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As Delsin approached the office of his therapist, Dr. Lindquist, he contemplated what kind of people actually needed therapy. Usually people with some sort of mental issues, right? Delsin had a broken family that had basically disowned him, sure, but did that necessitate therapy? He didn't think so, as he had been taken in by his best friend Eugene Sims' family. The Sims had loads of money, given that Eugene's dad was a doctor and his mother a lawyer.
A traumatic event? It was possible. Delsin's father had been abusive, and his mother all but non-existant. But he and his sister, Abigail, were fine. They coped and dealt with everything their family threw at them without any outside help. It couldn't have been that. Maybe it was the explosion about a month ago that had put Delsin in a coma for a couple of days. That was certainly traumatic. Supposedly. Delsin wasn't exactly cognizant to remember that, and it wasn't like anyone but his sister had cared, and she had been powerless to do anything about it.
The super powers? Maybe that was it. The explosion was caused by a group of scientists, who were on the cusp of discovering a form of infinite renewable energy. It had gone wrong and exploded, of course, sending energy and radiation throughout the city. Hundreds had died. Select few, like Delsin, had simply been knocked out. Even fewer of those people still had their freedom, however, as it had been discovered after several blood tests on the surviving victims that there was something in their blood, and this 'thing' colloquially called POWER seemed to give out...well, superpowers.
They had tested Delsin for POWER, of course, but he didn't scan positive, which was the only reason he still had his freedom. He had been lucky that his pal Eugene had both the tech knowledge and access to medical equipment, so that they could discover that certain powers drained the level of POWER in a person's blood until they were almost entirely human. This wasn't to say that Delsin had gotten rid of his POWER on purpose...but sometimes accidents are good, despite the fact they had chosen to keep this little factoid to themselves.
Delsin opened the door to Dr. Lindquist's office, stepping inside with a smile. He wore a simple hoodie with jeans, his hands casually resting in the pockets of the hoodie. "Hey," Delsin said with a wave, crossing the room and taking his seat. "Can I get off easy by just saying 'I am fine'? Or how about, 'I'm tired'. I had a long night last night."
LAST NIGHT
Wisp stood on the rooftop of a building across the street from the port warehouse, where he had learned through his father that a weapon's deal between some street gang called the Vipers and a weapons dealer named Arsenal was going down. He fidgeted around, trying to get comfortable in his clothes; he wore a trench coat, closed over a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. On his feet were combat boots, and he wore a stolen pair of his father's work gloves, with a ski mask and tinted goggles to hide his identity. Tonight was his first night out as a hero, and what a night it would be.
"Can you seem them yet, Del?" came a male, puberty ridden voice over the bluetooth headset Wisp wore under his mask. It was the voice of Eugene Sims, Wisp's close friend and tech master. Eugene might as well of had super powers; the kid was a prodigy when it came to anything technological. Using self-designed apps and medical equipment Eugene had stolen from his father, Eugene was monitoring Wisp's levels of POWER and vital signs from his home, as well as keeping track of where he was in the city.
"No," Wisp responded. "I'm gonna move closer."
"Do so quietly," Eugene warned, and Wisp was off. The warehouse was across the street, and thankfully there seemed to be few cars and fewer people in the area. Wisp would not freak anyone out with his superhuman display. He stepped off the edge of the building, falling straight for the ground. His body dissipated into smoke and heat when it impacted the ground, and the smoke coiled back up and formed back into Wisp within a second. Under the mask, Wisp smiled.
"Always freaks out my equipment when you do that," Eugene said over the bluetooth. Wisp didn't bother responding, bolting from his position on the sidewalk across the street towards the warehouse. Before his foot touched the asphalt of the road, Wisp allowed his body to dissipate again, this time becoming a ball of smoke and heat that dashed across two of the four lanes to the median. There his body reformed, but Wisp wasted no time before he repeated his action, dashing across the remaining lanes and arriving right outside a fence placed around the perimeter of the warehouse. One more smoke dash, and Wisp found himself at the edge of the building.
"I wonder why the shot lowers your POWER, but the dash doesn't," Eugene quipped again. Wisp didn't respond, moving to a nearby pipe. With the aid of the additional strength and agility provided by the POWER, Wisp easily climbed up the pipe, smoke dashing the last foot or so onto the roof of the warehouse. He crept towards the front of the warehouse, laying down as he crawled towards the front edge and peered over.
Several yards from the warehouse stood a group of five people, each wearing a leather jacket with a large, stylized viper emblazoned on the back. "I see the Vipers," Wisp said, whispering despite the fact there could be no way the Vipers could hear him from this distance. "Five of them."
"No sign of the weapon's dealer? Arsenal or whatever?" Eugene asked, and Wisp could hear him clicking around on his computer.
"None," Wisp said, right at the moment a large truck came into view, heading in the direction of the Vipers. "Wait," Wisp hurriedly whispered, watching the truck as it pulled closer, stopping a good distance away from the Vipers. Five men in what seemed to be army fatigues stepped out of the truck, two of them carrying a large chest. One of them was far bigger than the other four, and Wisp assumed that had to be Arsenal. "Found them. You have any descriptions for Arsenal? I see a big guy, walking around like he owns the place."
Eugene was quiet for a moment as Wisp watched the military men, each armed with what Wisp only assumed were machine guns, approached the Vipers, who seemed unarmed. "Yeah, that's probably him. Anything I find on the Internet suggests he's a big dude who you don't fuck with." Eugene finally answered.
"I'm gonna fuck with him," Wisp responded, with all the gusto of a person about to make terrible life decisions.
