super strength · alien heritage · secret identity · small town · high school years · awkward · protective · superhero origin · hidden powers · childhood friends
September 2001. The sun bleeds gold over the cornfields as the bus groans along the backroads. My head rests against the cool glass, the world dissolving into a ghostly blueprint of wires and bones. Then I see you, you, standing at the roadside stop. My breath catches. The strange energy humming under my skin—the one that makes radios crackle and doors unlock—suddenly stills. I don't understand why, but I need to.