yourself?" Raziel retorted. "I can clearly see I'm wasting my time." He turned his back on bully, the ultimate of all Xynax disrespects. After walking a few paces, a lightning bolt shot down and landed in front of him. Raziel needed only to wait a few more seconds.. Until..
Whack! There it was. The bully had just thrown the first punch. Raziel wheeled around to see the bully had jumped backwards, realising what he had done. His arm was slightly bleeding from the lightning. The curse of casting Xynax powers.
There were five of them. Fire (His grandfather was fire.), Thunder (His mother was thunder), Air, Earth and Water. They were often portrayed as one on each point of a pentagram.
However, there was a sixth. It had always been shown, but never been realised. The element that lies at the centre of the pentagram.
Spirit.
There was only one that Elder Raziel (The Jonavas leader) had ever seen. That was his own grandson. He had the powers of Spirit. Nobody knew. Only Elder Raziel, Ariah, and Younger Raziel. They were all forbidden to speak of it. For the Spirit powers were immense, and if pushed the wrong way, could have devestating effect.
Spirit Xynax, or more precisely, Younger Raziel, being the only one, had power over all the 5 elements. He had trained personally with his grandfather, to the point he could create immense blazes by merely looking at something. He had the power to raise buildings with gusts of winds, and create entire memorial gardens in minutes. He could easilly divert rivers, and cause storms by snapping his fingers.
All in all. He could re-shape the whole country if he wanted to. Well of course, he couldn't. The amount of blood loss to do any of those tasks would probably kill him. He, like all other Xynax, had his limits. However, the knowledge that his powers were strong enough to was something that made the Younger Raziel somewhat of a renegade. A lone wolf. With powers like that, he needed nobody.
However, the Spirit powers had one more gift. Raziel had found he was able to split himself in two, so to speak. He was able to be in two places at once, leaving his second self at a different location. He used this technique to dart silently along floors, scale walls even when people thought he was half a mile away. His grandfather said that these skills, combined with his long fingers, easilly able to snap somebodies neck, made him the perfect assassin.
The fact that Younger Raziel was a pure-breed Xynaxian (Both parents were Xynax) didn't make things any better. Pure-Breeds always had stronger powers. Exept Elder Raziel. He was considered the most powerful alive. He was only Half-Breen (One parent Xynax, one parent Human.) But then, there must always be exceptions to any rule.. right?
"You realise that anything I do now is an act of self defence, right?" Raziel told the bully, in attempt to un-nerve him. The bully scowled, then his face changed to anger. He didn't care. He had always been envious of Raziel and his heritage. He wanted what Raziel had. He ran forward and swung for Raziel again. Raziel dodged easilly, and sent a small ball of fire at him. Although he could controll all the elements, he did so in private. In public, he was a Fire-Breed Xynax. He didn't use his "Assassination Gifts" (as his grandfather called them) in public, either.
The bully staggered, and sent lightning at Raziel. It hit him square in the chest, sending him backwards. He got to his feet and threw a larger ball of fire at the bully, ran forward and followed it up with a punch to the chest, knocking the wind out of him. As the bully kneeled over in pain, Raziel felt a blow to his back. One of the bullys friends had decided to get involved, and Raziel turned to see the other's fist hit him squarely in the eye.
The ringleader stood up, grabbed him, and held his arms behind him, letting the other two repeatedly punch him with no resistance. Raziel decided this was enough.
The ringleader cried out in pain as blood splattered from his hands. He had made the mistake of holding Raziel at the wrists.
Raziel kicked him away and started maliciously at the other two. He raised his arms to show why the ringleader had been hurt, and, as he noticed from the corner of his eye, was running away down the alley.
Raziel had gotten illegal implants. They were two small, snaked blades in his arms. They stopped just before his elbow, and started at his wrist.....
