Categories > Comics > X-Men > Marvel: The Perfect Run
02: Prologue [02]
—
Warren Dyson was so confused.
Why was he back again?
Warren looked around, and sure enough, his eyes caught the sight of the man again, his face appearing without the wounds Warren had caused. Actually, there wasn’t any face left after Warren’s battering. Warren was sure the man was dead, and so was Warren himself, but…
‘How am I back?’
‘Why am I back?’
‘Is this, not a dream?’
‘Are these not my memories flashing before my death?’
Questions filled his head, questions he found no answer to—he wanted to go and kill the ugly bastard again. But as much as he hated him, Warren refrained from doing so. He’d done it once, and it apparently didn’t work at all, and he didn’t even feel any good. Instead, much to Warren’s confusion, he was back at the start, pondering over why he was back again.
Confusing.
Warren needed to think.
This was the third time he was back in time. Now, he was sure this was his imagination. But if it wasn’t his imagination and he really had an OP skill such as going back in time, he was finally given something in return for his misery.
Warren shook his head.
No…
He can’t hope now…
Not again.
Warren wouldn’t hope, not again. His hopes crushed enough times already, there wasn’t any need to add another.
But…
‘What if It’s true?’
What if he can really go back in time?
‘Should I die again?’
Right, let’s do that.
Warren looked around until his eyes stopped on the fat ugly bastard.
He can use this guy, right?
Warren chuckled, and his legs moved to run toward the man as he yelled to get his attention.
“Hey, you fucker!”
The man was startled out of his mind as he looked at him in panic. Warren noticed the bastard’s hand going down for the gun, but he didn’t stop the man. Instead, Warren let him do that, and when the gun was out, Warren thought of stopping time.
Might as well test this thing.
‘Will it even work like last time?’
Something clicked, he was worrying for nothing.
The world paused.
Warren stared in awe as a violet color seeped into everything. The blue sky paused with the birds flying in it, the people who were startled by his outburst were stuck on their places with agape mouths, the ground with ants and the leaves falling from the trees got stuck midair. Everything, from the smallest ant, to the biggest thing he could see, stopped.
Warren was sure at this moment that time had stopped.
Warren looked around at the stopped world.
It was… fascinating to say the least.
The people, who were panicking at this point, were frozen in their spot. The birds that were ready to fly after hearing Warren’s loud voice were stuck in their animation. The guards stood with their guns in hand. The ugly bastard was stiff with a snarl on his face and the gun almost towards Warren.
Warren started counting.
'01'
He wanted to know the time limit, if there was one, for this possible ability of his.
Then, he snatched the gun from the bastard’s hands, and looked at it. It was a beauty, a beauty Warren deemed as wasted on this man.
'02'
Safety off, Warren shot at the fat man. The time was paused, but defying this state of the world, the bullet left the barrel of the gun, though it stopped just after leaving it, water-like ripples at the rear of the bullet.
'03'
Fascinating.
Warren’s big, wide eyes mirrored his reflection in the bullet.
'04'
Then, tearing himself out of staring, he aimed at the guards one by one, pulling the trigger, seeing the bullets come out of the barrel but stopping in the tracks without moving farther.
'05... 06... 07... 08... 09...'
He deduced it had something to do with the gun being in contact with him or something along the lines.
‘10…’
As the count reached ten in Warren’s head, a click resounded in his head, again.
Color seeped back into everything.
The sky was blue again, and purple was nowhere to be seen.
The world had resumed.
– Bang!
– Bang!
– Bang!
– Bang!
– Bang!
– Bang!
…And six gunshots had resounded, followed by the same number of thuds.
As Warren stared, the guards, and the ugly bastard fell to the ground, bodies limp of any life.
Warren smiled to himself, and aimed the gun at his temple again.
Like hell he would die in the fat ugly bastard’s hands.
He’d die on his own.
Warren cracked a grin.
– Bang!
...And pulled the trigger.
*
The sky was clear, the air a bit cold, and silence littered the place even as people were all around. It was a funeral.
Warren Dyson had wide, slightly unbelieving eyes as he took in a long, constant breath.
‘I really can go back in time?’
He questioned no one in particular, and no answer came—just as expected.
‘Wow.’
Warren was not able to think properly.
He was in utter shock, and disbelief.
How can he believe he has a power like this?
Turning back time.
A power that allows him to go back to this particular point in time, no matter what happened. Once he died, he would come back.
It was unbelievably OP.
Too OP.
‘Okay, calm down.’
Warren closed his eyes, his brain working full throttle to ponder over his situation.
Warren was in his rundown apartment in New York. He’d heard his sister’s news on TV, and then, as he had no will to live anymore, he had walked out to commit suicide. As he didn’t want to die in some hidden place and rot without even people knowing, he wanted to die In a traffic accident, or jump from a high building.
But as that was too cliché, he died under the tentacle of a big-eyed and tentacled monster who Dr. Strange was fighting.
He awakened a power due to a process he could only describe as ‘somehow’, and came back in time, in 2016, when his girlfriend, his Mellissa died.
‘Yeah, no bullshit.’
Warren wasn’t falling into the pit of hope again.
Not after how fucked a life he had lived.
‘Now that I think of it,’
…Wasn’t Mellissa’s funeral the start of everything?
‘No.’
He can’t think like this.
Warren should just wait here for the memories to pass by, and then, and then, he’ll die and finally have peace.
‘Yes, let’s do that.’
Warren waited. Everyone left, one by one, and Warren only scoffed in his head. Just like he had thought, no one cared for Mellissa other than some of her close friends, him, and his grandparents.
She had no one but a few people, after all.
So, Warren didn’t bat an eye when everyone left. The ugly bastard left too, but Warren didn’t move. Mellissa’s friends left, giving him a pat on his shoulder; Warren waited. His grandparents, too, left.
This was how everything had gone back in 2016. Everyone had left. His grandparents, who he knew wanted to give him some alone time, had left after giving him a hug and a pat back then too.
And that was when Warren had cried.
Silently.
But this time, Warren didn’t cry like he remembered crying back when this really happened. Warren just waited for this to end.
So he could die peacefully. Close his eyes without any worries, without any burdens on his heart.
So he could not hope. Hope. Something so fragile.
So he could not be disappointed again.
Again.
And again.
Time passed.
Warren didn’t die.
Nor did he find his memories moving to someplace else.
‘Why?’
A heavy, disgusting, and painful sensation wrenched on his stomach as his head came to the same conclusion he had been avoiding.
‘This is real.’
He isn’t dead.
He came back in time.
‘I really did awaken some OP power.’
Warren looked at his trembling hands. He squatted down, closing his eyes tight as he put his head between his hands.
‘Why did this have to happen?’
Warren grabbed his hair, pulling. It was painful… This was, in itself, another indication that this was as real as it could be.
Why did he come back?
Warren’s heartbeat sped up, slamming against his chest harder and harder, as if it wanted to come out.
If it goes like this, he’ll hope… again.
A knot got stuck on his neck.
Warren didn’t want that.
He was too afraid to hope again.
But… he couldn’t help but hope.
‘Can I… change things?’
Could he really do that?
If this was real, and not some byproduct of his imagination, or a prank the whole universe decided to play on him for some sort of twisted amusement for only God knew who, Warren could really change his life. Find happiness. Kick life in the gut and yell ‘fuck you!’ while standing on the top of the tallest building in the world.
Warren let out a long quivering breath, and looked up at her grave.
Mellissa…
His one and only love.
Warren smiled slightly, leaning against her tombstone.
“Hey,” Warren called out, softly. “This is crazy, you know that?”
Warren remembered crying a lot when she’d died. He didn’t have the courage to see someone again after she passed away. So, he didn’t date anyone again.
“If I really am back,” Warren bit his lower lip. “Why couldn’t it have been a day sooner?” He complained like always.
Warren could have saved her.
Just a day earlier.
“Fuck.”
He hugged his legs, and buried his face into them.
You’re a man—they said.
Don’t cry—they said.
Warren also had a heart, and it pained when he couldn’t do anything. He felt hopeless all over again. If, just if he’d come back a day earlier.
His eyes watered, but Warren refrained from crying. Not that he shouldn’t, or couldn’t, but because he didn’t want to show his pathetic side to her. She was the sweetest thing that ever happened to him; his radiant beam in the darkness of the world.
“Okay!”
Warren stood up, fists clenched, as he said in a cheerful tone.
“I’m back! What If it’s not a day earlier? I’m back, baby! And I’m a super now,” he said in a bright voice, caressing her tombstone.
“I can probably find some magic bullshit to bring you back too, right?” he chuckled optimistically. This was Warren’s way of coping with things.
Whenever feel overwhelmed with anything, just be cheerful. Everything would be fine. Even when life kicks you so hard in the guts that you can't stand up, be cheerful. The world will fuck you over, be cheerful.
“I mean, everything is possible for a super!”
Just like that, he blabbered on and on about how he’d bring her back, how he’d do everything right. He told everything to her, and to himself.
After he was done talking to her, Warren bid farewell, saying that he’d come back for her. He hailed a taxi home, to his home. Not a shabby apartment, but a big house. He had sold it for money back in 2020.
Wait… was it back in 2020, or in the future since it was 2016 now?
Confusing.
Warren shook his head. This wasn’t the time to think about this. He stepped out of the taxi, his home wasn’t really that far away from the funeral site. He sighed, and took in a breath, staring at the big house for a while.
Nostalgia filled within him as Warren walked in. He stepped on the stairs, tracing his hands on the railings.
Ah. How big an idiot he was for selling this place.
Warren walked as he hummed slightly, but when he passed by his sister’s room, Warren wanted to go in, to go and hug her, hug her so tightly she’d beat him up. But, he should wait.
Right, back in 2016, or now, his present, old Warren had hated her a lot.
And that had probably left some mental scars on the little thing.
Warren always loathed himself for hating on her. She didn’t deserve his hate.
‘Anyways,’
Let’s not go meet her for now.
That was what he wanted to do… but why was it that Warren was already knocking on the door of her room?
– Knock!
– Knock!
Two knocks.
“What is it?!”
And she was out, glaring daggers at him with those deep blue eyes of hers.
Warren stared down at her, not sure as to what to do, or say.
But he wanted to say one thing though.
“I’m sorry,”
“Huh?”
Lilly was visibly confused, her pouty lips a bit apart as her brows furrowed in a tight-knit.
What the fuck was this weird man saying now?
**
**
**
—
Warren Dyson was so confused.
Why was he back again?
Warren looked around, and sure enough, his eyes caught the sight of the man again, his face appearing without the wounds Warren had caused. Actually, there wasn’t any face left after Warren’s battering. Warren was sure the man was dead, and so was Warren himself, but…
‘How am I back?’
‘Why am I back?’
‘Is this, not a dream?’
‘Are these not my memories flashing before my death?’
Questions filled his head, questions he found no answer to—he wanted to go and kill the ugly bastard again. But as much as he hated him, Warren refrained from doing so. He’d done it once, and it apparently didn’t work at all, and he didn’t even feel any good. Instead, much to Warren’s confusion, he was back at the start, pondering over why he was back again.
Confusing.
Warren needed to think.
This was the third time he was back in time. Now, he was sure this was his imagination. But if it wasn’t his imagination and he really had an OP skill such as going back in time, he was finally given something in return for his misery.
Warren shook his head.
No…
He can’t hope now…
Not again.
Warren wouldn’t hope, not again. His hopes crushed enough times already, there wasn’t any need to add another.
But…
‘What if It’s true?’
What if he can really go back in time?
‘Should I die again?’
Right, let’s do that.
Warren looked around until his eyes stopped on the fat ugly bastard.
He can use this guy, right?
Warren chuckled, and his legs moved to run toward the man as he yelled to get his attention.
“Hey, you fucker!”
The man was startled out of his mind as he looked at him in panic. Warren noticed the bastard’s hand going down for the gun, but he didn’t stop the man. Instead, Warren let him do that, and when the gun was out, Warren thought of stopping time.
Might as well test this thing.
‘Will it even work like last time?’
Something clicked, he was worrying for nothing.
The world paused.
Warren stared in awe as a violet color seeped into everything. The blue sky paused with the birds flying in it, the people who were startled by his outburst were stuck on their places with agape mouths, the ground with ants and the leaves falling from the trees got stuck midair. Everything, from the smallest ant, to the biggest thing he could see, stopped.
Warren was sure at this moment that time had stopped.
Warren looked around at the stopped world.
It was… fascinating to say the least.
The people, who were panicking at this point, were frozen in their spot. The birds that were ready to fly after hearing Warren’s loud voice were stuck in their animation. The guards stood with their guns in hand. The ugly bastard was stiff with a snarl on his face and the gun almost towards Warren.
Warren started counting.
'01'
He wanted to know the time limit, if there was one, for this possible ability of his.
Then, he snatched the gun from the bastard’s hands, and looked at it. It was a beauty, a beauty Warren deemed as wasted on this man.
'02'
Safety off, Warren shot at the fat man. The time was paused, but defying this state of the world, the bullet left the barrel of the gun, though it stopped just after leaving it, water-like ripples at the rear of the bullet.
'03'
Fascinating.
Warren’s big, wide eyes mirrored his reflection in the bullet.
'04'
Then, tearing himself out of staring, he aimed at the guards one by one, pulling the trigger, seeing the bullets come out of the barrel but stopping in the tracks without moving farther.
'05... 06... 07... 08... 09...'
He deduced it had something to do with the gun being in contact with him or something along the lines.
‘10…’
As the count reached ten in Warren’s head, a click resounded in his head, again.
Color seeped back into everything.
The sky was blue again, and purple was nowhere to be seen.
The world had resumed.
– Bang!
– Bang!
– Bang!
– Bang!
– Bang!
– Bang!
…And six gunshots had resounded, followed by the same number of thuds.
As Warren stared, the guards, and the ugly bastard fell to the ground, bodies limp of any life.
Warren smiled to himself, and aimed the gun at his temple again.
Like hell he would die in the fat ugly bastard’s hands.
He’d die on his own.
Warren cracked a grin.
– Bang!
...And pulled the trigger.
*
The sky was clear, the air a bit cold, and silence littered the place even as people were all around. It was a funeral.
Warren Dyson had wide, slightly unbelieving eyes as he took in a long, constant breath.
‘I really can go back in time?’
He questioned no one in particular, and no answer came—just as expected.
‘Wow.’
Warren was not able to think properly.
He was in utter shock, and disbelief.
How can he believe he has a power like this?
Turning back time.
A power that allows him to go back to this particular point in time, no matter what happened. Once he died, he would come back.
It was unbelievably OP.
Too OP.
‘Okay, calm down.’
Warren closed his eyes, his brain working full throttle to ponder over his situation.
Warren was in his rundown apartment in New York. He’d heard his sister’s news on TV, and then, as he had no will to live anymore, he had walked out to commit suicide. As he didn’t want to die in some hidden place and rot without even people knowing, he wanted to die In a traffic accident, or jump from a high building.
But as that was too cliché, he died under the tentacle of a big-eyed and tentacled monster who Dr. Strange was fighting.
He awakened a power due to a process he could only describe as ‘somehow’, and came back in time, in 2016, when his girlfriend, his Mellissa died.
‘Yeah, no bullshit.’
Warren wasn’t falling into the pit of hope again.
Not after how fucked a life he had lived.
‘Now that I think of it,’
…Wasn’t Mellissa’s funeral the start of everything?
‘No.’
He can’t think like this.
Warren should just wait here for the memories to pass by, and then, and then, he’ll die and finally have peace.
‘Yes, let’s do that.’
Warren waited. Everyone left, one by one, and Warren only scoffed in his head. Just like he had thought, no one cared for Mellissa other than some of her close friends, him, and his grandparents.
She had no one but a few people, after all.
So, Warren didn’t bat an eye when everyone left. The ugly bastard left too, but Warren didn’t move. Mellissa’s friends left, giving him a pat on his shoulder; Warren waited. His grandparents, too, left.
This was how everything had gone back in 2016. Everyone had left. His grandparents, who he knew wanted to give him some alone time, had left after giving him a hug and a pat back then too.
And that was when Warren had cried.
Silently.
But this time, Warren didn’t cry like he remembered crying back when this really happened. Warren just waited for this to end.
So he could die peacefully. Close his eyes without any worries, without any burdens on his heart.
So he could not hope. Hope. Something so fragile.
So he could not be disappointed again.
Again.
And again.
Time passed.
Warren didn’t die.
Nor did he find his memories moving to someplace else.
‘Why?’
A heavy, disgusting, and painful sensation wrenched on his stomach as his head came to the same conclusion he had been avoiding.
‘This is real.’
He isn’t dead.
He came back in time.
‘I really did awaken some OP power.’
Warren looked at his trembling hands. He squatted down, closing his eyes tight as he put his head between his hands.
‘Why did this have to happen?’
Warren grabbed his hair, pulling. It was painful… This was, in itself, another indication that this was as real as it could be.
Why did he come back?
Warren’s heartbeat sped up, slamming against his chest harder and harder, as if it wanted to come out.
If it goes like this, he’ll hope… again.
A knot got stuck on his neck.
Warren didn’t want that.
He was too afraid to hope again.
But… he couldn’t help but hope.
‘Can I… change things?’
Could he really do that?
If this was real, and not some byproduct of his imagination, or a prank the whole universe decided to play on him for some sort of twisted amusement for only God knew who, Warren could really change his life. Find happiness. Kick life in the gut and yell ‘fuck you!’ while standing on the top of the tallest building in the world.
Warren let out a long quivering breath, and looked up at her grave.
Mellissa…
His one and only love.
Warren smiled slightly, leaning against her tombstone.
“Hey,” Warren called out, softly. “This is crazy, you know that?”
Warren remembered crying a lot when she’d died. He didn’t have the courage to see someone again after she passed away. So, he didn’t date anyone again.
“If I really am back,” Warren bit his lower lip. “Why couldn’t it have been a day sooner?” He complained like always.
Warren could have saved her.
Just a day earlier.
“Fuck.”
He hugged his legs, and buried his face into them.
You’re a man—they said.
Don’t cry—they said.
Warren also had a heart, and it pained when he couldn’t do anything. He felt hopeless all over again. If, just if he’d come back a day earlier.
His eyes watered, but Warren refrained from crying. Not that he shouldn’t, or couldn’t, but because he didn’t want to show his pathetic side to her. She was the sweetest thing that ever happened to him; his radiant beam in the darkness of the world.
“Okay!”
Warren stood up, fists clenched, as he said in a cheerful tone.
“I’m back! What If it’s not a day earlier? I’m back, baby! And I’m a super now,” he said in a bright voice, caressing her tombstone.
“I can probably find some magic bullshit to bring you back too, right?” he chuckled optimistically. This was Warren’s way of coping with things.
Whenever feel overwhelmed with anything, just be cheerful. Everything would be fine. Even when life kicks you so hard in the guts that you can't stand up, be cheerful. The world will fuck you over, be cheerful.
“I mean, everything is possible for a super!”
Just like that, he blabbered on and on about how he’d bring her back, how he’d do everything right. He told everything to her, and to himself.
After he was done talking to her, Warren bid farewell, saying that he’d come back for her. He hailed a taxi home, to his home. Not a shabby apartment, but a big house. He had sold it for money back in 2020.
Wait… was it back in 2020, or in the future since it was 2016 now?
Confusing.
Warren shook his head. This wasn’t the time to think about this. He stepped out of the taxi, his home wasn’t really that far away from the funeral site. He sighed, and took in a breath, staring at the big house for a while.
Nostalgia filled within him as Warren walked in. He stepped on the stairs, tracing his hands on the railings.
Ah. How big an idiot he was for selling this place.
Warren walked as he hummed slightly, but when he passed by his sister’s room, Warren wanted to go in, to go and hug her, hug her so tightly she’d beat him up. But, he should wait.
Right, back in 2016, or now, his present, old Warren had hated her a lot.
And that had probably left some mental scars on the little thing.
Warren always loathed himself for hating on her. She didn’t deserve his hate.
‘Anyways,’
Let’s not go meet her for now.
That was what he wanted to do… but why was it that Warren was already knocking on the door of her room?
– Knock!
– Knock!
Two knocks.
“What is it?!”
And she was out, glaring daggers at him with those deep blue eyes of hers.
Warren stared down at her, not sure as to what to do, or say.
But he wanted to say one thing though.
“I’m sorry,”
“Huh?”
Lilly was visibly confused, her pouty lips a bit apart as her brows furrowed in a tight-knit.
What the fuck was this weird man saying now?
**
**
**
Sign up to rate and review this story