Chapter 3: Taco Time

Jacob Newmaker

"You ungrateful bitch! The least you could've done is let me out gently." I scoffed while staring at the white void on the other side of the teleportation portal, just big enough to let me through with my arms spread. "Damn lucky it didn't hurt or I'd be throwing a temper tantrum right about now." 

As if out of annoyance, the portal quickly closed without another sound, leaving me to my own thoughts in the damp alley way I now found myself in. It stunk of piss, weed and every kind of trash in the world. 

The loose asphalt digging into my bare skin, along with a cool breeze made me realize I was stark naked.

With a deep sigh I stood up and cleansed myself with a small pulse of darkness mana. I looked around until I finally struck gold.

With a bit of light wrestling and some shouts, I managed to stea- borrow a spare set of clothes from your friendly neighborhood drug addict. 

I knew it! These guys somehow always have cash on them!

As I counted the crinkled and stained bills, I wore my clothes while sniffling the air to try and catch a whiff of the nearest food place.

After spending nearly five minutes sifting through the numerous god awful smells, I locked onto a very familiar one. I made my way on foot but not before paying my generous benefactor his due.

A pale white feather with a soft glow, the shaft of it pitch black now rested in the man's closed fists.

Heh, I wonder what the hell he could even do with that... should be worth something though. 

I was at the food stand in a matter of minutes and well...

"Oh my god" I sat on a small, creaky milk crate on the edge of a sidewalk.

"Holy shit, this is so good." It really wasn't. This place was a waste of money, even for my hard earned income. 

I think I'm about to cry.

Truth be told, it was my first meal in nearly half a year. It didn't really matter if it was made of rat meat and moldy tortillas, it would have tasted like heaven regardless.

I kept ordering over and over again. Every time thinking I was done only to crave some more. The best part was the limes I swallowed whole and the ice cold soda cans I also swallowed whole. 

A few people looked at me funny, some even recording on their decade old phones. But I just kept eating, until I was reduced to stealing handfuls of barely clean ice once I had run out of money. 

There was no reason to but the coldness of the ice in my mouth and palms was very much real. The hard, rough cement I walked on was scraping against my bare feet. The cars, the trees, even the birds far in the sky. All of it.

I could see, hear and taste every last detail of it. 

I'm alive. Truly, of soul and flesh, I was alive. 

I ran. In no particular direction at first, just screaming into the air like a freshly graduated high school girl. 

Shouts of power? Wails of grief? Cries of sadness?

No. None of that. Just simple, mindless roars filled with relief and joy. 

Eventually I ended up in the middle of large park laid flat atop overgrown grass. I looked up to the clear afternoon sky, my eyes viewing past the blue veil into the stars above. Though impossible with only this much movement, I was panting from the raw emotions flowing through me.

I wanted to stay here, mindlessly looking around with my new unparalleled senses. 

The world was bound to go to chaos in a matters of hours, so what did it matter if I enjoyed these last moments of normalcy in my life?

"Creepy ass hobo. Can't he see we got kids here? Tch" said a group of women with as much venom as possible.

Quietly thanking these lovely people for not calling the police, I rested my eyes and took deep breaths.

In and out. In and out. With every cycle, I could feel it getting closer and closer. 

World energy building up right under the last layers of Earth's crust, begging to be set free. Energy that would rewrite our common sense and forever change everything. 

With one last exhale, I disconnect my mystical senses and calmly waited for the inevitable. 

Hmmm. I shall call this momentous day, Earth Day. Or perhaps something cool like Day of Genesis?

How about...

✧✧✧

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I was walking home. It was dark now.

To the naked eye everything looked untouched. But to my mystical senses, it had all changed.

Everything apart of, made by or staying on Earth was now had at least some amount of world energy flowing through it. Some more than others and some moved it dynamically. 

Except for most plants and insects, every living being on the planet now had a mana core in their body. Each of them with the potential to wield mana however they seem fit. 

Even now, as I walk through the empty streets of the usually populous city, I could feel it. A few individuals daring and talented enough to try to spark their first fire or move the water in their sinks. 

I could only smile wearily. None could control what would happen next, not me nor the others.

Trying to calm the sense of wonder boiling in me, I walk towards the front fence of my house. Jumping over it to avoid the motion detecting lights, I reach the front door with two weak spells casted over my body. 

To ensure my dumbass french bulldog, Rocko, didn't start barking I concealed my smell and sound, respectively by a darkness and wind spell.

I pick up a small rock, changing its form until it snugly fit into the keyhole of the door lock. With a few adjustments, I hear a click and turn the perfect, albeit, makeshift key. 

I didn't have the mastery to finely control metals yet.

My living room was exactly the same, aside from the new and massive 80' TV mounted on the wall. Huh.

The dusty ceiling fan, old but clean couches and a center table so beat up, it seemed better placed among tornado wreckage. 

I walk towards the kitchen, barely able to take my eyes off the spanking new television. I was tempted to turn it on to check the news, but ultimately decided against it. With my parent's intuition, even without their new mana cores, I wouldn't be surprised if they could feel the light of the screen through the floor of the second story.

I walk by, grabbing a cup of water and checking for left overs in the fridge as I walk back towards my older brother's room in the garage. 

Using the same rock key method as before, I open my brother's always locked door. Overly decorated with unnecessary arts and tools all across the walls.

I ignore it and go straight for his phone. Using pure mana, I gently lift up his head and force open his eyelids to unlock the damn thing. I do this a few times, changing a few settings here and there until I can comfortably use it on my own. His data backed-up, device factory reset, I finally had my own phone. 

Why not just steal from some other poor soul? 

Nah.

I leave a note on his desk and make my way out. Replacing my torn rags with a proper set of my own clothes, I go outside and jump on the roof to hype myself up. I take my shirt off and sprout only 2 sets of wings, my human back being too small for the 3rd pair.

"Come on baby I got this. Just have to get a feel for it." Based on my almost 10 minutes of Tweeter research, I had to make it to New York City by morning. 

I could just use my wings, but taking of my shirt every time I wanted to gain some air time was just plain inconvenient. I also wasn't about to waste my time trying to get on a plane like Alice had. I also couldn't afford it.

Man, I wish my entrance had been as jaw dropping as the others. Free VIP treatment sounded great to my little, poor self.

My wings were wrapped up tightly on my back, only aiding me to reorient myself upon error. 

With that thought, I jumped off the roof, conjuring a single strong gust of wind upwards. I was instantly thrown off balance into the sky, correcting myself with my wings.

Again jumping off the roof, this time I cast numerous small upstreams of air. It works better than I thought, granting me control and speed based on my mana control and output. 

I play around for a few minutes, flying around the neighborhood until I gain at least the agility of a racing drone and the speed of a fighter jet.

Satisfied, I take off all my clothes, shift into my Demon form and take off towards the already rising sun...

Shit. 

I had felt Alice's presence when she first arrived here, but she jumped off my radar as she moved further away. Now however, with all of the Guardians converging towards a single point, I'd have to be off world to not notice their locations. 

Without any further hesitation, I cast my newly created flight spell along with the flapping of my wings and bolt across the sky.  

Like a black shooting star, I make a beeline towards NYC.

Well then again, if I was going to be late anyways, no one would mind if I stopped for a breakfast hash brown right?

The black shooting star began to descend to the ground after only 10 minutes of flying.

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