Chp. 8 "Realization"

After the incident Max and I had gotten right back into my car and headed home. It had been complete silence in the car and all the way to Max’s house. We were both extremely freaked out and confused as to how and why my body had healed itself. I didn’t understand what was going on inside my body but I was too confused to try to.

I pulled up in Max’s drive but he didn’t get out, he just sat there looking at me. I shook my head, “I don’t know what’s going on.”

He shook his head, “I don’t know either… I’ve never seen that in my life…”

I shook my head, “That’s the first time I swear that’s ever happened Max…”

He nodded, “I know, you were freaked out just as much as I was. I don’t have an explanation for this…”

I sighed, “Is it possible… to have two superpowers?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know but… I want to see if I can do that too.”

I squinted in confusion, “You want to hurt yourself?”

He dug in his booksack, retrieving a piece of paper and giving it to me, “Hold it and make sure it’s stiff. I’m going to give myself a paper cut.

I was still holding the paper too confused to even hesitate as Max slid his finger swiftly along the edge of the paper. I saw blood begin to ooze out of the tiny cut as he spread the cut wider with his fingers, waiting impatiently to see if it healed.

The blood kept oozing but the cut refused to heal, “Well, I guess I didn’t get lucky like you.”

I looked at him while he sucked the blood off of his finger, making me cringe. I shrugged in confusion, “I really don’t understand…”

He held his hand up, “Come inside, we can look into it.”

I glanced at the clock, realizing it wasn’t that late and nodded, “Ok.”

We headed upstairs into his bedroom as he pulled out his laptop, sighing heavily, “Where do we start?”

“You’re asking the wrong person.”

He leaned forward, typing quickly into Google Search, “Cell regeneration.”

A bunch of results popped up and he scrolled, reading the descriptions as he tried to find a match. There were reports and research, a Wikipedia article, and the definition of it. He ended up clicking on a video demonstration of what the body went through whenever it was wounded.

We watched it in fascination, seeing how the cells had to regenerate the wounded tissue and how it usually took up to a week for a simple paper cut to heal.

But my wound was a hundred times worse and healed in about two seconds.

Then he returned to the Google Search bar again and retyped, “Rapid Cell Regeneration,” and continued searching. There were cases of which people had reported that they healed a lot faster than the normal person but nothing like my case.

And after about two hours of searching he closed his laptop, “You heal one hundred times faster than the normal human and you also feel the pain. You’re not invincible because you can still be severely injured but can just recover from the injury a lot faster. It’s really intriguing…”

I shook my head in confusion, “But just a week ago I cut my leg shaving and it didn’t heal… so why now?”

He shrugged, “I know just as much as you.”

I slumped into his bed and ran my hands through my windblown hair, “I don’t know… I mean, do you think I can survive like… bullet wounds and broken bones?”

He threw his hands up in a defensive mode, “Well I don’t want to find out on purpose!” I laughed at the suddenness as he lied back in his bed next to me, and then shooting back up and raising a finger, “Now that I think about it, I’ve noticed something…”

“What did you notice?”

He faced me, “The wound didn’t start to heal until I removed the metal that had penetrated your arm.”

“So… you think that if I got shot the wound wouldn’t heal until the bullet was removed?”

“Or, the wound would heal around the bullet or your body would simply push the bullet out.”

I sighed heavily, “Well, we’re not going to try that theory.”

“Let’s just focus on how you got this power in the first place.”

“Good idea.”

We sat in silence then, brainstorming as to how and why I had gotten this power. I thought back to the first day I discovered I had the electric abilities and how before that day I hadn’t been able to short out my radio with just one touch. Even during the morning before I had left for school I had touched my light switch and everything had been completely normal…

So when exactly did this power decide to kick in?

I thought about when Max and I had touched fists and maybe how that connection could have sparked the ability. Had contact with another person with the same ability sparked my secret powers? Or was there something I was missing?

Then Max’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts, “Here’s my theory…”

I looked at him, “What?”

“The day you claimed to have gotten your powers was when you met me, right?”

I nodded, not really knowing where he was going with this, “Yes.”

“Ok, and it was when bumped fists that caused the spark to happen and for everything to go haywire…”

I urged him on, “So what are you getting at Max?”

He held his hands out, “What if when you and I touched that day, that was when I per say… gave  you my powers.”

I squinted in confusion once more, “What?”

He sighed, “Ok, the reaction happened when we touched Andy, that was when you started freaking out and almost blew up your car.”

I nodded, “Okay…”

“What if… when you and I touched… you kind of absorbed my powers.”

I felt stupid because I wasn’t quite understanding how that was possible, “Like… mimicking your powers?”

He nodded, “Exactly.”

I shrugged, “Ok so that doesn’t explain how I can heal myself.”

He shook his head, “You’re not seeing the bigger picture Andy… What if controlling electricity isn’t really your true power… what if your true ability is the ability to mimic other people’s powers.”

Then it clicked and suddenly I understood what he was talking about. I looked at him in shock, “So… you think that I can kind of absorb powers from other people?”

He nodded, “I think that’s the only logical explanation.”

I shook my head, “None of this is logical Max.”

He shrugged his shoulders as he responded, “Look, I’m just trying to help you understand your ability… but I think that’s the case you have.”

“So I can mimic powers by simply coming into contact with someone who has powers…”

“Crazy isn’t it?”

I nodded in agreement, but thinking about how I could’ve gotten healing powers didn’t become any clearer. I mean… I didn’t remember touching anyone…

Then I felt my heart stop in my chest, “Wait… that means I had to come into contact with someone who had healing powers to get them, right?”

He nodded, “That’s theoretically correct.”

I swallowed hard, only remembering one person I had come into physical contact, “That means…”

Max looked at me warily, “That means what?”

I felt my eyes widen at her face popping into my head, “That means Avery has to have the healing powers.”

Avery Ryan gave me this power.