Shadowy Penumbra/The Reignition of Power
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
How was it Jess managed to not notice the various groups of Hellions just barely visible behind buildings near her apartment as she drove home from school? It's rather unsure. Perhaps she was out of practice, or maybe even never truly learned the art of observation in her short time as a hero. Or maybe it was just destiny dealing out its hand, guiding her focus forward rather than to her side.
Jess ran upstairs to her place, quickly putting her shoes and winter coat in the closet and barely listening to her mother reminding her to pick up her little sister in an hour from school. The school may only be a couple blocks, but her mother was a worryer, all the more given the things Jess has told her about crime in the Steel.
She barely made it to her room before the thin walls and floors of the building allowed through the sounds of chaotic shouting from the halls on the lower floors and Jess found herself faced with one of her fears.
The Hellions have chosen her building to be destroyed in their endless games with fire. Jess could feel her heart beating faster as she rushed out of the room, the surge of fear and adrenaline focusing her mind.
As she rushed through the small apartment to find her mother, her vision started to change. She could see energy fields around her, most specifically the life energy around the few plants in the living room and then the much larger life force around her mother. Her mother's eyes went wide as Jess reached her, "Honey...your eyes..."
Jess gave a quick nod, "Can't explain, but I think I can get you out of here." Very quickly she infused her mother in Umbral energy, quickly opening up a pathway from here out to the streets. For a brief moment, her mother saw the world as Jess was seeing it currently, but the effect faded within milliseconds appearing on the street.
How her powers were coming back, without Penumbra sharing her body with her, she couldn't explain. But she knew what she had to do. As Heroes began to assemble outside to battle the flames and attack some Hellions, Jess quickly went through the building, beams of energy from her eyes destroying doors in her path and quickly teleporting people from their apartments out to the streets.
As she made her own way down to the lobby, she encased herself in energy, cloaking her from sight. And just as she's about to reach the lobby doors and get outside herself, a horde of Hellions who somehow made it past the group of heroes outside ran inside. They didn't notice her, but still had her surrounded which suited her just fine.
She saw each of them, and their life energy, and exactly how to direct her energy. She focuses all of her energy and lets out a large explosion of the umbral energy within her, knocking each one of them out and leaving her very exhausted.
Looking down at the twenty defeated Hellions at her feet, she reached inside herself, and became like a magnet, drawing a portion of their life essence towards her, reinvigorating and filling her full of energy.
She stepped over one to open the door, then stopped herself. Her eyes glowing darkly like that of a WarShade's as she looked over the Hellion beneath her. And she extracted a little bit more of his life energy, shaping it some with her own energy, and letting it follow behind her as she opens the door and out in the world, cloaking herself again so no one can quite see what she looks like.
