It took two long years before Kel and I figured out the true nature of my ability. It seemed like invisibility but was really a sub-product of light manipulation. I still had weak control so the best I could do besides invisibility was to turn off the lights. Not very impressive when a light switch does the same thing.

In retrospect, I suppose it was a rather ironic power. I had never been one to enjoy attention so I deflected it to Kel, who thrived on it. He took the limelight, came up with brilliant, reckless ideas and charmed his audiences despite his Gemma status. There was something compelling about the way he spoke, genuine and full of passion, that made others want to listen. 

My forte was in logic, in keeping cool and forming rational decisions. On occasion, Kel teased and called me a walking encyclopedia. I enjoyed non-fiction and would often surprise him with factual minutiae during our lengthy discussions. But I have never viewed myself as a social creature and indeed, I tend to find lengthy social affairs quite tiresome.

I was content to walk in Kel's shadow and support him from behind. Or rather, from beside — we were partners and we were equal, and though in some respects I felt inferior to Kel, he always said otherwise. We balanced each other out, as he would say.

"I've found a potential new Sanctum," Kel mentioned as we walked down the city street. We were sixteen and I had hit a growth spurt. I was now taller than Kel and I returned to him all the teasing he'd put me through about being shorter than him. Our old Sanctum had been on the school roof, but we'd been found and warned to stay off of it.

"A Sanctum? Where?" We were so rarely apart, I wondered when he'd had the time to search without my knowing. He gave a small, secret grin.

"You'll see," he said.

A deep rumble resounded through the air and shook my bones. The crowd looked up in sync, our gazes drawn to a building a block or two away. Someone yelled that it was a Gemma attack.  I watched, horrified, as the building careened and groaned, then toppled. People screamed as they ran, one man nearly knocking me down as he shoved past me. There was an earth-shattering BOOM, then a horrible ringing quiet. Dust filled the air. A scream of pain cut through the silence, sending a chill down my spine. In the distance, sirens blared.

"We have to help," Kel said, taking a step toward the ruined building. I grabbed his arm to stop him.

"We need to go," I said. He tried to pull away but I held fast to his sleeve. "Cops will be here any minute. We'll be Gemma at a crime scene. We can't —"

"What are these powers for, Lav?" Kel exploded, his voice a roar louder than the sirens, louder than the ringing in my ears. The Gemma pin on his chest glinted hollowly as he turned. "For sitting back while people are hurt? To be locked up and hidden away?"

"Kel, you know that's not what I mea—"

"Are you going to help? Or are you going to watch?"

I wanted to help. I knew I could help, knew I could use my powers for good, but cold logic won the battle in my mind. We were kids. We had just witnessed how much destruction a Gemma could wreak. What if our powers did more harm than good?

I started, "It's illegal to —" Kel jerked his arm out of my grasp and darted forward toward the wreckage. "Kel!" I yelled. He kept running. I swore and followed behind, my heart clenched as we got closer towards the scream. 

There was a woman buried under the rubble. A large block of concrete had pinned her legs, and a bright smear of blood spanned the left side of her face. She was crying, her brown hair sticking to her cheek as her fingers scrabbling uselessly at the heavy concrete. 

Kel had already clambered closer and was regarding the concrete slab with a heavy frown. I joined him, part of my mind estimating how much the slab weighed and if it was structurally sound enough to be lifted. A smaller portion of my mind focused on the approaching sirens, counting down the time we had before authorities arrived. 

The woman had spotted us and she stretched out a hand in our direction. "Help me, please!" she sobbed. The combination of hope and pain in her voice was like a knife in my gut, sharp enough for me to dismiss my mental timer without a second thought. 

"Hold on, we'll get you out of there," Kel reassured her. He stretched out his hands, his green eyes sharp and focused. "Lav, help me out, will you?" He needn't have asked. I'd already put out my palms, ready to lift the slab with telekinesis. I let out a breath, waiting for his count, then heaved. 

Grudgingly, the slab lifted, groaning as Kel and I worked to keep it steady. It hovered in the air as we moved it away from the woman, then set it down beside the rest of the wreckage on the road. I let out a sigh of relief. Kel flicked me a grin, then took careful steps toward the woman. He reached out a hand to help her, but stopped short, his smile fading. I looked at the woman. Her eyes were filled with an animal fear and she shied away like a wounded rabbit, her outstretched hand retracted.

"You're Gemma," she murmured, an edge of hysteria in her voice. "G-go away."  

Kel's gaze flickered. He knelt and stretched out his hand, keeping his voice gentle. "You're hurt, and you need help. We're getting you —"

"No! Leave me alone!" she shrieked. The look in her eyes was wild and frenzied. I could tell there would be no reasoning with her, not in the state she was in. The blare of sirens was dangerously close now.

"Kel, we've got to go," I said.

"She's badly hurt," Kel said. 

I gripped Kel's shoulder. "She won't listen to either of us. The ambulance will be here soon. They'll help her out." I gave his shoulder a light squeeze. "We've done what we could."

Kel tried reaching out to the woman once more. She scrambled back, crying. I cast a glance at her legs. They were bleeding badly and her right leg looked broken, though I couldn't tell how badly through all the dirt and blood. I hoped it was a clean break. Kel stared at the woman for a long moment, then retracted his hand and got to his feet. The light in his eyes was still focused and bright, but bright in the way that a knife edge catches the light, bright in the way lightning arcs in a storm cloud. He glanced my way and that dangerous light flared, then faded.

"Sorry, Lav," he murmured, "It looks like I took too long."

"Freeze!" yelled someone behind me. I went stiff and held up my hands, slowly turning around. A cop stood there, a gun pointed my way. My heartbeat quickened and I fought to take slow, even breaths. The cop took one glance at my chest, at the silver pin there, and his expression hardened. I could see it in his eyes: all it would take was a finger twitch to rid the world of one more Gemma. "Hands behind your head! Get on the ground! Now!"

I sank to the ground, the asphalt and rubble unforgiving on my knees. The cop radioed the rest of his team about two Gemma suspects at the scene. Sirens screamed and doors slammed as more cops arrived on the scene. Medics quickly lifted the hurt woman onto a floating gurney and into the ambulance. 

 By now, I had several guns trained on me. One cop approached cautiously, handcuffs in his grasp as he recited my list of rights. The cuffs were two unconnected pieces of tubular metal. He clamped the cold cuffs on each wrist and after a moment, band of light on the cuffs lit up. Flickers of light crackled between the two cuffs and my wrists were drawn together by an invisible force that I knew to be electromagnetic. The cop explained that if I tried pulling my wrists apart, I'd be met with increasing resistance until a certain threshold was crossed, and then I'd be administered a shock with the same power of a taser. He asked if I understood. I nodded. 

Kel and I were separated into two different cop cars but taken to the same facility, where we were locked in separate, white-walled rooms with one wall that was obviously a two-way mirror. It reminded me of the Lab, except where the Lab was pristine and smelled of antiseptic, this cell was musty and had dusty remnants in the corners.

The process of questioning was long and tedious, made more so since the authorities questioning me kept repeating the same questions and expecting different answers. They would ask the same thing three different ways before dismissing what I said and moving on. Many of the questions were focused on whether I'd used my powers to help cause the accident that had destroyed a building and hurt a dozen people. They phrased it differently, but I could pick up on their meaning. It sparked a cold annoyance in me that I pushed aside.

From the voices that carried over the audio, I could tell that while most of them spoke the word 'Gemma' with loathing, there were others who responded to logical reasoning. I focused on making my statements as analytical and objective as possible. They didn't seem to like how calm I was being, perhaps wanting to get a reaction from me, but it is hard to argue with cold, hard facts.

After several hours, they announced that they had received and reviewed video footage from other cameras and had deemed my statements to be true and I was to be released. They added a warning that I was not to use my powers in civilian areas again. A cop came in to take off the cuffs and usher me out of the building. She explained that Kel was still detained but would be out soon, then tipped her hat to wish me good day before she left me standing on the sidewalk. I rubbed my wrists as I waited for Kel, knowing I would never forget the feeling of those cold cuffs. 

Fifteen minutes passed before Kel emerged, downright glowering as a cop locked the building entrance behind him. He stomped towards me and shot a glare at the police headquarters.

"They said I was being flippant," Kel raged, "Those lindshits refused to listen to a single thing I said! They ask for a recount, I give them a recount, then they proceed to interrupt me and say I'm wrong? I can remember what happened better than they can seeing as they weren't there, thank you very much. And then they get angry when I repeat exactly what I said before!"

I rubbed at my temples in an attempt to ward off an oncoming headache. I could understand Kel's annoyance but all I wanted after rescuing someone, having guns aimed at me and being questioned for hours was to be alone with a copy of Encyclopedae Dunaris and a cup of hot tea.

"That's nothing new," I muttered. "We're Gemma. They're not exactly inclined to listen to us."

"That's the problem!" Kel threw his arms out as if to indicate the police headquarters, the street, the entire city with the Tower looming in the back. "Everyone believes Gemma are bad. Why? What is so bad about being Gemma?"

I sighed. "There are numerous incidents in which Gemma have caused destruction or death —"

"Because they were out of control. But we have the control they lack, Lav. We've been practicing since we were kids to learn how our powers work and how to use them. We saved a person today, Lav! We used our powers for good!" 

"So what are you trying to say?" I asked, sensing that he was leading up to something but too tired to guess.

Kel's eyes glinted in the fading afternoon light. "The government, the media — it all stems from the Counsel sitting in their ivory Tower. They're afraid of us. They're scared of the power we hold, a power that can topple buildings in an instant. That which people fear, they try to control.  And that which people can't control, they fear. It's a vicious cycle with Gemma in the center."

"Kel —"

"I'm sick of the status quo." He clenched his fists and looked my way. There was that same light in his eyes from before, vicious and consuming and dangerous as a fire. It drew me in like a moth to a flame, like Icarus to the sun. "Things need to change."

#WriterThings: Looking up types of handcuffs at 1am?? Yeah, that was me. Then I didn't follow anything I found and made up something sci-fi-y sounding. (Did I also search up the difference between magnetism and electromagnetism and read through Physics Stack Exchange only to remind myself this is sci-fi and I can do what I want?? Yes.)

Anyways, we have reached the 8k milestone! Woohoo! What are your thoughts so far? Any questions that have been answered or remain unanswered? Feel free to comment!

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Word Count: 8447

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