I was checking information on a man with lizard skin during opening hours of the HOME centre. His ability was only recently discovered and he was scared his whole body would change. It would. My sight displayed how his body would change. He would get much stronger but the skin would cover all over and wouldn’t be reversible.
Everyone was here because they wanted to get rid of their abilities, most didn’t want to be diagnosed properly. We help people with abilities, this isn’t a cure, its a solution for the future. We are accepted here and although there are always people who will do their best to separate themselves from us, we are here and we should be proud.
I told the man the pros of keeping his ability. He would become much stronger without the need to work out. His ability will keep his body in shape and will permanently healthy. He will live a longer lifespan because of this. He will become more agile and speed will be increased too. He wondered about his skin though, how he would look in public. His hair had already fallen out and although others had taken a liking to this especially his wife, he was worried about his skin. He had eczema when he was younger and was teased about those patches, he didn’t want to be teased about his scaly skin too. I told him he will have to have the scaly skin all over his body, but he wouldn’t have to worry about the eczema anymore. Reptiles have a faster healing regeneration, so any cuts and bruises will be healed almost instantly. He could even regrow a few limbs if he lost them. He still wasn’t sure. Every ability has a downside. No one is perfect.
My sight glowed red. A popup appeared over the man's face. “ALERT! ALERT! UNSTABLE ABILITY!” It read. I told the man to have a think for a moment and turned my body towards to the danger. Bishop was on his knees. A little girl was crying holding her head. Two men had passed out beside her and I couldn’t see much else. The Alerts were buzzing around the girl. I grabbed a Negaband and quickly configured it to a strong level. I couldn’t focus, my popups were smashing and my eyes started to hurt. I closed them and screamed for Nega. I peeked and saw him in the doorway a few seconds later. There was a crash behind me. The man I was diagnosing had grown a large brown tail, I hadn’t seen that in my information before. My eyes were in pain, they felt like they were bleeding. I screamed for Nega and it stopped.
I wiped the blood from my eyes. I could see normally again. Bishop was bruised and cut on the floor, passed out, his head was bleeding. I grabbed my phone and called for Disc. She was there with the others after a minute or so. Nega had suspended abilities for now. Everyone was slower than usual. The little girl had stopped crying, the lizard man had returned to normal, his hair was slowly growing back and a few people had awoken from passing out. I configured the Negaband in my hand properly and placed it on the girl's arm. Nega put his band on and my popups started to appear.
I turned to the lizard man, his tail was not there but his hair was falling back out and his skin was growing scaly again. Bishop, Disc and Jean had gone, presumably downstairs to the hospital. I walked back to the man, he was slightly thinner. I told him we just had a malfunction in abilities. Some are hard to control. I told him if wanted a Negaband, he would have to wear it always. He couldn’t switch between the two. He had to make a choice. The band would make him ‘normal’ but without it, he would feel like a 'better man’.
My ability was picking up some thoughts and feelings now. Negas ability was good at resisting others’ abilities. They appear to stop working but actually they try harder fight that barrier, so once that barrier comes down, the abilities are slightly stronger. It’s a good way to get stronger, but your abilities can be manipulated if you have no control over them. And if that barrier keeps returning, soon your ability will strengthen itself to become immune. However, if you keep the barrier up permanently, the barrier becomes the strongest. The ability only becomes stronger when the barrier is down. It’s constantly fighting but won’t break the initial barrier. This is why we have to monitor this process and this is what I told the man who was so unsure. Either keep his ability and grow with it, or push it out forever. It was his choice.
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