The Wanderer (Book 2): Stranded

by Giancioppo, Danny

  It’s sort of difficult to explain. You know when you try to light a lighter, and sometimes you just get little sparks, and sometimes you just get that over and over again until you get the flame? It was kind of like that.

  I saw bits and flashes of Sam out with Jessica. They were walking out in the city, then all of a sudden they turned a corner and someone was shouting. Sam ran over, and some guy was trying to take some lady’s purse. He tried to stop him, and then a fire went off down the road. The woman ran, and the mugger tried to pull on the purse more. Sam wouldn’t let go. All of a sudden there was another fire; it looked like it was closer to the mugger, because in the next flash he was gone, and there was ash everywhere. Sam was on the ground, a couple feet from where he was by the looks of it. Then he was in and out of consciousness. I saw myself show up briefly, and that was it. But this was all memory, not subconsciousness.

  I tried to will myself deeper into his mind, and I started to get… not images, but more so just a vague understanding of what was going on. Abilities he may have had.

  Time…Time? He could use time? No… stop it, like Malek. Did that mean…? It must have. He must have gotten some of Malek’s essence, and thus had some of the same powers he did. I just had to hope Sam’s personality wasn’t going to alter more toward his. Plus, even Malek said he couldn’t stop it forever, so worst case he would freeze things for a few minutes, and then we move forward. But there was still something else, I could feel it…

  Matter. Something about matter. He…He could manipulate matter!? That would be unbelievable! He could transform matter at the tips of his fingers!

  I tore my hand away, suddenly very startled at this concept. If that were true, and he knew how to use it, Sam would be more powerful than I could ever be. And if he ever wanted to…

  No, no that wasn’t possible, not Sam.

  I got up, and pushed my chair back toward the desk. I walked outside, and made my way towards the terrace, somewhat rudely ignoring my friends and girlfriend.

  “Jason!” Alannah shouted, grabbing my attention. I stopped, and turned to her.

  “Sorry,” I apologized. “I just… got a little preoccupied.”

  “With what? What did you find out in there? Did something happen?” she asked. She knew me all too well. I wanted to tell her- I would’ve- but everyone else was patiently awaiting my response as well, and I didn’t feel ready to tell them that our friend might be a murderous reincarnation of my worst enemy, now with the brand-spanking-new ability to manipulate matter as he so pleased.

  “I… nothing, I just have to go see Bell; he told me we need to have a meeting about something, sounded serious,” I said. It was a lie, and she knew it was lie; and I knew she knew it was a lie. I could see it in her eyes, that she could see it in my everything.

  I looked into her eyes, and then quickly at my room, then the others, and then back to her. Hopefully that was enough for her to understand.

  “Okay, well have fun, don’t fight with Bentley too much,” she said, coming over to give me a hug and kiss.

  “Yeah, no promises,” I lightly chuckled. I kissed her back, and held her tight in my arms.

  “Tell me what’s going on when you get back,” she whispered into my ear.

  “Okay. Don’t let these animals stay in my house for too long,” I whispered back. She laughed a little at that, and that made me smile.

  “Okay,” she replied, letting go of me.

  “Bye guys, I’ll see you later,” I said to the others, who– I at least assumed– fell for my lie entirely.

  Everyone waved and said their goodbyes, and I pressed my chestplate as I made my way outside, still wearing my now rather burnt up clothes-suit. Which sucked, because I only had so many matching fancy outfits. Anyway, then I took off, making my way towards the facility to meet with Bell. See, that part wasn’t a total lie!

  On a more serious note though, I knew that once I got there, I’d be having a very difficult talk with him, and more likely than not, he’d start to see my best friend as a very possible and perhaps even imminent threat to society. And I did not want to be tasked on the mission to deal with that.

  3

  A Father’s Fear

  “I’m sorry, did you seriously just say you reincarnated Malek!? Now with additional– and if I may, worse– abilities to kill people with!?” Bentley repeated. Well, paraphrased, I put it a bit less biased on the negative side of things.

  “Yeah, I mean if you look at it that way, I guess I did,” I replied.

  “Jason, that was a seriously reckless thing to do,” Bell said. That was the first thing he said since I came in today, so that kinda came out of left-field. Not to mention, it kinda hurt.

  “Well what did you want me to do? Let my best friend die? I already lost him an arm, Bell, I wasn’t going to lose him now too,” I defended.

  “Jason, we’ve talked about this,” Bell continued. “You aren’t God.”

  “I know that–!”

  “And you can’t play God and mess with people’s lives.” I was honestly a little blown away.

  “Are you serious?” I asked, getting a little heated.

  “Kid…” Bentley said, trying to simmer me down. It was honestly kind of nice, genuine even, but it wasn’t really going to help right now.

  “Yes, I am,” Bell continued. “Jason I know you love your friends, and you love them a lot, but if it was Sam’s time to go, you have no right to just stop that from happening.”

  “How could you say that!?” I shouted

  “Not to mention the fact that if this got out to the public, they very may well begin to turn on you. If you were willing and able to save one person, who as far as they know you’ve never met, why can’t you save the rest of them? Why haven’t you done that before?”

  “I don’t deal with human issues!”

  “You are a human!” Bell shouted, he too losing his temper a bit. Even Bentley looked surprised; that never happened. “And that was not a human issue. That was an alien attack, and you saved one person out of the dozens that were killed by its carnage. You let your emotions sway you, and now there’s a distinct possibility that our greatest threat thus far may be reborn in a new body, and has the ability to create and destroy life as we know it via matter manipulation. You’re a reasonable and intelligent young man, Jason, how can you not see the danger in this!?”

  “Because he’s my best friend!” I yelled. “Because I never knew my parents, never had a family, and he’s the closest thing to it I’ll ever have; he’s my brother, Bell, and I’m not going to kill him. And I won’t let you do it either.”

  “Are you threatening to turn against us?” Bell asked.

  “No,” I scoffed. “I’m promising to protect my family from harm. Any and all harm. That includes you.” I barged out of the office, slamming the door so hard it immediately broke off its hinges.

  “Kid!” Bentley shouted, starting to follow behind me. “Kid, stop! Come here a minute and just…just goddamn think!”

  “Leave me alone, Bentley! I’m not hearing it!” I yelled back, taking off, back up to the front door.

  I got there in seconds and stormed outside, gripping my head in my hands and taking a deep, exhausted breath. I looked out into the bay and leant against the side of the building, trying to think.

  Why did Bell so intently want me to just up and kill my best friend? How could he even ask me to do that? He knows me. I thought so anyway…

  Bentley made his way through the front door, and stood behind me, noticing I was still there.

  I could hear him. I could hear his breathing, and I guess really, his hesitation. That, mixed with the waves crashing against the walls, made for an odd mix of comforting and tense vibes.

  “Bentley, I don’t want to hear your wise-ass–” I said.

  “Jason,” he said. That was rare; he never called me Jason. He must have been serious.

  I turned around, and looked at him. He was staring me in the eyes, but for
once, he didn’t appear angry, or annoyed, or just plain pissy. He just looked sad. Conflicted, even.

  “Jason,” he continued, “I know you care about your friend Sam, but you have to understand the gravity of this situation.” I paused for a second, trying to reign in the anger I still felt inside me.

  “I… Of course I do,” I admitted, “but how could he expect me to just up and say that I’m totally okay with killing my friend– my best friend– who I just saved!”

  “He doesn’t want you to do that,” Bentley explained. I didn’t understand, and I think my face said enough to portray that. “He knows you, Jason. He knows your character, your morals. He’s a smart man. But he also realizes the reality of an even potentially bad situation. Maybe he’s not Malek reincarnate, maybe he’s just your friend with Malek’s powers and his own. And maybe you two can take on all the aliens in the goddamn world together from here on out, and everyone will love you both.”

  “Then why isn’t he considering that!? Why doesn’t he mention–!?”

  “Because maybe, that doesn’t happen. Maybe Sam has bits and pieces of Malek in him that come out the more his powers do. Maybe Malek is totally dead, but at his own core Sam isn’t as good as you, and he loses control. Maybe he starts killing people, trying to become a god; and with what you even just think he can do, if that happens, there will be nothing that anyone– even you– can do to stop it.”

  “But we don’t know yet,” I insisted. “So why worry now? I could have had the same outcome, but Bell– all of you– put your faith in me. Why can’t the same be done for Sam?”

  “He is putting his faith in Sam,” Bentley countered. “If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have had that conversation with you; he’d probably have just sent a team to take him out now before it may be too late. The truth is, kid, I get that you don’t want to lose your friend, no one does, but whether you want to hear it, believe it, or even think it: you are a hero. Sometimes heroes need to think of the greater good, and not their greater selves. Do you understand?”

  I looked at him for a while, and didn’t say a word, and then I just turned around, and looked back out at the bay. It was calm, still; the wind blew lightly in the distance, making bells and buoys whistle and chime.

  “I don’t know that I can bring myself to kill him, Bentley, even if I have to,” I admitted, horrified at the very thought. “Even if he makes me…”

  Bentley walked over, and hesitantly put his hand on my shoulder; he too now staring out at the bay. The water ever so lightly splashed our feet with the tips of its waves with every other crash.

  “I know, kid, I know. For now though, you need to make sure it doesn’t come to that,” was all he said. And then we were quiet. He went back inside a little later, and then, I left.

  I flew around– everywhere, really– for a few hours, just trying to clear my head. I knew I needed to sort some things out, but the truth was these were problems that I’d never dealt with before– they were real problems. Adult problems. Not even that, but adult, life or death, ethical problems. And I was only a 20 year old with superpowers.

  After a good while of self ruminating and attempts at meditation, I came back home.

  I looked in through the terrace window as I retracted the suit, and only Alannah was there. The others must have left. She was asleep on the couch, and so I made my way in as slowly and quietly as possible, as to not disturb her resting.

  I cautiously tiptoed my way over to my bedroom to check up on Sam, and as I made my way in, I looked over to the bed, and he was gone.

  I swung the door open, and looked all around the room, I saw my bedroom window was open, so I shot my head out and looked all around. I couldn’t see him anywhere, and nothing seemed destroyed in the surrounding area, so my guess was he didn’t fly out the window. I continued to look around nervously, when suddenly I heard the sink turn on from the bathroom.

  I made my way over to it and opened the door, and to my surprise, there was Sam. Awake. Splashing water on a very shock-riddled face. He shot his gaze over to me, terrified, and once he saw me he calmed down a little.

  “Jason… ?” he asked, very confused and clearly still a little startled.

  “Yeah, yeah buddy it’s me,” I whispered, closing the door behind me as to keep thing quiet for Alannah back in the living room. “Jesus, how are you awake so fast…?” I marvelled.

  “What is going on…? I thought… I thought I was… I mean I thought I d–” he stuttered out in panicked breaths.

  “No,” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder and stopping him. “No. I… stopped that from happening.”

  “What? How?” he asked.

  “I think I gave you… powers, like the Wanderer. The title, and therefore the abilities.”

  “What…?” Sam gasped astoundedly. “So, so are you no longer–?”

  “No, I still am,” I said, lifting off the ground a little bit. “But I think I gave you… Well I think I gave you the title, or really the essence… of Malek.”

  “What!?” Sam whisper-shouted, shocked at my statement. I didn’t blame him, to be fair.

  “Look, you still feel like yourself, right?” I asked, he nodded, though he looked in the mirror skeptically. “Then as far as I’m concerned, you’re still you.” I paused, and thought about how much I should say. “I was able to pry into your mind a little bit- some reverse-engineered info-sharing I did– and I saw what happened before the attack. That was pretty brave of you back there with the mugger.”

  “Yeah, well, not all of us can swoop in with super strength, but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna sit back and let innocent people get hurt,” Sam defended.

  “Fair enough,” I admired, chuckling a little bit. It made him smile, which was a good step. “Also, I learned something else,” I said cautiously, not sure how much to share. “I tried to tap into your subconscious, and I was able to get an unsteady grip on some of the more personal things you can do. And while you are not Malek, it does look like you can control time a little bit, like he could.”

  “Control time…?” he marvelled. “Seriously?”

  “I think so, yeah,” I said. “And based on your arm, which I’m sure you’ve noticed, you’re well on your way to getting the other powers as well: strength, flight, pain-tolerance, and with that, a pretty fast healing period; which, I think is working hard on your skin and arm at the moment.”

  Which was true. Since I’d left, almost his entire body was repaired from the burns, and his arm was all the way back to his elbow, rather than just a few inches below his shoulder. Seemed like the Wanderer abilities were strong in him, maybe even more than they were in me, at first.

  “So… So wait… is my arm going to come back? Fully?” Sam asked in disbelief. I smiled warmly.

  “I think so buddy, yeah,” I said. He teared up a little, and laughed in a continued disbelief. We hugged, and then pulled away, making our way back into my bedroom so we had more space to sit and talk.

  “So I’m like you now, right?” Sam reiterated. I nodded. “And that means, I can fight the aliens too?”

  “If you want that, yes,” I answered honestly, giving him an out. “I mean, I’ll be real man, it’s possible more will come now that you’re here as well, and it may be too much for you too handle, so I get it if you don’t–”

  “I’ll do it,” he said decidedly. I looked at him curiously, surprised at his quick decision.

  “Are… I mean are you sure?” I asked. “It’s dangerous, and you don’t even know how to use your powers yet.”

  “So you can teach me. Plus, it was dangerous for you too right?”

  “I guess so, but–”

  “Not to mention, the aliens have only been showing up a couple times a month now that Malek’s been gone, so with me here if anything it will be a couple times a week, which really isn’t that much worse.”

  “Well sure, I guess–”

  “But hey, could we start training like, now?” Sam asked. God damn, the boy
was persistent, I’ll give him that.

  “No,” I shut him down. It didn’t feel great, but it was the safest thing to do. “We need to wait for you to heal up fully before we do that. Your body isn’t used to this conditioning, so the healing process is going to take longer for you than it does me; your arm isn’t even back yet, Christ’s sake.”

  “Okay… Well do you think I can head back out into the real world soon? I want to talk to Jessica when I get the chance.” My eyes grew a bit wider, and I moved over to sit next to him on the bed.

  “Sam, uh, listen…” I didn’t know what to say; certainly not how to say it, at least.

  Bell had a point. If the public found out the Wanderer revived someone, things could turn ugly real quick. That meant unless I trusted them, nobody could know about Sam being alive. And that included his date.

  “You…You can’t,” I said. Wow, great statement there, Jase, real concrete.

  “What do you mean, ‘I can’t?’” Sam repeated curiously. “She’s probably worried sick about me.”

  “She thinks you’re dead,” I said, and he got a very pale look on his face. “Everybody does. And if they found out that I– that the Wanderer– revived someone, but let others die, they’d turn on me.”

  “So just tell them you know me, that we have a connection; that should be enough, shouldn’t it?”

  “Then I run the risk of people figuring out who I am, and I can’t let that happen. That puts the people I love– that we love– at risk.”

  “How? Aliens already know you when they see you, suit or not, and people aren’t a threat.”

  “They are to the people we care about.”

  “You can get from the goddamn moon to back home in less than ten minutes, how could you not beat a mugger or something to Alannah’s house?”

  “I’m not omnipotent, I can’t know when something is going to happen. And if it did? And I wasn’t around? I could never forgive myself for that.”

  “You really have that little faith in humanity?” Sam criticized. “You don’t get people at all, do you?”

  “I get people perfect, that’s why I don’t trust them,” I argued. “Some people are great, wholesome, loving individuals who want nothing more than good things for others. But Sam… there are also people who live for the sake of chaos; pain and loss from anyone they can get to, and the bigger the better. Someone– if not multiple someone’s– could easily try to destroy my life, and harm the people I love, for no reason other than to say they did it. And I am not running that risk.”