Life wasn’t going so good.

I was sitting in the middle of history class bored out of my mind while our teacher talked about some war or something. Due to the fact that I could stop time when my alarm clock went off meant that I could sleep for as long as I liked. Which was a superpower on its own but it meant that I could catch the normal bus to school, which wasn’t a super power. As I stood there between all the other school kids I overheard, despite my best efforts, that something big happened on the news.

“Hey did you here?” Guy one asked.

“About what?” Guy two replied.

“That someone broke in to the Royal Treasury!” Guy one said excitedly.

“Wait really?” Guy two asked, stupefied.

“Yeah! And apparently nothing was stolen!” Guy one exclaimed.

“Bullshit, no one could break in there. And besides, if someone did manage to break in then they wouldn’t just leave without taking anything either.” Guy two harrumphed.

“It’s true! It was all over the news this morning, but it’s all kept hush hush so no one really knows what happened.” Guy one said.

“I still don’t think anyone could break in to that place.” Guy two replied doubtfully.

I bet I could. Whoa there Norman, dangerous thoughts there buddy. Let’s not jump into the deep end just yet.

And as I got on the bus I entertained visions of me being a daring thief that could steal the crown jewels without a drop of sweat and swindle paintings from the great vaults of Danderion. Sadly such thoughts were interrupted as I arrived and classes started.

Now I was idly flicking though the pages of my History textbook. Hoping to find a landscape picture that would pique my curiosity.

“… And now Norman will tell us why the Confederation of Kingdoms came to an unfortunate end after the breakout of Civil War in the Borshon Kingdom.” My teacher finished. Keh, the old me would have paled in the face of such a spontaneous challenge, but not anymore! With but a thought I stopped time as I flipped through my pages to arrive at the current chapter we were reading, the Fall of the Confederation of Kingdoms. Originally an alliance between the two major and now extinct powers, the Confederation of Kingdoms spanned the entire northern part of the continent at its peak, with eighteen smaller kingdoms packed tightly together between the big two, each more cutthroat then the last. An unlit firebox if ever there was one. And that is exactly what happened. A Civil War in one of the smaller nations, Borshon, caused the immediate nations to support their favored party, the two parties being the Royal Family on one side, with a new, nationalistic rebel party on the other. A snowball effect occurred as more nations supporting one party caused even more nations to support the other, like more and more people betting on a cockfight. The result was one of the biggest and most brutal wars in the history of Northern Danderion and ended with the dissipations of most of the old powers and gave rise to two countries from the ashes of Borshon. Renai and Gordon, with Gordon representing the old country with its Monarchy still in place, and the Republic of Renai representing the new republic which was formed by the rebels of the war.

I restarted time and stood up. “The Confederation of Kingdoms collapsed as most of the Kingdoms took sides to support one side of Borshon or the other, meaning the war wasn’t fought on just the Borshon front, but cut through the middle of the entire Confederation.”

My teacher raised his eyebrow. “Well done Norman, I see you’ve been reading ahead. Now tell me, why did the Civil War break out in the first place?”

I stopped time again and perused the book some more. It said here the rebellion thought to have initiated due to the tyrannical rule of the King at the time, with unreasonable taxes implemented to combat the King’s whimsical spending, and none of that money used to maintain the welfare of the many.

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I started time again. “The Civil War was caused by the lack of funds spent on the common folk as the King used more and more of the country’s money for his personal use.”

“Very good Norman, you may sit down. That is indeed true and thanks to the Civil War the two nations haven’t been on friendly terms until the last couple of decades when the treaty of Kargush…”

I tuned back out as I went back to my textbook. I never considered myself patriotic, for all I cared the Royal Family could be a bunch of inbreds who ate human toes for breakfast. And I didn’t like war either, not because it was such a terrible thing, it wasn’t, it’s just that I wasn’t part of the group of people who benefitted from them. After all war was one of the most lucrative business ventures out there as the government wouldn’t be stingy about how much they pay you when your guns are the difference between life and death.

As I left class I went to the oval to watch the school soccer team practice. Simon was there leading the team, fucker, I bet I would be a way better player now that I could stop time.

“Hey Norman!” Someone behind me yelled.

Well if it wasn’t Robb and his gang, the git was grinning as he approached me. “Hey listen, I don’t have any money for lunch. Could you spare me some?”

The smug bastard, I stopped time and walked up to him. I grabbed his hand, made a fist with his index finger extended and shoved it up his nose. Then I proceeded to tie the shoelaces of all his goons together before walking away, good thing I was the better man or they wouldn’t have gotten off so easily.

I was still smiling like a smug little shit when I turned a corner and bumped into someone, it was Goldie. He was leaning against the wall with a little mirror in his hand, all inconspicuous as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Call me a bit paranoid but I think he may have been spying on me. The dude had a serious expression on his face, intensely concentrating on the little mirror. I walked around him and tried to look in to the mirror from his perspective, yep looking straight at Robert, now the question here isn’t how he found out about me, but how did he do it so fast? Makes me feel like there should be some sort of accidental exposition helpfully dropped somewhere. I searched his pockets again, this time finding his phone, well it’s locked but I’m sure I could use it for something. I also found some bubblegum, a small necklace with a snake symbol on it and military knife. Handy.

It all ended up in my bag, even the army knife and I started walking away, whistling a jolly sort of tune. Wait, this was the perfect opportunity to gather intelligence on my enemies, those things are important. So I walked even further, hid behind a rubbish bin and started time again. Goldie immediately frowned at his little mirror before realization slowly came to his face, furiously tapping his pockets he cried in exclamation at the discovery of his new unburdened clothes. He acted like a baby for a few seconds, stomping his feet at the unfairness of it all before power walking to Robb. Aha, so they were working together were they? Fine, I could live with that.

I stopped time again and walked back to the conglomeration of morons. Now, where should I hide? The place was completely empty save for the underside of the stadium stands, eh, it would have to do. I made myself comfortable among the tall grass and started time again.

“What the fuck Robb?” Goldie asked incredulously.

“What?” Robb replied, a bit of annoyance in his voice as he rubbed his finger on his shirt while looking at his friends untying his shoelaces.

“I told you to grab him at the soonest opportunity! You tried to talk to him and look what happened!” Goldie pointed an accusatory finger at the tied shoelaces.

“Okay, jeez! I know you warned us but I didn’t honestly expect it to happen okay? I knew the kid all my life, he’s basically my main source of income.” Robb retorted.

Goldie massaged his temples “This isn’t good, my phone is gone so he’ll have access to all my contacts. He’s probably picking targets to assassinate right now.”

“Assassinate? What? Why?” Robb looked at Goldie confusedly.

“Did you see the guy move? He has to be some kind of agent from the government, probably posted here for some undercover work. He already knew where to find our main stash and still showed up on our cameras just to mess with us.” Goldie replied.

Robb went pale at that. “But I knew Norman all my life.” He insisted “He never showed an ounce of backbone.”

“They probably killed him, cloned him, and then made him in to a super soldier.” Goldie said.

Well shiiiit, besides having a very over active imagination. These guys were obviously thinking that I was some super awesome killer with the power to do anything I want. Pretty damn impressive for a sixteen year old if you ask me.

“Look. Just, don’t antagonize him further. He might kill you next time, better to just leave him alone.” Goldie said.

“Fuck no, if what you’re saying is true then I’m gonna pay him back for what he did. Super soldier my ass, he’s just a little fast. Don’t be a pussy Rowan.” Robb said.

I sat back at that, Rowan huh? I liked Goldie better but that was beside the point, the point was that Robb was angry with me and thought he could pay me back somehow. That was either really bad or really good, only time would tell.

The group dispersed and I was left sitting under the stands like some kind of creepy hobo. Well things certainly seemed to be moving, but the question was, what now?

I grinned as a plan slowly started to form in my mind.