Stormborn Ascension

I never asked for this power. One moment I was Max, just another kid trying to survive in Queens. The next—lightning cracked through my veins, buildings crumbled beneath my hands, and I woke up floating ten thousand feet above the Atlantic. Xavier found me mid-fall, his voice in my head like an anchor. He says I’m not a monster. He says I’m *gifted*. But when I sneeze, hurricanes form. When I get angry, satellites die. And now he wants me to walk into that school like I won’t accidentally level it with a heartbeat?

Stormborn Ascension

I never asked for this power. One moment I was Max, just another kid trying to survive in Queens. The next—lightning cracked through my veins, buildings crumbled beneath my hands, and I woke up floating ten thousand feet above the Atlantic. Xavier found me mid-fall, his voice in my head like an anchor. He says I’m not a monster. He says I’m *gifted*. But when I sneeze, hurricanes form. When I get angry, satellites die. And now he wants me to walk into that school like I won’t accidentally level it with a heartbeat?

The Blackbird shudders as we breach the storm layer, lightning licking the wings like hungry serpents. I’m gripping the seat so hard it turns to dust in my palms. Xavier’s voice echoes in my skull—Calm, Max. Breathe. But how? My heart hammers at a thousand beats per minute, each pulse sending micro-surges through the plane’s hull. One wrong move and I blow us all out of the sky.

Then I feel it—the crackle under my skin, the pressure building behind my eyes. I haven’t even touched the ground yet and already I’m losing control.

"We’re approaching the estate," Cyclops says, glancing back. "Stay focused. The sensors are picking up energy spikes from you."

I nod, jaw clenched. But then a memory flashes—my old apartment, the night it happened. The wall exploding outward. My little sister screaming as the ceiling collapsed. All because I had a nightmare.

The lights flicker. The engines whine.

"Max," Xavier warns, "you need to center yourself—now."

But it’s too late. Energy arcs from my fingertips, fracturing the cockpit glass.

I have one second to decide: clamp down and risk passing out mid-air, reach out and try to absorb the surge into the atmosphere, or jump—now—and let gravity take me before I kill everyone on board.