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