Chapter 03

Chapter 03

The Scientist and the Storm

Dr. Efua Bannerman’s workshop smelled like hot metal, old books, and the faint sweetness of palm wine she pretended she didn’t drink while working. The walls were covered with blueprints, blinking monitors, and gadgets Adams couldn’t begin to understand. A half-disassembled drone buzzed in one corner, as if still trying to escape.

Adams sat shakily on a stool while Dr. Bannerman circled him like a detective examining a crime scene.

“You said you ran here from Jamestown Bridge?” she asked.

Adams rubbed his arms. “I didn’t run. I… appeared. Everywhere.”

She frowned deeply and reached for a handheld scanner covered in wires.
“So, you’re telling me you moved so fast that your brain couldn’t register the motion?”

Adams swallowed. “I don’t know. Everything feels… slow, except me.”

Dr. Bannerman clicked her tongue. “That’s because your perception is accelerating with your body. Time isn’t changing — you are.” Hmmm. Interesting.

She turned on the scanner. A faint hum filled the room. When she waved it over Adams’s chest, the device sputtered—then sparked violently.

BZZT!

“Oh!” she jerked back, dropping it. “My scanner has never done that before.”

Adams’s heart sank. “So I’m… what? Sick?”

“Sick?” She scoffed. “My boy, you’re operating on an energy level I’ve never seen in a human being.”

She rummaged through her desk and pulled out a thick notebook filled with scribbles and diagrams. “Tell me exactly what happened before the storm hit.”

Adams described the lightning, the blue vortex, the glowing crystals under the water. Dr. Bannerman froze.

Her eyes narrowed.
“Crystals? Blue? Pulsating?”

“Yes,” Adams said. “Do you know what they are?”

She exhaled slowly.
“Nzuri.”

Adams blinked. “What’s that?”

Dr. Bannerman shut her notebook.
“A myth. A legend. A mineral older than mankind. Said to contain raw kinetic energy — the power of motion itself.”

Adams stared at her. “Motion… like speed?”

“Yes. But Nzuri is unstable. Humans were never meant to touch it.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “And you didn’t just touch it. You were struck with enough of its energy to kill most people instantly.”

The room fell quiet.

Adams looked at his hands again. They didn’t feel powerful. They felt… dangerous.

“I didn’t ask for this,” he whispered.

“Few heroes ever do,” she replied gently.

Before he could respond, a loud BOOM echoed outside, shaking the workshop walls.

Adams jolted. “What was that?”

Dr. Bannerman rushed to the window and yanked it open. Smoke rose from a street two blocks away. People were running. Screaming.

Then they heard it—a deep mechanical roar.

“What is that sound?” Adams asked.

Dr. Bannerman’s face hardened. “Trouble. The wrong kind.”

A massive armored vehicle tore through the street, painted black with sharp red markings. Armed men clung to its sides, firing shock rifles into the air.

Adams’s eyes widened.
“The Black Vultures…”

Nima’s most feared crime syndicate.

Dr. Bannerman grabbed his wrist.
“Adams, stay inside. They’re dangerous.”

But Adams barely heard her.

Because down the street, a woman tripped and fell. Two Vultures leaped off the vehicle, sprinting toward her.

Adams’s breath quickened.

Time slowed.
The world blurred.

And somewhere deep inside him, something instinctive awakened.

“I have to help her,” he said.

Dr. Bannerman shook her head. “You can’t control your powers yet!”

Adams stepped backward, fists clenched. “I won’t let them hurt people.”

The air vibrated around him.

“Adams—!”

But it was too late.

WHOOSH!

He vanished in a streak of blue light.