New Genesis

Chapter 7

“What are you talking about Mark?”

Tyler stood opposite of Mark in the base. The group had driven to Jessica’s house. They waited for Jessica’s sister, Diana, to get back from school before they walked to the base. While everyone talked around him, Mark walked in silence to the base trying to formulate a plan on how he was going to convince people he was right. Blake had opened the stairs and they stood in a big circle in the computer room.

“I’m saying that some of us are developing superpowers.”
“Like who?”
“Weird stuff has happened to Blake, Matt, Steven, and Chewyy.”
“What happened to them?”

Blake took a step forward and started.

“Between Sunday and Monday, a light post fell down in my neighborhood. I told Mark about it and Mark said that it could have been weakened by the Tornadoes on Thursday. But that light post replaced one that had fallen during the tornadoes.”
“So that doesn’t mean anything.”
“Take your phone out Tyler.
“Why?”
“Just do it.”

Tyler took his phone out and held it towards Blake. Blake stuck his hand out towards the phone and nothing happened. Blake’s hand began to shake and suddenly Tyler dropped the phone and it exploded as it hit the ground.

“I just bought that phone!”

Tyler picked up the pieces of the phone and put it back together. He let out a sigh as it turned on. Everyone looked back at Blake.

“I figured out I could do the stuff on Wednesday. My mom was yelling at me about moving a tv from the basement to my room. The tv was really heavy. I could barely pick it up let alone walk it up to my room. As I strained to pick it up, it instantly got lighter. If I had to compare it to something, it weighed about as much as one box of my magic cards. I learned that I can also make objects heavier along with making things lighter. The only catch is that I can’t move. “
“Ok. That’s weird but what about the others?”

“I officially get free lunch for the rest of the school year.”
Steven drew attention to himself and began.
“I can control people. Anything I ask or say they do. I showed Mark in Chem. The first time was when my mom wouldn’t make me food. When I asked with force my mom’s eyes went blank and she made me enough food to satisfy me. Even though Mark asked me to not use my power I decided that I didn’t want to pay for food anymore.”

“Steven, what if someone sees you?”
“I go up at the end and don’t worry I make sure no one sees me and the lunch ladies forget I was there.”
“Just be careful Steven.”
“Don’t worry. So yeah that’s all that has happened to me.”

Before anyone could say anything Matt took a step forward.
“I can make stuff disappear.”
In that instant Matt disappeared.  Everyone gasped and looked around.
An instant later Matt reappeared on the other side of the room. Matt stuck his hand out and Chewyy disappeared.
“Matt what are you doing?” asked Chewyy.
Everyone gasped. They couldn’t see Chewyy but they could hear him. Matt continued to talk.
“At first random stuff started to disappear. But then when my mom was nagging me to do some stupid chore, I wished I could disappear. The next second my mom walks into my room. She stops, looks around, and then she starts to yell at me and asks where I am in the house. I stayed perfectly still until she left. After practicing a while, I learned to walk and remain invisible. I learned later on that  I could turn other stuff invisible.  I had fun making my mom think she had lost her car keys for atleast thirty minutes.”
Matt chuckled at the memory.

“I guess it’s my turn.”
People looked at where Chewyy should have been but Matt was keeping him cloaked still. Chewwy didn’t realize this and continued talking.
“I was doing my pre-calc homework when the weird stuff started happening to me. I was about to do a problem when a number entered my head. I checked it on the calculator and saw that it was the same number that I had calculated in my head. I continued to do the problems without the calculator first and checked my answers on the calculator. All of the numbers were the same and they were all correct. I started to do my Chemistry homework without a calculator and all of the answers were correct. Im also starting to be able to recall things for no reason like there are 1326 lockers in our school or there are 353 steps in it. “

Mark cleared his throat and began to speak.

“Let’s not forget what I did. I ran like 50 yards in three seconds.”
He looked at each of them.
“All of the people that developed powers were in this room when PROJECT GENESIS was activated. Whatever that is. The point is that we all could possibly develop powers. I seem to be fast, Chewyy is super smart, Blake can control the weight of things, and Steven can control people. What do you guys think?”

The group began to argue. It was split almost even in who agreed and disagreed with Mark. There seemed to be no end to the bickering until someone yelled out.

“I think it possible!” Everyone turned to face Jessica. “I mean the only thing connecting all of you is this place and school and I doubt the school is doing this. The food is bad but not that bad.”

“I want a power!”
Jessica’s little sister Diana jumped up excitedly.
“I want to fly, or teleport, or shoot flames out of my hands, or control water! Is there a way to tell which power we will get?”

Mark shook his head. “The point I am trying to make is if we all gain powers, we need to control them. If our powers go crazy, we might kill someone.”

“What do you think we should do?” asked Katie.
“To simply put it, I think we should train.”
“What kind of training develops superpowers?” Zach inquired.

Ten minutes later and they were playing tag in the woods. They were running around franticly. Some people complained that it would not be fair since s four people had super powers. Steven would tell people to stop running and tag them. He also made it impossible for the person to tag him back. Matt cloaked himself and he was only tagged when someone would barrel through him as they ran or he would run into them if he was not looking. Chewyy’s power sadly did not help him too much but he was starting to be able to track people by looking at his surrounding environment. Blake weighed people down with his power and made it impossible for them to escape. This is how Mark got caught. He had been out running people and even Steven’s power could not affect him.

“Got you Mark.”
Blake walked up to Mark. Mark could not move at all. He was flat on the ground with his face up. Blake knelt down beside him and poked him in the chest.
“You’re it.”

Blake ran away keeping Mark on the ground until he could not hold him down any longer. Mark got up, looked around, spotted Jake, and ran for him. Jake had no hope of escape. Mark came to a stop in front of Jake within a few seconds. Mark had practiced stopping so he would not trip over himself while he tried to stop.

“Oh crap.”
Mark smiled as Jake started to turn around but Mark poked him in the shoulder. Jake’s arm twitched and he fell to the ground. He screamed about being shocked by something. Everyone ran to Jake as Mark kneeled to make sure his friend was ok. The group formed a circle around the two.

A lot of them asked, “What happened?”
Mark only responded with, “I shocked him somehow.”
“That was not a shock,” argued Jake, ”It felt like my arm had been electrocuted.”
“Sorry Jake, I don’t know what happened.”
“I may have an idea.”
Mark looked at Chewyy with a puzzled look.
“Wait…. How?”
“Mark you told me that on Sunday you shocked your dad and electrical appliances malfunctioned around you.”
“Yeah. So…...”
“Well there is a possibility that you don’t run fast because of your power. You run fast because your body’s electrical impulses have sped up.”
“Ok. But how does that explain shocking people and messing up appliances.”
“Your body’s electrical impulses would have created a magnetic field around you. This would mess up the electrical appliances. You shock people because your body produces a large electrical charge. Your body needed time to get used to your power so it could control it.”
“You got all this from me shocking people and running fast but I’m not shocking Jake right now.”
Chewyy nodded. “Of course I will need to test it. You may only shock people after you have been running around for a while.”
“And how do you suppose we do that?”
“We can start by trying to charge up the battery that’s in the compound.”