Origin of Power

Chapter 2

I maintained my orb's size to about that of a golf ball, hovering it at my wrist, funnelling its light into a cone ahead of me. To anyone looking, it was a blue LED; upon closer inspection, it was like a ball of lightning. A tempest of electricity constantly sparking like a tesla coil.

I shone the light down every road I passed, scouting for anything unusual. You could never be too careful when alone at night, even a Titan couldn't do much against a bullet. That is, not unless their power boosted their toughness in some way.

My power was second nature to me now, but it had taken years of practice.

It manifested the day following the Hellraiser attack. I was surrounded by strangers and terrified, in a makeshift camp. Cloth beds were set up on the ground, packed with the injured and dead, as panicked families searched for anyone missing. I had never seen so many people, and it was all in chaos. I was completely alone, clutching the one thing my dad had left me. The tickets—crumbled and shrivelled in my pocket—the only connection I had.

The thing that sticks the most in my mind was how nobody seemed to register me, a child, alone and injured. No one even glanced my way. Nobody cared, they had more important things to do. Panic gripped me like shackles as I searched the crowd for my parents. The more I looked the more the faces blurred until they were blank to me.

My mind flared in pain, everything turned blue. A small blue ball fell into my lap, pressing down on me, crackling like electricity. I felt an instant connection, like my mind had suddenly developed an entirely new array of senses and feelings. The light was like another pair of eyes, though the information it collected was too foreign for me to process, let alone comprehend.

It didn't matter, in that world of light I could ignore the scrambling, panicked crowds, and the cries of the injured. It was a comfort, and since then it had never been more than a thought away.

The moment was engrained in my mind like a picture. Every time I summoned my orb, I remembered it, and even now I had trouble in crowds. I wondered if that was something all Titans had to deal with; forced to remember the moment they gained their power. It would explain why so many of them were psychos.

I told no one about it, not even my mum. At first it was to spare her worry; my dad had just died, and Titans were becoming more and more an object of fear rather than hope. It was when she met Dan that things took a turn for the worst. He was a radical anti-Titan, and his ideas had rubbed off on her. She probably wouldn't hand me over to the Facility, however she would tell him, and there was no doubt in my mind that he would throw me to them in a heartbeat.

I dodged around derelict cars, long abandoned and scrapped of all parts. There were a few main roads that still had traffic, mostly ones that were connected to the port. All the others were so covered in potholes, even if the barricades of rusted car frames were cleared, they would still be impassable.

I hopped a fence into Ripplegreen Park, the shortest route to Pasford Centre. Not a pleasant place. The park hadn't been cut for years, god knows how many. The grass was wet and soaked through my jeans, up to my knees. I was in a hurry, comfort wasn't a primary concern. After spending five nights watching for the Nighthawks, I was not going to miss them because I was late.

In places like the park, my orb-sense was invaluable. I sent it up overhead, keeping the light as dim as I could while still getting a reading.

The light bounced back, outlining the tops of trees and bushes like shadow in the blue box of my mind. I could only detect basic shapes. Wherever the light was blocked, it would reflect and create a dark splotch in that position. It was useless for details, but I didn't need details.