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Dashuan lazily floated through his cramped studio apartment near the center of New Heaven, Kansas, a half-eaten bowl of cereal balanced precariously on his chest. The dwelling was a pigsty, barely big enough for a normal-sized person, let alone someone of his size and build. It was home though, or at least the closest thing he had to one after all he had been through growing up meta.

He drifted past his prized collection of Slayer-Man plushies, arranged meticulously on a shelf that took up far too much of his limited space in the grungy studio apartment. A small smile tugged at his lips; remembering the times he had watched the show with his family, even if ever so briefly. As he rounded the corner into his kitchenette, his pinky toe caught the edge of the counter; spilling his cereal everywhere.

"Son of a-" he bit back the curse, his fist clenching.

For a split second, he forgot his strength and the cheap laminate counter cracked under the pressure of his titanium-hard clasp that he placed on its brittle corner; sending fragments into the shaggy brown carpet that reeked of mildew.

"Shit," he muttered, examining the damage. Another repair he couldn't afford.

He sighed, running a hand through his short dreadlocks and then toward his neck as Dashuan reached for his favorite snapback to cover the mess; He would fix it, just not now.

There was barely even time to finish his breakfast, the spilled cereal meant that he would be dining on the last of his frozen patties for breakfast. Dashuan whistled to himself as he flicked on the burner and oiled the pan gingerly, slapping the burgers down with unnecessary force.

The blaring of the TV caught his attention, almost as if exploding to life behind him.

He'd left it on again, probably dozed off watching late-night infomercials for the thousandth and one night in a row. He was about to switch it off when the "Breaking News" banner flashed across the screen, causing him to focus intently.

"The human-run Aberrant activist group known as RedRevolt has infiltrated the mayor's office and completely taken control of the building!"

Dashuan froze before he fumbled with the remote, cranking up the volume even louder than it had already been; his neighbors had woken up, starting their daily routine of fighting with the local crackheads and inviting them to stomp all over his low-hanging roof.

The newscaster looked calm, her frizzed hair pinned up in the same way it always was; her stunning loveliness the main reason Dashuan even bothered to watch the news.

"We have received word that a SWAT unit and the local state police will be taking over the matter...The only demands we have received from the terrorists are that they will begin negotiations within the next 3 hours!"

He scoffed, a bitter taste filling his mouth.

What was the point of being bulletproof if all he ever did was float around his shitty apartment and sling hot dogs at the stadium?

The chirping of his phone alarm cut through his thoughts.

"Shit."

He was going to be late for work.

"Again."

His boss at the baseball stadium, Mr. Hernandez, was going to have his ass this time. As if being a "hot dog vending apprentice" wasn't humiliating enough without the constant worry of being harassed over minor issues boiling over like the putrid meat they slung.

Dashuan's eyes drifted back to the TV, to the cute news anchor with her glowing brown skin.

"You think she'd date a hot dog guy?" he asked aloud, then immediately felt pathetic as the sounds bounced back to his ears.

At 22, after 16 years of bouncing through the foster care system, the idea of a normal relationship seemed as fantastical to him as his powers would be to anyone who knew his secret. If there had been anyone, that is.

"You're a fucking doormat," he snarled at his reflection in the grimy mirror, seeing the tired look in his brown eyes.

The words of his long-dead parents echoed in his mind:

"Never use your powers, Dashuan. Not even to defend yourself. Promise us." But what good had that promise done?

They were dead, and he was alone; the only interaction being the negative treatment of his boss and the angry patrons he tended to.

Rage, sizzling and standard for Dashuan, rippled up inside his chest; making it difficult to breathe properly as a blank face appeared to stare back no matter how much he wanted to cry.

"FUCKING WEAK!" he screamed, slamming his fist into the mirror.

Glass exploded outward, shards glittering in the dim light of his apartment's low-efficiency bulbs against the shaded sunlight filtering in.

He stared at the broken reflections, seeing not just himself, but the frightened little boy he'd always been, the one who'd watched his parents die for a secret that had eaten him alive years ago despite their efforts.

"Why was I even fucking born?" He mumbled, defeated and annoyed at the mess he had made in the small haven.

A sudden thundering sonic boom shook the entire building, rattling his collection of plushies and sending only 4 dishes crashing to the floor from a loose cabinet. Dashuan raced to the window, his heart pounding.

A black object burst through the cloud cover, streaking towards the crowded downtown New Heaven area.

"N-No way!" he gasped, pressing his face against the glass like a zoo animal.

The TV anchor's voice trembled as she spoke much more franticly. "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF NEW HEAVEN! We have reports coming from all over the city of an unidentified object that has entered the airspace... Our feed will now switch to Johnny inside the channel 7 news copter--Johnny?"

The feed clipped to a man screaming as his helicopter spiraled out of control, smoke filling the entire cabin of the blaring cabin. "JESUS CHRIST! TELL MY FAMILY I---" The screen went black, then cut back to the stunned anchor.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Another sonic boom, closer this time, made the windows rattle.

"We have been given orders that the National Guard and Aberrant Apprehension Agency will be dispatched as soon as possible... Please either stay in your homes or evacuate, God only knows what those creatures are capable of."

Dashuan switched off the TV, clutching the remote hard enough to break it to pieces but ignoring it completely.

What was he capable of?

In all his life, he'd never encountered another Aberrant. Every lead, every single rumor had turned out to be a trap, leaving him more isolated than ever.

"Don't do something stupid." His father was always so persistent.

Dashuan stood there, surrounded by the liveable wreckage of his sad little life, something inside him shifted. He thought of Mayor Thompson, one of the few people who'd ever shown him kindness, always stopping to chat when he visited the stadium.

Could he just sit back and watch him possibly die?

Before he could talk himself out of it, Dashuan was moving toward his dresser. He grabbed a ski mask from his drawer and pulled on his prized baseball jersey--a gift from the mayor himself, one that he had won during a test of strength the stadium held in the festival seasons.

As he stood at his open window, the wind whipping at his baggy clothes, Dashuan felt a sense of purpose. For the first time in his life, he wasn't running away like he was nothing.

He was running towards something-- towards answers, towards meaning beyond the day-to-day...towards others like him.

"Don't fuck this up," he muttered to himself, and then he was airborne, soaring towards the heart of the chaos that was promised; leaving behind the broken mirror and the echoes of his parents' warnings and taking true flight for the first time in years since their passing.

The wind whipped through Dashuan's dreadlocks as he soared over New Heaven, his heart pounding as he tried to stabilize himself. He was no longer hiding his powers--he was fully embracing them and honestly enjoying every shakey second he dashed across the city skyline.

As Dashuan soared over New Heaven, the city's full size came into view.

The gleaming skyscrapers and meticulously planned streets were a testament to the city's rebirth after the devastating incident years ago. Where Witchita, Kansas once stood, a child Aberrant's uncontrolled atomic energy had leveled much of the area, leaving behind a wasteland of radiation and fear.

Now, New Heaven rose from those ashes, a densely populated metropolis built on the promise of a fresh start--and a deep-seated wariness of Aberrants mixed with a burgeoning industry in radioactive sciences.

Dashuan's flight was far from graceful.

He wobbled and jerked through the air, his inexperience evident in every awkward movement. The realization hit him: he had no idea how to land safely at this speed. Fear crept in, but he pushed it aside, focusing on his goal to save the mayor.

As he flew past despite his dread, his mind wandered to the pretty news anchor.

Would she think he was a freak if she saw him now? Or would she finally agree to that date? He shook his skull, chastising himself as he nearly hit a flock of birds. "Focus, you horny weirdo,"

The looming crisis snapped him back to reality, reminding him of the weight of his decision to reveal his powers after years of hiding.

"You've got a job to do."

The city blitzed beneath him, a maze of concrete and glass that he had never explored. Cars crawled along the streets like busy ants, their occupants oblivious to the figure streaking across the sky and ignoring the warnings to stay inside.

Dashuan's glowing eyes, radiating an intense lilac, took in every detail with crystal clarity like a newborn child.

This was the life he so desperately wanted, there was nothing for him down there; among the people who had no power to stop the real problems like he was able to.

As he approached downtown, adrenaline surged through his veins.

He felt invincible, unstoppable. The years of self-imposed restrictions melted away, replaced by an intoxicating sense of freedom.

The mayor's office loomed ahead, its windows reflecting the late afternoon sun. Dashuan could see mask-wearing figures moving inside, their movements frantic. Without slowing, he angled himself towards the building clumsily.

"Here goes nothing," he murmured, bracing for a sloppy impact.

Glass windows devastated around him as he slammed through them, sending shards flying in all directions of the Mayor's main office. He stumbled, unprepared for the sudden transition from flight to solid ground.

As he regained his balance, he took in the chaotic scene before him.

Mayor Thompson cowered behind his desk, his plump face pale with fear. Next to him, his aide fumbled with a shiny handgun, his fingers shaking violently as he gasped loudly at Dashaun's arrival.

Members of RedRevolt were scattered around the room, their weapons trained on the new threat.

"I'm here to help!" Dashuan shouted, raising his hands as if he was not tested to be bullet-proof.

His words were drowned out by the crack of gunfire.

The aide, panicked by Dashuan's rash appearance into the fray, had pulled the trigger of his pistol. The lead bullet ricocheted off Dashuan's chest--and struck Mayor Thompson squarely in the forehead as his brain matter painted a crimson art fixture on the wall behind him.

The mayor crumpled to the ground without a single sound, a look of surprise frozen on his bloodied face.

Dashuan stared in obvious disgust, unable to process what had just happened; He had tried his best to not even watch horror movies, so seeing the man's obliterated skull fragments slide down the wall nearly made him vomit.

"What the FUCK" he yelled, stumbling towards the fallen mayor with force enough to scare the aid father as his footsteps slammed down.

"This isn't – I didn't mean –"

It was too late.

A hair-raising impact interrupted his stammering. Another figure burst into the chamber, clad in full military gear that looked to be spray-painted ebony. Small sparks of cyan electricity crackled around their gloveless fingers, plugging the atmosphere with the biting aroma of ozone as they stood in the splintered and charred wood of the door.

The other Aberrant Dashuan had seen on the news; but how did they not show up before he did? He thought to himself.

Before he could respond to their presence, they moved with astonishing speed, crossing the room in a blur of velocity. The leader of RedRevolt, a stocky man with a shock of red hair, barely had time to raise his weapon before their hand closed around his throat croakingly.

The man's feet left the ground as the Abberant lifted him effortlessly overhead, burning away his flesh as they held him with their energized palms. Bones cracked under the pressure of their grasp.

the man's face began to turn a blackened blue just as the light seemed to fade from his bubbling eye sockets.

Dashuan struggled forward, unable to comprehend the sheer brutality.

"Wait!" he called out, his voice cracking.

"They didn't kill the Mayor!" His fists gripped as he began to exclaim.

The other's head snapped towards him, their face hidden behind an opaque black visor. For a moment, the room was silent save for the blood-filled gurgling sounds of death the RedRevolt leader finally let loose under the immense electrified hold.

The remaining RedRevolt members opened fire, their bullets pinging harmlessly off both Aberrants as they unleashed everything they had without consideration.

The aide, still clutching his gun, fired wildly in feverish panic at the Revolt members.

The other Abberant hurled the RedRevolt leader across the chaotic room, his carcass crashing through the remaining windows out of the 5th story as his skin barely draped him anymore from the force of the throw mixed with the cooking it received.

Dashuan, caught in the middle of the bedlam, acted on instinct alone; He grabbed the mayor's heavy oak desk and swung it like an over-sized baseball bat, trying to create some space from The Other.

But he misjudged his own strength once again.

The desk flew across the room with devastating force that made the air whip. It blasted into the other, sending them bashing through the wall and into the hallway beyond with a detonation of concrete dust mixed with plaster.

At the same time, it caught two RedRevolt members, pulverizing them against the far wall with a fine mist that preluded multiple sickening crunches; signifying the rebels' demise.

It forced Dashuan to cringe as they squelched almost silently now under the settling weight of the large mayoral desk. In the aftermath, Dashuan stood in the center of the destroyed office, surrounded by bodies and debris.

The aide huddled in the corner, whimpering like a beaten puppy.

Through the dusty hole in the wall, Dashuan could see the Aberrant unhurriedly getting to their feet, their skin-tight mask beneath the visor allowing him to see the intense lines that he recognized only as a deep scowl.

More cyan electricity crackled intensely around the Abberant, setting the carpet their feet were planted on to ignite instantly.

"Oh shit," Dashuan breathed, realizing the magnitude of what he'd done; he barely could defend himself if it wasn't for his powers--and this Aberrant seemed to have much more than he did when it came down to might.

He'd come to help...

To be a hero...

Instead, he'd gotten the mayor killed, probably obliterated several others, and now faced off against another Aberrant who looked prepared to rend him apart with far more firepower than he possessed or had thought possible.

As The Other stepped back into the room, their visor fixed on Dashuan, one thought echoed through his mind:

"I really fucked this up."