Location: Just outside Athens Park
May 4, 201612:50 am
Adrian inhaled deeply. His lungs were on fire and every inch of him was in searing pain. He blinked slowly trying to wipe the tears from his eyes as he dared to take another breath.
"What the hell just happened?" The words and the world still spinning in his head. He closed his eyes willing, pleading with the pain to subside. Images of light and dark, pushes and pulls, distortions and waves had burned their fading afterimages into the black canvas of his inner eyelids.
As the tinnitus faded from his ears, the ringing was replaced by dogs barking and car alarms echoing off in the distance.
"How did I get here? I was just..." "DISSONANCE." As quickly as the word left his lips he could see the outline of someone standing before him. A rush of adrenaline; Adrian moved like a lion ready to pounce on its prey. A blast from his hand went sailing, catching the figure in his shoulder and knocking him onto his back and blowing his bath robe to the floor. The man groaned but quickly regained his senses. He screamed and ran in the other direction; a bed slipper abandoned on the sidewalk.
"It wasn't her." Adrian muttered as he staggered to his feet. His head throbbed and his legs were wobbly. A black hoodie bloodied and ripped, clung to his shirt. The golden "I" from the
Incredibles movie shown between the zippers. He used the scarlet shirt as a substitute symbol for when he went out paroling as Impulse. The rest of his uniform was comprised of casual black jeans and some black
Air Force Ones that he also played basketball in. If it was sunny outside, he'd wear black shades to cover part of his face. Besides partial face obstruction, his main strategy for not getting recognized was the same strategy he used in a fight.
"Don't get seen." and
"Always to strike first." Impulse was no assassin but he didn't want to be unexpectedly shot or swung on either. His powers (although strong) didn't have any duration. It was like firing a thousand cannons in all directions but if he blinked, they would all disappear. Gunfights were the especially troublesome. He could block a million bullets and have a building fall on him but if two people alternated their shots, one just after the other, he could rely only on blocking one of them and hope to dodge the other. Because of that risk, he preferred to hit first and have that one hit be the only hit he needed.
The pain had almost completely dissipated as he stretched, cracking his knuckles and his neck. Something was still odd though. His clothes had shrunk... or rather, he had grown. He felt heavy, unnatural, off balance. Almost as if he had borrowed someone else's body but kept his height and voice. The streets looked ...newer. No, they didn't have that clean look like new things do... Instead, they seemed more advanced. Sheek. The power lines were made out of carbon fiber. He noticed that the street lights had sensors in them. Every one he walked past had a blue light blink at him and then turn off when he was out of range.
"Were there cameras installed in them now?" He became absorbed in deeper though as he noticed more and more 'little' changes all around himself.
Suddenly, a spotlight shown down on him. It illuminated the sidewalk and was bright enough to devour all the shadows around him. He blinked and covered his eyes from the blinding light.
"This is the police! Put your hands behind your head and lay face down on the ground!" said the voice through a speaker. The speaker was attached to a drone, which was shining the obnoxiously-bright light down on him.
"We said get down on the ground! NOW!" another voice shouted from down the road. A cop car whirred around the corner. Then another and another. They kept flooding in from all directions until Adrian was surrounded.
"We go em' surrounded. Closing in!" another cop said into his voice comm.
"Where's the gun?" yet another police man asked to the team.
"I dunno, I don't see it!""Are we sure this is the terrorist who bombed the buildings?""I said get down!""It has to be. He fits the description!""Well then, where's the gun?""He must have tossed i... I said get down! You have till' the count of three!" Adrian wasn't even going to wait for the officer to count to "two". He heard the two magic words that get people shot; "Terrorists" and "Gun" and he wasn't about to wait and see which one was going to get him in the most trouble.
"ONE!..." "I'm not in the mood." He muttered under his breath. Adrian squatted and spread his finger out, palms facing down. A soft boom sounded from underneath and he could feel the rush of wind on his face. As he thought, the police were only startled for a moment before Adrian heard them open fire. Simultaneously, Adrian detonated his impulse barrier and blasted a powerful force out of his hands. His barrier smashed straight through the drone. He saw bullets distort his barrier like ripples on a water's surface, each one being deflected like flicking an ant off a table. Both the shots he fired from either hand hit two police officers, flipping one over the hood of the car and slamming the other's head into a vehicle; denting the door. Adrian landed in between another officer and two squad cars. Before the officer could fire another shot, he detonated his impulse barrier sending the officer flying into the park bushes. The two cop cars behind him were sent flipping over the other vehicles. Metal and glass shards lay littered in the streets. He knew that he hadn't killed any of the cops but they would be out of commission for a while with some severe broken bones and cracked ribs.
Another soft boom and he was airborne again. Then another. He had angled his second blast so that this time he went further up and quickly moved away from the debris and the wreckage. He was higher than most four or five story buildings at this point.
"Videogames wish they could double jump like this." he smirked. Another blast. The third one just added to his momentum and he was rapidly climbing higher and higher and moving into the city.
"Those cops were in over their head."Another blast. It seemed like even the stars were chasing him.
It was bad luck that they cornered him like that on the night his mother was murdered.