Chapter 24 - Heights and Chaos (Part 1)
Tyler Riddle
Jess and I walked for about half an hour to her house. We just chatted about each other's families. I was hoping talking about her family might help with her grief. It sure helped with mine. I never really had someone to talk about this stuff with. Not in my old world, not here. I mean I have Peter, but he never really got to know his parents. Nia doesn't really care about our shared parents, and I don't want to unload onto Gwen. Matt could probably understand, but there's almost an entire generation between me and him. Maybe I do need more friends.
Jess's house was a pretty standard town home made from bricks, which was pretty common in the older neighborhoods.
"Alright. We're here. Do you have a key to get in?" I ask Jess.
"Ummm..no. I probably left it when I came to school. I wasn't exactly thinking straight."
"That's fine. We can just break in. I'll fix the damage."
"What? No!" She waves her hands in disagreement.
"No. I'm telling you that I can fix it to perfection. I can recreate matter. That's one of my abilities. See, look." I hold one hand above the other and make an ornate diamond and gold necklace, catching it as it falls.
"Wow. That's really cool. So you can just make gold and stuff?" Her eyes wide open in amazement.
"Yeah, pretty much anything as long as I've absorbed a sample of it." I reabsorb the necklace."So I'll just make a hole in the door, open it from the inside, and then I'll patch right up."
"Let's not do that. How about we go do something and we can come back when my parents are here. You're not busy are you?" She looks at me with hope in her eyes.
"Sure. What do you want to do? I'm not good with picking social outings." As my idea for a date with Gwen suggests.
"How about you show me more of what you can do and I'll show you what I can do."
"That sounds good. I have the perfect place in mind."
"Where?"
"Just an old warehouse by the docks. We can just take a cab there, I doubt you want to walk that far."
"Okay."
=÷=
Old Warehouse
I brought Jess to the same warehouse I used with Peter. The area was currently quiet except for the sounds of the boats and the like far away.
"Okay, we're here. Who should go first?" I ask Jess.
"I think you should. And tell me how you got your powers. I already told you about mine."
"Okay, let's start with my first set of abilities. To put it simply, I did a sort of mad scientist experiment. I almost died, but through a few unfortunate events, I survived. I can tell you more about it some other time….I…. don't feel comfortable talking about it right now. But back to my abilities. The experiment connected me to what I call the Exterus Force. I can make things with it." I make two rods of Lead. "I can absorb things with it." I absorb one rod.``And I can edit or change things with it." I turn the remaining rod into gold. "Now your turn."
"You already know what happened to me, but I'm strong. Like I can lift cars easily, but there aren't any cars around to show you. Well, I can fly." She says, hovering a foot off the ground."But I'm not good at it and I don't like heights."
"I'm sure we can fix that. For my second set of abilities, I used my first to change my body and enhance my senses. I can hear much better, loud enough to use echolocation and hear people's heartbeats from a couple hundred feet away. My brain works really fast and I can remember things very well. My sense of smell is higher than a hunting dog's. And I can feel every part of my body moving. My muscles, skin, tendons, everything. And I changed my skin to be resistant to penetration."
"Sounds...disgusting and unpleasant. How do you live?"
"The first few days were a torturous hell, but I had somebody that helped me control it and get used to my enhanced senses. They're also my combat coach."
"I'm sorry. I can't imagine the pain it caused. But why did you do that to yourself?"
"I wanted to get stronger. It's necessary. If you want, I'll help you do the same, but I won't let you go down a harmful path."
"That sounds nice." She nods.
"Then it's onto my third set of abilities. I found this—well found might be pushing it. I stole a few radioactive spiders that were being used illegally. I let one of the spiders bite me, and it turned me into a sort of Spider-Man. I can walk on walls and ceilings." I walk over to a wall and do a full 90° directional change up it with no hesitation.
"Ughh, that gave me vertigo." Jess days, clutching her head weekly."
"Sorry." I flip off the wall."and it also gave me a few other spider-like abilities as well. I'm extremely strong like you, but I haven't tested just how much. I can shoot electricity like I showed you earlier." I shoot a few arcs out, startling Jess." And I can put out a magnetic field around me that allows me to turn invisible." I go invisible and Jess starts looking for me after I go quiet and don't reappear.
"Tyler?" Jess says in a slightly worried tone, her heart starting to beat faster.
"Yes?" I say, popping up behind her, making her jump in fright.
"Asshole!" She shouts, trying to smack me, but I grab her hand with a relatively light grip. I still have to put in a lot of force into it since she's strong. I'm guessing we're around the same strength level.
"Sorry. I just like teasing people."
"Well don't." She says, blushing slightly.
"Okay, no teasing. Besides invisibility I can pull lighter metal objects to me and pull myself towards heavier metal objects." I pull a loose screw off the ground and into my hand. Then I levitate off the ground like Jess did, using the metal support beams above as an anchor.
"Any more?" She asks, scrunching her face at me.
"Just one, but I'm not sure what it does yet. There are these people in the world that are scientifically referred to as homo supremis. They are more commonly known as mutants, after the mutant gene they have that rapidly mutates their body under stressful circumstances or at birth. I turned myself into a mutant and consequently my DNA is made of a new exotic matter that I completely control. It's connected somehow to the Exterus Force, but I don't know how so I called it Exterium. I don't have enough of it made to show you and all I know about it is that it can be made to mimic any form of matter."
"That's...a lot. It's an unfair amount of power, even for me. I'm just a strong human who can fly."
"No. It's hardly anything. I need more power, a completely unreasonable amount of power to fight extremely unfair opponents. There are many, many like us and many of them aren't friendly. You'll see soon enough." Several explosions go off in the distance, loud enough for the both of us to hear them, making us turn our heads.
"Or you can see right now…."
=÷=
I thought the bit about her parents not picking her up in the previous chapter was a contradiction to the chapter before it but waved it off as a subtle way of letting her feel normal in front of new people. In her introduction chapter she supposedly went into a coma when she "lost her parents" but then in the previous chapter and this chapter where they don't break in and instead wait for her parents. What?
Are her parents dead? Did she go into a coma from separation anxiety getting lost in a mall? Was she adopted while in a coma? What is going on.
Yep.. that messed with my brain too.... Did she have foster parents already? It should have been atleast an uncle or aunt, not parents here. Maybe author messed up.
@Balgas She was adopted after she went into a coma since it just wouldn't be right to make her live on her own after she woke up. She refers to her foster-parents as parents because that's what they are to her. I've never met a foster child who refers to their parents as Foster parents. Maybe I should have just put an explanation in quotations, but I don't know. I didn't exactly feel like it and I was hoping most of my readers could make a guess as to what I mean.
@Horizon42 Maybe it would make sense if I was at all familiar with canon Jessica Jones, but definitely say she was adopted if she was. If she's 18 she has agency over herself and doesn't need to be adopted but that comes with its own holes to fill.
I'd have misgivings if someone were to go out looking for coma patients to adopt, and jumping on sincerely calling them "parents" quickly isn't very believable to me, probably just omitting "foster" because it brings up more annoying questions. Maybe the doctor that was watching over her or someone on the hospital's ethics board?
There had to be a period where she's completely uprooted to live with these strangers that took control of her life. Even then while she's knocked out and neither of them really know each other that'd be super weird to wake up to.
You wake up tomorrow with a couple of strangers standing beside your bed looking at you. They claim that they've adopted you and that you'll be moving in to their house. How long does it take to come to terms with this, or do you just roll with it no questions asked?
@Horizon42 I mean it was pretty clear to me, so I think you still did a great job! I really like the story so far btw, though the release isn't as fast as I'm reading the chapters so it's a pity I can't read like 200 chapters in one go cause this is way too much fun!
@xane I never specified how long she's been with those parents, or when the accident happened. I can make a few edits to make Jessica home schooled or something before going back to school. Yeah I should have clarified, but I really don't have much time to go over everything in my novel. I kinda have to rely on my readers to point out mistakes. As for the ethics committee at the hospital, many times they are ineffective. I know, because I get insider information everyday. If Jess was still 17 when the accident happened, and was in a coma for a couple months, I think It would be likely that the state would find foster parents for her after she woke up. I don't knowz I guess I'll do some edits to the chapters some time, but I tend to focus on new chapters since the majority of people on scribblehub just steamroll through content. No diss to any of my readers.
@Horizon42 no worries bro... as long as your open to suggestions and some clarification was indeed needed on the part of her easily being adopted. Girl just lost her parents at teenage years and yet she just adapted that early was kinda not right. Also won't the state contact nearest family members instead? Or she gets a legal guardian that the state provident? Also it would be fun if the guardians are shield agents...