Prologue

A pandemic, so huge that the world is shaken. People dying, people protesting on it, people having to get vaccinated, people protesting on it, people having to wear masks, people protesting on it.

I clearly hate that people are protesting on masks.

Masks… an icon made so wondrous by all these superhero movies. Protecting the identity of a person so strong, so that they don't have to always be on the lookout and protect their loved ones.

This very icon has inspired many, seeing of to how many of these people with power have been coming to light, and disappearing without a trace.

Good for them. They finally get to show themselves without fear. People really need the warmth of this presence. Especially after what happened to Bengaluru.

I stare at the icy dome shape, formed around the other half of Bengaluru, which I luckily wasn't inside. And so I freely walk along the pavement, leading me safely across the huge intersection of roads.

No one dared or dares, even now, to recklessly enter this dome. At least not that I or the general public know of. But it is a wonder that no one is trying to help with this issue. When it has been more-than-half-a-year already.

More-than-half-a-year since the dome started. Hell-of-months, since the bloody shrieks of some being was heard, which I myself experienced at the edge of the dome, along with the twenty-feet shadowy figure. Hell-of-months since many shadowy humanoid figures marching together, inside that very dome, was captured.

People believe that the pandemic started, because of this very dome. Even when the first case was recorded back in 2019, in late, very late, December. Wonder how people forgot that it is called as COVID-'19' and NOT COVID-'20'.

As I cross the road, enter another footpath, tie my loose shoe-lace, while being immersed in my thoughts, a bus zooms past me. I glance at the bus number and realise that, that is the bus I needed to board. So I put all my might and run, luckily no one is in my way.

I wonder what people might think as they saw me running this way. Did I look cool? Did I look like a powered-individual, revealing themselves? I needed to be careful on the latter, people might crowd me and I may not reach the bus.

I match the speed of the car besides me and reach the bus, which just starts to move again, but I get on it, just on time.

Gasping, I step into the bus, as the doors close behind me. And I see a familiar person, who had seemingly boarded alongside me. Well, more like a familiar person whose-face-I-haven't-seen, but is an usual on this path, at this time.

Especially, someone I know who SURELY is a powered-individual.

"Ticket?" the bus conductor asks loudly, appearing from behind me, and tapping my shoulder. Must have observed the air-pods in my ears, but they sucked, I could clearly hear him as he was right beside me, and loud.

I flash him my pass, while turning. He observes the pass, in the grasp of my hand, carefully, and walks to the elderly man, who I was staring at.

I carefully stare and turn my gaze away from this elderly man, to not make him suspicious of me. I walk inner-wards and stand against a pole for support, as there were no empty seats.

As I turn behind, I find the elderly man, staring right at me, with a hidden-behind-mask expression. I hear him say something, which I do not hear clearly, thanks to my air-pods. But I gulp that I finally may have been suspicious to him.

He seems to repeat himself to me, and I feel everyone staring at us, especially at me.

"Do you want this spot?" I hear him say.

"Um…" I say awkwardly, while gripping one hand on the pole and holding my air-pod in the other. "N-no," I say and step back.

The elderly man nods lightly and gets into the spot, grabbing onto the pole with both his hands. I sigh at myself and hold the upper pole.

Even a powered-individual… gets weak eventually, it seems so.

I just put back the air-pod and turn up the volume once again, going into the world of my thoughts.

It had been a while since I recognised some powered-individuals. Not many do, but it must have been not only me who recognised them. I fear that these 'powered-individuals' will be hunted eventually.

It was clearly weird of how so many powered-individuals were around here. Made me think if this is why the dome happened, in one or the other way.

I myself knew for sure that there were four powered-individuals around here. Comparing to how many were known, which is zero, that was a huge number surely.

Sometimes I had seen shady individuals, but those weren't often. They all eventually disappeared. But these four… I spotted them a few times, every month. My paranoia would alert me that they are here for me.

It'd also mean that an elderly gentleman, a body-builder, a famous sportsman, who was seemingly the only one whose name I knew, and a BEAUTIFUL-face-behind-the-mask lady… all were out to get me. What a life that'd be.

I see the elderly gentleman have a hard time resisting the speedy vehicle he was within. He eventually even moves from the initial spot and goes to another, by the window, and holds onto his life, while searching for a magical vacant seat.

I look around and feel the urge to curse all these suckers, who were as heartless to not give-up their seat to an old man. Moreover, possibly a guy who could have saved someone from an accident or something.

Not in too long did the elderly man not only get down from the bus, but I get a vacant seat for myself. I feel guilty as I sit there and watch the elderly man walk away, out of my sight, never getting hold of a vacant seat, in the end.

'Was he really that weak?' I wonder. Maybe it is to be at the least expected list of powered-individuals.

While the body-builder and the elderly gentleman were the ones I saw most commonly, the beautiful-face-behind-the-mask lady and the sportsman were the rare ones. The latter was obviously a star, who rarely took the bus.

And I had seen both the beautiful-face-behind-the-mask lady and the body-builder, use their abilities. While the latter may just be strong due to working out, it wasn't the ability I saw him use.

The sportsman may be the well-known-to-all kind of powered-individual, and surely people must be looking for him, hence why he had recently even become an ex-sportsman. News even had indirect headlines of him having powers; hence why he must have moved to this place, where there was a bigger news than him.

The elderly man on the other hand, was one whom I surely knew had powers, even with zero proof to provide. He just… was something else.

The kind of 'aura' I felt from both him and the beautiful-face-behind-the-mask lady… I could write so much on it, yet not be understood by anyone. Heck, even if I myself read it, I'd think it was some psycho-babble. And that is one conclusion WITH proof.

With the usual cold rain of everyday, and the sudden sunlight, a rather typical Bengaluru weather, I finish my ride and get down by my university's bus-stop. And I race my ass, after putting on the hood of my pullover, seeing that I was late already.