The Wanderer (Book 2): Stranded

by Giancioppo, Danny

  “What!? He’s not going to listen to me!” Bentley said.

  “He’s right. I’ll go,” Alannah said decidedly.

  “Absolutely not. I won’t have you danger yourself in front of him when he’s like that,” Bell refused. “God knows what he’d do to me if I ever put the love of his life in danger like that.”

  “He… what?” Alannah asked, thrown off by Bell’s comment. It’s not that she didn’t know I felt like that... probably. It was more I just never went so far as to say it, you know? Bell groaned, and started to make his way out the door.

  “I’ll just go in there myself,” he decided, rushing to the entrance.

  Meanwhile, I was getting hot. Like, hot, hot. Sam noticed, but he was too heated himself to care.

  We dashed forward at each other; I swung at him, and he reared down, taking the hit, immediately thereafter swinging up at me as hard as he could. Which, just so you know, I could tell was as hard as he could, because it hit me square in the jaw and made my whole head rattle, while simultaneously sending me flying into another wall. Pretty sure it broke my jaw too, not what mattered though.

  My eyes lit up, as did my hands, and I burst toward him. All the while everyone now screamed into the intercom, telling me to stop, rather than both of us. What the hell guys? I mean, I get it, but still, don’t pick sides…

  He darted toward me, but since I was mad, I stopped holding back. I was at least twice as fast as him in that moment, if not more, and I punched him in right in the face with my burning hand before he could even blink. I only hit him once, but I hit him hard.

  Sam went flying into the opposite end of the room, and made a huge dent in the wall’s structuring. Pieces of it fell off from the impact alone, and he wasn’t moving.

  I walked toward him, my whole body steaming, when Bell burst into the room, my burning white gaze shooting over to him.

  “JASON, STOP!” he screamed, getting in between me and Sam, and holding his hands out defensively.

  I said nothing, and just kept moving, looking back to Sam, who still was recovering from my last hit. I tried to step past Bell, but he put his hand on my shoulder for a moment, trying to pull me back toward him. He only touched me for a moment, because my shoulder was too hot for his skin to handle for very long. Still, I did look back at him.

  “Jason, please, enough! You need stop this, son!” he pleaded.

  I don’t know what it was. Maybe that he borderline begged me, maybe that he called me son, but almost instantly, it shut me off of cosmic-mode, and brought me back down to earth. My eyes and vision went back to normal, and I literally cooled down. Then I looked at him, and felt immediate regret, realizing what I was doing.

  “I… I’m sor–” I tried to say. But I didn’t finish.

  All of a sudden, like literally half a second later, Sam, was just… there. Right in front of me. And I went flying. It felt like my body had been hit almost everywhere all at once, a number of times, and I just slammed into a wall.

  Before I hit the wall though, I thought. And being who I was, as I was, I could handle a lot of information at once, so really I had a lot of time to think before hitting that wall.

  It felt way too specifically like I had been hit a lot– like, I just got beaten by at least twenty fists, and yet it all hit me in one moment– and Sam just… appeared, right there in front of me.

  Also, he looked terrified when he was there, like he didn't want to be where he was, or see what he was seeing. And that to me said only one thing:

  Sam stopped time, and based on his reaction, it was for a good several seconds; maybe even a full minute. He probably hit me repeatedly at first, not really getting what was going on, and then understood that he was trapped– in a sense– in time. Not only that, but that also he lost control, and hit me really damn hard; which by the way, he did.

  He probably had enough time to regret it, and then just want to get out of that frozen moment and back to the present. But, by the time he did, I was headed toward a god damn wall.

  So then I hit the wall, and I the wind got totally and utterly knocked out of me. I fell onto my knees, and gripped at my chest. Not to even mention all the blood, scrapes, and bruises, it was the first time in a while I’d felt this pain, so it came off a lot worse than it really was.

  “Jason!” Sam yelled, dashing toward me. Bell ran after him, and the others all made their way to the entrance as well. I just looked up, and still struggled to breathe.

  “Get away from him!” Bell shouted, pulling Sam away from me once they got close enough. “I told you to stop, and then you do this!” I put my hand up, trying to gesture him to calm down, but he seemed pretty heated. It was nice, that he cared for me this much, but I could tell he was making Sam feel incredibly guilty, and there was no need for that.

  “I didn’t…!” Sam struggled to explain. “I got mad, and then everything just stopped! I didn’t know it at first, and then I couldn’t get out! I… I didn’t mean to–!”

  “Sam! Back off him man!” Alex shouted, running into the room along with the others. He kind of grabbed Sam– superpowers be damned– and pulled him a few steps farther away from me.

  “I am!” Sam insisted. Again, I was trying to gesture to them to all calm down, but also again, I got hit a lot, so breathing was still a huge struggle for me at the moment.

  Alannah ran over to me, and put her hands on my face. She looked terrified, which I always hated seeing. Well, at least now Sam wasn’t the only guilty looking super-human in the room.

  “Jason, are you alright!?” she asked nervously. “Can you talk?”

  “Not… really…” I struggled out.

  “Can you breathe, kid?” Bentley asked, looking only somewhat concerned. I waved my hand in a so-so hand gesture, and he relaxed, then going full-on annoyed mode. “Just when you start losing too… you’re such a damn cheater, kid.”

  “Sam, I think you should go,” Bell said, not dropping his anger toward him. Sam looked hurt, and gazed at me for some kind of direction. It was a stupid move, considering Bell was so afraid of Sam’s powers, but I guess he was just being more overly defensive than rational in the moment.

  “Are you okay?” he asked. I looked at him, and nodded slightly, giving him a thumbs up, and my best I’m-in-a-crap-load-of-pain smile. I looked at Alex, Will, and Julia, and motioned for them to go with him. Reluctantly, they agreed, and Sam turned, sort of floating off, but he kept hitting the ground and taking off again slowly as he left. The others followed not too far behind him.

  “Jason, take some deep breaths, okay?” Bell said, turning his attention back to me. He put his hand under my neck to check my pulse, and pulled a handkerchief out from his jacket pocket, wiping the blood from my mouth and nose. It was sweet, honestly; I’d have teared up if I wasn’t in such pain.

  “I’m…I’m okay…” I said slowly, just now starting to get my breath back. I always hated getting the wind knocked out of me; it felt like I was suffocating on nothingness, and that terrified to me. I am allowed to have phobias, after all.

  “Can you walk?” Alannah asked. I stood up, waving off their attempts to help me up. It took me a second, but I was able to get a solid stance on my feet decently quick.

  “Yeah, yeah I’m good,” I insisted. “I uh… I think I’m just gonna head back home now, if that’s cool.”

  “What? You can’t do that, we need to talk about what the hell just happened!” Bentley refused. Not that it was really his say anyway.

  “I’m pretty sure I know what happened,” I explained.

  “You think he did something with time?” Bell estimated. I nodded. “Me too. Based on what he said, and his very sudden appearance, mixed with your equally sudden change in condition, it seems to make the most sense.”

  “And that means I’ve got to talk to him,” I said. “He’s probably scared as hell after being stuck there for who knows how long. It’s best we isolate the incident and learn from it; I need to see him to do that.”<
br />
  “Agreed, but I do think he should come back here at some point for more tests and training,” Bell concurred. “Though maybe less combat training. At least with you.”

  “Hey, it was a good match, wasn’t it?” I defended, laughing a little.

  “Until you went cosmic,” Alannah said. “Come on, let’s go back to your apartment.” She helped lead me out of the room, and I just glanced back at the Bell and Bentley, helpless to stop her.

  “We’ll talk later, Jason,” Bell waved off. I waved back, and Alannah and I made our way outside.

  I went over to her to embrace and take off back to my apartment, but she just turned and faced the bay. Kind of like I did the other day!

  “Hey, what’s up?” I asked. “I didn’t upset you, did I?”

  “No, no nothing like that, it’s just…” Alannah said, struggling to get it out. That wasn’t really like her, not unless she was like, embarrassed about something.

  “Did you do something?” I asked. “Because Ana, you could never make me mad at you–”

  “No, I didn’t do anything either, you idiot!” Alannah insisted, with that classic Alannah impatience. “It’s just… Bell said that I was the love of your life.”

  What!? That son of a bitch! I told him about that in confidence… If he told her that… I mean there’s no chance he would have told her more, right…?

  “He’s an over-exaggerative guy, that’s all,” I argued. “Why though… would that be a problem?”

  “Well… no, of course not,” Alannah said, turning to face me. “It’s just… you know… we’re getting older, and you’ve technically got a high-paying job. If you were saying things like that, I just didn’t know if he meant you–”

  “Wanted to get married?” I asked, grinning. Inside, I was dying, but I could at least smile on the outside, right? Not even the first time today.

  Alannah turned red; my girl blushed for me! Again! It had been too long since that last happened. I just put my hand on the side of her face, and kissed her gently.

  “I’m not saying I don’t, but if I had been planning to do that, do you really think I’d say something like that anywhere near the vicinity of Bentley? The man would ruin me!” Alannah smiled, and brushed a curl of stray hair past her face and over her ear. Whoo-boy… that was a heart-racer.

  “Yeah, I guess not,” she replied. “It’s just that you never really say that kind of stuff, you know? Not very often anyway.”

  No, I guess not. Really, it was because of my crippling fear of detachment of losing people; specifically, the few people in my life who ever gave a damn about me. I know she loves me, and I’m crazy about her, but if Alannah ever thought things were going too fast, or too slow, or I loved her like that but she didn’t… I don’t know, it’s anxiety, man. What can you do?

  She stepped closer, and held onto me tightly.

  “Okay Wanderer, take me home, please. Today has been strenuous enough as it is,” she ordered.

  “Sounds good. Can I have my shirt back though? Someone special gave it to me,” I joked. She just rolled her eyes, and shoved it at my bare chest. I chuckled, and put it back on, then taking off with her in my arms, and dropping her off at home.

  Soon after, I made my way back to the apartment, where I knew Sam was. I knew he’d be distressed to say the least, and he probably would want nothing more than to apologize profusely, and defend himself by insisting I egged him on; which, granted, I sort of did.

  Before I did that though, I had to make sure of something. I made my way to my bedroom, and opened the closet door. In the closet, there were a rack of coats and suit jackets. On the third jacket to the left, there were a number of pockets. In the leftmost inner-pocket of the third jacket to the left, I pulled a small box out, and opened it.

  After all, if Alannah found that, she’d definitely know I was going to marry her.

  6

  Dear World

  About a week had gone by. I’d talked to Sam, even trained with him more. Less sparring, but we did try to focus more on his grasp of time. He’d been able to get in and out in a two minute span recently; much better than the first time, which ended up being something like eight minutes. He couldn’t quite grasp the exact way to turn it on and off, but I tried explaining it was all about having a firm grasp on his emotions. After all, better that than being wildly angry; I would know.

  All that was great, but, the same question kept popping up between us whenever we trained, or even just talked about any of this, and today, on the roof of yet another building, was no exception.

  “Jason, when can I go out in the field with you? Make my debut?” Sam asked for about the fiftieth time this week. We landed on top of a skyscraper we were circling around for speed and consistent-elevation training, and sat on the edge of it.

  “I don’t know buddy… When we can figure out a way to keep your identity hidden, and when you can better grasp your powers. How about that?” I said, again, for the fiftieth time this week.

  “I can control my powers! They might not be as strong as yours yet, but I can still control them!” Sam argued.

  “Well what about a name? You don’t even have a name! What are you gonna be, ‘The Wanderer Two?’” I asked, laughing. He laughed back, and shoved me a little.

  “No, obviously not!” he replied. “No, I was thinking I could be… ‘The Stranded.’” I laughed, and looked at him, thinking he was kidding. He wasn’t.

  “The Stranded? Seriously?” I repeated. “That’s kind of depressing, isn’t it?”

  “No, it’s like yours, only a different take,” Sam said. “You’re wandering, and I’m stranded. It’s a good twist on the same concept! We’re both like, lost souls or something.”

  I considered it, and he had a fair point., but I mean, so did I. It was depressing as hell for a name, especially to call yourself. Sure, it mirrored the whole wandering thing, but still, what a downer.

  “Eh… it’s too negative, I think,” I said. He sulked a little. “What about something like: the Ranger? Or the Traveller? The…The Defender?”

  “I mean… I guess Ranger is pretty cool,” Sam said. I grinned, and nodded.

  “Okay, well tell me, what colors does ‘The Ranger’ want to be known by?” I questioned further.

  “Colors I want to be known by?” Sam reiterated. I nodded.

  “I’m blue and gold, with white lights and stuff all around. What do you think you’ll have?” I continued.

  “Oh…” Sam considered. “I don’t know, like red and, like, silver maybe; that seems like a badass color combo.”

  “Really, does it now?” I teased. “And uh… the lights?”

  “I don’t know, white lights just like yours– why does this even matter?” Sam interjected. “I don’t have a suit anyway. Director Bell said they might be able to get something for me, but even then who knows how long that’ll be, and it won’t be anything like yours!”

  “No, I guess it won’t be…” I said, trying my best to play coy. I rose into the air, and clicked my chestplate on, my suit now fully regenerated, headpiece and all. “Alright, I’m gonna head out buddy, I’ll see you later. You can make it home on your own without getting caught, right?”

  “Yeah, I guess so…” Sam said. I nodded, and was about to take off, but then… “Jason, wait!” I turned around.

  “What?” I asked. He looked like he was trying to decide whether or not to tell me about something. Which, I can only imagine, was not great.

  “I… Look, don’t be mad, alright? You have to promise not to be mad first,” Sam insisted. Which also meant, I imagine, that I was about to get mad.

  “What are we, four?” I said. “Just tell me Sam, and we’ll take it from there.”

  “Fine…” Sam agreed. “I…I talked to Jessica.” I retracted my visor and stared at him. I didn’t say anything for a solid couple seconds, and Sam just darted his gaze away, trying to keep looking me in the eyes and dipping out at the last second.

&nb
sp; “When?” I finally asked. He shrugged.

  “Maybe like two days ago or something.”

  “And has she said anything?”

  “I mean, I don’t think so, no. But… I’m starting to think she might; she’s asking a lot of questions.”

  “Ugh…” I groaned. “Do you see why I said people can’t know about this?” I reminded him. He nodded, and looked at me apologetically. “Well, did you tell her you can’t be with her anymore at least?”

  That look he just had? Of apologeticness? That went away pretty fast.

  “What do you mean I can’t be with her?” Sam asked. “If she already knows now, then who cares?”

  “Me! And you should too!” I argued, moving closer to him. “Because either she’s already told people, or she will, and then you’ll be outed, and I’ll be screwed over!” I was getting a little pissy, but still not for nothing, you know?

  “I’ll just tell her not to! Make sure she doesn’t!” Sam defended. I shook my head; I really couldn’t believe this.

  “Sam, what are people going to think if she’s just dating some mystery man that can never go out around anyone she knows or cares about? It only takes one person who recognizes you to start asking questions, and that will eventually lead back to me,” I explained.

  “You don’t know that it will!” Sam persisted.

  Just then, because my life is just some hilarious joke to the big guy upstairs, I got a phone call from Bell. My suit accepted it, and I put my visor back up to hear it more clearly.

  “Yeah?” I answered.

  “Have you been watching the news?” Bell asked sarcastically, sounding quite a bit miffed, if I may say so.

  “Uh, no. Why?” I asked.

  “Look down,” Bell replied. I did, and god damn it, what did I see…

  I’ll tell you. I saw about thirty news-people, and even more civilians standing directly under me. Some were just getting out of their cars, still setting up equipment, and others were clearly already filming me. Well, us I guess. Us!

  “Sam, fall back, now! Hide on the roof!” I shouted, Sam then ducking onto his back and landing on the ground.