---
☀️ Afternoon, outskirts of Sonpur Road
Dust lifted lazily behind an old red Honda Shine, struggling under the combined weight of Rajan and Aftab, two boys with more energy than sense.
Aftab (yelling over the wind):
"Broooo—imagine this: I get Captain America's shield, slap a siren on it, and become Captain India!"
Rajan (laughing, nearly swerving):
"Please. You'd trip over your own chappal trying to throw it."
Aftab:
"No seriously—I'd save cows, goats, ducks, even mosquitoes! All would salute me."
Rajan:
"They'd bite you first, then salute."
The two howled as they dodged a pothole and slowed down near Nandu Dhaba, a half-shaded place with plastic chairs, steel tumblers, and the smell of fried chilli bajji floating in the air.
---
🍵 At the Dhaba Table
Vivek was already there, cool as ever. Clean shirt, neatly combed hair, sipping his usual Frooti. He always looked like he didn't belong in a town like Sonpur Road—too quiet, too sorted.
Rajan (sitting down, wiping sweat):
"Bro, you reached early like a character in a movie. You're not secretly Batman, are you?"
Vivek (smirking):
"If I was Batman, would I be drinking Frooti?"
They all laughed as samosas, chai, and poha arrived. Aftab went straight into superhero mode again.
Aftab:
"No but for real—imagine having powers. If I had them, I'd fly straight to Bhitkheda and carry out every animal before that forest fire spreads."
Vivek (half-distracted):
"Bhitkheda?"
Rajan (checking phone):
"Yeah, forest fire broke out this morning. Still not under control. Whole thing's burning."
They all glanced at the dusty old TV inside the dhaba, crackling with a weak news signal. A headline scrolled across the bottom.
> "Massive fire spreads across Bhitkheda forest; animals missing from core zone..."
Aftab:
"See? I'm telling you—if I had powers, I'd be more useful than all the Marvel heroes combined."
Vivek (getting up):
"I'll be back in 5… or 10."
Rajan:
"Bathroom? Or secret teleportation mission?"
Vivek (grinning):
"You decide."
He walked off, casual as ever.
---
⏳ Ten Minutes Later
Vivek returned, adjusting his collar, hair slightly damp.
Aftab:
"Dude, ten minutes? What were you doing—rebuilding the bathroom?"
Vivek (with a straight face):
"I was… uh, just watching a really good-looking girl pass by."
Rajan (blinking):
"There was no girl. Just a lorry full of onions and that one drunk uncle chasing a chicken."
Vivek (shrugging):
"Maybe you just didn't see her."
They laughed it off. The moment passed.
---
🛣️ Riding Back Home
As the sun dropped toward the horizon, Rajan scrolled his phone while Aftab drove the bike this time, with Vivek sitting behind.
Rajan (reading aloud):
"Bro… listen to this. "Animals from Bhitkheda forest discovered unharmed… in a canal five kilometers away from the fire… all grouped together." What the hell."
Aftab (twisting back):
"What?"
Rajan:
"They're saying it's like they knew about the fire. Or… someone moved them. But how?"
Aftab:
"Maybe Captain India beat me to it."
Rajan (joking):
"Yeah, yeah, Captain Frooti. Whoever it was… saved a whole jungle quietly."
Vivek said nothing. He just watched the sunset over the fields.
---
🌃 Later That Night – Vivek's Room
The ceiling fan spun lazily above. Outside, crickets chirped. A nearby dog barked at nothing.
Vivek lay on his back, arms folded behind his head, floating three inches above his bed.
Beside him, a packet of chips floated mid-air, slowly rotating. One chip lifted on its own… and gently floated into his mouth.
Crunch.
He didn't smile.
Didn't laugh.
Didn't even blink.
He just stared at the ceiling, lost in thought…
Like someone who had done something he never planned to do,
…something that no one should ever find out.
---
Vivek's POV –
It started with a jolt in my chest. A hum. A warmth. Something ancient and vast uncoiled inside me when I saw the wildfire alert on Rajan's phone. My ears were hearing Aftab talk about superheroes, but my mind had already left.
I excused myself, pretending to need the washroom.
I didn't walk.
I soared.
By the time I reached the edge of the dhaba's roof, my feet had left the ground. My body hummed with silent electricity—weightless, invisible. Clothes would only slow me down. I became air. Untouchable. Bare to the stars, but hidden from every camera, every gaze. Like light through water.
In less than a heartbeat, I crossed 40 kilometers.
The forest was a living hell of smoke, ash, and screams.
I didn't hesitate.
I zipped through the burning canopy with my senses heightened—smelling fear, hearing the smallest heartbeat, feeling every displaced breath. Each movement had to be precise. A mistake would crush an animal or cause a tree to collapse. But I wasn't guessing—I knew.
A python curled beneath a burning log? Gently unwrapped in 0.7 seconds.
A trapped monkey family at the edge of a branch? Scooped into a woven basket of vines I'd knotted with super-speed and left by the canal.
A deer, blinded by smoke? I whispered vibrations into its ears to calm it before lifting it gently.
Over and over, I dashed, zigzagging through flames without getting scorched. I outran the fire's hunger, punching small firebreaks by slamming the ground to suck up oxygen. I created gusts of wind to shift smoke away from burrows. I even nudged a raincloud overhead—not enough for a flood, but enough to confuse satellites.
No eyes caught me. No footprint left.
But the hardest part? Finding every single one.
They don't cry for help like humans. They hide. They freeze. They die quietly.
It took me the most time to listen—to feel for them. To know where they clung to life, believing no one would come.
But I came.
By the time I carried the last baby squirrel to the canal, my skin was hot, but not burned. My chest throbbed like a wild drum. I stared at the animals lying peacefully, huddled together, safe, away from fire—like they had just… known where to go.
Then I blinked, vanished again.
By the time I returned to the dhaba, I had wiped the soot from my skin with raindrops in the wind. I walked out of the washroom like nothing happened.
"Ten minutes, bro?" Rajan asked.
I smirked. "Got distracted. Hot girl in a red salwar passed by. My bad."
They laughed. I joined.
But that night, back in my room, as I floated three inches off the floor, chips dancing mid-air around me in orbit like little satellites, I stared at the ceiling and whispered—
Something...
---