Chapter 1
“No, you’re still not doing it right. Start over,” Akeno said. We were inside Austin and Amy’s old hideout, Akeno training me. As usual, I was toppled to the ground, sweat all over my body, and the crippling pain in my legs. Akeno stood over me with his firm frown and crossed arms with his staff in his left hand.
“I’m trying,” I cried, a huge strain in my throat.
“Not enough.”
“‘Not enough’? Are you serious right now?! I’ve been trying my hardest since day one of training!”
“Like I said, not enough. It’s been two weeks since we started training, yet you’re still on the basics.”
“Basics?! Of what? Electric magnetism? We haven’t even started training for ninety-nine percent, yet you want to get on to me about being stuck on the same thing for two weeks?”
“You still haven’t completed the combat training. What makes you think that I’ll let you start with ninety-nine percent if you don’t have any combat skills?”
“Yes, I know I’m not the best at fighting hand-to-hand, but I need to know ninety-nine percent, like now. Who knows when Angelina’s friend will show up to destroy the town? I must know ninety-nine. Please, Akeno.”
He sighed and dropped his staff, the sound echoing throughout the building. Akeno then looked back up at me, his eyes darkened, and quickly darted towards me. His speed was so phenomenal that I couldn’t keep up. He forced his fist at me and all I could do was block. There was no way I could defend myself.
Akeno swung his body under me, almost making me trip but I pushed myself back on my feet. Trying to figure out where Akeno had gone, I turned my head, seeing Akeno’s fist an inch away from my eyes. He lowered it and crossed his arms in disappointment, as usual. “You would’ve been killed.”
“Well, I wasn’t prepared for you to run at me out of nowhere!” I was tired of combat training. I needed to start ninety-nine as soon as possible and Akeno doesn’t understand that. If he won’t teach me, I’ll learn on my own.
I started heading to the exit door of the building. “Angelina’s friend won’t go easy on you. There will be moments when he’ll run at you out of nowhere. You must learn.”
“Learn what?” I continued making my way to the door, not even looking behind to face him. “All you’ve been showing me are pathetic moves that I can’t even master! Moves that won’t help me in the battle!” I thrust the door open, catching Aiko in front of me.
“Oh, good afternoon Hazel,” she replied, making room for me to walk through the doorway. “Is practice already completed?”
“No,” I said, storming down the alleyway.
“Then, why are you in a rush?” I could feel her warm breath on the back of my neck and smell that citrus perfume that seeps her clothes. “Is something wrong?”
I spun around to face Aiko with that gentle expression of hers. “Your brother is what’s wrong! Why is he trying so hard for me to learn hand-to-hand combat? Who knows when Jennings’s son will appear and how I will be able to defeat him if I don’t reach my full potential?”
“Hazel—”
“If no one is going to teach me ninety-nine, then I’ll just go on my own and teach myself.”
“Hazel, there’s a reason behind it.” I stopped, slowly turning around to see Aiko’s distraught look. She sat on the curve, gesturing to me to sit next to her. Sadly, I followed her orders. “Remember how I said electric magnetism was rare?” I nodded my head. “You and Akeno are the only ones that carry that power.”
She took a deep breath while her eyes glistened from the seeping tears. “I remember it like it was yesterday. I was helping my father with his work in his office. The night was loud and the rain roared from outside. Aki and Akeno and their friends wanted to go play cricket in the front yard, but mother declined because of the thunderstorm. They didn’t listen. They all went out anyway and Akeno ended up getting electrocuted. Father and I ran into the other room, finding Akeno not breathing. He held his dead son in his arms and into his office. Using everything that he could, father tried his best to bring his son back to life. His last resort was warping magnets.”
Warping magnets were found deep in the coastal sand. They are bending metals that are connected to create shocks and very common with the pumping of machines, never used for human contact.
Aiko continued, “The warping magnets brought Akeno back, but Akeno was in excruciating pain. He would bloody scream 24/7 and call out to our parents, howling it hurts, it hurts over and over again. It was painful to watch and hear him wail so father created a soothing remedy for him. Too little, and you’d hear the screams. Too much, and your insides will deteriorate. So father gave him the remedy every morning to keep him from being in pain. It would last all day, so he was alright in school. But once the night emerged, he was weeping the entire evening. We’d be all up until sunrise when father could give him another dose. Akeno was lost. He drowned in his thoughts and he was never in reality. He didn’t want to talk to me, Aki, or anyone—just go up to his room and sit on his bed the entire day.
“Until one day, he became interested in fighting.” Her face beamed and let me tell you, it wasn’t because it was the burning heat of the sun raying down on us. I can tell she loves talking about her brothers, a proud sister. “Took lessons from free videos found online. Once he got home from school, that’s all he would do, practice his combat skills. And later on, his nightly screams disappeared. Combat training really helped with the pain and when he joined the association, he was able to sustain his abilities and further on, learn ninety-nine.”
“While I’ve been learning from Akeno, I sort of searched up things about him and all of the information I’ve found was mostly talking about how not many people have seen him use his ability.”
Aiko properly nodded. “Yes, as I said, it’s very agonizing for Akeno to use his power most of the time. It burns every one of his insides. When he goes through those stages where it’s too much for him, he relies on his fighting.” She pushed herself off the curb and pleasantly stood tall in front of me. You could just tell she shined in every room she stepped in with her golden flats and red velvet, flowy dress. With every step she took, magnolia flowers and honey trailed behind her. She was a princess and you knew she was every time she was in front of you.
“You have not experienced some of the things that Akeno has and you may never experience those things,” she continued with her gentle smile, placing her hands on her stomach. “But please be mindful that he cares about you. He may not show it, but he does. You’re very young and have a delightful life ahead of you and he sees that. He never wants anyone to go through what he went through with electric magnetism, that I know.”
“Thank you for telling me this, Aiko. I always thought that Akeno was really stubborn and very ill-mannered. I would’ve never known.”
“You’re not wrong though.” She fairly giggled. “He is very stubborn and ill-mannered. That’s why I’m giving you the chance to choose what to do with your training instead of Akeno. This is your ability and you get to do whatever you want with it. You can either continue combat training and later learn ninety-nine, or you can learn ninety-nine now.”
“Wait, learning ninety-nine won’t hurt my body?” She shook her head. “Or ruin my friendship with Akeno?”
“Akeno has no other choice but to follow what I say. I am the leader of the Heroes Association, aren’t I?”
“Y-Yeah, you are.”
“So, everything shall be fine. Do not worry, Hazel. Anyways, what do you choose?”
I understand where Akeno is coming from. The extreme agony that honestly might deteriorate my body as it did with his. Do I want to encounter those feelings? Absolutely not. But who knows when Jennings’s son will appear and try to take over Southville? We don’t even know what his plan is. How am I supposed to prepare if I don’t know what I’m preparing for? I have no choice. And I’ll have no regrets about my decision. “I choose ninety-nine.”
“How did training go?” Olivia asked, undoing the ball inside her glove and the strap around it. “Are you still doing combat training?” We were in the dugout, getting ready to leave practice. It was a rough hour for me. I kept missing every ball that went my way because I was so drained from Akeno’s training. Everyone was worried for me, but I just told them that I was alright and that today has just been a long day. I couldn’t tell them the truth.
All of the players have left and Olivia’s parents and Eve were on the way to their car. “Well, not anymore. Aiko showed up at the hideout and gave me the chance to start ninety-nine but I feel bad about it.”
“Isn’t that what you wanted?” She rammed her hand into the glove and moved it back and forth to check its firmness. “You were complaining about it ever since you started training.”
“Yeah but Aiko told me what happened to Akeno when he acquired electric magnetism—it’s sorta disturbing to think about and wondering if that would happen to me. I don’t know what to think of it.”
“I understand how you feel,” Chloe started, spitting out her sunflower seeds. “Electric magnetism is hella terrifying and I don’t know if I could ever possess that thing.” She ambled over to us and threw her body onto the dugout seats, spitting out more seeds in the process. I hated the way she spits them out: multiple wads of saliva sometimes come with the seeds. Most of the time, that saliva gets on you which obviously isn’t good. We’ve told Chloe many times that she needs to figure out a different method of eating sunflower seeds. She’s tried but never succeeded.
“Thanks, Chloe?”
“No problem.” She spits out more of her seeds.
“Ignore her,” Olivia replied and I turned back around over to her. “But I’m wondering when you’re going to tell your mom that you’re doing this.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“Hazel, you’re going to learn ninety-nine. Electric magnetism isn’t a game and you know that. Your power is very deadly and shouldn’t your mom know that ‘Hey, there’s a possibility that my daughter might die from this’? She deserves to know.”
“And I’ll tell her. I just don’t know when.”
Olivia raised her voice and abruptly stood up from her seat. “What do you mean you don’t know when. Jennings’s son could be coming here right now, ready to kill you. Your mom has no idea that you’ll be risking your life again to save this town. Don’t you notice that something isn’t right here? You’re putting yourself and her more at harm by not telling her the truth. What if the son knows who your mom is and goes for her first before you? That’ll send her panicking like crazy. Hazel, promise me that you’ll tell her today. Right after we leave here.”
“Well actually, I have to see Angelina.”
“Hazel, she’s not going to tell you anything,” Chloe chimed in. “You’ve been going to see Angelina ever since your battle with her and she hasn’t told you anything about the son since then.”
“She told me about the son, though. That’s an achievement.”
“That was the day you captured her. She still hasn’t said anything since. And what she told you sounded more like a warning, not assistance to getting rid of him.”
“Every day I see her, I feel like she’s slowly beginning to tell me everything. I can feel it.” Chloe sighed, closing her bag of seeds and getting up to head to her car. I turned over to Olivia who gave me her doleful look. I knew what she was thinking: Don’t do anything stupid, Hazel. She always gave Chloe and me looks and we always knew what they meant, even when she never said a word. She was the glue to this group, the one that held us together. The one who never faltered. The one who always knew how to make us feel whole again. She was sort of like our group’s therapist. The mom of the family with her two, rowdy daughters that have no idea how to battle high school.
Olivia and Chloe said their goodbyes to me and made their way to the parking lot. I was the only one left in the dugout. I just needed a moment to think. A moment to question whether or not I’m doing the right thing.
What am I doing wrong? Why does it feel like everyone is against me? Akeno, Olivia, Chloe. Everything that I bring to them always seems to be stepped on. Are they seeing things that I’m not? Or am I seeing things they aren’t?
No, don’t think about that. Go with my gut. Go with my heart, not my brain. I know what I’m doing is for the best. I need to learn ninety-nine because the son will attack Southville any minute now and who knows how much learning it will take for me to master that skill. I need to visit Angelina because she has all the answers that I need if I’m going to beat her friend. This is what I have to do. This is what’s going to help me save Southville.
I rose from the seats and walked to my car, so I could speak to Angelina once more. And the first thing she said to me once I got to the prison was that I couldn’t save her.
Her face was droopy. Her bones seeped through her skin. Her eyes were bulging out of their sockets. Her hair was in clumps. Her fingernails were completely ripped out from the tips. She looked miserable.
“W-What did you say?” I asked, making sure that I heard her correctly.
“You can’t save me.”
“I will do my best to protect you, Angelina. I’m not giving up.”
“That isn’t your choice to make. It’s Memento’s.”
“Memento? As in Jennings’s son?”
“Yes, no one knows what his real name is, so everyone calls him Memento because he’s seen as a relic in his followers’ eyes.” I knew it was a good day to bring my notebook and pencil!
“He has followers? How many?”
“A little bit over a hundred, I suppose. I don’t count everyone there.”
“An estimation?”
“I’d say around 165.” She intertwined her fingers and quietly sighed. “He’s powerful and holds electric magnetism.”
I abruptly dropped my pencil and looked straight up at Angelina. “Electric magnetism?” I thought Aiko said Akeno and I were the only ones that possessed it, but I was scared to tell Angelina that. “I thought I was the only one.”
“You and Memento are the only ones.” And Akeno. “That’s why he’s after you.” Her left thumb leisurely stroked the top of her right thumb. Her finger was the only thing on her mind. “Jennings used to have electric magnetism. He was the first person to have that power and the one who created it. He was never in a freak accident like you. He then passed down that power to his son.”
“According to you, Memento gave you your power, yet you don’t have electric magnetism, so how did he give you your ability?” I picked up the pencil and waited to continue writing.
“Unlike everyone else, he has more than one power. Electric magnetism was given to him by his father as I said. Memento later learned how to have more than one. One day, he told me that he was ‘bored’ so he ate a hero. And he gained that hero’s powers. Throughout the years, he ate every hero that he came across.” I couldn’t help but cringe. Eating heroes? Not even that. Eating people? Is he crazy? Well, I shouldn’t even be asking that. It’s obvious he’s crazy.
Angelina continued, “As I said, he’s after you because you have electric magnetism. But he’s also willing to gain more power and if you lose the fight, he’ll eat you alive. He’ll be the most powerful being in the world if he eats you.”
I looked down at my notes and anxiously chewed the middle of my pencil. “So I have to beat him no matter what. And if I don’t, not only will I be eaten alive, but I’ll be putting everyone in the world in danger.” She nodded her head, still focusing on her fingers. I gazed back at her. “Why are you telling me this? Why now?”
“You can’t save me, Hazel. I can feel Memento killing me every day that I'm in here.” That explains her frail body. “I’ve already accepted my death so I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt. Just giving you a heads up and what you should expect.”
“Oh…” Dying, huh? “Do you know when he’s coming to Southville or how he’s going to attack me?”
“I don’t know. If I was there right now, then maybe I would know—”
“Maybe I could break you out of here and Memento could take you back.”
“Heh…” Angelina smirked, releasing her fingers from each other. “...Memento won’t let me back, I do know that. He already knows that I snitched him out, so my death will be quick. I may not know when he’s coming to Southville, but I do know it will be soon. He’s been planning this ever since your first battle with Dr. Arrow. He obviously won’t go easy on you and he knows every move you did against Arrow and me so I hope you got some new moves coming in.”
Thank you Akeno! Maybe I should continue combat training. “Wait, how powerful is he so far?”
“I haven’t seen him in a while, so I don’t know how he is now. Let me remind you that when he gives away an ability, he can’t get them back. So the power he passed down to me is now out of his hands. And will forever when I’m killed.”
“I’m guessing he passed his powers onto the 165 people you mentioned?”
“Yes, he has. So he may bring his followers with him to the battle. Even so, he won’t let them get the last hit on you. He will do that, so I suggest focusing on him more. And also, it’s best for you to target him because once Memento is killed, so are his followers.”
“That’s why you said that I can’t save you.”
“Yeah, I won’t make it anyway, so why not help you?”
“I—thank you, Angelina.”
“Don’t thank me. I’m just bored being stuck in this place.” I stood up from my seat and grabbed my pencil and notebook. About to walk out the door, Angelina called out to me. I turned around and she gave me this heartbroken look. Was she afraid of me going up against Memento? “Don’t go easy on him, no matter what.”
I chuckled and smiled at her, one last time. Who knows if I’ll be able to make it back here? Even if I do, who knows if Angelina will still be alive then? “I will, no matter what.”
