I opened my eyes, wincing at the bright light that obtruded on my vision. There was a ringing in my ears as I tried to process what was going on around me. I felt as if I wasn't completely conscious even though I knew I was awake.

Where was I? Was I dead? Is this the afterlife?

I lifted my head and tried to sit up, only to find that something was restraining my movement. Glancing down, my eyes widened in horror as I saw that my limbs were shackled to a hard bed-like table and a mask pressed to my face. There was a sudden puff of air that entered the mask, making my head swim.

Anaesthetic gas...? I gritted my teeth as I tried to hold my breath, but when my lungs screamed in protest after only a few seconds, I knew something was off.

Struggling to turn my head and caught sight of something that wasn't my hand. But it was...? Wriggling my fingers, I was startled to see the tiny hand in my field of vision wriggle them back.

My eyes darted back down to my body and legs and saw instead a tiny frame draped in a blue gown a few sizes too big.

What was going on here?

My hearing started to return to me as I picked up traces of conversation from the masked figures standing a slight distance away from me.

"... why didn't you check!?"

"I had no idea, nobody could've known!"

"I told you to check for all anomalies!"

"I did! But she was hiding it, somehow. She must have an accomplice; it wouldn't make sense otherwise."

"Why don't you try telling that to the boss then."

"But I - " There was a pause as one of them tapped the other on the shoulder.

"She's awake."

"Already...? Fast for a newborn."

There was the sound of footsteps, and then a sharp pain in my upper arm before I saw the edges of my vision darken and everything faded away.

~*~

"Why would I know what's wrong with her?" I heard a guy's voice ask.

"Because I found her unconscious lying next to you - deathly pale - while not a single scratch was on your body?!" A girl replied. She seemed angry, but I couldn't be sure.

"Look, let's not argue over this again, what's done is done-" A softer voice tried to cut in before it was interrupted.

"I told you, I have no idea what happened back there either! The last thing I remembered was the blinding flash and a pain in my stomach and then I woke up on the grass. I'm telling you, the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was you pinching my arm- Levi was already unconscious in the grass before I woke up!" The boy seemed like he was desperate and whether it was for the girl to believe him, or had something to do with this 'Levi' I wasn't sure.

"We're not arguing over this again." The girl stated, exasperated, even though the softer voice had said the exact same thing moments before.

I heard a sigh as two pairs of footsteps left the room and another neared where I was. I felt a damp cloth being lifted off my forehead and another one replacing it.

Slowly, I felt sensation start to return to my body, leaving it aching. My head felt as if it had just been run over by a double-decker bus and my limbs felt as heavy as lead. When I tried to open my mouth to speak, I realised that my tongue was as dry as sandpaper.

"W-water..." I croaked, coughing when any last drop of saliva had been used up by that one word. Swallowing dryly, I tried to prop myself up on my elbows, but my limbs had turned to jelly; unable to support me. I landed on my back, slightly winded from the impact.

Why was I so weak?

I tried to think back to what I had been doing before I-

A sharp pain tore through my skull, causing me to bite my lip. Then everything came rushing back.

The chase, the shooters, the crash...

Brandon's death.

I ignored the aches that ran through my body as I sat up sharply. Glancing around, I realised that I was no longer in the empty lot and was now surrounded by rundown, grey cement walls. From the cracks that ran from floor to ceiling and the thin layer of dust on the dirty cement floor, I summarised that we were probably in one of the empty, abandoned buildings next to the lot.

"Oh my goodness, guys! Levi's awake!" The girl - who I realised was Addison - shouted, the earlier argument forgotten.

I turned my head in time to see Addison's form disappearing back around the corner. I didn't even have time to call after her before she was re-appearing, Aiden and Brandon in tow.

Wait Brandon?! He was alive!

Addison placed a hand under my neck and helped me sip some water. I felt the cool liquid run down my throat, soothing it and making me feel alive again. When it seemed like I had enough, Addison slowly lay me back down again and settled down beside the space I lay.

"Levi..." she started, eyes darting around as if she was unsure what to say. "What happened back there?"

She bit her lip, turning to glance at Brandon and Aiden.

"When I woke up again, I saw you and Brandon lying in a pool of blood..." she paused, eyes filling with tears. "Do you know how scary it is when you wake up to find all your friends looking as if they were dead?!"

I stared at her, words drying in my mouth. I remembered thinking that I wouldn't care if I had been the one to die, but I hadn't quite realised that there would be people who missed me too.

"I..." My mouth wouldn't form the words. Deciding to change the subject, I glanced around at the dusty floor. "Where are we anyway? How did we get here?"

This caused Brandon's expression to sour slightly as he glanced out whatever was left of a window.

"The car is a wreck, so we decided to camp here until you woke up. We managed to salvage whatever supplies we could, but that would only last the four of us a two day maximum." He frowned, and I could tell he wanted to say more; to ask what on earth had happened but I was glad he didn't. Not even I had an answer to that.

I frowned, glancing at the concerned expressions above me.

"You guys are alright, right?"

Addison smiled faintly, gesturing at the bandage around her temple. "I got hit in the head but luckily for me, it wasn't too deep. Aiden only suffered minor scratches as well, but it was you who caught the worst of the damage."

She frowned, almost as if she was talking to herself. "It doesn't make sense because no matter how I looked, the only visible wound you suffered was a scratch to your cheek. There were no other signs of injury, yet you were so pale and your breathing was so shallow. It was as if you were dead."

I took in the information, my mind churning.

"How..." I paused, almost afraid to ask. "How long was I unconscious for?"

The three of them glanced at each other before Aiden spoke, pushing his glasses further up his nose. "Three days."

I sat up suddenly, causing pain to shoot through my spine.

"Three days?!" I exclaimed, horrified. I had just wasted three days of precious time, unconscious! "How could you let me be out for three days! Who knows what they're doing to my father in there!"

Brandon's expression turned grim.

"Don't you think we thought about that too? But we didn't have the leisure of considering the future when you were unconscious and not responding in the present. No matter how hard we tried, we had no idea what was wrong with you!"

I blinked, surprised. Brandon didn't usually raise his voice at me.

"Do you have any idea how much worry you put us all through?" His voice seemed soft, resigned.

But I did. I knew how it was like to lose someone you cared for and that was exactly what had made me want to shout at him. Me being unconscious for three days left us at a high disadvantage. Three more days would give STARKON plenty of time to do whatever they wanted to my dad and we were literally sitting ducks. After a quick calculation in my head, I knew today was Wednesday.

Which meant school had started two days ago, and I still hadn't removed the faux emails from the school server. I cursed mentally, knowing that this would mean Brandon, Addison and Aiden would now be instantly suspected for helping a wanted fugitive. And that put all of us in a bad situation.

It was now certain that we all had to be on high alert when out in public, especially after the shooters. It was bad enough being a wanted fugitive, but now it was obvious that not only was STARKON eager to capture me, but would also stop at nothing to do so.

The thought sent a shiver down my spine and I pushed myself off the ground, ignoring my body's protests as I walked to the window. From my vantage point, I could see that we were in one of the higher levels of the abandoned building. I saw what used to be Brandon's car in the shadows of the long grass, and the large stain of red a few metres off. There was a rip in the metal of the windshield where I had torn it open to get Brandon out which caused my stomach to turn cold. I had made a stupid move in my blind panic; done something that could possibly uncover my secret.

A normal human would not have been able to rip open the metal like that, and surely it would cause questions or at least a fleeting suspicion. I had to be careful when I used my powers from now on.

That brought another thought to mind. I was sure that Brandon had died from blood loss, but here he was, alive as ever. He was only wearing his jacket - I knew for a fact that his shirt was too bloody to wear - and I could see the light pink of a scar on his stomach where the glass shard had been.

Thousands of questions filled my mind, not an answer for a single of them. So... Brandon wasn't dead? Why, when he had lost so much blood? Was I seeing a ghost? But that was impossible; I had the power of telekinesis, not the power to see ghosts.

I thought back to the weird trance I had gone into, and the movements my body made as if on autopilot. And then the intense pain as I drew out a strange energy from deep inside of me.

Had I... healed Brandon? But that was unthinkable. It was a known fact that all supers were only born with one power; villain or not, so it couldn't have been me. I was a user of telekinesis since I was three.

I glanced back at the scar tissue peeking out from the folds of Brandon's jacket, frowning.

But the evidence seemed to be saying otherwise.   

a.n.

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