The train got severed and lost one and half trucks, or what was left of them. The severed parts, or what was left of them, slowed down at the rear, while the two enemies stood there, glaring fiercely at that dude.
Thomas was sure if eyes could kill, then these two would have been able to take this dude's life more than once at least.
As they issued their threatening words, that dude simply raised his hand, closed his fist, and let the middle finger rise alone.
He didn't say anything to them, simply did this move, then turned to Thomas. And there, Thomas saw that one eye was normal, while the other covered with that weird eye batch was glaring in dangerous silver light.
The same light emanated from the piece of metal that covered his face. Coupled with the fire on his hair, the silver fire surrounding his body, he was exactly like a ferocious beast.
"My hat!" The man simply said that while turning around, walked by Thomas' side while stretching his hand.
By the time Thomas returned to his senses, he realised that he already gave that dude his hat without even realising it. At the same time, that dude was already at the end of this truck, passing through the door there towards the next one.
He already cancelled his superpower, returning to look normal again. But in Thomas' eyes, this dude was the most dangerous dude he ever met in his entire life!
Thomas looked around, and the part remaining of this truck didn't escape the aftermath of this shocking battle. The ceiling of the truck was gone for more than three quarters of what it initially was. And the last fifth part of the entire truck was totally gone!
The seats got blown to pieces alongside tables, and the ground of this truck had many cracks that looked a bit serious.
"What is that?" Just as he was checking the aftermath of this battle, he noticed something thrown at a corner. It was less than one metre away from the opened end of this truck, looking like a wallet.
Thomas looked at it, then at the fierce looking world behind the scary opening of this truck. The train didn't even lower its travelling speed, seeming like the ones back there didn't care about what happened here.
Thomas feared he'd slip and got dragged by the fierce howling wind out there. But when he was feeling so, something suddenly flashed in his mind.
"This… This wallet was with one of them…" Thomas' mind brought back the brief scene he had when he saw these two for the first time.
They were sitting around the table, while checking something in this wallet. He missed such tiny detail before amidst his fear. And now this wallet found its way here, and even that dude missed it.
Recalling that scary dude made Thomas look over his shoulders. That dude was nowhere to be seen. And that riled Thomas' courage up, before moving fast and taking this wallet, hid it deep inside his clothes, under his belt, before returning back to his initial spot.
He did this in a flash, as if he got superpowers to move fast or something.
He looked around again, and heaved a sigh of relief that this scary dude didn't appear out of thin air behind him.
Thomas controlled his anxiety for a long minute. And then he looked around again. This time he saw the scared faces of the people who were on this truck. They all moved to the furthest corner, seemingly used to how to act in such tough and dangerous situations.
Seeing their faces, even tears dropping from the face of one little kid, made Thomas' heart ache.
All of this started not because the villains wanted to hijack this train, harm its people, but because of an internal and weird fight between superheroes. Thomas didn't know what was between this dude and the other two, but he knew the normal people here didn't have a relation to any of that.
He looked then towards his tree pot, recalling how it saved his life back then. He sighed, feeling more appreciative to select his tree over the useless photo frame he got in his little belongings back then.
"Thanks," he said this to his tree pot, honestly expressing his gratitude and fortune for it to be on his side. He didn't know that his true fortune for it to be on his side didn't yet to appear.
As he went to hold it, he felt the slight change in the white fog enveloping it. It looked as if it grew denser and thicker, but he couldn't tell if that was true or just his imagination.
"T… Thanks sir, thanks esteemed superhero for saving us."
And just as he passed by the group of scared folks at the rear of this truck, he got totally stupefied and stopped in his tracks by what he just heard.
Like a robot, he moved his head around, looking at the one who said these words over.
He was the father of that little kid. He slowly stood up, placed his hand inside the inner pocket of his opened cheap looking coat, and got something out.
"Take this, it's a shoulder holder we use to carry kids when working."
That dude gave Thomas something that was made out of thick and tough black and red leather. Thomas held it with a long face, not knowing what was going on here, not even realising what this dude was trying to do.
"You can use it for your pot," another one said, "we noticed you stayed motionless to protect your pet. But with this thing here, you can fight freely by your friend's side and protect us better."
Thomas looked at the leather thing he got, and it looked like a long leather belt that got diverted at some point, forming two small circles there. It also got a space that was formed of some sort of tough fabric.
The leather belt was alternating between black and red in colour, and that sac was pitch black. Thomas didn't know what to say, and then a third dude stood up.
"I don't get much to offer," he inserted his hands in a small sac that was on the side of his belt, taking a few balls out, "but I can offer our hero these little balls as a token of our thanks."
Thomas looked at the one extending his hand with three balls, each the size of a closed fist. They were like the ball he once saw Oliver use to power up Becky.
"Please take these, it's the only thing we can offer as a token of our appreciation," the one who explained the use of that belt spoke again, taking two more balls out and extending them to Thomas.
Thomas felt that using words here wouldn't do. No matter how hard he'd struggle to explain to these simple-minded folks, talk about how they got tricked into all this, and how they were the ones who were supposed to ask for compensation, he'd fail to change anything.
And so he silently placed that leather thing over his shoulders, took the balls offered to him alongside one sac to store the balls. He hung that sac on his belt, nodded in silence towards those kindhearted simple people, and took his leave without saying a single word to them.
He feared if he opened his mouth, he'd shout and say things he wasn't supposed to. Besides, such occurrences happened more frequently as he moved after that dude, crossing the entire train, even passing through the place they sat previously at. Without knowing it, Thomas ended up at the front truck of the train.
"We will leave our heroes to rest," and when Thomas arrived at the last truck, he found that dude standing in the middle of it. He silently stood there, accepting many thanks and gifts like what Thomas experienced, while the people sitting here were moving to another truck on their own volition.
"Accept them," and as this group of normal people passed through Thomas, they also offered him more gifts.
Most of the gifts were the Qi balls. And now Thomas got ten sacs filled with these balls on his waist. Others offered other things, even one of them gave his coat to Thomas who couldn't help but accept it in the end.
Another one gave him a cane, one that looked like the one that dude got, but was much cheaper.
And as Thomas accepted these gifts, the entire truck got void except for the two of them. And from the look over this dude's face, Thomas felt danger.
"Sit," that dude selected a table in the middle of this truck, sat over and motioned with his hand for Thomas to sit. The latter walked slowly towards him, feeling like he was approaching a vicious viper or something.
That dude didn't speak for almost five minutes, kept glaring at Thomas without saying a single word, making the latter feel more pressure.
"I see you got a new coat and even a cane," the first thing that dude said wasn't related by any way towards that hectic battle.
Thomas wasn't an idiot; he lived the life of a detective before. And he could easily guess what was going inside that dude's mind.
He was weighing the risks of letting him live or select the safest approach and kill him.
"Are you going to kill me?" Thomas knew if this dude wanted, then he'd end up fried by lightning without even realising what happened.
"Smart cub you are," that dude said it with a chuckle, yet the tension in this place didn't even lower for a single bit. "What do you think I should do?"
"Let me live," Thomas nervously gulped, feeling like he swallowed something burning or something, "I promise to not say anything about what happened."
"Oh, you are thinking purely about your interest," the dude scoffed, raising his cane in the air in a way that made Thomas jolt up, fearing the worst.
"See this cane?" but unlike what Thomas feared, that dude simply raised his cane high in the air and started touching it, "if it got no use to me, then using it to warm me on a cold night will be the best end for it."
"..."
Thomas got the hints behind these words, and that made him try to think of whatever way he'd be of use to that scary dude. At this moment, his lack of understanding of this world stood in between him and finding any suitable idea.
And as he struggled, that dude laughed, seemingly enjoying the look over Thomas face and the hardship he was facing. "Sit, I won't make this decision on my own."
"This…" Thomas sat again, and this time he moved his seat a metre away from the table, seemingly preparing himself to move at any given sign of threat to evade any incoming attack.
"Do you think you can outpace me? Come on! You are still a cub, with a superpower that yet didn't get unlocked."
"You said you aren't the one to determine my fate, then who?" Thomas said while trying to buy himself enough time to control the hectic storm of emotions and thoughts inside his mind. He was really struggling to control that scary wave of fear that started to overwhelm his soul and cloud his mind.
"Who do you think? You? Or me?'' The dude seemed to find pleasure in Thomas' anxiety and fear. And as the latter kept cursing his bad luck, to end up meeting this mad man, that dude took something out from the inner pocket of his coat.
Under the watchful gazes of Thomas, that dude took something with a chain, a small bronze chain that ended up with a holder at one point, and a finger tall cone point shape at the other point.
Thomas looked at this thing in confusion, and before he'd guessed what this item was used for, that dude held the chain upright with one hand, and left that cone pointed end to hover freely down below.
"It's a pendulum!"
Thomas already saw such pendulums in his past travels to cure his emotion problem. And seeing this in front of his eyes made him recall how truly blessed he was when he wasn't feeling anything.
Realising the true identity of this item didn't help in answering the question about its uses. Thomas couldn't tell how his life and death decision was related to such an item.
"It seems you know a bit about such stuff," the dude seemed surprised by Thomas' recognising this pendulum on the spot, "I'm sure you must be asking yourself how the hell my fate is related to this thing, right?"
Thomas couldn't help but slowly nod.
"Let me teach you another thing about our world," that dude said, while the pendulum kept moving at a fixed and routine pace. For a second there, Thomas' thought drifted towards hypnosis, and couldn't help but try his best to stay awake and resist the spell of this pendulum.
"In our world, the world in which we have powers beyond imagination, we do realise how important trivial things like fate and divination are. Things like trying to pry into the future and divinate are really crucial and important and might even save your life one day. There are different things to use to divinate the future. And for me, this little pendulum is more than enough."
That dude's face slowly changed, showing a vicious smile. Coupled with the metallic piece over his face, his weird eye batch, and the scary performance he did earlier, he really looked like a real beast in Thomas' eyes at this moment.
"I'm going to consult fate, asking if I should take your life down at this spot, or if fate has anything else to say about you."
And before Thomas would find words to say anything, that dude closed his one eye, started to mutter something in low tone, muttering words that Thomas couldn't hear perfectly or understand.
And as he did so, this dude started to shine all in silver light again. But unlike before, lightning didn't appear, and only silver light extended towards the pendulum, turning that bronze shaped one to turn all silver instead.
The pendulum was moving in slow pace, moving from left to right and such. But when that silver light landed, it stopped, with that cone pointed shaped piece to hang in midair for long seconds, faintly trembling as if it was resisting some sort of unseen force, and then it started to slowly move.
In Thomas' eyes it didn't move, but slowly floated. And it floated towards him, stretched the entire chain held by that dude, until it looked as if it was this close from getting loose and sprung at Thomas' chest at any given second.
'Sh*t! Sh*t! I was supposed to die while sleeping! Is it time already? Is it my time to die?!'
Thomas never feared dying before. Even when he went to the hospital and heard from doctors about his diagnosis and late condition, he didn't even feel anything about it.
To him, it felt like another page of his life would turn and end. But now? Just when such thoughts and realisation hit him, he felt unprecedented fear and doubt like never before.
Even when he was in the middle of that scary battle before, he didn't feel such an amount of fear. And when he realised that he stayed here for long, long enough for his supposed short life on Earth to end, he got more panicked. He started to feel as if he was going through a heart attack.
Seeing the cone pointed part of the pendulum point towards him in such a threatening and persistent way made him jump to this conclusion. 'It's over! Even fate decided that I shall die!'
"Phew!"
As he was just this close from losing his life thanks to a heart attack at this moment, that dude opened his eyes, released a deep breath, while cancelling his energy, "you passed! Fate seems to have a liking for you!"
As he said these words, the pendulum returned to its initial state, moving in rhythmic motion from right to left, from left to right, as if nothing just happened at all.
"W… What?!!!"
"You heard me," that dude sighed, waved his hand and let that pendulum's chain rotate around his finger, before moving it the other side, freeing the chain off his finger and then forming new circles again around it, "fate decided that you are worthy to live. The pendulum pointed to you, not me. And that means you are going to live, tsk!"
"I'm… I'm going to live…" and for the first ever in his life, Thomas felt all the fear and anxiety vanish to be replaced with a weirdly pleasant and comfortable feeling of peace and happiness.
He didn't know it, but he just experienced how normal people feel when facing deadly situations and survive out of pure luck, experiencing the magic touch of fate.
As Thomas was immersed in such feeling, that dude muled as he added:
"I just can't see any significance in letting a weakling like you live. I don't need to divinate or see the future to know your future. A weak hearted and pathetic dude like yourself won't score more than an E in the upcoming test. It'd be a miracle if you ever touched the ceiling of D rank ever in your entire life."
Thomas felt like this dude was regretting such a decision of fate. Even Thomas himself was surprised by that.
He thought that fate would sign over his death certificate. But it seemed he still had a role to play in his world. And his life just got extended for unknown reasons. No matter the reasons and logic, it was something that he was truly appreciative towards fate.
"You should find yourself such a nice pendulum later on. That's in case you got lucky enough to find someone selling them," that dude seemed to grow tired of playing with his pendulum, stored it in his coat's inner pocket while adding, "it works using Qi power. And that means it's one of the most accurate divination methods out there in our world."