Chapter 13: COMPASSION AND BULLETS.

  “Children are not meant to be molded, but are people to be unfolded” —Jess Lair.

  August 28th, 1990.

  Sprinting thumps filled the air.

  His tears flooded his face.

  Link II sprinted like it was his last day.

  Blaming himself for everything that happened.

  Remembering how numb he felt when staring down at them like bugs.

  Feeling invalid from human pain.

  His running continued through the streets.

  Each step feeling like a needle added to his grief.

  Finally stopping into an alleyway.

  Slowly slouching towards the floor.

  Towards his knees.

  Holding himself up with the brick wall.

  Panting.

  Breathing heavily comparable to fizzling soda.

  Taking a moment to think rationally.

  “W-What should I do? I killed myself and that ghost…

  I feel ill… I feel disgusted, I just-I just want to be somewhere that won't instantly kill me for who I am…”

  His body slowly lays down into the alleyway.

  Sitting on the floor and laying his back on the brick wall, feeling a calm before the storm.

  Finally deciding one thing.

  “Know what? Screw him, screw everything here. Why not do one childish thing I've never done before?

  Time travel.”

  Before he felt the same pain from before.

  Immediately vomiting onto the floor.

  Hating the acidic taste in his throat reappearing.

  Clearing his throat before he could begin.

  Getting back up, he began to thrust his arms out towards the air.

  Trying to focus his fingers to rip reality apart to travel into time.

  His hands glowing a mix of purple and green.

  His teeth gritted as he focused.

  As he did, a rift opened.

  Showing a purple portal that glowed a dark green, shifting to a calming notion as it stabilized.

  Sounding like a car humming, mixed with distorted air.

  He stood with guilt and hesitation, wanting to discover what the future held for himself.

  Additionally knowing he wouldn't be able to help others, worried that more kids would be killed because of cops.

  Imagining the guilty eyes for leaving a city like Compton.

  The stares of everyone at him.

  Hatred he felt from trying to escape from a life filled with pain and trauma intertwined.

  The culture judging him.

  Link II decided to enter the portal, reminiscing on the words

  “I choose myself.”

  Emerging into a new world that might just set him free from pain and trauma…

  Link II stepped through the portal—and the familiar alleyway of Compton dissolved.

  He now stood in the bustling streets of New York City, January 19th, 2026.

  As Link II emerged into the current-day world, he looked with confusion.

  And peering from the alleyway, he saw the many billboards around him.

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  Hearing the many audios of block shaped objects, seeing one billboard advertising a “Verizon 5G Apple 17.”

  Additionally seeing new shows and ads present, but also some news channels that had reporters talking about the shooting of “Renee Good.”

  Additionally highlighting on what ICE did in previous years.

  Looking around at New York, he saw a version of Compton that disguises itself as a paradise.

  The bright lights of the billboards.

  Scammers wearing costumes of fictional characters to get a quick buck.

  People in suits and ties rushing for a bonus of 20 dollars.

  The rare humble people living in apartments alone, humming as they watered plants.

  Yet, a newspaper fell from above.

  Stating how people, the authorities were investigating who assassinated Renee Green.

  While also talking about Charlie Kirk and his influence like it never happened.

  Blending his face into others with AI tools that made him look even more pathetic than his own wife's tours did.

  Link II began to have that same feeling before danger.

  Fear.

  Glancing behind him, he saw immigrants alike, either rioting as a movement or running like hell as if they were starving, running from the silhouette of ICE officials within the smoke

  Additionally some were forced into cars, family members trying to defend their brothers and sisters, yelling about green cards and their right to be in the country.

  And all Link II could do was watch, watching how ICE threw smoke bombs just to capture a few Mexicans.

  The same smoke grenade sounding like bullets, bolting away in panic, assuming the grenade sounds were bullets flying.

  As he sprinted, he heard the audio of phones repeated into his mind.

  Looking around, he felt people giving into temptations of the mind.

  Lust.

  Pride.

  Gluttony.

  He saw people trying to flirt with others, hiding their marital status.

  Regularly seeing a few loyal people, but the sin of others outweighed that by a large margin.

  Link II kept running for what felt like hours.

  The constant thumping of his feet hitting each step on the concrete.

  Thump.

  Crackle.

  …His heart racing in fear,

  Arms swaying to run faster.

  Finally, breaking down in a random alleyway, realizing one thing that would come to fruition.

  Nobody would care for him.

  Nobody would pray for him.

  Nobody would even know if he died.

  Crying to himself, asking the sky.

  “Why can't I have a future? Why do these pathetic adults get everything yet us children lose everything?

  Am i destined for anything important in this fuck up of a world?

  Does anything and everything I have done even have hope or a purpose?!”

  Falling back to his knees and crying like a child for what felt like hours and days passed in minutes.

  His tears soaking the clothing he wore and his own face.

  Each falling tear reminded him of the innocent lives taken in the night by adults who said they were more responsible.

  The tears looked so tiny, it mirrored the rain above him.

  After finishing crying like a child, he sat there in grief, lifting himself upwards to lie on the metal building behind him.

  Angry at the world and its egotistical pride.

  He couldn't understand the things that were done around him.

  From the assassinations of people to ICE taking random Mexicans back to the border who already had green cards.

  It didn't make any sense as to why Link II had to watch everything this earth offered burn.

  …yet he felt like a 20-year-old man child who could do nothing but watch with empathy.

  He felt the urge to kill ICE for taking rightful members of America and just dumping them away like orphans.

  He had the option too…yet he just watched them get taken away.

  And began to summon another portal back to his own time, disappointed that a childish dream came true, but in the wrong ways.

  Just before Link II stepped through the portal, he saw a figure.

  The lankiness, robotic-like limbs, the smell of drugs and marijuana.

  It was Samuel.

  No doubt it was Samuel.

  Watching with confusion as to why or how Samuel even showed up in the future.

  Deciding to abandon his previous disappointment and rather focusing on one thing.

  Link II needed to find out why Samuel was in this time and why.

  Silently followed Samuel as he walked through the streets of New York.

  Following extremely easily made by many people walking by in New York, following till he saw Samuel go into a CD store.

  Looking up, he saw the title of the CD store “Rough Trade Above.”

  Link II watched Samuel enter, but also came to mind a way of entry that made him both invisible and able to see what Samuel was doing exactly, without triggering his sensors.

  So Link II stepped into the alleyway beside the store and started to make a new spell.

  Asking himself one more thing.

  “Wait, can't I just walk in casually with the mask that hides my elven ears?

  …no, he would still be able to tell who i am anyways without the ears.”

  His mind immediately darted to a spell of invisibility, but also something that didn't have a chance of being discovered by Samuel’s sensors.

  Something like a mix of pausing time and speed.

  But glancing inside the building, he kept seeing album names and their designs, till strangely being allured named…

  Camp by Childish Gambino.

  Wanting to see why this album allured him so much.

  Moving his hand and aiming it towards the album.

  The air quiet besides conversations and walking comparable to machinery.

  Quickly turning the album invisible and moving it towards him with telekinesis.

  He grabbed the album floating towards him, ignoring the bright picture of the forest on the cover.

  Seeing the acronym L.E.S. as Track 8.

  Finally knowing what to name it.

  He teleported quickly away, putting the album back so he could create the mixed spell.

  Beginning with thoughts of invisibility and slowing time, smelling the trash of the alleyway and cigarette butts.

  Fueling his anger into the spell.

  Whispering the name of his spell into the air.

  Sinvisable.

  As he did, the world stopped.

  Feeling a spike in his senses, sight and speed being amplified like he drank soda.

  The world around him moved however Link II wanted it.

  His body slowly reflected the inside of any building or the outside, making him completely invisible.

  Alongside having full control of the speed of time, seeing who or what was doing at any time.

  Even seeing people jogging or walking.

  With the spell active, he walked inside, peering at what Samuel was doing.

  Watching Samuel grab Kendrick Lamar albums, to Link II's surprise.

  Samuel grabbed the ones that were exactly what Link II got on his 5th birthday.

  Section 80, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, To Pimp a Butterfly, DAMN.

  As Samuel prepared to pay for it, he saw Mr Morale and the Big Steppers.

  The album cover was Kendrick on the cover, holding his own child with a stoic expression.

  Another woman in the background cradling another child close to her.

  Almost nurturing the child in a destroyed home.

  Link II equally also found himself staring at the album.

  Mirroring his own life.

  And yet, both of them kept staring like dogs to bones.

  Eventually, Samuel grabbed it and put all the CD albums on the checkout countertop.

  While Link II stepped back into the alleyway, confused as to why Samuel went to a CD store to buy the birthday gifts he got two years prior.

  Alongside asking himself.

  “Why did Samuel travel time to get these albums? And why… Why did he look at the mirror just like I did?

  Is… is he hiding something?”

  Eventually seeing Samuel pass by him without knowledge.

  Seeing a close date of the album's release from a corner of the cover.

  April 14th, 2017.

  Was the year that DAMN came out.

  And that one date shook him to his core.

  Something was wrong with the timeline here, and Link II knew why.