2 Chapter 2

The next day, Max wakes up and goes to brush his teeth and take a bath. But when he turns on the faucet, it breaks and water sprays all over him. Max is soaked and standing in a puddle of water. He feels his energy draining away. He jumps away from the puddle quickly.

"How could I forget about his weakness to water? This is the first thing I have to take care of. I can't release electricity whenever I walk around and I can't lose it all when I shower. And what's with my strength? How did it increase so suddenly?" He wonders.

He says, "This must be another power of Electro. He never fought hand-to-hand with Spider-Man in the movies, so I didn't know about it. Or maybe it was something that was only in the comics. Anyway, it's great to have enhanced strength."

He gives up on taking a shower and goes to his living room. He collapses on his couch and touches the power outlet near him. In a few seconds, the fuse of the building blows and the power goes out in the whole building.

Max hears everyone in the building yelling and complaining since this is the second time there is no power.

"I can't charge myself in my house. I have to go back to the electric company I worked at. But before I leave the house, I need to learn to control my powers. Right now, I'm like a container that can store electricity and an outlet that can release it. But the outlet is always open. I have to learn to close it and make sure the electricity doesn't interact with the surroundings until I want it to. This way, I don't have to worry about my weakness to water and I won't risk exposing myself." Max says to himself.

Max has a small amount of electricity left in him and he decides to train with it. He gets up and takes out a bulb from the ceiling and holds it in his hands. It lights up and gradually becomes brighter before exploding.

He takes another bulb from his house and the same thing happens. He continues until there are no more bulbs in the house.

"Damn. I can't even reduce the amount of power I'm releasing. I'm out of bulbs and I can't go out to get more. It would have been better if I had some friends, but Max's behavior kept everyone away from him." Max says to himself while thinking of other ways to train.

He is pacing around when he hears something vibrating. He looks around and sees the keys hanging on the wall shaking. He reaches out his hand and the keys fly to him.

He looks at the old key, which is made entirely of iron. He remembers that flowing current creates a magnetic field. He is a living magnet.

"I can work with this and I don't have to worry about running out of tries. I just have to make the keys not stick to me." Max says and starts trying to control the current inside him.

He sees the current flowing inside his body. It moves throughout his body, like blood. He tries different ways to stop the electricity from flowing through his body. He flexes his muscles, but that only increases the power. He tries relaxing his arm, but that doesn't help.

He tests himself for two hours with no progress and drops on his couch to take a break.

"Shit. There is no real progress and if I don't control my power output, I can forget about my dreams and goals. I might end up as a living free power generator for the government or a lab rat." Max says to himself.

He stares at the ceiling and then closes his eyes. Then suddenly, he hears a voice in his head. "Electricity is a chaotic energy and right now, you are at its mercy. You have to command it and make it bend to your will."

Max jumps up from the couch and looks around. "What the hell was that?" He shouts. The neighbor next door shouts back, "Shut up. I'm trying to sleep here."

The neighbor who shouted is a middle-aged man in his 40s who spends most of his time drunk in his apartment. He and Max don't get along.

Max doesn't want to deal with him now because he has other things to worry about.

"Who was that?...Wait! I remember hearing that same voice after I died. Does it have something to do with why I'm here?" Max wonders.

He thinks of all the possible reasons for the voice he just heard, but he realizes that he won't get any answers even if he thinks about it for a whole day. He will only have guesses.

So, he decides to leave it for later and focus on the new piece of information he just got.

"Maybe I should try it with my eyes closed. I've read many books and seen many movies where the character closes their eyes and everything happens the way they want." Max says and closes his eyes.

He concentrates on his body and repeats in his mind, "Stop flowing...Stop flowing...Stop flowing...Stop flowing...Stop flowing...Stop flowing..."

He stops when he hears the metallic sound of the keys in his hands falling on the ground. He opens his eyes and sees the keys on the ground. His face is glowing with pure satisfaction and joy from the progress.

He starts practicing more to gain better control over his abilities. He tries various things like controlling his power output, his physical strength, when something sticks to him, and the discharge when he doesn't use his powers.

Also, while testing his powers, he notices that his body can produce electricity. "I didn't know Electro could produce electricity himself. I don't think they mentioned it in the movies, or maybe they did and I forgot. Anyway, I think I can control the electricity inside me and all I have to do is command it in my head." Max says to himself.

He then goes to the bathroom to test the most important thing that will decide his future when he goes out. His bathtub is already half full from the shower earlier.

He looks at the water and takes a deep breath in and out. He puts a leg inside the tub and then the other when he doesn't feel too weak. He stands there for a while and he feels a little weak, but not like before. There is some discharge, but not a lot. It's insignificant for a short time and it gets worse when he stays longer, but it's still much better than before, when he could have died if he didn't jump away.

He takes a bath and gets out of the shower and dresses up. It's time to use his powers in the real world. He gets a hoodie and glasses to cover his face and heads out. He walks out of the building and goes to the electric company he worked at.

He needs electricity and what better place to find it than an electric company. When he checks in, he is greeted by the same person who was the first to get shocked by him when he got his powers.

The middle-aged man walks up to Max and says, "Thank God you're fine. When you didn't show up for work this morning, I thought something happened to you after you left and everyone blamed me for it."

Max doesn't want to talk to him much since he knows he's not happy that Max is alive, but that he's not in trouble. He just nods and tries to leave, but the man grabs Max's hand to stop him.

He asks, "Do you know what happened to me? I passed out after touching you."

"You work at an electric company. You should know that I might have had some current in me after getting struck by lightning. You touched me and got shocked too." Max says and leaves.

Max then works as usual until lunch break. During that time, he sneaks into the main transformer that supplies the current. He sees that it's where the most power is concentrated.

He touches it and feels the current flowing into him. He feels energized and it doesn't take long before he reaches his maximum capacity. Max feels that if he goes any further, he will die. Since he has proper control now, he lets go of the transformer and cuts off the connection.

"I have to gradually increase my maximum power." Max thinks to himself and leaves the place as he hears some footsteps.

His plan to increase his maximum power is to take small amounts of power beyond his limit. This way, he can train slowly and let his body adjust.

He spends the rest of the day doing his usual work and when his shift is over, he buys food from McDonald's and walks home while eating a cheeseburger and fries.

On his way back to the apartment, he notices a woman with blonde hair and a white dress running towards him. He steps to the side so they don't bump into each other, but she stops in front of him.

She bends down to catch her breath and then looks at Max. She doesn't say anything and reaches for his fries. Max moves them away from her and says, "I can buy you another one if you're so hungry, but don't try to take my food."

The woman stares at him and stands up. That's when Max gets a good look at her and he is shocked to see how much she looks like Margot Robbie. He doesn't have much time to be shocked as his expression turns serious when he sees red stains on her dress.

He wasn't afraid of her, as he had dealt with criminals in his previous life. He was fully alert and ready for anything.

She saw his expression and followed his eyes to her dress. She said, "Oh! No...no...no...this isn't blood. I was eating a hot dog and I dropped it on myself. This is just ketchup."

Max looked at her for a while before laughing and saying, "Of course it's ketchup. How could such a beautiful woman have blood all over her clothes? See you later. Bye."

He was about to leave when she pulled his shirt and said, "Excuse me, you're not going to leave a woman alone at night, are you? I'm lost."

Max sighed and said, "Fine, where do you live?"

She said, "I live in the same building as you. I saw you enter your house yesterday. You might not have noticed me since you looked so scared."

Max said, "Then follow me."

He started walking towards their building. The woman introduced herself, "I'm Lisa. I work at a bar. Nice to meet you."

Max didn't want to introduce himself, so he said, "Nice to meet you too."

Lisa then asked, "What's your name?"

Max, eating his fries, said, "Max."

Lisa asked, "Why do you look like you're not happy to meet me?"

Max replied, "I'm happy to meet such a wonderful woman, but your first impression of trying to take my fries made me like you less. I don't like sharing food."

Lisa smiled and said, "Got it. I won't touch your food again. So, what do you do for work?"

Max answered her and their walk to the building was mostly Lisa talking while Max tried to end it. They finally arrived at the building and went to their homes. Surprisingly, Lisa lived right across from him.

Lisa turned to Max and said, "Thanks for showing me the way back here and for the lovely talk. I'd like to treat you to dinner tomorrow as a thank you and don't even try to refuse."

Max smiled and said, "I never turn down free food. See you tomorrow."

They both entered their homes and locked the doors. Max said to himself, "Great. Just great. Now I have a killer living across from me."

Max knew she was a killer when he saw the stains on her dress for the first time. He was a cop in his last life and knew what blood looked like. When it dried up, it didn't stay red. It turned dark red or brown. He could tell she was lying, but he didn't want to expose her or associate with her. He didn't want to get involved with her and risk exposing his powers.

As for Lisa, she entered her house and changed her clothes. She sat down on her couch with a glass of wine. She chuckled and said, "There's someone who's not scared of me even after knowing I'm a killer. Either he's a killer too, or a very interesting man."

A creepy smile spread on her face and she said, "This is going to be fun."