I sit next to Derik as my mother explains the reason we are being scolded we watch the news broadcast play on repeat. I of course sit their dumbfounded at how I didn't know a drone had seen the whole altercation.
" we ran into each other I tried to delay him enough to get the all clear to run off" I tell my aspect for what happened, but it falls on deaf ears so I give up. After the whole being grounded from field work till a week before the gala I head back to my room. I sit on my bed and look down at my phone and open it to go to my messages, five boxes down I see Mag, and click on it. Last message reads ' We are over, I'm sorry.' I tear up slightly and close my phone. That was sent 5 years ago, the day he became the most famous hero, and the day he started to date her. After an hour of staring off into space I stand and head over to my bathroom to look at the mirror and sigh wiping the water off of it and start the shower, my bathroom is extremely small only fitting a small shower sink and toilet and everything is inches from hitting each other. Small bathroom for a small guy.
I shower trying to stay awake, but due to using my heat and air I'm still immensely drained. I hurry to finish and get out and dressed and head out of the bathroom into my small room, white cracked walls, old desk that's beyond it's life, twin bed in the corner with mismatched sheets, a torn brown with large colorful dots laid out in rows with smaller dots separating them every once in a while. I get dressed into sweats and shave the side of my head per monthly.
After I'm done looking presentable on the outside I grab my binder and slip it on making sure to have the clasps not undone and scratching me. After that I grab the needle and T capsule and hold up my hoodie and hum as I shoot myself with T. What's T you may ask? Testosterone, it's the one thing I know keeping Magnus from recognizing me in public or on the field. With his transition it was under a year with how fast he changed, I watched as the suits got tighter and his voice deeper in the mater of a year, how he went through therapy and healed from surgery that fast amazes me always. I know he probably had issues and probably had to do it so he wouldn't be dead-named and misgendered, but I think his bosses probably didn't want a woman in charge and when they learned he was trans they got that issue out of the way with money. I grimace at the thought of that and push it down.
As soon as I do I hear a knock on my door and Mom walks in. She has Chameleon also known to us as Kai accompanying her. I nod to them and sit on my bed waiting for the talk about to happen. As soon as we all sit I hear the familiar statement,
" Nick you can't stay hung up on Magnus." Jess sighs and rubs my hand.
"Besides what did he even do you've never met him, right?" Kai peeps up drawing a very stern look from Jess. And sigh and look at him and clear my throat,
"He broke my heart."
~
-5 years ago-
I sat on the couch of Magnus and I's apartment watching my shows. At that time I was blind to the world outside, I never left the house since I had no job and no need for one either. It was a calm day Magnus had just left to start his first day so I was left to my own biding. The apartment was small but very spacious. White walls, brown carpets, a small kitchen plucked right out of a grandparents house. It was small but it was home. I remember that day I got the call that he was being transported to England. I had been confused on why a newbie would be send on a tour out of country. Sadly I was about to learn.
Three months after he left I had be visited by all of my friends and my mother, There was Jess, Derik, Maddie, Kai, and Denise, and little did any of us know that day would end our lives as we knew it. In minutes everything around us was demolished. I saw someone standing above us, a hero stood above us, a hero had destroyed our home while landing. I asked him to help us, I screamed for help, and he turned away. He left us to die. He left innocent people to die. His name was Levitate.
Due to his homicidal actions everyone in that apartment had obtained inhuman abilities. Mom got Electrical powers, Derik; Technology, Denise; Nightmares, Kai; Chameleon, Maddie; Shapeshifting, and Me, Nick, I got Liquidation and Analyze.
Three weeks later Magnus left for good. For her. I think back to that day a lot, the day the hero's planned an attack to murder me. The day I died and was reborn Liquidizer.
~
"He broke up with me three weeks after the crash landing." I finish explaining who Magnus was before the attack. I know I'm tearing up, it's pathetic but I miss him too much to care.
"He died to us that day and once we learned the true reason behind the crash it was to kill Nick." Jess added solemnly. I nod and lean into her sigh once more.
" this has been the worse day ever, he didn't even recognize me." I look down at my scarred arms, "I bet he won't even when we are at the gala!" My hair starts to becomes covered in a magma element and I stand as my face covers too.
Jess nods at my need to release steam. I turn into steam and reappear covered in magma next to an abandoned hotel. I make sure no one is inside or around and loose concentration and any trace of memory.
When I come too I'm inside my bedroom and a fan aimed at me. I over used my powers again. I sat up and drank some of my water. My phone lights up and I pick it up, 'Abandoned building turned to soot'. I smile knowing I only burned down the building. The building that started it all.
I sit in my room and continue to go over the news reports on the buildings demolition. When finally I find a video and hit play.
There I was in my flaming magma glory. I watch as I fly around the building starting from my old apartment on the top floor and burn into the walls of the outside building. Then once I'm done circling the building, starting the fire, I watch as I erupt the flames by increasing the level of heat the magma I originally produced. Soon after I'm watching the building disappear in roaring flames, reaching so tall that they dance up into the sky above. Then just as fast as it started it ended. The golden lights died down and I was no where in sight. I had caused the city to light up for only a minute and just as fast I stole it's light. And I knew I made enough of a statement that this next week would never be that interesting even while on house arrest.
I can't wait to get back to work next week.
