He climbed as quietly as he could over the gate and up the tree that grew just outside his window. Once he made it through the window, Kyrien gave a sigh of relief as he collapsed onto his bed. He could get about another four hours of shuteye before school started in the morning.
The words that Asura had left him with were ringing in his ears. The man had mentioned his sister. What would his sister know about Gaia users? She was just an English major student. Kyria was one of the most normal people he knew. Their parents had died during the Bloody Christmas incident five years ago when one of the largest nuclear plants had blown up due to a malfunctioning reactor. She had taken care of Kyrien since, working shifts at a local bar so that she could pay for his school fees and their expenses.
He tried to imagine his sister, with her perfect alabaster skin, angular face, waist length midnight coloured hair and the same piercing sea green eyes that he had but he failed. Kyria was athletic and at times violent but she was not a fighter. She possessed no core in her palms as far as he knew. So what could she possibly know about Gaia fights?
Kyrien rolled over and growled into his pillow. It was not long before he fell into a disturbed sleep with flashing images of cores and a tune that sounded vaguely familiar.
“Kyrien!” Kyria called sharply, shaking her sleeping brother lightly and then called in a louder voice. “Kyrien! Wake up!”
“Urghhh..” Kyrien groaned as he rolled over, shielding his eyes from the sunlight that was streaming through the open curtains of his room. “Whattimeisit?”
“About time you got out of bed. I left your lunch on the table do remember to take it. I’m leaving now. Don’t be late for school!” She gave his forehead a friendly flick before leaving his room.
Kyrien let out another groan as he finally extricated himself from the sheets and prepared to head to school. Today was one the days that he just wanted to lie in bed all day long without having to go to school and see Asura. That’s right. That was the reason he was feeling this terrible anyway. “Damn you, Asura.” He cussed out to no one in particular before stepping into the warm shower.
Once he had straightened out the last of his uniform, Kyrien grabbed his boxed lunch from the table and slammed his front door closed harder than he intended to. The world of Gaia was too complicated for him to understand at the moment but he needed to understand it. Especially when Kyria was involved. He was not about to let anyone hurt his sister.
“Kyrien!” A familiar voice came from behind as he halted his board and turned around only to have Jem pounce onto him and put him in a headlock.
“Jem!” Kyrien laughed. Having his friends around him made him feel a littler better. Just a little more at ease and it made it easier to face Asura later in school. Kyrien gave an inward sigh; he was not looking forward to that at all.
“Did you manage to talk to your sister about it?” Shin asked, pulling up beside the two in his blades. They all lived along the same road and would often skate to school together.
Kyrien shook his head lightly and continued the rest of the journey in silence while listening to Shin and Jem’s idle chatter in the background. He had to talk to Asura about his sister if they met. He had to find out what the man had meant the night before. There was a nagging feeling at the back of his mind that told him to move on from the topic and it was bad news, but Kyrien knew that unless he knew the truth, he would never be at peace.
“We need to find Asura before first period.” Kyrien said as he kicked harder, racing against time.
The trio served dangerously round the corner and through the school gates with practiced ease. They did not have to look far before spotting the menacing presence of Asura Leigh. He was the head of the discipline committee after all and here in school, they were the ones that people naturally avoided.
Kyrien pulled to a sudden halt before Asura, wheels of his board scratching the concrete roughly as if they were protesting at the force of the stop. “I need to talk to you in private.” Kyrien demanded, his face arrogant as always.
Asura slipped off the bench top gracefully and drew himself to his full height before Kyrien but the younger male stood his ground unwavering. He was about half a head taller than Kyrien was an exuded an air of menace wherever he went. Asura smirked widely before turning and beckoning for Kyrien to follow him. The younger male signalled to his friends that he was going to be all right and for them to not wait up. He was less likely to get into trouble than them given his clean track record and excellent grades.
Kyrien followed Asura to the back of the school where the ruffians would usually hang out when they skipped classes. He watched a few strays scatter like rats when they realised who had entered the vicinity and soon the area was empty save for the both of them.
Once the area was empty, Asura extracted a pack of cigarettes from the inside of his jacket and offered Kyrien one as he lit up his own. Kyrien sneered when he saw that the head of the discipline committee was not as disciplined and law-abiding as he claimed to be. The irony of it all. He waited for Asura to take a long drag and watch the smoke make little intricate swirls in the air before turning his attention back to the reason they were here in the first place.
“I need you to tell me about Kyria.” He asked, leaning against the concrete wall of the building, sea green eyes hard and demanding.
“I told you to ask her. I am in no position to tell you anything about her.” Asura brushed him off easily, taking another lazy drag from his cigarette, a small smile curling the right side of his lips.
“I can’t and I don’t believe that Kyria would engage in the use of ‘Gaia’. I’ve seen her hands, they don’t have any cores fused into them.” He argued, still not letting up on the intensity of his gaze.
Asura glanced upwards at the sky, blowing a couple of smoke rings lazily as he finished the last of his cigarette and turned his lavender gaze back at the other male. “Fine, I will show you. But only if you can beat me.” It was Asura’s turn to be arrogant with a smug smile plastered to his face.
“I am not a Gaia fighter and I don’t even have a core or team.” Kyrien spat angrily.
“Tell them you’re a friend of Asura’s. They will give you what you need.” Asura said, fishing out a name card from one of his pockets and slipped it into the breast pocket of Kyrien’s coat.
“The address is that of the abandoned railway! There’s nothing there.” The younger male exclaimed when he saw the address on the card. The place was known as Heart Beat but he knew that there was nothing in that area. Shin and Jem often went past that area for a good skate or simply to practice their tricks.
“If you know what time to look, may be you’ll find something. Come and look for me when you’re ready.” Asura chuckled as he patted Kyrien’s shoulder and left.
Kyrien waited for the next bell to ring before dashing up to look for Shin and Jem. He found them easily at their rooftop hangout.
“What did Asura say? Did he beat you or anything?” Shin asked anxiously looking him over to ensure that there were no new bruises that suddenly sprouted over his face.
“He said that he would only tell me if I could beat him.” Kyrien replied quietly and retrieved the card from his pocket. “He said that we could get cores here.”
“That’s the abandoned railway area. There’s nothing there.” Jem piped up from the bleachers when Shin read the address out loud.
“He said that we needed to look at the right time. What if there was some kind of night activity going on there? I mean Gaia fights occur mostly in the night, don’t they?” Kyrien questioned, Shin’s brow furrowed together as they each took a moment to process the new information. “And I’ll need a team. I know you guys probably don’t want to be a pa-“
“What are you talking about?” Shin cut him before he could finish his sentence. “We’ve been friends since we were kids and I’m not about to let you do this on your own! Right, Jem?”
Jem looked up for a moment and then smiled and nodded in agreement to Shin’s statement. Kyrien felt a tingling feeling in his bones and smiled at both his friends. They had agreed to take ‘Gaia’ into them. This moment was about to change their lives forever. And he was glad that if he was going down, it was not alone.
He came home to the smell of Kyria’s wonderful cooking, had a satisfying meal before bidding his sister good night and retreated into his room for the night. He hated lying to Kyria but that was the only thing that he could do to keep her off his trail, not that she suspected anything. He had looked closely at her hands and any exposed skin, trying to look for some sign of a Gaia core but found none.
It was almost midnight by the time he was done with his assignments. Checking that the house was quiet and that Kyria was already in her room, he slipped out of his window as quietly as a cat with velvet paws. Shin and Jem were already waiting for him just a couple of feet away from the front gate of his home.
It took them about twenty minutes on their wheels to get to their destination. Sure enough, they spotted a crowd gathered at the front of a small caravan. The trio exchanged looks before nodding in unison and squared their shoulders as they proceeded to join the crowd. They were mostly Gaia users who gathered here to get the latest updates for their cores and receive new data from those whose cores were of the ‘Holy’ class. ‘Holy’ class cores provided healing for damaged or malfunctioning cores and had the power to boost other core abilities for a period of time.
The trio squeezed their way through to the entrance of the caravan but before they could speak, the owner, a greasy looking man had his eyes fixed on them. Fixed on Kyrien to be exact. He bore a weird expression on his face that made Kyrien feel hot around the collar and slightly uncomfortable despite the cool night air.
“Umm..” Kyrien started, scratching his head lightly as a nervous gesture. “I’m a friend of Asura’s and he told me to come here to get something.”
The man did not look at either Shin or Jem and when he spoke, it seemed to be directed only at Kyrien. “Asura told me to get you good cores. The kids call me Spider. And you are?”
“Oh. Sorry I’m Kyrien, Kyrien Shira. And these are my friends Jem Hartnet and Shin Suoh.” Kyrien noticed that Spider’s eyes seemed to narrow when he mentioned his name. Perhaps he knew something about Kyria and her association with the Gaia users, but he was sure that the man was not about to reveal any information after minutes into meeting Kyrien.
Kyrien forced himself to smile widely as he cast his mesmerising sea green gaze onto the man. The unusual colour of the sibling’s eyes was usually a hot topic for wonderment and it always helped them get what they wanted. “So about the goods that we came for?” He let his voice trial suggestively.
Spider returned a roguish grin before taking out three microscopic slides and sterile needles. “I need a drop of your blood first.”
“Are you kidding me?” Shin snorted as he picked up the needle uncertainly, looking from Kyrien to Jem for some form of assurance.
Jem shrugged lightly as he pricked his index and deposited a drop of blood onto his slide. Kyrien and Shin followed suit. Once that was done, Spider took the slides from them and disappeared into the caravan for a few minutes before returning with three cores.
“Hartnet and Suoh, white cores. These are ‘Elemental’ cores and they best fit either of your genomic code with the least chances of core rejection.” Spider’s expression was the same one he wore moments ago when he turned to face Kyrien, it was curious and underneath it all, a small hint of fear. At least, that’s what Kyrien thought it to be. “Shira, you are one of the few that I would give such a core to. These cores have the highest rejection rate. But I think your genome will one of the few that will not reject such a core.”
He held out an amber coloured core that glittered with a metallic sheen. Kyrien took it from Spider gently and felt a subtle vibration run through his entire body.
“What type of core is this?” He asked, turning the cool organic metal round and then looking back at the old man.
“This is a ‘Speed’ core. ‘Speed’ cores are rare and even rarer to find people who can accommodate such a core.” Spider explained, the curious expression still plastered on his face. “A ‘Speed’ core puts the physical body under tremendous stress thereby making it one of the most dangerous of the seven common cores. Do be careful when utilising the power of this core. The ‘Elemental’ cores are relatively easy to master, but the ‘Speed’ core, can be a bit of a problem.”
“I need to master this core to find out something important to me. I need it to protect someone.” Kyrien said more urgently than he intended to sound. “Can anyone teach me how to master this core?”
Spider looked at him hard for a long moment. “The one that needs protecting may end up being you instead.”