AAOOOSC! Exposed!

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, Nolan’s bright and immaculate apartment appears to be empty: There is no one in the kitchen, no one in the dining room, yet...

“Listen, Nolan, everything is totally okay. Yeah, everything is good, no need to worry...or panic...or let out the sounds locked in your mind…”

...in the living room, the source of the deep voice is seen: Nolan is lying next to the sofa, on the floor, with his back facing upward.

“It’s not as bad as it feels…,” he mumbles into the ground.

Silence.

Then he lets out a raspy scream as his body tenses: “AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Instantly, Carter materializes next to him and captures his friend’s state with shock.

“Hey, hey, hey, Pat—” He plops into a sitting position next to him. “—what’s going on?!”

The sharp surging.

The taunt twists of his powers’ course.

The acute pulls of the flow whizzing within him.

“THE PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Carter gazes at him with confusion. “The pain? What pain?!”

“AHAHHAAAAAA…!!!!!!!!!!!!” Nolan sluggishly turns over onto his back while placing his hands over his face and bending his legs toward his chest. “It huuurts…!”

“What hurts? Where?”

Nolan pulls his hands down for only his wide eyes to be revealed. “EVERYWHERE.”

Carter cocks an eyebrow. “What?”

He throws his hands out over his head and extends his legs, displaying his full face with his cheeks more red than ever. “Everywhere— OW!!!!!!” He slaps hands back over his face and rocks himself from side to side in a ball.

Carter scratches his neck with wide, worried eyes at him. “How-how does it feel like?”

Nolan slowly slumps back onto his stomach. “I am going to explode…”

“What?” He gawks at him. “Those aren’t your powers!”

Nolan proceeds to bang his head against the ground to the beat of his exclamation. “My powers! Are! Going! Nuts!”

“How?!”

Pat stops his banging and cranes his head to stare out ahead of him with large, still eyes. “They are surging—” He sucks in a deep breath. “—so—” Another breath. “—powerfully.”

Carter tilts his head to his left to try to look at his friend’s face. “Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Not when I don’t need them!” He slams his face against the ground again before letting out another scream: “AHHHHHHHHHH—”

“Well, at least nothing’s going on physically with you,” Carter comments as he scans Nolan’s backside from head to toe.

“—HAHAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Carter peers down at his friend’s squished face with a subtle stern look. “Nolan! Shhh! People are gonna think you’re being murdered!”

Nolan sloppily rolls onto his back once again, his hands plastered on the ground. “It feels like I am!” He swings his upper body toward him, reaching toward Carter’s shirt collar. “It feels like I’m about to—”

Right on contact, Carter bursts into white and golden sparkles.

With nothing tangible to hold on to, Nolan slams onto the ground again. “OOF!”

He lies still on his back as the sparkles drift majestically around him. The rough surging causing the agony immediately fades away, bringing soothing relief. His face softens as his body relaxes.

“I...I feel better…” His eyes wander around. “Carts. I feel better. I’m fine, I really am.”

Silence answers him.

“Carts?” With bewilderment, Nolan sits up and looks in front of him. “Carter?” He looks behind him. “Carter.” He faces the front, coming face-to-face with an array of sparkles.

“Gah!” He waves the sparkles away from him; they just fly farther from him, joining more sparkles in sight.

Nolan stares at the glimmering particles with growing confusion. “What the—?” He peers down at himself, spotting where the sparkles are coming from: himself.

The golden and white sparkles spin around him slowly and magisterially, glinting in the sunlight from the skylight.

Yet Nolan is staring at them in disgust. “Ugh!” He dusts the front of his shirt in an attempt to get rid of the sparkles.

“Yeah?” he hears Carter piping up nearby.

Nolan halts his wiping motions and perks his head up to face Carter.

Yet there is no sign of him in his vision, just the sofa and the wall behind it.

“Can you reveal yourself?” he asks with annoyance. “I can’t see you when you’re invisible; we already went over this.”

“I’m not using my powers!” Carter cries out. “I’m visible!”

Nolan slowly climbs up to his feet. “Quit lying, you’re not visible.” He shuffles around the living room in his position, catching all angles of the room. “I can’t see you.”

“I can’t see you either!”

Nolan stands still with utter perplexity. He peers down at sparkling himself and holds his palms out toward his vision, bringing the sparkles closer to him. “I can see myself, I’m seeing my hands and arms and—”

“I-I can too—” Carter cuts himself off with realization. “Wait. Those aren’t my hands…”

“They’re mine, Carts,” he replies flatly. He then pauses as a thought comes to mind. “Did you really think these were your hands?” He shakes his hands, causing the sparkles to flutter like dust.

“Um, yeah, because I see them like as if they’re my own, like from your eyes.”

Nolan halts his motions. An austere expression joins his confused look. “Carter. Where are you?”

“I really don’t know. It’s dark...it seems like there’s some type of control panel… And there’s a screen, which is how I can see… Wait. Weird thought:”

“Oh no,” Nolan mutters.

“Am I IN you?”

Tense silence fills the house. Nolan drops his hands.

The whole city of Philadelphia, even New Jersey, must have heard Nolan’s scream: “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!”

In frustration, Nolan pulls out his smartphone, jabs at its screen multiple times, and shoves the phone against his ear.

“Hello?” Kale is heard from the other end.

Nolan blurts out into the screen: “Carter turned into sparkles and he’s now seeing from my point of view!”

A beat.

“Ohhh...uhhh…”

He shakes his phone to his panicking. “What is going on with me?!”

“Um, I have an idea—”

“WHAT?!”

“—but I suggest you talk to Gorman about it. He knows best about powers.”

Nolan gawks ahead. “I have to go to Ottawa like THIS?”

“You look the same right?” Kale squeaks out.

Nolan’s face drops into a flat look. “I’m sparkling like a sequin dress.”

“Can you fly?”

“I can sparkle.”

“Hey,” Carter speaks up, “here’s a button that says ‘flight.’”

“Nevermind,” Nolan tells Kale, “Carter says I can—”

Suddenly, Nolan blasts up into the air with a thick blast of sparkles propelling him upward.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!”

He whizzes through the open skylight and disappears into the sky, leaving a trail of twinkling, fading sparkles behind.

Notes