2 We all start somewhere (Patreon)

Even though I have spent so much time thinking and planning how to escape Karma, I still don't think it's something I will be able to do for a while yet.

Honestly, I don't even really have a plan.

I am aware of my own weaknesses, I am young and inexperienced. So I know that right now I couldn't come up with a plan to escape, but that doesn't mean I can't start preparing.

Someday, I will come up with a plan, and when that time comes, having money and information can only help me.

So until such a time comes, I will simply continue accumulating resources and information.

Inside of my room, in the early hours of the morning, I am sitting at my desk with a notebook and a map before me and a pencil in hand.

Both the map and the notebook are filled with various annotations.

Other than gathering as much money as I can without anyone knowing about it, this is my other preparation.

As a delivery man, nobody really pays attention to me, compounded by my own efforts to remain invisible and suddenly nobody even stops to think about all of the information I have been exposed to.

I have slowly been building a map of every single one of Karma's operations in the city. From drug processing to storage to gambling rings. Everything.

But for now, I have no choice but to keep playing along.

I will be free eventually, and Karma, in an incredibly ironic turn of events, will be crushed in it's entirety.

I will settle for nothing less that their complete and utter ruin.

All in good time though. Impatience and recklessness will lead me to an early grave. I may not know as much as I would like but I at least know this much.

So I shall keep things slow and steady.

It's as I'm thinking that that the door to my room is burst open with a shout.

"Jaaack!"

The intruder is a girl who is a year older than me at thirteen. She has pitch black hair and deep purple eyes. Her face is set in a feeble attempt at an encouraging smile and she is just wearing a simple pair of casual black jeans and a purple shirt.

This is Holly, she has taken it upon herself to be the 'big sister' of our little group. Because of this, she has taken a special liking to me, as I am seen as the most helpless among us all so she feels the need to protect me.

Naturally, I won't turn down such willing help, so I have been making sure that she is firmly on my side.

I still don't have a plan, but resources are necessary for any plan to work, and she is a good card to hold.

Holly's power is one of the few of us that are B-class. She has the ability to turn into shadow as well as to strengthen herself with shadows.

The strength enhancement isn't incredible, but the fact that she can effectively turn 2D makes her potential for stealth operations simply incredible.

As a matter of fact, her last job was to sneak into some business owners house and leave a letter on their desk. Naturally, that business then became one of the many in the city under Karma's control.

The moment my door opened, everything on my desk disappeared back into my Inventory.

The result of this is that when Holly enters my room, what she sees is me sitting at an empty desk in silence, just staring at the wall expressionlessly.

The fact that whenever anyone walks into my room they just see me looking at nothing has certainly helped the impression that I am a broken kid.

"Breakfast is ready Jack, let's go before it gets cold." Holly says with empathetic pain in her voice.

In response, I turn my head to face her and give her a small, subdued and unsure smile. Holly is the only person I smile to around here, it has made her think that there is some kind of connection between us.

She truly treats me like a brother that she wants to protect so my little smiles make her both happy and sad.

After a moment I go back to being expressionless and get up to follow her downstairs.

It doesn't take long before I can hear the others being as loud as usual and when we finally make it downstairs we are greeted with the usual sight of chaos.

What can you really expect from a group of superpowered kids living together?

All of us have a minimum of a C-class power with three having B-class.

Holly and I make our way to the kitchen table to serve ourselves some food. Holly puts the eggs, bacon and toast on our plates, giving me extra bacon.

Because of the noise of a dozen kids shouting to each other all at the same time, Holly doesn't bother to talk yet, knowing I would barely be able to hear her and instead just nods her head to the lounge so we can sit and eat.

As we are walking there, we have to duck to avoid Lucy as she is sent flying into the wall, whereupon she splats against it like a cartoon character before falling back to the floor and regaining her original shape.

Her ability basically turned her into slime, so blunt force doesn't really affect her.

After she gets back to her feet, she rushes straight back at Max with a smile on her face and they both go back to fighting each other.

Holly leads me to one of the areas of the lounge that is actually peaceful. We sit beside Ren and Charlie, who are both scoffing down many times the amount of food I am eating.

Holly likes to keep me around Ren and Charlie because neither of them are ever mean to me, since all they really care about is training and getting stronger.

The both of them look pretty much the same but with different hair colours, Ren having black hair and Charlie being blond. They are both well toned for fourteen year olds and look like they want to be body builders when they grow up.

They both think that it's lame to pick on someone weaker than yourself and since I am considered the weakest here, that means that they are willing to look out for me.

"You guys know you don't have to eat that fast right? The food isn't going to go anywhere and you will get a stomach ache." Holly exasperatedly reprimands the two of them.

Both of them look up to her with their mouths full of food, then look at each other, nod once and completely ignore her words in favour of continuing to stuff their faces.

I just ignore the byplay and sit down and start eating.

I make sure to train my body everyday, not just my mind, so it is important that I eat plenty of food. Which is why I also have a large amount of food in my Inventory, just in case.

In fact, at one point, I even stole a bunch of food from the kitchen and pushed the blame onto Max.

As we are eating, Stephanie walks over and sits down with Holly so they can both start having 'girl talk'.

Really it's just Stephanie talking about clothes, makeup and even the other boys and Holly occasionally adding something.

Stephanie is one of the older girls at fifteen and she is, to my knowledge, pretty much a stereotypical blonde. Her blonde hair goes down to her lower back and her face is caked with makeup to make her seem older.

She wears a crop top and denim short shorts with a leather jacket that I am pretty sure isn't real leather and she has bright green eyes and slightly tanned skin which again, I am pretty sure is fake.

As I am minding my own business, eating my food in relative peace, Stephanie's voice calls out to where Charlie, Ren and I are sitting.

"You guys are boys, what do you think?" She asks, holding up two bottles of nail varnish that look exactly the same.

The three of us look at her with the same look of confusion which seems to annoy her as she groans and thrusts both of her hands forward, shaking the bottles as if that will suddenly allow us to notice a difference between them.

"Well? Which one do you think is better? Ren?" In her impatience for an answer, she puts Ren on the spot which makes him panic so he just points randomly at the one in her left hand.

Apparently he guessed right if the smug look Stephanie sends Holly is any indication. Seeing this, Charlie follows Ren's lead and points at the same varnish.

Being the only one that hasn't expressed an opinion on the matter, the attention of the others soon falls on me.

However, I simply ignore them all and finish my food, making Stephanie huff while the other three stifle a laugh at my indifference.

Despite looking affronted at my lack of care for her varnishing activities, Stephanie sits back and puts down the bottle that the guys didn't vote for and unscrews the one that she clearly already liked.

The next moment, a small stream of red varnish floats out of the bottle and splits in ten parts to cover each of her nails.

Stephanie is a micro hydrokinetic. She can control any liquid around her but only in small quantities. Naturally she is also victim to the Chekov limit.

The Chekov limit is basically that powers can only affect either living beings or non living beings. So she can control blood for instance, but she cannot control blood that is still inside of someone's veins.

Similarly, I cannot store living beings, nor can I summon anything inside of someone.

The sound of the door opening immediately brings silence to the previously loud room as we all turn to stare at the person entering.

He has black hair shaved to his skull on the sides, leaving him with a slicked back mohawk of hair. He has a scar cutting through his right eyebrow and a hard look in his forest green eyes. He is only wearing a casual white shirt and a pair of brown cargo shorts.

This, is Reaver. He is the one Karma put in charge of us and his power is Wound Control.

If you get so much as a papercut against him then you basically lose, because in the blink of an eye that papercut will become a gash that goes all the way around your body.

The only thing limiting him that I have observed, is that it is a lot easier for him to lengthen a wound than it is to deepen one.

For example, if he makes a paper cut larger, then it will still only be your skin that is getting cut open, however if you get stabbed, say, a few inches deep, then when he expands it you will probably just die on the spot.

As Reaver walks in, everyone else simply stares at him in silence, waiting.

He ignores us and goes to the kitchen where he takes a few bites of the food left over.

Only once he has eaten a little, do his eyes sweep over the lot of us.

Some cower under his gaze and look to the floor, but just as many glare back at him.

"Alright brats, you know what day today is, so get moving." Reave orders and nobody delays to do as said.

Today is Thursday and Thursday is training day, so everyone heads over to the back of the warehouse, even Stephanie doesn't hesitate despite her grumblings.

Reave believes that simply knowing how to fight with out powers isn't enough, which is something I agree with. He also believes that even support personnel, like myself, should know how to fight, just in case.

This is also something I agree with.

However, I am trying to remain low key, which means I can not be a good fighter which means that when it is my turn in the rotation to spar, that I have to get my ass kicked every time.

Guess who is on spar rotation today?

I sigh to myself mentally, even as I keep my same dead look as I head over to the ring where three people are already waiting for me.

Today is going to suck.

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

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