Powerless

Chapter 1

In his 3 months of living there, Ari had still not fully adapted to his new city life. Of course, he mostly stayed inside, which made his transition much easier, but when he did leave he had no idea how to go from place to place while making the least amount of awkward eye contact as possible. Within his second week, he had given up with leaving the home and decided to stay inside for the rest of his life. This was unrealistic, of course, but, luckily for him, they had a telepad that allowed them to travel from place to place with minimal human interaction.

When Ari lived in the more suburban borough of Staten Island, he had mostly spent time reading outdoors at local parks. Now he watched television inside all day. Ari blamed the density of the city for his lack of sunlight, he would rather not walk around in such a large city of strangers.

Although he still had a lot of free time, he now had a purpose. His sole reason for living now was to help others, even if they never wanted help, let alone help from him. At least he had friends now, Bri, Marissa, and Muse. Well, Muse wasn't technically a friend, as Ari had never had a real conversation with her yet, and Bri wasn't a friend until after Ari got over his whole "Welcome Prank" incident, which led to Ari being physically incapable to sleep for a few days. The only person who had been a friend from the get-go was Marissa, who was nothing like how she seemed in all those articles he read about her in the local magazines and newspapers.

When he first found out that he was going to be at the very heart of the city as a member of the New York City Powered Force, he had thought it'd be much more busy. He had come to find, through what Marissa had told him, that they used to work every day before people started to rely on the police more. Now, they were pretty much there just in case there was an extremely dangerous scenario in which people were definitely going to die. Ari enjoyed being able to sit back and do nothing but he really wanted to partake in some action, even if danger were involved.

However, Ari's wishes were granted on this particular Tuesday. Whether it was a good or bad thing is up to debate. The day began as usual, with him having woken up at 11:30 and watching some bizarre korean drama with Bri. He was sitting in the livingroom, when the alarm went off and Muse entered the room, with Marissa trailing behind her.

"We need to teleport to the bank." She told them, as she stepped onto the telepad. Marissa, Bri, and Ari followed. Their telepad connected them to the city system, allowing them to travel to the city hubs quickly in case of emergency. They were the only ones who had access to it, partly due to the fact that if something went wrong while transporting then they would be the only ones harmed. A gust of wind suddenly had hit Ari's back with unspeakable force. The only thing he had on to protect from this was his sleek black sweater, which left his taupe brown wrists exposed to the elements.

Muse led them, as she stepped off of the telepad and onto a busy intersection, Marissa walking alongside her. Bri and Ari hopped off, Ari making great distance as the wind propelled him forward. Although just as hectic as they usually were, the streets were filled with cops and cop cars as opposed to pedestrians and taxis. Muse lead them to the front of the scene, where a seemingly important officer greeted them.

"NYCPF is in." He quickly informed his walkie talkie before giving his attention to Muse. "'She's holding three hostages." He said, in a thick Egyptian accent, scratching some black scruff with the same hand he was holding the walkie with. "She went to rob the bank and then a teller set off the alarm and, uh, now she's got a tight hold of them."

"Ari, you will teleport in and freeze her." Muse said, as she glanced at Ari with her rich mahogany eyes. They held a stare for a quick second or two before Muse turned away, as she continued her commands for the team. When she had given them their jobs, Ari stepped forward to the foot of the steps of the bank. He turned back to his partners, Marissa gave him two supporting thumbs up and he smiled at his friend before he looked back to the bank.

It had been a while since he last used his teleportation as, unlike Bri, he didn't use his powers that often. He was immediately inside of the bank, feeling a blast of uncomfortable warm air, and, right before Joanne could turn to face him, freezed her in place, his arms extended as if he held her. He squinted as he concentrated on the task, his vision closed in on his target, everything else faded to black. He didn't realize that others had entered until a warm black hand patted him on the back.

"Good job, kid." Bri congratulated, giving a large toothy smile. Ari blinked, regaining his perfect vision.

"I'm older than you." Ari replied, as he smiled back. Only now was he aware of the architecture of the bank. The large golden arches that stood stories above him carried mosaics of stones. The hanging chandeliers bled an ambient tone to the rest of the room. He turned to see Muse and Marissa standing on either side of the villain, who was cuffed and looked oddly neutral by the situation she was in. Once the tellers were all safely escorted outside and Joanne ushered into a police car, Ari and the others made their way towards the telepad.

"Ari- Aristotle? Could you tell me about your experience with the NYCPF?" A short yet menacing woman pounced on Ari, as she jabbed a recorder into his face and smiled a wide and sharp smile, of which Ari couldn't tell was supposed to threaten or comfort him. Ari stopped and looked down at the woman.

"Uhh-" This being his first mission meant that this was also his first interaction with the press.

"Sorry, Amanda, but if you want an interview, you'll have to contact our agents." Bri said, and gave a wink to a nearby news camera. The cameraman looked up and gave an annoyed look at Bri, as the cameraman was trying to get footage that portrayed the serious incident that just happened. Ari mouthed an apology as Bri grabbed Ari by the arm and pulled him to the telepad. Ari looked back at the menacing furrowed browed woman and was suddenly home.

"Who was that?" Ari asked, as Bri took a seat on the couch.

"Amanda Ha, the worst kind of person." He said. He looked at the television expectantly then shook his head as he said "on". The television flashed on portraying the middle of a scene in which two cartoon characters were hurling rocks at one another. Ari had already stepped off the telepad but only now decided to take a seat next to Bri.

"Amanda? Yeah, she's pretty cringy." Marissa said, her high pitched voice coming from the kitchen. She walked into the living room, rubbing her wet hands on the front of her pants. She jumped over the back of the sofa opposite Ari and Bri's couch, her wild brown hair floating in the air even after she sat down. Ari jolted and Marissa giggled. "Sorry for spooking you."

"It's fine." Ari said, forcing a laugh.

"Yeah, anyways, Amanda was trying to interview Ari." Bri continued, rolling his eyes at the rude interruption.

"I can't believe she's still at it. Remember her at Jane's funeral?" Marissa asked, adjusting her sitting position, so that she was leaning more towards Bri. Ari bit his lip and sunk into the couch, letting his wavy dark hair cover part of his face. He didn't know Jane but the others did bring her up a lot.

"Yeah." Bri eyed the ground, then turned to Ari. "She's ruthless when it comes to getting footage and she'll twist that footage into some juicy plot point for this docu-whatever she's doing right now. Has some stupid name I can't remember, but you'd recognize it right away."

"Oh." Ari said, starting to relax. When Muse entered the living room he quickly sat up. She stopped right next to the edge of the couch then looked at the television. Ari eyed her from his seat. She seemed extremely disinterested in her surroundings.

"There are dirty dishes in the sink." She announced, and eyed Bri. He raised a hand, motioning towards the cartoon that was on.

"But, I..." Bri's voice trailed off as Muse raised an eyebrow. "I'll go wash them now." He said, standing then walking over to the kitchen. Marissa giggled as he left the area. Muse looked from Marissa to Ari, gave a small smile, then returned to her room.