Chapter Text
It all started years ago in Empire City. There was an explosion which originated in the Historic District. This explosion killed thousands. And at the very center of the blast there was but one survivor. A man named “Cole MacGrath.” Cole was a simple bike courier doing his job. One day he had been given a package to deliver by his boss like usual, told to have it brought to the Historic District. Only when he got there, there was no one around to receive it. Cole then immediately received a call from a man named “Kessler” who instructed him to open the package.
Thinking this was all some elaborate joke, Cole opened the package, only to find a strange spherical device inside. This device, which would come to be known as the “Ray Sphere,” was created by a group called the “First Sons.” This device was designed to drain neuroelectrical energy from people and transfer it into a single subject.
Before Cole even had a chance to blink, the Ray Sphere detonated and did what it was designed to do, it drained the neuroelectrical energy from thousands of people throughout Empire City, killing them in the process and causing mass destruction for miles, and transferred that energy into Cole…
Hurt but alive, Cole MacGrath walked away from that explosion forever changed…
Cole was unknowingly in possession of something which came to be known as the “Conduit Gene.” This gene was rare in humans back then and it was regularly dormant. That’s where the Ray Sphere came in, designed explicitly to activate a person’s Conduit Gene.
And thus Cole MacGrath became the first of a new branch of humanity. A “Conduit.”
Conduits have abilities which can only be described as superhuman, being a whole lot more durable than the average person and also being able to absorb and channel an element which their powers align with. Cole himself initially had Electromagnetic powers.
But later he strengthened his powers and gained new elemental alignments such as ice. He later faced off against a colossal Conduit known only as The Beast, a towering humanoid monster bathed in molten rock and nuclear fire, like one of those elemental titans from the God of War games. At first Cole gave it his all in his initial fight in Empire City, but he lost and was badly weakened. He had to flee to regroup, to come up with a plan and get stronger.
Despite being labeled a terrorist and blamed for the Empire City bombing, Cole would use his powers to help people wherever he could, never letting his own power get the better of him. Eventually he would confront The Beast once again in the City of New Marais where Cole made the difficult decision of using a device called the “RFI” to defeat the titanic thermonuclear Conduit…
But this victory came at the cost of his own life, and the lives of all other active Conduits within range of the RFI, including The Beast.
Survived by his best friend Zeke Dunbar, Cole MacGrath was heralded as the Patron Saint of New Marais by its people. A hero in the eyes of many…
However the world would not see the last of Conduits. Far from it. Years later the Conduit Gene resurfaced more present in humanity than ever before. Conduits were shunned by many, labeled as “Bioterrorists.”
An organization called the D.U.P, spearheaded by a woman named Augustine, secretly a Conduit herself, was formed to capture and contain Conduits, regardless of if they committed any crimes with their powers or not. This violation of human rights as you could imagine caused a lot of controversy around the world, but most saw it as a necessary act to maintain peace.
However not long after the D.U.P had rounded up a large amount of Conduits there was a major series of disruptions in their Western Washington sector, specifically around the Seattle area.
This was the result of two identified factors: One, the escape of three Conduits that were in transit to Curdun Cay, the Conduit containment facility located just outside of Seattle Washington, and Two, the rise of a new conduit, later identified as one Delsin Rowe. A 24 year old local delinquent of the Akomish tribe.
Initially upon discovering his powers, Delsin could seemingly only manipulate smoke and embers. However he later discovered that his power was something much more than just that. He had actually COPIED this power from one of the three escaped Conduits.
In essence his power was possibly the most dangerous of them all. And quite possibly a jump into the next stage of Conduit evolution. Needless to say Delsin brought revolution to Seattle and ended the D.U.P occupation there personally defeating Augustine and copying her power to save the people who she tortured back home in his tribe. He also shed some much needed light on the internal corruption of Augustine and the D.U.P, leading to the nationwide shutdown of the group as a whole and some new recognition for conduits.
Movements for Human-Conduit Rights skyrocketed in the wake of everything and governments scrambled to make up for the transgressions against the Conduits who had been wrongfully imprisoned against their will. Mostly just to save their own corrupt bureaucratic skins, though.
That being said there was still a ton of grey zone legally speaking for various acts of conduit discrimination to take place. Testing for both the dormant conduit gene and the active gene started to be administered at public schools though not to be publicly disclosed so as to stay within the adjusted guidelines of HYPA.
And all identified active Conduits were put on a government listing detailing who they were and what element(s) their powers aligned with.
And with that out of the way our story brings us to the somewhat peaceful town of Gravesfield Connecticut, and one Luz Noceda, 17 years old and a bit of a troublemaker.
Luz was an Afro Latina girl who was into anime, fantasy, super hero comics, basically anything and everything that could be considered “nerdy.” But despite being a total nerd she was also something of a delinquent. Luz was currently tagging the side of a random building in town, keeping an eye out for anyone, particularly cops, or worse, her mother.
Luz was a girl of average height and build for her age, having caramel skin, chocolate brown eyes, and dark brown hair which had an undertone of purple to it. And wore an outfit which spoke levels about her punk nature. She wore an army green jacket with the sleeves ripped off, making it into a vest, over a black crop top, along with ripped skinny jeans, a pair of red converse, and a red beanie on her head. She also had a chain wrapped around her right wrist. On the back of her jacket was a stylized mix of a snake, bat, and cat that looked like one of those punk/gang symbols. Luz had actually designed this herself. On her jacket she also wore a bisexual pride pin.
Luz was very free spirited with her artistic expression and had gotten into tagging a couple of years back. Her late dad actually used to paint murals for community centers across the state and was always praising her artistic talent waaaaay back when she'd make sketches of anime characters.
Of course her mother was less than enthusiastic about the idea of her daughter being a street artist. Which Luz thought was ridiculous. It wasn’t like she was doing drugs or anything.
Not that she would anyways she's no fool she's seen to many drugged up morons or down on their luck homeless going through some of the worst symptoms possible. And she wants none of that!
Luz was putting the last finishing touches on her latest masterpiece, a scene from the latest entry of her favorite fantasy book series, The Good Witch Azura. The scene where the protagonist, Azura, confronts a monstrous creature called the “Gildersnake.”
Luz stood back to observe her work, lowering the bandana covering her face and smiling.
“Perfecto!”
The bandana wasn’t usually part of her attire. She just wore it whenever she was tagging so she didn’t breathe in the paint fumes.
Aaaaaaand just in case the cops show up her identity was somewhat obscured.
Deciding not to stick around long, Luz took a quick picture of her work with her phone before packing up her spray paint in her backpack before the cops decided to show up. She was almost late for school after all. With a running start Luz climbed up a pipe on the side of the alley and made it up to the roof. Luz also was very good with parkour and climbing. Urban exploration was a hobby of hers. It made getting to school fun as she jumped from rooftop to rooftop, feeling the wind rushing past her face and through the long hair that wasn’t covered by her beanie.
Her parkour also greatly helped her in getting to choose areas to tag. Especially areas where cops had a hard time getting too when she's cutting things a bit to close. Which had happened on a few occasions here and there.
Luckily she’s never been outright caught, and tagging itself was such a petty crime that no one ever bothered to look for the tagger’s fingerprints.
Her tardiness record on the other hand was not nearly as clean.
Luz eventually made it to her English class a minute after the next bell rang. Her teacher, Mr. Bill, a man with Caucasian skin, blue eyes, brown hair and glasses with a bored expression, turned to her.
“Tardy again, Ms. Noceda. I’m not even surprised anymore. Go ahead and take a seat. Okay class first we'll review yesterday's lesson then the pop quiz from the other day then you'll all present your book reports.” Mr. Bill said as Luz took her seat.
Just as Mr. Bill was about to continue, the loudspeaker came on.
“Attention all students and teachers, please pardon the interruption, I am here to announce that a mandatory Conduit Gene testing of our school is in progress. I repeat, mandatory Conduit Gene testing is in progress. All students please report to the gym and auditorium to receive their test.” The voice of Principal Hal said.
The loudspeaker then turned off and the students all started muttering amongst themselves. A Conduit Gene test?
‘Hmmm, it's been awhile since we've last had a Conduit Gene testing done. The last one was about.........almost seven months ago, around the start of the school year. Wonder if we have any Conduits in school at all?’ Luz thought to herself as she, alongside everyone else, got up to pile out of the classroom.
‘Having superpowers must be really cool.’ Luz thought as she and the others made their way to the gymnasium where there were medical tents set up and people in single-file lines where one by one they were tested for the Conduit Gene.
Even though they were all tested at the start of the conduit gene was tricky with how it can appear and become active. Some say it turns on from experiencing a life and death situation, with the adrenaline and the hysterical strength jolting something in place in the brain, allowing access to your Conduit powers both active and passive. Besides the absorbing of an elemental force and controlling/emitting it, Conduits also possessed enhanced strength, enough to rate at peak levels of human strength, as well as greater overall durability, along with enhanced regeneration capabilities to the point where some Conduits have been observed tanking dozens of consecutive rounds of gunfire and still remain standing.
Luz herself then made it in for testing. Inside the tent there was a small lab setup where a female doctor wearing a lab coat and a face mask was waiting for her.
“Luz Noceda?” The doctor asked.
Luz nodded.
“That’s me.”
“Please take a seat for me and we’ll conduct the test.” The doctor said as she gestured to a stool for Luz to sit on.
Luz sat down and patiently waited then a moment later the doctor came back over with a needle to take the blood sample. There are machines that were developed to do an immediate scan upon touch of a tissue sensor but those are incredibly expensive, too much so for most public schools to afford, so the blood test method was used.
Upon extracting a sample of Luz’s blood the doctor removed the needle from the syringe and inserted the vial into a handheld device which then started to look through Luz’s DNA, a ping then went off and a screen on the device zoomed in on a single cell within Luz’s genetic makeup.
“Ms. Noceda, have you been in any situations recently in which you’ve experienced high levels of adrenaline?” The doctor asked as she looked up from the device.
“When have I not? I like to do parkour and that certainly gets the blood pumping.” Luz said with a grin, not mentioning the fact that she also got a thrill from the cat and mouse game with the law when it came to her street art.
“Well, have you ever felt high levels of stress during your activities? Have you ever felt like you were at risk of falling to your death?” The doctor asked further.
Luz blinked in response before her eyes widened.
“Wait…are you implying that…?”
The doctor nodded.
“I am, Ms. Noceda. Suffice it to say you have the Conduit Gene, and according to your test results it is very much active.” The doctor said as she wrote Luz’s name down as a confirmed Conduit.
Luz was absolutely floored by this revelation.
“Whoah! Seriously?!”
“Well the test doesn't generally misdiagnose someone, Ms. Noceda.” The doctor replied.
“Huh, I wonder what my elemental force is. Maybe fire? Or smoke?” Luz muttered, looking down at her hands.
“Well the initial test doesn’t really help to see what element your powers are geared towards. But we will be keeping in touch with you and your legal guardian for registration purposes when you do discover your abilities. Try not to think too much about it and just go on with the rest of your day, Ms. Noceda.” The doctor said as she readied the tent for the next person.
“Right, thanks doctor!” Luz nodded.
“No problem. Next!” The doctor called out for the next person in line.
Luz left the tent and started to head back to class, her mind abuzz with a ton of questions.
But then one stuck out to her most…What would her mother think?
Her relationship with her was already all over the place as it is. Would she just find it to be one more thing that adds to her overall burden? Or will she just take it in stride?
She had already come out as Bi to her mother and that was a whole can of worms on its own. Her mom didn’t shame her for being herself but nor did she seem supportive. Plus Luz didn’t even know her own mother’s stance on Conduits… The more Luz thought about it, the more stressed she became, and the dimmer things seemed to become…quite literally actually as the lights in the gym started to dim.
When she got back to class she shook her head of intrusive thoughts and slapped her cheeks, telling herself to instead focus on the positives. She has superpowers! Or she will when she finally discovers what her elemental force is. The possibilities were endless! As Luz’s excitement about her potential powers grew, the lights in the room grew even brighter and brighter.
“Hmmm, that's odd.” Mr. Bill muttered before he went over and flicked the lights on and off, getting them back to normal.
“That's better. Now, class, onto your writing projects.”
One by one each student got up to present their book reports. And then finally it was Luz’s turn.
As she got up several students immediately started tuning her out knowing predictably what her book report would be on. The Good Witch Azura. Like usual.
Then, at the climax of her book report she raised a hand in the air dramatically, only to be launched backwards as an orb of glowing yellow light shot out of her hand and hit the ceiling, singeing it a little.
Everyone's board expressions were suddenly wide with shock and especially the teacher who himself was actually on his phone snapped to attention.
On the ground Luz stared at the singe mark on the ceiling in shock before looking down at her hand. Yellow light particles were floating around her hand and forearm.
“Holy shit, Noceda’s a Conduit!” A random student exclaimed.
“Wow…” Luz muttered to herself.
Luz was then pulled out of her amazement when Mr. Bill shouted.
“Noceda, Principal’s office, now!”
To be Continued…