For the first time since the day of the incident, Rohan finally was ready to return to the city. It had been a few weeks since he discovered his new abilities, and while it felt rather quick for him to want to test them outside, he felt he had spent enough time in those few weeks to justify it. He also didn't want to wait forever, as he knew that every day he spent waiting to step into the city lines was another day for more chaos to ensue, and for more innocents to be caught in the fire.
He had practiced enough to the point where he could create the parts of his suit completely by memory and without the aid of having the visuals presented to him, and so he was able to take nothing with him, which would help him keep the secret to himself.
He still felt some nervousness doing this, as he had only conducted his experiments in his room, afraid that being anywhere else on campus would lend to him being caught and exposed. Now, he was going to be out in the massive city, which was a wide leap. He also had to make sure nobody would be able to identify him, so he spent the last couple days leading up to the first test designing a mask, which would feature tinted goggles to let him see without revealing his eyes, and small holes to let him breathe out of.
He picked a tour day, which happened weekly, giving students the chance to take buses from the campus to the city. While the tour days were designed for students to scout for internships or attend them if necessary, Rohan wanted to sign up for a different reason, which was ironic since he had intended on utilizing the tours as designed over all his four years.
Yet the first time he was using it was for something so different.
On Saturday morning, Rohan wakes up early, sitting up from his bed and stretching his arms. He turns to see that Dexter was still fast asleep, and so he makes sure to stay quiet. Rohan leaves his bed as the blanketing energy dissipates and changes his clothes, and once he does he places his Connect in his ear.
From there, he leaves his room in silence, and takes the elevator pad down to the lobby. He leaves the building, and heads towards the bus lot, his hands in his pockets, determined to make the day work.
He had told his friends previously that he'd be out in the city in order to prepare them for his absence, and while they were disappointed, they accepted it and wished them good luck.
Rohan finds the bus pods parked in the lot, with lines of students entering the different pods, most of them being upperclassmen, with none of them seeming to be freshmen except for Rohan. He doesn't think about it too much, as he knew it was very odd for a sophomore to take the tour days, let alone a freshman. Even juniors would be easing into it gradually, as the group was predominantly seniors.
Rohan enters the frontal bus, and walks down the aisle, noticing that there is hardly anyone occupying the front seats. He takes one of the empty single seaters, and lets a soft sigh, turning his head to look out the window.
More students board the bus, passing Rohan on the aisle, heading towards the seats in the back. Some of the students sat closer to the front along with Rohan, however they were far more rare.
Eventually, the bus pods close their doors, and the drivers take off out of the lot and towards the exit of the campus.
Rohan's head sits against the window, staring outside as the bus pods drive down the roads, heading towards the highway to make their way to the city. Rohan watches different pods drive past the bus, being much smaller in size, and thus being much faster. He watches them pass him until they leave his field of view, and then turns his attention to the pods entering his view.
The buses enter the highway, joining with the rest of the busy lanes, which elevate even more, letting there be multiple lanes of different heights. Rohan looks down to see the pods driving beneath him, and then up to the pods above him, waiting patiently to get to the city. He smiles softly to himself, hoping that the dream he was chasing could finally be obtained.
The bus pods enter the city lines, driving among the sea of skyscrapers. As the buses drive deeper into the city, they begin splitting up, taking different routes to different areas.
Rohan watches the pods split, and he then turns his focus towards the skyscrapers, waiting to arrive at his destination. He had chosen the area surrounded by some of the tallest skyscrapers of the city, as he needed to be somewhere where he couldn't be seen.
Eventually, the bus pod carrying Rohan descends down to the ground, as it nears its destination. The pod approaches a bustling plaza, full of citizens walking in mass numbers, with other pods driving closer to the ground. There were many shops and smaller buildings as well as the towering skyscrapers, with people walking with food in their hands, chatting with friends.
Many of the buildings have holographic advertisement boards, showcasing different products such as a variety of Connects of different variations, and cybernetic body parts such as metal arms and legs.
The bus pod stops, and the door opens. The driver watches as Rohan gets off the bus, along with the other students. Rohan looks around the plaza, finding himself surrounded by a plethora of people, living their life casually whether alone, with friends, or with a partner.
Rohan smiles softly to himself, as it felt for the first time, he was truly among the people of Versepolis. He looks up at the different skyscrapers, trying to remember which one was the tallest. He begins walking forwards, passing the crowds of people, listening to their mumbled shatter.
His blue eyes shine in the day, looking at a building with a sign that read: 'ZPRINTS ENTERPRISE.'
He remembers that it was the name of the company which had the tallest skyscraper in the area, and he takes a deep breath, ready to go inside. He continues walking towards the building, however as he does, he accidentally bumps into a man walking the other way.
Rohan nearly falls, but manages to stay on his feet, stumbling backwards while trying to keep himself steady. His eyes widen, and he looks up at the man he ran into, seeing that he was a middle aged man in a formal suit.
Rohan immediately apologizes, "I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going!"
The man looks down at Rohan, and he gives a soft smile. He shakes his head and says, "Don't worry about it kid, I wasn't looking either. Just be careful not to get trampled."
With that, he continues walking, passing Rohan.
Rohan watches the man walk away, surprised by the sudden forgiveness, seeing how humble the people of the city were.
He sighs to himself, smiling once again, finding a love for the people of the city even though he had barely spent time inside.
Rohan enters the building and walks to one of the elevators. He then takes it up to the highest floor, climbing up quickly. He puts his hands in his pocket, and looks around himself, seeing that there was a projection of the outside city against the walls, making it seem as if he was rising up the city outside of the building.
He watches as the projection shows him ascending above, causing the people below to become smaller in his perspective. He then looks up at the different skyscrapers around him, letting out a soft breath, noticing just how tall the building really was.
The elevator pad reaches the top floor, and the door opens. Rohan walks out into an empty hallway, and begins searching for the rooftop. He looks around the white hall, and lowers his head, beginning to question if this plan was truly a good one. However, he had put all the work into getting here, and he couldn't back down now.
As he walks down the hallway, he notices another elevator door, with the sign 'ROOFTOP' on it. He approaches the door, guessing that it was the separate elevator to the top, as most buildings had that design in order to prevent people from accidentally finding themselves on the roof.
Rohan presses on the button, and the door opens. He walks onto the smaller elevator pad, and approaches the podium. He then presses on the holographic button that simply reads 'TOP,' and the elevator door closes.
The elevator pad begins ascending once again, however the walls were not projecting the outside, and so he was alone in the relative darkness. While waiting, Rohan looks at his own hand, seeing that it was slightly shaking, and he grabs his wrist with his other hand to stop it.
Just then, the elevator pad stops, and the door opens, allowing the bright light outside to reach Rohan. He turns to face the exit, and his eyes widen.
Rohan stares at the rooftop, which is rather large, and has a few more levels to it seemingly. Rohan walks out of the elevator, and turns around to see the levels that were casting the shadow, seeing that the tower curves at the top of the elevator shaft, and there were a few rods sticking out from the curve, suggesting that they were for online connections.
Rohan looks at the flat top, and sees a radio tower of sorts, standing tall with a control module next to it. He then turns his attention to the edge of the roof, and begins to approach it slowly, his hair flying violently from the high altitude.
Rohan reaches the edge, and he looks down before his eyes dilate. He stares at the incredible height, making it near impossible to see anyone below, as even the elevated pods were miniscule. Rohan stumbles back, his heart beginning to race, as he feels anxious from how high up he was.
If he falls, there is no denying that he would die on impact, something that begins to scare him.
Rohan gulps, and he tries to strengthen his resolve, knowing how much work he put into this moment, knowing that he couldn't cower now. He wasn't doing this only for himself, he needed to do this to protect the city. The nice people who inhabited the streets. He had to stand tall for them.
He had to protect them.
Rohan takes a deep breath, and he tries to loosen himself, doing a few light jumps and trying to take his mind off the fear. He decides that the longer he waits, the more he'd freak out, so he immediately gets to work. He closes his eyes, and tries to picture the suit he had been making for weeks now, remembering its detail and how it worked.
He visualizes the suit, and tries to begin creating it, having it stuck in his mind as he attempts to use his powers.
However, as he stands there thinking of the suit, nothing happens. He doesn't feel any energy coursing through him, he doesn't hear any humming, all he feels and hears is the wind hitting him.
He stands there for a few more moments, his eyes shutting more tightly as he tries to focus. What was he doing wrong? He did what he always did, imagined what he wanted to make, and tried to bring it to life. However, now he wasn't sure how that even worked.
He didn't manually activate anything, it seemed like it would just happen when he wanted it to, but he wasn't sure exactly what he did to trigger the creation. The more he thought about it, the harder it was to understand how it ever worked.
Rohan opens his eyes, looking at his hands to see that they were still bare, and he was still just wearing his jacket. He breathes heavily, realizing that nothing was working. He feels tense, lost in self questioning as he once was, as if he forgot how to walk. He gulps, trying to understand why nothing was working, wondering if he wasn't visualizing the suit well enough.
Perhaps he was trying too much, perhaps he wasn't capable of creating such a complex system all at once, since he usually only created bits. Maybe he wasn't ready for this, and just because he knew how to create every part of the suit, he couldn't do the whole thing at once.
He only gave himself a few weeks to master something he never knew he had, something he didn't even understand, and he never once decided to try making everything at once before the test. Perhaps he was too excited, and couldn't wait.
Now however, he was stuck unable to even begin the test, and instead he just stood there uselessly. He looks over the edge again, wondering if perhaps the fear of heights had ruined his ability. However, he wasn't too particularly scared of them, and the first time he used his abilities was in front of a speeding pod.
He had used his abilities first under extreme pressure, but now it seemed they wouldn't work. Maybe he had overestimated himself, and he wasn't really good enough to save anyone. It was nice being able to create duplicates of air hockey gear, but he intended to face people who controlled the elements and could bring anything and anyone to the ground effortlessly.
He was nothing more than an overhyped printer, hoping to face gods.
As Rohan stands by the edge, he doesn't notice that the elevator pad had left, and then returned, however this time with a man at the top. The man wears a formal suit, and seems to be in his middle ages.
The man steps forward, and he calls out: "You shouldn't be up here! Come back here, and identify yourself! This isn't a public playground, brat! This is dangerous."
Rohan's eyes widen, but he doesn't turn to the man. The second he did, he would risk being identified, and he would have himself exposed and possibly punished by the school. He was too fearful to talk as well, wondering if even that could be enough of an identification, as he wasn't sure whether or not the man was recording their conversation.
He just stands at the edge, his hands shaking, as he looks down the edge.
The man steps forward again, and he commands, "I said get back here! Hey, who do you think you are? Are you even listening to me? Do you need me to call the police?"
Rohan inhales in fear, realizing how much of a hole he dug himself. He gulps, and continues looking down the building.
The man begins walking towards Rohan, and he bellows, "That's it, you're coming with me."
Rohan's eyes dilate, as he hears the man approach him. He was put in a corner, and he only had the choice of two directions, with only one of them being one he could take.
Forwards.
As the man approaches Rohan, Rohan steps off of the edge, his feet leaving the ground. The man's eyes widen, and he begins sprinting towards the falling boy, not expecting the jump.
The man runs to the very edge and looks down, yelling "WAIT NO GET BACK HERE!"
Rohan's body falls straight down, still only wearing his normal clothing, his jacket violently flapping in the wind. His body slowly tilts forwards, however it hardly helps his fall, as he continues accelerating downwards.
The man just stares from the edge of the rooftop, unable to speak, his eyes wide as he just witnessed horror.
Rohan continues falling, his heart racing as his mind is completely lost. He had no idea what he was doing anymore. He had spent the past weeks chasing fantasy after everything collapsed, hoping to be something that couldn't exist, something he knew couldn't exist. And yet he tried anyway, using anything he could to achieve that dream.
Rohan's eyes close as he realizes that he had overstepped his bounds, and made a mistake he could never take back. He should've listened to Erica, and stayed back home, staying with the people he had rather than chasing others. He should've just tried working on being there for people rather than trying to fight the people endangering them.
He wasn't a hero, what was he thinking? Erica just lost one of the few people she had near and dear to her, and his first reaction was ridding someone else from her.
In the plaza, the citizens notice the falling boy far above, and many of them point and yell from the horrifying sight.
The man who ran into Rohan looks up to see the boy, and his eyes widen, saying to himself: "Oh god-."
Rohan falls faster and faster, his eyes shut, his hair flying everywhere. For the first time, he actually thought through everything he was doing. The past few weeks had gone by so quickly, as he didn't take a moment to think, he just went ahead and did.
He got so caught up chasing a future that he forgot about his own. About graduating in four years to a strong job, where he could do enough work to land himself a good home and possibly even have a family later on. He had worked so hard to get himself the best chances of obtaining that future, and yet he ruined all his progress with an impulsive act.
He was so childish that while he chased the hope of saving everyone, he thought of nobody. Not himself, not Erica, not his friends, nobody. He knew how painful it was to live in a dorm alone after losing a roommate, he didn't wonder how much harder it would be to go through that but with the added bonus that said roommate was their brother.
He clinged to dreams for so long that he forgot what they were, dreams, not reality, but dreams equivalent to fantasy.
He let himself fall into delusion, believing there was hope in such a bleak world, that the memories he saw meant something, that maybe they were a sign that there could be good.
He let down everyone, the people he knew such as his parents, friends, and brother, and the people he could've later known. He let them all down.
The boy Rohan who spent all his time studying for school, he could never be a superhero, that just made no sense.
He was no savior, he wasn't Meditat.
Rohan's eyes open suddenly, as he realizes one thing: He couldn't keep restraining himself to that identity. To his old dream. He wasn't sure who he was, Rohan, Meditat, or any of them. He couldn't burden himself to a predefined destiny, especially one he couldn't chase after knowing where that destiny would be.
There was still so much in the world he didn't know, he lived his whole life with the narrow plan of just finding a job, he didn't think anything more. He only knew what would help him, how to code, and the subjects of classes he took. There was so much he didn't know about the world, even including himself.
He didn't know who he was.
But he had to know. He had to learn. He didn't know what dream he was chasing, but whatever it was, he had to chase it. He had to understand, and he had to keep going.
As the man in the white blazer had said, he had to fight.
Rohan stares forward with teary eyes, and as he continues descending towards the ground, his eyes start to glow blue.
His chest begins to glow as well, giving off a soft hum, and four streaks run from the chest, with two going to his arms, and two others going to his legs. His body gives off the blue mist, and the sparks of energy follow, coming off his body and surging around him.
His whole body becomes covered by the blue mist, with the electricity surrounding him, coming off him yet circling him.
The blue mist covering him starts to harden, and it starts to take a shape similar to the modified armor. As the shape sharpens, the blue mist begins to color itself to the blue and white suit, with the plating beginning to shine while the fabric stays dull. The gauntlets form around his arms, and the boots do as well at his feet.
Finally, the white mask finalizes, with sharp goggles resembling parallelograms, tinted with blue. Vents open up where his nose and mouth were, just as he had planned.
The goggles brighten with the blue glow, and both the mist and electricity coming off of his body stops.
The suited boy falls closer and closer to the ground, with the people on the ground covering their eyes from the blinding light of the transformation.
Rohan looks up, realizing he was in his suit. He raises his hand towards one of the skyscrapers in front of himself, and feels a similar pull to the one he'd feel in his hockey gear. He then takes a deep breath, and makes a similar pulling motion with his hand.
Rohan's body suddenly flies towards the skyscraper, no longer falling straight down, as though it had grappled itself towards the other building.
All the people on the streets watch in awe, their eyes shining as a sea of them says "Woah." They all thought they'd be subject to watch a brutal death, however what instead transpired was something terrific rather than terrifying.
Rohan flies towards the skyscraper, and he then extends his hand to another building, raising his hand higher to get above the ground more. He then pulls once more, and as before, he flings himself higher up and away from the ground.
He thrusts his chest forward, boosting himself forwards similar to what his gear did, and pulls himself once more towards another skyscraper, using them as points to pull himself towards due to the surplus of them.
He uses each of his hands to pull himself towards buildings on each side, even using both of his hands at once more greater pulls when he found two buildings equidistant enough from him.
Rohan boosts up towards a wide office building, and he rotates himself to plant his feet on the wall before running forward, his boots sticking to the wall.
Inside the office were a group of cubicles, with adults working on computers. However, many of them notice the boy running down the window, wearing an odd suit. Some of the workers stand up in confusion, unsure of what to make of the situation.
Rohan jumps off of the building once he gets close enough to its edge, and he rotates himself again, however this time in an angled diving position. He boosts himself downwards with his boots, and then uses his hands to curve back up.
After having been consumed in fear, he finally felt the freedom to enjoy himself, relaxing in the rapid flow of the wind, which moves in his direction.
Rohan sees a lower building with a flat top, and he pulls himself towards the roof. He touches ground, but continues to sprint forwards before using his left hand to fling himself up again, using his boots to increase his speed.
As he continues traveling through the city, more citizens notice him from the ground, with some even seeing him in their pods. It was an odd sight, as for the first time, they experienced something extraordinary yet didn't find themselves under attack.
Every other time they witnessed something super, it always caused death and destruction, and yet in this moment, there was none of that.
It was just some person, flying gracefully through the city, free.
Rohan flings himself upwards, and sees the lanes of pods driving above him. He aims both of his hands at the lanes, and closes his hands before pulling himself forwards from the pods, flying right up towards the lane of traffic.
As Rohan flies through the first lane, he makes a diving position, and boosts himself with both boots and hands, rocketing himself even faster.
Children sitting inside the pod look around the city with a bored expression, but their faces light up when they see Rohan fly right up, as it was a sight to behold, one that got them to the edge of their window looking up in hopes to see more.
The children smile, with some even asking "Mom! Dad! What's that?"
Rohan pulls himself towards the highest lane, propelling himself while maneuvering himself to avoid other pods, slithering around pods before finally reaching the top of the lanes.
He looks ahead of himself to see that there were only now skyscrapers in his view, however they were still plentiful, and so he begins pulling himself towards them while boosting himself through the city.
He knew he had time on his hands before the bus pods would come to pick him up, and so he was more than fine flying the whole time, even if it was hours straight.
Rohan sees a building with a curved design, which creates an open circle in the middle, where the hologram of a clock is. Rohan pulls himself towards the building, and thrusts himself forwards with his chest, testing his agility on an obstacle given to him.
As he approaches the building, he boosts forward with his feet, and aims both of his hands at the edges of the circle. He then pulls himself towards them, positioning himself in the center, and firing himself forwards.
He puts his arms and legs together, and dives straight through the clock's hologram, and onto the other side of the building. He begins to dive down again before continuing to swing and pull himself from building to building.
His heart races, but rather than it being in fear, it was in joy, as he felt able again, able to make use of his strange new abilities, able to command it in a way that could let him do anything.
A tool he could use to do so much for the city, and to finally give the people someone to fight for them.
As Rohan soars through the city, he sees a skyscraper directly in front of himself. He holds his hand forward to pull himself towards it, however, as he does, the glove begins to turn to the shade of blue as his mist.
Suddenly, the glove then vanishes into the mist, leaving behind only his bare hand.
Rohan's eyes widen, as he realizes his suit is suddenly vanishing.
More of Rohan's suit starts to burst into mist as well, such as his other gauntlet, and his boots. He starts to flap his arms desperately, confused with why his suit was now starting to vanish, as he never witnessed his creations revert or disappear.
His suit steadily disappears off his body as he approaches a balcony on the side of a random office building, and he braces himself, shutting his eyes in fear.
Rohan crashes onto the balcony, rolling on the floor before slamming into the wall. He groans, his arms in front of his face, feeling his body in pain.
There was no reason that such an event should've happened, everything was going fine, the suit worked perfectly and he was able to power it consistently. Now all the sudden, the suit just seemed to decide to vanish.
Rohan lays on the ground for a few moments, as while there was no doubt to how relieving the flight was, he found himself with a new problem.
Maybe he should've ran more tests to get a full understanding of how his abilities work, because clearly he didn't know everything. He was lucky there was a building in front of him, if there wasn't, he would've most definitely bit the dust.
The door to the balcony opens, and a man steps out, wearing formal business attire. He takes a sip from a cup of royx, and then looks down at Rohan, who seemed to have appeared suddenly.
The man asks, "Woah, what are you doing here? Do you work here?"
Rohan looks up to see the man, and his eyes widen. He scrambles to his feet, and shakes his head, apologizing "Sorry sir, I didn't mean to catch you off guard. I'll uh-...uh...I'll be going!"
The man's eyebrow raises, and he asks "Wait, what? No no, I mean who are you? Wha-?"
However, before he can finish his sentence, Rohan runs past him and through the door, vanishing into the building. The man blinks twice, and he looks at the door, lost. He then takes another sip, and says to himself: "You're seeing things Mark, not again."
After a couple minutes of intense constant awkwardness, the office building's main doors open up, and Rohan steps out, wearing his jacket. He looks around the street, and begins walking, looking down at his hand. He tries to imagine the suit to resummon it, however he felt extremely exhausted, and couldn't find the energy to do so.
He makes a tsk sound and closes his hand, realizing that he couldn't fly his way back to the bus stop. He sighs, happy that he had the time he did airborne, but disappointed that it wasn't exactly perfect.
He did learn however that he had much more to learn.
Rohan spends the next several hours walking back to the bus stop, the place he only spent a few minutes moving away from. He keeps his hands in his pockets and his head low, using his Connect to project a holographic map to navigate himself back.
As he walks, he hears people chatter about the man they just saw flying through the city, with many of them seeming speculative as to what the person was, whether just an ordinary person using advanced equipment, or an Exhuman demonstrating their abilities.
Rohan listens in on the conversations, hearing people say: "Wait, so I'm confused, did anyone die? Like, did they kill someone? If it's an Exhuman, surely they did something bad if they were showing themselves right?"
More people said things such as: "I don't think he was an Exhuman, it was probably some guy in a suit, that's it. Y'all got yogged way too quickly don't you," and "Sweet Jesus I thought he was gonna stop dropping bombs on us at some point, is he gone?"
Rohan sighs to himself, understanding how confusing his appearance was, as it was the first time he showed himself. However, he showed himself doing really nothing, leading nobody to know his intentions.
Maybe next time when he goes out, he should try to prove his allegiance.
Maybe next time, he should try picking a fight, it wouldn't be too hard to find one anyways.
Rohan continues walking for several more miles until finally arriving back at the bus stop, seeing that the bus pod was already waiting for the students to come back, as he had made it just in the nick of time. He walks faster to the bus, boarding it as the last student left, and taking one of the front seats.
The bus pod's door then shuts, and the pod drives off, heading back to the campus.
As the bus pod drives down the highway and towards the campus, Rohan lays his head on the window again, watching the pods drive by him. He smiles softly to himself, as while it wasn't perfect, he still described his mission as a success.
He knew that now he had to conduct more tests to understand the problem of his vanishing armor, and find a solution for it, but besides that, he was nearly perfectly ready to go out into the field again, but this time to fight.
Now people knew that he existed, and he knew with the ball rolling, he had to act on the momentum he gave himself. However, it didn't make him feel anxious at all, as instead, he was excited for the future. He was excited to continue bettering himself, and becoming an excellent protector of the city.
He was excited to put an end to the terror that the Exhumans had forced upon the city and the worlds, even if it would be a long and hard journey.
As long as he could save someone, it would be worth all the work he had ahead of himself.
The pod drives past the campus gates, returning back to the university, the sun setting in the distance.
Rohan leaves the bus pod and walks back to his dorm, his hands in his pockets with his hair moving gently in the wind. He looks up to see the sunset, with the beautiful cyan sky among the descending sun.
There was so much to know about the world he lived in, and there was so much to understand about himself.
Perhaps it was something he never had originally planned, and perhaps everything he was doing was now off script from his original play, but he liked the change, he welcomed it.
If he could truly master this ability, he could be someone that could truly give to the world in a way he could've never done before just as the boy who wanted to be a programmer for a random computer so he could afford food and shelter.
If he could master this mission, he could be more than just Rohan.
If he mastered this life, he could become Meditat.