A Day Of Destinies 4 - The Final Unfolding...

A Day Of Destinies – Final Unfolding…
Watching Daniel cough up some water he had tried breathing then put some pizza in the microwave to eat, Castigator chuckled at the sight before his expression became more serious. Looking up, the 3 meteors were right on target, coming in from 3 different angles. He wished he could make what was going to happen easier, but this was the way it HAD to play out. After all, Castigator of all people was in no position to stop this happening. In the blaze of a fire-trail, the first meteor hit the house. Not a true meteor, it was actually a damaged re-entry capsule for delivering specimens to Earth from an orbiting space lab. It had been knocked off target & damaged by shrapnel from space, & while it had survived re-entry, its contents had been significantly heated & unstable. As the capsule smashed its way through the house it developed several fractures so when it finally hit the kitchen bench, the top shattered which sent shrapnel through the microwave’s door followed by the unnamed concoction inside. Combining the heat with the microwaves, the substance gave off energy waves which destabilized Daniel’s DNA as the smashed house debris pinned him in place…

The energy scrambling his genes would have turned him into a large blob of burnt unrecognizable flesh if it hadn’t been for the other 2 meteors. Mass number 2 hit a piece of shattered house, causing its living liquid metal contents to splash out over what was the kitchen, including Daniel. With DNA destabilized in the Chromothripsis event, it started using the genetics in the fluid to stabilize itself, forcing it to start rebuilding itself on an atomic level. Of course, not only was this insanely agonizing for Daniel, it would have sucked the life out of him with all the energy his body needed to rebuild itself. Thankfully, the 3rd meteor then hit the home, embedding itself in Daniel’s chest. It was a crystal of what would take several names, but essentially it was nothing but solidified energy. Daniel’s body seemed to sense this, probably from the related DNA in the liquid metal, & immediately started feeding off it, rebuilding itself around the crystal & making it seem it was sinking into his chest…

Castigator knew that even with the crystal giving him the energy his body needed to survive, Daniel was going to need medical help for as long as it was effective. Pulling out a mobile phone & dialling 000, Castigator called in several ambulances not only for Daniel but for several other people injured when part of the house was demolished. As much as he wanted to help personally, he knew that if he was seen he would be recognized which could cause huge problems. All he could do was remove the blocking debris, return to the tree & continue to watch a rather important destiny begin to unfold. Within minutes the Ambulances began arriving, the Ambos going for Daniel first despite not understanding what was happening or who he was. They got him on pain meds to bring him down a bit, surprised his heart hadn’t exploded, let alone kept going despite his extreme heart rate. Eventually deciding they had to move him, they loaded Daniel into a Medivac Helicopter & sent him to Royal Perth Hospital’s Emergency Department

Castigator looked around at the events unfolding before him. While the other injured people in the house only had minor injuries, Daniel would be “John Doe” in Royal Perth Hospital for the next week as they would try working out what was happening to him. In less than a day they won’t be able to get the needles into his arms to administer the morphine, meaning Daniel would take the full brunt of the pain. However, Castigator knew this was coming, this is when it would all come together. Taking 1 last look around, Castigator walked off, returning to his own time knowing exactly what was going to happen to Daniel next…

In about 2 days, Daniel was just about give up, the none-stop torture of having every molecule in your body redesign itself almost defeating him. That’s when Jessica, the little girl Castigator saved from getting run over by that getaway car will find him. Her Father was in the hospital getting treated for cancer, but she gets lost along the way to see him & stumbles onto Daniel’s room. With no one else in there & seeing the man in the bed not doing well, she tells him what her mum had been telling her Dad all along, not to give up & to keep fighting, cause someone out there needs him. She then places her teddy bear in his hand before the nurse comes in to check Daniel & takes her back to her family. With the words of such a young girl carrying so much meaning, plus the feeling of the teddy bear in his hand to tell him it was all real, Daniel once again fights with everything he has to stay alive. This gets him through the remaining 5 days it takes to rebuild his body. Passing out for several hours afterwards, his heart rate slows to the point where they actually declare him dead. When they can’t remove the teddy bear from his grip, they decide to leave it as they take him to the morgue.

When Daniel wakes up on a cold slab drawer, he roughly remembers what has happened, but little Jessica remains vivid in his memory. Working out where he was from being naked except a sheet & being in a dark space with no room to move, he’ll groan at how stiff he feels. Remembering morgues store bodies with their heads at the opening, he banged on the metal above his head till he accidently bent it out, forcing it open using the gap. Finding some clothes, he makes his way out of the hospital & went home, surprised at how well he felt. He then returns to his normal life, noticing his strength was improving beyond normal levels. When he sees some unknown creature attacking people in a dark, otherwise quiet part of Perth several months later, he charges in to defend the small family, beating the creature to a pulp before it faded away. Recognizing Jessica, he pulls her teddy bear out of his backpack & gives it back to her, thanking the little girl for giving him the strength to fight on. Her Dad, still unwell, & not really expected to survive, shakes Daniel’s hand for returning the teddy bear. Later on they discover he couldn’t be any healthier if he tried, the cancer fully healed. Jessica then grows up to be a leading cancer researcher, bringing many cures so much closer to reality…

Daniel however will find himself not only fighting more of those beasts, Demons he later discovers they are, but being trained by someone sent by a “Castigator”. In time he finds himself with a nemesis, a Half-blood Demon/Human named Simon Phoenix. The 2 clash many times, Simon’s fire based powers were powerful, but Daniel will keep finding ways to beat him until Daniel’s strength surpasses Simon’s. Simon gets frustrated about being unable to beat Daniel, only to accidently save a young lady who thanks him for it. This makes him feel weird, but in a kinda good way. After several more Daniel/Simon battles, Simon finally gets the chance to strike Daniel down while he’s defending someone, only to discover it’s a Police Officer named Margret, a young lady with scaring where a notch had been taken out of her right ear, then realizing she was the 1 he met before. Finding himself unable to attack, he leaves, meeting the Officer while in his Human form, forming something of a relationship with her. When he’s ordered to kill her because of their relationship, he sides with her instead. Surprised to see Daniel backing him up, they work together to protect her, in time not only becoming friends, but Daniel helps Simon start a relatively normal life amongst Humanity.

As for Daniel, he’ll eventually learn he can travel between dimensions, his first attempt having him meeting a race of human-like aliens whose planet is under attack from what looks like giant salt & pepper shakers. Taking a hit from 1 of the Shaker-Things weapons, his body reacts by causing a strange feeling where his appendix should be as his body switches into an armoured form of some sort. He quickly works out he can throw electricity & the fact the locals can understand him but he can’t understand them, only understanding their name for him - The Wanderer. He protects a group of those people’s scientists until they can get in a bunch of concrete tube things, somehow make them vanish & rematerialize inside each other & use the outer 1 to escape. He then finds another dimension where he trains with some young men named Son Goku & Krillin, never have the same strength as Goku, usually level with Vegita instead, but with enough endurance & resilience to prove a threat for Goku. Liking the title of Wanderer, he starts using it on his journeys as an alias…

In time he’ll try traveling to a new dimension, however his soul, once a fragment of another’s soul shattered to pieces in his death, was drawn to another former fragment. This caused the 2 to fuse into 1 person with 2 separate yet interwoven DNA strands, able to switch between them & change between their own forms.  His original form, the Wanderer, stands 5’11”/180cm & tends to be a bit of a joker, having a bit of fun when not working. However, his new 9’ tall super soldier form is much stronger, the more serious of the 2 forms & when the form’s DNA is awakened enough, wings of pure white feather grow from his back, more than easily able to fly him around. This form also receives a title, only this is the job title of Imperator Rex, charged with maintaining the balance between Good & Evil. In time he develops his powers to the point where he can even travel through time, allowing him to protect the past too, however it must be done rarely & extremely carefully to prevent irreparable damage to the timeline in question.

Daniel may take on many different names to do his work, as well as several titles. But for all his titles & pseudonyms, those few he actually calls friend know him by his true name…

LORD DANIEL CASTIGATOR