It burned in her... this urge. This... need.
And yet... she dared not use it... dared not call upon it. The burning need inside her heart, the fizzling sensation at the back of her mind.
It was a power. Which made her a cape. A parahuman.
The only problem was... the sensations were not new to her. They were not alien.
When she had been younger, her mother had once introduced her to her old friends. She had been told that they were capes, even if they were retired from doing the gang thing or political movement by force.
Instead they had sold out and had slipped into politics and business to achieve their aims.
And yet, she had asked her godmother what it had been like to use her power, what it was like to be a cape, a parahuman.
Her godmother had told her and she had listened. Was told that each and every cape had different powers, how there were similarities only if there was a connection between an older cape and a new one.
And that burning need to reach out, to crush... the fizzling sensation at the back of her mind that begged to be pushed or pulled... to change.
She remembered that well.
More, she remembered the [GIANT OF LIGHT] that her Godmother could transform into. That simple moment that felt as if she had walked into a wall, only it hadn't been physical. For a single moment when everything simply stopped.
That single moment of terror at the sight of her Godmother writ large, her figure stylized. A matronly figure with long hair shaped like a helmet, clad in armor that was reminiscent of the business suit she had worn before the transformation.
And... yet... she knew, if she wanted to... if she pulled... she could transform as her Godmother could.
Transform and become so much more.
But she didn't dare.
She couldn't.
It wasn't in her nature to hurt those who couldn't fight back... and so she ran away. Always running, never looking forwards. Clinging to her fears in her heart.
Until... one day, she couldn't hold it in.
.
Giant of Light
Worm AU
.
There was a moment.
A single sublime moment as juice rained down on her. Ruining her clothes. Her bag and the books in it. Drenching the sandwich she had been eating.
A single moment where she gave up.
Darkness spread from the toilet stall. A dome of absolute darkness and stillness engulfing everything in its path.
One that flickered and pushed outwards from the toilet stall, out of the school... ever growing and unending.
Before vanishing as if it never had been.
Frost covered buildings and people alike before shattering and falling down as the light of the day shone warmly once more.
And a giant of light and darkness rose up, shattering the roof and walls of Winston High, before stepping free of the building.
Eyes glowed with relentless resolve as it looked down at the ruins of the toilet it had stepped free. Passing judgement upon the three girls before dismissing them as unimportant.
She walked away.
That burning need in her heart had untwisted itself with the transformation.
The suppressed anger relaxed, for the moment...
For now, she could walk free.
For now, she could fly.
Like an angel.
Like the [GIANT OF LIGHT] that her Godmother had shown herself to be, so very long ago.