Like Superman
As Julien spread his arms...
The blackish anomaly started to change.
An arm of it seemed to elongate until it thinned to the point of looking like a spaghetti being "aspired" by Julien.
It was similar to a space black hole swallowing a star; the star would be sucked little by little until nothing was left.
The energy of the anomaly was being converted to pure and stupid heat by diffusing it as thermal radiation.
The process was very slow.
Minutes passed...
--
Staying on the ground had greatly bothered Paul, but he didn't have any choice.
As soon as he disembarked, Brener ordered him to inspect the site to check that there wasn't any dangerous anomaly on the ground.
Paul was walking far from the fence, circling and checking the camp's perimeter - alone with one soldier following him a reasonable distance away.
Although his task was helpful, he felt that Brener had given him more of a random task to keep him busy.
Paul didn't consider himself wise, but he had always believed to have a good intuition.
And his intuition was telling him that with the huge dark spherical cloudy anomaly up there, it was pretty safe to assume that most of the 5th force had gathered there. Which meant the ground was a safe place devoid of anomalies, if not for those thunders falling on the camp.
He raised his head to look up. There, Paul was still able to see Eléonore and Julien ascending steadily. They looked so damn cool.
Paul was jealous, and he knew it. But, at the same time, he considered it was perfectly justified.
Who wouldn't want to fly?
He was jealous just as he had been jealous of Altin back when the latter quickly outclassed him at sensing and handling the 5th force.
"Altin..." Paul was saddened at the thought of Altin.
Despite the little rivalry and jealousy he had felt, Paul would have given anything to have Altin alive at his side.
Or François...
Unlike the other kids at school, Altin, François, and Julien had never made fun of him.
He knew he was an oddball, but he couldn't help it. Or, more like, he couldn't care. He didn't have the motivation to fit what people expected of him. What use would there be?
He... didn't like studying. Having spent his first 8 years at home with little care and love from his parents, Paul had never been motivated by anything except slacking off and chilling.
His parents had been very hard-working and busy parents, both consultants often being sent abroad.
Most weeks, Paul would only meet them once or twice - he would be left alone at home with the nurse or the cleaning lady.
Although he was very young, he had kept vivid memories of how hard it had been on him.
He couldn't see any point in studying. His parents had not been there to support and guide him.
When he turned 8, his parents had driven him to a late-night restaurant, despite being exhausted by their work.
They had had a car accident.
Paul had been the sole survivor, luckily on the side of the car that was the farthest from the impact.
After that, Paul had never been able to gather any serious motivation to study.
He couldn't get to study and work hard as his parents had.
His horrendous fashion style stood for his rejection of the society, for which he bore no love nor hope.
It was only recently that he had found a new purpose.
Becoming a superhero. Mastering powers that nobody could have.
Paul didn't care how childish it sounded. It was his dream, and he worked hard for it.
Paul looked up again.
Eléonore and Julien had ascended at the same altitude as the thunderstorm anomaly. But, of course, they looked like tiny dots from the ground, so he couldn't be sure.
He stopped.
"If Eléonore can climb so high so naturally, then so can I." He thought.
He attuned himself to feeling the 5th force.
That part was easy. He channeled the 5th force to his hand.
Now, however, came the most challenging part.
Paul had no idea how the 5th force actually worked. How it could have all these marvelous effects.
He was all feeling and intuition, similarly to Eléonore, but unlike Altin, who could understand some physics.
He knew very well how to create light and even somehow control it.
It was, however, the extent of his abilities.
So Paul tried something different.
He oriented his hands towards the ground and channeled the energy to his hands.
He tried not to manifest light but pushing power.
Raw power came out, and Paul was pushed by the energy coming out of his hands.
He ascended slightly, then flipped 180°.
He fell hard on the ground.
Facing the sky, he realized the thunder was diminishing.
"Julien must have started to work," Paul deduced.
He stood up; tried again - this time channeling the raw power towards his feet.
It was two times harder because he was not used to using his feet as a medium for the 5th force energy.
After a few minutes, he could finally "blow" the 5th force energy from his feet.
As a result...
Paul ascended again, straighter than before.
However, he was not completely straight and fell backward again a moment after.
"Damn it!" Paul exclaimed.
Paul pondered for a moment.
He knew Eléonore wasn't using this method to fly; instead, she told him and Julien that she created a small local bubble of gravity. It was indeed a better method to keep a straight and stable flight path. But, on the other hand, it was a relatively slow method of flying.
Paul wanted to do the same, but here there wasn't the slightest trace of a gravity anomaly. It was hard to start without the right feeling.
Yet, he didn't mind; he wanted to fly like superman: fast and continuously.
His guts were telling him that his method would work best for that, at the price of being very tiring.
So Paul tried again and again.
Minutes passed.
--
Up there, the process of dispersing didn't seem near any closer to being finished. Julien and Eléonore were still at it.
"Julien, how long?" Eléonore asked him. She was getting mentally tired. Keeping the gravity anchoring bubble alive to prevent them from falling alive was taxing, even if she didn't use her energy but the anomaly's instead.
"30min... it's very powerful." Julien replied.
Eléonore tensed. It was an extended amount of time. She was getting tired, and besides... around Julien and her, the air seemed to notably warm up. She felt uncomfortable.
However, Julien was obviously in pain. He was sweating all over his body, and every muscle of his body seemed tense.
Any ordinary teen would have long given up.
The effort and courage of their undergoing were astounding.
Little by little... the anomaly deflated and shrunk. At the same time, it became harder for Eléonore to keep them stable 800m high in the air.
At one point, the thunder ceased.
--
Down below, the soldier behind Paul had long stopped to follow from afar. He was staying silent a good distance away.
Every time Paul fell, he would look at the sky, drawing new strength from his wild desire to fly.
On his 13th attempt, he observed that the anomaly had mainly disappeared. At the same time, and rather suddenly, the wind picked up noticeably.
--
High in the air, the remnants of the dark cloud seemed then to divide into many smaller clouds.
The energy that Eléonore was using to stabilize the gravity dispersed.
She and Julien ... dropped!
"JULIEN, STOP!" She shouted.
The shout was not needed.
Julien had stopped dispersing the 5th force as soon as they started to fall.
Eléonore and Julien fell out of control of the sky.
The world began spinning at terrifying speed.
Terrific seconds passed, during which they tried everything to regain control.
Finally, Eléonore stabilized the gravity again.
They had dropped by 300 meters.
She sighed very deeply. She had almost lost control.
"Let's stop dispersing the 5th force. The danger is gone, and I need to use the remnant energy to power our landing." She said, panting.
"Fine." Julien passed his hand to dry out his forehead due to sweating profusely. "Sorry. I didn't consider that dispersing the anomaly would also make us fall."
Eléonore laughed nervously: "Ha ha ha... it's fine, everything's fine. See? It's even getting windy. It was too hot over there."
The wind was indeed welcomed. It was very refreshing.
Julien laughed too: "Haha, it was really too hot. I thought we'd be cooked before we were done." A blast of cold wind brushed them. "Actually, it's even getting too windy. Let's land quickly."
Eléonore nodded: "Right," she said.
Eléonore started to lower them carefully.
But the wind was still getting stronger every second.
Even the light seemed to darken?
It was then that Julien said: "Wind.... hot.. and cold... Oh noo....OH NO...! ELEONORE, GET US OUT OF HERE ASAP! WE CREATED AN ACTUAL THUNDERSTORM STORM!"
Eléonore looked up.
The sky had wholly, fully darken.
300m above them, the warm air had created a turbid flow with the cold air below them.
A thunderstorm had been formed in minutes because of the sudden warm air originating from the dispersion of the anomaly.
She saw a flash passing near them. It was thunder. Natural thunder.
This time, they were right below the thunderstorm cloud.
And in danger.
She let go of caution and allowed herself and Julien to fall to the ground in a rush.
But they were too late.
This time, thunder stroke them.
Their suit burned.
Eléonore didn't even scream; she fainted.
Their two solitary figures fell from the sky in the middle of a massive and natural thunderstorm.
--
The wind was so strong that it was even pushing Paul, almost carrying him.
That's when Paul saw it: a thunderstorm was naturally forming in the sky.
It was bigger than the previous anomaly, and Julien and Eléonore were nowhere to be found.
"Oh no..." Paul thought worryingly.
He grew immediately worried to death that Julien and Eléonore may be in danger.
The first thunder stroke.
Then came many.
Paul was immediately taken by unrest.
He clenched his teeth to the point of hurting himself.
A second after, he saw it: two burning figures falling out of the sky.
All thoughts stopped in Paul's consciousness.
All but this one: "I won't let it happen."
Paul realized that Julien and Eléonore were falling to their death.
Putting all caution aside, he unlocked the restrain he had unconsciously placed upon himself due to the fear of hurting himself.
He took in the 5th force energy in the surrounding without any limit.
He then let it exit from all sides of his body.
It burned him!
It hurt!
Paul gritted his teeth.
He ascended!
Because the raw pushing power came from all sides of his body, he remained stable.
Unconsciously, in this urgent need for success, he had found the perfect equilibrium.
Paul ascended in the sky like a rocket.
Even though he hurt like hell.
His nerves were on fire.
It was as all his cells had been deprived of blood.
It was similar to the feeling of having one limb's blood flow cut for a while, except that Paul felt it to his whole body.
He adjusted his trajectory to match that of Eléonore and Julien.
He had only seconds before they fell on the ground.
He drew even more power, burned his nerves even more.
The pain was such that he bit his lips, drawing blood.
--
Eléonore was vaguely aware that she was falling quickly to her death.
But she felt weak and worse: she felt numb. Staying in the air more than 30minutes had already exhausted her. The thunder had been the last straw.
She realized her next few thoughts would be her last, so she thought...
A body slammed violently onto her, reopening some of her fresh wounds. She then felt pulled a robust and firm grip.
Not a second after, there was another shock.
--
Paul could not help but scream in pain.
It was not the collision that had caused him even more pain than he already felt;
It was his arm and shoulder.
As soon as he had gripped Eléonore to break her fall, his left arm's muscles had snapped.
Her weight and her speed had been too much for his arm.
This was despite him using the 5th force energy to also break the fall.
Immediately after, he had caught Julien with his right arm.
The muscles snapped as well.
But nonetheless, he endured the pain.
He knew that letting them go would condemn them to their death.
Anything was ok if they could all survive this.
He would save them.
Even if it meant risking his life.
Like superman.
--
Almost at the same moment, things seemed to slow for Eléonore.
She seemed to fall less and less quickly.
She realized she was not going toward the ground as fast as before. Not only that, but someone was holding her by her suit.
"Not just me..."
She saw another person being held.
Something - someone - was breaking their fall.
Seconds after, they crashed.
The three young adults rolled for several seconds before coming to a stop.
Rain poured on their still body.
...
...
...
--
Deep within the fabrics of spacetime.
A young man stood straight on ethereal walls.
The distorted walls were almost impossible to describe.
The walls could be compared to several pancaked 3D pictures taken from different angles laying upon each other.
Each seemed to correspond to a different reality.
All these realities seemed to intersect, but at the same time, never merging.
The young man seemed to be everywhere, but at the same time nowhere.
He was trapped in an endless torrent of mixed collapsed dimensions.
Like he had done for the past hours, he walked and walked to no end on this floor made of merged and distinct realities.
After what seemed to be an eternity, he suddenly heard a voice... talking to him.
"You seem lost in the multiverse core, young lad."
Altin failed to pinpoint the source.
The voice had come from his own mind.