Cain stops at a house, walks inside, and tosses Ethan onto the couch. He turns the lights on and heads toward the kitchen to start heating some food.

“Hey kid, what do you want? I’m heating some leftover Chinese food, does that sound good? Then again, you can't hear me so why do I even bother asking, HA.”

Soon Cain is sitting at the dining table enjoying his food like the previous events hadn’t occurred just earlier. He goes to get a glass of water as the news plays through an old-looking TV.

The smell of old furniture mixed with reheated food made its way into my nose.

“Ughh, what time is it?” wincing at a sharp pain that increased as I tried to sit up.

I looked around, trying to focus my eyes as I blinked a couple of times to get rid of the bright lights. I pat myself down and notice a bandage cast on my left shoulder blade, and that’s when some memories start flooding back to me. I frantically try to get up, stumbling as I do.

“Where- Where am I? And who are YOU!? Darnell, JALEN. Where are you guys, stop playing and come out, there’s a strange old dude in your house.”

“First of all, this ‘strange old dude’ is not ‘old’ nor is this their house. My name is Cain, and I’m the person who saved your sorry ass from being killed like your 2 piñats. Now, will you please sit down, shut up, and listen? Thank you.”

“Hey old man, first off-” my speech is cut off short as I wince at the pain throbbing in my left shoulder.

“If you keep talking so much, you’ll never get the whole story, so let me explain what happened and where your friends are.”

“Whatever. This is your Chinese food?” as I pace over to the diner table.

“Not anymore, thanks.”

Cain looks at me with a disgusted look and of regret as he walks over to the couch and sits down.

“Look kid, I don’t like stories nor do I like talking much so I’m going to do this as short as possible. Your two friends are dead, you got attacked, I saved you and here we are, with you now under my care until the foreseeable future.”

“Wait wait, what. Darnell and Jalen are dead!? Stop joking man, I didn’t wake up for this crap. Tell me straight, where are my friends?”

Cain gets up and walks to his phone and grabs it off the dining table. As he approaches me, he taps on his phone a few times and by the time he gets to me, the color on my face is drained.

Filled with disbelief and shock, I pushed his phone away from my sight, and for the first time, held back tears. My head was spinning. What I saw weren’t my friends, but instead a scene from an intense horror movie or something, but NOT my friends. Choking on my voice

“Are you sure that’s them? That- that can’t be, they were JUST with me!”

“I don’t know how much you remember kid, but let me put it like this. That creepy feeling you were feeling, it wasn’t random, it wasn’t because of football hits, no. That was the assassin Murdock following you around, preying on you like a baby bird. Seems you’re pretty valuable to the higher-ups.”

“The higher-ups, and who would that be?” As I started to gather the words to my follow-up question, more and more memories started flooding back into my mind, my teammate's bodies, the attack, Murdock, all up to when Cain arrived. For the first time in a while, slight tears started running down my face as I choked out my words.

“I remember, I recall bits and pieces of it. They were slaughtered, and I was attacked by the guy I’m assuming is Murdock. The last thing I remember, though, are you saving me, and then it's all black.”

“Good good, at least you can remember properly. Yes, that all happened and I made sure you stayed asleep so you wouldn’t get in my way in my fight. That Murdock fellow won’t be bothering you anymore, but he’s the least of our problems now. The Boss has got his eyes on you which means he’ll use any means necessary to get you.”

I rubbed my head, trying to process everything that he just said and was saying. Cain kept talking, something about Gears and stuff, but his voice was drowned out by my thoughts.

“What fight is he talking about, if there was one, and Cain is still alive that means… oh God, he killed him. And who’s this ‘Boss’ guy he keeps mentioning?”

As I continued with my thoughts, I was interrupted as I jolted up from my seat from the loud boom of his voice.

“HELLOO! ANYONE THERE!?!”

“Sorry, I was just lost in thought. What were you saying, something about Gears and the Boss?”

“Gosh kid, you’re gonna have to dawdle on your own time, for every time you make me repeat myself, that’s a punch you get. Got it?”

“Woah, yeah yeah I got it, old man.”

“Good. Now as I was saying, you were targeted specifically for your Gear, well Gears, plural.”

“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask you, what IS a Gear? Like I know you’ve been mentioning that a lot, but I don’t know what you’re talking about and I don’t pretend to understand stuff.”

“Hmph, and I thought you were so great. Gears you imbecile, are the powers that drive our body and this world. We all have Gears in us, activating it is the key and the trickiest part though. Not just that, but Gears are individualized, meaning they’re based on our personalities.”

“Woah, so like they’re superpowers or something right? What’s your Gear and how soon can we get mine working because I’m sick of getting my ass beat.”

As I started to get slightly excited about the news of having superpowers, Cain disappeared before my eyes. By the time I was out of my seat in an attempt to look for him, there he was, standing directly in front of me with his cold daggers of eyes piercing my soul.

“This good enough for you kid?”

I gulped and took a step back as I tried not to fall back into my seat, still confused.

“Yes, but I still don’t get what you just did all you did was just disap-”

Before I could finish my sentence, his right fist connected with my gut, sending me back into my seat coughing up a fit.

“What the hell was that for!?” I exclaimed as I wiped some blood off the corner of my mouth.

“Don’t you listen, kid, I said make me repeat myself and you get punched, or is your head so far up your ass you can’t even listen to simple directions?”

I looked up and realized something. I was stuck with a crazy old man and honestly, I couldn’t complain because if it wasn’t for him, I’d be eating pavement as a dead body right now.

“Yeah yeah, I heard you. Copy that.”

“Good. So like I was saying, Gears are like ‘superpowers’ but they’re so much different. For example, powers can be used for as long as you want with no repercussions. Gears aren’t like that, use them too long and the effects reach you internally.”

“So like you’d start to get injured or something?”

“In a way, yes. Let's say I use my Gear for a long period, my body will slowly get ripped apart until it’s turned to ash. That’s what super speed does to you kid.”

Sitting up in my seat, I continued eating my food until it was finished. Wiping the sauce of my mouth, still with a mouthful of rice and chicken I ask

“So if that’s the case, why does this ‘Boss’ guy want me so much?”

“It’s simple really,” he said as he sat down on the coffee table across from me, tearing apart some chicken wings he got from the fridge.

“As I said, the more use a person puts into their Gears, the more damage they receive, until the fatal end. However, there is a way to slow this process, and that's by having multiple Gears in a body.”

“Well if that’s the case, then why doesn’t everyone just have that?”

“It’s not that simple, BiGears or TriGears are extremely rare, born every other generation and every 3 generations respectively. As much as I hate to say this to your already arrogant self, you're a special kid, which is why a lot of people want you so bad.”

“Hmph, well I always knew I was great, but THIS great. That’s just perfect. So when can we skip all this talking and get to some real action?”

“That’s the first thing you said that I actually agree with, come on outside and I’ll show you how things work.”