Groaning, I opened my eyes slowly and was surprised to find myself in Connor's basement. My surprise didn't last long as a spike of pain ripped from my soul through me.
"Is this a what a migraine feels like?" I mumbled groggily to myself.
"Welcome back." Connor's dad glanced at me, before turning back to his game. "How are you feeling?"
"Ughhh, like someone ripped me into pieces and then put me back together."
"Sounds rough."
Grunting, I gingerly made my way to the bar where I knew some pain killers were hidden. Taking a couple, I sat back down and closed my eyes.
'What the hell happened?' I thought, trying to remember. There'd been a massive amount of pain, some notifications and then... nothing.
I tried to access my implant.
*Implant Upgrade in process, 48 hours required before use is fully restored.*
"Damn!" I cursed aloud, opening my eyes.
Connor's dad was looking at me questioningly, so I said, "I can't use my implant for 48 hours, it's a total pain in the ass."
"Oh, did you die? I heard that dying will lock you out of the implants for a while
"Nah, just got an inheritance and then my implant was forcibly upgraded. Seems I'm stuck cooling my heels for a couple days."
"That's not a totally bad thing." He said, turning to me, "You guys have taken advantage of the storm to stay in for nearly 4 days at this point. You need to remember that you have to go to school too, and however awesome it is, you live here."
"Yeah, I guess..."
Several hours later, I'd finally recovered partially from having my soul branded. It still hurt, but at least I can keep my eyes open without feeling like someone was thrusting an ice pick through my skull.
"Hey, is this what hangovers feel like?" I asked Connor's dad as we played some Call of Duty online. I figured out how to use the remaining functions of my implant as a wifi hotspot so we could play online and get the news despite the storm. Good news is that the storm was slowing down, by tomorrow people would be digging themselves out and plows would start moving.
"Nah, no dry heaving, you don't look nauseous, and most importantly you don't stink."
Of course, as he said that it started stinking. It was so bad, I couldn't breathe. Reflexively I tried to create a barrier, it didn't work. Instead, it felt like my head erupted in pain the moment I tried to use elemental energy. Between the pain and the smell I started dry heaving, was definitely nauseous, and something sure as hell stank... I think I'm hungover.
Trying to figure out which skunk died, Connor's dad started tearing the room apart until finally we noticed that a yellowish-black substance was seeping out of Beth's pores, covering her from head to toe.
"Shit, you kids are too much. Couldn't she have just waited for the storm to pass before she broke through!" Connor's dad started bitching, while I was on my knees dry heaving.
'No wonder they were calling me stinky' I thought as I finally got enough control over my body to stop dry heaving.
Just as we started to get used to the smell, another wave hit us. We watched in horror as the same yellowish-black substance started to leak out of Connor.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" I yelled, and that's when Rick started to glow a soft white, holy light and even more crap came out of him.
"Screw this!" Connor's dad yelled as he ran to the control panel for the panic room, "Open the door!" He yelled as he placed his hand on the scanner. The steel door opened with a swoosh, and we ran into the staircase. At the top, we pulled open the door that lead to the kitchen and a wall of white collapsed on us.
"Argh!!" We tumbled back down the stairs as the wall of white collapsed on top of us. Thankfully, the house wasn't completely full of snow since the roof didn't break until after it'd already dropped 10 feet of snow, so we weren't totally buried.
Climbing back up the stairs, I spat snow out of my mouth while trying to get the disgusting aroma out of my nose. It was so bad that I could literally taste it!
Finally clear of the stairs, Connor's dad forced his way into the garage. Following him, I was amazed when I saw him open up another hand-scanner at the back of the garage. Putting his hand on it he said, "Authorize removal of two gas masks."
With another swooshing sound, the wall lifted and a massive armory appeared. Handguns, Assault Rifles, Grenades, "Is that a rocket launcher?" I asked as he handed me a gas mask.
"You didn't see that, but yeah. This is my zombie apocalypse stash, I've got a better one but it's in Manitou."
"Got it, didn't see nothing." I said as he showed me how to put the gas mask on.
"Make sure it's airtight, if that smell gets in it's not going away till you leave the room again." After we made sure our masks were on right, we walked through the house checking it out.
"Damn, I think the roof over the kitchen collapsed too, you see the corner over there." I said, pointing to a spot where I could just see the sun through the ceiling in the kitchen.
"Yeah, this place is getting condemned for sure." He said while surveying the damage. Since we were up here anyway, we took the opportunity to walk around the house. The entrance hall had at least 4 feet of snow mixed with broken furniture, a gorgeous stained glass window that used to bring color to the hall was in pieces at the bottom of the stairs. Upstairs, the only room the roof hadn't collapsed on was the master bedroom.
'Guess my shoveling did help a bit.' I thought to myself as we toured what was left of the once gorgeous, expensive house. We couldn't check the whole place out though. It was dangerously unstable, and once I thought a wall was going to come down on us. That's when we called it quits and headed back to the basement, double checking that the gas masks where working properly.
"Too bad, I'm going to have to move the weapons out before an inspector comes..." I heard him talking to himself under his breath, "at least the other cache is underground no way that can be found."
'Yeah, I don't want to know.' I thought to myself as I walked past him, into the basement.
Before I knew it, another day had passed and the sun could be seen peeking through the clouds. It was Tuesday, and I was still stuck in the basement unable to log into MSE. Much as Connor's dad is cool, he's still a dad you know. Being stuck down there while my friends were in MSE got old real fast. So, I jumped at the opportunity to get out and start digging us out.
Thankfully, I'd full recovered from whatever had shut my abilities off by now. Which means that if the neighbors were to look out the window, they'd see a skinny 17 year old in shorts without a shirt covered in a light blue glow, using a shovel to dig a house, without a roof, out of the worst blizzard in Colorado's history.
"Phew." I breathed out as I wiped the sweat off my forehead. Connor's dad was still in the basement chilling out, I just needed something to do before I went crazy and ever since I joined Storm's Refuge being outside felt better than being inside, it just felt... unnatural to be stuck underground with no sky.
Turning to look, I smiled as I saw that it was now possible to exit the house from the front door. When I'd gotten started, I'd had to climb out the window of the master bedroom and then very carefully jump into the 12+ feet high snow drifts and dig myself out.
Now that I had some room, I decided to have some fun with this, grabbing the shovel I used it like a staff and stabbed forwards while yelling, "Elemental Strike!"
*BOOM* It was like a bomb was detonated, snow flew everywhere and I grinned at the sight.
"Not bad, not bad!" Said Rick who had come up behind me, "But I think I can do better." He grabbed a shovel and swung it over his head, slamming it into the ground while yelling, "HOLY SMASH!"
*BOOM* the snow evaporated in a circle 5 feet around him as white light exploded from his strike.
"HAHAHAHA. What are you, the Holy Hulk?" I started laughing at him.
Beth who had just climbed up the stairs behind him started laughing too, "HAHAHAHA, Rick the Holy Hulk. I can just see it, we should call Stan Lee!"
Rick's face turned red, "Let's see you do better!" He shouted at her.
Snorting, she grabbed his shovel and yelled, "Earth God's Rush!" Brown light covered her from head to toe as she slammed into the 12 feet tall snow drifts. Next thing we knew, a Beth shaped hole was perfectly formed in the snow. Looking in the hole, I couldn't even see the end.
"Damn, how far did she go?" I asked, surprised.
"HAHAHA, beat that Holy Hulk!" I heard her yelling from nearly a 100 feet away at the end of the driveway. She'd dug herself to the top of the snow and was having a great time mocking him from there.
Turning to Connor who had just joined us asking, "You gonna show off too?"
"Nah, I don't have any fancy moves yet. All I've learned how to do is cut stuff."
"Oh well, guess you're stuck shoveling the boring way." I said as I walked towards the Beth shaped hole and swung the shovel like a baseball bat, "Elemental Strike!" *Whoosh* almost ten feet of snow was sucked into a vortex of wind as it barreled into the grass, clearing the driveway.
Like that, we spent the next few hours playing around with our new abilities. We got a little overzealous and when the plows reached the street the next morning they found it already clear of snow.