Sitting Alone Again

Matthew sighed quietly. The day so fair had been quite uneventful, although he realized that his expectations for this school had been pretty unrealistic. There was some strange image in his mind of people flying around, using whatever abilities they had willy-nilly, some even picking fights. All he actually saw was a few strange looking creatures.

Without Will around, Matt had nothing to do. He thought that he might try to pull some pranks on people, but was too tired from moving his things into his new room to think up anything. Instead, he lazily sunk his teeth into his apple and observed the cafeteria. It was pretty big--at least, much bigger than the one in his school in his Underworld. It wasn't too packed; people mulled about, conversing among themselves, and no one in particular caught his eye.

That is, until he saw the lightning.

He glanced in the direction that he thought he saw it in, then did a double take and rubbed his eyes. He definitely wasn't imagining it, and based on the expression of the girl across the room, she had been the one that caused it. A large smile spread across Matt's face.

Without thinking, he leaped from his seat and sprinted across the cafeteria to the girl's table. He was there within a couple seconds, and once he got there he slammed his hands on the table, harder than he intended to.

"Hey!" he said. "You can use lightning too?"

@Sissel

Matt plopped down onto the seat across from her. He had to use his hands to forcefully keep his legs from shaking due to excitement. He was aware that he was receiving a few strange looks, but couldn't find himself to care at the moment. There were many times in which people stared at him as a result of his behavior.

"Can I?" Matt asked this as if it was the most ridiculous question he had ever heard. To demonstrate his abilities, he concentrated lightning on his right palm and sent it throughout his body to get to his left palm. As a result, his eyes glowed slightly. He finished his show but putting his hands close together and sending lightning from one to the other.

"I've never met another lightning user before," he said, the excitement apparent in his voice. "That's so awesome!... But it looks like you don't have too good a grip on your abilities. Is that right?"

@Sissel

Matt noticed that this girl seemed to be one of few words. He was perfectly fine with that. Although he knew well that he could be very hyperactive at times, it was nice to have more down to Earth people in his presence.

Matt watched in awe as she demonstrated her abilities. They seemed to be a little different from his own, solely from the fact that he never had particles of lightning float around him like that. "Whoa...." he said. "I've never seen lightning behave that way. Usually, when it leaves my body, it's when I'm aiming at something directly. Like this."

He lifted his index and middle fingers dramatically toward the ceiling and considered whether or not he should fire a weak bolt at it, but decided not to. Things would get bad if accidentally fired a stronger one.

Matt looked down just in time to see the girl's expression changing back to the one she wore before. He couldn't tell what it had been, but based on the aforementioned problems not being able to control lightning might lead to, he decided not to pry. His eyes squinted for half a second, though.

"Do you use your lightning for combat?" he asked. "When you move as fat as I do, opponents aren't even able to touch me!"

@Sissel

Matt decided that this girl was a strange case. Not only did she not know how her own powers worked, but she also didn't use them for combat? He almost found it hard to believe. Lightning was a very beneficial ability--at least for him--and in his many years of having it, he found that it had many uses.

At the mention of Matt's speed, he chuckled, now having a reason to demonstrate one of those uses. He stood up and stretched his legs, taking his time to get every muscle. "I'm sure you'll find that it's a very handy ability," he said. Then, he used his Boost to run around the table, sit next to Ashley, pluck a carrot from her hand, and run back to his seat, all in a matter of two seconds.

Matt quickly sat back down, the dull ache already appearing in his legs. His face nearly twisted into a frown, but he kept his smug smile on.

"See?" he said, moving to put the carrot in his mouth but ultimately deciding against it. "The only real drawback to it is that my legs really hurt when I use it. Use it too long, and it'll feel like goddamn swords are sticking through my legs. Oh, you can have this back." He handed her the carrot.

@Sissel

Matt scoffed, tapping his fingers on the table. "Well, I mean, that wasn't quite the reaction I was expecting, but I guess I shouldn't have expected an 'Oh, wow!' type of reaction from you. No offense."

However, at the mention at what limits he might have, Matt's demeanor did a complete 180. He slouched down onto the table, resting his chin on his fists. He could barely keep the frown from appearing on his lips, but he did allow the sigh to escape his mouth.

"I don't know exactly long I can run, so I always try to be careful," he said, "but if I run for too long I have the risk of going into cardiac arrest."

Matt began tracing circles on the table, keeping his eyes glued to nothing in particular. "It happened to me once before," he said. "This was when I was young and dumb and didn't know what would happen if I overused my powers. Luckily, my friend was there, so he was able to fly me to a hospital. They fixed me up with some kind of healing magic. Now, I'm extra careful when I use my powers."

Matt slowly sat up and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry about getting all depressed on you," he said, chuckling. "It's not that it's really hard to talk about. It just brings down my mood."

@Sissel