Where do you want to start? It's a better question when things start to make sense again.
Three months ago, you were just a kid trying to get enough money to pay for college. Three months ago, your biggest fear was your sister drinking all the soda before you came back from your runs.
Three days ago, you were just a kid trying to get through the nightmare called cancer with his friend.
Three minutes ago, you were just a normal kid.
Right now though, you feel like those three minutes are an eternity away. Matthew doesn't judge. He just stands there, allowing you to come to terms with the revelation that's in front of you.
Despite your head telling you otherwise, you pick up the metal ball. Or you try to at least. The thing is only the size of a baseball, but it feels like it weighs hundreds of pounds. You grit your teeth and in your mind's eye, you see something picking it up.
Then, right before your eyes, it flies up again.
Once again, the familiar paperweight attaches itself to your mind. Now that you experience it again, it feels more like you're concentrating on something in the distance. But you're not concentrating that hard. It feels like you're only giving it a passing interest, the barest of glances that only lasts an instant. So instead of throwing the weight off, you focus on the image harder. You feel a spark again, and the ball shrinks as some force crushes it from all sides.
You jump back and throw off the weight on your head. Once again, the second the weight leaves the ball falls to the ground. Only this time, it leaves a noticeable dent in the floor.
The sound is enough to send shivers down your spine and a bead of sweat down your neck.
That shouldn't be possible.
But it happened.
You shouldn't be able to do something like that!
But you did.
You look down at your hands, and the golden glow is the first thing that catches your vision. It only lasts a second, but you're definitely glowing. It… it doesn't even look like your hand anymore.
It looks like part of something that isn't human.
But it shakes when you feel like you should be shaking. And it raises when you want to point a shaking finger at the ball on the ground.
"How… how did I do that?"
Matthew nods in understanding. He carefully floats to the ground and takes a seat next to you, his suit shifting to a blue color as he sighs. Something to do with heat? Or was it one of those mood things that changed color just turned into a suit?
He holds up his hand, and white and blue energy starts dancing around his fingers.
"I could repeat what Doctor Mother told me when I woke up, but I'm not going to mince words. You're not normal anymore Alex, you're something…" He pierces his lips, trying to come up with the right word.
"More." He says.
You look down at your hand and shake your head "I don't feel any different."
"Neither do I." He says "At least, I do when I'm not doing this. But the fact is that we can do things that normal people, that logic says we can't do."
"But how!" You scream "This doesn't make any sense! None of this does!"
Matthew sets a hand on your shoulder. It's a calming gesture, he's just trying to help, but it takes everything you had not to punch him square in the jaw just because.
"Alex, mind if I ask you something?"
You shrug your shoulders "If it helps me make sense, then go for it."
There isn't any point in saying no, there doesn't seem like much point to anything anymore.
"Where were you when Doctor Mother came to you?"
You look at him, eyebrow raised. His response is just to give you a look that said something along the lines of 'humor me'.
You shift where you sit "I was in the hospital." You say "I was…. Sick."
Your voice is barely a whisper, but thankfully Matthew caught on.
"And when you thought everything was only going to get worse, Doctor Mother came in with a case and asked if you believed in superheros."
Silence is your only answer.
"The vial that she gave you, the liquid that cured your sickness. Well, it also gave you superpowers. Yes, it's insane, but think for a moment and try to find a logical explanation to what you've seen me do. To what you've done."
Once again, silence reigns. He's right, you know he is, but you're still trying to think of ways around that fact. You could be on drugs?
Everything still feels and sounds the same.
You could be dreaming?
You can still feel.
You could be dead and this is the afterlife?
That means you're dead, and….
You look at your hand for what feels like the millionth time today. You focus on your palm, and the golden glow begins to envelop your hand.
You can't get much better evidence than that to prove that you're different now.
The limb falls uselessly to the ground, hitting the metal, but you don't feel anything except the cold. You look at Matthew and he looks back with an almost mournful smile.
"Sorry, but it's just the price of living a little longer. In your case at least."
Silence ensues again. Matthew doesn't seem to mind. He's kind enough to let you sit here and just… think. You're a superhero now?
Doctor Mother's first question now seems a lot more important right now.
You glance to Matthew and break the silence with a single question.
"So… what can you do?"
"I can fire beams of energy and make them fly in almost any direction I want, along with making them be capable of doing almost whatever I want. And I can fly." He answers.
"Well you just got the fun pack of powers didn't you?" You joke, but it rings hollow.
"Hey now, don't be like that. You can rip apart the ground and shatter glass like it's nothing."
Despite everything that's happened, despite the world falling apart at the seams, you laugh.
"Making me sound kind of worthless when you deadpan it like that."
Matthew shakes his head and points at the ball "Alex, that glass that you broke, it's bullet proof. The metal on the floor? Doctor Mother told me that it's strong enough to pass for tank armor. You took those materials, and you ripped them free without any visible effort."
"It hurt like hell." You say.
"That was the room." Matthew clarifies "What you're standing in right now is OT-3. Or in other words, Optophone training. It was made for people like us to train against sounds that could otherwise disoriented or even kill us. The glass is super reinforced for this reason, so it doesn't shatter when the training starts. What hit you was the starting level. If you were normal, it would have disrupted the balance in your inner ear and knocked you out cold. But instead, you're abilities activated and the system shut itself off when it recognized the damage."
You glance at the remains of the metal ball in front of you. Reaching over, you wrap your hand around it and heave. Your muscles strain, but the ball barely budges. Letting go, you sit back down next to Matthew. The laser man gestures with his hand and you raise an eyebrow.
He waves his hand, and his finger's glow again.
"Just... at least try."
Oh, right.
Not knowing any better, you reach out a hand and point at the ball. Something sparks, in the corner of your vision, and you feel the same gentle force. Now that there isn't any sound distracting you, you can finally feel them with a greater clarity.
It's like you're standing at the edge of a hundred oceans, the tide hitting you from every direction at the same moment. It's rhythmic. It holds you in place, it holds you down. You can feel it affecting everything. You, Matthew, the ball, the room, even things outside the room that you don't know about. This energy is holding everything in place. You shouldn't be able to feel it, but you can.
Ignoring the feeling washing over everything else, you instead focus on the ball. You imagine the tides of the ocean getting stronger, allowing water to come in from all sides.
You hear the sound of metal screaming as it's limits are utterly destroyed for the favor of a greater force. Right before your eyes, the ball of armor and glass grows smaller.
No, you're just crushing it from all sides and compressing it.
It feels as easy as walking and breathing at the same time. You feel like you could continue doing this for hours without trying.
Just for kicks, you imagine the ocean directly above it to stop. There's a sound like a gunshot as the ball shoots towards the ceiling. The metal above you groans in protest for an instant before relenting and allowing the ball to continue on through, as it rips a huge hole in the metal. You manage to catch it fly through the it and into the blue sky above.
A second passes.
Then two.
Then a minute.
You lean forward, trying to get a better look up the hole. Next to you, Matthew copies the action with blinking eyes.
"It's not coming down, is it?" You ask.
"I don't think it is, no." Matthew agrees "But despite losing a piece of Cauldron property, I think we have a better idea what your power is."
"Yeah," You agree.
You're moving things with your head. Telekinetic? Is that the word? It was a decent trade off. Be cured, get superpowers.
Still doesn't make the change any easier to take, but it's a start.
"What happens now?" You ask, mostly to yourself.
Matthew shrugs "That's up to you. But if I could give a word of advice, I would say that you need some training. These gifts take time to... control. Wouldn't want what happened to the wall to happen to someone else sometime down the road now do we?"
The image of someone being compressed like the metal flashes through your head. The urge to spill whatever food you have left in your system grows but you manage to keep it down.
"Are you volunteering?" You ask
Matthew shakes his head "I'd be happy to help once you get a good handle, but I don't want to drag you down beforehand. I'm still getting a handle on my own powers."
He gets to his feet and begins floating off the ground "But don't worry, there's a lot of different people in the building who are a lot more suited to this sort of thing than me. The elevator should be open by now. Head to the it and click the button for the lab. You'll find someone who would be more than willing to give you some hard numbers on your abilities. If that's not what you want, head to the main office and Doctor Mother straighten anything else that. Failing that, head to the testing room if you just want to talk to someone and cope."
You mentally replay the words in your head so you don't forget "Got it, what about you?"
Matthew lets out a face splitting grin "I'm going to see how far that ball of yours went. Someone is going to ask for it when you bring it up, might as well help you out as you get settled."
You blink, this is unexpectedly kind. You're used to people saying they'll do something, and then just leaving you. Now there's a guy willing to find a little metal ball just because it could clear some things up for you later.
"Thank you Matthew."
The flying man shrugs "Hey, what are friends for?"
He shoots into the air and flies through the hole. With nothing better to do, you get up off your rear end and make your way to the elevator. You barely feel your feet hitting the ground as you walk, almost like you're just as weightless as that ball. You take the few steps towards the elevator and press the call button. The light flashes green and the doors open with a hiss. You step inside, and glance at the panel.
[] Head to the lab. If you have powers now, you better find the limits. You'd rather not have another panic attack and hurt someone
[] Head to the Office. You're in a new world, with new ideas, people and questions. You'd like some answers.
[] Head to Testing. You've had enough surprises for one day. If you could just talk it through with a friend, that would be good.
