22. Abort

Because of his ankle, he had to levitate his way home, which was as quickly as running, although it took more of his energy than the other. That’s why when he was in the adjacent neighborhood, he had to land and took some time to catch some air. 

He still couldn’t understand what was wrong with him, why suddenly he got grumpy and unfocused. When listening to the Awkward Boy talking about past celebrated birthdays, he was still fine and calm, for a moment there, even wanted to celebrate his birthday with them, until he was asked when it was. It was in ten days, but he couldn’t say it, not because they might find weird or curious that it was the same day as The Protector; he didn’t say it because he knew all the people in the island would be more focused in his birthday than him, as selfish as it looked. For that reason, his answer was that it passed already, so they needed to wait a year to know it.

With his head in a complete mess, he arrived at his house without knowing how. He just went directly to his room, to his bed and laid down without even taking his shoes off. He felt as his head was filled with noises he couldn’t understand, illogical and loud that didn’t allow him to think clearly. He neither knew if he was feeling sad, angry, jealous, overwhelmed or what. 

It was until late in the night that he was able to fall asleep, when his mind was too exhausted to be awake.

In the morning, his mother had to woke him up, after his alarm was completely ignored five times. She even touched his forehead to know if he was sick, and she was almost convinced that he was lying when he denied it. With a quick breakfast and saying for the eleventh time that he was feeling fine, he went to his training.

He was in the middle of his ascension when he looked at the horizon beyond the seashore. And just when his eyes landed on the ships, the alarm went off.

As fast as he could, he ran to the nearest watch tower with his phone ringing because his military trainer. This time there was twelve ships, none looking as a travel cruiser or a cargo ship. Even at that distance, he could see their weapons.

“Yeah, I’ll go to do a reckon, make them prepare all the power.”  Only in those times in need he was in charge, he easily felt the confidence and the strength to guide them. It was in those times where The Protector’s mask was stronger than the rest.

He jumped from the cliff closer the tower, at half the jump he started to levitate and go directly to where the ships were coming. He never saw so many being so close, he was almost sure that they didn’t know about him being the protector of the island, the only person with superpowers because he was sure that he didn’t let no one to saw him. They couldn’t be planning a war against a lonely island with uncommon riches or something worth destroying.

He was flying with twenty meters between him and their ships, he was instructed to be always that far so he wasn’t discovered by their navigation system.

It didn’t matter from where he looked at it, those were war ships. While talking and streaming what he was seeing to the militia, he knew that fight would be the only solution.

“Engage” said the leader of the mission through his phone after one hour of waiting the ships to get close to their island. After warnings coming from the island stopped.

 

The protector boarded the first ship in seconds, before their radars could read him, he was on deck, hitting and getting rid of every sailor he came across until they raised the alarm.

With the first ones that came to meet him, to beat him up, he knew that it wouldn’t be an easy job. Every one of them had a different offensive power, all trained to fight, all adults fully grown and with so much experience.

Winning against the first ship took him two hours, ending with a punctured lung, broken bones that he refused to acknowledge, and some big injuries that he desperately burned or froze before stepping in the next ship while the other started to sink.

The moment he aborted his mission, just pausing it to go back the quarters to heal all his broken bones that now hindered his every movement, the anemia that weakened him and the exhaustion after using every power he had to kill as much as crew as he could before sinking the second ship. He jumped into the water before getting back to the island, just to clean himself up from all the dirt and blood of his enemies and his. 

21. Whatever

His Friday’s training was completely about his technique to prevent him of dying from drowning, he still wasn’t able to reduce the time to make the icy bubble or to increase his time underwater without breathing. And because of that he was frustrated and angry beyond words.

He had already try some ideas from his trainers, some were even to prevent that any other person kept him under water, however he was more worried if he was trapped by whatever means an enemy could had that he couldn’t fight against.

It was his idea and solution, and still it became an impossible thing to do, something so useless that probably made him lose his time for the past week. If it didn’t make it possible, then they could start to think that he really wanted to die back then. Nor that it was a bad idea lately.

Without noticing, he ended up stepping wrongly when he was landing before arriving to the Etc.’s building. The pain came from his toes to his hip, it left him breathless and a bit dizzy. After his discovery time as the protector, he realized that his pain resistance was not bad, it sure hurt whenever he hit or got a major injury, pain was not less hard but what he counted it as resistance was that the pain never lasted too long if he forced himself to distract his mind about it. Which wasn’t easily to do when the pain was so strong, like in that moment.

He couldn’t tell if he broke, dislocated, or just sprained it, and before he could seat to check it, the Awkward Boy came out the building, looking so happy to see him again so soon.

“Hey, I was gonna grab some snacks and a cake for Nightjar, tomorrow is his birthday, wanna come?” The moment he said “gonna”, Teshal knew he would ask him to join, and he couldn’t tell him he just broke his ankle while arriving, so he had to comply and forget about his pain. He had the ability to cure himself, but for that he needed to arrange his bones or whatever was out of its place.

“Sure” he answered, biting his tongue so his pain wouldn’t show. In the end, it could be like an extension of his common training to endure pain and injuries.

When they came back, he ran to the restroom to fix himself, unfortunately it was a sprain. If it was a broken or dislocated bone, curing was easier because his ability was to reactivate his cells to faster the regeneration, even moving cell from different stratus and making them adapt; but with a sprain, something so small, his cells wouldn’t cooperate, neither with a superficial cut or a muscular contraction. If it was not a wound that put his life in danger, his body cured itself at his own pace.

And now he shouldn’t show his pain because it could make the Awkward Boy feel guilty for not letting him rest, although it was his own fault for not saying anything. Sighing, he froze his ankle to lighten the pain and came out the restroom.

All the afternoon and night they celebrated, they were happy speaking of past birthdays with them or their families, presents, travels and a lot of stuff. All around was an air of happiness and camaraderie, warmth and joy.

However, he didn’t feel there. Laughs were as if distant, he smiled when they did but couldn’t erase the feeling that it was a fake one; even when they asked him to share some past experiences, what came out his mouth felt like lies, something that wasn’t his. He wasn’t feeling as himself because he couldn’t tell which one was there.

If it was Teshal, the shy and calm boy that loved his family more than anything; The Protector all the islanders loved and trusted; Thesaurus, who spent his free time talking about non important matters with a bunch of people who he didn’t know their true names; or if it was the new protector, that mask he put over himself to be what the people needed, what his family expected and who had so many thoughts buried too deep in his heart that he couldn’t differentiate them anymore.

He started to feel his body as if it weren’t his, his felt a prickling sensation al over his palms, his head fuzzy and disoriented. When everybody was still laughing, he excused with his phone on his hand as if he had a call, that way he was able to come out the place.

When his training ended, he was sure he wanted to come, he needed the calmness that place gave him, his frustration of the week was meant to be overcome with their inconsequential chats. He craved for that normality, but now he couldn’t shake the awful feeling that was not like it.

“Hey, are you going in?” asked Orange, one of the oldest women in the group, she had just arrived when he was seating in the stairs near the door to the apartment where they reunited.

“Oh… um… not yet…” he said.

“It’s ok if you had to go, I tell them you received a call.” He finally focused his eyes in her after listening to her. “There’s moments when happiness feels really overwhelming, when you feel like you can’t follow up with the rest, and it’s okay. No one will blame you, kid. You’re strong even if you don’t feel like it right now.”

“I…” for a second, his eyes became watery, he got a lump in his throat that he couldn’t broke.

“Go, or wait, if that’s what you need.”

“I’ll go… thanks and I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, we’ll see you any other day you want.” With that, Orange smiled and went to the door, knocking until he had left.

20. Flying fish

The next day he spent most of his time reorganizing his ideas and feeling courageous about speaking up in his meeting at noon, he even asked his trainer if he thought that the board would listen to him, to which he, obviously, answered affirmatively. 

At that time in the group’s talk, when all of them talked about the same thing, he asked for more solutions or ideas, even for any other complaint they could had about the NAC. It was a useful chat, and the best when they barely said a thing regarding him.

When the meeting hour came, he felt all his bravery wavering, suddenly he didn’t want to talk with them. It was a common feeling for him, one that he thought that his speeches had already helped him to overcome. Whenever he needed to talk about something important in which his opinion was the reason, he felt anxious and the words were always stuck on his mouth, with his palms sweating and his heart beating fast.

He knew they didn’t consider him really important in the meeting, all the decisions discussed in there were already approved or disapproved, nor that he complained before because the less he wanted was to have to make such important decisions. But now he was truly hoping they’ll listen to him and took his words with seriousness.

In the end, although it was a big challenge for him, he got to talk about changing the NAC, he exposed his little knowledge about the people’s problems while hiding, so he asked if they couldn’t change the countermeasures right away, at least they should not leave the streets empty.

He asked to first decrease the time to one hour, then that the only people in the bunkers were from the cities closest to the seashores where the ship sighting happened. Before, it was an order that all the people from almost half of the island to take cover, however now that he lied saying that he was more confident in his abilities, the people in a radius of 180 kilometers were the only ones in need of hiding. In addition, he asked for the cops to patrol the streets.

All of them, him included, knew that the thieves were always smarter, they would now how to evade the police, however he convinced them that it was more for the people to know that the government cared, although he wanted the cops doing an effort.

The meeting ended with the change in the NAC approved, concerning the time in the refuges, while the rest of what was discussed still needed further consideration, which results were to be given the next week.

The protector felt relieved after that conclusion, for once he was brave enough to speak up and they, while apparently were really trying to conceal that information from him or from the people, listened and considered his ideas.

He, too, was so thankful for deciding to go to the group’s reunion the day before. If it weren’t for it, he couldn’t have felt useful. Because of that, he decided to go again to the reunion.

This time the Awkward Boy wasn’t around, so at the beginning he felt a bit off until Shonda and Hieronymus came to him, along with the same woman that in his first day asked for his opinion towards The Protector, whose nickname was Flying Fish.

That day their talk was about less relevant things, were about their daily lives, school, work and family. Because of that he had to lie a little, talk as if his activities when he was a normal person, were his yesterday’s activities. He let himself feel as a normal person again, at least for a bit.

 

19. Hieronymus

The next day he was able to shut down his disrupted emotions, he kept his usual smile when his schedule was changed, four of the seven days in the week he would be training to master his new technique, as they decided to call it. On Tuesday and Thursday he would be busy with the media and some security meetings. 

On Tuesday he thought about going to the group reunion, however he was still feeling a bit upset, so he was sure that if they were to talk about The Protector, his discomfort might be too obvious. And he neither wanted to have them talking while he felt mad. That way, the day he felt a bit more relaxed was on Wednesday.

After his exhausting training, he arrived at the building at nine, this time he was using his black hair wig, purple eye contacts and black glasses. When he made his disguise test before leaving the house, he was confident that he didn´t look like The Protector, but when walking in the street he couldn’t stop his fear about being discovered, even if his brother assured him that he wasn´t completely the same, and neither different, though.

The members of the group looked at him without discretion, for them it was the first time seeing him, and because he said that his job didn’t allowed him to be recognized, they were trying to see if they should know him. But neither of them got it right. Luckily, none of them expected to have The Protector among them, none of them thought that The Protector could have something he lost, like them.

Now that he was almost sure of it, he felt a little more at ease. The Awkward Boy received him with enthusiasm, saying how he was afraid that he wouldn’t show up again and how he was about to send a message through the social network to find him.

This time he wasn’t led to the deepest room, he seated with the Awkward Boy, Pious and Hieronymus, a man that was new for him. After the proper greetings, they continued their conversation about Hieronymus job, Teshal could tell it was something like journalism for how he was talking regarding some crimes that weren’t shown on TV.

He hadn’t watched TV since his face was in every program, neither heard the radio or looked at any form of news, only watching cartoons or anything that was streaming in the internet. So he had entirely forgotten that apart of the issues with whatever ship got too close to their island, there were crimes and murders inside. The “normal” delinquency.

Hieronymus was talking of how the criminal rate had been increasing after it had a decline around the time The Protector was found.

“Now it looks like they take advantage of the ships sightings, when people go the refuges and leave their homes, some stay behind to rob the houses and stores.” What he said made the two boys look awed, however none of them got the time to give their opinion when Shonda and Nightjar came closer.

“Ah that’s true!” Shonda said while seating at Teshal’s right side. “It happened to a friend, when she and her family came back from their shelter, someone had already entered their house to steal some household appliances and jewelry.”

“And to a customer of mine, his car was stolen, it was in the day, when they went to hide.” Added Nightjar.

“Would it be different if the four hours countermeasure wasn’t used?” asked Teshal.

“I’m not sure but if they’re not talking about these cases on the media, it’s because they may be thinking it’s an important factor” exclaimed Hieronymus. “And because The Protector was the one who asked for this countermeasure, they can’t take it down so easily.”

“They should, then, expose what’s happening to him, so he can think on a way to change it, or, at least, for the government and the police to do something.” The Awkward Boy, as always, was on The Protector’s side, same as Pious that nodded at his comment.

Teshal now was wondering why none of his trainers said anything, or his family. Then he remembered what happened the last Saturday, so maybe they didn’t want to increase his burden. He had scheduled a meeting with some people of the government tomorrow, so he asked Hieronymus and the rest all the information they had, that way he could talk tomorrow about it and how to make a change. That if they were eager to listen to him, not like before that they just asked about his consent in some trivial matters.

 

18. Hater gonna...

After his trainer took him to the shore, the protector noticed that his other trainer was there too, looking at him with anger and worry, that was what made him look around and notice the air was too cool to be noon. Until that moment, too, he felt how much coldness his body was feeling, but when he tried to use his own power to stabilize it, he felt the common dizziness that always came to him when his energy was depleted because the overuse of his abilities.

“Seriously, what the fuck were you doing?” asked once more when the trainer took off his jacket to put it on his shoulders. “Were you actually trying to kill yourself?”

“No!” he protested immediately with a voice strong enough to not leave any doubt. “What time is it?”

“It’s past midday. On Sunday” his other trained came closer to feel his pulse and to give him a piece of bread, which the protector looked with a bit of rejection. “Eat. Now.” Sighing, the protector complied.

“Ok, sorry, I didn’t pay attention to the time, as you can see, I don’t even have a watch on me.” Teshal move his arms in front for them to see, which only led them to see his marked wrist were the rope left a burn mark for the times he was desperately trying to not die for the lack of air, like all the time without the snorkel.

With that, he had to explain it, however, after eating half of the bread, he felt asleep. Just then, both of his trainers took a look at his body before going down the mountain. They were really angered by his careless behavior towards himself, they knew it from before, but he never did something as extreme as that, although they wanted to believe as an honest response when he denied trying to kill himself.

They took him to his house until he was dry and dressed, so his family wouldn’t be more worried of what they already were. His mother was the one that called him at eleven in his son’s day off because he didn’t come back from the mountain and he neither answered his phone, besides, in that time there wasn’t any visible show of his training. After assuring them that he was alright and only got caught in his training until he passed out of exhaustion, which was nothing new except for the part in which he didn’t come back on time, they left. And ecause they knew he wouldn’t be up in the meantime, they saved their lecture for the next day.

Thus, the family kept going to the basement from time to time just to see that he was still there and if he was awake. But he awoke until the next day at eight in the morning, his usual wake up time. He received a scolding from his mother before going to the training room where his trainers came to later.

They allowed him to finally speak about his idea and training before giving him a sermon that lasted for an hour about how irresponsible he was, about what could had happened if he didn’t make it or they didn’t come in time, of how he needed to treasure his life more for what he was now. With an apologetic smile and a serious promise for no repeating the same mistake, they began to talk about how to try it without being so dangerous or without him being alone.

He was freed until late in the night when his brother was already home, he even laughed at him for making so many worried, although he looked as relieved as the rest. With smiles and apologies, he made all drop the matter, even if he was feeling more than bitter.

Because of that, when all were already sleep, he came out from the House and ran without any particular place to go. He just wanted to leave all his discomfort and bitterness behind.

Of course, he was angry for what they told him in his lecture. Of course, he would do everything to took his life if he wasn’t responsible, if he didn’t know how all the people counted in his protection, if he didn’t know the chaos and suffering it could bring if they were left unprotected. Of course, he felt angry because they thought he could be irresponsible enough to abandon his duty, because hasn’t he showed them how seriously he took his trainings even if he hated pain so much? Hasn’t him fulfilled every task and training they had given to him? Hasn’t he talked on the media of how much he cares about his duty? Did he demonstrated how little gratefulness he had towards being the chosen? He always considered he didn’t.

He was being careful, he went a bit too far with his method, that was true, but he never truly endangered his own life. But they couldn’t see it, they didn’t care because they couldn’t control it. As if they didn’t know he could create a sharpened piece of ice to cut the rope, as if he couldn’t bend the metal of his keys to make something sharp enough to cut the damn rope.

With nothing more than his anger, he ran until reaching some seashore, and without stopping he started swimming through the active tide of the night. Stopping only when his throat began to hurt along with his lungs and arms. Only then he ceased all movements, just floating with his face towards the stars.

“Can’t people start hating me so I can run away?” he asked when the tears emerged from his eyes. He knew he wouldn’t ever give up on his duty when there was no one else to do it for him, but if people really became wary about his power, they could fear him and, then, hate him. He didn’t want to be a villain, but at that moment, it was like his only way out. “Haters gonna set me free?” He asked himself once his mind began to settle.

17. Pump

Fortunately, his week was as busy as always, so he didn’t need to distract himself from his mixed feelings. Although he felt a bit more relaxed when talking to the media and stuff, making him even stop after some trainings to hear a bit of the people’s encouragement.

He wasn’t sure if the next time he goes to the group reunion would be again on Sunday or another day, he needed to feel like going, or else, it wouldn’t be enjoyable. For that reason, the next day after meeting them, he bought his wig and eye contacts for his new disguise.

Before, he had already tried to use illusions to cover his identity, but none was natural, nor easily maintained. He made a lot of test in his days off in the first two months with his family, he wanted to know if going out while covering himself was possible, however all those tries were unsuccessful. Because it was always evident something was over him, and in a place where superpowers were nonexistent, it was weirder.

With the one that was almost perfect, he needed to have all his focus in it, he couldn’t stop thinking in any detail because it could make the illusion distort. He really tried with eagerness, he really wanted to be out without all the clothes he needed to hide his identity. However, he had long gave up on it until meeting with the group, now he only hoped the wig wouldn’t be too unnatural or uncomfortable.

His purchase was expected to arrive on Saturday, same that sent to his aunt ‘s house so no one could connect it with him directly. Sometimes he let his family’s paranoia won over him.

That way he went to his training session in the mountain. This time he stopped in the edge of the small lake that had the mountain. He never used that place to train because it wasn’t high enough to people not to notice his explosive trainings, but now that he didn’t need to do nothing too flashy, he went and seated with his feet inside the water.

Practically he was fiddling around, his trainer wanted him to try with his resistance to extreme environments. He should be on top of the mountain, working out where the oxygen was scarce, where the freezing wind was higher. It was what he did in the past three weeks, but now he wanted to try something new, even if he didn’t discuss before with his trainer, it was something that came up to his mind while explaining his powers in front of another group of kids.

He couldn’t control any of the elements (fire, water, earth, wind) per se, instead he could control temperature and pressure. That’s what allowed him to not die from a heatstroke with all that his disguise was. Apart of his unique ability to mess up with gravity of a single target.

For some time, he has wondered about so many ideas of what to do it the enemy were to try drowning him. The fastest answer came from his trainers saying that he needed to train his resistance and time without the need of air. Hence his training up in the mountain and some other times when they really tried to drown him.

What a girl asked was if he could made fire inside ice or ice inside of fire, but because he didn´t control them, it was something impossible. It was after that, he thought about freezing the water in a bubble form and, then, evaporate what’s inside to create a room for him to breath if needed. It was as difficult as it sounded, because while bathing he tried sometimes to do it, ending with a useless result.

With more time and a bigger water surface, he could make better test in his theory. Freezing the water was some of the first things he trained, but doing it in a specific shape and quantity was completely different than putting a finger in the surface and control how much he wanted freeze.

So, after coming at dawn to the mountain because he was kind of pumped up about his own ideas, it was until pass three in the afternoon that he was able to form the round sphere of solid ice. Its edges were rough and the interior was barely seen, however he could do it quicker as the first try. Having to direct the decreasing temperature the way he wanted to make it had a form was really a difficulty he wanted to be praised for.

Now with the icy sphere on his hands, he started to concentrate in the raising warmth of his hands, which at first made the sphere started to melt. To prevent it to go to waste, he forced himself to have cold in his left hand while the right one was still redirecting the warmth to the inside of the ice. Once again, the challenge was real, it was like having to move up and down one hand while the other went from right to left. Before, he wasn’t one of the people with the most coordination in his actions, even when swimming sometimes it was too troublesome do some exercises in which coordination was the key.

It was already dark when he got to do it right from beginning to end in less than 5 minutes, which still was too much time when he was able to barely maintain his breath under the water for one minute. But following his trainer’s teachings, desperate situations helped him to come up with faster solutions.

With that in mind, he left his outer clothes in the shore before entering in the water. Deep in the lake were some roots, same he used to tie a rope which tied him up to prevent his body to float. From one side, the rope was around his waist, it went under the loop of the root and ended in his wrist so he could get free in an emergency. To breath when it was inevitable, he brought a snorkel to be under the water as much as possible.

Before fear and doubts filled his head, he started his practice. It wasn’t easy at all, which was important because when the occasion presents, it wouldn’t be easy either if his life was truly at stake. His body was moving so much in its attempts to float; so his mind was distracted between the lacking of air, his body’s instability and keeping his hand forming the ice sphere, that even before thinking in having half freezing and half warming abilities.

But his determination to achieve it was even greater than his body getting cold and wrinkled for staying so much time under water. He even didn’t notice when the night fell and the sun came out again until someone else entered in the water.

“What the fuck with you?” asked his military trainer after he cut the rope and took him out of the water.

Death doesn't judge

Death is everywhere, all the time. To many it’s a word, a state; to others is a deity; some others find it ineffable and undeniable, and for a few more it’s fascinating or yearned. However, Death doesn’t discriminate, doesn’t decide, doesn’t save.

In its clothes, its fingers, its lanterns, or whatever people imagined it with, it took the souls of every living being that populates the Earth. Of the ants which humans stepped on without noticing, of the trees cut down for the new buildings, of the dog that was beaten to death, of the cat that die in their caretaker’s arms, of the poisoned mouse, of the bug crashed in the windshield, of the prey taken down by the hunter, of the plant that was watered too much, of the elephant fed with fire, of the cultivated plants, of the animals transformed into food.

Without judging, it takes the souls of the poor man murdered by the cop blinded by power, of the woman that without guilt was killed for him who thought was dominant, the boy that followed the man for the offered toy or candy, of the girl whose act of kindness and innocence was taken as a felony that cost her life. Of the man whose oppressed wife had to finally defend herself, of the woman that deceived young ones with promises and money, of the thief that stole from someone everything they had, of the one who poisoned others to get what she wanted.

Without guilt, nor grace, nor own choice it takes the soul of the young artist who with her stars brightened so many lives, but couldn’t beat her sickness; the loved and hardworking man whose life faded as a candlelight; of the young people that can’t understand what’s wrong with them, those who can’t find hope in tomorrow’s light and so, they gave up their soul with their own hands. Of those that without fault or reason, exposed themselves to the sickness that was killing so many; of those who left behind devastated and incomplete families, of those that are gone without asking for it and without fear.

Death take the souls of the ones that beg because they don’t want to see one more day, of the ones that cry for one more night; of the scared ones, of the fearless, of the poor, of the rich, of the ones that are alone and the ones that aren’t, of the corrupted and the purest, of those that didn’t know they had a soul, of the ones that wanted to save it. Of those who believe in a God, of the ones that believe in thousands, of those who don’t believe in any. Of those that study, of those that doesn’t know nothing, of the ones that think and the ones that don’t want to do it. Of those that believe in it and those who doesn’t.

Death is just, Death is sure, Death doesn’t rest.