Chronos Shift

The Dogma

~ Dogmas have been around the world for as long humans have existed. The first ever possessing all three, his Dogmas divided to his three children who passed it along their children, and their children’s children. Ordinary human beings co-existed with us, being a helping hand in tasks that were difficult for the common folk. However, a sinister mind devised to use her powers with malicious intent. Burning houses, terrorizing villages, bringing about total chaos. Nevertheless, the good always trumps evil. This event caused widespread abhorrence to the Dogma-wielders. In fear that it would happen again, the United Nations has passed a law where suspected Dogma-wielders will be stripped off with their power by cutting out an excess part of their brain responsible for their powers–the Vehementia Complex. Our population lost a hundred as for every second that ticks by. So, all of us went into hiding, a secret society where Dogma-wielders are to live peacefully. But, a handful of us got sick of hiding, and they formed the Umbra Corporation, recruiting and even birthing Dogma-wielders through inhumane experiments done from stolen infants. A genesis of new world they say, where the Dogmas run free and the others shiver at their presence. ~

 My friends’ mouth were all agape. Just staring into my mom’s eyes from her convoluted backstory about our powers. The silence in the room was deafening, only the breaths of each one escaping their perplexed mouth. We’re all seated at large marble table, in velvet, cushioned seats.

 “Guys…You all okay?” Mike cutting the silence in the table.

 Everyone still silent. Maybe processing the insane amount of information my mom has dropped on them.

 Trust my mom to make everything dramatic and forget ordinary people’s capacity to comprehend.

 I sigh in regret. “We shouldn’t have told them.” I whisper to my mom as I stare upon Arronn who looks like all life has drained from his face, his gone paler than usual.

 Shit, that’s right, he has the Custodio, the ‘protect’ Dogma.

 “Hey!” I shout to the bar, still the others not flinching, “what’s the name of the hologram again?” I ask Mike.

 “Just shout hologram,” he raises an index finger to pause my attempts, “Hologram!”

 Peeew!

 A blue, blurry image of a man in a suit appears before us with a metal tray parked on his palm. “What can I be of service to you, master?”

 “Give us The Bomb set to explode for 10 seconds and place it on the table, thank you.” Mike commands.

 “Certainly.” The hologram disappears and after a second, brings us a shiny, black bomb with the fuse already lit up and places it on the end of the table.

 The bomb rolls to the center and four metallic legs spring from the bottom, and rectangle sliding down to reveal an alarming, red timer set to 10 seconds.

 “10.9.8.” A female, robotic voice counting down.

 “WHAT!” Blake breaks free from the sewn-shut mouths club.

 “OH MY GOD!” Tara screams as each and everyone of them shuffle from their seats, trying to get away. Alex tripping over his chair and scurrying to get away. Blake screams as he hits the bar and falls ungraciously to the other side with a resounding ‘ouch’, and all the girls hug each other muttering ‘we’re gonna die’ and ‘I haven’t flirted with James Maverick in class 2!’. Almost everyone flee from their seats, but, Arronn tilts his head and stares at the bomb.

 “3.2.”

 Arronn closes his eyes and reopens once more, now a glowing blue color. A raging orb appears on his hand, suddenly, he balls it up to a fist. An electric blue field appears around the bomb, with a revolving shield symbol.

 “1”

 The bomb releases a colorful explosion of confetti, a pale and glossy mix.

 Fuck! I can’t take it anymore.

 I start to guffaw along with Mike, who was also stifling his laughter. Amused from the horrified faces in our friends’ faces.

 “You all are jerks!” Hollie snaps.

 “It was worth it!” I snort.

 I feel a paining ache in my stomach from laughing too hard in their reaction. Alex rushes to my side to which I use Perversio and teleport away in a flurry of grey clouds with green electricity. I slip my tongue out to mock him and laugh some more in a much safe distance from the guy-that-can-crush-me-to-a-pulp. Tears start to stream down my face and the ache in my stomach growing.

 I should stop now, HAHAHAHHAHA.

 Our laughter died down and I went back to my seat. Gesturing everyone to sit down again, now, we talk to Arronn regarding his powers.

 “How come you summoned your powers so easily?” I ask, since I had to undergo training to use mine at will.

 “I just,” he pauses, “thought of something.” His voice gone quiet, I didn’t want to dig deeper from his reaction.

 “Wait, since the Dogma and stuff got passed down,” Alex who still was standing up with crossed arms, “who did Arronn get his?”

 “My parents didn’t have them,” Arronn scratches his chin as if trying to remember something, “yeah, no one in my family did.”

 “Hmm,” my mom butts in the conversation, “in the legend, it wasn’t told how they passed on the powers.”

 “I’ll consult with my contacts, you are a very strange case Arronn.” She nods at him, and fishes a phone out her pocket, punching a number in and pressing it on her ear, then, she walks away to the wooden floored area with a glass ceiling that showed an exquisite display of the twinkling stars among the faint glow of the moon on a dark sky.

 I should read a book there from time to time.

 “Wait, do you think you could use that power during the Intramurals?” Alex giddily asks.

 “Let’s test it tomorrow, I’m pooped.” Arronn yawns and his eyes start to close slightly.

 “Aww, okay. Come on, I’ll take you home.” Alex smiles as he approaches his boyfriend and plants a small kiss on his forehead.

 I retrieve the phone from my pocket to see it was already…

 10 PM!

 “Guys, just sleep over here, it’s already late.”

 “Wha–” Everyone mutters.

 They also grab their phones and shocked expressions present on their faces.

 “Is it fine with your mom?” Lucia’s cold voice startling me a little.

 “Yeah, sure, you could do the knocking thing again to that door.” Mom arrives to our table, placing the phone on her pocket and motioning to the upholstered violet door near us. Everyone proceeds to call their parents, some of them asking our addresses and my mom’s phone number–which they immediately called.

 “I’ve talked to about everyone’s parents, they said it was okay.”

 The headquarters erupted into a den of gleeful squeals and celebration. A smile forms on my face as they excitedly hurry onto the door, waiting for me and Mike to do the knocking thing. I gaze upon him mouthing a ‘shall we?’

 I nod in response, he grasps my hand, our fingers interlocked with each other that made butterflies flutter rampant in my stomach and a heating feeling in my cheeks. We walk to the door and knock 3 times in sync.

 “Room for 10”