Tom’s eyes burned white with fire, the power he was feeling showing itself to onlookers, by now everyone who had been walking past as he had begun his descent had stopped to watch the spectacle of a new super being born. Tom could feel their gazes, their gawking, their awe and their jealousy. He had been like them just a short while ago, that's when it hit Tom, he had been just like them hating every second of his life, not ever getting the justice he deserved, but now he could. Slowly he closed his eyes reaching outwards for the same feeling he had before, quickly he found it raging in the center of his being like a fire that had been stocked with more fuel than what it knew what to do with.
Tom could feel everything, every person, every tree and every animal. Everything had a small amount of the energy he felt inside of him. Quickly he expanded this sense sending it outwards throughout the entire building, its purpose, to find one person. It wasn’t long before he detected what he was looking for, a fat self-centered man who knew nothing other than his own interests. Tom knew what he had to do, he used the power he felt and used it to grab at the ground, pulling and stretching it like a god shaping the earth. The earth bended to his will shooting up through the floors of the building, through the elevator shafts and around the building, all his power converging on one single place.
Once his power had finished converging on one spot barring the doors leaving only the windows available, only then did Tom begin making his way around the building. Slowly creating free floating stairs in the direction that he wanted to go, it took a while for him to methodically walk his way to the corner office waiting right until the fat pig had given up hope on breaking through the earth barrier and began to look for a way he might escape through a window. It was then that he walked into the corner of his ex-boss's vision. The look on his face was priceless; it went from shock to pride to pure terror once he realized what was most likely to occur. Hell, he had paved the very way for Supers to be above the law, lining his pockets the whole way through.
What came next could only be described as a blood bath, Tom used his power to reach out from the unmoving earth wall that blocked his ex-boss's way just a few moments ago, grabbing hold of his boss in a light yet firm hug. Then with extreme speed and force, he thrusted his boss through his big fancy window shattering it as his bruised boss was raised to meet him face to face.
“Tom, you need me, after all I am the leading lawyer in Super law, what do you think will happen to you if you kill me,” Gradon said tears forming in his eyes, clearly looking for any out he might find. Tom just stared at him in disbelief how could he honestly be this selfish, did he not realize how poorly he had treated him, did an apology not once cross his mind.
“I don’t need you, someone else will pick up where you left off, someone else will always want to line their pockets, and from now on I’ll have the ability to line those pockets. Before I got this power I was in the process of falling off your building, I think that you should feel the same way I did before I got my powers, and hey if you're lucky maybe you’ll awaken too.” Then with that Tom let go, letting his old employer drop to the ground while slowly turning around, he had a lot of work to do after all.
Tom felt like he could see what needed to be done now, he knew the path that he needed to take. Once again Tom used his power to raise himself into the air but this time much, much higher than he had when he needed to look over the building he had once been trapped in. Now he needed to see over much more, he needed to look over the entire city. With little effort he rose above the city, soon being able to see all the roads in their checkerboard pattern, all the buildings filling the squares they made.
He spent a while looking at what men had created using their bare hands, how primitive they were. Slowly he sat down, folding his legs into a crisscross stance, closing his eyes and began reaching out with his power. A few years back he had heard of Supers taking over cities and ruling over them, apparently some were even fairly nice places, he figured he might as well do the same. The first thing he needed was protection in a way that stopped people from entering and leaving without his permission, and that would take a natural boundary. With all the strength he could muster Tom reached into the ground all around his new city and began yanking up, he could feel the vibrations he was causing, buildings began to shake, sirens began to scream but soon enough it was over.
Now surrounding the city were eight massive mountains, only one entrance and one exit remained, only people who he let in could enter and only people he let out could exit, it was the perfect mouse trap. Next up was the nasty defiers, something inside Tom told him that if he didn’t do all this now it would be harder for him later, so once again he brought forth all the power he could muster and began systematically taking out the police stations and the military bases that sat within his domain. This took quite a lot longer than the last task, either because of how excused he was now or simply due to how many places he had to dismantle. Now was when Tom could feel a slip on his powers coming, he didn’t know when it would occur, but he still had one last major task to complete before this city was perfect. Again, Tom reached out for his power, this time though it felt slightly farther away than before, but still it responded to his touch.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
On each of the eight mountains Tom pulled upwards, but this time he used a gentle touch, shaping each of them in their own unique way. This task took the longest of all, each piece had to be hand crafted and slowly sculpted into perfect statues of himself all posed in different positions. It was only after they were all done that Tom felt himself collapse into a deep sleep, finally done with everything that needed to be done, for now that is.
As Aster closes the book, Lucas looks at him, fear in his eyes. “I don’t think we were supposed to see this, Aster.” Lucas said, Aster could only nod in response, he had read the beginning but had never bothered reading the book to completion. The book looked very close to new but unlike all the other books in the library it wasn’t printed. Someone had handwritten every word in the book, clearly showing that they had to make it in secret.
“So, what, you needed to see what he did, before they take down all traces of the past, can’t you see that's why he wants to remove any trace of the truth that happened before he took control. He lives like a king now, and just like every other king he has become cocky, and like every other cocky king that will eventually be his downfall.” Aster said, trying to impart the importance of this knowledge onto his scared friend.
“Ya, I get it now can we please leave. I just want to get back home so we can play in the park. We can play Earth Shapers like we normally do,” Lucas said, getting up from his chair, motioning for both of them to quickly and quietly leave. But before either of them could begin moving that way a loud sound echoed throughout the library. Slowly light began to shine through the front of the building creeping past shelf after shelf until it lined up with the base of the massive staircase that led to the second floor.
“Are you sure the sensors detected someone in here?” A higher pitch male voice said after the door’s creaking had come to a stop.
“Yes, I’m sure now hurry up and start looking, they can’t be far, you take the second floor, and I’ll look down here on the first, signal for me if you find anything,” a much deeper voice said, showing their leadership and control of the other. It was then that both Aster and Lucas began running for it, they knew that if they didn’t get out right then they were both dead. It didn’t take long for them to get out of the hole and back in front of the building. Both boys ran in a dead sprint from the library only looking back every now and again praying that they wouldn’t see anyone chasing them, but alas they never did.
“I found something, get your ass down here Almar,” the husky voiced leader said as he walked up on the desk the two boys had recently been sitting at, the book they had been reading sitting out for anyone to find. With a dark gray hand, the husky voiced leader reached out and picked up the book, skimming through it before placing it into a satchel on his hip.
“Alright I’m here now what did you find,” the higher pitched underling asked as he arrived, clearly out of breath. The higher pitched one saw the desk along with the giant hole in the wall and put the pieces together quickly.
“Do we know who it was?” He asked looking up at his superior, studying his face to see if he would give off any information.
“No, but I do know they didn’t take anything, tell her excellency that we are going to have to start here, I want you to burn this place down, don’t leave a single book unburned, if you do it will be your head,” the leader said before turning his back on his underling. The underling didn’t bother responding, instead he pulled out a book and began shooting sparks from a finger catching every few books on fire. After a while a large fire filled the halls of the library, the oak shelves crackled under the heat and books cried in the fires, all that could be heard was the laughter of one high pitched voice echoing over the flames.
“That was way too dangerous, we could have gotten killed or worse they could have killed us and our families if they had caught us, what made you think that was a good idea?” Lucas asked after they had both managed to run all the way back to the park they usually played at. Aster didn’t respond, he just sat on the swing going back and forth for a while.
“I didn’t know they would come, the last eight times I went there nothing happened, no one came and by no means did I ever see anything weird go down. I just assumed it was a forgotten library. They must be on high alert due to Atlas beginning his newest plans,” Aster said after a long while. Lucas stared at him while he spoke, prying into him with his eyes, it wasn’t until Aster was done talking that his expression softened.
“Well, I won’t hold it on you as long as you promise to never force me into anything that dangerous again,” he said with a smile. Aster could only smile back and offer out his pinky finger, the two laughed at this but quickly came together shaking pinkies and promised to never do something like that again.