RBe1

Winter-Year 2541

...

Iwba woke up. He turned to the side of his bed and barfed. "It was all just a bad dream, right?" "Yeah... just a bad dream..." Iwba got dressed and went out of bed. He saw Cko waiting for him.

He smirked and said "You killed a guy, didn't you!" He said it proudly as if he wasn't ashamed that his own student killed someone. "They were someone that was evil, right? I'm sure you put them out of their misery. Your boots are bloody you know." Cko looked at Iwba with a cocky expression "Anyway I have a feeling you're stronger." Cko got in a fighting stance. "Let's do some friendly sparring."

Might as well, Cko doesn't seem dissapointed in me or anything. Iwba got into fighting stance. Cko prepared to strike Iwba lightly but before Cko laid a finger on Iwba, he collapsed to the ground. Iwba stared at the ground. He looked up at Cko, the blinding sun barely let him see his silhouette.

Iwba blinked and in a second everyone was gone. Was he just seeing things? Maybe. It started snowing. It was the start of winter after all. Iwba looked around and saw Sam. "You doing alright?" he crouched down and squinted at Iwba. Iwba, in his time of need, saw a shining light in the start of the toxic snow. Iwba started to think he was perhaps gay? He shook the thought out of his head and stood up. "Yeah, I'm doing just fine."

"Are you gonna go with Cko to the sparring ground? He left a few minutes ago." Sam looked at Iwba.

"Yeah." Iwba said.

Sam started walking and Iwba followed. In 30 minutes they finally got there. Cko was waiting for the both of them. They'd do the usual sparring and Sam one this time but Cko noticed something was off with iwba. They group walked back to the main area. After that though, Cko brought Iwba to an area he hasn't seen before.

Under a field of the pale grass there was a secret door about 10 minutes away from the camp. "Iwba, I'm gonna show you something no one else knows about." Iwba and Cko walked down revealing outstanding technology. It was a long passage way with an extremely wide bridge leading to the other side with just a wall. Below was water with a bunch of pipes in it.

"Iwba, I built this by my self using other people to do it for me. Only few know though. Old friends of mine helped. It took 4 years maybe?"  Cko put his hand on Iwba's shoulder. "The important part is this area is made for high energy usage. Just don't fall off. Anyway I'm gonna teach you something most can't do."

Cko positioned Iwba's hand towards a blank wall. "I wan't you to blast all the energy you can to that wall with the palm of you hand." Iwba looked at Cko with a frightened look. Cko looked back casually.

Iwba concentrated his stomach and pushed it out. His pores started bleeding a bit but in a second, and semi-visible flash of light came from Iwba's hand. Of course this wouldn't come without its consequences, Iwba's hand lacked skin and was painted red due to such.

Cko clapped his hands. "Good job, Iwba! Your first concentrated blast of energy! You see you can use that to burst other people's pores and cause internal damage. The energy we use can phase through flesh and certain materials. Unless they have lead skin or something like that it goes right through hitting every single bit. I'd say yours was like a bullet, to be expected though."

"Let me try to fix that hand of yours though. I saw a technique and I want to try to replicate it." Cko gathered energy and forced onto Iwba's hand. Iwba let out a scream in pain. Cko looked away and took his hands off Iwba's. "Don't worry though, I brought bandages just in case. You won't be able to use that hand though for fighting at least." Cko wrapped Iwba's palm with bandages.

Cko and Iwba left the facility and went back to base. Iwba was in pain the whole time but he's just overreacting.

The day went on per usual, so on and so on. Several days passed and things were getting how they used to be. Except Iwba stayed inside more during his free time. But 7 days after Cko showed him the area, he was standing outside, looking towards the sun in the morning.

"Iwba, I think it's about time I let you know my actual goal. I want to defeat all evil and bring peace to this world. Through any means I deem necesarry." Cko said. Iwba looked at Cko.

"So do you got a mission for me or something?" Iwba pointed at Cko.

"We need to make money for that though, and some big quests are needed for such money to be made without general harm to bystanders. And a job takes too long. I've found several assignments that people are willing to pay BIG money for, Iwba." Cko pointed to a paper he had in his hand.

"Please help us. We're in a dictatorship country called Islahgausph. If you assist us with the rebellion our people will pay you handsomely."

"I found this on the bounty board, it was sitting there for months. We need to help them! I did some research on it and it's still somewhat developing. I heard the government is preparing for war. I've been preparing ever since I heard though, so don't worry.. I bought this dagger for you" Cko handed a dagger with a smooth blade and a hilt wrapped in cloth, something felt odd about it though. Iwba got the same feeling he did when he got the rod for Cko. It's the same type of energy the reactor emitted, but the cloth dampened the effect.

"It supplies energy to you, nothing much else. But it can help to get the radiation deep in the enemy!" Cko said. "Anyway, it's time to get going, you don't need much stuff, y'all are gonna need to learn to convert radiation into energy for your body to use!" Cko began push Iwba along the path towards the boat they're going to. Sam followed behind them, drinking soda. Little did Cko know Iwba already got his stuff, he just left it for Sam to carry for a while.

After a few hours they got there. It was a large cruise ship. "Woah! I've never seen anything like this in my whole life!" Iwba said, looking at the giant metal construct floating in the water with admiration and wonder. Sam(who was standing behind the group, gave it the same look secretly. Cko gave Iwba a weird look, "You've never seen a cruise ship before?" Iwba nodded.

One of the sailors was asking for the tickets, "Tickets, tickets please!"

The group went in last. Cko did a pose, back arched, hand on his chest, handing three tickets to the guy.

"Are you... Okay?" The sailor asked.

Cko stopped doing the pose after the sailor took the ticket. "Yeah, doing better than ever." Soon after that, they went on the ship. Iwba and Sam we're carrying big bags. Iwba was wearing the same outfit he has for about 2 months by now, and Sam was wearing a black coat that went down to his knees, a pair of sunglasses, a white shirt, and some loose fitting grey cargos. Both of them were around average height but Cko was a head taller than them. He was wearing a sweater, a scarf, and black sweat pants.

The ship was like a modern day cruise, wooden floor boards, sleek white paint, rooms, stairs, a dining hall too. Iwba went to the room that they had. 'I hope our room is big, nice, and comfy!' Iwba thought to himself. But the second Cko led them to the room, Iwba's smile faded. It was really just 'the room' emphasis on 'the' It was a room with 3 sperate areas, bed 1, bed 2, and last but not least, bed 3. It was seperated by a thin wall and a curtain as a door. There was a sink near the enterence though, a bathroom too.

"Isn't it so nice!" Cko said in a proud tone of voice. Iwba and Sam looked at Cko dissapointedly. And in a few seconds two pieces of trash went towards his head. Cko got hit. "Ow! My bad, I didn't think we needed different rooms. We're only gonna be here for a month." Cko said, rubbing his head apologetically and or in pain.

"A month!" They both said in unison, staring at Cko as if they were about to maul him.

"Well it's too late now and it's already around night, y'all should prolly get some rest. I'm gonna go party though!" Cko said, leaving quickly. Before either of them could say anything, he was already gone. Iwba picked one of the 3 small rooms and went in it, took his boots off, and jumped into bed, getting under the covers. Sam however got into a white gown with grey horizontal stripes. After putting it on, he got into the room on the opposite side of the one Iwba picked.

After a few hours Cko came back and went to sleep in the middle room. After a while Sam woke up early, but it appeared Cko got up earlier, he was gone. Sam got a piece of food out and a plate of his bag and placed both objects on the table, the food(a cold piece of pizza) on the plate. Sam concentrated and focused his energy into his hands and let out a continues wave of his power onto the pizza? Sam looked to his right and saw Iwba standing there looking at him.

"W-Why do you... W-W-wh..." Iwba tried thinking of a way to put this without sounding rude but he was pretty sure Sam was actually a girl. Sam was disrupted and let out a large blast burning his? hands a bit. Sam fell out of the back of the chair. making a loud thud "Ow!" Sam was quick to get up and cover his? chest. this didn't help much to cover his? figure, despite still being fairly masculine.

Iwba let out a sigh and just said it, he was too tired to think so much, "Are you actually a girl." Iwba pointed at Sam.

Sam looked away in embaressment, "Maybe... Probably..." short pause. "Yeah, I am." Sam dropped her arms.

Iwba stared in shock at sam, "I think it's best if I just... left to go look for Cko." Yeah, just leave." Sam was looked down, shooing Iwba away.

Iwba walked out of the room, somewhat stressed about what happened just happened.

It's best to keep this out of my mind for later. I need to find Cko.

Iwba walked around the deck looking for Cko. He checked everywhere, except the club on the ship. The pool was full but no Cko. The kitchen wasn't open to guests, and everywhere else was too boring to bother looking. Iwba looked at the one place he wasn't allowed to go. And he was Cko, dancing there, with no one in the room except him. There wasn't even music playing.

Iwba decided to simply go to the dining hall and wait outside of it till it opened. The hall was bland and boring but there was a noticible painting infront of where Iwba was sitting. It had an eye on it and it said "The new age is yet to come." Iwba kepts staring at it until he saw someone looking at him from the corner of his eye. They were wearing a dark hood with a pale blue design sort of in the way blood vessels are aranged in the human body. They had white hair and two blue eyes sort of like the ones Sam had, but the ones the person had would seemingly shift and flicker in all directions, and there was a shining light coming from the pupil.

Iwba looked at them for a second but looked back at the painting. He tried to keep cool but the person who was there already ran away. They looked to be female, but before he could continue on that thought the dining hall door opened. Iwba got up and went inside to go see what the food was like. They had pancakes, eggs, and waffles. Mainly just dairy products and poultry. Iwba got some food and ate it at one of the tables. Sam would've entered around a few minutes after Iwba did. She noticed him and proceeded to ignore him. Iwba was too busy eating the food though. Compared to what Cko fed him this was a 5 star meal.

After finishing the plate Iwba got up and threw the plate in the trash, it was styrofoam. Iwba left without even noticing Sam. She felt disrespected by Iwba, but at this point it didn't really matter. He seemed too busy to talk about what happened in the morning. Iwba walked around the cruise and found a chair near the pool. He looked up at the sun. It was blazing like it always was, devouring the sky.

Sam simply ate some eggs. She walked back to the room, concentrating her energy, preparing to practice her technique. When she got in she let it out, and after a minute or two the pizza was burning hot, smoking actually, a bit burnt too. After Sam finished she leaned back in the chair and let out a sigh, "That took a lot of energy."

Sam went out of the room and wandered around the cruise ship. It was really big, but it looked a bit too sleek. She walked out and looked at the ocean. It was a dark blue and murky. The fish in it we're nearly non existant, the water was radiated like everything else. She leaned on the railing, "I wonder if there were creatures living in the ocean." Sam looked to her left, the wind blowing in her hair. The sun was blazing more than she'd ever be capable of producing.

Eventually the day would end. Cko was still somewhere on the cruise. But Iwba and Sam were asleep. This day went on pretty much the same but near the end of the day, Iwba saw Sam. "I'm sorry about yesterday, Sam." Iwba said, looking slightly away from Sam.

Sam looked at Iwba, "If you're gonna apologize at least look at me."

Iwba turned to Sam and looked her in the eyes. He scratched the back of his head and looked away slightly, "I was gonna go swimming, you can join me if you want."

Sam was slightly flustered by this but she quickly gained her composer, "Sure."

Iwba and sam walked back to the room and got dressed to go swimming. Iwba just kinda had some shorts he never worn and he borrowed a life vest from the rack near the pool. Sam was wearing a baggy swimsuit. When Iwba walked out and Sam looked at him, one this major sticked out like a sore thumb. Iwba had this massive verticle scar across his whole torso with stitches on it.

"What happened to your chest?" Sam pointed at Iwba.

Iwba looked down and remembered something, "Oh yeah, Cko did a surgery on me to implant some reactor inside my stomach or something like that. Anyway, let's get going!"

Cko began walking towards the pool. It was the middle of the night but it was lit up. No one else was there. Iwba turned to Sam, "Do you know how to swim?"

"Nah, I don't either." Sam said, turning towards Iwba. The second he looked away Sam shoved Iwba into the water.

Iwba started flailing around in the water. If it wasn't the life vest he put on when he got there he would've drowned. After a bit Iwba gave up and just stopped struggling.

Is this really it? I'm gonna die by drowning? Wait, why aren't I inhaling water?

Iwba realized he was floating on his back. Iwba stabilized using the vest and turned to Sam. "Yo, sam, look! I'm floating!"

Sam looked at Iwba with amusement, "Wow, you managed to learn!"

She slowly got in through the stairs. She tried swimming but she almost drowned if it wasnt for Iwba there to help her. Eventually she managed to float on her back, but at the end of the day, neither of them learnt how to swim.

After the lights fully went out they rushed back to the room, soaking wet. Sam stole the towel from Iwba before he got a chance to use it to dry off, taking about 5 minutes, and then Iwba went in and dried off in around the same time. When Iwba got out Sam was already in bed. He looked to his left to see a pizza slice.

"Oh well."