"Tell me exactly what happened." Jack was sitting on the family couch, polishing his favorite knife. There were bags under his eyes and for once, he looked to be entirely sober. The exacting look in his eyes made Karkat wonder what exactly his father used to do for a living, before settling down in a suburb with his son.
Dutifully, Karkat recited the events of that morning, pausing when Jack demanded him to and trying to recall every little detail. When he finished, a deep frown had set into Jack's face.
"You're going back to school tomorrow," Jack finally declared. "But you're wearing these." He handed Karkat a pair of gloves that he pulled out of nowhere. The gloves were bright red and made of a thin, sturdy material. Karkat looked at them, baffled.
"Why?"
Unfortunately, Jack never had the chance to answer, because just then someone began slamming loudly on the door of their house, demanding to be let in.
"Coming," Jack hollered angrily. He thundered into the foyer and opened the door, Karkat trailing behind him, to see a tall, bony teenager slouching in the doorway.
"Sollux?" Karkat blurted out loudly before he could stop himself.
"You know this guy?" Jack asked his son. Karkat grunted.
"Why the everloving nookscraping fuck are you here? And how the fuck did you get my address?" the short boy demanded, glaring at the unexpected visitor.
"Nookthcraping, that'th a new one. I've never heard that one before. I hacked the thchool regithtry and found your houthe number. Ath for why I'm here, did you theriouthly think you could jutht leave thchool early without anybody notithing?"
"It seemed to work pretty fucking well," Karkat shot back.
"You were outthide when Midnight Thtar attacked. I wanted to make thure you were okay," Sollux explained. "And when I didn't thee you in clath again I thort of…got worried." Karkat stared at Sollux in disbelief.
"What the fuck. That is the most dumbfuckingly grubfistedly idiotic thing I have ever heard. Don't pollute my ears with that bullshit again, you're fucking making fun of me like the assholes on the bus. Now get lost." Karkat responded to Sollux's statement in the only way he knew how: insults. But Sollux didn't leave.
"Jethuth, KK, where did that come from?"
"KK? No. You are not allowed to fucking give me a fucking nickname. Stop."
"You two should take this up at school tomorrow," Jack interceded, stepping between the two teenagers. "Go argue somewhere that is not within the vicinity of my hearing." Karkat slammed the door in Sollux's face, or at least he tried to, but Sollux caught it before he could. He was faster than he looked.
"Can I jutht come in for a moment? KK, I brought your thchool thtuff. You left your thingth in the clathroom, and John nearly had the opportunity to rig your binder with thome kind of prank trap." Sollux let himself into the house.
"What the fuck do you want from me?"
"I just think that you're leth of an athhole than motht of the other people I know at thchool," Sollux answered, bemused.
"Are you…are you hitting on me?" Karkat demanded loudly, startling Sollux.
"Ith that theriouthly the firtht plathe your mind goeth? Jeeth." Sollux made his way into the kitchen, dumping Karkat's school stuff on the table. "I jutht would like to be friendth with you, okay? Ith that a novel conthept to you?" Karkat flipped Sollux off from the other end of the room, but Sollux ignored him.
There was an awkward silence, which ended only when Sollux left to return to his house. Karkat glared at Jack and stormed up to his room, shutting the door behind him and spending the afternoon reading comic books until he fell asleep, face down in an old issue of Batman.
When Karkat woke up the next morning, it was with significantly less flair than the morning previous. The festering pit of assholes was waiting, and it would not be satisfied without Karkat there to complete the state-mandated menagerie of idiots and assholes.
The bus ride was the same as yesterday's except for the lack of bullying douchebags. A seat near the back of the bus was empty, and Karkat jammed himself up against the window, ignoring John's attempts to take his attention.
"Hey, um…can I sit here?" someone asked, jolting Karkat from his dazed morning state. He looked up to see a nervously smiling girl with green eyes and an anime t-shirt holding her backpack and looking at the empty spot next to Karkat.
He grunted in response and moved his backpack from the seat to the floor in front of him. There was a chorus of giggles from nearby, and at least one squee. Karkat went back to staring out the window.
"What's your name?" asked the girl.
"Karkat."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Nepeta," she replied. Karkat grunted again and returned his attention to the passing houses. "Are you new here?" she continued. "My friends and I haven't seen you around before."
"I fucking live right down the street," Karkat shot back grumpily. "You people shouldn't make stupid fucking assumptions." He glared at Nepeta for a moment, red eyes bright, before turning away for a third time.
"Ooh, your eyes are so pretty! They're like rubies," Nepeta cooed. Karkat groaned. This chick wasn't going to leave him alone, was she?
"Look, I am not a fucking morning person. I will say this once and once only: leave me the fuck alone."
"But—"
"If you feel the need to chatter in my face, please do so later." Karkat didn't realize until after he'd spoken that 'later' was an objective term. Nepeta frowned and was quiet for a few moments, but after waiting for only five minutes she resumed chattering brightly in Karkat's direction. It would have been endearing if it wasn't so fucking annoying.
By the first minute of one-sided chatter, Karkat was almost certain that Nepeta had a crush on him. By the second minute, he was agonizingly embarrassed for her, because the level of pathetic she radiated was simply painful. By the third minute, Karkat was ready to throw his unwitting admirer out the window of the school bus.
"Please just shut the fuck up!" Karkat snapped eventually. Nepeta looked hurt, and he prepared to apologize, but then realized that an apology would just open the floodgates once again. He edged closer to the window.
Finally, the bus reached the school. Karkat groaned and began making his way to Physics once again, but he found his path blocked by a sudden, massive shadow.
"Get the fuck out of my way," Karkat grumbled.
"I wish to know why my cousin has taken such interest in you," rumbled the tall, sweaty boy, whom Karkat vaguely recognized from his homeroom class.
"Who the fuck is your cousin and how would I know?"
"Nepeta. She is very dear to me and I wish to know why you are worthy of her affections."
"I have no fucking clue," Karkat snapped, "now get out of my way before we're both late." He pushed past the tall boy, who began sweating furiously, and tried to make it to class without interacting with any other idiots. John tried to stop him on the way into the Physics classroom, offering a can of what he claimed were roasted nuts, but Karkat wasn't going to fall for the prankster's bullshit. Not today.
Karkat returned to his seat in the back of the Physics classroom and began fiddling with the red gloves his father had given him to wear. There was no fucking point, was there? Everyone was messing with him. Everyone.
"Hi KK." And now Sollux was back. Wonderful.
"Hello." That voice was new. Karkat turned to see Sollux's friend Aradia trailing behind. She was smiling vaguely, and it was a little bit unsettling.
"KK, thith ith my girlfriend Aradia. AA, thith ith Karkat."
"Wait—girlfriend? You have a fucking girlfriend?" Karkat blurted out.
"Yup."
"Let me get this straight: you have a girlfriend."
"Yeth."
"You. You have a girlfriend. You."
"You don't have to thound tho thurprithed." Aradia laughed.
"It's nice to meet you," she bubbled, grinning. "Sollux told me about you last night, he said you were grumpy. Seems he was right!"
"Oh my fucking god, I think that rhymed." Karkat bashed his head against his desk.
"Jealouth?" Sollux asked sarcastically.
"God, no."
"Well, I heard thomething very interethting about you and a thertain young lady named Nepeta Leijon," Sollux declared, grinning toothily. "Theemth you're doing pretty well for yourthelf when it cometh to the ladieth. You're a real charmer."
"Oh my god. Oh my fucking god, no. She just sat down on the bus next to me and proceeded to chatter my ears off," Karkat groaned, "there is absolutely no romance involved whatso-fucking-ever."
"Don't tell me you're not a ladykiller, KK. You are the lord of the ladykillerth, you are their valiant leader helping them thally forth amongtht legionth of their thcreaming fanth." Karkat did not respond, he only bashed his head against his desk once again. Aradia giggled.
The physics teacher called the class to order, and Aradia sat down next to Sollux in Karkat's row. Mr. Fenton opened his laptop to call roll, and confetti exploded all over his face. The class erupted into laughter, with John receiving several high-fives.
"Mr. Egbert, go to the support room," Mr. Fenton commanded, filling out a paper and handing it to John, who held it up to the class's cheers. "And Mr. Strider, please remove your sunglasses."
"No can do, Fenton. The bro code dictates."
"Would you like to join John in the support room?" Mr. Fenton threatened.
"Fuck yeah; John's the life of the party. I'd follow that sweet ass anywhere." The class cracked up as Dave simply sat there, his poker face not budging.
"I AM NOT A HOMOSEXUAL!" John shouted from somewhere outside the portable, his voice ringing through the walls and into the classroom. Even Sollux laughed this time.
"You better not be," Vriska threatened. Mr. Fenton grit his teeth.
"Now, as I was saying, we'll be doing our first lab today. You'll be separating into groups of four—" All across the classroom, students began eyeing their friends and planning. "—which I will assign." There was a collective groan. "Group One: Vriska Serket, Dave Strider, Katie Banks, Feferi Peixes." Karkat watched as Vriska casually tripped Katie, who fell on her face into the table. He was glad he wasn't in that group. "Group Two: Sara Cleary, Aradia Megido, Sollux Captor, and Karkat Vantas." As the teacher continued, Karkat assembled his group around his lab table. Sollux and Aradia were already present, but Sara was on the other end of the room. Karkat groaned as he watched the clumsy blonde try to navigate past Vriska safely.
"Good," Karkat declared once everyone was there. "We don't have any assholes. I will be our group's leader and I will guide us to glorious victory—"
"Shut up, the teacher's giving instructions," Sara interrupted. Karkat growled at her.
"This lab is just a basic introduction to laboratory etiquette, but we will be using glass, so be careful not to break anything." Mr. Fenton rambled on and on about lab safety, handing back the results of yesterday's safety quiz and frowning at Dave, who had filled in every blank on the test with the words 'smuppet' and 'anime' and then drawn shitty cartoons in the margins.
The group sent Sollux and Karkat to fetch the materials: three glass test tubes, a test tube holder, and some food coloring.
Karkat set down the test tubes on the table as Sollux filled a cup with water.
"What the fuck are we even supposed to be doing with this shit?" Karkat's question was met by shrugs in all directions. Karkat began reading through the lab paper as Sara filled test tubes with water.
"Gah!" Dave Strider had approached from behind and pushed Sara over, causing her to trip and knock down the test tubes. They fell out of their holder with a tinkle, and one of them shattered on the table.
"Oops," Dave deadpanned as he walked away. Just then, Karkat felt a twinge of pain. He looked down to see a small cut on his wrist, just above the end of his glove.
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck," he muttered, wrapping his left hand around the small injury. His other group members didn't notice, as they were too busy cleaning up the broken glass. Karkat removed his hand from the cut a few moments later as he felt warm, sticky blood oozing through the thin fabric of his glove, which was now marked with a dark spot where the blood had soaked in.
Karkat peeled off the glove, trying not to faint at the sight of his own (oh god there was so much, it was so red, why was it so red) blood. (alert alert alert, you can't let anyone see, oh god it hurts and they might see your blood)…
He grabbed a paper towel from the sink station in the back of the classroom, pressing it against the fairly small wound. But as soon as Karkat's bare finger touched his blood, he felt a strange sensation run down the back of his neck.
It was sort of like burning and sort of like ice. He didn't know how to explain it, he just knew that it sort of almost hurt but not really and it was weird and OH GOD THE WOUND WAS BLEEDING MORE FUCK FUCK ABORT ABORT ABORT
Karkat practically bolted into the small bathroom adjoining the portable. He slammed the door behind him, locking himself into the single stall. He stared at himself in the shitty school mirror, watching his own scarlet eyes burn through him, and he felt his heart rate rising. He was shaking slightly, the blood vessels in his sclera swelling and making him look like a madman.
OH FUCK THE TOP OF HIS HEAD FELT LIKE IT WAS ABOUT TO CRACK OPEN Karkat clutched his skull tightly, trying to hold it together. His fevered brain felt like it was about to explode OH GOD OH GOD there was still blood on his arm HE WAS TOUCHING THE BLOOD he ripped off the other remaining glove and started shaking madly, out of his own control. Something was wrong with him, something was seriously wrong.
Most people who manifest superhuman abilities do not manifest all of them at once. Powers are like a mutation that continues to mutate after it has already begun: you may start out with only the power to levitate and soon find yourself with telekinesis strong enough to lift a semi. Under normal circumstances the first powers will begin to appear at the age of four or five years old, and they will generally be immediately obvious.
The development of latent abilities is facilitated by the presence of other human beings. A person who spends much of their childhood in contact with lots of friends or companions will develop his or her powers much sooner than a child who was raised mostly alone, but the child who was raised alone will develop powers at a faster rate.
A perfect example of the former is the superhero Pisces. Even as a very young child she was extremely social, and her first physical mutation developed at the age of four when she was found in the bathtub sitting underwater, fuchsia gills fluttering. Pisces' other powers, however, did not manifest until much later, and the most notable part of her transformation, the candy-corn horns that many of Meteor City's heroes sport, did not appear until her thirteenth birthday. It is speculated that the heroine still has abilities yet to be discovered.
Heroes like Aquathing who are either shunned by others or antisocial develop their powers later in life in shorter time. Aquathing did not manifest superhuman powers until he was ten years old, but developed the rest of his known powers within four months of doing so.
It is speculated that the older a hero is when his or her powers appear, the shorter the amount of time will be before they have gained all their initial abilities.
"KK? KK? Karkat, what the fuck are you doing in there?" Sollux slammed his fist into the door, and Karkat turned towards it, twitching.
"Go away!" he shouted, his voice cracking.
"Karkat, are you okay?"
"Go away…go away…go the fuck away…" Karkat's head felt like it was splitting in two and OH GOD THERE WAS STILL BLOOD ON HIS ARM OH GOD OH GOD that was it he wouldn't hyperventilate he would just be calm OH GOD IT'S DRIPPING ONTO HIS LEG be calm, be calm, don't freak the fuck out FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK
"Karkat, open thith door right now!" Sollux shouted.
SOMEONE WAS BASHING IN HIS SKULL WITH A HAMMER oh god oh god oh god don't freak out, it's okay, don't freak the fuck out IT HURTS AND THERE WAS STILL BLOOD ON HIS ARM
Karkat clutched his face in his hands, but his nails felt like claws and they ripped into his skin and OH GOD THERE WAS BLOOD ON HIS FACE BLOOD EVERYWHERE his fingernails were yellow and sharp and pointed
SOMETHING WAS TRYING TO BUST OUT OF HIS SKULL
"Karkat! KK, if you don't open thith door right now I will butht it open mythelf!"
"Karkat, please," Aradia pleaded. "We can hear you screaming." He wasn't screaming no he wasn't was he screaming? He was definitely not screaming, everything was calm as fuck.
FUCK.
CRUNCH. Sollux kicked through the door, his strength belying his skin-and-bones appearance, to skid to a halt very quickly and very suddenly, Aradia peering over his shoulder along with about half the class. Karkat scuttled to the side and slammed himself up against the wall of the stall. They couldn't see him like this, no no no no no no no fucking no…
"I'm coming in," Sollux announced. He pulled away from Aradia and propped up the remnants of the bathroom door to allow them privacy. He sat down on the floor of the bathroom and just looked at Karkat.
"Get the fuck out," Karkat gasped.
"KK? KK, you should look in the mirror," Sollux suggested, making a visible effort to keep his face still.
Karkat turned slowly to face the shitty angled bathroom mirror, and for a moment he didn't recognize his reflection.
In the mirror, he had sharp teeth and claws for fingernails. His eyes, which had previously been a dark, glimmering red, were now radiant scarlet. His muddy brown hair had turned black, and on his head two small, rounded horns peeked out from behind his locks. The blood on his wrist had vanished completely.
He looked like a monster.
He looked like the same kind of being that the superheroes were; all of them.
"Oh my fucking god."
"Yeah, that'th a pretty accurate thummary of the thituation," Sollux said drily.
"What am I?" Karkat wondered aloud, the red of his own irises transfixing him. "What the fuck—how did that happen and how the fuck did any of it make any sense at all?" He continued staring in the mirror, unable to look away from whatever it was that he'd become. He reached up and touched one of the horns growing out of his hair, shuddering when he discovered that the skin around it was very sensitive.
"About that…" Sollux stepped up behind Karkat so that the latter could see him in the mirror as well. "You need to change back. You can't leave thith room looking like that."
"Well, how the fuck am I supposed to change back?" Karkat snapped irascibly. "I don't suppose you have any idea? Oh, no, that's right, you fucking don't, because you're not a fucking superhero! You're just a nerd with really weird taste in eyewear!"
"Harsh," Sollux retorted. Then, to Karkat's shock, he took off his sunglasses and changed. Four sharp horns sprouted from his skull, and Sollux's already-unusual yellow eyes became filled in entirely with color: one red and one blue.
"What—but—you're—oh my fucking god…"
"You're doing the goldfish, KK," declared Psionic—Sollux. Sollux was Psionic. Sollux was one of Karkat's favorite real-life heroes. Sollux had fucking superpowers.
"This does not compute. This does not compute at all."
"Shut up and let me thee thothe gloveth," Sollux demanded, holding out a hand (which now had yellow fingernails, just like Karkat's). Karkat wordlessly passed them to Sollux, who slid them onto his own hands, ignoring the small amount of blood.
Almost as soon as the gloves were on his hands, Sollux changed form, his horns shrinking into nothingness and his hair returning to its original color.
"Thought tho. Thethe are power-blockerth…who gave them to you?"
"Jack. My dad," Karkat amended when Sollux looked momentarily confused.
"That meanth he probably knew. KK, when you get home you are going to athk your dad ecthactly what he knowth, becauthe he clearly knowth thomething. And then you're going two tectht me about it." Sollux scrawled a phone number on the back of Karkat's hand, then removed the gloves. "Put thethe back on and you'll be fine." Sollux had returned to his hero form, but he quickly morphed back. "Tomorrow I'm giving you hero lethonth. You're lucky; you get to learn from the cooletht hero there ith."
"Right…" Karkat was still too stunned to curse. He slid the scarlet gloves over his hands, watching his reflection in the mirror change once again. He felt strangely empty, like he'd been drained of some kind of pressure. He stood straighter somehow.
"Your clath awaitth." Sollux lifted the broken door and held his arm out like he was escorting Karkat out of the bathroom.
He completely failed to notice that the wound which triggered it all had completely vanished, with not even a spot of blood left as a reminder.
A/N: And so it begins. Sorry about the OC, all of the other canon characters in Karkat's first mod were occupied elsewhere and putting Eridan in that role just wouldn't work out. I tried and stupidity ensued.
Hey, check it out, Karkat's finally flipped! As of now I only have one more chapter of this written in advance but I should get lots done over the weekend, so it looks like I'm actually going to be consistent for once! This is an accomplishment! Ironically, this was supposed to be a one-shot focusing on Karkat and his powers, but then it took eighteen pages to get to the first awakening thereof and I kind of gave up on the whole 'one-shot' thing.
Thanks so much for the good reviews, I really appreciate the feedback. And I'm working on adding more descriptions to things because I couldn't find a good way to talk about costumes, setting, etc. during last update's big fight scene. When I go back and edit during the first intermission I'll do my best to improve that. If there's something you think I could do better on, don't hesitate to tell me-it helps me improve as a writer in general! :) I promise I won't take it personally.
