Mage Catalyst (18 page)

“Fair enough.” I grinned, smacking Tony around the head.
“We’re done being beaten by you anyway,” Tony grumbled as he headed to the door.
“See you Mrs Fisher,” Tony and I called out in unison as we left.
“Careful boys, it’s dark outside,” she called as we left.
We promised we would be careful as we buckled our rollerblades and headed out onto the street. Tony’s house was on the way home from mine. It wasn’t far out of my way so I took the time to drop him home. I felt like the company. As we pulled into Tony’s street we saw Greg’s legs on the front nature strip – sticking out from under his car where he was tinkering under the street lamp.
“Car trouble again? Sucks to be you,” Tony teased.
Greg came out from under the old car. “Hi Devon,” he said, ignoring his brother’s comment.
“Hey.”
“I believe you owe me a bottle of Jack!”

“Hey! Tony stole it!” I retorted, watching Tony grin at me.
“He said you drank it!”
“Hah! He ratted me out? That bastard!” I snickered as I threw a half-hearted punch towards Tony. Tony simply allowed himself to roll backwards on his skates out of the way. “I’ll give you the money,” I said.
“Sure,” he grunted, turning back his car.
“I’ve actually already replaced it,” Tony said as we skated up towards the house.
“Oh damn, I was really looking forward to writing the phrase ‘bottle ‘o’ jack’ on the IOU.”

* * * *

The school bell rang with its usual degree of disdain for the hopes and dreams of the school populace. It’s a universal constant that the school bell rings when it’s damned well ready to ring and not a moment before.
It was at the end of a long and tiring Friday filled with boring subjects and the annoying prospect of going back to the city to see my father in the evening.
I wasn’t in an overly good mood to begin with as Garry and I made our way towards the locker bay. We were amicably discussing some TV show that we’d both recently gotten into. Garry had just unlocked his locker and I was leaning on the far side of the locker bay waiting for him.
Garry was extraordinarily disorganised so it always took him longer to pack his bags for home. Tony would probably already be waiting for us at the school gates. I was getting a little impatient but resigned in the fact that this was pretty much the norm on Fridays.
While cursing Garry under my breath and silently entreating him to hurry up I noticed Mark Constance and his cronies saunter into the locker bay. I really didn’t want too much to do with him right now. He grunted at me as he pushed past me and went to his locker – which was only two lockers down from Garry’s. Garry was still muttering on about the TV show and I was still really wishing he’d get on with it.
Mark nudged one of his friends in the ribs and grinning casually, looped an arm around the locker and pulled Garry’s keys from the door, quickly pocketing them. I started, not quite believing what I’d just seen.
“You’d better put those back,” I grunted at Mark, straightening up.
“What?” Garry asked, thinking I was talking to him.
I gestured towards Mark and grunted to Garry, “Your keys.”
Garry’s keys had his house and his parent’s car keys on the loop so it would be incredibly difficult to explain how and why he’d lost them. Garry’s eyes narrowed as he pulled the locker door closed to look for the missing keys. His eyes widened again in rage as he turned to look up at Mark.
“Give them back,” I ordered in a grim voice.

“It was only some fun,” Mark protested obnoxiously in his nasal voice. His hands were held high in mock defence, yet he made no move to return the keys.
“Not for me, it’s not,” Garry replied evenly.
Garry had a reputation for being slightly unstable and being prone to angry outbursts when provoked. Mark visibly gulped and I could see him turn to assess the situation. His friends were standing well back from him and wouldn’t be much use in a fight if it came. He turned to stare back at Garry, his face going slightly paler. He obviously believed that Garry might just be stupid enough to attack him.
The tension in the room was palatable.
“Just give him his damned keys back,” I shouted at Mark, losing my temper.
Mark visibly sighed and pulled the keys from his pocket, tossing them onto the ground at Garry’s feet.
“Now leave,” I ordered.
Mark flashed me a quick look of anger as he quickly unpacked the rest of his locker into his bag and turned to leave. As he passed me his shoulder intentionally bumped against mine pushing me to one side.
“What a dick,” Garry commented as we left the bay. “He always has been ever since we were in primary school.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
Tony and the others were waiting for us as we reached the school gates, noticing immediately that something was wrong.

There was another reason I wasn’t looking forward to going to Dad’s this weekend. I was freaking out about running into Renee again and although it wasn’t probable that I would meet her again unless I really looked for her, I worried that I would just see her in the city one day.
Thinking of Renee made me feel longing, desire, hurt and embarrassment. Plus I would have to tell her about Tina – now that I’d made that commitment. Even though Renee had made it clear (in words, if not actions) that she didn’t want to go out with me, I knew she would not be impressed. And truth be told I felt like a bit of a heel. I still wasn’t really sure how I felt about Tina and didn’t relish the thought of having to explain all that to Renee.
I was deep in thought when a shout rang out from behind us. We were in the middle of an alley headed over to the shopping centre near the school and I turned to see an angry Mark Constance storming down our direction.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he snarled as he approached.
I didn’t quite know how to answer that question. I turned to look at Tony and Garry who both similarly shrugged.
“Home?” I said.
“You’ve been pissing me off all week,” he declared, thrusting his face aggressively into mine. I noticed with some degree of amusement that he had chosen to pursue his grudge with me rather than with Garry. Presumably because he assumed I was the easier target. I smiled with wry humour – if only he knew. With a flick of my wrist I could send him smacking into the far wall of the alley. Not that I would do that of course.
I was just in the process of trying to think up a clever response when a dull thud resounded through my skull and a flash of red light filled my vision. I felt the sensation of heat on the left side of my face and heard a resounding smacking sound.

Time seemed to slow down as I felt myself falling backwards, a throbbing ache resounding across the left side of my face. I fell down to my knees gazing upwards in disbelief.
He’d punched me. The bastard had punched me.
A red haze dropped down over my vision and I watched with some degree of satisfaction as Mark took several steps backwards, his hands falling into a defensive fashion as I rose in fury. His two friends who normally followed him around took several steps back too.
“You’re a dead man!” I snarled, then my anger turned into shivering enjoyment as the mana rushed from my chest and flowed with sickening ease down to my clenched fists. The pleasure of this action took me by surprise as it formed a stark contrast to the slow throbbing pain now occupying my face. My surprise was probably the only thing that had saved Mark’s life.
Tony shouted out and jumped in front of me. At first I thought he’d taken a swing at Mark until I felt his arms pull me to my feet and hold me back.
“Run,” Tony hissed at Mark.
I was still struggling as Tony and Garry held me back. I cursed at them as I watched my prey run from the alley. I wanted nothing more than to strike back at the bastard who had dared to hit me. Tony and Garry held my arms firmly away, and I couldn’t bring my power to bear. It wasn’t until I glanced to one side and saw the horrified faces of Sarah and Tina and began to calm down.
“Thanks,” I mumbled to Tony as I regained my senses.
“No worries,” Tony replied glibly. I could tell he was worried though and now that I’d calmed down a cold clamour of dread came over me. I’d come so close to lashing out at Mark.
“One thing I don’t understand,” Garry interjected.
“What?” said Tony.
“Why did we hold him back? Mark’s a jerk and deserved any thumping Devon gave him,” Garry said, only half-joking.
Tony and I looked at each other with grim stares, the answer was obvious to us: Tony had held me back because, if I’d hit Mark, I’d probably have killed him.
Garry glanced backwards and forwards between us before nervously snorting, “Sheesh guys, it was only a joke.”
“Yeah, I know,” I replied darkly.
“Since when did you get to be such a tough guy?” he demanded.
I ignored him and rubbed my cheek until the heat sensation started to wear off. It was replaced by a dull ache and a slight throbbing sensation. This wasn’t an improvement.
“It’s a funny feeling, isn’t it?” Tony murmured conversationally. “It doesn’t actually hurt when you get hit, but it hurts afterwards.”
I nodded agreeably, but inside I was still deep in thought. This must not be allowed to happen again. Once again my emotions had gotten the better of me and I’d allowed my anger to almost cause a catastrophe. I glanced nervously between Tina and Sarah’s shocked faces and I realised with shame that they’d almost seen everything. If it hadn’t been for Tony’s quick thinking they’d have seen me strike down Mark in a mana-assisted rage.

I shuddered in apprehension. Something needed to be done and soon. I was becoming increasingly reckless and it was inevitable that eventually those around me would notice something that I wouldn’t be able to explain away. I couldn’t let that happen.
Tina and Sarah shared nervous glances between each other for the rest of the walk. Nothing was said, but I could tell that Tina was uncomfortable. I wondered if she would leave me, and I wouldn’t blame her if she did.

The city was unusually busy by the time I got there that evening. Usually traffic had died down as most people had either already left the city or were busily heading back home. The nightlife of the city wouldn’t really ramp up for a few hours until the nightclubs opened.
It took me longer to get to my father’s place than normal as the sidewalks were packed. I’d bought a cheap set of sunglasses to cover what now appeared to be a rapidly darkening black eye. I could tell that people were glancing at the idiot wearing sunglasses at night, but I was embarrassed about displaying the fact I had a black eye. If truth be told I was having trouble seeing.
I stopped in briefly at Dad’s place to take a look at the eye. It didn’t actually look that bad. Sure, it was obviously blackened but in really poor light I couldn’t really even notice it. I hoped it wouldn’t get any worse. I finished getting changed and went back out into the lounge room. As usual Dad had decided to work late that evening so I enjoyed a quiet dinner alone while I waited for it to get dark enough to go out to begin my search for Renee. Before I left the apartment, I left a note on Dad’s kitchen table indicating that I’d be home later and that I was meeting up with friends.
I was going to complete my search for Renee and confess everything: My assault on the tradie at the bar, the uncontrollable desire to kill Mark Constance, Tina... Hopefully she’d know what to do. I needed help and Renee certainly didn’t seem to have any problem exercising restraint over her powers. Or did she? That stray thought chilled me to the bone.

When I’d first met Renee she’d almost killed me with a mana thread on the premise that she thought I was going to attack her. I certainly had had no intention of doing so and believed that I never gave the appearance of wanting to do so either. The misunderstanding was entirely hers. Perhaps she didn’t have the iron bound control over her own powers that I had assumed. After soul searching I concluded that despite any misgivings, coming clean to Renee was still the right thing to do.
It was still too early to search the bars as I knew from experience that Renee wouldn’t turn up until later. I’d begin my search at the bars in Fitzroy where we had first met. She might have a local that she frequents. It seemed like the people at the club where we had first met had known her. I tried to use the time on the tram ride to Fitzroy to determine just what I was going to say to Renee. By the time the tram reached my stop, I still had no clue. It was late enough by this point and clubs were now opening but they obviously hadn’t been open all that long. It had taken about a half hour to get into the club where we’d first met. I was sitting patiently in the club as I listened through the assortment of bands. I ordered a beer and sat down where I could see both entrances to the pub. I looked up as each person entered. The first few bands confirmed my previous conclusion that they got better as the night went on.
I had parked myself on the edge of the bar where there was a nice little niche off to one side. I could easily see the band from here but more importantly I could also see both entrances to the club. I’d ordered several rounds of drinks before I concluded grimly that she wasn’t coming.
“Who are you waiting for?” a sultry voice said behind me.

I turned to see a hot blonde spilling out of a neon blue dress standing behind me. Fortunately there was a lull in the music so we didn’t have to shout.
“No-one,” I lied. I wasn’t sure why I had lied. I had nothing to hide.
“You seemed to be looking at the door quite a lot for someone who’s not waiting for anyone then,” she concluded with a teasing grin.
I grinned as I knew that I’d been caught in a lie. Actually it technically wasn’t a lie as I actually had no idea if Renee would even be coming tonight.
“My friends and I figured that you’d been stood up,” she said, gesturing towards a group of young women at the other end of the bar. One of them, a cute pixie-haired chick, waved back at me with an impish grin on her face.
I half-heartedly waved back and grinned sheepishly at the blonde. Now that I’d had the chance to look closely at her I saw that she had a pretty face too, to go with the long hair and the curves. She had bright green eyes and dimples. I liked dimples. Yep, she was very attractive.
“…and then I said that you seemed too cute to stand up.” She smiled.
This had never happened to me before! I’d approached women with the intention of asking them out but they never approached me.  I wasn’t entirely sure how to act. Take the jokes and one-liners out of my conversation and I tend towards the idiotic. 
“My name’s Devon.” I smiled as I introduced myself in way of an opening line. It seemed to work. She smiled back. Easy.
“Natasha,” she replied. “If you’re not here waiting for anyone, would you like to come over and join me and my friends?”

“Actually I am waiting on someone,” I said, with an apologetic expression on my face. “At any other time I’d have been delighted though.”
“I knew it! You are on a date!” she said cheekily.
“You should dump her though,” she went on, with a twinkle in her eye, “it’s really not nice to keep you waiting so long.”
“Actually it’s not a date as such,” I said. Wow, when did my love life suddenly get so confusing to explain. “But I do have a girlfriend.”
“Pity.” She gave me a wink and I watched her walk back to the other side of the bar, greeted by catcalls of laughter from her friends.
I couldn’t help but grin to myself. It doesn’t matter how grim things can get there’s always something, somewhere that can put a smile back on your face. It’s almost always the last thing you expect too.
I figured that I’d spent enough time here and that tonight Renee was a no-show. I waved down the attention of the bartender and slipped him some money.
“Can you send a glass of whatever that blonde girl is drinking down to her table, compliments of Devon.”
He nodded at me, a dry grin on his face and a slightly bored expression in his eyes. He obviously didn’t find this as entertaining as I did. I’d always wanted to do this. They made it seem so classy in the movies and it was actually kind of fun now that I’d done it.
I winked in Natasha’s direction as I made my way to the door and listened as Natasha’s group broke into laughter as the bartender delivered my line. I turned and made a hat tipping motion in her direction, which brought more giggles as I left. I couldn’t help but enjoy that. Sure it hadn’t gotten me any closer to my goal of finding Renee – but that had been a lot of fun.
My search was getting frustrating. So I walked the streets. Using the awareness spell helped a little, as I was able to see into bars and clubs without paying an entrance fee. I’d probably saved about fifty dollars from my quickly dwindling savings. I grudgingly arrived at the conclusion that Renee wasn’t in the area and determined that a better place to search would be the Central Business District and the Casino complex where I had also run into her. The tram ride back into the city was quiet. In fact I had the section to myself. Once I got into the city it was a vastly different situation. Swanston Street was packed with people, as late night shopping hadn’t quite wrapped up yet.
You could tell from the strained expressions on some of the storekeepers that closing time couldn’t come quickly enough. I walked from Flinders Street Station up Swanston Street trying to avoid knocking into people. It was chaos. There was no way I was going to find Renee on these streets.
I tentatively sent off an awareness spell when I finally reached a moderately secluded spot, only to be greeted by the huddled mass of light as the awareness spell simply merged the shapes of everyone in the crowd into one amorphous blob. There were simply too many people in one place for the spell to really be effective. What I really needed to do was to get up higher and look down on the street. At the moment Renee could be on the next street across and I’d never find her.
I needed to get up onto the rooftops.
There was no way I was going to be able to get up higher on the main street without drawing attention to myself. I had no doubt that Renee would be furious at me if I got caught on a bunch of mobile phone videos. I’d need to get off the street. This part of the city was mainly buildings of about three or four stories tall. I needed to find a back alley or somewhere where I could work unhindered. 
It didn’t take too long to find a suitable alleyway. A quick awareness spell indicated that there was no-one already in the alley. It appeared to be a loading bay for several of the retail businesses on the far side of the building.
Excellent. This was just what I wanted.
In my haste I hadn’t noticed that I had been followed. It wasn’t until I was already in the alley that a sneering voice brought me spinning around.
“You lost, kid?”
As I turned I could see a rough-looking looking man saunter down the alley. He was wearing one of those stupid blue beanies over his head and  a blue tank top and scruffy trench coat, his hair matted to the sides of his head in dreads under the beanie.
“Yeah,” I answered. “I thought this alley might have gone through to the other side.”
“Well it doesn’t.” He smiled grimly.
It was obvious that he’d positioned himself in the centre of the alleyway to prevent me from getting past him.

“In fact, it’s pretty much a dead end,” he continued, “which is bad news for you.”
“Why is that?” I asked, not liking his tone of voice.
“Because once you’re off the main street,” he gestured behind him, “there’s no-one to help you.”

I could see people walking down the street in the distance. Unfortunately they were some distance away and unlikely to get here in time even if they were inclined to help.
“Why would I need help?” I asked, playing stupid to gain some time.
“Look buddy,” the man grumbled, finally getting annoyed. “Just throw over your wallet and mobile phone and you won’t get hurt,” he demanded, pulling a knife from his coat.
“Listen mate,” I sighed, drawing extra emphasis on the word ‘mate’. “I’ve already been in one fight today. I really don’t need another.”
He balked at me slightly. This show of defiance obviously wasn’t the reaction he’d expected from a little kid like me.

“You see the knife, right?” he said in a raised voice, taking a step forward. This obviously wasn’t going to his script.
“Yeah, I see it,” I confirmed, “and if you take another step I’m going to take it off you.”
“Big talk for a small kid,” he snarled.
He took several more steps forward, obviously about to attempt bodily harm.
“I’m going to enjoy wiping the smile off your face,” he sneered as he rushed forward.
There was a good ten metres or so before he’d get close enough to strike but I obviously didn’t intend for him to get that close.
My encounter with Mark Constance that afternoon had taught me one thing – don’t let an opponent get close enough to hit you. This is actually a fairly fundamental truth in hand to hand combat. I had taken several martial arts classes through school. The main thing they always tell you is that if someone attacks you with a knife then you need to do whatever you have to do to get away. No matter how good you think you are – you’re going to get cut. Your skill just determines how bad that cut will be.
The technique I’ve been told is to wrap your jacket around your arm and use it to attempt to take the first swipe and then hope like hell that you’re faster than his second strike.
Fortunately I had other options.
With a quick flick of my wrist I sent out a mana thread around the blade of the knife. I quickly pulled it effortlessly from my assailant’s fingers. He had obviously not expected any kind of resistance as the knife slid free. My assailant let out a startled curse. He obviously thought he’d dropped the knife by accident.
His curse turned into a strangled yelp as the knife slowly curved its downwards motion and flew into my out-stretched hands. I stepped forward to meet the blade as I reversed its direction and allowed the blade handle to slide into my hand.
My assailant at this point became a victim to the laws of physics. It’s impossible to simultaneously rush forwards to attack someone whilst at the same time flee in terror. With a horrified look he fell on his back with his knees scrambling as he attempted to pull himself away from me.
I continued my steady walk forward, which caused him to scramble crab-like against one of the alley walls. He frantically pulled himself up and attempted to press himself through the wall behind him. He looked terrified.
His eyes widened, glued to the knife that I now held lightly in my fingers. I opened my fingers with a mocking smile. I heard a sharp exhale of breath from my foe as I used the mana to direct the knife, point first, towards my terrified attacker who was now paralysed with fear.
He let out a horrified gasp as the blade of the knife pressed slowly against the side of his throat.
“You were saying?” I murmured, allowing my head to tilt slightly in a mocking fashion. I still stood about four or five metres away, my hand held up before me and a quizzical expression on my face.
His only response was a slight croak, his eyes darting wildly between the knife point and me.
“Speak up!” I demanded.
He jerked slightly at my raised voice with his hands pressed firmly against the wall behind him. He looked frantically down the alley towards the main road. He was obviously looking for someone to help him.
“It’s as you said to me before,” I confirmed with some satisfaction. “There is no-one to help you.”
“Are you going to kill me?” His voice raised slightly higher as he realised that he might not want to know the answer to the question.
“That depends,” I replied. “Why should I show you the mercy that you wouldn’t show me?”
“Don’t hurt me!” he pleaded as tears began to stream from his eyes.