4 Who Actually Are You?

"By the way, Your last name is Li, right? Are you related to Wang Yun Li?" She asked whimsically.

"Who?"

"The exec—never-mind."

"..." We sat in silence, staring at the road for a while before I finally asked one of the questions that boggled my mind at the moment, "What is your power?"

"I don't know, it's hard to describe. I can see certain things now. I'm not really sure how it works, but if I concentrate hard on an area, I can see something indescribable. It's almost like heat-vision, and I can see through walls, but some things have a more intense color. Most people are fiery red, like a flame. You actually don't have a color. You have a pitch-black color that seemed to absorb all other colors. I thought it may be because you had gotten a power as well. I can't be the only person to have a power right? Your black aura was different, so I thought you might be one to have powers as well. I really wanted to check it out, but I was afraid something bad might happen, so I brought the knife."

"No, it's okay. In fact, I think it was lucky for me that my first encounter with another supernatural phenomenon wasn't all that dangerous."

"Yeah, I guess so. I'm still sorry though. I don't know what I was thinking. Even if you were a bad guy, I shouldn't have charged in like that."

"If I really were a bad guy, your knife handling skills wouldn't have been enough."

"Hehe, I guess so. Such a puny knife wouldn't even scratch metal."

"Yeah. Sorry if it's rude, but can I ask you a question that's been plaguing my mind? I hope you don't find it rude." A question continued to plague my mind ever since we arrived by her car. I didn't want to seem rude by asking it suddenly, but I couldn't help but be curious.

"Yeah, sure." She stared at the red light and a small smirk appeared on her face as if she knew what I was about to ask.

"Sorry, but I'm really curious, who actually are you? Like, what is your background. I mean you drive a Bentley GT, so I'm just wondering where the money came from. You don't have to answer if you don't want to." Her smirk made me a bit nervous to ask the question, but I was curious. She appeared to be around 18 or so. Probably only with a rich parent could she afford the car at a young age.

"This car is relatively cheap compared to the ones my other family members have," she let out a fake sigh with a wry smile. Then, she extended her right hand out to me for a handshake. "Let's they this again. Hi, I'm Taylor Delvander."

I shook her hand, but I couldn't hide my shock. The Delvander family was a rich family indeed. They were the most firm in real estate and hotels, but are also in internet services, supercars, sports, fashion, and medicine to name the largest few businesses they associate with. They were at the forefront of technological innovation as well. A large family group spanning about 4 generations collectively worth trillions of dollars. Many famous people are part of their family. Most people say they are very friendly people. A lot of critics attribute it to the parenting and their sense of family. It could be considered a small community if you add their entire 4 generations and third cousins. Their family started with the famous industrialist and real estate investor, Johnathan Delvander.

"Yeah, I get that a lot. I'm not sure how I like all the fame. I honestly hate it. I have an unofficial last name, Vander, to help with it. My mother hates it too. I guess that's where my hate of fame came from, but I do like living luxuriously. It's a paradox."

"Sorry."

"No it's okay, I think we should get to know each other. What's your story?"

"Me? Ok. My family is like most other Asian families. My parents worked hard to move to America, the land of opportunities and escape China to give their child, me more of a chance. Perhaps to have another child as well, my sister. I'm currently a junior at Alison High School."

"Cool, do you have any other hobbies?"

"I play a couple sports, although I'm not too good at them."

"Which ones?"

—————————————————————

We arrive at our destination, a large area of land was covered by a two-story great house. Beautiful greens and flowers decorated much more of the outside. The front gate smoothly opened for us and we entered the driveway.

"Damn, this is your house? It's almost a mansion!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's pretty luxurious. I pretty much have it to myself right now. My other family doesn't really like the area. They moved to places concentrated with more rich people and opportunities, while I live in the college dorms. My mom is away at a family gathering."

"Okay, but I don't see any place where I can try out my power without any worry here?"

"We own half a square mile area. We basically own the entire backwoods. We can go there, just wait for me to get hiking gear, I don't want to get scratched. Also, it's getting kind of late. I want to grab some lights as well, just in case we get caught up in experimentation. Maybe a gun too. Just in case."

"...mmhmm," I nodded to confirm her worries.

I just waited inside the luxurious Bentley parked next to a couple other luxurious cars. Then, I started checking my mind phone for any useful information regarding superpowers.

Nope, still not even a single peep about superpowers or any sort of unnatural chaos. By the looks of it, someone was definitely censoring the supernatural. That group was probably the government. Maybe they wanted to use the confusion and recruit as many superpowers individuals as they could? That may be why Taylor got the message, she did get censored in that message because she was talking about superpowers.

A maid walked up to the car and gently nocked in it. I got out of the car and stood up. "Did she say anything?"

"Yes, the young miss wants you to go inside and help choose equipment that you want to

bring out for hunting."

"Alright." I nodded a little confused. Since when were we going hunting? The maid led me inside. It was as beautiful as I expected. Cozy sofas and modern lighting made the entire place feel welcoming. Taylor was walking down a spiral staircase with wet hair and a pink bathrobe on. I couldn't take my eyes off her.

"Hey. Yeah, you can take anything you want for it. Come, I'll show you some equipment and the computers."

I followed Taylor around the house as she showed me the house with a proud expression on her face. She finally led me to a room full of random computer equipment and parts.

"This used to be my brother's room. He liked to tinker with all sorts of electronics. Whenever we visited somewhere, he would just buy a bunch of computers and mess with them. Our family actually visited this place pretty frequently up until I graduated high school. My dad got really busy preparing something over the summer and into this month, so he has no time to come over and relax. I mostly chose to go to Vision university because it was close to this house. I wanted to have some time to relax, hang out with some friends, and maybe hunt down in the woods."

"Hunt?" I was very curious about this.

"Yeah, the woods are actually my dad's private area for hunting game. He often brings us down here so that he can have some nice time to hunt. I got interested and started following my dad. Now, hunting is my favorite hobby."

"Oh, cool." I walked up to the pile of computer equipment and started rummaging through. Hard disks, old and new gen CPU's, motherboards, etc. piled up in one great pile. To the side, finished towers lined up, some hooked up to monitors.

"Do you know which ones work?"

"I have no idea. Just take whatever you want to experiment with. I'm sure my brother wouldn't mind. You can ask Larry to take whatever you want out to the Jeep. Then, you can check out the guest hunting equipment. I'm going to go change into something more appropriate."

An old butler walked out from the shadows, startling me, and greeted both of us with a bow. I didn't notice him next to us at all.

"Alright, I'll check out the stuff," I replied.

...

Thirty minutes later, we both stood outside the Jeep filled with various computer towers and a couple of laptops. Taylor now had light camo hunting gear on.

"Let's go," she said as we hopped into the Jeep. A straight path led to a wide-open gate which led to the woods. "Hey Miles! I have one guest with me!"

There was no response. "Miles!"

"That's strange..." Taylor muttered as she exited the Jeep to take a look at the guard booth.

"What happened?" I asked as I also exited the vehicle.

"Miles or another security guard should be here. We have a system where you will be given a call if someone new enters so that you know there may be other people hunting. A guard will also collect phone numbers to do contact you about others coming. Miles is usually the guard here. Larry should've contacted him that I would be coming..."

Upon entering the booth, an old man wearing a security guard uniform weakly stood up and spoke in a hoarse, but weak voice, "Taylor... Taylor is that you? Don't come any closer. Don't accept him at all. Stay away."

"Miles, is that you? Why are you—"

Sphhhlt! A semi-transparent hand suddenly appeared from the old man's chest and opened a hole through his chest. Blood started to gush out from his body.

"Miles!" Taylor ran forward to catch the weakening old man. "What did you do to him!" Taylor screamed at the incorporeal form taking the shape of a man.

"My my, is this the granddaughter of the Devan? I was wondering where she was. You cannot escape today. Accept my power, and you shall be one to rule this entire plane under my leadership," the semi-transparent man said.

"What did you do to Miles," Taylor angrily uttered.

"This fool? He was disloyal. This was punishment, but now he is dead because he once again acted out in disloyalty. He has dishonored himself twice, and therefore had to die."

The man before us was like a ghost. He looked like a ghost but seemed to be able to affect reality pretty easily. He even physically hurt the old man.

"And this is... your boyfriend?" the incorporeal man squinted his eyes. "But now he is no longer."

WOOSH.

the ghost-like man flew forward and attacked me. I instinctively put my hands up to block him. Time seemed to slow down right then and there, and a feeling started to well up inside my heart. It was like an extra limb that I could control. An extra limb that I barely had any masterful control with. It was my newfound power.

Dark black lines spread from my head into a protective cocoon, destroying everything it touched. No, it shouldn't be said it destroyed, but rather it absorbed. I could feel an increasing headache as well as a stronger body. My power used mental energy to absorb things from the environment and make me stronger.

The ghost-like man was already upon me when black lines spread from me to protect me. Parts of his incorporeal form were already inside my radius of absorption and were absorbed. Horrified, the ghost man quickly ran out and regained its former form, however, it's brightness had visibly thinned and eyes start to turn less intelligent.

"Who are you?" it asked.

It gave a final glance at both me and Taylor before disappearing into the ground.

Searing pain attacked my mind once again. It wasn't as bad as before, but it was still pretty bad. I was losing consciousness from the pain.

"Dahsbns surjt Aldhds?" I couldn't hear anything clearly it was all gibberish to me.

I once again fell into a coma.