"Thanks," Thomas said, not to this dude, but to the pendulum that decided his fate.
And for a reason, that dude seemed to guess what Thomas truly meant, paused in his actions for a brief second. And then he stored his pendulum in his coat's inner pocket while giving William a glaring look.
"I will get one," Thomas said as he truly decided to have one of these later on.
"You got to be lucky to meet one selling these pendulums first," the dude scoffed, "not to mention the high price it's sold at. The best you can get is to meet up with someone selling his divination services and read the fortune for you."
"Good suggestion," Thomas didn't get what this dude was speaking about. But as he mentioned money, he was sure he'd take lots of time before he'd get enough money to buy one.
And when that dude mentioned reading fortune, his thought drifted over that mysterious old lady and the sign she held when he met her.
"Just…" the man paused, while for the first time Thomas saw a look of fear over his face, "don't ever get near a lady reading fate and future. Or else, who knows, you might pop into one of them."
"Them?" Thomas felt whoever this dude was talking about, they were quite scary, scary enough to make such a dude show a sign of fear. And for a reason, the image of that lady appeared fresher in his mind, overlapped with this dude's words.
"The witches," the man said as if he was speaking about a taboo or something. He even lowered his voice when he spoke, before adding in the same tone and attitude, "if you ever heard about a witch being in a place, turn instantly around and take the farthest road and walk away from there."
"..."
"Don't give me this look, I'm not making things up," the dude sighed, returning his back before adding, "these ladies… They got special ways, ways that no one can see or defend against. If they wanted, they could kill anyone using their scary ways."
"I believe… Such ladies won't walk around, informing everyone about their identities, right?" Thomas got infected by this dude's fear. And then he thought about how to spot any witch, to save himself any trouble.
Even when he got infected by such fear from this dude, he couldn't remove the picture of that lady from his mind.
"Just pray your luck is enough and you won't meet any of them ever," that dude paused, looking for a long time at Thomas, "however… They usually got a tattoo over their necks, one that looks like a serpent, but it's not, looking like a dragon, but it's not. It's a weird symbol which represents their identities."
"What?!!!" Thomas was this close from standing from his seat. What this dude just said was matching exactly a faint tattoo he recalled on that lady's neck.
It was faint, so he didn't notice it that well before. Yet at this moment, it seemed like his memory kicked in full cylinders, and provided him with a clear image of that tattoo.
It was indeed similar to the one this dude described. "Are you saying they are bad?" Thomas didn't know why, but that lady didn't even look a threat to him.
In fact, as he felt appreciation towards that pendulum before saving his life, he felt more gratitude towards that lady. If not for her, he'd be now lying dead in his home, not living through this amazing adventure.
"They are the worst! Real monsters, ones that you have to run away from them as fast as your legs can carry you," that dude mistook Thomas' intense reaction and expressions for fearing these witches.
"Ok," Thomas didn't know why this dude said such bad things about these witches. He was now positive the lady he met, the one who changed his fate and life, was a witch.
And to him, she wasn't evil, not even close! She was like an angel, lacking only a halo and wings to be as such.
Just as Thomas had such thoughts, his face relaxed and showed a weird expression of being comfortable. And that made that dude glare again at him in doubt.
"What?" Thomas felt pressure again, asking in doubt while his mind spinned about why this scary dude was looking at him in such a way.
"As fate decided, we need to talk about what to do next."
"I won't say anything," Thomas dropped any thoughts he had about that lady and witches, hurriedly adding, "I swear to take your secret with me to the grave."
"Bullshit!" that dude laughed, "and this isn't the right way to do things in our world. Kiddo, listen up, what happened here isn't going to remain a secret. I'm sure those folks back at the nearest SA must have sensed this battle's fluctuations and Qi disturbances. And that means we'll face lots of agents at the next stop."
"This…"
"They are going to do a routine investigation. In fact, I'm the one who is going to take all the heat. But they'll still ask you questions, as you were there with me."
"I can lie and say I wasn't with you when everything happened," Thomas felt like he returned to Earth. Instead of being the interrogator, he was about to get interrogated.
For a reason there, he didn't like such a feeling, and thought about what he should do to get himself away from all this mess.
"That won't do," that dude shrugged, "they are going to speak with every single person on this train, take their testimony, investigate their backgrounds, and see if anyone is related by any way towards villains."
"Villains?"
"Who else?" that dude shrugged again, "they are the ones who attacked the train, tried to hijack it and create a scene. Out of these poor people's luck, we were here and intervened. We did our job, stopped these villains, protected the innocent people, and helped authorities in evading a stressful situation."
"..."
Thomas could get what this dude wanted to say. This was the version of the story he had to lie and tell, the one that would match this dude's storytelling of what happened here.
Thomas couldn't help but admire this dude's way to twist facts. There were no villains, and everything started because these two were chasing him all the way to here.
And on top of that, he seemed to perfectly know who these two were, and to what organisation or group they belonged to.
"This is the story you are going to stick to, got it?" and when Thomas didn't say anything, that dude said while giving him a wink.
"S… Sure," Thomas had no other option but to do this. After all, this entire mess was something that he accidently fell into and wasn't even related to him by any means.
"Good lad," that dude chuckled, while his features became more relaxed. He even looked at Thomas' tree pot, "if not for me knowing you are truly a superhero, I'd mistake this thing as your pet."
Thomas resisted the urge to shout at this dude's face that he was a liar and such, resisted the urge to even speak again about any of this.
"The people here gave me this, mistaking my tree pot to be my pet," Thomas moved his hand and showed that dude the leather shoulder holder he got before.
"That's not their fault. Lots of people just love to have magical pets."
"Magical pets?!"
"Cute little monsters which can harness Qi energy from the world. In fact, they are quite handy, helping in every day's jobs. And if they grow big enough, they can even help in defending one's life against danger."
"That's cool, I want one."
"No, you can't," that dude sighed, "these pets can't be tamed by any superhero, no matter how strong he is."
"..."
"This is just their nature, getting scared from the intense Qi in our bodies. Besides, with your superpower, you can't be a pussy and want the help of a pet to protect your life."
That dude laughed, and Thomas resisted the urge to scream at his face, telling him he was the pussy and the liar one.
"You should use this shoulder holder, it will help you a lot," that dude motioned towards the leather shoulder holder Thomas got. And the latter decided to give it a try.
He found to his surprise that his tree pot, even when it got enlarged after coming to this world, matched perfectly the sac at the back of this shoulder holder.
That sac felt like it was made of rubber or something, was able to stretch and perfectly hold the lower part of the tree pot.
When he finished, his tree pot was now held perfectly there, while only the glass-like little dome appeared from that sac.
Thomas was worried of the weight and pressure his tree pot would exert at his back. But when he tried it, he was surprised that he felt nothing at all.
It felt like he wasn't carrying anything. To wear this thing, he had to remove the new coat he got, wearing this over his vest directly.
He feared to remove his vest and that wallet would fall. As he thought about this wallet, and its possible relation with whatever trouble this dude was related to, Thomas couldn't help but feel little regret towards his curiosity.
If it was up to him, he'd decide to cut any ties with such a dude once they parted ways and left this train. But he was still curious about what was in this wallet, at least he'd get currency of this world and wouldn't be broke anymore.
"Looks nice on you," that dude said, before he looked as if he got lost in thoughts, "you do know that this thing reminds me of someone I once knew… Oh poor Marcos… He was a nice guy."
"What happened to him?" Thomas removed the shoulder holder after trying it, placed the shoulder holder with the tree pot just next to him, and listened to the story this dude wanted to tell.
"He was just a courageous dude, one who witnessed something he shouldn't, felt a moment of conscience, and had to open his mouth… What a poor guy he was."
Thomas got the point of such a story. But as he knew this dude wasn't planning on killing him, he got more relaxed and didn't let this useless warning get him stirred up or even worried.
"Just stick to what we agreed on, and in less than few minutes everything will be over," that dude said his last piece of warning as the train showed the same fierce stopping thing, "if you didn't, then your word will be against mine. Not to mention none will believe you, I'll even ruin your entire life, accusing you of working for the dark side. Or even worse, telling them that you showed signs of going berserk with your superpowers."
"..."
"Good lad, let's go," that dude stood up, even waited for Thomas to wear his shoulder holder again over his vest, while holding his coat on his arm.
"Just place it over your back, it's spacious enough to cover that thing. Besides, it'll look cooler this way," this dude winked again before heading towards the exit direction.
Thomas sighed and decided to give it a try. And as that dude said, the coat was large enough to cover the tree pot he carried on his back and reached midway at his knees.
Thomas saw his reflection in the glass of one window. He was with that young and alien face to him, looking just seventeen years old, with a swelling at his back.
Despite that, and for a reason he couldn't grasp, this thing looked actually a bit weird and cool as that dude said. It gave him a mysterious touch, one that perfectly suited everything weird in this world.
"It's indeed lively out here," Thomas just got out of the train, to find the entire platform out there filled with lots of people.
It was just as what that dude said, superheroes were already here, gathered at the platform, waiting for them to arrive. And their response got Thomas' admiration.
How long was it? Half an hour perhaps? Not enough for any police to arrive at a crime scene back on Earth.
Thomas noticed that the normal people on the train got moved out, gathered in one big group, surrounded by five superheroes who looked like they weren't the kind who'd accept any kind of joke.
Thomas saw many with metallic pieces covering parts of their faces. There was a superhero who got something underneath his vest. It started from his neck and seemed to keep going over his chest.
"You were there when everything happened?"
Thomas counted the number of superheroes in this station, and there were fifteen of them here. The station looked a little bigger than the one he boarded the train at. It had four different train rails, with three platforms.
It told Thomas that this place was much bigger and more important than the settlement he boarded the train from.
"Yes," he turned to see one of the superheroes, the one with that chest piece, standing by his side. And Thomas knew it was the time for him to get investigated.
"Tell me then, what happened?" unlike what Thomas expected, that dude simply asked him on the spot. He got no papers, no recorder, didn't even ask him to speak privately inside an office or something.
And when Thomas finished telling this dude the fabricated version of the story, the superhero with chest piece nodded as if everything was ok.
"You do have a scroll, right?" that dude suddenly asked, "show it to me. I'll see if your mentor is here or not."
"Sure," Thomas was sceptical about how smooth this supposed interrogation was. But if that nightmare just ended like that, then he got nothing to complain about.
Thomas got the scroll out and handed it over to this dude. "Sorry, but you have to open it yourself," the dude said when Thomas handed the scroll to him, "each scroll is marked and sealed by one's Qi. So that no one would steal it and cause problems."
Thomas nodded in understanding, seeing how much care these superheroes placed over such a trivial thing. He opened the scroll and handed it over to this dude.
"Oh, Mark? He is about to arrive here any moment," the dude returned the scroll back to Thomas, "just wait here. I'll inform him when he arrives."
"Thanks."
Thomas then got nothing else to do. This presumingly troublesome interrogation just ended fast without any problems at all.
As he had nothing to do, he started to observe what was going on around. And what he saw didn't please him.
The normal people here got a very different treatment than the one he and that dude got. That dude was warmly welcomed by the superheroes, and even got offered snacks and drinks.
Seeing this made Thomas' abdomen crumble and scream out in protest. Thomas realised that since his last breakfast, back at Earth, he got nothing else to eat, nothing at all.
He was too much absorbed in the weird situation and world he got himself into. And so, he never thought about eating or drinking.
Aside from that, this dude, the one who created all this mess, was now looking like a real hero! All of the superheroes were listening to the lies this dude was telling, nodding and agreeing on whatever sh*t he said.
On the other side, the normal people who were on the train got all out from the trucks. They got in long lines, looking like they were criminals or something. And that wasn't all. The five superheroes who supervised on moving them seemed to treat these folks harshly, even pushing a few and didn't care about any kids or ladies out there.
Thomas didn't like such a thing. Superheroes were supposed to be the ones abiding justice, working to serve people and protect them. And yet this world's superheroes looked like tyrants. It was as if they were overlords, and normal people were their slaves.
In Thomas' eyes, and when he compared what he usually read at comics and what he saw so far in this world, it seemed like the superheroes of this world were the villains, the real villains, not the heroes.
Thomas kept all this to himself, while feeling more distanced from the superheroes of this world. He just prayed to end up having some shocking result when getting tested, with an A or even S rank. As for his superpower, he hoped to get something good, better to be something cool, something that would help him change this world, or at least protect people in it.
But if things turned out to be the other way around, with him having just a low rank, or a superpower that wasn't even strong enough, then he'd lower his head, close his eyes, and keep living his life while trying to not harm anyone in the process.
"You are the superhero from Dante settlement?"
And just as Thomas was lost in thoughts, he heard a new voice from the side. When he got jolted awake, he found someone standing not far from him, less than five metres actually, twenty-five years old, with short red hair and faint red eyes.
He got a piece of metal as well, looking a bit cooler than that dude Thomas met on the train. It was made out of silver, with golden edges, taking the look of a crescent, surrounding his right eye.
Aside from this, he looked a bit normal to Thomas. He wore a dark red coat, with three of its buttons closed, covering up a faint brown vest. He didn't wear a hat, but have a cane, and hold a bronze coloured pocket watch with a silver chain in his other hand.
"I'm Thomas," Thomas extended his arm, and that dude simply nodded and didn't shake hands with Thomas.
"I'm Mark," he said, "I was supposed to meet you here, but not like this… What happened?"