My Super Secret Life… Potentials 4.

*Faith…………………….

Hey…

My name’s Andrew, but I’ve always liked Drew better so there’s that. My last name’s Porter and I’m a mutant.

I have been since I was thirteen.

And my family doesn’t really know. Thankfully I pass for normal. I’m not sure actually what my parents would say but my sister Nancy would lose her shit. While she’s not one of those P4’s. (People-For-Humanity.) She’s scared of us. See she was beat up when she was a kid, well smaller kid by this antho kid had beat them up pretty good for abusing and teasing their little sister.

We ended up moving after that and stuff because Mom got a better job and we could actually live in the old family house. We bought it from her brother who was kinda a crook about it. It helped that move and I know we did it for her but it’s still left a mark on Nancy and now with the kids she hangs out with are this whole jocks and normal’s crowd she’s gotten worse. Troy really started that shit. He’s…he’s an import that moved here from the Federation.

The Federation’s the Federation of Free Colonies…and that’s bullshit, if you can just picture early 20th/21rst century America of Earth and apply it to colonies instead of states you got the same thing….Flag waving patriotic to being brainwashed only the normal folks count because the meek shall inherit the ‘verse.

Thank God I live on New Haven.

Now New Haven’s a charter member of The AAW of the Alliance of Allied Worlds. That’s a whole bunch of worlds, colonies and even some of the alien races planets all together for trade and defense.

We need to…the Feder-rats, the Soviets, the Chinese and others are frothing at the mouth over us.

New Haven has the ship and Freaktown and the largest mutant and anthro population anywhere in the galaxy.

They accuse us and the government of building a super human army. Assholes most of them have the policies of conscription for life for Metahumans and no rights at all for anthrosapiens.

Nancy’s part of this Mutant Apocalypse crowd. They’re going on about the fact that mutants are going to make normal’s extinct soon because more and more are showing up and it’s a sign of humanity going out and they need to fight and defend themselves.

It’s true and it’s not.

There’s a lot more of us humans now that we’re spread out. And we’re more and more dabbling in bio-sciences and stuff that we never dreamed were possible. And then there’s the press. Without governments hushing up the existence of mutants and stuff we’re as much in the media spotlights as crime and terrorism and stuff.

But yeah I’m a mutant.

Mom likely would take it and think on it if she knew. She’s an engineer for the city and a quiet thinking woman. I’ve never really heard her say much against the whole thing except to correct Nancy for being rude. Mom’s one of those people that even when she’s mad she’s mannerly and in control of herself.

Dad…well he’d be upset. He’s a teacher and stuff and he’s okay on civil liberties and stuff but to him meta’s and mutants are dangerous and should be always seen as such. He says that because of his mother.

He doesn’t talk much about grandmom that much but from what I’ve gathered…she was a super…that’s a known Meta. She was a crime fighter and hero and stuff and grandpa got hurt, dad and my aunts got hurt because of something that happened and he took the kids away and divorced her. She died the year after that.

And I get why.

Love, and a broken heart.

…………………….yeah.

Dad’s hard on them because of that and the whole power corrupts thing. Grandma might not have been evil at all but to dad’s thinking if she hadn’t thought she was “Special” she’d never have gotten herself killed.

Both right band wrong but I’m not gonna point that out yet.

Okay; I had dug stuff up about her a bit for school a genealogy thing for social studies. It took digging through the warehouse 13...it’s an ancient TV show, novel series and comics thing about…well never mind, it’s what we call out basement.

Sorry but just to give you an idea.

We live in Mom’s family home that’s actually an old five story walk up. We own the whole thing and between mom’s lab/shop the offices for both the library and other stuff the place is actually pretty full not to mention my family on both sides are pack rats.

Anyway…I found some of her stuff packed away in really well sealed and hidden under mounds of other stuff. Grandma…the family dirty secret. I’d started reading her journals which was hard because they were handwritten and that’s hard to read since it’s not normal to use handwriting in this day and age so it was like a secret code or something.

And it turns out she was recording her powers and stuff. Reading it was deja-vu like. I’d been going through the same things.

Her first words were. “It started with the headaches.”

When it started with me I had these migraines from hell. Like the world was trying to jump into my brain.

Then she wrote. “Then I was making things move.”

It had happened to me a few times and freaked me the hell out for weeks. It took me awhile to get it under control…I was a mutant…and one of the things I could do was telekinetic stuff.

Mostly the wild stuff happened when I wasn’t thinking about something. Like reaching for a can of pop or something and it’d slide to my hand. I read her notes and started to learn from her mistakes, her notes things she did feel the same for me.

Like my TK feels like those light tingles when your arm’s asleep but you can sort of push it. Oh and it more feels like soda bubbles to me.

And I can fly…well sort of I have it and telekinetic (Tk for short.) And Tk enhanced attributes. If I fill myself with the TK energy I’m faster and stronger.

But here’s the kicker.

I’ve really low baseline powers. But I’m an energy vampire like Grandma…Yeah I get that whoa and leery thing but it’s not like that. We feed or fed in her case off of positive directed empathy.

Basically when we’re getting cheered on or people have “Faith.” in us we convert that into psi energy. It makes us more powerful, faster, stronger and stuff. That’s kind of problematic right that means people have to believe in me in order for me to really do anything super.

Oh I can fly and sort of do stuff better than a baseline human without training but without a power base…or someone that really has faith in me I’m small potatoes.

See what I mean about why and how I think Grandmom died?

You can die from a broken heart.

But…

I’m like her so it’s not like I could just stand there and do nothing and yet…there’s my family and everything and I thought hard about it.

I came up with this…if people thought I was sort of the shit in real life then I’d have more power to draw on because “Drew’s awesome at that…” whatever that’d be.

So I hit the books pretty hard since I’m not a dummy and didn’t want to be seen as one but I also went in for chess club but the same time I went in for football, boxing and wrestling.

Oh I really can’t stand the attitudes on some of these guys. Even at thirteen when we’re supposed to be all kind of teenager…just turning into awkward teens there’s these guys that strutted. I hated being on their teams and even though I had an okay pass and could run really good and tackle hard I dropped out of football for soccer after the first year. Still ego but tons less than the football gods.

Wrestling was okay and It still had the meatheads but like soccer they were less and less. My boxing class was pretty good and I liked the coach was old school in this strange way. Nothing you did was to same the gym, even in your life outside the gym. You left the school to go to a match you wore a shirt, tie, slacks, jacket. You thanked them when you met the other boxers for giving you the chance, you said good match afterwards. And you fight smart.

“It’s not TV Drew it’s real like, it’s points and scores.”

And it was starting to work.

Kids in school saw me as quiet but strong, fast, and smart. I’d dropped wrestling for an out of school class in Jeet Kune Do…it’s fairly common being the style Bruce Lee invented and if I was going to do this I needed to know more and better fighting styles other than two years of junior high boxing and wrestling. I stayed with the soccer for the footwork and the cardio and stayed in chess club because I like it band I get along with the smart kids.

Not the too smart rub your face I it kids but just those kinda funny nerdy kids that are into all those neat hobbies and stuff. I like them better than the jock crowds or the evil geniuses and there’s been a few things that I guess tickled my mom’s blood in me like playing a few times with remote planes and cars and even building and flying kites. Plus as much as I’m not madly into them like some people I like movies and science fiction and fantasy stuff. I like to read too.

I guess, as much as my powers relied on being popular, I don’t like the popular crowd that much. But I’m still getting there…I sort of don’t hang around with anyone really.

I don’t really get why.

But like I said my baselines are stronger than when I started and my sort of reputation gives me some power to work with. I’ve built it up by pulling off some power stunts and passing them as martial arts tricks.

That works a surprising amount of time.

So does fighting.

I kind of can’t stand some of the bullies in school. Be it the jocks or the gang types I’ve stepped in a few times and used my powers to drop some of these guys….charged up I can hit 34% harder than normally…with Faith added to it I’m not sure. I’m not going to push my limits…not at school.

But there’s some decent energy at school now. I’m considered someone not to mess with but a nice guy too.

But tonight’s the acid test.

I’ve got Grandma’s stuff. Her heroine gear was actually pretty cool. Motorcycle leathers in dull black with these gothic crosses sewn or raised somehow on the leather. One on each shoulder like patches, a full sized one that was the front of the jacket and had the zipper in the middle of it and the ends that had the floret’s? The fancy cross ends where right where her boobs would’ve been and the zipper had a German cross as the zipper tab.

The pants had the same design on the back pockets and she had studded leather gloves for fighting and army boots. It all fits too mostly because I’m not too big and stuff but her gear was mostly unisex because of who designed it.

The domino mask is the hardest to get used to. Putting on the spirit gum stuff to glue it into place.

I head out with the parents doing their own things they only kind of pay attention to us. It’s not like we’re the kind of kids to sneak out at odd hours but…well tonight I am.

Being able to fly, really helps sneaking out since my bedroom’s on the top floor. My sister’s too but she’s on the other side of the building.

God it’s really cool to be able to do this. I can’t fly fast just around forty five kmph or just over thirty miles an hour without some way to boost myself and yet that’s still kind of fast.

And nights one through eleven going out are a pure bust. You’d think that it’s simple. I did. Go out and fly around and go help people by kicking butt.

Slipping out about one night out of three and a full month of nothing.

I finally clued in enough to buy a security radio with a police scanner and a headset.
Yeah…derp.
And holy crap those things are not cheap!

……………………………….Be careful what you wish for.

I changed tactics and covered different ground.

The first thing was getting there. It’d take me a long time normally so I went upwards and gained altitude. I head to one of the iffy areas called Diesel Strip. It’s up in the North-East areas of Ark City and seriously mixed and a rough neighborhood. Blacks and Hispanics, and the sub-cultures there off like South and Central American cultures and African an types plus a good number of anthro live in that area.

I get there by a flight controlled fall from a good height. It gets me there fast and it’s such a rush…except for that one scare me to death moment I dove/flew through a bunch of aero-car traffic in a route I didn’t know was there.

Whoops…I don’t think I caused any crashes or fender benders.

I’m actually there like ten minutes before there’s a bunch of white shave gangers trying to hurt these three girls at a phone booth. They’re hitting the booth with chains and stuff making the girls scream.

I hover down in plain sight and point at one of them but them in general. “You guys should leave while you can.”

“Fuck you freak.” Of course was their answer.

I was outnumbered but had a good reserve of energy from them and the girls…it seems you fly in and they sort of have some ingrained beliefs in the fact you’re kind of super.

I really helps.

Knowing how to fight really helps too. But uhm…yeah fighting at school and in a ring is not the same as on the street. And it’s not the same when they’re armed. I take some hits and shift my energy to the surface tension of my skin and instead of getting stabbed. I break off two of their shivs when I get stabbed.

It hurts like a bastard and I’m going to have serious bruises there and the second knife gave me a headache. I figure it’s like a bullet proof vest I burned off the energy the stabs had but it took a lot of power to do so but their knives breaking gave them an oh shit moment that fed me some more energy.

Okay I can see how Grandmom did this.

The third guy swings the chain at me and I do that trick again and let it wrap around my arm…okay…I turn and use a martial throw like I’ve got his hand and add some flight in the pivot of the turn and boost it with the energy I got from them and the girls. I throw/slam him down on the bench for the city bus and it bends collapsing around him.

Another oh wow surge from the girls and oh shit surge from the shave gangers. They run for it. I push power into speed and flight and cut them off. Faster hits using Tk to move my limbs faster, to make my hits harder. I don’t push it too hard because I really hurt the other guy and I just give it until I can drop them knocked out.

Oh…

I hear police sirens.

Stay?

Go?

I could get into serious trouble here.

I stay.

The police are there and one looks at me. “Give me your wrists kid.”

Oh shit I’m going to get busted.

“Hold it right there officer.” It’s the oldest of the black ladies/girls.

“Ma’am stay out of this, I have to charge the kid for assault and if they don’t take that mask off vigilantism.”

“Like hell you’re doing that to my client.” Cool…I have a Lawyer.

The cop looks not amused. “I have to do my job lady.”

“And my client has to do theirs.”

“That’s not a job, that’s being a public menace.”

“They stayed and stopped a hate crime as a private citizen.”

“Not in a mask they aren’t.”

“They’re protected under the law as a super to have their identity protected under law.”

“That’s for established super heroes that are sanctioned by the law.”

She’s got this look and I can see scrolling letters in her eyes. She blinks and they’re gone. “Actually officer that law in question doesn’t state that anywhere.”

He stares at her, then really closely. “You’re chipped up?”

“If I matters I am.”

“Papers?”

She takes a folder like a bank book out of her purse. Being chipped is slang for cybernetics and she must have a cyber wireless connection and more than likely a camera interface too.

He looks at her, then me. “I’m letting you go this time kid. Get legal, better yet don’t get involved.”

“Have to.”

“Why?”

“Family honor, and the Parker Code.”

“What the fuck is the Parker Code.”

“With Great Power comes Great Responsibility.”

“Oh for fuck sakes…goddamned comics!”

“Doesn’t make it irrelevant sir.”

He looks at me slightly mollified by the sir. “Alright, alright…let’s do this okay, I need your Alias and your statement. You three too.” The three girls nod.

………………………………..It takes awhile and as the adrenaline wears off the hurts start to build and build and it’s getting closer and closer to daylight. I get his card, and her cards and some pretty painful hugs and stuff from her and the other two and I leave.

I told them my alias was Faith.

Grandma’s old super alias.

I dunno, I was right y’know family honor and all that. I’m a legacy.

I get home about quarter to six, undress slowly and put the stuff under my bed…Jesus the bruises have bruises. I try a hot shower and just laid down on my bed a little bit and woke smelling coffee in my room.

Dad…

He’s not looking happy.

“Here, eat this Faith.”

“Huh…what…?”

“You’re on the news and the net-feeds someone put up your antics up about four in the morning. You’ve been featured on Hero-watch already.”

“Oh fuck.”

“Don’t swear.”

“Sorry.”

“Here, you’re pale and you’re sugars must be dropped through the floor.” It’s toast with about a half inch of jam and the coffee. I inhale the food as fast as the pain will let me.

“Thanks dad…you’re pissed?”

“Yeah but more that you never came to me.”

“But granddad…?”

“Dad had issues with Mom and I was too young to do anything about it other than get mad at her too. But I was mad mostly because I wanted to be a hero like her. I never got her powers but you did it seems.”

“Wait you wanted to be like Grandmom?”

“What kid doesn’t want to be a super hero?”

“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”

“No, I imagine not but the footage is pretty cool.”

It felt kind of odd that my dad thinks something that I did was cool. “So do we tell Mom and Nancy.”

“Got to they’re family. I agree that you should use your gifts for something good but Drew you need to find a way to do thing better than Mom did. She got killed because she got in over her head.”

“Yes and no dad.”

“What do you mean.”

I pass him her journals and show him the whole faith part.…. “But…I’m not sure I follow?”

“Granddad left her, took you guys and that yanked out her powerbase and that’s what killed her.”

“Did he know?”

“No dad I don’t think so…I think she figured this out it that year on her own.”

I sat and watched, I kind of figured that I wasn’t going to school today or him either so I just sat on my bed and tried to get comfortable while he read things with tears in his eyes.

God I…

I’m not sure why but I slid off the bed and hugged him. He was good with it but we are not hugging people.

………………………………... Things changed a lot after that morning. The first thing we did was pull us both out of school and they both took leaves of absences for awhile. Dad talked to mom first then we sort of had an intervention for Nancy.

She lost her shit.

I was a effing mutie, grandmom was an effing mutie…she P.O.ed mom enough with those she was grounded and it got way worse than that when they explained the birds and the bees and the genes.

How she might get it too.

How her kids might get it too.

She freaked.

She tried to take off and runaway, she tried to tell her douche bag boy-toy but the parents were smart enough to take that time off to keep Nancy on a tight leash. She didn’t get that she if she told him she’s my sister.

To his bunch that makes her gene trash like me.

It took just about two weeks to sink in. She really got bad too, like we told her she had a death sentence. She started to get in though, started to watch the news and stuff on the net about how are kind are treated…even our families because of just the chance of this happening.

She died her hair black last night and she’s been getting really EMO and stuff and she’s refused to go to school.

I’m still going after I healed up but….

Things aren’t the same.

Dreams, dreams like I’ve never had before…I don’t remember them but I wake and almost get sick in the bathroom. It’s been happening every morning since I first did the hero thing.

Foods been off too, things are tasting right and some things I used to like I’m not liking anymore.

School…everyone’s different…the guys…I’m just sort of finding them more annoying than ever especially the real dumbassses. I mean I thought that things were packed full of stupid before but wow.

It’s like I’m developing a psionic sensitivity to macho bullshit.

And the girls….not too much better, my airhead tolerance just actually went out the window. I mean sometimes the amount of pretty could sort of cut the annoying stuff with the airheads. But now it’s way more like I seriously don’t care about the hotness because their stupidity wrecks it.

But other girls, I’m kind of getting more into? And I can get them more?

But this morning….

This morning I’ve sort of found out why…My chest hurt…ached and no good reason why.

I’m growing breasts….I mean I’m not that stupid as not to get the signs plus Nancy went through “Budding” and I went to school with girls all my like and I know that fried egg look….and I…I…I haven’t masturbated for like a week. The feelings, the urges…aren’t there.

I head to mom’s office and knock. She looks up from her computers, she has several in a semi-circle. “Morning Drew feeling any better this morning honey?”

“No…I…I think I know why too.”

“Oh?”

I lift my shirt. “I’m growing breasts mom.”

“You’re turning into a girl Drew.” Mom…sheesh she never ever batted an eye. The first time I see dad cry was with those journals. Mom took all this in her quiet way. The only thing was a fight after we told her and that was about dad not telling her about his Mom. I think…They’ve never fought in front of us kids.

“Wha…how…are you sure?”

“Yes honey and it’s happening pretty fast too.”

“When’d you figure this out?” Because it would’ve been nice to know.

“I didn’t until I had some real proof.”

“Oh….”

I’m staring at the floor and I’m almost crying… “Why mom…grandmom’s books never mentioned this happening?”

“I’m not sure honey…I’m far from and expert on this. But we’ll hopefully be able to find out.”

“How?”

“Well with things as they are we’re moving.”

“Because of me?”

“Mostly. It’ll be safer we hope but there’s this project starting up called Halo Academy and we’re enrolling you and your sister there. It’s a meta school but other things too, it’s sponsored but the AA’s (Ark Angels) and other super teams.”

“Oh…”

“They have specialist honey, people who are all about these things and we’ll find out what’s going on.”

“I’m sorry mom…” I feel really like crying but I’m trying hard to hold it back. It feels like my fault and I’m changing into someone else?…I’m scared and it’s coming out different than before.

“Honey, this isn’t your fault…it’d genetics. It’s not even your grandmothers fault….”

“But…”

“It’s okay…we’ve got new jobs there both of us and your dad will be teaching there too. He’ll be making a lot better money than before. I’m even getting more money for taking a job there as part of the city’s engineering staff.”

“Okay…I’m scared mom…”

I want to be hugged or something but she hasn’t even stopped talking, or even got out of her spot behind her desk. We’re just…we’re not tight…

She was going to say something but Nancy comes in all in black, studs and spikes for EMO looking and she frowns at me. Like she still hates me for wrecking her life…and I did…god I feel even worse.

She stops and stares at my chest. “Drew’s growing tits?””

“Nancy language! Yes you brother’s changing.”

“Into?”

“A girl we think.”

She bursts out laughing and is this jaded nasty laugh. “Out fucking standing!” She smiled and punched me in the breast or the budding spot and I fall to my knees hurting…oh crap…that hurt!…and she’s laughing at me as mom’s following her yelling at her for what she did and her attitude which starts then in tis screaming match which happened raely but all the time now with her being EMO now.

I…

I head over to the sofa at a crawl and slip up onto it and roll to face the back of it and that’s all I’ve got before the tears hit…I’m scared and all of this is just swallowing me up and I’m…god I feel so alone.

And I can’t stop the crying…