Well, how did you enjoy that little prologue? It was pretty short by some standards, but the chapters going forward will be longer. Well, as long as they can be. Anyways, this is the first chapter of my glorious work of art. It will serve as an introduction and will introduce the characters and their powers. And, surprise surprise, there is an eighth umbrella as the title of the story suggests. His name is Alexei, and as will be explained in the story, he is Vanya's twin brother. His powers will be explained over the course of the fic and will be used as much as possible.

I'll go into even more detail in the A/N since his power set is inspired by characters from other universes, like DC or Dragon Ball Z.

With that outta the way, let's continue with this chapter of The Lightning Rod.

Disclaimer: The Umbrella Academy is owned by Gerard Way and Netflix. Sadly, the only thing I own is Alexei. Not so sadly is the fact that I can do whatever I want with him, so there. *Sticks tongue out at Netflix.*

Chapter 1

If you've been around long enough, you've probably heard of The Umbrella Academy, right? Well, if you haven't, you must be living under a very large and very deep rock. Let me explain to you who we are since you're clearly so uneducated. We are a group of super-powered kids who fight crime. Think of the Teen Titans or the X-Men, except we started way younger and people are actually not afraid of our powers. We've helped just about everyone who could need it. We have done small things like rescue cats from trees sometimes and bigger things like stopping an underground crime syndicate from taking control of our flawed, but pretty basic government.

You'd think that we were living a great life since we do live in a mansion and have a rich man as our father, but it's not as grand as you might think. We live with an asshole who let our sweet robot nanny give us our names. Reginald worked "tirelessly" to help us learn how to fight in hand-to-hand combat, as well as making us learn different languages and helping us hone our abilities.

The first of us, aptly named Number 1, was me. My name is Alexei Hargreeves aka "The Rod" and I have something called energy manipulation. I can basically harness all forms of energy and convert that energy. I can use this converted energy as a weapon, ranging from shifting it into whatever weapon I want, to using it in the form of energy blasts. I can also generate a small electric shock that can power objects. I'm basically a human generator and I can also fly, so that's a win for me.

Next was Number Two, also known as Luther Hargreeves or as we'd like to call him "Spaceboy." Compared to everyone else's powers, his superhuman strength was one of the most basic powers ever. He can pick up really heavy things and one time he threw a rock it somehow landed in China. Sadly, he isn't able to fly, so I'm cooler than him. He's kind of a bossy pants, which is weird since I'm technically the leader.

Number Three was Diego Hargreeves, who the public called "The Kraken." I don't know why he got that name since his powers have nothing to do with water whatsoever, but at least his power is kinda cool. He has something called trajectory manipulation. It gives him the ability to stop or even adjust the trajectory of objects. This power really goes great with his throwing knives since he can make them really accurate. He's also really good at martial arts. I've learned a great few things from him.

Number Four is Allison Hargreeves or "The Rumor." She has the ability to rumor people. Rumoring gives her full control over other people and makes them do whatever she wants. It's definitely one of the most useful powers out of the bunch. Watching her rumor our siblings as a kid was really fun, especially since she and I would use it to mess with them so much. I'm glad to say that I'm probably the only one of us who hasn't been victim to her power. This has lowkey brought us together when you think about it.

Next on the list is Number Five. That little guy definitely has a cool power. He has the ability to spacial jump, which lets him blink to wherever he wants. Apparently, he can also travel through time by jumping, but we never really explored that for... reasons, I guess I should say. His power is very similar to the X-Men's Nighcrawler except for the fact that it doesn't make a BAMF! sound when he does, which is very disappointing in my book. He's also the smartest out of all of us, although the second smartest is me. He can be quite the asshole to pretty much everyone but me which was kind of weird. He and I bounced a lot of ideas as kids.

Klaus is Number Six. He can speak to the dead, which is why he's also known as "The Seance." If you think the ability to invoke the spirits of the dead is fun, Klaus'll tell you that you need to get your head examined. There's a lot of baggage that comes with it, so you should be happy that you're normal.

Numero Seven is Benjamin, or Ben or "The Horror" if you're nasty. For some incredibly weird reason that not even Five could decipher, Ben has tentacles coming out of his chest. You can probably imagine just how much damage those things could do to a human body. He's a very introverted person, but somehow we managed to have a chats when we were little.

Finally, there's Number Eight, also known as Vanya. She's my twin sister. For as long as we've been twins, there have only been two questions that people have asked: "Why are you guys twins?" and "Why does Vanya not have any powers?" Somehow she drew the short straw by being the only one of us without some kind of ability. Because of this, our dad kept her hidden from the world however he could. She's only ever had me in her corner. The others have tried, but it's never enough.

After so many years of being together and a couple of years of being apart, I didn't know if we would ever see each other again. We've all grown and changed so much, and after what Vanya did, I wouldn't be surprised if we would ever be in the same room. That is until I received an formal invitation to the funeral of one very dead Reginald Hargreeves.

Well, there's my first chapter. As you can see, I've changed one thing. Alexei is Number One instead Luther. Technically, he only had his defibrillating power and gained the others over the years, so it kinda fits the whole "The first is the weakest and the last is the strongest" scale.

Anyways, Alexei's power is mostly based on Jennifer Pierce from the DC Universe. I also used the concept of using Lantern rings to make weapon constructs. I also got the idea from people in Dragon Ball universe who channel their ki into those weird lightsabers on the ends of their hands, like Goku Black or Salza.

Next chapter we'll be going back to the mansion. We'll be meeting the others. I hope I'll be able to write them in character.

As always, I hope you guys are and review. Whatever input you wanna give is always appreciated. I want to make this a story that people actually like.

Until next time, readers

This is EclipsaLover2003, signing off.