Ash was at the gym, killing time till Lita was ready to go home. He had already finished classes and was now waiting for Lita to finish her club's meetings. Ash felt an uneasy tension inside, as if some bad omen was coming his way. It felt like a knot in his stomach when someone felt like there was an invisible force watching over them.
He had to distract himself from the feeling and the hunger that was still hurting him. He was so hungry, yet he didn't understand why. He couldn't even drink water from the fountain in the gym. Nothing seemed to be accepted by his body.
"System, why am I so hungry but not allowed to eat regular food? What's wrong with me?"
The system responded to his call.
{User is experiencing hunger from the initial activation of the system and repairs. Answer: the system restored the user's body after reconstruction into present status.}
"Reconstruction? What do you mean by that? What happened to me?"
The system tried to respond, but when it did, the screen showed static, as if it was malfunctioning.
"System, what's wrong?" Ash was worried about why the system was going haywire.
{Error! The system can not answer questions without permission from Torch.}
"What the hell? What torch? Who's that?" Ash became worried that something wasn't only wrong, but an important detail was being purposely left out.
{Answer. Torch is the designated handler who gave the system to the user. Torch has taken direct action to avoid answering questions about the system's origins or the events of system initialization. The user must ask Torch permission to unlock sealed memory.}
Ash felt frustrated. He couldn't get answers to what happened or what the hunger pain was from either. He held his stomach, groaning in pain, taking deep breaths to try and numb it down temporarily.
He went into the room to practice his new abilities, hoping it would distract him enough. There, he threw darts to practice his Trajectory ability. He had to get it down since it only allowed him to change the kinetic flow of any objects he held or were coming at him in his immediate area of control. At least with the telepathy, he could control anything further than ten feet away, regardless of size.
This one only allowed the weight and size of a Bowie knife or a .44 Magnum bullet.
He wasn't ungrateful, though; seeing how he never missed the center target during practice made him better about the ability. While practicing with the darts, the more he threw, the more he felt that uneasy feeling from earlier. It wouldn't go away; something was gnawing at his soul more badly than the hunger was.
Ash's cellphone went off loudly; Ash stopped throwing the darts to check it, and it was Lita calling him.
"Hey, what's up?" He asked. He could hear Lita sobbing on the other end. Something was definitely wrong.
"Ash, it's Daredevil. Something happened, please come quickly. I don't think I can handle this without you."
Ash hung up right away. He put his clothes on in a rush to meet her. He was on the other side of the school, in the gym, but he wouldn't get there fast enough. He decided it was the perfect time to use the new ability he'd gotten, seeing if the Phantom Stride would get him there faster by going through the building's ventilation structure to reach Lita.
Ash used the Phantom Stride; his whole body dissipated into black smoke. He flew faster than he could ever run, bypassing the windows and ventilation ways, and he was getting there quicker than he anticipated. Seeing a crowd around the stables, he decided to exit somewhere safe, so no one could see him as he was. He didn't need that kind of attention.
He exited through a vent just outside the side of the building, away from the eyes of the people there. It took him a few minutes to solidify himself, as it was his first time using the ability. As soon as he was solid again, he ran over to the crowd to find Lita, shoving everyone out of his way till he reached her.
Lita was crying, nervously biting her nails as her mascara ran down her face.
"Get out of the way!" Ash demanded as he ran to her.
She jumped for a second when he grabbed her shoulders after reaching her. When she saw it was Ash, she immediately buried her face in his chest as she held him tightly.
"What happened?" he asked.
Lita couldn't respond right away; she was still sobbing.
Ash saw doctors and security around the horse. Daredevil looked in utter agony; his breathing was slow but pained. The security team was taking statements from everyone, and even Ash knew this wasn't a simple case.
"Lita, focus. What happened?" Lita didn't move her head, but still answered the question
"I left to grab something for him to eat. When I came back, he was on the ground suffering. I called for help, and the doctors are saying he consumed some chocolate-laced LSD. Because it was a high dose and all his injuries with his age, he may not pull through. How did this happen? Make it make sense. Why did this happen?"
Ash had no idea how to comfort her. He had just met the horse; he wasn't broken up about it like Lita was. The feeling he felt earlier must have been this: the feeling of losing his chosen steed, as the system called it.
Ash wanted to know what happened. For Lita's sake, more than anything. His eyes caught the attention of one of Casper's friends, who was looking at the scene anxiously. Ash knew it had to be Casper behind this; he couldn't get to Ash, so he went after Lita instead by hurting her rescue horse.
Ash took Lita to the nurse's office to rest. The head nurse let her lie on the bed to calm herself. Ash wanted to leave to find Casper, but Lita grabbed his sleeve before he could leave.
"Please stay." She asked.
"I'll be back in just a minute, gonna check with the doctors and ask how he's doing. You stay here and sleep. I'll be back; I promise." Lita let him leave; she knew he would never break a promise to her.
Ash went inside the bathroom and checked to make sure all the boys were gone before using Phantom Stride to enter the vent to find Casper and the group. He searched every room, every closet, anywhere a vent could lead him. He hit the jackpot when he heard arguing in the basement area, where students would go when they wanted to take drugs or have sex in secret.
Ash stayed in the vent as long as his body would let him. He wanted to hear everything that was going on since he couldn't see well from his vantage point, at least.
"What the hell, man, you gave a horse LSD. That's sick on many degrees."
"Oh, piss off. This worked out better, didn't it? That old thing was gonna die anyway; besides, seeing Dracula's bride out there crying her eyes out was great revenge."
Ash recognized the voice. It was Casper for sure.
"Bro, you said the chick was supposed to eat that stuff. Those chocolates had enough to make her trip out bad, not a damn old beaten horse that's about to die. That's a line I wouldn't cross."
"I agree, I don't like Lita Thorn much as the next, but seriously, a rescue animal. What's wrong with you?"
Every voice Ash heard was Casper's friends and girlfriend. Surprisingly, they hated what happened. Casper was the only one who wasn't at all regretful about the accident.
"So what? It was gonna die no matter what. You don't like it, beat it. I don't need any of you anyway."
Ash could hear everyone leave in a hurry. Casper stayed behind, scoffing at them. He lit up a joint to indulge in his favorite pastime.
The smoke that Ash was made of violently blew all through the vents. Ash blasted himself out the back, to the farthest corner of the school, where he breathed heavily, grabbed his hair, and kept hearing Casper's mocking voice about what he did to Lita.
"Bastard! That fuckin bastard! He seriously did that to get back at me? He couldn't get to me, so he went after Lita instead and poisoned her precious horse. Bastard, bastard, BASTARD!!!!"
Ash raged out again, and he beat up the wall of the school, breaking the structure with his bare fist. The rage intensified; it was accompanied by hunger and his negative thoughts boiling inside him.
"I'll kill him, I'll kill him, I'll slaughter that son of a bitch!!"
'Take the head…..take it…..take your prize...take vengeance...take his soul…..TAKE THE HEAD!!! FEED YOUR RAGE!!!"
Ash didn't ignore the feeling or the voice. He wanted vengeance, to eliminate Casper. He went to his bike to pull out the hatchet from the saddlebags he had brought, keeping his helmet with him in case of a Kraegan attack. Ash went back to the spot he'd blown out at to secretly enter the vents again, hoping Casper was high enough to stay there so Ash could catch him.