Chapter 33: Before the Storm

It was the last week before the big fight thing; I hardly got any sleep. I've been so nervous. Ms. Clare told me that she and Mr. Buck they’ve been planning a “party” to make things less tense for us. I thought it was a great idea, I could really use something to take my mind off all of this. While on my way to see the twins, I saw someone sitting outside the entrance of the apartment building. IT WAS LEONA! I smiled and ran over to greet her. “Hey, Leona!” I said, “Where have you been? Felt like FOREVER.” She looked up at me and stood up. Her face and arms were scuffed up, and her clothes torn. “Spare me the idle chatter, idiot.” She said, seriously, “While you’ve been here with your thumbs up your ass, I’ve been training for the last four months and….. blah blah blah….” My mind wandered as she went on talking. I wanna listen, but she seems to just be talking about the usual “training” and “pride” thing. I wonder what I’m gonna have for lunch? Ms. Clare’s out doing her lawyer job, so she’ll be gone for a while. Hmm…maybe I’ll make something that we both can eat. I don’t mean to brag, but after twelve consecutive tries, I have finally been able to make mac and cheese. What am I gonna wear for the fight thing? The weather channel said it could be in the low sixties…..guess a jacket and jeans. What was I doing here again? Oh right, Leona’s still talking.

“...And through it all, I finally looked deep within myself and made a breakthrough.” She stopped and pointed a finger at me, “You hear that, Ferral? I am FINALLY stronger than you!” She declared. “Really? Neat!” I responded. She looked at me with annoyance, “Motherf-, you’re not supposed to respond like that, dumbass!” I looked at her confused, “Well, how do you want me to respond?” She groaned with frustration, “You’re supposed to be DEVASTATED. I not only closed the gap, I widened it in MY favor.” “Uhhh….oh no?” She took a long sigh, “God, you ruin everything,” She said, “Whatever, I’m stronger than you and in the short amount of time left we have, there's no shot in hell you’ll reach me.” “Weeeell, about that….” Her eyes widened, “No you FUCKING don’t!” I told her about how the twins and I trained with Mr. Bose and Ms. Avery. How we’ve been working hard to get ready for the big fight. Her right eye twitched, “Damn, Ferral! DAMN YOU!” She started angrily pacing, “I work my ass off for the past four months to surpass you, and you just decide, “ErR gAh DuR i’M gOnNa StArT tRaInInG” just because you finally got it through your thick empty skull that this fight is important?!” She kicked down a metal trash can, “But I know what your real reason was. You knew, YOU KNEW that I was off somewhere training. You just didn’t want me to be better than you!” She turned her back to me, then whipped around to sock me in the face. I fell down and groaned in pain as I held my jaw. “How many times do you have to cut me down?!” She continued, “How many times do you need to mock me…CUT DOWN MY PRIDE!” As I got up, she started to walk off, “I’m done with this shit!” As she was storming off, I grabbed her wrist and she turned back to me. “Let go of me!” She demanded, but I only strengthened my grip.

“I want you to shut up and listen!” I shouted angrily, something I’d never done. “You are ALWAYS mean to me, calling me bad names and hitting me! I’m tired of hearing about how I ruin your pride when all I want to see is you get stronger and happy. That’s what I want for all of us, to live our lives in peace and freedom…even the other experiments who are being held against their will. Do you know why I decided to train? Because I lost the only person that REALLY cared about me! She’s gone, and it’s all my fault! I don’t want that to happen to you, Ms. Clare, or anyone else I care about!” I paused for a second to stop myself from crying, “I trained to not only get physically stronger but mentally too! I won’t be the same naive idiot I was back then…Ms. Clare, Mr. Buck, and Mr. Bose taught me how to be disciplined and keep a focused mind. I only want to protect everyone…to not be a failure.” I let go of her wrist and knelt on the ground, holding back tears. Leona sighed and knelt down beside me, “I’m…sorry,” She said, “I was so caught up in myself, that I didn’t think about what you’ve been through.” She sighed, “I thought of you as a rival before I thought of you as a person.” I sniffled, gaining back my composure, “It’s alright.” I responded. We were silent for a second until the twins came out of the building. “Leona? Is that you?” Belle asked. “See, I told you it was her and Ferral,” Ezekiel said, “We heard shouting, are you two alright?” We got up and told them we had a small argument. They were more surprised to hear that I was even able to express anger, which made us laugh. They weren’t wrong though, I had never gotten that way. It only reminded me that I still have a lot to learn about my emotions.

For the last few days, the twins, Leona, and I hung out. Going to different places and eating at our favorite places. The places we were taken to on our first time in the real world. Belle and Ezekiel had this restaurant that only served plant-based food. They said they were “vegi-tear-ians.” I got to show them the burger place Mother and I went to, and Leona took us to this place that sold cakes. She enjoyed any form of cake, a lot more than the three of us did. On the final day, Ms. Clare and Mr. Buck told me to leave the apartment so they could prepare for their party, they said it would be ready by around one in the afternoon. The moment I left, Leona texted me to meet her outside of her apartment building.

“Well, it’s about time.” She said when I got there. “What did you want to meet up for?” She walked over to me, “Follow me.” She said as she walked past me. We walked for an hour through town; Leona didn’t tell me where. “I wanted to do this back when I first got back, but seeing how THAT went I thought I’d wait.” She said. “Till what?” I asked. “During my training, I discovered a power I had never seen before,” She started, “I form beyond our normal one.” “A form beyond? What does that mean?” We stopped walking, waiting to cross the street. “I didn’t know what happened, during a training session something inside just snapped and I went on this berserk rampage. I didn’t know at the beginning, everything went blank for a while,” We continued walking, “Once I regained control, everything felt calm. And I awoke a power inside me I never knew was possible.” We continued our walk until she told me we reached the spot. It was the construction site from where we had our first fight. I looked at her with confusion, but she slid down and into the site. I followed her and once I got down to the site she turned to me. “Show me what your training with this Ms. Bose has accomplished, and I’ll show you what mine has.” I finally knew what we were doing here…a rematch. I smiled, “Alight, show me this new form.” I transformed and got ready to fight. She also transformed, but then closed her eyes, clenched her fist, and grit her teeth. Straining as her body grew slightly, her muscles became more defined and her hair grew slightly. The colors of her hair and fur changed from their original light brown to a slight orange tint to it, black streaks formed on her hair and the ends of it became white. She opened her eyes and released a sigh of relief. “THIS is what I’ve gained.” She said, her voice a little deeper than it was before. She got into fighting position, focusing intensely on me. “C’mon, I can only be this way for a short while.” She told me, and in the blink of an eye, the fight was over as quickly as it began.

I lost.