Power Off

Chapter One

I was walking home from school when I heard a noise. James Atkins, the most popular kid in school, was being mugged and his normal arrogant face had long disappeared from his face. I had to do something. With as much strength as I could muster, which wasn't much to start with might I add, I ran into the man pursuing James. Unprepared, the man toppled to the ground, but recovered quickly. Great.

"Who's this? Your help? Your army? Hah! What's he gonna do, fall on me until I die?"

He took me by my shirt and threw me off with such a force that I had blacked out for at least 2 minutes. To be honest, I have no clue how long it was, but judging the fact that James already had a black eye and the man was breathing heavily, it must have been a while. As I painstakingly lifted myself off the ground, my rib and arms screaming, I took in what was happening. James had just taken another blow to the stomach and was doubled over in pain. The man was hovering above James, preparing to kick. I decided at that moment to lift my other arm to point at the man and in hopes of something happening when suddenly, a surge of energy ran through my body. A streak of blue lightning shot out of my hand and struck the man, knocking him unconscious. No one spoke for a moment until James finally decided to look up from his position on the ground and saw the matching sparks on the man that also danced across my body as a light bulb cracked over my head.

"What did you do, you freak?! Why are you even here? I was able to handle it. Don't you ever do that again."

With that, he left, leaving me alone, and then, I welcomed the darkness that soon followed.

"Hello? Sir? Sir? Are you ok? We'll be taking you to safety. Don't worry."

I woke up on what felt like a bed. My head was pounding as I tried to lift my hands to rub my eyes.

"Whoa there, I may be a healer, but your bones still need some time to get used to not being broken before they're good as new."

"Wha-Wh-" I stutter out as light finally flows into my vision, blinding me briefly as I adjusted to the lights.

"Whoops, Blue, turn down the lights, we can't just blind the guy."

After blinking a few more times, my eyes finally adjusted as I took in what was around me. Someone dressed in blue, who I assume to be the person called Blue, and another person dressed in a brilliant purple stood near me as I saw another person with bright red standing at the doorway.

I tried to sit up again before I was pushed back down again with similar warning by the purple one.

"Who, whe-, who?" I managed to stutter out.

"Well, I'm Sludge, this is Blue, and the red guy over there is Power. Blue happened to find you passed out in the alleyway of Fourth and Smith and called me over to help you recover. So, now we're at Power's house until you're back to new. If you don't mind, we would like to ask you what was the cause of you being passed out with the injuries at this time of day."

"Uh, yeah, sure. I was walking home from school when I noticed James Atkins, a classmate, in that alleyway being beat up by a guy. I've never seen him, but I tried to help but I was thrown at a wall and ended up passing out. Um, I think that was it." I said as I tried to recollect what had happened. "What time is it now? Have I been out for long?"

"It's 7pm now, meaning it's been two hours since we've found you..." Sludge replied.

"Chase."

"Cool name. So, it's probably best if you make back on home because I'm sure you've got school tomorrow. But, we are gonna have to blind you for a part of the journey because of this whole secret identity thing." I nodded in understanding. "Blue, you cool with escorting him back home?" Sludge questioned.