"No, No, NO!" This can't be happening again. Not again. Not after last time. I look down, seeing my hands ablaze as bright orange flames cover them from my fingers to the base of my palms.
"AHH! TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFFF!!!" Waving my hands to put out the flames, but it doesn't seem to be effective as they still burn as bright, maybe even hotter. I grab my chest as my heart beats even faster than normal. I take several breaths in and out, taking time to really comprehend the gravity of the situation. My body's on fire. Literally. How do I turn this shit off? Is it like a switch or something? My body rejects my efforts to get up as fall to the ground. This isn't good. I feel an unnerving sense of anxiety well up inside of me. I look around at the sight of intimidating flames pierces my eyes. A streak of something else flies across the sky in the distance, crashing into a building. As I catch a glimpse of what that thing is, my feelings turn from fear to worry. Yohan! Wobbling as I stand to my feet, I maneuver clumsily through the fire with the heat messing with my vision. I burst into a run, forgetting that there's fire around me. With every step I take, my feet pick up, going even faster to the point I slam into a building. BOOM! Shit! Why the hell am I moving so fast? Not letting myself stop, I accelerate once again, and fire doesn't seem to follow this time, thankfully. In less than ten seconds, I make it back to see an even more ruined area, and the city and all of its graffiti are one big mess now. Jumping over a 10-foot wall with ease, I catch myself taking a little pride in my newfound athleticism. I feel like a fucking superhero right now! Except for the fire... Dropping into the center where Yohan and I were standing, it looks like it was razed to the ground. Fallen buildings, craters in the ground, the classic anime battlefield. Finding the person whom I wanted to see as he lay sprawled out against a bunch of rubble.
"Yohan!" "Yohan!" I run up to him, trying to lift him up, and I manage to do it quite easily.
"That you, kid?" "I thought I told you to run away." He says, groaning, and he stops to think. "Something's changed about you. You've got power now. A different aura." He says, smiling weakly.
"There's no time for that weak ass glaze!" "Where's that thing that was just here!?" I say panicking in order to move and get out of this place quickly.
"Yeah, no kiddo, I would love to get up and move around, but I ain't in any condition to do anything right now." I gaze down and see his mangled and broken legs.
"How did it do this to you?" The sight looks so awful that I can't help but feel bile build up inside my mouth.
"HEY! Don't vomit on me!" I turned around I spit out everything I had for breakfast that morning.
"Sorry, that just rubbed me the wrong way."
"I heard your screams from over there. You okay?" I think back to everything that just happened, and I spent an uncanny amount of time staring at my hands reflecting on the fires, the corpses, the trauma, my brother-.
"Hey."
"Yeah?"
"I can tell whatever happened to you was some deep shit, but right now we don't got time." I look up. I don't even get time to register as the Ethereal is down my neck as my eyes dare to touch it.
"DODGE IT!" I duck down and push him down with me as we dodge a blade of wind that eclipses the size of the city. My heartbeat starts to increase, but for a different reason this time.
"Hey, Yohan? "This thing just destroyed an entire city, right?"
"What?"
"So if I beat 'em...." I rise to my knees filled with excitement. "THAT'S UPSCALE!" I don't know why, but my body is going from emotion to emotion. But right now... "I DON'T CARE!!!" I jump up with flames unintentionally bursting from the soles of my feet as I blast through the air straight towards the Alpha. As the wind blows against my face, I dodge a gust of air in blade form. It's much smaller this time, but still gigantic enough to really apply pressure. Smirking as I look back, my heart sinks to the very bottom of my ass. The slash is heading for Yohan! I dive back in, turning around with such excellence that it even surprises me. I focus and somehow instinctively accelerate towards him. Everything's a mess right now: my mental state, my emotions, even my body. But for some reason, I feel so focused, it's like I'm on drugs!
"Here goes!" I say while catching right before the gust manages to snatch his head off his body. I take cover in a building as taking time to gather my emotions. "You know you're the professional here, so you probably know more than me, but what the hell is going on with me. Flames started coming out of my body. I relived the past trauma of my house burning down, and yet, I feel so focused and at the same time an emotional mess! The hell's going on with me, man?" He sighs. "Hey! Don't you dare give me some pessimistic bullshit right now! I'm freaking the fuck out, I don't know why!"
"Sorry to be the one to have to explain this to you, but you probably just went through an emotional breakdown, kid." I grab his collar and look him in the eyes.
"There's no way in hell that what's happening to me can be chalked up to just some 'emotional breakdown' or whatever you call it."
"Man, right now I can barely even register what you're saying to me, so SORRY if I can't give you a good diagnosis for whatever's going on with you." He sighs. "I told you to just get outta here, dude, so why are you even still here? You're gonna die if you stay here around that thing."
"And you won't? Take a look at your sorry ass right now. You couldn't even stop me from carrying you even if you tried!"
"My life doesn't matter at this point, even if I die, this world will just keep spinning as it always does." Through all of the emotions that are constantly flooding into my brain, only one surfaces on my face. Fury. I walk over towards him and look at him. I bring my hand up to the heavens and slap him back to earth.
"You're pissing off with that nihilistic view of yours so you know what? I'm not gonna listen to you. I'm gonna step out there, kick that thing's ass, and get us both out of here alive, whether you like it or not.