Shards

Chapter 1: Rags

I woke up in a hospital bed, two guards stood by the door, clothed in black body armor and wielding rifles, pairs of doctors circled around me, shining lights in my eyes, poking, prodding, then scribbling something down on their clipboards. "What am I doing here?" I tried to motion over to a doctor but I immediately felt the tug of restrain by strange cuffs that covered my entire hand, the design looked similar to both the guns I had saw earlier in the basement. A doctor looked at me struggling. "I wouldn't waste my breath if I were you, those cuffs are made from an experimental alloy that's indestructible." He chuckled a bit, pride in his voice. "Now we just have to run a few tests." "I'm pretty sure I'm fine, can I go now?" I snarled, ignoring his comment and tugging at the cuffs anyways. "I just want to leave, okay? My parents... they were just killed. I have to go."

Sweat started to build on my brow, my breath was labored and my heart felt like it was running at 1000 mph. A purple current visibly ran through the vein of my arm. An alarm chimed to the side of me. Every doctor looked up at me, fear almost paralyzing them. "Guards!" The head doctor yelled, followed by the two guards running inside and pointing their guns at my head. "The hell did you lab-coats do to me?" "We just need you to calm down, Mr. Wright." The first guard said, clenching his gun as if it was the only thing he had ever known. "Well you could've asked before you pointed a gun at my head." I squirmed, starting to sweat furiously. Purple surges ran through my veins, my palms burned, the heat increasing by the second. "Just make it stop, please." I was desperate now, it felt like I had stuck my hands right in the sun.

I heard a sizzling, the doctors retreated back. The cuffs burst off, followed by massive beams of purple energy shooting out of my hands and spiraling around my arms, making small cuts as they circulated. I screamed from the pain and closed my eyes. Everything went quiet, I felt like I had been forced underwater, I couldn't breathe.

Alaska

Opening my eyes, all I could see was darkness, an unending void. Air filled my lungs and I felt cold air beat across the back of my head, I was dropping out of the sky. "Well Fr-"I was cut off by the feeling of a hole being pierced in my torso, I looked down to see a broken branch jutting out of me. I gasped and tried to wrap my hands around the broken wood. I tilted my head and laid it on the hardened snow. "Well this definitely isn't how I pictured going out." I felt surges go through my veins, purple energy lined the hole around the branch and sliced it in half. My torso filled itself, forcing the other end of the branch out as it did. 

My eye twitched. I stood up and examined myself, the sleeves of my shirt hung down in strips where the purple energy had spiraled. I walked through the snow, it evidently snows a lot here, wherever here is, because the snow had hardened, producing hard crunches against my weight, though it was starting to thaw. My stomach growled, "Well I probably need to find some food." I heard a growl much louder than my stomach resonate throughout the expanse of the woods, then a roar. I staggered up and looked around, noticing small trees parting, making the way for a creature, it was a grizzly bear.

 I called to mind an old video I had watched and stood still, the grizzly stood up, the grizzly's nearly 10 feet towered over my 6. I started to sweat. The grizzly stood down back onto its fours and charged at me. Blinding purple energy danced around my arms, the spirals making bigger cuts than before. The energy trickled down to my palms as two beams erupted from them, nearly disintegrating the bear and leaving only a few bones left to decorate the barren snow. I ran my hand through my hair and sat down against a tree, closing my eyes and contemplating the day. 

It seemed as if my parents had just been there, I could feel the calluses from years and from years of engineering and design, it didn't seem like they were gone. A tear ran down my eyes, I tried to clamp them down but I sobbed anyways. I wiped up my tears and stared into the starry sky. An aurora borealis danced around in the sky, the different colors showering my surroundings with colors. I sighed and watched, interrupted by the unnatural blue light of a flashlight. 

It shone in my face and I raised my stripped sleeves to shield my eyes. I could feel the energy building at my palms and shoved my hand in the snow. "Who are you?" Behind the light I could see a short figure walking closer to me, they lowered the flashlight and my eyes readjusted to the lighting. My eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, it was my brother, a serious look of concern spread across his face. "We need to talk, Lucas." He stretched out a thin arm. "I can't touch you, Nicolas." I slowly raised my hand out of the snow and showed it to him, purple light pulsating from under my skin. "I know." He said, raising his sleeve. Blue energy shot throughout every vein. I took his hand, what felt like a sound-wave resulted, knocking down every tree that surrounded us. My eyebrows flinched. "Whoa."