5 The Ghost Has Gone Crazy
"Damnit, Damnit, Damnit!" A loud, but weak voice repeatedly cursed. "How did he fucking do it!"
It was the same ghost-like man that attacked Daniel. His figure was flickering lightly as he poured all his emotions out by cursing. But nothing could stop his inevitable death. His rage rose through the roof of the building he was currently occupying. His terrifying aura spreading to the neighboring buildings. People shuddered in freight.
Suddenly he stopped throwing a tantrum and his aura receded back into himself. He seemed to have regained his calm composure and made a decision. A cold glint flashed through his eyes. He loudly laughed, "Let this world entire rot!"
Then, he slowly slid back into his coffin of which had been his entrance back to his world. However, it was thoroughly closed now.
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| <Superhuman Association>
|
| Do not show this message to anyone.
| .
| .
| .
| in 5 day met at times square new York secret and demonstrate to whole world who we are
A short message detailing a short plan by the 'Superhuman Association" was sent to Taylor's phone. However, there were many grammatical errors that made the message just a little less trustworthy. But, it was just a text message, so maybe I'm just thinking into it too much...
"Don't go." "I'm not going to go." We both blurted out at the same time. We looked at each other and started giggling. "So we have the same thoughts, this message is a bit suspicious," she said.
"Yeah, it might just be a coincidence, but the message was sent a couple hours after that ghost-man attacked us. Also, so many other messages about superpowers were censored, why wouldn't this one be the same?"
As if in response to my suspicions, the message abruptly deleted itself. "Well, it is still suspicious," I said to comfort myself.
"Right. How are you feeling? Can you feel your limbs again?"
"I feel like my limbs are regaining feeling, but are still so heavy. I feel like I can move them just a little now."
I tried moving my fingers.
WOOSH.
A small gust of air rushed towards my face after my finger twitched. I seemed to have gained an unimaginable amount of power. "I think I figured out what my actual power is."
"Hmmm? What is it? Is it not a mind phone and a forcefield that throws you into a coma and a weakened state?" Taylor had her back turned towards me as she gently caressed Miles' old hand. She seemed to be in deep thought about something besides the supernatural.
I sat in silence, letting her mourn for Miles. The feelings in my limbs slowly returned, but I did not dare to move in fear that I couldn't control my newfound strength and suddenly startle her out of her mourning. Instead, I immersed myself in my mind phone, reading the latest chapters of the Web novels I missed due to my sudden adventure. I also wanted time to relax, a way to wind down an exciting, but dangerous day.
Suddenly, a ringing phone broke the silence. It was Taylor's phone. We both ignored it and let it ring. Then, it rung again. This time, Taylor answered the phone.
"Hello, this is Taylor Vander, how may I help you? Mmhmm...yeah," Taylor glanced back at me.
"He's here... he can take the call."
Taylor put her hand over the speaker of the phone and mouthed 'can you move?'
I shrugged my shoulders a little and the back section of the wall I laid against got blown away. I crashed to the ground, creating a mini crater in the process. I just laid there and didn't dare to move anymore.
"I'm fine, just bring the phone up to me, or put it on speaker."
She stifled a giggle as she walked up to me and held her phone to my ear.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Daniel! Are you alright? I'm sorry I didn't answer my phone, but the research really was intense today. Everything was different today." It was my mother, speaking in half-Chinese, half-English as usual.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm at a friend's house."
"I'm glad to hear your safe. I wish I could see you again, but no one is allowed into or out of the university research centers at this moment. They are afraid of something happening to us tonight. You can stay with auntie Luibing tonight. Have your friend send you over to her house."
I glanced at Taylor. She looked confusedly at me, then suddenly half got my signal and turned silent on. Then, I realized that she couldn't understand Chinese and I shouted at myself inwardly how stupid I am. "So what do you need?" Taylor asked.
"Can I stay here for tonight?" Taylor glanced around at the crater I accidentally created by shrugging and nodded, "sure."
Then, she turned the silence back off and my conversation with the phone continued.
"Can I actually stay at my friend's house?"
"Did you ask?"
"Yeah, they said yes."
"Okay then, just be sure to get to school on time. You shouldn't miss too much school, especially senior year. Colleges will continue to look at your senior record."
"Alright, but I'm not feeling too well at the moment, I might skip school. Can you call in for me if I do? I was just released from the hospital. You can't expect me to be as healthy as I used to."
"Okay, just be sure to let me know if you do skip, or else I wouldn't call."
"Alright. Thanks."
"...I'm glad you made such a caring friend."
She suddenly hung up after that. 'What was that,' I thought to myself.
"So I'm guessing you gained so much strength that you can't control it anymore?" asked Taylor.
"Yeah, I think so," I replied.
"What did you think your power was again, I wasn't paying attention to what you were saying."
"Sigh... I thought as much. So instead of 2 powers of a forcefield and a mind phone, I think I have the power to absorb anything and everything into my body, turning it into a form of strength. The mind phone is from absorbing the phone, where the hardware turned into physical strength and the software went up to my brain and somehow changed how my mind worked, allowing me to use it within my head."
"That... makes sense. But... what about your wireless capabilities?"
"..." I stared at Taylor without an answer. Finally, after a solid 10-second staring contest, I blinked first and answered, "I don't know."
"It's okay, everything is new, supernatural. I think your theory has logic. Your color is abysmal black too. It seemed to be absorbing all light around you too. Perhaps it does really have something to do with absorption."
"Oh yeah, did you catch a glimpse of the ghost-man with your power?"
Taylor shook her head. "I couldn't see him. He was completely transparent when I used my power, but I could feel something strong in the general vicinity of him."
Ding. Another message appeared on Taylor's phone.
Surprised, she immediately texted back. After a few rounds, she sighed. "My dad wants to tell me something in person. He's coming over the day after tomorrow. Do you want to meet him?"
"Did you tell him about me?"
"No, not yet."
"Your power?"
"No."
"Then why were you asking me... What about the housekeepers?"
"I already told them not to tell my dad about this."
"We just met today... I don't think I'm ready."
"Yeah, I guess so," she giggled. "Alright, I'll leave you here." She jumped back onto the Jeep. "While you're at it, can you watch Miles for me?"
I glanced at the old man out of the corner of my eyes and started to panic. I had to wait for who knows how long with a dead guy. I didn't want to disrespect Miles, but still...
Taylor had already driven off.
Two hours had gone by, and proper feeling had returned to my limbs. Once I regained the right feeling, moving became much easier. I felt I could exert the same strength and just add more, the extra strength to it, although the extra strength was much harder to control. I felt that I had an endless well of power within my muscles. I felt like I could fly with this strength.
If I tried hard, I would definitely subconsciously use too much strength. An analogy would be that I was wired to produce a certain value of strength when doing normal activities and percentages of strength when I wanted to strain my muscles doing things like punching or sprinting. However, with my added strength, I could do normal things just fine because I did not exert my muscles subconsciously, but when I would strain my muscles before while doing an activity, I would overexert my strength because a percentage of my strength now is so much more than before.
That I just had to get used to.
Two hours later, Taylor's Jeep showed up on the dirt road leading into the forest once again. She came to pick me up after I finally got used to my body.
"What do we do about Miles?" I asked.
Taylor's face darkened but still had a nice smile. "Leave it, for now, Larry will get it later."
"Oh. Okay... What's the story behind you and Miles? If you don't feel comfortable about it, I wouldn't force you to talk about it. I'm just a little curious. Wasn't he just an old security guard?"
"Miles is a foster child. My mom runs a foster home for gifted orphans, and Miles was one of them. I often played with him when I was little. One day, however, he drunk some alcohol and attacked me. I was only 15 while Miles was 17 at the time. I don't really hate him now, but I was scared and I didn't know what was happening at that time. He was saying stuff like I'm a 'phony rich white bitch that only cares about how expensive things are' and other things. I guess he was venting his anger at the unfairness, at the truth of the world. I guess that was when I decided to live more low-key, and never aimed for fame. I didn't want others to really think of me as someone that only cared about expensive things, although I do like them."
I sat in silence and let her continue.
"However, the crime wasn't officially recorded. Miles was sent to some hellish training camp for a few years. I'm not sure what happened there, but Miles returned almost soulless and did not have the same glow in his eyes. It was almost like the life had been sucked out of him, but whenever he looked at me, his eyes light up bright before gradually dimming. I think he always realized things would never be the same as they were. Now, he is just a security guard for the family's private hunting ground. I still try to talk to him a little, but he never opens up to me. Today, I thought I saw satisfaction flash across his face as he told me not to accept the ghost-man's power... Which I think turned him into an old person."
"I'm sorry." I apologized.
"Don't be, Daniel. I think you're a good kid. I actually think we get along pretty well."
I didn't really know how to reply.
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"Why do we need to do what he tells us to now? He has no strength left anyways." An old man said. The old man wore a nice tracksuit to the second important family meeting of the day. "We have already paid our debts to father."
"It is still within our best wishes to follow him. He is the most knowledgeable about this new realm. He even sacrificed himself and had to suffer 1000 years worth of pain. Even if his speech seems impaired, we must definitely put our trust in the man who is supposed to lead our family to greatness, even in the real realm," one of the old men stated.
"But he's gone crazy!" the old man in the tracksuit silently screamed as he gestured his hands from his head.
"I think you are the crazy one," said a second old man. "The Delvander family was created by father. The power he gained and gave us will give us an advantage over every single person in this space. It was through his sacrifice that the Delvander family obtained some knowledge. We can't just throw him away!"
"But there doesn't seem to be any hope left for him. His plan centered around him, for him, and I'm fine with that. He can be the ruler of this space and I believe the wisdom and enlightenment he gained through the experiences of the ancient one and suffering of 1000 years would really enable him to lead. But listen to him now. He has lost all of his ambition and now only has revenge on his mind. How can we trust such a leader?" An old woman softly explained.
"He just needs to fulfill his vengeance. His wisdom will return once he gets his revenge. As he said, part of his soul was stolen. He just needs to recover it. Easy peasy," the second old man said.
"Fine. You guys can pool your resources into finding the 'black' kid for father. We will work on a backup plan so that if you can't find him, we can still keep our independent space," the old woman suggested.
The four old people split up. The old man in the tracksuit and the old woman both left the room, probably to prepare for the upcoming storm. The remaining two old men stayed silent until the other two left. Then, they started discussing with a whisper, "they will surely regret not helping father during this time of need."
"Yeah, as long as Father can tell us more about the 'black' kid, we can definitely find him. At that time, Father will definitely reward us greatly."
"... I think we should disrupt their backup plan. Just in case the soul fragments are already lost."
"Are you doubting father?"
"No, I just think we should prepare for the worst-case scenario."
"In that case... No, we... okay. Yeah, just disrupt some of their plans, and make our own. For the worst scenario."
"Just in case."
