Just as he was thinking about all this, the train suddenly screeched and abruptly stopped. Thomas was this close from falling off his seat, not like everyone else on this train.
"One settlement passed; little more is left…" The dude seemed to be distracted with something else than the funny look of Thomas.
"You seem in a hurry," Thomas' keen senses returned to kick in right now. And his words made that dude give him a stern look.
"Don't try to ask about things you don't have a say in," the dude said in a warning way, making Thomas totally change his viewpoint on him.
This dude acted all nice before. But for a reason when Thomas tried to ask about his stuff, he got the same look he got when he tried to ask about his superpower.
Thomas looked away, looked towards the people getting off and those who were about to board the train.
They were all wearing different Victorian customs, especially ladies who looked a bit special in all these grand balloon gowns.
Thomas watched these people boarding the train, before they noticed the presence of him and that dude. When they looked at this dude and noticed his looks, Thomas noticed an instant change in their faces.
Awe, amazement, admiration, and respect… Thomas could already tell how these people felt without the need to ask anything.
And when he thought back to how superheroes in this world looked over the common people here, Thomas couldn't help but inwardly sigh. He didn't like superheroes of this world, not to the slightest. But the fault still lied on the common people who showed them such veneration.
In his eyes, this world's superheroes were as scum as the villains, both were worse than each other.
The train moved again. During the next ten minutes, Thomas felt how cold the dude sitting in front of him was.
"I'm going to stretch out my legs," Thomas said when the conductor passed by and simply ignored the two of them. Without the need to ask, it seemed being a superhero came with its perks.
Enjoying such treatment without even having a speck of responsibility for the power these dudes had? This was a way of life Thomas hated, a way of life he never read a comic describing it before.
"Suit yourself, but don't miss your station," the dude said without any care, as if he was telling Thomas to not return here.
The latter got the hidden message and moved, held his tree pot and started to walk away. Before leaving this truck, he couldn't help but take a glance back at that dude.
His clothes were way too cool in Thomas' eyes. And comparing his ragged ones with that dude's made him want to dress up like this in the future.
Especially that cane, he felt it was something he should have. As for the hat, he didn't like hats. Perhaps a nice scarf around his neck would be a nicer touch.
Thomas started to slowly walk through the train, heading towards the rear without even realising it. As he passed the conductor, the latter recognised him, and gave him a slight nod in respect, even moving aside to make a path for Thomas.
That made Thomas sigh again. In his eyes, these people were just trying to do everything to please the ones with superpowers, while those with powers didn't even give a damn about any of them.
Focusing only on their gains? Not caring about the greater good? Thomas felt like this was a life only a villain would be happy to have.
"I'm not that strong, that authoritative to change the world," and as he passed through five more trucks, he sighed while muttering these words to himself, "I shall do like this dude said, mind my own business and care only for myself."
He didn't feel that bad at all when he said this, instead felt much relief. In this world, everyone with powers like him were caring only for themselves. Then why wouldn't he do the same?
The train wasn't crowded at all, with five places at most being taken in each truck. In each truck, twenty places were arranged. And that made this train a bit empty.
Thomas wanted to arrive at the last truck, stay there before this train would issue another harsh and abrupt stop.
But when he arrived there, he couldn't help but feel his heart clench.
Just at the last truck, he found three different groups of people there. Two groups looked normal, like normal families. But the third was different.
Thomas was walking when he passed by their seats. There were only two sitting there, and they looked a bit dangerous.
That wasn't just out of his hunch, but thanks to the pieces of metal covering their noses and eyes. Thomas walked for a few metres, while feeling like he was walking with the entire world weighing over his back and chest.
"Superheroes! Or villains?!!" Thomas thought to himself, trying to exert the best control he ever had in his entire life to not let his body shake or his face change or anything.
He just spotted them for a brief second, one that had their eyes met during which. And Thomas felt like daggers went through his eyes when that brief meeting happened.
Thomas just wanted nothing more than to run as fast his legs could carry him, return to that weird dude's side. But he had to act all normal, not arouse any suspicion in them.
"I'm just a normal looking youth," Thomas kept muttering this to himself, trying to control his endless anxiety and fear as best he could.
He was right though. In the eyes of these two, he was just like any normal youth in this world. And even if he looked weirdly at them, it was just a normal reaction they got used to experiencing from common folks in this world.
So, when Thomas passed by them again, heading back towards the previous truck, they didn't react, nor showed any care for him.
Thomas kept controlling his body till he passed through two trucks. He then looked back. When he saw no one was standing there watching him, he turned around, and started to run, running as he never did before.
"What's wrong?!" Just when he arrived at the mysterious dude's side, that one just raised his eye and asked in a weird way.
"There… There…"
"Catch your breath first," for a reason, that dude returned to the caring and kind dude again. He even took out a bottle of water and handed it over to Thomas.
The bottle looked as if it was a balloon inflated with water, looking a bit weird and ugly, made out of thick blue leather. But Thomas didn't mind any of that right now, and hurriedly accepted this bottle. He drank lots of water, before he started to take deep breaths to calm down his anxiety.
"Now… What happened?'' The dude placed both hands over his cane, giving Thomas a deeper look with his intact eye.
"There… There are two… Two superheroes on the train," Thomas said amidst his racing breaths. And despite his voice coming shaky and unclear, the next moment that dude stood abruptly up as if he got everything Thomas wanted to say.
"Where are they?" For a moment there, Thomas felt a much more dangerous vibe coming out from this dude than the other two. He felt unexplainable pressure from this dude. And that made his body shake.
This faint tremble kicked sense back to Thomas. And without thinking much, he pointed with a shaky finger towards the direction he just came from.
"Come with me," Thomas heard the last thing he wanted to hear, "you saw them, and you can identify them on the spot."
"For god's sake!" Thomas inwardly cursed, "they got metal pieces over their eyes and noses, looking dangerous, and are at the last truck…"
"You are coming with me," Thomas tried to break free from this unexpected twist of fate. But unlike what he expected that dude grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him alongside.
"I don't have any superpowers, can't help right now," Thomas was on the verge of crying and pleading, praying that this dude would let him go. But that didn't make that dude even slowdown in his firm steps.
"You are coming, it's final," that dude said in an icy cold tone. And while they passed through trucks, giving people there a scare, Thomas' mind suddenly thought about something.
He saw two superheroes, and they might be just like this dude, mentors on their way to find people like Thomas. Why then did this dude act as if he spotted his sworn enemies? Why did he look so confident about them being enemies? Acting in such a hostile and serious way?
For a second there, the old personality and habits of Thomas being a detective kicked in. and he couldn't help but place many question marks over the true identity of this dude.
But before he'd think any further, they finally arrived at the truck before the last one. And there, that dude stopped just at the door, before passing through it, while his eyes got fixed over something on the other side.
"It's them…" Thomas moved his eyes and couldn't find any difficulty at spotting these two superheroes. Like him and that dude, these two were also walking towards their direction. And when the two groups noticed each other, they both stopped.
What Thomas didn't know was that after he left in a hurry back to inform this dude, the conductor just arrived at the last truck and met the two superheroes.
He told them it was his lucky day as he met another superhero before with a youth. When they asked, they got to learn that the one who passed with a pot of tree before was actually one with a superhero.
So, they were moving after Thomas, to find him and that superhero he was with.
As the two sides paused in their tracks for long seconds, Thomas became sure of what was going to happen… A big battle between superheroes! And he just got dragged into the middle of it.
"It's you!"
"You are going to die!"
Just as the two spotted that dude, their faces changed and the world around as well. Thomas finally got relieved from the firm grip of that dude, retreated a few steps before he realised retreating was pointless.
In front of him, the two dudes got their eyes shine in such dangerous light, one with red and the other with bronze colours.
At the same time, he felt like his body wasn't moving normally, as if he was in the middle of a huge container of lid or something.
Before he'd got what was going on, he saw a flash of bright silver light coming from the dude he was with for all this time. That dude slowly removed his hat, threw it back towards Thomas as he said without turning back:
"Make sure you won't lose it."
Thomas caught the hat in reflex. And when he turned to that dude, he found a scene he never imagined.
This dude got black hair and brown eyes. But right now, that hair shone in a weird way, with its tips shining in a bright silver light, as if his hair was on fire. Accompanied by the silver halo coming from his body, this dude looked like a real superhero in Thomas' mind.
"You are really persistent," that dude's voice even changed, became much deeper and thicker. He waved his hand holding the cane, and the cane changed. It got surrounded by silver arcs of lightning, and then arcs of lightning extended beyond its end.
"You are really lucky," one of the two enemies said, attracting Thomas' attention.
"Holy sh*t! They all can lighten up their hair and eyes!!!" Thomas was shocked to see the other two in the middle of the truck having parts of their hairs as well as their eyes ignited with different and dangerous light.
One shone with bronze colour, and the other with pure red. Just from seeing this, Thomas felt how truly weak and powerless he was.
What was true might? This was!
Thomas didn't know it, but he was witnessing a true battle between superheroes in this world from the front seats!
The dude who was with him was half a beat faster. He was more experienced and seemingly more adept at battles than these two. As he waved his cane, he also moved the other hand, fanned out his fingers, and from there lightning spread like a web.
One hand released an umbrella like lightning, and the other released an arrow- like attack through the cane. The two enemies were just about to release their attacks, to end up wasting their attacks over this umbrella. And then they got hit by the lightning coming out from the cane.
"This… He is using his cane to form a whip of lightning, with the cane being the handle of this huge whip…" Thomas realised what happened when the aftermath of the initial clash ended by sending the other two flying backwards.
And when that happened, Thomas saw that the truck in front of them was in total devastation. For a reason, all the scraps of metal vanished, and were thrown in the air, tossed around by the fast wind thanks to the speeding train.
"Hold onto something tight!" as Thomas was watching all this, that dude shouted, took a step forward, and jumped high in the air.
With the speeding train, Thomas felt like this dude was going to jump off it like this. But unlike what he expected that dude moved his cane, controlled his whip, and the lightning started to penetrate the middle of the truck.
"We won't let you escape again!" Just when Thomas saw through this dude's intentions, one of the two roared like a wounded beast.
Thomas was sure these two were sent flying in the air, and with how fast the train was running, they must have been tossed away from the train.
To his surprise, he saw the two standing just ten metres on top of the last truck, or what was left of it. Underneath them was a metallic bridge, formed of ugly looking scraps of metal pieces.
"This… One of them can control metal…" Thomas' mind provided the answer to this puzzling situation. And then he realised how these two worked together as a team.
One worked as support, providing aid against the brutal attack of that dude with lightning superpower, just how he did with forming such a bridge and platform.
As for the other one, he used fire superpower, able to form many daggers made entirely out of fire. As he stood on that weird platform, he just released these daggers towards the midair lightning dude.
Going by logic, one worked to support and aid the other, while the fiery superhero acted as the longed ranged attacker. And in Thomas' eyes, this situation right now was just perfect for these two.
The dude he was with, the one with lightning superpower, seemed to excel only at close ranged battles. Dealing with these two whiles being away by almost a truck and half was something this dude lacked.
But that didn't matter much. After all, this dude wasn't aiming to fight and kill these two from the start. All he wanted to do was to throw them off the train, and then chop the trucks and cut their path to return here.
It was a perfect strategy, one that put into consideration the strengths of the enemies and the weaknesses of oneself. And that told Thomas this dude already knew these two for a long time, or at least was familiar with their ins and outs.
Thomas didn't get why this dude warned him before. Yet soon enough he did. When the fiery daggers came, that dude used his other hand and formed the umbrella, blocking most of these, defending himself.
At the same time, he kept controlling his cane with lightning, cutting the truck in two parts.
And just moments before the truck would get separated into two parts, he moved his cane and made the whip to arc in the air, before it grabbed the part connected to the main train, pulling his body alongside.
He did all this in a few seconds, brilliantly using his superpower to defend and attack at the same time, without even getting affected by being in midair and without backing.
He was facing two superheroes who seemed no way weaker than him, and yet he managed to triumph over them. Thomas saw something that he could least describe as using one's quick wits and smartness against enemies.
But before he'd celebrate all this, the remaining fiery daggers landed at the truck, and started to explode one by one. He felt like being a kite thrown in the heart of a fierce tornado. And he had to cling to everything he could reach to stabilise himself.
During these stressful moments, he grabbed onto his tree pot, to find a safe haven at last. In the middle of all this mess, his tree pot stood erect and stable, not even affected in the slightest by any of that.
Thomas was busy either watching what was going on or trying to save his life in the middle of all this. So, he, and no one else, noticed that during this mess, wisps of energy started to move towards the tree pot.
In fact, these wisps wouldn't be noticed if not for the rubbles and pieces of metal getting thrown everywhere. They were initially invisible, not seen by any naked eye in general.
And no matter how the world around looked at its apocalyptic moment, Thomas found it all safe behind his tree pot.
*Thud!*
And when the fierce explosions calmed down, Thomas heard a loud thud coming just a few metres away from him. He dared at last to raise his head over his tree pot, and there he saw that dude standing like a tall mountain in front of him.
He still had the silver fire sparkling at the tips of his hair and surrounding his body and cane. He looked like a real beast, and he didn't lower his guard even after doing all this, raising his cane and fanning out the fingers of the other hand, seemingly prepared to defend against whatever would come at him.
"We won't let you live! We will always hunt you down, traitor!"