New Delta Suburbs

June 8, 12:43

School was canceled for the foreseeable future. It wouldn’t have made much difference if it was happening, though. I doubted anyone would show up, for fear of getting killed just by returning. It wasn’t something anyone in New Delta knew how to deal with. We had always lived in a safe city, with few villains, and competent enough heroes to deal with them. But now, when Amps more powerful than our heroes arrive, our city crumbles.

As I shuffled across someone’s lawn to get to the sidewalk, I shook my head and tried to think of something else, but inevitably, thinking about Pact lead my thoughts to myself, and the inexplicable new power I had been granted. I glanced down at my hands and clenched them tight to stop them from trembling. I could hear the screams of the people caught in the shattering windows, the strange invisible destruction…I didn’t even know if my friends were alright, seeing as I lost track of them after the attack started, and ran home as soon as I could. It had taken a whole day of staying in my room, using the terror of the attack as an excuse, to get over my actions. My power had basically sentenced people to their deaths, people I knew. Kids who had futures, and had lost them, just like that. I suddenly regretted ever wanting superpowers. This world wasn’t one I wanted to be a part of.

However, I had no choice. There was no way to turn off my power, it was constantly telling me how to defeat the people around me. I had taken to avoiding my family as much as possible, just to stop hearing how easily I could snap my sister’s neck, or how the chair could be used as a blunt weapon to easily defeat my family. The type of horrible thoughts that one gets for a split second before brushing them off as random thoughts spurred by some subconscious realization had become my every-day thoughts. Walking was an easy way to avoid most people, as the streets were practically empty at the moment. I knew my parents were worried for my safety, but I couldn’t just tell them I had a power, and that it was telling me how to manipulate and kill them. Either way, unless the entire Pact came at me, I was pretty confident I could get away, as long as my power cooperated. Which led to now.

I was alerted by my power to somebody following me, with a murderous intent. A few minutes later, it was two, and then three.

Slow down. Pull out phone, pretend to check texts. Wait for the sounds of the assailants moving close enough to spin around and kick one in the chest, throwing him into a second. Move into a punch to the third’s gut, and stomp on the hands of the two who had fallen down. Minor super strength granted, in order to avoid knives located on bodies of assailants.

My head spun. Knives? These guys really did want to kill me! I had no idea what they looked like, just that they were there, so I couldn’t tell who they were, or why they might be after me. Regardless, if they actually were trying to harm me, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to use my power. Still, crushing their hands…it seemed a bit extreme. Maybe I would avoid that part and use the rest to escape.

My thoughts settled, and I mentally nodded. It was time to try this. I slowed down and pulled out my phone, opening a search engine and scrolling aimlessly, occasionally pretending to tap and type out a message. As I did, a yellow glow appeared around me, showing the path to follow with my body, and I felt my muscles expand slightly. My body felt obviously stronger, but it was an odd feeling, a swell in my biceps that felt unnatural.

Suddenly, I heard a faint scrape behind me, and my power shouted wordlessly in my head. I spun my body around and slammed my foot into the chest of a rough-looking punk holding a rusty switchblade. His leer quickly dissolved into a grimace of pain, and I heard an audible crack and I slammed his body into the body of a second guy, who was much pudgier and instantly lost his breath as his friend slammed into him.

“What the- hey!” the third punk yelled, pulling out a knife and charging me. My mind was now emptied of any worries. I was just following the patterns, like playing a rhythm game. I side-stepped the knife and slammed my fist into the guy’s chest, eliciting a grunt of pain as he started falling. As he was in midair, my power suddenly changed the rhythm, showing that I would need to knee him in the same space I punched to make sure he stayed down. Before it had finished changing, my body was moving, causing a sharp cry of pain from the guy, who crumpled to the ground, whimpering.

That was the end of it, I thought. But my body moved on its own, crushing my heel down on the hands of the other two guys, causing the fat one to scream in pain. My eyes widened as I ground my heel into the backs of their hands, my body practically moving out of my control.

“P-please,” the pudgy man whimpered, “Stop! It h-hurts!”

I swallowed but didn’t move my foot immediately. “Why were you trying to kill me?”

“I-it wasn’t anything against you! Just that, the boss says we’re supposed to take anyone out if they come near our territory!”

The other guy, who was resisting the pain much better, muttered “Shut up, Kyle!”

“Screw you Bryan, this hurts!”

I frowned. “Territory? This is just the outskirts of the suburbs, what do you mean?”

The guy shook his head slightly, then winced at the pain. “Since- since we know the heroes are chumps, now, a bunch of guys with powers are coming out to claim territory- it’s going to be a war!”

“No war,” the other guy snarled, trying to flex his hand under my foot. I ground my big toe into his middle finger, and he grimaced, then continued, “Just hackles raised. Now that they don’t have a common enemy, the Amps are going to start posturing against each other, seeing what they can get away with.”

“But’ I said, “I thought there weren’t any other Amps in New Delta!”

“Pfft, you’re a bloody stupid kid, aren’t you?” he chuckled. “They just didn’t show themselves. You only get two options as an Amp, join the heroes of be branded a villain. Our boss told us all about that.”

I shifted my weight and glanced at the third guy to make sure he wasn’t up yet. As I did, I considered what I had been told. I could take this to the Array, let them know about the threat. But they would probably be able to learn of my power, or maybe they’d be suspicious of how I got the info. And if they learned of my powers, I’d have to join them, or be a pariah, and that would only hurt my family.

Maybe the best option here was making my own, third option. I grinned as I thought about it. I could be a hero without being tied down to the Array. It’d be exactly what I was looking for as an Amp. The thrill, the heroism, with none of the especially terrifying parts. As long as I stayed out of Pact’s way, I could do my thing, and not get hurt in the process.

“Um…” the pudgy guy said pitifully, “Could you take your hand off now?”

I looked back down. I had almost forgotten they were there. I thought about the situation. I had been ruthless. My body had moved out of what felt like instinct, taking actions I hadn’t moved my body to do consciously. And yet, did it matter? These guys had wanted to kill me. What was it to my morals if I hurt them a bit?

I gave the pudgy guy a kick to the ribs before I walked back home.

------- -------

I spent some time online looking over various heroes from the past, and villains too while I was at it. I wanted to be original with a costume and alias. Not that anything would be completely original, but I wanted to try and stand out at least a little if I ever got famous.

As I scrolled through the list of heroes and villains on The Amp Wiki, which was a stupid choice for name, I let my eyes slide across the words as they fell into my head, the interesting ones sticking. Plaster, Boom Daddy- Seriously, ”Boom Daddy”? - Iaspis, Ares, Wasp. The list kept going, but my attention snapped back to Ares. Wasn’t that a Greek god? I leaned back in my chair, trying to remember back to my English class. My teacher had talked about the Greek pantheon, and though I hadn’t paid much attention to most of the mythology stuff, I remembered something being said about a goddess of victory. I typed it into my search bar, and sure enough, there it was. Nike, the goddess of victory. Though I wasn’t a girl, I figured the name sounded unisex. Besides, if people thought I was a girl, all the better. My identity would be even more protected that way.

Next, for my costume, I searched Greek cosplay. A few results, though nowadays most people weren’t dressing up as heroes or fantastical characters unless they were an Amp. One girl, though, had a whole set of Greek armor she had designed for an Athena cosplay, according to the description. She was selling the whole thing for about 500 bucks. I slid my chair over to my bed and reached under to pull out a plastic bag with my cash stuffed inside. I slowly counted the bills and had about 392 dollars. So not bad, but still not close enough to the costume’s price. I considered for a second, then shot her a message.

“Hey, would you be willing to lower your price to $400?”

After another few minutes of searching online, a reply appeared.

“Maybe. Want to get this stuff out of here, so I wouldn’t be opposed. But shipping’s rough these days. Where do you live? Can we meet up, talk price?”

I pushed back from my desk and curled a hand around my mouth contemplatively. She wanted to meet up? I didn’t even know who this girl was.

“How could we? For all I know, you might live in a different country to me.”

The reply was almost instant.

“Not a problem. Head to these coordinates, they should be near your house.”

A string of numbers followed, and as I plugged them into the search bar, the map that came up showed an empty building near the area I had beaten up the thugs at earlier. How did this girl know where I lived? I shook my head. This was way too suspicious.

“Sorry, how do you know where I live? This is creepy.”

“if you want the costume, you’ve gotta come buy it. :)”

After a few seconds of staring dumbly at my screen, another message came through.

“By the way, I’m only gonna be in town till tomorrow morning. So if you want it, you’ll need to come tonight!”