The Unwanted

Chapter 14- Training Part 3

Chapter 14- Training Part 3

The snowflakes that poured from above came to a standstill. Small yellow lightning bolts struck around me as each flake of snow slowly danced through the air. The whole world had a blue tint as though it had been covered by a filter. All the world's sounds had been drowned out by the crackling of the yellow lightning. Everything had been slowed down.

Between the halted snowflakes was the nail. It drifted slowly across the white canvas of snow.

Beautiful.

I tried to reach out to grab the nail, but something began to resist my movement. It pushed me back as I tried to move forward. The harder I tried to resist, the faster my oxygen levels ran out. I felt my brain get fuzzy. I tried with great effort to push forward, but I was pulled back faster. It felt as though I was walking through thick, murky water. My heart started beating frantically, desperate for oxygen. The nail was inches away as I struggled to keep moving forward.

Move! Move!! Move!!!

With my last ounce of energy, I propelled myself towards the nail. My fingertips slightly grazed the back of nail as it slowly moved out of reach. Giving up all thoughts of reaching, I gave in to the pressure and released Zero-Tempo.

My entire body was throbbing, my lungs felt as though they had been set on fire. I began breathing heavily to recover the lost oxygen, but it felt as if my lungs were slowly filling with water, as though there was just less space in them for the air. Then came the dizzy feeling, the blurry eyesight and the need to get low to the ground. Visible puffs left my mouth at such an accelerated rate, that I began to feel like a kettle as cold drops of sweat flowed down my face.

"What happened?" Anthony asked confused.

"Did you not see that?!" I asked, "The lightning? The Blue tint? Anything? I was so close the nail!"

"Sorry," he explained, "All I saw was you standing there and then a second later you suddenly started panting."

He didn't see it. I guess that makes sense when I used Zero-Tempo before no one seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary. Plus, I can't see the orange streaks he talks about when he aims.

Anthony walked over to retrieve the nail from the target.

"Alex!" Anthony yelled, "come check this out!"

I ran over to see. The nail had missed the target.

"Did you miss?" I asked.

"First you think my aim is creepy and now you think I missed!" He yelled jokingly, "I don't think I missed. It's possible, but I felt it was dead on."

Did I manage to deflect the nail?

"Let's keep trying," I said, "I think I can get this."

"You sure?" He asked, "I'm not really sure what you're doing but it looks like you were exhausted."

"I'm sure," I responded with a smile as sweat drops rolled across my face.

I have too.

We set up again for another test. Anthony pumped more air into the bottle as I walked over to my position.

I never imagined not using Zero-Tempo by instinct would make it so difficult. That resistance was way too strong. I need to make my movement calmer and more calculated. If I can reduce the amount of time that I'm pushing against that force, by increasing the efficiency of my movements, then I might be able to catch the nail.

"Fire!" I yelled.

Yellow lightning bolts crackled around me once again.

I don't need to move yet. Calm down and choose the most efficient movement to minimise resistance.

I streamlined my body, by aligning and straightening my body to reduce frontal drag. Then swiftly manoeuvred through the resistive force trying my best to follow the path of least resistance.

It's close! But I need it to go even slower!

The nail began to slow down even more as the lightning bolts around me suddenly grew thicker and began to crackle more ferociously. I hurled myself towards the nail as I released Zero-Tempo.

"Alex?" Anthony asked concerned.

"I did it!" I yelled as I showed him the nail.

"Wait, what?" Anthony queried, "Is this some kind of magic trick? Did you have another nail up your sleeve or something?"

"No," I answered with a smile, "I caught it."

"Impossible," Anthony responded as he went over to the target to check if it was the same nail.

"It's just as impossible as your creepy aim," I replied.

"Alex," Anthony shouted after confirming it was the same nail, "that is actually incredible! How did you do it?"

"I call it Zero-Tempo," I responded, "I believe it's similar to your monstrous aim."

"Can you please stop calling me a monster," he jokingly pleaded.

"When I use it, the whole world becomes slower. It feels like I'm in a slow-motion action scene, but I can move," I explained, "everywhere becomes enveloped in yellow lightning that strikes around me and there is a faint blue tint that covers my surroundings."

"That sounds amazing," he replied shocked.

"There are still so many things I don't know about it," I continued, "that's why I'm doing this training, so I can hopefully learn as much as I can and use it more effectively."

"Since you were able to catch the nail," he asked, "does that mean you're done training?"

"Not even close," I replied, "I need to make it much, much better. That was only about 10% of the nail gun's power, I need to be able to catch it at 100%"

"Then let's continue," Anthony said with a smile.

We continued to train for hours to learn more about Zero-Tempo until it had become dark. The snow was still falling, clumps of wet flakes drifting windlessly down, the air moist and the sidewalk mushy. The air so chilled it hurt to breathe. Already the ground was laid white with frost and any water that had been liquid under the winter sun had become ice. We continued to test the limits of Zero-Tempo by increasing the speed of the nail steadily. I needed to get better. For Emma and Anthony.

5 more hours until Anthony's death.