Chapter 4

Friday, school is out. I had just handed the assistant principle a major case of woof-tickets and I have two beautiful women waiting for me to escort them to their car. So why did I have this feeling that the other shoe was about to fall? One moment I had just aced a test that was worth half my grade for the class (not that I needed the grades) and yet as soon as I walked out of class I had this major sense of foreboding that made me more nervous than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs; and I couldn't put a finger on what the problem could be.

Joining the crowd leaving the school, I was looking for Andi or Jenny and didn't notice that several people were watching me, some with anger written on their faces. Others had a look of incredulousness that I would have stood up to Bill and his posse, but to have come out on top was making me an underground hero. Trying to ignore it as much as possible I continued on to find Andy and Jenny waiting just outside the exit of the building. I could see that something was wrong as I approached them.

"Hi girls," I said as I smiled at them. "What's up? Why the anxious faces?"

They looked at each other and Jenny nudged Andi. She sighed and said, "We just found out that Bill's mother is the daughter of some mob guy from up north and that he is very upset that his grandson is in jail and could go to prison." She lowered her voice and said, "We were told that hanging around you is a bad idea right now and that some guy is hanging around your car right now."

I could tell that this was scaring her so I tried to calm her. "Listen, why don't you gals go on home and I'll call you later. Or we can meet up at the game tonight. Take care and I'll see ya later."

They both looked at me with apprehension clearly seen on their faces, but did as I asked and left for their car. I watched them leave. On the outside I seemed calm and uncaring, but inside I was running a thousand miles a second. 'Who in the hell was Bill's grandfather? Did the Mob really come all the way to Abilene for this? How far were they willing to push this? Was my family safe?'

Closing my eyes for a moment, I thought, [Seraph, are you out there?]

I didn't know until then that you could send and receive emotions telepathically, but just as soon as I heard her response I calmed down a great deal. She was laughing at me.

[It's about time you decided to give me a call. You know as your familiar and guardian I really can't help you if you don't let me. Now down to business. Currently there is a wanna-be Mafioso parked behind your car. It seems that nothing that he has tried in his attempt to damage your vehicle has been successful. He is very frustrated and more than a little aggravated at the moment.]

I smiled to myself. [Is there any way that you can turn up his anxiety a bit? You know, make him a little more jumpy?] [Yes, and so can you. It's an easy spell. It will make him feel like there is someone behind him all the time. He'll feel like his worst nightmare is about to happen to him and there is nothing he can do about it. This spell we simply call "Fear." It might be a little beyond your ability, but it's a good way to judge just how advanced you are. If this works then I can just dump tons of spells in your mind tonight and not have to worry about overloading you. Now close your eyes for a moment and try to relax.]

Sure I can relax. I mean, after all, I only had some kind of "Mob Hitman" waiting for me at my car. No biggie. I mean after all this kind of thing happens all the time; right? I slowed my breathing, closed my eyes and used the same technique I have used to relax before tests and such, just centering myself. Suddenly I felt Seraph grab my mind and lock on to it; she then dropped what seemed like The Library of Congress in me. I know I jerked back for a moment as I was deluged by images, sounds and pure formula. I could feel my mind struggling to process the information and then store it all somewhere and it wasn't just spell stuff. It was info on different races, weapons, and martial arts. I was a brown belt in about three different disciplines before, but now I knew things that would have allowed me to walk into any dojo and walk out with their highest belt. I knew how to use any firearm made on Earth and a few that we had never heard of from other worlds. I could speak, write and read every language that we had on this planet and all those from Elderon as well. And if it was an edged weapon, then I was its master.

When it finally stopped, I felt like someone had tried to stuff fifty-five gallons of data into my one gallon brain, but somehow it was all coalescing into everyday knowledge for me. They say that humans only use about twelve to thirteen percent of their total brain capacity. I felt that mine was now running at about ninety percent.

I opened my eyes and looked out over the parking lot. Most everyone was gone by now (I had been in that fugue state for about five minutes).

I called out to Seraph, [Was that everything or is there more?]

[Nope, that's pretty much it. Now I can leave you to your dreams and work on more important things. Besides, this way you can look after yourself a bit better and I figured that it wouldn't hurt you too bad.] She laughed in my mind.

I shook my head to clear away the last bit of dizziness that I felt, stood up straight and started walking towards my car and my new "friend." As I approached he stood up from the car he was leaning against and appeared to take on the mannerisms of a real tough guy.

"You Wakim?"

He talked like he had a mouth full of something and I almost expected to see crumbs or some kind of food stuff fly out of his open trap.

"Yeah, I'm Dyllan. How can I help you?"

He snorted like a bull, walked up to me to try and tower over me. (Sure he was taller than me, but only by and inch or two and I was still only sixteen.) "You the one that threw a beat down on Mr. Canaille's grandson?"

I looked at him, not backing down a bit. "No. I defended myself when some older 'boys' thought that they could beat me up. I don't know who Mr. Canaille is, but maybe he should be more interested in the fact that his grandson needed five others to help him try to beat up a younger guy and still didn't manage to accomplish the feat."

I could see from his open mouthed, glazed look that this was not the response that he was expecting. I shrugged my shoulders and started to unlock my car when he decided that I needed to be taught a lesson. Guido the Hitman grabbed me by the shoulder to spin me around. When he found that his grasp slid off my shield, I turned around, reached into my new awareness and cast a fear spell it him. I felt the slight drain (more than the lesser spells than I had been casting), and watched as the spell sped towards my intended target, then strike him. The effects were almost instantaneous.

He started looking around for something, his demeanor changed from one of confidence to what appeared to me to be terror. I watched as he collapsed on himself into the fetal position on the ground rocking himself with his eyes wide open. From the smell of things, Guido would need a new Pamper, soon.

Reaching into his mind, I pulled out the information that I wanted. It seems that Guido was supposed to mess up my car and then threaten me into dropping the charges against Bill and his cronies. If that didn't work, then he was told to "rough him up some."

Not liking the idea of doing anything to Guido, I decided to talk to my parents, then with their approval, I would visit Bill's father's house and see if this could be cleared up once and for all.

Looking down at the near catatonic person on the ground, I felt kinda sorry for him, so I dropped the spell (yeah, you can stop a spell if you cast it) and reached down to pick him up by his shirt collar. I looked him in the eye and cast a 'suggestion' spell. "You will leave this life of crime and devote the rest of your life to helping others. Now get outta here."

After watching Guido (The Ex-Hit Man) make a bee line for his own car and take off like a bat outta hell, I reached over and unlocked my own car, got in and started driving home.

[Not bad} Seraph said [but I don't think I would have let him off so easy, after all he probably would have killed you if he was told to. You could have at least roughed him up a bit and then let him go].

Looking over to see her slowly materialize like the Cheshire Cat (only in reverse, including big shit eating grin), I replied, [If I did that, then I would have been no better than he and his kind. I have to be more responsible than the rest. Just because I can do it, doesn't mean that I should].

She cocked her head to the side and looked at me for a moment. [Not bad. I was wondering if all that power would go to your head and give some kind of god complex or something, but it looks like your folks did a good job raising you with some morals and values. You'll do.

On a different subject. You know that some of the staff at your school is being paid to look the other way concerning any abuse you might receive. They are also going to go out of their way to make your school life as difficult as possible. What are you going to do about it?]

Great the cat is giving me psych evaluations to test my 'moral fiber.' But at least part of what she said, answered a few questions about the way I was being treated at school. Now all I had to do is figure out how to deal with it. Maybe that next time I had a 'chat' with the assistant principle, I would see to it that he felt the need to confess his crime to the school board.

The rest of the time spent driving home I was trying to figure out just what I should do about Andi and Jenny, I mean they were really nice girls and the fact that they were the first girls that seemed interested in me was a huge plus, but if what I was planning didn't work then they could be in danger just by association and that was the last thing that I wanted.

Home looked good as I pulled into the driveway. I could see that I was the first one home, but that would only be by about a half hour as Mom and Dad were always home early for baseball night. I went inside to my room and changed from my school cloths to a pair of cutoff sweats and an old t-shirt. Then I went out to the backyard so I could work off some of the nervous energy that was filling me.

I must say this right now that I Love Katas. Nothing takes your mind off everything else than practicing your Katas. Everything else seemed to drift away and I was alone in the world, my mind filled only with the different forms and movements needed to complete the task. As I neared the end I started to come back to the world and felt the presence of other people, finishing up I turned to look at the door to the house and saw my mother standing there smiling.

"So," she said, "have you finished limbering up? Maybe you would like someone to practice with for a change?"

I have to admit that during whole life I had never seen my mother raise her hand once in anger, so I had no idea that she could fight; let alone that she might be good at hand to hand.

"Sure if you want," I said. Do you want to change first?"

She mumbled some kind of spell and gone were her work clothes to be replaced with a Gi and black belt.

I stared for a moment and said, "So what form would you like?"

"Oh, just start and we'll see where it goes from there."

I shook my head and figured that I would try something easy. I mean she was the only mother that I had ever known. It wasn't like I wanted to hurt her. So, I stepped into her to try for a hip throw, grabbing the lapels of her Gi I tried to turn and pull her across my hip for the throw. You will notice that I said 'tried, ' because that was about as far as I got.

Her hands shot out, crossing in front of me, and grabbed my collar on either side of my neck. Then she launched herself forward, catching me under the chin with her wrists, causing my head to bend backwards and me to lose my footing as the force of her pushing up and forward so fast. I soon found myself flat on my back with her standing over me shaking her head.

"Now that we have determined that I have some idea of what I'm doing, maybe you should take this a bit more serious and not try to take it easy on me or else you are going to end up with a lot of bruises and bumps."

She reached down to give me a hand up and for the first time I felt her full strength as she easily pulled me to my feet.

I thought to myself, "All this power and I still get my ass kicked by my mom."