I sat claustrophobically. Encased in darkness and silence.
Time stood still. I still wasn't on good terms with time.
Eventually, the small chamber opened. I emerged to the sight of a totaled Dodge Viper and Dodge City laying on its back, motionless.
And some distance behind Dodge City I saw my spaceship.
I turned and looked behind me and saw the group I assembled walking slowly forward, staring at the Viper.
I was much closer than they and approached the devastated vehicle.
When I reached the car I could hear shuffling below it.
I attempted to move the car, but found myself completely unable.
A whirring sound suddenly filled the air. Blue and white action lines filled the air (all vertical).
A deafening din and Adam punched a hole through the skyward facing bottom of the vehicle. Adam bounded a good 39 feet into the air. He did an acrobatic twirl in the air and landed on the ground softly. As he did, the astonished group finally caught up to us.
I turned to him, somewhat shocked, I hadn't seen Adam display anything like this before.
“Adam, how did you do that?” I asked.
Adam thumped the middle of his chest twice with his index finger. He pulled a sphere out of his chest. Upon doing so, he shortened an inch and lost a little muscle tissue and pigmentation. I stared at the sphere and realized the similarity between it and my ball o' yellow. “It gives me powers, with it I become Anime Adam, or Adanime, or, well I am figuring out a good name for me.”
“Where did you get that?”
“Oh, there were six of them. I don't know where the other five got off to, but I owe my life to this one. They were Dodge City's power source.”
What became of the others?
The Scientists made these, are they using them for more than just power sources for cities?
Oh dear.
The Ponderer walked up to me.
“Where have you been?”
There was a pause as he mulled over the question, he then shrugged it off. He had something else to say.
“I have decided. I will help you. You know, with the whole Dodge City thing.”
“Tanx anyways, but that is all over now.”
“Oh, well then.” The Ponderer began to think things over.
I began walking towards my fallen spaceship.
After a brief walk I neared my ship, and in the 100 yards between my ship and Dodge City I saw Rachel weeping. I was about to walk up to her and find out what was wrong. I decided Steven better able for that. I looked around to make sure no one was looking and removed ball o' yellow from my chest and pocketed it.
“Hey, Rachel, what's wrong?”
“Oh, Steven, this was my dad's project and he could lose his job for this catastrophe.”
She began letting out jagged sobbing noises, I walked slowly closer.
“Don't worry Rachel, everything will be all right.”
But I couldn't help but feel my heart sink a little from the exasperated look on her face. She turned her face slowly towards mine and looked deep into my eyes.
“Steven, you are so nice to me.” She fell towards me and tucked her head into my chest. After awhile, I found that my arms were no longer dangling at my sides, but were hugging her and patting her on the back.
I found myself instinctively whispering to her whatever I could to make her feel better. After a few minutes her crying abated. I slowly stepped back and removed my hands from her back. I kissed her on the forehead. I looked her in the eyes and said:
“I have to go, and things will turn out ok. Trust me.”
She smiled and looked back at the fallen husk that was Dodge City.
With her back turned to the ship, I dashed to it and walked around to the far side.
“Incredible,” I muttered to myself.
Much to my amazement, I found that the spaceship was completely unharmed.
Not a single scratch on it. As I neared the entrance it opened.
I entered and the door shut behind me.
The ship launched off the ground and retrieved its escape pod and landed next to the group of heroes.
I exited.
“Thank you, one and all, for your help.”
I then walked over to Independent Man.
“Here Independent Man, here is your money for the job well done.”
“I don't need your money! I don't need money from anybody!” He stormed off, muttering about 'charity' and something about 'a beggar.'
“Ok,” then I walked to Austin Tacious, who was standing next to Moor Lee.
“Wow, thank you Austin Tacious, you healed all my wounds, I would have never imagined you could have used a roll of Scotch tape and vegetation indigenous to the Overland Park area to fix me up and disinfect my injuries.”
“It was no problem Moor Lee. Ahh... Cow Defender, our prestigious leader, ho are things?”
“Well I have come to pay you for your job well done.”
“Oh, Cow Defender, I can't accept that from you. The experience, friendship and knowledge that I have gained are more than enough payment for me.”
“Ok.”
The group dispersed after some celebration and a brief run in with the media. UBAM returned with me to the garage aboard the spaceship.
I couldn't help but wonder what might have happened to the other spheres...
Elsewhere,
the man in black walked around completely disinterested in all he saw, until the glowing orb peaked out from beneath the bush.
He calmly put out the ciggarette he'd just stolen from Wal-Mart and walked over to the bush.
He took the sphere out and gave it a good look over.
Elsewhere,
the long haired man sheathed his sword as he observed the ball rolling down the sidewalk, while emitting a faint glow.
“Chickens,” he muttered. He ran in pursuit of the ball, catching it a block and a half later.
Elsewhere,
the young lady stormed angrily out of the building, waving her fist around to display her rage. She didn't notice the small spherical object as her foot came down onto it. Her feet flew out from under her.
“AHHHHHHHHHHH!”
She seethed with rage as she pulled the small object out of the small of her back and promptly began cussing it out.
“Whoever did this will pay.”
Somewhere else,
“Geez, tips today suck.”
“Well, of course they do. Waterway doesn't get a lot of business on rainy days man.”
He whispered to himself more than anything.
The car was worker then walked over and picked up the glowing purple ball.
“Interesting.”
Last place,
the small ball laid untouched in the murky pond,
through the filth its glow was nearly invisible.
Could anyone possibly see it here.