Take Me To Another World (One Direction)

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Liam's point of view

Dr Matthews talked absently while he searched through his files. "You guys saw that Niall was glowing. But you know glowing isn't normal. So now you have to realize that there are some people in the world who are different. Some people who can do things that aren't 'normal'. There are lots of people like that actually. Lots of people with unusual abilities."

“What, are you meaning like X-Men?” Harry chimed in incredulously. “Or like superman or something?”

“Exactly Harry, exactly.” Dr Matthews looked up, pleased. “All those movies and TV series, X-Men, Heroes, Alphas, Misfits, Superman, Spiderman... I imagine you've all watched them and many more. All those explore the same basic theme. That theme is that there are some people who are different, who are extra special, who have abilities to do things others can't. Well, all those series are all true, in a sense. They are 'based on a true story' you could say. In the world, in the real world, there are people like that. Special people, who can do things others can't. Niall's one of them. He can glow. You've seen him glow. That's his power... well part of it anyway.”

All the boys gaped.

Superpowers are real? People really have them in the real world?

"Niall has a superpower?!" Louis asked, his eyes wide. "Seriously?!"

"No way!" Zayn said. "You're pulling our leg. Pranking us." Zayn's right, this must be a joke. 

Dr Matthews laughed. "So Zayn, how do you explain the fact that he was glowing?"

Zayn looked puzzled. Well okay that's rather hard to explain. But it must be some sort of medical condition. There must be something wrong with Niall that the doctor needs to fix.

“So can you stop him from glowing?" Liam asked. "Or remove his 'power'? If that's how you like to think of it.” 

“We can teach him to control it," Dr Matthews replied firmly. "So that he only glows when he wants to, and never glows when he doesn't want to. We can teach him how to glow any colour he wishes. And we can teach him to control what emotions he shares with others."

“He can share emotions?” Zayn asked.

Dr Matthews nodded. "Yes, his ability has two parts. He can emit light, and he can also emit emotions. We call Niall's ability 'Projection', referring to his ability to project forth light and emotions to those near him. Initially, when Niall's power is untrained and uncontrolled, as it is now, the light's colour will be determined subconsciously by Niall and will mimic his feelings. I noticed in the video of your concert that the light was a beautiful golden white, and that Niall looked really happy on stage."

Dr Matthews looked thoughtful and added, "I'm willing to bet that once you got him off-stage and when he started panicking that it didn't stay that colour. It probably turned puke brown or some equally rancid colour, but whatever colour it went I'm betting it didn't look pretty because the associated emotion that was driving his power was fear and terror rather than happiness. At that point he would have hit you all with huge blasts of panic, fear and terror.”

Dr Matthews paused to nod again, before resuming. “On the plus side, it's not dangerous. Well, unless you get so terrified you run out the door in front of the bus or something. Or if you have a weak heart, I suppose... sufficient fear and terror might be able to induce a heart attack. Hmm....” He appeared to reach for a pen beside him and scribble a quick note before resuming once again. “But the upshot of it is that if Niall panics about himself glowing then those around him actually end up more afraid of it than he is, because they get their own fear plus his, whereas he only gets his own. Do you see?”