Blazion
Continuing through the night, Omega came to another abandoned building. This time it was a garage near the docks on the east side of the city. This area in general got pretty quiet at night when business shut down, but he always took the utmost care in making sure he was never followed. Underneath this garage, Omega had built his hideout, which was also his home.
He headed down through the hidden entrance, lazily threw off his clothes, and proceeded to wash the night away. Then, he got in bed and laid there still and silent until his mind finally allowed him to drift off to sleep.
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Manny woke the next morning feeling slightly more worn than usual. His emotions had probably weighed more on him than he was expecting. Today would definitely be a training day. He needed to work these emotions off.
He got up, threw on a rust colored tank top and a plain pair of dark gray sweats, and tied his hair down under a bandanna. After a light breakfast of eggs, sausage, and toast, Manny headed into his gym. It was a cavernous room with a polished wood floor, an exposed ceiling, and light gray walls. There was a rather small weight set (didn’t need much when you could alter gravity) and platforms and cubes of varying sizes stacked up on one side. He used these platforms to train in zero gravity, allowing them to float around the room in place of enemies or rebound points.
He sat and meditated for a while, syncing with the earth’s gravity, feeling the ebb and flow of its forces. After getting primed and focused, he set to some light weight training to warm up his muscles for his hyper-mobile, zero-gravity workout. Nothing helped Manny blow off steam like flying around the room in complete weightlessness with pretty much no restraints. After training the rest of the morning, Manny showered and got ready for a trip outside of town. He wanted to see his mom and brother, who he didn’t see nearly as much as he saw his dad.
Manny pretty much only uses two-wheeled modes of transportation for normal travel, and opted for his motorcycle. He really didn’t feel like pedaling and it was a long trip on a bicycle anyway. Heading out of the garage in the middle of the day was really no big deal as this was more of an industrial part of town, so everyone was too busy working to care. As Manny rode, his thoughts drifted to the newly formed vigilante team.
There’s such a diversity of powers...it’ll take a lot of adjusting to be aware of teammates while we fight. Some of us have powers with a wide area of effect. I can imagine that the first time any of them are fighting in an altered gravity field, it’ll throw them off their game...but it’s not like I could never use that ability when fighting in a team. That’s just something we’ll have to work out...ha...we...now there’s a ‘we’...
A while later, he arrived at the children’s hospital where his mother worked. His brother was usually there as well. He didn’t call ahead, so this would be a surprise. When he walked in, the receptionist immediately greeted him. “Oh, hi, Manny. Didn’t know you were coming by. Surprise visit?” Manny nodded and grinned. “Your mom’s in the east wing, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Thanks.” Manny headed down to the part of the hospital where the chronically and terminally ill children pretty much lived. His mother, Sonya, had the ability to heal people (and plants, actually) with her singing voice. She couldn’t heal anything that was too severe, like a severed limb or extensive nerve damage, and with a serious life-threatening disease, she could really only relieve the pain until the inevitable end. Nevertheless, she loved singing to the children and using her gift to make them feel better. Manny could hear his mother’s voice before he had even gotten halfway down the hall. He made his way to a room where the children often gathered to hear Sonya sing. He waited until he heard the end of the song and poked his head in. “Knock, knock.”
“Manny! What a nice surprise!” Sonya said.
“Heeey, bro!” Ellis said turning his chair to face the door.
All the children were excited to see him, too. They jumped up to give him hugs and he was just as excited to see them. He made his way to Sonya and gave her a peck on the cheek, and Ellis rolled over to give Manny a fist bump. “Haven’t been by in a while and I thought I’d come visit.”
“Play with Miss Sonya, Manny! Please, please, please!” One of the little girls was hopping up and down and pointing to a guitar leaning in the corner.
“Alright, alright.” Manny grinned and walked over to grab the guitar while the kids sat down. He sat on the bench next to his mother and Ellis picked up a tambourine. As they played and sang for the children, Manny really started to feel the weight lifting from him once again. This was something he needed badly, for he truly understood the healing power of music, both literally and figuratively. And it was people like Ellis and these kids that kept Manny fighting for what was right.