by Newbiel
It was only when the punch was going to hit his face that Nathaniel decided to finally move. He used his left leg to kick the leg that was supporting the punch making him lose his balance, following that he chose to use the left hand that was in his pocket the whole time to give two quick punches to the quarterback, one to the stomach and one to the side of his head. When Carl finally realized that Nathaniel had moved he was already falling to the floor and blacked out soon after that.
Seeing the quarterback knocked out on the floor, the surprise was evident on the faces of everyone present. Other than the people involved, there were also many onlookers who had smelled drama and were looking on the side to see it unfold. There were after all many students in the building and in the hallway. They all expected Nathaniel to be the one on the floor but seeing the opposite happen made them all surprised beyond belief. After all, even if Nathaniel was a little taller Carl was more buff and older. In their mind it was supposed to be an easy match. It turned out to be exactly the case but in the opposite direction.
The reaction of Madison and her sorority sisters was the same. They had seen Carl getting tackled on the field by linebackers and getting back up so they were more than surprised to see him knocked out like that. Moreover, as Madison was on the right of Nathaniel and her two friends were on her right also they had not seen him move clearly. The only thing that Madison was sure of at the moment was that Nathaniel did not let go of her hand when the fight occurred causing her to be awed.
The two linebackers were rooted on the spot and could not move even if they wanted to. It's not the fact that he managed to put their friend down so fast that made them unable to take a step but the stare that Nathaniel was giving them at the moment. He was fixing them with so much coldness that they could feel a shiver run down their spines.
"Ethan, take your two friends and bring your quarterback to the infirmary, he should be alright. I trust you gentlemen to say that he was the one who jumped at me and I had to defend myself. I will be very disappointed if you were to be lying about what happened here, especially with so many witnesses."
"Of course Nathaniel, let's go guys, let's bring Carl to the infirmary." Ethan said, pushing the two linebackers to carry the knocked out quarterback. The only thing that he wanted right now was to leave, Nathaniel was freaking him out real bad. After they left the three sorority girls were looking at him with an awed expression on their faces, which made him quite self conscious.
"How?" Madison finally asked.
"I was always bullied when I was younger so I asked my grandfather's bodyguard to teach me self defense." Even if what he said was true, it was misleading in its very nature and he was feeling bad doing it.
"Oh that makes sense now. You never told me you knew self defense." She said with an adorable expression on her face.
"I will make it up to you, do not worry about that. So, who wants to go eat some ice cream? I'm buying." He said joyfully.
A chorus of 'Me' quickly echoed and Nathaniel got dragged by the girls. Even if the afternoon had not started very well with that fight, Nathaniel passed a good day with the three girls. They were fun to be around and even if they were a little wild there was never a dull moment. Without even noticing two hours had passed since he had left his last class and he needed to go back home. His first promotion show was going to start and it was the night of the unveiling of the trailer and his song. He was quite excited to see how the public was going to receive those.
He was going to leave when Madison took him to the side to kiss him deeply.
"You were really going to go home without even calling me?" She asked in the end, curious. It was something that did not look like Nathaniel at all.
"The truth?"
"Of course."
"No, I was going to get pancakes and call you to come over. Make you believe I made them and after that take advantage of the fact that my mothers were out working to kiss the hell out of you." Nathaniel said smiling.
"I hate my life." Madison finally said with a sad expression on her beautiful face.
Chapter 78: :
New York, Columbia University. 14/10/2012. 11:00.
The next day, Nathaniel was quite happy. The promotion interview had gone well last night and he was glad to see the cast again as they were all living in LA or had gone to other places either for work or vacation after the last day of shooting. He ended up going to a party with them in a very select place after the interview and had come back home quite late.
He had a lot of fun with them and if they knew only one thing, it was how to party. Nathaniel had stayed away from the drugs and alcohol flowing in the party even if he was offered to try more than a couple of times. Nobody had tried to force him which was for the best as it would have ended badly for the one trying to force him into anything.
Now, his twitter account was bursting with mentions and he had gained another 100k followers. So far the public liked his new music and it was showing on his youtube. His music clip had more than 5 millions views so far and it was climbing steadily. As of now he had 2.2 million followers on Twitter and 1.1 million on Youtube. He was pleased to see that things were looking good for the future.
That was why he was not overly surprised when he suddenly got called by the administration and summoned to the deans office. He could easily guess as to why he was summoned, the fight if we could call it that, with Carl. Once in the administration building he did not have to wait long before the secretary called him and led him to the deans office.
Once in the office, he could see there were three people here. The dean of course, Joshua and a middle aged man in a tracksuit wear.
"Please sit, mister Lyndon." The dean said.
Taking place on the seat in front of the desk, Nathaniel looked attentively at the position of everyone in the room. The dean was sitting behind his desk, the man who looked like a coach was beside the dean while Joshua was sitting on the seat next to him. The dean had a stern demeanor and the coach was angry, Joshua on the other hand appeared a little anxious.
"Do you know why I have summoned you here Nathaniel?" The dean asked.
"I'm sure you are going to tell me." Nathaniel answered simply, his expression devoid of any emotion.
"Leave your smart ass attitude on the side, this is a serious matter. We have a complaint against you. Carl Veroni Jr claim that you attacked him without provocation. This school has a no fight policy, I'm going to advise you to be extremely cautious of your words, you could be expelled for this in addition to a lawsuit. Do you have anything to say in your defence?" The dean said sternly.
"I have indeed one question, who is the man beside you?" Nathaniel asked.
The dean was going to respond when the guy in question chose to speak before him."
"I'm coach Teagan, I'm in charge of the football team. The same football team who is going to lose the next match because you jumped my star quarterback and beat him up, you coward." The coach said angrily.
"Coach Teagan, please calm yourself, we are looking for the truth here." Joshua jumped into the conversation.
"So this Carl said I did something and that's it? I'm guilty? His word against mine with no witness?"
"In fact no, three of his friends were there and testified that you were only defending yourself but Carl claimed that you threatened them to say this. That's why we summon you here, we are trying to determine where the truth is."
"I have known that kid for three years now, he is a good one and nobody ever came to me to say otherwise. He's the start quarterback and our only hope to win the cup. His words mean much more than a nobody underaged kid who is seeking attention." The coach snarled.
That was exactly what Nathaniel wanted to figure out and why he had stirred the conversation to include Teagan. The coach had used the same exact phrase that Carl used yesterday, which meant that it was not the first time that Carl did shit while the coach had protected him each time.
"I will tell you exactly what happened. I
was with my friend and two of her sorority sisters when Carl came here with three of his teammates. He had been following my friend because she was rejecting him and when he saw her with me he got jealous. We exchanged some words and he got so mad that he jumped on me. I managed to defend myself and knock him out. After that I said to his teammates to bring him to the infirmary. That is all that happened." Nathaniel explained the whole situation.
"Yeah right, like we will believe you. You claim that you managed to knock my quarterback who is 5 years olders and thirty pounds heavier than you in a fair fight? That is stupid. Please dean, I heard enough, can we just expel him right away? I have other things to do than to listen to a kid sprouting lies to save himself." Teagan exploded.
"I can give you the name of the three sorority girls who were with me and the altercation happened in the hallway, I'm sure if you call for people who witnessed the fight, a lot will come." Nathaniel said calmly to the dean.
"And what? Maybe you threatened these people too. Richard this kid is dangerous, we need to get rid of him."
"Mark calm yourself! I will call for witnesses and see who is going to come and what they are going to say. Do you have anything else to add Nathaniel?" The dean questioned.
"In fact I do sir, when the guy came, I saw right away that he was looking for trouble so I recorded everything. Here listen." Nathaniel said, taking his phone out of his pocket and playing the recording.
The quality was not that great but it was enough to understand exactly what happened yesterday. The dean was getting more stern the more that he heard the recording while Joshua was getting madder. The coach's face was starting to turn pale, the recording was displaying his player in a very bad light. Once the recording ended, Nathaniel took back his phone and sent a copy of the recording to Joshuas email address and put it back in his pocket.
"I just sent a copy of the file to your email address Joshua." Nathaniel said.
"Thank you, I'm sure it would be useful. It seems we have everything that we need." Joshua said to the dean who seemed to be deep in thought.
"You had that recording from the very beginning and you showed it only now. Why?" He questioned.
"Carl was acting the way he did because he thought he could get away with it. The only reason that he would think that is if someone was protecting him, someone important here. That's why I baited the coach here. Do you remember coach Teagan here saying something about the importance of his players' words? Carl said the exact same thing yesterday, almost as if he was trained to do so. I think the coach was lying, what happened yesterday has happened in the past but he hid it to protect his player or more likely, protect his bonus check for when he was winning." Nathaniel explained.
Hearing that, the expressions of Joshua and Richard turned grim and they looked intently at the coach who was starting to get pale.
"Come on, you are not going to listen to that bunch of bul…." The coach started to say before being cut off abruptly.
"Shut your fuck**g mouth Miles!" The dean yelled before taking a couple of calming breaths.
"Nathaniel, thank you for coming here and casting light on the whole affair, we will deal with it accordingly but I can already say that you had the right to protect yourself, no punishment would be carried out against you. You can go back to class now." The dean said trying to be calm but his jaw was so locked down it looked like he was chewing on each word.
"It was a pleasure sir, I'm always available to help." Nathaniel said with a respectful nod.
He was just leaving the room when yelling could be heard in the entrance, startling the couple of secretaries here.
"What's going on?" One ask surprised.
"I believe our college needs to find a new football coach." Nathaniel said with a little smile before leaving the two secretaries with their mouth hanging open.
Chapter 79: :
New York, Lyndon penthouse. 17/10/2012. 10:00.
In the Lyndon penthouse the atmosphere was quite strange. The usually well furnished living room was a mess, all the furniture and decorative objects had been pushed aside, leaving a barren space with nothing in the middle of it. A few cameras and various objects were pointed to that space.
Nathaniel was sitting cross legged only wearing briefs and in a meditative pose, his two moms watching him anxiously. In the entire penthouse the phone, internet and even the electricity had been turned off. The only electrical object functioning in the entire apartment was the two cameras and three detectors pointing in his direction.
Nathaniel had finally settled to face his fear today. The power of his soul so far had always scared him and it was time to find out what he could really do with it. It was time to crush that cowardly attitude of his and face the power that was resting in his very soul. As a soldier, he was trained to never squander any advantage that he could have. And the power of his soul was definitely something.
After a long talk with his mothers, they had authorized him to do it but not without them being present. All three of them knew it could be dangerous so they had taken all the precaution necessary. His mother of course knew Nathaniel could heal faster then everyone on the planet but first aid kits were still not far in case of emergency.
He had read the incident report of the Hospital about power issues when he had hit Marcs soul a few moments before waking up, that's why the penthouse power had been turned off. All the precautions have been made to reduce the potential damage to their home even if Nathaniel would have chosen a basement in the countryside to experiment better. That suggestion had been overruled by his mothers who argued that they wanted him near a very good hospital in case something happened to him.
For the last thirty minutes he had tried nothing except moving his soul power inside his body to familiarise himself with the movement. His soul was responding to his mind easily but more thoroughly than his own thinking. Almost as if it understood his body better than him. It was unsettling and comforting at the same time. He was threading in unknown waters so he needed everything that could reassure him right now.
Once he was convinced that he was as familiar as he could with his soul, he tried to do something a little more complicated. So far he had only used his soul on his damaged skin to heal faster, but he wanted to find more uses for his power. Since the beginning he instinctively knew that he had barely scratched the surface of what he could do with his soul power and it was time to prove it.
He was thinking about the interaction of his soul power with his skin and muscles, maybe he could have other interactions with them other than healing. He decided to try to imbue his arm muscles with his soul power and he was surprised to see that it worked. Throwing a punch he was disappointed to see his soul power leaving his arm muscles just before his arm started to move.
Not demoralized, he began thinking about the reason for his failure.
'Maybe it was about focus.' He thought.
In the moment when he commanded his arm to move he had lost the focus on his soul power and it had gone back to his center. He realized he would have to split his focus into two. The first to control his soul and the other to control the movements of his arm. After a few unsuccessful tries he finally managed to control both parts of himself at the same time. He threw a punch so powerful that an audible crack resound in the room and his arm went limp at his side. Alarmed by the sound his mother's immediately swarmed him.
"Sweetie, are you alright?"
"What happened?"
Seeing their concern he could not help but flash a pained smile. He was glad in that moment that he had come clean about everything that was going on with him.
"I tried to imbue my muscles with my soul power to punch harder. I did not expect to punch so hard that I dislocated my shoulder." He said designating his limp arm at his right side.
"But why are you not, you know, screaming in pain? Doesn't it hurt?" Karine asked.
"Oh it hurt quite a bit but I have a huge pain tolerance." He answered by getting up.
&
nbsp; "That's it, you are going to the Hospital." Mary ordered.
"Not necessary mom, I got this." Nathaniel said, approaching the corner of a wall.
Touching with his left hand he made sure it was a directional dislocation. Once he was sure he threw the right side of his body on the wall once and then a second time. With a crunching sound his arm got placed in its rightful place. Even Nathaniel could not hold in a grunt of pain when he replaced his dislocated shoulder.
"It is done." He said sitting down tiredly and using his soul to repair the damaged tissues and articulation. His two mothers were looking at him shocked out of their mind.
"Please, never do that again sweetie." Mary demanded, a hand on top of her heart. That crunching sound was a horrible noise to hear.
"I'm sorry mom." He said.
Getting back up, Nathaniel began moving his still sore shoulder around. Even if he had successfully healed, using that much energy on his arm had caused serious damage.
"Okay that's it for today, let's fix our living room and after that I need a scotch to calm myself up." Mary demanded.
Without any objection the three of them started to put their living room back in order and connected the power, phone and internet again. Even if Nathaniel wanted to learn more about himself and the power contained inside his body he knew he needed to be careful and not overdo himself. The consequences could be dire if he did. Putting aside the two cameras in his room, he decided he would look at it later. For the moment he wanted to stay with his mothers who were drinking a glass of scotch while he was drinking orange juice.
"So, our first experiment was a failure." Karine said, not at all bumped up.
"I think it was the exact opposite mom, that was a success." Nathaniel corrected.
"Sweetie, you ended up with a dislocated shoulder, it is a failure in my book." Mary frowned.
'That's because I use too much power but if I manage to reduce the input and release the force in the right moment, it could make me faster and stronger than any men or women on this planet." Nathaniel mused out loud.
