Allison’s touch on his arm reminded him that some people needed space and time to work out their anger and pain.  He understood that, and frankly, Barbe’s punches hurt like hell.  He wasn’t really sure how to explain what he could do when he got hit, some sort of battery charge from blows, the kinetic force supposedly, that channeled into his body…….and then stored in a very flawed battery somewhere, to then be transformed into pure electricity that surged out of his eyes as these cool lightning blasts.

“Ha….Transformers….Hey Z, I’m a Transformer.  More than meets the eye.”

Silence.  He looked around.  When did they all leave the hallway?

He’d thought while they’d been training that those poweres had been cool, but…..while they were, they hurt like ever fucking hell.  Every single time.  Like pricks of fire igniting his nerves and blossoming into an instantantaneous wave of pain that flowed from the impact spot through his body to the brain, but he’d gladly take it if it made Barbe feel better.

He needed to think……as a giant yawn wracked his body……but more importantly…..he needed to shower…..and to make notes……something had happened when he healed Felix. He was no medic, not really, just great at anatomy and biology, but…..he shouldn’t have been able to heal Felix, it was like a giant black hole had sucked in his powers and wouldn’t let him go.

He should have died……maybe he did?  Everybody kept looking at him in weird ways afterwards.

He headed to the shower.  It was time to get alien blood and goo and dust and fluids off his body.

---

 

After a long, long, long soaking shower, he’d put on sweats and a t-shirt and went to the kitchen.  Shockingly, the dishes hadn’t been done, and maybe more shockingly, even after all the time it seemed like they had been gone, the pizza he’d made for the movie tasted fine after a few minutes in the oven.

When he got back to his room, he sat at his desk, exhausted but, it didn’t matter. Studying took time and effort….and for him, notetaking.

It wasn’t shorthand, but it wasn’t full notes either.  He’d learned along time ago when Julieta had been teaching him her native language that he learned really well when he could write notes while super tired.  It didn’t make sense supposedly, but it worked for him, so he did it.

If he could avoid thinking about the way Mick’s eyes had gone flat and…..dead, at the mention of Experion, he’d be more than happy to go to training and class tomorrow with no sleep. He knew he owed Barbe an apology, he’d hoped to talk her into into telling the truth because she decided to, but he’d panicked at the lookhe’d gotten from the head of the Academy.  Sort of anyway.  Combined with…..well, he couldn’t wait that much longer.  He couldn’t let that kind of secret hurt someone else.  Not again.

He sighed. The Alliance made it all seem so easy.  He just wanted to help people.  Study his plants and help people.

He bent back over his notebook.  If any of his notes could help anybody with this invader, it was worth his sleep for one night.

Two minutes later, the pen fell out of his hand, dropping to the floor as he slumped forward in exhausted sleep, where he dreamed of a dead planet, one where no amount of scientific effort could get his plants to grow again.

Inside the teenager’s bedroom, the plants seemed to sway in the wind…..