My name is Andrew Ferroccio. I was born and raised in Nelson City just south of Empire in New York. I am a Conduit. I was thirteen years old when The Beast destroyed my town and all my family and friends along with it. I was activated by one of The Beast's Ray Sphere blasts. I remember running for my life down a street littered with rubble from the collapsing buildings all around it and the dead bodies of all those who weren't lucky enough to dodge the falling debris. I was holding my mother's arm, and my older sister, about seventeen at the time, was running ahead of us trying to clear a path, I guess. She stopped and looked up. The look that was on her face is something that I won't ever forget. I saw all hope leave her like it was being drained by whatever held her attention. I saw in her eyes that she knew that this was the end, that she was going to die. I loved my sister, even though I never said it. Seeing her so devastated... it hurt so bad.
I looked away from my sister's face because tears were swelling up in my eyes, and I couldn't see anything but a blur. After wiping my eyes, I looked up at my mother, saw the tears in her eyes and I could see that she was accepting the inevitable as well. I wanted to tell her thank you for every little thing she had ever done for me, all the time she spent making me into the person I was, but I couldn't speak. I, for the life of me, couldn't comprehend it. I had never seen anyone in my family so... defeated. I was so confused. It occurred to me that I didn't know the cause, so I looked in the direction of my mother's gaze and saw him.
The Beast. A giant man made out of what looked like magma glowing and stomping his way through the town, destroying everything in his path.
He wound up a big ball of energy and let loose. I swear time slowed to a near standstill. I looked at my sister as she closed her eyes, tears beading down her face washing off the dust from the destruction, and thought of her new car, her Cum Laude graduation party, her championship volleyball game, and her prom night with her awesome new boyfriend. All the things that were going good for her. All the things that in a moment were going to cease to exist. I tightened my grip on my mom's arm and remembered her last choir concert and how proud she was when I made all A's on my report card the week before. I saw everything. Then there was nothing.
Deafening silence. Blinding darkness. It felt like I was being pulled apart in every direction while being stabbed through the chest with a flaming spear. And in a flash, it was over. Images of my life flashed before my eyes, and then I blacked out.
I woke up some time later, though I don't know exactly how long, buried ten feet under bricks and dust and bodies. There was rebar all around me and a piece had pierced my hand in the palm going straight through. I would've been terrified, but it didn't hurt, and I wasn't bleeding. I collected myself, at least as best as a young teenager can after losing everyone he's ever cared about and being buried alive under dead people and crumbled buildings. I don't remember how long I was there, but I do remember that no one ever came to rescue me. I had to have done it myself somehow.
I can control metal. That's my power. So while I was lying there, unaware of my new-found abilities, I was scared to see the metal in my burial plot was moving towards like I was a very powerful magnet. I'm not magnetic, but I didn't know how to control my powers yet, or that I had them, so they just sort of did what they wanted. The metal started bending towards my legs. I looked down at them and saw that the right one was broken. Bad. Like ninety degree angle bad. All of the sudden, the metal shoots into my leg, straightens it, and hardens. It hurt like hell, but I could tell that it was healed. That was all that mattered. The fact that what had happened made no sense didn't mean anything to me at that moment.
Eventually, I made some sense of what was going up. Watching movies helps you realize what's happening when it's downright crazy. I realized that I had some kind of power. I tried to control it, make things happen, but at the time I had no idea how, and doing anything was more a matter of luck than skill. I eventually made the metal shift enough to open up a hole above me just big enough for me to escape through. Once I was at the top of the mound, I looked around and immediately wished that I hadn't. I'd tell you what I saw but... some things are left not described.
I made my way to an abandoned, and demolished, apartment building. As soon as I found a "safe" place to rest, I burst into tears. It wasn't the stoic kind of crying, it was more of the kind of crying where you're crying because there is nothing left to feel but empty, and the tears are just all the feelings escaping so you could feel that way. I was never a gracious crier either, so it was very ugly. Bawling and sobbing and choking up to the point where I couldn't even breathe. I think I was dehydrated by the time I fell asleep, and I think I slept for a week straight. What reason was there for me to be awake anyway?
My family was gone. My friends were in all likelihood gone as well. I had very few people to begin with, but now that everyone was dead... what was I to do? What was left for me in the world? That's when I remembered my powers. I needed to find out more about them. What were they? How did I get them? What was the extent of my ability? I had to know. I owed it to my mom and my sister to live my life, and if I planned to do that, I would have to get used to being a freak with superpowers. No sense in wearing a mask, because there was nobody left for people to hurt to get at me. I wasn't sure if I was going to go off to become a superhero or a villain or a guy with powers who just hides, but I had to know what I was.
But that could wait until I woke up.