May 31st, 2013

The Gem of Life stood on the sidewalk, wearing a loose fitting red robe that exposed a portion of his chest, a silver belt wrapped around his waist, and black dresspants. His name, Yan Wilson.

Joshua had given Yan a ride into town, something that had quickly become frequent during their time together. For a guy who lived in what some might call a palace, Yan sure liked to get out of the house. " Listen, I've been hauling your ass all around town for the last couple of days, I want to make two things crystal clear to you. "

Yan nodded innocently, something that only went on to make his blood boil. " Numero Uno. I don't like the way you're screwing around with my girl. Two. Everything in this world has a price. You cross the bridge, you pay the toll. So for me driving you around, you owe me a favor. Some guys near this street pickpocketed me, I want you to help me teach them a lesson. "

Yan nodded a bit more awkwardly, not quite knowing what he meant by ' teaching them a lesson '. He had to admit, he was being more or less a freeloader for some time, he surmised that he did owe Joshua something, even if he didn't quite know what it was.

As they walked down the sidewalk, Yan noticed a sign that read: " Whip Street ". It was a rather weird name for a street he had to admit, and did not sound even the slightest bit welcoming, so he glanced over at Joshua." How did the street get its name? "

Joshua crossed his arms, beginning to ponder until it clicked. " This place is home to many stores, with all of them being open for 24 hours. It's said that working here is as hard as working while you're being whipped. It's hell, but the people here make a lot of money due to the good hours. "

Yan nodded, only for his step brother to point towards a group of thugs. He then gently tapped his pocket. " I need you to follow those guys around, try and see them commit a crime and take a photo of them. I'll threaten those dipshits with the evidence and then it's game over. "

Suddenly, he heard the crying of a baby right behind him, and turned to see the source. He suddenly felt his shoe brush up against plastic, and crush it immediately before he had the chance to stop. A woman carrying her child was right behind him, fury apparent in her eyes. " I hope you're happy asshole, you just broke my son's new toy he dropped! "

Joshua glanced over at his foot, seeing indeed that he broke a plastic figure of Son Wukong on the ground. " My deepest...apologies..."

There was something unnatural about the entire event, misfortune felt like something Joshua was able to avoid for a long time. He was not particularly lucky or blessed, but never had the case of bad luck for the longest time. Joshua proceeded to reach into his pockets, and gave the woman some of his money as compensation.

Eyes fell on him immediately, but as he glanced in the feeling of presence, they all fled his visage.

Yan quickly gave Joshua a glance as he walked forwards, he passed a bench where an elderly man had been standing. " Say son...you've got some red on ya...and I ain't talking about your shirt. "

Yan quickly looked to see that his hand had miraculously been cut several times out of nowhere, with a shard sticking out. He glanced down to see a shattered pot, his eyes widening as he had no recollection at all of what happened, if something even did happen. " You knocked over my antique vase...that had my mother's ashes in it. It is invaluable to me, but I'd like to receive some kind of compensation for your carelessness..."

He quickly checked his pockets and managed to get some money, much like with Joshua, eyes looked upon him, and quickly looked away. He gave an appropriate amount to the man, which was to say, pretty much everything he had. He wasn't a big spender, and Declan did not trust him with large sums of cash just yet.

It was not before long that something else happened, a man in a fancy white suit was walking by, and as soon as Yan moved, he immediately slammed his blood stained hand onto his suit, effectively ruining it. The stranger smiled a bit. " All invaders of Whip Street are cursed to be ridden with debt. I can already tell that you don't get the score around here just yet. I'll let you off easy. "

He snapped his fingers, and reached into his pocket for a small box, wrapped in a crimson bow. " Give this to the lady over there...and I'll leave you alone. " The man said, pointing over towards a woman in the distance, men in beige suits all around her.

She was staring directly at them, and it appeared she had done it for quite some time, before turning away as they looked upon her.

Yan nodded, he appreciated the generosity of the man, he was glad that he didn't have to pay again, but moreover, he was still very much at unease due to his new situation. He grabbed the box and walked towards the woman. Once again, without Wen by his side, he felt incredibly afraid. The man in white continued to observe, smirking as he did so. He glanced over to Joshua. " Are you...my companion? "

Joshua walked alongside Yan, his expression was hard to read and the answer he gave even harder to decipher due to his neutral tone. " You're my brother. " He replied, stuffing his hands in his pockets, which felt much emptier than they were before.

Yan glanced back. He could already tell that the guy wouldn't take no for an answer, even as he hesitated, he kept marching forwards towards the woman. The box felt like a huge weight on his conscious, but truth be told, he had no idea what was inside. The men in beige suits began to give them strange looks. " There's nothing wrong, is there? " The man asked, smirking as he continued to watch the two.

As Yan approached the woman, he couldn't help but feel uneasy. She was a rather pleasant looking individual. She wore a frilly blue top with a grey jacket worn over it, with a matching short skirt that was blue with gray accents, with thigh high socks. Around her leg there were various talismans tattooed upon it. She had two, thick blonde pigtails on both sides of her lead, sagging down to her shoulders.

As if to prove himself right, Yan suddenly slipped and bashed his elbow against one of the suited men, striking him directly in the nose. " Hey jerk off, what the hell do you think you're doing! "

The suited man pushed Yan onto the ground, proceeding to pin him down, his face against the concrete. It would have hurt a hell of a lot more if he hadn't had time to recover from his previous injuries.

Joshua watched what was going on and immediately acted, whether it be on instinct or pity for his step brother, he landed a blow against the man who struck Yan. While landing a direct strike, he was soon hit from behind, and was pinned just like Yan. One of the men pulled out a switchblade, holding it to Yan's throat. " Hey Cherri, how should we deal with these bozos? "

He thought about using his powers, however, he quickly realized with his hands close to the ground, any kind of blast would just end up hurting him more than it would his adversary. His eye drifted towards his brother, to see how he was holding up.

Joshua tried to pull himself up but was continually pulled down. He broke into a sweat as he struggled so, feeling something begin to resonate with him as he continued to push. Suddenly, he felt a weight come off of his shoulders. Joshua gazed upon the ground, seeing another shadow right behind the suited man, one that looked all too familiar.

The man holding him down suddenly screamed and pulled back in terror. Joshua looked upwards as he rose, seeing another...him. A perfect replica of himself, having broken the hand of the man in front of him. " He's got weird powers like Cherri! Stay on guard! " Another suited man shouted, taking out another switchblade.

The Joshua clone proceeded to wrap his hands around the suited man that had previously pinned him down, holding him closely. There was something shocking about the manifestation of this ability, and yet, at the same time, it felt like a natural stage of his own personal evolution, there surely was no way in the world that Yan would end up having powers while he would remain powerless. " Release my brother..." He commanded, a newfound confidence and gravity in his voice.

The suited men reluctantly did so, and Yan rose upwards. " You play dirty...but I've caught on to origin of our misfortunes. " He said, pointing towards the woman.

" Those Talismans on your legs, I read the Tibetan script and realized they weren't blessings, but curses...that must be your ability, to bring misfortune onto others. "

" Where the hell did you learn to read Tibetan? " Joshua asked, raising an eyebrow at Yan, who seemed to be just as shocked.

The image of the man in the red and black cap manifested once again in his mind, but with no explanation, it was something that was quickly lost on him. He froze up for a moment, not giving a response.

The woman, Cherri, smiled a bit in response to the silence. " Indeed. I targeted you two because of your reasons for being here. I am the sole defender of the working class who live on this street. If I don't stand up for us, nobody will, that's something fat cats like you will never understand. "

Joshua immediately got angry at her for victimizing herself. " I came here to settle a score. My money was stolen by some thugs- "

" Money that you'll see again in a week's time with your father's allowance. Some people don't even make money like that in half a month. We have to slave like cattle to get even a fraction of what you have. "

Joshua didn't like her answer, even as he understood her, his clone vanishing after maintains a corporal form for several minutes. While what she said was true, a wrong was a wrong. But realizing how powerful she was, he relented in further confrontation,  with it being a potentially disastrous route.

- - -

Wen had walked down Whip Street. Her mother used to buy her Xinjiang Lamb Rice from here all the time, and was feeling a bit nostalgic today. As she walked by, she noticed a statue. It depicted some kind of Deva in a calm and collected pose, with a lab coat thrown over it, a large swath of newspapers, notes, and flowers, all aged greatly, all around it. It seemed like there was a plaque at the bottom of it, clearly placed over something else. Her eyes opened wide as she looked upon it. The first thing she saw upon the stone plaque was the name of Himura Akihito in bold letters.

The text beneath the name further elaborated on his past. He was born on Whip Street, and the statue was changed slightly to honor him after his death, with the addition of the lab coat. His mother was apparently a devout Hindu, which was why this statue in particular was chosen.

It not only explained his early life, but some things leading up to his death. It talked about his journey to China after having escaped the struggles of the street. As opposed to what she thought she had known, the statue specified that he was murdered outside of his own home while walking upon the beach, the killer unknown. He suffered fatal burns all over his body, leaving many to believe he died of extreme heat or dehydration. Wen's mind immediately drifted towards Sanwu Yijun, who possessed the ability to create flames that only attacked the flesh.

Wen was about to leave until she noticed something from the corner of her eye. She bended over and kneeled to the statue, pushing away some of the items placed on the bottom that obscured a last paragraph of text. It further elaborated that his reason for researching the Gems was because his wife was immeasurably ill, suffering from an unknown condition that, in his own words, made her mind like water, and her skin like paper.

She blinked for a moment before seeing a small door form where the text was, with it already being half open. Wen knew something was up, and quickly backed away, but was grabbed by an arm. She then heard a voice emerging from the door.

" The power to create life is a power that should only be reserved for the gods..."

Incoherent screaming and shouting was heard soon after, and before she knew it, Wen had been pulled through the dark void that lay beyond the door, dragged into its ethereal plane. It was a great expanse of vibrant symmetrical patterns that phased in and out of one another, eventually, a door appeared in front of her that opened up, and she fell into a carpet soon after.

The carpet was a red color, with the rest of the room having a checkerboard style pattern. She looked around the area with great intrigue, her face moving from wall to wall. There was a series of American memorabilia from the 1800s. A large portion of it portrayed the construction of the First Continental Railroad. This was juxtaposed to some more modern items, such as some album art portraying a mouse with a metal mask, a television mounted on a thick wooden box, and a set of headphones on the carpet floor. Additionally, there was a series of Dragon Ball Z movies that were strewn all over the floor, all of them ordered from date of release. Starting with 1989's Dead Zone and ending with Battle of Gods, released earlier that year.

She set up properly and took a look around, a boy peering out from behind the wooden box. " Poison..." He muttered, his hands gripping the edges of the box tightly.

" I don't know why they're opening...so man doors..." He added, in a much clearer voice now.

A door would materialize above Wen's head, and from it, a creature would come forth, as ethereal as the world between worlds she had visited. It was a blue serpent of some kind, holding a red sphere within its claws. " Wait...I've seen this thing before..."

The memory was close, but faint, and before she knew it, she had forgotten where she had remembered it from.

The creature howled at Wen before lunging at her. Another door materialized in front of the monster, which it dove through. She walked over to the boy and knelt down beside him, he shook like he was wearing shorts in the Arctic. She placed a hand on his shoulder. " You need to calm down. The reason why these doors are opening is probably linked to your mental state..."

She knew that even Yan had trouble with his powers when he started using them, she could only imagine the pressure that this kid was under now.

The boy shook his head, worried about another instance of the doors opening, it was clear that Wen's words didn't quite get through to him. She glanced over at the headphones she saw earlier and handed them to the boy. " You like music, don't you? Why don't we listen to some? " She asked, smiling a bit in attempts to calm him down.

The boy plugged the headphones into his smartphone, and handed Wen an earpiece as he weakly nodded. He pressed shuffle on a track he created. Fazers by King Geedorah began to play, and soon enough, even Wen found herself a bit entranced by the track, only having glanced back over at the boy now that he saw that he too had calmed. His expression was straight faced and confident, as it the song reinvigorated his entire being like a man in the desert having his first drink of water after his travel.

After a bit of rest and relaxation, Wen turned over to the boy once more. " Tell me,what's your name? "

" Johnny. Johnny Wilson. " He replied, nodding a bit weakly.

Wen's eyes shot open in fear, looking deeply into the boy's eyes, remembering how Declan told her to never come near his estate. " I can't be in this house...I need you to open a door...take me out of here the same way you dragged me in..."

The boy nodded, with a door opening up a few feet behind her, peering open. Once again, she heard a voice, but this time, much more indistinct. " You hear the voices too? " Johnny asked, tugging on the skirt of Wen.

She nodded. " I hear a man...a middle aged adult. "

Johnny shook his head. " A woman. That's what I hear. "

It appeared that the door unleashed a different sound for every person present, but shrugging it off, she walked towards the door, reaching a hand out towards the other end. " Lady. " Johnny began, prompting Wen to turn around.

" I'm not feeling so well...my head always hurts and when I move around too much my skin breaks apart if I move too fast...it's been like this ever since I was born...could you stay with me...just for a little bit longer? "

He clenched his fist a bit. " My dad is always on business...and my mom leaves me down here to my own devices...she's always too busy reading romance novels to play with me..."

Wen realized that this kid must have been suffering from the same condition as Joan was. Although, besides the point, she did feel rather bad for him. She walked on over to the boy and smiled. " Of course I will. "

The two would watch The Tree of Might and Wen, who got rather bored of the movie, began to drift into a deep sleep. Johnny, tired out from using his powers, also began to fall asleep. In the dead of night, the door that Wen had plan to use to go home had opened up on its own accord, a dark figure emerging from it...