Voices

I was sitting at a conference for a new piece of technology. As I and several others sit and watch, a young girl takes a bit of metal with two pieces of cloth attached and inserts the cloth into some slots on the machine. She bites down on the bit of metal and presses a button on the machine, then slumps to the floor. "No need to worry." an announcer reassures us. "She is fine. The machine causes temporary numbness in the face and legs." The girl stands, then her feet lift off the floor. Everone around me gasps. "As you can see, she is not only fine, but more than fine." Afterward, everyone is shaking the girl's hand. As I reach the front of the line, I ask the girl curiously if it hurt. She blushed. "Not at all. Just a tingle, a little numbness, then superpowers." She grabbed a nearby buffet table loaded with food and lifted it with one hand. "See?" Later that day, I returned to the building and sneak in. As I inset the cloth bits into the machine, I note that there are tiny circles of metal on each one that clicked into place as I inserted it. As I bit down on the metal, the words of the girl left my mind and I braced myself for a painful shock of electricity. As I hit the button, I experienced exactly what the girl had said; a tingling sensation, followed by numbness in my face and legs. I grasped the table to keep myself upright as the security guard came in. "Are you alright?" he asked, and since my face was numb I could not answer. Grasping the table strongly in one hand, I gave him the "ok" signal with the other. "Are you sure? You look a little weak." he returned. At that moment I instantly regained feeling everywhere, which was surprising because I was expecting it to be more gradual. I straightened and turned. "I am fine. Someone left this piece in the machine, I was just removing it." As the security guard left, I went to the nearest window and opened it. I floated out, surprised at how easy my new powers were to control, and flew up over the roof of the building. A young man came up beside me, and I recognized him as someone I knew (I knew him in the dream, but not IRL). He was shockingly attractive with light brown hair just a shade too dark to be considered blond and deep, honey-colored eyes. He wiggled his eyebrows at me. "Want To join the mile-high club? Do not need an airplane anymore." I grinned, but before I could say anything, I heard a woman's voice. "Maybe you two should get a room." I looked around and there were a half dozen people up with us. I looked at them, puzzled. "Security must suck here." The girl who told us to get a room stared back at me. "I do not remember you. When did you come in?" "I snuck in. Did not you?" Her eyebrow furrowed. "No, I volunteered. The government wanted a team of superheroes.. They had a bit left over, and added it to the last dose, but they had not administered it yet. You must have gotten it." She approached me. "That means you are stronger than us."