A Touch too far
Worm Alt-Power
I ran as if my life depended on it.
The sound of footsteps and the calls of the boys Sophia had gotten together for this particular "prank" behind me only reinforced this fear. The ripping of duct-tape being pulled off of rolls as they steadily advanced, growing ever louder as they caught up made their taunts feel more tangible.
Even though I knew it wasn't true their footfalls sounded thunderous on the concrete behind me, almost deafeningly so. Every twist and turn I'd tried to take hadn't slowed them down in the slightest, only making them more amused.
A sharp pain in my foot swiftly followed by the sight of the pavement that was supposed to be beneath my feet stunned me long enough for them to catch up, dragging me away by my feet. When they managed to bring me upright I saw the smirk of my former second-worst tormentor, promising that what was about to happen was only going to be pleasant for one of us. Sadly that one would not be me.
"Have fun running scared until they finally chased you down?" Sophia said with glee as she stood back and watched as they tied me to a telephone pole. My attempts to get free were met with little effort on their parts. I think the only thing I accomplished was to amuse Sophia a little more.
"Start at the bottom, and go slowly so we can watch her squirm for as long as possible." She said with a slight chuckle. I'd say something, anything to rebel against this a little more, but all that was coming out were my ragged breaths in between gasps for air.
"So, how long are we leaving her here for?" Unnamed track member number one asked as he held my arm out.
"Can't be more than an hour, someone would probably call the cops if we did that, right?" Number two replied with a half-statement half-question.
"It's not like anyone will care about her, she's some nobody that was basically asking to be taped up here." Three said making my blood go cold. They couldn't be leaving me here. No, it just couldn't be happening. I couldn't accept this statement for a fact no matter how much I went over it in my mind. Nobody would come for me, nobody ever had.
Not even in the locker had anyone come to my aid, nobody had said a word when the police came. They would leave me here to die, maybe from the cold, maybe from dehydration, or some wild animal, but this tape and the pole would be my grave. A grave Sophia had sent me to when my only method of retaliation was angry thoughts and feelings. They were so close, right in front of me, but for all intents and purposes they might as well have been miles away. If only I could do something, anything-
Everyone fell to the floor. What the hell?
Sophia groggily got up, quickly regaining her focus.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me." She said as she looked at the boys who had fallen. Following her eyes I saw that they still hadn't gotten up.
"This is what made you Trigger? A stupid little prank like this? What the hell kind of ridiculously weak power did you get? Sleep touch or something?" She began saying as she pulled out a phone, texting someone. I guess I do have a power after all. I wish I could just reach out and poke her, that's all it would take.
"Alright loser, I'm going to just walk away, but you ever try to attack me or my friends I'll out you. That'll get the E88 knocking on your door, they'd love another little bitch to goose step alongside them. Have fun with that tape." She said still smirking as she jogged away. Damn, I'll have to find some way to keep them away from me that isn't based on my power. There's no way I'm getting dragged into the Empire.
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It was night by the time I managed to get home after untying myself. Thankfully Dad wasn't up, probably got home late after work and just went straight to sleep. I'm a bit surprised that those boys didn't get up during my ordeal, but maybe I've got a few hours before my power lets someone wake up. Not the most useful in a fight, but at least they won't be getting back up part way through. After a small snack I too hit the hay.
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Even with last night being eventful I managed to catch the bus like normal. I took a seat in the back, only one person away from the window. Said person was trying to sleep, and not seeming to have much success with it, constantly shifting and making noises. I wasn't really bothered by it, but his hand slid down and tapped me, knocking him out. I hope he wakes up before his stop.
Wait, I didn't try to use my power on him… can I even not use my power? Is it always on? Damn, I didn't even consider that as a possibility, normally only monstrous capes have constantly active powers. There are a few that do, but they're incredibly rare. What do I do? If I go to school I won't be able to guarantee that I can avoid touching anyone for the entire day, but I also can't think of any way to get out of this without someone finding out my identity. Making up my mind I rang the bell and got off of the bus into the slightly chilly air.
I crossed the street and stood at the stop heading back home, lost in my own thoughts of how I could possibly get out of this. I didn't really want to have to go to the Protectorate just to try and see if they could get this under control, but on the other hand I can't test this without letting
someone know. If I still had a close friend this wouldn't be a problem, but, well Emma. Enough said.
"Hey, Hebert!" Said the last person I wanted to hear from right now. Sophia Hess, with Emma and Madison, the other two members of the trio of bullies that had been giving me a hard time. In the same way that a hurricane could be described as a strong wind.
"What do you want? I just want to go home." I said as they approached. Things were going wrong in every way imaginable. I didn't want to attack them, but they looked like they were pissed off at me.
"What did you do to those guys yesterday? Nobody's seen them since then, and they didn't come to school either." Sophia said as they stopped a couple meters away, all glaring at me. Madison wasn't hanging back as much, and not looking nearly as hesitant to advance.
"I didn't do anything, after you ran off and I finally untied myself I just went home." I said, my tone sharp enough to cut the tension between us.
"Well it's not exactly like they'd just disappear. Just fess up, what did you do to them?" She said in an equally harsh tone. What, did my power have an even longer effect than I'd thought it did? Even if I did it's not like I'd tried to do anything to them, my power had acted on its own when I wasn't even awake.
"I didn't do anything. If you're just here to bother me then go somewhere else." I said… wait, when did I get that confrontational? Whatever, I've wanted to stand up to them for a while now.
"Knowing how desperate you are you probably took them away to convince them to actually care about you, as if anyone could do that" Madison said as she finally stopped right in front of me. Nobody had been paying attention to her, Emma and Sophia included apparently as they started towards us, moving before I even knew I was reaching out.
All it took was one poke and she dropped like a rock. Sophia reached into her pocket, quickly retracting her hand after a moment and re-focusing on me. If they were asleep I'd be able to go home, no questions asked. All I needed was to touch them and it'd be over. For now at least.
Emma had almost reached me before she too froze in shock from seeing Madison go down, making her an easy target. Sophia looked mad enough when I touched Emma that I could swear she was going to kill me for it. Unlike the others she didn't just walk towards me, she held back and weaved in between my strikes. No matter how much I chased her she kept just out of reach. This kept going on for what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than a couple minutes before I heard the tires screeching, announcing the PRT's arrival.
Within moments I was foamed down, no real fight between me and them. They were trained and had ranged weapons while my power didn't work unless I could reach a person. No matter how mad I was I couldn't really blame them for what they'd done, I was a rogue parahuman going on a rampage against "innocent" civilians. As they were cleaning up the scene I heard a couple PRT agents talking.
"This the same effect we found earlier?"
"Yep."
"So, how many did she get?"
"Two here, one found on a bus, and three just off of 13th next to a lot of duct tape. All minors."
"Shit. I get that capes can be brutal, but what makes someone go so far off the handle and kill six kids?"
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Kudos to oakgem217 for submitting the first
prompt. Don't worry if your prompt wasn't picked, I'm entirely doing away with the weird system I had before so I'll just be doing whatever interesting prompts I can.
