Defenders Episode 1: Guardian Ch. 6

The two circle each other like gladiators facing off at the coliseum.  Suddenly Derrick rushes toward Brandon and throws a right punch, and Brandon dodges it.  Then Derrick throws a left hook and again Brandon reacts faster than Derrick.  Thinking Brandon is mocking him; Derrick goes into a series of random punches and uppercuts.  Amazingly Brandon is able to dodge and evade each one with incredible speed and reaction.  "Hold still!" Derrick shouted.  Brandon did so, and allowed Derrick to hit him with a two-hit combo that came hard and fast.  "How did you like that, loser?" he said slightly out of breath.  

"Not bad.  Not bad at all…if I actually felt it," Brandon said coldly as he turned his head to face his opponent with piercing eyes.  He lets out a small wicked chuckle as he peered at Derrick, who couldn't believe that Brandon was able to weather one of his strong punch combos.  "My turn," says Brandon.  With blinding speed he leaps up to the wall, jumps off and kicks Derrick in the side of his face, sending him flying into the row of lockers behind him.  The force of Derrick's airborne body was enough to crush in three lockers.  Derrick drops the floor.  He is knocked out cold.  Shocked and in disbelief, Mark and Rupert ran away after seeing what Brandon had done.  When Brandon finally calmed down he realized what he had done.  Dan finally got himself up and walked over to his friend.  "Jeez, how the hell did you do that?" Dan asked surprised.  

"I don't know," Brandon said bewildered.  

"Whatever the hell you did, he deserved it," Dan said.   Fearing that he may have seriously injured Derrick, Brandon quickly turns and runs down the hall.  "Brandon?  Brandon!" Dan called, concerned for to his friend.  He runs down the hall heading towards the front doors and runs out of the building.

Once he is outside, Brandon runs toward Ryan Avenue.  As he is crossing the street, he sees a truck coming towards him fast.  The driver sees Brandon and honks the horn for him to move.  In an instant Brandon leaps out of the way, only to land in front of an oncoming van.  He quickly back flips out of its path landing back in the same lane where he dodged the truck.  As he lands a car is quickly approaching him.  The car rams into him. Brandon bowls up the windshield and is popped into the air.  With amazing agility, Brandon twists his body while airborne and lands safely on his feet.  Upon landing he takes a moment to try and make sense of what just happened.  "Hey kid!" yells a voice.  Brandon looks up to see that it was the driver of the car that just hit him.  "Hey kid, you ok?" the driver calls to him.  Unable to answer, let alone try to figure out what he did and how he did it, Brandon did the only thing he could think of, and that was to run.

Heading down the street next to his school toward a nearby park, he runs just as fast as he did when he chased the bus to get to school.  He reaches the park in no time and quickly enters.  Walking quickly through the brush and bushes he makes his way toward a clearing where he and his friends hang out.  Once he has reached the clearing, Brandon sits down on a fallen tree to gather his thoughts and try to figure out what has happened.  While he is sitting there, questions began filling his mind.  He asked them to himself in his mind, "How did I avoid those cars?  A normal person wouldn't have been able to dodge those cars like that.  But for some reason I was able to do it. And Derrick?  I don't know what the hell I just did or what's going on.  But it's almost as if I am somehow able to move and react faster than before.  It's almost as if I can move like…lightning?!?"  A shocking revelation just entered Brandon's mind; one that could explain he actions today.  He slowly thinks back to yesterday afternoon when he was struck twice by lightning.  The event kept repeating itself in his mind as he started to remember how he felt when the incredible surge of electricity entered his body.  Where he felt pain, he felt pleasure; where he felt discomfort, he felt the opposite.  But it wasn't until he was knocked unconscious the he felt something that no one else should feel.  As he was lying in the grass, he felt a certain calmness and relaxation flow through him.

'Could that be it?' Brandon thought, 'Could I have some sort of power?'  He thought about it a little more and decided to test his theory.  He held out his hands with his palms turned upward and his fingers in a slight curl; then, he started to concentrate.  He continued to focus his thoughts on his possible new ability, and then it happened.

ZAP!  A small charge of electricity emitted from his hands.  Fascinated by what he just did, Brandon wondered what would happen if he concentrated harder.  He began concentrating again, a little harder this time, to see if he can increase the charge of electricity.  A few seconds passed and once again electrical power flowed through his hands.  He watched in amazement as his glowed with lightning power.  Then he turned his palms so that they were facing each other and, with careful concentration, created a steady stream of lightning between his hands.  Brandon looked at his hands for a moment and wondered if he is able to discharge the lightning from his hands.  He looks around for a bit and selects his target.  He chooses a large rock that's about 20 feet from where he stood.  He extended one arm out in front of him with his palm facing forward and focused his thoughts.

Just then a streak of lightning emerged from his hand and struck the rock causing pieces of it to break off.  "Whoa," Brandon said awe struck by his new found ability.  A smile came across his face as he looked up at the trees.  A thought came into Brandon's mind as he looks around the leafy canopy.  Acting on his thought, he knelt down and jumped high into the trees and landed on a branch of the tree closest to him.  While standing on the branch he looks down to see that he is at least fifty feet from the ground.  He looks back up at the trees in front of him.  "All right, let's see what I can do," Brandon said.  He leaps off of one foot and glides over to the branch of another tree that is more than thirty feet from where he was.  Upon landing Brandon quickly prepares to jump to the next tree.

Tree after tree Brandon continues to jump and leap through the green canopy.  He even does a couple flips as he is airborne.  When he lands on the highest branch of the tenth tree, he spots a rather large tree that is a good hundred feet or so from where he is.  He takes only a moment to think about this next jump and decides to go for it.  With one strong push off of the branch, Brandon makes a mighty leap for the tall tree in his sights.  As he is gliding over to his target Brandon realizes something.  Somehow he stops himself in mid-air and makes an amazing discovery.  "I'm flying?" he says slightly nervous; which was quickly replaced with excitement, "I'm flying!"  Excitedly Brandon flies around high in the tree tops with screams of joy.  "OOOOH YEAH!!" he yells as he dives down to the ground, then turns forward and follows the small river that flowed through the park.  While he's flying above the river Brandon sways from side to side and even does a couple of barrel rolls.  "This totally rocks!" says an excited Brandon, "Let's see how high I can go."  He flips forward and slows his speed a little.  "Houston, we have…lift off!" he says as he shoots high into the sky, yelling excitedly as he continues his ascent.  After flying to about 600 feet, Brandon stops and looks down.  "Man, I'm really high up."  He takes a couple of minutes to view the park and surrounding areas below him.  Being almost 600 feet in the air Brandon is able to see all the places he knows around his school.  He can see his school and the middle school next to it.  Roosevelt Boulevard and its mall were to his back.  He can also see a couple streets that were near his school including Cottman Avenue, Rhawn Street, and Frankford Avenue; he also has a good view of Sherman Park.

After enjoying the beautiful sight of the park from a bird's point of view, Brandon flies off in a westerly direction.  "Before I head home, I want see exactly what I'm capable of," he says as he continues to fly in this direction to a place where he can train himself to use his new capabilities.