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2024-10-29 19:42:56"Jude! Get your stupid legs off my school bag at once!!"
That was Christine screaming at me. Or as everyone else called her, Fat Christy."Get! Your! Stupid! Legs! Away!!!" She kicked me so hard I could not hold it in anymore."Try and be nice, will you? It's not my fault that the train is about to crash!!" I yelled back. Our lives was at stake here but all she cared about was her twenty five dollar bag, or perhaps the steaming hotdogs she stuck in there.And you heard me right when I said the train was about to crash. More and more evil mutants had emerged in recent weeks, filling up the streets of Twillightoria. And for some unknown and ungodly, unreasonable reason, they had chosen to officially make going after high school students the top option on their crime priority list."Ahh!! We are gonna crash!!!" The scream of my school mates flooded my ear balls again. The rail had finished, or rather there was a hole seperating the two parts of the rail ahead. This was probably caused by some giant female mutant who just felt like showcasing her new found strength on the trainways. Or what else was a hole this big finding in the middle of the railway?We approached closer to the hole. In no time, we were going to drop down into its far depth to explode into ashes. As I closed my eyes shut, waiting for the right time to save all our lives, I heard other children declaring their last words."We are all gonna die!""This is why I hate to go to school!""I never got to tell my dad that I love him!""If only shadow man was here!!!" Said my crush, Ariana. The most beautiful girl in the multiverse.Shadow man. That was the newest addition to the good mutants that we had in Twillightoria. He was first seen in the streets not more than six months ago, saving a defenseless baby from the grasps of a baby monster.Since then, he had only done better and better, saving the day when nobody else could. He was now the most popular mutant anyone knew. The best mutant of Twillightoria. The mutany crush of every high school girl. The celebrity who shone hope in the darkness that has wrapped around us. Our hero."Shadow man! Come save us!!" The girls called in unison. They really believed he would come save them.Listening to their screams, I believed it too. It was full of passion and confidence, they had good faith in Shadow Man.But maybe our train did not, because it did not stop running towards the hole. It was almost in the wreck already. We had only about five seconds left.The ones who doubted in Shadow Man's ability to always sniff danger from afar and always be on time to save the day had already started to make their last wishes as the seconds came floating."I wish the lord washes away my sins, welcomes me in paradise, and keeps my family safe in this era of darkness, where the devil and his demons has seized control of our universe..." One person prayed."I want to be a king in my next life. Powerful and rich, I want to control the world." Another person wished, sincerely."I wish I can have just one last meal... One last meal..." Christy hanged onto the school bag of hotdogs like her life depended on it. It did not."Let us just get this over with. What's the point of living anyway?" Said a guy who had his hair shaved like a monk. He was not a monk.The seconds came floating.Five...Four...Three...Two....One...Time stopped, and so did the atoms of matter. Everything floated as though gravity did not exist. Every thing, every object, every hotdog and schoolbags, every person... Every girl.Even our troubled train came swimming in the air as it transcended safely over the large hole and landed on the other side, unscathed and unharmed.A dark figure crept around the body of the train. It stuck to the window and peered at me with its white eyes. The rest of its body was dark and almost not there, just like a shadow. The figure turned away and disappeared.And then time started to work again."We are alive?!" Someone realized."We are safe!!" Another echoed.Even Fat Christy found her way to her feet, to my suprise. She had remained seated all through the turmoil. "I can have another meal!!"Of course she can..."Shadow Man saved us!" My crush declared, filled with obvious joy."Shadow Man saved us!" Her fellowship of girls echoed, screaming in high pitched tones to express their boundless joy.Everyone in the train was excited that their lives have been spared. Every single person except the punk who thought he was a monk... And me.Yes... Me. There was no way I could accept what had just happened. Shadow Man did not save us, someone else did. Something else did.How did I know? Well it is simple - Because I am Shadow Man. I was just waiting for the right time to stop the train, I enjoyed listening to my crush singing my praises. She never notices me, the real me but she is in love with the other me so I got a little carried away. But I am the real Shadow Man.And whoever and whatever had just stopped the train from crashing today? That thing... That person... Was an imposter!He had exactly my powers, he had exactly my moves. He stole everything obviously, and most annoyingly, he just stole my fans.Looking at this entire train sing the praises of this fake Shadow Man, I vowed in my heart that I will find him. And I will make him pay.And for that I needed answers. Why was there another Shadow Man suddenly out of the blue? Who was this person? And what did he want from me?
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"I know your secret, Jude. I know all about it."My heart beat violently in forceful rhythm, I could hear it as loud as I could hear my breath. Ariana was staring straight into my eyes, expectant. If she knew about my secret, then it would be a disaster. I had always kept it from her, I had always kept it from everyone.How did she even know about it? Did she see me change from Shadow Man to Jude the other time? The time when I was standing in front of her house?A thousand thoughts were running through my mind, none of them telling me the answers."So you mean that you know I am sha...""You have a crush on me, don't you?"My words were nipped in the bud. So that was what it was about. Not about Shadow Man. But about my feelings for her."You figured that out...?""No." She shook her head. "Dylan told me."What? Dylan? I knew I should have left him in the hands of Rico. He never ceased to aggravate my problems, the bane of my soul in every ramifications.He not only teased me every
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I could not believe how fruitless my efforts had been, how dumb my actions had been. I had been wrong about Dylan, he did not have the bracelet. But what if he did not have it? Then who did?Out alone in the middle of nowhere, I hurdled through the night. I was still in my shadow form, unable to return to my normal self. Apparently, I had stayed in the form of Shadow Man without my bracelet for too long and now, I could not just get back to normal. That was the only explanation. Han Eduardo did say that the bracelet was left by mother just to protect me. How come I never realized this for three whole years?"I have been so ignorant..."Perhaps it would take a while before I can be Jude Rutherford again, so I decided to take a walk in the night, away from anyone's eyes until I am able to switch form again.Dylan would have returned home by now. If he told anyone about what happened tonight, about his encounter with Shadow Man, there was very little chance that anyone would ever believ
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Network man was some crazy maniac with the ways he attacked me, different styles and different methods which I had not seen before, but I just had to stay on my feet.My battle with him was stale, because even though I had the advantage of the dark, I did not want to tap into the darkest of shadows so I would not go out of control. The black bag was still with Dylan."I just need to collect the bracelet and wear it. Then I can take this guy out!"I thought it would be easy, but Dylan proved me wrong."Give it to me!" I landed right in front of him, trying to collect the bag.But that nimbo was just too stupid to understand that his life depended on this, and not on the money he was hoping to receive."No, I can't!" He declined, foolishly."Listen to me, this is important..."I tried to convince him, but Rico was coming behind me again.Swarm!!I dashed back to defend the large electromagnetic wave of attack. But another one followed right after, I was not able to defend this one. It
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Stephanie Lane Subway
The time was 8:55pm. At Stephanie Lane Subway.I was hanging within the darkness, waiting for my cue.Dylan was right there already, oblivious of my presence. He was waiting for the men who had struck a deal with him on phone, they would be here in five minutes. But I could see the signs of panic in him. He knew that if he stayed too long in that place, anything could happen to him. And when I say anything, I mean anything! Stephanie Lane was definitely the most dangerous place in the entire city.The golden lights shone from above, spreading through the entire landscape of the Twillightoria community, but not even a single ray could make it to this evil part of the hellhole. That was really suspicious, why did Dylan's buyers choose this place as their exchange location?If there was anything my city never lacked, despite the troubling activities of its mutants, it was electricity. Lights and lights all around at every part of the city. So if there was any place where darkness persist
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The Foundation of Everything
"You petty thief!" I sneered at Dylan. He responded with a dismissive wave and continued to speak on the phone, negotiating the price for the precious bracelet my mother bequeathed to me and me only. But I was not ready to allow him to conclude his negotiations. Not in a lifetime."It is not for sale!" I made that as clear as light, screaming into his phone and forcing him to end the call. "What is your problem, Jude?"My problem? He wanted to know my problem! My problem was that I had a whole city getting ready to be consumed by the roaring flames of mutant fires! A whole city waiting to be saved by me and I was not even able to use my powers, scared that I would become a shadow monster again all because some random kid that lives in my house wants to become a pirate of bracelets. "You are not the one who found it. I found it." He defended his theft immediately, almost as if he had been preparing for my confrontation."And that's because I left it there where you found it.""That
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Another Shadow Man
"Should I go back?" I asked myself. "Or should I go forward and talk to her??"All my time in school, I had always watched Ariana from afar, trying to somehow get her attention. I followed her halfway from school each day just to make sure she was safe from the deeds of evil mutants. But now she was right in front of me, and I could not bring myself to walk forward and speak.Not that I was scared or shy or anything like that, it was just that there had not been enough time for us to get to know each other. I mean, it had only been a few years... Regardless, I was ready to speak to her today. Afterall we were both skipping classes and we were both missing my second identity, Shadow Man."Okay, Jude. You can do this..."I walked forward briskly. She had not noticed me yet. Just a few more steps."No... I should not do this..."She was probably still in pain about what happened to Shadow Man. I should just leave her to get over it.I turned around."He is the only reason I am still ali
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Who will save us?
"Just this morning, a lifeless body was found lying within the soils of our land, right in the centre of the newly built Twillightoria Passersway. The police examined the body which at first glance struck the pose of a mutant. But not just any mutant, the budding hope of the new age, the only sign of light which had come in the form of darkness, our breathe of life in the smoke of science eruptions. Unfortunately, the celebrity mutant, our celebrity mutant Shadow Man, has passed away to an unknown cause."As the voice of the news journalist emitted from the screen of the tablet, I saw Ariana's eyes grow into two larger balls, riddled with shock and distress."No..." I could hear her quivering whispers. I could feel her shattering heartbeat. I could see her blistering face, almost shedding with tears."His death come as a shock to the entire city of Twillightoria, and to the world at large. Even though there are some who do not like Shadow Man, all of us can agree that if there was eve