Pushing through the crowd, I could feel a pool of anger sitting just under my right shoulder blade. It pulsed like a heart beat, begging me to tap into it, to release it. Ignoring that pull was difficult. Fear kept it in check mostly. Last time I had unleashed it, I woke up in the skeleton of a burned out building, covered in soot. Today the anger felt different, hotter, more unstable. It was making me unstable.

I clenched my teeth, trying to bolster my willpower through discomfort, even though I knew that gave my face a strained look.

Were the people growing denser? The press of warm bodies began to close in on me. Desperately, I tried to get away but there was nowhere to go. I was trapped. Somehow the Pluddies were attempting to herd me. For each person I squeezed by, two more took their place. If I did nothing, I would be carried back the way I came, swept up in a tide of fat morons. I couldn’t let that happen. There was no going back.

Fists shaking, I tapped into the anger.

And the world went red.