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Chapter One: Empathy in Mission City
Empathy.
That is what they called it.
They called it a gift. The hell it was; this was a curse. She hadn't been able to touch another person, not even her mother, without pain since she was four years old. She had not worn short sleeves, shorts or been without her specially insulated gloves since then as well, no matter the weather, and no one knew or seemed to care...
Until her trip to Mission City, that is.
She had just witnessed a massive battle between what she could only identify as mechs, felt the terror of every person on the street, the hopelessness of the big black mech and the death of the small silver one so when she made the rather unwise decision to see what she could do for the silver one she was not really in her right mind.
And now she had said mech in her head and his 'spark' in the locket around her neck.
Wonderful.
FLASHBACK
Jack Sorenson was supposed to be a boy. Jack Sorenson was supposed to be normal.
She was neither of these things and her father kicked her out because of it. Not to say that she didn't like the things that boys liked, considering that she'd been raised as a boy. She knew schematics and engineering like the back of her hand and had in fact made her own miniature mechs out of office supplies that had pissed her father off something fierce, she had learned about tanks and aircraft and wars, partly out of interest and partly to try to be the son that her father wanted. She had done all that she could, but it was never enough and then, when her 'gift' had manifested…things had gone from bad to worse. She now felt the disdain he had for her.
His malicious glee as he beat on her and her mother.
His satisfaction when he killed her mother.
She felt everything around her and her powers and abilities only grew until it was too much for him to handle and he threw her out, saying that no matter how fun it was to beat on her it wasn't worth having a freak under his roof. Her mother had left her some money, so she'd decided to take a road trip and had ended up in Mission City, walking down the main street just in time to see the massive battle first hand. She watched as the mechs changed between vehicle forms and robot forms, she watched as the smallest one was torn in two and dropped and she didn't see much more because she followed her first instinct and that was to see what she could do for the damaged mech. She gracefully made her way down into the fissure in the street where the body lay and crouched by the damaged area.
It looked pretty hopeless.
He'd been torn in twain at the waist, the spark at his chest cavity flickering softly, trying to stay lit, but it was a losing proposition. There was fluid leaking everywhere, sparks falling weakly from wires frayed and torn; there was no chance for her to help and her head knew it, but her heart told her that there was still something there to salvage. She disregarded the surge of energy coming from behind her as she plunged her hands into his chest cavity, grasping carefully at the small, sputtering spark of light residing there. Just as she grasped the spark, the wave of energy slammed into her, forcing her back to arch acutely and a gasp to force itself from behind her lips. Her mental shields were all but destroyed by the energy and the emotions of every sentient creature within three miles slammed into her brain, overloading her senses and forcing her body to shut down.
She never noticed the bead of awareness meander through her tattered shields, nor the spark of energon life move to her locket, causing it to glow before the light was cut off by the locket closing itself tightly.