A few months later …
As Electro-Man I enjoyed my life pretty much . I quit the Enigmatic Eleven so that I could spend more time trying to solve the mystery of the visions while balancing fighting crime and studies . Crime rate had began to drop but the police and the media still branded us 'Vigilantes' . The nightmares ? They didn't stop and I had a feeling that there is something terrible coming up .
But as myself not so much . I was pursuing Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay and I should be having a good time , shouldn't I ? I fell from grace as in , I lost Carol's favour and she hasn't even called me ever since . Turns out that she was studying in MIT right now and although I longed to talk to her , its these mysteries that made me distance her away . How could any of my friends understand this ?
But all these events atleast made me feel that she would never barge into my life . All went merry till the day she happened to call me up . So what did we talk ? The usual stuff that is about how things were going for her and for me . After that she asked me to come on Skype .
I started Skype and waited for her to come and attend the call . When she finally did , I spent a few seconds looking at her . I haven't seen her for months but she looked beautiful , as beautiful as the day I fell for her for the first time .
"Um … Immanuel ?"
"Uh what . No I'm here , so what were you saying ?"
"Actually I wanted you to meet someone very interesting . I don't know if you are interested but he seems to be a lot interested in you . He even came here to deliver a lecture to us ."
"Hmm that's interesting . But wait a minute , what sort of an American professor would be interested in me who has just started college . I mean , I don't think I know any such person …"
"So lets make things clear . You know him but the thing is , he's not a professor or something but he's …"and she shifted the camera towards the other person and I was shocked . How is this even possible ?
"Tony Stark ! But wait a minute . Why are you here ?"
"He wanted me to get in touch with you so now that you're here , I'll let you nerds do the nerd talk . I'm leaving ."
"But wait …" and she walked away .
Mr. Stark began "Didn't she tell you that she's going . By the way random fact , a cute girl like her and an average Indian guy like you , what's going on ?"
Now deep down , I wanted this conversation to end quickly because I wasn't pretty sure if he knew my identity . If he didn't then I'm toast !
"Honestly , I think there must be some mistake . I didn't apply for the Stark internship or anything of that sort so …"
"Well anyway the point is , do you happen to know anything about this ?" and he showed me the same YouTube clip of Electro-Man fighting with Iron Man where I won . I looked at the video feeling quite ashamed but now quite scared of what could happen .
"What are you talking about Mr. Stark ?"
"I'm saying that you know that electro dude or … whatever that guy was called …"
"Electro-Man and I think you are behind the wrong guy ."
"Which is why I'm here ." and at this point he turned around to ensure no one was seeing us talk . "Look kid , the point is , there is more to you than what meets the eye ." he paused and then he continued "So tell me , are you Electro-Man ?"
And I was surprised "As I said before , you're behind the wrong guy."
"You know what , maybe I am but this isn't ." and he began to show me a view using the GPS of my current location as well as the location of another beacon in the same place as my room .
"You could have destroyed my suit but I managed to put a tracking beacon to find out who you are and all about you so …"
Now I realized that I couldn't keep running the pretense anymore "Yeah you're right . I am Electro-Man and I am sorry I blew up your suit ."
I expected him to be angry with me or something but he wasn't . Instead he was smiling .
"Okay what in the world is this all about ?"
"Thanks to you , I've managed to build a better suit so it's alright . But you seem to have broken up from your team have you ?"
"The Enigmatic Eleven ? Yeah so you know who we are ." and he nodded .
"You know kid , a guy like you with a lot of experience and stuff should be a part of a bigger team so I was thinking what if you …"
"I am sorry Mr. Stark but I left the group due to personal reasons . That doesn't mean I want to join the Avengers , I don't think I am ready for it ."
"You know kid , the team needs new members ."
"Because you're broke ? Oh please Mr. Stark , I don't want to be a part of the team without Captain America and the others ."
Stark paused for a while after all , the breakdown of the Avengers in general and his friendship with Captain America was something he could shake off , much like me unable to shake off my own set of bad memories .
He continued nonetheless "And you're not the only one who's gripped with bad dreams , so tell me ."
And at this point I found it sensible enough to share about my visions of the six stones , also telling him about the shard of the Soul Stone in my brain as well as in Carol's necklace .
"So does she know it ?"
"She doesn't and I'd like to put it that way ."
"You know what kid , I'm leaving so why don't you catch up with her ." and he left .
Carol's face appeared once again and this time she was all excited "Boy , that must have been some sort of a talk , wasn't it ?"
"Um yeah , but I hope you have no hard feelings about what I had told you earlier ."
"Nah I'm fine . Actually I've moved on and I think I've also found an amazing new guy to tell whatever I tell you so …"
"You know what , I have some assignments to finish so I'll talk to you later ."
"Yeah sure , bye ."and she cut the call.
She has moved on in her life and I couldn't ! And how could I because truth is , I still love her but how could I get her caught in the crossfire .
Just then , news flashed that there was a bank robbery , somewhere near my location . Ahhh this is gonna be fun I thought when I slipped out of the hostel room or rather escaped through the power lines as Electro-Man.
But what happened on the crime scene was something that never happened before . As usual I came out of the power lines near the bank , only to be greeted with an air of applause . But when I tried firing my lightning bolts , all that came along was a faint crackle of electricity and then …
… nothing !
Huh what in the world ? Lets try the beam attack and I put my full focus on the gem to fire a beam from my forehead but …
It started glowing for a while and then … nothing !
In that case , it's the melee time ! And just before I could land a punch on the robbers , a Fart-Bomb exploded and the rest of the Enigmatic Eleven made their appearance .
Samir "So you've decided to leave the scraps for us . Why don't you catch the escaping goons ."
I "But I can't ."
Suyash "Why can't you ?" and he was dodging the enemy fire .
"Here I'll show you ." and I tried to focus myself on flying but I could only jump but not go any higher than a few feet .
Sharang "What are you doing . You're letting them escape !"
In my heart it pained me to understand that I was letting some robbers escape , but how could I even catch them when I am losing my powers . Slowly , I was losing the electrical aura that once surrounded me and when I realized that my true identity was going to be revealed , I ran away in the opposite direction .
What did I expect the next morning ? "City's most celebrated superhero and bank robbers at loose . Is this a conspiracy ?" made the headlines in the newspapers . Even the Enigmatic Eleven came under attack for catching the goons . The crime rate in the city began to increase at a very high rate as there was virtually no one to stop them and the rest couldn't catch 'em all .
So one day , when I happened to meet my friends , we talked about the usual stuff at first and then about the more serious stuff .
Samir "Guys , I think we need to talk about this ."
Sharang "We're not having this conversation anymore . The discussion ends now !"
"What discussion ?" I asked .
"If I remember you quit our group so why don't you step aside !" said Sharang rather angrily .
Suyash "But he (Samir) does have a point ."
Swatej "We've had a great time fighting crime and doing all sorts of good stuff but let's be clear about this , people hate us !"
Manas "Yeah , you know what , I think its time that we quit the hero stuff and live normal lives . You know , I want to go to a foreign country and try to join a football club ."
Sharang "That's it ! Is that what you all are thinking ? Leaving ! Quitting ?"
I interrupted "I'd be glad to help if I may but truth is , I can't not anymore ."
Amal "Why not ?"
I "Because in my case , I can't go electric anymore ."
Samir "What do you mean ?"
I "What I mean is that I can't turn into Electro-Man . I've lost my powers for a week or so and I fear that …"
Suyash "Electro-Man is dead ?"
I "Quite so …"
Neel "But that's impossible . You have a shard of the Soul Stone in your brain and …"
I "That doesn't help . I've tried everything under the sun . Meditation , Yoga but none of them seemed to help ."
Sharang "But who cares , you quit the team so ."
I "Look I know you're angry that I left you guys . I regret having made such a decision but I now see that its too late to do a thing ."
Sharang "So what now ?"
Suyash "We quit , we start over and live normal lives ."
In this manner our group was officially disbanded . Crime in the city began to increase anyway but we began to enjoy our lives . Guys like Samir and Sharang began to go on dates while my performance in college became better . In the free time however , I tinkered with my suit and my cycle , weaponising them so that I can use it when needed . Although my friends decided to settle down with their lives , I couldn't primarily because I had to be prepared just in case , what I witnessed in my visions prove themselves to be true .
