Gem lived with her father and younger brother, her mother had left the family when Gem was just a baby, so she didn’t remember much of anything about her. Gem was a troublemaker and had gotten into a lot of trouble when her dad found out that she and her brother were skipping school. They have been doing this for a while now, her dad just now found out because he works two jobs and doesn’t pay that much attention to the kids. Gem and her brother never really got along. They were a year apart so they never listened to each other and always ended up fighting.
One night, Gem and her brother, David, were fighting and then all of a sudden, David just stopped. Stopped moving and even stopped breathing. Gem quickly dialed 911.
“My brother stopped breathing someone come help” said screaming into the phone.
“Okay, what is the address?”
“487 BrookStone Ct.” she said crying.
“Honey, don’t you worry, someone is on their way now.”
*5 mins later*
The medics are finally here and take Gem’s brother and puts him on a stretcher and one medic gets on top of of David and starts CPR. As they wheel David off to the hospital, Gem calls her dad and updates him. Her dad rushes home, picks up Gem and heads to the hospital.
All of the doctors that have seen David have said that he has a very rare sickness that usually only happens to the elderly, if anyone, the treatment cost well over $50,000. Since they were a low income household they couldn’t pay for that by normal means. Gem was still too young to get a job, so her father had now gotten another job and became a street thief, this lasted for about a week but her father had tried to rob the wrong person, the man he tested was a martial arts prodigy and was adept in the use of chain-scythes, the man had brutally struck down her father and left him barely clinging to life in a bloody mess, her father had died in front of their small home due to the massive amount of blood he lost. Now since Gem’s brother was hospitalized, her mother was missing and her father had passed she was alone on the streets, she had tried to learn how to pickpocket but was no good at it, she always got caught one way or another but, she had no other way of doing things. She kept trying and kept consistently failing for about 2 weeks. She did improve over time but not by much. She saw a red haired boy about her age leave a local jewelry store. He seemed to be a bit preoccupied with his thoughts so he didn’t even realize when Gem swiped two jewel encrusted golden bracelets from him and ran off. She thought about selling the bracelets at a pawn shop but instead wanted to try them on. Once she put them on, the rubies from each bracelet began to flash, as this happened, money flew out of people’s pockets smoothly into her hands, she figured that they acted as magnets at her will and this would give her the money to pay for her brother’s medical bills and surgery. This went on for a few months and she had gotten very good at it with practice, as she strolled on the streets she saw an old man who slouched and used a cane to keep himself walking. She felt pity for the man and let him be, but other thieves saw him as an easy target and cornered him in one of the stray alleyways. She wanted to help the man so she went into the alley after hearing a few shouts and crashes, as she went, she saw the old timer repulse a strike from one of the thugs who used a baton with his hand and split it in two with a simple chop, it was astounding. She approached the old man.
“How did you do that?” Gem asked with curiosity.
“Simply magic my darling.” The old man said.
Gem asked, “Can you teach me?”
The old man laughed and said, “Of course my dear. I’d be happy to help.”
He continued to say, “The way magic works is that the user changes aspects of their body to strengthen it.”
She learned how to master it for a few years under him. Gem’s mentor had passed due to old age, she tried her best to not linger on it and move on but it did sadden her. She heard word of very cheap housing on the other side of the world, since she was the type to keep as much of her money as she could she jumped on the thought of moving, she had decided since there was a mostly land route from her current place she’d walk her way there, it’d take a few years but she’d get there eventually, she pickpocketed her way across the globe and eventually tried robbing someone who was particularly defensive of his items, she followed him for a bit and analyzed anything that could be useful, she knew it would get cold very soon so she set her sights on his scarf, and he seemed to have a sack filled with nothing but apples, he seemed to never run out of them so she also wanted to investigate that, the difficult part was that none of the objects were metallic, she waited for him to be in an empty area and tried to swipe his things, as soon as she laid a hand on his scarf he turned and kicked her with tremendous force, she repealed the strike with her forearms, altering them to be as tough as titanium, he unleashed a barrage of pinches immediately after with enough power to kill, she blocked for as long as she could but but was eventually out sped and took a few hits, she fell to the ground whole oddly smiling, she felt pain which did nothing but drive her more to fight him, she quickly got up and made her hands as sharp as a razor blade and legs as quick as a cheetah’s she attacked brutally and swiftly. The man dodged for a good period of of time but took one swipe to the side of his face, almost instantaneously his wound healed itself and he got got a crazed look on his face, he charged at her head on Gem had shouted that she yielded a bit to late, he slowed the momentum of his fist but she still took quite a hit. She altered her head to be like titanium so it wouldn’t leave a mark on her but it still hurt, she left out a quiet gasp after the hit had been taken. The man spared her on the condition that she must do as he says, she reluctantly agreed.