Contest: Superhero - Umbrella Academy Contest
Prompt: You are one of the remaining 36 children, the possible Number Eight, who has been training on your own with the hope of joining the Academy. Now it's your turn to tell your story.
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EVER SINCE I WAS little, there's been something inside of me that has frightened both my mother and myself. I would say that it frightens my father too, but I don't have one. You see, I was born without my mother having been pregnant the day before, and the same goes for 42 other individuals. Several of those children were bought from their mothers by Sir Reginald Hargreeves and have been raised as heroes in his 'Umbrella Academy'.
My mother didn't allow for me to be taken from her by Sir Hargreeves however, and I slightly resented her for that in the first twelve or so years of my life when I heard about what those at the Umbrella Academy were doing to help this reality. I reached out to the Academy on my thirteenth birthday without my mother's consent but received no reply, and all I can see that went wrong was that it came from a thirteen-year-old.
It was only a few years after my birth that my so-called "ability" started to develop and grow, allowing me to do wondrous things. Creating objects out of thin air and manipulating the elements, as well as restoring life to dead animals I found laying around in the streets. It scared my mother more than anything and she desperately attempted to keep my "ability" under wraps for fear I draw attention to myself and inadvertently cause trouble.
Despite that, I continued to train myself to control my "ability" and do many things. At some point I started to go out after dark and stop robberies and murders on my own, hoping to draw the attention of the Academy. To do so, I left the most strange things at the sites, and even wore my own superhero costume that I somehow threw together on the spot one night. I have to admit that it wasn't much, but it did its job at hiding my identity - even from my mother.
Years passed and I became well known; almost as well known as the Umbrella Academy kids. The general public called me "Number Eight" due to their belief that I already belonged to the Academy and was just working on my own. To tell you the truth, I do wish that fact were true back then so I wouldn't be where I am today.
However, I did reach out to the Academy once again when I turned sixteen, and this time I received a response from someone called Pogo. They said that Sir Hargreeves was interested in meeting me in order to deduce whether or not I am who I say that am, and not some crazed fan who believes they're special. Being the hopeful sixteen-year-old I was, I readily agreed to meet with him, but it didn't really take much convincing on either side to get a result.
We met at a secluded coffee shop not too far from the Academy, and I quickly learned why. The one who had responded to me turned out to be, in fact, a sort of talking monkey. It startled me of course, but it was not even close to the strangest thing I had seen to that date, and it still isn't to this day. Even so, we sat and talked for a good few hours about multiple things, and barely brushed over the idea that I may have an "ability" like the others at the Academy.
"Why do you not believe me?" I had mused, twisting my fingers and creating a cup of coffee out of air, taking a sip and staring over the lip of the cup at the startled monkey man. I finished the cup without a response and destroyed the mug with a featherlight touch. "As you can see, Pogo, I can create and destroy objects out of nothing."
The monkey man had leaned forward and rested his chin atop his folded hands, dark eyes intent on me. "I do believe you, Miss Barker, but master Hargreeves may not. He is not exactly a trusting man."
"Oh I know that, and I do not blame him for being that way, but he must trust what he sees with his own eyes." My eyes turned to the only other man sitting in the coffee shop and I grinned. "Isn't that right, Mr Hargreeves?"
The older man did not smile when I called him out, but merely looked over to me, analytical eyes seeming to be peering into my soul. He said nothing, folding up his newspaper and walking over to where Pogo and I sat and continued to analyse me. Without a word he picked up Pogo's empty coffee cup and tossed it to me, my instincts making me destroy the mug with a single look. It crumbled into a pile of ash and landed on the table, my fingers moving and turning the ashes into a small golden phoenix.
It shook out its feathers and flew up into the air of its own volition, squawking as it went to land on Sir Hargreeves' shoulder. The man remained still and emotionless as the mythical bird nuzzled into his neck, but Pogo couldn't have helped the smile that spread across his monkey face. In the end, the older man allowed me to go to the Academy and meet the other kids, and I almost couldn't contain my excitement.
Seeing seven other children with abilities made me feel less alone in the grand scheme of things.
Number One had enhanced strength.
Number Two had enhanced breath-holding abilities and the ability to curve the trajectory of anything he throws.
Number Three could manipulate reality by lying with the phrase "I heard a rumour...".
Number Four had the ability to communicate with the dead and temporarily make them corporeal.
Number Five had vanished by the time I had gotten to the Academy, but he had the ability to jump through space and time.
Number Six could possess monsters from other dimensions under his skin.
Number Seven appeared to have no ability, but my ability told me a different story: that she was the strongest and could convert sound waves into destructive force.
They welcomed me with open arms and were amazed with my ability to do almost anything from object manipulation to life manipulation to element manipulation to reality manipulation to psionic manipulation. I learned their names - not just the numbers they were given, but the names their robot nanny gave them: Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Ben and Vanya. We all got along for the few weeks I stayed with them.
However, it was not meant to be.
Sir Hargreeves told me that I could no longer stay with them after I accidentally opened a door to another dimension and Ben almost got himself killed attempting to possess a monster from that dimension. Of course I understood and willingly left, not wanting to harm the ones I had come to call my family again, and that was the time things began to go wrong for those that remained at the Academy.
One by one they left over the next few years, and Ben ended up dying without me there to manipulate his life-force and keep him from dying whilst Pogo and the robot mother to the Academy kids healed him at their own pace. Klaus became more dependant on drugs and alcohol to shut out the dead that continued to visit him, Allison became and actress, Diego became a sort of hit-man, Vanya continued to play the violin, and Luther remained at the Academy with Sir Hargreeves.
While Five was never seen again in the current time, I could see him in the future and the past, surviving and killing for the time agency thing that decided when and where things needed to happen. I felt sorry for the boy, but there wasn't anything I could have done to help him back then, maybe now, but not then. All I could do was keep an eye on him over the years in the different periods of time and make a timeline in my mind.
What happened to me? Well, after I left the Academy, my mother died in a freak accident that I wasn't quick enough to prevent, and she refused to let me manipulate time and save her, claiming that someone else would die in her place and she wouldn't allow for it. After that I began to spiral into a dark place and caused quite a few horrific accidents and natural disasters all over the world from how out of control my "ability" got, and a few got me some visits from Diego, so it wasn't all bad.
In the present I am sitting on a shop step smoking and relaxing, not caring if anything happened. Well, that's what I believe until a newspaper hits me in the face and I see the headline: "Sir Reginald Hargreeves has died," or something along those lines. It makes my stomach twist and a sigh to hiss out through my teeth as I stand and throw the paper to the ground, walking along the streets back to the Academy and humming a My Chemical Romance song.
Once I reach the mansion it takes me a few moments to gather my wits and enter the building that I once called my home for almost two months. Inside I find Luther and Allison and Pogo in the living room, Diego on the landing above and Klaus and Vanya currently nowhere in sight. Dropping onto the couch after greeting the two siblings who are in love, I sigh and wait for the only one of the Hargreeves siblings I can really relate with - Klaus.
It doesn't take long for the man to walk in, a smoke hanging from his mouth and a pair of leather pants almost moulded to his lithe legs. At seeing me he cries out in drug enhanced delight and flops down onto the couch, head resting in my lap and his arms wrapped around my middle. I snicker and pat my hand against his curly head before looking over to where Ben is standing behind the couch. Giving him a sympathetic and welcoming smile, I watch as his face morphs into one of delight as he grins at me.
For some reason, I have always been able to see Ben, but no other dead individual. It may be due to his life-force being slightly connected to mine, or due to my essokinetic abilities. After all, along with life-force manipulation, I can also manipulate biological things such as death inducement and health manipulation. If I had of known the extent of my abilities when Ben got mortally wounded years ago, I would have been able to help him no matter how far away from him I was.
The arrival of Vanya causes tensions to arise between the Hargreeves siblings and irritation to arise with me, my head dropping back onto the back of the couch and a groan of annoyance to leave me. As much as I love the siblings, I cannot relate to their "siblingness" as I call it. Despite the fact I call them my siblings, I wasn't raised as one of their siblings, or even with siblings of my own, and their antics irritate me to almost no end.
I read the book Vanya wrote about her life at the Academy, and was pleasantly surprised to find myself mixed in with the words of the story. I was never mentioned as being accepted as a part of the Academy by Sir Hargreeves - only by the Hargreeves siblings and their robot mother and Pogo. Vanya called me "Number Eight" in her book, and that made me like the girl even more. However, she wasn't as nice with her siblings as she was with me.
Klaus, Ben and I leave the other siblings to do their own thing, but eventually a familiar song fills the air that makes us all smile and our bodies move of their own accords. In my minds' eye I can see all the other Hargreeves siblings dancing in their own way to the song Luther put on, and I can't help the laugh that breaks free, twisting my hand to the right and turning the volume of the song up.
Not even a second later Klaus is gripping my hand and pulling me up off the chair and spinning me around, a carefree, goofy grin on his face. A giggle escapes me and I dance with my favourite of the Hargreeves siblings in a sort of tango fashion, but much more out of sync and erratic. We continue on for what feels like hours, laughing in a way that seems borderline insane in drug induced states that make everything feel so much better.
It's later that night a door to another time opens, jerking me awake from my dreams of a future where we're all happy and get to be with the ones we love - including Klaus and the one he has yet to meet in the past. I pull Klaus up from his bed and we hurry outside with the other siblings, staring wide-eyed at the door that Klaus decides to throw a fucking fire extinguisher through without considering the affects it may have.
Five falls through the door before it shuts, and it appears as though he's reverted back to his thirteen-year-old self that none of us have seen for almost two decades. It's strange seeing a fifty-something-year-old man trapped in a thirteen-year-old body, but it's also kind of hilarious to be honest - especially since he's sassy as all hell.
Sir Hargreeves' funeral is the next day, and, boy, it's boring to begin with. Luther tips his ashes out and Pogo says a few words, but none of the Hargreeves siblings have anything to say to the rigid man that raised them. Klaus sticks his smoke into the pile of ashes after everyone walks away and I can't help the chuckle that escapes me.
So, now it turns out we have to save the world in three days.