Chapter 1: The Search for an Apprentice

It had been three years since that…thing wormed its way into the teenager. Ever since, well, let’s just say the crazy witch doctor make believe stuff the teenager’s mom was into wasn’t all that make believe after all. Whatever that thing did, it made him start seeing stuff. It gave him strange powers in addition to the crazy mutations of his body. To give an example, once he began relearning to walk on his strange new feet, he’d learned that he was capable of running fast. Like…really fast.

Somehow, he’d ended up in South Beach despite being in Little Miami a second ago! The teen (okay, now a young adult since he’s 20) surprised himself, especially since nothing in his path was destroyed. It felt surreal, and it filled him with a sense of power. He spent the next three years up until the present training his powers, finding his limits and testing his limits. But he also learned very quickly that he can mask his otherworldly appearance and powers, which proved to be very convenient. But not everything he discovered was peachy-keen, for example it was then that he discovered he could also heal via the consumption of flesh, and tank anything short of 250 megajoules of force.

The teenager had also begun paying attention to the world around him. And what he saw…it disgusted him. Everyone was so distracted by consumerist slop that nobody seemed to care about the homeless littering the blocks. People were divided, murdering and beating each other up over things as trivial as football teams. The teenager, realizing that he had been granted power no one knew about, knew society itself needed to be unraveled and stitched back together. Perhaps then the seams would have more integrity.

The teenager knew he needed some kind of apprentice, but who? How would he even be able to grant them his power? Where did the parasite that gave him the power even come from? Who would he pick as his apprentice? These questions swirled in his head like a tornado. The teenager, however, knew he needed to pick a disciple at some point, so he began searching. He started looking around his home city of Miami, yet a feeling of indecisiveness crept over him.

There were so many potential disciples! It was like a teenage girl being unable to pick an outfit to wear that day because there’s so many choices. There was a kid who liked space and cats, and multiple homeless people in Miami, and even struggling business owners. So many people in need of uplifting. Overwhelmed by all the potential choices, the teenager decided to sleep on it one night, hoping he’d have an answer by the morning.

Well…he got his wish, just not in the way he’d expected. That night, he would end up in the dreams of a woman. It was in some kind of desert, and surrounding the woman were the bodies of men in tactical gear. This was the first time the teenager had such a highly specific dream. He spoke to the woman. Oh, and the teenager was in his human form.

“What’s going on??”

The woman, surprised at hearing the teenager’s voice, spoke back. “Who are you??”

The teenager introduced himself. “I am Olorin. Olorin Adegoke. And who are YOU?”

The woman spoke again. “My name is Aubrey Coffey. Why are you here?”

Olorin retorted, “I went to sleep in my apartment in Miami, and I somehow ended up here…”

It was right then and there that the realization dawned on him. Olorin was in the dreams of another person from the real world. But how…? Was it the strange parasite from three years ago? That couldn’t be it…could it? Olorin began conversing further.

“Shit…are we in the same dream?”

Aubrey nervously confirmed his theory. “Y-Yeah…”

Olorin’s eyes widened like a chicken who stumbled into a fox den. This was the first time he’d ever dreamwalked before! He took a moment to maintain his composure.

“I…where are you from?”

Aubrey stammered. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to tell this rando where she was from. After all, he randomly barged into her dream.

“Ummm…Hugo, Oklahoma.”

Olorin nodded. If she was from a town in real life, that was no doubt the last confirmation he needed that they were in the same dream. He slowly approached closer, acknowledging the tactical gear-sporting men who were sprawled out around her. Gazing at one of their corpses, he saw no letters or insignias on their vests. He didn’t know who they were.

“Why are you dreaming of being surrounded by the corpses of some guys in body armor?”

Aubrey froze, before retorting. “None of your business, dream-stalker.”

Suddenly, Olorin woke up. It surprised even himself…why did the dreamwalking end abruptly? Was it because of Aubrey forcing him out somehow?

The next day, Olorin left for Hugo, Oklahoma at around 3:45 PM. But this time it felt different from all the others. Since there was the obvious fact that he’d never run long distances up until now. He’d also never run with purpose before. Usually, he ran at such high speeds for quick commuting and getaways but usually stayed within city limits. But he’d never been outside of Miami before, in his life!

Arriving at 3:55 PM, he took the scenery in. Again, he’d never been outside the Miami inner city, so he was pleasantly surprised. The buildings weren’t as tall, and the streets didn’t have gaudy palm trees or excessive amounts of people. It felt more communal, well, about as communal as a car-centric small town could be. However, after he arrived in Hugo, he then hid in an alleyway and masked his alien appearance. He was now clad in a pair of sweatpants, a black shirt and had black moccasins on.

He’d began looking around until he came across a two-story house and standing there. It was a strange sight to someone like him who’d spent his entire life in the Miami ghetto, in a studio apartment. As he admired the house he would be greeted by Aubrey!

“Can I help you…?”

Strange. Olorin expected Aubrey to remember him…regardless, he replied,

“Oh…I’m actually here to ask you about a mentorship program for your kids…”

He didn’t know why Aubrey didn’t remember him, but he would take full advantage. Aubrey invited him inside!

Olorin and Aubrey would hear a high-pitched masculine voice nearby, coming from upstairs, followed by the thumping of steps downstairs.

“Mom? Is that you?”

The source of the sounds emerged. It was a 10-year-old kid, with jet-black short hair and sporting denim overalls and a red shirt. He had black vans sneakers on too. Taken aback by the stranger in the home, the child nervously waved to Olorin.

Aubrey broke the tension by introducing each other. “Right, I should introduce my son – this is Geoffrey. Geoffrey Coffey. Geoffrey, this is…uhhhh...”

“Olorin.” Olorin told her. “Olorin Adegoke.”

Geoffrey looked up and down at Olorin before asking, “Mom, why is this man here?”

Olorin then walked outside, and lifted up the Honda Odyssey parked in the driveway, astonishing both Aubrey and Geoffrey. Such strength would inadvertently cause Olorin to shapeshift into his Metalloid appearance, before he realized and turned back to his human form, putting the car down as he did. He then calmly reassured the two.

“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt either of you.”

Olorin re-entered the house and explained himself. “Say…Geoffrey, I should probably explain myself. I, uhhhh…I’m from Miami, Florida. And- “

Geoffrey interrupted him, because he remembered something important. “The meteor!”

Olorin was confused. “Meteor? What meteor?”

Geoffrey explained. “That meteor thing that landed off the coast of Cuba! Did you hear about that?”

Olorin nodded. “Yeah, who didn’t? Apparently, Cuba’s trying to negotiate with the US over its jurisdiction.”

Geoffrey, his tone growing more excited, spoke up again. “Well…that meteor, something crawled out of it when it first landed! And then a news broadcast talked about that thing having crawled into Miami sewers!”

Now Olorin was curious. “What crawled out?”

Geoffrey spoke up again. “A strange creature…it looked like a sea-lamprey with legs, and it was made of metal!”

Olorin froze. He knew that description all too well. “How do you even know that?”

Geoffrey further elaborated. “Drone footage captured it, I think!”

So…was that meteor what gave Olorin his power? It made so much more sense now…Olorin had to take some time to process that information. It was like how someone found out their parents were murdered, in a way. He sat on the sofa and just…didn’t say anything. Geoffrey and Aubrey grew concerned now.

“Mister Olorin…are you okay?”

Olorin reassured Geoffrey. “Yeah, I’m okay…but I just didn’t know how I’d gotten my powers, at least not for literal years.”

Geoffrey nodded, his voice still brimming with curiosity. “But still, why are you here?”

Olorin took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure how exactly to explain what he wanted, so he decided to exaggerate a little. “Well…I’m looking for someone that I can be a mentor to, and…I wanted to pick you.”

While Olorin wasn’t lying at all, Aubrey and Geoffrey were surprised. He continued.

“Where’s your father?”

Geoffrey piped up.

“Dad died when I was little…”

Olorin looked at Aubrey, nodding at her, and Aubrey nervously admitted the truth.

“Your dad…is not dead, Geoffrey. He’s…he was taken away unfairly by awful men.”

Geoffrey put his hands on his mouth in surprise! It was like he’d just learned that his house was built on top of an oil spring. “But…but…why didn’t you tell me Mom??”

Aubrey sighed exasperatedly. “I wasn’t sure how to tell you, sweetie…I’m sorry.”

Geoffrey just sat there, his mouth hung open as an indescribable feeling rose within him. It felt both hopeful and shocking at the same time because on one hand, Geoffrey was under the impression that his dad was dead and was shocked that his own mother lied to him. But on the other hand, if his dad was alive somewhere that meant Geoffrey could go see him!

“Wait…if Dad’s alive, could we go see him?”

Such a question surprised Olorin and Aubrey. They didn’t want to deny Geoffrey the chance to see his dad, but they didn’t even know where Geoffrey’s dad was! But then it hit Olorin – if he could reach Aubrey through her dreams…could he reach Geoffrey’s dad through his dreams?

Olorin volunteered. “I’ll look for him. If he’s still alive, then I should still be able to find him.”

Geoffrey and Aubrey both turned to Olorin. Now that Geoffrey thought about it, he didn’t know exactly what kinds of powers Olorin had, except for enough strength to lift cars, apparently.

“Wait…Mister Olorin…what powers do you have exactly?”

Chuckling, Olorin turned to Geoffrey.

“Glad you asked, kid…One of my powers includes being able to go into people’s dreams so long as they’re alive. It’s how I found your mother…and while that’s not my only ability it’s the one that would help us here. But first…”

Olorin knew that at some point he’d need to figure out how to pass his powers onto Geoffrey. He just wasn’t sure how to do it or tell Geoffrey he needed to do it. But he came up with something.

“We’ll need to go to the meteor in Cuba.”

Geoffrey was puzzled. If his dad was alive, why would they need to go to Cuba? And his mom was equally confused. Even if her husband was in Cuba (which she doubted), why would he be near the meteor? The only human settlement near it was Guantanamo Bay.

Geoffrey piped up. “Mister Olorin, why would we need to go to that meteor?”

Olorin quickly answered his question. “Because I need to check the cameras to see if any other strange parasites crawled out…yeah. I need to see if there’s any, uhm…superhumans besides myself.”

This was kind of a lie. The real reason Olorin wanted to go to that meteor was because he wanted to take one of its parasites and give it to Geoffrey. But unlike Geoffrey, Aubrey could tell he was bullshitting, shooting him a glance.

So, Aubrey told Geoffrey, “Honey, Olorin and I are going to talk in private for a bit. Go upstairs, okay?”

Once Geoffrey nodded, he went upstairs giddily before Aubrey immediately questioned Olorin.

“Why did you lie to Geoffrey??”

Olorin tried to play dumb. “What do you mean?”

But Aubrey wasn’t buying it. “You know EXACTLY what I mean, and frankly I want an explanation as to why you want to go to the heavily surveilled and heavily guarded meteor in Cuba!”

Olorin finally came clean. “Okay, fine. Because I want to give Geoffrey powers, and I don’t know how else to do that without going to the meteor.”

Aubrey took a deep breath, trying to calm down. “Well…shouldn’t there be another way besides potentially getting my son killed?”

Olorin thought about it and couldn’t think of anything. “I’m not sure…unless…unless maybe the parasite in my head can infect others. But unless it can duplicate itself and send the duplicate parasite into its host, I run the risk of losing my powers.”

Aubrey quickly retorted. “Well, it’s a risk you’ll have to take!”

Olorin facepalmed. “Yeah, well, the parasite is inside my brain so it’s not like removing it or the parasite removing itself won’t pose a risk to my health!”

Aubrey sighed in exasperation. “Yeah, well, what if I told you Geoffrey wants to be a superhero, huh?”

Olorin froze. “I’m sorry, what? How does that change the fact that this could screw up my health? How is that even relevant here?”

Aubrey retorted, “Well…uhhhh…”

Seemed there was no getting around the possibility of certain death for Olorin, and Aubrey was realizing that. She reluctantly agreed. “Fine…but there’d better be a way to do it without the need for that stupid meteor.”

Olorin shrugged his shoulders. “Not that it would matter since I could just go there and come back real quickly…and why did you lie to your kid all this time?”

Aubrey defensively responded. “Because I didn’t know where he was. And, oh I dunno, if you can find me in your dreams you can find my husband?”

Olorin nodded. “Y’know what, that’s actually a good point. Let’s leave in two weeks’ time. I’ll get a motel room in town.”