Empathy [Ben Hargreeves]

Episode One. Part II.

"We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals"

Wind howled through the cracks in the windowsill. The mansion shook and rumbled like there was an earthquake before knocking the power out. Fear crept along Elle's skin from the kitchen below her; she knew Klaus was not overly fond of the dark. It was another trauma on the list of why Child Protective Services should have stormed the Umbrella Academy before the children started to drop like flies.

The Hargreeves siblings rushed outside from various parts of the house to see an electric blue cloud raging in the middle of the yard over the gazebo.

"What is it?" Vanya questioned. She ventured forward.

"Don't get too close!" Allison warned her worriedly.

"Yeah, no shit," Diego retorted.

"Um, guys..." Eloise said uneasily. The odd storm was giving off seismic waves that were causing Elle's emotional compass to go haywire. "It's... That thing is pulsing--"

"Pulsing? With what -- emotions?" Allison asked, perplexed.

"I-I think?" Elle's stomach clenched, then it felt like a steel wall of determination hit her straight in the face. Her eyes went from pale green in confusion to the color of liquid metal. She staggered backwards and tripped on a protruding tree root. She fell on her ass in the dirt. "Shit, ow. The fuck."

Allison reached down to help Elle to her feet. Elle thanked her sister as she righted herself, then dusted off her jeans and stared at the black hole thing that hovered over their backyard.

"It looks like some sort of temporal anomaly," Luther guessed. "Either that or a miniature black hole. One of the two." Elle wanted to smack him; the Warden wasn't around for him to try and impress anymore.

"Pretty big difference there, Paul Bunyan--"

"Out of the way!" Klaus cut Diego off. He shot past his adoptive brothers and sisters with a fire extinguisher in hand. When he couldn't get the foam to release, he heaved it into the air with an excited war cry instead. The black hole sucked the canister up like dust bunnies in a vacuum.

"What is that gonna do?" Allison shouted over the wind in exasperation.

Klaus shrugged. "I don't know! Do you have a better idea?"

Electricity cracked, and Klaus backed away from the blue cloud. The pulsing tripled, making Eloise dizzy from the thrumming ice-cold emotion swimming through her veins. She clutched her head between her hands as the pressure forced its way against her skull.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Everybody get behind me," Luther said, moving to block Klaus and Allison from the onslaught of wind and debris.

"Yeah, get behind us," Diego corrected. He stepped in front of Elle and Vanya.