Orion's Rise: From Zero to Hero in Two Worlds

Lightning Bottle

I should have known they'd find me again.

The worst part is, I did know. Deep down. That's why my hands have been shaking all day, why my stomach's been doing backflips since lunch. Why I kept checking around corners like some paranoid freak.

*Just get to the bus. Five more minutes. Four more minutes. Three more-*

"There he is."

My whole body freezes. That voice. Different now - harder, colder. The fake friendliness stripped away. I'd almost prefer the old Jared, the one who pretended this was all just a game. Almost.

Don't turn around. Don't turn- but my body betrays me, pivoting like I'm on strings. And there they are. Not just Jared this time. Six guys. Maybe seven. All with that same look in their eyes.

*They're scared of you now*, a voice whispers in my head. But that just makes it worse. Because scared people do stupid things. Desperate things.

"Think you're pretty clever, huh?" Jared's voice echoes down the empty hallway. Where is everyone? There should be kids leaving, teachers heading out. But it's just us. Just me and them and the fluorescent lights humming overhead like they're waiting for something to happen.

My back hits the wall. When did I start backing up? The brick feels different now - my senses still dialed up to eleven since... since whatever happened earlier. I can feel every groove, every imperfection. Harold the Brick digs into my shoulder blade again. *Not helping, Harold*.

"I-" My voice cracks. Fantastic. "I don't want any trouble."

Someone laughs. Not Jared. He just keeps walking forward, steady, deliberate. The others fall in behind him like some choreographed dance we're all stuck performing.

"Should've thought about that before your little circus act earlier." His face is different too. The mask completely gone now. "What was that, huh? Some kind of trick?"

The energy stirs inside me. Like static electricity under my skin, making my fingers tingle. *No. Not again. I can't control it. Can't-*

"Answer me!"

He's closer now. Too close. The power pulses, responding to my fear. To his anger. To everything I can suddenly sense with crystal clarity - his elevated heartbeat, the sweat beading on his forehead, the microscopic tremor in his hands.

"I don't..." The words stick in my throat. How can I explain what I don't understand? "It just happened. I didn't mean to-"

"Bullshit." He spits the word. Actually spits. I watch the droplet arc through the air in horrible slow motion. "Nobody just *happens* to do... whatever the hell that was."

The interface flickers in my vision. Warning signs and readings I don't understand. Power levels. Status effects. Game mechanics bleeding into reality like a glitch in the matrix.

*Don't look at it. Don't react. They'll think you're even more of a freak.*

"We're gonna figure out exactly what you did." Jared's voice drops lower. The others move to flank him, forming a half-circle. No escape route. "And then you're gonna wish you'd just taken the beating like usual."

My heart hammers against my ribs. The power responds, surging stronger. I can feel it building, that same electric pressure from before. But bigger this time. More unstable.

*Oh god. This is bad. This is really, really bad.*

---

The first punch doesn't connect.

Neither does the second.

Or the third.

My body moves on its own, like before, but different now. Stronger. Faster. The interface in my vision floods with warnings I can barely process. Numbers climbing. Graphs spiking. Power levels in the red.

"Stop moving!" Jared's fist whistles past my ear. "Just. Stop. *Moving!*"

I want to. God, I want to. Because this feeling - this surge of energy crackling through my veins - it's too much. Too strong. Like trying to hold back a tidal wave with my bare hands.

"What's wrong with his eyes?" That's Ryan, backing away. "They're like... glowing or something."

Are they? I can't tell. Everything's too bright, too sharp. The fluorescent lights overhead buzz like angry hornets in my skull. I can hear heartbeats - seven of them, racing with fear and adrenaline. Can smell their sweat, their cologne, the remnants of cafeteria pizza on someone's breath.

"I can't-" My voice sounds wrong. Distorted. "I can't control it."

"Control what?" Jared swings again. Slower now. Sloppy. "What the hell are you talking about?"

The power pulses. Stronger. Building. Making my skin feel too tight, like it might split open any second. The interface flashes red warnings:

*System Overload Imminent*

*Power Regulation Failed*

*Emergency Protocols Engaged*

"Get back." The words tear from my throat. "Please. You need to get back!"

"Or what?" But there's fear in his voice now. Real fear. "What are you gonna do, freak?"

*Don't call me that don't call me that don't call me-*

Something snaps.

Not physically. More like... a dam breaking in my mind. Power rushes out, wild and uncontrolled. The air ripples around me like heat waves off hot asphalt.

"Holy shit!" Someone scrambles backward. "What the fu-"

The lockers rattle. Metal groaning. Doors shaking in their frames. Papers explode from someone's dropped backpack, swirling in the sudden wind that isn't wind at all - it's energy. Pure, uncontrolled energy pouring off me in waves.

"I told you-" My feet aren't touching the ground anymore. When did that happen? "I told you to get back!"

Jared stares up at me, face pale. All that bravado gone, replaced by something primal. The look prey gets when it realizes it's been hunting the predator.

"This isn't-" He swallows hard. "This isn't possible."

The lights flicker. Bulbs pop overhead, showering us with sparks. Someone screams. Multiple someones. My vision blurs, doubles, triples. The interface strobes warnings I can't read anymore.

"Run." It's barely my voice now. Static and thunder and something else. Something *other*. "RUN!"

They do. Finally. Stumbling over each other in their panic. Jared's the last to move, still staring like he can't process what he's seeing. Then Ryan grabs his arm, yanks him away, and they're gone.

Leaving me alone.

Floating.

Burning.

The power keeps building. Keeps growing. My whole body shakes with it. I try to push it down, try to contain it, but it's like trying to stuff lightning back into a bottle.

*Warning: Critical System Failure*

*Emergency Shutdown Initiated*

*Containment Protocols Failed*

"No," I whisper. Or try to. The words get lost in the crackle of energy. "No no no no-"

The world tilts sideways. Colors blur together. My stomach lurches as gravity remembers I exist, pulling me back toward the ground. I manage two stumbling steps before my legs give out.

I have to get out of here.

Have to get somewhere safe.

Have to...

Have to...

The hallway spins. Floor becomes ceiling becomes wall becomes floor. I push myself up, stagger forward. One foot in front of the other. Just keep moving. Just keep-

The interface flashes one last warning:

*Total System Collapse in 3...*

*2...*

*1...*

---

I don't remember leaving the school.

Everything's fragmented. Broken. Like trying to watch a movie with half the frames missing. One moment I'm in the hallway, power crackling around me, and the next...

Concrete under my hands. Rough. Cold. I'm crawling? No. Standing. Stumbling. The world tilts and spins like a carnival ride I can't get off.

*Emergency Protocols Failed*

*System Instability Critical*

*Attempting Reset...*

*Reset Failed*

The interface flickers, glitches, splits into doubles and triples until I can't read it anymore. My vision blurs with it, reality smearing like wet paint.

How did I get here? Where is here?

Alley. Behind... somewhere. Buildings tower overhead, stretching impossibly tall. Or maybe I'm the one who's impossibly small. Everything feels wrong. Distorted.

"Help," I try to say, but my voice doesn't work right anymore. Just static and noise. The power burns through me like fever, like fire, like something trying to tear its way out of my skin.

My legs give out. Again? Have they given out before? I can't remember. Can't think. The ground rushes up to meet me but I never feel the impact. Just... float there. Halfway between standing and falling.

*Critical Warning: Host System Compromised*

*Neural Pattern Destabilizing*

*Emergency Shutdown Imminent*

The words float in my vision, red and urgent. They should mean something. Should scare me. But everything's distant now. Like I'm watching myself from somewhere far away.

"I can't..." The words taste like ozone. Like electricity. "I don't know how to..."

How to what? Stop it? Control it? Save myself?

The power surges again. Stronger. Always stronger. Building and building until I think my bones might shatter from containing it. My skin feels too tight. My head too full. Like something's trying to pour an ocean into a drinking glass.

Colors bleed together. Sound stretches, warps, doubles back on itself. I hear sirens but they might be in my head. Might be the interface screaming warnings I can't understand anymore.

*This is too much. Too fast. Too strong.*

The thought feels like my own but sounds like someone else's. Everything's someone else's now. My body. My mind. My voice when I try to scream and nothing comes out but light and static.

The world whirls around me. Faster and faster. Until I can't tell which way is up anymore. The interface strobes one last warning:

*Emergency Shutdown Initiated*

*Neural Protection Engaged*

*System Reboot in...*

I never see the countdown finish.

Everything just...

stops.

---

I had never before experienced such a strong surge of power.

It wasn't physical, exactly.

It wasn't comparable to being hit by a car. Or falling from a building.

It was more like... pressure.

Like something inside me had snapped, and all the force I'd been holding back just *burst* out at once.

And then...

darkness.