Abilities

The giant redhead steered the car into a parking garage that led up to the hospital. Cars lined the aisles from one end to the other, but there were no people in sight. Most cars belonged to employees who had already started their shift and visiting hours didn’t officially start for another hour and a half. William remained in his seat, heart racing and eyes popped open as if he were in a staring contest.

“I’m Brick,” the driver said as he pulled the car into an open space. His accent was also Irish, but it wasn’t as thick as Gazet’s. He was set on keeping his face forward searching for the people they were here to see, but greeted William by sneaking a look at him out of the corner of his eyes.

“I’m William,” separated by a nervous exhale. “Is he your father?” William asked like Gazet wasn’t in the car at all.

Laughing, Brick responded, “Not exactly, but that’s a long story for another time.”

“Are the guys coming also Abilities?” asked William

“Most likely,” responded Brick.

“So, they’ll probably fly, or grow claws, or something?”

“Maybe,” Brick continued to scan the garage. “Probably worse.”

“Worse?”

“There are millions of Abilities. I’ve seen one that can move a car without even touching it,” Gazet spoke softly from the backseat. “I’ve also seen people who can throw a car over a house.”

William’s jaw dropped. He pressed his index and middle fingers into his temple and circled them counterclockwise. After a couple circles, he closed his eyes and relaxed his mind. Gazet leaned forward between the two front seats.

“There they are,” Gazet pointed.

As he finished his sentence, William stopped massaging his head and his eyes opened simultaneously. He froze and his face remained at a downward angle just staring at the glove compartment. He found the courage to look up and saw two men walking from their car to the elevator.

One man, the better dressed, walked in front. He wore an expensive blue suit and carried a brown suitcase. From what William could see, the man’s eyeglasses were trimmed with a burgundy red and his blonde hair combed over to the side. Each step he took landed with purpose.

The second man followed closely behind. He wore cut up jeans and a blue casual dress shirt with long black hair covering over his shoulders. He was short and stocky and, with a low center of gravity, he was the kind of guy that wasn’t going to be pushed over very easily.

“Do what you can,” said Gazet from the back.

William looked back and forth from the two Irishmen. Brick reached for the handle and opened the door. He shot William a wink as he stepped out of the car, slamming the door behind him. William’s mouth hadn’t closed yet. He wiped what was becoming drool with the back of his hand, and then watched Brick walk closer to the two men.

“Excuse me,” said Brick. William grinded his teeth because Brick's tone was surprisingly stern. He spoke with twisted his nerves. “Excuse me!” Brick was louder than before.

The two men stopped and turned towards Brick. The man with the long hair looked back at the other man almost as if to gain his approval. That’s exactly what he had done because the suited man nodded. After the nod the grizzly haired stump stepped away from his partner, but not any closer towards Brick, just further to the side. He was walking so that he could be straight on with Brick.

William leaned forward. His forehead nearly pressed to the front windshield. He squinted to catch a better look at the man standing across from Brick. Joining the long black hair on his head was a small soul patch under his lip. He had one eye that was blue, and the other that was a bright yellow that resembled the eye of a snake.

Brick didn’t have to say much to fully gain this man’s attention. William began to wonder if they knew each other. If that were the case, what was about to come next probably wouldn’t be very friendly.

“What’s going on? Should we get out and help?” William felt a glimmer of courage.

“No, he’ll be fine,” responded Gazet.

“How do you know?”

“Because…I’ve seen Brick throw a car over a house.”

William couldn’t move, yet again. His mouth dropped, yet again. Gazet nodded calmly…yet again. He looked back at Brick. Gazet was sitting so comfortably in the back that William couldn’t help but wonder what kinds of things he had seen in his life. How can someone sit so calmly knowing that a man who can throw an automobile over a house is about to beat some stumpy man? William figured the life of an Ability was extremely different than that of a normal person, but to what extent? Perhaps what was about to come was an everyday occurrence for Gazet and people like him.

Brick started walking towards the man, slowly at first. There must have been a couple hundred feet between them. About ten paces in, Brick started to pick up the pace. He was now closing in fast at a dead sprint.

The other man didn’t move but kept his eyes focused in on Brick’s movements and a smile crept over the side of his face. His head lowered down and the man showed his teeth and growled like some sort of wild beast. His two different colored eyes focused in on Brick like a viper. Then in an instant he took off in a sprint. He didn’t even need ten or twenty feet to get up to full speed; he just hit his fastest gear.

Brick and the longhaired villain were closing in on each other. They were less than a hundred yards from each other. Brick started screaming at the top of his lungs. It was like a battle scene from an old war movie. The kind before there were tanks or guns. Two sides both lined by hundreds of men staring across a field into each other’s eyes, and then they charge each other. Brick and this guy were charging.

When about twenty cars separated them, or so, the man whipped his shirt off, leaving it behind. The guy’s legs were thickening. He was running on what looked like to be large tree trunks. His shoulder blades made popping and cracking sounds and extended outward. William sat in the car; his face scrunched up as he watched. It looked painful, but the guy didn’t slow down. His skin began to change drastically. It was becoming dry and rugged like an old leather shoe. His face was changing too. It was widening and growing long and his eyes were moving to the sides of his face. After all of that, he jumped forward and before he hit the ground he had transformed into a rhinoceros. He was a giant, had to be eight-foot tall, living, breathing rhino and it happened in a matter of seconds before William’s eyes.

William’s hand covered his mouth and his eyes widened. This even caused Gazet to finally show some emotion. He threw both his hands on both the front seats and pulled himself closer to clear up his view. In less than three seconds, Brick was going to run into an actual Rhinoceros that used to be a man. It was coming right for him horn first. The only problem was Brick didn’t react; he didn’t slow down. He only lowered his shoulder and charged harder. The two had nowhere to go except straight through one another.

The rhino lowered its head and drove his horn into Brick’s chest missing his body by mere inches. Then the rhino flung his head to the right, tossing Brick what had to be thirty feet in the other direction. Brick landed on the windshield of a parked car. His butt and back blasted through the glass. Every window in the car shattered from the force of the rhino’s throw and from the sheer size of Brick’s body.

“Oh my god!” William ignored the fact he leapt from the seat and slammed his head into the roof of the car. “We have to help him.”

“What do you suggest we do, William?”

“Call the police.”

“Yes, hello,” Gazet held his hand to his face. “911, yes, a man just turned into a rhinoceros and is attacking my friend,” Gazet shot William a sarcastic look. William realized how crazy that had just sounded and put his cell phone down on the dashboard.

“Then what can we do?”

“Brick is fine,” responded Gazet.

“Fine? Are you crazy?” before William could finish his thought, Brick sat up and shook the glass out of his clothes. He stretched his neck and stood up on the hood of the car.

“Like I said, he’s fine,” Gazet finished. William put his hands over his head reeling from all the surprises.

Brick’s eyes narrowed as he stared down the monstrous animal. The rhino snorted and began charging the car that Brick stood on. The rhino was gaining momentum, until Brick leapt off the car and punched the rhino in the side of the face. It didn’t knock the animal off balance but managed to stop him on a dime. Brick threw three more punches straight to his face. Brick’s arms in action were the size of paint cans. Each punch sounded like a crack of thunder. It must have been because of Brick’s strength and momentum of each punch and the size of the enormous animal. He then wrapped his hands around the horn of the beast.

In one swift motion like an Olympic athlete, Brick turned and tossed the rhino across the garage. It landed between two cars that were practically totaled from the size of the animal, and after it landed, it changed back into the dirty looking man who began the scuffle. He rolled off the destroyed vehicles in pain and landed on the concrete.

“Ok, Gazet,” William turned to his new friend in the backseat. Gazet’s eyes were black. Both eyes were entirely a layer of black and his eyelids were twitching rapidly. “Gazet? Gazet, what’s going on?” William reached into the back and grabbed his shoulders to shake him. Gazet didn’t stop. He didn’t respond. He just sat there, black, twitching eyes.

Brick saw that he could hurt his opponent and he began walking toward him for one last, fatal move. With each step that he took, he clenched his fists tighter and tighter. As he came within a few feet of the shape-shifter, a gun went off. Brick flinched and, in a reflex, covered his face. The man on the ground didn’t flinch, but looked over to his partner.

The man in the suit was holding the briefcase and a gun pointed straight in the air. Smoke hovered above the barrel of the gun like it was a small chimney that was lit in the winter. The man stayed still in his position. He stood like the Statue of Liberty, but with a briefcase and a gun. He looked at both Brick and his partner and only shook his head.

“Eric, you're better than that,” the gunmen spoke to his partner. He drew his attention to Brick. “And who might you be?”

“Who the hell are you?” Brick snapped.

“My name is Paul. Paul Dunn. The man you were toying with,” Paul’s choice of words brought out a scowl in Brick, “is my associate, Eric.”

William sank low in his seat hoping that the guys outside didn’t know they were sitting in the car. His nerves and fear were getting the best of him. He couldn’t sit still. He looked back at Gazet who now looked fine. His eyes were a normal white with brown irises. His eyelids were calm.

“Gazet? What the hell?” asked a freaked-out William.

“Wait here,” replied Gazet as he moved for the car door.

“Where are you going?”

He Gazet closed the door, which gained Paul and Eric’s attention. They both looked in his direction. Paul tilted his head in amusement at the sight of the short man. Half of Eric’s face lifted and his eyebrows sank low when he saw the tiny Irishman walking toward them.

“His name is Brick, and I am Gazet,” Gazet walked between Brick and Eric and headed straight to Paul. “I apologize for this little incident, but we were merely…protecting our investment, you could say.”

“We could say the same thing,” Paul responded. Gazet smiled and nodded to his response. “Brick has incredible abilities.”

“The same goes for your man,” responded Gazet.

“I’ve seen worse at the zoo,” Brick retorted under his heavy breathing. Eric growled at the comment.

“Easy, Eric. We’ve already got plenty that we need to cover up here,” Paul claimed. “What is it that I can do for you, Mr. Gazet?”

“I know what you’ve come to do, and I know what you’re going to do. I’ve seen it.”

“Oh, are you…a visionary. How spectacular,” Paul seemed genuinely impressed.

“Yes,” Gazet glanced toward the gun in Paul’s hand. “I don’t know why you’re here, and I don’t know who sent you, but we have the father of the children in our car and we think we can contain any incident before it becomes a situation.” Paul tightened his lips. “The children will be separated forever in the coming days. One child will be put up for adoption. They’ll grow up and potentially inherit their powers, but they’ll never meet, therefore never learning their true destiny. Life will go on, and these two will only grow up to be a couple of ordinary Abilities. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

Paul bent down to one knee and set his gun down on the pavement. He looked up to make sure Gazet didn’t have any hidden intentions of making a leap for the weapon, and concentrated on opening his briefcase. Once opened, Paul placed his revolver inside the case and closed it snapping the locks shut.

“While I don’t know who you are, or why you are here, I do know a lot of people just like you,” Paul stood tall and looked down at Gazet. “I don’t know if the legend is true, but if it is and if there is ever a problem, trust me, we will know about it,” Paul reached out his hand. “Split up the children…or we’ll be back for them…we’ll be watching”

Gazet shook hands with Paul. Paul nodded to Eric, and Eric began moving away. He pulled his hair into a ponytail and headed toward his shirt only to bump shoulders with Brick. The multi-colored eyes looked right through Brick’s. He smiled and a slight snarl pressed through his teeth.

“Keep walking, Simba,” Brick urged him.

Eric reached down and grabbed his jacket and headed in the other direction. Paul and Eric, buttoning his shirt, walked side by side. They got into a car and drove out of the garage. Brick and Gazet didn’t take their eyes off of the two counterparts the as they left the garage.

“You alright?” Asked Gazet.

“I’ll probably have to get a rabies shot,” answered Brick.

Gazet smiled. He had forgotten all about the terrified, new father in the front seat. William fell out of the car, but quickly hopped to his feet. He had a skip in his step on the way over to his new friends and scoped the entire garage for any more surprise attacks, tripping over his feet on more than one occasion.

“So just like that? I have to split them up? I just pick one?” William spoke with a broken-down choppy voice.

“I’m sorry, William. It’s the absolute right thing to do, the only thing to do or else those guys will be back,” responded Gazet.

William rubbed his face and wiped the sweat off of his brow with his forearm. His breathing was heavy for someone that had been sitting in a car for the last half hour. He looked at the two cars that Eric had been thrown through, and turned around to check out the car that Brick had smashed into. He was mumbling nonsense words under his breath as he looked at the damage that had been done by two guys who weren’t injured in the battle.

“Ok,” William swallowed. “I have a Sun and a Moon child, a savior and a destroyer. Ok,” William put his hand on the top of his head and dragged it down the front of his face. He stroked his chin line. “So, I keep the good, and put the bad up for adoption?” He was delirious at this point.

“Unfortunately, it’s not that simple,” answered Gazet.

“Oh god, why? What now?” William worried.

“I can see the future. I can see the children when they’re older, I can see their powers. But that’s all.”

“So?” William searched for answers.

“If we go up there now, at this point, I don’t know who has what powers. William, I don’t know which child is which.”