“Okay… will it get me out of school?” I asked. Bell chuckled.
“No, it won’t. You’ll continue going to school, and in your free time, you’ll be here, at our facility.”
“Training, testing, and honing your abilities,” Bentley added. “I’ll be sure of that.”
I gazed out the window, and then back to Bell and Bentley. They were really taking this whole “cosmic title, special powers” thing pretty well. I could only imagine what kinds of secrets these guys already knew about out there.
“But I could say no,” I said. “I could refuse, and just live my life.”
“You could,” Bell said. “And the world would be all the lesser for it. Jason, I’m not telling you to work for us, I’m asking you if you’ll work with us.”
I leant back in my seat, and took a second. Not so much to decide what I’d say– I mean, really, what other choice did I have? It was that or jail/court time.
No, I was more thinking about what it meant that I was about to say yes. Trying to wrap my head around how my life would change, and all the kinds of secrets I’d have to start keeping with my friends.
And I wondered how my parents would have felt. Probably not much of anything, but you never know. Assuming that they were great people who unfortunately died, maybe they would have been proud. Their son: the superhuman. Working with the government to fight aliens.
Or maybe they couldn’t have cared less. I mean after all, for all I know they’re still out there, somewhere. If that’s true, then they never cared enough to stick around for their toddler, so even if they were blown away by this, who cares what they think?
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll do it.”
“Wonderful,” Bell said, smiling.
“Yeah, great,” Bentley muttered. Thanks for the support, Bentley. “Let’s get inside, then.”
We stepped into the front entrance, and a woman sat at the back of the room behind a desk.
“Jocelyn, this is Mr. Rhodes,” Bell introduced. She glanced up from the monitor on her desk for half a second. Which, you know, was pretty nice.
“Mr. Rhodes,” she said.
“Hi, uh… Jocelyn,” I stammered. “Nice to meet–”
“Going down, sir?” she asked. Bell nodded.
“Yes, please,” he said.
Then, all of a sudden– I kid you not– the whole floor just descended. The windows went all black and tinted, the door locked up automatically, and the entire damn floor went down like an elevator.
“Oh, what is happening?” I asked, looking all around, and gripping onto the desk. Bell just chuckled, and Bentley rolled his eyes. Classic Bentley.
Eventually, we reached an opening, and there was this gigantic room filled with smaller rooms and offices without roofs, and what looked like another huge room off to the left. There were dudes in lab coats walking all over the place, and other… strange looking individuals, I guess, sitting in gurneys and chairs and whatnot.
“So… this is the facility, huh?” I asked.
“That it is,” Bell said.
When we reached the bottom, most of the scientists all scampered over to see me, leaving their other patients– or whatever we were called by their standards– to themselves.
“Is this him?” one of the scientists asked. He grabbed my arm and lifted it up, looking it over.
“This is him,” Bell said. Another scientist walked over, and stared deeply into my eyes. It was extremely unnerving.
“I didn’t think he’d b human,” he said. “How old are you, man?”
“I-I’m sixteen,” I stammered. The scientists all pulled way back, and looked over at Bell quizzically.
“Sixteen?” a third labrat asked. Well, I guess I was the labrat, but whatever. “Director, we can’t– I mean, are you sure about this?”
“Yeah, we can’t just start running tests and diagnostics on him; do we even have his parents permission?”
“He doesn’t have any parents with permission to give,” Bentley barked. “Only legal guardian is a non-blood relative– some scumbag great uncle. He’s better off with us as it is.”
“Okay, I don’t know how you know that– and also, a little harsh on the delivery there, Bentley– but… he’s right,” I said. “I agreed to do this, so… go nuts. Just take it easy with the needles.”
After a moment of trepidation, the scientists nodded, and went nuts. One of them immediately took my sweatshirt and shirt off, revealing the chestplate. They all studied it curiously, and I glanced around the room. The other subject, patient, whatevers were all staring at me.
All of them looked a little off in their own way. Skin discolorations, small extra appendages, different colored eyes– heterochromia, I think it’s called. None of them were alien, and none of them looked all that crazy, but I guess comparatively, I looked totally normal.
“What’s his deal?” one of them shouted from their seat. I looked at Bell, and he just shrugged.
“You want to show us?” he asked. The scientists stepped back, and gave me some space.
I took a deep breath, and focused as much as I could on flying. I lifted myself off the ground about ten or so feet, and I heard everyone gasping and gawking. It was pretty awesome, I’m not gonna lie.
“He can fly!?” another patient shouted.
“He can fly…” a scientist marvelled.
Then I fell to the ground, and landed on my ass. Flying without the suit was still kind of tricky for me, and landings were no easier.
“He can’t fly,” Bentley muttered.
“Can fly,” I said, pointing at him. “It’s just hard to do without the suit.
“Suit?” a scientist asked. “What suit? Is that what the chestplate is for?”
“I… yeah,” I said, picking myself up. “The suit comes from the chestplate. It’s attached to my body; I can’t take it off even if I wanted to.”
“Show us,” Bell said.
So, good to know nobody was phased or bothered by the fact that this alien technology was literally strapped to my adolescent body seemingly permanently, so long as a cool looking space suit came out.
I pressed the chestplate, and the suit slowly rolled out along my torso, and over my pants. It formed around my entire body, and it seemed to go slower than usual, which is funny, because I wanted it to look really badass.
“That is badass!” a patient shouted. Nice.
The scientists still looked at it– at me, I guess– in awe. One of them walked over, and pressed his hand up against the suit. I could feel it, as though he was just touching my skin. Well, not my skin, per say, but I could feel the pressure like it was only a really thick jacket or something; not a very heavily plated piece of armor.
“What does it do?” the scientist asked.
“Uh… it’s kind of like training wheels, I think,” I explained. “It makes flying easier, and helps with the fighting.”
“Against the aliens?” another scientist asked, jotting down notes on some tablet.
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s armor. Honestly, I don’t know what else it can do. I haven’t had a lot of time to figure that out yet.”
“What else can you do?” a scientist asked. They were swarming me like bees now. I don’t know whether or not I was a fan or really hated it.
I looked around, and walked over to a gurney with a patient on it. Everyone watched curiously as I bent down, and lifted it up with one hand. I had to inevitably grab it with the other, because I do not have the ability to balance something that big on one hand, but nonetheless, it kind of proved my point.
“There’s nothing huge here, and I don’t actually know what my limit is, but I’m a lot stronger now,” I explained, still holding the man in his gurney over my head. “I can also take a lot of hits. Like, a lot more than I used to. Again, I’m not sure how far it goes, but the title of the Wanderer comes with the concept of fighting off a lot of alien bad guys, so I assume it’s built to hold off a lot.”
“The Wa
nderer?” a scientist asked. “So, that’s what you call yourself?”
“Well, I mean that’s what the title is called. Haltz– the Lanteeyn that gave it to me– he told me that’s what it was. It was in Code, but I mean, a name’s a name, you know? Passed down through his species for hundreds and hundreds of years” I said.
Everyone looked at me like I was insane, and it was only then that I remembered that I was the only one here who had knowledge of what Haltz was, what Code was, and that the Wanderer was a lot more than a fancy title.
“Hey, can you put me down, please?” the patient above me asked sheepishly.
“Oh, yeah, sorry!” I stumbled, letting him down. He hopped off the gurney, and stepped away from me a ways.
Everyone was looking at me; I think I hated it now. I get that it was fascination, but still, I felt like some kind of zoo animal or something. The freaky sixteen year old know-it-all “Wanderer.”
“Okay,” Bell announced, sensing the tension, “why don’t we run some tests. It should only take a little while, Jason, don’t worry. We just want to take some blood tests, run some diagnostics; see what we can see about how this title’s changed your biological makeup.”
“Okay…” I muttered, walking off with him as he led me to another corner of the massive, open room, where more doctor, scientist people were waiting for me.
A few hours later, which is not at all a little while by the way, the tests were just about finished.
“I don’t understand this,” the medical doctor man, who took all my blood, said. “It doesn’t seem as though there’s anything different about you. Every biological, chemical, physical… everything seems totally normal, but–”
“But the kid’s a freak,” Bentley finished.
“Bentley,” Bell scolded.
“Look who’s talking, Frankenstein’s monster,” I said. He scowled at me, and I held my hand up cautiously. “Careful, I’ll start a fire. I know you can’t stand fire.”
“Mr. Rhodes, are you sure that there hasn’t been any kind of… differences, you’ve experienced since getting these powers?” the doctor asked.
“Uh… no?” I said. “I mean, when I got angry with my friend– we got into a fight– I saw a little white circle form around my palms, but it didn’t really do much more than that. I think that everything’s purely from the title; it’s cosmic, you know? It doesn’t exactly follow your rules.”
“They’re not my rules, Mr. Rhodes, so much as human biology,” the doctor said. “So what you’re saying, if I follow, is that this has no effect on your growth? No effect on ageing, or the necessity for nutritional intake, or any other basic human needs?”
“I don’t know,” I shook my head. “But if it does, I don’t think you’re going to find it anywhere.” I looked at Bell, and then down at my phone. It was already like 10:00. “Bell, can I go now? I do have school tomorrow.”
“It’s Director, kid,” Bentley corrected. Bell just chuckled, and waved him off.
“It’s fine, Bentley, but thank you,” he said. “Yes, I think you’ve done more than your fair share here today. You’re free to go, Jason. We’ll keep in touch.”
“Okay, great. I don’t have your number, though,” I said, standing up and off my gurney.
“We’ve got yours,” Bell assured me. Assured might be the wrong word, as it only freaked me out more, but still it’s what the man said.
“Okay…” I said, clicking my suit on. “Bye, everyone. Nice to uh… nice to meet you.”
They all nodded, and I took off, going through the hole in the ceiling, and back up to the main lobby. I opened up the door, and flew out and off into the city skies. I wanted to head right back home, but I couldn’t help but spend some time bursting around through the clouds.
I’m telling you, it was like nothing else. It was like being on ecstasy and crack and whatever else kind of drugs make you feel great in the moment, except I didn’t even have to do drugs! So you know, win-win.
Eventually, I made my way back over to town, and I still zipped around up above everyone else, probably already asleep if not going to bed. It was awesome. Or at least, it was.
All of a sudden– like, literally out of nowhere– I caught a glimpse of someone else floating up in the sky with me. I’d zoomed right past them, but from what my brain could pick out (which again, nowadays was a lot) they were tall, alien, and I’m pretty sure they held their hands down by their waist.
I stopped myself, and turned around. They were just sitting there, looking over at me. The moon illuminated their figure– I was right, they were certainly tall, and pretty fit from the looks of it– and everything suddenly seemed so… tense.
The wind swayed past him– because based on the way he was shaped, I decided to go ahead and assume this was a male– and over to me. Even though I was in my suit, I couldn’t help but feel a chill rush down my spine.
I could hardly even make out his face, but I’m pretty sure he was smiling, which I was not on board with.
“Hello?” I called out. “Are you… Who are you?”
He waited a moment, and then came closer. He floated as though it took literally zero effort. Like it was more the world moving around him than him moving through the world. He got just in front of me, and unclasped his hands.
I was right, by the way, totally alien. Pale green skin, two eyes, slits where his ears would be, and a lot of scars along his head. He had a suit on, not unlike mine, except his was more a faded purple, with black details.
“So…” I said. “Are you like, another challenger?” he chuckled a little, and shook his head.
He still hadn’t spoken though, and it was starting to really creep me out. He just kept staring at me.
“Okay, well if you’re not a challenger, are you–?”
And then, ladies and gentlemen, it hit me. No, this was not a challenger. This wasn’t some run of the mill, meet him and beat him bad guy. This was Malek. As in, the Malek that Haltz had warned me about. The Malek that, so far back as I could remember, every other Wanderer in history had faced, and lost to.
This was Malek, the weaver.
“You’re… Malek,” I muttered. “Right, okay… Okay, you’re…you’re, here now.”
“So you were Haltz’s choice?” he said. I glanced up at him again, and he finally met my eyes. His voice was pretty… regal, I guess?
“Uh, yeah, that’s me,” I said. “Is that– am I… I mean does that work, for you?” He chuckled again.
“That works just fine with me,” he said. “Your name is Jason Rhodes, correct?”
“That’s… correct,” I said. “I’m… the Wanderer.”
“Well, no, not quite,” Malek argued. “Not yet. Though I will admit, two challengers defeated in relatively quick time is admirable, for someone so new to this. I wonder if the human aspect as something to do with that…”
Okay, so I think this guy was really just talking to himself more than anyone else. I don’t know what he was talking about, but it did not seem ideal for me, I’ll be honest.
“Look,” I said, “I know you have some kind of beef with the Wanderers or something, but I don’t know you, and I don’t really have any problem with you. So if you just want to let bygones be bygones, I’m thinking we can just go our separate ways, and really live a…a good life.”
“No,” Malek said. “I won’t be doing that.”
“You won’t… Okay…”
“Jason Rhodes, I have been dealing with the Wanderers for a long time, but do you have any inclination as to why?”
“You’re jealous?” I asked. He smirked.
“Not exactly. Though I suppose, in some sense, you’re not wrong. I am envious, Jason Rhodes, of my siblings. You don’t have any of those, though, do you?” Alright, well that was a deep cut.
“No,” I said. “I mean I have friends.” Don’t know why I just told him that. That was dumb… Dumb, idiot, stupid, Jason.
“My siblings all have each other,” M
alek explained. “Those that need them, anyway. All but Lucilo…”
“Right,” I said, having a fat zero idea what he was talking about. “Well, siblings can be cruel–”
“And I have no one,” he continued. “Like you.” Another deep cut out of the freak from upstate. “Unlike you, I have been alone for a very long time now.”
“I…I’m sorry about that,” I said.
“Hmm,” he grunted. “Nonetheless, I simply need to find an equal. Someone matching my power, my ideals, my mindset. And in 1,641 attempts, I’ve found not one who gets there. Haltz was close– I liked him– but… no, not quite.”
“Oh,” I said, realizing. “Oh. Oh well, I mean I don’t think I’m really who you’re looking for then, man. I mean really, I’ve got these powers, but that’s about where our similarities end.”
“I’m not so sure,” Malek said. “But we will see. I just thought I’d introduce myself.” He floated a bit closer, and put his hand on my chestplate. “It’s good to meet you, Jason Rhodes. Let’s hope for both our sakes that you are, at long last, who I’ve spent all this time searching for.”
Then, like a dickhead, he tapped my chestplate, and burst off. He disappeared so quick, I hardly even noticed him leave. Of course, I had little time to do that anyway, as I then plummeted toward the Earth.
It went a little something like this, if I were to paint a quick portrait for you: SkyCloudsSkyBuildingsTreesShed(?) and then I was just, you know, in a shed.
So, it was an interesting night.
5
A Crash Course In Flirting
There I was, right? Sitting in a shed. I’d smashed through the roof, and I was busy not only catching my breath, but simultaneously trying to wrap my head around everything Malek had told me.
I mean, looking for an equal for what? Why did he need one so badly, he went through hundreds upon hundreds of Wanderers just to find one? Plus, no matter why he did it, he killed them if they weren’t good enough; my memories told me that much already.
The Wanderer (Book 1): The Wanderer Page 6