To Be Like the Guardians

Part 1: The Plan, Chapter 10: The Familiar

That night, Beth returned to the L.E.R. headquarters to receive her Power-Inducer and begin to train. The halls were empty, and the building quiet just like the previous night. Something about this situation felt familiar as well, but she tried to push the feeling away.

She knocked on Agent M. Bennett's door, the one with the "Second-in-Command" plaque above it. Her heart was pounding a little too loudly for her liking. She wondered if Bennett still had the chemicals from his Power-Inducer in him, if he could still see how scared she was.

He opened the door. "Good. You're here. Come with me." He shut the door behind him and gestured for Beth to follow him toward the training room at the end of the opposite hall. She obeyed.

When they made it there, he opened the door for her to go in first, so she did. He followed, shutting the windowless door and locking it. Locking it.

"I don't want Agent F. Garcia to see what we're doing," he explained. "This is a secret mission. Here." He handed her a Power-Inducer from a pocket in his light blue pants. "Do you know how to put it on?"

"Don't I press it into my shoulder, sir?"

"Yes. Go into one of the rooms."

Beth looked around the area, full of training equipment like treadmills, weights, and workout machines, but mostly bullseye targets up along one wall, which had gray marks all along it from missed shots, to practice shooting. Unfortunately, the only place they could practice shooting moving targets with their Stunners was when fighting Fearlings. But on the right side of the enormous space were three smaller rooms with large glass panes along the side facing outward. Those were areas reserved for people learning how to use their Power-Inducer abilities safely away from everyone.

The black-haired woman walked into one of the white rooms and shut and locked the door. She felt safer in here with a wall between her and Bennett, a shield of protection. She moved her shirt away from one of her shoulders and pressed the cold Power-Inducer onto it. Little IV-like things shot out into her skin. The headquarters started to tilt and swerve around her at disorienting angles, and an almost dizzying adrenaline-like sensation pounded through her blood. But it soon faded, and she took deep breaths. She stood up straight from the crouching position she had lowered to.

"Wow, your body has gotten used to it already?" Bennett's muffled voice said. "That's some sort of record." Beth nodded, not really processing it, then shook her head to chase the remaining odd feeling away.

And...nothing. She didn't feel any different, any more powerful than she had a minute before. There was no immediate change which, to be honest, disappointed her. Below her fear of Bennett and curiosity about what he was going to make her do, her heart raced from finally getting a Power-Inducer.

Bennett was watching her through the glass.

"What do I do?" she asked. "How do I make it work?"

"It's different for everybody," Bennett said. She already knew that. "Just...try something. Look at things. Does anything look different?"

Beth looked around- up at the ceiling, down at her feet, out at Bennett and the rest of the training room. "No, sir."

"Do you feel different, like really awake or anything like that?"

"No."

"Touch the wall. See if it does anything."

Beth walked over and touched the smooth hard surface of the walls keeping her and Bennett safe from each other. Nothing happened.

"Well...try something else." Bennett rubbed his chin. And if Beth was seeing things correctly, the muscles in his arms and face were tense. What was it that he wanted her to do with her new Power-Inducer ability, assuming that she didn't not have one like Agent H. Avery- well, Agent H. Sloan by now?

But the thought frustrated her that after all these years of waiting, she could possibly have nothing. Her heart beat faster, but in a different way, not out of fear. She balled her hands into fists and narrowed her eyes, glaring at the floor.

Sparks suddenly danced around her hands, flashes of electricity that matched the white of the small room. Her frustration faded, and the sparks went away. She looked up at the grinning Bennett.

"That's some power, Agent B. Howard. Do you realize you're stronger than most people here?"

But Beth wasn't listening. Her body was almost twitching with an odd itch. Her power...it felt familiar. Another thing to add to the list of those. What was wrong with her? Had the concussion all those years ago damaged her brain so bad she got deja vu from random occurrences?

"What's wrong?" Bennett asked.

Beth looked up again and only now noticed the bump on his shoulder, the telltale sign of a Power-Inducer. He had it back in and could definitely still tell how she was feeling.

"I'm fine, sir," she said, though her voice wavered with worry.

"No, what's really wrong? Something's off with you."

"I don't want to talk about it."

For a second she thought that Bennett was going to press further, but he fortunately didn't.

"That's okay," he said, nodding. "But I'm always here if you want to talk." That was the main part about Bennett that people liked. As an ex-counselor, he sometimes informally helped people with their problems, although he had worked with children instead of adults in his previous employment. And his kindness was one of the reasons Beth was confused as to why she was afraid of him.

"Okay."

"Now let's see you do that again. The sparks."

Power that came from Beth's anger. Of all the abilities that she could possibly have, it was the one that she didn't want. She couldn't control her anger well at all, so how could she possibly learn to control an anger-deriving ability?

Just another bad thing to tally up.