Metamorphs 3, page 8
It was driving him mad. It was closing in on noon at this point, and most of his classmates had already started to head off to lunch. Tristan knew that Allen was intentionally trying to get under his skin for the sake of the scenario, however, this did not help his mood any.
This is so stupid. What is the point of doing all of this? I know how to hit the damn target, and I don’t need Allen getting on my case each time I miss. Who cares how much intensity I’m throwing out there? If I’m in a battle, I need to be able to take my opponents down for the count. He has no idea what that’s like. He’s never been in a life or death scenario like I have.
I would rather hit them with too much force than too little at that point. Like Allen said, if I’m in a regular environment, I’m fine. So why the hell am I out here still stuck on this one task?
I should be focusing on learning new techniques and improving my skills rather than hanging out here hitting stupid deer and Legion members!
Tristan struck out at the image of Doomsayer that lay before him, maneuvering his electrical blasts to avoid the human child and her mother that was in his way. The blast caught the simulated villain right in the head, its body turning a bright red to indicate that the high-intensity blast had landed. This had been the furthest he’d gotten in the simulator, and Tristan turned to his observing brother with a confident smile.
See? There’s no scenario you can come up with where I lose. If it hasn’t happened in the real world, it damn sure isn’t about to happen in some simulator you came up with.
Tristan turned back to look at the fallen body when his heart skipped a beat. He was no longer in the open streets of a downtown metropolis, and Doomsayer was nowhere in sight. Instead, he was within the lobby of the Academy, his classmates bound and gagged as their eyes looked pleadingly in Tristan’s direction. Christian smirked arrogantly before him.
A light switch went off within Tristan’s mind, his emotions surging far faster than he could conceivably control. He had not seen Christian face-to-face since that fateful night, and the image of his classmates lying powerless in front of him brought back all the repressed memories he had tried to avoid. Somewhere among the crowd, he knew Windrider’s body lay motionless.
Damn you, Allen! Tristan thought as he launched barrage after barrage of electrical energy toward the target, barely managing to avoid his simulated classmates. As the impacts struck empty air, Christian moving faster than Tristan could anticipate, the buzzer went off to indicate that Tristan was placing those within the simulation in danger and further emphasizing his failure.
He didn’t care.
At that moment, all Tristan could think about was how much he wanted his revenge.
He wanted out of this stupid scenario.
He wanted to escape his brother’s useless exercise.
He wanted Christian to suffer, to feel the despair and anxiety that Tristan had been left with since that day.
His body was glowing now, the air around him sizzling with electricity. With each blast he threw, Tristan continued to increase his power. His eyes burned, and he was finding it more difficult to catch his breath, his chest heaving from the effort of expending such energy.
He needed more.
He needed to get stronger, move faster, and generate more power.
The very air around Tristan seemed to shift, and he could barely hear the voice of his brother and surrounding classmates over the sounds of thunder reverberating throughout the skies. Tristan was completely oblivious to the dark markings spreading like a plague across his body. He failed to notice the crowd running away in terror as the simulator shut down from the power overload of the circuits.
All he could see was Christian. All he could see were his enemies. And they needed to go.
Lightning flashed down from the sky, colliding into Tristan’s back, the boy completely unfazed. Absorbing all of its power, fueling all of his emotions, Tristan let loose a blast at the stationary target before him, screaming out in all of his fury. The lightning blast struck dead center in the middle of the metallic object, the blinding flash and fiery impact engulfing his vision in a sea of white light.
In a brief moment of clarity, Tristan finally made out the screams around him before the subsequent aftershock of his blast sent him flying off his feet, reeling through the air like a rag doll. The deafening explosion and shattering of the ground around him immediately blew out his eardrums, and before he knew it, the world had faded to black.
Oh God, what have I done?
Chapter 5: Restraint
“Derek had so much potential, but he’d been trapped in that small town for so long. It was all he had known, and before he had met Rebecca, he thought for sure he would wind up living and dying in his hometown. But once he met his high school sweetheart, everything changed. That girl was probably the only reason he ever dreamed of a better life. Everything he did, he did for her.
I remember when he walked through that door at the recruitment center. We needed some able bodies to help us as we shifted our men overseas. We were making moves in Lebanon at the time and needed some good soldiers to help us continue the fight. That young man walked in, bright-eyed, looking for a way to get himself and his girl set up for a better future. He wasn’t much to look at back then, but there was something different about him. Reviewing his background, I knew he had gone through some heavy things, some life experiences that most men would never be able to break themselves out of. Not only was this a way to a better future, but it was a way for him to escape the dangers of his past, the dangers still threatening to drag him back.
While serving in Lebanon, Derek was exemplary. He served well under my command, and I couldn’t have asked for a better soldier. He was great with his peers, lending a hand wherever he was needed, and always ready with a smile to lift their spirits. There was an air of confidence about him, like he always knew he would come out victorious, despite all the chaos that was happening around him. His ability to interact with the natives and manage difficult personalities within his regimen caught the attention of many of his superiors. I began to get a lot of questions and inquiries regarding his status.
All the while being deployed, Derek did his best to reach out to Rebecca as often as he could, through phone calls and letters. That girl was his world. I’m pretty sure he fought that much harder to get back to her in one piece, and that determination helped pull us out of plenty of firefights.
Closing in on the end of his tour, I received a personal letter from the government regarding setting up a personal meeting with him. Apparently, there was some new task force that was being organized. While I knew nothing about what they had planned, I did know that this would be a huge step forward for him, a way that he and Rebecca would be placed in a situation where they could prosper as a family.
It wasn’t until decades later that I learned of his involvement in the G.E. task force and his work within the Carcerem.
Derek worked beside some of the most powerful villains this world has to offer. I can’t even imagine some of the things he had to see and do to keep those freaks in check. But I’ll tell you one thing, there wasn’t a man more equipped for the job.”
-An excerpt taken from the pages of Will of Stone: True American Hero-the General Derek Stone Biography
GABRIEL STARED AT THE gentle rise and fall of Tristan’s chest, his eyes alternating to the heart rate monitor and studying the sluggish beeps. Tristan had barely stirred since being admitted and with all of the devices attached to him, he looked like a human pincushion. Gabriel had done his best to stay by his side when not in class or sleeping back in the dormitories. He and Dan had tried to rotate shifts to give Belle a break, who was by Tristan’s side every spare minute. The poor girl had barely taken a moment off, and she was exhausted from the lack of sleep.
The past few days had been a blur for Gabriel, the boy trying to wrap his mind around all the things that had been explained to them. Following the events, Tristan had been placed in the ICU, where he was currently being monitored for any more unexplainable events. All of his close friends had come by to pay their respects, and it was apparent that no one knew what to expect once Tristan finally opened his eyes.
Gabriel’s eyes lingered on the black marks that had yet to fade away from Tristan’s skin. The dark tribal tattoos had engulfed Tristan’s skin initially when they had found his smoking body amongst the rubble. After stabilizing him in the ICU, they had witnessed the marks fade over time. Still, it was unsettling that they continued to linger after several days.
More depressing than this fact was the metallic bracelet that was currently attached to Tristan’s neck, the small dot in its center beeping green to show that it was activated. The device was a dampening brace that had been placed upon him by Principal Winter, a tool that the headmaster had created long ago to help him curb his unpredictable powers. While not entirely neutralizing a metamorph’s powers, it did effectively reduce them so that one’s power was more manageable.
Jislaaik, Tristan, Gabriel swore. What have you done to yourself?
Thankfully, there had been no casualties amongst the bystanders, although there were some students who had suffered serious injuries. Allen had initially been inconsolable, blaming himself for the incident, until Gabriel had stepped forth to explain to the elder Davids that a similar incident had occurred at the family campgrounds this summer. Alarmed, Principal Winter had taken over from there, applying the dampening brace himself and keeping a close eye on Tristan at all times.
Gabriel held his head and rubbed his burning eyes as he shot a glance at the clock. Midnight was sneaking up, and he needed to get back to the dorms to get some modicum of sleep before classes resumed the next day. Gabriel leaned back against the chair and let out a long sigh. As he did, Gabriel noticed his friend stir for the first time. Briefly, Gabriel thought that this was simply his mind playing tricks on him. The thought dissipated as Tristan’s vitals began to pick up, and his eyes slowly fluttered open.
“Thank God,” Gabriel whispered under his breath, slumping in his chair.
“Where—where am I?” Tristan mumbled, stumbling to find the words. His voice sounded harsh as if he were trying to shake off the cobwebs that lay within his windpipes. He struggled to sit up, however, Gabriel rose to his feet to stop him, gently bringing him back down.
“Easy there, brother,” Gabriel insisted. “You’re still not out of the woods yet, and you can’t afford to push yourself. You’ve been in a week-long coma. Now’s not the time to try to move anywhere. You’re in the ICU, and I need to go find a nurse to let them know that you’re finally awake.”
“The ICU?” Tristan croaked. “Why am I here?” Tristan’s eyes tracked down upon his body and nearly jumped up at the sight of the markings all along his arms and upper torso. “What the hell?” he cried out. “What is this? What happened?”
Gabriel took hold of his friend, trying his best to placate him and get him to relax. “Relax, Trist, you’re going to tear out the monitors. I’ll explain all of this to you in a second, but for right now, I’m going to need you to take a breather.”
Tristan looked at Gabriel and took a deep breath, his heart rate beginning to decrease slightly. Gabriel walked over to the chair and sat down to face his friend.
“During the classroom assignment, things got out of hand. Since we weren’t in the simulator, I have no idea what it was that you saw, but you lost it. I’ve never seen that side of you before and honestly, bro, it scared the hell out of me. You were completely oblivious to us, launching blast after blast at your target. Allen was trying to get you to calm down, but you weren’t having any of it.
“Thankfully, a majority of our classmates had already left for lunch, but those of us who were still present started to get freaked out once your blasts began extending beyond the simulator. Most of us managed to get out of harm’s way before that surge of lightning came out from the skies and struck you.”
Gabriel lifted his eyes to meet Tristan and tried to hide his shaking hands. “Tristan, when the blast struck you, it was unlike anything I had ever witnessed before. Something of that nature, something of that power, should have killed you instantly. Instead, you absorbed it all and channeled it into a massive blast. You completely wiped out the entire landscape: the simulators, the courts, part of the mountain, everything.
“We used our powers to protect ourselves from the blast, though I have to admit, even with full shields up your blast completely eradicated all of my defenses. It was pretty bad, Trist. I won’t lie. A few of us only managed to get out of the ICU ourselves a few days ago.”
Tears began to fall from his friend’s eyes as Tristan came to grips with what Gabriel was telling him.
“Gabe, please tell me everyone is okay. Please tell me I didn’t—”
“Don’t worry. No one was killed. As I said, a lot of us were pretty banged up, but we survived. Honestly, we’re all more concerned about you.”
“Me? Why are you guys worried about me? You guys are the ones that had to suffer,” Tristan remarked.
Gabriel paused before making his next statement. “Listen, Tristan, there’s something you should know. The professors don’t think this is just some isolated incident. This has been seen before, and they’re worried that it’s not something that’s going to get better overnight. This is going to take some time, and as a result, we can’t risk putting any more people in danger.”
At this point, Tristan did sit up, glaring at his friend. “What are you trying to say right now, Gabe?”
“What I’m saying is, we’re no longer able to participate in the Battledome this year. They’re worried that something might happen, and quite frankly, I don’t blame them. On top of that, they’re going to be pulling you from Advanced Ability Management. You’re going to be undergoing some specialized training to keep your powers in check. Along with the dampening brace around your neck, this should keep you safe from doing further harm to yourself.”
And us, Gabriel thought.
Tristan’s face dropped at the news, and Gabriel could tell that his friend was struggling to process the information.
“If I can’t train with you guys, what the hell do they expect for me to do? Who is going to train me if not Allen?”
“I will,” a familiar voice said from behind Gabriel as Principal Winter stepped into the room and approached Tristan. “I will be your new professor, Electro.”
Tristan looked at the older man, his eyes widening. “You? What makes you able to train me where Allen can’t?”
“Well, aside from being a former professor myself,” the headmaster said with a hint of indignation in his voice, “my powers will allow me to have better control over your abilities. It will allow me to halt any surges you might have and reduce the chances of you going haywire again.”
To demonstrate, Principal Winter extended out his hand above Tristan’s engraved chest and closed his eyes to concentrate. Within a matter of seconds, several of the tendrils began to recede under Tristan’s skin, the dark lines along his pupils fading away. Tristan looked to be visibly weakened by the technique, however, color returned to his pale cheeks as he stared back at the principal with his bloodshot eyes.
“Principal Winter, Gabriel said this wasn’t the first time that you’ve seen this. If that’s true, was the other…” Tristan struggled to finish the sentence.
Principal Winter nodded. “Yes, Tristan. Your assumptions are correct. The last person to have suffered from these side effects was your grandfather. Following the eclipse, Mr. Peters had warned me of his concerns regarding your status. Along with Magnetron, your grandfather was also adversely affected by the solar storms occurring during their era. It was the first recorded evidence of such incidents, and we were wholly unprepared for its effects. Alongside a radical increase in their abilities, they also had to deal with some of the mood swings that surfaced.”
“Mood swings? What do you mean the mood swing?” Gabriel inquired. “Since this happened, Tristan has been fine. He hasn’t said anything about having mood swings. Maybe this is something different.”
There was a brief moment of silence before several tears fell from Tristan’s face, the salty droplets running down his tattooed cheeks.
“That’s not entirely true, Gabe.”
The two men turned to look at Tristan, who refused to meet their eyes.
“I’ve been having a hard time lately dealing with my depression. My anger. It’s like I keep hearing voices inside of my head, voices telling me things that I would usually never think to myself. Mainly, they’re more centered around my guilt for what’s been going on lately, but at other times, they want me to feel like I’m untouchable. Like nothing can stop me, that I can do anything that I want, but not in a good way.” Tristan looked to Principal Winter, his lip trembling. “I don’t know what came over me during class, but it was like a wave that I couldn’t stop. What scares me the most…is that I didn’t want to.”
Tristan now turned to face Gabriel, his eyes wet and shaky. “I’m scared, Gabe. I don’t know what’s happening, and I don’t want to hurt any of you. This is my problem, and you shouldn’t have to suffer because of it.”
Gabriel rushed to his side and clasped his friend’s hand in his. “We’re in this together,” Gabriel proclaimed adamantly, “through it all. You’re all the family that I have, and there’s no way in hell I’m letting you face this alone. Whatever you need, whatever we’ve got to do, we’re gonna figure this out and get through this.”
