Just as Thomas was watching everyone, the middle-aged man, the one called Oliver, approached him with a big smile on his face.
"Our hero, it's time for us to return."
"So soon?" Thomas didn't feel himself, but he spent the past two hours sitting motionless, looking around as if he was looking for someone or something.
"It will take much longer of course to get all of them tested," Oliver was in a sky-high mood right now, "but for a hero like yourself, you don't need to wait like others. Come, I'm going to personally give you a ride."
"A ride?" Thomas looked around, but there weren't any cars or plans here.
"It's Becky, you'll love her," Oliver looked as if he was someone who got familiar with anyone fast. He even grabbed Thomas from the arms, forcing him to stand up.
And as he did so, Thomas couldn't help but give him a cold warning gaze, warning him to never touch him again.
"Oh, don't forget your tree… But why does it have such a crystallic cover? Weird… I don't recall seeing that bubble before…"
The words of Oliver and his frown attracted Thomas' attention to his Bonsai. And as Oliver said, his tree now had a weird white fog surrounding it, with something like a bubble of glass surrounding everything. And Thomas was sure such a thing wasn't there before.
"This…" Thomas felt weird and puzzled by seeing this. He had this tree by his side for more than five years now, never experiencing such a thing with it before.
"Come, let's go, we have a long trip back," Oliver seemed to throw away such a weird notice behind his back, and started to lead the way towards one direction.
As Thomas didn't know what was going on here yet, he decided to follow Oliver around. Perhaps he'd get a clue about what was happening here, finding a way for him to wake up.
As he held his tree, he noticed this weird fog inside. It wasn't still. It seemed like it was moving and swirling slowly, as if it was affected by some sort of power or something.
He couldn't see anything through this fog. And out of reflex, he extended his hand inside, the one that was covered with blood, to feel such a cool and refreshing feeling coming from this fog.
"It cleansed my blood…" and when he got out his hand, he was surprised to see the blood that stained it was gone. And that wasn't all, even the tiny, rounded wound that he got there vanished as well.
"Can it heal your wounds? That's an interesting tree," Oliver from the side seemed to notice what Thomas experienced, "it's a magical tree, a fine pet indeed! I get it now! Hahahaha! By the way, what's your name?"
"Thomas," Thomas didn't get any of what Oliver just said. But his tree, or the fog surrounding it, managed to heal his wounds and cleanse his blood.
What he also noticed, and Oliver didn't, was that the outer glass and solid looking bubble wasn't solid at all. Thomas' hands passed through it like it never existed.
"Thomas… Nice name," Oliver paused before giving Thomas a deep look, "I never recall seeing you around the settlement before. Where are you from?"
Thomas didn't know how to answer this question. And from the way this dude said it, it made Thomas feel like there was indeed quite a life, with lots of places in this world.
"Pretty amazing dream world indeed," Thomas thought to himself, while still sticking to this theory of his.
"Oh, I get it," and as he remained silent, Oliver seemed to realise something, waving his fist in the air as if he discovered something interesting, "you came from the wilderness! The small villages around my settlement, right?"
"Right," Thomas didn't have any other answer, and was glad this dude had such an overthinking personality.
"I knew it! I shall treat these people better from now on. After all, our first superhero emerged from there, hahahaha!"
Oliver didn't just keep talking to himself, but he also hugged Thomas, ending up having a second warning glance to not do it again.
Thomas never used to people touching him before. And his old cold personality made Oliver move away and walk in front by a few steps.
"Ah, here it is… What do you think of my baby?"
Thomas followed Oliver for ten minutes, walked through seemingly barren looking land without a single plant rising up from the yellow dirt.
And when they just took a turn around a small hill, one that was made out of big sand particles, Thomas was stupefied to see what Oliver called as his baby.
It was like a car, but an old version of what cars were in Thomas' time on Earth. This was a giant car, at least ten metres in height, twenty in length.
It had four sets of big wheels, elevating its base from the ground by at least half a metre.
It was made out of what Thomas would describe as metal scraps. Different and unfitting coloured metallic pieces lined up next to each other without any sense of beauty or art.
Up there, Thomas could see a small place dedicated for those driving it. He could see at least four seats in each row, with five rows at least up there.
To reach that height, there were two sets of stairs on each side of this ugly looking metallic behemoth. And on top of that, it got something like a chimney, one long and ugly looking chimney that rose high up, even slightly higher than the level of seats at the top.
It looked like a crude version of a bus, or what cars would look like if a six-year-old kid tried to draw and design them. There was a place where the engine was, looking like an ugly rectangle, without any touch of beauty or art, without any care to any wind resistance or anything like this.
"This is my Becky, the one I got from the SA department when I first came here," Oliver was excited, took some sort of a ball out, went to the front section of this behemoth, and dropped this ball into a small tube that Thomas didn't notice before.
And just in the brief second Oliver took to place this ball into the tube, Thomas noticed the shape of it. It was like a ball of glass, a closed fist sized ball, with white fog swirling inside, and faint blue arcs of lightning appearing inside.
He just saw it in a flash and didn't get any time to properly inspect or ask Oliver to pass it over.
"It's ready to roll, let's go," Oliver was smiling and laughing, "today is a big day for our settlement. You can't imagine how bad I looked when others got their superheroes detected and my place didn't!"
After letting that ball fall into the tube, Oliver started to climb the stairs, heading towards the top.
"No, you go the opposite way," Thomas wanted to climb up on the other set of stairs on the same side of the stairs Oliver selected.
But the latter hurriedly said, pointing to the other side, before adding, "there is only you and I. And our first ever superhero deserves to sit at the front seat."
Thomas didn't know why Oliver was this hyped, but he could already relate everything to the same thing that dude kept repeating over and over again.
He was the first superhero discovered in this place. And that drove questions about the rarity of having superpowers in this dream world.
Thomas liked it here, if not for the emotional storm he was still suffering from, finding it hard to handle, then everything would have been perfect for a dream.
"I'm going to die tonight, so it's not a bad thing to enjoy myself a bit… Holy sh*t! Who the heck is that?!!!"
And just as he was muttering softly to himself while climbing the bunker like metallic rods fixed on the side of this behemoth, he saw a big, rounded mirror at the very top.
Just as he passed next to it, he saw a mere reflection of his face. And just this mere look gave him an instant fright.
"Watch out!" Thomas was just this close from losing his grip over the metallic rods and falling to the ground. He was climbing using one hand, while the other held his tree.
The moment he saw this alien looking face, a face of a youngster who looked so green to be eighteen or something, he was this close from letting go of the rod his hand held.
And if that happened, he'd fall from such height, fall hard to the ground down below.
"Got you!" But at the right moment, Oliver moved fast and held his arm, preventing his body from falling. Thomas didn't think and only felt a unique feeling, one that made him exert every ounce of strength to climb and jump inside the seat at the top.
"Hoof, hoof, that was pretty damn close! What the heck happened…?!! Oh wait, don't tell me… You got a Qi manifestation already!!!"
Oliver was sitting in his seat panting out for breath. At just one moment, the first superhero of his settlement was this close from stumbling and falling from such height, ending up getting severely wounded or even worse.
On his side, Thomas wasn't looking any better than him. As this dude kept talking amidst his racing breaths, Thomas' mind was racing to think about something else.
"So… This is what the survival instinct is all about?!" This was his first time ever to experience such an amazing and crazy feeling. He felt like he was ready to do anything, pay any price, just to survive and live.
And just as he was in the middle of his thoughts, he heard what Oliver just said.
"It must be the Qi manifestation that startled you then…" Oliver started inspecting Thomas again, as if he was looking for something known in this world by this weird name, "but… You look totally fine to me."
"I just got scared that I didn't get one," Thomas didn't know what this Qi manifestation was, but the name piqued his interest.
Qi… This was something he used to hear also on Earth. He even visited many places believing in the presence of Qi, and trained on a few of their techniques, even mastered one.
"Oh, you gave me a fright for a second there," Oliver sighed, placing his hand over his chest as he added, "like the old saying goes, having Qi manifestation before the formal test is a bad thing, having it after is great."
"Indeed," even if Thomas didn't know what the heck Qi manifestation was, or what this formal test even was, he knew he had to play along with this dude.
"Don't worry, pray to the heavens that you'll get blessed with scars and wounds after the formal test, and who knows? Our first superhero may end up being a big shot in the future, hahahaha!"
"..."
Thomas was now sure this dude got a loose screw in his head or something. Since when having scars and wounds was something good, even to the extent of praying to have it?
"He is a weirdo indeed," Thomas took this note to heart while watching in silence what Oliver was doing, "everyone here is! What a weird dream world it is."
The compartment he ended up in was made up of four seats as he saw it from below. And when he looked behind, he saw seven rows, each with the same number of seats there.
It looked like a mini-bus or something. There was a big wheel there, one that required both hands to fully drive it.
It was even bigger than the huge truck wheels Thomas ever saw on Earth. And in front of Oliver, many switches, buttons, and metres were there, without any stick to make the shifts or anything.
Oliver was busy doing different things with both hands, and looked like he was used to doing such things for a long time. He kept flipping switches, pressing on a few buttons, even knocking on a few metres to make sure things were right.
As he was busy doing what Thomas knew nothing about, the latter decided to take another look at his face. He moved that big mirror, to make it face his face.
"No, it will…"
*Tuck!*
And before he'd continued his words, the big mirror that was half a metre in diameter resisted Thomas' hand, before it released a muffled tuck and got freed.
"... Will break…"
Thomas held the mirror in one hand, before moving his eyes towards all silent Oliver.
"Never mind," and before Thomas would think about a reason to give, like how bad the ones who made this ugly Becky were, or how old this Becky was, even going to the extent of readying himself to argue with Oliver on how careless he was to let this mirror piece go rusty, Oliver waved his arm as if this was nothing important.
"At least I'd have my own story to tell, hahahaha! Others got such annoying tales about what their first superheroes did. Do you know that one of my damn friends got a superhero who released fire from his eyes? That dude got his superpower uncontrolled, ending up burning everything around! It wasn't that funny actually, as this dude turned crazy later on and became one of the villains. As the saying goes, showing off one's superpower before the formal test is a bad, terribly bad sign actually. It's a blessing you didn't show anything yet, hahahaha!"
"..."
Thomas' corner of the eyes twitched when he heard these words. "The people in this dream world are all insane!" he couldn't help but think like this, while watching Oliver continue whatever he was doing.
And as his weird companion was busy with his stuff, Thomas returned to look at the mirror, seeing that young face looking back at him.
"Who the hell are you?!" Deep inside his mind, another fierce storm emerged, one that was on a whole new level than anything else he experienced or felt since coming here.
Thomas felt exactly like a newborn who came out to this world, getting to know everything around for the first time. Emotions were always unexplored turf for him. And even if he lived his entire life wondering about what they were, he deeply regretted such desire at the moment.
What he felt was nothing better than a real torture. His head was aching, and his mind kept spinning, tossed in between a fierce tornado that kept nothing inside his head intact.
"Are you alright?" from the side, Oliver noticed Thomas' weird state. And when the latter supported his temples with his hands, Oliver couldn't help but ask in a worry.
"I'm just feeling… Dizzy…" Thomas didn't know how to explain or express what he was feeling right now.
"It's all normal. You just got a door opened for you, a door of a bright future. Come, let's go champ, my Becky is ready."
*Roar!*
Just like a sleepy beast, the giant metallic behemoth roared as if its engine got alive or something. Thomas rode different versions of many vehicles, and he always considered the military based vehicles to be the roughest he ever drove.
But all this paled in comparison with taking a ride inside Becky. The moment its engine got ignited, a gush of black smoke rose up from the chimney on the side, and then the entire behemoth kept trembling and shaking as if it was going to fall apart.
"Is this… Normal?!"
The past few minutes were a torture and a real test for Thomas. Just as Becky got alive, Oliver drove it like this was his first-time driving!
And that wasn't all! If Thomas considered the trembling and shaking Becky experienced before as being too rough, then when Becky started to roll on the ground, he knew what being rough truly meant.
Becky seemed to not run on the flat ground using the air tires it got. Instead, Thomas felt like the tires weren't perfect circles, more like an oval shape. And with a few metres passed, he felt Becky rising up, before suddenly falling down!
To him, it was much harder than riding a horse! No, it was even worse than riding a running camel!
"It's all looking great," Oliver was laughing, taking the words of Thomas as a compliment, "hang tight, we are going to speed up!"
"No… Wait! Hell, wait! Where the heck are the safety belts?!!!" Thomas got an instant scare when he heard what Oliver said.
"What belts?" Oliver didn't give any damn about Thomas' shouts and started to increase the speed of his Becky.
Thomas felt like he was riding a camel that got two rockets on each side, and now was moving damn fast like a missile in the air.
But Becky didn't fly! It just kept eating the ground underneath, with its weird way of rising up and falling down. What changed was that Thomas felt the air slamming fiercely against his face, and he was getting tossed up and down, as if he was inside a giant blender or something.
"Hang tight, we are going faster!"
"Faster my as*! Do you want to get me killed or what?!" Thomas screamed, but his screams didn't even reach Oliver's ears thanks to the loud roar of the wind.
Just as Oliver said, Becky accelerated by whatever method Oliver used to do it, releasing more bellows of thick black smoke, forming a long black trail of smoke behind, before speeding up once more.
And this time, all Thomas could do was to hang with one hand on the side of Becky, with the other holding on his tree pot.
As for the mirror he broke before, it went out with the wind, and got blown away since the first time Becky accelerated.
At this point, Thomas didn't even have anything in his mind but one, how to get out from Becky with his life intact.
He didn't get it, but for the second time, he experienced what he always heard about, the survival instinct.
*Screech!*
Thomas didn't know how long it passed or didn't even see anything at all from the world around. All he could see was just flashing images thanks to the high speed of Becky and felt wind pressing hard over his face and chest like it got a gigantic fist or something.
He always wondered why cars and trains on Earth had closed compartments for those driving and riding them. And right now, he got the answer to that question, got it in the roughest way possible!
It seemed whoever invented any of these got blown by the air, struggled to keep himself stable and alive during the ride. And then he decided to build such a ceiling on top of any car or train, to keep his life intact.
In the middle of his torment, he heard a loud screech, one that looked like a giant was clenching on his teeth or something.
"We are here," like nothing happened before, Oliver said in a cheerful tone. When Thomas turned to see this crazy dude, he was shocked to see him wearing a pair of old fashioned, leather made, big eye goggles.
"You… You…" Thomas didn't know what to say or express what he currently felt of rage and frustration.
He kept pointing towards Oliver's goggles, until the latter finally got what he meant.
"Oh, I totally forgot to give you one… Sorry, it's my habit to forget such little things, hahahaha!"
"Forget my as*! You almost drove me dead and was this close to giving me a heart attack!!" Thomas clenched his fists, restricting himself from punching this dude on the face.
He kept such enraged thoughts to himself, and just showed a pale smile as if he didn't get fazed with any of this.
"That's our champ," and what Thomas got was a strong hit on the back, while Oliver started to laugh again, "look, this is our little settlement. What do you think of it? Have you been here before?"
Thomas finally shifted his eyes away from this dude's goggles. And when he did, his eyes landed on a scene he never expected to see.
When he heard of Oliver's settlement, Dante settlement, and after seeing Becky, Thomas thought he was going to a place that wasn't any better than a place in the borderland or something. He imagined a desert, a place filled with dirt, people living in shacks or something, with clothes that were filled with gaps and tears, showing more than they covered.
But what welcomed his soured and reddened eyes was something totally the opposite!