Power is a scary thing

After about an hour or so Theseus woke up in a hospital bed.

"Huh? Where am I?" He looked around and eventually understood the situation, he could barely move his arms and his chin seemed to be in a lot of pain.

"Oh? DOCTOR!, HE'S AWAKE!." Said a nearby nurse.

The world felt as if it were spinning in circles as Theseus began to wake up

Soon after a Shylian nurse arrived to explain what was going on.

"You must be Theseus right?"

"Yeah?"

"We ended up doing a lot of check-ups on you, hopefully you don't mind, just some x-rays and multiple different types of tests."

"Am I, going to be alright?" He said as he coughed an awful lot

"Of course, you're in great hands, anyways we learned that you broke both your arms, and that your jaw is fractured, as you may notice you'll have some difficulty with speaking or opening your jaw fully or even closing it."

"Y-Yeah."

"But do not worry, our new and improved healing serum will fix you up in no time, Just take one dose today and one before you sleep."

"Sounds, easy enough." The pain only increased as he kept talking

"It sure is, would you like your first dose now?"

"Y-Yes."

As the nurse went to rummage around a nearby cabinet, Theseus looked around the room he was in, it was mostly all white except for the floor, it was a checkered floor pattern that was black and white, there seemed to be a desk with a computer, within it was written his name and the fact that he was Human was highlighted for some reason.

Soon after the Nursed arrived.

"Here it is."

She grabs a nearby spoon and puts the green liquid onto it.

"Say Ahhhh."

"Ahhhh."

She shoves the spoon down his throat.

"It's sort of slimy, bleh, I don't exactly like it but whatever works, I'll take it."

"Alrighty dear, I heard your parents are going to be here soon, just stay there and rest, also a young boy and a young girl came to visit you multiple times, they said when you woke up to let them know you're alright so feel free to do that whenever you feel like it." She ticks a couple of things on a nearby notepad and leaves closing the door behind her.

"Well, that's nice of them, I guess I should get some sleep then, wouldn't hurt." He closes his eyes but is soon after woken up by the door opening.

"D-Dad?"

But his father could not be seen anywhere, instead, a Mouthless with scissors was at the door instead, it was a young girl with black hair, her mask resembled that of a comedy mask, she wore a green hoodie and had brown boots that seemed to be quite old.

"What? Is this another nurse?"

She moved her mask to the side, quite a rare sight to see from a mouthless, her eyes were purple and her face seemed overjoyed yet creepy-looking,

"Awww, you must be Theseus, look at you, so unique and handsome yet in such a sad state, I wish I found you all for myself but sadly, that stupid Blau had to fight you and ruin you., oh well, nothing that can't be fixed."

"W-Who are you?" Theseus attempted to move his arms but his body wouldn't respond

The girl slowly walks up to the bed, and as she leans in and whispers into his ear she tells him.

"Shh, don't worry about anything my sick little boy, You need to focus on resting you know that? Now let's examine you a little."

She jumps onto the bed with him and starts to sit on his stomach with all her weight.

"Oh my you're bigger than you seem, those muscles, that face, you sure are so… Unique, and just so In te res ting."

Theseus tries to struggle and forces one of his arms to move to try and push her to no avail.

"Let's not be too hasty my dear." She slowly leans and overlaps her body onto his, yet again she whispers into his ear softly.

"You struggle one more time, and you won't make it out of here alive you hear me?"

He begins to get nervous, his heartbeat steadily rising.

"Such a nice heartbeat, Let me get a closer look."

With her scissors in hand, she cuts the shirt in half.

"I wonder just how fast I can make it beat." Her soft hands move along his chest gently, She means no harm, for now, she starts to even hug him a little.

"That sure did it, You're a good boy Theseus, oh how I wish I could just take those eyes of yours and shove them into mine, but sadly I cannot, I'd have to go out of my way and find a good surgeon or a special Second Wind user, oh well, I guess I can just admire them from a distance, you don't mind right?"

Theseus tries his best to say that he minds but is unable to say anything.

"Aww, you don't? You're so kind you know that, I just want to keep you here forever and cut you up all nice and lightly, but sadly I must go, as a little gift I'll give you this."

She ruthlessly grabs a hold of her scissors and uses them as if they were a knife, cutting a nice clean incision like cut onto his chest.

"Such a nice color, I suppose a little taste wouldn't hurt anyone right?" She licks the excess blood that leaks out, and cleans her mouth with her hoodie.

"Mmmm, good, now you go have your fun, I'm sure we'll meet again, don't worry, I'll be watching from afar, as your biggest fan."

She skips her way back out of the room and closes the door whilst sending him a kiss.

"Am I dreaming? What's even happening anymore."

He falls asleep and just gives up on trying to comprehend the situation he was in, About a couple of hours later, someone else walks into the room.

"THESEUS MY BOY, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" His Father had a few tears in his eyes

"D-DAD? IS THAT REALLY YOU?" And so did Theseus

"OF COURSE, ARE YOU HEALING ALRIGHT? I HEARD THAT SERUM THEY HAVE DOES WONDERS."

"IT TASTES BAD BUT IT SEEMS OK."

Theseus's jaw seemed to have healed just enough for him to talk, but still hurts to move.

"Remember what we taught you, if it tastes bad it's probably good for you! Now for the important question, did you win?"

"Oh come on Dad, what do you think, of course I did."

"GOOD! GREAT! AS EXPECTED FROM MY SON, want me to carry you to the car?"

"Yes please, also where's Mom?"

"Oh you know how she gets, she's worried sick but doesn't have the guts to see you in such a state, she's quite sensitive to this stuff, soooo, would you mind pretending like you're better than usual?"

"I was going to do that either way don't you worry."

"Thank you, now off we go!"

His Father lets him get onto his back and starts to take him to where he parked, The cut the girl had left was already healed by the time he got there, and Theseus didn't seem to want to tell the event that happened to his father either way.

"I already grabbed all your stuff so don't worry."

"That's a relief."

"Just who do you think I am? although I may beat you all the time in every game I still care about you a lot."

"And I don't blame you one bit, If I was in your situation I'd do the same."

"I guess it runs in our blood huh."

"Probably."

"Anyways here, get in the back seat." He puts him down making sure he's stable

"Why the back?"

"Because you're sick and stuff, also that's how it works you know? When you're rich and have other people drive you, you sit in the back, like a taxi."

"I guess, well alright."

"Good, here." He opens the door for him.

"Thank you."

Once they're both in the car they start to head straight home.

"So, how did it happen then?" Theseus's Father looks through centre mirror to look his son in the eyes

"Oh, you don't know?"

"No I just assumed it was a regular school fight since they don't particularly like our kind."

"It's probably better he doesn't know it was a boxing event." Theseus musters up the courage to lie.

"Y-Yeah, you know how it gets, it was a Blau and he got really rough all of a sudden, but on a more important note have you ever heard of a Second Wind?"

His Father got a bit paler that he had learned this at such a young age. "Oh... So uh, you found out huh."

"W-What?"

"I know, no one expects me to have one but-"

"Wait a minute, I was talking about myself!?"

"Huh!" He completely stops the car. "Since when did, wait you have one!? When did you-"

"No you go first! Have you been hiding this from mom too?!"

"Of course not, I just didn't think I had to tell you yet, I would have rather we talked about this when you were older, why is life full of unexpected events."

"Tell me about it! I just found out about this!!!"

"Well it all happened when I was playing online against someone you've probably heard of, Diaphone, he's a human like us, I was surprised to fight him as it was a long time since we last fought in a tournament, at the start I felt pretty confident it wasn't too hard, but then randomly he got a lot of good reads on me,

the second he understood I was pretty bad at teching grabs, that guy kept spamming it over and over but the second he did it twice he went for a mix, he won the first match and somehow I managed to barely win the second one

we both knew the winner wouldn't win anything and that they would just get the pride of winning against one another but that was more than enough for me, and at the start of the final match he got me in quite the mix-up, he went high then low then grabbed and kept having me guess every move,

but I wasn't done, I refused I simply couldn't lose especially not against him, knowing him he'd probably boast about it on his livestream I couldn't let that happen, I knew I had to be better I knew I had to adapt I knew something needed to change,

and that's where it happened, something within me just awakened, at first I didn't realize it because of how in the zone I was but I was laser focused, more than usual, it was as if nothing else mattered around me, and the only thing I cared about was winning,

I guessed right every single move, some of it was thanks to luck, but some were out of just reading him, I knew he would be desperate and go back to grabbing me so I punished each one, and eventually I won, it felt amazing.

Realistically I probably shouldn't have taken this so seriously but it was pretty fun, afterwards I had a look at myself and I realized just what had happened, my heart it changed, it was different, for some reason, I could just control it at will, I could even stop it for a couple of seconds,

it helped me stay calm and focused, and when I needed more oomph or something to hype me up I could accelerate it, although I didn't get anything cool at least I got something, and I'll take it, I use it every now and then and I mean it's a pretty useful power, so I'm quite happy about it, what about you? Did you get anything decent?"

"Wow, Dad that was quite the story, I nearly had a tear in my eye, but right, you know how in fighting games in training you can pause the game and make it go frame by frame."

"Yeah of course, and you can measure the time in the training etcetera."

"Well it's sort of like that except I do it in real time."

"What? That's way too strong! How the hell did you get so lucky!?"

"You know what they say dad, luck is a skill too!" Theseus had a big smug on his face

His Father releases a big sigh "I'm both glad and sad I taught you that saying."

The rest of the drive was smooth sailing, they conversed about random things in their everyday lives, but Theseus noticed something about his Father, as if he weren't telling him something, something important.

As they arrived Theseus rushes through the door, he pretends to be in perfect condition greeting his crying mother as he attempts to console her

"There there, see? I'm fine already!" He caressed his mother's head

"Promise me you won't do anything stupid like this again! Please Theseus!"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves now alright, let's focus on how I'm feeling great first."

It was already quite late and Theseus was tired, after making sure his mother was fine he went upstairs and passed out in his bed.

He dreamt about walking around the city he lived in, but something felt off, almost like someone was watching him or someone hated him, he couldn't tell the difference but randomly he fell down a hole screaming yet no sound would come out of his mouth, within the hole lots of art pieces and random fragments of knowledge about the world could be seen inside side of it, at the speed he was falling it felt like a rush of random colors, he quickly used his Second Wind to look at them carefully.

He saw a bunch of weird things, random paintings and gems scattered all over, Human-like creatures that seemed to be hollow, and a bunch of random symbols, some were triangular some were rectangular, the most peculiar part of it all was there was a random supermarket to which everything seemed to point at, afterwards he woke up in a panic.

He took a deep breath and made sure he was alright all over his body. "Whew, that was so, odd, I wonder if it means something."

Theseus stared at his palm for a couple of seconds and then looked at his messages.

"HEYTHESEUS? EVERYTHING ALRIGHT? I'LL TELL BARU TO COME CHECK UP ON YOU AFTER SCHOOL."

"WHAT'S GOOD MY GUY! HOPE YOU'RE FEELING BETTER, I'LL GO GRAB DAGORIA AND COME CHECK UP ON YOU LATER OK??? I'LL BRING A TREAT OR TWO, (Don't worry I'll just have her buy it)."

"Well that's good to hear, and I woke up around eleven, I guess I'll go to the supermarket before they come."

Theseus went downstairs and greeted his mother who was still worried.

"Are you doing better Mom?" She seemed to be tearing up.

"You know you can tell me anything alright? You're the most important thing to me in this world, even more than your father, and I know as you grow up you'll have to spread your wings and go and meet new people, feel sadness and happiness but just, don't get too hurt ok? And even if you do just always remember you can come to me and we can spend some time together, just, don't grow up too fast, you have so much ahead of you."

Theseus Hugged her with all his might "Thank you, Mom, don't you worry I don't plan on changing too much anyways, I like me, but as you said I am quite free, speaking of which I'm going to the supermarket do you want anything?"

"Hmmm, I guess you can grab some bacon bits, maybe some cheese, and some milk yeah that should be it, if anything I'll text you alright?"

"Of course, I'll be going now then." Theseus quickly left the house in whatever he was wearing, he didn't really care what it was he just wanted some fresh air and to do a good deed for the day.

It wasn't too far away it was just a ten-minute walk, in the meantime Theseus simply stared at the clouds and the blue sky, thinking of how one day he wanted to surpass even the stars as only he could put a limit on himself.

Eventually he arrived and grabbed all the items on the various shelves, not many people seemed to be shopping at that time, he gathered all the things and went to the register.

The cashier register seemed to be a simple Blau that didn't seem too important

"Just this."

"That will be ten Solars sir."

"Wow, that's pricey."

"Here you go good sir have a good rest of your day."

"You too."

Theseus was really happy, he walked out of the supermarket and stared at the sky again and started walking until.

"HEY, LOOK WHERE THE FUCK YOU'RE GOING DUMBASS."

A Flarean with a crown-like fire for a head and a peculiar eye seemed to have bumped into Theseus.

"Oh sorry man, I didn't mean to."

"YEAH YOU BETTER BE FUCKING SORRY, DO YOU KNOW WHO THE FUCK I AM?"

"I should?"

"YEAH, I OWN THIS BLOCK ALRIGHT, NEXT TIME I WON'T BE SO NICE." He spits on the floor which disintegrates a bit of the pavement.

The Flarean seemed to have some importance, instead of the usual dot on the eyeball his instead was a straight line, he wore a yellow puffed-up jacket with some interesting symbols on its back, it was in the shape of a diamond-like rhombus, with four eyes staring at it, he wore ripped jeans and had white shoes.

Theseus rushed back into the store quickly.

He went up to the cashier with a strong determination in his eyes.

"Keep this bag here for a minute, and quickly, do you sell any gloves?"

"G-Gloves? Yeah, here you go they're four Sola-"

Theseus grabs the gloves from the man and quickly starts to put them on.

"I can't let him get away, not yet, I won't be disrespected so easily."

He looks at the nearby fire extinguisher and starts to yank it from the wall

"HEY YOU CAN'T BE DOING THAT HERE, AND YOU HAVEN'T PAYED ME YET!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP I'M BUSY, I'LL PAY LATER."

Theseus grabs the fire extinguisher and charges at the Flarean throwing it directly in the back of his head with all his might

The Flarean receives a slight concussion falling to the ground, upon turning around to face his attacker with his fire ever-growing he yells.

"WHAT THE FU-"

Theseus does not waste a second, he starts to pummel his opponent directly in his eyeball and face, he strikes and strikes again until the Flarean begins to use his Second Wind.

With his palm on the floor the terrain shifts, instead of the floor being straight it starts to rotate one hundred and eighty degrees causing Theseus to fall.

The Flarean spits on the ground with a tiny spark coming from it.

"Stupid Human, you've fucked with the wrong type of people."

"Calm down Theseus, you got this, just see everything he'll do frame one and you'll be fine."

The Flarean crouches down and makes a sword out of the asphalt road and puts it above his head lighting it ablaze creating a flaming sword.

"WHAT THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO AGAINST A FLAMING SWORD! I-It'll be fine, it's just like a game, I just need to block it and then hit him back harder."

The Flarean rushes at Theseus with their sword held to their right, he swings but Theseus sees it coming, a straightforward slash, he moves to the side of the attack and punches his left shoulder causing him to lose a bit of balance.

"JUST FUCKING DIE ALREADY"

Theseus uses everything to his advantage and closes the gap with his fists up just like he was in the boxing tournament, he lands a direct uppercut and retreats quickly returning to neutral.

"This is taking quite a toll on my body, I can't keep moving like this much longer."

"You shitty little brat you got a Second Wind don't you, there's no way a simpleton like you could ever get this far, I'm not going to play around with you anymore."

He holds his flaming sword with both hands, its edge does not point towards Theseus but towards the skies, he closes his eye and slowly loosens his grip.

"The fuck is this guy even doing?"

And instantly Theseus notices the first frame the sword's hilt burrows straight into the ground, he feels the ground beneath him begin to shift like it did near the start.

"Should I just? Rush him down? It seems to have a lot of start-up."

Theseus does exactly that, with his fists up he dashes at his opponent with his eyes peeled open attempting to react as fast as he can, but as runs towards him Theseus feels a weird pain, a prick on his left foot, almost as if a splinter got stuck inside it, for some reasons the second he feels this pain his body moves on its own as he rolls out of the way.

Mere seconds after this a massive spike from the ground arises from where he once was, and with that, Theseus finally realises, that his opponent doesn't care about his life, he genuinely wants to kill him.

He takes one frame to recollect his thoughts and tried to formulate a plan but soon after seven massive asphalt spikes appear from the sword rapidly homing in on Theseus's location.

Even if one of these spikes pierced Theseus it would mean almost certain death, he was too careless, he didn't realise just how strong his opponent is, he underestimated him, but this wasn't a lesson about how you should respect your opponent, it was a lesson about no matter how hard things may look, no matter what was in front of you whether it be a giant the size of a skyscraper, or even death itself, you must survive, you must fight, and you must never give up, and although Theseus was in the most dangerous situation he has ever faced, he seemed almost excited, ecstatic even.

He he ran towards his opponent with full force, not caring about his boxing stance anymore, he jumped dodged and vaulted each spike that was aimed his way, he weaved his way through until he finally grabbed that eyeball of the Flarean he despised so much.

"WHAT NOW HUH, WHAT NOW, WHO'S THE STUPID HUMAN? WHO'S THE SIMPLETON? YOU LOST TO A MONKEY WITH NO WEAPONS, YOU HAD A SWORD AND YOU BARELY EVEN USED IT, JUST HOW HIGH AND MIGHTY DO YOU STILL THINK YOU ARE?"

The Flarean merely held up two fingers in a peace sign motion.

"Huh?"

Although Theseus may be able to react and see things frame one he usually needs to see to evade, but an attack from behind would at least deal some sort of damage before he can react, the Flarean realised this when he hid a spike beneath the earth, the spikes would never simply stop after traversing some length, they just twisted like rubber and turned around aiming for Theseus's back.

"THAT FUCKING HURTS JUST, I THOUGHT BUT, THIS ISN'T FAIR WHAT DO I EVEN DO, I GUESS I'LL JUST ROLL?"

As Theseus bends his back the spike burrows deeper into him scraping his nearby skin and causing terrible pain.

"YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE AAHHHH."

Theseus rolls out of the way and messes up his landing causing him to take even more damage, scraping himself with the nearby rocks, the Flarean gets up with his sword in hand and looks down at Theseus.

"Never, fuck with me again."

Theseus's eyes slowly start to lose life as he passes out.

"I just, I really wanted to win, I wanted to so badly and now I just, what am I going to do, I should just go back to school and be a regular kid, even though I hate it I mean, it's better than going around fighting random people with powers, why did I even fight him to begin with? Right, he insulted me and my race, why couldn't I have just been born with wings or anything cool really, there's nothing really special about me, I guess I got a Second Wind, that's cool, maybe I have a bigger purpose in the grand scheme of things, not like it really matters, I'm probably dead soon."

After a couple of hours Theseus wakes up, only his eyes open as his body can barely move, but what he does see is his opponent dead in front of him, the reason he knows this is because the Flarean had no flame, it was simply just an eyeball, slowly rotting away.

"The fuck? I know I couldn't have done that."

Confused Theseus looks around searching for clues, he then realises a note is left on his chest and tries to read it but then passes out yet again.

Another set of hours passes and Theseus slowly wakes up inside an ambulance.

"Why is everything just white, it's sort of irritating, wait, what's this mask I'm wearing, and why are there people around me? They seem to be speaking I think? I can't tell, this is getting on my nerves."

Theseus attempts to slowly rise up from the bed but the nearby Paramedics try to stop him, it seems to be a Blau and a Mouthless, upon noticing this Theseus weaves past both of them reaching out for him and simply opens the ambulance door realising that he's in a vehicle that is moving.

"Oh, that's uh, road, right, must be it's starting to get dark, I think mom was going to get mad if I wasn't home soon, I think that's the shop over there, I guess I should get them and head back."

The Blau seemed completely shocked whilst the Mouthless remained somewhat calm as he tries to call out to him.

"Young man you should come back here, you're in great hands."

"Great hands? Just, take me back home alright?"

"We're going to the hospital first."

"Thought so, guess I'm leaving then."

Theseus grabs the bed and throws it under him whilst jumping onto it landing on the road.

"What huh? I did that? Did I get stronger or something? My body feels easier to move around in."

The bed rattles vigorously on the road until it loses its momentum and stops moving completely.

"Right, groceries, guess I'm getting them."

Theseus slowly walks to the grocery store with a weird dizzy feeling on his mind.