Afternoon approaches as the supersun completes its rise, and stays in place among the clear skies, as it seems the harsh weather completely passes after the horrible storm that transpired the night before. The world smelled fresher after the rain, and there are more people now outside, as it was safer to be out.
One of the more bustling places was the outdoor campus of the Superversal Academy of Tomorrow, one of the most prestigious universities of the whole Superverse, one that was associated with the elites, as the majority of the students who were able to get in were ones with wealthy backgrounds to pay for the absurd tuition, as very few scholars attended with a scholarship under their belt, with one of the few being Rohan.
Since it was a weekend, most students spent their time either inside the dorm buildings lounging around, or they were out towards where the food court center was, either eating or shopping in the mall. The majority of such popular hangout locations were farther on the other side of the campus, opposite from the dorm buildings, which only really neighbors the gym center in terms of points of interest.
The gym was nearly entirely indoors as well, leading a disproportionate amount of students being indoors versus outdoors on each far side of the campus. There was almost nobody outside near the dorm field, except for a few people walking towards somewhere else.
However, outside of the mall and other shops provided by the school, there was a sea of students talking, with a massive field nearby the mall with many students resting or playing.
A group of older and fit boys run down the field, seeming to chase each other, wearing white and blue light shirts with an icon of what seems to be a cartoonish blue jay at the front with a confident bold expression showing its wings in an almost aggressive stance; there were words near the icon as well, with the title 'SUPERVERSAL' above the blue jay, and the words 'AIR HOCKEY' underneath, signifying that the boys were indeed players on the team.
As they run down the field, a group of girls sit on the field, with open boxes of food from the mall, as they seem to be eating outside in the nice weather. The girls wear light dresses or shirts, talking to one another or playing with their Connect.
One of the girls, who has long blonde hair, perks her hair up to see the boys running. Her eyes widen in pleasant surprise, and she drops the burger she's eating before shooting her hand up in the air, as if trying to get attention.
She begins waving her hand back and forth while yelling, "Dimetriez!! Over here!!"
One of the boys, who has short light brown hair, who was rather tall and had visible muscles, turns his attention to the girl. He waves his hand to show that he noticed, smiling while continuing to run.
The girl giggles as she sees that she captured his attention, and she makes the gesture of blowing a kiss towards him.
Dimetriez lets out a chuckle, and turns his attention back ahead of himself before continuing to run with his friends, as they were nearly always training, as they were the first line in the top division team of the air hockey team.
The girl puts her hand over her mouth as she giggles again, and she exclaims, "Heh, he saw me. He's such a charm."
A girl with long black hair sighs, her Connect projecting a screen in front of her and a keyboard under her hands which she types on, and she criticizes, "You know, I'm pretty sure he has a girlfriend. And even if he didn't, he wouldn't settle for you."
The blonde girl turns to the black haired girl and huffs, arguing, "Excuse me, he loves me! You can see it in his eyes, you just don't understand love, don't you? All you do is study anyways, what are you even doing? That essay is due next week."
The black haired girl rolls her eyes, and counters with: "Says the one who's going to fail the semester. Next time you ask me for answers, I want you to beg on your knees, then maybe you'll realize that maybe doing work is actually good."
The blonde girl crosses her arms, and she leans back, as if trying to move away from the other girl who kept calling her out. She then mentions, "Well, if you want attention that bad, then go talk to people maybe, or go to the parties! I know you think boys and stuff are boring and whatnot, but it's way better than some dumb analysis essay. Erica knows, right?"
The girl then bumps her elbow into the girl next to her, who wears a white hoodie, even though the weather was nice enough to not need one.
The girl next to her turns her head to face whoever had called her out, with strands of her long brown hair covering her face, as she seems phased out of the conversation.
She blinks twice, and she asks in her soft gentle voice, "Wait, huh? Sorry, I was doing something."
The blonde friend reiterates, "I was just telling Rachel that she's wrong for thinking love is overrated, and I brought you up as a prime example that she's wrong. Aren't you dating someone in the team? I knew you could score."
Erica's eyes widen, and she turns away, looking back down at the green grass that surrounds her, her hair covering half her face again. She wears a sentimental expression, and lets out a soft sigh, playing with the grass with her soft hands.
She quietly answers, "Yeah...I am…."
The blonde girl tilts her head in confusion to the somber reaction, and she asks, "Is something wrong? Did you guys get into a fight? If you need, I can beat some sense into him!"
Erica shakes her head, and she answers, "No no, nothing's wrong. He's just been...busy...lately. We haven't hung out in months, and honestly I've only been able to see him in the class we have together, but it's like he doesn't even pay attention to it. But it's fine, we're still together, and I could talk to him if I wanted."
The blonde girl frowns, and she reassures, "Hey, don't worry about it too much. Besides, even if it doesn't all work out, you got us girls! Love is overrated anyways, as long as you have friends who you can make fun memories with, it'll be alright!"
Rachel, the girl with the black hair, sighs, and quietly murmurs to herself, "So now it's overrated…."
The blonde girl quickly jerks her head back after hearing the subtle push, and she yells, "If there's something you want to say, speak up!!"
While nobody in the group notices, nor does anyone else in the field, a blue streak flies in from the far distance, down the other side of campus, coming from the sky above, close to where the towering dorm buildings are.
The streak seems to strike on one of the buildings before vanishing, dropping discreetly, hardly visible against the blue sky, and not having been noticed by anyone.
On the other side of the campus, where there wasn't anyone outside, the four dorm buildings stand on the corners of the field by the entrance of the university. On one of the buildings closest to the road, a handful of windows were lit up, indicating presence within.
On the top of the dorm buildings was a flat rooftop, which was so high up that nobody on the ground would even be able to see it. There seems to be a cloud of blue mist on the surface, where the streak had struck.
The blue mist fades away, revealing Meditat on the rooftop, standing with his gleaming yet battered blue suit and flowing black cape. His suit glows with living energy, his blue eyes staring up at the blue sky above.
He then lowers his head, and begins walking forward, moving towards the edge. He takes a deep breath, having had to carefully plot his return to the campus to make sure he wouldn't be spotted, as he had to fly higher up to avoid being spotted.
Meditat stops at the edge, and he looks down, seeking and quickly detecting the window to his personal dorm room, which was not far off since he was on the top floor.
Meditat continues walking, his feet gripping the wall as he walks on the side of the wall as if gravity had changed and the walls became the floor. He walks down the building and approaches the window, walking to the side so he wouldn't step directly on the window itself.
Once he passes the window, he throws his body backwards, tilting his ankles to get his back against the wall. He then turns towards the window, ready to open it to get into his dorm.
Before he does however, he first decides to take a peek inside, just to make sure that the room was his own and that it would be safe to enter. His eyes widen behind his blue goggles however, as he finds himself in a predicament.
On the other side of the window was indeed his room, however in it were people, specifically two, with one of them being instantly recognized as Dexter. He seems to be standing by his desk, facing the other person, who was a girl that Meditat had never seen before. She sits on Dexter's bed, facing him and seeming to talk, as the two were in conversation.
Meditat turns to look down the building, far below at the ground, seeing that there didn't seem to be anyone outside to see him. However, even then, he was in a risky position, one that he didn't want to stay in for too long.
He turns back to face the window, and continues watching, hoping that the two would go soon, as he needed to get inside without them seeing him.
Dexter continues to talk to the girl, moving his hands as he speaks, however it wasn't clear what exactly he was saying. The girl responds, moving her hands back as well, as the two seem to be good friends judging by the enthusiasm of their conversation.
Meditat watches as Dexter then walks towards the girl, and holds his hand out to her, as if offering to help her up. The girl takes the hand, and is pulled out of the bed, and to her feet.
Luckily enough, Dexter then walks towards the door, which dissolves open, revealing the exit. He and the girl then walk out of the room, seeming to leave to go off somewhere else, giving Meditat the opening to finally get inside. The door closes behind them, giving the necessary privacy to enter.
Meditat sighs, and he quietly asks, "Orial, I can't use my Connect directly, but could you access the SAT app and open the windows? You've seen how I do it, right? I hope? I mean if I have to go hide somewhere and get out of this suit and take the elevator I can, but it'd be better to do this."
Orial responds, "Yes Meditat, I am able to execute such a command. Doing it now, there is no need to worry."
Just as hoped, the window next to Meditat suddenly opens, as the barrier vanishes, allowing wind to enter the room. Meditat lets out a sigh of relief, and says, "Thanks Orial," before leaning to the side away from the window.
He then throws himself over towards the window, and grabs the wall right above the window in order to throw himself into the room.
The door then suddenly dissolves open again, and the girl runs in, seeming to be in a hurry. She runs to Dexter's bed while yelling, "I forgot my Connect, I was cleaning it, give me a second!"
She then stops in front of the bed and picks up a pair of what seems to be lensless glasses sitting on the top, and examines it to make sure it was in prime condition.
She then turns the glasses around before placing it on her, pushing the frame in to get it in position. Lenses then appear on the glasses with a blue hue, seeming to crawl from the edges of the frame to create the glass.
She then yells the update, "Got it!" before getting ready to leave again. However, before she does, her eyes go to the window, and they then widen in surprise.
On the other side of the room, the window seems to be open, as she could hear the wind coming in. The window was just open by itself, as there didn't seem to be anyone around to have been able to open it.
The girl then shouts, "Dexter?! The window is open, does it usually do that??"
Dexter yells from outside the room, "It's fine, I'll close it later, come on let's go, I'm hungry."
The girl sighs, and she turns around before yelling, "Okay!" before running back out of the room, vanishing again.
The door then is dematerialized into a nanite cloud, which then fades away, as the two walk down the corridor and away from the room, seeming to be heading off somewhere for lunch.
Past the opening that the wind passes through, Meditat's hands stay clinged to the wall, his body hanging over the window, as he had swung his body back out at the last second.
He breathes heavily, clinging on for dear life, as his body is upside down, his head facing the ground. His cape luckily stays against his back, held by the field holding it to the suit, rather than becoming a hassle to deal with.
Meditat's heart races, as he is nearly exposed, and waits several more seconds just in case. On top of that, he switches his goggles to x-ray mode, just to make sure that there was nobody close, and he confirms it as he couldn't even see the skeletons of the two anymore.
He switches back to normal vision, and takes a deep breath, calming himself down. He then kicks off of the wall, and swings down and back into the room, letting himself enter the dorm room now that entry was safe.
Meditat flies into his room, landing on the ground with his feet, and his cape is pushed forward by the wind coming from the window, causing his hood to also move violently.
The window then closes by Orial, and both the cape and hood stop dancing, and the sound of the wind silences, with the only sound in the room now being the passive hum of the suit.
Meditat looks around the room, and he walks towards his bed, where his Connect still is, after he had tossed it the evening before. As he approaches the bed, the chest of his suit begins to shift colors to the bland blue of his energy, as does the rest of his body, including his cape. The texture of the suit also reverts to a smooth and simple shape, with his whole suit besides his helmet seeming to be changed.
The suit then fizzles as it turns to mist, covering his body in a cloud again. He puts his hands on his face, and pulls up as the mist fades, revealing his body under, wearing his regular clothing, with his open jacket over his shirtless body still, however now his shirtless body has a few purple bruises.
Meditat pulls his helmet off as his hood evaporates, still intact, however the blue glow of the goggles dims to darkness, no longer being worn thus no longer being powered.
He walks towards the Connect, staring at the black goggles of the helmet, as though he was staring at his own reflection. He keeps the helmet close to his face, and then places the forehead of the mask on his own, as he knew what he was doing now.
He closes his eyes and thinks, unsure when he'd make the helmet again, as it could either be tonight, tomorrow, in a month, or never again. He still sees the images of the dying city burnt into his mind, as it seemed the more time that passes after the hallucination, the more it settles in.
He didn't want to abandon the city, and he wanted to finish his mission to the end, and while he got closer to a victory than ever before, he felt such a strong repulsion that he never felt before.
He worked to death trying to get strong enough to win, and when he finally thought he achieved victory, he took the most crushing defeat, murdering the blind optimism that had fueled his motivation. While the fight in the warehouse took everything he had, even causing him to have to use his backup power to carry himself to the end, he felt such a powerful relief when he looked at the two defeated terrorists.
But in the end, he tripped on dreams, and stumbled around like an idiot yelling at the calm sky while the two were able to leave without even needing to be concerned about getting pulled back.
Was that always their plan? Did Meditat ever even have a chance at victory? He couldn't be sure anymore.
He had only learned about the horrible reality a few months ago, he wasn't even a year old. He believed that he could put his intelligence and persistence into this mission to drive out the tyrants, he thought that even though he wasn't previously aware of the dire situation the worlds lived in, he was still smart enough to save it.
However, that was the greatest instance of idiocracy he's ever exhibited, believing that just because he was able to stop a moving pod, he could rival gods who had lived their whole life abusing their powers to gain more.
If not even the police had faith in there ever being a way to defend the city, how could someone who never even got into a fight before do anything? That officer likely spent decades in the field, and Meditat spent a few months.
He ignored every painful defeat he took, he ignored the fact that he had slacked off in every other aspect of his life, fading out of his friend's life, he nearly forgot there was a girl he loved. He sacrificed so much, just to prove that he could never win.
If nobody could do it, why in the world did he think he could? He wasn't special, he wasn't the only superpowered person, he wasn't the only person who studied hard to grow his mind, he was just another victim of the cruel purgatory he called home.
Now, in the end, all he got out of it were nightmares that stuck to him during the day, and a handful of scars that wouldn't heal. In the end, he sacrificed himself for nothing.
In every battle he faced, he swung with his eyes closed.
He pulls the helmet off his head and opens his eyes, staring back into the black goggles, and he lets out a soft sigh. He then places the helmet on the bed mattress beside the Connect, having it face his desk, which was right behind him. He presses the helmet into the bed before letting go, and then drifting his hand to the small Connect before picking it up with his fingers, and bringing it up to his ear, leaving the helmet on the bed alone.
He then turns back and walks to his desk, walking away from the helmet, which remains on the bed, staring back at him with dead black eyes.
The chair is pulled out and he seats himself before pushing back in. He pats his chest, which zips up his jacket to hide his wounds, and proceeds to wake up the Connect, having it open his three screens, along with a fourth smaller screen displaying his notifications, as he has a list of messages he didn't check.
The keyboard and mouse then project in front of him, and he uses it to navigate into the SAT app, and checks his class pages for the assignments he has. He opens his coding application on the left screen, but rather than using it to work on Orial, he sets it up to work on the homework projects he has.
He finds the assignments he has for his first class, and begins checking the documents, reading through it to begin, not bothering to open the other programs such as the drawing app that he would use to design the suit.
The helmet continues to sit on the bed, and its shining shell begins shifting to the bland blue base color, as first the white mask turns blue, and then the black goggles and vents follow. The mask's shape then becomes smooth as mist starts coming off of it, evaporating as a hole forms in the top of the head.
The helmet opens up from the top as it turns to mist from top to bottom, as soon the goggles turn to mist, and all that's left is the chin, until that too evaporates.
The remainder of the mask turns to mist, which hovers over the bed for a few moments before ultimately fading away, leaving nothing on the bed, as the last bit of Meditat returns to dormancy.
Rohan continues to type on the Connect as he works on his homework, his attention away from where the helmet was, and instead puts it on his school work.
The bed springs back up after the weight of the helmet is taken off, reforming to be flat once again, as the presence fades into the void of the back of his mind, where he was first born.
Not as a physical person, but as a distant memory that he didn't remember. A memory of someone who he didn't know, someone he just wanted to cosplay because it made him feel special, and being special made him feel able.
A memory not his own, a person not himself.