Chapter 1: The Core
"Gonna sleep hungry again, aren't we Seth?"
Fex's voice cut through the misery like it always did. Seth pulled the soggy cardboard tighter around his shoulders, but it didn't help much. The damn thing was falling apart.
"Yeah... looks like it." Seth's stomach cramped again. Third day in a row. "Just hoping it doesn't rain tonight."
"What about that building over there?" Peter chimed in. Always the practical one.
"Nah, wait a bit. Restaurant guy usually dumps the leftovers around now." Seth knew the routine by heart. Had to.
But then the first drops started falling. Of course they did.
"Perfect. Just fucking perfect." Seth muttered, watching the sky turn darker. "I swear the universe has it out for me or something."
The rain went from a few drops to a full-blown downpour in seconds. Seth tried covering his head with what was left of his cardboard shield, but it was useless. His teeth started chattering.
"We should run!" Peter was getting panicky.
"Oh please," Fex cut him off. "Running in rain just gets you wetter faster. Everyone knows that."
That's when Seth heard it. This weird thumping sound from above. He looked up and saw people... jumping? From roof to roof like some kind of parkour shit. Then something fell.
It bounced right off his cardboard and landed in a puddle next to him.
Seth stared at the thing. Round, about the size of an apple, glowing like... well, like nothing he'd ever seen before.
"Holy shit, Seth! Grab it!" Fex practically screamed in his head.
"Is that...?" Peter started.
"Just grab the damn thing and run!"
Seth didn't need to be told twice. He snatched the glowing orb and booked it toward the abandoned building, his heart hammering against his ribs.
The building stunk. Mold, piss, and something else Seth didn't want to think about. But at least the corner he found was dry. Mostly.
He sat there, dripping wet and shivering, staring at the thing in his hands. It was warm. Actually warm, not just body temperature warm.
"I can't believe this," Fex's voice was full of excitement. "That's a Core, Seth. An actual fucking Core."
"We could sell it," Peter said, but even he didn't sound convinced. "Buy food for... I don't know, weeks maybe?"
"Or..." Fex paused dramatically. "We could use it."
Seth's stomach dropped. "Use it how?"
"You know how. Absorb it. Get an ability."
"And if I get something useless?" Seth asked, though he already knew Fex's answer.
"Then we're fucked anyway, aren't we? Look at us, Seth. We're seventeen and living like rats. How's selling this Core gonna change anything long-term? We eat for a month, then what? Back to this shithole, back to scraping for scraps."
Peter was quiet for a long time. Then: "He's... he's not wrong, Seth. This might be our only shot."
Seth turned the Core over in his hands. It pulsed gently, like a heartbeat. Like it was alive.
"What if I die?"
"What if you don't?" Fex shot back.
The rain kept drumming on the broken windows. Seth closed his eyes and tried to imagine what having an ability would feel like. Flying maybe. Or super strength. Something useful for once in his miserable life.
"Fuck it," he whispered. "Let's do this."
"Seth—" Peter started.
"No, I'm done being careful. Done being smart. Smart got me here." He held the Core up to his chest. "How do I...?"
"Just... absorb it, I think? Focus on pulling the energy into yourself."
Seth pressed the Core against his chest and tried to focus. At first nothing happened. Then he felt it - this weird tingling sensation spreading from his hands.
The Core started glowing brighter. Three streams of energy - blue, red, and green - began flowing from it into him.
"Oh shit, it's working—"
Then the pain hit.
It felt like someone was shoving molten metal through his veins. Seth screamed, but no sound came out. The energy was burning through him, rewriting something fundamental in his body.
In his head, Fex and Peter were screaming too.
The Core cracked. Light exploded from it.
And then...
Seth blinked.
He was... somewhere else. Floating in this weird space filled with soft, blue light. And standing in front of him were... himself. Two other versions of himself.
"What the hell?"
"Hey Seth," one of them said, grinning. "I'm Fex. This is Peter."
They looked exactly like him, but different somehow. Fex seemed more confident, cocky even. Peter looked worried, like he always sounded.
"This is so weird," Seth muttered, looking around. "Where are we?"
"Inside your consciousness, I think?" Peter said. "Look at that."
Seth followed his gaze. Three glowing trees - or maybe roots? - hung in the space above them. Each one pulsed with different colored light.
"Our Cores," Fex said. "Gotta be."
"Wait, we each get one?"
"Looks like it. Come on, let's see what we got."
Seth watched as Fex approached the first tree-thing. After a moment, Fex's eyes went wide.
"Teleportation! I can fucking teleport!"
Peter went next. "Emotion sensing. I can feel what people are feeling."
Then it was Seth's turn. He touched his Core and...
"Temperature control. In my hands." He tried not to sound as disappointed as he felt.
"That's it?"
"Hey, abilities grow stronger over time," Peter said quickly. "And you've got two more, remember?"
"Yeah, about that..." Seth looked at his Core-tree-thing again. It looked... incomplete somehow. Like it was missing pieces. "I don't think one Core was enough for all three abilities."
They spent the next few hours figuring things out. Seth could teleport, but only about two feet and only three times before getting exhausted. His temperature thing was even worse - he could make his hands five degrees warmer or cooler. That was it.
"It's a start," Peter kept saying. "It's something."
But Seth knew better. Even with abilities, even with this miracle, he was still weak. Still useless.
Still hungry.
When the sun came up, he was ready to find out just how useless his new powers really were.