Episode 4: The Earthquake Abuse
It was a morning where Matt and Jen spoke to each other. Matt yawned, “Ah, I’m already tired of school.”
Jen agreed, “Of course. Seeing you every day for over eight years isn’t fun.” Matt rolled his eyes as Jen began to laugh barbarically, “OHOHOH! Just kidding! But anyway, we’ve only got four whole years of high school left. Lately, people have been calling me ‘Freshman’ for no reason. It really bugs me. Do I act like one to you?” Matt did not answer as Jen slapped him on the cheeks, “HEY! Do I?!”
Matt shook his head, “What? What?? Uh, yes!”
Jen punched him and he fell onto the floor. She walked away and said, “I’ll change. I’ll show you!”
Matt coughed and said to himself, “I wasn’t even listening…” He became serious, “It’s still in my mind… what can I do about these weird powers? There’s nothing useful about this at all. If this was used for me to become a hero, how can it be used? The only explanation is that this is a curse.” He got up and decided to move on.
~~~
Matt took a paper slip on his hand, “It says to go to the boy’s locker room to get my locker combination. I don’t see anyone else. I must be early then.” He saw the closed door of the locker room. He was confused, “How else do they expect me to get in?” He decided to turn the knob and enter. As Matt was turning the knob, a large earthquake brewed. He fell harshly onto the floor! Matt looked around, “W-What was that?!”
Matt saw Santi coming closer to the locker room. Santi watches as Matt was searching the ground, “What the hell are you doing?”
Matt looked up, “Did you feel that earthquake just now?!” Santi scratched his head without knowing what Matt was talking about. Matt turned his head to every other student nearby. They seemed completely normal. Matt’s head was hurting, “Oh… Maybe I was just imagining things.
Santi completely turned the knob of the door and it opened, “Anyway, I’m getting my locker combination too. You better hurry or else you’ll get a crappy locker, little kid.”
Matt looked away, “Peh! You should know my name by now.”
~~~
As Matt was packing his belongings into his new locker, he decided to sit down on the bench. Santi was nearby. As he was putting on his shirt, the ground shook again. Matt tipped over and panicked, “Ah- Ah! What was that?! Did you feel that earthquake again?!”
Santi nodded, “This time, I did feel it.” Everyone began to panic. Santi took a peek over at other locker areas, “It seems as though everyone felt it as well. This is impossible, though. There can’t be two large earthquakes in only less than ten minutes.” Matt and Santi turned their heads to a certain area of the ground. It was chipped and broken. A head appeared. It was a large-sized boy with glasses and longer hair than an average boy. Matt got up and he was shaking.
Matt pointed at the boy, “W-What the heck is that?! Who are you?!”
The boy gasped as he jumped out of the ground and ran. Santi made a pose where he would stop time. Time stopped and Santi laughed, “Heh, you can’t run away from me.” Santi grabbed the boy and time began again.
The boy was scared, “Let go of me! I know what you did! Let go, let go!!” He elbowed Santi, then he stomped and the ground shook again.
Santi and Matt ran out of the locker room. Matt pointed, “Follow that guy! He could sense what you just did. He’s one of us!”
Santi constantly tried to pause time but whenever he got a hold of the large-sized boy, he was pushed away and the boy would purposely jump to cause an earthquake near Santi so that he could lose his balance. Santi knelt down. He was sweating and Matt came up to him. Santi explained, “I’ve abused my timing skills a bit too much… I can’t do it anymore, for now…”
Matt watched as the boy ran. Matt clenched his teeth, “That annoying idiot! I’ll go get him!” Matt ran off and Santi got angry.
“With what?! Don’t be ridiculous!” Santi warned him. He was too tired to follow them.
~~~
Matt caught up with the large-sized boy. Matt, in front of many people who were watching, said, “Come back here damn you!” The boy jumped and an earthquake was created. However, Matt jumped at the same time so that he would not fall. Eventually, Matt reached the large-sized boy as he started pulling onto his hair, “Listen to me! I’m not going to hurt you. Actually I will, because you ran. But…” Matt took sight of everyone who was watching. Matt said to him, “Follow me. You’re in danger!”
The boy stared at him but he did so. As they were in the hallway where no one was around, the boy asked, “What’s going on? How come I’m like this? I’m scared!”
Matt laughed, “Ohhh! That’s why you ran, because you were scared. Okay, so all the people saw you stupidly jump in public, causing an earthquake. They’re about to report you soon, obviously-…”
“NOO! I don’t want to get suspended for breaking school ground! Anything but that!!”
“Don’t be pathetic. Even I can’t control my powers. My friend slightly can. He will try to reverse time so that no one would remember. Only the two of us would remember because we have these weird powers.” Matt explained.
“I don’t get it… But I’ll listen to you!” The boy smiled.
Matt slapped his eye, “You have to get it if you listen… Ergh, anyway, the thing is that my friend can’t reverse time yet. He’s too tired.”
A little piece of ice fell on top of Matt. Matt turned around in anger and Shirley had a block of ice on her hand, “What do you think you’re doing, Matt?!”
Matt pointed at the frightened boy, “N-Nothing, really! I just told him about our weird powers. It’s okay to tell him because he has one too.”
Shirley crossed her arms, “Are you stupid? You, Santi, and I said that we should not tell anyone. Not even those with strange powers. This is my friend, Danny. And he is known to spread things.”
Matt and Shirley glared at Danny at the same time. Matt shook his fists at Danny, “You’re not going to tell anyone, ARE YOU?”
Shirley sighed, “Well, even if he does, Santi can reverse time for us. But that doesn’t mean you can tell people, Danny.”
Matt gave a chuckle, “Actually, about Santi, eheh…” He whispered to Shirley about how Santi is temporarily no longer able to use his powers due to exhaustion.
Shirley nodded until Matt finished. She blasted, “WHAT?!!!!!”
~~~
Matt, Santi, Shirley, and Danny gathered privately. Santi’s hands were flashing, “That’s strange. Normally by now, I could reverse time but somehow I can’t…”
Matt clenched his fists, “Come on. People saw Danny use his powers. You have to do it!”
“But I can’t. You do not comprehend with me, Matt!” Santi sighed.
Matt scratched his head, “Are you sure? If Danny is exposed, we might be as well. Think about it. Danny is going to blabber on about us too.”
Danny fell to the ground and frowned, “I’m right here!”
Shirley jumped, “Wait a minute! Matt… your frustration is…” She grabbed Matt’s hand and felt it, “Normally your hand would expose heat but I can’t feel it.”
“And your hands are not freezing.” Matt replied.
Danny got up and he tilted his head, “What does this mean?” Danny jumped but nothing happened.
“Ohoh, I see you all are having fun.” Said a voice.
Santi froze. He was surprised from the person, “J-Jon! It’s Jon from our English class.”
Jon laughed, “I followed you all for so long. Especially you two, Matt and Shirley. I noticed that you guys were talking about your powers being safe and such. It’s such a bummer that your powers are gone, but you don’t have to worry about it anymore! Oh wait~, Danny was already reported to the office.”
Danny cried, “Nooo! This can’t be happening to me!”
Shirley took a step forward, “You did something to our powers, didn’t you?! I gotta thank you, but that doesn’t make up for Danny’s troubles.”
“Oh? Are you assuming that I was the one who reported him?” Jon said in a witty tone.
Matt answered for Shirley, “Who else could it be?”
Jon fixed his glasses, “Alright, it was me. Hehe. But, there is nothing you can do about it. I’m only doing this because you caused a disturbance to this school.”
Danny was shaking, “I-Is this your school? I don’t think so!”
“Isn’t this OUR school? We’ve got to show some respect, don’t you think? Messing with people’s minds is not the best way to deal with it.” Everyone was silent. Jon walked away and waved at them, “Well then, I’ll be going. You guys think about it.”
An announcement called for Danny, “Daniel Cortes, may you please report to the guidance office? I repeat, Daniel Cortes, please report to the guidance office.”
Danny frowned and decided to go to the office. Shirley wanted to follow him, “Danny… please be okay.”
Matt pondered around as he spoke out loud, “I’ve been wondering… why did Jon report only Danny?” Both Santi and Shirley pointed at the horribly broken ground nearby. Matt laughed, “OH YEAH. I forgot. Only Danny’s powers are evidence of that.”
~~~
Matt was in his room. He was fumbling with his lead pencil. For some reason, Matt kind of missed his fire powers even if they did serve no good purpose in his life. He was a normal boy again, living a normal life. Once he got up, the air conditioner turned on. Matt’s air conditioner was linked to the house. If the living room had air conditioning, then the whole house must have the same thing. Matt sat down again, “Why are they turning on the air conditioner? It’s not hot.”
Matt’s mother barged into the room, “Close your windows. I turned on the air conditioner. Wow, it’s really hot in here, haha.” She left and closed the door.
Matt gave a smile, trying to be happy. Suddenly, it hit him! Why did Matt think the temperature was completely normal while his mom thought the opposite? Matt clenched his fists to focus on his powers again. Maybe they were coming back? Matt felt his hands over and over again and this time, flames were producing without Matt having to get angry. Matt clapped his hands and the fire was gone. He started making hand movements again and flames appeared. Matt chuckled to himself, “Matt, you’re a genius! You’ve done it!”
~~~
On the next day, Matt ran up to Shirley and he pushed her, “Hey, hey, get me mad! Get me mad!”
Shirley slapped him, “Don’t be stupid. What for? So you can burn down the whole school?” Matt whispered to her about how he could control his powers. Shirley smiled, “Really?! Wow, you know what? I had the same situation too. Last night, I had warm water and I wished it was colder. I squeezed it in frustration and suddenly it got cold. What I’m thinking is that I can now control the temperature if it being on ice or cold. I can’t change the temperature to hot though. I think it stops at zero degrees Celsius. I can’s go above one degree.”
“How did you calculate that?” Matt wondered.
Shirley answered, “Well, I was researching on it last night. Water doesn’t freeze until it is under zero degrees Celsius. Not only that, zero degrees are thirty-two degrees in Fahrenheit. That’s why our state doesn’t really get snow.”
Matt pretended he understood her, “Hm… Cool. Okay. Well, I guess it will be easier for us to hide our powers.”
“The thing is, Danny hasn’t come back. Look around, he’s not here in the morning anymore. There’s no announcement telling us what happened to him. Not only that, don’t you find it weird that our powers suddenly disappeared for a short while until we got home last night?”
Matt guessed, “Maybe someone can control our powers and they canceled it for a little whole so that the can upgrade it.”
Shirley shook her head, “No way. There’s no possible way that they can be that strong to control so many people and their powers at once. There’s got to be another reason to this.”
Matt and Shirley began feeling slow. Their voices were slowing down as it started to flow normally again. Santi arrived and said quietly, “I can control a certain areas’ speed. I don’t think I can increase the speed yet, but I don’t have to universally reverse time.”
Matt was amazed, “Wow, see! I think someone upgraded it for us.”
“Damn it, I just told you it can’t be!” Shirley sighed.
Santi explained, “This happened naturally. As you can see, we all sort of wanted our powers back for some reason that even you can’t explain. That eager wish became a part of you and that bond became closer. Think of your powers like humans. If you like them and they like you, they’ll listen to you more. Look what it all granted us. But I have to tell you…” Santi looked around at the whole school, “There must be a purpose for this and we must prepare for it before it’s too late.”
Matt asked, “What do you mean?”
Shirley added, “And when is that?”
Santi concluded, “That’s… for us to find out.”
~~~
---- Next chapter preview:Matt: On the next chapter, a strange girl appears before two students! The two students seem to smoke but they are only in high school?! I might notice this but I won't care. Until... well... something starts to burn up. How did this happen?
ShirleyC: What?! Burn up? Oh what did you do now, Matt?!
Matt: I did nothing!
ShirleyC: I bet you did. We'll see on the next chapter!
Matt: Fine... Next chapter... A Grade Agreement!
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