Soren stood at the edge of the panicked crowd in Times Square, his eyes narrowing as he watched people scramble in all directions like startled birds.
His gaze cut through the chaos to the center of the square, where the source of the disturbance was humming with deadly energy.
A man, or what was left of one, stood crackling with electric light, his hands buried in the thick underground power cable like a feeding predator. The neon lights of Times Square flickered erratically as he absorbed current in surging waves. Energy danced over his body like a second skin.
Soren frowned. Electric aura... erratic bioelectric field... Is that…?
"Maxwell Dillon."
The sight confirmed it. The once-ordinary electrician for Osborn Industries was now a being of living electricity.
Soren's memory clicked, the failed safety protocols, the rumors of mutated eels, and Osborn's hush-hush legal settlements.
A wall of NYPD vehicles screeched into position. Armed officers leapt out, taking cover and shouting commands.
"Step away from the cable! Hands in the air!"
But Max looked lost, disoriented. The raw current flowing into his body made his eyes glow a sickly blue, his breathing erratic. "I didn't ask for this!"
"I just wanted to fix the grid!" He shouted, his voice crackling with static.
Soren's pupils flickered with faint light as a digital panel opened across his vision.
[Maxwell Dillon]
[This World Class: B]
[Abilities: Absorb Electric Energy Lv 8 | High Voltage Discharge Lv 8]
Soren's lips tightened. B-Class and unstable. This might get messy.
Max stood at the center of Times Square, trembling with fear and confusion. The electricity surged within him, a force he had no control over.
He could feel the buzzing hum of the currents in the air, in the ground beneath his feet, and it was calling to him, urging him to absorb more, to feed on the energy surrounding him.
It was intoxicating, overwhelming.
"Sir! You are already surrounded! Immediately raise your hands and lie on the ground!" The voice of the officer cut through to him.
A rifle was aimed in his direction, the tip of the barrel steady in his line of sight.
Max felt a pulse of panic. He looked around at the sea of officers closing in on him, their uniforms now dotted with the bright red and blue lights of their police vehicles.
A crowd had gathered, people standing behind barricades, their phones raised to capture every moment. The sound of clicking cameras and the murmuring buzz of the crowd filled the air.
He never wanted to be the center of attention. He never wanted to be anything but a regular person.
"It's not my fault! Stop it!" Max cried out, his hands trembling at his sides as he looked at the officers, their weapons drawn.
The electric hum inside him was louder now, itching to be released.
He hadn't meant to hurt anyone. The energy, it was just so much, it flooded through him and all he could do was absorb it.
He couldn't control it, couldn't stop it.
The officers didn't listen.
"For the safety of yourself and others, get on the ground immediately!" Another officer shouted, voice trembling slightly. There were more now, at least a dozen, all pointing weapons, all preparing for the worst.
Max's heart raced in his chest. He looked at the ground, at his hands, and then he looked up, his eyes wild.
Smoke bombs hissed through the air. The police, seeing Max's refusal to surrender, went with brute force. Plumes of thick grey smoke engulfed the area.
"Wait!" Soren barked, but his voice was lost in the cacophony
Max couldn't take it anymore. The pressure, the noise, it all collided in an explosion of raw release.
"I said STOP!" Max's voice roared through the smoke.
A blinding crack of thunder erupted from him, sending a shockwave through the air. The ground beneath him trembled as an overwhelming surge of energy exploded outward in all directions.
The blast was like a storm made of pure electricity, a magnetic wave that knocked everything in its path aside.
The police cars were overturned, their tires screeching as they flipped over like toys in the hands of an angry child. The officers closest to Max were thrown back, some of them crashing into the walls of nearby buildings, others skidding across the pavement.
The shockwave hit like a disaster.
Soren's senses kicked into overdrive. A massive police cruiser, lifted by the blast, spun end over end through the air, aimed straight for a group of spectating civilians… and him.
"Damn it!"
His hand shot up, eyes glowing.
Psychokinesis LV5, Activate!
Soren's fingers moved in an elegant, almost rehearsed manner, as though conducting an invisible orchestra.
The police cars that had been thrown into disarray by Max's electric surge suddenly froze mid-air, their violent momentum halted in an instant.
The cars were now suspended in the air like delicate objects caught in a slow-motion dream.
As if guided by an invisible force, they began to descend gently to the ground, coming to rest in an orderly fashion.
The crowd gasped, some whispered in awe.
"Doctor Macaluso!" Someone shouted, recognizing the figure.
"This is the amazing doctor! The doctor of Everlife Medical Center!" Another voice called out, and the crowd erupted in recognition.
"Thank you, Doctor Soren!" Their gratitude was clear in their tone.
"Thank you, Doctor!" A mother cried with her child clinging to her.
Soren simply nodded, not seeking attention but acknowledging the recognition with a quiet humility. His focus remained entirely on the situation before him.
But the police, not to be outdone, were quick to react. Some officers fired their weapons at the electric man, hoping to subdue him.
Bullets hissed through the air, but as they neared Max, the powerful electromagnetic field surrounding him disintegrated them, reducing them to harmless fragments before they could do any damage.
Max could sense the raw power coursing through him.
The more the officers attacked, the angrier he became. His mind was clouded with fury, the frustration of feeling like a monster in a world that feared him.
He had done nothing wrong, yet he was the target of endless aggression.
The surge of power inside him intensified, and Max's vision narrowed to the screen of a nearby building, where a picture of Soren appeared.
The image of the doctor, standing calm amidst the chaos, nodded to the crowd, his expression serene, almost as if he was above everything.
That face. That perfect face. Soren had ignored him. He had looked right past him when they first crossed paths, as if Max didn't even matter.
The bitterness of that moment flooded Max's mind, mingling with the anger he already felt. How dare Soren be so composed while Max was struggling…
"Why is it YOU?! You walk into the spotlight, and everyone forgets about me!"
"Ah!" Max roared in frustration, the sound primal and guttural.
Without warning, he launched the gathered electricity directly at the electronic screen. The thunderous bolt slammed into the massive display, causing it to flicker wildly before an explosion rocked the area.
Sparks flew, circuits shorted out, and the screen was engulfed in flames. The force of the explosion caused a violent distortion, and a huge chunk of the screen, now half-melted, began to collapse.
It crashed downward, sending a rain of debris and twisted metal toward the ground, where civilians, police officers, and Soren stood.
Everyone watched in horror, the massive screen plummeted like a deadly monolith from the sky.
But just as the screen was about to crush everyone beneath it.
A wave of invisible force rippled through the air, and the entire mass of the falling electronic screen slowed… and hovered above.
The crowd stood frozen, unable to comprehend what they were seeing.
The massive display, now just inches from crushing those beneath it, was gripped by Soren's mind and was nothing short of miraculous.
The police officers, who had been moments away from being crushed, looked on in awe.
Soren's expression remained calm, but there was a hint of anger.
The electric man, the one who had caused so much destruction, had attacked him and the citizens unprovoked.
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
Fellow Phantoms and aspiring Phantoms to be, if you seek to access advanced parts of this story procced to my shadowy realm of p@treon.
PhantomDream