February 1990, Flashcharge age 12
"Heya TJ! See ya at the bowling alley, no?" Tyler shouted to Thomas and waved at him as he ran off. "Later man! See ya!" Various other boys shouted their goodbyes at Thomas as they ran off to go home and get ready for the big tournament. The big bowling tournament was a huge event with a grandprize of $2500 dollars for the winner! That was HUGE! And every boy in town had decided to join in. Several teams had formed in Thomas' class alone and they had been practicing for the past few weeks. The REALLY motivated ones had started MONTHS earlier even, but Thomas considered that to be nonsense and viewed those idiots with something a bit more than disdain.
He ran into his house and stormed up to his room to change into some more casual clothes instead of the stupid uniform they always had to wear. He changed and grabbed the bowling ball his father had gifted him and was already running down the stairs again, jumping the last four steps and skipping past his mother. "Oh! TJ! Where are you going?" she complained, "Don't forget dinner's at SIX!" She called out when he just waved back at her and shouted something about the bowling alley. She continued to watch him run off, smiling fondly at her only son, her darling TJ and set out to continue her daily duties.
The bowling competition had been terribly exciting! Thomas and his team of Tyler, Rick and Alan were doing quite good, standing at second place, just barely beneath the first place. They still had several rounds to go, but things were looking quite well. That changed in the very last round. Alan completely blew it due to his nerves and didn't hit any of the pins. They lost by one point. Everyone immediatly started shouting at Alan, even as the other team was cheering madly. Thomas, too, was absolutely furious, shouting at Alan and gesturing madly to the pins. How could he have been this STUPID?! Was he a retard?! WHAT had they been practicing for and-- He continued to shout, winding himself up so much, that when he once more jabbed his finger into Alan's chest and motioned furiously to the pins, a crackle of energy seemed to shoot through his arm and a blue sphere of energy seemed to speed away from his hand towards the back wall. Thomas gaped, as did Alan and the other two boys. "Dude, you totally just--" Rick's voice had been excited before hell broke loose.
The moment the sphere hit a solid substance, it exploded and instantly evaporated everything in its surroundings. The entire back wall was just gone, but the explosion from several gas tanks that had been stored there and other flammable substances, caused the destruction to blast inwards. At the same time, the roof started to come down, having lost an important support structure and the fire and heat from the explosions was striking further inwards. Thomas and his friends had been slammed into the ground due to the force of the explosion and he was now staring at the destruction in pure horror, his hair and clothes singed due to the heat. He had no words to express himself. What had just happened? He-- something out of his hand...and then... and then... He continued to stare in absolute horror. The roof came crashing down above them and Thomas screamed, shielding himself with his arms, as if that could stop the heavy debris.
Apparently it could. Somehow his body responded and more of that creepy blue stuff came shooting out and completely destroyed whatever had been falling down towards Thomas and his friends. Once the noise and screams had died down, there was only a thick cloud of dust, together with the gasping breaths of his friends. They were all staring around wildly, trying to see what was going on.
What Thomas glimpsed through the gaps in the dust cloud took his breath away. There was almost nothing left of the bowling alley. The back part, together with the bowling lanes were nothing but a heap of debris. Surrounding them, the roof had also come down. Thomas and his friends were in the middle of a pile of debris, having been the only survivors of the middle part of teh building. The front of the buildlig seemed to have made it through unscathed, the bar area had had a solidifed roof and that's what saved the people that had retreated there. They were staring, gaping in shock at the massive destruction of the building, not able to comprehend. Someone screamed then and another person cried out for something. They started to spread out in the rubble, some of the desperately digging their way through, trying to find someone, others having found someone, only to find them dead.
Thomas had gone in shock, just staring around at all the destruction. Had he done this? He couldn't have! He refused to believe it. He just stared. The other three boys besides him also seemed to be numb in shock although Tyler was staring at Thomas with something akin to disbelief. That was when they were found and someone shouted for help. The boys were carried out, to the paramedics that had pulled over by now but Thomas came to by then, struggling and refusing to come. He did NOT want to! He wanted to go HOME! He was fine! They let him down carefully, the paramedic trying to reason with Thomas, but he shook his head, tears in his eyes and then ran off, to home.
He stormed into the house, eyes wild, calling desperately for his mother. Katie came out immediatly, recognising his cries to be REAL and serious. Upon seeing her boy, covered in dust and blood she cried out too and rushed over to him as quick as she could. Thomas fell into her arms and started crying hysterically, talking about the explosion and how they lost and he hadn't MEANT to but it had happened and Alan and Tyler and Rick and SO many people were DEAD! He continued to cry loudly into her arms for a good half an hour before Katie managed to calm her son somewhat. The tale he had told had made her heart freeze. Some evolved had blown up the bowling hall where her sweet and only son had been? She was crying too, still trying to comfort Thomas, realising how close she had come to losing him. She'd make sure to have whoever had endangered her boy be brought to justice! Thomas calmed down a bit after half an hour, but he clamped down almost immediatly, having gone into shock. She took him to sit gently on the couch, fussing over him, worrying over him, hugging him. Thomas did respond to that, at least.
Another half an hour later, James rushed into the house, covered in just as much dust and blood as Thomas had been. His eyes were just as wild as Thomas as been and he cried out upon seeing Thomas and Katie. "TJ! Kat!" He was with them within seconds, embracing his son tightly, crying as he did so. "Tom!" He gripped his son's shoudlers tightly. "The bowling alley...you...I didn't..." He pulled Thomas tightly against him, having been so incredibly, tremendously worried. The moment he'd heard about the bowling hall, he'd run off there to help, his heart nearly stopping. The bowling competition was being held now. the one his SON was participating in. Upon arriving he, and a hundred others, had tried their best to dig out the victims. Some could be found alive, but most were dead. With each victim they uncovered, James had grown more and more afraid for what he'd find until FINALLY he'd found someone that knew Thomas had gone home and he had rushed off. He was just beyond relief to know his boy was safe. "Oh TJ, TJ, TJ," He continued to hold Thomas tightly, still crying. "I'm so glad you're safe," he whispered. "TJ?" He asked, looking worriedly at Thomas when he didn't respond.
Katie placed a hand on her husband's arm. "I was just about to bring him to bed. He's in shock," she sounded afraid. James nodded in agreement. Yes. But he'd go back to help. So many victims. Nearly all of the children had been there and-- At that point James broke down, all of those victims! Those dead children! Three times he thought he had seen Thomas and-- Katie soothed him, calming him, telling him it'd be fine. Thomas was fine, he wasn't dead. It was some evolved," she had told him angrily. James had responded just as angrily and then ran back out to help the rescue efforts.
James came home late that evening, deathly pale and fell down onto the couch, exhausted and terrified. "Jim?" Katie asked, concerned.
"The evolved..." James spoke.
"Yes?" Katie prompted.
"Katie, Katie," James started crying into her shoulder. "Jim?!" Katie held him, so terrified what he was going to say. "Our son!" James exclaimed loudly, as if it was the end of the world.
"What?" Katie's voice had dropped to a terrified whisper.
"Our son! Our SON was the one who did that!! All those deaths! All those children, that destruction! IT WAS OUR SON WHO DID THAT!!" James cried, not able to cope.
Katie's intake of breath was sharp. "No..no...no... they're lying...not our TJ... not my perfect little TJ...no..."
"Yes, yes..." James cried. "They saw him, little Tyler saw him, him and that lad of Goodsbrough. Our boy! It was our boy!"
"NO!" Katie had exclaimed and then she had started to cry too. How could her boy DO that?! He was PERFECT! Not their Tommy! No!
They both continued to cry until deep into the night, too shocked and afraid by this sudden revelation.
The next day, Thomas was a bit more responsive. Responsive enough to notice something was wrong. His mother was crying constantly and his father was absent minded, a bit more cold to him. He wondered about that, but mostly his thoughts were still on what had happened and on whether it had REALLY been him or not. He did not notice the various people coming to their door, argueing loudly with his parents, fighting with them, even, about Thomas. Thomas didn't notice very much at all, too busy with his own thoughts.
He DID notice the men that were suddenly standing in his room, nearly a day later. One of them had stepped closer and had placed some sort of collar on his neck. It felt WEIRD! Some creepy tingly feelign and it HURT too. As if something inside of him broke. He had stared up at the man in shock and then was promptly marched outside. His parents made no move to stop them. Thomas stared wildly at his parents, watching how he was led away, absolutely terrified. "A-are you not g-going to s-stop them?" he asked, tears welling up.
His mother started crying into his father's shoulder and didn't say anything. James just looked sadly at Thomas. "I'm sorry son," his voice was hoarse. "You're one of them evos. We can't have that. But they'll fix you. They'll fix you TJ. Don't worry. You can come back to us when they have." Katie just continued to sob. And one of the men had taken a tight grip on Thomas' shoulder and steered him into the van accompanied by the jeers and angry shouts and screams of the gathered crowd. Thomas looked at them, completely shocked. Where had those people come from? what did they want? He didn't get it until he heard someone shout something about evolveds and was looking at HIM. It hit him then. They were going to take him away! Thomas looked back at his parents, desperately, wildly, but neither of them were looking at him. They were holding each other. Katie crying into James'shoulder. When Thomas was pushed into the van, it would be the last time he'd ever see his parents.
They rode for a very long time and Thomas quickly lost track of where they were. He had dozed off at one point, despite his fear, and was suddenly shaken quite forcefully. The man had dragged him up and then out of the car until they were in front of a large, imposing building. "W-what's that?" Thomas whispered.
"It's your new home, kid," the man smirked and then firmly led Thomas inside.
It'd be ten months before he'd see the daylight again.
