Chapter Text
Fear.
My constant companion.
Day-in, day-out.
Not only had they gotten away with it without even a possibility of consequence, I knew that they always escalated. Which meant that whatever they tried next, whatever it was, it would be worse. I couldn't imagine it. I couldn't stop imagining it. When I was at school, I was among enemies, I had to constantly be on alert, constantly hide, and when I couldn't, I had to deflect as much as possible. When they pursued me actively, I was terrified, knowing that they aren't afraid to really hurt me, if they want to. When they left me alone, it was worse, because they had left me alone when I first came back to break, letting me think they had given up when really they were just building up to it.
I had begun considering suicide, earnestly, but decided against it. Dad, as little we interact at all, wouldn't survive me doing that to myself. I couldn't, wouldn't, let him know how bad things were getting.
So I bore it.
Suffered it, day by day by day by day-
<Ambient fear detected- track-T-Taylor Hebert of Earth you-zzzzt-g-g-great fear,-w-w-zzzztk-w-w-welcome to the Sinestro Corps->
-until this morning.
"What the hell is this?" I ask, staring down at the ring on my finger. Surrounding my body was a soft aura of yellow light- no. Not important. What was important was that I was floating. I look past it, at the ground rapidly moving away from my feet. I try to stop- and I do.
"I'm... I'm flying?" I move forwards, then backwards, up, down, I touch the ground, and then kick off of it again, flying forwards.
Then, I just hang there, trying to get my head around this. I'm not a Parahuman- I didn't start flying until the ring came to me. It's not me that's flying, it's the piece of Tinkertech on my finger. I bring it up to my face, and look at it. There's a strange symbol on the front, one I don't really recognize. A circle, with some lines radiating out of it. It, like me, is glowing bright yellow.
I turn it around, but I don't see any speakers or anything, although I suppose it could be hidden inside, or have, I don't know, some weird tinker-techy way of producing sound. If it makes things fly, maybe it shook the air? Whatever, it doesn't matter. What does matter, is why it came to me, and why it knew my name.
I consider pulling it off, but realizing that if I did, I would fall to my death, I wisely dropped back to the road first.
I pull it off- no more glow.
I will myself upwards- and nothing. Just as bound by gravity as always.
For a long moment, I consider just, throwing it away. But it would just become one more thing to be terrified of. No, this is something I want to figure out right now... that, and I don't want to give up on flying, yet.
I slide it back over my finger, and the glow is back.
"Whoah."
I whip around, seeing a boy with a backpack, staring at me with wide eyes. I don't immediately recognize him, but I do know what this means for me- he saw my face, he's seeing me glow, and for every moment we keep eye contact, the more he'll be sure he's seen something he's not supposed to.
There's a flash of yellow, then, and I look down, seeing something in the corner of my vision. I reach up and touch my face, and sure enough, I have a mask. A bit too late, but... at least it won't happen again.
It also means there's more to this than just glowing and flight.
I rise up into the air a bit, and he takes a fearful step back.
"Uh..."
"Do you know who I am?"
I... see something in him?
"N-no!" he stammers, taking another few hurried steps backwards, before tripping on the edge of the sidewalk and stumbling into the street.
I can see... images of the... sun? No, not the sun, a bright, human-shaped glowing light. Oh. Purity. Why am I seeing Purity inside him? I can see her... carving up buildings by the docks. The wreckage left behind. The-
I glow, brighter and brighter, more like her, and he's just trying to back up further, his own desire to escape hampering his attempts to stand up.
The glow moves, then, away from me. It's human-shaped, and almost blinding to look at directly, as it jolts towards him, raising a hand- "NO!"
The Purity made of yellow light abruptly shatters, before it could unleash a blast of light that would have incinerated the boy.
He's breathing hard, looking frantically between the empty space where my fake Purity had been floating, to me, still floating.
I want to scream, or hide, or just- something. But I have to deal with this, right now. "Did you see me without my mask?" I ask.
He shook his head, "I didn't see anything, nothing, absolutely nothing." he promised.
"Did you recognize me?"
Something pulses inside him. I see... Sophia. And Emma. And a few other girls, nearby the lockers, clustered around- hm.
"No." he lies, "No, no, I didn't recognize you. I swear."
"What's my name?" I ask. Suddenly, 'dealing' with this quickly and quietly without any hope of incriminating myself further didn't seem as important.
"I don't know!" that might actually be true.
"You watched, while it happened, didn't you?" I ask, I clench my fist, and my glow gets brighter, "You watched, as they shoved me in there, and did nothing, right?"
"W-why are you going after me? I didn't push you in!"
"You could have got me out." I say, "Any of you could have gotten me out." it wasn't like the hallway was empty when it happened. I see in his... his memories? Faces flash. Friends? The other witnesses? People who abandoned me.
"Then they would have started going after me!" I can see Sophia and Emma's shapes clearly in the yellow light inside him. I look to the side, and while my own yellow glow is casting shadows on the ground, the images within him don't. They're something only I can see. In fact, the images are more intense than the ones of Purity. He's more scared of them than a supervillain. I would find it amusing, if the same wasn't true of me.
"...What's your name?" I ask.
"D-Dave."
"You're scared of Emma and Sophia?"
"Yeah."
"You have bigger problems than them, now." I say. He nods. "Don't tell anyone about me."
He nods again, "I promise."
"Dick." he flinches, but I turn away, as if he was beneath my contempt.
I fly straight up, and even only moments later, I'm already cursing myself for being an idiot. I mean, god! I could have just, flown away. He might have said something, but who would have believed him? And even if he did tell someone who believed him, what could he say? It would have been a boring story, but then I made a... what? A ghost? An image, of Purity? I think it could have actually hurt him, if I didn't stop it. It felt solid. And then I threatened him, and reminded him of my own identity! God! He'll never forget me now. If I had just flown away the moment I knew he saw me, he could have denied it, and just spent the rest of his time at school staying as far away from me as he could. I mean, that's what I would do, if I noticed someone at school had powers.
But now? He'll never forget me. He'll never stop paying attention to me. He's scared of me. Of what I might do to him. Scared of me like I am of Emma and Sophia, and I didn't even have to do anything to him.
Why am I smiling?
I just keep going up, not particularly fast, I don't think, but pretty quickly. I didn't stop when I hit the clouds, but I soon became the only source of light within an endless expanse of gray, and kept on going straight up. I came out the other end, still rising, and then went into another cloud. After rising out of that one, the clouds became thinner, and as I looked down, it... well, it was like a picture taken from the window of an airplane. Through holes in the clouds, I could see Brockton Bay in miniature.
I looked back at the ring, "...What are you?" I ask.
<Th-th-this ring is-zzzzzzkkkt>
Broken.
I would worry it was something I did, but the sound was crackling like that when I first heard it too. "What can you do?"
<Zzzzzz-conduit for- YeL-L-L Light of Fear. Fear Construct-zzztttkkkkttt- universal translation, unassisted space flight, navigation, scanning, faster than light transmiss-s-sssssss>
Wait, wait, what? Okay, fear constructs, that I could see. I guess... seeing what people are afraid of, and being able to... make those fears come to life? Universal translation, that I'll have to test, but unassisted space flight? I could go into space with this thing? Hah!
Actually, no, scratch that, that's a horrible, horrible plan. Even if I can fly in space, that doesn't mean I'll be able to breathe, or anything like that. Okay, so, navigation is easily tested as well, and scanning could mean anything, and... I guess I can send messages faster than the speed of light? How would that even work?
"I want to send a message to the creator of this ring." I say.
<Recording>
Oh?
Um.
"I want to know why you sent me this ring, and how you know who I am." I say, "And that it's a bit glitchy, and that if you want it back, or you want to work with me, or... whatever the reason, you should try to get back in contact with me." I wait, "Er, send message."
<Sendin-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-zzzzzzzzzkkkkkktttt failure to->
"Nevermind." I sigh, "Okay, location. Where are we, exactly?"
<Earth, inhabited world in sector 2814.>
"Oh, that wasn't very glitchy at all. Okay, how about in closer detail? What city am I floating over?"
<N-N-Navigational charts of local system not present-t-t-t.> What? <Accessing local data network. Information downloaded. Local navigation now possible. Location: Brockton Bay, Massachusetts, United States of America, North America, Earth, Sun Solar System, Sector 2814.>
Wait. Sectors?
"Are you from another planet?"
<This ring was not created on Earth.>
God. Aliens, okay. Unless it's bullshitting me.
...
Nope, not going to deal with that right now. I'm not equipped to deal with that. I have a more important question right now. "Why was this ring sent to me?"
<You possess the- the- the- a- Great fear- zzzzz-sufficient- kkkkzzzz-errors in- zzzzzkkkttzzz-instill great fear-zzz- incorrect parameters not met-zzzz- ambient suffused fear levels are- kzzzsssshhhkkkkt>
I...
It's an... apparently alien tool, that can use fear as a weapon, letting me see it in others, use those fears against them, as well as flying and... some other stuff. And it was given to me because I'm afraid.
Because I'm so scared, all the time. It can literally sense fear, and of everyone on Earth, or whatever, I glowed the brightest?
That... god that's depressing.
But I can work with that.
I don't care how I got it, not really. I just know that I can use it. With this, even if I'm not a real Parahuman, I've got powers. Pretty decent ones, even. I could... I could be a hero. Make something of myself, inspire people, change this city. This world, even.
And if the ring isn't bullshitting me, this universe.
That's... that's more hope than I've had in the last two months. God, I even feel optimistic. I let gravity take hold, and freefall back through the clouds. For some reason, I don't feel the wind on my face, although it tugs at my hair a bit. Gray, gray, and more gray passes me by, as Brockton Bay gets bigger and bigger. I halt myself, all at once, and don't even feel sick.
I drop to the ground, to the sidewalk I lifted off from, and take off the ring. The glow vanishes, as does my Mask, and I let out a sigh of relief.
As I turn, and take my first step, however, I realize what I'm walking towards, and my good mood begins to dull.
Just... just make it through today, and then I'll have hours and hours before Dad comes home to practice with my new powers. With every step, I dread it more, but I keep going, just like every other day. And... it's not as bad. If they try something, I can just put on the ring, and break free, of whatever it is. They can't hurt me, not, not permanently, at least.
I'm still scared. Still terrified.
But I can work with that.