Jenny and the stranger
made their way to the swimming pool. It
was fairly easy to sneak in. The
majority of the university police had already gone home for the day; the night
shift had to split their time between watching the pool and patrolling the
football stadium. The stranger looked
down at his radio, which had started making clicking noises. He paced back and forth for a minute and then
declared, “We should move up to the balcony.
The signal seems stronger up there.”
As a sidenote he added, “Just make sure that you don't change.”
“That I don't
change? What do you mean?”
“If you get too close
you might change. Just don't get too
close and you won't have to worry about it.”
“Hold on just a
minute,” demanded Jenny, as they made their way up the stairwell. “I knew that I might get hurt following some
weirdo like you, but I wasn't prepared for this. You better explain what 'change' means or
I... I...”
If Jenny had gotten to
finish her sentence, it would probably have ended with some unbelievable
threat, like throwing the stranger off the Empire State Building. Instead, she quietly whispered, “I don't feel
well.”
“You got too
close. It's the changing. It'll be over in a minute. Just try not to get too excited about it,”
the stranger muttered, still fiddling with his radio.
Jenny fell to the
ground in a crumpled heap. She could
feel her head spinning with the room spinning in the other direction. Her vision alternated between blurry and
black, and she couldn't hear anything around her. Jenny's vocal cords tightened as she tried to
scream; nothing but a whimper came out.
Then, just as suddenly as it started, it was over.
“...will do that to
you, you know. Rather unpleasant
process,” Jenny heard the stranger finish.
“What will do what to
me?” Jenny groggily asked.
“See that light blue
powder on the ground? That's
prierium. It will change you. That's what started the fire here. Someone was changed by it. I'm surprised there was any active prierium
left though. Must have been reactivated
by the high humidity.”
“It made someone start
a fire? And I don't feel any different
at all. How did it change me?”
“It probably gave
someone pyrotechnic capabilities. It's
different for everyone. It might still
need a couple of seconds. Here, let me
help.”
As he finished his
explanation, the stranger slapped Jenny hard in the face. She was taken aback at first, and then
angry. Suddenly, she felt her mind open
and her skin tingle.
“I can feel
something,” she started out. “Wait, not
something, someone.”
“Who do you feel?”
“Someone with the
ability to shoot fire out of their hands.
He's still close by.”
“Well, then, take me
to him,” the stranger said as he carefully swept up the light blue powder into
a canister.
△A35B1-8.2
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