A Visit to Varganna

Being rich was a wonderful experience. When I was let out of jail I didn't believe it would come to this. I was living on the streets and off my best friend, and now here I am in my own condo, with superpowers.

None of this would have been possible without Mindy. She had been the one to invest the money I'd stolen from Stiff.

She'd made investments for both of us and now I had money credited into my new bank account every month without doing anything.

Though Mindy was also controlling my savings. She claimed she was doing it to keep me from splurging and I am thankful.

The condo was an example of her actions in keeping me from being wasteful. Originally, I'd wanted to buy a house in Brooklyn. After laughing at me, Mindy helped me find this condo in Bronx.

It wasn't luxurious, but it had two bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, a bathroom, and a balcony.

It was not cheap but Mindy said I had enough to pay for it, and I now have a roof over my head. No more sleeping behind refuse bins or breaking into people's attics.

I woke early in the morning to prepare breakfast. Mindy would be visiting today, so I had to clean up the apartment, though there wasn't much to clean. Fortunately, I wasn't the type to mess up my space.

I found myself getting distracted as I made my morning meal. My mind kept drifting, drifting back to a few weeks ago—the UN summit attack.

I have found that it was difficult to stop thinking about someone. I could not stop remembering Sophia. I had to run away from her like an idiot because I feared explaining things to her.

And what would I have said?

I just happened to have a laser pen in my pocket and decided to use it?

What about the attack? How would I have explained having foreknowledge of it?

Oh, you know, there's this man, he's a real nutcase. You wouldn't believe the things he would do for power. He's a dealer for Kriegbrand who were the ones behind the attack.

They wouldn't have believed me. In fact, I had prove that they would not have.

The news. They were claiming that unknown American saboteurs were behind it, as if had been American, military issued explosives that were used.

I was just glad that they mentioned nothing about me. The last thing I needed was for my face to be on billboards and posters all over the world, stating that I was wanted for bombing a UN summit.

Anyway, the UN would be meeting again, this time in New York, as they were wont to do. They could consider themselves safe this time around, even if they wouldn't know it, as Stiff wouldn't let anything happen in his city.

I wondered if Sophia is going to be there. I could see her like she was standing right in front of me. Her red hair, her strict elegance, the beauty of her voice, it was all ingrained in my memory.

I shook my head and went on preparing breakfast. It wouldn't do to have my food burn from being lost in my head.

Though I could just refreshen it.

That was a new aspect of my powers. One of the good things that came out of the UN attack was that I now had three percent unlocked.

It increased the amount of things I could do now.

Three percent extra did not help refine my manifestation power. If I wanted something, I would still get something that fits but only in a creative way.

I tested it just after the attack and after figuring out I had received an upgrade. I fasted and wished hard for food to keep me sustained. I didn't get food but some pills for calories, multivitamins, and proteins, and energy.

The pills kept me sustained, lessened my hunger a bit, but they still were not food and failed to keep me satisfied.

So the three percent did not enhance the manifestation side of my powers, what it did was active another aspect of being a Bastion of Genesis.

I could now return any material to their origin form. Take the breakfast I'm making for example. Should it get burned, I could return in halfway and have flour, sugar, milk, et al. Returning it all the way to origin form and I'd get wheat, unprocessed milk, sugar best, etc.

It was a fun power and I could already think of a dozen ways to use it to earn money.

But I’d first have to come clean with Mindy as I couldn’t do much without her help.

I wondered how she hadn’t discovered yet that there was something weird going on with me. I didn’t want to believe that she hadn’t. Probably she had her suspicion but had no idea what was really up with me.

Before I’d been scared that revealing my status as a Bastion to her and that I’d been visited by an alien would have her doubting my mental health.

But back then I had no proof, now I have proof so there was nothing holding me back from telling her.

I made a mental note to bring it up when she drop by later today.

As I was plating my breakfast in the dining room, and preparing to have a satisfactory morning, the very air and fabric of space shimmered in the corner of the room.

I stopped what I was doing and focused on the strange anomaly.

I wondered if it was an attack. Could this be related to the Bastions or was this an alien attack?

The shimmering became somewhat violent, with the space in my dining room morphing and warping.

I took a step back in fright, my heart trembling in agitation.

What the hell is this?

I seriously did not want to know and at the same time I was curious.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, the warping space began to glow and the room began to heat up.

Suddenly, a tear appeared in space in an explosion of gale that pushed him and the furniture in the room back.

Out of the shapeless tear that hung in the corner of his dining room, stepped out an alien figure with skin that looked like candle wax.

The skin and the iconic hair that looked like silver cloud clued me in on who exactly way paying me a visit.

I calmed down and turned to face them. “You just ruined my breakfast,” I said as I pointed at my breakfast of pancakes, rice, muffins, and beef.

Blin stepped through their scientific abomination of a portal and stared at the dining table where the plates were upturned and his breakfast now laid on the bare tabletop.

“My apologies. Let me see if I can rectify that,” they said.

I opened my mouth to tell them to not bother. It was not the Bastion of Finire’s trait to be able to rectify. They were agents of destruction.

I just gave up on having any breakfast that morning.

And was right to as Blin further ruined my food in their attempt to help me. They focused on my meal and tried to return it to the state it had been in before only for everything on the table to vanish except the plates which now had food stains on them.

Ah, rather than restore the state of my food they’d made it that the food was already consumed.

“You know what,” I said, “It’s not your fault, don’t feel the need to take responsibility for this.”

And really it wasn’t, it wasn’t their fault that they were saddled with the powers of destruction and endings.

“I will just get something else to eat later,” I assured them when they favored me with an inquisitive glance. “Now, what made you visit? And in such a dramatic way.”

They hummed and glanced around the room. “I apologize once more for any difficulty I may have caused, but my visit is of a great importance.”

I perked up at that. It sounded like a promise of action. “What is it? Has something come up?”

“Indeed. I have come to acquire your help in defending a world facing a terrible crisis.”

I took a step forward, eagerly.

“And what world would this be?”

“My home world,” Blin stated. “Varganna.”