N:
2006
“Dream on, babe… ‘nitrogen’, my foot! I bet they’ll take after me, and my fluorine.” Fluora asserted, as she munched on a dark chocolate bar.
Her husband, Xeno, cringed as he saw her bite into it rather than break off a square like a normal person. “And what power is that again, brushing teeth?”
“A, a good oral hygiene is nothing to frown upon,” she retorted, flashing her beautiful smile... with a bit of chocolate, but it was quite unnoticable, the very smile that mesmerized Xeno himself a year or three ago when she first joined as faculty. “And B, you may not have passed down the nitrogen gene, considering you lost the power in 1999 and it’s 2006.”
Xeno sighed dejectedly as he recalled the incident. “Right… that’s there. But you know… there is a chance.” he trailed off, lost in thought.
Fluora winced slightly as she felt a sharp pain in her stomach. “Welp…” she retched, shoving her chocolate bar into Xeno’s hand and standing up. “There goes most of my chocolate bar, may it rest in…”
But before she said the last word, the food had nearly made its way till her throat, and she ran off immediately.
The golden-haired doctor was used to it. Something would be going on and all of a sudden Fluora would get up and run off, panicked, clutching her mouth.
This had been a part of his daily routine for around seven and a half months now, but he knew that in one and a half months (he had done the math), his whole world would be thrown for an even bigger tailspin than the 1999 radioactive incident.
His nitrogen power was a rather interesting one. He could boost plant growth. It was a beautiful power, but it was a shame he had to let it go. It wasn’t his fault either.
1999
It was a class presentation gone wrong. The student stepped up to the front of the class, her eyes beaming with a faint green glow, and with pride. She pulled her platinum blonde hair back into a ponytail and braced herself as she released the radioactive gas toward him.
He could feel his arthritis-riddled joints healing, making him lose his focus for a minute as he pondered upon how he could have gotten it in his late 20’s in the first place. He shrugged the thought aside, but just as he regained his concentration on the class, he heard a small sneeze, and all of a sudden, he felt a part of himself being sucked out of him, though he had no clue as to what it could be.
Ferris, the girl’s lab partner rushed to her side as her legs couldn’t hold her weight anymore and slowly, she fell to the ground unconscious. “Alithea!”
Although Dr. Aurelius didn’t know what was happening, he knew that the minute Ferris grabbed onto Alithea’s arm, Ferris felt the same feeling, of having a part of him sucked out as if vacuumed out.
Not a moment too soon, Dr. Aurelius’ eyes began to water ever-so-slightly, although he felt no strong emotions at the time. So did Ferris, though that may have been his worry for his collapsed friend. The smell that reached his nose was strong, and oddly familiar.
The red litmus paper seated openly on each pair’s workstation had turned into a pastel blue. A burner or two were still on, leading him to come to a conclusion. To put it quite simply, there was a large amount of ammonia in the room. NH3, nitrogen and hydrogen. Weird...
The professor’s first instinct was to instruct the students to leave the lab as soon as possible and shut the door. He sent a student down to inform the Dean, and another to get help, and gave the rest their course of action.
“Everyone, return to your rooms immediately. Ferris and Alithea, please stay here.”
As the three of them waited for someone to come to their rescue, Dr. Aurelius noticed a particularly depressing sight — a wilting flower. He smiled softly and tried to channel his powers.
No effect on the flower.
He tried again.
Nothing again.
And again.
His power seemed to have…vanished.
He heard a cry, startling his thought. "Doctor, my hydrogen... it's..."
Double oh-no...
ns 15.158.61.55da2
