If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
Humans ask themselves the question at least once in their lifetime, and Leland was no exception. His answer was a no-brainer. Teleportation. He would never be late again, and the boost in efficiency in his life would allow him to handle more tasks or be more lazy without consequences.
It was the dream ability… and yet… when Leland teleported in front of Rigbar Inn, there was no smile or trace of wonder on his face. His hands were clammy and sweat peppered his forehead.
Can I really do this?
Leland tried to slow his breathing but failed and his heart thumped madly. The social anxiety had magnified since attempting to talk to the woman in the park, likely due to the fact that he was in a wildly foreign environment. To make things worse, he could barely keep his eyes open. The teleportation seemed to have sucked the life out of him.
Laughter, shouts and chatter could be heard from inside the inn—an introvert’s nightmare scenario.
Stop thinking! Just go.
A red-skinned, four-armed alien staggered out of the inn, falling face first. Leland flinched and darted into the building, using the shock as fuel to move his body. He took the bracelet out of his pocket and looked around the room. Aliens sat around tables and conversed, paying him no attention.
After thirty seconds of looking, he found Astridra. The alien sipped from a purple cup, gazing at the table in front of her with a blank expression. Thankfully, she was alone. Talking to a group would have been even more difficult.
Leland briskly walked up to the alien. “H-h-h…”
No, not now. Please… not now.
The stutter was a big one. He could sense it. One-minute stutters were rare, but they were a likelihood. They were the type of stutters that were so bad that Leland's whole day would be ruined, the type that made him feel bad for the listener because they were trapped in the awkward interaction since they couldn't just walk off and had to wait for him to finish.
The alien looked up, eyes squinting at Leland. “A human? Huh. That’s funny. What do you want?”
Leland tensed up. “H-h-h-h…”
Noooooooo!
“H-h-h-h… ”
Ahhhhhhhhh!
Leland tossed the bracelet. Astridra caught it with a webbed hand. “No way! I’ve been looking for this everywhere. Where did you find it?”
“G-g-garvo… sent me.”
“Thank you, human!” The alien sprung from her seat and embraced Leland in a cold hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
When she let go, Leland rushed to the chair opposite her before his legs could give way. He let out a sigh of relief and buried his head in folded arms.
“Are you okay, human?”
Leland grunted, raising a thumb up.
“Is that a human gesture for yes?”
Leland repeated the action. After a short while, he stood up and blinked rapidly. While rubbing his eyes, he slowly walked to the inn’s exit until a hard surface stopped him in his tracks. He took a step back, rubbing his forehead. At first, there seemed to be nothing ahead of him, but after a bit more squinting, he noticed a faint outline of a large creature.
“Watch where you’re going!” the alien barked. “As a matter of fact, what’s a slug doing in a place like this?”
The alien became visible, revealing shiny silver skin. Its claws dragged at the surrounding air as if it was a hard surface.
Leland backed up. “S-s…”
“Speak up! You can’t talk? Answer my question.”
Leland pictured Garvo’s room but before he could teleport, the alien lashed out with a kick. The world rotated as Leland spun rapidly in the air and crashed into a wall. Gasps and laughter rang in his ear and as he faded in and out of consciousness, he could hear a faint conversation.
“Leave the little guy alone. It was clearly an accident.”
Astridra seemed to be defending him, though he wasn’t sure.
“He’s a slug species!” Shifa spat. “No manners. No honor. He probably eats his own faeces.”
“Slug species or not, he sent me the bracelet, brother. Calm down.”
“Mother’s bracelet?”
“Yes.”
“Really? Him?”
“Yes!”
Leland staggered to his feet and limped towards the inn’s exit, eyes unfocused.
“Where do you think you’re going, slug? I still need an apology.”
If social anxiety and exhaustion weren’t beating Leland’s ass, then he might have said something and if it wasn’t for the stutter, he might have questioned why aliens kept referring to him as a slug species and poured out his feelings in a long articulate speech that ended with a big “Go fuck yourself.”
But he didn’t do any of that.
Instead, he turned around, shook his head, and teleported away.
----------------------------------------
“How did it go, human?” Garvo asked.
Leland weakly smiled and raised a thumbs up.
“Alright. Are you sure?”
Leland raised a second thumb up, shaking both fists up and down for good measure.
“If you say so. Now take a look, human.” Garvo gestured to five stretched super suits floating next to corresponding masks floating above him. “Choose the one you want.”
Leland pointed at a predominantly navy blue suit with black lines. Its mask counterpart was also blue and covered the top part of the face. There wasn’t much reasoning behind the decision. He liked the colours and it looked cool. Did the decision even matter? After all, it’s not like he wanted to be a superhero. The only reason he was here was because of Staress.
Garvo grabbed Leland’s choice of super suit and it condensed into a blue ring. He handed it to Leland. “You don’t need to put it on normally. Just say ‘activate’!”
“O-okay… Thanks.”
Garvo gave him a blank stare.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“W-what? I’m not using it now!”
“Don’t be silly, human. Use it.”
There was a dull knock at the door.
“That must be another client,” Garvo said quickly, rushing out of the room. Leland followed him while inspecting the blue ring. He wondered if there was enough time to see Staress’ concert.
“Step outside, slug species! Step outside! Step outside!”
Leland looked up and his jaw dropped.
Shifa glared at him, orange eyes burning fiercely. “I can’t let the disrespect slide, slug. Step outside.”
“Calm down, Shifa!” Astridra yelled. “You don’t need to take it there.”
“We’re already there,” Shifa snapped. “I gave him a chance to apologise. I was willing to move past all of this but no more!”
“What’s happening?” Garvo asked.
“I-I’m sorry,” Leland said. “It’s not that serious.”
“That’s all you had to say! All you had to do was say sorry.”
“W-w-why are you so m-mad? I just bumped into you.”
“Step outside,” Shifa said. “I won’t ask again.”
Leland stepped outside the house. “O-okay, I’ve done that. I don’t want any problems.”
“You’re too late,” Shifa said. “I’m going to beat your ass. Square up.”
“Huh?” Leland almost laughed. Surely, the alien couldn’t be serious. “H-hold on. I think there’s something wrong w-with your translator.”
Shifa darted forward, picked Leland up and hurled him across the street like a sack of potatoes.
“Oof!”
Damn. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with his translator.
The alien was truly determined to fight him for inadvertently bumping into him without an apology. Leland wondered if Staress knew this would happen. Did she know he was lying on the cold spongy concrete in sheer disbelief gasping for air? Did she know he was cursing her name right now? Nevertheless, ultimately, he blamed the stutter. If it never existed, he wouldn’t be in the situation to begin with.
Slowly, Leland got to his feet and reached into his pockets. He frowned.
“Looking for this?”
Shifa held the purple glowing orb.
Fuck.
Leland had no intentions of fighting, but now he couldn’t run away.
“This is great!” Garvo said cheerfully. “This is a good opportunity to use the super suit. Activate it!”
Leland shot the alien an angry look. “A-a-are you nuts? I just want to go—”
*CRACK!*
Shifa rocketed a punch in his stomach. Before he could sink to the ground an uppercut rattled his chin, sending him staggering backwards. Shifa leaped forward, clearly hungry for more.
“Stop, stop, stop!” Leland roared, just as a leg was inches away from connecting with his head.
Shifa froze mid-air but Leland barely noticed, grabbing his jaw, doubled over. He groaned loudly. “Heal my injuries! Ow! Oh my god! That hurts so much! I’ve never been in so much pain in my life!”
The pain vanished. He landed on his ass and brought one hand to his mouth.
“Oops.”
Shifa wasn’t the only one frozen. Garvo and Astridra were stuck too.
Leland reached into Shifa’s pocket and retrieved the purple orb. The alien’s malicious glare was impossible to ignore, more telling than one hundred death threats.
“Listen, everyone,” Leland said, refusing to l-look at the frozen stares. “I h-hope you can hear me. The… r-reason I didn’t say sorry was because I’m awkward. That’s it. I w-w-wasn’t trying to disrespect you, Shifa.” Leland shifted his weight from foot to foot and scratched the back of his head. “N-now, um, I doubt I’ll be able to use that ability again so I’m afraid you’ll all be frozen for a while. The effects can’t be permanent, right? Surely not. That would be… t-terrifying. A-again, my bad.”
“Fly!”
Surprising himself, Leland soared through the purple skies at a blistering speed. He squeezed the purple orb that Staress had given him and followed the trail of purple rings. For a while, he didn’t think of anything and focused on the whipping sounds of the winds. But after lowering his altitude, he abruptly stopped.
A hovering vehicle ahead of him was completely frozen.
Coincidence.
Leland kept flying, this time at a much slower pace. Please no, please no, please no…
His heart sank. Dozens of hovering cars below him froze in the air.
Shit!
How many people had his attack affected? Leland slammed his forehead repeatedly with a palm. Clearly, the instructions had not been specific enough. He dropped to the ground and his assumptions became reality.
Every living organism surrounding him was immobilized. However, this attack diverged from freezing time because Leland could observe clear signs of consciousness. Some individuals blinked, while others had their pupils darting around. No one appeared to be deceased, and there were no associated accidents; everything in his vicinity had just come to a standstill.
“I’m s-sorry e-everyone,” Leland said as he slowly floated across the congested alien street. “This w-will only be temporary….” Hopefully.
Suddenly, a high-pitched alarm blared.
“Omni-level mutant detected,” said a smooth monotone voice. “Code amber.”
As if he had disrupted the teacher at class, Leland smiled sheepishly. He felt like a boss monster in a video game which was terrifying because it meant he had enemies. And that was the last thing he wanted.
Something rumbled in the distance. There was silence, then another rumble, then more silence. Leland gulped, noticing a horizontal line hovering in the far distance.
What is that?
A few seconds passed. Leland’s jaw dropped. The horizontal line wasn’t a horizontal line at all. It seemed to be a horde of flying drones.
“Omni level mutant detected. Code amber.”
“W-w-wait a minute,” Leland whispered. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He almost considered yelling an explanation when the reality of the situation slapped him in the face.
This was his fault. He did this.
They weren’t attacking him because they were the bad guys. They were attacking him because he was the bad guy. Because he was the one who couldn’t apologise properly to an alien. They weren’t going to hear him out.
Leland gritted his teeth and charged through the air. “A-activate.”
The blue super suit and mask immediately forced themselves around him. Foreign thoughts whizzed into his mind.
Syncing with user. Please wait… 14%... 18%... 30%... 80%...
The drones launched a barrage of missiles. Leland's eyes widened as he plummeted, allowing gravity and aerodynamics to accelerate him even faster. The missiles pursued him briefly until they intersected with blue disc shaped projectiles emanating from his shoulder, resulting in a deafening explosion.
100%. Sync complete.
Telepathically, the super suit’s defense mechanisms rapidly ran through his mind and all of a sudden, Leland was a fan of alien tech. He zoomed across the purple cloudless skies while the horde of drones began to change into an arc-like formation. Another volley of missiles zoomed towards him.
*BOOM!*
Leland catapulted forward in the air, flipping out of control. Shit, shit, shit!
Warning: energy barriers have been neutralised.
Leland regained his balance by spreading his arms horizontally and shot upwards. Driven by sheer terror, he focused intensely and skillfully navigated through each of the floating purple rings in the sky. Countless times the missiles rocketed past him, narrowly missing by inches.
Then he saw it–a shining beacon of hope.
A purple lit stadium shone in the far distance. It had to be the Galapalooza. Leland evaded another four missiles dangerously close to blowing his head off before dropping a whole kilometer in altitude, freefalling down like an eagle who had spotted its prey.
He swore.
A gigantic sized drone hovered below, just above the stadium. As Leland got closer, it rumbled loudly and flashed a glowing orange.
Staress’ voice entered his ears through the suits calling feature. “Hey, it’s me. You missed the show! Just to let you know the scheduled portal is ready on stage. Get over here while you can.”
Leland screamed so hard his throat stung. “I’m f-fighting for m-my fucking life here!”
“Don’t be so dramatic, Lee. You’re doing fine. The drone ahead of you is a security drone. It’s going to release a small, yet potent, nuke-like missile, specifically designed to wipe out omni mutants like yourself, so I suggest eliminating it quickly.”
Leland didn’t have the time to comment on Staress’ ridiculously laid-back delivery. He streamlined his body as best he could and stretched both arms forward, fist clenched.
“Harden body!”
*CRASH*
Leland shot straight through the drone, carving a crater into it as if it was only butter, still accelerating after the impact. Screams of shock and terror rang in the distance as large chunks of debris fell into small purple portals.
His trajectory was perfect. A large blurry portal came into view and Staress stood next to it in a stunning red dress, hands on her hips. Though not one-hundred-percent certain, Leland believed the musician was grinning. If that was the case, he was sure it was a grin more dazzling and alluring than most things in the world.
Before losing consciousness, he made a mental note to associate it more with danger than beauty.