Oblivious

Me- “Too sad… So sad…”

When I came to, I was pointing the gun at Gabe’s head. There was still momentary shock and surprise on his face, so I could deduce that I had just pointed the gun at him. Was I having another episode?

I had practice in defusing situations like these; after all, we hadn’t moved just so I could repeat the same mistakes. I gave off my brightest smile and placed the gun at my sides.

Me- “How was I?” I said with a chuckle, “You looked like you thought I was about to shoot you!”

Gabe exhaled sharply, and he frowned seriously,

Gabe- “Don’t joke like that. With the safety off, a single mistake could of become fatal. But definitely do that if an enemy comes. If you shot like that, I can already tell. You’d never miss.”

He waved goodbye, and went towards the library building. Looking at him walking away, I still felt a slight sense of anger on how he treated me like a child, not allowing me to go with them. But, in the end, I would be proving just how childish I was if I chased after him just to fulfill my curiosity.

I went to the car and sat down in the passenger’s seat, next to Sparrow. She was currently in a state of unawares, as she was focusing, concentrating hard on something. I assumed she was feeling out the emotions relating to Gabe. I, however, had no reason to worry. I had already insured his safety with my ability.

Thus, in a relaxed state, I went to check my phone. There were no particularly interesting notifications that came up, Chloe hadn’t even messaged me back yet. Considering that I had just seen her asleep in the car, she probably hadn’t checked her phone or she simply didn’t bring it. Given that we were both teenagers, I assumed it was the former.

So with a lot of time on my hands, I decided to practice with the gun. I turned on the safety, and pointed the gun like I was going to shoot. It felt completely natural, like eating or sleeping. Strange.

Practicing with something one was already completely proficient at was an incredibly boring thing, and after reloading the magazines a couple of times, I stopped messing with the gun. I ended up staring off into space, wishing I had something better to do.

********************

About an hour later, Gabe came back to the car unscathed. Evidently, the process had gone well. And at this time, Sparrow suddenly opened her eyes.

Sparrow- “How’d it go. Did you find anything interesting?”

Exhaustion was evident in her voice. Remaining in deep concentration for over an hour would do that to you.

Gabe- “Those people, they’re all new ability users, awakened right after that lady’s speech. The officials seem well prepared for the situation too. They first tested for the type of ability, classified it, and then inputted it onto their identity profile. Next, they offered positions in law enforcement for combat and support types, with compensation in forms of benefit like tax deductions, health benefits, retirement plans, that sort of stuff in the form of a document.”

He handed a paper over to Sparrow, and she looked over it with an impassive expression.

Gabe- “Finally, they sent them away, and called for the next person. But that’s only on the surface… There were multiple suspicious points about the situation.”

Sparrow- “Like?”

Gabe- “I won’t go into too much detail here, but the people registering the people who came? Those were military personnel. Not only that but a few people didn’t ever come back out of the building. Each of them had an aura surrounding them, meaning they were deviants.”

Gabe stopped, pausing to recollect his thoughts. A look of absolute seriousness came upon his face as he said his next words,

Gabe- “The way they registered a person also had some problems. They were not going off of some list of the regional population and seeing if they had an ability or not. No, they were checking to see if the person, out of a comprehensive list of newly awakened, actually showed up.”

Sparrow gulped nervously.

Sparrow- “Do you think they’re…?”

Gabe nodded his head.

Me- “They’re what?”

She shot a questioning glance at Gabe, and he nodded his head. So she started, saying,

Sparrow- “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe they already know what abilities were awakened. The process is going entirely too fast for how many people have shown up. Look, do you see that line?”

I looked to where she was pointing.

Sparrow- “The size of the line has gotten shorter.”

I asked, trying to catch onto her train of thought,

Me- “Why is that important?”

Gabe- “It’s after work hours. People are now arriving in much greater quantities than before, yet the line has gotten even shorter? Classifying so many abilities shouldn’t be this fast; the rate they’re doing this at is even faster than the time it takes for voting!”

My eyes flickered with an almost indiscernible glint. This was evidence confirming Gabe’s earlier point, but now that it was restated, I started to really think about it. Assuming they really were just checking for attendance and already had prior knowledge of each ability, the government was definitely doing something else, openly or covertly. Now as to what that something was, I could only imagine.

Sparrow continued,

Sparrow- “Now once this is confirmed, we can draw out quite a few conclusions. But considering what happened before, I believe they are marking them. An insignia of sorts. Am I correct?”

Gabe responded,

Gabe- “Almost, but your thinking is slightly too archaic. It is simply a chip that can be mounted on a hand, or a forehead. From what I gathered, it’s basically a mix of a debit card, id, and a gps. If a person paid $20, they could acquire one.”

Hearing this, I instinctively felt something was wrong. An instinct like the one I felt when I first awakened the golden aura, the kind of feeling I just knew was true. Was my ability trying to tell me something? But that wouldn’t make sense; the aura is in no way sentient…

(Author’s musings- I had a huge writer’s block here. Couldn’t write any further on this scene, decided to wait for inspiration, came back, couldn’t write, waited again, etc… I decided to end this scene here.)

***************

After discussing the events at the library in the car, I was made to give up the gun, and then we left. Sparrow was feeling exhausted after using her ability for so long, so Gabe ended up driving again. We were heading towards where we left the bullet-proof van.

Chloe still hadn’t responded to my text, so it was basically confirmed that she didn’t bring her phone with her to the library. And although I definitely felt quite uncomfortable knowing there was might be a chip inside her, or her parents, I also knew that it was an informed decision. Now the only question was: what ability was awakened?

As I was thinking about this, we passed a cop car stationed on the highway. They were stationed everywhere; another indication to the fact that revealing the world of abilities was planned and carefully orchestrated. It was understandable then that I hadn’t received any abnormal messages from C.H.I.B.I.

The box pulled over to the place we were stopped at. Apparently, the crash had been handled quickly and efficiently, so there was no further traffic jam when we arrived. But there was one problem. A man was sitting in the front seat of the van.

With the windows tinted, I could not clearly make out what the person was doing. But he was fiddling with something, completely oblivious to the fact that its owners were right next to him.

Sparrow, being in the passenger’s seat, was the first to step out of the car. She closed the door behind her, and with a smile that wasn’t really a smile, she knocked on the van’s window.

Just then, the man successfully started the van. He rolled down a window and responded,

The Hijacker- “What is it milady?”

Sparrow took a step back, stunned. She clearly wasn’t expecting that level of politeness from someone who just hijacked a car.

Sparrow- “Excuse me,” she asked, “do you need any help?”

She was playing around with the man? Unable to ascertain her purpose for beating around the bush, I continued to watch their conversation from the safety of the box. Meanwhile, Gabe started to get out from the other side of the car.

The Hijacker- “No, but thanks for asking. Now if you would excuse me-,”

Sparrow interrupted him,

Sparrow- “Are you sure? I saw you on the side of the road, and you were clearly having a lot of trouble starting the van.”

The man began to lose patience.

The Hijacker- “Yeah, the car just wouldn’t start. But now that I’ve finally started it, I need to drive it for a bit to charge the battery. You understand, right?”

Gabe arrived to the side of Sparrow and smiled at the man.

Gabe- “But that doesn’t seem to be what you’re doing at all. Having a little trouble unlocking the steering wheel?”

The man froze. Using this brief instant of shock, Gabe reached a dexterous hand into the window. In an instant, he had unlocked the door and started to drag the man out.

Without giving the man a chance to retaliate, Sparrow grabbed onto his arms and held them in a joint-lock position.

The man thrashed about like a wild fish on the chopping board. His legs went kicking wildly, attempting to find some form of leverage. His body twisted and turned within Gabe’s arms, yet even this was unable to set the man free.

Gabe grabbed onto his arms as well, and applied a force so strong that I heard some cracking sounds. The man was clearly in pain, though it didn’t look like his bones were broken. After doing this, he let the man go and placed him on the ground, against the van.

Gabe- “You won’t be able to move; I’ve dislocated your joints. Now tell me, why are you hijacking my car?”

The man’s forehead and face was turning extremely red now, while his muscles seemed to strain themselves through effort. He clearly ignored Gabe’s advice, and was trying to move his arms. The only result gained from this was that he rolled his neck around, and then fell over on one of his arms.

“Ahhh!”

He gasped out of pain. Sparrow squatted down to sit him back up and turned her head away from the man to look at Gabe.

Sparrow- “Why are you questioning him? Lets just call a hospital and leave.”

‘Thump’

I felt the golden aura begin to activate on it’s own. The fingernail sized bit of aura danced in front of my eyes, as if trying to warn me of something. But what?

‘Thump’

Unconsciously looking outside the car, I saw a giant cloud of black gas arise from the earth and invade the hijacker. His eyes turned black, yet both Gabe and Sparrow seemed oblivious to this momentous change.

‘Thump’

Recalling my other self’s cryptic warning about Blackmist, I reacted quickly. I immediately opened the door, drawing the eyes of both Sparrow and Gabe onto me. Simultaneously, the man’s mouth opened wide!

‘Thump’

I tried to jump out of the van to stop the man, but my seatbelt temporarily restrained me. Sparrow shot me a questioning glance, completely oblivious to the threat from behind her. NO!

The man lunged.

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