Testing the Powerless

[Joao Rodrigues]

Joao swallowed, trying to remove the lump in his throat. He looked around at everyone in the room, knowing they would be asking him to perform. The forbidding room looked more like a cross between a bunker and a firing range than an examination room. "She said tell the truth," Joao thought to himself as he built up his courage.

"OK, Mr. Rodrigues. Show us what you can do."

"Um, mister," Joao began, "I'm sorry, but I can't really do anything. I don't know what I'm doing here."

The four adults on sitting at the table conferred briefly, then one of them stood and walked over to Joao. "Don't be nervous, son. We just need to know what your limits are."

Joao could only look at the man and shake his head.

***

Dr. Conrads returned to the table to confer with his colleagues. "I don't think he can control his power. I doesn't even seem to know he has anything."

"But the tests showed a lot of potential. More than we've seen from his type in a while."

"He needs to find his trigger."

***

Joao sat waiting for the adults to come to the conclusion that he had reached shortly after coming to Saint Joseph's. He didn't have powers. He was normal. Then, a familiar face came into the room.

"Janey, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be back at the hang."

"Help me, Jonny. They're coming."

Joao looked past his childhood friend, and saw some of those goat head gang with guns. To his horror, they turned their guns on Janey, and started to fire.

"NO!!!" Joao moved as fast as he could, clearing the distance in a single jump. Round after round, slug after slug slammed into his back as he shielded the little girl. Bullets whistled through the air, stabbing into his back, and fire parted around him. When they finally stopped, he turned around slowly, his breathing steady, a fire in his eyes.

"I... said... NO!!!" Joao brought his foot down in a powerful stomp, sinking the floor of the bunker a foot down. The Hellions continued to fire into Joao, but he moved inexorably toward them. He reached out and ripped the gun from the first Hellion's hand, and tossed it aside. He yanked the gang banger off the ground and hurled at the other Hellions, scattering them like leaves in the autumn wind. The threat passed, Joao wavered, then collapsed in a heap.

***

"That was... impressive. He absorbed the energies from the attack, then channeled them back as pure kinetic force. But his body chemistry didn't change until someone else was threatened. Someone he cared about."

Gemini nodded, conceding, "The old man was right. That boy needs to be here."

***

Joao woke up in his dorm room. He groggily looked over at the time. He was late, almost two hours late for his entrance exam. He threw on his uniform, and ran across the quad, to find that no one was there. He waited for a half an hour, before giving up. On his way back to the dorm, he ran into Dr. Conrads.

"Ah, my boy, how are you feeling?"

"Sorry I missed the exam, sir. Do I get a chance to take it again?"

Dr. Conrads frowned, "Interesting. Well, you don't need to worry about that. We've seen enough to allow you to begin your studies here. In the mean time, I would like you to get to know the other students, make some friends. Who knows, you may find you like it here."

Joao watched Dr. Conrads walk off with confusion. He wasn't sure what had just happened, but he knew at least he was still free. And that, maybe wasn't so bad.

[Joao Rodrigues]

Joao still felt giddy after the alien attack as he sat waiting for the school nurse to come in and examine him. He remembered getting hit by those weird axes they used, and Reimi said she saw him get hit by a laser. Of course, he didn't remember the laser, but he'd been hit before and not really felt it in the heat of a fight.

The nurse came in, and told Joao they needed to take some blood to figure out why he stopped being able to feel things. She broke two needles on his arm before she left to get a stronger one. After the blood was taken, Dr. Conrads came into the small curtained-off area.

"Mr. Rodrigues, how are you feeling?"

"I'm OK. A little light headed, kind of... I don't know. I think I still have a rush from the aliens."

Conrads smiled and nodded. They talked for about an hour until Doctor Orson came in. Conrads stood up to leave, but Orson motioned for him to stay.

"Hello, Jon. I'm Dr. Orson, and I took a look at your blood sample. There were some interesting things in there, that I think you should know about."

Joao nodded, mentally bracing himself for the worst.

Orson sat down to be at eye level with Joao, and began, "Everything looks pretty normal, as far as blood chemistry, red count, white count, that kind of thing, and there are no traces of Rikti influence so we know that isn't the case. However, we did find something that would lead me to wanting to do a few more tests.

"There is an unusal enzyme in your blood. Two in fact, that merit further study. Do you mind?"

Joao shook his head, not understanding what the doctor was saying. He didn't know what an enzyme was, but he was tired of always looking stupid at this School. "Whatever, Doc. I figure you know what you're doing."

***

Joao still lay in the scanner machine thing. He had come back the next day for the tests. He didn't know what it was, but it had something to do with what the doctor called his "endocrine system." Could be worse. The doctor excused him from History class, and he knew that class would be the death of him. He closed his eyes, and tried to hear what the doctor and Conrads were talking about in the next room.

"I've never seen anything like this. Sure, crystalline structure in the skin cells, a metallic content above normal, but this is new. Look, I've been able to isolate the enzymes from yesterday's blood tests. Watch what happens when I introduce an electrical stimulus."

Conrads sounded surprised, "The enzymes start oscillating. But it's only one half of the enzyme."

Joao flinched as the sound of broken glass cut through the conversation.

"That's just one of the enzymes," Doctor Orson replied. "They don't work when they aren't paired. In fact, I would be hard pressed to be able to identify them if they weren't joined. One enzyme seems to absorb energies. It works with heat, cold, electricity, plasma, even dark energy. I wouldn't be surprised if it could absorb kinetic energy as well. The other enzyme takes that energy and emits a fairly high magnitude kinetic force."

"That was some force. It broke the sample dish"

"And I can only synthesize a partial symbiosis. From what we've seen, this only occurs when Joao experiences a fight or flight response. In him, it seems more intense when the protection instinct kicks in. From talking to some of the other heroes that were helping with the Rikti attack, as soon as he was split up from the student he went into the fight with, he got stronger. One of the Rikti weapons even broke on his back when he was hit. The hero who saw this said Joao looked like he was trying to find someone."

"We've seen that kind of reaction before. His instincts will lead him in the right direction."

"Now, take a look at this, David. This is the endocrine scan I took this morning."

Conrads voice sounded dubious. "Interesting... and what are we looking at, Syl?"

"Here... by the pituitary. There are two small nodes there. I think these are separate glands that produce the two symbiotic enzymes."

"Does that mean the child is..." Conrads left it hanging.

"No way to know for sure without extracting the glands and testing them, which I am unwilling to do. But for now, we have to assume..."

Joao had entered the room by that point, a look of confusion and hatred written on his face. "I am NOT a stinking mutt!"

He threw a chair at the monitor they were looking at, sending a shower of sparks flying throughout the room. While the doctors were shielding their faces from the spray, he ran out of the infirmary, and into Paragon City.

[Joao Rodrigues]

Joao cried himself out hours ago. Now, he sat, staring at the graffiti on the wall inside the condemned warehouse. He took in a sharp breath as the hair on the back of his neck rose, looking around the room for what had caused the chill to run through his body. He relaxed when he saw the old man from the jury stride into the room. He was wearing a tight red supehero suit with a spiral on his chest underneath a gray gangster style duster and a white panama hat.

"Ain't you a little far from home, Geezer?"

"I'm not. I'm actually enjoying a lovely sunset back home, or I would be if I left my mind there."

Joao had passed his threshold for weird for the day. He was still getting over alien attacks, killer robots, working VR and ghosts inhabiting kids. "You mean you're a freak, too?"

Montclair ignored the comment, refusing to be baited. "What's wrong? The sisters at Saint Joseph's are looking for you. You missed all of your afternoon classes."

"I can't go back. I screwed up."

"Oh? Oh, yes, yes... the infirmary incident. That was pretty childish of you."

Joao stood up in defiance, "I ain't childish. They were doin' stuff to me, trying to make me like them."

Montclair chuckled kindly, "They can't make you what you already are. You are special, m'boy. You should get used to it, and embrace it. Think of what you can do."

"But why? I mean what am I? I'm just a gang banger. Nobody ever changes."

"Ah, m'boy, but I believe that people can change. And it is up to you to prove me right. I'm counting on you boy. You are essential to my redemption."

Joao stared at the old man in silence, stunned and confused. This man was the only person outside the gang to show kindness to him, and now this. Emotions conflicted within him. He was grateful for the second chance, but he resented having to get help. Now, this old man wanted to place this burden on him.

The two stood in silence for several minutes, Joao searching inside for answers that never came. "What can I do, old man?"

"Go back to school. Make friends, and follow them when they go to do good works. Watch them, and find out why. Develop your gifts, and find a reason to use them. Most of all, be true to yourself. More than anything else, your greatest gift is the insight you possess. Remember that, and that I'm counting on you."

With that, Montclair returned his mind to his body, catching the last rays of the setting sun over the city, his breathing coming is short, ragged gasps. The azure sky settled to deep violet as the sun reached in crimson and plum to clutch impotently at the day. Finally, darkness settled, the sun loosing the inevitable battle of time and tide to rest for another day.

Montclair stared peacefully after the setting sun, unblinking and serene when the nurse came in to check on him. The morning sun cast an ominous shadow over his face, as the nurse sighed in sadness. "Good night, Simon Montclair. The world is a little worse off without you."

[Joao Rodrigues]

Joao sat alone in the condemned building deciding what to do. The room had grown long in shadows since the old man left, and he still had doubts as to whether the old man was really even here. Finally, his stomach decided for him what to do next, and he got up to make the long walk back to school.

He wandered around the Paragon City for a long while, hungry, but still not sure whether he would be allowed back, and putting off finding out. Everywhere he turned, he thought he heard someone chanting that hateful work, "mutant." He never wanted to be different. Taking a deep breath, he sighed, and remembered the happy times of his youth. Things were easier on the street, us against them made sense. Here, there was good against bad, and right against wrong. He struggled with these alien concepts, always coming back to the fact that he could never really know which was which. After all, he saw heroes beating people up and arresting them just because of the symbol they wore on their jacket, or because they looked wrong.

A panicking woman broke his reverie, "but my daughter... she's still in there!"

Joao looked up and saw a four story brownstone blazing, the flames leaping high into the sky, and the firefighters being beaten back by the intense heat.

"I'm sorry, but it's too hot to send someone in there, and the ladder truck hasn't arrived yet," a fireman was trying to console the woman. Very little hope seeped into his words. "We'll get here out as soon as it gets there."

Joao walked up to the woman. "Where is she? How do I get there?"

She turned and stared at the kid who approached her, unable to speak.

"Where is she!?" Joao urgently shouted.

"Up the stairs, third floor, second door on the left."

Joao closed his eyes to picture the route. "That would be the front?" He turned to the fireman. "Clear the street. I'll be coming through the window."

With that, he ran into the building before the fireman had the chance to stop him.

***

"Wait! Oh, crap."

Captain Gerhardt hoped the kid who just broke away from him knew what he was doing, but he doubted it. He's seen their kind before, kids who idolize one of the heroes in this town, and put themselves into danger. Unfortunately, almost every time, they ended up hurt, or worse, and he was the guy who had to break it to the kid's parents. Sure, the heroes were good to have around when the situation got too far out of control, but most things should be taken care of by the police and firefighters.

Gerhardt shoved those thoughts aside, and started clearing everyone away from the front of the building. Where was that ladder truck? It would need the space so they could get up there and save the two kids now trapped in the building.

Just has he was clearing the last people away, the front wall of the building exploded outward with enough force to collapse the building.

***

Joao took three deep breaths on his way into the building, holding his breath as he broke the threshold. He took the steps two at a time until he got to the third floor. "Second door on the left," he thought as he lowered his shoulder to the door. It exploded inward in splinters, sending a shock of pain through his arm. He body was absorbing the heat of the fire, he knew, but there seemed to be too much, as he felt his skin smolder like a thousand cigarette butts pressing against his flesh. He quickly looked around and saw a little girl, maybe five years old, trying to coax a kitten out from under a table. In two steps, Joao scooped the kid up in one arm and the kitten in the other. Three steps brought him to the window, and he jumped, turning his back to the window to protect the child from the fall.

***

Gerhardt looked up and back from where he lay on the ground after diving for cover. He watched someone hit the concrete with a loud crack and skid into the building across the street. He hit the building with enough force to bring the facade down on top of him. Gerhardt couldn't be sure, but thought he saw the guy roll over so as not to catch the falling stone and steel in the face.

A stunned silence hushed the crowd as the dust settled on the street. Gerhardt turned to see his men spraying the collapsed building with water to tame the blaze before focusing on the pile of rubble across the street. For a perceived eternity, nothing moved. Then, a small shift in the pile, and some movement near the top drew his eye. A small black and white kitten crawl away from the pile and start cleaning itself. That simple act broke the spell, and Gerhardt started shouting orders to the police on the scene to help him clear the rubble. Under the first layer, a large slab of the facade lay over what looked like a dust covered body. Gerhardt called two cops over to help him life the stone.

As the heavy slab was toppled over away from Joao, he began to relax. Shaking the cobwebs from his head, he stood up, perching the kid on his hip, and looked at the crowd all staring at him. His skin felt like a thousand needles were stabbing him over and over. The little girl stirred and looked around, "Mommy?"

Joao met the concerned gaze of Gerhardt silently. Again, there was no sound from the crowd gathered to see the spectacle of a burning building. Finally, a slow, tentative clap sounded from behind the barrier. Then another. Then, one by one, people started applauding, until the crowd began cheering enthusiastically.

Gerhardt ordered an EMT to take the two kids and check them over, and told the driver to take them to the hospital as soon as they were good to go.