OOC: The Day of Light (OOC, Open)

It was called the Day of Light. In the middle of the day, the sky suddenly became darker than a late, cloudy night, as if the entire planet was being covered in a massive blanket. Moments later, it lit up with brilliant flashes of light of all colors. As this happened, beams of multicolored light could be seen striking the surface, directly on random individuals. These individuals fell unconscious for a few minutes, and awoke to find that they were gifted with powers and a desire to complete a specific purpose.



Neal set down a puppet on the ground in front of his house. It was made out of scrap wood, secured with nails at the joints, loose enough to give it movement. Neal concentrated on it, and, slowly, it stood. It obeyed his every command, walking in a circle in from of him. After a few laps, however, it's leg fell off. Neal suddenly felt a dull, numbing pain in his own leg, and he released the puppet from his control, partly because he wanted to and partly because the pain distracted him. "Damn," he muttered under his breath. He reassembled the puppet and stuffed it in his pocket.

He decided he was hungry, and walked off towards a nearby fast food restaurant. Aside from getting food, he also wondered if he might find anyone else effected by the light. It had been about three and a half weeks since the event which became known as the Day of Light. In that time, Neal had only encountered one other like himself. It was another blue. They showed each other their powers, but other than that they only talked. The other was a man in his 30s, and his power was to breath underwater. This man, however, had already dealt with others like himself and Neal, including greens and reds, and Neal learned a good deal from him. He sometimes wondered what happened to the man. He never did ask his name, either.

Neal took out his orb from his pocket. It was about three inches in diameter and a foggy, translucent black color. All orbs looked like this, according to the man. The man also said that trying to trick someone with a fake was useless, as he had tried it before. He said that we can sense them, we meaning all those effected by the light. It was a shame it wouldn't work, because it would be so easy to do. Neal already had that idea in his head when he met the man.

Putting the orb back into his pocket, Neal walked onward.

Outside his house on the picnick table in his backyard, Jeff sat outside reading a small paperback mystery novel and breathing in the crisp, cool air of the outdoors. Putting down his book for a minute and looking around -to make sure nobody could see what he was about to do- he turned his head to face his neighbor's house and saw his neighbor's wheelbarrow full of manure on the downward sloped driveway secured only by an old rusty chain tied to the house. Slowly a smile came to his face as an idea began to form in his head. He raised one hand slowly at the chain and shot one of his bad luck bolts at it. He was glad that his bolts weren't too bright and that they didn't make a sound otherwise his neighbor would have found out what was going on. The bolt hit the chain and just at that moment, the chain snapped and the wheelbarrow rocketed down the driveway towards the neighbor's car.

When it hit the car it fell over, making a big dent as well as covering that side of the car with manure and stinking up the general area. Fighting to hold back the laughter he noticed that he was feeling a little hungry and decided that the nearby fast-food restaurant would be the best choice for food. He got up, walked around the side of his house and then to the restaurant making sure to avoid the big mess around his neighbor's house while thinking about what his new found abilities could be used for. After what happened at the lookout point with his friend he had spent a great deal of time trying his powers out on different things to see what happened and they provided him with a great deal of laughter. He had heard that other people got powers just like he did but didn't really care about them that much.

Every once in a while he found himself overcome by these strange urges to collect something but Jeff had no idea what. He had tried collecting various objects to help get rid of these urges but nothing that he collected seemed to help and he was running out of ideas on things to collect. He sighed to himself as he thought of how annoying these urges were. But then some ideas for fun popped up in his mind for what he could do at the restaurant to make him laugh.

A particularly large grin appeared on his face as he outright ran to the fast-food place in anticipation of all the fun he could have there.

Haru was sitting on her roof replaying the events that had happened in the last few weeks. These strange new urges and abilities.

"Were are you going?" she said, my mom was always over protecting me. "I'm going over my friends house, just for a couple of hours, i'll call you when I get there." I ran out the door my jacket fluttering in the wind behind me. "Leave th- oh she's in such a hurry". I saw my mom shake her head as I ran down the street. It was dark and a little chilly out. So why was I so freaked out? I could have sworn it was getting darker by the second. It wasn't until I saw the Streaks of light that I realized that my suspicions were confirmed. I stared at the lights and for a few seconds I thought they stars. I was about to pull out my phone when I looked up something hit me. That's all I remember...Then I woke up in a hospital a few weeks later with these strange urges and these abilities to control the elements.I haven't told my mom yet, I haven't told anyone...I wanna see where this leads.

She opened her eyes from the flash back...she could feel that pulling urge again. " I've had enough..." She got up and jumped off her roof following this urge. She followed her senses and it led her to a near by fast food place she walked in looking around until it lead her to a boy with green hair and eyes. She walked over to him and tapped his shoulder. "Umm...Do you have anything...special?". She was confused at the moment but for once the urges had stopped.

"No touchie screen!"
The laptop's screen suddenly burst into flames, and Kathryn yelled and recoiled quickly. The fire died just as rapidly as it had appeared, and Kathryn glared at her sister.
"Come on, Immy," she said, "it's just a laptop; it's not like it's your firstborn son."
"Yes it is, Kat," Natasha replied, "Haven't you been paying attention?"
Imogen swatted at Natasha, who dodged.

The three sisters sat at a picnic table. Kathryn was staring absentmindedly at Natasha's purse, where, unknown to her, Natasha had hidden her orb for the time being. Neither Kathryn nor Imogen knew that their sister had also been struck with light, of the third color, Imogen being red and Kathryn being green. Natasha had learned of Imogen's need to destroy the orbs when they had found an older woman, one of Kathryn's art teachers, who had also been struck with red light. She had said that nothing would deter Imogen from destroying the orbs, no matter how important they were to their keepers. She had not said, however, what would happen to Natasha if the orb was destroyed, so Natasha was playing it safe.

At first, her idea had been to lock the orb up, in a place where nobody could get at it. After meeting a boy who could unlock any lock, and a girl who could melt any metal, Natasha decided that this would be a poor tactic. She had, however, realized that she too had a power, to turn herself and the orb into a fine mist. So far, this tactic had worked quite well, and she practiced in secret whenever she could.

Kathryn, on the other hand, had practiced her power very little. The transformation process was very difficult and painful, and she always got something wrong, disabling any kind of natural action. The first animal she had attempted was a cat, which left her as a grotesque cat-girl mix that was nothing like the Neko-like thing she had imagined a failure would be. She had then attempted a chimp, which almost worked, but her internal organs were contorted in a manner that did not allow her to breathe properly. She had then tried to turn into Imogen, which was easy enough, them having the same DNA and all. She also noticed that she could set things on fire, but she was unable to do it properly. Being Imogen was frightfully dull, though, so Kathryn quickly changed back, and usually stayed her normal self.

Neal turned as he was tapped on the shoulder. "Huh? Special? What do you -" just then it hit him. This girl was after his orb. He became suddenly nervous, and the urge to protect his orb became stronger than it had ever been. His voice was highly shaken. "Uh... n-not really. I mean no. No, I don't, w-why would you think that?" He faked a laugh, but it was horrible, clearly a ruse to anyone with a half a brain. This is not good. I'm just making an idiot of myself. His hands went into his pockets to secure his orb, or at least give him the illusion of security.

He knew he had to act, but he didn't know how. Neal looked around for something, for anything that could get him and his orb to safety. He saw nothing. His only option was to run, but that would only serve to make a greater fool of himself. He would stand his ground, or so he told himself as he nervously took a couple of steps away from the girl. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe she wasn't one of the people hit be those lights. Maybe she was just some random girl. Neal certainly hoped so.

Haru shook her head. He did have something, but what was it. She was about to reach out when she realized that he thought she meant him harm. "No! I mean...I was hit with a green light and ever since I had these weird powers and these urges..". She then noticed that she was probably sounding like a crazy person. She wanted to turn around and run, but if she was this close to finding out what she's been looking for why stop? She held out her hand. "Sorry, 'Im Haru Saiko...can I talk to you only for a few...I promise I don't intend to harm you". She wondered if he was hit by a light too, but if so what color...cause she remembers seeing green blue and red.

John stood atop the rooftop of a small home as a burglar busted through the door. John jumped down, using his thrusters to drop himself directly in front of the man.

"What the-? Get out of here, or you'll regret it." John wasn't impressed. The man was carrying a large bag of loot and his gun was in an awkward position for his free hand to reach.

"Put it down, and I won't have to beat you senseless."

"Oh yeah, well, let's see you beat this!" The man pulled out his gun, and in a flash, John grabbed the barrel and sent a charge through it, detonating all of the gunpowder inside. The man was sent to the ground, bloody with pieces of gun in his chest.

"Just did. The cops will be here in a minute or so. Hopefully you won't have flat lined by then." He took the bag of assorted objects and placed it inside the door, when the urge to destroy overcame him. He normally resisted them, but they had grown stronger since he had fought someone who had been struck by the blue light and accidentally destroyed it.

An odd sensation pulled him towards the fast food restaurant. John decided it was best to just give in, and he followed his senses to the spot where Haru and Neal were.

Green light? So she does want the orb. Neal was at a loss for what to do next. Everything in his mind was saying "run," but he didn't really want to. Tentatively, he shook Haru's hand. "I'm Neal, Neal Morgan."

Neal tossed around the thought of telling Haru that he was hit by a blue light. On one hand, she would know that he had what she wanted, which could put him in danger. But on the other hand, it could also earn her trust, thus keeping him safe from her. And there was also just something about her that made her seem trustworthy. It was a risky move either way, but he decided to tell her.

"A green light?" he said. "I was hit by a blue light. I know what you mean when you say 'powers' and 'urges.' I've had them, too. Mine are probably different then yours, though." He decided to leave out the detail about him having what she wanted. He didn't trust her that much. The urge to run was still strong, but it was slowly lessening. His stomach reminded that he was hungry. "Hey, listen. I don't know about you, but I came here for some food. You can join me if you want to talk."

As Jeff drew closer to the restaurant, the urge to get something almost overwhelmed him and pulled him in a direction towards two people shaking hands and talking, about what he couldn't hear. But the urge grew stronger the closer he got to those two people so he figured whatever they were talking about must be important. One of them was a boy around a year older than he was with green hair and green eyes and the other was a girl around the same age as the boy who had blond hair and a cap. Jeff figured that he should introduce himself to them and maybe find out what was going on. As he approached the two talking the urge started to direct him so the location of what he needed to collect was.

The object that he needed to collect was in the boy's pocket. He was surprised by this but the urges were so strong that he couldn't ignore them. Jeff wondered what he needed to do in order to get the boy to give him the thing he needed. He couldn't possibly ask the boy to let Jeff search through his pocket. Mugging him was definitely out of the question. Maybe, he thought, the sneaky approach was the best. Now he had to find something that needed just a little bit of bad luck that could turn into good luck for Jeff. He noticed the two were standing near a parking lot. An idea formed into his head but he would need to act quick.

Jeff slowly turned around and shot off some of his bad luck bolts towards the cars in the parking lot, causing all of the car alarms to go off simultaneously which he hoped would prove enough of a distraction for the two as well as the entire restaurant. He slowly began to walk up behind the boy and proceeded with his plan to get whatever that he needed to get to make the urges go away. Hopefully with no one being the wiser.

John walked closer as all of the car alarms simultaneously activated, drawing his attention. What in the...ahhh...nice trick kid. He noticed Jeff sneaking up behind Neal as the others were distracted. Let's see...kid with abilities not dissimilar to my own. Eh, if he can pull this off, I'll let him take whatever he's...dang it! He felt the urge to find an orb and obliterate it.

He ran towards the group, and slowed down as he neared them. "Excuse me for interrupting, but I'm gonna be blunt with you. A few weeks ago, we were all struck with a beam of light that gave us extraordinary powers. One of you has something and the rest of us want it. I don't know why, but I'm losing the power to resist this." Electricity started to crackle around his hands, slowly growing louder and clearer.

"What the heck?" Imogen said, looking up at the nearby parking lot, where the alarms of several cars had gone off at once.
"That can't have happened by accident," Natasha added.
"Let's go check it out!" Kathryn said, standing up. After a quick stretch, she ran off to investigate.

Imogen groaned and closed her laptop, then put it away in its case. She swung the strap over her shoulder and began walking after Kathryn. Natasha followed at a slower, more cautious pace, and she zipped her purse shut. It was a useful place to keep the orb, because she could act like she was getting robbed, and people would no doubt come to her aid.

Meanwhile, Kathryn ran ahead, at full tilt, and arrived at the source of the commotion. A boy and a girl were talking, and an older man ran up to them and said something, of which Kathryn caught "weeks," "light," "powers," "something," and "resist." She saw something moving around his hands, that looked like the static electricity that sparked up when she slept in her woolen pajamas under her electric blanket.

"That boy!" she heard her sister yell from behind her, "He's got it!"
"Got what?"
"Something!"
"Well, that's a heap of help. Is it valuable?" Kathryn asked. She had the boy pegged as one who carried around valuable things.
"No, something terrible," Imogen said more quietly, nearing her sister, "Something that needs to be destroyed."

[[Just going to come right out and say it: I'm going to go with the fact that these two know Natasha too well to notice the aura her orb is giving off, or that they don't recognize it as easily mixed in with their other feelings for their sister. Does that sound too fishy? (They will find out about it eventually, just not so easily.)]]

The plan was going just as Jeff had hoped until this random person had come into the mix and spoiled everything that he had hoped would work. Oh well he thought, I guess this time he would have to go with the direct approach. He had hoped it wouldn't have come to this point but if it couldn't be helped, oh well. He carefully surveyed the environment before noticing that the asphalt the new arrival was standing on was particularly weak and could collapse any minute, trapping him in for at least 5 minutes. He also noticed that this man had powers just like Jeff did. Slowly, a strategy began to develop in his head. If he could slow down the man and help the boy and girl escape, then he could gain their trust and eventually get the boy to hand whatever he had over to him then Jeff could make a break for it and hope the boy couldn't catch up to him on foot.

He then began to execute Stage One of his master plan and as discreetly as was possible, slowly angled his hands towards the asphalt the man was standing on and sent a bad luck bolt flying off towards the cracked pavement, causing the pavement to sink and hopefully trap the man's feet. He shouted to the boy and girl "Run! Follow me! I know my way around the streets, I'll help you get away from him!" As he finished those words he ran away from the restaurant as fast as he could and hoped that the boy and girl had taken him up on his offer. If they did, then it would be time to put Stage Two into effect; gain the boy's trust.

Perhaps, he thought as he ran away, everything would finally work out for him for once.

A dark look overcame John's face as his feet sunk into the asphalt. I try to be subtle, I get screwed over. I try to be direct, I get screwed over. This kid's going to be in a world of hurt once I get free. Just then, he noticed three other people moving towards where he was. "Hey! You three! Could you help me get out of here! That punk kid got me stuck!" He tried pulling his feet out, but he would definitely need some help.

Alright, so that kid's power is pretty complex. Cracking asphalt and making car alarms go off. Maybe he just has really good luck? Or everybody around him has really BAD luck.

Neal turned to face the new voice. He took a nervous step backwards as electricity started to form in his hand. Another one? And this one doesn't look like he wants to play nicely, either. Great. He was ready to turn tail and run, when the ground sunk underneath the man. If not for the tense atmosphere he had generated, Neal would probably have laughed at him for this. Another voice shouted out to them to run, and Neal didn't waste any time thinking about it. "C'mon, Haru, let's go!" he shouted, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her along.

Neal tried to make sense of the scene as he ran. Thinking about it, car alarms are electronic, aren't they? That guy could use electricity, so was it him who set those off? Than this new guy's power would be what? Earth? Maybe. There were a lot of uncertainties. It made him uneasy.

It looked like they had chosen to follow him after all. Finally things were working out for him. But there was a problem. Now that he had helped them get away from the man, where could he lead them so that the electric man couldn't find them. He had to think quickly otherwise they would get caught in no time. There was an abandoned subway station that was closed of by just a couple of wooden boards. Maybe that might be the way to go. He ran to where the abandoned subway station was and proceeded to remove the boards blocking access with some well placed bolts to the sides of the boards. The boards fell down and as he kicked them aside he gestured to the boy and girl and shouted.

"Follow me! Hurry inside before he gets loose!" He then dipped hurried inside the abandoned subway station and turned around to try to find something that could block the entrance so no one could follow them in. This could be a challenge for him. It was fortunate that he enjoyed a good challenge every know and then. But, he reminded himself that after this was a bigger challenge. How to secure their trust.

Kathryn heard the man yell for help, and something about a punk kid. She spotted the boy, a little younger than she was, running in front of the boy and girl, yelling to them that he knew what he was doing.
"We ought to help him," she said to her sister.
"I don't know. I couldn't get him out with my power, you couldn't with yours, neither of us are strong enough to get him out."
"Still, we could at least act like we care."
Kathryn watched the man, thinking about the lightning. She began walking over towards him.
"Say, Immy," she said, glancing around, "Where's Natasha?"
Imogen turned around. Her sister was nowhere to be found.

Natasha had begun walking back towards the park, away from the commotion. She was nervous about her orb, what with all the reds and greens, as she subconsciously called them, around. She wasn't entirely sure why Imogen and Kathryn hadn't noticed that she had an orb, but they had recognized the boy's quickly enough, so she didn't want to take chances. Although, there was always the possibility that Imogen was wrong, and that the boy didn't have an orb.

John sat in the crumbled asphalt desperately trying to pull himself out. He noticed one of the girls left, and the other two were talking. Well, at least they're evaluating the situation. Smart kids. Wait, can't I just drop a grenade...no, that'll electrocute me. He looked down to his feet again and noticed one of them was loosening up. "Good, at least I'm not too stuck in this stupid parking lot. This is probably the least fun day of my life."

Alezia sat in the corner of the restaurant, watching the events unfold. She managed to be unseen and learned a great deal about these people. One of them must have a blue orb, just like her. A couple seemed to have the personality of green orb holders, and one even seemed to have been hit by red on The Day of Light. With all the commotion outside, she hoped no one would sense her blue orb. Alezia noticed three run off in a different direction, trying to escape. She decided to follow them, maybe she could befriend them. They ran into abandoned subway station and just as she was about to run in, she heard them blocking the entrance. This was no problem for Alezia. She put all her focus into her body, and fairly easily walked through the wall of blockage, worried meeting these strangers in such a fashion was bad news.

Ever since Alezia had been struck with blue on The Day of Light, she'd been practicing with her powers. She also did major research, trying to figure everything out... How many people had powers as well and what kind of powers? What are these orbs? What value do they carry? Why do greens want to collect them and reds want to destroy them? Alezia knew one day she'd figure it all out.

Just as he had finished blocking the entrance, he felt the strange urges become stronger than before but something was different this time. He didn't feel the urges just from the boy inside but he felt them from someone else outside the barricade. Even though he wanted to, he had to resist taking down the barrier otherwise the man he'd trapped in the asphalt would surely find them and Jeff didn't want to think about what would happen then. But just as he turned around to try and get to know his new acquaintances that little dilemma solved itself because he saw a transparent outline of a girl literally walking through the hastily built barrier he had just made.

A moment of shock came through him as he pondered this. So the girl had what he wanted and she was struck by the light as well, so did that mean that certain kinds of the people who had powers also had the objects he wanted? It seemed best to try and not seem aggressive to her. Otherwise she would never trust him. Great, he had to now earn both the boy's and this new girl's trust. As he finished his train of thought he asked the girl

"Hello and who might you be? I am Jeff and these are my new acquaintances. After you tell me your name, perhaps you'd like to join us and discuss what has just happened and what kinds of powers we all possess."

Alezia laughed to herself a bit as she saw the surprised face on the "leader's" face. She wasn't sure if people would ever get used to her "walking through walls" power. "Hello, my name is Alezia." She smiled. "I followed you guys from the restaurant. It's obvious we were all hit on the Day of Light and I'd love to exchange knowledge of what has happened to us." Walking closer to them, she shook one of their hands. "So nice to meets others like me," she grinned.

Maybe making friends with them was a bad idea. Alezia had felt a strong urge to protect her orb, hidden safely inside her small purse under her clothes, but on the other hand, she needed to get out and meet others effected by the Light. Alezia needed to know more about the orbs and the powers each owner possesses. She knew how to run away fast, and her power of traveling through walls really helped, so she figured no harm done is making dangerous friends.