All the time, I thought. I think about you all the time. I wake up wondering if today I’ll be lucky enough to see you. Maybe I’ll even get the chance to tell you hello as we pass each other in the hall. Since coming to this awful city, you’re the only thing that gives me any semblance of joy. It’s whom I’m thinking about at this very moment. I hate seeing you with him. I hate the way that he treats you and the way you keep taking him back. You shouldn’t have to defend him. You should be with someone who takes care of you. I couldn’t tell her all that though. All I could do was quietly tell her what a failure I was.
“I don’t want to be a hero,” I said weakly. “I’m sorry, Hen. I shouldn’t have said anything at all.”
“Whatever,” she said before storming away. “Have fun out here alone. That seems to be what you’ve wanted all along.”
“Hen!” I called after her, but it was too late.
She was gone back down the trail, and before I could follow her, I saw Buzz pull up with his driver. Being a coward, I dove behind the first tree I saw and hoped that Hen didn’t plan on telling Buzz what had happened. The last thing I wanted was another confrontation. Somehow, I’d managed to ruin things all over again. Storming away, I headed back in the direction of the woods, mentally kicking myself for losing my temper with her.
Andy called but I was in no state to talk to him. I quickly answered the phone and snapped, “Listen, I told you I was busy today, okay? Just give me some space!”
“Easy, dude,” he muttered. “I just wanted to tell you to check your phone. Hen just posted some cryptic shit online. I wonder if things with Buzz didn’t get worse since last night. He seemed okay this morning when he left to go pick her up though.”
“Sorry, rough morning, but thanks. I’ll check it out.” I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. If it was an angry rant, there was a good chance that it had nothing to do with Buzz. This time, it was probably about me.
I hung up and pulled up the Facebook app on my phone, quickly navigating my way to her page. When I saw what she had posted, I felt a surge of anger course through me. I knew that it was about me. The message was simple. It said, When people think they’re HOT shit but the reality is that they’re NOT shit.
“Are you kidding me?” I muttered to myself. “What the hell is her problem?”
I had even apologized to her, but I was still getting crap for it. There was no winning with her. All she wanted was to be with Buzz and keep being a doormat for him. Fine, then. She would get what she wanted and I would leave her alone. Sometimes, you had to let go of something, no matter how badly you wanted it. When the tingling started in my fingers, I realized that this time, I didn’t need to keep it under control.
Chapter 9
Without anyone else around, I quickly jogged back into the woods. The path was well marked but not what I wanted. I needed to go somewhere that people wouldn’t find me. I needed to get away from everyone. Turning to the left, I went off the path and started to move deeper into the woods where others wouldn’t venture. I walked for half an hour before coming to a clearing. It was evident that no one would bother me so far out, but now I had wildlife to worry about. Hopefully, I could control my newfound abilities enough to defend myself if needed.
The tingling sensation in my hands had all but faded, the peaceful calm of the woods seeing to that. For once, it wasn’t what I wanted. I knew that anger would trigger the static again, but how easy would such an emotion be to control? There had to be another way. I paced back and forth in the clearing for a few minutes, racking my brain and thinking of a way to control my emotions, but when I couldn’t figure it out, I let out an exasperated sigh and felt the telltale tingling again.
“Well, I guess it’s the only way,” I muttered to myself. It was a bad habit that I’d picked up from my mother.
Much like Andy, I wanted to know how things worked. It wasn’t enough for me to accept that my powers had come from a special formula. I wanted to know every detail about them, starting with the basics. I could tell that the electricity wasn’t being pulled from the space around me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t test to see if I could draw from outside power sources at the moment. I was in the wilderness, not back in New York City, where power lines and cell towers were everywhere. Hell, there was one in my grandparents’ small back yard.
I thought about Buzz and how he’d treated me, and as the tingling sensation started again, I paid closer attention to the ebb and flow of the power. It was coming from my fingertips and channeling through the rest of my hands, but it never went past my wrists, which gave me some helpful insight. I doubt if I would turn into one giant electric bolt anytime soon. Channeling the anger again, I pushed it through the tips of my pointer fingers, bending my thumbs to form an arch.
When the small, purple rows of electricity started to arch across my fingers, my heart started to race. At first, they were subtle, like they’d been the very first time. It was easy enough to see the difference in them right away, though, from the first encounter I’d had with them. Before, they were wild and erratic, barely contained within my hands, but now, I could see that they only needed control. I focused on them while the back of mind played through the scene with Buzz over and over again.
The anger fueled me, something that I was not happy about. Would I only be able to protect people when I was angry? What would happen when I lost that rage inside me? I had to find another connection to the power, some unseen link that would be more useful than rage. For now, though, the anger would have to do. The arches flickered in the darkness of the woods. I carefully moved my hands closer together until the delicate strands of power laced between two fingers jumped across the space and connected to each other.
“Whoa,” I said.
I was mesmerized by the intricate designs of purple power that now danced and changed between my hands. They worked together like a spider web that had come to life. It was thrilling but not very useful if I were ever attacked. Unless the bad guy was a stoner, they would just laugh at the pretty magic trick I was doing.
I ground my teeth and pushed the memory of Buzz forward in my mind, followed by the fights with Hen and my grandmother. Couldn’t she see that I was trying to protect her? Why did all the females in my life have to be so infuriating? The waves grew thick, turning from a spider web to a mass of spaghetti-like strands. Again, my heart started to race. They grew like worms before turning into baby snakes.
The faster my heart seemed to beat, the larger the snakes grew until the anger and awe were replaced by a slow trickle of fear. What would happen when they got too big? Would I explode along with them? I quickly glanced around, feeling the anxiety and electricity growing rapidly as the fear expanded inside me.
There wasn’t a soul around, but the trees would make for an ideal target. Focusing what was left of my attention on a large oak about fifty yards away, I took a deep breath and pulled my arms sideways as I often saw baseball players do. I flung the ball away from me and watched in stunned horror as it shot out of my hands and collided with a tree four feet to the right of the one I wanted.
The sound was deafening as the tree splintered into dozens of little shards. I stumbled away and fell gracelessly on my ass, my hands still stretched out as the electricity continued to flow through me. If it didn’t stop soon, I was going to light the entire forest on fire. I was genuinely scared at this point, the powers using me like a conductor and draining the life from me.
I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to block it out. Nothing seemed to work until again, I thought about Hen. It wasn’t the fight I’d had with her or the night of the party, but I went back to the first time that we’d met. The way she seemed to genuinely care and the playful glint in her eye. I forced myself to be at peace, pushing away everything else until I finally felt the power die down and end. The only sound now was the crackling of wood as it burned.
My chest heaved, the pressure ebbing as I swallowed dryly. I must have looked like a madman sitting there a
s I carefully peeked open one eye. The destruction was less than I’d anticipated. In my mind, I’d seen the woods catching fire and me, standing at the center of pure destruction. The reality was much less dramatic. The damp morning air and green wood had done a fairly good job of containing the fire to one tree and a few feet of charred grass.
At least now I knew that the power wasn’t just linked to my anger. It was all of my emotions. The more adrenalin that coursed through my body, the stronger it seemed to get. I could get it started, that much was obvious, but now I needed to learn to control it, or at the very least, learn to shut it off as I had just done. I wouldn’t have the luxury of wet wood in New York. The few seconds that it took me to get it under control could mean life and death on the bustling streets.
Plus, in the woods, there were no other components. If the laws of physics still applied, then I needed to prepare myself for all the other electrical currents that my powers could link with in the city. I had to control and isolate the purple electricity that now emanated from my body. Like the rubber coating on power cords, I had to seal it off and keep it contained.
When I was recovered from the first wave, I stood back up and again focused all of my attention on my hands. Now the tingling sensation came quicker, no longer requiring the anger to spring to life. I let my heart race, but without fear this time. The subtle beams became snakes once again, but this time, I focused on their outer shells. They dimmed, the cores still a vibrant purple but the outer layers turning to grey, then finally black.
Slowly joining my hands together, the multi-colored snakes grew into a vibrating ball. I glanced up at the same tree that I’d hit before. This time, when I threw the ball, I did a little better at aiming and struck the right side of the tree, missing the center by at least a foot but still making contact. I watched, mesmerized by the light for a split second, before sucking in a sharp breath and cutting the emotional charge off short.
It burst out of me, the final jolt of power as the stream ended, and I was again sent flying through the air. I landed right on my back and it knocked the wind out of me. Pain shot through my chest as I groaned. One thing was certain. I was not a superhuman when it came to pain. No matter what happened to me, I was still very much a vulnerable human who could get the crap kicked out of me at a moment’s notice.
I groaned as I sat up. I had to figure out how to end the power without it trying to come back and knock me out cold. As I stood back up and felt the pain shoot through my side, I cupped my hands again. I had to detach myself from the flow before sending it through the air to the tree this time. What good were powers if I was in the hospital, or worse, dead? My heart started to race, but not from excitement this time. I was afraid.
If I was wrong and the ball of light exploded the second I disconnected it from my hands, I would be dead. If my life had been a cartoon, a lightbulb would have appeared above my head then. I’d created a ground before for the electricity. The black and deadened outer coating of the strands before might be able to protect me from the ball. It took much more concentration this time when I created the pulse.
There was no way to describe the strange feeling as the black light started to seep over my hands. It clung to my skin like leather gloves, vibrating and sending purple bolts into my palms. I pressed them together and formed a small ball. This one didn’t have the protection of the black rubber. I was using all that energy to keep my own hands covered.
Closing my eyes tightly, I knew there was no more time to wait. I shoved the ball of energy away from me and winced, waiting for the pain of being shot backward. It never came as I heard the familiar sound of wood cracking. Opening my eyes, I let out a sigh of relief. The blackness was still coating my hands. I could feel the energy pulsing through me, and before I lost my courage, I formed another ball.
I watched it as I let loose and sent it in the direction of the tree. It broke away freely from my hands, a purple ball soaring through the air as it struck the tree with a deafening thud as the tree’s green wood weakened and finally caught fire. Elation rocked through me. I had done it. I had hit my target without hurting myself. Suddenly, an unfamiliar sensation washed over me. Pride. I was proud of myself for having the courage to see this thing through. With this new power, who knew what I was capable of? I could really help people now that I had control.
So, what was I supposed to do now? If I went back to the clinic on Monday, they would no doubt give me some sort of antidote, but what would happen if someone didn’t want to help people? What if some crazed madman decided to go on a killing spree? Who would be there to help save innocent lives? I had to admit that Hen crossed my mind. I could protect myself from Buzz now and maybe even show Hen what a jerk he really was, once and for all.
Hitting a tree once was one thing, but I needed to know if it was a fluke. I focused again, pushing everything else out of my mind and making room for the power. Just like they had before, my hands became black as they protected themselves from the electricity. It was like the first time. Once I got the hang of it, my body seemed to naturally know what to do. The energy ball was smaller this time. Again, I was trying to control it.
In a busy setting, I would want to take down one person alone. If I hit someone with a ball the size of the first one, I would injure everyone within ten feet. This time, I kept it small, only a couple of inches in diameter as I shot it away from myself and watched as it struck the tree right in the center.
Compared to the other times, the petite ball of energy didn’t do much damage to the old oak. That was what I wanted though. I wanted to disarm someone, not murder them. I shuddered. How could I ever kill anyone? What if they had kids? Could I be responsible for creating more orphans?
My phone started to ring, and the blackness covering my hands dissolved into nothingness. It was my grandmother. I didn’t want to be distracted, but for her, I would make an exception. My grandfather was still in the hospital. If she was calling, there was a chance that something had changed. Clearing my throat and taking a deep breath, I answered.
“Benji, are you okay?” she asked, her tone cold.
“Yeah, is everything okay there?”
“Yes,” she said quickly. “There was some kind of robbery downtown. It’s all over the news. I didn’t know where you were going today, so I wanted to make sure you weren’t near it.”
“No, I’m . . .” I looked around. “I’m not in the city. I told you I was camping this weekend. I’m out in the woods somewhere.”
“Good,” she said.
I knew that she was relieved. It was so hard to keep things from her, but I had to keep her safe. Now, I didn’t know if I would ever be able to tell her the truth. I didn’t even know if I wanted to go to the clinic at all. These powers could be a gift.
“I guess that’s all I have to say then,” she muttered.
I winced. “Grandma, I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean for things to come out the way they did.”
“It’s okay,” she said quickly. “We can talk about it when you get home. You’re still planning on coming back, right?”
“Absolutely. Like I said,” I lied, “we’re just camping for the weekend. I’ll see you and Grandpa Sunday night, okay?”
“All right, be safe out there.”
“Will do,” I promised her as I ended the call.
I would be coming back to her and my grandpa just as soon as I knew that I wasn’t going to hurt them. The next thing I needed to get under control was the levitation. Thankfully, this power was far less dangerous. At least, that’s what I was hoping. I had to find a new location, though. It wouldn’t do me any good to be sitting here if the fire department showed up.
Chapter 10
It didn’t take long for me to find another quiet spot. I didn’t need an open space the size of the last one, but I still wanted a little bit of room to work with the levitation. Before, when I had started to float, it was because I was in bed. I’d been on the verge of sleep and thinking about Hen.
If my powers followed the balance of the universe like everything else, what was yin had to be yang. There had to be some kind of equality in things.
My electric powers were governed by the adrenaline coursing through my body. The levitation would be the opposite of that, whatever brought me peace and helped me to calm down. Hen was, of course, my first thought. But the other power had been deeper than just the rage. Peace would only be the surface of the power. At least it was a starting point though. Sitting cross-legged on the grass, I closed my eyes and set my hands on my knees.
The mastery over the electrical current helped me to control the levitation to some degree. The first thing I felt was my legs starting to grow warmer. After sitting in the lotus position for so long, they were starting to go numb. I struggled to keep my concentration on the levitation and not the pins and needles in my feet. I felt it when the grass was no longer beneath me. Suddenly, a new problem occurred to me.
With my eyes tightly closed, I had no idea how far above the ground I was. I couldn’t feel wind slipping past me, so I had to assume that I wasn’t far off the ground. Still, I felt my fingers start to tingle as anxiety set in. Somewhere in the distance, an animal ran through the woods. My eyes jerked open instinctively and my concentration was broken. In the split second it took me to go crashing to the ground, I saw that I was maybe two feet above the earth.
Hitting the ground still hurt, but not like the shock of falling backward onto my bed. This time, I knew what to expect as I braced myself for the fall. I quickly recovered but had to wonder how useful levitation would be if I couldn’t have any interruptions. I needed to find a way to control it without a simple lapse in concentration sending me back to earth. How cool would it be if I could actually teach myself to fly?
The City Superhero (Book 1): Rise Of The Super Strike Page 7
