Chapter 6: Waking(6)
I could not stare at the sun anymore.
Why?
My body had evolved to such a state that I needed external help to do day to day things.
My muscles and bones were not the only thinngs that developed in the increments through my dreams. My whole body did. My organs developed rapidly.
My thoughts were faster, I could see farther and clearly see everything in my line of sight. My ears could hear a lot better.
I could hear everyone in the orphanage. Every silent movement they made was thunder to my ears. It was not as painful as I imagined, the chittering insect noises were worse. But I still relied on using outside aids. Mama Kemp had gotten me a set of small ear pieces that would dampen any and all noise I would hear. It did not cause me to go deaf, just reduced my hearing back to the original level it had been at.
I did not have any such thing for my eyes however. I had a permanent squint to see just the bare minimum. I could go around with my eyes wide open like normal, but after a few minutes my head would be under immense pain. And unless I found some kind of vision dampeners, squinting would be the only thing I could constantly rely on.
All of this would be increased to a higher level once I started using my abilities as a Physical. Which resulted in me not using my abilties at all.
I could reproduce most of my previous strength while using my ability, without having to use them at all now.
It had been 3 years since my discovery of the stairs. I had significant progress there too. I was quite close to the top of the stairs and the person is within my reach.
Just a couple more steps and I would be face to face with the architect of my torture. My curiosity toward the fellow was exponentially increasing with each individual stair. He would have definitive answers to my many questions.
I had waited years, just a few more days till I reached him.
I could wait.
That much was easy.
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I had my feet on bed with my back on the floor. Stark and Zen were sitting on my bed and were attentively listening to James speak across them.
Spiel was sitting next to me. He learnt how to walk now and started speaking a little. I grab the little toy he was trying to put in his mouth and move it out of the way of his mouth. I snapped my fingers in a different direction and within that instant he had completely forgotten about putting the thing in his mouth. Babies were easy to handle, distract them and they would immediately stop.
Tantrums? Stopped. Crying? Stopped. If they did not stop then, they needed a change or needed food.
"------So, If we do exactly as planned, we should have a fresh batch fo sweets and fruits." James completed.
"But why though?" I countered back. "We have no need for it. We only stole preciously because we could not get the fuits and sweets."
"Its not enough though, we could have more." James asnwered back without a second of thought.
"We technically get more than the amount we could get in one of raids. And we get it at the end of every two to three months."I answered while taking the toy from Spiel's mouth again. Why did babies try to repeatedly put stuff in their mouths?
Mama had kept in contact with both Gen and Jeana over the years, and we tried to eke in a few words here and there to remind them of our existence. They were happy with their new family and that was all I needed to hear.
Suddenly, a year ago, Mr. Hunter started sponsoring our orphanage, with consumables rather than money. We received food and other daily use products, sometimes even clothes were gifted. I was thankful to him. It seemed that I had been too apprehensive of him. He was a nice guy.
Before this sponsoring, the four of us had done some 'procuring'. We did not get caught a single time and managed to bring back a few sizable hauls. It could last us close to a month if we used it sparingly.
But as of now, we did not need to resort to stealing again. There was no need. I was content.
And it was time James learnt to be content too. I did not want him to teach both Zen and Stark to rely on stealing for fun.
Yes, the four of us did steal a couple of times previously, but we did not have a constant source of consumables. Stealing for the sake of stealing was wrong and I would not let him continue.
"No. I will not follow you and I won't let these two follow you either." I looked toward the two waiting for their reply.
"I'm not coming." Stark followed immediately.
Zen said the same after a few seconds. He had thought about it. That was good. Weighing opinions and choosing the best outcome was the best way to get optimal results.
Stark's blind belief in me was a little worrying. I would need to help him learn to make his own decisions and not be completely reliant on me.
"Stryyy....."
I looked to my side, Spiel was opening and closing is small fist toward the toy in my hands. This one was clearly making his intentions known.
"We can't rely on anyone else..... Why can't you understand this Stryke? How long do you think we can get these grants?" James was getting visibly angry.
"Then just wait for the grants to stop. We have no need to go further. When the grants stop, we can start again. There is no reason to take unnecessary risks. We just need to train hard and prepare for the future now." I tried to explain. "We have improved both our abilities and our control over them. You can now freely move your barrier around and even use it to travel anywhere without tiring yourself out. Stark now has good control over his strength now, his body is also a lot stronger than me at his age and before my increment. Zen understands his sub-ability as well and he has to teach the two new Mods as well."
"We don't need anymore man."
"Well, if you don't want to join me, I'll find a way myself." James stormed out of the room after saying those words.
"Haaaaaa" I let out a sigh.
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"Fuuuuuu" I let out a deep breath and faced Stark.
Our training was quite strenuous, we pushed ourselves to our absolute limits. We ran further, pushed farther, lifted heavier and fought harder.
We had started mock battles now, stopping before any actual damage was done. Stark was obedient and diligent. He tried to match the intensity I was at. I let him. There was no need to crub him enthusiasm. However, I cleanly hid the fact that I was not using my Physical ability yet. He would get just as strong when his increment hit.
" Catch tHis!" He yelled, throwing a stone at me.
"Ha Haaaa HAaaahahahh ahahah" I dodged the stone and fell to the ground laughing. His voice had been cracking a lot lately. I found that funny as hell, why? I didn't know but I'm glad I was among the oldest when my voice started cracking.
"Argghh don't laugh at meeee."
I rolled to dodge the rocks flying at me. He had an expression of anger and laughter at the same time.
The other Waking joined in on laughing at him. We had gotten three more of them now. And 2 of them were Mods, direct replacements to Gen and Jeana.
Zen had to teach them the ropes and I had to give him props. He was doing a good job. He had a good sub-ability as well, his tail would spread out and every strand of fur would become an individual spike. It had great defense and offense and he could cover his allies with it as well. Not only that he could use it as a spring to launch himself in any direction.
He was a little similar to me. He was trying to use his abilities in unconventional ways. That was good. He was ticking every single box perfectly. He could also teach well.
Shen was teaching the other Mats types, out of which only one was present. The new Waking.
I froze for a second.
Shen and the new guy were the only Mats here.
"Stark I want you to do some solo training okay?" I instructed and ran toward the orphanage, the others just watching my back confused.
A quick search later, my stress shot up. James and the two older mats were missing.
They had gone to the storage.
I sprinted out of the orphanage. I needed to find and stop them. I had my eyes wide open, trying to find them.
Running past bulidings, I found a crowd in the centre of the town, fearing that the got caught I walked into the crowd.
Among the crowd, I found the trio standing there, looking at something.
I walked up to them fully enraged. "WHAT DID I FUCKING SAY? JAMES I THOUGHT YOU KNEW BETTER. WHY DID YOU CONVINCE THESE TWO?"
James was shaken, first from the shock of seeing me appear and then from my showing of wrath. The other two slowly shrunk back in fear of me.
He told me that he would find a way by himself. This wasn't himself. He roped in two of the more innocent children and they blindly trusted him because he trained them and along with them.
SCRAAAATCHHHHH
I turned to the source of the noise.
Truckers were dragging a massive metal container off the one of the trucks.
"What's going on?" I asked one of the bystanders.
"Some statue they are setting up. The container would crack open tonight and the statue would be revealed."
"For the Cataclysm?"
"Probably.... don't see it for anyone else."
"But why?"
"No clue boy. They aren't giving supplies today but are giving them tomorrow, with more than the usual set of supplies."
After thanking the man for the explaination, I grabbed James and dragged him back to the orphanage. The other two followed silently.
My size was a lot larger than the average boy. My clothes were hugging my body and my sleeves barely held my arms. I had become intimidating for sure. A lot of the orphans started streeing clear of me. I didn't hate them for being scared. They were children, they are meant to be scared of anyone large. The one silver lining was that they were warming up to me, they realized that I was the same as before.
Anyway, the pain I would dish out to the three of them would be of massive proportions. I just hoped things would be a lot better from now on.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
1Manager1
1Manager1 Well, time skip time. Hope it was fun.
Happy new year fellas.
Anyways, point out mistakes please.
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