Half Hero ⚡️ {Superhero Adventure Scifi}

Chapter 8: Accidental Homicide

I peeled my eyes off Rishi's tablet to meet his somber expression. Without any memory of that day, I felt as if I'd just relived the awful events in real-time. My mind was racing and my stomach was churning dangerously. I didn't know whether to be sickened or amazed by what I'd done.

My hand came to rest on my upper thigh, searching for a scar. There was nothing but smooth skin. The bewilderment was fermenting my tummy juices.

"I don't remember any of that," I breathed raggedly.

"I believe you," doctor Rishi replied. "But you do remember yesterday?"

I nodded blank-faced.

"How did the," he paused, momentarily lost for a word, "incident, start?"

"I don't know," I admitted, glancing down at my hands to study my ragged fingernails. "Hamm kept turning up the voltage on his truth machine and yelling at me, and something just, snapped."

"What did you feel?"

"Energy," I struggled to find a way to describe the strange sensation. "Like it was in my veins, or somehow inside of me. I wasn't controlling it though."

The doctor's eyes widened fleetingly as he straightened up to cover the reaction.

"How did you know to use your hand to break the straps around your ankles?" He countered.

"I just did it," I answered, screwing up my face to think back. I could picture leaning over and instinctually using my palms, but I don't know how I was able to control the power. "Hamm isn't going to like that answer, is he?"

I examined my foot, reaching down to prod at the tender pink skin around my ankle. Apart from a few lumps of knotted scar tissue, there was no evidence of an explosion.

"Not in the slightest," doctor Rishi smiled. "So, do you think you could summon that kind of energy now?"

I looked around at the curvilinear glass, which was probably bulletproof, watching my expression blanch in the reflection.

"Dude, I'm no show pony," I replied, wrinkling my nose in disgust. "And, I don't want to hurt anyone else."

"That's good, Ella," doctor Rishi nodded encouragingly. "We don't want you to hurt anyone either, which is why we're trying to figure out what is causing this, anomaly. To your knowledge, this has never happened before, correct?"

"I really feel like I would've remembered shooting lasers out of my hands before this," I told him.

Doctor Rishi regarded me for a few seconds, then, turned to fetch a rolling chair to take a seat. He crossed one of his long legs over the other and relaxed his shoulders back.

"How did you get the needle mark on your left buttock?" He asked casually.

I did a double-take at the abrupt turn in our conversation.

"Probably one of the many darts that decorated my ass yesterday?" I suggested.

"When we finally subdued you on the meadow, your body was clean of any injuries," he continued. "Save a tiny pinprick on your upper Gluteus Maximus. Do you know what caused that mark?" 

"You looked at my butt?"

"You'd been shot in the leg-"

"You guys shot me in the leg." I corrected him.

"Yes, we shot you in the leg, and you'd survived a fatal plane crash. I needed to tend to you." He replied evenly. "Do you know how you got that mark?"