Disclaimer: See Part I.
*
Part IV: Brennan.
When they were younger, his friends had thought that his powers were cool.
When he was nearly seven, on the first day of the first grade, the class bully, a heavily built eight year old who was repeating the year - and was not happy about it - had made the mistake of trying to intimidate him into giving up his lunch money.
He had received an electric shock in lieu of cash.
From that moment he had been welcomed into the infamous 'Mike's gang', the terror of first and second graders alike. The gang's members were, he had been informed, the coolest kids in the school.
It was a novelty for him to be accepted rather than shunned because of his abilities, which his grandmother had once told him were the devil's work, and he revelled in the attention and praise he was receiving.
For three years now, he had aided the gang in some of their most original pranks - his favourite was to have him charge the teacher's pens so that she received a shock every time her skin came in contact with the metal cover - and since those in authority had no idea of his abilities and wouldn't have believed it if they had been told, they got away with a great deal, including shorting the power circuitry on several occasions, with the happy result that school was dismissed early while repairmen were called.
The gang had accepted his abilities without question from the beginning and continued to do so until the fourth grade, when everything had changed.
At first, his friends had grown more distant. They met up without including him and on one or two occasions, he hadn't been let in on the plan for their latest practical joke - booby-trapping the desks with shaving cream and water balloons - and he had fallen victim to it like everyone else.
The hurt he had felt then was nothing to how he felt later.
"We don't want you in our gang anymore."
"Yeah, that stuff you do is weird!"
"It's not normal!"
"We don't want to hang out with you anymore."
"You're a freak!"
He felt hurt and betrayed.
His friends, the first people to accept him, didn't want him around anymore.
He was different.
They didn't want to be friend with a freak.
He'd show them what a freak could do!
He and his friends had often discussed, in great length, the perfect prank.
He would do it without them, show them what it felt like to be left out.
Between classes, the school parking lot was always devoid of people.
That was when he would strike.
"What the hell!" he felt a surge of pride as he heard the bewilderment in the principal's voice, audible from the parking lot even within the classroom.
Teachers and children alike crowded around the window, mouths open with amazement.
Roughly twenty or so cars, belonging to the staff at the school had been driven into a tightly knit circular formation, bumper to bumper, dangerously close together.
It would take hours to sort everything out.
He grinned inwardly at the look of utter bewilderment on the principal's face as he tried to figure out how on Earth someone had been able to move locked, alarmed cars like that.
He and the gang knew the answer.
He could feel the gazes of his former friends on him and knew without looking that they were full of admiration.
They would be willing to welcome him back into the gang now.
Screw them!
He didn't need them anymore.
*
Author's Note: I know that the style for this is a bit different from the style of the previous chapters, but I don't know
much about Brennan's early life.
I was inspired by the episode 'Crime of the New Century'.
Brennan: When I was ten I could barely jumpstart a car battery.
*
Part IV: Brennan.
When they were younger, his friends had thought that his powers were cool.
When he was nearly seven, on the first day of the first grade, the class bully, a heavily built eight year old who was repeating the year - and was not happy about it - had made the mistake of trying to intimidate him into giving up his lunch money.
He had received an electric shock in lieu of cash.
From that moment he had been welcomed into the infamous 'Mike's gang', the terror of first and second graders alike. The gang's members were, he had been informed, the coolest kids in the school.
It was a novelty for him to be accepted rather than shunned because of his abilities, which his grandmother had once told him were the devil's work, and he revelled in the attention and praise he was receiving.
For three years now, he had aided the gang in some of their most original pranks - his favourite was to have him charge the teacher's pens so that she received a shock every time her skin came in contact with the metal cover - and since those in authority had no idea of his abilities and wouldn't have believed it if they had been told, they got away with a great deal, including shorting the power circuitry on several occasions, with the happy result that school was dismissed early while repairmen were called.
The gang had accepted his abilities without question from the beginning and continued to do so until the fourth grade, when everything had changed.
At first, his friends had grown more distant. They met up without including him and on one or two occasions, he hadn't been let in on the plan for their latest practical joke - booby-trapping the desks with shaving cream and water balloons - and he had fallen victim to it like everyone else.
The hurt he had felt then was nothing to how he felt later.
"We don't want you in our gang anymore."
"Yeah, that stuff you do is weird!"
"It's not normal!"
"We don't want to hang out with you anymore."
"You're a freak!"
He felt hurt and betrayed.
His friends, the first people to accept him, didn't want him around anymore.
He was different.
They didn't want to be friend with a freak.
He'd show them what a freak could do!
He and his friends had often discussed, in great length, the perfect prank.
He would do it without them, show them what it felt like to be left out.
Between classes, the school parking lot was always devoid of people.
That was when he would strike.
"What the hell!" he felt a surge of pride as he heard the bewilderment in the principal's voice, audible from the parking lot even within the classroom.
Teachers and children alike crowded around the window, mouths open with amazement.
Roughly twenty or so cars, belonging to the staff at the school had been driven into a tightly knit circular formation, bumper to bumper, dangerously close together.
It would take hours to sort everything out.
He grinned inwardly at the look of utter bewilderment on the principal's face as he tried to figure out how on Earth someone had been able to move locked, alarmed cars like that.
He and the gang knew the answer.
He could feel the gazes of his former friends on him and knew without looking that they were full of admiration.
They would be willing to welcome him back into the gang now.
Screw them!
He didn't need them anymore.
*
Author's Note: I know that the style for this is a bit different from the style of the previous chapters, but I don't know
much about Brennan's early life.
I was inspired by the episode 'Crime of the New Century'.
Brennan: When I was ten I could barely jumpstart a car battery.