San Cheong watched as children ran about the dirt streets. Running behind the makeshift houses, freshly built for the new group of refugees until real housing could be made. The children ran circles around San Cheong who was too distracted by his thoughts to take much notice. It had taken awhile but he had finally gotten Simba calm enough to enter the camp. San Cheong sighed. Simba was going to be a handful until Eddy was up and walking about, he just knew it. Now it was up to him to keep Simba from killing Mak.

A little one tossed a ball, nearly hitting San Cheong in the face. However he didn't bother to stop. He was confident the child's mother, who was near by, would handle it. And sure enough as San Cheong walked away he heard the child's mother scolding him.

"You must be more careful. That is Commander San Cheong....." The woman's voice faded as he walked farther away.

San Cheong shook his head, he hated being called commander but the people had insisted. Everyone called him that, even the other council members, though only out in public. The people use it as a form of respect but to him it made him feel like he was being put on a pedestal and not thought as their equal. There was only one person who didn't bother with calling him commander and that was Simba. Of course he expected that from his closest friend. They've known each other since before placement day.

San Cheong kicked the dirt, remembering the whole placement day process made his stomach turn. It was an awful process that left most with nothing. A process that rewarded families for the birth of specials and punished those who didn't. It was pretty straight forward. When a couple found out that they were having a kid, the government would move them to a nice house and give the father a good paying job. The family would live that way until placement day. On that day if the child didn't exhibit any special powers then the family was kicked out and moved to the lower villages. Once you were kicked to the lower village it didn't matter if you had any other kids. Couples had one shot. If your first born wasn't a special, then you were forever stuck in a life of poverty and hard work.

So all through his childhood. his parents prayed that he would develop a gift, but he showed no signs. Finally on his 12th birthday, placement day, he was tested and to his parents disappointment he showed no signs of having powers. San Cheong remembered returning home and locking himself in his room. He had felt so horrible, he had let his parents down. That night, he cried himself to sleep and the very next day they were moved to the lower village, starting their life of working hard for practically pennies. Barely having enough for the monthly payments on their debts and food for the table.

San Cheong frowned. He thought back to the nights when he would pretend he was asleep, eavesdropping on his parents conversations. Often it was about money. He remember lying there wishing more than ever that he had some special ability instead of being a worthless thin blood. San Cheong had become so pessimistic on life. It was Simba who had kept San Cheong from just completely giving up.

He had befriended Simba years before placement day. Simba had been an early bloomer, showing signs of powers at age six. He had been classified as a Torch, which his parents had found out, to their misfortune, when Simba had almost burnt their whole house down after throwing a fit for not being able to go outside. So when it had come to the subject of placement day, Simba had felt none of the anxiety he had. Still his friend had stayed optimistic, always telling San Cheong not to worry and that his powers would show one day and everything would be okay. Only that day never came but placement day had and he missed his chance. He had expected Simba to cut off their friendship there since he would be moving to the lower vilages, but he didn't. He remained loyal to San Cheong. Hanging out and doing stuff like they usually did. The only difference, to Simba, was that he had to walk farther to get to his best friends house. San Cheong couldn't help but fear for his friend whenever they were in public together. It was very rare and highly frowned upon for specials to associate with non-specials outside of work. Once he had brought up this fact to Simba who only rolled his eyes and told him to quit worrying.

Their friendship only grew as more people raised hell about it. Often they found themselves being harassed by a rather nasty group of specials who wanted to use San Cheong for target practice. Unfortunatly for them Simba always had his back, more than willing to use his powers in a fight. Even though Simba did most of the fighting, San Cheong wasn't completely helpless. As time passed, the tension grew between the specials and the non-specials and San Cheong had decided to learn some hand to hand combat to keep him from getting killed in the "games" played by the special. Sadly, because of his defiance, and after kicking a couple of specials' asses, San Cheong was forced to leave home and of course Simba tagged along.

He stopped under the shade of a tree still lost in his thoughts. Simba had stuck with him and had even helped him start the rebellion. He had thrown his privileged life away to help San Cheong and to him, that meant the world.

"COMMANDER!!! COMMANDER SAN CHEONG!!!" San Cheong was ripped from his thoughts as a girl, about twelve years old came running up to him. She looked very frightened and about collapsed in front of him.

"What's wrong!" He reached out to her, feeling a wave of panic hit him.

"S-Simba!....He's..he's going to kill Mak!" His eyes widened as he looked down at her.

"Where is he at?" The girl tried to steady her breathing.

"E-E.co's tent." San Cheong cursed under his breath as he began to understand.

"Eddy." He helped the girl rest against the tree. "Thank you." The girl nodded at him. Turning, he sprinted towards E.Co's tent. He had to hurry and stop Simba. Man, he hoped he wasn't too late.