APPLICATION TO capeandcowl.

[weightoftheworld]

[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Vintage
JOURNAL: sourgummies
IM: sour gummies
PLURK: –
E-MAIL: nihilisma@att.net
RETURNING: –

[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Alex Power | Gee
SERIES: Marvel 616
CHRONOLOGY: Soon after Power Pack Holiday Special #1
CLASS: Hero

BACKGROUND:
I'm so sorry I tried to stop myself I really did I can't believe this is so long WHY DID I DO THIS

Alex Power and his siblings hail from planet Earth in the Marvel 616 universe, which, as a matter of course, features all kinds of superhuman/supernatural/fantastic/bombastic shenanigans in spades, including but not limited to gratuitous superhero crossovers and extraterrestrial encounters--both of which crop up a fair amount in Power Pack, the series Alex Power first starred in. However, Alex and his three younger siblings (Julie, Jack and Katie) grew up in relative normalcy in Virginia with their loving parents, the brilliant physicist James Power and his artist wife, Margaret. The Power family lived an idyllic life (beach house and everything) until the summer after Alex turned twelve: unbeknownst to all of them, James Power's latest government-funded project, the "matter/anti-matter converter," was a ticking time-bomb about to jeopardize the entire world, drawing the attention of multiple alien races who had encountered the same technology before.

The first of these aliens were the Zn'rx, nicknamed "Snarks" in-universe, a race of warlike lizard-aliens divided into a number of clans on their native planet, Snarkworld (I AM NOT MAKING THAT UP). Each clan had a Queen Mother presiding, trying to get her own male heir on the throne, by whatever means necessary, so that every time a new Emperor was needed the whole planet erupted into a giant horrible war.

The other aliens, a horselike race called the Kymellians, were much more enlightened on the whole: they only had to destroy their planet once before learning the error of their ways. (Tragic mishap during the opening test run of their own matter/anti-matter converter; these things happen.) In the aftermath of that accident, the remaining Kymellians lived on an orbiting, artificial satellite that was basically a giant shopping mall in space.

The converter Dr. Power designed was intended to create cheap, clean energy on a mass scale. Unfortunately, if activated, the device would have actually created a chain reaction powerful enough to destroy the Earth--the same reaction, coincidentally, which had long before destroyed the faraway planet Kymellia. James was rushed heavily throughout production, and didn't discover the converter's dangerous "annihilation effect." However, his boss, Douglas Carmody, knew full well that the device could potentially be lethal and intended to weaponize it.

However, when a Kymellian scientist, Aelfyre "Whitey" Whitemane, traveled to Earth's orbit to study the planet from space, he accidentally discovered Dr. Power's research on Earth computers. Whitey immediately sent an urgent message back to the other Kymellians, requesting permission to intervene in the Power case before Earth was destroyed. This message was intercepted by a group of Snarks under the command of Queen Mother Maraud, a clan mother from Snarkworld. The Snarks, knowing the destructive powers of Dr. Power's formula, wanted to obtain it for Maraud, and wasted no time heading down to Earth to find the source...but not before blasting Whitey and his sentient 'smartship,' the space carrier Friday, out of orbit. Friday and Whitey crash-landed on Earth near the Power home, the night before Dr. Power's machine was slated to be tested for the first time.

Alex and his siblings noticed the giant spaceship crashed on the beach and went down to investigate. To their surprise, Whitey emerged, warning the children about the terrible danger their family was in. Then the Snarks attacked, abducting James and Margaret. Whitey, using a few of the various superpowers native to his people, managed to escape aboard Friday with the Power children, but he was fatally wounded in the process. In his final moments Whitey used a dangerous Kymellian transfer process to pass on his superpowers to Alex and his siblings, so they could save their world without him. Alex received the power to manipulate gravity, and called himself "Gee," as in, the scientific unit of force measurement. (And also probably for the phrase itself because he said it all the time.) As the eldest, Alex defaulted to being the leader of the group, and under his direction, the newly christened "Power Pack" traveled to their father's research institute and destroyed Dr. Power's (very expensive) anti-matter converter before it could ever be tested, then managed to stop the Snarks and save their parents.

During this first adventure, Power Pack made two important enemies who would later come after them again seeking revenge: firstly, Douglas Carmody (their father's boss), who witnessed the Power siblings destroying his matter/anti-matter converter and thought they were mutants; and Queen Mother Maruad, who wanted the Powers' "sorcerous" Kymellian abilities for herself. On the friendlier side, the siblings also gained an adopted Kymellian grandfather in Byrel Whitemane, Whitey's father, who informed the children that the Kymellians were pleased with the way Power Pack had used their powers to save the Earth. The smartship Friday also became Power Pack's ally and preferred method of transportation, growing to love them like family. (Kymellian smartships can feel love.) Power Pack unanimously decided to use their new powers to become superheroes, feeling like it was their responsibility to honor Whitey's sacrifice.

James and Margaret remembered the Snarks attacking, but were unconscious for most of their time in space, so neither of them were aware that their children now had superpowers. Upon returning home, the family tried resume normal life, but they were rudely interrupted when Carmody came rushing in, determined to blame and/or kill the Power children for his failure with the matter/anti-matter converter. The Power kids stopped him, and the whole family relocated to Manhattan soon after for James's new job.

In Manhattan, Alex and Jack, being twelve- and eight-year-old boys respectively, wasted no time combing the city up and down for the famous hero Spider-Man, meeting him in person. Then Power Pack teamed up with teen heroes Cloak and Dagger to stop an aspiring local crime lord from taking over the drug industry in Manhattan with giant animal robots (YES, THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED). Meanwhile, the kids slowly adjusted to life in New York. Alex attended the local junior high, a "tough school" where he was mercilessly teased for being the whitest kid in a thirty-mile radius. Fortunately, Alex quickly found a good friend/love interest, the "Incredibly Perfect" Allison McCourt, for whom Alex was pretty much always willing to drop anything on a moment's notice, including Power Pack business.

The Pack's next few adventures were mostly lighthearted animal-rescue fare. While saving a kitten from the sewers, the kids managed to attract the attention of some nearby Morlocks, sewer-dwelling mutants hidden away from the surface world. Several Morlocks conspired to kidnap the Power siblings for an unhappy mutant woman, Analee, whose children had been killed by surface-dwellers. Luckily, a few of the mutant superheroes known as the X-Men stepped in to rescue Power Pack, including Wolverine and Kitty Pryde. The Power kids forgave Annalee for trying to abduct them, and even adopted her as their honorary grandmother.

Eventually, Carmody returned to attack Power Pack, now going by the name 'Boogeyman,' and he used an advanced power-suit to kidnap Katie and terrorize the others. He threatened to capture and sell the children to mutant experimenters, but the Power kids drove him off.

Power Pack soon met Franklin Richards, the very young son of Fantastic Four members Reed Richards and Susan Storm, bona fide superheroes and celebrities. Franklin's own powers included "special dreams" which could foresee possible events from the future, and he used this gift to help Power Pack against a new enemy, Jakal the High Snark, Queen Maraud's son who came to Earth to attack the Power siblings. Also arriving to help stop Jakal was Whitey's teenage Kymellian cousin, Kofi, who considered the Power siblings like family even before he met them. Franklin was quickly inducted "officially" into the group, receiving a Power Pack costume (and a codename).

Some time before Thanksgiving of that year, a demented villain named Kurse went on a rampage through Manhattan. One of his victims was Margaret Power, who was out shopping for Alex at the time; she sustained life-threatening injuries. Upon learning the news, Alex had a sudden and frightening personality change, becoming violently angry and determined to get revenge for his mother's condition, no matter what the cost. Power Pack sought and confronted Kurse at a construction site, and Alex forced Katie to topple a building on top of the villain, hoping to kill him.

Alex expressed regret for his crusade for revenge as soon as it was over, but the incident permanently changed his temperament. As Margaret continued to worsen in the hospital, Alex grew increasingly moody and intolerable toward his siblings, blaming himself for his mother's condition while believing that his father blamed him too. When Katie tried to cheer up her family by throwing a surprise Thanksgiving party with some of Power Pack's hero friends, Alex was furious at her for daring to have fun while their mother was in the hospital, though he eventually relented and allowed the party to go on. Margaret's condition didn't change in the months leading up to Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, a horde of demons swarmed Manhattan, and Power Pack teamed up with the superhero group The New Mutants to help combat the threat. After that, Margaret began recovering, but soon Power kids found themselves abducted by Snarks, working for Queen Mother Maraud. Maraud's new plan included forcibly stealing the Power siblings' Kymellian abilities for her son Jakal. With help from Franklin and Kofi, Power Pack beat Maraud, prevented a war for succession on Snarkworld, and made it home safely again, although the battle was close and the siblings had a hard time working together. The kids ended up switching powers among themselves during the fight, and Alex ended up with Katie's former power, the conversion of matter to energy--disintegrating matter and releasing it as energy blasts. He renamed himself "Destroyer."

The kids returned home with Franklin still in tow. With both of Franklin's parents off-world, he came to stay with the Power family for a time. Franklin's powers sometimes alerted Power Pack to impending disasters, such as the Morlock massacre that ended with Annalee and many other mutants being senselessly murdered. Franklin eventually reunited with his parents, who thanked the Powers for caring for their son, becoming close family friends.

Alex found a new conflict in his civilian life, a rival from class named "Johnny Rival." (YES THIS WAS REALLY HIS REAL NAME.) Jealous of Alex's relationship with Allison and suspecting the other boy of being a mutant, Johnny brought a gun to school for a fight to "level the playing field." However, after an incident with a supervillain forced the two boys to work together, they struck up a short-lived friendship. This ended when Alex forcibly stopped Johnny from dying to protect his brother, a crack dealer, during a police shootout. Alex developed a personal vendetta against crack dealers and other drug pushers, going so far as to target and burn down a crack house along with the rest of Power Pack.

The Pack had several more adventures with Franklin Richards, including befriending a mutant girl named Rebecca. Carmody, the Boogeyman, returned yet again after that, kidnapping Rebecca and threatening to reveal the Power kids' secret to their parents, though Power Pack thwarted him on both counts. Trapped in a realm called Limbo by one of Power Pack's hero allies, Carmody then gained a new demon form along with superpowers. When a demon horde broke free from Limbo and attacked Manhattan, Carmody immediately came after the Powers, forcing the kids to reveal their powers to their parents at last. The Boogeyman kidnapped James and Margaret, threatening to kill them in front of their children, and Alex nearly killed Carmody, only backing down with his father begged him not to.

Carmody ended up dying anyway, dropping into an inferno, and he left the Power family completely traumatized in his wake. James and Margaret seemed to temporarily lose their minds; however, the New Mutants came in and convinced the two parents that what they had seen was only an illusion, returning things to normalcy. When the school year ended the Powers (and Franklin) headed off for a family vacation, complete with pollution-fighting adventures. Then, Kofi unexpectedly arrived to inform Power Pack that their smartship, Friday, was dying; the kids departed with Kofi for Kymellia to see if they could help.

The trip proved to be eye-opening, but a bitter disappointment. On the Kymellians' artificial satellite-planet, Power Pack found themselves pitted against Kymellia's greatest warriors in a gladiatorial deathmatch to "test" their abilities, though in reality the match was meant to allay Kymellian fears that humans could be superior warriors with their powers. No one died in the fight, but when the technology-obsessed Kymellians tried to damage Friday to make a point about smartship improvements, Power Pack reacted with horror and anger. The last straw came when Kofi's father, Lord Yrik, revealed that he'd brainwashed James and Margaret Power into ignoring their children's odd behavior, ensuring that they never found out about the kids' superpowers. The brainwashing was unsafe, resulting in violent emotional backlash and trauma whenever the parents did have to face the truth, which had caused their emotional breakdown after Carmody's last attack.

Alex and his siblings took the news as a great betrayal, and vowed to have nothing more to do with the Kymellian race. However, they were forced to reconsider when Queen Mother Maraud, seeking revenge after her exile from Snarkworld, attacked the Kymellians' planet with a doomsday device. Power Pack helped defeat Maraud a third time, switching powers once more in the process, and Alex ended up with the density power, which allowed him to shrink or expand his mass into cloud form at will. Power Pack helped relocate the grateful Kymellians to a new planet with a more natural environment, and then returned to Earth again with Friday.

Once home, the Power family seemingly resumed life as normal. However, far away, trouble was brewing--at an unspecified point in time (THROUGH THE HEALING POWER OF RETCON), Queen Mother Maraud teamed up with a bitter Kymellian known as 'Technocrat' to abduct James and Margaret Power, hoping again to extract the formula from Dr. Power's highly destructive matter/anti-matter converter. Maraud and Technocrat replaced the two parents with "pseudoplasm" doubles, an illegal Kymellian invention, which retained the exact appearance and memories of the originals. However, at a later unspecified point in time, Alex discovered the fakes, only to be abducted himself: while he was stuck in captivity light-years away, another pseudoplasm clone took his place, unknown to the rest of the Power siblings and even to the clone itself.

With no idea that their Alex was a fake, Power Pack continued having other adventures. The Pack, plus Franklin, traveled into space and helped Galactus's herald, Nova (a friend of Franklin's) battle an alien menace, but unfortunately said menace ended up following them right back to Earth. Both Margaret's and James's doubles ended up seeing "their" children fighting with superpowers. Though James's clone seemed able to handle the news and remain sane, the fake Margaret had a complete mental breakdown. Meanwhile, Alex's clone was suffering from degeneration of a different sort, losing half his hair and undergoing grotesque physical changes, which led up to him turning into a Kymellian. The Powers turned to Reed Richards for help in restoring both Alex and Margaret to their "true" selves, but despite Reed's intervention, nothing could be done, so the Powers decided to travel to New Kymellia for answers.

Before the family ever made it there, Julie began to put the pieces together, realizing that something was wrong with Alex besides his inexplicable transformation into a Kymellian. At the same time, the real Alex managed to break free from his prison aboard Maraud and the Technocrat's space station, disrupting their pseudoplasm machine and caused all the false doubles to melt. The remaining Power family and Friday arrived at the space station soon after, and Power Pack reunited again to stop the villains, switching their powers around several times. They were rescued from space by Kofi and Yrik, who helped the family patch up on New Kymellia before sending them on their merry way back to Earth, just in time for Christmas.

With Alex rescued, all the kids' powers restored to the original wielders, and James and Margaret still brainwashed without any knowledge of their children's superhero careers, Power Pack essentially returned home with a blank slate. They intended to continue protecting Earth as Power Pack, while searching for a way to restore their parents' minds. Hopefully nothing like an abduction to a strange new City in another universe would disrupt that, right?

PERSONALITY:
Alex is a thirteen-year-old boy, and like most kids that age, his behavior can be all over the place at any given time. He does, however, have a "core" personality, one that has changed markedly over the course of his character history: Alex begins the series as a cheerful, mostly-responsible nerd with some promising leadership tendencies, and ends the series as a serious, mostly-responsible leader with some concerning psychological problems. (But still a nerd.) Most of these changes are a direct result of Alex's adventures as a kid superhero and the leader of Power Pack, and unfortunately, leadership has not always changed him for the better. As often happens in real life, Alex's siblings are usually the ones who have to deal with the worst facets of his personality, but at the end of the day, he loves and cares for them very deeply, and they for him.

Alex takes the ‘responsibility’ aspect of being a superhero the most seriously out of Power Pack, going out of his way to combat both metahuman/supernatural large-scale threats and ordinary social evils, like drug trafficking and pollution. However, Alex is also the one who despairs the most about being a superhero in general, and exposing himself firsthand to crime and injustice on a frequent basis has left him with a bitter, cynical side. Occasionally he is left wondering if the effort is even worth it, when humanity seems bent on destroying itself. But in the end, he never gives up on his self-imposed responsibilities (villains, crack houses, pollution), even when he'd honestly like nothing more than to stop--he has actually been known to make himself physically ill worrying about the world and its problems.

(Of course, while Alex takes being a superhero very seriously, that's not to say he's responsible with his powers all the time. Particularly not when it comes to impressing his "girl friend," Allison McCourt. Or tracking down Spider-Man in Manhattan, because, dude, Spider-Man.)

Part of Alex's sense of responsibility stems from his home life. He is the oldest of his siblings, and used to looking after them, both in-costume and out. As such, from the earliest beginnings of the team, Alex is the natural candidate for leadership of Power Pack, a job he has often handled well--and often hasn't. As leader, Alex displays remarkable cool-headedness for a boy his age in the face of threats like alien abductions, businessmen-turned-supervillains, and constant arguing among his teammates even in the midst of dangerous battles. Alex wastes little time panicking during fights, even when the stakes are dangerous; this extends to worrying about his teammates...or, rather, not doing that. Alex mostly trusts his siblings to look out for themselves in a pinch, and sometimes he actually expects more of them during fights than they're ready to handle: when any of the others are hurt, scared or overwhelmed at their surroundings, Alex is usually the one to coax (or push) them back toward the mission at hand, even if it means forcing them outside their comfort zones. This applies especially to his youngest sister, Katie, who is only five years old for the greater part of the series, and has a lot of serious reservations about using her powers.

Alex's methods usually work out to Power Pack's advantage, and he successfully keeps himself and his siblings alive during battles that many adult superheroes would have been lucky to escape unharmed. However, he is still very much a twelve- to thirteen-year-old kid, and by no means infallible on or off the battlefield. Alex can be overconfident, bossy, and unwilling to accept criticism or suggestions from his siblings when he believes himself to be right; this tendency comes back to bite him sometimes when it turns he's wrong about something important. Of course, on the flip side, Alex's siblings are even younger than he is, and sometimes disregarding their opinions is absolutely the right thing to do--even if it hampers their collective ability to function well as a team.

Alex's first (and biggest) turning point as a character comes after his mother is hospitalized and nearly killed by a rampaging supervillain, Kurse. As Margaret had been out running chores for Alex at the time of the attack, he feels responsible for it happening, and is immediately overcome uncontrollable guilt and rage. This is the trigger that pushes Alex for the first time (though not the last) to the point of willingness to murder an enemy. Although Alex ultimately never ends up crossing that line, there are moments where he easily could have, and he's even tried using his siblings to do the dirty work for him--usually Katie, and usually very cruelly, shouting and verbally abusing her until she agrees to do what he wants.

Despite his worst tendencies, however, Alex is not a killer at heart, and in fact has always had serious reservations about using his powers to end lives. The only trigger that seems able to push Alex to the point of murder is direct harm against his parents, whom he adores and cares about perhaps even more than his siblings. Other than in situations where his parents' lives have been seriously endangered, Alex will always go for the nonlethal solution to a problem, even when facing unrepentantly evil villains. When gifted with the highly destructive energy power, Alex nearly always used it to damage the environments around enemies rather than attacking them directly, afraid to go too far--leading his siblings to remark on his hypocrisy, after the incident with Kurse. But by the end of the series it's clear that Alex intends never to knowingly kill any enemy in the future, if only to respect his father's wishes.

With his mother's hospitalization, Alex's overall attitude takes a sharp turn for the worse, and from that point forward he often falls prey to sharp fits of temper or bouts of self-loathing, with one usually leading to the other. In his worst moods, Alex lashes out viciously at his siblings and friends, all the while fervently blaming himself for every problem and setback that plagues his family. Alex doesn't often talk about his emotions, preferring to dwell on them in his own mind, but when he seriously hurts others he is usually acutely aware of it after the fact. (Whether or not he actually apologizes varies case by case.) After his mother's attack, Alex battles with temper problems and loss of control for the remainder of the series, even after she makes a full recovery and returns home from the hospital. Alex consistently worries about being useless as a leader, especially in situations where he doesn't have good or effective control over his powers, thinking his siblings might be better off without him. However, Alex is certainly not moody all the time, and as his family's situation improves, the good patches overtake the bad ones.

One aspect of Alex that has never wavered is his intelligence. Though not a super-genius, Alex is a very bright, straight-A student with a keen understanding of physics, and he aspires to be a scientist like his father one day. (Further along in his canon timeline, Alex goes on to achieve perfect SAT scores in high school.) In an academic setting, Alex is often the favorite of his teachers, generally a model student and very polite with a lot of natural curiosity. He has much more trouble among kids his own age, being rather sheltered and comically old-fashioned, at least toward the start of the comics' run--though by the time he reaches the after school special Very Special Episode SOMEWHAT HEAVY-HANDED 'crack house plot,' Alex can talk street as well as the best of them. (Even if he sounds looks ridiculous doing it.)

By the end of Power Pack's run (or, more accurately, the Holiday Special), Alex seems to have reached a stable point, though old habits die hard. He's happy to be reunited with his entire family, and optimistic about the future, both for his prospects as a superhero and for restoring his parents from their brainwashed state.

POWER:
Alex's superpowers, like his siblings', are Kymellian in origin, and were bestowed upon the Power children by the alien 'Whitey' in order to save planet Earth. While the gravity power is unique to Alex, other abilities are shared among the siblings more or less equally; some can't be used at all without each of them being present.

1. "Gee-Power" / Gravity Control: Alex has the ability to alter the forces of gravity upon himself and other objects that he touches, making them effectively heavier or lighter (or even weightless) depending on what the situation calls for. He can use this power to lift/de-gravitize heavy objects and opponents, making them easier to maneuver or toss around, or to trap/fix objects to the ground and each other. The bigger and heavier an object is, the harder a time Alex has de-gravitizing it, and for very large objects even de-gravitizing them isn't usually enough for him to lift them. Alex cannot impact the inertia (motion or stillness in-progress) of a given target with his powers--for example, if he de-gravitizes a falling car to be weightless, the car will still be falling, and the faster it falls, the less Alex can do to slow it down before it hits the ground. As another example, Alex can use his powers to float through the air, but cannot propel himself or fly without help, and he's basically at the mercy of the wind currents. In a fight, however, Alex can throw a lot of weight behind his punches.

The gravity power is one of four 'signature' abilities Whitey passed on to Power Pack, the others being control over velocity, mass, and energy. Alex and his siblings all share a special connection with these individual powers and one another, which allows the four of them to trade abilities among themselves--but only in times of extreme peril or need, and only with each other.

2. Accelerated Healing: Alex and his siblings all have the ability to recover from injuries much faster than ordinary humans, though not instantly. (Think days, instead of weeks, for things like bone fractures showing signs of far-along recovery.) This healing ability usually prevents Alex from getting sick as well, but not always.

3. Costume Summoning: By saying 'costume on,' Alex can instantly change into his superhero outfit, which in canon resides in another dimension called 'Elsewhere' while he's not wearing it. The costume looks completely ridiculous protects from most weather elements and has an absurd amount of storage space in the pockets (about as much as a large backpack).

[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:

[ The feed starts off with a good fifteen seconds of silence--like Alex had turned it on without being completely sure of what he wanted to say, or had begun second-guessing himself after the fact. ]

So, I guess it's true what they've been saying about ImPorts dying. Or at least sort-of dying. They usually come back later. Back from the dead. I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and...

[ Another pause, not as long as the last one. Alex takes in a deep breath, as if to speak, but then stops, thinking. It's another few seconds before he continues. ]

Do you think that, since that's true--if you kill someone here, and they come back, does that still make you a murderer? I know it's obviously still wrong to do that, but if you kill another ImPort here, and it's not permanent, and you know it's not permanent...are you actually a killer?

I know that sounds really weird to ask. But it's been bugging me a lot.



LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:

Even just the little things here, like walking to the bus stop by himself, made Alex feel lost and incomplete without his family.

There was an element of homesickness in that, of course. He missed them. He missed them all terribly, especially the morning routine before school--being dragged out of bed by his cheerful parents, heading to breakfast already waiting on the table, and everyone eating together. He felt the stark absence of the morning walk he'd always taken for granted before, bickering with his siblings all the way to school and back.

But all of that was only a part. Alex had been separated from his family before, had been alone, but never like this, never with the illusion of normal life continuing on all around him. Little things like walking down the sidewalk alone to catch the bus made him miss his siblings, but it was more than missing them because they were his family.

His powers were different without them. Not different, exactly, in the sense that he had different ones than before--but whenever he tried to use them here, he kept running into dead ends, things he couldn't do without his siblings. Without Power Pack.

Alex had never realized that he'd taken flying for granted before, with Julie always there to lift him into the sky and take off in a burst of color. He never realized how often he'd relied on Jack's cloud-expanding powers for cover, if he ever needed to get away from somewhere, someone, undetected.

It had been an adjustment to even take out the trash by himself again, for the first time in almost two years, without Katie there to simply disintegrate it into nothing.

The bus stop was uncomfortably warm, even for the morning. If he'd had his siblings with him, he wouldn't have had to wait on the ride. They could all just fly there on their own. Alex glanced down the street, shielding his eyes with one hand to block the sun's rays. The sky was sunny and clear, and for a brief moment, Alex considered just degravitizing himself and pushing off the ground. Floating up into the empty space and waiting as long as he could before pulling himself back down to the ground--if he chose to do so at all.

But that was a foolish thought. Floating here out in the open was a poor move and probably wouldn't be safe; not without Julie there to catch him if he fell...or couldn't fall. Alex wearily brushed the notion aside and waited, stepping onto the creaking bus when it finally arrived.



FINAL NOTES: –