Let There Be Rivals
#3 of Demi-Gods
Hey, sorry for the long wait and all, my computer kind of...exploded, which screwed up my hand and made it pretty much impossible to type or write. Then the day I get my shiny new laptop to plug my external hard drive into, my internet subscription decides to cancel itself. So yeah, to make up for it, I've posted two chapters this time, and I've also got a couple of other stories in the wings. Character profiles available on demand.
So without further ado, here's part 3: Let There Be Rivals
"That is impossible..."
Samantha looked at her friends in confusion as they stared at Grey, who was standing in front of them wearing a pair of baggy camo pants, his tail hidden inside one of the legs, a cream coloured long sleeve shirt and dark brown jacket. He was wearing a pair of shoes they had bought earlier, simple black Levi's he'd spotted almost immediately.
"He is just too hot! There's nothing that looks bad on him!" Sarah said, shaking her head in disbelief.
They had been shopping for almost two hours now, and had bought more than enough clothes for Grey. The other two, however, had made it their mission to find something that didn't suite him, and were finding it a near impossible task. Sighing, Samantha patted the two of them on the shoulders, looking at the relaxed and calm boy.
"Let's go get smoothies or something, you two," she said, "You've put him in everything that fits and a lot that doesn't, and I think the shop staff are getting worried."
The door slid open silently and the woman entered, her high heels clicking loudly against the hard floor. She set her bag down on the small wall mounted table and turned to the girl sitting cross-legged on the bed. She inspected the child with cold eyes, her gaze lingering on the piece of paper she held tightly in her hands.
"What is that?" Dr. Rachel Lester asked, standing over the girl as she looked up, her dark green eyes seeming to shimmer for a moment.
"A picture." Gamma replied, looking back down, letting her hair fall around her face again.
"A picture?" Dr. Lester stared at the grainy image, able to make out a surprisingly handsome face on a body that appeared to be kicking a door down, "Of whom?"
"Brother."
"That doesn't look like either Alpha or Delta," The Doctor replied, walking back to her bag and pulling out a stethoscope.
"Eldest brother," Gamma said, her voice softening a little, "Epsilon."
"Epsilon?" Dr. Lester repeated, looking back at the girl, "Interesting... Now lift your shirt."
"Hey, Grey!" Emily suddenly chimed, sitting up straight in her chair, an excited look on her face, "Do you have any brothers or sisters? 'Cause I got two brothers, who're cops, along with my dad! And I'm gonna be a cop too and help them catch criminals and solve cases and..."
"Emily, breath," Samantha said as she walked up behind the girl, tapping her on the head with her smoothie glass as she handed Grey's to him, "You won't be able to do anything if you kill yourself talking."
"Aww, you're such a spoilsport, Sammy," Emily pouted, her head snapping around suddenly and a grin appearing on her face when Sarah handed her the smoothie she'd ordered, "Chocolate!"
"Jeez, you're a weirdo, Ems. But anyway, I'd actually like to hear this answer," Samantha laughed before becoming more serious, "So do you have any siblings, Grey?"
"Yes," the boy answered, taking a sip from his coffee smoothie, "I have four."
"Oh! What're their names? What do they look like? Where are they? How old are they?" Emily suddenly launched into an interrogation, leaning over the table and pushing her face as close as she could to Grey's, suddenly being cut off by Samantha's hand pushing her back into her seat.
"Relax, he'll tell us if he wants to," she scolded, looking at the strange boy sitting next to her.
"Its fine, I don't really mind." He said, a hint of a smile darting across his face, "They are called Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. I have not seen them in eight years, so I do not know what they look like. I do not know where they are or how they are. Alpha and Delta would be seventeen this year, while Gamma is sixteen and Beta fifteen."
"Woah, either your parents didn't know their ABC's, or you guys were born in the wrong order." Emily said, leaning back in her seat as she slurped at the smoothie.
"We were named according to our sector, not when we awoke." Grey answered calmly, making the three girls stare at him in confusion.
"Okay, I think you need to explain this in more detail, but not here, wait until we get back to my place," Samantha said, finishing her smoothie and getting up, "Come on, let's walk around a bit more."
Grey nodded as the three girls rose from the table, turning to get up as well. As he stood, a thick arm rammed into his chest, causing the last of his smoothie to spray up and onto his shirt.
"Oops, my bad," the other boy chuckled, his friends all laughing behind him, "Guess I didn't see you there, pretty boy."
"That is fine, I accept your apology," Grey said, wiping the smoothie straight off.
The group stared in amazement as he wiped the drink off his shirt as if it were water off a plastic rain coat, and seemingly oblivious to the fact that they had just made fun of him. The one who had spilled the drink blinked as Grey turned away, grabbing his shoulder and spinning him around suddenly.
"What the hell is up with you, pretty boy? Think you're too good to face up to us?" He asked, pushing his face into Grey's.
"No, I simply do not wish to fight." Grey replied calmly, turning away from the youth again.
"Well too bad," the boy shouted, swinging his fist up and slamming it into the back of Grey's head, where it stopped.
Grey turned around slowly, looking at the group behind his attacker, then at the attacker himself, a strange smile spreading slowly across his lips as his voice changed, growing slightly huskier and meaner, "However, if in self defence, I have no problem in knocking some sense into a little, shit-brained punk."
"What?"
Louise Parker turned when she heard the shout, staring at the boy as he blinked in surprise, seeming to be otherwise unaffected by the blow. She watched as he turned around slowly to face the boy who had hit him.
"However, if in self defence, I have no problem knocking some sense into a little, shit-brained punk." He growled at the startled boy, who stared at him in confusion.
"What?"
The fist landed squarely on the side of his head, sending the much larger boy flying sideways, bouncing off one of the picnic tables like the one he had been sitting at. The boy's friends immediately leapt to their feet and charged the stranger, and were all sent flying back seconds later. Louise watched in amazement as he seemed to dance around them, delivering a single blow to each that sent them flying through the air to land limply on the ground, out cold. As suddenly as the fight had begun, it was over, with the unknown boy as the obvious victor, and not even out of breath. He turned around suddenly and strode straight towards her, giving Louise shock and a full view of his face.
He was beautiful and somehow handsome and cute all at the same time, and he was walking straight towards Louise. Shaking her head, she straightened her back and stuck out her chest, smiling at the boy as he approached. "Hi, my name's Louise..." she blinked in surprise as he walked straight past her, joining the group of girls that had just walked past.
Turning, she stared at him, and the girl who had her arms wrapped tightly around his neck as she scolded him. Louise gritted her teeth as she hissed her name, "Samantha Cartwel."
Samantha had watched the whole fight in quiet admiration, and a little fear, as Grey had laid waste to the group of much larger boys in a matter of seconds, before turning away and walking calmly towards them, as if nothing had happened. Next to her, Emily and Sarah were staring at him in awe as he smiled at them in confusion.
"Um..." He said hesitantly, not sure what to make of their reactions. Samantha suddenly jumped on him and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, hugging him as she began scolding him.
"Dammit, Grey! You have to be careful! You can't just go around beating people up all like that!" She said, pressing her face into his neck to hide the worried look on her face.
"But it was in self defence, if he had not hit me, I would not have hit back." He said, hugging Samantha back gently.
"Yeah, but still, next time be more careful, or at least try to go easier on them." The last part was whispered hurriedly in his ear as he put her down, a stern look on her face.
"Very well, I am sorry," he replied, letting go of Samantha almost hesitantly.
"Samantha Cartwel." A sing-song voice chimed from behind Grey, making Samantha tense as she identified its owner.
"Hello Louise," she said, trying to hide the annoyance in her voice.
"I was just passing by when I saw this fine example of a man teaching a well deserved lesson to those horrible trouble makers," the blonde girl chimed, walking around Grey and inspecting him as if he were a piece of art.
"And?"
"And I wondered how someone like this hadn't been snatched up yet by some lovely young flower who would cater to his every desire, whatever that ma..." the girl started, getting cut off by an annoyed growl from Samantha.
"Get on with it."
"Hmph, how uncouth. Anyway, I was wondering that when I saw you leaping onto him. And I thought 'What is this, could Samantha have gotten herself a boyfriend?'"
"I said get on with it." Samantha groaned, rubbing her eyes in annoyance.
"So, I then reasoned, 'No, it would be impossible for that, as she is most unlady-like, so he must be a close relative,'" the girl looked up at Grey with her cutest smile, "Am I not right?"
"No, I am not a relative," Grey said plainly, making the side of Louise's mouth twitch slightly.
"Then what are you?" she asked, still staring up at him.
Grey looked down at the blonde girl in confusion, before turning to Samantha and saying, "Can we leave? She's disturbing me."
Louise froze as he said this, caught completely off guard as the four of them quickly walked away, Samantha's voice floating to her ears, "yeah, she does that to everyone."
"What's so special about Grey, anyway?"
The two men looked at each other, obviously reluctant to answer the question.
"Hey! He's going to be around my daughter," Emilia huffed, "I at least want to know what made Bradley react so violently!"
"Epsilon...his mentor was Dr. Alistair Lester, the world renowned geneticist and psychologist." Roland said, sighing heavily as he leant back in his seat, "He was assigned to Epsilon because the boy thinks... differently."
"When they were growing, a set of rules was implanted into their very being," Her husband suddenly explained, "You know, the usual kind of stuff, 'You may not kill humans', 'You must follow orders', etc. All of them followed these rules like their lives depended on them, because they basically did."
"If they were to disobey one of the rules, they would immediately begin to feel...not ill, just...wrong, like they'd disowned their very being by breaking one of the rules. Epsilon, however, was different." Emilia watched her husband talking, unable to believe the words coming out of his mouth, not only had he and his brother admitted to creating life, but they were now talking about them as if they were animals, like lab rats to be tested on.
"How? How was...is he different?" she asked, staring at the man she thought she loved, but wasn't too sure now.
"He could bypass the rules." Roland said suddenly, tapping a touch screen several times, a series of videos flashing up on the screen. All of them were of Grey, and all of them showed him breaking at least one of the rules.
"Instead of killing, he would mearly injure people who got in his way," a video of a soldier having both legs snapped in two played, a six year old Grey standing nearby with his arm out stretched, "He would refuse to follow the orders of anyone except those he chose, stating that he 'listened to them'," An army officer was screaming at Grey, who now looked to be about eight, his tail only about two feet long then, and didn't react until a younger version of the girl they had seen earlier, Gamma, called to him to follow, "Protect humans from harm became protect anything he saw as human from harm." The video cut to a tank being blasted away by a ten year old Grey, a cowering Gamma behind him. Both were naked and he seemed to be in a daze, Gamma clinging in terror to his tail, clutching it like a comfort blanket as he threw his arms around randomly, pieces of building and vehicles tearing apart as invisible forces slammed into them.
"This is the last video document of Epsilon for ten years. He destroyed almost half of the facility in less than thirty minutes," Her husband sighed, "The strain was too much on his body and he passed out. Dr. Lester placed him in stasis a few days later..."
"And he got out yesterday," Roland finished, sitting heavily in his chair, "Before the incident and being placed into stasis, he had undergone a series of conditioning sessions. We believe these are partially what caused his rampage."
Emilia stared as her husband growled through the screen, "Yeah, that, and what he was ordered to do."
Samantha flopped down on her bed with a happy sigh, sitting up when the two other girls jumped on beside her. The three of them watched Grey intently as he pulled out and sat in Samantha's desk chair, looking at all three of them nervously.
"Well," Samantha said, "Get talking, this story isn't going to tell itself!"
"Yeah, come on; tell us about your childhood and your siblings and stuff!" Emily ordered, giggling happily.
"Uh... very well." Grey replied, sighing as he leant back in the chair, as if trying to remember a memory from long ago, "Thirteen years ago, I Awakened. I was placed in the care of a man I knew only as Ouji. I was taught various forms of martial arts and underwent tests frequently."
Grey took a breath, closing his eyes tightly, as if trying to picture the scene, "There were the five of us. The Successes. I was the first. Alpha Awakened almost a year after I did, with Delta only a few months later. Gamma Awakened next, after eight more months, and finally, just over three years after I had Awakened, so did Beta."
Three girls stared at Grey as he described the Spartan living conditions he and his siblings shared, and their strict exercise and education regimes. Samantha leant back and listened as he emotionlessly described the tests and tasks he and the other four children had to complete, clenching her jaw as he continued to describe the increasingly horrific scenarios.
"Then, one day, I was told that there would be one more task. Then I would be left mostly to myself, until the final stage was ready." Grey sat back up as he said, staring directly at Samantha, who had now opened her eyes.
"What was it?" Sarah asked, her hands still pressed over her mouth from the shock of hearing the previous tasks.
"My brothers, Alpha and Delta, are sterile. And, while I call them my siblings, we have no relation what so ever, only in where and how we were raised." Grey explained, making the three girls blink in surprise.
"You don't mean...they wanted you to..." Sarah gasped, staring at Grey in amazement.
"I destroyed half the facility. Then collapsed. I woke up several days later and was placed in stasis by the man I had called father for five years." Grey answered, his voice losing all emotion as he spoke, his eyes glazing over slightly.
"But, that means you were only ten! How could they expect a ten year old to get another kid pregnant?" Samantha shouted, leaping off of her bed.
"It was conditioning," Grey replied, his voice almost mechanical as he stood up from the chair, his body visibly shaking, a tear rolling down his cheek as he dropped his face, fists clenched beside him as his tail lashed frantically, knocking into the things on Samantha's desk, sending them flying across the room with surprising force, "It was conditioning, so they wouldn't resist when we came of age... I was ordered to rape the only two girls I had ever known, ever cared for in my life. I refused, and they forced me."
Samantha stepped back, both horrified at what had happened to him, and surprised by Grey's emotional reaction. She reached out slowly as he stood there, shaking, seemingly unable to cry. Samantha gasped as her hand touched Grey's shoulder, her wrist suddenly in his powerful grip, being squeezed painfully as his tears fell to the floor silently.
"They took away my emotions. My proper feelings. I didn't care, couldn't care, anymore. But they couldn't take away what that man had taught me. I still refused to do it. The treatment was too much for me. I broke down." Grey's voice trailed off as he said this, his grip tightening even more.
"I...destroyed half of the facility. Half...people crushed...died...not meant to hurt...against rules...against words...in head, feels wrong..." Grey mumbled out snatches of speech as he began to wobbled from side to side, his knees suddenly buckling beneath him.
"Grey!" Samantha tried to catch the falling boy as he collapsed on top of her, releasing her wrist as they fell, "Grey! Pull yourself together! It's not your fault! You did the right thing! You didn't kill on purpose! You were protecting them! Like when you protected me! Grey!"