Fraction

Fraction Chapter 3 - Time Limit

A rainy night on a dimly lit street on a backwater planet. Two men walked along the street. One of them wore black. A black shirt, black pants, a black coat and a red scarf snaked around his neck with its tails fluttering about in the harsh wind. The man who walked ahead of him wore a white suit. A white suit in the rain? But the suit was not affected by the rain or the dirt. It was as if the suit actively repelled anything impure. The same could be said of the red scarf on the man behind him. It, too, was unaffected by dirt and rain. It was spotless and pure red and flowed almost as if it was blood gushing out from around his neck. With such a grim setting and such men walking about... what story is about to unfold here...? *cue the dramatic music*

The man in the white suit stopped in his tracks. The man behind him stop almost instantly. "What's up? Why'd you stop?" he asked. There was no reply. "You know, if you're just gonna stand there like an idiot, I'm gonna assume it's an order to kill everything around us." The man in the black coat said with a silly grin on his face. A silly grin on the face of a man in a black coat and a red scarf really did not go well. It gave a very anti-climactic effect. However, the man in the white suit did not have to answer. Almost as soon as his friend grinned, a dozen giant bear-like creatures burst out of the bushes that lined the street and surrounded them. "Oh..." the man in the black coat whistled and said, "So that's why you stopped. Okay then... I'm gonna go ahead and kill everything around us and then we can continue our journey."

One of the monsters roared and shouted "YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE! Er, I mean, your money AND your life!!! We are the most feared gang in this part of the planet!!! You'll be going home in pieces ya little punks!!!" The man in the black suit turned to the giant creature and smirked, "So you're the boss around here, huh?" One of the other bears rushed at him shouting, "WE'RE THE ONES ASKING THE QUESTION HERE!!!" He didn't make it too far though... as soon as he took a few leaps, the man snapped his fingers and a flash of lightning hit the bear and stopped his heart almost instantly. The bear came crashing down. The other bears took a step back. Only the leader stood his ground. "You know..." the man in the black coat said, "Back in the day... anyone who skipped their prayers before meals were told that God would send down a bolt of lightning to strike them... anyone here wants to find out if that's really true?" The leader was silent for a few moments... then he began laughing like a maniac. "What's so funny?" "You're an elemental, I get that." The leader replied, "A lightning elemental... that explains the lightning bolt... but you think you can take us on? You're not the first elemental we've fought... we've faced dozens like you before... and there's one thing we know for sure... Elementals may be deadly from a distance... but you're no good at good old fist fighting... physically, you're nothing but twigs!!! GET HIM!!!" The other ten bears jumped at him while the leader stood grinning. All this... while the man in the white suit stood as if none of this had anything to do with him. However, when the bears fell on the man in the black coat, they were all sent flying back. Broken bones, twisted necks, snapped spines, dismembered limbs... in a matter of instants... the leader fells to his knees. Apparently, he had been hit too.

"How...? How could you..."

"How could I have beaten them all up so brutally? How could I have hit you even though you were standing so far away? You thought I was elemental, right? I was easy prey? You were mistaken... I am not an elemental..."

"B-b-but... the-"

"The lightning? That was only a trick. I snapped my fingers with such speed and force that it caused the electrons in the air around me to line up and strike anything within a radius. As for your comrades... they were just trash. No strength in any of them. It was like tearing paper and snapping twigs. You? I got bored breaking their bones so in between, I walked up over to you, knocked the wind out and went back to breaking their bones... and it took me 0.24 seconds to do this... I must be getting slow... no, that's not it. It must have been because I was bored..."

"Y-you... what the hell are you.....?"

"Me? I'm nothing more than a servant to that man in the white suit over there. A speck of dust in his presence..."

By then, the leader was gasping for air. "Leave him." The man in the white suit said indifferently, "The local authorities will be very pleased to find this sight tomorrow morning. For now, let's continue. We've stopped here for way too long." The man in the black coat nodded and said, "You sure you don't wanna stop by and have a drink somewhere? After all... you only get to stay in a place for only so long... Why not make the best out of those five minutes...?" The man in the white suit smiled sadly and spoke as if he was speaking to himself, "Five minutes... it's not enough to enjoy a drink... It's been so long since I enjoyed anything... let's go... and spend another lifeless five minutes on another planet..."