Stephan sipped his coca cola as he walked into the night. He was never one for night walks but there was no way in hell he was going back to sleep after what he'd just seen. Caffeine always helped him calm down, lifeblood of a student as it was. That was why he'd bought it, although the life of a student was the farthest thing from his mind at the moment. A lot of things had happened during the night and he'd awoken to a few surprises.

A vintage car zoomed past suddenly and Stephan jumped a little, watching as it rolled by. Maybe it was the caffeine in his system or maybe it was the dream making him paranoid, but he was pretty twitchy right now, which was unfortunate considering the state of his right hand.

Stephan looked down and hummed in annoyance. He'd crushed the can in his surprise, spilling its contents all over his glove. He sighed, throwing the can into a nearby bin before heading to find a tap of some sort. That was one surprise he'd woken up to - increased grip strength. Not super strength, mind, it was limited to grabbing stuff. It didn't work with his left hand either, thank goodness, because he was having enough trouble with one.

Stephan decided to try the drinking fountain in the park. He eased his right glove off his hand, revealing the crimson dyed skin that had come to cover it. That was another surprise he'd woken up to - his hand had looked like he'd bathed it in blood. Stephan pushed the button on the fountain with his left hand, washing the brown, sticky liquid off of his right. He'd found out about his grip strength the hard way when he tried using his sink. To cut a long story short, the cold water tap was now replaced by a rubber duck on the end of a chopstick. He  hoped that he could get it repaired in the morning.

Stephan beheld his work - a freshly rinsed black glove. He dried it off on his jacket, debating or not whether to wear it, and tried to decide where to go from there. He had a red hand with the power to crush and a disturbing order from his dream - to kill something, though he didn't know what. He didn't particularly want to, though, and he wondered about the origin of his powers. Was he unique? Were there others like him? What would he do now? He wouldn't get any answers anytime soon, as a sudden crashing sound drew his attention.

Even as the sound began reaching his brain, it became more softer. Stephan's vision was englufed by grey as the sound cut off and the ground disappeared from beneath his feet. He cursed loudly as he began to fall, twisting his body as he did and desperately willing himself to be solid. He couldn't feel the wind or see anything but he could feel himself falling who-knew-how-far. The sound of the wind heralded his return to reality as the smoky grey he saw in front of him solidified into a more solid grey, the exact texture and color of concrete.

Stephan faceplanted on the concrete floor, sending a wave of pain through his body as the rest of it smacked into the ground.
[color=green]"...Ow."[/color] He said.
He picked himself up, face aching from the impact, and brushed himself off as he tried to figure out where he was. A dim light glowed on the wall and showed the yawning majesty of a sewer canal.
[color=green]"Wonderful."[/color] Stephan muttered to himself.
That was the third surprise - the power to go through solid objects. Another somewhat difficult to control power, which he was getting the hang of quickly, but clearly not quickly enough. When his tap got busted he'd activated the power accidentally, and had ended up 2 floors down in someone's coffee table. Thankfully, the apartment's occupant had been sound asleep. He'd used the power to get out quietly too. It had it's uses, but he couldn't use it for long. For one, he was still affected by gravity, meaning if he fell forever he'd probably be screwed. And secondly, he wasn't sure it was in his best interest to stay in that form. It appeared that the longer he stayed in phased form, the colder he got, and it didn't feel like the good kind of cold. But the power was still good to have sometimes, especially in situations like these.

Stephan flexed his hands, first his left and then his right. The right took a little longer. For some reason it was always colder than normal now, and he wasn't sure why. Maybe it [i]was[/i] blood on his hand - his own blood. But that wouldn't explain why it was still cold. Stephan looked checked his surroundings for exit points. If his memory served him correctly, there was a man-hole over to the left. Interestingly, it was in the same direction as where he'd heard the noise. It'd sounded like a car crash, which was sort of significant considering there weren't many cars around. Stephan briefly considered ignoring it and going home, but then again, it wasn't like he had anything better to do. But he could make his decision once he got out of the sewer.

[hr]
A red hand appeared from the manhole, digging its fingers into the grooves of the manhole cover. Soon it dragged the rest of Stephan's body up as he phased through the ground. He'd figured out quickly that trying to solidify in a solid object didn't work until he wasn't in it anymore, which usually meant that if he fell through the floor and solidified himself, he wouldn't be solid until he came out the other side. But in this case, he could grab a handhold and drag himself through whatever it was he was going through. He didn't want to try it out while in anything too large though.

Stephan got up and recovered quickly, brushing himself off for the second time. It appeared that he'd dropped his glove at the park, so he'd have to pick it up later. Checking his surroundings, Stephan quickly noticed that he was on a completely different street now. He heard droning car horn and surmised that the sound that had made him phase out had been a car crash.
[color=green][i]I think it's coming from over there...[/i][/color]
As he began walking towards it, his law degree instincts kicked in and he wondered what had happened during the car crash. It hadn't sounded like a car-on-car collision, although he wouldn't know for sure. He'd imagine, with the car horn droning like that, that the driver's airbags hadn't worked, or something. The only way for the horn to sound after the car had crashed was if the driver's body was pressing down on it - and that wouldn't normally happen if the airbag in the steering wheel deployed properly. At least, that's what he thought. He briefly mused on what kind of car wouldn't have airbags nowadays and remembered the car that had caused him to crush his can.
[color=green][i]It can't be that one, right?[/i][/color] Stephan thought.