The Challenger

by Harlon Banks

  "I hope I don't accidentally fry it..." Kayde's gentle voice graced Jonath's ears off over to his right, looking over to see her just a person or so away from him. She seemed a bit timid about the entire situation, fidgeting as she looked at the ground unable to stand perfectly still. If she managed to short-circuit that chip it's no doubt she'd get in trouble even if it was a blatant accident. Making those had to have been pretty expensive...

  "Forgot to mention these chips have a bit of Lazarite meshed in with the tech. Don't worry about your powers destroying them; they can nullify a decent amount of direct influence before showing signs of damage. This doesn't mean you can go around throwing fireballs at it expecting it to endure." Min snickered jokingly. Delaren immediately could be seen snorting as if he were disappointed at hearing that. Kayde perked up, relieved to hear this news as she suddenly calmed down and seemed perfectly capable of standing totally still. Jonath couldn't help but acknowledge that girl was rather strange, more so than he gave credit for.

  "The chip comes with an instruction manual already and an interactive interface so you'll be able to see everything once you get it. You guys will have today free to relax as you please also while we finish updating the software. Tomorrow is when your color labels will go active and we'll be sending you all a message through the E-Chip on how you'll be accepting jobs and getting paid among other things like prerequisite requirements."

  Gesturing over to her brother as she stepped aside giving him the reigns, Min resigned off the stage with a wave and headed off to a building in the distance. Dast clearing his throat as he gestured vaguely with his head to an approaching older gentleman dressed in what Jonath saw as a geeky outfit. Said man carrying a black briefcase and a messenger bag slung around his shoulder.

  "Give this man your phones and we'll send them back to your rooms upgraded with the tech within the next several hours. You're free to roam the facility grounds as you see fit however be aware of how you act and use common sense." Dast said in a calm yet expectant tone. He wanted to insist that although he and Min technically were responsible for them, that they weren't their babysitters and this place wasn't a daycare. "Usage of your powers within the facility grounds to cause either direct or indirect harm to others or property will result in severe consequences. This rule extends to anything else that you assume to be something you aren't supposed to be doing, I expect all of you to be smart or at the very least try to act like it." Dast paused briefly, then waved off everyone with a head nod and turned to take his leave.

  "Dismissed."

  As the man came around to him, Jonath pulled his phone from his back pocket and tossed it in the bag without really paying attention. The others after him doing the same. Once his phone was given and Dast dismissed everyone on the grounds they were free to roam (within reason), Jonath's first thought was to find Melissa. His gaze sifting through the crowd of Nightborn both familiar and foreign as they dispersed. Melissa nowhere to be seen, where did she go!? Why was she suddenly so difficult to get near? A heavy sigh and the amnesic just gave up for the time being. He recalled Melissa had called his phone yesterday, when he got it back he'd just check the caller back log for the most recent number and call her back.

  For now, he'd return to his room; he didn't really feel like socializing. Maybe there was something good on television to watch, or he'd probably go back to sleep. He still felt rather groggy and sluggish all things considered.

  Later that day, right as he'd awoken from his slumber via a knock on the door, Jonath would open it to find his phone packaged neatly in a small case. The black and silver device being handed to him by a delivery agent of the facility and then said agent walking down to the next room. Closing the door and walking back to his bed Jonath would open the packaging and discard it while examining his phone for any noticeable modifications. He couldn't say he found anything different, the phone looking exactly as how he gave it even when he turned it on and swiped through all the icons.

  A furrowed brow and he decided not to stress over it. The chip probably wasn't active yet and wouldn't be until tomorrow. Instead he then checked the call log for the last number that had contacted him. After finding it he'd call and raise the phone up to his ear. The device ringing several times before being sent to voice mail. Growling to himself annoyed as he lowered the phone from his ear Jonath's eyes narrowed into a growing impatient stare. No doubt Melissa saw him call and just probably didn't answer. Recalling the mischievous smile she shot at him earlier, she was probably playing with him again. Knowing he wanted answers and not giving him any as some sort of selfish amusement. How frustrating...

  "Guess she'll tell me when she wants to. Ugh." He groaned tossing the phone on the bed and shaking his head. Suddenly, he remembered what he had planned to do before the intercom called them out earlier. Eyes peering back over to that box on the desk, the black Phoenix feather and yellow parchment still in the same place he left it. Walking over to the items and reaching out to grab the paper Jonath raised it up and casually undid the string to open it up. His mind now curiously intrigued by what this paper probably was, remembering Wren said his reward would be worth the stress all too vividly. Time to see if he was being genuine...

  As his eyes finally met the contents of the parchment Jonath's heart sank, and his eyes widened... His breath getting caught within his throat and his fingers tensing up across the edges of the paper held between them. Expression quickly devolving from calm curiosity to intense revelation as he gazed upon strange symbols written in a circular pattern around an image of a wolf skull.

  Symbols that looked eerily like those he saw in the forest when he woke up...

  Jonath's Revelation

  The Challenger Chapter Forty: Jonath's Revelation

  Jonath just stared, he couldn't believe it. Those symbols were in the same script as the ones he saw in the forest, he even recognized some of the letters despite not knowing how to decipher any of it. His breath caught in his throat and his body felt weightless, this was too unreal. He remembered how Wren seemed to have figured out he was an amnesic, how he said he knew Jonath was keeping secrets away from him. Did Wren give him this paper as further proof he knew something about Jonath? Was this some twisted bait that would make Jonath run back as soon as he took a look at it and play right into Wren's hands? Did Wren know why Jonath was an amnesic?

  Calm down...

  In that instant he relaxed, body calming down as he exhaled and lowered the paper. Rolling the parchment back up and placing it back in the small box. Closing his eyes as he began to pace about the room in a circle, hands raised to his head and casually tugging on clumps of his hair. Yet again, there was another new road lined with questions and not enough answers. This one however didn't seem as difficult as the others. If anything this confirmed the written language Jonath had seen in the forest wasn't alien enough that nobody else knew what it was. All he had to do now was find somebody to read what it said to him; there had to be somebody in this facility that knew what it read. Casey, Dast or Min or maybe even another Nightborn like Melissa or Lee?

  Jonath suddenly stopped pacing, a revelation hitting him. If he had gotten something like this did Liariana get one too? She did return and collect her reward after all once she handed over that artifact. Did she know what it meant? Wren didn't seem to feel the need to explain what it was when he thought about it. Maybe the language wasn't as cryptic as he thought? No, if that were the case Jonath would have seen this writing somewhere else within the city or even in this place by now. Even when he had spent hours studying in the library he never found anything about that writing in any textbook. It had to be either a dead language or one that was extremely hard to translate. He didn't know, if he stood here mulling over all the scenarios he'd be here all day and still have no definitive answer. The only way he'd find anything out was by finding out the origins of this writing.

  What Melissa hinted at to him would have to wait, he had a change of priorities once again. Snatching
the yellow paper out of the box again he folded it up into a neat square and put it in his back pocket. Eyes then glancing down at the black feather he'd also been given, he wondered what this was for. A feather from a black Phoenix of all things, that surely was a rather strange and rare item to have. He reached for it, tempted to take it with him but quickly withdrew his hand. The risk of damage to it was too great; he didn't even want to gamble on it.

  "I'll come back for you." He said walking over to the door and reaching for the handle. Right as he turned the knob and opened it he was surprised to see Kayda standing right there with her hand having been reaching to knock. A startled yelp as she stepped back with a slightly red tinged face. Stormy grey eyes flustered as her mid-length spiky gray hair seemed to roughen up even more from a surge of static electricity that streaked across her visage. Jonath blinking rather... perplexed. This was the male dorm, why was a girl here? The slightly shorter woman stuttering a bit as she quickly tried to find the words to explain why the situation was much less suspect than it looked.

  "P-Please don't g-get the w-wrong idea!" She insisted taking another step back away from the door and putting her hands up and brought to her chest. She was dressed in simple black short sleeve with dark grey tights that had a white lightning pattered design across the hips and sides coupled with open toed boots. Jonath only half heard what she said, most of his attention focused a bit shamelessly on her body. Holy hell those leggings made her legs look amazing. Shaking any impending dirty thoughts out of his mind Jonath simply turned his gaze upwards with a lackadaisical look. Zero sign he had just been admiring her lower body apparent anywhere on him.

  "Relax, it's fine." He assured with a dismissive hand wave before putting hands in pockets and eyeing her over briefly again. "For a gender separated barrack the people who run the place sure as hell don't seem to care bout enforcing it." She sighed although he wasn't complaining about it at all. Kayda quickly blinking and then lowering her arms relaxing a bit, pointing off in the corner of the hallway as she responded.

  "They have cameras in the barracks at least to watch everything. I think its more to look publicly acceptable over them actually caring too much about it. Anyway I um wanted to ask you s-something..." She guessed before quickly getting back on topic. Her voice sounding very hesitant coupled with her blatant reluctance to lock eyes with him. Jonath canting his head a bit in confusion, she looked as if she were trying to muster up the words to ask him to help her hide a body. She wanted to ask him something.

  "Sure, what is it?" He responded wanting to ask if she wanted to come in and sit, then remembered the cameras. Yeah, he wasn't going to try his luck; even if he was just thinking about showing hospitality. Stepping out and closing the door behind him to lean his back against it as Kayda lowered her head and began poking her index fingers together.

  "Okay, so um I was wondering..." She trailed off calming herself and trying to even out her fluctuating, nervous tone. Grey eyes looking off to the side in as she continued. "Could you... help me out with my powers?" She closed her eyes embarrassed and refused to look at him, half expecting Jonath to laugh at such a blatantly upfront request. She wanted him to help her with her powers? That was certainly something he didn't expect.

  Jonath blinked, eyes glancing over her facial features with scrutinizing yet gentle visage, she sounded and looked as if she were being genuine. He stared for a second or so in silence, hand reaching up to scratch the back of his head as he let out an innocent chuckle and replied with a relaxing, nonchalant tone of his own to ease her anxiety.

  "Is this about your fight with Lee?" He asked making sure his toned didn't sound as if he were making fun of or mocking her. Kayda blinking and peering back at him, the two very long thin bangs hanging off her forehead (one over each eye) looking like tear lines down her face among thicker spiky grey ones. Jonath couldn't help staring at how pretty she was despite not trying to make a move on her in the slightest. Kayda nodded, lowering her head again as her arms moved to her sides and she sounded a bit quietly upset.

  "Y-Yeah..." She muttered. "I've always been rather timid and shy, unable to use my powers with any real control either. People back home were calling me a walking time bomb. I kept shorting out electrical lines and power grids just by being near them or shocking people accidentally with any physical contact. It got to the point I couldn't even hug my grandfather who raised me in fear of frying his heart at any given moment." She got quieter and more drawn into herself with every word. Jonath softening his gaze as he stared and listened in silence. Recalling how excessive Melissa' bullying of her made him rather agitated the more he recalled it. He should probably think of something else, now wasn't the time to go souring his mood.

  "Sorry to hear, Kayda." He said sympathetic. A part of him wanted to tell her he could relate somewhat; he'd feel hurt if he one day interacted with Jeremy and severely hurt or killed him, or Dal, or Kelarin. Hell he would have felt bad if it were Liariana or Melissa too. "Still, mind telling me why you came and asked me over anyone else? Remember I lost my fight too at the last second." He looked off to the side a bit annoyed when he thought about it. Never admitting he probably would have lost anyway even if there wasn't a time limit.

  "Well, because you're the friendliest person I've met here so far..."

  Jonath blinked and his eyes widened, gaze focusing back on Kayda as she finally made eye contact with him.

  "You talk to me and it doesn't feel awkward or forced, you don't excessively bully me like Melissa either. You come off as much more approachable than the others like Delaren, Wrain, even Orath..." She paused again letting her words settle in his head. Although she quickly bowed her own head down and added on just as an assurance,

  "If you don't want to help me though it's fine either way! I just thought I'd ask... I don't have a lot of friends. I met you and just thought maybe we could be friends and help each other out learning our powers."

  Jonath was rather speechless, Kayda's words rather hard-hitting in a good way. He couldn't help but smile a bit, nodding his head as his eyes portrayed pleasant acknowledgement of her request. He couldn't say no to her, even if he wanted to for any reason. Something about her vibe was very gentle and sweet, he liked having energy like that around him.

  "Sure, we can help each other control our powers. Let's exchange numbers we can work something out in the future when we're both free." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the black and silver smart phone as he said this. Kayda's eyes brightening with happiness as she couldn't contain the (pretty) smile she shot his way. Quickly patting herself down looking for her phone, then rather sheepishly reaching into her shirt to pull out the device... from her bra. The two making eye contact as Kayda sheepishly suggested with her gaze he look away for just a moment. A quick nod and the amnesic basically responded with 'say no more.'

  Jonath rather respectfully looked away as she did so, no doubt the nonverbal thank you from Kayde was present. After pulling out the phone, a stormy grey casing that looked like a slightly older model than his own he turned back to her as she unlocked it. Noticing the lightning bolt design across the back of it. She had a fascination with lightning and thunderstorms, more so than he gave credit for. After the two exchanged numbers both of them put away their phones, Jonath once again looking away when Kayde put it back in her shirt.

  "Thank you!" The stormy-grey haired woman smiled warmly. Jonath nodding with a small smile of his own and a scratch of the back of his head, briefly glancing down the hall when a couple of random neither of them knew gave him the thumbs up after staring at Kayda. An eye-roll coming from him in response, people only thinking of one thing nowadays.

  Jonath suddenly had an epiphany, it wasn't really anything he expected to get results from but it was a start. Quickly reaching into his pocket and pulling out the small folded piece of yellow paper and speaking.

  "Oh! Kayda do you know what this is?" He opened the paper and showed it to her with expectant eyes. The woman tilting
her head a bit stunned by the sudden question before her gaze darted across the paper and she reached out to gently grab it with both hands. Her eyes moving horizontally across the paper several times as she furrowed her brow a bit perplexed. Whether she knew or not what this was, it couldn't hurt to try either way.

  "Hmm..." She hummed looking over the paper for a total of about forty seconds. The script without a doubt was something she had never seen before, portrayed through her clearly lost expression. The picture of the wolf in the center however did permit some slight hint she had a general idea, which made Jonath feel a bit of anticipation building up.

  "I don't know what the language is, sorry." She turned the paper to where they both could look at it as she pointed to the wolf. "However the picture kind of reminds me of a werewolf."

  Jonath raised a brow, werewolf? That was something he didn't expect to hear.

  "What do you mean?" He inquired looking back down at the paper, the two shoulder to shoulder now as she pointed to the distinguishing features of the skull.