A Tale from the Dark Dimension

Chapter 20: Xavier

Xavier had woken up in the hopes that maybe Justin stayed with her throughout the night. She wanted to wake up to him holding her, hell even still in the same kneeling position from last night. However, to her disappointment, he was nowhere to be found. She wasn't surprised. She had had some kind of feelings for him for a few months now. At first she dismissed it, thinking that he was just being nice and that the stirring in her chest would go away with time. As time went on though, his presence made her heart skip a beat, depending on how close he was. To her, he always knew what to say to make her feel more comfortable with herself. Yeah she struggled with insecurity before her mutations, but after that and her torture, she hated herself.

But there he was, always there for her when she was feeling destroyed. Like last night, she couldn't tell anyone else what happened, much less show them. While his touch made her flinch whenever he felt the scars on her back, it was more of a surprise than him doing something wrong. He was so gentle with her, so patient. How did she deserve a friend like him? Yeah, just a friend. She wished they could be more, that she had the courage to admit how she felt, but even if she wanted to she couldn't. Xavier would rather have him as a friend than not have him at all. So, just a friend would have to do for now.

A knock on her door ripped her from her thoughts. "One second," she called out before throwing on a hoodie to hide herself even more. To her relief, it was Justin at the door.

"Hey," she greeted him, moving out of his way so he could enter her room, "I wanted to say thank you for last night. It meant a lot to me, you being there."

"Of course. I'd never leave you while you're suffering," he told her.

"Was there something you needed or did you just want to visit?" Xavier asked him.

"Yeah, I wanted to tell you something actually," Justin said. Would this be it? The day she was hoping for for so long? Would he admit that he shared her feelings?

"It's nothing good though," he continued. Just like that, her hope turned into fear. Was he going to tell her to stop hoping, that he'd never be with someone like her? That she was too scarred and messed up for anyone to love?

"What is it?" she asked, her voice shaking.

"So, I went to the doctor yesterday because I was having trouble breathing after running at my top speed. I found out that I can actually hit Mach 8. But, he told me that whenever I run I have a build up of lightning in my body that gets expelled when I run, and that the faster I go the more builds up," he took a deep breath, seemingly preparing himself to tell her the news, "and that means that I could possibly incinerate my lungs, killing me."

What? His power...was killing him? "Are you serious?" she asked.

"Yeah, but it's only whenever I push myself up to or faster than my top speed. They're already burnt a bit and the speed healing can't fix it. He did, however, send that to Ace so that he could maybe incorporate some kind of breathing support into my new suit. So it's not all that bad," he said, trying to reassure her. She was stunned. How could he be dying from the power that seemed like the ultimate gift? Xavier resisted the urge to break, to shed even more tears than she had already. She refused to. She'd been crying so much already that she just wouldn't let herself do it. He wasn't dying right now. It was just when he went really fast. It could still work out, he could still use his power without too much backlash. They could work with that.

"You wanna come see the new suit? Ace said it was ready and I haven't seen it yet," Justin asked her.

"Yeah, sure, let's go," she replied. The pair exited her room and made their way to Ace's workshop. They entered the double doors, and staring them in the face was Justin's new suit on a mannequin. To her, it looked like it was made out of armor like material. The hands, feet, forearms, and calves were black, with a black lightning bolt in the center of the chest and black bolts on the ears and black for the eyes, leaving the torso, thighs, mask, upper arms and shoulders with a bright white color.

"Whaddya think? Pretty cool, huh?" Ace asked them. Justin was in awe. Judging from his reaction, it looked like it was perfect to him.

"It's amazing," Justin managed.

"Okay, here's what I did. I changed the material to something more durable. Like the doctor said, I accounted for the static buildup and included a life support system and breathing apparatus. The suit will detect how fast you're going and deploy it whenever you need it. You've got your own H.U.D built into the helmet, and you can remove certain parts of it such as the helmet, gauntlets, boots, etcetera. Speaking of which, take off the gauntlets," Ace said. Justin grabbed them and pulled them off with ease, wearing them on his own arms.

"Watch this," Ace said, clicking a button on his holotable. Instantly, a black war hammer grew in between his hands. "It's nanotech, you like it? All of this is nanotech! See, the hammer has these tesla coils in them that can draw electricity from the fucking sky. The two black lightning bolts on your back are also coils that do the same thing, converting the lightning into energy for you to run even faster, and you'll be completely safe from burning up. Best part is that if you click the center emblem in, it turns into a small necklace that you can wear, so you'll always have your suit, and it'll form around anyone with ease," Ace explained.

"Dude, I have no words. This is amazing, thank you so much," Justin said.

"Yeah of course. I'm working on something for Cade, too. I think I wanna add in something where the more blows he absorbs, the more powerful punches he can dish out, making him even stronger. I've already talked to him and he doesn't care much about design, so that works for me. Xavier, if and when you want to, just let me know and I can make something like this for you too," Ace offered.

"Yeah of course, thank you," she replied

Justin put the gloves back on the mannequin and pressed in the center emblem. It shrunk into a white pendant with a small black lightning bolt in the middle. She helped him put on the necklace and they both left, talking about how cool his new suit looked. If the suit did what Ace said it could, then Justin can go as fast as he wants without ever having to worry about his health. She thanked whatever was out there for Ace and his brilliant design skills.

They got back to Xavier's room and Justin tried on the suit fully. He pulled the pendant and it broke off the chain and attached to his chest, the rest of the suit forming around him from the pendant. She thought it fit him perfectly, the black matches his lightning, and the lightning bolts sticking out of the back looked stylish and they had a function. Their fun was cut short when an announcement rang through the PA at Alpha. The whole base had to have heard it, and it took her a second to believe what she heard.

Justin grabbed the remote and turned her TV on, flipping to the news. Sure enough, what she heard was true. The Overlord had taken Cape Verde, using it as a staging ground for his invasion.