Chapter 0:

Prologue: Sibling Bonds

MiracleBound


Today was just not my day. That’s what you’re thinking, right?

A man stood on the flying platform staring down his opponent. He wore a dark grey skin-tight uniform that let you see all of his perfectly toned muscles. On his bright orange belt was the golden symbol of an eagle. His name was Captain Eagle.

His opponent was in a purple kimono, both of her arms were made out of metal snakes. Her name was Cyn Cyn.

The match had been going on for a while now, and the clock was starting to run out. It would spell almost certain doom for the captain if the timer reached its end without defeating her.

He lunged forward with a flaming kick and Cyn Cyn put up a defensive orb around herself. The orb shielded her from the attack, but as it did so it shrunk in size. She put it away and fired a volley of rockets from her snakes’ mouths.

Captain Eagle ran around trying to dodge the missiles. He was able to get away from most of them but one hit him in the back, causing him to go flying past his opponent.

He crashed into the stage before quickly rolling to his feet. He instantly unholstered the gun from his hip and fired off a round of shots, which were again blocked by the orb shield.

Cyn Cyn then pointed one of the snakes in the man’s direction. A thruster in the back of it’s head ignited and sent it flying towards the captain as its neck extended so that it could bite him.

But this was the moment he was waiting for.

He leaped over the snake and made a mad dash towards Cyn Cyn. He then jumped again before reaching her in anticipation of an attack that never came.

She pulled back the snake and brought the orb back up before the captain reached her. Her last mistake.

Captain Eagle then kneed the orb near its center, causing it to collapse in on itself with a bright flash, stunning the Cyn Cyn.

As she stood in a daze, the captain faced the other direction for a split second before jumping into the air. He spun around as his fist glowed with fire before landing next to his newly vulnerable opponent.

“Miracle Punch!” I yelled.

Captain Eagle’s attack landed in time with my theatrics. His fist exploded into a flaming eagle, causing Cyn Cyn to go flying through the air and off of the screen.

“That’s not Miracle Punch!” Lucy whined. “It’s Eagle Punch!”

Lucy is my little sister. But she’s also the loser of this match of Super Smash Dudes.

“My miracle moves are whatever I want them to be,” I retorted before speaking in a deeper voice, “Because I said so! And who am I you ask!?”

I then moved in perfect sync with the captain’s victory pose on screen, punctuating the last stance by yelling the answer to my self-asked question.

“Captain Miracle!”

“Well let’s go again, Captain Miracle,” Lucy sneered. “This time, I’ll beat you!”

No you won’t.

But I’d be darned if I didn’t go along with my little sister’s cute determination. Going on thinking she’d have a chance of beating me at my favorite game.

It’s kinda sad really. Maybe I’ll let her win this next match to help keep that fighting spirit sharp…

“Oliver! Lucy! Time for dinner!” Mom called.

“What!?” Lucy yelled back. “Can we just do this next match?”

“No, you just finished your last one!”

Welp, I guess the next match will have to wait then. Come to think of it, how many matches have we just played? Feels like we haven’t been playing that much, but in reality it’s already six thirty in the evening.

Oh well…

“So, what did you do at school today, Oliver?” my mom asked.

What did I do at school today?

We were seated at the dinner table eating pizza, as we did every Friday.

“I don’t think I did anything too interesting today,” I said before taking another bite of pepperoni pizza.

For some reason my mom didn’t look all that pleased with my answer. Did I say something wrong? She looked as though she was about to say something, but what could it even be about?

Oh… I just remembered something did happen at school today. Did they really call her about that?

In any case, I need to clear this up before she has the chance to say anything else.

“Although, there was a fight today,” I said before quickly swallowing the rest of the food that was in my mouth. “I stepped in to try and stop them, but in the end I had to get help pulling them apart.”

After saying that my mom looked relieved. So I guess I was right on the money. But why did they call her about that? I didn’t even actually fight.

“So, I’m guessing it was one of those friends of yours from the orphanage then?” my dad asked.

I don’t know if I’d call them my “friends”, but…

“Yeah,” I answered. “They don’t really take it well when someone talks bad about one of them. In the end, Z- Masahiro threw the first punch. I don’t blame him though. With some of those things that other kid was saying, I felt like doing something rash myself at that point. He just has a shorter fuse…”

“It seems like those friends of yours are always getting you into trouble, Oliver,” Lucy said without bothering to hide the contents of her mouth. “Like that one time on your field trip to HomeCorp…”

The field trip to the HomeCorp lab. That definitely was something to remember. Those two got me into a lot of trouble that time…

“Lucy, don’t talk with your mouth full,” mom said.

Lucy then swallowed her food and continued speaking.

“Your friends sure are weird.”

Sigh.

Mom and dad both looked like they had something to say. Lucy did just call someone weird, and that’s not a very nice thing for a seven year-old to say. Although she didn’t mean anything by it, so I’ll try and spare her the parental wrath.

“Yeah, they sure are weird aren’t they?” I said. “But I think that’s what I like most about them.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“They’re weird, but they don’t really care what others think about them. They’re just themselves. So I guess when you really think about it, that’s what it means to be ‘weird’.”

After saying something sappy like that mom and dad won’t feel like harping on you for calling them weird anymore. Although…

Dad gave me a look. He knew what I had done.

It’s not like I’m trying to usurp my parents’ authority or anything, I just didn’t want Lucy to be sad. I’ll have to do something to get across their point as well.

“Even so, calling someone weird is a little bit rude,” I added.

After dinner I had gone upstairs to my room to complete the homework I had put off earlier today.

I was listening to some anime music to boost my IQ by about fifty points, anything to help with math homework, when I heard a knock on my door.

“Come in!” I said as I paused the music and slid my headphones halfway off. As I felt those precious extra IQ points fade away Lucy walked into the room.

“Hey, Oliver, can I talk to you about something?” She asked anxiously.

“Sure,” I turned my chair around to face her as she closed the door before sitting on my bed.

“It’s… about school…”

What about school?

“Did something happen?” I asked.

She nodded.

“T-today, during lunch, I was sitting at a table with my friends, and then some fifth graders came over and said they wanted our table. I told them they could sit with us if they wanted to, b-but they said we had to leave because we were stupid third graders. I-I didn’t want to leave because we were at the table first so I told them that and then they started calling me names and making fun of me.”

Then she sniffled.

“A-and, then I started crying because they were b-being mean, and th-they just made fun of me more, and I didn’t know what to do so I ran away.”

So some fifth graders bullied her to make her leave the lunch table she was at. Despicable.

I took the headphones completely off and laid them on my desk before going over to sit by Lucy’s side. I reached my arm around her and pulled her into a hug. She buried her face into my chest.

“It’s alright,” I said as I stroked her hair. “Everything’s going to be okay. I’ll make sure those mean kids don’t bother you again.”

“Y-you will?”

“Of course I will, I’m your big brother. Just trust me, I’ll take care of it tomorrow after school, okay? So you don’t have to be sad anymore.”

“O-okay…” she said. “B-but we don’t have school tomorrow…”

“Then that just gives me more time to figure out what to do.”

“Thanks Oliver…”

“I’ll always be there to help you whenever you have trouble,” I said.

I ended up carrying Lucy back to her room and watching as she peacefully drifted off into sleep. She looks so cute when she’s asleep.

Good.

I went back to my own room and closed the door, locking it to make sure no one came inside. I leaned against the door as my mask slid off and a wicked smile spread across my face.

I could never let sweet, innocent little Lucy see this side of me… or anyone else for that matter.

“So a bunch of shitty fifth graders are picking on my little sister, huh? I’ll make sure they pay,” I sneered.

But how should I do it? I have all of tonight and tomorrow morning to come up with the perfect punishment for those brats.

Unfortunately, it can’t be anything too severe or they’ll go crying to their mommies… and I can’t let that happen. If I get found out my life as the perfect straight A wonder student will be derailed. Not that those two idiots from the orphanage aren’t trying their damnedest to drag me down with them.

What were they thinking back at HomeCorp? There’s rules for a reason you idiots.

Anyway, now I have prey, a bunch of ten year-olds that think it’s fun to pick on someone younger than them. Well…

I guess it is fun, but that just makes it worse, doesn’t it? I’m not merely doing this because I get pleasure from putting snotty brats in their rightful place.

No no, nothing so simple.

I’m doing this because any shitty human that makes my sister cry, and laughs mind you, deserves to be purged from the face of this planet.

So… In a way, I guess I’m being merciful.

I sat down at my desk and put my headphones back on as I resumed my math homework and worked up a plan with that extra fifty IQ points.

I must have fallen asleep at my desk, because that’s the last thing I can remember.

Well, now that I think about it I might’ve heard a voice…