Elias bolted upright in bed, a cold sweat drenching his shirt. His heart was still racing, the sound of his own manic laughter ringing in his ears.
'Just a dream.'
He looked at his hands. They were clean. No blood. No kinetic burns. He glanced at the clock on the side table. 7:15 AM.
He swung his legs out of bed, his head throbbing with the familiar dull ache of the city's digital hum. He stood up, walking toward the bathroom to splash water on his face, but he stopped at the mirror.
There, tucked just under the collar of his shirt, was a faint, fading purple bruise on his jaw.
'Not a dream.'
Elias stared at the bruise until it vanished before his eyes, his skin knitting back together into a perfect, flawless pale. He grabbed his bag and headed for the door. It was time for school.
He stood in the center of his cramped room, the air humming with a frequency only he could hear. He didn't just feel stronger; he felt expanded. He leaned into the cracked bathroom mirror, gripping the porcelain sink until it groaned under his fingers.
His eyes were no longer his own. The bright, observant blue was gone, replaced by twin voids of bottomless black. The white of his eyes remained—stark and bloodshot—but the centers had expanded, drowning his irises until he looked like a predator peering out from a dark cave.
'I'm late. I don't care.'
He took a step toward the door, but his feet didn't hit the floor. He hovered an inch above the scuffed wood, his body light as a feather. The sensation of Flight was a jagged, electric pulse in his spine. He tried to push forward, but the momentum was too much. He slammed into the ceiling with a dull thud, the plaster cracking under his back.
"Damn it," Elias muttered, a jagged laugh bubbling up anyway.
He tumbled back down, hitting the floor hard, but he didn't feel the impact. His Invulnerability turned the floor into soft cardboard. He stood up, and as he did, he realized the perspective of the room had changed. He looked at the doorframe—he was nearly level with the top of it now. A sudden growth spurt had stretched his frame to a lean, muscular 6'2".
He looked down at his legs. His black jeans were now high-waters, ending awkwardly three inches above his ankles. He kicked off his old, cramped sneakers and slid into a pair of rubber slides, not caring how he looked.
'I need a new fit.'
Elias walked out of the apartment, his movements a blur of Super Speed. He didn't take the stairs; he stepped off the fire escape and let himself fall. For a second, the wind screamed past his ears, but he didn't panic. He tried to trigger the flight again, hovering awkwardly for three seconds before his concentration snapped and he crashed into a dumpster in the alley below.
He climbed out of the trash, his skin flawlessly pale despite the jagged metal edges that should have shredded his clothes. He wasn't angry. He was ecstatic. A manic, devil-like grin stretched across his face, wider than anything humanly possible.
"I can kill them all," Elias whispered, the thought sending a shiver of pure joy through his chest. "Every single one of them."
He walked toward a high-end streetwear shop three blocks away. He didn't go inside. He stood at the window, staring at a pair of heavy, black cargo pants with chrome buckles. He focused his mind, reaching out with Telekinesis.
'Mine.'
The glass didn't break. The pants simply levitated off the mannequin, drifting toward him as if gravity had forgotten they existed. He stepped into a dark corner, swapped his short jeans for the new ones, and felt the heavy fabric settle against his slides.
He checked his reflection in a tinted car window. Tall, black-eyed, his jet-black hair now reaching his jawline. He looked like a nightmare, but to him, it was the first time he looked right.
Elias turned toward Midtown High. The school bells had rung twenty minutes ago, but as he walked, he slowed his pace.
He reached the school gates, his long hair blowing in the wind. Students in the courtyard stared, whispering about the "new kid" or why Elias looked so different, but he didn't hear them. He was busy looking at the school's security cameras, his Technopathy already bypassing the firewalls, watching every heartbeat in the building.