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I stood with arms crossed, watching the sea of people walking past. Chatter filled the air, undercut by rustling bags. It was a busy day in the centre of town, under the overcast sky. A slightly louder voice rose over the crowd, as a man shouted out to any who could hear.

"In the Lords name you will find salvation! Blessed are those that follow his teachings, and all are welcome in his embrace. Reject the sins and temptations, and fuming purity for your immortal soul."

The shouted words made my eyes roll. I had never placed much stock in religion, and having someone yelling it out to preach didn't change my mind. I didn't care what others believed, but I didn't want it to be thrust in my face.

As my eyes roamed over the mass of people, a chill went up my spine. At the exact moment I realised it, the sound of the crowds stopped. People were frozen in mid-step, mouths hanging open. A seagull hung in midair, in violation of gravity. Everything was still, except for me.

But that soon changed. I saw a figure daintily stepping through the frozen crowd, utterly at ease. I caught glimpses of them, as the drew closer. They looked to be a teenage girl, dressed in a pure white sundress. Black hair lay flat on her head, with not a single strand out of place from my view.

Her eyes however, were completely red, darkening to almost black in the centre. The edges were the colour of blood, and seemed to spill out across her skin. She moved with an eerie grace, almost dancing through the stillness. A gap showed her hands were not empty, with one holding a large kitchen knife.

My nose itched, as I watched her approach the preacher. She paused before him, before bringing the knife up and plunging it into his chest. After holding it there for a moment, she pulled it out slightly, reaching out to pull in a nearby elderly lady. The girl wrapped her selections fingers around the hilt, making it look like they had stabbed him.

The itch became unbearable. The girl leaned in closer to the lady, and I could hear a faint whisper. I screwed up my face, but the sensation was unstoppable. I stifled it as much as I could, but my sneeze rang out like a gunshot.

Instantly the girl looked up, facing me. I flinched, and her head twisted to the side. Her otherwise expressionless face morphed into a foul grin, taking on a predatory look. I saw no pity, anger or hate in her gaze, only a look of anticipation.

"Run for me."

Her whisper reached my ears. I stared, as the lithe form stalked towards my location. There was naught but malice coming from her. I felt my body go cold, before I obeyed her order. I turned to run, pushing between frozen people. Behind me all I heard was a haunting laugh, as the chase began.

I had no clue as to how to escape. All I could do was run, and hope my luck changed.

Beautiful story. I loved how you set the stage and described her appearance. :)

I want to read a different ending in which he misunderstood and started running towards her.

“You realize who you kill back there, yah?”

Vincent Esposito set his briefcase and ID on the table in the interrogation room. “Vincent”

“Seventy-four” the interrogatee replied

“What an odd name.” He spoke with a comically over saturated European accent. “Seventy-four… your ah…”

“Experimental designation. Number 74.” He spoke robotically.

“Yes we are aware. You are most effective Hitman in organization.” Vincent leans back into his chair. “Just barely human. Blank slate.” Gesturing towards 74's face. “Your three piece suit is stylish. Black fit, bright red tie. Well suited man.”

“Thank you.” He said sitting completely still

Vincent leans in. “If I look away from you right now. I forget. Every. Facial feature. I could leave. You could slit my throat on lunch break. Yah? Walk away. Place the weapon in my hand and tell them I kill my self withit, yah?”

“Correct” he replied flatly.

“So this is what you do? In Italy, yah?”

“Correct”

“You freeze time. Thatis what you do. Speed walk through the crowd. The reporters. The bodyguards” He said with mad gestures. “Stab Rosella Mazzanti.” He flew rhythmically.

“Correct”

“And you give the weapon to brown man in turban. Perfect set up. They blame the blacks. The Muslims. The immigrants. For murder of lovely Italian white woman. The media shall eat it up! Ey?”

“As planned.”

“EXCEPT!” He howled. Leaping from his chair toward the table. “Except you stab 17 in chest!”

…

He settles himself, sitting in his chair again. “… number seventeen. While she assisted you.”

“My apologies” every so emotionlessly.

“IDIOTA!” He throws his briefcase to the wall in rage. “She sneezed!” He yells, pounding wildly. “She was fellow enhanced agent. She was assisting you!”

“I needed no assistance”

“She sneezed!”

“My ability deactivated as a result of that. It was… gross.”

“You Idiotic motherfucker! You realize what they will do to you! What they will do to me, as handler? For killing our own!? Yah!?”

“I would have been… compromised…”

“Ohh!” Vincent springs up from his seat “This game to you? Imminent death is game to you?” He forces himself closer to 74's face. “We are dead men walking. Dead fucking men!”

“I will not die”

“I have no doubt my friend. I will die!”

“… I will not allow you to die.”

“So what, yah? We live in dumpster by York road? By fast food place? Eating shit pizza till we are old men?”

“… Correct.”

Vincent slowly loses his zeal, and settles back into his seat. With his head down on the table. Behind his hands.”

“Fuck you”

This is great. 74 seems like such an idiot and the handler absolutely losing his shit is hilarious. Definitely a unique take on this prompt.

Just a regular day. I was out by the flea market, hoping for something, anything, to take my mind off my own life. Off of boredom and off of the pain that will never leave. After casting aside a sundial in the shape of a cat, I peered into the crowd, hoping to see into all others' lives. That's when a swish of cloth attracted my attention to a rather short girl with white hair. Her eyes were red, and curious as I am, I wondered what made her cry. I prepared for the second she would meet my gaze so I could read her eyes, read her mind. This is what I usually do, and I'd help her if she deserved it. Just a normal day, as I said. Until I tasted pollen.

'Oh great.'

Like Clark Kent in a bank heist, I froze. Everyone else did too, but unless there is another like me, it wasn't so voluntary.

'She has powers. Another like Meg. I hope she doesn't meet the same fate.' I feel idle nostalgia as she walks around, peering into people's faces. She intrigued me, and I didn't really care if she nicked a wallet or two. 'Maybe it's just some harmless robbing. She's so small! Maybe this is the easiest way for her to rob without hurting anyone.'

I feel optimistic as she approaches a rather large man dressed as a mechanic. Then she pulls a butcher's knife from within her coat and plunges it into his chest. My eyes shoot open.

My brain freezes in horror as she takes it out, passing the knife to an unassuming suspect. 'Oh that was very bad...' and that's when I realized a secondary concern. 'Oh no, oh no, she's messing with time!-'

As part of my punishment for getting drunk Chronos to document the gestation periods of extinct animals, he made it so that whenever I mess with the time stream a bunch of pollen attacks me. 'This wasn't my fault!!' I internally shout before shooting my head back and letting out a sneeze so powerful it tore through the cloudy sky, decimating whatever planets are in its way until it reaches the Edge of Infinity...

"Oh shoot," I mumble. She rips herself towards me, and I could see the tears that had been streaming down her face. She turned so quickly that she left droplets floating in an arc in the air. And she gave me her eyes.

------

Trigger.

Bullet.

Shock.

She froze.

"~To-- deserving --- fight --- pain.~"

Trigger.

Bullet.

Freeze.

She ran.

------

She came back to reality, something covering her eyes. She freaked, punching him in the stomach and jumping back. There was an older man in front of her, whose face was full of sympathy - even as he clutched his stomach.

"Who - what just happened?!" Her mind was clouded, the recollection too vivid, too fresh. "You saw in my head!? You're like me?!?"

He put his hands up as if he was calming a horse. "Woah, woah. Calm down, calm down. I'm Mathew. Everything's good, everything's fine. Look, I know the truth about your powers."

She was confused, but adrenalized fear still took precedence. "You know what happened to - Wait a minute! You saw me sta- stab the- oh shi-!" She turned tail and bolted.

"oh come on." he fished around in his pocket and pulled out a mask. He put it on, and hoped against hope it would work. He snapped his fingers, stopping stopped time. Then he just walked up to and placed himself in front of her, unsnapping his fingers. She ran into him.

"Achoo!!!" The first thing he did was rip off his mask. A boatload of pollen fell out. "I freaking hate that curse."

She on the other hand, could not care less about his seasonal allergies. Well, she kind of cared. Because she was hyperventilating, and accidentally inhaled a little bit of it. For maybe a minute, there was a lot of wheezing and sneezing, so he frantically watched - not sure what he could do - as she pulled out an asthma inhaler.

"Okay, now you know I can do that. Please don't run away again."

"Are you going to - wheeeze - arrest me?"

"Well, you did just stab a man... How about you apologize and we call it even?"

Asthma attack aside, she gained some intensity in her eyes. "Never." She brought herself to her full height and looked up at me, taking a deep breath to center herself. "Enough about me. You were in my head you old creep. You said you know about my powers?" Voice a little shaky, but otherwise a successful assertion of dominance. She pulled out yet another butcher's knife (how many does she have!!) and held it out at me. "You will tell me everything, or I will gut you like a - uh..." She paused, waving the knife hesitantly in the air. "I - I've never really done this before... You could just take it with your super speed or something... I'm sorry, I'm not really used to 'asking' normally..."

My heart gave out to her. "No, no! You're doing a really good job! You can just bluff your way! You can say something like 'I let you catch up to me, to see how fast you really were. I must say, I had hoped you could've given me a better fight' and then press the knife against my throat slowly so I don't involuntarily react!"

She dropped the knife as her eyes lit up. "That's pretty good!"

I pick up the knife and hand it back to her. She nods and proceeds to press it against my throat, just like I taught her. "I let you catch me, to see how fast you are. I had hoped you we-would- ah dang it!"

"Ohh, don't get discouraged! I loved how you accented 'let', you can do it!"

She centered herself, eyes closed, deep breath. Then she pulled out another butcher's knife, and walked slowly towards me. When she opened her eyes, they shined bright red. "Hehe. I let you catch me." Her voice shifted completely, absolutely cold and dauntless. She closed the distance and pressed both knives against my throat in X-fashion. "I had hoped you would've been a better fight, but I guess I'll just have to gut you if you don't tell me why I was cursed with this power, if it wasn't to kill him."

"That was absolutely terrifying!" I applauded her and stepped a little back from the knife-wielder. However, she kept close.

"I wasn't joking."

Eesh. This one's hardcore. She seriously gave me goosebumps.

"O-okay, but could you at least tell me your name first?"

"No." She pressed the cold - and sharp -metal against my skin. "Now answer."

I chuckled a little. Is this what being proud feels like? It hurts. "Okay, you don't have to say anything. Just look into my eyes."

-----

Nice story! Your characters have a lot of personality. Their conversations were very smooth between them. It wasn’t awkward but flowed naturally.

It was in that moment, the girl realised that she had startled Terry Tate office linebacker.

"WHOOO WHOOO!"

JoJo part 3

[removed]

No

I love you for reminding me this existed.

Ok, but what happens next?

[deleted]

Thank you! I was wondering if it was a little too jarringly spontaneous for other people, glad you liked it.

[removed]

[removed]

I feel her gaze upon me as she scans the crowd, searching, no, hunting for me. My nose itches. Damn. Another sneeze is coming. Out of the corner of my eye I as time resumes and the stabbed man falls to the ground. Screams and voices of alarm rise up as they try to do something for the poor man. I sneeze and everything goes silent. In the split second my eyes shut for the sneeze time had stopped again. I open them, only to see twin flame of pure red ire burning into me, searing through me, burrowing into my soul. Is this what dying feels like.

Her words were ice cold and full of venom. "How did you see me?"

I can't breathe. "I, um, can't everyone see you?" I manage to gasp out. My throat is very dry all of a sudden.

"Only if I want them to. Unless..." Her face went from a look of pure rage to something more curious. "Are you a god?"

Remembering some sage advice from a movie, I stammer, "Y-yes."

Her eyes spear into me again, narrowing. "Who?"

My chest is tight and my blood runs cold. "Um, I, um, I'm Brian, the god of unwitting stupidity."

She rubs at her chin, looking up and thinking. "Brian," she mutters, "Brian. Nope, I haven't heard of you. You must be a lesser god, Brian." Her eyes narrow again. "You better watch yourself, Brian. And stay out of my way."

"O-okay," I stammer again.

And with that the commotion around the two unwitting men resumed. Wait. Had I unintentionally been right?

[deleted]

"Just look into my eyes. It will tell you everything you need to know."

------

There once was a team of heroes that protected the Earth. Their foes became mythical beasts, tales of their prowess turned into legends. Though they have long since turned to dust, their values live on. From their death rises a new hero. And their death is a loss for so many more.

Sacrifice is what actualizes a hero. Yes, they need to fight for others, and have the strength to do so. But it's only when they sacrifice themselves does one see their full potential, as they reach their limit and push past it.

Mathew stood on the hill, watching black light frozen in place, caught in the act of trying to contaminate this world. He stood with Diggati and Hannah by his side, countless corpses of twisted monsters littered around them. The fifth member of the team had just sacrificed himself, exploding his Essence into the twisted timeline, shattering it.

'Oh Meg, why are you always risking yourself?!' Mathew feared for her. Meg lied on the other side of the fissure. The only way to successfully freeze time is to unite the timelines, and in order to do that they needed someone placed in either dimension.

She looked at him through the entanglement of monsters that surrounded her. Most were frozen mid-air, primed to tackle. She simply tilted her head at him and smiled. He knew in an instant what she was going to do. He couldn't lose his best friend! The one who teased him for never obeying Daylight Savings Time, the one who loved coffee and sunsets, painting and horseback riding. The one who risks it all.

"No! Guys, she's going to unfreeze time! When she does that, the dimension will collapse into itself, crushing her!!" Mathew shouted at his teammates. To keep people who aren't Time Warpers outside the time stream, it requires a lot of work. So when she unsnapped herself, Mathew was already tired. The weight of flowing time acted against the vacuum he created, as he felt everything shift towards her. His arms trembled as he tried to stabilize the timeline, to keep her from her death.

They may have been on the brink of defeat, but they were still trained heroes. The monsters piled on top of her as Digatti used telekinesis, ripping open the fissure before it could close on itself. Hannah turned herself into light, and shot herself through. She slaughtered countless of them, grabbing Meg and beaming themselves out of there. He dropped his hold as the dimension slammed shut. The haunting howls of the beasts were the last noises heard, before it was replaced by silence. The cold air blew through the night.

"No, no!" I reached her first. I snapped time frozen around her and clutched her hand. "Please, please don't die!"

It was truly a ghastly sight. Tears across her whole body, and the blood that seeped through would become still once it left her, pooling over her where the cuts were deepest.

"I - I had to," she gasped, coughing up blood. "We're heroes..."

I tried checking if there was any way to stop the bleeding, but it was clear she was too far gone. "Meg, why?!? It could've been me! Please..."

She chuckled, even as she seared with pain. "B-ut it couldn't have been you, you would've been an hour late..."

Tears welled in my eyes. "No... please..."

She tried to prop herself up, gripping my hand and beaconing me to come close. "Don't worry, you'll see me again! I've chosen. I've chosen who's going to get it. S-Someone hurt, like you. To someone deserving, they must know what it's like to truly love and fight for another. I gift them my power, so they'll have the strength to rise from extreme, unfair pain. The pain life hands out, a-all willy-nilly, you know?"

Her eyes brimmed and she felt weak, so I softly lowered her head back down. "Oh, one more thing!" She adds, forever smiling despite it all. "Someone like that, I think they're going to need a guide. And I can't think of a better one than you. So you can't die! Not until you're a mentor, and you find me again. You promise?"

"I promise." I held her close for a few moments. She couldn't hold back completely: Her red eyes gave way to the slightest of tears. It made them gleam with fire. Her characteristic gleam, one of determination and courage, no matter what.

I stood back up, swallowing the choking feeling in my throat. "I promise... Goodbye Meg. You're the real hero."

I unsnapped my fingers. My teammates deserved to say goodbye too.

------

We both gasped as we returned to reality.

"I - that's me?!" She spun from all the death. She seemed freaked.

"I can't be certain, but from what I saw... You know what it truly means to love another, don't you?"

She paid me little attention. She turned her back to me and walked to an old car parked on the side, climbing onto the roof while rubbing her face. "I didn't want this..." She quietly said. She looked up at me and I could see her eyes start to turn red. "I hated this! I didn't want to be the one who survived. For the longest time, I thought I was cursed!"

I tried to say something, but she continued. "I was the oldest one who cared. When I was 12 our family... I - It was just me and him. If he had it, he could've saved himself. Why couldn't it have been him?!"

"I'm sorry there was only one gift to give."

She sniffled, tears brimming as she couldn't control it. "I'm no hero! I lost him that night, and all I did was run." She pulled out a knife and clenched the handle so hard her knuckles turned white. "It's so unfair! And I hate how childish that sounds!"

I sigh. A pain builds in my chest. "Look, I'm an adult. I have walked this Earth for decades. I have a PhD in Quantum Mechanics and Oscillatory motion.-"

"Your freaking resume won't make me feel better!!!" She shouted, throwing the knife at me. I sucked its temporality so it stilled mid-air, and I grabbed it and walked toward her.

"-And, my point is, I HATE HOW UNFAIR IT ALL IS!!!" I shout at the top of my lungs, all the anger and resentment and guilt shooting itself out of me. "I HATE IT, I HATE IT, I HATE IT!"

I take off my sunglasses and throw them on the floor. I stomp on them a few times. Really grinding it to dust.

"Whaa-" Was all she said. She was shocked.

"I'm an adult! And I feel the same thing! You're stronger than me, because you actually held it in! There's nothing childish about stating a fact!"

'Ugh, I think I tore my sciatica'. Well, I'm not going to have a girl cry on my watch. I reach my hand into a woman's purse nearby and grab a bunch of tissues, regaining my composure in an instant. "Tissue?"

She looks at me at first like I'm insane. But underneath that, I think I saw something like hope, or a 'thank you', as the edges of her lips start to curl up in a smile. And then she giggles, and accepts the tissue. "You're crazy."

"And I'm at your service."

Blowing her nose, she takes a few breaths. I was pretty sure her mind had difficulty wrapping herself around the strangeness of the situation. When she spoke again, it was far more reminiscent. "I - you know, my brother really wanted to be a hero... We would dress up in bed sheets and towels, run around parks as he saved me from the villain of the day. It was so crazy, he would even make multi-part arcs. At the end of one, I remember I bought him ice cream and he got it all over himself... He-" She shut her eyes closed and smiled, bidding her tears not to escape. "He would tell me it was his 'turn to be hero' every single time. Like he saw me as the actual hero or something."

"Aw."

"It was kind of cute. And look," She chuckled as if she was half-mad. "Here I am talking to a real one. But I must say, I'm glad he never met you."

"Wait, excuse me?"

"I'm just saying, if he copied you, I'd be getting tantrums every day!"

"Heh, that might be true." I decided to agree, and she laughed a little. But that noise soon turned to silence, as the previous weight descended upon us. I may have distracted her for a bit, but there are still important questions to ask. And she was well aware of that. "Look, I'm sorry if this hurts you, but I need to know what you plan to do with the powers."

She sighed, running her fingers through her hair and tugging it. "I really don't deserve it. He should've been the hero. Can you take it back?"

"The universe chose you. The only thing you don't have to worry about is that you must know you deserve this, or at the very least you can deserve it."

She sighed. "Old man, please, just shut up."

"You should at least accept that if you want me to take it-"

"I said shut up!"

"Why! This-"

She clenched her jaw and exploded, grinding the tissue to tatters. "You want me to say it?! I'm a murderer! Okay, is that what you wanted to hear?! I'm a murderer, not a hero! Ugh, and I didn't even want to!"

Wait, what?

"I'm a murderer, I'm not a hero! Ugh, and I didn't even want to!"

Wait, what?

---

"Wait, wait, wait, what do you mean you 'didn't want to'?"

She burrowed her face into her arm and growled. "I - I didn't want to kill him... I mean, I absolutely hate him," she scrunched her face and mimed scratch marks, "But I didn't want to kill him. I just thought - I don't know... That maybe it was the reason I had this curse. That k-killing him would lift it and bring my brother back..." She groaned. "Ohh, I really let him down..."

There's so much she still doesn't know. But now I know, her heart was in the right place. Or close to it, at least. "Oh, but what if I tell you, he doesn't actually have to be dead?"

She shot her head up to look at me. "Are you saying we can bring him back?!"

"Yes."

"I - I -" Her face filled with sudden fear at this possibility. She contemplated for a moment. "Look, I know I'm going to pick the right choice eventually, but I can't forgive him just yet. I can't."

I simply smiled. "Don't worry. There's still much for you to process of course. We have eternity in this place. You can take your time."

She took a breath as she collected herself. "I can't believe it. This seems too good to be true. Thank you, truly."

I put my hand on her shoulder. She didn't shrug it off. "You can thank me by becoming the hero your brother always knew you were."

She smiled then, a true smile of courage and determination. "I will!! I will, I promise. My name's Sue, by the way. And I want to be a hero."

-----

We spent a long time there. By the way, I call that frozen state Stock-Still, because I find it weird to say 'there' when technically it's not a specific place. And in honor of memory itself, I decided to number every time we entered Stock-Still, to see how far we've gone. Of course, that long first time was Stock-Still #1. We shared stories and simply talked. The truth was that there was a lot for her to learn about these powers. When I taught her how to use her cloak and knives as steps so she could climb into the air, she spent a solid fraction of eternity gloating about being taller.

Eventually I taught her about paradoxes, and how to make it so an action never existed in the first place. She showed the strength Meg saw in her that day, when she forgave the man who killed her brother. I proceeded to make sure he was later arrested for homicide, burglary over $5000, and indecent exposure.

We're on Stock-Still #829, and it's been a blast. I really enjoy having someone so full of life around. Back in Stock-Still #44, we made a deal with Chronos to lift the curse once he realized I had kept his son Chaos from invading Earth, and I made his other son Aether (the sky) laugh when I sneezed. Then in Stock-Still #229, he punished Sue for stealing one of his Dodo Birds, and that was hilarious. We saved the world a few times just the two of us (127, 214, 315, 388, 450). By Stock-Still #525, she started forming her own team! In #778 she met a guy, a time traveler. In #780, she forced me to unbanish him.

She's the best daughter in the world. Thank you, Meg. You healed another broken heart.

Hey, I finally finished it. It's 2 am, and I finished it way earlier, but it all deleted when I sent it (because I'm on a laptop and it exceeded word count). So I had to rewrite it all. Anyway, hope you like it.

I , for one, would like to know more about the life of Brian.

When you said 'life of Brian', my first thought was of the Monty Python movie of the same name. It's hilarious. I unthinkingly pulled the name Brian off the top of my head. But now that I think of it, the name is rather fitting in that context, although in a modern, slightly edgy scenario. Maybe I will write more about 'Brian the god of unwitting stupidity'.