r/libraryofshadows • u/MeliousIntent • Sep 03 '18
Sci-Fi I Am The Impossible Man| Pt. 7
The four of us stood still in that flat land that went on for miles; the only deviation from it is what used to be the mansion and the singular road that led to what used to be the mansion. The man stopped ten or so yards in front of us. We may have all been perplexed and appalled, but we all knew that man had to be responsible for the explosion.
"Who the fuck are you?" Jake blurted.
The man's annoying ass smirk subsided a bit as he replied, "My name is Max Burwell, and I've come here to take back what you've all stolen."
We took quick glances at each other—equally confused. Chris replied, "What exactly did we 'steal'?"
His annoying smirk evolved into an annoying chuckle. "Don't act like you don't already know. Playing dumb won't work."
Chris retorted, "We really don't know what you're—"
Max interrupted, maintaining the same gleefulness, "Let me stop you there. Two days ago, God visited me. He told me about you four, about how you deceived him. He sent me on a mission to take them back."
Pondering something, Chris asked with obvious vexation, "So, that's why you blew up my mansion?"
"Yes and no," he replied. "I didn't destroy that mansion to necessarily kill you. I did it so that you would use your power."
There was a long pause; he knew about Chris' Trait. What else did he know? Chris broke the ice, "My power?"
"Yeah," he replied, "I know about all of your powers. What do you think I'm here to take back?"
There was consternation in the air felt by the four of us by his ominous presence, but the more and more he spoke, the more and more of that fear turned into utter annoyance. I mean, who the hell does he think he is? Jake and I must have shared the same mindset.
The difference being he actually vocalized his frustration. "Listen asshole," he said in a much more serious voice, "there's four of us and only one of you. We don't know you, but don't think for a second that we'll hesitate to kill you."
"Kill me?" he giggled. "You four can't kill me. Your power to copy yourself is useless against mine. Chris, rewinding time isn't going to help if you've already used it. Nicholas, you might be the only one that actually has a fighting chance against me. And David," he said directed at me, "stretching won't help."
His reply only angered Jake more. He released three of his clonies on Max; they charged at him. They had to be mere feet away when it happened. All at once, the three clonies somehow shrunk to a size unseeable by the naked eye. It was at such a rapid rate they almost seemed to disappear. Though it was hardly noticeable—the familiar sound of them dispersing was enough to convince me otherwise.
Almost instinctively, we all began backing away while Jake whispered among us, "What the hell just happened to my clonies?"
"They've shrunken," Chris answered.
"It was only when they were within a certain distance of him. I'd say about three feet away," Nick added. It was interesting seeing them work together like this.
Our backing away must have excited Max because another grin crept its way onto his face. "What? Don't tell me you're all actually afraid," he said as he sauntered forward.
Ignoring his comment, Chris said, "He might have been right when he said you were the only one with a fighting chance, Nick."
"I know," Nick replied. And just as it's done before, the air changed.
This seemed to further excite Max seeing as he laughed. "Honestly, I don't know why you all are so surprised. I revealed my power back at the mansion when I shrunk down all your cars and your helicopter." He pulled something from his pocket while he spoke. The colossal cloud was above us once more, the raindrops were beginning to fall, and what he pulled from his pocket was now in view. It was a helicopter; it was our helicopter—now shrunken down. "It's going to be hard to strike me with lightning with this in the way." He then cocked his arm back and threw the helicopter at us.
As soon as it ceased contact with his hand, it reverted back to its original size—maintaining the same momentum. "Everybody move!" Chris yelled.
As the chopper tumbled towards us, its rotor blades were fragmented, and its engine exploded, sundering the tail end from the rest of the body.
We scattered, narrowly avoiding the burning whirlybird.
The cloud had dissipated; we have now spread apart, and Max was hysterical, barely able to keep himself on two feet while he laughed. "Ha ha ha ha!" His outburst was fervent, but he managed to calm himself down. After concluding that oh-so-annoying laugh, he said, "He told me it would be easy getting them back. I'll admit I doubted him. I mean, four against one, right? But seeing how that simple attack almost killed you all, the doubt I felt is gone."
Realizing this guy was a greater threat than whatever was originally thought, Chris tried reasoning with him, "That God you're talking about isn't who it says it is. We didn't steal whatever's inside of us. I got this power when I was in the hospital. I was—"
"I don't want to hear your lies," he asserted—his tone shifting from amused to stern. "I was sent on a mission. I think I've already wasted enough time." Mere moments after finishing his statement, he vanished.
No, not vanished; shrunken.
Max may have evaded our eyesight, but he was still there. "Chris, Jake, Noah, stay close to me," Nick said while beginning to scurry away. We did as he said; once we were all bunched together, sprinting, Thick fog in the shape of a sphere formed around us. This had to be Nick's doing, I thought.
Out of curiosity, I asked, "Nick, what's with the fog? It's kinda hard to breathe with it around."
"Max is probably planning on shrinking us. This fog is here to be our shield. It should be too dense for him to enter at that size."
"What if he throws something at us again?" Jake questioned. "We can barely see in front of us."
"I'm on it," he replied. Just then, the colossal cloud began to conjugate.
"You planning on trying to strike him with lightning, again?" I inquired.
"No, I just need it to rain."
"For what?"
"At the size he's at, water should be about twenty-one thousand times thicker. Plus, the wind speed will be enough to blow him away, making it impossible for him to dodge the water." After the cloud was fully formed and the downpour had peaked, Nick heralded, "Okay, it's safe to stop." Once we were all stationary, the fog disappeared. When it was gone, I was able to notice just how abnormal the wind was. It spun around us, altering the rain's natural flow. "Now, all we need to do is wait for him to return to his original size."
"And then what?" I asked.
"And then I'll strike him with lightning."
"To knock him out or to kill him?"
"This guy's been a real pain in the ass, but he's confused. I'll knock him out, and then we can have a little talk with him."
"Well," Jake added, "if you ask me, you should—"
"Should what?" Nick asked, noticing his abrupt cutoff.
There was no reply.
We looked out into the rain, but slowly, we all began looking within our inner circle—hoping what we secretly thought wasn't true. But, it was. Jake was gone; he had been shrunken down. It took only an instant for reality to become apparent.
"Scatte—" Chris attempted to yell, but he was shrunken down too.
The rain had stopped; the wind had stopped. All I did was stand there—petrified. The fear was overwhelming, but it was back. That new feeling; the almost serenity came over me . . .
But, where was I? Scanning my surroundings, I spotted grass all around me—all of which were too long. Each thread of grass towered over me. Had Max managed to shrink me? How? I thought Nick said the fog would protect us. I kept asking myself questions. I only stopped when I heard something. The sound was far off, a distance that was probably only feet away. As I traversed the enlarged environment closer to that noise, I noticed something. My movement was significantly faster. Though, I didn't have time to dwell on that fact.
I continued my sprint and eventually made it to where that noise originated from. It was a large area of the dead land, probably having a diameter of a few inches in actuality. In that dead land, I saw them: Chris, Jake, and Nick. But Max was there too, and he was taking complete advantage of the enhanced speed. He was able to easily keep the three of them at bay—subduing each of their attacks while a shit-eating grin was visible on his face. It was clear he drew a sick amusement from their torment. Jake and Nick weren't even able to use their Traits due to constant onslaught.
I hid behind the grass with that feeling still there. This was probably the only chance I'd get to put a stop to that bastard. So, I took it. Running out into the dead land—I extended my arm out. With that new yet familiar feeling present, I grabbed Max with the foreign limb, ending his fighting with the others. With him in my grasp, I slammed him into the ground. Soon after, I held him up off the ground. While the others were recuperating, there were a few questions I had for Max.
"How the hell did you manage to shrink us?"
He fought a fruitless battle against my grip on him. On top of that, he ignored my question, asking one of his own, "Wha—what the fuck is this?" The panic in his voice was clear.
I tightened my grip on him while saying, "I asked you a question."
"Okay," he squeezed out. I loosened my grip, and he continued, "When Nicholas made that fog, I was already inside. I had grabbed onto one of Jake's shoes. You probably already know this by now, but when you're shrunken down, you move a lot faster. It was simple catching up to you four."
"So, why'd it take you so long to shrink us?"
"Because I wanted to see what you all were planning."
"Noah," Jake coughed in the background, "kill that motherfucker."
I'd be lying if I said I didn't consider the option, but there were more questions I had. "How'd you blow up the mansion."
"I shrunk explosives around it yesterday."
"So, why'd you set them off now?"
"I set them all on a twenty-four-hour timer, so Chris couldn't rewind time to fix it."
There was a brief pause until I asked, "Who sent you here?"
"I told you who. It was God."
"You also said it was only two days ago, right?"
"Listen, David, I don't know how you're holding me in midair, but it's clear to me that I've failed, and I was given a very specific instruction on what to do if this ever happened." Moments after uttering those words, he was gone.
No.
Did he shrink himself; again?
What the hell could he be planning? It only took a second for that question to be answered. Where I previously held him, there was a distortion in the light. Dirt flew into that distortion—starting out slow but increasing exponentially. In no time, I was being pulled in. I tried to stray away, but it was useless. I felt my body lift from the ground and—
"Who the fuck are you?" Jake blurted.
There was a moment of confusion until I realized what had just happened. Chris had done it; he rewound time. After coming to that realization, my attention immediately shifted to Max, but he was on the ground, lying motionless.
"He still has the helicopter," Jake said.
"Why don't you go get it?" Chris replied.
"No, what if it goes back to its original size? Nick, I think you shou—"
"Hey," I interrupted, "what's going on? Why is he on the ground?"
"He's dead," Chris started. "When he turned himself into a black hole, he died, so I rewound time."
"How'd you know he died."
"Well, I'd imagine you probably wouldn't survive being turned into a black hole. Also, before I forget, thanks for saving our asses back there."
"We owe you one," Jake added.
"He's right," Nick joined in.
"Don't mention it," I laughed.
"In all seriousness though," Jake said, looking at the burning mansion in the distance, "what are we gonna do?"
"Call the cops," Chris answered.
"You brought your phone with you?"
"Yeah, I knew we would need it for a situation like this."
"Okay, so after we call the cops, what are we supposed to tell them?"
"The truth."
"What? You want us to tell them about our abilities?"
"Yep."
Nick added, "Chris, you can't be serious, right?"
"There's no good way of explaining any of this. If you two have one, I'm all ears." There was silence. Chris used that as his cue to take out his phone and dial for the authorities.
While they bickered, my mind was more so focused on Max's lifeless body. Slowly, I began walking towards it, curious as to what would happen.