John saw his mom still on the phone with 911. Mrs. Kenderson and his dad were tending to Mr. Kenderson. The man was moving and speaking, so John figured he was fine for now. Case was staring at his hands, and in turn, Linda was staring at Case. The watching neighbors had retreated back inside their homes.
John moved over to his dad and handed him the first aid kit, then pulled Case aside. He needed to talk with him about the warmth, Everett’s lightning, and whatever Case had done. Case was spooked and seemed shaken. John couldn’t blame him, that lightning blast had been terrifying.
Speaking over the rising sound of sirens in the distance, John questioned Case, “I think we might have some of those supernatural powers the voice spoke about. What did you do just now?”
“I dunno man, I’ve been feeling weird ever since I woke up,” Case was staring at Everett laying on the ground, eyes wide, “I can somehow feel where metal and rocks are, like I can feel were my hand is.”
John nodded and shared his experience, “I can feel people, I think? Or maybe how healthy they are? I was able to heal Mr. Sudeiki by putting that energy into him. The stuff looked a lot like blood.”
Case cocked his head at John and laughed, “I think you’re feeling blood. Makes more sense than somehow feeling how healthy someone is.”
John felt a twinge of concern as he realized that everyone else who had developed powers would be trying to figure this out themselves. He and Case were both smart, logical people. If the only people with powers were teenagers…. it would go poorly.
“Maybe? I don’t want to make any snap judgments; this is just too weird and dangerous.”
Case shook his head, incredulous of the whole situation, “I can’t believe what’s going on. It’s like we’ve got magic from a movie. Now that you’ve mentioned it, I can feel the energy or whatever inside me.”
“Try deliberately moving it out. I was able to, I want to see if you can.”
Case’s brows furrowed and he stared at the space in between his hands. All of a sudden, blue light lanced from his palms and another tetrahedron formed. He grabbed it and turned it over. “It’s definitely solid. Kinda heavy, too. I bet I could throw this at someone, and it’d hurt pretty bad.”
John took the opportunity to move his energy out of his body the same way he had earlier. On further inspection, it was definitely the same color as blood, but somewhat translucent. Unlike Case’s, his seemed to stay liquid. “This is what mine looks like.”
By this time, the rest of their families had noticed the lightshow and approached the pair. Case’s dad was on his feet again but winced with every step. John’s mom had gotten off the phone with 911 and spoke first after she hugged John, “911 said officers have been dispatched our way, but they’re being flooded with similar crazy reports. What the hell is happening?”
John took it on himself to answer as Case was still focusing on the shape in his hands. Words poured out of his mouth so fast he could barely understand himself, “Case and I think we developed superpowers or magic, somehow. Everett did too. Case can make those weird blue shapes and says he can feel metal and rocks. I can feel people, and the healthier they are the more I can feel them. My magic looks like blood and I can heal myself and others with it. I healed Mr. Sudeiki, though we should get him inside. Everett is out for the count, should we handcuff him or something?”
Mr. Kenderson spoke up, “I have handcuffs. I’ll go get them and turn on the dispatch radio, try to see what’s going on.” He turned and walked back to his patrol car.
John’s dad spoke next, “So that crazy dream or voice or whatever the hell was real? People are actually getting magic powers?”
Case shook himself and shrugged, “Seems like it, but John and I are acting on instinct here. We don’t really know what’s happening either.”
Mrs. Kenderson was stunned by the situation and was clutching Linda tightly, “We ought to go inside and wait for an officer to show up. They won’t believe what happened, but we can get the footage from the doorbell camera.”
John’s mom spoke up, “They might, the 911 dispatcher said it’s hectic out there. Lots of crazy stuff happening.”
As if on cue, flares of color started appearing around the surrounding horizon. A varied palette reflected off the clouds, each patch of light signifying another person with powers.
Mr. Kenderson whistled at the sight. He was dragging a handcuffed Everett behind him.
“Everett’s been rocked hard. John, could you heal him like you did his dad?”
“I could, but if he wakes up, he might start throwing lightning again. I’d prefer to leave him unconscious for now. He feels healthy to me, so it’s probably fine.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
John’s mom spoke up, “So what will we do long term? We can’t keep knocking the poor boy out. How will the police arrest him?”
John thought back to the fight, “The lightning only came from his hands. I guess if we keep him handcuffed, they might conduct the electricity and force him to burn himself. I’ll wake him up. Case, get ready to shield everyone.”
John laid his hands on Everett’s limp form and pushed his weird energy in again. His hands and the area around them shone scarlet. This time he could feel the energy as it entered Everett, like an extension of his fingers. To his surprise, he met resistance. A crackling, violent feeling struck him. It lanced from somewhere around Everett’s navel. John’s energy was burned away, and Everett’s eyes snapped open.
“GRAAGGGH”
John leapt back as Everett started thrashing, and lightning sprayed out from his hands. Or tried to, at least. It kept arcing back to the handcuffs then into his body. He must have been hurting himself, showing no signs of stopping, but John didn’t want to touch him. Case had thrown up a square pane of the blue energy in front of him and the rest of their families, so they were safe.
The others were shouting their concern, and John realized he should try to do something before Everett killed himself. He tried stretching his energy out but couldn’t make it far enough before it fell apart and flowed back into his body. Desperate, he focused on the warmth in Everett’s body, hoping to influence it and somehow stop him.
He felt his energy start to deplete, then suddenly he was aware of all the blood in Everett’s body. John gasped at the sudden shift in perspective. He saw the veins swelling and Everett’s heart pumping. He knew a little anatomy from a class he took, so he focused on the veins and capillaries around the nerves that controlled Everett’s arms. Then he tried to force the blood to tighten and pinch the nerves. He felt some pushback and Everett screamed again, but his blood constricted around the nerves and his arms dropped.
As Everett’s arms fell, the flow of lightning stopped immediately. At the same time, John ran out of the mysterious energy and sagged. This freed Everett, but he just laid there and raged to the world, realizing using the lightning again would just hurt him.
“Release me! This is illegal!”
“Shut up!” Case strode over with a stormy look in his eyes and kicked Everett squarely in the chest, and the air rushed out of his lungs, and he started coughing and wheezing. This got a raised eyebrow from Mr. Kenderson, but he said nothing. John had never seen Case this mad.
John’s mom turned to John, “What did you do there, John? Your eyes flashed red and then he stopped using the lightning.”
“I don’t really know, I focused on the warmth I could feel in him and tried to push the weird energy into it, and suddenly, I could see all the blood in his body, but in my mind, if that makes any sense. I used it to pinch the nerves in his arms and the lightning stopped, but then I ran out of energy.” John’s words were coming out rushed and he was shaky from adrenaline and effort.
Case had a curious look on his face and asked John “Do you think I could do the same with my sense of the rocks and stuff?”
Good idea, Case. John was curious, “Maybe, give it a shot. Try it out on a rock though. In case the glass shatters or something.”
Case looked over at a boulder their neighbor had placed in his lawn the previous year and narrowed his eyes. They started to glow sapphire and took on a crystalline texture. At the same time, a chunk of the boulder broke off and floated towards Case. He gasped and started talking.
“This is sick! I think I can see the crystal structure of the rock…. I’m going to try and reshape it!”
Large parts of the rock started flaking off, before eventually only a donut with a tapered outer edge remained. One section remained round. At that point, Case lost control and it crashed to the ground. He bent over and held it up, looking at it and then testing the edge with his thumb. It bled instantly, and he stuck it in his mouth. John felt the blood very clearly when it was out of Case’s body, which was intriguing. Case was grinning like a loon, despite the cut.
“Awesome! I can just make myself a weapon whenever I want one!”
He started waving the makeshift chakram around, which made a whistling noise. John noticed the adults were getting antsy with Everett starting to recover from his coughing fit, so he waved Case over.
“Alright, we need to go inside and wait for the cops.”
John’s dad put Mr. Sudeiki over is shoulders and started for their door. Mr. and Mrs. Kenderson were busy taking gear out of their garage, but they yelled that they’d come over after they loaded the patrol car. Linda was looking at Everett with a thoughtful expression and she stayed put before chiming in. She had mostly recovered from the shock.
“Case! What if you used your magic to trap Everett in the big boulder? That way he stays outside the house!”
Case snorted, but then looked thoughtful instead of dismissing his sister’s idea immediately. “Hmmm…. huh! Good idea Linda, thank you, but go inside with John’s parents. John, could you take him over there? You can survive being zapped, after all.”
“You sure it’s not just because you don’t want to lift him?” John grumbled, but he was already moving to Everett.
“Hey! I had a max lift yesterday, I’m all sore!” Case was striding towards the boulder, leaving the squirming Everett to John.
John chuckled and rolled his eyes before looking down at Everett, asking him, “Are you going to make this easy or keep wiggling around?” John hoped the reality of his situation would occur to him and he’d shut up, but he doubted it.
“No! Let me go!” Everett’s eyes were full of hate.
John was not feeling particularly sympathetic, so he kicked Everett again, picked up his feet, and started dragging him towards the boulder. Once they got there, John tossed him up on top of the boulder.
“Alright John, I’m going to try to surround his hands and leave some bands around the torso, should keep him in pretty tight.”
Case’s eyes started glowing again, and the stone liquified. His brows knitted together as he started to sway on his feet, so John put a steadying hand on his shoulder. The stone slowly rose up to encircle Everett and encased his hands. The stone solidified and he couldn’t move an inch, but he kept yelling at them the whole time. He seemed unable to release energy into the rock, which made sense to John, there was nowhere for the electricity to conduct.
Case stumbled back from the rock, exhausted. “Shit, that took a lot out of me. I’m running on empty here, John.”
John had been paying attention to his own energy, which had come back fairly quickly. He was getting pretty hungry though. Maybe that was related?
“You’ll be fine, most of mine has recovered from the fight, and I was out completely. Let's just leave him here and head back to the house to regroup.”