Ethan shot awake from a space somewhere in between fitful sleeping and a nightmare, gasping for air. His first frantic inhale sent shockwaves of pain through his tender ribs. He yelped, the noise distorted by his parched throat, more of a cry than he meant it to be.

“Whoa, hey,” Alex said softly, taking a glass of water and bringing it to Ethan’s lips. He drank it, slowly at first, then drained the whole cup.

“More?” she asked. Ethan shook his head, slowly, trying to take short, shallow breaths to avoid setting off his assuredly broken ribs. Alex, normally the picture of health, looked like she hadn’t slept in days: dark circles under her eyes, her curly hair messily thrown into a bun, coffee stains littering her gray shirt. Ethan realized her appearance meant he had probably been out for a few days at least, but of the thousands of questions that forced their way to the forefront of his mind, he stammered for a few moments before settling on the most obvious one.

“Where am I?” he asked, his voice not much louder than a whisper.

“AU Hospital downtown,” Alex answered. “This is where Apex sends Protectors when they’re hurt. Glass is bulletproof, walls are thick as a redwood, and the doctors are specially trained to deal with intensive trauma cases, like yours.”

“Like me?” he asked. “What…happened?”

“Ethan, don’t you remember? You went down in the mines, only something went…wrong. I found you in the field next to the collapsed mine.”

For a moment, Ethan couldn’t separate the dreams he had over the past few days from his memories, both blending together like waves washing away the shore, eroding any sense of reality. He pushed through a headache and focused hard, finally latching onto a memory: a flash of light blinding him, the feeling of his insides nearly boiling, almost driving him to throw up. Then, he realized, painfully, the next question he needed answered.

“Was I…alone? When you found me?”

Alex paused for a moment. “Raz said there was someone else, but I couldn’t find anyone.”

Maybe she was able to escape? Ethan thought. Or, maybe, I left her down there to die by herself.

Ethan tried to push himself onto his elbows, stitches pulling in his shoulder where he fell. He groaned, collapsing back onto the hospital bed, sweating.

“Relax,” Alex cautioned him, putting her hand on his shoulder. “Relax, you just absorbed enough radiation to kill an elephant, and had a tunnel collapse on you. You shouldn’t even be awake yet.”

“Too many nightmares,” he murmured. Then he had a sobering thought: They’re only bad dreams if they aren’t real.

He tried harder to push himself up, ignoring the pain and managing to get himself onto his elbows. Progress. It was only now that Ethan’s eyes adjusted to the light that he was able to notice the dirt smeared on Alex’s face, and the frayed ends of her hair. She looked as if she had been dragged through the earth, much like Ethan was the night before.

“Did you go down there?” Ethan asked her. “The tunnels?”

Alex nodded. “After I dropped you off here, I called Raz. He told me what happened, so I went right back to Stillrock. I found you near an active breach, but before I scooped you up and flew off I saw the rest of the tunnel collapse in on itself, enough to stop the radiation leak. I thought whoever you were with might still be down there, but I didn’t find anyone. Is it possible they…escaped with you?”

Ethan shrugged, sighing. “Hell, I don’t even know how I got out of there.”

Alex was serious, grabbing Ethan’s hand. “You surviving was pure luck.”

“Doesn’t feel like it right now,” Ethan groaned, giving hers a squeeze. “Thank you for saving me. I wouldn’t be here without you.”

Alex rolled her eyes, standing. “You shouldn’t have needed to be saved in the first place. I told you the breaches were dangerous, didn’t I?”

Yes, and Rainey and I found out the hard way. But if Alex didn’t find her, she could still be out there. I’ve got to find her.

“I know, and I hear everything you just said…but I’ve got to go back.”

Alex stared at him, shaking her head. “Ethan, you nearly died. We have no idea what the effects of that much Surge radiation could be on a person. Just because you’re alive now doesn’t mean you will be if you start to push yourself too much too soon.”

“I’ll figure things out later,” he assured her. Taking his time, he silently moved his legs to the edge of the bed, then stood, unsteadily, gripping the plastic edge until his head stopped swimming. Shakily, and finding new pains in every step, he walked over to the mirror, recoiling when he saw his face. The bruises were one thing; he expected a few of those, but the sight of his irises stopped him in his tracks. He rubbed his eyes lightly, his heart rate increasing when they stayed the same shade.

“Uh, you didn’t think to mention that my eyes were purple?”

“I…was going to bring that up when I thought you were ready,” Alex said, following closely behind Ethan to catch him in case he fainted.

“Do we think this is…permanent?” Ethan asked, pointing to his suddenly violet irises. “I mean, I wasn’t in love with brown, but purple is…probably not my second choice for eye color.”

“Well, the eye color change is not unheard of when people gain powers that tap into a certain aspect of the Surge,” Alex explained. “Aegis’ eyes actually used to be brown like yours, and Syphon’s eyes change with the type of light she absorbs.”

“Interesting,” Ethan said, unsure of how to feel about his physical change. “I hope I got plasma powers. Maybe I blasted myself out of the tunnel before you found me?”

“That, I don’t know. I found you lying in the field on top of the mines, bruised, but alive. I didn’t actually see how you escaped the rubble.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out, but I won’t know until I get out of here and have time to go through my extremely scientific process to test for my power,” Ethan said urgently.

“The one you do in your apartment?”

“Damn it, Raz,” Ethan whispered, embarrassed. “I thought that was a secret.”

As if responding to his desire to leave, his right hand began to almost vibrate, becoming awash in a purple glow.

“Oh, whoa,” Ethan said, holding his hand up, but still a cautious distance away from his face. His face lit up, a smile spreading across his face, the horrors of the mine temporarily forgotten. “What do we think this does?”

Without warning, his left hand also began to vibrate, as if in response to his right, until both of them were awash in purple glow, making a rumble so deep it was more felt than heard.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Oh, sick,” he whispered. “The purple is a whole thing.”

“Ethan,” Alex said cautiously, taking a slight step back. “Can you…stop that?”

“Uh,” Ethan replied nervously, shaking out his hands. They maintained their glow, the rumble steady in his ears. “I…don’t think I know how.”

“I’d suggest you learn, fast, especially if it’s plasma that’s going to come shooting out of your hands. I chose a bad day not to wear my armor. I only have this one shirt, and even though its stained I don’t want it destroyed. I’m not flying home in a hospital gown because you can’t control your abilities.”

Ethan’s face balled into worry, but before he had the chance to try anything, the color faded from his hands, the hospital room dimming once more, back to its normal, oppressive white. Ethan breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing his tense shoulders.

“Guess we’ll figure out what those do when I get home,” Ethan said. He looked around the room, as if he misplaced something. “Speaking of, where’s Raz?”

“He, uh, couldn’t make it.” Alex said quickly.

“Couldn’t?” Ethan asked, raising an eyebrow. “I…kind of destroyed our workplace, so I don’t know what other obligation he possibly could’ve had today.”

Alex frowned. “Maybe that was part of the problem.” Ethan sighed, nodding.

I probably deserve that. And more.

“Oh! He did text me a message for you, though.”

Ethan perked up. “Really? What’s it say?”

“If you woke up, Raz wanted me to let you know that…” Alex checked her phone, pulling up the text. She cleared her throat. “Ah, that he ‘didn’t care if you lived or died but really hoped you died, painfully if possible’.”

“Oh,” Ethan said quietly, folding his arms. “”No, uh, ‘haha’’?”

“Not…in this message, but he did send one after I texted him that you hadn’t woken up yet.”

“Well then.”

“Yeah,” Alex dragged the word out, as if trying to stall for time, trying to find something to say. She couldn’t find anything.

“That’s…different than I expected.”

“I guess you guys had a falling out yesterday, huh?”

“Something like that,” Ethan said. His eyes drifted out the hospital window, towards Tyson Peak and Stillrock, towards the mine he collapsed and the lives he ruined. He wondered what would happen once the owners found the state the mine was in. It had already been closed for the past three months, and he didn’t see them reopening it now, or anytime soon.

While Ethan certainly didn’t miss working down in the mine, the realization that his old life was, essentially, shuttered washed over him like a storm cloud on an otherwise sunny day. Looking down at his bruised arms, Ethan found himself wishing he could be there, back in their run down apartment, back to yesterday before Ethan pushed Raz out of his life, siding with Rainey and pursuing his powers over everything else. But with Rainey missing and Raz not speaking to Ethan except to do the opposite of wishing him well, Ethan wondered if any of this was worth it. His body hurt from head to toe, he was wracked with guilt over Rainey’s disappearance, and he wasn’t even sure what his powers were supposed to be. All he wanted was to be back home, in his own bed, trying to pretend none of this had ever happened.

His left hand glowed again, but this time a black, stretched oval shape as tall as Ethan and, oddly, just wide enough for him to step through appeared in front of him, conjured seemingly from nothing. It hung in the air in front of him, silently, like a specter waiting for direction.

“What the hell is that?” Ethan asked loudly, taking a step back.

“You made it,” Alex pointed out, pushing herself out of her chair, accidentally too hard, sending it careening against the wall. “Shouldn’t you know?”

“Why did this have to be complicated?” Ethan asked, exasperated. “Why couldn’t I just have gotten plasma powers like I wanted. Those are simple!”

He turned away from the portal, only for it to swing silently in front of him.

“Great,” he scoffed. “I’ve made a new friend.”

“Maybe whatever that is can replace Raz as your best friend?” Alex suggested, eliciting a frown from Ethan.

“Alright,” he said, turning to face the window. The void followed his eyes, discomforting him. “As much as I wanted powers, I really didn’t know that ‘creating spooky floating voids’ was an option. How do we think we make this…go away?”

“I could try punching it,” Alex offered, shrugging.

“I should’ve guessed you’d say that. Do we think that would…hurt me?”

Alex shrugged, already rearing back her fist. “Only one way to find out!”

Alex fired her fist forward, slamming into the void in front of Ethan. To both of their surprise, her fist simply bounced off after delivering enough force to shatter a concrete wall.

“Well that was…surprising,” Alex admitted, shaking out her right hand. She examined the void further. “Unlike you, it isn’t even scratched!”

Ethan glanced down at his hand, noting that only his left hand was glowing. “Look,” he told Alex, raising his right hand. “Nothing.”

“Ah,” Alex looked to Ethan’s hand, then to the void. “I’ve seen something like this before. Aegis only has enough power to create one half of her shields with each of her hands. Like hers, your power must work in tandem. This is…half of what you can do. However, conjuring a seemingly unbreakable wall is not a bad start.”

“It’s no plasma,” Ethan muttered. Both of their eyes darted to the void as it disappeared instantaneously, their view of the window coming unblocked.

“Man,” Ethan said, “I really wish I knew what that was, but I guess I can find out more when I get home.”

“You should really stay here for the night,” Alex cautioned him. “You took a direct hit from the Surge and as far as we know, nobody’s done that before. The results could be disastrous.”

Ethan gestured to his bruised body. “They already were.”

“And they could get worse, if you aren’t monitored.”

“Come on, Alex,” Ethan groaned. “If I was going to die, I think I would’ve done it when I had a literal ton of rock dropped on me.”

Alex cut Ethan off, blocking the doorway and folding her arms.

“What are you doing?” he asked. In response, she raised an eyebrow.

“Even if you hadn’t just survived a mine collapse, you still couldn’t get past me,” she pointed out. “So why don’t you go lay back down and mess around with your glowing hands some more in the safety of this nearly indestructible hospital room?”

Ethan glared at her. He turned to look out the window, Stillrock nothing more than a collection of faint lights in the evening from this distance, a few hours drive home. Closer to him, and catching his eye, though, was the Ascension Ace’s stadium a few blocks away, lit up for their evening home game. The stadium’s most notable feature was its scoreboard, shaped like an A that had a platform at its peak. The sight of the stadium filled Ethan with a deep regret. He and Raz always planned to go to a game once they moved to Ascension together, but Ethan doubted Raz would be lining up to come to a game with him now, after how he treated him yesterday.

Distraught, Ethan suddenly found another void next to him, hovering silently, awaiting further instructions. This time, however, Ethan found his right hand glowing as well, and instead of appearing solid black, the void’s appearance shifted, taking on the appearance of the darkening sky a few streets away, the cool wind from the outside washing over his face and blowing back his black hair. It shifted with his thoughts, and came to a stop just in front of the Ace’s scoreboard, the platform at the top just a step away.

Well, Ethan thought, if Raz doesn’t want to go with me…Gingerly, he reached out to the scoreboard, his fingers brushing the cool metal. Maybe I’ll just go by myself.

“Ethan,” Alex said urgently. She took slow, pointed steps towards him. “Whatever that is…don’t touch it.”

“I think it’s…a portal,” he said decisively, a touch of awe in his voice. “This must be how I got out of the tunnel, and now I opened it to the stadium. It reacted to me, moving where I wanted it to.”

“Do not go through that,” Alex said. “We don’t know what’ll happen to you when you do.”

Ethan threw her a mischievous smile, his face illuminated by the swirling purple light.

“And you thought I couldn’t get out of here.”