11 The adventure in a dystopian land part 5

When speaking of super heroes origins or secret origins, the most popular ones would be something along the lines of a survivor from another planet coming to earth as a baby to be raised by a kind couple teaching him to be a good man and use his powers for good, or a child who was powerless seeing his parent's death in front of him thus using his vengence as a fuel he resolved himself to punich evil, or a teen gaining his powers because of some radioactive spider then later becoming a friendly protector, or an assassin diagnosed with cancer and in an attempt to cure himself gets more than what he bargained for, etc…

Well many, if we are talking about fictional characters from comics and movies, but in this day and age most supers get their powers by getting the 'Alter Genes surgery' which is the most trusted way to gain super powers and is based on what is left from the documents left from the research made to make the first supers and albeit it is a tough process which is not compatible with everyone but is also the safest and the results are the most trusted amongst other solutions.

Of course, there is high chance for a child to be born with super powers should both parents be supers, but in the case of just one parent having powers while not the other then the chances for the child to have powers are a bit more than nil…

Anyway, I guess in my case I belong to the category of those who gained their powers abnormally or should I say by chance? Problem is Goliath insists that it was fate as in, I was fated to assimilate or fuse with the orb, but since his answers are always roundabout and sometimes odd, I wonder if he is trying to trick me for some reason…

Now then, in my line of sight I can see the girl who was my crush 'Arlene Kisaragi', the last time I met her properly per se, was in a café, it was vacation, it was a sunny day with not so many clouds in the sky not to mention the cool breeze, in such days I like to go to a cafe nearby to my house, about half an hour walking, anyway, once there I always take their specialty chocolate cake with a cup of coffee, I always liked that combination whenever I went there, but what made things better would be reading my weekly release of 'The fallen ultras' an excellent action comic depicting the age of AI and how sentient robots nearly put an end to humanity, what made it good was that it re-told history but in an action drama themed story, well at least for me, I liked reading it than listening to history lessons about the same era.

But that time I was meeting up with my crush as I decided to confess, she sneered and said no, saying that she already got a boyfriend and then she left just like that.

Being the sentimental fool I was, I felt heartbroken as I watched her leave, problem is why did she sneer? that gesture and her expression hurt me, we knew each other very well since middle school, me and her were close friends not to mention, class mates, until I decided to make that foolish move when I knew she was planning to accept going out with the 'Julian Rhodes'…, the guy wasn't a bad choice it is just that I didn't want her going out with anybody but me, especially since we were close with lots of common interests yet who knew she would respond like that when I told her how I felt, sigh…

Seeing her meet up with the so-called boyfriend outside, seeing them kiss as they met, I felt… well pathetic and I couldn't contain my emotions as I run away from that sight…

Running away heartbroken without paying much attention to where I was going, something hit my head and made me fall down, I think I lost consciousness for few moments and when I realized I was on the ground, I hurried up to leave as people started to gather looking at me, considering my emotional state back then, they seemed like they were making fun of me, that's why I run away.

I run and run until I felt myself out of breath, finally stopping to rest I finally paid attention to the spherical object that I picked up or should I say was in my hand the moment I woke up after I fell down, but the moment I got a good look at it, I felt a sudden throb from it and it quickly floated up then speeded towards my head, I closed my eyes by reflex but I felt nothing, it was few days later that I found out that it became part of me, or as someone says "I assimilated it", as I started hearing the voice which introduced itself as Goliath…

Naturally my relationship with Arlene is no longer as it used to be, when we see each other… well, I wouldn't mind saying hello or a simple greeting but she always feigns ignorance as if we never knew each other, alas, we no longer paid each other any attention from that day on, which kind of was strange, it was as if my emotions were a strong blazing flame that suddenly got extinguished, but I later knew as well that the changes that the orb brought to me weren't just on the physical level but also included changes on a psychological level as my emotions became more stable and my mental fortitude became hard to disturb.

Ever since I became a super hero, whenever I looked at Arlene, I end up remembering the day she sneered at me and how I run away to find my orb, sigh~!

Quite the stupid tale for a super hero origin story.

Anyway, I better help but how?

Those 'zombies' despite their appearance and movements are still alive, thanks to my vision whenever I use my powers I can see that something got inserted somehow inside their heads, it is like a passive skill that gets activated the moment I activate my powers, it lets me see everything down to the atomic level, a vision that is more effective than any X-ray vision or any other enhanced kind of vision, honestly the world looks really weird, but thanks to it I can tell if a person is alive or not, if they are a monster or not, if they are a super or not and many other things,..

These 'zombies' are still alive yet, something like a black fog is engulfing their brains and affecting their nerves, and because I can tell which is which, I must say

"I hate magic"

Not all people who try to get powers can awaken them, as only one out of thousand people have a compatible body that have a chance, however, amongst those that fails to awaken powers, there are those that their bodies show no change, yet they become able to use something which society would call magic, scientifically speaking those people are failed or rather, not compatible, however, no one understands completely yet as to how they got the ability to alter the laws of physics, there are some theories but nothing certain yet as the abilities of those who use magic are scientifically hard to understand not to mention they are even fewer then the supers, in simpler words their abilities are out of the researched domains related to super heroes currently known to mankind such body enhancements, genetic engineering, cybernetic and prosthetic surgeries.

For me whom the origin of my powers is even more mysterious than those users of magic, when I am in my super hero suit or in what I would like to call 'super powers mode' like now, I am immune, or at least as I am aware from previous confrontations, to many forms of supernatural powers or in other words, the magic.

And that's why I know magic when I see it like those 'zombies', which are currently under some sort of magic which means I can't be as brutal as I was with the chains, speaking of which, those chains were a mixture of technology and magic or was there something else like

Arlene: "Kyaa!!"

Screamed Arlene as she was still trying to run away yet the 'zombies' speed seems to be faster.

I need to stop thinking about useless things and help.

"Fortunately, I know just what super power to use"

It is an ability that can absorb life force, radiations, well basically it can absorb any kind of energy, magic and phenomena resulting from using it, are forms of energy as well…

I dived down at full speed, well even if I say so it is more like a free fall fueled by super powers to make the fall even faster.

Heading full speed like projectile towards the zombies,

*WHOOOSH!!*

I made sure to touch each one of them at a speed comparable to that of sound, each time I touched one of them I would make my power absorb that dark fog inside each one of them, each time I use that power I feel like I got small holes in my hands siphoning the magic from the zombies, the feeling is weird like being tickled on the back of the hand, I think I should name this ability, how about 'Siphon!' no 'Siphoon'?, yes that's it I should call it 'Siphoon' as in Siphon and typhoon, a cool name for my super suction power

"…"

"That kind of sounded wrong, in fact, even nasty" I should probably refrain from calling it like that again.

I look around as I finished absorbing the magic from the 'zombies' no, I think I should stop referring to them like that now, as they seem livelier now…

*Thud! *

*Thud! *

*Thud! *

...

They fell down one by one…

Well as long as they are alive, I mean as I can see they are recovering their health and vitality albeit they seem very tired, probably because whatever that magic did, it made their bodies go beyond the limits of a normal human.

To describe their condition better, that magic was like some extreme energy juice or rather a drug, a very potent one that deprived them from their reason and empowered them constantly, making them lose their sanity and only listen to orders which I think was to attack Arlene, and speaking of which, what just happened and why is she here?

*Tap tap tap tap…*

Hurried footsteps could be heard, I lifted my head to look.

From about ten meters away I see Arlene coming, or rather she is running towards me.

*Bump*

And she bumped into me, or rather she is hugging me?

Arlene: "Hic, woo~"

She is crying? Well her face is on my shoulder, I can't really see but, I guess she is.

I probably shouldn't say this, but finally a normal reaction… I guess, I mean I nearly doubted my common sense when that Sara girl and that little boy looked like they were strolling in that creepy place when I met them.

Anyway, I need to calm her down, as a super hero I need to provide emotional support in such situation, well, to tell the truth this my first time doing something like this, in fact I usually leave such tasks to the HGO agents or other heroes.

"Um… miss? You can calm down now, nothing will harm you now that I am here" I tried to sound reliable, I mean in such situation, I can feel her heartbeat, and her body is trembling, I must look like some sort of savior or hope to her, hope I said the right words else what kind of savior would I be?

As I said so, I pushed her away, of course gently, in order to free myself from her hug, for two reasons mainly, one, I need to have a good clear look at her to check her health and condition as I really didn't pay attention earlier, two, although, my mental fortitude is strong and my heart is hard to move but maintaining such close physical contact with an attractive girl with a well developed bust and who smells good, is bad for me since I am a straight healthy young man, not to mention, she got a boyfriend therefore for such reasons I have no intent in hugging her any longer.

As I held her by the shoulders and looked at her, I asked

"Can you tell me what happened?"

Arlene calmed down a little a she looked at me then said

Arlene: "I…"

*Boom! *

Unfortunately, I couldn't listen as the conversation was interrupted by some sort of missile hitting me, sending me flying up then another made me crash down into a deep crater

Topless giant: "Moron, you shouldn't drop your guard"

Scratch that, it wasn't a missile, that guy's punches are freaking heavy, not to mention for his size, he is quite fast, true I dropped my guard which is stupid and a beginner's mistake even thought I should be a professional by now considering my reputation, but even so, he was fast enough that I couldn't react.

I look up the hole that I fell in, only to see the figure of that giant bumping his fists into each other

Topless giant: "Come on! That couldn't be your limit, right?"

He said in a taunting tone.

Sigh~

Something tells me, this brute isn't going to be easy...