Chapter XX: Path to the Future

Chapter XX: Path to the Future

It was raining mercilessly over New New York City. News were already all over the place looking for the latest news. Everyone and everything was in chaos. And even the man who had rescued them from chaos was in his own chaos.

Crnobog flies towards Queens, a now destroyed wasteland. Since World War III the place hasn’t been visited and has been in ruins, it is even prohibited to enter the area.

The weakened hero heads towards the only standing building, a church in the middle of everything. It doesn’t even have a roof and it’s pretty ruined, but it is still standing.

The hero enters the ruins of the church and the first image he sees is a crucified Jesus. He slowly walks towards that image.

“What am I?” he asks. “Why am I here? What am I doing? Why was I even created?” were questions Crnobog had in his head. Shortly afterwards he falls to his knees and stares at the image in front of him.

His hair slowly comes down and his wings slowly disappear, kind of evaporating. His nails retract to their normal size, and his teeth turn back to their normal self. Still, Dwayne was in some sort of Crnobog transformation, maybe a 10% of his total power. He was still wearing the Crnobog clothes.

“Why…” says Dwayne as tears begin to fall from his eyes.

“Never have I questioned why I am like this. But now… after this… Who the hell am I?” says Dwayne as he puts his forehead over the dusty floor, “For what real purpose was I created?”

The young man raises his head and stares at the image once again. “Why did you allow this to happen?” he asks, questioning the Jesus in front of him. “Shouldn’t you have power of all creatures? Why did you allow them to create life!” yells Dwayne. “I am alone in this world…” he finally says staring at some broken glasses at his left.

“I swore to protect the people… yet I allowed so many to die. I allowed this to happen to the people. I am only one man that can’t protect the whole world like I thought I could! I can only rescue some, not everyone! Why was that power not given to me?!?!” finally yells Dwayne.

“I should just die… I am an anomaly in this world. I am all alone… I can’t risk putting those who I love in danger. I can’t…. from now on I shall be alone” says Dwayne.

A female voice then is heard: “You are not alone”. Quickly Dwayne turns his head around to see Alexandra, Uncle Martin and Alphonse in the entrance of the ruined church

“You…” whispers Dwayne. “I took the freedom of following you and took them here” says Alphonse.

“You are not alone Dwayne” says Alexandra. Dwayne quickly turns his sights to the floor beneath him. “I put you and Uncle Martin in danger…” whispers Dwayne. “Yeah, but we are alive, right?” asks Martin.

“Dwayne, this is not the moment to breakdown…” says Alphonse. “It will never be the moment for breakdown… I selected this path and I need to save all the people I can… yet I am not as powerful as I thought” says Dwayne. “Be strong!” says Alphonse.

“Dwayne…” whispers Alexandra as she walks towards the young man kneeling over the ground. “I am lost…” he says. “Don’t be…” she whispers.

She also kneels close to Dwayne.

“That people out there believed you could save them, and you did save many. But you don’t have the power to chose who dies and who lives… if a person should die then that person will die” says Alexandra.

“That’s not my only problem… I am a thing Alexandra, a thing! I am not human nor a monster!” says Dwayne. “To me you look pretty human” she replies, “At the University, you looked pretty human to me. That day of the Grand Fiesta when you told me to leave, you still looked very human. When you caught me from falling, you looked human to me. And now… you still look human. You are a person Dwayne, a living being! You chose to use those powers given to you to save people and help everyone; you didn’t choose to eliminate half of the world! You have a heart, you have a conscience, you have a soul!” says Alexandra crying, “I wish I would be at least half as strong as you to also help all those close to me, all those that surround me! You have a gift, not a curse… live with it”.

“Alexa…” whispers Dwayne.

“I am weak, but I will work to be at least a quarter of strong as you. I also want to help people, save them” says Alexandra.

Then Alphonse says: “I also want to save people. I’ve seen so many cruel things in this short life. That’s why I looked for you Dwayne; you are kind-hearted and decided to help the people. I also want to help you save people with this power I have”.

“I am an old man and all, but I can give it a good try” says Uncle Martin with a tear falling from his left eye and smiling.

“Suddenly everyone got so corny…” whispers Dwayne, smiling for the first time in a long while.

“Live Dwayne” says Alexandra as she gets closer to Dwayne. Slowly she opens her mouth…

Dwayne and Alexandra kiss each other in the mouth for their first time, both kneeling over the dusty floor of the ruined church with no roof. The kiss lasted for quite some seconds.

“Say it…” says Alexandra. “I won’t say it, you say it” replies Dwayne. “C’mon, say it” says Alexandra. “What if I don’t?” asks Dwayne. “It’s just three words” says Alexandra. “Don’t make sound so corny” he replies. “Say it or I’ll leave you alone here” she replies. “Ok ok… I love you” says Dwayne. “With more emotion” she asks of him. “Aw screw you! I said it already” says Dwayne.

“Let’s go” says Alphonse. “Yeah… we should…” says Dwayne.

THIS CNN WITH THE NEWS!

“A EMP missile fell today over New New York City, south of Central Park! 85% of the city has no electronics or power! US Aircraft attacked the Demon Hero who was defending the people of Manhattan! Conspiracy?”

“Mr. President…” says a man inside the White House. President Adam was sitting in front of his desk in the Presidential Room.

“Nice….” Says Adam with a grin.

In New New York City there was a party (with no power though) in the McBathy’s restaurant.

There were many there, including Grauchy, Carlos, Kevin, Alexandra, Uncle Martin and some more.

“He left me alone” says Kevin. “Aw don’t be such a crybaby” says Alexandra. “So, how are your parents?” asks Kevin. “They are alright… my father crashed the car after the EMP fell but they are both alright, mom and dad. They said they were going to walk from Broadway to here…” the young girl replies.

Military forces were cleaning the roads off cars, and Humvees were being used for the sole use of transporting people.

“Why don’t they jump in on one of the Humvees?” asks Kevin. “My father hates any military related” says Alexandra with a smile. “Hey, where’s Dwayne?” she finally asks.

Night had already fallen over New New York City, and for the first time in a very long time the stars and the ceiling of the world could be seen.

Dwayne was atop the building where McBathy’s restaurant was located. Along him was Alphonse.

“Your mind yet hasn’t cleared enough?” asks Alphonse. “No, I am still confused, but I don’t want to hurt her” says Dwayne. “Dwayne… I still have some information I haven’t had the time to tell you” says Alphonse. “What is it?” asks Dwayne. “There are many more GenoBIO experiments out there, like me. I am not the only one” says Alphonse. “How many?” asks Dwayne. “Quite over a hundredth…” replies the blonde-haired man. “You think they would have bad intentions?” asks the gray-haired man. “Maybe some, but most are quiet so they can be accepted in society” says Alphonse.

“Are you suggesting… we should fight the other GenoBIO?” asks Dwayne. “No… but we should be in the watch” says Alphonse. “We?” says Dwayne with a smile. “Yeah, we are a team now. I help you, you help me and so on.” Replies Alphonse. “Alright” says Dwayne, still with a smile.

MEANWHILE….

David, the man of the white hair and gray coat is seen entering some facility. He walks through the very dark passages of the facility and finally reaches a door where he swipes a card. Then he gets close to the door and a machine reads his eye. The door shines green and opens. The man walks more and more and more…

Until he reaches a very dark room with a window in front. There a man is sitting, smoking a cigar. His face can’t be seen as it is very dark.

“I am back, Sir” says David. “Sit down” the other man says in a deep tone of voice. “So Mr. P…” says David as he sits by the man’s side. “I told you to stop calling me Mr. P” replies the other man. “Sorry sir” replies David, “Why did you invite me here?”.

“To see the new dawn of the Human…” replies the man. “What sir?” asks David. “You don’t think Crnobog is the only one I created, right? I need to have counter measures…” says the man. “There’s another” says David, VERY surprised. “Yup…” replies the man. The curtains covering the windows move… and a room is seen on the other side.

Ten people are working on something….

A man is lying over a cold steel bed…

His face is covered by a handkerchief

Over him there’s a steel sign…

It reads….

GM 00777 BIO 002b…

“But sir… that’s…” says David shaking. And then the man replies: “BIO 002a’s brother….

THE SECOND GRAND WEAPON!”

The Lord of the Abyss shall soon rise…

*Note: Expect the special on the making of the Genesis arc on Friday! Also that day await for confirmation if there will be indeed "filler" chapters until January 7, when "The Lord of the Abyss" arc is supposed to begin. Pluuuuuus, if you are lazy (like me), get this Torrent file: Click Here.
It is a PDF file with Chapters 1 through 20, so you have everything in once nice package! I'll upload the PDF soon to a server so Direct Download is available. Also, the Torrent (which has been posted on MANY BitTorrent sites) has already been downloaded over 25 times! Not bad =D. So, expect the "Making of the Genesis Arc" this Friday! *