writingsfromthebrain

[writingsfromthebrain]

Power Off: Chapter Five

Word Count: 2855 Words

1 2 3 4

I finally came to by the early morning rays of light and bird chirping. It was only then that I noticed that I had woken up on the floor of my bedroom.

Did I fall off the bed again? I thought that habit stopped a year ago…

I stretched on the floor before I sat up and started orienting myself. It was then that I noticed Blue was lying on my bed. She was still passed out from yesterday’s injuries.

Oh right, I guess I blacked out on the floor after healing her. Well, I guess I can make some breakfast.

I set aside some spare bathroom essentials for Blue before I made my way downstairs and started on making omelettes and fried rice.

I was just beginning to store the extra food I made for the rest of this week when Blue finally made her way down the stairs looking refreshed and more put together.

“Morning.”

“Morning Sparky. Did you make all this?”

“Yup, your plate is in the oven. I thought you’d be asleep a little longer, so I thought I would keep it warm in the oven as I stored this before I brought it up. You feeling better?”

“Yup, thanks for healing me. Oh, would it be alright if the hero crew came by to talk about Power Off?  My dad suggested it when he called a little bit ago to check up on me.”

“Yeah sure, this is my address. Offer them some of this if they want some breakfast. I’ll go freshen up first.” I say as I handed her my address and went to freshen up and change into a new suit.

By the time I finished, Blue’s family was already present and was sitting at the table eating their breakfast.

“Hey Sparky, here’s my family, the rest of the crew should be here any moment now.” Blue said.

“Morning there! You should know Power and I by now and I assume you now know my son Lightning because of yesterday’s events. The guy next to him is his older twin, Thunder. And of course you know Blue. Oh, thanks for breakfast. It tastes amazing!” Streak said enthusiastically.

“Thank you, glad you enjoy it.” I say as a pattern of knocks interrupt our conversation.

I open the door and greeted the heroes at the door as they made their way in, introducing themselves on the way.

Power stood up after the heroes filed in and properly introduced the heroes to me while they piled their plates with food.

“That guy over in the corner with the rippled aquamarine suit is Tidal Wave with his wife, Blaze, in the ombre red-orange suit. The lady next to them in the metallic slate gray would be Steel and the guy in the purple next to her is the guy who found you in the alleyway, Sludge. Like Blue said, we have a few members that couldn’t make it, but that’s about it as for the superhero population of this town.”

“Well, hello there everyone. Honored to meet you all. So, what exactly happened after Blue and I left and what are we planning to do about Power Off?” “Shortly after we arrived and you guys left the scene of the crime, we found the machine you had dropped while trying to leave with Blue, but throughout the chaos, it was smashed.” Power said as he pulled out the remains of my my machine. “We did have some luck in the first five minutes into the base as your machine pinged despite being smashed, but it completely died and we were met with the same fate with new locations of bombs. We pulled out before we lost any more members while James Atkins and his parents are nowhere to be found. We still don’t know why Power Off is so interested in the Atkins family, besides Steven being the mayor of this city, but this obviously hasn’t been the first occurrence. We knew that they had something planned out like this for about a week, but we didn’t know the extent of their situation. Now we know that their base is now fully loaded with a new assortment of bombs that Blue and Thunder unfortunately had a taste of. How effective is that machine you got there?” Power briefly explained.

“I don’t know how accurate it is, but it’s a trap detector.” I said as I held up the small machine. “It hasn’t really had much field experience, but besides it being a little slow, it seems to detect all traps ranging from manual to automatic traps. Then again, I know where all my traps are, so it may just be a biased accuracy.”

“You have traps here? I guess that makes sense. Don’t want anyone to be snooping around here.”

“Hah, yeah. I have a multitude of traps, but they also haven’t had much real life experience though, I think I may have scared a squirrel with a waterfall of worms the other day.”

“A waterfall of worms? Nice, must have scared that squirrel senseless.” Lightning said as he burst out in laughter.

“Where are your parents? I’m surprised they haven’t walked into this powwow of superheroes.” Sludge joked.

“Well, they’re kinda dead anyways.” I suggested solemnly.

“Oh sorry kid, I didn’t kno-”

“It’s fine. It’s been a couple of years anyways.” I said as silence fell among us.

“Well, I think that just about wraps everything up for this meeting. Thanks for breakfast and letting us use your home.” Power said as everybody flowed out with goodbyes.

Once everybody left, I set out to get my trapfinder in working order. While its exterior was damaged beyond repair, the wiring and boards inside were only slightly damaged. It wasn’t until about 8pm that night that I finally set out to starting my homework. Luckily, all I had was a lab report to finish.

The next day at school didn’t start out that exciting. I put in a prototype of electronic contacts that basically functioned like Jarvis for Iron Man and set off to school. When I got there, I was shocked to see James at school as if he was not kidnapped the day before. There did not seem to be anything out of the ordinary in terms of his physical appearance and he tried to play off yesterday’s events as one big prequel senior prank. The school body ate that up real quick, but honestly, the villains were pretty good at hiding it because they had fixed the cafeteria back to near perfect condition, allowing the lie that James told to play out. Yet, dirt that resulted from the explosion still dusted the floors of the cafeteria.

Why did he lie about it? Is he part of the Power Off or is he being watched by someone currently in this room?

I opened up the trapfinder option with my glasses and took a glance around the room as dots appeared in my field of vision. As the typical security camera dots appeared in my line of vision, I counted out about ten moving triangles spread throughout the cafeteria and the rest of the school. The triangles typically indicated some type of listening device or some type of intelligence gathering device being used. Cell phones did not show up as triangles unless they were being used for intelligence/recording. I still had to figure out a program to separate regular school/everyday filming to top secret CIA level filming. I watched each triangle, sorting through all the kids, trying to find which ones were presently in the same room with me and for any noticeable similarities between each triangle and their corresponding human. In the cafeteria alone, there were three kids, all with matching black Jansport backpacks with one pocket for a water bottle. While this set of glasses didn’t have the x-ray vision update, I was able to pull up information about the three kids as I looked at them. One of them was kid by the name of Charlie Lorenz. He was a freshman with a typical freshman schedule of english, math, history, and science. He was involved with the choir and was taking an entry level computer science class, which was strange because he’s also won many local, national, and global competitions in the field of computer science and engineering. A very high key kid in a relatively low-key setting. Another kid, a sophomore, went by the name of Maria Zahir. Looking at her schedule, one could easily tell she was an art kid. Her classes were filled with classes ranging from drawing, ceramics to photography. She had entered a few contests and placed relatively high except for those first two years she got into art. I’m not sure how her skills could help Power Off in attaining whatever goal they’re working for though. The last of the three was a senior. Aaron Mathia was basically the top golden boy of the school. He played three different seasonal sports, volunteered at a nearby hospital, somehow still had a perfect gpa, and was committed to going to Harvard after he graduated this coming spring.

How did these three students connect? Why these students? After a further look into the kids’ family background, I found that at least one of their parents were working in a STEM related job under a company by the name of Psionics Optimization. Their logo consisted of the letters P and O in electric, holographic blue. It was ringed with a silver laurel wreath with a golden lightning strike through the middle from the top right down to the bottom left.

P and O. Power… Off…?

I must have been too obsessed with Power Off because of recent events, but I don’t believe that this was a coincidence. I wandered towards the other dots that were farther away in the school and noticed very similar familial occupations once their faces came into view. What was interesting though was that there were two triangles over two of our teachers supervising this lunch period. They were a married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Olinat, and they were pretty well known as being super nice and the chemistry powerhouse of this school. Nothing about them showed any connections with Power Off or Psionics Optimization besides the STEM related field of occupation and the triangle that marked them.

“Arian, send this information and my observations to Power. I’m going to try and talk with Mr. Olinat to see if I can figure out what they are up to.”

As I made my way to Mr. Olinat’s office, I pondered if I should actually confront him. How was I going to ask him about his hidden listening device if I hadn’t been near him all day? Am I just gonna be like, ‘Oh hey Mr. Olinat! I know I haven’t seen you all day but I’ve noticed you had a listening device of some sort so I just wanted to know what’s up. Also, did you know at least three other kids had similar devices as well?’

Yeah, I don’t think that would have gone well. For all I know, they are a part of the same organization, but maybe some higher level operatives in charge of the other students listening to whatever is happening. Maybe I should try and m-

“Chase? I have spoken with Power and he said Mr. and Mrs. Olinat have always had COMs on them, but after yesterday’s events, they were instructed to have them turned on. They are helping him listen in on the students to see what they are doing. He thanks you for alerting him of such developments.”

“That’s good to hear. Is there a way for you to tune into the kids’ COMs so we could listen in? I’m curious about what is happening. Confronting the Olinats would kinda blow my secret identity, despite them being on the good side.”

“Of course Chase. Just give me a moment to determine the frequency and transfer it to your COM.”

Quiet static filled my right ear as I waited for Arian to find the frequency.

“... James… Lose control… Soon… So make sure you guys keep watch on him because he will black out. He won’t be able to fight against us anymore once the injection spreads throughout his whole body in 20 more minutes. His father will have no choice but to listen to us.”

Alarmed by this sudden piece of information, I tried to find James amongst the mass of students in the cafeteria as I noticed more triangle students with similar Jansport backpacks start to file into the room. At that moment, I saw James enter the boys bathroom and I decided to follow suit, taking out a prototype of a safer and quicker dose of chloroform, Arian and I have dubbed it Chloroform-To-Go, to knock James out so that I could examine him. He was out in just five seconds and I changed into my supersuit in case anybody walked in on me with the unconscious son of the mayor.

With my healing abilities and technokinesis, I was able to pick up little microbots in James’ bloodstream and just about anywhere else you can imagine. Then, carefully, I started absorbing the energy from every few microbots and breaking them apart so that I didn’t accidentally absorb energy from James and his body system rendering them useless hopefully. In addition, I also used healing to melt the microbots to a safe body substance and cleared any possible toxins that were found in the body once the microbots were destroyed. But, because of the energy and concentration it took to use my technokinesis to locate the microbots, concentrate energy absorption with energy manipulation, and then clean up with a combo of healing and technokinesis, I only got through about a third of the microbots before a suddenly animate unconscious James clumsily clapped two fists at my temple.

An excruciating pain erupted through my head as my vision doubled and fatigue suddenly sank in. While trying to reach for my emergency ambrosia, Arian informed me that she had already alerted the superhero crew and that they were on the way.

I noticed that James, while still unconscious, started staggering towards the bathroom entrance. I bear hugged him further back into the bathroom and strapped him up with the metal of the bathroom doors and returned to trying to cleanse James of the microbots.

With the microbots now activated, the cleansing process was much tougher as they seemed to have developed an outer layer protection. The energy and concentration increased tenfold, making the process a lot slower. It didn’t help that unconscious James kept flailing every so often.

The process randomly started to speed up when I suddenly noticed a presence nearby.

“Don’t worry Sparky, It’s just me, Sludge. Good thing I found you, looks like you could use a hand. I’ll help with the melting process. Focus on marking and cleansing James.”

A good chunk of time passed until the microbots were finally vanquished from James’ body. My vision was blurry and spotted for an entirely different reason as my hands automatically reached for more backup ambrosia, offering some of it to Sludge as well. While previous uses of ambrosia usually led to an immediate splash of refreshment, it left my body craving for more. As if you only had half a sip of ice, cold water after a long workout. I reached for another ambrosia piece with similar sensations. I decided against another piece as I turned my attention back to James. He was still unconscious, but he had stopped trying to escape his metal prison. Bruises that had formed on his once fair skin during the struggle have disappeared because of the healing. All left that was wrong was that he was still unconscious.

“Well, that was one heck of a healing process. Do you think you can still fight? I think the enemy brought out reinforcements, but our crew is handling it well so far.”

“Yeah sure, who else will stop them from slacking?”

“You right. Can’t let them slack off. While I would rather have him moved to a safer location, that metal cage should be able to hold him down pretty well.” Sludge said with a playful wink.

Sludge and I cautiously made our way out the bathroom and headed towards most of where the commotion was coming from. What came into view was many mini battles of heroes versus 2-5 villains. While it was true that the heroes were holding off so far, growing fatigue was evident on all the faces of the heroes. With an activation of the energy shield, I rushed to an outlet and stuck my finger in to absorb the energy, knowing concentrated absorbing would require more stamina from my already depleting tank. In less than 5 seconds, I was charged up and warned my teammates to move as a field of blue electricity danced across the cafeteria. Yet again, I greeted darkness as I saw our side left standing over the fallen enemies.

Previous (Chapter 4) | Next Chapter (Chapter 6)

[writingsfromthebrain]

Power Off: Chapter Four

Word Count: 2422 words

1 2 3 5

When I finally came to, I found myself lying on the pavement of where I blacked out at. There was a person behind me, presumably the guy who caused had hit me and the invisibility guy, as I didn’t see him earlier. I quickly took out some handcuffs to tie him down before he came to and disappeared and then dragged him over to the main crime scene. The other villain was also knocked out on the floor, which I also handcuffed together with the other guy to a pipe in case invisibility transferred. Good thing I also brought my electricity shield as James was still cocooned in a blue energy force field. Then, I found another body lying about 5 feet away from him. It turned out Blue arrived right on time to take in my electricity shock as well. There was a faint, fragmented blue shield on him probably destroyed because of the distance and timing of his arrival, not allowing the shield enough time to generate a strong force field. I started to flip him around so that I could check for injuries when suddenly, I felt a sensation go through my body and through my hands. I saw a slight glow slowly tracing the sensation towards Blue. I was entranced by the glow before I recoiled, thinking it was the energy manipulation,when the Blue started to stir.

“K-Keep going… t-that’s a h-healing s-sensation you are f-feeling.”

“O-Okay...” I said as I quickly pressed my hand back to the wounds until the sensation disappeared, feeling drained.

Opening his eyes, Blue looked a bit dazed until he could take in and collect his thoughts.

“Man, I came in at the wrong time didn’t I?”

“Ahaha yeah, I think the invisible guy knocked me on the back of my head, making me lose control of the electricity I was charging. Good thing I had just finished working on this electricity shield, so the civilian was protected, but with your timing, the shield wasn’t able to fully protect you in time. I should probably upgrade it’s shield generation speed...”

“Wow, you made that by yourself? That’s pretty amazing. Plus, your electricity is really strong at your current level. I don’t think my brother’s compares to it quite yet, and he’s already been in the game for a good five years, but his control, regardless of injury or shock, is much better than yours. Though I’m su-”

“Ehem. Uh… Hi.” James said awkwardly. “I’d hate to ruin the moment, but I’ve got to go…”

“Uh.. yeah, do you need to be escorted?” I asked.

“No, I’m fine, I can just call one of my father’s assistants to come pick me up.”

“Oh wait, what exactly happened here?” Blue questioned quickly.

“I don’t know. I was just taking my nightly jog when those two guys jumped out of nowhere and started a fight with me.”

“You don’t know any of the two guys here?” Blue continued

“No, this is my first time ever seeing them. I don’t know why they would pick a fight with me. Plu- Oh, my ride’s here, thanks for the help.” James responded, quickly jumping into the car before we had the chance to ask him anymore questions.

“Hm. I know him in my other life, and I think he knows more about Power Off than it seems in those responses, I wonder what he’s trying to hide…” I revealed.

“I think we need to find someone to monitor him. This is the second incident involving that boy and Power Off. With him being the mayor’s son, he may be a bigger target for Power Off than any other citizen in this city. I’m gonna asked my dad to see what we can do in this situation.”

Before Blue finished what he was saying, I had already starting blacking out from the fatigue of taking on a decently big healing job for the first time.

“Whoa Sparky, you must have just got your healing, here, chew this.”

I felt something enter my mouth as my mouth followed her order. It felt like a shot of caffeine to the brain.

“WhoA! What is that?? Really wakes you up!”

“It’s called Ambrosia. A friend of mine made it, gives the consumer a burst of energy. Here, I have more at home, so take them in case of an emergency.”

“Thanks, soooo…. ummm… What should we do with these two guys?”

“Oh right, my mom and dad was supposed to be here already. One moment. Dad? Yeah, we have both guys handcuffed to a pipe. The civilian has already been taken home by his father’s car. Yeah. Okay. See you in a minute. Bye. So, it seems like another incident happened about five minutes from here, so, they were a bit preoccupied, but they should, yup, there they are.”

“Hey there. I’m Power. Good to finally meet you… Uh... ” Said a man dressed in the same red from a few months ago.

“Um… I haven’t picked a name yet.”

“No problem. Blue over here still hasn’t picked her name yet. So take yo-”

“Wait, her? You’re a girl??” I questioned as I turned back to Blue.

“Yeah, as far as I know, I am very much a girl.” Blue replied back in surprise. “You thought I was a dude?”

“Uh, yeah…” I said slowly in embarrassment.

“Nice going Sparky. Good to hear we’re finally on the same page now.”

“Blue, be nice. Hello dear. I’m Streak, Blue’s mother. Nice to finally meet you.” Said another figure dressed yellow.

“Nice to meet you, too, Streak. Sorry to be a downer, but what should we do with the two guys over there? I tied them up to the pipe and while I do trust in the handcuffs ability to keep them secure, I don’t trust that the pipe will hold if they try.”

“Ahh right. Let’s take them off of the pipe and into the police station. We can question them from there. Actually, it’s like 11pm. I know Blue still needs to do her homework and I assume you do too. We’ll tell Arian about everyth-”

“WAIT! I think they escaped. There’s a floating pipe just about 10 feet away from Dad.” Blue shouted as Streak reappeared right next to the pipe, struggling to keep the culprits from running away.

While Power and Blue makes their way over to help Streak, I absorb whatever energy I could take in 10 seconds and screamed for them to let go of the pipe. Once they let go, I released my electricity, knocking the two men back into unconsciousness as they reappeared in front of us.

“Whoa, these… shields…?” Power started to asked.

“Sparky over here designed a device that would help shield allies and civilians from his electricity if he needed to use a wide range attack or if in the case of anything going awry. Cool to see it in full working order.”

“Very nice and handy gadget you got there. Anyways, you two head on home, Streak and I will take them in to the police to start the questioning process before they run off again.”

“Okay, goodnight.” Blue and I say in unison as we split.

The next morning, as I was getting ready for school, Arian briefed me about the situation. The two opponents were apart of Power Off, just like she had stated prior to me going to the scene of the crime. The invisibility guy was the very same who showed up at my house the night I discovered my family were superheroes. Well, that was probably how he showed up behind me without me realizing. He was the leader though his accomplice was of similar rank. After hours of questioning, they only revealed that James was an essential chess piece in their game, but they still would not reveal any other part of the plan or why James was the chosen one. They were currently locked up in a high security cell that took away their powers so that their chances of escaping were minimal. So, really, nothing that we already knew, but now it was only confirmed James was a target for their plans.

After Arian was done, I made my way towards another day of school. Though the school day started much like any other, by the end lunch, there was a gaping hole in the side of the school and a student taken hostage.

I had just finished my lunch, waiting for the final bell to ring for my next class when all of a sudden, I started noticing a rumbling from about a mile away. I sent Arian a quick text, informing her to notify the superheroes as I continued listening, trying to determine the sound. Arian sent another text about a rectangular tank heading towards the school in about a minute. There was a logo atop the tank, but the tank did not match up to any of Arian’s databases. The heroes have been notified and the superspeeders should be there in 15 seconds.

"EVERYBODY EVACUATE FROM THE DINING HALL.” Streak shouted into the lunch hall.

Everybody looked up in a state of confusion right before all hell broke loose and everybody scurried towards the door once they registered that a superhero was telling them to leave. I took the distraction of mass panic to duck into the boy’s bathroom and change into my suit. When I walked out of the bathroom, I saw Blue leaving the girl’s bathroom as well.

"Oh, Sparky. What are you doing here?”

"Sparky?”

“Well, yeah, you don’t have a name yet, and you have that power, so, Sparky.”

“It has a nice ring… Well, my super-hearing and Arian says that they’re gonna be here any moment.”

“Ah, yes, right about-.”

CRASH

“Now.”

What used to be a nice, pristine cafeteria was now a complete mess full of screaming children and rubble caused by a rectangular tank. Yet, the superspeeders were still nowhere in sight..

“WHERE IS JAMES ATKINS?! WE HAVE SOME BUSINESS TO FINISH! Wait what?? You guys aren’t supposed to be here, not yet anyways.” The man at the lunch line screamed.

James was cowering under a lunch table when the man pulled a strange rectangular machine out of his pockets. A claw popped out of the machine and headed directly to an unsuspecting James. While the screaming body was dragged out of the cafeteria, I hear Blue talking to someone through her watch.

“Yes mom, he just left the school with a boy by the name of James Atkin with his grabbing machine from the other night. We’ll update you as soon as we know where they are headed.” She finished as she grabbed my hand. “Well don’t just stand there, we have to save him!”

“Oh right.” I muttered as my legs righted itself.

We followed the tracks left by the tank and James’ screaming until it suddenly stopped.I noticed we had returned back to the very same alleyway where I first discovered I had powers. I started wondering about the importance of this location as Blue finished up her call with her mom.

“Yes, at their headquarters, see you in a moment.” Blue then turned to me and said, “I’m assuming you don’t know, but this is where their headquarters are. Despite infiltrating the place a few times, we still know very little about it. Nonetheless, here we are. Be careful. You will never know what may be hidden to our eyes.”

“Huh, no wonder why we are here again…” I mumble out as I pulled out my latest invention of finding booby traps and decided to test it out.

“What’s that thing supposed to be?”

“Well, it’s supposed to find any traps, but it’s only been tested on my own home… where I know where everything is. Might as well give it a try now.”

As I pressed the go button, red lights appeared on the screen as it continued to search for traps. I clicked on one of the red dots to find a prototype model of a surveillance camera pulled up on the screen.

“That’s a pretty cool machine. you think it can find every trap in there?” “I hope so, but this is only its first time, so I don’t know how reliable it actually is.”

“Take a look at th-”

“What are you two lovebirds talking about?”

“Th- Thunder.” Blue stuttered while jumping away from me.

“Blue.” He said while he approached us. “Did you at least find anything important?”

“I was about to until you interrupted me, but besides that, Sparky’s machine over here found some possible traps in their hideout. From our last visit of the hideout, most of them are accurate and some I haven’t even seen. It would explain why they found us so quickly even when we thought we destroyed all the traps.”

“Or they are just smart supervillains that followed our line of destruction.”

“Okay, sure, that’s possible, but anywho, let’s just go in Thunder.”

They led the way as I wandered closely behind them, watching my machine for any nearby traps.

“Guys wait! There’s a-” I exclaimed as a new red dot appeared.

BOOM!!

An explosion erupted from the corner of the alleyway, causing Thunder and Blue to fly backwards as I tried to absorb the energy of the sudden explosion.

I quickly ran towards Thunder, since he was closest and saw that his injuries weren’t too bad as he was behind Blue. A pressed my hand to one of his wounds and a quick two minutes passed before the sensation left me as I moved onto Blue. She, on the other hand was in much worse condition, probably worse if it weren’t for my energy absorbing.

“Take her somewhere safe. My family is coming, but she is in no condition to fight anytime soon, even with your healing.”

I nodded as I lifted her and ran as quickly as I could back home. I figured it was best to go somewhere clean and protected where no one would see us than just out in the open where the public could see us.

As soon as I reached home, I placed her on the ground in my living room and pressed my hands on her abdomen as the familiar sensation of my healing power surged towards my hand. What seemed like hours passed before the sensation finally left my hands as I blacked out from the exhaustion of non-stop healing.

Previous (Chapter 3) | Next (Chapter 5)

[writingsfromthebrain]

Power Off: Chapter Three

Word Count: 2087 words

1 2 4 5

As the weeks passed by, my training continued, getting harder and harder as I got better at my power and started developing more. I didn’t black out anymore, so that was a relief, but it was still draining to use. Though I did feel guilty, I read through my sister’s journals for any other tips or tricks she got while she trained, even though she probably would have yelled at me for even finding them in the first place. Honestly, I just kinda missed her and wanted some resemblance of talking to her. I did move her journals from her bookshelf to the Arian’s Room, as I like to call it, in case anybody ever connected the information like I did. Ever since I found out about Arian, other parts of the house reactivated and became more noticeable and open. Food definitely got a lot better too, thanks to Thomas. He really knows how to cook any kind of food. As for the powers I was predicted to have gained, I did get super-strength and telekinesis, but I also got super-hearing and metal manipulation, which was yet another odd thing about me as neither of my parents had it. Nothing much exciting happened those few weeks until about a week ago when Arian texted me through my recently completed wrist watch halfway through my first class of the day.

“Chase, meet behind the bookshelf when you get home, there’s something I have to brief you on.”

This occupied my mind throughout the school day, making me restless and absent-minded. I wondered if Power Off had anything planned to happen today or if there was some other minor thing that Arian had promised to have me go help when I was sufficient enough in training. When the last bell rang I ran home and went to Arian’s meeting spot.

“Hey Arian! What’s up?”

“Hey. It’s finally time for your first real world experience. Do you think you're ready for it yet?”

“I sure do hope so.”

“Alright then, suit up. You’ll be leaving in 5 minutes.”

I went over to the side panel that revealed the suit I had designed, slipped it on, and got ready to leave. While I was getting ready, Arian explained to me that she had planned a robbery with some supers she knew from back when my parents were alive. I was to meet up with Blue and take care of the situation. The police and the bank were already briefed on the situation. And at the 5 minute mark, as planned, the bank was being robbed and I was to hurry my butt over there to stop it with Blue.

As I was running towards the bank, my blood pumping, I wondered what was going to happen. Would I screw up badly? What would I be going up against? I guess I would soon find out.

Upon approaching the scene, I saw two guys leaving the building with two giant bags of money. With Blue nowhere in sight, I decided to go ahead and take care of the situation so that the two robbers couldn’t away. I calmed my mind and brought forth a more controlled and direct string of electricity to shoot at the two guys to stun them. They both dropped on the floor, with the money breaking their fall. I ran up to the two men and took out my handcuffs to cuff the two robbers. I was just about to pull them and the money inside when I saw someone flying in.

“Whoa, did you already finish? Nice!” A person dressed in a white sprinkled, night sky blue suit asked. “Are you Blue?” I asked in confusion. The Blue from the incident was wearing a suit of a different design than this one.

“Yeah, I go by Blue at the moment. I haven’t officially decided on a name yet.”

“Oh sorry, I knew I was supposed to meet with you, but they were running away, so I thought I might as well take care of them before they got away.”

“Oh yeah, it’s fine. I was here just to monitor and help you in case anything happened. Good to see you aren’t hurt.”

Ah, that’s cool. Thank you anyways. I just stunned them with electricity. So, uh, where do I put these guys at? I was gonna drag them inside and leave them there, but I guess I’m not sure what I should do with this practice.”

“Right, yeah, I can take care of them. Good job.”

As the days passed from the bank robbery, Arian decided to put my hearing to the test. She wanted me to sweep the town with my hearing to train it well enough that I wouldn’t need Arian to be notified of the crimes in town. As of right now, there was nothing in particular, so the rest of the day went like normal: homework and training. Ever since I got my super-hearing, I had become a light sleeper. Even the littlest sounds like snow falling onto to the ground could wake me up from my sleep. With the help of Arian, I was able to change my degree of hearing so that I wouldn’t be overwhelmed with noises. While sleeping, it was harder to control because I was unconscious, but since I’ve got the power, it’s getting better. I wasn’t as light of a sleeper as when I first got super-hearing and it’s still hard to sleep sometimes, but it was definitely better. It wasn’t until a few days later that I finally heard some suspicious activity.

Upon hearing it, I entered the bookcase and suited up and ran towards the sound. Upon reaching the scene, I found Blue already at the scene and handling three guys with an unconscious guy on the floor. It seemed like a gang of three tried to mug some guy perusing the streets. I walked over to the guy and made sure he was still alive before I turned my focus on the other three. Blue was starting to struggle with the three guys, so I used my telepathy to push the three guys farther away to give him some breathing room as I focused my energy on collecting energy from my surroundings to shoot at the guys. Once I reached what I believed to be a sufficient amount of energy to knock them unconscious, I pushed them away from Blue again and shot the energy at the three men.

We both made light conversation as we tied up the three muggers and waited for the police to come and arrest them.

“That energy thing is so cool. One of my brothers have it and I’m jealous that he has it.”

“Thanks. Man, how’d you get here so quickly this time?”

“I can fly. I don’t have to pay attention to road signs or paths to get here.”

“Oh right. Very handy I must say.”

“Thanks. Sludge is already on the way here to help this guy, and I’ve already notified the police, so it should be a few more minutes before this is all taken care of.”

So we waited until Sludge and the police arrived before we were dismissed from the situation. I decided to run back home instead of calling Karina for a ride so I could just enjoy the night air and get some exercise in while I was at it. When I arrived home, I head towards Arian to see her breakdown of the situation, giving pointers and critiques throughout replay. Then, after finishing the night’s homework, I set out to sleep, without a care in the world

The next day, Arian called me down to The Room and told me about the newspapers article for that day. A passerby was nearby to record the whole incident yesterday and had uploaded the video online for the world to see. The article continued on about how there were new heroes in this town and that criminals need to watch out if they ever wanted to mess with this town or whatever. I didn’t think much of it, as in all honesty, I never read much newspaper, and even when Blue got his powers, I didn’t recall much buzz in school or anything about their first debut.

“Have you seen the video yet?”

That was the most common question I heard at school the next day. The passerby uploaded the video to YouTube about three hours before the newspaper article came out and in just six hours, he’s already gained 800k views and it keeps growing by a hundred thousand by each hour. Our school news even had the whole video in it. Everybody was raving about the two new heroes and how the electricity given off by the one in gray actually was more vibrant than the ones they saw about 5 years ago. Plus, sometime after the first class of the day ended, there was a rumor being passed around that Peter was the new hero. They did a pretty good job at not directly showing their “powers” and, being football players with all that conditioning and training, super-strength was not hard to fake for the students. After school though, James approached me alone yet again.

“Was that you yesterday?”

“Wha- What are you talking about?”

“Was it you yesterday with that suit? Whether you’ve got powers or not, it sounds like another situation with you trying to jump in to save someone despite being poorly adequate for the job.”

“It wasn’t me. Don’t you remember how I could barely even keep the guy down that day? I think I’ve learned my lesson after being knocked out.”

“Oh, I remember Chase, but I just want to warn you. You don’t know what you are dealing with. It’s gonna take a lot more than a few superpowers, especially if it’s you, a nonsuper, just butting your way into things. It will get you killed one day.”

“Right, thanks for the warning, but like I’ve said, I won’t be butting my head into things anymore. I am a nonsuper.”

“Good, now make sure you stay out of my way, let me handle my own problems.” He says as he shoves me back.

When I returned home,  I tried to ask Arian if she knew anything about James and his relation with Power Off. But she knew just as much about James as we knew about Power Off, which was minimal. Though, she did mention that his father was mayor to this city, so it may have been their desire to take down high level people, but we didn’t know for sure. Later that night, just as I was finishing fine tuning an electricity shield gadget with uploaded hero and villain identification, a sound caught my ear. Focusing my hearing, I realize it was James yet again. I ran to Arian for debriefing and suiting up.

“Hello Chase. James can be found on Forth and Smith again. After running through some analysis, he’s going up against two higher level Power Off members than your first experience with them. One of them has superspeed, invisibility, and superstrength. The other one has acidic skin, force field capabilities, and like the other, superstrength.” She explained. “Oh, do take care Chase. These guys are stronger and smarter than most of your previous opponents. Don’t get arrogant and listen closely.”

“Okay, thank you Arian. I promise I will.”

This time, riding a bike I had designed to quicken my pace, I arrived in under five minutes, granted, Forth and Smith was closer to my house. Before I entered the scene, I checked that I had my suit on properly and surveyed the situation. James seemed to have just taken another blow from an invisible force  and about to receive a kick from the other guy when I formed a telepathic wall in front of James to take care of the invisible guy as well. James looked confused at first, but didn’t hesitate as he was prepared for the guy’s next hit after he snapped out of confusion. Giving James that little amount of time seemed to have turned the tide for the time being. I took some time to charge my energy, causing small sparks dancing around my body as more energy. I started walking towards the scene as I about to be fully charged when all of a sudden, I felt a brain shattering pain, causing all the energy to release sporadically. I blacked out yet again.

Previous (Chapter Two) | Next (Chapter Four)

[writingsfromthebrain]

Power Off: Chapter Two

Word Count: 2297 words

1 3 4 5

When I regained consciousness,  I found myself lying next to the man, unconscious as well. Before anything else happened, I tied his hands behind his back and stuffed him in the closet in the hallway with a lock. Then, I remembered that he had the power of teleportation and had the idea of pulling out an old pair of handcuffs my parents gave me one day. They had said that nobody would ever feel the desire to escape with them, plus they would never escape them unless they had the key and knew the exact way of using it. I had thought the present strange, but I never questioned it because at the time, it just seemed like a fun toy I could use when I was using my imagination. After I was done with the handcuffs and stuffed him in my closet. I entered my parents room.

The last time I had entered their room was before the accident. Blinking back tears, I entered their room. Everything was just the way it was. I never expected myself to ever enter it, but now I had to if I hoped to find some sort of clue.

The room, upon first glance, did look like a regular room, but as I walked around the perimeter of the room, turning things over and shifting them around, I mean, that’s when weird things started happening in movies. The first thing I had approached was the bookcase, I mean it was the most stereotypical hiding spot in movies I think. I had just turned over our family picture when the bookcase started caving in a little. When nothing happened, I continued moving and shifting things around. Only after the 3rd thing I moved did the bookcase spring back out. I realized then that opening this bookcase required a series of exact steps or else it would spring back. The first I had moved was our family picture, next being my younger sister’s favorite stuffed animal. Judging when each thing was and the kind of stuff on the bookcase, it looked like this was based on the order of things that happened in their life from most recent to earlier. So, I had moved the picture and the kids stuffed animals quite easily. Then, a few things that were left were a picture of my parents posing in front of a mountain, a souvenir of the Great Wall of China, their engagement rings, a concert program, a little rock, a key and sonogram of the kids. Judging the fact all three of us were in the picture frame, I moved that one, the bookcase moved back to confirm my step. The last five were hard. I did not recall any of their trips before us because I normally never asked about their love life. Trying to think, I decided to go to my older sister’s room because she had been the romantic one of the three of us and probably kept a diary somewhere in her room.

Before I even entered her room, out of habit, I knocked on her door. Remembering she was no longer going to give the green light of entering, tears began to prick my eyes yet again. Blinking them away, I entered her room. The familiar smell of her room still lingered and brought about even more tears. I wasn’t sure how much longer it would be until I would just stop trying to blink back tears. Looking around her room, I tried to think about where she would possibly hide a diary in. Seeing her bookcase, I started out there. Knowing the secrets a diary, or even a journal could hold, I started looking for a relatively normal looking bind. After careful analyzing, all the spines had books titles, nothing that was blank or sounded diary like. The only weird spine that seemed to have stood out, was a Twilight book placed right beside her Harry Potter books. I didn’t know if she actually liked or even read Twilight, but she was a pretty hardcore Harry Potter fan. I had just pulled out the book when a journal dropped to the ground. Looking back at the paper cover of Twilight, I noticed two more journals hidden in the cover. Picking up the one that dropped on the floor, I walked over to her bed. I decided to look for the most recent one and go backwards.

April 5, 2014

The day before the incident.

Sunny

Homecoming is slowly approaching. I guess I’m ready now. Ryan asked me to go to homecoming with him and I agreed. I’ve already picked and bought my dress!! Didn’t tell my family though, I want it to be a surprise. To be honest, didn’t tell anybody at all. It’s a nice light blue dress with sequins across the top. I’ve hidden it in the closet. Luckily my parents don’t clean it, because it’s a wreck… and my dress is in there. Anyways, can’t wait until the day is finally here!! Oh, got to remember to ask Chase if I could borrow his pet lizard tomorrow.

I wonder why she needed my pet lizard, but knowing that she would never get to wear her secret homecoming dress brought about more tears to my eyes. She would never ever get to experience a school dance that many kids got to experience.. Going to her closet, I saw her dress. It was hung up nicely on a hanger in the middle of the chaos of her closet. It was really pretty. Such a shame it will never be used for its original purpose.

Going back through her diary, I kept looking for anything that might help figure out what the combination was for the bookcase. It was until the beginning of the second journal that I found some interesting information.

January 23, 2012

Snowy

This is so exciting!! I was finally allowed to know the way to get in!! I don't know why they never told me, but I guess since I was young, they needed to make sure. But I've kept my secret for a year!!

Don't forget!!: FP, MSA, CSA, MSA, SP, GWC, M, SC, K, ER, MP

Also got a day off from school!! Like how awesome is that. I don't care if it snows, as long as we get no school. I don't care if we go over our snow days either. Gonna go out and play in the snow in a little bit.

Before finishing reading that entry, I took that journal and returned to my parents' room. Counting the amount of things she wrote and the things on the bookshelf, it matched, so I was just about to mess up what I did earlier until I noticed the things were reset back to their original positions. That would definitely be useful. Looking at the 11 abbreviations, I figured the first 5 were the family photo, stuffed animals, and the ultrasounds. GWC was probably The Great Wall of China, K was the key, ER was engagement ring, and MP was mountain picture. SC and M had confused me. The rock and concert program, what did that have to do with the letters M and SC. Concerts normally did deal with music, which does start with M. I decided to try it out. Flipping over each item in order, the bookcase caved in and lowered down to reveal a grand, hi-tech room. After I entered, the entrance shut completely. I regret not taking the rest of Eliza's journals, but I had one at least.  A scanner went off, pulling a strand of my hair, scanning my eye and finger, roughly swabbing my mouth and then asking for a voice check. After it had checked, my face and name popped up on the screen with information. My date of birth, full name, eye color, and then one column caught my interest.

Possible powers.

Out of all of them, two had the green word confirmed, energy manipulation and technokinesis. I guess that described the surge of energy I felt prior to blacking out and my affinity towards making gadgets and such. Looking at the other possible powers, I was surprised. How did this machine, or whoever it was that made this guess predict those powers? Seeing tabs beside my name for the rest of my family, I decided to see if I could find a mouse to press one. Not finding any, I looked into Eliza's journal to see if it said anything about this room. I reached the beginning of the journal and could not find anything.

"WHY CAN'T I FIND ANYTHING?!?!" I screamed as I threw her journal away out of frustration.

"Hello Chase. What would you like to find today." A voice asked.

"Who are you?"

"I am the computer system Arian. I was designed by your parents when they first built this house. I am sorry for your lost, we all felt your sadness when we felt our creators, Eliza, and Melanie died. What would I be able to answer for you?"

"We? Well, besides that, tell me about my family, everything you can think of, unless I say otherwise."

"Alright. Well, we are the house, we have many parts, I am Arian, the computer system. Few of the others include Thomas in the kitchen, Andrew for the bathrooms and Karina for the garage. Your mother had your energy manipulation, super-strength, invisibility, a force field, flight, super-speed, telekinesis as well as telepathy. Your father also had super-strength telepathy, telekinesis, and flying as well as pyrokinesis, matter manipulation, indestructibility, and element manipulation. Eliza, at the time of her death only had telekinesis and invisibility with pyrokinesis beginning to show. She was also predicted to inherit most of your mother's powers as well as develop the abilities to breathe underwater, night-vision, and externa. Melanie was just starting to develop your father's matter manipulation at the time of her death. She was predicted to have a mix of your parent's powers as well as power negating, shape shifting and antigravity abilities. You, you were originally predicted to get most of your father's powers as well as healing, teleportation, super-vision, technokinesis, power negating resistance, and a sort of mind control. So far, Your sisters' had the powers predicted, but you were a different case. You started a lot later than your family in general, your first power is usually the parent that is predicted for you, but you got your mother's first. Now it is true that your family was killed by those men, but it didn’t go exactly as the news said. Like the guy in your closet had said, the police here are paid off. We had known about the whereabouts of Power Off for quite some time, but we weren’t able to always track their plans. Their attack that day was truly unexpected. The three men were the usual henchmen that did the dirty work of Power Off. They all had super-strength. George, the big buff one shown here also had super-speed. Tony, tall one had pyrokinesis and the other one, Jackson, was also an energy manipulator. These, as shown by the amount of powers, were smaller villains, but they had enough ability to perform the necessities. That day, they had a few tricks up their sleeves. Power Off had been trying developing some kind of power negating bomb for years, but that day revealed that they finally succeeded. The surprise power negating bomb was what really changed the tide, but your family did not back down until their last dying breath. Anything else you would like to know?”

“Wow. What about the guy currently in my closet? How should I train? Can I start learning how to control my power too? Any other plans of Power Off?”

“Well, that guy is Power Off, like he had said, but he is higher up. He is a trained assassin. So super-strength is pretty obvious. You saw his super-speed, but he also can mind control, shape-shift, and control water. He can also teleport to anywhere he knows with 5 miles, which would put your life at risk now because he knows how your room looks, but these walls are supposed to resist against teleportation unless it comes from the immediate family, but since your parents didn’t have teleportation powers, it has never been tested before, so that probably explains how he got in. Training, yes, that is an essential part of your power development. I can start that today once you feel you have asked enough questions. Plans of Power Off are still in process, so you are good for now.”

“Oh, what about those handcuffs given to me by Mom and Dad? And do you know if he’s still in that closet?”

“Ah right. You were smart to think of those. The handcuffs had been made to be power negating, and even if the person did have power negation, the lock was created to only be opened if opened specifically. And yes, he is still in the closet.”

“Good to know. I would like to build something that can keep him… and anybody of his sort out of the this house, but first, I would like to start some of my training.”

My training began that night. I told Arian to not go on easy on me and she definitely followed through. I was sore all over when it was over, but I still set out to upgrade the teleportation protection of my home by asking the guy in my closet on how his teleportation worked once he regained consciousness. Once I was done with him, I knocked him out again and brought him over to the hospital about 5 miles away with a self driving car provided by Karina.

Previous (Chapter 1) | Next (Chapter 3)

[writingsfromthebrain]

Power Off: Chapter One

Story about superheroes

Word Count: 2939 words

2 3 4 5

I was walking home from school when I heard a noise. James Atkins, the most popular kid in school, was being mugged and his normal arrogant face had long disappeared from his face. I had to do something. With as much strength as I could muster, which wasn’t much to start with might I add, I ran into the man pursuing James. Unprepared, the man toppled to the ground, but recovered quickly. Great.

“Who’s this? Your help? Your army? Hah! What’s he gonna do, fall on me until I die?”

He took me by my shirt and threw me off with such a force that I had blacked out for at least 2 minutes. To be honest, I have no clue how long it was, but judging the fact that James already had a black eye and the man was breathing heavily, it must have been a while. As I painstakingly lifted myself off the ground, my rib and arms screaming, I took in what was happening. James had just taken another blow to the stomach and was doubled over in pain. The man was hovering above James, preparing to kick. I decided at that moment to lift my other arm to point at the man and in hopes of something happening when suddenly, a surge of energy ran through my body. A streak of blue lightning shot out of my hand and struck the man, knocking him unconscious. No one spoke for a moment until James finally decided to look up from his position on the ground and saw the matching sparks on the man that also danced across my body as a light bulb cracked over my head.

“What did you do, you freak?! Why are you even here? I was able to handle it. Don’t you ever do that again.”

With that, he left, leaving me alone, and then, I welcomed the darkness that soon followed.

“Hello? Sir? Sir? Are you ok? We’ll be taking you to safety. Don’t worry.”

I woke up on what felt like a bed. My head was pounding as I tried to lift my hands to rub my eyes.

“Whoa there, I may be a healer, but your bones still need some time to get used to not being broken before they’re good as new.”

“Wha-Wh-” I stutter out as light finally flows into my vision, blinding me briefly as I adjusted to the lights.

“Whoops, Blue, turn down the lights, we can’t just blind the guy.”

After blinking a few more times, my eyes finally adjusted as I took in what was around me. Someone dressed in blue, who I assume to be the person called Blue, and another person dressed in a brilliant purple stood near me as I saw another person with bright red standing at the doorway.

I tried to sit up again before I was pushed back down again with similar warning by the purple one.

“Who, whe-, who?” I managed to stutter out.

“Well, I’m Sludge, this is Blue, and the red guy over there is Power. Blue happened to find you passed out in the alleyway of Fourth and Smith and called me over to help you recover. So, now we’re at Power’s house until you’re back to new. If you don’t mind, we would like to ask you what was the cause of you being passed out with the injuries at this time of day.”

“Uh, yeah, sure. I was walking home from school when I noticed James Atkins, a classmate, in that alleyway being beat up by a guy. I’ve never seen him, but I tried to help but I was thrown at a wall and ended up passing out. Um, I think that was it.” I said as I tried to recollect what had happened. “What time is it now? Have I been out for long?”

“It’s 7pm now, meaning it’s been two hours since we’ve found you…” Sludge replied.

“Chase.”

“Cool name. So, it’s probably best if you make back on home because I’m sure you’ve got school tomorrow. But, we are gonna have to blind you for a part of the journey because of this whole secret identity thing.” I nodded in understanding. “Blue, you cool with escorting him back home?” Sludge questioned.

“Yeah sure. Let’s go.”

I slowly got up on my feet, which, judging by their descriptions, it was oddly alright to walk. My brain was confused as they realized it should be broken, but I think by being passed out, it never fully clicked. I told Blue my neighborhood and let her lead me back to my neighborhood as we tried to make conversation.

“So, how long have you been a super?”

“I got my first power about a year ago, I told my parents and it turned out they were also superheroes. I was apparently young in the trend of my family, but that was cool and I’ve been training and working ever since.”

“That’s pretty cool. What powers do you have?”

“Well, I’ve got, watch out, there’s a rock to your left, super hearing, time stopping, and I just recently got flight.”

“Oh, that’s interesting. Uh, I’m curious, what was it like when you got a superpower?”

“It’s highly dependent on the power you are getting, but for me, the one consistent thing for me has been the moments when I wake up and find out I’ve been unconsciously doing said power. The time stop was a doozy. I woke up from a nap and it took me a good hour until I figured that nothing around me was moving”

“That must have been a sight for non-superparents if they found out that way, seeing your own daughter just floating in the air.”

“Ahaha yeah, good thing I wake up by alarm. Well, here’s the neighborhood. Do you need help back or are you fine from here?”

“I should be fine from here, thanks for the help.”

We said our goodbyes as I made the short three minute walk back home.

At school the next day I made it to school with fifteen minutes to get to my first class. As I made my way over to my locker, I heard footsteps getting louder and louder.

"Hey runt! What are you up to?"

Not again...

"Hey! Shorty! I was talking to you!"

"Hey Peter! Nothing much, just getting ready for class. Actually, I've got to get to class, ex-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. We've got time, it's only 6:50, not 7:00. You’ve got your math homework finished?"

"Yes, now will you pl-"

Peter stuck his foot out, causing me to fall the ground.

"Ahahah, poor wittle Chase couldn’t even walk properly."

Getting up as fast as possible, I rushed from the scene and finally made it to my first class with five minutes to spare.

"Hey Chase! What happened to you? You’re out of breath!" My friend Logan asked.

"Just the usual."

"Peter and James at it again?"

"Yeah, it’s fine though. They didn’t hurt me this time."

The day at school passed by relatively like any other day until the end of the day when James decided to show up.

He punched me from behind as he rasped out. "What the frick happened yesterday man?! You think you could have done anything against that guy? I was holding my own."

"I don’t know. I felt the urge to help you, so I tried to distract help. So much help I was. Now, if you would please excuse me-"

He gave me another kick as he continued. “Do you think I’m freaking weak? I knew what I was doing. I didn’t need some runt to help me. Now you are gonna pay for humiliating me.

He threw punch after punch, followed with kicks until I was unconscious and finally left.

When I regained consciousness, my body was sore all over. I had gained a new set of bruises to my other bruises. I seriously do not know why he always target me to pick on, but I would rather they choose me instead of having some other kid endure this same punishment. As I made my way back home, I started remembering and thinking about the random surge of energy that I had encountered the day before. This was unheard of. People gaining the ability to direct lightning at people? Definitely not normal. I would have said it was a superhuman thing. But Blue’s discovery made it sound like it wasn’t. But, if it was power dependent, it would make sense. If this eventually leads to me having to decide between being a villain or hero, which obviously, I’d be a hero, that would be crazy, but very cool as well. I mean, isn't it everybody's dream to have superpowers? I tried to bring the surge of power that I had felt, but nothing happened. I thought about sticking my hand in a socket, but that is a really stupid way to determine if I had superpowers. Especially if it just happened to be a fluke. Pushing that thought to the back of my brain, I finally made it home. I opened the door to the familiar dark hallway. It really is hard to remember that you had nobody left in the world sometimes, but as days go on, it gradually gets easier to cope with.

In case you were wondering, my family, every single one of them are all gone. Now, you may think that I must have had some long lost great uncle in this world, but I didn't. Most of them had died of the regular old age. My parents were the youngest of both their families ranging from three to six years apart I think. I had one older sister and one little sister and we got along pretty well. That's not to say we never fought, because we definitely did, but we normally reached some degree of agreement by the end of the day. My older sister, Eliza, would have been a senior in high school this year. She was a very outgoing kid. She went out to parties, she had many friends. Like our parents, she was a very nice girl, never tried to start a fight, unless it was with us of course. My little sister was very similar to my older sister. She would have been a seventh grader and probably on the basketball team. She was always very happy and nobody failed to be happy when they were around her. My father was a nice man. He, along with my mother, always made sure that all of us were able to live as comfortably as possible. That does not mean we were rich, but we weren't poor. They weren't only kind to us, they never gave a mean stare at anyone and never seemed to be on anybody's bad side, which makes their death a bit strange. One night three years ago, when I had retreated back to my room to play some GTA, my family had decided to run out to get some movies and snacks for the weekend. I normally trusted their choices, so they went without me. According to the police, 3 men dressed in everyday wear, entered the store and proceeded to shoot at my family. After their rounds were fired, they made a quick getaway and has not been found since. My family on the other hand, was rushed to the hospital. My parents had taken most of the blow, trying to protect my siblings, but time was running out for them. As for my sisters, it must have been some luck that the three men happened to hit them at vital parts of their bodies. They were also in critical condition when I had rushed to see them just 5 minutes after I got the call from the police. They all died at around the same time, starting with my parents, and then my siblings. Ever since then, hospitals were definitely not places I wanted to enter anymore. Shortly after their death, the police finally decided to come in. They had to make sure, since I was 13, a minor, I had some guardian that could care for me until I reached 18. My uncle, my only other family at the time, was called to the job. Sadly, it was soon found that he was dying of cancer and he only had a few more months left. He passed away about five months after my family's death and I was alone. Surprisingly, the police never came to follow up on how I was doing, but that was all for the better. I did not want to end up in an orphanage, away from my only sense of home. The days passed by at school and nobody seemed to notice that I was apart of the family that had been gunned down, but that just means less resurfacing of memories. Influenced by the society, crying was something I did not do in public, especially not when my uncle was around, no matter how reassuring he was. Only when he had passed did I feel more comfortable letting my emotions flow free from my eyes.

Pushing the memory back into the abyss of my brain, I grabbed the materials necessary to tend to my wounds. To my surprise, despite a noticeable unnatural bend on my forearm with a similar pain Sludge described me having for my broken ribs when I gained my consciousness, my arm no longer had an unnatural bend. All that was left was a disgusting bruise. I lifted my shirt to find lighter shades of bruises than previously similar attacks from. That’s a bit, odd, but maybe the beating did something to my brain and I was just imagining it to be worse than it actually was.

After I was done tending the bruises, I started hearing noises. Footsteps. Voices. Did someone break in? Living alone in a relatively large house can lure uninvited guests, but being the tech savvy person, I've set up a few surveillance cameras as well as a set of surprises for my guests. Pulling up my computer, I put on the surveillance cameras I had set up on the screen. Nothing seemed unusual at first, but then, I saw a dark shadow in my fourth camera. Controlling the camera, I made it focus on the shadow, try to show the face, though absolutely dark. With no success, I decided to freak my guest out. Pulling out my phone, I pulled up the app that controlled the lights in the house. I made the lights flicker, watching the surveillance while I did so. I got one glimpse of the person that suddenly disappeared and reappeared in the second camera, which was on the other side of the house. There was no way that was possible. People can't walk that quickly from the front of the house to the back. My eyes must have been playing tricks. The next moment, I saw the shadow again, still in camera 2, but rummaging through everything. Flickering the lights, I saw the shadow move again at the same speed to the next camera. In the next moment, I saw no shadow at all. I turned on all the lights of the house and saw nothing except for the return of the footsteps. I was surprised none of my traps had even been set off. Finally, I caught another shadow movement. This time, I found the shadow in a room very similar to mine. Actually... IT WAS MY ROOM. I turned my head quick to find nothing when suddenly, a hand tapped my shoulder.

"Finally we can finish some business that should have been done that one day three years ago." The shadow spoke as he lunged at me with a knife.

"W-why are you doing this?" I said, trying my best to not stutter, trying my best to keep his blade from my heart.

"Well you see, your family is actually one of power. You come from a line of some of the best super humans to ever step foot on earth. Your family also has a long line of being on the hero side, and you've probably guessed that I’m a super that has sided with the villains. We were surprised to find you never left home. Especially with all the memories here." He spoke again, nodding towards a picture frame of my family on Thanksgiving five years back.

"How is that even possible? How would I have not known my parents had superpowers? Why weren’t you guys mentioned in the article?"

"That's shows how well we've been hiding. To be honest, villain activities are more easy to find on the surface, but the police hasn’t been very thorough in their search… and also they have been paid off, not that it matters. As for superhuman powers, I’m not too sure about the history of that, consult the library or something if you must, but I'm part of an organization of villains that wants to rid the world of heroes, superhumans against our cause. Our plan was to start from the top and go down from there, that way, lower class superheroes had nobody to rely on, and they would most likely give up the moment they saw the stronger ones going down. I'm just here to finally finish the job those imbeciles didn't do finish three years ago."

The man finally got the upperhand when the familiar surge of energy returned to my body and spread to the man, enveloping me in darkness yet again.

Next (Chapter 2)

[writingsfromthebrain]

Stories

This is the place I will put my writings, take a read if you guys don’t mind stories with terrible grammar, slow updates, and generally awkward writing. Thank you!

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