“Earth.”

“It’s not that big, not really.”

“From here I can hold my thumb up in front of my eye and completely block it from view.”

The being, the man reflecting these thoughts was standing on the slope of a small hill rising from the moon’s surface. He had been standing absolutely still for the past hour, just staring at the Earth until he put his hand in the air close to his face. After several moments of that he resumed his original stance; erect posture, hands held behind the small of his back.

“But there is a significant difference from that orb hanging in the sky form the world I am now standing on; it’s verdant, it’s thriving, it’s beautiful not like the desolation of the surrounding lunar landscape. Here one could see for miles without the problem of atmospheric distortions but there was nothing to see. It’s empty here, lonely. Just like me. It appears that the name I chose for myself all those years ago is now more appropriate than ever.”

“The others don’t quiet understand. The young ones never will, obviously, but the older ones from prior to the exodus, they either don’t know or won’t accept what has happened to Earth. I wish I could believe like them.”

He stood there, letting his mind drift into his memories, to a time more than a century into the past. A time of great wonder and terrible betrayals.

It was all still so new, Novas had only been popping up for a little more than a year now. It was all so amazing and still unbelievable even though each night had more stories about how Novas were still around and still doing the impossible. But even with Novas in the world, it didn’t impact a great deal of people yet, such as people that lived quite a distance from large metropolitan areas.

“And while I was from such an area, I lived close enough to a city that I could go and make a weekend of it anytime. I just didn’t know that the weekend I chose would bring such a dramatic change to life. On my trip into DC a pair of Novas decided to settle an argument of theirs with violence. I had stopped into the ‘Old Post Office’ to grab a lunch and and to reminisce about how I was last their on a high school field trip.”

I sat and watched the comings and goings of the world around me. Taking up a large percentage of tables a short distance away from me was a group of kids, all asians, dressed in school uniforms. “Must be a trip for some cultural exchange between our countries,” I thought with a bemused smile “its good to see the diversity here.” and went back to watching the parade of people from my vantage point on the second floor.

The whole thing didn’t seem to start out of anything, just a couple of raised voices from behind me. I didn’t think much of it since at times you had to practically scream to heard by the person next to you over the noise of the crowd. It quickly got my attention when an explosion went off behind me and someone flew over me. But at that point it had everyone’s attention.

I remember very little of how the battle initially progressed. It was all a flurry of the one on the ground shooting some purple energy at the one in the air while he would retaliate in turn with bursts of white hot flame. I do remember, however, the screams and panic. People were scrambling to get away while others were trying to help those caught in the crossfire. I was frozen to the spot, I couldn’t turn away from the battle until I heard a cry coming from close to my right. It was one of the asian schoolgirls. She was kneeling on the floor with one of her classmates unconscious head in her lap. She was desperately trying to shield her companion from the falling debris. She was looking around quickly when she just suddenly stopped and stared and I to turned to see what she was looking at and my blood suddenly turned cold. One of the fireballs was heading directly towards her and her companion.

I would like to say that what happened next was something that I decided to do, that I planned on doing that, but it would be a lie. It all was happening to fast, I couldn’t of had the time to weigh the options; I just acted without thinking. I ran between the two schoolgirls and took the full brunt of the blast.

I can still remember the pain of dying.

The next thing that I came to me was the feeling of power. Then I looked up and saw the schoolgirl, looking at me as I stood, her mouth agape. I looked back to the fighting going on and felt a rage overtake me and just wanted them to stop…and they did. One holding in midair and the other releasing a bolt a energy at the flyboy. Both unmoving, like some bizarre sculpture. And people stopped and stared at this new turn of events.

I didn’t even stop to think about what was happening at that time, I just started yelling at people, telling them to get out. I helped the schoolgirl carry her friend to the street outside. When I got out there I gently placed the girl on the ground and promptly passed out.

When I next came to, I was strapped to a gurney with a man with a Project Utopia emblem on his sleave taking my blood pressure while giving me an injection of something. I looked around and saw the two Nova ruffians being restrained by some Team2Morrow people. I found out later the reason they had started fighting was because of an argument about which one of them would pick up the check. I started to laugh uncontrollably until I was told that I was a Nova. That shut me up quick

After the battle I was rushed by Utopia boys to a Rashoud clinic were I was immediately put through many rigorous exams. Though I was with them for only a short while, my dislike of the project was firmly cemented. It was far to idealistic to me; I mean something supposedly that good had to have a major downfall, am I right. While I was there people kept asking me if I wanted to be publicly referred to by an alternate identity. Being that I never felt to comfortable being the center of attention or even just being around people to begin with, and my new status as a Nova was definitely only adding to the problem, I figured that I should make a name that would reflect this aspect of myself. I thought back to my old sociology lessons and decided upon a word whose definition meant social isolation. The next time someone asked if I wanted a ‘handle’ I gave it to them. Anomie.

While I was at the clinic I got some mail. One of the perks of being in relationship with Utopia was that even though I wanted to remain anonymous to the public I could still get mail without revealing myself. Usually it was addressed to ‘The Nova that erupted in the Old Post Office’, at least until Utopia went public with my ‘codename’. Most were some sort of solicitation for an endorsement or for being a guest on some talk show or another, but some were legitimate sendings. I also got an official thank you from the Japanese government congratulating me on my efforts to save it’s citizen in peril. What surprised me was the letters I also got from the girls parents and from the girls themselves. I ended up writing the parents and the girls back but was again surprised when I received more mail from the girls and an official invitation to Japan to be publicly congratulated on my actions. It seems the girls where sisters and there father held a rather prestigious position in the Japanese government while there mother was a CEO in one of there largest industrial corporations and they had the pull to get me honored over there.

After my brief stay with Utopia, I took them up on there offer. Japan back then was an amazing and beautiful country and and boasted a rich culture. It’s amazing how things have changed in such a relatively short period of time. After the ceremony, the girls, Aya and Junko, took me on a tour of Tokyo and showed me the sites and highlights of the city. I saw a Kabuki theater production, took in the art history of the culture, and a martial arts expose among other things. During the entire time the girls would giggle when they saw me in the featureless mask I had adopted to protect my identity, and whenever we were in the privacy of their parents home they would laughingly make me take it off, which I had no problem with since Junko at least already knew what I looked like.

During the two weeks I spent in Japan the girls and I became friends. After I had left I still received and responded to letters from the girls on a regular basis. Our correspondence with each other would become more fluid and relaxed and soon we wrote like we were old friends. During the next two years of my life it was nice to have a pair of friends that I could converse with without all the pretense of my made up identity. I think that’s one of the few things that kept the pressure from getting to me.

While my identity of Anomie traveled around quiet a bit during my early days, I had taken up a more ‘Batman’ approach to life. I had used some of the money that I made as a freelance ‘Nova-for-Hire’ to build myself a house out in a valley near the place where I grew up. And that was probably my one big mistake, for when you have no visible means of supporting yourself you shouldn’t go and build an opulent manor in an isolated local. It wasn’t long before some people from the FBI showed up and started asking questions. I should have told them right away how I got the money, I would have saved myself several weeks of grief. But I had to try and protect my identity, I had to be obstinate. Finally though they came with a warrant, so I had to tell them the truth or face possible persecution. Even when I told them though, some didn’t believe it, at least until I gave them a demonstration of my abilities. I still laugh when I think about how they looked when all of a sudden all of their weapons seemed to appear on the table in my foyer and when they realized they lost several minutes from their lives. But that was enough to convince them that I was legitimate and get them to back off. But they didn’t leave me alone. Wherever I went from that day on, I always had someone shadowing me. I guess they were nervous about an independent Nova that lived that close to DC. At first I tried to ignore it, but when people started to question me as to why I was always being followed, it began to annoy me. At first I asked them to be more discreet, to dress in regular clothes instead of always being in a suit. But they always ignored me. Finally I got their attention when I simply used my powers to avoid being tailed during the day for a week straight. After that they sent an agent to have a ‘talk’ with me. We quickly got down to brass tacks, and when we were finished she said that they would have to consider my new request; if they stopped being conspicuous when they tagged me, I wouldn’t lose my tail. My only exception to that would be when I was working as Anomie. The next time I was followed, the guy looked like he was on his way to pick up some groceries. And who says the government is unreasonable.

Now that all that unpleasantness was taken care of, I settled into my life. I invested much of the money that I made a Anomie, so my financial security was set but I still took on jobs just so that I would have something do do. When my current job would finish I would take a week or two off to enjoy my life as a human before donning the mask again and seeing what was out there that I might be able to help in. And there was no small demand for my services. My ability to manipulate time made me a sought after commodity, from particle physicist and biologist who wanted me to slow down their experiments so they could better document what happens to special effects companies who wanted my assistance during the filming of some movie or another. But even though I could write my own ticket, by the end of each job, not that I would show it to my employers, I would feel strained and frazzled.

As I was contemplating taking an extended vacation after a particularly hassle filled job, I got a pleasant surprise; Aya and Junko showed up on my doorstep. As they explained it to me, they had just completed high school back in Japan, but they had been spending the year prior to graduation trying to obtain two student visa so they could continue their education in America, in the university about twenty minutes away from were I lived. They didn’t tell me in any of their letters because they wanted to surprise me. With my two friends there with me, my spirits were immediately buoyed. After we played catch up, Junko asked me if I could help them move into there new apartment in town. I shocked them them by refusing, but before either could ask why I told them I would help them move in here. They both went wild at that. When they stopped their giggling, they asked why I said that. I told them that I had plenty of room here and that the apartments were both small and costly and I wouldn’t have any friend of mine subjected to such conditions. I didn’t tell them that I really was lonely and wanted their company. But I think they figured it out, since they kept giggling whenever they made eye contact with each other.

Shortly after having them move in with me I got a ‘pleasant’ visit from the FBI. They questioned me as to why they were staying with me, and they questioned Aya and Junko as well. After several days of repeated visits it went back to just being tailed, but now the girls were being followed as well. But they quickly adapted. After a few weeks we settled into a kind of routine. When ever they weren’t in class and I wasn’t working, we spent time together. We were becoming inseparable.

I don’t know exactly when or how it happened but there came a point when we all realized that we had become something more than friends. We loved each other, we cared for each other, we did our best to please and keep happy the others. After that realization the next few years that we were a bliss. Not in all these decades have I felt the same way about anyone else.

But then like all good things, it came to an end.

Somehow my identity was leaked out to the public. At first it was throngs of fans and reporters. Unfortunately others came along as well.

One day Junko and Aya went into town. They were planning on spending the day out but were supposed to be home for dinner. They never came back.

Three days later their bodies were found. They were bound and gagged in a warehouse, having been raped multiple times and finally beaten to death. Around their bodies were scattered handwritten messages and Church of Michael Archangel paraphernalia. The messages read ‘Do not weep for them, for these two had chosen to lie with a devil, and have now been punished for their transgressions.’ The rage that took ahold of me when I was told of this froze me to the core. In that instant I gave up my human identity and truly became Anomie.

The hunt for the perpetrators went on for two weeks. But in the end I did not find them, the FBI found them. Their were five of them. I kept ‘requesting’ to be aloud to ‘speak’ with them, and the FBI kept denying me my request to confront them. Finally I took matters into my own hands. The FBI found out its pretty difficult to keep out someone who can start and stop time at will in a selected area. They never knew I was there until I had the Michaelites. After that I was also hunted but it didn’t matter to me anymore. Those five were going to pay for what they did, I was going to see to that.

It’s interesting what one can do with control over time when they use it creatively.

I was fun making them scream for days at a time.

During the intervening years between my I stayed aloof from any form of contact, human or Nova, but I didn’t stop with those five. Oh no, not by a long shot. I would watch from a distance, and any who I saw that brought harm upon another being felt the cold fires of my hollow soul. Even during the Aberrant War I strove only to protect the innocent from harm.

But that was a long time ago. I shouldn’t let my thoughts drift. Not at a time like this. Not when these aberrant attacks are increasing in frequency. I have been able to stop those that I found before they could do anything to the humans, but because of my reminiscing I have let a couple slip through. I must resole myself to be more vigilant. I guess not everything changes. Back then when the world was filled with people who held my kind in awe and fear, I set out to protect them from the atrocities in the world. Now that the world is filled with people who fear and hate what I am, I still find myself trying to protect them from the atrocities out there.

As I stand here on the moon, waiting and watching, prepared to defend a place that that has caused so much pain to so many, that is no longer even recognizable as my homeworld, I am also aware of the psion that has been trying to get closer without drawing my attention. From the patch on his spacesuit, I can tell he is from the ISRA. I can feel his fear. He’s worried since he has to be encased in a fragile woven suit to protect him from the hard vacuum ,radiation, and deep cold while I simply have been standing here in my three piece eufiber suit, trench coat, and fedora and nothing else for protection.

I also know why he’s been following me for the past day. As the FBI were afraid to have a Nova so close to DC, the Orders are afraid of having so powerful an ‘aberrant’ so close to Earth.

I smile to myself

It’s good to know that something’s never change.