Powerless in a New World

Chapter 6

"You seriously expect us to believe you're from another universe?" The knight said.

"It's true," Rusty said. "She has a history book from her world. It's completely different from ours."

"Why does she even have a history book with her?" He further questioned, rather aggressively.

"I was walking home from school this afternoon," Mychal explained herself. "I have all my books to study this weeked, next week is finals week. I need to pass, I have to. If I don't, I'll live in a crappy apartment all my life."

"This is ridiculous, who studies from their textbook? She's obviously lying."

"Jesus, Percival, quit being so hard on her," the pink woman said.

"Come on, Grace, you can't buy into this. You know what happened last time we trusted someone like her. Even Rusty didn't trust her, that should tell you something."

"...But I do now," Rusty said, uncharacteristically shy. "Besides, her story holds up. She says it's Aqualites that made the portal and they are pretty advanced. Plus I saw two guards chasing after her before I scared them off."

"For argument's sake, let's say she's telling the truth. About everything. Is Queen Zorania really going to 'conquer everything?'"

"You know Zorania," said the blue woman. "She tried to kill us when we offered her people peace."

"You have a point... But where would Zorania even go first?"

"Mount Vulcarona," The tornado man said. "The Pyronites live by the base of the volcano. She'll go after them, they're the ones who killed her mother when she was queen."

"Makes sense. Fine, we'll go and tell them they may be in danger, it's not that far of a drive, anyway. Though..." Percival paused. "Rusty, I'll need you to cloak all but one of us. They have constant surveillance from their watchers up in the valley, we don't want them to think they're under attack. Meanwhile, Pinky will stay here."

Mychal looked around confused.

"He means you," Rusty whispered to her.

Mychal jumped up. "How long will this take, have to get home, by..." Mychal thought for a moment. "By the day after tomorrow."

"Plenty of time," Percival said, getting in the driver's seat. "Alright, team. Let's go."

Rusty gave a silent wave before entering the trunk of the truck with everyone else. Mychal looked carefully and noticed that one seat was empty. The reason Percival didn't trust her.

The large, metal gate opened and closed once the truck went through. Mychal yawned and watched the sun finish setting. Mychal was certain time was moving at the same pace as in her universe. She convinced herself of this and calmed herself down. She yawned again and soon realized she didn't have a place to stay.

Dragging her feet, Mychal wandered back to the entrance of Haven, which was to the right of the gate. There, she found some benches and decided to sit down on one, with her bag beside her. I should use this time for studying, she thought. She reached for her bag and pulled out a binder and began reading the notes she took.

Mychal looked up in a panic upon hearing a familiar voice.

"Hey, you're still here?"

Mychal rubbed her eyes. "Flaaron?" she gasped. "What are you doing here?" Slowly, her rapid breathing died down upon realizing it was just her acquaintance.

"I like to wait by the entrance for newcomers when I can't sleep. It relieves me."

"Do you often have trouble sleeping?"

"Sometimes... But that's not too bad, I know Rusty never sleeps."

"Huh..." Mychal thought for a moment. "You seem to really like Rusty."

Flaaron blushed. "Yeah, yeah. I mean, he did bring me to Haven, the best place on Earth. Plus we get along well since we both originated from the Pyronites. He was abandoned for being an anomaly and I ran away. We've actually been pretty close friends since he found me."

Mychal's old curiosity started to tear at her again. "What else can you tell me about Rusty. Specifically, what is his power. I've only seen him use it a bit."

"Answer my question first. Didn't you just leave to go home?"

"There was a bit of a delay with that 'roadblock' I mentioned." Flaaron didn't respond. "So about Rusty's power?"

"Right! It's the coolest power I've ever seen! Rusty has the power to distort reality however he wants. He can create illusions, change the property and state of matter, change the appearance of anyone or anything, change the opaqueness of himself and others, and much more! He can even move things as long as he's thinking about it, which he usually does to lift himself up and glide around the town! And let's not forget the best part! His skin glows whenever he uses his powers."

Several questions Mychal had about how Rusty did this and who did that was now answered.

"But no matter how much I try to comfort him, he's still afraid of his powers. It's why he has that tiny chip implanted that you can see in his left ear-"

"I have not seen that chip..."

"-It dampens his powers, making his control over reality not as powerful as it should be... But why is a between me and him thing..."

But Mychal was hungry for knowledge and wanted to know more. "You can tell me, it's alright. You're likely to never see me again, anyways. Plus you seem to like talking about him."

"...Alright, you win. Rusty's parents and every other Pyronite were afraid of Rusty. They eventually banished him when he was just a young boy. Haven found him and helped him with controlling his powers. He seems fine now, but deep down, he's afraid he'll lose control some day. He doesn't trust himself, so he's always trying to build trust with others."

Mychal felt like she pushed too much and shouldn't have heard this. She opened her mouth to change the subject, but wasn't able to get a word out as a noise by the entrance took their attention away.

A lone Aqualite ran through the doorway and started to fall to the floor as two guards ran in to try and catch him. He pushed them away and stumbled forward.

"Help... I need help!" he yelped as he turned around to face them. When he did, Mychal and Flaaron could see scars and cuts on his body and through his clothes. "She's going to kill us all!"

"Who, who?" the guards were saying, trying to relax him.

"Queen Zorania," Mychal said out loud, standing up.

The Aqualite looked at Mychal, surprising her with his unusual features. Unlike the other Aqualites who lacked hair of any kind, this one had a great, white beard. Also unlike the others, this one had a grand red and black robe, much flashier than the dull, black robes worn by all the others. Then Mychal noticed the crown on his head. This was the king of the Aqualites.

"You. You know what she's doing?" the king whispered. The guards stepped back and let him speak.

"She's trying to fix your portal thing to conquer the world, or whatever. She's crazy."

"She's a lunatic, but not an idiot. She slaughtered most of my people. The few that survived fled to the depths of the ocean or are still restrained and being tortured by Zorania. And the portal? She got it working. She's surrounding and slaughtering the Pyronites as we speak."

"The Pyronites?" Mychal looked at Flaaron. "That's where Rusty and the guards wen-."

"When did they leave?"

"About half an hour ag-"

"God, it's a forty minute drive. We have to warn them, but how are we going to catch up?"

"Can't we just call them?"

"What do you mean 'call them?' They aren't home."

Guess cell phones don't exist here, Mychal thought. "Right, so what do we do?"

The king walked forward. "I have an idea. I just need a body of water."