1 [Stumble Into the Future]: Part One

"Fuck my life," Batu spoke under his breath. His back stood against the wall as several large shadows loomed over him.

Surrounding him were a gang of local boys from a rival school. They had white, dress shirts over green pants contrast to Batu's black overalls.

The gang held all sorts of weapons from wooden sticks, iron pipes and rusty crowbars. At the forefront of the wolf pack was a boy with outlandish hair and yellow-trimmed sunglasses. He was Kenji, the leader of the White Tigers.

The White Tigers were bitter rivals with the Golden Horde in which Batu was apart of. During brief encounters with each other, two sides would duke it out until one of them landed in the hospital.

Whether it was due to money, food or simply glaring at each other, they would always find ridiculous reasons to go to war.

Batu had a few run-ins with them before, some individually while others in small groups. However, this was the first time that the whole gang was jumping him. What the hell did he do wrong this time? Did he happen to step onto their turf without knowing?

"Hey, boss, that's the same jackass from earlier who tried to swoon ya girl over," Fuji pointed at Batu.

"Oh, that's right..." Sweat trickled down Batu's forehead as he listened to this bald-headed kid spilling all of his sinful secrets out.

How the hell was he supposed to know that Lu Suyin was this guy's chick? It wasn't Batu's fault that the girl wanted to hang out with him.

"So, you're the limp dick bitch tryna get with my girl?" Kenji frowned at him with crossed arms, glancing at his recognizable uniform. "Fuckin' Golden Horde trash."

"Can we talk this out like, y'know, civilized people?" Batu raised his hands in surrender. If he had his gang here with him, then this would be a different story.

Unfortunately for Batu, he was all alone. "Look, we're all brothers from different blood, right? It was a tiny mistake on my part since I didn't know. So, how bout' we let bygones be bygones, kay?"

"Fuck off! You knew Lu Suyin was Kenji's girl, but you went ahead and did it anyways!" Fuji retorted with an angered glare. He suddenly took out his smartphone and showed Kenji a picture, "Boss, this bastard even took her to a love hotel!"

Batu nearly coughed up blood in complete shock when he heard that. How the hell did Fuji managed to find that out? He could have sworn that he covered his own tracks carefully.

Okay, so maybe Batu sort of knew that Lu Suyin was Kenji's girl, but in his complete defense, she had lied to him that she and Kenji broke up at that time.

"Oh, you really dug yourself a grave now, bastard," A tick mark popped over Kenji's forehead; his voice seethed with rage. "Pin him down! I want his fucking legs broken!" He quickly ordered his underlings.

Readying their blunt weapons, the White Tigers charged at Batu. Batu clicked his tongue in annoyance as he stared at them. He couldn't fight them all; he would be a complete and utter dumbass if he thought otherwise.

Batu jumped over and ran on top of their heads Jackie Chan style. He quickly plopped back down and ran through the streets.

"D-don't let him get away, you idiots!" Kenji broke out of his stupor, shouting out more orders to his underlings.

It was a hustle and bustle city with insane traffic jams. Street stalls lined upon the cracked sidewalks under the glimmer of hundreds of advertisements and shop signs high above their heads. A myriad of pedestrians walked to and fro towards destinations unknown; it was truly a city that never sleeps.

Batu hopped over parked cars and food stalls as the White Tigers gave chase like a bunch of hungry lions. He snaked his way through the crowded sidewalk while they simply pushed and shove those who were in their way. Batu quickly noticed a clump of Thai Chilli powder by a food stall and grabbed a large handful of it.

"Hey!" The street chef screamed at him. Batu ignored her and threw the Chilli powder at the White Tigers.

"Aggh!" Some of the unfortunate ones cried out in pain as they dropped to the concrete floor, hastily wiping their teary eyes.

Batu gave them a smirk before he ran off again. The White Tigers were still hot on his tail, and they were slowly gaining some distance between him. Suddenly, two construction workers walked by in front of him, carrying sheets of metal.

"Oh crap!" Batu used his quick reflex to slide under the metal sheets, nearly hitting it by mere inches. Breathing out a sigh of relief, he quickly got back up again.

However, instead of running, Batu chose to climb up the bamboo scaffolding near the construction site. He glanced down below him and saw some boys climbing up after him. Well, if its only a few, Batu could easily fight them off. After all, he had gotten into fights before where numbers were against him.

Batu stood on top of a metal platform and waited for the members of the White Tigers to come up. Luckily, this platform only had room for a maximum of four people.

Batu knew he had the advantage here. Suddenly, two White Tigers stood with him, one in front and the other behind as they brandished their blunt weapons.

"Arrh!" One shouted as he swiped his iron pipe at Batu's head.

Batu instantly ducked under, tripping the boy at the same time. Sensing danger from behind, Batu hastily rolled away as a wooden stick struck down at his position.

The other White Tiger didn't let up and continued to strike him down with a flurry of swings. However, Batu caught the wooden stick and broke it in half with a quick snap.

"Uh, you think we can still talk this out?" The White Tiger member looked at his broken stick in disbelief.

"Yeah, nice try," Batu immediately kicked him down the platform.

The boy flopped over the bamboo scaffoldings like a helpless rag-doll before dropping onto the ground with a loud thud. Unfortunately, that only riled the White Tigers even more as many of them climbed up to get the chance to smash his head in.

'Damn it.' Batu clicked his tongue again. These guys were like mindless zombies, and he needed to find a way to lose these idiots quickly.

Somewhere Batu could hide would be perfect. His eyes darted all around until he noticed a double-decker bus dropping off passengers.

'That's my ticket out of here,' He grinned to himself. Batu climbed up to the highest point of the incomplete building and leaped onto the roof of the next one. He hopped from roof to roof, getting ever so close to the bus.

"Shit, almost there!" He cried as the bus began closing its doors. Before it drove away, Batu quickly jumped off of the edge. Time seemed to slow down for him as he flailed his arms in the air like a madman.

Bam! Batu rolled to a standstill. He barely made it onto the top of the bus just in time. Black smoke spewed out from the exhaust as the bus slowly drove away.

"Tell ya girl she left her panties at my place, Kenji!" Batu waved him off while laughing.

"FUCKIN' SHIT, COWARD BASTARD!" Kenji threw his glasses onto the ground, breaking it. He wanted to rip Batu into tiny little pieces.

"Um, boss, maybe we should-"

"SHUT UP!"

* * * * *

Batu laid on the roof with a small smile, gazing at the blue sky above. Maybe he should skip school today and hit up on the arcade. Honestly, the teachers wouldn't recognize if he was gone or not.

Once he graduated, Batu would finally move out of his shitty mom's house and explore everything that the Mongol Empire had to offer.

His father had divorced his mom when he was a small kid no older than three; he had a younger sister named Jasmine; although, he hated both his sister and mom to the core.

It was obvious that Jasmine was the favorite child of that woman he called a mom. Batu only considered his mom biologically.

Batu resembled his father a lot, and his mom hated that. She would berate him constantly, threaten to kick him out if he doesn't do simple chores and beat him for slightest mishap. She never cared about him at all even if he died.

They had mutually agreed that Batu would move out of the house by the time he finished high school. During that time, he had to carry his own weight since his mother obviously failed to provide him that.

Jasmine grew up to be almost like her mother, if not worse; a vindictive, spoiled brat with daddy issues. There were times when they ganged up on Batu and riled up drama even when he was just chilling in his room doing absolutely nothing.

Honestly, he wouldn't mind getting kicked out of the house now; he was barely home, anyways. After all, the Golden Horde was his family now, and it would stay that way.

They were his brothers that would fight for him, and he would fight for them, too. Why would he go back to that crappy hellhole where he would be treated like absolute shit?

The bus suddenly stopped and passengers walked out. Batu sighed to himself and hopped off. He mindlessly walked around the city before taking a turn into a quiet road. No normal citizen would come to this shady area that was rampant with drugs and local gangs. However, it was here where his favorite arcade was located at, and Batu would come here everyday to waste the days away.

Suddenly, a blue vortex opened up under his feet.

"What the fuck!"

Batu helplessly fell into the portal.