Getting electrocuted hurt.

Alex was still wet when he woke up. And he was moving, which made him feel dizzy, and hard for his blurry eyes to focus.

“How’re you feeling?” Zac asked

His vision finally began to come into focus and Alex recognized where he was. Is the passenger seat of his car, which his younger brother was driving.

“Like I got hit by a truck.” Alex rubbed his head, “What happened?”

“You got electrocuted.” Zac chuckled, “Alicia knocked over a powerline and with all that water you were throwing around, some of it splashed onto the downed line and…” the younger man made an exploding motion with his hands, “Lights out for both of you.”

“How am I still alive?”

“The EMTs had no idea, but I’m glad you are.”

Alex sank into the seat, “What about Alicia?”

“She got taken away in an ambulance, but she was alive when I got to you.” Zac sighed, “You have no idea how hard it was to convince them that you didn’t need to go too.”

“Thanks,” Alex tried to smile, but even that hurt.

He tried to process what had happened. He had controlled the water, but he wasn’t sure how. It just moved like he wanted it to move and it had.

“Oh, there’s one more thing…” The younger man hesitated, “Bill said to tell you that you’re fired.”

“What?!?” That information was enough to pull him out of his musing.

“I mean, you did almost kill a student,” Zac grimaced, “There are a lot of videos of people doing weird stuff trending on the internet, but your fight is one of the top ones.”

“So they should know that it was self-defense!” The effort to raise his voice was enough to remind him of just how weak he was.

“Oh, they know.” Zac took a turn, “That was a big reason why I was able to keep you from getting arrested.”

“They wanted to arrest me?!?”

“You assaulted a student and helped destroy a lot of school property.” Zac shook his head, “That video showed you trying to contain the damage, but it also caused a lot of parents to call and demand your termination.”

It felt like his world had just come crashing down. For the last decade, that school had been his life. He had started out as a student, then gained a part-time job in the tutoring center while he worked on his graduate degree. He had given that place thousands of volunteer hours to try to build it into a better place, but now none of that mattered. All it had taken was one incident for them to throw him away like nothing he had done mattered.

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“Did he say anything?”

The apologetic look was all that Alex needed to know.

“Bill said that you were smart and would land on your feet.”

It hurt to breathe. Alex wasn’t sure how much of it was the electrocution and how much was the feeling of betrayal.

“You okay?” His brother sounded worried.

Alex tried to smile, “I’ll figure it out.” He had to change the subject or he was going to break down in front of his brother, “Have you talked to any of our siblings?”

“Nobody is answering their phones, but I sent out a text to the family chat. I figure once they get somewhere with signal, they’ll respond.”

Alex nodded, “We might need to go check on the house.”

“First, I’m getting you to your house so you can rest,” Zac glared at his older brother, “Then I can go to the house and see who’s there.”

It wasn’t a plan that he liked, but it was a plan that made sense. Alex leaned back in his seat and tried to process everything that had happened that day. He didn’t have much time to think because they had just arrived at his house.

Alex opened his door as soon as the car parked, but found that his legs felt like they were asleep. His brother had to come around the car and help him limp into the house. It felt weird to have to be half carried to his bed. Once his shoes were off his brother gave him an uncomfortable look.

“You’ll have to do the rest yourself.” Zac moved towards the door of the room.

“I’ve got this.” Alex waved at his brother, “Go see what you can figure out, and let me know as soon as you hear from someone.”

“Will do.” the younger man slipped out of the room.

In a few moments, the front door slammed shut and Alex was finally alone. The weight of that feeling began to crush him. He needed to find something else to occupy his mind before the emptiness consumed him. He began to flip through his phone and read about what was going on in the world. Stories about events like what he had just been through were happening all over the world. He tried to skip over them until he reached the banner that held his attention.

The President had issued a state of emergency. All powered people were required to go to one of the registration centers so that their powers could be documented. Any people who were found undocumented with powers after the end of the registration date would be arrested. Those people who used their powers to incite violence or disorder would be arrested and taken to one of the containment camps that were being set up all over the country.

Alex began searching through the article until he found the information about the voluntary registration period. He had until five on Saturday afternoon to register. There was an exception for people who had their powers manifest after the deadline, but considering that there was a video of him using his powers already circulating online, he wouldn’t be able to claim that he had just gotten his powers after that date.

The line just below that stated that the military was also being mobilized and that there was a curfew. It didn’t apply to him right then, but it would apply to his brother, who had just left. He tried to call Zac, but it went straight to voicemail.

Alex put down his cell phone and stared at the ceiling. So much had happened today, and there was so much that needed to be done, but he was so tired. He closed his eyes. He planned to only rest for a few moments before he got up, took a shower, and changed out of his wet clothes, but fatigue won and he drifted off to sleep.