“Malek,” Sam uttered. I nodded. “But you beat him, right? You were stronger than he was. Better.”
“In a sense, yes,” I replied. “Honestly Sam, I think it’s more that I took him by surprise. Our emotion, as humans, is something that the Wanderer’s before us didn’t have. They were far more stoic and stable. And while our emotions give us strength, they also can lead to a sizeable downfall if we don’t handle them right.”
“You never lost it though, right?” Sam asked. “I mean, you kind of went berserk on Malek, but that was a good thing. You won!”
I looked out at the stars. They were basically on the very same level as us by now. We were just about to break the atmosphere.
“I did once,” I said. “Alannah told me I should try to be a hero. Be something more than I was; something people needed. She told me about some crime going down at Giardino’s– something she looked into and heard on a police scanner or something. Clements was the only officer on duty, there were two thugs inside with guns. I went to try and stop them, and I got too cocky. Clements got shot trying to save me, Mr. Giardino got gunned down– and…and they both died.”
Sam looked at me, horror now struck on his face.
“T-That was you?” he gawked. “I…I never knew that…”
“I lost it, Sam,” I continued. “I crushed one of their arms into dust. Threw him into the other side of the store, slammed the other onto the counter; both as hard as I could. I shot up into the air, and I just blew up into a ball of cosmic energy, fueled entirely by rage and loss and hate.” I paused, and stopped moving, as did Sam.
I gazed out into the vast open space in front of us, and took a deep breath. The air was thin as could be up where we were, and even though we could last, at the moment it felt like I was about to choke.
I turned my right palm up, and formed a small ball of energy, keeping it locked in my hand. It was bright, and it felt increasingly hot. Sam and I stared at it, he with a sense of wonder, and myself still with some dread.
“I learned that I could do this because of intensely negative emotions. I got two innocent people killed– people I hardly even knew– all because I tried to handle something thinking that there was no way I could lose,” I told him. “When we slip up, Sam, that’s on us. When I saved you, brought you back, you were the only thing on my mind in those moments, but after? I couldn’t stop thinking about the people who died. The ones I didn’t get to fast enough.”
Sam seemed hit by that one pretty hard. I don’t think he realized how much it actually affected me, every instance of every death– most people liked to think it didn’t– but it did. It always did.
“And that was an alien attack. When we step into human crimes, that happen almost every day, we have to accept that we might screw it up; we might get more people killed than saved, even with the best intentions in mind. I don’t want you to have to deal with that– I can hardly do it myself. And the people we love? Alannah, Alex, Julia, Will? Our family? We’re putting all of them in danger the more we reveal ourselves to the world. If anything ever happened to them, if some madman thought that they could get to us through them, and they did anything to hurt them? I don’t know what I’d do… There are just too many factors, Sam; too much to lose, and not nearly enough to gain.”
“I…” Sam stammered. He couldn’t find the right words to say either, because he didn’t know how to admit I was right, or he didn’t have it in him to insist that I was wrong. “Maybe…” was all he came to.
“I know it’s hard buddy, honestly, but… I am trying to do the right thing here; what I think is right, anyway.”
“Do you think I’ve already screwed up then?” Sam asked. “I mean, if Jessica’s mom said to you that she knows you were the last one seen with me, and then I texted Jess… I mean do you think they’ll be able to link it back to you? To the others?”
“Like I said, if Bell and his people can cover it up enough, then no. But we can’t have anymore close calls like that,” I said.
“Well how am I ever supposed to meet anybody then? Where am I gonna get a job? Meet my wife? Have a life?” Sam asked. That one hurt a little, I have to admit.
“Not everyone in the world knows Sam Finn; you just have to broaden your horizons a bit is all,” I suggested. “As far as a job, we can get you paid by the U.S.B. like me. After all, you said it yourself, it is a good pay.” He made a soft noise of at least complacent agreement, and we both looked back out at the night sky.
For a long time, we said nothing, and just enjoyed the view of the world. It really was beautiful; something that never ceased to amaze me. Maybe I didn’t want to handle all the minute details of it, but I’d be damned if I ever let anyone, or anything take this place from me. From us.
Then, as to ruin this serene and beautifully silent night, something burst past us as it came crashing down into the atmosphere. Whatever it was was on fire, as I suppose one would expect, and it was fairly big. Also, you know, alive.
“What the hell was that?” Sam asked, startled. I clicked on my suit, and followed it down.
“Looks like your first real day on the job. Come on, let’s go,” I said. Sam nodded excitedly, and clicked his chestplate, unveiling his suit as well. Then he followed me, following it.
Due to the fact that we were so high up, whatever it was landed in a neighboring town to ours. It landed in the town common, actually, which was pretty nice aiming on it’s part.
We caught up to it, and the giant crater it had formed. It was… interesting.
What it was was a Gredace. It was some kind of translation close to explosive in Code, like a grenade I guess– which was always fun to deal with.
It was big, probably 12 feet tall, and had rock-like skin covered in plating. Brown and red coloring. It was large, but had a solid hunch to it’s stance. Smelled like a stale ass, which I didn’t even know was a thing up until that very moment.
“What is this thing?” Sam asked, getting into a very defensive position. Right, I forgot that he didn’t have all the info that I did. I guess that didn’t translate over since I was still, you know, alive.
“It’s called a Gredace,” I explained.
“It looks like a rock,” Sam noted. Very good, Sam, very good…
“Think a little more explosive,” I said. Sam glanced at me nervously.
“Grenade?” he asked. Then the Gredace shoulder-bashed him, and when it touched him, Sam went flying off with a boom.
“Yeah…” I muttered, flying toward it.
I swung down at it’s head, and though it didn’t turn to face me in time, I still got hit with another explosion, and went flying into the little brick gazebo in the center of the common. Not a great feeling, I’ll be honest.
I got up, and wiped the dust and brick chunks off my suit, just as Sam was making his way back over. He had what looked like a large tree trunk, and swung at it again. To his credit, he did manage to send it flying, but there was still an explosion upon contact with the tree, and Sam went flying into the side of a building.
Wonderful. That was just another piece of property damage to add to the ever-growing list…
“Wanderer, how the hell do we hit this thing?” Sam asked, pulling himself out of the wall. There wasn’t anyone around right then I don’t think, but I was glad he was sticking with titles.
“Not sure, these things have a built-in defense system to prevent being touched!” I shouted back. “Maybe we just need to be faster than it!” Sam nodded.
We both bolted toward it, and started circling it in opposite directions. I eventually picked up a much faster pace than Sam, but he was still going fairly quick, for a newbie.
“Ready?” I shouted, trying to pinpoint exactly where to land my blow.
“Ready!” Sam replied, I assume trying to do the same.
“Now!” I said, then slamming my fists into its chin. Sam went for the back of the head, and to no one’s surprise, we were simply propelled in either direction, while t
he Gredace stood tall. Hunched tall. Whatever.
“What the hell is with this guy!?” I shouted in protest. I lifted myself back up into the air and shot my hands out toward the Gredace. I tried to fiddle with the gravity around it, maybe send it off somewhere, but as soon as I pinpointed it to focus on the Gredace, it just started forming explosions all around its body.
“Wanderer, stop!” Sam yelled. I let go, and the Gredace fell back onto the ground. The explosions knocked down and crisped a bunch of trees, but overall we were looking pretty good on damages to the common. Not great on damages to it, though.
“Great… Well, here goes nothing then,” I muttered.
I formed two balls of cosmic energy in my hand. I kept my distance, and when it was ready, I fired two waves at its body. Much to my quickly dwindling expectations, it just stood there, taking the energy in. There was no explosion though, so that was new.
“What’s it doing?” Sam asked, flying over to me as I continued to unload my beams of cosmic uselessness on it.
“I don’t know, but it’s definitely not getting hurt, I can tell you that much!” I offered back. I could see it’s stupid-ass face just above the beams. It almost looked like it was smirking at us.
“Wait, stop!” Sam yelled frantically. I immediately cut off the energy, and looked at him worriedly.
“What?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
“I think it’s just sucking in your energy!” Sam thought aloud. “And if it’s whole thing is making explosions–”
“The next one it makes is gonna be filled with cosmic energy…” I caught on. “So we can’t touch it then?”
“Probably not, no, but we can’t let it touch anything else either. Contact with almost any item other than the ground seems like it’s a hazard,” Sam theorized further.
“Well, okay…” I responded– not with a lot of bravado, might I add. “I can distract it, keep it away from trees and cars and stuff. Why don’t you just keep using that head of yours to try and come up with a solution, huh?” I offered.
“Deal. Just don’t get hit,” Sam agreed.
“I’ll try my best,” I said. I took off toward it.
The Gredace roared (I’m assuming in protest) as I got closer, and just as I got up to its face, I went over it. I landed a couple feet away, and it turned to face me.
“Come on, you ugly pile of garbage! Come get me!” I taunted, gesturing for it to… well, you know, come get me.
The Gredace leapt forward, and tried to shoulder bash into me. Right as it got close enough to stop its momentum, literally centimeters away from my face, I zipped around it, and stood where it was just seconds before. It turned, and saw where I was, then roaring in anger once more.
“Yeah, it sucks not landing your blows, doesn’t it?” I teased further. Probably not a genius move, but what can you do?
It turned and noticed an empty car sitting on the side of the road, and made a dash for it.
“Oh no!” I muttered, bursting over myself to try and grab it before the Gredace could come into any sort of contact with it. I got the car, and dropped it off on the other side of the common. Luckily, it was the only one right there, but there were more nearby, and it did notice.
It leapt over to one of the other cars, and, much to my chagrin, right as it got to one, I blasted it with more cosmic energy. I knew it was a dangerous move, but at least that got its focus back onto me. With my free hand, I used my gravity manipulation to send all the other cars floating into the air above us by a solid couple feet.
“Ranger, I can’t keep this up for very long!” I called out. “You got any ideas yet?”
“Uh, one, but it’s risky!” Sam replied.
“I’m open to risky!” I responded. I noticed that there were a small handful of people watching from the corners of the common. Some were even hiding in the surrounding buildings. Wonderful… At least they kept their distance.
“Okay…” Sam said nervously. He reared back, and then shot forward toward the Gredace. I only saw him make it about halfway, and then all of a sudden, they were both in different spots.
Sam was where the Gredace stood not a second before (which thankfully I had stopped blasting with cosmic energy), and the Gredace was on the ground a couple feet away. It was groggy, but still with it. Sam was also still in a pose as though he had just landed a punch.
“What did you just do?” I asked.
“Uh… stopped time, I think!” Sam yelled, realizing he had succeeded in his theory.
“No kidding!” I yelled back. “That’s incredible!”
“Yeah, I figured it out, too!” Sam explained. “We just need to hit it before its body can react! Then the defense system can’t go off!”
“So you need to keep stopping time?” I said.
“I think so. You might be able to get in here with me, right?” Sam questioned.
“That depends on you, buddy,” I said. We were then rudely interrupted by our guest, roaring in protest. “Right, back to it! Give it your best shot, either do it alone or throw me in!”
“Got it!” Sam responded, trying his best to focus. I meanwhile had to get the ugly son of a bitch’s attention again, which was not a fun task to have, let me tell you.
Then I realized, if Sam failed, or slipped up at just the wrong moment, all of these people watching from however far away they were wouldn’t be nearly far enough. We needed to get this thing out of here.
“Everybody!” I shouted, quickly glancing at those watching from beyond. “Get out of here, now! This thing is a ticking time bomb ready to blow!”
Those that could hear me seemed to get very scared very quick, but that was a good thing I suppose. They took off running, and those I could see in the windows ducked down, which… really did nothing for them. It did give me a thought, though.
“Ranger, new idea!” I shouted. “What if we overload this thing with energy? So much that it tears itself apart?”
“With what, your cosmic stuff?” Sam asked, both of us now evading the Gredace as fast as we could, and moving any and all potential debris out of the way as we saw it.
“Yeah!” I said.
“Well sure, but it could level this entire town, if not more!” Sam argued. “How do we get it someplace safe?”
I thought for a moment, which was considerably more difficult to do when evading a bomb-rock-monster, I have to say. Then I came up with a very uncertain plan. But hey, a plan’s a plan.
I stopped moving, and once more fired my cosmic energy into it, which was also incredibly draining on me. The adrenaline kept me going for the moment, but I was gonna be wiped after this. You know, assuming we lived.
“You need to stop time long enough for us to take this thing somewhere that’ll keep the explosion in a minimal damage-zone!” I explained.
“I...I don’t know if I can do that!” Sam said.
“You need to! This is what we do!” I yelled back. “You can do it, come on!”
The Gredace was practically glowing underneath its plated skin. It was enjoying this way too much.
“All…Alright, I’ll try,” Sam said.
“That’s all I need,” I responded. Inside, of course, I was scared out of my mind. He very may well not have been able to pull this off, and if he didn’t… Either I would have to kick it into high god damn gear, or a lot of people were about to die.
Sam took a deep breath, and nodded at me. I flew over to him, and put a hand on his shoulder to have a better chance of making it in with him. With my other hand, I kept firing the energy into the Gredace, and prepared to stop myself.
“Ready…” I signaled, Sam nodding once more, and holding his hands out. “Now!”
I released my energy, and the Gredace lunged toward us almost instantly. It made it just a foot or so away, and then suddenly, it stopped. And I could see that it stopped. Everything did.
I looked over at Sam, and he quickly glanced at me, and then back to his hands.
“You did it!?
” I asked incredulously. “You did it!” It felt… weird. Heavy, I guess.
I looked at his hands then, and saw something pretty unsettling. The air just in front of his hands was ripping away, and then returning. Like mini-vacuums. Like their very matter was being remodeled.
“Yep, I did it, now hurry up please…!” Sam struggled to say.
“I– Hey, take a deep breath, alright? Stop stressing out so much,” I said, trying to settle him down, still looking at the space just in front of his hands. “You did it, now just calm down and keep it up, yeah? Focus.” Sam took a deep breath, and slowly relaxed his posture, just a bit. With that, the pockets went away, and the air– the air’s matter I guess– stayed. I took a heavy sigh of relief on that one, I have to tell you.
“Right, okay… You just stay calm, and stay focused, alright? I’ll be back in a sec,” I quipped.
“Shut… up…” Sam said. What a party pooper.
I grabbed the Gredace, and took off into the sky. It felt like I was being weighed down far more than usual. Movement as a whole felt like it was trying to be denied by the laws of time. Still, I had to fight it.
I just flew up and up and up, and slowly, I could feel that things were slipping back into place. And by feel, I mean the intense heat the Gredace’s body was giving off slowly came on, and with a force. Not to mention, it felt like the pockets of air we were disturbing were blasting back with a force of their own. Like a time-resistance defense mechanism. The air we were moving in was snapping back into its right place in time, and it was doing so hard.
“Keep it together, Sam…” I muttered, picking up my pace.
Now, I should point out, as I have already, that it’s been four years. That’s a long time. And in that time, I have– as I again already said–honed my abilities. Not to mention, I know that when I can get a clear mind with solidly positive emotions, or “think purely” as Bell puts it, I can really kick my powers into high gear. So, I naturally tried to think as clearly as I could. My friends, Sam, Alannah, Bell, hell even Bentley; I needed to do this, for them. I needed to do some “hero” work, right now.
The Wanderer (Book 2): Stranded Page 9