First Fight

Chapter 5

The fight escalated as Jessie was flung into Ari, rousing him to become aware of the fray. As soon as Jessie was sent slamming into Ari, he rushed back in with a new attack pattern. This new tactic involved him teleporting around the room frantically, trying to find any opening into Jin's defenses. He pounced off the wall behind Jin with a flying punch straight to his left side, but was blocked by Jin's impenetrable barrier and sent back once again. Ari sat there in awe at witnessing a fight where the combatants were utilizing supernatural abilities. Ari knew he needed to help, however, he was unsure of what was going on with his leaden, heavy body and splitting head.

Ari’s head began to spin until he began wretching on all fours. Neither Jin nor Jessie noticed this as they were in the heat of battle. Able to finally vomit, Ari began to feel a little better and attempted to join the fray. He jumped in at Jin with a strong high-kick, but also found himself stopped by the barrier as he was countered with a right hook from Jin. His lip was cut from one of Jin's pieces of jewelry and he began to taste blood in his mouth. Ari was now growing excited. It had been a long time since he was in a real fight. Over the past year and a half all he had been doing was chasing the ghost of Mason, always too late to get his hands on him. He began realizing that without any special ability, he would have no hope for countering Jin's barrier technique. This only added to Ari's enthusiasm. He ignored the stiffness of his body and pounding in his head. This was a challenge worthy of his skill.

As Ari and Jessie continued to desperately defend themselves against Jin, the condition of the house began to degrade rapidly. The walls were scorched from the heat residuals of Jessie's teleportation and the ceiling was beginning to crumble around them. Ari noticed that the barrier Jin was emitting absorbed the shock from any attacks and allowed Jin to counter freely. Also, the barrier could be manifested anywhere around Jin's body, completely shielding him from their attacks. However, Jin could not extend its range beyond his arm's natural length, as it was purely a defensive power. Ari could see the range himself, though he could tell Jessie did not see this. Something strange was going on in Ari’s mind, growing worse as the fight dragged on. His body lightened and his brain began to feel as if it were on fire. An engine burning on all cylinders. He could see an aura surrounding Jin.

At that moment, Ari fell to his left side, unable to move again. This time Jessie did take notice and ceased what he was doing to call out to Ari.

“Your friend is starting to feel the side effects of his first dose of CDP,” Jin said under shallow, uneven breaths.

Jessie’s heart sank into his stomach. Jin could see the look of concern come across his face and laughed.

“Don’t worry it’s just his first dose, but it won’t be his last. For his brain to continue to work on a Nantis level, the drug will cause him to suffer immensely without more of it.”

Ari was still unsure of what was happening. There was a ringing in his ears rendering him unable to hear or focus on anything. Thoughts raced through his mind at an uncontrollable pace. Jin’s ability, his late family, Mason. It all raced on as he thought to himself he might actually die before exacting his revenge upon Mason. Jessie rushed to his new friend’s side only to be kicked away by Jin. “Don’t forget our fight, buddy!” Jin sneered.

It was clear to Ari and Jessie that they were going to have to stop Jin to make it out safely and get Ari much needed medical attention.

Ari pondered his options, growing more perplexed the more he tried to rationalize Jin's ability. He noticed his leg was burnt from contact with the barrier. He realized this fight would need to be ended quickly as the dire situation became more apparent to him. Wishing Jessie would stop being so reckless in his non-stop barrage of attacks, Ari began to observe the way in which Jin's ability interacted with contact.

Jessie let out another futile attack just to be sent flying back however, something this time was different. It was not planned though, Jin's cheek had begun to bleed. As he blocked Jessie's foolish advance, a piece of the ceiling fell and struck the side of his face before hitting the floor. Finally, Ari had thought to himself, there was something he could work with.

Ari surmised that while blocking one attack, the rest of Jin was vulnerable. It was the only reasonable explanation. Of course, Jin's ability had a weakness. He shouted to Jessie to try one more time, however this time instructing him to attack from the right. Ari wanted to help, but could not physically do anything but formulate a plan. Jessie was not deterred by numerous failed attempts and rushed Jin one more time per Ari’s order from the floor.

As Jessie's attack was stopped once again by Jin's barrier, Ari grabbed a pillow from the couch that had fallen to the floor. There was barely any momentum behind it, however, Ari did manage to throw the pillow across the room and strike Jin in the face.

“This isn’t a pillow fight,” Jin scoffed as he brushed off the meaningless outburst from the grounded Ari. It was just a pillow. An unperceived, non threatening attack.

"There it is!" Ari whispered as Jessie came sliding back across the floor placing him next to Ari after his last failed attack. "I think there is a limit!"

Jessie smiled, rubbing his head at Ari's suggestion. Sure, Ari had figured out something crucial, however Jessie had one major point of contention.

“Did you just use me as a guinea pig?”

“You did good pig.” Ari managed to joke despite the pain his entire body was experiencing.

Jin began to approach the two of them as Jessie rose up. He extended his barrier enough to send Jessie to the other side of the room, leaving Ari at Jin’s mercy. This was not good. Ari would need to be by Jessie to give instruction.

“So you think you’re stronger than the CDP,” Jin began to kick into Ari’s side. Jessie could hear Ari’s body cracking as the onslaught continued. Despite this, Ari’s body did not move. It appeared that the CDP that Jin slipped Ari had truly incapacitated him. Otherwise, the poor young man would be writhing in uncontrollable agony from Jin's callous attacks.

Jessie jumped to Ari’s rescue shouting at Jin as he tried to attack from behind. Jin merely blocked the completely telegraphed attack.

“If you’re going to attack from behind, stop shouting… idiot.”

By that point it had become clear to Jin that Jessie had never fought a day in his life and his confidence began to soar even higher.

Jin was growing bored with the scuffle as he continued to beat on the defenseless Ari. As he did, Ari began to feel the effects of the CDP even greater than before. This time seemed different to Ari though. He could visualize the attack patterns he witnessed from both Jin and Jessie. It was beyond the scope of anything he had felt before when analyzing an opponent. As he was continually beaten on, a plan formed in his mind that he believed might be able to buy them sometime.

Ari could see the broken glass piece next to Jessie. Though, he needed Jessie’s help if he was going to make it out of this encounter alive. Ari managed to cough out the blood that was blocking his throat to speak.

“Hey,” Ari whispered.

“What?” Jin lowered his face to better hear Ari's plea.

“Your hair,” Ari groaned out, then took in a distressed breath to continue, “Looks fucking stupid!”

Ari shouted as he spit blood in the face of his attacker. Enraged, Jin took the bait and aided Ari to his destination by throwing him across the room. Ari bounced off of the wall and landed by his ally. There he began to whisper instructions to Jessie while Jin was distracted wiping Ari's blood from his face.

Jessie bounced up from the floor as if re-energized by Ari’s words. He had his doubts in Ari, however, did not have any better ideas of his own. Anything was better than how things were proceeding. He began to dart around the room again, looking for an opening on Jin. Jessie placed himself directly behind Jin and jumped from the wall with such force that it blew another hole so that the outside world was now visible, further degrading the inside of the house. Jin reacted just in time to the attack, boasting his superiority.

“Don’t you have any more tricks?” he taunted as he began to stop Jessie’s attack. As he turned, he noticed in the corner of his peripheral vision, an object flying toward him with incredible accuracy. It was the shattered glass piece he had spiked with CDP earlier. Since the start of the battle, it had been broken in half and now had a dangerous pointed edge honing in on his face.

Jin had just managed to block the object in time when Jessie came in for his assault. Without even having a fraction of a second to think, Jin erected enough of a barrier behind him and to his side to block both attacks simultaneously. He let out a sigh of relief.

“Phwe-”

Jin's face felt an impact unlike any he had felt before. It felt as if a truck came crashing into his face. Or a meteorite descended from space to land directly on the tip of his nose. Ari had lunged from the floor and delivered the most powerful front kick his body could deliver.

It was when Ari first threw the pillow that he noticed his body was acclimating to the CDP, allowing him some slight movement. All he needed was for Jin to over focus his barrier so that he could break through. With the barrier focused on two points of contact. Ari was able to breach the weak point connecting the two points of contact. It was speculation on his part, and truthfully he had not expected Jin to block both attacks so efficiently. Nevertheless, Ari had made contact.

The CDP allowed him to deduce the root of this particular Nantis ability. It appeared Jin possessed a form of telekinesis. Ari surmised that by overloading the brain with multiple stimuli simultaneously, there could be a potential lapse in Jin's ability to focus. The assumption was accurate. Jin used roughly twenty percent of his force in preparation for Jessie. The glass piece received an uncontrolled amount of force due to its suddenness, roughly seventy six percent. Leaving only four percent to shelter the rest of his entire body.

Luckily, Ari was able to dig deep within himself to throw everything he had into one kick, shattering through the hastily dispersed four percent. As he fell onto his back, Jin realized that Ari had been overplaying his sudden paralysis to lower his guard.

“I’d have to thank you for this I guess,” Ari stated as he stood over Jin who was seemingly motionless from the well delivered kick to his face. “I don’t think without that booster drug I could have broken through your defense. Even with the small aura you left to protect yourself.”

Ari's body had processed the drug that Jin had laced the pipe with. CDP gave Ari what felt like a boost of strength and unimaginable mental fortitude. Though Ari was well aware this would not be permanent and there would be repercussions to his mind and body later, he was glad to be alive for now.

As if Ari's thoughts had brought it into existence, he was suddenly met with agonizing pains through his body, causing him to drop to the floor by Jin's side. He knew his body was barely holding on, but knew he had to make a move to put an end to the fight. Jin was laying still as Jessie straddled him and continued to land a barrage of punches to make sure he was down for good. He began shouting like a mad man as he got his hits in while sitting atop the defeated ex-friend, “You're, do-,” was all he could manage before the entire house came crashing down upon them.

*****

Ari's eyes opened and adjusted to the bright lights above his head. He did not know where he was or how he had gotten to the bed he found himself lying in. The last memory was of when he dropped to the floor. He tried to get up, but was completely unable to move. Was this the CDP, he thought to himself as he tried to scan the room. To his right there was a curtain and across the room was another, separating the room into almost separate quadrants it appeared. His hearing had returned, however, he noted his ears were still ringing. At least, that was what he had initially believed.

Upon further inspection Ari realized he was hearing the beeping of machinery. A hospital room. Now Ari was growing even more impatient as he struggled to move around. What happened to Jessie? Was he too hospitalized after the fight with Jin? Furthermore, what happened to Jin?

Jessie awoke in similar fashion, however, his vision was quite blurry upon coming to. He took note of where he was immediately, for he knew the Ends County Hospital all too well. His last memories were of the roof hitting him, the ceiling fan specifically. As he tried to move himself up, he realized his body was failing to respond. Had he been paralyzed? He fretted the thought. His heart pounded as the fear of his situation perplexed him. That was until he simply looked down to see he was strapped to his bed. He began calling out for help and squirming in his restraints uncontrollably until a nurse came rushing in. She drew back the curtain which immediately calmed Jessie as he caught sight of Ari lying still in his bed looking over at him. He was relieved to see that his friend made it out of the house alive, though soon realized he should have been more worried for himself.

The nurse urged Jessie to stop moving as he calmed down. It was then that he noticed the blood on his pillow. “You have a terrible head wound,” she informed him. “It looks like you were struck by the falling roof of the house the paramedics found you in. You three boys are lucky to be alive.” Three boys? Jessie's stomach turned.

Jin had come before either of the other two boys. He lay in his hospital bed, his last memory of the roof caving in. Jin had used the last bit of his ability to protect himself from the falling roof. This had inadvertently saved Ari's life, however, Jessie whose head was just out of reach of the barrier was not so lucky. In any other situation the injuries sustained by all parties would have looked suspicious. They had all done quite a number on each other before the roof collapsed. Though to the staff at the hospital, it seemed apparent that all three boys were injured from the roof collapsing.

What time could it be and how long had he been there, he wondered. Luckily, his bed was facing the window, which he noted was pitch black. He realized it was now at least night time as he managed to rise up from his bed slightly before falling back into it. Though badly injured, Jin could hear the other two talking with the nurse just on the other side of the curtain. He heard as she informed them that all three of them were lucky to be alive. The sound of Ari asking, “Three?” met his ears as he internally begged for the nurse to not reveal him. There was no way Jin could fight in his condition. Nantis abilities required a level of mental focus that only grew harder to maintain when the body was in extreme agony. It was all the young man could do to move, let alone stop another one of Ari's insane kicks.

“Yeah, your friend is right here,” the nurse said cheerfully as if she were the bringer of some serendipitous news. On the other side of the curtain, Jin, wide-eyed, shook his head begging in a broken voice, “No... no... no!” The curtain drew back to find the three boys staring at one another in silence. It was a stand-off of great drama aside from the fact that no one could move. Ari and Jessie looked back at Jin, his face was so badly twisted and swollen from Ari's kick that his hair was his only recognizable feature.

Ari's quick thinking may have been the only chance they had at surviving from that point. “I think Jessie has calmed down,” Ari stated calmly, “It might be a good idea to remove the restraints.” The nurse was already planning to undo them as Jessie was now awake. They feared he may react in the exact manner he had upon waking up and used the restraints as a precaution. The staff there knew Jessie's recklessness all too well.

“Are you sure you're okay bud?” Jin muttered in the voice of a concerned friend. He could not have Jessie free to move while he was so incapacitated. Jessie was the least injured of the three by some unfathomable luck. Even though his head injury was not enough to stop him from being the utter nuisance he was, Jin griped to himself.

Jessie assured the nurse he was calm and would remain in his bed to not worsen his injury. As the nurse released his restraints, Jessie had the clever notion to whisper to the nurse. “Call the police.” The nurse looked down at the young man startled by the sudden request. “That man over there is with the Ligue and is trying to kill us.”

The nurse looked back at Jin with panic in her eyes. Jessie's last leg restraint remained fastened as she rushed out of the room.

“Hey,” he called out as he began to get up and mess with the last restraint. She could have finished, he thought to himself. Jin began laughing so hard he started to cough out his next words, “This hospital belongs to us you idiot.”

Jessie stopped fiddling with his restraint long enough to allow Jin to finish his sentence.

“You suck at whispering by the way. Call the cops, yeah she is going to get help alright, but for me!”

Jessie had not even thought that the Ligue may have allies within the hospital. Though, in reality the situation was much worse than he feared. As Jin had stated, the Ligue had the hospital in complete fear of them. It was just another entity that they had taken complete control of. Not even the staff members who were Nons were to be trusted. The Ligue was in everyone's pockets. Especially given that most to all of the working doctors of the hospital were Nantis themselves.

Jessie began to realize the graveness of their situation and began to frantically tug away at the restraints on his left.

“Calm down and you will be able to just undo it like the nurse did,”

Ari's body was still unable to move, but he managed to call out to Jessie. They had been unconscious for several hours. He thought that maybe the withdrawals from the CDP were beginning to affect him slightly. Despite Ari's words, Jessie continued to panic, not knowing what the nurse was up to. He noticed the scissors that were used to cut the stitches in his head and simply cut the restraint. Jin began to squirm as Jessie ripped the hospital's monitors from his body. He then got up from his bed and grabbed a hold of Ari. Jin knew he could not let the two escape, not after knowing everything about CDP.

Jessie grabbed Ari and thought of Propulse in his head. He opened his eyes to find himself in the very same room as if nothing had happened. Ari was just as surprised. He had reached a point where not being teleported across town was more of a surprise than being in the same hospital room as before. Jessie tried to concentrate, but the swelling pain in his head rendered him unable to use his ability. Jin noted this immediately as he too was afflicted with the same condition. They were both experiencing unprecedented pain, making them both unable to use their abilities. Thinking quickly, Jessie undid the locks on the wheels of Ari's bed and began to wheel him out of the room.

“I'm hooked, I'm hooked!” Ari cried out as Jessie turned back to see the fallen over machinery Ari was still attached to. Jessie ripped the monitor's off of Ari's body haphazardly, leaving wires broken and still hanging off of Ari's body.

The ordeal had slowed his progress just enough for Jin to get himself up and mobile again. He leaned over, grabbing the scissors that Jessie had dropped after cutting his restraints. It would never even occur to someone like Jessie to use the scissors as a weapon to kill. Unfortunately for him, Jin did not share in his naivety.

“I'll chase you down and kill you both in front of everyone. I don't answer to anything but the Ligue.”

Jin began to limp down the hall after them. He only had himself to blame for his slow pace as he used the wall of the hospital hallway to keep himself upright in his pursuit. Earlier at his home, Ari collapsed from exertion coupled with the CDP and fell right on to his knee. Everything happened so fast and his face was in so much pain that he had not noticed until he tried to stand. Surely it was broken or at the very least fractured, he thought as he hurried after the two boys.

Jessie was causing quite a ruckus as he raced down the halls of the hospital. Nurses, doctors, even bystanders were trying to stop the young man as he pushed his new friend desperately down the hallway. Jin was close on their tail. He was making his way toward them, completely unnoticed due to the commotion Jessie was creating. The two were only out of his sight for a moment as they rounded the corner to the next hallway.

“I have to ditch you here,” Jessie informed Ari. He did not know what else to do and the bed was slowing him down. Before Ari could respond Jessie had quickly turned the corner to a room that smelled worse than the one they had left. Jessie rolled his friend up against the wall and drew the sheets over Ari's head. “Don't move,” Jessie instructed him softly. From under the sheets Ari managed to roll his eyes. As if he could move right now. His body was aching so bad it was all he could do to lift an arm.

Jessie pulled the sheet off Ari quickly and did something unspeakable.

“Ugh, stop, don't put that there!” Ari managed to cry out.

“How about like this?”

“THE LOCATION WASN’T THE ISSUE, JESSIE!”

“He's coming so be quiet!” Jessie caught his breath. “That was still heavier than expected. Now be quiet this will work,” He gave Ari one final wink then drew the sheet back over him. “If I survive this I’m going to kill him,” Ari thought in silence.  If he could not move before he certainly could not now.

Jin turned the corner to find the door to the second room on his left still swinging back and forth. He smirked, realizing that Jessie had cornered himself. “I see he's done running,” Jin whispered to himself as he approached. The lights were off as Jin entered the room filled with tables covered in white sheets. Jin was disappointed, as he immediately realized the situation before him. He had already seen through Jessie's poorly thought-out plan.

Jessie had placed Ari among many cadaver bodies used by the medical students of the hospital. Jin realized that Jessie must have thought this to be clever enough to buy him enough time to get help. However, he overlooked one simple detail, there is a large difference between the appearance of a table and the appearance of a hospital bed on wheels.

Without hesitation Jin approached Ari's hospital bed, acting as though he was completely unaware of Ari's true whereabouts. He could not believe his old friend Jessie would be so careless, leaving his friend to die. However, Jin showed no remorse as he took the scissors in hand and swung them down onto Ari's hospital bed, plunging through the sheets and what Jin could only assume was Ari's chest. Jin excitedly pulled back the sheet to find himself face to face with a gruesome cadaver body that had been sawed down the middle from skull to pelvis, its organs removed for study. He wretched at the grotesque sight, startled. The surprise caused him to stumble back slightly enough to lose balance.

Jessie used the confusion to make his move on Jin. From the table behind Jin, Jessie sprung from under the sheet and used it to cover his enemies' head. On instinct alone, Jin dropped his weapon to attempt to free himself from the surprise attack. Ari mustered up his strength in this moment as well, pushing the cadaver body that lay on top of him off and rolling himself. He crashed to the ground and began calling for Jessie to bring Jin to the ground. Ari was now moving, albeit slowly, towards the two as Jessie slowly wrestled Jin to the ground. Ari took one of the loose cords from his monitor that Jessie had hastily ripped out of the machine and attempted to wrap it around Jin's neck.

At this point, Jin had managed to break free of Ari's weakened grip and rip a hole in the sheet that was covering his head. He spotted the scissors and began to crawl while the two boys tried with every ounce of strength they had left to stop him from reaching the weapon. Jessie was unable to move as he was the only thing still holding Jin back.

Jin's head had completely poked through the sheet, and it was now cutting into his throat as if it were some makeshift dog collar. He strained every inch of himself as he continued toward his weapon, his eyes were bulging due to the sheet's strangulating grip on his neck. Ari had also made a dash for the scissors.

Either boy was in arms reach of the scissors as the lights in the room flashed on. “Freeze!” several voices shouted. The three boys looked up to find themselves at taser point from several armed police officers. Behind them, hospital staff and spectators alike had gathered behind them. Even the nurse from their room had made it over there. All three boys ceased their squabbling and looked to one another in a panic. “It was him, get him!” they all shouted in unison as accusatory fingers flew in each direction. The officers began moving in slowly. They were bewildered at the three tangled up boys and the cadaver body lying next to them, unsure of what to make of the bizarre scene.