7 Chapter 7 - Kaitlynn

You know, being paralyzed absolutely sucks. When all you can do is move your head, you find ways to become bored that you didn't know existed before. Then you fight that boredom with mind games you couldn't dream of, and that spurs you to get bored again. It's a vicious cycle of eternal lack of entertainment. I wouldn't tell Silas this, but his visits are always the highlight of my day.

In the first few weeks, I wondered if my stepdad would show up in my hospital room, but he was busy being his usual absentee self. I hadn't seen him since Mom died, three years ago. I had met Si only days after she passed. The day that Void Star became a villain.

He had actually been one of High Solis's most trusted captains before that day. Void Star had been her left-hand man when it came to enforcement and politics, second only to White Angel. He was the desire of so many of the city's people, and he happened to fall for my mother. I had only been about 12 when they met, only a year after the Evolution. I was happy to see Mom smiling again when she was with him, so I was happy for her. I accepted Rolan Drike as family. Then his last mission as a hero came.

High Solis, Pyrosis, and himself had gone to stop a villain, Ultraviolet. He was a light type Evolved, and a powerful one. If I had to guess, I would have rated him in the mid to low fives, standard scale. However, light was nothing against Rolan Drike's gravity abilities. He could actually create such a centralized singularity of gravity it pulled in light itself. He had stopped the villain, and knocked him unconscious, but Pyrosis apparently wasn't interested in arresting him. I had watched from the shadows as he blasted the villain with a jet of flame.

He was thrown, burning into the nearest building. Our home. I watched with horror as I knew Mom was in the building. Rolan knew it too, and he tackled Pyrosis. When High Solis sided with Pyrosis, Rolan lost it. He attacked with everything he had. He crushed Pyrosis in an instant, the entire force of a black hole forming in his gut. He turned to High Solis, and their first cosmic battle began.

My stepfather and the hero of the city, going head to head. They still haven't settled their fight, and I have forever been caught in the middle of their conflict. I had few friends, like Silas or Hannah, and even those that knew were still wary of me. Only Silas was oblivious. I would have to remedy that if he was going to continue as Basic. It was obvious who had sent the suit.

While I appreciated the gesture of granting my friend's obvious wish, I didn't think he was doing it all out of the goodness of his heart. I was pretty certain my "dad" actually cared about Silas's crusade, considering Pyrosis's explanation as to why he didn't care about our home. As he had burned down the building with my mother, my home, he had explained himself.

"There was only a Basic in there, c'mon. You're more of a hothead than I am."

He had picked the wrong Basic to mess with. I was just glad that, Despite my stepfather's ongoing war with High Solis and her army of heroes, I was glad that Hannah was still coming to visit me, too. It was just as I was certain every neuron in my brain was firing trying to think, the door clicked open. In burst two figures, a mess of red and black hair and incomprehensible chatter. Emma and Silas.

"Hey guys," I casually greeted, though I knew based on them showing up together precisely what happened after I gave Emma his name. She clearly knew he was Basic.

"You sent her to me when she was asking questions about Basic?" Silas asked first. I would have answered it, but Emma shot off a question, the two taking rapid-fire turns in their queries. I simply waited for them to finish.

"Okay, now that that's out of the way, can I hear those one at a time? First, yes Silas, I did send her your way," I told them, practically scolding them. They asked their questions, and I answered as best as I could.

"Does Hannah know how you got injured?"

"Did you plan for her to figure it out when you sent her after me?"

"I thought you were injured in a fight between High Solis and-"

I had to cut Emma off before she finished her last question, but Silas seemed to catch on to my hesitancy to bring up my cover story.

"High Solis and who?" He asked Emma, ignoring me. Rude.

"Oh, her stepdad, duh. You know, Void Star, he's only the biggest villain out there," Emma answered before I could stop her. Now it was out there. My stepdad, the big villain in town, and undoubtedly the supplier of Silas's suit.

"Wait... Kaity... is that true?" Silas slowly formed the words to ask. I didn't say anything, but nodded. He simply stared at me for a moment. I had seen that stare only once before, but it was comforting to see it again. It was the same one that he had given when he learned I was an Evolved. I remembered it now like it was yesterday, despite being three years ago.

I walked down the hall of our high school, only four years after the Evolution. A lot of the people here were a year or two older than they should have been to be in their grade, but that's what happens when society hits the reset button. I noted the look on Silas's face as I approached him.

"You wouldn't happen to know James's obvious weakness, would you?" Silas grumbled as he meandered his way next to me. "I am now in the business of giving him a good beating."

"Sorry Si, I am not going to help you fight a 2.2 common scale," I told him, even though I knew that he was actually 1.5 on my own scale. The dude had no idea how useful his power was.

Silas decided to pout at my mention of the class jerk's power rating. He had increased levels of momentum, and it made a punch from him hurt exponentially more. I had taken my fair share of them for being such a weak Evolved, though I'm sure Silas would have gone on this tirade much sooner if he knew that fact.

"Though, I'd be happy to help you take out a lackey or two," I suggested. He accepted the compromise, so we plotted against the high school hierarchy of bullies and jerks. Our plan would have come to fruition if he had already known about my status as an Evolved.

Our target was one of James Mullin's closest friends, though the weakest of those that could say they were in his inner circle. We had him cornered, ready to lay on the beat down when the coward decided to shriek, "Why would you team up with a Basic to fight another Evolved?!"

Silas simply stopped in his tracks, turned to look at me, and didn't blink for what felt like the rest of the day. A never-ending stare of disbelief. His disbelief fading into concern, then confusion. He was confused why I didn't tell him, or maybe why I was willing to be his friend when he was a Basic. Of course, this long moment of staring left a window for the wimp to escape. By the time I realized he was gone, I hadn't said anything. I only stared back. Silas finally said it.

"You're… you're an Evolved? You never mentioned anything about it, and you knew I was a Basic…" He was obviously trying to get a grip on the situation still, and when I looked him in the eye I could tell we would stay friends.

He had gone on rants about how Basics and Evolved could easily live peacefully and even thrive if they simply respected one another. I wasn't going to question it when my mom and stepfather were obvious examples that he was right. I could see he wasn't trying to hold everyone to a double standard. I simply held his gaze, nodded, and extended my hand. He broke our eye contact to stare at the hand. Then he took my hand and shook it.

I came back to the here and now to realize just how much I miss the days when I could walk around school with him. I missed him walking me home, or me walking him home. I missed him ranting to me about his problems, since he was always too concerned about mine to tell me his now. I silently thanked my stepdad for giving him the gear for his suit in my room, where I could be a part of his journey as the vigilante.

I wanted to give Silas my hand again, let him take it, and keep our friendship intact. I wanted to remind him that nothing changed. Of course, I simply couldn't. I tried to lift my hand. I focused all I could on my limb, trying to will it into the air. Nothing happened. Just like nothing ever would.

"Oh, I'm so sorry…" Emma was muttering. She clearly didn't mean to cause the awkward moment, but it happened either way. Silas seemed to consider everything he had just learned, turned to the door, and twisted the knob.

"Emma, you don't need to worry. I'm not worried about who your dad is, Kaity, but I don't understand why you didn't tell me. I'm going to give you some space for a bit, then I'll be back," Silas told me before shutting the door. Emma stood alone with me in my room. I hadn't left this room for a whole year, save one or two occasions.

"I'm so sorry, Conductor," Emma blurted again, "and I'm going to find a way to make this right. I'm working on it with every part of my brain. Every neuron is sending every signal it can." Her reassurances made me smile until what she said hit me.

"Signals…" I breathed.

"Excuse me?" Emma inquired at the half-thought word.

"I can't believe…" I started, "I can't believe I didn't think about this!"

"Think about what?" she spluttered, still confused.

"Sorry, no time to explain!" I said as I focused. I hadn't used my power in so long that I wasn't certain it was working. My brain was sending electrical signals through my body to my limbs, and those signals were cut off when a vertebrae had displaced the nerve that channeled those signals. It was astounding I hadn't thought of this earlier.

As I focused on the base of my neck, I felt the signals I was sending and directed them towards my arms and legs. I let the power inside me flow. For the first time in the past year, I lifted my hand, I wiggled my toes, and I sat up. As Emma gasped, I rolled out of bed. My legs were shaky, and I barely remembered how to walk, not to mention the focus it took to keep myself upright. I stumbled through the door and looked around the hallway.

Silas was there, leaning against a wall, facing away. I staggered my way to him, one nurse recognized me then gasped and dropped her tray when I was right behind him. He startled at the clatter and turned. I was almost certain he was the one who was paralyzed now, based on how quickly he stumbled back and fell to the ground.

"K- Kaity?" the genius stammered. I simply nodded and offered him my hand. He stood, staring at me the whole way up. He grabbed my hand and shook it. I wasn't satisfied with that, so I pulled his hand. As he came in, I stretched my arms around his torso and pulled him into the first hug I had since… since the day that Mom died.

I pulled away after a minute of standing there, arms stretched around Silas. We headed back to where Emma stood, still dumbfounded. I was ready to explain everything, so we shut the door to my room behind us.

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