Saturday March 23, 2016

"Wake the fuck up you lazy little shit!" Largent was startled from a deep sleep by a blow to the face. A moment later he experienced a sense of vertigo as the ground beneath him shifted, tilting had to his left and he rolled along until he crashed hard into another surface. Oh right. The ground hadn't shifted, his bed had. He blearily opened his eyes to find that his dad had lived the side of his bed, tilting him out of it and onto the worn and scuffed hardwood floor of his bedroom. 

If Largent was the tallest person in his grade, his dad was one of the tallest people in town. Close to seven feet tall and almost equally as rotund, Gareth was not a pleasant man. He and his wife had married young when she'd ended up pregnant with Largent, an accident they hadn't wanted or planned for and they made sure to let him know it. 

"We don't pay to send you to school so you can laze around all the damned time, you slept all day yesterday so get up and get some fucking work done!" Gareth roared and Largent cringed despite himself. The anger built up in his chest again. The same anger that always resided there like a cold knot of iron just behind his heart that he could never get rid of no matter how many people he took his anger out on. 

He went to stand, too stunned from his fall and bleary from whatever happened to him to realize his mistake before it was too late. One thing he'd learned early on in life was that, when Gareth knocked you down, you didn't get back up until he left. Not if you wanted to keep all of your teeth. He lifted his head just in time to catch the crushing fist to his face. The blow lifted him bodily off the ground and tossed him across the room where he crashed into the wall and slumped to the floor again, taking a nearby desk lamp with him. 

There was a crashing sound as the lamp hit the floor and the bulb shattered. Largest hand landed a scant inch from the broken bulb and he cried out in surprise when tiny tendrils of bright blue electricity arced from the lamp toward his hand. [i]What in the fucking hell?[/i] he thought. five tiny bolts of lightning connect his hand to the bulb and instead of the pain he expected a growing warmth spread through his body. The cobwebs were swept away from his mind and strength flooded his limbs. The pain in his cheek and jaw slowly receded as well until they vanished entirely. 

The whole time Gareth kept screaming, ranting at Largent over one imagined slight or another, but Largent wasn't hearing him. He held his hand out to the empty wall socket beneath where they lamp was plugged in. He could feel it. Humming through the floors and walls. Flowing, sighing, moving from one place to another. There was a beauty to it, a sense of order among the chaos.

"Mine," he growled and a thick bolt of electricity snapped from the wall to his hand with a loud hissing, crackling sound. The air began to smell of burnt ozone and hair as all the hair on his knuckles flash fried into nothing. He gasped and spasmed, his muscles clenching and convulsing throughout his entire body as he pulled the energy into his body. 

"What the fuck are you doing? You stupid fuck, I hope you plan on paying the electric bill this month," Gareth snapped angrily. Largent still didn't hear him, and even if he had, he wouldn't have likely responded to the ridiculous statement. 

The electricity suddenly vanished and Largent rose to his feet. Small tendrils of lightning crackled around his hands and when he raised his head and locked gazes with his father, the old man could see bits of lightning flashing in his gaze. 

"You," Largent hissed. "Are never going to hit me again."

Outside, if anyone had been nearby to care, a loud crackling noise could be heard, accompanied by frenzied screams of terror. The screams went on for some time before they finally fell silent, and no one left the house again for several days. 

----------

Richard

It hadn't taken long for him to get ahold of the right people. Took a little creative searching, but he managed it and by noon he had made contact with Mina and Alden. Hal, he hadn't been able to reach. But the others were on their way over to Sophias house. The door opened and Richard glanced up just as he was putting his phone down. 

"I got ahold of a couple of people, they should be on their way- GAH! Why are you still naked?" he asked, hand coming up to cover his eyes.

Sophia looked down at herself and frowned before signing, [b]I'm not naked, stupid. I'm wearing jeans.[/b]

"But no shirt, or bra."

She glared at him, not The Look, but still effective nonetheless and he sank back on the bed. "Anyway, some people are on their way so you might want to consider getting dressed. It seems like they've been experiencing some weird stuff too, so it looks like we'll have more to talk about than I think we ever have with some of them."