Uncharted Limits: America

Chapter 4

I'm not sure what happened after the confrontation with the masked man. Everything just went black all of a sudden… which probably meant that he knocked me out really bad. I wouldn't say that I didn't see that coming, but… now that left me absolutely clueless as to where I am at the moment.

Clearly, I was not in my house anymore. From just one look alone, it looked like I was in some sort of prison cell. On either side of me were brick walls, aged and decorated with faded graffiti. In front of me was also a wall, though with the only difference being a dirty and broken toilet was situated in the center. The only source of light—and also the only white noise in the background—was the single green light bulb glowing dimly on the stained and torn ceiling.

The air was noticeably stuffier, and had a distinct irritating odor that caused me to scrunch my nose. Trying my best to ignore it, I turned around, facing the vertical line of metal bars that acted as my only entrance. Beyond these bars was pure darkness, where the light of the prison cell only went out a few feet.

'...' With the fact that I was still processing my situation, I had no outstanding thoughts. I did, however, note that my arms were tied behind my back, as were both my legs. I was completely immobile. Helpless.

… That is, of course, if I didn't use my quirk right now.

'...but no, that'd be too easy,' I thought to myself. Truly, I was in a position where I'd probably get wiped out if I did try any funny business. I may not be able to see what's beyond this darkness, but I sure as hell know that they can see me, and by 'they' I mean The Banded Pines. The same assholes that put me in this situation… just because I knocked out a few of their goons. The pettiest thing, I swear…

In any case, quirk usage was probably not my first best option right now. It would be best if I could get my bearings straight.

And so I attempted to stand up, reluctantly using the old toilet as a crutch. For what reason, I don't know, but it personally just felt better to be on my feet instead of sitting on this frigid cold hard floor. But I didn't really get to do much standing, for the moment I managed to stand up, a loud noise sharply echoed in the silence.

CLANG

I flinched, so much so that I involuntarily crouched back down to a lower position. I instantly brought my attention to the metal bars, where I could see the form of a rod resting on the floor. It wasn't there before… someone must've thrown it.

"Stay down, you damn runt," A voice suddenly arose from the darkness, gruffed and deep. It was clear that this guy was the 'someone' in question. "You've got nowhere to go, so just sit tight like the small shithead you are and wait for your time."

"... fine," I complied without much resistance, going down into an awkward sitting position. I stared into the darkness with momentary silence, unsure where this man was exactly. "... where—"

"Shut the fuck up. I'm not answering shit for you," the man instantly snapped, a harsh venom to his tone. Wisely, I kept to myself.

It made me frown, though. Currently, I can only see a couple options now. Either just shoot for it with my quirk or wait it out like this anonymous man said. I couldn't see anything else I could do, which really goes to show how fucked up this whole thing is…

… I'm just praying that nothing terrible has happened yet. To my family, I mean. I'm not sure what they've done to mom or Esther, but it's pretty obvious that those two are in these guys' hands right now. Definitely not the most relaxing thing to know… and I can only imagine what dad is thinking right now. God, I hope he's handling this alright.

'Mmh… let me not think about it,' I exhaled, closing my eyes. I had to use my quirk, cause the other option wasn't going to lead to anything good. But the question is what I'd even do with my quirk. Flat out escape? Blow the place up…?

…

… Uh, no… not so soon at least. I guess I should first start from the ground up—as per usual—before considering vandalism. It helped me to occasionally redefine what my quirk even does, anyways.

So, Creatoscope. That's the name that's currently registered for my quirk. In short, I produce free form bubbles from any and all my pores, with varying sizes that I can manipulate. At maximum, I can produce fifty bubbles at a time. When light refracts through my bubbles, they interestingly cause my quirk to shift in nature, thus causing them to change to whatever the environment wants. For instance, were I to produce bubbles on the beach, the bubbles will turn into the colors associated with the beach. Blue, yellow, white… yeah, that sort of stuff.

Pretty obvious that I took the bubbles part from my dad. The whole light refraction part, though, has to do with my mom's quick Brilliance, which makes her emit and control both internal and external light sources… but I digress. Like I said before, this is all just the information for my registered quirk. I've come to realize long ago that there was much more to what these bubbles could do.

One, fifty bubbles was a lie. I can produce bubbles indefinitely, and the bubbles are actually not my quirk itself. I am my quirk, or more like my body is the quirk, which makes me a mixture between a transformation and emitter quirk. To make it easier to understand, I like to think of the bubbles like satellites. They are produced as extensions of my quirk, but they aren't individually my quirk.

Why do I emphasize this? Well, because from what everyone else knows of my quirk as of right now, it's only the bubbles that are affected by the 'shift in nature' when light hits them. But really, all they are doing is being hit by the light, and whatever information is outputted will be how I will physically change. I know, probably confusing, but it makes sense in practice.

Two, it's not only the environment that affects my quirk. I am also in control of the outcomes of my quirk as well. This part… it took a while for me to realize. It was roughly when I was thirteen that I even began to notice this, but only recently have I come to a more profound understanding. Basically, it all has to do with how light refracts from the bubbles, but with the addition that my very own thoughts can similarly be applied and with the same effects.

Do I want to turn invisible? Like how light works, my thoughts of turning invisible are beamed into the bubbles, and however the bubbles refract my thoughts is the literal outcome of how my quirk will change.

Crazy, right? But as crazy as it is, it's also a double edged sword. I may have control of what ideas I feed into my quirk, but the actual outcomes are out of my hands. Just like how light can be split apart or bent through a bubble, so do my thoughts. The outcomes aren't perfect replications of what I had in mind, sometimes coming with its own drawbacks or complete differences.

And trust me, I've tried some crazy ideas. A pretty straightforward example was the one time I tried to kill my mother's cactus plant. I can explain! I fed my quirk the idea of having the ability to instantly kill a living creature by looking at it, and as crazily stupid as that sounds, it didn't end up with extreme results. The most my quirk did was drain the lifeforce of the cactus by a small bit, causing it to yellow.

Well… I assume my quirk drained the lifeforce, but that's not the point here. The point is that my ideas will not be outputted as a perfect mirror replication, nor will it have the same potency or benefits.

… So yeah, that's my quirk. But talking about it doesn't really solve anything right now. I still need to figure out how to get out of this mess… and I guess the first obvious thing to do is get out of this prison cell.

'Maybe make myself indestructible? No… defenses normally don't go as planned… maybe a stunning quirk then?' My mind raced with many thoughts and ideas, and many of which I quickly tossed into the bin. There wasn't really anything that was looking to be both safe and efficient… so it looks like this will have some risk regardless. And… it was a risk that I was going to take.

Well… I might as well go a bit crazy here, then. I haven't done anything to mess with time yet.

Author's Note

Well, another chapter's done! Coming close to the 10k word limit, but this story has received 10 follows! Thank you for the interest! With finals, well, "finally" over, I can dedicate more time to all my writings. And man, do I have a lot to write about!

I hope you found Kevin's quirk interesting. I gave it some thought, but I'm not sure if I explained it as clearly. If it's confusing, I implore you leave a review. I'll answer any and all questions!

Next chapter we'll be seeing just where Kevin has been sent to, and what exactly has become of his family. Will the heroes arrive? Will the Banded Pines go to extreme measures to get their revenge? Until then, have a good day/night!