“Aster, c’mon, where are we going, it’s such a nice day out can’t we just hang out at the park like usual?” a young boy with brown hair, hazel eyes and a very slim frame that was clearly caused by malnutrition said while looking up at the sky. His fingers intertwined clasping the back of his head while they walked on a dismayed and broken sidewalk. The overgrown grass from the abandoned houses poking through the cracks in the sidewalk.
“Lucas, calm down we will so don’t worry, I just want to show you a book I found in the library the other day, it’s going to blow your mind.” The other boy said. His blond hair swayed in the wind as he picked up the pace causing the other boy to stumble over himself as he attempted to catch up. His fingers unclasping and going to his side as he ran, his breath quickly leaving him as he struggled to breath.
“What do you mean library, you know that they outlawed everything like that, my mom says that if they catch you, it's bad news. Besides I saw on TV that they were going to begin cleaning up all the old-world buildings here soon.” The boy said as they ran, his words barely coming out between his rugged breaths.
“That’s all the more reason to do this now, better than getting caught later on, besides we’re almost there just, hurry up.” The blond headed boy said his head turned around as they ran, his feet leading the way showing how often they had made this journey. His head only shot back around when they entered a large overhanging shadow, both boys stopped dead in their tracks taking in the site before them.
Standing there was what was once considered a mighty hall for learning, its marble staircase, massive statues and symmetrical fountains. What was left was a crumbling mess devoid of all the life that it once had. The fountains hadn’t spat water in years, the statues had lost their heads and yellow caution tape was ripped and howling in the wind, long forgotten.
“This way,” the blond-haired boy said, directing the awe-struck boy away from his thoughts and back on the mission at hand. Quietly they began edging to the side of the building shuffling while keeping their breathing to a minimum, afraid that anything louder than a whisper would cause their demise. After what felt like hours, they slowly came to a small car sized hole that sat evenly in the eastern wall. Both boys stood up once they arrived at the hole, slowly crawling in while helping each other through.
"Are you ready to leave now?" The brown-haired boy's voice echoed in the cavernous space, his eyes darting left and right, a flicker of unease in his gaze. The library's interior was a melancholic tableau of faded grandeur. Towering shelves of dark oak, laden with books, lined the walls, their presence imposing and oppressive. The air hung heavy with the scent of dust and aged paper, a testament to the countless stories held within these silent sentinels.
In the center of the room, a grand staircase ascended into the shadows, its once-plush red carpet now a tattered remnant of its former glory. The steps, worn and creaking, hinted at the countless footsteps that had trod upon them over the years. The books themselves, while mostly intact, bore the scars of time and neglect. Some were faded, their titles barely legible, while others were marred by water stains and the ravages of insects. A few, however, were in a state of utter disrepair, their pages brittle and crumbling, their words seemingly lost to the relentless march of decay.
“We’re almost there, now come on, it's at this table up here,” the blond-haired boy said, directing them towards a massive table that sat in the middle of eight shelves. They surrounded the desk as if they were protecting it so the table could fulfill one final task. Quickly both boys arrived at the desk grabbing the two best chairs that were left and grabbed the only book on the table.
"This is the story of Atlas, before Titan City," the blond boy said, opening the book to the first page. His companion, a brown-haired boy, hesitated. A strange fear gnawed at him. It was an illogical fear—a book couldn't hurt him. But the allure of the knowledge it held was too tempting to resist.
Taking a deep breath, the brown-haired boy nodded, signaling his readiness. The blond-haired boy smiled and began to read the story aloud, his voice echoing in the stillness of their shared space.
It all began on November 19th 20XX when Atlas was just a normal person …
“Tom, do you have those documents I asked for an hour ago? I swear to god if they are not on my desk in five minutes I promise you the only place you're going to be working is the coffee shop that serves me my latte, now get me those fucking papers,” Tom Wolf was your average office job employee who worked for some hot shot lawyer whose job was to sue anyone and everyone who even slightly looked at a hero wrong. He sued them, they paid a massive amount of money to the super in question and Tom’s employer got to take home a small percentage of the money. Sure, he got paid a livable wage, but Tom could hardly call what he did living, every second felt like an eternity.
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“Almost done Mr. Gradon, I just have to finish formatting them and then they will be off to the printer,” Tom said, his dirty brown hair showcasing how long he had spent at the office without going home. His button up shirt and suit pants stained with sweat from multiple days without changing. Tom hurryingly formatted the document he was working on and pressed print. Then with the little energy he had left rushed over to the printer where his documents now lie and scooped them up only taking the time to straighten them up with a few quick thuds on the top of the printer and a quick staple from the over used stapler on the corner of the printer desk. Then with that Tom ran as quickly as he could to the far corner office door.
“I got those papers right here sir,” Tom said, handing the papers over to a plump semi balding man whose black and gray suit looked like it had been taken straight out of a mafia movie. With a smile the man scanned over the documents flipping them one by one until he came to the very last page. With a final flip he took the report and placed it on his desk and turned back to Tom.
“Excellent work, on that Report Tom, I can understand why your supervisor gave you top remarks in his evaluation report the other day,” Mr. Gradon said while slowly leaning back on his desk, causing his computer to scoot slightly back due to his bigger than average stature. Tom could hardly believe what he was hearing. Gradon never said anything nice about someone nevertheless right to their face. Honestly Tom didn’t even know his hard work was being recognized considering how little he had seen of Mr. Gradon since the suit against the President vs. Matter Man began a month ago.
“If only you had completed the assignment like I asked, then I might actually feel bad for what comes next,” Tom’s heart suddenly dropped. It felt like his heart was suddenly in his stomach not able to exit as he awaited his bosses next words quietly and nervously.
“I said you had five minutes to get that report on my desk, but it took six minutes and twelve seconds before it had come to rest in the spot it lays now, and as such it is my great pleasure to let you know YOU’RE FIRED! Now go pack up your things and get the fuck out of my office, you have ten minutes and if you're not out of here by then I will sue you for trespassing, not get the fuck out of here you worthless scum.” Tom couldn’t believe it, he knew his boss wasn’t a kind person and he knew that people got fired from this job regularly, but he had done everything he was asked to do, he worked late nights, finished reports before every deadline and even managed to complete the most impossible tasks when given them.
But for this to be how it ends, Tom quickly got back to his desk and quickly threw everything into a box he kept under the table, and with that he headed for the elevator. By now his dread had passed and all that was left inside him was a rage that he couldn’t quench, a heart stopping, blood boiling rage that made him want to cuss the world out, to destroy everyone who had ever wronged him. Slowly a ding pulled him from his thoughts, the doors to the bronze metal elevator opened before him leaving him face to face with an empty elevator. With a huff he walked in and looked down at the buttons before him. Then as if he was overcome with some sort of urge, he pressed the R button at the very top of the selection list. If Gradon wanted him gone, gone he would be.
On the ride up Tom’s thoughts could only focus on the same thought patterns, why did Mr. Gradon hate him, he hated him so much that he went out of his way to create an impossible task and when he completed it he went out of his way to sabotage him. Slowly his thoughts shifted from why he hated him to why didn’t he just kill him there. Rage boiled inside him; hatred filled his heart. It wasn’t fair for his boss to treat him this way, it wasn’t fair for society to just accept for this to be the way he could be treated, if he was in charge everything would be better. Finally, a ding snapped Tom out of his thoughts as the elevator opened up at the roof, revealing massive air conditioner after air conditioner.
It didn’t take long before Tom had walked past everything taking up space on the roof, at one point he would have cared about what the items here did, but that didn’t matter to him anymore. Silently he looked over the edge, people scurrying like rats around on the ground going from place to place, not a worry in the world about anything going on outside their tiny insignificant lives. If only he was in charge, if only he could dictate how they lived their lives and what they lived them for. Only then would they be free from the monotony of their pathetic lives.
Suddenly everything made sense to Tom, once he was free from everything only then would he be able to elevate himself to the status he so desperately deserves. Slowly he lowered his box to the ground placing it was more care than anything else he had in his entire life. Upon bringing himself upright everything finally felt clearer, it felt right. Then without a second thought he put one foot in front of the other and soon he was falling off the roof. As he began his descent everything came into focus, his vision suddenly coming into extreme focus and his fingers beginning to grow hot with energy. Then the world slowed down, it was as if the passage of time was only an illusion that kept the unaware trapped within its confines. Tom had thought that he needed to die to achieve enlightenment, but now he knew that was no longer necessary, all he had to do was reach his hand out and grasp this power.
Slowly he reached out his right hand, feeling the power flow through him, causing him to shutter, then with an expertise that he had never known he pulled upwards, the earth moved with the flow of his power rising up to catch him in a soft yet sturdy embrace. Carrying him up past the rooftop he had just jumped from and far above the city he hated for everything it was, but now a part of him loved this city, but only for what he was going to make it.