The Wanderer (Book 1): The Wanderer

by Giancioppo, Danny

  “Wait!” she screamed, leaping forward. Malek looked over to her and smirked; he knew who she was. He held his hand out again, and signaled the horagon to wait. “You…You have no right to be doing this!” she shouted.

  “Julia, stop it…!” Alannah plead through gritted teeth. I just clenched my eyes shut, realizing I was about to have to do something even more stupid than her.

  “Really?” Malek asked. “And why exactly would that be, child?”

  “Because…!” Julia stammered, looking around at the party. She locked eyes with me for a moment, and I tried to just shake my head at her, but she wouldn’t back down now. The girl was too damn stubborn. “Because what right do you have to just intrude on someone else’s life!?” she shouted. “What did the Wanderer do to you, anyway!? What did anyone here do!? Nothing! Y-You can’t just…just barge in and start killing innocent people!”

  “He really hasn’t told you, has he?” Malek said to himself. “I am a weaver, child– you may not know what that means, but believe me, I am well within my rights. The Wanderer and I have plans, and if you all want to keep him here, I’m sorry, but… I saw him first.”

  “Oh, Jesus Christ…” I groaned. I glanced at Alannah, and she just stared back into my eyes nervously. Her hand shook on my arm, and I grabbed it, gently pulling it off.

  “But I admire your spirit,” Malek went on. He nodded at one of the closest horagons to us, and it moved closer to us. “You can start, for standing up for your loved ones; more than the Wanderer can say.”

  “Jason!” Alannah said.

  “Julia!” Will screamed.

  Alex and Sam shot their gaze toward me, Will jumped toward Julia, and I just sighed, and sprung into action.

  I zipped right in between the horagon and Julia, and hurled it off into the woods. It slammed into a tree, which subsequently collapsed onto the ground. The horagon didn’t get up, and the others all twitched and grunted in response– he was dead, if that wasn’t obvious.

  I turned to Malek, and pointed my finger at him, shielding Julia as Will pulled her back toward the group.

  “Do not do that again,” I growled. “If you want to finish this, fine, let’s finish it. But if you touch any of these people, I swear on my life, you will regret it.”

  Malek scoffed, the crowd all gasped, and my little gang of misfits all stared at me in awe. Alannah just relaxed a little, but you know, I was old news to her at that point.

  Suddenly, it felt like the tension in the air was sliced in half by a jolt of energy, and now the crowd grew wild. Everyone snapped pictures, shouted my name– as well as a lot of cussing– and I felt the adrenaline surge through my body. It was like if that pin did drop, I’d dive on it like a wild animal or something.

  I glanced back at the gang, and honestly– I mean I know the stakes were high, but– I couldn’t help but smirk. After all, that was pretty badass right there.

  “So…” Alex said, gesturing to where I was and where I stood now. “Y-You’re the Wanderer.”

  “You’re the Wanderer!” Will yelled. “Dude, what!?”

  “Yeah…” I chuckled. “Kind of.”

  “How long has this been a thing?” Sam asked. I looked at him, and shrugged.

  “A few months. Since like, January, I think.”

  “Wanderer,” Malek said, regaining my attention. “Thank you for joining us. Now, would you like to get to business, or would you rather we sit around here meddling with those who don’t understand us?”

  “Feels like I’m doing that already,” I said. “Besides, it’s hardly fair, you taking me on with a whole team of douchebags at your disposal.”

  Malek nodded, and then a literal second later, all the other horagons dropped to the ground, their necks snapped. I guess he must have stopped time and killed them, because he hadn’t looked like he moved much if at all.

  “Now Jason,” Malek continued, “it’s no surprise to me that you’re here. As I’m sure you already knew, I fully expected you to come. Are you prepared to leave this life behind, and take on the final challenge?”

  “I thought I was past that point already,” I said, walking closer. The crowd widened around us, I guess they sort of knew something was bound to go down. They still jittered and chirped amongst each other, but the silence once more dampened the lawn, as every word Malek and I spoke was waited on baited breath.

  “You were,” Malek replied. “I would have liked to move on, let this go, but Jason we both know now that you are far too emotionally attached to this… excuse of a purposeful life to just move on. So, I figure– albeit much to my own self-detriment– this test will be a just means of moving forward with my creation. My equal.”

  I just nodded, and glanced back to the guys. They were all watching me curiously, but I couldn’t really tell if they were worried for me, or confident. To be fair, I wasn’t sure, myself, but I think some of them were also still processing the whole “Jason’s the Wanderer” thing, so there was a lot going on for all of us.

  Then though, I locked eyes with Alannah. The whole world felt like it just sort of zoned out for a moment, and there was nothing but us– she and I. I heard her breath drawing anxiously out her mouth, and realized I did the same.

  The birds weren’t singing, the crickets weren’t chirping; every picture and murmur and impatient glare from Malek just fell to the wayside, and I yearned to hear her, see her, get some kind of recognition that everything was going to be alright. Because if Alannah believed in me, then honestly, in that moment… nothing else really mattered to me.

  “Jas–” she began.

  “Oh, and Jason,” Malek interrupted, calling my attention back toward him. “When we are finished here, I promise, if you don’t make it, I’ll try to make their deaths quick. That is, so long as you give me a good fight.” I closed my eyes, and turned around to face him. “But, frankly, I imagine when it comes to her– Alannah, correct? Well… I suppose I can’t promise I won’t get carried away. After all, we are connected, you and I; I can tell why she means so much…”

  It was dumb. It was stupid. It wasn’t even that clever or clear a threat. And the thing is, I knew he was trying to rile me up– Malek just wanted to get my emotion spurring so I would hit him hard, and show what I’ve got. If I did that, people would probably be freaked out, they might even get hurt, and I’d be outed as this power-freak, monster-man.

  And despite that, hearing him even mention her name… it made me snap a little. And everyone knew it.

  “At least she’ll have your friend Sam to console her, in their last few moments together.”

  “Oh no,” Will muttered.

  “Jason, don’t–!” Alannah tried to warn me. Too little, too late, my sweet summer cherub. Too weird? Yeah, alright, maybe a bit much. Anyway–

  I clicked my chestplate and the suit shot on all around me. I bolted toward Malek, and tried to swing at him, but he caught my fist. I mean, literally, middle of the air, dead-stop, catch.

  Before I could even react, he grabbed my chestplate through the sweatshirt, retracting the suit.

  He released my fist, and ripped my shirts off, and then, with one hand on the chestplate, and the other on my head, Malek ripped it off, and shot me into the dirt.

  I screamed in pain as I laid on my side, writhing around and checking my chest. Forget the chest, my entire torso was littered with blood, scrapes, and gashes. That suit was meant to stick with me until I died, and he just full on ripped it off. It felt like being bitten all over my body by fire, and simultaneously stabbed by a thousand knives at once. The pain was immeasurable, and I felt like I could hardly breathe. It was like my body was in shock, and trying to cope without the additive strengths of the suit. It was awful; my insides were still a rookie, and without Ox to help protect me, guide me, I was forced to stand on my own.

  So I did. I heard all the shrieking, all the cries of terror, and I know my friends were staring just a ways behind me in horror, praying I stood back up as Malek moved
closer. So I had to pick myself up.

  I stumbled, but quickly I dove into Malek, sending us up into the air a ways above the house. We wrestled for control over one another, and after some time he won, hurling me back to the ground.

  I crashed into the street, and he landed his feet right on top of my chest, knocking the wind out of me. He lifted me up by the chest– still rife with blood– and tossed me into the driveway, smashing on top of one of Alex’s cars.

  I tried to breathe, but I coughed up blood, and wiped it from my mouth in shock. That was… new.

  Right as Malek leapt over to me, I rolled out of the way, and he practically sliced through the car with his hand. I quickly manipulated the gravity around him, and crushed the two halves of the vehicle around him. I tried to lift it into the air, but inevitably I just slid it across the ground and into the street.

  People dove out of the way, and for some insane reason, most of them just stood around, watching us.

  “Get out of here!” I shouted. “Go!”

  The car parts exploded into the street, and before Malek could spot me, I lunged at him. I slid across the road, sweeping his legs as I swiped past him, and jumped right over his head as he tried to grab at me on his way to the ground.

  When I landed, I slammed my fists into his head, and dented the street. It actually looked like it did a lot of damage. Unfortunately, it wasn’t nearly enough to do much more than piss him off.

  Malek burst from the ground, and dove at me. We slammed into a little tree in the front yard, and suddenly, he disappeared. Then, just as instantly, he reappeared at my side, hitting me in the leg. He constantly vanished and skipped over from one side to the next, hitting my face, legs, arms, chest, back, neck– whatever he could think to hit.

  He slipped through seconds in time, landing punches before I could even react. It was like I just stood there seizing up– I doubt anyone else could see him moving around that fast as it was.

  He landed one more hard hit, an uppercut right to my chin, and as I reared back he grabbed my by the neck, threw me up into the air, and flew up after me. I tried to focus up, stabilize myself, but it felt like he’d just hit all my pressure points about a hundred times; I could hardly think, let alone move.

  Once Malek caught up to me, he grabbed the top of my head, swirled around, and shot me back into the front lawn. It all happened so fast, even I could hardly comprehend it. One moment I was high in the air, getting this weirdly peaceful moment of a cool breeze hitting my many wounds, and then my face was full of dirt and blood.

  “Jason!” Alex shouted, running over to help me up.

  “N-No…!” I said, trying to stand on my own. I held my hand out, trying to keep him back. “Alex, get them out of here!”

  “Jason, you can’t beat this guy! You need to get out of here!” he argued.

  “Alex!” I said, spitting more blood out of my mouth. I felt a welt already forming over my left eye. That was great; now my vision was starting to go. “You need to go! I can handle this…!”

  I felt my legs start to buckle, and before I could even reach out to Alex for stability, Malek landed right next to me, kicking me hard in the side as he did. I went soaring into the concrete steps before the front door, and my head cracked against them.

  My vision started fading, and I heard a few people call out my name. I tried to stay awake, but it took everything in me not to pass out right then and there. I tasted copper from my mouth to my stomach, I could feel the blood staining the top of my head, my arms and legs felt sprained if not broken in several places, and breathing suddenly felt like a torture rather than a blessing.

  I could see Malek walking closer. He had cuts and bruises himself, sure, but I hadn’t done nearly enough damage. His own clothing was somewhat torn, but that was just fabric. Pound for pound, I’d just gotten my ass whooped, and we still weren’t even finished yet.

  I had to stand up, I knew that. Every fiber of my being was screaming to get up and fight, because “you never know when to give up, why start now?” But I just couldn’t do it. God, I felt like I wanted to cry just out of pure frustration. I couldn’t move! I had to have more strength in me, but while everything cried to keep going, it wailed in pain all the while.

  Malek said something, but I couldn’t make out what. Everything just sounded like a waterfall in a cave to me– echoes on echoes of blaring, rushing, white noise– and as I saw my friends cowering in fear, pressed up against the front of the house just a few feet away, my vision totally faded out.

  Or at least, it did.

  All of a sudden, I heard this horrible crack, and a shrieking wail of pain. My eyes shot open, and I saw Sam being held up by his left arm in Malek’s grasp. It was bent all kinds of wrong, and his fingers fell limp above the blood gushing from his wrist and forearm. He already passed out from the instant wave of pain, and Alex and Will tried to wrestle Malek off of Sam.

  Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion. I saw Malek push them aside with ease, sending them hurdling into the house’s front wall, and crying out in pain. Will’s eyes shot open, and he gripped his leg– I think screaming, but then the sound all started to fade out again.

  I felt this heat overtake my body. Like a sort of flush of energy. Not just anger, or adrenaline, but something more. My vision faded into a pure white haze, and Malek just grew into this black blotch right in the center.

  Cosmic energy poured out of my eyes like flames, and the moment he dropped Sam, I fired at him, sending us high up into the air. I think I was screaming, but to be honest I can’t be sure. I just heard my blood coursing, my heart pounding, and the sound of Sam’s arm smashing apart replaying in my head over and over again.

  My whole body seemed to be glowing, encased in this light white hue, and I soared higher and higher into the air, blasting beams of cosmic energy into Malek’s shoulders as I gripped tightly onto them. He struggled to escape my grasp, but I never relented, up until I turned us around, and fired him back into the earth with all of my might.

  Malek careened into the street, making yet another massive crater within it. I landed on top of him, this time slamming my own feet into his chest. My hands radiated cosmic light, and every punch felt volcanic, the heat and pure energy within them singeing his skin with every touch.

  I beat into his face, pounded my fists against his chest, dug my feet into his thighs.

  I lifted him up with my gravity manipulation, and forced him to crash hard back into the dirt beneath the asphalt. I did it over and over again, and on the last time I grabbed him by the leg, and bashed him repeatedly into the street.

  All the while, Malek grabbed at me, swung at me, even clawed against my skin. I didn’t care. It felt like I could hardly experience any sensation other than heat. Heat, energy, adrenaline– all of it just a conduit for the purity of my rage.

  The winds howled against us, warm summer breezes turning quickly into striking gusts of heat, whirling about the entirety of the neighborhood. Hats and shoes and rocks and debris of all and any kind spiraled all around the place, and I just cut through it, beating Malek to a point of near-death.

  I lifted him up by the neck, put one hand on his shoulder, and just tore him him opposing directions. He flew into the dirt, and I held his right arm in my hand– blood pouring down it, onto my own.

  I leapt at him as he staggered back on his feet, and kicked him back onto the ground. As he fell, I grabbed his one remaining arm and lifted him back up into the air, slamming him into the ground with a force strong enough to seemingly dismantle any remaining pieces of solid earth around us.

  I saw him chuckle as he coughed up blood, and I blasted more beams of cosmic energy into his body. I directed one hand right at his left leg, and pressed hard against it until my hand cut through to the blood-stained dirt beneath us.

  His laughter ceased, and I lifted Malek up into the air, once more by the neck. As I stood among the wreckage of our battle, I lifted my right arm up into the sky, calling in a
n ever-growing ball of pure, cosmic energy into my palm. The heat was so intense it burnt my arm down to the elbow, and the brightness so powerful it could hardly be looked at without fear of blindness.

  I didn’t care. Not in that moment. No, in that moment, I felt like I could do just about anything in the world. The entirety of life as I knew it– this whole galaxy, and just about everything beyond it– belonged to me, and if it didn’t, I had the might to completely erase it from the fabric of existence, particle by particle, atom by atom.

  It felt scary, but an odd sort of exhilarating, all the same. Like a cold tingle that ran through my body, and encompassed my mind. It was as if in that moment, I fully realized just what the Wanderer was capable of; the pure destruction, the unlimited, uncontainable, unfathomable power.

  This was why such lost creatures sought out my wrath. Because if only they could defeat me, they could be untouched. No living being in this galaxy would dare interfere with those who could best the Wanderer. But they never could, could they? The chance was too sweet, too savory a potential to pass up, but no one could surpass my power, my ability. My pure strength. Not even Malek.

  I readied my hand to swiftly press against his chest, and decimate his heart. The beam would likely tear apart the entire lawn, if not the neighborhood, but if it got rid of Malek, then so be it.

  I felt the blood rushing down my head, my chest, my limbs. Some of it my own, and some my enemy’s. I could taste it as it seeped from my lips– my snarling face, energy beaming from my eyes.

  “N…Now, they see, what you a-are…” Malek stammered, a small smirk breaching his broken features. “Not a hero…Not something they c-could ever understand… ever love. T-This is you… Jason Rhodes.”

  I growled at him, and just as I lifted my hand further to the skies, only to plunge down against his already dying body, I heard a voice cut through the haze of adrenaline blocking my every semblance of sense.

  “JASON!” Alannah screamed, her voice broken and crying. I heard it at first as though it had been distorted– as though the sound waves literally trembled on their path to my ears.