Chapter 3
Security was prep in the lobby of the apartment building, holding unknown rifles in their hands as people walked within a wide scenery, more like a hotel lobby. The rifles both had a glowing energy canister installed on the center of the guns, as if the guns had been modified to act different than standard guns.
Ryan and his mother approached the front desk, with the two guards on the opposite ends of the desk, giving them hard glares. Another set of freaks. Their facial expressions spoke. However, the man working behind the counter gave a different approach. He was slim and short for the average sized adult male, with slick back hair that seemed to be properly taken care of. Greeting them both with a bright smile, he spoke, “Good afternoon, my name is Martin, i’ll be your landlord.”
Martin placed his hand in front of Caroline, waiting for her to shake it. As expected, Caroline shook his hand and returned a wide smile back. Ryan shook his landlord’s hand as well. However, Ryan only gave Martin a fake short smile.
Handing over the cash out of her purse, Martin gave the two of them their apartment keys and said, “The leasing paper should be on the kitchen table of your apartment. Fill it out and return it to me by the end of the day please.”
Caroline nodded, walking away with Ryan as the two took the elevator to the fourth floor of the apartment complex. In the elevator, they stood next to a small short guy, wearing an open dark blue hoodie and a white muscle shirt, with the muscle mass of a grasshopper. Skinny arms, skinny chest, the young guy with the silky hair and single braid in the back of his head made Ryan look like a body builder in training.
Tilting his glasses up before speaking, the man spoke. “I’ll transport all of your belongings in less than five minutes for twenty dollars.”
Startled, Caroline replies, “Excuse me?”
“I said I’ll move all of your belongings in no time, for twenty bucks,” He repeated.
Surprised, Caroline replied with, “And just how are you going to do that?”
Silenced, Ryan watched as what he expected came true. The featherweight guy in front of them…was a superhuman! As the final words of Caroline’s sentence came out of her mouth, the guy disappeared! He vanished into thin air as if he were never even there!
Scanning the small elevator with both set of eyes, the elevator stopped and there was still no sign of the guy that stood next to them just seconds ago!
“Wh…what the?”Ryan managed to say.
His power is to vanish? Ryan questioned himself.
The elevator doors opened and the little guy they were searching for, stood right in the entrance way of the elevator. Carrying a big smile without showing any teeth, the guy asked, “Do we have a deal or not?”
The vanishing guy kept his word, taking him only four minutes to not only get their belongings in their apartment from the moving truck, but he also placed their furniture where Caroline wanted. Amazed by his powers, Ryan and Caroline watched him the entire time. When he was finished, Caroline kept her word and paid the man. However, she gave him forty instead of twenty.
“That’s for using your powers for positive means,” Caroline told him.
“Thanks,” He replied as he pocketed the money.
“We didn’t catch your name by the way, I might have more stuff for you to move in the future; I don’t plan on living in this place for too long,” Caroline informed him.
“Danilo,” he placed his hand out for both to shake.
Upon shaking his hand, Caroline offered, “Danilo, why don’t you stay over for dinner? I was going to send my son to the grocery store anyway, maybe you could show him around the city for me.”
Giving his mother a concerning look, Ryan replied before Danilo could answer her. “What are you doing mom?”
“Trying to help you make a few friends,” She told him. “You’re new hear, you should venture around before you go back to college.”
“I’m actually attending college myself right now,” Danilo informed them. “I don’t mind going with you when you enroll. I have to go to the college anyway to register for fall semester.”
Placing another smile on Caroline’s face, Caroline responded, “See, he’s really nice.”
“And so far as your dinner request, I’d love to have dinner with you-I mean the two of you.” Danilo added on.
“Great,” Pulling more money out of her purse, Caroline handed Ryan fifteen dollars. “Go with this young gentleman and grab me a few things from the grocery store. I saw one on the way here, up the street.”
Sighing from the idea of walking to the store with Danilo, Ryan replied, “Alright mom.”
“Thank you, son, I’ll text you what all I need.”
The streets were everything Ryan had heard them to be, cluttered with trash and homeless people. From seeing one homeless man use a power to completely camouflage himself after covering up in an alleyway with a blanket, to another homeless man using his power to phase through a dumpster as if he was walking through a wall made of air! Ryan even saw a woman dressed in revealing clothes as she used her power to multiply an exact replica of herself as she got in the passenger seat and the back seat of a man’s car.
“It’s real out here, isn’t it?” Ryan questioned.
“Yup, this is Crater city,” Danilo answered.
“Back where I’m from, the population of superhumans were small. With all these amazing powers, why don’t people just take what they need? Couldn’t the superhumans overwhelm this city?”
“No. The mayor of this town is indeed a superhuman himself, so he designed a machine that he hid away in the city that creates restriction zones throughout certain parts of the city. Grocery stores, Banks, etc. All the important places.”
“Wow, all the place I came from did was transport people they discovered had powers.”
“That’s what happened to you?”
“Yup. Same for you?”
“Nope. I was born and raised here. There aren’t too many jobs outside of construction and power plants, and as you can guest, I don’t make the part for either of those. So, I make money by moving things. Using my gift of teleportation, I work for a self-employed moving company. All I need is to see where I am going-”
Cutting himself off, Danilo vanished and reappeared further down the street, before teleporting beside Ryan again.
Finishing his sentence, Danilo said, “And I can teleport there.”
Eyebrows lifted; Ryan continued to listen to Danilo speak as they strolled down the street.
“This power allows me to pay my rent, but it isn’t all peaches and cream. It’s a curse as well. Why one time, I woke up from a dream I was having of me falling from a tall building, and I was actually falling!” Pointing to one of the buildings they were passing, Danilo continued. “It was that building right there.”
Giving a quick glance at the building, Ryan couldn’t help but think of the off side of his own powers, reliving the recent night of his arrest. Having super strength appeared to the public as aggression, making him an even bigger threat than most superhumans. Proving this case, the night he launched his neighbor out the window. Ryan wanted to relate but he kept his altercation to himself.
“But it’s okay, this is the life superhumans live,” Danilo wrapped up his conversation.
The two took no time in shopping, seeing as Caroline sent a short list of belongings. Ryan’s mother had decided to make tacos for dinner, requiring only mild seasoning, shells, and ground beef.
At the dinner table as the evening sun slowly drifted to sleep, Danilo couldn’t stop exchanging smiles with Caroline as she sat across the table from him. With Ryan watching the two of them as he observed behind the tacos he nibbled on, Danilo broke the silence with a mouth full of food.
“This is great Ma’am,” Danilo complimented. “I hope I’m not eating up all of your food.”
“No way,” She giggled. “Ryan never eats much so there is always plenty of leftovers.”
Becoming quickly aggravated over the flirtatious actions of the new young man sitting at the kitchen table, Ryan cut into their conversation.
“Mom, can you grab me something to drink?”
Placing her attention on Ryan, she replied with, “Sure son. Would you like something to drink too Danilo, I have grape soda.”
In the mist of eating, Danilo gave her an attempted smile and a thumbs up.
Caroline left out the kitchen, allowing Ryan to quickly place all his focus on Danilo.
“What are you doing?” He whispered with aggression.
Swallowing his food, Danilo answered, “Eating. What does it look like I’m doing?”
“Flirting with my mom.”
The two of them continued their conversation in whispers, trying to listen for footsteps of Caroline.
“Well, your mom is kinda hot.”
“She’s forty!”
“A hot forty.”
Hearing her footsteps getting closer, Ryan wrapped up the conversation by saying, “Back off of my mom dude.”
Danilo didn’t listen. Instead, as Caroline came into the kitchen with three small cans of soda, Danilo got out of his chair and walked over to her, pulling her chair out for her as she sat back down in her seat.
“Oh, what a gentleman,” She complimented.
“I’m sorry Caroline, I’m just a sucker for beautiful women,” Danilo replied.
Blushing into giggles, Caroline said back, “You must be a real catch for the ladies.”
“If only,” Danilo denied.
#webnovel #superhuman #fantasy #fiction
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