"YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP!"
"YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP!"
Naos and Neptune literally tackled John the moment they saw him. They covered his face in kisses and jumped on him with their massive frames.
The combined weight of six thousand pounds pressing on John didn't feel heavy at all. In fact, their weight felt a little light.
John spent the next thirty minutes after he got home playing with his dragons. He would throw them around, and they would send spurts of fire and ice at him. When this happened, the robots had bet on John and the dragons before, but Barry had gotten Mark to give them orders not to. John remembered watching Mark give out the orders. The robot had danced weirdly while speaking in this strange language of beeps and boops.
It took Mark two hours to give that order.
After enjoying his playtime with his dragons, John walked inside and sat down to start watching some sitcoms.
He opened up a beer and watched sitcoms for the next few hours. There was still a smile on his face from the time he had spent with Aria.
Maybe she likes me? What if she likes me? Oh my god, she could like me!
The very notion amazed John. Someone liking him. That was something that John had never dreamed of before. People weren't supposed to like people like John.
After spending the rest of the day watching sitcoms and drinking beer, John went upstairs and fell asleep.
That night he didn't use sleeping pills.
Meanwhile.
.
…
....
...…
......
......…
A group of bald men in suits sat at a round table. They all had stern looks on their faces.
The table they sat at was rectangular and carved from marble. But there was only a seat at one head of the table. The other was empty. A thin man with a shining scalp sat at the head of the table. He had a business grin, and he exuded confidence from every pore. There was a wide smile on his face.
The man spoke.
"Okay, everyone. Here's the scoop. We've been making bank off the recent war. The selling of weapons and computer parts has been through the roof. But there might be a threat to that. I believe there is someone who can end the war." Said the man.
"Who?" Asked another man at the table. One with a shorter and fatter build. He had a constant glower on his face.
"He's a descendent of the Trumpet Bearer." Said the man
A wave of mummers washed through the table. The Trumper Bearer. He was someone who stuck fear into the world itself. He's drowned nations with tsunamis. Ate cities with earthquakes. Rended countries with tornados. All the while, you had to listen to the eerie sound of his music play as the world fell apart.
He wasn't someone you crossed.
"How close of a descendent?" Asked one of the bald men
"He may be his son."
"HAAAAAAAAA!"
A wave of gasps passed through the table.
"Has.... Has he been seen glowing red at all?"
"No. We have not found any accounts of it. But we can't rule it out as a possibility. There's a real chance that he inherited his father's power." Said the man at the head of the table.
"And even without the red. He could still be a threat. He's inherited power from the system. He seems to be able to grow stronger from eating. And it's not to a normal degree. By my estimation, in these last few months, he has already grown strong enough to destroy a small nation. And he's only getting stronger," Said the man
A wave of murmurs passed through the table.
"That. That could mean the end of the war. And the governments haven't even been sucked dry yet!!!" Yelled one of the men in suits
The man at the head scowled.
"That's not even the half of it. The Sunshine Republic Warriors have been growing stronger, too in one of Joe Stones's recent battles with the Troll King. He flattened a mountain. Samantha Stone cut a gash open in the ozone layer during the battle, too. And that's not the half of it. Paul has quit boxing. He's working for the Sunshine Republic, too." Said the man
"SHIT!"
"SHIT!"
"SHIT!"
"SHIT!"
"SHIT!"
Almost in unison, the men in suits cussed.
"We need to assassinate the major fighters now. If not, we'll lose out on profits."
A screen appeared before the bald men.
{QUEST GRANTED: END THE LIVES OF THE FIGHTERS! IN THE NAME OF THE FIGHT!
REWARD: AGELESSNESS}
The one thing they lacked was offered to the wealthy men in suits. All if they could end some lives.
Devious smiles appeared on the faces of the bald men.
"Well...… LET'T GET TO WORK!!!!!" Yelled the men.
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…
...
...…
......
John awoke to darkness—the air. The air was cursed. He couldn't breathe. He sucked air in, and he pushed air out. Yet he still felt like he needed more. He was suffocating.
A fetid smell wafted into John's nose.
Why.... Why do I smell urine?
John got up and looked around. Laying next to him. With his body soiled was Barry. His eyes were closed. John had been on enough battlefields; he'd seen enough dead bodies to know.
Barry was dead.
MONSTER!MONSTER!MONSTER!MONSTER!MONSTER!MONSTER!MONSTER!
MURDERER!MURDERER!MURDERER!MURDERER!MURDERER!MURDERER!
Dual chants ignited in John's mind. He put his hands around his skull.
He was breathing. But he couldn't breathe.
"What is this?!?!?! WHAT IS THIS!" John yelled.
He was going to die. The air was cursed. This was John's retribution for his sin. The one above had denied oxygen to him and all those around him. He was going to.
UP!
John had grown much stronger over the months.
Much Much stronger.
John jumped.
His head smashed through two floors and shot straight through the roof.
"FUUUUUUUUUUCK!"
John slid down the roof and landed on the ground.
"HAAAAAA"
"HUUUUUU"
"HAAAAAA"
"HUUUUUU"
He could breathe. For some reason, he could Finally breathe.
As rejuvenating oxygen filled John's body, he couldn't help but ask himself a question.
What's going on? Why did this happen?