I12DT: Blinded by the Light

[Benjamin Brant]

Ben knocked on the door nervously. By now, he was glowing fairly intensely. It was actually pretty uncomfortable to be near him at this point.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"It's open, come in!"

[Benjamin Brant]

Ben opens the door and walks in, "Howdy, Ms. Kaltiera...ummm...so...."

"Sort of got a lil' problem, ma'am."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Stephanie smiled as the door opened then winced a bit, shielding her eyes as he walked in.

"Oh my. Well hello Benjamin...it's...hold on a second.

Steph fumbled on her desk a bit and grabbed a pair of sunglasses, putting them on quickly. "Okay. How long have you been having trouble, and is it getting better or worse than when it started?"

[Benjamin Brant]

"Well, just since last night," Ben says, "And...well..."

Ben's shirt had started to smoke a little.

"A little worse, ma'am."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Steph raised her eyebrows at the smoke.

"...Benjamin, please don't take this the wrong way, but please remove your shirt ...before it catches fire at least."

She hopped up from her desk and took a few steps deeper into the closet-sized office, opening what looked to be a dresser and pulling out a shirt made of unstable molecules along with a pair of pants.

[Benjamin Brant]

Ben blushes rather hard, "Would you mind turning your back or something, ma'am? It's a little....awkward."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"Of course," she said, obliging after setting the clothes on top of a file cabinet he was standing next to.

Steph talked over her shoulder, not looking back. "There's a restroom about thirty feet down the hall. Why don't you change into the rest of the outfit there.

[Benjamin Brant]

"Right," Ben says, having quickly switched shirts, "Thank you, ma'am."

Ben leaves the room and a minute or so later is back in his new clothes.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. I really don't know why this happening."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"Don't apologize," she smiled warmly, "this happens to us all."

She grabbed a small purse and a set of keys and gestured towards the door. "Let's go for a walk outside away from the office full of combustible paper. You can leave your clothes on my chair."

[Benjamin Brant]

"Right, that sounds good," Ben says, following after Steph, "If you don't mind me asking, ma'am, what do you think is wrong?"

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Steph locked the door of her office, a thoughtful expression on her face as they started walking towards the grounds.

"Hard to say for sure. Sometimes your powers are just going to act up, unfortunately...do you know, for instance, how many times I shifted uncontrollably, ruined my clothes, and then wound up mostly naked in front of classmates while I was in high school? Way, WAY too many times."

She pushed open the door and held it for Ben.

"Did anything happen to start the glowing? Dreams? Practicing? Stressed out about anything?"

[Benjamin Brant]

"Nothing major," Ben says, "I mean, things seem a little brighter than usual, but that's about all."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"No fights with or crushes on your classmates?"

[Benjamin Brant]

"Nah, nothing like that," Ben says, "I'm feeling perfectly normal, I just can't turn it off. I mean, I'm even absorbing radio waves. That's just weird."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"...so you're absorbing energy and that's making you brighter."

Good working taking him out into the midday sun, Steph.

"Well...have you tried to... release it?"

[Benjamin Brant]

"I'm kind of worried what would happen," Ben says, "I think I would roast the entire area."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Steph pulled out her phone and opened up an app that took her into the student database to see what sort of tests had gotten run on Ben's powers so far.

"Well. I know of a good place to test out that theory without hurting anything or anyone," she said, scrolling through his file, looking up and nodding in the direction of the Danger Room--which they were more or less heading towards anyway. "Trust me when I say that bottling things up only works for so long, and the longer you hold something in, the worse it'll be if it comes out on its own.

[Benjamin Brant]

"That makes sense," Ben says. According to Steph's records, Ben was probably holding way more radiation than he usually did.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Steph tucked her phone into her purse and regarded Ben carefully, but with a pleasant smile on her face. "We'll get this taken care of, Mr. Brant, don't worry."

[Benjamin Brant]

"If I'm going to explode, you can tell me, ma'am," Ben says, "I won't be scared."

"...I would rather not explode though."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"I don't think you're going to explode, Mr. Brant. At least not in the way you're worried about," she smiled reassuringly as they neared the Danger Room.

....welll at least I hope not.

[Benjamin Brant]

"There's another way? Begging your pardon ma'am, exploding in general sounds...bad."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"There's plenty of mutants who can generate explosions that don't hurt themselves. You could just be right at the center of a big blast that goes out in every direction from you, but doesn't harm you one bit...but we'll go for a more slow, controlled release first," she smiled.

[Benjamin Brant]

"Sounds like a plan," Ben agrees.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Steph led them into the Danger Room.

"Computer, load standard power practice simulation, full safeties engaged."

"Okay. So... remind me how far you've gotten in your own power practice. Mr. Gabriel's been looking at the journals the past two weeks."

[Benjamin Brant]

"Mostly just firing off blasts of light, changing colors, and absorbing specific sources of light," Ben says.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"Okay. We'll do that then," she nodded. "Computer, generate some targets."

Several archery-like targets materialized across from them.

"What we want to do here is just release some of this energy before it comes out on its own. So just start aiming for those targets on the other side of the room.

[Benjamin Brant]

"Alright," Ben says, "I'll give it a shot."

Ben lifts his hands and concentrates hard.

Then there's a bright flash of light and he disappears.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Stephanie winced at the glare and then looked around, concerned.

"Benjamin?"

She sniffed the air, seeing if she could smell him.

[Benjamin Brant]

Ben was nowhere to be smelled. For a moment, everything was completely quiet.

Then there was another flash of light and Ben reappeared, looking very surprised.

"Okay," Ben says, "That....that was weird, ma'am."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"Computer locate student Be--"

Stephanie was interrupted by his return.

"Are you alright?" she asked, rushing over to him. "What happened?"

[Benjamin Brant]

"Heck if I know," Ben says, "One minute I was standing here, the next I was..."

"Well, kind of everywhere."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"Everywhere? What do you mean? Pretend this is your power journal. Give me lots of detail."

[Benjamin Brant]

"It was like I was scattered across the entire room, just hitting things before I kind of returned to where I started," Ben explains.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"....interesting. How much science class have you had, Mr. Brant? Do you have any thoughts on what happened to you? I have an idea at least..."

[Benjamin Brant]

"Science isn't my strong suit," Ben admits, "But...I was light right? Something like that?"

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"Sure seems like it," she nodded.

"Computer, did student Brant ever leave the Danger Room?"

[Benjamin Brant]

According to the Danger Room, Ben had never left the Danger Room the entire session.

"Well, that's neat and everything, ma'am," Ben says, "But I'm not sure what it means I guess."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"Well, it means that you didn't explode," she smirked. "It means that you just sort of...changed into pure light, spread all around the room. We'll have to work on control a bit differently now, perhaps."