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The last few days had been insane. Thomas could barely believe what had happened as he stood in the shower, hot water rushing down his body. It was a pleasant sensation, one that he needed right now. His mind was inundated with stories of the San Fransisco massacre, ones he could not escape as they repeated them over and over on CNN and social media. While Thomas had not been in the part of town that was destroyed, it still affected him.

According to his boss, a fellow mechanic named Ivan had been killed by falling debris during the massacre. While Thomas had only met him once, that first day when he arrived in town, it still hurt to know that an acquaintance was killed by a fellow altered. Following the death, the tone at work changed. Luke and the others were now decidedly anti-altered, and Thomas couldn’t blame them.

After all the violence and unrest caused by altereds, Thomas wondered if they could ever be forgiven. He would be reminded of his own status as an altered when his stress would trigger a mini burst of energy, sending Thomas into the shower ceiling. Thomas swore as he felt his bruised head. Luckily he wasn’t bleeding, but he had managed to crack the ceiling tile.

Figuring that was a sign to get out of the shower, Thomas got out and began to dry himself off. He then entered the bedroom of his basement apartment, his phone on the night table dinging. Thomas didn’t want to check his phone, lest social media tell him more of the world’s woes. Just yesterday, he had seen that there had been an attack in his hometown of Phoenix. For some reason an altered decided to demolish a grocery store. Upon seeing this, Thomas immediately called his family. Fortunately, they were safe as the store was on the other side of town.

As Thomas put on a shirt, he decided that he might as well see what was up. The phone’s ding had meant a text was received, this one from Thomas’ Uncle Rick. Thomas was surprised to see it as he wasn’t even close to his uncle, having not spoken to him since before leaving Phoenix.

Thomas read the text. It said to check out this website: powerdanger.com. Thomas assumed that this was another one of his uncle’s conspiracy websites. Uncle Rick was the one family member at Thanksgiving who would talk about the deep state and other far out theories, and blame the government for all his problems with the law. Thomas decided to open the website, thinking it could be good for a laugh.

Thomas was immediately surprised to find a gallery of suspected altereds. It seemed to be a mix of well known altereds, such as ones with public arrests, and grainy images of people believed to be altereds. Thomas almost closed the site immediately, fearing that his mental health couldn’t handle it. But curiosity soon got the better of him.

Thomas would spend the next twenty minutes browsing through the San Fransisco section. Eventually he recognized a face. It was the ice using criminal he had saved. The page for him listed his name as Xavier and that he had died in the hospital from a drug overdose.

Thomas swore. What was the point in saving him if he was just going to kill himself with drugs. But he also wondered who had taken the photo. Thomas scrolled to the bottom of the page, finding an associated link. Clicking on it, Thomas gasped as a picture of himself appeared. Granted it was a very grainy picture with most of his features obscured, but Thomas still recognized it.

Accompanying the image was the words unknown, energy user, and the date of the photo. Now Thomas closed the website, tossing his phone onto his bed. This was not what Thomas wanted. He didn’t ask for powers but still got them. And now he could be arrested, or more likely lynched. If the government figured out who he was, life would be hard not just for him, but his family and friends as well.

Thomas felt that he needed some air so he left his apartment. He then began to walk, and continue walking. Before he knew it, it had been almost an hour and he was far from home. But he still felt like walking. That was until he heard shouting. Curiosity won out over apprehension, so Thomas went toward the shouting.

He soon discovered two groups, one with signs saying things like: altereds go to hell! While the others said: altereds are the future. While it was clear that both sides hated each other, so far no violence had broken out.

Thomas approached a woman with an altered rights now sign, [color=#E3E854]“What’s going on?”[/color]

“I’ll tell you what’s going on, these fuckwads beat up a teenage girl on this street, just for being an altered.”

[color=#E3E854]“How did they know she was an altered?”[/color] Thomas asked with a slight tremble in his voice.

“Some guy outed her online.”

Thomas thought back to powerdanger.com. If someone could enhance that image of him then his life would be in danger. While contemplating this, Thomas began to hear sirens. Not wanting to have to deal with the police again, Thomas began to back away from the protest.

But just as he was leaving, the last semblance of civility broke as both groups of protesters began attacking each other.

[color=#E3E854]“Fuck,”[/color] Thomas said quietly, as he turned to run from the brawl.