It was me and him, it was all that mattered. Nothing else mattered, not Ashley, not the program, not Julian, not even my bloodied knuckles. The smart ones would have diffused the situation or called for help, the cowards would’ve run away and the stupid would have stayed.

I swept my leg forward to around his ankle hoping to catch Mack off guard. Mack easily stepped back the flames now spreading higher up his arms to his shoulder. The heat radiating from his body was climbing exponentially with seemingly no limit. Mack backed off once more, obviously staying on the defensive to catch me off guard. When I was little

When I was little just like any boy my age I used to move my finger quickly through a candle’s flame and marvel at how I was unharmed. In theory, it could work but in reality, I would be hardpressed to achieve the same effect. From what I know about the human anatomy extreme heat would lead to dizziness and confusion. I would also have to move fast enough to connect my punches or kicks and move away so the flames wouldn’t burn. And that wasn’t all that possible considering the surface area of the flames.

That is if I stay conscious enough to actually hurt the flaming bastard who was now slowly circling to my left towards his friends. Something felt off, why isn’t he trying to attack?

I surged forward, ignoring the sweat that dripped into my eyes and my heart beating erratically in my chest. My right leg swung to the side of his knees, aiming for the back of his knees so I could follow up with an uppercut with my knee.

But with incredible reflexes he caught my forearm, a second passed as my leg started to burn. It wasn’t the searing pain that emanated from my calf, but the smell. The smell of my flesh burning filled my nostrils. Instantly my body jerked reflexively backward breaking free of his blazing grip.

I wasn’t feeling well, my body was already slick with sweat. My eyes drooped as I stared back at Mack who sneered at my discomfort. He started to yell something, something I couldn’t hear over the pounding of blood in my ears. He was taunting me, gloating.

The dark flames crackled and sizzled as his body started to glow red. The heat already unbearably hot, but with every passing second, something inside me started to grow. A wall that started to mold and bend as the pushing force pounded behind it, begging to be freed.

I stared back at Mack, again he didn’t press his chance. Instead, he now stood in front of his friends shouting again. Anger flooded through my body as I glared at him, there he stood all high and mighty. I groped around myself feeling the ground for something, anything. Until finally my left hand gripped the handle of a dumbbell that some jerk left on the ground.

Silent prayers went to the jerks all around the world who left their stuff on the ground as new strength surged throughout me as I charged the few feet towards Mack. I had to stop this, this monster. The pounding grew stronger, banging harder and harder until micro-cracks began to form on its exterior.

In only a second I reached him, I swung the weight with such a ferocity that I never knew I had. The world slowed down as I swung, the weight on a crash course directly for his skull. Mack leaned backward in such a way that he dodged the dumbbell by millimeters and simulations clocked me on the right side of my jaw sending me sprawling into the wall.

That’s when the pounding stopped inside me and the dark mask that shrouded my vision lifted to see what was happening around me clearly. I could finally hear what Mack was shouting.

“Stop! Please just stay away from them. I don’t want to hurt you.” He pleaded.

I was wrong, It wasn’t he who was the monster.

It was I.

It was I who tried to kill him if the dumbbell had connected there was enough weight and force that It would’ve bludgeoned him. My eyes wandered to his friends that he was protecting, one was unconscious on the ground blood seeping from his mouth into a small pool on the floor. The other whimpering while he held his mangled hand.

It was I who did that, and why? I believed I was above them, that I was right. What right did I deserve as a hero if I wreak havoc on others for my own agenda? Worse off instead of feeling ashamed I felt proud. Proud of the pain I caused.

“I didn’t- I didn’t mean too…” My voice drowned out as I began to understand.

I did mean to, I wanted to do it. I wanted to hurt them, to watch them suffer as I did all those years. I saw Julian hiding behind a rack staring horrified at me. Rightfully so. Becuase it wasn’t just him that I let down. It was myself.

That fire burned deeper than any flesh wounds.

Why did Chase go off like that? He has no history of violence outside of any sports.” I asked Mr.Richards as we watched chase get carried off by some of Mr.Richards employees.

“From what I can tell there are a few reasons that I can deduce from the events that just unfolded before us,” Mr.Richards answered signaling me to sit down in the chair next to him. I sat down and motioned for him to continue.

“Since this is your first year here Craig let me outline how the drug actually works. For the drug to activate fully the brain already needs to be under a similar drug. These drugs create a chemical reaction whenever adrenaline is pumped throughout the body and into the brain creating the effects.”

“But how do you get them under this other drug beforehand since you give them one shot?”

“Simple, the drug doesn’t need to be injected. Therefore we can distribute it to the kids without them knowing, and the drug itself doesn’t necessarily need to let itself be known to them as it adds a layer to their experiment. The reason we allowed this fight to go on is because it’s entirely possible that with just the pre-drug he could develop superpowers.”

This made me pause for a second before asking “How do you get the pre-drug into their system if they don’t know about it? Do you spike their water or something?” I asked slightly worried about the answer.

He chuckled “Of course we don’t spike the water, we spike the bread”.

Taken aback I tentatively asked my next question “Isn’t that unethical?”

He turned serious for a moment. His shoulders slumped forward as he began to talk “Do you know the story of Frankenstein?”

“Of course I heard it when I was a kid” I answered wondering where this was going.

“Most believe it was just a myth but it was based on a real event that happened in the 1800’s. The Doctor in the story was actually a super, he could re-animate the dead. Permanently. He was a serial killer with sixty-two murders and those were the only ones that were confirmed. He then took his victims body parts and sewn them together to create a being of massive proportions. After re-animating the being it killed both himself and terrorized a town for years before one of the early supers took him down.” Mr.Richards said as he shook his head in disgust.

“There are certain risks we have to take that may be considered unethical, but forever batch of kids that becomes a super some of those become a hero. A hero that will one day save countless lives.”

“But onto what I was saying,” He said with revigorated energy.

“The pre-drug has the unfortunate side effects of addling the user’s mental state. It… It alters the user’s state by altering their perspective of what they see and feel. Chase has obviously dealt with adversity before and has taken this belief of surviving and applied it to this situation. When we see some simple teenage teasing he sees something else, and he reacted according to it.”

“So it isn’t his fault?” I asked still confused.

“That is the question isn’t it?” he said.

I paused thinking about what he said. I have only started this year on the program and this was good information to have. But there was something else nagging at the back of my mind since I saw Chase in the infirmary.”So what are we going to do?” I asked him.

“So what are we going to do?” I asked him.

“Since Chase is already through the fire phase which is usually done in the second week out of the four week testing period if by the time this week is over and there still is no change we will enact the Phase ISO.”

I opened my ask to ask what the Phase ISO was but he cut me off. Once again, I bit my tongue not to let loose any annoyance onto my face.

“Pray we never get to that point, there are precious few who enter that phase and come out not all that well put together,” Mr.Richards said in a grave tone.