HAPPENSTANCE INHERITANCE 2.0

Her frantic breaths filled the air as she ran through the near empty streets of the city. The snow that had been gently falling earlier was beginning to pick up. The small lovely snowflakes were now harsh gusts of frigid wind in her face. How long had she been in that lab? The sun was almost set, and any New Yorker worth their salt would know not to be in this part of town at night- especially during what appeared to be an incoming blizzard. Taking in a deep breath of the frigid air, the girl stopped and pulled out her phone.

Her jaw nearly dropped. She had been in that lab for hours. It had only seemed like a few minutes... Wait... Jo grit her teeth as she flipped through the phone's applications. Finally, she got to the step counting app she had bought a month ago. Jo had downloaded it in an attempt to get healthy, but she turned it on and forgot about it. Her eyes narrowed as the application began to load. Slowly, she'd begin walking. She had to get out of this part of town before the sun set and the blizzard really got going.

As she got the more populated streets, Jo began to notice the odd looks and stares coming from those around her. The girl tried to ignore it. She kept her eyes down to the phone screen as the application connected to her wireless network and began to load all the steps she had taken. Jo had been fascinated with the application when she first got it. It recorded how many steps she took every hour and could divide it up into how many she took per minute if she requested it. However, today, she wasn't fascinated by the application's functions. No, Jo was terrified of it today.

According to the application, she hadn't moved for over three hours while in the laboratory. The girl stopped dead in her tracks at this aspect. She had been in that lab for over three hours? But... Jo could vividly remember walking in, toppling over the strange container and then fleeing. That would have taken ten minutes at the most, but the application was saying she had been in there for three hours. Jo had thought she had just lost track of time walking to the school- something simple like that. But... if the phone was correct, she had stood in that laboratory for hours without taking so much as a step. How could something like that happen? The application must have been glitching- yeah. Jo's eyes would shift to the option to look at the GPS of where she was at the time of the steps, but instead, she turned the phone off and close her eyes while taking a deep breath. She didn't want to know where she had been. Part of her was afraid it would show the laboratory. However, even if it did, the application was just glitching right? Five stars didn't mean the application couldn't glitch. Yeah... This was all just one big glitch. The girl would open her eyes and stare down at the reflection of her face in the phone's dark screen in silence.

Oh.

So that's why people were staring.

Jo was still covered in the pink powder from the laboratory. What was this stuff anyway? She had to wash it off! Stuffing her phone back into her pocket, Jo continued her way home- this time breaking into a light jog. If any of her friends saw her like this- well things wouldn't be fun! There would be so many rumors everywhere! Jesus, her new coat was a mess too. Her dad had just bought her it... Wait father and dad! They'd be home... Gulping, the girl paled. If they saw her like this, she'd probably get in trouble... She'd have to be careful when going home. Taking in a deep breath, Jo carried on her way home all while trying to avoid meeting the eyes of the strangers staring at her.

By the time Jo got home, it was already dark. The girl had barely managed to sneak through the lobby of their apartment building and into an empty elevator. As she turned the key to take her up to the penthouse, Jo let out a breath of relief. She just had to get through the hall to her room now. Luckily, her sweater had been spared the pink blast by the jacket. So, now that it was off, only Jo's face and legs were covered in the pink powder. The girl had tried wiping it off, but she couldn't imagine it'd be too effective. When the elevator dinged and it opened, Jo carefully began to tip toe from the box. She could smell something being cooked, and the sound of something sizzling could be heard. Her dad must have been making dinner. Then, a voice rang out.

”Hey, Jojo is that you? Your father called, he's running a bit late. I'm making some stir fry for dinner, it'll be ready in half an hour!”

Jo sighed with relief. So she only had to avoid her dad. Her father would have been the harder one to avoid going around. She called back as she quickly made her way down the hall and avoided going anywhere near the kitchen. ”Alright Dad! I'm going to take a shower and uh get some studying done!” As she spoke, Jo opened the door to her room and closed it as her dad shouted back a confirmation that he had heard her.

When she got into her room, she began to strip off all her clothes. As she did so, the powder would fall- not that it made any difference to the room. Almost everything in it was already pink. Still, the pink powder had felt strange against her skin. Some of it had gotten under her clothes and had been irritating her on the way home. She hadn't really noticed until the clothes were off. The girl finally felt like she could breath again. Quickly, Jo made her way to the restroom connected to her room. She turned on the shower head before staring in the mirror while the water heated up. The stuff all over her face, hair, neck and hands looked like some weird koolaid explosion. She didn't feel sick or anything... So was it just koolaid or something? The smell had been fairly sweet.... Silently, Jo sighed with relief. Maybe this wasn't anything to worry over, but her hair sure as heck got a dosage of the power. It looked like it could be pink! Laughing lightly, Jo turned to hop in the shower.

As Jo washed her hair, the girl looked down to see the pink water spiral down the drain. It reminded her of a scene from a horror movie her father showed her a while ago. What was it again... Psycho? Something like that. Sighing, the girl continued to wash herself. Today had just been one bad thing after another, hadn't it? First there had been a math exam then she was asked to take something to someone at a weird school. She hadnt even delivered the envelope. It was still in her bag. The lab thing was weird, but the more Jo analyzed it, the more it felt like some practical joke. That had to be it. Jo would nod to herself as she turned off the water and reached for her robe. Slipping on the pink robe, the girl stepped out in front of her restroom mirror.

And then she screamed.

Her hair was pink. As she looked into the mirror, Jo's eyes widened. Even through the fog laced reflection, the pink was unavoidable. Her light blond hair... it had become pink. What? How did... How did that work!? Did the powder do it!? Had it been some kind of experimental hair dye!? Jo's breath began to grow shallow. What if it was!? Maybe her hair was going to fall out now! OH GOD! Her parents were going to kill her! They'd think she dyed her hair. They would be furious about this! They had loved her blond hair. Her father wouldn't even approved of a single pink highlight running down the side of her bangs! As the girl stood in front of the mirror in her pink robe and now matching hair, she began to try and breath. ”C...calm down... everything will be fi-...”

At that moment Jo noticed her deep blue eyes were now violet. What? In a panic, she jumped back- as if convinced that the reflection wasn't even her. It had to be something else. As she jumped, the rug underneath her slipped and she fell back on t he floor. The girl had just barely missed smashing her head into the corner of her tub's rim. Still, she did land fairly hard on the floor. ”G..gah... what's going on...” she grumbled softly while leaning up. Rubbing the side of her head, Jo lifted a stand of hair to view in silence. This really was some weird transformation... There had to be some kind of information on the internet to help. She had to google this.

Standing, Jo hurried to her laptop and pulled it out of her schoolbag. She sunk down onto her bed and began to log in. In her hurry, Jo sat on the remote to her television that rested on a dresser across the room from her bed. The television would flicker on as the girl tossed the remote onto her nightstand continued on her computer. She could begin googling things such as 'Hair suddenly turned pink', 'sudden eye color change to purple' and various other phrases in an attempt to make sense of what was going on. However, nothing seemed to be giving her answers. As she continued to furiously search, something on the television caught her eye.

The school from before was on it. The news team was showing footage taken from a nearby apartment building of lighting destroying the roof- Jo had seen that. She'd slowly move to close her laptop half way as the news segment continued. ”In other news, Public High School 552 is in the spotlight once again today. An explosion erupted in the school's auditorium earlier today during an after school assembly. The school refuses to comment, but footage shows what seems to be lightning shooting up!” The news woman would continue as Jo tightly gripped her laptop. ”The school has been the center of controversy this year as not only does gang violence in the surrounding neighborhoods continue to sky rocket, but sightings of students with strange abilities continue to come forth. We've asked some of our specialists to take a look at various clips and reports that we've gathered.”

From there, the screen split between two different older men and one older woman. All of them looked like professors of some sort. The small name plates all said they were either involved in science or law enforcement. As they spoke, the screen would split to allow a fourth window to open. This one had various footage clips playing. The footage would shuffle through some fights in the street where lightning would be shot from a girl's finger tips to a red haired boy seemingly throwing a small car to a boy catching fire and controlling it . More and more scenes of young adults wielding powers would be cycled through as the discussion began.

”These young individuals have been wrecking havoc in our city! Ever since the black mist incident, things have been getting out of control! My wife is afraid to even take our daughter to the playground!” said one of the men. The discussion would continue as one of them questioned whether or not the footage was even real. ”The footage clearly shows unnatural events occurring, and while we could write this off as some form of hoax due to the popularity of CGI, there have been live events where these individuals have shown up. The most noticeable being a seemingly super powered brawl in Time Square! These people do exist. Law enforcement has been cited among the witnesses!” The discussion would shift to the various individuals who had been cited as witnesses.

”We dont need validation of the existence of these people! We need to know how much of a threat they are!” said one man in an outburst. The other two would launch in a long ramble. ”Of course they're a threat! The NYPD has rewards out for people like them! Would they have rewards if they weren't!? Not only that, but look at the Time Square incident- heck look at the Black Mist terrorist attack!” The woman would look at the other man as he spoke before she herself did as well. ”People like this- can they even be considered people? They're far too dangerous to just be walking around!”

As the discussion carried on, clearly leading to the evaluation that the strange people were dangerous, Jo could feel her breath catching in her throat. There was a lump lodged there that wouldn't leave no matter how hard she tried. Tension filled the air around her. The strange events were all centered around the school. She had gone to that school and now strange things were happening. Jo's grip on the lid of her laptop tightened as both her shoulders trembled. What was going to happen? Was she going to become some dangerous freak spoken about on the news too!? Was she going to be sent away to a place like that school to be with other freaks? Was she never going to see her friends again the moment people found out what happened in the laboratory?

Panic continued to run through the young girl's mind as the arguing voices of the news debate faded into the background of her consciousness. Everything went black as panic filled her mind. She could feel her heart thumping radically- as if it was about to jump out of her chest. The girl couldn't think straight. Everything was spinning. Was this a panic attack? She swayed as her body strained to keep her sitting up... And then everything froze as Jo's eyes landed on the lid of her laptop, the very one she had been gripping so tightly up until now. Her hands would pull away as if a snake had suddenly appeared on her bed as both of her now purple eyes stared directly at it.

The pink lid... was warped. Where the girl's hands had held so tightly she could now see the imprints of her hand. It wasn't crushed or anything though... No it had been melted into that position. The imprint of her hand's tight grip was slightly below the rest of the lid. It had melted and shifted. Jo's face paled. How had that happened? She didn't feel any heat at all... Jo looked up to the television, but her eyes didn't stay there for long. They shifted to the vanity mirror next to the dresser. She could see a soft pink glow around her. As her eyes locked onto those of her reflection, Jo heard the news discussion from her television carry on.

”These people, whoever they are, aren't human. They're monsters. They're monsters, and they're walking the street every day. Hell, our cameraman could be one! We can't tell! They could be standing in front of us clear as day and we couldn't be sure until they did something!”

The tightness in her throat began to clear as tears dripped down the side of her face. "N... No... You have to be kidding me..." she spoke softly as her shoulders shook gently. All the while, tears began to steam down her cheeks. The girl's face twisted into one of horror and shock as her now violet eyes widened. Once again, the sensation of dizziness rushed over her. The girl swayed from side to side. She could feel everything falling apart around her. It was if the floor was about to give way underneath her. Her reality was going to be pulled up from underneath her feet. Nothing would be the same. Jo couldn't deny it. The application hadn't glitched. The laboratory she found wasn't some prank. The powder wasn't koolaid, and it for sure wasn't just hair dye. Whatever had happened, it changed Jo.

She was a monster in broad daylight now- just like the kids from that school.

The news continued on around her as the girl gently fell to the side. She laid on her bed in silence as the men and woman continued their discussion on the strange new people. They were getting more and more heated, but whatever they were saying, Jo wasn't hearing it. No, instead, her mind was reeling through the events of that day. What was going to happen now? Everything... Everything was going to change, and all of this happened because she went to that stupid school.

Wait.

That was it. Sitting up, Jo bit down on her thumb in thought. The lab had been near the school. The weird events in the city were all focused around the school too. Jo bet that if she went to that school she'd find what she needed for sure- she just had to. She had to find a way to stop whatever was happening to her! There were other kids at that place who were going through similar things right? The school was scary... but someone there would be able to help! Or at least, that was what Jo was hoping for. If they couldn't... Well Jo didn't know where she would go. Or rather, the girl wasn't sure where she could go. If movies taught her anything about this kind of situation, it was that people like her usually ended up somewhere not so fun.