7 Chapter 7: Look to the Stars

(Tried a new format, and switched the other chapters to it after deciding I like it more. Also adjusted a few words and sentences here and there in the past chapters)

Alex woke up at 7 in the morning, his head still sore albeit much less than before. Luckily yesterday was a Friday, so he didn't have to force himself through school which would make his life a lot easier.

Of course that's less coincidence and more they chose that night specifically for that reason, otherwise they wouldn't have waited a week.

Thinking back on it now, it's no wonder those brothers whooped MacCready's ass, even not being powered up they were kicking doors off hinges. Alex had to leave the realm of normal strength just to take the first one, Damien down.

Speaking of which, he clenched his fist tightly trying to feel any difference.

Sadly, there seemed to be no difference between his strength yesterday morning and right now. Which meant that strength last night wasn't a base increase, but something that activated somehow.

Activating that, will be the key to his continued survival, if they intend to kill him that is. Something tells him they won't just sit back and accept that loss.

The thought quickly flashed in his mind that perhaps he should have killed them. And rather than panic and push it out of his head, Alex genuinely contemplated the pros and cons of that.

If they had kept contact with any allies before they left that night, then even if he killed them he'd be tracked down easily and he'd be caught more unaware than if he knew who to look out for.

Not to mention a lot of unknowns behind them like who was backing them, their own origins, or even their own intentions. Maybe they didn't even want that fight but had no choice, who knows.

All of this wasn't gonna stop him from doing what he needs to, but it was a good reason to not take unnecessary further action.

In the end, he decided that he had made the right call this time, but he'd need to be ready to make the tougher call in case the time ever came. With that out of the way, he sat up and opened the door to find the wafting aroma of bacon.

He quickly headed downstairs to find Duke cooking breakfast, somehow not surprised that he was the one cooking even with his sister back.

"What are you trying to do, prove you're a strong independent man who don't need no woman?"

Duke turned to him with a mock scowl.

"Well if you're gonna be like that, I guess I'm cooking breakfast for two."

Alex pulled out a seat and sat down.

"I'm just impressed you weren't doing that anyways."

Not wanting to get into that conversation, Duke just ignored it and kept making breakfast.

Soon after, Kaitlyn joined the two downstairs, wearing a white T shirt and black shorts, with her hair slightly frizzy from just waking up. Rather than bothering with appearances, she just sat down at the table next to Alex, and started talking with him.

Perhaps it was in her nature to be more upfront with things, she quickly asked him, "Ya got any juicy stories about my brother over there?" She seemingly didn't mind the fact that the person in question would hear everything they said.

Not worried about his food being sabotaged with hot sauce, Alex brought out the first one that came to mind.

"There was this one time back in middle school, Duke had this habit of trying too hard to be a good guy and jumped in to defend this girl from being bullied by some older guys. Of course he was getting beaten up, so I had to join in and even things out to save the day. Unsurprisingly, that girl went on to become his girlfriend, they still date to this day. I mean there's a reason he wanted to help her right, she is pretty cute."

"From middle school? That's at minimum five years. I'm glad he's gotten himself a good catch at least."

Duke was mildly surprised Alex didn't take this chance to make fun of him, and smiled remembering those good old days.

Of course that smile quickly faded once his sister mentioned, "That means she'll be coming over eventually right? I'll have to meet her myself then." Dread filled his mind as he thought of that nightmare unfolding, and vowed to delay that as much as possible.

This was actually the reason Alex didn't just camp out at his house all the time, as he didn't want to be a cock block whenever she came over, though obviously he did hang out with the two of them together every now and then.

Once Duke finished breakfast, he joined the three at the table and they ate together. It was a little annoying, but in order to maintain a good atmosphere Alex played the middle man between the two feuding siblings, to grease the gears and keep the conversations flowing.

This led Duke to telling a few stories of his own.

"One time I actually got this jerk here to play football with us. We had him put on the jersey of one of our receivers, and just keep his helmet on the whole time so no one would notice. Of course, he ended up being way better than the guy he was impersonating, and raised suspicion anyways."

Alex barked back, "Says the guy who took out anyone approaching me with way more zeal than usual. Seriously, you almost got suspended with how hard you laid out some of those guys."

Kaitlyn laughed at her brother's antics. "Between protecting the weak and this, what are you a momma bear?"

All three of them gave a hearty laugh to this, Duke's slightly shaggy brown hair, tanned body and bigger build lending itself a little too well to the mental image.

Alex leaned back in his chair and took this opportunity to try and get her to open up. "So, we shared our stories, only fair if you give us one."

Being put on the spot, she froze and frowned, thinking hard. Eventually, she sighed. "Sorry, I don't really have any good stories."

This wasn't her being shy, the look of melancholy on her face was proof enough. Between her ownership of this fairly big house, and never being around, Alex now kinda saw why. She put too much time into her work, whatever it was, and not enough for herself.

As for what she did to get a house like this, that was a whole new situation not worth getting into so soon. Slowly but surely though, he was regarding this as less of 'someone else's problem' and more something he wanted to do.

Once he had eaten his fill though, Alex stretched and got up.

"Hate to eat and run, but I've got some stuff I need to work out. You two don't murder each other while I'm gone, I promise it would only be cathartic while you're doing it and not after."

After lightening the mood one last time, Alex left the house to walk home, only a couple minutes away walking. Sadly he couldn't run so much as that would agitate his rib. Once he got home, he quickly greeted his parents and went up to his room, and closed the door.

Focusing his mind, he closed his eyes and tried to meditate. Feel within his body for anything that might be what powered him last night. Some type of internal power, anything.

Try as he might though, Alex couldn't find a single thing. So he kept trying while thinking about alternative methods the whole day. This was super important, so he couldn't afford to just assume it wouldn't work and half ass it.

After trying for so long, it had become night. Needing a breath of fresh air, he opened the window and stuck his head outside. After inhaling deeply, he felt something familiar.

It was almost like he just got connected to something. And that was when it clicked. He wasn't getting powered by his own internal ki or any crap like that. He received it from something else.

Trying to reverse trace the connection, he found himself looking up, at the stars that he could see fairly clearly that night. Once he had put two and two together, Alex got a big grin on his face as he stared up and the light shone on his face.

"Gotcha bitch."

He had no idea which one, but one of these stars was giving him his abilities. So he just needed to strengthen that connection, and find a way to activate it at will, and he'd officially have super powers.

Knowing that, he sat back down and focused once more, this time on that connection tethering itself into him. It was faint but he could feel it there.

Gripping his fist like he did that morning, it was slight but he felt a difference. Even now that connection was powering him, even in a seemingly semi-dormant state. This gave him the confidence that he could get this working sooner rather than later.