powerdiary

[powerdiary]

Dog Gone it

Power Diary Entry 181 - Feb. 14th

Valentines day, a day many people hate. A commercialized holiday meant to suck people into putting money back into the system. While I could care less about the holiday, I actually had someone to share it with so my bitterness was at an all time low.

Oddly enough, while Conner is one of the most amazing people I know, he is not creatively romantic. Let me explain, while with the abusive ass hat Raine, I was treated pretty damn good when it come to the special occasions. Even when it was just to see a Broadway show I've seen before.... If Raine knew it was my favorite, he'd make a day of it and get me a little gift or something. (Granted, I'm aware now that he was totally overdoing it because he was cheating on me and felt bad, but damn it I loved being treated)

Conner on the other hand, not so much into all that. I guess because he is often seen as the extra feminine he was used to being treated. He and I both did not make plans for Valentine's day because we thought the other person was doing something special. It was not until about 5pm when I finally text him and asked what he was doing that he and I realized that we were waiting on each other. So, we made a plan.

Because every restaurant in the city was booked, we decided to cook at his dorm. We picked up some goodies from the store and got back to his place around 8:30pm. We had managed to cook a Salmon dinner and I got my cupcakes in the oven when I got a text from Pete (Shield). He said that he was tracking one of the Human trafficking goons and could use my help.

I felt like shit. I had to run out on Conner after wanting all day to be with him, but out of all the PBs Pete was the youngest and if he needed help, I had to go to him. I made a lame excuse to Conner that I was getting sick from the fish and ran out. Pete said he was at this car rental place so using my telekenisis I flew over. Unfortunately, the other power I had for the day was x-ray vision so I was mainly depending on my telekenisis.

I landed across the street from the rental place and loudly whispered for Pete. But there was no way he was going to hear me over the dogs barking across the street. I watched the dogs curiously and noticed something moving on one of the trailers in the lot. Sitting on top of the trailer was Pete, he waved at me exaggerantly. I ran around to the side of the fence and hollered at him. I asked him what the hell was he thinking, and he told me that everyone else was busy so he didn't want to bother anyone. When he got himself stuck, he was too embarrassed to call anyone else.

I looked at the dogs and I cursed myself. I could do nothing to stop them. And I had yet to master flying someone else with my telekenisis. I could hover with Pete, but there was no way I could fly away with him. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. THIS would have been a perfect time to let Cameron on the team. His stupid humming power could have calmed the dogs and then we would have been home free.

I had to think of something else. I tried to bring the dogs attention over to me, but they were too focused on Pete. I wouldn't blame them, Pete's small frame made him an easy target. I suggested Pete just make a run for it since he was in his Shield outfit, but he said that while the suit was impenetrable, the dogs were still strong and through their teeth couldn't penetrate the suit, they could still over power Pete and drag him off.

I tried moving each dog with my telekenisis to clear a path, but one one dog was pushed to the other side of the lot, another just jumped in it's place. I could only think of one other thing to do. I hollered at Pete to lay low and I ran off. I came back to find Pete crouching low on the truck out of sight, but the dogs still lingered below, aware of his presence. I pulled out a rotisserie chicken I snatched up from the grocery store near by, I I ripped it to pieces and then began throwing it over the fence on the opposite side of where Pete hid. The dogs took the bait, the ran over to the other end of the lot and Pete jumped down from the truck and ran toward me.

He jumped on the the fence and the clinging of the metal wire cause the dog to focus back on his escape. Pete was close enough now that I was able to plant my feet and reach him with my telekenisis. I levitated him up and over the barb-wired topped fence. As he came over the fence he wrapped his arms around my neck in a tight hug.

"So, that way didn't work. I think we might be able to get in on the other side." He said to me as he loosened his grip around my neck.

I told him he was crazy if he thought I was going to let him go back in the lot. But he reminded me why he was there in the first place. The human traffickers had driven into the car rental lot with a truck full of "slaves". Pete refused to leave without freeing them. I had to be the bad guy and be realistic. I told him that we would need the entire team if we were going to head into the lot. We'd only get ourselves hurt.

A few months ago I would have ran into that lot without thinking twice about it, but I had been doing the Superhero thing for sometime now and I knew how jumping into danger without a plan (and a crap xray power) was an equation for disaster. Pete agreed to leave with me after some negotiation. I promised him that we'd return with the team by next weekend.

[powerdiary]

Shay’s Return

Power Diary Entry 180 - Feb. 12th

I would have loved to jump into this whole sex / human trafficking debacle, however this weekend end up being a whole lot of friend time. And since I have been focusing my diary entries on my dating life and superhero /super team life. I have neglected to tell you about my friends.

Yeah, that's right, I still hang out with my friends. When I am not with the PBs I'm spending most of my time with Remmie. Yeah, Bip my suitemates girlfriend. Unlike her boyfriend she is much more energetic and a bit crazy and I kind of like that. We like to learn choreography and play video games together. Occasionally Wally joins the mix, but honestly he spends far too much time with his girlfriend. I love the guy, don't get me wrong and he will always be one of my best friends, but it's like all we do is make videos together and then he's gone. I can't complain about pretty much having a room to myself, but I miss the kid too.

So, as you can see with two of my best friends being in pretty serious relationships, I don't feel bad about constantly being out and about doing superhero work or being with Conner. That was until Shay texted me a couple weeks ago. A while back (when I was sleeping in me Ex car) Shay had text me and was acting incredibly weird. Over the past few months she was having dreams about her and I fighting crime together.

"It's like you are Multiman, but in a completely different and super crappy outfit" She told me. "But it's so weird because the dreams don't seem odd. It's like they really are happening. Do you think I'm getting a super power?"

I wasn't sure how to feel about this. Shay's memorizes of our past superhero team up was resurfacing. At this point there was a whole slew of people who knew my secret Identity so I felt bad keeping it from her, but everyone that did know who I was had some sort of power or means to protect themselves. Shay was just your average girl. I told myself that I could keep up the lie since we were miles away and our weekly skype calls were fairly short. However, last week she broke the news to me that she was going to study abroad. Shay was going to take two weeks off of school to spend time with family before heading to Europe. Shay was coming back home.

With everything going on in my life I had completely forgot Shay was going to be back in town. That was until she knocked on my dormitory door to surprise me this weekend. I was halfway dressed in my multiman outfit when she knocked. I quickly kicked it under my bed and greeted her at the door.

We hugged and I invited her in. I had to text the PBs that I wasn't going to make any training sessions the whole weekend and I put my focus on Shay. We went to eat and got caught up on school and boys and politics. When we got back to my dorm Remmie was hanging in the common room with Bip and barged into my room when she heard me come in.

The minute Remmie and Shay saw each other there was animosity. Why? I don't know. Maybe it was a girl thing but Remmie invited herself to hang out with us for the rest of the day and Shay refused to leave when things got uncomfortable. I felt bad because Shay had been gone for so long that Remmie and I had all these inside jokes and Shay just sat there and watched.

I bet your wondering why I'm telling you all this. Well ,there is a reason, just stick with me. While looking up this youtube video I was dying to show the girls. Remmie does her squeal of glee and ask me if I am cosplaying now. Confused, I turn around and she is holding up my Multiman outfit. I snatch it from her, but the damage had been done by that point. Shay stared at me wide eyed as she put it all together.

"You." was all she got out before she slouched over and groaned. When Remmie asked her what was wrong, Shay said her head felt like it had just been hit by a train. I took the opportunity throw my super suit in the closet. Remmie offered to get Shay some Advil, but Shay said she just needed to go home and rest. She waved a quick goodbye to us and ran out of my room.

The way Shay looked at me it was like she remembered our past together. But I wasn't certain and I refused to bring it up. I didn't realize how complicated things were going to get the next day when Conner, and Camron were going to meet Shay.

Sunday Conner wanted to do a friends day so that his high school BFF Camron could meet my high school BFF. I was a little apprehensive since Shay had left my dorm room the night before in such a haste, but everyone seemed to be hitting it off. With so much craziness going on in politics recently, it was easy to find a common ground and spark debate. Camron and Shay had changed the conversation to the upcoming Beauty and the Beast movie when my watch began to buzz.

Camron knew what it was and shot me a worried look. Conner groaned at the noise, he was under the impression that my watch gave me alerts about Multiman sightings. He thought I was a superfan, trying to catch a glimpse of Multiman. It was a great excuse for Conner since it explained why I would leave at a moments notice to see if I could ever meet "the greatest hero on earth." However, the last thing I wanted was Shay even thinking about Multiman, not after last night.

"Hey, Julian," Camron called out to me. "I left my water bottle in the car do you mind coming with me to grab it." It was nice that Camron was trying to give me an excuse to leave, but everyone knew that was a weird request. Why would I go with him to his car to help him get his waterbottle?

"Just use one of the cups here. I don't think it very serious, no ones going to die if you don't have your water bottle." I tried hinting to him that the alert was not anthing the polic couldn't handle.

The day continued with little instances like that where Camron would try and help me cover up any hints that I was Multiman. Even though there was times when he'd slip up and say too much. Like once during a round of Catan, he mentioned that everyone should watch me closely because I'm a cheater when it comes to games. Conner raised an eyebrow at Camron when he said those and asked him how he knew that.

There was a time earlier in the day when we were at the Art museum and Camron dropped his cola and it come pouring across the table and I stopped it from falling on my lap with my telekenisis power. Camron made sure to throw napkins my way first so that I could hide the fact that most of the water was piling up near me. And when we were hanging in Conner's dorm after Catan, my power of the day, elastic body was acting funny and I had not noticed that when I was reaching for my drink I had missed and stretched my arm halfway across the table. Camron had to pretend to fall as he came out of the bathroom and toward us to take the attention from the table to the other side of the room.

I felt so relieved when the day was over and I got to go back to my dorm. Shay drove me back to school. As soon as I got on the highway, Shay turned to me and said, "Are you going to keep lying to me or not?"

My mouth got dry and my heart began to pound in my chest. I had no  idea what she was referring to, but I had a strong feeling it was about my powers.

"Julian I'm not an idiot." Shay said as she began telling me how when she got to Boston she felt like there was something missing, there was something off about her. She ignored it at first because she thought it was because she was starting a new chapter in her life, but then when people asked her how her summer went before college, she could barely remember anything. When people asked her about Multiman and if she'd ever had met him, she'd get these headaches. So, she got curious and did some research on Multiman and everything she found on him from the last summer was all new to her. She hadn't remembered anything even the huge stories about a huge gang shooting on the beach.

She then looked into recent news and sure enough everything began coming together. "So I know you're Multiman. And I know you did something to me."

"I couldn't lose you like I lost Mikyle." I said in a whisper.

"But you could booby trap my brain to self destruct when I think on Multiman?" She shoot an angry side ye at me.

"That wasn't supposed to happen. It was just your memory. You were only supposed to forget."

"Who are you to make these choices for me? Don't I have a right to my own memories? You didn't just take my memories Julain, you gave me these.... these" Shay groaned in pain. "These headaches. Everytime I have them I see you. I get this flashes from the past - these things I don't remember doing." Shay pulled into the parking lot at my school. "Fix me." She demanded. "Give my memories back."

"I..I.. Can't. I don't have that power anymore. I haven't had that power since I last used them. I can't fix it."

Shay took a deep breath and gripped the steering wheel really had. "Get out." She said. "Get the fuck out of my car."

I held back tears as I watched her drive away. ............I can't believe what I did to her.

[powerdiary]

Getting to Know You

Power Diary Entry 179 - Feb. 10th

I woke up today with a bit of a hangover. I couldn't remember much after my little talk with Camron and how jealous I started becoming once I saw Conner dancing around in his underwear. However, when I woke up with Conner asking, "How are you feeling?" with a bit of amusement I knew I had not ended the night reasonably.

Turns out that before everyone had left, I had taken Conner into his room, closed the door and went to town *wink* *wink*. Apparently, we were not quiet either and a bunch of people at the party kept knocking on the door and hollering things at us. When we finished the party had simmered down to a select few and we just stayed up talking. Well, they stayed up talking. I was feeling hella drunk so I stayed in bed. When Conner finally did come to bed we talked about how I wanted to make things official between us and become boyfriends. He was hesitant and some how got it out of me that I didn't like how he was in his underwear and I felt like I couldn't voice my opinion on it unless we were boyfriends. That conversation turned into him reassuring me that he wanted to only be with me and that he refused to make anything official while I was in that state.

However, being hungover and put on the spot like that, I didn't feel like I was in the right mindset to talk about becoming official. While I knew I really liked Conner, I was not sure if I wanted to jump into another relationship right after that disaster of a relationship I just had with Rayne. I told Conner I was not feeling well and wanted to go back to my dorm.

After pounding back a shit ton of water, I decided to spend that evening with the PBs. I got there before anyone else had arrived which was a first. Oddly, enough Camron was the next to show. Apparently, I had told him last night to come to the beach so I could help train his power. I had to break the news to him that I don't remember much of the night and then, just like Conner, he had a whole story to tell me about what I had done the night before.

So, he and I decided to pound back a few drinks and we apparently bounded. He told me about his childhood and coming out, which since I didn't remember I had him give me the abridge version. Long story short, he was raised in something that resembled a religious cult. Think of something that mixed the strictness of Mormons with the isolation like the Amish. This kid pretty much did a Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and missed out completely on the lat 90s early 2000s. Oh and he was pushing 200 lbs when he was 14. One day he said "no more" and lost the weight, existed the religion and got a place of his own. Yeah, at 16 this guy moved out. He went from couch to couch for a year, but eventually got an apartment. After hearing his story my perspective of him changed. He was probably one of the few people in the world could really understand the struggle and isolation I went through. Though we did different on one thing. He came out of the closet when he decided to lose the weight at 14, so when he said he went from couch to couch, it was not friends couches. These were the couches of men he'd find through dating apps and hook up with them and then sleep over. He refused to tell me his number, which he assured me was not 365 different guys.

So, back to how stupid I was last night. Apparently, I got drunk and thought it'd be funny to use my super power to mess with the beer pong game. At first I was just making the ball miss the cup just slightly and Camron thought that was amusing, especially because Conner was getting really angry. But then, I started going nuts and when a ball made it in the cup I'd have it shoot out or I would make the ball bounce and completely reverse and fall into the throwers own cup.

This is when Camron was being an amazing person and stopped me from going too far. I wanted to flip the cups and send the balls flying around the room like a little white Quidditch snitch, but Camron talked me off that ledge. And when I wouldn't see reason and tried to drunkenly play a joke he'd push me or get in my way so I couldn't use my power.

So, in the end turns out Camron is not as bad as I made him out to be in my mind. After these passed two days, I guess I've learned to like him and I'm glad I did since now he is the only one who knows me in both my personal and superhero life.

[powerdiary]

So, we meet again

Power Diary Entry 178 - Feb. 9th

Though the human trafficking issue is gnawing at my thoughts, I promised myself I would make sure I kept a healthy balance between my superhero gig and my personal life. Today, my personal life took the forfront and I went to a party at Conner's college. Conner looked especially cute with his new haircut and it took me everything not to steal him way from the party and canoodle in his dorm room. However, that thought didn't stay in my mind for long.

For most of the night Conner was excited for me to meet his friend from High School. Well, they didn't technically go to the same High school, but thier circles crossed a lot and they end up becoming really close. He said they called themselves C sqaured. For some reason this didn't rub me the right way, so I just flat out asked him, "Did you guys ever date? or you know.. hooked up?"

"Oh god no, he's practically my brothers. No, wait. He's pretty much my twin." Conner laughed.

There wasn't much I could do with that than just believe him. I was so worried that maybe I'd have to compete with the friend for Conner's attention that I wasn't prepared for what happened next. Conner comes up to me all excited, I thought maybe it was our turn at beer pong, but he quickly turns and says, "Here's my friend, Camron."

Yes, that's right. Camron who was at the Power Bottom meeting the yesterday. Camron with that weird humming super power. THAT Camron.

Thank God, Camron was only shocked for a second before going along and acting like he didn't know me. He shook my hand very awkwardly and asked how I knew Conner. Conner slapped Camron on the shoulder and told him to stop messing around. Apparently Conner told Camron all about me.

I had been stating that I wanted to balance out my superhero life and personal life, but I never said I wanted to combine them. I spent most of the night avoiding Camron after that. It wasn't until much later when the music was bumping and the drinks were flowing that Camron and I found ourselves on the couch.

"Parties like this aren't my thing." He said to me as we watched the people chat around us. “I’m not a fan of just hanging out with a bunch of strangers.” I must have given a look because then he followed up with, “but not you. You’re cool. I mean you’re Mult-“

“Okay okay. Watch what you say.” I looked behind us to make sure no one was listening. “How do you know Conner anyway if you never went to school together.”

“Honestly?” He asked. When I said yeah he went into the story of how they met. They were both talking to the same guy and this dude was having people over and invited Camron to hang (AKA hook up). Well, the guy  forgot it was Camron he invited and when Camron was running late he texted Conner “Where you at?” and end up inviting him as well. (Later the guy said it was a mistake because they’re names are so close, but the boys believe he wanted a 3-some).

So, Camron is hanging at this party and Conner walks in and there’s this whole Sitcom situation where neither of them know they are both there for the same thing and Camron goes into the dudes bedroom where the guy told him to wait, but the dude also told Conner to go into the bedroom. So with the lights out they started making out thinking it was the guy and when the guy walked in they realized what happened and freaked.

They both cut out of there and had a good laugh and since then they had been close friends. Again I must have had a very judge look on my face because Camron felt like he had to back track and tell me he and Conner hadn’t had the 3-some. But after that story I felt uncomfortable. I was already struggling with my trust issues because of my ex and now Camron shined a whole new light on Conner. I had no idea he was one to freely hook up like that.

My attention turned to Conner who was in a t-shirt and underwear cheering on the beer pong table. He had been half dressed since the party started and I figured since we planned on hitting the bar he was just waiting to finish getting dressed. But now, instead of being this cute carefree spirit, I saw his outfit as slutty and attention seeking. It made me really angry.

I hit the bottle pretty hard after that. The night kind of slipped away from there.

[powerdiary]

Prison break...in

Power Diary Entry 177 - Feb. 8th

I pulled the super team together today so that we can come up with a plan to stop human trafficking in Cleveland. The weather oddly enough is getting nicer (jk it's def due to global warming), so we have been meeting on the beach rather than back at the rec center. I send everyone out a text and head over. Today along with me telekensis power, I have the power to teleport. So I obviously just pop over to the beach. Well, I appear on the beach and everyone freaks. 

Leo yells at me because he has to keep reminding me that I need to tell them what my new power is so they can prepare themselves, "This is exactly why!"

"Sorry not sorry, but if you're going to be a hero you need to expect the unexpected." I tell him.

"No, you idiot. It's because we have company." Leo points over to Tina who is rubbing the back of a pale faced guy. I couldn't tell if he was terrified or thrilled because all he kept saying was, "Oh my god" over and over. 

"What's going on here?" I ask. 

Tina then explains that the new guy's name is Camron and he had a power and was gonig to join the superhero team. I obviously said no. And then was pissed that they would just let a stranger know about our secret identities. Tina tried to defend herself by saying we needed a replacement for Vicky (who no one had heard from since she ran away.

I stood my ground, however, and told Tina since I was the leader I had final say and that was a big fat NO. Huge mistake on my part. That's when Jasmine stepped in. 

"You may be the top dog when you're Multiman and flying around in the streets, but when it comes to this team, I'm the leader." Jasmine was stern.

I tried to argue and tell her that I'm the one that whipped the team into shape. But she was stubborn and said, "You're like my consultant. In the end, the team doesn't do anything unless I say so. And I'm saying Camron is in."

I groaned very loudly, but at this point the kid had already seen our faces and my powers and the last thing I need to do is turn him away so that he could tell the world about us. I call Camrom over and ask him what his power was. 

"I have perfect control over my vocal cords." He says a little to smug. 

"Well, you got one thing right, Jasmine He is perfect for our team of Misfits." I say to Jasmine before turning back to Camron. "And what can you do with that?"

Camrom begins to hum, but the hum quickly stops. Or at least I couldn't hear it anymore. The next thing I know every dog in the area begins to back. It was cool I admit, but nothing that constitute him becoming a superhero. 

"So you can make dogs bark?" I ask.

"Look, I'm working on strengthening it. I've manage to make my brothers dog calm down or get angry from my hum." Camrom tells me.

"Oh that's actually pretty cool. Now that's something I can work with." I say and then Camrom began mumbling. "What's that?" I ask.

"Except I can't actually control the dog when it's angry." he says.

So this kid can put animals to sleep or piss them off, but can't direct who the animal attacks. He was more of a liability than he was useful. I tell him that we can train him, but for now he can't enter the field with us. Which didn't matter anyway because right then I needed, Pete and his memory. 

I tell the team my plan and I take Pete's hand and teleport us into the Police station. With the help pf Pete, I pull up all the files the Police dept. had on Human trafficking in Cleveland and have him memorizes everything. There was no way for my to print a copy or the files and even if I did take a picture there was no better way of understanding the information better than having Pete look at everything and put the pieces together in his mind. 

Once Pete was done, I teleported us back to the beach and we all let him sit and gather his thoughts. It took a while. Long enough for me to speak with Camron about how his hum works. Turns out he found out about the gift because he was on a choir at church and had won several awards for singing. He didn't realize he could use it as a power until he was cleaning around the house and had been humming and looked at his brother's dog who was staring at him. According to him, it was an unnatural stare. Camron had been playing with the power ever since.

Before I could fall asleep listening to Camron talk about his power story, Pete had found something. Everyone in prison seemed to have taken the fall for someone else, but no one would give up a name. They said they had been working in the dark. But one man said he knew something and was looking to make a deal with the police dept. to get free. Since they obviously could not just let him loose he's been sitting on this information for months. 

I ask Pete where the guy was being held and then I take Leo's hand and Tina's hand and teleport us into his prison cell. Once we landed I had Tina create a sticky goop in her stomach and shoot it at the Cameras facing the cell. I then levitated the prisoners cellmate into the air with my mind.  I tied blankets around him so he couldn't move or speak and then we turned to the prisoner we came for.

He laughed at us. He didn't take us seriously at all. "Powers or not. You're just a bunch of kids." he said. Leo didn't like that and threw a knife that nicked the prisoner's neck and then pinned the prisoner to the wall by the shirt. "What do you want?" he asked finally seeing us as a threat. 

We tell him we want to know what he knows about who is running the human trafficking. He tells us he doesn't know. I then asked Tina to conjure up some acid to drip ontop of the prisoner to get him to talk, but Tina refused. Though I was only partially telling the truth, I needed Tina to go along with it to at least scare the guy, but she said she didn't have the stomach for it. (Pun intended)

So they guy saw my bluff and tried to bargain with us. He said if we teleported him out of there he will tell us every thing he needed.  This went on for a couple minutes, before I began to get real pissed. Then I finally hit my breaking point and told him that if he wasn't going to tell us anything there was no use of him. I grab him by the throat and I teleport us both to the top of the Keytower (skyscaprer for those who don't know Cleveland). I then just let him fall. He screams as he passes the 50the floor and then the 40th, by the time he nears the 30th floor I teleport down to him and catch him. I struggle to carry him and I don't hide it. 

"I can only hold you for so long, so you either tell me what you know or you're going to be splattered all over the ground." I say.

(I guess I should have mentioned before that TIna, Leo and I were in our superhero costumes.)

He yells at me, "What kind of Superhero are you?"

"One who is losing his patience and grip." I say as he slips from my fingers.

"Alright. Alright! You have to see Owl. I don't know if there is one guy that runs it and I sure as hell can't tell you everyone who's participating, but Owl runs the books. He keeps tabs on everyone and reports it to the big guy."

"Where do I find him?" I ask.

"He usually hangs out at Becky's. Now please put me down."

With that I let him go. He yells briefly before he hits his bed. He had his eyes closed most the time and didn't realize I had already brought him back to his room. (I got tired of holding him). 

I quickly grab Leo and Tina and we teleport back to the beach. Man, did they give me an earful. They were not happy that I left them in a prison cell. And though I was gone for just a couple minutes they thought I had complete abandoned them. This def pushed them more onto the "Jasmine's the leader" bandwagon. But right then I didn't care, I had got the information I wanted. Next step, finding Owl. 

[powerdiary]

Human Trafficking is a thing!

Power Diary Entry 176 - Feb. 7th

Have you ever had those moments were you think, "God I'm an idiot?" or every felt like you were so naive? That happened to me today. This is the first time in my entire life that I actually felt like I lived in a safe little bubble. Even after growing up in rough neighborhoods and fighting my way through prejudice, I would have never said that life in Cleveland Ohio was bad. However, that was because I had no idea what was really happening in my streets.

The day:

I hung out with Conner most of the day today and he was telling me about his clinical rotations at the hospital. Oh, I should have probably mentioned that Conner is studying to be a Nurse and when he is not shoving his nose in a book, he is working at the hospital with children.

Well, he starts talking about children being beat to near death and that more kids come into the hospital from gun shot wounds than adults. This obviously was disturbing on its own, but then he tells me about how Cleveland has human trafficking. Yes, people are stealing kids and selling them for god knows what...IN CLEVELAND!

In Cleveland, just last October, a 17 year old was rescued from two people forcing the victim in sex traffcking. These scum, took the victim from her home in Tacoma, Wa. making stops in Idaho, Salt Lake City, California, Las Vegas, Denver and Chicago all before coming to the Cleveland. Each stop was forced to prostitute.

I thought human trafficking was some thing over exaggerated in movies or something that happened in the 80s (which in my naive mind is ages away). Oh no, it happens today, it happened all around the world, actually there is approximately 20 to 30 million slaves in the world today.

According to the U.S. State Department, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year. And guess where I live, in a state another country. You would think that no one is trafficking people into Canada, that's something for Mexico, but believe it or not, it happens. And you know what makes me even more sick? The global average cost of a slave is $90. $90!!

So, once I found all this out, I made it my duty to find whoever is participating in Human trafficking in Cleveland and throw their asses in jail. And this assholes, have no idea what's coming for them, because Multiman doesn't work alone anymore.

[powerdiary]

Becoming a Super Team Pt. 2

Power Diary Entry 175 - Feb. 4th

After telling the PBs that I am also the Superhero Multiman, you can imagine they had many many questions. Some people were excited (Pete and Leo obviously), while others were angered (Jasmine of course) and other were indifferent (Tina and Vicky, shocker).

I fielded questions for a good 20 minutes. "Are you sure?" "Is this a joke" "How could you keep this from us?" "How'd you get your powers?" "How many powers do you actually have?" "Can we get back to training already?"

Fortunately, I was able to settle the team just long it enough for it to be quiet enough to hear my watch go off. There was a robbery happening at a bank downtown. I asked the team if we could talk about this later and who was going to come with me. Everyone but Jasmine and Vicky were game to go.

Pete jumped on my back while Tina used her boots to hop along side me and Leo used his skateboard and his grappling hooks to pull him down the street. Oddly enough it was very efficient. I had to slowly down my super speed, but we all still made it down town in less than 10 mins.

We made it to the scene just as the get away car sped away. "I got em!" Leo (or I guess I should be using their superhero names by now, huh?) Aim used his grappling hooks and swung from building to building like spiderman. The Chemist (Tina) was right behind him. She hopped from lamppost to lamp post. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't as good with balance as the rest of us and came falling down. I had to retreat from the chase and catch her.

Aim had a good handle on things. He landed atop the car cause the car to swerve. He fumbled with his capsules trying to find the right one to cover the windshield, but was having trouble. I watched from behind as the men in the car pulled out a gun.

"SHIT!" I screamed as I sped away from Tina and raced toward the car. I pulled Shield (Pete) off my back and hurried him at Leo. Just as I heard the guns fire, Shield was sliding under Aim. I could hear Shield laugh as the bullets bounced off him. Pete than reached over and pulled a capsule from Leo's jacket and threw it at the car. It was the right capsule and a black substance spread across the windshield.

I was standing in front of the car at this point ready to pull everyone free before it crashed, but then Tina landed in front of me. "I got this." She said as she hacked up something from deep within her throat. She then spat something at the floor that began to grow like a marshmallow in the microwave. In seconds the street was covered in this giant foam lump. The car hit it softly. THe foam absorbed the hit and everyone, including Shield and Aim were safe.

The cops and the News were right behind us. "Time to go team." I said as I pulled Shield (who was waving at the cameras) from the car and pointed for Chemist and Aim to retreat.

We made it back to the secret beach area with our spirits high. Jasmine was sitting alone on the sand with her head in her hands. I thought she was still very upset with me, but she was crying for another reason.

You see, this whole time I had gotten used to Vicky being invisible that it was not strange to see Jasmine alone, because I always knew Vicky was somewhere near, just out of sight. BUt not this time, Vicky was so happy that she had gotten her "skin" back that she decided there was no need to be a superhero. She wanted to live a normal life. She left Jasmine on the beach and never looked back.

After that I took everyone back to the rec where they were going to get picked up. Even after the excitement of the day everyone was in the slumps because of Vickys (for lack of better words) disapperance. I was nervous that Jasmine was going to quit the team entirely, but before I was able to leave she called out to me, "Hey Multi. We're going to have to think of a new team name, because I refuse to have the media call us the Power Bottoms."

[powerdiary]

Becoming a Super team Pt. 1

Power Diary Entry 174 - Feb. 4th

I have been trying my best to split my time up between Conner and the PBs. I always do this, I get absorbed into an activity or start to like a guy an that's all I want to do. Right now it is especially hard because these two things (PBs and Conner) came into my life around the same time and both are something that I really REALLY like to do. Fortunately, Conner is understanding and is working hard on school (He's like totally into learning - which as you can see from these journals I am not) so he does not mind canceling plans to do other things. Little does he know that the "other things" is fighting crime with my new superhero team.

Let me catch you up. After the PBs have agreed to train and occassionally go out and fight crime, I took the training up a level. We moved from the crappy training we were doing in the rec center and I took the team to the closed off area on the beach where I first used my powers. (Remember, it was the first time truly flew).

Here is where I set up targets on the cliff top and rings in the water and some other puzzles for the team. We trained every other day instead of the few times a week the PB meeting were originally held and I made them work harder than I probably should have. You have to remember its winter so forcing Jasime to swim in the freezing water was no joke and placing weights on Leo's wrist and ankle while forcing him to hit targets up the cliff side was torture. I had everyone training like dogs and knew that I needed to find a way to keep their spirits alive.

So, yesterday I brought a surprise for them. Over the last week I had been in contact with the SHI organization and had asked for a favor. I got a lot of slack when I revealed I was forming my own superhero team in Cleveland. Especially since the PBs had powers and should technically be under the watch of SHI, but being a full fledged Superhero, I was able to get away with training these "Misfits".

As I was saying, yesterday when I could see the defeat blazing in the PBs eyes I handed them all a box. They opened it to find a costume made specifically for each of them.

Jasmine's suit was form fitting and helped regulate her body temperature when swimming in water. It also came with little capsules that she could pop into her mouth to give her a breath of fresh air. This meant she could triple her time under water. Oh and the best part, they suit is equip with specially retractable fins that could help her swim at superhuman speeds.

Leo's outfit was suited with daggers and throwing stars that were made with a special metal that he could press a button and have magnetically brought back to his suit. He was also equipped with capsules that could do many things from exploding, to letting off sleeping gas. His favorite part was his duel grappling hook that could have him up a 10 story building in seconds.

Tina's outfit was built to give her power a boost. She had several capsules attached to her waist that she could chew to make a new substance. She even had goggles that would tell her what an element was and what she needed to create a new item. I did feel bad because TIna had been feeling like her power was not as cool as the others, so I had the SHI team create these boots that gave her the ability to leap a few stories into the air.

Pete being the youngest and with the not so amazing power of memorization was a bit harder to come up with a good outfit idea. I could not really encourage him to out himself in harms way, but he was more excited than anyone else to become a hero. I would say he had a even worse power than Tina, but little Pete was not going to let that stop him. So I had the SHI team create a suit that made in indestructible. It reflected bullets and repelled fire. He did not need any offensive equipment because once we decided to become a superhero team, he decided to focus his memory on learning all forms of Martial arts. In just a couple weeks, he could keep pace with me.

Vicky was the last one and I did not give her a superhero suit per say. I did something entirely different. I had the SHI team do some research into her passed and find pictures of her from a child. They then aged the photo to her current age and made a kind of skin replica of Vicky. Her outfit was obviously the most verifying when not worn. It looked like someone had been peeled alive, but once Vicky stepped into the suit and pressed the button that cause it to shrink until it clung to her body, it looked amazing.

Everyone was speechless when we got to see Vicky for the first time. I handed Vicky a mirror and she stared at herself for a very long time before she burst into tears, "I'm beautiful." She exclaimed. We all went into a group hug before everyone else geared up.

Everyone was so excited to begin training with their new gear. Instead of working on their own they all watched each other as they performed in their super suits. They all obviously had trouble at first, but by days end they were at least comfortable. Pete was a little too comfortable, he'd run up and down the beach and ask Leo to try to hit him with a dagger. Leo obviously hit his mark every time and Pete just laughed at the dagger bounced off his suit. "I am the Human shield!" Pete yelled into the air.

"Really the Human Shield, that's going to be your superhero name?" Tina rolled her eyes.

"Well what great name did you come up with." Pete stuck his tongue out.

"I think I like, The Chemist." Tina said as she burped out this fog that surrounded the air above her.

Jasmine decided on the name Lir, while Leo went with Aim. Vicky struggled with a name. She didn't want a name she said she lived her whole life being a nobody that now that she had a body she didn't want to just give up her birth name. She smiled brightly as she said, "You can just call me Vicky"

"What about you Julian?" Leo asked turning to me.

"Yeah, and what about your costume?" Pete noticed I did not have a package for myself and that's when every one else did.

"I've been wondering when it'd be a good time to tell you guys this." I said and then with my super speed (the power of the day) I ran off and changed into my Multiman outfit. I returned in front of them hovering just above the ground with my telekenesis power. ""I'm really Multi".

Cue everyone's jaws on the ground.

[powerdiary]

Jizzed in my pants

Power Diary Entry 173 - Jan. 21st

I know, I know..two post about a boy I like and not about superpowers, for give me if I'm trying to have a life outside of flying around the city and kicking some criminal butt. However, Conner asked to go to dinner with me and I was not going to pass it up.

The day:

We talked all weekend mainly through text, but we did Facetime once when he wanted to show me his dorm. So on Sunday, Conner asked me to go to dinner. At first I said no, because I worked till 8pm and wouldn't have time, but he prodded until I caved. So after, work I walked up the parking lot to the Cheese Cake Factory. He set dinner for 8:30 since the restaurant closed at 10. I was not happy about wearing my work uniform and that the special super power I had for the day was "sticky fingers" (I could climb things like Spiderman) I couldn't even race to my dorm to change. (He asked me on the date as I got to work so I didn't bring clothes).

So, because I got off work at 8 I was at the restaurant before him. AND he showed up 10 mins late! So you can imagine I was not happy. When he showed though he was so polite and embarrassed about being late I couldn't stay mad.

The dinner was nice. We talked about so much, which was suprising since I thought I knew almost everything about him from the past 48 hours of texting. There was one problem however, I think the nerves of eating with him got my palms more sticky. I had to secretly pry the fork from my hand when I wanted a drink and then the drink from my hand when I wanted to eat again. I eventually just resorted to leaning over the table to drink from the straw and used the same fork for aps, entree, and desert. (Which we shared a dessert and he kind of gave me a weird look when I put my speghetti sauce covered fork into the oreo cheese cake.

So, one thing in particular stuck out to me during the dinner. Conner's father had died two years ago. He talked about his dad (mainly because I pestered him not because he wanted to give me a sap story). His father died from cancer. For some reason that really hit me hard. For one he talked about watching his dad slowly die before his eyes and "even worse" watching his mom slowly accept his dads death. That included random break downs and walking around the house in her husband's sweater for days at a time. Secondly, it hit me hard because I have witnessed death from the perspective of a superhero. But there is nothing my powers can do to cure cancer. It really brought me back to earth and realize that I'm not living in this fantasy, there are still real dangers out there that aren't robbers and gang violence. So, after dinner Conner invited me to go to the karaoke bar near his college. He said his friends go there on Sunday and they were dying to meet me (though almost all his friends had come through the grocery store at some point and saw me working). I agreed only if he were going to stop by my dorm so I could change. I made him sit in the car while I changed.

We then went to his dorm which isn't even a dorm. It's a freaking town house. This place had 4 rooms, an upstairs and down stairs, tw bathroom, a living room and a kitchen. Surprisingly it was vacant. All this roommates were supposidly at the bar already. So, he went to the fridge and pulled out some tequila. And not just any tequila he pulled out Jose Cuervo. I'm telling you my heart skipped a beat. No one I knew drank tequila and I was always only in my love for Jose. But Conner was all for it. He said that no one else drank it in the dorm so he always had some on hand.

We got a little too excited and drank a few shots too many and when we decided to go walk to the karaoke bar, we both admitted we were too drunk. So, he offered me to hang out with him as I sobbered up. We layed in his bed and talked and me stupidly said, "Hey, promise me one thing... you won't fall in love with me."

Then with no hesitation, he says, "Well then you have to promise something too. You can't stop yourself from falling for me."

Damn that guy. I was trying to set boundaries and not get my heart all caught up in the whole romance of the evening, but man when he said that something just awoken in me. I immediately went in for a kiss. We made out for a few minutes before he started laughing.

I had no idea what he was laughing at and being typsy I thought it was about my kissing so I got irritated. "What? You're not enjoying yourself?" I said with a bit of an attitude.

"No that's not it at all. I think YOU'RE enjoying yourself a bit too much." he pulled his hand away from my crouch and pinched his fingers together to show that they were sticking together. He thought I had jizzed my pants. He was laughing because he thought he got me off from kissing.

No, it was my stupid spider sticky finger hands and they must have gotten so sticky they excreted on my pants. I was so embarrassed I ran out of there. I told him I needed to go to the bathroom and snuck out the second floor door. It wasn't until I was flying half way back to my dorm that he texted me asking where I went.

I had to suck it up and pretend I had actually cum in my pants - you know, because I can't reveal my super power - so I told him that I had gotten "too wet and needed to change. Sorry, I'm so embarrassed".

He laughed it off an said he would have given me a ride. I didn't respond after that because with the alcohol I was having trouble staying steady in the air.

So, in the end. I;m not sure where that date lands on the scale compared to other dates. Only time will tell, i guess.

[powerdiary]

Destiny has its eyes on me

Power Diary Entry 172 - Jan. 19th

Today turned out differently than I expected. After a morning of flying around the city (it's been quiet and I like to fly around every other day to let people know there is still a hero ready to stop criminals at any moment), I went to work at the grocery store. I was not in a great mood since today was inaguration day. I was not looking forward to waht I thought was going to be another "bore me to death" day, but then someone walked in, who I was not expecting.

The day:

I was working in the refridgerator section, putting a Uboat load of yogurt onto the shelves when I look down the freezer aisle and see a boy. Not just any boy, but the boy I had attempted to flirt with at the grocery store several times before, the boy who I saw at the gay club who I tried to talk to, the boy who had blown me off every time I made an advance.

Feeling confident and with the assumption that the boy only ignored me before because he didn't know I was gay... but now he couldn't ignore the fact he saw me at the gay club... I said "Hey".

Not just "Hi" or "Hello" or "Can I help you". I said "hey" like I knew him and I was opening the myself up to a conversation. The boy just like every other fucking time, goes.."Hi" and then turns the corner with the girl he was with and walks away.

Man was I furious. I went back to working and being completely flabergastered. From my recollection, the boy was excited to see me in the gay club. He looked interested... well, until Raine grabbed me. Maybe that was it, the boy thought I was still with the guy.

So, I just continue working and this guy is standing not 20 feet away with this girl, obviously looking at me and whispering. Which only made me more annoyed. If you want to talk to me grow some balls! It's not like I havne't tried talking to you for the past few months!

Finally, after about 10 more minutes this guy comes up to me and ask me for syrup. At this point I'm just over it. He didn't need me to help him find anything. He was FINALLY trying to talk to me, but I was so irritated at this point. How'd I know he didn;t need help. Oh, because he asked me for syrup after exiting the syrup line. "You really need syrup?" I said not hiding the irritation in my voice.

"Yeah." the boy had no clue I was on to him.

"Alright. Come on." I say. Once again giving him the chance to talk to me if he wanted to. I could have totally just told him "Aisle 6", but I wanted to walk with him. I was annoyed, but I was still interested. I take him all the way to the syrup and wait. This whole time he says nothing. After a few seconds of looking at the syrup he says, "Thanks" turns to me and says, "and this is for you." He then hands me a piece of paper. He walks away before I could even open it. You guessed it. He gave m his number. Having waited too long for this to happen. I wait maybe an hour to text him. We sent a few messages back and forth before he asked me my age. I got nervous. As you know, I just turned 18 and this guy looked about 16. I wasn't legally allowed to date him, but I didn't want to scare him away. So I texted him I was 16.

He then very politely told me that he made a mistake and shouldn't have given me his number. He told me that I was too young. He said he was 20. I'M SO FUCKING STUPID. I quickly wrote back that I was joking and that I was 18.

Long story short.. we end up texting into the late night. I find out so much. Turns out he wasn't trying to blow me off these past few months. He genuinely thought I was straight and was just being a good worker (even though his friends kept telling him to talk to me). The last time I saw him at the store he said he was actually convinced to talk to me, so he turned the car around and came back into the store to find me, but I was gone (prob went on break). We both laughed it off because I was dating someone and it was good we hadn't met then.

I'm not trying to jump into a relationship right now, but this is the first decent guy that I have met since coming out and I think I'm going to keep talking to him. I just wanted to include this in the blog because I thought it was so crazy how we kept bumping into each other these few months and are just NOW finally talking.

His name is Conner.

[powerdiary]

How to save a life

Power Diary Entry 171 - Jan. 15th

I've had just two training sessions with the PBs this week. I had really tried to incorporate Tina into the training sessions as much as I could, but it's really hard to find was to test an indestructable stomach when you can really destroy anything at the rec. It's not like I can have her eat through a door or have her devour a bomb. The best thing I had managed for her to do was chew through some ropes, but the ropes could have been easily broken with Leo's throwing stars.

The day:

Today, however, something extrodinary, yet terrifying happened. A little girl had been playing in the recreation center parking lot and slid into the gutter system. The PBs and I were just getting ready for another superpower training session when we heard screaming from outside. A mother was screaming into her phone that her daughter had fallen into the drain.

The mother was in such a panic because the snow was melting and the water in the drain was flowing by fast. The sewer grate had giant bars across it, but there was a little whole just big enough for the girl to slide through. Pete volunteered to slide into the whole because he was just small enough to fit in, but he only had the power of memory and wouldn't be much help.

This was Tina's moment to shine. She bent over the metal bars and bite right into them. A few minutes later there was a whole big enough for Tina to slide in. The girl had been able to keep her footing in the sewage up till that point. However, the water was freezing and once Tina dropped down the girl stepped to the side, slipped and was sent racing down the tunnel.

"Shit!" Tina said as she ran after the girl.

At first I kept my cool because I thought that the PBs would be able to handle the small crisis on their own, but with the girl being taken away by the current I had to take initiative. I slid into the tunnel and raced after Tina.

"Which way did she go?" I said as Tina stood at a fork in the road.

"I don't know." Tina was frantic. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to be gifted with the power to see through walls that morning. I scanned the sewer and was the girl sliding through the drain.

"This way." I grabbed Tina and we ran toward the girl. (Actually less running and more sliding.)

Eventually several tunnels connected and the flow of water was so powerful Tina and I were swept up as well. We were pushed for about 3 mins before we hit a wall. There was this grate that kept the trash from flowing any further. Tina and I had smashed into that and found the girl. We weren't underwater, but the stream of the rushing water fell down on us in a way that was hard to breath.

This time Tina didn't panic. She immidiately went to work on the grate. She chewed through the metal bars in seconds and we all went flying down the drain. Then it was my turn to use my powers. Taping into my telekenisis, I was able to steer the three of us away from the rushing flow of water and into a more shallow flowing drain. Because of the force of the stream and the push of my telekinesis. We were still being pushed pretty fast, We end up hitting a giant circular door and falling out of the drain.

The giant door we pushed through was just over Lake Erie. At first I was very grateful for the frozen over lake. We were simply sent sliding across it. When we finally stopped, I realized my mistake. The ice was not as strong as it had been days before when the temperature was near single digits. With the temp back up to 50, the ice cracked beneath our weight.

The three of us were trapped under the ice. It's true when you fall into a frozen lake it's almost impossible to find the hole you fell through. I was lucky enough to have been holding on to the little girl when we fell into the lake so, she was firmly pressed against me, but Tina was gone.

The girl and I beat against the glass above us, but it would not budge. I saw the girl start to panic. It was clear she was loosing her breath. I know this was stupid, but I did the first thing that came to mind. I grabbed the girl and blew what little air I had in my mouth into her mouth. When I pulled away my first instinct was to inhale and I got a lung full of water. I passed out quickly after.

When I came to, I was laying on the beach with everyone standing around me. Oddly enough I felt a warm breath against my face still. Vicky had given me CPR and was still lingering over me. I couldn't see her because, well you know, she is invisible. I asked them what happened and the recounted their tale.

After Tina and I went into the drain, Pete led the group through the streets of Cleveland. He had learned about the drainage system on a field trip years ago and still remembered the map of the sewer system. He led everyone to where he predicted we'd end up. He was about a half mile off because he hadn't expected Tina to chew through the grates. However, they were just on the other side of Edge Water beach and hurried over when they saw us exit the pipeline.

Jasmine stood on the ice and had Leo push her across. With his perfect aim he got Jasmine right near the hole we fell into. Jasmine jumped in and was able to pull Tina out right away. Tina then yelled for Leo to throw her a rock (which he was able to throw perfectly) and she chewed into it to make a dagger that she then smashed into the ice above where the little girl and I were trapped. Tina then pulled us out.

The mother of the child thanked us profusley. She wanted to tell the news and give us a reward, but everyone refused. We were all so excited to have actually saved someone. (Well, minus me, but they still don't know about my Multiman identity). After we had all warmed back up, they PBs finally agreed to become heroes. "part-time heroes" according to Jasmine.

[powerdiary]

Power Bottoms Unite!

Power Diary Entry 170 - Jan. 10th

While there is still plenty more that happened over the holidays that I could fill you in about (Fights over Christmas shopping, another shooting, etc.) I don't feel like righting about the past for the next few blogs. So sorry not sorry. Instead I'm going to tell you about something much more interesting. My attempt to turn the Powerbottom crew into certified superheros.

After my cousin's fiance's death and the crazy confusing New Year's eve party I went to, I decided the city needed more heroes patrolling the streets. I obviously could not be every where al the time. So, I needed help. I wasn't completely ready to give away my superhero status to the crew yet, so I kind of bashed on my secret superhero persona.

I was half over exaggerating, but half serious and I broke down to them how angry I was that my cousin's fiance was shot. I told them that Multiman was a terrible hero if he couldn't stop one robbery. And that since we had these powers we should be using them to help people.

They were not feeling it. Jasmine (being the leader of their group) was the most stubborn. She told me that they never had the desire to be heroes and if the did they weren't power enough to stop a shooting. She also put her foot down when it came to the young ones in the PB. She refused to risk Leo and Pete lives.

Pete who I had finally got to meet. (great kid, very bright) He said that his power was not superhero worthy and gave up on that dream a long time ago (He had a really really good memory). However, I fought and fought.

Leo who had master the throwing stars I had given him was totally on board. With his perfect aim, he was second to Vicky (who could turn invisible) with superpowers. Tina (indestructible stomach) and Jasmine (Can hold her breath for a long time) were much more hard to sway.

This conversation happened Sunday night. By the end of our meeting / hang sess I had gotten them to at least to agree to do some training so I can prove they are hero ready. Today was the first day of training. I turned the recreation center into an obstacle course.

It was simple. They needed to save one of the CPR dummies. I tied the dummy to the diving board with weights around it. Locked the door with a series of codes. Set up cameras down the hallway to the pool and put them all on a timer.

All I told them that the dummy was locked in the pool room and injected with a poison. I gave Pete the antidote and had him memorize it. (It was really just a bunch of condiments I found in the rec's fridge.) So, once set up I had them go. My goals was not to use my powers (because they thought I was too weak to lift anything with my mind) and guide them. First thing first was giving Pete the antidote. As he was reading it, I took out a lighter and set the paper on fire.

"What the heck?!" Pete yelled.

"You have to be prepared for anything on the battle field." I told him. He just groaned and ran into the kitchen to get the antidote together. The rest of the team made their way down the hall.

"We need to disable the cameras." Jasmine pointed to the four cameras I set up (Excessive, i know, but I didn't want it to be too easy).

"Already here." Vicky hollered from across the hall. She had pulled the cord that strung the camera's up and they all came crashing down.

"Come on Vick!" Leo yelled. "You almost broke my phone." (I guessed I should have mentioned that by camera's I mean everyone's phones.)

"We're timed, remember?" Tina pushed Leo along.

Once they got to the pools door they realized that the padlock and the riddle I put on the door was too complicated for them to figure out. They hollered for Pete to hurry over because he was good at puzzle due to his great memory. But he hollered back that he was still trying to figure out the antidote.

"Screw it." Tina said and bit into the padlock breaking it into pieces.

"We did it." Jasmine sighed.

"No we didn't" Leo said as they realized I had tied the dummy up over the water. "No worries I got her." He pulled out his throwing star.

"I got the antidote!" Pete yelled as he came into the room and bumped into Leo who was in the process of throwing with weapon. He missed the rope by an inch.

He pulled out another stat and tried again. This time cutting the rope and sending the dummy into the water.

"My turn!" Jasmine said excitedly as she jumped into the water. She was down there for a solid minute before coming up and saying she couldn't do it. That's because I had knotted the weights around the dummy so that you had to pull them out in a specific order to free the dummy.

I yelled at her that she was wasting time. The dummy was going to die from the poison if it didn't die from drowning first.

"There's just all these colored ropes. I can't tell the difference from the green, red, white, and-" Jasmine tried to explained but was cut off by Pete.

"Like the condiment colors!" Pete caught on to my trick. "The ingridents weren't an antidote. They were the colors of the ropes. Pull them out in the order that I tell you." Pete than began to ramble off colors. Once Jasmine felt like she had it she dived back down.

Seconds later she pulled up the dummy. Everyone cheered. I even felt an invisible hug from Vicky. The mood stood that high for the rest of the meeting. By the end, they all agreed that they would let me train them.

"I'm not promising any superhero business." Jasmine told me. "But this was fun and I wouldn't mind doing some more stuff like this."

There was one problem. Tina didn't feel like she contributed like the rest. While everyone else was in high spirits I could tell she wasn't as excited about her contribution. I tried to give her a peep talk, but all I could do in the end is promise the next practice run will call for more of her abilites.

Now I just need to figure out how the hell I am going to use an indistructable stomach in futures practices. ekk!

[powerdiary]

Count(going)down

Power Diary Entry 169 - Jan. 8th (but talking about Dec. 31st)

So, now that the air has been cleared about my cousin's fiance's death, I'd like to talk about my New Year's Eve. It was probably the one highlight of my Christmas break (sloppy highlight, but a highlight none the less).

The day:

As you know, I decided to stay on campus and avoid my mother's house and getting sucked into another destructive relationship with Raine. Staying on campus had it's perks and it's down falls. Being on campus unfortuntely meant being alone 90% of the time (outside of the random run in with a student who decided to get some fresh air the same time as you) and there was no food on campus. The perks were that you can pretty much do whatever you want. Seriously, almost anything.

I took a shower on morning and dropped my towel on the shower floor in the gross water that had risen around my feet from the drain's being clogged. It was soaked and I could not dry myself with it. So, I shaved my face in the middle of the bathroom naked until I was almost dry. Then I grabbed my dirty clothes held it over my crouch and walked bare ass to my dorm room. I could totally do that any other time, but I, Julian, would NEVER do that ANY other time. So, to me it was a carefree existence on the campus.

In the time between finding out that my cousin's fiance had died and New Year's Eve, I bumped into one other student who was staying on campus. She waved me down the minute see saw me.

"Hey, you drink?" She asked.

"Yeah." I said suscpicously.

"Good. I'm having a party in my dorm on New Year's Eve. You should come." She turned and walked away. "Dolan Room 203."

I was taken aback. This girl had no idea who I was. If I was a student, if I was a danger to her life, or if I had a name. All she knew was that I drank (Which could either be non-alcoholic. But she def meant alcohol because the state of the girl yelled, sloppy drunk.) Even though all that ran through my mind.... you know damn well, i went to this party.

I was feeling a little down the day of New Year's Eve and I debated on going to stay with my family, but though I love my (extended) family, I was not in the mood to bring in the new year with a bunch of moopy people. I know that sounds heartless considering that someone had just died in the family, but I could not spend another day wiping tears from my eyes. I needed a drink and a few laughs. This campus party was going to be my sanctuary.

When I got the the Dolan dorms, the front door was propped open with a shoe. Even from the downstairs lobby I could hear music coming from the second floor. - Now I know I said you could pretty much get away with anything on campus during the break, but there was still one RA in each dorm and having a party was sure to call attention and get everyone in trouble, but this girl didn't seem to care.

I enter her dorm and it's like a tiny apartment. I had been stuck in the freshman dorm this whole time I hadn't had the pleasure of seeing how great the upper class had it. THis dorm was a three bedroom apartment, with a kitchen, bathroom and a living room. Outside of being able to do their laundry this place was practically it's own house.

I was amazed, but not as amazed I was by the attendance on the party. It looked like every student that decided to stay on campus over break had crammed their way into the dorm room. There was only one other freshman at the party. It was this girl I had art history with. She was stirring a spoon in a red solo cup looking around the room like she was all alone and knew no body. I quickly made my way up to her.

"Hi, I think we're in Art History together. Name's Julian. You all alone to?" I asked.

The girl looked over at me like she were confused why I'd be talking to her. "Alone? No." She pushed passed me and hugged a tall blonde guy. I then heard her say, that creep was trying to hit on me.

The blonde looked over in my direction and I quickly pretended to pour a drink. "Julian?" I heard the guy say and I stiffened up. How the hell did he know me? He started walking toward me and my heart fell to my feet.

It was Alec. You know, the cute blonde guy I went to high school with. The one on the basketball team who always seemed to have a thing for Dea. The one I got a little to close with at Prom when I accidentally turned into his date (I had the power to change my appearance). Yeah, that Alec.

He ran up to me and gave me a hug, turning my ribs cage into dust in the process. "How's Dea?" was one of the first things he asked (after he asked me how I was doing - he's not a complete ass). That's about when his friend - the girl from Art history made her way back over.

"Haven't talked to her since the break up and, you know, since I started dating guys." I said.

If you're shocked I just came out and said it, well so was I. It's not that I want to hide the fact that I am gay, it's just having someone from High school around and them having the vivid image of me with girls made me uncomfortable. It's different when someone meets you and they get to know you as your current self, but having someone know you as a different person and then quickly erase that image from their mind is weird.

It's as if you can see the memory get distorted in their mind. It's written on their face in those first few moments. There's a bit of shock from being caught off guard, then the questioning (You know, the "was he gay then? and then? and when this happened?) Next there is that moment where the old you slowly gets washed away from their memory and they replace it with this new gay you. And not their thoughts are consumed with "Of course he was gay" and "It was so obviously. I knew this whole time." Finally they come back to the conversation and act like everything is normal.

"Cool, you dating anyone." Alec said nonchalantly. Now when I said people usually act like evrything is normal, I mean they say "So, how's school". You know, they changed the subject. Alec was so cool with the gay thing he flat out asked me about it.

"Not anymore. Thank god." I summed up mine and Raine's relationship in those four words. No more questioning was need from then on.

"Hey, sorry for thinking you were being a creep." THe art history girl said. "I love my gays." She then put her arm around my shoulder and ALec's. "What do you want to drink boys?"

From there, these two were my besties for the night. I found out Art history girls name is Fiona. She and Alec had been friends since middle school. Alec was going to school at Kent State and found this New Year's Eve party cute compared to the rangers he had back home. As I usually do, I pushed and pushed him to show us what Kent State parties are like. He waved me off the first few times I brought it up, but eventually word spread and the whole dorm room was egging him on.

He then set up this drinking course. You take a drink then bounce a ping pong, into the empty cup. Next, you drink and flip a cup, then you chug from a bag of wine, slap it and do a hand stand against a wall while someone put a beer pong in your mouth and you chug a beer.

"How do you win?" A girl in the crowd asked.

"Be the last to puke." Alec laughed and chugged his beer. This is when people got fucked up. Before I knew it I was peeing in the bathroom and I heard people counting down. I tried to push my pee out as quickly as I could, but I didn't make it in time. They counted to one and every one was cheering before I could get the door open.

However, it didn't matter if I was present or not. Alec brought the countdown to me. As soon as I opened the door he feel into the bathroom. "Happy New Year!" He screamed and pulled me into a hug. He then kissed me on the mouth. It was very dramatic and he even made a loud kissy nose too. It was very "bro" if you can consider a kiss on the lips with another man "bro"ish.

I was caught off guard, but thought it was just him being a goofball. However, the way he looked at me after the kiss made me hot. I looked over at the bathroom mirror behind him and could see my cheeks turn red (or as red as they could get through my tan skin).

"Happy new year." I said, not knowing what else to say. Then he went in for another kiss. This time however, it was not a joke kiss. It was a real open mouth, hands behind my head kiss. He kicked the door closed and pushed my back against the towel rack. We kissed for a good 10 seconds before someone tried to open the door.

"What's going on in there? What did you break?" Someone yelled.

"Shit." Alec stepped back and looked at the ground. He had dropped the two champagne glasses he brought in for us to drink onto the floor. In all the commotion, I hadn't noticed that my leg was soaked from the drink splattering. "I really had to pee." Alec said as the host came into the bathroom and saw the glass on the floor.

"You're cleaning it up." She said as she retrieved a broom and handed to me. She closed the door and left us.

"Had to pee, huh?" I joked as I turned toward Alec.

"What I did." He said as he began to pee in the toilet.

"Shit, dude." I saw and look away.

"Oh come on. Don't act like you never seen one."

"Yeah, when I want to." I bend over to clean up the glass.

"You don't want to?" He said as he shook his dick.

"I don't, i mean, I .. I ... I'm just so confused right know." I sweep the rest of the glass up and put it into the tiny trash bin in the bathroom. "Weren't you into Dea?"

"Weren't you?" He retorted.

"Good point."

"Plus, I wasn't into her. I only talked to her to talk to you." Alec said then told me how he didn't know he was gay in high school, but for some reason he had always wanted to hang with me. He didn't realize it was because he was gay until he kissed his date on prom night. (I couldn't tell him that it was actually me that he kissed on Prom night.) Either way the thought of kissing a girl and not me had made him realize he was gay and I was so cool with that. 

At this point we were in the bathroom for a while so we decided to join the party. Most people were still up and chatting or smoking weed. Fiona was passed out on the couch. Alec wanted to have a cigarette and when he tried to light up in the dorm, the host kicked us out (Just to smoke not for the night). So, I went with Alec and we walked around the Quad and somehow we were walking through the building with the theater. So I took him to the second floor of the theater and showed him the stage. 

Well, we didn't really look at the stage, it was too dark. Instead, we made out. Making out, then led to my pants around my ankle and Alec on his knees. Before we could get into the motion of things, the doors to the balcony burst open and flash lights were on us. I quickly pulled my pants up and and tried to run, but we were caught. It was campus police and they were pissed. Luckily, we hadn't drank anything in the past hour and we're pretty sober. Being the good liar I am, I told the cops we were at a party and they were getting wild so we decided to leave. I can't remember my exact words, but I made it look like we were innocent virgin boys who were scared of the party scene so wanted to chat in a quiet place.

I'm not sure they believed it. I'm still not sure if the cops actually saw me with my pants down, but they were eager to have us leave. As we walked back to the party, we saw a bunch of people running out. Fiona ran out and grabbed Alec's hand.

"The cops showed up. We got to go." She pulled Alec away.

"See ya Julian!" Alec yelled.

"You could have stayed with ---" My words were lost in the commotion. Alec was gone and the cops were chasing people down. I booked it to my dorm and spent far longer than I care to admit trying to find Alec on any social media. It was a fail and I haven't heard from him since.

[powerdiary]

Another death

Power Diary Entry 168 - Jan. 5th

I was so eager to share with you news of Christmas and New Years, but there was a tragedy in my family over this Holiday break and I have not been up to writing this entry.

Sometime between Christmas and New Years, my cousins fiance was murdered. My cousin who I mentioned on Thanksgiving, the couple who were planning a wedding. They came over Christmas and told us that they were officially getting married and dropped the bomb that my cousin was pregnant. It was a lot to take in at once, but we were happy for them. They were happy and obviously loved each other, so other than the fact that they were young - we had no qualms with them taking the next step.

My cousin and I gossiped in my room (at my mother's house) while she straightened my hair (I have been growing my hair out and she through it'd be funny to strighten it). I told her how funny it was that she was marrying a guy I went to high school went. He attended high school freshmen and sophomore year and we ran in the same circles. I wouldn't say he and I were best friends, but we shared friends so I saw him quite often and hung on several occasions.

Two of my strongest memories of him was when he told me to back off this girl that I was into because Mikyle like her and he had a better chance. I was pissed at him at the time because I thought I really liked this girl, but after coming out the closet I know better and apparently he knew the whole time. The other memory I have was when I was held at gun point late one night after school. I tried to fight the robbers off but the end up tackling me to the ground and hitting me with the gun. When I came to the school covered in blood, he was one of the people who ran out into the streets with a small crew of students to find my attackers. So, as you can see all my interactions with him were not terrible ones, so I definitely approved.

Well, it was just a few days after Christmas and I visiting my mom briefly when she got a call saying my cousin's fiance had been shot. We were shocked. This was a guy who kept to himself. He had never joined any gang or been involved with ghetto people. Even though we all grew up in a neighborhood that gave you no other choice but to become some hoodrat or get your ass kicked, he managed to keep away. So, we were completely shocked to find out he was shot. My mom toughened up and though I can see the tears fall from her eyes she spoke steady and reassured the person on the other end of the phone. Turns out it was my cousin. She was standing just feet away from her fiance's bleeding body.

The whole situation is tragic. This had just cashed his check from working as a snowplow. It was a bigger check than normal since the snow has been coming down pretty heavily. Apparently, someone saw him with the wade of money and followed him home. Just as my cousin's fiance was walking into his backyard the person must have pulled out a gun to rob him. Though he was faced with death, he decided to run not into the house but away. He was shot in the chest around the side of his own garage. My cousin was just a few feet away in the house. She hear the gun shot and ran outside to find her fiance bleeding out.

When we heard the news I was speechless. Here I was at my mom's house picking up the flatiron my cousin had forgotten and was heading over to her house. I end up talking to my mom about God knows what and didn't leave when I wanted to. If I would have just left and went straight to my cousin's house I could have saved her fiance. I could have done something. Before I could settle my nerves and get my multiman suit on and race over there, we got another call from my aunt saying that he didn't make it.

In the matter of minutes he was ripped from this world all because someone wanted a few extra bucks! And here I was the superhero of Cleveland, the sometime invincible Multiman and I couldn't even save a friend. Another family member of mine gone -both in one year.

I told myself a long time ago that I needed to accept that I won't be able to save everyone, but this still hurts.

That's why I've been pretty quiet. I've pretty much spent all my time with my family and just these past two days we were finally able to put him to rest. And if you're wondering, no we don't know who did the shooting. There is no clues anywhere. Trust me, I went to the store he cashed his check and I was in full superhero costume and I demanded to see the footage on their security camera. But there was none. The stupid owner said the cameras were just for sure.

So, that's that. My goal, my resolution you can say will be to reduce the homicide rates in Cleveland this year. He was person 136th who died from homicide in Cleveland in 2016. That's ridiculous. THIS VIOLENCE NEEDS TO END!

[powerdiary]

It’s a secret, Santa.

Power Diary Entry 167 - Dec. 22nd

Today, I felt like Hannah Mantana and got to see the best of both worlds. I was able to hang out with my College friends and my super powered friends. And we got to celebrate Christmas for both!

The day:

So, this past week I have gotten closer with Bip and his girlfriend Remmie. It started with a bottle of wine and a board game. Turns out Remmie is not as bad as she came off when I first met her. Wally, however, still thinks she's a bit annoying. I can tell he doesn't really care when I invite bip and Remmie to meals with us or to play video games, but Wally stays with his girlfriend half the week and I need other friends, so he can suck it up.

We thought it'd be cool to do a secret Santa with the suitemate's, but somehow the girlfriends got sucked in. Actually, I know how... Remmie kind of invited herself to join and because Wally didn't think it was fair, he invited his girlfriend. Since Ian was leaving for his road trip early afternoon we did like a cute Christmas morning. Wally and his GF brought muffins and Bip and Remmie brought hot cocoa.

I usually would feel bad that they bought stuff and we didn't, but I know that they only brought breakfast to make up for the fact that they had their girlfriends in the gift exchange and Ian very loudly complained how he didn't know what he'd buy for Wally's girlfriend. So, they exchange went pretty well, until I handed Remmie her gift. She opened it to find throwing stars. 

You see, these guys aren't the only people I was doing secret Santa with. I was doing it with the Power Bottom group as well. I gave Remmie the throwing stars that I intended for Leo. And because Remmie was so excited when she opened the gift I couldn't ask for them back. 

So, later that day I had to give Leo Remmie's gift. Throwing stars WOULD HAVE BEEN perfect since he has the ability to always hit his target and he has only used his powers for sports and they would be much better used with weapons. However, I had to give him Remmie's gift of a new Xbox one headset. I gave the top sports player in the region (who couldn't imagine sitting down for more than 5 mins) freaking video game headset. 

Fortunately, the point of the PB group is to be open and honest. So, I told him about the gift mix up and he told me it was cool and even offered them back so I could give them to Remmie. He was super psyched about the throwing darts though. So, I'm going to pick him up some more when I get my next check. 

Speaking of being opened and honest. Today, the PB group got talking about how Multiman has been showing up much more around the city. I felt bad because I had to pretend like I had no idea what they were talking about. Here I was in a room of admiring fans and I had to act like I hated my alter ego. I know this should be the place I can open up, but I'm not ready. I don't want to let anyone into that part of my life yet, not after what happened to both Mikyle and Shay. Plus, the PB group were all with these not  "crappy" powers, I didn't want to make them feel any worse by finding out how powerful I really am. 

So, I've decided to keep my mouth shut about all of it for now. I shouldn't be greedy. I currently feel so good about being about to share this much about myself with anyone, why do I need to ask for more?

Oh, and get this - Turns out you can stay on campus during out short breaks. So, I didn't have to stay at my mom's over Thanksgiving and deal with the headache. So, I'm taking full advantage and staying in the dorms while everyone goes home for the holidays. I'll have to figure out my meals everyday since no one will be working on campus, but I work at a grocery store,so I'll just pack my mini fridge to full compacity. 

Yeah for Christmas vacation!

[powerdiary]

The Power Bottoms

Power Diary Entry 166 - Dec. 19th

Happy Monday people! Yes, it's been a week since my last journal entry, but I'm not sorry. I needed the time to get my shit together. You'd be happy to know that I'm taking a long break from relationships. My family, friends, school and super powers are enough to handle. Luckily, I have found a support group to be hella open with. hat kind of support group, you ask? It's a super power support group called the power bottoms.

I know, Power Bottoms is a terrible name, but the group came up with the name without knowing the gay meaning of the term. The point was to bring together people with the lackluster type of powers. The misfits. The bottom of the barrel. Thus Power Bottoms came to be. 

It's funny because I was doing a simple Google search for my superhero alias, Multiman and came to find the Power Bottoms. To keep my busy in my free time, I have taken to doing more Superhero type things. Not only have I stopped crimes this past week, but I have made appearances at two different Christmas fund raisers in hope to help the less fortunate. This has led to more news coverage of Multiman. Which brought me to my Google search. 

After going through pages of news articles about myself, I got sucked into the internet vortex and began reading conspiracy theories and false sightings. Then when I was just about done with the internet, I found the member meeting notes from the Power Bottoms. They sounded fascinating and honestly I thought I was the only one with powers in the area, so I HAD to sit in on a meeting. 

They have their meetings three days a week with Saturdays being their more relaxed game nights. (Tuesday and Thursdays are focused on talking / venting about their life. I was def avoiding that pity party). So, Saturday evening I hoped a bus (I didn't want to fly in case I bumped into someone else with the power to fly - I wanted to fly under the radar for this meeting) and meet the gang at the Michael J. Zone recreation center.  This was before I knew that the people in attendance didn't have powers like me so, obviously someone flying was well out of the question. 

The meeting was at 9 (after hours) and run by the Recs manager's niece. Turns out that her Aunt was under the assumption that the Power Bottoms were a study group from Cleveland State (the niece's college) and let the Power Bottom's take over one of the recs room while the manager finished up paper work in her office. Saturday's the Aunt let her niece use the Rec to hang out with her friends. The Aunt thought it was a better alternate than drugs or sex. Which if you met her niece you would not think her one for either of those vices. 

So, I walk into the Rec a little after 9 (maybe 9:12) and the door is propped open (the side door which was the only opened door). I walk in and say "Hello" and no one answers. I follow the sound of music until I enter the gym. There are just 3 people in there. One girl shooting a basketball and another girl and a boy dancing to music near the stands. 

I went through that door in the shaded corner...

"Hello?" I say and they are turn to me and freak. The girl throwing the basketball starts yelling at me to get out. I throw my hands up and explain I am there for the Power Bottom meeting. Then they all get quiet and look at me like I was crazy. I was sure I had made a mistake and came to the wrong place or wrong day. 

"You have a power?" the girl said. 

"Yes, I do." I'm a bit weary to say.

"Prove it." The girl stood back and waited.

This is when I had an internal struggle. I had my telekenisis power and my random power of the day to set things on fire with my heat vision. I didn't want to burn anything in the building and set off alarms and I didn't want to show how powerful I am in case they connect me with Multiman. So, I scrunched up my face and made the basketball roll across the floor. 

The group immideatly changed their attitude. They were thrilled to have me and excited about my power. That's when the girl welcomed me and explained the group's function. 

"We're the Power Bottoms. People with small powers, but big dreams." The girl smiled. "I'm Jasmine."

"Hi Julian." I shake her hand and look over at the boy and girl behind her. "It's just the three of you?"

"There's 5 of us, but Pete doesn't come on Saturdays." Jasmine shrugged. "That's Leo." She pointed to the young boy. "And Tina." She pointed to the girl next to Leo. "And Vicky." She pointed toward the court, but no one was there.

"Ummm." I said as I stared across the room. 

"Vicky's invisible." Tina rolled her eyes, like Jasmine always forgets to mention it.

"Hi." A voice rung from across the room, but I still saw no one. 

Then Jasmine told me everything. About her Aunt and how she has no idea about the group. How they don't really plan on doing anything their powers, they just like hanging out with people like themselves and she told me about each person. Vicky (the oldest at 48) has the strongest power they ever saw. She was invisible, but what made her a misfit was that she didn't have any control over it. She was invisible all the time. 

The other three were pretty much powerless. Leo was a highschooler who could aim really well. That's why he is not allowed to play basketball with the PBs - He's top in the region in the sport. Tina has an industructable stomach. She can eat literally anything. (Technically, it's more than her stomach since she can bite into metal and swallow things too bigger for a normal human to swallow.) Jasmine can practically breath underwater. She can hold her breath for almost 2 hours.

"Like a hippo?" I asked.

Jasmine faced turned red, which was a feat since she was darker skinned than me. "Hippos can only hold their breath for like 5 minutes."

"She doesn't like the Hippo reference." Leo smirked. "She closer to a sperm whale."

"I can hold my breath a half hour longer than a sperm whale!" Jasmine snapped on Leo.

"He loves getting her riled up." Tina laughed. Then old me about Pete who was too young to be out late with them on Saturday and has a "really REALLY" good memory. He's skipped 4 grades already due to it.

So, there I was hanging out with the first group of super powered people I could find in the Midwest. They were more fascinated in me, however. To this ragtag group, moving things with your mind was "the coolest thing they ever saw".

"And what about me." Said Vicky who hand come sit on the stand with us without me knowing. 

"We technically can't see you Vick." Leo shook his head. 

The night consisted of questions being exchanged between me and the group. I learned the simple things like the schools they went to and where they grew up. But I also learned about how they found out about their power. Leo was always good at sports (pitching first then basketball and then soccer and so on.) It wasn't until he realized that no one else had that innate feeling that forced him to hit his mark every time that he figured it was a power. 

Tina had Pica well into her Tweens. Opposite from Leo, Tina knew she was different and her parents tried to find her help for her eating disorder, but Tina realized that it was a power at a very young age and learned to hide it before entering high school. She was now best friends with Jasmine and the made the PBs together. Jasmine and Vicky had a more tragic story. Jasmine realized she could hold her breath for so long, when she was younger and her parents got into a car crash and fell off a bridge into a lake. She was stuck in the car and had to watch her parents sufforcate trying to free her from her seat belt. Vicky didn't find her power until she was in high school, she was being bullied so much for being a black woman at the top of her class that one day she wished no one saw her color and she turned invisible. She hadn't been able to become visible again. She had to leave school, run away from home and lived on the streets ever since. (Until the PBs were formed a few years ago and Vicky has been able to stay with Jasmine or at the Rec, unbeknown to her Aunt). 

So, this post is getting a bit long, but in short. I think I might have found home away from home. Wally is my best friend, but he couldn't never know or even begin to understand living with a power. So, I decided I would try to meet with the Power Bottoms at least once a week. Yah for pals with powers... Actually that's a much better name than Power Bottoms. I should def tell them maybe Power Pals would be a better fit. 

[powerdiary]

Rebirth-day

Power Diary Entry 165 - Dec. 12th

It's officially my birthday. I'm legally an adult. More importantly, today marks a new start for me. Out with the old and in with the new. Moving on to bigger and better things. Hoping that fence and finding out if the grass is truly greener on the other side. Why the change? Because this weekend was a disaster and I refuse to continue to keep trucking down this path.

The day: 

After making our way back to Raine's house, we tucked ourselves in and slept through the night. The next day I thought was going to be much better - we were sober and it was the day before my birthday - but I was mistaken. 

Raine had a nasty energy about him all day. Several times did I have to inform him that I was willing to head back to school if he wanted to have the place to himself but he kept saying he was fine and wanted me to stay with him and watch movies. So, I did. I should have known to leave. There was bad omens throughout the day. Him spilling milk on my laptop when he ate breakfast, the power briefly going out while I did laundry causing me to have to use double the quarters to wash one load. But most alarming was the nest of cock roaches we found in the bathroom. If this wasn't the biggest omen of them all then I don't know what was.

You see, I since he moved into the new place I noticed a roach here or there. The building was old and I grew up pretty poor so I was could handle a roach or two, but there was one I was trying to kill with the Raid spray and it was crawling up the door frame of the bathroom. Just as it made it's way over the frame I sprayed into the crack it disappeared into. Then the most disgusting sight I had ever seen happened. I'm telling you there had to be 50 roaches that just came crawling out of the hole. Mostly, tiny baby ones, but ugh, I get shivers thinking about it now.

I was so shocked that the whole room stopped. Literally, I guess my power of slowing time from the day before enhanced to just stopping time today. I screamed and all the roaches stopped in place. It took me a couple seconds to understand what was happening before I ran out of the room, bumping into Raine and causing the world to resume around me. 

This is when things began to move downhill fast. I should mention that right before this Raine and I had just had sex. He had pestered me that morning and though I wasn't in the mood I gave in to just shut him up already. He was unreasonably rough during it and I was sore (He wanted to switch roles and he decided he'd be the "pitcher" today even though he knows I'm not a fan.) You can imagine I was in a bit of a mood when I was heading to the shower. So, seeing the roaches and being emotional left me little filter. 

"This place is foul. I can't fucking take it." I said as I gagged at the thought of the roaches. "I asked to you talk to them about this roaches. There fucking every where."

Raine did not appriciate my tone. "I told you they is nothing they can fucking do! If you don't like it you can go back to your free dorm and stop mooching off me."

"Mooching off you?! You can't be serious." I raised my voice to match his. "YOU asked me to come here. I don't need to mooch off anyone. You're the one mooching off the government." (He recently got on welfare). "And that's only because you can't prostitute yourself out anymore." (He was given a gift card after hooking up with a Craiglist guy before and I told him that was practically prostitution - he didn't appreciate that).

"Fuck you. I don't even know why I fucking bothered trying to get back with you." Raine snapped. He brought back up the boy from the bar and Chad and called me the worst type of names. Then he took his phone out. "I've been talking to guy way hotter than you. Want to see?" 

"Get the fuck out of here with that." I say and smack the phone out of his hand. He looks at me like he wants to hit me and I say, I fucking dare you." He doesn't do anything, so I jump at him like I were going to hit him, but I just turn around and get dressed. As I was putting my shoes on he comes over and punches me in the neck (he was trying to hit my face.)

This is when I snap and I stand up and walk up to him and hit him right in the jaw. I hit him so hard he stumbles over the computer chair in the middle of the floor and falls to the ground. Shocked the room freezes and I look down at Raine, his face in complete shock and hurt. I just break down. I see my mother in his face. I had just down what I promised I would never do in a relationship. I hit my partner. I begin to cry as the world comes back to life. 

"I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry." I say through sobs. But Raine has this fire in him down. He pushes me into the Christmas tree and I fall to the floor. He jumps on top of me and starts throwing punch after punch at me. I just lay there and let him. He's not a fighter and his hits don't hurt much, so I just let him get it all out. I watch as the ornaments from the Christmas tree fall around me and I cry because of how this weekend had turned out. 

Time freezes again in that moment. The ornaments stop in mid air and Raine's hands hover just above my face. I see the anger in his eyes with a hint of pleasure. He enjoyed hitting me. I was wrong. It was not him that was similar to my mother, it was me. I had fallen into the abusive relationship I watched her struggle with her whole life. That was the moment it all had to end. 

Time resumed and I grabbed Raine's hand before it could make contact with my face one more time. I pushed him off me and simple said, "No. No more. We're done." However, he wasn't done.

He grabbed my bag and threw it into the hallway. He grabbed my clothes and anything else he could find of mine. He screamed at me to leave as more and more of my stuff piled up in the hallway. As his hunt for more of my personal belongings slowed, I began to pack up. With a sore, jaw I headed back to school. 

I made it back to my dorm around 11:50. It was quiet. Wally and the suite mates we're asleep. I sat on the side of the bed in the darkness and looked at the clock. Now 11:59, I mustered the strength to stop time once again. I took a deep breath and relished in that moment. I froze time to experience being a "child" one last time. I thought of all I had done and been through up till that point. The good and the bad. 

I took a moment to appreciate it all. How it had made me who I was today.In the last moments before I made time return, I said goodbye. I said a final farewell to all my weaknesses. From the shadow beast that lived in me for most of the year to the bad decisions I had made. At the stroke of midnight, I was going to be a stronger, smarter me. 

Time resumed and I let out my breath. Oddly, enough I truly felt like I had closed a chapter in my life. Even my aches were gone. I chuckled to myself, thinking how silly I had been the past year. 

I must have been louder than I thought because Wally turned over in bed and whispered, "Julian?"

"Sorry, man. Didn't mean to wake you." I said. "I'm crawling into bed now.

"Don't worry about it." Wally turned back over and though his face was buried in his pillow, I could hear him say. "Happy Birthday."