[Other Original] Reset

Memories…

They were fleeting, sometimes nonexistent for one such as me…

Truly, my existence is quite pitiful at this point but…

There is something that is keeping me from going on, from dying to be more exact.

It is a very pure thing, and over my millennia of life it has puzzled me exactly what it is.

I had tried many ways to snuff out my own life, but they all failed and everything traced back to the pure thing, for lack of a better word for whatever the purity was.

It coalesced around me whenever I was put into a state of death and revived me, but in exchange I forgot more and more as time passed. My memories seemed like they were becoming more and more blurry every half a century or so, maybe instead of the orb it was just time taking its effect on me. Somehow, I doubted that was the case.

Whatever the pure thing that was keeping me alive was wouldn't be able to stop me, the world was dying and something had to be done about it. I had originally not wished to interfere because what I would do would most likely end worst for the world in total. So with my hesitation to interfere with what was happening I watched as the evil force within mankind rose into power.

It was a slow process, nearly untraceable by most human means. I was far from human at this point however, the pure object making me effectively alien in nature. There were many heroes who tried to fight this force, most of them died. Those who didn't die either sided with the new force that rose to power or went into hiding, too afraid to rise up and do anything.

Just as I believed that my assistance would be required, I saw something. A vision of heroes banding together and finally taking the fight to the other side, the person leading them was a boy. The image was blurry, but I could make out his white hair and his stance radiated defiance and strength. He would be the one who would save this world, not an old man like me even if my appearance suggested otherwise.

A year past since I had that vision and in that time I had sought out the boy who was supposed to be the one fighting in my vision. I had quite easily tracked him down, with a spell that I could no longer remember how I learned it. He was a rather apathetic young man, he had a poor hand given to him and yet that day when he was given the power to make a change he changed.

He had a drive to fix the world for some reason that I had not bothered to figure out, what mattered was the fact that he made big waves in the world within the course of that year. From bringing down many super-powered villains who had many years of experience over him through sheer courage and dumb luck, helping those who were in need by coming to understand their own unique situations, and somehow even gaining a friend in one who should be his antithesis.

I was assured that he would be able to change this world…make the difference that I couldn't myself. So in his final moments as he stood looking in shock as he was betrayed by the one closest to him as he defeated the enemy who had in the end almost destroyed the world completely and utterly by summoning a force he shouldn't have I was shocked.

Yes the boy had won, but this outcome was not one I had predicted. As I watched plainly as the girl grasped the ball filled with what could only be described as evil in its most pure form and become a being that not even I could stop, my hand was forced.

Curses stretched across her body, pulsating as if they were alive. Her hair became longer and white, tendrils of an inky blackness covered her body as if they were clothes. She had ascended into a form of power, something that was extremely rare.

"I should've done this a long time ago, though I suppose that not even I could see the change in events occur. Perhaps this will make up for the sins I have committed."

I walked into view of the being before me uncaring as she stared at me with eyes that befitted her new existence. The cloak wrapped around me billowed off my form as her very existence seemed to alter the world around her. I would've been afraid if I cared, but I knew that perhaps this would finally be my time to rest and perhaps move on from this world and be with…her name still escaped me even now.

"Who…are you? You feel odd."

She didn't speak, but her lips mimicked the motions as if she was. Her words reached my mind and I couldn't help but smile. She still needed sometime to regain her true self and this would make my job much easier than it normally would be.

"Me, I'm just some relic from a time long gone. I'm just cleaning up my mess now."

I rose my left arm up to her and then upwards towards the currently darkening sky. She was fundamentally altering the very world so that she could exist without restrictions, though she most definitely did not know. I knew this because she was not the first to do such a thing to the world; I had ended the last one to do so before I was cursed with this existence, though the circumstances had been quite different then. If I hadn't been so hesitant to interfere directly maybe it wouldn't have come down to this.

She looked analytically at my arm examining it thoroughly. I knew that it was no longer normal, as I had lost it a long time ago. What currently made my arm was the pure object within me and with it I would fix this world. It began to glow profusely as I focused the pure thing's energy as much as I possible could so that I could charge this spell with all of my energy, this would be the only way that it could work after all.

A beam of light shot upwards into the sky, piercing through the sky of the world she was creating around herself like it was glass. Right above the very Earth itself a astronomical sized infinity symbol formed. It was a sign that the spell was about to take effect, it meant I was successful. The world would have a chance to right this catastrophe before it occurred and this time they would have an even better chance at it.

"This should hopefully be the last time I see this world, and maybe things will happen differently this time. An old man like me can only hope that the boy is not dealt such a bad hand this time around. And you young lady, maybe he can realize that you're his true enemy before this happens again."

A bright cascade of light rain began to slowly fall on the world as he spoke. It was a good thing that I had been successful, this spell had only worked in theory as I never had tested it after all. Never any reason to test it I should say.

"I can only pray that this world will be different." With a final smile stretching across my face I felt myself slowly fade away from existence. Maybe now, I could finally…get some…sleep.

And then the world was recreated anew.​

He stared out the window as he waited for the school bell to ring. School was a hassle and he couldn't really find it within himself to actively socialize with others. He only really went to school because he was supposed to, within his family of sorts he was an anomaly. While most of his family was very cheerful, outgoing, and generally always seemed happy he preferred to be by himself and was rather introverted and bland for lack of a better word.

He didn't know why that was and he honestly didn't bother much to think about it too much, it left a slight bitter taste in his mouth. A ringing sound in my ears alerted me to the fact that the class was finally over. I put the notebook that I had my desk into the strap book-bag that I carried with me before getting out of my seat.

"Noah!"

A loud voice to his left made Noah look over to the girl that was currently standing next to his desk. She was bright, peppy, and all around bubbly. Also, she happened to be one of the few people that he hung around with.

"What do you want Nina?" His voice was dull, despite Nina's best attempts to get him to show some liveliness it seemed nearly impossible. They had known each other since they had been in middle school and somehow despite their many differences they ended up friends. Noah still questioned how it even happened.

She was a rather petite girl, standing at just over 5 feet and weighing only about 100 pounds or so. She had blonde hair tied into to two pig tails with little rainbow clips in her hair. She was the type that could be easily considered cute and adorable, but she also was an easy target for bullying. That stopped very quickly when Noah found out.

"Aww, don't be like that Noah. You always sound like such a stick in the mud, why can't you be happier just like me?" She smiled brightly at the end and Noah swore he could see stars around her.

"No thanks." Getting up from his desk he started walking away so he could go up to the roof quickly.

"Hey! Wait up!"

Nina caught up to him easily enough and slowed her pace down to match his and hummed a tune as they walked in silence. The hallway was crowded with other students; some were just standing around talking to their friends, some were getting stuff from their lockers, or just trying to get to their next class. This was the usual scene in the hallways, it wasn't anything different.

Nina stopped for a moment and turned her towards something before shaking slightly. Noah turned his head slightly as he noticed that Nina had stopped humming, something that she didn't do normally. She was shaking and shuddering slightly and when he saw what she was looking at he knew why.

Rebecca Brooks and Amy Watson stood there chatting amongst themselves and their clique. It was made up of the type of girls that were either popular themselves or those that wanted to be popular and tried to hang around those that were.

Rebecca had fair smooth skin, the type that you would see from one of those commercials with the celebrities. Her hair was in curly red locks that fell down to her back. She had an hourglass figure that made the boys swoon over her. Her choice of attire always seemed to accentuate her figure in just the right places to show it off, she absolutely loved the attention.

In contrast Amy while not as showy as Rebecca had a more mature look to her. She was on the taller side standing at about roughly 5'7" or so and had long brunette hair. She always wore wire frame glasses and her normal attire was usually a white button-up top along with some jeans. Her figure while nowhere near as shapely as Rebecca's it was much more evenly distributed and added to her charm.

She was the smarter of the two and was the one that Noah disliked the most as it was likely that she was the one that orchestrated the event that happened to Nina. There was no use thinking about them as of now though, they only had a limited time for lunch after all.

He lightly touched Nina's shoulder to get her attention off of those two which made her quickly snap her head to face him. Sighing slightly he spoke.

"Come on, don't worry about them. I'm here so you know that they won't try anything. Okay?"

Nina calmed down a bit from his words, but she still looked a bit nervous. Letting out another sigh he grabbed her wrist before pulling her with him to get her away. She was very frightened of the two after the event that occurred a couple months ago. It was the event that shattered their friendship to pieces.

While Noah was caught up in his own thoughts so was Nina. There was a light blush on her face as she was pulled along by Noah. She was a rather pure girl, so even something like holding hands was seen as somewhat intimate by her. Maybe Noah liked her more than a friend she thought, but she didn't think that he liked girls like her. Then again maybe he did…the blush on her face intensified a bit.

Noah had taken them up to the top of the school. While usually it was closed off due to an unexpected suicide last year, they recently had opened it back up to students. Though, now there was a gated fence up at the top to prevent any sort of thing from ever happening again. The school had to deal with the fallout from the events and if it wasn't for the backing of their benefactor they would have had to close down.

They went over and sat down on one of the benches that were scattered around the roof. Taking out their lunches, the difference in taste was immediately noticeable.

Nina had a bento box, from what Noah knew she had always been a sort of Japanophile and it was evident as she pulled out some cookies shaped like some sort of anime character or something. If Noah remembered correctly it was specifically from some show called Holic.

Noah in contrast had some sandwiches. They were nothing too fancy, just some regular ham sandwiches. Though the fact there seemed to be peppers on it made it stand out a bit. Noah liked his food spicy, very spicy.

Nibbling on her cookies Nina decided that she should make some small talk. Noah would never speak unless he needed to. People thought he was mute or something until he actually spoke to them or heard him speak.

"So Noah…"

"Hmm?"

"…What do you think about going to the amusement park with me tomorrow?"

Noah was silent for a minute. That question was unexpected, he didn't really have any plans for tomorrow but the question had caught him off guard a bit. They hadn't done something like this for a couple of years now, actually the last time exactly would've been 3 years ago when they were in 9th grade.

"U-um I guess that's a n-"

"I'll go."

"H-huh, w-what?" Nina blubbered a bit in shock thinking that maybe she had misheard.

Noah turned his head slightly towards her before bonking her on the head with his fist. If he didn't do this she would probably suffer from mental overload or something. When his fist connected she let out a little squeak of indignation. It was kind of cute he noted.

"What do you mean what? I said I'll go. I know that I'm antisocial and all, but we're friends you know. Have a little faith in me. Besides, we haven't really done anything together in a long time."

He turned his head away from her as he looked up at the sky. They used to hang out all the time as kids but a few years ago they seemed to just sort of drift apart, they still hung out in school but rarely did they meet up outside of it. Noah didn't know why really, but he put it up to the fact that she had gained a huge interest in the Japanese culture some years ago and had gained a friend that was nearly obsessed with it.

It wasn't abnormal to see them hanging out with each other in school, he had even seen them outside of school a couple of times. Her friend was rather odd though. She seemed to take the term fanatic to heart and then amplified it by a multitude of 10.

The feeling of arms wrapped around him made him turn his head for a moment. What he saw the happy face of his friend that showed that she was very excited. That was a good thing he thought, people liked being happy after all.

"Yay! This'll be so much fun. We can ride all the really big roller coasters together, get some food, take some funny photos, and maybe ride in the bumper cars!"

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but you've never been tall enough to ride any of the really big coasters nor the bumper cars either."

While Noah would be able to ride any ride he wanted as he stood at just less than 6 ft, being exactly 5'11" in height, Nina's height was a factor that made it hard for her. It pretty much limited the amount of rides she could ride. It didn't help also that due to her rather childish looks, and behavior to a lesser extent, most people believed her to be a child at first which annoyed her to no end.

"Meanie." She pouted a bit, but it was clear she wasn't really upset.

Soon the bell signaling that lunch was over rung. That meant he would have that person as his teacher this block. Mr. Knott, it was pain just to think about the guy. He had overlooked the bullying problem that Nina had and that automatically made him someone that Noah did not like.

"Well, guess we should get to class then Noah." Nina stood up from the bench patting her skirt lightly making sure to get any crumbs that might've fallen off.

"Go without me, I'll be down in a bit."

"Hey! You're not going to skip class are you?" She pointed a finger at him accusingly.

"…" He was silent as he got up and began walking to the roof entrance. He wouldn't give her the satisfaction of know that she was right. Call him petty if you found it necessary, but she would hold it over him somehow. She always did when she was actually right.

"Hey, don't you ignore me Noah. Noah!" Her voce didn't reach him as he walked down the stairs, fast.

He disliked this class immensely, that was the thought running through Noah's head as he sat at his desk tapping his fingers against it as he listened begrudgingly to the teacher fanbo- he meant teach.

When the semester had started he had been looking forward to Mr. Knott's World Issues class. The class was supposed to be about the different events that were taking place in the world, the main topic being dynamos. When he had actually gotten into the class he realized that this man was nothing more than an adult fanboy. While it was true that he had an extensive knowledge about dynamos, you could tell there was quite a bit of bias about those he liked due to his habit of exaggerating their feats.

Mr. Knott went on animatedly about dynamos, clearly excited about what he was talking about, and surprisingly enough the class was actually listening to what he had to say. Dynamos tend to have that affect when they were brought up as the topic at hand.

Mr. Knott was the type of teacher who went by "Mr. K" instead Mr. Knott, the type that tried to be friends with all of his students. He would end class just a little early to chat with the more popular students, give lots of group work so that others could hang out with their friends in class, and give "fun" assignments like mock trials.

He struck Noah as the type of guy that had been popular while in school and had a similar teacher in this role and decided to be like him or her. Mr. Knott was very well liked by most students. Noah was a bit of an exception however. He didn't utterly despise the guy, he just disliked him because he was spineless.

At least he let me do my work by himself. Noah wasn't the most social with others and preferred to work alone. When he worked with others he either ended up doing most of the work by himself or was slowly pushed away by the group, he wasn't well liked by most students due to the machinations of Amy and the small posse of gals she had around her.

It didn't bother Noah too much however, he didn't have much to speak about with most anyone. He preferred to watch people instead of actively engaging in activity with them. He liked to figure out what made people tick and such, it was a hobby he had developed when young.

"Noah!" Hearing his voice called made him turn his head.

"Yes?" Apparently Mr. Knott had called him.

"Could you please tell the class about the date when dynamos were first discovered and how they came to eventually be a common piece in our society?"

"…Dynamos were first discovered back in the 1950's, more precisely 1959 May 9th. An asteroid was set to collide with Earth, one that would apparently destroy an exponential chunk of whichever continent it was going to hit. There was terror and hysteria amongst the collected populace, and it only got worse when it was confirmed to be worse than that and had the potential to destroy the entire human species. On the day the event was to occur a bright white streak flew through the sky towards the asteroid and the asteroid simply seemed to be vaporized. The bright streak flew back down shortly by the time a news van had finally gotten to the scene. They found that the white streak was some sort of humanoid who glowed with a white aura when asked for a name he simply replied Icon. Soon after the event people with special abilities like Icon just started popping up."

The class was utterly silent after Noah's explanation. He knew for a fact that there was no one, at least in this building, that knew more about dynamos then him. Having a father that worked with the guys on the daily basis meant that you were guaranteed to gain quite a substantial amount of knowledge about the people that essentially had super powers.

Mr. Knott was the first to regain his composure and coughed lightly to regain the attention of the rest of the class.

"That was a very good answer Noah. Extra credit points also for being so…specific with your answer." Mr. Knott said. "Now class if you're not entirely sure on what dynamos you should start studying about them over this weekend as we're going to be having a bit of an homework assignment over the weekend. I want you all to write a one to two page paper about dynamos and their effect on society."

There was a bit of a grumbling amongst the class about how there was going to be homework on a weekend, but Mr. Knott just smiled in response.

"Now, now. I know you all don't like homework like this so you guys can work in groups if you like and meet up after school. Whichever group or individual has the best paper I'll buy them snacks from the vending machine okay?"

Noah tuned out the noise of the cheers that soon came from the class after that announcement. He really didn't care for snacks, perhaps he could decline them for something useful like a homework pass or something. The bell rung shortly after marking the end of the day and the class fell into a chaotic noise.

The sounds of binders being shut, book-bags being unzipped, and the dull roar of emerging conversations filled the room. The more social members of the class crowded around Mr. Knott to chat with him.

Noah quietly put his stuff away into his bag as he prepped to leave. He hadn't written down any notes this class, mainly because there was no reason for him to do so, and had instead worked on a drawing he was finishing for art class. Art was one of the classes that he really did like. Ms. Sharp had a reputation of being sort of a hippie, but she was nice and had been one of the few faculty members to try and help Nina.

Thinking about Nina made him wonder how her day had been. It had to have been more interesting than his at the least.​