The Disabled and The Freak

Philadelphia Power and Energy

Philadelphia is your average metropolitan American city, busy cars moving in a flash. That calming city smells, and your classic Philly cheesesteak. But among the streets of Philly sat Philadelphia's Power and Energy Laboratory.

You thought they were building space lasers or the next significant clean energy source that would save the world from global warming, but they were looking for something — no someone.

Dr. Thadeus Sivana ran the laboratory, and he's the son of Mr. Sivana, who owned Sivana Industries. Dr. Sivana is a cold calculated man that rarely showed any emotion, but today he had reason to be excited because he knew today was finally the day.

Dr. Sivana walked down a dimly lit hallway in his lab with his eyes purely focused on the door at the end of the hall. The single door had a yellow-painted lightning bolt on its wood base with a metal door handle and a keycard slot sitting next to it.

Dr. Sivana walked up to it, pulling out a keycard before swiping the card in the door's slot. The keycard slot lit red but for only a few seconds before turning green. Dr. Sivana opened the door stepping into a small white room that resembled a cell belonging to an Arkham Asylum inmate.

The room held a twin-sized bed, one end table with a magic eight ball sitting atop of it, and a small drawing of a boy and an orange tiger. Written above, the boy in the picture was the name, Billy. The writing was messy and barely legible, belonging to a child.

Sitting in the middle of the room was a small boy hugging his knees as he sat in a twin-sized bed. The bed had a cold metal frame with a barren mattress and an everyday pillow.

The boy looked no older than fourteen. He had pale skin, wore a hospital gown and innocent blue eyes with straight brown hair. The boy looked up as Dr. Sivana came into the room, looking alert and tense as ever.

"Good morning Billy," Sivana said as he sat down next to Billy.

"Morning, Papa," Billy responded.

"Today is going to be a special day," Sivana said, lifting a hand towards Billy's face.

Billy stiffened at this action backing up against the board of the bed.

"W-why?" Billy asked, shakily.

Sivana paused for a moment before backing his hand away and picking up the magic eight ball that sat on the end table next to the bed.

Because today-" Sivana said as he shook the ball before handing it to Billy, "You're going to find the Rock of Eternity."

"And today, you're going to change the world for all mankind." Sivana continued.

Billy looked down at the ball in confusion when an answer appeared.

Outlook, good

(Line Break)

In a small observation room sat Billy at a small table. Sitting at the table was a small notebook, a black pen, and a strange tablet reading out seven different symbols.

Billy's hands were shaking, and the nervous feeling in his stomach seemed to amplify with every second. Billy's taken this test before and failed every time. And Billy knew what would happen if he failed... Isolation room.

"Papa!" Billy screamed as two orderly's dragged him away, "Papa!"

Billy shut his eyes and pushed that memory down as he tried to calm down and focus on the task at hand.

Billy opened the notebook and began flipping through the pages. There were a few pages with the same symbols written in different orders but had been later crossed out. Billy kept turning until he came across a blank page.

Billy looked up at the glass window that Dr. Sivana and his female assistant sat behind. Dr. Sivana gave Billy a firm nod.

Billy picked up the pen and began writing the symbols from the tablet onto the notebook paper. Using a different order this time, Billy wrote out each of the seven symbols before repeating the process underneath his first line. He did this seven times before something strange happened.

The symbols began appearing and reappearing on the page. Billy looked up at Dr. Sivana in confusion, but Sivana was to busy trying to get into the room.

Billy looked back down to the symbols and saw that they were now glowing blue. Billy got up out of his chair abruptly as he stared at the symbols in shock and fear.

The symbols began to get brighter and brighter, blinding Billy before all he saw was white.

Billy screamed in fear before the notebook paper exploded, engulfing Billy in darkness.

The following morning

The Vasquez household was getting ready for their day, and they were in a rush. Due to some mysterious blackout, the night before, all the alarms had been shut off, making everyone wake up late.

"Freddie! Get up!" Mary, the oldest, yelled up to her younger brother's room.

Freddie groggily sat up, confused as to what time it was, "What?" He called back.

"Get up! Or we're going to be late!" Mary repeated urgently.

" Shit!" Freddie thought.

Freddie scrambled out of bed, grabbing his crutch and hobbling around his room as he got dressed.

Freddie got dressed in record time and made his way downstairs, grabbing a piece of toast before joining the rest of the family in the Van.

Everyone had run late, so by the time Victor pulled up to Fawcett, Central homeroom had already begun. All five Vasquez children hurried into school, making it into their homeroom classes just as attendance was being called. Well, except for one. The one boy who had the worst morning of the five.

Freddie crutched his way to homeroom, and he almost made it before two arms grabbed him and yanked him into the Bathroom.

Freddie was caught off guard before he saw the face that grabbed him or the two faces. The Bryers.

And for the second time that morning, Freddie thought, "Shit."