Hero Origins

Starlight

The night has been long working for Starcorps Labs. Constantly checking the enormous telescope to ensure there are no unknown objects in our atmosphere. My scans show theres some kind of comet trail but the scope shows no signs of anything close to being a comet. One more look wouldn't hurt but, oh, something pink is there. It's flying towards us on a slow course to earth. 

A few weeks later its only moved about 3 miles closer, sitting just above the city's skyline. I wondered why it hadn't moved but I did the normal thing and began studying it. This was not your normal meteorite, or asteroid either, it wasn't even big enough. It was an actual star, producing its own light and flittered around. How was a star present in the sky and not in space? 

My colleagues came to see that I wasn't making any of this up and all had similar reactions to the one I had. Nobody understood any of this but I sort of made it my personal project. I spent another week watching it closely and taking notes and not missing a single thing it did. One night I was observing it had decreased in size and went to write this note, when looking back in my personal scope it had vanished. I started whipping the scope all around to see if it moved or if It left maybe, but nothing, not even a trace it was real. Was I going crazy is all I could think. 

When I looked back up with my own eyes my jaw dropped open because I could not believe the thing I had been observing for weeks was gone. A few seconds later, reopening my eyes from blinking, something flew into my mouth. Now I thought it was a bug and totally freaked out and tried coughing it out, only it went down my throat. 

A couple days had passed and I started to feel weird, nauseous really, and couldn't shake the feeling. The voices in my head started and I really thought I was beginning to go crazy, only it didn't sound like my voice at all. It began calling me names and telling me I shouldn't do or say certain things in situations with friends. 

One night I decided I was going to try and figure out if I really was losing my mind and talked back to the voice telling it to shut up. It told me no, and said I needed to shut up. I argued it was a figment of my mind and I'm the boss of myself so I didn't have to shut up. Being called an idiot it told me I wasn't crazy and that I was actually having a conversation with a celestial being. Not knowing what this meant I had a lot of questions, it told me to save them for later. This thing told me that it's name is Sala and it was part of a race of what we on earth call stars. They came here because they were dying and didn't mean to enter the atmosphere, they were too weak to control that. By some chance they accidentally flew into my mouth when trying to approach me since it had been watching me the past few weeks. 

"Small world" I told it, "since we were both stalking each other."

Sala told me it wasn't a joke and that this was serious

"So am I going to die?", I asked, since stars explode when they die. Sala then told me yes, only if we do nothing about it. It all explained the nausea, then Sala said unfortunately it was stuck and attached to my life force, that's why I can talk to them. Apparently star people speak a specific language and I can only understand because it's literally inside me. The next steps were Sala is going to teach me to use Star Power to help get them out of me before they die. I wasn't sure how this was possible when I haven't shown potential of using powers but I agreed we gave it a try. 

The next few days Sala and I just fought constantly because I had no clue what I was doing and felt stupid. I even looked stupid throwing my hand out and nothing happened. Frustration was real and  the fighting didn't help. I got told working my job was idiotic and useless but money controls everything. We got more practices in anyway and finally I produced my first glowing wad of whatever the hell it was. It looked like a cotton candy machine went off the rails but now I was thinking about food. Sala always tells me to focus and there is time for the other things later. 

A week later I was able to produce a Star Orb, the landlord to my apartment came knocking asking why I needed every light on. Also said my rent will go up for using the electricity so much. Two weeks in and I could use Star Sight, which allows me to see flowing light around people and see light waves. This was my favorite. It took three more weeks to learn how to fly since I had no training for it and it made me feel more sick, my body was taking a toll. Two more weeks after that to produce light constructs like shields to protect myself. Another week to be able to produce Star Blasts and I blew up a light pole by accident, I definitely sprinted for it. 

Soon my health was getting bad to the point where I took a week off of work because I felt really bad. I couldn't leave the bed, Sala told me it could heal me with it's astral form but doing so it would die quicker. I told them no, I'll be fine, I can be a big girl. They told me they don't want to see me struggle, as much as I've been annoying they actually care about me. I told them no, I didn't want them to die and that it was nice having someone around. It was boring being in my mid twenties out of college, single and living alone. I had many work friends but not anyone who knew me personally, it felt nice. Plus I told Sala I still didn't know how to get them out, they told me I was ready once I come out of astral form and they would guide me. 

Without any opinion, Sala explained astral form is the most powerful I could be, it unlocks the last step in learning  these powers so I would be able to take them out. They said they would guide me and take me outside for it too just in case. My strength wasn't the best but also wasn't too bad, I staggered out of bed and headed for the door. I left it open behind me as I got in the elevator and went down six floors. Outside there was a field area where I've seen some kids playing, it was wide open. After reaching the location I started telling Sala thank you for everything, apologized for being a dits and the arguing. They said don't worry about it and I felt my body lift in the air, small feelings of bliss and power began making their way up from my feet to my knees. I went up higher and now my arms were beginning to glow, the light was incredible. 

The next thing I knew Sala was telling me to concentrate on my core, and feel where they were specifically. I could feel them, like they were sitting there, it was like I grabbed the sides of them like picking up a baby. Carefully lifting upwards, a light began to shine out of my mouth, as it got closer to the exit it began to dim. My hands traveled from the center point in front of my body to my head, I realized my astral from was no longer present. I must have blacked out at that part but I definitely felt way better. Sala was now coming out of my throat beginning to hover in place before me, it looked like a firefly of sorts. This version looked weak and rough, it looked at me and said thank you for the kind words, they said they would miss me and that it gave its powers to me to have as a thank you. I tried to say something else but they flew up to the sky, leaving the atmosphere, a pink ripple stretched across the sky a few minutes later and I knew they were gone. 

I spent the next few months training and practicing to become a real super hero, there was quite a few of them now. Meeting the president was fun but I met someone that is now my best friend, he uses magic and has a dark tone to him but I know he cares deep down. I had to pick a name and decided to go with Starlight, since that's what Sala was, a star light.