Super powers

Last night I cut up some hot peppers for tokk-pokki before taking off my contacts and going to bed. When I wake up this morning and put in my contacts, my eyes burn a painful, yet oddly refreshing, pepper burn. I scream and drive my fists into my eyes. Then slam them down onto the sink, it hurts. But it's also refreshing. But it sure does hurt.

I don't take my contacts out. I don't have time. I step out into the morning radiation. It has drifted in from Fukushima by way of Jeju. The radiation doesn't seem to hurt my eyes, nor does it seem to help. But it turns out that it has changed them.

The fallout from the Fukushima reactor has not been strong enough to bring about full blown super powers, but from around Fukushima, there have been reports of 'shadow powers' -- trace amounts of superness.

I feel a tingling in my eyes, and wonder what nascent super-power is growing. I squint, and at the same time, close my nose and mouth and breath out against them- the universal trigger for eye based super-powers. A faint green beam shoots out of my eyes onto the sidewalk in front of me. I hold the beam on the sidewalk for probably 8-10 seconds. Then relaxing the nasal block, and breathing out, I crouch to feel the ground where I had focused my beam. It isn't warm, as I had hoped, but there is a smell of capsicum.

All morning in my office, I practice shooting my beam. Nothing burns, but after focusing my beam on an apple for a minute, I bite into it and find it mildly spicy. Not enough to bring on my other super power, the Siggers' sweats, but enough that it is noticeable. It is a pleasant taste.