Cathrine had been taking too long. Something must have happened to her on her way. Tian was worried sick about her especially with the news that she had told him about Adam and how angry he was when he found out about her spying on him.
“Hey Jim, how long does it usually take for Cathrine to get here?”
“I don’t know. Ten, twenty minutes on a good day depends on if she gets distracted,” He said distracted with an emphasis. He meant that she liked to stop on the way. Nothing was ever too important that she couldn’t stop for a cup of coffee.
“It’s been almost an hour I think I’m going out to find her. Can you make sure that…”
“Yea, yea just go.”
Tian walked down the usual alleys between his place and Cathrine’s. Why Cathrine lived where she did always confused Tian. It was on the more industrial side of downtown. She lived in a shitty little apartment that couldn’t even let Tian’s height lay down anywhere in the apartment. Cathrine liked it because she never had to worry about anyone breaking in to her place. Her landlord was one of the largest drug dealers in the downtown area. He managed to make the news at least once a month, whether it was a new racketeering charge or a drive by shooting, he happened to witness. Cathrine had always felt very safe in the neighborhood since the landlord had to help her with her ex boyfriend and told her that she no longer needed to be afraid.
Just as Tian was approaching the spot where he would be entering into this neighborhood that Cathrine loved so much he felt the pull of enough energy that he could feel it sliding by his fingers like the running of a river when you dip your hand into it. In order for him to feel this much energy moving while he was out of focus it had to be massive. He instantly dropped into the state of mind where he could trace the flow of energy to whom it was that was drawing it all. He followed it down an alley that lead completely away from Cathrine’s place. The flow was getting increasingly powerful as he went. This had to be more than one mage that was drawing all of this energy. No one man could have handled all of this.
“Ughhn” Tian heard the grunt and the thud of someone hitting the ground just before he rounded the corner to see a mostly burnt Police officer wearing what was left of his swat gear.
“Back away my son”
“What?” Came Tian’s reply as he approached the body of the fallen officer.
“Back away from the enemy of god.” said a priest as he stepped around the corner. He had lightning dancing all over his body.
“This man is hurt. Who are you Father to condemn this man to death?”
“I am the servant of the true god and follower of his second coming.”
“You’re telling me that god, the true god, ignoring how paradoxical that statement is, told you to kill this police officer who is sworn to defend the peace?”
“Yes I am and if you don’t move out of the way I will think you are in league with him and the spawn of Satan against my lord, who walks again.”
“Well I won’t let you hurt this man, regardless of who you follow. Wait a second though, you’re telling me that Christ has returned? The second coming of Christ has happened?” Tian said still edging closer to the fallen officer. Whom he could sense was still breathing but barely.
“Yes the embodiment of god has returned but Christ is the name of the New Testament. God has returned as “I am that I am” The God of the Jews and the God of the Old Testament. He is a vengeful God and if you do not back away from his enemies, you will cast your lot in with them.”
“I think I’ll take my chances. I’m not afraid of a fledgling Able like you. You and your false god Claim an unrighteous Dominion over this world and you cannot claim anything over the chaos that is reality. Your mind has learned to manipulate it but you are still subject to it and so is the god of yours.
“Quit trying to distract me. I’m in no mood. How dare you insult God you shall feel his wrath.” Lightning started to crackle all over his body as the priest spoke and he raised his hands just as he finished speaking.
Tian instantly was ready for the blast of electricity that flew from the priest’s hands. He raised one of his just as the bolt gathered in-between the priest’s hands and flew at him. The bolt stopped dead in and angry ball of blue fury between Tian’s fingers. The look on the priest’s face was of pure insult and surprise.
“You are not supposed to be able stop the power of god”
“It isn’t the power of god. It is just manipulation of energy.”
“Blasphemy, god shall smite you down for this indignation.” The priest body was slowly growing a coat of blue lightning that danced on his body.
“Why are you so stupid?” Tian said as he released the lightning that had been trapped between his fingers, half into the priest and half into the ground sending small shockwaves into the buildings on either side of the alley. A couple of broken windows shed their already worthless panes.
“Just enough to knock you out for a couple of hours.” He said as the priest’s Shocking cloak went out and he collapsed to the ground in a disheveled heap.
Tian walked over to the unconscious police officer. There were fires all around, plenty of energy to gather and put into the officer. Tian felt the flames quiver and die out as he drew the heat from them into himself or rather that realm of control that was not part of him but could not really be described as anything else but part of him. It almost did not exist for those tiny moments of transfer. Tian pondered on this, wondering how exactly it worked. He had almost understood when he was interrupted and reality crashed back in on him, overwhelming his heightened senses.
“What are you doing? Don’t hurt him, he’s a police officer.” It was a shorter woman with curly brown hair and brown eyes. She had the cutest glasses on, one with a cracked lens.
“Who are you? And what are you doing here?” Tian said releasing the energy; he had trapped in that ethereal realm. The girl shrieked in freight as the fires flared large from the sudden rush of energy. The fires shrank back to the original size as the young woman crept out of the shadows. Her face smudged with mud and soot.
“Don’t hurt him. Please don’t hurt him I’ll do anything.”
“I won’t hurt him. I am going to help him.”
“But you killed that priest. Why and how would you do something like that? I’m so confused.” The girl said as she fell into a ball on the ground.
Tian rushed over to her and cradled her head on his lap. “You must be exhausted. My name is Tian, I try to stop people like that priest from hurting people like that officer over there. Now what is your name and I’ll see what I can do about those bruises of yours?”
“My name is Stacy. What are you going to do to me?” She said starting to squirm away, not getting very far for her weakness.
“I am not going to touch you at all. You should just feel a faint tingling sensation.” Tian said drawing again on the energy from the fires. They winked out of existence as Tian forced the energy; very tiny bits of it into the healthy cells surrounding the damaged ones on her body. He could sense them twitch grow and divide. The bruised shrank faster than water flowing down a drain. Stacy’s eyes grew as the energy was forced into her body and gasped as Tian finished.
“Slight tingling my ass. That burned.” She said as she darted awake. “What did you do to me?”
“Nothing, see for yourself.” Tian said slightly drained from the amount of concentration and focus it took actually to force the energy into the cells meanwhile being careful not to put too much into them to burn them. He rose slowly to his feet and walked towards the fallen officer.
“Hey look all my bruises are gone. How long did that take? It looks like the sun is coming up.”
“It took about an hour.”
“Really it felt like moments.”
“Yea, so are you convinced enough to let me near the officer without screaming at me?”
“You don’t look so good. Are you ok?” She said as Tian stumbled over to the fallen officer.
“Yea I think so I just need to help this man before he dies. I may have already been too late.” Tian knelt and groped for the remnants of loose energy in the area, he did not have the strength to draw any from the secondary sources around him. “There should be enough, help me for a minute,” a nod to continue as she rushed over to help him to his feet.
The strange man, named Tian wobbled back and forth as he looked off into the distance. It looked as if he was looking at a sunset far on the horizon. It was one thing to experience the healing but to witness it as it happened was quite startling.
The marks and bruises on the officer’s hands and face just seemed to fade. They went through all the healing processes that the body would normally take weeks to recover. They went dark purple then to green then faded away into natural healthy looking tissue. The officers breathing went from the labored whisper to a steady healthy pull at the atmosphere. Bones seemed to realign when they were at strange angles. The officer’s obviously dislocated shoulder slid back into place with a sickening pop. The whole process took about ten minutes, a lot shorter than hers had taken. When Tian finally turned away from the body, the officer looked like he was just sleeping.
“Why did it take almost an hour to do what you did to me and my injuries were minor compared to his. You managed to heal everything on him in mere minutes. Why?”
Tian turned to her eyes heavy and shoulders slumped. He looked as if he had not slept in weeks. “When the victim that is being healed is unconscious it goes faster because you don’t have to be as careful. If I had done what I did to him when he was awake, his mind would have been broken. The pain of that much energy going through the body would drive someone insane. I don’t envy some of the early people I saved from injury and death.”
“Oh, Okay. So now what do we do? You need to get somewhere you can rest.”
Tian Turned from her then pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed his house. The twins were always there; they loved their video games. After it rang twice, someone picked up but it was not by one of the twins.
“Hello, Chris. Long time no talk,” came the feminine voice. After a pause, she added, “How clumsy of me, this is Sheryl. You remember we used to live together in College.”
“Hello Sheryl, Yes I remember, but what are you doing in my house? Where are the twins?”
“Oh I was in town and I just thought I’d say hi to an old friend. The Twins are right here. Would you like to talk to one of them?”
Tian was utterly confused by the situation. None of it mattered now he was excessively exhausted. “Yes I would greatly appreciate it. I’ll be home in a bit and we can chat then.”
After a moment’s pause Jim answered the phone. “Hey, what do you need?”
“I need johm to take my car out and come get me,” Tian looked around for a minute than gave the address of the alley they were in.
“Are you ok? You haven’t used the car for moving around town ever you know how to run.” He was watching his words around Sheryl what a good kid.
“Well yes, I know but I’m not alone we will have some passengers. Any word on Cathrine?”
“No, sorry buddy, and yea john will be there in a moment. What do you want me to do?”
“Entertain Sheryl we will be home in a bit. Oh and don’t let Sheryl leave at all costs I need to speak to her.” At this Tian clicked his phone off and slid it back into his pocket. “Will you be so kind as to come with me I have some questions about what happened here and I would be greatly pleased to at least buy you dinner.”
Stacy startled out of a trance of staring off into space looked at his face, a face that she thought she could trust. “Yes I will come with you. What are you going to do about the cop? In addition, who are you that you can do all this stuff I’m overwhelmed. I’m so confused.”
“I’ll answer any question you want, later. The Officer will come with me I’ll take him back to my place and make sure he heals fully. Then I will explain to him the whole situation. How I healed him? That is not so easy. I did it by using my mind to push minute amounts of biological healing energy into the damaged cells causing their metabolism to speed up and therefore heal themselves and reproduce to fill in the missing cells.” At the end of this, he looked as if he had just gotten the worst news in his life. His face went pale and then he fell over backwards to lie right next to the police officer.
“Hey!” Stacy yelled as he fell and she was there next to him in a second. It only took her a minute to realize that he was just asleep. “Holy Shit you scared me.” She said to no one.
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