Chapter 4: Start of the road Part II
"That must be my power.", Thomas thought out loud.
That moment seemed so surreal. One second , he didn't even know what his power was, and now he was using it like he had always been able to.
Whatever that black substance was, he was able to use it with precision, and he realized it immediately.
The moment after blocking Robert's attack, he turned the Black substance into a pair of arms, and moved it under his real arms, giving the impression of him having four.
Robert moved back, clearly startled. Before Thomas could attack, all metallic objects in the alleyway moved from their positions and began hovering around Robert, like the accretion disk of a black hole, waiting to swallow up everything around it.
He looked at Thomas' eyes. They pulsated and turned light orange.
Thomas' moved first, swinging his not-real right arm at Robert, who retaliated by moving backwards and shooting five of the objects from his "accretion disk".
Thomas created more of the black substance, and made a shield with it, holding it with his actual left hand, blocking the projectiles. He was having none of this shit anymore. He jumped forward with a speed he previously thought impossible, and managed to land a punch on his face with his non-actual arm. Robert's nose was broken immediately, and the blood oozing out of it gave him a rather nasty look. Thomas's waited for a second, waiting for Robert's attack.
But it never came.
All the metal objects fell down, and Robert fell back.
'Must me the concussion', Thomas thought.
Somehow, Robert reclaimed his balance, but the objects on the ground didn't float up again. Robert swung his fist weakly, getting nowhere close to Thomas, his head being messed up by that punch.
'So one punch was all it took?'
Any normal person wouldn't have attacked Robert back. They would have simply let him pass out or sat him down. But Thomas, pulled back both his fake arms arms at the same time, and without moving his actual arms, or his entire body for that matter, landed three solid hits on Robert, all on his torso. The weight of the last punch, which was an uppercut directed at his ribs, lifted Robert off the ground and definitely broke more that one of his ribs. He attacked him again, counting the hits in his mind.
One.
Two.
Three.
But he didn't stop after the three punches.
He simply lost count.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Thomas came to himself, Robert was lying on the floor. His face was a bloody mess. Some of the blood had found its way to Thomas's face too. Most of his bones were broken, and any normal person would assume he's dead by looking at him. He looked like a dead rat covered in ketchup.
Thomas realized how high his heart rate had gotten due to the punches that he threw. He turned his fake hands back into whips, and wrapped them around Robert like a rope.
' "Fake Hands" sounds weird. Lets call them "Dark Hands." '
It seemed like he could move that black substance through some kind of telekinesis.
He pulled his whips towards him, forcing Robert to stand. He was breathing heavily, so was Thomas. He released Robert, leaving him to stand on his own, and brought the whips close to himself.
He thought he heard Robert whispering something. He leaned in to hear.
"You...are going....to regret this.", said Robert, barely stringing the sentence together through heavy breaths.
Thomas was flabbergasted.
' The audacity of this guy...'
" Walk.", Thomas said, a sudden air of command surrounding him.
"Huh?". Robert clearly didn't understand his position. "Do you know...who you're...talking to? I'm the c-".
" GET.THE ***K.OUT.OF THIS ALLEYWAY.", roared Thomas, cutting Robert off and silencing him. He breathed deeply for a few seconds to regain his cool, and continued.
" Get out of my sight. Do NOT set foot in Brighton ever again. If you do, I will put an early end to your sorry little life.", said Thomas, his now yellow eyes wide with rage.
"Tho-"
"Get out before I change my goddamn decision. Consider this my last favour as a friend."
Robert didn't have the strength to retaliate. He stumbled out of the alleyway.
Thomas' black substance disappeared. His eyes turned back to hazel. He walked out, trying to see if Robert was really leaving. His eyes closely following Robert. Five minutes later, Robert disappeared behind a building. Thomas breathed a sigh of relief and threw himself on the ground, exhausted through the use of his Power.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He checked the time on his phone.
7:43 P.M.
'Oh Dang! I slept too long, Mom and Dad must be worried'
After reaching the supermarket and filling his bag full of supplies, Thomas had decided to take a quick nap before heading back. That 'quick nap' turned out to be four hours long.
He picked up his bag full of canned foods and headed home.
'It'll take about an hour to reach there, I should call Dad to let him know I'm safe.'
He pulled out his phone and called,
but no one picked up.
'Whatever.'
He kept walking. The sky looked mesmerizing, almost making him forget the fact that the world has gone down to shit. The twinkling stars, so beautiful, so unbothered by the mess happening down on earth.
''Humans definitely aren't the center of the world. If they were.....
the stars would be crying now'', Thomas thought out load, looking at the sky.
He passed the spot where he fought Robert. The alley seemed unchanged, except for the faint blood stains on the ground. Suddenly he remembered something. He opened the terminal and went to the 'Power' section. This time, instead of the question marks, the details were all there. He sighed.
"So surreal. So *** surreal."
He noticed he'd been swearing a lot lately. Did it even matter?
The details of his power were quite startling, in contrast to the "???" he was so used to seeing.
{ Power: Material Darkness
Allows the user to manifest abstract darkness in material form. The
material darkness can be created and shaped precisely by the user.
Creating Material Darkness requires energy.
Additional abilities:
Material darkness can be reabsorbed or turned into obsidian. Turning into obsidian requires energy.
Effects:
Increased agility, speed, reaction speed, reflexes, senses, stamina and physical strength depending on Power Output Level.
Gives the user regeneration, and the ability to heal quickly. Speed of Regeneration is dependent of Power Output Level.
Aesthetic effects:
Change in eye colour to reflect Power Output level:
Power Output Level [0] - Eye colour [Red]
Power Output Level [1] - Eye colour [Orange]
Power Output Level [2] - Eye colour [Yellow]
Power Output Level [3] - Eye colour [Green]
Power Output Level [4] - Eye colour [???]
Power Output Level [5] - Eye colour [???]
Power Output Level [6] - Eye colour [???]
Power Output Level [7] - Eye colour [???]
+ miniscule amounts of Darkness leaking out of the user's body. Noticable after Power Output Level [2].
Named attacks:
-Dark Arms: Arms made up of Material Darkness }
'Abstract Darkness? Does it mean negative emotions like hate or rage? It would makes sense because my power activated because I was angry on Robert.', he thought.
The last one concerned Thomas. "Named Attacks: Dark Arms.."
'That "God" guy even knows what I think.'
The time was 8:30 p.m. . He still had time to spare, so he opened the leaderboard section.
{ LEADERBOARD:
Rank Name/Alias Affiliated with Region Points
1 Arthur Gulliver Walsh The Anarchists Europe 10219
2 The Ace The Jesters Asia(North East) 9327
3 Will. Thane The Anarchists Europe 7259
4 Killer - Asia(Middle East) 5650
5 Fu Zhang Zhang Jia Indian Subcontinent 3903
6 King Dark Knights Europe 3598
7 Abhijaya A.G.L.F. Indian Subcontinent 3574
8 Charlotte Grace American League N.A. 3563 .....
}
' Seems most of the action is in Europe.'
Thomas didn't look further. He was quite near his home, when he saw smoke, directly above where his home should be. The view was blocked by a building. His heart skipped a beat. He broke into a run while simultaneously calling his mother.
No response.
His heartbeat increased further. Soon his house came into view, and the sight he saw then,
...would be etched into his heart forever.
The bag of supplies dropped, so did his heart.
His entire house had been razed to the ground. A crowd of about 50 men surrounded it holding torches, bats, swords, and even guns. Right in front of the burning remains of his house, a rather muscular man was kneeling. His hair was white, and his right arm was cut off from right above the elbow. There was a pool of blood around him, and some men were tending to his wounds. About 50 bodies were littered around his house, but that was of the least concern to him.
In the rubble, a woman was crushed between two fallen and burning walls. Her hand was hanging out. The haunting realization hit him soon enough.
It was his mother.
His entire body shook with rage. Unbeknownst to him, his eyes pulsated and shined blue. But the rage was soon overcome by an overwhelming feeling of grief.
His parents were dead.
He tried to assess the situation calmly. He went closer to his house, close enough to see the faces of the people, and hid behind a bush, trying to figure out if his mother was really dead , and if his father was dead too.
He overheard some men talking.
" Damn, that guy was really something. He wiped out half of us with his weird power. What was it anyway?"
"I think he could turn parts of himself into animals or something. Well, Robert gave us the right info, these guys really were pro-government."
"Yeah, but I can't get over that guy. If William wasn't here with us, we'd all be dead. What a monster !"
" And Will even lost an arm. But still, we got rid of more bugs."
Thomas' head burned with hate. The audacity of these guys. They burn his house, kill his parents, and then call them bugs!
He looked at the guy kneeling on the ground.
' He must be William. I could probably kill him now , but I wouldn't stand a chance against this crowd. Wait, they mentioned Robert. Did Robert sell me out? Are these Anarchists? Is this William the same as the one in the Leaderboard? '
His brain was running at a million miles per second.
' Was this what Robert meant by "You are going to regret this"? Did he rat me out?
He opened the leaderboard. Will. Thane's points had gone from 1259 to 1309.
' "50 points for killing a person. That confirms it" '
Either his mother or his father had definitely been killed by William. As for the other, they were definitely dead too, seeing that his mother was trapped in rubble, covered in blood, and the fact that the men standing there were talking about his father in past tense.
He felt helpless. Trapped.
Rageous.
But still, he could do nothing. Not with 50 armed men standing in front of him.
So he ran. And while he was running, the overcast sky began to roar, as if mocking him for running away. Rain began to pour, and an overwhelming feeling of guilt hit him. But he held it in.
"Never again.", he whispered to himself. "I will never run away again."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Walking for god-knows-how-long in the bitter rain, he found himself in front of a school, which had now been turned into a shelter for those affected by this terrible game. The sign in front of the school was tattered and soiled. It read, " Relief center for the Power Game affected population".
He entered the school, only to be hit by a wave of wailing children, wounded people and UGARP officials shouting orders, once again reminding him of the damage done by the game. He had seen people in these shelters on the T.V. three days ago. Now he was one of them.
A lady approached him, clad in an army uniform. Her face reflected the extent of her weariness. She probably hadn't slept for a few days.
" Your name, Sir?", she asked. She had clearly said that word a million times that day.
"Thomas Alinac", Thomas replied, trying hard to put up the 'tough-guy' act.
"Age?"
"18"
"Do you have any ID?"
"None".
"Okay, any relatives that you may think that can be here?"
"Nope."
"What about your parents?"
"Dead."
"Oh.", was all that she could say. She tried hard to look sorry, but it was obvious she had heard the same so many times that she couldn't feel sorry anymore.
"That over there is the cafeteria.", she pointed to a hall with a few people inside. "And right next to it", she pointed at a queue next to the hall, " is where you can get a blanket for the night".
"Okay, Thanks a lot.", Thomas said weakly.
" If you need anything, just ask any officer, or me, if I'm around.", the officer said.
"Sure."
Thomas walked to the Cafeteria. His wet clothes didn't bother him as much as his rumbling stomach did. The food was lined up in rows, like a buffet system. He took a disposable plate and looked around. All he found was bread, some disgusting looking curry, and leftover meat surrounded by flies.
'Bread it is.'
He finished eating, washed his hands in the icy cold water, and went to procure a blanket, which he found rather easily since most people had already slept. He checked the time.
9:53
His wet clothes were bothering him now. But since he didn't have spare ones, he'd have to bear with it.
He saw the woman he met earlier again. "Excuse me, are the showers working?", he inquired.
"Yes, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you wanna die from hypothermia."
"Okay."
He walked away, annoyed.
'How does water end up that cold in the summer anyway?'
With his blanket in his hand, he walked to football ground of the school, which was totally devoid of people.
'Good. No one's here, at least I can sleep in peace.'
The sounds from the main assembly ground could still be heard, but they were bearable. He threw off his soaked T-shirt, covered himself with the blanket and sat down with his back to the wall of the school building.
The moment he sat down, his entire body relaxed all at once. The gravity of all that had happened hit him, like a tsunami that had been slowly accumulating strength, hitting the shore.
One day.
That was all it took for his life to be turned upside-down. In one day, he had lost his parents. In one day he had lost his home. Three days ago he heard about these Relief Camps. Now he was inside one.
Pulling his legs close to himself, at last....he cried. Pounding the ground with his right hand, he let all the tears out.
" Damn it....why?...Why?". He stopped to breath.
"God *** damnit!.... Where....where did it go wrong? Why did this have to happen."
He calmed down a little. The crying helped.
"If only I'd gotten their sooner. If only I'd not slept. If only Robert...that bas**d didn't report us to the Anarchists. If only the Anarchists didn't exist. IF ONLY THIS BULLSHIT GAME DIDN'T EXIST !"
He cursed God. He cursed Robert. He cursed the Anarchists. He cursed the game. He cursed himself.
The emotions in his mind were no longer restrained.
Anger. Regret. Guilt. Anguish. Helplessness. Frustration. Sadness.
Everything came out all at once
He brought out a whip made up of Material Darkness, and slammed it on the building wall with enough force to destroy a significant portion of the wall, sending dust flying everywhere.
'I hope an officer doesn't get attracted by the sound.'
He somehow felt lighter. But the terrible feelings lingered, haunting him like a ghost.
While he was hopping from emotion to emotion, torturing himself, sleep came to him, like a ship arriving by chance and saving a starving man stuck on an island with no food, and he dozed off in his sitting position.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------