Thanks to the s33r and silentlysnowing for the reviews


"If I Could Fly"

Chapter 2 – Sanctuary

There is nothing quite like a quiet pub. No interruptions, no judgement. Just you, your favourite songs playing on the jukebox and a pint. It is a haven, a second home. The walls lock out life's trials and tribulations like a forcefield, keeping you safe and carefree inside. It is a special place. Everyone needs a special place, even extraordinary people.

Zain was an extraordinary person. He remembered the teachers in primary school telling him how everyone is special in their own way. Back then he believed them. But over time things changed. People changed. Zain changed.

He had been thrust into whole new world. If you had told him a year ago that everything he had read in the comics was true, he would have laughed in your face and called you brain sick. But that was before the eclipse. Zain did not know if it came from the eclipse itself, but after that day he could do something phenomenal. He could create --

"THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD ENOUGH!"

Zain sighed. There's nothing like a quiet pub.

He was forced from his trance-like state by the excessive vocalizations of a very angry drunk. He looked up to find the large man standing over another one who appeared to be unconscious. The angry man looked up at the girl behind the bar and saw the look of horror on her face. Zain looked across at another man sitting at a nearby table as the drunk started to stumble purposefully towards the bar.

"Don't they have a bouncer here?" Zain asked the man nearby.

"Yeah, one of them is big, drunk and really pissed off. The other has just been knocked out."

Zain stood up and prepared himself. The drunk bouncer grabbed the barmaid and roughly pulled her over the bar. He held onto her shirt with one hand and raised the other hand above his head. Before he could strike he felt something grab his wrist. He let go of the terrified barmaid and turned to face the challenger.

"Are you the next contestant?" He half spoke-half slurred.

Zain looked the man right in the eye, unable to speak out of anger. This man had just knocked another his size out cold, there was no way the girl would have been able to defend herself.

The bouncer directed a powerful blow at Zain's face. Despite being intoxicated, his aim was true. But his fist did not connect with Zain's face. Instead, it stopped inches away and still an audible crunch was heard as the man's knuckles broke.

Zain was an extraordinary person. This man was about to find out how extraordinary Zain was. After the eclipse he could do something phenomenal. He could create an invisible, impenetrable forcefield around himself, keeping himself safe from any attack inside.

Drunkenly unfazed by his broken bones, the bouncer brought out a knife and relaunched his attack. He tried to strike Zain with the knife but, just like his fist, it shattered on the unseen wall before it could reach its target.

Zain countered the attack by striking the bouncer in the face. The forcefield-covered fist hit like a ton of bricks. More bones cracked from the force and the bouncer stumbled backwards several steps. Zain struck again, this time with an uppercut that knocked out several teeth. A final blow to the face sent the bouncer colliding with the wall of the pub and knocked him out cold.


"You got into a fight on your first day here!" Devon screamed in disbelief.

"If you can call that a fight. Its more 'I kicked some guy's ass on my first day here.'"

"What were you thinking!"

"For your information I was thinking 'big guy has to be stopped before he kills someone!' More specifically, before he kills very attractive barmaid."

Devon huffed and was about to retort but Zain cut in before she could say anything.

"Can we continue this after you put some clothes on?"

Devon stormed into her room. Earlier that morning she had woken to find her boyfriend, Jed, in her bed and their clothes strewn over the floor. Momentarily forgetting she had a visitor sleeping on her sofa, she had quickly thrown on one of Jed's large shirts and made her way through to the kitchen area to make breakfast, only to be startled by Zain's voice.

"Looks like you and Jed celebrated your one month anniversary in style," he had noted.

She quickly changed the subject and asked him what he got up to last night, and so the argument began.

Back in her room she was busy getting dressed properly while Jed stepped in the en suite shower. Zain called through the door to her from just outside.

"I still don't see what I did wrong. The guy could have seriously hurt someone."

"That's just it," she replied, "I don't want to be the one to tell your family you're dying in hospital."

She opened the door, fully dressed, to a bafflingly empty hallway.

"Trust me, I can take care of myself." His voice drifted up from below.

Devon looked down to discover Zain sitting against the wall. She slid down it to sit next to him.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I didn't realise you were worried. I thought you were just mad at me for knocking a guy out."

"You knocked him out?!"

Zain just looked at her for a second.

"No." He lied, blatantly.

Devon half sighed, half laughed.

"I missed you," she said tenderly.

"I missed you too."

Devon looked away. She could not bare those deep blue eyes at this moment.

"Really?"

"Of Course."

"Its just... the last time I saw you..."

Devon's eyes glistened with tears. He had inflicted heavy wounds when he said those things a few months ago. They were yet to heal, it seemed. Zain looked away, he did not know what to say.

"Still," said Devon, deciding to focus on more current affairs, "taking on that bouncer, that kinda makes you a hero."

Zain smiled, "did I mention he had a knife?"


The storm still raged outside Eddie's window. Just as well, he was pent up with a lot of energy and needed to discharge. He left the apartment for the woods nearby. Sometimes he cursed this ability.

He and Zain could both do incredible things. The only problem was that compared to Zain's defensive ability, Eddie's was destructive. Every so often it would build up inside him and he would have to let it out before it bursts out of him. In these situations he made for the usually empty woods, where no one could get hurt. But the woods alone were not enough. The storm is what really provided the perfect cover.

He reached a clearing, ready to expel his energies when he was stopped by a voice.

"I'm guessing you're an electricity manipulator," it said.

Eddie spun around to discover he was being watched by a woman about his age with long, black hair.

"I figured it was either that or weather control," she continued.

"This is a very bad time to be near me," Eddie warned. He looked at his hands and saw blue sparks jumping between his fingers. He was beginning to lose control.

"I wouldn't release it all just yet," advised the girl, "you're gonna need it very soon."

Before Eddie could ask the girl what she was talking about, the clearing was full of people in body armour and wielding guns and Eddie understood. No longer able to keep his ability in check, he let it explode out of him. The black clouds glowed blue and roared thunder at him as he let his powerful electrical energies overwhelm him. After what seemed like ages, he finally emptied his bottomless pit of electricity and collapsed on the cold ground.


"Do you even know why he was attacking people?" Devon asked Zain as Jed left the building for his own place.

"Not a clue. Guess he's just one of those who gets violent when he's drunk."

Maybe she never should have shouted at Zain. After all, if his actions at the pub last night were anything to go by, he may the only person capable of helping her. She did not want to push him away. Everyone needs a special place. About a month ago Devon let a man into her dormitory and her special place was turned into hell.


The man sat at the table deep in thought. He had just heard from his girlfriend what Zain had done at the pub last night. It appears he was right to think Zain was going to be trouble. The storm was getting closer and stronger. He would not weather this storm, he would conquer it.


TO BE CONTINUED...