Blind Spots
By: Brian Doyle
Blind Spots - A St Seiya fanfic by Brian Doyle
Based on St Seiya by Masami Kuruada.
Completely unauthorised. No permission has been given, no offence has been intended.
He dropped from the drop-down fire escape ladder and landed in the alley, ensuring that no
one could see him.
Even if they had, what would they have seen? A small boy with scruffy hair, wearing a
black cloak and a headband, nothing that anyone would comment on too much, but it never
hurt to be sure.
He adjusted his headband again, he wanted to be sure it couldn't be seen.
The sounds of pursuit came from up on the roof and they were getting closer.
The boy stood under the ladder of the fire escape and made a strange upward thrusting
motion with his hands. Waves of energy pulsed out from him.
The results were spectacular, the ladder shot back up into its resting place, but didn't
stop there, it continued it's upward flight like it was jet- propelled. With a metallic
snap it sheared from it's moorings and started smashing it's way up through the levels of
the fire escape. It stopped about the sixth floor up, but it had rendered the whole thing
utterly unusable.
With a contented sigh, the boy turned and sauntered down the alley, there was no way the
idiots could chase after him now.
There was a shout from the head of the alley. Damn! A couple of them must have come down
through the building. He looked around desperately and saw his salvation in the form of a
pile of garbage.
Another gesture and the garbage was arcing neatly through the air landing heavily on the
first of the soldiers the rest back-pedalled furiously, causing complete chaos in their
ranks.
The boy took the opportunity to duck past them and through the street market that was just
closing for the day. He paused only long enough to demolish a fruit stall, which added to
the chaos.
He wasn't quite quick enough to avoid one of the stall keepers, who tried to grab him and
succeeded in grabbing his head band. It came off and the boy stopped automatically,
turning to grab it back.
The stall keeper reached out again, and then stared at the boy, an expression of horror
spreading across his face.
"YOU! You're one of them.. Don't hurt me, I didn't mean to grab you. Honest! Please,
just leave me alone". He was babbling and didn't seem to care. Other people were
turning to stare and when they saw the boy, their reactions were either terror or outright
horror.
Oh great, thought the boy, one of THOSE! Might as well make the most of it.
"BOO!!" he shouted at the crowd. He was gratified to hear at least three
shrieks, and suddenly everyone backed away from him. He turned and ran like crazy...
+ + + +
It was an hour later and they were STILL chasing him. The Chinese military were NOTHING if
not persistent.
He had run up what seemed to be a convenient flight of stairs to discover it did not lead
to an equally convenient back exit, but rather was a closed staircase to the top of a
seven storey building. He ran out onto a balcony which had several apartments leading off
it, each with a locked door.
There were a lot of locks on the various doors, but several of them looked to be in bad
condition. He didn't have time to gimmick them all, so a touch of subtlety was called for.
He made a quick note of which houses had lights on in their windows and eliminated them
immediately.
With a deep breath he formed a rough circle with his thumbs and first fingers and
concentrated really hard. With a buzzing sound a red disc of light appeared within the
circle.
The boy peered at the first lock he came to through the lens in his hand. The lock
appeared as normal, but then an overlay appeared visible only through the lens; minute
cracks became visible, lines appeared in otherwise smooth metal. Darn, the stress lines
weren't wide enough to make this lock easy to force, he'd be more likely to detonate it.
His power wasn't particularly fine tuned yet.
The second lock was much the same, but the third showed a nice fat crack lying inside the
lock itself. With a furrowed brow he focused as best he could on such a small target and
let lose his power.
The lock exploded with a small boom and blasted the door back on it's hinges, to the shock
of the family sitting inside. Damn!! What were they doing sitting in the dark? It was only
then he noticed there WAS a light visible through the window, he had been so excited about
the lock he hadn't checked the window.
The boy smiled his best ingratiating smile and scratched the back of his head in what he
hoped was an innocent matter.
"Now, how did that happen? He-he?" He turned and ran, leaving four very shocked
looking faces examining the remains of their front door.
He reached the end of the balcony and saw that he was stuck, there was no convenient fire
escape here and it was seven storeys straight down.
With a yell the other end of the balcony filled with soldiers.
"What? It takes..." The boy counted on the fingers of one hand, obviously
getting into trouble when he reached six.. "..LOTS of you to deal with one little
boy? What kind of soldiers are you?"
"The kind carrying out orders. You know the rules boy, you have the mark upon you, no
matter that you cover it up. You and your kind are forbidden from the cities."
Anger grew in the boy "What rules? I've lived here all my life and, You mean THESE
marks?" He pulled off the headband, revealing two small dots on his forehead.
The lead soldier, an officer of some sort, replied; "Yes, those! Tibet has been
formally annexed by China, and that mean our rules apply. We tolerate your kind in their
own place, but that is NOT in the cities. Those who trespass face immeidate expulsion or
are... dealt with."
"I was born in the city", which was true as far as he knew, "I'm a cizit..
cinezit.. citizen here." Damn, he hated when he got his words jumbled, but heck, he
was only seven.
"No-one who wears the mark is a citizen, that is the law."
The boy had had enough of this, he had used up nearly all of his power reserves tonight,
normally they gave chase for a little while and then gave up, it rarely lasted more than
half an hour. It might mean they had a new commander, they normally stirred things up for
a while. Just his bad luck he was the scapegoat this time. Time to take some pre-emptive
action.
"Well if that's what offends you so much, let me get out of your way."
He wasn't sure this was the right time to try a new trick, but it wasn't like he had much
choise. Besides, if it didn't work out, chances are he wouldn't be around long enough to
complain. With a whispered prayer to anyone who might be listening, he simply jumped off
the balcony.
It wasn't the best way to concentrate, but he did his best and the waves of force reached
out from him. They struck the ground, but instead of other objects starting to move, the
boy started to slow, but it wasn't quite enough and he was still falling at quite a rate.
Enough to hurt when he landed, and hurt badly.
Time to go all out. He knew that he could theoretically perform the next trick, but it was
very hard for him as yet, especially with such low levels of power left.
He put himself into the frame of mind his mother had taught him. He knew exactly where he
was in three dimensional space, as well as a couple of others. And he could
"see" a spot some three hundred yards distance where he wanted to be. It was now
a case of using his power to "convince" the two distant points that they were
actually very, very close to each other. In fact, he had to convince them that, despite
what their dimensional matrices seemed to be saying to them, they were actually the SAME
PLACE, and therefore it wouldn't cause any problems if he were to be suddenly more in one
than in the other. He could feel the dimensions opening to allow him through, but it was
taking too long, and his fall meant he had to keep realigning things in his head, and he
was only seven and he really didn't want to die, and he'd be good if only they'd let him
get away with it THIS tim....
His flow of thought was disturbed when he realised he was no longer falling. He was halted
in mid air whilst still a few feet off the ground. He was so shocked that he stopped
concentrating completely, but still he didn't fall. He hung there, legs flailing for a
moment before he was deposited gently onto the ground. He glared all around to see who
might have done such a thing to him, completely overlooking the fact that whoever it was
had just saved his life. There was such a thing as decorum!
There was a shimmering in the air, followed by a musical chime as a human shape
materialised out of nowhere. The boy froze in shock, now THIS was unexpected. The man, at
least he assumed it was a man from the build though it was hard to be sure, was shrouded
in a long hooded cloak and wore simple robes underneath. The figure reached out and
brushed the boys forehead with his hand. He felt an odd warmth as his hands touched the
blue spots, as if something were flowing both into and out of him.
"So it's true, there is a lost one living in this city. You must be the child of Ara,
we always did wonder what happened to her. It's only recently we have heard the strange
reports from this city of one of our own running wild."
"Yeah, and what's it to you?"
The boy knew he was sounding like a sulky child, but so what. The whole situation was
decidedly creepy; this man seemed to have known his mother, and had the same abilities he
did. As far as he knew however, from what he had been told they had been the last of their
kind. She'd been dead for two years, but she had taught him how to hide, how to live
rough, and how to always hide what he was.
"I am one who lives in a place where we need not be afraid to show our true nature.
See?" The man pulled his hood back to expose his face. His forehead bore two blue
spots identical to his own.
"There are still others like me? Hmph, I don't need them. I'm fine here?"
"Really, I've been watching you tonight, so let's see. So far I've seen reckless
behaviour, vandalism and criminal damage, you left those poor people in that building
without a fire escape, suppose they had needed it? You're lucky I was around to repair the
damage."
The boy felt himself blushing with shame, though the man hadn't raised his voice.
"Then there was wanton vandalism, albeit in self defence. Interfering with members of
the military simply enforcing their responsibilities, however loathsome it might seem to
you. Breaking and entering... I'm sorry, breaking and NOT entering... Shall I
continue?"
"Okay, okay! Look, I get by okay?"
"Perhaps, but I can take you to Jamir, to a place where we all have the same
abilities, and where developing them is an art. A place where we need fear no one and
nothing."
"Why would I want to go there, here I'm special, there I'd just be another kid."
"You are very gifted, summoning the Red Lens at so early an age, and untutored into
the bargain, is quite remarkable? You even came close to true teleportation, which is
positively unheard of. And we have few children in Jamir. We are an old race, and children
come less often than they did. That is why we treasure them."
He saw the gleam in the boys eye and smiled, "But that doesn't mean we spoil them. We
love them enough to teach them responsibility. Your abilities are strong, but in terms of
MORAL development.. let's just say you're no saint. Our prescient brethren have suggested
that an outsider will return and craft a great destiny. If you were to accompany me, it
may well be you."
It was clear the boy was warming to the idea, though he might be trying to deny it to
himself. The man decided a change of tack was in order.
"I'll tell you what, come and try it for six months. If you don't like it we will let
you go back into the world, we'll find somewhere nicer for you than this..." He
looked around with obvious distaste, "... place. But you'll be free of us, if that is
truly your wish."
"I have always felt that we were too insular in Jamir, and that a little exposure to
the real world now and then will do us no harm. You just might be the breath of fresh air
we need. Will you come?"
The boy was obviously fascinated by the idea, he nodded slowly. The man reached out and
took the boys hand.
"So what's your name?"
"Name? They don't call me anything, they never catch me for that long."
The man's voice was warm "You must have some sort of name, I can't take you back to
Jamir with me and introduce you to everyone simply as "him".
"There is a name my mother called me, but I haven't used it in years"
"In Jamir we honour those who raise us, the names they give us define who we are and
how we are perceived by others".
"Really? Well... maybe then..."
A dazzling glow surrounded them for a second before they disappeared. The boys voice faded
out as he started his journey;
"My name is MÜ, call me MÜ..."
Fin