Project: Paragon

Darkness...

For all infinity, all I can see is unending darkness...

It makes me... afraid. As if the darkness would soon begin to devour me, I could even feel its slender tentacles caressing my body, as if soothing me so that I don't protest when I succumb to its indomitable might. Oh, great darkness, your taste buds will not like me, so please don't eat me. I prayed without hesitation, knowing full well that whomsoever placed me in such a position would heed my pleas.

Squawk!

Wait? Was that a seagull?

My eyes opened to a picturesque landscape of a golden sky and the blooming mouth of a smoking volcano. It had seemed that my first guess was entirely incorrect. I wasn't blindly drifting across the infinite cosmos as a lonely soul; I just had my eyes closed.

Which in itself was quite helpful as the bright orange sun blared its rays at me accompanied by the wind rushing against my body, overwhelming me as what I can only assume is a hungover dredging my mind and body. With every breath through my nose, annoying scents assaulted my senses. My eyes shed a couple of tears as pain filled my body, the sunrays hurting my eyes even through closed ones. Jesus H. Christ, what is that smell? My head swiveled in haste, trying to find that god awful smell, but I only found myself aloft in mid-air.

"Holy shit!" I cursed out loud as flailed about, my legs wriggling in place trying to find a purchase for my foot. Many, if not all, humans had been researching our tiny little world to achieve the near-impossible: Flight. Envious of the avian society for their ability to traverse the vast sky, humankind built perilous vehicles that mimic an inch of their grand power, but we never did truly achieve flight to its utmost perfection yet here I am. Flying like a hatchling; my eggshell is nowhere in sight, leaving me alone in a darkening sky.

"How the hell do I move here? Hello!" I yelled for help, disregarding the fact that the chances of my rescue in my current location and predicament were abysmally low. I tried to cling to the last wisp of sanity in my head: I could smell something. My gaze travelled far and wide, head swivelling in haste, to find that smell and found nothing but the burning sight of the volcano. "Maybe I could swim towards it? Crap."

My hands went wide, fingers outstretched, as if grasping for something more solid, and I pushed against the currents of the blustering winds. I swam and paddled across the airstreams, hoping for whoever gods put me here would find mercy with me. For a minute did I try my best, my sweat dripping down the ocean below me. I stopped after a few minutes, sinking my mind in to the futility of my actions, willing down the tears that threatened to pour on my eyes. "GODDAMIT!"

I was never one for complex solutions. A consequence of my younger years abroad, frightened and corralled into being a servant by incompetent men, I soon found myself going along the flow, yearning for the when darkness was but a painful memory, not my home. Wait.

Maybe that was why it wasn't working. I don't need it to be complex. Maybe my flying was like my life. "Just go along with the flow." I muttered, letting myself fall from whatever was holding me. My body tensed in reflex, as if expecting pain, but I soon felt the wind below me caressing my body, no longer assaulting it with impunity. I could feel the wind urging me to go, to be free, to FLY!

Whoooosh!

"HOLY SHIT!!" I sailed the winds using my body. The cerulean ocean below me blurred as I passed by it. My black hair fluttered around as the wind passed through it. Though I only knew how to press forward, it didn't stop me from unconsciously using my shoulders as a homemade steering wheel. I jerked my shoulders to the left, evading the incoming cloud. My hands reaching into it, feeling the moisture sticking to my palms. It was an amazing feeling to be so close to such a fluffy- Oh, it wasn't fluffy. "I guess it was just a ball of vapor." I muttered as I looked longingly at my wet palms. It was a surreal experience to be this close and personal to a freaking cloud.

Honk! Honk! Honk!

But a flock of swans heading my way cut my enjoyment short and seeing as my only control of my flight was to press forward and to strafe left and right. I can't help but slightly panic. Sure, it's just a tiny little bird, but I was travelling at, at least, a hundred kilometers per hour. Assuming my only powers to be flight and weird senses, I closed my eyes and focused on my body. A short while ago, I had somewhat correctly assumed that my flight was just like running or walking. I needed to be at peace with it, just go with the flow. No need for complex solutions and just steer left.

Boom!

My ears ringed as a sudden explosion echoed around me, passing straight through a cloud. My body leaned sideways, traversing the airstream that lie before me, narrowly avoiding the swan flock. I could hear agitated hisses and honks as my eyes gazed at them before traveling to the weird rippling cloud that I just passed through. Now that that's settled, it's time to solve the brake problem and, as usual, I just stopped.

Boom!

The void rippled around me as I halted my flight. I had stopped in an instant. Well, not instantaneously. My velocity dragged me for a few dozen meters before stopping completely. My limbs flailed about as if doing so would help my problem. "Well, that's something. That was—urghhk"

Blood and bile vomited itself out of my mouth as I felt my lungs collapse. I wiped the grime and ichor plastered on my face before searching for some place to land on. Dizziness overtook me. My ears ringing as I heard my heart beating faster.

The blustering winds rushed against me as my heart pounded at my chest, trying to escape the confines of my vulnerability. My eyes darted to and fro, searching for a place to rest. To lay my weary head. A self-deprecating laugh came out of my mouth as my altitude dropped for but a second, the blood already dripping from my other orifices. For once in my life I had, for mere minutes, felt freed yet, getting in over my head, here I am, dying by the second. "To be a free bird, my ass"."

Then I saw it. A speck of grey and yellow soon arrived before the blue ocean, then came the red, blinking and beckoning me to follow. I had no time to think things through as I felt my eyelids grew heavier. Diving towards the specks and blinking light that soon turned into land, an island, no, multiple islands, stuck against each other. Whatever it was, it was my only hope. I let the wind take me towards my destination, gliding downwards, cascading against the fluffy clouds.

Boom!

•••••••••••

Darkness...

Squawk! Squawk! Squawk!

"Shut up! Jesus fucking Christ!" I bellowed at whatever that was before cracking my eyes open, the rays of the sun piercing my eyelids, aggravating me.

Squawk!

"Hey! you ok, boy-o." A gruff voice fully awakened me, my arms pushed against the coarse sand below me, but pain soon overtook it.

"Argh!" I bellowed, dropping headfirst into the sand before turning it sideways, my eyes fluttering open, taking in my new surroundings. A large man stood before me, wearing a yellow overcoat, boonie hat, and slinging a large fishing rod over his wide shoulders. He had a pallid skin and an eyepatch over his right eye. His hands stretching towards me, which I took gently. "Thanks. I don't know what happened?"

"Well, I think I have an idea. You might've been caught in the storm." He said, shaking his head in pity. He helps me stand up before I lurched forward, but he caught me with right arm. A powerful arm, seeing as it was helping me balance my body. The dizziness was still there but was losing its hold on me by the second. I smelt of blood and bile, with some even sticking to my shirt.

"Storm? Wait, where am I?" I asked, weirded out by his belief of a strong enough storm to take on a large man such as myself.

"Damn. If you didn't know, then you must've been at the center of it. Well, welcome to New York, boy-o!" He proclaimed, waving his hands towards the sight before me.

New York City was on its last legs. The destruction brought upon by the storm was nothing short of massive. The tendrils of the storm littered the city docks and its surrounding area with flotsams, jetsams, and the trash thrown into the harbor. Even from afar and the wind blowing against my back, I could smell the decayed garbage wafting its horrendous odor. What more of the city that took on its full... scent?

The city had always been famed for its skyscrapers and its ability to house thousands of people into a singular pillar of glass and steel yet the storm had taken advantage of their fame by destroying over a hundred of such pillars, bending and breaking them and letting them fall unto the city streets, killing god knows how many people. With what I assume to be my enhanced sense of hearing, I could hear the faint screams of its inhabitants. The blood-curling bellows of childless mothers echoed within me, my hand clenched, repressing the memories buried deep within my psyche. "Jesus fuck. What the fuck happened here?"

"Well, the storm happened." Despair and anguish marked the man's countenance as he explained the situation. "You were lucky, boy-o. You survived. My boy didn't"

"Crap, I'm- I don't know what to say." I replied to his sudden confession, not used to seeing such vulnerability to a large man like himself.

"Then don't say nothing. Now come, I'll give you a change of clothes, maybe some food, and I'll explain everything."