A NEW BEGINNING CHAPTER - 3 GREAT POWER

"How is he?" Director Stone asked Kate who was in charge of the medical unit.

"He's still unconscious, he's unresponsive and there no brain activity, I'm sorry Sir but there's no telling what that energy did to him, he might even be stuck like this." Kate replied.

Director Stone started to panic immensely but he tried to keep it hidden.

Meanwhile in med bay... Justin was recuperating.

"Ugh,...where am I?" asked Justin as he started to gather his senses.

Suddenly, Justin saw those humanoid forms again but there was more of them this time and he still couldn't see their faces. The one in the middle walked towards him and he felt the need to speak.

"I'm dead aren't I?" Justin asked them his voice dry.

"No, you're too important to die now." The person replied.

"Qui electus, qui electus, qui electus." They all started chanting again as the one in front of him placed a hand on his chest and gave him a strong push. Justin suddenly found his body being thrown backwards towards a white light.

"WAIT!" Justin groaned loudly waking up med bay. Just like before, his irises and pupils disappeared in both eyes and they were glowing bright white. He sent out a power serge through out the facility which caused a power outage for a bit, it even knocked out the back up generators.

"Oh no, Justin!" Director Stone exclaimed as he ran in the direction of the power serge.

Director Stone panicked because he realized the same machines that were keeping him alive had just lost power. Yet the power came back as Justin's eyes stopped glowing and returned to normal.

"Justin,... you're awake." Director Stone said as he saw Justin getting out of bed.

"Yeah, what happened?" Justin asked with a confused look on his face.

Director Stone started to fill Justin in on what happened since he seemed to have some gaps in his memory because of the accident.

"Sorry about that." Justin said after hearing what Director Stone had to say.

"I remember hearing the cube, almost like it was calling out to me." Justin continued as they were walking towards the room where the accident occurred.

"Wow!" Justin exclaimed as he saw the damages the room sustained not to mention the giant hole in the ceiling where the energy shot through.

"How did we all survive that?" asked Justin in disbelief.

"You almost didn't, I still don't understand how you're standing." Director Stone answered still in shock.

"Director, now that Justin's awake, Kate should run some more test on him to see if everything is in order." said Mr. Jones walking towards them.

"Actually I feel fine." Justin tried to assure them.

"You came into contact with energy from the cube, there's no telling how you were affected, I don't blame you though for thinking that... since you're not as smart as me." Mr. Jones replied in a mocking tone to provoke him, which seemed it would become the norm between them.

"I'm a lot smarter than you think I am, probably as smart as you." replied Justin.

"Do you know how to run those tests,?" asked Justin

"Oh please, that's like asking me if I know what's two plus two when it's obviously four." Mr. Jones started boasting.

"Wow, I'm impressed." Justin replied in mock surprise.

"You're impressed that I'm so smart?" said Mr. Jones with a smile on his face.

"Yeah, very impressed,... I'm surprised you know what two plus two is, I honestly didn't think you were that smart." Justin grinned as he delivered a funny comeback.

Director Stone chuckled.

"Director, permission to strangle this brat?" Mr. Jones asked very irritated.

"Denied." said Director Stone.

"Ok, that's enough bickering you two, Justin, you need to get to school, don't wanna be late on your second day." Director Stone continued.

"What are you talking about? I just got back from school and it was my first day." said Justin.

"Um... Justin, you were basically in a coma,...all night. It's Tuesday morning now." Director Stone informed him.

"WHAT?!" Justin exclaimed.

"Are you kidding me?!" He continued in disbelief.

"I'm afraid not kid." Director Stone assured him.

"What do I tell my mom?, she's gonna kill me." Justin asked in a panic.

"Don't worry, your mother went on a business trip after you left home yesterday for her new job." Mr. Jones replied.

"Oh, that's a relief, although she won't tell me what the job is." Justin spoke almost in a whisper at the end.

"Oh and when you get to school, if you see Amethyst, promise me you won't tell her about any of this, I'm not ready to let her know yet." Director Stone requested.

"Sure, no problem." said Justin.

Justin quickly ran home and got a change of clothes among other things to get ready for his second day. However when he was on his way to school, some strange and unexplainable things started to happen.

"Mommy, can I have some ice cream?" asked a little girl.

"Ice cream this early in morning, sorry sweetie but no." the mother replied.

"What the hell?!" said Justin in shock.

"How can I hear them from so far away? Justin asked himself in disbelief.

The mother and her daughter were almost thirty feet away. It should be impossible for a human to have such sensitive ears.

A truck was heading in his direction. When the truck stopped near him , the driver blew his loud horn.

"AGHHH!!" Justin shouted in pain while covering his ears.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" Justin asked himself not understanding what was going on.

Eager to get out of there before he drew anymore attention to himself, he continued to hurry to school.

"Just in time." Justin said as he made it to school in time to see other students in the hallway. All he could hear was everyone talking about the earthquake, the blackout and that beam of light that shot up into the sky yesterday, knowing full well, that he was the cause.

Justin suddenly noticed a hundred dollar bill on the ground and took it up before anyone noticed. He could use the extra cash. Then his newly sensitive ears started acting up again.

"I can't believe I lost it, it was just in my purse, what am I gonna now?" said Amethyst talking to her friend at the other end of the hallway.

"What did you loose?" the friend asked.

"A hundred dollars, that was almost all of my money." Amethyst explained in a panic.

"I could help you look for it." the friend suggested.

"Its ok, we're about to be late for class, plus someone probably took it already, see you at lunch." Amethyst told her as they separated.

Justin heard that entire conversation from the other end of the hallway. The first time he was willing to shrug it off as just his imagination but the second time he realized that something was really wrong with him. Suddenly, Justin started to feel a burning sensation in his eyes and closed them. When he reopened, he could see things that were far away from him, like his eyes had a zoom in feature.

"What's happening to me?" Justin asked himself as he was heading to class.

Justin was about to choose a seat when he saw Amethyst with a vacant seat behind her. Justin tapped her on her shoulder as he sat down causing her to turn around.

"Oh hi Justin, so I guess we have both bio and math together." Amethyst greeted cheerily.

"Yeah, oh I think this belongs to you." Justin said as he gave her the hundred dollars he had found.

"Oh thanks, I thought I lost it for good or that someone stole it, but wait,...how did you know it was mine?" Amethyst asked, A bit confused.

"Oh, ahh, I over heard you and your friend talking." Justin replied reluctantly.

"That's weird, how did you hear that?, I didn't see you anywhere near us." she said as she tried to sense of it.

"Oh, um I wasn't that far from you." said Justin trying to come up with a good explanation.

"And you must really have some good ears on you." Amethyst said with a laugh.

"Yeah I guess you could say that." Justin started to laugh too.

"Justin and Amethyst, I hope whatever it is you two are talking about has something to do with the math question on the board." said Mrs. Samuels , their math teacher interupted.

"Um, yes, actually it does, I just wasn't sure that I got the right answer." said Justin, which was an obvious lie.

"Really?, what's the answer then?" asked Mrs. Samuels.

"Um,..." said Justin realizing he was totally screwed.

In his panic, the burning sensation in his eyes came back, started seeing objects that were far away clearly as if they were right in front of him, basically zooming in.

"Aghh, not again." said Justin covering his eyes in pain.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Amethyst in a worried tone.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Justin replied.

"I'm waiting Justin." said Mrs. Samuels impatiently.

Justin looked up to the front of the class and saw a paper with the answer in the Mrs. Samuels's hand, from the back of the class. With no control over it, his eyes zoomed in and he saw the answer.

"x equals 123.5." Justin quickly replied.

"That's...that's correct." said Mrs. Samuels expecting him to get it wrong.

"That's very good, it's only your second day and you already have a good grasp of the topic." Mrs. Samuels continued.

"Hey, how did you work that out so quickly, I barely started working it?" Amethyst asked in amazement.

"I've got a head for numbers, or maybe it was a lucky guess." said Justin awkwardly.

"Yeah right." said Amethyst as they both laughed.

Later, during lunch break, Justin was on his way to the cafeteria when he bumped into someone.

"Heyyy... Justin." Chloe greeted awkwardly.

"Hey, Chloe, so I take it you're not avoiding me again like yesterday?" Justin asked bluntly.

"I deserved that, I just didn't know how to talk to you yesterday, but forget what I did, it's all cool now." Chloe responded.

"What about aunt Sofia?, I assume she's not happy about that." said Justin.

"Forget about my mom, we're cousins and it's about time we act like it, plus I'd love to see aunt Sarah again, so why don't we catch up while we get something to eat." Chloe suggested.

"Sure, I'd like that." said Justin with a smile.

"Good, cause I'm starving." said Chloe dramatically.

"Your still a foodie, just like when we were kids, guess you haven't changed a bit have you." Justin said as they started to laugh and hugged each other.

Suddenly, Justin started to feel a strange feeling in his nose as he started rubbing his nose.

"Hey, something wrong with your nose?" asked Chloe.

"Oh, it's fine, probably just allergies." said Justin.

(He doesn't have allergies.)

"Oh ok, well let's hurry, like I said I'm starving."

"How come though, didn't you just eat something?" asked Justin.

"Haven't eaten since early this morning." Chloe replied.

"Oh, that's weird, it's just your breath has a faint scent of eggs." said Justin confused.

"I did have eggs for breakfast, but that was like five hours ago, and I brushed my teeth right after, so how can you even smell that?" asked Chloe.

"I can't smell anything besides minty freshness." Chloe continued as she smelt her own breath.

"Oh, forget it then." said Justin.

"I wonder what they have for lunch today?" Chloe wondered, brushing off Justin's weirdness.

"Fried chicken." Justin replied.

"How do you know that?" asked Chloe genuinely intrigued now.

"You can't smell it?" asked Justin.

"No, I doubt anyone could smell that from here, what're you, a blood hound are something?" asked Chloe.

"Um yeah, forget I said anything." Justin said as he realized his body was acting weird again.

They finally got their lunches but finding somewhere to sit was a hassle.

"Let's sit beside that guy, there's space." said Chloe pointing at some random dude.

"You know him?" asked Justin.

"We're not... that close, but yeah I know him." Chloe replied.

"Hey, mind if we sit?" Chloe asked the boy.

"Yeah, no problem, it's Chloe right?, Chloe Hunter" he asked.

"Yeah, this is my cousin." said Chloe as she pointed in Justin's direction.

"Oh, you're the new kid everyone's been talking about." He said.

"Everyone huh, What're they saying?" asked Justin.

"7/15, human experiments, crazy stuff with your dad, bottom line,... nothing good." he replied.

"Figured as much." said Justin sighed.

"But I don't really care about all that, to me, it doesn't matter who your parents are, if you're not a bad person, we're cool." he replied.

"I'm Maxwell, Maxwell Storm, but you can just call me Max." he introduced himself to Justin.

"I'm Justin Jackson, your last name kinda sounds made up." Justin replied while pointing out Max's last name.

"I get that a lot." Max laughed.

"How come you always sit alone?, Are you a loner or something?" Chloe asked with a laugh.

"No, I talk to people, socialize averagely, I just don't really have a best friend is all, but it doesn't really bother me much." Max replied.

Three of them started talking and getting along great, especially Justin and Max, they were interested in the same things, anime, video games, etc. You would think they knew each other their whole lives. Then lunch time came to an end.

"I'll see you guys later, and Max, I know it doesn't bother you much but it looks like the both of you finally got one now." Chloe spoke.

"What're you talking about?" both Justin and Max asked.

"It looks like you guys both have a friend now."said Chloe as Justin and Max looked at each other and realized she might be right.

"What class do we have now." asked Justin.

"It looks like we both have gym now, I'll show the way." Max replied as he scanned Justin's Time table.

Justin and Max changed their clothes and hurried to the gym since they were already late.

"Storm, you're late." Coach Smith stated the obvious.

"Sorry coach." Max replied.

"And you must be the new kid, Justin Jackson right?" asked coach Smith.

"Yeah that's me." Justin replied.

One of the best students in gym class was Duncan who was always the star on the football team, every team for that matter, who also didn't like Justin very much.

"Hey look who it is, it's that new kid again." said Duncan to his friends.

Mean while, something weird started happening to Justin again. His skin started to feel tingly, he started feeling or sensing movement, vibrations, everything and everyone in the room, even the ants crawling on the ground.

"What's happening now?" Justin asked himself.

"Hey, watch this." Duncan told his friends as he took up a football and aimed it at the back of Justin's head so he wouldn't see it.

Little did he know that for some reason, Justin was able to sense him doing that. Duncan threw the ball at his head but once it was close, the hairs on his neck stood on edge, like he could feel the ball without it directly touching his skin, And in a split second, fast reflexes kicked in, enabling him to dodge it.

Duncan and his friends were surprised, a little freaked out even, wondering how did he know.

"Hey, how'd you do that?" asked Max once he realized what just happened.

"I don't know, I just felt it somehow." Justin replied, freaked out more than anyone else.

"Alright, we're gonna be doing a couple exercises focused on strength and speed, even though it's obvious Duncan is the best when comes to both, but let's see how you all match up, first we test strength." Coach Smith informed them.

Coach made everyone line up and take a football to see how far they could through it. When everyone else was finished, Justin and Duncan were the only ones left to throw. Duncan went first and threw it the furthest out of everyone in the class.

"Nice job Duncan but I didn't expect any different, your turn Jackson" said Coach Smith.

"Beat that." Duncan whispered as he walked past Justin.

But the weird things with Justin's body didn't stop there. Justin's muscles in his hands and feet started to feel weird.

"You ok kid?" asked Coach Smith.

" Yeah, I'm ok." Justin replied, the least bit ok.

"Then throw the ball." said Coach Smith.

Suddenly, Justin threw the ball straight out of the field, beating Duncan's record. Everyone except Duncan was amazed, in fact, Duncan was quite angry.

"Wow, I didn't think you had such an arm on you." Coach Smith spoke in amazement.

"Neither did I." said Justin surprised.

"Now you guys are to race each other so we can test speed." Coach Smith continued.

Everyone made their way on the track just as coach said. Once again in the last race Justin and Duncan were in it along with Max. Everyone was thinking Duncan was going to come first since he was also the fastest.

"On your marks, get set,... GO!!" coach shouted.

As soon as everyone took off Duncan was already in the lead. But suddenly, Justin started passing everyone and soon, he left Duncan in his dust, breaking Duncan's record again. Justin was finished first, Duncan second, Max third. Of course, Duncan was furious now.

"Wow,... unbelievable, I think I found a treasure right here." Coach bragged still amazed.

Justin knew this wasn't normal since he was never that fast.

Duncan in a jealous rage, tripped Justin, causing him to fall and cut his hand.

"Not cool Duncan." Max spoke up as he helped Justin up.

"Whatever." Duncan spat as he walked away.

"You good?" asked Max as he helped him up.

"Yeah I'm,...I'm..." Justin stuttered as he realized he was bleeding.

But strangely, the blood was somehow glowing blue instead of red.

"What the..." Justin whispered, a bit spooked.

"What's wrong?" asked Max.

"Nothing." said Justin as he hurried to the bathroom before anyone noticed.

When he reached the bathroom, his blood returned to it's natural red colour. While he was washing off the blood, he noticed that the wound was gone, like it had already healed.

"What the hell is going on with me today?" Justin asked himself.

Suddenly, the veins in his hands started popping up and the veins in the palms of his fingers started to glow blue while some white energy was emitting from the tips of his fingers. Justin looked in the mirror and was surprised at what was happening to his eyes. His irises and pupils started glowing blue as well.

Unknowingly to him Duncan had followed him to confronted him.

"Hey, Jackson, tell the truth, your juicing aren't you?" asked Duncan.

"What are you talking about?" Justin asked as he was trying not to turn around cause he would've been exposed.

"I'm talking about steroids dipshit, are you on steroids?" Duncan asked as he started getting aggressive.

Duncan started pushing him, making Justin angry, until he finally turned around. Duncan saw everything, the glowing eyes, the glowing hands.

"What the hell?!, you really are some kind of freak aren't you." said Duncan

" LEAVE ME ALONE!" said Justin as released an energy wave that knocked Duncan flat on his ass.

Unfortunately the energy wave also hit the gas cylinders that were just outside, causing the building that they were in to explode. Everyone on the field saw what happened. Max ran towards it knowing Justin was still inside. Everyone else in school could see the smoke which caused them to leave their classes to see what was going on.

"Max, where's Justin?" asked Chloe out of breath as the whole school rushed to the scene

"He's inside but I can't get to him." Max answered in a sad tone.

"No..."Chloe whispered to herself as she started to panic.

Unfortunately, all they could do, was stand there and watch, as the

building went up in flames.

Hello again my loyal readers. I really hope you enjoyed that chapter and that cliffhanger.

~KEOKROSTOS