“Trust me, it wasn’t everything.”
“Oh, g-good.”
Kevin came to a stop in his basement, where the majority of his technology lay like snacks. “This is a blue light overload,” Dustin said.
An iota uneasy, Kevin chuckled twice. “So, what d-do you n-need?”
“Information on Montauk,” Johnny answered. “I hear your mom worked in the government. Would that entail you know anything?”
“What are you, c-conspiracy theorists? T-That stuff is basically a myth.” Kevin pulled out a few small boxes lined with files. The group, except for Rose, watched in doubt. For nearly three minutes, Kevin nearly ignored their presence.
If he stutters one more time, Ryan thought. He glanced at Rose, slightly frowning.
“Uh, are you s—”
“Yes,” she replied before he finished his complaint.
The conversation had turned a tad awkward. Johnny rubbed the back of his neck.
“So…like I said, your mom worked for them. Do you know anything?”
“Yep, Mom worked for the Feds,” he responded, continual y nodding his head as he sorted through files.
“So that means you can help us?”
“Indeed, it does! Well, likely won’t. Just give me one second.”
Sam turned to Rose and whispered, “You sure this guy can help?”
“Look, buddy, as she p-probably told you, I’ve helped her with a l-load of stuff.” Ryan winced at the unrelenting stutters.
Rose appeared nervous. “Yeah, you know. The um, the project kind.”
Kevin stood up from his chair and motioned for Rose to come closer. “You haven’t told them?” he whispered.
“I don’t think it’s the right time! It’s too early!”
“Well, in my opinion, keep it that way. It’ll be b-better for both of our lives.”
“Hey, hate to interrupt, but we are literal y right here,” Ryan cut in. “What are you guys even saying, huh?”
Kevin poked his finger in the air and opened his mouth to speak, but a text message choked it away. “Of course, the Big D has to text now.” Taking out his phone, his eyes scanned the number. To his shock, it was not from his father, or any of his relatives, for that matter. “What the hell?” he uttered, furrowing his brow despite his hair covering the forehead.
“What?” Johnny and Ryan both asked at the same time. Rose leaned in. The message read, “Prepare.” It was from an unknown number, who apparently hacked into his own personal server.
Without hesitation, Johnny shot a glance at Jane, who appeared worried.
“Let me guess,” Sam spoke up.
“Mysterio?” Dustin added, finishing his brother’s sentence.
Kevin and the others turned their heads to look at them. “Mysterio?” Johnny asked, confused.
“Yeah, Mysterio? What’s that?” Ryan added.
“More importantly, w-what the hell are you talking a-about?” Kevin interjected.
Dustin facepalmed himself. “You know, Mr. ‘I need a lighter’?” he explained, making quotations with his fingers.
“W-Who?” Kevin asked.
“Oh. We’ve got a lot to tel you,” sighed Johnny.
“Please start.”
So, he did. Johnny explained everything, with occasional elaboration from the others.
Kevin’s face gradually grew elated with every passing minute of their account.
He’d at last done it—his childhood dream completed. He found evidence that superpowers exist. It lasted twenty minutes, and then the elucidation ceased. To cap it off, they demonstrated their one-of-a-kind abilities.
Johnny raced around Kevin with such ferocity his glasses flew away. Sam Kevin’s soda can and Dustin shoved the can off the computer table with a quick blast of air.
Jane lifted a chair—like a witch—for Ryan to grab with one arm. For several seconds, his body bulked and then returned to normalcy.
Kevin was stunned, jaw dropped to the floor. “Wow, I h-have n-no words. That was simply, uh, gratifying.”
“It’s been a hectic 24 hours,” Jane finally responded.
“What she said,” Dustin added.
“I have no d-doubt,” Kevin replied. “I am going to be an e-excessively busy man.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, now that you have these powers, I am going to run tests on you. H-Hopeful y.”
“Well, yeah, sure,” Johnny replied. “I’m good with it.”
The rest nodded in agreement except for Jane, for she was not wil ing. Kevin sympathized, thankfully. “It’s OK, the data won’t be shared. I p-promise.”
“I just don’t want to,” she replied.
“T-That’s OK!” Johnny swiftly responded. Jane turned. Kevin perked up.
“Ah! So that explains it,” he laughed. “I was so confused, but now it makes total sense.”
“What does?”
“Oh, y-you know, the minute to minute g-glances, and the fact that y-you just b-backed her up.”
Johnny saw where he was going. “Oh no! No, no, no, we aren’t a, uh, a thing.” He uneasily laughed. Then he real y got uneasy as he glanced at Jane. “Right?”
She froze like an Antarctic ice shelf. He already knew her to be the shy one, but now it’s as if she was in a stupor. “No…I mean yeah! No…yeah…I mean, no.”
Everyone’s eyes went wide. Sam and Dustin chuckled. “That was a mouthful,” Dustin snickered.
“Sure was,” Sam joked.
“Yep. Y-You have official y done it. Now I’m even more confused than before.”
“Can we go?” she asked. “Please?”
If you can guess that Johnny was confused too, you would be right. He just stood there as everyone went to follow Kevin. Dustin patted him on the shoulder as he passed. “Good going slick. Don’t take it hard. Bro’s before hoes.”
On the way up the stairs and towards the lab, Kevin asked about the Mysterio character. “So, you’re saying this dude asks for a lighter, and like five m-minutes later you get powers?”
“Yeah, that’s accurate,” Johnny concurred.
“W-What did he look like?”
“Well, when I met Jane, he wore some kind of mask.”
“Real y? And it connected to his face?”
“Yeah.”
“And it came off? How?”
“I don’t know how to explain it. It was as if—”
“It turned off,” Jane cut in, finishing his sentence.
The words got Johnny’s attention. “Yeah, that’s a good way of describing it.”
“Hmm, s-sounds like a variant of facial tech, which, quite ironically, doesn’t exist.”
“What are you saying?”
“I-I’m saying that your ‘Spic friend here has access to undeveloped equipment, or…”
he replied as his voice trailed off in thought.
“Or what?” Ryan asked.
“Or…yeah, that’s u-unviable. I don’t know.”
“Sounds legit.”
“Not as legit as this lab!” he countered, his arms opened wide. The walls were covered in white, while a variety of different equipment lay on several tables. “You c-can say I’m a multifaceted guy. Well, n-not really. Anne does most of the work.”
Ryan gaped. “So, you have a lab in your house? How? What is this even for?”
“Classified,” Kevin replied.
“Classified? What?”
From that time on, Kevin asked his helper at the moment, Anne, to take the blood of each of the individuals, not saying why. Then, Anne left the room. After that, Rose got up. “I need to tel you all something.” She had been oddly silent throughout.
“Yeah?”
“What’s up?” Dustin asked.
“You deserve to know, especial y since we wil probably be working very closely from now on.” The others, except for Kevin, leaned into their chairs and centralized their attention on her. “I have powers too.”
“What?!” exclaimed J
ohnny, followed by Dustin and Sam.
“You saying that you’re, uh, like us?” Ryan questioned.
“I am, but it’s different. Yours were acquired, mine…wasn’t.”
“How’s that possible?”
“I’m not what you think I am,” she replied, eyes down. “I’m not from this planet. An alien.”
Bewilderment and suspense saturated the air. She tried to come up with a solid following statement. “I come from a world far from Earth. I was sent here when I was very young, not even two weeks old. My real parents provided me with manuscripts of our planet inside the ship. It’s the only reason I know where I come from and how I can do this.” She raised her hand, and as a result, her hands emitted fire—pure, oxygen-rich fire. “They knew I could never decipher their language, so they used pictures and a certain holographic sphere. The sphere chronicled and portrayed my civilization’s entire history. But it only lasted three viewings before self-detonation.”
They were simultaneously astonished and anxious. Well, that finally explains those red irises of hers, Ryan realized.
Kevin spoke up to ease this bomb Rose dropped. “It a-appears that her powers come from some e-energy—it emanates from her body, but it is imperceptible. I call it dark energy since it sounds cool. And no, it h-has nothing to do with real d-dark energy.
It’s possible her species is born with this energy inside them.”
She played with the fire, leading it back and forth like a match, and then cut it out with a breath. “My ship crashed. It was obliterated, but my capsule wasn’t. My foster father found me at his door step some time later, for what reason and how I got there remaining a mystery. Out of the kindness of his heart, he decided to raise me.”
“Holy sh—” Sam cut in, amazed.
“That’s a lot to take in,” Johnny interrupted.
“What happened to your planet?” Ryan asked.
She paused. “I don’t know.” But since she had learned much from the historical orb she had been provided, that was a lie.
CHAPTER 8
FORGOTTEN MEMORIES
“Get her in the capsule!” Ta-Vir shouted. He glanced back, motioning for his wife to come closer. Facing a white, rectangular object about seven feet in height, he pressed a green button, which engaged the device to scan his body, starting with the eyes.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” his wife, Kira, replied. Sirens resounded across the land. Thankfully, it was not the apocalypse. It was an invasion.
“We do not have a choice, my love,” he answered. “There is no hope for her in this doomed place. He wil take her. Like he did all the others.”
“What if the ship never reaches the planet?”
“It wil .” The reddish-skinned man prepared the drive and within the hour they had bid their goodbyes. The child departed off to another world, far from theirs. Ta-Vir embraced Kira as the ship launched, the boosters slowly lifting the craft upward until it blasted out of sight.
A few minutes later, their citadel was compromised. A soldier identifying himself as
‘Solis’ smashed the door and it flew like an airplane to the other side of the house as he strode in. He wore dark clad armor and an opaque helmet to boot—his face unseen.
The integrated system inside his outfit altered his voice and tone into something almost static.
“His greatness, the Endless Creator, the Titan, has arrived. Bow and be grateful your worthless soul has been grazed by his presence.” Solis bowed as the ground shook.
The vibration reverberated closer with every passing second. Then he came into view.
Titan, outfitted in wide, dark blue armor, arms crossed behind him, stomped to Ta-Vir and his wife. This time, two wires were attached to his spinal region, zig zagging up into the back of his head, where they were fused. Legend says neither are necessary, only used to amplify his power.
“Ta-Vir, did you real y believe you could outthink me?” questioned he, scowling at Ta-Vir through his devilish red eyes. He brooded over Kira and Ta-Vir, far larger than either.
“I fail to understand,” responded Ta-Vir, fingers arranging his short beard.
“Your daughter, Ta-Vir. Why have you committed this nefarious act?”
“We have done nothing but merely save our daughter’s life!”
“Foolish and naive choice of words, Governor. I have had a vision. Your daughter is far more powerful than the other females here. In her genes is a mutation. She wil become a formidable opponent. And if under the wrong master…an enemy.”
Kira looked up at the giant intruder. “She is already deep in the darkness of space.
You will never get to her, you maniac. I have seen the truth about you.”
Titan acted hurt. “Oh, why must you be so malicious? I was not resurrected to be labeled a maniac.”
“You were insane before Sonovan Lung kil ed you. You are insane even now.”
Titan flinched. Hatred was the kindest word possible to describe how he felt about Sonovan Lung. “I want so badly to kil you, and I will. But before your pathetic life
passes away like the grass, and your breath returns to the dust from which you came, you will tell me where you sent her,” he spat. “Or as you emphasized, how you ‘saved’
her.”
In a moment, Ta-Vir drew a knife. “My love, this is why I didn’t want you to know where.” He was about to commit suicide when Titan utilized his telekinetic ability and stopped him in action. Ta-Vir’s arm, which gripped the knife, halted in mid-air.
Titan tilted his head, amused yet impressed in Ta-Vir’s newfound devotion to his own family. Truthfully, he had respected Ta-Vir, one of the very few brutally honest and ingenuous politicians out there. Nevertheless, if Ta-Vir changed, he would be prepared to do what was necessary, even if it meant death. The only thing Titan could rely on anymore was his own pureness, for it remained unchanged. “You would resort to suicide rather than transmit a simple bit of information?”
“For my family, anything.” Solis held Kira back. Titan shot a glare at her.
“What a beautiful wife you have, Ta-Vir. It would be a tragedy if she were kil ed, would it not?” Titan sneered. “What did you say again? Family? Yes, it is your weakness.”
Ta-Vir held fast from speaking. The situation became a game of silence. Titan grew impatient. “Typical. I have to do everything myself. Solis, step back.”
“What are you doing?”
“What I said I would. Information, or she dies.”
“Don’t listen to him!” Kira screamed.
“I love you Kira, you understand me? I will always love you!”
“So be it.” There was an ear-piercing, dreadful snap. The next thing Ta-Vir saw was his wife, falling in slow motion to the ground. Her lifeless body lay there.
“No! Kira!” he screamed in agony. He attempted to run to his wife, but Titan held him in his place, though only his telekinetic power did the work.
“What happened to you? The rules were straightforward, Ta-Vir. It would have been so simple, but you instead took the arduous route.”
Ta-Vir ignored him. “Someone wil come along like how he and his Shadows had.
And to follow in their footsteps, someone powerful. In that day, think of me, Titan. I will be there to send you off to your grave, once again. Your name will be forgotten and mocked.”
“No Ta-Vir, it is you who wil be mocked. Your daughter will never remember the sacrifice you made for her. She wil not remember any of it, but I will help her. With my aid, she will grasp and perceive every snap of your wife’s neck.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” he countered.
“Oh, I should be afraid,” Titan retorted, amused. “I wil do it myself.” He approached Ta-Vir and picked him up by the neck. The crimson eyes of Titan bore into him. Ta-Vir sensed his mind slipping away. “Sometimes the original never fails,” Titan rumbled.
But out of nowhere, Solis’s automated blaster turned on. It focused right
on Ta-Vir, held high by Titan’s massive arm. “Titan, may I remind you? You just ambushed the house of a multifaceted man. Yes, I am a politician. But you know what else I am? A hacker.”
Upstairs, a friend of Ta-Vir, Qora, used his system comprised of four holographic monitors to hack the blaster. His fingers contacted the screens in a flurry. “That,” Qora
said, “and that. Done!” He quickly abandoned the house, rushing through a secret exit only he and Ta-Vir knew of.
“Say hello to Sonovan for me,” Ta-Vir remarked triumphantly. If he had to die, so be it.
Titan looked behind him. As he did, the blaster fired, killing Ta-Vir instantly. “No!”
Titan roared. “No!”
~~~
Ta-Vir’s ship crashed in the Sahara Desert, someone already waiting there. This someone, also dressed in a jacket, rescued her from the wreckage. He made his way through the fiery inferno. Thankfully, her capsule was unaffected by the crash.
“There there, Adia,” he comforted, harvesting her as if she were Moses. The baby clearly had no clue as to what had transpired, for she had been asleep the entire trip.
Two days later, she was dropped off at the home of Henry Johnson. A single man in his mid-thirties, he planned on never marrying. He heard a triple-knock and ran to the door of his small yet practical abode.
“Hello?” He peeked through the hole. No one there.
Unlocking the door, he found a deep gray capsule with a quiet, inactive baby nestled inside. His eyes widened. He stepped out to look around. Fearing someone would come around, he picked up the capsule with the baby inside and rushed into the house. The rest is history.
~~~
For a currently strange reason, she did not want to disclose that something had visited her at night while she slept.
“Do you know how groundbreaking this is? Humanity has been searching for evidence of life in exoplanets for the last century!” exclaimed Johnny, who appeared a chunk too exuberant for an adult.
“Yes, Johnny, we understand,” responded Sam. “We al went to that class.”
“Oh, right.”
“Trust me, I know what I am.”
“Don’t worry Rose,” Ryan replied. “You are safe with us.”
She shot a glance at him. “Really? I’l be safe? Are you seriously going there?”
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