The Matters of Power

Chapter 61- The Gilded Victory

Among the many evils in this world, there are too few people who intend to do good for others for the sake of their own humanity. Talent is what drives the successful in this world, and most either accept the fact that they can't achieve success without it or keep denying it in the hope that they can latch onto that metaphorical peak that they can never reach. Yet what happens when you are suddenly given that talent that can surpass nearly everyone around you? Do you clutch that gift tightly and charge on ahead in the hopes that you can achieve a position of power to influence good, or lock it away so that it wouldn't change you into becoming the very thing you hate? I was hesitant to embrace this 'power' of mine, fearing that this supernatural anomaly would corrupt me or influence me negatively, but I knew better than to not use it, warts and all that. I challenge myself on the risks and morals of the uses of my powers, but all of it must be used to do good rather than evil. After all, I know how it feels to be under the boot of someone else who is superior to you...

Dreams... they are such a sweet yet bitter thing to experience when you are in one but must wake up sooner or later. I slowly open my eyes and adjust to the brightness, staring directly at a white ceiling. Did I die and end up in some form of Heaven? That was my initial thought until I felt the soft mattress that I was sleeping on, and the realization hit me that I'm in a hospital bed... in a hospital. Ugh, now that I think about, all of my recent memories started flooding in and now I recall how I got here: being shot in the leg by June while saving Quarter from it. How much time has passed since that happened? Where are the guys, are they safe? Dammit, what is going on? I look around the room and I spot Yan laying on the couch in the corner of the room, with a magazine covering his face (and snores). Doing a double take to make sure no one else is around to see, I focus my mind on another magazine that's hanging on the edge of the couch and use my Levitate ability to lift it up and drop it on top of the other magazine, waking him up and startling him out of his slumber. "Whuzzah!-" He looks around in a daze but quickly composes himself when he sees me. "Marcus! Oh, thank God, you're awake! I gotta tell the others!" He runs out of the room before I can get a word out and I find myself alone again. That lasted less than a minute as a swarm of people enter the room in a frenzy. Yan, Quarter, Phinn, Oscar, Carl, Julieta, even my parents are in here with me, crowding around and bombarding me with sympathy. My mother grabs ahold of me and starts squeezing me tightly as if she were holding me back from some pulling force. "Marcus, my sweet, sweet Marcus! I'm so glad you're okay. Your father and I were absolutely frightened when we got a call from the hospital, we didn't know what to think! And to think that all of this happened because some lowlife wanted to hurt you and your friends for some money... I just..." She bawls onto my arm while father tries to console her from the sidelines, meanwhile my friends just keep their distance as to not disturb the family moment. 

After some time passes, she finally calms down and lets go of me. "I'm sorry, Mom. I didn't mean to worry you..." Despite my attempts to apologize to her, she doesn't seem to pay any attention to any of it. "Don't mind her, she's still trying to recover from the shock." Dad speaks up in her place, although it seems like he's addressing to everyone in the room instead of just me. "I'll just... you know, take her somewhere else to wind down. Give y'all some time to talk to each other. Just don't start anything stupid before the doctor comes back to check on you." He leads her out of the room and leaves us to talk amongst ourselves, but none of them seem to be willing to speak up first. Instead, I take the initiative. "What happened? Why did y'all even come to visit me in the middle of the night?" "Isn't it obvious, dumbnuts?" Yan replies, "We were worried about ya. After everything that happened tonight, you expected us to not come over and check on you?" The rest of the group nod in their heads in unison. I wouldn't have blamed them if they were to just head back home for the night after everything everyone has went through, but it feels... nice to have them here despite all that. "Thanks, everyone. Phinn, how are you feeling?" "Me? Ah, well..." He seems surprised that I singled him out to talk to first, "Tonight was wild. First that whole party we hosted in the food court, followed by that VIP room confusion, then finally finding out after all this time that there was a mafia group base underneath Red Buster's this whole time and Swift Cross just destroyed it all. Yeah, what a night." I was shocked about Phinn's knowledge about what went down tonight, I thought we had unofficially agreed that we wouldn't expose them about this conspiracy even after they woke up! "Who told him about all that? Why did bring someone not involved into this?" "I did." Julieta steps forward, "If it wasn't obvious, it would be pretty dumb to try to hide what happened to someone who was directly in the center of all of it. Besides, he was the only one smart enough to figure out the loopholes in my lies, those other girls were pretty easy to fool and were none the wiser." Dammit, I can't fight her on this, not when the damage is already done.