Adon

As the bolt flashed towards Adon, he could do nothing but think. He thought about the times when his mother and father took him to the small forest that resided outside of our little house. He thought about the days of rain and cold that greeted him on his long journey through the streets. He thought of the amazing parent Chuck had been ever since he moved in. And he thought of Ankita, who would soon give birth to their child that he would never get to see. And as he contemplated these memories, he instantly knew that he was not ready to die.

Yet as time passed, a miracle-like act occurred: the lightning bolt impeding towards him, began to change. At first only the slightest ripple appeared in its inanimate structure, but slowly it began to recoil backwards, as if it were a snake frightened by its greatest predator; however, instead of returning back to Zeuki, the bolt disintegrated in mid-air.

Adon stared at the spot where the bolt had once been in disbelief. Had Zeuki recalled the bolt? Did he realize that what he was attempting to do was truly immoral?

But when Adon stared into Zeuki’s face, he noticed that Zueki was just as bewildered as himself.

“What did you just do?” Zeuki stated horrifyingly, “What are you?”

“I-I don’t know,” Adon cried, “this has never happened before.”

“That’s because it wasn’t you.”

A man stepped out of the shadows--his upper body bare, and his hair unbraided and dangling so low it could touch the ground–it was Chuck.

“Who are you? What are you-” Zeuki’s screams were interrupted as Chuck extended his hand outwards causing everything within the tavern, excluding Adon and Chuck, to freeze in place.

“Chuck! What are you doing here?” Adon screamed, “you should be in your disguise, and now that he saw you-”

“Adon. Do not worry about me.”

Chuck took a deep breath.

“There is one thing I didn’t tell you about me that I should have long ago. See, I was always too scared, too terrified to tell you the truth about myself–about my people. I guess I should tell you now, while I still have the chance.”

Chuck’s voice sounded in the most mature and deep manner. It seemed he had been hiding his true identity for as long as Adon had been living with him.

“I’ve told you before that I was half divgin, half human, but that’s not the full story. I was born long ago, in a time where divgins and humans lived together on this world. During that time, the divgin species certainly did not exist in harmony or peace, in fact they had been at war for well over twenty-thousand years, but they existed nonetheless. It was a little over ten-thousand years ago, however, when that all changed.

“During that time period, the divgins had discovered something; something lying dormant in both the human and divgin species; something so powerful that the race who achieved the use of it first could completely change the tide of the war–it was the infinite gene.

“As you know, the infinite gene is nothing like a normal gene: while a normal gene appears from birth and can be present or not present within a person, the infinite gene exists within all divgins and humans and can only be awakened if the gene itself values a person’s worthiness. The gene has three benefits: the first is that its users receive a substantial increase in physical ability. This amounts to endurance, speed, and strength. The gene’s second benefit allows its users to gain a specific power, one that only they can obtain. This often leads to infinite-gene users with the strongest powers asserting their dominance the most. Some examples of these powers are Zeuki’s lightning and my-”

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“Your ability to stop time,” Adon stated, “Why didn’t you tell me about it earlier? It would have made the situation we are currently involved in so much easier?”

“Because my sweet boy,” he said pitifully, “I didn’t want to involve you in the pain that this power causes. The infinite gene is a curse, not a tool nor a weapon, it burdens the ones its user loves more than anything else. To obtain the gene you must lose everything: your love, your family, your life, and they are exchanged for power. If I had told you too much about it and used it too much in front of you, then you might have wanted to obtain the gene for yourself and at any moment…”

“Ok, ok,” Adon answered, “can you continue telling me about how you received the gene?”

“Alright Adon,” Chuck responded, “The third great power of the infinite-gene is the ability to prolong one's life. Those who have a weaker version of the gene can live up to two to three times longer than the average human or divgin, but those who have an extraordinarily powerful infinite-gene can escape the process of aging entirely. However, while powerful infinite-gene holders can escape the clutches of natural death, they can still die from being murdered by another being. Additionally, once an infinite-gene holder has awakened their infinite gene, they mentally mature at the same pace as their aging. This can be observed within Zeuki as both his physical appearance and maturity reflect that of a child.

“Anyways, once the Divgins discovered the infinite gene, they soon after awakened the power to use mind controlling hypnosis which they used to hypnotize large human villages. Once hypnotized, Divgin would force their human experiments to attack and murder their own families in attempts to awaken the infinite-gene within them. When one escaped the hypnosis, they’re infinite gene would have been awakened far more powerful than any being prior.

“After tens of thousands of humans and hundreds of years of experimentation they were finally able to awaken the infinite-gene in humans and themselves. However, they continued to experiment on the human species in order to find an even stronger version of the infinite gene, but their curiosity backfired on them. They eventually awakened the infinite-gene of a human, who was in fact not fully human; instead, the being had a human father, and a divgin mother, making him half divgin, half human; he was a Homogin. The Homogin they awakened had grown too strong and too powerful; but most of all, its hatred of the Divgin inspired its ambitions to the utmost extent. With the awakening of its power, it began to annihilate the armies of the Divgin and all the infinite-gene holders the Divgin had created. For this reason, the Divgin tried in every way possible to awaken a being under their own control with an infinite-gene equal to, or even greater in power than the homogin had obtained. And so, they created me.

“As mentioned earlier, I was born half-divgin, half-human. Because of this, the divgin assumed that I had fit the same genetic criteria of the homogin serving on the human-side, and I would, therefore, be a leading factor in their victory of the Great War. To accomplish this goal, the divgin captured and killed my parents at the moment of my birth, and I was forced to live in divgin custody. There, I was injected with steroids and other substances until I had tremendously grown in size and strength, fitting the divgins’ ’ideal standards of perfection. They then attempted to awaken my gene through grief and torture, but none of it worked. However, at the age of seven, after four years of hell, I finally awakened my infinite gene.”

“On that day, the leader of the Divgin counsel had come into my claustrophobic and dark room. He told me that he had something for me, something I would want to see. When he turned on the lights, I couldn’t believe what he had placed right in front of me.

“Staring directly at me was a face that looked almost identicle to my own--it was the face of my father. His body was terribly bruised, and his stressed pupils stared at me pleading for mercy. Blood flowed out of multiple slits within his arms and legs, while his fingers and toes were all twisted into the most unnatural of positions. He died just a minute later. Seeing him alive and tortured after four years of being told he was dead, and watching him die right before my eyes, instantly awakened my infinite gene.

“It was at that moment I realized how much I truly hated the divgin. My entire life my own species had left me and used me for their own selfish gain. I couldn’t let a species like that live, I truly couldn’t.

Chuck turned to Adon, tears sliding down his dirty cheeks, “I killed them Adon. I killed them all. I’m a murderer–I’m a monster.”

Adon stared pitifully at Chuck, “You aren’t a monster. You tried to do what was best for you and your family. You're the best father I have ever had, and this doesn’t change any of that.”

Chuck wrapped his arms around my chest, still glistening with tears. “Thank you, my child. You are truly my son.”

But even as Adon stared at his sorrowful face, he swore he could see the foundations of a smile forming along the outskirts of his lips.

“So, Chuck, what are we going to do about him?” Adon questioned, pointing to Zueki.

“Well first I have to remove this time barrier,” Chuck answered precariously, “Adon, when I do open this barrier, I want you to find Ankita, and run away from this tavern as quickly as you possibly can. Can you promise that you will do that for me, my boy?”

“I promise.”

“Alright. I will remove the barrier now so be ready.”

Within a moment, a strange light flashed before Adon’s eyes and everything within the tavern returned to motion. And then, Adon began to run.