Even though it was already half way through the first year and Rohan had scored a group of friends on his first day, in the grand scheme of things: Rohan had made very few companions. He only had very light conversations with other students, hardly knowing any names, and he certainly did not have any friendships with any of them.
Sure, a few of them have tried to advance a friendship with him, but Rohan found that many of them only spoke to him when needing help, and he realized those students only wanted to use him for more. While he was more than happy to aid his existing friend group, he grew tired of being used as a calculator by everyone, and for the most part he made no effort to branch off.
This left him in a state where he had very few people to depend on, which he once was fine with, since he felt it more than adequate to have his group and Erica. There was no problem until now however, as Rohan finds himself out of options for an ally to accompany him in his journey. He went to everyone he knew for aid, and in the end, he couldn't bring himself to ask.
His girlfriend already had lost people she loved to the Exhumans and couldn't bear to know someone else she had been willingly charging into them, and his friends had an innocence he couldn't sacrifice just in hopes for them to help him.
That left him with no option of friends to go to, a result he wasn't exactly hoping to get, as he hoped he'd at least find one person willing to aid him.
However, that said, he had only gone to friends and people he met over his time at the university.
There was still someone he knows, someone he has known.
The supersun is still on the rise, as the sky was still relatively dark, for it was early in the morning. The few students awake at this time had only begun their day, and had much energy to give, readying for their classes.
The four dorm buildings stand tall at the corners of the field, shining in the rays of sunlight that steadily enlarge as the supersun continues rising. Only a few people were outside, seeming to be athletes training in the morning, however the vast majority were still fast asleep in their beds.
On the top floor of one of the dorm buildings, a boy sits up from his bed, seeming to be in the process of waking up. He then looks out the window, and stands up, approaching it.
That boy is Rohan, who has just been awakened by his Connect. He wears his pajamas, which was composed of a plain white shirt that had a temperature strip module slightly above his heart, and dark blue shorts. He looks out the window and at the rising sun, examining it with contracted eyes.
He sighs to himself, and places his hand on the window, as if trying to connect to the world outside. He could hardly make out the city in the far distance, the land he had to protect, the land he had to be able to protect.
If he couldn't be able to use his abilities to put an end to the centuries long tyranny of the Exhumans, it would be hard to guess that anyone else would. Oddly enough, ever since he was beaten down in the failed attempt to stop a bank robbery, his drive only felt stronger, now knowing just how dangerous the Exhumans are.
Rohan was lucky to have his powers to defend himself, however not everyone was so fortunate and rich, as the Exhumans were free to ruin anyone else they wanted to with zero opposition, treating the police as a joke.
Nobody had gone against them.
Not until now.
Rohan takes his hand off the window, and he walks to his desk. He holds his hand out, and his Connect projects a hologram of his home screen. He then opens his Connect, and traverses his Connect to an app, and begins traversing different pages.
Another hologram then projects, this one being three dimensional, showing a miniature model of a suit very much like the one Rohan had been using, however it was just slightly more armored. The padding was noticeably larger, almost oversized for the rest of the body, and it was clear that it was not a final design.
Rohan sighs, quietly asking himself: "I have the movement systems of the air hockey suit perfected alright...it was easy to play with the one I was given for school...but I don't have any references for a battle armor...and searching online for references usually just yields dumb superhero fantasy designs. Maybe I should try mimicking military suits, but even they're not made for Exhumans. I don't think there's anything out there for Exhumans. Dammit...what am I supposed to do."
Rohan turns off the hologram, and he lets out another sigh. He walks towards his closet, deciding to change for the day, deciding that he'd continue trying to brainstorm designs. He walks up to his closet and awakens the inventory hologram, scrolling through what he had and trying to find a decent outfit for the day.
As he presses on different selections, he continues talking to himself: "Hmm...maybe I'm limiting myself too much...if I need more power, I should be going bigger. Hmm...but what do I use…."
Rohan's clothing appears on him, and he begins changing into his clothing for the day. His pants appear over his legs and tightens itself, and his shirt forms on his upper body. His green and white jacket appears over the shirt, completing his look. He then turns back to look at his bed, wondering how much time he had before he had to go.
He decides that he has enough time before he has to do anything, he wakes up rather early anyways, so he walks back to his bed and lays on it. He stares at his ceiling, trying to figure a solution to his question, trying to think of a design to combat the enemies who could punch his suit into pieces like it was glass.
He wasn't sure exactly how to pack enough plating and padding into a suit of his size, as he wanted to make sure he'd never be able to be dealt such a painful strike again, or he could very easily die. He had to be more careful, as his previous suit was nowhere strong enough for combat.
As his mind wanders, he gives up trying to use references from real life applications as he knew that there weren't any good references to be found, and instead tries to broaden his search. His mind then begins to move to Erica, but more specifically the show he had been watching with her lately. They'd watch many episodes on the weekends when Rohan had the time, and try getting at least one out per weekday when they'd hang out in her dorm room.
The show focused on a story about disgusting giants who'd ravage cities and slaughter people, and the nation's people attempting to fight back with a military powered by relatively inferior fire power, as it's inferred that they haven't advanced enough to the point of wielding great enough weapons.
However, in the show, the main character manages to learn how to become one of the giants himself, and learns to master the ability to fight off the evil giants with this new form.
While Erica mainly found investment in the characters and the drama they faced, Rohan was always fascinated with the implications of the story's lore, and the fictional science that would explain how any of the story would make sense. Of course the story wove in fantasy, so it wasn't easy to explain the story scientifically, however it was a challenge he loved taking on, and one Erica would find cute.
Rohan's eyes widen, as he thinks of an idea for a reference. He sits up, and opens his Connect once again. He then navigates to one of his apps and opens it, which causes the hologram to open the app Rohan had used back when he researched on Exhumans.
However, today he wasn't searching for real news, he was searching for something more fictional. He types into the search bar: 'Strike on Giants Aaron Fight.'
The feed then changes to have images of what seems to be more of an animated cartoon of sorts, depicting dark red giants over buildings, with one of them having long hair and blue glowing eyes.
Rohan clicks on the video with the title 'Aaron transforms to fight invasion S1E15.' He then sits back and watches the video, his Connect playing the sound out loud, since he figured it would be fine in the morning.
The video plays, showing a group of animated characters stuck in a city, with an army of red giants walking around, destroying buildings. Loud epic music blares with screams in the distance, causing Rohan to lower the volume. He then fast-forwards the video, wanting to find the part that mattered to him.
He then stops right at a frame where a boy who has messy hair is screaming from a rooftop, while a girl tries to hold him back, crying for him to stop.
The boy then pushes out of the girl's hold, and runs to the edge of the building. He then leaps off, and as he begins falling down the building, he throws a punch at himself down below between his legs, something that would most likely be excruciating to anyone, even himself.
As Rohan watches, Dexter, who rests in the other bed, begins turning and groaning quietly, seeming to be awakening.
As the character punches himself, he lets out a cry of pain, and suddenly blue lightning starts to come off his body, brightening the whole block.
The screen goes white as an effect of blinding, and once the light fades, a large monster much like the giants appears where the boy once was, however this giant has long flowing hair and blue glowing eyes. His body was also far more muscular than the majority of the other giants, and the monster roars as he lands on one of the giants, crushing it with its own weight.
The monster then begins to rampage down the city, destroying each giant with one punch to the head, causing their heads to fly out with excessive blood and gore.
As Rohan watches, he tries to understand the body the main character just activated, and starts using it as a weapon. There were several shots showing the main character inside the body, seeming to be attached by large tubes similar to vessels connected to his head and limbs.
The boy hadn't necessarily turned into a giant, he just dawned a large suit of sorts made like the giants, or at least that was Rohan's interpretation. The giant itself had no consciousness of its own, it was directly controlled by the boy, and so it was in a large armor. A giant suit, which was capable of driving monsters away with its sheer strength, and able to take heavy hits.
Rohan thinks to himself, wondering if he could do something similar. In the video, the monster however is seen destroying buildings in combat, something Rohan didn't want to do, as he didn't want to hurt any other civilians. So he'd need to make sure to limit the power, but the idea of having a suit far larger than a normal human seemed not as bad of an idea on its own.
It would allow him to armor the suit far more than if it was the size of a regular human, and it would also be far easier to take down opponents if he was far larger than them.
Rohan smiles to himself, figuring an idea for an outline of a new battle suit, one that shares the air hockey's maneuvering systems but also would be more of a large controlled robot rather than a suit.
He says to himself, "I got it!" with excitement, ready to begin a design of his own large mech of sorts.
However, he is then interrupted by the voice of Dexter, who tiredly asks, "What are you doing? Since when did you start watching shows? And why do you have to do it out loud while I'm asleep?"
Rohan's eyes widen, and he instantly turns off his Connect. He turns around to see that Dexter has woken up, and is sitting up, his head on his forehead.
Rohan quickly apologizes, "I'm sorry, I thought I was being quiet enough, I didn't mean to awaken you. You can sleep again, I'll stop playing the videos."
Dexter sighs, and he shakes his head, his hair in a mess. He looks up at Rohan and says, "It's fine, I'm awake anyways now, so it's too late to go back to sleep. Just use the buds, why do you need to blast it? Do you want the whole dorm to break in here?"
Rohan scratches the back of his head, and he argues, "Well, I mean, the walls are soundproof, so nobody else would hear that."
Dexter frowns, and he asks, "How about me?"
Rohan sighs, and he repeats, "I'm sorry, never mind. I'll remember that for next time, I promise."
Dexter smirks, and he says, "My brother got into those types of shows, oh what did college do to you?"
Rohan huffs, and he argues, "Erica wants me to watch it with her, I don't actually like it myself."
Dexter rolls his eyes and responds, "Sure, says the person who can't start their day without watching it. I can sense that you don't like it at all yourself."
Rohan sighs, and he admits, "Okay fine, you got me. But anyways, you don't need to be up right now, I've just been waking up earlier, we have a lot of time."
Dexter tilts his head, and he asks, "Oh, do you have somewhere to go? Somewhere else to run off to? Do you need to watch another episode downstairs?"
Rohan shakes his head, and he says, "Well no, I don't really have anything to do, I was just going to study a bit before going out to practice. That's what I usually do anyway."
Dexter nods, and he lays back in bed. He then says, "Well okay, I see that my brother just wants to study on his own, and doesn't want anything to do with me again."
Rohan frowns, and he argues, "Well hey hold on now- I thought you'd be tired-, I didn't mean-!"
Dexter chuckles, and he interrupts, "I'm joking I'm joking, chill. You're still fun to mess around with."
Rohan sighs, and he says, "I mean, I don't have to study this morning, do you not want to sleep?"
Dexter answers, "Well, I kind of can't go back to sleep, as I said you woke me up, and I can't so easily go back unless I wake up during lunch."
Rohan hums, understanding what Dexter meant. He'd just have to laze around now until they'd need to leave, just waiting bored before having to start the day.
Rohan lowers his head and contemplates for a few moments, realizing that he hadn't really had a conversation with his brother in a while. They slept in the same room, and yet they seemed to hardly interact. They hardly knew of anything going on with each other, something that wasn't good for a brotherly relationship.
He smiles, and lifts his head again before asking, "So, how are your classes going? Do you have friends?"
Dexter huffs, and he asks aggressively, "Do you really think I still have no friends? Even now?"
Rohan blinks twice in surprise, and he hastily responds, "Wait no no, I didn't mean it like that, I was just wondering what friends you have. If it helps, I still have almost no friends, only those five plus Erica if you count her."
Dexter lets out a short laugh, and he says, "You're getting too soft with me, aren't you? Yeah, I have a few friends, I usually hang out with Rica."
Rohan smiles, and he rocks back and forth, asking "Rica? That sounds like a female name."
Dexter aggressively responds, "We're just friends, you know two people of the opposite sex can be friends, right?"
Rohan sighs, and he says, "Yes yes I know, I don't think I'm getting too soft on you, I think you're just cranky this morning."
Dexter sighs, and he softly says, "I'm sorry, I'm just tired is all, I have an exam today, and it's a hard one."
Rohan frowns, and he asks, "Well, what's it on? I can help you if you want, like old times."
Dexter smirks, and he chuckles, assuring "No no, don't worry, it's fine. I've been working to improve my independence more, so I want to study myself so I feel proud when I ace it. It's on some weird Frapoleon mechanics, I'll be fine."
Rohan smiles, and he says, "Well then, you can flex your grade when you ace it to me."
Dexter nods, and he says confidently, "Hah yeah, I'll show you what I'm made of!"
Rohan's smile slowly turns to a frown, and he begins to lower his head after taking in the simplistic response from Dexter.
'I'll show you what I'm made of.' Rohan and Dexter were brothers, they were children of the same mother and same father, so they shared blood.
Rohan had learned in his research that the continuation of Exhumans came from normal reproduction, as Exhumans who bear children end up with Exhumans as sons and daughters.
This meant that if someone was an Exhuman and happened to have siblings related to them, there was a chance that their siblings too were Exhumans.
That meant that if Rohan was indeed an Exhuman, which at this point he knew he was due to his abilities and the Exmatter readings he had gotten from himself, there was a chance Dexter was too.
Rohan puts his hands on his lap, and he lets out a soft sigh. He then asks Dexter, "Hey, Dex?"
Dexter perks his head up, and he asks, "Yeah?"
Rohan asks quietly, "Do you think...like...you know...do you know if you're like...maybe uh…-"
Dexter tilts his head in confusion to Rohan's uneasiness, which was odd of him, and he asks, "What's wrong? What is it?"
Rohan takes a deep breath, and he asks, "Do you think you might be an Exhuman-?"
Dexter blinks twice, and he answers, "I don't think so...well uh, that's a weird question. Why?"
Rohan sighs, and he says, "I dunno, I guess I just wanted to know for certain is all."
Dexter shakes his head, and he says, "We've lived with each other our whole lives, if I was an Exhuman than you would've known. And if I suddenly learned that I was, I'd know the first person to go to."
Rohan blinks, and he asks, "Mom-? Rica?"
Dexter laughs, and he shakes his head, clarifying "No you metalhead, you. You're my brother, and if I learned something as life changing as that, I'd tell you first. You're also the smartest person I know, so I'd trust that you'd be able to help me."
Rohan's eyes widen, and they begin to water. He asks quietly, "Wait...like...actually? Or are you just joking?"
Dexter lets out a soft breath, and he nods his head. He then speaks with a serious tone, "I'm answering honestly. I know you're scared of Exhumans though, and I'd really hope that if I was one, you wouldn't be scared of me. But I feel like if I kept it from you, I'd actually be as much of a monster as the others you fear. Luckily for both of us though, I'm a pure human. Exhuman powers sound cool and all, shooting lightning out of your hands and whatnot, but it'd probably be scary to live like that, having to hide yourself. And also, I wouldn't want to be one of them, knowing their kind of reputation, ya know? I don't want to associate with that."
Rohan lowers his head, and his eyes continue to water. Dexter had just straight up admitted that he'd go to Rohan if he was an Exhuman, seemingly having no hesitation or second thought.
He trusted Rohan so deeply, as he was even aware of Rohan's fear of Exhumans and thus would be worried of scaring him, and yet that wouldn't be a reason for him to lie.
Rohan hadn't talked to Dexter in so long, and yet, Dexter was still too sweet of a brother to have, regardless of his tempers and moods.
And yet, Rohan was in a position where he was an Exhuman, had been for a while now, and didn't tell him. He had been hiding this secret for so long, and the only reason he'd go to his own brother to tell was because he couldn't get help from anyone else.
How terrible of a brother was he? He put everyone else first, and completely skipped someone he's always had.
Dexter trusted Rohan, and Rohan knew he could trust Dexter, if there was someone to go to about something like this, it would need to be Dexter. There were no options, and there wouldn't have been any better ones.
So he should just tell Dexter, tell him the secret, and let his brother help him. It would've been a perfect duo anyways.
Rohan opens his mouth to speak, but before he could, Dexter continues, "I'm sorry for not talking to you much about that whole thing. I've left you in the dark when you were aching after witnessing that attack so up close...I never thought to confront you about how much it could continue to burn you up from inside. Huh...it's so bad that you're even scared that someone you've always known could be one of them...how hurt are you...Rohan? I'm sorry...I was worried for you...but I didn't say anything. I promise though, I'm not one of them. Don't let the existence of them make you fear everyone you know and meet, I'm the socially anxious one, you need to stay strong."
Rohan's eyes widen, and he closes his mouth again.
He then opens it again, and responds, "Don't worry, I'm not scared of you, sorry for that dumb question. I guess I've been a bit on edge, but you're right, I shouldn't let that destroy everything for me. I have to keep trust in people. I have to keep faith in people."
Rohan lifts his head up to Dexter, and smiles innocently. He adds, "Thank you Dexter, who knew you'd become a sage? I guess college changed you too."
Dexter shakes his head, and he says, "Nah, I just learned that from you."
Rohan's smile fades once again to a frown. It was painful, it really was. He was about to confess everything to Dexter, and it would've been easy.
But if he did, and Dexter already knew of what Rohan was dealing with, what would he really think? Would he follow Rohan's plan, or would he see this as his obsession and paranoia taking over for the worst? Dexter was worried for Rohan, not particularly about losing him, but he was worried that Rohan was letting the trauma get to him. He was worried that his invincible brother was beginning to crack. And if Dexter learned that his brother was seeking to go into the city to pick fights against superpowered beings, what would Dexter see in Rohan?
A strong brother to look up to, still?
Or a maniac driven by fear, having given up any ounce of logic and thought, to fight an impossible war?
Dexter looked up to Rohan and trusted him, Rohan had to be there for him, and he had to make sure to stay strong to Dexter.
Rohan nods his head, and he lets out a sigh. He then smiles again, and says, "You should credit yourself more too. I know you've grown and developed over just half the year alone, and I know you'll continue over the next four years we're here."
Rohan then stands up, and stretches his arms. He wipes his eyes with his hands, hiding the tears in them while trying to make it appear as if he was simply rubbing his eyes out of the tiredness that came from waking up.
He then continues, "You'll do great on your test as well, I'm sure of it. Of course, you can always come to me if you need help though, you do know that, right?"
Dexter nods his head, and he smiles. He answers, "Of course, and same with you. I might not be as smart as you or really as anything as you, but I'm still here for you. I'll always make time for you, brother."
Rohan smiles, and he says, "Thank you, I'll keep that in mind."
Rohan's Connect then projects a hologram of a message notification, and Rohan looks down at Dexter after reading it.
He then says, "Well, Sriya is waiting for me, time to head to practice I guess."
Dexter nods his head, and he says, "Well okay, I'ma lay around for a bit before heading out too. It was fun talking to you, see ya."
Rohan nods his head, and he says, "See you."
He then walks to the other side of the room, and activates his shoes with the click of his feet. Once they tighten, he walks to the door, and it dissolves open on command.
He walks out of the dorm, but before leaving, he turns back to face Dexter, who was still inside, sitting on his bed.
Rohan watches as Dexter lays back on his bed, presumably to continue resting. Rohan sighs, knowing that he had just lied to his brother, a lie that felt more painful than all the other ones.
Rohan then turns around, and closes the door. He walks down the hallway, heading to the elevator pad, ready to head to practice for the morning.
He had hid the truth from his brother to protect the high image his brother had of him, an intelligent man he could go to for anything, trusted to make the right call.
He got rid of the last option he had.
He was truly on his own now.