INSOMNIAC

Chapter 5

When Verity went to the kitchen the next morning, she was greeted by the fresh smell of bacon. She reached the bottom of the stairs and saw Tyson cooking in the kitchen.

"Morning," he greeted cheerfully as he turned some bacon over in a pan. "It's about time that you woke, I was wondering when you'd wake up." Truthfully, Verity had gotten very little sleep that night and had spent most of the evening staring at the roof. But she wasn't about to tell Tyson that.

"Yup, I was pretty tired yesterday," she lied, taking a seat at the dining table. Tyson placed a plate of bacon and egg in front of her and sat on the opposite side of the table.

"I thought we could start training today," he mused, taking a bite of his eggs. "I mean, with all those gadgets you got yesterday, we might as well give it a shot." Verity nodded and stuffed some bacon in her mouth. Today was going to be a long day.

-

Verity shot a beam of electricity, hitting the ball that Tyson had thrown in the air, destroying it. She had told her mom that she was staying at a free girl's scout camp for teenagers, and he hadn't heard from her mom in a week. She stayed in the spare room in Tyson's mansion of a house and she was starting to get a grip on her powers. Tyson had also shown her how all of his powers, which were fire manipulation, teleportation, and flying. Strength could be included, but that's only from training half the day every day of the week. As far as they knew, Verity could manipulate and create electricity. The training all happed in the garden though, because they don't want to burn the house down.

A small tennis ball was rocketed into the air, and it came straight back down at Verity. She threw her hands up and shot bolts of electricity at it. The remains of the ball fell harmlessly to the floor, scorched into ashes.

"Well done!" Tyson praised, patting her on the back. "We're finally getting the hang of it." Verity smiled and attempted to dry her sweat covered hands on her shirt. Tyson walked over to the basket of tennis balls and picked one up. "One skill that we haven't done is how you would react to the element of surprise," he said, tossing the ball up and catching it. Verity nodded and was about to ask how they would be doing this when Tyson suddenly hurled the ball at her, and it headed straight for her face. Verity, completely unprepared, quickly put her hands in front of her face. She felt a slight tingly feeling in her fingers, and the impact of the ball never came. She peaked over the top of her hands to see the ball hovering about 2 inches from her hand. Verity dropped her hands in bewilderment. As her hands moved, the ball fell to the floor. Tyson Walked over to her with a huge grin on his face.

"Of course you get telekinesis," he joked. He picked up the ball, put it in the basket, and headed towards the entrance of the house. Verity jogged after him.

-

Once Verity and Tyson finished up their research on telekinesis for the evening, Verity had an idea.

"Tyson?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"Can I join you on your mission tonight, please?" Tyson was completely bewildered by this and immediately answered, "No."

"But Tyson, you can fly me with you, and I'll make sure to keep my distance, and I'll even just watch if that's what you want!"

"I said no, Verity. It's too dangerous, and you're not ready for something like one of my missions." Verity huffed in frustration and sulked up the stairs to her room, not wishing him good luck. Two days ago, he got the suit that he had ordered for her to join him on missions that could withstand her electricity and hide her identity, but so far he had kept it hidden from her. Verity flopped on her bed and lay there for a few minutes.

Ten minutes later, Verity was startled with the sound of footsteps pounding up the stairs. Verity electrified her hands in defense. Tyson burst into her room, fulling dressed in his Lightstalker suit, holding something black, blue and white in his hands. Seeing her defense position, he held his hands up to show no threat.

"Easy there, kid," he exclaimed. "Dress quickly, we're going to be late." He threw the material at Verity who caught it with ease. Tyson ran back out of the room and back down the stairs.

"Late for what?" Verity mumbled, turning the material over in her hands. She finally found a tag and read it. Verity gasped in surprise and let out a squeal of joy. The tag read:

Suit for: ELECTRO

Verity quickly put the suit on and admired herself in the mirror. The suit was a magnificent one-piece that was black with white rings at the end of every opening in the suit. There was a blue lightning strike that ran from her right shoulder to her left hip and had a mask that went to just above her mouth and a hood that covered her face. Verity looked at herself once more and rand down the stairs.

"Took you long enough," Tyson said and held out his arm. "You ready?" Verity nodded and grasped his arm, and the two vanished from the room and reappeared on a rooftop in the city.

-

After looking for a while, the two finally saw something. It was a gang of robbers, holding a shopowner at gunpoint while the others took the money and anything else that they wanted. There were 6 in total. Lightstalker motioned for her to take out the electricity, and Verity held her hands out. The lights in the shop flickered before a jet of blue light was sucked out of them and into Verity. Lightstalker crept down the side of the building and stood at the shop entrance. Verity stood beside him and released the energy she was holing back into the light. The robbers all looked at the entrance of the store, and saw them. 2 of them seemed to panic, but the rest just aimed their guns at them, recklessly not backing down. Lightstalker chuckled and shot two concentrated beams of fire at two of the robbers. The other 4 started shooting, and Verity flinched slightly, but stood still, remembering the talk that Tyson had had with her.

"Now, before we do anything, there are 3 rules. The first rule is that you never reveal either of our identities, which means you must call me Lightstalker on missions. The second rule is that we fight to capture, not kill. And the third is that you never surrender. Our suits are bulletproof, so don't worry too much about those, but still be careful."

Verity waited until they had finished all of their bullets before making a move. With no more bullets to shoot, they stood helpless and terrified. Verity sent two bolts of electricity, just enough to knock the out, at two of the robbers, and they fell unconscious. The last two tried to make a break for the back exit, but Lightstalker knocked them out before they could escape. The store owner was crouched, terrified, in a corner.

"I suggest you call the police," Lightstalker told him and walked out of the store, Verity following him.

"Wait!" the man cried and pointed at Verity. "Who are you?" Verity looked at Lightstalker for certainty, and when he nodded, she smirked at the store owner.

"I'm Electro."

------

Once again, thanks for reading!