Genesis | Book One, The Genesis Series

THIRTY

In Kai's eyes, that one man could win a war.

Bianca trudged over to the climbing wall, nearly coming into contact with one of Troy's stray fireball projectiles as he yelled at her to move out of the way. She gave him the finger. Shuffling her feet as she ceased motion next to her leader, she tilted her head to the side as she usually did. It was one of her habits.

"Hey, team leader." She joyfully said to the guy, registering a flutter in her belly as the words exited her mouth. She knew that he'd heard about how badly she'd treated Amber, but she hoped that he would accept her apology.

"Oh, hey Bianca." Kai muttered in an irritated manner, his unwavering, fixed gaze plastered to the smooth texture of climbing wall. His hand hadn't moved from his chin. His reply had been sharp and to the point, a blatant indicator that the guy simply wished to be left alone at the moment.

But Bianca was purely undeterred as she furrowed her brow at the boy. No guy had ever ignored her before, and that wasn't about to start just because some maniac was trying to take over the world. "Look, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry, okay? I know what's going on, and I know you're still mad at me for bullying Amber."

"First off, if you really knew what was going on, you'd know that I'm not the person you should be apologizing to." Kai sternly replied as he cut his eyes at Amber, lightly tapping the climbing wall as he prepared to give it another shot-anything to get himself away from this conversation. "And secondly, I'm not mad, I'm focused. You should try it sometime."

Bianca was left speechless as Kai embarked on his ascent up the towering, rocky wall. Now she was the one rendered stationary.

Her leader had been right. Plus, it was becoming abundantly clear that the guy was no longer interested in her the way he had been prior, so there was no reason for her to continue pursuing him. She darted her eyes over at Amber, who was in the midst of a sparring session with Leo, and the former seemed to be prevailing.

Her face tightened, becoming stained with guilt as she began to realize how horrible she'd really behaved towards the girl. She'd chastised her over her slightest inconveniences, yet she still told the girl countless times that she was her only friend.

Sometimes she felt that she wouldn't have acted that way if it hadn't been for her stepmother. She'd never gotten the chance to meet her biological mother before she'd passed away from some disease, which Bianca couldn't remember.

Even though she didn't know what her mom was like, she already knew that she'd prefer her over her stepmom. Upon meeting her a few years after her biological mother's death, she'd swiftly deduced that the lady was nothing more an entitled prick, and that she wanted nothing to do with her.

There wasn't much she could do about her situation, however, considering that her father was in love with the woman. The lady chided her for the most insignificant mistakes, and berated her for being unable to live up to her insane standards.

Unfortunately, that same behavior pattern had slowly rubbed off on Bianca herself, and it had taken a super-powered maniac threatening to take over the world to get her to realize it.

She would've never acted that way if she'd known that she'd become nothing more than a carbon copy of her stepmom.

She was no better than that wretched woman.

It was as if the sensation of realization had plunged itself into her gut like a steel fist. It weighed her down like a legion of anchors, rooting her to her spot and depriving her of breath. Her gaze was directed to the metallic, colorless floor as she ceased motion.