A Rather Helpful Mugger

<Kairo POV>

I'm enjoying the tears of players who are complaining about the evil game company that limited the time of Hayle's special skin mission while walking down the oh-so-familiar road home.

Crack!

I was hit by some force and flew back into an alley wall. My head jerked back into the wall causing me to momentarily pass out before seeing stars. Feeling a warm tingle on my neck, I'm pretty sure blood was trickling down.

In my dazed state, I could see a figure rush over and pat me down.

He was glowing...

I think that crash caused quite a lot of damage since not only does my vision look like someone applied a static filter, now people are glowing. I really shouldn't have canceled my insurance last month to save enough money to pay my way through that in-game mission.

As my vision started to dim, I was attracted to that glow, I wanted to touch him. It was almost like an instinctive reaction, like how a baby avoids fire or how a bird learns to fly.

Using what strength I could muster, my hand brushed against the mugger's exposed arm. Suddenly the glow was gone. I felt a foreign energy flow into my body from our point of contact, giving me a lightheaded feeling. Actually, I'm not sure if that was from blood loss or the current phenomenon.

But as the seconds passed by, I realized that my vision has returned to normal, my head wasn't hurting anymore, and I can control my movements again. The other guy however looked like someone sucked the life out of him.

That's when it hit me, I have an ability!

Suddenly, that evil mugger who ambushed me and caused me to probably get a concussion looked rather cute. I got up and moved over to where the guy fell and tried to see if he was alive or not.

He smelled really bad and judging by what he is wearing, is not gifted in the wealth department. In fact, the dirty weathered face, unkempt beard, matted hair covered with a worn beanie, fingerless gloves, and an oversized green jacket, had the stereotypical look of a homeless person.

After I waited for a while with my hand over his face, I confirmed that he was still breathing. Which reminded me of the internet advice about how it is better to kill someone accidentally and pay the one-time compensation fee than to leave them alive and have to compensate for their medical needs forever.

I promise I'm not evil, I'm just placing a higher priority on buying more in-game Hayle skins than someone that tried to mug me and steal the money I need to buy more-

Okay, I'm only slightly evil.

That aside, I still don't know what exactly my ability is. It seemed to have something to do with absorption, but also it might be healing. I can't make heads or tails over the glowing halo I saw around the homeless person, it's gone now and I haven't seen anyone else with it.

What I do know, however, is that I have 'healed' from whatever injuries I suffered during the recent encounter. The person I touched and got energy from doesn't look too hot as of now.

I decide to wait around for a bit and see if I can't get some information from the homeless guy.

The sky lost its last streaks of light as I sat beside the knocked-out man. He suddenly jumped up, saw me looking at him, and gestured with his hands.

But when nothing happened he started to scream, "My ability! My ability is gone! It's gone!" getting weaker his screams turned into crazed muttering, "it's gone... it's gonn..."

I looked at confused, and asked, "What power are you talking about?"

"MY ABILITY! I could make the air move! It's gone!" The homeless man responded again in a crazed manner.

I quickly started to think and reached an unbelievable conclusion. Copying the old man's gestures I tried to make the air topple a trashcan that was a couple of feet away.

Bam! The trashcan toppled over.

I... I know what my ability is.

The crazed man turned his bloodshot eyes back at me startled by the sound. But seeing my hand still in the air and the fallen trashcan, he rushed towards me. I easily defended against him as he just awoke from a coma induced by me literally sucking out his power and some lifeforce by the looks of things.

"GIVE IT BACK! GIVE ME BACK MY ABILITY!" The man once again started to hysterically scream.

My mind was working at overclocked speeds, I understood that my ability would deprive another of theirs and I'd be able to use it. I'm not sure if this is temporary, or if I can only take one ability at a time.

But what I do know is with this ability, I instantly become the enemy of all Awakened. Who would risk allowing such an ability to exist, especially since it directly threatens what gives them the special power and privileges.

This is also not mentioning the governments which would want to get me at all costs to rein in the Awakened who are getting out of hand because of their abilities.

From what I've heard on the news for the past few days, the governments can handle most Awakened as they still can't avoid bullets, but that doesn't mean they can suppress them completely.

There was an incident when a harsh crackdown was issued on all Awakened in a small African country which resulted in several attacks made by Awakened against its leaders, killing a secretary of state and several others.

No matter what security you have in place, against some guy that can summon a fireball inside of your armored limousine, you won't stand a chance. Not to mention the military and strategic reasons to keep the Awakened on your good side.

Back to the current situation, I know my best option in this scenario is to kill the homeless man to get rid of any evidence of my ability. This will protect my identity and I won't be hunted down by both the government and the entire Awakened community. That is of course on the off chance that people believe the ramblings of a crazed homeless man.

A slight chance is still a chance...

But I can't do it...

I grew up in a civilized society under the protection of law and order. Killing a man goes against all the morals I've been taught since I was a child.

The still screaming homeless man seemed to read my thoughts as I just stood there staring at him. He quickly scrambled up and ran out of the alley.

Looking at his back, I started to raise my hand.

I can still kill him; tie up the loose end. He is homeless and crazy, I am just ending his suffering.

Let him live, no one will believe him. He might have a family, what about those that care for him?

I hesitated. He made it out of the alley. He is now crossing the street. I lower my shaking hand. I couldn't do it.

Bang!

Screech!

My eyes dilated as a lifeless body flew back and rolled a few times on the asphalt landing face up. The truck's headlights accentuated the crimson puddle slowly forming. A crazed look still plastered onto his face, the homeless man didn't make it across the street.

I watched from the darkness of the shaded alley.

The panicking truck driver ran out looking at the dead man, started to call emergency services. Noticing movement from the alley where the man ran out from, the driver looks over, shining his phone flashlight. But there was no one there, only some marks showing a fight, and a knocked-over trashcan.