A Story of X Ch 1: The Suit

It was another glorious day at Jump City High, it was lunch time, and Kale Riley was sitting at the same table he always sat at for the past two years. He was a 16 year old junior attending the aforementioned school. With dark blue eyes and medium length brown hair that fell loosely around his face, the boy just screamed 'average'. But not that it mattered because if one were to walk by they wouldn't even notice his existence. He was not a very popular teen, and in fact, he had been made fun of and tormented by the popular kids for most of his entire school life.

   Kale had tried almost everything he could think of to get those damn populars off his back. He had tried changing his appearance by altering his clothes, switching from style to style more times than Cher. But the popular kids just thought of him as a poser, and criticized him even more for that. Ultimately, he went back to his usual attire, of baggy jeans and dark shirts, but he did keep one remnant from his little failed experiment, which was the chain that was adorning from his pants. For no real reason what-so-ever, he liked the chain and decided to keep it.

   And so, Kale sat at his table, all alone with no one to talk to. He had never really had any friends and he never understood why. He was just unpopular and being around him seemed to drop anyone’s social status down a few notches. Damn teens and their idle beliefs. If one were to paint a picture of this scene, it would be quite depressing. He was sitting there, minding his own business, slowly eating his lunch while looking over some homework he wanted to get done.

   “Let’s see, if A = 47, B = 22, C = 27, and A squared equals B squared plus C squared minus 2BC cosX, then X is around…” He was lost in his own little world that he didn’t even notice the two ketchup covered fries coming right for his head. And they hit their mark right on.

   “Ahh! What the…?” Kale looked up and touched his head were the edible projectiles had hit. “What is this, oh great. Ketchup. Great, just great. Oh, and let me guess who could possibly be responsible for this.” Kale turned in his seat to his left in the general direction from where the fries came. And his assumption was correct. “Of course.”

   There, at a few tables over, were Garfield Logan and Victor Stone high-fiving and fist punching. The smaller of the two, Garfield, was kind of a lanky kid. He had short, blonde spiked hair and he had a pale skin complexion that almost gave the appearance of a greenish tint. He was wearing blue jeans and one of his many famous comedy T-shirts. Today’s had a picture of a man holding a giant magnet with two women stuck to it by their heads. Below this little cartoon was a caption that said, ‘Chick Magnet.’ How this little elf ever got any girls to pay any attention to him was beyond Kale. But Garfield’s emerald colored eyes might have had something to do with it, because it sure as hell wasn’t his sense of humor.

   The taller of the two was Victor Stone, and saying this guy was tall was an understatement because he was a giant of sorts. He towered over everyone else, especially Garfield, dwarfing the elf’s size even more. Victor was a bald African American teen of around 17 or 18. And he was ripped to say the least. He may have been big, but it was all muscle. Not a single ounce of fat on him probably. And from the way he dressed, you could tell he was your typical jock. He wore a Jump City High football letter jacket over a loose white T-shirt with blue jeans. He played every sport that the school offered almost, and it just happened to be football season. Victor seemed to excel at every sport he participated in, but Kale figured he failed at anything that was academical. All brawn and no brains.

   “Give it to me two time! Haha!” Garfield cheered.

   “Dude, you crazy. That was good, but I wouldn’t give it more than a three pointer” Victor said back to his over excited friend.

   ‘What a sick sense of humor these two jerks have.’ The points reference made by Victor was actually a game that they had come up with a while ago. They would come up with some kind of joke, prank, or form of torment towards Kale, and then they would rate and give each other points according on their performance and the overall success. ‘Such a stupid and immature game. But I guess it fits perfectly with their stupid and immature little underdeveloped minds.’ Kale smiled at his inward thoughts and went back to trying to ignore his tormentors. He tried to focus on his work, but Kale’s concentration was slipping and his mind kept wandering, over hearing a few bits and pieces of different conversations.

   “Oh my God, I totally forgot to tell you.”

   “What?”

   “I’m huge in the doghouse at home.”

   “Why?”

   Kale wasn’t interested in what two really preppy and hyper active teenage girls were up to, but he figured the first girl was in trouble for something trivial and she was just over exaggerating. Typical.

   “So I said: ‘What did he say?’ And she said he said his cell phone was broken, what a dog right?”

   “Oh my God, yes.”

   “So I told her to tell him to drop dead.”

   “You go girl.”

   ‘God, doesn’t this school have anyone else in it than preppy gossiping girls?’ Kale turned his attention towards a different corner of the lunch room and spotted another person sitting all alone. The new kid. She had only been at this school for about a week, and already had gotten at least three detentions, one of which was on the first day of her arrival. She was sitting alone, and not even eating lunch. Instead, the girl was reading a book, and a lengthy one by the looks of it. With her head buried in her book, he couldn’t seer her face at all, but he did notice that she was wearing a dark, royal blue hoodie and black jeans. She had one studded belt wrapped loosely around her waist. One leg was crossed over the other, revealing that she wore laceless, perfectly fitting, slipper like shoes that were the same color as the hoodie. As she turned a page within her book, a quick glimpse of her hair could be seen and Kale noticed that it was a purple color.

   ‘So, this is the new girl? The dark one herself. The loner of all loners. You know, I have never seen her until now, but now I get were all those rumors could come from. She is definitely dark, but from the looks of that book, she is probably very intellectual. Oh well, I prefer her over the preps.’ Kale was too distracted that he didn’t notice two more fries coming right at him, and this time they hit him right in the face. “Ahh, not again!”

   “Now that is definitely a five pointer,” Garfield said to his larger friend.

   “No way. I’d give it a four at best,” Victor said calmly to his tiny companion.

   “Oh come on man. That was a bulls-eye.”

   “Whatever little man.”

   ‘Bastards. Cant they think of anything better to do with their time, like evolve past a rock and move onto a mammal?’ Kale looked down at his hands and sighed. “What did I do to deserve this kind of torment? Why me?” he whispered.

   If Kale had looked up at that moment, he would have known to move out of the way, for another edible projectile was coming towards him. But this was no fry, it was much larger. A taco had been hurled and was coming right at him. But he didn’t look up. He was too busy wallowing over his depressing life. The taco kept coming and hit his drink, spilling all over his homework. The taco ricocheted off the drink and slammed right into him, exploding and splattering all over him on contact.

   “And the master slams it home!” Garfield cheered on.

   “GOOOAAL!” Victor shouted out.

   “Oh come on guys, it’s not that big of a deal. I just have really good aim.”

   “Hell ya you do.”

   ‘Of course. What kind of circus is complete without a ring leader?’ Kale didn’t even need to turn around to know who this person was. He had already met with him multiple times in the past and was the main factor in his torment. Garfield and Victor were just this guy’s cronies as it were. The guy held all the cards and was the center person of the group of the populars. Richard, or Dick, Grayson. ‘Dick Grayson. The name suits him, since he is one.’

   Behind the two cronies, as Kale ever so gently put it, was Dick Grayson. He was about the same height as Kale, if it weren’t for his hair. It was a jet black color that was so spiked and shiny that Kale wondered just how much hair gel that guy used in one day. He usually wore snazzy button shirts that were opened all the way down with some tight fitting T-shirt underneath. And for some reason unknown to Kale, Dick always wore sunglasses. Day or night, inside or outside, summer or winter, it didn’t matter. He always wore sunglasses. In fact, Kale wondered if he had actually ever seen Dick without those damn things on. His memory told him no. Dick was also profusely rich, due to his foster parent Bruce Wayne, who owned a multimillion dollar company. He was rich, and he took every chance he could to show it, with expensive clothes and jewelry. Whatever it took to flaunt off his riches.

   Kale turned in his seat to glare at the group, and Dick was sitting in his usual cross legged holier-than-thou position. His only reaction to Kale’s glare was a slight nod and a two finger mock salute.
‘God how I loath him. Oh, and look who he has with him. No group of stuck up snobs is complete without the cheerleader girlfriend.’

   The cheerleader girlfriend to which Kale was referring to was Kori Anders. She was slightly taller than Dick, and Kale believed there was a reason behind that. She had long red hair that went down to about midway between the waist and the neck. She was wearing tight fitting jeans with slits in the lower area around the feet, and a tighter fitting spaghetti strap shirt. Her eyes were of a deeper emerald than Garfield’s and just added to her beauty. She was the girl almost everyone wanted, but no one ever got… almost.  Right now though, she was seated on Dick’s lap with his arm snaked around her waist, declaring to everyone that she was his. God how Kale hated these people, acting like they were so much better than everyone else around them.

   “Dick dear, that was an awfully horrible thing to do,” Kori said in an innocent silky voice that made Kale want to gag with disgust.

   “Oh I know, wasn’t it? Maybe I should go over and apologize. What do you think about that guys?” Dick asked in a calm demeanor.

   “Yeah man. He looks a little hehe, sour,” Victor snickered.

   “Definitely,” Garfield added while trying to stifle a laugh by covering his mouth with both hands.

   “Oh, I know exactly what you guys mean,” Dick said with a wink from behind his sunglasses, though no one saw it. He gestured to Kori to get off of him and she obliged. He got up from his seat and calmly walked over to Kale who was using his napkin to try and clean most of the remnants of the taco off his shirt and face.

   Kale looked up to see Dick was coming towards him with one hand in his pocket and the other gave him a slight wave.

   ‘Oh great. The all powerful Dick Grayson coming over to say something to me. This has Danger, Danger Will Robinson written all over it.’ Kale returned his attention towards attempting to somewhat clean himself up.

   Dick walked over and placed a hand on Kale’s shoulder, but Kale didn’t respond.

   “Hey buddy, you okay? That went a little too far huh?” said Dick in an all too nice a manner.  Kale didn’t answer for he knew something was up. Dick leaned in closer so that his face was right beside Kale’s. “You know man, you got some nerve. Having me come over and actually try and talk to you, and you don’t even respond. It’s never a good thing when something like this happens. Important people like me don’t like to be treated like this.”

   ‘This is bad treatment?! Have you been paying attention to what you have been doing to me over the years?’ Kale wanted to scream this out, right in Dick’s face, but he didn’t. Instead, he slightly turned to face Dick. “Whatever man. Just do your lame ass apology, be on your way, and leave me the hell alone. Got it?”

   “Got it. No hard feelings right?” Dick extended his hand to Kale as a peaceful handshake, but Kale just batted it away.

  “Whatever.” Kale turned his attention away from Dick and back down to his lunch tray and books only to see a lemon slice right in front of his face.

   ‘Oh crap.’

   Before Kale could even react, the hand that was holding the lemon squeezed it, and the sour stinging liquid went flying right into Kale’s eyes. He let out a gasp of pain as he clutched at his eyes. The lemon juice was burning them so badly he couldn’t even see. He jumped up and rushed in the general direction of where he knew the restrooms where, brushing up against Dick in the process.
Dick walked away from where Kale was sitting and went over to the trashcan where he dropped the squeezed lemon slice. He then turned on his heel back towards his group while brushing off the spot where Kale had touched him, like it was contaminated or something. Garfield and Victor were high-fiving each other, as usual.

   “Dude, that was awesome,” said Victor.

   “Yeah man. On a point scale from one to ten, I give you a twenty. Seriously dude, you rock out loud!” said an over excited Garfield as he extended a fist towards Dick for a fist punch.

   “What was your first clue?” Dick asked as he met Garfield’s fist with his own. He looked over to where Kori was standing with her hands on her hips. “What?  I said I was sorry,” he said in a sickenly calm voice.

   Kori’s gaze softened and she walked towards Dick, wrapping her arms around his neck. “That’s all I asked for.”

   “Besides, the guy had it coming anyway,” Dick said while pointing with his thumb to where Kale had left the cafeteria. “And after he touched me, he deserves something more as well.”

   Meanwhile, Kale had finally walked into the correct restroom. After all, the female’s sign looks awfully similar to the men’s when your eyesight is blinded by sheer burning pain. Kale rushed to the sink, turned on the faucet, and furiously started splashing water into his eyes. The burning sensation was starting to subside and his blurred vision was starting to clear up. He looked up to the mirror and saw that his eyes were completely bloodshot. One last splash of water in his face before he reached for the paper towels in the dispenser. He rubbed the paper towel over his face, trying to dry off all the water and any remnants of the lemon juice.

   After he was done, Kale threw the used paper into the trash can, but didn’t leave the restroom right away. Instead, he stared at the image of himself that was reflected back at him in the mirror. He closed his still sore, but not as sore, eyes and placed his forehead against the mirror.

   ‘Why me? It’s always me.’ He opened his eyes and removed his forehead from the mirror. He looked back at his reflection, but this time his expression was that of anger, not depression.

   “One of these days, those jerks are going to get what’s coming to them and I am going to see to it personally.” With that said, Kale regained most of his composure and walked out the door, not knowing what fate had in mind for him.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

   ‘2:59. Come on, just a few more seconds and I can finally get out of this hell hole.’ Kale was sitting very impatiently in his desk, with his feet tapping very fast on the ground, his fingers were rapidly rapping on the top of his desk, anything that could possibly make it feel like time was passing at a quicker rate than reality would let it, until…

   RIIINNG!

   Kale jumped out of his seat and rushed out the door at the sound of freedom that every teen loves to hear during the last period of school on a Friday.

   ‘Yes finally, the weekend has officially begun. And with a very small amount of homework, this should be a pretty laid back easy going weekend. Just gotta get to my locker and then I’m off to the bus.’ He rushed as fast as he could to his locker, which unfortunately was on the opposite end of the school from his last class and the buses.

   After a couple minutes of pushing through the crowded hallway traffic, Kale finally reached his locker.

   ‘31-45-33, open locker, get books,’ Kale put his books into his backpack, and with a slight flick of the wrist and a turn of his body, the locker door slammed shut. ‘Locker closed. Alright, now all I have to do is get to the buses before they leave and I’m home free.’

   He flung his backpack over his shoulder and began to briskly walk down a less crowded hallway. But Kale was too occupied with getting to the buses on time to notice a couple of people walking and whispering to each other behind him.

   “Looks like a ten pointer to me.”

   “After you.”

   “No, please, I insist mister Stone.”

   “Mister Grayson, it would be my honor.” The teen who was mister Stone picked up his pace and soon was within arms length of Kale. Victor took one last look behind him at Dick for a nod of approval, and a cruel smirk played across his face. A similar smile came onto Victor’s lips as he turned back to his victim. He waited for the most opportune moment, and when it came, Victor didn’t hesitate to act. With a swift kick to his leg, Kale lost his footing and went tumbling forward, knocking into a few people spilling their belongings in the process.

   “Ooof!” Kale let out as he landed face down on the tiled floor.

   “Watch were you’re going you little spaz! These high heels cost more than you do!” Kitten Moth yelled out. Another popular bitch, if not one of the bitchiest, in a school that was full of them.

   “Hehe. A bit clumsy, aren’t ya? That was payback for touching me at lunch.”

   Kale gritted his teeth as he turned to look up towards Dick. He was standing right next to Victor who had his arms crossed in front of him, seemingly proud of a job well done. Both had a cruel, sickening grin played across their lips. Kale didn’t reply, but gave them both a serious death glare.

   “Uh oh, looks like Riley’s about to pull a ‘Carrie’,” joked the taller of the two teens with a nasty bite to his voice.

   Dick just laughed at that. “Yeah, wouldn’t want him to get mad at us would we? Hehe.” Dick turned on his heel with Victor following right behind him, and both started walking towards the trail that led to the student parking lot. Without even turning around, Dick gave Kale a slight back-hand wave. “See ya ‘round loser.”

   “Ah, go flex a muscle you vain, arrogant bastard,” Kale whispered under his breath. He slowly got up to his feet and dusted himself off.

   ‘Man, what I wouldn’t give to have the power and the courage to get back at them,’ he thought to himself as he stared in the direction Dick had left. With one hand holding onto a strap of his backpack, he turned his gaze towards the ceiling. ‘But right now, all I want to do is… go…’ Kale quickly turned to one of the many overhead clocks in his school, then looked down the hall in the direction he was headed before he was so rudely interrupted. ‘Crap!’

   With a heft of his shoulder to get a better grip on his backpack, Kale sprinted down the hallway towards the buses.

   ‘Please oh please oh please oh please! Don’t leave without me!’ He was reaching the doors and he charged towards them. ‘Please, not just yet. Don’t leave just yet! I’m almost there! Please don’t leave…’ He burst through doors only to be greeted by the sight of the final bus pulling out of the parking lot and out onto the main street. ‘Damn it! Just, damn it.’

   With a heavy heart and a heavy sigh, Kale slumped up against the wall behind him, looking upwards towards the sky as he did so.

   “Man, you really don’t like me do you? Do you get your sick kicks out of torturing me like this? All I can say is you damn well better have something big planned for me, cause this life I have now just plain sucks.” With a grunt that came from more than frustration than effort, Kale pushed himself off of the wall and hefted his backpack once again. “Well, I better get going. Home is like on the other side of the city almost. Damn city council for only having one single high school in this damn place. What the hell were they thinking? Well, at least I don’t have too much homework, other wise a heavy backpack would be the death of me. And, the sea by the warehouse district at the docks is pretty nice this time of day, and will probably look even better by the time I get there. I guess I’ll take the scenic route.” And with that said, Kale started off on his long trek home.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

   “You know Kale, you are some piece of work, ya know that? I mean, you’re ten times smarter than that Dick, yet cant even stand up to the guy.” Kale was talking to himself while walking the long way home. He had found that it would help pass the time, along with kicking an empty soda can he had found along the way.

   “But, even though this weekend hasn’t exactly started off the way I wanted it to, this isn’t so bad. A nice, calm relaxing walk, despite the length of it, and a beautiful ocean scenery. This really isn’t so bad.” Indeed, it was a sight to behold. The warm, crisp ocean air gently caressing his face and the salt water scent of the ocean wafted over to him and fill his senses. The seagulls overhead were chirping, and the sounds of the ocean breaking wave upon the shore, utterly peaceful. All was calm and Kale was enjoying this moment of tranquility, until…

   CRASH!

   “Hey man, careful with that crate. The boss wants it in one piece. And if that doesn’t happen, we don’t get paid, remember?”

   “Grrr.”

   “Yeah yeah. Just put it in the warehouse and our job is done. We go in, drop off the package, and then we’re out of here. Easiest job the boss has ever had us do.”

   ‘Now what the hell is going on?’ Kale quietly rushed over to where he heard the crash and voices. He stopped at a corner of the building and peeked around it to see what was happening. A white, unmarked box truck had its back open and facing the warehouse. A skinny guy with slicked back hair and an entire one piece suit was standing by the loading area that the truck was at. We was waving a cigarette around and pointing it towards the back of the truck all high-and-mighty like. He was obviously waving it and talking to someone in the truck, but Kale couldn’t see who it was.

   “God man, you’re slower than a sloth. Pick up the pace would ya? We don’t have all day ya know,” the skinny guy called towards whoever was in the truck.

   “Grrr.”

   “Yeah yeah. Grrr. Just hurry it up will ya?”  The skinny man took the cigarette to his lips and breathed in.  After a few moments of holding his breath, the man exhaled and let the smoke escape through his lips.
  
   The man inside the truck finally emerged from within with a large looking crate on one of his shoulders. Kale’s eyes widened as he saw this giant of a man. Although he had never met the man in person, he had seen his face in the news. Cane Brawn. But he was better known in the crime world as Cinderblock. That name was given to him when a bunch of guys took cinder blocks and started to beat the 7 foot giant with them. But Cane wasn’t even effected in the least little bit, thus leading to the nick name. The reports also said this guy never talked either, but you don’t need words to speak volumes, especially when people turn up face down in a river with their heads violently crushed in.

   ‘Now what the hell could this behemoth be doing here? One way to find out I guess.’ As soon as both men entered the warehouse, Kale left his position and quickly walked over to the corner of the warehouse door and peered inside, just to make sure nobody was looking. With both of their backs turned, Kale quickly crept into the building and knelt behind some stacked crates without being noticed.

   “Alright Cinderblock, lets get out of here. We did the job, now let’s go. My television show will be on soon, and I don’t wanna miss a second.”

   “Grrr.”

   “Yeah yeah. Whatever.” With that said and done, the two men walked back towards the door and left, without noticing their little teenage visitor.

   As soon as he heard the truck’s engine roar up and speed off, Kale got up from his hiding spot and moved over to where the package was. He hadn’t noticed it, but he had been holding his breath almost the entire time, and his heart was beating like crazy. When he finally reached the crate, he took one last look behind him to make sure nobody would be coming.

   “Well Kale, now that you’re here in front of this thing containing God knows what, what are you going to do? You could just walk away and forget this thing ever happened, or let your curiosity take the better of you and find out what’s in there, and why it’s so important. Hmm. Walk away, open it. Walk away, open it.” While he was saying this, he was moving his arms up and down to mimic a scale, weighing out the options. “Walk away, open it. Walk away, open it.  Screw it, I’m opening it. Just hope it’s not a bomb. But now that I’ve decided to open it, the question becomes, how?” Kale glanced around the room until he found a crowbar jutting out of another crate that was across the room. “That’ll work.”

   He went over to the crate and picked up the crowbar, then walked back to the crate that had so spiked his interest. He rammed one end of the crowbar into the crate just below the lid, and began to pry it off. With one final grunt, the last nail came free and the lid fell backwards, leaving the crate wide open. Kale peered inside, but jumped back in surprise.

   ‘Holy crap!’ What he saw that had scared him so much was a skull that was staring right back at him. Kale’s heart was beating like crazy and he was sure he was going to have a heart attack and die right there on the spot. He laid his hand over his chest where his heart was, like that would help anyway, and tried to calm himself down.

   ‘Calm down Kale. It’s just a skull, it can’t hurt you. Nothing weird about that, right? Oh yeah right.’ He crept back up to the crate, and upon closer inspection, he discovered that the skull was merely an image on a mask. ‘God Kale. Jump to conclusions and scare yourself to death why don’t ya.’ Kale lifted the mask up and held it right in front of him. ‘You know, this is pretty cool, but what’s it for?’ He held it to the side and looked back into the crate and spotted a couple sheets of paper. ‘Now this could tell me something.’

   With the mask tucked under his arm, Kale reached out and brought the papers to him.

   ‘A letter? Lets see what it says.’

   Mr. Slade,

            The prototype battle suit that you requested of us a few months ago is finally complete. Everything that you have asked of us has been incorporated into the suit. A list is attached to this letter containing all the components. If anything is missing, or you have any questions, contact us immediately.

                                                                                  Shirumari Weapons Co.

   ‘Battle suit? Well I guess that explains why someone like Cinderblock was delivering this. And who is this Mr. Slade anyway? Oh well, not my problem right now. Now let’s see what all this baby is capable of.’ Just as the letter had said, a list was attached to it with all the components of the suit.

   1. Power Core Belt. This suit needs a very special fuel to operate it, synovium ore. While it is unstable, it is the only power source that can activate the system. And because of its unstable nature, we suggest that you change the synovium ore every week. We have already supplied you with one vial of this fuel, but if you need a supplier our contact in Jump City, Professor Chang, has a very generous supply.

   2. Enhanced Ability Process. The suit works on a microscopic scale. As a person is wearing it, the suit increases the abilities of said person, such as speed, agility, and strength. Muscle enhancement is what you asked for, but we decided to add a little extra for the cause.

   3. Weapons. This suit has a very unique weapon touch pad sensory based system. In the palms and fingers of the suit, there are sensors. Each sensor has a different weapon designed to it. Just touch the sensor in the finger to that in the palm and either palm lasers, constrictive binding gel, retractable wrist razor blades, or projectile shurikens will be activated.

   4. Vision Settings. As requested, the three vision settings you asked for are here. There is the standard normal vision, as well as night vision, infrared, and x-ray. All can be activated by the touch pad sensory system integrated into the fingers and at the temples of the mask.

   5. Cloaking/Teleporting Mechanism. In the center of the power core belt, there is a button dial. The dial has two settings, cloaking and teleportation. The cloaking setting, when activated, disrupts the light waves to the sensors in the eye of any observer, rendering the battle suit and its occupant invisible. The teleporting setting does exactly as it says. When activated, the suit will seemingly disappear and will then teleport to the coordinates spoken into a receiver. This system has its limits and it is able teleport within a three mile radius. But this distance takes a great deal of power to accomplish, so it is recommended that such a distance should not be attempted unless absolutely necessary.  Preset coordinates can be programmed prior to use and activated by a key word.

   6. Voice Modulator. Integrated into the mask is a voice filtering device. When the person inside speaks into the modulator, it distorts the sound waves from the vocal chords, completely disguising and changing its sound.

   If any problems should occur, contact us immediately.

   Kale let the papers fall back into the crate and picked up the rest of the suit.

   ‘Wow. This thing is freaking amazing. This is the kinda power I wish I had.’ A smile started to form across his lips as he brought the suit close to his chest and looked around to see if anyone was watching. ‘But it sure as hell isn’t safe with these people. Maybe I should take it, just to keep it out of the wrong hands,’ he rationalized with himself. As quickly as he could, Kale stuffed the battle suit into his backpack and put the lid back on the crate. And with that, he turned on his heel and quickly walked out of the door, then calmly walked the rest of the way back to his home. Little did he know that a security camera had caught his every move.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

   ‘Please don’t let him be home. Let him be at that stupid bar. I do not want to face him. He will probably ask me where I was and then over exaggerate the seriousness of the situation. Please don’t let him be home.’ Kale walked up to the front door of his depressing house which fit perfectly with his depressing life he believed. It wasn’t as bad as he thought it was though. It was a two story house that was actually kept in a pretty decent state. It was what was in the house that Kale thought was depressing. As quietly as he could, Kale opened the door and slipped in. But as soon as he turned around, Kale was greeted by his very angry looking father. His arms were crossed, his face was a little red, and as he breathed the smell of alcohol wafted over and invaded Kale’s senses. ‘Oh great, so he already had a few, and he’s angry. Perfect.’

   “Boy, where have you been? Why are so damn late?” he asked in a harsh and demanding demeanor.

   “I… I missed the bus. Had to walk home,” Kale quietly responded.

   “What?! Again?! God boy, cant you ever do anything right? It’s just a simple task of walking from your locker to the bus. What, get lost on the way there? God!”

   ‘Now how did I call that one?’

   “Ugh. Whatever. I’m going out for a couple of beers. Be back, whenever.” Kale’s father grabbed his coat off the coat rack, walked past his son, and violently slammed the door behind him.

   ‘Great to see ya dad. Love you too. Ugh, please.’ Kale inwardly sighed and walked into the living room to see his mother passed out on the couch with the television on. ‘Typical.’ He walked back to the hallway and went up the stairs towards his room. Even though his father was out of the house and his mother was just plain ‘out’, Kale quietly closed his door and locked it behind him. He didn’t want anyone interrupting.

   Within a matter of minutes, Kale was standing in front of his full size mirror on the back of his door wearing the battle suit.

   ‘Wow, this looks freaking awesome, though this tight fitting material doesn’t leave much to the imagination,’ he thought as he turned in front of the mirror, examining himself at every angle. ‘But still, freaking sweet. Now, a little customization to make it my own. I’m thinking maybe a cape, no wait... a tattered cape. Oh ya, that would look sweet. And maybe even a red x over the right eye and one right here on the chest,’ he thought as he brought his hand up to where he believed would be the best place for the x. ‘Hmm. Red X. I like the sound of it.’

   With one final look at the mirror, Kale Riley, no, Red X smiled.

   “Time for some payback.”