Obviously not the most social person, Edwin simply followed the duo to wherever they went. Though he had lived in the vicinity for a year, he never had a reason to visit many places. Entering a mall, the fresh, cold wind of air conditioning greeted the trio. Since it had been a long way walking here, they decided to take a rest as they sat around a table in the patio.
"Hope you guys are having fun," said Emilio, looking proud as a tour guide.
"Whoa…now this is something you see in a city!" exclaimed Tracy, her sight fixed on the water fountain near them.
"Are you not a local?" asked Emilio, "a country girl?"
"Well…kinda."
"Alright," said Emilio, moving his attention to Edwin, "so, would you mind telling me more about yourself?"
Edwin remained silent, only to let out a sigh a few seconds later.
"I want to keep my past a secret."
"Oh, I mean about your ability." Emilio knew that was a good save when he saw Tracy sighing in relief. Seeing that the two people in front of him might be the only ones that will assist him in battling whoever was their enemy, Edwin acknowledged the need to discuss the matter.
"My knowledge is also limited," he said, "basically, having access to another spacial dimension other than the three we know gives you interesting powers."
"Such as?" asked Emilio.
"Accessing internal structures: much like how we view two-dimensional worlds, I can see our world as one without 'thickness', thus nothing 'overlaps' each other, making it impossible for things to hide behind another – for me, of course."
"How does your ability relate to you teleporting behind me the first time we met?" asked Tracy, "that really scared the crap out of me."
"Wormholes?" speculated Emilio, "like folding a paper's ends together to shorten the travel distance, which is only doable by moving in to a dimension higher than that of the paper plain – namely the third dimension."
"Precisely," answered Edwin, feeling pleased that there was finally someone who knows a thing or two about physics.
"You've got quite the understanding in these things!" It was evident that Emilio felt the same. "You must be one of those A-plus students."
"I'm not in a school," responded Edwin.
"He lives in a library." Tracy, seeing the baffled face of Emilio, felt the necessity to elaborate.
Emilio nodded slightly.
"Hey, Ed, have you ever read about general theory of relativity?"
"A little, yes."
"Impressive for someone who never went to school!" exclaimed Emilio, "then you know what it is about, right?"
"It says that gravity is simply the bending of four-dimensional spacetime, which creates 'pits' for things to fall together," replied Edwin.
"Yes! Doesn't it sound familiar? I mean, if you can access four dimensions, then wouldn't it be possible for you to control, you know…"
Emilio held his breath for the grand reveal of his conclusion.
"…gravity?" guessed Edwin.
Hearing this new possibility, Tracy leaned forward. Edwin sat back with his arms crossed and began contemplating.
"I'm not sure," he said, "I haven't tried it, nor have I felt anything similar to gravity-control. For now, all I can do is peeking into hyperspace or barely squeeze myself into it. As to manipulating it…no clues yet."
"Why don't we give it a try?" suggested Emilio.
"Are you nuts?" questioned Tracy, in a suppressing her nervous voice, "we are literally in the middle of a shopping mall! If you want everyone to know about our abilities, this is the place."
Before she could finish her complains, Edwin, driven strongly by his curiosity, had already extended his right hand slightly toward the empty paper cup on the table, keeping a small distance between them.
"Concentrate," he thought, allowing the twisting geometry of space flood into his brain, "just need to dive deeper…"
It felt as if he was reaching for the background off of which the scenery of transforming shapes was displayed. Edwin squeezed his eyelids tighter, his mind drilling deeper and deeper into the realm, while the obstacles felt to repulse him with greater strength.
"Almost, there…" he muttered silently, yet forcefully.
Something seemed to have blocked the "hand" he reached out – it was the backstage of the universe, on which all matter played their role as actors. Edwin tried to give it a tiny flick and immediately felt something light accelerating into his right hand. The course sensation of the paper cup rushed toward his brain, abruptly pulling him back to reality, like a rubber band stretched to its limits suddenly restoring its shape.
When Edwin opened his eyes, the other two were staring at him in anticipation.
"That seemed to work!" gasped Emilio, "how did it feel?"
Edwin looked down at his hand, and saw that the paper cup that used to be a centimeter away from his palm were resting in his grip.
Tracy, on the other hand, seemed much less surprised. She moved the paper cup away from Edwin's hand to where it was while the two boys stared at her in confusion. She then sat back and looked toward the ceiling, with other two looking at the same direction. There it was, an air conditioner in the distance, with its parallel flaps rotating rhythmically. When the wind was aimed at their direction, they felt a tiny breeze.
Like a sail boat, the paper cup was thrusted forward before leaping down the edge of the table.
Emilio's laughter was the first sound to break the awkward silence as he frowned into his palms, while Tracy crossed her arms and looked at him with disappointment. Edwin awkwardly lowered his head, sighing deeply while shaking his head.
"Emilio, you idiot," he thought, with what sounded like a little laugh in the end.
That was his first wholehearted laugh in a very long time. Edwin wanted this moment to be forever preserved – it was a moment when he didn't need to think about his past, his future, just the present, the joyful present.
He had decided: as soon as he got back, he will ask Dan for a print of the photo he took of them three in the park.
◆ ◆ ◆
"What is going on over here?" asked Edwin, panting from all the squeezing through the crowd.
"No idea. Please leave right away!" The officer pushed Edwin behind the warning stripe, which surrounded the area around the abandoned subway station. "Everyone backoff!"
Another bright flash came out of the entrance leading underground, followed by a deep roar rumbling beneath people's feet, shaking the street like an Earthquake. The crowd screamed and fled while the streetlamps flashed irregularly. Amidst the chaos, Edwin dashed through the warning stripes, into the restricted zone.
"Just what the hell was that stupid old man thinking?" Edwin bit his teeth, cursing in his head. "Why does Dan always throw himself in to these lethal affairs?!"
It was night time when he met Dan in the apartment, just when Edwin got back from the mall. Then, the Dan received the call regarding the chaos in the subway station – the underground lab, to be specific. He quickly told Edwin that he'll be working late again before dashing out of the apartment. Edwin, knowing that this might be related to esper matters, secretly followed behind.
Guided by the shouting coming from the rail way tunnels, Edwin ran down the familiar subway. The occasional flashing of gunfire was getting drowned out by occasional flash and deafening roars, as if supersonic jets were flying right past. After a turn around the corner, the battlefield was revealed to him: the robed figure walked slowly and casually on the railway, toward the squad of personnel, while gunfire rained at him; the bullets, however, drew curved paths in front of the man, deflected toward the walls of the hall, splashing the walls with rains of sparkles. Then, the man raised his right hand, the palm facing the line of defense. What looked like a white orb appeared, jumping and flashing unsteadily. In a blink of an eye, the side of the orb facing away from the man inflated, and became a huge beam the width of the tunnel, engulfing its surroundings in superheated plasma. The roar of ionized air filled the entire tunnel, shaking everything with it, throwing Edwin to the ground. As the explosion died away and his temporarily blinded sight returning, Edwin saw the aftermath of the attack – the tunnel was expanded a bit and became perfectly cylindrical, its walls glowing in a faint, deadly red, with molten rock still dripping from the ceiling. What used to be a team of armed policemen was nowhere to be seen – not even dust remained.
"Few! That felt a lot better!" exclaimed the robed man, throwing his arms up, stretching in a languid fashion, "gotta do a little exercise once in a while, heh."
"Hey, you stupid sun of a gun!" came a voice down the other side of the tunnel, making Edwin freeze in his place. It was Dan. "I assume you've lost something?"
The attacker turned around, showing his scruffy hair and beard, and an amused expression.
"You would be correct," he replied, walking toward Dan, the latter holding up a pistol and a hard drive, "but I can just take it off a cremated corpse!"
"Oh, but I thought this hard drive is too intricate to stand your laser beams, pal," said Dan, his voice had no fear, but anger and boldness.
"How idiotic of you to make an assumption on my accuracy! You pests never learn!"
"What the hell did you just call us?!"
"As I said, mere pests," said the man while shaking his head, "it's pathetic, really…while we are the true definitions of power, of justice, of humanity, we are the victims of suppression and war. So, it makes sense to call you pests – small, annoying, and pain-inflicting, yet weak enough to be crushed by a light press on the shell…"
He adjusted what looked like knobs on the device on his forearm as a few indication lights flashed. Then, he extended his index finger as if actually pressing its tip on a bug.
"Now perish."
Instinctively, Edwin dashed out of the corner where he hid. In that moment, nothing remained in his head other than one objective. He had no worries about revealing his identity, about showing his powers.
All he wanted was to not let Dan die.
Edwin was racing against an energy beam that travels at hypersonic speed. He could already see the white sphere coming into existence at the other end of the tunnel. Then, it appeared to grow larger and larger as the beam was shot at its target while Edwin ran beside it. As if starting up an engine, Edwin's eardrums boomed as blood rushed into his head. The glowing eyes mapped out the fourth-dimensional route to Dan's position, while Edwin held his breath for the jump. After a temporary blindness, he reappeared next to Dan.
"The hell…"
Before Dan could finish, Edwin grabbed his waist from behind and teleported again – right before the white beam of death passed where they stood.
With a boom, the attack struck the end of the hall, burning a red-hot hole in the wall of the blocked tunnel. When his mind calmed down, Edwin was lying on the floor. On top of him was an adult lying face up, who sat up quickly and rubbed the back of his neck.
"God, what just happened?" yelled Dan, gazing around.
He then looked down and quickly went speechless after seeing his savior. Edwin, not noticing the shocked expression of Dan, was more concerned with the elephant in the room – the killing machine standing on the other side of the tunnel.
"Bravo, kid, bravo!" The man clapped his hands in amusement, "your performance surpassed all expectations!"
"Who are you?" Edwin stared coldly at his opponent, his eyes glowing in a deadly blue color.
"Oh, right, very rude of me, buddy," the man cried in a playful manner, before bowing slightly. The gesture, however, didn't show any sign of politeness when combined with the ragged clothing and the coarse voice of his.
"The name is Dirac," he continued, "but you may refer to me as Positron – Class Beta esper and the Third Cadre of 'Remedy'."