It was 5:15p.m.
Linex remembered that he ought to be at the mall by 5:30p.m
“I have to get to the mall in fifteen minutes!!!” he trumpeted.
“I’ll take you there don’t worry my child” the old said calmly.
“Alright sensei”
He got on Aiden’s back and they started jumping tree to tree until he got to the streets and ran fast avoiding people. They got to the mall from the back, making sure no one was there.
“Thanks sensei hope to see you tomorrow” Linex said gratefully.
“Take care son, tomorrow I will train you how to fight ok” and with that his teacher disappeared.
“Hey mom…!” Linex called waving; he could make out his mother just at the middle floor of the mall.
“Hey Liny, I was starting to get worried I couldn’t find you” Jennica replied hugging her son.
It was 7:00p.m, when they arrived home.
“So where were you today you look all messed up” his mother commented.
“I was playing in the park” Linex replied.
“Um… Ok? You know you’re too old for playing in the park and you told me you were back in the mall” his mother chided.
“I’m not old, mom" he said thinking about the battle. "I simply changed my mind about being there…”
“Mom I have an invitation to my friend’s party can I go?” he asked after an afterthought.
“Of course you can, we will be there soon after you get a bath you smell all burned up, were you playing with fire?” his mother asked.
“Eh… Yeah I was just experimenting that’s all ha-ha…”. Linex replied worried.
After they got to the house, Linex took a bath and was thinking of the attack he just countered, he felt excited for more training. Then they went to the party, Lysie was waiting for Linex at the front door of her party.
“Hey Lys, meet my mom Jennica” he introduced them.
And they soon had a great time knowing each other.
CHAPTER 4
TRAINING DAY
The next day was Sunday; Linex woke up at 7:00p.m, with the alarm ringing. He got mad and karate chopped the alarm and destroyed it, sending it flying out the window. The pulverized alarm clock hit a neighbor's car at the left side cracking the glass.
“Oh jeez…! The car…!" He whispered nervously. Pretending that nothing has happened, he hummed a tune to himself and headed downstairs.
I hope he doesn’t notice, he thought to himself. As usual he found his mother occupied in the kitchen. She was making breakfast but had been staring intently at a picture which she now hid from him.
“Hey mom, good morning” Linex said cheerfully.
“Hey Linex, did you sleep ok?” his mother smiled back, trying to act as normal as possible. She really loathed hiding things from him anyway.
“Pretty good, I’m still exhausted but I’m fine” Linex replied. "Was one cool of a party though" he grinned.
“I can tell, you been with that girl a lot in the party… is there something you like to tell me?" his mother teased laughing softly.
“No mom, I mean we're not… well not yet but no” Linex protested, how could his mother even know all those things.
"I know you like her Linex" Jennica muttered abruptly. "That's okay, shows you're getting older" she winked at him and proceeded to dish out their food.
“Mom please, stop” he grumbled, which made her laugh so hard. They soon settled down and had a sumptuous breakfast.
It was late in the evening and Linex was preparing his bags for training.
“Where are you going with that bag?” his mother asked suddenly, she was standing just in front of his room looking at him suspiciously.
“I was going to play videogames in my friend’s house…” Linex lied.
He knew his mother didn't fall for that lie, beads of sweat dribbled down his face as his mother moved closer to him.
“I know you're lying, Linex open the bag now” his mother instructed, she had a stern tone in her voice.
“Oh look at the time I have to go! Bye mom!” he dashed out of the room and glided on the stairs down to the living room, before bolting out the door.
however, Jennica wasn't let him go that easily. She was hot on his heels, giving him the chase of his life.
Linex was running through the street to get to the park while his mother was chasing him like ferocious jaguar. He got scared and ran faster, cutting through several streets all in the bid to lose his mother.
“Mom can’t do parkour, so I’ll do it” he reasoned, so he started to jump, climb and roll from one house to another. After some time, he paused seeing that he had somehow lost her but suddenly she made a super jump from nowhere.
“You got to be kidding me!” Linex groaned and resumed running.
“You can’t escape me that easy son!” Jennica declared still chasing after him.
A hand suddenly someone grabbed him and flew away with him. It was Sensei Aiden.
Jennica watched them go, quite helpless. “I’ll get you later Linex!” she shouted after them.
While they were getting to Aiden’s house Sensei Aiden asked if that was his mom.
“Yeah, she is… why?” Linex answered a little confused.
“She runs fast to be at that age, I guess she was training a while right?” Sensei Aiden asked.
“Well I didn’t even expect her to have such good resistance, she probably has been exercising a lot” he said. Of course, it had been a huge surprise to him that his mother could run that fast.
Aiden was trying to get some clues of the power Linex possessed, he reasoned that she was just like him “I thought she is a us… but Linex told me already she is a human, so I think I’m exaggerating”
Linex was rather confused, he gaped at Aiden almost certain that he hadn't heard what his Master had said clearly, but the old man didn’t say it again because Linex wasn’t ready to know about it.
They got to Aiden’s house and went to the training field.
“Hey Sensei, what did you say about mom?” Linex asked still quite curious.
“Oh that she runs like me when I started training” was his master's prompt reply.
“All girly…?” Linex said doubtfully.
“What? No, her speed I mean”
“Oh okay, I get it… well she was an athlete after all”
“What is an athlete?” Aiden asked.
“Never mind” Linex said.
They started to train.
"Second training is...” his teacher started, but Linex only interrupted cutting him short.
“The fighting poses!!” Linex screamed excitedly. "Been waiting for that all day long"
“No, that’s for later right now is meditation” Sensei replied assuming a lotus cross-legged position.
“Ahhhh, seriously…?” Linex asked rather disappointed.
“Yes, it’s very important to meditate that make you focus on your spirit also gain more power” his teacher informed him.
And with that they headed to a deep beautiful river to meditate.
“Well here we are” the old man announced as they stopped in front of the flowing shimmering water. Aiden wanted to see Linex to meditate first, so they started. Linex was calm but in a moment, he started to think about his past and that was when his mental training began to fall apart.
“Linex wake up!” his master shook him. He uttered a shrill cry and snapped his eyes open staring at his Sensei in fear. “Linex it’s okay to think of the past, but don’t get consumed by it, just let that out”.
“Don’t worry I’m fine sensei” Linex grunted sadly.
“Ok my child, if you ever need help I’m here for you” Sensei Aiden replied patting him on the back.
Linex didn’t care for what Aiden had said and when they started to meditate again; this time, he was fully focused on his spirit.
“What?” Linex asked astonished but he saw Aiden unleash a tremendous aura of fire and entered the river. He got rather motivated by it and started to meditate again, he suddenly found himself thinking of his future, of who he was going to be when he becomes a savior, but then he started to have negative thoughts about people abusing him, judging him, blaming him.
“C'mon, you can do it” he whispered and started to fight that thought and got a little of control of his mind. Then the aura he had before was coming out of him, Linex was trying his best to take full control of his emotions and thoughts, but the aura began to disappear again. Aiden got out from the river quietly looking at Linex aura, Linex was almost at full control of his mind to the point where his aura got out quickly and a little red light emanated out of his body. Aiden was surprised, and he realized that Linex was different, his fiery color is different, he thought he was alone on earth but after seeing Linex he got worried if something would happen to the planet although he was not fully sure if he is one of his kinds, but he didn’t tell Linex about it.
The aura collapsed and Linex tried to stay focused but failed.
Linex was exhausted catching breath and he turn to look at Aiden and said, “How did I do sensei?” Linex asked.
Sensei Aiden didn't reply, he was still shocked at what he had just seen and the fresh revelation he was having about Linex.
“I can’t believe there’s another one of us in this planet” Sensei Aiden thought.
“I didn’t think of him being one, I thought he was from another race, but he is a human… a human with powers…" the Sensei said.
“Maybe is for the best not tell him and make him a warrior when the battle comes” Sensei Aiden said, in a while his eyes had been closed, he opened them now to regard Linex.
“Hey sensei is there something wrong?” Linex asked.
“No, you did very well Linex” Sensei Aiden forced a smile. He remembered with anguish how his race went to other planets to make it their own, enslaving and destroying all in their path.
Linex got up and stared at Aiden very worried. “Is there something you want to tell me Aiden”. Sensei Aiden wanted to take out the dangerous races that were on the planet but then realized something and he asked Linex if one of his parents used fire in their house with their own hands.
“No, Mom doesn’t have that ability and my father left us behind long ago” Linex replied.
“Maybe… but it can’t be, he is a human… he can’t be one of us” Sensei Aiden thought and left silently “I need to know more”.
Aiden went to the house, followed by Linex and sat down looking at an old damaged armor.
“Hey, sensei lets continue our train… what is that?” Linex declared trying to cheer his teacher up.
Aiden picked up an armor from an old box and show to Linex “This… this was my mentor’s armor of the shoulder he sacrificed his life saving me”. Sensei Aiden replied.
“Oh… sorry for asking”
“It’s ok Linex” his master muttered. "It was a very long time ago"
Linex got quiet for the moment and looked away. “Anyway let’s keep training” Aiden finally said.
They headed to the training field and proceeded to do every single workout.
“Hey! We forgot the poses” Linex announced.
“Oh, thanks for reminding me” his master nodded acknowledging this fact.
Sensei Aiden showed one fighting pose that it was useful for Linex to practice, but Aiden told him that training has finished. Then Linex left his teacher’s house and went to find Joe in the city. Linex was exhausted from the training but went looking anyway.
***
He found Joe talking to some stranger. Linex didn’t get close to him but found Joe giving some gasoline to the unknown person, but then they quickly left the place and Linex went after Joe.
Somehow, he sensed that someone was following him and went to a spot where it was far from his conversation with the stranger.
After a while Linex found Joe on the street “Hello Joe, I was looking for you for a while” Linex said, he had to act like that he hadn't seen anything.
“Yeah man, I was going around looking something to eat” Joe replied.
“Well, that’s great man” Linex said.
“You saw it, didn’t you?” Joe asked suddenly.
“What you’re talking about Joe?” he tried not to give away the fact that he was actually aware of that fact.
“You saw me giving the gasoline to the guy right?” Joe pushed him against the wall angrily and grabbed at his shirt.
"Yeah I did Joe, but please I won’t say anything” Linex agreed.
“You better not or I will not get my money that I need for my family” Joe was saying when suddenly a big explosion was made close to them and Linex saw his teacher’s aura around.
“What is this red thing in the air?" Joe pointed upwards; there was a look of fear scribbled on his face.
“No time to explain let’s go!” Linex declared, he and Joe went to the cause of the explosion and saw the unknown stranger surrounded by the flames, the stranger then got the smoke around the fire and absorbed it and become into a big monster. Linex saw his teacher arrived at the area ready to start the showdown, people were running for their lives and a helicopter was checking the city and began to film the destruction of it. Then the monster unleashed a rampage of fire balls that could cause a heavy damage to the city, one of them was going directly to the helicopter and Aiden went up and throw a fire shuriken and destroyed the fire ball. Linex wanted to help but he wasn’t ready to fight.
“Sensei I’ll help too” Linex shouted up at his master.
“Get out of this Linex, it’s too dangerous” Sensei Aiden's shouted down at him. He was still in the air and got slammed to a building by the monster. Linex got mad and ran to the monster. Joe got confused and was stuck because of his own fear, but as soon he wanted to help Linex he took his jacket off.
He had robotic arms and his two legs were also robotic as well. He joined Linex and they both attached the fire monster.
Linex was relaxing his mind and taking control of his power, he unleashed the white aura from his arm and charged up a super punch and Joe grabbed Linex and threw him to the center of the body of the monster. Linex landed a great hit to it, but it didn’t have any effect. The monster unleashed a fire blast at Linex, and he crossed his arms and took the blast, he was resisting it but not for much time, Joe then charged his robotic legs and jump high and hit the monster many times, but this didn't work either.
“This won’t work Linex, let’s get out of here” Joe advised.
“I’ll kill you for trying to hurt my student… From the spirits of the flames, and from the eternal dragons, I will destroy you for good” Sensei Aiden's declared floating out of the collapsed building.
He concentrated his power and began charge up a super beam. “Linex hold a little longer please”. “Alright hurry!” Linex shouted still struggling to get himself unstuck from the monster.
Joe blasted some mini beams from his robotic hands at the monster to distract it.
Linex's aura was disappearing.
“HURRY!” he screamed loudly.
“NOW…!” Aiden shouted and blasted the super beam at the monster and completely destroyed it. Everything went calm and Sensei Aiden disappeared while Linex started to shake and he passed out.
Aiden told Joe to leave quickly before the military or polices arrives.
Joe carried Linex and ran as fast as he could towards his house. In a way, he wondered if Linex would ask about his robotic arms. He dismissed this thought and also reasoned about Linex's strange aura.
Linex woke up in one hour and Joe was with him, “What's up Noob?” Joe asked.
“Joe what happened, have we won
?” Linex said rather astonished.
“Yeah we did” Joe affirmed.
“Alright” Linex said feeling calmed.
Linex stared at Joe’s arms, and he saw that Joe cringed back from him in shame.
“Hey Joe, it’s alright… I mean you don’t need to feel ashamed about it” Linex beamed with a smile.
“Really? I mean look at me, I’m half robotic” Joe replied doubtfully.
“Of course man, you’re still my friend after all, besides you can even come with me to train” Linex replied.
“For real?”
“Yeah man, we can even spar ones in a while!” Linex said rather excited.
“I don’t know if dad is going to let me” Joe said doubtfully.
“Ask him then”
“I’ll try… besides I don’t want anyone to see me with these” Joe said gesturing at his robotic arms.
“Well it’s fine bro, when you feel like you want to help then you’re more than welcome” Linex grinned clapping his friend on the back.
“Ok thanks man” Joe agreed, and they both settled down to some dinner and video games having a good moment.
CHAPTER 5
A FRIENDSHIP’S TRUST
The battle was over, and the city was quite damaged but Linex and Joe escaped the police and the military soldiers.
They were safe in Joe’s house. Linex was feeling a bit insecure, there was the awkward feeling of wanting to know his friend more.
“Hey Joe, how come you don’t say anything about yourself? Every time you’re with me you're so secretive. I mean I’m your best friend man” Linex said breaking the silence.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you my secrets, but I guess I can trust you now. It's just – I was scared of getting judged by the people” Joe replied.
“Yeah man, at some point we always get judged it's normal, you just have to be yourself” Linex nodded his head in understanding.
“Yeah but I feel different I mean… I’m half robot and it’s because I was born with no arms and legs” Joe muttered.
Linex was quite surprised at this assertion, it was the first time Joe had ever talked about his past.
TerraFlame (The New Journey Book 1) Page 3