- A Brief History of Sunrise published September 047 PA by Markus Pimedia
[Sunrise, Arizona, United Pacific Republic]
Illuminated by the soft light of an early August morning, a young man with glowing blue eyes was jogging faster than an Olympic sprinter. He was tired and every muscle in his body ached. He was considered quite unusual by most, due to a multitude of factors really, but the most significant was his “blessing” as he liked to refer to it. True, most would refer to such a phenomena as a “gift” or “superpower” but he felt that such descriptors felt… cheap? Maybe thin or weak would be a better descriptor of his thoughts on the matter. Regardless of how he chose to word his disdain for certain words (ironic, truly) he felt that such raw power allowed him to perceive the world differently from before. Oh true he had always been motivated to train his body, determined to push it to the limits humans were capable of. But now? Now he could surpass human limits, and with that came a new height he could train his body to achieve.
So he pushed on, motivated to keep pushing despite the pain. A ravenous hunger grew in his soul, one that could be satiated by molding himself into perfection. To prove that Man was made in God’s image and dispel any hints of sloth from himself; and so pride and devotion fueled a regiment that could only be described as tortuous on mind and body. The voice in his head did wonders to keep his spirit up. Anytime he tried to stop the voice- which was obviously an Angel sent by God- it spoke up and reminded Adam of why what he was doing was so important. You’re not devoted enough, it whispered, reminding Adam he would need to perform more acts to earn his way into heaven. You are fat, weak, and slow it reminded him, prompting him to push even harder in his run, causing muscle tears to grow and microfractures to spread in his bones.
Adam ran until the voice stopped motivating him, which was coincidentally around the absolute limit he felt he could endure, proof- though none was needed- in his mind that that the voice was surely an Angel sent to help him. Adam stopped in an empty park, face drenched in sweat and heart pounding, his daily training still incomplete. He dove into a series of exercises before the Angel could remind him, practicing Muay Thai drills, and conditioning his arms and shins on the metal poles of the playground. It was already mid-day when the
Adam’s bright blue eyes took on an unnatural glow as he tapped into his powers, an invisible pulse of energy leaving his body and covering the surrounding area. With his power active Adam could see a 3D rendition of the playground in his mind. Adam took a deep breath to calm his mind and gradually began manipulating the view within his mindscape, gradually moving the view in his mind around the playground. He viewed the playground from every angle, every object in sight.
Adam paused for a second, feeling movement on his leg. Without deactivating his power he changed his view to the ground, where he could see an ant gradually making its way up his leg. Adam focused on the ant, causing the blue energy to gather around it, coating the ant's small body. With a thought he imagined the blue energy moving off his leg, careful not to crush the fragile insect’s body. A smile formed on his face as he successfully moved the tiny creature to the grass without causing it any harm. “Run along little one” he whispered with a smile, proud of his growing control over his power and his decision to spare the life of the harmless bug.
As day turned to night Adam kept up his training, focusing on not being overwhelmed by the influx of information every time he activated his powers. Dusk had come and gone and Adam was still practicing, finishing the final task he had come up with at the beginning of the month, a week after his power manifested. Circles made of rice grains of varying sizes floated around him. A sigh of frustration left Adam’s mouth as a grain of rice stuck one of the circles, signaling that had failed to maneuver the small grain through the hole. The trick was simple really, a test multitasking more than skill since each action performed independently was relatively easy. The first week he started training his power in the park he focused on moving a rock in between various obstacles, though that quickly became easy as he became better at adjusting his view of the world in his mindscape. He then came up with the idea of using rice to practice precision, but that too quickly became easy. He then came up with the idea of creating miniature constructs out of rice, making floating circles. That was harder as he had to focus on multiple objects at once, but soon that became easy, and causing the circle to move and spin was easy as well. His next idea to keep training was to move a grain of rice in and out of the circles, that was harder, but he eventually adapted to it as he had the other challenges he set forth. Now he was performing the newest part of his training, he was causing the individual gains of the circle to rotate on an axis, making it impossible to treat the whole circle as a single object since each grain rotated in a different direction at a different speed. The circle and individual grains of rice as a whole were both weaving around the structure. The combination of multiple tasks while moving around 3D space was mentally taxing, but it was most rewarding. Not only did the voice not bother him while he was using his power, but when he did increasingly difficult tasks it could praise him.
You’re strong, it praised. You are fulfilling your purpose it promised. In those little bits of praise also came the waves of emotion, but in opposite. When the voice praised him feelings of fulfillment washed over his mind and visions of grandeur brought a smile to his face.
The next day, Adam was sitting at his desk, watching the clock with a bored expression on his face as he counted down the minutes until lunch. Adam personally found school to be a waste of time, but unlike many of his classmates, he was very aware of how lucky he was to attend a school in Summer Hills. Adam was one of several students who had been admitted to Wilson College Preparatory Academy on scholarship. Wilson PA was a private school in the Summer Hills neighborhood of Sunrise. Summer Hills itself was likely the only nice place to live in Sunrise, the only prosperity left over from the city’s glory days. Still, as nice as the school was and as grateful as Adam was to have the opportunity, it was still school. Education was one of the very few aspects of society that seemed to be the same as before the apocalypse. A grim thought, but one Adam contemplated often when he questioned the pointlessness of sitting at a desk in silence for thirty minutes while others were finishing their exams. Still, waiting in silence was a much preferable option over what was likely occurring at other schools in the city, what had happened in Adam’s own middle school several times.
Adam’s eyes began to gloss over as he thought back to a particular incident, when he was younger, still in middle school. Adam had been sitting at his desk, in “silence” that he couldn’t keep. His teacher, Ms. Fuckface as Adam remembered her, had shushed him several times, but he just couldn’t keep quiet. Adam joked with his friends in the back of class, making rude but ultimately harmless comments, when a shout from Fuckface demanding he go to the principal’s office went ignored by Adam, a decision he now regretted, because a few minutes later school officers burst into the room. They shut Adam up, demanding he go with them, as Adam stood to follow them out another kid, Jonny if Adam’s remembered correctly, shouted at the officers “Fuck off retards” the boy shouted. Adam laughed, and the officers turned around and pepper sprayed him. A grimace formed on Adam’s face as he remembered the burning in his eyes, the officer sprayed him even once he was on the ground, likely pushed past his limits from dealing with unruly children. Adam’s face grew red in anger as he thought back to the incident more, remembering the officer’s heavy boot slamming into his frail chest three times. Three fucking times, he was stomped out by an officer for a comment he didn’t even make. That wasn’t even the worst part of it. Pepper spray and a beating he could live with, but the sheer injustice that occurred afterward was mind boggling. Adam was brought to the office, and in exchange for his silence, the charges against him were dropped. He didn’t even know what the chargers were, but he was so scared of losing a chance to attend a good highschool, to get out of his shitty middle school that he accepted the deal. The officer responsible faced no punishment, and two weeks later one of Adam’s friends, covered in blood, was dragged from another classroom. The situation was still not the worst he had with cops, not even close. Adam’s expression darkened as his mind drifted to more recent, painful memories.
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CRACK
Adam’s focus snapped back to the present at the sharp noise, a blue glow he didn’t notice fading from his eyes. Confused, he looked around his classroom. What was that? He asked himself, but his question was answered when he looked down. The desk was nearly split in half, the right side was lopsided and splitting apart, the edge turned to wood chips as most of the wood turned splintery. The left half hardly fared any better, spiderweb cracks ran across it, showing the stability was obviously compromised.
“Fucking shit” Adam swore as he realized what happened. Fuck Adam cursed again, internally this time as he realized he just spoke outloud. He quickly leaned his body over the desk, luckily he usually kept his backpack on his desk, so it was already covering most of the noticeable damage. Sweat starting pouring down his face, people were staring at him, his teacher Mr. Graddy was staring at him.
“Everything alright?” his teacher asked, anger and annoyance, with just a touch of concern in his voice as he questioned the outburst in his classroom. Adam paused for a second, tossing a glance towards the camera in the room FUCK. Adam screamed in his mind, no way nobody would notice.
“Adam?” Mr. Graddy questioned again, the anger replaced by confusion and growing concern. Adam raised his voice to give an excuse, his thoughts cut off as the voice damn near shouted in his mind RUN it demanded, flashes of cops, SWAT, the fucking UNSC breaching the door ran though his mind. “Y-Yes, I’m alright Mr. Graddy, I just remembered that I have to leave school early today” Adam put on a pleading expression, leaning into his fear rather than trying to hide it. “My mom is having a surgery and I need to pick up my little sister.” Adam lied through his teeth, already rushing to the door.
“Woah there, calm down I didn’t even know you had a sister.” Mr. Graddy chuckled as he stood in front of Adam blocking the young man’s path. “You can’t just get up and leave, you need a parent or guardian to sign you out, why don’t just stay put for a minute and we’ll give your dad a call?” Adam sighed in frustration and anxiety as some other kids started focusing on him. Run. The voice spoked firm, not the panic knee-jerk response he felt earlier, but a firm, clear directive. Adam’s eyes flashed blue for a second as he scanned the hallway. No officers yet. He thought to himself, noting that no one had been alerted yet. Adam took a deep breath and poured more desperation “Please Mr. Graddy, I need to leave right now, she goes to school in Riverside, I can’t leave her alone out there.” Adam had grabbed onto the man, practically leaning on him.
Several emotions flashed across the older man’s face, surprise, fear, realization, then it finally settled on a touch of sympathy as the meaning of Adam’s words became clear to him. Mr. Graddy let out a sigh of his own as a frown settled on his face. “Okay son just breathe for a second, go grab your bag I’ll write you a note.” Adam sucked in another breath as he ran back to his desk. Adam’s eyes flashed blue again as he tossed the bag of rice he kept on in his bag to his desk, making it seem like it spilled out.
“Sorry!” Adam yelled out as he ran back to desk, sending another pleading face to Mr. Graddy. The man’s frown deepened as he looked at the mess “It’s okay son, I’ll call a janitor, just go grab your… sister” he trailed off, throwing up his arms as he realized Adam had already left.
Adam’s heart was racing as he tore through the hallways, visions of law enforcement of variety or the other snatching him up. Adam sprinted down the hallway and made a sharp left towards the stairwell. Adam felt a strong thump and heard a soft grunt. Adam froze, eyes widening as he looked down. A middle-aged man with black hair, cut in a standard crew cut was lying on the floor. A cop Adam realized he had just ran a cop into the ground. Fear stuck Adam like lightning as he started hyperventilating. The sweat on his neck and face started flowing like a river as his skin started feeling cold and clammy, his ears started ringing as flashes of disaster went through his mind, scenarios both real and imagined. The cop, standing up, said something to Adam, but all he heard was a distortion in the rigging. RUN the voice screamed at him, much louder than before. Adam saw horns sprout from the head of the cop, a tail from the back, and wings from the back. Heart racing, Adam activated his powers, intending to rip the wings from the demon before him, but there were no wings in his mindscape that he could rip off. Adam opened his eyes, and the cop returned to normal. “-okay? Hey, should we go see the nurse?” Adam finally heard the cop as the ringing settled down, a tone which sounded harsh when his ears were ringing now sounded soft, comforting.
“Hey kid calm down, my name is Officer Garcia, what’s yours” The cop, now known as Officer Garcia, gave Adam a warm, gentle smile. Adam took a deep breath, you’re okay, this is Summer Hills, there's nothing to worry about Adam thought as he soothed himself. “Hello Officer Garcia, my name is Adam Green, I’m sorry for running into you but I need to leave.” Adam made a move to walk past the man but he stood blocking Adam’s path. Some emotion Adam couldn’t place flashed across Gacia’s face for a brief second, before he responded “Alright Adam, why don’t you come with me to the front office and we’ll get this business sorted out.” Don’t trust him, you must run, said the voice in Adam’s head. Adam paused, debating his options. He could run, and if need be probably take out the officer in an instant, but what good would that do? He already gave the officer his name, and with the camera footage there was no way he could escape without some sort of criminal charge. Fuck! Adam swore to himself again, realizing that he could already be facing expulsion for said to Mr. Graddy. Adam took a deep breath once again, choosing to put his faith in the legal system for the first time in years. That, and the fact that if he ran now he could most certainly get expelled and a criminal charge beyond destruction of property. It’s okay he thought to himself you can still get out of this, just offer to pay for the desk and say I got the wrong day for mom’s hospital visit. Adam calmed himself, realizing that he could have just talked his way out of the desk. I blew things way out of proportion Adam sighed to himself, too late to do anything about it now, just try to bring it back under control and deal with the consequences like a man. So, for the first time in years, Adam chose to ignore the voice in his head and responded “Of course Officer Garcia, I think I actually might have made a big mistake” Adam said as tears threatened to spill from his eyes. “It’s alright, let’s get you to the office and I’m sure we can sort out whatever mess you’ve gotten yourself into, just be honest with me and I’m sure everything will be fine” Garcia said with another soothing smile.