"That cream is miraculous, did you see that, Sharon? He looks as if nothing had happened."

"Yeah, it's amazing."

Stan chewed his lettuce very, very slowly, although he wished to finish soon and rush back to his room, where no one could make uncomfortable observations or questions.

"Did Shelley call?"

"No. I swear to God, this girl seems to have forgotten she's got a family."

Stan felt a bit relieved that the conversation had changed. He wouldn't have known what to say if they inquired him about his scars. Maybe he shouldn't have asked Tweek to heal them. It was too suspicious.

The dinner, leaving that brief moment aside, passed rather peacefully. His parents talked to each other but Stan wasn't forced to participate in the conversation. He was too absent-minded to give coherent answers anyway.

All that was happening...was the strangest thing he had ever seen, and he had been through a lot of crap in his life already. Supernatural powers. And they were not fake, or some kind of elaborated joke: he had seen it with his own eyes. Kyle, Kenny, Wendy...

The problem was not that his friends had those abilities. In a way, he found them cool. Perhaps the only problem was Wendy and her supposed connection to the Internet. From the very moment he knew, Stan committed himself to be more careful about what he did online. He couldn't believe she could spy people's favorites, conversations, followers and, well, everything. It was scary when he thought about it. No, the problem was not that they had powers, but what if he had them. What kind of powers did he acquire? Was it something dangerous, like Kyle's laser eyes?

He was starting so suffer the tension. Just in case, he was careful always to stay calm, not to do any sudden movements—it felts as if he had become a walking explosive, it wasn't nice at all, but he didn't want to do something he could regret. Just in case, he spent the rest of that day and the others which followed in his room, only being in touch with his parents when it was time to eat. At work, he had to socialize and be in touch with people, but when he could, he prefered to avoid them. At least, until he knew exactly what he was capable of. If something happened, he prefered to be alone.

Kyle, Kenny and Cartman were in touch with him during this time. That way, Stan knew that Kyle had secluded himself too and never removed his glasses, something that his family had found suspicious. Cartman was anxiously waiting for news; if he had found out if he had powers himself, he never told. As for Kenny, he had gone back to his old way of life, unloading trucks, doing little reparations here and there. He didn't have much time to call or text, but he made clear that he was there to help in any way possible.

Two days after the meeting at Tweek Bros. he knocked at the door of the Marsh residence and took Stan for a walk.

"You need a bit of fresh air, buddy."

Stan hated to admit that it was true. Being locked, waiting for something terrible to happen, was not doing him any favors. His powers hadn't shown up yet.

"Maybe I don't have any and I'm worrying over nothing."

"Nah, I'm pretty sure you got something too. This...thing, it can't be selective."

"What if it shows and I hurt someone?"

"That's why I'm here. You and I are going to the woods and there, you're going to try."

"Are you sure about this, Kenny? I could hurt you...I could destroy the whole place too...There's so much stuff that could go wrong."

"Kyle destroyed my hand already, remember? I don't care. As for the forest, that's what the fire brigade is for. We'll make up a lie if something happens."

Stan was not very sure about this but he still followed his friend. Although there was a risk of fire, the woods were the most dicreet part of South Park, a place where there were practically no passers-by. Once he was there, Stan relaxed quite a bit. He felt away from the judging eyes of others, free to act natural. Free to let everything happen.

He stood there, Kenny was by his side.

"...Hm...I'm not very sure of what to do..."

"I don't know...Try to punch a tree."

"Well...Alright..."

Kenny stepped aside while Stan took a step forward. He fixed his eyes on the tree in front of him, then tensed the muscles of his arm. Taking deep breath, he closed his eyes for a moment. He opened them and punched the tree as hard as he could.

"Ouch!"

All he got was a sore hand.

"Okay, that didn't work." Kenny said.

"Oh, really?" Stan frowned, shaking his hand.

"Maybe you have to try some fancy poses." Kenny continued, as if he had heard nothing.

"Fancy poses?"

"You know, extending your arms and..."

"Ah, right."

Stan thought of Spiderman's hand thing, Doctor Strange's poses. In fact, he tried all poses he remembered seeing in comic book covers and superhero movies. He also tried a few of his own invention. But nothing happened. Well, something did happen: he looked like a clown.

"Don't laugh!" Kenny could barely contain his laughter.

"Sorry. Well, I guess there's only one thing left to try."

"What?"

"What did you do to Wendy?"

Stan froze.

"What?"

"You wouldn't be hiding from her if you hadn't done something bad."

"I...don't know how this has anything to do with..."

"Did you cheat on her?"

"Kenny."

"Did she cheat on you, then?"

"No, I..."

"One day you're being sweethearts and now, she's making out with Scott in front of everybody. There's something the-"

"Kenny, stop! Stop right there!"

Kenny finally shut his mouth. Stan seemed so angry now, but nothing extraordinary happened.

"Sorry, man."

"Why did you have to bring that up?" Stan grunted, crossing his arms and walking around, as if he was deciding whether to leave or not.

"I just wanted to trigger you and see if that helped you let it out."

"Well, it didn't."

"Sorry."

They spent a while in silence, just...there, not doing anything. Kenny started to regret having recurred to that. Now he was sure that Stan's powers did not manifest with strong emotions such as anger, but he had made his friend feel upset needlessly. If he hadn't even told Kyle, his best friend in the world, about that subject, it was because it hurt too much. He was not like Cartman. He didn't like to push his friends' buttons.

"I'm really sorry."

"No, Kenny, I'm sorry." Stan looked at his friend, looking a bit more relaxed. "You were only trying to help."

"I'm buying you a drink."

"No, I'll pay."

"Ah, look who's there." Randy turned around in his seat to watch Stan and Kenny taking a seat a couple of tables away from his. "Hey there, kids! Had a good walk?"

"Ah, hi, dad." Stan did not pay more attention to his father and focused on Kenny. "I really don't know what do try next."

"Maybe we can shoot you or something?" Kenny proposed.

"Uhm, no. I don't want to get shot."

"And stabbed?"

"No."

"But maybe you have a hard skin or regeneration, like me."

"But what if I don't? I'd be dead. No, I'd rather not try."

They were talking and didn't notice their fathers and Kyle's and Butter's looking at them.

"Your son also looks mighty good." Randy commented to Stuart.

"I know, right? He's been working since he got out from the hospital. He's such a champ." Stuart proudly stated.

"I wished Butters recovered so easily." Stephen muttered, sipping his drink.

"Well, don't think that Stan's that fine. I've seen that he barely leaves his room. He goes to work, has a shower, eats, but he barely does anything else. Sharon is very worried about him, but she hasn't told him anything. It's probably a consequence of the accident. Still, he seems kind of worried. I don't know if he's having some kind of problem he didn't tell us about."

"Ah, yes...But..."

Gerald pressed his lips. He turned his head towards the two boys, as if he was deciding if he should speak to them.

"What are you thinking about, Gerald?" Stuart asked.

"It's just that it's happening to Kyle too. But I think I must talk to him. He's wearing sunglasses all the time."

"Sunglasses?"

"Yes. Even inside of the house. Sheila and I thought that maybe what happened made him sensitive to the light but I've been thinking, an electrocution shouldn't affect the eyes, right?"

"I heard that it caused cataracts and corneal leukoma to a guy who was electrocuted once." Stephen commented.

"That's what I fear...I wanted to take him to the doctor, to see if something was wrong, but he doesn't want to go. Darn, he almost panicked when I told him. He's acting really weird: he barely eats, he spends all of his time locked in his room, doing who knows what...I'm very worried about him. I thought that the boys are close to him, I'm sure that if something happened to him, he would have told them..."

"He survived an electrocution. Perhaps he's just shocked." Randy said.

"Perhaps I could try to convince him to see a psychiatrist?"

"Yeah, just in case something is happening." Stephen nodded.

Unaware of their fathers' conversation, Stan and Kenny kept talking.

"Ah! I got it! Maybe you can fly! You just have to climb to your roof and..."

"Well...Maybe with a helmet and some mattress..."

"That would be so fucking cool."

"Yeah, it wouldn't be too bad. Uhm...What about talking to animals or something like that?"

"Okay, next time we see a dog or a cat, you try to speak to it...Wait, should we could mites as animals?"

"I guess so...Uh, what do you have in your pocket?"

"This?" Kenny saw that Stan was pointing at a screwdriver that was almost falling from the pocket of his jacket. "Ah. I was repairing an A/C this morning, guess I forgot it. So. What else could there be? Ah! Water! We should have gone to the lake and...What are you thinking about?"

Stan was looking strange, his eyes fixed on the screwdriver which was on Kenny's hand.

How could he feel so fascinated about such a simple thing? Well, maybe the word was not fascinated. It was...Stan couldn't really describe it. It was as if the tool was calling him somehow? This urge to grab it, even though he didn't know what he would do with it?

He didn't know why he did it, but he did it. He opened his hand, extending it a bit towards the tool.

Kenny felt how the screwdriver twitched in his hand.

Then, there was a jerk and it flew to Stan's hand. An orange gleam started covering the screawdriver, Stan felt it was getting kind of hot.

Before something happened, he tossed it to the floor.

Kenny looked at Stan with his eyes wide open. After a moment of shock, he smiled.

"There it is!"

"Wh...What was that? I got...screwdriver powers or something?" Stan felt his heart was pounding.

"I don't know, but it has something to do with it."

"I felt it was going to explode or...I don't know, but something almost happened...I hope nobody saw that..."

"Perhaps you can control the metal?"

"This place is full of metal, but I didn't felt anything like that until I saw that thing."

Stan turned towards the table where his father was. Randy looked at him and Stan looked away very quickly. After exchanging some words with Kenny, the two of us got up and, not saying goodbye to anybody, they left. Their glasses were half-full.

Gerald took this as a sign that something was wrong.

"They are twenty-one now," Stuart said, "they're in that age when hey have their secrets."

"When it comes to their health, there should be no secrets." Gerald sighed. He crouched down to grab something from the floor. A screwdriver.