Empowered

Chapter 12:.....Envy

"Piensa que (You [formal] think) she was on the surface on the 9th?" Bob asked Abraham. They were conversing in Bob's lab, discussing how Ember had seemingly been in E-Corp.'s underground facility all day; however, there had been a few strange occurrences on the surface.

"I'm not sure what to think now," Abraham said gravely. "The facts are that Ms. Crimson was down here on the 9th all day; however, rumors are coming from up top via social media and word of mouth that suggest there were some bizarre incidents even though our monitoring equipment did not register any trace of abnormal power surges nor were there video recordings indicating anything out of the ordinary occurred."

"It could just be the population making up stories for fun!" chimed in Dr. Wells, who had walked into the lab intent on working with Bob on their newest collaborative project.

"There was a news article about a student getting stuck in a tree and not knowing how she got there, though it was a child from one of the wealthier families in town, and that's the only reason it made the news. Still, many other students reported similar inexplicable teleportation experiences and other strange occurrences at school. Additionally, some teachers at the school claimed to have been under some kind of 'influence' which made them act very strangely and/or had bizarre things happen to them, as well as a party at 'the point' where everyone seemed to have been drugged to the point of not remembering the night's events. And let's not forget the tree." Abraham finished naming all the weird things that had seemingly gone down on Ember's birthday.

"You mean the truly impossible purple apple tree that seems to have sprouted near the house out of nowhere?" Dr. Wells asked with her characteristic smile.

"That would be the one," Abraham responded, thinking about it all with a distant expression on his face.

"I see what you mean about not knowing what to think about it all," Bob said.

"I have a theory." Dr. Wells began. "Well, in truth, a couple." She smiled.

"Do tell," Abraham said, addressing his eccentric and perky confidant.

"My first theory is that yes, Ember was down here inside E-Corp.'s underground facilities all day on the 9th; however, since she has begun maturing and her powers have followed suit, these walls which we created to contain the early stages of an anomaly's powers are simply not strong enough anymore, and her powers have leaked onto the surface causing strange and random things like the aforementioned purple apple tree to occur." Dr. Wells proposed.

"Seems feasible," Bob said, stroking his black goatee. "We know she's usually too powerful for these walls to contain anyway."

"Surely, that's why it's my first theory." Dr. Wells smiled. "My next theory is much more, shall we say, unbelievable."

"And what is it?" Abraham asked urgently.

"Well, Abie, dear. I think it's possible that Ember was down here on the 9th and also not at the same time." Dr. Wells said, hoping her outlandish idea would be received with an open mind.

"Go on," Abraham said.

"I think it's possible that there were two Embers on the 9th, one on the surface and one down here with us. Somehow, she was split in two. One was taken to the surface to go about her usual school activities, and the other was down here training with us all day." Dr. Wells finished.