Not Today
Blue trees with a green sky. Red sky with purple trees. Domed cites where water filled the sky in place of air. Every world was different, but none were mine.
Back in my world, we had an understanding; superpowers most often manifested in the presence of trauma. However, my entire family was super through genes. Everyone, save for me.
"Normie!" my brother, Carter, would often tease. It was his favorite line, often earning a chuckle from our parents, a reaction that only ever egged him on. The worst part was in him being two years younger.
"Can it, Carter!" my sister would say in my defense. "Picking on a weakling makes you a bully, and we don't tolerate villains in this household. Right, Dad?"
Thanks, sis. I thought to the memory. As I stood on a storm-strewn coastline, watching as a red sea monster rose from a yellow sea, intent on attacking a ferry full of blue-skinned locals, the ghost of my brother and sister stood alongside me.
"What's the normie going to do?"
Carter, I'm telling mom."
God, I miss them. I stepped off a ledge, then redirected my fall's energy when I teleported. The result sent me sailing across the sky in an arc before I dipped into a fall and repeated the process. I swing my hand towards the water craft, and a portal opens around them like a butterfly net. The portal pulls from under the monster's falling arm and deposits them half-a-mile away.
I thought that running away was what had caused my powers to manifest; I was wrong. As the monster searched for its missing meal, I bound back around to face the mountain.
My powers came from the trauma of a growing distance between myself and everyone I loved. My first jump was an accident, but by then, it was too late. I was gone and didn't know how to get back.
The monster noticed me and prepared to attack as I sized up the mountain, then reared to swipe my hand. Now that my home was impossibly far away, my trauma was stronger than ever—a strength that wasn't isolated.
As the monster's attack fell towards me, my swipe culminated. The butterfly net swelled, the mountain was consumed, and the sky birthed that same mountain right into the monster's face, all of it happening in tandem.
Plume! Water rocketed into the air as if responding to a depth charge, a colossal wave swelling out while I moved the blue people to safety.
I don't know how or when I'll ever get back to my family. But right now, I'm stronger than ever. And one day, I'm going to drop my sister's butt right into Carter's face.
Just not today.
Writing prompt: You are the only person in your superhero family without any powers. Your older siblings, who are superheroes too, tease you for being the normie, and your parents, while they love, you don't pay much attention. So, you run away, and your family can't find you.
