Chapter 3 - Cocoon

Once the emptiness had enveloped every superhuman's vision in the vicinity, Gem found herself falling weakly into the ground not far away from the man who tried to kill her.

But unlike the man's sudden cause of weakness, the weakness that Gem felt was due to the wounds in her strained body which had gone through a lot already at this point.

Gem unconsciously grabbed hold of her chest out of habit, looking for comfort in her necklace but found agony instead when she realized that it was gone.

Looking around, Gem thought that it had fallen somewhere nearby after using it as a weapon, but her vision was being blinded by the bright white light, she couldn't see clearly where it might be.

She couldn't hear anything nor feel the grass that they were just standing on a minute ago.

The coldness of the floor was the only temperature that her body could take note of. Not even a breeze of air can be felt in that place as if she had been transported into a completely different dimension.

Slowly, her vision was starting to get used to the light. She felt the smooth surface of the white floor where she found an unconscious man not far from her..

'It was the man who was trying to kill me!' She screamed in her head, her saliva building up in her throat, afraid that he would come for her if she were to make a sound.

Tears started flooding the girl's vision upon remembering the terrifying situation she was in just a minute ago.

Yesterday, she was ready to die when crossing the border with several other lesser Superhumans who wanted to seek a better life on the other side.

One by one, they started turning into ashes beside her, she could still hear their screams of pain. She had no idea how she was able to reach the other side with just a few burns.

But she was lucky to be alive. This drove her to run into the nearest facility where she saw light and non-poisonous trees, far from what she had been used to seeing every day back at her hometown.

And as she woke up, she heard a sound that resembled her own. Voices of children laughing and chattering, and a teacher asking them to be quiet.

'Superhumans!' At last! She had found her kind!

But it didn't end up nicely for her. She was silently spying on the superhumans, formulating a plan in her mind of how she would approach them.

But they didn't give her a chance to talk, instead, they treated her like a monster.

Upon remembering this, Gem sobbed quietly.

Having to deal with the pain in her body and losing her friends were already enough to break her heart, but losing her necklace was the worst. It was the only memory she had of her late parents. And even though they left her in a terrible place, Gem was still eager to see them and ask them why they did it. If they had powers more advanced than normal superhumans, why would they have left her in the wastelands?

"Hey, can you hear me?"

Suddenly, an angel's figure appeared in front of her. Landing softly on the ground beside her.

'Mom?' She thought, accepting the possibility that the place she's in right now might be the afterlife that she and her friends were just talking about before crossing the borders.

"See you in the afterlife, Gem!" 

"I think I'm here now.." She said weakly, her voice hoarse from the damage that the superman did to her vocal cords.

But the woman, however, was not her mom, an angel, spirit, or anything that's likely from the other realms. She was just a normal superhuman who happened to have the same necklace as her, granting her the pass to enter this whole new dimension that Gem unconsciously made.

Paying no attention to who Gem was and how she was able to piss the superhuman enough for him to want to kill her, the woman thought there was still not enough reason to justify his actions to a kid this small. 

The woman's name was Venedette, and although she was still busy dealing with her own business in this city, she just couldn't turn a blind eye to what was happening, especially when there was a lot of people watching yet no one tried to help the little girl or stop the superman from beating her up!

'If only I paid attention to what they were looking at earlier then I would've been able to save you from that horrible beast!' she thought with regret, almost bursting out of tears but still managed to hold it in by biting her lip.

Venedette was a mother of two kids, and mothers hate it the most when their kids get beaten by others for unknown reasons. 'I'm sure if your parents were here, they would do the same… but for now I'll take care of you, little one.' She thought.

Gem felt the hands of the woman in hers, 'she's warm…' 

Confusing her if she's really dead or is this still life?

When her vision was cleared from the tears, she saw something familiar dangling in the woman's neck.

"M-my necklace." 

Venedette heard this and wondered why the girl was suddenly asking for her necklace, but despite the random comment the girl made, she still took it off and gave it to her with no hesitation.

The girl then looked happy upon holding that thing.

"Hang in there, I'll get us some help," she said, trying to see just how severe Gem's condition has been, only to find out that her case was already hopeless.

'Where can I find help in this empty place?' She looked around, looking for a place to go or anyone that she could ask for help, but there was nothing. It was only the three of them in that very bright area of light.

She looked back at Gem.

'Covered in bruises and burns, just what did this girl do to deserve all of this!!?' She raged, finding the corpse of the man not far from them and looking at it without remorse.

'Is he dead? If not, then I'll gladly kill him!' Slowly, she rose, her shoes screeching along the surface of the floor and was the only sound that echoed inside that whole place.

"You son of a-" 

The image of a floating cyan gemstone, collecting what seemed to be cyan essence from the fit man's body, stopped her act. Her jaw-dropping from the amazing swirls and light that it offered this whole empty white space.

Little by little, the gemstone started exerting drops of what seemed to be water with a faint cyan color that automatically connected with each other, making their way to Gem by flowing through the air smoothly like a current that was inside an invisible abstract tube.

Gem started to feel the warmness of the liquid that was sticking to her, soon making a shape that resembled a pill, surrounding her body like a cocoon.

This feeling made Gem smile as it was comfortable, very comfortable in the fact that her body had started to feel numb and her eyelids, heavy that she immediately fell asleep.

Venedette's heart was racing upon seeing that this water did not leave any space for Gem's nose to breathe! 'Oi oi oi!! How will she breathe!!?'

She tried her best to remove Gem out of that bubble but it was ignoring her like water. Her necklace even fell from Gem's hands as the bubble lifted her up slowly into the air.

"Wait! Where are you bringing her!??' Venedette was the definition of panic as of the moment, with her body fidgeting, looking at the gemstone and back to Gem's body, her hands were combing up her hair out of frustration, not even mentioning that the bile building up of her throat was forcing her to constantly swallow her saliva to keep it inside.

'How do I get her out of there!?'

Subsequently, Venedette heard a 'ding' that came from behind her.

It was the gemstone, indicating that its work has been done, and it will now shut down.

The gemstone clicked to a side and then dropped at a ridiculously fast rate that Venedette almost wouldn't be able to catch if it wasn't for her super speed that was considered as above average already.

"Phew"

Venedette looked back at Gem and was flabbergasted upon seeing that the liquid around her had hardened into a jade-like material, trapping her inside of it.

And as if the shock wasn't enough for Venedette, crispy crackling sounds of what seemed to be glass that's coming from several spots started crawling over the entire area.

"What in the world-" 

Assuming that the place was soon going to crumble down, Venedette quickly wore the necklaces in her neck and started carrying the heavy stone cocoon of Gem out of a crack in the ceiling that Venedette reckoned to be the exit from that space.

Thankfully, Venedette was strong enough to carry that heavy jade-like cocoon around Gem and fly away, unsure if the girl was still alive or not inside, but still choosing to believe the former.

She had no choice but to bring this child back with her to her island because according to the gossip she was hearing earlier, this child was a trespasser from the outside. The first-ever superhuman to be able to walk through that border without being turned to ash.

And the news was indeed very fast, even faster than Venedette's flight to her floating island.

"Miss Dette!!?" Her people complained upon seeing the thing that she was carrying, sure enough, what they're thinking was correct.

"Shh, I'll take care of her."

Inside the stone, was the girl who crossed the fiery border and killed a supervisor from a school near the borders.

But Venedette didn't care. In her eyes, Gem was the one who suffered the most and that guy didn't deserve to live anyway.

"No one is allowed to talk about her. Quickly spread this news to my people."

"Yes, madam!"

And with that firm order from princess Venedette, Gem's safety was ensured to last on this island… only if she was still alive inside that cocoon.