I made my way back to B-9 and took the opportunity to sit and think alone on my bed. The sound of George wailing like some dying animal was stuck in my head, playing on a loop. What had caused him to become so distressed? Was it something related to our powers, or something personal?

I stared at the bland white wall to my left whilst trying to process everything that was happening. A strong sadness was taking hold of me again. This whole situation was awful. We were no better than prisoners at the facility yet somehow Mike and Abigail knew just the right thing to say to create a reasonable doubt that they were really doing everything for our benefit. I was in a mood and my mind seemed determined to figure out the cause.

Shouldn't I be happier about having super powers? I thought to myself. I thought about all the superhumans I knew so well in the movies, TV shows, and comics I had read over the years.

Did powers ever make them happier at the end of the day? Maybe there was a reason why most superhumans in their respective stories ended their careers by dying; usually in some form of heroic self-sacrifice, as if super powered people by their very nature couldn't ever hope to live happily ever after. Then again, did anyone really live happily ever after? Wasn't life just one big compromise before inevitably kicking the bucket?

I turned over on the bed. My body spasmed with a sudden jolt as if begging me to get up and start running. I could go to the exercise area right now, I thought, yet again, And I could coil up and run and feel truly alive and happy.

"No," I said, aloud.

I had tried letting myself get carried away with using my powers and I got shot twice with tranquiliser darts for it. I wanted to feel my stomach for the puncture marks where the darts had landed, but that would have to wait since I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of undressing from the overalls. The depressive mood was becoming heavier, threatening to engulf me like a tidal wave. Here for a few days and I've already demonstrated to everyone here I'm a reckless idiot who can't control his powers, I thought.

I jerked my head sharply to the left in an effort to shake the negative thoughts away. It worked so far as it allowed me to stop that one particular train of thought, but the sour mood was swallowing me up the way mud grips a boot and doesn't let go.

Alex Landly popped into my mind. He hadn't been able to keep up with Tiffany and I on the treadmills in Lintern's Gym, and that had meant he was a normal person. No super powers. Why did that seem like the better option now?

Ah, but you've never been normal, Burgess. Not a single moment of your life. Too normal for the weirdos, too weird for the normal's. Not naturally intelligent and high-achieving like your sister, not easily likable and self-assured like your brother.

The depressive thoughts sucked me in deeper, and deeper.

Go for a run and you'll clear your head up, a part of me thought, why are you laying around? Go and have some fun.

"Piss off," I said, aloud, and turned over on the bed again. I couldn't get comfortable; I tried several more positions before sighing and sitting up, feeling heavy in my head and slightly sick.

This was what movies and video games and the like were for; to get away from these kinds of thoughts. I needed an escape.

Just go for a run. Just. Go. For. A. Run.

"Fine!" I said, aloud.

I got up from my bed and left B-9. I made it all the way to the end of the corridor before stopping at B-8.

"Hey, Burgess," said a familiar voice.

It was Jay. I was at his and Amar's block. Just like when I had first met them they were sitting in B-8 and had caught me on my way elsewhere.

"Hey," I said, turning on my friendly personality.

"Are you busy?" said Jay.

I checked my Meter. It was showing steady green.

"Nope," I said, "What are you guys up to?"

"Talking about our powers. Again," said Amar, dryly.

"Want to come in?" said Jay.

"Sure," I said.

Inside I spotted two dozen paper cups filled with water on the floor. Jay sat down in front of them.

"Still going at it?" I said, pointing to the cups.

"I've learned how to do it," said Amar, "Making the water cold."

I jerked my head back in surprise.

"Really?" I said, "I thought your thing was changing your eyes?"

"That's just it," said Jay, "His thing is my thing, my thing is his thing; we're all sharing the same thing!"

"So does that mean I can do it too?" I said.

"Yes!" said Jay.

I was taken aback a little by Jay's enthusiasm. He seemed the excitable type with lots of energy to spare. Although I had never been in one myself, Jay's long hair and general vibe made me think he was no stranger to diving into mosh pits for the wild thrill of it. Amar on the other hand struck me as someone who spent the majority of their time sitting in front of a computer; he had a tired, monotone way of speaking and he hardly moved except to talk or change the way his hands rested on his knees.

"We heard about what happened in the exercise area," said Jay.

"Yeah, it's whatever," I said, parroting Tiffany's line.

"How did you do it?" said Jay.

I explained to Jay and Amar in minute detail every aspect of how I had come to learn how to coil and how I had shown Blain how to do it too, and how it had led to me losing control. They both listened with rapt attention.

"But," I said, at the end of explaining everything, "I wouldn't recommend doing it unless you have to. It's seriously addictive. All I want to do right now is go to the exercise area and enter into the coiled state."

"Yeah," said Jay, nodding, "We figured it might be."

"Why?" I said.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"It's the same with using our powers," said Amar, his eyes half-lidded as he gazed at me.

"Sometimes I find myself changing the colour of my eyes just because I like the way it feels when I do it," he said, "I can't really describe what it feels like when I do it; but it feels good."

"Guess that also explains these," I said, gesturing to all the cups of water on the floor.

"Yeah," said Jay, rubbing the back of his neck, "Sometimes I just sit and do it because it calms me down."

"Cooling off," said Amar, jokingly.

"So it seems like whenever we use our powers we have a kind of compulsion to keep doing it," I said.

The others nodded.

I pointed to the cups, "Mind if I give it a try?" I said.

"Sure," said Jay.

I moved over and sat down in front of the cups. I put my hand into the one nearest me and felt the lukewarm water.

"So how do you do it?" I said.

"Same as how you coil," said Jay, "I just want it to happen and it does."

"But wait," I said, taking my hand out and wiping the wetness on my knee, "If that's the case then why didn't you try using other powers before?"

"I did," said Jay, "But making my hands colder just seemed to be the only thing that worked."

"Can you change your eyes now?" I said. I wanted some proof that what he told me was true.

"Sure," said Jay.

He leaned forward and looked me in the eyes. I watched his eyes change from blue to brown in a matter of seconds. Just the simple change of colour to his eyes had an effect on the rest of his face that made him look very different, just like Amar changing his eye colour from brown to black had made him look different too; blue to brown however seemed to be a much more pronounced change on Jay's pale face.

"Watch this," he said, and then after a few seconds his irises changed to a bright, almost glowing violet.

"Woah," I said, aloud, unable to hide my wonder.

"Yeah," said Jay, looking at me as if he were some kind of supernatural being. He looked a bit menacing grinning the way he was with his eyes shining bright purple.

"Can you go back to normal? It's freaking me out a bit," I said.

Jay's grin became a lackadaisical smile; he changed his eyes back to their original blue.

"Can you do that?" I had begun to say to Amar, but when I turned to look at him I flinched hard and almost sprang to my feet.

His irises were bright red and shining like Jay's had been. It was like being stared at by someone demonically possessed.

"Not cool," I said, "Cut that out, man."

Like Jay, Amar undid the redness to his eyes and turned them back to his regular brown.

"Sorry," he said, though clearly he wasn't.

I took a few moments to collect myself from the shock I had just experienced. I wanted to go for a run badly, to coil up, but that wasn't going to happen any time soon. Instead there had to be something else to occupy my attention and trying to see if I could use the same powers as Jay and Amar seemed like a good substitute.

I put my hand back into the cup. Become cold, I thought over and over again. Nothing happened for several seconds and then, all at once, I felt a strange sensation in my hand. It wasn't quite tingly, or fuzzy, or numbness; the sensation was a bit like each of those things but was also its own, special, unique one. It was hard to tell if it worked because my right hand was likely as cold as the water that surrounded it.

I took my hand out. Jay and Amar were watching intently. I tried my left hand, putting the tips of my fingers into the water. Right away I felt the numbing coldness of the water. I yanked my hand out, shaking it to get the cold wetness off of it.

"No way it's that easy," I said, "No way."

Jay put his hand in the cup and yanked his own back.

"He did it!" he said, looking at Amar and laughing a little. Jay started clapping his hands together, his excitedness taking hold of him to the point he looked kind of goofy slapping his hands together the way he was, as if pretending to clap cymbals together.

Once Jay had calmed down I tried the same thing with several of the other cups and found I could make the water numbingly cold each time, with the same ease. Jay's excitement remained steady for the second and third attempt, but thankfully calmed by the fourth and final fifth. Amar simply watched us both like a middle-aged Dad watching his kid's open Christmas presents.

I attempted changing the colour of my eyes next. There wasn't a mirror in B-8 so I only had Jay and Amar to tell me if I was doing it properly. I sat still and looked at Jay and imagined my eyes changing to a bright emerald green. Become green, I thought, over and over.

That strange sensation happened again. It was kind of like the sensation one gets when turning a key in a lock and it finally gives. Unlocking, I thought, it feels like unlocking.

Jay's giddy excitement returned. He was like a dog that was happy to rip apart its favourite chew toy. I didn't think I had ever been as giddy or happy as Jay appeared to be right there and then.

I looked at Amar and could see his half-lidded eyes widen.

"Oh no," he said.

"What?" I said.

"You've got emeralds in your eyes," he said, jokingly.

I rolled my eyes. Of all the uses of my power so far changing the colour of my eyes weirded me out the most. Change back, change back, I thought to myself. The unlocking sensation returned and Jay's giddy enthusiasm tempered down again.

I sat back and folded my arms.

"What do you guys think the cause of all this is?" I said.

"The Golden Sky," said Jay, quickly.

I nodded, and Amar nodded too. The Golden Sky was the strange gold light, like an aurora, that had appeared in the sky over every inch of the world about eighteen years ago.

"The timing of that and us having these powers is too much of a coincidence," said Amar.

"What caused it?" I said.

Jay shrugged, "Aliens? Space radiation? Magic?"

I grinned, "You can't just add 'space' to something to make it sound plausible," I said, jokingly.

I had already given a lot of thought to what the origin of our powers might be. I hadn't gotten very far since there was so little information to go off.

"What I don't get," said Amar, "Is how everyone's powers are starting to come out now?"

"What do you mean?" said Jay.

Amar put a hand to his chin and chewed on his thought for a moment, "Our powers are getting stronger. But what is making that happen?"

"Are they though?" I said, "We could just be tapping into the power that is already there; like we're just getting better at using our powers."

Jay nodded.

"Maybe," he said, "The Pied Piper operation bringing us all together is making us stronger in our powers because we're around each other? Like we're boosting each other's powers?"

I nodded, "Maybe," I said, "Because before I came here I never did anything that made me think I had powers."

"Maybe that's why they brought us here," said Amar, "To bring every powered person together to accelerate it all."

"Why would they want to do that though?" I said.

"Super soldiers," said Jay, "Maybe they want to make us into superhumans so we can fight wars for them and stuff."

"I'm not fighting any wars," I said, "Count me out."

"Yeah, I'm not fighting anyone either," said Amar.

"No," I said, "What about the people that have blown up? We're here because they're trying to figure out a way to prevent that from happening."

Jay and Amar nodded.

"But," I said, "Have either of you actually seen anyone blow up?"

"I heard it," said Jay, "When I was in Lintern Village. I heard a few people blow up in the Remote Zone."

"I heard it once," I said, "Felt the building I was in shake too. But I didn't see anyone blow up."

"That's good, at least," said Jay, "I don't think I'd ever want to see that. Ah crap!"

"What?" I said.

Jay held up his wrist. His Meter was showing a steady orange. Amar let out an annoyed sigh. We looked to him and saw that his Meter was also orange. I checked mine. Still green.

"Guess we'll see you later," said Jay, standing up, "Unless you want to come with us?"

Yes! I thought, Count me in!

"Better not," I said, "Don't want to get into anymore trouble."

"No problemo," said Jay.

He and Amar left for the exercise area. I got up and headed back to B-9. When I was back on my bed and staring at the same bland wall to my left like before it occurred to me how suspicious the timing of Jay and Amar's Meter's going orange was.