Headstrong
1
Yusuke walked the familiar streets of Old Troy. The Pacific beat against the beach off to his right behind a line of small hotels and beach houses. Signs marking restaurants glittered against the night sky. He wasn't interested in touring the beachfront at the moment.
Yusuke's almond eyes glared at anyone who got in his way as he walked, hands in his pockets. A small breeze tried to disarrange his brushed back black hair, but a hand smoothed it out before it was pushed out of shape. A green oriental dragon danced on his jacket as he moved along the sidewalk.
Yusuke paused at a cross walk, wondering which way he should go. Right was the beach, left led toward the center of town. Straight ahead was a long row of similar houses, with some small stores mixed in. He looked at each way, trying to decide which direction he should go.
He finally decided to go toward downtown. Something was going on there, and it was calling him.
Yusuke had been on the street for a long time. He had taught himself basic skills such as literacy after breaking out of several foster homes. His parents had been long dead, and only Social Services wanted to look out for his welfare.
Yusuke didn't need them to do that. He already could look out for himself better than anyone else he knew.
Yusuke walked, feeling waves of anger and frustration beating against his face. He slipped on sunglasses, as he fought his way through the pressure trying to hold him back. No one else on the street noticed the emotions striking out around them. The buildings distorted as he looked at them, taking on a malevolent life as they glared down on the unaware people going about their businesses.
Yusuke frowned as he pushed on through the beating wings. He wouldn't turn off his path for someone projecting on the town. No one was going to tell him where to go, or what to do.
Yusuke paused when the feelings he had been following changed directions. The source was beneath him somewhere. Old Troy didn't have a subway system, opting for a bus and small rain line that circled the city. It did have a sewer system that led to a filtration plant near the ocean to the south of town.
Yusuke looked around. Something was down there that he could feel. He needed to do something about that. A manhole cover glared at him stubbornly just down the street. A smile crossed his lean, wolfish face. He picked up the manhole lid, and slid it out of the way. One step dropped him down in the small tunnel.
Yusuke felt that he should go deeper in the earth somehow. He started to his left, looking for a way down toward the source of the strange feelings. One hand followed the tunnel to keep him upright in the water. He found a ramp that led to an alcove above the water line after stumbling through the maze in the dark. He squelched out of the water into the entryway, stepping into a catacomb not designed by the city's engineering department.
Yusuke paused, amused that the feelings still tried to push him back into the regular sewer system after he had entered this older passageway. The emotions still led him down, but were trying to become a tangible thing. It was harder for him to walk forward as the invisible surf pounded on his skin.
Yusuke raised his hand in front of him. He pushed back the aura with sweat rolling down his forehead as he kept walking. He could see streamers curl around his fingers as he extended his arm into the clammy air. It was an imaginary effect, but served to keep the boy moving forward to whatever waited.
He had always been able to see things that weren't there. He had also learned to fight those imaginary things just to survive at the edges of the real world. He didn't know why he had been born like this. He was past caring. It was just a thing he had learned to do keep himself together without needing anyone else.
Yusuke saw a light ahead. His feet started speeding up, without his urging. The source of his discomfort was down there.
Time to see what was going on.
2
Yusuke punctured the veil of light, splitting it with his hand. He stepped into the room he discovered beyond the barrier. Ribbons of purple and gold laced from his skin as he looked around the chamber. A frown twisted his face as his eyes fell on the other side of the room.
Liquid blue poured from the stones, splitting the air. A shape stepped out of that vibration. The light rolled into the form, dimming everything to normal daylight, then darkness. A smaller globe of light formed around a hand as it extended in front of the caped figure.
"Hey," said Yusuke. "How's it going, demon guy?"
"I am not a demon," said the new arrival, hand raising and shedding more light to fill the underground space. "I'm a magician that has returned from a place that I had been exiled to for a long time."
"Could you tone down the weird vibe that you're putting out?," Yusuke said, hands in his pants pockets again. "I don't like the way it makes me feel."
"I will when the time is right," said the newcomer.
"You will when the time is right?," said Yusuke. "When is that going to be? Tomorrow, next week, next month?"
"Whenever I am ready," said the other. "I have always tried to capture sources of power to bolster my own spellcasting. Once someone blundered into a spell I was making, and became more than what he had been. I touched the Book of Circles and was this close to bending it to my will. Now I want to talk with those that sent me away and show them what I have learned."
The stranger was dressed in a brown suit, with a long cape hanging from his shoulders. A mask covered the top part of his face with horns pushing out the front of it. Scarlet eyes sparkled in the light from the globe whirling around his hands.
"All I am asking is for you to back off the static," said Yusuke. "I don't care if you want to deal with old scores. That's your business. I just don't want to push through all your interference."
"I wish that I could accommodate you," said the masked man. "Now that I have generated enough power in this little hole, I can extend my reach across the country. Your little wants don't really concern me."
"Back off, Jack," Yusuke growled. "I'll take you on. You're not causing me grief so you can get some revenge on somebody who isn't even around."
"I'm a thousand times more powerful than you, urchin," said the stranger, smiling at the gall of his greeter. "I don't think you stand a chance."
Fiery ribbons leaped at the boy as the wizard pointed his fingers in a simple gesture.
The boy stood there, watching the ribbons reach for him. Then he was gone. The beams scored the walls behind where he had stood. Then the dragon appeared in the air, then the rest of him. The mage stared at the Cheshire cat he was unexpectedly confronting.
"I got some skills of my own, Jack," said Yusuke. "Why don't you take off, get the philosopher's stone, or something, before I get mad enough to break your stupid looking mask?"
The mage thought. The chamber expanded outward from his feet. He pointed a gloved hand. Segments of the floor ripped away from their spots, aimed at Yusuke, and rocketed forward. That should silence that insolent brat once and for all.
Yusuke's left eye glowed blue and green as he judged the approach of the attack. His mother had thrown rocks at him to show him how to do the things she did. His father had been able to sense things beyond what people could see. Their gifts had combined in him. A meteor storm flying at him was the equivalent of soap bubbles floating through the air.
Yusuke stepped forward, letting the missiles pass as he slid through their line. He seemed to blink out of sight as he glided across the room, hand reaching for the mage's neck. The physical power he possessed should put an end to this before it erupted in the streets.
This guy looked like he wouldn't care about any damage he caused to people who just happened to be standing in the way.
Yusuke's hand struck an invisible wall, skidding off target. The barrier closed over him, freezing him in place. The multicolored light in his eye intensified as he realized he had been overconfident.
"I have battled your kind before, boy," said the stranger. "I called myself Nebiros, and battled anyone who got in my way. I have learned from my mistakes enough to deal with someone as fast as you seem to be. Now watch as I show you what I can really do."
3
Nebiros gestured a gloved hand. The floor twisted into a mirror that sprouted on a stalk in front of him. Mists clouded the surface of the mirror as the returned wizard searched for the objects of his revenge. His concentration was on that, and not on his enemy that he had successfully trapped.
He didn't know why none of his past foes didn't immediately appear to his scrying.
Yusuke's eye glowed brighter. He wrenched one hand in its shell. No one was going to stick him in amber so they could kill someone else miles away. His free hand slapped against the invisible wall, channeling his anger into the spell trap. Cracks ran from the blow in a spider web on the air. The boy slapped the shell again. Fragments flew from the frozen air, unwinding the trap like thread from a spool.
Nebiros turned, anger marking the exposed portion of his face. He should have just sent that boy to the surface instead of keeping him around. Now he would have to fix his mistake.
The two enemies stared at each other, trying to discern what tactic they should use next. They both had some idea of what each other could do now, so surprise would be a slim advantage for whomever could grasp it.
Nebiros slashed the air with an index finger. Shadows erupted from a rip in the air. Ribbon hands grabbed at Yusuke, trying to wrap around him. If they could hold him in one place, a simple annihilating spell would take care of the rest.
Yusuke charged forward, reflexes allowing him to view the world in slow motion. He touched each shadow as he passed on his way to deal with their master. They exploded from his finger like balloons stuck by pins. He reached for the wizard, angered but not amazed as the man slid away from him.
Then red lances reached for him.
Yusuke sidestepped the energy projectiles as he kept charging forward, then stepped over a wave of stone, then jumped over a chasm opening in the stone floor. A wall of lightning rushed forward to stop him. He raised his hand as he pushed forward into the sudden storm. He grasped the core of the spell wall, pulling at its making with his talents. It cleared to allow him to keep moving forward.
Nebiros felt panic as he stared at the boy charging through his defensive array. He had fought mystics and others, and had never had one just rip his castings apart with his bare hands. He needed something to place himself back on the offensive, something hard to dodge, and fatal.
Nebiros raised his hand, bracing it with his other one. He opened it wide. The air turned black as it touched his palm. Vacuum suction pulled on Yusuke as he rushed forward. He felt his feet leave the ground as the sudden black hole drew every loose thing toward extinction. Smaller objects vanished in cracks at the magic event horizon.
Yusuke flew forward, not sure how to counter this move. He needed something to grab, no matter how immaterial that thing was. The wind pulling on him helped as much as hindered since he could use that to oppose the suction by pushing against it to keep it in place. He couldn't keep it up for long, and Nebiros could do his thing until he made Yusuke vanish like a sand castle caught in a high tide.
Instinct whispered to him. He saw what it told him, knowing his plan relied on his reflexes and the abilities he had gained from his lost parents. It was the only way he could see to get out of the mess he was in.
Yusuke released his death grip on the roaring air. He flew forward like a javelin, hands outstretched to put his plan in motion as soon as he was close enough. He didn't doubt he could do it, but there was always that one chance of failure that could happen if he missed. As the pull narrowed to the point of a cone, the boy punched through the vacuum. He reached outside the distorted space through the rushing column. His hand locked around the wizard's wrist with his inhuman strength.
The two glared at each other for a frozen moment. Then Yusuke shoved the spellbinding hand against Nebiros's body. The wind stopped as the makeshift plug blocked the black hole from the rest of the room. The boy stepped back as his enemy disappeared into his own grip. The chamber returned to its original dimensions as the deadly hand finally sucked itself out of existence.
"I told you," Yusuke said to the empty air. "Sometimes you need to back off."
The boy looked around, stuffing his hands in his pockets. The feelings he had followed were gone. Everything should be normal on the street.
epilogue
Yusuke walked along, glad that he had been able to brush some of the smell out of his pants and shoes. He would have to do a better job when he got home. Old Troy revolved happily around him as he walked. The air was a lot clearer with that emotional barrage gone with the magician causing it.
"Hey, Yusuke!," said a voice, angrily piercing the night noise. "You were supposed to pick me up an hour ago. What happened to you? I waited for a while before I decided to leave without you."
"Something came up," said Yusuke, pausing to allow his accuser to catch up with him. "You know how that is, Kay."
Kay Banner shook her head as she drew closer. Yusuke didn't know what she was shaking her head at, and didn't want to ask.
"Something always comes up, Yusuke Tremaine," Kay said. "Would it hurt you to call? Just once."
"I don't have any change," Yusuke said, stepping away from the blow to his comment elicited. "How did your rehearsal go?"
"It was great," said Kay. "Mrs. Ekans said I am going to play Juliet. Romeo, Romeo, where forth art thou, Romeo?"
"I knew you could do it," Yusuke said. "I have to get cleaned up, but I'll be glad to take you somewhere to eat."
"I thought you didn't have any money," Kay said.
"You don't need money to catch and cook a rat," Yusuke said, smiling slightly. "I like mine baked with some fries from a dumpster."
"You are so impossible," Kay said. "Let's go to my house. I will be glad to help you cook something to eat. You can even wash your clothes while you wait."
"Sounds good to me."
The pair continued walking along the cracked sidewalk in agreeable silence.