1.2 Partners Part 6

“Ready?” I ask Stefan.

The meeting when well, mostly just discussing some ideas and the fight with Hall and Edison earlier.

Now it’s just me and Stefan in the base. He wasn’t born with powers like the most of the others. Instead they need to be unlocked.

That’s he is in the Awakener 3.0. His grandfather had device called the Power Awakener, which unlocked a person’s dormant powers at just under two-thirds of full strength.

59% of their power to be precise.

Granddad came up with the Awakener 2.0 after he got his hands on the first once Stefan’s grandfather was defeated once and all. It unlocks 81% of the person’s power. The 3.0 was built during his retirement. This one can unlock the user’s power at 100%.

And that’s the one I’m about to use on Stefan.

Stefan’s grandfather, Vladimir Thornson aka Black Storm, was a major powerhouse, one of the first Class 5s. Only the first Lantern could truly match him a fair fight back then even though Black Storm was more Bolt’s Arch-Nemesis.

Black Storm had extremely strong control over gravity, electricity and plus some massively powerful sonic blasts. He actually gave granddad some ideas for improving the sonics on the Sentinel armour.

Despite being the inventor of the Power Awakener, the old League always thought he got his powers from some other source. He was too overpowered to have them unlocked by the Awakener 3.0, let alone the one he invented to use on his minions.

Granddad didn’t even think he fully invented the original Power Awakener as it seems to have too many nonhuman elements to him, but he only figured that out after the Sektain Invasion, decades after Black Storm’s Invasion

The 3.0 looks like a white egg chair with an assortment of cables and wires, some of which attached to the user while others go into the floor, ceiling and walls.

“Damn right I am,” says Stefan, “I want to prove myself a hero.”

“Just remember that you won’t be as powerful as Black Storm was,” I warn him, “He definitely got his powers some other way than the Awakener.”

“I’ll still have full powers right?” asks Stefan as I begin plugging in the wires and cables into him.

“For sure,” I assure him, “But you’ll only be a Class 3, borderline Class 4 at most.”

“Cool,” says Stefan, “High-powered class 3 is still pretty awesome.”

“They should still be the same sorts of powers however,” I remind him as I finish him plugging in, “It works via genetics.”

“That’s why I picked the name Storm Knight,” replies Stefan.

“And the process will be pretty painful,” I continue.

“Crap,” curses Stefan.

“I’m giving you superpowers,” I say as I reach the controls, “Tough it out.”

“Hey,” says Stefan with an obviously fake hurt face.

“And here we go,” I mutter as I activate the Power Awakener 3.0.

The Awakening itself is a pretty boring event, the Awakening. Stefan is strapped in, going ‘ow, ow, ow’ repeatedly as he is charged with aqua coloured lightning.

“@£#$, that hurt,” moans Stefan once it’s finished.

“I did warn you,” I reply as walk towards him and the Awakener, “Are you okay?”

“Never better,” answers Stefan as he grins up at me.

I pause for a moment as I look at him. Before his Awakening, Stefan’s eyes were blue, but now they are a storm grey colour.

“Is something wrong?” asks Stefan, his grin fading a little as I stare at him.

“Your eyes are grey,” I explain, “Other than that, you look fine.”

“I hope no one notices,” mutters Stefan as I unplug him.

“A few might, but they’ll probably just write it off as not noticing it before,” I reply, “You’ll be surprised how often it happens. Especially when supers are involved.”

“Can I try out my new powers?” asks Stefan eagerly.

“Sure,” I reply, “We’ll use the training room. It’s not too far away.”

“Sweet,” grins Stefan as he climbs out of the Awakener, “I always wanted powers. Ever since I found out about my grandfather and what he did.”

I lead Stefan over to the training room while he grins like a madman. I swear that I can see lightning crackling around his hands every now and again as we walk.

“Here we are,” I state outside the training room doors, “You go in here. I’ll be in the control room.”

“Got it,” answers Stefan as he goes inside.

I take the next door down, following the stairs up to the control room for the training room. The control room looks the training room and you can see what’s going on thanks the bullet-proof windows.

“Ready?” I ask Stefan over the loudspeakers.

“You bet I am,” Stefan shouts up at me.

“Try using your powers first,” I say, “Let’s see if you can fly like Black Storm could.”

“All right,” mutters Stefan.

He doesn’t move for a moment, but then he floats upwards, rather unsteadily. He’s okay at it, but he is definitely having trouble controlling his flight. I put that down to inexperience as it is Stefan’s first time.

“That’s good,” I say, “Now try landing.”

Stefan slowly lowers himself to the ground. He stumbles as he lands.

“That was totally awesome!” shouts Stefan once he has regained his balance, a massive grin on his face, “What else I can do!?”

“Let’s try lightning next?” I suggest, “That was another basic power of Black Storm.”

Stefan aims his right arm at the far wall and fires a bolt of lightning from his hand.

It dissipates once it hits the wall. Granddad designed the training room to be able to take tons of damage as he knew a bunch of powerful supers would be using it.

The rest of the session goes well. Along with flight via a localised gravity field and the lightning bolts, Stefan has a variety of powers relating to lightning and sonics.

The localised gravity field acts as a sort of limited forcefield in addition to flight, disrupting attacks against him to a certain degree. The lightning can be used to melt as expected of electricity when used a lot. His sonic powers are basically creating sonic booms and shockwaves. He can combine the lightning and shockwaves to create electrified shockwaves, but in team situations, I doubt that will be useful.

It’s almost eight once we’re done. I’m glad  I told my family I would be at Aunt Mary’s for a bit.

“Thanks for the testing session,” says Stefan as he leaves, “It was so fun using my new powers.”

“Bye Stefan,” I reply, “See you tomorrow.”

I’m about to leave myself when the main screen begins bleeping with the MI9 symbol. This better not be another fight.