Neo Chronicles
Episode 5: Neo Chronicles
Table of Contents
“I can't stand her. I'm fourteen years old—she's had fourteen years to get it right, and she still can't...”
It's Saturday in the city. The sun is out. No dark cloud in the sky. It's a little bit nippy, but not quite worth bringing out the winter coat, yet. Those out walking can still adorn their summer tees and cool shorts. Chris isn't one for wearing shorts, but Lynn doesn't mind.
The two are out, walking the streets of the city. Large boxes of all shapes and sizes are stacked left and right. Most people call them buildings. The airway traffic is as dense as it can be this time of day, but as long as the flying cars are up there, the grounded walkers can move about as free as can be.
It's the weekend. That means freedom. That means playtime. That means—well, for Lynn, that means complaining about the things that bother her on the weekend. What is she talkin' about?
“Chris, you understand, right? I'm not crazy. Please tell me I'm not crazy for thinking a mom's supposed to do certain things.”
Oh, she's on that again. Growing up, Chris has said a lot of things to a lot of people. He doesn't care how it makes them feel. He doesn't filter out his good comments from his bad ones. If he was a thought, he voices it, no matter what the subject is. But when the subject doesn't interest him—well, that doesn't mean he doesn't have a thought.
“Man, I hate tech.” As one can see, his thought isn't always on topic.
“Great, you were tuning me out,” Lynn says. After letting out a short sigh, she replies, “And why is that? You know tech is the biggest thing everywhere. As a matter of fact, Next City's supposed to be the Tech Capitol of the World or country or whatever they're saying these days.”
“Tech capitol of the—please, ain't nobody know nothin’ ‘bout no Next City. You can go anywhere in the world—shoot, anywhere in America, an’ ask ‘em about it. Guarantee they’d be all like, ‘What? Next City? Where’s ‘dat?’ Tell ‘em it’s in Alabama, an’ they’d be like, ‘What? Alabama? You mean that state in tha South? Where everyone’s all country an’ junk? What they know about tech?’ Please. This ain’t New York. People's still racist down here.”
“Stay informed, scrub. Popular or not, all sorts of R and D breakthroughs come from this town. Now back on subject, why do you hate tech? It's actually been debated that it's done more harm than good. I'd love to hear your take on it.”
“How do you even know that?”
“I read. You know, that thing teachers try to get you to do. Pick up a book some time.”
“See, a book! That’s what I’m talkin’ about. When’s the last time you’ve seen people read one? I doubt people’ve even heard of ‘em. Everything’s digital. You gotta look at some light t’read, some light t’write. Seewhatimsayin’?” Nexus paints the picture with his hands. “‘Sides, read a book? I’ll wait for the movie, thank you.”
“See, right there. ‘Wait for the movie.’” Lynn is no stranger to hand gestures herself, almost mocking Chris’s actions. “That right there needs tech. So why do you hate it?”
“It's complicated,” Chris says lowering his head.
“Oh come on. I’m sure it’s a simple reason when you look at it.”
“No, the tech's complicated. I jus' got these hover shoes last week.” He stops for a moment to show them off. “An' I still can't turn 'em on.”
“Shoes? This was about shoes? Why do I even—did you read the instructions?”
“I told you. I'm waitin' for the movie.”
Lynn needed to get out of the house. She mentioned something about not being able to function in the environment she was in. She's always goin' on about something. Don't give it any thought. Not having many places to go, she ran by Chris's place to be entertained.
Chris was told to head to the store and back. Something about groceries, there might have been a list involved. In any case, it's an errand that needs to be run. Oh, that's what I was supposed to do. Since getting his sword, most of his time and effort has been devoted into that. Even now, he carries it at his side. Speaking of which,
“Why in the world are you carrying that thing? No, better yet, how in the world did you sneak that out past your mom? I know if she knew you had that it, there’d be trouble.”
“Ain’t that the truth. It wasn’t easy, I’ll tell you that much. I had t’throw it out the window early this morning, an’ then get to it without her knowin’ what I was doin’. Turned out, I threw it in a tree, so I had t’climb—”
“Is that a mugging?” The two come to a halt as they notice something taking place in the alley across the road.
“Don’t point at it! Dang, you see two black folks throwin’ down like that, the last thing you wanna do is point!”
Lynn folds her arms. “Oh, like you suddenly know about the thug life.”
They move in closer. “Wait, those ain’t no thugs. Posers.”
“Don’t they go to our school?” Lynn is intrigued. “Wow, he’s really hammering the guy.”
“Let’s go play hero,” and with that, he jets.
Play is the only word he meant to say, and by play, Lynn knows that Chris means get involved with the fight himself. She knows roughhousing is one of his pastimes. She also knows that this playtime is going to end is badly. All futures point to it, but she also knows it’d be a lie to say she’s not interested.
One of the two brawlers is at the other’s throat. “…I’m not playin’ with you, Noah. Why’d you—Do you even know? You straight up backstabbed me,” he says gripping the other's collar tighter.
“Look Kai, I don’t know how it happened. She was just—” Kai punches him. “Ow! Why’d you do that?”
“I’m two seconds from lightin’ your tail up like a match!”
“I’d freeze you like a—”
“You threat’nin’ me?”
“You’re the one holdin’ me to a wall about to flameon like the Human Torch! Get off me.” Noah breaks his grab and shoves him away. “Now, if you wanna fight over this that’s fine, but you need t’calm the heck down, Jamal Quinton Hezekiah Michaels!”
“Don’t go sayin’ my full name, like you’re my dad or somethin’, Noah Mark Williams!” He notices an Chris running in. It is almost like a blur. “What in the world?”
“What in the what—” Noah turns to see the crazed blue headed wonder charge in from across the street. “Who’re you?”
“Nexus, what's up?” Still trying to get people to call him that name. You're supposed to be callin' me it, too.
Noah and Kai stare at him with blank looks. “Is that a sword?” Noah asks.
Chris holds it up. “Yes, an' it's gonna solve both your problems,” and then he unsheathes it.
Noah takes a step back, throwing both his hands in the air. “Whoa! Hold up! What in—”
Kai does the same, “Ain't nobody need to go swingin' that thing around!”
“Are you crazy?”
Chris laughs. “Dang, what's your problem? It's not like it's energy based. Got this from an antique shop. Most knives could cut through this. Bet your ST's could even break it.”
Noah steps out of the alley, away from the crowd. “This is crazy. I’m leaving.”
Kai puts his hand on his shoulder. “Hold up. You know we’re not done with this!”
And like that, Noah is off in a sprint. Down the sidewalk, he runs like mad, but Kai is right on him, but that doesn’t last long. The distance between them grows by the second. Kai realizes this, and it tears him up inside. Noah’s a speed demon. Running just isn’t Kai’s forte.
There’s a bit of a draft left in their wake. Lynn feels it as they zoom past her. “Nexus, what did you do?”
“Nothin’.”
She points in the Kai and Noah’s direction. “Then why are they running away from you?”
“I dunno.”
“Then why is your sword out?”
“I was showin’ it off. Move.” And just like that, Chris is on the run. Why is he running? He feels challenged. The fight turned into a race, and he’s not gonna be left behind. If he didn’t run, he’d be giving up, and he doesn't like giving up.
He starts in last place, but that doesn’t matter. Running is what he does. At his core, it’s all he does. It’s his ST. He can’t fly, he can’t shoot fire or ice from his hands, he can’t do magic, but he can run, because it's at his core.
Already, he whooshes past Kai. Just a few more feet, just a few more feet, not even a second passes, and—“Tag”—he lunges on top of Noah. Tackles him to the ground. They both skid across the pavement—scratches them up real bad. Chris seems to be alright for the most part, but Noah,
“Agh! You idiot! What the hell’s the matter with you?” He looks at his elbow. Doing so only seems to make the scrape sting more.
Kai catches up, running on nothing but rage. He's tired as can be, huffing and puffing, but he’s still mad enough to start a fight. And a fight is all this is going to lead to. Chris is crazy. Noah is upset. Kai is mad, and Lynn arrives just in time to see everything blow up.
Punches are thrown. Intensity feels the air. Some choice words are shouted, especially choice for kids their age. It's a brawl. Kai is focused on beating the tar out of Noah, but Chris keeps jumping in the way. Eventually, he gets fed up with having to deal with that speed demon and ignites a fireball in his hand to throw Chris's way.
Chris swiftly evades the ball of flame and runs up to whack Kai with the his sword's scabbard.
Noah quickly puts out the small fire that Kai started with his ice powers. And now that he knows that ST's are involved, he decides to really cut loose. Freezing the ground, tossing snowballs, blasting cool breezes their way.
Fire, Ice, and Nexus in between. Chris is slashing like a madman. Thankfully he has horrible aim, because just about all of his strikes miss their mark.
Lynn is standing on the sidelines. Deep down inside, this is exactly what she wanted. Her day started off horribly. She got in another fight with her mom, and she needed to find something to take her mind off of it. She knew if she stuck around Chris long enough, something like this would happen. Something always happens when he's involved.
But as the fight draws in the attention of those passing by, she starts to realize that this may have gotten out of hand. The few cars zoom along the street slow down. People are staring. They're taking out their phones. With how reckless the boys are acting, flaunting their ST's without regards to their surroundings, it's no wonder that people are gathering and talking. And is that—yes, it is.
She can hear sirens. The police are here. The police are here.
Episode 5: Neo Chronicles
Table of Contents
“I can't stand her. I'm fourteen years old—she's had fourteen years to get it right, and she still can't...”
It's Saturday in the city. The sun is out. No dark cloud in the sky. It's a little bit nippy, but not quite worth bringing out the winter coat, yet. Those out walking can still adorn their summer tees and cool shorts. Chris isn't one for wearing shorts, but Lynn doesn't mind.
The two are out, walking the streets of the city. Large boxes of all shapes and sizes are stacked left and right. Most people call them buildings. The airway traffic is as dense as it can be this time of day, but as long as the flying cars are up there, the grounded walkers can move about as free as can be.
It's the weekend. That means freedom. That means playtime. That means—well, for Lynn, that means complaining about the things that bother her on the weekend. What is she talkin' about?
“Chris, you understand, right? I'm not crazy. Please tell me I'm not crazy for thinking a mom's supposed to do certain things.”
Oh, she's on that again. Growing up, Chris has said a lot of things to a lot of people. He doesn't care how it makes them feel. He doesn't filter out his good comments from his bad ones. If he was a thought, he voices it, no matter what the subject is. But when the subject doesn't interest him—well, that doesn't mean he doesn't have a thought.
“Man, I hate tech.” As one can see, his thought isn't always on topic.
“Great, you were tuning me out,” Lynn says. After letting out a short sigh, she replies, “And why is that? You know tech is the biggest thing everywhere. As a matter of fact, Next City's supposed to be the Tech Capitol of the World or country or whatever they're saying these days.”
“Tech capitol of the—please, ain't nobody know nothin’ ‘bout no Next City. You can go anywhere in the world—shoot, anywhere in America, an’ ask ‘em about it. Guarantee they’d be all like, ‘What? Next City? Where’s ‘dat?’ Tell ‘em it’s in Alabama, an’ they’d be like, ‘What? Alabama? You mean that state in tha South? Where everyone’s all country an’ junk? What they know about tech?’ Please. This ain’t New York. People's still racist down here.”
“Stay informed, scrub. Popular or not, all sorts of R and D breakthroughs come from this town. Now back on subject, why do you hate tech? It's actually been debated that it's done more harm than good. I'd love to hear your take on it.”
“How do you even know that?”
“I read. You know, that thing teachers try to get you to do. Pick up a book some time.”
“See, a book! That’s what I’m talkin’ about. When’s the last time you’ve seen people read one? I doubt people’ve even heard of ‘em. Everything’s digital. You gotta look at some light t’read, some light t’write. Seewhatimsayin’?” Nexus paints the picture with his hands. “‘Sides, read a book? I’ll wait for the movie, thank you.”
“See, right there. ‘Wait for the movie.’” Lynn is no stranger to hand gestures herself, almost mocking Chris’s actions. “That right there needs tech. So why do you hate it?”
“It's complicated,” Chris says lowering his head.
“Oh come on. I’m sure it’s a simple reason when you look at it.”
“No, the tech's complicated. I jus' got these hover shoes last week.” He stops for a moment to show them off. “An' I still can't turn 'em on.”
“Shoes? This was about shoes? Why do I even—did you read the instructions?”
“I told you. I'm waitin' for the movie.”
Lynn needed to get out of the house. She mentioned something about not being able to function in the environment she was in. She's always goin' on about something. Don't give it any thought. Not having many places to go, she ran by Chris's place to be entertained.
Chris was told to head to the store and back. Something about groceries, there might have been a list involved. In any case, it's an errand that needs to be run. Oh, that's what I was supposed to do. Since getting his sword, most of his time and effort has been devoted into that. Even now, he carries it at his side. Speaking of which,
“Why in the world are you carrying that thing? No, better yet, how in the world did you sneak that out past your mom? I know if she knew you had that it, there’d be trouble.”
“Ain’t that the truth. It wasn’t easy, I’ll tell you that much. I had t’throw it out the window early this morning, an’ then get to it without her knowin’ what I was doin’. Turned out, I threw it in a tree, so I had t’climb—”
“Is that a mugging?” The two come to a halt as they notice something taking place in the alley across the road.
“Don’t point at it! Dang, you see two black folks throwin’ down like that, the last thing you wanna do is point!”
Lynn folds her arms. “Oh, like you suddenly know about the thug life.”
They move in closer. “Wait, those ain’t no thugs. Posers.”
“Don’t they go to our school?” Lynn is intrigued. “Wow, he’s really hammering the guy.”
“Let’s go play hero,” and with that, he jets.
Play is the only word he meant to say, and by play, Lynn knows that Chris means get involved with the fight himself. She knows roughhousing is one of his pastimes. She also knows that this playtime is going to end is badly. All futures point to it, but she also knows it’d be a lie to say she’s not interested.
One of the two brawlers is at the other’s throat. “…I’m not playin’ with you, Noah. Why’d you—Do you even know? You straight up backstabbed me,” he says gripping the other's collar tighter.
“Look Kai, I don’t know how it happened. She was just—” Kai punches him. “Ow! Why’d you do that?”
“I’m two seconds from lightin’ your tail up like a match!”
“I’d freeze you like a—”
“You threat’nin’ me?”
“You’re the one holdin’ me to a wall about to flameon like the Human Torch! Get off me.” Noah breaks his grab and shoves him away. “Now, if you wanna fight over this that’s fine, but you need t’calm the heck down, Jamal Quinton Hezekiah Michaels!”
“Don’t go sayin’ my full name, like you’re my dad or somethin’, Noah Mark Williams!” He notices an Chris running in. It is almost like a blur. “What in the world?”
“What in the what—” Noah turns to see the crazed blue headed wonder charge in from across the street. “Who’re you?”
“Nexus, what's up?” Still trying to get people to call him that name. You're supposed to be callin' me it, too.
Noah and Kai stare at him with blank looks. “Is that a sword?” Noah asks.
Chris holds it up. “Yes, an' it's gonna solve both your problems,” and then he unsheathes it.
Noah takes a step back, throwing both his hands in the air. “Whoa! Hold up! What in—”
Kai does the same, “Ain't nobody need to go swingin' that thing around!”
“Are you crazy?”
Chris laughs. “Dang, what's your problem? It's not like it's energy based. Got this from an antique shop. Most knives could cut through this. Bet your ST's could even break it.”
Noah steps out of the alley, away from the crowd. “This is crazy. I’m leaving.”
Kai puts his hand on his shoulder. “Hold up. You know we’re not done with this!”
And like that, Noah is off in a sprint. Down the sidewalk, he runs like mad, but Kai is right on him, but that doesn’t last long. The distance between them grows by the second. Kai realizes this, and it tears him up inside. Noah’s a speed demon. Running just isn’t Kai’s forte.
There’s a bit of a draft left in their wake. Lynn feels it as they zoom past her. “Nexus, what did you do?”
“Nothin’.”
She points in the Kai and Noah’s direction. “Then why are they running away from you?”
“I dunno.”
“Then why is your sword out?”
“I was showin’ it off. Move.” And just like that, Chris is on the run. Why is he running? He feels challenged. The fight turned into a race, and he’s not gonna be left behind. If he didn’t run, he’d be giving up, and he doesn't like giving up.
He starts in last place, but that doesn’t matter. Running is what he does. At his core, it’s all he does. It’s his ST. He can’t fly, he can’t shoot fire or ice from his hands, he can’t do magic, but he can run, because it's at his core.
Already, he whooshes past Kai. Just a few more feet, just a few more feet, not even a second passes, and—“Tag”—he lunges on top of Noah. Tackles him to the ground. They both skid across the pavement—scratches them up real bad. Chris seems to be alright for the most part, but Noah,
“Agh! You idiot! What the hell’s the matter with you?” He looks at his elbow. Doing so only seems to make the scrape sting more.
Kai catches up, running on nothing but rage. He's tired as can be, huffing and puffing, but he’s still mad enough to start a fight. And a fight is all this is going to lead to. Chris is crazy. Noah is upset. Kai is mad, and Lynn arrives just in time to see everything blow up.
Punches are thrown. Intensity feels the air. Some choice words are shouted, especially choice for kids their age. It's a brawl. Kai is focused on beating the tar out of Noah, but Chris keeps jumping in the way. Eventually, he gets fed up with having to deal with that speed demon and ignites a fireball in his hand to throw Chris's way.
Chris swiftly evades the ball of flame and runs up to whack Kai with the his sword's scabbard.
Noah quickly puts out the small fire that Kai started with his ice powers. And now that he knows that ST's are involved, he decides to really cut loose. Freezing the ground, tossing snowballs, blasting cool breezes their way.
Fire, Ice, and Nexus in between. Chris is slashing like a madman. Thankfully he has horrible aim, because just about all of his strikes miss their mark.
Lynn is standing on the sidelines. Deep down inside, this is exactly what she wanted. Her day started off horribly. She got in another fight with her mom, and she needed to find something to take her mind off of it. She knew if she stuck around Chris long enough, something like this would happen. Something always happens when he's involved.
But as the fight draws in the attention of those passing by, she starts to realize that this may have gotten out of hand. The few cars zoom along the street slow down. People are staring. They're taking out their phones. With how reckless the boys are acting, flaunting their ST's without regards to their surroundings, it's no wonder that people are gathering and talking. And is that—yes, it is.
She can hear sirens. The police are here. The police are here.
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