8 The adventure in a dystopian land part 3

'Another world', words that attracted many whether they are researchers, authors, producers, even regular people. Though those words might differ in specific meaning from one person or culture to another, for example, it can mean a 'parallel world' or 'different timeline' where humanities actions might have slightly differed than the reality that we live in, or it can also mean 'different world' or simply another 'planet' with beings that took an entirely different approach to life unlike us humans.

"…?"

Strange, usually a certain voice would comment here.

"Goliath? Hey?"

No response, hm well, he has been unusually silent for the past half hour or so I think it has been.

I wonder what time it is now, my watch doesn't work and thus my gadgets aren't accessible except for this jet pack, not that it works right now.

The boy and that girl Sara also disappeared the moment the fog disappeared and based on my surroundings, blue sky, two round clear things in it, side by side, one shining and the other split in half, perhaps a sun and a moon? The ground filled with tall grass, with nothing else in my field of sight, I don't believe I have been to a place like this before.

Just, where am I?

I have been walking around aimlessly for some time now but no change in scenery at all.

"Just where is this?"

Unless I am dreaming or in some virtual game of some sort, this can't be the earth.

I know of movies, series, novels and such where people get summoned or reincarnated to another world but for such thing to actually happen is unbelievable.

I look at the far horizon.

But nothing different could be seen, only the same sky and the same ground seemingly lasting forever, not even the smallest stone.

"This is hilarious" I can't help it but laugh

I am supposed to be a hero, help and protect, fight evil and such yet here I am lost in god knows where in need of help.

I wonder if all those that disappeared are somewhere in here? It would be even more troublesome if they ended up in different places or even worse, different worlds, will I be able to meet them? In the first place what can I do to help them in my current state? It's like my first attempts at being a hero back then, how many times did I lose my composure? How many times did I lose my confidence? Such nostalgic feeling of helplessness.

Walking with no destination in such unfamiliar place… no, no, focus!

*SLAP! *

Ouch! Slapping myself hurts more than I thought, it looks much easier in anime. Although, I never met anyone in real life who does so, but I figured it would be a good stimulus for the current lost me, physical pain although I don't like it but for the current confused me it seemed like a good idea to make me back on track.

But… just now, I felt that slap despite still in my suit, does that mean that it doesn't work now as well? Or is self-inflicted damage doesn't count?

Anyway, I am here because of the disappeared people, including Sara and that boy, so that is my goal, yes, I shouldn't forget that I am a super hero, I need to be strong!

Or so I think but what can I do in my current state? My gadgets don't work, Sara and that boy disappeared probably lost as the others who disappeared because of that strange fog, I am lost in this god knows where place, and Goliath doesn't speak.

"Hey, Goliath, are you playing a game or something here?"

What makes this even harder than usual is the fact that I have no one else to talk to, come to think of it, it has just been a bit over two years now, yet strange how it feels weird not having a voice in my head responding to each and every thought I have.

"Why don't you talk? Goliath?"

"Sigh!"

What should I do? Just walking like this doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere, am I even walking in the right direction?

I stop and look around again, it is just like that time when I was lost in the Sahara, except in here there is lots of greenery and back then my gadgets were functional.

The more I gaze at the sky of this place the more lost I feel.

Alright! Focus me! Focus!

What can I do in an open field with no leads nor gadgets?

I can't help it but remember my earlier conversation with Goliath, he must be laughing at me now, he must be saying "The answer is obvious, use your powers!" but if I do, I am certain I will suffer the backlash, but the current situation and the lost people

"The pain from using my powers against people's safety"

"ARGH!"

I feel frustrated and this feeling of guilt is killing me!

"…"

"Alright, lives might be at risk here"

I made my decision as I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth.

"Suuu~, haaa~" I took a deep breath as I braced my self

I wonder if there is any other super hero who is as afraid of his powers as me.

Alright, in order for me to use any of my powers I need to be in a calm state of mind and synchronize my thoughts with the silhouette of the orb that I assimilated meaning I need to keep the image of the orb inside my mind no matter what sort of other thoughts I might have, in other words thinking at least two thoughts at the same time or trying to concentrate in two different topics with two different people at the same time which is truly hard, in my case, I need to imagine the orb inside my head providing the clearer and vivid the image is, the more power I can use, the calm state in order to better control the power and not lose my control and finally decision making in parallel in order to process which power to use, sounds simple but extremely hard to apply.

"Here goes nothing"

I close my eyes as I started to imagine the bluish black sphere the object that changed my life, a small perfectly round orb that despite its dark color it possessed a mesmerizing shine that made me stare at it as if I was staring at a bottomless abyss, the charm and the feeling I got from looking at that sphere was the same that I get from looking at a black hole, simply mysterious.

Just a simple mental image made me feel my body getting hotter yet at the same time colder, a weird sensation, yet it wasn't the first time I felt as such so it didn't surprise me but what again surprised me was the dark light that started to surround my body trying to wrap me whole.

It looks like a substance yet it isn't, from a third person's point of view, my appearance right now is similar to a person being burned alive in translucent shiny dark flames, but it is a good sign as it means I can access my powers thus use them, at least they are still usable.

- ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT!

Sudden synthetic sounds like bells echoed around as if the whole place was speaking from all possible direction.

With no one else around in such place, I panicked a little bit and assumed a defensive stance as my intuition warned me of something being wrong.

Moments later as if confirming my suspicion, solid heavy looking chains with pointed tips were launched from the ground all around like a rain of bullets, like rockets being launched they sped up aiming at a single point or rather a single target

ME!

With my senses being heightened now I was able not to only read the trajectory of the fast-sharp lead head like chains but also dodge each and every one of them but just dodging them wasn't enough as they seemed to turn around after missing me and try again to strike me as if they were alive, this continued for a few minutes with the chains attacking and me dodging.

"I hate it when things don't go as planned"

Problem is, the more power and abilities I use the more severe the backlash will probably be, which only fills me with worry the more and longer this game of tag continues.

It a was less than a fight and more like a hard game of chase with a dangerous risk or so I felt.

After all no matter how high or far I try to escape they somehow keep on chasing as if they were infinite, I even broke some but they almost instantly assumed their initial form as if they just weren't in pieces.

When I was worried about my next course of action in order to get rid of those chains a few of them suddenly merged forming something akin to a long giant needle which locked into me even more tenaciously than when they were separate and when I dodged it, it crashed into the ground leaving a huge pit that looked like a landmine just exploded in that place.

At that moment I decided to be a little bit more serious since I am already using some of my powers then perhaps, I could go even a bit more.

Thus, I flew high this time, with a good straight posture and crossed arms to look even more serious I looked down at the chains that were soon to reach me

"Time to serve justice" I declared half joking

My eyes gleamed before a high concentrated hot laser shot out from them incinerating everything that was included in my field of sight, it was one of my favorite super powers.

*cough*

Of course, I could have used it without the flying high and crossing my arms and all that serious looking stance and that line about justice but I wanted to look cool doing it, or perhaps I wanted to imitate some famous action comics characters from the couple previous centuries but either way after that the chains were no more except the land now was barren.

"Sigh!"

"I think I over did it a bit."

I may be not on earth anymore but that doesn't mean I should burn and damage the land like this.

- It looks like you are more troublesome than you look

Suddenly and out of nowhere a figure appeared, a man in what looked like a blue Nepalese monk's clothing with a large red cape and an iron mask over his face, somehow he looked like a certain iconic fictional doctor that went on journey then with a twist of fate he became the inheritor of one of the most powerful magical items and sorcery but the one who appeared in front of me sounded more intimidating and with that doom like mask on his face, he looked even more… well intimidating, and although I don't want to judge people but I think he might be a villain.