章節 46: Fairy-Man
"Did you see the news?"
"No? Who do you think I am?"
"Dude! I'm telling you it's real!!"
"Nah fam, my mom said that shit was cap!"
Through the bustling halls of a university building, students and professors alike discussed with intense vigor unlike any before. The reason? The night prior, a broadcast spread across the globe.
Played on every channel and repeated every eight hours, the United Nations' most recent announcement held the world's fervor with rapt attention.
"Hey! I think that's him!"
"What?! Where?"
"Who? Who?"
Scrambled voices ricocheted off the walls as a young man with sunny blonde hair stepped off the university's elevator. A green sweater, loose jeans and sunglasses indoors covered the school's most recent heart-throb — Leon Drayton.
Running his fingers through his messy blonde hair, Leon noticed the crowd of people gawking at him from a distance.
"That's definitely him!" A random guy compared a picture on his phone to the Leon in front of him.
"It's Fairy-Man!"
Leon pushed his sunglasses up and docked them on his forehead.
"Me?" Leon awkwardly pointed to himself.
"OH MY GOD CAN YOU SHOW ME YOUR POWER!!" A freshman woman ran up to Leon and screamed.
"Yeah, do the light!" A guy yelled.
Leon rushed back into the elevator. He aggressively spammed the 'close-doors' button and prayed nobody would catch him in time.
Thankfully, God was on his side!
The elevator doors shut and Leon ran his hands over his head. He looked stressed.
He put his sunglasses back on and pressed the ground floor button.
He rolled up the sleeve of his green sweater and checked his watch.
*DING*
The elevator doors opened.
Leon rushed out of the elevator with hastened steps. With his stark red notebook covering his face, Leon marched across campus and stormed into his dorm room. Slamming the door shut, he let his body go limp and collapsed onto his bed.
"Fairy-Man?" Leon mumbled to himself.
*DING*
A notification hit Leon's smartphone.
"Mom: Oh my goodness my little Leon is on TV!"
"Mom: When did you pick the name Fairy-Man, sweetheart?"
"Mom: Your sister says it's girly"
Leon read the texts in bewilderment. Then, he rolled over to the other side of his bed and grabbed his laptop. Flipping it open, Leon immediately typed 'Fairy-Man' into his search engine.
The results were exorbitant:
"United Nations Announce Super Heroes!"
"Real Life Superman? Click Here For More!"
"Is Fairy-Man America's First Hero?"
And the last article sent shivers down Leon's spine.
"Just Who Is Fairy-Man?"
Unfortunately, from the moment Leon's browser loaded — he saw himself.
Well, a poorly edited version of himself with a black bar blocking his eyes and most of his nose, but Leon could tell that the photo was him. How could he not? It was a photo taken just a few weeks ago in Greenland — it was his passport photo.
Leon clicked one of the articles.
"As a follow-up of yesterday's outlandish report, just this morning the United Nations released exclusive footage of one of the so-called 'Awakened' — a young man given the alias Fairy-Man…" And the article continued.
While reading the article, a video embedded in the text caught Leon's eye. Hesitating, he forced himself to press play.
"Hey. My names [Bleep] and I can create |Fairy Dust|."
Snippets of Leon's interview in the underground military base played before his very eyes. Like the released photo, another black bar was edited over his face and his voice was slightly altered, but no other changes were made to protect his identity.
The video cut to another location. Now an aerial shot from a security camera embedded in the ceiling, Leon recognized his silhouette below.
This was the Ability test. This test was not only for validating the claims made in the interview, but also for evaluating the limitations of the Abilities themselves. First, Leon doused himself in the gold sand.
His feet delicately rose off the ground and he spiraled into the air — clearly showing off for the cute scientist recording his data.
Next, Leon proceeded to douse various objects and people in his golden sand — testing the exact weight he could manipulate and for how long while simultaneously testing if his |Fairy Dust| was particularly weak to any specific materials.
It would be a tragedy if in the middle of combat Leon discovered his |Fairy Dust| miraculously didn't affect aluminum, for example, but any element could fill in the blank there.
Obviously, that outcome would be horrific.
Luckily, after extensive testing, it appears as though Leon's dust equally affects all materials, but nonetheless the testing was important.
Closing out of the video, Leon continued to read the article. He swiftly finished it, but before exiting the website a picture placed at the end of the article stole his attention.
In the picture's citation below, Leon read the following:
"The United Nations Secretary-General Appoints The United Kingdom's Royal Navy's Admiral Sutton Adams Director of Newly Established Organization G.U.A.R.D or Global Unawakened and Awakened Response Division."
The picture portrayed the familiar face of Admiral Adams shaking hands with a gray-haired woman in leopard-print glasses. Behind the two stood the entire Assembly of the United Nations. Flags of over a hundred countries lined the ceiling beyond their handshake.
Meanwhile, the hundreds of Assembly members stood from their seats and rained applause in the background of the photo — celebration and success plagued the photo's atmosphere.
Leon pinched the corners of the photo with his fingers and zoomed in on the Admiral's face. Even though the old man was smiling, just looking into the Admirals… wait a minute… just looking into the Director's eyes caused Leon's heart to beat faster.
The hairs on his arms jolted straight and tingles momentarily brushed against the back of his neck. Leon felt fear when he looked into Sutton's eyes.
*DING*
Leon's phone chirped.
"Lily: Howdy there partner! Hehehe"
"Lily: I didn't know we got to pick our superhero names already!!!"
"Lily: Is there a website I have to visit?"
"Lily: Do you have the link?"
Lily's messages scrolled past Leon's eyes. Swallowing a deep sigh, Leon sent his thumbs to work. He also had to figure out how to navigate the deep pile of shit his government decided to drop him into, but alas, one thing at a time.
***
Olive awoke to the sound of a staticky radio. A familiar tune blared from its speakers, but it was nearly impossible to understand any of its lyrics through the static.
Rolling over, Olive pushed the covers off of her head and yelped in surprise.
The sun was remarkably bright!
White walls entered her vision along with a rickety table and a prehistoric boombox. Her jeans were strewn across the sunburned and cracked wooden floors and smoke barged into the room from the window that didn't have any glass covering it, only metal bars.
Squirming her legs, Olive pushed her covers off and stretched before getting out of bed. While stretching, Cain sat on the twin bed at the opposite end of the micro-room. With his back leaned against the wall, Cain's eyes were closed but his right hand continuously morphed into various shapes: pencils, toys, vegetables, anything that popped into his mind.
"What time is it?" Olive groaned.
"Three pm." Cain replied.
"And what time's our flight?"
"Seven-thirty."
"Thank God." Olive mumbled.
Cain finally opened his eyes as his hand returned to normal.
"Stop acting like it wasn't cool." Cain griped.
"I DON'T REMEMBER ANY OF IT!!" Olive shouted.
She picked up her pair of sweaty jeans and threw them at Cain.
Unbothered, Cain smacked her jeans to the ground and shrugged his broad shoulders.
"I can't help it if you pass out."
"Whatever!"
In a white tanktop and underwear, Olive brushed past Cain and stormed into their closet-sized bathroom. From the other side of the wall, Cain heard the sound of the shower handle jittering — it was covered in rust and required a special amount of elbow grease to get the thing turning.
Finally, the sound of rushing water escaped the bathroom.
"AND THERE'S NEVER ANY HOT WATER!" Olive's voice echoed off the tight walls around her.
Subsequently, Cain heard the sound of Olive stomping on the bathroom tile floor. It wasn't that the hotel they chose to stay in lacked hot water; rather, the hot water was limited in supply.
Heated in the mornings and nights alongside the furnace, hot water typically only worked during those hours of the day and well…
Olive slept in until past noon.
And she does so consistently!
'But I shouldn't judge her.' Cain spoke to himself.
'I was like her back then too.' Cain shook his head.
He rose from his place on his twin-bed and approached the cheap boom-box he bought recently.
'I can't believe it still exists.' Cain turned the volume up.
It was the same stereo Cain bought for himself as a kid, before the fallout. He almost froze stiff in the middle of the street yesterday when they strode past it.
The mere sight of it reinvigorated so many memories that Cain had once forgotten and he was sure he'd probably never find the shitty old stereo again — so he had to buy it. In fact, in order to buy it, Cain asked Olive to pester Church for money.
They all had a group chat, after all.
All of the returnees, in fact, were given government tapped smartphones, Cain included, but Cain wasn't really close with any of the other cast members in Olive's life. Of course, Olive gave Cain a general run-down of the events leading to his re-summon and Cain felt like he had a somewhat reliable impression of the cohort.
Isaac was your typical football father coach. Highly encouraging, sometimes overbearing, but always looking out for you and genuinely only wants the best for you.
Church was the second kid in this weird metaphor. He could never meet the demands of his overbearing father like his older brother did so instead — he found other means to attract attention. Church was quick-witted and snappy, sarcasm often possessed the man but like his father, a good heart graced his chest.
Lily, well, Cain struggled with Lily the most to be honest. Seemingly always bright, Cain would say unnaturally so, she tried her best to support the people around her. Up-front with her opinions, happy to be included, Lily managed to hold onto some semblance of innocence the Land of Trees had stripped from the rest of the returnees.
Then there was Leon, a bit of a new addition to Olive's cast, but his importance seems to be growing by the day. A secret agent on behalf of Adams or a genuine friend for Olive? Leon was risky. He was unpredictable.
And then there was Adams himself. Sutton Adams a man who, until only recently, made himself important regardless of his powerless status. At first, Cain was grateful to the man. How could he not be when he sacrificed so many Lesser-Souls over the course of months?
But after talking about it with Olive in conjunction with the simple fact that Olive wasn't even aware of the sacrifices, well…
Sutton Adams is supposedly devious and untrustworthy. Appearing like a gallant leader, he manipulates the people around him like pawns, the question however, is why?
What is Sutton Adams after? What's his goal?
Power? Cain could figure out that much, but power is a means to an end. It's a tool used to acquire something more — wealth, woman, fame, adoration, revenge?
No one quite knew, it turned out — nobody knew a damn thing about Adams. He never spoke of his family or any friends; he revealed zero personal information throughout his entire time in the Land of Trees.
'Why?' Cain asked himself.
Regardless of this inquiry, Cain spent the last couple of days reminiscing his past life. More specifically, his mother.
Anubis had indirectly forced him to think of her and with his 'life is eternal' mumbo-jumbo, Cain couldn't help but want to explore the possibilities there. This then served as a valiant effort in reminding Cain that this was a parallel world and his mother could be alive here!
Naturally, Cain had considered the possibility before, but due to an alternate version of himself not existing, i.e. the United Nations found no possible match for his identity — the dream of an alternate version of his own family diminished.
Another version of Cain didn't exist here. The United Nations confirmed that fact for him.
Checking that box off of his to-do list, Cain decided to hunt Lost Souls next.
Egypt, however, was a bust too. No Lost Souls acquired.
The meeting with Anubis, on the other hand, proved to be valuable due to the forced remembrance of his mother. He had somehow forgotten that his mother could exist without him.
At that point, the woman would most likely be a stranger to Cain, but Cain could accept that. In ode to the woman who raised him, Cain wanted to reciprocate to the woman who likely existed here in her place.
So Cain wanted to collect money. It was embarrassing enough to have to beg Church for spare change to purchase the boombox, so before Cain searched for his mother's clone — he needed to make some money.
Then, the running water stopped and Olive emerged from the bathroom.
It was time to go.
///LostNoteFound///
WalkingBush with the power stones!!!
Thank you thank you ;*
創作者的想法 
TheLostBoy
TheLostBoy One more day then the Weekend!!!!
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