I sat in a small cafe, drinking a cheap milkshake with a look of boredom on my face, just another person in the shop.
My phone was open on a trending social media post about the upcoming elections in the Roman capital. I knew it was bad to look at these things, that they were engineered to make me mad, but I couldn’t help it. I had always been curious about the world around me, especially since I didn’t have any parents to teach me about the things around me.
It seemed that, for some reason, Italians in the city were trying to protest the elections. Most countries would kill to have their capital also be Europe’s capital. I could understand the feeling of having others come in and try to erase your identity, but all the architecture and landmarks were the same weren’t they? I guess it was one of those things I would never understand.
While I scrolled to a different post, I saw the cafe owner walk up to me in 60’s era diner clothes, with a buzz cut and an incredibly muscular build. He carried a clipboard in his hands and a stern glare on his face.
“Will that be all, Miss…” He checked the name with a quick flicker of his eyes down to the clipboard before continuing. “Miss Lisa Lunete?”
I sighed before speaking back.
“I’m 14, do you really need to add the ‘Miss bit at the front, it makes me sound like I teach a class of troubled youths.”
He snorted as he responded. “Most children your age would be envious to be spoken to as if they were older. Also, you didn’t answer my question.”
“I like to be more of a free spirit, I dislike the idea of being older than I am, Adults have to deal with so much, and that kind of burden feels like it would be bad for my heart if I had it my way I’d like to work at a small bakery, retire in the countryside, and die surrounded only by those I loved.”
“Cute story, but you still haven’t responded to my question.” He said as he squeezed the clipboard in his hands.
“This is some really poor service, you’re really not trying with the upbeat 60’s theme huh~” I gave him a smug look.
“Will. That. Be. All.” He spoke through gritted teeth.
I looked back at him and gave him an innocent smile.
“Could I also have a sundae?”
His clipboard snapped in half.
Oh well, I had somewhere to be anyway.
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I walked down the street afterwards, another disinterested look on my face, ignoring my pounding heartbeat. I didn’t always like pissing off random people, but I was feeling distracted and stressed, and the only way I knew how to deal with it was by pushing my problems onto other people.
As I heard my heart hammer in my chest, and I struggled to keep my calm look, I recognized in a fuzzy haze that the sun was particularly beautiful today. Maybe in another world, I could have enjoyed today. However, right now, I have to focus.
I gripped the smooth golden pocket watch tighter, hoping the sweat of my clammy hands wouldn't screw me over.
The walk home was always the worst. A kid in jeans and a hoodie wasn't exactly odd, especially on a bright day, but my focused look would seem strange. Should I purchase something to blend in? I didn't particularly want the 60's crap Sun-lake sells, and I already had something to eat at the cafe, but that had been 2 hours ago, and besides, my ‘winning personality’, hadn’t exactly endeared me to anybody, and had probably drawn more eyes on me than before.
I was getting in my head too much. Nobody gave a shit about the random 14-year-old Blondie with a blank look on their face. They could just drive down to Los Angeles if they wanted that. Besides, I wasn't really doing anything illegal. Even with the concept of 'private ownership' being so large and vague you could catch buildings in it, the pocket watch found in a rotting manor hundreds of years old that was so old that I had to wear two face masks to keep the dust away couldn't count as someone's property, right?
Speaking of that pocket watch, I still had no idea why it was the only pristine item there. Even as I turned it over in my pocket, I could tell that it was polished. I couldn't even feel any scratches, and my sense of touch was one of the only things I prided myself on.
I caught myself sighing.
When I get back to school tomorrow, I'm punching Kat. Even big dares didn't have you enter a building that looks like fucking Dracula’s fucking castle. It just needed some lightning and an ominous bell tolling. Though it did kinda look funny in the day, and if they cleaned it up a lot, maybe even beautiful. It had a nice (now decrepit) garden in the front, and if the paintings weren't eaten away, you could even think that somebody used to be proud of living there. The decay had taken all of that away, and now it seemed that only the maggots and termites would know somebody once existed there.
I got out my phone, and played Synesthesia's new song, 'Love Tree'. The palpitations seemed to slow down, letting the scenery of the world get a little clearer. The 30 bucks a month spent on her music was almost crippling, but once you got past that and the moral issues of her trying to copyright the medical condition, the ability to have your mood calm down, even if by only a small amount, was miraculous.
Suppose that's why they're called Numina though, 'gifts so great the layperson thinks they're divine'. I remember my teacher talking about it back in history class, though he was talking about powers in the Golden Age, not the modern age. Things now feel less impressive compared to the biblical feats Supra-humans did back then.
I saw the train system above me have a new train flash by, before the bridge barrier displayed a notice.
‘See anybody odd, or with an 8-pointed star? Report it to your nearest S.U.N branch office. Do your part and keep the streets safe, for the whole of Sun-Lake city.
This message has been approved by Mayor Victor. For a brighter, more hopeful future.’
I frowned. I couldn’t help it. I wonder if those actually do anything? Like what even counts as being ‘odd’, by their standards. The vagueness felt like some more Silver Age bullshit. Also, who even went around wearing an 8-pointed star? Empress’s people were supposedly all hardened criminals, Supras and non-Supras included. Sure some random thugs might wear it to represent who they belonged to, but anyone who had any real sway over the problems plaguing everyone wouldn’t wear that.
It might be comforting to arrest someone who represented the biggest source of illegal activity in the world, even if they only have a vague connection to it all, but did that make it justified? Even without the waste of resources, did that justify all the people who were wrongly accused or had their lives ruined because of false accusations?
Or maybe that was just the ‘drooling socialist’ in me that Amy always joked about. At least she wasn’t one of those weird Golden Age Ultra-Fanboys, one of those guys that flips between capes, spandex, fedoras and trenchcoats. It was fine if you appreciated the time period, but they always liked to mimic the way people acted back then as well, down to the political opinions. I was surprised how she was respectful about things like the Silver Age, I assumed her upper-crust background would kinda ruin that. Maybe it was because it had only been twenty years since it ended.
Most of us were quiet when we saw the documentaries about what happened then. I liked to think it was one of those events that sobered even the most deranged lunatics, but sometimes I’d hear an off comment just walking down the street, and I’d feel just a little bit sadder.
God my head was a mess. I needed to focus on something else. Thankfully, Synesthesia’s song had ended, and I had to manually switch it out for another, something about it ‘messing up’ the effect of her Numina.
I opened my phone, switching tracks with the shuffle feature. The phone’s dark background showing a revolving arrow before a new song is selected. ‘Starlight Sign’. Huh. That was the time she collabed with that Seven-Branched Sword idol group. I wasn’t super into K-Pop, but I could recognise that it sometimes produced some really good tracks.
As my head turned up from my phone screen I barely caught someone in front of me running into an alleyway so fast I barely saw them before they disappeared. I blinked, before trying to see what just happened. In terms of distractions, this worked well.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I moved a bit faster before turning to see what was in the alleyway.
Red brick construction, grey-black pavement, a large green dumpster to the side with no trash in it, a side entrance for the building to my left, and what I really cared about. The flash of blonde hair as they vaulted over the back of the alleyway, too fast for me to catch anything else.
Was someone filming some sort of parkour video? I wasn’t exactly a genius in figuring out what is human or superhuman. It looked fast at least, like something I’d see in those Supra combat shows, just with a worse angle of the action.
Huh, now there was an idea. Maybe I'd go watch that new episode where the Iron Maiden fought that entire group of Supra-humans at once. It wasn’t often that you got to watch a Crown fight in one of those fights, even if everything was intentionally rigged and set up, it still looked really cool.
As I exited the alleyway I heard an ambulance's siren from further up ahead. The sound was competing with my earbuds for attention, and it was making a good effort. It would have annoyed me more, but Synesthesia's voice kept some of it at bay, holding it back, jagged lines of sonic energy humming against my mind. The stress combined with the calm and the annoyance made me feel floaty. Combined with the warmth of the sun, I wasn't even mad when I felt someone run into me.
The force knocked me onto the floor, pain flaring then oddly fading, before I felt warm liquid on my clothes. No way I was shocked that hard, I was 14 this was pathetic, I couldn't have actually pissed myself after someone knocked me down. If I did, I may have to find a building to jump off of. The man who ran into me seemed shocked, in black pants and a black hoodie with some stubble on their face, alongside claw-shaped hands but none of the distinctive use of a Numina. Did a Biomancer edit him? I couldn't have actually found a real henchman right? Even with all that happened in this world, somebody being that stereotypical would be pathetic. They looked like somebody in spandex would beat the shit out of them, and that hadn't been popular since the 60s.
I started feeling colder.
Ah the liquid, maybe it was making me feel colder because of the breeze?
The man was crying now.
Why was he crying?
Ah shit, the watch, I had to get the watch out.
I didn't want to ruin its beauty.
Why were his eyes so remorseful?
Liked he was seeing something that was wilting.
Like the Manor owner, nobody would remember.
Huh, the watch, and my hands, were clean.
But my hoodie was white.
So why was the liquid that leaked, dyeing it so much darker instead?
I started feeling colder.
My hands were becoming numb and tingly.
My throat was trying to make something resembling words, but I could only feel shock. I pushed against the ground, but I could only slip, my hand slick with the dark substance - my blood- making it impossible to push.
I slipped, my shoulder slamming into the ground, pain flaring and then fading away. The man's face had fear in it, his hands, with my blurring sight, weren't slick red, but coated with other things, pink and bendy, yellow and squishy, all quickly dyed by the red.
I gripped the watch with my clean hand.
My Stomach. I could see through it.
It was so red.
The wetness on my face. Was it to tears? Or was it also my blood?
I got colder.
I didn’t want to die.
Not here.
Focus.
Focus.
Focus. Focus. Focus.
Focus. Focus. Focus. FocusFocus. Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus.Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus.focus. Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus.Focus. Focus Focus. Focus.Focus. Focus. Please Focus. Focus.Focus. Focus. Focus.
My thumb pushed down on the watch’s crown, aeon’s-old trapped gas escaping in a moment.
The pain vanished.
My mind cleared.
I breathed with lungs that shouldn’t be able to breathe.
The world was dull. A cold grey-blue. The clawed man’s tears were suspended. I could even see the other people on the screen, the slowly rising panic on their faces.
The color came back, and my pain resumed, worse this time.
I screamed. It was so raw that it made all my cries of pain before seem invalid, the scream of help, a cry for mercy.
I got colder.
I pushed back down on the watch’s crown.
The pain vanished.
My mind cleared.
The Crown. It was stopping the pain. When it was pushed down, my pain went away, and the world went grey. I felt a push from the watch’s crown. I didn’t let go of the crown, but I could feel it pushing itself upwards with no regard for my life. Stop. Please stop moving upwards. I’ll do anything. The people around me had moved. How much time had passed?
I crawled backwards. Away from the blood. Away from the sidewalk. Onto the street.
The color came back, and my pain resumed, worse this time.
Why wasn’t anyone helping? I was in pain and no one was approaching me. They were just leaving me here, cold and alone on the street.
I looked up and saw the same blonde hair of the figure who I had chased before, they were staring at me, I think. I couldn’t see their face from so far away, just their long blonde hair and what looked like black clothes.
I heard sirens, getting closer and closer.
The Ambulance! It would notice me and help me! I wasn’t going to die. I was safe.
…
Why wasn’t the ambulance slowing down?
I heard a crash, and then I heard no more.
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“How is she doing?” A female voice spoke, her tone disinterested.
“Considering how we found her cadaver? Wonderfully. It was difficult to get someone who could handle near-total disfigurement fast enough to make a difference, but the street recording clearly showed her teleporting away from her original place of injury, though without any obvious Numina Marks.” A man’s voice spoke, tired and deep.
“No marks? Must be lucky to have her Numina hide its Mark. What does the ambient Numin scan show?” the woman spoke again, her voice more interested than before.
The man was silent.
“Well?” her voice spoke with a hint of curiosity.
“Levels are neutral across the board. No increases in Helium, Silicon, Neon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Iron, Magnesium or Sulfur.” He said with great reluctance.
“You sure the machine isn’t busted? Some of those gasses are pretty difficult to detect increases in as well, this might just be a false negative.” She spoke quickly.
“We know that can happen so we triple-checked it and brought in some other machines. No. Changes.” He spoke with a larger amount of firmness in his voice.
“Hydrogen?” She spoke with a false sense of lightness in her voice.
“Don’t even joke about that. Well, there were no increases there either.” He spoke back, sharper than before.
“Fuck. Go call Violet and Vermillion. I’ll try and bury as much of this as I can.” She spoke with a sense of dread in her voice.
What were they talking about? Violet? Vermillion? What was a Numina Mark? I tried to think more, but my brain felt so foggy, and the world felt oddly warmer than usual. So warm that I could barely stay awake. But then again, why did I want to stay awake? Maybe some rest would be nice. Everything still felt painful after all.
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I awoke again to the sound of a ringing bell.
“Rise and Shine kid. The bell woke you up, I can see increased brainwaves on the monitors around you, so please don’t try to pretend to sleep, I’ve had to deal with that too much.” The voice of the man I heard before spoke.
I felt much stronger and slowly opened my eyes. A soft white light entered my eyes, as I started seeing after a long time.
The room around me was metal in appearance, with blue and white lines cutting through it, providing the light for the room. I could hear beeping monitors and see a closed door with a window, the same grey metal and lights on the other side.
I was on a bed, with wires and tubes hanging from my body, connected to machines around me. I couldn’t tell what half of them did, but I am assuming the man in front of me didn’t care, giving me an annoyed look, as if expecting a response from me.
He had black slicked-back hair going halfway down his neck. His black-gloved hands were clasped together, a similarly black trenchcoat and pants, over a white shirt and tie, with a black vest over that.
“Well? Are you going to respond or are your eyes just going to dart around everywhere?” he spoke with a sense of sarcasm and boredom.
I thought my throat would be parched, but it felt perfectly fine as I tried to speak.
“Who are you?”
“Agent Michaels, S.U.N, information division captain.” He spoke back with rote practice.
“What happened to me?” I asked him.
“Well, you got stabbed, run over, and crushed. We managed to get your corpse and resurrect you, keeping you here while you recovered for the past three days, as far as the outside world is concerned, you died getting run over in an accident.” He spoke back, with a hint of empathy in his voice.
“Everyone thinks I’m dead? Why? Why did you save me?” I spoke numbly.
“Well, we caught you on tape doing this.” He said as he got a remote on the table and had a projection appear on the wall, showing me getting stabbed, before seemingly teleporting backwards.
The watch. I think it stopped time, but then why did they think I did it? I didn’t have powers.
“Congratulations kid, you have a Numina, and not just any but one that has no marks or ways to tell where it belongs. Welcome to the exclusive club of those who have been confirmed to possess none of the 8 standard Numina, and no signs of Numina based on anything else in our system. It’s a pretty rare club, you being the third in recorded history.” He spoke sarcastically.
He thought I had powers? It was the watch, not me. I had to tell him that.
…
If I did tell him, then what would happen to me? No Identity, no money, fuck all to my name. If they were interested in the watch, I wouldn’t even have that. I couldn’t tell him I didn’t have powers. If I did, I’d have nothing left.
I gulped before speaking.
“What do you want me to do?”
Michaels smiled.
“I want you to be a hero.”