We were at my kitchen, me in an almost catatonic state as the blonde guy helped himself to my fridge, he had a ponytail so ill refer to him as that, the other one was just lazing resting against the countertop he was ring man, because of his power.
Ponytail man took out my orange juice box and looked at me puzzled. “What are you doing just standing there man, hurry up and gather your stuff.”
I put a hand on my head feeling dizzy all of a sudden, the other hand followed almost immediately, and I curved forward slightly.
Let me get this shit straight; so out of nowhere come two guys of seemingly a terrorist villain association that recruit about to be imprisoned Sleeepwalkers and have methods to awaken them. I still don't have any proof to know if they are telling me the truth but what I know is that I did see the police coming to my street, not seeing any sign of anything else in place and even less reason for this to be a weird set up I can only assume that they are indeed telling me the truth, I can feel myself getting deeper and deeper in the state of obsession, involving myself with weird groups that almost got me killed last time.
That's it isn't it, it all boils down to that in the end. I want power! I cannot let this chance go even as sketchy as it is, I can be glossing over a lot of shit but even with all the time in the world to consider I know that I would just end up accepting anyway. Because I couldn't live letting my biggest chance at power escape through my fingers.
I'll get it, I can continue my experimentations if this fails, I'll have the power I'm destined for. I took a deep breath calming my nerves, feeling like my resolve again after a long and stressful time, the collectedness of a professor, the calm with which I did all my research and experiments throughout all those years.
I straightened my back, giving them a smile. “Well, it seems I would have to skip town anyway so it'd be a pleasure to get a hitchhike out of you fine gentlemen.” I laughed, at the incredulity of the scene and me accepting and playing along, just feeling myself becoming a little more lost in the craziness, the giddiness of the promise of power going a long way into raising my mood.
Both of them just stared at me, a little taken aback by my sudden shift in behavior probably, but come on. Don’t you have to be flexible in the underground lifestyle, thinking too much or not accepting change will just hinder me, the only thing I need to consider is the best course of action. I even took a leave just today, everything fitting together nicely, people will just think the state offed me.
“I have a bag prepared, when you mess with illegal stuff you develop a level of paranoia as I'm sure you two understand, I'll be right back and then maybe you two can introduce yourselves at least?” I said as I moved to the kitchen counter, opening the cabinet under it where I left a bag of extra supplies, together with the cleaning products. Living alone there wasn't much of a reason to hide it.
“Let's go. There’s a door at the back.” I said slugging the back over my shoulder.
They didn’t move, just exchanging glances after considering me for a moment, before I could worry that I’d set them off the smirk that had slipped from the blonds face returned in full force.
“Don't be silly, the cars up front. I go by Spotlight by the way.” Ponytail, now Spotlight, said. I’m sure he knew he was implying ignoring or outright confronting the police “The quiet guy there’s LED.”
I just nodded at that well used to all kinds of names at this point theirs were very tame even. What I was more concerned with was his lack of concern regarding the police. “I can assume you have a way to deal with the police then?”
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“Yeah, I do.” he said simply, having his fun with my unamused stare. “Don't like surprises?”
“Had too many of those for one day already”
He snickered at that and gestured for me to come along, LED also followed along. “Don't worry I really have a way to deal with them.” he reassured me.
"Is it going to be... violent?” for anyone from the government and each of those cops out there I was all the way through a ‘villain’ at this point but it wasn't like I really wanted to do any atrocities, depending on his power the situation could turn uglyreally quickly.
"Nah don't worry, it's gonna be a breeze.” this guy really was the laid-back type, although he called himself Spotlight, that didn't sound so dangerous. The name could be intentionally misleading of course, but probably it's something to do with attention maybe? We'll see.
After being a power-hungry aficionado for so many years I had a really good grasp on the types of powers, the naming conventions and everything else. This was what I lived for after all, not even only in the sense that this is what I wanted for myself, but also in the sense of helping kids with their powers and coaching them on how to use them. So, on top of four degrees in power studies, I had years of experience and reading on this subject. For as nervous as i was from being thrown into this I was also feeling some kind of exhilaration at things finally working out it just felt like my life was finally getting to the point it would start, my story would start.
I was pulled from my musings with Spotlight pushing the door open, ten of police cars were enveloping my house completely. The flashing lights and sirens blaring all around my front yard. Seeing this my heart sped up, this the situation didn't look good at all.
Spotlight moved with large strides to the front of my house, rapidly reaching the light of sun on the midway point of the walkway that I had in front of my house, the policemen were startled awake frantically going for their guns and the, I supposed captain pulling a loudspeaker. Spotlight stopped his advance, standing with his arms out on the open apart from him. The police captain spoke through the loudspeaker, his mechanically raised voice echoing.
“Stand down” he commanded “Raise your hands where we can see them. Slowly come forward with keep your hands raised.”
Spotlight slowly raised his hands even further, bringing them above his head. From my position i couldn't see his face but it really seemed like he was still with the smirk he had worn from the moment I met him. Suddenly all the police men seemed to be in even higher alert raising their guns and all tensing the captain raised the loudspeaker and was going to say something when they all just... Stopped.
"What's going on?" I asked no one in particular. “Is this his power?” LED by my side just nodded. This guy really didn't like to talk huh, Jesus.
All of the policemen just looked stunned for a second, and then they all seemed frantic to get out of here, quickly packing up and calling orders on their radios, entering their cars and just steering off at speed like they had a pursue to do but on another state.
Spotlight turned to me, his smirk somehow even bigger, his eyes were shining brightly. A yellowish tone that made it look like he had holophotes instead of eyes so the cops probably got agitated when they saw it, his powers taking effect the next moment
"See? No violence at all.”
I was impressed, that was a very effective power. “Up to telling me how it works?”
“Well can't you figure it out? Aren't you the scholar kind?" He laughed it off but still it seemed conversational enough so I'd give my guess.
“I think it has something to do with attention, well obviously. Considering the name, you chose as well; it's pretty in the face. It's not the kind that they ignore the subject because they left in a hurry, hmm probably redirection then?” I said satisfied, feeling my guess was probably right. If what he did was redirect the attention that was on us to something else, they’d go pursue it straight away. Clever.
"Hooh, look at that. Got it in one go, not that it's that complicated, but still.” he seemed in a good mood still, which was good there was some powered that liked to think their powers were overly special, their workings a secret only to themselves. Although it was useful to have an unknown power, most of them could be figured pretty quickly, even more in a basic overview like I did with Spotlights powers, the way they acted, mechanisms they used or intricacies of the powers would be much more difficult to know and also information much more valuable.
"Let's go” LED’s deep voice called out just behind me, I jumped inadvertently, the guy spoke so little that it caught me off guard, I looked at him and he somehow looked satisfied with that.
Fucking batman wannabe.