Writetober 2019

October 18-Misfit

Maybe he should have waited to run away until it was warmer out. Kevin shivered inside his coat where he huddled beside a dumpster. At least the trash didn't smell so much in the cold. He curled his knees to his chest when the wind gusted, ignoring a shout from somewhere out on the street.

At least he wasn't hungry. He'd had a lot of time to practice using his power since going on the run. He'd gotten good enough at camouflaging that he'd been able to steal enough food to stay fed, though he hadn't managed to camouflage his backpack yet. It was just too big. He'd also discovered pretty quick not to steal from the same place twice. He saw someone nearly get fired when their boss thought the losses were their fault.

There was a second shout.

Kevin uncurled and stood stiffly. What was going on out there? And more importantly, did he need to scram? He shivered again and concentrated. He flickered in and out of view until settling into uniform invisibility.

He crept toward the mouth of the alley, watching for trouble. A crack of thunder rent the air, and Kevin almost jumped out of his skin. "What the heck?!" There wasn't a cloud in the sky.

Another shout, this one closer. Oh no, they're headed this way, aren't they? Kevin retreated and grabbed his backpack before jogging towards the far end of the alley. He'd passed through a few other cities big enough to have supers before reaching this one, but this was the closest he'd ever been to a fight.

There was a flash of light out on the street closely followed by a thunderclap...and a scream. Kevin stopped as his fur stood on end. There was another shout. He could make out the words this time. "Tempest, no!"

Against his better judgment, Kevin headed back toward the trouble. He saw other supers in action for the first time. It wasn't what he expected.

A man in a bright cobalt costume crouched on the ground, holding a literally smoking woman in his arms. She was costumed too and wasn't moving. As Kevin watched, a man in a dark green and grey costume appeared next to them and took the woman before disappearing. Several other costumed people were scattered about the empty road and sidewalk, cornering a guy in street clothes. He couldn't have been more than a few years older than Kevin.

That teen had a stricken expression on his face, staring at where the unconscious woman had been a moment before. Kevin realized what happened when he rested a hand on one of those electrical boxes that house the controls for street lights. Sparks jumped from the box to the teen's skin, and the surrounding city lights flickered. Then he thrust his free arm out and released an arc of electricity that nearly hit another of the heroes. "Stay back!" he yelled, sounding more afraid than threatening.

Most of the supers dodged away from the attack, but one didn't even flinch. The lady stood stock still, glaring at the teen as if she might kill him with her eyes. As if the lightning strike near her wasn't at all dangerous. One of the other heroes yelled at her too but...nothing.

A wasp flew past Kevin's ear, sending him into a fit of frantic swatting. The insect and a dozen others ignored him and flew straight for the electrical super. The teen soon realized his predicament and started wildly swatting at the air around him. Then he reached back for the control box, drawing current. This time he let the electricity dance along his skin without releasing it, turning him into a living bug zapper.

He figured out who was responsible for the attack at the same time Kevin did. That lady can control bugs?! That's so cool! And creepy. She seemed to be getting a headache from what the teen was doing to her bugs. Kevin frowned as she gripped her head.

The teenage super glanced around at the heroes arrayed against him and made a choice. He pointed his free arm at the defenseless heroine.

"No!" Kevin shouted, running out of the alley before he could stop himself. "Leave her alone!" he meant to yell. His voice cracked somewhere in the middle of it. Instead of jumping an octave, his voice spiked louder than the thunderclap that had shaken the street a minute before.

He was stunned for a moment, as were the rest of the heroes. The teen who might have been a villain fired his lightning bolt wide, catching a transformer in an explosion of sparks. The street plunged into darkness.

In the ensuing chaos of pounding feet and falling glass—did his voice just shatter glass?!—someone grabbed Kevin's backpack. He yelped, but his voice stayed steady. What had just happened? He had to run before someone saw him. He struggled, trying to get free.

"Woah, woah! Dude, stop! We're not going to hurt you," The voice behind him said. When Kevin finally slipped his backpack, he found himself floating several inches off the ground.

"Hey, chill!" A different voice in front of him urged. Someone turned on the flashlight app on their phone, and he could see again. It was the man in the cobalt costume. The rest of the heroes must have gone after the electric super.

"Is she okay?" He found himself asking.

The man's face softened as he nodded. "Yeah, she's at the hospital. Having a teammate with super speed comes in handy. Hey, uh...could you turn visible, maybe? Talking to thin air is weird."

Kevin glanced down and saw he was still mostly camouflaged. Even as he looked, he lost his hold on the rest of it, casting a fearful glance at the three faces gathered around him. There was plenty of confusion and curiosity, but no disgust or greed.

"Oh! You're an Aberrant!" The man in a patchwork of color for a costume said, snapping his fingers. This only confused Kevin more. "Your powers are still coming in, aren't they?"

"Ye-yeah," He stuttered, realizing his feet were on the ground again. "What's an Aberrant?"

"Uh..." The hero fumbled. "They're people who get multiple, very...obvious powers...like the fur."

"Oh." Great, even among supers I'm a freak.

The woman in black and white who held the phone punched that super in the shoulder hard enough to make him fall over. She gave Kevin a kind look. "Ignore him. What brings you to West Haven and our little band of misfits?"