Leon awoke to an explosion. This was quickly followed by another explosion, red light shone through the window blinds. Leon squinted at his alarm clock, 5:15am. It was early.

He got up out of bed, Leon was 17 and in his last year of high school, little did he realise just how true that statement would be in just a few hours. Leon parted the blinds and peaked out into the San Francisco light. He gasped. In the distance there were explosions going off every couple of seconds, He looked out at the sight in horror, the explosions weren't the worst part, red energy was cascading across the sky. People on the streets were dropping dead when it touched them, one boy however he saw, was touched by it and suddenly changed, Leon could feel it, he didn't know what had changed until seconds later. The boy stretched out his arm and shot a torrent of fire, burning several cars to cinders. The boy laughed and ran off.

The energy was turning some people into conduits and KILLING THE REST!

Leon knew he was safe, he was a marked conduit, his family though? He didn't know, he ran to his sister's room. Ruby was only 10 years old. Upon arriving he saw that Ruby was sitting up in bed crying.

'Hey, Ruby, what's up?' Leon asked, Ruby turned and looked at him, tears running down her face, screaming when she saw him,

'STAY AWAY! STAY AWAY!' She scrambled back behind her bed, wedging herself between the mattress and the wall. Leon looked at her with bewilderment, he knew for a fact that because she wasn't dead she was now a Conduit, but what sort? Then he saw it. Sparks. Small blue sparks of electricity were dancing around her hands.

Leon smiled sadly, 'Hey, silly, remember, I can't be hurt?'

Ruby sniffed and looked up at him. 'No?'

Leon smiled again, 'No, remember, I'm a Conduit, and now so are you.' Ruby sniffed and stopped crying, she climbed over the bed and ran up to him, hugging him, her body trembling. Leon hugged her back. He knew how scary it could be when your Conduit abilities manifested for the first time. He himself had nearly killed some of his best friends. A shock of electricity passed through his body and he stiffened. Ruby began to cry, realising what she had done, Leon sat on the bed so that he was on eye level with her,

'Hey, I'm going to be fine. Fast healing is a side effect of being a Conduit.'

'But it hurt didn't it?' Ruby asked,

Leon rolled his eyes a little, 'Yeah a little bit but, I'll be fine.'

The sparks that still danced around his sister began to grow stronger, evident because they were lasting longer and glowing brighter.

'Okay, I'm going to teach you a trick.'

'A trick?'

Leon nodded, 'How to control it. Okay, close you eyes and think about mum and dad, think about how much they love you and protect you, keep focusing on it.'

Leon watched as as Ruby calmed the sparks of electricity faded and finally stopped. Ruby opened her eyes, looked around her and laughed in delight,

'It's gone!'

'Yes it is, so every time you start to get worried, think about that and it'll be fine, eventually you'll be able to stop it simply by thinking about it.'

Then a though came on him. Ruby was a Conduit gene carrier. But were their parents Conduit gene holders too? Leon grabbed Ruby hand and ran into their parents' bedroom, empty. Leon ran down stairs to the kitchen, on the bench was a small piece of paper with some writing scribbled on it

Gone for a walk. Be back soon. Love you both.

'Are they going to be okay?' Ruby asked, she had come down stairs quietly, so quietly that Leon hadn't even heard her.

Leon shook his head, 'No, they aren't. Go to your room, no, take a shower who knows how long it is before water is turned off. Then, get dressed and pack some food, we're gonna go look for them.'

Ruby nodded and ran back upstairs, Leon meanwhile, quickly rummaged through the pantry, grabbing random food items that he though might be helpful, He quickly made a couple of Peanut Butter Jelly sandwiches. Their parents usual forbade them, but Leon just thought; *Screw it, it's the end of the world anyway.*

Once he had grabbed enough food to last them a couple of days, Leon ran upstairs and quickly showered in the second shower, the one in his parents's room. He hadn't shaved in the past couple of days so, after the shower he did that too, trimming of the little bit of stubble that had grown. He looked at himself in the mirror, his green eyes sparkled in the light, his brown hair, still wet, clung to his scalp. Leon wasn't popular with the girls but was pretty well developed for someone who would be classified as a nerd.

He headed to his room and got dressed, black cargo pants, black long-sleeve t-shirt, grey t-shirt over the top, and a black hoodie, with several pockets. He grabbed his shoulder back and headed down to the kitchen where Ruby was waiting for him. She was wearing jeans, brown boots and a pink hoodie, he couldn't see her shirt underneath, which was good, she was dressed warmly. San Francisco could be very cold in the morning. Leon filled his bag with the food,

'Okay Ruby, take this,' He handed her one of the long ranged walkie talkies he had managed to snatch from his parent's room, 'If we get separated, call me, you know how to use it.'

Ruby nodded.

'Good, now, let's go find Mum and dad.' Leon handed Ruby one of the sandwiches and the two headed out into the cold morning air.

_|O|_

The siblings walked through the cold morning streets of San Francisco. Leon was grateful for one thing, not too many people had been outside when the red energy had caused people to transform into Conduits or die. Most people had been inside, that spared Ruby from having to view the horror. Leon soon began to encounter the first problem, where to go? He had no idea at all of where his parents could have gone. It was entirely possible they had just decided to leave them entirely or just go for a walk to the park.

'Where are they?' Ruby cried eventually.

'Leon shook his head, 'I don't know. Ruby, I really don't know.

The two continued to walk around the neighborhood. The sun had begun its slowish crawl into the sky. Then Leon began to hear the screams,

'What's going on?' Ruby asked,

'I have no idea.' Leon replied, he grabbed her hand and ran towards the street from where the cries were echoing. The cold wind rushed past Leon's ears, then he saw what was happening. A group of people was standing around a couple that had collapsed dead on the ground. Leon ran over,

'What happened here?

An older man stepped forward, 'I came out to say good morning as I always do, they said hello, then the man grabbed his heart,' he made the motion, 'and collapsed! The woman followed a couple of seconds after I came over here and checked their pulses, they were both dead! I called for help.'

Leon nodded, 'Yes, well done.'

'Can you help them,' a woman asked him,

'I'll try.' Leon said, thoughts were rushing through his head,

What do I do? I can't restore the dead to life! I'd need to jump start their hearts…

Leon turned to Ruby, 'Ruby, charge up.'

Ruby looked at him in confusion, 'What?'

Leon scrambled over to her, 'Listen, you're a lightning Conduit, if you charge up, you'll be able to jump start their hearts, like a defibrillator.'

'What's that?'

'Just do it, okay.'

'I don't know how!'

'Excuse me.' A stern voice said, interrupting their conversation, Leon looked up and saw a middle aged woman glaring at them both,

'Did you say that little girl was a Conduit?'

'What's it to you?' Leon asked, 'She can save theses people's lives! Now back away!' He turned back to Ruby, 'I trust you, you can do this.'

Ruby nodded and closed her eyes, she began to focus, Leon half guided, half dragged her over to the husband. One of the people, a man, grabbed Leon by the back of hoodie,

'There is no way you are going anywhere near those people.' He told him. Leon turned and sighed,

'Listen dipstick, my sister can jump start their hearts, no guarantee that it will bring them back, but it's a shot. If we don't act fast enough they'll die.' Leon turned to Ruby, her hands were sparkling with electric light. The man used this advantage to punch Leon in the face. Leon stumbled back bewildered, several other neighbours came to help, pinning Leon to the ground.

'Leo what do I do?' Ruby said, her voice sounded scared. As much as Leon hated it, her being scared was fuelling the sparks making them stronger,

'Put both your hands on his chest and then push the energy into them! It should do the trick!'

His instruction was rewarded with another punch, to Leon, this was nothing, he was a Conduit after all, he could kill each and everyone of these people without a seconds thought but he knew they were scared and he let them continue, they needed to be reassured.

'Now?' Ruby asked

'Don't you dare young lady,' the woman said glaring at her,

'YES! Do it! NOW!' Leon yelled,

Ruby plunged her hands downward and onto the man's chest. His body shuddered as the pulse surged through his body. Then he sat up,

'What's going on?' He asked, everyone stopped and stared, Leon pulled himself away from the people, using a little more force, he approached the man,

'Look sir, you have had the unfortunate luck to be exposed to a type of energy that kills most people and turns a few into Conduits. You aren't a Conduit, so you died, my sister here managed to bring you back to life. Congratulations,' He turned to Ruby, 'Ruby, do the same thing to his wife.'

Ruby charged up and tapped the woman. She shuddered and nothing happened. Leon looked confused,

'Ruby, try again.'

Ruby charged up and repeated the process, but once again nothing happened.

'Ruby, try again.' Leon said, Ruby tried again, once again thing happened, Ruby began to cry,

'I can't Leo, I'm sorry…' Leon went over to her and gave her a hug. The woman's husband looked at them both in bewilderment and then with anger

'DO IT ALREADY!' He screamed at Ruby.

'I can't' Ruby repeated and started to cry,

A girl walked out of the house, looking tired, 'What's going on?' She asked, Leon looked up and felt his jaw drop, Olivia Barratt.

'Olivia?' Leon asked, not believing what he was seeing.

'Excuse me, sir what about us?' one of the members of the crowd asked, Leon looked at them

'What do you mean, what about you?'

'I mean, what about us? Will we die too?' Leon looked up at the sky, there were still some streaks of red energy. He turned to them,

'Go inside, close the doors and windows, you should be fine, I think that you are most likely Conduits. But just to be sure, get off the street.' The small group of people quickly followed his instructions; Leon returned his focus to Olivia.

'Olivia, what are you doing here?' Leon asked,

'I live here.' Olivia was by far, an attractive girl, not someone that would ever be seen with Leon's crowd.

'Oh. Okay, you may want to go inside and…' It was at the point that Olivia saw her father clutching the corpse of her mother.

'Is she..?' She asked, unable to finish putting the sentence together. Leon nodded.

'IT'S YOUR FAULT. YOU LITTLE MONSTER YOU COULDN"T SAVE HER!' Olivia's father screamed at Ruby. Then without warning, almost like a pack animal, he leaped up and ran at Ellie, ho screamed in surprise.

'HEY!' Leon said stepping between the two, 'She saved your life!, show a little bit of gratitude, we took time to stop for you, when we could have been trying to find our parents! So back off!'

Olivia's father looked at him and broke down into tears, Leon turned to his sister,

'Sis, take Olivia inside and help her get ready, We're going to head over to Chinatown, I think that's were Mum and dad might. But first help Olivia.'

Ruby nodded and ran up the stairs, leading a still in shock Olivia into the house, 'Come on Olivia?' Ruby said as she guided Olivia back into to the house. Leon turned to Olivia's father,

'What's your name sorry?.'

'Barry.'

'Okay, Barry are we going to have a problem?'

'What do you mean' Barry asked, looking up at Leon.

'The kind I mean, where you are going to lose it every couple of hours and scream at my sister about how it's supposedly her fault that you wife is dead. Because if so, you can leave us alone.'

'While you take my daughter to some dark alley to supposedly find your parents and then have your way with her?' Barry asked. Leon rolled his eyes,

'Look, I'm not interested in your daughter that way, okay, we hardly talk, but she's going to need to take her mind off things here. I can do that. Besides, we may be able to find some of her friends. Anyway, I'm still waiting.'

'For what?' baby asked, dejectedly. Leon knelt so that he was on eye level with Barry.

'Are. We. Going. To. Have. A. Problem?'

Barry laughed, Leon merely glared at him, while Barry fell to the ground laughing, tears streamed down his cheeks. Leon rolled his eyes and picked Barry up, hoisted him over his shoulders and carried him into the house. Most teenagers couldn't have been able to do this but when your a Conduit, strange things are possible. Just as Leon was putting Barry on the ground, the house across the road exploded into a fiery ball of death.

_|O|_

Leon ran out onto the street.

'What was that?' Leon heard Ruby call,

'Nothing at all sis! I'll handle it, just get Olivia ready!'

Smoke danced across the sky, causing him to choke on his own breath. Leon ran over to the other side of the road and began to hoist up pieces of burning timber and bricks, searching franticly for survivors. No one came to help. *Probably all still scared of the red energy and dying.* Leon thought to himself, it wasn't an encouraging thought. Eventually after a few frantic moments, Leon backed away from the death zone and accepted that there were no survivors. The he say the man. He had his back to Leon, was tall, well built and a head of black hair, red electricity danced around him.

'Sir are you okay?' Leon called out to the man, the man turned to him.

'Well lookey here? You seem might fine for a kid who just walked out of an explosion, are you a Conduit too?' The man laughed, obviously finding his own humour funny.

'Sir are you okay?' Leon asked again, but this time he was nervous, the man was obviously a newly transformed Conduit, one who was completely fine with killing.

'Do I look not okay to you son? I just blew up a bloody house!' The man laughed again. Leon began to get really nervous, most Conduit need to first absorb some energy from blast shards before they were able to perform powerful attacks like taking out an entire house. This guy had either juiced up or was just lucky.

'You know, I'm kinda pissed that you didn't die. You see, with Conduits now being supreme an' all. I knew this was comin' so I got myself check to see if had a Conduit gene, was my lucky day when the test cam back positive. I decided that I'd carve my own.'

His words made Leon think back to the disaster that had been New Marais. The Conduit Cole McGrath had fused with a being of incredible power and was now travelling across the country, turning people into conduits, the rest dying, though there were still many people that weren't transforming and rather simply surviving though it was rare. The Beast, as he was called had obviously come the night before to San Francisco, that was what had been the red energy. Then the picture slowly began to come together in Leon's mind. His parent's weren't gene holders, he knew that much. His sister hadn't been tested, so when he had woken up, he had panicked, he had checked on his sister and forgotten that his parents did have the gene, he had been so relieved that Ruby was still alive. That meant though looking for them would be futile. He mentally berated himself for not making that connection earlier! How stupid he had been. How was he going to break the news to Ruby?

'Hey kid!' The man called, 'Cat got your tongue?' He laughed then without warning he thrust out his hand and sent a bolt of orangey-red lightning straight at Leon, Leon managed to dodge the attack but just barely.

'That. That was a mistake.' Leon said. The man stopped laughing and looked at Leon, and what he saw was determination and anger. A rage that was boiling down to the centre of his soul. At the same time Leon saw fear written across the face of the man.

'Y-you're one of them…aren't you? One of the Conduits who was a Conduit before this.'

Leon grinned, loving the absolute fear on the man's face. All the sadness that he had felt for his parents' demise was gone, replaced by a filing rage.

'Yeah. I am one of those Conduits. And currently I've had a pretty shitty day, I need to express some rage, and you're about to become my punching bag.' With that, Leon turned to the smouldering ruins of the house, he stretched out both arms and focused on the smoke pulling it into his body, tendrils of smoke arched down and entered his forearms, white and orange embers floated around his body.

The other man stood transfixed by what was happening before him. Once Leon had reached his maximum storage capacity he turned to the man, grinning in delight at the sheer level of power that was now dancing through his body, filling him with a warm sensation.

'Man!' Leon exclaimed, 'I forgot how great this feels! I haven't been this charged up in a ages!'

'Wha-what happened?' The man asked.

Leon nodded, 'You're a real Newbie to this aren't you? Okay, let me dumb this down. Every time you use your powers, you drain yourself a little, in order to get this energy back, you need to head to a power source and recharge, for you, you'd need either a lightning bolt or a power line, that still is pumping electricity, for me, I need smoke. By blowing up that house, you've given me and all-you-can-eat buffet. And now, I'mma gonna kick your face in!' Leon said. He ran forwards and jumped, while still several meters away from the man, then he dissipated into smoke, he darted forward in the form of smoke and embers, a move his sister had dubbed 'Smoke dash'.

Just before he reached the man, he began to merge back into human shape, his hand clenched in a fist,

'BATTER UP!' He yelled and he barrelled into the man, landing powerful punch, right on the man's nose, he could feel the marrow break beneath the force. The two went tumbling to the ground, Leon on top of the man, the man screamed in pain and warm blood trickled down, out of his nose, but Leon could see that it was already healing,

'Man you healing's kicked in already? Mine took-UMPH!' Leon never got to finish as the man decided to retaliate, he punched Leon in the stomach but had made sure to charge his puck with lightning. This blasted Leon up into the air, lightning crackling around his body. He hit the ground hard a couple of meters from the man. The man stood up, slowly, Leon followed suite, though he was gasping for air,

'Who-who are you?' Leon managed to wheeze.

'You may call me ELECTRO!'

'I think Marvel has copyrighted that name.'

'Seriously?!'

'Yeah.'

'Damn. Any ideas?' The man asked, perplexed.

Leon simply shook his head, then, without warning he thrust out his hand and fired a blast of fire and smoke together at the man, sending him sprawling, this technique he had named himself, "Smoke Shot". Leon ran forward and then jumped into the air, using his smoke dash he launched himself several meters higher than humanly possible and reverted to human form, the man hurled bolts of electricity his way, Leon dodged them easily by using his powers to propel him. He created 'smoke thrusters' out of the base of his arms, guiding him to buildings, from where he could smoke dash around the street, keeping the man off guard.

Bolt after bolt of lightning missed Leon, and eventually Leon grew tired of the game. He smoke dashed up a wall and then jettisoned himself even higher up into the air with his thrusters. He hung in midair for a second before plummeting to the ground towards the man. Using his thrusters he built up even more speed, just before he collided he turned his body into smoke, lessening the impact for him, not so much for his opponent. The man didn't even have time to react before the act was done.

The force of the impact caused a crater to be formed in the road, Once the smoke cleared it was only Leon standing above a badly injured man, Leon checked the guys' pulse. Still there.

'Man, you were designed to take a beating weren't you?' Leon muttered. He climbed up the small crater only to find Ruby and Olivia standing there.

'Bro you okay?' Ruby asked, Leon had to grin.

'Yeah I'm fine, you should see the other guy,' he said grinning, as Ruby tried to get round him to see, Leon realised the mistake in his words and grabbed her, 'On second thoughts, let's just keep moving. It's not a pretty sight.'

Ruby looked disappointed, but noted her understanding.

'What about my dad?' Olivia asked, looking a little concerned.

'He'll be fine, the energy that's turning people into Conduits is gone now so he should be safe, now, we need to get moving.'

'Where will we go?' Olivia asked

'Not Chinatown.' Leon replied

'Why not?' Ruby interjected, Leon looked at her sadly.

'That's where our parents will be.'

'So why don't we go there?'

Leon dashed across the crater to the smoking ruins of the house and once again filled up on smoke energy, then he dashed back across to Olivia and Ruby,

'Because they are dead. They weren't Conduit gene holders, so when people transformed they died, and by now, it'll be too late to save them. 'I'm sorry Ruby.'