State of Chaos - Chapter 5：Cry of Nature

Danny was an orphan for as long as he could remember. When he was little he had to fight so that he could live. He always envied others, those that could eat three meals a day and go to bed without having to worry about their safety. Due to his circumstances he learned not to trust anyone, that he could only rely on himself.

He was always dirty due to his living conditions, so normally people could not tell, but he was a very good looking kid. He had pitch black hair and eyes that looked as dark as the night sky without stars. He had very good features, but the dirt he collected from running around the streets all day masked his near perfect face. Due to this, no one would pay him any extra attention and would ignore his presence like they would any other homeless person.

Back when he was ten years old he was in the middle of stealing some food from a grocery store when he was caught by the police. He was being detained when he was first scouted for the Special Ops division called Cry of Nature. He was found by Professor Radcliffe, who was a weapons researcher for CoN. He has the special ability to determine a persons latent special ability talent and noticed that Danny’s was the highest talent he had ever seen.

His talent was even higher than some of the people who guard the president. The people who guard the president are the best of the best with the strongest abilities. The Professor didn’t have high enough clearance, so he doesn’t know their abilities, but he was able to see their talent using his own. And he noticed they were not even close to Danny.

Due to this he walked up to Danny who was in the middle of being detained and went to strike a deal with him. He showed his badge of CoN to the officers and told them to wait off to the side so he could talk to Danny in private. “You got caught up didn’t you kid” he laughed. “I can help you out of your situation, but you are going to have to work for me. What do you say?” Radcliffe told it to him straight not beating around the bush.

Danny just glared at him not saying a word. “If you don’t take up my offer you will have to do hard labor for at least a few years and a young kid like you would not survive long doing that. I however will give you a place to sleep and three meals a day. Now what is your choice?” He tried to persuade Danny. He could force him to come with him, but then he might cause trouble during missions, and Radcliffe didn’t want that.

Danny still glared at him not saying a word as he weighed his options. He was not a dumb kid, he had to survive on his own and learned all he knew by himself. He had no other choice but to go with Radcliffe because he was not able to do hard labor with a scrawny body like his. He slowly nodded to Radcliffe not saying a word, but showing his opinion clearly. “Alright then since you have decided, I’ll settle things here, then we will be on our way.”

Radcliffe got into his car while waving Danny inside. “The name is Radcliffe whats yours kid?”

“Danny” he said curtly. He was in no mood to talk as he didn’t trust Radcliffe. Radcliffe got the message and turned on some music and began to drive towards the destination. When the car stopped they got out in front of a tea shop. Radcliffe gave his keys to the Valet man and walked into the shop with Danny following behind him silently.

As they passed the cashier at the counter Radcliffe nodded to him. They were headed to the back of the tea shop and no one stopped them. When they went into the back room Radcliffe walked up to a bookshelf and moved aside some books revealing a keypad. He typed in some numbers and the whole bookshelf moved revealing an elevator. He led Danny inside the elevator and pressed one of the four buttons reading F2. They were currently on F1 so they were only going down one level.

Classical Music played over the speakers as they went down. Danny stood there in complete silence. Due to his upbringing he learned not to trust anyone and he surely didn’t trust Radcliffe who was able to help him out from the Police.

As the doors opened up Danny began to scrutinize the place he was in. It was very cold and unwelcoming. There were catwalks on the ceiling with armed guards patrolling, and the floor was hard concrete. The lights that hung down from the ceiling were bright enough to hurt his eyes if he looked directly at them.

Radcliffe began introducing him to the base once they walked out of the elevator. “These people over here are our Intel gathering group” he said as he pointed to a bunch of people who were on computers typing away constantly talking on their mics. “All the data people collect in this city is sent here and these people record it and sort it based on importance”. He introduced other stuff such as the showers,the rec room, the division commanders room, and shooting range.

“This is the training room, where the team leader for your squad will be”. He explained as they entered a room. Wait here I will go and find him” He said as he scurried off to look for the Team leader. Looking around the room Danny saw the floor had foam mats to decrease the impact when the people sparring hit the floor. Multiple people were fighting each other as they tried to get the better of their sparring partner.

He stopped looking around when he found nothing interesting and waited for Radcliffe to come back. A few minutes later Radcliffe came back leading a big burly man with a beard on his face. He had a scar leading from his lower jaw to his right temple making him look very intimidating. “This is him Ernest, I found him while I was out.” Radcliffe said gesturing towards Danny.

“This sack of bones is supposed to be a good seed?” he asked quizzically.”He has high talent I checked myself” Radcliffe reassured him. “What is your special ability kid?” He demanded Danny. “I am able to see things from far away very well.” Danny replied flatly.

“So you have Eagle Eye. You would only be useful as a sniper in my team. Radcliffe this is the only spot he can take with his ability.” Ernest told Radcliffe. “But I will only allow him on my team if he could take one of my punches. So prepare yourself kid”. Ernest said as he pulled his arm back.

Seeing that Ernest was serious Danny braced himself for the punch. Feeling his intimidating aura Danny began to fear that this was a mistake. Ernest started forward and his punch cut through the air making its way towards Danny. Just before the punch landed he stopped an inch from Danny, however the wind from his punch still hit Danny causing him to fly back spitting blood.

As he hit the floor he suddenly woke up and gasped for breath clutching his chest. He immediately groaned due to the pain caused by his movement. As he was groaning in pain he heard from his side “I would recommend that next time you fight a Crystal Fish you bring a weapon. Especially if you don’t have a combat ability”.