Ethan shoved his old, faded Ace’s jersey carelessly into his backpack, jamming it down to make everything fit. With a hard pull, he managed to wrench the zipper just enough to seal his overstuffed bag, then lugged it on the counter, spilling his entire cup of black coffee onto the tan hardwood floor.

“Not again,” he hissed. He wiped the coffee up with a paper towel, but noticed the dark liquid rapidly staining into the floorboards, his mistake like a dark shadow spreading over the light hardwood. He groaned quietly, a familiar panic spreading sweat across his brow.

I have no idea how to fix that, he thought, watching the wood floor greedily drink the coffee he so desperately needed after another late night turned into an early morning. Panicking, he spied a white dish towel hanging in front of Alex’s rarely used stove. He threw the towel over the stain to hide the majority of it, wiped the thick, panicked sweat off his brow with the back of his hand, and tried to act casual as he walked, for probably the last time, to the balcony overlooking the battered city of Ascension.

Following the natural disaster blended with a scientific phenomenon known simply as the Surge, Ascension had become a worldwide fascination. For three months after the Surge, Ascension had become a theater for spectacularly destructive battles fought between the Altered, people who gained powers from the Surge but chose to use them for destructive purposes, and the Protectors, a group of people with abilities that the Apex Corporation curated to fight against the Altered and defend Ascension.

Ascension became a modern day Colosseum, with the Protectors taking on the role of the gladiators. Chief among the Protectors is Alex, Ethan’s sister, donning the title of Titan. Alex is both the first and strongest Protector, proving herself time and time again against the worst Ascension has to offer, including the malicious Maelstrom, personally responsible for the worst disaster Ascension had ever seen: a full-blown category five hurricane brewed on the northern outskirts of the city and directed right at its center. Maelstrom intended to level Ascension entirely, but Alex managed to blow through the eye of the storm and shut Maelstrom down, leading to his detainment and permanent detention in a top secret facility that Apex built just for him.

Since losing the strongest member of their ranks, the Altered have been in a state of disarray. Rival gangs of Altered led by people with terrible powers had sprung up all over the city, but they were currently more interested in fighting each other to claim supremacy rather than the Protectors in their Sector, unable to agree on any sort of coherent hierarchy that could make them a dangerous threat to the city again.

Ethan glanced out at the Lavender Mountain range that ringed the city, noticing the peaks still blanketed with pure white snow. In this early morning the clouds were piling behind the mountains, a wall of white, rotating shadows not quite able to ascend over the peaks and rush out towards the city. Alex, in Ethan’s mind, did the same for Ascension, acting as the bulwark that Altered broke themselves on. Without Alex’s strength, it would’ve been easy for the Protectors to fall into a similar state of chaos as the Altered, unable to unify and coalesce.

In recognition of her efforts, Apex gifted Alex the penthouse floor of the tallest residential building in Ascension, located on the western edge overlooking the entire city. It was gorgeous, far out of Ethan’s budget, though now worth slightly less thanks to Ethan’s clumsiness.

Despite his own stressful battle with his coffee cup, Ethan couldn’t help but look in awe at the stunning morning view, the sun just breaking over the eastern plain, drenching the city in an orange glow that reflected off the skyscrapers, but also one that illuminated the scars the city had recently gained: buildings with broken windows, bent frames, and cracked streets with jagged concrete jutting into the air still shut down from Maelstrom and Detonator’s attacks. The sounds of construction and constant rebuilding had overtaken the usual symphony of life in a city that housed so many, car horns exchanged for jackhammers and conversation twisted into barked commands.

Despite the carnage, Ethan always wondered what it’d be like to have Alex’s powers, to fly through the city and know you could do something about the chaos the Altered brought, putting your life on the line to save others. Plus, Ethan thought, glancing at the fully furnished apartment, the perks weren’t too bad, either.

Then again, it was easier to imagine fighting against the Altered when you were seemingly invincible, changed by the Surge and turned into an unbreakable, immensely powerful super being straight out of mythology like Alex.

Ethan, who wasn’t in Ascension on the night the Surge blanketed the city with a radiant dusting of energy from somewhere buried deep underground, was still just Ethan.

At least, that is, for now. He may have missed his chance at powers a year ago, but he was convinced that wasn’t the only way to get them, and he wasn’t alone. Silently hoping, he checked his phone, sighing quietly at the lack of notifications.

Soon, Ethan reassured himself, it’ll be soon. It has to be.

Though only a tiny fraction of people were changed and received any abilities at all, Ethan always wondered what might’ve happened to him if he wasn’t at work in the tunnels when the Surge hit and was, instead, in Ascension like he’d always wanted to be, living a full life in the city instead of spending his nights in dark tunnels breaking rocks for twelve hours at a time.

He sighed as a passing cloud darkened the morning sun, leaving Ethan with just his own reflection in the glass. His black hair had grown far too long these last few months, and he had to constantly push it back to keep it from covering his almond eyes. On the plus side, he was the tannest he’d been in years, having had three straight summer months off work, and he hadn’t lost much, if any, of the lean muscle he cultivated working in the mines for the three years.

But the bronzed color to his skin would begin to fade tomorrow. The mines, after a three month closure that, depending on who you ask, may have been Ethan’s fault, would reopen, and Ethan would be expected to report back for his night shift toiling underground while Alex gently brushed the clouds and felt the warm sun on her back.

“I hate it here,” Ethan muttered suddenly. From behind him, sprawled on the green velvet couch, Raz scoffed.

“Beats our place,” he replied, not looking up from the book he was reading. “By, like, a lot.”

Ethan sighed. “What doesn’t? We could find shacks in the north side of the city where Maelstrom’s hurricane made landfall better equipped than our apartment.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Raz laughed. “Still more expensive, though.”

Ethan nodded glumly. While Alex had taken the first chance she’d gotten and moved to Ascension permanently after attending community college in Stillrock to take a job teaching wrestling at the Metro College, Ethan and Raz had spent their whole lives in the small mountain town, jumping from odd job to odder job until landing in the mines and sticking there. It was fortunate that they had been best friends since they were kids because despite still living in Stillrock, neither one of them made enough to live on their own.

“Speaking of, are you packed? We’ll leave once Alex gets back.”

“I’m packed. Are you going to tell her you spilled coffee on her floor again?”

Ethan grimaced. His rushed cleanup job wasn’t as inconspicuous as he hoped it would’ve been. “No, and you’re not going to tell her, either.”

“What’s in it for me?”

With his shorts, the scar from Raz’s knee surgery was clearly visible, angry and red. Ethan’s shoulders dropped. “I’ll carry your bag to the car.”

“I think you’d have to do that anyway,” Raz chuckled, “I’m not quite all the way healed.”

“I’ll buy you the next book in that series, then?”

Raz raised an eyebrow.

“But you really have to keep your mouth shut,” Ethan continued, pointing a finger at him. “Alex got so mad at me for the last time that she nearly snapped the marble kitchen island and I don’t want her to do that to my head.”

“Deal. I’ll keep my mouth shut, but if she notices, I’m not taking the blame.”

“Come on,” Ethan protested, “she’s always liked you more than me, plus she can’t hit you.”

“Because she likes me?”

“No, you’re already hurt. Apex has rules against that kind of thing, I think It might be like…a war crime?.”

“With the amount of damage you’ve caused here that you’ve blamed me for, I doubt I’m still her favorite,” Raz shook his head. “She must think I’m the clumsiest person on Earth. I still don’t understand how you knocked her dresser over, anyway.”

“I told you, I was sleepwalking.” Raz rolled his eyes, and Ethan changed the subject.

“When does she normally come back, anyway?” he asked.

Raz checked his watch. “Usually about now, unless she’s in a tough fight. Which you’d know, if you didn’t keep disappearing every morning,” Raz said pointedly. “You know, for someone out of a job, you’ve been very busy lately.”

“I’ve been…exploring,” Ethan offered. “Offroading a little bit.”

Raz arched an eyebrow. “You’re seriously not going to tell me where you’ve been going?”

Ethan opened his mouth, then squinted, tracking an object moving fast, level with his eyeline. Glinting in the sun, Ethan caught Alex’s bronze armor and purple cape and sighed with relief as she pushed open the balcony door, her long curly hair windswept behind her.

“How was it out there?” Ethan asked.

Alex plopped on the couch, taking off her boots with a sigh of relief.

“Busy,” she nodded, keeping her eyes on the city. Alex had always been an intense person, but the past few months had made her much more so. “Still too busy.”

Ethan grimaced. From what Alex had told him and Raz, Apex’s strategy was simple: cover Ascension in a net of Protectors, dividing the city up into zones and staggering the Protector’s schedules to ensure consistent coverage and responses to any Altered attack.

While there were still occasional Altered attacks on banks or jewelry stores, the Protectors mostly had things under control, or, at least, it looked like they did, which was possibly even more important. The Protectors were doing their best to keep the tentative peace that had spread after Maelstrom was incarcerated, but without projecting strength, the Altered would sense a vulnerability and strike.

But with so many Altered wielding powers that could easily be used for widespread destruction, it was nearly impossible to contain every single one of them, which constantly kept the Protectors, and the people of Ascension, on their toes.

“Anyone new?” Ethan asked, trying to act casually. “I heard that can happen, you know. People gaining powers months after the Surge, something to do with the residual energy in the air.”

He checked his phone again, frowning at the screen. Still nothing.

Alex saw through Ethan immediately, her eyes narrowing. He shifted his gaze to Raz’s book.

“That’s a myth,” She spat immediately. “Apex has cataloged everyone who received powers after the Surge, and they haven’t seen anyone new in six months, thank God. We’ve been over this.”

“Right,” Ethan nodded for too long, glancing out at Ascension. “But, you never know. It happened once, after all.”

“And that was it,” Alex said definitively. “We were told, by Apex, that there was zero chance of anyone getting powers again. It’s done.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Raz muttered. “I was having enough trouble staying alive in the regular world. There’s too many people who can kill me with their eyes now and I don’t need anymore to watch out for.”

“You know I wouldn’t let that happen to you,” Alex told him. Raz rolled his eyes playfully. She pointed at Ethan. “You, on the other hand…”

“I could take them,” Ethan muttered. “If I got powers.”

Alex let out a curt sigh, noticing Raz’s bag sitting by her door.

“You guys heading back to Stillrock?”

Ethan nodded. “The mines reopen tomorrow.”

“Ah, you’ve mentioned that,” Alex snuck a peak at Raz’s leg. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”

“No,” Raz shrugged, “but if I’m not down there, someone else will be, and Ethan can’t pay the rent by himself.”

“I guess not,” Alex sighed, leaning back. She tapped her fingers on the back of the couch, Ethan already grimacing, knowing exactly what she was going to say. “You two could always stay here you know, at least until Raz is healed. I’m hardly around, and it’s nice to have company when I’m back.”

“I appreciate it, but you know we can’t stay here forever,” Ethan said, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “Raz has a crippling fantasy novel addiction and he’s nearly broke.”

Raz tapped the cover of his book. “It’s true. There’s, like, six more of these, and Ethan’s on the hook to buy me the next one.”

Alex rolled her eyes playfully. She stood, hugging Ethan so hard he felt his chest nearly crack, then gingerly wrapping her arms around Raz.

“Be safe down there,” she said to both of them.

“Be safe up there,” Ethan replied, smiling sadly, a twinge of jealousy rippling through him. He opened the door, letting Raz shuffle through first and following close behind when Alex’s voice stopped him in his tracks.

“Wait” Alex called out, poking her head through the doorway, “why does Ethan owe you a book? What did you do?”

“Run,” Ethan took off for the elevator, flying by Raz.

“You know I can’t!” Raz yelled, shuffling laboriously down the hall.

The door flew open and Alex walked out holding a familiar white dish towel now stained with brown.

“You spilled coffee on my floor again?”

She narrowed her eyes, glaring at Ethan as he pulled Raz inside and slammed the button to close the doors, grateful that he was able to escape.

Ethan breathed a sigh of relief, then laughed.

“Man,” Raz shook his head, “crazy to think that she could just rip these doors open if she really wanted to. Having all that power, flying wherever you want, it must be incredible.”

“It would be,” Ethan agreed, sighing.

I’d do anything to find out how that feels, he thought, his eyes glancing upwards toward the clear morning sky. His phone vibrated, and his eyes lit up when he saw the notification:

New location: Basin Lake.

“Yes,” he grunted, pumping his fist.

“What was that?” Raz asked. “You’ve been checking your phone obsessively all morning.”

“You up for a field trip?” he asked Raz.

“Where to?” Raz checked his watch. “I probably need to rest up before work tomorrow.”

“If we’re lucky, we won’t be going to work tomorrow.”

Raz raised an eyebrow, gingery easing himself into Ethan’s truck. “What are you talking about?”

“Apex has everyone convinced you can’t get powers. That the Surge was a one-time deal. Even Alex believes them.” He grinned, throwing Raz’s bag in the back of his truck, then slapped the hood of his truck before hopping in the driver's seat next to Raz.

“They’re the experts,” Raz shrugged.

“For now,” Ethan agreed, cranking his truck’s engine. “But in a few hours, we’re going to prove them all wrong.”