Revelations

Tony’s headache was now gone, and instead he had a considerable bump behind the noggin. He was in the middle of an amusement park he had never been before. It certainly didn’t look like it was somewhere in Val-d’Or nor was it in any other place he had ever visited. What made him unsure was that all around him were plenty of people he had seen before. There were numerous students from his school around, getting in lines to wait for one of the many rides. Scott was sitting on a nearby picnic table holding hands with Karyann as they licked on the same running shoe that was planted onto a popsicle stick. He then recognized Dan and Gab up above, flying around with an orange space suit, followed by Jimmy, who also had the suit on, and they seemed to be racing. The whole place was crammed and very busy. Every ride had a huge line of people before it, and screams of joy, even some of fear, monopolized over every other noise. Behind him was another large line of people waiting for their turn with the orange flying suits. Even his mother was in line accompanying his three-year old cousin, who was only wearing a diaper. It looked like most of his family members were there too.

 He fought through the crowd to find a silent and peaceful place to think over what the hell was going on. As he passed beside three monkeys and an alligator that were fighting over a bottle of wine, he spotted a sofa and a television behind the Ferris-Wheel. When he reached the place, Trina and Sidrik were already sitting there, watching a movie. He joined in the middle, they gave him a bowl of chips, and they enjoyed watching the movie that the TV was casting.

He noticed that both his friends were very absorbed in the movie. It was about this giant creature ravaging a whole town. The creature looked like a biped green dragon with a grey steel mask covering its face, leaving only holes for its eyes and nostrils. The mask ended at the bottom the dragon’s alligator-like jaw, revealing the lower jaw and the neck. The giant reptile was thrashing its way through an amusement park, spitting fire and stomping on the fleeing individuals that were running around like headless chickens. The dragon then opened its humongous black wings and revealed a giant machine-gun that was hidden under them. He started shooting at all the rides and structures around him while kicking the retreating tiny people that were at his toes. Structures collapsed to the ground, and as everything was falling apart, he got more and more absorbed in the movie as well.  He could understand why his friends were so into it; the movie was darn straight intense. He checked on each side of him to see their reactions, but they weren’t there anymore, and now that he looked carefully, there wasn’t even a sofa and a television. He was just standing there, behind the Ferris-Wheel, while everything around him was getting destroyed.

 The dragon stomped in the middle of the Viking Boat ride, creating a little splash of blood as his foot went through the boat and onto the ground. Tony ran away, looking behind him to see the dragon smashing his spiny tail on the two roller-coasters on each side of him. The structures tumbled, along with the wagons filled with people, and they shattered to the ground in an ear-breaking noise. The creature jumped up, spread its dragon wings and hovered over the park like a bomber plane. It blew fire at all the people in the park, while shooting down the people in the Ferris-Wheel with its machine-gun. Tony covered his face as he ran in order to keep it away from the dousing blood that was spurting out from all the gunshots people were receiving. The people around him kept dropping to the floor as if he were running through a bunch of falling dominoes.

 He could feel and hear the bullets rattling right at his heels, but he then suddenly tripped over a body lying on the ground. As he fell, the shooting stopped. He looked back and saw that he had had tripped over his best friend Sidrik, who was now dead. The dragon gave off a sinister laugh so powerful that it buried all the other screams of fear throughout the demolished amusement park. He tried shaking Sidrik to desperately wake him up, but he unconsciously knew it would do no good. He then felt a hard thump behind him that shook the ground. Without even looking, he knew that the dragon had landed, ready to feast on his carcass. He tried to push himself back up, but he was now stuck. Sidrik’s body had disappeared and the ground had become sticky green snot. He couldn’t pull away from it; he was trapped like a small insect in a spider’s web. He could feel the intolerable heat of the dragon’s mouth, along with the scent of banana-flavored tanning lotion, overwhelming him from behind as he struggled as much as he could to get out of the slime. He closed his eyes in fear, still trying to unstick himself, but also waiting for the dragon to take his bite. Miraculously, Tony was able to push his feet back and forth as if pedaling a bike, and he managed to rip himself out of the slime. He turned around to expect the scene of the dragon’s jaw snapping at him, but it wasn’t there anymore. The dragon had disappeared.

 Tony pulled himself on his feet, and saw that everyone was alive, but it was now a free-for-all havoc, with bats, clubs, swords, nunchakus and even kitchen knives flying everywhere.  He walked at a fast pace to hopefully get out of the melee before he got involved, but Phillip smashed him the back with a hockey stick, and so he ran instead. Phillip ran after Tony, so enraged that it distorted his face. For some reason, Tony had a soldier’s helmet and a cigar in his mouth. Tony ran fast enough to get away from him, but a second later he noticed he was running a little too fast. Everything was blurry around him and he had to squint because of the wind that irritated his eyes. The wind swivelled through his super-hero cape, and suddenly he was now bare-foot. With all that speed, he thought, he could most certainly jump over the incoming stone gate that was ahead of him. He gave one big push with his back foot and hurled over the gate with ease. He flew over the buildings, a purple cloud, and a funny looking bird with a drill in place of its beak. Tony’s cape then flew off without him, and he just went diving right back down.

Horror, fear, panic and many other such uncomfortable feelings all rose at once, starting up from his guts and up to his ears, as he was falling at top speed, ready to splat to the ground. While he rocketed down, he gazed at the orange sky, with a magnificent rainbow splitting the sky in two. The rainbow looked like it smiled at him, and he didn’t even have time to smile back that the dragon suddenly tore out of it, making the rainbow deteriorate into scintillating powder. The dragon came dashing in Tony’s direction and opened its gargantuan jaw, engulfing Tony with such complete darkness, that it smelled like poutine.

Blinded by darkness, he walked around, both hands stretched in front of him trying to figure out a door, or at least a wall, but it was total emptiness. It certainly didn’t feel like the inside of a monster’s mouth.

“Tony…” He heard behind him. When he turned around, he saw a figure coming towards him. It was that man again, and his silhouette was the only thing visible in the enveloping darkness. So this was all a dream? If so, then his best resolution was to go on with his habitual reaction and sprint away without even glancing behind. The only sound to echo through the emptiness was Tony’s footsteps and his hard breathing. Seconds later, he could then hear far away footsteps that had much quicker beats than his, and they progressively got louder. The grunting and panting was now also being heard louder and louder. Tony instantly interpreted it as a signal to run faster, but before he could change gears, he got grabbed by the back of his collar and roughly got pulled down on his behind.

“Oh no you don’t! I am done playin’ that little game with ya.” The figure said.

Tony turned around to finally see the composition of the shadow that had been pursuing him all week. He was a rather muscular man, and had long, brown curly hair that was tied back and starting to grow greyish, which made him look like he was in his forties. He wore a red jersey and loose, black, Bruce Lee style Kung-Fu pants. Tony just wanted to get out of there, because the guy was scary. He stood up in dismay and was so affright that he had a hard time getting his balance once on his feet. A natural reflex he had when he was scared was to close his eyes, even if it meant running at the same time. It’s not like he could bump into something anyway in this empty blackness, but he still managed to do it. With a thud, he fell back to his original position, and from the man’s face above him, he looked very impatient.

           “Come on, how can you be scared of someone like me?” He said, “Do I look evil or something?” He said, almost looking insulted.

            Tony just stared at him, frightened and confused, but then the man offered his hand.

 “I’ve tried to warn ya but you always ran off or woke up. There’s no backing out of it this time, heh-heh. You’re knocked out cold and you’ll probably be here for a while. No other choice but to face the old man, ey?” The man surely didn’t sound evil.

“So you were running after me just so you could say something?”

“That’s exactly what I’m gonna explain young man, but first, you have to stop freaking out, start acting tough and stand up. C’mon, it’s good to trust strangers.”

Tony ignored the man’s hand and got up by himself. The man did look far nicer than he thought, now that he saw him clearly.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Tony asked, trying to oppose him.

“Whoa boy, hold the breaks. If I talk, and you listen, you’ll understand everything. First off, what’s the big deal always running away? Do I look like a rapist or…what? T’was quite a job to catch up to you. Plus I have to try and do it without waking you up and traumatizing you. Sheesh.” The man stated.

 

Tony remained silent and awaited for the ominous man to explain his theory or whatever he had to say.

“I know this’ll sound quite funky to you, Tony. It’s gonna be sudden, but there’s no more time.” The man said. “How can I say this…” He then whispered to himself, “He’ll think I’m crazy.”

Tony then said, “Okay, what is it?”            

“Well…You’re an alien, Tony.” He stood there, looking at the boy’s eyes, expecting an enlargement. Or maybe he would simply call him an old fool.

“Of course…” Tony answered.

The man was relieved by his understanding.

 “Then where do I come from, Uranus? Who are you trying to pull with that? Old fool.” Tony then added.

“Hey, hey! I’m your father, so watch what you say.” He scolded, and then immediately changed face. “Uh, look, I’ll explain it--He tried to start.

“So I’m a f*****g alien? From your planet? You laid me in an egg and I’m now on Earth? Is it me, or this is bullshit?”

“HEY!!!” Snapped the not-so friendly voice anymore and Tony shut it quite fast. If he really was his father, damn he was strict. He already didn’t like him.

“I’m the only one capable of telling you who you really are. Only a few of us remain, and no one knows about this planet.”

“You come from another planet but hey, you speak English. What a coincidence.”

“Son… English is a universal language. And Earth didn’t create it. Sorry buddy, you were taught wrong.”

“So your planet created it.”

 

 “No! But why would I even bother explaining, you won’t believe me anyway.” Then Narcolia started walking away.

Tony sighed. “Okay, okay, I’ll listen.” The man did run after him for a whole week to say this message. There had to be a good reason. “…So you’re like a dead, forgotten uncle in the family tree or something?” He suggested.

“I told you, I’m your father. But I’m not related at all with the family that you were raised with. A dead, forgotten uncle? Do I really look that old and lonely? You ain’t in that family tree either, buddy.” The old man revealed. “I thought I’d stop aging after death…” He whispered to himself.

“All my life was a dream and this is my actual life…” Tony said, a little rattled by the news.

“No, not at all. Got it all wrong. Your deductions are not working for you.”

“So then I will wake up.”

“Not soon, but of course you will. For now though, you’re knocked out because of that green monster in the basket-ball court.” He started.

“You also saw the monster?”

“You see my boy, you’re probably tellin’ yourself that all of this is just a silly dream, and I’m just an old senile man created from your imagination. But it’s not the case. You’ve got to dig that, somewhere in this head of yours. I’m here to send you very important info and believe me, once you’ll wake up, you’ll be glad I told ya. I’ve got no mean to kill or hurt you, and I have no control over your mind or your dreams.”

“Liar, you always keep up to me no matter where I go! It’s as if you appear behind me out of nowhere.”

 

“That’s not control. It’s teleportation.”

“And that is so natural?”

“From where you and I come from, yeah it is. It’s what I do, so you’ll have to live with it. Let’s get serious before you wake up, there’s still a whole bunch of explaining to do. I know you weren’t educated that way, because earthlings are not very… “advanced”, so you won’t believe me if I tell you that there are tons of other inhabited planets other than this Earth. I come from one of those planets, a planet that was called Nemus. That means I’m a nemusian, and you are too.”

“And how do you know--

“Shut up. Across from us, in the same galaxy, was a planet called Lizaross. That lizardy guy you encountered before, who kicked your a*s so easily, by the way, was an inhabitant of that planet. They are called lizaards.”

“Yes, I see.” It’s all a dream, he still thought.

“If you still think it’s bullshit, I will really laugh at you once you wake up. I’ll cut down the story a little because I’m scared we’re gonna miss out on time. So basically, Nemus and Lizaross were enemies. We were the good guys and they were the bad guys.  We once had a war, and they won. They installed some bomb that could take out the whole galaxy and yeh… t’was the end of the world, and of the whole galaxy. But, before your mother and I died, we warped you to another lady’s belly, which is now your present mother. And this explains why you’re here now.”

“So you just… zapped me in a woman’s belly.”

“Yeah yeah, shut it. I’m at that part of the story. We nemusians were born with what we call a Birth Power. It’s a power you are born with, that you uncover at puberty, and try to master throughout the rest of your life. All nemusians get only one though; it’s part of our nature, as much as earthlings are, let’s say… born with only one heart.”

“Some don’t, they’re deformed.”

“Yeah well whatever, kid. Talking about exceptions, I had two powers. The first and only one ever to have that. But you, my son… it seems that you’ve inherited that from me. From that gym class I’ve seen, you look like you have two Birth Powers as well!”

“Huh?”

 “Can you imagine? Super speed and super strength! It’s like the perfect combination. You’d be such a deadly fighter, and I’m jealous boy, because they’re way more awesome than my powers.”

“Super speed and super strength?” Tony was sceptic, but he would be overjoyed if it were to be true.

            “Yeah, but they’re not yet to the point though.  We’ll have to work on those progressively.”

“Does that mean I’ll have to be seeing you again?”

“Of course that’s what it means!” He said, a little hurt, “I’m always here.”

“Always there? Always where? In my head?”

“Yessiree.”

“…So you can, like, see all my dreams and thoughts, and even see me when I’m not dreaming? You’re always following me?”

“Hey hey now, I’m just a homeless spirit. The only thing I can do is talk to you in your dreams. When you’re awake you either don’t hear me, or you ignore me. I can’t even see your dreams and although I can see what’s going on in the outside world, I am a humane man who doesn’t feel neither the need nor the desire to intrude on your personal life. I just peek in from time to time to see how you and the world are doing, that’s all. And see? You did need me. Even though you didn’t listen to s**t.”

“What do you mean?”

“Whaddya mean, what do you mean? You didn’t hear me?”

“Oh so you were the one mumbling and giving me a headache!”

“I was telling you not to go outside! You were ignoring me! You just went on and there you go, here you are, and you’re even lucky that you’re not dead.”

“Aren’t you dead?”

“Can’t be. I’m immortal, that’s my second Birth Power. My body’s been destroyed, but my spirit keeps living on, which brings me to the reason why I’m here. You know, being an immaterial, invisible spirit for the rest of eternity, the only thing left I could do was teleport. I teleported here on Earth, in your own mind, so I could actually witness the growth of my son with my own eyes. I can actually regain my good old body once in someone’s mind, because since I’m a spirit, I can connect with yours, and so you can then imagine what I really look like. It’s pretty messed up. I discovered all that when I warped here, in your small head, trying to communicate with your spirit. Throughout the years, I’ve began to make myself pretty comfortable.”

“I can see that. All my life I’ve been living with an old geezer inside my head. I feel great now. I guess you can also read my mind.”

“No, I can’t. It’s a relief, because I do not wanna know what goes on in your head. The only thing I can do by connecting with your spirit is to either talk to you in certain states of consciousness, but it’s pretty hard without your participation. You can also see me in your dreams, since your consciousness isn’t focused on the exterior world when you sleep. And I could see everything you do, but don’t worry; I’ll leave you alone in your intimate moments. I feel no need to eye-witness that anyways. I get out of here occasionally by latching on to someone else’s spirit, so I can watch and understand the culture from this planet. It’s like an eternal movie for me you see; practically doing nothing at all except watching… can’t even drink, eat or touch any damn thing from this dimension. Eternal boredom, as if my material life hadn’t been long enough already.

Tony didn’t understand half of what the man had just said. “My sympathies, mister…”

“Sir Narcolia Nemacris, the King of Nemus. But you can call me Narco. I don’t think you’ll be calling me dad anytime soon anyways.”

“Yeah… Mr. Narco. But how does all this concern me? And why the mega headache then, if you know everything?”

“That’s just a common reaction upon unlocking a Birth Power. Every nemusian goes through this side-effect. Headaches, trembling, the hands turning blue, radiation… that’s what you call emergentitis. It signals the emergence of your Birth Power. On top of that, you’ve got two powers, so the headache was probably twice as big, logically, you know? I went through the same thing, but I was a little older than you. I was kind of the late bloomer.”

Tony started to get excited, and wasn’t focused as much on Narcolia’s story. “So you’re telling me I have super strength and super speed? That’s awesome, but how do I use them?”

 

“Don’t be too jumpy there, guy! You’ve gotta learn to control them, and you can’t in your earthling form, from what can deduce. You come from earthling and nemusian blood. That leaves you with two thirds of your chromosomes being that of a nemusian, and the other third belonging to your earthling mother. With this little peculiarity, I can only put it this way: you have an earthling form, and a nemusian form. In nemusian form, you can use your Birth Powers. In earthling form, on the other hand, you’re just a weak, normal boy. Didn’t you see those little changes on your body?”

“My eyes… when I went to the washroom, they were green.”

“I don’t actually know how the system works; you’re different since you’re a third earthling, so it’s just a thesis. From what I saw, your powers started to work when that lizaard arrived, so maybe you transform in the presence of evil, danger, or somethin’ of the sort.”

“And that lizaard, how did he get here?”

“That, is something I don’t know more than you my boy. I only know one thing. You have to kill it.”

Tony’s eyes suddenly grew wider.

“Uh-huh, yes you do, don’t look at me like that. You absolutely must kill it before it takes over this world. I know it’s here to destroy you, and I’m not bound to let that happen without at least trying. You might think just one of ‘em isn’t that mighty, but it’s a highly volatile species, and you can’t predict what these guys will and can do. In a couple of years from now, that whole Earth you know so well will be either gone, or invaded by lizaards. Last news I heard from them, they were now educated very young on how to produce clones, or something similar to that. This means quickly propagating reproduction. You don’t want that to happen. We have to kill him before he starts creating other off-spring.”

“So you’re telling me that I, a ten year old boy, the smallest of my class, have to take care of a hyper dangerous monster instead of letting it under the care of the army or police force.”

“Kay then, smarty pants. Give ‘em a call, go ahead. A ten year-old boy calling 9-1-1 because of some green alien from outer-space that he dreamt about.”

“I didn’t dream about it, he was right there! You’re the dream!” He asserted, but then thought it over and said, “Okay okay I get it.”

“Anyways, you won’t be getting out of this forest soon, son. And you’re recovering surprisingly fast for the height the lizaard dropped you from.”

“Huh?”

“You gotta go, time flies so fast in here. I believe in you boy, show that fiend what nemusian blood you’ve got!”

“Whoa, wait! What forest? Where am I?” Tony screamed, but Narcolia already had vanished, and the land of dreams was slowly fading to white.

He opened his eyes, looked around, and couldn’t believe what he was seeing.