Tuesday, May 8, 2022
Time: 0345 Hrs
Location: Gordon & Edith's Apartment
A sudden, violent burst of radiant light wrenched Gordon from the depths of his slumber.
He bolted upright, his heart hammering a frantic rhythm against his ribs. The shadows of his bedroom were entirely gone, replaced by an enchanting, heavy golden glow that painted the walls. Sweat trickled down his brow, cold against his skin. His mind was a tempest, still desperately clawing for the identity of the woman from his dream, the phantom scent of white lilacs still clinging to the back of his throat.
"Who was that...?" he whispered, his voice trembling. "What was that place? It felt far too real to be mere fantasy."
The warmth of her embrace still lingered on his shoulders, a stark contrast to the chilly air of his room.
"Perhaps it was only a dream… yes, just a dream," he murmured to the empty room. He ran a hand over his face, seeking solace in his own words, desperately attempting to convince himself.
Desperate for a sense of normalcy, he swung his legs out from beneath the cocoon of his blankets and wandered through the room. His bare feet hit the cold floorboards, momentarily grounding him. He padded over toward the small desk mirror, intending to check his face.
But the moment his eyes hit the glass, a stunning sight caught his eye; shock froze the air right in his lungs.
Hovering ethereally just above his messy hair was a radiant, glowing ring. It shimmered with an otherworldly, crystalline light, casting a perfect circle roughly sixty centimeters wide, gently pulsing in sync with his heartbeat. A celestial halo.
A choked gasp escaped his lips. Horrified, Gordon stumbled backward, his hand flying up to point instinctively at his own reflection. His heel caught the edge of his rug, and he went down hard, knocking over a stack of textbooks with a thunderous crash.
The heavy thud echoed through the quiet apartment. Almost instantly, thunderous, frantic footsteps echoed down the hallway, hastening toward his door.
The door burst open with a crash.
"Gordon! Are you alright?!" Edith barked, a fraying thread of panic woven through her voice. She was holding a heavy wooden ruler like a weapon, her eyes darting around the dark corners. "I heard your shout and..."
Her words died in her throat. The ruler slipped from her fingers, clattering uselessly against the floorboards.
Edith froze, her chest heaving as her wide eyes locked onto the brilliant, pulsing ring of light hovering above her little brother's head. The sheer impossibility of it—the raw, celestial entity radiating from him swallowed the room's oxygen.
"Edith... I'm... I don't know what," Gordon stammered, scrambling toward her on his hands and knees, reaching out a trembling hand for her.
But before he could finish his desperate plea, Edith's eyes rolled back. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed forward like a marionette with its strings cleanly severed.
"Edith!"
Fear clawed violently at his heart. Gordon rushed to her side, sliding on the floor as he caught her before her head hit the ground. He cradled her head gently in his trembling hands, shaking her softly.
"Please, wake up! Edith, come on, I don't know what to do…" Tears finally spilled over his lower lids, hot and fast, mixing with the terrifying confusion and dread of the night. He buried his head against Edith, desperately wishing for her warmth to guide him through the tempest of uncertainty. "Please... just wake up..."
The oppressive silence of the room stretched on, heavy and suffocating, until a soft glow ignited in the air before him. Gordon's tear-stained gaze snapped upward, glued to the shimmering words that began to manifest out of the glowing ether, sharp and perfectly legible:
Oh, fated one, congratulations on your awakening.
You have awakened the power of Halo.
The following sub-skills are unlocked under the skill/power Halo Lvl 1:
Healing Light {Passive/Active} — Summons a divine pillar of healing light, capable of mending injuries, banishing ailments, and countering the shadows of despair.
Halo Generation {Active} — Unleashes a cascade of halos, limited only by the confines of the user's mental fortitude. (Current No- [2])
Halo Reformation Barrier {Passive/Active} — Conjures a protective barrier encasing the hollow core of the halo, adjustable at will, its size shifting as the user desires.
Halo Manipulation {Active} — Bestows the ability to direct the trajectory, enlarge, or accelerate the halos, weaving them into an intricate dance of power and grace.
Gordon stood enraptured, his heart pulsating with awe and bewilderment as he absorbed the radiant display, his mind racing with the prospect of newfound magic unfolding before him.
"Does this mean I've got a superpower?" he questioned himself, glancing back at his system panel in wonder.
He even pinched his forearm hard enough to leave a red mark to confirm he wasn't dreaming, but the reality remained steadfast.
"It's real… everything is real," he concluded.
His gaze settled on the first ability |Healing Light|, his thoughts drifting back to Edith. He held her gently, placing her head on his lap as the urge to heal surged within him. Questions swirled in his mind.
"How do I activate this ability?"
Then, as if answering his desperation, a figure formed in his mind's eye, showing him a fluid hand motion to control the halo above the patient. Radiant light flowed down upon her, and the figure vanished into shimmering particles. Enlightened, Gordon followed the motion he had seen, manipulating the halo above Edith.
"Healing Light!"
The halo shone with blinding brilliance as a pillar of light descended gently upon her. Gordon's eyes widened with hope and excitement, his heart racing as he witnessed the color gradually return to Edith's face, replacing her pale, unresponsive look. Moments later, her eyelids fluttered, and she slowly opened her eyes. Seeing this, Gordon retracted the halo back to him, and it faded from view.
"Edith, are you okay?" he asked, concern lacing his voice.
"Yeah... a bit dizzy, but I'll be alright," she replied, shaking her head as if to clear it.
Gordon sighed, relieved by her response, and glanced back at the mirror, contemplating his next words.
"Should I tell her?" he pondered.
"By the way, Gordon..." Edith said, her voice dropping as she looked around the room, a sudden memory causing her eyes to flicker with a volatile mix of awe and deep-seated fear. "What was that... that light I saw behind you?"
Gordon turned to face her fully. "Well, believe me or not, but… I've got superpowers."
Her expression froze momentarily. She stared at him for five long seconds, her mouth slightly open, before stammering, "Umm… Are you okay? Did Balam hit you harder in the head?"
He snapped his fingers to jolt her back to reality. "You've got superpowers!" she exclaimed, disbelief etched across her features.
Gordon didn't argue. Instead, he simply closed his eyes and concentrated, calling upon the warmth humming beneath his skin.
The transformation was instantaneous.
With a soft, resonant hum, the brilliant golden ring materialized behind his head. As the divine energy flooded his body, the black tips of his hair vanished entirely, bleeds of pure, snow-white overtaking every strand until his hair was completely devoid of dark pigment. When his eyelids opened, his golden irises had transformed, replaced by eyes that glowed with a dim, ethereal white light.
Edith gasped, pinning herself against the side of the bed. She gazed at him, completely awestruck, as her protective older-sister brain instantly went into a frantic, chaotic overdrive, her mind whirling with countless questions:
How can this be possible? This isn't some made-up comic world, right? Are there other superpowered people? Is my brother the only one? Is he an angel? Why a halo of all things? Oh my… what if the government finds out? Will he be taken away to be tested in a lab?
Gordon watched her face, feeling a pang of guilt for shattering her reality. But the strange visions he'd encountered, with the doors and the mysterious orb speaking about his fate, hung heavily in his mind. With this explosive revelation, it dawned on him that reality itself felt altered, as if a monumental shift was about to redefine the course of their lives.
The silence stretched between them, thick and heavy, until Edith finally broke it. She reached out, her hands still trembling violently, and firmly grabbed both of his shoulders.
"Gordon," she said, her voice dropping into a fierce, dead-serious whisper. "Listen to me. You cannot show this to anyone else. Not Eddie, not the teachers, nobody. Do you understand?"
Gordon looked at her through his dimly glowing white eyes, seeing the raw, protective panic in her face, and nodded slowly. "I understand."
With a single thought, he willed the golden ring to dissipate.
The moment the halo vanished, the divine pressure completely evaporated from the room. The glowing white quickly faded from his eyes, returning them to their usual gold, and the darkness rushed back into his hair, bleeding down from the roots until his strands reverted to their natural white hair with black tips.
Edith let out a long, shaky breath, pulling him into a tight embrace as if she could shield him from the entire world.
But as Gordon rested his chin on her shoulder, staring blankly at the dark wall, his mind drifted back to the mysterious corridor and the floating interface. His power had awakened, but deep down, a sinking feeling told him that the world they knew was already rewriting itself—and they were running out of time to hide.