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gabriel-gabdiel · 1 year

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【Draft】 Fantasy of Evolution Chapter 6: The Dream Journal of a Wimpy Kid

Man, this took quite long to write. Had to adjust my time table to accommodate this.

I’ll still trying to get the hang of writing original characters as opposed to already established templates when I write fanfic.

This can make them nebulous in characterization. I also have to remember what I’ve established previously before adding anything to their history.

You can also find more chapters of my original fiction here. Please enjoy.

Back in Fatima High School's science laboratory…

The Biology teacher of Florante Galang and Isaiah Pascual—the soft-spoken Miss Isabelle Del Mundo, known by the faculty by her nickname "Belle" a la the protagonist of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast"—looked over their shoulders to glance and their laboratory work.

After staring intently to check their answers, Ms. Belle Del Mundo said to Florante, "Mr. Galang, don't you think Mr. Pascual should get a chance at looking into the microscope?"

The two former best friends exchanged glances. Pascual was the first to speak.

"We're just about to finish up, Ms. Del Mundo," he said before taking the last slide and putting it onto the microscope so he could peer at it.

"Well," she said after a moment of deliberation, "then go ahead, boys. Remember, this is a cooperative exercise between lab partners, okay?"

She then walked away.

After she left, Florante began doodling on his notebook.

"Florante," said Isaiah in an almost whiny voice. "I don't know what I'm looking at. Help."

With a sigh, Florante whispered, "The last two we haven't found are prometaphase and telaphase. Telaphase is easy because it's the cell splitting into two. If it's not split into two, it's probably prometaphase."

"How do you spell that, bro?"

"Come on, man."

The two exchanged glances again.

"I'm just kidding, Florante."

"Haha. Funny stuff. Can you spell it or not?"

"Yeah, of course. It's something like 'Pro' as in 'Pro-wrestling', 'Meta' as in 'Metabolic', and then P-H-A-S-E for 'Phase', right?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"The slide I got is probably the pro-something one, by the way. The cell hasn't split."

"Gotcha," said Florante as he took the slide and labeled it. "The last one's probably telaphase but look at it just in case."

"Yep, it's a split cell," Isaiah confirmed after changing microscope slides. "You saved my bacon, bro. Thanks," he added.

Florante harrumphed. "I saved the both of us. You're not going to drag my grade down with you."

And, just as Galang was about to wave off him hearing Pascual talk earlier about his fever dream of massacring students as his imagination running wild, his imagination apparently chose that moment to run wild again.

"You remember killing me, don't you?" said the pokerfaced Pascual in a deadpan monotone. "You blew my head off and did all sorts of nasty things to our other classmates."

Isaiah sounded like something out of a horror story. Thusly, Florante resisted the urge to scream, his blood running cold once again.

Was Galang going mad? This wasn't happening, was it? Or was he in a dream again? He hadn't gone off the deep end yet, had he?

He should check out his dream journal when he got home, just in case. It helped him differentiate when something was a dream and wasn't.

It was his sole tether to sanity and objective reality at this point.

***

Fantasy of Evolution

An Urban Fantasy Story by Abdiel

Who keeps dream journals of their nonsensical dreams as though they have any bearing with reality? Florante does, but his is a special case.

Disclaimer: This work may reference copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is believed that this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. All copyrighted material referred to in this work belongs to their respective owners. All rights reserved.

***

Chapter 6: The Dream Journal of a Wimpy Kid

***

Sometimes, Florante Galang wondered if he got bullied because he deserved it.

Nine times out of ten, he'd say no. No one deserved to be bullied the way he got bullied. However, one of those ten times he might reconsider that maybe he got what he deserved because he did something wrong.

Like that one dentist who didn't recommend this or that brand of toothpaste even though nine others did.

His feeling of inadequacy and insecurity haunted him. Maybe he had it coming. Maybe he was asking for it.

Maybe nines times out of ten, he had a brief moment of self-awareness. He got bullied because he committed the grave sin of social ineptitude.

Maybe he just needed to fit in with his classmates better. Maybe even though they were mean to him, they were mostly excellent to one another, so maybe there was wrong something with him instead.

Maybe he should be the one to adjust to them instead of the other way around.

Maybe a large portion of his life leading up to this moment was a series of huge mistakes of which he learned nothing.

Maybe he should emulate their behavior except the part where they were being jerks to him.

Or maybe he should be a jerk to other weirdoes while rewarding manly behavior exhibited the jocks and tough guys in his class. Find someone weaker than him to pick on so he wouldn't be the one picked on by everyone.

Maybe he simply needed to fit in with his bullies. Maybe he merely needed to grow up like his asshole classmates, who themselves were already having hookups, parties, and girlfriends.

Meanwhile, like a child, he couldn't even hold a romantic conversation with a girl his age, with him stuck in the Friend Zone for all of the girls he was actually in good terms with.

He might even have the E.Q. (emotional quotient) of a child too, or at least that was what his mother and teachers kept telling him. Arrested development, if you would.

Outside the Dead Kids, he simply couldn't find a niche or clique in Fatima School and its roughly 800 high school students, specifically the 200 or so students in his year.

He rationalized that he couldn't relate to people his age. Despite what his mother suggested, he was friendlier towards people who were older than him, like college-aged students, teachers, or grownups.

However, even then he wasn't really all that close to anyone in school. Perhaps the truth of the matter was that he couldn't relate to people period and he was a gigantic weirdo or doofus.

He'd end up eating alone outside the cafeteria, near the boiler room, or under the mango trees with the circular concrete seats surrounding them again.

Anyway, at least he had an okay I.Q. (intelligence quotient). He sometimes made it to the Top 10 of the class. Sometimes. Bottom three, usually. So at least he wasn't completely pathetic academically.

He was back to his usual ritual of barely eating lunch and finding ways and places to hide himself in the school every recess and lunch break so he wouldn't look like (more of) a total loser to his peers.

Like eating inside the boy's bathroom or spending time at the computer lab or library instead of eating.

This was probably why Mark Zuniga—one of Gerry Jacinto's closest friends and right-hand man, also one of the guys Florante had difficulty killing in his oft-referenced nightmare—had always teased him of having the figure of a 9-year-old girl instead of a 14-year-old boy.

He was skin and bones practically. The wimpiest of kids. Certain girls in the varsity team could probably outdo him in athletics, he was so pathetic.

So it was probably this insecurity that led him to dream the dreams he dreamt. He had also called them nightmares because it involved him murdering his bullies.

However, if it were proverbial rather than literal murder—like him imagining their murder in his hands to let off some steam from their bullying without ever daring to do it for real—he'd understand how these dreams could be considered as the power fantasies of the powerless.

Like parents wanting to kill their misbehaving children without really meaning it.

Or maybe his being a terrible person who deserved all the bullying he ever got was just the dose of self-awareness he needed.

Maybe he should stop being so dependent on what other people thought. As long as he followed his own moral compass, they had no business dictating how he lived his life!

If he left them alone then they should leave him alone. Right?

As long as he didn't hurt anyone else (so again, he crossed his fingers that his dream murders were nothing more than dreams), he didn't need anyone's approval.

***

As the class returned from the lab to further discuss cell mitosis or whatever, Pascual played catch-up with Galang, walking beside him and asking him how he'd been doing.

Or more like Isaiah talked and Florante half-listened, waiting for the other shoe to drop in regards to them sharing memories of something that only happened in his, well, their dreams.

Maybe Florante misheard him the first time? He didn't know. He merely asked him for the time instead, wishing to change the subject.

"What time is it?" said Florante, who forgot to wear his watch.

"Let me see. It's skin thirty," Pascual said with a straight face while pointing at his bare wrist.

It took Florante a minute to "get it".

"Oh."

They then both shared a hearty laugh, with Florante laughing in spite of himself.

Dammit, Galang missed this. He missed talking his former best friend; this endearing guy and his sharp wit. Too bad their friendship went south in the end.

Pascual then told him about the rumors he heard about him.

How Florante had ended up with the infamous Dead Kids of the Fatima High School campus.

How he finally got his bullies to let up with their bullying by listing their names and sending them to his teacher. (A teacher actually did something after catching Florante's bullies in the act).

How he started wooing(!?) their classmate Jennifer Tolentino.

"I wasn't wooing anyone, don't be weird," Florante told Pascual off. "I just want to be better friends with her, that's all."

Or be friends again at all. They were supposed to be friends when they first met during the first day of school, but they then drifted apart. Kind of like the situation between Pascual and him, to be honest.

Florante avoided looking Isaiah in eye all this time out of embarrassment of being told a multitude of gossip, rumors, and half-truths about himself.

At the same time, he had to also avoid getting caught stealing glances at Jenny from time to time as she walked on ahead of them alongside Laura.

Her bespectacled face was such a distraction that he tried not to look at her as much as possible too, only to end up staring back at Pascual and his nonsense.

He didn't know where to look. The floor, perhaps? Or how about the ceiling?

There he was again, falling in love with another girl who gave him an ounce of attention. Or kissed him in his dreams.

Once back in the classroom, Florante returned to his seat and tried to listen to Ms. Del Mundo's lecture, who used an overhead projector to project transparencies onto the blackboard with the windows and shades closed.

He couldn't manage his thoughts. Was he hearing things with Pascual? Did he really say what he thought he heard him say?

***

For a change, as the bell rung and Biology class ended, Pascual continued talking to Galang. Usually, no one bothered to in their class.

As of late, before she went absent for a week, it had been Jenny, but only sometimes.

"Jenny seems friendlier to you now than before," was the icebreaker he went with. "You even had lunch with her with your gang."

'Humph. My gang, huh?' Florante thought, with Pascual avoiding calling them their infamous name of "Dead Kids".

To Isaiah, Galang went with, "Yeah, I guess," while also wondering aloud, "I wonder why she was absent for so long."

"There's been a cold bug spreading. Must've been the change in weather."

"Yeah, that must be it."

Florante frowned, though it felt more like the petulant pout of a child. He looked away while resisting the urge to stick his tongue out childishly at Isaiah for good measure.

He couldn't focus on his former best friend's chatter as they grabbed their bags with their P.E. (Physical Education) uniforms and proceeded to P.E. class at the gymnasium.

Mixed-gender volleyball at the gym didn't catch much of Florante's attention either. He ended up playing with Pascual and his friends though, which was a relief.

Usually, their P.E. teacher had to force one of the cliques or groups in Section St. Francis to include Florante with them.

Or he ended up with the rest of the social outcasts who couldn't find a group to team up with.

After doing warm-up exercises and partner drills, they had a simultaneous mini-tournament of sorts. Multiple five-member teams ended up doing a set of games until P.E. period was over.

Florante was in a team composed of four guys—two of them Isaiah and Florante himself—and one girl up against a team of three guys and two girls.

Naturally, Florante Galang sucked at P.E. in general and volleyball in particular.

His volleyball returns resulted in shots that went outside and teammates that covered his position so he wouldn't bungle the shot.

However, strangely enough, both Isaiah and even Jenny (who played against another team at an adjacent net) cheered him on, leading him to surprise himself by serving the volleyball decently, even scoring an ace or two.

Sure, their team lost in the end, but at least the unathletic Florante was able to somewhat contribute when normally he couldn't.

Well then. The day ended up better than he expected!

***

At the locker room, while the class either changed back to their regular uniforms or just gathered their belongings to head out of the school for dismissal time, Pascual continued talking to Florante, making him self-conscious.

The introvert felt tired from all the talking—well, half-listening—he did for so long. His social "health bar" was spent.

To explain, introverts tended to shy away from social gatherings because being in such situations took a toll on their energy. They could only take so much before becoming anxious or nervous wrecks.

Even though Pascual and Florante were having mostly one-on-one (or rather, one-sided) conversations instead of a more open social encounter with multiple people, Pascual's sudden over-friendliness after they'd acted like strangers for so long had depleted Florante's tolerance for this very social situation.

"…Oh, I remember that one time, in the grade school playground, you were playing alone, pretending to be Rambo or something, tying a bandanna on your forehead…!"

"All right, ALL RIGHT! That's enough," said Florante, who now focused his full attention on his ex-friend Pascual. "I get the picture."

By the way, his bullies caught him playing alone as a high school kid, since he spent his grade school in Makati.

"Sorry," apologized Isaiah. "You're not going to zap my brain to mush again, are you?"

This jolted Florante awake from any more random thoughts. He was hoping the earlier declaration from Pascual was just his imagination, but no such luck.

Galang's eyebrows knit together in concentration for the first time the whole day, like he just suddenly noticed that the things happening around him didn't make sense because he was merely dreaming.

Like someone between the verge of sleepiness and wakefulness.

He then exhaled, mumbled, "Susmaryosep," under his breath, and said, "No. I only have those powers when I'm dreaming, not in real life."

The daydreaming asthmatic didn't want to look like a fool and shoot nonexistent laser bullets at one of his bullies, thank you very much.

Isaiah gave him a quizzical look. "You can totally shoot your power beams or whatever right now."

Florante scoffed at the idea. "No, I can't. That's not how this works. I need to be dreaming in order for me to use those powers. Because none of it is real."

Pascual raised an eyebrow at that. "You sure about that?"

Galang also raised an eyebrow in kind. "What do you mean?"

So Isaiah clarified. "You don't need to dream to use your powers."

What. Now hold on a minute there!

"No, I can't. That wasn't real. That was just a dream," Florante dismissed the very notion until something else occurred to him.

"Hey, Pascual. How'd you know about my dreams?"

Although Isaiah had been talking up a storm since Biology class, Florante could now notice his hands gripping the edge of the bench they sat on in the locker with immense tension.

Like a squashed bed spring ready to uncoil.

Had Isaiah been acting this nervous around him this entire time? Was he talking nonstop to help calm his nerves?

Why was he so afraid of him…? Oh.

No please. Not this again. Not Florante questioning whether his dream happened or not again! Anything but that!

"Florante Galang," Isaiah Pascual said. "That wasn't a dream. You really did kill us all."

No. NO. That couldn't be. No, no, no. Shut up, Pascual.

Pascual continued. "Was that how you were able to cope with what happened? You waved off everything as a dream?"

"NO! What happened was a dream!" said Florante.

"You always had the power. It's as plain as the nose on your face," said Isaiah.

"But you can't see the nose on your face unless you look in a mirror," said Galang.

"Then let me be that mirror on your face. It wasn't a dream," said Pascual.

Florante was a good person. Or so he told himself. He didn't really kill all his bullies. He only imagined he did using the silliest and most childish of fantasies.

"Just because you were somehow able to reset everything back to the way things were doesn't mean you've completely undone what you did."

"SHUT UP!" Florante productively released his anger, malice, and frustrations in that dream because he was powerless in real life! Also, who had superpowers in real life? How absurd!

It was then that Florante noticed that Isaiah hadn't taken off his P.E. uniform yet even as the introvert himself immediately took those clothes off and changed into his school uniform.

"We remember everything. I remember everything you've done. And what a monster you were back then."

No no no nonono. Florante was not the monster Mammon accused him of! None of it was real! This wasn't real either! He was dreaming again, wasn't he?

Florante was bullied all his life and had never stood up for himself because he was scared that he'd get humiliated emotionally, tortured mentally, ostracized socially, or beat up physically.

The bullies in his life had always silenced him but the one time he struck back and silenced them instead, he was the bad guy?

How was that fair? He was solely responsible for losing control? For going werewolf? They could do whatever they wanted with him?

Before the asthmatic could let out a wheezy exhale, Isaiah disappeared from view then the whole world became a blur.

***

The drizzle of rain had become mist by the time they ended up suddenly in the streets, leaving a trail of devastation behind them.

It took a minute before Florante Galang realized that Isaiah Pascual had just pushed him from the gym lockers all the way through the soccer field, right past part of the high school building, to the back of the school wall, right into open traffic, with one hand to his chest.

They busted through wall, brick, concrete, and plaster like a bulldozer.

It all happened within a second. Or a fraction of a second. Before Galang's eyes could even blink or his mind could register what had happened.

Wait. So Pascual was actually an angel too? Or maybe even a demon? An Ophanim or a Minion? Like the spaghetti monster or the maelstrom man?

The impact should've caved in Florante's chest. Not to mention his bones broken and dislocated in 30 different places.

He might've even ended up like roadkill too, if not for his Ophanim halo that he learned to control back when he faced against the eldritch shadow man.

Thankfully, a combination of light energy and gale winds formed a protective vacuum cocoon around Galang's body that kept him safe from harm. His own halo effect, if you would.

Isaiah just looked at the untouched Florante, his palm outstretched, his jaw agape, before he gave him a sheepish grin. "Hehehe. Didn't expect that, did you?"

"You have superpowers?"

"Yep. See? And so do you… AH! Please don't blow my brains out!"

Isaiah flinched or perhaps even overreacted at Florante stepping towards him, with him unleashing a flurry of blows.

"I wasn't! OW! Stop punching me!" One of the fists hit Florante's nose before he could summon his light wind dome again and blocked the rest of the blows.

Something else then dawned to Florante as he surveyed how far they went out. "You… you almost killed me!"

He considered taking a swing at his former friend, but settled with attempting to catch him.

However, Isaiah disappeared the instant Galang tried grabbing his arm. Like a fly disappearing before the fly swatter could hit it.

By instinct, Florante jumped back into the sidewalk as a car beeped at him.

He then looked around. Several onlookers began gathering around the scene of devastation, particularly near what was left of what was once a wall and a planter's box.

Isaiah ran away and Florante was about to follow suit when he felt something coming at him from behind. 'What…?'

Instead of multiple supersonic punches, Galang got hit by a single spine-tingling punch that actually dented his halo shield and rattled him to the bones.

Then it hit him again. And again.

",..Can't catch me, Slowpoke!"

Multiple Pascuals kept appearing and disappearing, punching his weakening halo shield with a punch that came at Florante stronger and faster by the second.

What was this? In his panic, Florante figured what Isaiah did. He ran in a tight circle at supersonic speeds and incrementally increased the momentum of his punch until it reached an irresistible power at an unstoppable level.

Sneaky bastard.

The more time passed, the faster the momentous punch got and the harder it was for Florante's halo to resist it. Isaiah might actually break through his hallowed field. What was he supposed to do?

"…Lightning BOLT!"

Florante thusly summoned lightning from the drizzling skies just as the infinite mass punch shattered his halo vacuum field, which electrocuted Pascual while energized Galang.

This jolted and froze Pascual, but his forward momentum remained, which prompted Florante to finally dodge one of the continuous punches with the speed of racecar going through a racetrack that he'd been absorbing all that time with his halo.

The resulting blockbuster explosion blasted both of them thirty or so feet clear into the gray skies.

***

The next thing Florante knew, he'd landed on the roof(?!) of the Fatima High School Building. What the hell.

He looked around him to see where he was. He felt a tingling sensation travel across his extremities. His acrophobia (fear of heights) acted up again.

Or maybe that was the millions of volts of electricity he'd just absorbed before making Isaiah miss, resulting in a blast from his massive punch that jettisoned them from the streets of Mandaluyong to the rooftops of Fatima High.

It was times like this that convinced him that the time when he jumped from rooftop to rooftop in order to experiment upon his powers was just a dream.

An acrophobic would never do anything as crazy as that for real. Also, he had superpowers. Of course it was a crazy dream.

He looked around to make sure he was indeed where he was. That was when he noticed the still figure of Isaiah Pascual.

"Dammit, you weren't this powerful before," was what Florante thought Pascual murmured under his breath.

'Before…?' thought Florante. What did he mean by that?

However, as Galang braced himself for another assault, he realized Pascual's body still hadn't recovered from the electrocution.

Also, because they were on the roof deck of the building, his former best friend has less running room for his running punch.

Most importantly, Florante still had enough energy left from absorbing the millions of volts of electricity from the lightning strike. Perhaps 1.21 gigawatts of power. Perhaps even more than that.

A billion joules of electricity. Enough to power dozens of homes for a day. Or 10 million light bulbs at the same time. Maybe even a flux capacitor on a time-traveling DeLorean.

Should he do it? Should he test out whether this was a dream or not?

Should he hit him with his five-fingered Light Array bullets, which was now practically his finishing move? Or he could use both hands and fire all ten shots?

Nah. That was overkill. Instead, he elected to focus his accumulated power on one closed fist, cocked his arm back, and then shouted, "Thunder BOLT…!"

It made sense. Even though the high school building had a narrow roof deck, Isaiah could still dodge. So Florante might as well shoot his thread-thin concentrated laser that cut through the air and produced a powerful "thunder" or "sonic boom" shockwaves with a wider destructive area.

However, he hesitated at the last minute when he heard Pascual ask, "Thunder Bolt? So what's different between that and that Lightning Bolt you shot earlier?"

Florante couldn't help himself. It had been his pet peeve ever since he saw "Thunder Bolt" and "Lightning Bolt" used interchangeably in anime, manga, action games, and RPGs.

"Well, obviously, a Lightning Bolt is the bolt of electricity. The thunder comes after the lightning bolt, correct? It's the rumbling sound from the shockwaves of a sonic boom. So to me Thunder Bolt is basically just making creating a sonic boom."

"Oh, I see. I never thought of it that way."

The two then just stared at each other for a hot minute, with Galang allowing his rivulets of electric might from his fist fade away as he relaxed his shoulders and stopped cocking back his fist.

Pascual himself finally relaxed his own stance, which looked like a runner who was ready to turn and bolt out of there.

***

The two former best friends sat down on the roof deck overlooking Fatima High.

Florante sat down beside Pascual, with both doing the "Indian sit" or "Indian style" sitting position with their legs crossed underneath them, which was often linked to stereotypical portrayals of Native Americans.

It was believed to be rooted on a meditation or yoga pose from India known as the "Lotus Position".

They had shared a hearty laugh, with Isaiah stating, "Of course only you can come up with something as nerdy as that!" while Florante himself protested, "You're the one to speak! You were the one who brought that up to me!"

Pascual blinked three times then tilted his head to the side. "I did? I don't remember."

"You totally did! That's why I made it a point to use a different kind of attack when doing a Thunder Bolt and Lightning Bolt!" said a grinning, nostalgic Galang.

The two pals then sat down while the rest of the world stood still. The damage they'd wrought on the rooms, walls, and streets earlier slowly but surely disappeared, as though they didn't even touch anything.

Curious. Then again, this only affirmed Florante's stance that his actions were from dreams. Perhaps extra-lucid dreams than normal, but dreams nonetheless.

"Maaan, I can't believe you've grown this strong already," said Isaiah with a scratch of his cheek. "I guess I should've expected it. You were among the first to awaken, weren't you?"

"I guess? What do you mean by awaken, though?" he asked.

"Just what like it sounds like," Pascual said. "It's when you wake up your powers."

So it wasn't just him. It was also Gerry Jacinto. And Laura Reyes. And now, Isaiah Pascual. They all "awakened" to having their own superpowers along with Florante.

"Hey, Pascual," Florante called out, "you're an angel too, aren't you?"

"…Angel?" Isaiah said.

"That's what Jenny Tolentino called us," Galang continued, brushing his damp hair bangs back and heaving a heavy, asthmatic wheeze. "Angels. Demons. Either or."

"Demons, huh?" Pascual rubbed his shoulder. "Yeah, I guess you can call her that. Maybe even monster."

"…Her?"

Pascual hesitated from revealing anything more. "Sooo how does Jenny know all this?"

Florante replied, "She's one of us. She's also an angel."

Pascual smirked. "Isn't that just your crush on her talking?"

"What? No," Florante denied, but he has second thoughts. So far, everything tracked. Jenny confirmed they were angels then they fought against multiple demons.

She was telling him the truth, right? But then again, Pascual seemed unaware of the origins of their powers as he was before he met up with Jennifer.

She must've told them the truth. He trusted her.

"Wait, she hasn't talked to you about it?" asked Florante.

"No, it's the first time I learned she even has powers like us," said Pascual.

"That's strange," said Florante. "So you didn't know we're angels and demons?"

"Not a clue," said Pascual. "For all I know, we've become like the X-Men or something. Mutants who've awakened our superpowers, you know?"

"That makes sense," said a wistful Galang. "We might be the next evolution of man. Deities. Or gods. Or heroes."

"Or villains. Or demons. Or monsters…" Isaiah trailed off.

"What happened?" Florante asked.

"I-It's nothing," Isaiah said, but then exhaled and shrugged. "It's about Regina…"

"Regina Mariano?" Florante repeated, remembering the girl as the one who said he had fetal alcohol syndrome. He also remembered blasting her until she turned to ash in his fever dream. "What happened to her?"

***

By the time Florante and Isaiah jumped out of the rooftop, everything went back to normal. No hole in the wall. No broken glass windows. No interrupted traffic outside of the school. It was if they'd never fought.

Another reset had happened, which made Galang presume that his fever dream was one of those resets. Nevertheless, he had to face facts.

He unfortunately did kill his classmates, but something happened so that it never happened and faded away like a dream.

Regardless, Isaiah gave Florante the lowdown on what happened to Regina.

She had awakened her powers like Isaiah, Jennifer, and Florante did. In Jenny's case, she awoke as an angel avatar many decades ago, in the 1960s.

Long story short, Regina had awakened as a mindless Ophanim or perhaps even a Minion. Like the crawling chaos or the spaghetti monster from before, she ended up becoming an out of control monster that Isaiah couldn't stop.

Come to think of it, Florante left out that little detail of him visiting Jenny's apartment in his dreams after seeing her name-alike in a yearbook at the library.

However, because of the nature of their powers, he had an inkling suspicion that his visit to the Tolentino abode actually happened.

Like how his brief battle with Isaiah actually happened before their collective lucid fantasy disappeared right in their own eyes.

God dammit all to hell. So he really did kill his classmates. He really did kill Laura.

A wave of shame washed over him. What he thought was him releasing pent-up stress harmlessly was him actually harming his bullies as revenge. Like a school shooter run amok.

If everything hadn't reset to normal with everyone living and their school left in one piece, he'd be no better than the bullies he so hated.

No, he'd be worse than them. He turned what was supposed to be an eye for an eye revenge and took an arm and a leg as payment for his social humiliation instead.

Never mind, "An eye for an eye makes the world go blind". The term, "An eye for an eye" was created with people like him in mind, who went overboard with their revenge.

He didn't know what to feel. On one hand, he felt horrified, guilty, and ashamed after realizing he had hurt his classmates for real. On the other hand, shamed as he was to admit it, he felt a measure of schadenfreude for mostly, um, unleashing his frustrations on his tormentors.

However, he wanted to crawl under a rock and die over the realization that he really did kill his former crush, Laura Reyes, as collateral damage for his mad killing spree. Ditto his teacher who merely got in his way.

Everything went back to normal and everyone ended up alive, but he still felt dirty realizing he really did all those things. He wasn't so innocent after all.

No wonder Jenny kept acting so guarded around him. On top of him stalking her! He needed to have more self-awareness!

The more he thought about it, the more he realized he was screwed.

What he originally thought was harmless was now considered beyond the pale. He felt like someone pulled the rug from under him.

What if there was no reset button? What if they stayed dead? He'd have ruined their lives and his own life forever.

He didn't mean to. He just wanted them to leave him alone. Even if they didn't end up friends or acquaintances, just let him be. Let bygones be bygones, dammit.

That breakfast, he ate his sandwich and drank his orange juice in a hurry. For once, he felt somewhat excited to go to school. Not because he was some nerd looking forward to tests and quizzes or something.

He certainly didn't go there to meet up with any friends save for his Dead Kids acquaintances. No, if he was being honest with himself, he knew he was eager to get to school to see Jennifer Tolentino again.

No, no. Well, yes. He did want to see his crush again. But aside from that, he was looking forward to using his powers for good for once—to help a (former) best friend in need save his new girl friend (not girlfriend) from herself.

If anything, it was his way of alleviating his guilt over actually killing his classmates for real! He owed it to all the bullies he killed.

Hmmm. So if memory served him correct, the angels who'd been chosen as candidates on the position of Archangel Gabriel was Florante, Isaiah, Regina, Gerry, and Laura.

Maybe also Mark Zuniga? No, no. Mark only stabbed Florante. Gerry was the one who awakened his own powers, followed by Laura. In his "fever dream" that wasn't really a dream.

***

Regina Mariano appeared normal enough when she got to school. However, as Isaiah Pascual would explain later, she'd actually gotten mixed up with a "bad crowd".

If Florante could hazard a guess, she must've ended up being manipulated by another full-fledged demon avatar like Mammon.

They all attended classes like usual, with Isaiah giving Florante looks here and there to remind him of their plans to, "save" Regina after school.

From how Isaiah described her, her Ophanim/Minion form or biblically accurate angel/demon form was reminiscent of a geometric form. An object instead of an organism. An abstraction instead of something concrete.

Isaiah admitted he was no match against her and her growing power, but he thought that maybe with Florante's help, they could beat the sense out of his friend.

Galang told Pascual about how Ophanims were actually awakened with the purpose of becoming avatars of famous angels or demons like Gabriel or Raphael. However, it hadn't sunk in that Isaiah, Regina, and Florante were bound to fight for the position of Gabriel's avatar.

Florante wasn't too clear on how this avatar business worked himself. He made a mental footnote on asking Jennifer more about it later.

Oh right. Jennifer. Should Florante end up facing off with her too? He ended up breaking his promise to her to forget about this angel and demon business.

He felt at times that Jenny seemed so guarded around him. Even hostile at times. Seeing that he had every intention of breaking his promise to her, maybe her behavior was warranted.

No. He had to do this favor to Isaiah. To make it up for killing two of his bullies for real in his fever dream.

He hadn't quite figured out how their powers worked or why things went back to normal after one of them was defeated, but… he was totally doing this right now.

He'd apologize to Jenny later. For now, he had to concentrate on Isaiah's friend Regina.

Sure, Regina wasn't the most pleasant of classmates to Florante, but he really wanted to make up for the sins he committed that haven't actually been erased.

Some of his bullies actually remembered him killing them. Remembered his sins.

His sins that actually happened and were real, despite them disappearing from reality like forgotten dreams.

***

After dismissal time…

It rained particularly heavily that afternoon, such that it took every ounce of the clumsy Florante's concentration to make it out of the school without slipping on a puddle or getting his pants wet from wayward splashes.

He even managed to cling to the nearby chain-link fence of the school's entrance and exit to save himself from falling.

He shook his head, wishing the ground would swallow him whole. As amazing as he and Pascual probably looked earlier with their superhuman feats, he looked downright pathetic with his actual clumsiness.

If he were a girl, perhaps he'd perhaps look more endearing instead of pathetic, like a damsel in distress even. As it was, he felt less of a man for being an uncoordinated klutz with not a single athletic bone in his body.

It was times like this that made him doubt (perhaps hope) that his imagined sins or dark fantasies against his classmates remained as such.

Not that hoping for their misfortune subconsciously was any better but at least it didn't really happen.

Regina Mariano had been hanging out with these shady people after dismissal time and her friend circle—of which Isaiah was a part of—was getting worried about it.

Appropriately enough, she seemed like the poster child for an after-school special on wayward kids who hang out with the wrong crowd.

As typical of such specials, Regina was your average tomboyish girl next door who wore a ponytail haircut and sported a dyed brunette hair that stood out from her tan skin.

Regardless, Pascual insisted that her meetings with these questionable and suspicious persons had something to do with both him and her awakening with their angelic powers.

So what was Regina's deal? Pascual alleged she got into contact with some talent agency and they were going to make her into a star.

However, they instead awakened her angel self and turned her into an outright monster with their schemes.

Pascual attempted to save her, with the stress also triggering his own angel self, but she proved too powerful for him.

As her guy best friend, Isaiah followed her to their offices, feeling that something was afoot. From what Florante could surmise, Regina was a bit of a naïve country bumpkin and the agency was taking advantage of her and various other girls.

That was news to Florante, who only knew Regina for her mean girl antics with him whenever they came across each other.

Then things got weird from there.

For his part, Galang could only wonder if his other encounters with Ophanims or Minions involved such schemes.

The spaghetti monster seemed to fly out of nowhere at the school parking lot. Meanwhile, the undefinable tall shadow man was someone he and Jenny detected along with Mammon in the middle of Makati.

Jeez. Florante could only shake his head. That American-looking white guy was Mammon? The Mammon? Or at least an avatar of his. And Florante himself was supposed to be the avatar of the Archangel Gabriel to boot.

Or he would once he went past being an Ophanim and evolved into Cherubim and Seraphim.

Regardless, Florante skipped his school service ride home in order to commute with Isaiah to somewhere in Ortigas on Isaiah's dime.

They considered using their powers to get there, but they decided to save their energy and use it on saving Regina from herself instead.

***

The duo sneaked (snuck?) around the conference hall where a seeming talent show took place. Some were on stage singing and dancing. Others served as the audience.

On the front row were some well-dressed judges, including a drop-dead gorgeous Caucasian lady who had the looks of a Hollywood actress.

She had blonde hair complimented by her blue eyes. She also wore a flashy gown and shoes that matched her shoes yet seemingly decorated a closed heart.

At the back of the stage were various contestants with numbered sashes, among them was Regina herself.

What was all this now? A talent show? Star Search? Tanghalan ng Kampeon (Contest of Champions)? Or perhaps a beauty pageant like Miss Universe or Binibining Pilipinas (Miss Philippines)?

'What are they planning?' Florante wondered. The setup seemed far too elaborate just to awaken the angel (or demon) within Regina. What was this supposed to accomplish?

Using Pascual's teleportation-like speed, they got through the security guards and ended up at the back of the conference room's audience, with them none the wiser.

It was actually pretty packed in there. Standing room only. So Isaiah and Galang stood and observed what was happening.

In front of them was an ordinary talent show. Like an amazing male singer who sung a Whitney Houston song while sounding nearly exactly like Whitney Houston with his impressive falsetto or female "head voice" range.

A minute later, there was a group of break dancers on stage. From there, a long-haired rocket with an electric guitar did a three-minute guitar solo. Afterwards, another singer, a girl, who was classically trained in opera and sung an operatic version of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".

The pair of classmates stood there, mesmerized by the amount of talent before them. Applauding along with the rest of the audience.

Then it happened. Just like with Mammon's Minion, both Florante and Pascual felt the presence of their fellow angel. Or demon. Celestial being, perhaps.

The curtains opened and they saw Regina arrive on stage. It was apparently her turn to sing. However, instead of singing, she instead began to transform.

They then heard a high-pitched screech, like metal crunching on metal, that became fast and painfully loud. Started, Florante looked up, startled.

Galang saw several things at the same time.

Nothing moved in slow motion the way it did in films. Rather, his brain felt like it worked overtime due to an adrenalin rush, allowing him to absorb multiple scenes register in his brain at once.

Maybe it wasn't the same case with the speedster beside him who stared at what happened before him with wide eyes and an unhinged jaw. He couldn't tell.

Regina obviously stood out from the sea of faces staring back at her since she was center stage in this talent show and all, with them wearing the same faces of horror that Pascual did. That Florante probably did as well.

The contestants of the talent show started glowing, as though they themselves had a halo of aura like angels would.

The tendrils of this glowing energy then got sucked around Regina, who herself begun singing a Regine Velasquez song that Florante couldn't quite place.

Florante thought the violently winding soundwaves from Regina's song would converge into a climactic ante, like rapids to a huge waterfall, but then it became a calm lake that only produced ripples. Just the purest song.

The energies from the audience swirled along with the brightness of the auras of the contestants, but they were weaker comparatively weaker.

This made everyone act lethargic, with the seated viewers slumping down on their chairs and the people standing crumple down on the floor in a dead faint.

All of them did so except the two angels at the back—Regina's classmates—and the judges near the front of the stage. Particularly the pretty woman who looked like Hollywood actress.

"…Pascual?" Regina said, waking from her reverie and breathing into her microphone. Her eyebrows then furrowed as she squinted and focused her eyes on the person beside Pascual. "Wait. Is that… Florante Galang? Why is he with you, Isaiah?"

"Ay palaka! (Ah frog!) She caught on to us! The jig is up!" exclaimed Pascual, which only pissed Florante off.

"Susmaryosep, Pascual! What's the plan now?" complained Galang. "You do have a plan just in case she noticed us, don't you?"

"I didn't think things through! Sue me!" said Isaiah. "Just… help me with her, okay?! Use your powers!"

The Hollywood beauty took a cursory look at the two high school students in uniform and asked Regina, "Friends of yours?"

Regina stared back and forth between the svelte woman and her classmates then nodded, "They're my classmates, Miss Spelvin," she said aloud, through the microphone.

"Please. Call me Georgina," Miss Spelvin do declared.

It was then that Florante and Pascual realized that Miss Spelvin didn't open her mouth when she spoke. Like with Mammon, she communicated telepathically. On a frequency only fellow angels and demons could listen to.

Daring to be brave and remembering his former best friend's request to save Regina from the influence of literal demons, Galang shot a Thunderbolt at Miss Spelvin instead of his other bully classmate.

The spellbinding Spelvin swatted the Thunderbolt away, which created an ear-splitting sonic boom that made the whole place rumble.

For his part, Florante had already covered his ears, but soon Pascual and even Regina followed suit in covering their ears as well.

The three then bore witness to Spelvin changing form from a beautiful blue-eyed blonde Hollywood actress in a blue dress to a a sultry red-skinned demoness with wings, fingernail claws, the wild hair of a harridan, and a black dress seemingly made of the darkest starless night.

An improvement from Mammon's fat gremlin form that Florante and Jenny exposed back in Guadalupe Church for sure, but still. Her true form was a She-Devil?

Georgina Spelvin's lips curved into a knowing smile. "Now who told you that's my true form, li'l boy?"

"Wait, you and Jenny fought another demon like her?" said Isaiah, startling Galang.

This telepathic communication between fellow angels and demons was more trouble than it was worth!

As Spelvin strode towards Regina, the judges beside her turned to dust, which made the hairs at the back of Florante's neck stand on end while beside him, Isaiah turned blue in horror.

She then told her telepathically without regard to the two angels who'd overhear, "Now's your chance to use the power you've absorbed from this talent show to take control of your Minion form."

And soon both Galang and Pascual saw clear as day the literal talent flow like neon tendrils of spiritual energy from the unconscious contestants to Spelvin's hand into a floating sphere of power.

They'd weaponized their passion and used their love to their abusive advantage. How devilish of them to do so, but that was to be expected.

Quite a bit of the metaphysical ball of talent then got transferred unto Regina in the form of a seeming solar flare.

Then, like a ghost, Spelvin vanished. Fading into existence.

From there, Regina opened her mouth, resisted the urge to transform into her geometric self, and sung a song to end the world.

***

Dammit.

Why did it feel like the world was always at stake when Florante dealt with an awakening angel? Or demon?

Regina sang a lyricless hymn of the damn that warped their perception of reality. The sound waves from the song kept Florante's attempts at shooting her down with projectiles from hitting her.

Meanwhile, on Isaiah's part, he didn't know what to do. He didn't want to hurt his friend and classmate. He certainly didn't wish to do that momentum-filled punch on her.

However, she might even be more powerful now than she was when she went berserk with her first awakening.

So Pascual ran away.

…What?

Regina took a break from her singing that rendered every energy projectile Florante shot at her into harmless heat and light. "What are you doing even here, you fetal alcohol syndrome baby?"

"AH! You called me that again! Even after I told the teacher on you for bullying!" exclaimed Florante, who doubled his efforts by shooting Lightning Bolts at himself and holding enough power inside his body to resist Regina's repellant sound waves.

"You're such a li'l snitch, you dork," Regina said with a roll of her eyes. She then started humming with a specific frequency that resonated with the rest of the building.

Florante considered asking her if she remembered him killing her in his fever dream, but he pushed his thoughts away before they could fully form into words in his head.

The sound waves from her voice came at shorter-wave vibrato, almost like a bird's trill, which echoed across the amphitheater room then transmitted to the rest of the structure, making its very foundations shake and dance to the beat of her wordless song.

And so the room and the building started to rumble and shake from the droning hum from Regina's powerful singing pipes.

Soon, all the glass panes and mirrors on the amphitheater cracked and went on the verge of shattering. Hairline cracks appeared everywhere while the floor below them and the ceiling above them moved.

Florante hesitated, with him second-guessing himself now that he realized his past dreams weren't dreams and he and everyone else could die for real if the whole building were to collapse on them.

However, just in the nick of time, Pascual returned, blasting through the wall from behind Miss Mariano and pushing, not punching or striking, her forward.

It took the next second for Florante to realize Pascual might've probably run the entire globe and back to produce enough kinetic energy to penetrate through Regina's melodic defenses with supersonic might.

Regardless, that momentous push did the trick. It stopped the building from crumbling just in time.

However, to Pascual's horror, he went overboard and built up enough momentum to push Mariano away with the strength of a freight train.

"AAHH…! Pascual…!?"

"Oh no! GINA…! I'm SORRY!"

For a split-second, the sonic siren changed into the geometric object Isaiah described her as. She was hard to miss, with her occupying most of the amphitheater.

She probably shifted into that form for self-preservation's sake. Otherwise, she would've turned into a messy red stain of blood and guts on the ceiling and walls.

Florante couldn't believe what he just saw. He also couldn't react in time before the geometric fallen angel did a banshee shriek that blew him away and shattered his eardrums.

"AUGH!" Galang cried out, and when he gnashed his teeth, he felt the enamel on them crack as well, thus worsening his pain.

The supersonic screech of her Minion self lacked the controlled nuance of her human form's song for sure.

However, for Pascual's part, he couldn't be happier. He grinned and exhaled in relief. "Oh, thank goodness, Gina! You're not dea… URK?!"

Regina Mariano finally shifted back to her human self, her hands throttling Isaiah by his neck. "You almost killed me, you jerk!"

"Wait (cough), I-I didn't mean to…!" Isaiah choked out.

"Whatever. I'm going to control this power and become queen of this world. Just you wait and see," she said, dropping Pascual to the floor before she picked up the microphone and began singing again, her heel firmly stepping on Isaiah's face.

A half-conscious Florante thought, "Rule the world…?" Huh. Why didn't he think of doing that when he first got his powers?

The compromised position Pascual had, with him getting stepped on by Regina also made Galang's cheeks warm. Mariano kept Isaiah pinned down to the ground by stepping on his face, huh? He wished it were him instead.

He shook his head to wave off such sordid thoughts. He needed to set his priorities straight.

He was too shortsighted with this angel and demon avatar thing that he didn't realize the full implication of his gifts. He'd rather pettily get back at his bullies than aim at something higher.

But to be honest, why would he want to conquer the world? What good would that do? So he'd become President of Earth? A clueless student like him would have more responsibility? Who'd want that?

Galang attempted to get up and move, but the ground started shaking again. The building creaked and swayed, like a house of cards about to topple over.

What was he supposed to do now? Her singing served as her shield against 100 percent of Florante's myriad of projectiles. His own halo shield couldn't block off Regina's sound waves either. He was a sitting duck.

Also, if he didn't feel like killing the crawling chaos Minion from before, that went double or even triple for his classmate. Not that he could at this rate, but he definitely didn't want to.

Whatever rage he felt for his bullies back in his fever dream faded away, replaced with shame and embarrassment after he realized he killed them for real back then.

He could only helplessly stare as the ceiling plaster cracked and buckle while bits of dust and debris fell on the unconscious contestants and audience.

They were about to serve as more collateral damage from the awakening of yet another (fallen) angel.

According to Pascual, the people who died when he first tried stopping Regina's rampage the first time she awoke remained dead.

They didn't revert back to living like with what happened when Jenny and Florante defeated the spaghetti monster and the living maelstrom.

Where was his power and creativity when saving lives? Was he only useful against helpless people, like his bullies before some of them discovered they too had powers?

He was so helpless against Regina that he might as well turn into an Ophanim himself to battle her with full force. He didn't remember his monstrous gyroscopic and multi-eyed form having ears, after all. Just endless revolving eyes.

"Wait, you have an monster form too?!" said Isaiah without thinking after hearing Florante's thoughts, as though forgetting (or not believing) Florante claiming they were angels with alternate, monstrous "true" forms.

Oh, right. Angels and demons could sense and communicate telepathically with one another. Florante should keep his thoughts to himself. Isaiah accidentally overheard his thoughts.

Hold on a minute. He could project his thoughts to those two, couldn't he?

He got it all wrong. He had his priorities straight from the start.

So he stared and focused on his classmates while making his concrete thoughts known to them even when he, a socially awkward teenager, would normally have trouble expressing himself.

The two seemed unaware of how they looked, what with Regina stepping on Isaiah but hesitating to hurt him or finish him off while Isaiah himself didn't seem to mind it one bit.

Also, from the angle where Pascual lay, he could actually look up from under Regina's dress.

The two received the message loud and clear.

Regina screamed and covered herself up while an apologetic Isaiah reassured it wasn't what it looked like.

Mariano did a swift stomp at Isaiah's head that would've squashed it like a watermelon had he not stood up in time. "Manyakis ka! (You pervert!)" she exclaimed. "You're both perverts!"

"You really are a snitch, Florante!" shouted Pascual at his former best friend while backpedaling deftly across multiple unconscious contestants and audience members.

For that fraction of a second though, Regina left herself wide open. So Florante shot her full of light bullets to force her to change into her Ophanim/Minion form.

"LIGHT ARRAY!"

All ten of Florante's Light Bullets hit their target, with each going off like the electromagnetic pulse version of blockbuster bombs.

Also, Galang had the presence of mind to envelop himself in his electric wind halo and push Regina backwards from the stadium through several walls up until they were outside the building to save the unconscious people inside the amphitheater from harm.

"Ah! Florante, you bastard…!" the backpedaling Pascual, uh, forward-pedaled towards the pair. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"What do you think I'm doing? I'm saving everyone before… AH!"

Then, from outside the venue, right in the middle of Mandaluyong, Regina Mariano began to change and shift forms.

Like with the flying spaghetti monster, Regina's true angel/demon form towered over Florante and Isaiah like a gigantic geometric monument. A floating blue pyramid that might as well be an alien ship. Or a tinted Star Destroyer from Star Wars.

'Now what?' thought Florante, which only made Pascual scream at him harder. 'Oh right. You can still hear me, huh?'

"Now its you who didn't think things through!?" Isaiah screeched. He then saw images from Galang's memory flash before his eyes.

Of Florante killing both him and Regina.

With misty eyes and a sniffle, Florante said, "I don't want to kill her again. Or hurt her any further."

She actually forced him to act because she was about to kill all those people back in the amphitheater herself.

"Florante, look out!" a voice from behind them said.

Their world went topsy-turvy again, and Galang wasn't sure if the Minion form of the demonic and geometric pyramid Regina was responsible.

The next thing he knew, he saw darkness just before he heard the shattering crunch of a car folding around a truck bed. He then realized he'd been wrapped in a cocoon of vines from head to toe.

The green tendrils receded from his person before he attempted breaking free of them. He then got up in time to see Jennifer Tolentino entangling Pascual with those same vines, a trickle of blood flowing from her forehead, her signature glasses missing.

"Jenny…!" blurted out a confused Florante, not knowing what to say.

"You broke your promise, Flor," whispered Jenny, the words filling Galang with shame. "We'll talk about this later."

Then, from right beside them, Florante saw double. Two Pascuals.

"Wha…?" Galang trailed off, at a loss for words. The second Pascual, he realized, was the one who asked him to watch out. So who was the first Pascual…?

The vine-entangled Isaiah Pascual smirked and changed back to the Hollywood beauty from before. Miss Georgina Spelvin, if Florante recalled correctly.

He didn't have the chance to notice anything else when he realized a van was headed their way. The geometric form of Regina had started singing again, and things beyond Galang's ken started happening all around them.

The vehicle spun and slid, on the verge of colliding with them all—Florante, Jenny, and the two Pascuals.

Without looking, Jenny

"Asmodeus," was what Jenny called the Pascual imposter instead. The imposter who could do somehow also mimicked the real deal's abilities.

The fake Isaiah cackled then shifted form back to the gorgeous blue-eyed blonde from before. "Raphael. I've heard you're in town from Mammon."

"What are you doing with my classmates?" Jenny the Raphael avatar demanded.

Spelvin smirked a spellbinding sneer. "I'm doing to them what you should've done a long time ago. I'm rousing them from their slumber, Raphael."

One thing was for sure. It was about time Florante took a second look at that dream journal of his.

***

To Be Continued…

The first incarnation of "Fantasy of Evolution" in my mind back in the early 2000s involved Gabriel De Angeles (currently Florante Galang) ending up seeing his best friend J.D. (reminiscent of Isaiah Pascual) dying because of the War of Angels and Demons.

Also, yes. The Ophanim/Minion form of Regina Mariano is reminiscent of Ramiel the Geometric Angel from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Fascinating how stories and creations change as you yourself develop into a person and as an author, huh?

Farewell, Abdiel

#fantasy of evolution #fictionpress.com #original fiction #urban fantasy #gabriel #raphael #gabriel de angeles #ramiel #evangelion #asmodeus #isaiah pascual #florante galang #jennifer tolentino #regina mariano #georgina spelvin #neon genesis evangelion

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