I sighed. This was going to be a tough day…
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By lunch period the next day, the school had focused on other things, giving me the peace of mind that I’ve been praying for. I happily had slipped back into the crowd. Or at least, as normal as my life could get. I smiled as I recounted the days that everyone had nervously smiled at me and rushed pass as if they were all on in some big secret that I wasn’t allowed to know about.
I toyed with the idea of searching through a few people’s thoughts to see what was going on, but I opted against it. It’s one thing to find out things through people’s thoughts to protect myself and my family, but going through people’s minds is a total invasion of privacy and I would hate for that to happen to me.
I walked my way to the lunchroom, pondering over the twist and turns that my life has made recently and grinned. I opened the doors and a sudden hush fell over the lunchroom instantly putting me on guard.
I stood still, letting my combative instincts take over as I shifted my eyes around the completely still and silent room. Now, a completely quiet room isn’t usually something I would go all commando mode on, but when everyone has suddenly frozen in mid-action, as if time were frozen, I immediately assume something is wrong.
I waited there like that for a moment, unsure if I were dreaming or something, when I saw something dart out from near a corner. I instantly locked in on it and prepared for a battle. The figure was dark and shadowy, so it was hard to describe its features, but it moved fast and with a purpose.
With a sudden change in interest, the dark figure rushed at me with lightning-like speed. In that I didn’t have time to think about any moves, I just reacted by throwing up a mental shield that encased half of the cafeteria.
The figure slammed into my neural wall and bounced back, obviously stunned and in that instant my commando mode kicked and I fashioned my wall into a net that I then draped around the figure and pinned it against the wall.
As it struggled against its invisible bounds, I breathed a sigh of relief before going to check out who this mysterious person was. Before I even close enough to get a good look at the figure, a familiar voice rang across the silent room, scaring the pants off of me.
“Not bad for your first time.” Another figure said, standing in a shadowy corner. As he walked into the light I felt a mix of emotions, mainly consisting of rage and relief.
“Paleos!” I exclaimed as the long bearded man from my dreams walked towards me, a small smile on his face. “What are you doing here? And what’s with the shadow man?” I asked angrily Motioning towards the now still dark figure that was still pinned to the wall.
Paleos waved his hand and the shadow man disappeared into thin air. I stared at the spot where he once was, bewildered at what I had just seen.
“What was that?” I asked incredulously
Paleos chuckled. “That was a little trick I picked up when training with a few shinobi in china.”
“Do you think you could teach me?”
Paleos pondered this for a moment. “I could try, but the technique is very difficult. It took me almost a whole five years straight to figure out and another ten to master it.”
I slumped my shoulders in disappointment, and then perked up as I was struck by a great idea.
“Wait a minute…what if you could teach me how to do it in only a few seconds?”
To say that Paleo’s eyebrows shot up would be understatement, the more accurate response would be that his eyebrows flew up like they were attached to a weather balloon that had way too much caffeine that morning.
“Well, I’d say if you have a way to do that then I’d be happy to help out in any way that I can.” He said with obvious disbelief in his voice. I grinned and motioned him closer.
Once Paleos was within reach, I put my hand to his head and activated Mental Shift. My astral-self floated out of my body and into the old man’s head. The first thing that I noticed was that everything was very slow and coordinated, as if his mind were in a constant state of relaxed precision. I made my way to his control center and focused his thought towards the shadow man technique. In an instant, hundreds of thousands of images surrounded the screen.
As I watched them go by, I realized that I had no way of copying his recollection and making it my own. I stood there and thought for a moment, letting my enhanced thinking run wild with ideas. Finally I had an epiphany, if the control center is like a complex computer, then all I needed to do was copy the information regarding the Shadow Man technique, and then copy it down to my own control center.
I set to work downloading all memories that had to do with his training. It took me a bit longer than expected, but I eventually had all the memories ready for transport. I closed my eyes as I imagined a big hunk of pie that represented the shadow man memories, and concentrated on making two separate pies. The process really drained me, especially when I had gotten distracted or lost track and had to start over again.
Soon, I had finally created the two separate pies and returned the original back to its source and kept the copy. Memories that weren’t mine flashed through my mind, years where I hadn’t been born yet rushed past me in an instant.
Once the process was complete, I double-checked to make sure everything was in the right place, then exited paleo’s mind and returned to my own body.
Now, back in my body, I released my grip on paleo’s head and grinned. He opened his eyes and looked towards me with confusion written on his face.
“So what happens now?” He asked and I smiled before closing my eyes and summoning a Shadow Man right next to me, causing Paleos to jump a foot in the air.
“Hell’s bells man, give a fella a little warning next time!’ He said putting a hand to his heart, but a happy twinkle in his eyes.
I grinned as I said “If you think that’s impressive check this out!” I closed my eyes again and concentrated hard. I heard Paleos gasp as my Shadow Man’s feature’s changed into an exact replica of himself.
“But…how is that possible? I was still trying to perfect that myself, so it should have been impossible for you!” Paleos said examining the new face of my Shadow Man for a flaw, only to find none.
“Well, when I got the memories of your training, I got some of your recent training as well.”
I explained as I made the Shadow Man move his arms, startling the old man.
“Well it’s obvious that you’re a quick study…but this may not be enough to defeat Jerald in your upcoming battle. You be able to react quickly and efficiently. Paleos said as he finally tore his gaze away from the Shadow Man who was currently doing calisthenics and focused his gaze on me.
“Jerald has had years to improve and perfect his power, while you have only had them for a short amount of time and still have much to learn.” Paleos said, his gaze becoming intense.
“Yeah…by the way, you really haven’t explained how my powers relate to you guys having powers as well.”
Paleos blinked. “You mean to tell me that you are unaware of how your powers came to be?” I nodded my head, intrigued to hear the old man’s explanation to say in the least.
“My son, while you were on the field on that fateful night, you had unknowingly stopped underneath a plain of battle between two of the most powerful beings this world has known.”
He paused as he thought of a way to phrase his next sentence as I watched in rapt attention.
“Keratous, Lord of Mischief, Corruption and the Mind, was one of the two. He fought against his sister, Semeria, Lady of Truth, Honor and Form, over a most serious matter. The had raged over this over this many times throughout history and it didn’t seem to grow closer to closure as time marches on. They continued arguing for ages, each and every argument becoming more and more heated, until it finally reached a climax on the field of battle, which was placed far enough outside of sleepy town that we thought that no one would be hit by anything that fell from the sky.”
Paleos rubbed his eyes, suddenly appearing very tired and weary.
“It’s evident now that we were wrong.” He whispered sadness tinting his voice.
“A powerful blast from both Immortals combined between them and refracted downward towards the ground where you were struck. It was only after the battle that we took notice of you, and by then you had already slipped into a coma in which it did not look like you would wake.”
I sat as still as a rock as I listened intently as questions bubbled in my head, but I quieted them down and remained silent. I wanted to know more off what happened that day, from someone who has the answer that I’ve asked myself dozens of times, over and over and over again.
“We knew that you would most likely die if nothing was done to save you, so all the immortals had come to a meeting to figure out what to do. We had come to the consensus that the two responsible for your state will be the ones who will fix it. So, Keratous and Semeria allied with each other, promising to fix the damage that they had wrought.”
“The damage they’d done to your system was too great, though, and if they did not think of anything quickly, you would surely perish. Because they knew that if you were to die, they would surely be stripped of their powers and rank if that were to happen, they hatched a desperate plot to save your life. They turned themselves into their purest essence and combined it with your own. The end result was that your life was spared, but only as long as the two immortals hold on to the thread that your life hangs on.”
I stared at Paleos, my mouth hanging open so wide you could my heart beating feverishly. I almost died? There are freaking Gods of unimaginable power attached to my soul? I almost died? Could these Immortals, being controlling me with my notice? I freaking DIED?!
It was too much to handle, I suddenly began giggling like a madman. I couldn’t help it, after all this time of wishing I could just curl and never wake up, I had actually died and I couldn’t even do that right!
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