Comet

Marcus got out of school and headed into the forest. He looked up at a tree branch. He reached out his hand, and a chain flew out from the palm of his hand and onto the branch. It was big, and was weighing down on it too. It wrapped itself around the tree branch. He flicked his hand and the chain broke off of his hand. It stayed swinging on the tree before the tree branch snapped. The chain fell to the ground, and it eventually disintegrated in a few seconds. He spent his time in the forest shooting chains out of his body. He took his clothes off, only keeping his pants and socks on. From his hair, chest, and from practically any part of his body, he was able to shoot out chains. Except for the mouth and eyes. There are also two types of chains, one that stabs things and pulls him closer. Marcus shoots it out, making the sharp end of it pull him closer to it as the chain re-enters his body like a person disappearing into a cloud. The sharp part was yellow, and looked like a cone. The other type didn’t have a sharp end. All it did was wrap around things and change size. It seems he can launch the chains as far as 100 meters. He can make chains of any size, but the only drawback was that it was harder to carry and to break off the larger it was. Marcus was intrigued with what he could do, but he didn’t know what to do with the new found powers. It seemed useless to be able to do this. He quietly walked home to his parents.

On the sidewalk, Marcus was fiddling with tiny chains on his hands. He wrapped them around his fingers. He was in his neighborhood, only a few houses away from his own. A white limousine drove up to him. Marcus sighed as a window rolled down. He stopped walking.

A teenager popped his head out of the car. His eyes were closed, his hair was golden, and at the tips of it, were rainbow colored crystals. His name was Prince, a fitting name for someone like him. “What do you want? You look as creepy as ever with those closed eyes,” Marcus glared at Prince with unwelcoming eyes.

Prince chuckled, “Oh, don’t worry about it, you’d understand if you had a luxurious life like I do! You don’t, sadly!”

Prince cackled as Marcus groaned.

“Shut up, if being rich means I have to look like you, then I’d rather be poor,” Marcus growled.

Prince brought his head back in the limousine, “Butler, am I allowed to get rid of him?”

“What do you mean?” Marcus asked. The Butler shook his head, “Don’t worry, we have hired someone. He’ll deal with him tomorrow.”

“Aww, what a pity!” Prince sarcastically frowned, snickering as his limousine sped off. “Ciao, ciao, loser!” He mockingly waved through the window.

Marcus’ eyebrow raised in confusion watching the limo drive away. “That was weird,” he shrugged.

The next day, Marcus was walking to the store to buy gum. He wore a gray t-shirt with skulls all over it, and black shorts. He walked out the store, with some gum in his mouth. He chewed it as he calmly walked on the sidewalk. He stopped walking because of the traffic light glowing red at the crosswalk. To the left of him, he could hear a loud motorcycle. The guy on the motorcycle stopped beside him as they both waited for the light to switch to green. He wore a nice black helmet with long black hair coming from under it. “Hey kid,” the guy said. Marcus ignored the guy. “Hello!?” the guy yelled, getting angrier. Marcus rolled his eyes, “What do you want?”

The guy smiled, after staring at Marcus’ face, he laughed, “Found ya, boy!”

Marcus was getting irritated. The light turned green, and Marcus continued walking. On his walk, the guy was slowly following him. Marcus turned around and ran in the opposite direction.

“Is this what he meant by hiring someone? Do they know about my powers?”

Marcus looked over his shoulder to see the motorcycle dude make a u-turn.

“Holy shit!” Marcus blurted. He began to frantically run faster.

Marcus started feeling a disturbance on his back. It felt itchy, but it also felt painful, and it was spreading. He felt it on his hand too. He looked at his hand, and there was rust that was eating at his skin. Marcus heard the screams of people nearby.

“Is Prince trying to kill me!? That bitch-face bastard! When I get my hands on him, I’m going to ruin his face!”

The motorcycle dude caught up with Marcus, which intensified the rusting on his body. Marcus could feel the rusting on all of his limbs which slowed him down. In desperation, he shot a chain from his hand which pierced the wall of a tall building. He pulled himself towards the wall, using the chain like it’s a grapple gun. Marcus climbed up the building by shooting the chains into the bricks to pull himself up. Pieces of bricks would hit his face as he progressed, but it was better than the rust. The motorcycle dude stopped in front of the apartment that Marcus was climbing, “Get down here !” the dude yelled, “I’ll be waiting!”

Once Marcus got to the top, he took deep breaths because he was tired from the climbing. In the distance, he could hear sirens roaring. He looked down at the motorcycle dude. He was still there. Marcus looked at his arms and legs. Blood was gushing out, and his skin looked like rust. The rust you would see on metal, was all over his skin. “I’m not the only one? The hell did I do?” he looked at his wounds in horror. For some reason, despite the rusting, it wasn’t as painful as he thought it would be. Police cars arrived at the scene, but some had to step back due to the rusting. “Shoot me! I dare you!” the motorcycle dude cackled, “Go ahead, I don’t mind harming random people like you! Even though I’m not supposed to, who gives a shit?”

The policemen began to shoot at him, but their bullets would rust away before they reached him. The metal that was near him began to rust away too. Cars in the vicinity were beginning to look older than they actually are.

The motorcycle wasn’t affected at all.

Marcus was feeling lightheaded from the blood loss. His shoes were filled with blood.

“What do I do? Do I just... go down there and fight him, or do I run?”

His phone began to ring, he pulled it out with his left hand which wasn’t affected too much by the rust. An unknown caller was calling him. He accepted the call, “Who are you?” Marcus asked, “Why are you calling me?”

Marcus heard a woman’s voice, “If you want to survive, please run to the Rycard High School.”

“No!” Marcus shouted, “I’m not an idiot! I’m not gonna get killed that easily! Even if you can help me, I can do this myself!”

Marcus closed his phone and looked down again. The motorcycle dude laughed as the cops tried to get closer, but the rust made it impossible. The police decided to stay a certain distance from the man. One cop tried firing another shot at him. It reached a lot closer than the other bullets, but it rusted away a lot faster. Marcus shot a chain from his forehead and watched it drop behind the motorcycle dude.

He squinted at the chain, noticing that it rusted too.

“But the chain I used to get on this building didn’t rust. Actually, other metal things didn’t rust either when I was running,” Marcus thought to himself. Then, he had an idea.

Marcus grappled to a shorter building. The motorcycle dude revved up his motorcycle and followed him. Marcus landed on the building, moaning in pain. He watched the motorcycle dude catch up to him. He could feel his skin rust away. He saw policemen standing nearby scream in pain, too. People were evacuating the area.

“Two different modes like me,” Marcus thought.

Marcus grappled to the sidewalk, fully embracing the rust that was covering his limbs, even under his clothes. The motorcycle dude was getting closer and closer, but Marcus didn’t run. He waited for the right moment to strike. When the motorcycle dude was only a few meters away from him, he shot out a chain from his forehead, aiming it at him. It was the one with the sharp end. It almost reached him, but rust immediately destroyed the chain the moment it got in the arms reach of the motorcycle dude. The motorcycle dude stopped his motorcycle, drifting on the road. He got off of it, holding the motorcycle as he walked closer. Marcus could feel the rust eat at his skin, but even faster. The closer he got, the more rust there was. Marcus screamed in agony as he was losing skin on his limbs to shoot chains from. He could use his head, but the immense pain that Marcus was feeling made him unable to focus.

Marcus fell to the ground, in a pool of his own blood. He was losing consciousness.

On the side of the street, where bystanders evacuated from, police cars and an ambulance came to the scene to help people. Sadly, no one was able to help Marcus.

Not only was he provided with the ability to rust organisms away, he could also speed up the process of rusting on metals. All within a 50 meter radius. He can only target one at a time. On top of all of that, his reaction speed was superhuman, switching from the two when needed is as easy as walking. The only exceptions are himself, and the things he is touching.

Marcus was staring up at the sky with open eyes as his skin and even his eyelids rusted away. Staring up at the thick blue sky and how endless it was, the world didn’t feel real, the way he was dying didn’t feel real. No chance to move, no chance to escape. This was reality. His entire face was drenched in his own blood and hair with his eyes still looking up, as if they saw something special up there. But there was nothing special up there, there was only the sky and a kid without any skin to cover his body gazing upon it in his own pile of blood. And as his eyes never moved or changed, so did the question in his mind. Repeating the same question: Why?

Marcus lost consciousness.

Suddenly, something soared through the sky at ludicrous speeds. It was going straight towards the motorcycle dude.

Unfortunately for him, he was not facing whatever was approaching him.

It sliced through the man like he was a cloud. The thing that hit him disappeared on contact. In his chest, was a large hole where his heart was supposed to be. With blood gushing out immediately, the motorcycle dude fell on the ground. His motorcycle fell, too.

His powers stopped functioning, but the damage to Marcus was still there. His clothes were soaked in blood, with barely any skin left on his face. He looked like a corpse, his eyelids were gone, but he wasn’t conscious. Two wide eyes surrounded in a sea of blood.

“Quick! Get him!” a woman said.

Another person quickly ran to Marcus’ body and carried it over his shoulder, running away, into the direction of where the attack came from.

The next day, Marcus woke up on a bed. He noticed his wounds were gone. His skin was normal, and he didn’t feel any pain. He realized that he was in the basement of a home. He heard people talking upstairs, which made him curious. He got out of bed, looking at the items all over the basement, from a TV to a computer. It looked like a room.

He opened the basement door, walking to the living room where the talking was coming from. He saw three people talking to each other. “Who the hell are you guys?” Marcus asked. The three people looked at him. “Oh, you woke up! We saved you! My name is Ivy, he’s Richard, and that’s Emma,” Ivy beamed.

“Don’t forget you called him, too,” Emma added, “You’re lucky we decided to save you. Even after that.”

“Uhh thanks,” Marcus looked at Ivy’s happy face, “Sorry for not trusting you, I guess. You were some random person calling me, though. How the hell did you even know to call me?”

Ivy smiled at Marcus, “I don’t mind, I completely understand! Let’s just say I know a lot of people in this city. I should have approached you sooner, but we were kinda busy.”

Marcus gave Ivy a look of confusion, “Is she a weird stalker? Eh, they healed me, I don’t think she’s evil,” Marcus thought.

“Also, what the hell is going on?” he asked.

Richard chuckled, “I healed you! Just wanted to mention that. About the hitman thing, we’re all being chased by these people who simply want us dead because we have powers.”

Marcus looked at Richard with confusion, “That’s it?”

“Yeah,” Richard said, “You were expecting more?” Ivy walked up to Marcus, “Stay with us! If you go out there alone, you will die! Their hitmen are crazy strong!”

“That’s cool and all, but I think I’m just gonna go home now,” Marcus walked to the door.

“What? You can’t survive on your own.” Ivy exclaimed, walking over to Marcus, again.

“Watch come right back immediately, Ivy,” Richard smiled.

Ivy turned to Richard, “But...”

Marcus opened the door, “Trust me, I can handle this on my own.”

Marcus closed the door after stepping outside. He looked around the scene, realizing that there were nothing but trees at the other side of the road. There wasn’t another house in sight. A large field of grass extended to the road with trees beside it.

Marcus sighed, “Give me a break,” he whispered under his breath.