Chapter 8

I found a website that gave some examples. For instance, there is an attack called "Absolute Attack" it's an unblockable attack aimed at the fabrics of reality. I don't quite understand how it works but I can figure it out with practice. It seems like it can be used as an explosion, a slice, and a pierce. I figure I can use this to quickly takedown tougher enemies.

There's a move called "Banishment" that tears open the fabrics of space time to the void outside of space time. This power can only be used from one location. Somewhere that I have control over basically, like another dimension. I guess I could potentially create my own dimension. If I can get my power to a certain level there's really no telling what I can do. I have control over time and space, I can manipulate the world in however I want. I just have to get it under control.

Ok this one is ridiculously overpowered. "Destruction" let's me completely eliminate someone from reality. However, it can potentially destroy more than originally intended. But still, it says that certain people can completely destroy the universe. I don't think I would want to do that but that is an incredible power that shows off how powerful I can become.

I can also create portals through space to anywhere I want. It's basically like my teleportation power, but I can use this to survey an area from anywhere I want. That could come in great use.

But this one blew my mind. I can use time in way more ways than I thought I could. I can make bullets, blasts, missiles, and so much more. I can even slice things using time. I had no idea time could be used as a physical attack. All this time I've been using compacted space to hurt people. I can even increase people's age. I can't wait to try this stuff out.

I can use space to increase the mass of my attacks and hit harder. I can basically make my hand as dense as a freight train. The potential of this power is incredible.

I can teleport my attacks to hit people instantly. That's awesome.

I guess that since I can control basically the entire universe, I can also manipulate gravity. That's pretty self explanatory but, it says here I can make bullets and other things out of gravity. Honestly, it seems like I can do pretty much the same things with Space and Gravity that I can do with Time. Such as, slice things and project things. It seems pretty simple.

The powers I've found have a lot of subtypes and variations that I'm not going to get too deep into detail about, but I'll definitely be using these powers in the future.

"Holy shit Jess, I'm a beast and I didn't even know it." I said joyfully. "I'm gonna practice using some of these so I can do more next time I have to knock some heads."

And that's what I did all day for the next two days. I practiced and practiced and practiced until I had most of it down. I practice inside of this old abandoned factory. It's far enough away from everybody else that I don't have to worry about drawing attention. I have no idea what it was used for though. I would set up little targets and stuff from things lying around and used my powers on them. I even trained with my guns, so I'd be a better shot. I had a lot more guns now that I learned how to make portals. I just set one up inside of a gun store, slowed down time, put on some gloves so there weren't any prints and robbed the place clean. I grabbed all the guns I figured I could easily use like, twin Uzis,Desert Eagles, an Assault Rifle, a shotgun and even a Sniper Rifle, I figured I could practice with it and be able to use it properly. I found some heavy weapons too like an RPG and a grenade launcher. I mostly just wanted the ammo for them but I figured it couldn't hurt to have the guns too.

I put all that stuff in my inventory and practice pulling them out at will. I even learned how to create a small dimension inside the magazines of my guns so I could just drop ammo into them without needing to reload.

All in all, I was basically a walking armory at this point and nobody could tell the difference.

I teleported back to the house at around 5:00 and Jessica and I were chilling on the couch watching tv, when I got a phone call from Mark.

"Uh, is this the guy from the warehouse?" He sounded kinda nervous, probably because if this wasn't the right number he'd be making some random person suspicious of his activities.

"Nah, this is Hao from the Chinese store, of course it's me kid what's up?" I retorted.

"Two things. First, I don't know your name and it wouldn't feel normal to call you 'that guy from the warehouse' all the time soooo, you got a name?" He asked.

I sped up my perception so I could think faster. I could tell him my real name, but what if he gets compromised and gives it out. That would be extremely bad. On the other hand, I could come up with an alias, a fake name that I can give to people I don't trust with my real name. The only question is, what do I use? I slowed down time so that I would have even more time to think. This way my answer would be almost instantaneous. After a few minutes, which was like milliseconds in real time, I said, "Just call me 'Paradox'." I thought that was pretty cool.

"Okay, 'Paradox', I found out that the FKD are meeting up with some guys from the Cartel to buy some product. There meeting up at the docks in Penn's Landing. I'm thinking you could go down there and fuck shit up. You should probably take their money while you're at it, I heard there should be at least $100,000 in cash on the spot. They're buying a lot of shit." He informed me. His voice went back to a more casual tone once he knew it was me.

"Alright, thanks kid." I said and hung up the phone. I turned to Jessica and gave her a quick peck on the lips, "I gotta go princess, FKD are buying product from some Cartel guys. I'm gonna go interrupt their little tea party."

"Be careful Aiden."

"I will princess." I opened a portal to our room and grabbed some clothes. I grabbed a black leather jacket. I was about to put it on when I had an idea. I decided to test out how much I could control matter. I focused on the back of the jacket and imagined a purple fleur de lis with a golden clock hanging around it on a golden chain. I watched as the image was drawn into the back of the jacket with some sort of invisible pen. I held it in the air with my matter control, took a step back to look at the finished product, and smiled from ear to ear with pride. It was exactly how I pictured it. I grabbed a purple v-neck and some faded black jeans, out of a drawer and put them on. I grabbed my grey and purple, high top Nikes and put them on. I put my new and improved jacket on and looked in the mirror. I looked so fucking legit! I opened up a portal

I landed on a roof and pulled out my sniper to survey the area. I saw them standing there talking. There were about 20 guys on each side, so 40 all together. A few Cartel guys were unloading cocaine from a boat and putting it in the back of a truck. I decided I would snipe a few from afar then move in and take out the rest. I aimed on one of the guys carrying the coke and pulled the trigger. The shot hit him in the chest and he flew back. All the other guys scattered to find cover. I tried to pick off a few more but I still wasn't that good with this thing. I put away my sniper rifle and used a portal to raise myself out of the ground in the middle of the lot to give off the impression that I was some sort of demon sent from hell.

I could feel all eyes on me and they were sizing me up trying to figure out my intentions. I helped them out by throwing a "space slice" at a guy hiding behind the truck. The guy's blood splattered onto the truck and he fell to the ground. The next moment bullets were flying right at me, I used an invisible barrier, which I'm just gonna call a "shield" to make things easier. I used a shield to block the bullets coming at me and then jumped through a portal that put me in the sky I pulled out my Uzis and started dropping head first towards the ground spraying bullets. I lowered the effect gravity had on me so I could fall slower. I picked off 4 guys, 2 on each side, then I increased the gravity and slammed into the ground with my fist and sent a shockwave of gravity out from where my fist hit that levitated 5 Cartell guys in the air. I clapped my hands a shockwave of space rippled from me and sent them flying. I felt a few bullets hit me in the back and I put a portal in front and behind me to deflect anymore bullets to the other side. They realized that they're bullets took out 3 guys on the other side and stopped shooting.

"Havin fun fellas?" I shouted and then teleported behind one of the FKD guys. I grabbed him by his face and lifted him up with the use of gravity to make him lighter, then slammed him head first into the ground cracking his skull. "Cuz I sure as hell am." I started time dashing around and throwing hits at each guy.

"We need backup right now." I heard one of the FKD guys shout into his phone. I think it was the one who was talking to the Cartel guy. "Send that nigga Dashawn."

Sounds like Dashawn was one of the higher ups. He might be a Conduit, so I have to tread carefully. I continued fighting and took out 8 more with a flurry of bullets from above with my Uzis.

A few guys tried to run but I caught up to them in the middle of the street a few blocks away and took them out. I was about to focus my attention on the rest of the guys when I heard a furious roar and a giant metal hammer slammed into my side. I was sent flying thirty feet down the block. I got up and I saw a dude covered in metal with his right arm in the shape of a massive sledgehammer. He was about 6 foot 2 and he had the build of an NFL Running Back. He was wearing

"Huh, Well you must be Dashawn." I said, teleporting myself onto my feet. I cracked my knuckles and dusted off my clothes. "You look pretty strong, I'm still gonna kill you though." I pulled a rocket launcher out of my inventory and shot it at him. His right arm turned into a shield and blocked it. He threw his left hand out and metal slugs shot from his palms. I sped up my perception and dodged out of the way, then focused mass into my hands and speed ran at him, hitting him with everything I had. He went flying fifty feet into the air, but managed to shoot 4 metal rockets at me while he was in the air. I'll admit I didn't see that coming. I managed to get a small barrier in front of me and blocked two of them from hitting me head on, but the other two landed beside me and sent me flying back a few feet. I put a portal behind me while I was in the air and another one underneath the metal guy.

I went through the portal and grabbed him in the air. He immediately started throwing punches at me. I dodged a few of them before he shot a blast of metal at me and sent me flying back. He shot a few slugs of metal towards me that hit their mark. They weren't sharp so they didn't pierce my skin, but they hurt like hell. I manipulated the gravity around me to keep me in the air.

"Whatcha gonna do now big fella?" I said smugly. The smile was wiped off my face when he made a floating metal platform under his feet and used it to fly around like a magic carpet. "Oh c'mon." I exasperated. I wasn't expecting that.

"I've been doing this a lot longer than you have bitch. Imma fuck yo shit up." Dashawn said with a voice so deep I thought it was thunder. His hand turned into a metal whip and he threw it forward, wrapping it around my leg and pulling me to him. He flew through the air on his little magic carpet and dragged me behind him, slamming me into buildings and signs.

"Fuckin hell, this is bullshit man. Lemme go!" I shouted, swinging helplessly back and forth through the air.

"What's wrong bitch? Can't handle it a lil pain." He chuckled, like this shit was fucking funny. He did a 360 spin that whipped me around and threw me through the side of an apartment building. I heard a family scream in fright at the sight of their kitchen wall being destroyed. He took off once again and dragged me out of the family's brand new window.

"Sonuva bitch that hurt." I grunted in pain. I pulled out a Desert Eagle and fired some shots at the limb that was dragging me along. An obviously futile attempt when you take into account that he was currently covered in metal. "Well that was fucking stupid." I said to myself in disappointment.

He had started flying lower to the ground, scraping me across the asphalt and slamming me into cars, causing a bunch of accidents. At this point we were pretty far from where the fight started, in Penn's Landing. There were people screaming in terror at the sight of a man being dragged behind a metal dude on a bigass block of metal, which was completely understandable since that was a surprising occurrence.

"Hey buddy." *Thunk* "How about you let me go." *Crash* "And we fight like real superpowered psychopaths?" *Smash* I said grunting with every car door and street sign I slammed into.

"Nah kid, I think this shit is pretty fun, don't you think?" He retorted and then proceeded to swing me overhead into the air and back down, onto the top of a public transportation bus. I crashed through the roof, scaring the shit out of all the passengers.

I was laying there completely dazed. I focused on my wounds, and my tattered clothes, and started rewinding time to before they got all messed up. I had just finished when I heard the passengers start screaming. I looked out the window and saw nothing but open skies. That fucking maniac was holding the bus in the air, not even caring about the people in here with me.

The bus started to cave in slowly around us. The world around me slowed down as my mind started to perceive information faster so I could focus on the predicament I was in, and getting these people out of here. I looked around and there were about 15 people in here with me, including the driver, some seniors, teenagers, adults, and even a mother with her children. They were all scared clearly scared for their lives. I had to act fast. I came up with a plan, I wasn't sure if I could handle it, but I had to try. The world sped back up and then I slowed time and focused on everybody in the bus. I had never tried this before but in theory it should work. The passengers who were moving slowly with the rest of the world sped back up and they looked around confused at why everything was moving so slowly.

"People, may I have your attention please?" I said, struggling to keep everybody moving at the same speed as me. I had never tried to keep anyone but me suspended in time before and it was really taking a toll on me. I opened a portal to the street at the back of the bus, which was took a lot more effort to keep open then normal. I was really stretching the limitations of my powers right now. "I need everybody to walk to the back of the bus and through that glowing circle right there. It'll put you safely on the ground, and out of this floating metal death trap." I said, through gritted teeth. I was starting to feel actual pain at this point, I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep this up.

"Why the hell should I trust a freak like you?" This old man shouted from the front of the bus. "You Bio-terrorists are nothing but trouble, how do I know that thing back there won't leave me falling to my death?" A few of the people decided to listen to their own instincts and ran through the portal, but there were still 7 people who were thinking about what the old guy was saying. Including the mom and her kids, and I was not about to allow some prejudice old man cause some kids to die because he has trust issues.

"Listen man, if I was gonna kill you I wouldn't have gone through the trouble of flying through the fucking roof. Don't you see the bus caving in around us? The only reason you aren't dead yet is because I'm allowin you guys to move outside of time. But this is really fuckin difficult to do, and I'm not going to be able to do this much longer. So, please drop the racism and let me save your lives." I said pleading. Sweat was dripping from my brow and my back felt like it was on fire.

"I trust you." Said the lady with the kids. "C'mon kids, let's go." She beckoned to her 3 small children and they started shuffling towards the back. She stopped beside me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you." She said with a smile and followed her kids out the portal.

That left three more people to evacuate, the racist dude, a dude in a suit, and a middle school kid that was curled up in a ball freaking out.

I decided to focus on the kid, he had a lot more life to live than these guys and plus he was only still here because he was frozen in fear. He just needed a little encouragement.

"Hey kid, you gotta get out of here alright?" I said, trying to sound as friendly as I could while I was this much agony. Even though time was moving slower than usual the bus was still caving in, and regardless of how slow it looked the impact would still crush us. "Kid? C'mon, look at me buddy." I asked. He looked back at me from where he was curled up in the second, forward facing, row with tears streaming down his face. "I know this is kinda scary, but you gotta be tough ok?" I said, my legs giving out from the pain I was in. "What's your name buddy?" I said, my voice strained and shaky.

"Jake." He said timidly. Wiping his nose on his forearm.

"Jake huh? Ok Jake, who do you live with?" The portal in the back was starting to flicker in and out of existence. My powers were starting to quit on me. I had to get these people out of here now!

"My mom and dad."

"How do you think they would feel if they found out their son didn't come home because he got crushed inside of a floating bus?"

"Sad."

"Yea, real fuckin sad." I said agitated due to the pain I was in. "I mean, yea. They would be absolutely devastated." I said fixing my tone. "But you can keep that from happening Jake. You just gotta go through that circle back there. You can do it buddy. You're a big man now." Time was starting to speed up due to my powers giving out.

"But I'm scared." Jake said in an almost whining tone.

"Holy shit. Hey, you." I shouted to the business man that was just standing there like a dickhead. "You don't wanna die right? No. So stop sitting on the fucking fence, grab that kid over there and get the fuck out of here." I shouted demandingly. He complied immediately, picking up Jake and running through the portal. That just leaves the racist.

"Listen man, please, for the love of God, just go through the portal. I don't know what happened to you in life to make you not trust Conduits, but I assure you I'm not gonna hurt you." I was practically begging at this point. Time was barely moving slowly at this point and the portal was almost gone. I was tempted to just say "Fuck it" and leave this asshole here, but I had to try to save him even if he hated my guts.

"Fuck you, you Bio-terrorist nigger." He said with pure malice.

"Woah, woah, woah. Don't tell me you actually plan on trying to save this guy after he said some fucked up shit like that. You should just leave him here. Better yet, kill him. A racist dickhead like that doesn't deserve life." That voice in my head was back. As much as I hated to admit, he was actually making sense. This guy was a piece of shit. I was trying to save his life and he was throwing racial slurs at me. Maybe I should just let him die… but what would that say about me?