The Wanderer (Book 2): Stranded Read online

  The Wanderer 2:

  Stranded

  By: Danny Giancioppo

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  Epilogue

  For Cam, and Noah

  “True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice.” - Sadhu Vaswani

  1

  Anniversary, Take One

  “Oh no! No, no, no!” I said, racing through the apartment.

  “What? What’s wrong?” Sam asked, slowly and carefully putting on a blazer. He was getting ready to go on some date with some girl he met at school just before the “college” summer had started. I meanwhile, had just remembered that I had to pick up Alannah five minutes ago from her house to go out on our four-year anniversary dinner. So we were both pretty stressed out.

  “I forgot!” I shouted, running into my room to grab my fancy clothes. I had a button-down shirt, a blazer, matching pants! I was on top of my style, let me tell you. Time management and memory? Not so much.

  “Forgot what?” Sam asked, struggling to put on a tie with both his real and prosthetic arm. “Gah– can you… how do you tie this thing?” he muttered.

  Thanks to my speedy speed-ness, I changed myself quickly, and ran over to him, already dressed to impress.

  “You want me to help?” I asked, trying to calm down.

  “No, no I’ve got it,” he said under his breath. Sam did not have it, but he didn’t like being coddled over his disability, and I totally got that. I respected it. However, we didn’t have a whole lot of time, either of us, and I’d always help Sam, even– maybe even especially– when it had to do with tying a tie. It took me long enough as it was learning how to do it on my own.

  “Here, I got you,” I said, tying his tie for him as it was still on; he shook his head annoyedly, but he let me do it. “I have my anniversary dinner with Alannah tonight,” I explained. “I just remembered.”

  “Well that’s fine, it’ll only take you like a minute to get back to her house from the city,” Sam said. He was right, but not right enough, unfortunately.

  “Yeah, but I was supposed to get her like five minutes ago!” I stressed, finishing up his tie. “There, you look like a pro,” I said, admiring my own work. “Nice choice of tie, by the way.”

  “Thanks, it’s yours,” Sam smirked. I did not.

  “What!? I said stop stealing my ties! Buy your own!”

  “Not all of us have borderline unlimited government money to live off of, dude; some of us still have to actually go to college and work for a living,” Sam noted, eyebrows raised pointedly. “That means I very rarely have ties on my list of budgetary concerns.”

  “It’s not unlimited money,” I said. “It’s just a good, steady income–”

  “Ridiculously good,” Sam said. “Which my taxes pay for, by the way.”

  “That I used to get us both an apartment in the city, only one year out of high school, by the way. How many times are you going to make me go over this? You should be thanking me.”

  “You’re right. Thanks for the tie,” Sam said. I just glared at him and scoffed.

  “Right; you’re welcome, smartass,” I said, running over to put my shoes on and grab my wallet from the kitchen counter.

  “You sure I look alright?” Sam asked. I glanced up at him from the counter and nodded.

  “For a robot-man, sure, you look great.”

  “Funny, coming from the man with a Freddy Krueger arm,” Sam replied.

  My right arm, of course, being permanently burned and scarred from the forearm to the shoulder after my huge cosmic attack for Malek. It didn’t hurt, but it was a constant reminder of that fight. “Jason’s reveal,” as everyone at school called it. Or at least, as their drunken, drugged up memories hazily and insubstantially recalled.

  I was being a good guy then, Sam was just being an ass now; it wasn’t even that clever, either.

  I just scoffed, and then he and I went in for a hug.

  “Alright, I gotta go. Good luck on your date with…” I froze. Oh no... I didn’t remember her name! “Girl,” was all I came up with. Not my best effort.

  “Jessica,” Sam said, breaking away from the hug.

  “Right, Jessica, sorry,” I said, walking out to the terrace. “Good luck with Jessica!”

  “Yeah, good luck with angry Alannah!” Sam said back.

  “No kidding…” I muttered.

  I made my way outside, and closed the door. I did a quick double-check around the general area to make sure no one was watching me, and then I clicked my chestplate, hidden underneath one suit, making the other, arguably less fashionable suit come out and around it.

  “Alright, now at least I won’t get any bugs or bird poop on my nice suit. No offense, suit.” It didn’t make any noise. It was just a suit, after all.

  I took off, and bolted as fast as I could to Alannah’s. I was stressed, but not all that emotional, so it did take me a good while. That said, since we last spoke, I’ve become quite accustomed to my powers, and can in fact use them much more properly and efficiently, so it didn’t take me a minute, as Sam thought.

  It took me a soul-crushing 16.62 seconds.

  I landed in the woods by her house, clicked the suit off, and ran around to her front door. I knocked on it and awaited my princess, only to then be greeted by the king… her father.

  “Jason,” he said, greeting me at the door. “How are you?”

  “Oh, hi Mr. Daniels, I-I’m good! How are you, uh… tonight?” I responded. I was still mentally trying to catch up with myself– that part was never easy after travelling so fast.

  “I’m doing alright,” he said, staring me down. “Alannah’s still getting ready I think, she’ll be down in a minute.”

  “Oh, okay, that’s cool,” I said. Maybe a little too casually, based on his facial expression.

  “So, how did you get here? I don’t see a car anywhere,” her father pointed out. Welp... There went my life. Just like that. Blink of an eye.

  “Oh, I uh… walked,” I stumbled. Again, not my best effort.

  “Walked?” he repeated. “As in, from your apartment in Boston?”

  “Yeah…” I said. “That’s why I’m a couple minutes late.”

  “So you’ve been walking for almost ten hours?” he asked. Damn it, he’s smart!

  “W…Well–!” I stammered.

  Just then, thank God, Alannah came down the stairs, and god damn, did she steal the show in that dress. White, flowing; and that hair– good lord, all blonde and curly? I was at a loss for words, now for more than one reason.

  “Hey,” she said, smiling at me.

  “Hey…” I greeted, even more spacey this time than the last.

  “I’ll see you later, Dad,” she said to her father, giving him a hug goodbye. He hugged her back, and then looked at me skeptically.

  “Bye sweetie, have fun. Maybe you drive, I think your boyfriend’s high right now…” Only high on loving your daughter sir! Yeah, probably best I kept that one inside, I think.

  Alannah looked at him strangely, and then looked back to me, somewhat confused, but mostly just annoyed.

  “Yeah, okay. Wouldn’t be the first time,” she said, pulling her keys out of her purse.

  “What?” he asked.

  “What!?” I asked.

  I, for the record, have never been high, especially whi
le on a date with Alannah. My powers biologically won’t let me. Besides I’m a professional screw up, I don’t need anything to help me with that, thank you very much.

  “Come on, let’s go Jason,” she ordered, walking over to her car. I just dumbly followed, nervously waving goodbye to her father, who simply continued to stare me down. We had a good relationship, he and I.

  “What the hell, Ana?” I asked once we got in the car, and she began to pull out of her neighborhood.

  “That’s what you get for being late, dumbass,” she chuckled.

  “Late? You were busy changing when I got here,” I argued.

  “Yeah, because you’re always late, and I knew you would be this time, so I changed. What was it this time? I didn’t hear or see anything about any alien attacks, so what’s the excuse?” she asked.

  It was a fair point. Ever since Malek died, though they did still come, alien attacks weren’t as frequent as they used to be. What was once several times in a week now turned into a few times a month, and it had been at least a week since my last spat with a new challenger.

  “I… had to help Sam get ready for his date tonight,” I explained. That wasn’t true, but you know, maybe she’d buy it.

  “With Jessica?” she clarified. How the hell did she remember her name!? I lived with the guy and I didn’t even remember.

  “I… yeah, with Jessica,” I continued. “He needed help getting and putting on clothes. Plus, I gave him a pretty rousing pep talk that I’d say he most definitely needed.” No I didn’t.

  “No you didn’t,” she said. Girl knew my bull, I had to hand it to her.

  “No… I didn’t,” I confessed.

  “Did you forget?” she asked, genuinely enough that it sounded like the idea almost hurt her.

  “Hey, of course I didn’t,” I said, slipping her hand into mine. “I just lost track of time is all.” True, but also a lie. I guess that just evened it out to be a plain statement. “I wouldn’t miss a night out with you for the world.” Now that was nothing but the truth, and she knew it too, because she couldn’t help but smile after I said it. Nice.

  We pulled over to a walking path in the woods by the side of the road and parked the car, her then putting on a jacket, walking over to me and grabbing on tight.

  “Did you at least remember to make the reservation?” she asked, looking up at me before we took off. I looked at her, and after a second of hesitation, just smiled gently.

  “Of course I did.” Had to reach back in my mind for it, but I did do that, about a day or so ago. We were going to a real fancy restaurant in Boston, and I wanted to be sure I got my girl the best seat I could. I just forgot about having done it until a minutes ago.

  Speaking of minutes, a good few later and we were there. I landed us in an alleyway by the restaurant, and we walked inside.

  “How’s the summer classes going?” I asked her. Alannah, my little brainiac, was taking extra summer college courses online, so that way she’d be able to graduate without even having to fully go through this next year. It was only mid-May, and she was already neck-deep in classwork.

  “Pretty good; they’re more boring than they are difficult,” she explained.

  “Not as fun as burning each other with paper clips in physics class, huh?” I joked, grinning at her. She just scowled at me.

  “Yeah, more fun actually,” she countered. “I still don’t forgive you for that, you asshole.”

  “Then I’m still very sorry for it,” I replied. “Kind of.”

  “So, how’s training been lately?” Alannah asked me, I shrugged, and toyed with the food on my plate as I spoke.

  “Alright. Bentley’s been pushing me to my mental limits lately, but that’s no different than most days anyway,” I explained.

  “Yeah, I don’t know, I think he’s nice,” Alannah defended.

  “Yeah, to you,” I scoffed. “That’s what he does; uses this facade of a nice guy to my friends and loved ones, and makes me look like the asshole.”

  “You kind of are,” she said.

  “True, but I’m more of a lovable scamp than an asshole, you know?”

  “Yeah, I’ll give you that,” Alannah agreed. I smiled at her, and she smiled back, taking my hand into hers from the table.

  “So…” she said. “Four years down.”

  “Four amazing years,” I said softly, still smiling at her. “Best of my life.” She just smiled back, and massaged my hand with her thumb.

  There was something I had been planning on talking to her about, that I had been saving and considering for a good time now. It was sort of a big move, but I mean, it was beyond worth it to me. After all, we were almost 21 year olds. We were big adults now!

  “Alannah,” I said.

  “Yeah?” she asked, looking into my eyes. Damn, those were some pretty eyes.

  “You know I love you, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “And, you love me, right?

  “Nine times out of ten, absolutely.”

  “Right. Well, I was thinking… Well what would you think, I mean, in the not too distant future, about–”

  And of course, just then, at this very important and poignant moment in my young adult life, I got a call from work, ruining said important and poignant moment, and my anniversary-dinner with my girlfriend.

  “Son of a bitch… Hold on,” I said, pulling out my phone. It was Bell.

  “Jason, we’ve got an issue on our hands,” he said.

  “Yeah, that’s one way to put it,” I replied snarkily. Just then Alannah also got a call, pulling out her phone and answering.

  “Hello? Sa– Jessica? What’s up?” she asked.

  “From what we can tell, we’re dealing with an invisible threat, and it’s lighting things on fire,” Bell explained.

  “Well can’t you just track where it is from where the fire’s coming from?” I asked.

  “What are you talking about?” Alannah asked Jessica. “Jessica calm down, take it slowly.” I looked over at Alannah, somewhat alarmed, and she just held her hand out to say everything was fine. Why did Jessica call Alannah? They didn’t even know each other.

  “You’d think so,” Bell continued, “but it doesn’t look like there’s a source, fires are just starting from the ground up.”

  “Then are you sure this isn’t just some kind of wildfire, or arson? We’ve been over this Bell, I don’t do those issues.”

  That was the I’m-in-public-and-can’t-say-human-or-it-would-be-suspicious way of putting it, but all the same it was true. I dealt with saving people from aliens, not saving people from people.

  “No, reports say that on landing a few civilians saw the thing in a visible form, and then it just disappeared. This is definitely an alien, Jason. Time to suit up,” Bell ordered.

  “Oh my God…” Alannah gasped, looking over at me. I stared at her nervously, and hung up on Bell, awaiting her response. “Jason, s-something happened. Sam, he… Jessica says he just got hit by a blast of fire.”

  My stomach turned, and I felt my jaw tighten. I didn’t blink, I don’t even know that I could’ve. I just stared at Alannah, not sure what I was hearing, and totally uncertain in that moment of what to do. She was on the verge of tears.

  “Jason, I…I think he’s going to–” She didn’t get the chance to finish her sentence, and all in all, I think I get a pass for cutting her off on that one.

  “Go to my apartment, I don’t know if it’s unlocked, but just tell someone to unlock it,” I said, getting up from the table, putting money on it, and walking toward the door with Alannah.

  “I… Okay, why?” she asked.

  “Stay there. I don’t know where is safest, but that’s where I want you to go,” I ordered. She followed me out the door as we stepped outside. “I love you.”

  “Wait, Jason, let me come with you, I can help him!” she argued. I shook my head. “I’m a nursing student, Jason! I know more than you do about this!”

  “No,”
I refused. “It’s too dangerous. I’m not letting you get hurt out there.”

  “You don’t get to decide whether something is too dangerous for me or not, Rhodes!” Alannah pressed.

  “No, but I’m the one that can fly,” I said, lifting into the air, done with the conversation. “I love you.”

  “I…I love you too,” she replied, upset, gazing up at me as I took off.

  I burst off into the air, clicking on my chestplate the higher I got into the sky; at that point I didn’t give a damn who saw me. It wasn’t important.

  I flew around the city as fast as I could until I could see the fires. I could hear my own heart beating in my ears louder than the cries for help; it started raining intensely, which was odd, but not enough for me to care. I zipped from one fire to another, unfortunately not really caring enough about anyone else but the man I was looking for.

  Fortunately, I moved so fast that the latest fire– at least based on the pattern I followed– was still where Jessica and Sam were. I saw Jessica, holding Sam in her arms as she kneeled on the ground, crying for help. There were plumes of flames coming from all around the street. Whatever it was, it was fast.

  “Is he alright?” I asked her, slamming onto the ground near the both of them, and looking over Sam. He looked bad, really bad. Like his whole body was covered in third-degree burns at least bad. Jessica looked more terrified to see me then happy, but maybe that was out of circumstance.

  “I-I don’t think so…” she stuttered out. “He just… blew up! Right next to me!” By the looks of it, she wasn’t exaggerating. Her arm was burnt up pretty bad too, but it looked like Sam took the brunt of it.

  “Okay, let me–” I said, then getting cut off by a burst of flames to my back. Luckily, I was able to shield Sam and Jessica from it, and the suit only seemed to heat up a lot rather than take any damage, but still, my challenger found me.

  I didn’t have time to waste, so in an instant, my eyes flashed to white, and with one hand I grav-manipulated the entire surrounding area behind me, and with my other hand I released a wave of cosmic energy, and moved it from left to right. It admittedly burned and broke a few building doors walls and windows, but I also saw burning in the air, in the middle of the road.