[Alex's POV]
Alex had reassured Otto and his father that he was fine with taking in Amon's energy.
And in some sense, that was true; Amon's energy was like a refined version of the starlight he'd taken in. It had been patiently harvested and further perfected over the years into the most compatible form it could possibly get. Compare it to a second skin. If Amon hadn't been in a state of despair when Intef pushed him over the edge, he never would have lost control.
But there was a problem that he hadn't anticipated. Apparently, Alex had been born with a different kind of power than Amon. Amon's power was an ancient force, borrowed from the universe, while Alex's power seemed closely related to electricity and originated from inside him like a living thing. It was weaved into his DNA and grew stronger along with the growth of his body.
Now, don't jump to the wrong conclusion. The problem wasn't that the two types of energy weren't compatible. It was quite the opposite. They were too compatible. They nurtured each other. And even though he was hiding it from his father, Alex could feel his energy-levels multiply daily.
That brought him to a second problem. Alex could feel he was nearing the physical limit of his body, which wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't linked to a mental one. Why you ask? Well, let's give an easy example to explain.
When you blow air into a balloon, right up to the point where it would almost burst, there are two things that you could do. One, you can keep blowing and make the balloon burst. Or two, release some air from the balloon to lessens the tension. Easy as pie! So what was the least harmful solution to Alex's problem? Exactly: Release the excess energy. Easy. But that's where the mental problem kicked in.
The last time he'd used his energy unabashedly, Grace had caught wind of his trail. He'd only escaped because of Intef's sacrifice. Releasing a large amount of energy into the universe would be like lighting a flare in the dark for a celestial being. He wasn't sure how active Grace was searching for them anymore (after four thousand years), but he'd rather be safe than sorry. So he kept it all in. Hopefully, he'd find something to invest his energy in instead of simply releasing it.
At first, his growing energy levels hadn't felt like a problem because they only influenced electrical devices. And there was no such thing as electricity in the Field of Reeds. But in their modern day world, it had become all too clear. He couldn't even touch a light switch without blowing a fuse somewhere.
His own devices didn't seem to have this problem, even without his intervention, which made him forget that he had that kind of effect on other people's devices.
And that is exactly what happened at school when Jasper said: "Dude, you need to check out this new game! And please, don't pulverize my high-score. It always takes me forever them."
"But I didn't even try to break it," Alex had laughed while he accepted Jasper's phone to take a look, but the device literally exploded with a loud BANG on the first contact with his skin.
Alex stared in surprise at the device while Jasper started freaking out. It looked like the battery had swollen like a pack of popcorn in a microwave. The whole device felt hot to the touch and a thin trail of smoke was rising from the gap between the cracked plastic case, which caught fire as Alex was watching it.
If Alex had been a normal human, he would have already had serious burns on his hand. But then again, didn't this prove that he wasn't "a normal human"? Was this how it was going to be from now on? Would he never be able to touch an electronic device ever again?
A wave of frustration rolled over him and he threw the device with an angry shout across the courtyard. The burning device passed twenty heads over the six meters Alex had thrown it and smacked into the wall with such force that the already burning battery exploded and shattered in a hundred pieces.
Alex was breathing heavily as he watched the last flaming parts of the phone fall to the ground and die out. Damn it! This was an awful time for Amon's anger management issues to rear its ugly head.
"D-dude?!" Jasper's exasperated sounding question pulled him back from the rolling wave of anger. When he looked up, it wasn't just Jasper that looked thoroughly worried and confused, but all the people the phone had whizzed past too. Alex finally realized what it was that he'd done and instantly felt deeply ashamed.
"I- … I think I broke your phone," he stammered in what was quickly turning into a full-blown panic. "Jasper I'm SO sorry! I can't believe I threw your phone like that. Shit, I completely destroyed it, didn't I? Please let me buy you a new one to make it up to you?"
"What the fuck, Alex, seriously? Do you really think I care about the stupid thing when I literally just saw the damned thing explode right into your hands?! I would have thrown it myself if I'd known it was going to freaking explode! Are you OK? Do we need to go see the nurse?" Jasper asked, seemingly in a similar state of panic to Alex.
But Alex was feeling too ridden with guilt to be amused by the situation. In contradiction to what Jasper thought, the exploding phone was most definitely his doing. Yet he couldn't explain why it was his fault, because it wasn't exactly normal to have that effect on devices, now was it?
And it didn't help that the incident had been caused by his carelessness. He'd nearly injured innocent people. For example, the device could've exploded in Jasper's hand instead of his own, which would have resulted in ugly burns. Not to mention that it could've hit someone when he'd thrown it.
"Can you just accept that I'm buying you a new freaking phone?" Alex grumbled between clenched teeth. He'd barely finished saying the sentence when his eyes caught Otto's. He could tell from how worried she looked that she'd seen the whole thing.
"Can I talk to you for a second?" she said as she swiftly grabbed his hand and pulled him along to a secluded corridor.
"What the hell was that?!" she yell-whispered urgently when they were alone.
"What was what?" he asked, acting innocently as he avoided eye-contact.
"That," she said in a threatening way as she pointed in the direction they'd come from, which he recognized as a warning not to play games with her. "Did that phone explode just now because you touched it?!"
He looked at her incredulously.
"Really nothing gets past you, does it? What gave me away?"
"Oh, come on. You were obviously feeling guilty," Otto dead-panned.
"And why would that give me away?" Alex asked completely taken by surprise.
"Alex," Otto said as she gently took his hand and glanced up at him with pity in her eyes. Only now did he noticed it was black with soot. "A phone exploded in your hand. The least you could do was look surprised or hurt. Your powers won't stay a secret for long like this."
Busted. Alex felt rather ridiculous now that she'd explained.
"Sorry," he said as she rubbed the soot from his hand to reveal healthy flesh underneath. "I totally lost my cool out there. That was already the twelfth device that exploded because of me since I've acquired Amon's energy. Seriously, I can't touch regular light switches anymore because it'll cause a fuse to blow somewhere."
"Oh no, Alex… Don't tell me! The computer in the science lab was your doing?!"
"Sorry," he said as he drooped his head.
"Ugh," she complained. She looked annoyed, but not angry. "Why didn't you just fix it? I know you could magic it back to exactly the way it had been before you made it explode."
"Well, there wouldn't be a point, really. Just look at that light," he said as he waved his hand slowly back and forth in front of the light bulb on the wall. It shined brightly when his hand was near and dimmed when his hand was further away. "Some devices explode just because I'm near."
"Hmm," Otto hummed thoughtfully. "That is a problem. Maybe you should ask your dad for advice?" she mumbled in thought. "Is there really nothing you can do?"
"I could," Alex said with a shrug. "But then what? Don't you think people will notice if all the computers in the school suddenly worked at light-speed or that the electricity bill would be reduced to nearly nothing?"
"You can do that?!"
"Yeah," he said. "Just look at my phone. Would you believe it is six years old? I think I've been unconsciously influencing it. Actually, all the devices at home are like that."
"That's amazing!" Otto exclaimed. "Could you do that to my phone too?"
"Of course."
Alex chuckled as she hastily fished her phone from her backpack and presented it to him. He lightly tapped the corner of the device and a single blue spark jumped over. It quickly multiplied itself, and as it weaved itself a web of lights, the device started floating slowly in the air. The lights continued to weave a web of blue lights until it had formed a sphere around the phone and then it popped like a bubble, dropping the device back perfectly fine into Otto's hand. Alex was starting to like this "visual display" of his magic. He could get really creative with it.
"Show off," Otto mumbled as she quickly checked out her phone to see if she could spot the changes.
"Wow! You even enhanced the camera! It almost feels like a mirror now," she chirped excitedly, clicked the device to sleep, put it away and gave Alex a kiss. "Thank you!"
They would have snuggled and kissed a bit longer, if it weren't for the school bell that had started ringing.
"I'll see you later," she said as she turned to leave, but froze in her tracks. Alex looked up to where she was looking and startled when he saw Jasper looking at them from a little further down the corridor. He looked severely confused and ready to turn around and run.
"Don't run!" Alex shouted as Jasper was already spinning on his heels, but froze at the sound of Alex's voice.
"Alex?" Otto asked worriedly, unsure of what to do now. Alex sighed.
"It's OK… I'll talk to him. Could you go to class and tell the teacher we'll be absent?" he said. Otto nodded slowly and left. Then he grabbed his phone from the back-pocket of his jeans and send a message to his dad: "My friend saw me use my powers at school. I'm going to talk to him. Can you provide an alibi for us?"
"OK, be careful," the reply came quickly. Then he clicked off his phone and put it away. When he looked back up, Jasper looked like he was about ready to pass out.
"W-what are you going to do to me?" he asked. He looked rather terrified. "Are you going to wipe my memory? Please don't kill me! I can keep a secret. I didn't see anything! I swear!"
Alex heaved a big sigh.
"Calm down, will you. I know I can trust you. That's why I want to explain."
Jasper looked him in the eyes while he held his breath. He stayed like that for a full three seconds.
"Pfu! Thank God!" he finally released his held in breath. "This could have gone very differently. I watched this vampire movie yesterday and let's just say it didn't end well for innocent by-passers."
"Are you comparing me to vampires?!" Alex asked incredulously.
"Oh? You're not then? That's a relief! I wouldn't be able to relax around a vampire. You never know when they'll get hungry," Jasper chattered on in his usual carefree manner of speaking. He still looked awfully stiff though.
"I hope you don't mind me asking, but if you aren't a vampire, than what are you?" he asked a little uncertain.
Alex chuckled.
"Let's talk somewhere else."