Veck turned, eyes dull. "Pftt, what are you, a soldier of God or something?"
The man smiled ominously.
"Oh, so grateful for the rescue, are we?" The white frame joked, clearly expecting something else.
The gun vanished in Veck's hand, a green emerald flare following the sudden disappearance.
"Was that supposed to impress me?" Veck muttered, brushing the emerald fire off in which didn't burn his flesh.
"It's an honor to meet you... one of the rare half-bloods in the Starken lineage… You truly are the perfect psycho anomaly. To sustain such sanity while teetering on the edge of utter lunacy…" The man showed his respect by slowly bowing and returning to his puffed stance. "This, I respect far beyond what you could ever fathom. It almost moves me to shed a few tears."
"Mind telling me who you are… and what you want? You seem like a decent guy, really, and I don't mean to be all gloomy or whatever, but I'm kinda in the middle of something."
The white figured man's expression shifted, his face taking on an ancient solemnity, as if weighed down by centuries of memory. "Starkens… a race as abrasive and vainglorious as the Quasars who forged their imperious hearts, life is merely a vessel for physical dominance, nothing more." He tilted his head up, his confidence steadily increasing in the moment.
Starken? What is he blabbering about?
I'll have to say… as an avid comic reader, he has me entertained.
The white-cloaked figure slipped his hands into his pockets as Veck stepped forward, closing the space between them, locking into a confrontational gaze with the alabaster-skinned stranger.
"Veck Johnson, your life has led a layered lie of a towering pie, one I'm sure has reached the Valatic counsil... I welcome you now… to a more refined last initial…Veck Starken."
"My last name is Turner…" Veck said flatly.
Ignoring the statement entirely, the man flapped his arms in the air with exaggerated flair, a theatrical display of conceit that spoke louder than words. "My name is Wuklen Starken… and I'm here to save you. You've been a shark swimming through a desert… Sir Veck, I deeply apologize for my delay. I cannot begin to comprehend the agony you've endured in this incompatible world… The injustice of it all…"
What is he blabbering about? I haven't gone schizophrenic, have I?
Whatever. He's probably real. And if not… so what?
My cold, melancholy stare portrayed no emotion… no concern for his cryptic words. He had emerged from a portal, which likely meant he had some purpose to serve me.
I remain indifferent. To anything. To everything anymore.
"Forgive me for interrupting your serum, but I'll be the thirteenth family member to end their life in the past hundred years. From what I've figured out in these last few minutes is one thing…" Veck's face showed a desperation, deeper, and more sullen than ever before.
He lifted his arm, studying it for a few lingering seconds, as if trying to decode something written beneath the skin.
"This urge… this craving for nonexistence, it feels spontaneous. Like something recently embellished into my blood, stitched there by forces I'll never fully grasp. Bound by genetic tetherings."
He let his arm fall limply to his side, his gaze shifting, locking with Wuklen's eyes, hollow and unwavering.
"But despite everything you're telling me… I have no interest in reconsidering my suicide."
He scoffed, as if Wuklen was waiting for a different answer.
"Right, right. Genius of instability. But indulge me with this one answer before you inevitably find a way to end yourself. How can you so effortlessly discard your existence? You haven't harmed anyone. You're not drowning in guilt or some grand despair. From where I stand… you've lived quite the human life." Almost sarcastically, you could notice the drip of irony in his tone.
Is he provoking me? I'm not your average, run of the mil depressed human. No... he can barely contain his smile... he keeps switching demenors fairly quickly... anyway, this alien is trying to manipulate me.
And it's whatever, I'll bite.
Veck smirked briefly, his expression shifting into that of an arrogant businessman.
"The despair you speak of is entirely self-inflicted. And to be honest, I pity those who choose death over the trivial burdens of material struggle."
"Wooh," Wuklen chuckled, amusement ringing clear. "Now that's an answer. But coming from you… it makes sense."
So I was right.
"Diagnosed at the young age of fifteen… what did the humans call it? Ah, yes, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder." Wuklen said.
"Let me stop you there. I never had it. Still don't."
"Ah, right… you shed that label long ago, stopped glorifying the diagnosis. Hmph. In the end, it's irrelevant. Step through this portal, Sir Veck. Let me show you a world that would mock your most lavish dreams."
Instantly disagreeing, Veck presented another idea. "I'd rather die. You seem quite capable, manifesting portals from nothingness. Make yourself useful and snap my neck."
"You don't know how much I'd enjoy that. But…" Thinking… Wuklen stared, watching as Veck's eyes illuminated a bright, piercing green.
Wuklen, a man who loved to talk, had his words fell into stillness, his mouth closed tight as he simply observed Veck icy and unmoved, as if speech would shatter the rhythm of Veck's internal descent.
It was as if I had entered a waking dream, a daydream with no subject.
Who cares if this man is real or figment? Death has extended his hand, and it's the only thing I can figure to be true. I cannot resist the pull of impermanence. I'm a fool for it. It contradicts everything I once knew to be true…
And yet, I cannot fight this maddening desire to die.
Veck began calmly sauntering towards Wuklen, where he quickly took his hands out of his pockets.
"Kill me, you walking marshmallow. If you truly wish to know why… It's as though a static compulsion calls to me, one I cannot defy. Breathing is instinct, and for this lunatic, so is dying."
His eyes returned to their earthy hue, and he continued mocking the stoic Wuklen.
Wuklen began his own analysis inwardly. 'He's farther than I thought…'
Smiling in his head, it was as if some sort of plan was working just the way he envisioned.
'He's even more developed than I thought… oh the gem I've found'
Wuklen's smile soon emerged, ecstatic to him, but to any onlooker, it carried a chilling edge, a quiet menace that bordered on terrifying. "You know what, I'll write this off the books. A glitch in the space-time continuum. Your heart stopped or something."
And finally, the white alien snapped.
I'm curious… if he touches me, if I feel him, it'll prove he's real.
It wouldn't make a difference, really.
"Come on, portal creator… show me what real power looks like."
Flapping his arms like a showman performing to no crowd, Wuklen's confident grin said more than his words ever could. "SMILE ALL YOU WANT! BUT BEFORE YOU DROWN IN YOUR OWN BLOOD, BEHOLD ME… WUKLEN, THE PERFECT SPECIMEN CAPABLE OF FEATS YOUR TINY, MINUSCULE BRAIN COULDN'T BEGIN TO FATHOM! KNOW THIS… BEFORE I TAKE CLAIM OF YOUR LIFE."
"Don't need to hear it. Go ahead. Dying at the hands of someone as accomplished as you actually sounds better than—"
"Shut up and lift some weights." Wuklen let his hands drop before soaring at Veck, seizing him by the neck in a mere second and throwing him skyward.
He blasted off the ground, ascending like a missile loosed from gravity's grip.
Hell yeah... he's superhuman. can't lie, this an epic way to go out. Is he planning to catch me?
Catching Veck's neck roughly forty feet above the rooftop, he hovered, suspended mid-air, defying everything Veck had ever believed about the laws of physics.
With a thunderous boom of displaced air below, they shot upward from the air, now levitating...
They flew at speeds far beyond what Veck's body should have been able to withstand… Yet, astonishingly, his neck remained unbroken and intact, no bones cracked or fractured under Wuklen's iron grip.
The ascent was nothing short of extraordinary...
Three words... relentless, surreal, and a newfound belief in life.
But it changes nothing. So what if superhuman aliens exist? That's fascinating and all, but I'm still dying today.
The rush of pressuring wind whipped past them, yet Veck's expression remained unreadable, skin tight against bone, as if he were standing still on solid ground. His face didn't flinch or melt under the assault of the air.
And through it all, one undeniable truth anchored him, Wuklen's hands gripped him, real and unyielding.
This wasn't any illusions or hallucinations.
Flying? What is he, an alien?
I hope he gives me a painful death. I don't deserve anything less.
They soon broke through the atmosphere, where Veck, somehow, was entirely unharmed. No suffocation. No freezing due to the sub zero temperatures of space. No breaking of bones or peeling of skin. Just an unharmed human… where around his body, a magical transparent barrier was wrapping around him like a strange kind of mercy.
After breaking through the atmosphere and more, Wuklen stopped in the air, hovering in the cosmos when the space around them turned black.
The endless vacuum of space stretched infinitely in every direction, stars gleaming like silent witnesses to their ascent.
Veck glanced around for a moment, a flicker of awe stirring within him. A lifelong sci-fi nerd, this felt like a dream finally made real.
But… none of it dulled the relentless hunger gnawing at him.... a voracious craving for eternal death.
When Wuklen flew from the ground to space, it was at a velocity that shattered every Earthbound record, surpassing rockets, jets, and even the most classified military crafts. Not quite light speed, but still utterly inhuman. His constant pace hovered around four miles per second, a blur no mortal could hope to match.
He was up there, in orbit, in three minutes flat.
"How do you like the cold vacuum of space?" Wuklen's voice dripped with sadistic amusement. "Frightening, isn't it?"
I clenched my teeth, voice sharp with frustration. "Forget your flying and powers… Why am I not freezing to death?"
If I was immortal... this would pose a problem.
I cannot... imagine living for much longer.
"Who can say? I'm no expert on this sorta stuff," Wuklen joked.
I wasn't sure whether to take him seriously or not… but honestly, this was just my obsession speaking.
A scowl crept across my face. "Me and you? We're on different wavelengths, different frequencies of existence. How have you not realized this fundamental divide?"
I pointed to my temple, as if that could recalibrate him. "Is it truly so difficult to obey simple commands? Or are you too rebellious from the system, too high above to heed its rules? For the sake of all that's beautiful, please repair what you lack and answer me."
What is this? Some sudden arrogance surging from deep within?
I'm really treating Wuklen like I can best him in combat.
Am I a fool to believe I can match him?
Yes, probably. But I'll wear this conceit like a lifeline, balancing brazen defiance with fragile control.
If I can make the room shudder with awe and envy… then who's really the most powerful here?
Come on man... thinkin all these words, you're gonna die soon.
Wuklen casually swatted my finger away, letting it flop uselessly, like a discarded reminder of my own inferiority
"Fine, I'll answer you. I've enclosed you within a magical barrier to shield your fragile body… but fear not, Veck. One day, you will possess a body like mine. We are brothers, Veck. Soon, you too will be impervious to the deadly void of space and the crushing velocity of Mach twenty."
"So you're not killing me." I said in disappointment.
"Kekke, you will soon know your purpose, blossoming soul."
His words echoed in my mind, both a serum and a verdict.
"Let's see if you can live up to that flashy name of yours."
Wuklen threw Veck down through Earths atmosphere. Flames manifested around him, but his skin didn't burn. Suddenly, the fire transformed, flaring emerald green.