I can't stand being in this cell anymore. I don't know how long I've been here, but there's nothing that can convince me to stay here. I'm done with it. I can't even be sure the energy I'm contributing to this facility is being used in an altruistic manner. I never questioned it. I was so anxious and excited to have purpose again that I never thought these people could be using my energy to hurt others under the shroud of doing good. I walked into this blindly and I'm getting out of it the same way.

I give my containment cell a few light taps to test its integrity against my strength. I don't know how long they've been draining my energy, but they seem to have a conservative approach to it. I'm still strong enough to rip through this thing like cardboard... Or it's made of aluminum. Probably the former.

These people are obviously smart or have smart people working for them. They've probably anticipated me breaking out of here. That means there are probably defenses surrounding my cell to stop me. I guess I'm going to find out how thorough they were in their defensive measures. When I do this, I've got to act fast and think even faster. I won't have a lot of time to survey my surroundings once the defenses kick in. If I had any sense of time, I'd wait until the middle of night when it's likely they've got the fewest and weakest on watch. No sense of time, no sense in waiting. I need to determine the best approach first, though. I can't remember which direction I was facing when I was brought it. I should have made sure to remember that. I could determine which direction the door is in that I came in. As blind going out as I was coming in.

I leapt out of my cell towards a wall, tearing through my cell like it wasn't even there, but the wall wasn't as obliging to my brute force attempt to escape. I bounce off the wall, towards the opposite of the room, and use my time in mid-air to survey my surroundings. There's not a lot to see in here. The only reason I can see is because of the red emergency lights that started flashing when I broke out along with the sirens sounding. Through the strobing of the emergency lights, I can see rather large gun turrets spinning out from the walls. I don't know what kind of ammunition they're packing, but I'd assume it's something specifically made to put me down. I've got to find a way out of here fast.

I spin in the air to see the floor just in time to notice I'm soaring perpendicular to the conveyor belt my cell came in on. I've got to re-angle myself when I bounce off the next wall so that I land on the opposite wall of what I hope is still a door where the conveyor belt ends. I've got to hit it head-on to make sure I get out of here in one shot.

As I bounce off the wall and head for the next one, I pass by a gun turret and I can hear it charging. I have no idea if that thing can hurt me or not, but I don't care to find out. I haven't felt physical pain in decades. I don't think it's a shock my system is ready to receive.

I bounce off the wall opposite of what I hope is the door, stretch my arms out in front of me and hold them in position. I may not be faster than a speeding bullet, but I bet I'm stronger than an armor piercing bullet right now. I soar over what used to be my cell and I'm parallel with the conveyor belt when I hear the gun turrets fire. It's a thunderous discharge of energy. Energy. Against me. Just as I'm thinking, “These guys are so smart after all”, the energy blasts from four gun turrets hit me from four different angles... And I feel it. It's excruciating. I haven't felt pain like this since I was in my twenties when my powers were still at their weakest. It's inorganic energy... Or, to be more accurate, It's energy from an inorganic source. I've never been able to absorb that kind of energy. The energy blasts seemed to be designed to overload every pain receptor. Probably in an effort to make me blackout. They can't kill me, but they can subdue me long enough to put me back in a cell. Not going to happen. I've got to push through the pain. It's has me writhing in agony at first, but only at first.

I manage to focus enough to be aware of what's going on around me. I'm headed for the door, but no longer in my bullet-shape. I don't have time to re-situate myself and I'm going to flop against it like a pancake on a plate if I don't do something quick. I just curl into a ball and hope for the best. Not as aerodynamic or effective as ripping through the door like scissors through paper, but it'll have to do. I can hear the metal crunching and tearing around me, but it's obvious now that it's not just a single door I have to tear through. The entire corridor leading outside has been sealed off. It's well over five feet thick. I only know that because the hole I just made is five feet deep and there still seems to be a substantial amount of wall to get through before I'm free.

The red emergency lights are still flashing, but the guns aren't firing and I can't hear them charging. They must not be able to sense me. Tearing through this wall one punch at a time isn't going to take too long. I'm sure they'll have something or someone on me long before I get through using that method. I've got take another shot at shooting through it, but without getting shot by the energy blasts again. I have to take the guns out.

I leap out of the hole in the wall, push off the edge of the hole, towards one of the guns and land on top of it with as much force as I can. Ripped it right off the wall and I can hear the other gun turrets charging again. I jump off the destroyed gun turret towards the next one, doing the same as before: rip it off the wall with the sheer force of my fall. I don't have time to do that again. I bounce off the broken gun turret as soon as it's off the wall and land in the middle of the room, where my cell was before I ripped it apart. Just as I land, the guns fire and I flip backwards to dodge the blasts. Each blast misses me and hits the gun opposite of it, overloading each other's circuitry like it did my nervous system and the guns short out. They must've only tested those on machines... Cyborgs, at best.

The guns are down. I back up against the far wall from the hole I made in the wall and try again. I leap through air, arms outstretched, into the hole and tear the rest of the way through the wall. I can immediately feel the sun's rays on my skin. I almost get lost in the warmth, but quickly realize I'm falling. I had been held in a room towards the very top of very tall building. If no one outside the facility saw or heard my escape, they're going to hear me hit the ground. Someone's going to get hurt if they're anywhere near my landing point. I can do anything to slow my descent or warn those below. I can't even stop to help anyone that gets hurt when I land. I have to keep going. I'll only make things worse by sticking around.

I land in the middle of a street, but I don't have time to look around and find out if anyone saw me. If there's anyone around, I'm sure they saw something and curious as to what caused the crater in the street. I land and leap again, putting every ounce of my strength behind it to make sure I get as fara away as I can all at once. Whoever or whatever the people who run the facility send to retrieve me will surely be by here to question these people to find out which direction I went. I land again, but end the leaping here. The trail of craters will be a dead give-away as to where I went. I can run, but I've got to keep my speed low. The dust trail stirred up by high speed running will be a dead give-away as well. Out of everything I've ever been able to do, I could never manipulate my energy to allow me to fly. It would be so easy to cover my tracks if I could fly. I wish I still had that teleportation device from my days with Watchfire. There was never a trail to follow with that thing and I didn't hurt people when traveling from one place to the next. One of a kind item and I lost it. I can't believe I lost it. I was so careless in my youth. One of the few things that ever put my energy to good use.

I got lost in thought. My mind is behaving as freely as my body is now. I just realized I'm running through a forest and the plant-life is dying immediately. The facility must have drained more energy than I thought. I stop briefly to find out if I'm hurting the plant-life at all. There's no visible effect. I'm sure I'm draining energy because I've never been able to turn the draining effect off, but it's not so much so fast that I'm destroying the environment. I may be close to a socially tolerable power level again. It's not something I really want to test, though. I'm not going to risk people's lives just to find out if I can be around them. Who know what kind of effect that will have on me. I might need exposure to human energy to really kick start my abilities again. Energy from plant-life or any kind of non-human organic creature was always less affected by my abilities than humans were. Scientists figured out that it had something to do with similar DNA structures. The more my DNA structure differed with something else's DNA structure, the less of an effect I had on it. That's why I've never been able to affect inorganic items. Completely different DNA structures. Humans were always the closest thing to an identical match so they were always the most affected. Anything humanoid like cyborgs and aliens were next on the list. Cyborgs were always tricky. Only the most well-built cyborgs were able to withstand my abilities. Well-built alien cyborgs were the most resilient to my abilities when it came to organic humanoid creatures.

My thoughts are wandering again. I haven't been given this much to think about in a long time. I hope my mind is as clear as it seems to be to me. I can't imagine how I appear and sound to others right now. I'm so out of touch with people. I don't know how they talk or even what language is dominant. My thoughts seem clear enough to me, but I would suspect I'd appear to speak only broken English to people. My costume is in shambles and I'm sure I smell like a garbage heap. I look like a hero, but one from a world of his own where only he resides, talking to himself in bits and pieces of an already complicated language. A three year old with super powers. That's probably what I'd seem like to other people nowadays.

I'll wander the forest until what I can figure is after midnight. I need to go into a town and grab some provisions. I'd prefer to do that when there are as few people out and about as possible. Between two and six in the morning would probably be the best time. Drunks are already home and in jail and people haven't gotten on the road for their day jobs, yet.

Draining energy has sustained me for decades. I want to eat something just to eat something. I want to drink something just to drink something. I'd sleep just to sleep if I wasn't so paranoid about someone or something from the facility coming to get me. I have to stay ready for anything. I know they'll send something, but I have no idea what it will be.

I've got time until I go into town. Time to think about what the facility knows about me. The energy blasts the gun turrets fired on me were designed to overload my pain receptors. If it had worked, it would have knocked me out and they could have put me back in my cell. They knew they couldn't pierce my skin with needs to inject sedative nor with bullets to wound me. A sedative wouldn't have worked anyway. The energy I've absorbed has made my immune system so strong that sedatives don't even slow me down. At least, they used to not slow me down. I'm not sure what I can withstand after being drained for however long I was in there.

I was resistant to mind control before I exiled myself to the area that became known as the Blight. I can't say for sure, but after spending so many decades draining energy from the landscape, I was probably nearly immune to it. Simply reading my surface thoughts probably became a cumbersome task for even a talented telepath. Even still, they knew I desired to be useful. There are too many possibilities as to why they approached me with their offer for me to discern what they know about my mental faculties. They very well could have found a telepath strong enough to read my thoughts. It's not likely, but I won't discount the idea. It's probably the least likely. It all my years, I haven't had much interaction with empaths. I'm not sure how my energy absorption reinforces my resistance to someone trying to read my emotions. They may have someone figure out my desires in that manner.

The most likely method to discover my desires to be useful is simply by knowing my history. Regardless of how my abilities negatively affected others, I've always tried to help people. I've tried to use my abilities to benefit mankind. When I couldn't directly help people, I did the best thing I could do to help people. I left. I exiled myself so that no one else would get hurt because of me. I couldn't fight crime or help those in need, but I could keep people from falling ill or even dying because my abilities weakened their constitutions. Out of all the heroic deeds I tried to do, the most effective one seems to the self-imposed exile. I've only ever tried to help people and the people who run the facility know that.

They know almost everything about me, if not everything. The only way that's possible is if they are what Watchfire has become or have gotten a hold of Watchfire's database. I have no idea what's become of Watchfire. I don't know if they've been completely obliterated or become a global, galactic or even universal police force. I don't absorb energy from inorganic sources so I should be able to use a computer when I go into town and find more information on what's become of Watchfire. It's going to be so late at night, though, that it'll probably require me to break a few laws to do it. They're just going to lock me up when they find me anyway so it doesn't matter if I break a few laws to get a grip on what the world's become. It's not like I'm going on a rampage. I just need to get in touch with the world. I have to know what's going on.

*~*~*~*~*~*

It's been dark for awhile now. I'd better pick up a watch when I go back into town. I'm going to have to raid a Cyber Shed. It always was a handy electronics store. I guess I'll head in that direction. At the rate I have to travel to keep a low profile, it'll take me awhile to get to civilization. I've got to be quick when I get there to make sure I get out of sight before dawn. I need to choose which stores I'm going after wisely, too. I can't jump around to places that are far apart. It'll take too long and it'll be too easy to catch up with me if I do. I need a grocery store and a Cyber Shed close to each other. I'm not even sure if Cyber Shed even exists anymore. Just need a high-end electronics store close to a grocery store. I'd like to find a motel so I can clean up, too. Can't stay overnight. Just need the facilities to get clean. Haven't been clean in as many decades as I've been exiled. Luckily, this is an age of technology. I should be able to find what I'm looking for.

While looking for the stores I want to go to, I come across a few strangers. They don't drop immediately which is a relief. They are incapacitated enough, though, that I can easily pretend to help them while I steal their wallets. It'll be easier to steal from strangers and use their money to buy what I want than it is to steal from a store with security. I want to call as little attention to myself as possible.

First, I go to the grocery store. I buy a few things to eat, but I really just want to get soaps and things to get cleaned up. I have quite a bit of money left over so I stop off at an all-night department store to buy some new clothes, a few accessories along with scissors and razors so I can shave. I use the self check-out at both places so I don't have to get near anyone. I get in and out as quickly as possible. There wasn't really anyone else in either place, but I'd still like not be noticed. The facility that held me must have put out word that I've escaped. People should be keeping an eye out for me.

I head over to a shady by-the-hour motel. I figure if anyone isn't going to call the cops on me, it'll be someone shady. I get a room with what's left of the money I stole. I take a shower, scrubbing as hard as I can. I cut off as much of my hair as I can, both on my face and my head. I use the razors to get the rest off of my face and the scissors to even out my hair as best I can. After I put on the new clothes and accessories I picked up, I almost look like my old self again. Probably not the best look to go for since they should be looking for me, but it's the only way I feel comfortable with myself. I guess I'm not really against them coming to get me. I just want to spend some time out of that containment cell. I just want to catch up with what's going on in the world.

I'm done with the hotel room. I don't even stop by the office to return my key. I just leave. It's time for the “big heist”. I head over to the Cyber Shed which is far more advanced than I remember. I have to be fast here. There's no chance I can be quiet about it. I survey the store through the front window, figuring out what I need and where it is in the store. I want to try not to set off the alarm so instead of busting in through the front, I jump onto the roof. I position myself above the check-out counter, jump into the air and smash through the roof. All this technology and they didn't invest in motion sensors. No alarm sounded. Could be a silent alarm. Still need to act fast. I grab a laptop computer, some solar cells, extra batteries, a signal booster and a watch. It's all the highest end product this place has. I may as well go the full nine yards if I'm going to do this. I put everything in a duffel bag I got from the department store and take off.

I run fast, but still slow enough to not cause a major dust trail. There doesn't seem to be anyone coming after me. That's odd. There should at least be police patrolling the street. I haven't seen a single cop the whole time I've been in the city. Maybe Watchfire has become the police. That's both comforting and scary at the same time. I probably don't know who they'd send after me. I really doubt many of them have lived as long as I have. I guess I'll find out who or what is coming after me soon enough. I'm sure that robbery got someone's attention.

*~*~*~*~*~*

I'm back in the forest. Probably got someone's attention that I don't want. Gotta get information fast. They've got to be on their way. The sun's about to come up. That's going to make it easier to find me. I unpack all the gear I stole and hook everything up. The battery that was already in the laptop has enough of a charge to get the computer started. The solar cells keep it going after that. They're a lot more efficient than in my day. The internet is still around and it's so abundant that I can even get a signal in the middle of a forest. Probably even without the signal booster. Still, I'd like the fastest connection possible. Gotta do this fast. I can't believe what I've missed. The destruction, the reconstruction, the fall and rise of so many important figures. I probably heard a lot of this happening while in the Blight, but it would not have been wise to investigate.

I get immersed in the information and lose my awareness of my surroundings. I hear a voice above me... It almost sounds digital, but there's still something human about it. I look up to see a figure who is unmistakable. I know him. The giant “W” on his chest, the red cape and metallic body. Pilot, the last Torchbearer. I always thought that title was because we were all dead. As it turns out, it's because some of us just aren't members anymore. I don't know if I'm around when he goes back to when it all started, but I know I won't be a member of Watchfire when it happens. There's no going back now. I was a hero for a large portion of my life. I became a neutral for so long. Inactive. It was more detrimental to the world to be active than it was to be inactive. Yesterday, I became a criminal. A villain. I destroyed someone else's property twice, I stole to a degree of a felony on multiple counts. Of course, I'll have to pay for those crimes.

The one who will bring me that fate has arrived. Pilot. The young Pilot. He doesn't know me. He probably has information downloaded about me from the Watchfire database. That's probably why he never tried to stop me in the past. I had to become what I am so that he could become what he is. History is so delicate. He probably knows everything I've done and he'll use that information to make sure I do those things so that we come to this conclusion. He'll manipulate me... I don't think so. I have a choice. I choose my own fate.

I'm enraged. I just yell, “You won't take me back!” and leap toward him. I know so much about him, but I don't have the where with all to use my knowledge against him. I just attack. I latch onto him and we fall to the ground. He's cybernetic. He's well-built, but he's still partly human. I can't remember if he's partly alien or not. He's such a mish-mash of technology and biology. I never could get it straight. Regardless, my abilities have some effect on him. There's no way he's down for the count, though. I jump back to my feet, several yards away from him, and he does the same almost as quickly as I do. His cybernetics are wired to jump start him if he's knocked out and even power his entire body if anything disables his biological parts. He's adjusted to my abilities already. Very well-built.

We both stand at the ready and I'm first to make a move. I've always been a meat and potatoes kind of guy. I drain energy from organic sources around me. It makes me stronger, faster and more resilient. I use that to deliver a beating as fast as possible while being able to dodge incoming attacks and take any hits I can't dodge. A very straightforward fighting style. Not really a style, actually. Swing limbs, hope they connect with my target. First, I leap toward him, but he uses a blast from his mace to knock me away. As soon as a I hit the ground, even further away than I was before I leapt at him, he hits me with another energy blast. This one is different, though. The first one was just to knock me away. No pain involved. This one stung a bit and had to impact to it. It was similar to the gun turrets in my cell, but less powerful. Less powerful, but I can't withstand that all day. I've got to take him down before he hits me with too many of those.

I'm clear-headed enough now to try some actual strategy. The straightforward approach obviously isn't going to work. I doubt the environment will do me much good. I know he has infrared vision. I can't hide. I just have to be fast. I have to be agile. I have to dodge his attacks until I can get close enough to make an attack of my own. I approach with a fast, staggered pattern and have several near hits from his mace's energy blasts. It's like trying to dodge mines, grenades and bombs in a war zone all at the same time. I still have enough durability and speed to dodge and withstand shrapnel.

I get close and tackle him. I grab his wrist and smash his mace-holding hand against a rock while grasping his throat with my other hand. He, of course, resists. He tries to pull my hand off his throat while trying to stop his hand from smashing into the rock at the same time. He eventually lets go of the mace to free his hand and deal with me. He grabs me with his now free hand and rolls over to gain control of the situation. I kick him off of me and dive for his mace, wielding with both hands.

I don't know how to activate any of the mace's effects so I just use it as a blunt weapon. I don't need to kill him. I just need to subdue him long enough to get away or damage him badly enough that he has to retreat for repairs. His mace and his armor are partly made from the same materials so hopefully with my strength, I can get him to back off. I charge in to assault Pilot with a beating from his own mace. Just as get in directly in front of him, a discharge comes from the mace and overloads my pain receptors just as the gun turrets did and, this time, at the same intensity. My muscles contract and lock-up. I can't let go of the mace and the shocking won't stop. I eventually black out from the pain.

*~*~*~*~*~*

I wake up in a containment cell, but not the same one I was in before. It's built the same, but it looks more like an interrogation room. I guess they have questions to ask me. A guy that looks like a scientist enters the room with Pilot as his side. Brain and the brawn. The conversation goes like this:

Scientist: So it seems you wanted a vacation.

Life Leech: Something like that.

Scientist: Why didn't you just say something?

Life Leech: To who? There was never anyone around. “Hey, Life Leech, can I take a break? Sure, ya can, buddy. Thanks, boss.” And then I left.

Scientist: Good to see you haven't lost what you call a sense of a humor.

Life Leech: Good to see you scientists still don't form one.

Scientist: We could hear every word you said in that cell. If you wanted out, you should've just said so.

Life Leech: For people so smart, you sure are dumb sometimes. How am I supposed to know you were listening? You locked me in a containment cell, told me what my purpose was and never spoke to me again. No check-ups, no hi-how-do-ya-dos. Just complete silence for however long you left me in there to go mad. I talked to myself all the time in there and never got anything back from anyone outside the cell. Sounded like I was alone to me.

Scientist: Fine. Mistakes were made. At this point, they have been made by us and by you. The crimes you've committed must be answered for and we're willing to take partial responsibility for them. We can't let you out to roam the streets. You know this. Imprisonment is still your only option and we'd like you to still function as an energy source for us...

Life Leech: Not under the same conditions. I'm not going back in that cell...

Scientist: And we don't expect you, too. It's obvious now that it's not a healthy environment. At first, we thought if you could handle being alone in the wilderness then you could handle being alone in that cell.

Life Leech: Do I really have to point out the differences between the wilderness and that cell?

Scientist: At this point, no. While you were unconscious, we had a team study the situation quite thoroughly and we've drawn up plans for containment that still serves the same purpose but gives you more freedom than before.

Life Leech: Let's see it.

The scientist spreads blueprints across the table and explains them, “You'll have nearly an entire floor of the tower to yourself. If you need anything, there will be an intercom system in every room where you can get in touch with people. We have plans for a gym, a study, a fully functional kitchen, restroom, all the amenities... You'll have windows to see what's becoming of the city and the wilderness. And, as before, once we've drained enough of your energy, you should be able to return to the world.”

Life Leech: Or leave it.

Scientist: Excuse me?

Life Leech: You think I like living like this? I'm a prisoner now. Even once I go free, I absorb so much energy that I'll have to become a prisoner again one day. I can tell you right now: If I get drained enough that I can be killed, I'll do the job myself. I've lived for almost 200 years. I'm a human with a genetic defect. I don't have the stamina for this long of a life. I've been ready for it to end for so long. Drain the energy out of me so I can move on to whatever is next.

Scientist: Well, when you're free, you're truly free. You can decide what to do with your life as you choose. We, however, will always encourage you to continue to use your abilities to help people in whatever way you can. I hope you come to realize that is the best path for everyone to take.

Life Leech: We'll see... So when do I move into my new pad?

The scientist steps up from the table and smirks, “As soon as it's ready. We have construction robots working around the clock to get it operational. Until then, we need an act of faith from you. We need you to stay in your old cell just until your new one is ready.”

Life Leech: Okay... But you know what will happen if I'm left in there too long.

As the scientist and Pilot step out of the room, Pilot never taking his eyes off of Life Leech, the scientist says, “Indeed, we do.”